She's Ba-a-ack!

Today I'm going to throw some thoughts out on a more recent book involving the re-introduction last year of Batgirl to Gotham City. Batgirl Rising collects the first seven issues of the new Batgirl ongoing series by Bryan Q. Miller, Lee Garbett and Trevor Scott.

I didn't plan to buy this book. Not the trade collection we're discussing today and not the single issues which led to the trade. That's because, apparently, I'm not much of a detective.

In the wake of Batman's "death" at the end of Final Crisis (If you don't know why "death" is in quote marks, you're probably not reading this anyway.), DC launched a slew of new Gotham-centric monthly titles, one of which was to be a new Batgril title.

Before those new titles began, however, DC used a couple of bookend titles to preview the new directions for a variety of characters. These books were titled Gotham Gazette: Batman Dead? and Gotham Gazette: Batman Alive? Gotham Gazette: Batman Alive? featured glimpses into the lives of Harvey Bullock, Leslie Thompkins, Stephanie Brown and Vicki Vale. It also seemed to indicate to me that the new Batgirl, whose identity the company had been keeping a closely guarded secret, was going to be Vicki Vale, a truly horrendous choice, in my opinion.

So I opted NOT to pick up the new Batgirl title.

And when the title debuted, sure enough, the new Batgirl was revealed to be — Stephanie Brown?!?

I did not see that coming at all. I approve of that casting, but I did not pick up on that from the Gotham Gazette vignette. Thus, I'm a little late arriving at this party.

Stephanie is the fifth character to wear a Batgirl costume. During the early Silver Age stories, Batman and Robin had female counterparts in the form of Batwoman and Bat-Girl. This Bat-Girl, later a member of Teen Titans West in the late 1960s, was Kathy Kane's niece, Bette Kane. The character was later ret-conned into using the codename Flamebird in Titans history. The second and most famous Batgirl was Barbara Gordon, daughter of Gotham City Police Commissioner James W. Gordon. (Pointless trivia quiz: Anybody know what the W. stands for? I do.) Barbara served the longest in the role, debuting in the late 1960s and continuing in the role until being crippled by the Joker in The Killing Joke graphic novel in 1988. Barbara later re-invented herself as the computer-savvy Oracle and continues in that role.
After Barbara, future Batgirls wore the uniform for only brief periods. The all-black costume debuted during the story arc No Man's Land and was worn by the Huntress, trying to gain acceptance by Batman following the earthquake that hit Gotham. Her identity was quickly revealed and she abandoned the guise, which Batman handed over to Cassandra Cain, a young Asian child trained to be an assassin her whole life. Cassandra had a tumultuous run as Batgirl, her behavior always at war with itself as she tried to please both surrogate fathers, the assassin who first trained her and Batman, who tried to redirect her talents in a non-lethal direction. The first issue of this new Batgirl series shows Cassandra handing her costume to Stephanie and vowing to quit being Batgril in the wake of Batman's apparent death.

As far as I know, Stephanie Brown debuted in the pages of Robin's solo title after Tim Drake took over as the third Robin. The teenager assumed the costumed identity of the Spoiler to fight crime as a means to atone for her father's past crimes. Stephanie's father was the third-rate Batman villain the Cluemaster. Stephanie soon caught the attention of Batman and Robin. The older hero tried to disuade the inexperienced crimefighter, but Robin eventually took her under his wing, so to speak, and the two often teamed up, even starting a relationship for a time. That situation was complicated by the fact that Robin knew Stephanie's real identity but could not reveal his own without compromising Batman's real identity.

The two teens became a mainstay in Robin's solo title until a falling out between Batman and Tim, prompting the youth to give up being Robin for a time. Batman temporarily offered the role of Robin to Stephanie to continue her training, and she jumped at the chance, driving a wedge between herself and Tim. But Stephanie's career in the red vest and yellow cape was very short-lived. She sparked a gang war on the streets of Gotham while trying to prove herself to Batman and seemingly ended up dying at the hands of the Black Mask for her mistakes. The young woman hadn't really died, however, and returned some time later seeking to again assume the role of Spoiler, much to the chagrin of Batman and Tim, once again in the role of Robin.

It is at this point that Stephanie finds herself being handed a Batgirl costume, which she naturally puts on and begins fighting crime. Wearing a bat outfit in Gotham City draws a lot more attention than Stephanie bargains for as she not only confronts criminals, but also Oracle, and the new Batman and Robin team of Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne.

My only real complaint with this first trade is the new Batman's initial reaction to Stephanie's role as Batgirl. He is very harsh and critical, which seems a little out-of-character for the former Nightwing, who has mentored a number of younger heroes from Tim Drake to later incarnations of the Titans and even to Damian, a somewhat less than willing pupil when it comes to non-lethal superheroics. I would expect him to be somewhat wary and concerned about Stephanie, but Dick is shown as being quite condescending at first. But over the course of these first seven issues, Stephanie wins over both Batman and Oracle, the latter even agreeing to mentor and work with the new Batgirl.

The inclusion, and mentoring role, of Oracle in this book is part of what I like about this series. Stephanie is shown to be somewhat competent on her own, as she should be to have survived as the Spoiler for so long, and to have won the confidence of Batman and Robin in the past. But there is obviously more she can still learn from a veteran hero like Oracle. Stephanie only tackles street thugs rather than major, recognizable Bat villains in the first few issues, but again, that seems natural for a series just starting out. About midway through this trade, she is confronted by the Scarecrow, then later takes on Roulette and some other major baddies, but Stephanie faces these latter foes with the aid of Oracle, Batman and Robin.

All in all, this trade has shamed me for my own lack of detective skills, but also won me over to following Stephanie's further adventures in this new role, at least for the time being. I've been picking up the single issues since No. 7, now I just need to find the time to read them.

Keeping It All In The Family

I've always liked the idea of the Green Hornet without really knowing much about the character as he's been depicted through the years. For instance, I can recall having watched the Van Williams/Bruce Lee show in reruns on television when I was young, but beyond the kinetic theme music, I don't remember any specific episodes or actions. In fact, a few years ago when talk of a possible Green Hornet feature film began circulating, I was surprised to learn that the Hornet operated by pretending to be a villain to get close to other villains and learn about their operations. That seems a pretty basic part of the character not to have known.

That isn't to say I was ignorant of the Hornet's beginnings, both his fictional origin and his real-world genesis. For instance, I knew the character's alter ego was Britt Reid, a wealthy heir, much like the Batman's Bruce Wayne, and I'm pretty sure I knew that the Reid family fortune was made in the newspaper industry. I also knew the fictional Britt Reid character had familial ties to the fictional John Reid, true identity of the Lone Ranger, and that, in fact, the character of the Green Hornet had been created as an updated, then-modern version of the Lone Ranger to tackle gangsters in a similar radio show.

Despite that amount of knowledge regarding the character of the Green Hornet, I haven't seen a live-action representation of the character on screen since I was a small child, nor have I ever heard any of the radio programs or read any of his comic-book appearances. But I've always been curious about the character, especially his ties to the Lone Ranger, a character I very much enjoy.

Last summer, word began circulating that Dynamite Entertainment planned to launch a new ongoing Green Hornet comic written by Kevin Smith. I was looking forward to trying that book, not yet sure if I would pick up the monthly issues or trade-wait the series, when I came across some eBay auctions for a number of small runs of several titles of interest. Included in these auctions were the first 14 issues of Now Comics' Green Hornet title from the late 1980s. I decided to give them a try, just recently read them, and man, I'm glad I did!

Now let me say up front that my hat's off to any fans who bought and enjoyed this series when it was first released. These books make a great introduction to a character with a strong sense of family in a story line than can't be described without using the words "epic in scope." They are a very entertaining read when a person can sit down and read several through in one sitting. But the way the story begins and is paced, as great as it works in one epic narrative, must have driven readers crazy reading the issues one month at a time.

The double-sized first issue came out in November 1989 with a striking cover by comic legend Jim Steranko. The story is written by Ron Fortier, penciled by Jeff Butler, inked by David Mowry, lettered by Dan Nakrosis and painted colors were added by Suzanne Dechnik.

The story opens on an aging Britt Reid writing his memoirs in his study, sitting in front of a painted full-figure portrait of the Lone Ranger and Silver. Reid begins with his grandfather, Dan Reid, a Texas Ranger, continues through the birth of his father, Dan Reid Jr., who founded The Sentinel, on up to his own birth in 1906, the deaths of his parents, the rise and fall of Prohibition, the growth of local mobs, and finally, the debut of the costumed figure, the Green Hornet, in 1936. This Green Hornet looks very much like pictures I've seen of the character from the old movie serials.

From there, the issue jumps, surprisingly, to a chapter Reid has titled "My Last Case," which centers around the Green Hornet's final take-down of a mobster named Tobias, one of the last criminal elements left in the city. But the story also introduces other Reid family members like Britt's brother, Jack Reid, and Jack's two young sons, Britt II and Tom.

The second issue opens in 1989 with a young man wearing an updated Green Hornet outfit as he explores the ruins of the old Reid country estate. Through newspaper clippings and family photos, the reader learns that the Green Hornet mysteriously resurfaced in 1968, and that Tom Reid, just a boy when last seen in the previous issue, grew up to become a world-famous archeologist, along with his wife, Mary. The couple died some time after 1972 in a plane crash, leaving behind two sons, Alan and Paul. From there, the story moves to 1979 and finds the now teenaged Alan and Paul living with their uncle, Britt II. It becomes obvious that Britt Reid II is the new Green Hornet, and that his adventures with the current Kato, son of the original, are modeled after the TV exploits of the Van Williams/Bruce Lee incarnation.

The third issue continues the tale of this second Green Hornet, but along the way, Britt Reid II's nephews, Alan and Paul, learn about the Hornet's true identity accidentally. Alan is the more serious of the two brothers, and by issue No. 4, it is clear that Alan is being groomed to be the next Green Hornet, while Paul wants little to do with the family legacy. Under the tutelage of both his Green Hornet predecessors — his grandfather and his uncle — Alan is set to undertake his first mission in 1986 with the help of the second Kato, a mission which does NOT go well.

By the debut of issue No. 5, it finally becomes clear that the Green Hornet in the 1989 sequences is none other than Paul Reid, grandson of the original Green Hornet, and that his adventures will be the ones chronicled through the remainder of this series' run. These books clearly have fun with the concept of several Green Hornets down through the years to explain the differences in appearance and times for all the stories which have gone before. It makes for a nice heroic dynasty tale, and even includes a female Kato nearly two decades before the current Dynamite comics' version.

This run of the character by Now Comics ran for 28 issues, was followed by a 40-issue Volume 2, and also by a series of Tales of the Green Hornet issues. These first 14 issues are good enough, I wouldn't mind at all hunting down more issues from this era and just bypassing the modern Kevin Smith incarnation all together.

A Love Story About Detectives; A Detective Story About Love

Reading the detective stories in Ms. Tree Quarterly reminded me of another series I'd been wanting to try, one I thought was somewhat similar. After giving the first 10 issues of this other series a try, however, I found that the only thing it really has in common with Ms. Tree is that both series are good reads.

Ms. Tree's tales are quite a bit different in tone from those of Mike W. Barr's The Maze Agency. The latter series specializes in done-in-one mysteries wherein the author supplies enough clues along the way that readers who are so inclined can try to solve the puzzle right along with the main characters.

The series stars Jennifer Mays, owner and lead investigator for the Maze Agency. Often assisting her in her sleuthing is boyfriend and crime-fiction author Gabriel Webb. Just as much a part of the series as crime conundrums is the growing relationship between Mays and Webb, much like in the television series "Moonlighting."

Some of the mysteries in those first 10 issues which the characters must unravel involve the apparent theft of the frames from some expensive paintings, a murder over lost episodes of a famous 1950s television sitcom, the apparent return of Jack the Ripper, plus a murder mystery game which turns all-too real and employs a locked-room whodunit at the same time.

Barr's writing is the constant in this series, which began life at Comico in 1988 and produced seven issues through June 1989 with much of the interior and cover art supplied by then newcomer Adam Hughes.

That was it until December of 1989 when Innovation picked up the series and continued the original numbering with issue No. 8, still by Barr, Hughes and Rick Magyar. Innovation continued the series through issue No. 23, with a Special and an Annual to boot. They even put together a trade collection of the first four issues in a black-and-white format.

The Maze Agency Special No. 1 featured a stunning cover by Bill Willingham and Magyar. The Special also reprinted the very first Maze Agency story, which was illustrated by co-creator Alan Davis. I'm not sure where this tale was originally published, or when, but it makes a nice addition to the Special, which also includes Davis' original character designs for Jennifer Mays and Gabriel Webb.

With issue No. 11 of the Innovation series, the art team became more irregular and featured such names as Darrick Robertson, Rob Davis and Robb Phipps. This last penciler, Robb Phipps, did issue No. 14, among others, of which I now own several of the original art pages. From the pages I have, this story seems to involve Mays and Webb attending the execution of a convicted murderer who is killed mysteriously before the state can end his life. Hughes didn't do interiors for the series after issue No. 12, but did return to do several covers beyond that point.

Since the Innovation series ended, The Maze Agency has had a number of revivals, first at Caliber Comics in 1997, and later at IDW Publishing in 2005. I enjoyed these first 10 issues enough, that I have ordered the remainder of the Innovation issues, as well as the IDW ones, and am anxiously awaiting their arrival so I can read those as well. Haven't found anyone yet with the Caliber series for sale, but I'm keeping a lookout for them.

Just Don't Call Her 'Michelle'

My recent look at Max Allen Collins and his work on Mickey Spillane's Mike Danger for Tekno Comix and Big Entertainment made me want to go back and look at another character Collins created -- Ms. Tree.

My first -- and up until recently, only -- exposure to Ms. Tree was the first issue of DC Comics' Ms. Tree Quarterly, published in 1990. At the time, the highlight of this book for me was a prose Batman story written by Denny O'Neil with Mike Grell illustrations. I highly recommend this short story wherein Alfred, not Bruce Wayne, is the target of a group of kidnappers and Batman must determine why and where Alfred has been taken.

But back to Ms. Tree, the title character is a tough-as-nails female private eye named Michael Tree. An assassin has been hired to eliminate Ms. Tree in this tale and chooses to attack her in her home in the middle of the night. In what I would later learn is trademark Ms. Tree style, she instead gets the drop on the attacker and stops him in a decidedly permanent fashion. The rest of the story focuses on who hired the killer and why. The other players -- folks who work for Tree Investigations, a friendly detective on the police force and members of the Muerta crime family -- are all staples of Ms. Tree's world I was unfamiliar with, but they helped make this an OK story for me.

The art on this story, and I believe most of the Ms. Tree stories published, was by Terry Beatty. Beatty's style on Ms. Tree is deceptively simplistic. It's not really cartoony by any means, especially when it comes to action sequences, but he employs an economy of line work that keeps the panels clean and uncluttered -- simple.

This last fall, I decided to re-read both stories in Ms. Tree Quarterly No. 1 to determine if this book should go on the "sell" pile. Frequent readers will recall I'm trying to winnow down the huge collection I've amassed before it bursts out of the one room in our house it already fills beyond capacity. Much to my wife's certain chagrin, I not only decided that the Batman tale was worth saving this particular comic, but I decided I wanted to know more about the world of Ms. Tree. I learned that there were only 10 issues of Ms. Tree Quarterly published by DC (actually eight issues and two specials, but DC kept the numbering 1 through 10), so I found a good deal on the remaining issues of that series.

I've just recently finished reading those issues. The stories read like a comic-book Law & Order with their "ripped from the headlines" topics. Ms. Tree and her associates take on gay-bashing, satanists and the occult, MIA war veterans, the drug trade, date rape, single-parenting and a host of other topics. The stories are very well-written, often showing real-life consequences for some of Ms. Tree's more lethal solutions to dealing with criminals.

Along the way, I got better acquainted with the Muertas and the Trees. For instance, Michael Tree is not the name the title character was born with; it is her married name. She met and fell in love with a man named Michael Tree, also a private investigator, and the pair joked about sharing the same first name, and after they were married, the same full name. The pair did decide to get married, but shared a very brief union as the male Michael Tree was shot and killed on the couple's honeymoon, and the guilty party was traced back to the Muerta family. The male Michael Tree had been married before, and that marriage had produced a son, Michael Tree Jr. With the death of her new husband, Ms. Tree became the sole guardian of her teenage stepson, who would later fall in love with another member of the Muerta clan.

According to an article I found on Wikipedia about Ms. Tree, Collins envisioned her as being Velda, the secretary from Mickey Spillane's "Mike Hammer" series. Velda was Hammer's assistant/confidante/lover and one could almost imagine these stories being about Velda after she and Mike Hammer get married and Mike is murdered.

Ms. Tree's first adventure was serialized in Eclipse Comics' Eclipse Magazine Nos. 1-6 published in 1981-82. From there, Eclipse launched Ms. Tree's Thrilling Detective Stories, becoming just Ms. Tree with issue No. 4. The series continued for 50 issues plus specials, but was published by first Eclipse, then Aardvark-Vanaheim and finally Renegade Press. Then came the DC Comics' version, Ms. Tree Quarterly, in the early 1990s.

One other piece of trivia I learned from the Wikipedia article was that Ms. Tree's maiden name was never revealed in any of her comic appearances, but that it was often suggested in stories that she was the daughter of Joe Friday from the television series Dragnet. In 2007, Collins wrote the first Ms. Tree novel, "Deadly Beloved," in which the character is finally referred to as "Miss Friday" before her marriage.

One doesn't usually seek out this much information about a character he or she doesn't like, so it's probably pretty obvious that I've decided to keep an eye out for other Ms. Tree stories. I found the "Deadly Beloved" novel on Amazon.com and snagged copies of Eclipse Magazine at a recent Springfield, Mo., comic convention and online. From there, I'll be looking for more of this character from the 50-issue Eclipse-Renegade series.

Yes, kiddie-cops, Ms. Tree is good comics.

Kevin Smith Bashing By Proxy

As the header implies, I'm going to send you somewhere else first, then please come on back here and read the rest of my thoughts on Kevin Smith's Widening Gyre.

You're back? Good. Thought I'd lost you there for a minute.

By and large, I have to agree with this guy's critique of Kevin Smith's work of late. I think he might be a tad harsh when slamming Walter Flanagan's art. As I haven't seen these books first-hand, I'm just basing my assessment on the panels Chris Sims reproduced to make his points, but they look pretty good to me. But writing like that has to make you smack your forehead and wonder what the writer is thinking.

I like some of Kevin Smith's films, and I've liked some of his comics. His run on the relaunched Daredevil back in the late 90s wasn't bad. His Green Arrow was pretty good. And I really like the character of Onomotopia as first presented.

Cacophony was not a steller follow-up with the character, however, hitting a VERY low point with the Joker anal sex thing. Now this? How can he think Batman fans would like this? How could Batman fans like this?

I opted to trade-wait when Widening Gyre was first announced. Sims' comments lead me to think I'd be much happier skipping the trade on this one, too.

And that makes me sad.

Two Great Flavors. One Great Read.

Mike Danger may not be a familiar name to some, but he was a hard-boiled private detective who headlined a new comic-book idea dreamed up by a young writer named Mickey Spillane in 1940. No one bought the comics concept at the time, however, and Mike Danger got an overhaul, being reborn as Mike Hammer, star of several crime noir novels and later a television program.

But Mike Danger was just too tough a character to roll over and die to make way for another.

In 1995, a new comics company named Tekno Comix began publishing several different titles representing a variety of genres. They had super-heroes with the I-Bots, mystical elements empowered women to take up the mantle of Lady Justice, science fiction was the name of the game for Lost Universe and Primortals. Tekno almost served as a precursor to CrossGen in that regard and one other. The company had a number of big-name creators in their stable and serving as inspiration, folks like Neil Gaiman, Gene Roddenberry, George Perez and Max Allen Collins.

Collins, no stranger to crime fiction, worked with Mickey Spillane to finally bring Mike Danger to the medium the character was created for. Mickey Spillane's Mike Danger was one of Tekno's debut titles and continued for a total of two volumes and 21 issues, all of them written by Collins.

In those adventures, Mike Danger begins in the world of 1952, a private detective who often solves cases for his war buddies with the help of his beautiful secretary/confidante/partner, Holly. Mike travels from 1952 into the future by means of the first story arc and subsequently spends a great deal of time "trapped" in the year 2052, so much of the series combines the familiar trappings of both the crime noir and sci-fi genres to great effect.

Art chores are handled by a variety of greats such as Eduardo Barreto, Steve Leialoha, Frank Miller, Peter Grau, Walter Simonson, Steve Erwin, Terry Beatty and Brad Gorby.

The second volume of the series began in 1996 when Tekno Comix changed its name to Big Entertainment, and all of the publisher's books re-launched with new No. 1s. There was no break in the series story-wise. So just imagine that Vol. 2, issue No. 1, of Mickey Spillane's Mike Danger is really just issue No. 12 and you get the idea.

I highly recommend the series. If you've never tried it before, seek them out. These are truly good comics, combining humor, drama, imagination and a whole lot of two-fisted action, kiddie cops!

eBay Rant

There are two kinds of comics I'm selling when I'm on eBay or iOffer or even through my own Steve's Comics For Sale site: Books I bought recently, read and for whatever reason, didn't care for or older books I've decided to weed out of my collection, either for the above reason or just for space reasons. In either of these cases, I'm not looking to gouge anyone or get rich off of another comics enthusiast; I'm just looking to get rid of some books I no longer care to own, hopefully giving them to a good home where someone WILL appreciate them, and maybe get a buck or two for my trouble with which to turn around and buy more comics for myself.
Pretty simple concept, right?

Now there are three kinds of people who annoy the crap out of me when I'm trying to accomplish the above goals. I've encountered the first type of person in all three of the above online marketplaces. This is the person who bids on an item or even outright expresses an intent to buy it, then never delivers the payment. What is the point of this? Do these faux buyers really think a seller is going to ship the merchandise without receiving payment first? That seems rather naive. But if that's not their goal, what is?

The next two types of infuriating people are actually other sellers, and so far, I've only encountered them on eBay, likely because that site is much more popular and well known than iOffer or my personal site. These are the people who I guess think they're being sneaky. And maybe they are, because I suppose it is possible someone is buying their wares. But whenever I see these two practices, I immediately seek the item I was looking at somewhere else.

These people lure you with a "false" deal, either by "padding" the shipping costs or setting a reserve price below which they will not sell an item.

Now the reserve price option on eBay can be a good thing. I try to never list an item for a starting amount unless I'd be comfortable selling it for that amount. Of course, I hope multiple bidders will drive the price higher, but if only one person bids and the item goes for the starting price, I'm OK with letting the item go for that. For something like original art, however, I person might not want to let a piece go for less than his or her original purchase price. What I dislike with a passion are people who will create an auction with a reserve price of something like $500 or more, but start the bidding out at 99 cents. I realize a lot of people like to start auctions out under $1 to draw attention, but if you WON'T sell something for less than $500, why start so low? It seems mildly dishonest to me.

Far worse are the shipping padders. People who will list an item to start at a bid of 99 cents, often even calling attention to that fact, but the shipping costs, not always immediately visible, are clearly exaggerated. For instance, someone starts the bidding on a single loose action figure at 99 cents, but if you look closely, the shipping charge is $20 to $30. I've sold some figures, both MOC (mint on card) and loose and there is absolutely no way the shipping cost is that high unless the item is traveling overseas. These people are being dishonest in offering the item for such a low cost when they know they will more than make up for the cost of the item in the shipping overage. I don't know why anyone would bid on such an item with such an obviously dishonest gimmick employed. Yet I see these items listed all the time, sometimes with bids having been made.

I just don't get it. Anyone out there have any insights?

Excuses. Excuses,

Short (and late) post today as I've been out of town part of this last week. I'm already waaaaay behind on my comics reading of late, and this most recent trip away did not offer any reading time at all.

The stack of out-of-continuity trades and back issues I buy (really a series of stacks (and in further reality, there are so many stacks, they almost make a wall)) has grown so large it appears quite menacing in its threat to tip and bury me. Not to be outdone, the stack of more current books has also grown of late to a rivaling size, at least in part because I've started adding new purchases to that stack regardless of whether or not they are in current continuity because I was running out of places to stack up those out-of-continuity books separately.

Why do I have so many? Because the hobby is addictive. We've talked in the past about how podcasts have led me to try some new things. Well, most new books I've tried have led me to other discoveries.

For example, I've long been aware of Mark Evanier's DNAgents comic from Eclipse. This title debuted in 1983 and was often compared favorably to the uber-popular New Teen Titans, which we all know I love. Well, a while back, I found a large lot of DNAgents comics for a decent price and bought them. This being several months ago, they got dropped onto the bottom of the current buys stack, and I recently came to them again in said stack as I slowly whittle it down.

Before my recent trip, I managed to read the first four issues of the DNAgents title. I was also VERY vaguely aware of another Mark Evanier title, also by Eclipse, called Crossfire. Well, after reading those first four issues of DNAgents, I discovered that they had several crossovers with the Crossfire title. So many, in fact, that I've decided to look for some of these Crossfire issues and hold off reading the rest of the DNAgents books until I find and have the Crossfire ones available, too.

With buying habits like those, you can see how my collection grows so quickly, and why my wife "loves" my hobby so much. See ya next time, kiddie cops!

It's Beautiful. I Don't Know What Else To Say.

I've recently finished reading the first Kabuki trade collection written and illustrated by David Mack, Circle of Blood. The title character is an assassin in modern Japan. Kabuki has not had a typical nor a happy childhood, but her journey of self-discovery, as told in this six-issue arc, is both compelling and breathtakingly illustrated.

Kabuki is one of those books I've often heard people comment on favorably, but never tried before. Finding a decently priced copy of this initial trade for sale online helped convince me to correct that oversight.

And I'm not quite sure what else to say about the book.

A few dozen pages into the story, I didn't think I was going to like Kabuki overall. I hadn't planned to trash the book or anything; as I've said before, I do not believe a book can't have merit just because it isn't my favorite. Too many people like Kabuki for my lone opinion to make this or any other a "bad" book.

But as I continued reading, I found myself liking the tale more and more. Just not in ways I'm finding it easy to put into words.

I'm not a big fan of stories revolving heavily around the Japanese society, martial arts, the Yakuza and such. That's likely at least part of the reason why I've never picked up a copy of Kabuki before this. No special dislike for the culture or people, either, mind you, but no special fascination or interest for it. But this is truly a universal tale which could be told using another culture as a backdrop very easily.

Mack's art and writing in this book are, as I said, simply wonderful and somewhat ground-breaking, too. This book doesn't look like a conventional comic in either its layout or design. Mack uses the words and art together so that text becomes part of the art and the art truly helps advance the story in ways beyond how sequential art is typically utilized.

There are issues with readability that stem from that, however. The lack of a traditional panel layout means it can be hard to know where your eye should go next on some pages, but these instances are very few in this book. More prevalent are a few legibility issues which may not have been present in the original issues of this book. For instance, white text is often printed on black backgrounds, but the muddy effect this can cause makes the text hard to read in a few spots. Also, there are some pages where the text is so far to one side of the page that the large size of this collected volume makes it hard to see all of the text close to the spine.

So I ended up liking Kabuki's story in Circle of Blood. I did. Some stories, a reader likes so much, he or she wants to know what happens to the characters next, even if more tales utilizing those characters were never written. But this arc reads quite well as a done-in-one. I know Kabuki's tale continues, but I am content to simply stop with the last page of this volume and not read more of her journey. At least at this point. Maybe someday, I'll change my mind.
Does that mean the story is bad or failed to engage me? I don't think so; I liked it too much to believe that. But it didn't engage me to the point that I want to buy the second or third collections right now. That doesn't usually happen.

And Now ... For The Rest ... Of The Story

I first discovered Budd Root's Cavewoman comics on a trip moving my brother from Virginia to Georgia more than a decade ago. I found several issues of Cavewoman: Rain on the magazine rack in a shopping mall book store. I admit, the covers caught my eye, and I rifled through the magazines and the few comics on the rack looking for all that I could find. I came away with copies of issue Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7. Many of the issues were second or third printings — something I was unfamiliar with at the time — and because the subsequent printings had different covers, I actually came away with two different copies of issue No. 5.

That's five parts of an eight-part story. Obviously, missing the final chapter means I was missing the final resolution to the tale. Baring that fact, however, I can sometimes figure out what is missing from the books before and after a gap. For instance, I might have been able to figure out what happened in the missing issue No. 3 by reading Nos. 2 and 4. What seemed odd to me in this instance though, is that issue No. 4 seemed to pick up immediately after issue No. 2. Very little development must have occurred, I figured, in that missing issue, but that didn't seem to fit events in the issues I had.

Over time, I'd given up ever trying to find copies of the issues I was missing. They truly seemed to be scarce, as many shops I'd visited had no copies in their back issue stock. A few times I'd even tried to find out if there had ever been trade collections of Rain or the original series that preceded it, but to no avail.

I'd see solicits for new Cavewoman series by Budd or other creators, but I tended to pass those by as they all seemed quite sporadic — both in terms of timing and publisher, as the series moved around a bit — and I'd never been able to finish Rain. In fact, not too long ago, I even decided to give up the search and sell the copies I had of Rain. The search seemed that hopeless.

Then a few months after selling the issues I had, I started to see copies of some Cavewoman trades showing up online and my interest was rekindled. I managed to snag a slightly used, but still in great shape, copy of the original series trade. Finally I had the original story that tells how little Meriem Cooper ended up traveling back to prehistoric times with her Gramp, and how he'd ensured she could survive both the trip back in time and the prolonged stay back in the time of dinosaurs. And also how her hometown of Marshville, Ore., managed to be transported back in time as well several years later.

I also came across and bought a brand new copy of the Rain trade collection. Likely, I paid a tad too much for that one, but it arrived not too long ago, and I'm reading it now. This trade even solved the mystery of that missing issue No. 3 that must not have advanced the Rain plot much at all. It seems issue No. 3 was an interlude that had nothing really to do with the SEVEN-part Rain saga. It was merely stuck there in the middle and got numbered as if it was a chapter, but it wasn't.

Anyway, I haven't quite made it to the end of Rain yet, but once I finish it for the first time, I've also found a trade collection of Cavewoman: Missing Link, adding a third cavewoman story to my collection.

Now, Cavewoman is not for everyone. There are brief bits of nudity, and there can be a lot of gore — both of the human and dino variety — so it isn't really an all-ages book. But it is very pretty to look at, and Root's tales have a charming, storybook quality beyond the cheesecake factor that make them equally fun to read.

If you're unfamiliar with the series but want to give it a try, order with care as the character has proven to be popular enough that in addition to the great stories, there are also several Cavewoman-themed pin-up books out there featuring great — but often adult — art based on the series by Budd Root and a number of other talented creators.

Still Pretty Raw. Same Great Human Drama.

The first time we talked about Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead was here. As we discussed then, TWD is not your typical zombie tale, but it IS a very well-written and beautifully illustrated character study. At that point I had read the first three trade collections representing the first 18 issues of the monthly comic. Since then, I've bought and read the next seven trades, making me current through 10 collections or 60 issues, and this book is STILL incredible.

Rick Grimes is clearly the main character of this book, although Kirkman does an excellent job of giving each character his or her own voice and plenty of "screen" time. Rick is a cop, and the first issue opens with Rick and his partner in pursuit of a suspect. Rick is shot and ends up in the hospital in a coma. When he wakes up, he finds the world drastically changed, now being populated mostly by zombies. First thing Rick does is make his way home only to find the house deserted. He follows his family to Atlanta, but once there, he finds things even worse in the bigger city where even more zombies have gathered.

Fortunately, he runs into a young Asian man named Glen who has ventured into the city to gather supplies for a small group of survivors living in a camp just outside of town. Rick joins Glen in rounding up supplies, then goes back to the group, finding his wife, his young son and his partner among them. Reunited with his loved ones, Rick is content to stay with the group, but everyone in the group comes to realize they cannot safely stay in the open. So eventually, this small band of survivors hits the road seeking a defensible shelter.

Rick's group -- as he clearly becomes their de facto leader -- finds a gated community and a remote farmhouse, neither of which work out long-term, but both stops provide chances for drama, contact with more survivors, some of whom join the group, and many more zombies.

Finally, Rick's ever-changing group finds a penitentiary where they hope to set up a safe, defensible home. Of course, they first have to come to terms with the current occupants, a few surviving inmates and many, many zombies. As the small band of survivors begins to make the prison into a safe, secure home, Kirkman allows the reader to share in the characters' growing sense of contentment. You, like the characters, let your guard down, which makes it all the more powerful when Kirkman slams another large band of survivors into the mix with Rick's group.

I'll stop there in an attempt to keep the spoilers to a minimum, but as I said last time, I'm not a huge fan of zombie fare. The usual undead trappings are present in this story, because it IS a zombie tale. But it is also so much more than that. This is a solid human survival drama, and Kirkman is writing some of the best characterization I have seen from him. Once again, I highly recommend The Walking Dead!

The Name. The Name Doomed It.

I don't always pay that much attention to story arc titles. Some, like "Batman and Son" from a few years ago, can tell you instantly what the upcoming tale is all about; some, like "Without Fear," play on phrases or traits associated with a specific character; some, like "Shadow Puppets" may even be somewhat cliche and appear over and over again; and some, like "Fruit of the Earth" can just leave you scratching your head and wondering. The saddest title of all, though, is one which instantly makes you anticipate greatness that the following read doesn't quite live up to.

I have always liked the Spider-Man story, "Fearful Symmetry," by J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck. What's that? You're not familiar with that story? Sure you are, but maybe you know it by it's more popular title — "Kraven's Last Hunt." Fearful Symmetry is the original title DeMatteis gave the story, according to his foreword in the recent hardback collection, and that name DOES appear in the original issues, but Marvel editorial thought Kraven's Last Hunt sounded better.

Whatever you call this story, it is a great one! I bought and read the original issues when they first came out in 1987. The story was considered special enough at the time, that it's six parts were told across all three Spider-Man titles at the time — a common enough thing today, but unheard of then. The individual issues of the story were Amazing Spider-Man Nos. 293 and 294, Spectacular Spider-Man Nos. 131 and 132 and Web of Spider-Man Nos. 31 and 32, and I still own all six of the original issues I bought back then, though several repeat readings have left them looking a little worn.

DeMatteis and Zeck take what previously had been just another Spider-Man villain and made him great. They portrayed Kraven the Hunter as a tortured soul who has finally reached his end. He sets out to capture Spider-Man, bury him in the ground and replace him. Not satisfied just to defeat his foe, Kraven seeks to out-Spider-Man Spider-Man, to be better at superheroing that Spidey. To that end, Kraven captures another Spider-foe, Vermin. Then, when Spider-Man returns from the grave, Kraven savors his victory with a finality that was truly shocking for comics at the time. The story plays out on a psychological level even moreso than it does on a physical one, and it makes for a very powerful tale. So much so that I recently decided to shell out the big bucks required to purchase a copy of the new hardcover reprinting of the story.

Now, I haven't been following Spider-Man regularly. I've bought Spider books from time to time when one catches my eye, but his tales are more a dalliance for me than true devotion. But I DO keep my eyes open for what might be entertaining Spider reads.

When I was purchasing the hardcover reprint of Kraven's Last Hunt, I also learned there was a more recent softcover collection called Spider-Man: Kraven's First Hunt. The back cover shows a woman with a gun flanked by what appears to be Daredevil and Spider-Man chained and suspended from the ceiling upside down. So, OK, I assume that they have brought back Kraven the Hunter in the form of a female, likely the original's daughter based on her apparent age in the image. Not a reach for comics. I also assumed that with a title like "Kraven's First Hunt," this story would hearken back to that favorite tale from a few decades ago. I imagine it goes without saying that I further assumed that the story would actually live up to that title.

Most of those assumptions were proven wrong, at least to some degree, once I read "First Hunt." That image does not depict exactly what I thought it did. While the woman shown is the daughter of Kraven, there is more to her story than merely that. And finally, while the story isn't bad, it fails to live up to the name given to it, at least in my estimation.

To be fair, this trade, which collects Amazing Spider-Man Nos. 564-567 and portions of Spider-Man: Brand New Day Extra No. 1, ends on a cliffhanger and is NOT a complete story unto itself. I am mildly curious about where the story would head from the point where this trade leaves off, but I'm not sure I was happy enough with this beginning to seek out the next trade. I'm curious, but hardly dying to know, certainly not sure I care enough to plunk down money for another trade or costly back issues.

As always, if there is anyone who disagrees, dissenting opinions are welcome here. Opinions are not absolutes, mine are not always right, and they are rarely carved in stone. Anyone out there care to defend "First Hunt" and share why they think it DOES live up to it's name?

Return With Us Now ...

Today we're going to talk about an odd-sized trade called High Moon by David Gallaher, Steve Ellis and Scott O. Brown published by Zuda Comics. Now, Zuda Comics is DC's online branch, and I've never been too fond of online comics. I've followed a few over the years, but never for long periods of time because either they go away or I do. When I do, it usually isn't because the comics are bad — quite the contrary — I just don't have the time at work to devote to them sometimes, and let's face it, at work is when I squeeze in most of my online time.

Anyway, some of the Zuda concepts sounded interesting to me, and since DC/Zuda were kind enough to release their online product in these neat little 6 x 8.5 trades, I decided to give some of them a try. Bayou is actually the first Zuda trade I purchased, but it got tossed on the "when I get to it" pile and I simply haven't gotten around to trying it yet. High Moon is my second Zuda purchase and the plot combines werewolves and cowboys! It even throws in some vampires as bad guys. Vamps as evil and werewolves as good! C'mon, how could I pass that up?!? I'm the choir these guys are preaching to!

A former Pinkerton detective named Macgregor rides into the small town of Blest, Texas, tracking a fugitive. He finds the town with its sheriff missing and a small girl kidnapped. Macgregor suspects his quarry, Eddie Conroy, might have something to do with the kidnapping, but soon finds evidence that the real culprit(s) aren't quite human. Gunfights and supernatural goings-on combine for all three chapters of this first collection as the reader meets others in the Macgregor clan.

The trade reads smoother than some episodic web comics do when collected as recaps for a daily audience are kept to a minimum in this volume. There were a few spots where Ellis's art was a little hard to follow from one panel to the next, but he does a good job of drawing his figures as distinct individuals. And the few unclear passages become clear as you read on, so the reader isn't left behind.

Short post this time for a short book, but High Moon is well worth a read, if you have the inkling. I know I'm watching for a follow-up collection, myself.

To Know Her Is To Fear Her

Believe it or not, that fear tagline above was printed at the top of each issue of Spider-Woman, not some Marvel monster book from the 1970s. But reading the character's beginnings in Essential Spider-Woman Vol. 1, I learned that the character owes just as much to those great old Marvel monster books as she does to the spandex set.

Much has been made of the convoluted origin and back story of Jessica Drew, alias Spider-Woman. In recent years, writers such as Brian Michael Bendis have tried to streamline Jessica's back story and bring the character back to prominence in the Marvel Universe. So I knew, or thought I did, a little of how she was first introduced as a villain, an agent of the international terrorist organization Hydra, who later became a hero and was ret-conned as being always a hero, working for Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. as a double-agent planted in Hydra. That's an oversimplification, but essentially my understanding before reading this great Essential volume. Now, I see that it was waaay more convoluted than that.

Jessica does start life as a pawn of Hydra in Marvel Spotlight No. 32 (February 1977) dispatched by that organization to slay Nick Fury. In a tale written by Archie Goodwin and illustrated by Sal Buscema and Jim Mooney, Spider-Woman is revealed to be a secret weapon held prisoner by Hydra and brainwashed into being loyal to the organization. She fails her mission to slay Fury, being overcome by doubts about what she is ordered to do, and is betrayed by her fellow Hydra agents. Spider-Woman is left believing that she was one of the New Men created by a villain known as the High Evolutionary, who mutated various animals to make them more human-like. Spider-Woman believes she only appears human, but began life as a real spider. Also, her costume is slightly different in these early appearances, completely covering her head — except for the area around her mouth and chin — and sporting a black back.

Just a few months later, in July 1977, Marv Wolfman and Ron Wilson take up Spider-Woman's tale in the pages of Marvel Two-In-One Nos. 29-33. This book matched Ben Grimm, the Thing from the Fantastic Four, with other Marvel heroes. Initially, Thing and Shag-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, are battling Hydra, and Spider-Woman comes on the scene. At first, she is again a pawn of Hydra, but her encounters with the Thing again make Spider-Woman question her loyalty to Hydra, and eventually she breaks from the group and sides with the Thing and a modern-day incarnation of Modred the Mystic. With the Hydra cell finally defeated, along with some other criminals along the way, Modred agrees to unlock Spider-Woman's hidden memories to reveal her true origin, which he does off-panel.

Readers had to wait a few more months, until April 1978 and the debut of Spider-Woman No. 1, to find out what Modred revealed. It seems that Spider-Woman was born human and named Jessica Drew. Her father created a serum to help protect mankind from radiation by using the blood of a spider, since spiders are immune to radiation. Jessica's family, along with another scientist named Herbert Wyndham, moved to a place called Wundagore Mountain to complete their researches. The site was chosen for its rich uranium deposits, needed for the men's work, but which, over time, caused Jessica to become deathly ill. The only way to save the girl is to inject her with Dr. Drew's spider serum, but it works too slowly to save Jessica in time. Wyndham suggests also placing Jessica in his genetic accelerator to speed up the healing properties of the serum. After much time in the accelerator, Jessica is revived by the High Evolutionary (previously known as Herbert Wyndham), and her powers are put to use by him in his organization, Hydra.

Jessica has the spider-like ability to cling to walls and other surfaces. She is immune to most radiations, and becomes immune to any poison or toxin after a single exposure. She also is able to generate a bio-electric "sting" of varying intensity. Finally, her costume is made with light-weight filament glider webs which allow her to glide on air currents, simulating flight.

All of those powers sound like a typical superhero, but as I mentioned above, Spider-Woman's solo title tried to play up the horror aspects of the character at first. Jessica's natural pheromones were changed by her transformation, so that many people reacted to her presence with a strong sense of unease. Werewolf By Night, Jack Russell, made guest appearances in Spider-Woman twice in her first 25 issues. And the villains Spider-Woman tended to run into were of the creepy variety, too. She had more run-ins with Hydra, of course, but there was also a Kali-worshipping death cult, a serial killer made up like a circus clown, a flesh-devouring muck-monster and a pair of possessed "dolls" among her most troublesome opponents. She also had a confrontation with Morgan Le Fay and a recurring alliance with a Merlin-like sorcerer.

Aside from her earlier alliance with the Thing and her attack on Nick Fury, the only other superhero she crossed paths with early on was, of course, Spider-Man. But even that somewhat obvious match-up didn't occur until issue No. 20 of Spider-Woman's own title, more than two years after her debut. And she and Webhead didn't really even get along when they DID finally meet.

All-in-all, Essential Spider-Woman Vol. 1 was a great read and an interesting Marvel history lesson. Most definitely not what I expected when I bought it, but in a good way!

You Can't Judge A Book By It's Cover (Or It's First Issue)

Whenever possible, I like to try new books by reading the first trade or several issues, enough to get a good feel for the story. That doesn't apply to everything, of course; if they launched a new Aquaman book or Nightwing book or Titans book, odds are I'm there from the first issue, and sold on each subsequent issue unless they are just awful, and maybe even then. But any new concept for which I have no prior knowledge, I try to be fair and give the book a solid chance to grab me.

I wasn't always so generous with my time and money.

I've mentioned in passing before that I've always liked the old Turok, Son of Stone series by Dell/Gold Key. At my youngest, it was likely mostly the dinosaurs which drew my attention. As I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate many things from different American Indian cultures, so there's the appeal of two competent Native American leads, as well. While I haven't gotten around to reading them yet, I was excited by the prospect and quickly snatched up the first three Turok Archives published by Dark Horse Comics in the last few years. The only reason I haven't yet bought Archive editions 4, 5 and 6, also available, is the cost. But I'll likely get them eventually.

Turok's adventures did not end with the publication of Turok, Son of Stone No. 130, the final issue of the series, however. In the 1990s, Jim Shooter's Valiant Comics bought the licenses to several of the original Dell/Gold Key characters and began publishing new adventures for them, including Turok, Dinosaur Hunter. This series debuted in 1993, well after I discovered my first comics specialty shop, and so I knew of its pending debut ahead of time, and had my copy of the first issue reserved. And when it arrived and I sat down to enjoy it, I was quite underwhelmed. In fact, I was VERY confused.

Turok, Dinosaur Hunter, No. 1 was obviously NOT the next comic to feature the character following Turok, Son of Stone, No. 130. Much of the first issue of this new series was Turok recalling, in flashback, a series of events that made little sense to me at the time. To make matters worse, the end result was Turok being dropped into modern times for this new series, along with a bunch of mechanically enhanced bionic-dinosaurs. That most definitely was not what I had signed on for, and I didn't pick up another issue of the series.

Until recently, of course.

Otherwise, what's the point of this post, right?

Well, thanks once again to the comics-themed podcasts I've been listening to, my interest in the Valiant series was rekindled, and I decided to give them a try when the opportunity presented itself. Since Valiant went out of business after just a few short years, I don't think any of the Turok issues were ever collected into trade format. But I came across a small lot of early Valiant Turok issues on eBay recently. The lot wasn't a consecutive run, but the price was right, so that I opted to overlook the missing parts and look at these issues as a sampling. Included in the deal were issue Nos. 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7.

I re-read the first issue and was quickly reminded of what must surely have turned me off the first time around. David Michelinie was the writer for the book, and he usually does a fair job. Bob Layton was the book's editor, and he, too, has done many books I've liked. But I still wasn't a fan of the bionic dinosaurs, and the page after page of recap was still a little hard to follow. To make matters worse, none of the recap events have editor's boxes or reference of any kind to let someone new know where to find more on the information provided. If you are a regular follower of a book or character, references to what issues or titles contained past events can be a drag sometimes. But not everyone IS a devoted follower of every character they pick up.
One advantage the subsequent years have brought me in dealing with this first issue of Turok, Dinosaur Hunter, is that I now recognize some of the other characters in Turok's flashback sequences when I didn't back in 1993. They are other Valiant characters, so I deduced that maybe this was some big company-wide crossover, likely a title I knew nothing about beyond the fact that it WAS a Valiant company-wide crossover title. That book was called Unity. So, I'm guessing that reading that book MIGHT give me more insight into how Turok went from the Lost Valley of the Dell/Gold Key books to modern times. If any of you kiddie cops reading this can help me track down what came between, I'm definitely interested in your input.

But continuing on with the rest of my purchase, it began to seem that many of the elements I despised most about this new book quickly went away. I didn't have No. 2, but No. 3 seemed to wrap up that first story arc, and indicate that maybe the bionic dinosaurs would go away with the end of that arc. And sure enough, issue No. 4 brought a new writer, Tim Truman, and nary a trace of bionics anywhere. There were dinosaurs, yes, but normal ones. The government assigns a scientist "handler" to follow Turok, and he goes on missions to investigate possible dinosaur sightings, some of the huge lizards having made the journey from the Lost Valley the same way Turok did. Turok even finds Andar, although his former youthful companion is now much older, having arrived back in the real world much earlier than Turok did. Turok agrees to teach "the old ways" to Andar's grandson, also named Andar, and the character almost seems to have come full circle.

After this new try-out buy, I am ready to dip my feet into more of Valiant's run of Turok, so I'll be looking for additional back issues of this series. I'll let you know, if I find any, what I think in future posts. And again, if anyone out there has info on other Turok appearances, please let me know. Until next time, Happy Collecting!!

Peeling Onions Makes Me Cry; But They're Tears Of Joy

Last time in the bullet reviews, I briefly talked about a book called Wolfskin. While not a bad tale, really, there just wasn't enough in the main protagonist of the story to make me care enough to come back for more. Today, we're going to discuss a similarly sparse book that doesn't reveal too much about its main characters too quickly, but which got the opposite reaction from me. There wasn't much back story here at all, but what I did get only made me hungry for more.

But before we get into the book itself, let's first discuss how I came to try the book. I'm not exactly a podcast newbie, but I also had very limited experience with them before about 18 months ago. I follow comic-related news on Newsarama, among other sites, and had seen and heard Word Balloon by John Siuntres, but had only listened to current episodes on my computer. Then my lovely wife, Cathy, bought me my first iPod just over a year ago. I started listening to previous Word Balloon episodes, but iTunes also introduced me to a number of other great comic-themed podcasts. They make great listening while I'm out walking the dog around the neighborhood trying to lose a few pounds.

One of these podcasts, I apologize but I forget which one specifically, included a lengthy interview with Richard Starkings of Comicraft and, of course, dealt with his then new book Elephantmen. I'd heard of Elephantmen before and was curious about the concept. Most reviews I'd heard or read were quite favorable. But hearing Starkings himself talk about the book made me really want to try and like it.

So I bought the first trade collecting the first seven issues of Elephantmen.

The story takes place a few hundred years in the future. There are genetically engineered animals who walk upright, wear clothing and speak living among humans. They are not an unusual sight for the time period, but neither are they universally accepted as equals by all men. They were originally created to be soldiers, and were for some time considered to be the property of the company which created them. That ended suddenly when the government decided that the elephantmen were being mistreated by their corporate masters (which was true) and decided to set them free ("OK, you're free; have a nice life; don't call us for help.") Oh, and despite the name "elephantmen," they aren't all anthropomorphized elephants; there's an elephant, a rhino, a hippo, a warthog, a crocodile and a camel that I've seen prominently, and there's a zebra on the cover.

That's kind of the nuts and bolts of what I know so far. Like I said earlier, not a lot of info. And all of that was gathered in the initial premise and in dribs and drabs of back story as it become relevant to the current storyline. Starkings does an excellent job of filling you in just what you need to know when you need to know it, but making the back story stuff fit seemlessly into the story arc. You learn about these characters' pasts like you would a real person's -- a bit at a time. But what he has revealed makes me want to know more.

For instance, I've learned that the hippo, Agent Hip Flask who works for some government sponsored organization, has had one or two story arcs that precede the Elephantmen title. He seems like a very interesting character, so I definitely want to go back and check out the Hip Flask trades. The main focus character in this trade is the elephant, Ebony, who works with Hip Flask. But we also follow the croc, Elijah, a less than likable hired-muscle kind of guy, and the rhino, Obadiah, who appears to be a captain of industry, but in the modern Lex Luthor vein.

Theirs is a layered tale. On the surface, not much has happened in these first seven issues. Ebony meets a little human girl, who later comes to see him in the hospital after he has been hurt on a mission and she has run away from home. Hip, on another mission, is waylaid by Elijah, and winds up in the hospital through the timely assistance of a young cabbie, who later comes to check up on him. These two humans serve as the reader's point-of-view characters as we learn more about Ebony and Hip, both through what they share with their new-found friends, and what they keep secret. Along the way, we're also given glimpses of the near past for these elephantmen, as well as more insights into the personalities of Elijah and Obadiah. Starkings packs a lot into each of these issues, and the art by Moritat and others is just incredible.

This trade is well worth checking out, and as I said previously, has prompted me to seek out more. I have the second Elephantmen trade on order; the third will be solicited soon, I believe; and I also plan to seek out Hip Flask: Unnatural Selection and Hip Flask: Concrete Jungle.

Good comics, Kiddie Cops!

Reviewing 'Em Old School

One of the duties I have at the newspaper for which I work out in the real world is to generate the opinion pages, a portion of which is devoted to various columnists. In my capacity as a page designer/copy editor, I absolutely hate columns that have no central theme, but are instead just a collection of random thoughts and musings on a variety of topics. For one thing, such columns make it very hard to write a concise, all-inclusive headline. But as a writer, I have to concede that not only do they serve an occasional purpose, such columns can be downright useful sometimes.

As I've stated previously, I don't intend to discuss absolutely every comic I've read in this forum — let's face it, with the amount of comics I buy, just one comic each week would be way too slow a reading pace; I'd be buried under unread books in no time — waitaminnit! I already AM buried under unread books!!

Anyway, I have no intention of discussing every single comic I read. There are also some books I might wish to comment on, but for which I really don't have enough to say to fill up an entire post. So today, we have a collection of short thoughts on several recent reads, kind of like some of the older posts where I just did a collection of bullet-style reviews.

But enough intro, let's get to the comics; after all, that's why we're all here, right?

The Brave and the Bold No. 28 (DC Comics) — I really liked the relaunch of this book by Mark Waid and George Perez. After their initial run, the book became a bit more hit-and-miss, as anthologies often are. But J. Michael Straczynski has breathed new life into this book once again. This issue uses a Flash-Facts-type science experiment to drop Barry Allen with a broken leg into the past, specifically, a battle between Nazi soldiers and the Blackhawks. The World War II fighter pilots and contemporary speedster are far from an obvious pairing, but Straczynski manages to make the tale both done-in-one and great fun. The book combines all of the fun of a shared universe and a shared continuity, but without getting bogged down in all of the minutia that can often entail. I hope his run is long and prosperous on this book.

Warren Ellis: Wolfskin (Avatar) — This hardcover collection is not actually numbered, but it is the first collection of the first three/four issues of this gritty lone warrior tale. I believe there are very few actual bad comics; just because I don't care for a story or character doesn't mean that no one does. Some of what I like might not be your exact cup of tea, and just because I didn't care for this collection doesn't mean it will have no audience. It's not so much that this warrior's tale is so gritty or that the art is so graphic and bloody. That also describes Kick-Ass, which I did like. Rather, I just didn't care much for the central character or the dilemma he is faced with after wandering upon a village and slaying several armed attackers. Seems they attacked because they are at war with their neighbors and mistook the wanderer for one of their enemy's agents. By slaying so many warriors, our hero has now left this village at a severe disadvantage in their war, so he must decide if he will ignore their pleas or fight for them. Ellis is a good enough writer, I'm sure there is much more character development to come, but there's just not enough early on to make me care for this guy or wonder about him much. Without that initial interest, I don't care to continue buying to read more.

Gotham City Sirens No. 5 (DC Comics) — No surprises here. This title is just good comics, as I expected it would be. Paul Dini first proved his Batman chops on Batman: The Animated Series in the mid-90s. He not only GOT the Dark Knight Detective, but he seemed to have an affinity for some of the related-female characters. (He's much of the reason I'm looking forward to DC's upcoming Zatanna series.) This book features Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Dini's creation from BTAS, Harley Quinn, as the three femme fatales get an apartment together and enjoy Gotham City living. The book, like many of Dini's works, mixes drama, action and humor in just the right quantities to make a truly fun read.

Wonder Woman (third series) No. 37 (DC Comics) — I was really looking forward to Gail Simone taking over this book, but I've been kinda underwhelmed since I got that wish fulfilled. I like Simone as a writer. She was just as excellent as series creator Chuck Dixon on Birds of Prey when she took over writing that book. Her work on the Secret Six ongoing series is disturbingly brilliant, surpassing the excellent first mini and the somewhat lackluster second mini. Something just seems to be off with her portrayal of Princess Diana for me, though, and I can't put my finger on what it is. I haven't hated any of the story arcs, but I haven't been anxious for each new issue, either. Here's hoping Diana is returned to prominence in my collection when J. Michael Straczynski takes over with issue No. 600.

Heroes tpbs 1 and 2 (DC Comics) — These collections suffered in spite of themselves for me. I bought the first trade when it came out, sometime around the middle of Season 2 of the television show which inspired these web comics, but it went on the stack of trades that needed to be read sometime. A few months ago, the second collection was released, and I decided to go ahead and read both even though the third season of the TV show has lost me completely. There are some truly solid stories here, some featuring characters from the show, but many of the best tales in these collections have little to do with the actual characters seen on-screen each week. They exist in the same shared universe, but operate independently from the show, having little or nothing to do with actual episodes. But overall, these collections fell a little flat for me as the TV show has done.

That's it for this week, kiddie cops; more next time.

Unsung Heroes

Booster Gold is a loser from the future who stole some technology and inserts himself into the past where he hopes to cash in and strike it rich.

I never really read Booster's adventures much in his first solo book. That lack of familiarity made it easy to just accept the idea that the character was a bit of a joke and move on. Most of what I DID know of him came from the occasional Justice League books I read during the "Bwa-ha-ha" days, or his few guest-appearances in other heroes' books and crossover events. In those cases, Booster's buffoonishness was played up all the more. So, he was a bit of a one-trick pony for me, and not all that much of a trick was ever really expected from him.

My first inkling that there could be more to Booster was his star appearance in the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Greatest Story Never Told." In this episode, the entire Justice League is engaged, mostly off-camera, battling the wizard Mordru. The senior members of the League seem to think of Booster much the same as I always had, and thus assign him to handle "crowd control." In the episode, Booster bemoans this assignment as beneath him and longs for the front lines of the battle where he can show-off. Collateral damage from the main battle causes a S.T.A.R. Labs experiment to go awry, and Booster is forced to handle a situation which could prove even more disastrous than Mordru's attack, but of which no one else is even aware.

I have no idea if this episode had any influence on what was to come, but it foreshadowed changes in Booster's mission in the comic books, as he was about to become the "greatest hero the world has never known."

These changes are set-up in the pages of 52, where Time Master Rip Hunter begins to work with Booster, and continues into the 2007 re-launch of Booster's own title. Now, Booster must monitor and correct time anomalies in the past, present and future, policing the DC Universe time stream from threats great and small. And all the while, he must maintain that buffoonish image, so that time villains will not suspect him and move to eliminate the threat he poses to their nefarious plans.

This is the kind of concept that could go horribly off the rails quite easily -- time-travel stories can cause anyone to suffer from headaches and continuity snafus -- but here things are handled by some very talented and capable creators. Geoff Johns was one of the architects of 52, and he and Jeff Katz wonderfully guided the first year's worth of the re-launched Booster series. They were wonderfully assisted by Dan Jurgens, creator of Booster Gold, first on art chores, and later when Jurgens assumed the writing responsibilities shortly after Johns and Katz left the book.

The plots may sound quite complicated and confusing, but wonderfully imaginative tales are told, often touching on events that at least this reader found near and dear to his heart. Initially, Booster only agrees to help Rip Hunter police time if he is first allowed to save his friend, Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle, from being gunned down in the run-up to Infinite Crisis. Rip tries to explain to Booster that time can't be changed like that, in fact, this is the very kind of thing Rip wants Booster to help prevent. But Booster won't listen, goes back in time, saves Ted, and returns to a present very much altered.

Other time-correcting jaunts involve the crippling of Batgirl Barbara Gordon at the hands of the Joker and the initial meeting between the New Teen Titans and Deathstroke the Terminator. In the earlier adventure, Booster tries to save Batgirl from her fate, again only to learn that no matter how hard he tries, he is unable to change how things were "meant" to be. In the latter, an evil adversary travels back in time to assist the first Ravager and Deathstroke to defeat the Titans in their first meeting. With the Titans slain, no one was prepared the first time Trigon the Terrible sought to conquer the heroes' dimension, and the Justice League, as well as most solo heroes, all fall to the inter-dimensional demon. These story arcs were presented well and involved characters and events that I enjoyed the first time around. They do nothing to detract from the original tales; in fact, these new stories were like visiting old friends and reliving common memories from new angles.

I'd be very happy to see this kind of story continue, especially from Jurgens and current artist Norm Rapmund. But alas, that is not meant to be. A new creative team and a new direction for the title are set to begin. Possibly the new creators will find an equally successful direction for Booster Gold, but I've grown fond of the time-traveling, unsung hero he became for a few short years.

You Look Mahvelous!

What's the difference between the DC Universe and the Marvel Universe? The heroes in the DC Universe are, with few exceptions, bright and cheery god-like beings who have the respect and admiration of the citizenry, whereas the heroes of the Marvel Universe are just as likely to be misunderstood and reviled for their heroic acts as appreciated. Some, most notably mutants and Spider-Man, are even feared by a sizable chuck of the MU populace.

I can't take credit for that observation, but I know a good point when I hear it. Apparently, so does Kurt Busiek. The fear and loathing denizens of the MU often have for their heroes is one of the central themes of his 2009 limited series, Marvels: Eye of the Camera.

This book is a sequel to Busiek's Marvels series which also featured beautiful painted artwork by Alex Ross. Jay Anacleto handles the artwork chores on this new book and does a fantastic job following in Ross's photo-realistic painting style. The artwork alone in these books is simply breath-taking.

The first book, for those who don't know (and shame on you, if you don't; run out and get a copy of the trade right away, if you don't already own this book), centers on photojournalist Phil Sheldon. Sheldon was a celebrated photog during World War II, capturing fantastic images of soldiers in combat, as well as some of that generation's better-known celebrities like the original Human Torch; Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner; and Captain America and Bucky. Sheldon is getting older and feeling less-than satisfied by his life and career when the new age of heroes begins with the advent of the Fantastic Four. Invigorated with a new sense of purpose, Sheldon chronicles the debut of this team and the other Marvels who follow -- Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men and others. Many of the great moments of Marvel Comics history are revisited in the series through the lens of this man's camera as he captures the sense of wonder the average person must have felt with such events going on around him.

Ever since the book was released, fans have clamored for a sequel, and Eye of the Camera is it. This new story re-visits just enough of the previous territory to catch new readers up to speed, enabling this series to stand on it's own. From there, it continues Sheldon's story as he marvels at how quickly the public turns on its heroes, one day embracing them as saviors and the next criticizing them for not doing more, not helping enough, or suspecting them of having less than pure motives.

The heroes of this second tale are the same Marvel heroes readers know and love, reliving more great events from Marvel history, but they are also the victims of rumors and smear campaigns along the way. Sheldon assigns himself the task of defending the heroes and blasting their sometime-worshipers/sometime-critics.

Both books are solid reads with truly inspiring artwork. They work as fantastic, entertaining fiction for the uninitiated, or avenues to revisit favorite scenes in a new light for longtime Marvel fans. Kudos to all involved. These books are great comics!

Great Expectations

I want a director's cut of DC Comics' The Mighty by Peter J. Tomasi, Keith Champagne and Chris Samnee. Well, OK, not a "director's cut" exactly -- I guess in comics we call them an Absolute edition. I want to get inside the creators' heads on this story.

First a little set-up: Tomasi sold me on this book, so I tend to credit/blame him solely for it, and for that, I apologize to co-creator Champagne and artist Samnee. I've seen both their names attatched to other projects I've liked, and feel they do solid work, as a rule. But I bought this book because Tomasi was one of the writers, and I was on a Tomasi high at the time of the book's debut last year.

Peter J. Tomasi was an editor on several DC books who decided he wanted to write and bring forth some of his own ideas first-hand. His first writing gig for me was when he took over the reigns of Green Lantern Corps. I don't hate Green Lanterns, but I also don't seek them out on a whim, but I was getting into the Corps book, as well as the main GL title, in the run-up to Blackest Night. And Tomasi was doing a good job; he had a huge cast of characters but was still telling interesting individual stories. He made me care about some of these alien GLs I'd never even heard about before. Then he blew me away taking over writing for Nightwing after Marv Wolfman. Tomasi got Nightwing, if not in EXACTLY the same way I do, at least in a way that felt right to me. Tomasi's Dick Grayson acted like he had spent a great deal of time learning under the Batman and leading the Titans but was still his own person, capable on his own and capable of being lighter in tone than Batman while still more serious than Changeling/Beast Boy. Tomasi's run on Nightwing was cut way too short by the companywide One Year Later event.

So along comes The Mighty. I don't recall if this is true or not, but when The Mighty was first solicited, I was under the impression that it would be an ongoing series, not the 12-issue limited series it became. Take a Superman-like character and introduce him to a world without superheroes of any kind -- been done before many, many times. But I was willing to give the book a try based on what I'd seen so far from this writer. The first couple issues introduce the main characters. They convey a sense of wonder at this being, Alpha One, with all these abilities and his fantastic origin, all seen through the eyes of the "point-of-view" character, Gabriel Cole, the person all of us kids who grew up reading comics want to be and can identify with.

When the book starts to take a somewhat darker turn, hinting that things may not be all that they seem, I again recognized a familiar plot twist that has been done to death. But even "supposed hero has a hidden, dark agenda" can be done well when handled by a writer (or writers) who really knows his craft. That was the case here. Hints were dropped, tidbits revealed, but in a way that you wanted to know more, you suspected where you were being led but became engrossed in the journey and the way the tale unraveled so that you were hooked for the full ride. I even began to suspect that Alpha One's "dark agenda" might ultimately have a perfectly normal explanation, something which would make all he had done seem perfectly rational in this new light, some knowledge he had that we, like Cole, weren't privy to.

Maybe that's where things got derailed a bit.

I became so invested in this story along the way, I began to project where I thought the story was headed. With each new "bad" action by Alpha One, I began to thrill more at the explanation I became certain was coming but couldn't see how it would make sense. I wanted this book to surprise me at the end with honest justifications for Alpha One's actions that would justify him as a hero once again, in not only my eyes, but Cole's, too. When that didn't come, the actual ending of the story, as nice as it was, left me feeling a little underwhelmed.

Don't get me wrong: this is a good story, and I recommend it as such. But I can't shake the feeling that the ending doesn't quite live up to the beginning and middle for me. Maybe that's just me because it didn't end how I thought it might. Maybe that's because it ended prematurely if this was intended to be an ongoing series that got canceled. The ending it has certainly could lend itself to sequels or continuation of some sort.

That's why I want an Absolute edition of The Mighty. I want to know what Tomasi and Champagne were intending, if they considered other directions and lengths for the story. I guess I'm still looking for that "more satisfying" ending somewhere in their notes, thoughts or musings. Of course, your mileage may vary.

Thank You, Sir, May I Have Another

Today, I'm going to talk a bit about a series that isn't even being published right now. But there are plenty of trades available, so if what I have to say sparks an interest, rush out and buy some of those, thus maybe signaling to the publishers involved that they should devote some of their budgets to producing more.

The comic in question is Fallen Angel by writer Peter David. This book began its life in 2003 at DC Comics, believe it or not, but it was set apart from the DC Universe proper. We don't get much of the title character's back story at first, but we do know that her "code name" is literal. A former guardian angel, Lee has great strength and a number of other unique abilities. We know a disagreement between her and her former "boss" led to her fall, and that she is basically a good person, but she is not quite happy with life or its circumstances. We see glimpses of Lee's life during the day where she works as a gym instructor for a local girls' school. But most of the stories revolve around Lee's nights in a city know as Bete Noire.

Bete Noire is of vague location and populated by a number of colorful characters. There's Benny, who seems to be a street bum but is in reality the serpent from the original Eden story. There's Dolf, the German bar owner who looks after Lee sometimes and serves as her closest confidant, but also may be one of history's most notorious figures. And there's the Magistrate, the local authority in Bete Noire, who both controls events in the city and is controlled by them.

Lee spends her nights in this desolate city of last resort, often drinking in Dolf's bar. Occasionally, some poor soul will come to Bete Noire seeking the assistance of one called the Fallen Angel. If Lee chooses to listen to the person's story, and if she chooses to care, she might help the person with whatever problem has brought them to Bete Noire.

The existence of superheroes would muddy the waters somewhat in a book like this, where most things are of the real world, with only an occasional intrusion by the spiritual or supernatural. The book was quite a good one but only lasted 20 issues despite the great stories by David and the fantastic art by David Lopez. The problem, I think, was that the book had trouble placing itself. The supernatural aspects of the story line and the more mature themes would have made this an excellent Vertigo title and would have led to the book getting into the hands of more readers who I think would've appreciated it for what it was. Instead, the decision was made to brand this a mainstream DC title instead. But the absence of costumed heroes, even in cameos, killed the book's chances with the superhero crowd. Obviously, I believe there to be overlap between the two audiences, I'm proof of that, but apparently not enough to save this worthwhile title.

Thankfully, when DC canceled the book, it was picked up by IDW Publishing. They relaunched the title under the same name with a new No. 1 in 2005. Wisely, IDW opted not to change much of the format. The book jumped ahead several years in time with the change, but the stories were still in the same vein by the same writer. David Lopez didn't make the switch; if memory serves, he had an exclusive contract with DC at the time. But Peter David and IDW replaced him with J.K. Woodward who provided both painted covers and painted interiors.

This series continued the story of Lee and Bete Noire, adding in a new twist with Lee's adult son, a character who had just been born about the time the DC series ended. We get to see more of Lee's background in this series, including the event which led to her fall. We are also introduced to more characters who have known Lee longer and to whom she is not such a mystery, which helps the reader learn more about her along the way.

This series, too, was canceled, this time after 33 issues, but it didn't go away completely. The final issue promised the series would be back with a new story arc in a limited series. That series, Fallen Angel: Reborn, materialized in 2009. It matched Lee up with a character named Illyria from the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" television program and comics. I'm not very familiar with either incarnation of Buffy, so the Fallen Angel series was my first exposure to Illyria, but David does an excellent job incorporating what you need to know about the character into the current story. This latest FA series, because of its dual focus, wasn't quite as good as the earlier FA titles, in my humble opinion, but it was still a good story. It gave a tad more character development to Illyria than to Lee, which might be fine for Buffy fans, but left me wanting more Fallen Angel stories.

At this point, I'm not sure if there are more Fallen Angel stories coming or not. I've heard indications that other limited series will continue, but to date, nothing new has been solicited. I truly hope David is not done with the character as there is still a great deal of story potential in Lee. But the stories presented thus far are solid reads well worth your time. And hey, if my hawking the past trades gets someone to take notice and produce more Fallen Angel comics, we all benefit, right?

Nasty. Raw. Brutal. Excellent.

We've talked here before about characterization and it's importance to story-telling. The characters have to be people the reader cares about for reading and enjoying to occur. The characters that populate Image Comics' Walking Dead series by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn literally come alive with their characterizations.

The series, for those unfamiliar with it, involves a cop who wakes up from a coma to find no one around but zombies. He has no idea where the zombies came from or what the heck is going on, but he sets out to track down his family and finds other survivors among the many Walking Dead. But this is more than just a typical zombie horror-fest. Kirkman describes the book as "the zombie movie that never ends," focusing not so much on the zombies themselves, but the living folk trying to stay that way. "I want to explore how people deal with extreme situations and how these events CHANGE them," he adds. "This is a very character driven endeavor."

Is it ever.

I'd heard good things about the book and was curious to try it. When I read rave reviews for something online, it is often hit or miss whether or not I will like it, and I DON'T care so much for zombie movies. So I decided to really give the series a try if I was going to try it at all. I bought the first three trades, collecting all of the first 18 issues of the series. If at the end of that, I still didn't like it, no one could say I hadn't given it a chance. I read all three trades in one weekend.
I could hardly put it down. The drama is intense. The action is exciting. The artwork and the gray tones are brilliant. And, as promised, the writing focuses on strong characters you come to care about as they try to survive in this world they barely understand. There are zombies, but they are more minor characters, almost scenery sometimes, for the main characters to play against.

Those first three trades were so good, I quickly found the fourth and fifth collections. I just read those two in two sittings recently, only pausing in between to go to work, and that only because my wife insisted I must. I have the next six trades -- Nos. 6-11 on order. When they get here, I fully expect to devour them hungrily and then die from waiting the many long months before the 12th collection is released.

This book is awesome! Check it out!!

And do so quickly, before these characters invade your television set in Ocotber. That's right! If you haven't already heard, Kirkman is involved with the production of making The Walking Dead into an hour-long drama series for AMC. The show doesn't even begin shooting until this summer, but AMC has already pledged to debut the show in October during their Halloween-season programming.

We Need MORE Event Comics

Today, I thought I would offer up some thoughts on the Justice League. I like the idea of a Justice League, but I haven't always liked the Justice League comic books.

I like some of the classic tales from the first incarnation of the book -- Justice League of America. The idea of all these heroes banding together to fight the menaces that no one hero could handle alone. Several issues from that 20-year series are great ones.

I didn't care as much for the re-launch after Crisis on Infinite Earths -- Justice League -- or it's subsequent variations Justice League of America, Justice League America (no of), Justice League Europe, Justice League International, etc. I picked up story arcs here and there, but nothign consistently during this time.

I loved Grant Morrison's re-launch -- JLA -- in the 1990s. He returned the book to greatness with his return to the main characters of the DC Universe and his epic adventures.

The most recent relaunch of the title has been somewhat hit-and-miss for me. Back with the original name, Justice League of America, the title has had some truly great arcs, especially those penned by Dwayne McDuffie, whose run as writer of the book was all-too brief and hindered by inter-company crossovers. And I'm curious to see where the newest issues will go with this "replacement" League where Dick Grayson is Batman, and other members include Starfire, Troia and Cyborg. What can I say, the Titans fan in me is a little bit "geeked" to see so many Titans graduating into the League, even if we all know it'll only be temporary.

I'm also kind of liking the different take presented by James Robinson in Cry for Justice. The title has taken a lot of online bashing, and I don't agree with absolutely every scene. For instance, in issue No. 4, the Atom and Green Arrow are arguing over methodology. Green Arrow says, "This isn't you. This isn't the Ray Palmer that was my friend." The Atom responds, "My journey is MY journey. And I've got news for you: we may have been colleagues, but we were never friends."

This is a small example, but I think those words are a little strong for how I see these characters. They ARE friends. They may not always see eye to eye. They may disagree and even argue, but they ARE friends. But I can also live with the Atom saying this in the heat of an argument. How many times have we all said something we didn't mean or even later regretted during an argument. I'm liking this story because it treats these characters like real adults, not stereotypes or goody-goody two-dimensional characters.

And Cry for Justice is my idea of a great Justice league story because Justice League should be an event comic. I don't mean every issue has to be an over-hyped mess or have a zillion crossovers. In fact, these days, it would be more of an event not to have all of that. But Justice League should involve a story or threat so great that it justifies bringing several heroes together.

That doesn't mean you can't tell a small, character-driven story. Look at Morrison's run to dispell that silly notion. Each of his arcs involved huge events that demanded Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and more to all be involved, but he also had great bits of character development and story along the way. But very few of those stories involved a thief or a purse-snatcher. They involved events that called for a Justice League, and that's what made readers take notice of his run. Morrison's run didn't return the League to greatness by bringing the focus back to the big seven; he did it by bringing back a reason for the big seven to be involved.

Robinson doesn't have the big seven in his book, but his tale seems to get the event worthy of the League right. Here's hoping his upcoming run as scribe for the title will live up to the promise Cry for Justice makes.