2018.001 Aquaman: The Waterbearer

One of the great things about an Aquaman movie coming is that DC is putting all sorts of Aqua-related material back in print.

I read this monthly when it first was published, but to be honest, I really don't remember any of what was printed in this volume.  When I think back to Rick Veitch's run, I recall his Black Manta storyline, but barely any of this.  I remember the Lady of the Lake giving Arthur his water hand, but little else.  

I found this book to be a little slow in places, but I recognize that Rick is setting all his pieces in place to start telling the story he wants.  This is a welcome change from Peter David's Aquaman.  While I can't really stand Peter David, I did enjoy many aspects of his run.  But I like this more.  Rick Veitch is putting Aquaman back where he should be, stripping away all of the bullshit laid on him by Peter David.  

I look forward to the next volume of this book to refresh my memory of this run.

Aquaman: The Waterbearer

Written by: Rick Veitch, Steve Conley

Illustrated by: Yvel Guichet, Darryl Banks, Norm Breyfogle, Rob Haynes, Joshua Hood, Deitrich Smith, Sal Velluto, Mark Propst, Bob Almond, Dennis Janke, Rob Leigh, Sean Parsons, Bob Petrecca

DC Comics

088 Death Of Hawkman

So, this blog has gone askew already.  Up until this point, I've been doing posts about what I'm reading, in order of what I'm reading.  Mid-June I went on vacation, came home, enjoyed the great weather and let books start to pile up.  I no longer know what order I've read them in, so until I catch up on the pile I have, it's going to be in random order.

Today I read Death Of Hawkman.  It's an Adam Strange/Hawkman mini series and I found it very likable.  The characters have a long history together, so it seemed right to team them up.  Unfortunately, it's the New 52 versions of the characters, but still, I'll take what I can get.

The characterization of Hawkman seems very consistent with what we've gotten since the New 52.  What I mean is this is yet another version of the same character they can't seem to figure out.  DC did Hawkman a huge disservice in the New 52.  Totally changed him, then didn't like what they did, so they changed him again.  And again.  And again.  But, as the title of this collection says, it's all about his death, which is a good thing, if you ask me.  Hawkman always comes back, reincarnated.  I hope when they bring him back again, they'll bring him back to basics, not this over designed, under thought out claptrap.

Adam Strange is also following that inconsistent path.  While he's mostly like the New 52 version, he's kind of not.  But they're bringing him back closer to the true Adam Strange.

This was a fun mini-series.  Marc Andreyko writes a great buddy book, if you can call this that.  I hope DC lets him continue on and write more of these two characters.  He seems to have a feel for them.

Death Of Hawkman

Writer: Marc Andreyko

Artist: Aaron Lopresti, Rodney Buchemi, John Livesay, Norm Rapmund Sean Parsons

DC Comics

074 Mockingbird Vol 2: My Feminist Agenda

This book was HIGHLY disappointing, but not for the reason you might be thinking.  I was disappointed because it was cancelled before it could properly fill up a trade paperback.  To pad it out, the back of the book features a couple issues of the Avengers that featured Mockingbird.  What's funny is that one of the issues barely features her, but it key to her updated status quo.

Anyway, Mockingbird was probably one of my favorite recent Marvel books.  It took a character who has never been given proper love by Marvel and finally gave her a direction and a purpose.  I could read this book until the end of time.

The final story of this series is a three parter that is loosely tied into the big Civil War thingie.  But only peripherally, which makes me happy.  Yes, Mockingbird is a part of the MarvelU, but we're not forced to read her in an adventure that's centered right in the middle of a giant fight scene.

This book is funny as shit.  I didn't realize until I was reading the afterword, but Chelsea Cain isn't a comics writer.  This was her stab at it.  And knowing that, I want her to stab away more.  She's got a fresh voice that I love.  More!!! More!!!

Mockingbird Vol 2: My Feminist Agenda

Writer: Chelsea Cain, Brian Michael Bendis

Artist: Kate Niemczyk, Sean Parsons, Mike Deodato, Howard Chaykin

Marvel Comics

072 Justice League Vol 2: Outbreak

Even without Bryan Hitch drawing this book, it still has this great, cinematic feel to it.  He continues to write this book like it's a big, widescreen movie.  I love the whole feel of it.  This volume, although still very cinematic, has a lot of smaller moments.

This book collects two stories, which makes me happy.  I like that we still get occasional two-part stories.  There's a two-parter and a four-parter.  Not everything needs to be six issues.  The first story focuses heavily on Jessica Cruz, Earth's newest Green Lantern.  The League battles and defeats an alien invader, or so they think.  The creature managed to infect the League with fear.  They defeat the creature, but at the end, Jessica doesn't think the League is the place for her and leaves.

The second story is kind of silly to me.  The League gets hacked.  Hardcore hacked.  By a hacker that makes Oracle look like an amateur.  I know this is just a comic book, but this story was even a little too far fetched for me when we find out who the hacker turned out to be.  Read it and tell me if you agree.

Justice League Vol 2: Outbreak

Writer: Bryan Hitch

Artist: Neil Edwards, Jesus Merino, Matthew Clark, Tom Derenick, Daniel Henriques, Andy Owens, Sean Parsons, Trevor Scott

DC Comics

047 Wonder Woman Vol 1: The Lies

Where to begin?  Wonder Woman has been fucked up for longer than I care to remember.  Gail Simone wrote a glorious run on the book a number of years ago.  It was fantastic.  And then DC decided, fuck it, let's wreck Wonder Woman.  They handed the book over to J. Michael Strczynski, who threw everything that came before away and we started with a new Wonder Woman.  His run was awful, though the thing people hated most about it was putting her in pants.  That's the one thing I liked.  But I digress.  Wonder Woman's direction after that seemed to be based on this awful misstep.  When the New 52 started, it felt like the Strczynski influence could be felt.  But this is where things get really confusing.  The main Wonder Woman title definitely through away EVERYTHING that came before it and radically revamped her origin.  And while the story itself was kind of fun to read, I wish they called it an Elseworlds or something like that, because it just wasn't Wonder Woman to me.  Nor was the other version of the character that was appearing outside the main title.  The Wonder Woman in Justice League was not the Wonder Woman in Wonder Woman.  They had different personalities, they had different back stories.  There was no consistency.   When Meredith Finch took over the book, it felt like she was given the unenviable task of taking the character from Wonder Woman and turn her into the character from the rest of the DC Universe titles.  Her run was panned, but I didn't find it as bad as the rest of fandom.

Now we come to the Rebirth Wonder Woman.  She is neither the pre-New 52 Wonder Woman, the Azzarello Wonder Woman, the Finch Wonder Woman nor the rest of the DCU Wonder Woman.  It feels like a whole different take on the character again, but it feels more honest.  And the running theme of this book is Wonder Woman's whole past has been a lie.  And she's out to find out what the truth is and what's going on.  I was a little scared when I heard Greg Rucka was going to be writing this book.  He's a great writer, but I wasn't a huge fan of his previous run on Wonder Woman.  He more than made up for it with this volume.  I couldn't put it down.  I want more.  Now.  I love where this story is going (so far) and want to see how it unfolds.  The next volume of this book will not pick up where this story left off.  It should be a flashback tale drawn by the amazing Nicola Scott.  I can't wait for that, either!

Wonder Woman Vol 1: The Lies

Writer: Greg Rucka

Artist: Liam Sharp, Matthew Clark, Sean Parsons

DC Comics

007 Starfire Vol 02: A Matter of Time

The good news.  It's another light-hearted, fun book.  Nothing too serious, lots of fun and adventure.  The bad news.  Although it's Starfire, it's the New 52 Starfire who is just NOT Starfire.  If this book just changed the name of the character, I would be 100% behind it.  But it stars this phony character.  Sure, I can suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy it and all, so the book isn't all bad.  Also, I have almost no working knowledge of the New 52 Starfire before this book.  I didn't read that awful looking Red Hood book, so I don't know how much this version differs from that version.  I do appreciate the costume redesign.  Still very revealing, but somehow this version seems way more modest than the last version.

I appreciate DC trying something different.  

Starfire Vol 02: A Matter of Time

Writer: Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti

Artist: Emanuela Lupacchino, Elsa Charretier, Mirco Pierfederici, Ray McCarthy, Sean Parsons

DC Comics