Who Says They're All Bad

Villains United 1-6 (2005)
DC Comics
Gail Simone, writer
Dale Eaglesham, Wade Von Grawbadger, Val Semeiks and Prentis Rollins, artists

I was reading a comic recently when my wife asked me what I was reading. Her interest in my collection is usually not very high, so I was trying to keep my answer brief for her benefit. I simply replied, "Just reading a miniseries before I list it to sell."

"I'm sorry your book's not very good," was her immediate, genuine reply.

I was a bit surprised by that assumption and quickly asked, "You know I'm not selling things because I think they weren't good, right?"

Sure, every now and then I'll come across a comic that just isn't to my liking for one reason or another. That's bound to happen from time to time. But the biggest reason for this sell-off is one of space. I'm selling a lot of comics that I very much enjoyed the first time around, and often even through subsequent readings. But some of the good stuff has to go in order to get my collection down to the space we can spare for it now that we have a child.

This limited series is one of those good ones I would definitely keep if space wasn't limited because it is beautifully illustrated and wonderfully written. It is rich in characterization and tells a gripping narrative. It also happens to be the series I was reading when the above exchange between my wife and I occurred.

Villains United was one of four six-issue limited series in 2005 exploring various aspects of the larger DC Universe leading up to Infinite Crisis in 2006. Villains United focuses on the creation of a version of the Secret Society, but rather than being a finite group of a dozen or so villains banded together in a common cause as in the past, this Secret Society is Lex Luthor, Black Adam, Talia al Ghul, Deathstroke, the Calculator and Doctor Psycho uniting all villains under their control.

All that is except for six — Deadshot, Catman, Chesire, the second Rag Doll, Scandal Savage and a displaced Parademon from Apokolips — who decline to "get with the program." These six — dubbed the Secret Six — are still villains, but they choose not to pledge fealty to Luthor and the others. The name Secret Six seems odd for them in this first outing as their identities as the holdouts from the Society are hardly a secret. And these six chose not to follow the orders of the Society, but begrudgingly follow orders from someone they know only by the pseudonym "Mockingbird." Despite those basic contradictions, this story works as heroes and villains alike pursue the Secret Six. Readers quickly found themselves rooting for this motley collection of rogues as they fight to stay alive, stay free and continue to quarrel and fight amongst themselves.

In fact, the team proved so popular, they got a second six-issue series, The Secret Six, in 2006 and ultimately an ongoing, also named The Secret Six, which ran for 36 issues beginning in 2008. There were a few changes in membership for the Secret Six during this time with a few members leaving due to betrayal or death. Along the way, the Mad Hatter, Knockout, Harley Quinn and Bane were some of the various replacements, some staying for a while and others departing rather quickly after showing up. The ongoing series was still quite popular at the time of its cancellation in 2011 to make way for the restructuring that resulted in the New 52.

For those of you interested in comics history, just as there have been several incarnations of the Secret Society in DCU continuity, this 2005 series was not the first for a Secret Six led by a mysterious figure known only as Mockingbird. The name and concept were first used in 1968 with the debut of The Secret Six No. 1. Creators E. Nelson Bridwell and Frank Springer told stories of six covert operatives, each with a different special talent, operating under the command of an unidentified figure they knew only by his codename — Mockingbird. The title lasted for seven issues stretched out across one year and has two characteristics which are rare among comics then and now. The cover of the May 1968 The Secret Six No. 1 is also the first panel of the story continuing on inside the comic, and the series ended without revealing to the characters or the readers the real identity of Mockingbird.

The Secret Six concept was updated in the 1980s as one of the rotating features in the anthology title Action Comics Weekly. Martin Pasko, the writer, and Springer and Dan Spiegle, the artists, brought back the same six operatives, once again assembled by Mockingbird, who is early on revealed to be one of the six. Early on in this new mission, the original six members all die and are replaced by six new operatives and a new Mockingbird. This incarnation of The Secret Six logged two story arcs in Action Comics Weekly Nos. 601-612 and 619-630, all in 1988.

When I first learned of the original Secret Six comic at the height of the 2005 and 2006 series' popularity, I sought out those issues to see how different they were from the modern incarnation. I haven't taken time to read those seven issues yet, but I did read at least portions of the Action Comics Weekly version when they were new. I don't remember being much impressed with that segment of Action Comics Weekly at the time, but I didn't know the past or future history of the title then, either. I'm just as curious to revisit the 1988 stories as I am to finally read the 1968 ones at some point.

No matter what I ultimately end up thinking of those two earlier incarnations of the Secret Six concept, I was a big fan of the modern villains version of the team. And I'm a little sad to part with these issues. They aren't going up on my site to sell because they are poorly done comics or because I didn't like them. Like a great many other titles I'm selling, these were fun at the time, and I'm glad I got to read and enjoy them. I just don't have room to keep all of the comics I've read and enjoyed over nearly 40 years of reading them.

Sorry About That, Folks

I swear, the title of the previous post was intended to refer ONLY to Kurt Busiek's final issue of his Avengers run, and NOT that I wasn't coming back.

Unfortunately, work — my paying job — has been getting in the way a whole lot of late. I won't bore you with all the details, but the increased demands on my time there do NOT look to be changing any time soon.

It is my hope that I can continue to post here from time to time in the foreseeable future, but I can't promise any kind of regularity right now. Hopefully, that will change before long.

In the meantime, thanks to those of you who have still been stopping by; I hope you continue to do so, enjoying posts from the archives when there is not something new. I really hope to be back as time allows and get back to a regular posting schedule before long.

Going Out On A High Note

The Avengers No. 56 (2002)
Marvel Comics
Kurt Busiek, writer
Yanick Paquette and Ray Snyder, artists

Back in 1996, most of the Avengers, along with the Fantastic Four, were apparently killed off by the villainous Onslaught. The Avengers, the F.F., Captain America and Iron Man all had their respective titles relaunched with new No. 1s under the banner "Heroes Reborn" and their various continuities were all rebooted. That lasted for one year before it was revealed to both the readers and the characters that instead of being killed by Onslaught, they had been shunted off to a pocket universe. Naturally, upon learning this, the heroes combined forces to return to their proper reality, and in 1997, the four titles again relaunched with new No. 1s under the banner "Heroes Return."

The 1997 Avengers relaunch was led by writer Kurt Busiek and artist George Perez, both very much fan favorites, to say the least. Perez left the title with issue No. 34, but Busiek remained until mid-2002, turning this stand-alone issue in as the finale for his run.

Similar to Busiek's creator-owned title, Astro City, this issue focuses a bit more on the aftermath and consequences of superheroics on regular people's lives — specifically, who is liable for damage done when heroes and villains clash in populated areas.

In addition to providing the Avengers with their mansion home base, Tony Stark (the team's own armored Avenger, Iron Man) has created the Maria Stark Foundation, a nonprofit organization that handles all those niggling details after a dust-up. However, in a real-world twist, the Stark Foundation must answer to the government on expenditures in order to maintain its nonprofit, tax-exempt status. Also, they don't want to pay for fraudulent damage claims, just as a responsible course of doing business. Therefore, at least periodically, Avengers missions and the consequences must be audited.

This issue has a number of Avengers gathered together to meet with these Stark Foundation auditors to relate, and sometimes justify, their actions in a recent mission pitting the team against the Elements of Doom, several non-sentient entities scientifically created to wreak havoc. The issue is presented very tongue-in-cheek and mixes a great deal of humor with the expected level of superhero mayhem.

I haven't read Busiek's entire run from this incarnation of The Avengers, but I've enjoyed most of what I have read of the title. This issue is by far one of the best of that run.

An Attitude Adjustment For Grid Made Me Feel Much Better

Justice League 29
DC Comics
Geoff Johns, writer
Doug Mahnke and Keith Champagne, artists

A few weeks ago, I was lamenting the new designs that went into the New 52 versions of the Metal Men as they appeared in Justice League No. 28. Their new designs were clunky and over-rendered. Despite having malleable, shape-shifting bodies, when standing, each one is drawn with an unnecessary number of grills and fenders and ornamental attachments that seem to serve no real purpose other than to give future artists headaches.

I didn't really have an issue with the story itself, just the designs of the Metal Men.

This issue gives Gold, Iron, Lead, Mercury, Tin and Platinum even more chances to shine — story-wise — as they join Cyborg in taking down Grid, Cyborg's now-sentient former armor. The Metal Men don't spend much time standing around this issue, so there were fewer chances for the artwork to bother me and more chances for the robotic heroes' sense of fun and adventure to shine through in the battle. I definitely like Geoff Johns' take on these characters. If this can be how the team is written going forward, sign me up for more of them.

Just please give them a simpler re-tooling in the chassis department!

Two For The Price Of One

JSA Classified Nos. 5-7 (2005)
DC Comics
Jen Van Meter, writer
Patrick Olliffe, Ruy Jose and Drew Geraci, artists

Anthology series are often a hard sell, due in part to the rotating characters, stories and creators involved. That can make for very uneven quality from issue to issue in the eyes of some readers and fans. Such was the case with JSA Classified, published by DC between 2005 and 2008, but by and large, there were a number of great stories loosely based around the characters in the Justice Society of America. Today, I'd like to bring two of those to your attention.

In this first three-issue story arc, the members of the Justice Society are mostly background players; the focus of the narrative is on the Injustice Society, the JSA's villainous evil counterparts. And the entire story — quite an interesting read, by the way — plays on the concepts often used in superhero team dynamics and explores them from the perspective of a group of villains.

The narrator for this tale is the Icicle, and this story takes place around the time of Infinite Crisis, so there is some crossover in the setup. Icicle gathers the old Injustice Society back together to help former teammate, the Wizard, explaining that it is not just the heroes who band together out of friendship and loyalty to each other. These two call upon Rag Doll, Solomon Grundy, Gentleman Ghost, the Thinker and a villainess named Tigress — who I believe is an updated version of the Golden-Age villain Huntress, renamed to avoid confusion with the then-current heroine named Huntress.

The action of this story is gripping and could easily hold a reader's interest on the surface plot alone. But it was an ingenious stroke to use this venue to tell a superhero story from the point of view of the villains rather than the heroes. That flip adds another level of interest that almost has the reader rooting for the villains as they try to steal the Cosmic Key from JSA headquarters to free their friend and colleague, the Wizard, from enslavement to another, deadly villain, Johnny Sorrow.

JSA Classified Nos. 26-27 (2007)
DC Comics
Frank Tieri, writer
Matt Haley, Jerome Moore and Gordon Purcell, artists

This second, two-issue arc features Ted Grant, Wildcat of the JSA, in a solo story. I've always liked Wildcat as a non-powered, scrappy hero, but I suspect at least some of my appreciation for the character stems from my earliest exposure to him when I was very young and thought he was just an incorrectly colored Batman.

This story begins with Wildcat handing a beat-down to the classic Golden-Age villain, Sportsmaster. Quickly apprehended, Sportsmaster confesses that he only took on Wildcat in an attempt to pay off his gambling debts by betting others that he could defeat the pugilistic hero. He further explains that there is an entire underground gambling operation based around wagers placed on the outcomes of hero-villain slugfests.

Of course, Wildcat wants to shut down such an operation, but his disgust at the gambling is at least partially due to his father's own gambling problem. I must confess that I am not that familiar with Wildcat's history beyond his being a former boxing champion. But in this story at least, Ted's parents were reportedly killed in a car accident when he was in college. Years later, Ted learned of his father's gambling problem, and that only his mother died in the car crash, which was no accident. It was a warning to Ted's father to pay his debts or else.

The resulting story gets a bit preachy at times, but is still a solid read. And it offers glimpses into the motivations and habits of villains, similar to the story arc discussed earlier.

Both of these and several other story arcs from JSA Classified are worth seeking out and reading! Give 'em a try; I think you'll be glad you did.

Checking In With Our Belgian Friend

The Adventures of Tintin: Cigars of the Pharaoh
Little, Brown
Hergé, writer and artist

It's been a while since we last checked in with Tintin. This fourth installment in The Adventures of Tintin series — originally serialized between 1932 and 1934 — is much closer in tone to the few later adventures I'd read when I was a kid. It also serves to introduce a few of the recurring characters besides Tintin and his dog, Snowy.

Previous installments in the series have begun with Tintin being assigned by his employers, Le Petit Vingtieme, to explore and report back to his readers about foreign lands — Russia, the Congo and America. Cigars of the Pharaoh, however, begins with Tintin and Snowy embarking on a holiday cruise around parts of the Middle East and Asia. In fact, there are only a few mentions of Tintin being a reporter in this volume. One of the more humorous mentions is when Tintin runs afoul of Sheik Patrash Pasha. Once the sheik learns Tintin's name, his demeanor toward the reporter softens because he is fond of reading about the young man's adventures. As proof, one of his servants holds up a copy of Destination Moon, an anachronistic reference to the 16th volume in the series. Of course, what I have is a much more recent printing of the book that has obviously been modified; I wonder, however, what the servant was holding when this adventure was originally serialized. Maybe not a book at all as I don't think any of the Tintin adventures had been collected into book form in the early '30s; perhaps the servant was originally depicted holding a copy of Le Petit Vingtieme.

Back to the story, on the very first evening aboard the cruise ship, Tintin and Snowy chance to meet a seemingly befuddled professor, Sophocles Sarcophagus, who is endeavoring to be the first explorer to find the lost tomb of the Pharaoh Kih-Oskh. Tintin agrees to help the professor only to have the association lead the young reporter from one trouble to the next.

One such peril is being framed as a drug smuggler while still aboard the cruise ship. This brings Tintin to the attention of the Thompsons, two bumbling detectives who are almost identical and who show up in almost all of the subsequent Tintin adventures. By the end of this story, Tintin is cleared of the drug charges, as well as several subsequent charges the Thompsons level against him during their haphazard investigation and pursuit of the young man. The Thompsons part with Tintin on good terms, but they are not yet the friends and allies they will become in future installments.

At another point in the story, Tintin and Snowy are adrift at sea, only to be rescued by a passing ship. Also aboard the vessel is one Oliveira da Figueira, a disheveled but apparently gifted salesman of useless trinkets. I haven't seen da Figueira in the other Tintin stories I have read previously, but according to Wikipedia, he is a frequent, recurring character in the series.

And finally, back at the beginning of this tale — just after Tintin meets Sarcophagus, in fact — he also meets a man named Rastapopoulos. Again, this was a character unfamiliar to me prior to reading Cigars of the Pharaoh, but he pops up repeatedly in this tale, and again according to Wikipedia, Rastapopoulos is another character who will be seen in later volumes of the series.

This is a fun adventure, and as I said before, it more closely resembles the three later tales I'd read in my youth than the three that preceded it in publication order. My one complaint with Cigars of the Pharaoh is that the narrative is a bit disjointed as Tintin moves from one setting to the next, and a number of plot threads seem to be left dangling, or if resolved, that resolution is brought about by pure chance.

The villains in this story are smuggling opium disguised as ordinary cigars. The clues that help Tintin piece that together come in the form of counterfeit cigar bands and a symbol found repeatedly in the strangest of places. For instance, the mysterious symbol is a circle with a wavy, vertical line drawn through it and two dots placed on either side of the line, one near the top but inside the circle and the other at the bottom, outside the circle. At first, Sarcophagus believes this symbol to be the royal cipher of Kih-Oskh because it appears on the map he is using to locate Kih-Oskh's final resting place, and later, once Tintin and Sarcophagus find the tomb, the symbol is displayed in various places there as well. It turns out, however, that the tomb is being used by the smugglers as a base of operations. The symbol marks secret entrances and communications for the villains. Strangely, Tintin also comes across the symbol on random tree trunks in the jungle after crash-landing his plane there in one portion of the story. No explanation is given for the symbols to be in the jungle except to push Tintin onward in his investigations.

One further note about the villain behind everything in this tale: Rastapopoulos is first seen being very rude and gruff to both Sarcophagus and Tintin. He comes across as being very pompous and self-important. Later, he is seen again when Tintin stumbles onto his movie set. Here we learn that he is a movie producer, and he is much more kind and friendly toward Tintin. One character later in the story, the poet Zloty, tries to reveal the name of the mastermind to Tintin before he is poisoned; Tintin does not understand Zloty's final words, and the mastermind's face is never revealed in the art, but it is heavily indicated by what Zloty says that Rastapopoulos is the mastermind behind the smuggling operation. It will be interesting to see if and when Rastapopoulos resurfaces in future volumes of the series, as the mastermind of the smuggling scheme — identity still unrevealed — appears to fall to his death pursuing Tintin in the climax of the story.

One final humorous note: Snowy, Tintin's dog, speaks in every story of the series I've read. I've commented in the past that it is unclear if Snowy's often snarky comments are just humorous asides to the readers or if they are intended as being heard by the other characters. After reading this fourth volume, I'm going to solidly say Snowy's comments are NOT heard by the other characters and are just for the readers' benefit. While sometimes Tintin almost seems to be replying directly to something Snowy says, Cigars of the Pharaoh makes it clear that isn't the case. But also with this volume, Snowy is no longer the only animal to make such comments; while in the jungle mentioned above, Tintn and Snowy run into a very talkative herd of elephants.

Adding A Name To My Favorite Writers List

H.E.R.O. (2003-05)
DC Comics
Will Pfeifer, writer
Kano, Patrick Gleason, Leonard Kirk and Dale Eaglesham, artists

I recently re-read this series, rediscovering all of the enjoyment and wonder that kept me coming back issue after issue when the title was new. Picking it up again now, several years after those initial readings, I recognize the name of the writer where I didn't know him as well before. Will Pfeifer wrote that incredible run on Catwoman between 2005 and 2008, and he did a great job when he was handed the reins to the Aquaman title in 2004 for a brief eight-issue stint. I haven't read everything Pfeifer has written, but I enjoy much of what I have read. OK, he wrote the mess that was Amazons Attack! in 2007, but I can forgive him that if we can all just agree that series never happened.

But getting back to this series, it is an updating of the 1960s Dial H For Hero concept, which debuted in House of Mystery and was later revived in Adventure Comics. In those stories, a kid named Robby Reed finds a mysterious dial with the letters "H," "E," "R," and "O" on it. When Robby punches the letters in sequence, he is transformed into a super-powerful individual. Each time he uses the dial, he is transformed into a different powered being, but instantly with each transformation, Robby instinctively "knows" the hero name and abilities that go along with his new body.

During the initial runs of the feature, readers were encouraged to write in with their own hero suggestions and costumes. Contest winners then had their creations appear in a future issue as the next hero Robby Reed would transform into. The entire thing was based on randomness; Robby never knew what kind of powers he was going to get with each use of the dial, and sometimes had a challenge figuring out how to use what he got to resolve the situation he found himself in.

With this series, Pfeifer upped the randomness factor of the entire thing. Instead of focusing his series on a single dial-user, Pfeifer had the dial changing hands often through various means. For instance, one group of users in Pfeifer's series starts out sharing the dial, taking turns transforming themselves. But later, they begin to fight over who will use the device next and end up losing the device out a moving car window. Some people lose the device when it is stolen from them. Others, like Robby, simply find the device somewhere unexpectedly.

Pfeifer takes things even further. Punching the buttons on the dial results in the person possessing it being transformed into someone with superpowers; it does NOT, however, guarantee that a "hero" will result. Some folks have more selfish aims in mind when they learn the power the device gives them. Some of the people who find the dial are villains even before learning what it can do, and they see it as a means to further their criminal goals.

This series was a bit darker in tone than the other works I've enjoyed from Pfeifer's pen. The first issue starts out with a young man contemplating suicide after his disastrous encounter with the device. And that early issue pales in comparison to later ones when a deranged psychotic killer gains control of the device. But that's part of the appeal of this series; you never know from issue to issue what is going to happen next!

All in all, H.E.R.O. was a good read from a talented writer whose work I've often enjoyed. In fact, rereading this series and looking back at his past work I have enjoyed has inspired me to pick up Pfeifer's forthcoming relaunch of the New 52 version of Teen Titans and give it a try after writing off this incarnation of the team previously.

They're Making Me Do It Again

Superman: Lois Lane one shot
DC Comics
Marguerite Bennett, writer
Emanuela Lupacchino, Meghan Hetrick, Ig Guara and Diogenes Neves, artists

I wasn't going to talk about this book. Like I said last time, I want to spread the word about books I enjoy, not bash the ones that don't measure up to my expectations. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to weigh in on this book because I believe it could have been so much more than it was.

I wanted to be fair. I sat down and read the issue through a second time after leaving it sit a few days. And on the second read, the story isn't a bad one. It's still not what I'd hoped for, not what I think a book featuring Lois Lane could be, but it's not bad.

The headshot of Lois on the cover by artist Kenneth Rocafort is what I hope for in a Lois Lane book. That headshot is of a woman who is beautiful and confident, smart and resourceful, a working girl who's not afraid to get her hands dirty in pursuit of her goals. Yes, all of that is conveyed in this simple head and shoulders shot.

But many of the things I didn't care for in this book are also right there on the cover, if I'd only paid attention. There's a fearsome-looking alien creature indicating an otherworldly slant to this tale. And there's also the name Superman, right there in the title. He gets top billing on a book starring her, but why? I'd be willing to bet that she carries just as much name recognition as he does. And since he's hardly in this issue at all, his name on the cover is almost false advertising. But the powers that be felt they needed to include him to the extent that they did and that they had to slap his name on the cover so the book would sell. But I disagree with that premise; tell a good Lois Lane solo story and there's an audience for that book.

Before we talk too many specifics about this book, full disclosure: I haven't been following the monthly Superman titles, so I'm not up on the current status quo of Lois Lane in those titles. But then, I shouldn't have to be following some other book to understand what is going on in a one-shot. References are made to a Jonathan, and Lois seems to be wearing an engagement ring. There's also mention early on of a coma that someone, presumably Lois, suffered not long ago. No idea what any of that is about.

This story is about a current mystery involving Lois' sister, Lucy. Interspersed with the current plot are flashbacks to Lois and Lucy's childhood. Both the current events and the flashbacks seem to drastically change Lois' family history from her pre-New 52 origins. But the big constant is that Lois is a reporter and is called upon to use her investigative skills to help her little sister. Except all of the parts of the story that would show Lois using those skills to dig for answers — what I want to read in a Lois Lane comic — those parts are glossed over, unimportant. Worse, constant references are made to Lois being unable to spell. And what words is she having trouble spelling correctly? Words like "nostalgia" and "emergency" — not too terribly difficult. So, gloss over her skills, and worse, imply she's not very smart to begin with.

What that leaves us with is this: Lucy shows up at Lois' apartment in the middle of the night. She's just escaped from a group of military-style kidnappers who succeeded in taking Lucy's roommate, Amanda. Drugs are likely involved, so Lucy forbids Lois from going to the police or contacting Superman, but wants her sister's help tracking down and rescuing Amanda. In the process, Lois stumbles onto something involving an alien life form; strange, unpredictable mutations; and said quasi-military group who may or may not be responsible.

At the end of the tale, many answers and connections are provided, but the masked leader of the quasi-military group, "the Agent," is never given another name or other purpose or explanation. Maybe he'll show up again, but just as likely he won't. Will Lois expose the dark secrets she has uncovered? Who knows. There is no information at the end of the issue to indicate the one-shot is continued somewhere else. And the issue ends with "the Agent" and Lucy both urging Lois not to as no good will come of the expose.

Give me a Lois Lane title that features what we know best about the character: her being a no-nonsense, never back down, get to the truth however possible investigative reporter. Sure, she lives in the same city as Superman, an alien being with fantastic powers and abilities. But keep Lois' solo stories more grounded, at least at first, to re-establish her own character and let that stand on its own. Then later, Superman and other-worldly, more fantastic elements can be slowly, occasionally introduced to the title. But definitely don't gloss over what makes the character unique and special.

I've Been Reading A Lot Of Disappointing Books Lately

Justice League 28
DC Comics
Geoff Johns, writer
Ivan Reis, Joe Prado and Scott Hanna, artists

I enjoy reading comics, so I want to talk about the ones I enjoy, not the ones that didn't live up to the potential I hoped they could have. But there have been several in the past few days that just didn't meet my expectations going in.

In the case of this issue of Justice League, continuing the "Forever Evil" crossover, the story itself was good: Cyborg got a complete makeover in the previous issue after all of his cybernetic parts split off, decided to call itself The Grid, and joined the other-dimensional Crime Syndicate that has taken over the world and imprisoned most of the League. This new, much more streamlined Cyborg 2.0 seeks out Dr. Will Magnus, creator of the Metal Men, to help him counter-attack the Syndicate, so this issue serves to introduce the New 52 versions of the Metal Men, who all act pretty much as they did before the New 52 reboot.

The problem is, the only real change I can see that the New 52 has brought to the Metal Men is that they all got a bad case of the uglies, especially Iron, Lead and Mercury.

These three, in particular, look as if they are wearing armor they should be able to remove. All six of the Metal Men — also including Gold, Tin and Platinum — look a lot more robotic than they used to. Now, I know that they technically are robots. But their respective responsometers not only give them their distinctive personalities, but each of the Metal Men also has complete control over his or her shape, allowing them to be able to shift and form tools and such from their bodies. Based on that fact alone, they should have very streamlined, fluid bodies, but especially when seen next to Cyborg's own new chassis, they look very clunky.

I've looked through the issue several times and can't find any kind of design credit. So maybe Ivan Reis, Joe Prado and/or Scott Hanna designed the new looks for the Metal Men. These guys have wowed me with their art in the past, so I would hate to think that they are responsible for this mess. Rather, almost the entire New 52 redesign came from Jim Lee, another artist whose past work I have enjoyed, but who seems to have gone overboard with the unnecessary costume details and seams and such in the New 52. These look to me like they are more of Jim Lee's bad design work for the reboot.

Here's hoping the Metal Men's appearances soften over time.

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.

I Can Get Behind This History Lesson

The Creature Commandos! tpb
DC Comics
J.M. DeMatteis, Robert Kanigher, Dave Manak and Mike W. Barr, writers
Fred Carrillo, Pat Broderick, John Celardo, Bob Hall, Jerry Ordway, Dave Manak and Dan Spiegle, artists

I was very happy and more than a little surprised to see this volume solicited a few months ago as I've long had a passing interest in DC's Creature Commandos characters. I'm not a big fan of more traditional war-themed comics, but make the soldiers and Marines fighting the enemy into versions of famous movie monsters, and you've got my attention.

I was reading a lot of comics at the time of the Creature Commandos' debut, but my access to comics back then was pretty sporadic. So I completely missed the characters until much, much later when I came across a copy of Weird War Tales No. 119 featuring the Creature Commandos at a flea market. It was a pretty beat-up copy with some discoloration on the cover, but I could still tell that was a Frankenstein's monster in Army fatigues battling a couple lions with a vampire, a werewolf and a gorgon similarly engaged in the background. I was very interested.

The story opened with this bizaare-visaged quartet strolling through a wax museum, marveling at the recreations of Hilter, Jack the Ripper and other real-life normal-appearing monsters. The Creature Commandos comment that next to these horrors no one could possibly object to them, but almost immediately, other patrons of the museum catch sight of them and react poorly.

I didn't know how these fighters had come to look as they did, but I wanted to know more about them. We didn't have a home computer in those days, so my interest extended only as far as keeping an eye out for more issues whenever I was somewhere I might find some; there was no real research conducted. So I completely missed the fact that this comic was not as old as it's condition might indicate. I assumed the Creature Commandos were a product of the 1960s or maybe 1970s when both monster comics and war comics had their heyday. I further surmised that this was likely the 119th appearance of these characters in this title. But I assumed incorrectly on all counts.

This volume has confirmed for me that the Creature Commandos were in fact a product of the 1980s. They were created by J.M. DeMatteis and Pat Broderick and debuted in Weird War Tales No. 93, cover dated November 1980. The issue I'd purchased, No. 119, was only their 18th appearance in the title, and they would go on to appear in only two more issues after No. 119.

The original three Creature Commandos are Sgt. Vincent Velcro, Oklahoman Warren Griffith, and Marine Pvt. "Lucky" Taylor. These three were transformed into a vampire, a werewolf and a patchwork man resembling Frankenstein's monster, respectively, as part of Project M, a secret operation sponsored by all branches of the military to introduce an element of psychological warfare into America's fighting forces during the height of World War II. These three transformed warriors were sent on special assignments under the command of Lt. Matthew Shrieve, a normal man with a disposition much more monstrous than any of his charges.

The early Creature Commandos missions had the team face a variety of Nazi threats, often infiltrating Axis compounds to free captured scientists or freedom fighters. The Commandos would use the shock their appearances caused, as well as their monstrous strength and other inhuman abilities to defeat their enemies. Sometimes the Commandos were pitted against the dinosaurs of Monster Island or paired with their frequent Weird War Tales co-star, J.A.K.E., the G.I. Robot.

Dr. Myrna Rhodes, a plastic surgeon, is accidentally transformed into Dr. Medusa, a snake-haired beauty who joins the Creature Commandos in Weird War Tales No. 110, the team's 10th appearance. There are still a number of special missions after the addition of Dr. Medusa, but the Commandos are just as likely to be "vacationing" and dealing with public reaction to their appearances while the military leaders try to figure out what to do with them.

A common theme throughout the Creature Commandos adventures is how humane the Commandos act despite their monstrous looks and how tragic their lives are as a result of their transformations. This is juxtaposed against the normal looking, but much less empathetic actions of their enemies, the general public and even their own leader, Lt. Shrieve, who never misses an opportunity to remind the Commandos that they can never lead normal lives looking like they do. Yet these adventures are varied enough to not fall completely into formula and become overly repetitive.

I think the more recent re-imagining of the Creature Commandos in Tim Truman's and Scot Eaton's 2000 limited series would have done well to remember that juxtaposition. Their eight-issue mini wasn't a bad read, but it pitched the Creature Commandos against otherworldly invaders in another dimension while doing their thing to defend Earth. The appearance of the classic four members was altered pretty drastically, a few new members — a cyborg, a mummy and a gill-man — were added, and Shrieve was swapped out for a more sympathetic human commander. But without ordinary humans to be repelled and monstrous humans to fight against, something vital was lost.

Umm, OK ... Where's The Funny?

Gon Volume 1
Kodansha Comics
Masashi Tanaka, writer and artist

I'm not quite sure what to make of Gon now that I've finally "read" one.

I've heard a lot about this Japanese manga series, most often being described as beautiful artwork and very funny stories about the title character, a tiny but ferocious dinosaur still around long after any others of his kind have gone extinct.

Early on, I learned that the series was without words — no word ballons, thought bubbles or captions of any kind — just pictures. It takes a certain kind of writer/artist to pull off that kind of comic effectively without leaving the reader feeling lost along the way, but I've read examples of the form done well in the past. For the most part, I feel that Masashi Tanaka is among the writer/artists who can pull this feat off. I followed each little story in this first volume of Gon's adventures pretty well.

But the series still leaves me scratching my head a little bit. All cover images I've ever seen of Gon look cartoony in their depiction of the title character and any others shown. That seems to fit with the funny tone I expected from the series based on past reviews and discussions of Gon. But the interior art doesn't match up. The interiors are beautifully, realistically illustrated so that the other creatures depicted look as if they could crawl or leap or fly right off the page in many instances. The situations depicted tend to be equally realistic and quite graphic at times. Anyone expecting a kid-friendly tale judging by the Gon covers is going to be very disappointed by the interiors and likely will have a child in need of counseling, or at the very least with an awful lot of heavy questions. These aren't Disney adventures by any stretch.

The image above, for instance, shows Gon and a lion sharing a wildebeest they have just brought down together. The U-shaped marks on the lion's forehead in the second panel (Remember, manga is read from right to left!) are Gon's teeth marks; Gon bites down on the lion's head and pulls its mane and slaps its back with his tail to control it while using the lion to bring down the wildebeest in the first place. That's kind of a darkly humorous scenario, I'll grant, but illustrated in a very realistic fashion that just leaves me confused how to react to this series.

Perhaps I'm being too narrow-minded, but it seems to me that the Gon series is a little confused about what it wants to be — cute and kid-friendly or serious and graphic — and ends up mixing the two together in a fashion I found a little disconcerting. I'm not that anxious to read the other six volumes of the Gon series at this point.

That's Taking Continuity Too Far

Star Trek: The Badlands Books 1 and 2 (1999)
Pocket Books
Susan Wright, author

This isn't the first time I've discussed prose novels. In fact, I've done it here, here, here and even here. But all of those instances were prose novels about comic book characters and their adventures.

While the various incarnations of Star Trek have all existed at one time or another in comics form, they are first and foremost a television and film medium. So this is still kind of a departure, and I admit that. But I wanted to talk about these books because of what I didn't care for about them, and it's a problem that crops up in comics from time to time, so there's still a bit of a connection. Besides, it's April Fool's Day, I've got no prank for you, so something different seemed in order.

After publishing many, many prose adventures for the various Star Trek incarnations for a number of years, Pocket Books hit upon the idea to publish novels that brought a common theme to each of the Trek franchises. As far as I know, the first experiment with this idea was the "Invasion!" series of prose novels in 1996. In the first book, the classic Enterprise crew from The Original Series responds to a distress call from the Klingons only to find the advance fleet of a much larger invasion force bent on conquering the known universe. The Original Series crew manages to throw a big enough monkey wrench into the invasion plans that the larger attack is halted for a number of decades, but the subsequent three novels all show the later Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager crews again dealing with the same invaders in their own century. Later came a "Day of Honor" series of novels and a "Section 31" series doing something similar.

These two "Badlands" novels attempt much the same thing, but on a smaller scale. Instead of four separate novels, "The Badlands" includes two novellas each in just two paperbacks. In the first book, TOS crew is ordered to the Romulan Neutral Zone on a mission and encounters a previously unknown phenomenon that threatens the ship and crew. Seventy years later, TNG crew encounters the same phenomenon, only managing to survive using the knowledge of the threat gleaned by TOS crew and adding to it. Then a few years later, the maiden voyage of the USS Voyager brings that crew into contact with the phenomenon, and it is left to the crew of the Defiant from DS9 to finally bring an end to the threat once and for all, in the second novel.

Susan Wright, the author of these adventures makes a couple choices that interfered with my enjoyment of these books. First, she doesn't just set the events of her tales within the vague time frame of each Trek series; she pins down exactly when each of her four tales occurs within the larger Trek tapestry. Now, that may sound like a fan's fondest wish: to be given the answer to when does this adventure occur in the context of the others. But Wright takes things way too far, incorporating events from episodes of the various Trek shows into her stories. Entire scenes of the Voyager installment, for example, are lifted directly from the pilot episode of that series. But Wright gets bogged down with details from the shows in many places because of this. In the DS9 segment, for example, the events take place at a point in the television show when one of the main characters has been captured by Dominion forces and is being impersonated on DS9 by a doppelganger for the purposes of espionage. This introduces elements into that portion of the "Badlands" story that unnecessarily complicate Wright's story and are never resolved within her story because they must continue on in the TV program.

For me, personally, another issue was being less familiar with the later Trek franchises. I grew up watching TOS in reruns, and it holds my first and best Trek love. I have seen episodes of each of the later series and know most of the main characters, but I am not familiar with every detail of TNG, DS9 and Voyager continuities. With the level of detail from specific episodes Wright includes here, I was sometimes lost reading about events I had no outside knowledge of and for which Wright did not provide enough context within her own story.

Now, I am willing to concede that the level of show detail Wright incorporates into her stories might simply be a matter of personal tastes. Maybe I didn't like these books because I'm not as familiar with the other three Trek franchises, but a fan of them might think Wright's stories are just grand.

Here's a further complaint, though, that I feel can't be dismissed as personal taste. There are a number of errors and inaccuracies in TOS portion of Wright's "Badlands" story. For instance, she constantly has characters onboard the Enterprise speak with each other by first tapping on their shirt badges. In all three later Trek shows, technology has advanced to the point that a character's shirt badge was also a communications device, but in TOS, those shirt badges are simply fabric patches sewn onto the uniforms. While onboard the ship, characters converse by using a wall- or desk-mounted comm panel, and when away from the ship, they used handheld communicators. The comm badges haven't been invented yet in TOS universe. This is just one glaring inaccuracy in one portion of Wright's overall tale. It makes me wonder, however, how many inaccuracies were included in the other three portions that I didn't catch simply because I'm not as familiar with those programs.

Overall, I'm sorry to have to recommend giving these two Trek books a pass. There is too much good Trek out there to enjoy to waste time on these books.

It Was Fun While It Lasted

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 1-5 (2004)
CrossGen Entertainment
Tony Bedard, writer
Mike Perkins and Andrew Hennessy, artists

CrossGen is where I first became aware of Tony Bedard. He had some writing and art credits on comics before then; but it was while he worked at CrossGen that I learned his name and knew that I liked what he wrote. First it was through his work on the excellent — albeit short-lived, as most CrossGen titles ended up being — work on Negation. And then later with his writing on this 1960s super-spy title.

The majority of the CrossGen titles took place on other worlds that often shared characteristics of various Earth time periods, but it is never explained within the pages of this title if it takes place on Earth in the 1960s or simply another CrossGen universe planet whereon life closely imitates the British Empire in the 1960s. The agents in this series do, however, work for MI6, lending credibility to the idea that this is, in fact, Earth.

Wherever Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is set, the top agent at this MI6 is Charles Basildon; however, Basildon is a fictitious name assigned to whichever agent happens to be the agency's top operative at the time. Should that agent be killed in action, another moves up and assumes the name and rank, making use of the ongoing reputation.

At the outset of the series, the current Basildon is a highly accomplished and skilled agent, but one with a very narcissistic personality. He accomplishes his missions but has a penchant for getting his partners killed on a disturbingly regular basis. Stephanie Shelley, a very capable young field agent just coming up in the ranks, is to be Basildon's latest partner and possibly the first female agent to assume the Basildon identity, if she lives long enough.

The art by Mike Perkins is perfectly suited to such a story. His figures and settings look realistic enough to feel like you're watching an afternoon action movie. He is quite adept at having his characters convey their emotions through various facial expressions, adding to the context of the writing. And he draws some incredible larger-than-life explosions when the action turns more heavily to the "bang bang" part of the title.

In these early issues, Basildon and Shelley are assigned to track down a mysterious figure named Lazarus Bale, someone about whom little is truly known but who seems to often be at the center of criminal goings-on. Bale turns out to be an albino with ties to an ancient civilization and has a penchant for underlings who appear to be clones of various world dictators from the past.

As bizarre as all that sounds, these issues offer some great action mixed with equal parts humor and mayhem. It's too bad this series was cut short by the demise of CrossGen, as it would have been interesting to see where Bedard and company would have taken this series.

The Few, The Proud, The Non-Powered

Human Defense Corps 1-6 (2003)
DC Comics
Ty Templeton, writer
Clement Sauve Jr., Juan Vlasco, Norm Breyfogle and Dennis Janke, artists

In most superhero epics, especially those dealing with invading aliens or some other large-scale threat, you can imagine that the world's armed forces are called upon to deal with the invading armies while the superhero in question tackles the mastermind or big villain behind everything. The idea behind this miniseries was to follow a small group of such soldiers, especially one man in particular, as they face truly bizarre threats to the populace of Earth.

The narrator for much of the series is a man named Montgomery Kelly, and he explains that he was part of a National Guard unit called upon to fight a Khund landing party during the Invasion. It was during that pitched battle that he observed that when faced with such an alien threat, understandably an overload to the senses, many otherwise good soldiers freeze up and fail to do their duty. Kelly wanted to be part of an elite force made up only of soldiers who did not freeze up in such situations, soldiers he could trust to have his back in strange, unusual circumstances.

Thus the Human Defense Corps was born — an elite force of human soldiers who could be counted on to help defend Earth from threats both large and small, but most often, extra-terrestrial in nature.

Familiar DC Universe alien threats to the human race — beings such as the Khunds, Starro, Daxamites and Durlans — all have small parts to play in this drama, along with Neron, the 1990s and early-2000s era DC version of the Devil. There is also a new race of other-dimensional vampire-like creatures who play a larger role in the events.

Wisely for a series that says its focus is on ordinary humans, no costumed heroes play even the slightest role in this miniseries. None are even seen in the flashbacks to the Invasion story line. That doesn't mean a familiar DC name doesn't play a role — albeit a small one, as Lois Lane is dispatched by the Daily Planet to get the scoop on this new military branch in the first issue.

Otherwise, this series is kind of a sci-fi updating of classic titles like Our Men At War or Sgt. Rock. It's a good done-in-six tale that was created to go further if interest warranted, but since Kelly and his unit are not seen again, at least not to my knowledge, I'm guessing initial sales on this series were not great. But especially if you enjoy humans facing off against hostile aliens, you might enjoy this read. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it held up after a decade had gone by, but re-reading it now, this series was better than I remembered.

I Remember Those ...

Star Trek Annual 2013
IDW Publishing
John Byrne, writer

John Byrne has done a number of great Star Trek projects for IDW since they acquired the license to produce comics for the franchise. This latest creation takes the original series' second pilot episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," and crafts a sequel as if it is just another episode of the original television run of "Star Trek." Rather than illustrations by Byrne or another comic artist, however, this annual makes use of still footage from the original shows with word balloons added to make a fotonovel.

In the book, a mysterious signal draws the crew of the Enterprise back to Delta Vega, a lonely planet at the edge of our galaxy where the starship lost two of its crew on an early voyage. Byrne does a good job of capturing the voices and the feel of the original science-fiction classic, so that this annual reads just like a natural epilogue to the original episode.

The idea for fotonovels is not a new one. In fact, the original run of "Star Trek" had an even dozen episodes turned into popular fotonovels in the late 1970s. I know that because I own several of them, but even if I didn't, this annual contains a brief history of the fotonovel concept by Cliff Biggers of Comic Shop News and Newsarama.

I don't know that a casual fan of the new movies will care much for this "blast from the past," but any longtime fan of the franchise will appreciate this Star Trek Annual, and I heartily recommend it!

Keeping It In The Family

Protocol: Orphans 1-2
BOOM! Studios
Michael Alan Nelson, writer
Mariano Navarro, artist

Once again, the advance solicitation information did its job and caught my eye for this series a few months ago. I'm not familiar with either creator attached to the project, but the four-issue limited series was described as a fun espionage tale in the vein of "Mission: Impossible." (I assumed they meant the ensemble-cast original television series and not the so-so Tom Cruise movies, but then I try to assume the best.)

Two issues in, I'm glad I decided to give this series a try. The action centers on a group of five -- oops, make that four -- young espionage agents and their handler. No specific ages are given, but assume the agents are the cast of a WB drama and all in the 18-24 range. They fall into the expected categories with a tech person, a natural leader who doesn't know his own potential, the fun-loving one and a shady character completing the mix.

One of the interesting hooks for this series, however, is the fact that each of these agents is an orphan, taken by this agency and trained for this work from a very early age. And the entire organizational structure of the agency these kids work for is based on a family. The orphans answer to Dad, who in turn gets their missions from the shrouded-in-secrecy grandparents. This team of orphans has inherited a Dad with a past, however, and they aren't too sure how far they can trust him after his previous team of orphans all wound up dead.

With a cast of characters like this one, the creators could easily fall into the stereotype traps, but Nelson writes each of the characters we are allowed to know as being three-dimensional people who are more than their most dominant traits. And Navarro is able to make the large cast of young, pretty people (remember, beyond the orphans, we also have bad guys and bystanders and extras) each look distinctive and recognizable from panel to panel.

I'll have to read the second half of this mini before pronouncing a final judgment on it, but so far, I'm very glad I decided to give this series a try and am looking forward to the conclusion and possibly more from this crew in the future.

Truly Very Pretty To Look At And Fun To Read, Too

Fairest In All The Land hardcover
DC Vertigo
Bill Willingham, writer
Many, too many artists to list them all

If I didn't already know Bill Willingham was winding down his Fables universe of titles, this beautiful volume might make me suspect. It presents an engaging mystery story, just like the very first volume of Fables did way back in 2002. It also takes readers on a quick tour through the various Fables realms and touches on a number of the characters from the series, especially ones who have appeared in this spin-off title, tying up some loose ends along the way.

The point of a stand-alone story such as this one is to be accessible to new readers unfamiliar with the long history Willingham has crafted for these characters, hopefully enticing them to buy other volumes in the series. Willingham does a good job of telling any new readers the significant background on characters, enough so at least that I suspect someone new to the franchise certainly could follow the story. But there is so much a reader unfamiliar with the Fables universe would miss, it almost seems sad for a new reader to pick up this volume.

This story is set firmly among the current events in the Fables and Fairest shared universe, and is narrated by the Magic Mirror. The Mirror and the other various inhabitants of Fabletown's former business office have been cut off since the destruction of the building that linked them in time and space to the rest of the Fables characters. They are trapped physically, confined to their single expansive room, but through the Mirror, the inhabitants of the business office can peek in on happenings elsewhere.

In doing so, they witness the murders of a number of prominent Fables citizens back home in New York and watch as the survivors try to solve the mystery before anyone else dies. Cinderella, Fabletown's super spy, is enlisted by his honor, King Cole, to lead the investigation, much to her consternation. And the business office denizens try to assist using their own magical abilities where possible.

The hardcover includes an introductory and a concluding chapter, both illustrated prose. In between are more traditional comic panels, each scene being illustrated by a different highly talented artist, 31 of them in all. With that many artists, any comics fan should be able to find something visual to appreciate within these covers, and as stated above, the narrative is a delight to read.

Again, It's More About The Living

The Walking Dead tpb Vol. 19 "March To War"
Image Comics
Robert Kirkman, writer
Charlie Adlard, artist

More bad stuff happening for Rick Grimes and crew. As usual, not everyone in Rick's latest blended group is satisfied with the former policeman's leadership. Despite the internal challenges, Rick, Jesus from the Hilltop community and King Ezekiel have agreed to join forces to eliminate the threat posed by Negan and his band of Saviors. The three make their plans for an attack and begin to train those among their ranks less used to fighting. But it is key to their plans to keep the attack a secret until they are ready to move.

That all goes out the window when Negan makes his regular visit to Rick's community for supplies and tribute several days early. A conflict breaks out before Rick's, Jesus' and Ezekiel's forces are ready, and things do not go well for our heroes in this latest volume.

There are a few scenes in this trade where a group is traveling from one place to another when they encounter a few zombies that have to be dispatched. Each instance is dealt with matter-of-factly while unrelated conversations continue. Most all of the real action of these issues, as is typical of this series, concerns the living and how they act and react to each other.

That is what keeps me coming back to this series trade after trade: a zombie apocalypse might have kick-started the events, but it is no longer the primary motivation or driving force of the series. Living, breathing humans are. Cruel, compassionate, helpful, savage humans. And Kirkman just keeps ramping up the tension and drama, book after book.

The Curious Case Of The Charlatan

Detective Comics Nos. 777-782 (2003)
DC Comics
Ed Brubaker, writer
Tommy Castillo and Wade Von Grawbadger, artists

This is an excellent Batman story for a number of reasons: it introduces a brand new villain; the plot of the story allows the creators and the readers to visit a number of familiar rogues along the way; it focuses on the detective nature of the hero, a facet of his personality and procedures that can easily be overlooked; and it grabs your interest and holds your attention throughout.

Ed Brubaker spent most of his time in Gotham City writing Batman, but he did do a brief stint writing Detective Comics in 2003. At the time, DC was trying to differentiate the two books by emphasizing superheroics in Batman and deductive reasoning in Detective Comics. Hence, this mystery titled "Dead Reckoning."

The plot stems from a tragedy eight years in the past, yet still during Batman's career. It's rare for writers to pin down past events so concretely in comic stories where the passage of time is so elastic, but this tale does just that. It's not impossible to still fit that timeline into the typical 10-year span of Batman's career, but it does seem a little tight to me. Eight years ago would put it pretty early in Batman's career, yet portions of the story dictate that these events can not have happened too early in the criminal career of Two-Face. That distinction serves to narrow the window of occurrence for these events, because Two-Face first worked with Batman as crusading Gotham district attorney Harvey Dent. They had a great working relationship -- one depicted at times as almost closer than that between Batman and police commissioner Jim Gordon -- until Harvey was assaulted by a criminal in court and transformed into the two-obsessed Two-Face. Two-Face must have pulled at least a few criminal capers pitting him against his former ally, Batman, for the Dark Knight to become familiar with Two-Face's habits, and that familiarity is important to this modern story.

As for the villain, Charlatan, he's a master of disguise and a truly tragic figure, at least at the beginning. His obsessions lead him down a rather dark path, and ultimately, his poor decisions lead to his own downfall, but a great deal happens to this man that leaves readers feeling some sympathy for him. I don't believe he has ever appeared in another Batman comic since this initial appearance, although he would make an excellent addition to the Gotham City rogues gallery.

It's no secret I enjoy Ed Brubaker's writing, and he is a large part of why I like this story so much. There are a few bits of this six-issue arc that could have been shortened a tad; maybe four issues could have been enough to tell this tale without it bogging down in a few scenes.

The art is great for this type of story. I'm not familiar with Tommy Castillo's other art credits, but here, his illustrations recall the look and feel of "Batman: The Animated Series." Not identical, but still quite similar. That makes for a nice touch as Batman and Charlatan make their way through various familiar Gotham faces such as Commissioner Gordon, Renee Montoya, Penguin, Scarecrow, Killer Moth, Catwoman, the Joker and Two-Face.

This story is good comics!

This Ain't Your Daddy's Bionic Showdown

The Bionic Man Vs. The Bionic Woman: Artificial tpb
Dynamite Entertainment
Keith Champagne
Jose Luis, artist

I decided to pass when Dynamite first announced a new ongoing title updating the concepts and characters from the 1970s television show "The Six Million Dollar Man." Licensed properties in comics are a hit-and-miss bag of chance with me, but the ones I feel hit their mark and that I enjoy are usually the exception, not the rule. That ongoing series launch was also being written and updated based on ideas by Kevin Smith, also a hit-and-miss variable for my personal tastes.

But I admit I was a bit curious about The Bionic Man. That curiosity increased when the companion title, The Bionic Woman, was announced as another new ongoing. And finally, with both series having several issues under their respective belts, a miniseries was solicited pairing the two title characters together. Or rather, against each other. I figured to wait for the trade on the mini and sample both updated characters for a smaller investment.

I once sought out and read "Cyborg," the 1972 novel written by Martin Caidin upon which "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Bionic Woman" television programs were based. That novel's Col. Steve Austin was not exactly the character as played each week on television by actor Lee Majors, but Majors' Austin is the one I am most familiar with and enjoyed as a kid. Same goes for Lindsay Wagner's Jamie Sommers. I enjoyed these characters so much, I own copies of all three made-for-TV reunion movies from the late 80s and mid 90s; they're still fun to watch.

When I cracked open this trade, I had high hopes but pretty low expectations. What I found was an equally mixed bag. It is assumed that if you are reading this miniseries, you are already familiar with these characters and their world from the new, ongoing titles; very little setup or exposition is offered. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that both Austin and Sommers work separately as agents of the OSI (Office of Scientific Intelligence) under Oscar Goldman, just like in the shows. A past relationship between Austin and Sommers is hinted at but not detailed; they work together rarely but well and seem to have a mutual attraction but also something that has forced distance between them. All of that matches up pretty well to what was established in both television series.

Most of the updating seems to have taken the form of de-aging the two leads considerably and modernizing their language and mannerisms. That was a tad off-putting, but not at all unexpected. It was something I could live with.

The depictions of both Austin's and Sommers' bionic abilities, however, was all over the map. They are depicted in this miniseries as performing feats far beyond what they ever did during the runs of their respective television and movie histories. Nothing in this series seems to contradict the established extent of the pair's bionic enhancements: Austin has two bionic legs, a bionic arm and a bionic eye, while Sommers has two bionic legs, an arm and an ear. In this series, both make jumps and other uses of their bionic legs which seemingly would damage their spines unless they, too, were bionically enhanced. Both routinely use both arms to crush things when only one arm is bionic, but then this was an error made on the television programs, too. For example, using a normal arm as leverage while bending something with a bionic arm; that normal arm wouldn't be strong enough to provide sufficient leverage against the force exerted by the bionic limb.

But beyond this, several times Sommers' and Austin's bionics are said to have self-repairing capabilities, and the cyborgs seem to be able to control each individual bionic component independently of the others, almost like a Transformer or something. That's definitely an upgrade from what they used to be able to accomplish. The two OSI operatives are even described at various points as being off-line and even re-booted remotely in the field by techs back at the office. Are they cyborgs or flat-out robots?

Overall, this isn't a bad story -- a foreign power has created its own bionic juggernaut but not perfected the process, and this failing cyborg attempts to lure, kidnap and reverse-engineer Austin and Sommers for his own benefit. I was pleasantly surprised by how much from the bionic heroes I knew from TV had been incorporated into this updated version. But these are still different people, harder people, more cynical than the heroes I knew from my youth. Realistically, this miniseries has made me curious to try a collection or two of the regular Bionic Man and Bionic Woman series to learn more. But it hasn't inspired me to spend money on them. Instead, I may try to seek out more from my local library to see how the regular monthly series stack up against the TV shows and this series. Or I might just try to newly announced Six Million Dollar Man Season 6 series from Dunamite; maybe it will be more my style based on the name.