2018.044 Avengers & Champions: Worlds Collide

Avengers & Champions: Worlds Collide
Written by: Mark Waid
Illustrated by: Jesus Saiz, Javier Pina, Paco Diaz, Humberto Ramos, Victor Olazaba
Marvel Comics

045 Zatanna By Paul Dini

The title of this collection is slightly misleading.  It should be Zatanna By Paul Dini and Others.  LOL.  It's primarily written by Paul Dini with fill in writers here and there.  But it's mostly Paul Dini.  And I must say, this collection was a bigger joy reading in this format than it was monthly as it was originally published.  There has never been a writer before who knew how to write Zatanna like Paul Dini does.  He gets her.  He makes it clear he gets her.  And he turns out such great stuff.  It's clear he was slowly laying down things that he was going to address later in the series, but it got cancelled before he could get to any of it.  Besides the entire Zatanna monthly series, this book includes the Everyday Magic special and a Halloween story.  I was so sad to see this book get cancelled.  It's not often a B List character gets such A List treatment.  I highly recommend this book.

Zatanna By Paul Dini

Writer: Paul Dini, Adam Beechen, Matthew Sturges, Derek Fridolfs

Artist: Stephane Roux, Jamal Igle, Chad Hardin, Cliff Chiang, Rick Mays, Jesus Saiz, Victor Ibanez, Wayne Faucher, John Sibal, Karl Story, John Dell, Robin Riggs, Travis Moore, Dustin Nguyen

DC Comics

016 Checkmate By Greg Rucka Vol 1

I want to like this book.  I like the writer.  I like the artist.  I like the concept.  But it really failed me. Checkmate is a revival/revamp of the 1980s series that was spun out of the Infinite Crisis series.  Checkmate has been reestablished and restaffed.  There's the white side (with it's King, Queen, Knight, Bishop, etc) and the black side.  What should be a great espionage book is actually a slightly dull administrative procedure book.  They spend way too much time talking about procedures and votes and all that bullshit and too little time on the action.  

Another issue I have with the book is it's incredibly large cast.  And not only it's large cast, but the fact that everyone has multiple identities.  They have their real names, they have their Checkmate designations and in some cases, they have their superhero names.

By the end of this first trade, I felt like Greg Rucka was finally getting his groove.  He wasn't trying to squeeze everyone into each issue and that helped matters.  There was a little more action outside of the headquarters and I liked that.  But overall, I was bored reading this.

Checkmate By Greg Rucka Vol 1

Writer: Greg Rucka, Nunzio DeFilippis Christina Weir

Artist: Jesus Saiz, Cliff Richards, Steve Scott

DC Comics