2018.043 Wonder Woman: Forgotten Legends

Wonder Woman: Forgotten Legends
Written by: Kurt Busiek, Lee Marrs, George Perez
Illustrated by: Trina Robbins, Irv Novick, Rick Magyar, Ramona Fradon
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

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

014 Wonder Woman: Her Greatest Battles

I've said before that I do love a good compilation.  This is one of those things that sounds so good in my head, but in reality kind of falls short.  The problems, for me, are (1) there are so many stories you could pick, but such limited space that something good is going to miss out and (2) there are rarely any done-in-one stories anymore that anything you put in a book like this is going to be one part of a multi part story.  So odds are you're going to be lost or not really care what's going on.

It's an interesting choice of stories here.  The oldest is from the beginning of George Perez's run and the most recent is from the Azzarello/Chiang run.  I'm bummed out that nothing from Phil Jimenez's run on the book made the cut.  Or from Allan Heinberg's run.  But space limitations and such.

The book does work well giving you a lot of fighting.  Wonder Woman battles Ares, Max Lord, Cheetah, Power Girl.  You get a nice variety.  There's an issue of Geoff Johns' New 52 Justice League in here that really doesn't fit.  At all.  I wish that was sacrificed in favor of something else.

All in all, it's a good, mindless romp through Wonder Woman's recent history.

Wonder Woman: Her Greatest Battles

Writer: George Perez, John Byrne, Greg Rucka, Gail Simone, Geoff Johns, Brian Azzarello

Artist: George Perez, John Byrne, Drew Johnson, Rags Morales, David Lopez, Tom Derenick, Georges Jeanty, Karl Kerschl, Chris Battista, Fernando Dagnino, Jim Lee, Cliff Chiang

DC Comics