Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom KingMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is basically like if you took King's "Up in the Sky" and merged it with "True Grit." Like the latter, a girl's father has been murdered and she seeks to enlist someone to aid her in her quest for vengeance. Like "Up in the Sky," a Kryptonian goes on a dangerous journey through space to aid a young girl.
Unlike other Supergirl stories it's not misogynist exploitation or disingenuous faux-feminism. Like most of King's work, it's about loss and trauma. Two damaged individuals on a quest together to attempt to square things.
You don't need to be keenly familiar with Supergirl to read this, though it would probably help to understand some of the references. Anyway, it's an amazing story and good to see King on track after the disappointing Rorschach.
An adaptation was one of 5 movies announced by new DC movie bigshot James Gunn. I don't think it's a really good idea. This would be costly and it's a character who isn't terribly popular and it's a one-off story so it's not really something to build a franchise around. An animated movie or limited TV series might have been a better idea. When I mentioned this on Facebook, someone sassed me that I must not have heard of True Grit then. While that has been a movie (twice) Westerns are a lot cheaper to make than what would be a big sprawling sci-fi story. I mean Westerns you can just go to central casting and get some outfits and shoot at some national park in New Mexico; for this you'd need a whole bunch of costly CGI effects for the planets and aliens and stuff. To do it right you'd need a couple hundred million dollars that again is for a character who's not that popular and a story not that many outside of comics readers are familiar with. It's the kind of risky move that could pay off, but probably won't.
(Fun Fact: Tony Laplume liked this as much as I did, which is rare.)
Batman: Curse of the White Knight by Sean Murphy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I wanted to read this because I'm a huge fan of the Knightfall storyline and thus of course Azrael. But the Azrael in this is almost nothing like the real Azrael. I can forgive Murphy a little since this is an Elseworlds story and not real continuity, thus he has creative freedom to do what he wants. But still, to me, Azrael is not just some old brute quoting scripture and murdering people. Murphy seems to have a much better handle on other characters, so I'm not sure why he did Azrael so wrong.
The rest of the story is OK, but not really as good as the first one. There's a lot of old-fashioned stuff about family histories and legacies and whatever else that isn't all that interesting. A couple of major characters die and secrets are revealed and so on. In the end, like most sequels, it doesn't live up to the original.
Batman: Three Jokers by Geoff Johns
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Here's a joke for you: what happens when an event comic isn't an event? You get a decent story that at the end feels hollow because it doesn't go anywhere.
I think it was in Rebirth that Geoff Johns introduced this idea that there were actually three Jokers as a way to explain how the character has changed from 1940 to today. I don't think the regular Batman comics got into that; I know Tom King's run immediately following Rebirth never mentioned it and for that matter hardly featured the Joker at all. Which really proved one thing: the Joker is overrated as a Batman villain. I mean, King did an 85-issue arc and the Joker only really featured in a couple of issues, most of them a flashback to the "War of Jokes & Riddles." Of course the next creative team had to make the Joker prominent because fans were probably getting antsy.
Anyway, this doesn't really cover a lot of new ground. There are 3 Jokers and they're working together and turning seemingly random people into Jokers to search for America's Next Top Joker! Which, now that I think of it, a reality show format probably would have been the best way to do this. The Jokers could have been broadcasting to the whole city and Batman could have had to track them down before the final rose or crowbar or Jokerized fish or rubber chicken or whatever.
Besides Batman, there's also Batgirl (with a not-stupid costume) and Red Hood, who wants to kill the Jokers for revenge. It all plays out pretty well. There aren't really plot holes or stupid things; despite his personal and professional failings as a bigshot of DC's film/TV division, Johns remains a competent comic book writer. The art is also well done, so people and things don't look like crude sketches.
But in the end this feels so hollow because nothing important really happens. The Joker knows who Batman is and Batman knows who the Joker is and...nothing. Nothing really comes from this and it's not really breaking any new ground. So at best this rises to the level of decent entertainment for an hour or so.
On the positive side it did provide some pretty good action figures from McFarlane. I have Batman, Batgirl, and one of the Jokers. Batgirl was the only one I really wanted because it's a better costume than the post-Burnside ones DC has come out with. The other two I got on sale basically 2-for-1.
Doomsday Clock: The Complete Collection by Geoff Johns
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
If Alan Moore ever read this, I can only imagine how angry he'd be about this. The end especially takes a big steaming dump all over Moore and Gibbons's work with a forced happy ending. The point of that book was that the "heroes" are very broken, damaged people to the point that one "saves" the world by killing 3 million people. This was back in 1985 when most people still thought comics were for kids. What Johns does in the end is state the obvious: that such damaged, broken people couldn't be Superman. That was pretty much Moore's premise to start, that this was a world where colorful heroes weren't Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and so on.
This is an "event' that really never needed to happen. But New 52 sales and popularity were lagging, so what better way to get some attention and stoke the imaginations of fanboys than rebooting courtesy of Dr. Manhattan? That's what Johns clumsily did in Rebirth and then of course there needed to be some explanation of that, hence this. Which a lot of it really seems like padding so it could be 12 issues when half that would have probably done it. I mean all the stuff about Mime, Marionette, fake "Rorschach," Batman, the Joker, etc. didn't really do a lot.
Like Rebirth, in the end the irony is this is Johns rewriting and overwriting stuff that...Johns wrote. He was the engineer of Flashpoint and the New 52, so he's basically rewriting himself. It's the kind of unnecessary cash grab I'm glad I didn't buy for full price. (Fun Fact: Vlad Putin and China's leader are prominently featured while others are mentioned by name. Meanwhile America's president is never referred to by name or shown, though from some dialogue and Tweets and such it's pretty obvious it's Trump.)
The Human Target, Volume 1 by Tom King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In a way I was happy to get this as I've been wanting to read this series. On the downside it's only half the story so I'll have to wait until the next six issues are gathered up to finish reading. I definitely want to, because this is another good standalone series by Tom King that tackles another character who hasn't been really important in DC Comics for a while.
In this case it's Christopher Chance, the eponymous Human Target. His gig is to disguise himself as someone threatened with assassination. Then he'll take the bullet or whatever and flush out the assassin. It's a dangerous but lucrative occupation until Chance impersonates Lex Luthor. He thwarts an attack only to realize in the process he was poisoned and now has 12 days to live. (12 days, 12 issues, get it?) When a chemical in the poison traces back to the Justice League International, it sets Chance to find his murderer among some of the most powerful people on Earth--or anywhere else.
I realized later this has most of the elements of a Raymond Chandler mystery: much of the setting is in Los Angeles or some version thereof; there's a hardboiled, hard-drinking, trash-talking detective in Chance; a pair of "sisters," one seemingly sweet and innocent and one a femme fatale in Ice & Fire; and a powerful goon who stalks the detective to make things difficult in Guy Gardner. Really all it needs is some stolen jewelry and it'd have just about everything. But of course there's still 6 issues for that.
So definitely if you like noir mysteries and superheroes this is a good read. There are some dark turns (including a murder) but as I've said before, King manages to not be too gross or twisted; it never approaches the carnage and depravity of The Boys but it's not for kids either.
Looking forward to seeing if Chance finds his murderer before it's too late.
Dark Nights: Death Metal (2020-): Deluxe Edition by Scott Snyder
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I really hated the original Metal so I wasn't interested in this. But it was on sale for so cheap that I got it for free with credits I had. It was about as unimpressive as I thought. Like Metal or the first volume of Snyder's Justice League I read, there's a lot of gobbledygook that only makes sense if you don't stop to think about it. There are fights and slugfests and continuity changes that lasted about a year before the next continuity changes. So...whatever. I'm even less interested in the stuff that comes after this that's already been overwritten. This constant cycle of rebooting might drive immediate sales but for people like me too poor for that it just renders everything in "continuity" a morbid curiosity.
Twilight by Howard Chaykin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was something a bit different from a lot of other comics I've read. From what someone told me, the original basis was a group of DC sci-fi heroes from the 50s, though updated for 1990ish. Which of course means making it a lot grittier and grimmer.
There are a lot of intriguing ideas and plot threads but with only 3 oversized issues there's not really enough time to explore everything. If this had been a 12-issue series (at least) there would have been a better opportunity to really delve into everything. I mean you basically have a 1000-year gap between the first two books and I'm not sure how long between the second and third books. Plus you've got at least a half-dozen main characters on different planets and such...it really could have used a little more space--pun mostly intended.
The framing device of old Homer Glint talking to his talking cat(!?!) is pretty fun and allows some humor into what might have otherwise been kind of grim.
The art is good for the time period with plenty of interesting aliens and ships and so on. I was worried from reading a Blogger buddy's article that some of the splash pages or two-page spreads wouldn't read well on my Kindle Fire, but it wasn't too bad and at this point it might be better to read a digitized version than a moldy old paper version.
The Joker War Saga by James Tynion IV
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Even though this is supposed to be the complete "saga" there's still a big chunk missing if you haven't read the comics between when Tom King's run ended and when this "event" started. The gist is that the Joker has taken over Bruce Wayne's fortune and company and the city has taken over Wayne Manor. And then the Joker has an army of clowns attacking the city while Batman and his allies try to stop them.
They try to bill this as something different, but it's really not. It's just the same old boring basic Joker garbage. Why so many people think the Joker is the ultimate villain is beyond me. He's just a stupid boring basic evil clown. Maybe the original evil clown, but at this point the shtick is worn out.
The only unique thing of the premise--that Joker has Batman's toys--isn't even used all that well. Batman doesn't seem inconvenienced at all, nor are his allies.
There are a bunch of different issues from different titles. None are really all that interesting. The one where Joker visits Bane in Arkham just seems like Tynion whining because Tom King killed Alfred before he got a chance to. "Waaah, I wanted to kill Alfred! You didn't do it right!" TS, dude.
Since there are so many different issues, the artists vary. Most are competent but a few were pretty bad like a lot of the junk Marvel puts out these days. The one focusing on "Clownhunter" was so bad I mostly skipped through it. The Harley Quinn one wasn't great either. Neither was the Batgirl one.
Anyway, like "Three Jokers," "Endgame," and "Death of the Family" it's another Joker-themed event that fails to add anything new or exciting to the Joker mythos. The only hit DC's had the last decade with that was the "Batman Who Laughs" and that was a Joker-ized Batman, not the real Joker.
Anyway, suffice it to say I didn't really like it and I don't really want to read the rest of Tynion's short run on the title.
Future State: The Next Batman by John Ridley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I had already finished the "Dark Detective" volume, so then I figured I should read the second Batman-oriented volume. "The Next Batman" is Tim "Jace" Fox, the son of Lucius Fox and brother of Luke Fox, who was Batwing for about a minute--long enough for me to have an action figure of him. Only the first 28% actually covers the 4 issues of this story. And just as we're getting into the story and Jace is starting to learn the ropes of being Batman, it's over. Where did he find the Bat-stuff and why did he decide to adopt the Batman moniker? Yeah, scene missing from this and the previous book. Maybe it was in the Batman comics before this?
After that is a mishmash of other full stories and I think some backup stories that involve Nightwing (with the Next Batman), Batgirls, the Outsiders, Gotham City Sirens, Arkham Knights, Grifter, and probably more! Most of it was OK. Some was kind of gritty and some was kind of fun. The art varies with a slew of different artists.
Overall it was OK, but I think like I said with the Dark Detective volume, it'd be better if they gave you a timeline or something to know when these stories are taking place. I mean in one issue Jefferson Pierce (Black Lightning) is in jail as a human and in another he's some kind of energy being thanks to magic that happened when? It can be pretty confusing, especially if you haven't been following everything that's been going on with the Batman series.
Future State (2021-): Superman by Sean Lewis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was kind of frustrating to read. The Superman story that you'd think would be the focus, the one on the f-ing cover, is barely even dealt with! For...reasons Superman goes to Warworld and loses his powers and becomes a gladiator Mongul keeps alive to fight again and again and...I guess he escapes and conquers Mongul...somehow.
There are only two supposed Superman (Clark Kent) issues and those are about 80% about some black girl on Earth in a poor imitation of a Tom King story. So it all ends up being a teaser. There are stories involving Midnighter, Black Racer, and Mr. Miracle (Shilo Norman) that add more pieces to the puzzle, but a whole lot seems to be missing.
It actually starts with Jon Kent's Superman for one issue and then there are a bunch of other stories before we get back to that. It was pretty annoying.
I thought of giving it two stars but there is some good stuff in here. The Mr. Miracle stories are good. The "Lex Luthor: Imperious Rex" is fun. The Superwoman story is somewhat poignant. The "House of El" ones were interesting.
But overall there are all these bits and pieces and the reader is left to try to put them together into something. Like the two Bat-Family ones, it'd help if they told you when all this stuff is happening. It's hard to tell what's going on when otherwise.
Future State (2021-): Wonder Woman by Becky Cloonan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This one seemed shorter than some of the other volumes. While Yara Flor, who's called Wonder Girl on the cover but Wonder Woman in the book, was the breakout star, this starts with two issues focusing on Nubia. They were pretty good but like a lot of the Future State stories it seems like it's laying the groundwork for something that's never going to happen.
The first two Yara Flor stories started out funny and then turned poignant. The Pegasus hating her reminded me of my Scarlet Knight stories where the Pegasus hates the first Emma Earl to ride it because she's not its true rider. Anyway, then there are two fun issues of Yara and Jon Kent as Wonder Woman/Superman.
Finally we have the original Wonder Woman at the end of the universe. It's kind of a downer story but it ends up with a hopeful message. Nothing ever ends--at least in comics.
The art was mostly good. The Yara Flor ones were probably the crudest while the Nubia and Diana ones were a lot better.
As I've said with the other three volumes, it can be hard to know where to place these on the timeline--except the last one.
Batman: Urban Legends, Vol. 1 by Chip Zdarsky
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I liked the Red Hood/Batman issues of this. Maybe not quite Tom King good but better than some other Batman writers. It kind of softens the Red Hood as he tries to stop a new drug called "Cheerdrops" that's a twist on the Scarecrow's fear gas, only instead of nightmares it puts people into a state of bliss to the point they can go comatose or fall off a building or something. When Hood finds a woman in a coma with a kid, he has to take responsibility for the kid and that in turn brings memories of his youth with Bruce Wayne. And when Batman is captured, it's up to Red Hood to save the day.
That was only about half of it, which probably would have got this 4 stars. But then there's this whole Grifter thing just thrown in there. I hadn't read WildCATS in the 90s so I didn't know who Grifter was. Some kind of cut-rate Deadpool? There's this whole long thing about him working for Lucius Fox and Leviathan and sometimes fighting Batman, Red Hood, Superman, and Nightwing. If I knew who he was or what was going on it would have been better. Inserted into this without any setup it's more confusing than fun.
Hardware: The Man in the Machine by Dwayne McDuffie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
As I understand it, in the early 90s, Dwayne McDuffie and others started Milestone Comics as a way to represent black heroes. Hardware was one of those characters. Kind of like the later Steel, Hardware is a brilliant scientist who creates an armored suit. Like Iron Man, it has different weapons and at the start can fly, though the jet pack is destroyed.
The first four issues provide the origin: Curtis Metcalf works for Edwin Alva (obvious twist on Thomas Alva Edison) who is an evil and manipulative business tycoon. When Curtis realizes Metcalf is just using him, he creates Hardware and starts taking down his boss.
The next three issues, Hardware goes after a prostitute killer and tangles with the vigilante Deathwish, who's sort of a Punisher-type character. There's a clever twist to solve the mystery.
The final issue of this volume is mostly a nightmare as Curtis/Hardware explores the cost of his war on crime. At the end of which he decides to be more about justice and less about vengeance, sort of like what has happened in Batman comics and the most recent movie.
The violence, language, and sexual content as well as the art is pretty similar to what was going on in comics for DC's other imprint Vertigo or Image Comics like Spawn. Some of the dialogue is a little corny 30 years later and the art is definitely 90s looking but it's not bad.
I'm not sure what they used to transfer this to digital but it's not a great transfer. It seemed kind of grainy and the colors a little off.
Superman/Shazam!: First Thunder by Judd Winick
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This 2006 miniseries might have been in continuity back then, but I don't really remember. I wasn't really following comics back then anyway. This was a prequel to show Billy Batson (called Captain Marvel, not Shazam, since this was when Marvel wasn't really using the name) meeting Superman for the first time. They tangle with the same crew in museums first in Metropolis and then Fawcett City (not Philadelphia like the later Geoff Johns version used for the movie). They team up and take on some magic enemies like Sabac and Eclipso.
It's pretty lighthearted and fun with cartoony art that's probably meant to invoke the Golden Age. Then in the fourth issue it takes a pretty dark turn. It ends with sort of a whimper; those who might be hoping for a big fight between the two heroes would be really disappointed.
Personally I found the lack of angst and fighting between the heroes to be kind of refreshing. It's pretty old-school to have two heroes work together without throwing punches and trading insults first. In this case Captain Marvel really looks up to Superman and at the end Clark decides to become a mentor to Billy.
Would that the real history of these characters had been so free of acrimony and lawsuits.
The Trials of Shazam: The Complete Series by Judd Winick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is one of those traditional stories or stories at least that became traditional after 1992 with the "Death of Superman" and then "Knightfall" replacing both Superman and Batman for a short time. In this case, after 2006's "Infinite Crisis," the wizard Shazam is "dead" and so Billy Batson assumes his mantle. Freddy Freeman then becomes the new Shazam.
But first he has to pass the "trials" of the six beings who make up the magic word: Solomon, Hercules, Achilles, Zeus, Apollo, and Mercury. Three are Greek gods, two are Greek demigods, and one is from the Hebrew Bible, because I guess using Athena wouldn't have fit the naming scheme.
Anyway, Freddy has to find each person and then do something to get their power. But an evil woman named Sabina is competing to get the powers for herself. She takes some and he gets some and then there's a final contest. (Later it occurred to me the plot setup is pretty much like the first three miniseries of the GI JOE cartoon where there was some device--the MASS Device, Weather Dominator, and Pyramid of Darkness--where the Joes and COBRA would fight over the pieces to determine who would control them.)
It's all done pretty well even if we know what the end result will be--and the end result after that. With these replacement stories the replacement hardly ever lasts more than a couple of years. I have no idea what happened to Freddy or when Billy came back or when Mary woke from her coma. I really don't know what happened to the Shazam family between this and Geoff Johns rebooting it post-New 52 with the version that became the basis for the movie.
There are two different artists sharing the work and while they have slightly different styles, both are more in that Alex Ross-type style where it looks more painted than hastily drawn as a lot of "art" these days is. So I'm giving the book a bonus point for the art.
This is certainly not essential reading, but it's not bad either.
Blue Beetle: Jaime Reyes Book One by Keith Giffen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I guess with a movie coming up this was on Amazon Prime to read. It's the origin of the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle, which I think the movie is about. It was also featured in I think season 2 of Young Justice.
The actual origin would begin in Identity Crisis or Infinite Crisis--one of those mid-2000s crises. The Golden Age Blue Beetle was some kind of Egyptian magic thing. Then there was Ted Kord's Blue Beetle that was more of an Iron Man-type thing with a rich scientist making cool toys. This Blue Beetle is an alien thing that bonds to young Jaime Reyes.
The tone and subject really call to mind Marvel, especially Spider-Man, both Peter Parker and Miles Morales. There are also plenty of other teen heroes who would be similar. There's a lot of the usual stuff of Jaime having to balance his superhero life and high school life. And he also has to try to find out what the scarab is and what it does.
Overall while not really deep or inventive, it's pretty fun. The art is pretty cartoony but I guess that was probably supposed to appeal more to younger readers who might be more familiar with manga and stuff like that.
(Fun Fact: This also includes Peacemaker, who is just about nothing like the John Cena version on the big and small screen.)
This isn't a comic per se but it's a book I got from Amazon Vine about a comics character, so close enough for me:
MARVEL Spider-Man: A History and Celebration of the Web-Slinger, Decade by Decade by Matthew K. Manning
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is the sort of book that's not really for super-fans or True Believers as might be more appropriate. It's more of an overview of Spider-Man's history in comics, TV, film, and video games, with a heavy emphasis on the comics. There is some insider baseball for bigger fans with quotes from Stan Lee and various other writers, artists, and editors. It helps co-author Peter David worked for Marvel in the 80s, including on Spider-Man, so this isn't just "experts" who only know about Spidey from the outside.
The book is only 208 pages with plenty of illustrations, so as I said it's not really the sort of book if you want a detailed history and analysis of Spider-Man. It's fun, though, if you just want an overview of Spider-Man's history and legacy.
The Doctor Satan MEGAPACK®: The Complete Series from Weird Tales by The Complete Series from Weird Tales
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Before the Man of Steel and Dark Knight ushered in the Golden Age of Comics in the late 30s, there were pulp magazines. Some characters like The Shadow or The Phantom have managed to have attempts to revive them. I don't think Dr. Satan has had the same luck.
This book features 7 stories from Weird Tales magazine written by Paul Ernst from 1935-1936. The stories are all largely the same: master criminal/scientist/wizard Dr. Satan kills and/or blackmails some rich people with magic and/or something sciencey akin to magic to get money from them. He's aided by a big guy without legs who uses his arms to get around and until the last couple of stories a little monkey-ish guy. But then Ascott Keane and his assistant unravel Dr. Satan's scheme and send him packing for the next round.
In the character of Ascott Keane we see a prototype for Bruce Wayne: Keane is a rich guy who in public pretends to be a clueless playboy but in reality is a highly intelligent detective. Only instead of dressing up in a bat suit, Keane is like if Bruce Wayne had studied the mystic arts like Dr. Strange. Instead of Alfred, he has Beatrice, an attractive young redhead who's his personal assistant. Huge upgrade over an English butler if you ask me. Kind of wonder why Kane/Finger didn't go that route as it builds in a potential love interest. Maybe it was just in the sexist 30s publishers wouldn't be cool with the idea of a woman being part of the team.
Anyway, the writing isn't great and the stories are kind of the same, but they're fun little curiosities and I got them for less than fifty cents, so whatever.
Batman: Curse of the White Knight by Sean MurphyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I wanted to read this because I'm a huge fan of the Knightfall storyline and thus of course Azrael. But the Azrael in this is almost nothing like the real Azrael. I can forgive Murphy a little since this is an Elseworlds story and not real continuity, thus he has creative freedom to do what he wants. But still, to me, Azrael is not just some old brute quoting scripture and murdering people. Murphy seems to have a much better handle on other characters, so I'm not sure why he did Azrael so wrong.
The rest of the story is OK, but not really as good as the first one. There's a lot of old-fashioned stuff about family histories and legacies and whatever else that isn't all that interesting. A couple of major characters die and secrets are revealed and so on. In the end, like most sequels, it doesn't live up to the original.
Batman: Three Jokers by Geoff JohnsMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Here's a joke for you: what happens when an event comic isn't an event? You get a decent story that at the end feels hollow because it doesn't go anywhere.
I think it was in Rebirth that Geoff Johns introduced this idea that there were actually three Jokers as a way to explain how the character has changed from 1940 to today. I don't think the regular Batman comics got into that; I know Tom King's run immediately following Rebirth never mentioned it and for that matter hardly featured the Joker at all. Which really proved one thing: the Joker is overrated as a Batman villain. I mean, King did an 85-issue arc and the Joker only really featured in a couple of issues, most of them a flashback to the "War of Jokes & Riddles." Of course the next creative team had to make the Joker prominent because fans were probably getting antsy.
Anyway, this doesn't really cover a lot of new ground. There are 3 Jokers and they're working together and turning seemingly random people into Jokers to search for America's Next Top Joker! Which, now that I think of it, a reality show format probably would have been the best way to do this. The Jokers could have been broadcasting to the whole city and Batman could have had to track them down before the final rose or crowbar or Jokerized fish or rubber chicken or whatever.
Besides Batman, there's also Batgirl (with a not-stupid costume) and Red Hood, who wants to kill the Jokers for revenge. It all plays out pretty well. There aren't really plot holes or stupid things; despite his personal and professional failings as a bigshot of DC's film/TV division, Johns remains a competent comic book writer. The art is also well done, so people and things don't look like crude sketches.
But in the end this feels so hollow because nothing important really happens. The Joker knows who Batman is and Batman knows who the Joker is and...nothing. Nothing really comes from this and it's not really breaking any new ground. So at best this rises to the level of decent entertainment for an hour or so.
 |
| Batgirl in the not-stupid costume |
On the positive side it did provide some pretty good action figures from McFarlane. I have Batman, Batgirl, and one of the Jokers. Batgirl was the only one I really wanted because it's a better costume than the post-Burnside ones DC has come out with. The other two I got on sale basically 2-for-1.
Doomsday Clock: The Complete Collection by Geoff JohnsMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
If Alan Moore ever read this, I can only imagine how angry he'd be about this. The end especially takes a big steaming dump all over Moore and Gibbons's work with a forced happy ending. The point of that book was that the "heroes" are very broken, damaged people to the point that one "saves" the world by killing 3 million people. This was back in 1985 when most people still thought comics were for kids. What Johns does in the end is state the obvious: that such damaged, broken people couldn't be Superman. That was pretty much Moore's premise to start, that this was a world where colorful heroes weren't Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and so on.
This is an "event' that really never needed to happen. But New 52 sales and popularity were lagging, so what better way to get some attention and stoke the imaginations of fanboys than rebooting courtesy of Dr. Manhattan? That's what Johns clumsily did in Rebirth and then of course there needed to be some explanation of that, hence this. Which a lot of it really seems like padding so it could be 12 issues when half that would have probably done it. I mean all the stuff about Mime, Marionette, fake "Rorschach," Batman, the Joker, etc. didn't really do a lot.
Like Rebirth, in the end the irony is this is Johns rewriting and overwriting stuff that...Johns wrote. He was the engineer of Flashpoint and the New 52, so he's basically rewriting himself. It's the kind of unnecessary cash grab I'm glad I didn't buy for full price. (Fun Fact: Vlad Putin and China's leader are prominently featured while others are mentioned by name. Meanwhile America's president is never referred to by name or shown, though from some dialogue and Tweets and such it's pretty obvious it's Trump.)
The Human Target, Volume 1 by Tom KingMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
In a way I was happy to get this as I've been wanting to read this series. On the downside it's only half the story so I'll have to wait until the next six issues are gathered up to finish reading. I definitely want to, because this is another good standalone series by Tom King that tackles another character who hasn't been really important in DC Comics for a while.
In this case it's Christopher Chance, the eponymous Human Target. His gig is to disguise himself as someone threatened with assassination. Then he'll take the bullet or whatever and flush out the assassin. It's a dangerous but lucrative occupation until Chance impersonates Lex Luthor. He thwarts an attack only to realize in the process he was poisoned and now has 12 days to live. (12 days, 12 issues, get it?) When a chemical in the poison traces back to the Justice League International, it sets Chance to find his murderer among some of the most powerful people on Earth--or anywhere else.
I realized later this has most of the elements of a Raymond Chandler mystery: much of the setting is in Los Angeles or some version thereof; there's a hardboiled, hard-drinking, trash-talking detective in Chance; a pair of "sisters," one seemingly sweet and innocent and one a femme fatale in Ice & Fire; and a powerful goon who stalks the detective to make things difficult in Guy Gardner. Really all it needs is some stolen jewelry and it'd have just about everything. But of course there's still 6 issues for that.
So definitely if you like noir mysteries and superheroes this is a good read. There are some dark turns (including a murder) but as I've said before, King manages to not be too gross or twisted; it never approaches the carnage and depravity of The Boys but it's not for kids either.
Looking forward to seeing if Chance finds his murderer before it's too late.
Dark Nights: Death Metal (2020-): Deluxe Edition by Scott SnyderMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I really hated the original Metal so I wasn't interested in this. But it was on sale for so cheap that I got it for free with credits I had. It was about as unimpressive as I thought. Like Metal or the first volume of Snyder's Justice League I read, there's a lot of gobbledygook that only makes sense if you don't stop to think about it. There are fights and slugfests and continuity changes that lasted about a year before the next continuity changes. So...whatever. I'm even less interested in the stuff that comes after this that's already been overwritten. This constant cycle of rebooting might drive immediate sales but for people like me too poor for that it just renders everything in "continuity" a morbid curiosity.
Twilight by Howard ChaykinMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was something a bit different from a lot of other comics I've read. From what someone told me, the original basis was a group of DC sci-fi heroes from the 50s, though updated for 1990ish. Which of course means making it a lot grittier and grimmer.
There are a lot of intriguing ideas and plot threads but with only 3 oversized issues there's not really enough time to explore everything. If this had been a 12-issue series (at least) there would have been a better opportunity to really delve into everything. I mean you basically have a 1000-year gap between the first two books and I'm not sure how long between the second and third books. Plus you've got at least a half-dozen main characters on different planets and such...it really could have used a little more space--pun mostly intended.
The framing device of old Homer Glint talking to his talking cat(!?!) is pretty fun and allows some humor into what might have otherwise been kind of grim.
The art is good for the time period with plenty of interesting aliens and ships and so on. I was worried from reading a Blogger buddy's article that some of the splash pages or two-page spreads wouldn't read well on my Kindle Fire, but it wasn't too bad and at this point it might be better to read a digitized version than a moldy old paper version.
The Joker War Saga by James Tynion IVMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Even though this is supposed to be the complete "saga" there's still a big chunk missing if you haven't read the comics between when Tom King's run ended and when this "event" started. The gist is that the Joker has taken over Bruce Wayne's fortune and company and the city has taken over Wayne Manor. And then the Joker has an army of clowns attacking the city while Batman and his allies try to stop them.
They try to bill this as something different, but it's really not. It's just the same old boring basic Joker garbage. Why so many people think the Joker is the ultimate villain is beyond me. He's just a stupid boring basic evil clown. Maybe the original evil clown, but at this point the shtick is worn out.
The only unique thing of the premise--that Joker has Batman's toys--isn't even used all that well. Batman doesn't seem inconvenienced at all, nor are his allies.
There are a bunch of different issues from different titles. None are really all that interesting. The one where Joker visits Bane in Arkham just seems like Tynion whining because Tom King killed Alfred before he got a chance to. "Waaah, I wanted to kill Alfred! You didn't do it right!" TS, dude.
Since there are so many different issues, the artists vary. Most are competent but a few were pretty bad like a lot of the junk Marvel puts out these days. The one focusing on "Clownhunter" was so bad I mostly skipped through it. The Harley Quinn one wasn't great either. Neither was the Batgirl one.
Anyway, like "Three Jokers," "Endgame," and "Death of the Family" it's another Joker-themed event that fails to add anything new or exciting to the Joker mythos. The only hit DC's had the last decade with that was the "Batman Who Laughs" and that was a Joker-ized Batman, not the real Joker.
Anyway, suffice it to say I didn't really like it and I don't really want to read the rest of Tynion's short run on the title.
(PS: I wasn't that interested in this but I was curious if it tied to 3 Jokers--it doesn't--or Future State, which I think it sorta half-assedly starts to set up.)
On Goodreads in a review of something, Tony Laplume talked about "5G" which has nothing to do with cell phones. I think it was short for 5th Generation. (You had the Golden Age of the 30s-40s, Silver Age of the 50s-60s, Bronze Age of the 70s-80s, and then I guess a 4th Generation from the 90s-on if you're wondering why it'd be considered the 5th generation.) It was supposed to be this big concept at DC where they'd replace most of the status quo characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman with new characters. As the rumors went around, of course the "fans" revolted and made a huge fuss and so DC backed down. Instead, they turned it into this series called "Future State" that would introduce new characters while presumably showing the future of the DC Universe. Predictably it was hit-or-miss when I read some of the collections they put out.
Future State: Batman - Dark Detective by Mariko Tamaki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I couldn't afford to read the Future State stories when they came out individually, so it's sorta nice they gathered them up into trades. But they did it in kind of a weird fashion. The first 4 issues of this are the titular "Dark Detective" about Bruce Wayne, who's lost everything in the future, including his life--or so everyone thinks. With what little leftover tech he has, he tries to learn more about the paramilitary group "The Magistrate" who have taken over Gotham. It's decent, but the problem is just when it's getting started, it's over.
Then there are two issues about Red Hood, who's joined the Magistrate for...reasons until they double-cross him. Then there are two Batman/Superman ones that are sort of a prequel as the Magistrate is just getting started, Superman is still Clark Kent, and Batman is still Bruce Wayne. The two Catwoman ones were the best besides the Dark Detective ones. It's sort of a Snowpiercer thing as Catwoman has to rescue people on a Magistrate train.
What's confusing then is she rescues Bruce Wayne. So...when is this taking place? That's the problem with these things; they really need to give you a timeline before each story so you know when it's fitting in to this timeline that literally spans centuries.
The last couple are Harley Quinn and Robin (Tim Drake) that are OK but again it's not really clear where everything is fitting together. The one I'm reading now, the "Next Batman," volume adds more pieces that only make it more confusing. Maybe eventually they'll rearrange the omnibuses into another omnibus that makes it make more sense.
The art varies from story to story. Some is really good and mostly realistic and some is more cartoonish.
Future State: Batman - Dark Detective by Mariko TamakiMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I couldn't afford to read the Future State stories when they came out individually, so it's sorta nice they gathered them up into trades. But they did it in kind of a weird fashion. The first 4 issues of this are the titular "Dark Detective" about Bruce Wayne, who's lost everything in the future, including his life--or so everyone thinks. With what little leftover tech he has, he tries to learn more about the paramilitary group "The Magistrate" who have taken over Gotham. It's decent, but the problem is just when it's getting started, it's over.
Then there are two issues about Red Hood, who's joined the Magistrate for...reasons until they double-cross him. Then there are two Batman/Superman ones that are sort of a prequel as the Magistrate is just getting started, Superman is still Clark Kent, and Batman is still Bruce Wayne. The two Catwoman ones were the best besides the Dark Detective ones. It's sort of a Snowpiercer thing as Catwoman has to rescue people on a Magistrate train.
What's confusing then is she rescues Bruce Wayne. So...when is this taking place? That's the problem with these things; they really need to give you a timeline before each story so you know when it's fitting in to this timeline that literally spans centuries.
The last couple are Harley Quinn and Robin (Tim Drake) that are OK but again it's not really clear where everything is fitting together. The one I'm reading now, the "Next Batman," volume adds more pieces that only make it more confusing. Maybe eventually they'll rearrange the omnibuses into another omnibus that makes it make more sense.
The art varies from story to story. Some is really good and mostly realistic and some is more cartoonish.
Future State: The Next Batman by John RidleyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I had already finished the "Dark Detective" volume, so then I figured I should read the second Batman-oriented volume. "The Next Batman" is Tim "Jace" Fox, the son of Lucius Fox and brother of Luke Fox, who was Batwing for about a minute--long enough for me to have an action figure of him. Only the first 28% actually covers the 4 issues of this story. And just as we're getting into the story and Jace is starting to learn the ropes of being Batman, it's over. Where did he find the Bat-stuff and why did he decide to adopt the Batman moniker? Yeah, scene missing from this and the previous book. Maybe it was in the Batman comics before this?
After that is a mishmash of other full stories and I think some backup stories that involve Nightwing (with the Next Batman), Batgirls, the Outsiders, Gotham City Sirens, Arkham Knights, Grifter, and probably more! Most of it was OK. Some was kind of gritty and some was kind of fun. The art varies with a slew of different artists.
Overall it was OK, but I think like I said with the Dark Detective volume, it'd be better if they gave you a timeline or something to know when these stories are taking place. I mean in one issue Jefferson Pierce (Black Lightning) is in jail as a human and in another he's some kind of energy being thanks to magic that happened when? It can be pretty confusing, especially if you haven't been following everything that's been going on with the Batman series.
Future State (2021-): Superman by Sean LewisMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was kind of frustrating to read. The Superman story that you'd think would be the focus, the one on the f-ing cover, is barely even dealt with! For...reasons Superman goes to Warworld and loses his powers and becomes a gladiator Mongul keeps alive to fight again and again and...I guess he escapes and conquers Mongul...somehow.
There are only two supposed Superman (Clark Kent) issues and those are about 80% about some black girl on Earth in a poor imitation of a Tom King story. So it all ends up being a teaser. There are stories involving Midnighter, Black Racer, and Mr. Miracle (Shilo Norman) that add more pieces to the puzzle, but a whole lot seems to be missing.
It actually starts with Jon Kent's Superman for one issue and then there are a bunch of other stories before we get back to that. It was pretty annoying.
I thought of giving it two stars but there is some good stuff in here. The Mr. Miracle stories are good. The "Lex Luthor: Imperious Rex" is fun. The Superwoman story is somewhat poignant. The "House of El" ones were interesting.
But overall there are all these bits and pieces and the reader is left to try to put them together into something. Like the two Bat-Family ones, it'd help if they told you when all this stuff is happening. It's hard to tell what's going on when otherwise.
Future State (2021-): Wonder Woman by Becky CloonanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This one seemed shorter than some of the other volumes. While Yara Flor, who's called Wonder Girl on the cover but Wonder Woman in the book, was the breakout star, this starts with two issues focusing on Nubia. They were pretty good but like a lot of the Future State stories it seems like it's laying the groundwork for something that's never going to happen.
The first two Yara Flor stories started out funny and then turned poignant. The Pegasus hating her reminded me of my Scarlet Knight stories where the Pegasus hates the first Emma Earl to ride it because she's not its true rider. Anyway, then there are two fun issues of Yara and Jon Kent as Wonder Woman/Superman.
Finally we have the original Wonder Woman at the end of the universe. It's kind of a downer story but it ends up with a hopeful message. Nothing ever ends--at least in comics.
The art was mostly good. The Yara Flor ones were probably the crudest while the Nubia and Diana ones were a lot better.
As I've said with the other three volumes, it can be hard to know where to place these on the timeline--except the last one.
Batman: Urban Legends, Vol. 1 by Chip ZdarskyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I liked the Red Hood/Batman issues of this. Maybe not quite Tom King good but better than some other Batman writers. It kind of softens the Red Hood as he tries to stop a new drug called "Cheerdrops" that's a twist on the Scarecrow's fear gas, only instead of nightmares it puts people into a state of bliss to the point they can go comatose or fall off a building or something. When Hood finds a woman in a coma with a kid, he has to take responsibility for the kid and that in turn brings memories of his youth with Bruce Wayne. And when Batman is captured, it's up to Red Hood to save the day.
That was only about half of it, which probably would have got this 4 stars. But then there's this whole Grifter thing just thrown in there. I hadn't read WildCATS in the 90s so I didn't know who Grifter was. Some kind of cut-rate Deadpool? There's this whole long thing about him working for Lucius Fox and Leviathan and sometimes fighting Batman, Red Hood, Superman, and Nightwing. If I knew who he was or what was going on it would have been better. Inserted into this without any setup it's more confusing than fun.
Hardware: The Man in the Machine by Dwayne McDuffieMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
As I understand it, in the early 90s, Dwayne McDuffie and others started Milestone Comics as a way to represent black heroes. Hardware was one of those characters. Kind of like the later Steel, Hardware is a brilliant scientist who creates an armored suit. Like Iron Man, it has different weapons and at the start can fly, though the jet pack is destroyed.
The first four issues provide the origin: Curtis Metcalf works for Edwin Alva (obvious twist on Thomas Alva Edison) who is an evil and manipulative business tycoon. When Curtis realizes Metcalf is just using him, he creates Hardware and starts taking down his boss.
The next three issues, Hardware goes after a prostitute killer and tangles with the vigilante Deathwish, who's sort of a Punisher-type character. There's a clever twist to solve the mystery.
The final issue of this volume is mostly a nightmare as Curtis/Hardware explores the cost of his war on crime. At the end of which he decides to be more about justice and less about vengeance, sort of like what has happened in Batman comics and the most recent movie.
The violence, language, and sexual content as well as the art is pretty similar to what was going on in comics for DC's other imprint Vertigo or Image Comics like Spawn. Some of the dialogue is a little corny 30 years later and the art is definitely 90s looking but it's not bad.
I'm not sure what they used to transfer this to digital but it's not a great transfer. It seemed kind of grainy and the colors a little off.
Superman/Shazam!: First Thunder by Judd WinickMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This 2006 miniseries might have been in continuity back then, but I don't really remember. I wasn't really following comics back then anyway. This was a prequel to show Billy Batson (called Captain Marvel, not Shazam, since this was when Marvel wasn't really using the name) meeting Superman for the first time. They tangle with the same crew in museums first in Metropolis and then Fawcett City (not Philadelphia like the later Geoff Johns version used for the movie). They team up and take on some magic enemies like Sabac and Eclipso.
It's pretty lighthearted and fun with cartoony art that's probably meant to invoke the Golden Age. Then in the fourth issue it takes a pretty dark turn. It ends with sort of a whimper; those who might be hoping for a big fight between the two heroes would be really disappointed.
Personally I found the lack of angst and fighting between the heroes to be kind of refreshing. It's pretty old-school to have two heroes work together without throwing punches and trading insults first. In this case Captain Marvel really looks up to Superman and at the end Clark decides to become a mentor to Billy.
Would that the real history of these characters had been so free of acrimony and lawsuits.
The Trials of Shazam: The Complete Series by Judd WinickMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is one of those traditional stories or stories at least that became traditional after 1992 with the "Death of Superman" and then "Knightfall" replacing both Superman and Batman for a short time. In this case, after 2006's "Infinite Crisis," the wizard Shazam is "dead" and so Billy Batson assumes his mantle. Freddy Freeman then becomes the new Shazam.
But first he has to pass the "trials" of the six beings who make up the magic word: Solomon, Hercules, Achilles, Zeus, Apollo, and Mercury. Three are Greek gods, two are Greek demigods, and one is from the Hebrew Bible, because I guess using Athena wouldn't have fit the naming scheme.
Anyway, Freddy has to find each person and then do something to get their power. But an evil woman named Sabina is competing to get the powers for herself. She takes some and he gets some and then there's a final contest. (Later it occurred to me the plot setup is pretty much like the first three miniseries of the GI JOE cartoon where there was some device--the MASS Device, Weather Dominator, and Pyramid of Darkness--where the Joes and COBRA would fight over the pieces to determine who would control them.)
It's all done pretty well even if we know what the end result will be--and the end result after that. With these replacement stories the replacement hardly ever lasts more than a couple of years. I have no idea what happened to Freddy or when Billy came back or when Mary woke from her coma. I really don't know what happened to the Shazam family between this and Geoff Johns rebooting it post-New 52 with the version that became the basis for the movie.
There are two different artists sharing the work and while they have slightly different styles, both are more in that Alex Ross-type style where it looks more painted than hastily drawn as a lot of "art" these days is. So I'm giving the book a bonus point for the art.
This is certainly not essential reading, but it's not bad either.
Blue Beetle: Jaime Reyes Book One by Keith GiffenMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I guess with a movie coming up this was on Amazon Prime to read. It's the origin of the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle, which I think the movie is about. It was also featured in I think season 2 of Young Justice.
The actual origin would begin in Identity Crisis or Infinite Crisis--one of those mid-2000s crises. The Golden Age Blue Beetle was some kind of Egyptian magic thing. Then there was Ted Kord's Blue Beetle that was more of an Iron Man-type thing with a rich scientist making cool toys. This Blue Beetle is an alien thing that bonds to young Jaime Reyes.
The tone and subject really call to mind Marvel, especially Spider-Man, both Peter Parker and Miles Morales. There are also plenty of other teen heroes who would be similar. There's a lot of the usual stuff of Jaime having to balance his superhero life and high school life. And he also has to try to find out what the scarab is and what it does.
Overall while not really deep or inventive, it's pretty fun. The art is pretty cartoony but I guess that was probably supposed to appeal more to younger readers who might be more familiar with manga and stuff like that.
(Fun Fact: This also includes Peacemaker, who is just about nothing like the John Cena version on the big and small screen.)
This isn't a comic per se but it's a book I got from Amazon Vine about a comics character, so close enough for me:
MARVEL Spider-Man: A History and Celebration of the Web-Slinger, Decade by Decade by Matthew K. ManningMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is the sort of book that's not really for super-fans or True Believers as might be more appropriate. It's more of an overview of Spider-Man's history in comics, TV, film, and video games, with a heavy emphasis on the comics. There is some insider baseball for bigger fans with quotes from Stan Lee and various other writers, artists, and editors. It helps co-author Peter David worked for Marvel in the 80s, including on Spider-Man, so this isn't just "experts" who only know about Spidey from the outside.
The book is only 208 pages with plenty of illustrations, so as I said it's not really the sort of book if you want a detailed history and analysis of Spider-Man. It's fun, though, if you just want an overview of Spider-Man's history and legacy.
This also isn't a comic book but it's stories from a pulp magazine that inspired the comic books of the late 30s:
The Doctor Satan MEGAPACK®: The Complete Series from Weird Tales by The Complete Series from Weird TalesMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Before the Man of Steel and Dark Knight ushered in the Golden Age of Comics in the late 30s, there were pulp magazines. Some characters like The Shadow or The Phantom have managed to have attempts to revive them. I don't think Dr. Satan has had the same luck.
This book features 7 stories from Weird Tales magazine written by Paul Ernst from 1935-1936. The stories are all largely the same: master criminal/scientist/wizard Dr. Satan kills and/or blackmails some rich people with magic and/or something sciencey akin to magic to get money from them. He's aided by a big guy without legs who uses his arms to get around and until the last couple of stories a little monkey-ish guy. But then Ascott Keane and his assistant unravel Dr. Satan's scheme and send him packing for the next round.
In the character of Ascott Keane we see a prototype for Bruce Wayne: Keane is a rich guy who in public pretends to be a clueless playboy but in reality is a highly intelligent detective. Only instead of dressing up in a bat suit, Keane is like if Bruce Wayne had studied the mystic arts like Dr. Strange. Instead of Alfred, he has Beatrice, an attractive young redhead who's his personal assistant. Huge upgrade over an English butler if you ask me. Kind of wonder why Kane/Finger didn't go that route as it builds in a potential love interest. Maybe it was just in the sexist 30s publishers wouldn't be cool with the idea of a woman being part of the team.
Anyway, the writing isn't great and the stories are kind of the same, but they're fun little curiosities and I got them for less than fifty cents, so whatever.
end
2 comments:
Supergirl sounded interesting, so I browsed it on Amazon. I downloaded the sample on my Kindle and the graphics look really good. The only thing is Amazon wants 9.99.
They frequently discount them around holidays; I got it for like $1.99 before Christmas. So if you put it on an Amazon wishlist you might see it on sale sometime.
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