Many Superhero Trade Paperbacks (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man)
I recently discovered that my local public
library is now carrying comic book trade paperbacks, a service I heartily
endorse. While their collection is largely split between the most mainstream of
superheroes (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man) and the most mainstream of manga
(Dragonball Z), it has given me a chance to read some marginal titles I
wouldn’t normally pay
for.
Superman: Red Son – This is an imaginary story (but as Alan Moore pointed out, aren’t they all?) where the rocket ship carrying baby Kal-El to Earth lands in the Ukraine instead of Kansas. Superman grows up as a Soviet and becomes a favorite of Stalin, even replacing the dictator when he dies. Under Superman Communism flourishes and conquers most of the world, except for the United States, which goes into a dangerous decline until unstable genius Lex Luthor is elected president. Red Son is really good, marred only by some plot twists towards the end that resemble Morrison/Quitely’s JLA: Earth 2 a little two closely and a switch of artists 2/3 of the way through.
Superman: End of the Century – A special that Stuart Immomen wrote and drew primarily to fill in the origin of the Contessa, wife to Lex Luthor and mother of his child. It turns out the Contessa is immortal, and she has an immortal psychopathic son who has spent the last 100 years frozen in a block of ice in a cave on a small Caribbean island. Lex brings the block of ice to Metropolis for the “End of the Century” celebrations, which means Metropolis is the only place on the planet that didn’t realize 2000 was a thousand year mark too. Nice artwork, awful concept.
Superman: Critical Condition – A collection of issues of the regular Superman series. Lois Lane is missing, kidnapped by the Parasite. Superman looks for her. He finds her, but gets sick. It’s kind of sad, but the regular Superman titles seem to have devolved into the superhero equivalent of daytime soaps. They just grind through various plots, designed to have as many twists as possible with very little emotional payoff. This collection (and all the other Superman collections) also highlights a weakness in DC’s trade policy. It takes them forever to get the trades out. Critical Condition collects stories from 2000, rife with references to John Rocker and Y2K, but the trade didn’t come out until 2003. Marvel, on the other hand, usually gets any given trade out the month after the last issue collected comes out, making their trades much more current, and a good alternative to buying the individual issues.
Superman: President Lex – More regular Superman issues. Lex Luthor runs for President of the United States, and wins. My biggest problem with this storyline is that there is almost no explanation for why Luthor, an evil genius with allies in space and even Hell, would want the hassle of being President. Also, I’m a little fuzzy on how Luthor has been keeping his various evil genius activities such a secret that they don’t offer an impediment to his running for office. I’m thinking primarily of the time, not so many years ago, when Luthor was dying and he tried to destroy Metropolis with burrowing missiles. That was all pretty public, as I remember it. This collection highlights another weakness of DC’s trades, which is that they often just reprint the parts of individual issues most germane to the storyline. You get the gist, but it’s a very choppy read, sort of like a highlight reel. What I assume was a cliffhanger about whether or not Luthor wins (you know, I don’t remember a single reference to who Luthor was running against…) is reduced to four pages showing Superman flying down from some high place to congratulate Lex. Marvel used to do this Reader Digest style on some of their trades too, but not recently.
Superman: Our Worlds at War Parts 1 & 2 – Collects a huge crossover that ran through all the Superman titles and some related titles, like Wonder Woman and Young Justice. Imperiex, a kind of Galactus for the DC universe, sets his sights on Earth. Because of the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths Earth has become the lynchpin of the universe, and Imperiex wants to destroy Earth and cause a new big bang. (Stephen Hawkings is such a hack!) All kinds of alien beings come to defend Earth, including Darkseid, who puts Apokolips in earth orbit. But even defeating Imperiex doesn’t end this rambling story, because Brainiac has turned Pluto into a new Warworld. Brainiac planned all this to steal Imperiex’s power, which he does. Then he fakes an attack on Apokolips by Earth which triggers an invasion by Darkseid, and then everyone realizes that Warworld is nearby and…
Geez, this thing just goes on and on. Even so, not nearly all of the issues of the crossover are represented in these two trades, and there are some huge gaps in the narrative. Adding insult to injury, other issues do little more than recap issues we’ve read earlier in the collection. Our Worlds at War isn’t very compelling, partly because inconsistent artwork makes it tough to tell who is fighting who, so many different factions are involved. I’m pretty well versed in DC continuity, but these trades left me in the dust. Little attempt is made to fill readers in as to who Grayven is, or why Lex Luthor has a grown daughter with green skin, or what the hell Strange Visitor is.
I would suggest skipping the whole thing. Even if you’re interested in Superman comics, Our Worlds at War is disposable. Even though a big deal was made at the time about all the characters that were going to get killed off in this “war” and Superman’s constant moaning about casualties, I’m not sure there were any lasting consequences. A few villains get killed, including Mongul and Doomsday, and a few heroes allegedly die, like Aquaman and Hippolyta. Some of these characters stayed dead for nearly a year! Supes also believes his parents were killed, though obviously they weren’t, and the collection just leaves that plot thread hanging.
Superman: Return to Krypton – Yet more issues of monthly Superman titles, but the two storylines in this book are actually pretty good. In the title story Supes finds another rocket from Krypton. This one contains a kind of virtual reality recording. The recording is from Jor-El, who reveals that the sterile, rational Krypton Clark had been led to believe in was a lie… In fact Krypton resembles the Flash Gordon future depicted in the earliest Superman comics. Clark and Lois actually travel to this Krypton through the Phantom Zone and get involved in a civil war. In the second storyline, cleverly called “Return to Krypton II,” Clark returns to this Krypton again, but this time he finds out the truth about where this new Krypton came from.
Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure – Part of the avalanche of material featuring Doctor Octopus Marvel created to tie-in with the movie, Negative Exposure takes place when Peter Parker was still in college. It’s primarily about a freelance photographer who can’t understand how Peter gets all those great pictures of Spider-Man. Neat story, written by Brian K Vaughn with solid art by Staz Johnson.
Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again – Frank Miller’s semi-sequel to his classic Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Dark Knight Returns is one of my favorite comic books but Dark Knight Strikes Again… Well, let me review it in the same clipped pseudo-noir dialogue Batman speaks in:
Dark Knight Strikes Again stinks… stinks like a dead dog rotting in the sun. Drawings look like they were done by a 12-year old coming off a cocaine bender. Minimal backgrounds. Cartoonish figures. Can’t believe Frank Miller got a million bucks for this thing. In interview, Lynn Varley said she was going to teach herself to computer color on this book. Might not want to learn a new skill on the most anticipated sequel in all of comics history, Lynn. Results are garish and psychedelic, rarely appropriate to the material. Also a marked inclination towards the kind cheap filter tricks and distortions we all did when we first got to play with MacPaint… 15 years ago. Braniac looks like frog. Batman barely in book. Beats Superman with oversized gauntlets. Smash! Smash stupid book!
Whoops, I appear to have gone from clipped pseudo-noir dialogue to Hulk speak. There are a few interesting character bits, and there’s something approaching cleverness when Brainiac’s plans unravel. But the ending, dear lord, the ending. Spoilers upcoming. After the new Brainac/Luthor team has been defeated Batman in confronted in the Batcave by Joker Jr. Joker Jr. appeared randomly throughout the story, looking like a younger version the Joker wearing random superhero costumes. He attacked a few characters, and appeared to be able to recover from any amount of injury. So imagine my surprise when this new Joker turns out be… Dick Grayson?! (Whuh?) Batman says something about how he was always disappointed in Dick (Whuzzah?) and makes it obvious he expected Grayson to be a traitor someday. (Wha?) What personality trait, what storyline could this possibly be based on? It’s completely contrary to everything we know about these two characters. Maybe this made sense in Frank Miller’s head, or maybe he just doesn’t like Dick Grayson, but the bizarre climax turns The Dark Knight Strikes Again from being merely disappointing to being one of the worst sequels of all time.
Superman: Red Son – This is an imaginary story (but as Alan Moore pointed out, aren’t they all?) where the rocket ship carrying baby Kal-El to Earth lands in the Ukraine instead of Kansas. Superman grows up as a Soviet and becomes a favorite of Stalin, even replacing the dictator when he dies. Under Superman Communism flourishes and conquers most of the world, except for the United States, which goes into a dangerous decline until unstable genius Lex Luthor is elected president. Red Son is really good, marred only by some plot twists towards the end that resemble Morrison/Quitely’s JLA: Earth 2 a little two closely and a switch of artists 2/3 of the way through.
Superman: End of the Century – A special that Stuart Immomen wrote and drew primarily to fill in the origin of the Contessa, wife to Lex Luthor and mother of his child. It turns out the Contessa is immortal, and she has an immortal psychopathic son who has spent the last 100 years frozen in a block of ice in a cave on a small Caribbean island. Lex brings the block of ice to Metropolis for the “End of the Century” celebrations, which means Metropolis is the only place on the planet that didn’t realize 2000 was a thousand year mark too. Nice artwork, awful concept.
Superman: Critical Condition – A collection of issues of the regular Superman series. Lois Lane is missing, kidnapped by the Parasite. Superman looks for her. He finds her, but gets sick. It’s kind of sad, but the regular Superman titles seem to have devolved into the superhero equivalent of daytime soaps. They just grind through various plots, designed to have as many twists as possible with very little emotional payoff. This collection (and all the other Superman collections) also highlights a weakness in DC’s trade policy. It takes them forever to get the trades out. Critical Condition collects stories from 2000, rife with references to John Rocker and Y2K, but the trade didn’t come out until 2003. Marvel, on the other hand, usually gets any given trade out the month after the last issue collected comes out, making their trades much more current, and a good alternative to buying the individual issues.
Superman: President Lex – More regular Superman issues. Lex Luthor runs for President of the United States, and wins. My biggest problem with this storyline is that there is almost no explanation for why Luthor, an evil genius with allies in space and even Hell, would want the hassle of being President. Also, I’m a little fuzzy on how Luthor has been keeping his various evil genius activities such a secret that they don’t offer an impediment to his running for office. I’m thinking primarily of the time, not so many years ago, when Luthor was dying and he tried to destroy Metropolis with burrowing missiles. That was all pretty public, as I remember it. This collection highlights another weakness of DC’s trades, which is that they often just reprint the parts of individual issues most germane to the storyline. You get the gist, but it’s a very choppy read, sort of like a highlight reel. What I assume was a cliffhanger about whether or not Luthor wins (you know, I don’t remember a single reference to who Luthor was running against…) is reduced to four pages showing Superman flying down from some high place to congratulate Lex. Marvel used to do this Reader Digest style on some of their trades too, but not recently.
Superman: Our Worlds at War Parts 1 & 2 – Collects a huge crossover that ran through all the Superman titles and some related titles, like Wonder Woman and Young Justice. Imperiex, a kind of Galactus for the DC universe, sets his sights on Earth. Because of the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths Earth has become the lynchpin of the universe, and Imperiex wants to destroy Earth and cause a new big bang. (Stephen Hawkings is such a hack!) All kinds of alien beings come to defend Earth, including Darkseid, who puts Apokolips in earth orbit. But even defeating Imperiex doesn’t end this rambling story, because Brainiac has turned Pluto into a new Warworld. Brainiac planned all this to steal Imperiex’s power, which he does. Then he fakes an attack on Apokolips by Earth which triggers an invasion by Darkseid, and then everyone realizes that Warworld is nearby and…
Geez, this thing just goes on and on. Even so, not nearly all of the issues of the crossover are represented in these two trades, and there are some huge gaps in the narrative. Adding insult to injury, other issues do little more than recap issues we’ve read earlier in the collection. Our Worlds at War isn’t very compelling, partly because inconsistent artwork makes it tough to tell who is fighting who, so many different factions are involved. I’m pretty well versed in DC continuity, but these trades left me in the dust. Little attempt is made to fill readers in as to who Grayven is, or why Lex Luthor has a grown daughter with green skin, or what the hell Strange Visitor is.
I would suggest skipping the whole thing. Even if you’re interested in Superman comics, Our Worlds at War is disposable. Even though a big deal was made at the time about all the characters that were going to get killed off in this “war” and Superman’s constant moaning about casualties, I’m not sure there were any lasting consequences. A few villains get killed, including Mongul and Doomsday, and a few heroes allegedly die, like Aquaman and Hippolyta. Some of these characters stayed dead for nearly a year! Supes also believes his parents were killed, though obviously they weren’t, and the collection just leaves that plot thread hanging.
Superman: Return to Krypton – Yet more issues of monthly Superman titles, but the two storylines in this book are actually pretty good. In the title story Supes finds another rocket from Krypton. This one contains a kind of virtual reality recording. The recording is from Jor-El, who reveals that the sterile, rational Krypton Clark had been led to believe in was a lie… In fact Krypton resembles the Flash Gordon future depicted in the earliest Superman comics. Clark and Lois actually travel to this Krypton through the Phantom Zone and get involved in a civil war. In the second storyline, cleverly called “Return to Krypton II,” Clark returns to this Krypton again, but this time he finds out the truth about where this new Krypton came from.
Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure – Part of the avalanche of material featuring Doctor Octopus Marvel created to tie-in with the movie, Negative Exposure takes place when Peter Parker was still in college. It’s primarily about a freelance photographer who can’t understand how Peter gets all those great pictures of Spider-Man. Neat story, written by Brian K Vaughn with solid art by Staz Johnson.
Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again – Frank Miller’s semi-sequel to his classic Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Dark Knight Returns is one of my favorite comic books but Dark Knight Strikes Again… Well, let me review it in the same clipped pseudo-noir dialogue Batman speaks in:
Dark Knight Strikes Again stinks… stinks like a dead dog rotting in the sun. Drawings look like they were done by a 12-year old coming off a cocaine bender. Minimal backgrounds. Cartoonish figures. Can’t believe Frank Miller got a million bucks for this thing. In interview, Lynn Varley said she was going to teach herself to computer color on this book. Might not want to learn a new skill on the most anticipated sequel in all of comics history, Lynn. Results are garish and psychedelic, rarely appropriate to the material. Also a marked inclination towards the kind cheap filter tricks and distortions we all did when we first got to play with MacPaint… 15 years ago. Braniac looks like frog. Batman barely in book. Beats Superman with oversized gauntlets. Smash! Smash stupid book!
Whoops, I appear to have gone from clipped pseudo-noir dialogue to Hulk speak. There are a few interesting character bits, and there’s something approaching cleverness when Brainiac’s plans unravel. But the ending, dear lord, the ending. Spoilers upcoming. After the new Brainac/Luthor team has been defeated Batman in confronted in the Batcave by Joker Jr. Joker Jr. appeared randomly throughout the story, looking like a younger version the Joker wearing random superhero costumes. He attacked a few characters, and appeared to be able to recover from any amount of injury. So imagine my surprise when this new Joker turns out be… Dick Grayson?! (Whuh?) Batman says something about how he was always disappointed in Dick (Whuzzah?) and makes it obvious he expected Grayson to be a traitor someday. (Wha?) What personality trait, what storyline could this possibly be based on? It’s completely contrary to everything we know about these two characters. Maybe this made sense in Frank Miller’s head, or maybe he just doesn’t like Dick Grayson, but the bizarre climax turns The Dark Knight Strikes Again from being merely disappointing to being one of the worst sequels of all time.
Posted: Tue - July 20, 2004 at
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About Me
My name is Scott Hamilton and I live in St. Petersburg, Florida. My e-mail is Scott (at) stomptokyo.com.
Links
Stomp Tokyo Video Reviews - My website, all about cult movies. Created by myself and Chris Holland.
Giant Monster Movies - My site devoted to a database of giant monster movies.
Cult DVD Zone - Stomp Tokyo's store full of rare movies and TV shows on DVD-R.
B-Movie Message Board - Message board for Stomp Tokyo.
Blue Glow - Chris Holland's weblog, mostly about TV.
Reel Shame - About the book I co-wrote.
My .Mac Homepage - Movies that I'm sharing.
My Flickr Page - Pictures that I'm sharing.
Giant Monster Movies - My site devoted to a database of giant monster movies.
Cult DVD Zone - Stomp Tokyo's store full of rare movies and TV shows on DVD-R.
B-Movie Message Board - Message board for Stomp Tokyo.
Blue Glow - Chris Holland's weblog, mostly about TV.
Reel Shame - About the book I co-wrote.
My .Mac Homepage - Movies that I'm sharing.
My Flickr Page - Pictures that I'm sharing.
Frappr Map
Blogs of Interest
Blue Glow - Chris Holland's weblog, mostly about TV.
FilmBuffStuff - Stomp Tokyo's shopping blog.
Prawn Bites - Ask him about kung fu movies.
Tachyon-City - Nathan of Cold Fusion Video Reveiw's blog.
Yes, I Know - Freex of The Bad Movie Report's blog.
Background Radiati0n - The inane ramblings of a Brit living in the USA.
Make Friends the Joe Bannerman Way - "Maria Ford Forever", indeed.
FilmBuffStuff - Stomp Tokyo's shopping blog.
Prawn Bites - Ask him about kung fu movies.
Tachyon-City - Nathan of Cold Fusion Video Reveiw's blog.
Yes, I Know - Freex of The Bad Movie Report's blog.
Background Radiati0n - The inane ramblings of a Brit living in the USA.
Make Friends the Joe Bannerman Way - "Maria Ford Forever", indeed.
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Most Recent DVD Purchases
Robo Vampire/Devil's Dynamite (1988/1987)
Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (1974)
Mystery Science Theater 3000 Vol. 9 (1988)
The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season (1991-1992)
Hard Boiled (Import, 1992)
The John Woo Hero Collection (Import, 1986-1989)
Hand of Death (1976)
Bamboo house of Dolls (Import, 1974)
The Project A Series (Import, 1982-1987)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Zu Warriors (2001)
Leon: The Professional - Deluxe Edition (1994)
Boogie Nights - Special Edition (1997)
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Published On: Jul 16, 2006 10:41 PM
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Published On: Jul 16, 2006 10:41 PM
