159 The Hellblazer Vol 2: The Smokeless Fire

I have always loved John Constantine.  The Vertigo series is top notch (though if you read a few posts back, I didn't love ALL of it) and I've been enjoying reading through it again.  A few years back DC decided to end John's Vertigo life and replanted him firmly in the proper DC Universe.  In effect, they took everything awesome about the Hellblazer series and cut it off at the balls.  It's been a few years now and they seem to finally be ready to give John his balls back again, or at least one of them.

This book was kinda, sorta great.  It's still not quite where John should be, but it's the closest we've seen from the proper John Constantine in years.  He sounds like John again, he acts like John again, he's a bastard again.  I like.  My only real quibble with this book is the art.  The art is just not right.  It looks like a lighter, more kid friendly style that doesn't jibe with the happenings in the book.  To me, at least.  The art is lovely, but it just doesn't fit.  I want Simon Oliver to stay with this book for a good long time.  DC finally has found a decent writer for this series.

The Hellblazer Vol 2: The Smokeless Fire

Writer: Simon Oliver

Artist: Davide Fabbri, Philip Tan, Jose Marzan Jr, Karl Kesel

DC Comics

131 Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77

You want a fun book?  This is a fun book.  I swear to God.  It's like a big wad of cotton candy in a hardcover book.  

I had no idea how the story would transpire.  I figured that it was going to have a time travel element, but I was wrong.  Marc Andreyko and Jeff Parker were given the pieces to a puzzle and they put them together to make them work flawlessly.

This is kind of three stories in one.  The first chapter is a flashback to when Bruce Wayne was a boy and Wonder Woman (from season 1 of her show) ended up at Wayne Manor to battle Nazis.  The second chapter takes place during the Batman '66 run.  Diana is on Paradise Island and that's where the action moves to.  The last chapter takes place in 1977 when Diana is back in America, Batman is retired, Robin has become Nightwing and Batgirl is now Police Commissioner AND Batwoman.

Bravo to all involved making this book work so wonderfully.  Every once in a while you just need something that is pure sugar.  This is that book.

Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77

Writer: Marc Andreyko, Jeff Parker

Artist: David Hahn, Karl Kesel, Bill Williams

DC Comics

098 The DC Universe By Mike Mignola

I love Mike Mignola's art.  I always have.  Reading this book reminds me there's a whole Hellboy universe I haven't read and need to.

Books like this are a joy to read.  Focus on an artist or a writer, showing their work all collected together.  It's also great reading something like this because there's a bunch of stuff I'd forgotten about, didn't realize he drew it or completely missed the first time around.  

The book starts off with a Phantom Stranger mini-series.  I'd forgotten he was the artist on this book.  It's been years since I read it, so it was brand new to me again.  He's perfectly matched to draw the Stranger.  I'd love to see him do a book today with the character.  

This also collects The World Of Krypton mini-series.  I never read it the first time around.  It was part of John Byrne's reboot of the Superman universe and I found it pretty fascinating.  I know, I know.  Byrne is a hack, but he's still an interesting one.  There are some other Superman stories here.  I didn't realize he'd done as much Superman as he had.  

I have to say my favorite stuff in here is his Batman stuff.  He was born to draw Batman.  His art is super moody, super stylized.  He fits Batman like a glove.  I'd love to see a Batman series drawn by him.  It would be magnificent.

I want more books like this!

The DC Universe By Mike Mignola

Writer: Paul Kupperberg, John Byrne, Roger Stern, Jerry Ordway, George Perez, Neil Gaiman, Dan Raspler, Mike Mignola, Steve Purcell

Artist: Mike Mignola, P. Craig Russell, Rick Bryant, Carlos Garzon, Karl Kesel, Jerry Ordway, George Perez, Curt Swan, Brett Breeding, John Statema, Troy Nixey, Kevin Nowlan

DC Comics

028 Future Quest Vol 1

This is a book I was really looking forward to.  Of all the Hanna-Barbera books DC announced, it was the only one that looked the slightest bit interesting.  The rest, to be honest, looked horrible to me.  Anyway, the premise of this book is to gather up most, if not all, of the Hanna-Barbera "action heroes" into one giant crossover story.  This volume represents the first half of the crossover.  If I had to use one word to describe it, it would be disappointing.  Disappointing because it's kind of a convoluted mess.  In order to pull all these characters in to one story, it's gotten to be a giant mess.  There's a central story that most of the characters have something to do in, but there are other side stories using other characters that are trying to tie into the main story and all it does is take away from it.  It's a good idea poorly executed.  I wish there would be less of this side stuff and more focus on the main story.  And that anything that doesn't fit into the main story gets jettisoned.  

This book also hit a snag early on with issue three being a fill in issue.  That killed the slowly building momentum.  

I plan on finishing the story in the next volume and hope that it gets more focused.  Because it's a great concept and nice to look at, but just a jumbled mess.  Not something I normally would expect from Jeff Parker.

Future Quest Vol 1

Writer: Jeff Parker

Artist: Evan Shaner, Steve Rude, Ron Randall, Jeff Parker, Jonathan Case, Aaron Lopresti, Karl Kesel, Carig Rousseau

DC Comics