Put it on the shelf instead of on my pull list

So there were only two posts last month on account of me being busy with other stuff because wonders never cease. Yes, I did indeed finally get my new bookshelf delivered and so I was able to get rid of all the numerous piles of comic books that had assembled over the last year on my desk.

The downside was that the bookshelf was delivered one day early. Which sounds good but if you have just spent the whole night without sleep and plan on going to bed and sleep for the next twelve hours until your new bookshelf is due and you have to tidy up your room that´s not so good.

Because instead of going to sleep you have to stay awake and quickly clean your room, wait until the bookshelf is assembled and then of course you want to put the books from your desk on the bookshelf so your room doesn´t look like it was hit by a dozen atomic bombs filled with comic books. Which takes another couple of hours. So you don´t get much sleep on that day either and I was totally wasted for the next few days during which I used my waking hours to finish putting comics on my new bookshelf. But you´re never finished. There are always some books to add, some books you don´t need to have in your room or you suddenly have the idea to put all the Marvel Essentials on one shelf, all the DC Showcase Presents on another shelf, all the british and black and white and horror comic books on one more shelf ......you get the idea.

And when I´m saying comic books I rather mean books than single issues because I´m more drawn to collected editions nowadays as there are fewer and fewer series that are worth reading in single issue form.

Today two packages arrived, one from amazon ( two others are still pending ) and one from the online comicshop I go to for everything outside of my pull list - which these days consists of SAVAGE DRAGON, USAGI YOJIMBO, TAROT, Witch of the Black Rose and RACHEL RISING or whatever Terry Moore does next - and it was difficult to order the last one because I realized that the only book left is Kurt Busiek´s ASTRO CITY.

With the announcement of the NEW 52 I saw a big opportunity to cut back on my DC books and that prediction has come through. AQUAMAN was a good book but with the wrap up of the storyline so far, the departure of Paul Pelletier and a new creative team taking over that´s it for me. 

This title was really a great read and one of the things that struck me when the whole NEW 52 stuff started was how many comic readers - new and old - were really surprised, or rather in a state of total shock that AQUAMAN - of all books - was one of the best right out of the gates.

Which shows how short the memory of the collective comic community is because I can clearly remember a time when AQUAMAN was one of the more successful titles DC was putting out, a must read for comic fans.

It was such a big success it even was translated for german readers.

Okay, I´m not that old but I read the later albums Ehapa put out.

Interesting tidbit : the issue reprinted in SUPERMAN PRÄSENTIERT AQUAMAN 8 - AQUAMAN 56 - was the last issue and part of an unofficial crossover with Marvel´s aquatic pendant in SUB - MARINER issue 72.

The whole thing was covered - very short - by CBR´s COMICBOOK URBAN LEGENDS REVEALED but for a longer version check out DIAL H FOR BLOG or MAJOR SPOILERS . The writer of the book, Steve Skeates, ended the issue on a cliffhanger and as with Jack Kirby´s OMAC - ONE MAN ARMY there was still one more story to tell. Later on Skeates created a new aquatic hero for Warren Publishing in 1971 and eventually recycled his plot for AQUAMAN 57 as “ The Once Powerful Prince ” in EERIE 40, wherein villains stole the mystic ring that gave Prince Targo his undersea powers. The first Prince Targo script appeared in EERIE 36 ( “ Prototype ” ) and the chronologically 3rd was in EERIE 37 ( “ The Other Side of Atlantis ” ).

But that was not the end of it, there was still more life to the story. In 1974, Skeates penned a direct sequel ( complete with a shot of an unidentified Aquaman’s hand ) that dealt with the consequences of the cliffhanger in SUB - MARINER 72 , itself the final issue of the run !

Back to the Aquaman book the biggest draw was Jim Aparo´s fantastic art. He has always been a favorite artist of mine and I can´t understand why his complete body of work is still not available in collected form. 

DC released some of his comics in bits and pieces like LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT - JIM APARO, AQUAMAN - DEATH OF A PRINCE or WRATH OF THE SPECTRE but come on, he built a great part of the DC mythology.

And speaking of the LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT - JIM APARO, I can´t be the only one witth a copy of volume 2 that has printing errors in almost half of the pages. Because I returned my copy but the replacement had the same printing errors. Despite this I never read any mention of this in the amazon reviews or on comic message boards. So either there are only two bad copies and I happened to get my hands on those two or all other comic readers out there just assume it can´t be helped because DC doesn´t have any setting copies of better quality from those issues.

Too bad there is no DC fan with a huge collection like Ralph Macchio. I´m talking about the comic writer and editor, not the actor who played Daniel San in the Karate Kid movies. If you have a copy of Marvel´s ESSENTIALS or MARVEL MASTERWORKS books there is a big chance it says " Special Thanks to Ralph Macchio " in the credits because - I only recently learned this from his interview on the SIDEBAR podcast - unlike DC Comics Marvel doesn´t have a huge library with all of their issues and Ralph Macchio is one of the few men on the face of the planet with a near complete Marvel collection. So whenever the Marvel guys have to reprint some issues they don´t have you can thank Ralph Macchio for providing the original issues.

Okay, so I´m done with AQUAMAN. The same goes for WONDER WOMAN.

I´ll get the last hardback BONES by Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang and Goran Sudzuka but I´m not really all that interested in the following issues by David Finch. Don´t get me wrong, he´s a great artist but his hand in picking books hasn´t been that great and after the DARK KNIGHT book getting worse and worse I´m not going to pay money to see that repeated on a book that looks like the rest of the NEW 52 dark and gritty line up. You can say what you want about the Azzarello issues but at least they were different from the other revamped new alternate version stuff.

For decades it has puzzled me that a big company like DC has problems producing a decent comic book about a character that everybody knows and loves and that had one of the best television series of all times.

Well, George Perez knew how to do it right and the guys at DC got rid of him very quickly - and you can learn more of the reasons for that and a lot of other strange going ons at DC´s NEW 52 in this video which master blogger Terry Hooper posted on his excellent COMIC BITS ONLINE blog :



Okay, AQUAMAN and WONDER WOMAN done. ANIMAL MAN and SWAMP THING also done although there are still a few trades I have to get.

So technically I´m still reading those but they won´t pop up in my pull list. Then the are the bat books like BATMAN, BATMAN INCORPORATED and BATMAN & ROBIN but I´m not too excited and will probably get them when I can find them with a discount. I just finished the BATMAN - DEATH OF THE FAMILY book and even with a discount I felt ripped off. Not only because it included one issue that you can also find in the BATMAN & ROBIN - DEATH OF THE FAMILY collection but because it was the biggest pile of horse manure I read in a long time. There´s a lot of that at DC.

The first two books with The Court of Owls were absolutely spectacular and then something like this comes along and craps all over it. I don´t think Scott Snyder is a bad writer but even he couldn´t avoid this whole mess which was clearly mandated by the higher ups at DC who have no clue. About anything. Like - almost - the entire NEW 52 line the DEATH OF THE FAMILY story tries to outdo the previous versions of Joker stories but instead you get the bland feeling of been there, done that, bought the t - shirt. We´ve all seen these stories done by better writers AND better artist and the whole brain - f - word of the Joker cutting his face off only to staple it back on shows you that nobody at DC gets the Joker. Which is why they try to substitute the psychological horror which was always the Joker´s trademark - and requires good writers - with cheap splatter fic.

And that brings us back to ASTRO CITY, the ONLY DC book that´s still on my pull list and that´s not even a DC proper book, it´s a VERTIGO book.

So the only good DC books that are still out there are the SHOWCASE PRESENTS or other reprints because the actual DC universe now officially sucks. Pardon my french but there is no other way to say it. My brother says that I always buy the same books and it may be true in some part because I just bought CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS again from Eaglemoss´ official DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection. Which contains the complete twelve issue mini series in one thick hardcover for a meager 25 EUROS.

Now I said that it´s true in some part that I always buy the same comics because with CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by that Perez guy ( again ! he´s like in all the good comics ) I had various attempts to read it. The first time I came across this story was with SUPERMAN TASCHENBUCH 71 which included the first two issues.

And ONLY the first two issues. The SUPERMAN TASCHENBÜCHER had 96 pages but issue 71 only has those two issues of the series, the rest is made up of other Superman stories from various Superman series.

This was not the last Superman pocket book from Ehapa - they lasted until issue 80 - but no other issues of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS were published by Ehapa, neither in SUPERMAN / BATMAN nor in one of the SUPERMAN SUPERBAND magazine sized comics which would have been ideal for this. Instead we got two issues in a really small format with the usual cuts in text and dialogue because of the size and machine lettering.

But it was one hell of a story even if I didn´t know 80 percent of the players. No. ESPECIALLY since I didn´t know 80 percent of the players. It might sound strange to Today´s reading audience but back then there was no google or wikipedia where you could find out who those people were, there were no message boards where you could find other comic readers who were more versed in DC lore and there sure as heck were no online comic shops where you could easily find back issues. It was what it was. If you didn´t know a character you had to keep on reading and hope you might find out more. And this was exciting since not knowing everything about a character from issue 1 ( and you NEVER got to start reading a series with the first issue ) made him interesting. There were still things you could find out about him, things that could surprise you. So even if we only got a small glimpse of the CRISIS series it was a big deal.

Then, around five years later, Hethke came around and also tried their hand at this series and they used the bigger format and hand lettering.

Alas, they only lasted long enough to publish issues one to four so again it was comic interruptus. I found scattered issues of the spanish translation 

and even some of the original issues but never the whole series.

At least until the DINO Verlag published the miniseries in 1999 in two softcovers for 9 EUROS each or one hardcover edition for 50 EUROS.

Since I was more interested with reading then with collecting comics at that time my main goal was to get as many comics as possible so I went for the cheaper option. And I have to say 50 bucks still sounds like a lot of money for a hardcover of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS - unless it´s either signed by George Perez with a sketch of Power Girl in a bikini or it has a lot of extra pages. Which is why I got the new edition - I wanted the complete series collected in a nice hardcover. But I have to say if you already have the DINO version it has the far superior translation. There are a lot of misspellings, bad translations and even missing sentences and other sorts of typos in the Eaglemoss version. So if you want to read it in german and you don´t need the whole hardcover treatment get the cheap DINO trades which should not be too hard to find for 20 bucks or less.

Last comic trivia tidbit of the day : on the cover of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS 3 George Perez signed with " guess who " instead of his name.

And that´s all for Today´s post although I´m sure there will be more about my new bookshelf, more about CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS which will be definitely mentioned in upcoming DEATH IN COMICS posts since Supergirl AND Flash kicked the bucket in those series as well as more about what I´ve been up to instead of writing new post in the future. Leave it to me to start bemoaning the current state of comics, make a left turn into the german publishing history of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS and then end up with a buy recommendation. You never know what´s next on this blog.

Okay, that´s not true. Next up is the first part of the SUBZERO edition casting the JLA movie starring Nicole Austin, Darlene Silva and Miko Lee.

Since Today´s post is not about a particular topic - well, it started out that way but turned into one of my usual ramblings - there are no links and we can get straight to the videos. Most of the post is about CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS and I really found a video with George Perez art.



We´re staying with the DC comics theme in our next video that poses the question : What if MAN OF STEEL was in color ? I know, it sounds weird but it will make absolute sense after you have seen it. I promise, guys.



I´m not exactly sure where the material for this video came from but it´s the Secret Origin of Wonder Woman. The real one. As I wrote in the post George Perez is one of the few who got it right which is the reason why I ordered the WONDER WOMAN BY GEORGE PEREZ omnibus while amazon is selling it for 55 EUROS. The paper cut is not good but maybe that´s just my copy and I already missed out on UNCANNY X - MEN OMNIBUS 2 where I had to get vol 5 of the UNCANNY X - MEN : MARVEL MASTERWORKS edition which also includes the UNTOLD STORY OF THE PHOENIX version.



It´s been quite a while since I posted a Yaya Han video so to keep with the DC theme here she is cosplaying as Power Girl. Maybe a re - post.



One of the things I have to thank my new bookshelf for is re - discovering all the neat comic series I have read and one of them is W.I.T.C.H. of which I have the first fourteen trades. For some reason I stopped at this point ( money ??? ) but it´s one of the best written and drawn european comics I know which is equally readable for boys and girls and there even was a tv series made which is my cartoon recommendation of the day.



New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN : top ten posts / more posts of interest / best of the best
 

Cry me a river....cry me some Justice

Lately I haven´t had many additions to my pull list. I don´t know how it is with you but since the price of comics has gone from 2.99 to 3.99 I haven´t added many new titles to my pull list.


And I´m eliminating some of the ones I´m currently reading half hearted. Any good 2.99 title that´s on the list stays but other books like GHOST RIDER, FLASH or GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY had to go. Okay, in the case of Ghost Rider I just forgot to kick the title off the list when I started at my new comic shop because let´s face it : Javier Saltares totally made the title and it hasn´t been the same since heleft. But the Flash issues have been lying in my bag for almost a year now without any inclination on my part to read them. And let´s be realistic : Paul Pelletier is not coming back to Guardians. In fact he´s already moved to his new project WORLD WAR HULKS .


I really like Paul Pelletier but it´s hell to keep up with him the way he´s jumping from title to title.

Now it´s not so that I´m dumping all the stuff that´s in my bag. I mean I ordered it and when it´s not too horrible I will buy it sooner or later even if it´s as bad as COUNTDOWN. Yes, I knew that it had zero relevance to the FINAL CRISIS series even if it was started as the lead - in to it. Took it anyway. As well as FINAL CRISIS. I have to say FINAL CRISIS, COUNTDOWN and DEATH OF THE NEW GODS all tell the same story while they also totally contradict each other.

Those three can´t possibly co - exist and if you have to choose one then my tip for you is DEATH OF THE NEW GODS. Because COUNTDOWN is just too different from issue to issue and the only highlight are the issues by Tom Derenick who really should be on a regular title after his great stint on SHADOWPACT. Okay, there was one issue which was extremely well written by Paul Dini, Adam Beechem and Keith Giffen. It even has art by Jim Starlin even if it doesn´t look quite as good as on DEATH OF THE NEW GODS.


It´s issue 05 and the reason why it´s so brilliant is that it tells you a story you already know. Maybe I´m stupid or the writers on this were brilliant. My money is on the later. Now there might people who are not familiar with the particular story that is told in the issue but every fan of the particular character ( it´s not one of Jack Kirby´s most prolifient works but it has lots of fans of which some are famous comic book creators ) should know it. I should know it.

From the cover which is really a dead giveaway to all the story elements every piece is something that should tell me which story this is. But I only started to realize that in the last few pages and I was really sure when I read the last caption. Well played Sirs.

Now another problem with COUNTDOWN is that it plays into too many titles so you don´t get the feeling that you have all the pieces. Like with the many tie - ins to CIVIL WAR you get the impression to miss big parts of the story which leaves you unsatisfied. So I can´t really recommend the series. If you want you should at least read issue 05. There might be some other cool issues but so far none comes to mind and that is not a good sign.

FINAL CRISIS. Well it has some pages by Carlos Pacheco and there are some interesting story elements. But all things considered the main problem is that it tried to achieve too many things at once and failed for most of it.


When I first heard of another crisis so soon after the last one I thought it was too soon. And I was right. DC really should have waited a few decades so they could come up with a solid story. What they published instead has a lot of flash but not much real substance and is even rushed in some parts - especially the last issue.

When CrossGen folded all the titles had to be wrapped up in the last issue and they didn´t even manage to do that on all books. On the ones they did they had to compress the remaining story into the last issue - no matter if they had just two left or another years worth - and if you have read one of those final issues you will have a deja vue when reading FINAL CRISIS 7. I also can´t recommend FINAL CRISIS because the quality also is changing from issue to issue and while Grant Morrison delivers his usual great ideas nobody really understood the ending and it really wasn´t that necessary.

Like on HOUSE OF M the story itself was " meeh " while the best part was the immediate fallout. LEGION OF THREE WORLDS is just beyond cool ( one of these days I have to get to the last issue ) and ROGUE´S REVENGE was also a solid title even if it had the horrible Scott Kolins on art. But the end of FINAL CRISIS went just over my head and I wasn´t the only one. I felt cheated and I think Grant Morrison wrote himself into a corner. It couldn´t have been worse if Superman had defeated Darkseid with a hug. So no points for this one either.


Why DEATH OF THE NEW GODS you might ask. Isn´t the Fourth World one of Jack Kirby´s greatest stories that should never be undone ? Yes it is. Isn´t it a really bad idea by DC to kill off the whole franchise and all the great characters involved like Mr. Miracle and Big Barda ( massitta ! ) ? Yes it is. Wouldn´t it be better if it had never happened ? Yes it would.

The reason why it is still my favorite of the three and the one I would pick if I had to choose is Jim Starlin. Nobody destroys universes like Jim. Back when he was at Marvel he did it on a regular basis and he always did it with style. As he did on DEATH OF THE NEW GODS. There are really only a few writers who can write stories about gods really good. Oh, that doesn´t mean that somebody like Dan Juergens can´t write Thor but it will always read like Superman with a hammer.

The gods of the Foruth World - that´s opera. Big opera with lots of pathos and deceit and lies and death. Above all death. Walter Simonson is one of the few who understands that as his run on Thor as well as his fantastic ORION series showed and another one is Jim Starlin.


Jim Starlin writes death like no one else and the more the better. Which doesn´t mean he can´t do the quiet little deaths like in DEATH OF CAPTAIN MARVEL but the bigger the better. A world, a planet a whole universe - that´s when he really starts to run true to form.

Which is the reason why even if DEATH OF THE NEW GODS kills of the Fourth World you wouldn´t want anyone else to do it. The story is rooted deeply into DC lore and even if you don´t have to know it all to understand it it´s nice for the hardcore fans. COSMIC ODYSSEY is one of the stories that are referenced as the reason why Superman and Orion are at each other throats and I really liked that. As well as the fact that as the story progresses Superman reaches the limits of his powers. He´s often seen as a god by mortals but the New Gods are real gods so compared to them he´s ultimately like a child.

It is no secret that Darkseid was the blueprint for Thanos at Marvel and after decades of writing Thanos Jim Starlin really knows how that character thinks.


Which is not that different from Darkseid. Aside from the story - which is also a murder mystery which is also one of the reasons why I like the series - there is also the art by Jim Starlin who hasn´t looked this good since MYSTERY IN SPACE. So this series gets my thumb up as this weeks recommendation. It´s already been collected into a 256 page hardcover which usually goes for 29.99 but which you can get at amazon.de for 21.99. There is also a softcover trade available but since you don´t get much of a discount from amazon.de on that one it might be better to grab it at your local comic shop. And as always if you are abroad or in the States just compare prices.



But....I didn´t want to write about the CRISIS. I just got sidetracked talking about the comics that I took on my last visit at the comic shop and that new titles have a hard time to get on my pull list.

I haven´t added a single new book from the last five or six Diamond catalogues. Even titles I really dig like BOOSTER GOLD or INCREDIBLE HERCULES are still not on my pull list. There are more and more books that I order aside from my pull list and some of them will not get on my pull list so I can pick or choose which issues to get. Which in the two cases mentioned above is not an issue ( I missed two issues of BOOSTER GOLD but that was because I waited too long ) but in cases like the new BATMAN AND ROBIN title by Grant Morrison where they already have another artist on issue 4 I prefer it that way.

So I can try out new books and decide later if they are added to the pull list or if I follow them in the trade format at some later time. In the case of DARK AVENGERS and SECRET WARRIORS I read the first six issue story arc and as I thought they have different artists beginning with issue 7. On SECRET WARRIORS it will probably be a permanent thing so this is clearly a candidate for the trade section. On DARK AVENGERS I´m not sure as Mike Deodato might come back after the crossover with the X - Men that is currently underway but I´m not sure how that part is going to wind up in a trade.


I think I´ll stay clear of the issues by other artists and I will check out the issues for the next storyarc if they are by Mike Deodato. But I think it will go to the trade list anyway as 3.99 is just too much to keep it on the pull list. I know, prices for trades will be going up sooner or later but thanks to the lower prices at amazon here in Germany I still might be able to afford a few.

Another 3.99 book I added to my reading pile that is currently not on my pull list is CRY FOR JUSTICE. Yes, today´s post is a bit all over the place - and don´t you love it that way. At least it never gets boring and even I get surprised what the post will finally be about. With all the problems the higher price brings it sounds reasonable to keep the new titles to a minimum and to just do books that are really necessary. So do we really need another book featuring the Justice League ?

With new series or mini series involving the Justice League you have to keep in mind that each one is it´s own kind of beast. There are of course those that everybody loves like Alex Ross´JUSTICE twelve parter but there are also series like JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE which I think was one of the best JLA books ever while for others it´s the greatest pile of animal droppings ever. Each one has his favorites in that departement.


So of course I was hesistant when I first heard of CRY FOR JUSTICE. Aside from Alex Ross not many artist who do painted artwork work as well inside a comic as on the cover as the case of Del Otto´s SECRET WAR showed. Luckily Mauro Cascioli ( who already did his magic on TRIALS OF SHAZAM ) is one of the few who can do big and impressiva as well as fast and action packed. The art was always a big factor for me when it comes to decide if I pick up a comic and Mauro already impressed me before I knew that it wasn´t some promo art for DC but for a new Justice League book.

What always has to win me over to read a book is the story. How well is it written and is it a story which ramifications to the big picture I find interesting ? Which caracters does it select ? The Justice League as one of the premier DC team books has always been about the mix of characters and the resulting clash of personalities. May it be the fights between Hawkman and Green Arrow which are not only based on general politics but on League politics as well as we all kmow since IDENTITY CRISIS.

May it be the difference AND the similarities between monarchs like Aquaman and Wonder Woman or the camradery of Green Lantern and the Flash.....the most interesting parts have always been when the members interact on a more human level. Which is also where the story of CRY FOR JUSTICE plays. When you look at the members of the Justice League and the power they posess you can forget that they are also human. They get angry, they get sad and they die. And when one of them does they keep his memory alive and carry on. The League endures.


But people can endure only so much and with the bodycount of the League getting higher and higher after the last crisis ( yes, we are back to that topic ) Hal Jordan has had enough. After GREEN LANTERN REBIRTH the GREEN LANTERN title needed a bit of time to really get interesting which was sad because Carlos Pacheco had already left. Things started to roll when ONE YEAR LATER knocked and ever since the SINIESTRO CORPS WAR it´s one of the constantly best written titles DC has. And one of the reasons is that while many may think that Hal´s a boring character as Green Arrow puts it : I know when Hal gets like this --- things happen. Things change. And as legions of DC readers can recall not always for the best.

Sometimes Hal has a short fuse and when the s - word hits the fan things get interesting for the reader. As in JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE Hal decides to become a little more pro - active about going after the criminals. One of the themes that a book like Justice League has to tackle is justice and what it means. What it means for society, what it means for superheroes like the league members who are somewhere between vigilantism and sanctioned police force. But also what it means for each member.

Of course the way writer James Robinson assembles his particular Justice League team is nothing new but I think it´s fitting that it´s not like in JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE where you had the big discussion and afterwards the members decided which side to choose. No in CRY FOR JUSTICE you have a falling out and during the course of the history characters meet who are sometimes loners but who become united seeking the same thing : justice. all of them have suffered a loss and they want somebody to pay for it.


Now for some this might seem primitive and an - eye - for - an - eye but one of the main parts of superhero comics has alwas been to punish the guilty " which sometimes means catching the nad guys and handing them over to the justice system. Sometimes it means taking the law into his own hands and meting out your own brand of justice. Which is just fitting where a character like Hal Jordan comes into play. People forget how powerful he really is as well that - regarding to the Guardians of the Galaxy and interstellar law - he is the designated law enforcer of sector 2814 which includes Earth.

He works with the legal system of the world and his fellow justice leaguers - but he doesn´t have to. Whatever he decides goes as long as he stays within the directives for Green Lanterns. He could go his own way all alone but of course Ollie and the fates have decided otherwise. Hal and Ollie are DC´s big buddy duo and James Robinson writes some wonderful and funny lines for them. Continuity is always one of the thing I look out for - not so much in " where did this happen ? " but more in the sense of " is this true to the characters history ? ". And reading the issues you get a feeling for the long and rich history between Hal and Ollie.


History also comes into play in the book in the form of the history of the DC universe as James Robinson takes some characters from the corners that are a bit off the paths we usually travel. It´s no wonder that he adds forgotten Starman Mikaal Tomas, the blue skinned alien who was also in his run on STARMAN, to the team. And I´m saying " the forgotten " because whenever somebody writes about homosexuality in comics he´s never mentioned. Another more obscure character is Congorilla who I didn´t know previously. But I always like to learn about new characters ( which might be one of the reasons why I´m not afraid of continuity ) and for those wo are not familiar with some of the cast members each issue contains an origin in the annotation section of the books.

And of course everybody knows that comics with monkes or apes sell better. I hope it´s also true for this title but I doubt it was the only reason for including him. in the last issue I read - issue 3 - we also have Supergirl, Captain Marvel - which is Freddy Freeman - and the Atom on the team. Each following his own trail to bring someone to justice which ultimately brings them together. By adding Supergirl James Robinson has a member of the Superman family on the book and I hope that he can finally give her some character since they never accomplished that in her solo title.


Captain Marvel is kind of new for me since I haven´t seen him since the trials and the Atom - in this case Ray Palmer - is once again somebody who walks the fine line between grey and black because of what happened during the last crisis and especially in the pages of COUNTDOWN ( see how it all comes together in the end ? ). There are now two Atoms in the DC universe and I hope they keep the new one around for a while. I mean if we can have two flashes ans more than one Green Lantern why can´t we have two Atoms ? At least for a while.

What is a bit weird for me is that one of the villains ( I don´t know if he will be the big one in this series ) is Prometheus who James Robinson wants to restore to his former glory. The problem for me is that the last time I saw Prometheus he wiped the floor with the Justice League. Okay, he was defeated but it was very difficult. Now it seems that in the meantime - while I was away - other writers used the character so poorly that he became a total douchebag and all those stories are now being retconned by saying it was an imposter and a bad one at that.

Works with me since I missed most of that. For me Prometheus was always one for the villains hall of fame so when a writer decides to pimp him - more power to him, I say.


So, great story, great art, great heroes, great villains.....I don´t think there is much to add. Especailly after my little detour to Crisis Wasteland. Being a 3.99 title this will probably not go on my pull list but that´s mostly because as a seven issue limited series the next issue is already after the halfway point so it´s not worth the effort.

There are some 3.99 books at DC like BOOSTER GOLD or DOOM PATROL that have back up features which is not the case in this comic. What it does have are extra pages with a two page origin comic for the different team members as well as a few pages by James Robinson about the series and the story of the characters that also include pencil pages by Mauro Cascioli so that you DO have added value to the book.

In any case I will definitely keep on reading the title to see how it all ends as I suspect that this will have an impact on the regular Justice League book as James Robinson is going to be the new writer on the regular JLA book. CRY FOR JUSTICE gets my recommendation so be sure to check it out the next time you go to the comic store as it´s a book well worth your money.


More info on CRY FOR JUSTICE :

preview issue 1

preview issue 2

preview issue 3

interview with james robinson

review issue 1

I also wanted to write a bit about Chris Claremont´s new x - title X - MEN FOREVER that picks up where he left 17 years ago but that will have to wait. You will have to read about how I came around to read it after I had decided the world doesn´t need this book in the next installment of Germany´s best comic blog.


edit : Since it has been mentioned in the comments there were rumors that Batwoman was going to be in the book and here is the page in question ( I have marked the important part red ) although I have to say that I can´t neither deny nor affirm that it really is Batwoman.


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No, baby, I´m with you. You and me. Old times, new times, all the time.

Solicitations - done in one

This is a new record. Because of the last exhaustive solicitations round there is not that much left to say about this month's new solicitaions.


Keeping my distance to all speculations about what's going to happen with the death of Batman and Pa Kent.....which I will believe when I see it......and tired of telling you how bad BRAND OLD DAY is there is not much left. So I can finish it all in this post. But before that....

SOMEBODY STOP ED MCGUINESS !


I really mean it. I'm as big a fan as anybody but this is just too much. Nothing against the occasional Ed McGuiness variant cover. I am all for it - I mean the variant for Captain America was just awesome. But let's not get carried away. If someone can do 5 ( in words : five !!! ) covers in one month this person has a lot of free time besides his monthly comic duties.


Or he's using the additional time he has because Frank Cho and Artur Adams are working on Hulk for some work on the side. That's not what fill - in artists are for. The idea is to help the regular artist to regain some leeway. No matter what the case is here - somebody like maybe an editor - should channel that energy into interior pages. Because as nice as the covers are they are nothing compared to comic pages by Ed McGuiness. It doesn't even have to be a full story. A five page story in an anthology would be enough. The book would sell only because of the Ed McGuiness pages.


And what's up with Ed McGuiness' ULTIMATES storyarc ? Don't think we've forgotten all about that, Marvel. You promised us that you would publish the one who finished first : Joe Madureiras or Ed McGuiness. Well, the story from Joe Madureiras is finished ( I can only guess since I haven't read the last two issues yet ) and since you put Ed McGuiness on the new Hulk book that must mean he has finished too. So when is that coming out ?


Or do you want to leave your readers hanging like with the ULTIMATE HULK / WOLVERINE mini that is reprinted this month ? I don't want to be sarcastic but am I the only one who thinks that it's unnecessary to reprint issue 1 of this ? I bet there are still hundreds of copies at the comnic dealers because people were waiting for issue 2.

Back to Ed McGuiness : get that man some interior stuff to work on. Whatever he wants. I don't care what. As long as it's not connected to BLAND NEW DAY.

Now what's up with the rest of the solicitations ?

BLACK PANTHER 1


Marvel tries to vitalize the franchise with a new number 1. Again. I haven't read the last ten issues or so but to me it seems like they just did the last restart a few months ago. And the problem with the book was more that after the departure of John Romita Jr. they didn't manage to get a suitable replacement. They had Scott Eaton for two storyarcs but they just didn't hang onto him. And the Campbell cover is nice but if they don't bring their a - game to it they can just as well scratch the whole relaunch. No matter how good it's written if you only put second - and third - stringers on the art it's never going to be in the top spots.

NOVA 22


You are probably already reading Nova. So I don't have to tell you how great the book is, how it manages to throw you a curveball when you least expect it or how it ties into SECRET INVASION. You already know that and I don't have to lose another word about one of Marvel's best series. I just wanted to post the cover because for me this is the cover of the month.

If there was such a thing. And if I got to vote on it.

Anyway, I just like the simple yet effective design. And it tells you something about the story. How neat is that ?

SHE HULK 38


Final issue ! Well, I have to say that doesn't surprise me much. I'm more astonished it lasted this long. I already wrote something about this in my post THE SLOW DEATH OF SHE HULK were I foretold that the days of the title were numbered. I mean you just have to look at the track record : after the awful start with Bobillo they finally managed to get an a - grade artist like Paul Pelletier. They got good reviews from comic critics and a solid fanbase. And then Marvel restarts it without Pelletier and the whole crazy storylines by Dan Slott that made no sense like the Starfox as a rapist or She Hulk humping whoevers available ( and Wolverine doesn't ) or the whole " if you are special you need help " fiasko.....it didn't take a fortuneteller to see where this was headed.

What's funny is that if you are special like She Hulk and use the powers gamma radiation gave you people like Dan Slott say you are sick and need help. Because it's unnatural. If somebody like Brad Pitt uses the advantage he has over other people ( fame, money, good looks ) that's totally okay. For me that's a double standard.


Back to the train wreck that is She Hulk. Marvel still hasn't managed to get top artists on the book of their favorite character - and with that I don't mean the editors. She Hulk is the number one character among fans and artists alike so you can't tell me that it's difficult to get good people for the series. We have heard the argument again and again that there are also females reading the book but it seems that their number is not so great that it's enough to keep the title alive.

The average reader is still male so the main character should look accordingly. And I have to say : the current costume is not a good one. If you don't want to do a decent costume you should go all the way : just give her something to wear like this.


That's not much better but at least this way you get more readers.

THE SPIRIT 26


Not much to say about the book after last month. The reason why I chose this one is the cover artist. Brian Bolland is one of the big comic masters and one of the few who's able to tell a story in one single picture. With today's covers that mostly have nothing to do with the interior story and mostly just consist of a nice pin up that's a rare gift.

And that's all. Nothing mor to say about the new solicitations so next time we will return to our usual comic ramblings and hijinks. Who knows ? I might even get to do the post about Jose Luis Garcia Lopez.


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