2018.030 DC Meets Looney Tunes

DC Meets Looney Tunes
Written by: Frank J Barbiere, Tony Bedard, Sam Humphries, Tom King, Steve Orlando, Jimmy Palmiotti, Bill Morrison, Jim Fanning, Bill Matheny, Juan Manuel Ortiz
Illustrated by: John Floyd, Tom Grummett, Scott Hanna, Kelley Jones, Barry Kitson, Aaron Lopresti, Jerome Moore, Mark Texeira, Lee Weeks, Dave Alvarez, Ben Caldwell, John Loter, Bill Morrison, Juan Manuel Ortiz, Byron Vaughns
DC Comics

088 Death Of Hawkman

So, this blog has gone askew already.  Up until this point, I've been doing posts about what I'm reading, in order of what I'm reading.  Mid-June I went on vacation, came home, enjoyed the great weather and let books start to pile up.  I no longer know what order I've read them in, so until I catch up on the pile I have, it's going to be in random order.

Today I read Death Of Hawkman.  It's an Adam Strange/Hawkman mini series and I found it very likable.  The characters have a long history together, so it seemed right to team them up.  Unfortunately, it's the New 52 versions of the characters, but still, I'll take what I can get.

The characterization of Hawkman seems very consistent with what we've gotten since the New 52.  What I mean is this is yet another version of the same character they can't seem to figure out.  DC did Hawkman a huge disservice in the New 52.  Totally changed him, then didn't like what they did, so they changed him again.  And again.  And again.  But, as the title of this collection says, it's all about his death, which is a good thing, if you ask me.  Hawkman always comes back, reincarnated.  I hope when they bring him back again, they'll bring him back to basics, not this over designed, under thought out claptrap.

Adam Strange is also following that inconsistent path.  While he's mostly like the New 52 version, he's kind of not.  But they're bringing him back closer to the true Adam Strange.

This was a fun mini-series.  Marc Andreyko writes a great buddy book, if you can call this that.  I hope DC lets him continue on and write more of these two characters.  He seems to have a feel for them.

Death Of Hawkman

Writer: Marc Andreyko

Artist: Aaron Lopresti, Rodney Buchemi, John Livesay, Norm Rapmund Sean Parsons

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

006 Metamorpho: Two Worlds One Destiny

This is the third trade I've read reprinting stories from the Legends Of Tomorrow anthology book DC recently published.  I was pleasantly surprised by the first two books I read.  Metal Men and Firestorm.  There was a real focus in both those books to start to undo the damage the New 52 did and to try to find the heart of the characters again.  To bring the books back to where they actually worked.  Metamorpho is slightly different, but very much the same in those regards.  As far as I can tell, this is his first New 52 appearance, so there isn't a whole lot of "fixing" that needs to be done.  If he has appeared already, I'm unaware of it.  This book is his New 52 (or Rebirth) origin story.  What I like about it is Aaron Lopresti has taken the core cast and thought about how they might have been introduced in a modern setting.  And it works.  Simon Stagg is pretty much Simon Stagg.  Sapphire Stagg, his daughter, is anything but a spoiled socialite this time around.  She's an accomplished scientist and it doesn't seem to take away much from the character.  It adds another layer, if you ask me.  The Sapphire of the 60s worked well then, but I can't see making her a Kardashian clone working well.  Java has been given an upgrade, too.  And again, I think it works well.  

While the story itself wasn't my favorite, it does show a lot of potential for the character.  DC remains true to Metamorpho, which makes me very happy.  I didn't much care for how the book ended, but hopefully that will be addressed in the near future.

Metamorpho: Two Worlds One Destiny

Writer: Aaron Lopresti

Artist: Aaron Lopresti, Matt Banning, Jonathan Glapion, Livesay

DC Comics