The best of the bunch

The Owl trade
Dynamite Entertainment
Creators: J.T. Krul, Heubert Khan Michael, Alex Ross, Vinicius Andrade and Marshall Dillon
Release date: 2016

This book was a happy coincidence. Three other trades caught my eye while surfing the web a few months ago. I added this trade only in an effort to raise my purchase total to a level that would net me free shipping. The other three trades ended up being mere eye candy without much substance. But this gem ended up making the entire purchase worthwhile.

The story springs out of the Project Superpowers concept Dynamite used to bring back a number of characters that were no longer in print and free of any copyright constraints. I read the initial series from 2008 and wrote about it here, but in a nutshell, a huge number of golden-age comic characters were locked away in an urn for half a century before being released back into the modern world. Following the initial series, a Volume 2 version was published alongside a number of limited series spotlighting many of the characters in solo adventures.

This trade collects the four-issue limited series focused on the Owl, a vigilante from the early 1940s. Much like Batman, the Owl has no special powers or abilities in his original incarnation. Rather he had a costume meant to shock and frighten criminals and a number of themed gadgets that helped the hero keep his advantage and defeat his foes. By day, the Owl is Yorktown police detective Nick Terry, and he is frequently joined in his later adventuring by Owl Girl, his real-life girlfriend and confidante, Belle, a newspaper reporter.

Like most of the other costumed heroes trapped for decades inside the urn, the Owl emerges slightly changed. His costume is more dramatic and modern-looking, and the Owl now has some new abilities that help him stun and subdue the more jaded criminals of today. This series focuses on Terry’s efforts to fit back into society and help mankind while haunted by the past he has lost. Owl Girl was not trapped inside the urn as the Owl was, thus robbing this hero of the happy ending and possible family he’d been fighting for. His story is very much one of a man out of time trying to find his place.

Complicating matters for the Owl, is his discovery that the criminals aren’t the only ones who have changed in his absence. A new brand of hero flies through the night skies over Yorktown. And the Owl fears this new crimefighter is no better than the criminals she maims and kills with abandon.

This trade was a joy to read, and I’m glad I finally discovered it. If you aren’t familiar with Project Superpowers, everything you need to know to follow this story is right here in these pages, and J.T. Krul weaves a truly engaging tale. The artwork, while not the best I’ve seen, isn’t bad. I especially like how Heubert Khan Michael switches up his style for the flashback scenes of the Owl’s earlier life, giving those panels a true golden-age feel.

I Want To Like It So Much

Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist tpb
Eric Trautmann, writer
Daniel Indro and Ron Adrian, artists
Alex Ross, plotter and art director

Beautiful, photo-realistic covers and story concepts executed by others seems to be Alex Ross' stock-in-trade these days. The artist admits he works too slowly to handle the demands of being the sole artist on a monthly series. But when he does provide the art for the odd book from time to time, it is well worth the wait.

Adding to my appreciation for Ross' work is the fact that we are of the same mind on a number of areas of interest. Almost 15 years ago now, he collaborated on a series of picture-book style projects with Paul Dini focusing on Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman and the entire Justice League. More recently, he worked on a two-year maxi-series featuring the Justice League titled simply Justice. All of these books revealed an underlying appreciation Ross and I have in common for the old "SuperFriends" television cartoon series.

We also share a fondness for the source material for this Flash Gordon collection -- the original Alex Raymond newspaper strips, the 1979 Filmation cartoon series and the 1980 feature film starring Sam Jones, Melody Anderson and Max von Sydow. Ross cites his goal to tell the definitive Flash Gordon story, combining elements from all the previous incarnations of the character. I can appreciate that goal, and I can see the influences of each of those sources in this collected 10-issue series from Dynamite.

I also like how Ross incorporates real-world events into the story. The Flash Gordon comic strip debuted in the 1930s, so this story is also set in those times. The evil emperor Ming's advance invasion force from Mongo comes to Earth, and the aliens ally themselves with a charismatic figure who seems to be rising in power in Europe -- Adolph Hitler. While Flash, Dale Arden and Prof. Hans Zarkov are battling Ming's forces on Mongo, there are also battles going on here on Earth, between Mongo forces teamed with Nazis fighting against a resistance at least in part made up of rebels from Mongo and Ming's rule.

There is much to like about this series, and I really do appreciate a great deal of it. I think the problem comes in with this project being a little too ambitious. Some key parts of the story seem glossed over in favor of the overarching story. For instance, when Flash and his companions first travel to Mongo, they are quickly captured. Ming takes a liking to Dale and decides to keep her for himself, tries to make use of Zarkov's scientific genius for his attack on Earth, and opts to dispose of Flash by sending him to a gladiator-style tournament. Nothing new here, that is all established lore for the characters. Flash not only defeats a few opponents in the tournaments, but over time, he gains their trust and loyalty and uses them to begin forming an army to challenge Ming's tyranny.

It is an often-repeated concept simply because it is so great. And it is great to watch. But it is missing here. In just a couple pages, we see the beginning of Flash's first experience in the arena. Then some beautiful panels of random battle scenes. And then the unity has already been achieved.

Amid all of this, we get "voiceover" dialog boxes of Flash explaining the significance of the title of this collection, "Zeitgeist," which is very well written, but it's not the rallying speeches I expected to read. And this is just one example where familiar scenes are omitted simply because they are well-known. It's understood that they happened, but they are omitted here. I wish they were still there simply because they are the moments when the hero shines.

This series includes some great scenes, some incredible action, but it is missing some key things I expect from a Flash Gordon story leaving what almost feels like the Cliff's Notes version of what should be a rousing tale. Your mileage may vary, of course.

This Is Why I Like Trying New Titles

Astro City: Knock Wood and Justice Systems (Astro City tpb Vol. 5: Local Heroes)
Homage Comics/Image Comics
Kurt Busiek, writer
Brent Anderson and Alex Ross, artists

Last time out, I discussed my positive reaction to the first two trade volumes of Astro City. I felt I had a good handle on the series after reading those first two and could discuss them at least semi-intelligently. But when I decided to buy some trades to try out the series, I found a good deal and bought the first five. That left me with more to read after writing my last post.

The third collection, Confession, breaks the done-in-one tradition of the title to present a longer narrative about the Confessor and his sidekick, Altar Boy. It was a very good read, presenting some familiar archetypes and taking them in new and unexpected ways. The same goes for the fourth trade, The Tarnished Angel, collecting one longer narrative, this time looking at an aging villain in the Astro City universe. Again, a nice read I very much enjoyed.

That brings us to the fifth trade, Local Heroes. This collection returns to the shorter standalone or two-part tales about various heroes in the Astro City universe, this time focusing on a different era in time for each of the narratives. And, in all honesty, this trade is proving a little harder to get through. Maybe I'm tired of Astro City and ready to move on to something else for a bit -- time to cleanse the palate, so to speak. The stories here aren't bad, just not holding my interest as well.

Until I came to this two-parter, the sixth and seventh chapters in this collection of nine. This one had me VERY interested to see what was going to happen, which was a pleasant surprise to find.

This tale is a courtroom drama, not the kind of thing one expects to see in a comic book format very often. The central character, Vincent Oleck, as often is the case in these Astro City tales, is a nonpowered individual, a defense attorney in Astro City during the mid-1970s. Oleck is representing the son of a mobster in a murder trial. The young man, obviously not a nice man at all, is accused of beating his girlfriend to death during a fight at a local restaurant in front of several witnesses. Oleck has no doubts that his client is guilty, but it is his job to defend his client to the best of his ability. To add to Oleck's pressure, the mob boss is less than happy when the prosecution begins its case and things look pretty open-and-shut.

Oleck finally gets an idea the night before he is to begin presenting his case to the jury. It is a novel strategy that could only have a chance in a world full of people used to superheroes, and to Oleck's surprise, the gambit seems to be working. And that is when Oleck's real problems begin. No more details on this tale because I don't want to spoil it. Instead, I encourage you to seek it out and read it for yourselves. A reader doesn't need any other reference to follow this story; Busiek does a great job of giving all the relevant information right there in this story. But it is a gripping story that left me wondering about the outcome from the first few pages. But then, I should have expected more than the surface drama from this story; it says right there on page one that it is a horror story!

Truly Great Story-Telling

Astro City tpb 1: Life In the Big City/Astro City tpb 2: Family Album
Homage Comics/Image Comics
Kurt Busiek, writer
Brent Anderson and Alex Ross, artists

I've been curious about the Astro City books for a while now. It can be daunting, however, to know there is already a huge backlog of stories published when considering something new. And there were always other books that I was more certain about to fill my time. In the past, Astro City had been published sporadically, as a series of smaller minis and such, rather than as an ongoing book. But a while back, it was announced that an Astro City ongoing was ready for launch; it debuted last month, in fact. I decided it was now or never for taking the plunge, so that if I liked the series, I wouldn't just be getting farther and farther behind. So I recently went on the hunt for some of the earliest trade collections.

The conceit of this series is that superheroes are the norm on this world. They've been around for decades, and the general populace is pretty used to their existence and their adventures. That isn't to say that the average person is bored by superheroes. Just not as surprised as we might be if one suddenly showed up in our world. Many of the stories are typical superhero fare, but told from the perspective of the everyday person on the street, the office workers whose day is disrupted when a super-powered fight breaks out near their building, for instance. Or still focusing on the superhero, but more on the mundane aspects of their lives when not fighting to save the city or world. The very first story gives us a glimpse into the life of a hero named Samaritan, kind of a Superman analogue. He dreams of being able to fly. The power of flight is one of his heroic abilities, so why does he dream about flying when he goes to sleep at night? Because during his waking hours, he is always flying at super speed from one crisis to the next, never having the luxury of enjoying just floating among the clouds.

Another story focuses on the youngest member of the Furst Family, a multi-generational group of heroes. Astra can convert her body into pure energy, so she is a valuable member of this superhero group, which also includes her parents, an uncle and a great-uncle. With all of the adventures Astra has been on, she can talk fluently about battle tactics and multi-dimensional realities. But this pre-teen girl has absolutely no contact with other children her own age, doesn't know what kinds of programs they like to watch on TV or what kinds of music they listen to or even what kinds of games they might play during recess.

These are the kinds of things that set this series apart. Busiek is excellent at looking for the human aspect of superhumans. And because all of these characters are his own creations, even if a certain plot device might be familiar territory for comic books, you are never quite certain when a character might be affected in a new and interesting way. Because these aren't corporate-owned characters who can't undergo real, lasting change, anything could and does happen. But that ability to find the human quality in all of these characters -- powered or not -- makes it easier for a reader to relate to what is happening to the characters. We've all felt like an outcast or uncertain how to proceed in a given situation or not quite up to a task before us. By connecting with these characters on an emotional level, the reader is pulled into the story.

For simple economic reasons, I'm still not likely to pick up the new Astro City ongoing in single issues, but from time to time, when my budget allows, I would like to return to this world to read more of these incredible adventures in trade format. They're simply that good.

More Of The Same, But That's OK

The Lone Ranger Vol. 2 1-2
Dynamite Entertainment
Ande Parks, writer
Esteve Polls, artist

The cover for the first issue of this series, at least on my copy, is a beautiful rendering of the Masked Man and Tonto by Alex Ross which evokes the spirit of the late Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels. That's certainly "my" Lone Ranger and Tonto as I grew up watching reruns of "The Lone Ranger Show", but it might be a tad misleading if you were picking up this series for the first time.

Brett Matthews, Sergio Cariello and John Cassaday did a spectacular job and took their time reimagining the origins of the Lone Ranger in the 25-issue Volume 1 of this series. The story they wanted to tell is done, so Dynamite chose to end that series and start over with a new No. 1 and a new creative team. However, this new series picks up where the first left off. John Reid is still new to his masked role as a bringer of justice to the West, and Tonto is still his often silent, but very wise and sarcastic partner in his quest. Polls' art even mimics the depictions of the two men that Cariello and Cassaday created for the first volume, helping to ease the transition for readers of the first volume.

This incarnation of the Lone Ranger and Tonto is certainly not Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels, but it is not impossible to envision these two men getting used to each other and their mission one day growing into that pair. And especially in the case of Tonto, and the depiction of other Native American characters in the series so far, the change is for the better. In this series, Tonto is by far the more experienced fighter, quite possibly a little older and definitely a little wiser and more even-tempered than his companion.

These first two issues are the opening chapters in a story arc called Hard Country. In the first issue, the Lone Ranger and Tonto come to the aid of a rancher and his children being attacked by thieves set on stealing a "secret stash" of money. The second issue, picking up where the first leaves off, deals with a famous lawman and gunslinger facing his own mortality. So these two comics provide nice done-in-one stories that are rare these days while still providing a continuing arc that is telling another story about the realities of life on the frontier.

Overall, these first two issues provide a nice opening to what I hope will be a long and prosperous run for this title.

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!