It's amazing, or perhaps a little sad, that a single book can demonstrate both the comics industry's increasingly progressive attitudes toward women, and also the juvenile mindsets that reinforce comic books as a boy's club instead of a medium open to everyone.

Yes, Green Arrow/Black Canary: Road to the Altar on one hand spotlights the mature, rocky relationship between Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance that remains one of the most interesting corners of the DC Universe. On the other hand, it devolves in the end into some pre-wedding silliness that defeats any efforts this book might otherwise make to have itself taken seriously.

Tony Bedard writes the first two parts of Road to the Altar, both an excerpt from Birds of Prey #109 and a four-part Black Canary miniseries. In the Birds of Prey pages, Bedard has Barbara Gordon play the voice of the reader, recounting every bad thing Ollie's ever done to Dinah, so as to get it all out in the open. Remarkably, it all boils down to only one true act of cheating -- and ultimately, Bedbard falls back on the "changed man" theory that I discussed alongside Green Arrow: The Road to Jericho.

Though Barbara comes off as a little shrill, the reader knows deep down that Black Canary marrying Green Arrow is borderline nonsensical, and it's nice that at least one character points it out. Black Canary invariably falls back on the argument "I love him anyway," because of course, love is inexplicable -- much like this turn of events. Still, the reader roots for Ollie and Dinah to get hitched (hoping all the while that another writer won't come along and ruin it), so the paltry explanations don't needle as much as they could.

Not to mention, the second part of this trade, the Black Canary miniseries, read like a classic Chuck Dixon Birds of Prey story -- and if Ollie and Dinah marrying means more stories like this, I'm all for it. Bedard (not, unfortunately, the regular writer on Green Arrow/Black Canary) takes on the unenviable job of writing Black Canary's adopted daughter Sin into limbo, and even though we all know what's coming, Bedard held my interest throughout. Canary goes up against perennial Green Arrow-villain Merlyn, offering a nice contrast to Ollie's battles with him; there's also a great "heist story" tone to Sin's kidnapping and Team Arrow's resolution. The final scene where Dinah accepts Ollie's proposal is, again, a little nonsensical, but it has sweet moments and stays true to the characters overall (with nice art by Paulo Siqueira, too).

And then we get to the Black Canary Wedding Planner.

I do understand that I'm taking this final chapter too seriously, and DC Comics, with writer J. Torres, meant the story to be all in fun. But where Tony Bedard's dialogue between Green Arrow and Black Canary felt serious and meaningful, Torres writes the characters as whiny and silly. I can't help but think that if, say, a Brad Meltzer fan who liked Identity Crisis heard about Green Arrow's wedding, liked how Meltzer wrote Ollie and checked out this story, they'd be flabbergasted by Torres's Wedding Planner. The jokes are repetitive and barely groan-worthy; Ollie and Dinah come off as people you'd barely want to know, let alone attend their wedding.

Not to mention, Torres ends the story with Black Canary taking her super-hero friends to try on lingerie (as if), including the most awkward, un-sexy-looking Wonder Woman panel ever. It's hard to know if Torres meant this sequence to be titillating or humorous, but it's neither; instead, it smacks of self-impressed adolescents drawing pornographic stick figures and giggling about it. I believe, ultimately, that's the impression the wider non-comics reading world has of comic books, and Torres's sequence just proves the stereotype. In a book that demonstrates the complex relationship between two long-established comics characters, the Wedding Planner sticks out at the end like a sore thumb.

Overall, however, Green Arrow/Black Canary: Road to the Altar is an exciting read, better than I was expecting, and it leaves me eager for the first issue of their new series.

[Includes full covers]

On now to a bit of Supergirl, and then maybe to Teen Titans. Come join!

Number 383


Pepe y Pepito


Paul Murry is one of my favorite funny animal artists, but I had trouble finding anything he drew that wasn't for Disney. Murry was best known for his Mickey Mouse comics done from the 1950s to the '70s. I avidly followed his serials in the back of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, enjoying them almost as much as the Barks Donald Duck strips. I don't scan and post Disney comics, so I was happy to find "Pepe and Pepito" as the closing strip for the giant comic, Woody Woodpecker's County Fair #2 from 1958.

Murry had a real animated, solid drawing style, and he had a great ink line. I read once that he criticized Barks--horrors! criticize Carl Barks??!!--for using too thin a pen line, because of the limitations of the comic book format. Barks' work seems to have survived the process just fine, and Murry's looked great, too. Murry wasn't the auteur that Barks was, so I took the criticism for what it was worth. Murry was one of the best of the Mickey Mouse artists. For me it's a toss-up between Floyd Gottfredson and his Mickey Mouse comic strip work of the '30s and '40s, and Murry with his comic book work in the '50s and '60s. They're both great, but I'll always lean a little toward Murry because his was the Mickey I grew up with.

Murry died in 1989.

Number 382


"I took eight bullets out of him and still he lives!"


Growing up I liked the Batman-type characters the best, the ones who used brains, skill and strength rather than super powers. The Black Hood has survived several incarnations since his origin in Top-Notch Comics #9, October 1940. All of those versions have been published by Archie Comics, which started in business as the rowdy publisher, MLJ Comics. Before being taken over by teenagers like Archie, the writers and artists at MLJ did some very entertaining comics full of ghastly characters, murders, horror...you know, the fun stuff.

Black Hood is policeman Kip Burland, who as you'll see in this origin story, gets shot full of holes by the henchmen of a villain called the Skull. Eight bullets. And only some old hermit--who doesn't give his name but confesses he was a "western sheriff"--to operate. In a cabin. In the woods.

Of course Kip comes back from his near death experience stronger and more able than ever once he's in his snappy Black Hood costume. But you can't keep a good villain down, and the folks who did Black Hood knew that they had a good one in the Skull.

The story was written by Cliff Campbell and drawn by Al Camy.

The scans were provided by correspondent 1506NixNix. Thanks, Nix!

Number 381


Congo Bill and the Pirates


Another year gone by, and another Talk Like A Pirate Day upon us. Yo ho, mateys! Hope your roger is jolly, your plank is being walked and your poopdeck isn't pooped.

For a double dose of piracy and horror today visit The Horrors Of It All.

This Congo Bill story is by writer George Kashdan, and is drawn by the wonderful Fred (Tomahawk) Ray. It comes from Action Comics #106, March 1947. It's one of those "Was it a dream? Here's something that proves it wasn't!" stories. That ending worked over a hundred years ago, but we've seen it too many times since. At least the artwork by Ray lifts it out of the mundane.

As a bonus, I've included an in-house ad.

Of the three Geoff Johns-written Superman stories I've read recently, Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes is my favorite. Last Son utilized more of Superman's supporting cast, and Escape from Bizarro World was a visually intriguing look at one of Superman's classic villains -- but neither story had Superman being super like his team-up with the Legion.

There are moments in this book when you can, indeed, hear the John Williams theme playing in the background. Johns teams with new Action Comics artist Gary Frank, and together they give this story a perfect sense of pacing; in the climactic battle, Superman falls from the sky, and Frank holds the moment just long enough before Superman's triumphant rise. Frank's first real image of Superman in costume is equally iconic, as a falling Clark becomes a flying Superman, and you can just imagine the red-and-blue blur in the middle. It doesn't hurt that Frank's Superman looks remarkably like Christopher Reeve (likely intentionally), especially in profile.

I didn't necessarily feel like I got my Legion "fix" in this story, but at the same time, that left me just craving Legion stories more. Johns for the most part bypasses the Legion's "Big Three"--Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad, and Saturn Girl--in favor of less iconic Legionnaires like Wildfire, Dawnstar, Colossal Boy, and Polar Boy.

As opposed to the Legion's appearance in Justice League of America: The Lightning Saga, I felt Johns mostly stayed away from Legion in-jokes and obscure references in this book; instead, the Legionnaries sniped at each other a lot (especially Wildfire), and I wasn't always sure who did or didn't like whom and why. Still, much of the fun of Legion for me is the variety of powers and costumes, and in that, Johns delivered.

I know that not too long ago I kiddingly railed against DC Comics's move to foil stamp the front of all their hardcovers. It does still annoy me -- but the holographic foil on the front case of Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes, I must admit, is pretty cool. I do wish there'd been more additional material in this book, though; the two-page collage of Gary Frank's sketches is pretty slim compared to what you might find elsewhere.

As with most Johns-written books, there was a strong thematic thread here, this time of isolation and the different ways the characters react to it. The main villain, Earth-Man, takes revenge on the Legion because he feels they spurned him and left him alone; Superman, meanwhile, flashes back on how isolated he felt in his childhood until the Legion took him in. Earth reaches the brink of war here because of their isolationist tendencies, contrasted with the love between Colossal Boy and Chameleon Girl. I don't know that Johns uncovers any new ground here in pointing out Superman's human-but-not-human status, but the themes and inter-relation of the plot makes the collection reading experience feel more complete.

[Contains full covers (and variant covers), introduction by Keith Giffen.]

I can't wait for the Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds (shouldn't it be universes) collection that follows this up; but even moreso, I'm curious to see the shape of the Legion that comes out of that story -- DC's set high stakes to produce a definitive Legion series, and I'm curious what they'll come up with. As for me, I'm heading toward a bit of Green Arrow/Black Canary, and then perhaps some Teen Titans from there.

Amazon is very slowly updating their DC Comics collections for Fall 2009. In addition to the Final Crisis hardcover we mentioned the other day, they've also got the paperback of All-Star Batman and Robin (with or without cussing?) and the hardcover Superman: New Krypton Vol. 1: Birth, beginning the Geoff Johns/James Robinson crossover.

Couple of notes on DC Comics's December 2008 solicitations:

All-Star Superman Volume 2 hardcover - Still waiting for Absolute edition. In 2009, I bet.

Batman: RIP The Deluxe Edition - I'm pretty excited about this, given it's DC's first mainstream foray into deluxe oversized editions with their hardcovers. The price isn't higher than a regular hardcover, and I'm willing to fork over the money for hardcovers when I'm getting an added benefit, like the larger size.

Eclipso: Music of the Spheres - This collects the Countdown to Mystery backup tales. Interesting that DC didn't bill this as a "Countdown" tie-in, suggesting maybe the "Countdown" label's lost its sheen. The cover image here reminds me of the 1990s Eclipso series, which is long overdue for a collection given its ties to the modern JSA series and others.

The Flash: Emergency Stop - The solicitation for this trade says it collects issues #130-135, but #135 is the third part of a crossover with Green Lantern and Green Arrow, so this is probably incorrect. The full Grant Morrison/Mark Millar run went to issue #141.

Tune in tomorrow for more trade paperback reviews!

Number 380


Couples therapy


Here are a couple of stories about couples, by a couple of art teams.

Ross Andru and Mike Esposito spent most of their careers as partners, Andru penciling and Esposito inking. "One Man's Poison" is from Mysterious Adventures #17, 1953, and is about a married couple who just love visitors. Recently Hairy Green Eyeball showed a story from Andru and Esposito's Get Lost, a Mad imitation from 1954.

The second story is by another comics team, Edwin Goldfarb and Bob Baer, who had work all over the place during that time period. Their couple in "Paralyzed" is a standard married couple from the horror comics: one partner cheating and the other choosing murder instead of divorce.