You CAN Go Home Again ... But Should You?

Going to talk today about the most recent incarnation of DC Comics' The Warlord. I did not buy the original series when it debuted in First Issue Spectacular back in 1975. Instead, I discovered the series' creator, Mike Grell, in the pages of Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters. From there, I went back and learned more about Grell's earlier comics work on Jon Sable, Freelance, from First Comics, and The Warlord from DC, slowly collecting various back issues of each series.

The Warlord character starts out as Travis Morgan, a U.S. Air Force pilot, flying a spy mission to photograph equipment over Russia. Morgan is spotted and intercepted by Russian MiG fighters and ends up being shot down over the North Pole. But instead of crashing, his plane descends through an opening in the earth, landing in an inner world of eternal daylight. This fantastic inner world is filled with dinosaurs, mythological creatures, magic, science and warriors. Morgan earns the title Warlord and finds a mate while adventuring in this new land called Skartaris. The Warlord's adventures continued through more than 130 issues, but Grell left the series after issue No. 71.

The series was brought back by DC and its creator in 1991 for a six-issue miniseries. The title was next re-imagined, albeit unsuccessfully in 2006 by Bruce Jones, and finally relaunched in 2009, once again with Grell at the helm.

This latest incarnation of the Warlord, like Grell's return to the characters in 1991, was really a continuation of his earlier run, and in all honesty, I have to say was somewhat lackluster. Not bad, just not really great, either.

If you are a fan of Grell's Warlord stories, there is little new territory covered in either the 1991 series or the 2009 version. The stories included are mostly re-treads of plots and situations handled in the initial run of the series. Completists will like that Grell finally resolves one major plot thread left dangling from the initial series' first couple years in this latest series. The most recent series also serves to bring Morgan's story to a close, if the reader so desires. While it was nice to have Tinder's and Morgan's dangling plot thread at last resolved, and while the writing was still good and the art truly excellent, this latest relaunch was still little more than eye-candy, unfortunately.

A Week Of The Unusual

Only a few reviews again today. Haven’t had as much time to read again this week, partially because of some recent back issue purchases. I think I mentioned previously (but I’m too lazy to check) about trading for a complete run of DC Comics’ original Checkmate series from the late ’80s. I didn’t know it until they arrived, but smack in the middle of this 33-issue run is a crossover story with Suicide Squad and a couple other books. The crossover is called “The Janus Directive.” Well, I went on a hunt for the other chapters in this crossover so that when I read the arc, I can assess it based on the whole. That led to a number of other finds and impulse buys which have recently arrived.

I was also able to snag copies of the three-issue miniseries , The P.I.s: Michael Mauser and Ms. Tree, by First Comics. Trade ads for this series looked good in the mid-1980s issues of Jon Sable, Freelance. I don’t know Michael Mauser, but I’ve read some Ms. Tree before. She’s a classic, hard-boiled private investigator from the old school except she’s a dame, not a guy. I was also able to pick up the complete 24-issue run of DNAgents from Eclipse Comics at a nice price. Don’t know much about this series either, except it was supposed to be good, was written by Mark Evanier and was compared to Marv Wolfman’s New Teen Titans, which I love. And I also picked up Incredible Hulk #s 210-222 from the late ’70s. I remember reading these issues at a friend's house at the time and liking them, but that’s about it. I dunno if this is a complete arc or several arcs; I don’t remember. But I’ve checked on buying them in the last few years and always found them a little pricey. A few weeks ago, when I found them on sale, I snagged them.

It may be a while before I get a chance to read some of these finds. Back issue buys like the Checkmate series, which started in 1988, can be read and filed when I come to the appropriate dates as I go back through my collection. Older stuff, though, like DNAgents and the Hulk issues, I’ve already passed those respective dates. So they get added to a stack of out-of-continuity trades and such that I have vowed not to touch and read through until I finish the massive undertaking that is making it back through all of those chronological back issues. The stack is getting kinda big.
Enough of that. On to some quick reviews:

Outsiders 38 (DC Comics) — More questions than answers in this book. I want to like it, but it’s teetering on the edge of being dropped right now. How does the grim and brooding Nightwing in this book justify with the more laid-back personality he has in his own book now? DC online has said they will address that, but when? How do the Brain and Monsieur Mallah’s actions in this title jibe with their appearances in Teen Titans? On the fence with this one.

The All New Atom 1 (DC Comics) — This story started out slower than we were promised in Brave New World. I thought that book was the intro and that the new series would pick up from there. Apparently not. If that’s the case, since Brave New World did nothing to change my already-conceived notions aboiut these new titles, was it a waste of my money?

OMAC 1 (DC Comics) — Same thing here. The issue starts out before what we saw in Brave New World. It doesn’t even catch up to BNW by the end of the issue.

Marvel Westerns featuring Kid Colt and the Arizona Girl 1 (Marvel Comics) — I don’t remember these characters, but I like them. I just wish Gray and Palmiotti hadn’t made the villains of the piece aliens. Am I the only person who thinks cowboys and aliens just shouldn’t mix, even in the Marvel Universe? Still a fun read, though.

Fantastic Four Presents: Franklin Richards, Son of a Genius Super Summer Spectacular (Marvel Comics) — Whew, what a name! Typical cartoon fun. These books are fun for what they are, but then, after reading three of them, the humor is starting to grow a tad stale. A Calvin-espue Franklin shares misadventures with his robot nanny, H.E.R.B.I.E. (Why does that name sound familiar?)

Justice League Unlimited 23 (DC Comics) — The Royal Flush Gang is always fun, even this overly-serious grouping from the Cartoon Network series. This story also has Martian Manhunter insights to boot.

52 Week 10 (DC Comics) — Some nice character bits with Clark Kent and a whole lot of time spent with Black Adam, a truly fascinating character in the DC Universe the last couple years. I’m guessing the young lady, Adrianna Tomaz, will become the new Isis soon. But y’know, we really only spend time with Clark and Adam. Did none of the other players in this little drama do anything this week, or are we seeing some of the working of having multiple writers on this title: each one takes one story and we don’t get development on a particular storyline if that writer didn’t get his stuff done that week? Hmmmmm.

That’s it for today. See ya next time, kiddie cops.

Enter The Hunter

Mike Grell has done a lot of comic books work over the years. I haven’t researched him enough to provide a detailed listing of all his credits, but several people’s first exposure to him as an artist seems to be his early work illustrating the adventures of DC Comics’ Legion of Super-Heroes, the teenage titans from the far-flung future.

I never much got into the Legion back then, so its no surprise that my first exposure to Grell’s talents came much later during his work on the ground-breaking miniseries The Longbow Hunters, which updated Green Arrow for DC and served as the launch point for the emerald archer’s first self-titled ongoing series. Before that time, however, “Iron Mike” gained a following not only for illustrating, but also creating and writing the adventures of The Warlord, a series we discussed last time. In that earlier discussion, I also mentioned Grell leaving Warlord after a time.

At that time, he also left DC to join editor Mike Gold in creating First Comics. American Flagg and E-Man are some of the more popular titles released monthly by First Comics when they started. The character and title Grell created, wrote and illustrated was Jon Sable, Freelance, an adventurer-for-hire grounded in the real world, without any superpowers of any kind, who relied on his wits and skills to survive political intrigue “ripped from the headlines.” The main character was a combination of James Bond and Indiana Jones, a real-life “Batman” operating without a Halloween costume. And he was a hit in 1984.

My first exposure to this character was in a later relaunch of the title simply called Sable and written by Marv Wolfman. I enjoyed that incarnation for several months, occasionally picking up back issues of the re-launched series. I learned that Mike Grell had created the character when I happened across a trade paperback collecting the first six issues of the original series.

For a long time, that was all my collection included of Jon Sable. This is one of the titles for which I have recently filled in the holes, having purchased a copy of all issues of the original series, as well as the missing issues of the relaunch, initially title Sable, Return of the Hunter, and finally dropping to just Sable.

Through 1984, readers have been treated to an epic-length “origin” tale telling of Jon’s life and family in Africa, how he came to be a writer of children’s books in his alter ego of B.B. Flemm, how he came to know each of the small circle of people who know him, and followed him from the jungles of Vietnam in search of MIA/POWs to the Olympic games, opposing petty criminals, beautiful jewel thieves and corrupt officials in foreign countries.

Jon Sable, Freelance also gets a “thumbs up” recommendation as a series worth checking out.

And as a side note, through the house ads in the early First Comics, I learned about yet another Grell creator-owned series, Starslayer, a sci-fi tale originally launched for another company, but picked up by First Comics. I haven’t read any of this series yet, but I like The Warlord and Sable enough to purchase all of the issues from a mail-order back issue company a few months ago. That’s the “drawback” of this hobby -- each new discovery often leads to finding and wanting other new titles.

Happy collecting.