Reading Roundup Wrapup: June 2022

Pick of the month: Five Novels of the 1960s and 70s by Philip K. Dick. Once again, it was a good month. But also once again, one particular book—or rather, collection of books—outshone them all. These Library of America Philip K. Dick compilations are great stuff. Even a weak Dick is still Dick. But I read some other strong stuff; I particularly enjoyed Dangerous Visions and New Worlds (solid, accessible litcrit) and Kabumpo in Oz (my favorite Oz book in some time).

All books read:

1. A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark
2. Far Sector by N. K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell
3. Chaos on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer
4. Glinda of Oz: In which are related the Exciting Experiences of Princess Ozma of Oz, and Dorothy, in their hazardous journey to the home of the Flatheads, and to the Magic Isle of the Skeezers, and how they were rescued from dire peril by the sorcery of Glinda the Good by L. Frank Baum, illustrated by John R. Neill
5. Lore Olympus, Volume One by Rachel Smythe
6. Five Novels of the 1960s & 70s: Martian Time-Slip / Dr. Bloodmoney / Now Wait for Last Year / Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said / A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
7. The Royal Book of Oz: In which the Scarecrow goes to search for his family tree and discovers that he is the Long Lost Emperor of the Silver Island, and how he was rescued and brought back to Oz by Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion by L. Frank Baum, enlarged and edited by Ruth Plumly Thompson, illustrated by John R. Neill
8. Redemptor by Jordan Ifueko
9. The Sins of Our Fathers: An Expanse Novella by James S.A. Corey
10. JSA by Geoff Johns, Book Two by Geoff Johns, David Goyer, Stephen Sadowski, Michael Bair, Carlos Pacheco, Jesus Merino, et al.
11. Never Say You Can’t Survive by Charlie Jane Anders
12. The Surprising Adventures of The Magical Monarch of Mo And His People by L. Frank Baum, illustrated by Fran Ver Beck
13. Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985 edited by Andrew Nette and Iain McIntyre
14. Hearts of Oak by Eddie Robson
15. Kabumpo in Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson, illustrated by John R. Neill
16. A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger
17. Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky
18. The Cowardly Lion of Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson, illustrated by John R. Neill
19. Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don’t Have To by David A. Sinclair, with Matthew D. LaPlante 

Nineteen books makes it my best month since July 2021. Like last month, mostly Hugo reads, but I found time for some other stuff: a few books from my reading list (#6, 9, 14), my breakfast-time comic books (#10), and a whopping five Oz books with my son (#4, 7, 12, 15, 18). That's an Oz book every six days! (We've been doing this a year, and prior to this our average was 1.5 per month.)

All books acquired:

1. Legion of Super-Heroes: Five Years Later Omnibus, Volume 2 by Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Tom McCraw, Stuart Immonen, Chris Sprouse, et al.
2. She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
3. Kabumpo in Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson, illustrated by John R. Neill
4. Captain Salt in Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson, illustrated by John R. Neill
5. Handy Mandy in Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson, illustrated by John R. Neill
6. Transformers: Perchance to Dream by Simon Furman, Andrew Wildman, Lee Sullivan, et al.
7. The Cowardly Lion of Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson, illustrated by John R. Neill
8. Grampa In Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson, illustrated by John R. Neill

Bit of a pattern! Acquiring my Oz books slightly out of order based on what is available at what bookstore.

Books remaining on "To be read" list: 689 (no change)

The Expanse: The Sins of Our Fathers by James S.A. Corey

The Sins of Our Fathers: An Expanse Novella
by James S.A. Corey

Published: 2022
Acquired: March 2022
Read: June 2022

This is the last Expanse novella, and also the last Expanse book full stop, to my knowledge anyway. I think there was a plan for the short fiction collection, Memory's Legion, to contain an exclusive piece, but this didn't come to pass in the end. It's a coda to the series, showing us what one particular colony got up to after Leviathan Falls, and one particular character, who we last saw back in Babylon's Ashes. At first it didn't grab me—kind of action-y, kind of slow—but the last third made me sit up and pay attention in a way that made me think I ought to have been paying more attention all along, and wasn't giving the story its due. So, if I ever get Memory's Legion, I look forward to rereading it.

I read an Expanse story every eighty-ish days. Next up in sequence: nothing!

Hugos 2022: A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

This novel is set in the world of the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities, where djinn and other creatures are active in early twentieth-century Cairo. This is Clark's fourth piece of fiction in this setting, but first novel; one of the earlier ones, The Haunting of Tram Car 015, was a Hugo finalist in 2020.

Published: 2021
Acquired: April 2022
Read: June 2022

It's a police procedural set in a government agency devoted to the supernatural; a "master of djinn" purports to return, dozens of British residents in a secret society are dead, and Ministry agent Fatma el-Sha'arawi is on the case. I found it occasionally charming but often a plod; there are too many dull fight scenes, and as a mystery, it's not very satisfying. There are no red herrings: pretty much the only person you suspect to have done it, has done it. But it takes Fatma far too much time to work this out, and it usually felt like she didn't really work anything out, actually; people would tell her things. A bit too much of the plot turns on somewhat obscure details of relationships between magical beings.

I feel a bit disappointed, in that the idea of a government department devoted to the supernatural could have a fun collision of rationality and irrationality. How does a government standardize something that by nature cannot be standardizes? But Clark's magical entities don't really feel, well, magical, and the story doesn't do anything with this idea. I mean, I guess it didn't have to, but maybe it would have been about something if it had. On the basis of some of Clark's other Hugo finalists over the years (e.g., Ring Shout) he is capable of more interesting work than this, which like so many other Tordotcom novellas, feels more like the pilot for a streaming show  than a work of prose fiction.

It was fun. It you handed this to me and said, "I think you will enjoy this," I probably would, but unfortunately, it is a Hugo finalist, which means it was handed to me with the statement, "This is one of the best six science fiction/fantasy novels of the year," and that I found difficult to believe, and thus my enjoyment was diminished.

Chase by J. H. Williams III, Dan Curtis Johnson, et al.

Chase

Collection published: 2011
Contents originally published: 1998-2002
Acquired: February 2022
Read: March 2022

Plotter/Penciller: J. H. Williams III

Writers: Dan Curtis Johnson, Doug Moench
Inks: Mick Gray, John Beatty & Shawn C. Martinbrough
Artists: Kelley Jones, Bob Hall, Charlie Adlard, Eric Canete, Rick Burchett, Yanick Paquette, Eduardo Barreto & Greg Scott

Colors: Gregory White & Lee Loughridge

Of the four collections I'm reading before starting JSA, this one's connection is the most tangential. Indeed, as far as I know it doesn't connect forward to JSA at all; rather, it connects back to Infinity, Inc. But more on that later; first let me discuss the book on its own term.

Chase is about Cameron Chase, a former P.I., now an agent of the DEO, a federal agency with jurisdiction over matters relating to superheroes. It's easy to see that this comes out of the same cultural moment that also brought us Alias and, later, Manhunter. All three series focused on women who work in law enforcement (broadly defined), largely without superpowers (sort of), with an emphasis on what it is to be ordinary and powerless in a world of power. (Gotham Central is not too far off this, either.) Chase has a live-in boyfriend, a sister who loves superheros, and a sort-of ex-partner; we eventually learn that her father had a brief superhero career that ended in his death. She herself doesn't trust those with powers.

Williams and Johnson are pretty fond of the lots-of-text-next-to-silent-image technique, and it works well given the subject matter and focus of the series.
from Chase #1 (script by Dan Curtis Johnson, art by J. H. Williams III & Mick Gray)

It's a good storytelling engine, and gives us a set of engaging tales: Chase goes to Ohio to investigate a teenage boy with pyrokinesis; Chase goes to South America to escort the Suicide Squad; Chase is assigned to watch over a Teen Titans publicity event that goes horribly wrong when the Clock King attacks; Chase goes to Gotham to see if the DEO can figure out who Batman really is. J. H. Williams III is always a solid artist with great layouts but also good storytelling and character, and that definitely comes through here; he co-plots with scripter Dan Curtis Johnson as well. Other than the Suicide Squad story (I didn't buy that such a new agent would be assigned such a difficult task solo), these are good stories, with an interesting angle of superheroes and an interesting main character. My favorite was surely the one where she tries to figure out who Batman is, which had some good twists, and a neat use of Alan Scott; I also really liked the pyrokinetic one, which really captured the "ground-level" Alias vibe. (The series is never quite that downbeat again, though, which is probably for the best.)

I felt like this subplot didn't go much of anywhere in the end, for example.
from Chase #6 (plot & script by Dan Curtis Johnson, plot & pencils by J. H. Williams III, inks by Mick Gray)

Its main downfall is that it just didn't last long. There were just nine regular issues of Chase; three of these were flashbacks, so there were only six in the ongoing narrative, plus the prequel story in Batman #550. So you can very obviously tell that Williams and Johnson are gearing up a long run with lots of threads... and it just doesn't happen. If this had lasted twenty-eight issues like Alias did, it would be a classic, I suspect; as it is, it has to be one of those things people call "a cult favorite."

Pretty nice dress on a government salary.
from Chase #8 (co-plot & script by Dan Curtis Johnson, co-plot & pencils by J. H. Williams III, inks by Mick Gray)

This collection also chucks in Chase #1,000,000 (about the DEO in the 853rd century) and a number of small Chase appearances from various DC "Secret Files" issues. These are okay, but of course mostly focused on doing things like foreshadowing about Gorilla Grodd. Weirdly Chase is barely in DCU Villains Secret Files #1, which is included... and has a footnote telling us to see DCU Heroes Secret Files #1 for more Chase... which is not included!

Like, this is just not explained or clarified!
from DCU Villains Secret Files & Origins #1 (plot by D. Curtis Johnson & J. H. Williams III, script by D. Curtis Johnson, art by Eric Canete & Shawn Martinbrough)

Anyway, though I've long been curious about Chase, I picked it up now for one reason: Mister/Director Bones. In Manhunter, Bones was a director in the DEO, a mid-level bureaucrat addicted to cigarettes... and with transparent skin and muscles and a cyanide touch. Then, I read Infinity, Inc., where he was a young supervillain who eventually made good. How did he go from the one to the other? The answer was, ostensibly, in Chase. Chase is indeed the series where Bones first appears as DEO director, his first appearance in a decade since Infinity, Inc. #53. But it's actually not really addressed in Chase because he's mostly a background figure here, just appearing in four issues, none of which delve into who he is. (If you know, you know—there's some Infinc nods in his office—but nothing in the text would tell you he's a reformed supervillain.) It doesn't really get spelled out until JSA Secret Files #2, three years after the series was cancelled! So is there a comic out there that actually delves into this transition? I will have to keep searching...

Why did he stop speaking in rhyme, anyway?
from Chase #6 (plot & script by Dan Curtis Johnson, plot & pencils by J. H. Williams III, inks by Mick Gray)

This post is twenty-sixth in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Stargirl by Geoff Johns. Previous installments are listed below:

1. All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)
2. The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)
3. All-Star Squadron (1981-87)
4. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)
5. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)
6. Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)
7. America vs. the Justice Society (1985)
8. Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)
9. Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)
10. Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]
11. Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)
12. All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)
13. Steel, the Indestructible Man (1978)
14. Superman vs. Wonder Woman: An Untold Epic of World War Two (1977)
• Wonder Woman: Earth-Two (1977-78)
15. Secret Origins of the Golden Age (1986-89)
16. The Young All-Stars (1987-89)
17. Gladiator (1930) ["Man-God!" (1976)]
    
18. The Crimson Avenger: The Dark Cross Conspiracy (1981-88)
19. The Immortal Doctor Fate (1940-82)
20. Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice (1951-91)
21. Armageddon: Inferno (1992)
22. Justice Society of America vol. 2 (1992-93)
23. The Adventures of Alan Scott--Green Lantern (1992-93)
24. Damage (1994-96)
25. The Justice Society Returns! (1999-2001)
    

Oracle

Hayley and I cat-sat for a grad student in my program when she had to spend the summer at home. Our cat, Fluffy, seemed to enjoy having a playmate, and so once Mr. Whiskers went back to his family, we sought out an addition to ours.

Oracle came home with us in January 2014. She was, as my wife pointed out to me, the first pet we acquired together. She was just three when we got her from the shelter; her previous owner had been an old woman. At the shelter they called her "Oreo" on account of her black-and-white coloring, but we dubbed her "Oracle"—we had been reading Birds of Prey comics at the time.

Fluffy was skeptical at first, but they eventually became friends. I don't know that they ever quite played together the way we imagined, as Fluffy began slowing down, but Oracle would even groom Fluffy... whether he liked it or not.

Oracle was a huntress and an adventuress. When we lived in our Connecticut apartment, I once heard her yowling at 2am and realized she had killed a mouse. She always wanted to go outside, and we got a cat harness for her and would let her explore the front porch of our rental. Once we moved to Florida, she loved stalking lizards in our pool enclosure... and then sometimes she would throw up and we'd find an entire lizard in their, whole.

She lived with us through a cross-country move, and became a solo cat when Fluffy passed away. We talked about getting another cat for her to play with, but things became chaotic enough around here when our first child was born. Oracle usually avoided him, but I do remember once evening where I was rocking him as he screamed and screamed and screamed, ineffectually trying to get him to calm down and Oracle ran up to me and just meowed furiously, as if to say, "Enough already! Make him be quiet!"

She never let our first son get her, but she's clearly been slowing down over the last year, as our second had consistently been able to catch her, carrying her around even. She's lost of a lot of weight, been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and put on special food, and has been throwing up so so much. When I took her to the vet most recently, she was surprised to learn she was only eleven, and she suggested a different approach which seemed to be working...

...but still, it was not too much of a surprise when I found that she had passed peacefully in her sleep under the rocking chair a couple weeks ago. When we told Son One, he responded, "Am I dreaming? Is this a dream?"

Both boys helped us dig the hole in the backyard. There's a hole in our family now.

The Expanse: Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey

Leviathan Falls: Book Nine of The Expanse
by James S.A. Corey

Published: 2021
Acquired and read: December 2021

Books seven and eight had been a bit of a return to form for The Expanse after a lackluster middle trilogy, but alas, I did not find the conclusion lived up to them. I felt like it struggled to operate on the necessary scale: we should be building up to epic confrontations with both the Laconians and the mysterious aliens, but for much the book, the Rocinante crew have a much smaller goal of getting one girl somewhere; I didn't feel very into this, knowing what the stakes seemingly ought to be. Still, a solid conclusion with good answers and some smart character resolutions.

I read an Expanse story every eighty-ish days. Next up in sequence: The Sins of Our Fathers

Hugos 2022: The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers

The fourth and final* Galactic Commons novel is set on a space service station, where a group of different travelers find themselves trapped for several days during a disaster. Like most Becky Chambers novels, there's little conflict, and I found this dead boring; of her novels, only A Closed and Common Orbit has really worked for me.

Originally published: 2021
Acquired and read: April 2022

I think the issue, here at least, is that the characters are all the same. Despite being from different species and different societies, they're all well-intentioned people who are vaguely awkward and have some kind of minor secret that sets them apart from their own people. That's all we get out of three hundred pages!

Nothing ever feels like it's at stake. Not externally, but even internally. Am I worried about how these people are and how they might change? Not at all. Chambers has her devoted fans (including my own sister) but she and I are obviously just not on the same wavelength.

* It doesn't really make sense to me that there is a final Galactic Commons novel. There's no ongoing plot; there's no shared characters beyond small cameos. Like Le Guin's Hainish stories, it's a setting, not really a series. So it can't really end. Le Guin never had a "final" Hainish novel, but she did not publish any stories in that milieu between 1975 and 1990. I don't see why Chambers doesn't just write something else; there's no sense of finality here, and might she not return to the setting in 2036?

Doctor Who: Time Lord Victorious: Defender of the Daleks by Jody Houser, Roberta Ingranata, et al.

 Doctor Who: Time Lord Victorious: Defender of the Daleks

Collection published: 2020
Contents published: 2020
Read: February 2022

Story: James Goss

Writer: Jody Houser

Artist: Roberta Ingranata

Colorist: Erica Eren Angiolini

Flatters: Sari Chankhamma, Sabrina Del Gross

Letterer: Richard Starkings

Last year, I worked through all of Big Finish's Time Lord Victorious contributions, along with one novel; with this, I add one more piece to the puzzle, though I am coming to it as a Titan Doctor Who story, not a Time Lord Victorious one. This supposedly picks up from the end of the tenth/thirteenth Doctor story Alternating Current, the recap here telling us that at the end of that story, the tenth Doctor was sucked into a time vortex... only in Alternating Current no such thing actually happened. Oops! There's also a small thirteenth Doctor appearance here that takes place between pages of Alternating Current.

The stories of TLV are sometimes pretty loosely linked; while for the tenth Doctor this takes place some time prior to his TLV appearances and isn't really connected to them, it's a stronger connection for the Daleks. For them, this directly leads into the Big Finish audio drama The Enemy of My Enemy.

What actually happens is, as is so often true of Houser/Ingranata Who comics, not very much. The tenth Doctor is asked for help by the Daleks; he seems to be in a timeline where the Time War never happened. He helps them defeat a pretty bland threat from the "Dark Times." There's some okay back-and-forth between the Doctor and the Dalek Prime Strategist of the Dalek Time Squad (not to be confused with Big Finish's Dalek Time Strategist!), but this is two double-sized issues (clearly, though, originally scripted as four regular-sized one) where it just doesn't feel like that much actually happens. The elements of the story are good, but there was a more interesting tale to be told about the tenth Doctor having to help the species he thought had destroyed his people, and who (he thought) he had destroyed himself! Not as bad as Alternating Current, I guess, but not really up to much.

I read an issue of Titan's Doctor Who comic every day (except when I have hard-copy comics to read). Next up in sequence: Missy: The Master Plan

Reading The Scarecrow of Oz Aloud to My Son... Plus We Make Oz Creatures out of Duplo!

The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum, illustrated by John R. Neill

This novel unites Baum's Trot and Cap'n Bill books with his Oz ones by bringing those two characters (along with Button-Bright) to live in Oz. The writers of the late, lamented Oz blog Burzee were skeptical of what Baum claims in his foreword, that his readers wanted him to bring Trot and Cap'n Bill to Oz, but going on the sample of my three-year-old son, it's entirely believable; he'd been campaigning for it since we read The Sea Fairies, and continued to campaign for it throughout this book. "When are they going to get to Oz???" he'd plaintively ask about once a chapter.

Originally published: 1915
Acquired and read aloud: March 2022

This is the one of Baum's original fourteen Oz novels that I remembered the least about going into it. Beyond the fact that Trot and Cap'n Bill and Button-Bright made it to Oz in the end, I could have told you literally nothing about it. While I remember many of the early novels in exhaustive detail, everything from this point on is a bit murkier, yet for each novel I could give you some capsule plot... except this one. All of the places they visited were totally new to me; the adventure the characters had with the Scarecrow in Jinxland upon finally getting to Oz did not strike a single chord of memory.

It's a bit surprising because though I don't think it would ever be a favorite, it has some fun bits. The subterranean explorations that open the novel are well done, the visit to Pessim's island is entertaining, Cap'n Bill comes across better than ever. Back in Sea Fairies, he was very skeptical about magic; now he comes across as very practical about it. It's him who comes up with many of the characters' best plans, applying down-to-earth problem-solving skills to extraordinary situations. My son was particularly taken with the trip to Mo (Baum once again crossing over with one of his other fantasies, in this case The Magical Monarch of Mo) where it rains lemonade and snows popcorn, and while taking a car ride during this book we spent some time imagining what all the other kinds of Mo weather could embody. I don't remember having much of an opinion of Button-Bright as a child, but I find him highly entertaining now, and I think Scarecrow is the best depiction in the series of his almost supernatural ability to get lost. (It does seem a shame after how big a deal was made over his Magic Umbrella in Sky Island, that he just loses it between books here!)

One thing I appreciated is that I felt like it had more illustrations than Tik-Tok of Oz, where they had seemed somewhat sparse, with many pages passing with no visuals. Scarecrow of Oz constantly had something of visual interest to look at.

On the other hand, for a book called The Scarecrow of Oz, it really does not show off the Scarecrow at his best. Do his brains solve the crisis in Jinxland? No, not at all. It's just luck! A bit disappointing; Baum often seemed to forget in the later books to actually show the Scarecrow being smart!

My son seemed to like it on the whole. During the sequence where the Scarecrow was threatened with burning, though, he hid under his covers. It's interesting; sequences of physical danger didn't seem to affect him much in the earlier books, but as we go on and his understanding of the stories is growing, they can scare him more and more. On the other hand, what is disturbing to an adult is something he just doesn't get. In this one, we learn that since people in Oz live forever, if you dispose of an old king by throwing him into a lake and dropping stones on him, he's just down there forever!

My son was taken by the Ork, the bird with a propeller for a tail:

We built one together out of Duplo:

During the time period we were reading this, at one point we were playing and my son turned to me and said, "Dad, why do we live in Florida?" "What do you mean?" I asked cautiously, not really wanting to explain the academic job market. "Why don't we live in Oz?"

Good question.

The Justice Society Returns! by David Goyer, James Robinson, et al.

 The Justice Society Returns!

Collection published: 2003
Contents originally published: 1999-2001
Acquired and read: February 2022

Writers: David Goyer, James Robinson, Chuck Dixon, Geoff Johns, Ron Marz, Tom Peyer, Mark Waid

Pencillers: Michael Lark, William Rosado, Eduardo Barreto, Scott Benefiel, Russ Heath, Aaron Lopresti, Stephen Sadowski, Peter Snejbjerg, Chris Weston, Peter Grau
Inkers: Michael Bair, Eduardo Barreto, Keith Champagne, John Dell, Wade Von Grawbadger, Doug Hazlewood, Russ Heath, Ray Kryssing, Aaron Lopresti, Mark Propst, Claude St. Aubin, Christ Weston
Colorists: John Kalisz, Carla Feeny, Noelle Giddings, Tom McCraw

Letterers: Ken Lopez, Kurth Hathaway, Bill Oakley, John Costanza, Janice Chiang

I'm coming up on the return of the JSA to an ongoing comic, but before then, I'm reading four collected editions with JSA connections, of which this is the first.

The title of this volume would seem to indicate that it's about a triumphant return of the Justice Society of America. This is only kind of true. This isn't a "return" in the narrative; the JSA (which had disbanded in Zero Hour) was still moribund in the present-day of the DC Universe (though that was about to change), it was a return out of the narrative, in that 1999 gave us a JSA title for the first time since the end of its short-lived only ongoing back in 1993. But if you were to look at my list of titles below, it's slightly deceptive: it would imply no JSA-adjacent titles from the end of Damage in 1996 until now. But in fact one had been steadily chugging along since 1994: James Robinson's Starman. This was about the most recent inheritor of the Starman mantle, but it had played a lot with the history of the character, including his JSA ties. That title was primarily written by James Robinson, often co-plotted by David Goyer, and it's those two that primarily guide this storyline.

Did people in 1945 know this? I guess probably.
from All Star Comics vol. 2 #1 (script by James Robinson & David Goyer, art by Michael Lark and Wade Von Grawbadger & Doug Hazlewood)

The Justice Society Returns! is set in 1945, as it seems World War II is coming to an end, and one could imagine it as a story arc in All-Star Squadron if the series had made it that far along; like that series, it weaves the superheroics in and out of real war to good effect. It is structured like a typical Golden Age JSA storyline: the characters as a group discover some issue, then they split up into groups to handle different aspects of it, then they come back together as a group to finish it off. Except, instead of having just a single issue to do all of this, JSA Returns takes nine issues, two of which are double-sized!

This turns out to really work. I usually dislike the typical JSA structure because everything is rushed and you don't get much genuine character interaction—which is surely what you want out of a team book! But with one issue apiece for each pair of heroes, you can really dig into them. The individual stories, like All-Star Squadron did, do neat stuff by placing these superheroes in wartime, exploring what makes them tick, and delving into the war itself at the same time. Goyer and Robinson write the two framing issues (All Star Comics vol. 2 #1-2, more on them later), while a variety of writers pen the ones in between; each issue has its own artist.

Good use of the silent panel, here.
from All-American Comics vol. 2 #1 (script by Ron Marz, art by Eduardo Barreto)

Highlights included "Cold Heart" (All-American Comics vol. 2 #1), which is about Green Lantern and Johnny Thunder protecting the Yalta Conference, but is mostly told from the perspective of an ordinary American soldier trying to do the same without superpowers: a strong sense of tone, time, and character make this an effective tale. It might be the best Ron Marz script I've ever read, and Eduardo Barreto is a great penciller who I am surprised not to know more of given this quality of work.

Go little guy, go!
from Adventure Comics vol. 2 #1 (script by James Robinson & David Goyer, art by Peter Snejbjerg & Keith Champagne)

I also really liked "Stars and Atoms" (Adventure Comics vol. 2 #1), which sends Starman and the Atom to Los Alamos to protect the atom bomb test site. Robinson and Goyer themselves provide a great focus on one of my favorite JSAers, the eternal underdog the Atom, and Peter Snejbjerg (is he an underrated talent? I always like him but can't remember seeing him get much high-profile stuff) also turns in some atmospheric pencils, backed up by great coloring from John Kalisz. The debt that this whole series owes to A-SS is most clear here, as it picks up on some stuff Roy Thomas established about how the Atom developed superpowers and changed costumes (though I think that "really" didn't happen until 1948).

I don't think I've ever read a comic really focused on Mr. Terrific, but I usually enjoy him when he pops up.
from National Comics vol. 2 #1 (script by Mark Waid, art by Aaron Lopresti)

It would probably surprise no one to know that Mark Waid's story is also one of the collection's greats. "Fair Play" (National Comics vol. 2 #1) is set in Dresden during the Dresden bombing, focusing on the Flash and Mr. Terrific. The story is narrated by the Flash, but focuses on Mr. Terrific, whose sense of fair play is undermined by the horrific events he witnesses... perpetrated by his own side! The ending is a little pat, though, as the story kind of punts responsibility for the bombing onto war itself rather than, you know, the people who make these decisions.

Gotta get our gratuitous shots into those comics about women, amirite?
from Sensation Comics vol. 2 #1 (script by James Robinson & David Goyer, art by Scott Benefiel & Mark Propst)

Probably the only misfire is "Womanly Deeds & Manly Words" (Sensation Comics vol. 2 #1). The writing here from Robinson & Goyer is fine, teaming up Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl, but it is pretty typical superhero comics that clearly someone involved went, "Well, why would people read a comic about two women unless it had a lot of panels with gratuitous focuses on tits, asses, and panties in it?" I don't know this Scott Benefiel guy, and I am not encouraged to do so. The Wonder Woman here is Diana's mother, Queen Hippolyta, having travelled back in time (I think this happened in John Byrne's Wonder Woman comics, which I haven't read), but the story mostly shies away from that; aside from Johnny Thunder calling her "Polly" in one issue, I don't think there's a reference. (Roy Thomas established back in All-Star Squadron/Secret Origins that Miss America filled Wonder Woman's role in the JSA in the post-Crisis timeline, but later writers don't seem to have been very interested in that idea.)

I have never really been convinced I want to read a Johnny Thunder series or something, but I have come to see him as a delightful bit of color in JSA stories.
from All Star Comics vol. 2 #1 (script by James Robinson & David Goyer, art by Michael Lark and Wade Von Grawbadger & Doug Hazlewood)

I also was not very taken by the wrap-up issue, "Time's Arrow" (All Star Comics vol. 2 #2), which becomes a confusing muddle involving time travel for no evident reason. It felt like the writers ran out of space... but they only ran out of space because they added a bunch of unnecessary stuff! But the first issue, "Time's Keeper" (All Star Comics vol. 2 #1), was a strong one; it's essentially two one-issue stories combined: first an Hourman solo story, then a big JSA fight. I can't claim to love Hourman (I would be very happen to never read another ham-fisted Miraclo addiction storyline), but he can work well in some cases, and this is one of them. Michael Lark, better known for his work on Gotham Central, is just as adept with traditional superheroics.

(There are also two short stories that pad out the volume, one about class snobbery in the JSA from Golden Age Secret Files and Origins #1, and one about Stargirl from JSA Secret Files and Origins #1. The former was fun, but the latter did not make me like Stargirl very much. I am curious to see her in her original solo series, which I should do soon.)

Overall, this is great, doing what the "retroactive continuity"–based JSA comics have done at their best since the days of All-Star Squadron, and I am glad I spent the money to track down a physical copy. Soon I'll be reunited with the JSA in the present (there is a veritable explosion of JSA content in the early 2000s) but this is a great teaser for things to come, a great return to the glory days.

This post is twenty-fifth in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Chase. Previous installments are listed below:

1. All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)
2. The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)
3. All-Star Squadron (1981-87)
4. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)
5. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)
6. Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)
7. America vs. the Justice Society (1985)
8. Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)
9. Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)
10. Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]
11. Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)
12. All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)
13. Steel, the Indestructible Man (1978)
14. Superman vs. Wonder Woman: An Untold Epic of World War Two (1977)
• Wonder Woman: Earth-Two (1977-78)
15. Secret Origins of the Golden Age (1986-89)
16. The Young All-Stars (1987-89)
17. Gladiator (1930) ["Man-God!" (1976)]
    
18. The Crimson Avenger: The Dark Cross Conspiracy (1981-88)
19. The Immortal Doctor Fate (1940-82)
20. Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice (1951-91)
21. Armageddon: Inferno (1992)
22. Justice Society of America vol. 2 (1992-93)
23. The Adventures of Alan Scott--Green Lantern (1992-93)
24. Damage (1994-96)
    

Hugos 2022: Far Sector by N. K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell

Far Sector

Collection published: 2021
Contents published: 2019-21
Acquired: April 2022
Read: June 2022

Writer: N. K. Jemisin

Artist, Colors: Jamal Campbell
Letterer: Deron Bennett

This Green Lantern spin-off comic focuses on Sojourner "Jo" Mullein, a new Green Lantern from Earth (how many are there now?) sent to the most distant sector in the universe, home to the City Enduring, a massive Dyson swarm for three species whose two home planets were destroyed. Aside from a single Green Lantern and a single Guardian of the Universe, there's no preexisting DC elements here; the whole thing takes place in a new setting with new characters.

There's some neat worldbuilding and some good thematic and character elements, though I felt the latter weren't foregrounded quite as much as I'd like; this is very much an action/adventure/mystery/thriller comic first, and a political and philosophical one second, though it has elements of that. That said, it's very much a success as an action/adventure/mystery/thriller comic. Nice art, good design sense, neat covers, fun dialogue, decent twists, some nice narrative devices. I don't think you would guess that Jemisin was a first-time (I think?) comics writer. Not the kind of work that will stick with you forever, but solid-tier superhero comics that's worth spending time on.

Doctor Who: Alternating Current by Jody Houser and Roberta Ingranata

Doctor Who Comic: Alternating Current

Collection published: 2021
Contents published: 2020-21
Read: January 2022

Writer: Jody Houser

Artist: Roberta Ingranata

Colorist: Erica Eren Angiolini

Flatter: Sari Chankhamma

Letterers: Richard Starkings & Sarah Hedrick 

I usually read these Titan Doctor Who collections in publication order, and the issues collected here came out after those collected in Defender of the Daleks. But if it hadn't been for COVID delays, this would have come out first, and for the thirteenth Doctor, it goes between A Little Help from My Friends and Defender of the Daleks, so that's where I read it.

It follows on directly from Little Help: returning to the present day, the thirteenth Doctor and fam discover that the Earth was taken over by Sea Devils in the past; at the same time, the tenth Doctor learns the same thing, even encountering an alternative Rose Tyler who is a resistance fighter. Supposedly this happened because of the events of Little Help, but exactly how two Doctors meeting in the 1960s would have lead to an alternative timeline is never explained; characters just keep saying "paradox" again and again... but what is the actual paradox here? Even by Doctor Who terms, this didn't cut it for me. After two issues of Sea Devil avoidance, it suddenly switches gears entirely and becomes about going back in time and recreating the events of "Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror"... but why? The story doesn't do anything interesting with the events of that episode, and again, how would shenanigans in the 1960s cause the Skithra attack on New York in the 1903 to happen differently? I don't know, it's all pretty blah and unsatisfying.

Also Ingranata continues Titan's proud tradition of Star Trek: Voyager swipes: the Skithra engine core is very obviously Voyager's warp core.

I guess injecting the tenth Doctor into the thirteenth Doctor series must have caused a sales boost, but this has taken an already mediocre series and made it even worse. And evidently not enough of a sales boost, because after this, the (I think somewhat weirdly titled) Doctor Who Comic became a rotating anthology series, dropping the thirteenth Doctor.

I read an issue of Titan's Doctor Who comic every day (except when I have hard-copy comics to read). Next up in sequence: Time Lord Victorious: Defender of the Daleks

Why Can All the Dogs in PAW Patrol Talk?

So PAW Patrol theories are bandied around with some frequency in our household. I was thinking of writing a blog post about my wife's theory about the pup replaced by Rubble, but then some YouTuber did a video on it with more evidence than either of us had. So I decided to discuss my somewhat more far-fetched theory: what is up with the world of PAW Patrol? Specifically, why can all the dogs talk?

also legal: anti-dog apartheid

If you poke around, some people think that Ryder somehow enhances the dogs to be intelligent, but this cannot be case:

• In multiple instances, we are shown that various PAW Patrol pups can speak before they join the group (e.g., Rubble, Everest, Tracker).
• On top of this, the movie makes it clear that all the dogs in Adventure City can talk.* (In the show's first six seasons, we never see any dogs who aren't (eventually) PAW Patrol members.)†
• And, indeed, no one ever reacts with surprise at the existence of talking dogs; they are clearly a normal part of life. A truck driver in the movie reacts with surprise only at the fact that pups are being used as rescue personnel.
  

So whatever's going on in the PAW Patrol world, talking dogs are a normal part of it. On the other hand, other animals do not speak. Cats seem pretty intelligent, but the only talking cat in the first six seasons, the Copycat, gains his ability to speak (among other superpowers) from the Meteor.‡ 

just another day walking to the South Pole

There are, however, many strange things about the world of PAW Patrol. Geography is a key one:

• Adventure Bay is an oceanside town.
• It is, however, also within easy travel distance of the South Pole and a jungle and snow-covered mountains.
  
• It seems to be across the ocean from a London-analogue called "Barkingburg," but some episodes also make it clear that you can reach the jungle and the Antarctic by ground from Barkinburg.§
  
• Circumstantial evidence from the film would lead me to believe it's located in the United States. (A driver of a maple syrup tanker calls his cargo "pure Canadian maple syrup," which feels like a weird thing to do if you are in Canada.)

the visages of absolute power

Another weird thing about the PAW Patrol universe is the way politics work.

• Humdinger is the mayor of a town near Adventure Bay called Foggy Bottom. However, most evidence suggests this "town" is just a cave where Humdinger lives with his nephew Harold.‖ 
• Humdinger, additionally, commits all sorts of crimes but there appears to be no mechanism to arrest him or otherwise hold him accountable.
  
• Mayors, apparently, have absolute executive power that cannot be countermanded. There's an episode where Humdinger functions as substitute mayor in Adventure Bay while its actual mayor, Goodway, is away. Humdinger orders a restaurant owner to sell spinach yoghurt, and when he doesn't comply, tickets him. Similarly, he forces people to wear the same hat and mustache as him. No one disputes the legality of a mayor issuing orders like this; the only issue is that Goodway didn't actually appoint Humdinger substitute.
• Even aside from Humdinger, Goodway rarely seems to make good decisions for their constituents. When a massive cache of gold is discovered in Adventure Bay, Goodway uses it to build a statue of her pet chicken.
  
• This isn't just Adventure Bay; when Humdinger becomes mayor of Adventure City in the movie, he can force through massive construction projects seemingly overnight without being gainsayed.
  

Another thing to note is that ten-year-olds have an unusual degree of autonomy in this world. Ryder, of course, has a gigantic high-tech facility from which he manages a massive rescue operation, but it's not just him. Katie, who seems to be about the same age, owns her own pet-grooming business. The recurring characters also include Carlos, a ten-year-old exploring the jungle on his own (he's possibly an archaeologist); Ace Sorensen, a teenage professional stunt pilot; "Daring" Danny X, a ten-year-old daredevil; and Sid Swashbuckle, a teenage pirate captain. None of these characters have parents that we ever see or even hear about. It seems to be perfectly legal for ten-year-old humans (and puppies) to drive motor vehicles.

Lastly, there's the thing that strikes any parent forced to watch PAW Patrol: adults are stupid.

truly an epic cake

Really stupid. Adults are stymied by the simplest of problems... that can only be solved a ten-year-old boy and his array of pups. One of my favorite episodes is "Pups Save Jake's Cake"; two adults prepare a birthday cake for their friend Jake. They accidentally make the cake so large it doesn't fit into the delivery van. By like several feet. Whoops. But on top of that, their back-up plan is to carry this gigantic cake up a mountain by hand, just the two of them. It turns out, surprise, that it's too heavy. How could anyone be this stupid? But here, adults turn over their entire public safety department to a ten-year-old boy and his six puppies.

(We're not even going to get into other oddities of the PAW Patrol world, like magic pearls in "Pup-lantis," aliens who visit the Earth regularly, ancient monkey civilizations, and the fact that if you cut through the ground on a peninsula, it will float away.)

So, this isn't going to be one of fan theories where I carefully assemble evidence until I build up to some kind of logical conclusion. No, this is going to be one of those fan theories where I just give you my theory and insist it explains all the evidence.

The World of PAW Patrol Is Set after the Apocalypse

Think about it. This explains:

• The weird geography. Clearly a nuclear exchange shifted the Earth's axis and altered its climate. The South Pole is now close to the United States; different climatic zones are found in close proximity.
• The weird governments. Clearly centralized authority has collapsed. Individual communities are ruled by self-appointed dictators who call themselves "mayors." If you claim a cave and call it "Foggy Bottom" and say you're mayor, who can oppose you? If as mayor, you give an order, it is to be obeyed: this is a return to the absolute power of the feudal era.
  
• The talking animals. Anyone who has seen Planet of the Apes or read Kamandi knows that after the apocalypse, animals will arise to sapience, whether it be through mutation induced by nuclear radiation or some kind of virus. (Actually, this one would explain the monkey civilization.)
  
• The stupid adults. If it is a virus that makes animals smart enough to talk, perhaps it is also a virus that makes adults stupid. (Shades of the original Star Trek episode "Miri" here, where a virus lets kids live for centuries, but die as soon as they hit puberty.) Thus kids, especially intelligent ones, take on an unusual degree of autonomy.
  

This adds some pathos to the series. Only Ryder can save Adventure Bay from the stupidity of its adults... but with each passing year, he knows the time is coming where he too will succumb, and end up as stupid as Cap'n Turbot. Who will save Adventure Bay then? 

"My day, too, shall come..."

* The weird part of this is that we also learn Adventure City has obedience schools for dogs, which seems very disturbing if dogs are sapient.

† There is one single exception in nine seasons: a sheep-herding dog with a brief, non-speaking cameo. But surely there are other dogs in Adventure Bay: who is Katie's clientele at the Pet Parlor? who goes to the dog park?

‡ I am aware that a talking cat appears in season seven, but I haven't seen that one yet, since seasons seven-plus haven't debuted on Paramount+ yet.

§ Let's not even get into the existence of a Lost Worldesque hidden realm of dinosaurs, apparently accessible via a tunnel under a mountain near Adventure Bay. 

‖ The episode "Pups Save a Basketball Game" has Foggy Bottom fielding a kids' basketball team, but these are literally the only Foggy Bottom residents other than the Humdingers we see in six seasons.

Library of America: Kindred / Fledgling / Collected Stories by Octavia E. Butler

Kindred / Fledgling / Collected Stories by Octavia E. Butler

Having picked up both the Library of America editions of Philip K. Dick's work and Ursula K. Le Guin's, I just began collecting almost all of their editions of classic sf writers, which brought me to Octavia E. Butler. This is the first of what I guess will be four volumes collecting all of Butler's work; it contains all of her non-series fiction: Kindred, Fledgling, and all of her short fiction except for one Patternist story. Kindred I had read twice before, a couple of the short stories once, and everything else here was new to me. As I often do, I chose to read it in (mostly) original publication order.

Collection published: 2020
Contents originally published: 1971-2014
Acquired: July 2021
Read: December 2021

Kindred is a great book, and I don't really have anything to add to that summation. It's a harrowing look at the mentality of slavery, of how it changes the way you think, be you master or slave, by plunging a black woman and a white man from the 1970s into a situation where they must adapt or die. Lots of details that feel right.

Fledgling felt like minor Butler, probably the weakest novel I've read by her (though I certainly haven't read them all). The basic idea is sound and, as I'll get to below, pretty typical Butler: a species with an unusual means of reproduction that requires human cooperation. It's a decent enough take on vampires. But the book spends more time explaining the premise than doing anything interesting with it, and the trial sequence is a plod. You never feel any suspense, and one feels that the complexities of this situation have largely gone explored. Alas that there never was a sequel.

The short fiction was the big discovery for me here. Butler didn't consider herself much of a short story writer, but it's clear that when she wanted to write a piece of short fiction, she could by and large knock it out of the park. "Speech Sounds," "Bloodchild," "The Evening and the Morning and the Night," and "Amnesty" are all great, well observed, somewhat unsettling tales. Weird worlds that you can apply to our own, but not obvious or pat metaphors, either. The only one I didn't like was "The Book of Martha," which to be honest, felt like the kind of thing a beginning writer might come up with and wouldn't have been published if it wasn't by Butler.

Reading a bunch of one author in succession lets you see their themes and interest; the idea of people being biologically compelled to do something, especially reproduce, runs across almost everything in this volume. Often it's a compulsion that was externally injected in some way. Is this a violation of free will? Butler's stories seem to posit, no: if you don't think of your own compulsion to have sex and reproduce as a violation of free will, why should you think of these ones that way... no matter how distasteful they seem to us? Which of course encourages us to reflect on the biological drives we already have. In what I've read of her work, I think this theme reaches its peak in Xenogenesis: Dawn, but you can see it here, too. You could even claim it's what underlies Kindred: Dana must ensure reproduction, or she will die, even if it involves a rape of an innocent woman.

In light of Butler's own biography, it feels particularly interesting: no romantic partners, no offspring. Some have posited that she was asexual or aromantic, and if so, that might inform our understanding of all this. To her, human sexuality and reproduction may have been as alien as Tlic reproduction was to us! She makes us see it from the outside through science fiction because that is how she saw it herself.

As far as apparatus goes, this is the best Library of America volume I have read. Gerry Canavan provides a range of useful, enlightening material: I got more out of his twelve-page chronology of Butler's life than I did from the entirety of A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky, and he is a genuinely great writer of end notes. They don't just give you dictionary definitions, but explain why a reference matters in a way the enhances your understanding of the stories; a good example of this is when he doesn't just tell you what The Atlantic is, but tells you why Butler might have picked it as a literary journal to mention (p. 765). It was kind of funny to see many ordinary facts of 2006 life explained in the Fledgling notes, though. It's the past now, I guess!

So far no future Butler volumes from LOA have been announced, but I am hopeful for ones covering Xenogenesis, the Patternist series (in complete form, I pray), and the Parable novels. Based on this one, they will be well worth it.