Category: DC Superhero

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The Spectre: Crimes and Punishment

The Spectre: Crimes and Punishment

By John Ostrander & Tom Mandrake (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-127-1

The Spectre is one of the oldest characters in DC’s vast stable of characters, created by Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily in 1940 for More Fun Comics #52 and 53. And just like Siegel’s other iconic creation, he suffers from a basic design flaw: he’s just too darn powerful. But, unlike Superman, he’s already dead, so he can’t really be dramatically imperilled. Starting as a virtually omnipotent ghost, he evolved, over various returns and refits into a tormented soul bonded to the incarnation of the biblical Wrath of God.

With his superb version from the early 1990s, John Ostrander shifted the narrative onto the Tabula Rasa that was Jim Corrigan, a depression era cop whose brutal murder released The Spectre into the world of costumed heroes. This take on the character ran for nearly five years and lent a tragic, barbaric humanity to a hero who was simply too big and too strong for periodical comics.

Collected here is the first four-part story-arc wherein the troubled and Earth-bound Corrigan meets the vulnerable Amy Beitermann, a social worker who is the target of a serial killer – and somehow a living link to the detective’s own murder fifty years ago.

Powerful and often shocking, the developing relationship forces The Spectre’s mortal aspect to confront the traumas of his long suppressed childhood as he relives his own death and the ghastly repercussions of his return. With intense, brooding art by long-time collaborator Tom Mandrake, this incarnation of the character was by far the most accessible – and successful. If it had launched a year or so later and it might well have been a star of the budding Vertigo imprint.

The masterful interpretation seems largely forgotten these days but hopefully with DC trawling its back catalogue for worthy book-fodder this tale – and the issues that followed it – might make a speedy reappearance on book store shelves. Let’s hope so…

© 1992, 1993 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase Presents The Flash vol 1

Flash Showcase 1

By various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-4012-1327-5

No matter which way you look at it, the Silver Age of the American comic book began with The Flash. It’s an unjust but true fact that being first is not enough; it also helps to be best and people have to notice. The Shield beat Captain America to the news-stands by over a year yet the former is all but forgotten today.

The industry had never really stopped trying to revive the superhero genre when Showcase #4 was released in late summer of 1956, with such precursors as The Avenger (February-September 1955), Captain Flash (November 1954-July 1955), Marvel’s Human Torch, Sub-Mariner and the aforementioned Sentinel of Liberty (December 1953 – October 1955) and even DC’s own Captain Comet (December 1953 – October 1955) and Manhunter from Mars (November 1955 until the end of the 1960’s and almost the end of superheroes again!) still turning up in second-hand-stores and “Five-and-Dime” half-price bins. What made the new Fastest Man Alive stand out and stick was … well, everything!

Once the DC powers-that-be decided to try superheroes once more, they moved pretty fast themselves. Editor Julie Schwartz asked office partner and Golden-Age Flash scripter Robert Kanigher to recreate a speedster for the Space Age, aided and abetted by Carmine Infantino and Joe Kubert, who had also worked on the previous incarnation. The new Flash was Barry Allen, a forensic scientist simultaneously struck by lightning and bathed in the exploding chemicals of his lab. Supercharged by the accident, Barry took his superhero identity from a comic book featuring his predecessor (a scientist named Jay Garrick who was exposed to the mutagenic fumes of “Hard Water”). Designing a sleek, streamlined bodysuit (courtesy of Infantino – a major talent who was approaching his artistic and creative pinnacle) Barry Allen became the point man for the spectacular revival of a genre and an entire industry.

This gloriously economical, vast black and white tome superbly compliments Infantino’s talents, collecting not only all four Showcase tryout issues and the first full fifteen issues of his own title, but also kicks off with the very last Golden Age adventure from Flash Comics #104 (February 1949). In ‘The Rival Flash’ Kanigher, Infantino and inker Frank Giacoia re-examine the first Flash’s origin when an evil scientist recreates the secret of his speed. Exuberant, avuncular and hugely entertaining in its own right, it’s nonetheless a dated, clunky tale in comparison to what follows.

In sharp counter-point ‘Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt’ (scripted by Kanigher) and ‘The Man Who Broke the Time Barrier’ (written by the superb John Broome) are polished, coolly sophisticated short stories that introduce the comfortingly suburban new superhero and firmly establish the broad parameters of his universe. Whether defeating bizarre criminal masterminds such as The Turtle or returning the criminal exile Mazdan to his own century the new Flash was a protagonist of keen insight and sharp wits as well as overwhelming power.

Showcase #8 (June 1957) led with another Kanigher tale. ‘The Secret of the Empty Box’, a perplexing but pedestrian mystery, saw Frank Giacoia return as inker, but the real landmark is the Broome thriller ‘The Coldest Man on Earth’. With this yarn the author confirmed and consolidated the new phenomenon by introducing the first of a Rogues Gallery of outlandish super-villains. Unlike the Golden Age the new super-heroes would face predominantly costumed foes rather than thugs and spies. Bad guys would henceforth be as memorable as the champions of justice. Captain Cold would return time and again. Broome would go on to create every single member of Flash’s pantheon of super-foes.

Joe Giella inked the two adventures in Showcase #13 (April 1958) ‘Around the World in 80 Minutes’, written by Kanigher and Broome’s ‘Master of the Elements’ which introduced the outlandish Mr. Element, who returned in Showcase#14 (June 1958) with a new M.O. and identity – Doctor Alchemy. ‘The Man who Changed the Earth!’ is a great crime-caper, but Kanigher’s eerie ‘Giants of the Time-World!’ is a masterful fantasy thriller and a worthy effort to bow out on. When the Scarlet Speedster graduated to his own title John Broome was the lead writer, supplemented eventually by Gardner Fox. Kanigher would return briefly in the mid-1960s and would later write a number of tales during DC’s ‘Relevancy’ period.

The Flash #105 launched with a February-March 1959 cover-date (so it was out for Christmas 1958) and featured Broome, Infantino and Giella’s sci-fi chiller ‘Conqueror From 8 Million B.C.!’ and introduced yet another super-villain in ‘The Master of Mirrors!’. ‘The Pied Piper of Peril!’ in #106 introduced another criminal menace, whilst the second story introduced one of the most charismatic and memorable baddies in comics history. Gorilla Grodd and his hidden race of super-simians debuted in ‘Menace of the Super-Gorilla!’, promptly returning for the next two issues,

Presumably this early confidence was fuelled by DC’s inexplicable but commercially sound pro-Gorilla editorial stance (for some reason any comic with a big monkey in it markedly outsold those that didn’t in those far-ago days) but these tales are also packed with tension, action and engagingly challenging fantasy concepts.

Issue #107 lead with the ‘Return of the Super-Gorilla!’ by the regular team of Broome Infantino and Giella, a multi-layered fantasy thriller that took our hero from the African (invisible) city of the Super-Gorillas to the subterranean citadel of antediluvian Ornitho-Men, and ‘The Amazing Race Against Time’ featured an amnesiac who could outrun the Fastest Man Alive in a desperate race against time to save creation. With every issue the stakes got higher and the quality and narrative ingenuity got better!

Frank Giacoia inked #108’s high-tech death-trap thriller ‘The Speed of Doom!’ featuring trans-dimensional raiders but Giella was back for ‘The Super-Gorilla’s Secret Identity!’ wherein Grodd devises a scheme to outwit evolution itself. The next issue brought ‘The Return of the Mirror-Master’ with the first in a series of bizarre physical transformations that would increasingly become a signature device for Flash stories, whilst the Space Race provided a evocative maguffin for a fantastic undersea adventure in the ‘Secret of the Sunken Satellite’.

The Flash #110 was a huge landmark, not so much for the debut of another worthy candidate to the burgeoning Rogues Gallery in ‘The Challenge of the Weather Wizard’ (inked by Schwartz’s artistic top-gun Murphy Anderson) but rather for the introduction of Wally West, who in a bizarre and suspicious replay of the lightning strike that created the Scarlet Speedster became a junior version of the Fastest Man Alive. Inked by Giella, ‘Meet Kid Flash!’ introduced the first sidekick of the Silver Age (cover dated December 1959-January 1960 and just pipping Aqualad who premiered in Adventure Comics #269 which had a February off-sale date).

Not only would Kid Flash begin his own series of back-up tales from the very next issue (a sure sign of the confidence the creators had in the character) but he would eventually inherit the mantle of the Flash himself – one of the few occasions in comics where the torch-passing actually stuck.

Anderson also inked ‘The Invasion of the Cloud Creatures’ in # 111, which successfully overcomes its frankly daft premise to produce a tense sci-fi thriller and nicely counterpoints the first solo outing for Kid Flash in ‘The Challenge of the Crimson Crows!’ This folksy parable has small-town kid Wally West use his new powers to rescue a bunch of kids on the slippery slope to juvenile delinquency. Perhaps a tad paternalistic and heavy-handed by today’s standards, in the opening months of 1960 this was a strip about a little boy heroically dealing with a kid’s real dilemmas, and the strip would remain concerned with human scaled problems, leaving super-menaces and world saving for team-ups with his mentor.

In #112 ‘The Mystery of the Elongated Man’ introduced that super stretchable character to the DC universe in an intriguing puzzler whilst Kid Flash tackled juvenile Go-Carters and corrupt school-contractors in the surprisingly gripping ‘Danger on Wheels!’ The Trickster launched his crime career in #113’s lead tale ‘Danger in the Air!’ and the Kid took a break so that his senior partner could defeat ‘The Man Who Claimed the Earth!’ a full-on cosmic epic wherein the alien Po-Siden attempts to bring the lost colony of our world back into the Empire of Zus.

Captain Cold and Murphy Anderson returned for ‘The Big Freeze’, where the smitten villain turns Central City into a glacier just to impress Flash’s girlfriend Iris West. Meanwhile her nephew Wally saved a boy unjustly accused of cheating from a life of crime when he falls under the influence of the ‘King of the Beatniks!’ The Flash #115 featured another bizarre transformation, courtesy of Gorilla Grodd in ‘The Day Flash Weighed 1000 Pounds!’, and when aliens attempted to conquer the Earth he needed ‘The Elongated Man’s Secret Weapon’ as well as the guest-star himself to save the day. Once again Murphy Anderson’s inking gave the over-taxed Joe Giella a breather whilst taking art-lovers’ breath away in this beautiful, pacy thriller.

‘The Man Who Stole Central City’ had a seemingly fool-proof way of killing the Flash in #116, which took some outwitting, and Kid Flash returned in ‘The Race to Thunder Hill’, a father-son tale of rally driving, but with car-stealing bandits and a young love interest for Wally to complicate the proceedings. ‘Here Comes Captain Boomerang’ by Broome, Infantino and Anderson introduced the Australian super-criminal in what is still one of the most original origin tales ever concocted, whilst ‘The Madcap Inventors of Central City’ saw Gardner Fox (creator of the Golden Age Flash) join the writing team with an ill-considered attempt to reintroduce the comedy relief trio of Winky, Blinky and Noddy to the modern Flash Fans. The fact that you’ve never heard of them should indicate how well that went, although the yarn, illustrated by Infantino and Giella is a fast, witty and enjoyably silly change of pace.

Issue #118 highlighted the period’s (and DC’s) fascination with Hollywood in ‘The Doomed Scarecrow!’ (inked by Anderson), a sharp thriller featuring a villain with a unique reason to get rid of our hero whilst Wally and a friend had to spend the night in a “haunted house” in the Kid Flash chiller ‘The Midnight Peril!’

This wonderful first volume ends with The Flash #119, in which Broome, Infantino and Anderson relate the adventure of ‘The Mirror-Master’s Magic Bullet’, which our hero narrowly evades only to join an old friend in ‘The Elongated Man’s Undersea Trap’ which introduced the vivacious Sue Dibny (as a newly wed “Mrs Elongated Man”) in a mysterious and stirring tale of sub-sea slavers.

These earliest tales were historically vital to the development of our industry, but, quite frankly, so what? The first exploits The Flash should be judged solely on their merit, and on those terms they are punchy, awe-inspiring, beautifully illustrated and captivating thrillers that amuse, amaze and enthral both new readers and old devotees. This lovely collection is a must-read item for anybody in love with our art-form

© 1949, 1956-1961, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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DC Archive: Adam Strange Volume 1

Adam Strange Archive

By Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino & Mike Sekowsky (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-4012-0148-2

For many of us the Silver Age of comics is the ideal era. Varnished by nostalgia (because that’s when most of us caught this crazy childhood bug) the clear, clean-cut, uncomplicated optimism of the late 1950s and early 1960s produced captivating heroes and villains who were still far less terrifying than the Cold War baddies who troubled the grown-ups. The sheer talent and professionalism of the creators working in that temporarily revitalised comics world resulted in triumph after triumph which brightened our young lives and remarkably still shine today with quality and achievement.

One of the most compelling stars of those days was an ordinary Earthman who regularly travelled to another world for spectacular adventures, armed with nothing more than a ray-gun, a jetpack and his own ingenuity. His name was Adam Strange, and like so many of that era’s triumphs he was the brainchild of Julius Schwartz and his close team of creative stars.

Showcase was a try-out comic designed to launch new series and concepts with minimal commitment of publishing resources. If the new character sold well initially a regular series would follow. The process had already worked with phenomenal success. The revised Flash, Challengers of the Unknown and Lois Lane had all won their own titles and Editorial Director Irwin Donenfeld now wanted his two Showcase editors to create science fiction heroes to capitalise on the twin zeitgeists of the Space Race and the popular fascination with movie monsters and aliens.

Jack Schiff came up with the futuristic crime fighter Space Ranger (who debuted in issues #15-16) and Schwartz went to Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs to craft the saga of a modern-day explorer in the most uncharted territory yet imagined.

Showcase #17 (cover-dated November-December 1958) launched ‘Adventures on Other Worlds’, and told of archaeologist Strange who, whilst fleeing from enraged natives in Peru, jumps a 25 ft chasm only to be hit by a stray teleport beam from a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. He materialises in another world, filled with giant plants and monsters and is rescued by a beautiful woman named Alanna who teaches him her language.

‘Secret of the Eternal City!’ reveals that Rann is a planet recovering from an atomic war, and the beam was in fact a simple flare, one of many sent in an attempt to communicate with other races. In the four years (speed of light, right? As you Know, Bob… Alpha Centauri is about 4.3 light-years from Sol) the Zeta-Flare travelled through space cosmic radiation converted it into a teleportation beam. Until the radiation drains from his body Strange would be a very willing prisoner on a fantastic new world.

And an incredibly unlucky one apparently, as no sooner has Adam started acclimatising than an alien race named The Eternals invade, seeking a mineral that will grant them immortality. His courage and sharp wits enable him to defeat the invaders only to have the radiation finally fade, drawing him home before the adoring Alanna can administer a hero’s reward. And thus was established the principles of this beguiling series. Adam would intercept a follow-up Zeta-beam hoping for some time with his alien sweetheart only to be confronted with a planet-menacing crisis.

The very next of these, ‘The Planet and the Pendulum’ saw him obtain the crimson spacesuit and weaponry that became his distinctive trademark in a tale of alien invaders which also introduced the subplot of Rann’s warring city-states, all desperate to progress and all at different stages of recovery and development. This tale also appeared in Showcase #17.

The next issue featured the self-explanatory ‘Invaders from the Atom Universe’ and ‘The Dozen Dooms of Adam Strange’ wherein the hero must outwit the dictator of Dys who plans to invade Alanna’s city of Rannagar. With this story Sachs was replaced by Joe Giella as inker, although he would return as soon as #19’s Gil Kane cover, the first to feature the title ‘Adam Strange’ over the unwieldy ‘Adventures on Other Worlds’. ‘Challenge of the Star-Hunter’ and ‘Mystery of the Mental Menace’ are classic puzzle tales as the Earthman must out wit a shape-changing alien and an all-powerful energy-being. These tales were the last in Showcase (cover-dated March-April1959). With the August issue Adam Strange took over the lead spot and cover of the anthology comic Mystery in Space.

As well as a new home, the series also found a new artist. Carmine Infantino, who had worked such magic with The Flash, applied his clean, classical line and superb design sense to create a stark, pristine, sleekly beautiful universe that was spellbinding in its cool but deeply humanistic manner, and genuinely thrilling in its imaginative wonders. MIS #53 began an immaculate run of exotic high adventures with ‘Menace of the Robot Raiders!’ by Fox, Infantino and Sachs, followed in glorious succession by ‘Invaders of the Underground World’ and ‘The Beast from the Runaway World!’

With #56 Murphy Anderson became the semi-regular inker, and his precision brush and pen made the art a thing of unparalleled beauty. ‘The Menace of the Super-Atom’ and ‘Mystery of the Giant Footprints’ are sheer visual poetry, but even ‘Chariot in the Sky’, ‘The Duel of the Two Adam Stranges’ (MIS #58 and #59, inked by Giella) and ‘The Attack of the Tentacle World’, ‘Threat of the Tornado Tyrant’ and ‘Beast with the Sizzling Blue Eyes’ (MIS #60-62, inked by Sachs) were – and still are – streets ahead of the competition in terms of thrills, spectacle and imagination.

Anderson returned with #63, which introduced some much-needed recurring villains who employed ‘The Weapon That Swallowed Men!’, #64’s chilling ‘The Radio-active Menace!’ and, ending this volume, ‘The Mechanical Masters of Rann’, all superb short-story marvels that appealed to their young readers’ every sense – especially that burgeoning sense of wonder.

The deluxe Archive format makes a fitting home for these extraordinary exploits that are still some of the best written and drawn science fiction comics ever produced. Whether for nostalgia’s sake, for your own entertainment or even to get your own impressionable ones properly indoctrinated, you really need this book in your home.

© 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 2003 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Green Lantern: Rebirth

Green Lantern: Rebirth 

By Geoff Johns, Ethan Van Scriver & Prentis Rollins (DC Comics)
ISBN 1845762134

The only certainties in life are Profits and Taxes if you’re a comic fan. If you take your drama seriously – as either reader or creator – there’s never going to be a moment when you can think “Wow, they killed…”, just a time to reset your alarm clock for the return of whichever heroic “Corpse du Jour” is in the crosshairs.

It must be worse for the writer who has to constantly explain not “why” but “how” the latest resurrection occurred. All over the comic universes there must be little cliques of supporting characters, alternatively worshipping these returnees or waiting for the super-zombies to starting eating the brains of the – putatively – living.

Alive again, and no longer merged with the Spectre, a ghostly force charged with gruesomely punishing – some – of The Guilty, Green Lantern must destroy the immortal entity that was secretly responsible for turning him evil and ultimately responsible for his death in the first place. Can he do it? What do you think?

Whining aside, and accepting that what publishers want, publishers get, the return to life of the Hal Jordan Green Lantern and the incipient reformation of the galactic police force he represented is big, bold, brassy and stuffed full of those clever authorial afterthoughts that old fan-boys love. The little voice inside me advising that it’s pointless trying to recreate the past is sure to be drowned out in the welter of glitzy artwork and spectacular cosmic action. This is a very readable book, if you don’t over-think it.

And if it all flops, you can just kill everybody, count to ten and simply start all over again.

© 2004, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The OMAC Project

The OMAC Project 

By Greg Rucka, Jesus Saiz & Cliff Richards (DC Comics/Titan Books)
ISBN 1-84576-229-0

One of the many publishing projects that lead into DC’s Infinite Crisis, the Omac Project is a surveillance satellite built by Batman when he realised that he could not fully trust his fellow superheroes.

Using it to gather intelligence is one thing, but when the covert organisation Checkmate not only co-opts it but adds a nano-technology weapon that can transform ordinary citizens into cyborg warriors programmed to destroy superheroes, The Caped Crusader and other do-gooders find themselves fighting for their very survival against the very people they usually fight for.

Although the book has its moments of drama and is very competently illustrated, ultimately it’s just another strand of a larger story, and consequently does not deliver a satisfactory resolution but only sets the scene for yet another book. This story should not be read in isolation – and sadly, perhaps that is what the publisher intended from the get-go.

© 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Prelude to Infinite Crisis

Prelude to Infinite Crisis 

By various (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-209-6

This quick, cheap compilation reprints some of the various stories from around the DC Universe, with salient extracts and bridging text from others, to act as an introduction to the massive company cross-over event Infinite Crisis.

The most extravagant and ambitious comics spectacular since Crisis on Infinite Earths the 1986 series that literally turned around the fortunes of a company that most in the industry considered a spent force, this anniversary bash is a direct sequel to that tale, via the groundbreaking Identity Crisis with seeds sewn throughout most of DC’s monthly titles.

This slim tome features Superman Secret files and Origins 2004, Flash #214 and Wonder Woman #219, as well as snippets from various Batman titles, Teen Titans, Adam Strange, JLA and a bunch of others, and although it doesn’t read particularly well in this format, I suspect that if you are going attempt the saga that ran as a further nine (counting the aforementioned Identity Crisis) inter-related graphic novels, you might want to pick this up as a cheaper bet than all those pesky back-issue comics. Don’t say that you haven’t been warned.

© 2004, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved

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Superman: For Tomorrow Vols 1 & 2

 Superman: For Tomorrow Vol 1

By Brian Azzarello, Jim Lee & Scott Williams (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-4012-0351-5 hardcover 1-84576-145-6 softcover Volume 1
ISBN 1-4012-0715-4 hardcover 1-4012-0448-1 softcover Volume 2

A major part of modern comic publishing is publicity-seeking and — hopefully — sales enhancing “events”. These are either braided mega-crossovers that involve a large number of individual titles in one big story (Gotta get ’em all!) or extended storylines by celebrity creators. Occasionally you get both at once. Occasionally you strike gold.

Hot from his success with Batman in Hush, Jim Lee teamed with writer Brian Azzarello for just such an event with For Tomorrow which ran in Superman issues #204-215 in 2004 and 2005. For one year these star creators got to play with DC’s biggest gun.

Set notionally apart from the rest of the company’s continuity, although still packed with enough guest stars to sink a battleship, this story sees a Superman at odds with himself and looking for all kinds of answers as he consults a priest following the world wide catastrophe dubbed ‘The Vanishing’. Whilst the Man of Steel is away on a space mission a wave of energy washes over the Earth causing the evaporation of one million souls. As if that’s not tragedy enough, one of them was his beloved wife Lois.

Increasingly isolated, guilty and fixated, he becomes involved in a civil war, and by disarming the combatants causes an escalation to genocide. His quest becoming ever more desperate, he alienates his Justice League colleagues and discovers that governmental super-spooks are behind some if not all of his problems. Everywhere he turns there’s someone – or thing – itching for a fight. By the end of volume 1 he is aloof, stressed, almost monomaniacal in his determination to solve the riddle. But he does now possess the mysterious device that caused the Vanishing…

Superman: For Tomorrow Vol 2

Ramping up the action, the second book sees Superman find the missing humans by ‘vanishing’ himself. This only deepens the mystery, and his struggle to regain perspective and return the victims to Earth leads to a catastrophic battle with a dreaded foe and the destruction of a virtual paradise. Meanwhile in Metropolis, the unlucky priest has fallen to technological temptation courtesy of those super-spooks and he must pay a heavy price before he can find his own peace.

This is not a terrible Superman story and it is always good to see creators try something ambitious, but as is often the case with these event spectaculars, the result just can’t live up to the intent or the hype. And there are so many unanswered questions.

Why didn’t the entire planet go bonkers when a million citizens vanished in an eye-blink? Surely Superman isn’t the only one to notice or care? Wouldn’t even American media still be talking about it one year later? Wouldn’t some Governments mobilise, or at least form a committee?

Our hero is by turns smug and hapless, and his aggression towards his friends can’t be rationalised by his loss. Why would he turn to a priest when he has access to so many different sorts of spiritual and indeed supernatural guides? Where are his parents in all this? And why even bother with the clichéd war of liberation/government interventionists if you’re not going to deal with them coherently? Plot foibles aside, there’s also too much dependence on the well drawn and ubiquitous fight scenes to carry the narrative, but if you can swallow all that and simply want a gratuitous –if perhaps flawed – rollercoaster ride, these two books are a solid bronze read.

© 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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JLA: Trial By Fire

JLA: Trial By Fire 

By Joe Kelly, Doug Mahnke and Tom Nguyen
ISBN 1-84023-928-X

More super histrionics featuring the Justice League as an alien telepathic presence apparently subverts the will of the mighty Martian Manhunter, leading to lots of fighting and destruction. The JLA has a long history in all its incarnations of starting strong and losing focus, and for extended periods coasting by on past glories – which usually ends with a desperate rush of ancillary series, a crash, cancellation and a relaunch with major creators. Reading this compilation of issues 84-89 I sense fresh first issues in our immediate future.

© 2004 DC Comics

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Green Arrow: The Archer’s Quest

Green Arrow: The Archer's Quest 

By Brad Meltzer, Phil Hester and Ande Parks (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84023-781-3

This one’s a cool treat for inveterate superhero fans as author Brad Meltzer joins artists Hester and Parks for a touching and exciting run through the history of a character who’s been fighting crime, pretty much uninterrupted, since the beginning of the 1940’s.

If you’re a newcomer to the minutiae of the super-guy’s world there’s something you need to accept. Dead is dead, but not always and not forever. It is a fact acknowledged by the empowered community – if not the world at large – that you can occasionally come back from Heaven without starting your own religion.

Such a returnee is Oliver Queen, Green Arrow. He got blown to shreds saving Superman’s hometown from an airborne bomb and went to his reward. If you want more on that part of the tale I suggest you track down the collections Quiver and Sounds of Violence, both written by movie maker Kevin Smith, as they’re pretty entertaining too.

The hook here is that as the Arrow is back, what happened after his funeral? Using the concept of a “Porn Buddy” – a friend who gets to your home first when you die and clears up the stuff you’d rather not have discovered about you – Meltzer crafts a compelling tale of family ties and the steps a hero would take to protect his loved ones from beyond the grave. A welcome bonus is that he manages to do so in a way that balances narrative redundancy for old-time fans with introductory exposition for the newcomer to create a sharp one-off read. Great stuff done well!

© 2002, 2003 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Green Arrow: City Walls

Green Arrow: City Walls 

By Judd Winick, Phil Hester, Manuel Garcia, Ande Parks & Steve Bird (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-039-5

Green Arrow is the kind of character, with the right kind of supporting cast, that readily lends himself to book-length epics. So it’s strange that this volume (reprinting issues #32 and #34-39) kicks off with a stand-alone buddy story featuring the ‘we’re just guys’ antics of his son Connor and long-time sidekick Roy (Speedy/Arsenal) rather than a tale of the Emerald Archer himself, but it works as a character piece to highlight the similarities and differences of these second generation hero-archers and acts as a jolly warm-up for the drama to come. Besides, gags about what oafs guys are never go astray in modern society.

The major portion of the book is a dark action-fest with the entire dynasty of bowmen stretched to their limits to capture the Riddler, whose conundrum-crimes are simply a prelude to the subjugation of the entire city by giant, flaming demons tasked with keeping the absolute and total letter of the law. This canny tribute to Assault on Precinct 13 has heroes, cops and criminals working together to liberate their home as it slowly starves, and descends into grotesquely suppressed chaos.

There’s no big message, just a solid thrill-ride that’s stuffed with invention, snappy patter, mood and menace, with the usual understated Hester and Co. picture quality. Here’s the kind of graphic novel you can give to ordinary people if you’re looking for comic converts. How come no-one’s making movies about this bunch?

© 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.