Retro Review – (Title Hidden)

Today’s Retro Review is a somber one as we look at an issue chronicling the death of one of the great heroes in the DC Universe. A hero whose recent resurrection in Blackest Night #1 has made the event infinitely more horrifying and heart-wrenching. Do I speak of J’onn J’onnz, the beloved Martian Manhunter? No. How about Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man? No again. Friends and fellow enthusiasts, I speak of....

Ch’p! Yes Ch’p, the bushy tailed alien squirrel member of the Green Lantern Corps. The issue that we’re looking at is, of course, Green Lantern : Mosaic #2 where our hero meets his untimely passing due to a horrible accident.

While Ch’p is helping fellow Lantern Corps member John Stewart locate a villain who is destroying supply roads on Oa, he loses focus and forgets where he is for a moment…but long enough for tragedy to strike.

Ch’p is violently struck down by a speeding yellow truck in much the same way that his Earth cousins often meet their maker. A sad but quick ending for such a valiant rodent. Do we get a huge multi-issue leadup? A twisting and turning Morrisonian psychological breakdown before death? A public execution? Nope. We get a thundering SPLAT and then Ch’p lying in the street, harkening back to the issue’s foreshadowing title : Roadkill.

But death is not the ultimate end for this brave little Green Lantern. Recently showing up front and center (well left of center) in Blackest Night #1, Ch’p has been resurrected as a Black Lantern…overalls and all. I, for one, am dying to see Black Lantern Ch’p square off against either Krypto the Superdog or Dex-Starr the evil Red Lantern cat. Geoff Johns if you are reading my blog (and I know that you do) please give us fans the Furry Fight of the Century somewhere in your epic story.

Ch’p is back from the dead folks…and there is nothing worse than an angry zombie squirrel in overalls.

Retro Review #6 : Invincible Trade Vol. 4

Here's a quick Retro Review that I had forgotten to publish to hold you over until I get back on track :-)

Invincible Volume 4 : Head of the Class (2004)

Story by Robert Kirkman
Art by Ryan Ottley

For the longest time now, people have been telling me that I have to read this book. “You’ll love it”, they would say “It’s about a teenager who gets superpowers and has to deal with being a hero and having a normal life.” Riiiight, because I’ve never read such a story before.

So my neighbor lent me his hardcover collection of the first 13 issues (thanks Archie!) so I could see what all the fuss was about. I read through the entire 13 issues in a single evening because I could not bring myself to put this book down. I had been missing out.

If you have never read this title, stop reading this and go out and get it now…go ahead, I’ll wait for you to get back.

The story starts in familiar territory: a superhero named Omni-Man has a child who develops superpowers in his teen years and the kid decides to become a superhero named Invincible. What makes Invincible so different is that the books are bright and fun. Robert Kirkman does a wonderful job of rewarding longtime readers with surprises and hidden treasures. For example : In the first few issues, Mark the main character, realizes his powers have kicked in when he is taking out a bag of garbage at Burger Mart. As he throws the bag up into the dumpster, he inadvertently launches the bag into the stratosphere with his new super-strength. Much later in the collection (about 6-8 issues I think) a man is walking his dog in England when, out of nowhere, something falls out of the sky and lands next to him. He looks down to see a garbage bag with containers from Burger Mart.

Volume 4, which contains issues 13-19 plus a Free Comic Book Day short story, picks up after the devastating events that ended Volume 3. Our young hero has to deal with the repercussions of those events, along with graduating high school, dealing with a girlfriend who is suspicious of where he keeps running off to, and being a part-time member of a teen superhero group. Once again, we get setup for a future joke, at graduation when everyone tosses their caps in the air, Mark’s does not return to the ground.

The art by Ryan Ottley is very well done and refreshing, helping to keep the positive tone of the books. Kirkman excels at overlaying multiple plots and storylines without it feeling too overcrowded. You will definitely find yourself laughing out loud in between the decent drama and intense action sequences.

While most of the bigger companies are publishing dark and gloomy comics, Invincible is a pleasant distraction. By the way, the introduction to Volume 4 by Mark Waid is hilarious.

Retro Review #5 : JLA / Avengers

Story by Kurt Busiek
Art by George Perez

Did you ever think what would happen if your favorite heroes from Marvel met your favorite heroes from DC and hung out together? JLA / Avengers is what would happen. This is a surprisingly enjoyable story by Kurt Busiek with incredible art by George Perez and many classic comic book moments. As the book clearly demonstrates, the Marvel and DC Universes are VERY different places. (and by the way...I promise that the next Retro Review will be a non-DC Comics book)

This review is based on the individual 4 issue prestige format miniseries (thanks for the loan, Shawn) so I’m not sure of what, if any, extras are available in the recently released trade paperback version. The story is a classic one : two extraordinarily powerful cosmic entities, namely Krona from the DC side and The Grandmaster from the Marvel side, manipulate these two very different worlds in a grand game. With plenty of twists and turns along the way, including appearances by Metron and Galactus, the story is very fulfilling and well paced.

The art is classic Perez. Every page is filled with beautifully rendered characters from both camps, in some instances you wonder how he fits so much in a panel and it still doesn’t seem overdone. The interaction between the JLA and the Avengers is tumultuous at first, but they both realize that they are all being played. Due to rifts in time and space, we see appearances by some deceased favorites like Hal Jordan and Barry Allen, and some different versions of our favorites like Mullet Superman and quite a few variations of Iron Man’s armor.

The book is literally packed with more grin-inducing fanboy crossover moments than I could cover here, but here are a few of my personal favorites :

- Captain America versus Batman – these two brilliant tacticians spar for a few minutes, judging one another’s weaknesses and strengths. Batman finally halts the fight stating that he knows that Cap can beat him..but it will take a long time. They decide instead to just investigate together.
- Darkseid wearing the Infinity Gauntlet…enough said.
- Plastic Man poking fun at Galactus for his fashion sense
- During a battle scene, Dr. Light yells “Captain Marvel, look out!” as both the “Shazam!” Captain Marvel and the “Mar-Vell” Captain Marvel reply “Thanks!” in unison.

My absolute favorite image from this book is the cover to Issue #4 (pictured above). Superman, looking badly battle-worn, stands defiant against the cosmic threat wielding Cap’s shield in one hand and Thor’s Mjolnir hammer in the other.

There are some great emotional moments as well. After a space / time shift, Hal and Barry realize that they were dead and they catch a glimpse of their replacements, Kyle and Wally, and talk about how proud they are that worthy successors are around to carry on their legacies.

I wish these crossovers would happen more often because, for the readers, they are just plain fun if done right and this one is definitely done right. With A-list talent like Busiek and Perez it’s pretty much a no-brainer. My only disappointment from the book was the Batman versus Punisher fight that happened completely off-panel. I wanted to see this!!!! And, on a side note, Kyle Rayner’s costume in this book is the best design he ever had, why did they go back to the ridiculous faceplate mask??

As I said, I think more companies should bury the hatchet and try more of these crossover books. I’ll be honest, as a longtime DC fan this book got me interested in the Avengers and some other Marvel characters. And I’m not just talking DC and Marvel here, let’s go everyone…..Invincible / Spiderman / Blue Beetle??....Scarlet Witch / Zatanna??...Lobo / Wolverine???...and my personal favorite…Bomb Queen versus Power Girl :-)

Retro Review #4 - Identity Crisis

Story by Brad Meltzer
Art by Rags Morales
Covers by Michael Turner & Peter Steigerwald

Whenever I see this book on my trade shelf, Godfather Part 3 comes to mind. No not the whole disappointing film, mind you, but one scene in particular. Michael Corleone, having worked all of his life to legitimize his family business, speaks the following line : “Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in.” This is the story that pulled me back in.


I was not following comic books for a long time. Yes, I would pick up a random trade paperback here and there to kill some time, but it never amounted to anything more. So I decided to renew my interest in the art form and my friend Shawn drew up a quick syllabus for “Catching Up With DC Comics 101”. First lesson : Brad Meltzer’s Identity Crisis.

One of my first thoughts after reading through a bit of this book was that comics had changed…a lot. Apparently, I thought, comics are attracting big name novel talent to write these stories and it definitely shows in the quality of this story. Identity Crisis at its core is a classic “whodunit” murder mystery. But this particular story is populated not by your standard jealous lover and shady police detectives, but by some of my favorite characters from the DC Universe.

Without giving too much away, the plot focuses not only on the heroes but their loved ones and the danger they live in just by being associated with them. The story begins with the brutal murder of one of these loved ones and the heroes have to balance personal loyalty and their heroic standards with revenge.

There is a ton of emotion flowing through this book. The funeral scene in the beginning is absolutely heart-wrenching, and the twists and turns will have you right alongside the harsh emotions that the main characters experience. Rags Morales has also drawn one of the best fight scenes, in my opinion, in modern comics. As a group of heroes arrive to confront one of the suspects in the murder, they discover that said suspect has hired a personal bodyguard : Deathstroke the Terminator. What follows is a 13 page fight sequence where Deathstroke single-handedly takes down 7 of the more experienced DC heroes, all without breaking a sweat.

The book’s end is a great surprise and, in my opinion, well worth the time. I have re-read this book I don’t know how many times in the past couple of years and I find new things almost every time. If you are just getting started in the DCU, this book is a fantastic jumping on point because it’s not rooted too deeply in continuity, and when they do reference older info they do a great job of explaining it. On the art side of things, Rags Morales does a phenomenal job of conveying emotion and the dark mood of the characters involved. This story is the beginning of a much darker time in the DCU and has repercussions still to this day.

One more point worth mentioning is the cover work by the late Michael Turner. I know that not everyone is a fan of his work, but you have to admit that the covers for the single issues are moving. My favorite being the cover to the final issue, where the hero’s costumes are hanging empty as if they’ve actually had enough and given up, with Green Lantern’s power ring lying on the ground. I was re-reading this book last August, a week or so before Turner’s passing, and the cover to #1 always stands out to me. We see a casket in the center, surrounded by mourning DC heroes, a tear running down Superman’s cheek. Michael Turner’s signature appears eerily close to the casket in a sort of unfortunate foreshadowing.

Recently my wife expressed interest in reading some DC Comics (years of subtle brainwashing at work) and this is definitely where I will start her journey. The tone of the book, for me, the dark and brooding acceptance of making tough choices for little reward and to serve the greater good can be summed up by a quote from Batman in the book : “ I chose this life. I know what I’m doing. And on any given day, I could stop doing it. Today, however isn’t that day and tomorrow won’t be either.”

Retro Review #3 - JLA : Earth 2

JLA : Earth 2 (2000)

Story by Grant Morrison

Art by Frank Quitely

To attempt to nip any confusion in the bud, this is not a story about DC's current continuity Earth-2 where Power Girl and Kal-L were from during Infinite Crisis. The Earth 2 mentioned here is our regular pre-Infinite Crisis DC Earth, named Earth 2 from the perspective of the Crime Syndicate (which now inhabit Earth-3 post-Infinite Crisis) but is also referred to here as the Anti-Matter Universe but not where Qward is if you're familiar with Sinestro's home base and birthplace of the Anti-Monitor. Confused ?? Welcome to the wonderful world of Grant Morrison.

If you have the ability to read certain stories as out-of-continuity tales that don't have to tie in to everything else, then you will lessen your confusion with this book and heighten your enjoyment. If you think too much about it here, your brain will begin to throb.

We begin the book looking at a dark and evil version of the JLA's Watchtower moonbase (I miss the moonbase). There are some familiar sillhouettes standing around talking about how "he" escaped. The "he" they speak of is none other than Alexander Luthor, not the Alex Luthor from Earth-3 (and not my future son Alexander Luthor Manger), but a hero version of Luthor. This Lex is apparently the lone hero in a world where evil rules and good struggles daily. But, good or evil, Lex is still Lex with one of my favorite lines. As he crashes to Earth in his ship, very Superman-esque, he is discovered by some nice farmers. When one of them asks if he's human as he removes his helmet, he replies "My dear country cousin, you are human...I am Luthor."

Luthor has come to our Earth in an attempt to recruit a group of our heroes, consisting of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Kyle Rayner (I still can't call him Green Lantern...I'm sorry I can't) to fight the villains that run his world. The Crime Syndicate of Amerika, obviously evil due to their lack of spell-check, consisting of Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick, and Power Ring rule over the populace with an iron fist. This is graphically demonstrated as Ultraman is on the deck of his giant floating fortress looking down at the peons when one of them decides to speak out against him. A quick shot of heat vision quells the one-man uprising with lethal efficiency.

I have always liked the Crime Syndicate characters as long as they're not overused or written as camp, and I think Morrison writes them well in this book. The main point of the story, to me, is to get our heroes to realize that they can't win all of the battles, and they have to say at one point "What have we done?" in order to realize that in some situations, interfering with the staus quo with good intentions doesn't always end well.

There are plenty of great scenes where our hero's opposites prove just how opposite they really are. Some of my personal favorites include Superwoman (Lois Lane) changing into her costume in a closet in full view of a cowering Jimmy Olsen in a definite dominatrix role compared to Superman's buddy role with Olsen, Johnny Quick's dependence on a speed-enhancing drug, and Power Ring's utter loathing of his ring which he views as a curse. Luthor steps up as well. As he enters his office on our Earth (after abducting our Luthor) he proceeds to divert weapons research funding to Greenpeace, give the Lexcorp employees a 300% raise, and sends his secretary on an $80,000 vacation.

The book is a quick read and there are some decent twists near the end that keep it interesting. The writing by Morrison keeps things moving at a good pace and the art by Quitely is up to par for the most part. My biggest issue with Quitely is that everyone in this book looks stumpy and overly bulky. Not quite Ed McGuiness proportions, but it's like watching something made for standard TVs on a widescreen TV...everything's just a little off. In one panel, Kyle Rayner appears to be about 8 feet tall when compared to some regular guys standing around. I am also not a big fan of his Wonder Woman, she looks waaaay too butch.

Lastly, I am mildly upset that there was no Anti-Universe Aquaman. I would have enjoyed seeing an Aquaman who hates sea creatures and helps whaling vessels by lifting the whales onto their decks so they don't scratch their harpoons, he would also lure dolphins into fishing nets just for laughs. Just a thought :-) This book is great for a quick read and as I said before, please don't get wrapped up too much in continuity on this one.

- Jason (Anti-Aquaman can also punch holes in oil tankers to pollute the ocean...OK I'll drop it)

Retro Review #2 - Superman : Red Son

As I was rifling through some comic boxes for reading material until Wednesday rolls around, I came across one of my all time favorite Superman stories : Superman Red Son.

I can't remember if this classifies as an Elseworlds book because I don't think they were still using that label when it was released. For those that are not familiar, Elseworlds books were a great story idea for the most part. You take a character, remove them from their normal context or origin, and re-write it in a completely new way.

The basic premise is as follows : Baby Kal-El, instead of landing in a Kansas cornfield, lands on a communal farm in Russia. He grows up under Stalin's watchful eye to become not the symbol of Truth, Justice and the American Way but of Soviet and communist supremacy.

Mark Millar does a fantastic job of taking this story to the obvious, and not so obvious places to flesh out this concept. Superman does not hate America or capitalism. He's still Superman and loves to help people but he's been brought up in a different atmosphere and has a much different father figure in Stalin.

After Stalin's death, he is groomed to be the savior of the communist party and takes over as President Superman, ruling with a well meaning iron fist and fighting Lex Luthor along the way, who is a brilliant scientist working for the US Government.

Along with the main character of Soviet Superman, we get many cameo appearances by familiar DC characters, albeit in unfamiliar roles. Notable cameos include Bizarro (as a US Superman clone), FBI Agent James Olsen, Lois Luthor, Batman as a freedom fighter and members of the Green Lantern Marine Corps (tags on their uniform read Jordan, Rayner, Gardner, Stewart and Scott). We also get an explanation of the Roswell UFO crash which turns out to be the arrival of Abin Sur.

The character designs are fantastic and the art is very impressive. The re-designed costumes for Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman are excellent. Superman's especially gets better and better as he ages and it changes slightly. My wife has the Red Son Wonder Woman figure and I'm looking to pick up the President Superman figure sometime soon.

I would highly recommend this book even if you don't have a background in reading Superman. The conflict in the book is very real and the paths that Millar takes are not always expected. As an added surprise, the ending really makes you think...

- Jason (Stalin is creepy when he hits on Hippolyta)

Retro Review #1 - Batman / Grendel

A few weeks back I was strolling through Barnes and Noble, as I do sometimes when bored, and I noticed this trade on the shelf. Batman / Grendel...I thought : Batman is good and Grendel is good so this must be great. You know what? I was totally right.

This trade paperback (cover price $19.95) collects two seperate storylines, one featuring the original Grendel Hunter Rose and one featuring the futuristic cyborg Grendel Prime. Both stories are entertaining but I have a nostalgic bias towards the original Grendel.

You can clearly see the evolution of creator Matt Wagner's artistic ability between the two stories. The first meeting between Hunter Rose and Bruce Wayne is perfect and their meetings and battles as Batman and Grendel are excellent. For those that don't know, these are very similar characters. Grendel is basically Batman if he had little to no moral code and decided to run the mafia as a masked killer. The attitudes of the two characters could not be more different though. Batman sees his patrols and crimefighting as vengeance for his parents, whereas Grendel sees what he does as a game or an interesting pasttime.

The second story is also good and shows what the legacy of Grendel spawns in the future. Like I said, the art is much improved in the second half but I still prefer the story in the first half.

An interesting and enjoyable read and worth picking up if you like either of these characters. My only little complaint is that the "handwritten" Hunter Rose text is a bit hard to read but you get used to it.

- Jason (all best-selling novelists are secretly brutal killers)