Titans (vol.3) #5 (January, 2017)
"The Return of Wally West, Part Five: Run For Their Lives"
Writer - Dan Abnett
Penciller - Brett Booth
Inker - Norm Rapmund
Colorist - Andrew Dalhouse
Letterer - Carlos M. Mangual
Assistant Editor - Brittany Holzherr
Editor - Alex Antone
Group Editor - Marie Javins
Cover Price: $2.99
Another "from the pile" pick. When term-paper purgatory ends, I'll be digging deeper again. I'll hopefully be able to catch up on my Rebirth reading too! I've currently got a backlog of well over 100 issues... ALL Rebirth branded... ay yai yai.
As with all new/newer issues, the spoilery synopsis portion will be somewhat less-so. Considering just how little happens in this issue, it's gonna be seriously short. Either way, I don't wanna give it all away if it's still on the racks.
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We pick up where we left off last issue... Wally is faced with quite a dilemma. His fellow Titans (and Linda Park) are all facing certain death... he has enough time to save some of them... but there's no way he can save them all... or can he? Abra Kadabra watches in glee as our man speeds off.
From here we get... several pages of Wally running around saving his teammates. We get into his head for a bit of it, and he reminisces about his time being with Linda back in the "real" DC Universe... though, oddly... he still hasn't mentioned the twins. I know I don't mind them being nyoinked out... but c'mon Wally, they're your own flesh and blood!
After saving all of the Titans from their diabolical doppelgangers, he beelines it to Linda. She is hanging precariously upside down over a vat of molten some such. Just as she is about to fall in... Wally catches her and pulls her out of harm's way.
Linda gathers her druthers and her first instinct is to be... ya know, really ticked off. Her attention then turns to Wally who is standing before her absolutely drenched in lightning... he was able to save all those he cares for... but at what cost?
With a flash (!) of light... Wally is gone. Perhaps he has been dragged back into the Speed Force... we're going to have to wait 30 whole days to find out. At least Abra Kadabra's happy!
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Ya know... I'm of two minds on this issue... this title, really. On one hand, it's great seeing these characters all together again... though, if I had my way, Gar, Vic, and Kory would be here too... that's unfortunately neither here nor there. When I covered the first issue of this volume several months back, I positively gushed over how much I enjoyed it. On the other hand... and maybe this is due to the biweekly dominance of DC at the moment... but this feels just painfully slow.
I mean we're five issues (plus a Rebirth special) in... and not a whole lot has happened. Sure, we've got a tacky white-bordered trade paperback we gotta fill... but, man... this be slow! Plus the content... I'm reminded of a few times when Chris Claremont would return to an X-Family book, say early-mid 2000's... we'd get battles with doppelgangers... and it was always boring. Granted, here I kinda dug it when they showed up... but that was issues (and months) ago at this point.
I'll concede that I enjoy the idea of Wally having to push himself here. Having to punch it into overdrive as to not leave any Titans or potential future-past wives behind... only to find himself swallowed up into the (maybe) Speed Force... again. It paints Wally as a true altruist, and provides us with a problem that will need solved. I gotta say though... this did not need an entire issue. This could have all been accomplished in a scant handful of pages... or hell, perhaps even one.
If this was a biweekly book I may feel a bit different.. . but knowing the next chapter is coming 4-5 weeks from now... I'm gonna need more. What's more, non-Titans-completionists will definitely require more. I want this book to succeed. I want the Titans franchise to be top-tier/top of the sales charts for DC Comics. I don't want this to be canned (or relaunched several times over) within the next couple of years... I want this to be the start of a new golden era for this team/these teams... for that to happen, we're gonna need more.
The art and coloring are still really nice, though Linda's ridiculous sideburns are fairly horrid. Everyone else looks really good. The color is a particular treat here... very vibrant... beautiful reds especially.
We get a cliffhanger that's already been spoiled by solicitations... of course we know Wally's not going anywhere... especially seeing as though we just got him back... but it would be nice to not be spoiled by coming attractions... sadly, this is contemporary comics, and I'm afraid that that train's already left the station.
Speaking of things that have left the station... I wanna just take a second to look at the cover. We got a blurb here which reads "Wally's Last Run!" I gotta say... if I were a new (ha!) reader, that would not entice me to pick this issue up. Maybe put "Flash's Last Run!"... but, "Wally"? I dunno... seems like this book is directed solely at folks who are already in the market to buy it. I guess that was kind of what Rebirth was all about, and may seem like a silly complaint... but I couldn't help but sigh when I saw it. Then again, this is an industry that tried to publish a comic book called "Osborn". So, what do I know?
Overall... it pains me to say this but... if I wasn't an insane completionist, I'd be waiting for the trade. In modern day DC Comics, books come out twice a month... the books that only come out once feel such a far step behind... especially when not all that much happens to advance the story. No pun intended... this book is running in place.
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Action Comics #968 (January, 2017)
"Men of Steel, Part 2"
Writer - Dan Jurgens
Art - Tyler Kirkham
Letterer - Rob Leigh
Colorist - Ulises Arreola
Associate Editor - Paul Kaminski
Editor - Mike Cotton
Group Editor - Eddie Berganza
Cover Price: $2.99
Another random "from the pile" pick... from the future! I'm not sure if it's sad how excited I am to be adding "2017" to the tags... okay, I'm sure it is sad... I'm not sure just how sad.
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We open with a blustery father lambasting a Superman-Super-Watcher helicopter tour guide due to the fact that while his family partook in a flight... the Man of Steel was a no-show. He reels back and is just about to strike the poor pilot when... Superman and Zade bust into the scene... destroying the helicopter... though missing the goofball dad. The battle rages, destroying property all along the way... we get to see that... *sigh* Jon is looking on. Gotta say... I can't wait for Super Sons to launch, maybe then this can go back to being just a Superman book.
Meanwhile, on a nearby roof Lex Luthor kneels before L'Call the Godslayer. Ya see, L'Call is there to slay ol' Lex... unfortunately for him, however, Lex is armed to the teeth with awesome tech. After blowing L'Call away, Lois and nu-Clark enter the scene in search of a story.
We rejoin Superman as his battle with Zade rages on. Zade gets the better of it when Superman is distracted by nu-Clark's use of his signal watch. He uses his x-ray vision to see that Lois and Clark are in trouble. Before Zade can land a "killing" blow, *sigh* Jon crashes the scene by hitting the baddie with a semi tractor.
Superman and Superboy head off to the roof, but father (thankfully) tells son to hang back. Once he arrives, Superman is... stabbed (!) in the shoulder by one of L'Call's blades. L'Call tells Superman his plans for Luthor... even going as far as to show him a glimpse of Darkseid-Lex's future. This is moving into the old "Would you kill Hitler in the crib?" dilemma.
While this is going down, Lois catches a glimpse of Jon on a nearby building... and nu-Clark catches a glimpse of Lois talking to the red-caped adolescent. Hmm... indeed.
Superman is not convinced and so L'Call calmly and rationally blasts him point-blank in the face. As Superman sit prone, L'Call readies to decapitate him... until... *sigh* Jon pleads with him to back off... and he does.
Instead of killing Superman, L'Call and Zade decide just to just leave... with Lex. Superman tries to stop them, but it's too late. Nu-Clark approaches Superman and plays devil's advocate... if Lex is destined to become a mass-murderer... why not just let him die? Hmm... that's not the Clark Kent I know.
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I really wanted to like this more than I did. I'm not sure if we're killing time... but it kind of feels like we are. It may be just that I really dislike Lex wearing the "S". Hell, I dislike it that just so many people are wearing the "S" at the moment... but Lex? I mean, it was cute at first... I guess... but by now it just feels like it's gone on for too long without any real progression. It's as though we're being told "Look at Lex... he is important" but he hasn't really done anything yet. By this point we're six months into Rebirth... we/I really want this to move along.
We get the whole "would you kill Hitler in the crib?" thing... which, I suppose is a decent enough way for us to learn that nu-Clark has some different values than the original. That I can dig. I'm really not sure where the vestigial-Clark storyline is headed... but again, I'm really anxious to get down to it... and move it into the rear-view. I guess I'm just looking forward to having all the lumps ironed out. It's difficult for me to give this a fair/balanced review... because with Superman I kinda wear my biases on my sleeve.
Anyhoo... not overly interested in the Trial of Lex Luthor... and as much as it pains me to say... I just really want Superman stories again. I'm getting tired of other-supers... I'm getting tired of Jon... I just want some fun stories again. Granted... this is just one fool's opinion. Don't have any complaints about the dialogue... some good stuff there... and the art... ooh boy, the art. This is some wonderfully pretty comics. I'm not sure I'd want Kirkham on the title full-time, but I do enjoy him popping in from time to time. I kinda dig the cover too... I swear it's an homage... but I can't put my finger on it.
Overall... like I said, looking forward to putting this in the rear-view. I'm hopeful that once it's all behind us we'll start getting some great fun Superman stories. I mean, it's Dan Jurgens... the definitive Superman writer of my lifetime... I've got faith that this will return to form.
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Batman #423 (September, 1988)
"You Shoulda Seen Him..."
Writer - Jim Starlin
Penciller - Dave Cockrum
Inker - Mike DeCarlo
Letterer - John Costanza
Colorist - Adrienne Roy
Editor - Denny O'Neil
Cover Price: $0.75
No real preamble today... casa Chris is in crisis, too much stuff coming to a head at once. Let's get right into this (spoiler alert) excellent issue of Batman.
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We open on the Gothamboro Bridge as an officer is trying to talk a hopeless junkie off the safety railing. The poor heroin addict, Kenny, feels as though his life isn't worth living... and nothing Officer Bart says will persuade him otherwise. Lucky for him, he's got some backup... in the form of the Batman. Unlucky for Kenny, Batman isn't all that much more convincing... the junkie jumps!
Batman leaps after him... Kenny doesn't realize it, but the Bat's wearing a safety harness. He catches the junkie just twenty feet before he hits the drink. Kenny then gets the mother of all lectures from the caped crusader. It's really very well done. He tells the fella that he should be dead right now... and had he not been there, he would be. He tells him not to waste his second chance, and drops him to a coast guard boat below.
We jump to a diner the following morning where Officer Bart is sharing this story with fellow GCPD Officer, Greg. "You shoulda seen him!" he says. Well, it just so happens that Greg did see the Batman last night as well... during a hostage situation at a nearby Delicatessen. A rather cliche-looking gang of goofs are holding several deli patrons at gunpoint... with the threat of, ya know... being made dead. The hostage-negotiator is called... these geeks want a measly hundred-thou and a Caddy. Really now... what, no nude pictures of Bea Arthur? Anyhoo, if they don't get it... people get dead.
The police don't budge, and it looks like a poor elderly lady is about to have her brains blown out... Now... I dunno much about police protocol, much less fictional-police protocol... but this just seems like bad form, no? Anyhoo... Batman is on the scene, and scares the rotten-mouthed punk into losing sight of the prize. Another wonderful bit of Bat-dialogue here from Starlin. Batman promises to make this goober feel the worst pain of his life... pain that will never end... because Batman will not allow him to die. Brutal!
Back at the diner, a third officer overhears Greg and Bart's conversation... and decides to share his Batman story for the night. Earlier that evening, this officer, Kirby Jackson, saw some very young children hanging about in a bad part of town. Once they realize he saw them... they bolt through the alleys and over fences to get away. Kirby has trouble keeping up... he blames it on his lack of familiarity with "the terrain"... I think he's just crap at his job. Anyhoo... the tots run right into... the Batman.
The young boy doesn't miss a beat... he picks up a little plank of wood as though he is going to start swingin'. He tells both Batman and Kirby that they "ain't going back". Batman calmly walks over to the children and kneels down to their level. He is able to get through to them, although the reader isn't privy to the exact words used. The kids then lead him by the hand to the little crate in which they currently reside.
Batman and Kirby set a small campfire, and the foursome sit around it. The kids explain their situation. Hank is seven years old, while his sister Jenny is just five. They are from Florida... and both of their parents have recently passed away. Their mother passed in a car accident, and their father got mixed up in a shady poker game after arriving in Gotham to look for work. A social worker went to retrieve the poor orphans... and broke the news that they would be placed in separate homes. Well, that's all Hank had to hear... and the twosome hit the bricks.
Kirby continues his story... he mentions that he believes he caught the Batman crying at the children's plight. Batman then promised the children that he would see to it that they were never separated again. Ya see, he knows a guy... I think you may have heard of him... a Mr. Bruce Wayne.
We shift back to the diner and Kirby is wrapping up with his tale. He takes his leave so that he can give his wife a ride to work. After he leaves, Greg and Bart joke about how ridiculous Kirby's story was... I mean, really now... Batman... crying? Nahhhh...
We wrap up at Wayne Manor, where Bruce is... you know it... checking in on the tots. Ya see, he's going to keep them together until they can be shipped off to live with their Aunt Susan. Alfred makes a joke about the Batman having gone soft... and Bruce smiles.
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This may have been the perfect issue for me to read today. Came very close to facing the arch-nemesis of many fellow bloggers of late... the most evil interloper... that thing, civilians like to call "real life". Many have fallen before it... and over the past couple of weeks I've felt its steely gaze and hot breath. I'll just say having a "softer" Batman story really helped me out today... for a variety of reasons, none of which I will bore anyone with.
Is this a perfect issue? Nah... it's a competent one... but, damned if I didn't enjoy every it from cover to cover. Weird as it may sound, it was just so... comfortable. It's a series of vignettes... just another night in the life of the Caped Crusader. A night that we, the readers, would normally not be privy to. There are no clowns, nor penguins, nor riddles to be solved. This is just Batman out dealing with the folks in his city... and it's great.
I've never felt that Dave Cockrum was a great fit for Batman, however, his work here is very nice. There are panels where the children look like shrunken grown-ups, but overall... very nice. In discussing the art, I would be remiss not to mention the Todd McFarlane-before-he-was-Todd McFarlane cover... which I really dig. I can only imagine how Wizard Magazine priced this one during the years of the Image boom. The cover is fairly iconic, though... Todd himself even used it as inspiration for a recent issue of Spawn (#230). Check it out...
Pretty cool, eh? Overall, despite my gushing... this may not be an issue that will rock everyone's socks. If you're down for a night "off" for Batman... as in, his Rogues Gallery plays no part... this issue comes with a very high recommendation. It is available digitally.
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Both Great Series
DC Comics Presents #31 (March, 1981)
"The Deadliest Show on Earth!"
"Whatever Happened to Robotman?"
Writers - Gerry Conway & Bob Rozakis
Pencillers - Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez & Alex Saviuk
Inkers - Dick Giordano & Vince Colletta
Letterer - Ben Oda
Colorists - Jerry Serpe & Phil Rachelson
Editor - Julius Schwartz
Cover Price: $0.50
Random pick from the pile today... been getting a bit overwhelmed with school work (which is why this is going up late in the evening rather than first thing in the morning) as we ever so slowly trudge along toward Christmas break. I have all these huge plans and reading projects I want to push through during those few weeks off... but knowing myself the way that I do, I will be so overwhelmed by my freedom that I will accomplish absolutely none of them!
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We open late at night with Robin paying a visit to the Sterling Circus. He walks around a bit, relieved that he hasn't yet been jumped by a carny... when he gets jumped by a carny! It is the Half-and-Half from the Freakshow. Ya know, the person with half their face and body done up like a man, and the other done up like a woman. This bugger is strong, but proves to be no match for the Teen Wonder.
When the dust clears, Dick recounts his first visit to Sterling's earlier this afternoon. He walked the grounds with his "comely" date before settling in for the show where he ran into someone quite familiar... Waldo... ya know, Waldo the Clown! Strangely, Waldo doesn't appear to recognize him...
Well, that's why he's come back for an after-hours visit. He figures something's gotta give here. Inside a tent he is led to, he sees that Waldo (the Clown) is being punished for nearly giving "their secret" away that afternoon. His punishment? Leaping through a flaming hoop... seriously now. Lucky for Wally, just as he jumps, Robin pulls him before he can singe his fringe. Unlucky for Robin, the brains of the operation uses this opportunity to use his mind control powers on the poor Teen Wonder.
As he struggles to fight it off he looks up to the Circus Strongman... who upon closer inspection (and removal of his phony mustache and beard)... is Superman! Robin is in a state of shock and can no longer fight the mind control... and down he goes.
The following day the circus leaves Gotham City and travels to Metropolis where we see Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen taking in the show. They watch as Robin performs a trapeze act and as Superman lifts an elephant over his head.
That night while Robin stand dazed in his cage, he is shaken... er, clapped out of his trance by the Man of Steel. Superman tells Dick that he was never under the mind control but played along to try and get to the bottom of things. They are almost immediately bathed in a spotlight, and the circus folk (and animals!) quickly pounce. All but one are under mind control... but who is the one behind it all?
As Superman keeps the carnies at bay, Robin loads up an old-fashioned camera with some flash powder. He snaps a pic, which causes only one of the carnies to recoil... clearly this is the one doing the hypnotizing! Superman snags the baddie and flies off with him... and, well... that's it!
Our backup story has to do with Robotman... no, not that Robotman... this is the silver version... from the Golden Age! This story basically retells his origin... he was once a professor named Robert Crane who was shot by some thugs. After the baddies flee, his assistant, Chuck Grayson (probably no relation, right?) quickly... ahem, transports Crane's brain into the head of a robot.
And so, Robotman fought crime... until the day he was caught in a mine shaft cave-in. He awoke twenty years later, and despite noticing how "futuristic" everything around him looks (and how much people he knew have aged), doesn't think all that much of it. He throws on his Paul Dennis (a new name he yanked from his behind) latex mask and goes about his daily routine.
He comes across the folks he blames for the cave-in, and is finally brought up to speed on the fact that twenty years have passed since his disappearance.
After taking out the riff-raff, he learns that while he was "out" another Robotman (yeah, that Robotman) entered the superhero forum. He then decides... get this... to have his brain removed from his robot head, and placed into the dome of the long-dead Chuck Grayson! Wait, what? Anyhoo, he decides to use this as a new lease on life, and a new beginning for both Robert Crane and Chuck Grayson. Oof.
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Not a bad little issue. Nothing Earth shaking or anything, but nothing offensively bad either. It was a neat little romp with Superman and Robin, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Sure it definitely feels a bit rushed... and I think they could have filled the extra eight pages of this issue had they jettisoned the ridiculous Robotman tale. Not a whole lot of closure here... Superman just flies off with the bad guy... okay. Lois and Jimmy's appearance didn't feel terribly necessary... just a way to make the scene scream "Metropolis" I suppose.
Not much more to say about it. The art (for both stories) is very nice. Garcia-Lopez is always a treat... the characters he draws always look phenomenal, and Saviuk's no slouch either.
The Robotman backup... okey doke... not a whole lot that can be done with a retelling of an origin... silly as it may be. I know things were done fast and loose in the Golden Age, but just picturing old Chuck composing himself long enough to yank the brain out of his dying pal and placing it into a robo-dome is really crazy to me.
Overall... not all that much to say about either of these stories. Had I been collecting this title at release and waited a month to get this issue... I would have been disappointed. Reading it now almost forty years later... ehh, I wouldn't tell ya to track it down, however, if you happened across it for two-bits, I wouldn't tell ya not to grab it either.
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