Number 676


Hangman hung up


"Gallows Ghoul," expertly illustrated by Bob ("Fuje") Fujitani for the Fall 1943 issue of Hangman Comics #8, is a morbid murder tale partially rewritten, probably because it was too morbid. The clumsy re-lettering in certain captions and speech balloons looks like a last minute attempt to mitigate the horrors of a man killing his wife and then throwing his young son out the window of a tall building. I'm reading between the lines, but changing the murdered woman to a "half-sister" of killer Ed Jennings, and the boy into the half-sister's son doesn't make sense. Just do what I did and substitute the word "wife" for "half-sister." I don't think killing one's half-sister is any more acceptable than one's wife, but it appears that somebody had second thoughts about this story and made the changes before this issue went to press.

The stereotype of mental illness is pretty sickening, also, but it isn't untypical of the era in which it was published.

Hard to believe that MLJ Comics, which published some of the more lurid and sensational comic books of its era, did an about-face and went with the much less objectionable Archie characters. I'm sure a character like Hangman, and stories like "Gallows Ghoul," put the company under scrutiny by censorious types. MLJ made the right choice, since Archie has sustained them to this day.

Number 675


Jack's back


I read an article about Jack Kirby a few years ago. There was a part that especially impressed me: in the mid-'50s when comics were in the doldrums, and Jack was picking up jobs where he could, his wife, Roz, would sometimes help him with inking. According to the article Roz outlined the figures in pen, and Jack would go back and spot the blacks and do textures. There are places in these stories from 1957 and '58 that fit the description from that article.

The first story, "Master of the Unknown," from House of Secrets #4, 1957 was about a cultural phenomenon of the time. In those days we gathered around the TV and watched nighttime quiz shows, just like people today follow reality shows like Survivor. The quiz shows turned out to be fixed and the scandal damaged that industry for years, but I remember them well when they were popular.

The next three stories, from Tales Of the Unexpected #13, 18, and 23, from 1957 and '58, are more routine, if any Jack Kirby story could ever be said to be routine. Kirby could take any story, any genre, any subject, and make up for story deficiencies with his dynamic artwork. At the time I was a real fan of Kirby's Challengers Of the Unknown, and instantly recognized his style, buying any comics with his artwork.

After a soundly bad experience with Countdown to Final Crisis, Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley's Trinity is a breath of fresh air. The story is far from perfect, especially toward the end of this third volume -- though I begin to wonder if any writer can really get a fifty-two part story 100% right, and the wisdom therein of continuing to try. Overall, however, Trinity has been a nice surprise, and a book I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.

[Contains spoilers for the Trinity books]

Fittingly, there are three acts to the third volume of Trinity, and of them all, I liked the best the finale of the alternate reality plotline that begins this book. I hadn't expected to enjoy what's essentially an impromptu "Elseworlds" tale, but Busiek both gives the trinity of this new world -- a retired Jay Garrick, Alan Scott, and Carter Hall -- so much tough-as-nails moxy, and also peppers the new reality with so many in-jokes, that there's plenty to love. To wit, this time around, we find J'onn J'onzz disguised in our midst as the spirit of humanity (much akin to Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier). That Lois jumps off the Daily Planet to get the god-powered Superman's attention, or that Nightwing similarly gets Batman's attention by shouting about Oliver Queen's chili, might seem rather obvious, but in their obviousness is nostalgia that reminds us what we love about these characters, which I think is the crux of Trinity.

In the previous volumes, Busiek explored the ways in which DC's Big Three characters contrast and make up a trinity, and also how those three heroes shaped our conception of a "superhero" like none other. In the last volume, Busiek properly lessens the hero worship a bit, and instead posits DC's main heroes not as the epitome of the heroic trinity in the DC Universe, but rather as an exceptionally visible representation of a trinity which constantly repeats itself in their world. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are a trinity, but so are Sun-Chained-in-Ink, the Void Hound, and Tarot.

"The trinity," Tarot intones, "are not the universe," but rather "three of the many faces of those forces, those concepts, those ideas." In this way, Busiek successfully reasons out why Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are the Big Three both in their own universe and ours. Yes, they defined superheroics, and yes, they represent together certain dualities -- but moreover, in representing those dualities, they mirror ways in which our world works separate from comic books, like the sun, moon, and earth, or justice and punishment. To say that people around the world understand instinctively the Superman concept because he's this guy from Krypton, etc., is to overcomplicate the notion; to say that people "get" Superman because Superman is like the sun (especially when standing next to Batman) gets to the core of why the character resonates.

I enjoyed far more, however, both the heroes' personality-switching in the first book and the "world without the Big Three" in the second book, than I did "the Big Three-as-gods" in the third book. Obviously we all know the Big Three would be their old selves by the time this was done, and while the personality-switching carried with it some room for character reflection, having the Big Three as absolute versions of themselves (aloof Batman-god delivers only punishment, etc.) felt well-tread and unsurprising.

As well, perhaps showing the seams of trying to keep a story going for fifty-two chapters, Trinity began to repeat itself in the last volume. There's a good amount of running to one locale, having a skirmish, and then running to the next locale and having another skirmish. The heroes' loved ones try unsuccessfully to talk to the heroes-as-gods; they fail, fret a bit, try again, and repeat. I nearly lost track by the end as to which villain was meant to have betrayed which; there's numerous pages of Morgaine le Fay threatening Enigma, Despero threatening le Fay, Krona threatening all of them, and so on.

And Busiek and co-writer Fabian Nicieza get almost loopy in the back-up stories toward the end, as Krona has a conversation with his past self and with the Earth's Worldsoul, who tells Krona that essentially the point of life is just to exist. Interesting philosophical avenues, both, but at the end of the book the stories serve to slow the action when otherwise it ought be moving briskly along.

Trinity ends where we'd expect, right where it began on a pier in Keystone City, but this time in one of those large-scale superhero get-togethers that's always a lot of fun. Frankly the closing scene of the Big Three disappointed me -- so caught up is the plot in the god-power plotline that the heroes never return to how it felt to share each other's personalities and how their relationship might change; instead they reaffirm, yet again, their commitment to their loved ones. Hawkman, however, gets a great final scene that touches on his role as a leader on the alternate Earth, and ties (mostly coincidentally, I think) to events for him in both Rann/Thanagar: Holy War and Blackest Night. If nothing else coming out of Trinity, I'd be most interested to see Kurt Busiek write a Hawkman miniseries in the future.

But overall, for me, Trinity came down to one question, would Busiek find a way to keep alive the resurrected Tomorrow Woman at the end of this story, and the answer thankfully is yes. Tomorrow Woman first appeared in one issue of Grant Morrison's JLA, but the character had so much potential as to evoke a cult following and brief later appearances in a handful of DC titles, though never to return for good.

Nothing demonstrates that a writer "gets" the DC Universe (and DC fandom) like the way Busiek spotlighted Tomorrow Woman and equally-brief Leaguer Triumph, and that Busiek resurrects Tomorrow Woman for good is to cement Busiek's name as a writer we have to thank, for this one small glowing moment. Trinity is debatably good sometimes and not so good other times, but again, what's definite is that this series most certainly loves the DC Universe.

[Contains full covers, "What Came Before" pages]

Reviews of Green Lantern, Rann/Thanagar, Titans, and more coming up. Don't miss it!

DC Comics announced their official list of trade paperbacks, collected editions, and graphic novels for May, June, July, and August 2010 this week, as reported by our friends at ComicList.

We've already talked over a bunch of these solicitations on the Collected Editions blog, so I won't look at them all in detail, but here's some highlights with my comments in bold.

OUTSIDERS: THE HUNT TP
Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Artists: Fernando Pasarin and Jay Leisten
Collects: OUTSIDERS #23-27
$12.99 US, 144 pg

Not sure the issues listed above can be believed, since the previous trade, Outsiders: The Deep, ended with issue #20. Collecting to issue #27 would take this trade into the new Dan DiDio/Superman title territory; my guess is that it's five issues starting with #21, which includes the Blackest Night crossover.

SUPERGIRL: FRIENDS AND FUGITIVES
Writers: Greg Rucka and Sterling Gates
Artists: Jamal Igle, Julian Lopez, Fernando Dagnino and others
Collects: SUPERGIRL #43, 45-47, ACTION COMICS #881-882 and SUPERMAN SECRET FILES 2009 #1

Takes place before and after the Superman: Codename: Patriot crossover, which is mildly confusing; then collects the "Hunt for Reactron" storyline. We still don't know how the closing "New Krypton" issues of Action Comics and Superman will be collected; maybe in Nightwing and Flamebird and Mon-El volumes two respectively.

TITANS: FRACTURED TP
Writers: Various
Artists: Various
Collects: TITANS #14 and 16-22
$17.99 US, 192 pg

Brings Titans right up to the new team and to events in Justice League. Skips issue #15, a Blackest Night tie-in that I hope we'll see elsewhere.

WONDER WOMAN: WARKILLER TP
Writer: Gail Simone
Artists: Aaron Lopresti and Bernard Chang
Collects: WONDER WOMAN #34-39
$14.99 US, 144 pg

Apparently the verdict in the great Wonder Woman hardcover/paperback experiment was paperback. Gail Simone's run now goes to trade-only.

BATWOMAN: ELEGY DELUXE EDITION HC
Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: J.H. Williams III
Collects: DETECTIVE COMICS #854-860

I thought we already knew that the Batwoman stories in Detective would be collected in the oversized deluxe format that I love, but a commentor pointed it out to me recently, so I mention again.

DOOM PATROL: WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE TP
Writer: Keith Giffen
Artists: Matthew Clark and Justiniano
Collects: DOOM PATROL #1-6
$14.99 US, 144 pg

Includes the Doom Patrol/Blackest Night crossover

GOTHAM CENTRAL BOOK 3: ON THE FREAK BEAT HC
Writers: Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker
Artists: Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano and others
Collects: GOTHAM CENTRAL #23-31
$29.99 US, 224 pg

I love that they're collecting Gotham Central in order, instead of splitting the collections between Rucka and Brubaker volumes. This brings together stories elsewhere found in volumes three and four of the Gotham Central paperbacks. The next volume will mostly adhere to the fifth Gotham Central paperback, but here's hoping for some extras.

GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY: BIG GAME TP
Writer: Andrew Kreisberg
Artist: Mike Norton
Collects: GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #21-26
$19.99 US, 192 pg

Not quite up to the Blackest Night crossover yet. Should be next trade.

ICON: MOTHERSHIP CONNECTION TP
Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Artists: Mark D. Bright, Mike Gustovich and others
Collects: ICON #13, 17, 19-22, 24-26 and 30
$19.99 US, 256 pg

At least some of the jumping around in this trade is to avoid the Worlds Collide crossover with the Superman titles, which I think DC should go ahead and collect for its historical value.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE HC
Writer: James Robinson
Artist: Mauro Cascioli
Collects: JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE #1-7
$24.99 US, 232 pg

Does not, disappointingly, collect the Faces of Evil: Prometheus lead-in. To the back issue bins!

SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY BOOK 1 HC
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artists: J.H. Williams III, Cameron Stewart, Frazer Irving, Simone Bianchi, Ryan Sook and Mick Gray
Collects: SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY #0, SEVEN SOLDIERS: GUARDIAN #1-4, SEVEN SOLDIERS: ZATANNA #1-3, SEVEN SOLDIERS: SHINING KNIGHT #1-4 and SEVEN SOLDIERS: KLARION #1-3
$39.99 US, 400 pg

Collects exactly the first two Seven Soldiers paperback volumes

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: SUICIDE SQUAD VOL. 1 TP
Writer: John Ostrander
Artists: Luke McDonnell and others
Collects: SUICIDE SQUAD #1-19, DOOM PATROL/SUICIDE SQUAD SPECIAL #1 and JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #13
$17.99 US, 552 pg

They said we'd never see it, but here it is! What may end up being my very first Showcase Presents purchase. Makes one wish it was in color, though ...

WORLD'S FINEST TP
Writers: Sterling Gates, Geoff Johns and Gerry Conway
Artists: Julian Lopez, Fernando Dagnino, Jamal Igle, Phil Noto, Jesus Merino, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and others
Collects: WORLD'S FINEST #1-4, DC COMICS PRESENTS #31 and ACTION COMICS #865
$14.99 US, 144 pg

In keeping with the Super- and Bat-family themes of the Sterling Gates miniseries, this also collects DC Comics Presents #31, a Superman/Robin team-up, and Action Comics #865, Geoff Johns' recent revamp of the Toyman who appears here.

BLACKEST NIGHT HC
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artists: Ivan Reis, Oclair Albert and others
Collects: BLACKEST NIGHT #0-8
$29.99 US, 304 pg

BLACKEST NIGHT: GREEN LANTERN HC
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artists: Doug Mahnke, Ed Benes and others
Collects: GREEN LANTERN #43-51
$24.99 US, 256 pg

BLACKEST NIGHT: GREEN LANTERN CORPS HC
Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Artists: Patrick Gleason, Rebecca Buchman and others
Collects: GREEN LANTERN CORPS #39-46
$24.99 US, 224 pg

BLACKEST NIGHT: BLACK LANTERN CORPS VOL. 1 HC
Writers: James Robinson, Peter J. Tomasi and J.T. Krull
Artists: Eddy Barrow, Ardian Syaf, Ed Benes and others
Collects: BLACKEST NIGHT: BATMAN #1-3, BLACKEST NIGHT: SUPERMAN #1-3 and BLACKEST NIGHT: TITANS #1-3
$24.99 US, 240 pg

BLACKEST NIGHT: BLACK LANTERN CORPS VOL. 2 HC
Writers: Geoff Johns, James Robinson and Greg Rucka
Artists: Scott Kolins, Nicola Scott, Eddy Barrows and others
Collects: BLACKEST NIGHT: JSA #1-3, BLACKEST NIGHT: THE FLASH #1-3 and BLACKEST NIGHT: WONDER WOMAN #1-3
$24.99 US, 240 pg

BLACKEST NIGHT: RISE OF THE BLACK LANTERNS HC
Writers: Geoff Johns, James Robinson, Peter J. Tomasi, Eric Wallace, James Robinson, Gail Simone, John Ostrander, Dan DiDio and Fabian Nicieza
Artists: Ryan Sook, Julian Lopez, Ardian Syaf, Don Kramer, Denys Cowan, Bill Sienkiewicz, Fernando Dagnino, Renato Arlem, J. Calafiore and others
Collects: THE ATOM & HAWKMAN #46, CATWOMAN #83, THE PHANTOM STRANGER #43, STARMAN #81, THE POWER OF SHAZAM #48, THE QUESTION #37, WEIRD WESTERN TALES #71 and SUICIDE SQUAD #67
$24.99 US, 208 pg

BLACKEST NIGHT: TALES OF THE CORPS HC
Writers: Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi and Sterling Gates
Artists: Jerry Ordway, Chris Samnee, Rags Moraels, Mike Mayhew, Ivan Reis, Dave Gibbons, Rodney Ramos, Eddy Barrows, Gene Ha, Tom Mandrake, Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy, Joe Prado and Rafael Albuquerque
Collects: BLACKEST NIGHT: TALES OF THE CORPS #1-3, GREEN LANTERN #18-21 and 43, GREEN LANTERN: SINESTRO CORPS SECRET FILES 2007 and BLACKEST NIGHT #0
$24.99 US, 176 pg

I ventured to hope that Green Lantern #18-21 was the missing "Alpha Lanterns" story, but that's Green Lantern Corps that's uncollected, not the main series. Hopefully the overlap between this trade and Tales of the Sinestro Corps collection is minimal

I, for one, am feeling very impatient for this summer when the Blackest Night trades hit. What are you most excited for?

Number 674


Pogo's Number One!


I was going to make mention of this in my last Walt Kelly posting in Pappy's #650 but forgot. It's been just over 36 years since Walt Kelly died in October 1973, way too young at age 60. (Even if 60 seems old to you youngsters it doesn't seem so old to those of us who have passed that mark.) Kelly was one of the true comic geniuses of the Twentieth Century.

Pogo was not Kelly's first contribution to comic art, but certainly his greatest and most successful. This story, with all of the silliness and fun intact, is from Dell Comics' Pogo Possum* #1, 1949.

*Actually titled Pogo The Possum in the indicia.

There's a friendly crisis on infinite earths going on right now at DC Comics, so subtle you might have missed it. That crisis is the quiet collision of the Kurt Busiek-verse with the Geoff Johns-verse (and the Grant Morrison-verse), each encompassing their own overlapping corner of the DC Universe. I, for one, didn't used to be such a fan of the Busiek-verse, but after the second volume of Trinity, I'm beginning to change my mind.

[Contains spoilers for Trinity Volume Two]

Busiek himself has disagreed with me on this point before, but it seems firmly to me that he got short shrift during his Superman run, with Geoff Johns writing Brainiac and General Zod and Busiek writing, well, a couple of crazy Daxamite priests and a space pirate. (I suggest no animosity here between Busiek and Johns, this is just my take on their stories.) By design or by accident, Busiek's are the "other" Superman stories, the ones in service to the main story. Ditto that elements Busiek established in JLA, like John Stewart having a Qwardian robot in his ring, has been soundly in Johns' Green Lantern (compare with Johns' Blackest Night appearing just about everywhere).

This changes with Trinity, at least in part, which would seem to be Busiek's Magnum opus; by the second volume, Busiek has referenced all his recent DC Comics work to date. JLA/Avengers is here, as is the unofficial sequel, JLA: Syndicate Rules. With Trinity's second part, Busiek also introduces elements from Superman: Camelot Falls -- not enough necessarily to distract from the main story (whereas the JLA tales are required reading for this book), but enough to demonstrate a through-way between Busiek's stories. Trinity, it would seem, finally makes the Busiek-verse legitimate and makes his otherwise irrelevant (if entertaining) stories relevant. That Trinity has been soundly ignored in favor of Final Crisis and the Morrison-verse ... well, we won't go there.

Still, let me tell you, this book is a fun ride. The second volume of Trinity accomplishes what Superman/Batman still struggles with -- telling a story about DC's biggest heroes without devolving into obsequious hero worshipping. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman barely make an appearance in this volume, and yet Busiek not only makes their presence felt, but makes those who search for the heroes remarkably interesting, from alternate versions of Lois Lane and Dick Grayson to Gangbuster, Hawkman, Firestorm, and a number of other "not ready for prime-time" heroes.

Indeed, I dreaded that this second volume of Trinity takes place in an alternate reality where DC's Big Three never existed, and the Justice Society became a totalitarian force -- a concept we've seen too many times before -- Busiek has a lot of fun with it. In Busiek's alternate reality, we find a Lex Luthor still in his battle suit, forgotten heroes like Space Ranger and Black Orchid, and even a priceless scene between Justice Leaguers Triumph and Tomorrow Woman, both aware they'll be dead when the world goes back to normal but fighting to make things right anyway. In this way, Trinity is more than a study of DC's Big Three -- it's Busiek's love song to the DC Universe.

Just as the first volume of Trinity looked at the similarities and differences between DC's flagship heroes, the second volume examines the effect those heroes have on their world. Busiek notes through Firestorm (whom I'd be in favor of Busiek writing in a series!) that the Justice Society of World War II were "mystery men," but it wasn't until Superman that the world had "superheroes" -- and without the concept of superheroes, he notes, Aquaman's just "the creature from the Black Lagoon."

Moreover, Busiek posits, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman resonate with their world (and ours) because they are themselves representative of our basic concepts of justice, truth, punishment, and the like. They're pure archetypes of elemental forces (represented also by the characters of the tarot card in Trinity) from which all other heroes spring; as with Busiek's musings in the first volume, this is a remarkable cogent distillation of these heroes, and gives the Trinity books a lasting value far beyond their first reading.

[Contains full covers, "What Came Before" pages]

Trinity remains a rollicking adventure -- from deep space to Camelot to the Anti-Matter Universe to big superhero-supervillain battles to primitive mythology -- and as long as it's taken me to get through these books, I more than feel I've received my money's worth. On now to the third volume -- I'm ready to read something else, but I wish any number of creators would take a page from Trinity and present books even half as detailed as this.

Number 673


Whiz Wilson and his Futuroscope


Lightning Comics, a continuation of Ace's Sure-Fire Comics, was a typical anthology comic of the year 1940. It had a superhero, a cowboy, a magician, and Whiz Wilson, a science fiction hero in the Flash Gordon mold. Whiz had what he called a Futuroscope, a really handy device that could move him around in time and space. I'd like one of those, myself. I wonder if anyone has one for sale on eBay...

Anyway, the Grand Comics Database doesn't have any information on Whiz Wilson, but the art in this episode from Lightning Comics #4, is derivative of Alex Raymond, just like a couple of dozen other comic book features. I really don't know how the earliest comics could have existed without Raymond and Hal Foster's Prince Valiant to swipe from.

Just how tied to Flash Gordon was Whiz Wilson? This is the lead sentence from another episode, as quoted by the GCD: "One day Whiz Wilson sets the dials of his Futuroscope to take him to the planet Mongo, in the year 2300..." Mongo. That's where Flash, Flash's girl Dale Arden, Doc Zarkoff and Ming the Merciless hung out.

This particular adventure has Whiz mixing it up with some post-apocalyptic stone age types in South America.