The Weekly Haul: Brief Comic Book Reviews for the Week of March 25

Just four books this week, other than this year’s Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. Let’s jump right in.


FANTASTIC FOUR #565 (Score: 76.2)
A neat little tale that I might have expected from the Byrne run, about an age-old monster, deeply-held secrets and a family betrayal. I really do dig the FF as portrayed by Mark Miller and Bryan Hitch. My only complaint — and this is an unusual one, coming from me — is that the conclusion to this story felt a bit rushed. It could easily have played out one more issue, I think. It was clear that Hitch had help in the inking department this issue, but that’s okay with me. I’d rather have three or four pages that look a little funky compared to the rest than have this book continue to fall off schedule. By the way, the epilogue actually made me scream out loud, but that’s what good cliffhangers do, I guess.

COVER: 6.7 PLOT: 7.8 SCRIPT: 8.7 LAYOUT: 9.2 ART: 8.6 EDITING: 6.1 PRODUCTION: 7.2 VALUE: 6.2 COLLECTIBILITY: 7.5 GOSH-WOW: 8.2


CAPTAIN AMERICA #48 (Score: 69.7)
A decent, if straight forward, conclusion to the “Old Friends” storyline, although we’ve seen plenty of “depopulate-the-world-to-save-it” plots before. Still, the characterizations are strong. Namor, easily over-the-top under most writers, is handled spot-on by Ed Brubaker. I also must add that I am becoming a big fan of Bucky/Cap, even though I was dead-set against his revival, at first, and his relationship with the Black Widow, which I also ridiculed, at first. I will admit, however, that I had to Google the Human Torch’s bio. Somehow I missed out on his no longer (sort of) being recycled as the Vision. Clearly, I was not reading enough Marvel Comics in the ‘90s.

COVER: 5.8 PLOT: 6.2 SCRIPT: 8.1 LAYOUT: 8.6 ART: 9.1 EDITING: 5.5 PRODUCTION: 6.4 VALUE: 5.9 COLLECTIBILITY: 7.2 GOSH-WOW: 6.9


SUPERMAN #686 (Score: 57.7)
Essentially, a series of sub-plots strung together to set up James Robinson’s Metropolis-sans-Superman storyline. I guess I’m not really buying Mon-El out of the Phantom Zone or the 20th century version of the science police, mostly because both angles conflict with my long-held assumptions about Legion of Super-Heroes continuity. I might be able to get on board, if there was some fun in any of this, but Robinson’s script is as undynamic as Renato Guedes’ art style.

COVER: 5.2 PLOT: 6.1 SCRIPT: 6.3 LAYOUT: 5.9 ART: 6.7 EDITING: 5.3 PRODUCTION: 5.4 VALUE: 5.6 COLLECTIBILITY: 6.4 GOSH-WOW: 4.8


BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #3 (Score: 38.0)
Uggg. Seriously, I hate this book almost as much as I love the Brave and the Bold cartoon. This difference, I think, is that DC seems determined to aim it’s Johnny DC line at six-year-olds, and mildly dim-witted ones at that. There are a couple of plot points, and not a few jokes, in here that make no sense at all. And the art is more or less awful. The big escape-from-the-death-trap-scene would be indecipherable even without the coloring error. I wanted to like this book, but, based on the three issues put out this far, I’ve dropped it from my pre-order. Issue six will be my last.

COVER: 6.1 PLOT: 4.6 SCRIPT: 4.3 LAYOUT: ART: 3.4 EDITING: 2.8 PRODUCTION: 5.3 VALUE: 4.4 COLLECTIBILITY: 2.3 GOSH-WOW: 1.6

The Weekly Haul: Comic Book Reviews for the Week of Feb. 18, 2009

A short week this time, with just the books in my pull file at Zimmie's. So, let's jump right to it.

SUPERGIRL #38 (Score: 69.7)
I only jumped on this book for the New Krypton arc, but have decided to stick with it. Thanks, in part, to the Superwoman mystery, I'm as interested in Supergirl as I have ever been. I mean, let's face it, teen aged, female angst has never been something I connect with. And, other than giving young girl's their own version of Superman to follow, there's never really been much point to Supergirl - especially after the collapse of newsstand distribution in the mid-'70s, when girls stopped reading comics. This issue has a lot going on, although I might have preferred a little more background on the Agent Liberty sublpot, just to catch readers up with how he died. The photshopped clouds in the first part of the book work much better than I might have supposed, although the coloring does get a little garish in the later scenes. The less said about the Origins & Omens back-up the better. I have yet to read a single one of these that's been worth the time they take to read. The lack of any real omens in any of them makes it apparent that DC brass really has no idea where they're going.

COVER: 6.7 PLOT: 8.2 SCRIPT: 7.5 LAYOUT: 8.4 ART: 7.2 EDITING: 6.2 PRODUCTION: 6.8 VALUE: 5.5 COLLECTIBILITY: 6.3 GOSH-WOW: 6.9


THE SUPERMAN CHRONICLES Vol. 6 (Score: 65.2)
The latest chronological reprinting of Superman stories is out and it's a 'beaut - at least for its historical splendor. Good 'ol Jerry Siegel sure could pack a plot, even if some of his breathless narration seems dated. Still, it's great to see some of the earliest Superman stories in an affordable package. I'm a little mystifies as to why some of the covers are reproduced on a smaller scale than the interior pages. Also, the cover is a bit confusing. With so much art reproduced in the open spaces between letters, the word "Chronicles" is a bit hard to read, at first glance. Meanwhile, it's apparent that much, if not most, of the fine line work has been lost in the reproduction of the original art - making most panels seem a lot cruder than I imagine they were upon publication in 1941.

COVER: 5.7 PLOT: 8.4 SCRIPT: 6.7 LAYOUT: 5.6 ART: 4.3 EDITING: 5.0 PRODUCTION: 3.7 VALUE: 8.8 COLLECTIBILITY: 7.5 GOSH-WOW: 9.5


THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #22 (Score: 52.2)
This tale looked to be pretty intriguing when it began four issues ago, but it sure lost it's way quick. Essentially, I think this would have been a decent story if it had run just two issues and stuck with Green Lantern and the Phantom Stranger. Dragging it out to four issues, and including Green Arrow just seems to have watered down the whole thing. In this concluding chapter, there's a lot of reference to what's gone before, but it's not scripted in a way that really involves the reader. Heck, I actually read the last two issues and I'm still a little confused. I never did figure out what, if anything, the dream fruit thing had to do with the super-baddie. Meanwhile, the original plot with the industrial-medical complex, largely set aside while GL and the Stranger were in space, is given a quick wrap where that fails to live up to the promise of the first issue in this arc. Oh, and one more thing, since when can Phantom Stranger control the weather?

COVER: 5.8 PLOT: 4.7 SCRIPT: 5.2 LAYOUT: 5.9 ART: 6.7 EDITING: 4.6 PRODUCTION: 7.2 VALUE: 3.7 COLLECTIBILITY: 2.9 GOSH-WOW: 5.5


That's it for this week. Looking ahead to next week, we can expect Batman: Brave and the Bold #2, Captain America #47, Fantastic Four #564, Justice Society of America #24, Sgt. Rock: The Lost Battalion #4, Showcase Presents: Superman Family Vol. 3 and Superman #685

The Weekly Haul: Comic book reviews for the week of Feb. 11

The SPIRIT #26 (Score: 81.7)
Very simply, the best issue of this series, so far. The script is fun, acknowledging as in in-joke the similarity in the origins of Silken Floss and Sand Sarif. There are some genuinely funny moments, and the ending, while predictable, still comes of and fresh and eminently readable. It may be me, but I detect a real Alan Davis influence in the work of Justantino and Wong, not that there’s a thing wrong with that. Best of all, the artwork does the best job yet, I think, of emulating the energy of Eisner’s layouts without either aping them, or venturing too far into cartoon stylings. The cover, by Brian Bollard, is spot-on perfect. My only real quibble is that the evening and flashback sequences are colored in the same muted tones. I’d have preferred all of the present-day scenes to have the same bright coloring seen in the Archives, to set them apart from the flashback. Here’s hoping DC keeps this team in place on this book for awhile.

COVER: 9.6 PLOT: 7.4 SCRIPT: 8.8 LAYOUT: 9.1 ART: 9.2 EDITING: 7.5 PRODUCTION: 9.1 VALUE: 7.2 COLLECTIBILITY: 6.2 GOSH-WOW: 7.6


BATMAN #686 (Score: 73.6)
It’s been a couple of years since I purchased a Bat-book, but could not resist Neil Gaiman’s bat-version of his classic “Whatever Happened to the Man of Steel?” story. Sadly, I was not blown away. Back in Weisnger’s day, DC could get away with recycling old stories, because its readership turned over every few years. However, in a market that now plays to an increasingly small subset of fanboys, there’s a real danger in retelling older tales. The basic set up of villains claiming credit for Batman’s death was done in one of the most-fondly remembered Bat-tales of my childhood, “Who Killed Batman?” from Batman #291-294. The Cat’s tale in this issue is pretty reminiscent of Brave and the Bold #197. Even the Alfred as Joker chapter seems familiar, like I’ve read this plot in an Elseworld’s book, somewhere. Overall, then, this book, unlike the usual Gaiman tale, felt stale, like I’d seen it all before. And I do with DC would return to newsprint. Even with the extra pages, this issue did not seem worth $4.

COVER: 8.7 PLOT: 6.8 SCRIPT: 8.2 LAYOUT: 8.3 ART: 7.8 EDITING: 6.2 PRODUCTION: 6.4 VALUE: 5.4 COLLECTIBILITY: 9.5 GOSH-WOW: 6.3


R.E.B.E.L.S #1 (Score: 70.3)
I was very, very pleasantly surprised with this issue. I only added it to my file for the Legion connection and, frankly, was not expecting much. The last R.E.B.E.L.S series didn’t do much for me and I was not overly blown away by Tony Bedard’s previous Legion work. I also was afraid that, having skipped most of DC’s recent space books, that I’d end up lost. Not so. Bedard did a good job of catching me up to speed and introducing each character, he had some genuinely funny lines and a nice, full plot. Apart from being the coolest version ever of how to burn a CD, the communication between Brainiacs 5 and 2 gives this issue an element that is introduced, explored and, to a certain extent, resolved in this issue, enhancing the reading experience. The artwork here is fantastic and I find myself in a mood not imparted by many comics these days – actually looking forward to the next issue. My only real complaint is the no-tell/no-sell cover. The usually bland collected-heroes scene includes as apparent team members some of the characters hunting down Dox in this issue. That premature reveal does necessarily dilute some of the drama in this issue.

COVER: 5.1 PLOT: 6.7 SCRIPT: 8.5 LAYOUT: 6.8 ART: 8.4 EDITING: 7.0 PRODUCTION: 6.7 VALUE: 5.7 COLLECTIBILITY: 7.3 GOSH-WOW: 8.1


THE 3 GEEKS: SLAB MADDNESS #2 (of 3) (Score: 53.0)
Well, one thing is for sure, the production is a lot better this time around. Last issue’s artwork was terribly pixilated, like the pages were scanned at the wrong resolution and then run off from faxes sent to the printer. I was a tad disappointed with last issue. Like Strangers in Paradise, the charm of this series lies in its slice-of-life observation of its subjects. SiP lost me when it went for the grand crime syndicated storyline, and this series, with its secret mystic society slant, threatened to do the same. It’s good to see, however, that the villains are geeks, too, and that instead of trying to emulate a typical super-hero plot, this book is simply moving from gentle humor to biting satire. However, I think this issue does play one too many beats on the interrupting-the-maniacal-speech joke. Best of all, however, is this issues CGC photo-cover, which, but for the UPC symbol, would be absolutely perfect. I laughed out loud when I pulled it out of my file.

COVER: 9.9 PLOT: 5.6 SCRIPT: 5.5 LAYOUT: 4.5 ART: 3.6 EDITING: 5.7 PRODUCTION: 5.3 VALUE: 4.8 COLLECTIBILITY: 2.8 GOSH-WOW: 5.4


ACTION COMICS #874 (Score: 49.8)
This issue has a real problem with plot. With the Origins & Omens back-up, the main story gets truncated to 18 pages. Not a lot of room to begin with. And yet, it takes four pages at the beginning for Zod and his buddies to tackle Superman and four pages at the end for Superman to break Mon-El out of the Phantom Zone. Neither scene includes any exposition that adds to the reader’s understanding of the greater tale being told. Both scenes are limited to the action mentioned, leaving just 10 pages for everything else, which, as it turns out, is a lot of standing around and talking. Superman talks to Aunt Alura, who continues to come off as overly melodramatic, he talks to Lois, repeating much of what we already know, or should have easily surmised, and Steve Lombard yammers at Jimmy some seemingly irrelevant nonsense about calculators. The last page of that conversation, by the way, is oddly misplaced, with part of the Superman/Lois scene breaking up the action to no real purpose. It’s also worth mentioning that the inking in this issue seems awfully heavy, while the paint-by-numbers coloring is distractingly awful.

COVER: 5.3 PLOT: 4.2 SCRIPT: 5.9 LAYOUT: 6.7 ART: 5.7 EDITING: 4.8 PRODUCTION: 3.2 VALUE: 4.6 COLLECTIBILITY: 4.8 GOSH-WOW: 4.6


BOOSTER GOLD #17 (Score: 49.1)
I’m on the verge of dropping this book, which has failed to live up to its premise, IMHO, especially in its post-Johns phase. Even though Booster’s creator, Dan Jurgens, is at the helm now, the book really seems to be sliding in quality. This issue has plenty of plot, but it’s plenty muddled. For one, how is it that Booster is help Barry Allen become the Flash on the same day his past-self is fighting alongside both Flash and Kid Flash? I think I recall from issue 4 that the Flashes also came back in time to this day, but a little editorial help would have made it clear. As presented, the story has far too much incongruity for any reader who knows the Flash’s secret identity. I also appear to have forgotten something about the knives the unnamed chronal dude is after. He disappears with one during a fight with Booster, reappears in the next panel with two, and suddenly he has three. This is another one of those bunch-of-stuff-in-the-middle issues which leaves me feeling mostly lost and living less than interested.

COVER: 4.4 PLOT: 4.8 SCRIPT: 5.4 LAYOUT: 7.3 ART: 6.1 EDITING: 4.2 PRODUCTION: 5.2 VALUE: 3.9 COLLECTIBILITY: 4.1 GOSH-WOW: 3.7

Whither Bouncing Boy?

In an interview posted today on CBR R.E.B.E.L.S. scribe Tony Bedard says:

". . . unfortunately, I ended up making some characters too close to the Legionnaires, and with a sudden plethora of Legion material hitting the stands, we made a few changes so that readers know that R.E.B.E.L.S. is its own thing, and not a Legion spinoff or prequel."

My question: How does Bedard define "plethora," exactly?

As one person on the CBR boards already postulated, perhaps on Earth-DC, plethora means "giant vacuum created by the absence of any Legion-related material."

Apart from Mon-El appearing in the Super-books, and the promise of Star Man appearing in Adventure Comics, along with some sort of not-starring role for the Legion in that book's "second arc," there does not appear to be a whole lot of love for the Legion at DC right now.

Or, it could mean this: Perhaps DC has a lot more planned for the Legion than it is letting on. Is it possible there may be a whole Legion launch in the pipeline, delayed by lateness of L3W?

One sad note, however - assuming there is, in fact, a true plethora of Legion projects waiting in the wings, none, is seems, will feature by favorite, Bouncing Boy. The fact that one of the R.E.B.E.L.S. - code-named Bounder - apparently has the power to turn himself into a giant-sized soccer ball, coupled with Bedard's comment that he had to change some characters because they were "too close to the Legionnaires" makes it apparent that no vulcanized, spheroid Legionnaire will answer the upcoming roll call.

::sigh::

Just one more 'boot bent on bouncing my boy . . .

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Just testing to see if I have the Simplaris app configured correctly for Facebook.

Panelology - Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #1 (of 5)

I'm a little behind the rest of the blogosphere in commenting on this book, but here are my thoughts on Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #1, such as they are.

In short, this is a great, GREAT book. I still fear DC will have Superboy-Prime kill off most of the Legionnaires and merge the remaining members into a single team, but so far, so good. Speaking as a Legion fan of 35+years, I feel like Geoff Johns hit all the characters spot on. And what can I say about the artwork of George Perez and inker Scott Koblish? A dream come true!

So, let's jump into the book, panelology style. You'll need your copy to follow along, fanboy. The numbers, as always, refer to page and panel numbers.



(COVER) Okay, here's the one let-down on this book. There appears to have been some horrible production problem at Quebecor's printing plant, which DC's quality control unit - such as it is post-Rozakis - seems to have let slide. On my copy, featuring Superboy-Prime on the cover bookended by two, red vertical stripes,it looks as if the ink used to print the words "Final" and "Crisis" splattered in some way. At first, I thought it had to be some weird design choice, it was so obviously bad. But the splattering is too random, I think. It's heavier on the "Crisis" side of the cover and only appears around some letters - the "C" and the "S" in "Crisis," the "F" and the "N" in "Final" - while others are more or less crisp.

If I can get the scanner working, I'll post a shot or two.

(1:1) Cockroaches.

(1:2) More cockroaches, but the important thing to note is the text: "They survive. They always survive . . . like me." Note that that the Time Trapper, despite his near-omnipotent powers, has no apparent control over these critters, despite their being the only other living things here at the end of time. By indicating his lack of surprise at the presence of the roaches - the only things that can survive a nuclear war, as the joke goes, are cockroaches and Twinkies - the Trapper also intimates that he is not responsible for their arrival. He also gives away an all too human sense of identity - "me" - and ego - "like me." Clearly, this version of the Time Trapper is more than simply the embodiment of entropy. There's a person under that hood. But who?

(1:3) The Time Trapper's foot. A white, possibly male foot. Now, what white male do we know of who harbors the overwhelming sense of being put upon expressed by the Trapper in these first three panels? Any ideas? I'll give you mine with the last entry in this panelology review.

(1:4) The Trapper lets the roaches crawl all over him. Why? Could it be that he identifies with their resilience in the face of adversity. Maybe he's just gentle with his pets? But his next line, ". . . left alone to rule over a Kingdom of insects," seems to reinforce his bitterness. It's an outburst of sudden emotion, the sort of line, it seems to me, that a person might throw out in the sudden recognition of some symmetry. It does not read as though the Time Trapper has sat ruminating for eons over his relationship to these insects.

So, why do I harp on this? Well, if the Trapper is not commanding these bugs, who do we know that might be? The Legion has a couple of Insect Queen's in it's history, does it not? Personally, I think it would be kind of neat if, in the first panel of this series, writer Geoff Johns was to give away how it will end.

Perhaps, while all of the multiverse Legion's are locked in battle with the super-villains, under the rapt attention of the Time Trapper, they send in their most unassuming members to save the day. That would tie in nicely with the theme developed early in the Legion's history, by Jerry Siegel and Edmund Hamilton, that even the most insignificant talents have value.

I expect in the final issue, while things look bleakest for the Legion, to see the Time Trapper confronted at the end of time by the reservists, including Insect Queen, Elastic Lad, Pete Ross, Kid Psycho, Tyroc, Quislet, Bouncing Boy and Matter-Eater Lad, perhaps led by Wildfire, Dawnstar and Blok, all inexplicably missing from this issue.

(1:5) According to Michael Grabois, on the Legion Omnicom, Vinnie Bartilucci has suggested at Newsarama that the Time Trapper's HQ, seen here, is the ruins of the Linear Men's base of operations, The Vanishing Point. Could be, but if so, it appears to be breaking up. Note the bit of asteroid with buildings on it closing in on the event horizon.

(1:6) The question that needs to be answered here is, why does the Trapper want to make the Legion "forget Superman." Why is that more important to him than simply killing the Legionnaires, or Superman for that matter? There are any number of ways in which he could alter time so that Superman is never born, never leaves Krypton, never arrives on Earth, never gets found by the Kents or other kindly foster parents, or never grows to become a living legend. Any one of these myriad manipulations would result in no inspiration for the Legion to found itself on. And yet, the Trapper seems obsessed with the idea of letting Superman and the Legion exist, only apart from each other. Perhaps it's John Byrne under the hood. Still, I think this panel gives us a great clue for who the Trapper is this time around and no, I don't think it's Cosmic Boy, XS, Lori Morning or a renegade Controller.

(1:7) "So I need to use that." If the new status quo is that Clark Kent spent his college years in the 31st century, where he learned from the Legionnaires he inspired how to be a hero, and if Superboy-Prime inspired the Legion of Super-Villains, than doesn't it stand to reason that he similarly learned a few lessons from his acolytes? Oh, there, I've gone and given away the Trappers identity. Oh, well. I'll still discuss it some at the end. However, let's just say here that I expect Prime to learn from the LSV somewhere in this series the importance of making your foe suffer before the kill.

(1:8) Of course, the Trapper does refer to Superboy-Prime here in the third person as "this boy." However, we have precedent in Legion tales (see: The Progenitor) that one can forget ones own origins. After all, when you're immortal, those first 18 years can be a real blink of the eye. For the Trapper to remember that he was once Superboy-Prime would be like you or I trying to recall the color of out first pacifier. The stress on "boy," however, might indicate some subconscious recognition that he was a boy at this point, despite the protestations otherwise, which we'll see in a bit. Notice also that the description ". . . of broken dreams and blood and rage," might as easily apply to the Trapper, based on his opening soliloquy.

(1:9) Giant cosmic hand. Unfortunately, I'm not following Geoff John's Green Lantern work, and I passed on the 52-bazillion Countdown crossovers, so I can't tell you how Prime got "lost in time." Could have used an editor's note, I guess. But then, I'm old-fashioned. I remember page numbers.

(1:10) "The Legion will live no longer." The perfect counterpoint to someone sick and tired of hearing "Long live the Legion!"

(1:11) And with the flick of a wrist, our story begins. See how easily the Trapper manipulates time. Why, it's almost as if a universe-punching Superboy had finally found some finese for his reality-bending skills.

(2:1) A classic depiction of time travel, with giant, floating years (because God keeps time by the Gregorian calendar) albeit with swirling masses of cosmic stuff rather than multi-colored bands. There is a poor choice of layout here though. Notice how the time tunnel continues onto the next page. When a panel crosses the centerfold, it's usually an indication that the two pages are to be read as one. The time travel bit actually is done in two separate panels, indicating that all of page two is supposed to be read before proceeding to page three. Still, the design and coloring of the panels topping each page are similar enough that I wonder if any readers were confused? I should also mention that although the cover to my issue is complete, the inside pages are torn at the centerfold beginning here - another indication of the piss-poor job done by Quebecor.

(2:2) Is there NOBODY at DC who can remember that it's A.D. 3008, NOT 3008 A. D. !? If not, then why not enter the 21st century and use the preferred 3008 CE?

I'm surprised they still have farms in Kansas in the 31st century. I also think all those robots wandering through the field is a damn inefficient way to harvest corn in a world capable of interstellar travel. Imagine all the maintenance Jun must have to do. No wonder he's such a cranky bastard. Too bad, I guess, that Manna-V has the patent on giant, automatic harvesters. I do love the "old" Ford pick-up in the garage though.

(2:3) Michael Grabois says the newscaster is Marella Tao, who appeared some during LSH vol.3, in the late 1980s. I don't remember Marella Tao, so I won't dispute. However, I do vividly recall my first Legion comics, Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #218, in which Tyroc joined the team! That issue introduced Absorbency Boy, seen here as the villainous Earth-Man.

As many fans pointed out when Jun and Mara first appeared in Action Comics #858, the couple is an obvious analog for John and Martha Kent. But perhaps in more ways than one. Notice the picture hanging on the wall behind Jun. There are three individuals in it, posed in the manner of a doting couple standing over a beloved son. Are Jun and Mara a childless couple, or do they have a son who may pop-up sometime during this series to avenge their deaths? A postboot, TMK-less version of Dev-Em? Tom Tanner? Kent Shakespeare? Time will tell.

(2:4) And interesting choice of logo's by Marella's producer. Do I see three Earths? I also wonder how it is that the 3000 CE census results don't get announced until 3008? I guess I'm not surprised that government will grow even less efficient over the next 1,000 years.

(2:5) Are we on Earth-3? This obviously is the anti-John Kent.

(2:6) See how carelessly he leaves laser rifles and, um . . . laser bullets, laying around the house. Must belong to the GRA (Galactic Rifle Association). The line "Like we've done on our farm," is a reference to Action Comics #858 - again, no editor's note for help, but this one I remember - where Jun killed an alien baby that landed in his field.

This does raise an interesting question, although one that I expect escaped Johns. It's established that in every reality of the multiverse, an baby from Krypton crash-lands on Earth. However, it does so in each reality at a different time. On Earth-2, Kal-L landed around 1910. On Earth-1, Kal-El arrived in the late 1930s. On Earth-Prime, the Superboy we love to hate showed up in the late 1960s.

So, if a similar occurrence happened on this Earth in 3008, and the baby was killed, what of this world's heroic age? We know this Legion interacted with a Trapper-created doppelganger, to so-called Pocket Universe Superboy. Was the timeline really corrected, or did this Legion induct the wrong Superman-when-he-was-a-boy?

(2:7) If Mara thinks her 31st century is no place for boys and girls, she should have seen the world boys and girls were born into in the threeboot reality. I can't imagine any adult in that sterilized world going after a sausage with anything like the ghusto displayed by Jun in 2:5.

(2:8) Hmmmm . . . it seems the Trapper may have less finese than I gave him credit for. I'm not aware of any other instance in comics when a time traveler broke the sound barrier decelerating from lightspeed. Did Flash ever have that problem?

(3:1) Here we see Superboy-Prime traveling from A.D. 8600 (although DC thinks its 8600 A.D.) to A.D. 3009. Considering that the [Devems?] heard the noise before Superboy his 8600 that "BRMMMBLLLLLLLL" must have gone on for an awfully long time.

(3:2) Considering which, it's no damn wonder the first thing Jun does is reach for his laser rifle.

(3:3) What's up with Jun's face? A little gingold in that window blind, maybe?

(3:4) Nothing funnier than startled robots. I set off loud noises all the time just to watch mine jump. Speaking of which, be on the lookout for a Rog-2000 wandering around the background sometime during this series. I don't know why I think it's likely, I just have a feeling.

(3:5) A neat effect with the word-shaped panel borders. This panel did confuse me at first though. It appears to show Prime making impact, but I thought he already had touched down in 3:4, as indicated by the mushroom cloud. A second look proves that what I thought was a post-impact explosion actually is Prime flying thtough the sky directly at the reader's p.o.v.

(3:6) Stretching my suspension of disbelief here. It's not quite nuking the fridge, but still, something flying through a house at the speed Prime was travelling, as indicated by the light-show he produced, would have fried anyone standing that close to him as he passed by. Granted, Jun and Mara will die on the next page, but they should have been dead here.

(3:7) Notice the complete lack of harvesting robots. Didn't we see at least a half dozen in roughly this same spot on the last page. Where do you think they went? Buch 'a scardy-bots, you ask me.

(3:8) People who shoot first rarely get a chance to finish their exclemations, let alone ask questions later.

(3:9) Sort of a neat effect around the rifle nozzle.

The Weekly Haul

According to my local comics shop (local in Maine being a 45 minute drive from my home) some sort of screw-up at UPS delayed delivery of new books until Thursday. Given that, posting my reviews on Sunday is actually a pretty quick turnaround for me.


BRAVE AND THE BOLD #16 (B)
I'm looking forward to the debut of the Archie heroes in this title, but I'm also sad to see Mark Waid leave. He's got a real knack for telling good stories under one cover, and this is simply the latest example of that. This story's got a few glitches. The crumbling Atlantian necklace, for example, seems like a Silver-Agey sort of plot device. However, I'm willing to accept it, in part because I think comics need to rediscover some of its Silver Age conventions.

I'm a strong believer that comics lost the casual reader not because newsstand distribution collapsed in the 1970s, but because fans entered the field as professionals at that time. Whereas creators in the 1960s and before wrote for a general audience, the pro-fans wrote mostly for themselves. This book, I think, fits into the silver age model much better than it does with the books it shares rack space with this week. For that reason, I expect it would sell better on any rack outside a comic book shop.

Unfortunately, to sell elsewhere, it needs retail for less than $3. The argument is that newsstands want something that sells for higher price point that a comic book. I don't buy that. What they want is stuff that sells, period. And comics don't sell at $3 because, at that price, they are a poor entertainment value. In my neck of the woods, a kid can see a two-hour movie for $4, while the $3 comic book can be read in about 15 minutes. It's really not a hard choice.

What DC needs is not 40 books a month that sell 20,000 copies each in comics shops. It needs 10 that sell 100,000 each on newsstands. Comics really don't take up that much shelf space, so that's a fatuous argument as well. DC can get its product placed in Wal-Mart stores, and those like it, if it publishes books in a format that will sell (like the Johnny DC books) and tells more stories that are complete and will compel readers to come back for more -- just like this issue.

Of course, DC also needs to sit Scott Kolins down and teach him how to spot blacks. Kolins is a decent artist, and a good storyteller, but his insistence on drawing everything in contour, with no shading or spotting, really makes his work hard to "read."

A prime example is the panel where Superman finds Catwoman missing after stepping out of the vault. I have NO idea what's going on with that Escher-like scene.

Rob Schwager's paint-by-numbers water coloring also is hard on the eyes, doing more to detract from the art than to serve the story. The panel where Superman hoists the auctioneer by the shirt is particularly garish.


CAPTAIN AMERICA #41 (A)
Okay, so there's an exception to every rule. Normally, I stump for complete stories and argue that never-ending tales tend to drag down sales. However, there are few comics stories I've enjoyed more than Ed Brubaker's "Death of Captain America" tale, even though it began, like, five years ago.

As with most modern comics, the plot moves sluggishly, but the characters are so compelling that I still come away from this book feeling like I've got good value for money. Part of that, of course, is due to the work of artists Steve Epting. Using an economy of lines, he manages to packs each facial expression, each pose, with a wealth of information. Brubaker does not use a ton of words, so the reason this book takes longer than usual for me to read can only be explained by the length of time I tend to linger over Epting's panels.

As to this particular issue, I'm not sure if the loss of Sharon Carter's baby is real, or just another Faustus mind-f**k. If it's true that there never was a baby, then I may have to linger over the point of that particular subplot to judge if this story may have been intentionally dragged out. Of course, if it was, what of it? I certainly enjoyed every step of the journey.

As I said, this book has been a real exception to the usual rules of comics storytelling. I'm not sure anyone other than Brubaker could have pulled it off, and Brubaker minus Epting might still have failed. I'm not sure when I've been more excited, or more saddened by three simple words, "To be concluded . . . "


FINAL CRISIS: LEGION OF THREE WORLDS #1 (of 5) (A)
A great, great book. Speaking as a 35-year fan of the Legion, I'd say Geoff Johns hits all of the characterizations spot on. Seeing George Perez illustrate a Legion book is, simply said, a dream come true. I plan a panelology review, so I'll have more to say then. For now, I can only say this book would get an A+ except for a printing error, which splattered white ink from the logo all over the vertical red stripes on the cover.


THE SPIRIT #20 (A-)
Another great done-in-one tale by Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragones. There was nothing especially tricky or clever about the plot, and a lot of the jokes were groan-inducing, albeit some were written that way on porpoise [sic]. Still, this was a pleasant diversion, which is really all I ask of a comic book.

Ironically, this reads a lot like a comic book version of a Saturday morning cartoon script. Not surprising given Evanier's background. That's ironic, you see, because Eisner's great ambition with The Spirit - one of the reasons he accepted the offer to enter newspaper syndication - was to reach an adult audience. Based on this and recent issues of the Spirit, I'd actually advocate moving the title over to the Johnny DC line. Paul Smith has a nice, clean cartoony style that would play well in that sandbox, I think, and there's nothing about the coloring that truly requires the slick paper and cardstock covers currently used on the book.

Of course, I've never seen a Johnny DC title on a newsstand, or any other place where a kid might find it - comic book stores being the realm of the 30-something fanboy. Still, if DC ever were to try and market its kids' line as anything other than trademark holders, I think this version of the Spirit would sell as well as anything else in the line.

My only complaint about The Spirit is that I had thought Smith was going to rotate art duties with Mike Ploog, who is the most Eineresque artist I know. Unfortunately, Ploog, I think, has only done one issue so far, and his name has not appeared on solicitations for any upcoming books.


TRINITY #12 (of 52) (B-)
Once again, the back-up tale is more enjoyable than the lead story. Part of that is the artwork, which is so much better. Mark Bagley has that Image-style habit of filling in figures with extraneous lines in apparent disregard to a light source. Mike Norton, on the other hand, has a cleaner style, with nice line weight and spotted blacks that help lead the eye. His work, to my mind, is just so much pleasanter to look at.

The lead story also suffers from being a mere part of a story. We get a little bit of a fight scene, but the plot really has not advanced for a couple of issues now. I'm also frustrated by the last-panel cliffhanger with Green Lantern-John. Apart from the one-panel scene last issue that showed him developing into some bio-Borg-Arsenal kind of thing, I really have no idea where this subplot is segwaying in from. It must tie-in to something that happened in this title before I started reading it, or to events in the regular Green Lantern books, or maybe even in one of the Infinite number of Crisis cross-over titles.

Because I have no clue what's going on, cliffhanger does not induce what I presume must have been the desired affect, to psych me up for the next issue. Instead, because it comes so far from left field, from my perspective, John's transformation becomes such a WTF moment that I really don't care what happens next - in large part because I don't expect to understand it.

By contrast, the back up story is a model in how to tell an ongoing tale in the periodical format. The story spins out of events that have come before, and leads into things yet to come, but the Riddler's investigation is a complete story unto itself. Compare this story to the first one in this book: Which on has a beginning, a middle, and an end? Which one provides a more complete reading experience?

Kurt Busiek wrote both stories, so I hope he won't be offended when I say that, based on this issue - forgetting anything I may or may not know from any previous issue - I am anxious to learn more of the connection between the Riddler and Enigma while I could frankly give two shits about the Trinity.


IN SUMMARY: Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds comes with my highest recommendation, even if you are not a hard-core Legion fan. Brave and the Bold and The Spirit are recommended, assuming you are able to connect with your inner-twelve year old. Captain America is a great book, although you'd be advised to buy the trades at this late point in the current storyline, while Trinity is mostly a shoulder-shrugger, not great, but not totally without merit.