She’s getting ready for her TV debut … and so am I

Stumptown Vol. 1 hardcover (The Case of the Girl Who Took her Shampoo (But Left her Mini)
Oni Press
Creators: Greg Rucka, Matthew Southworth, Lee Loughridge and Rico Renzi
Release date: March 2011

In case you haven’t yet heard, Greg Rucka’s and Matthew Southworth’s creation Stumptown is headed to ABC as a television pilot sometime this next season. The pilot will star Cobie Smulders as the main protagonist, Portland, Oregon, private investigator Dex Parios.

I don’t have any experience with Southworth’s art, at least not that I can recall, but Rucka is one of my favorite writers. I have followed his comics work on titles like Gotham Central, Batman, Adventures of Superman, Wonder Woman and Queen and Country, even following that last series into some of his prose work. He is well known as a writer who can easily handle strong female characters. I can’t argue with that assessment, but I think he handles most of the characters he writes with skill and an ear for dialogue and consistent characterization.

I purchased this first volume of Stumptown a couple years ago with a few other independent graphic novels Rucka authored with the intent of trying them out. They went on that ever-growing “sometime” pile and stayed there. That is, until the announcement of the new pilot made me decide to move this particular hardcover to the top of the stack. It did not disappoint.

Dex is a typical P.I. in the vein of Jim Rockford of television’s “The Rockford Files”; she has a good heart, a lot of brains, a quick wit and really crappy luck. That crappy luck extends to the gambling table, where Dex has racked up quite a debt to the house at the beginning of this story. The owner of the casino, Sue-Lynne Suppa, agrees to forgive Dex’s debt if Dex will find Sue-Lynne's missing granddaughter. This first hardcover includes all four issues of the initial Stumptown series as Dex tries to track down the missing 18-year-old despite opposition from several sides. Players in opposition to Dex seem to know immediately the case Dex is investigating before she has any chance to uncover who or why someone might want to harm the missing girl. Rucka weaves an engaging whodunit that takes readers along for the ride as Dex tries to finally make sense of the forces lined up against her.

Southworth’s art is dark and moody, which suits a title like this one, without being “muddy” like some dark comics can tend to get. Loughridge’s and Renzi’s colors help with the atmosphere, as well. They keep the color palette simple and sparse, except when a few carefully placed bright colors are needed to emphasize a dramatic panel or two.

If you haven’t tried Stumptown and like P.I. fiction, I heartily recommend this volume. I plan to seek out the subsequent three volumes in the very near future, and I also plan to give “Stumptown” a watch on television when it debuts.

My Faith Pays Off

Lazarus Vol. 1: Family
Image Comics
Greg Rucka, writer
Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano, Brian Level and Santi Arcas, artists

I count Greg Rucka among the writers whose work I usually tend to enjoy. I can't say I've read everything he has produced, but I am a fan of many of the things he brought to the mythos of Batman and Superman while he worked on Detective Comics, Gotham Central and The Adventures of Superman. His run on Wonder Woman is one of my favorite runs on the character and one I consider a definitive take on the Amazon princess. Not limited to DC, I also very much enjoyed his work on Black Widow over at Marvel.

I enjoyed his take on these characters so much, I decided to try his Queen & Country series from Oni almost a year ago. I purchased the entire run of that series in one lot, read it over the course of a few weeks and loved it just as much. Rucka is incredible at writing strong female leads, and I enjoyed the adventures of Tara Chase in Queen & Country enough to make the jump to one of Rucka's Q&C prose novels, "A Gentleman's Game," which was a solid, enjoyable read, as well.

Somehow, though, as much as I enjoy Rucka's writing and watch for his name when I'm placing my orders each month, I completely missed Lazarus when it debuted in 2013. I had no idea it was coming out and no idea what to expect from the series when I finally did learn of its existence. I don't even recall for certain now how I first heard the title without knowing more about it; perhaps I just stumbled across it looking for something else. But this first volume was pretty cheap by usual trade pricing standards, likely because it collects only four issues of the title instead of the more common five, six or more. Nice price. Greg Rucka writing. I decided to give it a try even though I knew not what to expect.

When the trade arrived, I could see by the simple yet dramatic cover that we have another female lead, likely a tough one as she is shown with a bullet hole in her forehead and a rather annoyed expression on her face. This does not appear to be a lady you want to mess with, especially if being shot in the head only pisses her off.

When I sat down to read the book, however, I became a little nervous. If there's teaser or descriptive copy on the front or back cover of a book, especially one like this I'm completely unfamiliar with, I always read that first. Gives me a clue what I'm in for. All of the recommendations were good; no surprise there. But one of them called this title a "clever spin on dystopian fiction." I tend not to like dystopian fiction. Too depressing. Why can't we all get along? Why can't the future be bright and happy?

But then I read the descriptive copy. It promised a world split along financial lines — wealthy families, the few who work for them, and everyone else, the majority, called "Waste." The meaning behind "Lazarus" was also explained. Each family has one individual responsible for defending the family, protecting it. That person is called the family's Lazarus. I was intrigued, and I trusted Rucka enough to dive in, hopeful once again.

So I read the trade. This isn't the kind of comic I might normally choose to read, but I'm glad I did in this instance. These four issues pulled me into this world Rucka has crafted — our world but not quite. This first arc gives us just the barest glimpse into how things work in this world, but it was enough to pull me in. I don't want to spoil any details for anyone who hasn't read Lazarus yet, so I'm kind of light on story specifics, I know. Suffice to say that there is a great deal of intrigue hinted at in these first four issues, and a very rich, complex series of relationships just within the handful of characters we are introduced to at the outset. Much, much more seems to be just under the surface. And I, for one, am looking forward to uncovering more of this world.

Big Surprise — I Like It!

Queen & Country 1-12 (2001-02)
Oni Press
Greg Rucka, writer
Steve Rolston, Brian Hurtt and Leandro Fernandez, artists

Neither this title or Greg Rucka were on my radar in 2001 when Queen & Country debuted. The title wasn't Rucka's first comics work; he'd already done Whiteout — which I also missed at the time but have since purchased a copy of; now if I could just get the time to read it — and penned a large portion of "No Man's Land" for the Batman family of books at DC. I read and enjoyed most of the "No Man's Land" stuff, but Rucka's name had not yet made an impact on me or my reading habits.

That was then. Since then, I've read his post-"No Man's Land" run in Detective Comics, a couple Black Widow miniseries, Gotham Central and great runs on both Wonder Woman and The Adventures of Superman. I just enjoy a lot of Rucka's writing. So I've been curious about this series starring British intelligence agent Tara Chace for quite some time. A recent find online netted me all of the comics to date for a nice price, and so far I have read these first 12 issues, representing three separate missions for Chace and her compatriots.

I have to admit, that first issue didn't leave me with much in the way of good first impressions. At least not the kind that would have brought me back for a second issue if I was buying the title when it first saw print.

That first issue opens in the middle of the Operations Room of the S.I.S. with several principal characters waiting as current operation "Broken Ground" unfolds. The operation involves agent Tara Chace being sent into Kosovo to carry out an assassination. Along the way, we learn that Tara is one of three field agents, called "Minders," who report directly to Paul Crocker, the director of operations. Crocker is shown to be a bit of a curmudgeon outwardly, but he genuinely cares about doing his job and the well-being of the Minders once a job is completed.

One of the things that took a little getting used to is all of the jargon and agency shorthand characters use in the series. The dialogue rings true for people who hold these positions and have for a long time; they would naturally use an economy of language to refer to each other, like referring to the director of operations as D-Ops. But for a new reader picking up a first issue and not knowing what to expect or able to recognize faces or places, it can be a bit confusing to follow.

Tara Chace wasn't quite what I expected either. We first see her on the fourth page of the story. She is covered almost completely in camouflage gear and in position for her impending kill shot. After successfully taking down her target, Chace is on the run, trying to make her exit out of the country. To evade pursuit, she sheds the outer camouflage and takes off on foot. The clothing she is wearing is still rather loose-fitting, which is fine, but the figure running for several pages looks like a man, not a woman to me. Without the dialogue and a key image near the end of the book, I truly think I would have assumed the figure was a man during the rest of the book.

Assassination is pretty a heavy topic to start off with, too. It's clear Tara isn't thrilled with her current assignment, but she's doing her job. It's made pretty clear that her main target and the others Tara kills while executing her mission are not nice men, but it's still shooting them from a distance while they are unaware of any danger. Not your usual heroic act.

The remainder of that first story arc deals with the repercussions of Chace's successful assassination mission, both for Chace personally and for the S.I.S. We are also introduced to more of the S.I.S. members, their relationships to each other, and some others they deal with on a regular basis from other agencies. By the end of the arc, I was starting to feel a little more comfortable following all of the jargon-heavy dialogue, but I still didn't feel much of a connection to any of the characters. Again, had I been buying this book off the shelves when it was new, I might not have stuck with it.

But since I'd just purchased all 32 issues of the main title and all nine Classified issues, too, I figured I'd give the series more of a try. Issue No. 5 kicked off the second mission, "Morningstar," which sends the other two Minders, Tom Wallace and Ed Kittering into Kabul, Afghanistan. This story arc held my interest a bit more because of current events from the past decade or so, and as I learned more about the characters and came to understand them better, I found I was beginning to like them.

Each story arc of the series, at least so far, has a different art team. I'm not familiar with any of the first three artists outside of this series, but Steve Rolston, the artist for the first four issues had a clean art style that had almost a cartoony look to it. The art wasn't so cartoony as to clash with the subject matter, but there was no mistaking it for hyper-realistic art, either. Brian Hurtt had a very similar style on the second arc. Some of the characters looked slightly different, but not unrecognizable from how Rolston had drawn them, so it wasn't a hard transition. In fact, Tara Chace was the most altered visually, as far as I'm concerned, and while she still looked quite tough and not so much like a stereotypical comic-book heroine, she did look like a woman now.

Tara's transformation continued with the switch to artist Leandro Fernandez on the third story arc, "Crystal Ball." Several readers commented on Fernandez's art style in the letters pages after his first issue, No. 8, commenting on how Tara's breasts had grown and how her style of clothing had become much more revealing suddenly. By issue No. 12, the end of "Crystal Ball," quite a debate was raging in the letters pages about the change in art style Fernandez brought with some liking the change and others hating it.

As for my opinion, I can see an in-story explanation for Tara's change of dress style in her behavior, if that is what Rucka is going for. Tara is still dealing with some of the baggage that cropped up on her assassination mission in the very first issue. I don't see her as a character who would normally date a co-worker, yet she and her fellow Minder, Ed Kittering, have begun a relationship frowned upon by several others. There's also story evidence that her current drinking habits are new. I could see her new wardrobe as another outward manifestation of her inner conflict, if that is how Rucka chooses to go with things, but time will tell on that point. Otherwise, I see Fernandez's art as the most cartoony — almost caricature-esque — of the three artists so far, but again, the characters are not unrecognizable from issue to issue or story arc to story arc, so I don't mind the changes so far.

Bottom line, this book progresses at a snail's pace. I find myself wondering how someone who read the series as it came out — with a less than monthly schedule — didn't give up in frustration at the slow pacing. I'm almost certain I would have. But having it to read one issue after another in a matter of days or weeks instead of years, I find myself very much warming up to the characters and wanting to know what is going to happen to them.

I still have some trepidation about later issues of the series. Rucka is a novelist as well as a comics writer. To date, he has written three Queen & Country prose novels with the same characters and continuity as the comic series. I haven't reached the place where any of the novels should have "occurred" yet, but I wonder if they will be missing pieces hurting my enjoyment of the series. That isn't to say that I will never read the prose novels; as much as I'm liking the comics so far, I expect I would like them as well. I just don't know if I will take the time as I am even further behind on my prose reading than I am on my comics reading at any given time.

Apparently, I am finally reading this series at a great time, too. I've recently heard rumors of both a possible movie deal based on the series as well as Rucka returning to writing more Queen & Country comics with a Volume II series possibly beginning later this year. Now is the time to get caught up on the older stuff before new content makes catching up even harder.

Rucka Is The Master

Detective Comics 757 (2001)
DC Comics
Greg Rucka, writer
Rick Burchett, artist

I have mentioned before in this space that Greg Rucka's run on Wonder Woman from 2003-2006 is one of my all-time favorite runs for the character. Not too long ago, I also re-read and discussed Rucka's great run on The Adventures of Superman between 2004 and 2006. Rucka also handled a great run on Detective Comics from 1999 to 2002, a fact reinforced for me recently when I re-read those Detective issues.

There was a lot going on in this run to like. Rucka took over at the end of "No Man's Land" and did a lot of what would become groundwork for the later Gotham Central series he and Ed Brubaker co-wrote. The concept of the Wayne Enterprises board of directors insisting that Bruce Wayne accept a bodyguard allowed Rucka to introduce the character of Sasha Bordeaux, a character who he made a key part of the Bat universe for awhile, and later a big part of the overall DC Universe. The regular artist for much of the run, Shawn Martinbrough, is pretty great, too.

Rather than talking about this entire run this time out, however, I want to narrow the focus a bit to this excellent done-in-one stand alone issue that falls in the middle of Rucka's run on Detective Comics. None of the various subplots make an appearance in this issue at all. It is so very stand alone, it could almost be a fill-in issue, but Rucka's name is still in the credits. As for the art, Rick Burchett's Batman looks close enough to Martinbrough's usual pencils that it isn't jarring because none of the other characters in this issue are seen in the series again.

The first page introduces us briefly to a family of three approaching Gotham on a lonely stretch of highway late one night. We don't even get their names except the father calling his wife Hannah.

Turning the page, we get a seemingly unrelated voice-over by Batman. The Dark Knight is very annoyed by the direction his night is going. We also see four thugs fleeing a drug deal and gunning down at least two Gotham City Police officers as they go. Batman is in pursuit as soon as possible but is not able to catch the felons before they meet and force the family of three to drive off the road, their car dropping off a cliff into open water.

Batman has no idea of the plight of this family as he continues to pursue the thugs. Subsequent pages switch from showing Batman taking down the villains to the family fighting to survive as best they can. The parents are surprisingly calm and resourceful, but they can't get out of their car as it continues to fill with water. Batman finally becomes aware of the presence of another car and questions the final criminal before knocking him unconscious.

I like that the family in danger in the submerged car is able to survive as long as they do because they don't panic. Often in these kinds of stories, the heroes are all-knowing and brave while the people they save are helpless victims. That isn't exactly the case here. But the ending is also excellent as Batman saves the family and then apologizes to them for taking so long. The Dark Knight seems genuinely distressed by the inconvenience to these people.

But the mother replies, "You arrived just in time. Any sooner, the water pressure would have kept you from opening the door."

And Batman simply says, "I hadn't considered that."

Yeah, I just ruined the ending for you if you've never read this issue, but it's still worth your time to check out. There are a lot of details skimmed over in this synopsis, and this issue holds up well to multiple readings.

This is a fantastic story that shows Batman is NOT always infallible, but rather than making him less of a hero for that, it makes him all the more heroic for all he accomplishes without being perfect. This issue is definitely good comics!

Sabotaged

The Adventures of Superman 627-647
DC Comics
Greg Rucka (mostly), writer
Matthew Clark, Renato Guedes, Paul Pelletier, Karl Kerschl, Carlos D'Anda and Rags Morales, artists

Greg Rucka is a phenomenal writer, and he "gets" Superman and his supporting cast. The bulk of these issues, representing almost two years' worth of stories, detail a single, massive epic that stands up to repeated readings. Unfortunately, Rucka's narrative is also riddled with crossover interruptions that drag his work down.

Crossovers are a staple of the comics business built out of fan wish-fulfillment. What reader hasn't dreamed of favorite characters meeting and teaming up? And, when done right, they can be a true joy to read. But other times, they just seem to run off the rails leaving poor stories in their wake.

Rucka is a novelist and comics writer who had done a number of projects before 2000, but that was about the time he came to the attention of DC Comics and started leaving his mark on their Big Three and laying the groundwork for some of the major points in the DC Universe crossover Infinite Crisis. Rucka wrote a handful of issues of Batman and the majority of the issues of Detective Comics (Nos. 739-753 and 755-775) between 1999 and 2002. Following that work, Rucka was the writer of Wonder Woman (Volume 2, Nos. 195-226) from 2003-2006. One of the hallmarks of Rucka's runs on both Detective Comics and Wonder Woman was his focus on and additions to each character's supporting cast. No mere superhero-supervillain mashups, Rucka's stories focused on characterization, depth and involved long-term storytelling. His arcs built on each other allowing an overall narrative to emerge from his runs on a title.

The same goes for his time writing Superman in The Adventures of Superman from 2004-2006. One of the best things Rucka did with his run on this Superman title was to not forget Clark Kent. That might seem pretty basic, but a lot of writers who can turn out a very nice Superman story have no idea what to do with Kent. Rucka made Kent a very important part of his run on the title, and it made for better stories.

Rucka also added, once again, to Superman's -- or rather Kent's -- supporting cast. Kent is newly assigned to cover the police beat in Metropolis, and we meet two other reporters from rival publications also covering the Metropolis cops -- Bernie Carver with the Daily Star and Geraldine "Gerry" Frank with the Weekly. It is clear from the comfortable way they talk to each other that Carver and Kent are familiar with each other. Gerry is much younger, just out of journalism school, and has a bit of a chip on her shoulder when she and Kent first meet, but that eases with time and familiarity.

Another new character Rucka introduced is Lt. Lupe Leocadio, the new head of the Metropolis Major Crimes Unit. Lt. Leocadio makes it clear from her first encounter with Kent that she does not much like him. By contrast, she seems quite interested in Superman and is not at all shy about letting him know that. On the job, she is no-nonsense and also makes it very clear that even though she is attracted to Superman, she expects him to follow her lead at all times out in the field.

Rucka's first issue, No. 627, introduces these characters along with establishing Kent's current status quo. The action centers around the return of a villain Superman has fought previously, Replikon, who can imitate the powers of the entire Justice League. But it becomes clear from this first issue that something about Replikon's attack is not quite right. Leocadio is quick to dismiss his concerns, but Superman suspects someone else is directing Replikon's actions.

In the very next issue, Superman's suspicions are confirmed, when the name Ruin comes to Superman's attention. This is the mastermind behind Replikon's attack, but who is Ruin, how does he (or she) know so much about Superman and what is the final goal? Along the way, Rucka creates a few other new villains, including two new Parasites. And there is also an ongoing subplot involving Mr. Mxyzptlk. Believe it or not, Rucka treats the character seriously, and weaves Mxy's visits into the overall Ruin story to wonderful effect.

Rucka doesn't forget Superman's better half, either. Remember, back in the 2000s, Clark Kent and Lois Lane are married. Lois gets an interesting subplot involving war brewing in a fictitious Middle Eastern country named Umec. She convinces Perry White to send her there to dig up what she can, and Lois winds up embedded with a group of soldiers in the thick of the shooting!

All in all, this run adds up to brilliant writing through several interesting story arcs which can all be viewed as one massive epic. And the art! I wish Matthew Clark, who started out penciling the issues, could have stayed on for Rucka's entire run. His art at the beginning gives us a dynamic Superman, a sexy Leocadio and a truly horrifying Ruin, but he also does a masterful job on making all of the characters look distinct and real. There are a variety of body types and faces in his characters -- something comics, especially superhero comics, are not always known for. I'm not sure why Clark didn't stay with the book, and the art was still good when the others filled in and eventually took over, but its always nice to have a consistent look throughout an arc, especially when the artist is so good at his craft.

Alas, several other storylines involving crossovers big and small intrude on this excellent run, occassionally derailing Rucka's narrative. Rucka has almost the first entire year to himself, but then a Superman-centric crossover causes the first hiccup in Adventures No. 639. This is the second part of a three-part story called "Lightning Strikes Twice" featuring the evil Eclipso pitting Superman against Captain Marvel. The issue is written by Judd Winick, with Ian Churchill and Norm Rapmund on art chores. The entire issue has nothing whatsoever to do with Rucka's ongoing story; I don't think it even mentions a single subplot. Yet there it is, smack in the middle of Rucka's run.

By Adventures No. 641, stirrings of both OMAC Project -- another Rucka book -- and Infinite Crisis -- a DC linewide crossover -- begin to make their presence known. Rucka is still writing Adventures for No. 641, but the inclusion of the OMACs is so heavy in this issue, and it comes just two issue's after Winick's interruption, that the OMACs still feel out of place in the Ruin story. Then, Nos. 642 and 643 are part of the "Sacrifice" storyline that ran through all of the Superman titles that month and serves as a prologue to Infinite Crisis. Rucka wrote all of the "Sacrifice" issues, they do include subplot developments from the Ruin story, and "Sacrifice" is a good story on its own, but it still serves to once again interrupt and sideline the Ruin story progress.

And then finally, Adventures No. 648, Rucka's last, is a full-on Infinite Crisis tie-in which has little to do with the Ruin story that precedes it.

Despite the flaws and interruptions, I still highly recommend the full Ruin epic by Rucka and Co.; it is a truly inspiring Superman story. But it could have been so much better without the distractions created by the crossovers and interruptions from the main story.

Superheroes? ... What Superheroes?

Wolverine by Greg Rucka Ultimate Collection tpb
Marvel Comics
Greg Rucka, writer
Darick Robertson and Leandro Fernandez, artists

Wolverine is quite possibly Marvel's most over-exposed character. Since his debut in Incredible Hulk No. 180, he has appeared in his own solo titles and too many incarnations and permutations of X-Men groups to count. At various times, he's been a member of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, and he's guest starred in a number of other characters' solo titles, even if he wasn't the headliner of a given issue. Sometimes, he's even been featured in all of these places at once along with starring in more feature films than any other Marvel character to date. He's a popular little Canadian.

Greg Rucka launched a new solo title for the character in 2003 and stayed on board to write three story arcs or 19 issues, all of which are collected in this volume, before handing the reins of the series over to Mark Millar. I haven't read that many Wolverine solo comics; I've tended to catch him more as one of a group. I don't dislike the character; I just don't care for him as much as I do some others. But Wolverine and the Punisher were always the favorites of my brother, Shawn. I always think of my brother whenever I read a Wolverine or Punisher story I really enjoy. I think how he would have liked said story, too, and how sad it is that he will never get to read it. But that's another story.

Back to these Wolverine stories, I've read them all before -- all except for one. And I liked these stories. Enough that I wanted to hold onto them despite my efforts to scale down my collection before my wife decides to do it herself and just starts a huge bonfire. So I was happy to find all of these issues collected in a single trade. Trades can more easily be stored on a bookshelf, thus freeing up space for something else in the finite number of comic book boxes I've allowed myself to keep.

One of the things that stands out for me about these issues by Rucka is that Wolverine really doesn't appear in them at all -- at least, not if you are looking for the smallish brawler mutant in the familiar yellow and blue or yellow and brown spandex superhero suit. Instead, this collection would more correctly be titled "Logan." He still has his mutant healing ability and those nasty, razor-sharp claws, but the superhero suit doesn't appear once in any of the issues I'd read previously. There are no super-villains to be dispatched. There is just a man, albeit a special man, trying to do the right thing in a world filled with gray areas that blur the absolute right and wrong most of us try to live by.

In the first story arc, Logan lives across the hall from a waitress who works at a diner he frequents. They are not friends. They barely speak to each other at all. But the waitress senses something different about Logan and decides to confide in him one day just a little bit about herself. She's in hiding, and she fears the people she's hiding from will soon find her. When she disappears in a hail of bullets and mysterious nighttime intruders, Logan feels compelled to search for her.

The second arc follows the first, with Logan on a road trip. Stopping for gas, he stumbles across a heinous crime which takes him across the border into Mexico and presents him with a moral dilemma he can find no easy answers to. And the third arc, the closest of the bunch to a traditional superhero tale, sends Logan off to save an old friend he'd forgotten he knew and places him at odds with Sabertooth, the evil mutant who shares many of the same abilities.

These stories are more along the lines of a typical action movie plot or maybe even a spaghetti western starring Clint Eastwood than usual superhero fare. The one issue that differs, the one I hadn't read previously, is sandwiched between the second and third arcs and takes place almost exclusively in Logan's subconscious mind. He's sleeping during much of the issue, and we are given a glimpse into his dreams. This is the only place where costumes and other superhero tropes appear, and yet what troubles Logan's dreams are the events from the first two story arcs and questions Logan has about his own nature.

Especially if you've never read a Wolverine story in your life but enjoy a good, dramatic action movie, then this is the collection for you. Give it a try!

These Are Their Stories

Gotham Central (2004-07)
DC Comics
Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, writers
Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano, and Kano, artists

If you've never checked it out, this 40-issue comic book run is one of the best written series out there. It is set, obviously, in Gotham City, but focuses on the detectives of the Gotham City Police Department's Major Crimes Unit rather than the costumed vigilantes who also populate that fictional city. The moody artwork and muted color palette add to the crime noir feel of this series, complementing the writing beautifully.

No purse-snatchings or jaywalkers will be found in these pages; remember, this is the Major Crimes Unit. Some of the crimes the detectives of the MCU investigate include the murder of a young girl walking home after a baby-sitting job; the deaths of two women, both employees in the accounting department of the same pharmaceuticals company; an apparent suicide leads detectives to reopen a cold case that involved the murder of an entire high school athletic team; and someone killing young men after dressing them up in costumes that resemble that of Robin, the Boy Wonder.

A couple of the cases force the MCU detectives to investigate other officers, too. A pair of crooked beat cops accidentally causes the death of a young homeless girl while trying to cover up their illegal activities. A crime scene investigator long suspected of being on the take causes problems with some ongoing investigations, but both MCU and internal affairs detectives have trouble making any charges stick. And in an early story, one of the MCU's own detectives is accused of a double homicide.

Of course, major crimes in Gotham are often going to involve some of the city's more colorful criminals. One homicide the detectives investigate looks like it might be the work of Catwoman. Poison Ivy is involved in the homeless girl case. In the very first issue, two detectives following a tip on an open kidnapping case run into more than they bargained for in a rundown apartment building. Firebug and the Mad Hatter also pop up in the course of other MCU cases.

The detectives of the MCU aren't just throw-away characters created solely for this series, either. Many of the detectives had a history in DC Comics before the debut of Gotham Central in 2004. Fan favorite character Renee Montoya, for example, was originally created for "Batman: The Animated Series" as a recurring uniformed police officer. She debuted in the comics at about the same time in Batman No. 475, cover dated March 1992, and was often paired with hard-boiled police detective Harvey Bullock, a longtime supporting cast member in the comics. After spending several years as a uniformed officer, Montoya was promoted to detective and continued to be a recurring character in the pages of Batman, Detective Comics and other Gotham City-based comics.

Another featured player in Gotham Central is Crispus Allen, who debuted in Detective Comics No. 742, cover dated March 2000. This was during the time immediately following the "No Man's Land" story arc in the Bat-books, a long series of arcs that left the Gotham City Police Department severely understaffed. This was also during a time when then-Detective Comics writer Greg Rucka shifted the focus of that book so that it emphasized the detective nature of Batman's character and the Dark Knight worked very closely with a number of the GCPD's finest. Detective Allen was a recurring character in Rucka's run of Detective Comics and would eventually become Montoya's partner.

Capt. Maggie Sawyer is another name comics fans might recognize from beyond Gotham Central. Margaret Sawyer made her debut in Action Comics No. 595, cover dated December 1987, early in the post-Crisis reboot of Superman. The character's back story is that she was originally from Star City and moved to Metropolis to head up the new Metropolis Police Department's Special Crimes Unit. Sawyer was a mainstay in the Superman titles during the rest of the late-1980s, the 1990s and into the early 2000s. The character was popular enough among Superman fans that she was included in the cast of "Superman: The Animated Series" and even appeared in some episodes of the live action "Smallville" television series. In 2002, Sawyer's character moved from Metropolis to Gotham City to lead the GCPD's Major Crimes Unit.

One notable Gotham City cop not featured prominently in Gotham Central is James W. Gordon, who most casual fans know as the police commissioner in Gotham. Gordon has retired or been forced from office in elections a number of times in the history of Batman stories, but he rarely stays away from the familiar job for long. The entire run of Gotham Central hit at a time when Gordon was no longer serving as commissioner. In his stead, a man named Michael Akins serves in that role, but Gordon is still a Gotham City citizen and makes a number of cameo appearances in the title for various reasons. After all, in a city known for its often-corrupt police force, most of the detectives in the Major Crimes Unit were handpicked by Gordon for their positions, a source of pride for many of them.

Several of the other recurring detectives in Gotham Central had appeared in other comics prior to this title's debut, many of them during Rucka's run as writer of Detective Comics. These other characters include detectives Marcus Driver, Tommy Burke, Josephine MacDonald, Romy Chandler and Nate Patton and Sgts. Vincent Del Arrazio and Jackson Davies.

Of course, Batman also makes appearances in the title during the course of its 40-issue run. Again, this IS Gotham City. But the majority of the issues don't include Batman at all, and the ones that do have a specific purpose for including him, and they rarely involve more than a panel here and there. Mostly that is by design, as the writers truly wanted this series to be about the cops in Gotham City and their lives, not another superhero book, although these characters exist in a world populated by superheroes. In fact, the name Batman never appeared in the title of the individual issues, although later collected editions often were named Batman: Gotham Central.

From a storytelling standpoint, the absence of Batman is explained by the timing of the series. During a large portion of Gotham Central's three-year run, Batman and the GCPD were on the outs with each other as a result of another Bat-centric crossover called "War Games" and its sequel, "War Crimes." Rest assured, though, this run can mostly be considered a self-contained read requiring very little knowledge of events in Batman or other DC Comics of the time. In the few instances where a previous comic story is relevant to understanding a Gotham Central tale, references are available in the specific issues or in the trade collections.

And He's Back In Form

Daredevil by Mark Waid tpb Volume 3
Marvel Comics
Mark Waid and Greg Rucka, writers
Chris Samnee, Marco Checchetto and Khoi Pham, artists

I was a little underwhelmed by the second trade collection of these Mark Waid Daredevil stories and likely wouldn't have purchased this third volume if it hadn't already been pre-ordered. I'm glad it was! These stories are back up to the high level set by the first trade, and by no small coincidence, these stories also serve to wrap up the story started in that first trade.

We start out with two Daredevil guest appearances in other books written by Greg Rucka, Avenging Spider-Man No. 6 and Punisher No. 10. Previously, Daredevil had confiscated a unique hard drive of criminal information on all of the major Marvel Universe crime "families" as depicted in the first trade collection of this title. With the help of the Avengers, Daredevil used the information on that hard drive to bring about the downfall of one of those criminal cabals, as detailed in the second Daredevil trade. But possession of the device has left Matt Murdock, Daredevil, and all those around him targets for the other four groups. This trade collection begins with Spider-Man trying to intervene, urging DD to turn the drive over to either the Avengers or the Fantastic Four, while the Punisher hopes to take the information for himself to use in his one-man war on crime. The three, along with a new partner for the Punisher, agree to work together instead, but things do not go exactly as planned, which leads directly into Daredevil issues 11-15, also in this collection, wrapping up the saga of that hard drive, but also setting DD up for some trouble with the ruler of Latveria, Dr. Doom!

Very fun, high-flying adventure tales. And unlike the DD guest-appearance included in the second trade, these two "extra" books seem to flow a little more naturally with the Daredevil ongoing. Pick it up; you'll be glad you did!

It's Interesting, But Not Quite Cream Of The Crop

The New 52! Wonder Woman tpb 1: Blood
DC Comics
Brian Azzarello, writer
Cliff Chiang and Tony Akins, artists

The New 52! debut hit about the time I was deciding to seriously cut back on some of my comic spending. I knew I wanted to keep getting/trying out the new versions of my favorites: Aquaman, Nightwing and Green Arrow. I also decided to try a handful of the other titles I was pretty sure I was going to like. I've stuck with some and was proven wrong on others. Then in August 2012, when those 52 new No. 1 issues came out, I weakened in my resolve a little and tried a few extra titles I hadn't preordered. Wonder Woman No. 1 was one of those last-minute buys.

I've never thought of Wonder Woman as a character just for girls; I grew up watching her on "Super Friends" cartoons and in the live-action Lynda Carter series. I enjoyed and still own some of her adventures in pre-Crisis comics. And I absolutely loved George Perez's 1986 relaunch of her title after the Crisis On Infinite Earths changed her history. In fact, comics-wise, that Perez relaunch is still one of my all-time favorite Wonder Woman eras. I think the top Wonder Woman spot for me, however, has to go to Greg Rucka's fantastic run on the book just prior to Infinite Crisis. I love how what he did updated several elements from previous runs while still respecting what had come before. That run (Wonder Woman vol. 2 Nos. 195-226) was the absolute pinnacle of the character for me.

And to be honest, that is at least a part of why I opted not to pick up Wonder Woman's New 52 debut initially. Other writers have had good runs, but none had surpassed Rucka and Perez; why not quit while I was ahead in collecting the best of the best of Wonder Woman comics? But because those two had handled her so well, I weakened, hoping for more greatness.

I find Azzarello's take on Diana and her mythos different enough to actually warrant a reboot, unlike some other New 52 titles that relaunched for no discernible story reason. And it actually is a very interesting approach to Diana, Paradise Island and the gods and goddesses that are so much a part of the Amazons' heritage. And Cliff Chiang's art is gorgeous, as always; he is one of the all-time great comic artists. If I was still buying as many comic titles each month as I did a few years ago before my daughter was born, I would likely continue to pick up this title and enjoy it a lot. But as interesting as Azzarello's take on Wonder Woman is, this isn't the "iconic" Wonder Woman for my tastes. This won't replace the Perez or Rucka runs for me.