Thursday, March 19, 2009

Comics review part 2 – the vintage edition

Covering a bunch of comics from the 80s to last month. Specifically:
Justice League America (Keith Giffen run)
Final Crisis: Legion of 3 worlds, # 2 and 3
JLA - The Hypothetical Woman (tpb)
Titans # 10
Wonder Woman # 29
Hammer and Locke #3
The Trials of Shazam #7
Deadshot #2
Legion of Superheroes #43
Infinity Inc #28
Dragon Slippers – This is what an abusive relationship looks like by Rosalind B Penfold

Justice League America, issues 26 to 60
Sod JLE, JLA is where it’s at. Beautiful art from a range of pencillers, including but not limited to Ty Templeton (so expressive!), Bill Willingham and Adam Hughes.
The introduction of the cat rocked (# 37), not as much as when it arrived in JLE, but still, pretty good.

What has really made this run for me though is Guy Gardner.
Guy and Tora have their first date (# 28) - Guy shows a really repugnant side of himself (thigh cheese!) but later redeems himself (in my eyes) by getting overly protective about Ice and displaying some hidden depths when General Glory arrives on the scene (#46). Guy actually starts saying Sorry and Sir. And after the JLA has been disbanded, he admits he misses the rest of the League.
I think we also get hints of his past crappy life and why he’s such an arrogant macho jerk all the time – he was quite clearly very happy reading his comic books as a kid, and it’s hinted that they constituted an escape from the rest of his life. That doesn’t quite justify tearing up some 8 year old's JLA comic just because he doesn’t like the cover, but still. The issue where he has a boxing fight with Ted Kord was also interesting, to see him go from normal aggressiveness to completely flipping out because ted made him bleed.
Aside from all the intense character exploration this run is just damn funny, and so self referential. The introduction of General Glory also heralded the arrival of the Uberbot – a giant Nazi robot from WW2. This was quickly followed by J’onn just about giving up on the ridiculousness of his life.

Blue Beetle and Booster Gold decide to set up a casino on the island of KooeyKooeyKooey. This being a very specific incarnation of the JLA, of course it goes wrong. Major Disaster arrives and with the help of Big Sir cleans the casino out of all cash. Then a very gnarley Aquaman arrives just in time for the island to decide to uproot itself and move to a new area of the globe. Where does it elect to settle down? (By elect I really mean manipulated by Aquaman). Why, it wedges into the top of a live volcano. Of course.

This run is now being collected in trade format. I believe vol 4 has just been published, I would urge everyone to go buy it.

JLA - The Hypothetical Woman (tpb)
Written by Gail Simone. I usually find her far too wordy, but not in this. Maybe it was because it’s a trade and I can read the whole arc at once. Nah that doesn’t make the sense. Whatever the reason, this was damn good. Wonder Woman takes on an army. By herself. And wins, effortlessly and easily. Now that’s the Diana I want to read about.
The art is wonderful – Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. Diana looks fantastic, adult and textured. When she challenges the army to a fight, she’s in battle armour – leather pleated skirt, shield, axe, sword, dagger in her boot, breastplate - with shoulder straps! I really want a battle armour Diana doll. And Diana has been drawn with pants that cover her arse. Amazing.
There were other characters in the book, but Wonder Woman impressed me the most. Also, she baked. And the rest of the JLA didn’t know what to do with themselves.

Final Crisis: Legion of 3 worlds, # 2 and 3
I haven’t been able to locate # 1 yet. This was far better than I anticipated, mostly the stupid names didn’t put me off. Lightning Lass? Cosmic Boy? Whatever the hell their names are they come across as infantile and shoddy. I know the titles are a product of their times, but they’re usually so cringeworthy.
But not in this run. I fully expect that this Is because they BROUGHT BACK BART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes yes old news now, but I’m still chuffed to pieces about it. Issue # 3 made my week.

Titans # 10
Bought for the Origins and Omens story. This turned out to be a rather good issue. I think it’s because the art got a lot better – no pornface or impossible spines. I’m considering buying the trades of this now. Or, as it looks like Terra is gonna jump on Beast Boy, maybe I’ll start buying it regularly.

Wonder Woman # 29
Wordy. But more Diana in battle armour, this time with the gold wings, oh how I love those. The origins and omens back up was good – seeing Hippolyta make Diana was lovely. Not enough to make me buy it monthly though.

Hammer and Locke #3
The most interesting thing about this was the inside cover had an advert for the Dr Giggles movie.

The Trials of Shazam #7
Loved the art, loved the story, gonna buy the trade. Wonderful.

Deadshot #2
Heavy, creepy, threats of child sexual abuse, probably unnecessarily dark but pretty well done overall. The art and the plot fit well together.

Legion of Superheroes #43
On first read I wasn’t too impressed, but something is preventing me from getting rid of the book. Mysa Nal, Drusa Sept and random red headed woman were an absolute pleasure to read. The fight with Mordru however was painful and obvious. I think my path may be to track down more of these 1993 issues and give them a go.

Infinity Inc #28
A pre the first crisis story. It’s odd to read of other versions of the characters, pre crisis. This book is commendable mostly for the layout, using the theme of bones to frame the panels and having the page backgrounds consist of the characters posing. If I had a working scanner and could establish how to convert pdfs to jpgs I’d post some examples. But I don’t. Can anyone help?

Dragon Slippers – This is what an abusive relationship looks like by Rosalind B Penfold
Definitely a graphic novel and not a book. Does what it says on the tin. Painful to read and will be triggering for people who have survived domestic violence.
The art isn’t very sophisticated but it doesn’t have to be. It does the trick.
One of my main reasons for buying this was to read it and consider if suitable to give to some friends, possibly as a wake up call. Now however, after reading it, I feel better about one of my friends, and am still concerned about the other one – who is currently in a shitty argumentative relationship, but hey, it hasn’t got physical yet, so that’s something right?*
But you can’t drag someone away, you can’t make them see sense and you can’t make them see that they’re a good person who deserves better. They need to see that themselves. And thankfully this particular friend has had a lightbulb moment and I think she’ll be ok.
More info about domestic violence on Friends-of-Rosalind.com.
In the UK there are also organisations, google women’s aid or women’s refuge and your area. Sadly, there are not enough for women and I know of none for men who experience domestic violence, and that’s something that should be fixed.
To anyone who’s reading and in an abusive relationship:
Get the hell out. You deserve better than what you are experiencing. You deserve to be loved and treated well. Get out and leave. They very rarely change and even if they do, can you guarantee you will survive that long?

*no not really.

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