More Comics I Read

 More comics I read, not that anyone really cares.

Justice Society of America, Vol. 5: Black Adam and Isis by Geoff Johns
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Only the first 3 or 4 issues in this are about Black Adam and Isis. It's kind of cut-and-dried as Adam rescues Isis and then they take the power from Billy Batson, who at this point is the wizard Shazam instead of "Captain Marvel." And the Justice Society has to stop them.

The other issues involve some other stuff. A fun one involves Stargirl's birthday party. A two-parter about a Japanese ghost gets a little cringey.

Overall it's OK but not really memorable. The art is decent. Pretty standard DC stuff for this time period.

If you watched the Black Adam movie this really has nothing to do with that.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Lost And Found by Mark Waid
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So basically Scott Lang and Nadia van Dyne get stuck in the quantum realm or whatever the microscopic universe is and have to find their way out. Lots of pseudo-science (or maybe real science) follows. As the late Terry Pratchett would say "it's something quantum." Amusing but not essential or relatable or in many cases even understandable.

 

The Unstoppable Wasp, Vol. 1: Unstoppable! by Jeremy Whitley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While I am not the target audience for this book as a middle-aged man with no kids, it was still mostly a fun read. At times maybe a little annoying, but Nadia's sunny, can-do attitude is kind of infectious and lovable.

Nadia (it means Hope!) Van Dyne was raised most of her life in the "Red Room" that also raised Black Widow. Once she learned she was the daughter of Hank Pym, she managed to create some Pym particles and escape to America.

There she starts recruiting other young female scientists to change the world. But the Red Room is still searching for her and wants to bring her back to Russia. There are I think 5 issues of this and a bonus Avengers issue at the start of the lame Civil War II thing.

Overall while the art was mostly cartoony, it did I suppose fit the subject, which is supposed to be more of a cartoon and not real. The non-grim-n-gritty tone is a nice palate cleanser. There are cameos by Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur, Jarvis the butler, and Janet van Dyne (aka original Wasp). I just wonder though why if she's such a genius she doesn't realize that "Girls In Action Research Labs" would be GIARL not GIRL.

But whatever. Maybe some girls were inspired to get into STEM because of this. Or probably not.

 
Flashpoint Beyond by Geoff Johns
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Like Johns's previous Doomsday Clock, this seems like a hollow exercise with no real point except to cash in on a name brand. In the original Flashpoint, the Flash changes things to save his mother and in the process alters the world to a much worse place with Thomas Wayne as Batman instead of Bruce. Thomas works with Barry Allen to change things back. This time, it's Bruce who saves Thomas by recreating the Flashpoint world inside of a couple of artifacts affected by Dr. Manhattan. While Thomas tries to unravel how his world is back, everything is unraveling with the Atlanteans and Amazons still at war and a Kryptonian fleet on the way. Meanwhile someone is killing people who in Bruce's timeline are time travelers. Some of it is interesting, but there are a lot of red herrings. While Thomas travels to England and other places, the whole thing could have been solved without ever leaving Gotham.

This isn't as banal as Doomsday Clock was, but it really lacks the emotional punch of Flashpoint. Probably because this Thomas Wayne is a brutal psychopath. Saving him isn't like saving Bruce in Flashpoint; Bruce's Batman was not a saint but much more worth saving. If Bruce was going to save a version of his father, why this one? Why not one who wasn't a piece of shit? Well because then you couldn't trade on the Flashpoint name brand.

It kinda makes sense that Bruce wants to let his father have another chance to be a hero, but the ethical concerns of this are never considered. I mean he recreates this timeline that suddenly winks countless beings into existence. Many of those on Earth are suffering from the war between the Atlanteans and Amazons and soon will suffer from the Kryptonian invasion. Other than Rip Hunter and the "Time Masters" scolding Bruce for using their toys, no one really considers whether it's right to recreate this fairly awful Earth just so Thomas can get his mojo back. Instead of recreating this world, he really should have just strapped his dad into a virtual reality thing.

It's kind of sad that after great runs on JSA, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Justice League, Johns Peter Principled himself into helping to create the failed "Snyderverse" and now is reduced to trying to stoke the embers of former greatness in an attempt to return to prominence. 

Booster Gold, Vol. 1: 52 Pick-Up by Geoff Johns
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's been a few years since I read 52 but I was familiar enough that it wasn't too jarring to read this years later. It picks up in the wake of 52 and Infinite Crisis where Booster Gold, the self-made hero from the future who's kind of a doofus but whose heart is in the right place, has lost his best friend Ted Kord and is trying to get back in the Justice League. Then he's dragooned by Rip Hunter, Time Master, to help stop someone(s) trying to destroy the Justice League's greatest heroes.

When I watched Deadpool 2 I asked, "Who would you trust less with a time machine than Deadpool?" Booster Gold would probably make that list. Fortunately for the universe, Rip Hunter is overseeing his travels so when he goes back a few years and to the Old West, it doesn't destroy all of history. There are actually a few poignant moments near the end as Booster goes back to stop Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) from being paralyzed and is supposed to learn an important lesson. And then tries to save Ted with help from other Blue Beetles.

It's mostly fun with a few touching moments. The character of Booster really comes through as someone who is a screw-up but not the doofus people think he is. He really does want to be good and help people, but his methods to do so while well-intentioned aren't always the best. And his sense of loss for Ted is palpable.

The art is typical for DC in the 2000s. It's not super-realistic but not crummy sketches either. All-in-all it's a decent story, though I don't know how much is still canon after Final Crisis, Flashpoint, Rebirth, Dark Crisis, and whatever. Maybe none of it. Still, it's a good read before the TV show gets made.

Justice League vs. Suicide Squad by Joshua Williamson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It starts off as the pretty standard "Bigger Jaws" narrative: the Suicide Squad are on a mission, the Justice League intercepts them, they fight, the Suicide Squad improbably wins, and then they team up to take on the bigger threat, ie Maxwell Lord, Lobo, and some other really bad dudes. Then things change a little when most of the Justice League is conscripted into Lord's army. The Suicide Squad and Batman have to team up to stop them.

Overall it's OK for what it is. It's not the kind of comic that's going to make you think or really redefine most of the characters, except maybe Killer Frost. I'm not sure how long she and Lobo were part of the Justice League, though I doubt it was long. There's plenty of action and quipping, so if that's mostly what you want, then this will do it for you.

Most of the art is decent enough. There's one issue especially about the "original" Task Force X that really had sketchy art--as in it mostly looks like they colored in someone's sketches.

I would probably give this 3.5 stars but I'm going to round up to 4. It's not an important or memorable story, but it was fine for what it was.

The Authority (1999-2002): Book One by Warren Ellis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I didn't read any of that Stormwatch stuff, from which this spun out in 1999. But since they're going to do a new TV series or movie or whatever, this was on Prime Reading. I had heard of Midnighter and Apollo since they were brought into the main DC universe a few years ago and recently showed up in "Superman and the Authority" and the Superman Future State stories. The rest of the characters I didn't really know about.

Jenny Sparks and Angie, aka "The Engineer" get the most characterization. Jenny is not immortal, but like Rushdie's Midnight's Children, her birth at the exact turn of the century gives her power. She doesn't age once she's an adult and she has electrical powers. And she's been to a parallel universe where aliens took over Earth in the 1500s and turned much of it into a breeding farm. That universe comes to Jenny's universe and she has to lead the Authority to fight them.

Angie is a young woman who gave up all her blood for nanobots that let her create a robotic shell and lots of neat guns, engines, and devices. I'm not sure how much more is done with her in future volumes, but there was a lot of room to grow.

There's also "the Doctor" (not of the Who variety) who can do environmental magic, like if Captain Planet were a sorcerer or something. And Jack gets power from cities--but only cities. Midnighter is like Batman crossed with Taskmaster of Marvel. Apollo gets power from the sun and most closely is like Superman with the flying and shooting energy and maybe some super strength? There's also Shan who has wings. Maybe because Jack, Shan, Midnighter, and Apollo were in Stormwatch they aren't given a lot of extra characterization.

The first story arc involves superhuman clones. The newly-formed Authority takes them out. And then the parallel world beings. And then some monsters, ending with "God." For all purposes the Authority seems to be doing good. Grant Morrison's introduction makes it sound like they have a hidden agenda, but there's little evidence of that in this volume. Maybe that comes to play later.

Anyway, it was a pretty decent overall. Most of it is action, so it's not going to really make you think too much, but it's not just constant slugfests. There's some weirdness that calls to mind Morrison's Doom Patrol or Gaiman's Sandman, but if that's not your thing there's not too much of that. So basically it's not plain vanilla superhero stuff but it's not so out there that superhero comic fans wouldn't get it.

While there's violence and some gore, there's not nearly as much gore or sexuality as The Boys. By today's standards it's probably a hard PG-13 instead of R-rated. Though Jenny is a lot like a female Billy Butcher--if Butcher had electrical powers.

Hitch's art is good, on par with the DC standard of the late 90s and 2000s. Maybe since this came out in 1999 it's not too 90s in its depiction of people. I mean it's not all guys with huge muscles and women with huge breasts and big hair like a lot of that early-to-mid-90s stuff.

I'd be interested in reading more.

Batman: Reptilian by Garth Ennis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As a "Black Label" story this is not part of the official Batman continuity in the comics. That always frees creators to do different things. In this case it's a story about Batman and Killer Croc. While we usually think of Croc as being, you know, like a crocodile or alligator on two legs, this takes a different tack. What if Croc was something else entirely?

Something has been attacking the criminals of Gotham including most of Batman's rogue's gallery. And it's not Batman, so he starts looking into it. But what is Killer Croc's role in these attacks that seem to be committed by a reptilian creature?

Overall it's a pretty fun read. For the creator of The Boys this is actually a pretty restrained comic. There is some blood and gore but not too much and not a ton of graphic violence either. A lot of the first four issues or so are just Batman looking into the aftermath of the creature's attacks and searching for the connection.

The tone of the story and Ennis's take on Batman is set in the beginning in an unrelated bit where a boxer's lawyer celebrates his client being found not guilty because Batman's evidence was ruled inadmissible. Batman walks up to the boxer and calls him a coward and goads the boxer into trying to punch him and then hits him a lot harder. "Self-defense," he says and walks away.

The only fault I have is sometimes Batman sounds a little too British. That can happen when you have a writer from North Ireland writing an American character. It's something I saw a lot in Transformers comics where the British writers had the robots from Cybertron using a lot of British slang. For American readers it can be a little off-putting.

The art is OK. It has that sort of painted style like Alex Ross but not with the attempts at realism. Some of the supporting characters look downright cartoony.

Overall while it's basically an Elseworlds thing it's still a good read for Batman fans.

Batman: The Imposter by Mattson Tomlin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This just feels like a mish-mash of previous Batman stories in comics, film, and TV. The whole "imposter" thing has been done before in comics and at the start of "The Dark Knight." Even the romance angle felt like we'd already seen it before and there wasn't nearly enough development to it. I suppose part of the problem is this was only 3 "books;" it probably needed to be longer to develop the story more.

But even then it'd be hard for it not to feel like a Bat-loaf of prior stories all mixed together and under-cooked into something inedible. Like "Batman Year One," "Batman Begins," and the more recent "The Batman," this is about a young Bruce Wayne who's only been Batman for a couple of years and is still figuring things out. Since this is a Black Label story it can make some changes to the traditional continuity so that Alfred put Bruce into a Russian military school when he was 11 or 12 and then took off. And after working with Batman for a couple of years, "Captain Gordon" was run out of town. Then someone dressed as Batman starts killing criminals. Bruce and a female detective both investigate the imposter and fall in love. And mayhem ensues...

Like I said, this doesn't feel like it has any new ideas or really anything interesting to say. It's just rehashing a lot of stuff that's already been done. Been there, done that. The character of the imposter isn't really developed and the reveal is a big "so what?" because it's not anyone of significance.

The art doesn't do the book any favors. While it claims to be "moody," often it's just incoherent, making it difficult to really see what's happening.

I really didn't enjoy anything about this book. It makes me glad I got it on sale last holiday season so I'm not out much.

Dawn of DC Knight Terrors FCBD Special Edition #1: 2023 by Joshua Williamson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The story is OK but not great. Someone's pitch was probably, "It's like Nightmare on Elm Street but with superheroes!" Meh. Definitely an "event" I could wait to read until it's all in a trade collection and marked down to a couple of bucks.

The art is that lame kind that looks really rushed, like someone was in a hurry and had to color in sketches.

So definitely a hard pass for me on this.

Dawn of DC Primer Special Edition #1: 2023 by Joshua Williamson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This Free Comic Book Day issue is to update readers on the state of DC's universe after the previous "Dark Crisis," which I haven't read. Anyway, for...reasons, Amanda Waller is employing a bunch of criminals to assassinate superheroes. She should probably just contact Billy Butcher and The Boys since that's their specialty.

The art of that story is the kind that just looks rushed, basic, and like colored sketches, so I guess it's good this was free.

After that little teaser story there are a bunch of pages to reintroduce various characters and give you their status quo at the moment--until the next big event shakes things up again. Sigh.

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