Category: Graphic Novels

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EX MACHINA: EX CATHEDRA


By Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, Jim Clark & JD Mettler (WildStorm)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-872-0

The seventh collection of high-powered politics (collecting issues #30-34 of the award-winning comics series) finds New York City Mayor Mitchell Hundred having to cope with something far outside his outside his already outré experience. In the final days of his Papacy, Pope John Paul II summons the super-hero-turned-civic-leader to a private audience in the Vatican. With forty percent of the city practicing Catholics, that’s simply an “offer” an independent candidate for re-election cannot refuse…

Since the Mayor is most definitely not a believer and his liberal views on Gay Rights, abortion and a thousand other doctrinal no-no’s have already led to a number of ecclesiastical frowns from all the major religions, our hero is already more than a little unnerved. But when the Vatican’s Chief Astronomer explains how the Church views the alien technology that bonded to the Mayor (giving him his powers to communicate with and command machinery) Mitchell Hundred’s world changes forever…

To further complicate matters a leftover team of Cold-War subversives have hit on a way to turn all that E.T. hardware in the Mayor’s brain into a remote control unit. Without his even knowing it Hundred could become a puppet, a spy or even an assassin at the flick of switch…

Sharp, witty, endlessly inventive and startlingly perspicacious, Ex Machina is still one of the absolute best comic reads on the market today, with characters and insights that always beguile and enthrall. And as the creators are never content to rest on their laurels it only gets better and better. If you’re not a fan yet, start today. If you are tell everyone you know. They’ll thank you for it…

© & TM 2007 Brian K. Vaughn & Tony Harris. All Rights Reserved.

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HAWKGIRL: HATH-SET


By Walter Simonson, Renato Arlem & Dennis Calero (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-4012-1665-8

The climactic third and final volume of the adventures of Hawkgirl, collecting issues #61-66 of her monthly magazine, goes all-out to deliver drama and spectacle in a thrilling and satisfying manner.

Hawkman and Hawkgirl are Egyptian lovers Prince Khufu and Lady Chay-Ara, murdered by the evil priest and usurper Hath-Set millennia ago. The heroes are inescapably trapped by a reincarnation spell to reunite, fight injustice and be murdered by the mad villain. All three souls are equally prisoners of an inescapable deathbed curse.

The last time she died Chay-Ara’s soul somehow possessed the fully grown body of Kendra Saunders when that troubled young woman committed suicide. With one variable altered the curse has been unraveling for some time now, and in this book the hidden truth of the trio’s situation is finally revealed, but before that there’s a few other problems to deal with…

Firstly there’s the Apokolyptian death squad known as the Female Furies, here to recover a planet-breaker weapon stolen three and a half thousand years ago. Hidden by the first Hath-Set, the deadly Beta-3 Gizmoid has now been activated by his latest incarnation…

Then there’s the plague of ensorcelled zombie citizens in Gotham City that needs all of Hawkgirl and Batman’s undivided attention, and the legion of suicidal Hath-Set servants that blight her trip to Metropolis.

Even Superman and Oracle can’t prevent her capture there, and only Hawkman is able to track her to the Valley of the Kings where millennia of passion and conflict leads to a final deadly resolution and a breaking of the spell holding the accursed lovers and their eternal tormentor together…

Coming directly from the “going out with a very big bang” school of entertainment these tales are witty, thrilling and vast in spectacle and scope. Ancient history, lost gods, giant robots, zombies, aliens, mummies, guest-stars, stark heroism and undying love all vie for the readers attention but never once feel forced or crowded. This is a bravura comics performance and the best possible way to end a series.

At least until we meet again…

© 2007, 2008 DC Comics.  All Rights Reserved

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SUPERMAN CHRONICLES VOLUME 4

By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Wayne Boring, Jack Burnley and the Superman Studio (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 9781-84576-743-3

This fourth collection of the Man of Tomorrow’s earliest adventures, reprinted in the order they originally appeared, sees out the year 1940 in another tremendous little album that covers his appearances in Action Comics #26-31as well as the bi-monthly Superman #6-7.

Siegel and Shuster had created a true phenomenon and were struggling to cope with it. As well as the monthly and bimonthly comics a new quarterly publication, World’s Finest Comics (springing from the success of the publisher’s New York World’s Fair comic-book tie-ins) would soon debut and their indefatigable hero was to feature prominently in it. Also, the Superman daily newspaper strip, which began on 16th January 1939, with its separate Sunday strip following from November 5th of that year, was garnering millions of new fans.

The need for new material was constant and terrible.

From Action Comics #25 (July 1940) came ‘Professor Cobalt’s Clinic’ wherein Clark Kent and Lois Lane exposed a murderous sham Heath Facility with a little Kryptonian help, and the next month dealt a similar blow to the corrupt orphanage ‘Brentwood Home for Wayward Youth’. The September issue found the him at the circus, solving the mystery of ‘The Strongarm Assaults’, a fast-paced thriller beautifully illustrated by the astonishingly talented Jack Burnley.

Whilst thrilling to that, kids of the time could also have picked up the sixth issue of Superman (September/October 1940). Produced by Siegel and the Superman Studio, with Shuster increasingly only overseeing and drawing key figures and faces, this contained four more lengthy adventures.

‘Lois Lane, Murderer’, ‘Racketeer Terror in Gateston’, ‘Terror Stalks San Caluma’ and ‘The Construction Scam’ had the Man of Action saving the plucky newshen (you can’t imagine how long I’ve waited to type that term) from a dastardly frame up, rescuing a small town from a mob invasion, foiling a blackmailer who’s discovered his secret identity and spectacularly fixing a corrupt company’s shoddy, death-trap buildings.

Action Comics #29 (October 1940) again features Burnley art in a gripping tale of murder for profit. Human drama in ‘The Life insurance Con’ was replaced by deadly super-science as the mastermind Zolar created ‘A Midsummer Snowstorm’, allowing Burnley a rare opportunity to display his fantastic imagination as well as his representational excellence.

Superman # 7(November/December1940), and the Man of Steel was embroiled in local politics when he confronted ‘Metropolis’ Most Savage Racketeers’, quelled man-made disasters in ‘The Exploding Citizens’, stamped out City Hall corruption in ‘Superman’s Clean-Up Campaign’ (illustrated by Wayne Boring, who was Shuster’s inker on the other tales in this issue) and put the villainous high society bandits ‘The Black Gang’ where they belonged – behind iron bars.

This volume ends with Burnley drawing another high-tech caper as criminals put an entire city to sleep and only Clark Kent isn’t ‘In the Grip of Morpheus’.

Although the gaudy burlesque of monsters and super-villains still lay years ahead of our hero, these tales of corruption, disaster and social injustice are just as engrossing and speak powerfully of the tenor of the times. The raw intensity and sly wit still shine through in Siegel’s stories which literally defined what being a Super Hero means whilst Shuster and his team created the iconography for all others to follow. These Golden Age tales are priceless enjoyment at an absurdly affordable price. What dedicated comics fan could possibly resist them?

So don’t…
© 1940, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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HAWKGIRL: HAWKMAN RETURNS

By Walter Simonson, Joe Bennett & Renato Arlem (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-4012-1488-3

After a year’s absence from the DC Universe, the fate of vanished Hawkman is finally revealed in this volume collecting Hawkgirl #57-60 and JSA Classified #21-22.

Hawkman and Hawkgirl are immortal Egyptian lovers Khufu and Chay-Ara, murdered by evil priest Hath-Set millennia ago. The heroes are bound by a reincarnation spell to ever reunite, fight injustice and be murdered again by the mad villain. All three souls are equally prisoners of an inescapable deathbed curse.

Due to numerous cosmic crises (company reboots and relaunches, if you prefer) rather than be reborn the last time she died Chay-Ara’s soul somehow possessed the fully grown body of Kendra Saunders when that troubled young woman committed suicide. Consequently Hawkgirl has problems sorting out memories and is unsure of who she actually is.

Lost in the aftermath of the Infinite Crisis (ISBN: 978-1-4012-0959-9) and the Rann-Thanagar War (ISBN: 1-84576-231-2) the male Winged Wonder is the focal point of this collection which starts with ‘Trial… And Execution’ written by Walter Simonson and illustrated by Joe Bennett; a two-part tale which explains that the reincarnated Egyptian warrior has been on the planet Rann trying to stop the Rannian and refugee Thanagarian populations from killing each other.

Alien Queen-bitch Blackfire has been rabble-rousing in a surreptitious power-play, and being a meticulous sort has sent a demented assassin to Earth to remove Hawkgirl. Just in case…

‘Relic of War’ reveals more off-world back-story, culminating in Blackfire (an energy-casting superwoman and evil, older sister of the Teen Titan Starfire) traveling to St. Roch to finish Hawkgirl herself. This tale is bisected by ‘Best Served Cold…’ and ‘Fire and Ice’ (from JSA Classified #21-22), both written and drawn by Simonson, which reveal more of the Hawks last days together in space and follows Hawkman up to the moment Blackfire and Hawkgirl clash on Earth.

The book ends in a tale that sets up the final Hawkgirl storyline (collected in Hawkgirl: Hath-Set: ISBN13:978-1-4012-1665-8).

‘A Cast of Hawks’, beautifully illustrated by Renato Arlem, describes how a doomsday weapon from the hell-world of Apokolips fell into the possession of Hath-Set three and a half thousand years ago. Contemporarily, just as the reunited Hawkgirl and Hawkman are getting reacquainted, the latest incarnation of the priest who has murdered them a thousand times over makes the first move in a plan to remove them and break the curse forever…

Sharp and witty science-fiction epics are Simonson’s especial forte, and the revelatory weaving of disparate plot-threads is accomplished with great style. The glorious variety and power of the art is a joy to behold, and even if the overall feeling is of an engaging interlude, the promise of a blockbuster to come is quite mouth-watering.

Here is high-quality genre entertainment that’s well worth seeking out.

© 2006, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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X-CAMPUS


By Francesco Artibani, Michele Medda, Denis Medri, Roberto Di Salvo & Marco Failla; translated by Luigi Mutti (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-90523-998-6

Here’s an intriguing re-imagining of the key elements that have made the X-Men a global phenomenon, courtesy of the company’s international connections. Created by European creators and published under the Marvel Transatlantique imprint this oddly numbered miniseries (1A&B – 4A&B) is set on the sprawling campus of the Worthington Foundation in Greenwich, Connecticut. This unique academy draws special students from all over the world…

The guy in charge is Professor Magnus whilst Charles Xavier is a biology teacher with an assistant named Jean Grey. The student body is highly polarised: First year students Hank McCoy, Scott Summers, Bobby Drake, Ororo Munroe, Warren Worthington III and the unruly Logan are all good kids. Magnus’s favoured group (all analogues of the Hellfire Club, led by the telepathic jailbait wild-child Emma Frost) – not to mention his school caretakers Mesmero, Pyro, Toad and Blob – clearly have a hidden agenda and turn all their dubious charms to getting new girl Anna Raven (you’ll know her as Rogue) to join their clique.

Magnus/Magneto is using the school to recruit a mutant army and Xavier’s plan is to covertly rescue impressionable mutants before it’s too late. Foiling the villain’s plan to acquire both the teleporter Kurt Wagner and Russian Man of Steel Peter Rasputin only leads to greater conflict and the maturing kids must decide once and for all whether they’ll be friends or foes of humanity…

Compacting all the elements of X-lore into a school divided between “goodies” and “baddies” works surprisingly well, as does making all the heroes troubled teenagers. This oddly engaging blend of The Demon Headmaster and Roswell High is written with great charm by Artibani and Medda, and whilst the manga style art (reminiscent of many modern animation shows for kids) is a little jarring to my old eyes, it does carry the tale with clarity and effectiveness, aimed as it is at drawing in a more contemporary audience, not cranky old gits like me.

Probably not welcomed by die-hard fans, this is nonetheless a refreshing take on the merry mutants and I’d honestly welcome more of the same. If you’re not too wedded to continuity and could stand a breezy change of pace, why not give this intriguing experiment a go?

© 2008 Marvel Entertainment, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. (A BRITISH EDITION BY PANINI UK LTD)

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HAWKGIRL: THE MAW


By Walter Simonson & Howard Chaykin (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-4012-1246-9

In the aftermath of the Infinite Crisis (ISBN: 978-1-4012-0959-9) and the Rann-Thanagar War (ISBN: 1-84576-231-2) the Hawkman comic-book experienced an overnight gender readjustment. Issue #50, renamed Hawkgirl, began the solo adventures of the distaff Winged Wonder, set “One Year Later”, as part of a company-wide reset of the DC Universe.

Hawkman and Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman are resurrected Egyptian lovers Khufu and Chay-Ara, murdered by the evil priest Hath-Set thousands of years ago. The heroes are bound by a reincarnation spell to ever reunite, fight injustice and be murdered again by the mad cleric. All three souls are prisoners of the deathbed curse.

Due to numerous cosmic crises (for which read company reboots and relaunches) rather than be reborn the last time she died Chay-Ara’s soul possessed the fully grown body of Kendra Saunders when the troubled young woman committed suicide. Consequently the new Hawkgirl has problems sorting out memories and is unsure of who she actually is.

This collection, reprinting Hawkgirl #50-56, finds her back in St Roch. Louisiana, doing the job Carter Hall (the vanished Hawkman) should have been doing at the Stonechat Museum. He’s been missing for a year – although in the fictionalized analogue of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, that’s no rare thing – and she’s just beginning to adjust to a life without him.

Suddenly Kendra’s plagued by unsettling nightmares and spooky happenings in the museum’s basement. Furthermore the city’s gripped by an escalating crime-wave. In the background the latest incarnation of Hath-Set is maneuvering for his latest attack, whilst zombies, ghoulies, thugs and beasties roam the streets. Is Hawkgirl going mad or has the mysterious Khimaera targeted her for destruction?

Old Turks (relatively speaking) Simonson and Chaykin add a sexy gloss to this tale of intrigue and vengeance with just a splash of Lovecraftian horror to flavour the mix, in a slight but highly engaging romp for the solo Avian Avenger. Although no classic, there’s a slick charm to this that will please more than just the already-confirmed fan-base.

© 2006, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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THE SPECTRE: TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED


By David Lapham, Eric Battle, Prentis Rollins & Tom Mandrake (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-668-9

Completing the intense horror-drama begun in Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre (ISBN13: 978-1-84576-577-X – an absolute prerequisite before you tackle this tome) murdered detective Crispus Allen, newly bonded to the all-powerful supernatural force known as the Spectre, finds himself irresistibly drawn back to the tenement house where slum-lord Leonard Krieger was murdered.

Eventually murdered. Prior to that he was chained in the basement for two weeks, starved, tortured, abused and generally made to regret the miseries he had inflicted on his many tenants. One man has already paid the ghostly guardian’s ghastly price for killing him, but somehow the sin remains unpunished and Allen, as well as Gotham cops Marcus Driver and Josh Azeveda, are convinced there’s more to know and further horror to come from God’s Spirit of Vengeance…

The Spectre premiered in More Fun Comics #52 (February 1940), the brainchild of Superman writer Jerry Siegel and artist Bernard Baily. Jim Corrigan, a murdered police detective, was ordered to fight crime and evil by a glowing light and disembodied voice, as the most overwhelmingly powerful hero of the Golden Age.

He has been revamped and revived many times, and revealed to be God’s Spirit of Vengeance wedded to a human conscience. Corrigan was finally laid to rest in the 1990s and Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan replaced him.

Jordan had nearly destroyed the universe when possessed by the alien fear-parasite Parallax, yet sacrificed his life to reignite Earth’s dying sun in the Final Night miniseries (ISBN-13: 978-1-56389-419-0). The fallen hero’s soul bonded with the Spectre to become a Spirit of Redemption as well as Retribution. Following a complex series of events in the wake of the Infinite Crisis Jordan was resurrected as a mortal superhero and the Spectre was left without human guidance.

But even now the human ameliorating influence is having little effect as the Spectre, unable to leave Gotham, goes on a rampage of grotesque and baroque retribution in the murder capital of the World. As the police chip away at the mystery of Krieger’s death and the wall of silence from the other tenants of the seemingly accursed Granville Towers, Crispus Allen is becoming more and more inured to the atrocities humanity perpetrates on a daily basis. Without intervention, he may become more ruthless and relentless than the Spectre itself…

Featuring outstanding guest-appearances by Batman and the Phantom Stranger (the latter fully illustrated by veteran Spectre artist Tom Mandrake) this volume reprints issues #4-8 of the lead strip in DC’s anthological revival Tales of the Unexpected, including original cover’s by Bernie Wrightson, Mike Huddleston, Bill Sienkiewicz, Art Adams & Prentis Rollins and Eric Battle & Dave Stewart.

A harsh, uncompromising exploration of justice, provocation and guilt, this is not a story for the young or squeamish and the mystery, engrossing though it be, is secondary to the exploration of the events that produced it. Can the modern world still use an Old-Testament solution to sin, or is every crime now too complex for prescribed punishments?

It’s rare for superhero comics to be this challenging but Tales of the Unexpected manages that and still delivers a visceral, evocative thriller that is a joy to read.

© 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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BATMAN ADVENTURES: THE LOST YEARS


By Hilary J. Bader, Bo Hampton & Terry Beatty (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-483-1

The Batman Animated TV series masterminded by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini revolutionised the Dark Knight and led to some of the absolute best comic book adventures in his seventy-year publishing history. The five-issue miniseries collected here features the Batman Family in an adventure that recounts how Teen Wonder Robin became the mysterious avenger Nightwing.

Increasingly discontented with his junior role Dick Grayson acrimoniously departs Gotham City to travel the world, eventually encountering a tribe of Brazilian Indians called the Invisibles who teach him their unique stealth secrets.

Meanwhile in Gotham Batman and Batgirl carry on the good fight, but their lives change forever when they meet a troubled kid named Tim Drake whose dad is caught up in a situation that only a hero can handle…

Compelling, superbly designed and spectacularly illustrated, these stripped-down action romps are quintessential Bat-magic, and with such arch foes as the Joker, Two-Face and Ra’s Al Ghul on hand to provide the menace this is a book any fan, no matter their age, will adore.

© 1998, 1999 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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100 BULLETS: SPLIT SECOND CHANCE


By Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso (Vertigo)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-268-4

What would you do if you had a grudge, an untraceable gun, one hundred bullets and an ironclad guarantee of no repercussions?

The second collection (reprinting issues #6-14 of the monthly Vertigo comic) continues to explore that fascinating proposition as it slowly unravels the mystery of the enigmatic Agent Graves – purveyor of both the ordnance and the inquiry.

‘Short Con, Long Odds’ introduces hard luck kid Chucky Spinks, a cheap grifter and ex-con who gets a visit from the cadaverous Man in Black. Chucky’s life was ruined when he got drunk and killed some kids: but at least his friend Pony always looked out for him when he got out of prison. Still, what kind of friend drags your drunken ass out of the passenger seat and behind the wheel before the cops show up?

In ‘Day, Hour, Minute… Man’ we get some insight into the manipulative Graves’ long-term goals as he engineers a gang-war to draw some old comrades back into his game. There are intriguing hints of an old crew and some very high-powered bosses when he contacts the brutal enforcer Lono and claims someone’s reviving something called “the Minutemen”…

‘The Right Ear, Left in the Cold’ finds an ice-cream vendor named Cole Burns selling stronger stuff from his van shocked to discover that his boss torched the old folks home where his grandmother died. Yet that’s just the start as Cole is revealed as another retired Minuteman. It looks like someone’s putting the band back together…

A viscerally satisfying one-off story follows as a waitress gets an unwelcome heads up about her happy home in the chilling ‘Heartbreak, Sunnyside Up’ and this volume concludes with the return of Isabelle “Dizzy” Cordova (see First Shot, Last Call, ISBN: 978-1-84023-298-1). She’s in Paris to meet American ex-pat Mr. Branch, a reporter who dug too deep and uncovered the greatest secret in US history.

‘Parlez Kung Vous’ begins to unravel the mysteries of the Trust, the Minutemen, and especially Agent Graves in a brutal yet delicate manner, engrossing and satisfying: yet manages the magician’s trick of leaving a bigger puzzle and readers hungry for the next instalment.

The slick switch from crime comic to conspiracy thriller is made with superb skill, with no diminution of the extreme violence and seedy sexuality that are hallmarks of this uncompromising series. Savage brilliantly executed and utterly addictive, this is a landmark book in a landmark series.

© 2000 Brian Azzarello and DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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CRISIS AFTERMATH: THE SPECTRE


By Will Pfeifer & Cliff Chiang: David Lapham, Eric Battle & Prentis Rollins (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84576-577-X

The Spectre first appeared in 1940 in More Fun Comics #52 (February 1940), the brainchild of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and artist Bernard Baily. Jim Corrigan, a murdered police detective, was given a mission to fight crime and evil by a glowing light and disembodied voice, and swiftly became one of the most overwhelmingly powerful heroes of the Golden Age.

He has been revamped and revived many times since. Latterly revealed to be God’s Spirit of Vengeance bonded to a human conscience, Corrigan was finally laid to rest and Hal Jordan replaced him.

Jordan was a Green Lantern who had nearly destroyed the universe when possessed by the antediluvian fear-parasite Parallax, only to sacrifice his life to reignite our dying sun in the Final Night miniseries (ISBN-13: 978-1-56389-419-0).

Jordan’s soul bonded with the Spectre force and became a Spirit of Redemption as well as Retribution. Following a complex series of events in the wake of the Infinite Crisis Jordan was resurrected as a mortal superhero and the Spectre was left without human guidance.

Collecting the three-part miniseries Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre and the lead stories from Tales of the Unexpected #1-3, this book follows the Ghostly Guardian in a search for a new host, which he finds in the reluctant, intangible form of Crispus Allen, a Detective in the Gotham City police force, murdered by fellow officer and dirty cop Jim Corrigan (no relation to the original).

In ‘Dead Again’ by Will Pfeifer and Cliff Chiang, The Spectre first has to convince the angry atheist Allen to bond with him to dispense Heavenly Justice. It then has to prove the validity of the admittedly illogical way the Spirit of Retribution selects his victims from the billions of murderous sinners in sore need of their personal and bloodily ironic attentions.

A subtle tale, the inescapable tragedy of the ending lends some desperately needed depth to a character far too powerful for traditional periodical tale-telling. This is followed by the first quarter of an eight-part epic by David Lapham, Eric Battle and Prentis Rollins that featured in DC’s revival of the classic anthology title Tales of the Unexpected.

Slum-lord Leonard Krieger has been murdered in one of his own rat-traps. He was chained and tortured for two weeks in the foul basement of a tenement filled with desperate people and outcasts on the edge of society. When he was very nearly dead he was stabbed repeatedly. There’s certainly no shortage of suspects…

Crispus Allen may be dead but he’s a still a detective and he knows that there’s some terrible secret buried in the wasteland of the Granville Towers. And so do investigating officers Marcus Driver and Josh Azeveda. When the Spectre identifies and dispatches the killer it would seem the case is over but the dark mysteries of the building are not all revealed and the horrors within keep calling out to both the harassed unsettled cops and Allen as well…

Davis Lapham took the Spectre into uncharted waters with this raw and savage portmanteau saga. Rather than one crime and one grisly punishment, he examines the nature of evil by focusing on all the inhabitants of the slum and their degree of culpability in this murder as well as other sins. Can every door hide a secret worthy of God’s punishment? And does Crispus Allen have the power – and the inclination – to temper the Spectre’s awful judgements?

‘The Cold Hand of Vengeance’ is engrossing and challenging stuff, well worth your attention, but to truncate the saga this way (the remaining issues 4-8 are collected in the sequel The Spectre: Tales of the Unexpected, ISBN: 978-1-84576-668-9) is annoying and unnecessary.

Even with a gallery of alternate covers by such luminaries as Neal Adams & Moose Bauman, Michael Wm. Kaluta & David Baron, Michael Mignola, Matt Wagner & Dave Stewart, both these books are short: 128 pages for this one and 144 for the follow-up. Would it have been so hard to schedule them all as one larger format volume such as Superman: Birthright?
© 2006, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved