Review: Justice League #71

Justice League #71 came out last week, concluding the Royal Flush story.

The issue comes out at an odd time. The Death of the JLA has been announced for Justice League #75. We know that in many ways this book is in some decaying orbit. We have barely got to know this team and I feel like we never will. It's a shame. The addition of Black Adam and Hippolyta added some edge to the team. Bringing in Naomi added some youth and another way to spur the plot along. 

We still get a few more issues with Brian Michael Bendis as writer. Last issue we had the Royal Flush Gang steal the Fortress of Solitude. The issue also felt like a side-sequel to the Checkmate mini-series. This issue finishes that story, the whole plot of how the Fortress was stolen left to our imagination. But there are the usual great moments in the book. As always the character beats are what make a Bendis book sizzle.

Phil Hester is on art and really gets to stretch his legs here. We get three back to back to back double page spreads of interdimensional super-battles. But there is a quiet Superman moment in the middle of this book which is presented so perfectly, so memorably. The art somehow fits the story.

I don't know if I am up for another dead JLA story. So I will enjoy this mini-run while I can.

On to the specifics.

Review: Justice League #70

Justice League #70 came out last week, a continuation of a story where the Royal Flush Gang actually give an extremely powerful version of the League. The Royal Flush Gang ... you know ... those bank robbers that fly around on giant playing cards?

Writer Brian Michael Bendis seems to be wrapping up some of his Event Leviathan storylines here in his version of the League. Indeed, Mark Shaw Leviathan plays a big role in this arc despite us knowing he is already dead in the Checkmate mini-series. I have been a big fan of the Shaw character and I think this story shows how he can be charismatic and cunning while also irritating and polarizing. 

Here, I think the Royal Flush Gang are using one of Shaw's ideas to do a snatch and grab against Superman. They seem to be punching out of their weight class here, stealing the Fortress of Solitude and taking on our heroes. I wonder if this was some ploy within a ploy from the mind of Shaw.

I'll add that Bendis flair for dialogue and comic history are also on display here. As is his nonlinear story-telling as we flip back and forth from the Gang prepping to steal the Fortress to the aftermath.

Phil Hester remains on art here and brings his angular, singular style to the story. He is put to his paces here as the script flips between scenes of people arguing to a brutal knock-down brawl in the streets of an abandoned town. 

I freely admit my fondness for Leviathan probably will pump my grade up a letter. On to the book.

Review: Justice League #69

 

What might have been?

The question I often ask myself about runs on comics that never happened or were somehow derailed. Take for example, Sterling Gates proposed Supergirl arc after BizarroGirl where a Supergirl Revenge Squad mobilized. Sigh.

For someone like me, highly invested in Event Leviathan and champing at the bit for the Checkmate sequel, the derailing of this story has been tough. In interviews, Brian Michael Bendis has said the  'thing' Checkmate was heading for disappeared out of DC's long term plans meaning everything needed to be rewritten. As a result, Checkmate has seemed to be weirdly paced and told at times. 

Justice League has been a sort of adjunct book to the Checkmate book. But it is hard to keep the timelines straight between the two. And the covers have rarely matched the inside.

Justice League #69 came out and feels like a side issue of Checkmate. We have been seeing an army of Deathstrokes attacking the league. We have have been feeling some of the fallout from what is presumed to be the dissolution of Leviathan. Now the forces behind the recent coordinated attacks seems to be revealed. I'm not buying it. The problem is this issue felt a bit like treading water. There are some fun moments. And the reveal is bananas. But I was left wanting more.

The art is by Phil Hester and he brings a certain grittiness to the proceedings which are mostly street level. There is even some horror elements which work well with the style. 

On to the book.

Review: Justice League #67

Justice League #67 came out this week, wrapping up the Synmar Utopica storyline while further introducing us to the United Order. It also nudges the Checkmate story a baby step down the road. This is an issue that has a couple of very solid moments. But there are a couple of things about the story that don't sit quite right.

Writer Brian Michael Bendis continues to shine when it comes to Superman and Lois. I love the way Superman is portrayed here. He still wants to convince the villain to reform. He doesn't want to make his enemy suffer. And he can still rally the troops around him. But the defeat of Synmar happens a bit too quickly and a bit too familiarly. I still am rubbing my chin about Daemon Rose. 

The art here is done by Phil Hester and there is an appropriate sharpness to the works. Everything is angular and harsh, befitting an issue that is almost entirely a brawl. And he handles the different alien races of the United Order well.

Still, the Superman stuff is solid enough to nudge this book up a but in the grade.

Review: Justice League #66

Justice League #66 came out last week continuing the United Order story arc pitting the UP version of the League against the freed Synmar Utopica. It also is a sort of side crossover with the ongoing Checkmate book as well. 

It is always hard to judge an arc by a middle chapter. The plot has to be nudged along. There has to be action. Writer Brian Michael Bendis gives us a decent chapter. We learn the motivations of the bad guy. We see how powerful he is, adding some uncertainty to the proceedings. And we end with a very solid cliffhanger.

And I think there would be a major moment in this issue, the first time we see Naomi unleashing her power. But I think a page snafu muted it to the point that I don't know if I saw what I saw. And the Checkmate side plot sort of has an odd moment within it that makes me wonder about those characters.

The art is by Phil Hester and he brings a sturdy realism to the proceedings. The flow and movement of this issue felt better than the recent Superman story Hester did. There is a tangible feel to the fights and the damage. 

Still, I am a bit reeling from the ending and that Naomi page. Help me out.

On to the book!

Review: Action Comics #1029

Action Comics #1029 came out this week and was a decent middle chapter in 'The Golden Age' story that new writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson Last issue we saw how Jon thought this 'breach' fight was Superman's last known mission. Jon was dealing with the fact that his father was no longer infallible or immortal. And just as importantly, Jon was dealing with having to step into the role of Superman if his father did die. 

This issue builds on all those fears. Another battle rages. Jon does his best to protect his father. And when it is all done, there is some home spun Pa Kent wisdom and we all learn something. Oh, and we get a cliffhanger leaning into the Future State books. 

Phil Hester remains on art and again does a great job conveying the action with an economical, clean style. He does a good job distinguishing Jon and Clark, something which could be an issue when the two are flying in tandem in battle. 

While I did like the message of the story, in essence that it is Jon's time to grow up and shine on his own, I wonder if this was a great arc as a 'jumping on' point with a new creative team/ Do we really want to see Superman being old, sick, dying in the first story? This was not the palate cleanser I was hoping to get after Superman Red and Blue #1 gave us stories of a sad Superman mostly failing or worse, people blaming Superman for not solving their own problems.

On to the book.

Review: Superman #29

The Philip Kennedy Johnson era of Superman officially began this week with the release of Superman #29. 

Johnson wrote the Future State books of Superman:Worlds of War and Superman House of El. I thought both books were solid and showed that Johnson seems to have a very good understanding of Superman is. How Superman is always going to help and always puts others ahead of himself. Suffice it to say, I was relieved. And as a result, I was looking forward to these books.

Then Infinite Frontier #0 came out and Johnson's story was all about Jon and how the Spectre seemed to think Jon was on a dark path to being a tyrant. 

Suddenly I was less excited. Hasn't Jon been through enough? Haven't we had enough 'dark takes' on super-family characters?

Superman #29 seems to build on that, focusing on Jon. We see him back from the Legion future and dealing with the knowledge that he gained there. He's withdrawn, upset, and seems poised to have some emotional turmoil send him spiraling. While Jon's concerns are valid, I thought this was just a little off.

Artwise, the book is very solid. We start with this tremendous wraparound cover by John Timms showing the extended family and a bunch of villains. I really love Timm's Supergirl so I was happy to see it one last time. Inside art is done by Phil Hester who brings an economy of lines that allow the story to unfold perfectly. It really has an energy. And his expressive work is brilliant, showing so much.

On to the book.

Review: Endless Winter Superman Special

Times are strange at DC Comics, no doubt.

The beginning of 2021 is a two month experiment, Future State, looking at their characters in a possible (or probable or definitive) future. Those books must be the remnants of the proposed '5G' reboot where DC was going to replace all their main characters with new versions. I can only assume that AT&T squelched the destruction of their newly acquired IP. And so Future State instead of being *the* future state is a 2 month detour. (I do find it intriguing that so many Future State creative teams have been announced on oncoming titles come February.)

But to lead us into this new state, DC also took December off, running the Endless Winter crossover throughout all their major books. Creative teams are not present. Ron Marz and Andy Lanning are at the helm. And so we get a speed bump before the detour.

This is not a bashing of Endless Winter, a story that I am enjoying so far. It is a questioning of DC's editorial hierarchy. Three months away from the main universe in a questionable market seems like a gamble. Trust me, I have lived through periods where a new 'jumping on' point has been a potential 'jumping off' point for me.

But enough about DC's difficulties cultivating audiences. Let's talk about Endless Winter Superman Special #1. Written by Ron Marz and Andy Lanning with art by Phil Hester and Marco Santucci, this is a decent character piece looking at Superman in contrast to the Frost King, the cause of Earth's next Ice Age.

I have been around long enough to have read many similar character studies on Superman. But when done right, they make me smile. I liked this issue. So let's dive in.

Review: Adventures Of Superman #14

Adventures of Superman #14 came out last week and was a mixed bag. There are two stories in the issue, one that made me wince, one that made me laugh. This book is on its way out, a canceled digital first book, which usually was my source for classic Superman interpretations. So in many ways I am sad to see it go.

But maybe I can feel better about seeing this book go if it means that DC won't let creators like Max Landis tell his Superman story. Because Max Landis should, at least in my mind, be banned from touching DC characters and especially Superman! After all, Landis made a big splash by telling people that they don't care about Superman and shouldn't care about Superman. He made it a point to demean many many creators when he disparaged the whole Death/Funeral of a Friend/Return of Superman arc. And he did it in such a smug way, something that someone who made a mediocre movie about super-powered teens shouldn't have the right to do.

Anyways, preconceived notions are hard to remove. So I am sure I went into this issue with a jaundiced eye. I mean, if Landis doesn't think I should care about Superman why would I ever care about his Superman story?

After that bitter pill, at least I had the fun and irreverant Sugar and Spike team-up by Fabian Nicieza and Phil Hester to soothe.

Landis' story has The Joker on the roof of the Daily Planet, holding a detonation device, claiming that bombs of joker-venom gas are around the city. Superman arrives and the two settle into a philosophical debate about their realities. The Joker calls Superman boring and vague. Superman calls the Joker boring and a ruse, a shroud that writers can fling over any character archetype and have it be deemed interesting.

It is clear that Landis dislikes these characters. I have to assume that how the characters describe each other is how Landis views them. In essence, he is insulting prior creators' work.

Now the story isn't a complete failure. Jock's art is solid. And this page where Landis shows the many faces the Joker has worn is a nice walk through history - from Finger to Romero to Novick to Bolland to Nicholson to Timm to Capullo to Ledger - these are all the versions of the Joker. From killer to camp, from victim to cartoon to killer, the Joker has evolved.

Isn't character evolution a good thing? 

And if the Joker is everything and nothing, Superman is something - boring, bland, vague.

The Joker doesn't care. Landis doesn't care.

Funny though ... I care. I am a fan of Superman. So why would DC let someone who doesn't understand the character write a story.

Hell, why would Warners let someone who doesn't understand the character write the screenplay?? Or direct the movie?? But I digress.

Because it isn't over. Landis has to be edgy. So why not let Superman threaten to kill the Joker.

And then have him say the metatextual insult that anyone could write, play, or be the Joker.

Ooooh ... Landis is fighting the establishment. Mocking and deconstructing two of DC's most well-known characters!!

Ooooohhh ... rebellious!

In the end, Superman grabs the bombs and the Joker.

But then there is this ending. Let's add some more nonsense to this story.

It turns out that somehow Batman could have stopped the Joker from heading to Metropolis. But he didn't!! He wanted to see how Superman would react. Because that is what Batman would do.

And Superman says another Joker visit will end in death. Oooohhh ... glowing red eyes! So violent!

That's right! Batman let the murderous sociopath head to a huge city ... as a test. Good thing the Joker simply didn't detonate the bombs.

Here is a plea to DC ... lose Max Landis' contact information. Stop prostituting yourself. Whatever money he brings in isn't worth the way he treats the characters or the back-door insults to your company.

I rolled my eyes so many times reading the Landis story that my vision was blurry for a bit.

When things normalized, I read the next story. And suddenly Superman was fun again.

Somehow Clark gets roped into babysitting Sugar and Spike. And these kids are a handful. There was a sort of Mort Meskin Jonny Quick feel to this page with the multiple images of Spike flying around the room. And the fact that Superman is the still figure shows the terror of this toddler!

Sugar and Spike's fathers are STAR Labs employees. And while working late, their dimension-breaking device is stolen by the Atomic Skull. Clark has no option but to bring the tots along for an adventure.

Superman briefly gets shunted to another dimension leaving Sugar and Spike at the mercy of the Skull. Or is it the other way around.

Spike turns the tables, bringing Superman back and jumbling the Skull in and out of reality.

That's right, toddlers can make both the hero's life and the villain's life miserable.

With the Skull caught, Supes brings the kids home and tucks them into bed.

It is a cute story and just what I needed after Landis' poison.

So a hit and a miss in this issue of Adventures of Superman. They can't all be perfect.

Overall grade: D+ (F for Landis/Jock, B for Nicieza/Hester)