Blog 2.0

Short Cuts 60

Ice Cream Man Vol. 7 – Certain Descents; Static; and Chronophage all get brief reviews.

Mr. Vertigo Reviews 99

Night Mary and The Nice House on the Lake Volume One. 

Rick Remender and Kieron Dwyer reprinted on Image, and James Tynion IV, Álvaro Martínez Bueno, and Jordie Bellaire on DC Black Label. All horror, all the time!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #700
AQUAMAN #15
AVENGING SPIDER-MAN #15.1

BEFORE WATCHMEN NITE OWL #4

CROSSED BADLANDS #20

DEATHMATCH #1

EERIE PRESENTS EL CID HC

HIP FLASK OUROBOROUS

JUSTICE LEAGUE #15

MARA #1

SHADOW SPECIAL #1
STAR WARS OMNIBUS CLONE WARS TP V.3

This short list comes from Comics & Collectibles of Memphis. Arrivals at your local comics store may vary.

Welcome to the latest in a series of blog posts looking at DC One Million, Grant Morrison's epic 1998 JLA crossover. This installment is organised around week 3 of of the 5-week saga, as we follow one of the two main strands of this sprawling eons-spanning story to its climax. There are some SPOILERS ahead...

(You might like to catch up with Week 1 and Week 2 before reading on...)

Starman #1,000,000 James Robinson and Peter Snejbjerg. (Week 2)

This is a simply wonderful comic! It’s essentially just a long conversation between Ted Knight and his great- great- great- great - ad nauseam grandson, Farris Knight, spiced up with some superheroic scenes. It works however, because Snejbjerg’s art is delicious, and Robinson does a fine job of melding the themes and plot elements of Morrison’s grand epic with his own family-based superhero drama, his celebrated Starman run. We get further information on Starman 1m. He is an important actor in the crossover, and an issue like this shows one of the strengths of these collaborative multi-creator crossovers.  Whereas Morrison pulls the reader forward through a series of short snappy scenes stuffed with information, Robinson is able to apply the brakes for a bit here and let us spend some leisurely time getting to knowone of the main actors in teh drama.  Thus his choices and sacrifices later in the crossover have a little more impact.

As Farris talks to Ted, we begin to understand that he has turned traitor and is working with the evil Solaris, but Robinson slips in a further complication. The story opens with Starman’s base near Jupiter pining for its Starman, lost far back in time, and also the space-base seems to have an intense relationship with the Supercomputer Solaris. So we really have a strange three-way relationship between a man, a space-base and a solar supercomputer!

One of the subtle sub-themes of DC 1m is that people and machines are drawing closer together, especially now that everyone is tuned into the Headnet computer network. Through Headnet, too, machines like Robin the Toy Wonder are tuned into humanity and seem to believe that the headnet system grants them a soul and an afterlife of some sort.

In many ways, DC One Million plays with ideas popular amongst certain computer geeks of the 90s that the steady improvement of computers would somehow lead men towards immortality and some kind of rapture-like union between man and machines that would give us infinite knowledge and power. This moment is sometimes called the Singularity. These ideas have informed much of Morrison’s 90s work. Remember both the Key and the Master of Time in JLA growing in knowledge and information to encompass the universe? We see elements of it here in DC One Million as regards information being the most precious commodity, which practically ‘makes the galaxy go round’.

It was a fun set of ideas in the 90s and perhaps opened up new avenues of thought, and a certain wonder regarding what the future might bring. The best debunking of the pseudo-religion of the Singularity I have read is Jarod Lanier’s book “You are not a Gadget”, in which he attacks various assumptions about how computers are supposedly making our lives better and adding to our experience of the world. It’s a profound book regarding our present stage of computer –influenced social and cultural development and it is well worth reading, but I don’t have much space to go into his arguments here.

I did think it was fascinating to see that ideas that were extremely fringe and novel in Morrison’s 90s work have now become so central and ‘taken for granted’ in 21^st Century society that someone has written a book attacking them and decrying how deeply they’ve entered our mass-culture. Morrison was a kind of futurist in the 90s.  Staying with DC One Million, however, D. Curtis Johnson’s script for Chase 1,000,000, (which I'll look at in the next post) does anticipate some of Lanier’s objections, depicting some of the dehumanising downside of the integration of human minds with computers.

Regarding Starman #1,000,000’s place in the longform epic, Farris Knight takes the ‘Knight fragment’ which Ted discovered many years previously and kept in a lead box because it glowed green and gave off dangerous levels of radiation. Farris says he’s going to take it and bury it on Mars where it’ll be needed in the far future. (I wonder what it could be?)

There are really two main story strands in DC One Million. One of them concerns the events in 1998, where the JLA ‘left behind’ must team up with Justice Legion Alpha to combat the simultaneous threats of the Hourman Virus and Vandal Savage’s coincidental attack. I have organised this Week 3 blog post around that strand. It’s appropriate that I start with Starman, because the climax of this strand in Morrison's DC One Million #3 revolves around the choices Farris makes. This strand is really his story!

Detective Comics #1,000,000 - Chuck Dixon and Greg Land ... yes, that Greg Land (Week 3)

Another good Bat-instalment from Dixon, this time set in the present with fine artwork from Land and his collaborators. Land’s work looks like that of someone who is on his way to becoming a notable artist, rather than that of someone who is about to start making a career of swiping from porno mags. It probably helps that there are no women at all in this story. It makes sense that someone with a name like Chuck would be most at home writing manly stories starring manly men! Nightwing and Alfred work with Batman 1m (whose real name we never find out, it seems) to stop the virus.

There is a bit of business where Chuck’s manly men somehow deal with a global outbreak of the Hourman Virus by stopping the Firebug from leading a riot in the downtown area. This doesn’t make any sense in regards to any virus – technological or biological – that I’ve ever heard of, but the men get to act manly in any case.

Finally they stop messing about and get back to the cave where it is clear that the real solution to the virus will involve drastic action!

Man of Steel 1,000,000– Jerry Ordway (dialogue) Karl Kesel (plot) and Anthony Williams (pencils). (Week 2)

The team of Louise Simonson & Dan Bogdanove ended a long partnership on Man of Steel just prior to this issue. In the back issues I’ve read, I’ve found the soap opera elements of Simonson’s scripts to be quite strong, particular some of the scenes between Lois and Clark around the time of their marriage. So I’m a little sad to see that this longstanding creative team isn’t represented in my readthrough. I’d also like to have seen more ongoing writers dealing with Morrison’s great one-month shake-up of their titles. Perhaps it would only be industry gossip, but it’d be very interesting to follow up on how the regular writers of this time each reacted to the challenge of working to Morrison’s template. Some of the writers who took part really rose to the challenge, and some of them produced work which was a notch above what they were doing month in and month out on their own titles.

Back to the plot. Kal Kent, our Superman 1m, must defeat the Metal Men, who have been compromised by the Hourman virus and re-programmed to make the population suspicious of Justice Legion A and Superman 1m in particular. Given the strong role Platinum plays in the future strand of the story, it would seem that Morrison has some affection for her, or perhaps, as a pure, precious metal she has some role to play in the ‘alchemical’ meaning of his great epic.

The Metal Men almost turn the population of Metropolis against Superman 1m, but he eventually defeats them. Doc Magnus, now the 6^th Metal Man Viridium, arrives to explain that they’d been compromised. There are some deviations from what I know of Metal Men history here. The 5 original Metal Men combine into the formidable group-being called Alloy at one point. Then there is the strange revelation that Doc Magnus is no longer human himself, but a Metal Man made of a strange alien metal. It’s hard to tell if the writers are just running with recent developments in Metal Men continuity, or if Morrison has contributed new ideas. The additions to the core mythology do have a sense of evolution about them, but I think that Morrison prefers characters like the Metal Men to be handled in their original forms if possible.

The strange quirky Metal Men would seem to be very marginal to the DCU at this time, so it’s notable that Morrison gives them quite a central role here, if this is following one of his plots. Of course, Morrison was the main writer of the 'Mad Scientist' strand of 52 as well, which featured Doc Magnus and some of the metal men rather heavily too, so he must have some fondness for them.

Superman 1m’s adventures in the 20^th Century are given an urgency and desperation because his time away from the Supercomputer-Sun of the 853^rdCentury makes him grow weaker as the hours pass.

In his own time, he is “faster than a speeding tachyon, more powerful than the gravitational pull of a collapsing star -- able to leap from world to world, in a single bound.”  It seems obvious that the adventures of this character in his own time would be very hard to write.

I could have had separate thread sections on the adventures of both Superman 1m and Batman 1m in the 20^th Century. In both we get to see how the supporting casts of each react to having to deal with the future counterparts of the hero they are used to, and in doing so we do get an insight into those supporting casts. However, I thought 21^stcentury readers might be more interested in how their regular heroes got on in their weird future worlds.

Man of Steel #1,000,000 falls exactly between DC One Million #2, where the Rocket Red suit containing Arsenal was launched against Metropolis, and Superman #1,000,000 where Superman manages to stop it exploding.

Here’s the frame that links this comic to both of those. There just aren’t enough tributes to the great Slim Pickens in DC comics!

Superman #1,000,000 Abnett & Lanning (script) Norm Breyfogle (art) (Week 3)

It’s great to see Breyfogle here as artist. There may be evidence of haste in how some of these issues were pencilled and inked, especially issues where the creative teams seem to have been put together at the last minute. This issue may not be as polished and well-finished as it could be, but Breyfogle, perhaps with the input of the writing team, shows good control of layouts and storytelling.

The first five pages of this issue, showing Superman 1m’s fall from the Rocket Red suit we saw him astride above, are a good illustration of this. Click on pages 1, 3 and 5 to see how the layouts of the pages and the direction the reader normally reads (left to right, top to bottom) are used to give the reader the feeling of a rapidly accelerating fall from a great height.

The nuclear-armed suit that Superman looks up at and tries to force away from the Earth is up there at the top edge of page 3, whereas Superman himself is then shown plummeting down and to the right, culminating on that page with Superman looking in horror just off the page, down and to the right. Bottom right corners anticipating what is coming next, as this does, encourage readers to turn the page. As with Morrison's JLA 1,000,000 issue, above, there is plenty of exposition in the first few pages, so the reader gets up to speed quickly, but the creative team even manage to make a virtue out of this necessity. As the first 5 pages speed up, the creators gradually decrease the amount of plot exposition being conveyed by Superman 1m’s inner monologue, so the reader is naturally forced to follow the pictures in a much faster way as we reach Superman’s crash landing. Techniques like these make reading the comic feel like a breathless exciting process, even if these tricks don’t always register consciously with the reader.

Some comics can feel a little dead as we read them, and we aren’t sure why. The creative team’s inability to mesh the tone and feeling of whatever is being depicted with the physical experience of reading may be the problem. It’s not enough just to show us a picture of something happening, with a few words explaining what the pictures can’t convey, for us to become fully engaged with the story.

The rest of the comic is quite functional as we follow Superman 1m’s attempts to get his hands on the technology that he will need to start constructing a new solar computer. He takes Luthor up on Lex’s offer to assist him. After they fail to get into the present day Fortress of Solitude and visit a Luthorcorp laboratory, Luthor turns on Superman 1m, by trying to dissect him in order to study the Hourman virus. All this time, Superman 1m is gradually losing his powers, as they fail one by one.

Finally he realises that he has to meet up with his Justice Legion A colleagues and try to gain access to the JLA Watchtower, in order to build a solar computer, which they know is the only thing that will stop the Hourman Virus.

I like how Abnett and Lanning depict the relationship between Lois Lane and this temporary usurper of her husband’s position. The breakneck plotting means they don’t really have time to get to know each other really well, but then, why should they? The little distance they keep between each other is more realistic than if they’d had some kind of fan-pleasing heart-to-heart.

The script instead gives us a series of exchanges between Lois and this Kal Kent where they use irony and understatement playfully with each other. This gives unity, and a uniqueness, to the whole issue, and hints at the growing fondness that builds between them without hammering us over the head with anything.

Superboy #1,000,000 Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett (week 3)

Superboy 1,000,000 stands out from the other crossovers somewhat. Most of the other September issues put their ongoing stories to one side to tell a one-off story about either the future counterpart of the regular star, or the regular star’s encounter with the mind-blowing world of 85,271AD. Kesel tries to tell us stories of both characters, in both times, while still trying to integrate this issue into his longer ongoing series. His approach is more like that used by frustrated writers in a conventional crossover, where he tries to service the event and still push his own storylines forward at the same time. A new ongoing character, Dr Serling Roquette, is introduced and Superboy’s induction to Project Cadmus is featured. We also get the obviously big deal decision to go public with the existence of Project Cadmus.

Taken as part of this readthrough of DC One Million, this one feels less successful, as this feels too much like another small chapter of an endless soap opera. This is in contrast to how many of the creative teams involved grabbed the opportunity to step off the wearying treadmill of endless monthly production to tell sharp little one-off stories, or to revel in the extremely fresh and exotic far-distant environment that the crossover allowed them to take advantage of for one month.

Blah Blah Blah

Even looking outside the DC One Million crossover, pick any really great single superhero comic that has stayed with you over the years. Chances are it was a comic where the creative team sat down and asked ‘what is this comic about? What is its theme?’ and from there focused a large part of the comic on serving that theme, or driving the message of the comic home. This comic doesn’t do that. Instead we are given page after page of different plot-driven events and endless expositionary speechifying.

Blah Blah

There are lots of amusing ideas here. There is a certain sense of lightheartedness, and the characters are likeable, but it all feels a bit “Jurgens-y” if I can use that term. By Jurgens-y I mean that there is plenty of plot, but we just get the story told in a series of pictures rather than something that feels very controlled artistically to produce genuine reactions in the reader. For one thing the art style doesn’t really change depending on how the reader is supposed to react. Then there is just so much text, as everything is explained to the nth degree to the reader.

Blah

Certainly, a lot happens in this comic, in two eras, which is something at least. The reader gets value for money on their first reading of comics like these, as there is a lot going on and lots of text, but with everything explained and laid out so that all the comic has to offer is gotten by the reader first time through, there’s not much reason to go back to this comic again. Everything is in service to the busy plotting, rather than allowing the comic to serve themes and feelings and human insights. It would also seem that the need to fill each panel with plotting means that few panels or pages are allowed to be simply pleasing on the eye, as happens in Snejbjerg's Starman, or either of JH Williams III's contributions to this crossover.

An interesting thing that Kesel does is use some tampering by the representative from the future to reveal something of Superboy’s immediate future to him. If I was a regular reader, I’d want to find out more about the hints and glimpses shown on this double-page spread.

I don’t really mean to pick on Kesel and Grummett here, but I am trying to pin down why this comic, by the regular team who supposedly have a lot invested in these characters and concepts, doesn’t work as well, ‘as a comic’ as Abnett and Lanning’s Superman #1,000,000, which seems at first glance to be a quite simplistic crossover-installment handed in by a substitute team. DC published a lot of exposition heavy, plot-driven comics like Superboy 1,000,000 in the early 90’s, that arguably scared off a lot of readers whose curiosity had been whetted by the work of Moore and Miller. So it’s worth considering what they are doing differently to comics of other eras.

JLA #1,000,000 Grant Morrison and Howard Porter (week 3)

It’s strange that this is the only issue of this Morrison/JLA epic that is drawn by regular JLA artist Porter. He rises to the occasion here with page after page of interesting layouts and dynamic superheroics, in his distinctive JLA style.

In this one, the Justice League subs bench has to defend the Watchtower from what they see as an attack by the Justice Legion ‘A’. They don’t know that the future heroes are trying to get access to the equipment and power supplies they need to build a new Solaris that will neutralise the Hourman Virus. The stakes are high and we take the heroes dilemmas and choices seriously, but they are still presented in a colourful and fun way. The colour and fun of these ‘Reconstruction’-era comics is something that really strikes the reader in 2012. Tastes and fashions have changed considerably in mainstream superhero comics, as evidenced by all that grim and grit and dour compromise of both the DCnU and the brave new crypto-fascist dispensation that Captain America presides over in the Marvel Universe.

The first page illustrates the colour and fun I speak of, with a side-order of awe, wonder and smarts. (Click to enlarge)

This is really an info-dump page, but Morrison uses several techniques to lift it above the endless panels of people talking to each other that we got with Kesel’s Superboy. As well as the information, which is just as well to get out of the way early, so we can sit back and enjoy the rest of the comic, we get some heart in the genuine respect and fondness the 853^rd Century’s Finest Team have for each other. It is heartwarming to see this Superman call this Batman “Old friend” and know that some good things will endure. Then there are the fun ‘Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ entries using all kinds of novel and inspired terms and concepts to describe these two remarkable heroes.

Actually, Morrison adds a little conceit to this comic, in showing how entertainments of the future might come loaded with information. As well as the frequent updates on the histories and powers of the cast, from an entertainingly vast historical perspective, we also get reminders at the bottom of ever second page to ‘turn page’ – which highlights in a roundabout way that the future society would be so different to ours that people wouldn’t even know how to read a comic!

Then there are the nods to wild adventures and lives lived outside the pages of this or any comic: in this case the reference to the Pandora’s Box adventure. References like this make the fictional world seem open and boundless, instant of closed-in and restricted, as happens when everything ties directly into the plotting and continuity.

Finally, look how Superman’s feet are shattering the ground as he prepares to launch himself at the moon. Einstein gets name-checked in the dialogue box there, but it’s nice to see Newton’s laws of equal but opposite reaction get a look-in too. In the next full page splash Superman speaks the end of that famous phrase, but we don’t see any words in the balloon because, of course, he’s in the vacuum of space.

These preposterous heroes become a little more real when they are presented with little ‘true’ details like the cracking ground and the soundlessness of space. What could be more fun than the preposterous becoming real for just a little bit?

Morrison writes at length in his Supergods about how superhero writers have to make the same limited number of hackneyed plots entertaining month after month. In the case of this comic he takes the cliché of two super-teams meeting, fighting and then teaming up to defeat the bad guy, and through various techniques such as those shown on this page, gives a masterclass in how to make it work one more time.

DC One Million #3 - Morrison and Val Semeiks (Week 4)

In this issue all the threats and plotlines set in 1998 are resolved. To begin with things are in absolute chaos, but Morrison’s heroes are just that - heroes. Other multi-hero crossovers may involve most of the 'good guys' standing back and letting the main hero do the important stuff, but here, Morrison is careful to show that all the heroes are each doing what they can with the facet of the overall situation they are presented with. Oracle tries to co-ordinate everything, whilst the Atom, in her bloodstream works out how to defeat the Hourman Virus. He is successful in this, albeit it would take too long for his vaccine to be made and distributed. The Martian Manhunter and the Teen Titans of the day face off against Vandal Savage, whilst the rest of the JLA work furiously to construct a ‘Solar Computer’ which is the only means they have to defeat the virus within a short timeframe.

As elsewhere in Morrison’s JLA work, the JLA members from both timeframes show their true heroism in their behaviour, rather than just the fact that they are the ones fighting the bad guys. As the Virus makes them more paranoid, short-tempered and unable to concentrate, they constantly try to encourage and placate each other, and show compassion.

This is most obvious in the scenes between Batman 1m and his colleague Starman. Batman is enraged at Knight’s betrayal, and determined to beat a solution to their predicament out of him, even if it means killing him. In a moment of grace, Batman sees that Starman is the only one capable of helping them get their solar computer up and running, and he gives Farris his powerful Gravity Rod back. Batman puts Farris’ redemption into his own hands. A gesture that possibly redeems two lost souls at once.

In a series presenting such a hopeful vision of the future, it’s satisfying that the atavistic violence, selfishness and will-to-power that threatens everything is personified in Vandal Savage, a conqueror from mankind’s earliest days. Savage even faces off against the Martian Manhunter in some of Hitler’s set-aside super-tanks, to drive the point home. Vandal Savage is one of DC’s most potent characters, representing as he does, the evil that mankind has always been capable of since our beginnings, but he’s been woefully underused for most of his existence. To date, this is perhaps his best use in a major crossover, although he had a small but important ‘uncredited cameo’ in Final Crisis. Vandal is also Solaris’ most trusted partner and co-conspirator in the 853^rd Century, showing that the evil that has accompanied the human race is something that we will probably always have to contend with.

Thematicaly, it is satisfying that it is J’onn J’onnz, the kindest and most compassionate of the Justice League, whose attitude to the world is most unlike Savage’s, who gets to put Savage out of the picture.

In the remainder of the issue, Farris Knight’s gravity rod allows them to jumpstart the Solar Computer, which absorbs the Hourman Virus from all over the Earth. As it gathers more information and increases its intelligence, however, it starts to become the Tyrant Sun Solaris. This is a bad thing, and it’s up to the conflicted anti-hero Starman to step up and banish him from our universe, even if it means sacrificing his own life. It’s a great sequence. I wanted to post a picture or two from it to illustrate how good it is, but it all works as a long sequence of words and pictures, and just a couple of them don't do it justice. In any case, it’s a great climax to Farris Knight’s arc. Considering that no-one had heard of Farris Knight only a month before, Morrison has brought this character from nought to light-speed in 4 weeks! Literally ‘from Zero to Hero’.

Part of his story was told through revelations that the heroes trapped in the 853^rd made in their comics, but the main work was done in Robinson’s wonderful 1,000,000th issue of Starman.

Farris’ sacrifice is presented as something that puzzles himself. He’d tried all his life to escape the role of hero that he’d seemingly been born into, but here he was, being the greatest hero of the moment. Farris wonders if everything was pre-ordained from the beginning, but this is a very ‘Morrisonian’ line of thought. The rest of the series does show us that despite everyone’s attempts to change history, they each end up doing exactly what they’d done each time these events were set in motion. More than just presenting a cleverly constructed time-travel story, its clear that Morrison is once again trying to get across the insights he believes were granted to him during his "Katmandu experience".

With Vandal and the Tyrant Sun dealt with, all that’s left is for the heroes stuck in the 20^th Century to find a way to get to the 853^rd, or find some way to help their timelost companions save the Universe from Solaris’ nefarious plans.

We’ll get to that in my Week 4 blog. However, first there will be a brief Interlude to mourn those who fell during this great battle for the future of the DCU.

A PLUS X #3 NOW
ADVENTURE TIME #11
AIRBOY DEADEYE #5 (OF 5)
ALAN ROBERT KILLOGY #2 (OF 4)
ALL NEW X-MEN #4 NOW
ALLIANCE OF THE CURIOUS HC (MR)
AMERICAS GOT POWERS #4 (OF 6)
ANGEL & FAITH #17
ARCHIE BEST OF DAN DECARLO TP VOL 01
ART OF DARKSIDERS SC VOL 02
ASTONISHING X-MEN #57
AVENGERS #2 NOW
AVENGERS ARENA #2 NOW
AVENGERS BY BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS HC V4 AVX

BATGIRL #14 (DOTF) 2ND PTG
BATWOMAN #15
BEFORE WATCHMEN MOLOCH #2 (OF 2) (MR)
BEST OF SONIC THE HEDGEHOG TP VOL 01
BETTY & VERONICA #263
BIONIC WOMAN #6
BIRDS OF PREY #15
BLACK BEETLE NIGHT SHIFT #0
BLUE BEETLE #15
BPRD 1948 #3 (OF 5)
BRAVEST WARRIORS #3 (OF 6)
BROKEN PIECES #5
BUCK ROGERS IN 25TH CENTURY DAILIES HC V7

CABLE AND X-FORCE #2 NOW
CAPTAIN AMERICA #2 NOW
CAPTAIN AMERICA AND BLACK WIDOW #640
CAPTAIN MARVEL #8
CARBON GREY VOL 2 #2 (OF 3)
CASTLE A CALM BEFORE STORM #1 (OF 5)
CATWOMAN #15
CHEW TP VOL 06 SPACE CAKES (MR)
CLASSIC POPEYE ONGOING #5
COMEBACK #2 (OF 5) (MR)
COUNTRY ASS WHUPPIN TORNADO RELIEF ANTH ONE SHOT

DAMES IN THE ATOMIC AGE GN VOL 01
DAREDEVIL #21
DARK HORSE PRESENTS #19
DARK KNIGHT RETURNS ACTION FIGURE BOX SET
DARK SHADOWS #11
DARKSIDERS II DEATHS DOOR HC VOL 01
DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS #15
DEADPOOL COSTUME HOODIE XL
DJANGO UNCHAINED #1 (OF 5) (MR)
DOCTOR WHO I TARDIS DW T/S

ELEPHANTMEN TP VOL 05 DEVILISH FUNCTIONS (MR)
EMPOWERED SPECIAL #3 HELL BENT OR HEAVEN SENT (MR)
EVIL ERNIE #3
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT ASSASSINS #6
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT IRIS VOL 3 #1

FABLES #124 (MR)
FANTASTIC FOUR BY JONATHAN HICKMAN PREM HC VOL 06
FF #2 NOW
FF BY JONATHAN HICKMAN TP VOL 03
FREELANCERS #2

GAMBIT #7
GODSTORM #3 (OF 5) (MR)
GREEN HORNET #32
GREEN LANTERN #15 (RISE)
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GRIMM FAIRY TALES #80 A CVR CAFARO (MR)

HAPPY #3 (OF 4)
HARBINGER (ONGOING) #7
HAUNT #28
HAWKEYE #6
HE MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE #5 (OF 6)
HELLBLAZER #298 (MR)
HELLRAISER ROAD BELOW #3 (OF 4) (MR)
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IDOLIZED #4
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LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #15
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PANTHA #5
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ROBYN HOOD #4 (OF 5) (MR)
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SAGA #8 (MR)
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SIXTH GUN #27
SNAKE EYES & STORM SHADOW #20
SONIC UNIVERSE #47
SPACEHAWK TP WOLVERTON
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STAR TREK 100 PAGE SPECTACULAR WINTER 2012
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SUPREME #67
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TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES CLASSICS TP VOL 03
THE SPIDER #7
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ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #18
ULTIMATE COMICS ULTIMATES #19
UNCANNY X-FORCE #35
UNWRITTEN #44 (MR)

VAMPIRELLA #25
VENOM #28

WHERE IS JAKE ELLIS #2 (OF 5)
WITCH DOCTOR MALPRACTICE #2 (OF 6)
WITCHBLADE #162
WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #22
WOLVERINE BACK IN JAPAN TP
WONDER WOMAN #15
WONDERLAND #6 (MR)

X-FACTOR #249
X-MEN LEGACY #3 NOW
X-MEN LEGACY BACK TO SCHOOL TP
X-O MANOWAR (ONGOING) #8
X-TREME X-MEN #8

YOUNG JUSTICE #23

Comics & Collectibles of Memphis posted this list on Facebook. Arrivals at your LCS may vary.

This isn’t a review column.  Rather, it’s a survey of some of my favorite lines from recent comics.  It’s also a reminder of why I love comics in the first place.

“Keep getting the feeling that I’m forgetting something.  Like there’s somewhere else I’m supposed to be.  Teaching school?  Really?  Can that be right?  Guess I’m better off having knives thrown at my face.” 

-Kitty Pryde after the faculty of the X-Men’s new school have been abducted and brainwashed into working in a circus from Wolverine and the X-Men #21

“Why should I be afraid?  I am Daric of Dacia, nephew of Alaric, the Sacker of Rome.  Let them face me.” 

            -Daric of Dacia, aka X-O Manowar, from X-O Manowar #7

“Can you recall a time in your training when the masters did not take your words and actions seriously?”

-Master Tave, ironically failing to take seriously the concerns of the Jedi-in-training, in Dawn of the Jedi: Prisoner of Bogan #1

“Note to self, then.  For the next life: screw everybody.  Oh, who am I fooling?”

-Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, after throwing himself out of a window in Hawkeye #5

“Humans and dinosaurs actually coexisting?  Why, this is the most inane production I have ever had the misfortune to—“ “Ahh, go be smart somewhere else, willya?  Some of us wanna enjoy the pitcha!” 

-A couple arguing about a B-movie right before an escaped dinosaur crashes through the theatre wall, from Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom #4

“You won’t be the first to try, and you won’t be the first to fail.”

-The Yellow Lantern Arkillo taunting Kyle Rayner regarding the futility of his quest to wield the power of all seven colors, from Green Lantern: New Guardians #14

“If the X-Men thing isn’t working out, I could put in a word for you with the Avengers.”

            -Daredevil to Domino after their team-up in X-Men #39

“Alyssa, evil is not a toy.  Don’t poke that.” 

-Alessandro Paradojo Del Verdad, otherwise known as Dox, from Shadowman #2

“He lured me through one of his portals—locked some sort of electronic collar around my neck—and used it to separate my head from my body.  And that’s when I knew I’d won.”

-A supremely confident Daredevil, preparing to take down Coyote despite his own captivity, in Daredevil #20 

“Forgiveness is better than hate.  It might not have the same rush—but it doesn’t ruin lives, either.”

            -Kyle Jinadu-Beaubier to his husband Jean-Paul from Astonishing X-Men #56

“Aren’t you tired of all these small steps we’ve been taking?  We’re supposed to be together, Mary Jane.  I know it and you know it.  So let’s do something about it.”

-Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, asking Mary Jane to run away with him in Amazing Spider-Man #698

“If the law is unjust… then justice must be an outlaw”

            -Kato, persuading the Green Hornet to rescue Zorro, in Masks #1 

“Goodbye, fair hovertank!”  “I offer you compliments on your battling!  Let us together turn our dead to smoke and drink of the tranquility urn.  For now there can be peace!  Perhaps not?  When you are ready.” 

-The chivalrous Jedi Knight Cho’Na Bene, playfully bantering with his foes on the battlefield, including a very frustrated Darth Vader, from Star Wars Purge: The Tyrant’s Fist #1

“I may be my own woman, independent.  But do you want to hear something funny?  I miss existing for someone else.”  “It’s not so strange.  We’re all on the lookout for that missing jigsaw piece.”

-The succubus and the vampire pontificating on the nature of love in Spike: A Dark Place #4

“I am the unrepentant Lord of Monsters, after all.”  “Yes, I picked up on that.”

-A brief exchange between the Big Bad Wolf and the Turtle with the world on his back in a teacup from Fables #123

“I don’t care what they’re sayin’ about mutants… there aren’t enough heroes in the world.”

-A stranger thanking the mutant Havok for recovery work after a tragedy, from Uncanny Avengers #2

By Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

Last week, DC Comics sent me a Batman-shaped thumb drive with holiday gift suggestions on it. My first thought was: “A Batman-shaped thumb drive exists! And I’ve got one!”

After I stopped giggling, I scrolled through the suggestions on the drive, and found that quite a few had merit. Some, in fact, I had meant to recommend anyway.

One such is the “We Can Be Heroes Justice League Action Figure Box Set.” What’s significant about this set of the seven founding Justice League members (as of the new origin in 2011) is not how spiffy they are, but that part of the purchase price will benefit efforts to relieve drought suffering in the Horn of Africa. Ten dollars of the admittedly high purchase price (officially $99.95, but cheaper at various online outlets) goes directly to the “We Can Be Heroes” campaign.

Which is not to say the figures aren’t spiffy, because they are. The set features Aquaman, Batman, Cyborg, Flash, Green Lantern, Superman and Wonder Woman, rendered as detailed and articulated PVC action figures.

The thumb drive also featured a “Sandman” section with several options, and as luck would have it, there was one item already on my “to recommend” pile. That would be the recently released The Annotated Sandman Volume Two ($49.99), containing more than 500 pages reprinting and commenting on Neil Gaiman’s classic The Sandman #21-39. The annotations are by Leslie S. Klinger, who has done similar annotated works on Dracula and Sherlock Holmes, buttressed by hours of interviews with Gaiman. If you’re of a literary or intellectual bent, this is the perfect way to enjoy Gaiman’s epic – or re-enjoy, if you’ve already read it once or twice, as I have.

Scrolling down, I found the Fables section, books and such based on Bill Willingham’s wonderful Vertigo series posited on fairy-tale figures living quietly among us, growing stronger or weaker dependent on our belief in them. And sure enough, I had already planned to address two Fables-related books.

One is Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland ($22.99), which debuted at #1 on the New York Times’ Hardcover Graphic Books best-seller list on Dec. 1. Written by Willingham himself, the story features fan-favorite character Bigby Wolf (Bigby, a.k.a. Big B., or “Big Bad”) searching rural America for a new site for Fabletown, whose New York City location was recently destroyed. He runs across Story City, Iowa, a town completely populated by werewolves – yes, werewolves, and they’re related to Bigby in a surprising way. Plus, they revere him as a god. But gods are sometimes sacrificed, and Bigby finds out he’s in for the fight of his very long life. (Incidentally, Story City, Iowa, really exists, but whether it’s entirely populated by mythical shapeshifters I can’t say. Besides, how would we know?)

Also on the Fables list is the first collection of the spin-off series Fairest, featuring the many lovely ladies of folklore. Fairest Volume 1: Wide Awake ($14.99) collects the first seven issues, the first six of which stars Sleeping Beauty, a.k.a. Princess Briar Rose, in a story by Willingham and drawn by Phil Jimenez. Not only do we learn Briar Rose’s history (and the nature of her curse), but somehow both she and the deadly (but also ensorcelled) Snow Queen are awakened by “love’s true kiss” from Ali Baba, Prince of Thieves. So what does “love’s true kiss” mean, anyway? And which will Ali choose – and once chosen, will the “lucky” maid want to have anything to do with a professional thief? Or will the cranky Snow Queen simply kill them all?

It’s an amusing six-part story full of twists and turns, plus the sociological musings for which Willingham is known. The book ends with Fairest #7, a one-off by Matt Sturges and Shawn McManus starring Beauty and the Beast, set in the 1920s and revealing a disturbing secret about their relationship. (We all knew something weird was going on, didn’t we?) All in all, Fairest Volume 1 is everything I’d hoped it would be.

There’s plenty more I wish had time to mention, like the V for Vendetta Book and Mask Set ($24.99), the Dark Knight Rising Batman vs. Bane statue ($299.95), the DC Cover Girls statues of Wonder Woman and Catwoman ($99.95 each) and the new Totally Mad collection ($34.95). But you can take a look online yourself, if your pocketbook can take it.

And if you want a Batman thumb drive of your very own, it turns out they’re for sale, too. In fact, I found not only Batman, but Dark Knight, Flash, Joker and Superman thumb drives at thinkgeek.com, among other places. Seriously, how can you resist?

Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.

ART

1. The Justice League action-figure set helps benefit drought relief in the Horn of Africa. Copyright DC Entertainment

2. The Bane vs. Batman statue commemorates the climactic battle in Dark Knight Rises. Copyright DC Entertainment

3. Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland features the Big Bad Wolf vs. his own progeny. Copyright DC Entertainment

4. Fairest Volume 1: Wide Awake stars Sleeping Beauty, Ali Baba, the Snow Queen and Beauty & the Beast. Copyright DC Entertainment

By Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

It’s that time of year, when Captain Comics quaffs an egg nog or two and makes gift recommendations for the geeks in your life.

To get in the mood I don my Yoda Holiday Hat, a Santa Claus hat with Yoda ears, which set me back a paltry $9.99 from the Overlords at Think Geek (thinkgeek.com). Then I decorate the tree with Star Wars holiday lights that light up Yoda or R2-D2 with festive, futuristic color, also from Think Geek ($19.99-29.99).

Think Geek has plenty of actual gifts, too, which is where I satisfied my itch last year for a Star Trek Starship Enterprise pizza cutter. I’ve got my eye on a few more items this year, like the Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver Programmable TV Remote ($89.99), the Game of Thrones Stark Direwolf Bookends ($69.99) and the Lord of the Rings Etched Bar-Ware (glasses and mugs, $29.99). That’s just a sampling from a company that specializes in scratching the geekiest of itches.

Speaking of itches, avoid them with comfy superhero bathrobes from DC Entertainment (shopdcentertainment.com). Soft, oversize cotton robes with Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman styles will set you back $69.95, but you can go cheaper with Green Lantern or Joker fleece robes ($49.95). There’s plenty more DC-themed material at the site, including DVD and Blu-ray sets of superhero movies (the Dark Knight trilogy, the Superman films) and TV shows (Flash, Adventures of Superman, Smallville), action figures, various apparel and so forth. I’ve already got the Bat-robe, plus the Bat-slippers, a Bat-backpack, several Bat-shirts and Bat-boxers, but there’s always room for more!

Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned the Bat-boxers. Let’s clear our mental palette by thinking about the Avengers, which – as you’d guess – is a franchise with lots to offer this year.

The movie itself is out in various formats – Blu-ray and DVD, in 2 discs and 4, in 2D and 3D, beginning at $18 for the DVD version (with prices rising with additional extras). Of course, if your intended recipient doesn’t have the prequels to Avengers, you might toss in Captain America: The First Avenger, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and Thor, all available wherever movies are sold.

Or you could just give an IOU for the simply astounding Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One – Avengers Assembled ($219) collection, which is scheduled to ship in April. Phase One includes Blu-ray versions of all the movies listed above, with bonus 3D versions of Avengers, Captain America and Thor, plus a “Top-secret Bonus Disc” which will likely contain previews of upcoming Marvel films, such as Ant-Man, Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier,  Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man 3 and Thor 2: The Dark World.  One mystery is what the case will look like – Marvel’s original solicitation showed the discs contained in a replica of the S.H.I.E.L.D. briefcase that held the tesseract in the movie, but the luggage manufacturer that designed it sued! While some other design will be used, the real impact of the lawsuit is that it delayed the set’s release beyond Christmas. Thanks a lot, Rimowa BhmbH of Germany (yes, that’s their real name).

But aside from the usual action figures, T-shirts, games, etc., I think the crown jewel of Avengers paraphernalia has got to be the Stern “The Avengers” pinball machine. Yes, it’s pricey, at $5,699. But it’s a real, honest-to-Odin, old-fashioned, working pinball machine, and it’s as cool as the other side of the pillow. (And if Avengers isn’t your plate of shwarma, Stern also offers Batman, Iron Man, Spider-Man and X-Men machines.) Navigate over to sternpinball.com to order (or just to drool).

Also drool-worthy are the Avengers maquettes, busts, statues and sixth-scale figures at Sideshow Collectibles (sideshowtoys.com). These are also rather pricy, but where else are you going to get a foot-tall World War II Captain America poseable figure that really looks like Chris Evans, with a genuine metal shield and real leather jacket?

And, because I’m on my third egg nog, I’ll mention Sideshow’s Darth Vader Life-Size Bust – not only because it’s cool, but because it costs $1,200. Yes, it looks like Anakin Skywalker under the helmet, and each one is individually painted and finished, and constructed in fiberglass, polystone, fabric and metal (real wiring!), which is awesome. Still, I just want to meet the fan who can spare that kind of cash for what amounts to a ginormous paperweight.

Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.

ART

1. These Star Wars holiday lights feature glowing Yodas. Copyright Think Geek

2. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Captain America (Chris Evans) were two of the stars of Marvel's The Avengers. Copyright Marvel Films.

3. The playing field for The Avengers pinball machine features challenges to add Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Hulk, Iron Man and Thor to the team. Copyright Stern Pinball

30 DAYS OF NIGHT ONGOING #12

ACTIVITY #10
ADV OF DR MCNINJA TP VOL 02 TIMEFIST
ADVENTURE TIME COVER SHOWCASE ONE SHOT
ADVENTURE TIME MARCELINE SCREAM QUEENS #6 MAIN CVRS
AGE OF APOCALYPSE #10
AGE OF BRONZE #32 (RES)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #699.1
AME COMI GIRLS #3 (OF 5) FEATURING DUELA DENT
ARCHER & ARMSTRONG (NEW) #5 20 COPY INCV A&A CVR
ARCHER & ARMSTRONG (NEW) #5 50 COPY INCV WARRIOR CVR
ARCHER & ARMSTRONG (NEW) #5 PULLBOX BRAITHWAITE CVR
ARCHER & ARMSTRONG (NEW) #5 REG ZIRCHER CVR
ARMY OF DARKNESS ONGOING #7
ARTIFACTS #23
ATOMIC ROBO REAL SCIENCE ADV TP
AVENGERS ARENA #1 NOW
AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #10 NOW

B & V FRIENDS DOUBLE DIGEST #230
BATGIRL #15 (DOTF)
BATMAN #15 (DOTF)
BATMAN #15 BLACK & WHITE VAR ED (DOTF)
BATMAN #15 COMBO PACK (DOTF)
BATMAN #15 VAR ED (DOTF)
BATMAN AND ROBIN #15 (DOTF)
BATMAN ARKHAM UNHINGED #9
BATMAN BLACK & WHITE STATUE BY FRANK MILLER 2ND ED
BATTLEFIELDS #2 (OF 6) GREEN FIELDS BEYOND PT 2
BEFORE WATCHMEN DR MANHATTAN #3 (OF 4) (MR)
BEFORE WATCHMEN DR MANHATTAN #3 (OF 4) COMBO PACK (MR)
BEFORE WATCHMEN DR MANHATTAN #3 (OF 4) VAR ED (MR)
BEFORE WATCHMEN RORSCHACH #3 (OF 4) (MR)
BEFORE WATCHMEN RORSCHACH #3 (OF 4) COMBO PACK (MR)
BEFORE WATCHMEN RORSCHACH #3 (OF 4) VAR ED (MR)
BILLY KIDS ODDITIES & ORM LOCH NESS #3 (OF 4)
BLOODSHOT (ONGOING) #6 20 COPY INCV HAIRSINE CVR
BLOODSHOT (ONGOING) #6 REG LOZZI CVR
BODY BAGS TP VOL 02 (MR)
BORDERLANDS ORIGINS #2 (OF 4)
BTVS SEASON 8 LIBRARY HC VOL 03
BTVS SEASON 9 FREEFALL #16 JEANTY VAR CVR
BTVS SEASON 9 FREEFALL #16 NOTO CVR

CABLE AND X-FORCE #1 LARROCA DESIGN SKETCH VAR NOW
CABLE AND X-FORCE #1 NOW
CALIGULA HEART OF ROME #1 (OF 6) (MR)
CALIGULA HEART OF ROME #1 (OF 6) GORE CVR (MR)
CALIGULA HEART OF ROME #1 (OF 6) IMPERIAL INCV CVR (MR)
CALIGULA HEART OF ROME #1 (OF 6) WRAP CVR (MR)
CAPTAIN AMERICA BY ED BRUBAKER TP VOL 02
CARNAGE USA TP
CHANGE #1 (OF 4) (MR)
CHOSEN #3 (OF 3)
CLONE #2
CONAN THE BARBARIAN #11
COURIERS COMPLETE COLLECTION TP (MR)
COURTNEY CRUMRIN ONGOING #8
CREEP #4
CREEPSVILLE GN (RES)
CRIMINAL MACABRE FINAL NIGHT 30 DAYS XOVER #1 (OF 4)
CROSSED BADLANDS #19 (MR)
CROSSED BADLANDS #19 END O/T WORLD CVR (MR)
CROSSED BADLANDS #19 RED CROSSED ORDER INCV CVR (MR)
CROSSED BADLANDS #19 TORTURE CVR (MR)
CROSSED BADLANDS #19 WRAP CVR (MR)
CROW SKINNING THE WOLVES #1 (OF 3)
CROW SKINNING THE WOLVES #1 (OF 3) 10 COPY INCV

DAMES IN THE ATOMIC AGE GN VOL 01
DAN THE UNHARMABLE #8 (MR)
DAN THE UNHARMABLE #8 RETRO INCV CVR (MR)
DAN THE UNHARMABLE #8 WRAP CVR (MR)
DAREDEVIL BY MARK WAID TP VOL 02
DARK AVENGERS #184
DARK KNIGHT RISES BATMAN ARTFX STATUE
DC COMICS COVER GIRLS POISON IVY STATUE
DC COMICS SUPER VILLAINS JOKER BUST
DC POWER GIRL BISHOUJO STATUE
DEADMAN TP VOL 03
DEADPOOL DEAD HC
DEATHSTROKE #15
DEMON KNIGHTS #15
DOCTOR WHO DISAPPEARING TARDIS MUG
DOMINIQUE LAVEAU VOODOO CHILD TP VOL 01 (MR)
DR WHO FAMILY BOARD GAME

ELEPHANTMEN TP VOL 05 DEVILISH FUNCTIONS (MR)
ESSENTIAL X-FACTOR TP VOL 05
EX SANGUINE #3 (OF 5) (MR)
EXILE ON PLANET O/T APES TP VOL 01
EXTERMINATION #7 MAIN CVRS

FANBOYS VS ZOMBIES #9 MAIN CVRS
FANTASTIC FOUR #2 KUBERT VAR NOW
FANTASTIC FOUR #2 NOW
FEAR AGENT HC VOL 01
FERALS TP VOL 01 (MR)
FRANKENSTEIN AGENT OF SHADE #15 (ROT)

GARFIELD TP VOL 01
GARTH ENNIS JENNIFER BLOOD #20 (MR)
GFT BAD GIRLS #5 (OF 5) A CVR REYES (MR)
GFT BAD GIRLS #5 (OF 5) B CVR REYES (MR)
GFT MYTHS & LEGENDS #24 A CVR REYES (MR)
GFT MYTHS & LEGENDS #24 B CVR SPAY (MR)
GHOSTBUSTERS ONGOING #16
GI JOE / TRANSFORMERS TP VOL 02
GI JOE COBRA LAST LAUGH HC
GI JOE VOL 2 ONGOING #20 10 COPY INCV
GRANDVILLE BETE NOIRE HC
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #15 (RISE)
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #15 VAR ED (RISE)
GREEN LANTERN THE ANIMATED SERIES #9
GRENDEL OMNIBUS TP VOL 02 LEGACY
GRIFTER #15

HACK SLASH #21 CVR A SEELEY & MARCO (MR)
HACK SLASH #21 CVR B CASAGRANDE (MR)
HOLLOWS #1 (OF 4)

IMAGE FIRSTS CHEW CURR PTG #1 (MR)
IMAGE FIRSTS FATALE CURR PTG #1 (MR)
IMAGE FIRSTS MANHATTAN PROJECTS CURR PTG #1
IMAGE FIRSTS REVIVAL CURR PTG #1
IMAGE FIRSTS SAGA CURR PTG #1 (MR)
IMAGE FIRSTS THIEF OF THIEVES CURR PTG #1
IMAGE FIRSTS WALKING DEAD CURR PTG #1 (MR)
INCREDIBLE HULK BY JASON AARON TP VOL 01
IRON MAN #4 NOW
IRON MAN #4 PAGULAYAN VAR NOW
IT GIRL & THE ATOMICS #5

JASON & FREDDY 4-IN PLUSH CLIP-ON 24-PC ASST
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY TP VOL 04 MANCHESTER GODS
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA OMEGA TP
JUSTICE LEAGUE SUPERMAN ACTION FIGURE

KAMANDI LAST BOY ON EARTH OMNIBUS HC VOL 02

LEGION LOST #15
LENORE VOLUME II #7
LIFE WITH ARCHIE #25 BREYFOGLE CVR
LIFE WITH ARCHIE #25 RUIZ WRAPAROUND CVR
LOVE AND CAPES WHAT TO EXPECT #5 (OF 6)

MANKIND STORY OF ALL OF US TP VOL 02 (MR)
MARS ATTACKS 6-IN AF (C: 1-1-4)
MARVEL BRONZE AGE 1970-1985 T/C BOX
MARVEL NOW 2013 CALENDARS
MARVEL NOW PREVIEWS 2
MARVEL UNIVERSE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #9
MARVEL UNIVERSE VS AVENGERS #3 (OF 4)
MASSIVE #7
MEGA MAN #20 JAMPOLE CVR
MEGA MAN #20 NORTON CVR
MEGASKULL GN (MR) (C: 0-1-2)
MONSTERS INC #1 (OF 2)

NANCY IN HELL (ON EARTH) TP (MR)
NEW AVENGERS BY BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS TP VOL 03
NEW CRUSADERS RISE OF THE HEROES #4 JACKPOT VAR CVR

ORCHID #11 (MR)

PARKER THE HUNTER SC
PERHAPANAUTS TP VOL 02 TREASURE OBSCURA
PETER CANNON THUNDERBOLT #4
PHANTOM STRANGER #3 VAR ED
PHAZER #6
PLANET O/T APES CATACLYSM #4 MAIN CVRS
POINT OF IMPACT #3 (OF 4) (MR)
POPEYE #8

RAVAGERS #7
RED SONJA ATLANTIS RISES #4
REVIVAL TP VOL 01 YOU’RE AMONG FRIENDS
ROCKETEER ADVENTURES HC VOL 02 DM EX ED
ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW TP
RUE MORGUE MAGAZINE #129
RUST HC VOL 02

SAUCER COUNTRY #10 (MR)
SCARLET SPIDER #12
SHERLOCK HOLMES LIVERPOOL DEMON #1 (OF 5)
SNAKE EYES & STORM SHADOW TP VOL 01
SPACE 1999 AFTERSHOCK & AWE
SPIDER-MAN DANGER ZONE PREM HC
SPONGEBOB COMICS #15
STAR TREK NEXT GENERATION OMNIBUS
STAR WARS DAWN O/T JEDI TP VOL 01 FORCE STORM
STAR WARS LOST TRIBE O/T SITH #5 (OF 5) SPIRAL
STRAIN #9 (OF 12) (MR)
SUICIDE SQUAD #15 (DOTF)
SUPERBOY #15
SUPURBIA ONGOING #2 MAIN CVRS
SW BOBA FETT ARTFX+ STATUE ROTJ VER
SW DEATH STAR SILICONE TRAY

TEAM 7 #3
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ONGOING #17
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ONGOING #17 10 COPY INCV
TO HELL YOU RIDE #1 (OF 5)
TRANSFORMERS ROBOTS IN DISGUISE ONGOING #12
TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT ORION PAX ONE SHOT

UGLIES CUTTERS GN
ULTIMATE COMICS IRON MAN #3 (OF 4)
ULTIMATE COMICS X-MEN #20

VERY ZOMBIE CHRISTMAS #4
VICTORIAN SECRET GIRLS OF STEAMPUNK #1 MASQUERADE
VICTORIAN SECRET HOLIDAY FUN SPECIAL

WAKING DREAMS END TP
WALKING DEAD #105 (MR)
WALKING DEAD B&W ZOMBIE BUST BANK
WALKING DEAD SEASON 2 T/C BOX
WINTER SOLDIER #13
WOLVERINE #317
WORLD OF ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #24

X-TREME X-MEN #7.1

I copied this list from pittsburghcomics.com. Arrivals at your LCS may vary.

“The Hulk Vs. the Thing”/”The Avengers Take Over!”

Editor and writer: Stan Lee  Art: Jack Kirby (pencils), George Bell (inks)

My original title for this Deck Log entry was “The Battles of the Century”.  I had intended to cover the notable clashes of the Silver Age.  First on my list of one-on-one battles to review was the epic contest between the Thing and the Hulk, one which stretched across two issues and climaxed with the Emerald Behemoth squaring off against the combined might of the Fantastic Four and the Avengers.

But when I dug out my copies of Fantastic Four # 25 and 26 and re-read that classic combo, for the first time in some thirty-five years, it rapidly became clear that this was a tale that deserved a column of its own, as a true gem, indeed.  Perhaps not as forgotten as some of the other stories I’ve discussed under this heading, but it most definitely should be taken out of storage and dusted off.

Fighting is the crux of all comic-book stories.  Hero against villain.  Americans against the Nazis.  Earthlings versus aliens.  You can dress the plots up with elabourate twists or sharp characterisation, but it still boils down to a fight.  The fans know this.  Take a look at any comics-related forum and see how many threads there are marked “__________ vs. __________”.  Perhaps the purest comic-book story consists of a single brawl between two super-powered heavyweights.  For fans of this kind of story, you won’t find any tale better done than “The Hulk Vs. the Thing”.

Ben Grimm tangled with the Hulk many times over the years, both before and after, but none of those stories came close to the gripping, edge-of-your-seat drama of Fantastic Four # 25-6.

The nuts and bolts of the tale are simple enough to describe.  It opens with a short scene at the FF’s headquarters in the Baxter Building, as the Thing rejects an attempt by Reed Richards to return him to his human form.  It’s a quick bit to establish the fact that the Thing is afraid that Alicia Masters will lose her love for him if he is plain Ben Grimm.  Primarily though, it sets up the transition to the events which will eventually land the Thing in the fight of his life.  In an obvious bit of foreshadowing, the Invisible Girl reads to the others a newspaper account of the Avengers’ battle with the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner (which took place in The Avengers # 3 [Jan., 1964]).

Dissolve to New Mexico, where the Avengers are hot on the trail of the Hulk, following his damage-strewn path.  Ol’ Jade-jaws, after a brief reversion to Bruce Banner (mistakenly called “Bob Banner” by Stan throughout), takes refuge in his secret underground lab.  At this early stage, he is still the brutish, thug-like Hulk, rather than the simple-minded, childlike-unless-angered version which became the standard.  Determined to remain the Hulk permanently, he destroys the intricate gamma-powered equipment with which Banner had been able to change between his two personæ at will.

Seeking to rid himself of every trace of his human alter ego, the Hulk empties the pockets of his trousers.  Among the articles, he finds a newspaper clipping announcing that Captain America has taken his place with the Avengers.  Noting Rick Jones’s absence, the Hulk concludes that both the boy and the Avengers have deserted him.  Enraged at their “betrayal”, the Green Goliath launches himself toward New York, in hundred-mile leaps, to destroy the Avengers.

A day later, at the Baxter Building, the eternally-researching Reed Richards is experimenting with some rare viruses.  One “oops” later, he accidentally infects himself with the virulent germs and lapses into a coma.  Johnny Storm zooms off in the Fantasti-Car in search of a doctor, just as the Hulk arrives in the Big Apple and starts tearing up everything in sight.  Johnny attempts to stop the rampaging monster, but fails, as the Hulk viciously retaliates.

The city is in panic.  The police begin an evacuation of Manhattan and news cameras broadcast the Hulk’s battering of the Human Torch.  Seeing the Torch’s peril on television, Ben and Sue rush to his aid.  Sue’s force field protects Johnny from further injury, but the staggering pressure the Hulk applies to her force field places so much strain on the Invisible Girl that she passes out.

With Reed comatose, Johnny severely injured, Sue unconscious---and apparently every other Marvel hero out of town---it is up to the Thing to stop the raging Hulk.

Like charging bulls, they slam into each other.  The Hulk’s juggernaut might pitted against the Thing’s lesser strength, but keener reflexes and agility.  At first, their relative strengths and weaknesses balance out, as their battle wages back and forth.  Ben’s wisecracks needle the Hulk, making him even angrier, and gradually, the Green Goliath gains the advantage.  This is one of the earliest indications---I’m guessing, the first---that the madder the Hulk gets, the stronger he gets.  One caption, more or less, makes it clear:  “His incredible strength seems to increase during the strain of combat!”

Their mighty clash turns Manhattan into a war zone.  Streets are reduced to shattered pavement.  Sewer lines are torn loose.  A bus is torn in half.  The Hulk shakes a tenement off its foundation to get to the Thing.  Ben rips out an underground electrical cable to zap the Hulk with a million volts of juice.

Through superior tactics, Ben manages to stave off the more-powerful Hulk.  With super-human effort, he ensnares his green-skinned opponent by wrapping him in a suspension cable torn from the George Washington Bridge.  Ben’s great strength is rapidly fading, while the enraged Hulk is getting stronger by the minute.  With a tremendous flex of his emerald muscles, the Hulk shatters the cable and wades into the Thing with a terrible fury.  Ben caves under the withering attack and the Hulk furiously turns to face the terrified citizens of New York.

The Army blasts the Hulk with rifle fire and rockets from hand-held launchers.  The enraged man-monster shrugs it off and bears down on the troops.  On nothing more than determination, the Thing throws himself into the Hulk before the brutish behemoth can annihilate the soldiers.

“It’s amazing!” cries one G.I.  “The Thing must be fighting on sheer courage alone!”

Just when it looks like it is all over for Ben, the rest of the Fantastic Four have recovered enough to come to his aid.  Their wobbly efforts manage, barely, to drive the Hulk off. 

Cunningly, Ol’ Jade-jaws has ducked into New York’s subway system and makes his way, underground, to the Avengers Mansion.  Bursting through the floor of the townhouse, he catches the Avengers and Rick Jones looking.  The Hulk focuses his anger on Rick and before the super-heroes can get their act together, he seizes the boy and crashes through a wall.

Both the Avengers and the regrouped Fantastic Four corner the Hulk with his captive.  Both groups claim jurisdiction over the threat of the green-skinned brute.  But neither team bows out and they wind up inadvertently fouling their respective efforts against the Hulk.  Mocking their ineptness, the Hulk leaps to the top of a partially completed skyscraper, with Rick in tow.

The FF and the Avengers come to an understanding and coördinate an attack on the Hulk before he can harm the youngster.  Despite the combined efforts of nine super-heroes, the best they can manage against the Hulk is a stalemate. 

It’s a gripping climax to a battle lasting forty-some pages---and an odd one, as far as the Fantastic Four is concerned.  Once the Hulk makes his last stand atop the skyscraper's skeleton, the F.F. seems to drop off the scope.  For the last five pages, the Avengers carry the action. 

At last, the Hulk angrily confronts his “replacement”, Captain America.  But the agile Cap easily evades being pounded into jelly.  Unable to land a single blow on the Star-Spangled Avenger, the Hulk’s frustration mounts.  His mood doesn’t get any better when Giant-Man intercedes, alternately rabbit-punching the jade giant, then shrinking out of harm’s way.

The Hulk is totally pissed now, which is never a good thing.

Fortunately, the cavalry has arrived, in the form of the Wasp leading a large column of ants to the fray.  In his Ant-Man form, Hank Pym orders the insects to swarm over their foe.  While the Hulk is plagued by the stinging ants, Rick Jones thrusts a gamma-ray treated capsule into Ol’ Greenskin’s gaping mouth.

To get the ants off of him, the Hulk dives into the near-by Hudson River.  The exhausted super-heroes give up the fight.  What they don’t see is the unconscious figure of Bruce Banner floating to the surface and drifting away with the current.

Still, it’s a curious ending, with the stars of the title taking a back seat to the Special Guest Heroes.  Especially in light of the build-up of the previous issue and a half, pitting the monstrous Hulk against a desperately outmatched Ben Grimm, while the other FFers, sick and injured, try to get it together. 

Instead, it reads like the last few pages of an Avengers tale got tacked on by mistake.

At its forefront, “The Hulk Vs. the Thing” is one long brawl, marked by violence, trickery, grit, and humour.  (Think John Wayne and Victor McLaughlin’s donnybrook in The Quiet Man, taken to the super-human degree.)  But what’s back of it elevates this tale into a true gem.

One of the aspects rarely seen in a Hulk story is the effects of one of his rampages on the public at large.  Outside of including a few panels showing some fleeing bystanders, the Hulk’s battles always seemed to take place in a vacuum.  But here, we see the full force and effect on a city terrorised by the Hulk.  Citizens react in varying degrees of horror, some scattering in wild panic, others rooted to the spot by fear.  We see city authorities responding---marshalling forces, setting up barricades, directing an evacuation, establishing first-aid stations.  The military, when called in, are shown as more than just gun-crazy soldiers.  We witness the planning, the weighing of options, the discussion of how much force can be brought to bear against the Hulk without causing more death and destruction than the menace they have been called to defeat.

And there is damage aplenty.  No desolate countrysides or remote locales here.  The battle between the Thing and the Hulk rages through downtown Manhattan, leaving a swathe of demolished structures and twisted wreckage in its wake.  A dozen city blocks are left without electrical power.

The effect of these interludes is a cinematic one.  It gives “The Hulk Vs. the Thing” the feeling of a superior B-movie from the 1950’s, not that far removed from a minor classic like Them!   Stan Lee’s script accurately portrayed a city as it would respond if such a menace as the Hulk and such heroes as the Thing existed. Nothing is incidental.  The television coverage not only keeps the public informed, but it alerts the other members of the Fantastic Four to Ben’s dire situation.

Another huge plus was the tight unification of the various sub-plots that had been running through several Marvel titles at the time.  This was the benefit of having Stan Lee write virtually all of Marvel’s output. 

DC’s titles were collected into minor fiefdoms:  Weisinger’s Superman family titles.  Kanigher's war books.  Schwartz’s almost everything else.  While each editor’s titles showed consistency to varying degrees, there was very little continuity across editorial boundaries. 

But over at Marvel, Stan’s personal hand in everything created the strong sense of a connected universe.  Sub-plots in one hero’s series carried over if the hero appeared in another’s title.  And so many of those threads wended through “The Hulk Vs. the Thing”.  The impetus for the Hulk’s rampage on New York came from his discovery of the events that took place in The Avengers # 4, which themselves were a continuation of The Avengers # 3.  The Hulk’s destruction of Bruce Banner’s secret underground lab wrapped up a loose end left over from his first, cancelled series.

Another dangling plot element from the first Hulk series was the character of Rick Jones.  Lee neatly segued Jones over to the Avengers title, where the newly revived Captain America took the teen-ager under his wing.  Rather than having no impact on the mythos of the Hulk, we see the Green Goliath actually reacting to such a thing, even if he misinterpreted it.  And it gave a chance for Rick to display his conflicted loyalties, between those to the Hulk and those to the Avengers.  Rick’s presence in the story even afforded Stan the opportunity to make a reference to Bucky Barnes, thereby tickling a Fantastic Four reader’s interest in Captain America and his upcoming series in Tales of Suspense.

The Hulk’s precipitous departure from the ranks of the Avengers in issue # 2 of its series makes it easy to dismiss his Avengers membership as a mere technicality.  But, as FF # 25-6 shows, the Hulk had an emotional investment in his rôle as an Avenger; he is angered that the team replaced him with Captain America and looks on it as an abandonment.  His dialogue with Cap during the battle at the top of the skyscraper makes it clear that Jade-Jaws resents the Star-Spangled Avenger taking his place. 

It was a very natural thing, this resentment.  It implied that, though the Hulk quit the team, he was secretly gratified by the notion that he couldn’t be replaced.  That he was replaced so quickly and by a "glorified acrobat”, no less, rankled the Hulk’s impenetrable green hide.

All of this contributed to the feeling that Marvel’s characters resided in a self-contained universe.  Even the individual titles didn’t matter so much.  A running thread started in one series could continue, or even evolve, in another.  This was a novel idea for comics at the time, and---as Stan Lee was cannily aware---it was the best kind of self-promotion for the Marvel line.  Fans of, say, the Sub-Mariner had to follow more than just Fantastic Four, if they wanted to keep up with what was going on with Namor’s war against the surface world.

One of Stan Lee’s strengths as a writer was his ear for humourous dialogue.  Offhand, his only equal in writing truly funny lines was Arnold Drake.  Ben Grimm’s wisecracks during the battle not only hit that right note necessary for comics-dialogue humour, but it underscored the Thing’s courage.  It invests Ben with a true sense of valour.  His determination and refusal to quit come across as genuine human qualities, rather than just because it’s in the script.  As a character, it is Ben Grimm’s finest hour.

As for the art, I am not as big a Jack Kirby booster as most; I’ve always found his depiction of human anatomy as, shall we say, too stylised.  But there is no denying the raw dynamism and punch in his renderings.  For this kind of story, no-one could present it visually better than Kirby.  Every panel of the fight has movement, power, impact.

Kirby’s prodigious output during Marvel’s early years was virtually the house style for the line.  This bolstered the unified Marvel mythos, in some ways, even more so than Stan Lee’s cross-title plotlines.  Kirby’s art provided a visual continuity that was reassuring to fans as they put down one Marvel comic and picked up another.

If someone were to ask me what the big deal was about the early Marvel Age of Comics, these are the two issues I would show him.

By Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

There are few graphic novels that not only benefit from multiple readings, but demand they be re-read. Spaceman (DC/Vertigo, $24.99) is an example.

The premise alone is fascinating: The “spaceman” of the title is Orson, a hulking bruiser in the near future, genetically engineered to survive a trip to Mars and do manual labor there. But when the controversial program that created Orson and his 16 equally anthropoidal siblings became public, the outrage costs NASA its funding and Orson his future. Instead of living and working in outer space, he scratches out a living dredging up salvage from America’s seacoasts, which were flooded after the icecaps melted. What isn’t drowning in this greenhouse world is burning, except for narrow strips between fire and flood where the wealthy live as well as ever.

In an interview, writer Brian Azzarello said Spaceman wasn’t a post-apocalypse story, so much as “a collapse. An environmental and economic collapse.” And it’s not science fiction so much, he said, as “science hell.”

Which is just the set-up. The plot involves the kidnapping of a celebrity couple’s child, who falls into Orson’s orbit. Will he save her? If he tries, what chance does he have against the competing bandits (and one of his siblings) who want the reward? And, even if he can, is he doing it out of altruism – or the money?

“He has a good heart, but only Mother Teresa has never given in to temptation,” Azzarello laughed. “There’s a noir element to it. If there wasn’t, I wouldn’t be working on it.”

Which is obvious to anyone familiar with Azzarello’s career, famed for the crime noir series 100 Bullets, the Western noir series Loveless and currently “Wonder Woman” – which is framed not as a superhero book, but one exploring the Greco-Roman gods, a group Azzarello calls “the original crime family.”

Azzarello is teamed with artist Eduardo Risso, his partner on 100 Bullets, and Risso’s work is – as always – gorgeous. But, in many ways, the writing is still the star.

For example, Orson is named for Orson Welles, who – among other things – has a connection to Mars in the form of Welles’ famed 1938 radio broadcast, War of the Worlds. In fact, Azzarello said, all of genetically-altered children were named with Mars references. The entire book is laden with this sort of wordplay, from chapter titles to the dialogue, mostly delivered in futuristic slang based on texting-speak.

That’s one reason Spaceman needs a second reading, to catch all of Azzarello’s clever references, puns and double entendres. But another reason is that all of this cleverness is in service to the story, which involves overlapping storylines, plots, double-crosses and triple-crosses, with echoing themes both overt and sub-rosa.  

All of which, again, is mirrored in another story, set on Mars – the astronaut future Orson was promised but which we’ve been led to believe never happened. Azzarello never explains these vignettes, which tell another crime story involving two of the same players (Orson and his bounty-hunter brother, Carter). We follow this story in Orson’s head when he is unconscious, dreaming or intoxicated, but it’s never clear whether this adventure is a memory or a fantasy. If the latter, Orson has an implausibly active imagination, but if the former, how and when did this mission occur?

These are the sorts of questions roiling through the reader’s head after the first read. It will surely take a second reading – or perhaps a third – to uncover all the clues necessary to piece this puzzle together, as well as for full appreciation of a complex story.

Speaking of complexity, one other graphic novel this week takes on a complicated topic, but tries to make it simpler.

Philosophy: A Discovery in Comics (NBM, $16.99) falls into the category pioneered by Larry Gonick’s “A Cartoon History of the Universe”: A textbook masquerading as a comic book. But that’s not a bad thing; the reason the textbook-as-graphic-novel genre exists is because it works.

In Philosophy, Dutch cartoonist Margreet de Heer explains and explores the major philosophies of Western thought, with brief biographies of the major Western philosophers. That means she starts with Socrates, Plato and Aristotle; follows through with Thomas Aquinas and  Augustine; then hits “free will” and branches into all sorts of directions.

If that sounds boring, it honestly is not. No matter the subject, a good cartoonist can make it lively and absorbing, and de Heer is a good cartoonist. I am one of those who always found philosophy boring, but not here. For example, now that I have a visual understanding of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” I understand it implicitly and don’t find it boring at all.

Nor does de Heer limit herself to the classical approach to philosophy. In the section on modern philosophies she plows far afield of academia, exploring the beliefs of friends and family, as well as unofficial philosophers like comedian George Carlin.

As I usually say in these circumstances, this is a book that belongs in schools. If I can finally learn about philosophy from comics at my ripe old age, think what fires it would light in the minds of the young!

Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.

ART

1. Spaceman is a sci-fi noir about a genetically engineered brute who runs across a kidnap scheme. Copyright DC Entertainment Inc.

2. Philosophy gives background, biographies and explanations for Western philosophy. Copyright NBM Publishing Inc.

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FURY OF FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MEN #14
FUTURAMA COMICS #64

GAMBIT #6
GFT SLEEPY HOLLOW #2 (MR)
GHOST #2
GHOSTBUSTERS ONGOING #15
GODZILLA ONGOING #7
GREEN HORNET #31

HAWKEYE #1 3RD PTG
HAWKEYE #2 3RD PTG
HELLRAISER ROAD BELOW #2 (OF 4) (MR
HERO WORSHIP #5 (OF 6)

I VAMPIRE #14

JOE KUBERT PRESENTS #2 (OF 6)
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #14

LOCUS #622
LOOKOUTS RIDDLE VOL 01 #3
LOT 13 #2 (OF 5) (MR)

MACGYVER FUGITIVE GAUNTLET #2 (OF 5)
MAGIC THE GATHERING TP VOL 02 SPELL THIEF
MARVEL SUPER HEROES #5
MARVEL UNIVERSE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #8
MASKS #1
MIGHTY THOR BY MATT FRACTION TP VOL 02
MMW GOLDEN AGE SUB MARINER TP VOL 01
MORNING GLORIES #23 (MR)
MULTIPLE WARHEADS ALPHABET TO INFINITY #2 (OF 4)
MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #1

NEW AVENGERS #34
NIGHT O/T LIVING DEAD AFTERMATH #2 (MR)
NOWHERE MEN #1

PEANUTS VOL 2 #4 (OF 4)
PHANTOM LADY #4 (OF 4)
PLANETOID #4
PREVIEWS #291 DEC 2012
PROPHECY #5
PROPHET #31

RED LANTERNS #14 (RISE)
RIPD CITY O/T DAMNED #1 (OF 4)
ROBYN HOOD #3 (OF 5) (MR)

SAVAGE HAWKMAN #14
SECRET ADVENTURES OF HOUDINI
SECRET AVENGERS #34
SILVER STREAK ARCHIVES ORIGINAL DAREDEVIL HC VOL
SIXTH GUN TP VOL 04
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG ARCHIVES TP VOL 19
SPECTRUM TP VOL 19
STAR BRIGHT & THE LOOKING GLASS HC
STAR WARS DAWN O/T JEDI PRISONER OF BOGAN #1 (OF 5)
SUPERMAN #14
SUPERMAN FAMILY ADVENTURES #7
SUPURBIA TP VOL 01 DM PTG

TALON #2
TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #77 (MR)
TARZAN CENTURY OF LORD GREYSTOKE OFF CENTENNIAL ED
TEEN TITANS #14
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ONGOING #16
THOR GOD OF THUNDER #2 NOW
THUNDA #4
TOWER CHRONICLES GN VOL 02 (OF 4) GEISTHAWK
TRANSFORMERS PRIME RAGE O/T DINOBOTS #1 (OF 4)
TRUE BLOOD ONGOING #7

ULTIMATE COMICS IRON MAN #2 (OF 4)
ULTIMATE COMICS X-MEN #19
UNCANNY AVENGERS #2 NOW
UNTOLD TALES OF PUNISHER MAX TP (MR)

VENOM #27.1

WARLORD OF MARS #22 (MR)
WE CAN BE HEROES JUSTICE LEAGUE 7 PACK BOX SET
WINTER SOLDIER TP VOL 02 BROKEN ARROW
WITCH DOCTOR MALPRACTICE #1 (OF 6)
WOLVERINE MAX #2 (MR)
WONDER WOMAN CHRONICLES TP VOL 03

X-FACTOR TP VOL 17 ROAD TO REDEMPTION
X-MEN LEGACY #2 NOW
X-TREME X-MEN #7

Comics & Collectibles of Memphis posted this list on Facebook. Arrivals at your LCS may vary.

DC surprises on Free Comic Book Day 

May 27, 2012 -- I was pleased to see that DC Comics: The New 52 FCBD Special Edition #1, one of DC's two offering for Free Comic  Book Day (the other being a children's book) had some actual meat in it. I wanted to point out what I noticed, and see if you Legionnaires had any other suggestions or ideas. 

Here we go:

PAGE ONE

These three panels pack a lot of information in them.

Panel 1: The seven earliest human magicians form a council of some kind. The center one is wearing the Shazam! insignia, but I don't know him. (He looks African, or possibly Australian bushman.) The one on the far right looks like -- no kidding -- Super Chief! Behind him is a Japanese man, who sure looks a lot like Samurai from Super Friends (but I'm honestly hoping he's not -- that's just silly). Between the Shazam avatar and psuedo-Samurai is a woman who looks like Isis. There's another Asian, a woman, and a woman with red hair. I'm guessing they represent Chinese and Celtic pantheons, respectively. There's another black man, who is probably African or Mesopotamian. If my guesses are accurate, they would represent the earliest civilizations, excluding South America. (Mayans don't get no love!)

Panel 2-3: We meet "the greatest transgressors mankind has ever known." These three -- "The Trinity of Sin" -- inform us a little of what the "War of the Trinity" will be about in upcoming issues. Prior to this, the only trinity we had known was Batman-Superman-Wonder Woman. Nice to know they won't be the bad guys.

PAGE TWO

Panels 1-7: The first of the Trinity is revealed, and it appears to be Judas Iscariot. He's unnamed, but what they say -- "your greed has forever darkened the world" -- is a suggestion, as is something he says -- "Forgive me as He would!" -- is a likely reference to Jesus Christ. Also the Shazam guy -- Judas calls him "wizard" -- throws 30 pieces of silver at him, which turn into a necklace that we've seen before ... on the Phantom Stranger. To pound it home, Isis says "You will walk as a stranger to man, to witness what greed can do."

PAGE THREE

Panels 1-6: The second member of the Trinity of Sin is unnamed, and in fact his punishment is that he and everyone else will forget his name. I dunno if we're supposed to know who he is or not; he's a ginger and that's the only clue we have. He's arrogant and defiant, if that's of any help. But his face is erased by the wizards, a look we've seen before, on The Question (who wore a mask). This seems confirmed when someone off panel says "You will forever question your identity and forever search for answers you will never find."

Panel 7: The last member of the Trinity is named: Pandora of Greco-Roman myth, whom we have seen skulking about in every New 52 first issue.

PAGE FOUR

Pandora is being punished for releasing all the evils in the world, but doesn't consider herself evil and resents being punished for curiosity. 

PAGE FIVE

Not a lot new here; we see the Red Room again from Justice League where extraterrestrial, unidentified and classified technology is kept and where Cyborg was born. His poor relationship with his father is underscored. Someone makes reference to a Monitor Machine, which seems to function much like the Monitors of Crisis on Infinite Earths. 

PAGE SIX

The Monitor Machine is picking up a transmission from an alternate earth, which we recognize as Earth 2. We see their Trinity (who apparently die in Earth 2 #1) in combat with Parademons, along with Supergirl and Robin (who become Power Girl and Huntress in Worlds' Finest #1). We also get our first looks at the Alan "Green Lantern" Scott and Jay "Flash" Garrick of this Earth 2. Pandora is present but invisible, and thinks "It's not here.

PAGE SEVEN

Argus, a "Bloodlines" superhero in the old 52, is now A.R.G.U.S., identified as a military arm dedicated to fighting superhumans, but they don't tell us what the acronym stands for. We meet Steve Trevor and Etta Candy (the latter is now black and thin), who have NOT been introduced in Wonder Woman so far. Trevor is the head of A.R.G.U.S. and expresses sympathy for the League and distaste for Green Arrow. We hear references to the super-powered teens in Alaska (Ravagers?), Talia al-Ghul and the book we saw in Justice League about the Justice League. 

PAGE EIGHT-NINE

Panel 1: We learn of the Black Room, where dangerous supernatural artifacts are kept. We see a lot of them, and I could use some help identifying them all! Let's see:

I think that's the head of the spear of destiny attached to the bureau next to the Mayan-looking thing. Above that is an ornate chair, someone's throne? That's the original black diamond under the sheet, it looks to me, before Eclipso split it up into lots of little diamonds. There's a dragon skeleton. There's a chandelier made of bones, which could have come from Europe's Sedlec Ossuary, but i may have seen it on the cover to a House of Mystery once, or maybe that was an organ made of bone. I'm guessing the green thing with the "do not ring" notice is the New 52's Green Bell of Uthool from the Demons Three storylines. On the far right is the Haunted Tank, and near it what looks like a half-hidden Red Lantern. There's a longboat hanging from the ceiling, too (Viking Prince?). Some of those papier-mache warriors from China's Hidden City tomb are on the left. There's some red armor, but I don't know whose (Shining Knight?). The symbols and words around the door in the back are part of the Great Seal of the United States, and basically assigns God's approval of new beginnings. There's a half-hidden painting (Doom Patrol's Painting That Ate Paris?). Any other guesses?

Panels 6-9: Pandora arrives, looking for her Box. She references the Spear of Destiny and Black Diamond, which I identified above, and the Seven Spells of Shazam, which I didn't. Conversation indicates that the Orb of Ra (which created Metamorpho) was stolen by an unidentified male. Dr. Mist, who was an Earth-Two bad guy in the Old 52, is the curator of the Black Room, but we don't see him. Pandora exhibits magic guns. She opens her box, which contains a three-eyed skull. Who do we know with three eyes? Could it be ... Despero?

PAGE 10

"The Circus" -- one of A.R.G.U.S.'s special "rooms" -- is mentioned. References are made to Black Orchid and John Constantine. 

PAGE 11

An angry face in the stormclouds watching Pandora. Spectre? Shazam?

PAGE 12

We meet a black Green Lantern. John Stewart?

PAGES 13-16

Lots of capes fighting. We see the Justice League, except Hal Jordan is missing and black Green Lantern is there, fighting Superman. Wonder Woman is punching Mera. Vibe (yes, VIBE!) is vibrating at Flash. Deadman is possessing Black Adam. Element Girl and The Atom (who looks female) are fighting Cyborg. Hwkman is fighting Green Arrow (some things never change).

I have no idea what the fight's about, but it does introduce the New 52 versions of some characters I haven't seen before, like Black Adam and "Atom Girl" and Vibe. Of course, I don't read ALL the New 52, so maybe some of these have already appeared somewhere.

Anyone else got anything?

Andrew A. Smith

Special to The Nashua Telegraph

May 15, 2012 -- DC has begun its “Second Wave” of six new series, following “The New 52” titles launched last September.  The first four are already out, and successfully upgrade concepts that will make older fans nod their heads in approval.

The first two titles, Earth 2 and Worlds’ Finest, re-introduces what used to be called Earth-Two. Earth-Two came into being in the early 1960s, when DC decided to address what had happened to its long-canceled 1940s characters by establishing that they lived on an alternate planet. So the Flash and Green Lantern introduced in 1940 lived on Earth-Two, you see, while the Flash introduced in 1956 and the Green Lantern that debuted in 1959 lived on “our” Earth, Earth-One. These worlds “vibrated” at different speeds, but could be accessed one from the other, which happened more and more frequently until DC threw everybody into the pool by having the Justice Society of Earth-Two team up with the Justice League of Earth-One in 1963. All that Spandex in one place created a disturbance in the Force, as millions of fanboys cried out in delight at once. 

In fact, fans loved this idea so much that DC began introducing all kinds of Earths – so many, that in a few decades even the editors were getting confused. The solution? They wiped them all out. In a 1986-87 series called Crisis on Infinite Earths, all the Earths – including the beloved Earth-Two – were blended into one.

But now, once again, Obi-Wan Kenobi is getting a headache from fanboy cheers. A couple of years ago, DC decided to bring its multiple-Earth concept back. There had only been hints of Earth-Two until now, but is confirmed with the release of Earth 2 and Worlds’ Finest.

The former title revives the old concept with a small re-spelling but some huge differences, in order to appeal to newer fans. Once again we’ll see versions of the likes of Flash and Green Lantern, but newer, younger ones, rather than the middle-aged WWII vets of the ‘60s. Best of all, the writer of Earth 2 is James Robinson, who has written some of the most beloved and best-remembered Earth-Two stories, such as the entire Starman series and The Golden Age graphic novel. The first issue is mostly set-up, but it is a delicious set-up even from the perspective of this aging fanboy.

The second Earth 2-related title is Worlds’ Finest, a play on the old World’s Finest Comics, a title that grew from the 1940 World’s Fair Comics, which for the bulk of its four-decade run (1941-86) teamed Superman and Batman. That’s no accident, because this book stars the Supergirl and (female) Robin of Earth 2, who get stranded on “our” Earth, taking the names Power Girl and Huntress (since we already have a Supergirl and an army of Robins). Once again DC has taken an older concept and spiced it up for new readers – a gender switch, if nothing else -- while leaving just enough nostalgia for us creaky oldsters.

The other two “Second Wave” books also re-invent concepts for the modern world, but ones that were pretty awful in their original incarnations.

G.I. Combat, first series, was a war book that ran for three decades, mostly featuring a tank crew in WWII Europe that had a ghost. The new G.I. Combat instead revamps a series that ran for a few years in Star-Spangled War Comics, called “The War That Time Forgot,” which somehow made World War II soldiers fighting dinosaurs on a mysterious island really boring. The new series promises to be a lot better, and features U.S. Special Forces battling those overfed reptiles.

A back-up series also features an old Star-Spangled War Stories series called “Unknown Soldier.” The old series featured a master of disguise in WWII whose non-disguised face was always hidden by bandages. The new series has a face-bandaged protagonist, but this time in Afghanistan, and the first issue doesn’t tell us much more than that. However, it’s being written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, who have written the finest Jonah Hex stories every published, so I have high hopes.

Lastly we have Dial H for Hero, which could not possibly be as lame as the old “Dial H” series that preceded it. In those stories, mostly for kids, irritating teenage protagonists used a mysterious, magical rotary dialer to change briefly into some of the dumbest superheroes you’ll see this side of a first-grader’s Big Chief tablet. There was one “Dial H” series that took a more adult approach, but it was also really depressing, mainly to show how turning into a superhero briefly would ruin your life. So whatever writer China Miéville plans has to be better than what’s come before.

To my surprise, I actually liked the first issue of Dial H. It’s a little early to say if I’ll continue to like it, but it stars a fat guy – unattractive, but let’s face it, that’s what most Americans look like these days – and the “heroes” in the first issue were ingeniously nightmarish. And there are no annoying teens anywhere!

Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.

Short Cuts 68

Public Domain Volume One – Past Mistakes; Gender Queer – A Memoir; and The Department of Truth Vol. 3 – Free Country.

Mr. Vertigo Reviews 109

The Night Eaters Vol. 1- She Eats the Night; and It’s Lonely At The Centre Of The Earth.

Swamp Thing Returns (Again): Ram V. & Mike Perkins’ Version

Short Cuts 67

Lazarus Vol. 7 - Fracture II; Twig; and Joe Hill’s Rain.

All Image, all of the time (almost).

Mr. Vertigo Reviews 108

The Closet Vol. 1 and Chivalry.