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What COMIC BOOKS have you been reading?
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Jackwraith wrote: Right. The Dark Knight Returns was Frank Miller's first venture into the Batman mythos. It also has the honor of being the first comic book ever reviewed by The Washington Post. But a lot of news outlets were getting into comics around that time, as Watchmen was released right around then, too, and was almost as much of a smash as DKR was. Miller later went on to write Batman: Year One within the confines of Batman and Detective Comics. It was that story and Steve Englehart's run on Detective in the mid-70s (later reprinted as Shadow of the Bat before the series of the same name) that Nolan based much of his trilogy on (adding in the execrable Bane in the third film.)
It had been so long since I read The Dark Knight returns that I got confused. It was the volume I was looking for; I had just forgotten so much of it. Also, Frank Miller loves to slam the liberal elite and much of the comic feels like a defense of Batman being seen as a fascist or worse. I am pretty uninformed about comics.
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Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong by Brian Buccellato, Christian Luce and Luis Guerrero starts really strong. Issue one ends with a gorgeous image of Superman facing down Godzilla, and the second issue opens with him trying to talk to the kaiju before the violence begins. And that's the end of the good stuff. Nothing egregious happens. It's just that none of it is fun. Grodd looking upon Kong and multiple mechs appearing feels like box checking, not fist pumping. A waste of a lot of gorgeous art that gives a real sense of scale to the fights.
Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons by Frank Tieri and Inaki Miranda crosses over with Francis Drake instead of Superman. It comes off a little better. Fun change of setting but, unfortunately, feels like a prologue rather than a story of its own. There is a sequel series. Might be worth checking out.
Picked up The Dead Lucky by Melissa Flores and French Carlomagno for partaking in Image's Massive-Verse with Rogue Sun. Not as good. Rather than the inherited legacy of Rogue Sun fighting monsters in New Orleans, Dead Lucky is veteran in San Francisco facing cyberpunk gangs and corporate armies. Needed like four more issues across the first two volumes to flesh things out. Just a little space to appreciate the status quo before upending it again.
I am the intended audience for Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw's Crossover. Their God Country is a top-five all-timer. I actually read Buzzkill and Paybacks. And here they spun them all into the same story with a few guests from Mike Allred, Brian Michael Bendis and Robert Kirkman. It was fine. Comic characters break into the real world with devastating consequences for Denver. Most fun when it took breaks from the main story for Chip Zdarsky running for his life and Robert Kirkman facing down a murderer, but those were just a small part of the greater story that just never engaged me.
Basilisk by Cullen Bunn and Jonas Scharf was fine. Good premise in monsters whose powers are drawn from the five senses and a solid revenge story. Unfortunately only two of the characters were interesting and some powerful imagery was overused by the third issue.
Transformers by Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer was probably the best of the lot but also the weakest of their collaborations. It's good. All the Johnson classics are there: Optimus delivers a German suplex but also discovers the fragility of organic life and talks to a young man still suffering from his astronaut brother's death. But, when your oeuvre includes Do A Power Bomb!, Murder Falcon, Wonder Woman: Dead Earth, and Extremity, good is not good enough.
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On the off chance the MCU ever looks past Frank Miller’s work on Daredevil, and on the off chance they don’t go with something from Brian Michael Bendis or Mark Waid’s runs, it would be incredible to see the first volume of Chip Zdarsky’s run on screen. On the mend from grievous injury, Daredevil is not the hero he was. He’s losing fist fights to liquor store thieves, and then he kills a man when his head hits the sidewalk. Kingpin is mayor, the NYPD is on his case, and Matt Murdoch has never been more miserable. And then Punisher shows up believing Daredevil is finally on board with murder. It’s only the first volume of a 60-issue collection and everything will no doubt return to status quo, but until then, it’s so good.
I haven’t read the deepest in Fantastic Four, but the first volume of Ryan North’s run has it strongly positioned to be my favorite. It’s superhero comics by way of Star Trek. Thing is caught in a time loop; Reed and Sue discover a town of Doombots; and Johnny is struggling under a corrupt manager at a big box store. Mysteries, humor and a sense of exploration abound. The Dinosaur Comics guy done good.
I have no particular affection to Transformers, and the first volume wasn’t up to Daniel Warren Johnson’s usual snuff, but I just can’t stay no to him. I don’t think the second volume radically changed my opinion of the series, but it did make make me realize and appreciate a central element of all his work. Johnson’s characters are suffering. Their loved ones have died, they are dying, they are hideous freaks, but that doesn’t stop them from stepping up and doing awesome things.
Radiant Red was a tight little thing that told the complete story of a woman finding a Power Ranger battery and embarking on a life of crime in six issues. Unfortunately it also takes place somewhere in the Radiant Black line, so bits were lost on me.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Black, White and Green is a collection of one shots, none more than ten pages long. Can’t do to much in that space but show off some great art. Standouts were a Sin City-inspired story of Raphael getting involved in something he shouldn’t and Leonardo becoming a barbarian warlord in another dimension.
Interesting pairing of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Superman For All Seasons with Tom King and Andy Kubert’s Superman Up In The SKy. Both seek to be the sort of foundational Superman story that people recommend when they say the Big Blue Boy Scout is their favorite character. They drill down to his essence, Seasons by covering his first year of heroics across Smallville and Metropolis and Sky through short stories during an interstellar adventure to rescue a single girl. I preferred Seasons. It presented Superman as a whole character rather than an idea and character trait, but the ‘No sir’ issue Sky was killer. Still probably read All-Star Superman first, though.
And finally Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber’s Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? was hilarious. Gorgeous visual gags of Jimmy sneaking into and out of a PTA Casino Night and Gotham City turns Jimmy Olsen into Logan Paul. Eventually he figures out who took out the hit against him. Perfect, top to bottom.
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