Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes, page 83

Book Review: Captain America Man Out of Time

Captain America: Man Out of Time by Mark Waid

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Former Captain America writer Mark Waid retells the story of Captain America freezing in time, only more in line with the movies, he imagines Cap awakening in the 21st Century rather than the 1960s.

The book has some good stuff in it to be sure. Cap would have a fair amount of serious culture shock and Waid captures that in a way that was better than the movies.

Waid made the decision to make this book a character piece and have nearly all of the action and supervillain fighting occurring off panel. The biggest villain to play any role is Kang the Conqueror.

Issue 1 is essentially a very long conversation between Captain America and Bucky about what they'll do after the war. It's a somewhat tedious issue and it leads into Issue 2 where Captain America is discovered in the late 1990s and early 21st century.

I should add that the artist preserved one of the silliest inconsistencies in Avengers #4 where Cap originally joined the Silver Age (also included in this volume.) In Avengers #4, in the scene in which Bucky dies and Cap plunges into the Ocean they're dressed in Army Khakis. However, Captain America wakes up in his uniform with his shield. Kirby got away with it because there was about a page flashback of Cap and Bucky. It doesn't work out as well in this one since he spends an entire issue in Khakis so the fact that we next see him as Captain America looks really inconsistent.

Issue 2 focuses on the culture shock at the future and Waid does his best work here though at times this goes over the top where Captain America almost seems Tick-like. It is however realistic to imagine him somewhat awestruck and thrown off balance.

The rest of the book is somewhat downhill. In Issue 3, he's ready to go home using time travel and pledges to save Bucky and live as a hobo as not to interfere with space time. Tony Stark gives a great speech on how the 21st Century is great and how much better things are than in the 1940s which is good because President Obama says Cap can't travel in time due to the uknown risk.

In Issue 4, we get (to quote Green Arrow from Kingdom Come), the Democratic response to Tony Stark's optomism from dying retired general Jacob Simon ( a play on Cap creators Jack Kirby and Joe Simon) who complains that Martin Luther King was shot and no pitchers actually bat for themselves anymore. I'm not certain which angered the general more or why he hasn't heard of the National League in which pitchers do bat for themselves.

I won't write too much about the rest other than to say, it was most underwhelming and unsatisfying. Captain America: Man Out of Time delves into the issue of which is better: now or the 1940s and how Cap views whether the world has gotten better and doesn't really answer the question in a satisfactory way. It's an angst driven story without enough fuel to lift off and in many ways it betrays the Captain America character.

Sure, I could see Captain America feeling homesick for the 1940s but being willing to use time travel to re-insert himself into the timeline and having to be told not to is a stretch. Cap is often whiny and brooding in this book which is just not the Cap we know.

To be fair, those things were a small part of Cap's character into the Silver Age but he would throw himself into helping others and fighting evil. By de-emphasizing action, Waid gave us a far more one dimensional portrayal.

And the idea of whether things were better in the 1940s or worse has little to do with who Captain America is. The point of Captain America has never been that things were better in the 1940s. Rather, Cap embodied the best of that generation and a part of that era that we lost. That gets lost in the debate that's set up in this story.

This is the first Mark Waid story I've read where the art is the best part of the book. Overall, disappointing.



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Book Review: Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Cosmic Adventures

Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Cosmic Adventures by Stan Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book presents nearly 500 pages of Spidey Comics from 1989-90, Collecting Amazing Spider-man 326-333 and Annual #24, Spectacular Spider-man 158-160 and Annual #10, and Web of Spider-man 59-61 and Annual #6.

The big event of this comic ties into the much larger Acts of Vengeance story arc. Several supervillains team together, realizing that they've been losing to the same people for 25-30 years. They come up with the idea of trading and going after each other's enemies, thinking that the heroes will not know how to react. (Apparently, it never occurs to them that they will also not really be able to respond to the heroes techniques.) Because Spidey at that point had three magazines a month, that met he'd be hit with three times the rivals.

But after serving the first attack of Graviton, Spidey has an accident that ramps up his powers and makes all attacks on him go very badly for the villain with one villain even getting accidentally killed in the process.

I have to admit that there was something wonderfully pleasing about Spidey knocking around the likes of Magneto and the Hulk like they were rag dolls. Seriously, the first nine issues in this book, are Spidey kicking one threat after another as he has power on par with the Silver Surfer.

We don't learn until the last issue the real reason for the power and longtime readers had to be scared that this was another alien costume, and in a way it was, but if this was like the symbiote, it was a good force that bestowed the uni-power when it was needed. The whole thing has a pretty satisfying ending.

Probably my chief complaint with this book is that the true core of the Cosmic Power ends on page 210, really, AS #329-333 have nothing to do with the Cosmic Powers story and the Annuals are very vaguely related.

AS #329 and 330 is a somewhat violent (but not overly so by today's standards) crossover with the Punisher battling drug cartels and a US government plot to smuggle drugs. The story has some serious moments but ends with one of the goofiest concepts in comics ("Cocaine Standard" 'nuff said). Issues #331-333 is solid story of Eddie Brock/Venom escaping prison and it's interesting in its own right.

There's a three part story spread across all three annuals in which Spider-man is shrinking. At first in the Amazing Spider-man Annual, it looks like it's because of inhaling Ant Man's shrinking gas but it's not that at all as we find out in the other two annuals. The story is decent enough, though Marvel's decision to make people buy all three annuals back in 1990 was somewhat chintzy, though defensible since the story runs 70 pages. For 70 pages, it was good but not great.

However, Marvel actually reprinted everything in the annuals which is a bit of a mixed bag for readers. On one hand, you get the full Annuals with all the extras. On the other, it breaks up the "Spidey's Totally Tiny Adventure Story" and you get a very mixed bag of extras. My thoughts:

"The Mercy Bomb"-A story told in part by Spider-man co-creator Steve Ditko. Seemed to have an anti-war message but didn't tie into anything and was just blah. Grade: D

"A Time to Choose/The Choice":Whatever can be said for spreading the 70 page Spider-man story across three annuals. There was really no reason to break this story of a reformed Sandman facing a tough choice when he's offered a chance to go back to the old life of crime by the Trapster and the Wizard. It's an okay story but seems a little forced. Grade: C+

"Pete and MJ's New Pad"-After the loss of their condo to an unethical real estate developer, Pete and MJ moved into a new apartment. This special feature took a look at the apartment revealing that it's an average apartment with nothing interesting in it. Grade: D

"Amazing Fantasy"- A not so Amazing dream sequence filler. Grade: F

"Pale Reflection"- Former Spider-man villain Hobie Brown goes on a job and learns that he can get beat up. Really? Grade: D-

"What I Did on My Summer Vacation"-A ten page story featuring juvenile delinquent turned crimefighter Rocket Racer, who'd appear in Spider-man: TAS. An okay but not great story. Grade: B

"Sales Day for a Shootout:" Aunt May helps the Punisher kill terrorists. Actually surprised at how positively the Punisher was portrayed in this. Grade: B+

"Eleven Angry Men and One Angry Woman:" This take on Twelve Angry men as Mary Jane as the only hold out on a jury ready to acquit a defendant who claims Spider-man was a thief. There's some humor and a little bit of poignancy. Of course, the wife of Spider-man shouldn't be on this jury but it was a fun story. Grade: A-

"Child Star"-One of the weirder stories in here involves a two year old getting the unipower that Spidey had because a couple summoned demons to help play the stock market. Grade: D

The book ends with material from the first Trade Paperback printing of the main 9 issue Cosmic story which means that you get to find out the background of the book after it's over.

In addition, there's a lot of ongoing plots in this book that were dropped into the middle of because of comic continuity. Joe Robinson is in jail and we really don't know why. Aunt May's friend Nathan is dying but we don't know when she met him or how deep their friendship is. The Black Cat begins to get, well catty, about Peter having married Mary Jane and threatens to break Flash Thompson's (now Peter's best friend) heart out of spite. However, this is just the nature of jumping into an ongoing comic book story.

That said, with all the things I've mentioned, I can't bring myself to rate this less than 4 stars. The core material is awesome and so are most of the actual Spidey stories outside of it, despite the uneven nature of the non-Spidey stories. What's particularly pleasing is seeing the Parker-Watson marriage for fans of that relationship that was abandoned with One More Day. It's not a perfect marriage, but it's clear that it's a positive in Peter's life and it's written way that's not glamorized but is appealing.

If you can take the book's hiccups, this is a good book for teenagers and adults.



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Powerhouse Hard Pressed Review Copy Giveaway

You can download a free digital review copy of Powerhouse: Hard Pressed through Story Cartel. If you write a review, you can be entered in Story Cartel's big drawing for 47 $10 gift gift cards and 5 different Kindles.

The Best Superhero Series of All Time #6: Justice League

Justice League was the logical next step forward in the DC Universe after the success of Batman and Superman.

It begins seven members of the Justice League taking on various threats to Earth as well as other planets. Here I do focus on the first two seasons and 52 episodes rather than the later Justice League Unlimited which still had some good points but wasn't quite the same.

The strength of Justice League was that were seven heroes and usually only four or five would take part in the action though in big stories like, "Starcrossed," you'd get the entire league. The League was made of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, the Green Lantern (John Stewart), Martian Manhunter, and Hawkgirl.

The Justice League stories tended to be much larger. There was only one one shot episode of the entire 52 episode run with three three parters and twenty-one two parters.

Justice League tended to explore great concepts with a comic book touch. Consider, "Legends" where league members are sucked into an alternate universe where the comic book heroes Green Lantern read as a child actually exist. Also, another great one was "Injustice for All" which had Lex Luthor leading the injustice society. Then there's the three part, "The Savage Time" story line which found the league going back to World War 2 and encountering classic DC WW2 heroes like Sergeant Rock and the Blackhawks.

The series had weaknesses to be sure. Season 1 of Justice League often had Superman too weak. It also suffered from same ailment of amping up Batman's awesomeness beyond any reason such as in, "Fury" where a virus that effects all the men affects Batman last despite all logic suggesting Superman should have held out far longer.

But still, it's easy to forgive these minor issues. In stories like "Star Crossed," Justice League was simply amazing. The fact is Justice League brought a dazzling array of heroes to the small screen and then gave them villains and stories that were truly worthy of them. For this reason, Justice League easily belongs on this list.

Book Review: Tales of Bizarro World

Superman: Tales of the Bizarro World by Jerry Siegel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Bizarro World was a Silver Age idea that follows the departure of Bizarro #1 and Bizarro Lois #1 to Bizarro World, a place where everyone is a Bizarro. These stories appeared in Adventures #285-299 in 1961 and '62.

Each issue began with the simple Bizarre code, the prime rule of which is, "Us Do Opposite of All Earthly things." and so we're interested to the ideas of the Bizarro World in a series of one panel teasers when we're told that on Bizarro World lawyers try to get their clients convicted, dogs eat steak and feed the people table scraps, go to the beach in Winter, and the price of comics is going down (now, there's a bizarro world). We're then interested to the main story which includes a bizarre main plot such as Bizarro trying to get help for Bizarro Jr. so he can fail in school or Bizarro working to prove how irrational is so he doesn't get sent back to the Bizarro World insane asylum.

The book is entertaining, with a great intro by David Mandel, a Seinfeld Writer from an era where Bizarro became a major theme of a Season 8 episode. The book was fun even though it used different twists on the same joke. This is the type of book if you can just abandon logic and reason to just bask in the madness. It should go without saying that the Tales of Bizarro World lack any consistency with many of the opposites in one book contradicting opposites in another and a few repeats. And in retrospect, Siegel may have produced better quality stories if he had written this as an occasional feature over five years, but this always an idea that would only last a limited time and who knows if it could have made it past the early days of the Silver Age. And the last story may have been one of the best as Bizarro and Bizarro Jr. come to Metropolis in Superman's absence and joint he Police Force.

There was no story in the Silver Age as silly as Bizarro and given what went on in the Silver Age that says a lot. My copy is a keeper and I plan to reread it any day I just want to enjoy something that's totally insane.



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Book Review: American Dream Beyond Courage

American Dream: Beyond Courage by Tom DeFalco

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This volume collects the five issue American Dream series from the MC2 universe and was the third limited edition series launched following the renewal of Spider-girl.

In the story, non-Super Powered Avenger American Dream (i.e. Shannon Carter) stumbling into a host of bad guys most notably Sillikong, a crystal creature in what's supposed to be a solo story. While she's ordered off the case by S.H.I.E.L.D. she stumbled back into it as she's helping a woman find her illegal alien boyfriend.

The action scenes are solid, if the banter's not always great, and I like the character bits. Her story of being inspired by Captain America to go from being seriously injured in a car wreck to being Captain America's successor is downright inspiring. The story isn't bad, but it's not very good either.

At times, it struggles from a lack of focus.`There are things that work in Spider-girl but don't work in a limited series like this. Everything has to be developed in five issues and much of it isn't. There's Shannon's life out of uniform or lack thereof which is really dealt with in a way that's just not satisfactory, nor was her relationship with Thunderstrike. On top of this, DeFalco introduces the hot button topic of immigration which is dealt with in a very superficial and silly way. Some illegals being granted citizenship for cooperation with law enforcement, which shows how little DeFalco understood how things worked or how much he thought he could get away with. I'm not saying politics are always well-handled in comics, but here the handling seems especially superficial.

The villain would be okay once again for a Spider-girl comic or for American Dream if she had a long series. In the limited series, it's just weak. Considering that the previous Avengers Next and Fantastic Five stories had Loki's daughter as their villains, both seeking to take over the world. American Dream gets a one shot villain like Sillikong who would never be seen again. Red Queen was a secondary villain and could have been a great main villain had DeFalco gone that route.

While the book's back cover has a picture that suggests American Dream was branded a traitor, nothing so dramatic happened. She had a warrant issued for her arrest and resigned the Avengers to keep them out of it, but what was mostly going on was Maria Hill acting like an idiot, a role she played in the second Amazing Spider-girl volume. Another pet peeve is that the Avengers took such an active part in this book which almost made it another Avengers Next story.

The result here is mediocre. The final result is better than Avengers Next: Rebirth but worse than Fantastic Five: The Final Doom. If I rated on the decimal system I'd say 2.7 stars. There are some good bits, but nothing great. It could have been better, but once again De Falco failed to create an MC2 series that could last beside Spider-girl, and this would be his last chance, as the rest of the MC2 stories would be Spider-girl stories. And it's a shame because American Dream deserved better.



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Book Review: Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Venus - volume 1

Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Venus, Vol. 1 by Stan Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The late 1940s and early 50s marked a decline of the superhero and allowed for the emergence of all sorts of series ranging from crime to western and romance.

This book collects, the first nine issues of one of the most unusual series: Venus. The book also includes Venus stories from Lana #4 and Marvel Mystery Comics #91. The plot of the book is that Venus leaves Mount Olympus due to boredom and a hunger for love. She is almost immediately hired as editor of Beauty Magazine by its publisher Whitney Hammond, who Venus falls madly in love with.

In this collection, Venus from Romantic Comedy to Romantic Fantasy in a way that's charming, and even more so if you can ignore all the inconsistency in story as Venus changes its mind about issues ranging from who exactly runs Mount Olympus to what Venus' powers are on Earth. In the latter fantasy stories, rules are made up for the convenience of the plot.

Still, all can be forgiven because the character of Venus is quite charming and shows good character in her willingness to help others and risk her own happiness to save others including all mankind. The love advice is all true and has classic warnings about the dangers of shallowness, selfishness, and snobbery in its more dramatic back up features. The comedy stories are mostly okay.

The book also has a few notes on the battle with censorship and public concerns about comic books. The response of Atlas/Timely is interesting and a nice historical bit.

Overall, this is a solid read from a period that's often considered a dead zone in comics.



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Book Review: Showcase Presents Wonder Woman, Volume 1

Showcase Presents: Wonder Woman, Vol. 1 by Robert Kanigher

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


In 1958, in Issue #98 Wonder Woman rebooted for the Silver Age. This book collects the first 20 issues of the Silver Age run with art by Ross Andru and stories by Robert Kanigher.

The art remains classy and fun throughout. I much prefer the style to the much more crude Wonder Woman of the golden age. One of my favorite features of Andru's art is his portrayal of Wonder Woman changing into costume, the sequence drawing is just a great touch.

I have much more mixed feelings on the stories. With Issue 98, Kanigher begins again with a new origin story for Wonder Woman is not tied to the golden age version. Rather than Steve Trevor crashing on Paradise Island, the Amazons themselves decide to send someone out. And Wonder Woman isn't given her costume for this purpose. She already had the costume, but they did have a contest which she won and she's immediately tasked with turning a penny into a million dollars to give charity.

She takes the identity of Diana Prince in order to avoid Steve's creepy attempt trick her into marriage and our story is set. The stories in the first half of the book tend to have a light touch with some decent humor and fun. Issue #100 actually had a very meta story in which Paradise Island insist she do something grand for her 100th issue. Plus there was an issue where Wonder Woman took a young fan to visit Paradise Island.

The second half of the book was more problematic. In many ways, the book really copied from other comics. While I'm certain that there was a certain amount of this at every DC comic in the Silver Age, it was pretty noticeable here. For example, in one issue, Wonder Woman loses her powers for a day, an idea lifted from Martian Manhunter's stories. It made sense for the Martian Manhunter with his science based wonders. Given that Wonder Woman's are more magical, this was just kind of stupid.

The biggest ripoff of other books was the story of Wonder Girl, Wonder Woman as a girl, a blatant attempt to play to the strength of characters like Superboy and sidekicks like Robin and Kid Flash. The big problem with this was that Wonder Woman grew up in an all-female Utopia with few real opportunities for actual adventures, leading to story lines that were more than a little bit contrived such a robot girl built to be Wonder Girl's only playmate.

In addition, Wonder Girl knew that she would grow up to be Wonder Woman, which given that her origin involved a contest was kind of stupid and makes the whole origin of Wonder Woman dumb. She even sets out to try and meet her older self, something which some theorist could say would end the space-time continuum. But given that she lived on Paradise Island, I get the desperation to lift the boredom.

More than Wonder Girl treating the space-time continuum like its a toy is that these stories led to the introdtion of Merboy, an insufferable lovesick undersea teenager who makes Steve Trevor look like the biggest alpha male in the world. His attempts to woo Wonder Girl are annoying and just take up way too many pages. But this is what Kanigher was reduced to when trying to write a story about a teenage girl living on a perfect island with no men and free from competition as the only teenager.

Plus, while I'm glad they didn't go into all the complexity f Wonder Woman Creator Charles Moulston's ideology, there doesn't seem to be much of a reason for Paradise Island being all female other than that it's all female.

However, that's not to say the stories are all bad. They're some fun one and the early part of the book is a nice opportunity for parents who want to introduce their children to early Wonder Woman without any real questionable content, and of course the art is great throughout. However, the book's weaknesses stop this book from being anything other than average.



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Movie Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain America: The Winter Soldier finds the First Avenger in a career and life crisis. Cap has been working for S.H.I.E.L.D. since the events of the The Avengers, however he's become more uneasy about the organization. He becomes uneasy when the Black Widow fails to complete her assigned role in a mission they've been assigned and instead runs a secret mission for Fury. He becomes even more disturbed when Fury introduces him to S.H.I.E.L.D's new secret weapon, three new helicarriers each armed with the ability to pre-emptively take out any bad guy in the world. Cap believes this run counter to the ideas of freedom he's fought for his whole life. He's forced to examine where he belongs in the twenty-first century world.

But his soul searching is cut short when he finds a severely wounded Nick Fury in his apartment. He obtains an encrypted jump drive that holds the key to a mystery that threatens the freedom of the whole Earth.

The movie borrows concepts from various Marvel works, most notably Ed Brubaker's Winter Soldier, the character of the Falcon, and also a six issue limited comic from the 1980s. Long time Captain America villain Batroc also makes an appearance.

The movie is chock full of over the top action with not one but two insane in-traffic chase scenes. There have been reports of various government agencies buying billions of bullets. In the Marvel cinematic universe, if this happened, these bullets were all used in this movie. The film does ask us to believe that there is a conspiracy that's been kept secret for decades, but the bad guys don't seem to know the meaning of "covert" based on the actions on the screen as they are about as subtle as Dennis Rodman's fashion choices.

Without Captain America, this is a mediocre film, an action movie that delights in going over the top with its numerous chase scenes that uses a conspiracy theory to justify it all.

However, Captain America makes this a great movie.

Captain America is the oldest superhero without a subtantive reboot. While Batman and Superman came earlier, both characters have been rebooted multiple times to help keep up with the changing cultural landscape.

But not Cap. While various writers have portrayed the character differently, at his core, he remains the same character that Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created in 1941, a man of honor and integrity unparalleled in either company's line.

In the first act, Cap is told by Fury that he needs to get with the program. The Black Widow suggests that he's in the wrong business. Yet when it comes down to it, he's the one man Fury can turn to because he doesn't get with the program, he doesn't compromise his integrity. Because he stays true to his values, he's someone people can rely upon.

Of course, it's not just Cap's character. The film shows him to be simply awesome, beginning with his diving out of a plane with no parachute to take down terrorist hijackers.

But, the key is that neither Cap's fame, his awesomeness, or his character make him conceited. Out of battle, Cap is kind and unassuming. The living legend easily strikes up a friendship with a man who works at a VA hospital. He lives in a basic apartment, with none of the hallmarks of opulence enjoyed by characters like Tony Stark.

The film has other great touches such as his visit to see his World War 2 sweetheart Peggy Carter in a nursing home and a desperate attempt to save the life of a friend even at the cost of his own.

And because of who Cap is, he inspires to fight beside him. The Inspirational nature of Captain America comes through in the final battle as Cap's first move gains him allies against the bad guys in a way that only Captain America could do.

In the end, Chris Evans didn't reinvent Captain America the way that Robert Downey Jr. did Iron Man, Evans brought the comic book character to life in a way that was compelling and inspiring.

In the end, despite some action scenes being a bit overblown, Captain America: The Winter Solider was a good movie because it painted a compelling portrait of a great hero who knows when not to change with the times.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0

Book Review: Doctor Who Omnibus, Volume 1

Doctor Who Omnibus Volume 1 by Gary Russell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects a grand total of 18 Doctor Who comics featuring the tenth doctor: six one shots in between two six issue mini-series, so here's my thoughts on each component on this 400+ page collection.

1) Agent Provacteur: This was the 2008 Doctor Who mini-series and it had lot of good features. The story starts off solidly enough with the Doctor and Martha in search of the best chocolate milkshake ever. However, weirdness is afoot as the populations of entire planets disappear leaving only one survivor. The reasons for this are very confusing and convoluted. The result is a story that. while quirky and fun at times, is also too complex for a six issue comic book. Issue 6 is full of pages with exposition bubbles and very long speech bubbles that's very tedious in a comic. This sounds like it might have been better as a regular if handled right. Still, for some fun interactions between the Doctor and Martha, I'll give this a C.

2) The Whispering Gallery: Another Adventure features the Doctor and Martha visiting a planet where an entire culture is afraid to express their emotions. The Doctor met a girl named Grayla who did. However, when he returns to her planet, he finds that's she died and she finds her last message indicating that she said her culture was right and that there was no place for emotion. The doctor sets out to find out what happened while Martha stays behind in the whispering gallery, a place where pictures containing parts of the consciousness of the dead whisper their regrets. It's a thought provoking story about things that aren't said and regrets that's surprisingly moving for a comic book. The only thing I can ding this one on is art that's kind of iffy. Grade: B+

3) Time Mechanations: A great Doctor solo story where he meets HG Wells and a mysterious friend in Victorian England and he needs a part to repair the TARDIS. However, he's hindered by the fact that Queen Victoria banished him during Season 2 of the Revived Series. And there's even more than that than meets the eye. A very good solid timey wimey story that's deserving of Doctor Who. Grade: A

4)Autopia: The Doctor and Donna travel to a planet where humans have become lazy and indolent as they live in luxury while machines serve their every need. The Doctor and his companion are promptly ordered executed. Now they have to save their lives and try to change a lazy society without destroying it. Slightly contrived, but understandably so for the limits of a one shot. Grade: B

5) The Cold Blooded War: The Doctor and Donna arrive by accident on a planet that's about to have their first queen running the country. They'd actually been trying to attend an opera and the doctor said he'd been waiting so long for tickets that he'd ordered them back when he had a long scarf. Unfortunately, it's all down from there with a heavy handed tale that's tedious and unengaging. Grade: D

6) Room with a Deja View: The doctor encounters a creature who lives backwards in crime who is charged with a crime. The tale is an interesting concept, but it's a tad confusing, and also a bit dubious from the standpoint of whether the Doctor would actually do this as it requires multiple version of the tenth doctor and traveling back through his own timeline. Still, a worthy experiment. Grade: B

7) Black Death White Life: The Doctor and Martha arrive in the middle ages when a plague's occurring that isn't supposed to according to the history books. The cause is unknown but an alien creature is helping a local priest heal them which means aliens are also behind the disease. This is an okay story, but given what it actually represented, it was only borderline on the inventiveness side and Martha's question on the end is uncharacteristically dumb. Grade: C+

8) The Forgotten: This six issue mini-series finds the Doctor and Martha inexplicably at a museum dedicated to the Doctor. The Doctor loses his memory of all of his past regenerations and has to get them back in order to figure out what's happening to him. Each time he touches an object from one of his prior selves, he regains a bit and finds a clue. This means that in the six issue mini-series there are nine mini-stories featuring each of the first nine doctors. Given that there's hardly any easily available reprints of the first three doctors and the eighth and ninth, this is a great bonus. The first two doctors are even done in black and white. Even though I'm pretty new to the doctor, I was pretty amazed by the amount of history and companions that this story represents. Longer time fans of the Doctor will probably appreciate it even more. The mini-series had some great humor, but also some poignant moments particularly in Issue 6. Compared to the memories and the resolution, what actually is behind this isn't as great. Still, I think it's solid. Grade: A

This story definitely has a couple great gems in, one total dud, and a few that are between mediocre and good.

I checked this out from my local public library. If I were buying, I would probably only purchase the trade paperback containing the Forgotten.



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