Collected Editions

DC solicits Fall 2012 trade collections

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:32:00 +0000

On the Source yesterday, DC Comics Publicity Manager Pamela Mullins announced a host of new trade collections and graphic novels for the rest of 2012. This, on the heels of DC re-announcing the first DC New 52 collections -- this is, for the most part, everything not DC 52 for the year.

I've included some highlights below; I would mention that I am not completely blown away by this list. Green Lantern: Sector 2814 is unexpected, but the rest of these are expected -- additional volumes in reprint series, gargantuan omnibuses of dated material, and so on. In a post another time, I'll look at some DC material I'd still like to see collected -- if this is it for DC for 2012, seems to me they're not stretching themselves too far, in favor of letting the DC New 52 collections shine for the year.

(Would love to see a comics blog get some votes for a Shorty Award, by the way, if you'd like to help out.)

Here's what I noticed:

BATMAN: KNIGHTFALL VOL. 3 – KNIGHTSEND TP NEW EDITION
Writers: Doug Moench, Alan Grant, Chuck Dixon, Mary Jo Duffy and Dennis O’Neil
Artists: Mike Manley, Dick Giordano, Bret Blevins, Graham Nolan, Scott Hanna, Ron Wagner, Tom Grummett, Jim Balent, Rick Burchett, Barry Kitson, Mike Vosburg, Mike Gustovich, Lee Weeks, Joe Rubinstein, Phil Jimenez and others
Collects: BATMAN #509, 510, 512-514, BATMAN: SHADOW OF THE BAT #29, 30, 32-34, DETECTIVE COMICS #676, 677, 679-681, BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #62 and 63, ROBIN #8, 9, 11-13, CATWOMAN #12, 13 and SHOWCASE 94 #10
$29.99 US, 652 pg

This collection also doesn't collect the "Knightfall: The Search" chapters that we talked about earlier; since Knightfall Vol. 2 has some of those "Search" chapters and not all of them, I still believe there's a mis-print somewhere and Legends of the Dark Knight #59-61, at least, will be collected in one of these volumes.

This volume does however, include Batman: Prodigal, the story where Dick Grayson becomes Batman the first time around. I know why DC's including this, as fans have been clamoring for another shot at Prodigal ever since Dick became Batman after RIP -- but if you're reading the Knightfall saga for the first time, Prodigal is terribly anti-climactic. You've had three volumes of Bruce Wayne beaten and fighting to reclaim the Batman mantle, he returns and defeats Azrael -- and then disappears for twelve entire issues while Dick fumbles around as Batman.

If the four-part "Troika" storyline that followed had also been included, which has Bruce back in a new costume, that might bring this book full circle; take it from me, however, that Prodigal ends on a cliffhanger, and if you've been following the story since the beginning of Knightfall, I'm pretty sure you'll be saying "Is that it?"

THE DC COMICS ART OF AMANDA CONNER HC
Writers: Barbara Kesel, Chuck Dixon, Jai Nitz, Terry Moore, Geoff Johns, Jimmy Palmiotti, Judd Winick,
Artists: Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti
Collects: SUPERMAN: LOIS LANE #1, BIRDS OF PREY #47-49, JSA CLASSIFIED #1-4, SUPERGIRL #12, WEDNESDAY COMICS #1-12, and stories from SECRET ORIGINS 80-PAGE GIANT #1, JOKER: LAST LAUGH SECRET FILES #1, the GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY WEDDING SPECIAL #1 and WONDER WOMAN #600
$39.99 US, 304 pg

This is a wacky collection in part because it's got an otherwise-uncollected Birds of Prey story in it that took place between Chuck Dixon and Gail Simone's runs. Also nice to see the uncollected material from Wonder Woman #600 surface here and there.

PENGUIN: PAIN AND PREJUDICE TP
Writers: Gregg Hurwitz and Jason Aaron
Artists: Szymon Kudranski and Jason Pearson
Collects: PENGUIN: PAIN AND PREJUDICE and JOKER’S ASYLUM: PENGUIN #1
$14.99 US, 144 pg

I've said before I think we need a Penguin miniseries like a hole in the head, not that that should dampen your enjoyment of it. That DC pads this post-Flashpoint Penguin origin with a pre-Flashpoint Penguin one-shot leaves me scratching my head.

HUNTRESS: CROSSBOW AT THE CROSSROADS TP
Writer: Paul Levitz
Artists: Marcos To and John Dell
Collects: HUNTRESS #1-6
$14.99 US, 144 pg

On the other hand, DC's not puffing this one up at all. As a backdoor pilot to DC's new Earth 2 endeavors, it'll likely sell itself.

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: AMETHYST, PRINCESS OF GEMWORLD VOL. 1 TP
Writers: Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohen
Artists: Ernie Colon, Ric Estrada, Pablo Marcos, Alex Saviuk, Bob Smith, Gary Martin, Romeo Tanghal, Kurt Schaffenberger and Karl Kesel
Collects: LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #298, AMETHYST, PRINCESS OF GEMWORLD #1-12, AMETHYST ANNUAL #1, DC COMICS PRESENTS #63 and AMETHYST #1-11
$19.99 US, 648 pg

I can't claim much of a touchstone for this series myself, but I recognize it as a long-uncollected DC classic and I'm sure someone is excited about this. No doubt this is coming out in part in conjunction with the upcoming Cartoon Network series.

THE 52 OMNIBUS HC
Writers: Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid
Artists: Keith Giffen, Joe Bennett, Ruy Jose, Jack Jadson, Chris Batista, Jimmy Palmiotti, Ken Lashley, Eddy Barrows, Rob Stull, Shawn Moll, Tom Nguyen, Todd Nauck, Marlo Alquiza, Dale Eaglesham, Art Thibert, Patrick Olliffe, Drew Geraci, Ray Snyder, Phil Jimenez, Andy Lanning, Rodney Ramos, Dan Green, Tom Derenick, Jay Leisten, Jamal Igle, Keith Champagne, Andy Smith, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund and Darick Robertson
Collects: 52 #1-52
$150.00 US, 1216 pg

I've been calling this one for a while -- with DC's current emphasis on Omnibus editions, the weekly 52 series would seem ready-make for that kind of collection. One thousand, two hundred sixteen pages and $150 is a hefty, expensive book, however, at the same time DC is getting flak for the quality of their collections -- I'm curious if this'll be worth the paper it's printed on, so to speak, or if at some point customers will start voting with their wallets against DC's poor bindings if they continue.

LEGION: SECRET ORIGIN TP
Writer: Paul Levitz
Artists: Chris Batista, Rich Perotta and Marc Deering
Collects: LEGION: SECRET ORIGIN #1-6
$14.99 US, 144 pg

Surprised to see DC go paperback on this. One person's opinion, I didn't think Legion really needed a "secret" origin -- maybe it hasn't sold so well that DC won't risk a hardcover on it.

STORMWATCH VOL. 2 HC
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artists: Tom Raney, Oscar Jimenez, Bryan Hitch, Paul Neary, Randy Elliot and others
Collects: STORMWATCH #48-50 and #1-11
$29.99 US, 384 pg

Glad to see this continuing. The first new Stormwatch hardcover collected the Stormwatch: Force of Nature (#37-42) and Lightning Strikes (#43-47) trades; this encompasses Change or Die, A Finer World, and Final Orbit. Not included here, troublingly, is the in-continuity WildCATS/Aliens story that ended Stormwatch and lead into Authority; maybe this will appear if DC keeps collecting WildCATS alongside this.

GREEN LANTERN: SECTOR 2814 VOL. 1 TP
Writer: Len Wein
Artists: Dave Gibbons, Dick Giordano, Mike DeCarlo and Mark Farmer
Collects: GREEN LANTERN #172-176, 178-183 and 185-186
$16.99 US, 192 pg

I'm rather enthused about this collection (series, it seems) of early 1980s, just-before-Crisis on Infinite Earths Green Lantern stories, which involve Hal Jordan in Earth-bound tales and eventually John Stewart taking over as Green Lantern. I imagine these will read as rather dated, and I don't think Hal comes off altogether well in them, but this is a significant period of DC history that lacks collections, especially these that are partially still in-continuity.

SUPERMAN: GROUNDED VOL. 2 TP
Writers: J. Michael Straczynski and Chris Roberson
Artists: Eddy Barrows, Allan Goldman, JP Mayer and others
Collects: SUPERMAN #707-711 and 713-714
$14.99 US, 168 pg

Wouldn't it have been a riot if they'd decided to stick Superman #712 in the paperback?

That's my picks -- you can see the full list at the Source. What jumps out at you on the list?

Review: Hulk Vol. 3: Hulk No More hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:02:00 +0000

[Guest reviewer Zach King blogs about movies as The Cinema King]

Halfway through Jeph Loeb's run on Hulk, I'm finding this whole thing to be a bit of a mixed bag. Maybe it's a case of parts being more than their sum, but for every high point I'm finding I have to wade through a few chapters that just don't hit it for me. Volume 3, Hulk No More, has a fantastic ending, but it's a rebound after a problematic and ultimately lackluster opener.

Hulk No More, like its predecessor Red and Green, is divided roughly in half, although the division isn't as neat. Hulk No More begins with a three-parter in which Hulk and Red Hulk are pitted against each other in a cosmic game of "who's tougher," sponsored by The Grandmaster and The Collector. The stakes? Hulk, Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, and Namor have all been ripped from the most tragic times in their histories to fight for the lives of the women they love, while Red Hulk and his team of baddies (Terrax, Baron Mordo, and Tiger Shark) stand in their way, apparently just for the hell of it. Then Hulk and Red Hulk square off once more, this time in MODOK's secret government laboratory. It's here that Red Hulk drains Hulk of his gamma energy, stranding him as Bruce Banner and seemingly ending the Hulk's career -- for good.

Ed McGuinness rejoins Jeph Loeb for this volume, and while Art Adams and Frank Cho weren't terrible fill-ins, the return of McGuinness feels like stepping into familiar and inviting territory. McGuinness's bold pencils make the Grandmaster/Collector chapters feel appropriately larger than life, a return to the smackdown style of Red Hulk with every flying fist and bulging bicep rendered in double-page spreads and exhilarating action. When inkers Mark Farmer and Tom Palmer step in on the latter chapters, they bring a softer edge to McGuinness than his usual collaborator Dexter Vines, but the change-up (especially with Palmer's inks) is a welcome and intriguing one.

There's nothing terribly original about the Grandmaster/Collector storyline, nothing we haven't seen before -- two characters forced to do battle with a team of A-listers behind them, cosmic stakes afoot, cameos by plenty of heavy-hitters (i.e., Galactus, Dormammu) -- and even the ending is fairly standard. At the risk of spoiling it, nothing comes of this storyline. The Grandmaster and the Collector leave, restore any damage done to the characters, and wipe the memory of all involved. DC readers would look at this as an experiment in Elseworlds, a deus ex machina that whitewashes over any continuity problems the story might create.

If this were a Hulk miniseries I'd be fine with that, but it's not. As part of the main story, this battle royale ends up taking space away from the main narrative. It's exciting to see Red Hulk dueling Silver Surfer and absorbing his cosmic energy (especially as illustrated by Ed McGuinness), but Loeb has a great thing going here with the mystery of the Red Hulk and his apparently long reach within the Marvel Universe; unfortunately, this plot (like the Wendigo plot from the last volume) is simply a distraction, one that erases itself from continuity, at that.

This self-contradiction is exacerbated by the opening pages of the story proper in Hulk No More, in which the reader plays catch-up with Ben Urich, who's writing a story about the government's cover-up on the existence of the Red Hulk. It's an effective technique, but it's highlighted by the fact that we've spent three chapters/issues away from our main storyline. Fortunately, this second half of the book is more relevant and therefore a greater payoff. When Red Hulk drains Hulk and there's no Collector to reset continuity, it portends greater things to come. And with Spider-Man and Norman Osborn both conscious of this change in the Hulk's fate, there's a kind of ripple effect that lets us know Loeb isn't messing around anymore. With confirmation that Hulk is out of the picture, I'm excited to see where this is all going.

The book seems to have set aside the mystery of Red Hulk's identity for now, but I'm not so sure that's a bad thing. Ben Urich hangs a lantern when he asks She-Hulk, "Who is the Red Hulk?" and there might be a red herring that Norman Osborn is the Red Hulk (or maybe I'm just reading too much into the close-up of Osborn's enormous hands), but for the most part Loeb seems to be prioritizing momentum over mystery. Keep the action coming, keep the giants clobbering, keep the plot advancing. After a stumble with the cosmic battle royale, the volume quickly rebounds.

Is Hulk No More a great book overall? Not really, considering half of the book is a well-drawn waste of time. But am I going to keep reading? You bet your gamma ray shorts I am. Especially if it means I'm going to get more of Audrey Loeb's Lil' Hulks.

Zach intrigued.

Up next, Red Hulk takes center stage as he meets up with The Punisher, Deadpool, Wolverine, and the rest of X-Force -- and a certain lady in Red ...

Review: Superman: Return of Doomsday trade paperback (DC Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:02:00 +0000

The end ought have been the beginning of the Superman: Return of Doomsday collection. That is, the book ends with an alternate cover for Justice League #55 by Dan Jurgens, echoing his iconic Superman #74 cover. It is in this way that one has to read all of Return of Doomsday, not as a story in its own right but rather as an ode to the destructive mayhem of the original Doomsday story.

Indeed, retreat now all ye seeking a moral in this story. Return of Doomsday offers no real beginning or ending, nor much of a narrative structure. It's simply 144 pages of Doomsday doing what he does best, beating up superheroes, and anyone expecting more than that will be sorely disappointed.

[Contains spoilers]

To break this trade down further, the first issue begins with Doomsday attacking Steel out of nowhere and ends with Doomsday carrying the beaten Steel away; the next issue begins with Doomsday attacking the Outsiders out of nowhere and similarly carrying the Eradicator away. The next chapters are exactly the same: mostly unrelated, and mostly filled with the characters wondering where Doomsday came from while Doomsday beats them soundly.

A trade full of knock-down action wouldn't always be my cup of tea. I'm aware, however, that these are some of the last pre-Flashpoint appearances of Doomsday, leading up to the end of the Action Comics title, and also that Doomsday's opponents here are the main actors of the "Reign of the Supermen" storyline: Superboy, Supergirl, Steel, the Eradicator, and the Cyborg Superman. Only the hardest-hearted among us couldn't enjoy this book for what it is -- a tribute to Death of Superman, in which Doomsday, also out of nowhere, plowed through the Justice League and then Superman in quite spectacular fashion. One almost roots for Doomsday in these pages; this is Doomsday's show.

The narrative structure serves to smooth out what would otherwise be a rather awkward collection. The Steel issue is a one-shot, but the Outsiders, Justice League, and Superboy issues all begin in medias res -- Justice League, specifically, while the team is otherwise fighting Eclipso, and Outsiders in the midst of an argument. But every outside plot thread, for the most part, gives way when Doomsday crashes through the ceiling and starts playing paddy-cake with our heroes.

If you don't follow these other titles, I don't think you'll be confused by what's going on -- a point in favor of this book, though the "Doomsday pause" might have been annoying to readers of the interrupted series themselves. Neither does this book spoil much if you were to read this before Superboy: Smallville Attacks, which starts before and ends after this trade; Justice League is spoiled only slightly more, and Outsiders most of all (perhaps to whet readers to try that seemingly often-struggling series).

Of the issues, Steve Lyons's Steel issue that starts the trade is by far the strongest. Though Lyons and his editor stumble right out of the gate (Steel was not "Dr. Irons" when Doomsday first attacked during Death of Superman), overall Lyons achieves a tone very similar to Death, with a lone hero facing off against Doomsday. Lyons is quite right that Steel emerged with the intention to stop Doomsday, and it's entirely fitting that his final pre-Flashpoint starring role is the culmination of that. Lyons doesn't break new ground, but this is an entirely respectable Steel outing.

Second best is James Robinson's two issues in Justice League of America #55 and the Superman/Batman Annual #5, if only for the sheer scope that the two-parts and extra-sized issue permits. Here again, Doomsday mainly just knocks characters around for a while, but this time it's the "new World's Finest" team of Supergirl and Batman Dick Grayson, plus the Cyborg Superman.

I don't much care for Robinson's Supergirl, who seems brattier than Sterling Gates's definitive portrayal, and there's an elongated scene where Supergirl deals with some emotional issues that didn't grab me because of Robinson's flighty portrayal. On the other hand, however, we have the Cyborg Superman and a Cyborg Doomsday transforming the Justice League satellite into a variety of floating head-shapes with Batman ducking and rolling out of the way, explosions aplenty, so that's engaging. Unfortunately, Miguel Sepulveda's art in the annual is either mis-inked by Sepulveda or colored poorly, because it doesn't quite "pop" in the way the issue ought warrant.

I felt DC Co-Publisher Dan DiDio's Outsiders issue was the poorest of the bunch. For an action-focused issue, it wasn't so off, but the characters seem to speak just for the sake of filling panels (in one panel, standing right in front of Doomsday, Halo emotes, "We're a team and we stand together"; still in the same panel, the Olympian replies, "This will be one battle too glorious to miss," and Geo-Force adds "Then let's take this monstrosity down." Meanwhile one imagines Doomsday having already torn through them all). DiDio's characters also have a tendency to narrate their actions: "Giving him all I got," Halo says, while giving Doomsday all she's got. I'll be watching in my upcoming Outsiders review whether DiDio does the same throughout.

I regretted as well that DiDio gave such little time to the Kryptonian Eradicator in this issue, the target of Doomsday's rage. This issue does nothing to further explain the presence of the Eradicator when he was not at all mentioned in the New Krypton crossover, nor does it make any clearer Doomsday's muddled post-Infinite Crisis origins. I had hoped the Doomsday crossover might have been the point where all of this came together, but that doesn't seem to be the case. As DiDio seemingly kills off the Eradicator in this issue, I'm left to wonder what this character's purpose was, or if he was meant only to have an Eradicator present and a reason for Doomsday to cross over into Outsiders, which seems gratuitous in the extreme.

Jeff Lemire and Marco Rudy's Superboy issue is satisfying in its brutality and closes the book well, giving the only hints of the greater plan behind Doomsday's rampage.

Superman: Return of Doomsday is a big action popcorn flick, short on plot but high on punching with a big cast of DC characters. You might as well dig out your old Death of Superman trade and make it a double feature; who knows the next time Doomsday will be berserking across the DC Universe.

[Includes original covers and variant Justice League cover. Printed on glossy paper]

~~It's Girls' Week Out on Collected Editions next week, as we say good-bye to the Supergirl and Batgirl titles~~. Next week, continuing Zach King's series on Jeph Loeb's Hulk (our Supergirl and Batgirl reviews to come). Don't miss it!

Review: Superman: Grounded Vol. 2 hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:02:00 +0000

If you haven't read Superman: Grounded Vol. 1, do yourself a favor and go read just the first full chapter, originally published as Superman #701. From Superman fixing the car, to the diner, to the drug dealers, to the jumper, and finally Superman quoting Thoreau in the end, writer J. Michael Straczynski presents a clear study on the existence of heroism in every person. Grounded may not be a perfect storyline, but Superman #701 is one of those rare perfect issues.

Superman: Grounded Vol. 2, unfortunately, lacks any such perfect issue.

The book itself claims to have been co-written by Straczynski and Chris Roberson. In a later War Rocket Ajax interview, however, Roberson says it's all his, and I believe him, because the writing her lacks Straczynski's mastery. But I'm not here to quibble with Roberson's writing in this book -- it didn't move me, but you can find plenty other reviews that look at that on an issue-by-issue basis.

Rather, what actually offends me about the second volume of Grounded is the way in which it dismisses and at times even outright disputes what Straczynski established in Grounded, Vol. 1. Straczynski and Roberson are having a conversation about Superman in Grounded, with each writer expressing their side in a volume; Straczynski's, I believe, was a complicated and critical look at Superman that still preserved the character's heroism, while I find Roberson's too reductive and somewhat pandering.

[Contains spoilers]

I'm struck again by two scenes in Straczynski's Superman #701, one where Superman sets fire to all the drugs in dealers' private residences even though he doesn't have a warrant; and when Superman promises a suicidal woman that he'll let her jump if he can't talk her down. In both of these instances, the law has an interest in prosecuting the dealers (or protecting private property) and in keeping the woman alive. But Straczynski's Superman recognizes both sides of the issues -- that there's a greater good in destroying the drugs and in respecting the woman's own choice about her life (even if we're meant to understood that Superman would have saved the woman irrespective); Straczynski's Superman respects the law but isn't beholden by it (like, I understand, Grant Morrison's current Action Comics Superman).

The first chapter of Roberson's Grounded offers Superman a similar dilemma, but approaches it differently. Superman encounters a plant in Kansas that's been polluting the water; he and Lois Lane's first reaction is to close the plant, but when Superman understands how many jobs will be lost, he reconsiders. This is entirely reasonable; no one is for pollution, but closing a plant is much simpler in comics than in real life. Yet Lois is unrepentant, and Roberson has Superman threaten to kill the story Lois wants to write -- both hyperbolic and impossible -- such that the reader sees Lois as right and Superman as wrong.

Straczynski's Superman recognized moral ambiguity; Roberson's Superman recognizes moral ambiguity, but the story credits it to depression and clouded judgment. In Roberson's judgment, it seems, Superman ought not face any shades of gray, just conflicts presented with so-called "comic book simplicity."

(That artist Allan Goldman draws an unbelievably buxom Lois Lane in a low-cut shirt and short-shorts with a bare midriff, with a backpack as if she's going on safari in the middle of Kansas, helps this issue's credibility not at all. For an example of the kind of sexual gratuity that brings comics down -- not excessive sex in a sexual scene, but sexual gratuity in a non-sexual scene -- see this issue.)

Similarly, Roberson proceeds to reframe key scenes from Grounded Vol. 1. Superman meets Flash Barry Allen again and asks him about Barry's statement in volume one that when he runs, he only sees a blur around him. Straczynski's implication in the first volume had been that DC's superheroes are out of touch with the common person; Straczynski backed this up with Superman meeting Batman Dick Grayson on the JLA satellite orbiting Earth, away from humanity. But in Superman and Barry's second meeting, Roberson has Barry laugh and say he was only "joking" before, and that he sees the people around him as he runs.

Granted, Barry Allen comes off the worse in Straczynski's version, but I find downright insulting that Roberson alters the scene as if Superman (and the audience) just doesn't "get" Barry's joke. It's not unprecedented that Straczynski should suggest DC heroes lack humanity (see Marvel's more human characters versus DC's superheroes) nor that Superman, after the cosmic New Krypton adventure should need to reconnect with his human roots. Roberson's offers a "I'm OK, you're OK, nothing to see here" aesthetic in which the DC heroes are plenty human and Superman misunderstands just because he's "depressed," which is much less interesting to me than what Straczynski attempted.

Roberson also suggests that because of Superman's "depression," he misheard the concerned mother Straczynski's presented who said that Superman's presence attracts danger ("You are a gun"); rather, Roberson says, she told Superman, "You are a hero." Again, Roberson simplifies unnecessarily. Ultimately we know the truth lies with the Superman fan that Roberson uses in the end who proves that Superman's presence does more good than harm, but in Roberson's version no one thinks Superman is a threat.

In Marc Guggenheim's Justice Society: Supertown, we have Jay Garrick taking responsibility for rebuilding a town that his team destroyed fighting a supervillain. Now, this is comics, and I don't expect every writer to establish in every story that every hero pay for every car they might crush battling an enemy. But for Roberson to offer near unanimous love for Superman, even going so far as to edit out a lone critical voice in Straczynski's story, stretches suspension of disbelief for me.

Roberson implies that Superman didn't need to take his Grounded walk because there's really no disconnect between Superman and humanity after New Krypton. I accept that Superman isn't Batman, and he ought be loved and given parades in Metropolis because that's part of the fun, but Roberson discounts the audience's ability to both appreciate Superman and also take a critical look at the character. To reconsider Superman isn't disloyal, and it isn't "depression," and I don't like that Roberson blames Superman's difficulties on such.

Superman: Grounded Vol. 2 suggests that Roberson is a long-time, dedicated Superman fan. There are continuity notes galore here, with call-backs to Superman: The Odyssey, Superman: Transformed, Steel and Live Wire and the Supermen of America (and in the issue DC unfortunately cancelled, Sinbad). And Roberson does right by the final issue before the DC New 52 relaunch, ending it like Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? with Superman's signature wink. I sense I might like a general Superman story from Chris Roberson more if it didn't seem he was trying to clean up after J. Michael Straczynski; as much a fan as I was of Grounded Vol. 1, that wasn't what I wanted from volume 2.

[Includes original and variant covers. Printed on glossy paper]

We're keeping on with Superman this week -- coming up, we check in with some of Superman's allies in Return of Doomsday.

Review: War of the Green Lanterns hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:02:00 +0000

Green Lantern is one of those series, as most readers will know, that's continuing virtually unchanged into the DC Comics New 52 relaunch. War of the Green Lanterns, though a crossover, needed not necessarily to be an ending; however, writer Geoff Johns accomplishes both, setting up the next arc while bringing to close, at least in part, his uninterrupted sixty-seven issue run on Green Lantern. As a crossover, War of the Green Lanterns has interesting elements but as a whole feels somewhat tired; hopefully it portends better things to come.

[Contains spoilers]

What is meant to differentiate War of the Green Lanterns from previous Green Lantern crossovers like Sinestro Corps War and Blackest Night, I'm guessing, is that its focus is the four Earthman Green Lanterns. Though Hal Jordan, Guy Garnder, John Stewart, and Kyle Rayner are often in lead roles, in this story they have to battle an entire mind-controlled Corps often without their green rings. This would be a cause for much celebration at the end of the story, cementing the place of these four as the greatest of the Green Lanterns, if not for the pyrrhic nature of their victory -- where both Sinestro Corps War and Blackest Night ended in triumph, War of the Green Lanterns ends in victory for the Corps but defeat for our heroes.

I have written before that I'd like to see Johns bring some change to the Corps-leading Guardians of the Universe. It is basically the structure of every Green Lantern story that the Lanterns are sent on a mission by the Guardians for which the Guardians withhold some key piece of information or criticize the Lanterns in the end for some "out of the box" action. Johns has demonstrated any number of betrayals committed by the Guardians that ought have made Hal and the Corps rebel, but after every adventure the Corps returns to status quo.

War is no exception, with the Guardians in command again and Hal censured (stripped of his ring, this time). Perhaps its necessary that Johns bring things back to basics before the start of the New 52 Green Lantern, though I very much wish we might at some point see a story where a democratized Corps must lead itself sans Guardians, because the old patterns are getting repetitive.

Indeed, there's a lot in this crossover between Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors that did feel repetitive. Johns and fellow writers Peter Tomasi and Tony Bedard divide the crossover so that Johns writes Hal and Tomasi writes Guy while Bedard takes John and Kyle; this leads to at least three issues where the various characters all come to the same conclusions about the mind-controlled Corps, and when John and Kyle split off from Hal and Guy, one knows they'll have to wait until Bedard's turn comes around again two issues hence before the characters will appear again.

I wish DC would structure these crossovers so every writer takes a piece rather than splitting things up so severely; maybe every writer has a character with which they're most comfortable, but it creates a ready experience that seems very predictable and artificial.

Johns and company also use as cliffhanger fodder, once again, the appearance of the sentient planet-Lantern Mogo. Mogo's arrival was a big moment in Sinestro Corps War and Blackest Night too, to the point where it lacks the same excitement in War; John Stewart's destruction of Mogo seems too cruel for John's character, famously already living down the destruction of one planet, but I admit to some pleasure in seeing Mogo taken off the table so he can't be a "dramatic" plot point yet a fourth time.

The worst sin, in my opinion, is that War of the Green Lanterns fails to challenge the reader in the way both Sinestro Corps War and Blackest Night did. In Sinestro, aside from the story's unprecedented scope, Johns introduced the idea of the Lanterns using lethal force, and the reader had to decide how they felt about it. Blackest Night was a gigantically emotional (and often terrifying story) with the surprise resurrections at the end. Maybe War's big moment is supposed to be the destruction of Mogo, or Hal losing his ring, but neither of those really shocked me; the most that War raised my blood pressure, really, was when Hal and Guy boarded the spaceship not-coincidentally named "Aya" -- pity the thing crashed to pieces just a few pages later.

War does not diminish my estimation for Johns's Green Lantern work as a whole; indeed I chose his expansive, complicated Green Lantern: Brightest Day as one of my best picks for 2011, and I'm eager to see what he does with Sinestro in the new series. War has some fun moments, including a Hal Jordan/Guy Gardner fistfight that reminds me of the Justice League International days, and especially the flashbacks to the early days of the Guardians by Ed Benes are all quite entertaining. At the same time, the writers' characterization of John Stewart, especially, seemed off to me, and the other chapters didn't have the same pizazz that the ones by Johns and artist Doug Mahnke did.

In closing Green Lantern, Johns provides a partial answer to why Hal Jordan, who seemingly respects no authority, should be a member of the Green Lantern Corps. "I fight for what's right," Hal struggles to say as the mad Guardian Krona chokes him. "I fight for the ideals the Corps embodies." It's ironic that the Guardians should take Hal's ring given that Hal is perhaps their more loyal Corpsman -- fighting for the Corps not because of the Guardians, but despite them. It made me wonder: if Hal were not a Green Lantern, would he find himself a Legion flight ring and still be a superhero? Heroics seem to be in Hal's blood, and though I know Johns has other plans for the new Green Lantern series, I'd have been interested to see this explored.

War of the Green Lanterns is not the best conclusion for what's been a ground-breaking Green Lantern series ("This isn't how it's supposed to end," for sure); for a series credited with returning Hal Jordan to greatness, this final crossover felt mostly like paint-by-numbers. Green Lantern: Brightest Day was great, though, and I have no doubt Green Lantern can be great again; this stumble just makes me more eager for the relaunch volume to come.

[Includes original and variant covers. Printed on glossy paper]

Next week, we'll take a look at some Superman books. Also there's a DC TPB Timeline update lurking around here somewhere ...

DC Trade Solicitations for April 2012

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:50:00 +0000

DC Comics has released their trade solicitations for April 2012, and it's no surprise that we're knee-deep in DC New 52 trades. Just past those, however, are a surprising number of archives, reprints, and Really Big Collections. This is the trend I'm personally watching in DC's collection announcements over the next few months; when we set aside the New 52 books, what is DC selling or emphasizing in addition?

* Batman: Detective Comics Vol. 1: Faces of Death HC
* Batwoman Vol. 1: Hydrology HC
* Catwoman Vol. 1: The Game TP
* Animal Man Vol. 1: The Hunt TP
* Green Arrow Vol. 1: The Midas Touch TP
* Justice League International Vol. 1: The Signal Masters TP
* Stormwatch Vol. 1: The Dark Side TP

The New 52 Justice League, Batman, and Green Lantern collections all shared the spotlight last month, but the Bat-books really seem to take the lead here with Detective, Batwoman, and Catwoman. We also see our first Edge and Dark collections with Stormwatch and Animal Man respectively. Can't wait to see DC's unified trade dress for these books (or if DC has chosen to go with a unified trade dress).

* Absolute Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps War HC
* The Infinite Crisis Omnibus HC
* Batman: The Black Glove Deluxe Edition HC

These are three high-profile, expensive books in one month. Though the only other one that I know is coming down the pike is the Absolute Batman and Robin volume, I wonder if these are successful, if we'll start to see more, even monthly, "coffee table"-type books from DC. Of course, the above are already seeing controversy -- Absolute Sinestro appears to be "just" a larger-size reprint of the original story, which I think makes most early adopters unlikely to double-dip. The Infinite Crisis Omnibus solicitations omitted the inclusion of Villains United, but both for completeness and for that series's integral role in Infinite Crisis, I just can't see DC leaving it out.

* Batman: Prey TP
* Challengers of the Unknown Omnibus By Jack Kirby HC
* DC Universe: Legacies TP
* Legion Lost TP
* Showcase Presents: Sea Devils Vol. 1 TP
* Sgt. Rock Archives Vol. 4 HC
* Starman Omnibus Vol. 1 TP

There's a lot of rich material here, suggesting DC's past continuity is not gone, just, well, past. There's a Challengers Omnibus, a Sgt. Rock Archives, and a Sea Devils Showcase Presents (tying into current goings-on in the Aquaman series, perhaps?) -- on one hand, all these different reprints of old material are good, but on the other hand it furthers DC's schizophrenic publishing routine -- what makes Challengers an omnibus and Sgt. Rock an Archives? Why does Sea Devils only make the level of Showcase Presents and not an Omnibus? Confusing times for readers.

Meanwhile, I dig DC's chutzpah in releasing Legion Lost in paperback. This book has little-to-no connection to the current ongoing Legion Lost series and I'd imagine the pent-up demand for the collection expired with the hardcover -- but hey, we have another book out right now called Legion Lost, so let's throw this at the wall and see what sticks! (Letting alone that Legion Lost, the Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning miniseries, is really quite good.)

* Batman: Knightfall Vol. 2: Knightquest TP New Edition

For those playing at home, the second Knightfall volume includes the entirety of the previously-uncollected "Knightquest: The Crusade" storyline, in which Batman (former Azrael) Jean Paul Valley descends into madness. This book only collects some of the issues from "Knightquest: The Search," however -- which separately followed the crippled Bruce Wayne -- and not all of them, omitting for instance the quite-integral Legends of the Dark Knight issues. I can't believe DC would come this far only to not completely collect "Knightquest" again, so I'm betting those will be in this book or the next.

(By the way, blink and you'll miss it, but DC has this titled Batgirl: Knightfall on their site at the moment.

* Brightest Day Vol. 2 TP
* Batman: Bruce Wayne: The Road Home TP
* Batman and Robin: Batman And Robin Must Die TP
* Green Lantern: Brightest Day TP
* Superman: Grounded Vol. 1 TP

And just to show that the old continuity may be down but not out, DC comes through with paperback releases of Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern stories on various levels of "happened" and "didn't happen." What will be interesting in a few months is when DC has exhausted all the paperback reprints of their regular title hardcovers, and then we're just down to DC New 52 books and collections -- will we see more new "reprint" collections (like Sea Devils, Chase etc.) or just less collections output from DC?

What's on your "to buy" list this month?

Favorite Comic Trades for 2011

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:02:00 +0000

It's been a while since I've written a "best of the year" post (back in 2005 and 2006, even), so thanks to frequent guest-poster Zach King for suggesting it. I'm posting it before the end of January, so that's not too late for a "best of 2011" post, right?

My qualification process was simple -- the book had to have been published in 2011 and I had to have read it in 2011, so unfortunately Batman: The Black Mirror was out, along with early Secret Six trades. I tried to pick books I not only liked when I read them but still liked -- Superman: The Black Ring Vol. 1 went off the list since the second part left me a little cold, and I couldn't quite muster the same enthusiasm for Brightest Day that I'd had at the time.

Here's the list, counting down from 10 to my top pick:

10) Teen Titans: Ravager: Fresh Hell

I'm still pretty high on this one. We all know I didn't much like Sean McKeever's Teen Titans work, but he used the backup-story format really well in Ravager to craft a story full of moral-ambiguity that kept the character hopping. This is not the most groundbreaking book on the list (or groundbreaking at all, really), but it was a kicky story in its own right.

9) Flash: The Dastardly Death of the Rogues

I'll tell you, this book almost didn't make the list, so poor was its follow-up, Flash: The Road to Flashpoint. It's a testament to just how good Dastardly is, between writer Geoff Johns and artist Francis Manapul. Johns takes his time here, fully setting up Barry's world, including some power-establishing action sequences by Manapul that are off-the-charts good. I like the exploration of the fastest man dealing with a world of text messages and cell phones; there was a lot of potential in this volume, best reflected perhaps by how disappointed we were that the next volume didn't live up.

8) Justice League: Generation Lost

Judd Winick wrote a funny, moving, thoughtful superhero tale in Generation Lost; before DC's New 52 erased the old Justice League International completely, this was a fine tribute. Espionage, double-crosses, time travel, you name it. And nice to look at, too, not just Aaron Lopresti and Joe Bennett's interior pencils, but Cliff Chiang's covers from the original issues as well. Both volumes hold up exceptionally well; this is where the competition gets tight on this list.

7) Batgirl: The Flood

If I can cheat just a little bit, Batgirl: The Flood was not quite as good as Batgirl Rising, but I love the series enough that it deserves a mention. Writer Bryan Miller does great things both with Batgirl Stephanie Brown but also in giving Oracle Barbara Gordon some of the personality she's lacked of late in Birds of Prey. The profile issue of Detective Nick Gage might win the trade its spot on its own, so subtly does Miller convey important information about the character.

6) Secret Six: The Reptile Brain

OK, I'm cheating again. Reptile Brain is not the strongest Secret Six collection, though it is especially strong. Writer Gail Simone reuses characters from some of her other books here to great surprise and delight; I'm also a sucker for a good Skartaris story, especially when Simone picks up on continuity from the otherwise-ignored recent Warlord series.

5) Legion of Super-Heroes: The Choice

This could just have easily have gone wrong, but DC and Paul Levitz came through with a hefty Legion collection (including a couple of back-up stories) that was complex and thorough and gave the reader a lot to chew over. I'm quite eager, actually, to turn to the next volume, Consequences, pretty soon; I was glad to hear Levitz was just keeping on through the New 52.

4) Justice Society of America: Axis of Evil

Axis of Evil sticks with me perhaps because I didn't expect to enjoy it quite as much as I did. Bill Willingham's essentially just writing a Mr. Terrific story here, but it's one set in an alternate timeline where Willingham gets a lot of room to explore Terrific's character. There's startling evil here, but also unexpected kindnesses -- this is one that took me by surprise and I couldn't stop reading.

3) Doom Patrol: Brotherhood

Doom Patrol: We Who Are About to Die was good, and then the follow-up volume Brotherhood was even better. It's not just because Keith Giffen finds a way to reintroduce a gaggle of random elements from past Doom Patrol iterations into this story without getting too mired in continuity (plus, Ambush Bug!). Rather, it's the closing sequences in which the severely-depressed, emotionally-damaged Patrol, against all odds, suddenly decides to take their lives back. Giffen's Doom Patrol was silly and edgy, but also smart and sweet. We won't get in to the last volume being cancelled again, or I'll get all teary.

2) Green Lantern: Brightest Day

This collection almost didn't make the list, since I was pretty worn-out on Brightest Day itself, but I happened to be re-reading it as I was writing this list, and I was reminded just how good Green Lantern: Brightest Day was. Geoff Johns takes Hal Jordan on a cross-country tour with representatives of the multi-colored Corps in tow; it's a little formulaic in that every Corps gets its own issue, but Johns also does well revealing tidbits about the various Lanterns through the vantage of the other Corps's emotions. And dialogue -- this is a remarkably dialogue-heavy book, with just pages and pages of the Lanterns debating their different philosophies as to how to proceed. All of this, and a great cliffhanger toward War of the Green Lanterns (which is itself kind of a disappointment, but the lead in is good) -- when Green Lantern is good, it's very good, and this is one of those times.

1) Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne/Time and the Batman/Batman and Robin: Batman Must Die

Cheating again! Of these three, I think I liked Return of Bruce Wayne best of all, but Time and the Batman had some pages that have stuck with me as well, and Batman Must Die also. I have, I'll admit it, since Final Crisis, become something of a Grant Morrison convert. Is the DC Universe a living being? Maybe not, but Morrison's idea of comics as society's new mythology, an ongoing story seventy-five years old and counting, really resonates with me. "Whatever they touch turns to myth" -- indeed, indeed. I'll be thinking about these three for a while, and that's why they're my number one pick for 2011.

Once again, happy new year to all and best wishes for 2012.

What were your top books of last year?

Review: JSA All-Stars: Glory Days trade paperback (DC Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:02:00 +0000

Writer Matt Sturges's JSA All-Stars: Glory Days both confirms and rejects my assertion, after reading the previous volume Constellations, that JSA All-Stars is really just a new iteration of the classic Infinity, Inc. team. Plot-wise, there isn't much remarkable in Glory Days, but fans of the team's roots will find a bit to enjoy nonetheless.

[Contains spoilers]

It isn't just that members of the JSA All-Stars team reminisce about their Infinity, Inc. days. It's isn't just that the book cameos another former Infinity, Inc. member, or that it picks up the threads of an Infinity, Inc. story. It's about the time that members of the JSA All-Stars actually drive by the old Infinity, Inc. headquarters and stop to take a look that it becomes impossible to deny how much the ghosts of that former team drive this book. Sturges begins the "Glory Days" story in Infinity, Inc.'s home base, Los Angeles as the team helps out former Infinity, Inc. supporting cast member Chief Bracken; this leads Infinitors Hourman and Atom Smasher to joke about the old days, all in the first six pages of the story. The connections grow exponentially from there.

The stated message of "Glory Days," however, is that one can't regain the past. A group of telepathic children transformed into gods remain these gods in the end; the All-Stars can stop their rampage, but can't turn back the changes of time. Just so, the old Infinity, Inc. headquarters has been condemned and is demolished in the end; to defeat the gods, the All-Stars have to let go of an element of their past, including Atom Smasher acknowledging that Infinity, Inc. is "history."

To take Glory Days at face value, perhaps Sturges does mean to bury the connections between the All-Stars and Infinity, Inc. Between Atom Smasher letting his past go, the final image of the demolition of the old headquarters, and Infinitor Brainwave turning down membership in the All-Stars, there's no knowing wink at the end of the book that suggests an ironic valuation of the past; rather, Sturges seems to suggest, the past is past. Perhaps this benefits Sturges; if despite having four former Infinitors in lead roles in All-Stars (making this the Justice Society equivalent of Cyborg leading the Infinite Crisis-era Teen Titans), Sturges meant to separate his All-Stars from Infinity, Inc., then making those ties explicit and subsequently putting them to rest might be the way to do it.

I can't, however, entirely believe it. It would seem to me there's plenty of potential in Sturges's Infinity, Inc. sequel, including guest-appearances by the newly resurrected Jade (who gets a mention in this book) and her brother Obsidian, another appearance by Brainwave, maybe more about Fury and Silver Scarab (the modern Justice Society's long-time Dr. Fate) who died toward the end of the JSA title. Much as I'd like to evaluate Glory Days on its own merits, whether Sturges is serious about jettisoning this book's Infinity connections could best be determined by the amount of Infinity material in the book that followed; sadly, DC cancelled the JSA All-Stars: The Puzzle Men trade and solicits for the subsequent issues reveal few clues.

Sturges sandwiches the four-issue "Glory Days" between a single issue spotlighting the character Damage, and two issues on the character Cyclone. Damage, one of my favorite teen heroes from the 1990s, gained a heavy dose of attitude under writer Geoff Johns; I've long been torn between happiness that Johns used the character and disappointment at what an angst-ridden grouch he made Damage. Damage's romance with Judomaster never quite made sense (he liked her, it seemed, for her body, and why she responded to him I'm not sure); in the memorial issue, Sturges both forwards their relationship a bit and tweaks things such that the usually-mute Judomaster can talk about it. These are obvious narrative devices both, but I liked that Sturges gave Damage some due respect and even revealed the characters' face, and all-in-all I was satisfied.

The Cyclone issues ("Yon Twelve-Winded Sky," with art by JLA's Howard Porter) were interesting, though I wished for just a little bit more. Sturges does well with a heavy science-fiction vibe in the story, both in fascinating presentations of nanobytes and cloning in regards to Cyclone, and his blink-and-you'll-miss-it cut scenes as the All-Stars fight in an alien revolution (I was reminded, if you can believe it, of the New Titans's "Siege of the Zi Charam*"). But I've understood for a while that Cyclone Maxine Hunkel was actually a robot -- maybe I misunderstood something Red Tornado said once -- and I was hoping we'd get into her origins in depth in this story. Instead, "Twelve" puts everything essentially back where it started; it is a good enough story to "end" JSA All-Stars, at least for collections fans, but didn't quite live up to my (perhaps erroneous) expectations.

There and elsewhere, it's true not much happens in Glory Days. The memorial issue is mostly reflective, "Twelve" doesn't change much, and "Glory Days" is not really about the All-Stars -- they have to face their pasts, sure, but the bad guys have no real ties to the All-Stars specifically, unlike in Constellations. Indeed, Sturges never quite explains how the Paradorian dictator actually turns the telepathic children into gods, for instance; the plot here is less important than the characters' interactions. There's nothing wrong with that, per se -- at times it's even welcome -- but if you don't have a soft spot for these particular characters' "glory days," you may very well feel like JSA All-Stars: Glory Days doesn't do enough to distinguish itself.

In the end, between Constellations and Glory Days, I enjoyed the two volumes of JSA All-Stars more than I thought I would, and the series has certainly cemented my appreciation for Matt Sturges -- an obvious Infinity, Inc. fan, to this extent, is not to be overlooked. Had I to choose between JSA All-Stars and other similarly cancelled series for resurrection, like Doom Patrol and REBELS, I think I'd still side with Doom Patrol, but JSA All-Stars has plenty going for it, too.

[Includes original covers. Printed on glossy paper.]

Later this week ... Collected Editions's Best Trades of 2011 List, and the Green Lanterns go to war. Be here!

* I miss Jarras Minion. Does anyone else miss Jarras Minion?

Review: Batman: The Black Mirror hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:02:00 +0000

With issue #881, DC Comics's own stalwart "gray lady," Detective Comics, closes its doors after almost seventy-five years. By all accounts, writer Scott Snyder ends Detective on a high note with Batman: The Black Mirror (in contrast to the end of its sister title in Batman: Eye of the Beholder). Black Mirror is a stout, involved collection worthy of its praise.

Perhaps the great point of debate, then, is where exactly Synder excels in Black Mirror. Is it in convincingly depicting Gotham City as a character with its own presence? In creating a story that succeeds in taking Batman and his allies back to their earliest days despite that this Batman is Dick Grayson and not Bruce Wayne? Or is it in presenting a slow-building horror story populated with the kind of twenty-first century villains that act as a signpost for where the Batman titles need to go in DC's New 52 continuity? All of this is the case, to be sure, and more.

[Contains spoilers from this point forward]

Perhaps the greatest delight for me in reading Black Mirror was to discover -- and I was rather surprised to find this hadn't been spoiled for me some time before -- that Snyder out-and-out suggests that Commissioner Gordon knows Batman's identity (at least Batman Dick Grayson's identity) in this story. Wherever one stands in the "Gordon knowing" debate, it's quite appropriate that Synder should "go there" here in the final pages of Detective Comics.

I'm of two minds whether Bruce Wayne deserved a cameo in these pages or not. Gordon's pointed "thank you" to Dick at the end of this book is a strong moment (on par with Barry Allen's "You're welcome, Bruce" at the end of Flashpoint [yeah, I'm still digging it]), something a long time coming and right for Detective's closing pages, though it would seem better spoken to Bruce. Black Mirror is Dick Grayson and Commissioner Gordon's story, however, and Bruce's presence might have overshadowed that; Black Mirror is in part about Gordon coming to see Dick as a man and not a boy, and Bruce's absence (resurrected, though overseas) reinforces Dick's new role, that he and Gordon are "on their own."

In considering the Dick/Gordon relationship, Snyder creates whole cloth here a portion of the Batman mythos effectively erased by 1986's Crisis on Infinite Earths and only shown in bits and pieces since -- that is, Dick Grayson's tenure as Robin. We have seen (a couple times) new takes on the death of Dick's parents and his debut as Robin, but what about the rest? Didn't Dick Grayson go to high school? Have friends?

Snyder illuminates a kind of "Gotham High" period, where Dick went to school with Barbara Gordon and thought her brother James, Jr., was kind of weird (we can imagine Dick's Smallville-esque freak-of-the-week adventures). On just the sixth page, after Synder puts the words in the characters' mouths, it seemed so obvious as if it had been there all along -- of course Dick and Barbara went to prom together, and of course a disapproving Commissioner Gordon drove them. And so unfolds a complete history of the Waynes and the Gordons, a kind of Gotham City Capulets and Montagues, bringing to light that missing time between Batman: Year One and when Dick Grayson left the Batcave.

Inasmuch as Black Mirror is rooted in Frank Miller's Year One -- fittingly, bringing the modern Batman era full circle -- Synder seems to take pains not to make Year One required reading here. Though Snyder, with artists Jock and Francesco Francavilla, revisits more than once the bridge where readers last saw baby James, Jr., be knocked over the side and caught by Batman Bruce Wayne, Snyder resists the urge to actually reference the scene, leaving the story accessible to new and experienced readers alike.

In keeping with Snyder's theme of Gotham as a corrupting influence, that Black Mirror comes full circle from Year One is not necessarily a positive. Batman's first victory, saving James, is in fact a tragedy given the monster that James has become. Batman could have no sooner let James die, but the reader intuits that the fall off the bridge, or even some way that Batman caught James, might have caused James's psychopathy. Over the course of the story, Synder implicates all of the characters in the way that James turned out, but Bruce was there at the beginning, perhaps the trigger of it all.

I had heard talk of Snyder using Gotham as a "character" in this book and I was skeptical; I don't cotton much to the idea of Gotham as a supernatural "being," and we've seen a "walls have hypnotic suggestions" kind of plot recently in Batman RIP. Synder offers suggestion after suggestion, however, of the potential evil inherit in Gotham -- from the decades-old secret society devoted to evil artifacts, to how Gotham is built such that the corners of the city are hidden from the sky, to the implication that all the baby food in Gotham might be poisoned, and how Snyder references tragedy after tragedy: the deaths of Dick Grayson's parents, Robin Jason Todd, Gordon's wife Sarah Essen, and Barbara Gordon's crippling by the Joker, among others.

Black Mirror is a horror story, to be sure -- possibly the scariest Batman story I've read, and one whose horror wouldn't have worked if it was the experienced Bruce Wayne in the cowl and not Dick Grayson -- and in example after example, Snyder wears down the reader. I believed in James's theory of the destructive "Gotham moment" by the end; very possibly I "get" Gotham City in a way hundreds of Batman stories didn't make so vivid before now.

We've recently heard news of Snyder's forthcoming "Court of Owls" crossover in the DC New 52 Batman titles; I've not yet seen Snyder's new villains like the Talon, but I hope they're commensurate with those Snyder created here. Short of the Joker, none of Batman's established rogues appear here -- rather we have James (without even a villainous codename), the Dealer, Tiger Shark, and Roadrunner. If these villains are costumed, it's only barely; instead they're auctioneers, businessmen, modern pirates, a kind of outlandish and yet sedate foe that suggests to me a more modern Batman.

Superman is always going to fight giant robots, but for the New 52 to keep attracting new readers, I think this is the direction Snyder and others have to take Batman -- not necessarily fighting fanciful villains like the Riddler, but rather those easier to imagine as a threat just around the corner, like James, Jr. Just as Synder is not leaving the DC Universe, Black Mirror is an end but also a beginning of things to come, if DC so chooses. I hope they do.

At the same time, it's equally surprising to me that neither Jock nor Francavilla are drawing titles in the New 52; Francavilla's rounded edges perfectly evoke David Mazzucchelli's Year One pencils without copying outright, while Jock appears quite at home not only in the book's most gruesome moments but also as Batman swings above the city. I did have a little trouble with Jock's civilian Dick Grayson, who in his polo shirts more resembled Bruce Wayne (further, I thought Synder made a rare mischaracterization of Dick in employing him at a science lab; granted Dick was trained by the Dark Knight, but I don't often recall him depicted as a forensics expert), but these are small hiccups in an otherwise stellar volume.

I'm sure you know by now, but Batman: The Black Mirror is indeed, as you've heard just about everywhere, one of those rare collections you hope for, a satisfying, cohesive story from beginning to end. Collecting eleven issues (some oversized), Black Mirror is an example to me of a collection done almost right, something you buy that takes a while to read and that you can really sink your teeth into. Snyder, to an extent, makes it seem effortless; for a long time to come, no doubt, we'll be saying that books are good, but they're no Black Mirror.

[Contains original covers, sketchbook section, promotional art, sample script. Printed on glossy paper.]

Done "almost" right, you say? Yes. Because as perfect as Black Mirror is, I still fervently wish DC had stripped out the issue credits that appear at random intervals, sometimes at the beginning of a story and sometimes at the end (so, sometimes one right after another). We know who wrote and drew the book -- it says so at the very beginning -- and these incessant credits, like never-ending station identifications, are the worst kind of interruption from outside the story. Black Mirror could read as a graphic novel -- it's so close -- if not for the issue credits. DC, if you're listening, think about it, please. For me?

Review: Batman: Eye of the Beholder hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:02:00 +0000

It's hard not to imbue Batman: Eye of the Beholder with some kind of greater meaning (for me, at least) given that it's the final originally-numbered Batman comics collection before the DC Comics New 52 relaunch. Not that writer Tony Daniel is necessarily writing it as such; it's unclear how aware Daniel was of the DC Relaunch when he wrote these issues, and DC omits from this collection the actual "final" Batman issue written by Fabian Nicieza.

Eye of the Beholder is adventuresome, though not necessarily Daniel's strongest work; as a Batman finale, there's a bit one can read into this book, but overall in that aspect the book doesn't really measure up.

[Contains spoiiers]

Depending on your point of view, Tony Daniel either has a great sense of Batman continuity, or his Batman stories are mired in re-treading old material. The "Eye of the Beholder" storyline picks up from the much-maligned Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul crossover, while "Pieces" is even more enmeshed in Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Batman: The Long Halloween and Dark Victory than Daniel's previous Batman: Life and Death was. This works for "Eye," creating something interesting from the preceding story's ashes, but "Pieces" revises Loeb's work in ways better left alone.

The four-part "Eye of the Beholder," Daniel tackles some of the Asian-influenced elements of the Batman mythos, using both the Sensei villain and the 1970s martial arts mystery man I-Ching. The story is of a kind that works especially well for the young Dick Grayson Batman: a mysterious woman approaches Dick both in his civilian Wayne Enterprises identity and as Batman, and Dick must help her retrieve a powerful artifact while balancing his mistrust for the femme fatale.

It's simple enough, though Daniel adds some elements of mystery and -- I noticed in Life After Death as well -- seems especially skilled at leaving hints in both the dialogue and the art that allow the reader to try to solve the puzzle alongside the Dark Knight. I also appreciated that Daniel's art seems to have continued to evolve between the last volume and here, gaining a more pencilled, sketchy look that I thought was unique and enjoyed.

"Pieces" didn't work as well for me. Gilda Dent, Two-Face's estranged wife as of Long Halloween returns, working against Two-Face in a relationship with gangster Mario Falcone; later it seems Dent is only fooling Falcone to protect Two-Face. It's all a bit of a stretch, including the unlikely partnership between Falcone and Dent given that Dent catalyzed the downfall of the Falcone family; the story plays on Halloween but doesn't seem entirely faithful to it.

Daniel's writing and dialogue are good, but when he enters Long Halloween territory, even having the characters quote lines from the earlier book, Daniel seems to stomp around where Loeb danced gracefully. Gilda Dent is no longer the mysterious killer in the shadows, but now a kind of whiny figure still inexplicably wearing gangster fashions. Guest-artist Steve Scott's work lacks the detail of Daniel's earlier work (and some judgement, as when Scott unnecessarily depicts one thug vomiting on another) and certainly the subtlety of Sale's noir original. Combined, this makes "Pieces" a clunky follow-up to the originals, and fans of Long Halloween and Dark Victory who would come here hoping for more about their favored characters would likely be disappointed.

"Eye" itself is cute, but doesn't hold a candle to Daniel's Life After Death. This is in part because, whereas some of Life After Death's draw was the unexpected presence of the Falcones, here Gilda's reveal is fairly obvious. Eye, as a whole, is not as snappy a mystery as Life; Eye's villain, the Sensei, is a kind of outlandish figure versus the spookier Black Mask before. I also liked that Life was a Gotham City story, dealing with Commssioner Gordon and the Wayne Foundation and Arkham Asylum, whereas Eye is more self-contained. In all, my hope is that Daniel returns to Life After Death's form when he takes over the new Detective Comics (and the reviews I've heard so far are positive). The "Eye" story didn't disappoint, but neither did it feel there was as much at stake for the characters.

Though I'm down on Daniel's use of Long Halloween and Dark Victory here, one could (if you tilt your head and squint) see it as bringing Dick Grayson's story full circle at the end of the Batman title. Dark Victory (depending on the day's continuity) was Dick's first outing as Robin; his final adventure in the Batman title ties in to that story. Daniel does not make as much of this as he could -- Two-Face and Dick Grayson specifically share a long history that Daniel completely ignores -- but there's at least a bit of symmetry to be imagined.

Further, I took note of Catgirl Kitrina Falcone's letter to Batman Dick Grayson at the end of this book. Kitrinia's never quite fulfilled a purpose in Daniel's two Batman books; rather I imagine Daniel ran out of time to delve into Kitrina (equally puzzling is the daughter Enigma that the Riddler introduces one issue, then kills the next). But there is a certain irony in Dick Grayson trying to dissuade Kitrina from a life of crimefighting -- it is advice that Dick himself never took. It seems as though, in the beginning of Kitrina's letter, that Dick has succeeded in dissuading Kitrina from following his own path -- Dick has unmade, in a sense, his own creation -- but in the end, Kitrina promises to return better than before.

Dick has not, as a matter of fact, succeeded at all; rather the heroism of Batman in his second iteration has now inspired a third generation, "Batman and Robin will never die" and all that. I don't actually think Tony Daniel meant Catgirl as a metaphor for the survival of these "old DC Universe" characters now heading off to limbo, but as they say, it's nice to think so.

[Includes original covers]

Batman: Eye of the Beholder, at least the first story, is enjoyable work by Tony Daniel, neither the worst Batman's ever been nor the best, though it is a particularly apt Dick Grayson story. Long Halloween purists may want to steer clear, however; I was excited when Daniel ventured into Loeb's territory in the last book, but some things may be very well better left alone.

Coming up next -- it's received rave reviews, and now you're going to get the Collected Editions take on Batman: The Black Mirror. See you then!

Review: Chase trade paperback (DC Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:02:00 +0000

The Chase series has long been at the top of my and many other trade-waiters lists of comics for which we'd like to see collections, making the new collection -- to coincide with writer and artist J. H. Williams's use of the character in the Batwoman series -- both welcome and somewhat miraculous. I never thought I'd see this collection, and especially not complete with Cameron Chase's Batman premiere issue and some of her Secret Files appearances; it's a good day for collected comics fans.

To read the Chase trade paperback, however (and this is why we can't have nice things), is to be reminded that Chase was indeed a series cancelled suddenly, more so than Stars and STRIPE or Manhunter or Aztek or any of a number of other similar cult hits. The book asks considerably more questions than it answers and begins down a number of paths it never concludes. The Chase collection is almost (but not entirely) as complete as one might hope, but from the reader's perspective still feels incomplete.

[Contains spoilers]

There's much that's appealing about Chase and that speaks to its perennial popularity despite lasting only ten issues. First, there is the character and concept itself. Chase is one of a rare breed of superhero comics that manages to effectively work in the superhero genre without actually starring a superhero (Gotham Central, one of Chase's spiritual successors, is another). Department of Extranormal Operations agent Cameron Chase investigates metahumans (sometimes helping, sometimes hunting) and the concept of the character melds just as well into the "freak of the week" story that starts Chase's first issue as it does into an espionage tale guest-starring the Suicide Squad and a police procedural helping the Gotham police fight super-powered drug dealers.

There's a grittiness to Williams's pencils throughout the book that takes the shine off even the most gaudy of superheroes (like Booster Gold and the Dan Jurgens-era Teen Titans) and makes them all seem more realistic. If Gotham Central was Law and Order set in the DC Universe, this is a fine conflation of the DCU and CSI or one of its ilk.

Indeed, there's much in Chase that will seem to echo (but in fact pre-dates) the best elements of DC Comics's cult hits. Chase shares Gotham Central's realism (and some of its supporting characters); Williams's work, acclaimed on its own, will remind readers of Tony Harris's Starman pages especially when Williams encloses Gotham in art-deco frames. The series boasts a motley supporting cast of Chase's friends and family, all non-powered, similar to those in Marc Andreyko's Manhunter (and it seems obvious, now, that Andreyko would bring Chase and friends into his title).

Co-writer Dan Curtis Johnson and Williams are obviously writing their own rules in these pages. Often Williams draws static images alongside large swaths of text, most notably when Chase reveals to her sister Terry the circumstances of their superhero father's death at the hands of a supervillain. The story halts twice for related Starman-esque "Times Past" tales of Chase's life before the DEO (Williams is to be credited for drawing the frame stories of these, even when a guest-artist handles the rest); these seemed to be heading toward a larger story that would pay off for long-time readers.

Unfortunately, Chase's ten issues don't give the writers time to delve too deeply into the characters. There's an undercurrent of trouble between Chase and fiance Peter that never bubbles to the surface, and Chase's own power-dampening superpowers, hinted at in almost every issue, are never directly examined. Instead, the book is at its strongest mainly as Chase negotiates her love-hate relationship with superheroes (loving her father, hating that his superheroic life brought about his death). Particularly effective is Chase and Terry's aforementioned issue-long talk in Chase #6 (and their iconic rescue, not by superheroes, but by "civilian" firefighters), and Batman's admonition, not long after, that Chase cease hunting heroes solely in revenge for her father (even as Batman recognizes the irony of the statement himself).

These are all engaging stories, sharp and well-written. It's unfortunate, however, that the "main" Chase series itself ends in a nonsensical "Times Past" story where Chase and friends free Green Lantern's cousin Airwave from imprisonment inside an ATM. Had another regular Chase issue followed, the use of Airwave might've been a cute piece of nostalgia, but instead it disappoints. The DC One Million crossover issue that follows, set in the future, picks up a bit of the slack, suggesting in the end that Chase's powers and growing sympathy for the superheroes lead her to become the DEO's next director. But neither issue is quite as strong as Chase #8, in which she almost unmasks Batman, and that might have been the better for the series to end on.

While I again credit DC for including the subsequent short Chase stories that Johnson and Williams wrote for variety of DC's Secret Files titles over the years, they also make a poor end to the Chase collection from a reader's perspective. The book includes the DCU Villains Secret Files story written by Johnson and Williams, in which Chase barely appears, but omits the DCU Heroes Secret Files story, more focused on Chase, but apparently written only by Johnson. (I would note, as a sign of the times, that the Villains story notably includes a meeting between three fan-favorites: Chase, Resurrection Man, and Hitman.)

The shorts, as part of character-specific Secret Files, often dwell on minutia unrelated to Chase; there's also a significant part that refers to Chase's guest-appearance in the (criminally uncollected) John Ostrander Martian Manhunter series, which won't make much sense to casual readers. The final pages vaguely suggest corruption in the DEO, but this never fully manifests in the story. The book ends and it feels like something's missing.

At the same time, the shorts find unlikely footing for a moment in two dramatic stories both before and after a DEO mission to investigate Gorilla Grodd goes horribly wrong. Joker's Last Laugh might not have been much of a crossover, but the Secret Files story in which a DEO agent deals with post-traumatic stress is stellar, another highlight of the collection.

Over the years, the legend of Chase grew in my mind, such that in reading this book I was surprised to find not much more than the beginnings of a series here. I think the Chase collection has been so in demand in part because the DEO, not Chase, is Johnson and Williams's lasting contribution here; this FBI-like agency that was not villainous like the Suicide Squad or geo-political like Checkmate became ubiquitous in the DC Universe, such that it's hard to believe it stemmed from a cancelled series. The reoccurring Secret Files feature most certainly helped, such that it wasn't long before the DEO had interacted with every corner of the DC Universe.

It's also important that Chase has finally received a collection because in Chase, readers encounter a female protagonist who neither fights crime in a bathing suit nor a costume with a revealing window. Williams's images never sexualize Chase where the plot doesn't warrant it. Given DC's difficulties on this end of late, the release of a Chase collection in line with more tempered depictions in Manhunter, the Renee Montoya Question stories, and others, is a positive step on DC's part.

I would mention, to close, that while the story inside Chase may be worth its collection, the production value of the collection isn't quite worth the story. At 352 pages, Chase is a hefty collection, and so many pages packed between these paperback covers made my book curl almost immediately. Some Collected Editions readers won't be happy to know the book is printed on thinner "newsprint"-type paper, either. I know full well that the market probably would not have supported a glossy hardcover Chase edition, but I worry this book won't hold up against multiple readings.

[Includes original covers for full issues. Printed on newsprint paper.]

It's a Batman week next week, including the Collected Editions review of Batman: The Black Mirror. You haven't read the review until you've read the Collected Editions review -- don't miss it!

Review: Black Lightning: Year One trade paperback (DC Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:02:00 +0000

[This guest review comes from Wayne Brooks; Wayne's local comics shop is AfterTime Comics in Alexandria, Virginia.]

In this wonderful medium we cherish often there are comics that do not get the press they truly deserve and fly under the radar. Black Lightning: Year One is one of those gems. This book is great.

Black Lightning is one of DC Comics's best super-heroes. Created by comics great Tony Isabella and Trevor Von Eeden in 1977, Black Lightning was DC’s first African American super-hero to star in his own book. But maintaining a comic has not been easy. He was cancelled, twice, but the hero has a pretty good following and has moderate (solo outings in Detective and World's Finest) to great success (Batman and the Outsiders, Justice League) over the years.

Sure, with the name “Black Lightning,” sometimes the first thing that comes to mind is the “blaxploitation” of comics in the 1970s. Back then the criteria for being a “black hero” was either being mad at everybody, or having “Black” in your super-hero name (having a giant afro was also a necessity). Thankfully Black Lightning evolved beyond that.

Realistically, Black Lightning is more Alexander Scott (actor Bill Cosby’s character in the legendary TV show I Spy) than he ever was Luke Cage. Over the years superb writing from Tony Isabella (especially in Black Lightning's second series), Mike W. Barr in the pages of Batman and the Outsiders, and the much missed Dwayne McDuffie in Justice League, kept Black Lightning a fan favorite.

So now we come to Black Lightning: Year One, a six-issue miniseries published in 2009 and released in trade the same year. As the title implies, it tells the story of the first year of super-hero Black Lightning, aka teacher/principal Jefferson Pierce. We first see the Pierce family: Jeff, wife Lynn, and daughter Annisa, who return to Jeff's hometown of Southside, a section in the city of Metropolis (home to you-know-who). Jeff is the new principal at Garfield High School in Southside.

Unfortunately, Southside is now known as Suicide Slum, and is practically that. Thanks to a powerful criminal organization called The 100, hope is all but gone in Southside. All Jeff wanted was to teach school, but the brutal murder of one of his students by the 100 changed that. Now Jeff takes the fight to the 100, going by the name Black Lightning (using his latent bio-electrical powers and Olympic level fighting prowess). Along the way he gives the neighborhood the symbol of hope it desperately needed. This is Jeff’s story, and brother, it’s a good one.

Black Lightning: Year One was written by Jen Van Meter (JSA Classified, JSA All-Stars) and drawn by Cully Hamner (Green Lantern: Mosiac, Blue Beetle) Van Meter not only did her homework and respected Mr. Isabella’s treasured creation but she put her own contemporary spin on Lightning’s history. She has each chapter narrated by the cast. This was a nice touch as we see through the eyes of others the effect Black Lightning's actions have on the neighborhood and themselves.

The book’s excellent writing is only matched by the art. I became a fan of Cully Hamner’s art since his days on Green Lantern: Mosiac (now there’s a series that belongs in trade [seconded! -- ed]) and he has only improved. And the art is superbly colored by Laura Martin. It has a slick, polished feel that never sacrifices the urban edge. Hamner even updates Black Lightning’s classic 1970s disco look with twenty-first century sensibilities. The update of Black Lightning's mask from the “afro cowl” he first wore to hide his identity, to a more practical rubber mask/hairpiece was a great idea. And Black Lightning's jacket is seriously cool.

One of the series’ strengths is the supporting cast, and it’s here Van Meter gives us some terrific characterization. From matriarch Mrs. Pierce, sister Constance, brother-in-law Frank, cute-as-a-button daughter Annisa, devoted wife Lynn, and family friend (and tech expert) Peter Gambi, Jeff’s family is loving, caring, and supportive. Instead of the clichéd “my loved ones must never know,” Jeff’s family knows about his super-heroics practically from the beginning. And we find out why Jeff chose the name “Black Lightning.” I loved seeing the family discuss Jeff’s extracurricular activities at the dinner table.

Since Suicide Slum is in Metropolis it was only a matter of time before a certain Man of Steel showed up. We first see reporter Clark Kent as he spends a day with Jeff at school (Clark using his powers to size up Jeff was a nice touch). Through the course of the series we see a true friendship form, not between Black Lightning and Superman, but Jeff Pierce and Clark Kent. In fact, Clark is more an ally to Black Lightning (and the Pierce family) than Superman. We even get a sweet take on “It’s a bird, it’s a plane” between Clark and Annisa.

I’m glad they addressed why Superman never shows up to help in Suicide Slum. From appearances it looks like Superman doesn’t want to deal with helping fight crime in a majority black neighborhood (something I would never believe). But we learn that his powers were impaired due to magic in the area. Along with Kent we see Lois Lane (channeling TV’s best Lois, Phyllis Coates) and Police Lieutenant Bill Henderson. Henderson was a stable in the 1940s Superman radio series and the 1950s The Adventures of Superman TV show. Isabella used Henderson in Lightning’s first series and I’m glad Van Meter decided to bring him back.

Black Lightning: Year One shows that one man can make a difference. From the classroom to the streets, we see the journey of a true hero. It tells the story of a man who re-energizes his students and neighborhood’s sense of pride within themselves.

“Justice… Like lightning… Should ever appear…

To some men hope. To other men…Fear!”

Isabella and Von Eeden created a hero. Van Meter and Hamner reminds us why.

What we have is a very enjoyable book. Well done.

Review: JSA All-Stars: Constellations trade paperback (DC Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:02:00 +0000

I have not read what is probably writer Matt Sturges seminal work, Jack of Fables, or his equally popular House of Mystery. I've encountered Sturges's writing just a few times, most notably on the heels of Bill Willingham on Shadowpact, but those few times I've enjoyed myself (Final Crisis Aftermath: Run! being a single exception). So it was, following up on some continuity notes, watching the last hurrah of some favorite characters, and also in a conscious attempt to read more of Sturges's work, I came to JSA All-Stars: Constellations.

The second opportunity afforded to me by Constellations was to study Freddie Williams's artwork further. I liked Williams's art on Robin, but was less satisfied with the more cartoony aspects in the aforementioned Final Crisis Aftermath: Run! (Sturges and Williams re-teaming on JSA All-Stars was one reason I was slow to pick up this book, until interest in a variety of characters brought me in). Since Run!, I have struggled to enjoy Williams's art again -- "Why should I like it?" I ask, and DC Comics replies, "He draws it all digital!" "Yes," I repeat, "but why should I like it?" "It's digital!" OK, I think; maybe there's something to that.

With an open mind but some trepidation, I ventured in to JSA All-Stars.

[Contains spoilers]

I had not been in favor of the Justice Society team splitting nor DC publishing two JSA books. I didn't think the market would support it (and indeed JSA All-Stars was later cancelled, the final issues uncollected). The split essentially separated into two titles the "stodgier" (forgive me) and "hipper" parts of the Society, a combination I thought necessary to make the initial book work; the "hipper" characters, whom I'd prefer to read about, were under a creative team I disfavored; the "stodgier" characters, whom I found more interesting, were under the creative team I was more likely to try. I maintain that the Justice Society franchise is poorer for this split; I have liked a number of the Justice Society books since then, including Axis of Evil and Supertown, but not so much as I liked the original books by Geoff Johns.

But a few pages in to the second chapter of Constellations, it clicked for me where the JSA All-Stars title fit in the overall DC Universe, and this largely informed my enjoyment of the book. There is, indeed, some precedent for all of this. Though the two teams did not exist in the same time period, there was a time when All-Star Squadron presented the adventures of the classic Justice Society, while another title offered the "hipper" exploits of the Society's descendents. When Stargirl Courtney Whitmore talks about missing the JSAers on the other team, and Hourman Rick Tyler commiserates that he, too, misses his old teammates, I realized: "All-Stars," nothing; this is a new incarnation of Tyler's old team, Infinity, Inc.

In that mindset, that All-Stars is not some lesser, substitute version of my favored Justice Society, but rather a young team of legacy heroes a la Infinity Inc., I found I could let go of my expectations and enjoy the story. And Sturges makes this easy. Constellations quickly fills up with my favorite aspects of Justice Society -- Power Girl as team leader, former JSA chairman Sand and Infinity, Inc.-er Atom Smasher nee Nuklon gain membership, and the Injustice Society shows up (even as I decried their ubiquity the other day in my Supertown review, Sturges uses the Injustice Society's appearance to pick up on elements from one of my favorite JSA stories, Stealing Thunder).

I can even forgive some of the annoying bickering between characters Tomcat, Damage, and others as "youthful enthusiasm," given that this is not Justice Society but rather Justice Society by way of Teen Titans (or rather, by way of some of the better "twentysomething" teams of the past couple decades, like Devin Grayson's Titans or Judd Winick's Outsiders). As a story in which the JSA All-Stars fight the Injustice Society, Johnny Sorrow, and the King of Tears, Justice Society fans might be justified in stating they've seen it all before. But I felt Sturges successfully channeled the tone of the best of Geoff Johns's work on the original JSA in a number of the cutaway scenes with Sand and Atom Smasher, and in Sorrow's secret scheme revealed in the final pages.

I also adored the conflicts of leadership between Power Girl and Magog and their differing philosophies of battle (and capital punishment). It's a shame that Magog has to exit the title early on; I did note the similarity between Magog chiding Power Girl for saving the life of one villain, even if that villain would kill hundreds later, and new character Anna Fortune warning Power Girl that if Fortune used a spell to save the single life of King Chimera then, she couldn't use the spell to save hundreds later. Sturges seems to set up Power Girl to have to justify her "needs of one outweigh needs of many" philosophy later on down the road, and I'm hopeful he can get to it before cancellation and cancelled collections end the book.

In the end, if I thought JSA All-Stars: Constellations would be silly, campy, irreverent, or gratuitously violent (all attributes I'd ascribe to Final Crisis Aftermath: Run!), it was none of these things. I finished the book quite pleased with Matt Sturges's writing and interested to read the next book in the series.

I can't claim, however, to feel much more comfortable about Freddie Williams's art than I did before. I did not dislike it as much as I did in Run!; as I noted in my review of Run!, Williams likely tries to achieve some ugliness and distortion in that book befitting the tone of the story, that he did not in Constellations. His depiction of Power Girl, talking to Sand in the sixth issue, is downright pretty, and his supernatural Anna Fortune resembles the best costume design of Humberto Ramos. I can even forgive some distorted figures as "stylistic" (see Stargirl with pointy noggin on page three); I'm a long-time Duncan Rouleau fan, and you hardly find figures more distorted than his..

But much as I studied Williams's sketchbook at the end of the book, I couldn't quite see what advantage his digital art brought to the page; it's quite interesting, for instance, that Williams creates digital "sets" for the book's various locations, but I didn't see many unusual perspectives or panels come out of it. Perhaps when considering "digital art," I'm imagining something more like Brainiac-13 from the "Superman Y2K" storyline (Superman: Endgame); if I didn't know Williams's art was completed on computer, I'd never think so. To that end, while I can deal with a little distortion, I was disappointed by Williams re-using the same panel three times in the third chapter, or Power Girl's costume losing a certain famous element for a part of the same chapter. Williams's work in Constellations improves my previous opinion of his art, but does not necessarily make me a fan.

All in all, however, JSA All-Stars: Constellations came as a pleasant surprise, and writer Matt Sturges has much to be proud of; more's the pity that, so far, he seems to have found no place in the DC New 52. The next book, Glory Days, is the one that really has my interest, as it deals with the death of a team member and one of my favorite characters. We'll have that review here some time coming up.

[Includes original and variant covers; sketchbook section by Freddie Williams]

Barring any breaking news, this is the last Collected Editions review for 2011. Come Monday, we'll have a special guest review by Wayne Brooks, whose take on Aquaman: Death of the Prince you enjoyed; and then at the end of the week, the Collected Editions review of the long-awaited Chase collection, including all of Dan Curtis Johnson and J.H. Williams's issues, back-up stories, and more. Happy new year, and see you soon!

Review: Hulk Vol. 2: Red and Green hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 14:02:00 +0000

[Guest reviewer Zach King blogs about movies as The Cinema King]

Continuing my romp through Jeph Loeb's Hulk collections, I found the second volume, Red and Green, to be somewhat less entertaining than Red Hulk but still with enough to enjoy in this fairly brief (three issues) installment of the ongoing saga of the Red Hulk.

In Red and Green, Hulk fans get two doses of gamma-ray action in two separate stories which originally ran as co-features but are presented here as united halves of this volume. The first, "What Happens in Vegas," is essentially the "Green" half of the book, in which Bruce Banner roadtrips to Las Vegas in search of the cannibal werewolf Wendigo creatures. Vegas unleashes Gray Hulk "Joe Fixit" as Batman Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, and others join in.

Then comes "Hell Hath No Fury," in which She-Hulk and her Lady Liberators take on the Red Hulk. This "Red" half has much more in common with Red Hulk, with Red Hulk taking hits on all sides from the likes of the Invisible Woman, Storm, Valkyrie, and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s deputy director Maria Hill.

The division of this volume very neatly in half is a bit jarring compared to the previous volume's single unified storyline, but it reads a lot better than I assume it did in single issues. Rather than bounce back and forth between Green and Red, the book ties up Green before picking up with Red. Unfortunately, Green's storyline -- even with the inclusion of Mr. Fixit -- is nowhere near as compelling as Red Hulk's. It's strange that this new character is stealing the spotlight so blatantly from the titular hero, a little like giving Doomsday the spotlight instead of Superman.

Maybe it's a matter of personal taste; I've never found the angsty Bruce Banner too appealing, running away from his powers in every incarnation I've seen, and on top of all that the Green story here isn't terribly compelling. Hulk chases Wendigo to Vegas, Hulk fights Wendigo, Hulk becomes Wendihulk, and other heroes join in for no apparent reason. And unfortunately the more sinewy pencils of Arthur Adams aren't as much to my liking as Ed McGuinness's work in the previous volume.

On the whole "What Happens in Vegas" feels a bit like filler; it's probably a fine Hulk story, but being thrown into the middle of a larger story accentuates the story's own irrelevance. Conversely, "Hell Hath No Fury" is exactly the kind of story arc the larger narrative needs, continuing from the events of Red Hulk and moving forward without losing sight of the main storyline. And it's more entertaining, feeling a lot like the Marvel team-up Gail Simone never got to write with enough action handled deftly by Frank Cho (whose "tough girls" work looks like a blend between Adam Hughes and McGuinness).

This volume, unlike its predecessor, features the use of Jeph Loeb's trademark "narration boxes" which step inside the head of a character and provide internal monologues for important characters. Here we're treated to the reflections of Bruce Banner and She-Hulk Jen Walters, but the narration is inconsistently deployed, often receding altogether to give the main focus to the action on the page. This is a wise choice but a distracting one; for such a stylistic mainstay, Loeb's irregular use of the narration is more puzzling than anything else. Ultimately the narration doesn't do anything for the story and so it isn't missed in its absences, but because Loeb is so well-known for it (Superman for All Seasons and the precedent set by his Superman/Batman), it simultaneously seems like more is both expected and needed.

But Red and Green's biggest shortcoming is quite literally its brevity. The trade collects three issues, a throwaway back-up biography of the late Abomination, a few variant covers, and more delightful "Mini Marvels" by Audrey Loeb (here the Lil' Hulks tussle with Spider-Man, Iceman, and airport baggage checks). At a list price of $15.99, this is a steal -- on Marvel's part. At six dollars an issue, Red and Green simply isn't worth it. While the lightness of Red Hulk was mitigated by six issues full of action, Red and Green just isn't enough. It's good, but I can't help but wonder about the collection practices at play here.

Zach torn.

In my next Hulk review, coming up in a few weeks, the return of Ed McGuinness as Hulk and Red Hulk duke it out in a cosmic game before a game-changer takes one Hulk out of the equation -- for good.

Sunday Talkback for 12-25-11

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 15:02:00 +0000

If you're spending a little time in front of the computer this holiday, or if holidaying isn't your thing, we've got a Collected Editions open thread for your chatting enjoyment.

Suggested topic? Tell us about all the loot you got today, or this past week, or heck, any time you got a gift -- or talk about anything at all. It's a Sunday Talkback post -- go at it!

Review: Hulk, Vol. 1: Red Hulk hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:02:00 +0000

[Guest reviewer Zach King blogs about movies as The Cinema King]

In the midst of a universe-wide reboot over at the Distinguished Competition, I wanted to check in with Marvel and see if I ought to jump on board any of their titles, too (as if I'm not not already spending too much on comics every week). I won't deny that the advent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has led me to dive into Marvel comics, and the appearance of a few creators I recognize from my life with DC made Red Hulk seem as good a place as any to begin.

There are only two things you need to know about the first volume of Jeph Loeb's collaboration with Ed McGuinness on Hulk: there's a new Red Hulk in town, and he's about to fight with as many Marvel characters as he can in the six issues collected in Red Hulk. After Abomination is murdered, apparently by a gun-toting Incredible Hulk, General Thunderbolt Ross and Leonard "Doc" Samson discover that Bruce Banner hasn't escaped captivity since his rampage in World War Hulk.

Enter the Red Hulk, Abomination's true murderer and the Marvel Universe's "Most Wanted" for a six-issue slugfest with Iron Man, Thor, The Thing, and even Uatu the Watcher -- before Bruce Banner "hulks out" and takes on his new nemesis.

I came to this title with Jeph Loeb as a favorite writer but the Hulk as one of my least favorite Marvel characters (blame two lackluster feature films in the last decade). In fairness, I've never read a Hulk comic book beyond the six Loeb volumes and Loeb's collaboration with Tim Sale on Hulk: Grey, not even the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby issues. The good news about Red Hulk is that I didn't need to. Loeb starts a new storyline with a new status quo (and a new #1 -- there's a bit of that going around on my comics reading list) and doesn't get bogged down in story-stopping continuity.

There's no question Red Hulk takes place in a larger universe, with an unfamiliar Avengers team and allusions to past storylines like Civil War, but Loeb smartly boils this Hulk story down to what every Hulk story has at its core -- large creatures brawling for pages at a time with stilted grammar.

To this end, Loeb is helped greatly by Ed McGuinness, whose exaggerated muscleman style is a natural fit for a Hulk story -- especially one with two Hulks. While his DC work (Superman/Batman, JLA Classified) was fun and cartoony, McGuinness is perfectly suited for drawing the Hulk, and now his unique style feels complementary rather than just entertaining. Not to slight colorist Jason Keith, but McGuinness does a solid job differentiating between Hulk and Red Hulk.

McGuinness's work with the other Marvel characters here isn't bad, either; his Iron Man and Thing have personality even behind their well-established looks, his Uatu channels Kirby without plagiarizing, and his Thor is as regal as he is intimidating. McGuinness is given plenty of double-page spreads to let his titanic juggernauts duke it out, and not a one of them disappoints.

Unfortunately, Red Hulk is filled with double-page spreads and wordless clobbering to the point that, despite being six issues long, the main story feels a little light. By the end, Red Hulk has smacked around everyone in sight, but even Hulk leaves the unconscious Red Hulk unattended -- a serious problem considering the whole story was about catching a murderer. The whole excursion feels like a popcorn movie, which isn't actually a bad thing. Red Hulk is a fun and entertaining read, but it's not (pardon the pun) terribly hard-hitting. This is quite clearly an opening salvo in a much larger story, and at this point the story is firing on all cylinders for excitement but remains a little light on content.

Taking a backseat to the action of Red Hulk is the ongoing mystery of the Red Hulk's true identity. At no point can the reader forget that Jeph Loeb is also the author of DC mystery mainstays The Long Halloween and Dark Victory, with red herrings and significant clues sprinkled throughout Red Hulk. Unfortunately, I had the identity of the Red Hulk spoiled for me long before I even bought this book (a spoiler I won't disclose until the sixth and final volume's review), but that made the reading experience a little more fun.

Knowing the who and not the how, I got a little more bang out of the red herrings Loeb throws in, trying to puzzle through them rather than simply scratching names off a list of potential suspects. To any reader, the identity of the Red Hulk should be fairly obvious, but when Loeb puts Red Hulk and the prime suspect in a room together, you have to wonder on what level you're being tricked. This act of "puzzling through" made Red Hulk more than just a mindless slugfest for me -- not that a mindless slugfest drawn by Ed McGuinness wouldn't be fun in and of itself.

The collection is padded out with two features of note. First, a Wolverine/Hulk story by Loeb and McGuinness that retells the infamous first meeting between the jolly green giant and Canada's own mutant. This story has no connection to Red Hulk at large and adds little to the relationship between these two characters; it's just one more opportunity to McGuinness to draw big men beating each other up, but it's done well with a curious allusion to the Ultimate Marvel Universe thrown in for good measure. The other feature is more entertaining, a few Tiny Titans-style "Mini Marvels" shorts written by Loeb's daughter Audrey, with three young Hulks (Red, Blue, and Green) in absurd but delightful comic scenarios involving zoos, finger paints, and swimming pools.

All told, Red Hulk was a good "first" experience for me, an easing into the Marvel waters with familiar creators and a new original storyline which has me hooked for the next volume.

To paraphrase our gamma-irradiated friend, "Zach satisfied!" Up next, Hulk goes to Vegas in search of the Wendigo while Red Hulk has his crimson keister handed to him by Marvel's loveliest ladies.

Review: Justice Society of America: Supertown trade paperback (DC Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:02:00 +0000

In its last two volumes before the DC New 52 relaunch, Justice Society of America gets a new writer, Marc Guggenheim, and a new direction -- the signs of a series popular enough that fans have clamored for its inclusion in DC's new line, but not so steady as to have warranted a number of recent creative changes. Justice Society: Supertown is still a little rough around the edges, not exactly at the level where one might hope this book would be, but the finale is quite interesting and definitely left me eager for the next volume.

[Contains spoilers]

Just as Bill Willingham's Justice Society: Axis of Evil was largely a Mr. Terrific story guest-starring the Justice Society, Guggenheim's is really a Golden Age Flash story (Guggenheim also wrote, to much acclaim, the best issues of the otherwise abysmal Flash: The Fastest Man Alive), the story finds Flash Jay Garrick announcing his retirement (fitting, on the eve of the New DC Universe); by the end, however, he gains new purpose as the savior and incoming mayor of new DC locale Monument Point. Jay's journey from irrelevancy to ultimately setting an example of "responsible heroism," plus the upcoming political drama that the ending portends, are all quite engaging and speak good things for the book.

I also appreciated that the master villain in Supertown is one of the senators who forced the Justice Society to retire rather than reveal their identities in the 1950s. Though that story is often referenced, I've never seen it addressed as a plot point even though it's conceivable the government players might still be alive. Supertown also turns on a World War II fight between the Flash and the Golden Age Green Lantern over whether to murder a super-powered Nazi baby, a conflict that has consequences in the present day. Both of these elements make Supertown a story about the Justice Society, rather than just an adventure the Society goes on, and the story is better for it.

Unfortunately, Guggenheim lost me early on with a key element, and it shadows the book just a bit. The Society arrives in Monument Point because of "terrorist" threats made by the villain Scythe (though we never hear these threats nor does Scythe even speak all that much). Teen hero Lightning asks "Terrorists? Like, real terrorists? Like Al Qaeda-type terrorists?" Wildcat retorts, "Are there any other kind?" and Mr. Terrific says, "Actually, yes. But that's not what's important right now."

Fair enough -- the kid is ignorant, Wildcat is characteristically uncouth, and Mr. Terrific corrects them. But then a page later, Green Lantern makes reference to Scythe's "politics" (quotes Guggenheim's) and adds "and I'm being extremely generous there, I know" -- and mind you, Scythe hasn't said a word yet. After Scythe disables Green Lantern, leaving Wildcat and Lightning to the fight, Wildcat says, "We'll take care of Bin Laden."

Now, it's comics. And I grant that Wildcat is supposed to say insensitive things as part of his "came up before political correctness" ethos. But without the villain of the scene saying a word, Guggenheim implies through jokes and innuendo (and the fact that Scythe, off-screen, apparently makes a statement on Al Jazeera television, though how he does so from Monument Point is tough to say) that Scythe is a Muslim extremest -- in fact, other parts of the story would suggest he's a Nazi, if anything -- when neither has much to do with his goals or character and Scythe might otherwise just be an angry behemoth. It's sloppy writing of the worst kind, in my opinion, because it uses stereotypes instead of characterization, and makes the Justice Society seem old and out of touch at the book's outset.

Guggenheim sets a nice ticking clock in the middle of the story when the Justice Society races (and fails) to prevent Monument Point's mayor's murder, but the villain here, too, is rather ill-defined. Guggenheim makes Dr. Chaos plenty scary, but also somewhat ludicrous. This old man fights the heaviest hitters of the Justice Society -- Hourman and Citizen Steel, for instance -- to a standstill, and Guggenheim never offers a reason why. I appreciate that Guggenheim creates new foes for the Society (I don't need to see the Society fight Icicle or Johnny Sorrow again), but I appreciate the villains making sense (even comic book sense); else it just seems Guggenheim arbitrarily twists the story for the needs of the moment.

Artists Scott Kolins and Mike Norton are each perfectly suited for the Justice Society title, their art more on the sedate side of the spectrum than an Ed Benes or Jim Lee. (Though Kolins offers a butt-shot of Manhunter that I thought there must have been another way to present). Like in the recent Superman/Batman: Worship, both Kolins and Norton's pencils are colored un-inked, giving the book a painted quality that again seems just right for the Golden Age Justice Society. I was glad, however, that Supertown is the penultimate Justice Society book when I saw Kolins's new Green Lantern costume -- it is meant as a shell for the paraplegic Lantern, but he comes off looking more like a Lantern baseball mascot than a superhero.

All of this contributes to Supertown's less than stellar rating; it is good, but I would not call it great. Guggenheim's implied criticism in the book that superheroes never clean up their messes (as the Society prepares, initially, to abandon a decimated Monument Point) is an old chestnut addressed before (and if anyone wouldn't be guilty of it, I'd think it would be the Golden Age heroes), but I like the action it spurs the Flash to, if not the impetus itself.

My hope for the next volume, Monument Point, is an Ex Machina-type political story; to see the Justice Society set themselves up as a real society, with a town of their own, sounds like a fitting closing arc to me.

[Contains original covers. Printed on glossy paper]

Later this week, guest poster Zach King Hulks out with a new review. Don't miss it!

List of the Final Pre-Flashpoint DC Universe Trade Collections

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:02:00 +0000

Shortly after DC Comics announced their New 52 relaunch initiative, we published "Trade Waiting at the End of the Universe", a speculative list of what the last trade paperback collections would be of the DC Universe series before they restarted with new #1 issues.

Six months later, not only do we know how the New 52 will be collected, we also know how DC plans to collect (or not collect) all the final issues of their previous series, with more "complete" series than I expected. Bookmark this list and please share it with the following URL -- http://bit.ly/v2o6KT -- and I'll update this if DC's collection plans change. Here's the list:

Action Comics (Superman: Reign of Doomsday)
Complete
Reign of Doomsday collects all the final Action Comics issues. The Return of Doomsday trade collects all the issues leading up to Reign of Doomsday, including Steel #1.

Adventure Comics (Legion of Super-Heroes: When Evil Calls)
Complete
When Evil Calls collects the final issues of Adventure Comics and Legion of Super-Heroes before the relaunch.

Batgirl (Batgirl: The Lesson)
Complete
Batgirl: The Lesson collects all the final issues of that series, #15-24. All Batgirl issues are collected.

Batman (Batman: Eye of the Beholder)
Incomplete
Batman: Eye of the Beholder collects through issue #712 of Batman (skipping issues that will be collected in the Batman: Gotham Shall Be Judged crossover trade), and ends without collecting Batman #713, a closing tribute issue (not well-regarded) by Fabian Nicieza.

Batman and Robin (Batman and Robin: Dark Knight, White Knight)
Incomplete
Batman and Robin: Dark Knight, White Knight collects the stories by Peter Tomasi and Judd Winick that follow Grant Morrison's run, but not the book's final fill-in issue by David Hine, #26.

Batman Beyond (Batman Beyond: Industrial Revolution)
Complete
Batman Beyond: Industrial Revolution collects all eight issues of the Batman Beyond series, though not the Superman Beyond special (maybe there's hope it'll be collected with the new Batman Beyond/Justice League Beyond series. We give this one a tentative "complete."

Batman Inc. (Batman Inc. Vol. 1 Deluxe)
Complete
DC will collect all eight issues of the initial Batman Inc. series plus the Leviathan Strikes special (containing the originally-solicited issues #9 and #10) in 2012.

Batman: The Dark Knight (Batman: The Dark Knight: Golden Dawn Deluxe
Complete
DC is collecting the entire original Batman: The Dark Knight series along with other samples of David Finch's artwork.

Batman: Streets of Gotham (Batman: Streets of Gotham: House of Hush
Complete
Collects the final issues of Streets of Gotham short of one fill-in issue, #15. We'll call this one "complete."

Birds of Prey (Birds of Prey: The Death of Oracle)
Complete
Birds of Prey: The Death of Oracle collects all the final issues of Birds of Prey, both Gail Simone's last issues and the fill-in issues by Marc Andreyko.

Booster Gold (Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring Superman)
Incomplete
Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Featuring Superman collects Booster Gold #44-47, a Flashpoint tie-in by Dan Jurgens. These are the last issues of the series, though not collected between the Booster Gold: Past Imperfect collection and the finale are Booster Gold #39-43. That's enough to make this "incomplete."

Detective Comics (Batman: The Black Mirror)
Complete
The sleeper hit collection Batman: The Black Mirror collects all the final Detective Comics issues, picking up with the issues just after Batman: Imposters through to the end.

Doom Patrol (Doom Patrol: Fire Away)
Incomplete
DC cancelled Doom Patrol: Fire Away, leaving the end of Keith Giffen's Doom Patrol series uncollected.

Flash (Flash: The Road to Flashpoint)
Complete
As mentioned before, Flash: Road to Flashpoint collects Flash #8-12, ending just before the reboot.

Freedom Fighters
Incomplete
As mentioned before, this title was never collected. Writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti now write the miniseries The Ray, a character of the same name but unrelated to the Freedom Fighters character; remains to be seen if that will be collected.

Gotham City Sirens (Gotham City Sirens: Division)
Complete
Gotham City Sirens: Division is currently scheduled to collect all the final issues of this title, through #26.

Green Arrow (Green Arrow: Salvation)
Complete
This collection, which ties directly into the end of Brightest Day, collects the final issues of Green Arrow, completing writer J. T. Krul's run. (Side note: no collections so far that include Brightest Day: Aftermath, I notice.)

Green Lantern (Green Lantern: War of the Green Lanterns)
Complete
War of the Green Lanterns collects the final issues of the Green Lantern series.

Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors (War of the Green Lanterns Aftermath)
Complete
The War Aftermath collection includes both the final issues of Green Lantern Corps and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors.

JSA All-Stars (JSA All-Stars: The Puzzle Men)
Incomplete
DC cancelled JSA All-Stars: Puzzle Men, leaving the end of this series uncollected.

Jonah Hex (Jonah Hex: Bury Me in Hell)
Complete
Thanks to commenter Michael; the full Jonah Hex series has been completed. Becomes All-Star Western in the DC New 52.

Justice League of America (Justice League of America: The Rise of Eclipso)
Complete
Rise of Eclipso collects the final issues of James Robinson's Justice League run, plus a previously uncollected issue of Justice Society written by Robinson.

Justice Society of America (Justice Society of America: Monument Point)
Complete
Monument Point collects the final issues of this Justice Society series. With this (plus one issue collected in Justice League: Rise of Eclipso) all issues of this series have been collected.

Legion of Super-Heroes (Legion of Super-Heroes: When Evil Calls)
Complete
As mentioned above, When Evil Calls collects the final issues of Adventure Comics and Legion of Super-Heroes before the relaunch.

Outsiders (Outsiders: The Great Divide)
Complete
Outsiders: The Great Divide collects all the final issues of the series, through issue #40.

Power Girl (Power Girl: Old Friends)
Complete
Power Girl: Old Friends is solicited to collect all the final issues of the series.

REBELS (REBELS: Starstruck)
Incomplete
DC cancelled REBELS: Starstruck, leaving the end of this series uncollcted.

Red Robin (Red Robin:Seven Days of Death)
Complete
This collection includes the final issues of Red Robin; every issue of this series has been collected.

Secret Six (Secret Six: The Darkest House)
Complete
Darkest House collects the final issues of this series; all are collected.

Superboy (Superboy: Smallville Attacks)
Complete
DC modified the original contents of Superboy: Smallville Attacks to include all eleven issues of this series.

Supergirl (Supergirl: Good Looking Corpse)
Incomplete
DC cancelled the Supergirl: Good Looking Corpse trade that would have collected the Supergirl series's final issues. Supergirl: Bizarrogirl ends at issue #59; at least they got all of Sterling Gates's stories.

Superman (Superman: Grounded Vol. 2)
Complete
The second volume of Grounded collects the final issues of Superman, aside from one fill-in issue. We'll call this "complete."

Superman/Batman (Superman/Batman: Sorcerer Kings)
Incomplete
Sorcerer Kings collects Cullen Bunn's story of the same name, Joe Kelly's single Final Crisis-related issue, and Chris Roberson's DC One Million story "World's Finest" from issues #79-80. It stops short, however, of Joshua Hale's story "The Secret" that ended Superman/Batman, issues #85-87.

Teen Titans (Teen Titans: Prime of Life)
Complete
This trade collects Teen Titans up to issue #100, completing the series.

THUNDER Agents (THUNDER Agents Vol. 1)
Complete
DC has solicited a collection of Nick Spencer's THUNDER Agents that collects the entire ten issues of the pre-relaunch series.

Titans (Titans: Broken Promises)
Complete Incomplete
Broken Promises collects to the end of Eric Wallace's Titans run, plus the Titans annual. Broken Promises has been subsequently cancelled by DC, leaving the end of Eric Wallace's Titans run uncollected. The final trade of Titans is now Family Reunion.

Weird Worlds (Weird Worlds)
Incomplete
DC cancelled the collection of this series, despite that they're publishing a sequel miniseries.

Wonder Woman (Wonder Woman: Odyssey Vol. 2)
Complete
The second volume of Odyssey collects the final issues of this series.

Xombi (Xombi)
Complete
The Xombi collection is scheduled to include all six issues of the pre-relaunch series.

Zatanna (Zatanna: Shades of the Past)
Complete
Zatanna: Shades of the Past collects through issue #16, completing this series.

Review: Flashpoint hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:02:00 +0000

The DC Universe has restarted before, with a bang. With Flashpoint, the DC Universe begins again not with a whimper, but with a whisper. Flashpoint places an astounding focus on interaction rather than action; it is perhaps the most accessible of all the great DC Comics events, one that may disappoint long-time fans even as it has the best chance of standing the test of time for new ones.

[Contains spoilers]

By the end of the first issue of writer Geoff Johns's Infinite Crisis, we'd already seen Bizarro beat the Human Bomb to death; the number of deaths and decapitations would only rise before the story ended. The body count rose equally quickly in Johns's Blackest Night. Each of these stories were two-to-three issues longer than Flashpoint, and yet I believe those books had really started by the second issue (the Indio Tribe whisking away Green Lantern in Blackest Night, for instance). In contrast, Flash Barry Allen is powerless until the third issue of Flashpoint and spends most of those three issues in the Batcave talking to Batman -- almost half the miniseries -- and ultimately only engages in one or two action sequences in the entire book.

That's not wrong, necessarily, but to be sure it singles out Flashpoint as something else -- a different kind of event miniseries than Geoff Johns has delivered before.

Flashpoint does present the first appearance of the DC New 52 costumes (and some characters), but the new continuity is not its focus. Whereas in DC's ultimate continuity-shattering tale, Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Golden Age Superman Kal-L famously wakes up in a world that no longer remembers him, Barry Allen never explicitly understands that the "real" world has changed (things are the same, Barry says, with a fourth wall-breaking glance at the camera, "as far as I can tell"). In this way -- and perhaps because Flashpoint's role in the DC New 52 relaunch was decided after the story's original conception -- Flashpoint is not about continuity-cleaning in the way the other events are. Flashpoint has that as its result, but not as its focus.

Instead, Flashpoint examines one of the central conceits of the DC Universe, that the death of a parent might inspire a child, perhaps obsessively, to a lifetime trying to make up for that loss. Batman is the best example of this in DC Comics, of course, and Flashpoint is very much about Batman even if Bruce Wayne only appears in a handful of pages. Superman is another, the consummate orphan even if, depending on your continuity, he never much knew his Kryptonian parents.

And under Geoff Johns's pen specifically, over the past five years or so, we've seen Superman lose his father Jonathan Kent, Green Lantern Hal Jordan's origin revised so his father died in Hal's childhood, and then Flash Barry Allen's origin revised so his father went to jail for the murder of his mother (and this is aside from Johns's creation Stargirl who dealt with her father's abandonment). It got to be repetitive, frankly, and possibly Johns knew it.

Barry Allen takes a Parallax-like turn in Flashpoint, only worse. The shocking revelation in issue five is that the alternate Flashpoint reality stems not from the villainous Reverse Flash, but from Barry himself having ventured to the past to prevent Zoom from murdering his mother, thus mucking up history but good. Barry's depression over his mother's death -- for which he's been so uncharacteristically distraught that the Flash family staged an intervention in Flash: Road to Flashpoint -- has him so unhinged that he broke superhero rule #1 and messed with time. In the context of Flashpoint, at least, Johns offers no excuses or mitigation for Barry's act -- Barry knew what he was doing was wrong, thought he could get away with it, and nearly destroyed reality instead (with consequences he himself can't perceive).

Johns suggests that this is the end of "parent's death as inspiration for heroism" in the DC Universe. Barry's sorrow over his mother's death has reached outlandish heights, culminating in Flashpoint. Hardly, we know, would Barry's parents want him to torture himself to this extent in their memory -- and if Barry's familial reason for heroism dissipates as he realizes the error of his ways, then so too do some of the others start to thin. Childhood trauma has long since stopped being an effective excuse for Bruce Wayne's nocturnal activities, and when Barry delivers a time-tossed letter from Bruce's father, and Bruce cries and thanks Barry, the reader gets a sense of something ending. These are grown men, unknowingly entering a new universe supposedly more "modern" than the one they just left, and Flashpoint brings a sweet, gentle end to childish things.

There are no absolutes in comics, of course, and even as I write these lines, I have no expectation that this is the last time we'll ever see Batman kneel before the graves of his parents and swear vengeance for their deaths. I was surprised, however, that Johns even kept Barry's mother's death "in continuity," so to speak; I imagine it might be a while before we see Johns visit that particular well again.

As Blackest Night re-established for modern audiences the friendship between Green Lantern and the Flash, Flashpoint does the same for Flash and Batman. This has so far been a juggling act on Johns's part -- Batman missing the Flash at the end of Justice League: The Lightning Saga is one of my favorite comics moments, but for the majority of the time since Flash Barry Allen has been resurrected, Batman Bruce Wayne has been presumed dead. When Barry tells the Flashpoint Batman that Bruce was one of his closest friends, we believe it to be true but in fact we've yet to see Barry and Bruce have a substantial conversation in any comic since Barry's return.

Flashpoint is essentially proof of its own hypothesis; the six-page conversation that Barry and Bruce have in the end is their first, really, and ties up a hanging thread from Johns's Flash stories. It is not the only thread that needed tying, but it does bring to a satisfactory close one aspect of the pre-Flashpoint Flash storyline.

In an interview I gave last year with German writer Stefan Mesch, I commented on how DC's growing emphasis on their most iconic characters (Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Flash Barry Allen) was at odds with the growing demand among fans for diversity; there's no escaping that the Justice League's founders are for the most part white men. I could not conceive of the plan DC already had in the early stages, to retroactively alter the make-up of the Big Seven Justice League to include Cyborg (I know one character of color does not achieve "diversity" necessarily, but it's a start). Flashpoint has a significant moment, pre-empting the changes of the DC New 52, in which President Obama addresses Cyborg as the Flashpoint reality's Superman, essentially; the Flashpoint reality may be a dystopia, but it seems to be a post-racial one, at least.

Johns does not present Cyborg very strongly in Flashpoint -- Johns's Cyborg Victor Stone comports himself well, but he's far from the dynamic breakout star of Flashpoint that Mera was in Blackest Night, and also Cyborg simply disappears with no closing arc at the end of the book -- but I thought Johns's use of Barry Allen here with Vic offered a unique opportunity. Had the Flash in the book been Wally West, his relationship with Vic would be more emotional, like Barry and Bruce; had it been Superman, his relationship with Vic would be more paternal, like hero and sidekick. Barry remarks on Cyborg's increased armor, but otherwise accepts him for who he is; there's no diminutive applied to Cyborg, but rather he's simply a hero.

This is a rare moment for Cyborg -- better, perhaps, than in the New 52, when Cyborg may be a Justice Leaguer but Superman will be back to being Superman. In a rare pointed moment, one of Johns's S.H.A.Z.A.M. kids (the real breakout stars of the book) notes that "perception is reality," and it couldn't be truer here. Cyborg's role with the Justice League may be retroactive continuity, but it's important; more so is seeing Cyborg here, if only for a moment, as the preeminent hero of some DC Universe.

Andy Kubert's art helps Flashpoint's slower moments, to be sure. His crowd scenes are no slouch, but the real power is in his close-ups, whether it's a young Barry Allen on the first pages, the gathered Flashpoint heroes on the Gotham rooftops, or Bruce Wayne with tears in his eyes at the end. It's a rare treat to have a DC Comics mega-event drawn just by one artist throughout; I very much wish DC would leave the covers for the end and let a book like this read like a graphic novel. I'm looking forward to Kubert's guest-stint on Action Comics coming up (though only one issue, sadly); it seems to me that Kubert's art in Flashpoint is slightly stronger in the early issues with inker Sandra Hope than it is later in the book (and the most important reality-warping page, in issue five, looks unfortunately quite hurried), but I'm happy to see him on other titles either way.

At the end of the DC Universe as we know it, a reader expecting Crisis on Infinite Earths will be sorely disappointed. There's not much here, either, for a reader who wants the white-knuckle action of Blackest Night; Flashpoint is closest, in terms of its self-containment, to Final Crisis, but Flashpoint is minuscule next to Final Crisis's scope. Flashpoint is instead exactly what we heard it was from the beginning but perhaps didn't quite believe: a Flash story bigger than some but much smaller than others, which mostly focuses on Flash and Batman. Despite that Flashpoint may not have some of the "wow factor" of any of DC Comics's other event stories, it wins in one crucial area -- accessibility.

Flashpoint is perhaps the most accessible event story DC has ever produced, the one I'm most sure I could give to a new reader and they'd understand it. For a long-time reader, it may feel somewhat unsatisfactory in the end -- what, no red skies? -- but at the dawn of a new DC Universe, maybe this very simple book is exactly what we need to start off a new day.

[Includes original and variant covers, sketchbook section]

Tomorrow at Collected Editions, we'll finish off the week with a Trade Perspectives column not to be missed. Be there!

Review: Flash: The Road to Flashpoint hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:02:00 +0000

If it's possible for a book to be exceptional and significantly disappointing at the same time, Flash: The Road to Flashpoint is that book. The story is action-packed and emotionally complex, and beautiful, to boot; however, it fails as the next volume in the Flash series, if not also as a lead in to the Flashpoint crossover. Knowledgeable readers won't find what they're looking for here, and the casual reader is likely to be confused.

[Contains spoilers]

A word, first, about the art of Francis Manapul. His airy pencils will always be synonymous for me with his depiction of rural Smallville in Superboy: Boy of Steel, such that his Central City also seems old-fashioned, more 1950 than 2011, despite the prevalence of cell phones in this book. Despite this, Manapul's lines are clean; his action sequences exceptionally clear; and the women that he draws in the book, specifically, are all pretty without sexual gratuity. (Scott Kolins does an equally good job mimicking Manapul in his fill-in sequences, with neither artist inking over their pencils).

What would comics look like, I wondered, if Francis Manapul drew everything? What would the public perception of comics be? It's unfortunate, I think, that what we find in Flash is the exception, and not the rule.

The story itself involves Flash (and forensic scientist) Barry Allen in a rather intriguing mystery, at least to start. Super-powered children are showing up dead, unnaturally aged; the first is a new "Elongated Kid" wearing a variation of Barry's late friend Ralph Dibney's old costume. This alone should be enough to hook most Flash fans, and writer Geoff Johns is at his best when a police officer asks if Barry recognizes the costume and Barry, in plain clothes, must utter a simple "no." It's a quiet and painful moment, the first of a number of such in this book.

Unfortunately, abandon hope all ye hoping for much clarity after this point. A motorcycle-riding speedster named Hot Pursuit emerges, chasing a time anomaly related to the murders. Pursuit reveals the details of the situation to Barry in an elaborate speech over the course of one issue, but then inexplicably refuses Barry's help in solving the case. In the conclusion, Pursuit mistakenly believes Kid Flash Bart Allen has caused the anomalies, for no good reason this reader could understand; it turns out to be Professor Zoom, conducting "experiments" that also involve him de-aging himself.

Why does Pursuit take up half of one of the scant four issues of this story (a fifth issue is devoted to a Professor Zoom profile) to explain to Barry a situation for which he doesn't want Barry's help (other than Johns offering exposition to the reader)? What value is there to Professor Zoom to becoming a kid and pretending to have witnessed a murder for an issue? Why does Pursuit think Kid Flash is a "time anomaly" when as far as Flash and the reader are concerned, he isn't? None of this is explained in the book, couched in Zoom's "secret plans" and vague "you'll find out soon enough" statements.

It's a reasonable expectation that some of these items might be addressed in Flashpoint itself, this book being a prologue to that. However, the phrase "Flashpoint" never warrants a mention in Road to Flashpoint, despite that Pursuit mumbled about it to himself in the previous volume, Dastardly Death of the Rogues. Road ends on a rather uncertain note -- Zoom says, "It all changes," a lightning bolt strikes, and that's it. A casual reader, at this moment, knows no better whether Flashpoint will be about alternate realities or a Sun-Eater; some surprise is good, but at this same penultimate point in Green Latern/Blackest Night, I felt the reader had a better sense of the story as a while. I count that as a failing of this as a prologue.

What Johns does well here is present Barry's emotion. Barry has struggled since his rebirth (or, Rebirth) to engage with his family and not withdraw, feeling he doesn't deserve his new life. Learning Zoom killed his mother in the past because of his hatred of the Flash was another significant blow, but not one much mentioned in the previous volume. That revelation is now in the forefront; Barry pulls away from his family for fear of enticing Zoom to kill one of them, too. It's an interesting time-traveler's dilemma, and at the same time Barry's depression seems very real -- he can't enjoy a family picnic, for instance, because he imagines his mother there and feels her absence is his fault. Barry's wife Iris stages a speedster intervention, and Johns paces the scene with a slowness that conveys the seriousness of the moment. All convincing and moving.

Only, Barry's sorrow over his mother really isn't mentioned all that much in Dastardly, and this issue of Barry pulling away from his family is one seemingly already solved in Rebirth. Barry, it seems, is regressing, and to Road's credit that's a point Iris makes within the book. But why? Are we to attribute this to the secret emotional weapon that the Rogues used in Dastardly? If so, the book never even hints at it -- nor do the Rogues appear here at all, nor Captain Boomerang, who was so much a part of the last book's cliffhanger.

In terms of solid storytelling, Road to Flashpoint succeeds, but in terms of a sequel to Dastardly Death of the Rogues, it emerges largely disconnected -- not a satisfying reading experience in terms of the Flash book. Similarly, and perhaps by necessity as a lead-in to Flashpoint, Road doesn't offer much closure for the Flash series -- there's the absence of the Rogues, to start, but also the reintroduction of Barry's old flame Patty Spivot. The informed reader knows Patty plays a role in the DC New 52 relaunch version of Flash -- creating a strange relationship between new Flash and old -- but the casual reader may have trouble determining what Johns tried to say with all of this. Road to Flashpoint is, in a sense, a fair preview of the series that replaces it, perhaps, but not an entirely solid package on its own.

Crossover-mad fans (like me) will undoubtedly feel incomplete without Flash: The Road to Flashpoint on their shelves next to the main event, but the story was less than what I'd hoped for -- a tease, more than a lead-in, to Flashpoint itself. New readers drawn to Flashpoint by news of the DC New 52 might not feel they miss much if they leave Road to Flashpoint back on the shelf.

[Includes original and variant covers]

Unfortunately, Road to Flashpoint wasn't the lead-in to Flashpoint that I'd hoped -- then again, Salvation Run and Countdown to Final Crisis weren't so stellar lead-ins to Final Crisis, either. Coming up later this week, however ... the Collected Editions review of Flashpoint. Don't miss it!

Infinite Crisis Omnibus, New 52, Knightquest in DC Comics 2012 solicitations

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:02:00 +0000

Just a few weeks ago, we learned the full schedule for DC Comics's release of the first collections of their New 52 titles. Today, those collections are available for pre-order -- but that's not the biggest headline in DC's new solicitations.

It's hardcover. It's reportedly 1,152 pages. It retails, before discounts, for $150. It's the long-awaited Infinite Crisis Omnibus.

* Infinite Crisis Omnibus

When DC announced the equally-massive, equally-expensive DC Comics: The New 52 collection of all 52 of their new first issues, I for one wondered if it would have any takers. Obviously it did well, though, because here comes another, almost of the same size and at the same price -- the Infinite Crisis Omnibus.

I applaud DC for this. As opposed to the DC: New 52 hardcover, which I thought would be a funny reading experience, this overstuffed omnibus is an opportunity to collect Infinite Crisis right. If you consider the book has space for almost 52 issues to work with, that would mean they could include Countdown to Infinite Crisis, the four lead-in miniseries (Omac Project, Day of Vengeance, Rann-Thanagar War, and Villains United), each miniseries' respective special, Superman: Sacrifice, JLA: Crisis of Conscience, and the seven-issue Infinite Crisis. That would be an epic, epic reading experience, and a great collection for anyone reading Infinite Crisis for the first time.

This also explains why DC might have collected Final Crisis in an Absolute edition, given that the most relevant parts only consist of five to ten issues or less, whereas Infinite Crisis is a much more sprawling story.

(Now, the fact that DC is collecting this story in this manner even though it's absolutely, entirely out-of-continuity ... well, we'll talk about that below.)

* Superman - Action Comics Vol. 1: Superman and the Men of Steel
* Animal Man Vol. 1: The Hunt
* Batgirl Vol. 1: The Darkest Reflection
* Batman and Robin Vol. 1: Born to Kill
* Batman Vol. 1: The Court of Owls
* Batman: Detective Comics Vol. 1: Faces of Death
* Batman: The Dark Knight Vol. 1: Knight Terrors
* Batwing Vol. 1: The Lost Kingdom
* Batwoman Vol. 1: Hydrology
* Catwoman Vol. 1: The Game
* Deathstroke Vol. 1: Legacy
* Demon Knights Vol. 1: Seven Against the Dark
* Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. Vol. 1: War of the Monsters
* Green Arrow Vol. 1: The Midas Touch
* Green Lantern Vol. 1: Sinestro
* Grifter Vol. 1: Most Wanted
* Hawk and Dove Vol. 1: First Strikes
* Justice League International Vol.1: The Signal Masters
* Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 1: Hostile World
* Men of War Vol. 1: Uneasy Company
* Mister Terrific Vol. 1: Mind Games
* O.M.A.C. Vol. 1: Omactivate!
* Red Lanterns Vol. 1: Blood and Rage
* Resurrection Man Vol. 1: Dead Again
* Stormwatch Vol. 1: The Dark Side
* Suicide Squad Vol. 1: Kicked in the Teeth
* Superboy Vol. 1: Incubation
* Swamp Thing Vol. 1: Raise Them Bones
* Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Blood

As you know, DC announced their collection plans for the New 52 books a few weeks ago, but now they're coming available for order. What caught my eye here is that the books, every one of them, appear to have subtitles attached, which they did not in DC's original notice.

Granted I have not read Judd Winick's Catwoman yet, and want to try to give it as fair a shot as possible, but the cynical among us will appreciate these two blurbs that DC included on the promotional cover for the new Catwoman collection:

"Judd Winick is bringing Catwoman back to basics starting in September." -- MTV Geek

"One of the men leading the charge for this new era of DC is writer Judd Winick." -- Complex Magazine

From the "you say it best when you say nothing at all" department.

* Challengers of the Unknown Omnibus by Jack Kirby
* Showcase Presents Rip Hunter, Time Master Vol. 1
* Showcase Presents Showcase Vol. 1

With Challengers making headlines again, under Dan DiDio's pen no less, a Challengers hardcover in the Jack Kirby Omnibus style seems a safe bet. I'm glad to see Rip Hunter getting a nod with a Showcase Presents collection, despite that the character doesn't seem to exist in the New 52 (or does he?). And it's probably too much for me to hope that Showcase Presents Showcase is a collection of the Showcase '93 through Showcase '96 series; instead it's probably the 1950s book.

* Batman: Knightfall Vol. 2: Knightquest
* Batman: No Man's Land Vol. 3

That this first collection is called "Knightquest" specifically means that it collects the previously uncollected second "act" of the "Knightfall" storyline, right? If so, that's another one that fans have awaited for a while, and I'm glad to see it. I skimmed the first new No Man's Land collection in a comics shop the other day, and it's just astounding to see Azrael issues in there; here's the third volume right on track.

* Infinity Inc.: The Generations Saga Vol. 2
* Secret Society of Super-Villains Vol. 2
* Wonder Woman: The Twelve Labors

The first Secret Society of Super-Villains collection was supposed to contain the team's entire publication history, including the Secret Society series, Justice League, and Cancelled Comics Cavalcade appearances, but only actually contained the first ten issue of the series and a couple of other appearances. Probably this second volume collects the rest and ends it there.

Quite glad to see Infinity, Inc. getting a second volume; this was one of my personal most-wished-for trades and I'm pleased to own it, but the titular "Generations Saga" actually goes to issue #10 (the first trade collected to issue #4); I'm glad DC won't leave this "incomplete."

Glad to see Wonder Woman getting some collection attention here. "Twelve Labors" is the 1970s storyline that followed Wonder Woman's mod Diana Prince look, returning her to her earlier appearance -- an interesting analogue to today, where Wonder Woman has recently been Diana Price again but no longer seems to be in the New 52.

* Hitman Vol. 7: Closing Time
* JLA Vol. 2
* T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Vol. 2

I was under the impression DC has stopped collecting Hitman, but browsing my local comics shop shelves, I believe its the case the one volume was cancelled and resolicited, and these collections continue as planned. Closing Time ought be the last volume.

There was some controversy over the last paperback deluxe JLA reprint, in that it contained additional issues not collected in the similar JLA hardcover. Remains to be seen if the same will be true here.

I remarked the other day how much DC seems to be behind THUNDER Agents, despite that the book seems to be struggling to find an audience. A recent reprint collection of old THUNDER Agents issues was cancelled; here, however, DC is advance soliciting a collection of the current THUNDER Agents miniseries.

* Batman: Prey
* Green Lantern/Green Arrow
* Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore
* World's Finest

A couple of reprints I can't figure out here -- Batman: Prey by Doug Moench; Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore both by Dennis O'Neil; and World's Finest by Dave Gibbons and Steve Rude. The last, especially, is one of my all-time favorites, but were any of these so topical or in-demand as to warrant reprints.

* Brightest Day Vol. 2
* Batman: Bruce Wayne - The Road Home
* Batman: The Streets of Gotham - The House of Hush
* Birds of Prey Vol. 1: Endrun
* First Wave
* Green Lantern: Brightest Day
* Gotham City Sirens: Strange Fruit
* Legion Lost
* Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Odyssey

And then these really had me scratching my head -- paperback collections of a number of series severely out of continuity at this point. The Batman and Green Lantern books I understand, and even Legion Lost is a "new classic," but will anyone be picking up a paperback Wonder Woman: Odyssey, an essentially-Elseworlds story from a bygone continuity? Will there be many takers for Birds of Prey or Gotham City Sirens? For First Wave, for gosh sakes, a noir line otherwise already cancelled?!

I've got all the Infinite Crisis issues already, but I'm already thinking whether that Infinite Crisis Omnibus will be at the top of next year's recommended gift list. So what's caught your attention? What'll you be signing up to pre-order?

(We're getting started with our Flashpoint review week tomorrow -- don't miss it!)

Review: Teen Titans: The Hunt for Raven trade paperback (DC Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:02:00 +0000

Writer Felicia Henderson's efforts on Teen Titans: The Hunt for Raven have already been pretty widely panned (Titans Tower has a good collection of quotes); perhaps not unrelated, the writer was later scheduled to write a Static Shock series but was later dropped from the title.

I picked up Hunt for Raven because I'm a completist, like many comics fans. With the DC Relaunch in full swing, to skip Hunt and then pick up JT Krul's Teen Titans books to follow would leave me with all the collected volumes of this Titans series except one. Even despite the tepid reviews, I'm not inclined to have such a hole in my collection.

To that end, my goal with this review is not to tear apart Henderson or Hunt for Raven (you can find plenty of that elsewhere), but rather to mention a couple of things I found interesting about the book, as well as to cover a couple of its difficulties. I don't recommend this book, but I imagine there's a population out there who might own it for the same reasons I do, and therefore I think it's worth considering for discussion.

[Contains spoilers]

Henderson inherited a somewhat fractured Teen Titans team from writer Sean McKeever. I think the team became closer-knit or more confrontational depending on the needs of a couple of stories by McKeever, Bryan Q. Miller, and Henderson in the last few Titans books, but in whole the Titans that Henderson ended up with were not the buddies fresh from Young Justice that began this series under Geoff Johns. A large part of Hunt for Raven therefore involves building camaraderie amongst the team. It is heavy-handed in the same way that early episodes of a television series have these same "friend-building" episodes so that any character can share a scene with another later on. This transparency on Henderson's part, however, at least gives a sense of Henderson's intentions for the series, had her run lasted longer than this book.

Of note, for one, is a sequence in the book's third chapter in which the villain Holocaust has imprisoned Wonder Girl, Static, Aquagirl, and Bombshell. Bombshell has been the stereotypical "angry outsider" of the group, but when Wonder Girl and Aquagirl each accidentally collide with her trying to escape from plastic bubble prisons, the whole team shares a good laugh. It's the old "imprison a couple of warring characters and they'll bond as they escape" routine you've likely seen on a Star Trek episode or two, but it works here. Henderson is able to play plot against character in such a way that the characters do emerge changed when the scene is over.

Even after, Henderson preserves the animosity between Bombshell and Aqaugirl, which is somewhat amusing, actually, reminiscent of New Titans Pantha sniping at her teammates for a while. Not surprisingly then, when Henderson splits the Titans off into teams, it's Bombshell and Aquagirl who have to wait together at the bottom of the ocean, and ultimately bond. Such bonding unfortunately comes after the two have to escape the belly of a sea dragon (hard to say if the sea dragon's phallic stomach tentacles came from Henderson's script or José Luís's imagination), but the storyline is still cute in a Saved by the Bell kind of way (the bonding, that is, not the tentacles).

Wonder Girl remains a character that troubles a lot of writers (amazing, after Peter David wrote her so well), but I thought Henderson gave her characterization a good effort. From the beginning, Wonder Girl recognizes she has led the Titans poorly and takes charge in what I thought was a realistic way, to the point of overcompensating. The team of rather strong personalities starts to leave to help Static on a mission; Wonder Girl drags them back to the conference room to talk out the details before they go. In a similar meeting about rescuing the kidnapped Raven, Wonder Girl listens to all the contradictory viewpoints, thanks everyone for them, and then makes her ruling. Henderson's Wonder Girl comes off as shrill as she did under McKeever, but the way she leads seems like the way one would have to lead a group of super-powered teenagers, so I thought Henderson's approach was a little better than what came before.

No doubt readers might object to Henderson's portrayal of Wonder Girl and Superboy's relationship. After years of Wonder Girl moping over the deceased Superboy, and considerable confusion prior to this book as to when and whether Wonder Girl knew of Superboy's resurrection, it's surprising (if not inconceivable) that she would push him away in these pages. Further, Henderson's depiction of Wonder Girl rejecting Superboy early on and then accepting him later lacks finesse, such that the reader is as confused as Superboy, and Wonder Girl comes off the jerk. Henderson is trying here, however, to present the conflicts of a female leader (and one dating Superboy, no less) juggling a relationship with a man and also not wanting to seem "soft" before her team. This, too, is likely a bit of realism not often covered in comics; Henderson's intention is good even if the depiction is not.

Hunt for Raven, unfortunately, comes apart in the finer details. The two stories collected here involve searches for Static and Raven respectively, and it seems on almost every page a character repeats "Where's Static?" or "We have to find Raven!" If Henderson's scenes work as a whole, they have trouble moment to moment -- in the fourth chapter, Superboy and Kid Flash are distraught that Holocaust seems to have killed the other Titans, and then in the next panel they're strangely sanguine; when the Titans are revealed alive, the two have no reaction. Henderson introduces a couple of scientists who call each other pet names ad nauseum; if Henderson means them to be funny, the result is just annoying. Henderson goes back and forth between scenes sometimes only with a page inbetween, far too suddenly, and sometimes multiple scenes are repetitively introduced with the word "Meanwhile."

And this is aside from a number of technical errors, including Wonder Girl once referring to her group as the "Team Titans," and a couple of pages in the fifth chapter where Wonder Girl is colored as Miss Martian and vice versa.

Teen Titans: The Hunt for Raven ends with a viable concept -- the evil Wyld creature turns out to have been accidentally created by Raven and fashions itself as her son; Raven actually tries to defend the Wyld when the other Titans defeat it. The implications of such get swept under the rug when Felicia Henderson must quickly pare down the team for the purposes of J. T. Krul's run beginning in the next book. It's little sparks like these that bring me to say I didn't dislike Henderson's Titans run as much as I was lead to believe I would -- this is no great comfort, but I believe I disliked Sean McKeever's main Teen Titans work more. This is still, however, not where this book should be, and I'm hopeful Krul can turn things around before the series ends with the DC Relaunch.

[Contains original covers]

Next week ... all week ... Collected Editions reviews Flashpoint! Look for not one, but two Flashpoint-related reviews, plus DC solicitation news and more. Don't miss it!

Review: Doctor 13: Architecture and Mortality trade paperback (DC Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:02:00 +0000

[A new guest review from Zach King, who blogs about movies as The Cinema King]

After spending several months immersed in the magic mirror of Grant Morrison's The Invisibles, it's time to take a page from the book of Monty Python and declare, "And now for something completely different." In the wake of Doctor 13 and his daughter Traci's role in Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint (an event which I followed in single issues, because the way it was to be collected hadn't been made clear then), and with Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang reuniting on Wonder Woman in the New 52, I knew all I needed to know before adding Doctor 13: Architecture and Mortality to the list for my weekly visit to my LCS.

With the DCnU now upon us, the book is strikingly relevant when it explores characters left behind, but for a book that's all about meta-commentary on continuity it's surprisingly (and perhaps disappointingly) self-contained.

[Contains spoilers]

The good Doctor 13 has been having some strange dreams -- a caveman warning him about "The Architects," a boy genius in Superman pajamas charging a dime for answers, and a ghost pirate dying in the doctor's arms -- but none of these rattles Doctor 13's trademark skepticism (although a bizarre seduction dream involving his daughter Traci seems to do the trick). While investigating a plane crash in the French Alps, Doctor 13 and Traci are attacked by a yeti, who reveals himself to be I, Vampire in disguise. After calling a truce with the vamprie (although denying his claims to vampirism), Doctor 13 soon finds himself caught up in a bizarre alliance with a "Who's Who" (pun intended) of forgotten DC Universe characters, including Anthro (the caveman of the doctor's dreams), Genius Jones (the boy of his dreams), Captain Fear, and Infectious Lass.

This misfit group runs headlong into the Primate Patrol, a settlement of Nazi-experimented gorillas, before demanding answers from The Architects, godlike beings who know exactly how the universe works and who bear striking resemblances to DC's then-Big Four (Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, and Mark Waid; DC published the Doctor 13 series as a backup to the post-Infinite Crisis miniseries Tales of the Unexpected at about the same time as the popular weekly series 52).

To spoil the fact that this is a metafictional adventure Doctor 13: Architecture and Mortality is to spoil a bit of the fun of reading the book, but it's also one of the only ways that this book can be marketed, it seems. Try getting someone to pick up a Doctor 13 comic, and you'll likely find blank stares (check the sales for The World of Flashpoint if you think the 13s can headline a book). But tell them it's a metafictional romp through the detritus of the DC Universe, and any continuity-hound worth his or her salt will be rushing toward this book with fond memories of Animal Man and other fourth-wall-shattering comics like Final Crisis (the red skies throughout Doctor 13 simply must be a reference to the crossover that would follow).

But the other meta-texts mentioned above have one thing in common -- they were all written by Grant Morrison. Indeed, Brian Azzarello seems like an unlikely choice for a comic about comics; granted, I'm not familiar with his entire oeuvre, but I had trouble remembering that this is the same guy who out-grittied Frank Miller with Batman: Broken City and penned the darkly hardboiled (yet marvelous) 100 Bullets. But Azzarello shows significant depth as a writer here, because at no point does Doctor 13 feel like a writer experimenting out of his comfort zone. Instead, Doctor 13 is appropriately playful, an attitude helped by artist Cliff Chiang's masterfully cartoonish yet fantastically fashionable figures.

To Chiang's credit, each of the characters in Doctor 13 has a vibrant look and a spot-on wardrobe choice that both instantly identifies and quickly defines that character. The slightly campy Captain Fear is dressed in an over-the-top Halloween pirate costume, and Count Julius (alias Pryemaul) the Nazi vampire gorilla has several "variant" outfits that reflect his allegiances to either the undead or the Third Reich.

Yet it's with the spunky yet sexy Traci 13 that Chiang really shines. Traci 13, the plucky daughter of our skeptical protagonist, is never misdrawn in a panel but rather has the perfect facial expression for the situation, as well as a dynamite selection of clothing that slinks in all the right places -- but never gratuitously. Chiang knows that Traci 13 isn't simply eye candy, and to his credit he never treats her as such. Instead, his work is reminiscent of Amanda Conner, who made a name by treating Power Girl as a character instead of as cleavage with superpowers; both Conner and Chiang are masters at faces and conveying emotion and personality without resorting to stock supermodel poses. Chiang's work was a delightful surprise for me, enough even to commit me to following his career for life. [Ditto -- loved Chiang's work on issues collected in Green Arrow/Black Canary: The Wedding Album and never looked back -- ed.]

The draw to this volume, though, was the aforementioned "continuity hound" drive. I'm a huge fan of metafiction, which explains half the reason I have the Tiny Titans trades on my pull list. (The other half? It's just too much well-done fun to turn down.) All this Morrison-love in my blood has conditioned me to appreciate continuity and insider references, and Doctor 13 doesn't disappoint there.

The major crises get a shout-out, and when the Big Four show up wearing the masks of the DC characters with whom they're associated (Morrison wearing Batman, Waid wearing The Flash, etc) it's difficult for long-time readers not to feel that little thrill. But for those selfsame continuity hounds who love the carefree collision of continuity and creativity, it's similarly difficult not to feel let down when Doctor 13 alludes to a sequel -- "Team 13 in The Quest for Fear!" -- which never (to date) came to pass.

In fact, considering the appearance of the Doctor and his daughter in Flashpoint, the stage would have been set for a Team 13 book in September 2011. But alas, the continuity-phobic atmosphere of (most of) the New 52 had no room for metafiction, and the Azzarello/Chiang team moved on to reinvent Wonder Woman (which, in single issues, has been a real treat). So what we have here is a one-off, appropriate for the genre of metafiction. And really, where else could the series have gone? It's only a matter of time before Ambush Bug arrived, and . . . well, hey, that's not such a bad idea after all.

As it stands, Doctor 13 is a fun volume which portends greater significance than it actually lives up to, but it's also a pleasant reminder of the old 52 and the joys of continuity. But beyond all that, Doctor 13: Architecture and Mortality is a well-told story with vivaciously delightful visuals and an unexpected sense of humor.

[Don't miss Zach's insightful look into Grant Morrison's complete Invisibles series. New reviews coming up!]

Review: Showcase Presents: Booster Gold paperback (DC Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:02:00 +0000

The compulsions of the father are visited on the son, at least in Booster Gold's original iteration. In the twenty-five issues of the character's original series collected in Showcase Presents: Booster Gold, writer and creator Dan Jurgens never comes out and says so, but that Booster has inherited his father's gambling addiction is implicit in the beginning, and in the end. Over the course of the book, Booster would seem to gain some insight into the pitfalls of his relentless pursuit of fortune, but not enough for him to mend the error of his ways; he is wiser, but not necessarily changed.

[Contains spoilers]

When Michael Jon "Booster" Carter's origin finally comes out, seven chapters into the book, the reader learns that Booster is a fugitive from the future, a disgraced athlete who lost his scholarship for betting on games. Faced with failure, Booster begins what will become a pattern in the book, running away from his problems under the guise of reinventing himself. Booster's actions would seem redemptive on their face -- traveling to the past to become a hero -- but in fact what he's done is to abandon the consequences of his crime, starting anew without taking responsibility for what he did before.

Jurgens has Booster "run away to get ahead" twice more in the book, almost exactly in the middle and then again at the end. At the end of the series's first year, Booster's profit-driven stardom and ubiquity has led to the kidnapping of his friends, the destruction of his skyscraper, and his being labeled a menace by the city of Metropolis; Booster re-brands his Goldstar company as Booster Gold, Incorporated, and moves to a well-guarded mansion outside of town. Booster is upbeat, but the reader can't help but see this as a kind of defeat for the outgoing Booster, running away instead of redeeming his reputation. Indeed Booster puts so little energy into his second business venture, replacing the first, that his fortune is stolen and his company is bankrupt by the end of the book's second year and conclusion.

It is in that conclusion, after Booster's sister dies and he's branded a traitor to the Justice League, that Booster tries to escape again, this time back to the future. It's Skeets, Booster's robot companion from the beginning, who's able to predict that the League will find Booster trying to steal a time machine to return to the future, so well does Skeets understand Booster's patterns. Booster's teammate Blue Beetle, early in their nascent friendship, calls Booster out (rather harshly, I might add), accusing Booster of running away because "life isn't all a party." Beetle has named Booster's affliction exactly, and Booster's recognition of his own action seems enough, this time, to get him to remain in his own timeframe at least.

It is not enough, however, to really change the core of who Booster is. On his way out of town, Booster visits the apartment of his secretary and friend Trixie Collins; from the first pages, Trixie has been the voice of sincerity in contrast to Booster and his agent Dirk Davis's profiteering. Here, as is fitting, Booster acknowledges Trixie has been the "one good thing" in his life since he came to the past, and the two share a kiss -- but despite this, Booster's realization only goes so far.

Booster's not going to give up his superhero life, he tells Trixie, because to do so would acknowledge that the death of his sister and other events defeated him; instead, he's leaving Metropolis to find "a place I want to be" and "make a few million bucks there." Booster both understands the point and misses it simultaneously -- he is not reinventing himself to the extent of traveling through time, but neither does he stay in Metropolis with Trixie. He knows the value of Trixie's honesty and indeed some of it has rubbed off on him along the way, but he still sets off in pursuit of another get-rich-quick scheme.

Jurgens means for the reader to understand that Booster can't help himself. In a coda to the book, Jurgens writes a Secret Origin story where Booster tells his origin to Beetle in the midst of a get rich scheme. It's all news to Beetle, and the surprise on Beetle's face when he understands Booster is a "crook" -- albeit a heroic one -- is striking. Here, Booster states directly what's been hinted before -- both that Booster's father abandoned his family as a result of his gambling addiction, and also that Booster kept betting on his own games even after he'd raised enough money for his ailing mother's surgery. Booster can't make the connection himself -- that he shares his father's own compulsions -- but this wrap-up goes a long way to explain Booster's decisions throughout these pages; even when Booster intends to better for himself, he can't help but be pulled back into his established patterns for doing things.

All of this is presented in startlingly brilliant fashion by Jurgens, but that's no slight to the longtime writer/artist, whose work I enjoyed on the Superman titles well before "Death of Superman." Rather, Booster's proximity to the "bwah-ha-ha" days of Justice League International, and the black-and-white newsprint presentation of the Showcase Presents books, give the impression that the material within will be slight, like the simpler 1960s Batman or Justice League stories presented in other Showcase volumes, when it fact its remarkably complicated.

Jurgens intricately structures the twenty-five issues of Booster Gold, long before the prevalence of trade paperbacks, into two distinct twelve-issue "seasons" that are themselves split into six-issue arcs, and Booster's growth is clear through each of them. Astoundingly, Jurgens shows Booster's face sans mask just briefly in the first issue, and then not again I believe until issue five; we don't learn the origin of the title character of the comic until issue six! The two-part story in issues eight and nine, just after the origin, smartly use the time travel trope to show us Booster's first days in our time period from the perspective of the future Legion of Super-Heroes, and Jurgens reveals information both about Booster and about Booster's initial nemesis, the Director, leading into the first year's climax. From there, Booster and company jaunt back to the future at the beginning of the second year, with the introduction of Booster's sister Michelle and more revelations about Booster's home life; Michelle's death at the end of issue #22 largely informs the end of the series.

To the extent that Booster's origins and motivations are at times a mystery, especially in the beginning, Jurgens places strong emphasis on Booster's supporting cast. Trixie is the series's ever-present conscience, notably in issue four considering events from outside a fishbowl, literally and figuratively. Trixie has for a while a romantic relationship with Dirk, who seems as materialistic as Booster until Jurgens reveals that Dirk has a daughter endangered by the Director. Though Dirk proves an unexpected villain in the end, there's a length of the book in which Dirk appears to be what Booster is not, a man materialistic but also with heart.

Two other notable characters that appear in Booster Gold's second year are the behemoth Animal, and the twenty-fifth century policeman Broderick. Animal is a seemingly mindless enforcer for the future police, but he sacrifices himself early on to repay Michelle for saving his life; the moment is largely Michelle's, but just afterward Booster makes an uncharacteristic anonymous donation to a homeless shelter. In the story that follows, Booster refuses an insurance company's money for finding stolen paintings; Jurgens has Booster make a distinction here between profiteering from his fame, which he'll do, and being a hired hero, which he won't. The Animal was the police's hired muscle, and it's not coincidental that Booster begins to stand up for himself so soon after the adventure in the future.

Booster brings back an unintentional companion from that trip to the future, the twenty-fifth century policeman Broderick, and their face-off in issue #18 is the best story of the book. Broderick's origins parallel Booster's own -- right down to Broderick, too, having a proclivity for gambling -- and Broderick's fixation on Booster borders on the obsessive, determined to see Booster dead for his time-travel "crimes." Perhaps because Broderick is so crazed, Booster emerges unusually calm in the eighteenth issue, dealing with Broderick and armed robbers all without his super-suit. Booster, running around in a tuxedo, is surprisingly debonair, and exudes confidence that's brave rather than arrogant as he stares down Broderick's gun and lectures the officer on "his responsibility to protect innocent lives." This is Booster's finest moment, demonstrating here -- when no one can see him -- the hero he has the potential to be.

Jurgens's Booster Gold reflects the materialism of the 1980s, and the certain innocence that went with it. Booster arrives in 1986 with a flashy costume and an expectation to make money, and it never occurs to him that achieving such might not be so simple. Though Booster performs feats of strength, little of what he achieves is actually his doing, but rather that of Dirk and other handlers. As is the case throughout the book, here too Booster is gambling -- on his own potential for success -- possibly without even knowing that he's doing so. It's no coincidence that in the story, President Reagan is one of Booster's biggest supporters, as the government encouragement of consumer spending at the time would no doubt pass muster with Booster. I would not go so far as to say that Jurgens specifically compares Reaganomics to gambling here, but we do see Booster lose his fortune twice shortly before the stock-market crash of the late 1980s.

What causes Booster Gold to succeed, especially despite an unfamiliar and largely unapproachable protagonist in the book's first issues, is the care with which Dan Jurgens presents Booster. Booster is largely the buffoon in his own story, and it would be easy to make him laughable; in part why I never latched on to Keith Giffen's Justice League International was that they seemed to be foolish characters doing foolish things, rather than striving toward some goal. Jurgens is quick to have Skeets point out to Superman at the same time as we learn Booster's origin that Booster is meant to be in the past, that his role as a hero is important and fore-destined; this is a note of respect that serves the character well. In the end, the reader also learns that Booster is part of a fabled "Chosen" who are destined to help humanity; again, if we ever doubt, the book reminds us that Booster is greater than the individual stories might lead us to believe.

I've been reading about the Booster Gold character for almost twenty years, but I'd never read these initial issues that encompass Booster's first appearances. I can say they'll probably have me looking at Booster a little differently, and looking at the Showcase Presents format with new respect, too. Showcase Presents: Booster Gold is a deceptively deep collection of twenty-five issues worth of material, enough to really feel you're inhabiting the characters; I give this a high recommendation.

New reviews next week!

Review: Justice League: Generation Lost Vol. 2 hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)

noreply@blogger.com (collectededitions) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:02:00 +0000

We now know that the first collection of Judd Winick's DC New 52 Catwoman series will arrive in May 2012, and I'm very curious to read the first arc in one book. We know from Winick's Green Arrow and especially from his Outsiders that Winick is not someone who writes without consciousness or thought, and I would like to see if I can find some semblance of that in Catwoman outside of mere pruriency (my outside guess right now is that Winick's Catwoman is a twisted exploration of cosplay culture -- just a guess).

I'm all the more interested in a comic where Winick seems from the outset to have failed because the second volume of Justice League: Generation Lost is in my estimation about as close to a perfect comic as we come. It's a thick DC Comics hardcover; the plot is exciting, moving, and unexpected; three different artists remain in relative lock-step; and there's depth here -- the heroes are neither so right nor the villain entirely so wrong. Hands down, Judd Winick and company have done a knock-out job here.

[Contains spoilers]

Generation Lost is good in a lot of places, but it's especially good in its last chapter. We have, in two parallel scenes, the long-awaited climaxes we never knew we were awaiting -- Booster Gold and the new Blue Beetle each avenging the death of Blue Beetle Ted Kord at the hands of Max Lord. Beetle Jaime Reyes saves the day by infiltrating the control system of Max's OMAC Prime robot and then shooting the robot in the head, a fitting call-back to Max's murder of Kord. Booster takes the fight to Max himself in a remarkably dialogue-heavy couple of pages (to Winick's credit). By now the reader understands that Max is not completely wrong in his "save humanity from the superheroes" philosophy, and Max and Booster are just similar enough in their egotism and have enough shared history that the pages just crackle, up to and through Max's defeat.

Winick's story is all over the place, but in an engaging way and with plenty of characterization. One moment Captain Atom's fighting Magog, the next he's in the future, then the team's fighting the Creature Commandos, then they're fighting Power Girl, then they're up on the Checkmate ship, then Batman's there, then they're hunting Wonder Woman, and so on, and so on. Generation Lost never gets boring, but neither does it feel like it's all action. Along the way the heroes debate whether Max deserves killing (a second time); we learn plenty about Max's early life and his motivations; there's a rather touching scene between Fire and Ice when Fire's been mortally wounded; Fire and Rocket Red's romance; and Booster Gold's burgeoning leadership. All of this, and the book is funny, too.

That the loosely-defined Justice League International characters are the "generation lost" never gets addressed specifically in the book, though Booster's leadership and the "attaboy" he gets from Batman in the end must certainly bring full circle what began over twenty years ago with the DC crossover Legends and the Justice League book that followed. Simple free association will always bring up the "bwa-ha-ha" comics in relation to Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Fire, Ice, and others -- that is, these characters are all permanently marked as "jokes" -- but in their subsequent revisions since that time and finally in Generation Lost, they've finally emerged unarguably as heroes, said lost generation now found.

They were, for better or for worse, the first Justice League of the modern era of comics, the first ones into the breach, and in essence paid for it with lack of credit for the next two decades. That era of comics comes to a close now with Flashpoint, and just as Barry Allen opened and closed the Silver Age with his emergence and death as the Flash, I'd venture Booster Gold getting the nod from Batman closes the modern age, with Legends to Generation Lost coming full circle (if only they could have fought Brimstone! Or Despero!).

And despite that Generation Lost marks the pre-Flashpoint end for a number of these characters, I was pleasantly surprised to find DC even included six pages from the first issue of Keith Giffen/J. M. DeMatteis Justice League at the end of this book. It feels much too short, and the only connection between the characters in the excerpt and the Generation Lost team is Beetle Ted Kord and half a panel of Max Lord. I appreciated nonetheless, however, both DC Comics's sense of history and the continuing recognition that trade readers like previews, too. Only thing is, the book directs the reader to find more in the collected Justice League International volumes 1-6, furthering our suspicions that the series ends there and that volume 7 is not forthcoming.

As opposed to its companion series Brightest Day, where the last volume felt choppy and inconclusive, Justice League: Generation Lost takes its time, ties up most of its loose ends (the changes to Ice's origin still seem rather for naught), and offers an immensely satisfying story. Again, in contrast to Firestorm and others in Brightest Day, if these character have to head to (pre-Flashpoint) limbo, this was a high note to go out on. Writer Dan Jurgens's post-Flashpoint Justice League International series has big shoes to fill.

[Includes original and variant covers, excerpt from Justice League (1987). Printed on glossy paper]

Coming up later this week, we continue along the "Justice League International" path with a review of the entire original Dan Jurgens Booster Gold series with Showcase Presents Booster Gold, including some interesting insights into Booster's psyche. Don't miss it!