A Month of Wednesdays: May 2023

BOUGHT: 

Nancy Wins at Friendship (Andrews McMeel Publishing) Olivia Jaimes' latest collection of her reinvented Nancy run includes strips from the Covid shut-in days, and, after all of the superhero comics seem to have ignored the fact that Covid was ever a thing, it was interesting to see an iconic comic character deal with the pandemic in any meaningful way. 

For Nancy, a little girl, this mainly meant dealing with going to school over the Internet for a series of strips, and how the always inventive Jaimes found ways to build gags around it (Sluggo, whose uncles were apparently on the road, moved in with Nancy and Aunt Fritzi for the duration of the shut-in). 

Fun, funny and relentlessly inventive, always finding creative ways to tell new versions of stock jokes or view the world in new ways, Nancy remains a high point of the modern American newspaper comic strip, and an absolute pleasure to encounter in a collection like this. 

BORROWED:

Baby Bear's Bakery, Part 1 (Denpa) This darling manga from creator Kamentotsu is about a baby bear cub who knows how to bake delectable cakes and desserts...and almost nothing else. In the very first strip—each page consists of a single, standalone four- or five-panel strip—his most regular customer has to haggle him far upwards, as he's only charging 20 yen for two desserts. Later, when another gives him a credit card to pay for his order, Baby Bear thinks he gets to keep the cool-looking card. 

Eventually, that regular customer who appears in the first strip begins working for Baby Bear, and he teaches him about business and modern human life in general. Most of the humor of the series comes from Baby Bear's complete naivete, and his learning of something new: Santa Claus and Christmas celebration, New Year's celebrations, lunch delivery, how money works, the library, where milk comes from and so on. 

While Kamentotsu's human character is highly abstracted, even children's picture book-like in his simplicity, Baby Bear himself is rendered highly realistically...and cute. That cuteness and that ignorance are the twin engines that drive the delightful little comic.

At the end of the volume, there's a fairytale-like comic that tells just how it is that Baby Bear learned to make cakes, which is in a more comic-like format rather than the little few-panel towers that dominate the pages of the book. 

Batman/Superman: World's Finest Vol. 1: The Devil Nezha (DC Comics) Writer Mark Waid does that thing he (and, to a great extent, Grant Morrison) does so well here: Writing what is essentially a Silver Age comic book story, but shorn of its excess narration and thought balloons, with modern story-telling sensibilities and rocket-like pacing.

Set in "the not-too-distant past", back when Batman wore blue and had a yellow oval around his bat-symbol and Dick Grayson was still his partner Robin, the story finds the World's Finest team battling Poison Ivy and Metallo in Metropolis...although the villains are working for another, unseen foe. 

When Superman is given a deadly cocktail of  Red Kryptonite, Batman takes Robin's advice and calls in "a doctor who specializes in freakish transformations!", Dr. Niles Caulder and his Doom Patrol. Soon Supergirl is called in too, and the various heroes split up to track down elements of the mystery bad guy behind the other bad guys: An ancient, immortal Chinese warlord now known as the Devil Nezha (see the title of the volume).

The book focuses on big, crazy moments within a more-or-less typical day for the heroes, including casual time-travel, encounters with various other Justice Leaguer heroes and villains and the creation of a new, very temporary version of the Composite-Superman. There are also fun, character defining moments, like answering the question of how Superman would address the concept of hell, or Batman's penchant for detecting things and planning ahead.

It will be interesting to see if the book moves into the future/present at some point, and whether doing so will cramp Waid's storytelling style too much, given the concerns of continuity and more twenty-first century comics conventions (It's harder to imagine Supergirl and Robin traveling into the distant past to question important witnesses in a modern story than a Silver Age one, for example). For this volume, at least, it presented the sort of big, crazy elements that have always punctuated Superman/Batman team-up books, coupled with Waid's sharp, smart writing and familial-like familiarity with the characters and their traditional lore. 

The story is not just a lark, as much as it reads like a satisfying, done-in-one adventure. It leads directly into another Waid-written story, Batman Vs. Robin, which the very last page sets up "Years later," with Damian in his current Robin costume investigating something on Lazarus Island which we now see was the island-setting of the adventure we just got done reading.

Dan Mora is the artist, and he does a phenomenal job. One of the best superhero artists working right now, Mora gets the opportunity to draw not only Superman, Batman and their supporting casts, but also the Doom Patrol, much of the original Justice League, some classic villains, and to design some great new villains and heroes (and that Composite Superman, which really sings, despite the fact that the original design would have worked pretty well in this context).

I finished the book, which includes two cliffhangers (what happens with current Robin on Lazarus Island and what happened to original Robin Dick Grayson, who becomes lost in time), not wanting to wait to see what happens next. That is, I believe, the ideal way one should feel after putting down a piece of serial story-telling of any kind. Unfortunately, because I decided to read in trade instead of by issue, I've got longer than a month to wait for that more of this. 

Jurassic League (DC) There's a pretty solid, if somewhat silly, joke at the center of this project, apparently inspired by the fact that "Jurassic" and "Justice" both start with the letter J: What if the familiar Justice Leaguers were all dinosaurs? That idea, which seems to have belonged to co-writer Daniel Warren Johnson and writer/artist Juan Gedeon, could easily sustain a short story or a one-shot, but it was stretched into a six-issue miniseries, which, unfortunately, resulted in the same basic gag being repeated over and over, while the narrative was a pretty basic, generic Justice League story of Earth's heroes rallying together to fend off an invasion by Darkseid. Except, of course, they're all dinosaurs.

In the most obvious example that the series was a little too ong for its own crazy concept, artist Gedeon couldn't draw the whole thing, and fill-in artist Rafa Garres, who has a strong, but very different and ultimately rather incompatible, style is needed to draw the third issue. I obviously don't know the ins and outs of serial super-comics publishing, but it strikes me as silly to need a fill-in artist on a miniseries, which only leads to an aesthetic problem that could have easily been solved by a greater lead time offered to the primary artist, something that should have been easy enough to do with a series like this one (It's not like this is a big crossover  event serving as the lynchpin for the whole line; it's a lark of a book, and a completely standalone one). 

In a prehistoric past where human, dinosaur and humanoid dinosaur all live alongside one another, there are a group of extraordinary humanoid dinosaurs with familiar sounding origins: One with super-powers hails from a dying planet and was adopted and raised by humans, one is a warrior from a secluded island of legendary martial might, one dresses as a bat and fights to avenge his parents (Yes, that last one is a dinosaur that dresses like a bat, which I guess must exist at the time after all, if humans do). 

These are Supersaur, Wonderdon and Batsaur, and together with Aquanyx, Flashraptor and Green Torch they fight to save little, defenseless humans from the likes of Jokerard, Brontozarro, Blackmantasaurus and the Reverse-Slash. The bad dinosaurs are gathering them to give sustenance to their master, yet unhatched from a titanic egg. This is, obviously, Darkyloseid. They team up in twos and threes  until they finally all unite against the major threat, although rather than the result of teamwork, the bad guy is defeated by Supersaur's unique might alone. 

Gedeon's designs are all a lot of fun, as is the over-the-top action between the dinosaur-ized heroes and villains and the overall big, dumb idea of the premise, it's just not enough to power 120 pages without ever feeling tiresome or relying on tired genre cliches. I lied it well enough, I just can't help but wish it was better.

DC doesn't rate their graphic novels, but the individual issues were rated for readers 13-and-up. It's honestly a little weird that a comic book in which superheroes are dinosaurs is meant for older readers; I at first approached this as a comic book that might be a good one for kids (that is, something I might review for Good Comics For Kids), but the level of violence in the first issue/chapter was pretty surprising.

Much of the book has the appropriate professional wrestling level of violence in its battles (seriously, the dinosaur-men use wrestling moves on one another; see above), but the first encounter between Batsaur and Jokerzard is pretty brutal. So brutal it took me aback, and it certainly earns its older-teen rating, which, again, is kind of weird for a book mixing two of little kids' favorite things in the world, you know? One imagines there is a whole audience for this book that won't find it because it was, like so much Big Two output, made by grown-ups for other grown-ups. 

INTERVIEWS: 

Danger and Other Unknown Risks (Penguin Workshop) This new collaboration from the reunited Unbeatable Squirrel Girl team of Ryan North and Erica Henderson, has the kind of story that it is difficult to talk too much about, given that there's a...turn in the narrative that impacts the entire story. It's not exactly a twist ending so much as a new way of looking at the story that will change it for readers. It seemed a hard book to review, then, as it was hard to talk too much about the plot without spoiling anything. Even saying that it's easy to spoil seems to spoil it to a certain degree. So rather than reviewing it at all I sought an interview with the creators. It turned out, perhaps unsurprisingly, to be a lot of fun. Check it out here, and make sure you read Danger and Other Unknown Risks, either before or after my spoiler-free conversation with the creators. 

Girl Taking Over: A Lois Lane Story (DC Comics) This new, original graphic novel starring a young, coming-of-age, pre-Superman/Clark Kent Lois Lane differs from other Lois Lane stories in one dramatic, if perhaps superficial way: This Lois is Japanese-American. I spoke with writer Sarah Kuhn and artist Arielle Jovellanos about the change in the character and their book in general in this interview at Good Comics For Kids. 

A Month of Wednesdays: April 2023

BOUGHT: 

DC's Legion of Bloom #1 (DC Comics) The theme for this DC seasonal 80-page giant—the by-now familiar prestige format anthology—is, as the pun title sort of alludes to, spring. This means appearances by plant-related characters like Swamp Thing, Poison Ivy and the Floronic Man*, and stories that have something to do with the arrival of the new season. 

My favorite of the eight stories is probably the final one, written by Dave Wielgosz and drawn by the great Riley Rossmo. A Superman story entitled "We Just Have To Make It To Spring," it opens with Clark Kent's farmer father confiding in him what a hard time of year winter is, and then speaking the title of the story. Flashforward to Clark's adulthood as Superman, and a look at  how stressful his life is. This is conveyed through pages broken into calendar-like grids, and filled with snippets of mostly off-panel adventures that seem to be typical Superman stories, but all, like, good ones that I wouldn't mind reading more of: A visit from Mr. Mxyzptlk, Booster Gold and Blue Beetle hijinks causing trouble, the menace of Titano, an appearance of a Luthor-lead Superman Revenge Squad, a battle with a Starro-controlled Captain Marvel, and so on. There are also plenty of guest-stars, ranging from Steel to Plastic Man to Superboy. 

The point is, of course, Superman has a hard time sometimes too, but as rough as things may get, he just has to make it to spring.

The other stories are all competently written and drawn, but none of them really rose to the level of being great superhero stories. These include Poison Ivy going incognito to work at a floral shop but betraying herself by using her powers; Batman dealing with an especially creepily rendered (by artist Hayden Sherman) Floronic Man; Blue Beetle and friends having their spring break interrupted by "Florida Man" Anima-Vegetable-Mineral Man (which seems a bit of a waste of a great villain);  the very unofficial team of Titans West** going up against a cult lead by The Queen Bee; a Swamp Thing and Flash team-up; Captain Carrot's many babies accidentally getting into his special carrots; and, finally, Wonder Woman's friend Sig having a reunion with Jack Frost, who is delaying the arrival of spring. 

All in all, it's not a bad way to spend $10 on superhero comics. 

It's Jeff #1 (Marvel Entertainment) I've a simple rule regarding comics: If the art team of Gurihiru draws a comic, I buy it. I have not been let down so far. This is a collection of short comics ranging from just a few panels to a few pages in length, all featuring the baby quadrapedal landshark from writer Kelly Thompson's brief West Coast Avengers revival (where he was adopted by Gwenpool, but seems, like Snoopy in Peanuts, to belong to everyone in the gang to a certain extent). 

The comics in It's Jeff, which I believe all appeared online somewhere I don't read previously, are written by Thompson and drawn, as I earlier alluded to, by the incomparable team of Gurihiru, who draw some of the best versions of the Marvel superheroes, a huge swathe of whom appear in this issue. 

The stories are all short and sweet, and really show off by Gurihiru and Thompson's story-telling chops, given that there are no dialogue or narration in the stories, with the sole exception of  Hawkeye Kate Bishop calling "Jeffrey!" and  "Jeff!" a couple of time, and Jeff saying some version of "Mrrrrr" a couple of times.

My favorite is probably "Pool Party", which seems to feature the entire Marvel Universe sharing a pool and all wearing their own individualized swim wear. As someone who adores Gurihiru's art, it's great getting to see them draw so many different characters. There's also a Thanksgiving story, "Jeffsgiving", which features a whole bunch of Marvel characters in cameos (Including one character I didn't recognize; who's the blue-haired girl sitting between Tony and America Chavez?). 

I can't recommend this book highly enough for Marvel fans, and I hope Thompson and Gurihiru do more.

BORROWED:

Komi Can't Communicate Vol. 24 (Viz Media) Komi and Tadano go on a date...but not until after Komi's Komi-like father press-gangs Tadano into going on an aquarium date with him (and Shosuke) to test if he's really worthy of his daughter or not. It's as much fun as always.

INTERVIEWS: 

A First Time For Everything (First Second) I interviewed children's book author and graphic novelist Dan Santat about his extraordinarily fun and funny coming-of-age memoir, in which he travels to Europe and falls in love for the first time. You can read it here. 

Shazam! Thundercrack (DC Comics) If you've read EDILW for a while now, you probably know that I'm a guy with a lot of opinions about the Captain Marvel character, like the fact that he should be called "Captain Marvel" and not "Shazam." So it was a great pleasure to talk to cartoonist Yehudi Mercado, who did a kid-friendly story featuring the character set in the continuity of the original movie (and who managed to work in a version of Mr. Tawky Tawny). You can read our conversation here.

*But not, oddly, plant-like Green Lantern Medphyll, who is the only character on Juan Gedeon's cover who is not also featured in a story within the book. Perhaps he was intended to be featured and his story got cut in favor of the Captain Carrot or Superman story, as neither of them appear on the cover.  

**Consisting of Bumblebee, Flame Bird and Hawk and Dove.

A Month of Wednesdays: March 2023

 BOUGHT: 

Batman: The Dark Knight Detective Vol. 7 (DC Comics) Writer Louise Simonson earns top billing on this seventh collection of late 1980s/early1990s Detective Comics, which includes 'Tec #634-638, plus #641 and #643 and Annual #4, as well as an issue apiece of Batman and Legends of The Dark Knight. (As for issue #640, that was part of the "Idiot Root" crossover, and #642 was part of "The Return of Scarface," both collected elsewhere). The period covered was after the Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle team moved to Batman, and there was no regular creative team, giving the book something of an anthology feel.

Simonson writes a three-part story arc in addition to the annual, which amounts to the lion's share of the work within. The three-parter, drawn by Jim Fern and Steve Mitchell, concerns a young boy with the metahuman ability to bring video games to life, an ability he seemingly uses to track down and kill an Arkham escapee, and then uses more and more, engulfing more of Gotham. 

Commissioner Gordon and Sergeant Essen get wrapped up in the video games the boy uses as his inspiration, which they play for research, while Batman is guided by Robin Tim Drake, himself a video game aficionado. 

I'm no gamer, in fact I probably haven't really played a non-Pac-Man video game since this comic was originally released, but it's fun and funny to see old men like Alfred and Gordon talking about video games at all. There's a real senior citizen rapping quality to some of the story, and it's interesting to see Fern and Mitchell and colorist Adrienne Roy try to affect now old-school video games intruding on reality.

Simonson's other contribution, Detective Comics Annual #4 (the cover of which they probably should have used for the collection; it was so potent an image that it sold me on the issue, one of the very first Batman comics I ever read, and one of my earlier comics period) is the Armageddon 2001 annual.

I'm glad it's included, as it was a pleasure to read again, and to read it from the perspective of someone who has no read hundreds and hundreds of Batman comics, but it really does interrupt the flow of the book, which is otherwise a fine Batman anthology of shorter comics. If you don't remember, Armageddon 2001 concerned a hero from that far-flung future date travelling a decade back in time to discover which 20th Century hero would turn out to be the fascist masked tyrant "Monarch" in his dystopian era. To do this, the hero, Waverider, would touch a particular character and use his powers to "read" their future. This mainly meant a series of  Dark Knight Returns-style dark future stories starring each of the DC heroes; some of the strongest, he explains, need tested repeatedly, which explains the multiple encounters that Batman and Superman get in their multiple titles (The participating Batman annual also had a pretty great cover, and was another I read from the series, along with a Superman one that was an earlier example of the Superman-gone-bad genre which has long since ballooned).

DC doesn't seem to have figured out a way to collect their annual crossover events, which would likely necessitate an unwieldly omnibus of some sort, or else a series of trades, but I would eagerly buy collection of the events, particularly this one, which I missed so much of.

Anyway, Simonson is partnered with the great Tom Grindberg, who colored his own work as well as drew that great cover, for what is essentially another, if final, go-round with the Al Ghul family.

Opening in media res, with Batman fighting Ra's over a vat growing a plague virus, the adventure ends unusually enough, with Batman's bat-rope giving way as he rappels down a mountain, and he falls, breaking his back. While Batman mopes, the Gotham of about-ten-years-in-the-future spirals out of control, enough so that an adult Tim Drake takes up the mantle of Batman to fill-in. 

When he's gunned down on the job, the crippled Bruce Wayne is forced to get his shit together to seek vengeance. This he does by building new versions of the sort of cyborg braces we see an elderly Alfred Pennyworth wearing; after a trial-and-error and training montage, Batman eventually builds a sort of cyborg suit he can wear under his normal costume. 

The new, bullet-proof, super-strong Batman takes to the streets to find out who killed the boy in the Batman costume, with the answer leading him back to the Al Ghuls. At the climax, Batman finds himself stripped of his cyborg suit and dying again, this time about to be lowered into the Lazarus Pit himself. He chooses a rather unBatmanly way to escape, albeit one that fits with the idea of a "last" Batman story. 

It's a pretty compelling story, and, of course, brilliantly drawn. It colored the way I saw Batman for a while, I think, but then, Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns left such a long shadow over the Batman of the early '90s, with a Batman more aware of his mortality, more concerned with his mission than things like his life as Bruce Wayne and more invested in the pose as a terrifying monster of the night meant to scare criminals straight that it's hard to disentangle Simonson's use of these tropes from those of her peers and from Dark Knight in general, which, as I said, seems to have been an influence of sorts on the entire event.  (I'd need to read more of it to be sure, though, DC, so get collecting! Checking Wikipedia; it seems there are only a dozen participating annuals, plus the book-ending chapters of the stories, so I think a pair of thick trades would handle the whole series nicely).

The book also collect "Destroyer", a multi-book crossover (here's where those issues of Batman and Legends of The Dark Knight come in). The real-world rationale for the book was to bring the Gotham City of the comics more in line with the Gotham City of the movies, with Batman '89 production designer Anton Furst's designs being imported into the comics. The in-comic rationale for this was a demolitions expert obsessed with old Gotham architecture executing a series of bombings, brining down newer, boxier, more real-world looking buildings, revealing the older, weirder designs they were hiding.

The story, by Grant and Breyfogle and Denny O'Neil, Chris Sprouse and Bruce Patterson and Grant, Aparo and DeCarlo, marks an official turning point in the way Gotham appeared in the comics. I'm not sure it was necessary, per se; like, I can't imagine Kelley Jones not drawing weird-looking towers brimming with bizarre gargoyles when he took over Batman a few years later, but it was a story concerned with Gotham's architecture. (Interestingly, this came out in 1992, the same year that Grant Morrison's "Gothic," also concerned with the spiritual aspects of Batman's home town's architecture, was released). 

The rest of the book is done-in-ones by a variety of creators. Perhaps the best of these, one I remember making me very uncomfortable after I fished it out of a back-issue bin some time ago, was the Peter Milligan-written "The Bomb," drawn by Jim Aparo and Mike DeCarlo. It was basically a new take on The Human Bomb character from the Golden Age; that guy doesn't appear, but someone with his bizarre super-powers of blowing himself up and causing explosions does, and they are treated quite differently than the war-time superhero was.

Milligan and Aparo re-teamed for another done-in-one, this one a murder mystery entitled "The Library of Souls," about a librarian gone bad who treats his victims like books, and tries to organize them thusly. 

And, finally, the collection begins with "The Third Man," by Kelly Puckett and Luke McDonnell, in which Batman must try to solve a particularly perplexing series of murders...a case also being pursued by a pair of old ladies who are also gifted amateur detectives. 

BORROWED:

Zom 100: Bucket List of The Dead Vol. 9 (Viz Media) Among Akira and company's 100-item bucket list of things they want to do before becoming zombies in the zombie apocalypse they're currently navigating is to run a bar, which doesn't seem the most feasible of ambitions, what with the whole zombie apocalypse thing. 

That changes when our heroes arrive in Osaka, however, and Akira and Kencho reconnect with their college friend Takemina there. They discover a thriving market, and a weird economy where cans of food serve as the monetary unit, complete with an elite enclave that lives in the castle and host elaborate gambling nights. These include one particularly dire game, in which one can bet all their cans on a 50/50 game of running through one of two doors. Behind one door is a pit full of cans, behind the other is a pit full of zombies.

Our heroes struggle a bit with their bar's concept, and thus finding business, but things really start to turn around when they incorporate the bucket list into the bar itself, using it to scratch off some of the items on it, and help patrons achieve some of their own dreams. 

Things take a weird turn when they become super-successful, though, and Akira finds himself something of a millionaire, at least in the canned food economy. As the book reaches its climax, he seemingly betrays his friends to join the elite in the castle, prompting them to announce their attention to take the two-door gamble.

As ever with this series, it's a nice, fun romp on the surface, with interesting ideas—here on the concept of money, the economy, and what wealth can do to a person—boiling underneath. It remains one of my favorite manga series. 

REVIEWED: 

Nayra and the Dinn (Viking) Iasmin Omar Ata tells the tale of Nayra's Ramadan, which brings with it some struggles and complications, mainly in the form of a djinn that has escaped its home realm and sought refuge with Nayra.  Things go differently than they usually do in such stories of a supernatural entity intruding in the mundane everyday world. It's a pretty great comic from a talent to watch. 

Walt Disney's Donald Duck: Donald's Happiest Adventures (Fantagraphics) The creative team of Lewis Trondheim and Nicolas Kerimidas reunite for a sequel of sorts to their 2017 Mickey's Craziest Adventures album, which is also presented as a "lost" classic-era Disney comic that they found. This one involves Donald embarking on his most challenging quest for Uncle Scrooge ever: Finding true happiness. It is, predictably, good stuff. 

A Month of Wednesdays: February 2023

DC's Harley Quinn Romances (DC Comics) I ordered my copy of DC's Valentine's Day month special from an online retailer, so I didn't get to pick the cover. I ended up with the Superman and Lois variant cover (above), which to its credit, does look like a trashy paperback romance cover, but for which the joke of the title doesn't work quite as well as it would if Harley Quinn were literally on the cover, as she is for the main cover by Amanda Conner (Along with Aquaman, who co-stars in a story with Harley and a bunch of other heroines within the pages of the book; Superman and Lois just play supporting roles in someone else's romance within the issue). 

Contained within are eight 10-page stories featuring a refreshingly wide array of DC super-characters. 

The first story, featuring the couple of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, is by writer Alexis Quasarano and artist Max Sarin, and is perhaps the most noteworthy. Not for the couple that it stars, but more so for its narrative and style. Poison Ivy is in a gown at an event for rich Gothamites, "working", and Harley appears to present her with a Valentine's gift, a sort of homemade fan-fiction Elseworlds story imagining the pair as fellow high school students on the eve of a big dance.

Also of particular note are a Constantine story by Frank Allen and John McCrea which finally gives John a much needed wardrobe update (the romantic element of the story is something of a surprise, with a mate of John's who is not exactly who he appears to be trying to have coffee with a woman while John holds off a demonic intrusion),  a Fire and Ice galentines story by Raphael Draccon, Carolina Munhoz and Ig Guara that is heavy on guest-stars and cameos, and, of course,  Ivan Cohen and Fico Ossio's Harley Quinn and Aquaman story, in which the supervillain-turned-superhero crashes a heroic galentines day and finds that a wide variety of super-ladies, many of whom you would never suspect, have all dated, or at least shared a special moment with, the King of the Seven Seas.

Rounding out the book are stories of Batman saving a couple on the night they got engaged, Superman setting his cousin Power Girl up on a date with Jimmy Olsen (although as Karen Starr, not Power Girl), Midnighter and Apollo in their typically generic appearance and Kite Man's unhealthy romantic fixation on...his own kite...?

An overall middling anthology, there's nevertheless enough of interest here to make it worth the purchase of a casual DC Comics fan like me. 

DC Power: A Celebration #1 (DC) Like 2021's DC Festival of Heroes and various DC Pride specials, DC Power: A Celebration is a prestige format, 80-page giant featuring heroes from a traditionally underrepresented community, all written and drawn by creators of that same community. In this particular instance, that community is, of course, Black, which explains the February release. 

I was heartened to see that the heroes starring in the nine stories were a fairly healthy mix of original heroes (Amazing-Man, Black Lightning and his daughters Thunder and Lightning, Bumblebee, Cyborg and Vixen) and legacy heroes, which David Brothers once astutely and memorably referred to as diverse heroes who came to be because the publisher gave them some other white heroes' laundry (Green Lanterns John Stewart and Jo Mullein, Nubia, Aquaman Jackson Hyde, Kid Flash Wally West, Batman Jace Fox). 

It is perhaps understandable why so many characters of the latter type exist, as it's easier to sell readers on a new Green Lantern than it is to come up with a concept that will achieve the same sort of traction with fans that the Green Lantern one has already proven to be able to do, but it also seems a little like cheating, and that these characters can seem somehow lesser than the white peers they either replaced or stand along side. Over the decades since his introduction 1971 introduction, for example, it's been too easy to think of John Stewart as the black Green Lantern, or a back-up Green Lantern, whereas, say, Cyborg or Black Lightning stand out as their own heroes with their own names and powers, heroes who happen to be black.

On the other hand, I imagine it's cool for a young black reader to see that there's now a Black Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman or Flash now, to think that a you as a black kid could grow up to be any DC superhero. 

If nothing else, Power proves DC is capable, and successful, at telling the stories of both kinds of Black superheroes. 

My favorite of the stories was probably the first, Evan Narcisse and Darryl Banks' story of retroactive "Golden Age" hero Amazing-Man (actually introduced in 1983 in the World War II-set All-Star Squadron), a character who recently reappeared in Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Zero, where he was a member of that alternate universe's Justice Society, and who Julian Totino Tedesco  drew a nice image of punching out Hitler, an image that reappears. Admittedly, that's probably due as much to my affection for the character as the quality of the story, wherein a post-war Will Everett is lying low, as all super-people were during the period, but comes out of retirement to deal with housing issues...and a reprise of a villain from the pages of his All-Star debut arc. 

The artwork is universally good, with all but perhaps one story featuring better-than average art. I was particularly struck by that of Natacha Bustos, who draws the John Stewart story, and Valentine De Landro, who draws the Cyborg story. Olivier Coipel's art on the Batman Jace Fox story, written by I Am Batman regular writer John Ridely, is pretty impressive too, in large part because it's in black and white, and thus looks so different from everything else around it. 

Each story ends with a profile of the characters starring in it in the style of the old Who's Who In The DC Universe, but with different, usually high-profile art attached (An old Jim Lee image of Stewart is recycled for his profile, for example). These were fun, and I actually appreciated them in several cases, given that there are heroes I had either long ago lost track of  (like new Aquaman Jackson Hyde, who I understand is no longer Aqualad but sharing the Aquaman codename with Arthur Curry) or met here for the first time (like Batman Jace Fox). 

The book includes a prose introduction by Ridley, focusing on the importance of representation in comics and his work in that area), and pin-ups of some of the black heroes who didn't get featured in a story of their own (like Steel and Natasha, extra-dimensional Supermen Val-Zod and Calvin Ellis, The Signal and someone named Bolt...from the pages of Black Adam, I think...?) and a few who did (like GL Jo Mullein, Vixen and Bumblebee). 

At $10, it's a great value, featuring lots of solid superhero comics from rock-solid creators. 

BORROWED: 

Ant-Man: Ant-iversary (Marvel Entertainment) This collection of the recent Al Ewing-written Ant-Man miniseries takes a clever approach to time travel, depicting various points in time as particular comic book stories from the period being visited. This is achieved in large part though some tremendous art-work by artist Tom Reilly (colored by Jordie Bellaire), whose work for each of the four issues/chapters of the series is so different in style it looks like the work of a different artist. 

As for why there's time travel involved, that allows for the series to focus on each of the Ant-Men, from original, Silver Age Ant-Man Hank Pym to second and current Ant-Man Scott Lang to "Irredeemable" Ant-Man Eric O'Grady.

And so the first chapter looks like an old Tales To Astonish Ant-Man/Wasp adventure (a couple of original stories from the series from 1959 are included in the back of this collection, which drives this home), and is written in such a manner to evoke Stan Lee. In the second chapter, featuring O'Grady, the art style changes to look like an incredibly convincing approximation of Irredeemable Ant-Man pencil artist Phil Hester's work, the layouts  evoking that of the old series and even featuring a narrator ant, the way each issue of Irredeemable did. 

As for the third and fourth chapters, the third is set in the present, featuring Lang and his daughter Cassie "Stinger" Lang, and is the only one without a noticeable attempt to reflect the work of another series, and the fourth is set in the future, with text boxes attempting to evoke a more futuristic, interactive reading experience (similar to Grant Morrison's DC One Million comics, from 1998). 

That future's Ant-Man has to, for somewhat contrived reasons, travel back in time to scan the ants of his predecessor Ant-Men, in the process of fighting against a powered-up Ultron who, regular Marvel readers will remember, is currently fused with Hank Pym. He/They also appear in the story, in a fairly big role, so that this series isn't just about the Ant-Man legacy, but where its progenitor currently stands as well (as to where Pym/Ultron end up, however, it's left as a cliffhanger to be resolved...somewhere).

Cleverly created and quite well-written, it's a pretty great comic celebrating one of the Marvel Universe's longest-lived, if most unlikely, heroic lineages. 

Komi Can't Communicate Vol. 23 (Viz Media) This is it! This volume contains the moment that manga-ka Tomohito Oda has been teasing since the series began, a moment I've been sort of dreading for a while, fearful that it might mean the series is starting to wind down and, as I've said  many times before (maybe 22 times now?), it's my favorite current manga series. 

Tadano finally confesses his feelings to Komi, and she reciprocates! It all happens surprisingly fast given the hundreds and hundreds of pages of build-up. First Manbagi confesses to Tadano, and asks him out. He's all set to accept when he suddenly thinks of Komi, and admits to himself and Manbagi he has feelings for Komi. And then, surprisingly, rather than drawing it out for a few more volumes, Oda has Tadano boldly confront and confess to Komi!

There's a pretty great series of splash pages in which she receives and processes the information. 

As much as I fear the dispelling of this central tension will spell the end of the series in the near-ish future, given how slow Komi and Tadano have taken things so far—that is, about 23 volumes to admit they like each other—I suppose there's still a long, awkward way to go as their new relationship develops. At least, that's my hope. 

REVIEWED: 

The Archie Encyclopedia (Archie Comics) Archie Comics' output, from the publisher's creation to its latest offerings, gets the encyclopedia treatment. I had some quibbles with some of the information included and the book's usefulness as a reference tool, but overall I enjoyed it. I'm a big fan of character encyclopedias in general, and read this one straight-through like a book. 

INTERVIEWED: 

Beaky Barnes: Egg on the Loose (Penguin Workshop) I interviewed children's author David Ezra Stein, perhaps best known for his Interrupting Chicken books, about his debut graphic novel for Good Comics For Kids. 

Unfamiliar Vol. 1 (Andrews McMeel) I interviewed cartoonist Haley Newsome about her web-comic turned graphic novel for Good Comics For Kids. 

A Month of Wednesdays: January 2023

 BOUGHT:

Tales From Earth-6: A Celebration of Stan Lee (DC Comics) December marked the 100th year since the late Stan Lee's birth, and DC Comics seems to have wanted to do something to celebrate. Given the writer/editor/icon's long relationship with Marvel, they didn't have much choice as to which characters to feature, resorting to those created during Lee's one big project with the publisher, 1998's Just Imagine..., in which the legendary creator was paired with an all-star artist to re-create some of DC's biggest characters. With titles like Just Imagine Stan Lee with Joe Kubert Creating Batman and Just Imagine Stan Lee with John Buscema Creating Superman, there were a dozen in all, introducing ten new characters (Superman, Batman, Robin, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, The Sandman and Shazam), enough new superheroes to fill the pages of Just Imagine Stan Lee with Jerry Ordway Creating JLA and Just Imagine Stan Lee with John Cassaday Creating Crisis. 

The new $9.99, 80-ish-page giant revisits many of these characters for short, ten-page stories. It obviously has its heart in the right place, but then the Just Imagine... project, the creations of which apparently dwell on Earth-6 in DC's current multiversal cosmology, didn't generate the greatest stories, and was basically a gimmick (Marvel's Stan Lee! Working for the Distinguished Competition!)  and is best remembered for some great art from some of the industry's top talent (including Dave Gibbons, Walter Simonson, Chris Bachalo and others). 

Only two of those artists return for this project. Kevin Maguire, who co-created Lee's Flash, draws the Superman short, while Ordway returns to the JLA. Some art from the original artists does appear, in the Secret Files & Origins-style character profiles that appear at the end of the book. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly then, the resultant tribute comics aren't that great. The one stand out is Mark Waid and Maguire's Superman story, in which the belligerent, resentful Man of Steel sets out to end all war on Earth by making it personal for all those that supply its weaponry or otherwise profit from our conflicts, which he feels takes energy away from our space programs (This Superman, marooned on Earth, longs for our planet to develop space travel capable of taking him back to his un-blown-up home planet). 

I liked the cartoony art in Meghan Fitzmartin, Anthony Marques and Mark Morales' Catwoman story, Ordway does his usual phenomenal job in a character-filled piece featuring the JLA and there's better-than-average art in the Batman and Shazam stories, but the stories themselves are all mostly forgettable, average super-heroics featuring well-designed and conceived Elseworlds versions of DC's stars. In addition to the above-mentioned, there are also stories featuring Lee and company's Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Sandman. 

BORROWED: 

Godzilla Vs. The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (IDW Publishing) The formula for each episode of the original, 1993-1996 Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers included a scene where villain Rita Repulsa would grow her monster to gigantic, kaiju-sized proportions, and the Rangers would need to board their giant robot vehicles to combat it, ultimately combining them into the giant robot Megazord to defeat it. Given this, a crossover with Godzilla is not quite as ridiculous as it might first sound, given the Ranger's careers as giant monster fighters.

In writer Cullen Bunn and artist Freddie E. Williams II's mini-series, Rita and her minions have found a mystical artifact that allows them to gaze into different dimensions. She uses it to find a world without the Power Rangers, assuming it will be an easier world to conquer. She transports her retinue there, but there's a stowaway—Green Ranger Tommy Oliver, who was spying on them. 

They land in the middle of mayhem, as the world they've traveled to is apparently Godzilla's, and he's currently engaged in fighting Megalon, semi-controlled from a hovering flying saucer inhabited by the Xiliens of Planet X. Unversed in which monsters are good monsters and which ones are bad ones on this world, Tommy summons his Dragonzord (despite being in a different dimension, the Rangers still have access to their 'zords) and takes on Godzilla, not lasting long. Just then the rest of the Rangers arrive, sent by Zordon to rescue Tommy. 

Meanwhile, Rita and her followers have pressganged the Xiliens into an alliance, and, while the Power Rangers' giant robot fights Godzilla, convinces them to summon more and more giant monsters, supplemented by their own supply (all of which repeat ones that have appeared on the show). 

Like a movie-length episode of Power Rangers that's stuck in the kaiju-fighting portion of the episode, the comic is pretty much all giant monster battles, with Gigan, various insect-like kaiju and King Ghidorah eventually joining the fray. As is crossover tradition, the Power Rangers and Godzilla first fight one another, before teaming up to take on their common foes. 

Bunn does a fine job of writing what is pretty much as pure a fight comic as exists, and Williams is able to do a decent job of drawing everything thrown at him, and creating a shared world where characters from each franchise both seem to be a natural part of. 

REVIEWED: 

Monkey Prince Vol. 1: Enter the Monkey (DC Comics) After a so-so debut in a short story in 2021's DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration, Gene Luen Yang and Bernard Chang more thoroughly introduce their new DC superhero The Monkey Prince in this collection. It's pretty excellent super-comics, and the character is a welcome addition to the DC Universe. Outside of Superman Smashes The Klan, with its amazing Gurihiru art work, this is probably Yang's best super-comics writing to date. 

Star Wars: Tales From The Rancor Pit (Dark Horse Comics) This Vader's Castle-like collection of scary Star Wars stories features a victim of Jabba the Hutt's trying to Scheherazade his impending execution by entertaining the space gangster with tales of terror set throughout the eras of the franchise. Not as sustainable a premise as the Vader's Castle comics—you know what Chekov said about a rancor pit, right?—but just as entertaining. Plus it's got a cool cover from EDILW favorite Kelley Jones. 

A Month of Wednesdays: December 2022

BOUGHT:

Batman/Spawn #1 (DC Comics/Image Comics) I can tell you about every Spawn comic I've ever read. It won't take long.

I was just getting into comics around the time of Image's founding and the hype that accompanied it, and of all the offerings, Todd McFarlane's Spawn is the one that I found most appealing, as I saw some similarities between McFarlane's art and that of my favorite artist, Norm Breyfogle. I liked the character design, with the big billowing cape, the chains and the glowing triangle eyes, I liked the supernaturally-powered Batman vibe of the character, and I liked the vibrant coloring of the art. I read the first five issues before deciding as well-drawn as it was, it wasn't very good. I was 15. 

I came back for issues #8-#11, the run written by Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Dave Sim and Frank Miller, but those were the last Spawn issues I read, not counting the pair of 1994  Batman team-ups, the DC-published War Devil, written by all of the Batman writers at the the time, Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon and Alan Grant and drawn by Klaus Janson, and the Image-published Spawn/Batman, written by Miller and drawn by McFarlane himself. 

So it's not as if I don't know the first thing about the character. I just don't know much more than the first thing about him. 

I gather that at some point McFarlane quit drawing Spawn, and an artist named Greg Capullo took that job, an artist who became the big breakout star of DC's 2011 New 52 initiative, when he was paired with writer Scott Snyder on the Batman monthly. 

That seemed to be the selling point of the 2022 Batman/Spawn crossover, the chance to see Capullo draw the two characters he was now most associated with, one of them something of a return for him. This time, McFarlane would be inking Capullo's work, and writing the crossover for himself.

This turned out to be...well, it's not exactly the best division of labor. Considering all the comics writers there are in the world—a solid dozen or so of whom write Batman comics in any given month—having someone who's still something more of a dabbler than a polished professional seemed a mistake.

I will try to explain the plot, as well as I am able. 

Spawn Al Simmons narrates that there is a void souls briefly enter when a person dies that he could unlock to rescue someone, his wife, but that the power to unlock that void lies with "The Black Beast," Batman. Among the pearls that Batman's mom wore on the night she died—yes, the goddam tired old pearls—one was a machine or some kind of magic which allowed for the opening of different dimensions....? Or something....? The Court of Owls wanted it, which is why they had the Waynes killed. 

They (or should I say "They," as Spawn mentions a Court of Priests in his world rather than a Court of Owls)  recruited Spawn, who, it is said,  comes from a different dimension. which may or may not be Batman's future (They killed Superman first in Spawn's world, he says at one point, because they weren't afraid of him?), telling him that Batman has his wife Wanda's soul. 

Spawn goes to beat Batman up, getting to the fight-then-team-up part of the traditional superhero team-up formula. Spawn is winning the fight quite handily thanks to his powers (see the version of the cover with a triumphant Spawn standing over a prone Batman, like the one above), but then he enters a "dead zone" where his cape turns floppy and he lacks his powers, and Batman is able to wipe the alley floor with him (now see the cover where Batman stands triumphant over the prone Spawn). 

Batman figures out that they are being manipulated, so they have a meeting in the Batcave, and then go out to brutalize possible informants and pose for a two-page spread on a rooftop, which McFarlane and Capullo use as the backdrop for a conversation, which seems more Image-y than another page of talking heads, I guess.

Then they talk to the Joker, who here is wearing his own flayed-off face as a mask, as he did for a time in the New 52. When they leave his cell, we see him gathering around him a bunch of little Violator vclowns.

Then the Court of Owls sends a Talon assassin after Batman and Spawn. They seem to be fighting over Batman's ability to open a portal—with a pearl, maybe?—which he can only do because he has a soul. Batman does some planning, which pays off. Spawn tricks onlookers at the Arkham Asylum setting into thinking Batman is willing to kill now. And that's it? I guess? 

I dunno. I really miss the era of blogs now, because I could really use someone to explain what the heck happened in this, easily the worst of the three Batman/Spawn crossovers. It is not, unfortunately, the last, either, as the scene with the Joker and Violator hinted; indeed, the last panels show someone with the Violator's make-up saying "Everything is working exactly as planned. And now the next move is mine." 

It's nothing if not a threat for a sequel. I would hope that the next time around McFarlante gets a co-writer to make sure everything makes a bit more sense than it did this time around—I don't know what was done by the editors on this book to make sure that this was the case, but it sure felt like an old-school, auteur Image book without an editorial infrastructure. Another good idea? Writing the book as if someone reading it didn't know who Spawn was or what his deal was. Of the two participants, he's definitely the less well-known of the two, and McFarlante seems to have missed an opportunity to introduce him to legions of Batman fans who are reading this for the Batman side of the equation (and or Capullo's presence). 

As for the artwork, it's fine. I like Capullo well enough, but he was never one of my favorite Batman artists (Now if Guillem March were drawing this...!), but then, that's the whole point of the endeavor, isn't it? The former Batman and Spawn artist drawing Batman and Spawn at the same time? I might have preferred March or John McCrea or Kyle Hotz or—especially—Kelley Jones, but that's just me, and having anyone but Capullo draw this particular comic would have erased its whole reason for being. 

Maybe that promised next one will involve different artists as well as a different writing team. That would be my hope, anyway; the fun thing about such crossovers is seeing creators handle different characters than they usually do, and I'd love to see some more diverse Batman artists draw the Spawn character. In the mean time, I guess there are something like a million variant covers from all-star artists like Jim Lee and J. Scott Campbell o content myself with (even if there is no Kelley Jones image among them). 

DC's Grifter Got Run Over by a Reindeer (DC) The theme for this year's holiday 80-page-giant is Christmas carols, as the the title somewhat alludes to, and the results are mixed, but mostly middling. Maybe it's the fault of the theme. The strongest of the bunch is a Batman and Catwoman story penned by writer Scott Bryan Wilson and drawn by Skylar Partridge, in which Catwoman gets Batman that which he likes best for Christmas, and he pulls out a bit of trivia about the "Twelve Nights of Christmas" song that only The World's Greatest Detective in a story would know. The weakest is the Max Bemis-written, Pablo M. Colllar-drawn story inspired by "Silent Night", in which Bemis has Constantine narrate like he's in a prose story rather than a comic book one.

The rest mostly fall in the middle, with little in any of them worth note (I devoted a tweet to each story in this thread, if you'd like more on this book than I'm giving it here). I liked David Lapham's art in a weird Superman/Wonder Woman story, but this is, overall, one of the weaker 80-page-giant anthologies I've seen from the publisher in quite a while. Grifter, by the way, only gets run over by a reindeer on the cover. The Grifter story is actually inspired by "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas," and it's mainly nonsensical, although it features Dustin Nguyen's art and ends with Grifter getting run over by a Gen 13-piloted snowmobile. 

BORROWED:

Komi Can't Communicate Vol. 22 (Viz Media) Still on their class trip to New York City, Manbagi decides to increase the drama a thousand-fold by confessing her feelings to Tadano. She doesn't quite get there, but does tell him she likes someone who's a lot like him...and then decides to try again when they're back in Japan, leading to a rathe suspenseful cliffhanger in this volume. Meanwhile, Komi's little brother Shosuke has his class trip, which is also dominated by a Tadano, as much as he would prefer it wasn't. 

Mickey Mouse: The Monster of Sawtooth Mountain (Fantagraphics) Another Disney Masters edition focused on the work of the great Paul Murry, collecting nine stories from 1959 to 1961. 

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead Vol. 8 (Viz) Zombies running through a natural history museum become entangled in dinosaur fossils, seemingly bringing about the threat of zombie dinosaurs near the climax of the eighth volume of this fun series. This includes so many zombies becoming intertwined with a complete Spinosaurus skeleton that they somehow bring it to un-life, animating it to hunt our heroes. As unlikely a turn of events as that is, it does lead to a scene of dinosaur versus dinosaur conflict, as Akira and the gang fight it using an animatronic Tyrannosaur, souped-up for battle by their robot butler, a holdover from the all-A.I. luxury hotel they stayed at in a previous volume.

That early climax is followed by a story in which Akira tires of the bucket list concept, which is, of course, the very premise of the series. Just as he's questioning the list, he gets trapped all alone in a newsstand by a horde of zombies, with nothing to do but argue with the philosophers who seem to appear to him about the nature of boredom, the human need for entertainment and the very meaning of life. 

It's surprisingly powerful stuff, and another example of why Zom 100 is the perfect comic for our pandemic era. 

Marvel's March previews reviewed

February's Amazing Spider-Man variant showing Disney characters reenacting a Fantastic Four cover  wasn't just a, um, goof, apparently, as this months Amazing Spider-Man #21 puts Goofy at the center for the classic Hulk cover. 

I like the title of Clobberin' Time, a new five-issue miniseries beginning in March, but it seems like some of the covers do a better job with the logo than others, huh? 

When Gurihiru draws something, you don't ask, you just buy. In this case, you buy It's Jeff!, written by Kelly Thompson and starring the adorable little four-legged land-shark. 

Looks like Marvel is finally set to do something with the Predator license, aside from reprint Dark Horse comics. Predator #1 is by Ed Brisson and Netho Diaz.

 

Have I mentioned how much I hate the new Punisher skull logo lately? Or that Disney/Marvel gave up the original so easily without a fight? 

DC's March previews reviewed

The first collected volume of Batgirls is still languishing atop my to-read pile, but I do like this portrait-style cover for Batgirls #16. 

Here's this month's Brian Bolland portrait of a Batman rogue, courtesy of a variant for Batman—One Bad Day: Ra's al Ghul #1 by Tom Taylor and Ivan Reis. 

I was going to buy DC's DC's Legion of Bloom #1 anyway, because I buy all their 80-page giants, but man, putting Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man on the cover ain't exactly going to discourage me. 

I don't know what's going on with Ram V's Tec run, but the covers have been to die for. This one, atop Detective Comics #1070, is especially awesome.

Big Frank Miller energy on this cover for Lazarus Planet: Revenge of the Gods #2, by the great Guillem March. Sadly, March is just doing covers on the series, not interiors. 

Multiversity: Harley Screws Up the DCU #1 by Frank Tieri and Logan Faeber is of interest mostly because DC felt the need to put the word "Multiversity" in the title, presumably indicating that this takes place...somewhere out in the multiverse, as opposed to the DCU. It's therefore not the DCU she's screwing up, so don't worry about that. I like this cover. 

Electric Superman powers, like in the comics from 1998! Val-Zod from the New 52  Earth-2 series Earth 2, from 2012-2015! Ultraman, from Earth-3! You know, based on the solicit for Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #1, the book doesn't sound too terribly new-reader friendly for a new #1. 

I mean, I might personally be okay—there's a bit about Jon Kent's backstory from the Bendis years which I missed mentioned in the solicit too—but this sure doesn't sound like it was designed for brand-new readers, or even readers of Jon's recent appearances in Superman: Son of Kal-El. That said, it's written by Tom Taylor, and that guy generally knows what he's doing when it comes to comics-writing, so I'm going to assume pains are being taken to make this a first issue that reads like an actual first issue. Art is by Clayton Henry, whose work I generally like. 

There's a pretty nice Captain Marvel image by Michael Cho—I mean, the costume is trash, but it retains enough of the original design to be recognizable, at least—on the cover of Superman: Lost #1 for some reason (Well, the some reason is there's a new Captain Marvel movie coming out next year that looks...well, it looks like the sequel to the first one, anyway, and a bunch of DC Comics have Shazam: Fury of the Gods variants on them). 

Superman: Lost is a new maxiseries written by the great Christopher Priest with art by his Deathstroke partner Carlo Pagulayan. That should be worth keeping an eye out for. In collected form. Next year. But hey, that's just me now; if  you read the single issues and dig 'em, do let me know.