Hey, kids! Comics! Or, at least, graphic novels of lated added to the collection.
Not even bothering trying to keep it down to the 40-word review.
Review code format: [writing (3-1, faboo to mediocre) / art (3-1) / suitability for jumping on as a new reader (3-1) (* for intro info) / suitability for hooking a non-comics reader (3-1)]
Marvel 1602 (Marvel) w. Neil Gaiman; a. Andy Kubert, Richard Isanove [2/3/3/2]
Sell-out, or spiffy 8-issue What If? from Gaiman? Various Marvel key players are incarnated at the end of the Elizabethan age, and they’re faced with the end of the world as they know it. It’s enjoyable reading, and great fun spotting the players and seeing how they fit in, but not terribly profound writing from Gaiman. Gorgeous illos by Kubert, painting by Isanove.
Teen Titans: Family Lost (DC) w. Geoff Johns; p. McKone, Reis, Grummett [2/2/2*/1] (reprints #8-12, #½)
The Titans take on a new-and-nastier Brother Blood, even while Deathstroke and his recovered daughter, the Ravager, hunt him, too. And then there’s Raven, now Blood’s prisoner, and the newer Titans aren’t sure why the older ones are gung-ho to rescue her. What is family? What is a team? How do they overlap? Good questions, those. Also, the funniest Batmobile scene ever.
BPRD: The Soul of Venice & Other Stories (Dark Horse) w/a. Diverse Hands [2/1/1/2]
Collects 4 one-shots and a new Mignola-written story. The stories are fairly entertaining, but not very cohesive, and the art ranges from mediocre to worse. Only for the completist.
Batman in the Eighties (DC) w/a. Diverse Hands [2/2/3*/1]
Great overview intro essay on how the 80s transitioned from the 60s-influenced cluttered Bat-cast to a leaner, meaner Bat-world under Denny O’Neill’s editorship. By the end of the decade, we had Dark Knight Returns, Year One, The Killing Joke, and the death of Jason Todd. The stories collected here, though, don’t do justice to that complexity — it would take a volume several time this 192pp.
X-Men: Days of Future Past (Marvel) w. Chris Claremont, a. John Byrne [3/3/2/1] (reprints #138-142, Ann. #4)
While parts of this collection have been reprinted before, the whole here has everything after the death of Phoenix, from the Wendigo to Kitty-vs-the-AlienNgarai, the end of Byrne’s art on the series. Claremont’s just past the top of his form, beginning to get too self-referential and complex, but Byrne’s pencils (under Austin’s inks) are superb. And while it’s been referenced-back to death, the titular storyline was stunning and groundbreaking at the time (around ’81 or so — and shame on Marvel for no intro or supporter material here), even as it laid the groundwork for further over-complication of the X-universe.
Hellblazer: Setting Sun (Vertigo) w. Warren Ellis, a. D. Hands [2/2-3/2/2] (reprints #140-143)
The last four issues of Ellis, all stand-alone, all typically mind-warping creepy, including John having a long, uncensored chat with an investigative journalist about what really goes on in London, and a Bradstreet-illustrated tale of a truly nasty artifact with an even nastier secret. Not for the faint of heart, but vintage, excellent Constantine.
Wolverine: Return of the Native (Marvel) w. Greg Rucka, a. Darick Robertson [2/2/2/2] (reprints #12-19)
The last arc of Rucka’s run, which focused on Logan, the man struggling not to be an animal. This one is more
“super-heroic” than the others, involving both his origin and two of his cohort — the homicidal Sabretooth, and a previously unhinted-at woman from the Weapon X labs, the Native. Logan has to track down Native and keep her safe from both Sabretooth (very nice interplay there) and the Evil Government Scientists who want her for their own typically nefarious purposes. Still, good drama, even if it all wraps up too neatly by the end, and, with Rucka’s departure, will likely never be referenced again …
Starman: Grand Guignol (DC) w. James Robinson, a. Peter Snejbjerg [3/2/2/2] (reprints #62-73)
This is the aptly-titled climax of the series, as the elaborate plans of the Shade (or are they?) come to fruition, and everyone gets into the act fighting for or against him. Folks die on both sides, and the action hurtles forward even with repeated and frequent digression issues on one or another cast member’s past, or the past of the Opal itself. This is epic comic writing in a class of its own, with more backstory and foreshadowing than you can shake a cosmic rod at. Though it’s way late in coming, I applaud DC for (3-4 years later) reprinting it. One more volume, and we should be set (and ready to reread the whole thing again).
After seeing many references to it I finally picked up The Killing Joke. Big disappointment. Basically Moore pounds home the idiocy of the notion that Batman never kills (not even, impossibly, by accident), or of any open ended franchise’s inability to kill off a prime villain, no matter what. This was not news.
Was TKJ the seed for DC’s trend of killing off second string female characters for the shock value?
It’s certainly one of the titles identified as being a part of (and perhaps one of the earliest parts of) DC’s “Girlfriend in the Refrigerator” syndrome.
That said, I think Babs Gordon’s present role (as Oracle) has turned out stronger and more interesting than another Bat-wannabe ever was.
I did sort of like, I admit, TKJ. It’s lost some of its shock value over the years, true. (Y’should’ve asked to borrow my copy …)
Oracle is a stronger role than Batgirl but would she be still be wheelchair bound when she’s part of an organization with access to Martian, Oan, Apokaliptian/New Genesisite, etc., etc., etc tech as well as passing opportunities like Kyle’s temporary Uberpower & Mr. Fixit phase? The combination of that and Girlfriend in the Fridge thing makes me wince every time Oracle pops up.
She doesn’t have to be in a wheelchair to be Oracle.
I agree. Though they’ve addressed that issue by having offers made to uncripple her, which she’s turned down (for reasons that were never really convincing to me).