180 The DC Universe By John Byrne

This is a fun, if uneven, collection of John Byrne stories that were not part of the regular series he did for DC.  It's a nice overview of some of the stuff he did and highly enjoyable.  If you're a Byrne fan, that is.

The DC Universe By John Byrne

Writer: John Byrne, Marv Wolfman, Mike W Barr, Paul Kupperberg, Roger Stern, Paul Dini, Josh Siegal, Cary Bates, Keith Champagne

Artist: John Byrne, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Kurt Schaffenberger, Keith Wilson, Andy Kubert, Rick Burchett, Lary Stucker, Keith Champagne

DC Comics

146 Daring New Adventures Of Supergirl Vol 2

Oh boy.  Where do I start?

I love Supergirl.  I was stoked that she got her own series back again with this book.  I really do remember liking it a little more than I do right now.  Looking at it with fresh eyes, I realize what a total fucking disaster this book was.  I don't know if DC even cared very much when they decided to give her her own series again.  To me, this is what I imagine the pitch was.  Let's give her a book, let's try to write it for women, but put no effort into it whatsoever.  Because it really feels like it was written to try to appeal to a female audience.  Let me correct that.  Written poorly to appeal to a female audience.  Nothing against Paul Kupperberg, but this was not the way to do it.

I was never keen on Carmine Infantino, especially at this stage in his career.  He was not fit for the book.  The plots were terrible.  The art was terrible.  And the book got cancelled in time for the Supergirl movie, a movie I loved, but a movie that was terrible.

I'm so happy DC decided to collect this series.  As bad as it is, it really does hold a special place in my heart.

Daring New Adventures Of Supergirl Vol 2

Writer: Paul Kupperberg

Artist: Carmine Infantino, Eduardo Barreto, Bob Oksner

DC Comics

109 Superboy And The Legion Of Super-Heroes Vol. 1

I've been waiting for this volume for a long, long time.  I have the full run of the Legion of Super-Heroes Archives.  I loved that series so much.  I just love the Legion so much.  This book picks right up where the Archive series ended.  I was particularly upset when the Archives stopped because of what was going to be printed in the next volume.  That volume is this volume!  And what I was waiting for was the tabloid that had the wedding of Lightning Lad & Saturn Girl.  About a year ago, I finally tracked it down, so it's in my collection now, but now I have it on really nice paper!  

This is the era when I first started reading the Legion.  My first issue was #238, which was a classic Legion reprint.  The cover is reprinted here, but not the story.  The rest of the book is wonderful and awful all at the same time.  I'm reliving a lot of this for the first time since the 70s.  And it's not as awesome as I remember it being.  Some of it is a little hard to read.  But it's still awesome to me.  This is when Paul Levitz jumped on the book to start his 700 year run on it.  If anything, this just makes me want volume 2 all the more.  We are finally into "my" Legion.  It just gets better from here.  Slowly. 

Superboy And The Legion Of Super-Heroes Vol. 1

Writer: Jack C. Harris, Gerry Conway, Paul Levitz, Paul Kupperberg, Jim Starlin

Artist: Juan Ortiz, Bob Smith, Mike Grel, Ric Estrada, Jack Abel, Vince Colletta, George Tuska, Joe Rubinstein, James Sherman, Bob McLeod, Mike Nasser, Rick Bryant, Walt Simonson, Jim Starlin, Howard Chaykin, Bob Wiacek

DC Comics