Infectious & Other Comics

 A few months ago my Blogger buddy Arion had a Kickstarter to launch a comic called Infectious.  It's 4 short tales about superheroes in the pandemic.  I contributed to the Kickstarter to help out a little bit.  Unlike Arion's other comics I got this one in print then--and got my name in the thanks on the back.  I'm finally getting in the comics! lol

So anyway, the first tale is about a former superhero who slowly gives up his powers for legal liability reasons until he has none left.  This brings to mind Watchmen where Dr. Manhattan was accused of causing cancer in people around him.  It's also a problem heroes like Superman have faced because he's so powerful.

Another story is about a Batman-type who really doesn't have much to do during the pandemic.  There's another problem that hits close to home.

Another story is about a Wonder Woman type who's trying to get a potential cure from a former bad guy.  (I'm not sure I really understood this one fully.)

The last one is about some sidekicks violating the lockdown for a party.

I'm sure a big inspiration for this was the Common Grounds comics I talked about in January as these stories are smaller stories not really big slugfests and stuff.  It definitely gives you something to think about.  

With the Kickstarter over you should be able to get it soon for regular price.

Annuals:

DC had a big sale on Annuals, which are extra issues that are released once a year, usually with a separate story or something just inspired by whatever the big story of the year was.  I bought a few that looked interesting.

Green Lantern Elseworlds

This one looked cool, but really turned out disappointing.  The idea was that old idea of if the Nazis had won WWII, only in this case because of Himmler summoning a demon that gave him a magic ring with the power to turn the tide of the war.  In the present, Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner are Nazis while John Stewart is part of an underground movement called the Green Lanterns that was led by Oliver Queen. (Why Green Lanterns?  I don't really know.)  Hal and John are both going out with Carol Ferris, the latter on the sly.

It could have been a really good story, but it got bogged down in weird details about the rings and how they worked.  Really to me it should have been simple where John is working in a slave camp or farm or something and Abin Sur crashes and he becomes Green Lantern and has to stop the Nazis.  But it doesn't work that way and instead is overcomplicated and unsatisfying. (2/5)

Justice League Elseworlds

This was a little better story where the Justice League of America is killed by the wizard named Faust.  A hundred years later, rebels create a new Justice League to fight back, most of them descendants of someone related to the original hero like a great-granddaughter of Steve Trevor is Wonder Woman and a descendant of Harvey Dent is Batman, and so on.  Weirdly the only one who isn't revived is Green Lantern; shouldn't the ring have already picked someone else?  One of them is a traitor planted by Faust as a mole.  And it turns out that Martian Manhunter is alive; I knew which character he was pretty early.  

I think this was a simpler story and actually short enough that there was a secondary story where Starro tries to recruit an Injustice League of dudes whose names end with 'O" like Bizzarro, Sinestro, and so on.  But infighting derails them before they can ever be a threat. (3/5)

Batman Annual 1989

This had an interesting cover with Batman fighting the KKK akin to Superman Smashes the Klan.  He doesn't really fight the KKK directly.  I guess that would have been too obvious.  This story written by Mark Waid is mostly a flashback to when Bruce Wayne is 17.  He's working with an old detective in the South under the name "Frank Dixon," aka the author of the Hardy Boys books.  People start dying in a small town and eventually the trail leads to the son of an old racist guy who had his own KKK-type group.

A confusing thing was because this was an old comic.  One character is supposed to be mixed-race but the problem is sometimes he looks really white and a couple times his skin tone is colored a lot darker.  Maybe if this were a newer comic and not an old one that's probably been scanned into Comixology it would be more consistent and less confusing because that is a pretty big plot point.

Batman doesn't really show up except as a framing device to haunt a bad guy.  Overall it was still a decent story even if some stuff didn't quite work as well as it could. (3.5/5)

Batman/Detective Comics Annuals 2009

This was a two-part story I got because it features Azrael, the Michael Lane version that looks sort of like the Assassin's Creed guy.  This was from the brief period when Dick Grayson was Batman and Damian Wayne was Robin.  When a priest is murdered and a rich kid is threatened, the trail leads to a weird religious group, which is what draws the new Azrael in.  Renee Montoya as the Question also helps Batman to stop the bad guys.  

It was a decent story, a good reminder of what was before of course it all had to be rebooted with the New 52. (3.5/5)

Other Stuff:

Loki, Agent of Asgard, Vol 1:  I don't know if this was on Amazon Prime Reading because of the Loki TV show and I just missed it or not, but I finally downloaded it to read on a slow day.  It's from 2013 or so, shortly after the Avengers movie.  This is the first volume featuring a new, younger Loki more in line with the MCU one.  Instead of Odin, three women are running Asgard when this takes place and they assign Loki to do stuff and for each task he completes, they'll wipe something off his permanent record.

This was written by Al Ewing, whose run on Immortal Hulk the last few years made him an author I like and so it's not a surprise that this is pretty good.  Ewing's Loki has a lot of the same swagger and banter of the Tom Hiddleston character while at the same time it works in a lot of the character and Asgardian mythology.  There's a big twist at the end of this volume.  I'd read the other two volumes in the series, though I think the second one probably got derailed a bit by Marvel's big events.

Like Tom King at DC, I think Ewing is a good writer who's underappreciated by most of the "fans" who just want big slugfests.  Definitely someone I want to read more of. (4/5)

Speaking of Immortal Hulk...

Immortal Hulk, Vol 8:  I had a coupon to use on Google Play and this was pretty much the only fairly cheap comic they had that I would want.  This volume continues the story as "the Leader" basically kidnaps Banner from his own mind, leaving some of Bruce's lesser personalities in charge.  It was an OK volume but it's the kind where on its own it's not that interesting.  It's mostly just moving the pieces on the chessboard to help set things up for the future. But like with Grant Morrison's Batman RIP 13-14 years ago, what's really great is how Ewing weaves together all these different versions of the Hulk and other characters and stories from previous decades into something coherent.  (3/5)

Justice League by Scott Snyder, Vol 1:  I hated Snyder's Dark Nights Metal, which was the lead-in for this.  It's just a bunch of pseudo-intellectual blather about "the Totality" and "Source Wall" and opposing forces like a "Still Force" to oppose the Flash's Speed Force or the range of unseen emotions to oppose the various Lanterns.  Just so tedious to try to get through it.  At least I got it free from Amazon Prime Reading. (1/5)

Justice League Odyssey, Vol 1:  I only read this because it features Rebirth's Azrael, who is a little different from the 90s version.  Why a former assassin like Azrael is part of this adventure out in deep space is a little strained.  Basically some group of planets are worshipping him, Cyborg, and Starfire for...reasons.  And Darkseid has brought them out there to find out what's going on.  And there's probably something in it for Darkseid.  This is written by Josh Williamson, not Scott Snyder, so it's a little less stupid.  Maybe at some point I'd read more. (2.5/5)