140 Deadman By Kelley Jones: The Complete Collection

I'm sure I've mentioned on the blog my love of Deadman.  He's a character who always always always appeals to me.  And this collection is a great one.  It collects together three separate series drawn by Kelley Jones.  And this is why when I think the name Kelley Jones, the first thing that springs to my mind of Deadman.  His stylized version of the character is amazing.

What we have here is an 8 part story that originally ran in Action Comics Weekly.  It involves zombies and possession and all that good ol' New Orleans voodoo nonsense.  Mike Baron wrote the tale, as he did the other stories in this book.  It's followed up by the two part mini series Love After Death.  Deadman meets, well, for lack of a better term, Deadwoman and instantly falls in love.  It's a great tale of the supernatural, love and betrayal.  And finally, the mini series Exorcism, which follows up both of the previous stories in this volume.  Deadman is distraught after the events of the Love After Death series and his basically lost his mind.  Madame Waxahachie, a character first introduced in the Action Comics Weekly series is brought in to help fix what's happened.  It's a great, but disturbing tale (and it also features the Phantom Stranger, another of my favorites!)

If you're a Deadman fan, this book is for you.  It's such a great read, cover to cover

Deadman By Kelley Jones: The Complete Collection

Writer: Mike Baron

Artist: Kelley Jones, Tony DeZuniga, Pablo Marcos, Vince Giarrano

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

118 Batman: Shadow Of The Bat Vol 2

The second volume of Shadow of the Bat is mostly about the Azrael Batman.  Bruce Wayne was recovering from his battle with Bane and Jean Paul Valley had taken over as Gotham's protector.  I didn't read a lot of Batman back in this era, so it's really nice getting a chance to read these stories now.  Alan Grant always seemed to turn in solid Bat work and this is no exception.  Even the Bloodlines story here wasn't too bad.  And that's saying a lot.

And although Bruce Wayne was not Batman at this time, he still manages to get out of bed to take an adventure despite it not being the greatest idea for someone recovering from a broken back.

This book is good solid fun.

Batman: Shadow Of The Bat Vol 2

Writer: Alan Grant

Artist: Bret Blevins, Vince Giarrano, Norm Breyfogle, Steve George, Steve Mitchell, Mike Manley, Dick Giordano, Joe Staton, Trevor Von Eeden

DC Comics