Last time on Continuity Nerds, we took a timely look into the chronology of Star Trek in commemoration of JJ Abrams’ latest entry into the series’ increasingly forked timeline. Now, in light of Disney’s much ballyhooed acquisition of Star Wars, as well as today’s announcement of the upcoming Star Wars: Rebels television series, let us take a moment to honor those who have devoted such painstaking efforts to codifying the history of a universe inexplicably set in the distant past despite its status as a science fiction mainstay: that of George Lucas’s Star Wars, and particularly its surrounding Expanded Universe.

For many years, Nathan P. Butler’s Star Wars Timeline Gold has been the authority on chronology within the Star Wars Galaxy. While the movies we all know and love or tolerate only cover a span of about twenty years, the rich collaborative history lent to it by novels, video games, and, yes, comics books (hopefully the TRO editorial board will have more on that soon) have taken the scope far beyond that: from the Old Republic Era of five thousand years before the battle of Yavin as depicted in the original film (which you may be familiar with from BioWare’s Old Republic video game series) to Dark Horse’s Legacy comics set over a hundred years after the Rebels [spoiler!] defeat the evil galactic empire in Return of the Jedi, and everything in between.

If you look hard enough, the timeline even features some interesting theories on how “long ago” the events of that galaxy far, far away actually are. (Hint: Star Wars‘ sister franchise Indiana Jones is involved.)

Would you believe that this singular project has cultivated its own devoted community? SWTG features a podcast, reviews, and even its own radio station. And with Disney expanding the franchise to fill the gap between the prequel and original trilogies, and extend it even further beyond, this mainstay of sci-fi nerddom will have its hands full for quite a while. May the obsessive compulsive data sorting be with you!

It also made me very happy to see that I’ve gotten some positive response to this little column, or article, or what-have-you that I do and I want to thank everyone who reads, everyone who comments and everyone involved with the site for giving me the opportunity to do this. All right, enough of that mush! Say it with me: “Disclaimer Time”!! All titles are paperback unless otherwise noted and the suggested retail price is just that: suggested. All of the dates are approximate and subject to change so you should always check with your local comic shop before planning your purchase.

Without further ado and absolutely no fanfare we begin!

MARVEL

WOLVERINE: THE BEST THERE IS – THE COMPLETE SERIES

OK, this sounds interesting. A crazy virologist wants to try and kill the unkillable Logan by eliminating his healing ability and taking him out. He uses vampires and demigods (WTF?) to try and push Logan to his limits and find out what he’s capable of. I like the idea of a guy who’s all about viruses trying to come up with one that will over ride Logan’s healing ability. Of course the X-Men help him get revenge and apparently some space pirates as well (again WTF?). If you can get past some of those oddities this might be a wild and original ride for fans of the Wolverine!

SRP: 29.99
Contains: Wolverine The Best There Is #1-12
Indigo, Amazon: May 14
TFAW, MCS: May 1

Cable And X-Force Vol. 1: Wanted

The Wild Man of Borneo is back! And he’s not off to the greatest start with his new X-Force. He gets branded a terrorist and has to fight his foster daughter, Hope. And they have to track down Colossus and figure out why his powers are on the fritz. Sounds like a crappy job, but if anyone can handle all of that and come out looking awesome it’s Cable! Sounds like a few one-off stories collected together to give you a taste of what’s to come from this new X-Force. Oh, there’s also something about them handling the jobs no one can know about, whatever that nonsense means.

SRP: 17.99
Contains: Cable And X-Force #1-5 and material from Marvel Now Point One #1
Indigo, Amazon: May 14
TFAW, MCS: May 1

The Avengers: Complete Collection by Geoff Johns

Do you like Geoff Johns? Do you like the Avengers? Well, have I got the book for you! Mr. DC cheats on his first love and gives us his take on Marvel’s flagship franchise with 3 different stories featuring Earth’s mightiest heroes. First – Thor takes the throne in Asgard and Iron Man tries to keep the Thunder God in line; second – every capital city on Earth vanishes and the remaining mortals look to the Avengers for guidance, and last but not least – Vision loses his memories and seeks help from his creator to reclaim them. Good stuff. Should be fun.

SRP: 29.99
Contains: Avengers (3rd series) #57-63, Vision #1-4, Thor (2nd series) #58 and Iron Man (3rd series) #63
Indigo, Amazon: June 11
TFAW, MCS: May 29

Superior Spider-Man Vol. 1
OK, so I was going to mention this book just so I could write something along the lines of ‘first he was amazing, then he was spectacular, but now he’s superior’, but then I read the plot and my jaw hit the floor. Apparently Spider-Man has been taken over by Dr. Octopus?! I swore I wouldn’t do this again this month, but, I have to give a firm and resounding ‘WTF?’ for this one! I’ll admit I’m not very up to date on my Marvel Universe and maybe I’m missing something, but how is this a good idea? It’s frackin’ nuts! Oh well, maybe somebody’s into it – issue 12 hits the news stand soon.

SRP: 17.99
Contains: Superior Spider-Man #1-5
Indigo, Amazon: June 11
TFAW, MCS: May 29

DC

Superman – Action Comics: Superman and The Men of Steel

DC’s been doing something kind of cool lately: the aforementioned book is making its paperback debut this month and, for those of us who don’t like to wait, Vol. 2 is making its hardcover debut in the same month. Not a bad idea, especially if you don’t care about keeping your collection uniform and you just want the story. They’re also doing this with two volumes of Aquaman. Written by Grant Morrison and featuring art by Rags Morales and Andy Kubert the book pretty much sells itself, but if you need added incentive, the book has something to do with the people of Earth turning against Superman, which I swear has happened before, but probably wasn’t written as well and it’s all been given the new 52 sheen.

SRP: 16.99
Contains: Action Comics #1-8
Indigo, Amazon: May 7
TFAW, MCS: May 1

New Teen Titans Omnibus Vol. 3 (HC)

Collecting the rest of the 1st series of New Teen Titans and the beginning of the 2nd series of New Teen Titans this omnibus will surely please fans of the world’s most famous team of sidekicks. The last omnibus included the best arcs the Titans ever had (Terra Incognito and New Judas Contract respectively), so this omnibus just won’t be able to live up to that amazingness. But, it’s still one of the best ways to get full color reprints of classic Titan action. And with over sized pages it’s also easier on the eyes, making sure you can stay up late in to the night devouring all the angsty fun.

SRP: 75.00 (can be found cheaper)
Contains: NTT (1st series) #38, 45-61, 66-67; NTT (2nd series) #1-6; Secret Origins Annual (2nd series) #3
Indigo, Amazon: June 4
TFAW, MCS: May 29

Top 10 – Absolute Edition (HC)

For anyone who’s unfamiliar with Alan Moore’s Eisner Award-winning Top 10 this is the first and only place you need to look. Including Vol. 1 and 2, plus the Forty-Niners original graphic novel and the Smax spin-off it is definitely the Absolute Edition. Precinct 10 is a city full of super powered humans and the men and women of Top 10 are the police force that keep order…or at least try to. This is a joint release between DC and America’s Best Comics and a better use of DC’s resources then re-releasing Watchmen for the hundreth time (seriously, deluxe hardcover edition this month, but who needs it?). It does cost a lot of money, but hopefully it will at least drum up interest in an under read book.

SRP: 99.99
Contains: Top Ten #1-12, Top Ten: Forty-Niners OGN, Smax #1-5
Indigo, Amazon: June 4
TFAW, MCS: May 29

Legion Of Super-Heroes: The Dominators

Anyone familiar with the Legion knows that the Dominators usually mean business. And anyone who’s unfamiliar, well, just look at the name. I like the Legion; they’re usually solid, sometimes a little ridiculous, (but, really, what comic book isn’t?) and always entertaining. There’s really not much to say. Fans will enjoy it. Anyone who’s curious might want to start with Volume 1 of their New 52 adventures or check out some Supergirl and The Legion books. Good stuff.

SRP: 16.99
Contains: Legion of Super-Heroes #8-14, #0
Indigo, Amazon: May 14
TFAW, MCS: May 8

Indies

Spawn Origins Vol. 18
I don’t know how this can be called ‘Origins’ when you hit Vol. 18, but, I guess it’s more enticing then ‘Spawn Re-Prints’ which is essentially what this is. I can’t find what happens in the 5 or 6 issues printed here, but I was able to find some hype that lets me know these volumes have exclusive bonus content, including black and white art, cover gallery and…classic quotes? I don’t know if the last one is necessary, but Spawn as a character is pretty sweet and these collections are fairly wallet friendly so that’s all good stuff. Side note: these are also released in hardcover editions with two trades in one hardcover at about twice the price.

Publisher: Image
SRP: 14.99
Contains: Spawn #105-110
Indigo, Amazon: May 28
TFAW, MCS: May 15

Rocketeer Adventures: Treasury Edition

This is a collection of…wait for it…Rocketeer Adventures (who’da thunk?). Written and drawn by various people, including Mark Waid and Darwyn Cooke, this is sort of a “best of” from the IDW vaults and includes Dave Stevens’, the creator, first Rocketeer story in 20 years. If you bought volume 1 or 2 of IDW’s take on the Rocketeer you might want to pass on this as it reprints material from those books, but, if you’re curious to see what the character’s like in print this is a good starting point. And then watch the old movie again because it’s actually pretty cool.

Publisher: IDW
SRP: 9.99
Contains: Various stories from IDW’s Rocketeer books
Indigo, Amazon: can’t find a listing for this on either site…odd….
TFAW, MCS: May 8

Prophecy

I’ll admit I only added this one because there wasn’t much exciting me this month in the indie trades, but upon further research this actually sounds kind of intriguing. It’s one of those big cross over books where the publisher takes a whole whack of their characters and forces them to come together to stop some evil. In this case the evil is the Mayan Doomsday Prophecy. OK, I’m not sure how that’ll play out exactly, but with Red Sonja, Dracula and Vampirella, Pantha and Athena, Dr. Herbert West, Ash, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson and even Alan Quatermain trying to figure it out I’m sure it’ll all end for the best.

Publisher: Dynamite
SRP: 19.99
Contains: #1-7
Indigo, Amazon: May 21
TFAW, MCS: May 8

Freaks’ Amour

Much like Prophecy, I’m not sure what this is, but it sounds really weird and I like weird so what the heck? Apparently this is a comic book sequel to a cult favorite novel written by Tom DeHaven. There’s been a nuclear explosion and the survivor’s are trying to raise money for surgery…I would assume to fix physical ailments. Again, I’m not familiar with this story, but it’s got grotesque sex shows and, this is what caught my eye, ‘drug-mutant goldfish eggs’. Not sure how any of that will lead to raising money, but, I’m definitely intrigued.

Publisher: Dark Horse
SRP: 17.99
Contains: Freaks Amour #1-3 and a prose sequel by DeHaven
Indigo, Amazon: May 21
TFAW, MCS: May 15

Fortunately, the best thing about the Internet is that whenever we’re feeling like total weirdos, there’s about a million websites out there for people who think just like us to aid in our unlikely hobbies. We at TRO exist to help you sort out comic book continuity by way of trade paperback collection, but if you’re like me, you’d like to bring the same level of organization to all nerdly endeavors.

Fortunately, the Internet can once again accommodate: and in our new “Continuity Nerds” feature, we will highlight the places and projects which do just that.

We begin with that old grand dame of American science fiction television, Star Trek. As we are now well into the Hollywood hype cycle for Star Trek into Darkness, J.J. Abrams’ second blockbuster motion picture entry into his alternate timeline-placed saga, perhaps you’d care enough to boldly go and seek out new entertainment within the series’ traditional continuity.

Well, folks, the Star Trek Chronology Project has you covered. Spanning five television series from the original, far ahead of its time Gene Roddenbery-penned adventures of Captain Kirk to the prequel adventures of (the perhaps superior Quantum Leap’s) Scott Bakula as Captain Archer, and all three series and ten movies in between.

Old hands at sci fi chronology know well that placing the ten pre-Abrams Star Trek films within a canonically sensible order is no easy task. Nor is the division of the later seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and its sequel/spin-offs Deep Space Nine and Voyager, which are all set more or less concurrently. However, the brave heroes at STCP have been hard at work with their captain’s log decoders, and the fruits of their labor are truly glorious.

A brief caveat: notably absent from the Star Trek Chronology Project are the novelizations, comic books, and animated series, all of questionable canonicity: this project exists only to codify the central live action canon, which standing alone paints a more than complete enough picture of this rich and engaging universe of the distant future.

I recommend taking advantage of the site’s detailed and intriguing look behind the curtain, revealing every aspect of their ordering methodology — a truly fascinating read by all accounts. Engage!

This review contains spoilers. Skip To The Verdict? »

One of the more durable fan discussions when it comes to Dragon Ball Z revolves around just what point creator Akira Toriyama would have stopped the story if he weren’t being pressured to continue it by means of lots and lots of cash.  Giving fuel to these discussions is the perception that the series had several points where it made sense for the story to end, but didn’t, opting instead to repeat variations of the same plot until I no longer really gave a damn.

That same feeling of “you could have stopped there, so why didn’t you?” also pervades Terry Moore’s Strangers in Paradise. While presumably no suitcases full of money were involved in his case, his chronicle of the lives of best friends Francine Peters and Katina “Katchoo” Choovanski had, across its run, several points in which the story could have logically ended in a satisfactory manner.  The series continued, though, and while it was never really bad, there came a point where plotlines started to repeat themselves and it began seeming apparent that Moore had no particular place where he wanted to take the characters, as evidenced by the increasing list of dropped plotlines and retcons. While the book continuously flirted with the idea of setting its two protagonists together romantically, it had also made a more than solid case for why that future was just not in the cards:  Yes, Katchoo was deeply in love with Francine, and wanted nothing more than for them to spend their lives as a couple.  Yes, Francine loved Katchoo, and had even made attempts to give her what she wanted.  In the end, though, that’s as far as things ever got:  Francine could not bring herself to take the final leap, and what’s more, every time the idea was broached, it ended badly, eventually driving what seemed to be a permanent wedge between the two.

When we’d left the cast at the end of the last book, they had all, if not gotten exactly what they’d wanted, at least gotten to place where they’d been able to make peace with their personal demons. Katchoo’s career as an artist had taken off and she had just opened an art school. She and David, her other best friend / love interest, had gotten to a point in their relationship in which they could just be friends without drowning in drama.  Another friend, Casey, tired of the Vegas showgirl life, moved back to Houston; Freddy, her ex-husband, was dating a coroner and had managed, to a degree, to bury the hatchet in his relationship with Katchoo.  Only Francine had gotten what she initially wanted with her marriage to Brad Silver: despite rocky spots and her continued estrangement from Katchoo, her marriage appeared to be a success.

The story could have ended there.  Sure, it wouldn’t have been a particularly neat ending, but it would have been perfectly in line with the series’ argument that relationships are messy and complex. Instead, Moore decided to finish things with the “ideal” happy ending of getting his protagonist Katchoo together with the love of her life.

Thus, the job of this sixth volume is thus to destroy the status quo and return a sense of uncertainty to the characters’ lives, in order to set up the end game.  Katchoo and Francine reconcile.  David and Casey begin to date, only for the relationship to be jeopardized by the discovery that David has a brain tumor.  Francine discovers that Brad has cheated on her, just as his brother, famous crooner and recurring character Griffin Silver, is killed; she decides that Katchoo was always The One, and that she wants a divorce so that she can go after her.

Casey decides that she wants to have David’s baby before he dies, and Katchoo agrees to serve as surrogate, since Casey’s past bout with anorexia has left her unable to carry a child.  They also attempt to get their ducks in a row so that David can receive some experimental treatment for his tumor, but that measure proves ineffective as David dies.

David’s last will and testament leaves to Katchoo his billion dollar fortune (inherited from his dead half-sister Darcy Parker, and more theoretical than actual, given that is being held by the I.R.S., which plans to keep it tied up in red tape forever) and reveals that Casey had, for the entire period of time in which she knew the cast, been working for Tambi (a.k.a. Mary Beth Baker, Katchoo’s half-sister and the heir to a crime syndicate formerly led by Darcy, for whom Katchoo previously worked for as a prostitute) to spy on Katchoo and keep her safe.  Not long after, Francine and Katchoo finally get together, just in time to realize that a) they’re both pregnant, and b) that Tambi and Casey had arranged to free up half of David’s inheritance, making the new couple millionaires many many many many times over.  The end.

It is perhaps appropriate that the series ends with the two protagonists striking it rich, because the ending makes me think of watching somebody else win the lottery: it feels too easy, too unearned, and too arbitrary. As much a fan I was of the idea of Francine and Katchoo as a couple, the book had made too good a case for why that could not actually work in practice, and revisiting that idea again was the last thing I wanted for the book, particularly since the book then goes on to ignore the very complications it helped raise in its quest to get the characters together.  Suddenly, an epiphany is all Francine needs, which frankly, leaves me unconvinced: she’s had those before, too, and they didn’t help.

What’s more, it ends up feeling like a step backwards for both characters.  Francine’s new-found resolve never gets tested—Katchoo only puts up token resistance when Francince confesses her love, and any complications arising from her divorce are dealt with off-panel—and therefore the question of whether she’s actually all in never gets actually dealt with—we don’t find out if she’s truly changed because the story ends.  Plus, a huge part of Katchoo’s arc has been realizing that Francine is very much like her recurring alcohol problem, accepting that, and learning to be happy without her.  While that growth didn’t make a reunion out of the question—and I did appreciate the eventual rekindling of their friendship—the quickness with which it occurs makes me think not of romance, but of falling off the wagon.

Then there’s the twin pregnancies.  One I could have lived with, because children figured so heavily in Francine’s dream future–and even then, there was nothing requiring one to be introduced just as the two characters got together.  Two suggests that Moore believed a story about women couldn’t be truly happy if motherhood wasn’t thrust upon them, which is problematic, to say the least.  It’s especially frustrating, since the whole reason Katchoo consented to getting impregnated in the first place was because Casey wanted David’s child.  This, however, is never brought up again after we learn of Katchoo’s pregnancy; we’re left having to conclude that Casey for some unexplained reason stopped caring or stopped having a stake in what was to be her child, and it feels like a slap in the face.

The way the endgame treats Casey is probably what bothers me the most, not only because the “she’s a spy” retcon is a transparent ass pull—things like moving to Vegas makes absolutely no sense if her job was keeping an eye on Katchoo, and that’s only one of about a dozen inconsistencies the “twist” creates—but because it places everything about her in question.  Even the book doesn’t seem to be clear about how much of her life is fabricated—on the same scene where Freddy Femur argues that everything but the lie was the real her, he comments that he likes the real her better, which is nonsensical at best.  Perhaps more importantly, given how Casey had grown into something particularly special–characters like her are often jokes, so it was nice to see someone who’s ditzy and looks-oriented and guileless be treated like a complex person—the fact that we’re no longer able to take what she is on faith is heartbreaking.  It’s a completely unnecessary development, there, as far as I can see, to facilitate hooking her up with Tambi, which if that is the case, feels utterly disrespectful for both characters.

Equally disrespectful and frustrating is what Casey’s outing says about David.  While it is perfectly in character for him to out someone without their consent, the fact that doing so is, in effect, the last thing he ever does, leaves a bad taste in my mouth, compounded by the fact that this and other similar actions don’t stop everyone else from basically nominating him for sainthood. It’s things like this that prevent me from thinking Strangers in Paradise as an fully feminist text: in its unwillingness to call out problematic behavior, it helps normalize it.  Freddy Femur may be an ass, but at least the book didn’t pretend otherwise.

In short, the way the series tramples over everything in order to get to the end makes me want to hate this book with every fiber of my being.  It’d be the easiest thing in the world to do, except that Terry Moore is still an excellent storyteller, and even when the story itself isn’t up to snuff, he still tells it in ways few can.

Last week I bought the second issue of the Jimmie Robinson mini-series Five Weapons (it was quite good).  Among the various notable things about the book is the way its pages are structured around the exclusive use of the letterbox panel—panels that take up the entire width of the page—a detail I admit with no small amount of shame, I paid no attention to until it was mentioned elsewhere.

It’s impossible not to notice how pages are structured in Strangers in Paradise, however, or how the sheer variety of well-timed techniques help in making even the dodgiest of stories palatable.  Depending on the needs of the scene, Moore can be either very wordy—although never to the point of overwhelming the art—or completely silent.  There’s text pages, poetry, and mini-stories within the story, which combined with Moore’s gift for character design (People with different body types!  How is that not the bare minimum for artists?)  and expressions help make the world feel very real, despite the sometimes farfetched plotting. It’s the opposite approach to that of Archie: The Married Life, which nevertheless takes SiP to that same place.

One particular thing I’d like to mention about the art is the way it mostly manages to avoid the male gaze, which is particularly impressive given how much (unlikely to lead to pearl-clutching) nudity there actually is in the book.  There’s a particular scene in which Francine is taking a phone call while half-dressed, and it took some thinking before I actually realized that that was actually the case, because of casual it is treated—she could have been wearing pants, and the way the scene is staged wouldn’t have changed at all.  Like reality, the world of Strangers in Paradise is not one where nudity inherently suggests sex, which feels incredibly rare, in comics.

I want to like this comic so much.  Growing up, Strangers in Paradise formed an essential part in my formation as a comic book reader.  It helped me appreciate narratives outside the superhero subgenre, it broadened my then limited view of human sexuality, and it helped me realize that hey, stories about women matter.  It was by no means perfect or as progressive as it could have been—heaven knows it could have used more People of Color that didn’t all belong to the same family—but it was a sterling example of what mainstream comics could be, and should have been all along.  It deserved a better ending than it got.

Verdict:
The plot is rather horrible, but there’s no denying Moore’s storytelling chops. 3 out of 5.

Essential Continuity:
It depends on how much you want to see Katchoo and Francine get together.  If you want that, then yeah, this is kind of essential.  If not, you can totally check out at Book 5 and still get a satisfying ending of sorts.

Read first:
Books 1 – 5, all of which are better than this one and are just as accessible.

Read next:
I’ve recommended it before, but Rachel Rising, also by Terry Moore, really is great so far.

« Back to the top?

Without further ado and absolutely no fan fare we begin!

MARVEL

Uncanny X-Force Vol. 6: Final Execution Vol. 1

Ok, first things first: I generally write this column to highlight books that look cool, but, I’m going to use this time to gripe a little. Do we really need two volumes in the title? I realize the Vol. 6 is not necessarily in the official title, but, it still makes for a slightly redundant mouthful. My Comic Shop has taken it upon themselves to remove the second Vol. from the title and call it Part 1, Amazon and Indigo have called it Book 1 and Things From Another World is rocking the Vol. still. As for the book itself things are sounding a little ‘been there, done that’. It might be the end of the team, (how come teams are always on the verge of ending?), a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants is deadlier-than-ever, (how can they always be deadlier than the last time? when are they just a regular, old threat?) and apparently their new attacks have been designed to hurt each member personally. Oh ya, the head of the Evil Mutants also knows all their weaknesses which doesn’t surprise me at all. Hopefully the actual writing is better then the plot.

SRP: 19.99
Contains: Uncanny X-Force #25-29
Indigo, Amazon – April 23
My Comic Shop, Things From Another World – April 10

Road To Oz (HC)

Delivering Vol. 5 in a series of adaptations of the classic Oz books Marvel once again enlists Eric Shanower and Skottie Young to take the fanciful words and ideas of L. Frank Baum and give them life in four color panels. Anyone who’s read the first four and enjoyed them will surely jump on board for another outing. And for anyone who’s just curious, this is as good a place to start as any since we’re all pretty familiar with the story of Dorothy and Toto by now.

SRP: 24.99
Contains: Road To Oz #1-6
Indigo, Amazon – April 23
TFAW, MCS – April 10

Marvel’s Iron Man 3: Prelude

There’s not one, not two, not even three, but, seven books coming out this month with Tony Stark’s affluent paws all over them, including a prose adaptation of Warren Ellis’ Iron Man: Extremis and, randomly, Iron Man 2020. Do you think they’re trying to capitalize on a new movie coming out? Maybe just a little. As you’d expect this is a quickly thrown together book that includes a two part adaptation of Iron Man 2 and a prelude to Iron Man 3. If you absolutely have to have everything featuring the metal-suited avenger then you’ll be getting this. The rest of us probably don’t need to bother and our money would be much better spent on the aforementioned Extremis, which is making it’s trade debut the same day as the prose novel.

SRP: 14.99
Contains: Iron Man 2 #1-2, Iron Man 3 Prelude #1-2
Indigo, Amazon – April 9
TFAW, MCS – April 11

Marvel Masterworks: The Incredible Hulk Vol. 7 (HC)

Sifting through countless X titles, Avengers books and a multitude of Iron Man titles I was hard pressed to find a fourth feature. Then I saw this little beauty. Just over 250 pages of classic, Hulk-smashing action featured in a classy hardcover volume. Sure beats random one-offs from Spider-Man or reading about Venom being a hero, (what?!!). There’s really not much that needs to be said – this one sells itself. Also check out, Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor Vol. 4 coming out in paperback on the 24th for a more wallet friendly $25.

SRP: 69.99
Contains: Incredible Hulk (1st series) #135-144, Avengers (1st series) #88, Marvel Super Heroes (1st series) #16
Indigo, Amazon – April 30 (you can save almost $30 by waiting)
TFAW, MCS – April 17

DC

Punk Rock Jesus

I agonized on whether or not to include this, but, in the end I had to. Just read the title, look at the cover art! How could I not? Putting forth what sounds like a highly blasphemous mini-series DC decided to give Vertigo the honors publishing it under their banner , which makes a lot of sense. Apparently an American-Idol style show is used to decide who the mother of the new messiah will be and apparently he grows up to be an angsty teenager who captivates the nation with his punk rock antics. Does this sound f*&^%d? Absolutely! Does it also sound entertaining as hell? Sweet Jesus yes! Can I get an Amen, brothers and sisters?!

SRP: 16.99
Contains: Punk Rock Jesus #1-6 and 10 new pages of story
Indigo, Amazon – April 9
TFAW, MCS – April 3

DC Universe by Alan Moore

This is basically an expanded re-release of the awesome DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore. Anyone who hasn’t read that yet, (whoever that could possibly be), needs to jump on this. Anyone who has read it may want to think about replacing their, I’m assuming, worn out copy. In addition to everything in the first version there is a Voodoo mini-series he wrote for Image in the mid 90‘s and a Deathblow mini-series from ‘99. I’m seriously considering getting this even though my bank account wishes I wouldn’t.

SRP: 24.99
Contains: 464 pages of 80‘s and 90‘s awesomeness from one of the greats.
Indigo, Amazon – April 9
TFAW, MCS – April 3

Worlds’ Finest Vol. 1: The Lost Daughters Of Earth 2

Featuring Power Girl and Huntress, (the titular daughters of Earth 2), this New 52 title shows how they came to be stranded on our Earth through flashback while showing them working together in the present to stop the Irradiated Man. Featuring art by George Perez and Kevin Maguire and words by Paul Levitz it’s definitely got some star power behind it. Let’s hope it all adds up to something awesome cause a book with Power Girl and Huntress, on paper, doesn’t sound like it’ll work, but, I’m still intrigued enough to add it to my pull list.

SRP: 14.99
Contains: Worlds Finest (3rd series) #0-5
Indigo, Amazon – April 16
TFAW, MCS – April 3

The Flash Chronicles Vol. 4

Collecting old Flash adventures in chronological order this is essentially a fancier version of Showcase Presents. For the uninitiated Showcase Presents is budge re-prints of Gold and Silver age adventures featuring some of DC’s biggest names. They are a cheap way to collect massive amounts of back issues with each book being roughly 500 pages. The chronicles are basically the same thing, but, they have the issues in full color, which, for some of us, is a big deal and can add to the over all enjoyment. Both the Showcase books and the Chronicle books are roughly the same price so it’s really personal preference as owning both books would be redundant.

SRP: 14.99
Contains: Flash (1st series) #119-124
Indigo, Amazon – April 16
TFAW, MCS – April 10

INDIES

Army Of Darkness Omnibus Vol. 3 (HC)

Tales of Heroism gone absolutely wrong is how Dynamite chooses to describe this third Omnibus and considering the source material that sounds absolutely correct. For those of us who couldn’t get enough of the Sam Raimi classic Dynamite has been nursing our wounds since 2004, so, by this point, they probably know what they’re doing. Like the previous volumes this one also includes a beautifully gory cover gallery for further pervasive delight.

Publisher: Dynamite
SRP: 29.99
Contains: Army of Darkness (3rd series) #13-27
Indigo, Amazon – May 7
TFAW, MCS – April 24

Fanboys Vs. Zombies Vol. 2

Similar to Punk Rock Jesus this one got me from the title and begged me to find out more. It sounds like fairly routine zombie territory: plague of the undead trapping a group of survivors somewhere, in this case the somewhere is the San Diego Comic-Con and the group of survivors are, well, nerds. Sounds like it’ll be full of meta-rific jokes, puns and one-liners backed with enough gore to fill a dump truck.  Maybe I should be more sophisticated or discerning in my choices but I chuckled at the cover, a take on a classic Walking Dead issue.  This seems to be a continuation to what was laid down in Vol. 1 so you might want to start there.

Publisher: Boom! Studios
SRP: 14.99
Contains: Fanboys Vs. Zombies #5-8
Indigo, Amazon – May 7
TFAW, MCS – April 24

Aliens: Inhuman Condition (HC)

I know I shouldn’t like this or even care, but, I can’t help myself. Anything with even the slightest hint of a link to the 20th Century Fox property and I’m instantly intrigued. This one also has art by Sam Keith and the story by Chew author, John Layman, so I’m extra curious. The plot has something to do with androids being manufactured in secret and sent out to be tested against a hive of Xeno’s while their maker begins to wonder who’s more brutal – man or Xenomorph. Sounds…well, it sounds kind of lame to be honest, but, I don’t care. I want it. It seems to include 5 issues but only equals about 60 pages so I’m assuming this story was printed about 10-12 pages at a time as a second feature. Either way, I can’t wait to see what Sam Keith does with Xenomorphs.

Publisher: Dark Horse
SRP: 10.99
Contains: Material from Dark Horse Presents #12-17
Indigo, Amazon – May 7
TFAW, MCS – April 10

Mars Attacks IDW

At first I thought this was just a typo, of sorts, but, upon further research it’s exactly what the title says. The martians from Mars Attacks invade different properties from IDW. Goofy? Yes. But, that’s what we’ve come to expect from Mars Attacks and if it isn’t then apparentely I’ve completely missed the point. If you want to see what the martians do when they’re faced with Popeye, Kiss, Real Ghostbusters, Transformers and Zombies Vs. Robots then this is the book for you. Everyone else need not apply.

Publisher: IDW
SRP: 19.99
Contains: 162 pages of attack-tion
Indigo, Amazon – April 30
TFAW, MCS – April 17

This review is spoiler-free! Skip To The Verdict? »

Two words I don’t want to read in another review anytime soon are “love” and “letter.” It’s not a very high compliment to pay a comic book that the best thing it does is remind you of better comics. Ultimately we’re not going to remember the love letter when we have its subject to admire.

Treehouse of Horror is not a love letter to Tales from the Crypt. Treehouse of Horror is the real thing.

Dead Man’s Jest starts with issue 10, featuring four stories respectively plotted or conceived by metal artists Gene Simmons, Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie and Pat Boone. The issue isn’t one of my favorites as I feel that it suffers for being a little indulgent of its guest talent, but nevertheless stands strong on stunning artwork and good writing.

The first story stands out visually, with bold pencils by Tone Rodriguez, dramatic inks by Andrew Pepoy and coloring by Joey Mason that brings the whole thing together to breath taking results. You could take any splash panel out of this story and proudly airbrush it on the side of your van. Some good gags here include Ralph Wiggum drawn as Hello Kitty and the revelation that Marge only wears her hair like that to hide Gene Simmons’ bass guitar.

At its weakest, Treehouse of Horror still succeeds as a remarkable pop culture artifact. When the the sheer craftsmanship is on this level, certain degree of post-modern terror is inherent to the very concept of seeing The Simpsons in nightmarish scenarios.

Issue 11 is among my favorites in part because it’s just such a beautiful piece of comic art, and in part because editor Bill Morrison recruited everybody for this one. John Severin, Al Williamson and Angelo Torres handle stories that place The Simpsons in classic E.C. plotlines, Bernie Wrightson recasts Swamp Thing with Homer in the lead in a Len Wein scripted remake, and Gene Colan gives us a Marv Wolfman-written Dracula story with Mister Burns in the titular role. It’s a breath taking lineup of talent, and you can get more than your money’s worth by just flipping through this issue and taking in the art.

The stories in this issue are direct revisits of classic four color horror tales, but, like Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, they’re more than just spoofs. “Squish Thing”, assisted by Wrightson’s romantic inks and Wein’s script feels, at times, as tragic and haunting as the original Swamp Thing story. The final page of the E.C. section of the book is as effective a heart-stopper as you have any right to expect when you open up an issue of Tales from the Crypt or Shock SuspenStories.

Treehouse of Horror is only published once a year, and as much as I’d love to see more, this keeps the series condensed and prevents it from repeating itself. If we’re being totally honest, you can afford to skim most E.C. stories or skip to the ending after you’ve read a dozen or so issues. They covered the same material over and over again, and Warren’s Creepy and Eerie magazines were even worse.

Like Bruce Jones’ Twisted Tales and Alien Worlds, the fact that there are fewer than twenty issues of Treehouse of Horror to sort through make every issue that much more precious and unique. Every month, E.C. had to publish Shock SuspenStories, Crime SuspenStories, Tales from the Crypt, Haunt of Fear, and Vault of Terror, and that’s not counting the sci-fi and war titles. Three stories per issue, five issues a month and sooner or later a lot of the material starts to run together. Bill Morrison instead kept the series fresh with one stunning issue a year.

Morrison resigned from his position as editor in chief at Bongo Comics last year, which came as a disappointment, but Matt Groening retains sole publishing rights for Simpsons comics, and this explains why Treehouse is such a great series: it’s a creator-owned horror series published by the guy behind Life in Hell, the most subtly terrifying and nihilistic comic strip of all time.

I give Dead Man’s Jest my highest possible recommendation as a fan of horror comics, as a reader who grew up watching The Simpsons starting with the Tracey Ullman shorts, and as an admirer of pop art. Treehouse of Horror is not just an homage or a pastiche or a spoof or a love letter, it’s the real thing.

Verdict:
4 out of 5 stars. The stories in issue 10 are more fun to look at than to read, but issue 11 is a solid 5. The whole series is required reading for anyone who wishes E.C. was still around, anyone who grew up with The Simpsons, and anyone who wants a glimpse of the weirdness that James Harvey’s Bartkira project is going to unleash on the world.

Essential Continuity:
As in the TV show, Treehouse of Horror is non-canon to the rest of the Bongo universe.

Read first:
Issue 11 is a good example of what Treehouse is all about, but with only 18 issues to the series, you could easily sit down and read the entire thing in a weekend.

Read next:
From Beyond the Grave has some really fun stories in it, like a surprisingly gory Jaws spoof and Lenny starring in the Roddy Piper role in a retelling of They Live!

« Back to the top?

This review contains minor spoilers. Skip To The Verdict? »

They made it look so easy.  Back in 2006, in a universe where legal red tape seemed specifically designed to prevent us from having nice things like guest appearances by Wonder Woman in Smallville,  it sometimes seemed like a miracle to have characters from Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo regularly guest star in the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as if it were no thing and copyright laws didn’t exist.

Then again, connections matter. Back then the Ninja Turtles were wholly owned by their co-creator Peter Laird, who is a close personal friend of Usagi Yojimbo creator Stan Sakai, which made things much easier than they might have otherwise been.  It also helped that the two properties had by then shared a decades-old connection that made them, if not quite sister properties, then at least close cousins.

In 1987, the Turtles anthology Turtle Soup featured a Sakai-created meeting between ninja turtle Leonardo and Usagi, and Peter Laird later reciprocated in Usagi’s book. Another version of Usagi had also made appearances in the original Turtles cartoon. Heck, when Usagi Yojimbo stopped being published by Fantagraphics, it found a home with Laird and Kevin Eastman’s Mirage Studios, and back when that happened, in 1993, it felt only appropriate to see the new series begin with a story guest-starring the characters with whom  Usagi had for so long shared a relationship.

That story, which headlines this book and is titled “Shades of Green”, begins when masterless samurai Miyamoto Usagi (a rabbit) and his friend and frequent traveling companion, bounty hunter Murakami Gennosuke (a hard-drinking, hard-living rhinoceros) are attacked a band of Neko Clan (a group of ninja cats who have served as both antagonists and allies throughout the book’s history) for no particular reason.  The two friends’ escape eventually leads them into the path of Kakera, a rat whose pseudo-mystical powers have caused him to be hunted down by the Neko.  Usagi and Gen’s new acquaintance requests the two friends’ aid, and after realizing that they won’t be enough, he uses his don’t-call-them-magic abilities to pierce the veil between universes and bring the turtles to Usagi’s world.

And that’s the setup.  As far as Usagi Yojimbo stories go, it’s not too different from stories Sakai has attempted in the past, and the turtles don’t add as much as one would think. Leonardo gets closest to influencing the plot, and gets a few moments where he reminisces of his past encounter with Usagi, while Michelangelo gets in a few jokes—including one where he questions the foundations of Usagi‘s world of anthropomorphic animals which is the highlight of the story—but aside from that, it’s not the sort of story that required the turtles, and could have worked just as easily without them.

What prevents “Shades of Green” from feeling completely weightless is the way that Sakai manages to use it to move his ongoing plots along.  While the thrust of the story is keeping Kakera (a character who had never appeared before, never appears again, and was, from all appearances, created solely to facilitate the crossover—heck, his name is the Japanese word for “Splinter”, the name of the turtles’ own rat master) away from the Neko Ninja’s clutches, the reason why the rat is being hunted is tied back to previous storylines, and the story ends with a kiss that sets up one of the book’s key relationships going forward.

Of course, even if that had not been the case, a lack of weight or plot progression isn’t necessarily the mark of a bad comic, and Usagi Yojimbo in particular has a history of making even its most trivial-seeming story feel worthwhile.  While this isn’t a story that, strictly speaking, had a reason to exist, it’s still quite enjoyable in a familiar kind of way.  In the end, as a fan of both properties, I’m glad to see them interact in this manner.

Shades of Death‘s other big story is “Shi”, which features another take on the tried-and-true Usagi formula of “Usagi visits troubled town, and solves the villagers’ problems via killing.”  This particular version features a love triangle between Usagi, a village girl tired of her provincial life, and her childhood sweetheart; a corrupt magistrate and his treacherous brother, who seek to kill everyone in the village; and a group of assassins with a pun for a name.  It’s not the best of its kind—part of the set-up of this story is that most of the villagers are annoying for different reasons, which logically results in a story with various annoying characters—but it’s still solidly built, and includes some nice set-pieces, particularly in Usagi’s battle with the assassins.

Rounding out the book are a handful of shorter stories.  The best by a considerable amount is “Jizo”, told from point of view of a statue of the guardian deity of children as it “observes” the events of the day after it is erected. “The Lizard’s Tale” is a humorous dialogue-less story focusing on the tokage, the lizards that make up a large part of the ecosystem in Usagi’s Japan. Finally, there’s a trio of tales starring young Usagi: the first, “Usagi´s Garden”, is a fable about respecting hard work.  The second , “Autumn”, features another Usagi standby, the tale where Usagi is involved in supernatural shenanigans which may or may not have happened but actually did.  Finally, there is “Battlefield”, about the consequences of war both large and small, which serves as a major turning point in Usagi’s journey towards maturity.

Usagi Yojimbo has got to be both the hardest and easiest series to review well.  On one hand, it has, for more than two and a half decades, been a series of consistently superlative craft on all levels.  On the other hand, it has for more than two and a half decades, been a series of consistently superlative craft on all levels.  What is there to say about that, once you’ve said it once?  And if the book is that consistent, why continue buying it?  Why not just buy a sampler, and stop before the law of diminishing returns sets in?

This book, at least, presents a good example of why and how the book manages to so consistently entertain: basically, it’s one of the most versatile books out there.  Depending on what issue one buys, Usagi Yojimbo can be a samurai epic, a detective story, a yarn, a fable, and no matter which it is, one can be almost certain that it will be good.


Verdict:
Issue after issue, one truth remains: Usagi Yojimbo is a very pleasant book. 4 out of 5.

Essential Continuity:
One thing stops this book from being eminently skippable from a mytharc perspective: it features the first meeting between Usagi and Chizu, who will become a major character down the line.

Read first:
Usagi Yojimbo Book 4: The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy, which includes several key events that end up driving the main story here and features the aforementioned Chizu’s first appearance.

Read next:
If you don’t care to look for the other 25 books collecting Usagi’s three comic book series, there’s Don Rosa’s The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck.  It’s like Citizen Kane for kids*.

« Back to the top?

—

* Partly because it has actual references to Citizen Kane.

Hello faithful TROtskies!! Lee here stepping on Uncle Gorby’s toes for a minute to offer you the tiniest hint of an update. As I’m sure some of you are starting to realize I’m a huge fan of DC and if you didn’t know you do now.  So, I’ve been tasked with updating and completing the DC files. This is a massive task, like, Anti-Monitor massive. What this involves is updating cover images; creators; characters and other assorted information involving links and library numbers. Some of the books have literally no information and I’m starting from scratch, other books are easier to deal with. Over the course of the spring/summer I’m hoping to be able to get most, if not all, of the DC list completed and indexed making it easier for you, our most amazing readers, to find and catalog what you’re looking for. Below is a list of the titles that have been updated, or if you don’t feel like reading the whole list, roughly the first 6 pages have been completed. As always if any of you have suggestions please don’t hesitate to let us know.

Camelot 3000 Deluxe Edition – new cover, creators, isbn etc.
Camelot 3000 – new cover, creators, isbn etc.
The New Teen Titans: The Terror Of Trigon – new cover, creators, characters, isbn etc.
Legion Of Super-Heroes: An Eye For An Eye – new cover, creators, characters, isbn etc.
Batman: The Wrath – new cover, creators, characters, isbn etc.
Nightwing: Year One – new cover, creators, characters, isbn etc.
The New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract – new cover, creators, characters, isbn etc. etc.
Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told Vol. 1 – new cover, creators, characters, isbn etc. etc.
Showcase Presents: Captain Carrot – new cover, creators, characters, isbn etc. etc.
The New Teen Titans: Terra Incognito – new cover, creators, characters, isbn etc. etc.
The New Teen Titans Archives Vol. 4 – new cover, creators, characters, isbn etc. etc.
The New Teen Titans Archives Vol. 3 – new cover, creators, characters, isbn etc. etc.
Justice League Of America Vol. 9 – new cover, characters
Showcase Presents: Teen Titans Vol. 2 – new cover, characters, creators, CBDB link
Showcase Presents: Robin The Boy Wonder – new cover, CBDB link
Jack Kirbys OMAC One Man Army Corps Omnibus – new cover
Batman In The Seventies – new cover, characters
Huntress: Dark Knight Daughter – new cover
Superman Archives Vol. 6 – new cover
Showcase Presents: The Haunted Tank Vol. 2 – new cover
Batman: Strange Apparitions – new cover, creators, characters, isbn etc. etc.
The Spirit: Femmes Fatales – new cover
The Robin Archives Vol. 2 – new cover
The Best Of The Spirit – new cover
Superman: The Man Of Tomorrow Archives Vol. 2 – new cover
Batman: The Annuals Vol. 2 – new cover, creators

This review contains some spoilers. Skip To The Verdict? »

I knew very little about Moon Girl going into this book. I was aware she was EC Comics’ only superhero created by none other than Max Gaines, the “father of the modern comic book,” in the late 1940s. He’d left All-American Comics, where he published the (not coincidentally) very similar Wonder Woman and started his own line—Educational Comics, specializing in wholesome genre tales. After Gaines’s tragic death, the company was inherited by his son Bill, who would take their magazines in a drastically different direction and cement EC Comics’ place in history as the home of Tales from the Crypt and Crime SuspenStories.

It’s easy to tell from the stories and from the notorious name changes of Moon Girl’s magazine that the younger Gaines had no idea what to do with the character. The first issue went out under the name Moon Girl and the Prince, referring to Prince Mengu, who definitely belongs high on any list of useless superhero sidekicks. For a few more issues it was simply Moon Girl, then when it became clear that the superhero fad was on a downturn and crime stories were on the rise, it became Moon Girl Fights Crime. Finally, Gaines retired the Moon Girl character quietly and revived the rag as a romance magazine. The hero’s name, however, lived on somewhat in the title: A Moon, a Girl…Romance. A few issues later, it became Weird Fantasy, one of the flagship anthology titles of the new EC, and the rest is history.

The original Moon Girl has never been reprinted, but some scans are available online (see below). The stories are fun and pulpy, but fairly mediocre, and they definitely don’t rank among the best work of their excellent creative team—writer Gardner F. Fox and penciller Sheldon Moldoff. There are a few clever send-ups to the old stories in this reboot miniseries from Red 5 Comics, but they aren’t indulgent and they don’t hinder the storytelling.

I’ll be honest: with Moon Girl, I expected just another drop in the bucket of superhero “revisionist” books with nothing more interesting to say than “Look! Superheroes can be screwed up too! Blood! Gore! Sex! Is this literature now?” This book could have easily been sunk by taking itself too seriously. Instead, it’s mercifully self-aware of the inherent absurdity of its genre. This comic is very dark and very violent, but it also has a brain.

Is it a masterpiece? Well, no, but it has a lot going for it. Rahzzah’s lush art is a feast for the eyes. He draws women a bit more buxom than is perhaps necessary, but they aren’t contorting themselves into the absurd Liefeld-esque positions that have become prevalent in far too many books nowadays. The action scenes are bizarre and sometimes hard to follow, but the internal logic keeps it on the rails. By the same token, Zito and Trov’s writing is hardly revolutionary, but they’ve conceptualized their world well. The scenes rarely drag, and while the occasional line of dialogue rings sour, I was only taken out of the story a few times, when the book’s villains would monologue about their political motivations. Which brings me neatly to the book’s events and themes.

Zito and Trov chose to tell their story nonlinearly. I’m not sure why. We’re thrown right into the thick of the action—the first panel is a splash page of Moon Girl punching her nemesis Satana through a window. This was not a particularly good first impression and I expected the rest of the book to be just another dull beat-em-up. Thankfully, I was proven wrong. As the action progressed and the world came into focus I found myself enthralled just trying to piece the puzzle together of these characters’ motivations and why all this was happening. Backstories are told through flashbacks, but I think with maybe a few issues more of breathing room the story would have been more effective if told from beginning to end.

Identity is a prominent theme in the story, with Moon Girl torn between her civilian guise of Clare Lune, her superhero career (which spawned a major counterculture movement), and her supposed past as Russian princess Klara Luna. By the end of the book, I wasn’t sure if the Russian backstory was true at all or just another false memory created by Satana, Sugar Plum Fairy, and Tiki Bob—three admittedly awesome and menacing “villains.” One thing this book makes clear in the generous bonus material that comes after the story—which includes an underground zine featuring pieces attributed to Sartre and Ginsberg—is that the counterculture movement which Moon Girl spawned is split into many factions with many motivations. The hero and villain distinction is arbitrary and media-driven. That’s a cool idea. But I wish that facet of the world was explored more in the actual narrative rather than in the bonus section. What were all those other heroes up to?

With my first read, I found the ending to be rather sloppily mounted. Something happens to Moon Girl’s brain, then stuff blows up and Sugar Plum talks in circles about what being a superhero means. The last page felt like it should be uplifting with Clare and her friend Star driving off into a new life but I was still trying to parse what exactly just happened a few pages ago—I was no longer as connected to the work as before.

However, on my second read, a lot of subtleties became clear, and what I thought was a half-baked ending turned out to be rather poignant. This is a classic pitfall in superhero books as well as disaster films. All the action feels important, but if the story doesn’t give us an anchor to hold onto—usually a specific character’s perspective—it feels empty. Books like this that come to mind include Black Summer, The Dark Knight Strikes Again, and any of the big event books from DC or Marvel. On the flip side, when Grant Morrison was writing JLA there’d be an earth-threatening crisis every few issues. And Watchmen’s climax has become somewhat notorious for confusing readers. But those books both feature a well-rounded cast and themes that are made clear not through pedantic monologues but through character interactions and world development. Something I noticed while writing this is that I’ve read all of those aforementioned books twice, and the second readings were necessary to pull all the disparate pieces together. The same was true of Moon Girl.

Verdict:
As a revisionist superhero tale, Moon Girl is thought-provoking and sometimes devastatingly clever, particularly when taking into account the bonus material in the back. In fact, I actually recommend reading the bonus section first. As a work of art, the book has its faults but I don’t regret reading it at all and definitely think it’s worth your time. I just wanted more. I know brevity is the soul of wit, but in this case, even after I’d finished it and let the chapters coalesce into what turns out to be quite a complex and intelligent whole, I still felt like there was more story to be told. I give it a 3.6 out of 5.

Essential Continuity:
As a self-contained work it is the only relevant continuity to itself, so yes.

Read first:
Again, I recommend reading the expansive bonus section in the back of the book to get acquainted with this world before starting the story.

Also, here are some links to articles about the original Moon Girl with some story scans. The modern series does not take place in these old stories’ continuity or anything like that, but these articles are still helpful for contextualizing the work. And Sheldon Moldoff art is always worth a look.

Read next:
If you want to read more from Johnny Zito and Tony Trov, they have also collaborated on a book called D.O.G.S. of Mars.

Rahzzah is on DeviantArt and Tumblr.

« Back to the top?

This review contains heavy spoilers. Skip To The Verdict? »

Connor Hawke, the second Green Arrow, is one of the more interesting legacy characters in DC’s pre-reboot cast, as well as one of my very favorite characters. As the illegitimate son of the first Green Arrow, Oliver Queen, and a multiracial (¼ Korean, ¼ Black and half white) Buddhist former monk, Connor breaks the mold of a lot of heroes, demonstrating a combination of naievete, superior martial arts ability, and, ironically, lackluster archery talent that makes him both endearing and amusing.

Sadly, however, trades of Connor can be difficult to find, making it difficult for those looking into the character to see much of his history. Connor Hawke: Dragon’s Blood would seem to be the solution to that problem. Written by Chuck Dixon, the author responsible for the entirety of Connor’s solo run as Green Arrow (though not his initial creation), Dragon’s Blood promises one of the few standalone Connor stories collected in trade form and superb art in which Connor’s features and skin tone (usually) reflect his ethnic background, something sadly rare in his more recent appearances, which frequently depict him as very white despite both his original appearances and all genetic sense.

Unfortunately, it’s not actually that good.

In general, the storyline is shoddy and all the romantic interactions are forced and creepy. It has some redeeming moments, including some fascinating examinations of Connor’s insecurities and relation to his father and archery, but most of the characters’ decisions seem to be based largely on glaring logical flaws and assorted plotholes.

Set sometime between the end of Connor’s solo Green Arrow run and the end of Green Arrow: Quiver, Connor Hawke: Dragon’s Blood is more or less the story of Connor getting invited to an archery contest and killing a dragon. The main plot begins when one Edison Hoon shows up to explain that his employer, the wealthy Mr. Zhao, is holding an archery contest to commemorate the defeat of a dragon in pre-dynasty China, and he’s inviting all the world’s best archers to come. Oh, and Connor, too.

And this is where the book’s timeframe comes in. This is set somewhere around the beginning of Green Arrow: Quiver, a story about Oliver Queen being resurrected. Here, Connor is apparently aware that his late father has been returned to the land of the living, but instead of, you know, driving up to Star City to poke around when he started hearing news of the first Green Arrow roaming about, he’d apparently rather fly all the way to Shanghai on a bet that someone’s tracked down his father and invited him, too.

So Connor drags out his old Green Arrow suit (despite having been invited as Connor Hawke) and hops a plane to Shanghai, followed by Eddie Fyers, the trigger-happy ex-CIA agent and old friend of Ollie’s who’d accompanied Connor on most of his adventures throughout his Green Arrow run.

The other contestants include a few rather boring new characters, such as two big game hunters and some archery stuntsman or whatever, and two characters from previous Green Arrow continuity, those being the Bamboo Monkey, member of a dangerous martial arts cult that attacked Connor during his Green Arrow run, and Shado, ex-Yakuza member, expert archer, and the mother of Connor’s half-brother.

At various points throughout the contest, Connor is inexplicably attacked by archers, only for his attacker to be killed by some old nemesis- first Shado, and then the Bamboo Monkey- in ways that lead him to think that they were in fact the ones who fired shots at him. Despite believing that they’ve attempted to kill him, at no point does Connor go knock on their doors and demand answers, or report repeated attempts on his life to the contestant’s administrators, or basically bring them up again in any way until other contestants start dying, something that you might reasonably expect of a superhero who finds out people are trying to kill him in what’s supposed to be some mundane archery contest.

Oh, but Connor does confront Eddie about why he didn’t tell Connor that Shado was here, leaving the reader wondering how Connor, one of the actual contestants, didn’t realize she was standing a few yards away from him, while Eddie, Connor’s tagalong, did.

That plot hole aside, Connor does have legitimate reasons to be angry about Shado’s presence. The exact context of this is somewhat lost on those who aren’t familiar with her history, but in a nutshell, in Shado’s first arc, she helped Connor’s father Oliver Queen kill a man who had captured and tortured Oliver’s then-girlfriend Dinah Lance (the superhero Black Canary), which zen Buddhist Connor viewed as her corrupting him and turning him “from a hero to an assassin.”

When Connor finally confronts her, Shado dramatically informs him that this is more than an archery contest and Connor is in grave danger before she gets shot in the leg, with the assailant this time being killed by the Bamboo Monkey, in a fakeout that’s gotten rather old by this point. Connor decides to drag Shado off for medical attention and then not at all follow up a second attempt on his life.

Continuing the string of baffling decisions, when Connor goes to see Shado in the hospital, she informs him that her and Oliver’s son and Connor’s half-brother Robert is in danger, and that she came to the competition in hopes of finding Oliver, because apparently no one can turn on the news from Star City to see that he’s still freaking there.

On that melodramatic note, we discover that more and more archery contestants are being killed off, and that apparently none of the other contestants have taken that as a reason to bug out, or even somehow noticed that other participants are dying, presumably believing that the others have just been disqualified or something. One of the contestants, meanwhile, flirts awkwardly with the oblivious Connor, who, after someone finally tells him that she’s flirting with him, asks her out to dinner. After a dinner scene containing precisely zero chemistry, Buddhist monk and self-proclaimed believer in romance Connor Hawke inexplicably invites her up to his room.

When he arrives, however, he finds Shado waiting for him. She further explains the danger that Robert, her son and Connor’s half-brother, is in, before-

… what.

This is far from the first time that Connor has had some incredibly awkward and forced romantic interactions under Dixon’s pen. Many times during Connor’s solo run, Connor found himself being kissed by a woman and just kind of passively lying there in a completely chemistry-devoid interaction. Indeed, earlier in this book, Dixon made sure to inform us in the most hamfisted way possible that not only did Connor make out with a ghost woman in China he’d just met during his run as Green Arrow, he totally had sex with her.

But Connor making out with a woman he hates who not only mothered his half-brother but who (potentially unbeknownst to Connor, admittedly) drugged him and raped him in order for that half-brother to be conceived in the first place. This is easily the creepiest and most baffling of every single awkward makeout Dixon has written for Connor, and has left more or less every Connor fan who read it with their mouths hanging open from sheer bewilderment. How could this get any worse?

Oh, I guess the woman Connor had been awkwardly flirting with and whom he invited back to his room could show up.

And then die.

Despite apparently not paying much attention to any of the contestants around him, Connor is able to identify the arrow that killed her as belonging to another contestant, but Shado interrupts him as he goes to confront her purported killer, informing Connor that someone has been stealing arrows and shooting other contestants with them to attempt to make them turn on each other.

From this, Connor concludes that the true culprit is the Bamboo Monkey, and so he and Shado go to confront him, only to find that his room is empty. Conveniently, however, he is lurking just outside the window of the room we’ve just discovered he’s never slept in, and Connor shoots him in the shoulder and accuses him of murder.

In yet another shocking twist, though, the Bamboo Monkey informs Connor that he had nothing to do with it, and indeed saved Connor’s life from his would-be assassin the previous night, before he is shot by mysterious assassins on the roof. There’s a long and somewhat confusing action sequence involving our heroes fighting an army of ninja bowman, when Mr. Hoon finally interrupts it to announce that Connor has won the competition and is now the champion archer, despite, once again, him really not being that great of a shot. In one of his few sensical decisions of the story, Connor tells him he’s done playing along with this, but Hoon reveals that it was, in fact, his men who abducted Shado’s son, and they are now holding him hostage to ensure not only Shado’s cooperation but also Connor’s.

Connor is brought to Zhao’s central tower place and given the arrow that slayed the mystical dragon all those years ago. He’s then made to shoot a variety of increasingly difficult targets he has never actually had the skill to make but somehow makes regardless, before his final target is revealed:

You didn’t really expect this not to end with him fighting an oddly European dragon, did you?

But there’s a twist: this dragon is not, in fact, the dragon of old, but a new one entirely, absent the gap in its scales that the archer of old had shot through. Fortunately, when it comes to chipping off scales, a rocket launcher is apparently more than adequate for the task.

Thanks to Eddie and Shado, Connor makes the shot, and all is good.

Oh, except for Zhao and Hoon planning to bathe in the dragon’s blood and ascend to godhood. Oops.

When Connor goes to stop Zhao, he finds that Hoon has killed him and started bathing in the blood himself. This somehow gives Hoon abilities like the slain dragon, granting him increased strength, speed, etc., which is a problem for our very mortal protagonist. Fortunately for Connor, however, he’s also been soaking in the dragon’s blood, leveling the playing field somewhat.

Still, the fight is not going well for him, and drastic action is required. And so, with absolutely no foreshadowing or angst from our Buddhist semi-pacifistic “no killing” monk…

… he kills Hoon.

This is rather a dramatic moment for Connor, who has broken his rule against killing in order to take out a threat to humanity who could be stopped no other way. Clearly, this requires extensive reflection and meditation from him-

Or, you know, he could just snark with a dragonfire-burned Eddie in the hospital and ignore it entirely.

I suppose that only makes sense, since that’s exactly what every other writer on Connor did with this arc.

Which is, frankly, this book’s biggest problem: despite its fantastic art and some genuinely great moments, its plot is so convoluted and full of holes that huge character moments are overshadowed by an utterly forgettable story.

Verdict:
If you’re already a Connor Hawke or Green Arrow ensemble cast fan, check this out- the story isn’t spectacular, but it’s not awful, and the art is excellent. If you’re looking for an introduction to the character, though, or just for an entertaining story, you could do better. 3.5 out of 5.

Essential Continuity:
Hardly. Despite containing what should rightfully have been a major moment for the main character, this plotline is basically never brought up again.

Read first:
While this story is reasonably stand-alone, it is easier to follow if you’ve read Connor Hawke’s solo Green Arrow run. Sadly, however, that was never collected in TPB form, and is not currently available for digital purchase.

Read next:
Green Arrow Volume 3 or the first two arcs of Green Arrow & Black Canary are both good places to go for more Connor, and just more Green Arrow cast in general.

« Back to the top?

This review contains spoilers. Skip To The Verdict? »

From their place in the occasional house ad or as the result of DC’s occasional bouts with Quixotism, the heroes created as part of Archie Comics’ Red Circle line always seemed to me to be the comic book equivalent of off-brand breakfast cereal. While their continued existence suggested some measure of enduring appeal or purpose, I found it inscrutable from afar. Why, was my thinking, should I ever invest in a superhero wrapped in an American flag called The Shield when Captain America is around and perfectly accessible?

Sometimes, though, Captain America just isn’t around. In my case, a combination of increasing dissatisfaction with the super-hero books I grew up with and my general enjoyment of writer Ian Flynn and artist Ben Bates’ previous work meant that, when Archie announced its latest attempt at retooling  the Red Circle heroes in the form of the online-first title New Crusaders, I was far more enthusiastic about the prospect than I might have otherwise been.  Flynn, in particular, is responsible for two of my favorite current titles, Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man, so the idea of him bringing his talents to actual superhero comics was enough to catch my interest, even if the super-heroes in question happened to sound generic as hell.

This particular new take on the concept introduces the descendants and protégées of the original Mighty Crusaders—the Circleverse’s version of the Justice League–and then haves them take on their now-retired predecessors’ identities after the old team is apparently killed off by one of its old nemeses. The sextet of new kids are accompanied and led by Joe Higgins, a.k.a. The Shield, the only still-active member of the original team.  It is he who takes in the kids after their guardians’ demise, and who convinces them to try and become super-heroes.

And by “convince” I mean “coerce”, with a side of manipulation and some lying.

In the same breath with which he tells the kids that their parents are dead, Higgins announces that he’s officially adopted them all and that he will now groom them to take their parents’ places as superheroes—no questions asked, consent is not a consideration.  After he’s rightfully called out on his crap, he tricks them into going through his version of The X-Men’s Danger Room, thinking that putting the kids in even more danger will turn them around—and, because the comic needs them to actually become super-heroes, they do, and agree to be subjected to experimental procedures with the potential to permanently alter their personalities if not outright kill them, because some old asshole who has just shown that he’s perfectly willing to lie, endanger, and further traumatize them if they don’t do what he wants told them to.

Now, given the writer, it’s certainly possible these details won’t be left unexplored—Higgins’ single-minded zeal to turn these kids into his posse by hook or by crook feels too prominent to be casually abandoned.  Even so, the fact that we have yet another character whose main characteristic is their utter lack of empathy and whose behavior would be considered villainous but for the fact that their job description reads “super-hero” is incredibly disappointing.  Whatever its other merits, the reason I was interested in this book was precisely because I had hoped it would be an escape from this sort of approach to the subgenre and feature characters who were actually inspiring; instead, I got yet another version of Nick Fury / Amanda Waller and a bunch of prime candidates for post-traumatic stress disorder, for whom a happy ending would involve getting taken away from their new guardian to get the counseling they’ll most likely need.

Of course, one could, if one were so inclined, make that same case for most if not all young sidekicks: if we agree that there are certain things which that teenagers cannot consent to, “dressing up in a costume to fight armed criminals in a manner that places one outside the law” would likely be way up there. And yet I still quite like Robin, which suggests that my problem here is not conceptual but contextual.  These are children whose parents have just been killed. These are children who were until recently unaware of their superheroic legacy, and who in discovering it have also realized that their parents/guardians had lied to them throughout their entire lives.  These are heroes who have no superpowers of their own, and indeed, nothing to indicate their suitability for crime-fighting except for an alleged instinct for teamwork and camaraderie.  Canonically, The Shield could have granted the abilities of the original team to anyone, and yet he chooses kids in the midst of life-changing trauma and in the space of a week has them trying to hold off a prison riot.  It’s a setup that suggests not fun superheroics, but Neon Genesis Evangelion with spandex, and yet very little of it is actually explored.  Sure, there are various scenes  which show the protagonists indeed having being traumatized, but these ring false: it’s the sort of trauma that is there for a couple of pages only to be resolved with a hug, some encouraging words, or an epiphany.

Making all of this especially dismaying is that, once you take away that element, one is left with some pretty solid superheroics, which would have been more than enough to scratch the itch that had me looking at New Crusaders in the first place.  Nothing here is stellar—Flynn tends to be one of those writers who needs a few arcs under his belt to really get going—but there are plenty of pleasing moments, suggesting the potential for future greatness.  The young heroes, while not quite getting enough development to erase that initial stock character feel, are likable enough, and the series does an exceptionally good job with the world-building, using enough old elements to make the ‘verse feel old and lived in, which I quite like.

Art chores for “Rise of the Heroes” are divided between Ben Bates, who draws the first two issues and part of the third, and Alitha Martínez, who draws the rest.  While there are some noticeable differences between the two–Bates’ art is slightly more stylized and cartoony, which is especially noticeable in his facial expressions and the way he depicts Ivette Vélez’s (a.k.a. “Jaguar”) hair—the transition is fairly seamless, giving the book a distinctive, unified look rather reminiscent of Ed McGuiness’ art.  However, one rather weird thing occurs in the last few pages—also, correctly or not, credited to Martínez– which  feature a considerable shift in style to a more traditional aesthetic, which while not entirely inexplicable—at the very least the shift in styles matches, to a certain degree, the serious turn the story takes—feels very distracting.

In the end, reading New Crusaders feels like an exercise in irony. My interest in it lay in the presumption that it would avoid certain currently-popular tropes doing in the interest of being good, no frills super-hero comics. Instead, it turned out to be everything I was hoping to escape.  I never thought I could dislike a comic for feeling too modern, yet that’s precisely my problem here.

Verdict:
If you can get over just how appalling The Shield’s behavior is, then this is a decent—if not great—super-hero book.  However, I cannot, so  I give it a 2 out of 5.

Essential Continuity:
It introduces both the concept and the characters and features the (off-screen) deaths of most of the old guard, so yes, it’s essential.

Read First:
Although this book does a very good job of being self-contained and easy to follow, it still follows the continuity of past Archie Red Circle books, which one can read if one wants to find out more about the heroes whose shoes the new team endeavors to fill.  With this in mind, Archie has begun re-releasing those old stories electronically as part of their Red Circle app, which means that they’re actually more accessible that they’ve been in decades.

Read next:
The original Peter David / Todd Nauck Young Justice, which has both the “heirs of established heroes” angle and manages to be fun and bright and hopeful while still being dramatic.

« Back to the top?

This review contains spoilers. Skip To The Verdict? »

I first saw the animated The Last Unicorn sometime during elementary school, which makes me think, in retrospect, that I went to a pretty cool school.   Being a chap of probably less than ten back then, most of the events chronicled in it went over my head, with only the climactic scene in which the bumbling magician Schmendrick turns the titular unicorn into a young woman leaving a particularly strong impression.  It would be more than a decade before I’d watch the film again (or at least part of it: like Back to the Future, Unicorn is one of those movies I only run into while channel surfing, meaning I can never catch it from the beginning—which is probably a good reason to actually go ahead and just buy the thing) and realized that, hey, Peter S. Beagle’s story of a unicorn searching of her missing kin is actually pretty fantastic.

The Last Unicorn is one of those works I associate with winter, particularly with the idea of keeping warm by drinking hot chocolate by the fire.  It’s not just a warm story, but rather one that   brings about a feeling of comfort only after reminding you just how sad and cold the world can be.  It’s a hard balance to get right—when it comes to sequential art, the only works to manage it which easily come to mind are Calvin & Hobbes (which itself occasionally made explicit use of the keeping warm by the fire imagery)and the Tom and Mary Bierbaum / Keith Giffen run on Legion of Super-Heroes—but when it occurs, it makes for some of my favorite works.  The various moments here—the aforementioned one where the unicorn is turned into the human Amalthea, doomed with humanity and mortality; or when Molly Grue, a cook for a group of brigands who once saw a unicorn in her youth, chastises the protagonist for leaving her to grow old in a world without magic—make the story memorably bittersweet in a way few other things are.  So when I realized that there was a comic book adaptation extant, I knew I had to have it.

Now, one could very well argue that the world did not need another version of  Unicorn.  The original novel is, of course, a classic,  and the film, which feels like an American attempt at making a Studio Ghibli film before Studio Ghibli films became a thing, felt for the longest time like the best possible adaptation, making it very easy for a third take to feel superfluous.  If that doesn’t occur, it is because this version features more than a hundred-plus pages of beautiful Renae De Liz art, which is something the world very much needed more of.

De Liz is probably best known as the mastermind and North Star behind Womanthology, the series of women-created anthologies that got its start as a Kickstarter project.  Had that been her only contribution to comic books, it would have been enough for me to respect the heck out of her, but the fact is that she is also one hell of an artist, who carries the book with aplomb and makes it look easy, establishing visual identity for the world that feels very familiar and right and yet is distinct from the one already established by the film.  And while there are, to be honest, some things in which I prefer the movie’s take—Shmendrick and Molly Grue, the story’s co-stars, are prettier here, which as a fan of stylistic ugliness takes away some of what made them appealing to me—this feels, in balance, like nitpicking: all in all, De Liz imbues the world of the story with a lushness and detail that easily lives up to anything I might have been able to imagine, and deserves a whole lot more recognition.  Of special note is the unicorn’s antagonist the red bull, who looks like chaos personified, and every bit the creature of magic and chaos and mystery that he’s supposed to be.

However, the book would be empty it is if it weren’t for Ray Dillon’s colors, which are lush and vibrant and oh-so-pretty, the best I remember seeing in recent—or even long-term—memory.  I am particularly in love with his sunsets, which are goosebump-worthy marvels of red and oranges (I love Dillon’s reds).  They are the perfect complement to De Liz’s pencils.

(This is where I mention that Dillon and De Liz are married to one another, a fact that, while not entirely relevant to anything, I include because if I didn’t, somebody would probably ask why I neglected to mention it.)

It is partly because of Dillon’s colors that the the graphic novel ends up feeling warmer than either predecessor—it’s less like winter and more like a beach bonfire in August.  Thanks to its palette, the scarcer prose and the lack of voice acting—or perhaps I’ve simply gotten older–the moments of sadness I mentioned earlier don’t have the impact they used to.  That said, the book does plenty to make up for this, particularly in moments that were unremarkable in the other version are made to pop here, particularly in the graphic novel’s quieter, more sedate moments, such as when the characters travel from one location to another.  It is in these moments where the art really gets a chance to shine, with some moving landscapes and imagery.  This, combined with the greater faithfulness to the source material, positions the book as an equal to the film version, with many things to offer and nothing to be ashamed of.

With all that talent displayed by the book’s visuals, it’s perhaps not surprising that Peter B. Gillis gets a bit lost in the shuffle.  He’s the person in charge of translating The Last Unicorn to comic book form, and while that may not necessarily seem like the hardest job in the world, it’s also something that, done sloppily, would have robbed the material of what made it special.  As someone who’s done some translating, I can appreciate that knowing just what to keep and how takes genuine craft, and so he also deserves his share of praise for making the book what it is.

Aside from the actual story, this collection includes a good amount of bonus material, which makes it, with its $24.99 tag, one of the more reasonably-priced IDW books I’ve seen.  There’s surprisingly in-depth interviews with Beagle and Gillis, a showcase of assorted art, including a sextet of lovely Frank Stockton pieces of which I assume served as the original mini-series’ variant covers, and a selection of double-spread splash-pages from the book itself, stripped of text.  Those last two, while appreciated—I would almost certainly consider buying a version of the book entirely without text, were it available–also make the collection come off as a tease, since they deserve far more space than is actually alloted to them.  I suppose IDW wanted to leave something for the twice-as-expensive Deluxe Edition, but still, it sours what is otherwise a superlative package.

When it comes to comic book adaptations of existing works, the words that most often come to mind, in my experience, are “uninspired”, “disposable”, and “cynical” (which may, for all I know, be a sign that I need to read more of them).  For some reason, the medium’s chronic low self-esteem is particularly evident when it comes to works which weren’t conceived as comic books, and it often feels like those in charge of translating that existing story into the new medium have no interest in taking advantage of the possibilities it offers.  In contrast, this version of The Last Unicorn, feels, from beginning to end, like a work of love, succeeding not only in being a damn good adaptation, but in being a excellent comic book as well.  And while the chances that we’ll ever get to revisit this particular world are none to none, I wouldn’t mind at all seeing this creative team reunite somewhere down the line to work on something new.  It might not feature unicorns or even fantasy, but I’m sure it will be nothing short of magical.

Verdict:
If this were just one hundred or so pages of Renae De Liz pencils and Ray Dillon colors, it still be more than worth its price tag.  The fact that it’s also an adaptation of a fantastic book grants it a special place in my heart and bookshelf, and so I have no problem with granting it an utterly biased 5 out of 5.

Essential Continuity:
Yes, in the sense that the book covers the entire story of the last unicorn.

Read First:
While you don’t have to read the original novel in an attempt to find out whether you’ll like the story before actually buying the more expensive graphic novel, that’s certainly a possibility.

Read Next:
…alternatively, you can read this first, and then read the novel.

« Back to the top?