Superman: Birthright, Superman Annual, Superman Confidential

Superman: Birthright 1-12

The third Superman origin in a row.  This time, it’s Mark Waid and and Leinil F Yu’s version of the story.  Coming after my reading of Superman: Secret Origin yesterday, Birthright doesn’t come close to matching the joy and energy of Johns and Frank’s rendition.  

There’s a meh “Clark doing journalism in Africa” arc in the first two issues (with the obligatory Action Comics 1 homage), followed by the helicopter tribute in issue four.

Donner's Superman still making an impact.

The “you just missed him” callback to Byrne’s Man of Steel  comes in issue nine.

Forever chasing.

I’m less a fan of this Lex Luthor.  This Luthor resorts to framing Superman, turning public sentiment against him.  In a way, “mean” offends me far more than “evil,” if that distinction makes sense.  

It’s really weird seeing Superman shoot gun.  It’s also one of the few times I’ve seen him use scare tactics.  I’m not a fan.

Feels out of character.

Yu’s art is good throughout, but it’s never going to be “happy.”  Coupled with Lex’s faked Kryptonian invasion, this series simply isn’t as fun as Secret Origin.  

Looks good though, no doubt about it.

There is a nice moment at the very end, where Superman is able to briefly communicate with his parents courtesy of Luthor’s wormhole through time.  It gives bittersweet closure to his parents’ only question before their deaths - “Did we save our son?”

From the first issue.

From the last.

All they could have hoped for.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Fine

Superman Annual 11

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s classic “For the Man Who Has Everything” - Mongul takes Superman out of the equation by hypnotizing him with visions of his heart’s desire.  I’m not sure if this is the first time this concept’s been done, but reading it thirty-four years later, it’s certainly been used many times since, and to better effect.

My main problem is that Superman’s perfect world isn’t all that perfect.  He’s got a boring job, his father’s a racist nationalist, and he doesn’t seem to be enjoying his life all that much.  That undercuts the tragedy when he lets it all go.

The drama in the Fortress of Solitude is far more compelling.  Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman have to find a way to free Superman from the Black Mercy and stall Mongul in the meantime.  The tension there is well executed, though I also have problems with Wonder Woman playing the part of Mongul’s punching bag.

To be honest, I don’t think I’d call this a classic if it hadn’t already been labelled as such.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Superman Confidential 1-5, 11

Issue 11 is the sixth part of this Darwyn Cooke/Tim Sale collaboration.  I’m guessing the gap had to do with artist delays. “Kryptonite” is a creative spin on Superman’s early years as a hero.  Superman’s already dating Lois Lane, but not as Clark Kent. Luthor’s barely in the picture, with the newly created Anthony Gallo playing the main antagonist instead.  A massive chunk of Kryptonite appears to be...sentient?

All of these new elements make for a different kind of Superman story, one that I enjoyed reading.  Plus, Sale’s return to Superman after For All Seasons is more than welcome.  

They both look so vulnerable.

Polar bear!

Sale loves using that dangling high heel.

From Daredevil: Yellow.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Superman: Secret Origin, Out of the Blue, Sunstone

3/30/19

Still more new comics.  Busy week!

Out of the Blue 1

Garth Ennis’ latest war comic with Aftershock Comics is published in oversize hardcover form.  It’s three issues worth of comic; A little pricey, but I’m not complaining when it’s this good.  

I was surprised to discover that this is a sequel to the Archangel story way back in Ennis’ War Stories days.  It continues the story of the pilot who flew one of those planes that got catapulted off a merchant ship in WWII.  Hardly my first choice for a follow up, but it turns out to be worth the effort.

Sunstone Vol. 6

My lord, are these well written and exquisitely drawn by Stjepan Sejic.  I’ve never read a better integration of plot and sex. More precisely, I’ve never read another comic where the sex is so integral to the plot without feeling tacked on for fanboy sake.  The emotions are raw and true, and I can’t recommend this whole series highly enough.

I didn’t buy these, but the recent Bill Sienkiewicz variant covers for Fantastic Four are super sweet.

Superman: Secret Origin 1-6

Geoff Johns and Gary Frank present their take on Superman’s origin, and I couldn’t wipe the broad grin off my face through the whole thing.  There are many reasons for that, but the primary one has to be the creators’ amazing ability to channel Christopher Reeve into their interpretation of Clark/Superman.  Frank’s nails the actor’s ability to affect clueless innocence:

I mean, come on!

Johns also recreates the classic meeting with Lois, complete with helicopter.

When it's all done this well, homages can feel completely fresh and new.

Johns’ Luthor is one that I like reading - He’s an arrogant son of a bitch, but doesn’t come across as a bully.  It makes his conflict with Superman ‘fair,’ which makes it a lot more enjoyable for me. This is a Luthor who’s driven by ego, who’s so sure that he’d be the world’s savior if Superman wasn’t in the way.  It makes perfect sense that he would demonstrate his magnanimity with a daily “grant a wish” lottery, which brings out the worst in his supplicants.

His ultimate humiliation comes in the final issue, not when Superman defeats his minions, but when the citizens of Metropolis stop looking to him for answers.  It’s a great character moment.

This series really makes me happy, and it deserves the highest rating.  

Two final Christopher Reeve moments:

That smile!!!

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pure joy

Heroes in Crisis, Skyward, Ironheart, Detective Comics

More new comics!

Heroes in Crisis 7

Clay Mann has really been going all out with these opening splash pages.  

Writer Tom King made sure to give Mann and colorist Tomeu Morey all the credit in the world - The flowers were not a digital effect, they were all hand drawn and colored.  Check out the before!

As for the rest of it, I’m not a fan of King’s portrayal of Wally West.  His Flash lacks the self-awareness he had on Mark Waid’s run, still my benchmark for the character.  King also disappoints me by having Batgirl specifically prevent Harley from killing Booster Gold. Don’t tease me like that.  

If only she'd stopped at seven.

This is yet another filler issue, with only two left to go.  But it’s still got great art and King’s has a nice ear for dialog, so net positive.  

Skyward 11

There are some serious storytelling problems this month:

There's no gravity.  How is she coming back down?

The time jump between the previous page and this one is jarring.

But still fun, still beautiful.

Ironheart 4

I feel like it’s been forever since the last issue came out.  Anyway. Lots of bad guy origin story this issue, which conveniently disappears Midnight’s Fire’s twin halfway through the retelling.  I’m sure that’s not going to become a plot point down the road. By the way, having a possessive in your name is just poor form.

Detective Comics 1000

I really shouldn’t have gotten this.  These anthologies are never worth the price.  My micro impressions:

1. Snyder/Capullo - Lame, implausible story about a guild of detectives that Slam Bradley and Martian Manhunter somehow got into first.  
2. Kevin Smith/Jim Lee - Turns out the metal chestplate under the bat symbol was made from the melted down gun that killed Bruce’s parents.  Okay...that’s just a touch too morbid for my tastes.
3. Dini/Nguyen - Tale of the most incompetent henchman ever.  Moderately amusing even with the pushing-it-a-bit-too-far twist at the end.
4. Ellis/Cloonan - Has Ellis completely lost his talent for writing good comics at this point?
5. Denny O’Neil/Epting - Horrible.
6. Priest/Neal Adams - Incomprehensible.
7. Bendis/Maleev - Moderately amusing.
8. Geoff Johns/Kelley Jones - Made no sense, and pointless to boot.
9. Tynion IV/Alvaro Martinez-Bueno (The first artist I don’t recognize) - Unnecessary addendum to the Robin origin story.
10. Tom King/Tony Daniel & Joelle Jones - King again shines with the banter, it’s very Bendis.

Heh.

My first time identifying a colorist before seeing the name.  The Batgirl costume tipped me off.  (See Morey's work in Heroes in Crisis above.)

The nice moments aren’t worth the junk that I had to slog through.

Man of Steel, Dial H for Hero

One of this week’s new comics!

Dial H for Hero 1

I’m not exactly sure why I bought this.  I wanted to try out all of the titles in the Wonder Comics line?  Miguel, the new recipient of the H-Dial, is a young Evel Knievel wannabe, and not really the most likeable of protagonists. Summer looks to be his manic pixie dream girl, fine whatever.  Monster Truck, the 90’s hero parody, is pretty hilarious, but 4 pages of that is really all I need to see of that trick. I’m unlikely to buy more.

Man of Steel 1-6

The first of what looks to be numerous Superman origin stories.  I’ll try to remember to keep track of them, I’m curious to see just how many there are.  This is the classic re-telling by John Byrne, coming after the massive reboot that was Crisis on Infinite Earths.  I first read this as a collection back in middle school, and Byrne’s Superman is still up there in my mind as one of the best renditions of this most iconic of comic characters.  

So good!

There are several large time jumps, with a seven year gap at the end of the first issue, then an eighteen month leap before the fourth issue.  Issue five comes two years later. The story is just as scattered as the timeline. Each issue is pretty much a done-in-one, and there’s no real unifying plot to tie them all together.  It works as a way of showing key points in Superman’s life up to ‘present’ time post-Crisis, but it reads more like an anthology than a cohesive story.

It’s not really a complaint, more of an observation - Nostalgia plays a strong role in my feelings for this, but even discounting that, these are well-written and drawn comics that establish a new era of Superman, as wholesome and pure as ever.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Supergirl, Adventures of Superman Annual, Superboy Annual

I just moved all the comics I've read so far for this project up to the attic. (Needed to clear out some space.)

It's weird having my progress visualized as 14 cardboard boxes.

Supergirl 1-2

This title follows the re-introduction of Kara to the DCU in Superman/Batman, also written by Jeph Loeb.  I can’t remember what happened to negate all the Kara Zor-El stories before that, but whatever.  I’ll roll with it.

As with the Superboy stories I read yesterday, these issue deal with a protagonist looking to discover who she is, where she fits into this world, and how to deal with the pressure of wearing that “S” across her chest.  Loeb does an adequate job, but I’m disappointed that each of these issues centers around the tired “misunderstanding between heroes leads to fight” plot device. Feels like filler.

Ian Churchill’s art is as excellent as it usually is.  (That’s a lot of ‘is’ and ‘as.’) A lot of Jim Lee influence, but distinctly Churchill (the non-Marineman Churchill).  (Four ‘Churchill’s in four sentences.  I’m breaking all the rules.)

That skirt is so impractical.

Fine for what it is, but I don’t need to read more, and past-me seems to have agreed.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Adventures of Superman Annual 6

Superboy Annual 1

I can’t imagine why I bought this two-part story back in high school.  It’s not like the Elseworlds theme that governed all the annuals that year got me to buy any other titles.  The art, while fine, doesn’t particularly stand out. (Not even the Mike Mignola cover, I’ve never been the biggest fan of his.”)

But for all that, I’m super glad that I did.  This story by Karl Kesel hits all the alternate reality sweet spots, and I have a blast every time I read it.  

1. Dystopian future where the heroes have been scared into hiding.
2. Key death of a loved one convinces Superman it’s not worth the fight.
3. Batman continues to fight alone.  
4. The remnants of humanity convince the heroes to return.
5. Dead loved one may not be dead after all.
6. Assembled heroes mount one last all-or-nothing attack on the bad guys.
7. Many of them die.
8. The heroes win, ushering a new era of peace and prosperity.

Nothing original there, but it’s so well executed that I never get sick of it.  And the generic 90’s art somehow works to the benefit of the story instead of against it.  (Greg Luzniak and Brock Hor are the pencillers. I’ve never heard of Hor before or after this.  A quick search shows that he drew two Ultraverse issues.)

Nice work by Hor.  I love the black additions to her costume.

This is one of those random gems that no one remembers.  Give it a try if you have the chance.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Superboy, Adventure Comics

X-Men Box 2 is now complete!  How do the numbers stack up?

Box Summary:

Time spent reading: 1 day, 1 hour, 51 minutes

Issues read: 219

Issues cut: 61

Highlights (Good or better): New Avengers, X-Factor 87, X-Force: Sex and Violence

Not a lot of high end stuff, and I cut over a quarter of the issues (mostly the back ends of X-Force vol 1 and Uncanny X-Force.

Project Summary:

Time spend reading: 16 days, 7 hours, 10 minutes

Issues read: 3209

Issues cut: 449

Moving on to my Superman boxes.  This first one contains the miniseries and ancillary titles.  

Superboy 1,4,8

Just opening the first issue brought back a huge wave of nostalgia and affection.  I bonded with my high school best friend over comics, and this was one of the titles he bought on a regular basis.  (He was a DC diehard, while I was an avowed X-Fan.) I didn’t buy a lot of these issues because I just read his.

Along with his parallel run on Robin (how in the world did he draw two monthly books at such high quality at the same time??), Superboy was Tom Grummett at the peak of his powers.  His art here is so crisp, so good. No one draws young adults as well as him.  There’s a...cuteness and innocence to them that lightens the tone of his titles, bringing a freshness that sounds like a air freshener as I re-read the first half of this sentence.  

Cute boy.

Cute girl.

Karl Kesel’s scripts are good, clean fun.  I loved coming back to these.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Adventure Comics 1-3, 6

I didn’t get issues 4 or 5 because they were part of the Blackest Night crossover and Francis Manapul didn’t draw them.

These cover the adventures of Superboy (since named Conner Kent) fifteen years after the Kesel/Grummett run.  Since then Conner’s learned that he’s a clone created from the DNA of both Superman and Lex Luthor. Here, he does some soul searching, looking to see how much of him is Clark, and how much is Lex.  This is a far more mature Superboy than before, but it’s not like he’s not still a teenager:

Geoff Johns crafts some wonderful moments.  Conner’s first date with Wonder Girl after coming back from the dead is super cute, unfairly so with the addition of the adorable Krypto.  But Johns takes it further by tagging it with a bittersweet coda for Martha Kent. It’s lovely.

I can’t remember if Johns writes Lex Luthor this well in his other Superman titles, but he absolutely nails Luthor’s ability to be the hugest dick.

I mean, come on.  But which is worse, this...

...or this?

God, what an asshat.

Manapul (and Brian Buccellato on colors) pull out the big guns from the start, doing their best Tim Sale impression and setting the stage for four issues of excellent art.

This will always be my standard for sunsets.

I stopped buying after this issue because both Johns and Manapul departed.  A short and sweet run, practically a miniseries.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good