Tagged: Justice Society

The Weekly Haul: Reviews for May 23, 2008

Kudos to Marvel, who blew the pants off the competition in this week’s batch of issues, with an unprecedented four books being so good I have to list them all as tied for the top spot. And, surprise surprise, none of them were Skrullapalooza ’08 tie-ins.

Superheroes aside, a good mix of indies came out as well, making for a well rounded week that I’ll count as an early birthday present to yours truly.

Book(s) of the Week — While these four Marvel books are all essentially equals, the pole position goes to Black Panther #36. Now, I’ve long been something of a Reggie Hudlin hater, but he packs so much story into this issue without making it feel overloaded that it reads like a pre-Bendis Era comic. Killmonger – who makes a surprisingly good villain – rallies a destitute African nation around him in a way that truly captures the continent’s actual unrest. Meanwhile, we finally see the Storm-BP marriage addressed in a believable way, some intense fighting and the line of the week: "He’s already the Mole Man! What more could we do to him?"

Over in Ghost Rider #23, Jason Aaron follows last issue’s big buildup with a huge explosion (literally), and a storyline that perfectly depicts just how tortured Johnny Blaze really is. The art, by Roland Boschi, continues to shine, all scratchy and intense.

Captain America #38 makes the cut as another flawless entry from Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting, with special credit for an entirely plausible and non-Skrullish explanation to the mysterious Steve Rogers that Sharon found last go-round. Meanwhile, Bucky continues to gain his sea legs as the new Cap and the Red Skull’s plans meet political reality.

Lastly but not leastly, Peter David wraps up his Arcade storyline in X-Factor #31, which pulls readers deeply into the looming destruction of Mutanttown with the little emotional moments David is so good at. He also lets Arcade continue to be a relentlessly entertaining villain and makes this team of non-heroes truly heroic.

The Runners Up:

Scalped #17 — I’ve always been on the fence about this series, which has gone back and forth between too action-heavy and too slow. This issue strikes a solid balance as the community buries Dash’s mother and he finally lets himself mourn.

Robin #174 — The best from DC this week, as Robin and Batman figure out the identity of the new hero muddying Gotham’s waters. I won’t spoil it here, but it’s a true surprise that doesn’t seem TOO contrived. The real highlight is the realistic way Chuck Dixon captures everyone’s emotional response to the big news.

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Happy Birthday: Charles McNider

Happy Birthday: Charles McNider

Charles McNider was a brilliant doctor and surgeon who believed in doing the right thing. He was removing a bullet from a mob witness one night when mobsters threw a grenade into the room, killing the witness and blinding McNider.

McNider was recovering at home a short while later when an owl crashed through his window. Surprised, he tore the bandages from his eyes and then realized that he could see perfectly—but only in complete darkness. Developing blackout bombs and a visor to let him see in light as well, McNider donned a costume to become the original Dr. Mid-Nite.

He was part of the Justice Society of America and the All-Star Squadron before becoming the medic for Infinity, Inc. and a mentor for several promising young doctors, including both Beth Chapel (Dr. Midnight) and Pieter Cross (the second and current Dr. Mid-Nite). McNider died heroically, battling Extant during Zero Hour.

Happy Birthday: Dr. Mid-Nite

Happy Birthday: Dr. Mid-Nite

Pieter Anton Cross started his association with superheroes while still in the womb—his pregnant mother was attacked one night in their native Norway by vagrants one night but was rescued by the original Dr. Mid-Nite.

The incident caused her to go into labor, and the superhero delivered Pieter before dashing off into the night. Pieter grew up to become a brilliant doctor, graduating Harvard at nineteen, and moved back to Norway for a time before returning to America to work with Charles McNider—who, unbeknownst to Pieter, was the same Dr. Mid-Nite who had saved him at birth!

Unfortunately, years later Pieter ran afoul of the evil Praeda Industries while investigating a mysterious drug A39 that they were marketing. The druglords captured him, drugged him with that same chemical, and put him behind the wheel of a car. When Pieter awoke he discovered that he had accidentally killed a woman, and that he was now blind but could see in the dark. To bring the druglords to justice he took the identity of his favorite superhero, becoming the second Dr. Mid-Nite.

Since then, Pieter has joined the JSA and become one of its guiding members, as well as its resident doctor.

The Weekly Haul: Reviews for the Week of April 10

  • News
  • April 11, 2008

A good range of comics this week in style, but there wasn’t too much substance, and a surprising dearth of Skrulls, what with Skrullapalooza going on (Thanks for that one, Brian!) Still, some interesting books, so let’s discuss.

Book of the Week: Locke & Key #3 — In Hollywood, this century so far has been dominated by horror films, an endless line of creepy or violent flicks that closely imitate either The Ring or Saw. It would be easy to look at a project like Locke & Key, which is published by horror house IDW and written by Stephen King’s son, and think it’s just another creative property hopping on the horror bandwagon.

Writer Joe Hill is crafting a very distinctive story, though, and one that’s made strong by the characters. In each issue so far, Hill has mostly featured one of the three children whose father was murdered by a teenage psychopath. This issue it’s the daughter, Kinsey, and the bulk of the story is a completely convincing look at how she struggles to fit in as "the girl whose dad got killed."

The little side moments then are used to further develop the supernatural mystery of the family’s home – Keyhouse – and to bring the villain back into the picture, as the murderous and insane Lesser makes his bloody escape from lockup. No surprise then that the series has already been optioned for a movie.

Runners Up:

Nova #12 — This series is lightyears ahead of every other outerspace series right now, and every issue can be counted on for epic battle, a thoughtful plot and some cool interstellar weirdness. This time it’s Richard finally besting the Phalanx infection, only to end up in a too-big fight with a Technarc (a giant alien robot from Warlock’s family tree).

A special credit goes to the art team of Paul Letterier and Rick Magyar, who manage to make the robot aliens believable and expressive, no easy task. Now, if only the conclusion to this story was actually in this series, not Annihilation: Conquest.

Batman: Death Mask #1 — I have something of a painful secret to admit. I don’t read manga. I just can’t get into it, no matter what I try. I really hate to admit then that it took a manga version of Batman to hook me. But aside from some introductory pages that rehash Batman’s history (I’m assuming for readers who like manga and not Batman), Yoshinori Natsume’s American comics debut is a strong one.

The questions raised of Batman’s true identity (whether he’s Bruce Wayne or Batman) are nothing new, but the deeper story of Batman’s history in Japan and the mask-wearing, face-cutting-off villain are set up quite well in this first issue.

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Happy Birthday: Golden Age Black Canary

Happy Birthday: Golden Age Black Canary

Dinah Drake was born and raised in Gotham City, where her father Richard Drake was a detective with the Gotham City Police Department. He trained his daughter well, and when she was old enough, Dinah applied to the GCPD herself. She was turned down, however, and the disappointment crushed her father, who died a short time later.

Dinah vowed to use her skills and training to fight crime in his memory, and donned a blonde wig, fishnet stockings, pirate boots, a bustier, and a short jacket to create her new alter-ego, the Black Canary. Dinah also opened a flower shop, using the money her father had left her, and that served as both a day job and a cover story.

While fighting crime, Dinah met and fell in love with GCPD detective Larry Lance—the two were later married and had a daughter, Dinah Laurel Lance, who would ultimately follow in her mother’s costumed footsteps. The older Dinah continued her secret life and became a member of the Justice Society of America.

It was during those years that Dinah fought the living star-creature Aquarius, whose radiation ultimately killed her.

Happy Birthday: Golden Age Batman

Happy Birthday: Golden Age Batman

The Bruce Wayne of Earth-Two was born on April 7, 1915. A crook named Joe Chill robbed and killed Bruce’s parents in 1924, when Bruce was only eight years old. Bruce dedicated his life to avenging his parents’ deaths and protecting others from criminals and their evil deeds.

After many years of training, Bruce donned a fearsome costume and became the Batman. He was a member of both the Justice Society of America and the All-Star Squadron, and despite not having any superpowers was considered one of the greatest of the American heroes. Bruce also reformed and married the former Catwoman, Selina Kyle—together they had a daughter, Helena Wayne, who later became the Huntress.

After many years, Bruce decided he was too old to continue as the Batman and retired from that side of his life, passing the mantle to his friend and student Dick Grayson. Bruce became the police commissioner of Gotham City instead. The fact that he had been the original Batman became public after Selina died in his arms trying to stop a former Catwoman henchman.

In 1979, Bruce was coaxed out of costumed retirement one last time to stop a super-powered crook named Bill Jensen, and the mission led to Bruce Wayne’s death. After his death, Doctor Fate erased the world’s knowledge that Bruce Wayne and Batman had been the same person.

Happy Birthday: Jay Garrick

Happy Birthday: Jay Garrick

Born in Hibbardsville, Kansas, in the early 1920s, Jason Peter “Jay” Garrick had an uneventful childhood. It wasn’t until he went to Keystone City for college, studying chemistry and physics at Midwestern University, that fate singled him out for greater things.

Garrick was a junior in 1940 and working on an experiment to purify hard water and remove all radiation when a test tube dropped. The fumes knocked Garrick out and breathing the vapors all night somehow changed him, granting him the ability to run at super-speed (later evidence suggests Garrick always had this latent ability and the vapors simply activated it).

At first, he used his new powers for personal gain, becoming a college football star, but his integrity would not let him walk away from those in trouble, so Garrick donned a stylized winged helmet and a red shirt with a lightning bolt and began to fight crime as The Flash.

Garrick joined the Justice Society of America and the All-Star Squadron and became a well-known and well-respected crimefighter. Though he briefly retired and focused on his scientific career in the 1950s, Garrick could not stay away, and returned to heroics in 1961, just in time to meet his Earth-One counterpart, Barry Allen.

He has been active ever since, and is once again a key member of the Justice Society of America. Most younger heroes consider Garrick the elder statesman of superheroes, and all of them admire and respect him and appreciate his calm manner and his sage advice just as much as his flying fists and speedy feet.

‘Manhunter’ to Return in June

‘Manhunter’ to Return in June

  • News
  • March 15, 2008

DC Comics’ Manhunter was originally cancelled with issue #25 in 2006. After an outpouring of protest from fans, DC resurrected the series for five more issues with the promise of more if the five were successful.

The series did well enough to extend its life, but the hiatus between issue #30 and #31 has been prolonged to say the least. In the meantime, Kate Spencer has been hanging out with the girls from Birds of Prey.

Following up on our DC Nation panel report, the long wait for Manhunter fans is finally over, as the title will resume shipping in June. Marc Andreyko returns as writer with Michael Gaydos serving as artist.

The recent solicitation for the first issue hints at a few of the new situations Kate Spencer will be getting into when Manhunter resumes:

Los Angeles is Manhunter’s town — so when Kate Spencer learns of the disappearance of hundreds of women along the Mexican border, she’s on the case both as law-breaking D.A. and costumed vigilante.

Meanwhile, Kate’s bloodline tie to the JSA returns to haunt her — and it looks like her sidekick’s most notorious supervillain ex-boss is doing the same to him.

Exclusive pages from the forthcoming issue can be viewed at Newsarama.

 

An Artistic Vocabulary, by Elayne Riggs

An Artistic Vocabulary, by Elayne Riggs

  • News
  • October 17, 2007

For a few years in the ’90s, I wrote weekly comic book reviews which I published online in the Usenet rec.arts.comics groups and CompuServe’s Comics Forum. As I was one of only a handful of women reviewing comics at the time (I remember there was me, Johanna Draper and Denise Sudell online and of course Maggie Thompson in print), my "Pen-Elayne For Your Thoughts" reviews were noticed and commented on fairly frequently, both by other readers and by the professionals who worked on the books I discussed. (My review of a Legion annual prompted the book’s inker to email me, and a couple years later we were married.) It was a cool self-publishing gig which led to all sorts of goodies, from being "recognized" by name at conventions (especially helpful when working the Friends of Lulu booth) to being sent freebies and previews to drum up interest and get the comment threads going (about the actual story rather than the anticipation thereof).

I cherished my interactions with pros, particularly artists. Writing I understood. I’d been a writer for decades, I intrinsically got the process. But art — here was a foreign realm, one to which I could never hope to aspire. These folks created magic that I’d never hope to duplicate. I felt a driving need to at least familiarize myself with the hows and whys of graphic sequential storytelling. After all, I reasoned, if you take into account time spent in the actual creation of a comic book story, the art is far more than half of what goes into it. Every line on the page has a reason to be there, and I wanted to find out what it all meant.

In order to do so, I needed to cultivate an artistic vocabulary.

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BIG BROADCAST talks with Roy Thomas!

BIG BROADCAST talks with Roy Thomas!

He calls himself the "Super Adaptoid" of comics and we can easily say he’s done it all – from Sgt. Fury to the Justice Society and from Millie The Model to Conan. How did a school teacher from Missouri end up writing so much comics history for the last four decades? Roy Thomas tells The Big ComicMix Broadcast all about it in an exclusive interview!

Meanwhile we’re covering more title changes at DC, MTV’S VIdeo Music Awards get remixed and we rundown of a bunch of new stuff on the web to look at if you get bored over your three-day weekend.

You have the day off, so PRESS THE BUTTON and let’s party down!

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