So while hanging out in New York over the last little while, my two younger daughters and I got down to Big Apple Con, which was a lot of fun. I wrote about it here.
As is usual for an event like this, I bought a bunch of comics which I have since spent time reading. Here is some commentary on all of it, presented as a countdown. From least to most, how much have I enjoyed everything that I read?
(Note: not counted here are a couple of single issues that I bought for my “Comics from My Childhood” series which will get their own posts).
8. Batman: Fortunate Son
I bought this book as part of a 50% pile of odds and ends that was even more discounted than that based on how many things I was getting. I grabbed just because it was a Batman hardcover, and there just might not be another character in comics who is more given to starring in solid done-in-one stories than Batman.
Fortunate Son is an attractive but weird graphic novel by Gerard Jones and Gene Ha, all built around themes of rock music (a challenging thing to pull off in comics, I think). Fortunate Son tries to do this by establishing a conflict between Batman and Robin (a young Dick Grayson in this case) related to music: Robin loves a classic rock star that he thinks is being vilified and framed for a crime, whilst Batman sees the guy and his music as a doorway to insanity.
It’s all tied into a failure in Batman’s past to prevent a murder, but even with that character-motivation, much of the story is still built on the idea of generational divides within pop culture: Robin likes the music because he is young and Batman doesn’t because he is old. In fact, Batman forbids it from being played in the Batcave or during training, while Robin feels like Batman just doesn’t “get him”. The ideas are novel but the whole thing feels forced and artificial, with Batman and Robin regularly saying ludicrous things to each other.
The art is interesting, although the characters look a little strange to me. But the bigger problem is that lurches forward awkwardly and the characters just don’t ring true.
7. JLA: The Island of Dr. Moreau
Back in the day, DC published lists of Elseworlds titles—comics where familiar characters are thrown into unfamiliar landscapes. In this case, as the title suggests, it’s the Justice League but shoved into the world of H.G. Wells’ Island of Dr. Moreau.
I don’t know Wells’ original work well but basically what we have here is an 19th century “Snapper” Carr being rescued at sea by Professor Ivo, and then brought to the mysterious Island of Dr. Moreau, where the titular mad scientist is turning animals into people. To this end, he has created a bunch of super-powered animal-humans who very loosely resemble some Justice League members (eg. a super-fast cheetah, a super-strong female gorilla, etc. The story goes on to deal with how these creatures adapt—or fail to adapt—to life in the “civilised” world. It’s not too hard to predict that things won’t go precisely smoothly.
The comic is by Roy Thomas and Steve Pugh, and is fine for what it is, but suffers from a general air of inconsequentiality. The story has very little to do with the actual Justice League or any other DC properties, so if this is what you are after with a superhero book from DC comics (which I am), it’s a disappointment.
6. By Water
By Water is the one independent project that I bought at the convention. It’s an historical retelling of the story of Felix Manz, a Swiss man who became the first anabaptist martyr. This means that he was murdered (by drowning, which is where the title of the book comes from) for his faith. Specifically, the so-called “anabaptists” believed that there was nothing biblical about the need for infant baptism (they were correct) and believed instead that people should be baptised as adults when they had made a choice to do so (as every example of baptism in the Bible indicates).
It’s quite a lovely looking book which introduced me to a bunch of history that I’m not familiar with. But narratively, it’s a little difficult to penetrate. The action is not always clear and it can be challenging to keep track of who the characters are and what their significance is to the events.
The book is by Jason Landsel (although Sankha Banerjee is also credited for art and Richard Mommsen is also credited for script, so I’m not exactly sure how the work broke down) who I met and chatted with at the convention. He’s interested in doing more books about later developments in this church movement which I think would be game to have a look at.
5. Justice League: A Midsummer’s Nightmare
Mark Waid’s Midsummer’s Nightmare is a seminal work that serves as a launching pad for Grant Morrison’s iconic JLA series. This is the period in JLA history where the “Big 7” all returned to the team’s line up all at once. After years of teams made up of a one or two super-stars mixed with a bunch of cool but admittedly lower-tier characters (eg. Metamorpho, Fire, Captain Atom, Crimson Fox, Obsidian, etc), suddenly the original lineup (or their legacy descendants) were back: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter.
This is no guarantee of a good book, but in the hands of Waid or Morrison, it generally was.
With Midsummer’s Nightmare, the plot involves the world suddenly turning into a place where thousands of ordinary citizens are gaining super-powers, while the classic Justice League heroes are all just living ordinary lives, having totally forgotten their costumed identities. It all turns out to be because of something that long-time JLA-foe Dr. Destiny is doing, and involves an effort to prepare the earth to survive a coming apocalypse (a plot line which was followed up on in Morrison’s JLA years later).
It’s a good book and a lot of fun. The art by Fabian Nicieza good but suffers from the busyness that characterised a lot of 90s art. Still, it’s a solid superhero tale that delivers what it promises on the cover: DC’s greatest characters up against a threat big enough for the seven of them. It would probably have been higher on the countdown if I hadn’t already read it.
4. Batman: Year One
Batman Year One is of course a classic. It’s the post-crisis, post Dark Knight Returns retelling of Batman’s early days by writer Frank Miller and artist Dave Mazzuchelli, and is still the definitive origin of the character, taking everything that ever made the that story great and adding a bunch of great elements (although I’m not a fan of Selina Kyle being a former prostitute—it makes sense in the context of the series but it’s not the a direction I’m thrilled about with the characters).
Batman Year One is a superhero comic, obviously, but it is also a gritty crime story with a strong dose of noir sensibilities. In addition to young Bruce Wayne discovering his means for striking fear into the hearts of criminals, it’s also about a (relatively) young James Gordon arriving in Gotham and coming to terms with what it is to be an honest cop in a sea of corruption. Gordon had been a regular figure in Batman comics for years, but this story completely revitalised his characterisation and turned him into one of the most essential presences in the Bat-verse.
Dave Mazzuchelli’s art is incredibly evocative, and the book is filled with iconic moments. Batman delivering his warning to the city’s criminal fat cats, for example, or my personal favorite: an injured Bruce refusing to call for Alfred’s help until a bat smashes through his window, and provides inspiration for how he is going to weaponise fear in his war on crime.
It’s a great book, and would almost certainly have figured higher on my countdown if it wasn’t something I hadn’t read so many times before (but just have never owned in a collected edition).
3. Fantastic Four: Full Circle
Full Circle is an oversized hardcover by Alex Ross. Ross is best known as a comic painter for such work as Kingdom Come, Marvels, and the covers for Astro City. This is apparently the first long-form comic story that he has drawn and written. It’s a nice looking book although quite different than the other things I’ve seen by Ross.
The story is steeped in the world of Jack Kirby & Stan Lee’s Fantastic Four—a celebrated run that I respect but am not fully familiar with. The adventure is mostly set in the Negative Zone, and it’s a decent story—but the focus here is really on the art. Page after page is devoted to Ross’s homaging the utter craziness that Kirby liked to draw.
I’d say the book is not fully satisfying, as the plot lurches around a bit, and while it allows for lots of interplay among Marvel’s first family, it doesn’t really give room to go deep with anyone. On the other hand, as a celebration of the Marvel Age of comics via one of the greatest properties of the periods, it’s still a treat.
2. Superman: End of the Century
All I knew about this book when I bought it was that it was a Superman hardcover. The imagery on the front (which I only looked at cursorily, it seems) made me think it was an Elseworlds story set at the end of the 19th century, in which Superman was a circus strongman or something. But actually, the book is a “modern day” Superman story set in what I assume was current continuity at the time (the end of the 20th century).
I am a big fan of Superman and in the 90s I was following his books pretty diligently. End of the Century is from shortly after that period, so it still features my favourite iteration of the character: a heroic but humble guy who is happily married to Lois (albeit without children) and fully in touch with himself as Clark Kent. Lois is in equal parts intrepid, brave and playful, while Luthor is the suave businessman who is able to get away with murder (literally) by virtue of being ruthless and extremely rich.
There is a bunch of continuity to the story that I was not familiar with, and sometimes this was a little hard to keep track of. Luthor is a father, for instance, to baby Lena. Lena’s mother is the Contessa Erica Alexandra del Portenza who is thought to be dead (murdered by Luthor) but secretly alive partly because she’s actually some sort of immortal—exactly how is never revealed except that it’s connected to her bloodline.
The plot is about the Contessa’s insanely murderous son who is also immortal, as well as frozen in ice. Luthor is after him as a great treasure, the Contessa is after him because she knows he’s committed only to murder, and the survivor of an old secret society is after him in order to leach off his immortality. Baby Lena comes into danger along the way, providing Superman and Lois opportunities to both be awesome and heroic.
The book is written and drawn by Stuart Immomen, so it looks amazing. The guy is one of the modern masters of the business so that’s not a surprise. Portions of the story dealing with the Contessa’s life in the 1800s are all painted, which adds another artistic dimension. The story got a little muddled for me from time to time, but in general I really enjoyed it. Of course that’s no surprise—it’s a story from the era of one of my favorite characters by one of my favorite creators, so what’s not to like?
1. Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin
And what book do I rank even higher on my countdown than a book about Superman, Batman or Felix Manz? Why, none other than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, of course. The book is created by a bunch of people I am not familiar with, including Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird (the Turtles’ co-creators) as well as Tom Waltz, Esai Escorza, Ben Bishop, and Isaac Escorza.
This is the one book on this countdown which I didn’t actually buy—instead, it was my daughter, who is a big Turtles fan. And in fact, this is the first time I’ve ever read a Ninja Turtles comic book at all.
The story is set in the future of the franchise, after a disaster which has resulted in all but one of the Turtles being killed. Also, their enemies from the Foot Clan have taken over the city, so things are pretty bleak. The book keeps it a mystery as to which of the four Turtles has survived–I don’t know the characters well enough to know if it really matters but just in case I won’t spoil it here. The survivor’s brothers all appear in visions and flashbacks, so you still get all four characters.
The book is a mix of backstory as to what happened to everyone else, and front story about what the survivors are going to do about it “now”. It’s decently long which gives the narrative time to breathe and develop into quite a satisfying and epic finale of sorts for the whole franchise. Because it’s longer than the Superman, Batman or Justice League comics mentioned above, it was overall the most satisfying reading experience I had from these purchases, even though I don’t know these characters very well.
It’s solid stuff–so good job daughter-of-mine are your fine purchase!
Blue Towel Productions 