Justice League International Year One: Born Again (JL #1-6 / JLI #7-12)

I wouldn't have gotten into Justice League Europe if Bob Greenberger hadn't lost his job.

Back in the mid-2000s, I was in college and just getting into comic books; my main entry point was Star Trek and Star Wars, seeking stories I'd read about, but were not contained in the novels I'd been reading since childhood. At that time, Bob got fired from DC Comics and needed to raise money, fast, so he auctioned off his comics collection. I bid on a lot of stuff, mostly Star Trek (this is where my runs on Starfleet Academy and Early Voyages come from), but other stuff I'd heard of, too, like Green Lantern/Green Arrow (the 1980s prestige format reprints). In particular, there were two series I picked up just because the basic premises tickled my fancy: Alpha Flight and Justice League Europe. Canada's premiere superhero team! The Justice League... but in Europe! Something about the very American concept of superheroes being transposed into other countries very much amused and intrigued me.

I can't claim to be a big Alpha Flight fan (that will have to be another post someday), but I fell in love with Justice League Europe. Character-driven and funny, it's everything I want from an ongoing narrative, and it's thanks to JLE that Elongated Man is my favorite DC superhero. 

I hadn't known when buying it that JLE was a spin-off of Justice League International, or that it was intertwined with Justice League America, but I soon figured that out when I got to crossover events like The Teasdale Imperative and Breakdowns, which were largely incomprehensible because I was only getting half the story; even outside of that, this series clearly continued character threads begun in the earlier series. Additionally, JLE continued beyond what I had, just under another title: issues #51-68 were retitled Justice League International.

So I've long intended to read the whole of the JLI era, with both series intertwined and all the various side stories and spin-offs. To that end, about ten years ago I picked up Formerly Known as the Justice League, which collects the six-issue reunion miniseries of that name. 

The setup...
from Justice League vol. 1 #2

Well, it finally made it to the top of my reading list, so it's time to dive in. Since then, the core Giffen/DeMatteis run on the two titles has been collected in three hardcover omnibus volumes, and I'll definitely be reading those, but me being me, I'm making it even more complicated. 

I'll also be reading Justice League Task Force (which has been collected a little), Justice League Quarterly (early issues of which are in the JLI Omnibus volumes), and various other side stories and flashbacks set during this era. I won't end where the omnibuses end, but keep going, up until the point that JLI was cancelled, just before Zero Hour. (JLA kept going after that, but I won't.) Some of the post-Giffen/DeMatteis material has been collected, mostly issues of JLA in the Superman & Justice League America and Wonder Woman & Justice League America trades; I'll read single issues when I have no other option.

I'm mostly reading in the order things are collected in the JLI omnibus volumes, but I've made some adjustments based on the Cosmic Teams timeline. Here on this blog, I'll be writing them up in chunks of approximately twelve ongoing issues to a post. So, when it's just JLI, I'll cover a year's worth of stuff, but once JLE is added to the mix, I'll do two posts per year, and then once JLTF comes along, three.

So here's the first post. This covers issues #1-12 of the title originally known as Justice League, later Justice League International, plus the Justice League Annual, and two stories set during this era that were published later. 

...and the payoff.
from Justice League vol. 1 #2

"Born Again" / "Make War No More!" / "Meltdown" / "Winning Hand" / "Germ Warfare" / "Gray Life, Gray Dreams" / "Massacre in Gray" / "Justice League... International!", from Justice League vol. 1 #1-4 (May-Aug. 1987), Justice League Annual vol. 1 #1 (1987), Justice League vol. 1 #5-6 (Sept.-Oct. 1987), and Justice League International vol. 1 #7 (Nov. 1987); reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 1 (2017)

plot & breakdowns by Keith Giffen; scripts by J. M. DeMatteis; pencils by Kevin Maguire and Bill Willingham; inks by Terry Austin, Al Gordon, and Dennis Janke, P. Craig Russell, Bill Wray, Robert Campanella, Bruce Patterson, & Dick Giordano

Like many ongoing titles, Justice League takes a bit to find its footing. I'm not saying it's bad—I'm just saying it's not what it would later become. The first four issues especially are pretty serious in terms of plot, with terrorists attacking the UN, looming nuclear meltdowns in Soviet Russia, people escaping dead worlds, and a fairly desperate fight between Booster Gold and the Royal Flush Gang. The comedy, such as it is, mostly comes from two things.

First, Keith Giffen's breakdowns, J. M. DeMatteis's scripts, and Kevin Maguire's pencils lean into the character interplay and highlight the differences between these various characters. To me, this is always the pleasure of a team book: the premises of, say, Batman and Booster Gold, make for fairly different approaches to superheroics, and it's just fun to have them butt up against each other here. In particular, Batman kind of becomes the cranky straight man to the other characters, as one of the only experienced JL members, and certainly the most serious... though not averse to cracking a joke on occasion. The other character who really stands out here is Guy Gardner, who's full-on in his boorish asshole characterization here. Captain Marvel is in his "holey moley" mode, which is fun too.

Second, as much as they put people in danger, there is a slight hint of comedy to the machinations of the League's mysterious benefactor, Maxwell Lord. Obviously being toyed with by forces beyond your comprehension can be frightening, but it can also be the set-up for some good jokes. So, the the first four issues are decent enough. The visual storytelling is top-notch, as it always is when Giffen is doing breakdowns or layouts. 

These are followed by Justice League Annual #1, which I thought was okay but a bit long-winded. Some of Ted "Blue Beetle" Kord's employees are infected by a mind-controlling virus, which spreads around the world; it's not really interesting enough to see a bunch of mind-controlled superheroes to justify the double-length story. And, unfortunately, the next story (the "Gray Man" one from JL #5-6) is also about mind-controlled superheroes. This is probably the weakest story in the whole book; I found the conflict about an ancient servant of the Lords of Order who rises up to bedevil Doctor Fate kind of long-winded and hard to care about. That said, JL #5 is the issue with the infamous "one punch" moment where Batman lays out Guy once and for all.

After this, the book was retitled from Justice League to Justice League International with issue #7; as you might imagine from the new title, this is also the story where the JL officially gets UN sanction. The Gray Man plot is wrapped up quickly, and the issue focuses on Lord manipulating the League and the press... but we also get some of the series's initial forays into more overt comedy, with Guy getting the bump on the head that turns him into an obnoxiously pleasant sap. On the other hand, there are nice moments of characterization, too, such as when J'onn "Martian Manhunter" J'onnz reflects on how the League itself is his home on Earth, the one place where he can be himself.

from JLA 80-Page Giant #1

"Mousebusters", from JLA 80-Page Giant #1 (July 1998); reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 3 (2024)

script by Keith Giffen, pencils by Kevin Maguire, inks by Karl Story, colors by Gene D'Angelo, letters by Bob Lappan

This story was written a decade later, but takes place during JLI #7. Its first page retells the first page of issue #7, with Guy crawling under a console in the JL headquarters looking for a mouse and hitting his head. The rest of the short story involves the rest of the League, particularly Beetle and Booster, working to try to catch the mouse. (The issue implies the rest of its events follow immediately after the first page, but this can't be the case; most of the story's events must occur simultaneous to the events of pages 14 through 17 of JLI #7 based on the presence of the Martian Manhunter. A couple days pass according to "Mousebusters," which isn't what JLI #7 implies, but is possible.)

Anyway, it's a very short but funny story about some Booster/Beetle hijinks. At the time I read it, I felt it was more overtly comedic than anything we'd seen in the actual JL comics so far, but it's actually pretty much on the level of "Moving Day," the very next issue.

from Justice League International vol. 1 #8

"Moving Day" / "Old News" / "Seeing Red" / "Brief Encounter" / "Soul of the Machine" / "...Back at the Ranch..." / "Constructions!" / "Who Is Maxwell Lord?", from Justice League International vol. 1 #8-12 (Dec. 1987–Apr. 1988); reprinted in Justice League International Omnibus, Volume 1 (2017)

plot & breakdowns by Keith Giffen, scripts by J. M. DeMatteis, pencils by Kevin Maguire, inks by Al Gordon

The rest of the first year of JLI sets up the series's new status quo, involves the characters in the Millennium crossover, and wraps up the subplot about Maxwell Lord manipulating the League while something else manipulates Maxwell Lord. Issue #8, "Moving Day," is comics perfection as far as I'm concerned. No superheroics, just character interplay as the JLI moves into their new UN-provided "embassies" around the world. Lots of great jokes, like Booster trying to hit on women and Mister Miracle not realizing that every superhero headquarters has a roof up to landing a shuttle on it.

"Seeing Red" and "Soul of the Machine" focus on battling the Manhunters; part of the premise of Millennium is that characters from every book would be revealed as evil alien Manhunters, but unfortunately the character picked here is Rocket Red, who literally joined the team one issue earlier, so it's not much of a shock reveal! In "Soul of the Machine," the League is suddenly in space (I did read Millennium, but over a decade ago, so my memory is foggy); I was surprised to actually enjoy the appearance of Gnort, the nepo baby Green Lantern. In the past, I have found the a little bit of the character to be far too much, but I guess it shouldn't be much of a surprise that Giffen, DeMatteis, and Maguire would handle him better than their many imitators.

To be honest, I found a lot of the reveals about Maxwell Lord pretty confusing, but I did kind of feel like the creative team was trying to wrap up this plot sooner rather than later so it wouldn't drag on too long.

There are also some backup stories here; in particular, we see the UN shutting down the Global Guardians, which had been their sanctioned superhero team before the JLI (as established in Infinity, Inc.)... but which never had America or Russia as participants. These stories are okay on their own but will end up having several different ramifications for the main series.

from Justice League America Annual #9

"In 30 Seconds", from Justice League America Annual #9 (1995)
written by Gerard Jones, pencilled by Jeff Parker, inked by John Nyberg, lettered by Clem Robins, colored by Gene D'Angelo

Lastly, I read this "Year One" annual from 1995. Unlike "Mousebusters," it's not collected in any of the JLI omnibuses (they seem to have only gone for retroactive-continuity JLI stories when they were created by members of the original creative team), so I had to hunt down the single issue. 1995's "Year One" annuals were all set (as you might imagine) during the first year of their characters' superheroic careers; this one actually takes place between pages of JLI #12. 

Basically, it further complicates the already complicated story about Maxwell Lord and Metron by having Metron accidentally boom tube the JLI to New Genesis, where they have to stop the machine intelligence that was controlling Max (here called "Kilg%re," though that hasn't been established in the actual JLI stories yet) from exerting its control over New Genesis and Apokolips. In Earth time, the whole trip takes just thirty seconds, between panels of JLI #12, hence the title... though much of the story retells the Max-focused scenes from JLI #12 over again, which must take more than thirty seconds. I found the retelling pretty unnecessary (though writer Gerard Jones adds some wrinkles which I think must be setting up some ongoing plot from 1995), and I honestly didn't really understand a lot of the turns in the New Genesis/Apokolips plot.

I usually enjoy Jeff Parker's writing, but I think this is my first time seeing his art, which I think is overall good, but what I am discovering about many of the people trying to imitate the JLI style is that they go for "comedic" in the art itself, which is something Kevin Maguire himself doesn't do. He just goes for character-focused and realistic, and lets the comedy emerge naturally from that.

This is the first in a series of posts about Justice League International. The next covers issues #13-21 of JLI. 

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Gotham, Part XXXV: Batman: Dark Detective

Comic trade paperback, 136 pages
Published 2006 (contents: 2005)
Borrowed from the library
Read February 2016

Batman: Dark Detective

Writer: Steve Englehart
Penciller: Marshall Rogers
Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: John Workman
Colorist: Chris Chuckry

Year Nineteen, November
I'm reading this because it's a sequel to Strange Apparitions, reuniting the all-star team of Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers, and Terry Austin, and bringing back Silver St. Cloud, one of the great loves of Batman's life, now engaged to Senator Evan Gregory, now running for governor. Strange Apparitions wove a thread about Boss Thorne through its various issues; Dark Detective weaves in Gregory's bid for office, especially the Joker's declaration that he'll also be running. Meanwhile, Bruce's meeting with Silver rekindles old feelings, and Two-Face and the Scarecrow both put in appearances.

Word and image. WORD AND IMAGE!
from Batman: Dark Detective #4

Sometime when you get the band back together, they don't play as well: Dark Detective is not quite as grabbing as Strange Apparitions, but it's still very good. Rogers and Austin are still an unbeatable Batman art team, capturing the twisted gloom of Gotham in all its splendor. They're slightly let down by Chris Chuckry on colors, who makes Silver St. Cloud's hair white instead of, well, silver, which I found very distracting.

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Gotham, Part XXV: Batman: Strange Apparitions

Quick note: read my review of Doctor Who: You Are the Doctor and other stories at Unreality SF. Today!

Comic trade paperback, 175 pages
Published 1999 (contents: 1977-78)
Borrowed from the library
Read November 2015

Batman: Strange Apparitions

Writers: Steve Englehart, Len Wein
Pencillers: Marshall Rogers, Walt Simonson
Inkers: Terry Austin, Al Milgrom, Dick Giordano
Original Colorists: Marshall Rogers, Jerry Serpe
Letterers: Ben Oda, Milton Snapinn, John Workman

Year Eight, November
All of the Batman stories I've read so far (in this project) have been "flashback" tales: they haven't been set in what was the current continuity at their time of publication, but rather have been set in some earlier period. Strange Apparitions marks a first for me, then, in that this is the first Batman story I've read that took place in the "present" when it was published. This is no flashback to the early days of Batman, but simply the next adventure of Batman.

Much has changed of late. The Caped Crusader is fundamentally solo again, as Dick Grayson is off attending Hudson University. He's grown up so fast! In addition, Bruce Wayne has moved from Stately Wayne Manor to the actual city of Gotham; he now resides in a penthouse on the top floor of the new Wayne Foundation tower, beneath which there is, of course, a cave, where he's relocated all his stuff. An secret elevator directly connects his penthouse to the cave. I like this change: if you imagine Gotham as a New York, it strains credulity to anyone who's ever driven anywhere near New York that Batman could effectively police the city from the location where his manor ought to be. I was surprised, though, to learn that the Wayne Foundation was not in the heart of the city, but rather past "the impressive rows of ancient brownstones" in "Gotham's humbler districts, where the Wayne Foundation towers above the lower, leaner skyline."

Strange Apparitions collects the full run of the creative team of Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers, and Terry Austin on Detective Comics, which despite its significance, was a mere six issues long. It also collects, however, two issues Steve Englehart wrote but someone else drew, and two issues that Marshall Rogers drew, but someone else wrote. I was surprised to read in Englehart's introduction to the collection that while he and Walt Simonson worked from the "Marvel style" (the writer plots, then the artists draw, then the writer does dialogue) and he and Marshall Rogers worked "DC style" (the writer does a full script, the artists draw), and that Englehart actually wrote all six issues without even knowing who would draw them, because Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers mesh perfectly. Englehart's writing and Rogers's illustrations support each other perfectly to create a moody, atmospheric, but ultimately fun story, whereas the first two issues drawn by the great Walt Simonson are just kinda there (though necessary for Englehart's eight-issue plot).

Strange Apparitions begins with a so-so story about a new Batman villain, one Doctor Phosphorous, a medical doctor who invests his money in a nuclear plant where disaster strikes: "Five million slivers of red-hot sand were driven through my body! But not--hee hee-- ordinary sand! No! Radioactive sand--blasted upward one level on the chemical scale!" I'm sure this is all very scientific. Doctor Phosphorous doesn't appear again, but the two issues do introduce a couple of important characters: Rupert Thorne, chairman of the City Council, and Silver St. Cloud, a socialite with whom Bruce Wayne quickly becomes sexually involved.

Scott McCloud would be proud of this use of the gutter.
Also, get your mind out of it.
from Detective Comics vol. 1 #472 (script by Steve Englehart, art by Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin)

Englehart's story is a tour through a sequence of Batman rogues in a way that I really enjoyed, bringing in one for an issue or two at a time, and then moving on to another one, without feeling contrived or pandering. With the wounds he sustained at the hand of Phosphorous not healing, Bruce Wayne checks himself into a clinic for Gotham elites renowned for its discretion-- only to discover that the clinic manager is actually Hugo Strange in disguise: Batman's very first supervillain opponent, from Batman and the Monster Men. Batman shouts, "Professor Hugo Strange! I thought you were dead!" and indeed, when we last saw Strange in Batman: Prey, he was quite clearly dead, his body having been impaled on a metal pole for several days before it was found. But Strange apparently wasn't really dead, just in Europe. Even though The Monster Men and Prey were written much later, these stories are all of a piece, Strange's obsession with Batman here leading him to actually take over Bruce Wayne's life. (Amazingly, at one point he wears a Batman mask over a Bruce Wayne mask.) The work of Englehart and Rogers is perfectly simpatico here: it's a moody, splashy, nightmarish tale with some great twists and turns. Dick Grayson guest stars to help Bruce reclaim his life, but then leaves for an issue of Teen Titans when Wonder Girl calls.

Everything continues from there. Having deduced Batman's identity, Strange wants to sell it to the highest bidder, but he decides Boss Thorne isn't worthy of it, prompting Thorne to have him killed. (No doubt he'll get better again.) While Strange's ghost heckles Thorne, the Penguin (having lost his bid) decides to carry out a scheme anyway. Batman puts him in jail, where his escape gadget is stolen by Deadshot, who escapes himself to get revenge on Batman for putting him away. Meanwhile, Bruce's romance with Silver has been turning into one of real emotion, and Silver works out that Bruce is Batman-- and when his fight with Deadshot ends up in her place of work (Silver runs a convention center), Batman realizes she knows! Then the Joker turns up with a wacky but deadly plan, and so on. Meanwhile meanwhile, Boss Thorne is trying to eliminate the Batman while being haunted.

Sound effects never looked so good.
from Detective Comics vol. 1 #473 (script by Steve Englehart, art by Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin)

Englehart and Rogers have a handle on each and every one of these villains, not to mention Batman himself, who is clearly a man as much as he is an unstoppable force of the night. The story is moody without being grim in a way that hits the exact tone I want out of a Batman tale: darkly fun.

The book wraps up with a two-issue Clayface story written by Len Wein (in a surprising display of fan pedantry, it is actually titled "The Coming of... Clayface III!", making a fan's numerical bookkeeping part of the actual narrative), that follows on from the events of Englehart's run. I've read and liked other stuff by Wein, but it pales in comparisons to Englehart's work; suddenly Batman is melodramatically shouting his feelings at everyone: "Blast it--it's all going sour!! [...] Alfred, things couldn't be more wrong! I let two punks I tangled with tonight get to me--and that's a luxury I cannot afford!" Still, it comes to a suitably tragic conclusion, and I also noted that the trick Prey pulled with Strange's manikin lover was actually first used here with Clayface III.

On the whole, this is one of the best stories I've read so far on this project, and probably one of the best Batman books I've read full stop. Englehart and Rogers perfectly balance ongoing plots with standalone stories, and character insight with fun adventures in darkness.

Next Week: Out with the old Robin, in with the new Robin, in Second Chances!

Review: The Mighty Thor, Vol. 2 by Walter Simonson

First off, let me note the presence of another Torchwood audio review at Unreality SF: Gwen Cooper, Rhys Williams, and Yvonne Hartman return in episodes 3-4 of series 1, Forgotten Lives and One Rule.

Comic trade paperback, 236 pages
Published 2013 (contents: 1984)
Acquired December 2015
Read April 2016

The Mighty Thor, Vol. 2

Writer & Artist: Walter Simonson
Artist: Sal Buscema
Inkers: Terry Austin & Bob Wiacek
Remastered Coloring: Steve Oliff
Letterer: John Workman

Volume 1 of The Mighty Thor ended with a somewhat complicated plot about elves and food and an old guy who looked young and Wild Hunt and cops? Something like that. To my surprise, this plotline blossoms in volume 2 and turns out to be the payoff to what was an ongoing thread in volume 1: a mysterious weapon being forged outside of time and space. Well, Malekith's dark elves are after the Casket of Ancient Winters, so they can deploy it in aid of Surtur, Ruler of Muspelheim, an ancient evil that once battled Thor's father Odin and his brothers. Odin's brother's sacrificed themselves to seal Surtur in Muspelheim, but now he's back, and he threatens all of the Nine Realms, especially Asgard and Midgard.*

What delights me about Thor, both on screen and now in these comics, is how it uses a heightened style: everything about these comics is always on the next level from our mere mortal existence. The gods of Asgard are always speaking in dramatic pronouncements; I loved how Odin's story of his first encounter with Surtur ended:

One imagines that Odin tells all his stories this way. "THUS DID I PERSUADE THE CASHIER TO ACCEPT MY COUPON BEYOND ITS EXPIRATION DATE. LO! SUCH IS THE RHETORICAL POWER OF ODIN, HONED IN HIS UNIVERSITY FRESHMAN ENGLISH COURSES!"
from Thor vol. 1 #349 (art by Walter Simonson)

In volume 1, Odin obtained intelligence that the final battle was coming, and so mustered the forces of Asgard throughout this volume, meaning that when Thor encounters the forces of Muspelheim on Midgard, Asgard is ready, having summoned not only the warriors of Valhalla and Beta Ray Bill and Lady Sif, but also many of the former enemies of Asgard who do not wish to see the Nine Realms burn. What follows is a four-issue battle between Asgard and Muspelheim, and it is incredible. I wouldn't have thought that I would like such a thing-- it occupies almost 100 pages, yet is never dull. The forces of Asgard cross the Rainbow Bridge to make a stand in New York City, assisted by the Avengers and the Fantastic Four and suchlike. The whole setup actually make me think somewhat of the first Avengers film, with alien demons swarming from a portal atop a New York tower. Deliberate or coincidence?

Anyway, Surtur devastates New York City, his effectiveness enhanced by his opponents having to flight through a worldwide glacier. Thor calls a rain from Asgard to stifle the flames of Surtur-- but Surtur uses the link to Asgard to travel there himself, where only Odin and Heimdall stand to protect the City of the Gods. Beta Ray Bill takes command of the Asgard forces while Thor follows Surtur, but Thor is too slow: Surtur defeats Heimdall and destroys the Rainbow Bridge. The scene were its pieces rain down on New York City is ominous:

Lady Sif is kind of impulsive.
from Thor vol. 1 #351 (art by Walter Simonson)

Basically, it's lots of fighting: Beta Ray Bill, Sif, and the Fantastic Four vs. the demons of Muspelheim on Midgard, and Odin and Thor vs. Surtur in Asgard. Simonson has a good grasp of character throughout; Bill and Sif keep the Midgard battle anchored, stopping it from becoming sheer overwhelming spectacle. I also liked Roger Willis, the Korean War vet whose mysterious father passed to him the task of guarding the Casket of Ancient Winters. He's an ordinary guy caught up in extraordinary events who does his best to do the right thing.

Things in Asgard get epic when Loki turns up, too:

I guess it's no longer possible for such a scene in a Thor film, which is a shame because it would be amazing.
from Thor vol. 1 #353 (art by Walter Simonson)

There's also a nice subplot about Frigga, mother of Thor, getting the children of Asgard to safety. Simonson never forgets to leaven the seriousness. On all fronts, this is everything a giant superhero battle should be-- would it that they were all so good. Sadly, it all ends in the death of Odin.

What this review really omits is John Workman's tour-de-force lettering. I guess this will have to do.
from Thor vol. 1 #353 (art by Walter Simonson)

The whole thing is followed by a nice pair of aftermath issues. The destruction of the Rainbow Bridge means that the forces of Asgard are trapped in New York City; they decide to bivouac in Central Park. (Sif has the power to transport herself through spacetime, and I assume Beta Ray Bill can use his hammer, but otherwise they're all trapped.) The Warriors Three go to Macy's:

I love this kind of stuff. The best scene in the Thor films is the one where Thor goes to a diner and drinks coffee.
from Thor vol. 1 #355 (art by Sal Buscema)

I am of course looking forward to more culture-clash hijinks in volume 3. Meanwhile, Death herself turns up to collect Odin's soul, but can't find it. Thor lays the smackdown on Death, in what has to be one of my favorite scenes in any superhero comic:

You have to admire Thor's thought process (or lack thereof): "THERE IS NO PROBLEM, NOT EVEN DEATH ITSELF, THAT CANNOT BE SOLVED VIA A HAMMER SWUNG WITH SUFFICIENT POWER."
from Thor vol. 1 #354 (art by Walter Simonson)

Insisting his father is still alive, Thor heads out on a mystical quest (as you do). I look forward to seeing where this all goes in volume 3 as well. Simonson's run on Thor is clearly cyclical; as one big story cycles down, another one begins to cycle up in turn, and I'm sure this is all going somewhere new and exciting.

A final note: Simonson always pepper his stories with humor, which I appreciate. My favorite moment comes when (in a subplot I haven't had the space to mention in this review because this book is chock-full of them) Roger Willis doesn't buy Thor's girlfriend's explanation of how she saw through the disguise of Thor's secret identity of Sigurd Jarlson. She claims that "anybody would have known. You're just too big to hide behind a pair of glasses and an Izod shirt." But Roger is genre-savvy enough to know it doesn't work that way:

Someone's been reading his TV Tropes.
from Thor vol. 1 #349 (art by Walter Simonson)

I also enjoy the running gag about Sigurd's boss at the construction company where he works when he's not battling demon hordes (he doesn't come to work very much, to be honest) trying to guess which superhero he is. He's never right.

* Earth.

Review: The Mighy Thor, Vol. 1 by Walter Simonson

Comic trade paperback, 215 pages
Published 2013 (contents: 1983-84)
Acquired December 2015
Read February 2016

The Mighty Thor, Vol. 1

Writer & Artist: Walter Simonson
Inker: Terry Austin
Remastered Coloring: Steve Oliff
Letterer: John Workman

Thor is, I kid you not, my favorite of the Marvel film series (well, though Guardians of the Galaxy may dethrone it). It's goofy, it has space aliens, it has lots of jokes, it has people stealing spaceships, it has mythology: it's basically everything I demand from cinematic entertainment. The actors who play Thor and the Warriors Three seem as if they really do come from a fantasy realm.

Since seeing the first one, I've been curious about the comics, and when it comes to Thor comics, it seems like all roads lead to Walter Simonson. Simonson's one of those people whose work I more know of than actually know. I own his Orion Omnibus and his Star Wars work but haven't actually read it; what I have read is limited to small contributions to things like World Without a Superman, 52: The Companion, and Batman: Strange Apparitions. But Simonson's Thor work is spoken of in hushed tones, and what I knew lead me to expect cosmic mythology, the exact register I would hope for.

Any guy whose power is to defeat his enemies by sitting on them and telling them a story is the kind of guy who gets my respect.
from Thor vol. 1 #339 (art by Walter Simonson)

Vol. 1 of The Mighty Thor did not disappoint. The whole thing is premised on Walter Simonson being the first writer to look at the inscription on Thor's Hammer, "WHOSOEVER HOLDS THIS HAMMER, IF HE BE WORTHY, SHALL POSSESS THE POWER OF THOR," and wonder, who would be worthy? Answer: Beta Ray Bill, warrior cyborg of an alien race. I like Simonson's answer; though being worthy is at least in part about moral purity, it must also be about warrior spirit-- something I would argue that, say, Captain America does not possess. The first four issues here are jam-packed, as Thor is drafted by Nick Fury, Thor goes into space after Bill's spaceship, Thor fights Bill, Bill seizes the hammer and acquires the power of Thor, Odin forces Thor and Bill to fight each other again, a warrior arrives in Asgard to challenge Balder the Brave only to be sat upon by Volstagg, Loki schemes with Lorelei, Lady Sif goes on a quest to the land of the dwarves, a new hammer called Storm Breaker is forged, Thor travels with Sif and Bill to battle alien demons, and Odin redistributes everyone's powers.

Lady Sif is the greatest.
from Thor vol. 1 #339 (art by Walter Simonson)

And after that there's still five issues to go! They don't make them like that any more. (This is why the mid-1980s are a peak era for comics: more sophisticated storytelling, but bloated decompression and gratuitous darkness haven't yet set in.) Like Jack Kirby, Simonson has the talent of packing in an incredibly large number of ideas into a small space, and casting them with a mythological tone that makes them feel even bigger than they are, and like Jack Kirby, he combines his command of word and image to achieve total comic book excellence. The Beta Ray Bill stories are definitely the best part of this collection, the rest of it being much more day-in-the-life-of-Thor-as-superhero-on-Midgard* stuff. He fights sea monsters, is wooed by a woman (who is really Lorelei is disguise), works as a construction worker, and gets involved in some kinda complicated plot involving people who can't eat food that I guess I have to wait for Vol. 2 to fully understand.

Normally this kind of stuff makes me roll my eyes, but I laughed here.
from Thor vol. 1 #341 (art by Walter Simonson)

It's not without its charms: hunky Thor trying to hide his might while working construction, Thor answering the call of the last scion of a Viking line in Antarctica, Thor running into Clark Kent and Lois Lane but no one recognizes each other because of the glasses. And Simonson is one of those writers who keeps a number of running subplots on the boil that come to the forefront in turn, my favorite being that of Balder the Brave who has forsworn killing, and the tragic moment where Loki forces him to confront that choice. Poor guy.

Another way to get my respect is to be a guy who considers the unleashing of his own violence the most regretful thing that could ever happen.
from Thor vol. 1 #344 (art by Walter Simonson)

Like I said, Simonson's art is amazing; his scripting may remind one of Kirby, but he has a bold visual style all his own, stopping this from feeling like pastiche. And John Workman provides some of the best lettering I've ever seen in a comic book, perfectly integrating with the image to drive home the scale of the cosmic events we're seeing. I never thought I'd write a sentence like that!

I originally scanned this page for the bad-ass parallel Thor and Beta Ray Bill pictures on top, but then I realized it was one of a great many examples of Workman's dramatic lettering, so I cropped it less than I had planned.
from Thor vol. 1 #340 (art by Walter Simonson)

* Earth.

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Gotham, Part IV: Batman: Prey

Comic trade paperback, 252 pages
Published 2012 (contents: 1992-2003)
Borrowed from the library
Read October 2014

Batman: Prey

Writer: Doug Moench
Penciller: Paul Gulacy
Inkers: Terry Austin, Jimmy Palmiotti

Letterers: John Costanza, Kurt Hathaway
Colorists: Steve Oliff, James Sinclair

Year One, November - Year Two, November
This edition of Prey collects two stories; the first, "Prey" (duh), follows on pretty well from Matt Wagner's two Dark Moon Rising stories even though they were released later; Batman and the Monster Men ends with Hugo Strange becoming a television psychologist, and that's exactly what he's doing here, and even though nothing "Prey" indicates they've battled before, nothing indicates they haven't, either. "Prey" is a solid early days of Batman story, capitalizing on Batman's early inexperience, and giving him an effective villain in the person of Strange, who actually in working psychologically here, unlike in The Monster Men. My favorite bit is something you could only pull off in the comics medium; Strange is frequently seen talking a blond women in his apartment, but it's very late in the game that you learn she's only a mannequin. Only in comics would a mannequin be indistinguishable from an very complacent person.

The second story is "Terror," which is set about a year later, when Batman's rogues gallery was much more developed. (It takes place between Batman: Year Two: Fear the Reaper and Absolute Batman: Dark Victory, which are coming up later in this readthrough.) Both Scarecrow and Catwoman play key roles in the story. Unfortunately, it feels much less focused than its predecessor, and Strange is shockingly eliminated about halfway through. Effective as a "twist," and the repeated image of his corpse is haunting, but I kept on expecting him to come back to life somehow and set this story back on the path it seemed to begin on. A waste of a good villain if nothing else.

Next Week: Batman battles the Joker for the first time in The Man Who Laughs!

Faster than a DC Bullet: The Sandman Spin-Offs, Part III: Green Lantern/Superman: Legend of the Green Flame

Perfect-bound comic, 38 pages
Published 2000
Borrowed from the library
Read June 2011

Green Lantern/Superman: Legend of the Green Flame

Written by Neil Gaiman
Artwork by Michael D. Allred & Terry Austin, Mark Buckingham, John Totleben, Matt Wagner, Eric Shanower & Arthur Adams, Jim Aparo, Kevin Nowlan, Jason Little
Colored by Matt Hollingsworth
Lettered by Todd Klein

Action Comics Weekly sounds like the kind of thing I'd've liked, given my enjoyment of Wednesday Comics: an anthology title that came out weekly, with several stories advancing slowly issue to issue. But it was apparently a nightmare to pull together, and so it didn't even last a year. Legend of the Green Flame is the finale it never got, as Gaiman's script was dumped for someone else's, finally being illustrated and published some twelve years later. The story unites all of the characters-- the Blackhawk Squadron, the Green Lantern, Superman, Catwoman, the Phantom Stranger, Deadman, and a demon who totally isn't Etrigan, honest-- from Action Comics Weekly into one big story.

In this tale, Hal Jordan and Clark Kent find an old green lantern, originally found in some rubble in 1949, in a museum exhibit. When Hal uses it to charge his ring, the two of them end up flung into Hell itself. It's short, only a little longer than your typical single issue, so not a whole lot actually happens. What does happen is fun enough, I suppose, though I suspect it would have been funner had it actually been read as the conclusion to all of these characters' stories in Action Comics Weekly. I think my favorite random appearance was Deadman, who gets some funny material. I don't get why the Blackhawks find dead members of the Justice Society (including the Sandman, natch) in 1949, though.

As it is, it's nice to see Clark Kent and Hal Jordan hang out together. I don't know why Hal Jordan is so mopey here, or why the events of this story make him get over it, but Gaiman write a nice Clark/Superman. There's a fun bit where in the middle of a conversation, Clark flies off and gets a cat out of a tree, and the best scene in the book is probably when, upon their arrival in Hell, Superman is incapacitated by being able to hear the torment of every single being in Hell at once. Sometimes it sucks being Superman.

The resolution is a bit too easy, given all the buildup it gets, but that's a done-in-one story for you, I suppose. There are a number of different artists for some reason, but it's not as jarring as you might think, since each of them does a different chapter, and each chapter takes the story some place completely different. Oh, and the ending joke is fun, though it wasn't until just now that I finally got it. "The place is all yours," indeed, Neil.

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Star City, Part XXIII: Green Lantern: Emerald Allies

This is it! With Green Lantern: Emerald Allies, I have officially and finally read every single trade paperback to feature Green Arrow, a voyage I began exactly a year ago in May 2009, taking me through twenty Green Arrow comics, plus a few related stories.

Comic trade paperback, 206 pages
Published 2000 (contents: 1996-97)
Borrowed from the library
Read May 2010

Green Lantern: Emerald Allies

Writers: Chuck Dixon, Ron Marz
Pencillers: Rodolfo Damaggio, Dougie Braithwaite, Paul Pelletier, Darryl Banks, Will Rosado
Inkers: Robert Campanella, Robin Riggs, Romeo Tanghal, Terry Austin
Colorists: Lee Loughridge, Pam Rambo, Rob Schwager
Letterers: John Costanza, Albert De Guzman, Chris Elioupoulos

The only part of Connor Hawke's time in the title role of volume 2 of Green Arrow is collected in this volume, labeled as part of the Green Lantern series despite the fact that five of its eight issues were originally Green Arrow releases. They all feature team-ups between Connor and Kyle Rayner, the then-Green Lantern of Earth, both young men unexpectedly thrust into a long-running superhero mantle. The material that works with this is probably the best stuff here.

The first story is "Bad Blood," a one-issue first meeting for the two heroes that is decent, but not spectacular. The largest section of the book is "Hard-Traveling Heroes: The Next Generation," which apes the GL/GA team-ups of old by having the two of them travel the United States looking for Kyle's father. Denny O'Neill's early team-ups were known for their over-earnest social commentary, and there's some of that here, but it fits oddly. The story is okay, but let down by a villain plan that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The best story in the book is the last one, "Hate Crimes," which sees New York City pulled apart by racial rhetoric from both white and black commentators, and gets some nice material in as a result, as well as showing us both heroes in their element.

I liked this brief chance to get to know both Connor and Kyle; it some ways it's a shame that both had to be replaced in their roles by the returns of their predecessors. It's not long after this story that Oliver Queen is resurrected, bringing us to Quiver, back where I began all that time ago.