Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes, page 59

Book Review: Silk, Vol. 0: The Life and Times of Cindy Moon

Silk, Vol. 0: The Life and Times of Cindy Moon by Robbie Thompson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This tells the story of Cindy Moon's life as Silke in between the big Comic Event of Spiderverse and the big Comic event of Secret Wars as she tries to start a superhero career. Overall, she's a very fun and relatable character with a compelling story in search for her family. She has a special relationship with J Jonah Jameson as the softer side of the crusty newspaper editor is on display.

I do think it's kind of unfortunate that her book was launched only a few months before the literal end of the Marvel universe but even that is played to great advantage as she races to find one member of her family before the end. It's a very emotional and well-written finale even if it was forced by editorial mandate.



View all my reviews

Book Review: Invaders Classic, Volume 4

Invaders Classic - Volume 4 by Roy Thomas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects the final seven Issues of the 1970s Invaders series (Issues 35-41) and the four Issue 1993 Invaders Series.

The 1970s entries have some strong points, particularly the Whizzer and Miss America being drawn into the action as they would later be part of the All Winners Squad. Roy Thomas has a fun time tweaking DC's Golden Age for making Wonder Woman Secretary of the Justice Society as Miss America finds herself secretary of the Liberty Region for a reason she can't understand and then sets off for action. While there's a bit of a bumpy ride through the 1970s series, the fact that it ends with a big battle with the Invaders joining with the Liberty Legion to battle the Super Axis made up of some of the toughest villains they'd faced in the series, it was a fitting finale, even though Thomas left for the final four issues and the series was closed out by Don Glut.

The 1990s mini-series has some good moments, including the return of the Golden Age vision as the Invaders and the Liberty Legion faced a team of fifth columnist Americans known as the Battle Axis. The plot does get a bit convoluted, the art shows all the hallmarks of bad art that were so popular in comics, and while I can understand while Marvel didn't use their predecessor company heroes to play the part of heroes gone bad, I have mixed feelings of altering public domain superheroes from defunct companies that dramatically. And really they didn't give the Battle Axis (except for Spider Queen) much of a motivation for turning evil.

Still, the book is solid read, helped by the reprinting of background material from Invaders #36 explaining Thomas' rationale behind the series along with some important character notes for the 1990s Invaders series.

Overall, this is an okay collection of comic stories that's a cut below prior Invaders collections.



View all my reviews

Book Review: Superman: The Atomic Age Sundays, Volume 1

Superman: The Atomic Age Sundays Volume 1 by Alvin Schwartz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This volume of Superman stories from 1949-53, while written before the Silver Age of Comics, reflect many of the sensibilities and types of stories that would become dominant in Superman's world in the 1950s.

The stories are fantastic fun, with Superman travelling back in time to King Arthur, Clark Kent starring in a film, and Clark Kent being hit by a ray that's supposed to give him superpowers so he has to pretend they gave him superpowers even though he already had them, Lois quits the Planet to become a Private Eye's assistant, and Superman has to save a publicity-prone man from losing his inheritance by appearing in the paper. The stories are all very light and fun.

The only big Superman rogue to appear in this book is Mister Mxyzptlk, a villain perfect for the tone of this book. I will confess that I do miss the occasional touches of seriousness that added a certain earnestness to the Superman comics of the prior era, but there's no deny that these comics are very fun and Wayne Boring's art looks wonderful.

Overall, for those who are fans of the lighter side of Superman, this is a great read.



View all my reviews

Book Review: Starman Omnibus, Volume 2

The Starman Omnibus, Vol. 2 by James Robinson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This Second Volume of Starman stories really finds Jack Knight coming into his own. The book collects Issues 17-29 and Annual #1 of Starman along with three stories from Showcase '95 and '96.

The book has a great amount of balance. The book has some noirish moments and a few edgy stories but at the same time offers up a big helping of nostalgia particularly with flashback stories to Ted Knight, a guest appearance by an aging Wesley Dodds who goes back into action as the Sandman and the book also includes a class Christmas issue.

At the same time, the stories have a very modern edge with well-done art (particularly for the era) as well as some fascinating characters. The Shade continues to be an eminently fascinating anti-hero. They battle some solid villains including a serial killer and an evil demonic poster (although the resolution of that plot was a bit non-sensical.) More importantly, Jack progresses as a character and begins to embrace his heroic side. Overall, a very satisfying second Volume of this series.



View all my reviews

Book Review: Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor, Vol 1: Weapons of Past Destruction

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor, Vol 1: Weapons of Past Destruction by Cavan Scott

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This mini-series features the Doctor, Captain Jack, and Rose together and is set sometime late in Series 1 of the revived series. It features the Doctor dealing with fallout from the Time War.

While there have been a lot of stories done around the Time War (and even a novel and a series of Audio Dramas featuring the War Doctor), Weapons of Past Destruction does manage to break some new ground as it imagines Time War weapons falling into alien hands. It's something the TV series never real explored. The idea that the Daleks and the Time Lords fought an epic eons long war across the universe and that everything was cleaned up by the disappearance of the Time Lords and the destruction of the Daleks isn't believable. This story explores the idea that these weapons are being acquired and that another group of aliens is trying to take the Time Lords' place. It's a great idea to explore and the book does a good job exploring that, though I'm not certain I would have chosen to do this with the Ninth Doctor and this TARDIS crew because they had so little time together.

Still, it's a good story and the art is Fantastic! It manages to recapture the look and the feel of the Ninth Doctor era beautifully while telling a very interesting story.



View all my reviews

Book Review: Showcase Presents Supergirl, Volume 1

Showcase Presents: Supergirl, Vol. 1 by Jerry Siegel

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This book collects the first two and a half years of the print career of Kara Zor-el, the first and best known Supergirl starting in 1959 with Action Comics #252 where she quickly got her own back-up feature.

In the book, Superman discovers, after more than two decades in comics thinking he was the last survivor of Krypton (at least who wasn't shrunk by Brainiac), that another member of his species survived-his cousin Kara Zor-El, and he responded how any caring big-hearted hero would by thrusting his cousin into an orphanage where she would hide her powers and ensure that she lived a life of loneliness and isolation for fear that she might be adopted. And she must remain in this state so that Superman can use her as his secret weapon.

Oftentimes, in order to enjoy older comics, you have to take off modern blinders and enjoy the books for what they are and I've been able to do that with multiple books but not this one. Because Superman's treatment of Supergirl at this point in her career is the most unSupermanlike thing he does in the Silver Age. Stories often end with Supergirl sad or upset and almost always it's directly or indirectly caused by Superman making her hide in silence.

And because of being unable to reveal herself, Supergirl gets to do very little actual crimefighting, mostly swooping in to stop a natural disaster secretly or travelling somewhere where she can actually be seen (either in time or on another planet.) I think that probably the editors got feedback from kids wondering why Superman was being so mean to Supergirl because there was actually an issue that showed Superman was rooting for her and planned to give her her own fleet of Super robots. You would have never known Superman was rooting for her reading the book before that point as he came off as very mean. We're also treated to a few stories that seek to redo Superboy/Superman stories with Supergirl including her getting a merman boyfriend and other such rip offs.

That's not to say every story is bad. The book not only features Supergirl in Action comics but also some of her guest appearances and the ones in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen were actually fairly good. We also do get to meet Streaky Supercat. Supergirl's Cat who sometimes has superpowers and then loses them until they randomly return. Also, in the initial book, in her orphan identity as Linda Lee, Supergirl wore pigtails but by the end of the book, had a new hairdo that was actually voted on by fans and you can actually see the original ad.

The book does have one really good storyline that a five part story over sixty pages which was very unusual for 1961, and for the Supergirl strip. In it, Superman has finally decided to reveal her to the world, but then she loses her superpowers because of an evil scheme of a female Kryptonian scientist who figures out how to escape from the bottled city of Kandor. She manages to replace Supergirl and pretend to be repowered and hatches an evil scheme to use Luthor to kill Superman and then kill Luthor in order to avoid detection. It's an amazingly good plot for 1961 DC Comics.

It also managed to change the status quo for Supergirl as she finally can stop avoiding adoption. The whole plot does get resolved with a bit of a deus ex machina by a well known Superman guest star popping out of nowhere, still it's a very good story. You just have to go through a lot of so so material to get to it at the back of the book.



View all my reviews

Book Review: Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor, Vol. 2: Serve You

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor, Vol. 2: Serve You by Al Ewing

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The second volume of Eleventh Doctor Comics collects Issues 6-10 of the series as the Doctor has a very full TARDIS with Alice, Jones, and ARC

It begins with a lovely mind-being story in which the story goes backwards. It's a cute and a bit timey wimey in Issue 6.

Issues 7 and 8 is a high point of the series as were plunged to a long-standing war between alien races with a high concepts and some very deep moments for Alice.

Issues 9 and 10 sees the Doctor, Alice, Jones, and ARC having a showdown with ServeYou, Inc. which has been in the background since the first book. The book isn't exactly bad and we do get some clues as to how Jones developed some of the look that took him from a bland musician to a pop legend, but much of the villains' plan is a bit nonsensical.

Still, I found the story fairly enjoyable because, to a great extent, Alice is such a superb companion.



View all my reviews

Book Review: All Star Archives, Volume 5

All Star Comics Archives, Vol. 5 by Gardner F. Fox

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects Issues 19-23 of All Star Comics and features five issues with the Justice Society of America. Issues 19 and 20 are fairly standard but well-done fare as the JSA goes after a series of crimes to music and another where a sinister villain seems to be to blame and he's haunted the man who asks for their help.

After the JSA got better by getting shorter. War Time shortages required that the roster be trimmed from eight to six and the result seems to be better more focused stories, starting with Issue 21's, "The Man Who Relived His Life," it's a touching fantasy about tho he JSA going back in time to help fix the mistakes of an old man who is dying as a result of his help to finding a cure for a disease after a life of selfishness. It's a beautiful and thoughtful tale.

Issue 22 finds them going further through time and place to fight prejudice with a story that features the sort of positive message of tolerance and understanding that was often proclaimed during the war. The story is a noble attempt to build understanding. Issue 23 features the introduction of Psycho-Pirate, a villain who preys on the team's emotion. He would become a long-standing character in the DC universe. This is a chance to see him in his first story, though he's clearly not at his best.

The text stories included in the book are all Hop Harragan tales featuring that great flying ace and like the rest of the book the quality shows a marked improvement y bad about the book over previous volumes. Of course, the one thing that's really bad about is that Wonder Woman is kept out of action as the Secretary while Johnny Thunder at the Golden Age are key operatives.

Still beyond that, this is an enjoyable fifth volume.



View all my reviews

Book Review: Doctor Who, The Four Doctors

Doctor Who: Four Doctors by Paul Cornell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Four Doctors is an engaging story bringing the 10-12th Doctors together in an epic adventure to discover the truth behind a picture showing the three together despite Clara's attempts to manipulate the timeline to avoid it.

Overall, it's a fantastic time travel adventure that also looks at how the Doctor's lives (and by extension our own) change on the basis of the choices that we make and makes use of the Voord (who have been surprisingly popular in spin-off media over the last couple of years). Cornell gets all the characters just right and the art work is gorgeous. If I had one complaint about the book, it's that for a book called, "The Four Doctors," It' s really hard to figure out how the number tallies. Is the fourth Doctor, the War Doctor who is a catalyst for some of these events, an alternative reality Doctor, or the Ninth Doctor who makes a cameo in the final issue.

Either way, this is a still a solid book, worth a read for fans of the new series.



View all my reviews

Book Review: The Tick: Color Series 1

The Tick: Color Series 1 by Gabe Crate

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The Tick was originally published as an exclusively black and white publication. This book collects the first ten Color issues and I have mixed feelings on it.

Gabe Crate's, "The Tick's Incredible Internet Comic #1" is a delight. It's classic Tick stuff as Arthur deals with a brother-in-law whose a supervillain while the Tick goes on patrol alone and then buys a gift from a supervillain in the back-up story.

However, Mark Silva's run on, "The Tick Color #1-6" are probably the least fun material I've read. I've thought about the reason for some time and I've come up with this. Silva focuses the bulk of the story on the Tick's superhero team. The problem with that is that unlike the Tick and Arthur, the superhero team is a collection of one-note jokes (one of them's a drunk, one of them's crazy, one is as as fast as ten very fast men, etc.) and it can be okay to have them feature in an issue when they dominate an entire series, it just really sucks the life out of it. It's not all bad, but it's again very weak.

"The Tick's Big Halloween Special #1 2001" by Clay and Susan Griffith's is a little too weird for my tastes but okay.

"The Tick's Big Red and Green Christmas Spectacle #1 2001" by the Griffiths is really the best story in the book as the Tick teams up with a retired movie cowboy to save Christmas from an evil tycoon who bought all the presents. It's a hilarious tale that saved this book from being two stars.

"Introducing the Tick #1" by Silva is a somewhat trying comic book and is it presents a very dry retelling of all the Tick stories that have happened until now. As I've read all the stories referenced, it's somewhat depressing to read this and the attempts at humor as the originals were so much more lively and interesting.

So, overall, I'm not terribly impressed with the Tick and Color, but it has less to do with the color and more with Mark Silva's writing.



View all my reviews