2018.013 Batman: Super Powers

I like Marc Guggenheim's comics work an awful lot.  Well, most of it.  His X-Men book has been falling slightly short for me, but it's still enjoyable.  I was excited to read this book.  It collects an arc he did in Batman Confidential a while back.  It's two parallel stories running at the same time.  One in present day and one back in the training days of Bruce Wayne.  While I didn't love it, I didn't hate it either.  I don't know if I could be more neutral on it if I tried.  It's a fine story, but it's left no lasting impression on me.  I want to leave a story feeling something, anything.  This didn't leave me feeling anything, which is too bad.

Batman: Super Powers

Written by: Marc Guggenheim

Illustrated by: Jerry Bingham, Mark Farmer

DC Comics

165 Batman: Year Two *The 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition*

Sequels rarely live up to the original.  It's a fact.  Sometimes they excel, but more often than not, they fall short.  Batman: Year Two is a sequel to Batman: Year One.  Different creative team, different approach.  And it's a damn fine story.

I'm not the biggest fan of Mike Barr.  He's a fine writer, but I don't often take him seriously.  He writes fun stuff, but it's mostly fluff to me.  However, it's been years since I've read this, so I tried to go in with fresh eyes.  And he surprised me.  The book isn't the cutesy fluff I'm used to from him.  It's straightforward, decent writing.  And I enjoyed every bit of it.  I guess I didn't realize Alan Davis only drew the first chapter of the story before quitting the book (detailed in the forward).  Todd McFarlane stepped in and finished the book off.  Alan Davis came back for the sequel to this sequel and both men gave us top notch stuff.

This book collects the original Year Two and the follow up story, Full Circle.  Full Circle had a lot of holes in it, but it suspend your disbelief just a little more than normal, it's not a problem.  

I don't know how much of this book is still in continuity.  My memory gets worse with age, but I don't think much of any of it is canon anymore.  It features a lot of Joe Chill and his family.  That's the part that I'm not sure fits in with current (or even later pre-New 52) continuity.  Things like this change from time to time and I wouldn't be surprised to learn this continuity went out the window two decades ago.

This is a really good and satisfying read.  If you haven't read it recently, it's worth picking up.

Batman: Year Two *The 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition*

Writer: Mike W. Barr

Artist: Alan Davis, Todd McFarlane, Paul Neary, Mark Farmer, Alfredo Alcala, Pablo Marcos

DC Comics

142 Justice League Of America: The Nail - The Complete Deluxe Edition

DC has finally collected both Alan Davis mini-series into one beautiful deluxe edition.  What an amazing book to sit and soak in.

Alan Davis wrote and drew a love letter to DC's Silver Age.  It doesn't quite get the love that something like Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier does, but it should.

Quite simply, Ma & Pa Kent get a nail in their tire the night they were supposed to find baby Kal-El.  They never leave the house and Kal-El gets adopted elsewhere.  He never becomes Superman.  So the story follows the DC Silver Age with that one alteration.  And what it turns into is a scene that is very reminiscent of what's happening today in America.  Except replace minorities with meta humans.  Meta humans are no longer trusted and they're feared.  There's a giant conspiracy against them, but the heroes do get their shit together and take care of matters.  It's a very compelling story.  It grabs your attention and doesn't let it go.

A follow up story was done called Another Nail.  This one I struggled a bit with.  It starts off going further into detail an event that happened in the first book, which leads to the new story.  Or so I guess it does.  The second book felt like it was a lot of plot points, but I was waiting to figure out what the actual plot was.  If that makes sense. 

Both series are some of the best work Alan Davis has ever done.  He's amazing.  I could look at this book for the rest of my life and never get tired of it.

Justice League Of America: The Nail - The Complete Deluxe Edition

Writer: Alan Davis

Artist: Alan Davis, Mark Farmer

DC Comics

084 Avengers Four

I don't know how he does it, but Mark Waid is producing some of the best stuff of his rather long career.  He's still coming up with stories that entertain highly.  This is (mostly) no exception.

This is a sort of retelling of the first Avengers line up change, but it's an all new story, too.  The original Avengers all step down and are replaced by this new line up.  Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Hawkeye join Captain America.  And the public see them as a joke.  This is quickly rectified when they meet a woman who uses her powers to help boost and amplify the powers of these four.  They become a powerhouse team.  They invite her to join the team as Avenger X.  But because of the nature of her powers, they keep her in the background for her own safety.

However, since joining the team, she actively tries pitting them against each other and tries to take them down.  Which is fine, but unless I missed something, there really isn't a sufficient reason for her to do this.  And that makes this story crumble for me.  It was pretty good up until that point.

And on a tangent, can I mention how much I hate how Marvel publishes monthly books?  This volume reprints Avengers 1.1 - 5.1.  What?  They couldn't make it a stand alone mini-series.  They made it issues 1.1 through 5.1 of the regular book?  Really?  What's the purpose?  It's stupid.  At least I only read Marvel in trade format, so it's less confusing that way, but still.

Avengers Four

Writer: Mark Waid

Artist: Barry Kitson, Mark Bagley, Sean Izaakse, Ro Stein, Mark Farmer, Rafael Fonteriz, Andrew Hennessy, Scott Hanna, Mike Perkins, Ted Brandt

Marvel Comics

063 JLA Vol 9

This book was a real mixed bag for me.  It's the final volume in this era of JLA.  I believe it leads right into Infinite Crisis and then into the Brad Metzler run of JLA.

We have three big stories here.  And I see each of them differently.  One I loved.  One I hated.  One I liked.  The book starts off with the end of Kurt Busiek's run.  I love Busiek.  I think he's a fantastic writer.  His run of Avengers was my favorite run of the book.  Astro City is a book that is amazing to me.  But for some reason, Busiek and the DCU just don't gel together for me.  At all.  I don't know why.  The characters don't seem right to me.  The stories just don't grab my attention.  And this book starts off with a big story.  Nine or ten parts, I think.  It's massive.  And, for me, really hard to get through.  I did not enjoy it then.  I didn't enjoy it now.

The next story was my favorite.  It's a six part arc that sort of served as a sequel to Identity Crisis.  It was the beginning of the end of this era of JLA.  The team was falling apart.  Hard.  The Secret Society was going after the JLA and their loved ones.  Mind wipes were discussed.  It was a big mess for the team.  And although there was one more story arc, for all intents and purposes, the JLA was done.

The last story features the team pretty much packing it in, but before they can officially close this chapter, The Key strikes.

Despite my feeling towards the Busiek story, this is a really good collection of JLA tales from the early 2000s.

JLA Vol 9

Writer: Kurt Busiek, Bob Harras, Allan Heinberg, Geoff Johns

Artist: Chris Batista, Tom Derenick, Ron Garney, Mark Farmer, Dan Green

DC Comics