Number 1111
For badder or worse
Ruth, a nanny who seems like a perfectly nice girl, falls for Artie, who turns out to be bad...then she falls for Carl, who is badder.
Some girls do dumb things like that. She got clobbered in two panels because she fell in love. That's really dumb, and any woman who puts up with that should be advised that the abuse will only get worse. (Apologies to readers who are offended, and rightfully so, by such panels.)
This is a love story that is also a crime story. There must be conflict, and in this case it involves bank robbery, domestic violence and shootings. Bob Powell and his staff drew the story, and as always it's a solid illustration job. I've mentioned several times that I love Powell, and love to show his work. In this case I found scans of five of the six original art pages of "Past Dishonor" at Heritage Auctions.
(There is something that bugs me about Harvey comics of this era. The use of !! double and !!! triple exclamation points. One ! is always sufficient, and should be used sparingly, if at all!!!!!!)
From First Romance #10 (1951):
PAGE 4 MISSING.
Check Metropolis off your list because we're moving on to Gotham City this go-around for a look at Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told, Vol. 1.
I feel a little more qualified on this review because I've been reading Batman stories since I was three -- reading every Batman story ever written is on my bucket list [who knew? Interesting! -- ed.] -- and I like to think I have a pretty good idea about what constitutes a great Batman story. Bearing in mind the apparent requirements for inclusion in a "Greatest Stories" volume (concision, iconic status, definitive statement on the character), and recalling that this isn't necessarily a "favorites" book (if I were publishing a "Favorite Batman Stories Ever Told," it'd be closer to a multi-volume omnibus set), I found this volume more satisfying than its Superman predecessor, partly because of the strength of the character and partly because the volume is governed by a strong unifying theme which prevents the stories from straying too far.
The sum of the parts being more than the whole in this series, let's take a look at what's inside this volume.
"Origin" (Detective Comics #33, November 1939): Terse yet sweeping, it's a testament to the strength of this two-page story that it's never been significantly revised; even when Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli retold Batman's origin in Year One, they left the inciting event untouched. Setting aside the nebulous creative history (is the story Bill Finger's, Bob Kane's, or even Gardner Fox as the introduction alludes?), the panel depicting the tear-streaked face of Bruce Wayne has lost none of its punch (although the coloring, curiously, is a bit faded).
"The Case of the Honest Crook" (Batman #5, Spring 1941): I had my doubts about this story on my first read, because initially it seemed like a story where Batman doesn't do much beyond listen to someone else's story. But when Robin is assaulted by gangsters during a routine investigation, we're treated to a chilling portrait of what Batman becomes when the ones he loves are threatened. Bill Finger's script perfectly captures the transition moment, ably assisted by Bob Kane's artwork. The wrap-up, though, is classic Golden Age, with perhaps a bit too much Frank Capra sweetness for modern readers. This likely isn't a story most readers know already, but Batman's devotion to Robin has never been clearer.
"The Secret Life of the Catwoman" (Batman #62, December 1950/January 1951): It's commonly accepted that Batman has one of the greatest rogues galleries, and a lot of Batman stories are great because each villain darkly reflects some facet of the Dark Knight's own psychology. But this Catwoman story falters because it relies too heavily on Catwoman's attempt at reform by way of the Silver Age trickery of amnesia. While the twist about Mister X is clever and Batman's solution thereof not implausible, there isn't much else great about Batman's role in the story. Considering Batman's long and complicated history with Catwoman, surely there must have been a better choice out there to feature this important relationship.
"Robin Dies at Dawn" (Batman #156, June 1963): Classic and recently reintroduced into continuity by the great Grant Morrison (and also collected as part of The Black Casebook), "Robin Dies at Dawn" is the quintessential "Silver Age weird" tale and still holds up as perhaps the best of this era (although I've always been partial to "The Superman of Planet X," also in The Black Casebook). Although it's now impossible to read this story and not think of Doctor Hurt, what we have is a very convincing portrait of how fragile Batman's psyche really is, courtesy of another great script by Bill Finger (who gets four inclusions in this volume -- the most of any other Bat-creator). Simply put, I love this story.
"The Batman Nobody Knows" (Batman #250, July 1973): I mentioned in my review of Batman: Strange Apparitions that a lot of the material there felt familiar because Batman: The Animated Series has introduced me to it. Here's another example of B:TAS facilitating my Bat-addiction, with a story very similar to the "Legends of the Dark Knight" episode (and a similar chapter, "Have I Got a Story for You," in Batman: Gotham Knight [see also Batman #423, "You Shoulda Seen Him...," by Jim Starlin and Dave Cockrum]). The story is quick and contains an apparent Batwing prototype among other fascinating "redesigns" by Dick Giordano, but it's also a good examination of the question, "Who is Batman?" The ending, though, in which Bruce Wayne reveals his identity to the campfire storytellers, is a bit farfetched.
"The Joker's Five-Way Revenge" (Batman #251, September 1973): What I don't understand is why DC allows Neal Adams to rework his art before reprinting it in a volume highlighting original genius. Case in point: "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge," which is Dennis O'Neil's fine encapsulation of the Batman/Joker dynamic (including an ending on which The Killing Joke must be riffing) and restoration of the Joker to his place of moral insanity. The retouching of Adams's art is incredibly distracting and a bit awkward, looking too "contemporary" for the middle of this book, and my complaints about the collection of this story extend to the fact that the iconic Adams cover is also missing, since the "Greatest Stories" volumes regrettably don't print covers. That said, the story is spot-on, but since this is Collected Editions the collection treatment can't be overlooked.
"Night of the Stalker" (Detective Comics #439, March 1974): The relentless nature of Batman's mission takes center stage in this Steve Englehart story, which contains moments of fist-pumpingly badass Batman action -- as when Batman drops keys to a getaway car at his feet and dares the goons to grab them. Although there are no recognizable rogues in this story, Englehart does a solid job linking one particular crime to the tragic murder that birthed Batman. The art by the Amendolas is also good, but it's Dick Giordano's inks that sell this story, emphasizing Batman as a creature of shadows and of the night.
"Death Strikes at Midnight and Three" (DC Special Series #15, Summer 1978): I wasn't crazy for the prose story "Exile at the Edge of Eternity" in Superman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told, Vol. 1 by Jim Steranko, and this Dennis O'Neil and Marshall Rogers story doesn't knock me out, either. I find these stories to be more difficult to follow, especially because the word/image relationship is more uncertain here. I certainly hope this isn't a recurring feature in the "Greatest Stories" series, because it's starting to feel more like a nod to genre diversity than a collection of the greatest Batman stories. Of note -- the first major appearance of Alfred in this volume happens here, although a coloring error makes him a bit more darkly-complected than usual (but maybe this story happens on another earth?).
"Wanted: Santa Claus -- Dead or Alive!" (DC Special Series #21, Spring 1980): The title of this chapter might strike some as being unconventional Batman fare. The story is mostly forgettable, likely included here because it features Batman in an underworld disguise (though not, surprisingly, Matches Malone, who's conspicuously absent from this volume) and because the art is done by Frank Miller, whose total absence from a "Greatest Batman Stories" would have been alarming.
"... My Beginning ... and My Probable End" (Detective Comics #574, May 1987): Thus far, I'm very surprised we haven't seen more Alfred in this volume, but here we get a look at another Bat-family member: Leslie Thompkins, the physician who aids Batman off the books because of her surrogate familial tie to Bruce Wayne. Mike W. Barr offers an important "Are you doing the right thing?" conversation here, although readers will likely be tired of this, the third retelling of the Bat-origin in this volume. What's surprising here is how self-righteous Leslie Thompkins comes off when Jason Todd is wounded, but then it's not so surprising that this is the same woman who (temporarily) allowed Stephanie Brown to die. Perhaps that story might have sufficed since it had more of an impact on Batman, but this stands alone better.
"Favorite Things" (Legends of the Dark Knight #79, January 1996): With a story by Mark Millar and art by Steve Yeowell (whose work I loved on The Invisibles), I was expecting something ... well, something great. And "Favorite Things" has the doggedness of "Night of the Stalker" and the Christmas setting which oddly seems to fit Batman perfectly. But something falls flat here -- for me, it's the ending, which never quite lives up to the promise of Batman's quest to recover a precious item stolen from Wayne Manor. But it does reinforce the central theme of this volume, the divide between Bruce Wayne and Batman
"24/7" (Batman: Gotham Knights #32, October 2002): We close with the epilogue to the hit-or-miss "Bruce Wayne: Murderer/Fugitive" storyline, in which Devin Grayson smartly offers a story about Bruce Wayne doing good without the need to don his cowl. I'll refrain from belaboring the point that this is the only female contribution to this volume, but I will say it's a welcome one, a fantastic standalone which gives a rare look at an underexamined side of Batman's personality. And I love that this story (and the volume overall) closes on a splash page of the Wayne tombstone, a reminder both of where the story began and for what it strives to atone.
As with the other two-volume "Greatest Stories" (that of Superman), I'll save my discussion of what Batman stories are missing for my review of Volume Two, bearing in mind the caveat Les Daniels presents in his introduction to this volume -- namely, that any single volume anthology must necessarily exclude longer works like Year One and The Killing Joke. I will say, though, that the editors have done a better job with Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told, Vol. 1 than with Superman, due in no small part to the unifying theme of "Who is the real man -- Bruce Wayne or Batman?" Although not every story follows that theme carefully, there are fewer forgettable stories here and more Bat-tastic comics, making this a top-notch title for Bat-fans.
In my next "Greatest Stories" review, we round out DC's Trinity with a look at Wonder Woman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told. Stay tuned!
The newest such example of this is the deluxe WILDCats Vol. 1 by Brandon Choi and Jim Lee.
We first brought you news of the forthcoming WILDCats collection back in July, shortly after the announcement of the DC New 52 relaunch. Deluxe WILDCats would be coming out shortly after a new Stormwatch collection, which made sense because both books, artifacts of Wildstorm's heyday, have resonance in the DC New 52: Stormwatch because of the new series, and WILDCats because it stars Grifter and Voodoo, among others.
The Stormwatch collection has progressed so far as to be solicited by DC, and we recently noted that a second volume is coming down the pike. A reliable source tells me, however, that the WILDCats volume is cancelled. You can still see it online for the time being, but expect it to disappear soon with orders cancelled.
Here was the original description:
For millennia, a clandestine war between two alien races, the malevolent Daemonites and the aristocratic Kherubim, has been waged on Earth for control of the world. As part of that endless battle, the ancient Kherubim leader Lord Emp has recently formed a team of super-powered Kherubim/human half breeds called the WildC.A.T.S. Covertly fighting the evil extraterrestri-als, this band of heroes has tirelessly stood as humankind's last defense. But when the Daemonites initiate a plan that will allow their warships to attack Earth, it appears all hope is lost. Now with Armageddon approaching, it is up to the android Spartan, the hulking Maul, the female assassin Zealot, the mercenary Grifter, the shape shifting Voodoo, the living weapon Warblade and the precognitive Void to stop the invasion and save the world.It's too bad. I'm not too familiar with this era of Wildstorm, but given the appearance of these characters in the DC New 52 and the rumored Daemonite invasion, I'd have bought this. Especially for early Jim Lee art in deluxe format.
Also, eagle-eyed reader Xavier noticed that the DC/Marvel Crossover Omnibus didn't arrive in stores as expected earlier this month. This is another that was "announced" but never "solicited," and it seems like we can consider it dead, too. Joked Bob Young on Facebook, "Maybe there was a dispute over the binding," a reference to the recent comparisons of how much better Marvel's omnibus binding is than DC's.
Another day, another two collections bite the dust. My hope is that the WILDCats collection was pulled, like the Teen Titans by Geoff Johns Omnibus, maybe to deliver a fuller WILDCats collection later on.
When we last saw the Thunderbolts, they were a hit squad under the command of the man who should never have been given such power in the first place: Norman Osborn. But now, the tide has finally shifted back to actual heroics, as demonstrated in the opening pages of Thunderbolts: Cage, where Osborn is marched through the Raft Prison in his inmate jumpsuit. As a reader who kept struggling with the obvious question of both “Dark Reign” and “Siege” (How stupid are the people of the Marvel Universe?), it’s nice to finally have him gone.
In his place is a man who's known both time in prison and time with the Avengers. It’s the man whose appearance in the solicitation for #144 got me to pick the title up again in the first place. In perhaps the best move in comics in 2010, Luke Cage, perhaps the greatest story of redemption in the Marvel Universe, was put in charge of the Thunderbolts.
With the new leader comes a shift back to the old Thunderbolts redemptive model, albeit without new names and costumes. This isn’t a big loss, especially since the program is under the auspices of S.H.I.E.L.D. and other government authorities so there’s no point in hiding who they used to be. Most of the old Thunderbolts are back; Fixer and Mach-V (formerly Mach-I) are the tech team, Songbird is a guard/leader, and Moonstone is one of the prisoners brought in to be redeemed. I can’t overemphasize how happy I am to see Mach-V and Songbird in a book on a consistent basis; they were two of the breakout starts of the old series as the first Thunderbolts to really embrace redemption. I’d like to see Atlas appear in the series at some point, although he was involved with the Defenders around the time of this trade’s publication.
The new recruits, chosen carefully from the rather large ranks of the Raft’s inmates, are also good additions to the team. First, the Ghost returns; he was one of the best characters in the team’s previous incarnation, and writer Jeff Parker ramps up his creepiness (a feat I thought impossible). Next up is the Juggernaut, who's been switching sides for years now and is another personal favorite, if only for visual design reasons. The last new member is Crossbones, and thankfully, his questionable recruitment is also challenged by Cage for the obvious reason: he shot Captain America. (Of course, by this point, Cap was alive once more, a fact that the inmates don’t mind teasing him about.) And then … there’s Man-Thing. He’s technically the team’s transportation thanks to his connection to the Nexus of All Realities, but his role grows and grows throughout their adventures. I’ve always wanted to see this swamp monster get some good exposure, and Thunderbolts is doing just that.
One of the main themes of this title is making sure that the villains on furlough don’t escape. Unlike Warren Ellis’ run, in which the Thunderbolts became the Suicide Squad, there is actual leadership to make sure the members don’t go completely out of control. Of course, things go wrong on the missions, but Cage and Songbird (and often Mach-V, who eventually becomes a field agent) are there to keep them in line. One story sees them mopping up after “Siege”; another sees them take on some creepy creatures which will later have an effect on one team member’s life. The end of that second story is a crossover with Avengers Academy called “Scared Straight,” and while the other title’s issues aren’t present, there’s enough context to see why they’re visiting the Cage. In that title, a faculty of Avengers is trying to dissuade potential supervillains from turning to crime, and neither I nor the staff of the Raft are entirely sure that this was the best way to scare them straight.
Like all good Thunderbolts teams, this one is functionally dysfunctional: they can get the job done, but they’ll argue the entire way. Moonstone, the most arrogant member of the old team, gets knocked down a peg as a prisoner; you can tell that Songbird is having just a bit of fun with the situation. The Juggernaut is deceptively simple, and his struggle to find a direction is reminiscent of what Mach-I went through in the old series. Crossbones, on the other hand, actually is just as evil and horrible as he appears on the surface, but this was one of the reasons why he was selected. As always, the Ghost is bizarre, and he becomes even more so when we get to see his face.
One of the best secondary characters is the Raft’s new warden: John Walker, a.k.a. the U.S. Agent. You may recall that he was in Siege: Thunderbolts; near the end of that story, he was crippled by Nuke, with nearly the entire left side of his body damaged. He now has an obvious prosthetic arm and one missing leg. However, simple life-threatening injuries can’t stop someone as crazily awesome as the U.S. Agent, and he demonstrates this during “Scared Straight.”
Kev Walker’s artwork is … weird, albeit a good kind of weird. It’s an extremely stylized type of artwork that at times seems out of proportion. Essentially, if a character is big, then he’s huge; this is especially true with Juggernaut, and to a lesser extend with Crossbones and Cage. Mark-V also has some weird shapes and is surprisingly bulky for a man who is essentially wearing a fighter jet.
Once you read a story or two, however, you get used to it, and every character looks more or less the way they’re supposed to … except Songbird. For some reason, Songbird has a vertical shock of hair that, in my opinion, looks really stupid, especially with the streak her hair has always had. I’m not the only person to complain about this, and I’ve read ahead and her hair does grow out, so it’s only a temporary issue. Walker does make up for it with the great detail of a cloud of flies always surrounding Ghost, reminding us that as creepy as he looks and acts, his smell is even worse.
Quite simply, the current iteration of this series is one of Marvel’s best, and with Thunderbolts: Cage, you can get in at the start of this new era. The series has finally returned to the core theme of redemption, and with a combination of great character choices and great character writing, it’s impossible to not want to keep on reading. Also, it has Man-Thing. I dare you to look into Man-Thing’s eyes and not want to buy anything featuring him. (Just don’t get scared.)
This trade comes courtesy of Twilite Zone Comics in Glen Burnie, MD.
Number 1110
My Mummy done tole me...
For some reason, despite her exotic beauty (supplied by the one-and-only Bill Everett), Namora didn't last for long. Why is that? It had something to do with timing, probably. About the time Namora was coming in many of the male superheroes of the Timely/Marvel/Atlas comics line, including her cousin Namor, the Sub-Mariner, were going on hiatus. We have a few Namora stories to choose from, anyway, so I've chosen "Doom In the Desert" from Namora #2, 1948 to show.
It's a mummy story, and any good Pappy loves a good mummy. I'm including an adaptation of "The Mummy's Hand" from 1965's Monster World #2. That magazine was a companion to Warren's Famous Monsters Of Filmland, also edited by Forrest J. Ackerman. There's an ad in this issue for Creepy #1, and I bought both of them from the newsstand.
I think the movie version of The Mummy's Hand needs more mummy and less comedy, but I believe adapter Russ Jones caught the essence of the film in just seven comic book pages. The story is drawn by Jones, the first Creepy editor, along with EC regular and later DC horror comics editor, Joe Orlando.
Now this is what I'm talking about. I can say with great confidence that Hulk vs. X-Force is my favorite of Jeph Loeb's run on Hulk thus far. This volume has a clear focus, a tight setting around an intriguing plot, and the "ambiguous mystery" angle Jeph Loeb fans know and love. All this set in a Marvel Universe which is not difficult for a newcomer to navigate.
"Code Red" begins when X-Force member Domino accidentally sees Red Hulk transform from his secret identity into the crimson giant. Domino quickly escapes, and Doc Samson and Thunderbolt Ross provide Red Hulk with a team to track her down before she can blow the lid off Red Hulk's identity. The Punisher, the Crimson Dynamo, Thundra (recruited at the end of Red and Green), Elektra, and merc-with-a-mouth Deadpool team up against Domino, Wolverine, and the rest of X-Force over the secret of Red Hulk.
When the Red Hulk is temporarily blinded by Wolverine, however, the new Red She-Hulk intercedes on her predecessor's behalf -- although her allegiances are far from clear, and the rest of Red Hulk's team may betray him as well before the night is up.
The book concludes with a chapter detailing Doc Samson's mental deterioration, closing on the intimation that MODOK is about to rally pieces on the board for a major strike against as many Hulks as he can target. But the focal point of the book's ending is, of course, the "Lil Hulks" one-pagers by Audrey Loeb; as important as the Doc Samson chapter is for pointing toward the next trade, "Lil Hulks go to the dentist" is the plotline I never expected but now can't imagine life without.
I've criticized the series for a lack of focus in the volumes following Red Hulk, but now that Bruce Banner is out of the equation, the book is clearly Red Hulk's -- and it's the better for it. Having to keep one eye on Green and one eye on Red was a little like watching a 2-D movie with 3-D glasses, somewhat less than the sum of its parts and more than a bit distracting. Overall, Hulk vs. X-Force is a much tighter trade than its predecessors, with a clear narrative thread revolving around a legitimate (and in-continuity) reason for some of Marvel's most recognizable characters to clobber each other.
Additionally, as someone who came to these trades as a Jeph Loeb fan who knows almost nothing about the Hulk (the disconnect between movies didn't help, either), Hulk vs. X-Force introduces an important mystery -- not one grounded in continuity -- around which the story revolves.
Or perhaps I should say "re-introduces." After a few collections, it seemed like the mystery of the Red Hulk's identity was just a MacGuffin, a way to get readers hooked on something that didn't ultimately matter (a bit like how, in Loeb's The Long Halloween, the identity of the Holiday Killer wasn't the most important narrative thread, nor was it ever fully resolved). But here Loeb reminds us very clearly that the character of the Red Hulk is one wrapped in mystery, a mystery which is not impenetrable but is nevertheless highly important to the character. It's actually a brilliant narrative move, resurrecting the mystery by wrapping a story around the mystery.
Of course, we don't learn the identity of the Red Hulk. What we do learn is that Loeb is weaving a much larger tapestry of Hulk stories here. By the end of the volume, much as in the last one, the plot changes. Having already lost Bruce Banner, the series shifts from focusing on Red Hulk as a villain and repositions him as an antihero, betrayed by his accomplices and seeking revenge. The premise of this plotline is an engaging one, and with an unhinged Doc Samson apparently being manipulated by MODOK against Red, I can't wait to see what Loeb has up his sleeve.
I haven't said anything about the art in this volume, although that's not meant as a slight to Ian Churchill and Whilce Portacio, who finishes the volume with the Doc Samson-centric chapter "Delilah." My only exposure to Churchill had been his Supergirl with Jeph Loeb, as well as a series of DC covers which always struck me as "Ed Benes lite." Churchill's style here is distinctly different from that "cut and rendered" work, dropping realism for cartoonish exaggeration a la Ed McGuinness.
It's not a matter of aping the previous Hulk artist; Churchill is tweaking his own style to fit more appropriately what a good Hulk story looks like. There's nothing realistic about grotesquely giant men clobbering each other, and Churchill's style reflects that. Portacio's line's are more sketchy, but aside from a delightfully creepy MODOK and a beautiful poster-like double-page spread of Hulk fighting Doc Samson, the chapter is mostly forgettable.
Overall, though, Hulk vs. X-Force is a satisfying collection, with a central storyline which represents a return to greatness for Jeph Loeb's run on Hulk. It's engaging, well-illustrated, and organized beyond what we've seen in the series thus far -- and we get several more wonderful installments of "Lil Hulks."
Zach delighted!
In my next edition, the death of a major Red Hulk suspect kicks off a plot to overthrow the U.S. government, and with the world's smartest heroes missing in action, only the Hulks can stop it!