Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes, page 25

Book Review: Superman: The Atomic Age Sunday Pages, Volume 3

Superman: The Atomic Age Sunday Pages, Volume 3 by Alvin Schwartz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In three years of beautifully colored Sunday Comic Strips, Superman takes on genies, alien invaders, and Old West Villains while dealing with few comic adventures that are more about Lois Lane's antics, a TV host who seems overly interested in learning Superman's secret identity, and the biggest terror of all...being suddenly obese.

This is actually a really good book. Most of the adventures are light-earted, but don't become as goofy as some Silver Age tails would. Superman also shows some real cunning in a few, the genie story is my favorite in this book for that reason. The art is great for the era, and overall I have to say this is probably my favorite collection of Sunday strips since the Golden Age.



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Book Review: Incredibles: Secrets and Lies

The Incredibles: Secrets & Lies by Landry Q. Walker

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This is a book where everyone in the Incredibles is lying, either directly or as a co-conspirator. Given the title of the sequel (and final book in this comic series), this is not the end of the story, but I have to question why this storyline is going to take eight issues. As it is, the book feels very unresolved, and worse than that, the family doesn't particularly likable, which is a sign of a big fail when you're writing the Incredibles.



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Book Review: Batman: Detective Comics, Vol. 7: Batmen Eternal

Batman: Detective Comics, Vol. 7: Batmen Eternal by James Tynion IV

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book has seven issues.

The first issue is the Trial of Batwoman and it deals with the aftermath of the last story and what the Batfamily is going to do about Batwoman's killing in the last volume. The idea of the trial that Batman wants to hear from his "family," the people he trusts is a great idea and each brings an interesting perspective that I can totally believe, although its Batgirl who really has the most important insight. (As an aside, it's a shame that Batgirl's not being written this well in her own comic.)

Then, we have the Fall of the Batmen story which finds Tim Drake being approached by a former tech for the colony about avoiding becoming the future Batman. This was a decent storyline, though not perfect. It does feel a tad padded and to me it felt like there was too much about future Tim Drake, who has loomed over the last three volumes. Still, I think it managed to tie things up nicely. Not only did Tynion come full circle to take care of issues that had been raised for the first issue, Tynion deserves credit for his character work. Several characters, in particular Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain had been pushed aside by the new 52. He gave them a new start in DC Rebirth and left them with some experiences and set things up so other creators can easily utilize them and reintroduce them. These characters have a future Tynion really set the stage for that. So job well done.



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Book Review: Batgirl, Vol. 5: Kicking Assassins

Batgirl, Vol. 5: Kicking Assassins by Andersen Gabrych

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After her failed team-up with TIm Drake's Robin, Cassandra Cain is flying solo in Bludhaven.

This book works pretty well. There's great action. Cassandra continues to evolve as a character. The art is actually fairly good. She faces off against the Brotherhood of Evil all by herself.

I had to groan a bit when it seemed like Deathstroke had been hired to take down Cassandra but it turned out to be his daughter instead. However, the final issue was really good as Cassandra had to combine her skills with some clever tactical thinking. We get some really nice insights into how she fights and sees the world. Overall, an enjoyable read.



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Book Review: Silver Surfer: Devolution

Silver Surfer: Devolution by Greg Pak

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


While Galactus bathes in the sun, the Surfer goes to rescue a woman and finds out its a trap by the High Evolutionary, who steals his powers. Now the woman and the Surfer must team up to save the world.

The attempted romance doesn't work, but otherwise, this story is okay. It has some action and even some high points. Mostly, its mediocre and a bit forgettable



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Book Review: Wonder Woman: Diana Prince: Celebrating the '60s Omnibus

Wonder Woman: Diana Prince: Celebrating the '60s Omnibus by Various

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Wonder Woman became a mortal and quickly learned the martial arts and fought supercriminals as Diana Prince while running a fabulous clothing boutique. This massive collection covers all the new material from Wonder Woman #178-204 to guest appearances in the books of Batman, Superman, . Supergirl, and LoisLane. Because Wonder Woman was published bi-monthly, this book collects 4 1/2 years of comics.

The change to the New Wonder Woman is abrupt and so is the end of her storyline. In between, there's a lot of fun stories as she deals with the villainous Doctor Cyber, and other street-level threats for a 70s hero as well as getting into some fantasy quests. She helps out Chinese nationalists fleeing from the Chinese Communists.

At its best, the fashion and incredibly colorful, although towards the latter parts of the book, Wonder Woman's outfits become nothing but White, which also is marked a decline in writing leading to the worst written story in the book in #196. After that, the book only has covers for two issues of reprints, and then we get into further stories, including a pretty fun one involving Catwoman before getting to "The Women's lib issue" which ends with Wonder Woman having created some cruel sexists only to find she'd put a bunch of women out of work. The comic advertised it would address the question in the next issue. However, the next issue saw the end of this era.

Overall, this is a pretty enjoyable run. It's a different take on Wonder Woman, but works fairly well with a lot of fun and colorful stories



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Book Review: Star Trek: Ongoing, Volume 1

Star Trek: Ongoing, Volume 1 by Mike Johnson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


For the Start of the Kelvin Universe Star Trek books, we get a re-telling of two stories from the original series in the new Universe.

The first is, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" where an old friend of Jim's obtains incredibly dangerous powers and must be dealt with. This one is almost exactly like the original story except for losing the romance angle and emphasizing on how Gary had helped Kirk.

The second is, "Galileo Seven," in which the shuttle "Galileo Seven" is brought down during a side-trip while the Enterprise has a pressing engagement they have to get to with lives on the line. On the positive note, I think the Federation Commissioner is a lot more reasonable and a lot less annoying than in the TV show. On the negative, it highlights how insane it was to send out a Shuttle with the first officer, ship's doctor, and chief engineer while the ship is on a vital mission. Further, it messes with the overall tone of the story. The TV show highlighted was a character spotlight on Spock that highlighted how he, as a Vulcan, related to a largely human crew and what his style of command might be, and it was Spock's story of how he found a way to save the day. Instead, another character (who wasn't even on the shuttle) became a Mary Sue and we got a cheesy bit of innuendo from Kirk instead.

These aren't bad stories, but they are rather pointless, particularly if you've seen the original series. Retelling stories with very minor alterations isn't a good way to run this comic book series and looking ahead, they do get away from this, but overall, this is a lackluster start for the Kelvin Comic universe.



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Book Review: Atomic Robo: Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire

Atomic Robo: Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire by Brian Clevinger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The former scientists of Tesladyne are on the run in Mexico, while Project Ultra is using all the super science resources they can they lay their hands on to fight the Biomega, deadly kaiju. At Earth's darkest hour, the Tesladyne scientists discover was thrown back in time and has been lying dormant for more than a century. They come to find Robo, re-assemble him, and hopefully, they save the world.

This is a blockbuster of a book that let's rip and offers bigger, more ridiculous, and more over the top science concepts. It's an Atomic robot vs. kaiju. It moves at a breakneck pace and is amazing fun. It ends with a nice reset to set the stage for this new era of Webcomic rRbo published by IDW.

If I had any complaint, it was that there were too many of these Tesladyne scientist characters running about and most are interchangeable. However, as this becomes a big running about doing science adventure, I can definitely overlook it.



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Book Review: Avengers West Coast: Avengers Assemble

Avengers West Coast: Avengers Assemble by Roger Stern

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book collects the four issues of the West Coast mini-series as well as Iron Man Annual #7, and snippets from Avengers comics that shows how the Avengers got started and we also get a team-up between West Coast and East Coast Avengers in Issue 250..

The mini-series begins with Hawkeye so incredibly eager to make the new West Coast Avengers work that he's assuming a yes from everyone: Iron Man, Wonder Man, and Tigra while having his wife Mockingbird on board.

Hawkeye is the best thing about this mini-series. The idea of the former villain and troublemaker on the original Avengers growing to actually be a leader.

Beyond that, the rest of the team is just kind of there, this is true of Mockingird in particular. The other three all have problems, but they are all a variation on the same problem: not knowing if they fit on the team. Iron Man has the most interesting one as no one seems to be able to tell that he's not the original despite having different voice and eyes. But they all kind of blended together.

The plot is a bit uneven. It starts in a pretty rough way in Issue #1 that's kind of an underwelming, but the story picks up a bit as Graviton emerges as the villain. Whie he's not an A-list villain, he definitely presents a challenged and I enjoyed the final issue.

Iron Man Annual #7 had an interesting idea as it brought back a has-been villain who had lost the right to use hos iold name of Power Man andtries to make a comeback as the new Goliath. It would have been a fine fight for Iron Man but I really question why two other Avengers were needed.

Avengers #250 is another merely okay issue, which is not okay because this is a milestone issue. The lowlight when Hawkeye makes his biggest primary ensuring West Coast Avengers are treated as equals, when saving the world seems like a bigger deal. Despite Hawkeye's concern, they are the guest stars and are treated as such. The big character stories are both about East Coast team members.

The excerpted material on events leading up to the formation of the West Coast team is okay, but none of it is particularly compelling, with the best bit being a flashback by Hawkeye after Mockingbird tied on how they got the headquarters.

Overall, this is okay, but not all that interesting unless you're a big fan of this team.



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Book Review: Batman, Volume 7: The Wedding

Batman, Volume 7: The Wedding by Tom King

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This contains four stories in six issues:

The Gift (a 2 1/2 Issue story) in which Booster Gold creates a timeline where Bruce's parents didn't die in order to give Batman a wedding present. Credit where credit is due, King doesn't go for a "Batman causes supervillains" sort of story as we see the world is horrible without Batman. Supervillains were coming, Batman's the man who is needed to fight the monsters. However, the rest of the story is so stupid, particularly Booster Gold. Compare his portrayal here to that written for him by his creature Dan Jurgens in Action Comics, Booster Shot. It's bleak and not nearly so clever as it thinks it is.

Your Big Day (Half Issue story): The Joker taunts and then kills a random father in order for Tom King to show the shocking fact that no one knew before this issue: The Joker is a crazy killer.

Best Man (Two issue Story): The story opens to see the Joker killing a groom on his wedding. This was necessary in order for Tom King to show the shocking fact that no one knew before this issue: The Joker is a crazy killer. Though that point seems strangely familiar. Batman and the Joker fight as the Joker chatters endlessly tell he knocks Batman out and its up for Catwoman to save the day. She and Joker fight until they're nearly unconscious and then lie on the floor and talk to see which one will try to get up to finish the fight. There were actually some good bits in this story.

The Wedding (Double Issue): It's the wedding of Batman and Catwoman, and its attended with great art (and not so great heart) done by past and present Batman articles of their writng letters to each other. It's actually a very nice issue for the art. However, it leads to one of the most disappointing cop-out endings in comic history after a year of build up. King's ending is not only a kick in the head to fans, ut it has Catwoman acting wildly out of character.

One other thing, I'll add is that this book has so little of Batman in it in speaking roles. We hear nothing from Batman for the first three issues and scant from him in Issues 4 and 5. Issue 6 is a bit more even, but through most of the book, Batman might as well be the guest star. Disappointing overall.



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