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)
    

Faster than a DC Bullet: The Sandman Spin-Offs, Part XXXII: The Sandman: Overture: The Deluxe Edition

Comic hardcover, n.pag.
Published 2015 (contents: 2013-15)
Borrowed from the library
Read April 2016

The Sandman: Overture: The Deluxe Edition

Written by Neil Gaiman

Art by J. H. Williams III
Colors by Dave Stewart

Letters by Todd Klein

There have been a lot of Sandman spin-offs over the years. This is the 32nd one that I have read, not counting independent ongoings like Sandman Mystery Theatre, Lucifer, or House of Mystery. But this is probably the only one people were ever really asking for: what was it that left Dream depleted and powerless enough to be captured by a human sorcerer before the events of issue #1 of Gaiman's series? Finally that story is being told.

Overture, first and foremost, is a beautiful book. J. H. Williams III is always a dependable artist, but it seems unlikely to me that he'll ever surpass the work he's done here:

This took me forever to work out, but the lights at the top spell out "FOUR" because J. H. Williams works the chapter number into the beginning of each chapter. For a while I saw "FOV" and didn't recognize the "R" at all.
from The Sandman: Overture #4

And it's not just beautiful, as Williams uses the layouts and form of his art to really tell a story:

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Gotham, Part XII: Batman: Snow

Comic trade paperback, 125 pages
Published 2007 (contents: 2005)
Borrowed from the library
Read October 2015

Batman: Snow

Story: J. H. Williams III, Dan Curtis Johnson
Script & Dialogue: Dan Curtis Johnson
Art: Seth Fisher
Colors: Dave Stewart

Letterer: Phil Balsman

Year Two, April
I picked this book up because it tells the origin of Mr. Freeze, probably the most prominent of Batman's villains to not have an origin detailed in anything else I've read in my Batman readthrough so far (the Joker got The Man Who Laughs, Catwoman had a significant subplot in Batman: Year One, Two-Face will very shortly get The Long Halloween, and then of course there's Four of a Kind for Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, the Riddler, and Man-Bat). To my surprise, that turned out to be the least interesting part of this story; I don't think Mr. Freeze's story really adds anything to the book. It lacks the tragedy I recall from the 1990s Batman cartoon, and it doesn't really resonate with the other material in this book. It's very nearly an irrelevant side-plot!

The main function of Mr. Freeze is to be a supervillain of a type Batman has never seen before: one with hi-tech weaponry, and thus threatening on a scale that, say, Catwoman or the Joker is not. This is because the story is really about Batman's attempt to put together a crime-fighting team, able to help him do what he's coming to realize he can't do alone, and what Gordon and Dent and Alfred can't help him with. Of course I loved it: Batman assembled a scrappy gang of misfits who have to learn how to work together, and learn that they're strong as part of a team even if they are unfulfilled and often powerless outside of it. They're a fun bunch, and I loved the scenes of them working together, as well as the scenes of them out in the field-- and as it does in these kinds of stories, things turn sour, and that works really well, too. I suspect these guys appear nowhere else in the Batman canon, but I sure wish they did.

Writer Dan Curtis Johnson captures Batman's voice really well. By which I mean, I could imagine Kevin Conroy saying his lines! But seriously, this story really gets Batman and what makes him tick: Batman is not a loner, but a man who needs a family to keep going, and this story is the key one where he identifies that. It's about a year before Batman gains a Robin, but (as the final page drives home perhaps a little too heavy-handedly) this is where the emotional process starts. I also really liked Seth Fisher's artwork, which is cartoony but detailed in a way I find hard to articulate but really enjoyed looking at. Hopefully I come across more of his work someday.

Next Week: Batman's best pal Harvey Dent turn to EVIL in The Long Halloween! Y'know, Harvey Dent? Batman hangs out with that guy all the time? I swear he does, even though you never see it. (Actually, Dent does pop up in Snow, but I feel like it's the first time we've seen him since Year One. Can that possibly be right?)

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Crisis!, Part XX: Seven Soldiers of Victory, Volume One

Comic hardcover, n.pag.
Published 2010 (contents: 2004-05)
Borrowed from the library
Read April 2014

Seven Soldiers of Victory, Volume One

Writer: Grant Morrison

Art: J. H. Williams III, Simone Bianchi, Cameron Stewart, Ryan Sook & Mick Gray, Frazer Irving
Colorists: Frazer Irving, Dave Stewart, Nathan Eyring, Moose Baumann
Letterers: Todd Klein, Rob Leigh, Pat Brosseau, Jared K. Fletcher, Nick J. Napolitano

Seven Soldiers of Victory doesn't have a whole lot to do with Infinite Crisis, but it does tie into the events of Final Crisis (allegedly), and it takes place during the week prior to Infinite Crisis, so I am reading it here and now. There are some small references (Zatanna's role in Identity Crisis is alluded to, and we're told most superheroes are unavailable), but this is largely a standalone story composed of seven standalone stories, the intersecting stories of the Seven Soldiers as they face the return of the Sheeda. I'll tackle the first few stories in my review of this volume, though some of them actually don't wrap up until Volume Two.

"Weird Adventures" kicks the whole thing off, with (yet another) long-lost Ludlow of Starman/Shade fame being recruited by strange extradimensional entities, while a group of has-been and wanna-be superheroes tries to save the world. There's some plucky courage here, and it's an interesting look at folks who want to be superheroes for all the wrong reasons. And no one does layouts quite like J. H. Williams III.

Seven Soldiers introduces the new Shining Knight, a young man named Ystin who just barely escaped the last time the Sheeda attacked Earth, in the pre-historic past. Except that (spoiler!), Ystin is actually Ystina. I really wanted to like the story more than I did: it had its moments, but largely Ystina is dragged along by events, and I'm not sure what the gender twist actually adds to the story.

Definitely my favorite of all the Seven Soldier is the Manhattan Guardian, an updating of the old Jack Kirby concept (I love the comment that the military sold off the old Project Cadmus stuff, including the Guardian trademark), done in amazingly accurate, but modernized Kirby pastiche style. This story is packed full of fun, crazy concepts: the Subway Pirates of New York (including Captains Falsebeard, No-Beard, and All-Beard), the golem on the third floor, "you arrived right in the middle of a terror-strike on a democratic newspaper," the Newsboy Army (complete with bikes to loan)... and that's just the first chapter! I mean, Kirby himself could have crammed even more in there, but this is excellent stuff for an imitator, and every Guardian story is just a delight.

The Zatanna story is probably the most awkward fit chronologically, despite the fact that this is the only Seven Soldiers story to really reference external events; it's hard to see how the magical conundrums happening here fit with the Spectre's war on magic in Day of Vengeance (though I suppose the fact that the Phantom Stranger was turned into a mouse in Day of Vengenace explains his brief disappearance here). I've never really read a Zatanna story before, but I like her here: used to fulfilling her every desire with magic, now cut off from it and worried she's overdependent. I loved her "sidekick," too, and a lot of the magical antagonists were suitably creepy.

Finally, the tale of Klarion the Witch Boy is probably my least favorite, despite the gorgeous Frazer Irving artwork. Klarion is just a little too self-absorbed to get me interested; I never had a very good feeling as to why I was supposed to care about his story (as opposed to all the others).