2018.038 Justice League Task Force Vol 1: The Purification Plague

Justice League Task Force Vol 1: The Purification Plague
Written By: David Michelinie, Chuck Dixon, Dennis O'Neal, Peter David, Jeph Loeb, Michael Jan Friedman
Illustrated by: Sal Velluto, Gabriel Morrissette, Greg LaRocque, Jeff Albrecht, Dick Giordano, Aaron McClellan, Kevin Conrad, Robert Jones
DC Comics

2018.029 Batman: Tales Of The Man-Bat

Batman: Tales Of The Man-Bat
Written by: Chuck Dixon, Bruce Jones
Illustrated by: Flint Henry, Mike Huddleston, Eduardo Barreto
DC Comics

2018.014 Robin: Year One - The Deluxe Edition

As I opened the cover to this book, my initial thought was that I remember liking this when it was first published, but I remember liking Batgirl: Year One better.  That may still hold true, but I really, really enjoyed every page of this book.  Say what you will about Chuck Dixon, but his Batman work has left an indelible imprint on my brain.  He makes writing the BatFamily seem so easy.

This book gives us a nice overview of Robin's first year as Batman's partner.  It's chock full of Bat Villains, too, but mostly focusing on Two-Face.  We get to learn about the time Robin quit and ran away, too.

Overall, this book is just a lot of fun and such an easy read that you're finishing before you even realize it.

Robin: Year One - The Deluxe Edition

Written by: Chuck Dixon, Scott Beatty

Illustrated by: Javier Pulido, Marcos Martin, Robert Campanella

DC Comics

160 Birds Of Prey Vol 3

Last weekend I flew to Dallas for a wedding.  I brought four books on the plane hoping to read two of them.  This is one I brought.  I wasn't sure how much of it I was going to get through considering it's about a dozen issues and I'm not the quickest reader.  Needless to say, I got through ten of the twelve issues reprinted in here before the plane landed.  The other two I read the night after.

I've forgotten how much I loved this era of BoP.  It's still pretty early in the series, but this is the part where the BoP universe really starts expanding.  The previous volumes set up the series and got us used to the characters.  This book we really spread our wings.  Catwoman shows up.  Nightwing shows up (and his book crosses over with this one.)  We learn about Power Girl being a former BoP.  Babs and Ted Kord start up their thing.  Jason Bard reappears on the scene.  Dinah and Babs finally meet face to face.  There is a lot going on besides the main story plots and that's what really makes this a fun book to read.

I just love everything about this book.  It's been sitting on my shelf for longer than it should and for that I apologize to myself.  LOL.

Birds Of Prey Vol 3

Writer: Chuck Dixon

Artist: Greg Land, Dick Giordano, Patrick Zircher, Butch Guice, Drew Geraci, Jordi Ensign, Jose Marzan Jr

DC Comics

130 Batman: Zero Hour

Collected together for the first time are all the Zero Hour crossovers from the Batman Universe.  It's an odd book, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.  I would have loved it if they devoted one page (as a forward, maybe) explaining what was happening in the Zero Hour mini series so that thing would have been a little bit clearer in this volume.  

Basically, the book is broken down into two sections.  The first have are the actual Zero Hour tie ins.  Time has gone screwy, different realities are popping up here and there, the Bat Family are being drawn to different realities and they have to deal with it.  Fun stuff happens, like the return of Batgirl, in full costume, though from a different reality.  In her reality, Commissioner Gordon was killed by the Joker rather than Babs getting maimed.  A young Dick Grayson shows up and teams up with Robin.  Batman is drawn back in time to where is parents lived but he was shot in Crime Alley.  Fun stuff all in all.

The second half of the book showcases all the #0 issues that were published after the mini series ended.  These were basically jumping on points for the characters, showing the new realities they're living in.  This being the Batman Universe, though, there really weren't many changes or tweaks at all.  You know how that goes.

Batman: Zero Hour

Writer: Chuck Dixon, Archie Goodwin, Alan Grant, Doug Moench

Artist: Bret Blevins, Mike Manley, Joe Rubinstein, Vince Giarrano, Graham Nola, Scott Hanna, Bob McLeod, Tom Grummett, Ray Kryssing, Jim Balent, Bob Smith

DC Comics

083 Batman/Wildcat

I love this kind of compilation book.  Unlike a book that collects a specific story arc or run by a particular creator, it's a book that takes a couple of mini-series and pads it out with some spectacular bonus material.

This book collects the Batman/Wildcat mini-series, the Catwoman/Wildcat mini-series and all the Batman/Wildcat stories from The Brave & The Bold.  And it's glorious.

The two mini-series are nothing to write home about, but they're solid and an enjoyable read.  The first mini-series is yet another take on the Fight Club cliche.  The second is another Vegas/Mob story.  Neither are original concepts by any stretch, but like I said before, decent enough reads.

The real treasure here is the inclusion of the Brave & Bold stories.  I'm currently reading the giant Brave & Bold Omnibus at work and have come across some of these stories recently already.  For some reason, DC decided to team Batman and Wildcat up despite the fact that Wildcat was an Earth-2 character.  No mention was ever made of it, so clearly this is an Earth-1 version of the same character.  I don't think he ever appeared anywhere but these select issues, which is too bad.  Not that it matters anymore.  After Crisis, there was only one Earth, so only one Ted Grant.

I'd love to see more books along the lines of this one.  Such fun to read.

Batman/Wildcat

Writer: Chuck Dixon, Beau Smith, Bob Haney

Artist: Sergio Cariello, Art Thibert, Danny Miki, Jaime Mendoza, Tom Palmer, Irv Novick, Mike Esposito, Bob Brown, Nick Cardy, Jim Aparo

DC Comics

065 Robin Vol 2: Triumphant

I'm a little behind on the Robin trade paperbacks.  This is the second, though there are three out right now.  The book collects the second and third Robin mini-series from the early 90s as well as a couple of issues of the main Batman book leading up to the second mini-series.  Like most of the Batman books under Chuck Dixon's lead, this is pretty solid.  He had built up a solid base of what Gotham City at the time was like, who was in it and what they were doing.  Robin got a slow build.  Rather than immediately introduce Timothy Drake and have him out as Robin within three issues, there was a deliberate build to getting him in costume and out on his own.  Which makes sense.  The previous Robin had been murdered by the Joker and the last thing Batman should be doing is just throwing a replacement out there.  

Both mini-series are solid.  The first involves Robin's first encounter with the Joker.  The second involves Robin's first meeting and team up with the Huntress.  Both series involve Robin's slowly building rogue's gallery (King Snake, Lynx) and introduces some of his regular recurring cast (Ariana).  This is a decent read.  You don't really get any nutrition out of it, just some empty calories, but they're tasty calories. 

Robin Vol 2: Triumphant

Writer: Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant

Artist: Tom Lyle, Norm Breyfogle, Grant Miehm, Bob Smith, Andy Mushynsky, Steve Mitchell, Scott Hanna, Jose Marzan Jr

DC Comics

055 Batman: Legacy Vol 1.

Batman and I were on a break when this storyline was originally published.  I think I've managed to get most of these issues long after they were originally published, but I haven't read them in any cohesive order.  Until now.

This book picks up sometime after the Batman: Contagion storyline happened.  I wasn't a huge fan of that particular story.  It seemed forced to me.  This is a sort of sequel to that story as the virus from the Contagion storyline is back and deadlier than ever.  LOL.  This volume doesn't contain the whole story.  It's called Batman: Legacy, but the actual Legacy storyline doesn't officially start until the last issue in this book.  It's more of a prelude.

It starts with a story involving a vigilante capturing and locking up bad guys (holy Vigilante!!).  I think this is included because there's a very small plot point about the virus storyline starting up.  Next up is a Catwoman story which seems out of place here until you realize it's all tightly connected.  That realization hits during the actual virus storyline which rounds out the book.

I complained about how the Superman books during this period were all too interconnected.  That they were basically a weekly Superman book rather than four monthly titles.  The Batman books did similar things, but they never felt like the Superman books did.  It proves there's a right way and a wrong way of doing things.  The Batman books were basically all telling the same story, but it felt different.

This book also contains an art team that I still don't understand to this day.  Jim Aparo inked by Bill Sienkiewicz.  I don't know if I love it or abhor it.

Batman: Legacy Vol 1

Writer: Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, Alan Grant

Artist: Graham Nolan, Jim Balent, Mike Wieringo, Jim Aparo, Dave Taylor, Scott Hanna, Bob Smth, Stan Woch, Bill Sienkiewicz

DC Comics

052 Wonder Woman And Justice League America Vol. 1

This volume follows up Superman and Justice League America vol 2.  Dan Jurgens left as writer of the book with the end of that collection and hopefully he took the awful storytelling with him.

Dan Vado took over as writer and it becomes crystal clear almost immediately that either DC just didn't care about the Justice League anymore or they had the worst editor on the book they could find.  This volume is just awful.  I think the book might be worse than when I originally read it back in the nineties.  The direction of the book is laughable.  The stories are not good.  And we're missing some important continuity.  In the last volume, the League recruited some new members because they were lacking in might after their run-in with Doomsday.  Black Condor, The Ray and Agent Liberty were recruited.  We also found out that Bloodwynd was not who he said he was.  He was actually Martian Manhunter in disguise.  The last volume ended with the big reveal.  This volume starts off with the real Bloodwynd as a member and no Martian Manhunter, Black Condor or Agent Liberty in sight.  No mention.  No anything.  

We also have Guy Gardner acting as one dimensional as possible throughout most of this book.  I don't remember if that was how he was written in the rest of the DCU or just in this book.  We do find out that it's not actually Guy, but that's neither here nor there.

This book is a real stinker.  Consider yourself warned.

Wonder Woman And Justice League America Vol. 1

Writer: Dan Vado, Chuck Dixon, Bill Loebs

Artist: Kevin West, Greg LaRocque, Mike Collins, Chris Hunter, Rick Burchett, Ken Branch, Romeo Tanghal, Terry Beatty, Carols Garzon, Robert Jones, Mark Stegbauer, Bob Downs

DC Comics

044 Supergirl Book 2

And here's where the problem for me begins.  I've been a lifelong fan of Supergirl.  I've been with her through thick and thin, so even a Peter David written Supergirl wasn't going to keep me away.  I'm just not a big fan of David's "look at how fucking clever I am" writing style.  It's grating.  It's annoying.  He's not a terrible plotter, but his scripting, to me, is awful.

The first volume of this series was actually kind of refreshing to me considering the writer.  Peter David was given Supergirl and like every writer who has come along since Crisis on Infinite Earths, he set up the series to try to bring Supergirl back to her pre-Crisis status quo, or at least as close to it as allowable.  He took the then current Supergirl (aka Matrix) and melded her with earth girl Linda Danvers.  Suddenly, for the first time since Crisis, we have Linda Danvers aka Supergirl.  The first volume wasn't bad.

Now we come to volume two, where Peter David really starts to drive home the religious through lines.  Linda's mother is all God-Squad.  There's a boy running around who looks like the 7th Doctor but who is God.  Linda becomes an Earth Angel.  This is where he really starts to lose me.  I don't think this angle works.  I find myself rolling my eyes more and more with each page I read.

But it's Supergirl and I love Supergirl.

Supergirl Book 2

Writer: Peter David, Darren Vincenzo, Tom Peyer, Chuck Dixon

Artist: Leonard Kirk, Greg Land, Anthony Castrillo, Cam Smith, Prentis Rollins, Chuck Drost, Doug Hazlewood, Jordi Ensign

DC Comics

025 Batgirl Vol 3: Point Blank

The Batgirl series starring Cassandra Cain is a series I never read before.  I'm not exactly sure why.  I'm guessing it was because Batgirl FINALLY got her own book, but she wasn't Barbara Gordon.  It might also be because I wasn't reading any of the Batman books at the time.  A little of both, probably.  But the good thing about living in the age of collected editions is I now have my chance to see what I've been missing.  And I really did miss this.  I find that I actually like Cassandra as Batgirl.  She's nothing at all like Barbara Gordon (who is a supporting character here) and dances to the beat of her own drum.  I love the tone of the book.  Cassandra started off not speaking at all, but has slowly started building a limited vocabulary.  It's really interesting to watch the stories develop from her mostly mute perspective.  She's all movement, all action.  Little speaking, no thinking.  Just instinct.  It's fun watching her relationship with Stephanie Brown develop.  Cassandra has no societal norms and seeing her confused and confounded by some things is really refreshing.

The art suits the book so well.  I don't know if Damion Scott continues on beyond this volume, but I can hope.  And Kelley Puckett seems to have a firm grip on who Cassandra is.  As grim and gritty as Cassandra is supposed to be, there's a lot of joy and light in this series.  It's a delicate balance, but it works.

Batgirl Vol 3: Point Blank

Writer: Kelley Puckett, Chuck Dixon, Scott Peterson

Artist: Damion Scott, Vincent Girrano, Guiseppe Camuncoli, Robert Campanella, Jesse Delperdang, Klaus Janson, Wade von Grawbadger, Cameron Stewart

DC Comics

021 Batman Arkham: Man-Bat

Another Batman Arkham volume.  So soon after the Poison Ivy one, too.  Like the other volumes in this series, it collects stories about one particular Batman villain.  I use villain loosely here, because I don't consider Man-Bat a real villain.  He started off as a good guy and has slowly, over time, lost more and more of his sanity and humanity and has become closer to an adversary (not villain) to Batman.

This is one of the best volumes of the Batman Arkham run, if you ask me.  Maybe it's because there are fewer Man-Bat stories to choose from.  Maybe it's because I fucking love Man-Bat.  Maybe both.  But the stories in this book at pretty great.  Starting with his debut (drawn by Neal Adams!!), continuing on to his extremely short lived regular series (two whole issues), adding in his mini-series (which ran longer than his regular series!) and other appearances.  This was a lot of fun for me to read and I powered through the entire thing in one sitting.  My attention span isn't that big, so that's a real statement for me to make.

My one big gripe with this book is the story from Secret Origins written by Jan Strnad.  In it, Man-Bat's story is retold pretty much as it happened, but Strnad added in a piece to tie Man-Bat's backstory in to Batman's backstory that I feel is completely unnecessary.  Suddenly Bruce Wayne and Kirk Langstrom had met as children and Bruce remembers him to this day.  Stupid and unnecessary.  Distracting.

I'm not too keen on the New 52 version.  More specifically the fact that Francine Langstrom is a villain from the get-go.  Again, stupid.  He had a perfectly good backstory that shouldn't have been fucked up by the New 52, but tptb let it happen anyway.

All in all, this is a keeper.

Batman Arkham: Man-Bat

Writer: Frank Robbins, Gerry Conway, Martin Pasko, Jan Strnad, Chuck Dixon, Dan DiDio, Frank Tieri

Artist: Neal Adams, Steve Ditko, Pablo Marcos, Kevin Nowlan, Flint Henry, Quique Alcatena, J.G. Jones, Scot Eaton, Dick Giordano, Al Milgrom, Ricardo Villamonte, Eduardo Barreto, Nathan Fairbairn

DC Comics

020 DC Elseworlds: Justice League Vol 01

Another Elseworlds book.  The last one I read focused solely on Batman.  This one (supposedly) focuses on the Justice League.  I say supposedly because it's a real mixed bag.  The first story is a Superman/Batman story, there's a Teen Titans story in here, a Wonder Woman story and a Supergirl/Batgirl story.  There are two proper JLA stories, but I guess that's enough to call it a Justice League book. 

Like any book like this, it's going to be a wildly mixed bag.  I've read some of these stories before, while others were new to me.  The first story is a pulpy Superman/Batman adventure which was a lot of fun to read.  Justice Riders, the second story and the cover feature, was also a lot of fun.  Wonder Woman is the sheriff in the old west and teams up with a bunch of super-folks to bring down the villain.  There wasn't a terrible amount of story in that tale, but it was still highly enjoyable.  The next tale was League of Justice, a two part story I couldn't even get half-way through.  It was dreadful.  It was unreadable.  Next was Wonder Woman Amazonia.  I'd read this years ago and forgotten all about it.  It's my favorite story in this volume, both storywise and artwise.  It's set back in the era of Jack the Ripper and is the origin story of Wonder Woman.  Fascinating to me.  Next is Titans: Scissors, Paper Stone.  It's an anime type Titans story that is just as unreadable to me today as when it was first published.  Don't ask me what happened, because I can't tell you.  The volume rounds out with a Supergirl/Batgirl story.  I loved this story when it was first published.  I have to say that it doesn't hold up as well for me today.  It's a great concept, it just needs to be fleshed out some more.  This story might have benefited from being a two part story rather than a done-in-one.

All in all, it was a fun book.

DC Elseworlds: Justice League Vol 1

Writer: John Francis Moore, Chuck Dixon, Ed Hannigan, William Messner-Loebs, Adam Warren, Barbara Kesel

Artist: Kieron Dwyer, Hilary Barta, J.H. Williams III, Mick Grey, Ed Hannigan, Dick Giordano, Phil Winslade, Adam Warren, Tom Simmons, Matt Haley, Tom Simmons

DC Comics