TOP O' THE WEEK
NEW HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE #1 (OF 4, DC COMICS, $5.99) is by Mark Waid, Jerry Ordway and Todd Nauck, and that alone is enough to interest me. The fact that Waid, one of my favorite writers and a DC history expert, is figuring out how to make all this work makes it a must-buy for me. The first issue takes us from the Dawn of Time (I imagine we'll see the big hand again) all the way to the JSA. And who will be the charter members this time? From the covers, I'm guessing Wonder Woman will be one of them. (In the real world she didn't show up until All-Star #8, and that was as a preview.) Will Black Canary be there from the start? Starman? Wildcat? Will any of the B-listers be there, like Crimson Avenger or Doctor Occult? Or later additions, like Wildcat and Starman?
There's a nice homage to The Big All-American Comic Book (1944), a 132-page one-shot by All-American Comics, which was absorbed by Detective Comics Inc. in 1945.
CROSSOVERS
"ONE WORLD UNDER DOOM"
DOOM ACADEMY #5 (OF 5, MARVEL, TEEN+, $3.99) is by MacKenzie Cadenhead and Pasqual Ferry. I caught up on this (through issue #4) and it's not nearly as much fun as I'd hoped it would be. If you enjoyed Strange Academy, it's probably up your alley. But if yiou're not into typical YA tropes, it's easy to skip. And, despite the trade dress, it has little to do with the crossover.
FANTASTIC FOUR ZERO #33 (OF 33, MARVEL, $3.99) is by Ryan North and Cory Smith. Final issue! The FF have a plan to stop Doom, but it requires time travel to the past. Fantastic Four re-launches with a new first issue next month, but years ago!
SUPERIOR AVENGERS #3 (OF 6, MARVEL, TEEN+, $3.99) is by Steve Foxe, Lucas Maresca and Kyle Hotz. I've read the first issue and have lots of questions still. But all youi need to know is the premise: Kristoff Vernard, Doom's adopted son, has brought these characters from the future to demonstrate that Doom's rule will be flawless. But this future isn't what Kristoff thinks it is, and they have their own agenda. I imagine if this does well that some or all of the characters, and maybe even their alternate timeline, may be available for future stories.
SUMMER OF SUPERMAN
SUPERMAN #27 (DC COMICS, $4.99) is by Joshua Williamson, Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferreira. We're post-Summer of Superman Special, so kryptonite is a big problem. In this issue, it's of the red variety. Good thing just about everybody Superman knows has super-powers these days, including Lois Lane and Lana Lang.
Kryptonite was rare in the Golden Age. Fans used to make fun of how common it became in the Silver Age. Then Denny O'Neil got rid of it all in the Bronze Age. Then it came back after Crisis, but was once again rare, like in the Golden Age. Now it's ubiquitous again. There really is nothing new under the sun.
SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT TP (DC COMPACT COMICS EDITION, $9.99).There was a flurry of prestige Superman books a few years back, probably in some previous anniversary, by some big names. There are definitely some big-name Superman books that belong on my shelf, like Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman and Jeph Loeb's Superman for All Seasons, but the bulk of them blur together in my mind as forgettable. This is one of those.
SUPERMAN: THE WORLD HC (DC COMICS, $24.99) is by various. I bought Batman: The World, and regretted it. Initially I thought, "Batman as written and drawn by international superstars? Count me in!" But it turned out to be more vignettes and pin-ups than stories, which is not something I enjoy. So I won't be getting this.
"WE ARE YESTERDAY"
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #8 (DC COMICS, $3.99) is by Mark Waid and Travis Moore. The big finale! We're not only seeing a time-displaced Legion of Doom, now we're going to see time- and reboot-displaced Leaguers, like the one-handed Aquaman and the electric blue Superman. Leave it to Mark Waid to never forget anything. The only sour note to me is that this will lead into yet another crossover. It is the way, I guess.
MORE ITEMS OF INTEREST
GIANT-SIZE AGE OF APOCALYPSE #1 (ONE-SHOT, MARVEL, TEEN+, $4.99) is by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing and C.F. Villa. Revelations story by Jeph Loeb and Simone Di Meo. This is the third of five one-shots dropping Kamala Khan into famous parts of X-Men history. I still haven't read the first two (I AM SLOWWW), so I can't comment.
LAZARUS: FALLEN #1 (MR, IMAGE, $3.99) is by Greg Rucka (The Old Guard) and Michael Lark. The PR says this is the final installment of the Lazarus story, set in a neo-feudalist world with unkillable, genetically engineered assassins. Our protagonist is one such assassin, Forever Carlyle, who means to bring to an end the "Families" that run the world. I haven't read any of this, but Rucka can usually be counted on to deliver a decent story.
“Michael and I started Lazarus back in 2013, and while we knew we were telling a story that was a distorted reflection of our world, I don’t think either of us imagined how less distorted that vision would become,” Rucka nsaid. “But for all the talk about the world-building, about the vision of the future — or arguably, prescience of the present — Lazarus has remained, at its heart, about Forever’s journey. We’re finally getting to the resolution of it — the ending that we’ve been working on from the start. There’s so much I’m excited about sharing with this final run. There are things that I think will surprise some readers — some twists that they, perhaps, didn’t see coming. I know that it’s been a long wait for these final issues, and I’m grateful for the patience our audience has shown. We’ve got the most amazing fans, and that is both humbling and gratifying.”
Lark added: "I'm very happy to get Lazarus back into readers' hands. Greg has given me so much to explore with the characters and storytelling, and I'm really excited about the work I've been doing on the new issues. I think it is some of the best work I've ever done, and I hope readers feel the same."
“I love working with Michael," Rucka said. "He fits my sensibilities for storytelling so effortlessly, and his character work is never anything less than superb. He always delivers on the action, but it’s in the quiet scenes, in the emotional beats, that I think he shines brightest — and it’s in those moments that the series lives and breathes. This is unquestionably the best work of Michael’s career thus far, and that is genuinely saying something.
“The first arc, ’Rise' — which is taken in part from the Free slogan of ‘Rise, Resist, Be Free’ — very much hits the ground running, dealing with the immediate repercussions of the end of Lazarus: Risen. It’s been less than two days in the story since the end of Lazarus: Risen, and Lazarus: Fallen is throwing the reader right back into the action and the story. That’s deliberate. Readers are smart, and they know how to read and extrapolate from context, so new readers to the series will be able to understand what’s going on. That said, it’s going to be a far more rewarding read if you know how we got to this point.
“Our first issues are about framing this new world that Forever’s actions have created, about her and her sister finding allies, and about her father, Malcolm’s, own machinations,” Rucka added. “Like Forever, Malcolm knows the endgame is approaching. The question is whether or not it’s the endgame he’s envisioned all along. Amidst all this, there’s interpersonal drama and continued growth — both for Forever and her sister, now calling herself Infinity — as well as others. But Forever and Infinity are hunted from the word go, and there are other Families, and their Lazari, on their heels, including, especially, Sonja Bittner. After all, Forever has committed the ultimate crime: she’s betrayed the Family.
MR. TERRIFIC: YEAR ONE #2 (OF 6, DC COMICS, $3.99) is by Al Letson and Valentine De Landro. Letson writes The Spectre into Mr. Terrific's origin. Which fits, as both are JSA legacy characters (or maybe, in The Spectre's case, the original). But why didn't anybody tell me? The presence of the Ghostly Guardian promotes this book from "safely ignore" to "maybe tradewait." Spec is WAY more interesting than Mr. Terrific!
NEWS FROM THE FALLOUT #1 (OF 6, MR, IMAGE, $3.99) is by Chris Condon (That Texas Blood, Ultimate Wolverine) and Jeffrey Alan Love (The Last Battle at the End of the World, The Thousand Demon Tree). A contaminant is released into the atmosphere from a secret Army base In 1962 Nevada, which turns everybody murderous. (I'm assuming 28 Days Later as opposed to The Walking Dead). One solider survives and goes on a search for safety. He's our protagonist. The artwork, as you can see, is a sketchy B&W that the PR says is meant to evoke such things as Warren magazines and The Twilight Zone.
"News from the Fallout is a long-gestating project that I've been chipping away at for years,” said Condon. “To know that it's finally coming to life thanks to the incredible Jeffrey Alan Love, who has brought his profoundly unique style of art to this project, is nothing short of amazing. I'm thrilled to work with both Jeff and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou on this book and I hope that readers are ready for a thrill-packed ride that is unlike any other book you're likely to find on the shelves of your local comic shop."
Love added: “Working with Chris has been wonderful, as he has such a unique personal voice in his writing. Sometimes as an artist working with others I feel like I'm in a cover band, singing someone else's song, but this collaboration with Chris has been different. It has felt like both our voices have been amplified by the other.”
“My main goal with page one was to establish the setting and the tone of what we’re about to experience,” said Condon. “I think the first panel, let alone the first page, is essential to telling a reader whether this book is going to be any good or not. In the first panel, we establish that we are in a sparse desert landscape, specifically at a top secret army base. I think setting a book up like this is laying down cards in a game of poker. You’re revealing your hand. So, as panel one establishes the setting, panel two establishes a vital piece of the comic: a black petrified rock. Then we pull back to reveal who is holding that rock. This person is also a pivotal piece of the puzzle. This is our villain: General Sheridan P. McCoy. As the rest of the page plays out, we get to see that the general is preoccupied with his personal goals and, for some reason, they seem to be entwined with that stone.”
Condon added: “I want the reader to enter into this comic at a sprint. There’s no slow, plodding exposition. We jump into it. We show you pieces of information — a location, a rock, a general. You should, theoretically be able to take those disparate elements, understand that these things are important together, and then move onto the next page. We are also establishing TENSION. An inherent tension. The dropping of the bomb. We know how that works — it’s ingrained in us even though my generation and the generations that followed never did a duck-and-cover drill. The ominous countdown. A countdown to what? A reaction …”
Condon also remarked on the final pages of the preview: “At this point, we’ve established the juxtaposition of two characters, General Sheridan P. McCoy and Private Otis Fallows, and their two environments. So now, as the tension ratchets up and the bomb is closer than ever to dropping, we reflect that in just how we are juxtaposing those two things. Instead of spending a page with each of them, we’re now cutting between panels. Then, the bomb begins to drops. We see the sycophantic, quasi-religious view of the superior officer as the bomb drops - a smile on his face. The splitting of the atom reflected in his polarized lenses. Then we see, across a massive double-page spread, the bomb itself. This tells us the obvious — the bomb has been dropped. But it also tells us that the situation we’ve been ramping up toward has come to pass. No longer are we juxtaposing these two, we’re now past that point. Something has happened. Everything has changed. And nothing is ever going to be the same again.”
“Clarity is always my goal, to have the reader be drawn into the dream of the story and not have that experience broken,” said Love. “Everything is in service of the story. A unique style of mark-making in art means nothing if the storytelling is muddled, so really nailing down the layouts so they read well is the most important part of my process. Once the layouts are clear and telling the story we want to tell, that's when I can just let loose and have fun making marks and letting the paint and ink do what they want on top of that strong structure.”
TRAMPS OF THE APOCALYPSE #1 (OF 3, $4.99) is by animator Alice Darrow. The year is 2094, there's been an apocalypse, and the remaining men have enslaved the remaining women. Except for three "super bimbos with unparalleled bloodlust and an unquenchable thirst for violence." I think we all have a pretty good idea how this will play out. Could be fun. Could be dumb. Most definitely pink.
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS: THE MUMMY #4 (OF 4, IMAGE, $4.99): Looking forward to seeing how this ends. So far, it would make a vary good Mummy movie. (Kind of a low bar, I know.)
GOLDEN AGE OF REPRINTS
ARCHIE FACSIMILE #6 ARCHIE’S PAL JUGHEAD #78 (ARCHIE, $3.99), a Halloween issue from 1961, and is drawn entirely by Samm Schwartz (except for the Li'l Jinx one-pager). You bet Imma get it. I'd pay good money for a Jughead by Samm Schwartz omnibus.
COMPLETE DEADBONE EROTICA OMNIBUS HC (MR, IMAGE, $39.99): Didn't this come out already? I seem to remember talking about it before.
MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE OMNIBUS VOL 1 HC (MARVEL, $100.00): Tom Brevoort confirmed in his substack that the Marvel Masterworks aren't selling well enough to continue, and will go on "indefinite hiatus" after the first of the year. So if you're collecting MTIO in MMW form, it may be time to switch.
MMW THE FANTASTIC FOUR VOL 27 HC (MARVEL, $75.00) takes us to issue #296 (1986), a little past the end of the Byrne era. This might be the last FF Masterworks, and I can live with that. There was a lot of drek in Fantastic Four after 1986 that I don't need to re-read. Decent eras that came after Byrne, like those by Waid/Wieringo and Jonathan Hickman, are available in other formats already.
MORE COMICS
ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER #4 (OF 12, DC COMICS, $4.99): My second-favorite Absolute title. I've always wanted a truly alien Martian Manhunter, and now I've got one. That doesn't mean I want an ongoing. I just want him established in this universe as something other than a green Superman.
ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN #9 (DC COMICS, $4.99): My favorite Absolute title. Diana's new history untethers Greco-Roman mythology from how things happened in our Wonder Woman, which I find restores their original menace.
BIKER MICE FROM MARS #1 (ONI PRESS, $5.99): Part of Oni's ongoing attempt to ape the success of Image's Transformers and G.I. Joe with a bunch of D-list toys.
CLEMENTINE BOOK THREE (IMAGE) is by Tillie Walden. This is part of the Walking Dead franchise, based on the YA trilogy by Tillie Walden (On a Sunbeam, Spinning). I'm not into YA, but here's a nice preview.
DEADPOOL #15 (MARVEL, $7.99) is by Cody Ziglar, Gerry Duggan and Sanshiro Kasama. Supposedly this is legacy issue #350, and Marvel even sent a press release. I assume it's oversize, given the price, but the solicitation doesn't mention page count.
“I was touched that editor Mark Basso asked Matteo Lolli and I to return for a Deadpool short for his 350th issue, and I needed to pause and think about what I might do if I were to go down memory lane. Then I realized it would be better not to go home again at all. I wanted to introduce someone new and fun that could be a gift to the character that was a gift to me,” Duggan said. “With that peek behind the curtain, we're proud to introduce Kurami Itto, a low-vision tech-assisted assassin that catches Deadpool's interest in more ways than one. Welcome to the Marvel Universe, Kurami — hope you survive the experience. Here's to another 350 issues, Wade.”
MEGA MAN: TIMELINES #1 (ONE-SHOT, UDON, $4.99): So UDON got the Mega Man franchise. I wondered where it went after IDW lost it.
NEVERWARS #1 (OF 9, Massive, $0.99) features a war between Wonderland, Oz and Neverland. I'm pretty sure I don't want to see that.
STRANGER THINGS: TALES FROM HAWKINS 2 #1 (OF 4, $4.99) is by various. Hawkins science teacher Scott Clarke (Randy Havens) ran into a demogog at the drive-in, didn't he? I seem to remember that. Or it happens in this issue. Either way, this story follows up on Clarke's reaction, while Dustin fears that what Clarke saw was his missing pet demogog. I don't read any of the Stranger Things comics or books, as the show — which I do enjoy — is enough for me (and I'm ready for it to be over). But Stranger enthusiasts might want more, so here's more.
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #18 (MARVEL, TEEN+, $4.99) is by Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto. Evidently Ultimate Spidey is joined by Ultimate Richard Parker (his dad) and Ultimate Black Cat against the Ultimate Sinister SIx. So, apparently, Richard Parker, Gwen Stacy and Uncle Ben are all still alive in the Ultimate Universe. What about Captain Stacy? Ned Leeds? Frederick Foswell? Bennett Brant? Harry Osborn? If the entire Silver Age supporting cast is alive again, I might get interested after all.
ULTRAMEGA BY JAMES HARREN #9 (of 9, IMAGE, $7.99): Final issue.
VOID RIVALS #20 (IMAGE, $3.99)
Replies
If, and it's a big if, they stick with the DC Special #29 JSA origin template, they can keep the eight heroes who are on the cover of All Star Comics #3 so it's just the roles of Superman and Batman that are the problem, if they feel the need to replace them at all.
After the Crisis, I remember there was talk of Captain Marvel and the Crimson Avenger stepping in but that ship sailed a long time ago.
I'm thinking that they're going to have Wonder Woman instead of Superman, the timeline be damned. It would have Diana be a founding member of the JSA and wouldn't interfer with the original JSA stories much, if at all.
Other possible understudies for the Man of Steel could be Doctor Occult, created by Siegel and Shuster and given a Superman-like costume though his feature ended in 1938, Zatara also from Action Comics and whose powers could stop a bomb, Blue Beetle, the Golden Age Dan Garrett to start that heric lineage or Steel the Indestructible Man who was around at that time as another "Man of Steel".
As for Batman wannabes, there weren't that many masked heroes that could fit: Tex Thomson wasn't Mister America yet, the Whip makes no sense, Hop Harrigan might work, the Red Tornado would be amazing to add but no.
My pick would be Slam Bradley from Detective Comics plus created by Siegel & Shuster. Acually Bart Regan--SPY makes more sense but Slam's a better known character with a sidekick!
DOOM ACADEMY #5
I've been quite ewnjoying this book , despite (or perhaps, because of?) the fact that I don't k now who any of them are.
FANTASTIC FOUR #33
Marvel's longest-running series bites the dust! I guess that makes Avengers, at #27, the new "longest-running" title. Perhaps one day Marvel will get back intio the triple digits again (but I doubt it).
Kryptonite was rare in the Golden Age. Fans used to make fun of how common it became in the Silver Age. Then Denny O'Neil got rid of it all in the Bronze Age. Then it came back after Crisis, but was once again rare, like in the Golden Age. Now it's ubiquitous again. There really is nothing new under the sun.
Those who do not learn the lessons of continuity are condemned to repeat it.
SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT TP ...the bulk of them blur together in my mind as forgettable. This is one of those.
This one is from 2003 and is by Mark Waid and Leinil F Yu. It came at a time when John Byrne's Man of Steel version was not yet 20 years old, and contradicted it in style, tone and substance. I, personally, was not ready for a "new" Superman at the time, but read it for a second time after it was complete just to make sure I didn't like it. Years later Mark Waid revealed that he was tasked with doing something completely different from Man of Steel. On that front, he succeeded.
Tom Brevoort confirmed in his substack that the Marvel Masterworks aren't selling well enough to continue, and will go on "indefinite hiatus" after the first of the year. So if you're collecting MTIO in MMW form, it may be time to switch.
Well, I don't know about that. [What will be] the last MMW MTIO (v8), reprinting through #93, has been solicited for August release. (One more volume, plus a couple of extras, would have capped off the series at 100.) I don't see a MTIO omnibus series ever getting that far.
This might be the last FF Masterworks, and I can live with that. There was a lot of drek in Fantastic Four after 1986 that I don't need to re-read.
That's all right; I'm re-reading it for you.
NEW HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE #1 - This actually does look good. Great set of creators. I don't know if Todd Nauck actually grew up in the Dallas area, but we went to art school here. I used to see him at local shows quite often. He did the first sketch in my "Mostly" Legion of Super-heroes sketchbook.
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #8 - The only sour note to me is that this will lead into yet another crossover. It is the way, I guess. - Noooooo! I haven't even started reading the cross over yet, so maybe I will be onboard for a sequel.
LAZARUS: FALLEN #1 - I thought this was great, initially. Then it just seemed to get drawn out. Started missing months. Then got converted to a quarterly. I just lost interest. Maybe if the whole thing gets collection I will go back and get it.
MR. TERRIFIC: YEAR ONE #2 - To be fair, this version of Mr. Terrific has always had his origin tied into the Spectre.
GOLDEN AGE OF REPRINTS - Are you sure we aren't in the Silver Age of Reprints? Not exactly Murderers' Row there.
So UDON got the Mega Man franchise. I wondered where it went after IDW lost it. - Makes sense, Udon has a lot of anime style video game comics already