tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-109457942024-03-17T22:04:29.635-05:00Collected Editionsthe chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks, graphic novels, and collected editions -- featuring trade paperback reviews, commentaries, discount comic book alerts, comic book news, and the occasional scoop.collectededitionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14698269790653953645noreply@blogger.comBlogger2701125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10945794.post-49361063205429673272024-03-17T21:08:00.001-05:002024-03-17T21:09:39.688-05:00Review: Batman: One Bad Day: Bane hardcover (DC Comics)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520352/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1973" data-original-width="1280" height="320" itemprop="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzbI86lcLw-K6F1YBQs_QooeO51x4roxvrzMVEE2RMsAH90gZwjQ01P5yZuqu4O9mDBxYd0-raj4azXZxmEr99wbA_NS7wa6GPp3hmdgtO9xSmWq9f4IKPH0FNPToeFVVJZd7tb13wehrp9txt1catH6Oo4GRDXLtzJk3f7Hb92IlpX85Ov1ao/s1600/batman-one-bad-day-bane-dccomics-williamson-porter-morey.jpg" /></a></div><p>Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520352/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Batman: One Bad Day: Bane</a> still does not quite live up to my (subjective, arbitrary) standards for what a “One Bad Day” story should be, but it is one of the better books of this series. If still not at the level of <em>Batman: One Bad Day: Riddler</em>, it edges out <em>Penguin</em> for second place.</p>
<p>There’s no shortage of challenges here. Insofar as the “One Bad Day” titles, in the tradition of <em>Batman: The Killing Joke</em>, are meant to be origin-ish stories, Bane’s past has been well mined through Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan’s classic “Vengeance of Bane” specials. Equally, while many of the “One Bad Day” books have referenced modern continuity often to their detriment, Williamson likely can’t help it in <em>Bane</em>; that Bane killed Alfred Pennyworth is too significant to ignore, even though that’ll surely be reversed in a decade’s time. Too, Williamson has the unenviable task of writing Bane and Batman’s first major encounter since <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2020/08/review-batman-vol-13-city-of-bane-part-2.html">City of Bane</a>.</p>
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<p>Williamson sidesteps much of this through an unexpected take — on Bane, on even what “one bad day” refers to — though I still felt Williamson’s Bane was very much in character. Howard Porter, in more than 25 years since <em>JLA</em>, has only improved upon his original excellence, drawing with grace (even expertly depicting gore like we haven’t seen from him before) that befits an artist at the top of his game. As I’ve noted with others, maybe it’s just that “One Bad Day” is a bad fit for this book; as simply a Bane special, this one’s a keeper.</p>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers]</strong></p>
<p>“The Last Vengeance of Bane,” as the story’s called, starts with the premise of a future Bane who finally indeed killed Batman. As we learn through flashback, however, Bane did not kill Batman, but rather the two teamed up to eradicate the Venom drug, even gaining a grudging partnership despite Bane having killed Alfred. Ultimately, Batman sacrificed himself on Bane’s behalf to stop a villain releasing Venom over Gotham, and now Bane works again to destroy all Venom to “honor Batman’s sacrifice.”</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>A hero turn is not unusual for Bane — we’ve seen it from Dixon and Nolan themselves through to Gail Simone’s <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2012/02/review-secret-six-darkest-house-trade.html">Secret Six</a>, with Tom King’s <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2020/08/review-batman-vol-13-city-of-bane-part-2.html">City of Bane</a> really being a bit of an anomaly for Bane’s evolution. That a “One Bad Day” story should include villain-as-antihero <em>is</em> unexpected; both <em>Killing Joke</em> and <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-batman-one-bad-day-riddler.html">Batman: One Bad Day: The Riddler</a> are stories of the Joker and Riddler at their worst. <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/02/review-batman-one-bad-day-penguin.html">One Bad Day: Penguin</a> offers Oswald Cobblepot as protagonist, but certainly not as hero — his aim is to restore his own criminal position, not to take drugs off the street. We’ve a wonderful conundrum here — this is a story of Bane exceptionally true to who Bane is, but who Bane is perhaps makes him the wrong kind of character for a “One Bad Day” story.</p>
<p>A difficulty some of the “One Bad Day” stories have had — <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-batman-one-bad-day-two-face.html">Two-Face</a>, <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/02/review-batman-one-bad-day-mr-freeze.html">Mr. Freeze</a> — is that the character’s titular “defining” bad days are already pretty well established. Bane, too — we’ve seen his mother die, we’ve seen him grow up in prison, we’ve seen an ill-fated tussle with Azrael. Williamson takes the unusual, beautiful step of making Bane’s “worst day” instead one that was originally triumphant — the day he broke Batman’s back. Bane stops short of apologizing to an imaginary Bruce Wayne, but he at least recognizes himself as having peaked too early and allowing himself to be defined by that one fleeting accomplishment.</p>
<p>Elements that <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-batman-one-bad-day-riddler.html">Batman: One Bad Day: The Riddler</a> has — ones that cause me to see it as a worthy successor to <em>Killing Joke</em> — include a "I came to talk"-like conversation, a lofty “burn it all down”-type scheme, and the question of whether Batman kills the villain in the end. <em>Bane</em> has neither of the first two — the major action is not a scheme by Bane at all — nor the third, though I did think we might be going there, figuratively, in the final hospital scene. Bane offers himself for ghost-Bruce to kill, but Bruce declines. At the same time, at the end of the book Bane seems to have denounced his former identity, burning his prized <em>Gotham Gazette</em>; you could say Bane has been “killed,” but that’s not quite the rainy fade-to-black I’m looking for.</p>
<p>Even from <em>JLA</em> to <em>Flash</em> and then, many years later, <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2020/03/review-flash-year-one.html">Flash</a> again, I’ve never seen Howard Porter like this. The painterly style we have seen on <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2007/10/review-trials-of-shazam-volume-1-trade.html">Trials of Shazam</a>, which here balances out Porter’s trademark angles and overall raises Bane’s struggles to the near mythological. But in his bright superheroics, I’ve never seen Porter do horror before, bodies exploded to pieces, jaws bloodily ripped off and then cast aside. I thought the “One Bad Day” books were Black Label — they’re not — but that hasn’t stopped a few of them from underscoring their points with some tactical maturity. I’d be happy to see this new side of Porter again.</p>
<p>And so, again, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520352/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Batman: One Bad Day: Bane</a> is a great Bane story. Joshua Williamson gets Bane’s many sides and puts them all on display, and even manages to reconcile some sharp edges, too. In bringing Bane full circle with characters from <em>Batman: Venom</em>, Williamson earns every inch of the “Last Vengeance of Bane” title. Astoundingly, it is ultimately too hopeful, too redemptive, for what I’d consider “One Bad Day.” You should check it out nonetheless.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers, character designs, black and white art section]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>3.5</span></div>
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<p>I’ve been known to say that sometimes even if it’s not good, at least there’s a lot of it. There is a lot of <em>Talon</em> here, 18 issues and a crossover, but also it’s uniformly decent. If Tynion’s first major solo outing never reaches the realm of high art, it’s consistently interesting, hampered mostly by pinch-hit artwork more than anything else.</p>
<p>I read the original first volume back in 2014 and that’s the time the second half would have had most appeal; it is passingly interesting now, but would be even more so if some Bat-creator saw fit to employ the titular Talon Calvin Rose again among a super-team or what have you.</p>
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<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers]</strong></p>
<p>One major point in favor of this larger-form <em>Talon</em> collection (issues #0–17 and <em>Birds of Prey</em> #21, where <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2014/01/review-talon-vol-1-scourge-of-owls.html">Talon Vol. 1: Scourge of the Owls</a> was #0–7 and the second volume was the rest) is a markedly honest introduction from Tynion. I appreciate that where a reasonable instinct would be to talk up the strong points of this early work, Tynion instead outlines many of the mistakes — a too-complicated proposal, dialogue-heavy pages. Pointing out the missteps makes me judge <em>Talon</em> no more harshly, and equally his consideration of what worked — when he moved from a single protagonist to a more expansive cast — helped me better appreciate those shifts too.</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>Among changes between the first eight issues of <em>Talon</em> and the last nine are that Calvin Rose’s pseudo “handler” Sebastian Clark steps back (having been revealed as a villain in the first year’s climax) and romantic interest Casey Washington and her strike team step forward. Put another way, the first year of <em>Talon</em> operated somewhat with Calvin as Batman and Sebastian as his Alfred, and the second half parts with that toward building its own identity.</p>
<p>Tynion highlights issues #3–4 as where he feels the series begins to expand beyond Calvin Rose, though I was skeptical at first. True, issue #3 is where Calvin meets up with Casey and her team of foot soldiers, who are all, like Calvin, refugees from criminal cults. But they depart again in issue #4, not seen again in that first volume, and Joey and Nicky and Edgar all seem so direct from central casting that I didn’t expect to see them again.</p>
<p>Indeed, when they do return in issue #10, they’re still mostly anonymous. But Tynion does begin to offer some backstory for the crew’s apparent leader, Anya Volkova, even if it’s that she’s yet another in a cadre of super-capable League of Assassins figures who nevertheless decides to defect. If that’s somewhat lackluster in terms of a supporting cast, I did think there was potential in the two final issues by guest-writer Tim Seeley, where Anya conspires with Calvin on a mission, thinking Casey — who, unlike the rest, grew up in relative ease — might not understand. That’s potential for a triangle that might have given all the supporting characters more personality.</p>
<p>Tynion’s breakout character in this run, however, is likely the Talon “Butcher” Felix Harmon. Had I read all of this before Tynion’s <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/04/review-joker-vol-1-hardcoverpaperback.html">Joker</a>, I might even have suspected the Butcher as that book’s hulking mysterious figure. Late in the book, Seeley writes a Lord Death Man who is giddy to the point of silliness, far from a threat; Tynion’s Butcher, in contrast, speaks like an English gentleman as he otherwise nearly overfills every panel he’s in, punctuated with sudden, gory violence.</p>
<p>If one is looking for Tynion’s later works in this earlier one, it’s not in the forgettable henchmen he creates for Bane with names like Wolf-Spider, with nowhere near the staying power of Tynion’s later Punchline and Ghost-Maker. Rather, it’s in the horror of Tynion’s Court of Owls serial killer, who’s happy to murder for his Grandmaster but equally too just for sport. There’s significant torture here — the Butcher seems at some point to have torn out a captive Casey’s eye, and later crushes her arm so badly it has to be amputated — but a lot of this (plus some harrowing child endangerment) happens off-screen or in the shadows. It seems like a Tynion not so bold with his horror as he would later be on <em>Joker</em> or <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/03/review-nice-house-on-lake-vol-1-trade.html">The Nice House on the Lake</a>.</p>
<p><em>Talon</em> kicks off with Guillem March on art, Tynion’s later partner on <em>Joker</em> and <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2020/11/review-batman-vol-1-their-dark-designs.html">Batman</a>. If there’s the slightest bit of woodenness among some of the figures (some 10 years ago), surely March gets as much credit for the book’s auspicious start overall as Tynion does. <em>Talon</em>’s eventual cancellation seems more reasonable in the middle of the book, with Miguel Sepulveda inked too darkly and Szymon Kudranski’s panels being often unintelligible, and too much time spent on fight scenes in Bane’s dungeon. Artist Emauel Simeoni finishes out the book well, but that’s only in Tynion’s final three issues when cancellation was inevitable.</p>
<p>In that end, Tynion has Calvin join that era’s Batman Inc., though I don’t think we ever saw adventures come out of that and Talon was not included among Joshua Williamson’s resurrected team in <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/05/review-batman-vol-6-abyss.html">Batman Vol. 6: Abyss</a>. Talon’s inclusion seems reasonable; Calvin Rose is cut from the same cloth as other assassin-turned-Bat-family operatives Batgirl Cassandra Cain and Azrael, not to mention the suggestion of a childhood friendship with Dick Grayson.</p>
<p>Batman appears a few times in the book, though I still feel we never quite got the caliber of team-up the book seemed to be leading toward, a real Batman/Talon adventure where perhaps Batman has to separate some of his ire for the Court from the idea that Talons may be innocent children or brainwashed victims. As it is we have a glut of Bat-family members, some of whom aren’t even being used, but I continue to be surprised Calvin Rose doesn’t appear more, even if just when the Court of Owls is in the mix. Maybe someday.</p>
<p>Knowing what I know now, I’d have liked to have finished <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779515154/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Talon by James Tynion IV</a> before I read Tynion’s <em>Joker</em>. Assuredly if there’s a reason this volume exists, it’s to serve mostly as prologue to that more notable work.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers, introduction, character sketches]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>2.5</span></div>
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<p>“My earliest version of the script featured an ape city, much like New York. It wasn’t carved out of rocks with caves on the side of the hill. It was a metropolis. … The script was very long, and I think the estimate of the production people was that if they had shot that script it would’ve cost no less than a hundred million dollars.” - Rod Serling</p>
<p><em>“It’s really incredible. The similarities. Almost exact but not quite. Like a slightly out of focus photograph …” - John Thomas</em></p>
<p>Back in the days of the #SnyderCut, when fans were clamoring online for director Zack Snyder’s <a href="https://cinemaking465.blogspot.com/2021/03/zack-snyders-justice-league-2021.html">original Justice League</a> to see the light of day, I took the pragmatist’s approach. Sure, I hoped to see a <em>Justice League</em> that hadn’t been Frankensteined together (and took a day off work to watch it when it dropped), but I was equally enthusiastic about seeing Snyder’s vision translated into a comic book. I had precedent — we’d already seen comic book extensions like <em>Batman '66</em> and <em>X-Men '92</em>, or even something like Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson’s <em>Alien: The Illustrated Story</em>.</p>
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<p>But me being me, the first thing on my mind was 2018’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1608869806/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Planet of the Apes: Visionaries</a>, which reproduced Rod Serling’s original screenplay for the 1968 film. At once starkly different and yet strikingly similar, <em>Visionaries</em> gives us a film that doesn’t and likely can’t or won’t exist, a four-color “Serling Cut” of sorts, unlocked (as they say) with the key of imagination. And its very existence makes a compelling argument for comics as the next frontier for niche or otherwise unfilmable movie projects.</p>
<p>Writer Dana Gould and artist Chad Lewis adapt <em>Visionaries</em> from Serling’s initial drafts, and they are intriguing choices. A comedian in his own right, Gould has made a reputation for himself as the world’s leading <em>Apes</em> fan, up to and including his web series <em>Hanging with Dr. Z</em>, which finds Gould hosting a chat show in full costume and makeup as Doctor Zaius. (Indeed, a YouTube search for “Doctor Zaius” will give you equal parts Dana Gould, Maurice Evans, and that one episode of <em>The Simpsons</em>.)</p><p>It’s a slight surprise, then, that Gould doesn’t make more of Zaius in this version, though perhaps it’s a sign of good restraint and attention to the accurate presentation of Serling’s work undisguised. Chad Lewis, meanwhile, adds a primitive scratchiness to his pencils, reminiscent perhaps of a Jeff Lemire type, so while his landscapes are polished and developed, the linework betrays the absence of civilization at the heart of Serling’s fable.</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>Some of the changes in <em>Visionaries</em> are cosmetic: Heston’s George Taylor is instead John Thomas, whom Gould and Lewis both describe as Paul Newman. Meanwhile, the apes look decidedly more animalistic, drawing on the original screen tests of Edward G. Robinson in the role of Doctor Zaius. These are not animals that have evolved into ape-men; gone are the pronounced snouts and mod haircuts, with flatter faces and shaggier fur.</p><p>Consequently, as I’m finding is often the case with <em>Apes</em> comics, it’s not always easy to tell one ape from another, yet the trio of colorists - Darrin Moore, Miquel Muerto, and Marcelo Costa - provide admirable assistance in their respective pages. Zira, for example, is a lighter brown than Cornelius, while Zaius’s orange fur is much more pronounced than that of the orangutan assemblyman who introduces Thomas to the apes.</p>
<p>Absent also is the caste system from the 1968 film, which sorted gorillas into the army, chimps into the sciences, and orangutans into political leadership. Serling’s Ape City is an egalitarian monkey metropolis, implicitly devoid of the kind of prejudices that might lead to a segregated society. Gone too, then, is the rabid hatred of mankind that marked the filmic planet of the apes; instead, humans are regarded as nothing more than mere animals, not unlike the buffalo, with whom Thomas compares himself in one poignant moment when he realizes how similar his plight is to that of an extinct creature. Hence that “out of focus photograph” — Thomas recognizes this world, even if his place in it cannot quite be fathomed.</p>
<p>By the same token, <em>Visionaries</em> is itself like an “out of focus photograph,” following the structure and basic plot of the film while at the same time feeling like someone has changed the lens on the camera. The third act, for example, begins to conclude with a visit to an archaeological dig, but Thomas is invited, and Zaius ultimately proves unable to hide the talking doll, which leads in turn to the discovery of a fallout shelter. This sequence, wholly absent from the final film, finds Thomas intoning gravely, “Man preceded you. Then he died. Cause of death … <strong>suicide</strong>.”</p><p>That dark irony and bitter solemnity, a hallmark of so many of Serling’s <em>Twilight Zone</em> screenplays, is on full display in <em>Visionaries</em>, at the expense of the offbeat humor present in the 1968 film. Gone are the Three Wise Monkey gag, the wry presentation of young ape protestors as countercultural hippies, and inverted aphorisms like “Human see, human do.” Perhaps surprisingly, the only real joke in the book was kept in the final film, when Thomas kisses Zira goodbye, prompting the chimp scientist to grumble, “But you’re so damned ugly.”</p>
<p>Instead of jokes and punchlines, Serling doubles down on the grim moralizing that is music to this reader’s ears. Serling had a gift for purple prose that sent a shiver down your spine; “just a fragment of what man has deeded to himself,” Serling wrote of Henry Bemis in “Time Enough at Last,” and there can be no mistaking the same foreboding pen at play in the moment when gorilla Dr. Ernestine asks Thomas, “Forgive us, but to use a bomb as you describe even once, raises the question — how <strong>civilized</strong> are you, at all?” Not every science-fiction allegory needs to be a gag-fest, and there is certainly a place for Serling’s more austere style of fable, but once again Gould has not sacrificed textual fidelity for a more familiar <em>Planet</em>.</p>
<p>This humorlessness does not extend to the artwork, however. Lewis is clearly having a ball with his choreography, depicting Zaius at one point with his ankles crossed leisurely on his desk. Elsewhere, he makes delightful use of borderless panels to punctuate dramatic moments; in one, a falling medical tray underscores the drama of Thomas’s “first” words, while elsewhere a shattering teacup highlights the ape revulsion at learning Thomas has taught Nova to speak.</p><p>And whether Serling has tipped his hand too early at the twist ending with fallout shelters and prominent discussion of atom bombs, Lewis gives that climactic scene plenty of room to breathe over four pages before a double-page spread unveils the horrifying truth behind Thomas’s last words, “I’m afraid there’s no place to run to. There’s no place to go.”</p>
<p>In Lewis’s rendition, the discovery of the Statue of Liberty ends up being a chilling mirror of the way George Tuska presented it in his <em>Adventures on the Planet of the Apes</em>. Tuska gave us a foregrounded Statue on a sandy beach, facing away from Taylor, who knelt in defiance; Lewis, meanwhile, places the Statue in the verdant background, before the prostrate form of the dead Thomas. (The actual film splits the difference.) It is Lewis’s third double-page spread, the first being given over to a title card of sorts, while the second gave us a full treatment of Ape City in all its urban glory. These vistas are breathtaking moments for the reader, welcome opportunities to pause and linger over Lewis' linework, and their cinematic qualities remind us that we’re seeing a film that never was - an “out of focus photograph,” if you will.</p>
<p><em>Planet of the Apes: Visionaries</em> is the perfect constellation of so many things I love — a favorite franchise, a writer I adore, and a particular attitude toward fable and allegory. I don’t know that I would go so far as to say it’s better than the film - lacking as it does a more villainous Zaius and missing my actual favorite line<a href="#fn:1" id="fnref:1" title="see footnote" class="footnote"><sup>1</sup></a> — but I will always be on the side of an auteur getting his or her original treatment in front of an audience. And now that we have <em>Zack Snyder’s Justice League</em>, maybe the rumored Parts II and III can exist in comic book format some day.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn:1">
<p>“I’m a seeker, too. But my dreams aren’t like yours. I can’t help thinking that somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man. Has to be.” — which I am only now surprised to learn was evidently <em>not</em> written by Rod Serling. Though it smacks of <em>The Twilight Zone</em>, this line appears nowhere in Serling’s early script drafts, and the first kernel of this idea appears in Michael Wilson’s 1967 final revised screenplay. Whether the line was emended by Wilson, Charlton Heston, director Franklin J. Schaffner, or Rod Serling (who did visit the set) is going to nag at my brain for some time. <a href="#fnref:1" title="return to body" class="reversefootnote"> ↩︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
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}}</script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p>---</p><p>This post was syndicated from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">Collected Editions</a>, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">collectededitions.blogspot.com</a>.</p></div>collectededitionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14698269790653953645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10945794.post-72917114973619744552024-03-06T19:42:00.002-06:002024-03-06T19:43:09.818-06:00Review: Aquamen trade paperback (DC Comics)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779516959/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1973" data-original-width="1280" height="320" itemprop="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiAp6MmATWd1tera-pV7IyuBOoA-LhdpyuFXqOS9v_nAhdG4hGYSuwTcaM02xTdu_BCzmL7a3Ky5kS_6SN27pxr7wzneL4LB-BaACkNiUHTI_JMDPWD7Cgdfx-mgqAJI7PozpjvhCipB5IDM-jDg4P0l6JoCMBwYFohdhRUXtsyO9OdNllzzkl/s1600/aquamen-dccomics-brown-thomas-basri-raynor.jpg" /></a></div><p>Although the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779516959/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Aquamen</a> miniseries has neither the punch of writers Brandon Thomas and Chuck Brown’s respective <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/09/review-aquaman-becoming-trade-paperback.html">Aquaman: The Becoming</a> or <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/09/review-black-manta-trade-paperback-dc.html">Black Manta</a> preludes, I’d still have happily kept reading an <em>Aquaman</em> series in this vein.</p>
<p>Traditionally Aqua-series have struggled to make interesting plots around sometimes-dull Atlantean mythology; Brown and Thomas have both shown they can keep things hopping, and moreover, the emphasis of their <em>Aquamen</em> is positively superheroic, even steeped squarely in the DCU. There’s also an emphasis, as with the current <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/02/review-flash-vol-19-one-minute-war.html">Flash</a> title, on reestablishing an “everything old is new again” Aqua-family. My favorite Aqua-genre is still political drama, but I can see how an Aquaman (Arthur Curry and Jackson Hyde)-as-superhero title would appeal to many, and I can get behind that.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>I’ve only the mildest inklings that maybe Thomas and Brown’s series ended before they’d planned, but <em>Aquamen</em> sure feels that way, with the fifth issue ending on a cliffhanger and the sixth issue not quite connected to it. Given the book’s focus on family, it’s unfortunate that the needs of other crossovers must begin to pull that family apart in the end, especially when that’s said and done for the writers on Aquaman (for the most part). DC won’t go too long without another <em>Aquaman</em> series on the stands, but honestly I can’t see who they could be waiting for better than Brown and Thomas, and indeed with Sami Basri on the art.</p>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers]</strong></p>
<p><em>Aquamen</em> impresses from the start with a few cinematic, or even post-cinematic, page sequences. Movies can certainly show scenes in parallel, even connected with continuous music or voiceover, but a number of times the writers here do that uniquely comics thing where they layer multiple panels on the page, all forwarding different scenes in different locations. If the reader still can’t process it all “all at once,” it is more juxtaposition than other mediums can offer (and which even most comics creators don’t often attempt). Thomas and Brown make it look easy, depicting the three Aquamen (Arthur, Jackson, and Black Manta) on the way to their stories coinciding.</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>It is that the story is well-told visually (credit too to Basri) that helps smooth over some of the rougher patches. Particularly, the book picks up from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/09/review-aquaman-becoming-trade-paperback.html">Aquaman: The Becoming</a> with Jackson angry over his own perceived failures and angrier once he finds Arthur’s been working with Jackson’s estranged father Black Manta. The writers let us know Jackson’s upset often and at length, to the point it becomes repetitive, and far beyond what makes sense for Jackson when obviously Arthur and Manta are on the trail of a real threat.</p>
<p>There’s also a plot thread, never fully resolved, that questions whether Arthur’s being mind-controlled, that he’s lying to Mera, and what he does or doesn’t remember after having been “murdered” by Mera in the last <em>Aquaman</em> series. A lot of this, including who indeed is the actual villainous mastermind in this piece, wasn’t satisfactorily explained, and tying it to a ill-conceived storyline in which a pregnant Mera killed Arthur in a fit of hormonal rage just seems asking for trouble.</p>
<p>But on the other hand, <em>Aquamen</em> features a robust Aqua-family within and without, which I was happy to see. There’s Arthur and Mera and Jackson, and then after some time in which former Aqualad Garth was bounced from title to title, he’s here as well (though more sarcastic than I recall from the <em>New Teen Titans</em> days). Tula’s been around for a while, too — the past-continuity Aquagirl, famously killed in <em>Crisis on Infinite Earths</em> — but she’s portrayed as full-fledged member of the Aqua-circle here, and indeed we see the beginnings of a Garth/Tula relationship, near 40 years after the last one ended. Though we neither see former <em>Aquaman</em> stalwarts Murk or Dolphin, other Aquagirl Lorena Marquez gets a mention, and I’d have loved to see where the writers were going with <em>that</em>.</p>
<p>As well, Frankenstein is here, and Steve Trevor, and Raven, plus an extended team-up for Jackson and Batwoman Kate Kane both in and out of costume, a new World’s Finest I’d happily read more of. Where, post-Crisis, Aquaman’s interactions with the larger DCU felt somewhat limited and an Aqua-story set on land was uncommon — you’d rarely see Batman and Aquaman in each other’s titles, that’s for sure — Brown and Thomas make Jackson’s connections between worlds seem rather effortless. Again, given more, I’d have been along for the ride.</p>
<p>I can hardly explain <em>Aquamen</em>’s ending to you, which sees one among the book’s bad guys going to blow up the Atlantean security council, and then in the final issue, that’s just ignored. Instead there’s some political wheeling and dealing among questions of whether the world governments will attack Atlantis and vice versa, but then that too gives way for news of Aquaman and the Justice League’s deaths at the head of <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-dark-crisis-on-infinite-earths.html">Dark Crisis</a>. This all came to nought, as we know — the audience never believed the Justice League was dead, the League wasn’t even “dead” that long in <em>Dark Crisis</em>, and most of the heroes' respective titles never even acknowledged their absence — making the time spent on it in <em>Aquamen</em> unfortunate.</p><p>Again, Thomas and Brown built up the Aqua-family, only to have Aquaman “die” in the last issue, and not even to have the rest of the cast come together to mourn him in the end except on that issue’s cover. The short term sales gain of <em>Aquamen</em> “tying in” to <em>Dark Crisis</em> is this series own long-term loss.</p>
<p>Ostensibly Brandon Thomas writes an epilogue to he and Chuck Brown’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779516959/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Aquamen</a> in his backup story collected in <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-dark-crisis-worlds-without-justice-league.html">Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League</a>. There is acknowledgment of the themes, at least, as Arthur (in a dreamscape) basks in his gathered family; “Look at this, Mera,” he says, “Look at all we’ve built.” It’s sweet, and might even have been worth including in <em>Aquamen</em> (short of Arthur vowing to murder <em>Dark Crisis</em>' Pariah in the end), but still doesn’t explain, y’know, the Atlantean sleeper agent who blew up their security council and no one batted an eye. That’s a shame, and again I’m curious who’ll take the reins when DC inevitably visits Aquaman again.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>2.5</span></div>
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<p>I don’t think <em>Doomsday Clock</em> is poor by any stretch, surely among Johns' masterworks, deeply researched (both among real-world geopolitics and DC Comics history) to such a degree that it can’t just be dismissed as a vanity project or money grab. For me, however, for all that’s good within it, it simply can’t overcome the limits of its premise. By design, the Watchmen characters are such intentional analogues of the DC Comics heroes that to bring the two families together to discuss philosophy must necessarily be reductive; what the DC heroes have that the Watchmen characters lack is verily the point of the original deconstruction.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers for <em>Doomsday Clock</em> and current DC Universe events]</strong></p>
<p>I read <em>Doomsday Clock</em> originally in single issues and then held off reviewing it through the release of two six-issue volumes until it was finally collected complete. But at that point, <em>Doomsday Clock</em>’s original position as the culmination of the <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2016/05/review-dc-universe-rebirth-1-dc-comics.html">DC Rebirth</a> era had imploded spectacularly, the book and its storylines seeming all but abandoned. I was already intimidated at trying to condense my thoughts on a book so gigantic in scope, and given <em>Doomsday Clock</em>’s sudden irrelevance, I chalked it up as a book I might never re-read to review.</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>But many things are astounding about DC Comics' current place and time — between <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-dark-crisis-on-infinite-earths.html">Dark Crisis</a> and <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/02/review-flash-vol-19-one-minute-war.html">Flash: One-Minute War</a>, we have the all-of-the-sudden emergence of a DC Universe that finally feels of a piece with its pre-<a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2011/12/review-flashpoint-hardcoverpaperback-dc.html">Flashpoint</a> counterpart. Just as strangely, Johns' return to the DCU, actually picking up threads from <em>Doomsday Clock</em>, continuing into <em>Flashpoint Beyond</em> and <em>New Golden Age</em>. It feels like a time of waking up, and things thought lost are found again — so, I re-read <em>Doomsday Clock</em>.</p>
<p>I can’t hardly blame Johns for thinking it was time for a <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2007/06/review-absolute-watchmen-deluxe.html">Watchmen</a> sequel. Concerned as <em>Watchmen</em> was with American and global politics, <em>Doomsday Clock</em>’s publication years of 2017–2019 were heady times — except, of course, for the year after that and the year after that. As such, where <em>Doomsday Clock</em> opines about “the world drowning in hate … sides separated by an ever-widening canyon of digital bile” (mostly at the book’s beginning and end; it seems to forget its topicality in the middle), it feels as though it only has part of the story, political bickering but not racial reckoning, contagion, misinformation, or insurrection, some if not all of which the later projects were able to tackle.</p>
<p>At the same time, Johns' conception six years ago of how the world might end seems eerily prescient now. In <em>Doomsday Clock</em>’s conclusion, the countries of the world begin to take sides against one another, and when Johns name-checks the leaders of Russia and Israel, it’s all the same as if taken from today’s headlines. Again, I think the solutions <em>Doomsday Clock</em> comes to are too simplistic, but Johns does well in presenting threats that turned out all too real.</p>
<p><em>Doomsday Clock</em>, the first official meeting of the Watchmen “universe” and the DCU, culminates in a face-off between Superman and Dr. Manhattan. Without perhaps fully intending to, Manhattan finds himself cast in the role of super-villain, a representation of hopelessness set against Superman, the so-called “Metaverse”’s avatar of hope. What happens, unfortunately, inevitably, is exactly what you would think — Superman inspires Manhattan to return to his own universe and become the kind of take-humanity-in-his-hands-and-save-the-world hero that <em>Watchmen</em> was meant to be far too realistic to tolerate.</p>
<p>For a book that has plenty of good — the depiction of the collapse of Ozymandias' peace seven years after the events of <em>Watchmen</em>, the profile issues particularly of Marionette and Reggie Long — Johns can’t find a way to end beyond that most common of Superman chestnuts, that Superman’s sheer gravitas drives people to do good. Similarly, <em>Doomsday Clock</em> has a secret villain manipulating events to try to bring about a misbegotten peace, and that villain is … Ozymandias still. If the other hoped-for team-up was Batman and Rorschach, well, Batman pointedly avoids his counterpart almost the whole time. <em>Doomsday Clock</em> is a book that tries very hard, in a serious manner, to bring together <em>Watchmen</em> and the DCU — and well drawn throughout, as always, by Frank — but finds in the end not that much for the two properties to say to one another.</p>
<p>It was a delight in re-reading this book to have the <em>Watchmen</em>-esque artifact documents at the end of each chapter; I admit too often I forgot they were coming and was pleased to find them, if indeed you can see the endeavor losing steam by the end. The faux Nathanial Dusk serials we get here in lieu of “Tales of the Black Freighter” made me sorry again that DC cancelled the planned Nathanial Dusk collection alongside <em>Doomsday Clock</em>’s boom and bust; I enjoyed the hard-boiled detective cut-scenes and would have happily pretended I was watching Carver Colman flicks as I read more.</p>
<p>“Nothing ends,” Dr. Manhattan once told us, though ultimately in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779506058/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Doomsday Clock</a> he isn’t so sure. <em>Doomsday Clock</em> seemed to end, ingloriously, swept under the rug in the wake of <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2018/06/review-dark-nights-metal-deluxe-edition.html">Dark Nights: Metal</a> and <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2021/11/review-dark-nights-death-metal-deluxe.html">Death Metal</a>, until now it’s unexpectedly returned to relevance. I’m curious, given now a place to land, a way in which to be meaningful rather than just a curio, whether the fact of its own sequels can redeem this ultimate of troubled sequels itself.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>2.5</span></div>
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}}</script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p>---</p><p>This post was syndicated from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">Collected Editions</a>, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">collectededitions.blogspot.com</a>.</p></div>collectededitionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14698269790653953645noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10945794.post-35105365757484027502024-02-28T19:25:00.001-06:002024-03-06T21:28:34.982-06:00Review: Batman: One Bad Day: Mr. Freeze hardcover (DC Comics)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520085/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1973" data-original-width="1280" height="320" itemprop="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP9iHJ3pg-egFoL4tGkVHBFXUSBADiIXOVAe7y2i2szDdrzeJEII2oTG-Z03s5Nz6vQSrajFtjgY2-yAQXXUJEvztPCqkEAvmvrphNKRQSE06jun9DrnZa-pYhg-d9BdFvPfvJeAUavc2gqWjuF2oDAQ4tHyNgkfi3eCtBRxmhyphenhyphenQPrZIeTvYF9/s1600/batman-one-bad-day-mr-freeze-dccomics-duggan-scalera-stewart.jpg" /></a></div><p>Among the writers for the “Batman: One Bad Day” series, Gerry Duggan caught my eye as the only one not currently or recently working on DC properties. I know Duggan’s a Marvel stalwart who did good work on <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2013/09/review-deadpool-vol-1-dead-presidents.html">Deadpool</a> and I recalled favorably his <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2014/12/review-batman-eternal-vol-1-trade.html">Batman Eternal</a> spin-off miniseries <em>Arkham Manor</em>. But it was not until I looked back at Doug Glassman and my co-review of <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2015/07/review-arkham-manor-trade-paperback-dc.html">Arkham Manor</a> and recalled the prominent role for Mr. Freeze in that story that it all fell into place. Duggan and his <em>Deadpool</em> artist Matteo Scalera did <em>Batman</em> #34 (in <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2015/05/review-batman-vol-6-graveyard-shift.html">Batman Vol. 6: The Graveyard Shift</a>), leading in to <em>Arkham Manor</em>; Duggan’s <em>Arkham Manor</em> had strong character work for Mr. Freeze; thus, Duggan and Scalera’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520085/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Batman: One Bad Day: Mr. Freeze</a>.</p>
<p>There are thematic elements that might tie <em>Freeze</em> to <em>Arkham Manor</em>, though perhaps these just reflect Duggan’s general concerns when writing about Batman. His Freeze is fascinatingly in some ways in line with the <em>Arkham Manor</em> portrayal, in some ways different. Ironically, the main overt wink and nod to <em>Arkham Manor</em> also demonstrates the two books as not taking place in the same continuity, not that they needed to.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>Among the four “One Bad Day” books I’ve read, I rank <em>Freeze</em> in the third spot; not the best, but far from the bottom spot. Ultimately, while enjoyable, <em>Freeze</em> doesn’t have the gusto I’m looking for of these books in the shadow of <em>Killing Joke</em>; set during Christmas in Gotham, <em>Freeze</em> would succeed far better as a Batman winter special than it does as a definitive Mr. Freeze story.</p>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers]</strong></p>
<p><em>Arkham Manor</em> had at its core questions of the violence Batman doles out and how it helps or hinders those he confines to the titular asylum, and what he owes those people. <em>Freeze</em> goes along similar lines, here presented as a debate between Batman and young Robin Dick Grayson; Batman believes some if not all of his foes are “irredeemable,” while Robin argues there must be some healing, else why put them in Arkham in the first place.</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>The Dynamic Duo set out to resolve this by giving Freeze the tools he needs to save his ill, cryogenically frozen wife Nora, and a long leash to do it on. Though inessential to the plot as a whole, I thought this set-up could have used one more edit; at first Batman resolves to help Freeze, then seems to come to the same conclusion a page later, but then further on it’s presented as being Robin’s idea and not Batman’s.</p>
<p>In <em>Arkham Manor</em>, a disguised Batman enlists Mr. Freeze’s help to stop Clayface run amok and Freeze gives it, and then later Freeze declines to escape when he could, seeming to recognize then-Arkham Manor as a safe place. It’s a portrayal of Freeze, as we sometimes see with Batman’s rogues, as someone whose good intentions led him down a villainous path but who’s not particularly a criminal at heart.</p>
<p>We get to something of the same place by the end of <em>Freeze</em>, when Freeze gives over his technology to Robin to help those in need. But in much of this book, Duggan’s Freeze is more of a rogue, robbing an armored car and slipping Batman and Robin’s monitor. Since this book takes place back when Dick Grayson was Robin, those looking for a throughway could assume Freeze’s experiences here made him more affable in <em>Arkham Manor</em> later on, though the real explanation is likely two different takes on the same character by the same writer. Similarly, Duggan includes the Meek in this book, the serial killer he first wrote in <em>Batman</em> #34, but Batman’s knowledge of the character here would contradict his first discovering the Meek there.</p>
<p>The “twist” on Freeze’s origin here is that Victor and Nora Fries had an unhappy marriage and that Victor preserved Nora’s life against her will as an act of selfishness or misogyny. This has been part of other Freeze stories over the last couple decades, a kind of reversal of <em>Batman: The Animated Series</em>' more romantic “husband becomes supervillain to save his wife” approach. Undoubtedly this evolution reflects the more nuanced zeitgeist of our times versus the 1990s; see also our expanded understanding of the Joker and Harley Quinn’s relationship as another example of modernity wrestling with the (still ground-breaking and beloved) <em>BTAS</em>.</p>
<p>Particularly for a one-shot, I loved Matteo Scalera’s out-there renderings of the characters. His Batman is muscled almost to the point of “hefty,” so to speak, with an outrageously small yellow oval bat-symbol on his chest; it reminds of Adam West in a cloth bat-suit versus more modern armored portrayals. Batman gets a new “sun suit,” plus again the Dick Grayson by way of Damian Wayne hooded Robin costume; this is probably because the story is set in winter, but it’s a cool “everday” look, too. At times Scalera’s sheepishly grinning Robin reminded too of Kelley Jones on the Bat-family.</p>
<p>Gerry Duggan’s biggest success here is that laughing daredevil Dick Grayson, a joyously youthful take on Robin, and indeed the whole “Batman and Robin finding goodwill toward men” holiday aesthetic of the story. Mr. Freeze is somewhat incidental, except it’s winter so Freeze is the obvious antagonist. In not bringing anything really new to Freeze’s story, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520085/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Batman: One Bad Day: Mr. Freeze</a> doesn’t distinguish itself as “definitive” in the way I think these volumes should; neither does Freeze ever come off particularly dangerous. It’s still a far cry from the crack shot <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-batman-one-bad-day-riddler.html">Batman: One Bad Day: Riddler</a>, but at least more germane to the villain than <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-batman-one-bad-day-two-face.html">One Bad Day: Two-Face</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers, black and white art section, character designs]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>2.25</span></div>
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<blockquote class="p-4 my-4 border-s-4">
<p>DC also announced DC Finest, a new line of comprehensive collections of the most in-demand periods, genres, and characters from across DC history. Scheduled to launch in November, these affordably priced, large-size paperback collections start at $34.99, and will take full advantage of DC’s extensive backlist and appeal to casual and completist fans alike. <strong>Focusing on characters and storytelling genres instead of creators or prior series will give casual fans the chance to discover full continuities for their favorite characters</strong>, while offering completist readers an affordable option to build out their ultimate collection of stories based on their favorite DC Super Hero or genre.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>Character-focused collections will spotlight multiple iterations of fan-favorite DC Super Heroes throughout the decades; for example, <strong>a “Robin” collection may include volumes featuring Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, or Jason Todd, depending on chronology, while a “Green Lantern” collection may include classic stories featuring Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Alan Scott, or other fan-favorite ring slingers</strong>. Genre fans can curate collections of their favorite tales from specific genres, which may include of science fiction, romance, war, westerns, horror, and other genres; many of these volumes will feature material reprinted for the first time, by some of comics’ greatest storytellers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Before looking at the actual listings, let’s parse this a bit, starting with “focusing on characters … instead of creators or prior series … give casual fans the chance to discover full continuities for their favorite characters.” That sounds to me something like the <em>Batman: The Caped Crusader</em> and <em>Batman: The Dark Knight Detective</em> collections series — issue by issue collections of series runs (particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, when series weren’t renumbered every other year) irrespective of the changing creating teams.</p>
<p>That may or may not be contradicted by the second part, which suggests “a ‘Robin’ collection may include volumes featuring” the various Robins, or “a ‘Green Lantern’ collection may include classic stories featuring” the various Green Lanterns. The alternate uses of “volumes” or “stories” poses some confusion; a Robin <em>collection</em> featuring <em>volumes</em> for the various Robins could still be individual books (“volumes”) per Robin character under the Robin “collection” heading, which would be good. But a Green Lantern “collection” (one single book) including “classic stories” sounds more like the <em>Green Lantern: A Celebration of 75 Years</em> anthology, which might have value but isn’t specifically interesting to me.</p>
<p>Looking at the actual listings, we see a Flash book collecting nonspecific Silver Age stories; <em>Batman: Year One & Two</em>, collecting the respective Frank Miller and Mike Barr stories, plus other “mid-to-late-'80s Batman stories from Barr, Max Allan Collins, Norm Breyfogle”; what seems to be some/all of Gail Simone’s <em>Wonder Woman</em> run; a Catwoman book with <em>Catwoman: Her Sister’s Keeper</em>, <em>Catwoman: Defiant</em>, and “the first year” of the <em>Catwoman</em> series by Jo Duffy and Jim Balent; and a collection of Superman’s early Golden Age adventures.</p>
<p>To me those lean more toward the Robin interpretation than the Green Lantern interpretation; particularly the Batman, Catwoman, and Wonder Woman books seem like sequential runs of issues, with the Batman and Catwoman books being somewhat irrespective of creators. It’s a little harder for me to clock the Superman and Flash books, but those too seem like sequential era-specific runs not beholden to specific creative teams.</p>
<p>So I’m cautiously optimistic about these? There’s not a lot in this set for me, as there’s little here previously uncollected that I don’t already own. But going to my old standbys, if my interpretation of DC Finest is correct, this would be the right genre for finally collecting all of <em>New Titans</em>, for instance, or <em>Armageddon 2001</em>, or <em>Eclipso: The Darkness Within</em>, and on and on. The first of these should be out in November.</p>
<p>I’m also glad to see a new line of Elseworlds titles, and Elseworlds being “cool” (a la <em>DC vs. Vampires</em>), whereas before Elseworlds were always a good time but often esoteric. Since there’ve been rumblings of “an Elseworld” among the new DC multiverse, I’m surprised DC’s rolling this out without a resultant event comic, but frankly happy with the restraint.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p>---</p><p>This post was syndicated from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">Collected Editions</a>, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">collectededitions.blogspot.com</a>.</p></div>collectededitionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14698269790653953645noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10945794.post-77162716785567928532024-02-25T22:00:00.002-06:002024-02-25T22:01:14.662-06:00Review: Flash Vol. 19: The One-Minute War trade paperback (DC Comics)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520883/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1973" data-original-width="1280" height="320" itemprop="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQLZfYZmnamBDqfTWJWJVcS3S-wHuHC0g6NpTseNh6e8UDoXDXj3uUmkfDhDoiwkez0uBQRp6IXkSDYQ4CT-1OXOxafYHrtzrAxUBBl9CldwHJ_jKSOnjJHax7t6STX9ugf-VBMrtqBWj5l3GoNxHzd_AvY79-HZLy034Lp7y0Ou-6hDZw78dy/s1600/flash-volume-19-one-minute-war-dccomics-adams-cruz-pasarin-guerrero.jpg" /></a></div><p>As is too often the case, this run is about over just as it’s getting good. Jeremy Adams' tenure has been an overall improvement on <em>Flash</em> of recent years, even if the quality hasn’t been even issue to issue. But when it’s working, it’s working, and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520883/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Flash Vol. 19: The One-Minute War</a> is on point.</p>
<p>Above all else, this reads like one of Mark Waid’s classic, epic <em>Flash</em> events, “Terminal Velocity” or “Dead Heat” or the like, which is good company to be in. As with <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-dark-crisis-on-infinite-earths.html">Dark Crisis</a>, what with the return of the Justice Society and all the Young Justice characters and etc., indeed Adams' story feels like it fits in the Waid/Geoff Johns era, like the DCU and the Flash family are finally in a place where the adventures seamlessly connect with DC’s pre-<a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2011/12/review-flashpoint-hardcoverpaperback-dc.html">Flashpoint</a> continuity.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>Really Adams has the best of all worlds here — a heroes versus villains story that blessedly relies on little outside knowledge and doesn’t tie into any decades-old Crisis, but that does also finesse a few notable aspects of Flash continuity that really needed finessing. <em>One-Minute War</em> is not a slam dunk — it maybe goes on about a minute too long (see what I did there?) — but its softness is in the middle, between a strong start and surprising finish. I’ll take it, and Adams surely has my confidence going into his next DC projects.</p>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers]</strong></p>
<p>I like stories to be relevant and I like stories to be connected, but it’s fewer and farther between than I’d like that we get a good, complicated but essentially simple alien invasion story like <em>One-Minute War</em> where the heroes have to repel cosmic marauding hordes (think the Superman classic “Panic in the Sky”). If I might otherwise be inclined to dismiss a story where the heroes are right and the villains are wrong and nothing within that changes, Adams packs this with so much — the alien Fraction’s rich history, that speedsters across the Multiverse are specifically being hunted if not also discriminated against, the wild late-book turns as relates to <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2019/09/review-heroes-in-crisis.html">Heroes in Crisis</a> and etc. — that the story hardly feels simple even if built on a generic premise.</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>The whole family is here — Barry and Wally (who, if you think about it, have almost never shared a story like this before), Jay Garrick, Jesse Quick, Max Mercury, Impulse Bart Allen and Kid Flash Wallace West and Irey West (all three of whom at one point seemed replacements for the others, until DC finally figured out how to make them coexist). And I appreciated that Adams gives them all moments to shine, if not necessarily plotlines (this too reminds of Waid, and is better than <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/02/review-flash-vol-18-search-for-barry-allen.html">Flash Vol. 18: The Search for Barry Allen</a>, where Jesse and Max were mostly window dressing). I like Jay as the “tough,” sneaking around an alien ship with a laser gun; Jesse as cool aunt to Irey; and Bart and Wallace as “frenemies.”</p>
<p>Among aforementioned continuity notes, Barry’s individual plot regards the apparent death of girlfriend Iris on the very day both Barry and Iris planned to propose to the other. Adams puts it more plainly than writer Joshua Williamson did in a hundred issues before this, that with all the continuity shenanigans, Barry and Iris <em>do</em> remember that they were married, they’re just not any more (I wouldn’t want to be a county clerk in the DCU having to negotiate all that!).</p>
<p>It’s unfortunate, in a book already dealing with the awkwardness of “the” Flash Barry Allen being second fiddle to former sidekick Wally West in a Flash family event, that Adams also has to evoke a Williamson-esque <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2017/01/review-flash-vol-1-lightning-strikes-twice.html">“sad Barry”</a> given Iris' seeming demise (I thought Barry was supposed to be the optimistic hero!). But, I can’t argue with Barry and Iris getting engaged as a major climactic set piece of this story; it’s fun and it's romantic and it works.</p>
<p>The other part — which I wasn’t expecting and which completely floored me — was Wally getting sucked into the Speed Force and emerging among a time-lost super-team made up of all the heroes he “killed” during <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2019/09/review-heroes-in-crisis.html">Heroes in Crisis</a> (and a dinosaur). I might’ve liked to see Lagoon Boy, Gunfire, and the rest released to our time instead of reintegrated into the timestream (because who knows what that means?), but what a pleasant surprise nonetheless. I’m glad to see Gold Beetle again (I hope Adams takes her with him in his travels), and I was impressed the extent to which, here at the almost-end of Adams' <em>Flash</em> run, he’s pulling small moments even from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/09/review-flash-vol-16-wally-west-returns.html">Flash Vol. 16: Wally West Returns</a> and using them here.</p>
<p>I was maybe half-convinced Iris wouldn’t be resurrected before the end of the story; let’s nobody think Iris would be gone for good, but I didn’t know if Adams might draw that out for a bit. About the time Wally seemed to die, however, I thought maybe <em>One-Minute War</em> was going on a little long; though it facilitated of course the “Planet Flash” moment, we <em>definitely</em> knew Wally wasn’t dead, so Linda and Irey’s mourning — through to artist Roger Cruz' melodramatic depiction of Barry with rivers of tears down his face — slowed the proceedings too much for me. Things picked up though indeed with that “Planet Flash” and into the conclusion.</p>
<p>The Flash family is back in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520883/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Flash Vol. 19: The One-Minute War</a> and really that’s no small thing — not to mention Jeremy Adams even managed to work in Avery Ho and resurrect Godspeed before all is said and done. Again, this is a high point and speaks well for Adams, and definitely makes me feel the end of his run is coming too soon with the next volume.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers, character sketches]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>3.0</span></div>
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}}</script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p>---</p><p>This post was syndicated from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">Collected Editions</a>, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">collectededitions.blogspot.com</a>.</p></div>collectededitionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14698269790653953645noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10945794.post-58312726114775426262024-02-21T21:25:00.002-06:002024-02-21T21:26:04.519-06:00Review: Superman: Kal-El Returns trade paperback (DC Comics)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520581/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1973" data-original-width="1280" height="320" itemprop="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBNL8nLfFElnynjQy4w70FvstBa_hOHOHwT0ljnT9OruKbc7mKkh6ViMTRUBIge35HuwMv2o2PND0LbFLVWpglVrC8yOk1gjpELCtiiSHyQMbrigONuZgF4Bv03XlkQWzUjfaL_uayjln0gC-YsJMrJIGAPgS4Xa7SgykNVm3YwAnnAoywIArs/s1600/superman-kal-el-returns-dccomics-johnson-taylor-williamson-perkins-tormey-henry-dragotta.jpg" /></a></div><p>The final issue collected in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520581/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Superman: Kal-El Returns</a>, <em>Action Comics</em> #1050, gives me much optimism for the Man of Steel’s immediate future. It’s a fun issue, reigniting one of my favorite comics rivalries, and teasing interesting things for the future. That said, while I’m glad everything here was collected, “Kal-El Returns” seems to have been one of those hodgepodge events that results in a hodgepodge collection.</p>
<p>My hot take is that neither Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s <em>Action Comics</em> nor Tom Taylor’s <em>Superman: Son of Kal-El</em> quite had enough material to bridge the three-month gap between the real end of their runs and the conclusion of <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-dark-crisis-on-infinite-earths.html">Dark Crisis</a>, <em>Action Comics</em> #1050, and the start of “Dawn of DC,” and so “Kal-El Returns” is the fluff we got in the middle. Not to mention the <em>Superman: Kal-El Returns</em> special, a repetitious anthology that delivers little and only serves to slow the proceedings.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>You’ll read this because there’s a couple story beats in it ahead of Joshua Williamson’s new <em>Superman</em> and Kennedy’s further <em>Action</em> run. But, if page counts didn’t matter, I can very much see how the contents could’ve been split into other books such to make them better and have spared us this.</p>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers]</strong></p>
<p>In <em>Kal-El Returns</em>, we get the next three issues of Johnson’s <em>Action</em>, closing out the Warworld Saga, plus backups from the same; Taylor’s final three issues of <em>Son of Kal-El</em>; the <em>Kal-El Returns</em> special, and <em>Action</em> #1050. A wonderfully exuberant note in the front calls this “the complete saga, presented for the first time in scene-specific order,” which near as I can tell is a fancy way of saying the first three <em>Action</em> issues are presented together and the first three <em>Son</em> issues are presented together, since even though they were numbered interspersed as parts 1–6, the odd parts (<em>Action</em>) and the even parts (<em>Son</em>) don’t really intersect with one another.</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>And yet, editorial didn’t take “Part 1,” “Part 3,” etc. off the title pages, so the uninitiated might very well think they were reading the issues out of order even though they’re more or less not. I say “more or less” because there’s a little bit of throughway between the stories, mainly the dispensation of the imprisoned Metallo, such that reading these linearly as one title and then the next isn’t 100% flawless either. Short of someone actually taking the time to intermix the scenes of these various comics for the collection, I’d have done the <em>Action</em> “Red Moon” backups first, then <em>Son of Kal-El</em>, <em>Action</em> proper, the special, and then the anniversary issue.</p>
<p>As perhaps an all-too-brief epilogue to the Warworld Saga, Johnson’s initial <em>Action</em> issues are interesting when they deal with Earth governments being understandably unhappy with Superman bringing the liberated Warworld into Earth’s orbit. It doesn’t seem Johnson can fill quite enough pages with this, though, so most of two issues involve Superman in routine fisticuffs with New Gods Orion, Desaad, and Kaliback.</p>
<p>With everything going on in the DCU at the moment, I admit it took me a second to figure out the whys and wherefores — Orion in the lead of Apokolips as of <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/01/review-justice-league-incarnate.html">Justice League Incarnate</a> and the New Gods interested in Superman because of Fourth World-y stuff that happened in <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-superman-action-comics-vol-3-warworld-revolution.html">Warworld Revolution</a>. Much of this would have hit better as part of that self-same Warworld book.</p>
<p>Underneath it all are rumbling of Project Blackout, Lex Luthor’s scheme that ultimately wipes Superman’s secret identity from almost everyone’s minds on Earth. This seems Johnson and/or Williamson’s plotline, and one difficulty with the <em>Son of Kal-El</em> issues is that much as Taylor tries to keep up, it’s clear his is the tertiary title (see Lex torturing a random person for reasons related to Blackout, never returned to). Indeed, as Lex returns to prominence in the Super-titles, the book seems overeager to remind us of Jon Kent and Lex’s status as frenemies, in both <em>Son</em> and then all over again in a short in the <em>Returns</em> special that comes off repetitive (pity, because that’s not really the fault of anthology contributor Marv Wolfman).</p>
<p>Additional in that special is a Superman/Batman team-up by Mark Waid, where Waid teases an old-style Batman annoyed by Superman, until instead Batman grabs up the returned Superman in a hug — but I wouldn’t say there’s much more to it. Sina Grace’s Jimmy Olsen story comes off too treacly, though I loved Dean Haspiel’s absurdist art. Alex Segura’s “Superman reunites with the Justice League” story reads a little long and is inked by Fico Ossio a bit dark. It dovetails with <em>Dark Crisis</em>, the big selling point for me, though that’s as much as a panel, and could as easily have taken place in Johnson’s <em>Action</em> instead.</p>
<p>But again, when the book finally finishes biding its time and gets down to <em>Action Comics</em> #1050, it shows. The return of Superman’s secret identity is unfortunate but also inevitable, and I like at least the new complications that Lex still knows the secret and also that knowledge of Superman’s secret could literally kill people.</p>
<p>There’s opportunity here — the implication that people will mentally <em>reject</em> the idea that Clark Kent is Superman gives Clark the license to live less under the radar in his professional life (more the <em>Animated Series</em> Clark than the Christopher Reeve Clark), something that might be interesting to explore. Though, my guess is the writers just want a classic Superman paradigm back and the details of getting there were only just that.</p>
<p>So again, <em>Action Comics</em> #1050 holds a lot for me — Superman and Lex Luthor at odds again, Metallo waiting in the wings, Clark Kent having to navigate a new reality — and it’s just unfortunate that it takes all of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520581/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Superman: Kal-El Returns</a> to get there. Along with re-hiding Superman’s identity, there’s a couple other continuity shifts; I rather wish we could pick a Metallo origin and stick with it, but I was glad to see Clark and Lex’s Smallville childhood back in play. This is a lot of comic without a lot of payoff by volume, but hopefully it portends good things to come.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers, plus 13 pages of variant cover thumbnails]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>2.25</span></div>
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}}</script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p>---</p><p>This post was syndicated from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">Collected Editions</a>, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">collectededitions.blogspot.com</a>.</p></div>collectededitionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14698269790653953645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10945794.post-2632320740544074312024-02-18T21:10:00.001-06:002024-02-18T21:10:58.235-06:00DC Trade Solicitations for May 2024 - Batman and Robin Adventures Omnibus, Wonder Woman and Penguin by King, Flash Vol. 1 by Spurrier, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow Deluxe, Superman by Busiek Book One, Adventures of Young Diana<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWz5yZ36tM-Cn2_9D1JAxNSGTeF00PLadylakusgtgN2gsjqtrEcjRRDZsdRdQNTZDWZHZjzufHb15ZmA8vQcmCp26-hINH3OeyH_IKv_VRgFt7Q2Jh-UBCRLnSONfZUlN2Xhq-Wu6uD64-UpzDPwBDTKhU03mCihpT7GVIHLQ6lKRbbCGe0KL/s1600/batman-robin-adventures-1-dccomics-dini-templeton-burchett.jpg" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1973" data-original-width="1280" height="320" itemprop="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWz5yZ36tM-Cn2_9D1JAxNSGTeF00PLadylakusgtgN2gsjqtrEcjRRDZsdRdQNTZDWZHZjzufHb15ZmA8vQcmCp26-hINH3OeyH_IKv_VRgFt7Q2Jh-UBCRLnSONfZUlN2Xhq-Wu6uD64-UpzDPwBDTKhU03mCihpT7GVIHLQ6lKRbbCGe0KL/s1600/batman-robin-adventures-1-dccomics-dini-templeton-burchett.jpg" /></a></div><p>Looking back, there were a lot more books announced last year at this time than there are in the DC Comics May 2024 trade paperback and hardcover solicitations. I can’t fully quantify why it is that this is a smaller month this year, though looking over the single issues in the May 2024 listings, I notice there’s just <em>less</em> overall — no companion <em>Teen Titans</em> book to go with <em>Titans</em>, no <em>Aquaman</em>, no <em>Green Arrow</em>, no three Justice League books, and so on. And I don’t think DC publishing fewer series with more focus is a bad thing, either, but fewer series (and I realize I’m putting cart before horse here to an extent) also means fewer collections.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>What we’ve got among regular series is the first volume of Simon Spurrier’s <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/177952546X/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=177952546X&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Flash</a></strong>, the first volume of Tom King’s <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525451/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525451&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Wonder Woman</a></strong>, and also the first volume of King’s <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525249/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525249&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Penguin</a></strong>. All of those are books I’m anticipating, but in terms of regular series, yeah … that’s it.</p>
<p>Which is not to say there aren’t other gems announced. I know the <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779527373/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779527373&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Batman and Robin Adventures Omnibus</a></strong> will be of interest to some of the readers here, and fingers crossed that it results in still more DC Animated Universe omnibuses to come. <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/02/dc-trade-solicitations-for-may-2023.html">Just a year ago</a>, DC solicited the deluxe edition of Kurt Busiek and the late Carlos Pacheco’s <em>Superman: Camelot Falls</em>, and now we have <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779526067/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779526067&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Superman by Kurt Busiek Book One</a></strong>, which ought ultimately collect “Camelot Falls” but also a whole lot more.</p>
<p>There’s an alternate script for an issue in <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779526075/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779526075&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow: The Deluxe Edition</a></strong> that might at least necessitate flipping through in a bookstore, and I’m glad DC did finally see fit to collect all of Jordie Bellaire’s <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779527136/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779527136&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Wonder Woman: The Adventures of Young Diana</a></strong> in one book.</p>
<p>In other collections-related news, by the way, <a href="https://www.dc.com/blog/2024/02/13/dc-and-marvel-present-the-greatest-team-ups-of-all-time">DC recently announced</a> upcoming omnibus collections of both all their inter-company crossover specials, and their three "Amalgam/Access" crossover miniseries and at least some of the "Amalgam Age of Comics" mash-up titles. At the moment, the released listings for <em>DC/Marvel: The Amalgam Age Omnibus</em> does not list all of the mash-up comics, though it _does_ list ones from both "Amalgam Age" and "Return to the Amalgam Age," so I'm hoping that's an indication "and more" means the entire package.</p>
<p>Let’s look at the full May 2024 list.</p>
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<p style="text-align:center;font-weight:bold;color:#FFFFFF;font-size:1.1em;">Recent DC Comics Trade Solicitations</p>
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<li><a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/dc-trade-solicitations-for-april-2024.html?utm_source=table&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=dcsol" title="DC Trade Solicitations for April 2024 - Dark Crisis paperbacks, Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War, Flash by Messner-Loebs Vol. 1, Nightwing and Titans by Taylor, Waid's Shazam Vol. 1, Secret Six by Simone Omnibus, Hawkgirl, Prez">April 2024</a></li>
<li><a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/12/dc-trade-solicitations-for-march-2024.html?utm_source=table&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=dcsol" title="DC Trade Solicitations for March 2024 - Nightwing: A Knight in Bludhaven Compendium, Batman: Black Mirror Deluxe, Booster Gold: 2007 Series, DC Pride: Better Together, World's Finest: Teen Titans, Steelworks, Superman Vol. 2: Chained">March 2024</a></li>
<li><a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/11/dc-trade-solicitations-for-february-2024.html?utm_source=table&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=dcsol" title="DC Trade Solicitations for February 2024 - JLApe Collection, Lobo Compendium, Flash by Williamson Omnibus, Justice League Dark Omnibus, Batman: White Knight: Generation Joker, City Boy, Vigil, Spirit World, final Tim Drake: Robin">February 2024</a></li>
<li><a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/10/dc-trade-solicitations-for-january-2024.html?utm_source=table&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=dcsol" title="DC Trade Solicitations for January 2024 - Kingdom and Batman Beyond 25th Anniversary, Knight Terrors: Terror Titans, Justice Society Vol. 1, Superman: Emperor Joker Deluxe, Batman: Brave and Bold, JLI Omnibus Vol. 3, Green Arrow: Reunion">January 2024</a></li>
<li><a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/09/dc-trade-solicitations-for-december-2023.html?utm_source=table&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=dcsol" title="DC Trade Solicitations for December 2023 - Knight Terrors, Fourth World Omnibus with Great Darkness, Absolute Superman by Johns, Creature Commandos: Frankenstein, Flash: One-Minute War, Milestone Compendium Three, final Batman: Urban Legends">December 2023</a></li>
<li><a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/08/dc-trade-solicitations-for-november-2023.html?utm_source=table&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=dcsol" title="DC Trade Solicitations for November 2023 - DC Power: A Celebration, Black Adam Vol. 2 by Priest, Absolute Justice League by Alex Ross and Paul Dini, Barkham Asylum, Paperbacks of Batman Vol. 6: Abyss, Shadows of the Bat, Nightwing Vol. 2">November 2023</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:right;font-size:85%;margin-top:0px;"><a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">More upcoming collections ...</a></p>
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<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779528302/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779528302&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Absolute Batman: Death of the Family HC</a></b></p>
<p>Absolute collection of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s noted <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2013/10/review-batman-vol-3-death-of-family.html">Batman: Death of the Family</a> crossover (I reviewed it in 2013). Interesting about this volume is that it’s also got the first issue of Tony Daniel’s <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2012/07/review-batman-detective-comics-faces-of.html">Batman: Detective Comics: Vol. 1: Faces of Death</a>, a book that’s not really related except that the first issue establishes the Joker’s “new look” that factored into Snyder’s run.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779527586/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779527586&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Absolute Justice (2024 Edition) HC</a></b></p>
<p>Absolute collection of the 12-issue series, pitting the Justice League against the Legion of Doom, written by Jim Krueger and painted by Alex Ross. Have not read this one either, but maybe I should.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779527578/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779527578&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Absolute Mister Miracle by Tom King and Mitch Gerads HC</a></b></p>
<p>Collects the 12-issue miniseries by Tom King and Mitch Gerads. I reviewed <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2021/01/review-mister-miracle-deluxe-edition.html">Mister Miracle</a> in 2021 and I think my first paragraph still holds up: “Mister Miracle is dead, Mister Miracle is alive, Mister Miracle is in heaven, Mister Miracle is in hell, Mister Miracle has the opportunity to escape from both but doesn’t take it. All of this is real. None of this is happening. Darkseid is. Batman kills babies. The sins of the father are visited on the son. The Fourth World is always arriving, never arrived. What color were Big Barda’s eyes again? Tom King and Mitch Gerads' collected <em>Mister Miracle</em> isn’t telling.”</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779527373/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779527373&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">The Batman and Robin Adventures Omnibus HC</a></b></p>
<p>In Zach King’s review of <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/06/review-batman-adventures-batgirl-league-her-own.html">Batman Adventures: Batgirl - A League of Her Own</a>, he about predicted it — “one could easily imagine a compendium each for <em>The Batman Adventures</em> and <em>Batman & Robin Adventures</em> (the latter including The Lost Years …” Indeed, following last year’s <em>Batman Adventures Omnibus</em>, this July we’ll get <em>The Batman and Robin Adventures Omnibus</em>, collecting the animated tie-ins <em>Batman & Robin Adventures</em> #1–25, <em>Batman & Robin Adventures</em> Annual #1–2, <em>Batman Adventures: The Lost Years</em> #1–5, and <em>Batman & Robin Adventures: Sub-Zero</em> #1. The solicitation says “and more,” so I expect maybe we’re also hoping for the <em>Batgirl Adventures</em> special?</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/177952546X/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=177952546X&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">The Flash Vol. 1: Strange Attractor TP</a></b></p>
<p>Contents for the first collection of the new Simon Spurrier run, in hardcover in July, include <em>Flash</em> #1–6, <em>Titans: Beast World Tour: Central City</em> #1, and a story (presumably Spurrier’s) from <em>Flash</em> #800.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779526008/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779526008&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">The Flash: Year One (2024 Edition) TP</a></b></p>
<p>A new collection of <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2020/03/review-flash-year-one.html">Flash: Year One</a> by Joshua Williamson and Howard Porter, collecting issues #70–75 from Williamson’s DC Rebirth run.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779526040/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779526040&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Harley Quinn: Black + White + Redder TP</a></b></p>
<p>Collection of the sequel anthology series, in paperback in July. Among contributors, Chip Zdarsky, Gail Simone, Juni Ba, Babs Tarr, Bisques Every, Bruno Redondo, Kevin Maguire, and more.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525281/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525281&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">The Human Target Volume Two TP</a></b></p>
<p>Said to collect issues #7–12 by Tom King and Greg Smallwood. Previous solicitations also listed <em>Tales of the Human Target</em> #1, though that’s not mentioned here; anyone who has the hardcover can say for sure?</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779526016/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779526016&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">JSA: The Golden Age (2024 Edition) TP</a></b></p>
<p>A new collection of James Robinson’s four-issue Justice Society reimagining, with art by Paul Smith, in paperback.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525249/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525249&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">The Penguin Vol. 1 TP</a></b></p>
<p>Said to collect <em>Penguin</em> #0–7 in hardcover in June. Issue #0 is a reprint of the Penguin/Catwoman backups by Chip Zdarsky, also collected in <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-batman-vol-1-failsafe.html">Batman Vol. 1: Failsafe</a>; the rest is by Tom King, Rafael de Latorre, and others.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779526075/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779526075&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow: The Deluxe Edition HC</a></b></p>
<p>Deluxe version of the Tom King and Bilquis Evely eight-issue miniseries, coming in July. I reviewed <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/10/review-supergirl-woman-of-tomorrow.html">Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow</a> and loved it. I’m not inclined to double-dip, though the included “never-before-published alternate script for issue #6” (the “destruction of Krypton” issue) is enticing.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779526067/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779526067&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Superman by Kurt Busiek Book One HC</a></b></p>
<p>Collects Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen’s four-issue <em>Superman: Secret Identity</em> (I haven’t read it yet. I know!); <em>World’s Finest Comics</em> #308–309 (Superman/Batman team-ups by Busiek from 1984!); and then <em>Action Comics</em> #837–843 and <em>Superman</em> #650–658, the <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2007/06/review-superman-up-up-and-away-trade.html">Up, Up, and Away</a> and <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2007/08/review-superman-back-in-action-trade.html">Back in Action</a> storylines tying in to the “One Year Later” event that followed <em>Infinite Crisis</em>, as well as some of the initial issues of <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2007/08/review-superman-camelot-falls-vol-1.html">Superman: Camelot Falls</a>. Also included, <em>Superman: The Man of Steel</em> Annual #5, a “Legends of the Dead Earth” annual by Busiek and artist Paul Ryan.</p><p>Published alongside Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2009/07/review-superman-braniac.html">Superman: Brainiac</a> and into <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2009/10/review-superman-new-krypton-vol-1.html">New Krypton</a>, Busiek’s seemed the also-ran series, like <em>Detective</em> often is to <em>Batman</em>, but still it’s nice to see this slice of Super-history collected. Even as this is “Superman by …,” I wonder if we’ll end up seeing Busiek’s 52-issue weekly <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2010/01/review-trinity-vol-1-trade-paperback-dc.html">Trinity</a> re-collected before all of this is done.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525451/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525451&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Outlaw TP</a></b></p>
<p>In hardcover in July, collecting <em>Wonder Woman</em> #1–6 by Tom King and Daniel Sampere, as well as a story from <em>Wonder Woman</em> #800.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779527136/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779527136&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Wonder Woman: The Adventures of Young Diana TP</a></b></p>
<p>I was hopeful, after some of Jordie Bellaire’s “Young Diana” stories were collected piecemeal in <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/03/review-tales-of-amazons.html">Tales of the Amazons</a> and elsewhere, that the whole thing might see collection at some point. Here we have it, kid-friendly but with some ties to then-current DCU events, with art by Paulina Ganucheau.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p>---</p><p>This post was syndicated from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">Collected Editions</a>, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">collectededitions.blogspot.com</a>.</p></div>collectededitionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14698269790653953645noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10945794.post-33463888544995758962024-02-14T20:36:00.002-06:002024-02-14T20:37:12.852-06:00Review: Batman: One Bad Day: Penguin hardcover (DC Comics)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520301/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1973" data-original-width="1280" height="320" itemprop="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaU1EXRwzgsO8dvE3sY98hvJ2zDJ-V9T84Ip6LnTAuZ9RnigVa9chI-4GwQ3quqQlv-9LEf5f0Fn3WAHM97rn9lI_R9ERu2KfPA3DXXj-jx6N8BGKqe9ZD9ok-VGlTI3yVdd244T11XDDf2t20hm4XHadPrQWlZY1yUYZsCG76bFFpUa3NYK5H/s1600/batman-one-bad-day-penguin-dccomics-ridley-camuncoli-smith-prianto.jpg" /></a></div><p>Yes! After <em>Batman: One Bad Day: Two-Face</em> seemed to lose the thread of these books, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520301/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Batman: One Bad Day: Penguin</a> is a return to form, an even clearer roadmap than the superlative <em>Riddler</em> perhaps for how the <em>One Bad Day</em> stories should work. John Ridley and Giuseppe Camuncoli tell a fine crime tale that’s maybe even too lenient on the Penguin, but succeeds in revealing villainy and humanity in equal measure.</p>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers]</strong></p>
<p><em>One Bad Day: Penguin</em> starts at the end of the beginning, Oswald Cobblepot’s empire in ruins, as he scrapes to buy a gun with a single bullet. The “Umbrella Man” threat is perfectly nebulous; Ridley understands here the point is not whom the Penguin is fighting (at least not yet), but rather that the struggle reveals the base elements of the character.</p>
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<p>Penguin is another, like Two-Face, for whom I think a <em>Killing Joke</em>-esque origin story is difficult, given already well established beginnings, at least in broad strokes. Parentage and such may be murky, but we’re well versed in young Oswald gets bullied by his peers, and Ridley elides that even if he doesn’t avoid it outright. I never felt I was traversing ground I’d trod with Penguin before, and particularly not trodding lesser ground.</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>Really what’s salient in <em>Penguin</em> is not so much Oswald’s origins at all (while Penguin is having a bad day, we’re still pretty far from “one bad day” as it relates to the context of <em>Killing Joke</em>), but the suggestion of how Penguin works behind Batman’s back to keep Gotham crime at acceptable levels. This was the convincing conceit of Tom King and Mitch Gerads' <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-batman-one-bad-day-riddler.html">Batman: One Bad Day: Riddler</a> as well, that Riddler there and Penguin here are capable of much greater evil than Batman realizes, but hamstring themselves for the benefit of the status quo. This <em>does</em> seem “One Bad Day” material, the truth of Batman’s villains that he never understands.</p>
<p>Throughout, Ridley’s Penguin is a rather amicable figure, going from old colleague to old colleague begging assistance, often leaving charity in his wake. He leaves some bodies, too, but Penguin is clearly the lesser evil as compared to Umbrella Man, even when he returns Umbrella Man’s savage beating in kind. If there’s one way in which <em>Penguin</em> doesn’t live up to the “One Bad Day” moniker, enjoyable as it might be, it’s in not making Penguin seem like such a bad guy (throat-biting notwithstanding).</p>
<p>It’s a choice — and by this third volume, it seems an intentional one — to set the <em>One Bad Day</em> books in current continuity instead of making them more timeless. <em>Killing Joke</em> isn’t exactly continuity-free itself, but the broad strokes of Batman and Commissioner Gordon, absent a lot of what came after, is fairly generic. In <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-batman-one-bad-day-riddler.html">Riddler</a> and <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-batman-one-bad-day-two-face.html">Two-Face</a>, we had mention of Damian and appearances by the Batgirls respectively; here, Commissioner Montoya is in charge, not coincidentally a character who factors strongly in Ridley’s work. The plot of <em>Penguin</em> overall seems incompatible with current DC continuity, but I’ll be curious to see if we ever find any of the involved writers referencing their specials elsewhere.</p>
<p>Giuseppe Camuncoli is an artist who’s been on DC books longer than I recalled, but I most recently enjoyed his work on the conclusion to James Tynion’s <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/07/review-joker-vol-3-hardcoverpaperback.html">Joker</a>. It is workaday in a way that’s praiseworthy, detailed without being cluttered, and I thought the artist got sizing especially right; you see Penguin as physically smaller than Batman and others, even as he holds his own.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520301/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Batman: One Bad Day: Penguin</a> is a romp, it moves along well, it makes you root for Penguin as a Gotham crime boss. If anything, I thought John Ridley didn't track well the dispensation of the bullets that are so integral to the beginning, but no matter; this is not as good as <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-batman-one-bad-day-riddler.html">Riddler</a>, but surely better than <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-batman-one-bad-day-two-face.html">Two-Face</a>.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers, black and white art section]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>2.5</span></div>
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}}</script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p>---</p><p>This post was syndicated from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">Collected Editions</a>, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">collectededitions.blogspot.com</a>.</p></div>collectededitionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14698269790653953645noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10945794.post-486510609542113722024-02-11T22:23:00.002-06:002024-02-11T22:34:28.375-06:00Review: Planet of the Apes Adventures: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus hardcover (Marvel Comics)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1302950738/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1973" data-original-width="1280" height="320" itemprop="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJuKBaahqEb2DPNr1by9w_Tio6h3Qr8rAYXXba3Sp1-ODw8TB6RIHuR49n_FG7EdJ-tNPGnYe7wxvJM9CL1Zuwyoxhw5GUuP2w9U9VVW6JXw5OkFJowZ3gV0nQXD0vAFrDCcEkrA-Hsrnz7-eD97fhix1H1ory4pyg6v-wBQFUbUvnHQyG_XAw/s1600/planet-of-apes-adventures-original-marvel-years-omnibus-moench-tuska-alcala-gist.jpeg" /></a></div><p><strong>[A series on <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/search/label/Planet%20of%20the%20Apes">Planet of the Apes comics</a> by guest reviewer Zach King. Zach writes about movies at <a href="http://cinemaking465.blogspot.com/">The Cinema King</a> and about comics on Instagram at <a href="https://instagram.com/drkingcomics">Dr. King’s Comics</a>.]</strong></p>
<p>When Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019, comics fans began watching the Marvel solicitations to see what properties might be joining the Merry Marvel Marching Society. With the Lucasfilm acquisition in 2012, after all, <em>Star Wars</em> came home to Marvel, having been initially published there from 1977 to 1986. And since 2019, Marvel has given us new <em>Alien</em> and <em>Predator</em> comics — and even <em>Predator vs. Wolverine</em> — along with reprints of older licensed content with those properties.</p>
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<p>So too for <em>Planet of the Apes</em>, formerly of Dark Horse and Boom! Studios but also originally from Marvel circa 1975. Marvel published a new series set in the world of the Andy Serkis trilogy (by David F. Walker and Dave Wachter), alongside a miniseries that prequelized the 1968 Charlton Heston film (by Marc Guggenheim and Alvaro Lopez). Meanwhile, the publisher dug into its archives for the very first Western comic books based on the original film.<a href="#fn:1" id="fnref:1" title="see footnote" class="footnote"><sup>1</sup></a></p>
<p>This brings us to last year’s (take a breath) <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1302950738/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Planet of the Apes Adventures: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus</a>, which reprints Marvel’s adaptations of <a href="https://cinemaking465.blogspot.com/2021/04/april-of-apes-planet-of-apes-1968.html">Planet of the Apes</a> (1968) and its sequel, <a href="https://cinemaking465.blogspot.com/2021/04/april-of-apes-beneath-planet-of-apes.html">Beneath the Planet of the Apes</a> (1970). Before being colorized in <em>Adventures on the Planet of the Apes</em>, these comics were originally serialized in Marvel’s black-and-white magazine format, alongside making-of articles and original stories set in the Apes universe.<a href="#fn:2" id="fnref:2" title="see footnote" class="footnote"><sup>2</sup></a></p>
<p>These adaptations were penned by Doug Moench, with art by George Tuska and Alfredo Alcala. (Jack Kirby was at DC doing <em>Kamandi</em>, which for all intents and purposes is Kirby’s take on <em>Apes</em>.) <em>The Original Marvel Years Omnibus</em> retails for $100 and collects only 11 issues with no bonus material, which caused something of a stir in the review community. Consequently, unless you’re a diehard <em>Apes</em> fan, this volume doesn’t offer terribly much for you, especially not at cover price.</p>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers for the omnibus and the first two <em>Apes</em> films]</strong></p>
<p>Then again, even if you love the franchise as ardently as I do, you might not find much of interest in <em>The Original Marvel Years</em>. It’s a fairly faithful adaptation, with George Tuska’s artwork looking very clean and playing safely within Marvel’s house style (even if his Taylor looks more like Topol than Charlton Heston). Yet there is that old adage about comics with gorillas selling better than not, and it’s a real treat to see Tuska imbue the apes with far more expressiveness than their cinematic counterparts.</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>Although Troy McClure famously opined on <em>The Simpsons</em>, “I hate every ape I see, from chimpan-A to chimpan-zee,” I’ve always been fond of franchise antagonist Dr. Zaius, who is by all accounts the real star of this adaptation. Issue #4 is given entirely to the trial of Taylor, replete with the see-no-evil trifecta as tribunal. In this chapter, Tuska’s Zaius verily unhinges his jaw to decry Taylor’s monstrousness, though he confesses in an almost Shakespearean soliloquy (absent from the film) that his principal motivation is “fear. And God help us <strong>all</strong>… it’s the fear of <strong>man</strong>.”</p>
<p>Indeed, if there are any changes of note to the adaptation, it’s in the dialogue. One of my favorite lines of the film finds Taylor suggesting, in words that smack of original screenwriter Rod Serling, “I’m a seeker, too. But my dreams aren’t like yours. I can’t help thinking that somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man. Has to be.” Yet Moench reconfigures the line: “I’m a bit of a seeker myself. But my dreams are a lot emptier than yours … 'cause, y’see, I can’t get rid of the idea that somewhere in this universe … there must be a creature superior to man.”<a href="#fn:3" id="fnref:3" title="see footnote" class="footnote"><sup>3</sup></a> Where the original text places the story into the realm of allegory, musing whether the ape society is <em>better</em> than human civilization, Moench recasts the whole thing in the light of evolutionary supremacy.</p>
<p>And speaking of changes to dialogue, there’s an arresting revelation in issue #5 when Zira reveals to Taylor that the mute human Nova is pregnant, with Taylor practically boasting, “So you see, Doctor … I’m <strong>not</strong> an altogether different breed from her.” This subplot had been deleted from the film, but it had also been excised at the 11th hour from the black-and-white adaptation, replaced by text in which Zira attributes Nova’s stomach pains to a psychosomatic case of homesickness.</p>
<p>Whether original series editors Tony Isabella and Don McGregor intended to restore this subplot, or whether they simply missed the previous editorial revisions, remains unclear — and it would have made for fascinating material for this volume’s back matter, including a reprint of the original black-and-white page. But the editors, the book, and the plot all seem to have forgotten Nova’s pregnancy, and her death in the book’s final pages makes no mention of Taylor’s compounded tragedy.</p>
<p>The second half of the omnibus finds Alfredo Alcala picking up the pencil, and his artwork is very nearly the saving grace of the volume. Alcala’s horror influences run wild, particularly in the subterranean mutant sequences. I’ve never been a fan of the mutants in <em>Beneath the Planet of the Apes</em>, but Alcala depicts them as grotesque zombies, all dripping flesh and bared teeth.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, Alcala interposes a moment in which Brent (played by James Franciscus) and Nova wend their way through a subway car filled with skeletons, adding a delightful spookiness to a scene that actually looks, on film, a little too pristine for a nuclear wasteland. Moench and Alcala also abbreviate the mutant interrogation sequence, at the expense of clarity on the mutants' telepathic abilities, yet this truncation also keeps the mutants from overstaying their welcome.</p>
<p>By the time we get to the end of the volume, the adaptation begins to make so many changes to the story that we almost end up with a different tale. Gone is the quiet tragedy of the mutant Albina’s suicide, and a more overt attempt to detonate the bomb renders the mutants overall passive participants in the finale. Nova’s death sends Taylor into a rage more befitting Kirk Douglas than Charlton Heston, while the death of Brent is omitted entirely.</p>
<p>And where the film ends with Taylor, a broken nihilist, lurching onto the Doomsday Bomb’s detonator, Moench scripts a sequence where Taylor implores Dr. Zaius for permission to defuse the bomb, to which the orangutan retorts, “Why <strong>should</strong> I?” This time, oddly less fatalistic than the film’s bleak ending, Taylor detonates the bomb, and Alcala fills a three-by-three grid with orange and black panels.</p>
<p>The book, like the film, ends with the abrupt destruction of the planet of the apes, with only a page to reprint E.M. Gist’s omnibus cover artwork without the title dress. (I personally went with the direct market variant, which reused Gil Kane’s cover art.) For an omnibus, one might have hoped for a little more bonus material, particularly considering the other content from the magazines that might have been included here. The first magazine issue alone contained profiles on Rod Serling and make-up artist Jack Chambers, alongside a retrospective article on all five films in the franchise.</p>
<p>I was put in mind of <em>Star Wars Legends: The Marvel UK Collection Omnibus</em> (2017), which repackaged old British comics with vintage behind-the-scenes articles, puzzle pages, and even scans of old stickers. That omnibus also retailed for $100, with nearly four times the page count, and it frankly puts the <em>Apes</em> omnibus to shame.</p>
<p>At 224 pages, though, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1302950738/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Planet of the Apes Adventures: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus</a> makes a monkey of anyone who pays cover price. Even the staunchest simian defender would be advised to wait for a clearance sale, a secondhand copy, or the $35 paperback slated for release in June 2024; while the material may be fine enough, the collection itself ends up somewhat less than the sum of its (minimal) parts. (Never mind that, at the time of this writing, all 11 issues are available on Marvel Unlimited.)</p>
<p>If these comics weren’t quite the apes you were seeking, get your stinking paws ready for an adaptation of an <em>Apes</em> film I can guarantee you’ve never seen. When is a simian society like a Snyder Cut? When it’s <em>Planet of the Apes: Visionaries</em>, a graphic novel adapting Rod Serling’s original — and unfilmed — script.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn:1">
<p>There had been a one-shot published by Gold Key in 1970, adapting <em>Beneath the Planet of the Apes</em> (the second film) in the style of a Classics Illustrated comic; meanwhile, manga adaptations were published in Japan in 1968 and 1971 as “Planet of Monkeys” — and <a href="https://planetoftheapes.fandom.com/wiki/Saru_no_Wakusei_(Manga_Tengoku)">from what I’ve seen online</a>, those mangas were, pardon the pun, <em>wild</em>, blending Japanese art with fumetti-style stills from the film. <a href="#fnref:1" title="return to body" class="reversefootnote"> ↩︎</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:2">
<p>These original tales were collected by Boom! in 2017 and 2018, in four hardcover editions that are far out of print and much too expensive for this collector. One hopes Marvel sees fit to continue their own line of reprints! <a href="#fnref:2" title="return to body" class="reversefootnote"> ↩︎</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:3">
<p>The line in Michael Wilson’s final revised script is somewhere in between: “I’m really an idealist, Lafever. Surely in this universe there must be some creature superior to man.” <a href="#fnref:3" title="return to body" class="reversefootnote"> ↩︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
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}}</script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p>---</p><p>This post was syndicated from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">Collected Editions</a>, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">collectededitions.blogspot.com</a>.</p></div>collectededitionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14698269790653953645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10945794.post-48899292941919170592024-02-07T21:55:00.002-06:002024-02-07T21:57:09.007-06:00Review: Flash Vol. 18: The Search for Barry Allen trade paperback (DC Comics)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520174/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1973" data-original-width="1280" height="320" itemprop="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgflKodBfaxBpYWUJrYTqy_4wm1kwA9wno1MvK3iRXnIlC-hOiyiHF-XtLdDrO_rBRzeAiR4JltSJKauqK-TJLchIiFT8zNGL2te24Ht_OwJztaVmgrXw1td6RUCokf3m6UJCN_l2NehA7vOCbsA7OoA6Nq-Wr0vA5TsSj3jSJpeekfQW3MYHXX/s1600/flash-volume18-search-for-barry-allen-dccomics-adams-conrad-pasarin-amancay.jpg" /></a></div><p>Regular readers know I often give big collections a break on the principle that if it’s not good, at least there’s a lot of it. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520174/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Flash Vol. 18: The Search for Barry Allen</a> is 11 issues long (10 plus an annual), so there’s a lot of it, but here it may not work in the book’s favor.</p>
<p>Jeremy Adam’s book is passably good <em>Flash</em>, certainly better than earlier books written by others in this <em>Flash</em> series, and for the most part treats Wally West and his family respectfully and portrays them in character. But perhaps due to the interruption of the <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-dark-crisis-on-infinite-earths.html">Dark Crisis</a> crossover, perhaps in marking time on the way to <em>Flash</em> #800, I was bored. The villains are not particularly worrisome, the stakes not particularly high, and it took me longer to finish this very long book because I could not stay engaged.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>I’m all for the “Dawn of DC” if it means increased camaraderie among the heroes, but I’d hate to think the latest rebellion against grim and gritty will be an overcorrection toward “nothing happens.” As it is, Adams doesn’t have many issues left on his run; I hope the next volume improves on this one.</p>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers]</strong></p>
<p>If Adams' <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/09/review-flash-vol-16-wally-west-returns.html">Flash Vol. 16: Wally West Returns</a> was about Wally reclaiming the Flash mantle and <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/02/review-flash-vol-17-eclipsed-trade.html">Flash Vol. 17: Eclipsed</a> was largely about reestablishing Wally’s relationship with his kids, then <em>Search</em> seems about reconnecting Wally with his allies in the DCU (perhaps not coincidentally also a theme of <em>Dark Crisis</em>).</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>Bookending <em>Search</em> are two issues where Wally teams with Kid Flash Wallace “Ace” West, rerouting that partnership from Barry to Wally, and two that bring good friend Pied Piper Harley Rathaway back into Wally’s life as if he’d never left. Between that, there’s appearances by Jesse Quick, Max Mercury, Jay Garrick, Power Girl, and other members of the Justice Society. As with <em>Dark Crisis</em> itself, this volume feels the most legitimately like <em>Flash</em> picking up from where the DCU left off before <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2011/12/review-flashpoint-hardcoverpaperback-dc.html">Flashpoint</a> since that time.</p>
<p>On <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-dark-crisis-on-infinite-earths.html">Dark Crisis</a>, <em>Search</em> offers far less to explain the crossover’s events than even I expected it would. I thought for certain the reference in <em>Dark Crisis</em> to Barry’s encounter with <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-dark-crisis-worlds-without-justice-league.html">Worlds Without the Justice League</a>’s Batman would take place in <em>Flash</em>, but it does not. Nor does the story contain anything to explain the Flashes' conversations in <em>Dark Crisis</em> regarding the disappearance or return of the infinite Earths. As a final word, no, none of the <em>Dark Crisis</em> tie-ins fill in the gaps in <em>Dark Crisis</em> (nor add much of anything) and indeed the multiverse material in that book turns out just as nonsensical as it seems.</p>
<p>Adams has no shortage of great ideas in <em>Flash</em> proper, to his credit. There’s a particularly clever throwaway gag early in the book where the Legion of Doom keeps building their headquarters and the Flash anonymously zooms by and knocks some rivets out of place so they keep having to start over. Either of Adams’ alt-universe Flashes have potential, and insofar as his alien wrestling issue was a little corny, I geeked out to see a <em>Bloodlines</em> alien, for instance (the whole issue is drawn in wonderful, inane glory by Fernando Pasarin). The mystery as to the true identity of Warden Wolfe was good (the mystery more than the revelation), and I appreciated Adams tying the resolution all the way back to Wally’s trials in <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2020/11/review-flash-forward-trade-paperback-dc.html">Flash Forward</a>. The book isn’t stuck in the past, but it’s not ignorant of it, either.</p>
<p>But again, starting from the front, Girder is really no threat; the <em>Dark Crisis</em> tie-in is assured to put all the pieces where they came from to mesh with the crossover; “Wrestling Across the Multiverse” is a rare example in comics of totally pure, non-abusive alien gladiatorial battles; and nobody even has any angst (for the better, perhaps) about the pre-teen West kids being out there fighting supervillains. When all the Rogues attack Wally at once, I was reminded of the same in that horrific scene from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2008/07/review-flash-fastest-man-alive-full.html">Flash: The Fastest Man Alive: Full Throttle</a> where Bart Allen died; here, Wally’s got nary a scratch. The books fun and it’s funny, but Adams never did really hold my attention.</p>
<p>Among the Wests, Adams' Wally is good, and his Jai and Irey were less annoying in the last book even if more annoying here. But I was partial to Mark Waid’s intrepid TV reporter Linda Park that took on Kobra with a laser cannon, so Adams' Linda, pulp novelist, has never sat quite right with me. That’s even more so in the <em>Flash</em> 2022 Annual collected here, where Adams insinuates — via Linda’s novel-within-a-story starring a Linda analogue — that novel-writing was always what she wanted to do and television reporting was just a side gig.</p>
<p>What seems an uncertain understanding of both the news business and the writing process — including that Wally’s only reading Linda’s book at the point she’s already talking book tours — is only the start of that annual’s troubles. Though there is likely self-congratulation among the creative team that the in-novel Linda character saves analogues of the Flash and friends from alien doom, the story equally suggests that Linda’s life didn’t amount to much before her husband came along to give her direction.</p>
<p>The danger of a seemingly all-male creative team is that no one second guesses things like Wally’s meant-to-be-romantic speech at the end of the story, where his high praise for Linda is “for the way you care for the kids [and] me.” Not to mention whomever approved that Linda’s newfound speed powers seem to stem from her being pregnant with Wally’s child (what seems a super-team concept by way of a <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2014/04/review-sex-criminals-vol-1-one-weird-trick-trade.html">Matt Fraction/Chip Zdarsky book</a>). Though, cheers to seeing Dr. Mid-Nite Pieter Cross as Linda’s doctor; I didn’t know he was back (and I’m not sure it isn’t a gaffe!).</p>
<p>I’ve taken so long to read <em>Dark Crisis</em> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520174/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Flash Vol. 18: The Search for Barry Allen</a> that the next <em>Flash</em> volume, “One Minute War,” just arrived, so I’ll probably turn to that next. This is wholesome Flash family fun, not unlike Peter Tomasi’s “young Jon” <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2017/09/review-superman-vol-1-son-of-superman.html">Superman</a> run; there’s just not enough going on for my tastes.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>2.0</span></div>
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}}</script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p>---</p><p>This post was syndicated from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">Collected Editions</a>, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">collectededitions.blogspot.com</a>.</p></div>collectededitionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14698269790653953645noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10945794.post-56136732032394464802024-02-04T21:56:00.001-06:002024-02-04T21:57:13.669-06:00Review: Tales From Dark Crisis hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779518544/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1973" data-original-width="1280" height="320" itemprop="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmK_IMC2mpsS-FrwUPiWBKgd1L1RaKUKIgFfzubETAgWlNtwMuDz3UbFKPfWfXvedrj1yF0DW1HEo3ewgRStbsnPzX-qlN8hsTOf6CD9dRYWcwLESr3BapPbkOrxxPRzTqSYcnvLUBwBpcTG_bTdOp0HAMNEjwZNPVaKVpDssfZZLgy33xsMuH/s1600/tales-from-dark-crisis-dccomics-williamson-ramv-waid-dawson-jurgens-williams-henry.jpg" /></a></div><p>The legacy of <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-dark-crisis-on-infinite-earths.html">Dark Crisis</a> may turn out to be “OK event, terrible tie-ins.” I am shocked how many questions I still have about the main series having finished now the last of the tie-in books, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779518544/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Tales From Dark Crisis</a>. All that’s left is the <em>Flash</em> book, but it seems a lot for Jeremy Adams to fill in all the gaps in Joshua Williams' miniseries.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-dark-crisis-worlds-without-justice-league.html">Worlds Without the Justice League</a> book at least had some above average stories to recommend it, even if it too barely related to <em>Dark Crisis</em>. The <em>Tales</em> book never even rises to that level, and what’s passable is often marred by inconsistent characterization or poor alignments with continuity. There’s a lot of wasted potential here.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers]</strong></p>
<p>My biggest disappointment in <em>Tales</em> was <em>Dark Crisis: The Deadly Green</em>. Written in part by Ram V, I had hoped this might be a Crisis-tinged epilogue to V’s recent, superlative <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/07/review-swamp-thing-vol-1-becoming-trade.html">Swamp Thing</a> miniseries. But while new Swamp Thing Levi Kamei is here, any consequence of his being new to the role is glossed over. Despite Williamson having alluded in <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/01/review-justice-league-incarnate.html">Justice League Incarnate</a> to the former Swamp Thing’s dealings with the Great Darkness (in Alan Moore’s <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2013/02/review-saga-of-swamp-thing-vol-4.html">Saga of the Swamp Thing</a>) being integral to <em>Dark Crisis</em>’s conflict, it’s not even Swamp Thing who encounters the Darkness here, but John Constantine. Instead, Superman Jon Kent, Levi, and the teenage Raven bicker with each other for far too many pages before the story ends.</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>I noted in my review of <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-dark-crisis-on-infinite-earths.html">Dark Crisis</a> proper how the Flashes castigate themselves over the loss of the “Infinite Earths” in the first Crisis. I couldn’t quite clock where this information was revealed or reexplained in <em>Dark Crisis</em>, and expected it might be in the tie-ins. It is not here, at least; in <em>Dark Army</em>, in a sequence written by Deliah Dawson, Dr. Light is already inexplicably going on about the Multiverse and the Infinite Earths, even seemingly conflating them when I think they’re meant to be separate. As with <em>Dark Crisis</em>, MacGuffins abound; Damian (drawn incorrectly as an adult by Jack Herbert) uses a conveniently all-encompassing device from Mr. Terrific to follow the villain Pariah’s trail.</p>
<p>Mistakes in DC lore underscore what we’ve suspected for a while, that DC history is too complex if even the creators can’t keep up. In <em>Dark Crisis: Big Bang</em>, Barry Allen’s statement (via Mark Waid, no less!) that Wally West resurrected him after the first Crisis is either a misunderstanding of <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2009/08/review-final-crisis-collected.html">Final Crisis</a> or a big oversimplification of <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2010/06/review-flash-rebirth-hardcoverpaperback.html">Flash: Rebirth</a>. And the premise of <em>Big Bang</em>, Barry hunting his “murderer,” the Anti-Monitor, seems to ignore a bunch of the <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2020/10/review-justice-league-vol-5-justicedoom-war.html">Justice/Doom War</a> (which other parts of <em>Dark Crisis</em> referenced) that we’re not supposed to see the Anti-Monitor as enemy but as unwilling accomplice.</p>
<p><em>Dark Crisis: War Zone</em> has a fine team-up of Iris Allen and Linda Park-West; there’s not much to it, but at least it’s by <em>Flash</em> writer Adams with art by Fernando Pasarin. But items like the Spectre story are immediately forgettable, the Amazons story astoundingly mild. The same with <em>Justice League: Road to Dark Crisis</em>; at first I liked the overly fussy placing of Wally just so for where he starts in <em>Dark Crisis</em>, but ultimately it seemed like a lot of set-moving with no real payoff.</p>
<p>Speaking of <em>Road</em>, emphasizing the inanity of where we are, did you wonder in Stephanie Phillips' story how Nocturna knows Batgirl Stephanie Brown’s identity? That’s because Nocturna and then-Spoiler were close — in the starting arc of Jon Lewis' short <em>Robin</em> run some 20 years ago.</p>
<p>Charitably, maybe those obscure comics are Phillips' favorites — and not that someone on the line grabbed the first available reference issues and went with it — but given the high profile of the <em>Road</em> comic, you’d think editorial would want something less confusing to the uninitiated reader. Not to mention, this Nocturna (never called Nocturna in the original story, mind you) has been subsequently replaced by at least two other Nocturnas. One of those <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2016/07/review-batwoman-vol-6-unknowns-trade.html">plagued Batwoman Kate Kane</a> and is due to do so again soon, I think, and one appeared in the most recent <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/03/review-suicide-squad-vol-2-ambushed.html">Suicide Squad</a>, with collections still on the shelves — either of which would have been a more marketable choice for this story, short of simply a different story instead.</p>
<p>A multitude of new Earths, as shown in Mark Waid’s <em>Dark Crisis: Big Bang</em>, is always fun. Cynically, I note most of them reflect current DC non-continuity miniseries, a way of assuring readers and their wallets that “it all matters” when it possibly does not; infinite Earths means every project can have one. But then, that’s the value of the “multiverse” concept, too.</p>
<p>I do wish <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779518544/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Tales From Dark Crisis</a> and the <em>Dark Crisis</em> books were more explicit on these points; I do wish some of what was set up at the outset — what is the Elseworld, for instance — had come to fruition by the end of this. I am just stymied that some of what seemed to be nonsense in <em>Dark Crisis</em> did indeed turn out to be nonsense and not references to events in the tie-in books. It’s just befuddling.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>2.0</span></div>
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}}</script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p>---</p><p>This post was syndicated from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">Collected Editions</a>, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">collectededitions.blogspot.com</a>.</p></div>collectededitionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14698269790653953645noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10945794.post-6689635690550819202024-01-31T21:10:00.002-06:002024-01-31T21:16:20.962-06:00Review: Dark Crisis: Worlds Without the Justice League hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/177952417X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1973" data-original-width="1280" height="320" itemprop="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv5tWGet-bf-WmS9ui3OAAW5BhfkWcBme0HvWgBMSyS4HGwtxOgPTctLTyQBH5-03ecP3tWWGM_IKbGkwKNclLy9tEddkAdGtNZrnYz5n6_xKKAgCmKqRwD30Hir5ClAn0Y1EqkneaHn6gUXHcJwT9NjWQ_i5sPYLAEvCb4pz8J2wffYC-Yrtw/s1600/dark-crisis-world-without-justice-league-dccomics-king-johnson-howard-burnham-sook-henry.jpg" /></a></div><p><a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2010/08/review-blackest-night.html">Blackest Night</a> had seven collections in total; <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2021/11/review-dark-nights-death-metal-deluxe.html">Dark Nights: Death Metal</a> had five. So <em>Dark Crisis</em> is about average or maybe even less with four (five if you count the <em>Flash</em> book). But worryingly, I’ve read two of the tie-in volumes so far, <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-dark-crisis-young-justice.html">Dark Crisis: Young Justice</a> and now <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/177952417X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League</a>, and neither has convinced me they were necessary for the crossover as a whole.</p>
<p>The <em>Young Justice</em> tie-in wasn’t particularly well written, and for me <em>Worlds</em> didn’t add anything to the main story. That’s a shame, because I liked <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-dark-crisis-on-infinite-earths.html">Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths</a>, but the tie-ins so far have been the kind of fluff that gives event comics a bad name.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers]</strong></p>
<p>The “Worlds Without” stories are the tales of the supposedly dead Justice Leaguers while they were actually trapped within Pariah’s custom dimensions, siphoning off their energies to resurrect his lost multiverse. That is, every one of these is a one-off “imaginary” story, not unlike <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/03/review-future-state-justice-league.html">Future State</a>, except in Future State there was at least occasional promise of the stories tying back to the mainstream DCU. Also the Future State writers often had multiple issues to add detail to their tales; the “Worlds Without” are uniformly a scant 20 pages for the main story and 10 pages for the backup.</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>The book begins better than it ends. For me, the best story was the first, powerhouse team of Tom King and Chris Burnham’s Superman story. You can almost hear “Father and Son” playing in the background as young Jon Kent grows increasingly disturbed by the super-sounds of interstellar conflict and Superman tries to keep him at home to preserve the peace. It’s a metaphor if not specifically for the generational tensions in the 1950s and 1960s then at least for coming of age and setting out on your own, and it’s the only of the “Worlds” stories I felt I wanted to see more of (including to learn what’s bothering King’s Lois Lane). Jon’s Super-Robin suit is inspired.</p>
<p>Also in the <em>Worlds Without a Justice League — Superman</em> book was Brandon Thomas' Aquaman story, rather his last word on Aquaman after a foreshortened run (see <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/09/review-aquaman-becoming-trade-paperback.html">Aquaman: The Becoming</a>). As is the case with too many of these “Worlds” stories, there’s not much to this one — just 10 pages of situation comedy and minor conflict. But what seems like Arthur and Mera preparing for daughter Andy’s wedding to <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/11/review-multiversity-teen-justice-trade.html">Multiversity: Teen Justice</a>’s Flash turns out to actually be Arthur’s Atlantean mother and (actually deceased) human father renewing their wedding vows. Buffeted by the Superman story, there’s enough cute moments in this one to win it my vote too.</p>
<p>Often what helps “imaginary tales” of these kinds is work by regular or upcoming creative teams, such that one can intuit some preview or meta-commentary on the character’s regular title. Green Lantern is, I think, the only one to get that, with Phillip Kennedy Johnson writing John Stewart ahead of <em>Green Lantern: War Journal</em>, with art by Fernando Blanco. Here’s a John Stewart story, well illustrated and using the definitive peaceful warrior characterization of John, and with rural sci-fi/horror elements like an M. Night Shyamalan movie.</p>
<p>Points too to Dan Watters' Martian Manhunter story, the backup in <em>Worlds Without a Justice League – Wonder Woman</em>. Again as with many of these, using the fact that the characters are within a dreamscape as the “surprise reveal” of the story falls flat given that the audience already knows it even if the characters don’t. But before the last two pages, the Manhunter story is creepy fun, J’onn as a detective among a post-human species, and with noirish art by Brandon Peterson and a selective color palette from Michael Atiyeh. Simon Spurrier and Ryan Sook’s main story in <em>Worlds Without a Justice League — Batman</em>, a cyberpunk tale of Batman vs. Bruce Wayne, also had standalone Elseworlds potential.</p>
<p>That’s five, leaving five less-poised stories to round out the book. <em>Worlds</em> peters out with the Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Zatanna stories; “Green Arrow” starts as a take on medieval Robin Hood (which wouldn’t, I don’t think, be Oliver Queen’s ideal world) but becomes a perplexing time-traveling meet-cute with a modern Black Canary — and then the backup story essentially does the same thing over again. “Zatanna” spends its 10 pages on a surface-level view of the character, as we’re reminded once again how Zatanna misses her father before the other Leaguers show up.</p>
<p>Nothing wrong with Tini Howard’s Wonder Woman story necessarily, and President Etta Candy has a ring to it, though it’s another of these stories where the surprise of the false world is just not that surprising. The book’s Hawkgirl story gets confused in Kendra Saunders' post-<a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2018/06/review-dark-nights-metal-deluxe-edition.html">Dark Nights: Metal</a> origins and too only reiterates the character’s best-known storylines without adding anything new.</p>
<p><a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-dark-crisis-on-infinite-earths.html">Dark Crisis</a> proper does show the Leaguers in their “Worlds”-specific costumes (and surely all of this is rife for McFarlane toys to make figures from). But only the Batman, Green Lantern, and Superman worlds get significant play in <em>Dark Crisis</em>, and I think it’s iffy whether the Superman story quite lines up. The context that <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/177952417X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League</a> adds to the Batman and Green Lantern scenes is worthwhile (dig John Stewart’s apprentice Lanterns), but not worth the cost of the entire hardcover. I don’t begrudge DC their tie-ins, but something more interconnected — a la the regular series contributions in <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2018/07/review-dark-nights-metal-resistance.html">Dark Nights: Metal: The Resistance</a> and <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2021/11/review-justice-league-death-metal-trade.html">Justice League: Death Metal</a> — might’ve been preferable. Let’s hope <em>Tales From Dark Crisis</em> redeems the whole lot.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>2.0</span></div>
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}}</script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p>---</p><p>This post was syndicated from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">Collected Editions</a>, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">collectededitions.blogspot.com</a>.</p></div>collectededitionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14698269790653953645noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10945794.post-1664674872469775762024-01-28T19:25:00.002-06:002024-01-28T19:26:29.028-06:00Review: Dark Crisis: Young Justice hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779518560/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1973" data-original-width="1280" height="320" itemprop="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg358YqnyFPlX4V4_4HNSVgkPcBHVRrS63OR9yEqCnXxgrJ0CKolH31j2AjBtvuOPWE9OVekxs02LH53tgKr4CVP6NVQWto7Z6X4E25QmhgekTiwyEvYufOtRsC31hjfbcMrMjrudz-w6HntoSBjDlPMC4pNncXldZ5L7dew3zeMWRVGnTpRXj7/s1600/dark-crisis-young-justice-dccomics-fitzmartin-braga-guerrero.jpg" /></a></div><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779518560/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Dark Crisis: Young Justice</a> read to me as if written by someone who heard about Peter David’s <em>Young Justice</em> secondhand and then wrote about it based on that secondhand knowledge. I am not opposed to a meta-examination of <em>Young Justice</em>, but there are aspects of this story that feel as though Meghan Fitzmartin does not know the original title as well as someone writing this book might need to. That’s in addition to a variety of general difficulties Fitzmartin’s writing and in the art by Laura Braga.</p>
<p>It’s a disappointing package that doesn’t live up to Joshua Williamson’s main <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-dark-crisis-on-infinite-earths.html">Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths</a>. A “young adults come to grip with their teenage years” take on <em>Young Justice</em> sounds fine indeed, something even more character-driven than Brian Michael Bendis' recent short lived <em>Young Justice</em> series, but unfortunately <em>Dark Crisis: Young Justice</em> is mostly surface-level. In never getting beyond the obvious in the characters, it never has any place to go.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers]</strong></p>
<p>A lot of <em>Dark Crisis: Young Justice</em>’s stumbles center around original team member and former Arrowette Cissie King-Jones. Fitzmartin presents the Young Justice group, and particularly Cissie, as estranged, though it’s hard to know exactly how long Fitzmartin thinks they’ve been apart. The first chapter line “We were all together when Conner came back” could variably refer to <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2009/11/review-final-crisis-legion-of-three.html">Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds</a> from over a decade ago (where Cissie was not, as far as I recall, present) or <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2021/01/review-young-justice-vol-3-warriors-and-warlords.html">Young Justice Vol. 3: Warriors and Warlords</a> from just a couple years ago where Cissie did indeed make an appearance and which doesn’t seem all that long ago, comics-time.</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>Charitably, if there was perhaps some overlap between the production of Fitzmartin’s miniseries and the end of Bendis' series, maybe not knowing how long Young Justice had been apart is an honest mistake (though one would think editorial at least might have caught it). But throughout the story, Fitzmartin seems to misrepresent why Arrowette left Young Justice in the original series, certainly available to reference — “Because superhero life is hard,” “because of the toxicity” apparently of the other team members, and “almost killing friends.” That last one is particularly strange because Cissie didn’t leave Young Justice after almost killing a friend, but because she was worried about her own violent tendencies after almost killing the man who murdered her beloved school counselor.<a href="#fn:1" id="fnref:1" title="see footnote" class="footnote"><sup>1</sup></a></p>
<p>Fitzmartin is certainly within her rights to reinterpret events — it seemed like this but it was actually that, so to speak. But the circumstances of Cissie leaving the team were very specific and Fitzmartin doesn’t convincingly align the new information with the old — even an “It might have seemed like I was leaving because this, but it was also that” would be better than eliding the original story entirely.</p>
<p>Not to mention that no sooner did Cissie quit being Arrowette than she was back in the <em>Young Justice</em> title constantly as part of their adventures, this being the very trope David was playing with, and on from there. Fitzmartin’s Cissie’s laissez-faire attitude is so far from the original character’s presentation that one begins to wonder just how familiar Fitzmartin is with the characters. Otherwise I can’t see altering Cissie to this extent just to have a foil for Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark rather than finding a way to write the story with more familiar presentations of the characters.</p>
<p>There are similar difficulties throughout the book that come off as either misinformed or just plain sloppy. An imaginary Captain Boomerang taunts Robin Tim Drake, “Can’t take your eyes off the ball, Boy Wonder. Isn’t that how your dad died,” which perhaps sounded good in the writing but doesn’t actually have anything to do with how Jack Drake died in <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2005/11/identity-crisis-review.html">Identity Crisis</a>. Amazonian queen Hippolyta is established as dead at the beginning of the story, but later the characters get Wonder Woman’s invisible jet because “Hippolyta owed me a favor” — at best it’s confusing phrasing and at worst it’s a gaffe. One of Braga’s panels supposed to show Young Justice’s old enemies mostly includes their allies, including team member Empress.</p>
<p>To be sure, the original <em>Young Justice</em> was a product of its time, and where <em>Dark Crisis: Young Justice</em> indicates previous gag bits that could be read now as heteronormative or culturally insensitive, it’s not wrong (<em>Young Justice</em> having come and gone in the same era as <em>Friends</em>, for instance). But when Fitzmartin has Cissie claim she only remembers “fighting people the Justice League didn’t
understand, like women, people from other countries, folks who were just doing their best,” I again wasn’t quite sure I got the reference and I don’t think the lack of specificity helps the claim.</p>
<p>At one point villain Mickey Mxyzptlk mentions Young Justice’s “entire generation getting stuck in limbo, like we’re disposable,” which was an idea I wouldn’t have minded Fitzmartin exploring further. In the imaginary world that Myxzptlk creates, we see Green Arrow Connor Hawke and Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, too — essentially the 1990s heroes created during this time and then shunted to the background over the long road from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2011/12/review-flashpoint-hardcoverpaperback-dc.html">Flashpoint</a> to the New 52 to DC You and <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2016/05/review-dc-universe-rebirth-1-dc-comics.html">DC Rebirth</a> to now. I’m equally satisfied with DC’s latest generation and particularly the diversification of their hero set, but I thought some in-story examination of why some of DC’s one-time hottest properties fizzled out, largely to a one, might’ve been interesting.</p>
<p>That DC gave the Young Justice characters another chance so soon after the Brian Michael Bendis series with Meghan Fitzmartin’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779518560/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Dark Crisis: Young Justice</a> is auspicious, but clearly this didn’t turn out so well. I don’t think I’d be looking for another <em>Young Justice</em> title so soon after this — not really sure how different that is than a <em>Titans</em> title with now-twenty something heroes. At the same time, it might be nice to see a redemption for a few of the relationships here before some of these characters go away for good.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>1.0</span></div>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn:1">
<p>Doing my own due diligence, I just went back and read <em>Young Justice</em> #15–16 from that era. You should do the same; they’re great. <a href="#fnref:1" title="return to body" class="reversefootnote"> ↩︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
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<p>I’m a sucker for looking these up — figuring out what Earth it is, gleaning all the little nuances and the origins of the characters and so on. I’ve been using the excellent <a href="https://dc.fandom.com">DC Database Fandom site</a> to do it — here’s their entry on <a href="https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Earth_32">Earth-32</a>, for instance.</p>
<p>It didn’t take me long to notice that their “Earth” entries have for the most part the same URL with different numbers appended. And as an avowed <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/shortcuts/welcome/ios">macOS and iOS Shortcuts app</a> fan, when I see a serial URL like this, that says “Shortcuts!” to me.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>The shortcut is not particularly complex, making it a good starter shortcut if you’ve never used the Shortcuts app before. The concept is simple enough that I’m sure this could be translated to Tasker for Android or a basic JavaScript bookmarklet if you needed to.</p>
<h3>1. Ask for Input</h3>
<p>I have this set to “Ask for Number” with the prompt “Which Earth?”</p>
<h3>2. Open URLs</h3>
<p>The open parameter here is <strong>https://dc.fandom.com/<wbr />wiki/<wbr />Earth_[Provided Input]</strong> where “Provided Input” is the variable from the previous step.</p>
<h3>3. Stop and Output</h3>
<p>For testing purposes I have a “Stop and Output” block here that outputs the URL, but you hardly need it.</p>
<p>That’s it! With your favorite device in one hand and your favorite Multiverse-spanning comic in the other, you’ve got all you need to keep from getting confused if continuity changes under you again. Enjoy!</p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p>---</p><p>This post was syndicated from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">Collected Editions</a>, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">collectededitions.blogspot.com</a>.</p></div>collectededitionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14698269790653953645noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10945794.post-62841405930437375702024-01-24T21:22:00.001-06:002024-01-24T21:23:10.880-06:00Review: Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779518536/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1973" data-original-width="1280" height="320" itemprop="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3KaJ_VMr1nNcdzY4osqd17Fg53NV9RqsIZi5DBWZuHOfrpcqXdHcUfU2Am9Q2iGfVnCe46KeZzzQFEjxd-xL1hEioL3sioTXj-n626mcBFSjaEJsDmIxH1-icqM7R7i5hny_UuYYZrvI4anbrmkdgTRUUhv18PduQTJu-KbAQqxukbrRQ7jgU/s1600/dark-crisis-on-infinite-earths-dccomics-williamson-sampere.jpg" /></a></div><p>What a beautiful, beautiful mess <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779518536/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths</a> is.</p>
<p>And it is beautiful; for one, artist Daniel Sampere is doing the work of his career. The book is far more akin to DC’s <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2006/12/infinite-crisis-and-infinite-crisis.html">Infinite Crisis</a> than it ever is <em>Crisis on Infinite Earths</em>, and one indication is how much Sampere evokes Phil Jimenez and company before him.</p>
<p>Equally there is much here that writer Joshua Williamson does that’s beautiful. At <em>Dark Crisis</em>’s heart, it’s a story about specific DC heroes carrying on in the absence of the Justice League, and that’s well done and heartfelt. I also adore the sheer amount of the current DC Universe that <em>Dark Crisis</em> pulls from. Where the book is less lofty and more grounded, it’s better for it.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>But there’s also so many places where <em>Dark Crisis</em> goes wrong. The story turns on a false claim, which would be fine except that it contradicts information presented before as narrative fact. Characters pull revelations about their situation right out of the air. And the main book never explains the stakes — what we’re in danger of losing, nor even what’s gained in the end. Maybe that’s in one of the tertiary books I haven’t read yet, but it’s not here, and that makes the main <em>Dark Crisis</em> book unsatisfying reading on its own.</p>
<p>For me, the good outweighed the bad. But I don’t think the DC hype machine helped things; this book is perfectly passable as “Dark Crisis,” but “Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths” was probably a step too far.</p>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers]</strong></p>
<p>Again, distilled to its basics, <em>Dark Crisis</em> is relatively simple, and lovely; Nightwing, Jon Kent, Black Adam, and others try to pick up after the disappearance of the Justice League, battling a souped-up Deathstroke and company. If not perhaps “Crisis”-level, this is surely fodder for a fifth-week event, or a lead-in to a new <em>Titans</em> series (which this is) a la the masterpiece <em>JLA/Titans</em>.</p><p>There’s plenty stand-up-and-cheer moments — Jon saves Nightwing, Superman saves Jon, the splashy arrivals of the Green Lantern Corps and the Justice Society. And even if the book doesn’t use Williamson’s lead-in miniseries quite as much as you’d expect, it’s wonderfully rooted in the last year of DC comics, from an unexpected emphasis on <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/06/review-teen-titans-academy-x-marks-spot.html">Titans Academy</a> to Jon and Nightwing’s friendship, Black Adam’s struggles to fit into the Justice League, lost Green Lantern Corps members, two Swamp Things, the events of Williamson’s <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/05/review-batman-shadow-war.html">Batman: Shadow War</a>, and on — even Punchline is here. In the ways this is relatively simple — heroes versus iconic villains, from the Legion of Doom to Nekron and Neron — it reminds of what was equally enjoyable in <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2006/12/infinite-crisis-and-infinite-crisis.html">Infinite Crisis</a>.</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p><em>Dark Crisis</em> wears its theme on its sleeve, sprinkling the word “legacy” wherever it gets a chance. But if a DCU concept is being revitalized here, we might equally say it’s “friendship.” Before the New 52 turned things on their head, you knew a scene with Kyle Rayner and Connor Hawke or Wally West would have a little extra something because these people didn’t just work together, they were friends. Here we’ve got Jon Kent with Nightwing and Jon Kent with Robin Damian Wayne; there’s also a mission that teams best pals Hal Jordan and Barry Allen, teasing and joking like we haven’t seen of late.</p><p>This is also the first DC Comics event in about a decade to involve the real, in-our-timeline Justice Society, and Williamson makes great use of them, from Wildcat in the background cracking wise to Alan Scott dropping by to give Nightwing a pep talk. Not just because of the JSA — but not despite it, either — <em>Dark Crisis</em> feels like the ultimate return to form for the DCU after the events of <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2011/12/review-flashpoint-hardcoverpaperback-dc.html">Flashpoint</a>.</p>
<p>But, as mentioned, <em>Dark Crisis</em> turns on a misunderstanding — Pariah claims to be causing these events on behalf of the Great Darkness entity, though we understand by the end that it’s really Pariah’s own insanity and the Great Darkness is uninvolved.</p><p>Except, the <em>Dark Crisis</em> collection includes a “History of the DC Multiverse” section at the end (reusing art from a similar section within <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/01/review-justice-league-incarnate.html">Justice League Incarnate</a> proper) that specifically says the Darkness took Pariah as its avatar for the Dark Crisis. This follows from — so says both <em>Dark Crisis</em> and <em>Incarnate</em> — the Darkness’s behind-the-scenes involvement in DC’s biggest “crises” to this point, from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2010/08/review-zero-hour-crisis-in-time-trade.html">Zero Hour</a> to <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2006/12/infinite-crisis-and-infinite-crisis.html">Infinite Crisis</a> and <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2007/09/review-52-volume-1-trade-paperback-dc.html">52</a>. In <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/01/review-justice-league-incarnate.html">Justice League Incarnate</a>, we’re told all that by Doctor Multiverse, who gets the upcoming <em>Dark Crisis</em>’s culprit wrong (she says Darkseid), but even if Multiverse isn’t a reliable narrator, the <em>Dark Crisis</em> “History” is presented as unfiltered fact.</p>
<p>Thus <em>Dark Crisis</em> struggles in its cosmic aspects even with questions as simple as “who’s the bad guy?”<a href="#fn:1" id="fnref:1" title="see footnote" class="footnote"><sup>1</sup></a> and it continues from there. Apparently the DCU’s “Earth-Zero” heroes are each “a world unto yourself” that Pariah can use to “rebuild the Multiverse,” though what that means isn’t explained, and Pariah’s multiverse, the so-called Multiverse-2, is already reborn; that very scene takes place there. Lex Luthor opines that “the idea of the Omniverse was false. It created an imbalance in our Multiverse”; I am well versed in -verses, and I cannot tell you what that means.</p>
<p>Later, the Flashes (rather apropos of nothing) are very concerned about the fate of the “Infinite Earths,” separate from the Multiverse; Williamson’s Barry Allen says that every day since the Infinite Earths have been gone “and we didn’t restore them we’ve been losing.” “Losing” what, I don’t know; perhaps, like <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2018/06/review-dark-nights-metal-deluxe-edition.html">Dark Nights: Metal</a>, there’s an essential tie-in book that ought have been included in the main volume and wasn’t, but the loser is still the very new uninformed readers that DC needs to be keeping. I’m sure it’s a good thing, as Mr. Terrific says in the end, that now “our Multiverse powers the Infinite,” but I can’t tell you why.</p>
<p>And that’s not even to mention Williamson’s arbitrary leaps of logic to move the story forward. Nightwing relays that the comatose Beast Boy “believes he was killed … That’s why he’s not waking up,” because apparently the doctors can assess the beliefs of unconscious patients. Cyborg’s unspecified “readings” tell him their enemies are on the way; Lex Luthor consults a blurry globe and discerns a connection between Deathstroke and the Darkness. The heroes arbitrarily decide that even though Pariah was to blame, they’ll tell the public it was the Great Darkness to “ease their worries,” though a malevolent cosmic force attacking Earth rather than one supervillain doesn’t seem more comforting to me.</p>
<p>As others have pointed out, with few exceptions <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779518536/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths</a> is the first major DC event in almost 20 years not written by either Geoff Johns and Scott Snyder. No offense to Snyder, whose alt-Earth <em>Dark Nights</em> books I enjoyed and am due to re-read, but I’ve missed the Johns of <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2006/12/infinite-crisis-and-infinite-crisis.html">Infinite Crisis</a>, <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2010/08/review-blackest-night.html">Blackest Night</a>, and <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2014/09/review-forever-evil-hardcovertrade.html">Forever Evil</a>, events which, if cosmic, all had a strong ground level heroes-versus-villains component. As I’ve said, Joshua Williamson’s <em>Dark Crisis</em> reminds of all that, and feels like DC’s first event in a decade that could reasonably, seamlessly carry on from their old continuity.</p>
<p>Williamson’s first major event is far from perfect, but it’s almost entirely what I’m looking for in a DC event. If this is the dawn of the Dawn of DC, setting the tone for what comes next, then I’m optimistic indeed.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers, “History of the DC Multiverse” section, George Perez tribute pages]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>3.0</span></div>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn:1">
<p>For much of the Great Darkness material, the collection points us toward <em>Dark Crisis: The Deadly Green</em>, collected in <em>Tales From Dark Crisis</em>, though I’m skeptical whether that will help or sustain the confusion. <a href="#fnref:1" title="return to body" class="reversefootnote"> ↩︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
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}}</script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p>---</p><p>This post was syndicated from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">Collected Editions</a>, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">collectededitions.blogspot.com</a>.</p></div>collectededitionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14698269790653953645noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10945794.post-74259144404579436082024-01-20T20:10:00.003-06:002024-01-21T21:05:27.213-06:00DC Trade Solicitations for April 2024 - Dark Crisis paperbacks, Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War, Flash by Messner-Loebs Vol. 1, Nightwing and Titans by Taylor, Waid's Shazam Vol. 1, Secret Six by Simone Omnibus, Hawkgirl, Prez<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvvmjLur5hXVMJ_ZNpFxbv1GRfldkqwVLeRApadFjP1f_tGwba0q0BMehsrXnyvIZKEBg9VnHHN5_6CXPIPTOFl3-CajPFTxOrAPUhnhquO1Yno9eZd3D8BaTWYeEH8FDDxz1mLcFNE5kZlvWD8Qw0be7ry9IYYNAZAO6Wa30WdPzArE1uNeIv/s1600/flash-annual-3-1989-dccomics-messnerloebs-koch-dzon-simpson.jpg" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1973" data-original-width="1280" height="320" itemprop="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvvmjLur5hXVMJ_ZNpFxbv1GRfldkqwVLeRApadFjP1f_tGwba0q0BMehsrXnyvIZKEBg9VnHHN5_6CXPIPTOFl3-CajPFTxOrAPUhnhquO1Yno9eZd3D8BaTWYeEH8FDDxz1mLcFNE5kZlvWD8Qw0be7ry9IYYNAZAO6Wa30WdPzArE1uNeIv/s1600/flash-annual-3-1989-dccomics-messnerloebs-koch-dzon-simpson.jpg" /></a></div><p>If you’re waiting for paperbacks, the DC Comics April 2024 trade paperback and hardcover solicitations will be your month, with the paperback releases of <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525184/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525184&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths</a></strong>
<strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525176/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525176&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Dark Crisis: Young Justice</a></strong>, and <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525192/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525192&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Tales From Dark Crisis</a></strong> (and watch the site this week for my reviews!).</p>
<p>For the rest of us, DC’s events train keeps us on our toes, with <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525982/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525982&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War</a></strong> now and Tom Taylor’s <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525230/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525230&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Nightwing Vol. 5</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525125/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525125&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Titans Vol. 1</a></strong> leading in to something down the road. Among regular series, also Jeremy Adams' <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525095/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525095&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Green Lantern</a></strong>, Mark Waid’s <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525117/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525117&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Shazam!</a></strong>, and the sole collection of the short-lived <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525109/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525109&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Hawkgirl</a></strong> series.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>On big books, see also the much anticipated <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525818/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525818&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Flash by William Messner-Loebs and Greg LaRocque Omnibus</a></strong> (which seems to contain more than just Messner-Loebs and LaRocque’s issues!) and the first volume of the <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525958/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525958&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Secret Six by Gail Simone Omnibus</a></strong>. Sign of the times, DC’s also got a <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779528965/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779528965&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20">Prez</a></strong> collection coming out that I don’t recall from the advance catalogs.</p>
<p>Let’s kick off 2024 with a look at the full list.</p>
<div class="newcom mb-5">
<table style="margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;width:75%;border-collapse:collapse;">
<tr>
<td style="border:1px solid #6699cc;background-color:#6699cc;">
<p style="text-align:center;font-weight:bold;color:#FFFFFF;font-size:1.1em;">Recent DC Comics Trade Solicitations</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-left:1px solid #808080;border-right:1px solid #808080;border-bottom:1px solid #808080;padding-right:20px;">
<ul style="margin-top:20px;margin-bottom:0px;padding-bottom:0px;">
<li><a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/12/dc-trade-solicitations-for-march-2024.html?utm_source=table&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=dcsol" title="DC Trade Solicitations for March 2024 - Nightwing: A Knight in Bludhaven Compendium, Batman: Black Mirror Deluxe, Booster Gold: 2007 Series, DC Pride: Better Together, World's Finest: Teen Titans, Steelworks, Superman Vol. 2: Chained">March 2024</a></li>
<li><a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/11/dc-trade-solicitations-for-february-2024.html?utm_source=table&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=dcsol" title="DC Trade Solicitations for February 2024 - JLApe Collection, Lobo Compendium, Flash by Williamson Omnibus, Justice League Dark Omnibus, Batman: White Knight: Generation Joker, City Boy, Vigil, Spirit World, final Tim Drake: Robin">February 2024</a></li>
<li><a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/10/dc-trade-solicitations-for-january-2024.html?utm_source=table&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=dcsol" title="DC Trade Solicitations for January 2024 - Kingdom and Batman Beyond 25th Anniversary, Knight Terrors: Terror Titans, Justice Society Vol. 1, Superman: Emperor Joker Deluxe, Batman: Brave and Bold, JLI Omnibus Vol. 3, Green Arrow: Reunion">January 2024</a></li>
<li><a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/09/dc-trade-solicitations-for-december-2023.html?utm_source=table&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=dcsol" title="DC Trade Solicitations for December 2023 - Knight Terrors, Fourth World Omnibus with Great Darkness, Absolute Superman by Johns, Creature Commandos: Frankenstein, Flash: One-Minute War, Milestone Compendium Three, final Batman: Urban Legends">December 2023</a></li>
<li><a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/08/dc-trade-solicitations-for-november-2023.html?utm_source=table&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=dcsol" title="DC Trade Solicitations for November 2023 - DC Power: A Celebration, Black Adam Vol. 2 by Priest, Absolute Justice League by Alex Ross and Paul Dini, Barkham Asylum, Paperbacks of Batman Vol. 6: Abyss, Shadows of the Bat, Nightwing Vol. 2">November 2023</a></li>
<li><a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/07/dc-trade-solicitations-for-october-2023.html?utm_source=table&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=dcsol" title="DC Trade Solicitations for October 2023 - Final Batman: Dark Knight Detective; Dark Nights: Death Metal, Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner, Young Justice, the Question Omnibuses; Nightwing Vol. 4: The Leap; Multiversity: Harley Screws Up the DCU">October 2023</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align:right;font-size:85%;margin-top:0px;"><a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">More upcoming collections ...</a></p>
</td>
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</table>
</div>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525214/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525214&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries Vol. 4 TP</a></b></p>
<p>Collects issues #7–12 by Sholly Fisch and company.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/177952515X/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=177952515X&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Batman Beyond: Neo-Gothic HC</a></b></p>
<p>In June in hardcover, Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, and Max Dunbar’s six-issue <em>Batman Beyond: Neo-Gothic</em>.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525168/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525168&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Batman: Beyond the White Knight TP</a></b></p>
<p>Paperback of the third Sean Murphy “Murphy-verse” series. Includes issues #1–8 of <em>Batman: Beyond the White Knight</em> and <em>Batman: White Knight Presents: Red Hood</em> #1–2.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779526962/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779526962&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Batman: Justice Buster Vol. 3 TP</a></b></p>
<p>Third volume of the manga series.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525079/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525079&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Batman: The Knight TP</a></b></p>
<p>Chip Zdarsky’s 10-issue miniseries in paperback, following the hardcover. I reviewed <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/12/review-batman-knight-hardcoverpaperback.html">Batman: The Knight</a> just a few weeks ago.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525982/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525982&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War HC</a></b></p>
<p>In hardcover in June, collecting <em>Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War: Battle Lines</em>, <em>Batman</em> #137–138, <em>Catwoman</em> #57–58, <em>Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War: Scorched Earth</em>, and <em>Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War: Red Hood</em> #1–2. Still no solicitations on the independent series collections to know what will be collected individually.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779524951/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779524951&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Danger Street Vol. 2 TP</a></b></p>
<p>Paperback collection of the Tom King miniseries, collecting issues #7–12.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525184/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525184&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths TP</a></b></p>
<p>The Joshua Williamson event, in paperback in May. Collects <em>Justice League</em> #75 and the seven-issue miniseries, following the hardcover. Look for the Collected Editions review later this week!</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525176/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525176&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Dark Crisis: Young Justice TP</a></b></p>
<p>In paperback in June, the tie-in series by Meghan Fitzmartin, following the hardcover.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525818/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525818&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">The Flash by William Messner-Loebs and Greg LaRocque Omnibus Vol. 1 HC</a></b></p>
<p>Coming in June in hardcover, and said to be collecting <em>Flash</em> #1–28, <em>Flash</em> Annual #1–3, <em>Manhunter</em> #8–9, <em>Secret Origins</em> Annual #2, and pages from <em>Invasion!</em> #2–3. Now believe you me I’m not complaining, but Messner-Loebs and LaRocque didn’t come on <em>Flash</em> until issue #15 (prior, it’s primarily Mike Baron and Jackson Guice). I’d still as soon DC collect it all, and having Messner-Loebs' name on it is well deserved. The <em>Manhunter</em> issues are an <em>Invasion!</em> tie-in.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525095/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525095&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Green Lantern Vol. 1: Back in Action TP</a></b></p>
<p>In June in hardcover, the new <em>Green Lantern</em> issues #1–6, plus <em>Knight Terrors: Green Lantern</em> #1–2, by Jeremy Adams, Xermanico, and company.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525109/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525109&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Hawkgirl: Once Upon a Galaxy TP</a></b></p>
<p>Collects all six issues of the short-lived series by Jadzia Axelrod and Amancay Nahuelpan, in paperback (previously listed as hardcover) in June.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525907/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525907&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Hitman by Garth Ennis and John McCrea Omnibus Vol. 1 HC</a></b></p>
<p>The newest collection of <em>Hitman</em> includes issues #1–33, <em>Hitman Annual</em> #1, <em>Demon</em> #42–45 and #52–54, and <em>Demon Annual</em> #2, with a new introduction by Garth Ennis and a foreword by John McCrea.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525923/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525923&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Identity Crisis 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition HC</a></b></p>
<p>Deluxe of the series by Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales, coming in June.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/177952594X/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=177952594X&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">JLA Year One TP</a></b></p>
<p>The classic 12-issue miniseries by Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn, and Barry Kitson, reimagining the post-Crisis Justice League’s first days.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/177952529X/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=177952529X&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong HC</a></b></p>
<p>Talk about a rush solicitation — the final issue of <em>Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong</em> comes out in April and the hardcover collection comes out in June. Collects issues #1–7 by Brian Buccellato and Christian Duce.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525222/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525222&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Nightwing Vol. 3: The Battle for Blüdhaven’s Heart TP</a></b></p>
<p>In paperback, following the hardcover by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo, collecting issues #92–96. See my recent review of <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-nightwing-vol-3-battle-for-bludhavens-heart.html">Nightwing Vol. 3: The Battle for Bludhaven’s Heart</a>.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525230/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525230&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Nightwing Vol. 5: Time of the Titans HC</a></b></p>
<p>In June in hardcover, collecting issues #101–105, with stories by Tom Taylor and C.S. Pacat.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525036/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525036&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Poison Ivy Vol. 1: The Virtuous Cycle TP</a></b></p>
<p>Paperback of <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/11/review-poison-ivy-vol-1-virtuous-cycle.html">Poison Ivy Vol. 1: The Virtuous Cycle</a> (a surprisingly intricate collection) by G. Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara, collecting issues #1–6 and following the hardcover.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779528965/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779528965&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Prez: Setting a Dangerous President TP</a></b></p>
<p>Collects Mark Russell and Ben Caldwell’s DC You <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2016/02/review-prez-vol-1-corndog-in-chief.html">Prez: Corndog in Chief</a>, along with the Prez material from <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2016/11/review-catwoman-election-night-1-dc.html">Catwoman: Election Night #1</a> (both of which I reviewed in 2016), <em>DC Sneak Peek: Prez</em> #1, and a new short story,</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/177952689X/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=177952689X&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Red Hood: Outlaws Volume Two TP</a></b></p>
<p>Second volume of the Webtoon series, in July.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525958/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525958&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Secret Six by Gail Simone Omnibus Vol. 1 HC</a></b></p>
<p>So glad DC keeps giving Gail Simone’s <em>Secret Six</em> the recognition it deserves. This collects <em>Villains United</em> #1–6, <em>Villains United: Infinite Crisis Special</em> #1, <em>Birds of Prey</em> #104–109, <em>Secret Six</em> (Vol. 2) #1–6, <em>Secret Six</em> (Vol. 3) #1–16, and the origin stories from <em>52</em> #28 (Catman) and <em>Countdown</em> #22 (Deadshot), with introduction and commentary by Simone. That on its own might be worth the price of re-admission. Simone herself recognized my “lovely thoughts” on the final <em>Secret Six</em> collection, <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2012/02/review-secret-six-darkest-house-trade.html">Secret Six: The Darkest House</a>.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525117/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525117&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Shazam! Vol. 1: Meet the Captain TP</a></b></p>
<p>Issues #1–6 by Mark Waid and Dan Mora, in paperback in June.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525966/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525966&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Super Sons: The Complete Collection Book One TP</a></b></p>
<p>As expected, a paperback cut-down of the original, longer omnibus. This first one has <em>Super Sons</em> #1–14, <em>Super Sons</em> Annual #1, <em>Super Sons/Dynomutt</em> #1, <em>Superman</em> #10–11 and #37–38, <em>Teen Titans</em> #15, and a story from the <em>DC Rebirth: Holiday Special</em> #1.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779524978/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779524978&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Superman: Son of Kal-El Vol. 3: Battle for Gamorra TP</a></b></p>
<p>Collects issues #11–15 in paperback, following the hardcover, with stories by Tom Taylor and Nicole Maines. <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/12/review-superman-son-of-kal-el-vol-3-battle-for-gamorra.html">Superman: Son of Kal-El Vol. 3: Battle for Gamorra</a> is another I reviewed recently.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525192/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525192&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Tales From Dark Crisis TP</a></b></p>
<p>In June in paperback, following the hardcover. Collects <em>Justice League: Road to Dark Crisis</em> #1, <em>Dark Crisis: The Deadly Green</em> #1, <em>Dark Crisis: The Dark Army</em> #1, <em>Dark Crisis: War Zone</em> #1, and <em>Dark Crisis: Big Bang</em> #1. My <em>Dark Crisis</em> reviews start later this week!</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779517998/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779517998&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Teen Titans: Starfire TP</a></b></p>
<p>Continuing the DC YA series by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779525125/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779525125&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Titans Vol. 1: Out of the Shadows TP</a></b></p>
<p>In June (along with the relevant <em>Nightwing</em> collection) in paperback, issues #1–5 by Tom Taylor and Nicola Scott.</p>
<p><b>• <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1779526946/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1779526946&linkCode=as2&tag=collectededitions-20" style="text-decoration:none;">Vixen: NYC Volume Six TP</a></b></p>
<p>In July, collecting the Webtoon series.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p>---</p><p>This post was syndicated from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">Collected Editions</a>, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">collectededitions.blogspot.com</a>.</p></div>collectededitionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14698269790653953645noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10945794.post-87110175628219624962024-01-17T21:18:00.002-06:002024-01-17T21:22:55.684-06:00Review: Batman: One Bad Day: Two-Face hardcover (DC Comics)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779519923/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1973" data-original-width="1280" height="320" itemprop="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFQlWmJHydfXeSGy0KIOUAVJykAhvMYTsGUXwolOjokIeNv4__drUIjnPzr7vqsTCULy86d2K6WZbh5rOmm2P0Rskl4VD7gG-FO4lQR3gtSSYLZ1TfMd7DR5d5B-UnX9ndMyRxxEbLRG3oMy1VZouVqtbFDWpimu8N1GLM2QZAVVdm1YFHcz85/s1600/batman-one-bad-day-two-face-dccomics-tamaki-fernandez-bellaire.jpg" /></a></div><p>After the triumphant <em>Batman: One Bad Day: The Riddler</em>, the second volume, Mariko Tamaki and Javier Fernandez’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779519923/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Batman: One Bad Day: Two-Face</a>, is shockingly poor, the unfortunate answer to whether all of these books will be able to go toe-to-toe with <em>The Killing Joke</em>. The editors on each book are the same, suggesting how much — perhaps too much — is left to the creative team.</p>
<p>I’ll venture a definitive Two-Face story is harder than a definitive Riddler story. It’s subjective, but I can’t really name a go-to Riddler tale (I’m sure you can), whereas for Two-Face I can think of two — <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/10/review-batman-long-halloween-special-1.html">Long Halloween</a>, of course, but also Andrew Helfer and Chris Sprouse’s <em>Batman</em> Annual #14 (a classic worth checking out in <em>Two-Face: A Celebration of 75 Years</em> and which seemingly influenced Christopher Nolan’s <em>Dark Knight</em>). Two-Face’s “one bad day” is already well established, for better or worse.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>Tamaki’s story makes the mistake of trying to go against this grain, recasting this lore (or ignorant of it entirely) in ways far less dramatic. Further, while I like some of the modernity Tamaki injects in the story, sometimes it’s not clear whose or what story’s being told, nor whether writer and artist are quite on the same page. It all forms a disappointing coda to Tamaki’s stellar <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/04/review-batman-detective-comics-vol-1-neighborhood.html">Detective Comics</a> run, and more’s the pity.</p>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers]</strong></p>
<p>On the plus side, I liked a lot the supporting cast of Gotham City machine that Tamaki created in <em>Detective Comics</em>, and some of them feature here — Mayor Nakano, mainly, and also Deb Donovan gets a mention. I haven’t read Ram V’s <em>Detective</em> yet, but I’m guessing we’re done with all of those, so <em>One Bad Day: Two-Face</em> is a nice reprise. I wouldn’t have minded actually seeing Harvey Dent as Nakano’s DA in <em>Detective</em>.</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>Too, for stories that seem to have as their purpose being singular and evergreen, the fan in me admires that Tamaki puts the current Batgirls front and center, specifically Spoiler Stephanie Brown. It’s not a wise choice, and Tamaki doesn’t use Stephanie well, but I appreciate that given a role for a generic sounding board character, Tamaki went with Stephanie instead of old faithfuls like Dick Grayson or Tim Drake. Kudos too to mentions of <em>No Man’s Land</em> and <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2005/07/gotham-central-half-life-review.html">Gotham Central</a>, though all of that in a book like this that ought be timeless is indeed as weird as when <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-batman-one-bad-day-riddler.html">Batman: One Bad Day: Riddler</a> name-checks Damian.</p>
<p>Among the horror of <em>Batman</em> Annual #14 is that Harvey’s father used to beat him, using a trick coin to give young Harvey false hope of avoiding the abuse. <em>One Bad Day</em> also starts out talking about fathers and sons and good and evil, but here Harvey Dent Sr. is a non-abusive, nondescript businessman whom Two-Face kills just because — sadly but not inexplicably — the father isn’t too thrilled with his adult son’s weird appearance.</p>
<p>Not that Tamaki must hew to the continuity of a decades old story, but the proceedings here are dull when we’ve seen the same done better before. The idea that Two-Face has had a socialite father in the wings for all this time is really hard to reconcile, nor does Tamaki go to any great pains to fill in what Harvey Sr. does for a living or why he’s so lauded.</p>
<p>Dear reader, Two-Face’s scarred coin factors almost not at all, until the book remembers it on the very last page. That might tell you all you need to know about this as a Two-Face story.</p>
<p>Again, I thrilled to see Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain here, characters without much exposure to Two-Face so far. But Tamaki’s parallel of Batman and Harvey’s relationship with Stephanie and her Cluemaster father doesn’t quite work, given Cluemaster was never a good guy and Dent was. Batman and Spoiler’s sniping conversation, too, is full of strange fits and starts.</p>
<p>Indeed, there’s an odd break where Spoiler must move Batman from one location to another between pages in order to continue the same conversation that rather seems like the writing paving over an art mistake. There’s a couple of these — Batman on comms while someone’s attacking him, cutlery flying when no one’s throwing it — that made me wonder even if this book was created in “the Marvel way,” with Tamaki filling in words after Fernandez drew the art from outlines. That can be done, but then it’s incumbent on editorial to catch where things don’t add up. In the book’s introduction, Two-Face is dangling a kid off a building. Why? We never know.</p>
<p>To read <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-batman-one-bad-day-riddler.html">Batman: One Bad Day: Riddler</a> was to come away feeling like having read a definitive Riddler story. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779519923/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Batman: One Bad Day: Two-Face</a>, particularly in bringing in other members of the Bat-family as sounding boards, never so much feels like Two-Face’s book as it does just Batman’s. <em>One Bad Day: Two-Face</em> starts in a hard position, but unfortunately it never finds its way out of it.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers, black and white art section]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>1.5</span></div>
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<p>These kick off with <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779518390/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Batman: One Bad Day: The Riddler</a> (released first as a special and then re-released in hardcover), by Tom King and Mitch Gerads. That’s perhaps the strongest team of the bunch; if they can’t do it, what chance have the rest?</p>
<p>It’s a success. It’s near perfect. Whether <em>Batman: One Bad Day: The Riddler</em> sticks in terms of the Riddler character, I can’t say, but to the risky, mercenary goal of having something to co-sell with <em>Killing Joke</em>, DC’s off to the races.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers]</strong></p>
<p>When does the answer come first? When you already know the question. And thus King succeeds in a Riddler story that seems to eschew the traditional Riddler trappings, until we come to understand at the end that things are not specifically, or at least logically, linear. But even before that, seven pages in, King has already raised the specter of <em>Killing Joke</em>, already suggested a conspiracy that adds another layer to that other story. In terms of <em>One Bad Day</em>’s perceived goals, King’s hit the mark before he’s even underway.</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>I am guessing that not every <em>One Bad Day</em> story will be like this, that they won’t in eight different ways reference <em>Killing Joke</em> — I’m even skeptical of my own inference that King’s aim is to intentionally tie <em>One Bad Day: The Riddler</em> to <em>Killing Joke</em> here. And yet, in the end, there’s the “did he or didn’t he” question of whether Batman kills the Riddler, a la <em>Killing Joke</em> (that’s not a revelation any more, is it?) — are we possibly in for seven more volumes where Batman maybe (or maybe not) kills his foes? Could that have been the editorial edict?</p>
<p>It strikes me that this is a different Batman than King got to write in his long <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2017/01/review-batman-vol-1-i-am-gotham-rebirth.html">Batman</a>. That Batman was mostly superheroic, concerned with legacy and love, doing things differently and better. King’s <em>One Bad Day</em> Batman, on the other hand, is straight out of the late 1980s, torturing one henchman even after he agrees to confess, threatening another suspect with “lingering pain.” I had thought the <em>One Bad Day</em> series was DC Black Label and I’m surprised to find no such branding on the book, especially given the above and the gory “fingers” scene rendered all too well by Gerads.</p>
<p>I’m doubtful (not that it takes anything away from this book) that we’ll see this “son of a headmaster” version of the Riddler again. But there are aspects that King and Gerads bring to the character that I think are astute, not in the least casting a young John Malkovich in the role.</p>
<p>For one, the Riddler is traditionally a cerebral villain, not one likely to win in fisticuffs with the Dark Knight. Leaving morality aside, tabling for a moment who and how many the Riddler has killed, the Riddler’s specific demand is that Batman never hit him, never touch him again. The instinct is to go immediately to “the Riddler deserves it,” but then we have to wonder, is that a reason? There’s an assertion here of bodily autonomy — particularly in the context of ultra-physical capes and cowls superhero comics — that I find novel and compelling, that the Riddler, beaten by his father, should say to Batman that irrespective of whatever the Riddler does, that doesn’t give Batman the right to touch him.</p>
<p>Second, I at least have always understood the Riddler’s riddles as his hubris, that he sends riddles as a way of demonstrating how much smarter he is than Batman, that Batman can’t figure out the Riddler’s crimes even with clues — except, of course, that he always can. This, too, King turns on his head, making the riddles not about Batman but about the Riddler himself — that the Riddler is so smart, he hinders himself with the riddles, lest getting away with crimes would be too easy. This Riddler three steps ahead is also compelling, a figure feared in the end like John Byrne’s Lex Luthor or the Kingpin, and this too would be an interesting premise for <em>One Bad Day</em> across the board — how much more deadly would Batman’s foes be if they gave up the shtick for a day and went at him like the evil geniuses they are?</p>
<p>Cynically, I didn’t know if I’d like <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779518390/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Batman: One Bad Day: The Riddler</a> very much (though, y’know, it’s Tom King and Mitch Gerads, so I was probably safe). I’d still as soon these hardcovers have contained something else, a <em>Batman: Black and White</em> story or something just beside the special in hardcover form — but this is a good one. I’d recommend it. You know all of these are going to end up in an omnibus together in the near future; I hope the others can hold up.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers, black and white art pages]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>4.0</span></div>
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}}</script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p>---</p><p>This post was syndicated from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">Collected Editions</a>, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">collectededitions.blogspot.com</a>.</p></div>collectededitionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14698269790653953645noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10945794.post-59492873102914309492024-01-10T22:02:00.002-06:002024-01-10T22:03:04.610-06:00Review: Batman Vol. 1: Failsafe hardcover/paperback (DC Comics)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779519931/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1973" data-original-width="1280" height="320" itemprop="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk2yJkDEYT3QsoQ0_a63491lx06DPbAURpXnhckOlGokkmtz_lsukBpFpo1ZPhEerv8inh0Z9Tm6EMKfD2WwllM0RtUjnGm-cl5bqouVZ-9cmgVgwHlAlYcNnOOTOu7hyRpZ5VWcslwjCzQ_E9aIXpkg6oJaVTU-13x-0wHuXWyjP8TUgthWrO/s1600/batman-volume1-failsafe-dccomics-zdarsky-jimenez-morey.jpg" /></a></div><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779519931/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Batman Vol. 1: Failsafe</a> is a pulse-pounding summer action flick, I’ll give writer Chip Zdarsky that. Taken with a bucket of popcorn, this book is just fine; Zdarsky tugs some particular strings to win over long-time fans, and taken in tandem with his <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/12/review-batman-knight-hardcoverpaperback.html">Batman: The Knight</a>, we see a specific and interesting conception of Batman emerging.</p>
<p>As the beginning of Zdarsky’s Batman run, however, <em>Failsafe</em> is also markedly strange, uncomfortably too large and too small in waves, and also built as <em>Knight</em> was mostly on the backs of others' stories. Though artist Jorge Jimenez is making a name as the defining Batman artist of the <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/04/review-infinite-frontier.html">Infinite Frontier</a> era, his presence here on a book not so tonally different from <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2021/03/review-batman-vol-2-joker-war.html">Batman: Joker War</a> or <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/11/review-batman-vol-5-fear-state.html">Batman: Fear State</a>, not to mention <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2020/10/review-justice-league-vol-5-justicedoom-war.html">Justice League</a>, makes <em>Failsafe</em> feel all too familiar. In his first time out, Zdarsky swings for the fences and makes it, but I’m concerned what he has for the fans whom this isn’t their first ballgame.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers]</strong></p>
<p>The winningest thing about <em>Batman: Failsafe</em> is that Zdarsky brings in Tim Drake as Batman’s Robin, evoking on the page that perfect “third time’s the charm” partnership. Zdarsky has to write his way into it — the “open to new possibilities” Batman at the end of James Tynion’s <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/11/review-batman-vol-5-fear-state.html">Batman: Fear State</a> has devolved to “I can never be happy” Batman at Zdarsky’s start, and he and Tim bicker pettily at the beginning before “Failsafe” gets underway and needs make friends. But the Tim who’s got Batman’s back in the Arctic at the end of the world, responsible for saving Superman, is exactly who we all expected Tim to be some 30 years ago, and I’m glad Tim is the Robin for this story even if DC’s general winds still blow toward Damian.</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>It is indeed the end of the world, and if it’s your first end of the world, it’s a doozy — robotic intelligence Failsafe, designed by Batman to defeat Batman, has gone rogue, and it’s enslaved Gotham and trounced the Justice League in an effort to take out the Dark Knight. That’s all highly, wonderfully dramatic, and with a clensed palate I might even enjoy giving <em>Failsafe</em> a second read. But no sooner of late was <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2020/05/review-batman-vol-12-city-of-bane-part-1.html">Gotham enslaved by Bane</a> then the Joker took over, and right after that by the Magistrate and the Scarecrow; for the serial reader, my reaction to Batman awakening to find Gotham under siege was not “Oh, no” but “Not again!”</p>
<p>In this way, really much like <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/12/review-batman-knight-hardcoverpaperback.html">The Knight</a>, Zdarsky’s moving fascinatingly between the curious and the mundane. It’s a good big action Batman epic, but of the kind we’ve seen before and with the same artist. At the same time, Zdarsky starts here instead of building up to it, so maybe that portends an interesting complication to come. <em>Failsafe</em> is built on the back of Grant Morrison’s <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2009/05/review-batman-rip-deluxe-hardcovertrade.html">Batman RIP</a> when <em>Knight</em> too re-told other stories almost to a fault. But then again, notably, there’s no real villain here, just Batman cleaning up the outsized consequences of an almost laughable mistake. It feels as though, with the next step, Zdarsky’s Batman is on the cusp of being either mostly dismissable or utterly ground-breaking.</p>
<p>See in the same way the final chapter, a magnificent seven-page sequence in which Batman literally falls from the moon to Earth and survives. It’s riveting, a fantastic piece of action and sci-fi, worthy of a <em>Mission Impossible</em> movie. But the punchline of Batman dryly brushing off his ordeal belittles the setup; ultimately those seven pages of action affect the story no more than if Batman had caught a Zeta beam down. To be sure, Zdarsky’s brought the excitement, but I haven’t seen enough yet to know if there’s anything to distinguish this underneath that excitement.</p>
<p><a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/12/review-batman-knight-hardcoverpaperback.html">Batman: The Knight</a> turned very much on the idea of Bruce Wayne training himself to be “the best,” an endeavor in which he succeeds so well that he ultimately narrows his sights to Gotham lest his best-ness corrupt him. <em>Failsafe</em> is to an extent the aftermath — faced with his best-ness, Batman creates a failsafe to stop himself if he were corrupted, which then runs amok and requires Batman to intercede.</p>
<p>There’s an interesting thought experiment made fictionally concrete here — what is “the best,” and can anything be better than the best and if it is, is the best still the best and so on. I’m unsure that can resolve into anything reasonable, but there at least I feel Zdarsky working with threads of the Batman character that we haven’t seen explored so much. And yet, that’s undercut by some aspects that seem avoidably silly: that Failsafe should be so sophisticated but unable to grasp the nuances of Batman’s “murder” of Penguin, and that same sophisticated machinery should be reliant on Alfred routinely pushing a button, <em>Lost</em>-esque, to keep from coming alive and taking over the world.</p>
<p>I appreciate that DC includes Zdarsky’s <em>Batman</em> backup stories here, one delving into Batman’s Zur-En-Arrh experiences that factor into “Failsafe” and one being Catwoman seeking out heirs to Penguin’s will. We’re in a weird Bat-period though, for all the reasons I’ve mentioned, and also because — following from Tynion’s era of interconnected Bat-family titles — now we’ve got Tini Howard writing <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/10/review-catwoman-vol-2-cat-international.html">Catwoman</a> connected to both <em>Batman</em> and <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/10/review-punchline-gotham-game.html">Punchline: The Gotham Game</a> <em>and</em> we’ve got Zdarsky writing Catwoman <em>within</em> the <em>Batman</em> title that seems like it’ll be equally relevant to that character. I’m curious to see how it can be reconciled, if at all.</p>
<p>With <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779519931/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Batman Vol. 1: Failsafe</a>, it's a good time to be a new Batman reader. For the rest of us, we’ll have to wait and see.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>2.25</span></div>
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<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779519885/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Superman: Action Comics Vol. 3: Warworld Revolution</a> and the books that preceded it are certainly good Superman, absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, and I still look forward to Johnson’s run on a more Metropolis-based Superman. But I can’t say that I thought “Warworld Saga” showed me a lot about Superman that I didn’t already know, and particularly Johnson doesn’t seem to be able to do much with Superman’s supporting cast in this series (whether or not Johnson chose them or they came by editorial fiat).</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>None of the volumes have lived up to the exemplar <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/08/review-superman-action-comics-vol-1-warworld-rising.html">Superman: Action Comics Vol. 1: Warworld Rising</a>, but again I’m hopeful maybe being earthbound again will do the trick.</p>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers]</strong></p>
<p>Though this is very much trees for the forest, I’d be remiss at the top if I didn’t recognize that in the otherwise-unnecessary “World Without Clark Kent” backup story that DC includes here, Johnson brings back Kenny Braverman — Conduit! Last seen in 1995’s “The Death of Clark Kent,” Braverman was a snarling, melodramatic villain of his time, but he’s become something of a cult classic for me given that no writer has picked him up again in almost 30 years (and even despite that he got an action figure!). Johnson’s portrayal does nothing really to redeem Conduit — whether the “kewl” slang Johnson gives Conduit is a nod to his original portrayals or Johnson’s own bad judgment, I’m not sure — but having the villain in play again was a great surprise. There’s nowhere to go but up.</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>As I mentioned in my review of <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/12/review-superman-action-comics-vol-2-arena.html">Superman: Action Comics Vol. 2: The Arena</a>, Johnson doesn’t do much to complicate the “Superman goes to disaffected civilization and teaches them about hope” trope — indeed Superman arrives on Warworld, indeed they’re unmoved, but the more Superman talks, the more they fall in line. At least part of what feels missing is that, for all the Warzoons call Superman “the Unbloodied Sword,” Johnson skips over how Superman manages to be peaceful and set an example for the Warzoons on a planet trying to kill him (are we meant to have looked to some of the <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/03/review-future-state-superman-trade.html">Future State</a> books for this? I vaguely remember).</p>
<p>In this volume too, after Mongul’s deposed, the Warzoons will apparently just govern themselves peacefully after centuries of warfare. Johnson doesn’t have the pages for all the political ramifications (and who knows, maybe that’s waiting for me one issue hence in <em>Superman: Kal-El Returns</em>), but I was surprised we didn’t get at least a hint of what happens next. As I’ve felt through much of this, Johnson focuses more on the broad strokes than the fine details, when what we need is a balance between.</p>
<p>Take, for instance, that among key conflicts is the early death of Lightray Lia Nelson (Tangent Earth doppleganger, thanks Grant Morrison) and how that turns OMAC to Mongul’s side in hopes of bringing her back. I recall we got something of an origin for the new Lightray in Morrison’s <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2022/08/review-superman-and-authority.html">Superman and the Authority</a>, but I’m stymied who this OMAC is. One of Mongul’s minions suggests there’s some significance to OMAC’s identity, and I’ll likely go see if there’s any hints in <em>Authority</em> after I finish this writing, but given that <em>Authority</em> isn’t included in the <em>Superman: The Warworld Saga</em> collection, it hardly seems fair that it should be this book’s required reading. As such — Johnson means for us to feel deeply for Lightray and OMAC, we’re meant to be engaged in OMAC’s transition from good to bad and back again, but the characters are complete ciphers to us the whole way through.</p>
<p>Central to the “Warworld Saga” is the chestnut that Superman does not kill; it is verily the point of the “Unbloodied Sword” battle cry. But though Superman doesn’t kill, his allies very much do, including Midnighter, who even in the end of this book kills a foe while quipping, “I’m not actually Superman.”</p>
<p>There’s some interesting complication here, from the fact that Superman brought allies with him whom he must have known would kill when his back was turned to the example set to the Warzoons when Superman doesn’t kill but then all the other Earth heroes do. I had hoped that Johnson might make something of this by the end, a confrontation between Superman and Midnighter or something, but he does not. Again, the pieces are all here, but they never come together into something more than the most surface-level Superman adventure, if still expansive and exciting.</p>
<p>I appreciate that seemingly DC includes a lot of “extras” among the “Warworld” books, including here the <em>Action Comics Annual 2022</em>. It’s another where Johnson does well, and with a powerhouse art team of Dale Eaglesham on the Mongul parts and Ian Churchill on the young Clark Kent parts. All on its own, Ma Kent’s struggle with cancer in Clark’s childhood is gripping enough, though again I think Johnson lets the needs of the plot outweigh sense, as when Martha apparently gets her chemo treatments in the middle of the night. Also good was the “Myth of Mongul” short with art by Will Conrad, proposing an origin for Mongul with appealing similarities to other mythologies of the DCU.</p>
<p>All told, despite my criticisms, I’m a fan of Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s Superman. I’d like to see more like the first volume with Superman getting in between the U.S. military and Atlantis than this, but equally at the end of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779519885/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Superman: Action Comics Vol. 3: Warworld Revolution</a>, Johnson suggests some political trouble among the United Planets, and I’d be all for that, too. A fine jaunt, probably a good series as someone’s first or casual Superman reading; let’s see how things look after <em>Dark Crisis</em>.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>2.25</span></div>
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<p>At the end of this volume, things are just about perfect for the grown-up Boy Wonder. I’m interested to see how, or if, Taylor can complicate that going into the book’s second act.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p><strong>[Review contains spoilers]</strong></p>
<p>In Nightwing’s original conflict with Blockbuster, under the pen of Chuck Dixon and then Devin Grayson, it took 93 issues before Blockbuster learned Nightwing’s secret identity, beat him severely, threatened to kill everyone Nightwing knew, and then Nightwing stepped aside while the vigilante Tarantula killed Blockbuster. It’s striking to realize we’re about 93 issues in again, though the similarities couldn’t be more different, so to speak — here, Blockbuster learns Nightwing’s secret identity and threatens to kill everyone he knows, but Nightwing defeats the gargantuan Blockbuster easily in hand-to-hand combat and readies to turn him over to the police. (Blockbuster escapes and, unbeknownst to Nightwing, is killed by rival villain Heartless.)</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>I’m taken in particular by the similarity between Blockbuster’s threat against Nightwing’s family in Devin Grayson’s controversial issue and the threat in Taylor’s. Is Taylor’s an intentional attempt to retell Grayson’s story with a different outcome? Does Grayson’s story need to be retold without various problematic aspects, or would Taylor be better served with a wholly new villain and scenario? Granted Superman fights Lex Luthor on the regular and the same with Batman and the Joker, but Nightwing versus Blockbuster again for the first time (like <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2023/11/review-catwoman-vol-8-run-like-hell.html">Catwoman versus Black Mask</a>) begins to feel like the only Nightwing story writers can tell.</p>
<p>Notably here, again, Nightwing about kicks Blockbuster’s rear without breaking a sweat. Between Dick Grayson becoming an overnight billionaire, dating Batgirl Barbara Gordon, all assassination attempts against him failing, beating both KGBeast and vaunted killer La Agente Funebre, and now being physically able to handle Blockbuster, I wonder if Taylor’s conception of Nightwing isn’t overinflated. Nightwing is a character assuredly coming off a string of bad luck, and neither did I want him to undergo the tragedy of losing new half-sister Melinda Zucco when it seemed like Taylor was going there, but four volumes in and it still doesn’t seem like Taylor is doing much to tax the character.</p>
<p>Maybe that’ll change next time around when I expect Nightwing must finally turn to the threat behind the threat, Heartless. That’s also the promise of Nightwing versus an original villain, though there’s enough indication that Nightwing has tangled with Heartless before that I’m also wondering which of Nightwing’s old foes Heartless might be. Heartless has got a butler, a raft of electronic ports on his arm (USB-A, it seems, for data, though I’m curious what the HDMI does), he’s as strong as Blockbuster, and needs stolen hearts to survive — is this Raptor upgraded, perhaps? A Court of Owls Talon of one sort or another? I’m eager for Taylor’s mystery to be actually solveable, but I’d also be sorry to see him reusing another established Nightwing foe.</p>
<p>I am always glad to see Maggie Sawyer (and Dan Turpin! I think it’s been since <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2009/08/review-final-crisis-collected.html">Final Crisis</a>), but following the trend, Sawyer is <em>always</em> who shows up when the Bat-family police forces need a revamp. Though, again, I adore Sawyer and I especially like that Taylor brings current all her recent continuity right away — engagement to Batwoman Kate Kane and etc. — this too seems like quite the boon for Nightwing; we know Sawyer and Turpin aren’t going to be selling secrets to villains and the like. At this point the real tension in this run for me page after page is seeing whether Taylor will trouble Nightwing at all or if things will just continue to go Nightwing’s way.</p>
<p>That includes Dick and Barbara’s relationship. Despite this book’s lack of angst (which wouldn’t bother me except when taken to this extreme), Taylor’s Nightwing is perfectly in character, has great crimefighting toys, and the dialogue is bunches of fun, as in the awkward moments after Dick accidentally lets an “I love you” slip out.</p>
<p>But Taylor having Barbara call them Dick and Babs “forever” — with a very serious-looking panel of Bab’s eyes as drawn by Bruno Redondo — is a gauntlet thrown; under another writer, that would be a signal of the calm before the storm, but I’m inclined to think Taylor actually means it! That’s just tempting fate that the main Bat-book or some other DC crossover is going to need Barbara shunted to another dimension or something, something where this can’t possibly last. But under “no tears Taylor,” the most unlikely thing of all — a happy ending — might actually be what we get.</p>
<p>Redondo has done great work on this title consistently, but I was particularly impressed with a Robin flashback in the beginning where his art took on Jim Aparo vibes. Credit too to backup artist Geraldo Borges, whose outsized Blockbuster fills up the page to emphasize how gigantic he is.</p>
<p>With <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1779520166/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=collectededitions-20">Nightwing Vol. 3: The Battle for Bludhaven’s Heart</a> on the books, we’re getting awfully close to my reading <em>Dark Crisis</em>, and then I should be reading the fourth <em>Nightwing</em> volume, which takes place around <em>Dark Crisis</em>, shortly thereafter. Will Nightwing be at all perturbed by anything that happens around him? Tune in next time to find out.</p>
<p><strong>[Includes original and variant covers, character sketches]</strong></p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>2.5</span></div>
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}}</script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p>---</p><p>This post was syndicated from <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">Collected Editions</a>, the chronicles of a "wait-for-trade-er" -- the new breed of comic book fans who forgo monthly "floppies" for trade paperbacks and collected editions -- reviews, commentaries, low price alerts, news, and the occasional scoop. Visit <a href="http://collectededitions.blogspot.com">collectededitions.blogspot.com</a>.</p></div>collectededitionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14698269790653953645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10945794.post-38750764353457159442023-12-31T22:15:00.002-06:002023-12-31T22:16:06.853-06:00Review: Batman #428: Robin Lives! (DC Comics)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPSYlnmYdKMCyNuj7ka931LrmwqbiaY2wrAFmyW1oNfad5P4v1IZ8QSR0WhLIZaH8YrQFEJV7vKJhxKg4EHfvHYkkaLciFBjgMr6jBXrQI7CgPPb-1NpM-el_NK_FX7Ipk1GOtiAvnmBqnI8eGykSb8TykNrfIDx_JJMk7qucgLKZ3OVar9G9R/s1600/batman-428-robin-lives-dccomics-starlin-aparo-decarlo.jpg" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1973" data-original-width="1280" height="320" itemprop="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPSYlnmYdKMCyNuj7ka931LrmwqbiaY2wrAFmyW1oNfad5P4v1IZ8QSR0WhLIZaH8YrQFEJV7vKJhxKg4EHfvHYkkaLciFBjgMr6jBXrQI7CgPPb-1NpM-el_NK_FX7Ipk1GOtiAvnmBqnI8eGykSb8TykNrfIDx_JJMk7qucgLKZ3OVar9G9R/s1600/batman-428-robin-lives-dccomics-starlin-aparo-decarlo.jpg" /></a></div><p>What a weird — wonderful, but weird — release is the <em>Batman #428: Robin Lives</em> comic. It’s not even clear to me “why now” in terms of DC releasing this volume — Jason Todd is a little bit in the forefront though not as much as he has been at other times (though I sense the general-er public is more familiar with Jason’s Red Hood persona via video game appearances than they might be with even some of the better known Robins). At the same time, I’ve worn out at least one or two <em>Batman: Death in the Family</em> collections over the years, and DC got me to go plunk down $5.00 for this ($8.00 or more for a foil edition!), so I guess there’s some year-end profit to be had. (The thing’s even getting a second printing!)</p>
<p>My big concern was that the only difference here would be the single “He’s alive” page previously reprinted in <em>Batman</em> Annual #25 (and then <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/2007/05/review-batman-under-hood-vol-2-trade_21.html">Batman: Under the Hood Vol. 2</a>). That annual was a draw for much the same reason as this, the chance to see what art wasn’t used in the will they/won’t they of the original “Death in the Family.” But though the page was obviously the work of classic Batman artist Jim Aparo, the modern colorization was a mistake, and that single page has looked over-done to me ever since.</p>
<a name='more'></a>
<p>Pleasantly, <em>Robin Lives</em> re-recolors that page. I’ve been staring at it long enough that I still don’t think it’s seamless, but at least there’s less discernible digital effects involved. And it is not indeed just that page that’s different, but also half of a page later on (<a href="https://lostmediawiki.com/Batman:_A_Death_in_the_Family_(partially_lost_unfinished_%22Jason_Todd_lives%22_version_of_comic;_1988)">previously rumored</a>, apparently). That’s not much, though a new, brief cameo by Dick Grayson in this story is interesting.</p>
<p>Fascinatingly, the one issue with two outcomes is accomplished mostly through revised lettering over the same art. There’s worthwhile study here for anyone interested in the business of making comics — see how Bruce can be angry simply over the Joker attacking Jason or the Joker killing Jason, and a subsequent page need only differ by the context of the page before? That a funeral can easily be for Jason and his mother or just for his mother, by dint of lifting a piece of art and a narration box?</p>
<agent-build><p><b>[See the latest <a href="https://collectededitions.blogspot.com/p/dc-comics-trade-solicitations.html">DC trade solicitations</a>.]</b></p></agent-build>
<p>I frankly wish DC had leaned a little less into the “exact replica” nature of this comic and had offered a little more behind the scenes of making it. Back in 1988, before all the newfangled digital, “Death in the Family” was definitely drawn on boards, scanned, and then manipulated not unlike puzzle pieces. At the time, someone would have literally laid down or picked up the relevant narration box scrap of paper, though I doubt that’s how it went down this time.</p>
<p>Indeed I wouldn’t mind an edition without the replica ads in it; it’s the way it was, but the licensed medallions and “Invasion First Strike!” piece really interrupt the flow when Batman finds Jason’s body (though, wow, dig the advertisement for a little new DC series called <em>Sandman</em>!). DC is sure a couple of times to note the ads are for replica purposes only, though I’m surprised they didn’t try to get General Mills to do a new-retro Trix ad — and I am certain someone out there has newly tried that Superman ActionLine number. That is, this is such a replica, and the updates to the letters page are so minor, I wouldn’t have minded if DC had a little more fun with the “what never was” here.</p>
<p>Could “From the DC Vault” have more installments? “Death in the Family” benefits from not just being the way the road diverged but also that the other possibility was (somewhat) drawn. Sure, you could have “Death of Superman” where Superman lived, but that would just be Dan Jurgens creating afresh, not recreating something previously done. Only thing I can think of, of course, is the original <em>Armageddon 2001</em> ending with Captain Atom instead of Hawk, but maybe I and some of you are the only ones who want to see that? (Is there some different version of “Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight” where something else happens to Hal? That comes to mind now.)</p>
<div class="rating"><span>Rating</span> <span>2.25</span></div>
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