Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes, page 54

Book Review: Aquaman, Volume 1: The Drowning

Aquaman, Volume 1: The Drowning by Dan Abnett

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I found this Aquaman book to be disappointing, though it wasn’t without its good points. The relationship between Aquaman and Mera was fun. The art was decent and there were some epic battles. When they took on the whole Army in Issues four and five, there are some epic moments.

On the other hand, some characters just act really inexplicably and the story just didn’t engage me. More than that, it was the book’s whininess. Aquaman is the Rodney Dangerfield of Superheroes. He gets no respect and that’s not right because he has some really amazing powers. However, the book hammers the point home and worse than that and harps on it. It tells us about how Aquaman isn’t respected. This is a comic book, the show don’t tell rule is especially applicable. Don’t tell us how awesome and noble Aquaman is and how he gets no respect in return, show us. And then don’t tell us how to feel about it, trust us to get what you’re saying.

Public perception and public image isn’t only something the book obsesses with, it’s something the heroes seem to go on about. In some ways, this makes sense because part of the boo is about efforts at diplomacy and it’s easier to be at peace if the people of America like and respect Aquaman, but sometimes it comes off petty and self-obsessed and petty. When Mera complains to Superman about He, Batman, and Wonder Woman being viewed better than Aquaman, it’s about the limit.

Superman’s appearance in Issue 6 is my last big complaint. Superman was acting out of character, the battle was absurd, and the book doesn’t even seem to acknowledge the events around Rebirth. This Superman is the Post-Crisis Superman who returned from his Universe and replaced the New 52 Superman and doesn’t know this Aquaman at all which makes the events of that issue not make sense.

This isn’t the worst graphic novel I’ve read, but there were too many problems for me to enjoy it.




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Book Review: Crisis On Infinite Earths 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

Crisis On Infinite Earths 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition by Marv Wolfman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Crisis on Infinite Earths is the ultimate big comic book crossover book. It brings together the entire history of the DC Universe in the same 12 issue Maxi-series. The story is massive but it's not impenetrable. The more you know of the DC Universe as it existed pre-Crisis, the easier the story was to follow.

The art by George Perez is epic and breathtaking perfectly suited to the task of this major event. While, there are some pages that just seem full of moving from one character to another, it handles it's major cast including the Flash, Superman, and Supergirl, as well as the Harbinger, Monitor, and others very well. There are several pages that actually brought tears to my eyes.

The book manages to chart a new course for the DC Universe while being respectful to what's come before. The book was planned out over the course of several years, which allowed it to have a good flow and an understanding of DC Continuity. The story is creative and epic, as well as written with a lot of love and care.

I held off for a long time for reading this volume because the worst thing to come out of Crisis and that is the slew of gigantic crossover events. Yet, reading the book, I see that what has made comic books that tried to imitate Crisis so often be disappointing is that they're, in many ways, the opposite of Crisis: disrespectful to the past and to the characters being written about, unoriginal, boring, and with poor art work. To top it all off, most serve to actually make continuity more convoluted rather than less.

Crisis on Infinite Earth works as a classic and probably the biggest comic book story to be a true classic. It's the one giant companywide crossover that actually worked even while the imitators failed miserably. This book is a must-read for any serious Superhero fan.



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Book Review: Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor, Volume 2: Doctormania

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor, Volume 2: Doctormania by Cavan Scott

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After the ninth Doctor mini-series, he got his own on-going series, and this book collects issues 1-5 of the new series plus the Free Comic Book Day short.

Hacked-The Doctor, Jack, and Rose encounter the galaxy's most wanted geo-hacker, a wanted criminal who "hacks" planets and terraforms them to fit his fancies. This was a great concept but feels a tad overcrowded in a 6-page story. I'd love to have seen this expanded. The end of the comic plays off of Jack's vanity.

"Doctormania,"-In the titular story, the TARDIS crew arrive on a planet where the Doctor is a popular hero who has franchised and has no problem using violence. We find out what's behind it by the end of the first issue. I kind of wish they'd dragged out as it feels too soon. However, it does become a bit of a journey with a few nice twists and Rose really saves the day.

Finally, we have "The Transformed," which has Mickey placing a call for the Tenth Doctor and the Ninth Doctor showing up instead with Rose and Jack in tow, leading to some timey wimey antics as Mickey has to avoid Jack and Rose from seeing him. He's called the Doctor in because something is giving San Franciscans superpowers and then transforming them into monsters. This one has some good stuff. There's a solid timey wimey element of trying to keep everyone apart and this is further complicated because Mickey's wife is present and she's the Doctor's future companion (aka Martha Jones) and he shouldn't meet her but they have a clever way around that. One big annoyance is that they have America using the word "tram" instead of "street car," which is what they would say. Beyond that, this book is a solid story that once again gives Rose a big chance to save the day.

Overall, these stories are okay. Jack is fine, and the Ninth Doctor has some nice lines, but the book's best moments do tend to come from Rose. The story is much more continuity laden than most other Titan releases, but that's understandable given that it's just hard to find those plausible gaps when the Doctor could have traveled with someone else. The art and the great characters make this book a good read for fans of the ninth Doctor.



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Book Review: "Batman, Vol. 1: I Am Gotham

Batman, Vol. 1: I Am Gotham by Tom King

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I am Gotham collects that Batman: Rebirth story and six part storyline where two new heroes with powers come to town to save Gotham.

Batman is superbly written. He's tough, mysterious, but also has compassion and is self-sacrificing. He's also aware that the city could use a superpowered hero as there are some disasters he would only be able to stop once. He also operates as a bit of symbol of hope in a way I haven't seen before. But he looks into their past and finds the surprising truth about them and why they chose to fight crime.

Gotham and Gotham Girl are idealistic and powerful beings wanting to save Gotham even at a big personal price to themselves and it turns out they were inspired by Batman. What happens to them is tragic, but it gives the story a bit of noirish feeling to it, and it does keep me interested enough, I'd be curious to read the second volume.



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Book Review: Showcase Presents Elongated Man

Showcase Presents: The Elongated Man by John Broome

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects the silver age adventures of Ralph Dibny's Elongated Man, a superhero with stretching powers. He's the lesser known of the three stretching superheroes (Plastic Man and Marvel's Mister Fantastic being the others.) There are many people who dump on large Black and White collections like Showcase Presents and Marvel Essential for not being color but this book is an example of why those collections are a good idea for many characters. No one is going to give the Elongated Man a full color reprinting, but this book is economical enough to allow readers a chance experience a forgotten treasure. That, plus the Line Work is pretty good particularly in the final portion of the book.

Dibny first appeared in the Flash Comics in Flash #112 in 1960 with Barry becoming suspicious of Elongated Man because Dibny caught criminals before the Flash did. Was Dibny actually behind the crimes? No, he was just a much better detective. From that beginning, Elongated Man made a number of guest appearances in the Flash over the next three years, fighting supervillains like Captain Cold, Pied Piper, and Captain Boomerang. During that time, he made a fortune in entertainment, got married, and became one of the few superheroes to forgo a secret identity.

In 1964, he got his own back-up feature in Detective Comics with Flash and Kid Flash waving and bidding him a fond farewell from a cover of the Flash Comics on the first page. This collection covers appearances from Detective Comics #327-371. The back up features started as 10-page stories though later ones were 8 or 9. The only exception to this is that two issues saw Elongated Man and Batman teaming up for a longer book-length story of 20+ pages. The Atom, the Green Lantern, and Zatana also stop by guest appearances.

However, the majority of the stories are just Ralph and his wife Sue travelling the world solving mysteries and that's really the book's greatest charm. While the big team ups are fun, the light romance element of Ralph and Sue relating to one another are just fun to read. Others have compared it to Nick and Nora Charles and I can't say that's a bad comparison. The cases have as much cleverness as you can pack into 8-10 page comic book story, although a few would have benefited from additional length.

While you can find a story or two that doesn't work, this book is actually an enjoyable tale. Ralph an d Sue are not your typical Silver Age characters and that's part of their charm. So if you're looking for a lighthearted comic with a touch of romance and mystery, this is a great read.



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Book Review: Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow's Avengers, Vol. 1

Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow's Avengers, Vol. 1 by Steve Gerber

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book collects the early appearances of the original Guardians of the Galaxy Team that feature Major Vance Astro from Earth, Charlie-27 from Jupiter, Yondu from Centauri IV and Martinex, the Crystal Man from Pluto. Later Starhawk and Nikki, a Mercurian Girl were added later. The book features the Guardian's pilot story in 1969's Marvel Superheroes #18, their Guest Appearance with the Thing and Captain America in Marvel Two-in-One #4 and 5 and with the Defenders in Giant Sized Defenders #5 and Issues 26-29 before they took over Marvel Presents for Issues #3-12.

The stories are okay. The pilot issue by Arnold Drake introduces but doesn't give them a lot of definition. Writer Steve Gerber's obsession with them, even to the point of bringing modern Marvel Characters to the future in these crossover stories explains why the Guardians survived, even though the actual stars really dominated the stories. I liked the idea in Marvel Two-in-One #5 that Captain America's legend inspires people fighting for freedom even a millennia later and the Guardians' big focus is on freeing the Earth which both the Defenders and Captain America and the Thing gave them a hand towards.

In Marvel Presents #3, this plot was dispense summarily so that our heroes could enjoy the freedom of the Stars with Starhawk joining the series and Nikki coming along to be the "token woman" to quote an interview with Gerber published in the back of this volume. Such brilliant character development led to some flat characters. He worked in one dimension to each character, with Vance he chose to make him unbalanced. A dubious creative choice given that as someone originally from the 20th Century was actually the character readers could relate to. Gerber focused on social commentary including the idea that the apocalypse was brought about in the 1980s as a result of not banning aerosol spray cans.

However, as often happened at Marvel in the 1970s, Gerber became over-tasked as evidenced by Issue 8 which mostly reprints a Silver Surfer story with a half hearted Guardians frame around it. Gerber started Part One of the origin of Starhawk but ended up handing the storyline off halfway completed to Roger Stern without actually knowing how it ends. Stern actually does a pretty good job with the hand he was dealt and finishes the series off with style.

This is a very choppy and uneven series of comics. This answers the question of the origins of the original Guardians of the Galaxy Team and provides some average comics (through Issue 8) and then the book gets a bit better.



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Book Review: DC Universe: Rebirth 2016, #1

DC Universe: Rebirth #1 by Geoff Johns

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Rebirth marks a bold new direction for the DC Universe and a bit of a fix on the last big attempt to change the DC Universe. The story has Wally West, the post-Crisis Flash for two decades and one of the most popular comic characters of all-time running through the Speed Force, trying to escape the Speed Force and reclaim his place in the World and find one person who remembers him.

It's a four chapter story with an epilogue. The second chapter was probably the least interesting in the book. The emotional journey of Wally dealing with the aftermath of the new 52 that left a DC Universe that lacked the heart people had come to expect from their comics is emotional as is Wally's journey. The end of Chapter 4 is powerful and satisfying, and that leads to the Epilogue and it's absolutely stunning reveal.

This book is a fix for Flashpoint and the New 52. However, Goeff Johns deserves credit for making it something more than that. It's an emotional journey and a ride through the DC Universe.



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Book Review: Shadow Hero

The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Shadow Hero is based on the golden age Superhero, "The Green Turtle." The creator of that hero Chu Hing wanted to make the Green Turtle a Chinese superhero but received pushback from the company so instead he drew the character in ways that always obscured his face. The character lasted only five stories and wasn't heard from for 70 years until this book.

Writer Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew present the untold origin story of the Green Turtle and it's quite amazing. The Green Turtle is Hank, the son of two Chinese immigrants with a mother who is a it aloof from him and his dad since she only married his dad because her parents told her to. One day, Hank's mom is rescued by a golden age superhero and gets the idea that she wants her son to be a superhero to and she sets out to make it happen in hilarious ways, though his true super powers only come after tragedy strikes.

This book is truly funny and heartwarming. There's an undertone of dealing of the racism of the 1930s and 40s in regards to Chinese Americans, but that never causes it to become a heavy self-conscious book. The creative team clearly understands this superhero story and it should be fun and this book is an absolute delight and incredibly accessible to all readers.

At the same time, our hero goes through a believable emotional journey including a major tragedy hitting him hard and making him become a real hero as opposed to more of the joke he is in the first few issues. He faces tough moral choices about what type of hero he'll be.

I also have to credit Yang for drawing on minor clues from the original stories (one is actually included in this book) to help create the world. Including the mystical turtle that gives the Green Turtle his one power as well as some (occasionally sarcastic advice.) It's definitely idea that fits well within the Golden Age of superheroes.

The six issue mini-series is nearly perfect. It's focused, fun, and occasionally poignant. If I had one complaint about the trade, it would be the original Green Turtle story. It would have been nice had there been some restoration and clean up work done on it. As it is, it looks like someone printed up a copy from the Digital Comic Museum and slapped it in a book. To be fair, this book wasn't printed by Marvel or DC where such a restoration is expected, but by a much smaller press that may not have been able to afford the process. Still, this is a great superhero book for kids 10 and up.



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Book Review: Daredevil: Back In Black Vol. 1: Chinatown

Daredevil: Back In Black Vol. 1: Chinatown (Daredevil by Charles Soule

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book collects the first five issues of Charles Soule's run on Daredevil. It follows up from the Mark Waid series but moves Daredevil across the country from San Francisco back to New York and now everyone in the world has forgotten that Murdoch is Daredevil because he made them forget except for Foggie.

It's annoying that this isn't explained and instead Soule throws in something that happens off-panel which he may or may not ever show. Clearly this story was trying to align more critically acclaimed Daredevil TV show, sut this is a lazy way to get there. I'm also disappointed as someone who was very skeptical of the Matt and Kirsten relationship that it gets summarily dumped with only one mention of her in the whole book.

The art work is also a problem. It's unappealing. The whole thing is done with this Sepia shading which makes everything look kind of faded and washed out. I read this on my Kindle and actually went and checked my settings. It had such an unpleasant look. I could see this in places to establishment the atmosphere. Done throughout the book, it makes the whole thing seem dull and hazy. I actually do like the look of Daredevil's black costume, but I don't think the art really allows people to really see and enjoy it because the world around it lacks color. It doesn't have to be all bright and cheerful. Certainly, Chris Samnee's art doen't, but putting a Sepia shading on everything hurts that distinctness.

At the same time, I do think Daredevil's new protege Blindspot works and is well-realized. The villain, a man with Ten Fingers on both hands named Ten Fingers who planned to save the world through extra fingers through his religious cult. It's not a bad story, but it does lack a sense of fun and soul, which hopefully Soule will announce later on. As it it, this is only an okay story.



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Book Review: Superman: Lois and Clark

Superman: Lois and Clark by Dan Jurgens

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is a book that's really about the characters. Lois, Clark, and Little Jonathan are the last survivors of their universe after the events of Convergence. Now, they are the New 52 Earth where there's another Superman and another Lois Lane, both younger than them. What do they do?
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They move on and find a way to help on their New Earth. Clark still saves people, though anonymously and in a special black costume while Lois adopts the name of Author X and sets out to right wrongs and expose evil as a true crime writer. The idea of Superman misplaced into a difficult circumstance has been done in comics, and several written of an eternally mopey or petty Man of Steel, yet I think Jurgens really captures both Lois and Clark as people who have gifts to help people and they will find a way to do that, sooner or later, no matter what circumstance their put into. They move on, and get back up. Clark doesn't try to get in the other Superman's way or even make himself known. He doesn't want to interfere with how that Superman acts and develops. It's a picture of simple grace and humility that's just so appealing.

Beyond this simple virtue, Lois, Clark, and Jonathan make this wonderfully cute family. There's a lot of love and care in the family and it just radiates off the page.

There's not much use writing about the plots. Lois gets into danger with Intergang and Clark faces some epic villains. Neither issue comes to a major final resolution. In fact, the book leaves things open for further expansion. That's fine because this is really a character based book and I really loved these three characters and how Jurgens writes them. I got into the book hungry for more of them, and the stories only served to whet my appetite in that regards. This is one of my absolute favorite books made in 2016.



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