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By Alan Davis<\/strong> & Mark Farmer<\/strong> (DC Comics) Here’s one that’s primarily for the dedicated fans. Produced for DC’s Elseworlds<\/em> imprint, where major characters and brands are explored and exploited free of the strictures of regular continuity, Alan Davis turned the concept upon itself to create a wonderland for followers of comic minutiae.<\/p>\n His tale, based on the old verse, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For want of a nail the shoe was lost\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (originally penned by George Herbert in 1651 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c so don’t tell me comics aren’t educational) asks what would have happened if that rocket from Krypton hadn’t been found by Jonathan and Martha Kent in Smallville.<\/p>\n All those super-menaces would have been defeated by all those other DC champions, but gradually the war would itself have been lost, and the dystopic world we see is nearing its ending when these heroes all come together.<\/p>\n I grew up with this stuff and for people like me it’s all utterly enthralling. There are clever in-jokes, sharp asides for the knowing, and vignettes that hit straight to the part of me that’s still eight years old and wide-eyed. The dialogue is sharp, the plot tension-filled and the action and art is all you could hope for.<\/p>\n And here’s that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but\u00e2\u20ac\u009d you’ve been expecting: I tried this out on a couple of interested but non-fanboy, occasional readers. You know the type; they’ve seen Dark Knight<\/strong>, Sandman<\/strong>, Cerebus<\/strong>, Maus<\/strong>, Carl Barks and Alan Moore. Not anti-comics by any means, nor even anti super-heroes. Just not mired in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Lore\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. And they didn’t get it. It was pretty but not engaging, they said.<\/p>\n So I just have to give this a health warning I deeply regret. It’s brilliant and fun and great, but if you not at least passingly familiar with the continuity you might want to leave it until you’ve absorbed a few DC Archive or Showcase editions.<\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a9 1999 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00c2\u00a0 By Alan Davis & Mark Farmer (DC Comics) ISBN 1-84023-064-9 Here’s one that’s primarily for the dedicated fans. Produced for DC’s Elseworlds imprint, where major characters and brands are explored and exploited free of the strictures of regular continuity, Alan Davis turned the concept upon itself to create a wonderland for followers of comic … <\/p>\n
\nISBN 1-84023-064-9<\/p>\n