To trade or not to trade

Superman/Wonder Woman Vols. 1 and 2 (Power Couple/War and Peace)
DC Comics
Creators: Charles Soule and Tony S. Daniel
Release dates: 2013/2014

I picked up these two trades during a recent trip to the library with my family. I wasn’t overly interested in the New 52 versions of either Superman or Wonder Woman, so I didn’t much care when this new title was announced amid the hype surrounding the blossoming relationship between the two heroes. But I thought I would give these two trades a try after seeing them among the growing graphic novel section at our local library.

The first volume is all about Superman and Wonder Woman exploring their new dynamic, and it tells a nice little story about the pair, how they interact with each other and the world, and how their respective world views differ from each other. All of that is juxtaposed nicely against the action scenes that start out with a surprise return by Doomsday, progress into an attack by Kryptonians Zod and Faora, and end with the renewed threat presented by the still free Doomsday.

While some of writer Charles Soule’s scene transitions can be a bit jarring, this is mostly an enjoyable read that moves along at a brisk pace. It was an entertaining read that gave me a satisfying chunk of story despite continuing into another trade. And Tony Daniel’s art is very pretty to look at. The New 52 Superman’s hair always seems too spiky to me, but that is “on model” for the character at this time. Daniel’s Wonder Woman and Lois Lane are drawn beautifully. I’m very glad I decided to check this trade out, and it is a good example of what a collected edition of a modern comic can be.

Then everything went off the rails.

The Doomsday teasers at the end of the first volume and my enjoyment at reading that trade had me glad I had borrowed both volumes from the library. I was eager to continue with the story. But I was immediately lost. The fight with Doomsday was already over when the second trade begins, and Superman is suffering severe aftereffects of that battle.

I went back and looked to see if I was missing issues not collected, but that wasn’t the case. The first trade collects the first seven issues of Superman/Wonder Woman. The second begins with issue No. 8. That’s when I recalled that a storyline around this time and focusing on Doomsday had run through all of the various Superman titles at the time, but none of these other titles were collected in either of these volumes. There weren’t even any editor’s notes or other indications beyond my own memory as to where to look for the missing pieces of the story.

And the gaps didn’t stop there. More of the story apparently took place in other Superman titles between Superman/Wonder Woman Nos. 8, 9 and 10. I was only getting pieces of a multi-title crossover. There was a text page at the beginning of each of these issues masquerading as a Daily Planet article from Lois Lane that might have served to keep readers in the know at the time, but they did little to address the missing action from the trade.

Rather than a cohesive narrative, this second trade gave me interesting snippets of a story, but no matter how well-crafted the snippets were, they just reinforced the notion that there was much more I was missing. As good as the first trade was, as enjoyable as it was to read, the second volume seemed more like a train wreck than a story.

This second trade also collects two Future’s End stories published at the time that have nothing to do with the Doomsday/Brainiac storyline that picks up from the end of the first trade. DC editorial should have excised those tales and left them for another trade, and instead focused on giving readers the complete Doomsday/Brainiac tale that is severely truncated here to very ill effect. Otherwise, they seem to be telling readers who bought the trade, “You’re lost? Sorry. Guess you should have bought all the various issues of the crossover instead.” Not cool.

Requiem For A Series

Aquaman and the Others 6-11
DC Comics
Dan Jurgens, writer
Lan Medina, Allen Martinez and Wayne Faucher, artists

Both work and personal demands have kept me away from the blog of late, but as I alluded to in a previous post, it is not just the time to write blog posts that has been suffering. I haven't had time to read many comics of late either beyond a stray trade or random issue here or there or what little time I have spent in the past few months trying to go through issues from my collection deciding what to sell and what to hang onto. Bottom line: Its been a busy few months, and I am waaaay behind on current issues of the comics I'm buying.

How far behind, you ask. Well, while most of the current comics-reading public is diving head-first into Secret Wars or getting ready for the very near windup to Convergence, the last "current" comics I read were the various Future's End tie-in issues DC did more than six months ago. Yeah, I'm a little behind.

One perk of being so far behind is being able to read several issues of a given series at a time. It's almost like trade-waiting, but not really; trade-waiting would have been cheaper in the long run. It's also kind of a bittersweet perk when what you are reading is the very last arc of a title canceled much too soon.

The Others were first introduced in the second Aquaman story arc in his own New 52 title. The international cast of characters came together with a common purpose before the Justice League was formed, and Aquaman served as their leader in a quest to locate and safeguard several Atlantean relics. The Operative was an American, but Ya'wara hailed from Brazil, Vostok from Russia and Kahina was an Iranian. The final member of the group, Prisoner of War, was also an American, but he contained within his own body the souls of many fallen soldiers, maybe not all of them American. That was just one of the many avenues open for exploration with these characters.

The Others showed up again in Aquaman No. 20 and the first New 52 Aquaman annual, adding new member Sky Alchesay, a Native American, further spicing up the international flavor of the group. It was also no secret that these stand-alone stories were try-out issues meant to gauge interest in the group prior to them getting their own ongoing title, which launched in 2014.

This final story arc of the very short-lived Aquaman and the Others title pits the group against a similarly diverse group of assassins and mercenaries, some of them new creations for this story, as far as I know. Mayhem brings together the New 52 versions of Cheshire and former Soviet spies KGBeast and NKVDemon. Rounding out the cast of villains is a trio of new creations of undetermined nationality — Maelstrom, Stranglehold and Braze.

I'm not saying the "Alignmernt: Earth" story arc is perfect; there are some missteps and plot deficiencies. For example, none of those three new villains is fleshed out beyond a name and a basic character trait displayed in the fighting. The one exception is Maelstrom, whose heart doesn't quite seem in the fight during the final battle, but even that glimpse of something more never goes anywhere. Now, to be fair to Dan Jurgens, a talented writer and artist whose work I quite enjoy most of the time, maybe that is because once the series had been canceled, he didn't see much point in developing the other villains more only to have them fade away.

I also think the conflict between the Operative and Prisoner of War in this arc could have been resolved much more quickly than it was. But again, maybe Jurgens initially had more in mind with some of his moves here that the cancellation cut short.

Obviously, I was a fan of this series and was willing to continue to support the ongoing adventures of the Others. Now that the book has been canceled, however, I am reminded of an oft-repeated refrain on the Internet that some characters just aren't meant to support an ongoing series. Some characters, commentators say, are better suited to a miniseries or series of recurring finite stories.

I hope that at the very least, DC opts to go that route with these characters. They still show much promise, much potential for great storytelling. And I like how they interact with each other and team leader Aquaman. If the Others can't have an ongoing title, I hope Jurgens and company will at least trot them out from time to time with guest appearances or even their own mini, as time and inspiration allow. If I can't have a monthly dose of these characters, I at least want to visit them frequently.

Please DC, make it so.