Quick DC Super-Hero GN Reviews

Superman/Aliens 2: God War
by Chuck Dixon, Jon Bogdanove & Kevin Nowlan
The story is a fairly simple premise: After a spacehip infested with Aliens crashes on Apokolips, Darkseid allows an army of parademons wo be infected and then sends the army to New Genesis. Superman just happens to be visiting New Genesis at the time, and he joins with the New Gods to fight off both the hordes of Apokolips and the Alien menace. In fact, despite Superman's name in the title, this is much more of a New Gods story with Superman along for the ride. I've never been a huge fan of Bogdanove's, but this is some of the best art I've ever seen from him, as he and Nowlan manage to evoke a Kirby-esque look without being a blatant pastiche.
Rating: 3 (of 5)


Batgirl: Year One
by Scott Beatty & Chuck Dixon, Marcos Martin & Alvaro Lopez
Beatty & Dixon turn in a decent story that attempts to bring together the disparate parts of Barbara Gordon's origin as Batgirl to bring it in harmony with the current Batman mythos while also including some winking forebits towards her later Oracle & Birds of Prey days. Barbara is presented as young and a bit naive, and over the course of the nine issues collected here grows in her role as a fledgling crimefighter and comes to understand the seriousness of her undertaking. The real attraction with this book though is the art by Martin & Lopez, a cross between Tim Sale & Steve Rude that is stunning in the plentiful action pieces and smooth in the downtime moments. Without the contribution from the artists this would be simply another competent retelling of a super-hero origin, but with the art it becomes a compelling visual treat from some of comics brightest new talent.
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)

Review Policy for Submitted Materials

Generally I review things that I buy, or get from the library, or borrow from a friend. There seems to be plenty of material around, though I only write reviews when I feel that I have something to say.

Recently I've been contacted by publishers and an individual creator or two who are interested in sending me comics to review. Which is kind of cool. But I figure I should have some sort of policy for accepting review materials. So here it is (subject to change of course if things turn out to be unworkable):

• I will generally accept just about anything for review. I have a pretty wide range of tastes in comics, but please look at the sorts of things that I've reviewed in the past to get a feel of what those tastes are.
  
  
• Please contact me first before sending review materials.
  
  
• I will try to write at least a quick review for everything sent to me. I will write a longer review if I feel I have more to say.
  
  
• I will apply the same standards to submitted comics as I do to my normal reviews; note the ratings system that appears over in the sidebar of every page.
  
  
• I will note in the review that I was provided with a review copy.
  
  
• I have a huge backlog of stuff to read, so I may not get to your material right away.
  
  
• I prefer reading comics in print (I spend enough hours at work staring at a computer screen!) I will still consider reviewing electronic copies, but won't guarantee.
  
  
• I will donate review copies of materials I receive either to the academic collection at my library or to the local public library (depending on where it is most appropriate). If neither library wants it, I'll pass it on in some other way.
  
  

I hope that the above seems sensible, and that it will be workable. We shall see...

New This Week: February 16, 2005

Based on the NCRL list for this week's comics shipping from Diamond, here are a few things to look for at the local comic shop tomorrow:

The pick of the week is either JLA Classified #4, which features the start of Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire/Rubinstein's "I Can't Believe It's Not the Justice League," or Promethea #32, the final issue of Alan Moore's opus. Depends on whether you're in the mood for silly or serious. Me? I'll get both!


In other comics:

Antarctic has Ben Dunn's Heaven Sent #7.

Three of Dark Horse's new Sin City Editions hit the shelves, all at the same time. Volumes 1, 3 & 4--what happened to vol. 2? (It's a reprint volume, so how come it's late?)

Green Lantern: Rebirth #4 arrives a month late. DC also has new issues of Birds of Prey (#79), Ex Machina (#8), Human Target (#19), Lucifer (#59), Manhunter (#7), Ocean (#4), and Tom Strong (#31 -- written by Michael Moorcock!)

Dork Storm has a new Dork Tower (#30).

Image has a new issue of Noble Causes (#7).

Speaking of late comics, Marvel finally releases Astonishing X-Men #8.There's also the debuts of the second Runaways series and Adam Warren's Livewires, plus new issues of Daredevil (#70) & She-Hulk (#12).

Oni has two debuts: Andi Watson's Little Star and a second series for Queen & Country: Declassified.

Seven Seas has its inaugural offering, Blade for Barter.

And there's tons of new manga volumes from AD Vision and TokyoPop, but sadly nothing much of interest to me.

Quick Comic Reviews

Cryptozoo Crew #1
by Allan Gross & Jerry Carr
Do you remember fondly the days when the first issue of a new comic would set up the premise while telling a complete story, and still have enough room for a complete eight-page back-up story? If so, then you'll appreciate this first issue, which introduces us to Tork Darwyn, Cryptozoologist, and Tara Darwyn, his long-suffering and slightly-more-capable wife, as they head off to the Congo in search of a living dinosaur. It's a fun, lighthearted tale by Gross, and Carr brings a thick-lined yet open syle that fits the story's sense of fun and adventure. Oh, and that back-up story I mentiond?: Monkeys!
Rating: 3 (of 5)


Majestic #2
by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning, Neil Googe & Trevor Scott
Now this is what I want to read Majestic for. Now that Superman and co. are gone, Abnett & Lanning finally get to the core of what a comic named Majestic should be: big. Majestic has spent four months in space tracking the giant alien spaceship that has kidnapped all life on Earth, and he's not giving up until he's stopped it. The art by Googe & Scott is big as well, perfectly illustrating the size and scope of the events. The only drawback is that the story is moving a bit slow (but that's not surprising in these decompressed days). If they turn out more efforts like this, Majestic will be worth sticking around for.
Rating: 3 (of 5)


Vimanarama #1
by Grant Morrison & Philip Bond.
First off, Vimanarama gets props for being the only comic I've read, well, ever, that opens with a big production dance number. And it gets better from there. Young Ali is all nervous about meeting his arranged bride, but they get sucked into a mysterious underworld of Indian legend and a 60-centuries-old battle of good vs. evil. It's full of danger, awe, and humor, all pulled off wonderfully by Bond and colorist Brian Miller. If the next two issues are as good as this first, Morrison will have another in a string of great 21st century comics to his credit.
Rating: 4 (of 5)

JimO Takes Over NPR

GT Labs head honcho Jim Ottaviani made two appearances on NPR in recent days.

In this weekend's On the Media, Jim's letter about OTM's Stan Lee story was read. You can hear it at about 34 minutes into the program. (I wrote a letter too, but Jim's was better!)

Then on Morning Edition this morning, Jim was featured along with Jay Hosler in a feature story about comics and science.

100 Things I Love About Comics

Fred Hembeck started it, Alan David Doane continued it, then Mike Sterling called us all out to put together our own lists of 100 Things I Love About Comics for Valentine's Day. So here it is, my Valentine to the comics industry:


1 Acme Novelty Library
2 The Adventures of Luther Arkwright
3 Akiko
4 All-Star Squadron
5 Amy Unbounded
6 Ariel Schrag
7 Barry Ween
8 Beppo the Supermonkey
9 The Brotherhood of Dada
10 Bruno
11 Buck Godot
12 Calvin & Hobbes
13 Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew
14 Cary Bates' Captain Atom
15 The Comics Blog-o-Sphere
16 Comics in Libraries
17 The Complete Peanuts
18 Concrete
19 Courtney Crumrin
20 "The Coyote Gospel"
21 Curt Swan
22 Dean Motter
23 Dial 'H' for H-E-R-O
24 Doctor Fate
25 Earth 2
26 Elliott S! Maggin's Superman novels
27 The Far Side
28 Finder
29 Frank Miller
30 Fred Perry
31 George Perez
32 Global Frequency
33 Gon
34 Gotham Central
35 The Grand Comics Database
36 "The Great Cow Race"
37 The Green Lantern Corps
38 Hisao Tamaki's Star Wars adaptation
39 Hoppy the Marvel Bunny
40 Imaginary Stories
41 Jack Kirby's Fourth World
42 "Jaka's Story"
43 Jason Lutes
44 Jessica Abel
45 Jill Thompson
46 Jim Woodring's Frank
47 Joe Kubert
48 John Constantine
49 Josie and The Pussycats
50 Kabuki
51 Kitty Pride
52 Kyle Baker
53 Larry Gonick
54 The last page of Thunderbolts #1
55 The Legion of Substitute-Heroes
56 Little White Mouse
57 Lone Wolf & Cub
58 Maison Ikkoku
59 Matt Feazell
60 Matt Howarth
61 Miracleman
62 Monkey Covers
63 Mutts
64 Neil Gaiman
65 Oracle
66 Osamu Tezuka
67 P. Craig Russell
68 Pam Bliss
69 Paradox Press's Big Books
70 Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen's Legion of Super-Heroes
71 Power Pack
72 Peter David on The Incredible Hulk
73 Quantum & Woody
74 Quarter Boxes
75 Queen and Country
76 Ryoichi Ikegami
77 Sergio Aragonés
78 Snapper Carr
79 Star Wars #49 ("The Last Jedi")
80 Starro the Star Conqueror
81 Steve Rude
82 StrangeHaven
83 Strangers in Paradise
84 Stray Bullets
85 The Superfriends vs. The Legion of Doom
86 Superman
87 Superman: The Movie
88 Tales of the Beanworld
89 Tesla Strong
90 That Alan Moore "realised that Dave Gibbons was prepared to draw whatever absurd amount of detail you should ask for, however ludicrous and impractical."
91 Thieves & Kings
92 Tiempos Finales
93 Transmetropolitan
94 200 Pages of manga for $10
95 Ultimate Spider-Man
96 Uzumaki
97 We3
98 Will Eisner
99 Annataz
100 Zot!


Of course, this is limited to only 100 things, and I'm sure I would put together a different list on any other given day. So just because you're not on here, it doesn't mean that I don't love you.

Monkey Covers

Sunday is Monkey Covers day here at YACB. Because there's nothing better than a comic with a monkey on the cover.

1955's Tarzan #65 features Tarzan and his little monkey friend N'kima as they wait out a rainstorm in a cave, in a painted cover by Moe Gollub & George Wilson.

Image is courtesy of the GCD. Click on the image for a larger version.