New 52 Trade Post: Wonder Woman Blood & Deathstroke Legacy

Posted on by TJDietsch

Wonder Woman Volume 1: Blood (DC)
Written by Brian Azzarello, drawn by Cliff Chiang with Tony Akins
Collects Wonder Woman #1-8

I’ve been a fan of Wonder Woman on and off over the years. She was the first comic book character where I realized how important the creators writing and drawing the book were to my personal like or dislike of the story. I started reading when Artemis took over and then moved into the John Byrne stuff which I have all of, but didn’t particularly enjoy. From there I went in and out reading some of the Greg Rucka stuff, but not really getting into it and then really enjoying Gail Simone’s run and even digging the first trade of JMS’s run. Heck, I’ve even read three of the four trades that collect the old school stories where she has no powers and is just super groovy. But there also a lot of stuff in there that I haven’t read or didn’t like, so she can be kind of a crap shoot.

When I heard that Brian Azzarello was writing, I was hopefully optimistic, but not super-jazzed. See, I love his Vertigo work (Loveless to some extent, but definitely 100 Bullets), but the DC superhero stuff he’s done has been hit or miss, though I haven’t read his Superman or Batman stuff since they first came out. I was super excited to hear that Cliff Chiang was drawing on the book and knew that they worked really well together on the Doctor 13 stuff. With all that, plus a pretty favorable review on Preferred Podcast Matt and Brett Love Comics, it was pretty high on my list of New 52 comics to check out.

And, I’d definitely add this to the pile of WW comics I dig. It wasn’t shockingly new or different from the other stories I’ve read, but I thought Azz did a good job of addressing some of the familiar elements in different ways. For instance, there’s a big drama surrounding Diana’s lineage which turns out to not be what she thought it was. I’ve seen that bit before, but it was handled really well here. I’ve also seen Diana leaving the Amazons and operating on her own, but the reasons and resulting strange family dynamic make it interesting.

That last bit, the odd family dynamic created as the first arc carries on, is what I liked the best. The whole selfless, awesome warrior woman thing is cool and I’ve seen done a lot both well and poorly, but setting that idea in what’s essentially a dysfunctional family that doesn’t feel tacked on is impressive. On a related note, I also liked how Chiang and fellow artist Tony Akins designed some of the familiar Roman/Greek (forget which ones) gods in fun and interesting ways. Hermes looks rad, so do Nepture and Hades because they actually look different than the ways you usually see them in Wonder Woman comics. I just scoped it out and it looks like Azz and Chiang have stayed on the book for a while, so I’m in for at least one more of these trades!

Deathstroke Volume 1: Legacy (DC)
Written by Kyle Higgins, drawn by Joe Bennett with Eduardo Pansica
Collects Deathstroke #1-8

A few months back when I read through about half of the New 52 number one issues, Deathstroke was one of the ones that stuck out to me as being pretty interesting. I didn’t think it was the kind of thing that needed a whole new continuity relaunch to make sense, but it was a comic I enjoyed and wanted to see more of, hence my acquisition of the first trade.

There are three elements to this story that I like to different extents. You’ve got the general idea that people art starting to think Deathstroke has gone soft, so he takes all these ridiculously insane missions to show how badass he is. That’s rad. Then you’ve got this idea that someone he’s killed parents keep paying people to wear a pink and green mask/costume, though each costume is different. Why? Because those were the victim’s favorite colors. Really? That just seemed silly and took me out of the story because of how silly they always looked. Lastly and this gets into SPOILER TERRITORY, but a big part of the story revolves around Slade discovering that his assassin son is not actually dead, but in fact working with the parents of the above-mentioned victim. At first I was bummed that it was so quickly getting mired in Deathstroke’s crazy family stuff that became such a big part of the Titans comics for so long, tiresomely so. But then I realized that the story contained in this collection is actually very well self contained and didn’t need any outside explanations for new readers, which was the whole point of the New 52 relaunch, so I’m good on that.

Altogether, I thought this was a good, fun story worth checking out if you’re down for some melodramatic violence and giant sword action. I also dug Joe Bennett’s art which has kind of a Jim Calafiore feel to it, but a little looser. He handled everything from Clayface monsters to crazy armor well. I don’t believe this creative team stuck around after #8, so I’m not sure how things went after this. Anyone read those issues?

Picking Up The 52: Huntress, Batwing, Hawk & Dove & Deathstroke #1s

Posted on by TJDietsch

I recently came into a stack of DC’s New 52 #1 issues. I didn’t think I’d be reading any of these books until word of the best ones popped and the trades came out, but here we are. I figured it would be fun to read them in the order they came to me in and just dove in. Here’s my thoughts.

Huntress #1 (of 6)
Written by Paul Levitz, drawn by Marcus To

This was an interesting book to start off with. On my first read through it was enjoyable enough. You’ve got Huntress in pretty much the same outfit she had in the previous universe and basically the same MO, traveling abroad and stumbling upon a human trafficking ring. She uses her vigilante crime fighting skills to crush skulls and put a stop to the problems, though she doesn’t quite get to the big boss man yet. But, then, on the second flip through I realized that there wasn’t really much in the way of new-ness in this comic. Pretty much every scene in this book has shown up in movies or other comics and winds up not being all that interesting upon further inspection. I do, however, think that Marcus To has some pretty solid chops. He draws ladies as well as action pretty well. He even does some good face work when he’s given the chance to do so. I hate starting these things off negatively, but it does seem like this would be an okay entryway for someone who’s used to action/vigilante movies but not into comics. You could probably give this comic to the Dirty Harry/Death Wish fan in your life and they’d probably get into it and maybe come back for more.

Batwing #1
Written by Judd Winick, drawn by Ben Oliver

Batwing was actually one of my favorite books from this stack. It introduces us to the African Batman, more specifically, the man who Batman visited and tasked with instilling fear in the hearts of men. I should note that this is the only one of the New 52 books I read that Batman actually appears in, so I’m not sure what the deal is moving over from the Grant Morrison stuff pre-New 52, but I’ve heard it’s actually pretty similar. I’m not all the way caught up on that stuff either, but I know the point of Batman, Inc. was to set different Batmen up around the world where they’re needed. And, boy, does this area need a Bat. I’m no expert, but Winick seems to have a good handle on the stakes in this part of the world and places our new armored hero in them to worrying degrees. There’s even one point where he notes that Batmen won’t scare such hardened people. It’s a really interesting point that I hadn’t thought of, which is something I dig when reading comics. Also, Ben Oliver has a big bold style that looks like it’s almost painted (maybe it is?) that I liked though he could have done more with the backgrounds, which is becoming my biggest pet peeve in comics lately. The issue ended with a cliffhanger that made me want to move on to the next issue. I will definitely have my eyes peeled for the Batwing trade when it comes out.

Hawk & Dove #1
Written by Sterling Gates, drawn by Rob Liefeld

Another comic book pet peeve I’ve got is when a book opens with tons of text, especially if it’s a news broadcast which is how Hawk & Dove kicks off. I know it means I’m lazy, but that’s how I roll. Other than that, this is an alright book. The concept of Hawk and Dove is one that I just don’t dig. One person likes to fight and the other doesn’t, but they’re both superheroes? It just doens’t grab me because it feels very limited. This book also seems very connected to the old DCU considering this is the same pairing that came back to life in Brightest Day and that Dove is with Deadman which I’m guessing is also a carryover. Heck, the last page reveal shows that a guy who looks like Kestrel is going to be a bad guy. Only a very specific audience–the people who would have bought a Hawk & Dove book anyway–would really care about this last page reveal. But, maybe it gets better or maybe those H&D fans dig this book.

Deathstrike #1
Written by Kyle Higgins, drawn by Joe Bennett

Thankfully, Deathstroke is a concept I can definitely get behind and have been taken with since I first encountered him way back when. He’s a one-eyed assassin who uses all of his brain to figure out how to kill you before you can even throw a punch. That, I like. This issue finds him working with a team of younger support people to steal something from an in-flight airplane and kill a guy. The job goes a little wonky and he winds up throwing down with some monsters and getting the chance to swing that gigantic sword of his. At the end, he shows exactly what he’s about and winds up breaking ties with the people he had been working for. Like Batwing, there’s enough here to get me to come back for the trade. I also dig Bennett’s art. I know I’ve read his comics before, but this looks different than I remember. He’s got a little Jim Calafiore going on. He’s a bit stylized which really fits this cross-genre book that stars a man in armor. I dig it.

Books Of Oa: Rann-Thanagar War

Posted on by TJDietsch

RANN-THANAGAR WAR (DC)
Written by Dave Gibbons, drawn by Ivan Reis, Joe Prado and Joe Bennett
Collects Rann-Thanagar War #1-6
Rann-Thanagar War might seems like a strange book to include in the chronicles of the rejuvenated Green Lantern Corps, but GLs Kyle Rayner and Kilowog both played an important, though not main, role in this lead-in miniseries to 2005-2006’s Infinite Crisis which changed the shape of the DC Universe (in a few annoying places for at least this reader). At the time I was super excited about this book along with it’s brother and sister minis OMAC Project, Villains United and Day of Vengeance all of which I bought after being blown away by the Countdown to Infinite Crisis one-shot. I was in hook line and sinker and even liked Infinite Crisis when it came out (haven’t read it a second time, though the trade is on the way), but I was pretty disappointed that the series’ didn’t all really flow into Infinite Crisis as much as I hoped they would. In fact, the minis all lead to a series of one-shots that made the connection to the larger story.

But, enough of my personal history with these books, a little bit of history about the book. Though the series can be read on it’s own, it wouldn’t hurt to have read the 2004-2005 Adam Strange miniseries that Andy Diggle wrote and Pasqual Ferry drew. It was pretty awesome, though I don’t remember all of the details. Luckily–and shockingly depending on your experience–there’s actually a pretty damn solid recap page in the beginning that sums things up pretty well. The deal is that Rann (Adam Strange’s adoptive planet) got teleported out of its old orbit which put it smack up against Thanagar (the Hawkman planet). They’re enemies and both thought the other did this on purpose which spawned a war. Strange got in contact with the Hawks on Earth and brought them into the fight where they were joined by Kyle Rayner, Kilowog, Captain Comet, Vril Dox and L.E.G.I.O.N. and others, including Starfire’s evil sister Blackfire. As it actually turns out it’s not all of Thanagar intent on killed the Rannians, but actually a rogue faction within the society (I didn’t catch the real world parallels until this read), a group who worships death and the Thanagarian death god Onimar Synn. So, while the war’s raging, our heroes band together to fight on various fronts to try and stop the war.

As far as GL involvement goes, R-T W hits somewhere between Rebirth and Green Lantern Corps: Recharge, though the timing is a little strange to me. See, Kyle mentions the reverence which Captain Comet showed for him just because he was a GL in the first issue of Recharge. There’s even a span of time in which Kyle isn’t seen in the book, but he returns later which kind of fits in with his adventures in Recharge, but I assumed those adventures took a longer time with him hopping around the universe. Oh well. Anyway, the Guardians don’t want GLs involved in the war, but  is tasked with kicking some Khunds out of a space sector in which they are unwanted. Seeing as the Khunds are being hired by one side of the other, Kyle gets sucked into things with the aforementioned Captain Comet who’s kicking around with L.E.G.I.O.N. temporarily. He and Comet wind up back on Thanagar where they first throw down with Synn and then discover some living Thanagarians. Things are getting nuts when ‘Wog shows up to help out and also help terraform the planet to make it more livable. That’s pretty  much it until the book ends with Kyle and Kilowog joining back up with the rest of the crew.

It’s interesting to see Kyle not only fighting a death god like he would in Blackest Night with the rest of the universe, but also some actual zombies. I read every issue Kyle appeared in, but I can’t remember if he every fought zombies before that. As a story, I liked this one even more the second time around. Gibbons did a great job crafting a big huge story. It’s almost like he was trying out for Green Lantern Corps (though I’m sure the deal was already done by that point).

Of course, the story doesn’t end there and I’m not even talking about Infinite Crisis itself which has some definite and clear Green Lantern involvement, especially at the very end. But, what I’m really talking about is the Rann-Thanagar Special that came out after the mini finished and while IC was still going on. This one really tied the story into the overall Infinite Crisis mythology by saying that Superboy Prime pushed Rann and Thanagar into one another and caused all the destruction. The one-shot brings a few different storylines together. You’ve got the R-T War stuff but also the then-recently resurrected Donna Troy and her crew of people on her floating Greek city spaceship thing. The biggest piece of Green Lantern business that goes on in this issue is the death of Kyle’s longtime girlfriend and Alan Scott’s daughter Jade who Kyle had given some of his power to so that she could have powers again. As she passed, she gave Kyle his power back and he became Ion again which lead into, the 12-issue series of the same name written by longtime Kyle chronicler Ron Marz (review coming next week). We also see the Guardians call Kyle, with his augmented/increased power a catalyst for change and that he’s the first step in a new breed.

Like I said, my Infinite Crisis memories are a little sketchy and I don’t remember how the war against the space-hands works out as far as that series goes, but I do remember early issues of 52 dealing with many of these characters making their ways back to Earth to varying degrees of screwed-up ness (Alan Scott lost an eye, something happened to Jericho’s voice, etc.). I’ve got a lot more reading to do if I want to make sense of all this stuff again.

I’m pretty solid on the major GL series from here to just before Blackest Night, but I’ve also got to track down my pre-IC JLA issues to see how GL stuff plays into it. That book took such a massive decline in my mind that I think I’ve blocked a lot of the stories out. I know John Stewart was involved and Kyle gives his resignation in the first issue of Recharge, but there had to me a few adventures here and there that I’m missing. I’ll get to them, I promise! Post-OYL, I’m good to go.

Trade Post: The Pile

Posted on by TJDietsch


Hey Gang, seeing as how I’ve got a lot of time on my hands now, I’ve been tearing through some movies and trades. I haven’t done posts yet, but you can be on the lookout for more of those down the road. These trades are actually from last week and the week before. As usual, I’ll run down the pile top to bottom.

CAPTAIN AMERICA BATTLES BARON BLOOD (Marvel Illustrated Books) Written & drawn by Roger Stern and John Byrne
This little number was quite the oddity. I thought it was going to be one of those novels-based-on-comics things. I read a ton of the ones that came out in the 90s back then. I guess I should have noticed the “Illustrated” portion of the title. So, what you’ve got here is a strange book that collects (according to this site) collects Captain America 250, 253 and 254 which covers those issues where Captain America fights Baron Blood and meets the new Union Jack (as well as the newer Baron Blood) along with the issue where Cap says “no” to running for president. The interesting thing, which you can see in the below pic, is that they cut these comics into panels (black and white ones) and pieced them together on pages the size of the average Pocket Book. Weird right? The stories were good, though kind of slow and I would much rather read them in color. Roger Stern is the man, by the way, he’s definitely one of the most unsung writers in the history of comics.

DC UNIVERSE SPECIAL: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1 (DC) Written by Len Wein, Gerry Conway & Jack Miller, drawn by Dick Dillin & Joe Certa
Though technically not a trade, there were two reasons I included this issue in this post. One, it collects Justice League of America #111 (“Balance of Power!”), 166-168 (“The League That Defeated Itself”) and Detective Comics #274 (“The Human Flame”). These are all stories that hold some relevance to Final Crisis and Infinite Crisis, though they’re not really hyping the IC connection. You get Human Flame and Libra’s first appearances, which make sense, and then the story in which the bad guys get inside the heroes’ heads and find out all about them, this leads to Zatana doing mind wipes and on and on. So, these are pretty integral issues that a lot of later stories hinge on. That being said, I found them to be boring and mostly skimmed through them. The second reason is that these reprints should have been reprinted again in the Final Crisis Companion, which I will get to shortly. That just makes sense, though, right? Might as well make that companion as much of a companion as possible and the first appearances of the two biggest new characters in the story should have their stories told. But, hey, it’s a rad cover, isn’t it? That Ryan Sook dude knows how to DRAW!

MOME VOL. 14 SPRING 2009 (Fantagraphics) Written and drawn by a ton of talented folks
One of the many perks of working at Wizard for a dyed in the wool superhero fan like myself was getting exposed to some of the more alternative sides of comics. Between going through the library and borrowing books from friends who are way more knowledgeable about these things than I am, I feel like I’ve just barely started to uncover the tip of the indie iceberg. So, as you might imagine, I’ve heard a lot about Mome, the indie comics anthology that Fanta puts out (those guys are amazing), but I’ve never read one until Vol. 14 and I definitely liked it. I will be completely honest, I don’t think I understood a lot of these stories, but I kind of like that. It’s like watching an experimental film, but with cool art. By far my favorite strip was called Kool-Aid Comic by Jon Vermilyea. I like the simplicity of it, the subject and the art. It all comes together in a fun little comic, of which you can peep a page or two of below. Fun stuff and I’ll definitely be on the lookout for future Momes.


SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE VOL. 7: THE MIST & THE PHANTOM OF THE FAIR (Vertigo) Written by Matt Wagner & Steven T. Seagle, drawn by Guy Davis
I’ve talked about my love of SMT before, but since then I’ve read the volumes I was missing and have come to like this series even more. For those of you not willing to click the link, SMT follows the Golden Age Sandman as he romps through pre-WWII NYC, fighting bad guys, evading the cops, being a genius, sometimes interacting with other Golden Age heroes (or soon-to-be ones) and sharing his life–both in and out of the gas mask–with his girlfriend Dian Belmont. What I love most about this book, aside from the NYC setting and my love of Golden Age DC characters, is the relationship between Dian and Wesley (Sandman’s real name). I think they’re my favorite couple in all of comics, mostly because they did away with the “keeping the secret identity from the girlfriend” thing. You also get to watch Dian evolve from a spoiled socialite to someone really trying to help the world. But, aside from all that, this volume gives us glimpses of a young, pre-Starman Ted Night and “The Phantom Of The Fair” which is the story that I remember reading about as being one helluva one back in the day from Wizard (they were right). I think you’d be okay if you jumped in here to read this much beloved story, but I highly recommend going back to the beginning. Here’s hoping that Vertigo continues their plans to collect this whole series.

FINAL CRISIS COMPANION (DC) Written by Grant Morrison, Len Wein, Peter Tomasi, Greg Rucka & Eric Trautmann, drawn by JG Jones, Tony Shasteen, Doug Mahnke, Ryan Sook & Marco Rudy
So, this is kind of a weird book. The actual Final Crisis collection is amazing. It’s got everything written by Grant Morrison in one place, while this one has the rest of the stuff that isn’t a regular series tie-in and the FC Director’s Cut which is the first issue without color or word balloons followed by the script. Then you’ve got Final Crisis Secret Files, Requiem and Resist. All these issues are cool on there own, but I do wish this volume was a big more robust. In addition to the reprints I mentioned above, I’d also like to see some of the JLoA and Teen Titan tie-ins included, just to have everything in one place. Ah well, it’ll still get a place on my bookshelf.

NIGHTWING: THE GREAT LEAP (DC) Written by Peter Tomasi, drawn by Don Kramer, Rags Morales, Doug Mahnke, Shawn Moll &
Joe Bennett
I dug Tomasi’s previous Nightwing volume, so I’m not surprised that I dug this second volume. The only problem with it is that it got awkwardly swept up in the Batman: RIP story. Now, don’t get me wrong, I loved Morrison’s Batman run, but the tie-ins lost me for the most part, including Nightwing. So, I hadn’t actually read most of these issues when they came out, but I did like the whole story, most of which involves Nightwing’s weird relationship with Two-Face, which is being carried over into todays Batman stories written by Winick. Interesting for sure.

TRINITY 1 (DC) Written by Kurt Busiek & Fabian Nicieza, drawn by Mark Bagley, Scott McDaniel, Tom Derenick & MIke Norton
Trinity got a lot of flack, but I think it’s because it wasn’t what people were thinking it should be. 52 was an amazing look at some smaller characters, giving them new life and making them important again in the DCU, Countdown tried way too hard to be the backbone of the DCU and Trinity turned into this crazy, out-there story featuring all kinds of heroes the casual fan has never heard of. This is just the first series, collecting #1-17 and I will warn you, it’s definitely for big time DC fans and not the feint of heart.

SECRET INVASION: INCREDIBLE HERCULES (Marvel) Written by Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente, drawn by Rafa Sandoval
Incredible Herc was one of those books that everyone loves but I missed out on in single issues. By the time I read the first trade, the issues were already into the third or fourth arc, but this, the second (collecting 116-120) collects the Secret Invasion issues. I wasn’t a big fan of SI, especially the ending, but I really liked how Pak and Van Lente flipped the script and looked at the Skrull invasion from a different angle. This time we see it from a religious viewpoint, with Herc and some other gods from regular and Marvel mythologies trying their best to kill the god of the skrulls. It’s a cool story, one filled with plenty of sci-fi goodness, but also some fun nods to mythology of all kinds that make this a really fun and well rounded book.

COUNTDOWN ARENA Written by Keith Champagne, drawn by Scott McDaniel
I’ve loved McDaniel’s art since his Nightwing days. There’s a short arc where NW fights Scarecrow early on that is just amazing and I highly recommend it. So, when I heard the news that DC was going to be putting out a book called Arena, drawn by McDaniel that would pit various versions of heroes against each other to see who would win, I was sold. Turns out this story didn’t have a lot of bearing on the actual Countdown story (as I noted here to some extent), but it remains one of the better looks at the multiverse that’s just been sitting around. I know that there’s been word that they’re waiting for Morrison to get in there and really dig deep on the multiverse at some point, but I’m getting tired of waiting. What’s the point of having it if you’re not going to do anything with it? Also, one quick thing that bothered me about many of the Earths they revealed was that they just took Elseworld books and extrapolated that into an entire universe. There’s an entire universe out there based on the idea that Batman was a vampire. And, hey, I like that original story as much as the next guy, but that doens’t mean it should necesarily get it’s own universe. Does that mean those Elseworlds annuals they put out each have their own universe? The one where Steel was around in the Civil War, Batman was actually Two Face or Superman was straight out the jungle book? It’s just a bummer because it feels like they just copied the original multiverse and added this other ones with haste, which wouldn’t have been a huge deal if they hadn’t limited themselves to just 52. Ah well. This book is definitely only for die-hards. Or maybe just me.

THE NEW TEEN TITANS ARCHIVES VOL. 1 Written by Marv Wolfman, drawn by George Perez
This might be comic book heresy, but I couldn’t even get through this book, which collects DC COmics Presents #26 and New Teen titans 1-8. I think what ruined the book for me is the fact that every Teen Titans writer since has mined this territory so, SO much. The only aspect of this story that was surprising for me was the mystical way in which the team first came together. Beyond that? I’ve seen the Deathstroke stuff and the Trigon stuff before. Several times. Geoff Johns did it and it seems like it’s been done a thousand times since then. And that’s coming from someone who loves Geoff’s Titans. Like, a lot. It’s an amazing book. I just think it’s about time for the Titans to move beyond their 80s roots and maybe make some new villains and get some new characters into the mix. Maybe I’ll put this one back in my “to read” pile and give it another shot somewhere down the line, but I’m not sure yet. For me, it’s just too “been there done that” for me. But man, Perez sure knows how to draw and I stand by my claim that he’s one of the few artists who’s actually gotten better with age. I’ll read any new stuff that guy puts out.