Science's Less Accurate Grandmother: creator: staz johnson

Showing posts with label creator: staz johnson. Show all posts

19 June 2023

Transformers UK #255–89: ...Perchance to Dream and Other Stories (From Stockbridge to Segonus: A Doctor Who Magazine Comics Marathon, Part 49)

And here, my journey through Marvel UK's Transformers strip comes to an end—as does my journey through the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip and adjacent material. This won't be all I have to say on either topic, however. Eventually I plan to reread the 1980s Marvel Transformers comic integrating US and UK material in chronological order, and I also plan to do a couple posts summing up my thoughts on the DWM strip as a whole.

A wise man once said, "It's over... finished!" but he was even wiser when he uttered these words: "It never ends!"

from Transformers #258

...Perchance to Dream, from Transformers #255-60 (3 Feb.–10 Mar. 1990), reprinted in Transformers: Perchance to Dream (Titan, 2006)

script by Simon Furman; art by Andy Wildman, Staz, and John Stokes; letters by Glib and Stuart Bartlett

The last (by titling convention, anyway) multi-part story of the UK comic strip begins the transition into what would be known as Earthforce. Many pixels have been spilled on this topic, but basically Simon Furman decided to stop having the UK strip tie into the US one at all, not even the sense of the UK one having small side stories to the bigger US stories like he'd been doing since issue #240 or so. Instead, he would split the characters up: since the US strip was focused on Optimus Prime and company in space, the UK strip would follow a set of different characters back on Earth.

This story sets that up by reviving five classic off-line characters so that they can star in the new strip. Galvatron is infesting their dreams, so we get five parts of flashback adventures, and then in part six they all wake up and defeat him. It's a fine enough set of vignettes, but Galvatron is defeated absurdly easily for someone who had once been a powerhouse of the strip.

from Transformers #261

"Starting Over!" / "Two Steps Back!" / "Break-Away!" / "Desert Island Risks!" / "Once upon a Time..." / "Life in the Slow Lane" / "Snow Fun!", from Transformers #261-67 (17 Mar.–28 Apr. 1990), reprinted in Transformers: Earthforce (Titan, 2005)

script by Simon Furman; art by Staz, Andy Wildman, Pete Knifton & Pete Venters, and Jeff Anderson; letters by Stuart Bartlett, Peri Godbold, and Glib

This is a fun set of strips that moves us into the Earthforce format, but also demonstrates its power. First we get a fun adventure where the characters revived in ...Perchance to Dream have to stop Megatron from destroying Earth's atmosphere. Why? I don't know, but it doesn't bother me, nor does the fact that according to the US strip at this time, Megatron can't even be here doing this. It's all worth it for the bits where the characters themselves complain about how gimmicky Transformers has gotten. "Probably some Microheadtargetmaster with a Pretender shell!" And then a fun ending where everyone just charges Megatron. Then we get a fun story about Grimlock versus Shockwave and his minions and then the whole premise is put into place: Optimus delegates Grimlock to run things on Earth.

I know some people love Grimlock, but for me a little bit of Grimlock goes a long way... there's only so much I can read about how he's "different" from the other Autobots. But Earthforce, it turns out, is the exact right amount of Grimlock. Like many loose cannon characters, he's best with a straight man, and here he's essentially got a whole team of them. Some of the stories here are bad silly (e.g., "Desert Island Risks" is improbably contrived) but many of them are good silly; any Transformers story where Grimlock's own Dinobots trick him by building a snowman of Shockwave is my kind of Transformers story. I like the serious, epic, angsty Transformers all right, but I also like the silly stuff that leavens it, and here we get a deliciously concentrated dose of it.

from Transformers #268

"Flashkcab!", from Transformers #268 (5 May 1990), reprinted in Transformers: Fallen Star (Titan, 2005)

script by Simon Furman, pencils by John Marshall, inks by Stephen Baskerville, letters by Glib

What's that, Megatron has a time machine and is attempting to rewrite the events of the Underbase saga? Okay, sure. With five pages per story, Furman can't waste time on setting things up... or ever using these concepts ever again! This one is maybe overdoing the exciting standalone adventure thing, but it's fine.

"Mystery!", from Transformers #269 (12 May 1990), reprinted in Transformers: Earthforce (Titan, 2005)

script by Simon Furman, pencils by Pete Knifton, inks by Pete Venters, letters by Glib

An Autobot arrives at the Earthforce base and discovers something terrible has happened to Wheeljack... only to realize it's all an incredibly complicated misunderstanding. Goofy fun.

from Transformers #270

"The Bad Guy's Ball!", from Transformers #270 (19 May 1990), reprinted in Transformers: Fallen Star (Titan, 2005)

script by Simon Furman, pencils by Pete Knifton, inks by Michael Eve, letters by Glib

There's been a Decepticon Civil War brewing, Shockwave versus Megatron, so the Decpticons call an "enclave" (should be "conclave," surely?) to settle who should be in charge. One of my favorite stories in this run: the whole idea of a Decepticon cease-fire social meet is a delight, and then the Autobots show up to cause problems in secret, preventing the two sides from reaching an accord. The only thing I don't like is I feel like this could be a premise for a whole twenty-page issue! Imagine this in the hands of James Roberts.

"The Living Nightlights!", from Transformers #271 (26 May 1990), reprinted in Transformers: Earthforce (Titan, 2005)

script by Simon Furman, pencils by John Marshall, inks by Stephen Baskerville, letters by Helen Stone

Dumb, contrived story about Decepticon-made evil toys. Okay, not every "goofy fun" story is a winner... but you know, it's only five pages long at worst!

from Transformers #274

"Cry Wolf!" / "Wolf in the Fold!" / "Where Wolf?", from Transformers #272-74 (2-16 June 1990), reprinted in Transformers: Way of the Warrior (Titan, 2005)

script by Simon Furman; pencils by Pete Knifton, Staz, and Jeff Anderson; inks by Michael Eve, Staz, and Stephen Baskerville; letters by Glib and Stuart Bartlett

This three-part tale returns attention to the "Survivors," the group of Autobots and Decepticons who struck out on their own. In this one, ex-Decepticon Carnivac decides to revenge himself on the Mayhem Attack Squad; it's a fun story about Carnivac doing his own thing while working alongside the Autobots, and how he humiliates Bludgeon by not killing him. All of the Survivors tales have been good, and this one is no exception; the story also links up the Survivors with Earthforce.

"Secrets" / "Bugged!" / "Internal Affairs!", from Transformers #275-77 (23 June–7 July 1990), reprinted in Transformers: Fallen Star (Titan, 2005)

script by Simon Furman; pencils by Pete Knifton, Jeff Anderson, and Simon Coleby; inks by Pete Venters and Michael Eve; letters by Glib and Stuart Bartlett

These three stories shift the focus to the Decepticons, and they are all pretty fun. First, it turns out Soundwave is spying on Megatron for Shockwave, but he plays on a fellow Decepticon's paranoia to throw suspicion off himself in a masterful move. Then Starscream makes his own play, uniting with Soundwave to depose both Megatron and Shockwave. It's so complicated you've got to love it.

from Transformers #280

"The House That Wheeljack Built!" / "Divide and Conquer!" / "The 4,000,000 Year Itch!" / "Makin' Tracks!", from Transformers #278-81 (14 July–4 Aug. 1990), reprinted in Transformers: Earthforce (Titan, 2005)

script by Simon Furman; pencils by Pete Knifton, Staz, and Jeff Anderson; inks by Michael Eve and Jeff Anderson; letters by Glib, Stuart Bartlett, and Sophie Heath

More goofy fun in "The House That Wheeljack Built": Wheeljack shows off the new Earthbase's automated defense systems... only everyone is outside the base, and you can only deactivate them from the inside, meaning everyone has to battle their way in! I also enjoyed "The 4,000,000 Year Itch!", where Optimus comes on an inspection tour at the same time Slag develops one of his periodic compulsions to murder everyone he knows(!), so Grimlock has to distract Optimus in the foreground while the other Dinobots keep subduing Slag in the background. Low farce, surely.

On the other hand, "Makin' Tracks" is similar but didn't work for me. In this case, the dead Tracks is being revived... but Grimlock hates Tracks so much he tries to kill him off again. I feel like this one went a bit too far... also, who the hell is Tracks? I don't even remember this guy or his beef with Grimlock. Plus the small art of these Titan digests made it hard to understand what was going on at the climax.

from Transformers #282

"Shut Up!"/ "Manoeuvres!", from Transformers #282-83 (11-18 Aug. 1990), reprinted in Transformers: Way of the Warrior (Titan, 2005)

script by Simon Furman, art by Staz and Pete Knifton & Pete Venters, letters by Gary Gilbert and Sophie Heath

"Shut Up!" is another great story, one that could pretty much only work as a five-pager: the Mayhem Attack Squad intimidate Red Alert into letting them out of the cell on Earthbase by not talking! "Manouvres!" is one that made little impression, on the other hand.

"Assassins" / "External Forces!" / "The Lesser Evil!", from Transformers #284-86 (25 Aug.–8 Sept. 1990), reprinted in Transformers: Fallen Star (Titan, 2005)

script by Simon Furman; pencils by Jeff Anderson, Pete Knifton, and John Marshall; inks by Michael Eve, Pete Venters, and Jeff Anderson; letters by Stuart Bartlett, Julie Hughes, and Peri Godbold

More on the complicated shenanigans of the Decepticon civil war. Shockwave and Megatron team up to assassinate Starscream, making it look like Soundwave is responsible; the Mayhem Attack Squad attempts to kill Starscream and Soundwave; the Autobats have to save Starscream because they need a transfusion from him to defeat an illness Snarl has (we saw this illness in a flash-forward story in the 1990 annual). Enjoyable, but alas this is end of this plotline as the book itself is almost over. Shame, because I think there was a lot of mileage in it.

from Transformers #287

"Inside Story!" / "Front Line!" / "End of the Road!", from Transformers #287-89 (15-29 Sept. 1990), reprinted in Transformers: Perchance to Dream (Titan, 2006)

script by Simon Furman, pencils by Pete Knifton and Staz, inks by Pete Venters and Staz letters by Stuart Bartlett and Gary Gilbert

And here it all comes to an end, with honestly a pretty mediocre set of stories about a journalist trying to write a story about the Transformers. You'd think the giant robots tearing up the Earth would be bigger news than this story implies.

It's a shame this was it, because 1) these stories were boring, and 2) the Earthforce premise could clearly have gone on forever. I enjoyed it a lot on the whole. Sure, no big epics any more, but lots of character stuff and lots of jokes. I think this run was just as influential on James Roberts in its own way as the earlier, more epic, UK storylines.

from Transformers Annual 1991

"The Magnificent Six!", from Transformers Annual [1991]

script by Simon Furman, art by Staz, art by Louise Cassell

The 1991 annual only contained one original story, so it wasn't worth buying (as I did the 1990 edition), but I realized you could get the story on the Internet Archive. This text story has six Autobots sent on a mission to Cybertron, only for five of them it's a return to the site of their greatest failure. This is an above-average text story about the traumas of war; it also felt to me like there was a straight line from this to Last Stand of the Wreckers; Megadeath is surely a proto-Overlord.

(This mostly features the set of characters resurrected in ...Perchance to Dream; I would suggest it goes after that story, before they are deployed to Earth in "Starting Over!")

"Another Time & Place", from Transformers Annual [1992], reprinted in Transformers: Best of the Rarities #1 (IDW, Aug. 2022)

script by Simon Furman, pencils by Staz, inks by Lesley Dalton, colour by Caroline Steeden

The last UK-original story is another text piece, this one set years after the end of the US strip. It's certainly the best text story the UK annuals ever did, with a mournful Optimus and a Grimlock keen to recapture old glories. So many have died, so many have changed. How can you make peace work? Again, it's hard to not see IDW's run foreshadowed here; this is the kind of think we saw explored a lot in Robots in Disguise and More than Meets the Eye. I liked this a surprising amount; I look forward to reading it someday with the full context of the US stories it follows up on.

This post is the forty-ninth in a series about the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip and Marvel UK. The next installment covers Cybermen: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection. Previous installments are listed below:

24 April 2023

The Phantom Piper (From Stockbridge to Segonus: A Doctor Who Magazine Comics Marathon, Part 42)

The Phantom Piper: Collected Comic Strips from the pages of Doctor Who Magazine
by Scott Gray, Martin Geraghty, Staz Johnson, Mike Collins, et al.

Collection published: 2018
Contents originally published: 2017-18
Acquired: December 2018
Read: December 2022

The introduction of Bill to the comic strip (but, alas, not Nardole) brings a new consistent writer—our man Scott Gray of course—and with it, another ongoing story arc. It's interesting: though a number different writers have had ongoing runs since Johnny Morris, I think Gray is the only writer to have an ongoing run concurrent with tv episodes. Is this easier to do if the strip's editor is the actual writer? Probably.

The Soul Garden, from Doctor Who Magazine #512-14 (June-Aug. 2017)
story by Scott Gray, pencil art by Martin Geraghty, inks by David A Roach, colours by James Offredi, lettering by Roger Langridge

Bill makes her debut in this story, where the Doctor reencounters Rudy Zoom (of the twelfth Doctor's own debut story) on Titan... alongside Samuel Taylor Coleridge!? This one has isn't great but it is solid: good interplay between the characters, somehow Coleridge fits right in, great surreal sequences (I often hate "dream logic" in stories, but it actually works here). I think the plant stuff lost me a bit, to be honest, but overall this one is fun.

from Doctor Who Magazine #516

The Parliament of Fear, from Doctor Who Magazine #515-17 (Sept.-Nov. 2017)
story by Scott Gray, pencil art by Staz Johnson and Mike Collins, inks by Staz Johnson and David A Roach, colours by James Offredi, lettering by Roger Langridge

It's interesting to see a writer retrod old ground with the benefit of development. Scott Gray last took the Doctor to the American West way back in Bad Blood, almost twenty years ago. This is similar in some ways, but the Doctor no longer goes around making insensitive comments about native peoples, and there's an interesting bit where it's a "celebrity historical" where the Doctor himself doesn't know the celebrity, because he's the kind of person left out of most history books. I am a bit skeptical of Doctor Who plots where I am supposed to think someone's gone "too far" in trying to not be genocided, but overall this one really works: good jokes, good characters, a serious topic well covered, great art from Staz Johnson. I don't think Bad Blood was awful or anything, but this was a nice return to old ground with good results.

from Doctor Who Magazine #518

Matildus, from Doctor Who Magazine #518 (Dec. 2017)
story & art by Scott Gray, colours by James Offredi, lettering by Roger Langridge

Not only can he write and edit... he can draw! Scott Gray makes his DWM art debut after over two decades as writer in a decent one-part story. Good capturing of and focus on Bill, and I'm always down for a return to Cornucopia (sorry Stockbridge, but it might be my favorite DWM recurring setting), but the story itself is a bit slight even for twelve pages. Great aliens, though, and a good sense of place.

from Doctor Who Magazine #523

The Phantom Piper, from Doctor Who Magazine #519-23 (Winter 2017/18–Apr. 2018)
story by Scott Gray, pencil art by Martin Geraghty, inks by David A Roach, colours by James Offredi, lettering by Roger Langridge

If The Stockbridge Showdown gave us the bright side of DWM's long history, The Phantom Piper gives us the dark. Both in the sense that Showdown revisited happy times and places, while Phantom Piper takes us to an era of conflict and despair, but also in that returning to the setting of The Child of Time, the strip struggles to maintain forward momentum. Child of Time was a complicated story, and Phantom Piper has a lot of exposition about it to communicate: about Chiyoko, about Alan Turing, about the Galateans. Plus it also needs to fill you in on the Phantom Piper itself, and I found that there were rather a lot of characters here that I struggled to keep track of. So while I'm usually glad the strip mines its own history, this attempt to do so felt like a lot of backstory and explanations more than an actual story of its own.

Part of the reason is probably that the strip, having gradually extended from eight pages to ten to twelve, abruptly drops back down to eight, leaving little room for moments of characterization. Bill in particular feels a bit pointless here. The Piper is a creepy-looking villain, and there are some neat sequences where it shows the lost war (which we saw in Apotheosis before the Doctor changed the timeline)... though its look isn't too far off the villains of The Eye of Torment. The first Scott Gray epic I struggled with, alas.

Stray Observations:

James Offredi, who's been coloring the strip all the way since #356 with only a few breaks here and there, becomes the first colorist to pop up in the commentaries. It's great stuff! Coloring is one of those things I never really notice as a reader, it's not in your face like writing and pencilling/inking, but it clearly has a significant effect on the reading experience, which is well-discussed here. (I am not sure I would know a fine coloring job from a great one without someone explaining it to me.) Offredi is good, and it's neat to hear from a different voice.
I can't remember the last time a DWM artist didn't finish out a story they started drawing, it's been so long. Was it The Stockbridge Horror way back in #70-75? Surely not! Staz Johnson illustrates part one of The Parliament of Fear himself, gets inked by David A Roach for part two, and then is replaced by Mike Collins for part three. Johnson and Collins are both good artists, but they have very different styles, though Roach's inks ease the transition.
There's no mention in the commentary of why we went down to eight pages, or even that it happened at all, but this is the era where the magazine as a whole lost word count and changed focus. Not even two years since the extravagant celebration of the comic, and now it feels like it's under attack.
"JUST A TRACER" WATCH: Oh, sure, give the colourist cover credit... but not the inker of ten strips out of twelve!

This post is the forty-second in a series about the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip and Marvel UK. The next installment covers Daleks: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection, Volume 2. Previous installments are listed below:

29 March 2023

Doorway to Hell (From Stockbridge to Segonus: A Doctor Who Magazine Comics Marathon, Part 40)

Doorway to Hell: Collected Comic Strips from the pages of Doctor Who Magazine
by Mark Wright, Staz Johnson, Mike Collins, David A Roach, and John Ross

Collection published: 2017
Contents originally published: 2016-17
Acquired: December 2017
Read: December 2022

The twelfth Doctor has settled down for a time, stuck in one time and place. His new companion is a young, college-age black woman, to whom he acts as a bit of a teacher. Plus, his oldest enemy is trapped with him.

No, it's not series ten... it's DWM issues #501 to 511! It is a bit amazing how much this is like what would be done on screen a year later. "Great minds," one supposes, but it's a set-up that really works in both cases.

Reading the comic, I have come to look forward to those periods where the television programme is off screen for protracted runs. Even though the comic is usually solid when the show is on, the energy of a complete run with its own connections and themes makes it greater than the sum of its parts—and it's most often these sequences that reward rereading in collected form.

The Pestilent Heart, from Doctor Who Magazine #501-03 (Aug.-Oct. 2016)
story by Mark Wright, pencils by Mike Collins, inks by David A Roach, colour by James Offredi, letters by Roger Langridge

This is the story that has to reunite the twelfth Doctor with Jess Collins from The Highgate Horror, strand the Doctor in the 1970s, and establish a new status quo. Its strength is definitely its first installment, where Jess goes after the enigmatic Doctor she remembers from Highgate Cemetary; the later-era Peter Capaldi Doctor is perfectly presented here, funny and acerbic. Once the plot gets underway I found it all a bit less interesting, to be honest, and when the bird creatures appeared in a grave, I was a bit confused until I realized they were totally different bird creatures to the ones in a grave from Jess's first story!

from Doctor Who Magazine #504

Moving In, from Doctor Who Magazine #504 (Nov. 2016)
story by Mark Wright, art by John Ross, colour by James Offredi, lettering by Roger Langridge

Now this is where this run and its premise begins to sing. This is told in the form of four three-page vignettes, as the Doctor interacts with each member of the Collins household: father Lloyd, mother Devina, son Maxwell, and of course Jess. They're all nicely executed bits of characterization, but the best of all is the Doctor arguing about superheroes with Max. "Detectives aren't clever! What's clever about solving crimes after they happen? 'Ooh, look at my amazing powers of hindsight!'" John Ross is usually tapped as DWM's action man (see last volume for a prime example), but he's amazingly deft with the character work here: good facial expressions, really captures Capaldi's performance and brings the whole family to life. This is the kind of thing only the strip could do, and all the better for it.

from Doctor Who Magazine #506

Bloodsport, from Doctor Who Magazine #505-06 (Dec. 2016–Winter 2016/17)
story by Mark Wright, art by Staz Johnson, inks by David A Roach, colours by James Offredi, lettering by Roger Langridge

This is a fine story. Solid but unspectacular... alien hunters come to London, the Doctor must persuade them to depart. It's the exact kind of thing that benefits from the overarching set-up, because Jess and Max and the blundering cop are what make the story work, as real people around the Doctor trying to get out.

from Doctor Who Magazine #507

Be Forgot, from Doctor Who Magazine #507 (Jan. 2017)
story by Mark Wright, layouts & inks by David A Roach, pencil art by Mike Collins, colour by James Offredi, letteting by Roger Langridge

I like that Christmas strips have become a thing, but not too regular of a thing so that they don't feel repetitive when the graphic novels are read in quick succession. I am, however, not sure what I think of this one. You think the Collinses' neighbor is being controlled by a monster, but it turns out to be a hallucination brought on by grief. It's trying to say something important... but is this how grief and mental illness work? Feels a bit cheap. But I did like the last page a lot, where Devina throws a Christmas party for the whole street.

Doorway to Hell, from Doctor Who Magazine #508-11 (Feb.-May 2017)
story by Mark Wright, art by Staz Johnson, colours by James Offredi, lettering by Roger Langridge

It all comes to a (premature, I would claim; more on that soon) end with this story, a nice little epic where the Roger Delgado Master goes after the twelfth Doctor, mistaking him for a new incarnation after the third. There are two great cliffhangers, good character moments, nice dialogue, impressive hellish art from Staz Johnson, and a nice coda. It's all very well done, and DWM makes one of its rare bids for depicting a key tv-continuity moment with the regeneration of the Master. I liked it, and like all the stories, it's better because of its context.

from Doctor Who Magazine #509

I said above that this run is a lot like series ten. There's another way it's like series ten: its set-up feels like it could have been a storytelling engine for a lot longer than it was. I always think we needed a second series of the Doctor and Bill at St. Luke's; I would have liked to have had at least one more story of the Doctor with the Collinses. It very much seems like there ought to have been at least one more "regular" adventure at least between Be Forgot and Doorway to Hell.

Stray Observations:

Sometimes Roger Langridge is credited with "lettering," other times with "letters." This must not bother him, as he's the one who has to write it each time, so if it did, he could fix it! (Similarly, sometimes James Offredi is credited with "colour" and other times with "colours.")
Jess remembers the Doctor used to travel with Clara, of course, but as per "Hell Bent," he does not. So when she brings it up, he's confused... but oddly not curious. I guess in some way, he knows it's something he's better off not knowing, but it does read a bit off. That said, there wouldn't be a way to bring Jess back without this bit of awkwardness.
Staz Johnson is the first new artist to debut in DWM in quite some time, the first since Paul Grist way back in #414, ninety-one issues prior. This is the longest gap between new artists in DWM history, beating out the previous record when Tim Perkins debuted in issue #130, the first new artist since John Ridgway forty-two issues earlier. He is, on the other hand, the first DWM artist not to contribute to the commentaries that I can remember! (At least, since the detailed commentaries were introduced.) He's done some work for DC and such, but I know him best as one of the primary artists of the later, black-and-white years of the Transformers UK comic strip.
Don't confuse Be Forgot the Christmas comic strip written by Mark Wright with with "...Be Forgot," the Christmas short story co-written by Mark Wright. I guess if you have a good title, you can't afford to turn it down even if you've used it before!
Wright talks about suggesting era-appropriate actors to Staz Johnson to model characters on; Katya, the Master's henchlady in Doorway to Hell, is clearly Jacqueline Pearce!
"JUST A TRACER" WATCH: The rare DWM graphic novel where everyone who worked on it gets cover credit!

This post is the fortieth in a series about the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip and Marvel UK. The next installment covers Daleks: The Ultimate Comic Strip Collection, Volume 1. Previous installments are listed below:

14 November 2022

JSA Presents Green Lantern by Steven T. Seagle, Tony Bedard, Junior Thomas, John K. Snyder III, Dennis Calero, Staz Johnson, et al.

JSA Presents Green Lantern

Collection published: 2008
Contents published: 2002-08
Acquired and read: August 2022

Writers: Steven T. Seagle, Tony Bedard, Junior Thomas

Artists: John K. Snyder III, Dennis Calero, Staz Johnson/Mike Norton, Rodney Ramos/Jack Purcell, Allen Passalaqua

Letterers: Todd Klein, Travis Lanham, Jared K. Fletcher, Rob Leigh

This slim collection contains three stories (four issues originally, one double-sized) about Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern. One is a "retro" story, set in 1944; the other two feature him in the present day, a bit ahead of where I am at with my reading otherwise, with the events of Infinite Crisis and 52 coming in between. (I left off with JSA #45, published April 2003; the first present-day issue collected here was published June 2007.) It seems many developments await Alan Scott, but most noticeably he became director of and then quit the government black-ops organization Checkmate, and his daughter Jennie-Lynn "Jade" Hayden has died.

The first story is "Brightest Day, Blackest Night," which tells the story of Alan's first run-in with Solomon Grundy in the Slaughter Swamp outside Gotham City. Nazi agents crash a passenger airplane in the swamp to get their hands on an inventor aboard it, as well as his invention, but run afoul of an angry Grundy. Green Lantern comes to the rescue, aided by his romantic interest, reporter Irene Miller, and taxi-driving sidekick Doiby Dickles. The story seems designed to show off the painted art of John K. Snyder III, which is brimming with atmosphere, and captures well both the brutality of Grundy and the majesty of the Green Lantern. Unfortunately, the art isn't consistently great at storytelling: though I thought on the one hand, the body language of Irene really brought her to life, on the other hand, there were times it was just completely unclear to me what was happening. That the scientist had a niece also on the plane who also survived the crash was something the illustrations only seemed to intermittently depict, for example.

The art does a good job of capturing the light/darkness interaction.
from Green Lantern: Brightest Day, Blackest Night (script by Steven T. Seagle, art by John K. Snyder III)

The second story, "Johnny Mimic," is the best in the volume. Johnny Mimic is a criminal with an uncanny ability to recreate heists; Alan apprehended him back during the Golden Age, but let him go if he promised to be good—and he did. But decades later, the Super Human Advanced Defense Executive want Johnny to help them figure out a heist, and if Alan can't convince him nicely, S.H.A.D.E. will do it by force. The three-way tension between Alan, Johnny, and Father Time (leader of S.H.A.D.E.) is well done, and the story is genuinely surprising in terms of both what had happened and what goes on to happen. Johnny is not an actual preexisting character, but feels like one. The story does a strong job of playing Alan's optimism off the more cynical tone of contemporary comics. This is a solid, perfectly executed done-in-one comic with good moments of charm. Unsurprisingly, it's written by Tony Bedard who's good at this kind of thing in general, and Dennis Calero handles the art well.

Like Johnny Mimic's wife, I am always up for a bit of Green Lantern charm.
from JSA Classified #25 (script by Tony Bedard, art by Dennis Calero)

The final story is "Giving Thanks"/"Ghosts of Christmas Past"—you might not be surprised to realize it takes place across the holiday season, going from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Alan battles perennial JSA villain Vandal Savage, who taunts him by seemingly bringing Jade back to life. It's a bit plodding at times (the battle went on too long with the same character beats repeated again and again), but the final ten pages or so really shined, as Alan must make a tough decision, and then we follow the emotional fallout of it. I get that she wasn't really there, but Jade felt very generic here, not the well-rounded character that Roy and Dann Thomas created in Infinity, Inc. Anyway, it's fine. I remember not liking how Jade was killed off in the Infinite Crisis Companion; I'm curious to find out if she has any kind of meaningful role in JSA before that point, or if she's brought back just to be killed as so often happens with minor female superheroes.

This post is thirty-sixth in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers issues #46-87 of JSA. Previous installments are listed below:

All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)

The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)

All-Star Squadron (1981-87)

Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)

Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)

Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)

America vs. the Justice Society (1985)

Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)

Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)

Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]

Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)

All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)