Final Crisis #2: As the behind-the-scenes stories of DC were seemingly beginning to outperform their fictional output recently, along comes Final Crisis #2 to remind us — and clue some of us in — that Grant Morrison’s had this thing pretty well set for awhile, and the story proceeds apace. This issue is a bit more straightforward than the debut (read: more action, fewer cavemen), and the overall thrust of the story becomes a lot more clear. Art is exemplary throughout, which is part of what made the announcement of Carlos Pacheco fill-in pages on #4 on so disappointing — it would be nice if DC could have just one big event book with consistent art and writing alike. Still, I enjoyed this issue from the awesome introductory Japanese superhero sequence to the last-page reveal and as the roller-coaster heads into the first big hill I’m digging the ride.
Green Lantern #32: In the more-than-capable hands of Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis this has become one of the most consistently dependable high-quality books on the stands month in and month out (more or less, with a few delays here and there), to the degree that it has become one of the few DC books even diehard Marvelites seem to pick up — and can pick up, thanks to the relative accessibility of the series. This issue is no exception, continuing the tightening up and recasting of Hal Jordan’s origin while tying firmly in to recent GL stories and effectively foreshadowing future events (Atrocitus’ oath is pretty goofy, though). A great book for pretty much anyone who likes good comics.
Captain America #39: This is the Marvel book that’s so consistently high-quality month in and month out that even diehard DC fans pick it up, although actually this month’s art isn’t quite up to the level of excellence set by Epting/Perkins/Guice. It’s not damaging, fortunately, as Ed Brubaker’s script provides yet another great chapter in his continually unfolding megaplot. Recommended.
Superman #677: Starman writer James Robinson makes his return to regular monthly comics writing with this issue, kicking off in fairly consistent tone with what Kurt Busiek was doing immediately prior in this series. Promising, but nowhere near the level of awesome of Johns and Frank over on Action Comics nor quite as strong as Busiek’s work yet — especially considering Busiek’s Superman work is still around for comparison in the form of Trinity, which incorporates some plotlines Busiek had intended for Superman. Hopefully the promised upcoming reintertwining of the Super-books will be to the benefit of all, and in any case I almost always enjoy Robinson’s work so I’m looking forward to seeing where he goes from this fairly standard first act.
New Avengers #42/Mighty Avengers #15: More Secret Invasion “What really happened” Skrull infiltration backstories, for Spider-Woman and Hank Pym respectively. Interesting stuff, though I am starting to feel like it is kind of getting to be a bit much of this kind of thing and that Secret Invasion is a “one step forward, two steps back”type of event. Of these two issues, New gets the edge due to its slightly sharper script and beautiful Jim Cheung artwork, though Romita Jr/Janson/Palmer aren’t too shabby over on Mighty either. Let’s face it, if you’re buying one of these, you’re buying the other, and if you’re not buying one you’re not buying either — at least until the SI Avengers trades come out.
Action Comics #866: I actually had to look back at the credits of this issue to check to see if Richard Donner was involved in its creation — and was surprised to find not even so much as a ‘thanks to’ credit. Odd then, that well after the end of Donner’s involvement in the writing of the series comes the single issue of any Superman comic I’ve ever seen that feels the most like the Donner Superman movies: it has the classic Daily Planet dynamic involving humorous scenes with geeky Clark switching to his alter ego; Zod, Ursa, and Non; Ma & Pa Kent back in Smallville. Hell, this issue even reintroduces obnoxious Planet sportswriter Steve Lombard, who was last a player in the series when those movies were first coming out. Writer Geoff Johns and artists Gary Frank and Jon Sibal are hitting on all cylinders here: pretty much every page is a pleasure both in terms of writing and art, even approaching the timeless quality of Morrison & Quitely’s All-Star Superman. Frank’s Superman looks like the perfect cross between Curt Swan’s rendition of the character and Chris Reeve — even Lois looks very Margot Kidderish at one point, and Ursa is so obviously based on the actress from the Donner movies that I got sidetracked wondering what the likeness rights issues would be with someone like that. I mean, would she have signed them away at the time of the film, or would they have to clear that with her now? Anyway, at least so far Johns & co. seem to be accomplishing that ever-rarer solid superhero story that would work equally as well for someone with no previous knowledge of the series as it would for someone with a Ph.D. in DC continuity. A promising kickoff to Johns’ long-promised Brainiac story and a great jumping-on point; it’s great to see DC’s flagship title is again one of its best.
Secret Invasion - Who Do You Trust? one-shot: It’s necessary to maintain a certain healthy skepticism about picking up any tie-ins branded with a big event banner that may not be….let’s be nice and say necessary. And the fact that Secret Invasion writer Brian Bendis didn’t write any of the five stories in this one-shot is, admittedly, not a good sign. However, as the lead-off story is a coda to the recent Captain Marvel mini-series (itself an SI tie-in) bridging directly into SI#1 and dramatically clarifying Mar-Vell’s role in the series, the Wonder Man/Beast story is pretty good, and the Agent Brand story tells us, uh, that Agent Brand from Astonishing X-Men is going to be involved in Secret Invasion, if you’ve been digging the main book you’ll probably find this worth your time. The Marvel Boy story is sorta incomprehensible, but it’s great to see Agents of ATLAS again — their miniseries was really good, and I’d like to see more. Their chunk of this book serves more to reintroduce them than anything else, so I guess that’s a good sign in that direction. Overall, Secret Invasion - Who Do You Trust? certainly isn’t essential, but it’s largely enjoyable.
Booster Gold #10: Johns and co-writer Jeff Katz begin winding down their run (next month’s #1,000,000 is their last, and yes, it’s a DC One Million tie-in) in a fashion that should please anyone reading this as a followup from 52 — in fact, of the several 52 spinoffs this is definitely the most direct sequel and the highest quality (along with The Question — I mean, 52 Aftermath: Crime Bible: Five Books of Blood — yeah, much catchier title, guys!). I can’t say I’m not disappointed the Johns/Katz team didn’t end up scripting more issues, but I guess they got a couple of solid trade paperbacks’ worth with consistent art and rock-solid scripts, and that’s about as much as one can ask these days in most cases. I just hope the next writer or writers remember that it’s always, always awesome when Skeets gets the big action hero lines. In any case, this penultimate issue was definitely satisfying, providing answers to many lingering questions ( I really hope the Black Beetle’s not who I think he is, though), and leading into their big finale in style.
Skaar - Son of Hulk #1: Mmm….huh. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect of this Planet Hulk/World War Hulk spinoff, and after reading the first issue I’m still not entirely sure. It’s sorta Conan crossed with Star Wars, and intriguing, but Skaar #1 definitely suffers from first issue syndrome: there’s a lot of setup here as well as a lot of recap, and not much real meat. I’ll probably stick around at least through the first arc, anyway.
The Eternals #1 : The previews of this series Marvel stuck in the back of seemingly every book they publish didn’t do a good job of selling me on this series, I found the Neil Gaiman/John Romita Jr. mini-series this ongoing follows up on underwhelming, and the memory of artist Daniel Acuna crashing and burning on The Flash in two issues is still fresh in my mind, so I’ll admit was somewhat dubious heading in to this one. I have really been digging the Knauf writing team’s Iron Man work, though, so I was definitely holding out hope they’d pull it out. Just as with the New Gods at DC, tying Kirby’s Eternals elegantly into the rest of the Marvel Universe has always been something of a problem, and the attempts at it here come off as more than a bit gratuitous, frankly, basically amounting to nothing more than a series of single-panel cameos. Fortunately, Acuna’s work fits much better here than it did on The Flash, though this issue didn’t quite grab me entirely as I’d have liked. There is some indication the Knaufs are going somewhere with it (I recall not being entirely sure about their Iron Man run in the beginning, but that paid off in spades) but unfortunately pretty much the entirety of this issue is utterly incomprehensible — and I read the Gaiman/JRJR miniseries. The portrayal of “Reverend Lester” here approaches tragically-bad levels of cliche and caricature, and most of the rest of the issue is basically just gibberish interspersed with out-of-context cameos. #2 is gonna have to pick waaaay up if I’m gonna stick around on this one.
Trinity #1: Hmmm, I’m not totally sold on Chip Kidd’s blurred three-tiered logo design for this Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman team-up book, but at least it’s a solid break from the now-tiresome 52-Countdown logotype. The cover design spotlighting one of the three main characters on each successive tryptych piece doesn’t really grab me either, failing to convey instantly what this series actually is — this basically looks like a Superman book at first look, and second look too — rather than showing all three characters together. Inside the pages of DC’s 52-part newest weekly series, Mark Bagley hits the ground running moving over from Marvel and Ultimate Spider-Man, stepping comfortably into the DC Universe with spot-on renditions of DC big three as well as a good chunk of the current Flash cast. Writer Kurt Busiek doesn’t go for the big bang opener out of the box here, not even having any of the main characters in costume until two-thirds of the way through the main story, but opts instead to lay enough solid groundwork to get one intrigued. If they can keep up this level of quality in the main story, it shouldn’t be too much trouble holding that attention from here. The backup is slightly less satisfying, and a bit less lucid — it took a couple readings to be clear exactly what was going on — but the glimpses of things to come are pretty successful at whetting the appetite for what’s to come this series. I’m onboard this title (for the near future, at least) and looking forward to the ride.
Secret Invasion #3: This series hits its full stride bigtime with this issue, a solid improvement over the slight letdown of the last one. Leinil Yu’s art (sharpened nicely by Mark Morales’ inks) is uniformly excellent, while Bendis keeps the action coming page after page, including some fairly graphic Authority-level violence. It does get a bit rough keeping track of all the characters at times, especially as the B-listers are brought solidly center-stage here, followed by the “who were they again?” gang at the cliffhanger end. Still, the level of execution here is such that if this issue doesn’t hook you, this series is just not for you.
Kick-Ass #3: I’ve been enjoying this Mark Millar satire (far more than the first issue of his saccharine 1985, anyway), and the visceral John Romita Jr. art is pure pleasure. A comic starring a moron who gets beat up a lot is not for everyone, admittedly, but the laughs keep coming here, even if they’re somewhat evil laughs. The last few pages betray, once again, Millar’s failure to accurately capture the flavor of American slang, and the events contained on those pages worry me that I may count that as the point where the series went horribly wrong (not to mention Millar’s nauseatingly self-congratulatory text page that follows), but I’ll wait until next issue to judge that.
Ultimate Origins #1: I’ll admit I’ve largely lost interest in the goings-on of the Ultimate Marvel Universe lately, but if any team can catch my attention again it’s Bendis and Guice. This mostly flashback to 1940s wartime issue fails to reignite my zeal for the Ultimate U as a whole, but it’s piqued my interest for whatever supposed long-held secrets are to be divulged here. If nothing else, Guice is doing great work, on a level with his recent Captain America fill-ins. Can’t help but feel somewhat disappointed that the secret in the first issue is exactly what I thought it would be , though — not to mention disappointed that “James Howlett” is apparently set in stone as Wolverine’s real name now. Oh well.
So it’s Grant Morrison week for sure. Between Final Crisis #1 and Batman #677, the display of sheer writing mastery Morrison brings to bear is staggering. In Final Crisis #1 Morrison manages to infuse the standard universe-shattering crossover structure with enough sheer humanity to overcome the cynicism with which one would normally view such events, in a few elegant opening pages explaining why stories of super-powered, more-than-human characters have such elemental appeal, tying deeply into the rich history of DC Comics’ seventy-plus year publication record without making it inaccessible or incomprehensible. The scene with the Monitors manages to make better use of the characters in a few scant panels than in the entirety of Countdown combined — and actually does follow up on a single plot thread from that series, making it not totally dismissable. (Perhaps its relevant storylines could just be retold in a single standalone 48-page book rather than force anyone to slog through all 51 issues + innumerable tie-ins and spinoffs of Countdown.) JG Jones’ art is pretty much flawless, although the Question does look a bit too much like she has a face in the panel where (thanks to Entertainment Weekly’s Final Crisis preview featuring excerpts of Morrison’s script) Grant clearly indicated no face. Minor nitpick aside though, everything on the page is exemplary — I just hope he can keep it up on time and this series doesn’t fall victim to the incongruous dropped-in fill-in pages that torpedoed Infinite Crisis. Because so far, Final Crisis is shaping up to be fairly awesome — and also kind of beautiful.
The striking Alex Ross cover (based on a Morrison design, I believe) that adorns Batman #677 leads in to the best work of Tony Daniel’s penciling career. Previously I’ve always found Daniel’s work on series like Teen Titans and Flash to be acceptable at best and fairly static, but his work has really risen to the level of Morrison’s writing quickly during his relatively brief tenure on Batman. While he could still stand to render depth a bit more naturally, for the most part he evokes exactly the right crossbreed between Jim Lee’s and Neal Adams’ Batman work. And Morrison’s script…uh, wow. As Batman R.I.P. kicks into high gear, Morrison deconstructs the entire basis of the Batman character in a few devastating pages (capped with an excellent silent Daniel full-page splash the original of which will surely bring a dear price at auction) — and that’s where the story really begins, rolling down a rollercoaster sequence of events that tie together plot threads Morrison has been weaving into the series since the beginning of his run. Parallels to the excellent Len Wein/Jim Aparo/John Byrne miniseries Untold Legend of the Batman abound, including the promised next-issue appearance of the “first Batman”, whose costume is prominently highlighted here, so hopefully a reprint edition is on the way, perhaps in one of those reprint specials Ryan Sook keeps doing great covers for.
Taken together, Final Crisis #1 and Batman #677 thematically show Morrison going deeply into the basic humanity of these superheroic characters, restoring some of the primal appeal that frequently gets lost amidst pointless revisions of continuity and whatnot, stripping back many of the barnacles of history that have accumulated on these properties over time — while also celebrating the rich mine of potential story elements provided by that selfsame history. Sure, if you know the entire history of DC Comics you might catch all the references Morrison makes in these two comics, including all the crazy 50s Batman stories where he fought aliens and had rainbow costumes and so on — but it’s not necessary, and it’s not the point. That background can enrich a story, but it can’t be the basis for it in and of itself, and it can’t really do more than provide a really good prefabricated background for a story. But done well, it can provide a fantastic stockpile of raw material to pick and choose among around which to craft an excellent story, and Morrison does well here.
I was reading the excellent Absorbascon piece “10 Reasons Barry Allen Needs to Be the Flash Now” the other day and it reminded me of this piece, which I posted on the old dccomics.com message boards under the title “Barry Allen’s return as the Flash is inevitable, and here’s five reasons why” in early 2001. I recall it inspiring some spirited debate in the typical style of the dccomics.com message boards, probably much of which was along the lines of “u r stoopid.” Unfortunately they’ve changed the message board system over there a time or two since then and they don’t have archives of the old boards. Even digging around on archive.org came up empty in the date range I needed, but I was able to find a file in my archives dated 5/5/2001 where I’d evidently saved the post and incorporated my replies from the thread at the end. Interesting to consider this in the context of everything that’s come since — at the time, the Wally West Flash series was in the mid #170s, Geoff Johns had been writing the series for mayyyybe a year, Scott Kolins had done about half a year’s worth of issues, Bart Allen was alive and appearing regularly in his own series as Impulse, Identity Crisis was over three years away — and Barry Allen’s actual return in Final Crisis was seven years in the future.
“Barry Allen’s return as the Flash is inevitable, and here’s five reasons why (5/5/2001)
Okay, I’ll admit I’m a longtime member of the Bring Back Barry Brigade, but here’s my two cents:
1: Everybody knows comic book characters come back to life.Did anyone really think Superman was going to stay dead?No.It’s an accepted fact.As far as Barry staying dead being a ‘tribute’ or whatever, I think staying dead for 16 years proves the point.This is the same kind of logic that leads people to make grim, humorless comics and then claim it’s more ‘realistic’.This is, in fact, one of the Great Things about comics: it ain’t real life.In real life, people stay dead, in comics they don’t if there’s a demand for the character.To pretend otherwise is ridiculous.The lame X-Men ‘deaths’ and the reader’s lack of respect for them is more a reflection of bad writing (rampant in the X-books), not an indication that dead characters need to stay dead.Look at how many times the JSA has ‘retired’, and each time is was presented as ‘for good’.Seems to be the JSA is doing pretty well right now for characters that were ‘dead for good’.Why?Good writing.
2: Since Barry’s heroic death, so many holes have shot in the story that his NOT returning is more unbelievable than anything else.First the (excellent) Secret Origins story that changed Barry turning into dust (as cited by an earlier post) into Barry becoming the lightning bolt that originally struck him, then Waid later adding his speed force angle leading to Barry joining the force, and finally Marv Wolfman letting us all in on the ‘out’ he left in Crisis in the new introduction.We were told no one comes back from the force, but Wally has done so, and clearly Wally’s not more powerful than Barry.All that’s lacking is a reason, and the obvious one is this — if an evil speedster tried to kill Linda, Iris, and/or Fiona, this would be enough to draw Barry’s essence out of the force, this type of thing being the most traumatic events in Barry’s life.This would also introduce lacking conflict to Wally’s character, him wondering if Barry only came back out of lack of faith in Wally.This could set up Wally becoming a ‘Dark Flash’ a la Walter West, with that great costume Walt sported.Also, for years it’s been accepted that despite the book continually claiming so-and-so is the one true Flash or whatever, the readers have no problem and in fact enjoy seeing Jay, Wally, and every Flash conceivable running and fighting alongside one another.One more Flash would hardly confuse the matter more, and might even add to the fun.Hell, I still miss Johnny Quick.My (and many fans’) favorite stories are the ones that had Jay, Wally, and Barry teaming up to solve a big case, and my favorite Wally stories are the ones with Jay and company.
3: Wally’s book has basically been turned into Barry’s book bit by bit over the years.Considering the original slogan, “The costume’s the same…everything else is different!” is now very ironic.They upped Wally’s power level, got him married to a reporter, brought back Iris, gave him a ‘Kid Flash’ of his own, brought back the original logo, brought back the original costume (every detail is now as Infantino designed bar the belt, and I think the wings on the boots), and most recently (thanks Geoff Johns) brought back the last missing element: the police work and supporting police characters.All that’s missing is Green Lantern/Green Arrow drawn by Neal Adams in the back of the book, but then that could never happen because as we all know Hal and Ollie are dead — oh wait, hey look, they were bought back!Like comic book characters always are!
4: The ‘death’ event is played out, and as many have observed, it doesn’t work anymore.No one believes it.The ‘Batman Dies’ event was played as a joke, assuming even the casual reader’s savvy enough to know going in Batman’s not really dying.
But what events are working, and bringing new, genuine attention to characters that have been lacking excitement for years?That’s right, BRINGING THEM BACK FROM LIMBO.Doubt me?Hal Jordan.Ollie Queen.And right this instant, Hawkman.This is what’s working.Crisis was great, but the ‘death of comics characters’ thing is over.The Crisis reissue has not only reintroduced Barry and the circumstances of his last appearance to thousands of new readers, but established (via Wolfman’s intro) that the death they see therein is easily contravened.
5: Comics’ audience size right now is terrible, and shrinking all the time.The number of people who have cable and receive the Sci-Fi channel is undoubtedly many times huger than the number of us who ever see those magnificent covers Bolland’s doing every month.We ‘know’ we’re the ‘real’ Flash fans, but those kids watching those Flash TV show reruns ‘know’ the Flash is…Barry Allen.DC thus once again blows another cross-marketing opportunity.If there’s ever a Flash movie, sheer economic forces will likely dictate that they bend towards the TV audience, not the comic fanbase, ’cause even if every comics fan out there went to see the movie it wouldn’t make it profitable.
I appreciate the countering arguments, but they sound weaker and weaker with every reiteration.Comics need to cut the crap if they are to survive, and this is an obvious hurdle: new readers don’t know who Wally is, even if it seems blatantly obvious to us.I don’t want to see Wally die, depowered, or become Kid Flash again, and lord knows I love the character too, but the problems are inherent in the fact that he’s not the Flash most people know.
Hey, at least I’m not demanding they bring Carmine back to draw the book!”
The Brave and the Bold #13: Mark Waid gets around to doing another classic done-in-one team-up. In retrospect I wish his entire run had been such, because it’s really where this series shines and let’s face it, his overarching plots for the longer runs were more than a little strained. This love letter to the Silver Age resurrects the Samuroids, among the most obscure Flash foes (they only appeared in one two-part story, in TheFlash #180–181, thirty years ago) and while admittedly I’m a sucker for a Batman/Flash team-up, Waid hits all the right notes here and Jerry Ordway is doing great work on art. It’s nice to see Batman take a back seat to someone else for once, and it’s nice to see Jay Garrick in a role beyond “the old Flash” or “the Justice Society’s Flash” for the first time in awhile.
Grendel - Behold the Devil #7: Along with the revived Nexus, this series is a rare treasure: a return to the greatest of independent 80’s comics done by the original creator as good as it ever was. The rare Grendel stories completely written and drawn by Matt Wagner alone have always been the crown jewels of the Grendel saga, and they’re far too few and far-between for my preference, so this eight-issue series is a real treat in general. In particular, this issue is a joy for Grendel fans as Wagner sums up the entire history of the Grendel series, shows again why Hunter Rose is the one true Grendel, and draws many characters he himself never rendered as part of the series before. The real triumph is that while longtime readers will certainly be pleased by the book, Behold the Devil would work equally successfully as someone’s introduction to the Grendel series.Reportedly Wagner intended this to be read in collected form, so when Behold the Devil hits your local Borders in an attractive all-in-one black, white, and red package don’t miss it.
Countdown To Mystery #8: The last of the Countdown mini-series sputters to a halt. It’s a damn shame how this one ended up. The Eclipso section was always garbage (and this issue’s lame, cliched “Remember who you are!” conclusion accomplishes nothing but to dial Eclipso back exactly to the character’s original status quo and put everything else back exactly as it was) but Steve Gerber’s Dr. Fate was fantastic stuff, beautifully drawn by Justiniano. Unfortunately Steve went and died on us, the selfish bastard. Last issue’s Fate segment was weakly scripted by Adam Beechen from Gerber’s plot and here we get four different quick four-page wrap-ups to Gerber’s series proposed by Beechen (weak), Mark Evanier (quite good), Mark Waid (a fantastic tribute to Gerber and an excellent imitation of his classic style), and Gail Simone (mm, well-intentioned but trying too hard and a bit cloying). None are completely satisfying, but then nothing really could be. Let’s just agree on Waid’s ending as the “real” in-continuity answer and move Gerber’s Fate into the DC mainstream on the JSA — and maybe keep this Fate around for a bit, eh?
The Flash #240: I guess the “Dark Side Club” banner atop this issue heralds it as some tangential Final Crisis tie-in. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say you can probably skip this one. Something does actually threaten to happen in this book in the last two pages, but since it involves one of Wally’s kids it’ll probably end up being nothing more than one of the kids’ power shifts that they’ve been telegraphing since the beginning of this relaunch. What with Final Crisis itself boiling along in the background (starting next week!) and the events of DC Universe #0, this series is looking more and more like it’s just biding time. I mean, seriously, The Flash isn’t even where you go to get good Flash stories anymore: last month, the best Flash story released was in JLA, this month, it’s in The Brave & the Bold (see above), and then there’s that whole DCU #0/Final Crisis deal. And here we get a corny TV villain Alan Moore did twenty times better in Supreme. Yeah, I’d say this is definitely just filler. But then, next week is a big week, and we’ll know more then.
Avengers - The Initiative #13: Christos Gage takes solo-scripting duties and the results are pretty much uniformly superior to anything in this title to date. This issue is funny as hell, and very clever and insightful besides. I gotta say, Gage isn’t yet writing a ton of mainstream stuff but he frequently impresses when I run across his work: his Deadshot mini was great, and if this title was this good every month, it’d be among my favorite Marvel books.
Fantastic Four #557: Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s FF is surprisingly terrible. Coming off of The Ultimates, pretty much the best work of either of their careers, this is, well…just pretty awful. I guess I’m glad Hitch found a way to draw faster again but his work really doesn’t look as good, and Millar’s plot is literally groan-inducing. (Trying to treat giant robots fighting with Kingdom Come-level gravitas was probably a bad idea.) I don’t know, maybe it’s just a bad match, where the creators and the characters don’t have the right chemistry. Too bad circumstances dictate against this team taking over All-Star Superman when Morrison finishes, though.
Mighty Avengers #14 : Brian Bendis follows up on the least interesting plot thread involved with Secret Invasion, namely, what’s goin’ on with the Sentry? The scenes in this issue with the undercover Skrulls meeting covertly were kinda interesting but otherwise, no big reveals or anything particularly rewarding, just a whole lotta Sentry. Nice art by Koi Pahm though, and I liked the cover though it has absolutely nothing to do with the contents of the book. I swear this had better end with the Sentry getting killed or killing himself (as hinted here) because seriously, the Sentry sucks and this much focus on him is just unnecessary unless he’s going away soon. Every story about him past the original, entertaining-for-what-it-was mini-series is basically “The Sentry’s crazy powerful!” “No, he’s just crazy!” “Huh, turns out he’s both!” Repeat ad nauseum. We get it, he’s crazy and also pretty stupid and easily fooled. Now he needs to sacrifice his life to save the universe or bring Proty II back to life or something.
Iron Man #29: Coming in the wake of the excellent runs by Warren Ellis and the Knauf father & son team, and in the month of Iron Man’s widest commercial succes, this Stuart Moore-penned part 1 of 4 is a bit of a letdown. The nanotech plot is right out of something Grant Morrison or Ellis would have done ten years ago, and the out-of-synch-with-current-MU-events setting makes the whole thing smell a bit much like a fill-in.
Captain America #38: Okay, yes, it was fairly obvious who the red herring “Steve Rogers” was, but the execution is so good the real enjoyment is in Brubaker telling the story. His Captain America is really just a flat-out pleasure to read, and the art fits perfectly, as always. Consistently one of the best books on the stands, and one that will really be rewarding to those who stumble across the collected editions in their local Borders or Barnes & Nobles. Just pure rock.
Amazing Spider-Man #560 : So judging from interviews the creative team behind the thrice-monthly ASM had a mission not to fall back on the same old Spidey villains and instead come up with some new menaces for Parker to go up against. This they have done. Unfortunately, all the new villains kinda suck. This issue’s Paper Doll is the lamest yet, and Dan Slott’s script lays it on more than a bit thick — the last-page reveal really isn’t nearly as shocking or unexpected as they seem to think, and the rest is forgettable. Ultimately the writing here can’t be called anything but lame, which is a bit of a shame as Marcos Martin’s art is more-or-less fantastic throughout.
DC/WildStorm DreamWar #2: Man, I generally like Keith Giffen’s stuff and it’s cool to see him write the Legion of Super-Heroes again for a couple pages, but I have no damn idea at all what the hell’s happening in this book. I guess I’ll keep reading and hope it starts to make sense soon. I wouldn’t recommend you start this one now if you haven’t yet though.
Back in the early boom days of the internet everything seemed to be based on some vague notion of giving stuff away for free and somehow, someway there would be a payday on the other end, whether advertising-supported or underpants gnome-supported. Wowio seems in ways to be a relic of that time, in that for no money at all you can sign up and download 3 ebooks in pdf format per day (including some indie comic books) , up to 30 per month, with the only caveat being a couple of pages of adverts stuck in at the beginning and end.
Of course, the selection is necessarily limited, but with some searching within your areas of interest you’ll find enough stuff to fill your download queue quickly enough. In the comics area, there’s not really any Marvel or DC obviously, but I recommend searching for anything by Steve Rude (Nexus) or Bill Willingham (Fables) to start off with. Oh, and definitely anything by Bill Mantlo, as that actually is some stuff Marvel put out and the mere act of downloading it somehow goes to contribute to Mantlo’s medical bills in his declining years by internet magic. Even if you’re not really one for reading on your computer — yet — you might as well grab a few things to stick on your flash drive or iphone or whatever: you never know when having something good to read on hand is gonna come in handy.
(I feel somehow compelled to point out that this is a genuine endorsement and I have not been in any way compensated for this, it’s my actual opinion. Anyway, what would Wowio have to offer me for my endorsement anyway? More free ebooks? Woo.)
Despite the fact that I’m a longtime Batman & the Outsiders fan, the series has never once in its publishing history ever gotten its balance exactly right.There is definitely a place for the book within the context of the DC Universe as well as an audience outside the typical hardcore comic crowd, but those handling the book rarely seem to nail it down.Oh sure, at times it’s been a decent comic with good art, especially during the Jim Aparo and Alan Davis years and the current Chuck Dixon/Julian Lopez series is far better than anyone had any right to expect, but the concept has always been more than a little ill-defined.
At the heart of the Outsiders concept is the unspoken subtext that it’s Batman’s last-ditch defense for humanity against superhumans. Therefore, for Batman to stock the team with the superpowered types — or to depend too heavily on superpowers to execute his plans — goes against the grain and never quite works.Nearly all members of the team should be normal or slightly enhanced humans who defeat superpowered enemies against incredible odds through superior planning, training, teamwork, and skill.The Outsiders is the Batman concept applied to a team book, and functions as a extended version of the ‘Batman Family,’ i.e. Bats’ inner circle of Nightwing, Robin, etc.The Outsiders are Batman’s team in Kingdom Come.The Outsiders are the team Batman assembles to take down Superman in The Dark Knight Returns, and the way that battle plays out is how a well-done Outsiders arc should read: a well-engineered plan in which the individual players are not necessarily aware of the part they play but somehow by following Batman’s plan they manage to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat (and occasionally the reverse).
The Outsiders are hardcore.The only group more intense should be the Suicide Squad. The Outsiders don’t have to get along or like each other, they just have respect each other enough to work together. Members should regularly be disturbed by the lengths to which they are forced to go to accomplish their mission goals, and float in and out of affilation with the team – at all times at least one member should be participating against their better judgement.
Certain characters fit on the team and others don’t. As Batman’s ultra-elite covert strike force it’s always been a mixed grab-bag of second-raters and hopeless cases.It’s not a training camp, and neither is it a group of big guns.It’s a team of highly-skilled, top-of-the-class in their field types who don’t work well with others — and would prefer not to except when forced to by the Batman, who won’t accept no for an answer. The Outsiders are the group Batman has because it’s necessary, not because he subconsciously wants drinking buddies.Too many superpowers don’t fit the concept: Metamorpho and Martian Manhunter are both too ridiculously overpowered for the team.An Outsider should have maybe one or two powers like Black Lightning, but despite (or because of) his overpowered nature, Geo-Force is, always has been, and always will be a dud (sorry, Brad Meltzer).
Characters that work/would work as Outsiders: Nightwing, Batgirl (Cassandra Cain), Green Arrow, Katana, Black Lightning, Huntress, Manbat, Arsenal/Red Arrow, Oracle, Atomic Knight, Plastic Man, Terra (ooh, the irony), The Creeper, Black Orchid, Ghost Detectives (only occasionally), Wolverine (you know, in some crossover bullshit or something)
Characters that don’t: Metamorpho/Shift, Thunder, Halo, Looker, Catwoman, Martian Manhunter, the Eradicator, Geo-Force, Windfall, Faust, Wylde, Technocrat, Indigo, Jade, Robin, Spoiler, Capt. Marvel Jr., Starfire (good god no)
Final Crisis #2: As the behind-the-scenes stories of DC were seemingly beginning to outperform their fictional output recently, along comes Final Crisis #2 to remind us — and clue some of us in — that Grant Morrison’s had this thing pretty well set for awhile, and the story proceeds apace. This issue is a bit more straightforward than the debut (read: more action, fewer cavemen), and the overall thrust of the story becomes a lot more clear. Art is exemplary throughout, which is part of what made the announcement of Carlos Pacheco fill-in pages on #4 on so disappointing — it would be nice if DC could have just one big event book with consistent art and writing alike. Still, I enjoyed this issue from the awesome introductory Japanese superhero sequence to the last-page reveal and as the roller-coaster heads into the first big hill I’m digging the ride.
Action Comics #866: I actually had to look back at the credits of this issue to check to see if Richard Donner was involved in its creation — and was surprised to find not even so much as a ‘thanks to’ credit. Odd then, that well after the end of Donner’s involvement in the writing of the series comes the single issue of any Superman comic I’ve ever seen that feels the most like the Donner Superman movies: it has the classic Daily Planet dynamic involving humorous scenes with geeky Clark switching to his alter ego; Zod, Ursa, and Non; Ma & Pa Kent back in Smallville. Hell, this issue even reintroduces obnoxious Planet sportswriter Steve Lombard, who was last a player in the series when those movies were first coming out. Writer Geoff Johns and artists Gary Frank and Jon Sibal are hitting on all cylinders here: pretty much every page is a pleasure both in terms of writing and art, even approaching the timeless quality of Morrison & Quitely’s All-Star Superman. Frank’s Superman looks like the perfect cross between Curt Swan’s rendition of the character and Chris Reeve — even Lois looks very Margot Kidderish at one point, and Ursa is so obviously based on the actress from the Donner movies that I got sidetracked wondering what the likeness rights issues would be with someone like that. I mean, would she have signed them away at the time of the film, or would they have to clear that with her now? Anyway, at least so far Johns & co. seem to be accomplishing that ever-rarer solid superhero story that would work equally as well for someone with no previous knowledge of the series as it would for someone with a Ph.D. in DC continuity. A promising kickoff to Johns’ long-promised Brainiac story and a great jumping-on point; it’s great to see DC’s flagship title is again one of its best.
Trinity #1: Hmmm, I’m not totally sold on Chip Kidd’s blurred three-tiered logo design for this Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman team-up book, but at least it’s a solid break from the now-tiresome 52-Countdown logotype. The cover design spotlighting one of the three main characters on each successive tryptych piece doesn’t really grab me either, failing to convey instantly what this series actually is — this basically looks like a Superman book at first look, and second look too — rather than showing all three characters together. Inside the pages of DC’s 52-part newest weekly series, Mark Bagley hits the ground running moving over from Marvel and Ultimate Spider-Man, stepping comfortably into the DC Universe with spot-on renditions of DC big three as well as a good chunk of the current Flash cast. Writer Kurt Busiek doesn’t go for the big bang opener out of the box here, not even having any of the main characters in costume until two-thirds of the way through the main story, but opts instead to lay enough solid groundwork to get one intrigued. If they can keep up this level of quality in the main story, it shouldn’t be too much trouble holding that attention from here. The backup is slightly less satisfying, and a bit less lucid — it took a couple readings to be clear exactly what was going on — but the glimpses of things to come are pretty successful at whetting the appetite for what’s to come this series. I’m onboard this title (for the near future, at least) and looking forward to the ride.
So it’s Grant Morrison week for sure. Between Final Crisis #1 and Batman #677, the display of sheer writing mastery Morrison brings to bear is staggering. In Final Crisis #1 Morrison manages to infuse the standard universe-shattering crossover structure with enough sheer humanity to overcome the cynicism with which one would normally view such events, in a few elegant opening pages explaining why stories of super-powered, more-than-human characters have such elemental appeal, tying deeply into the rich history of DC Comics’ seventy-plus year publication record without making it inaccessible or incomprehensible. The scene with the Monitors manages to make better use of the characters in a few scant panels than in the entirety of Countdown combined — and actually does follow up on a single plot thread from that series, making it not totally dismissable. (Perhaps its relevant storylines could just be retold in a single standalone 48-page book rather than force anyone to slog through all 51 issues + innumerable tie-ins and spinoffs of Countdown.) JG Jones’ art is pretty much flawless, although the Question does look a bit too much like she has a face in the panel where (thanks to Entertainment Weekly’s Final Crisis preview featuring excerpts of Morrison’s script) Grant clearly indicated no face. Minor nitpick aside though, everything on the page is exemplary — I just hope he can keep it up on time and this series doesn’t fall victim to the incongruous dropped-in fill-in pages that torpedoed Infinite Crisis. Because so far, Final Crisis is shaping up to be fairly awesome — and also kind of beautiful.
The striking Alex Ross cover (based on a Morrison design, I believe) that adorns Batman #677 leads in to the best work of Tony Daniel’s penciling career. Previously I’ve always found Daniel’s work on series like Teen Titans and Flash to be acceptable at best and fairly static, but his work has really risen to the level of Morrison’s writing quickly during his relatively brief tenure on Batman. While he could still stand to render depth a bit more naturally, for the most part he evokes exactly the right crossbreed between Jim Lee’s and Neal Adams’ Batman work. And Morrison’s script…uh, wow. As Batman R.I.P. kicks into high gear, Morrison deconstructs the entire basis of the Batman character in a few devastating pages (capped with an excellent silent Daniel full-page splash the original of which will surely bring a dear price at auction) — and that’s where the story really begins, rolling down a rollercoaster sequence of events that tie together plot threads Morrison has been weaving into the series since the beginning of his run. Parallels to the excellent Len Wein/Jim Aparo/John Byrne miniseries Untold Legend of the Batman abound, including the promised next-issue appearance of the “first Batman”, whose costume is prominently highlighted here, so hopefully a reprint edition is on the way, perhaps in one of those reprint specials Ryan Sook keeps doing great covers for.
I was reading the excellent 
The Brave and the Bold #13: Mark Waid gets around to doing another classic done-in-one team-up. In retrospect I wish his entire run had been such, because it’s really where this series shines and let’s face it, his overarching plots for the longer runs were more than a little strained. This love letter to the Silver Age resurrects the Samuroids, among the most obscure Flash foes (they only appeared in one two-part story, in The Flash #180–181, thirty years ago) and while admittedly I’m a sucker for a Batman/Flash team-up, Waid hits all the right notes here and Jerry Ordway is doing great work on art. It’s nice to see Batman take a back seat to someone else for once, and it’s nice to see Jay Garrick in a role beyond “the old Flash” or “the Justice Society’s Flash” for the first time in awhile.
Mighty Avengers #14 : Brian Bendis follows up on the least interesting plot thread involved with Secret Invasion, namely, what’s goin’ on with the Sentry? The scenes in this issue with the undercover Skrulls meeting covertly were kinda interesting but otherwise, no big reveals or anything particularly rewarding, just a whole lotta Sentry. Nice art by Koi Pahm though, and I liked the cover though it has absolutely nothing to do with the contents of the book. I swear this had better end with the Sentry getting killed or killing himself (as hinted here) because seriously, the Sentry sucks and this much focus on him is just unnecessary unless he’s going away soon. Every story about him past the original, entertaining-for-what-it-was mini-series is basically “The Sentry’s crazy powerful!” “No, he’s just crazy!” “Huh, turns out he’s both!” Repeat ad nauseum. We get it, he’s crazy and also pretty stupid and easily fooled. Now he needs to sacrifice his life to save the universe or bring Proty II back to life or something.
Despite the fact that I’m a longtime Batman & the Outsiders fan, the series has never once in its publishing history ever gotten its balance exactly right.