2018.040 The DC Universe By Neil Gaiman

The DC Universe By Neil Gaiman
Written by: Neil Gaiman, Alan Grant, Mark Verheiden
Illustrated by: Arthur Adams, Michael Allred, Jim Aparo, Terry Austin, Simon Bisley, Pat Broderick, Mark Buckingham, Eddie Campbell, Dick Giordano, Mike Hoffman, Sam Kieth, Teddy Kristiansen, Jason Little, Bernie Mireault, Kevin Nowlan, Eric Shanower, John Totleben, Matt Wagner, Scott Williams
DC Comics

2018.039 Batman: The Dark Knight Detective Vol 1

Batman: The Dark Knight Detective Vol 1
Written by: Mike W. Barr, Joey Cavalieri, Jo Duffy
Illustrated by: Alan Davis, Paul Neary, Jim Baikie, Terry Beatty, Norm Breyfogle, E.R. Cruz, Carmine Infantino, Klaus Janson, Dick Giordano, Pablo Marcos, Al Vey
DC Comics

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

2018.018 Black Lightning Vol 2

In his introduction to this volume, Tony Isabella says that this series was only supposed to reprint Tony's work on Black Lightning, not everyone's work.  But he insisted that this be a chronological reprinting, skipping nothing.  I agree with him.  While I think it's cool that DC was going to do just Tony's stuff, I think it's important to give us all the stuff.  

The first volume was Tony, plus a couple stories by others.  This volume is Tony free.  We get BL back up stories from World's Finest and Detective Comics as well as the two part Justice League of America story where BL turns down membership.

I loved this book.  Is it great?  No.  But it's really good, at least to me.  It's reprinting stories from an era of DC that means a lot to me.  Most of these stories I'm reading for the first time, or at least that's what my memory is telling me.  Minor details are very fluid in this book.  Writer to writer things change, like what kind of teacher Jefferson Pierce is.  But who cares.  It's a great time to be a Black Lightning fan right now.  Embrace him and enjoy.

Black Lightning Vol 2

Written by: Dennis O'Neil, Gerry Conway, J.M. Dematteis, Martin Pasko, Paul Kupperberg

Illustrated by: Dick Dillin, George Tuska, Rich Buckler, Marshall Rogers, Mike Nasser, Romeo Tanghal, Joe Staton, Pat Broderick, Dick Giordano, Gerald Forton, Frank Chiaramonte, Bob Smith, Vince Colletta, Frank McLaughlin

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

133 Justice League Of America: The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol 1

I'm dying.  Or at least it feels like I am.  I woke up Sunday feeling under the weather.  Monday was bad enough that I told work I wasn't coming in Tuesday.  It's now Friday and I still haven't gone back to work.  I think I'm on the verge of kicking this finally.  But as I've sat home sick, I've been reading.  Because there hasn't been anything else I've felt up to doing.  The first thing I grabbed was this beauty.  850 pages (give or take) of Bronze Age JLA goodness.

This volume picks up roughly where the Archive books ended, so I'm happy for the continuity of the reprints.  Black Canary has just left Earth 2 and joined the JLA.  It's been fun watching her in these comics most of all.  She developed a superpower but is having no luck controlling it.  In a couple issues she practices her canary cry, but with no luck.  Later on, her canary cry gives her psychic powers (which were quickly forgotten about).  Most of the use of her actual canary cry takes place in the Green Lantern book.  In this run of JLA, with the exception of her botched attempts at it, she uses it only once in a blink-and-you-miss it scene.

Otherwise, this was a joy to read.  The book has two running themes, I've noticed.  The front half of the book has a ton of stories about the ecology, the environment, civil rights, that sort of stuff.  The second half, however, is all about pure super-heroic action.  I guess I never realized how much I loved Len Wein's contribution to the series until I reread these stories.

I have nothing bad to say about this book.  Nothing.  It's a pure joy, plain and simple.  So much Dick Dillin beauty, too.

Justice League Of America: The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol 1

Writer: Denny O'Neil, Mike Friedrich, Len Wein, Robert Kanigher, Gardner Fox

Artist: Dick Dillin, Neal Adams, Murphy Anderson, Ross Andru, Nick Cardy, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, Mike Sekowsky, Joe Giella, Dick Giordano, Bernard Sachs

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

108 Batman: The Brave And The Bold - The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol. 1

Every day at work, I read comics.  I always have a trade or a hardcover in my desk.  The book I just finished was a labor of love.  It's this glorious book.  Bronze Age Brave & Bold stories.  This book absolutely brings me back to my childhood.  Many of these books were published before I started reading comics, but comics were so cheap back then that I'd picked up a lot of back issues at garage sales and flea markets.  As I got older, they got a little more expensive or were reprinted here and there. I've read all these stories before, but they're just as joyful and silly and fun a second, third, fourth or fifth time around.  Even moreso today.  They're all done in one stories, stripped of the darkness a modern day Batman book has.  The guest stars run a wide gamut from Wonder Woman and Flash to Sgt. Rock and the Demon and many more.

This book clocks in at just under 900 pages, so it took me quite a while to read it at work.  My lunch break is 30 minutes, so I was good to take in an issue or two at a time.  In a way I didn't want it to end.  It was so much fun to read.  They label this as volume 1, so I hope DC plans a follow up volume.  This ends at issue 109.  Brave and the Bold ran through issue 200.

And with this, I'm officially caught up on my mini-blog posts on my backlogged reading!!  

Batman: The Brave And The Bold - The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol. 1

Writer: Bob Haney, Mike Sekowsky, Dennis O'Neil, Marv Wolfman

Artist: Ross Andru, Mike Sekowsky, Bob Brown, Neil Adams, Irv Novick, Nick Cardy, Jim Aparo, Mike Esposito, Jack Abel, Dick Giordano, Joe Kubert, Frank McLaughlin

DC Comics

053 Vigilante By Marv Wolfman Vol 1

DC began collecting a different New Teen Titans spinoff series, Deathstroke, The Terminator, a few months ago.  And that surprised me by how well it's held up over the years.  I found myself genuinely enjoying that book.  So when this was announced, I was hoping for the same reaction.  This book came before Deathstroke if memory serves.  I remember enjoying it when it was brand new.  But reading it today, I didn't have the same reaction.  Marv Wolfman can write when he puts his mind to it.  Here, it felt like he had a few ideas but didn't quite know how to execute them.  Part of the problem was this book was published at the height of DC letting a handful of writers also edit the book.  Never a good idea, if you ask me.  

There was something I found especially laughable.  Technology.  This book used a formula with it's cast that's commonplace today.  We have the hero out there in the action.  Back at base we have the support team and their computers.  But with Vigilante, base was a giant camper parked out in the woods.  And I really don't know how they found anything with their computers back in the mid-80s.  First of all, everything was dial up.  Extremely slow dial up.  And second of all, the computer was in a camper in the middle of the woods.  How did they get a dial tone?  LOL!

By the end of this collection, it seemed that a direction for the book was starting to form.  I hope this book does well enough to warrant a second book.  I want to see if that direction actually firms up.

Vigilante By Marv Wolfman Vol. 1

Writer: Marv Wolfman

Artist: Keith Pollard, George Perez, Chuck Patton, Ross Andru, Don Newton, Pablo Marcos, Dick Giordano, Romeo Tanghal, Mike DeCarlo, Rick Magyar, Dan Adkins

DC Comics

032 Green Arrow Vol 2: Here There Be Dragons

I posted about volume 7 in this series about a month ago.  Not too long ago I noticed I was missing the second volume.  I finally have it and just read it.  Like volume 7, I really enjoyed this read.  One of the things I especially love about Mike Grell's writing is how he can go two, three, four pages with no dialog.  You don't see it often these days, so it seems unique to see it now.  And it's not just a one off thing, Grell does it often.  And it works.  It's quite refreshing.

My one pan for this volume is the issue drawn by Paris Cullins.  He's one of my favorites from back in the day.  I love his art.  But just not in this issue.  I don't know if it was a rush job or if he was paired with an inker that doesn't do his stuff justice.  It just wasn't up to what I expect of him.

I love that this volume features the return of Shado, but it's the same thing that happens in post #034, coming up shortly.

Green Arrow Vol 2: Here There Be Dragons

Writer: Mike Grell, Sharon Wright

Artist: Ed Hannigan, Dick Giordano, Frank McLaughlin, Paris Cullins, Eduardo Barreto, Randy Duburke, Arne Starr, Gary Martin

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