Batman by Neal Adams - book one

Batman by Neal Adams Book One by Neal Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Batman by Neal Adams Book One contains World's Finest Comics #175-176 and The Brave and The Bold #79-85. On the heels of Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, I was jonesing for more Neal Adams and picked this up.

Neal Adams changed comics forever, ushering in a new age of illustration-based artwork rather than cartoon-based. He was also instrumental in ending the campy, fun Batman inspired by the TV show to the Dark Knight Detective. The stories in this book are his earliest experiences with Batman.

The two World's Finest issues were kind of a bizarre, juxtaposing the funny Batman of the 1960s with more realistic art. Two Batman-Superman team-ups, two cheesefests. I do like that Robin and Jimmy Olsen were so chummy that they had their own headquarters independent of Batman and Superman.

The issues of The Brave and the Bold are another animal entirely. Gone are most of the quips as Batman becomes an avenger of the night, battling street crime in Gotham City with the likes of Deadman, The Creeper, The Flash, Aquaman, The Teen Titans, Sgt. Rock, and Green Arrow. At one point, the main Batman books caught heat because fans said the real Batman was in The Brave and the Bold. I'm inclined to agree.

The stories in the Brave and the Bold seem like fairly typical Batman fare of the late 1970s with other heroes bolted on but they were ground-breaking tales from almost a decade earlier. Green Arrow's iconic costume was also introduced in these pages. Even at 40+ years old, Neal Adams' pencils still look contemporary. The man is that damn good, especially with Dick Giordano on inks. His realistic artwork is still influential decades later.

Batman by Neal Adams Book One showcases the artwork that would change Batman and comics in general for decades to come. Four out of five stars.


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Daredevil by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson volume 1

Daredevil by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson, Vol. 1 by Frank Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Daredevil by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson volume 1 contains Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #27-#28, and Daredevil #158-#161 and #163-#172.

For a lot of his life before this volume, Daredevil was strictly a b-lister, a poor man's Spider-Man. In this volume, even before Frank Miller takes the writing reins as well as the art, begins the shift toward something more.

Quite a bit of what would later wind up on the Netflix show is introduced or refined here. Ben Urich deduces Daredevil's identity. Bullseye firmly establishes himself as Daredevil's arch-nemesis. Elektra is introduced. And probably the most impactful, the Kingpin and Daredevil lock horns for the first time. People forget that The Kingpin was a Spider-Man villain for a decade before he entered Daredevil's life.

The Spider-Man tales are Frank Miller's first experience with Daredevil, helping a blind Spider-Man take on the Masked Marauder. They aren't really linked to the rest of the tales other than featuring Daredevil. The Daredevil issues feature Black Widow, Daredevil's current girlfriend Heather Glenn, Bullseye, The Gladiator, the Mauler, Doctor Octopus, Bullseye, Elektra, and the Kingpin. That glosses over a lot of stuff, like Daredevil trying to stop a rampaging Hulk and winding up in the hospital.

With Roger MacKenzie at the helm, Daredevil was battling street level villains. Once Frank Miller takes the reins, the crime element increases exponentially and Daredevil gets caught in the Kingpin's orbit. Frank Miller's art is still in its embryonic phase, not yet where he would end up on Dark Knight Returns a few years later, but still a couple notches above a lot of the artists of the time period.

Daredevil by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson volume 1 is the beginning of Daredevil's metamorphosis from second-rate poor man's Spider-man to what he would later become in Miller's hands. Four out of five stars.

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Black Torch 1

BLACK TORCH 1 by Tsuyoshi Takaki
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When Jiro bonds with a mononoke named Rago, he is thrust into a world of demons and ninja! And what does the Bureau of Espionage want with him?

While I was flirting with manga last year, Black Torch kept popping up in my recommendations. A boy raised as a ninja, bonded with a cat demon? It sounded fairly interesting.

Black Torch is full of action. Jiro takes on demons and shady government operatives alike before joining the Bureau of Espionage as part of a new team, Black Torch. It was entertaining while I was reading it but nothing really stood out apart from Jiro bonding with Rago. The art was average and the installment was over too quickly.

I guess my beef with manga is the same as my beef with modern american comics: there's not a lot of substance. Nothing is self-contained and the individual installments don't really stand on their own. Black Torch has potential, though, so I'm reserving final judgement until I read the next installment. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

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Black Hammer: Age of Doom part 1

Black Hammer, Vol. 3: Age of Doom Part One by Jeff Lemire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lucy Weber finally discovers the truth about the Farm and her father's death...

The big payoff is finally here, the truth behind the Farm, the truth behind where Spiral City's greatest heroes wound up after the battle with the Anti-God, and it's a whopper! I don't want to spoil too much but the revelation is well worth it. The new Black Hammer proves she's worth of her father's name and hammer.

I love how Jeff Lemire has woven together elements of silver age super heroes and DC's science fiction and horror titles into a long Twilight Zone episode. I did not expect to see the character analogues Lemire threw my way.

Lemire's writing is great and the rest of the creative team more than holds up their end of things. Dean Ormston and Dave Stewart knock the art out of the park and Todd Klein's lettering is as masterful as always.

Barbalien, Golden Gail, and Abraham Slam reacted like I thought they would to the revelation of what was going on. Now the way for the next installment begins. 4 out of 5 stars.

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Thor by Walter Simonson Volume 3

Thor by Walter Simonson, Vol. 3 by Walter Simonson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While the rainbow bridge destroyed, Asgard's mightiest warriors are stranded on Earth. Thor alone stands between Loki and the throne of Asgard but what can Thor do while he's enchanted by Lorelei?

Thor by Walter Simonson, Volume 3 contains issues 357 to 363 of Simonson's revered run on Thor, as well as Balder the Brave 1-4. And it's dynamite.

A lot more is going on in this book than my teaser indicates. Odin and Surtur are missing, presumed dead. Asgard is in ruins. Thor is enchanted by Lorelei and Loki wants the throne of Asgard. And there's this epic quest to hell but I'll get back to that in a minute.

You can tell Walter Simonson was waiting his whole life to tell some of these tales. Thor's adventures are lovingly rendered, with echoes of Jack Kirby visible. I still marvel that Simonson was able to hit the deadlines every month with his detailed style and still find time to write the stuff. A lot of Norse mythology is woven into the backstory of the tales and I caught a Lord Dunsany reference or two.

The word "epic" is as overused as "genius" these days but this tome is definitely an epic. In the aftermath of the Surtur saga of the last volume, it would have been easy for Simonson to coast for a while but he does not rest on his laurels. Simonson played the long game and bounces from one epic to the next. While the Lorelei subplot kind of fizzled, it got Thor to where he needed to be: Heading up a group of Asgard's finest on a mission to Hel! Hela and company give Thor quite a bit of trouble and make a hero out of an Asgardian I wouldn't suspect.

Even setting aside that marvelous adventure, the rest of the volume has a lot going for it. Balder goes solo for a few issues, Beta Ray Bill and Sif watch over earth and try to figure out how to get the Asgardians home, and Thor suffers some grievous wounds, leading to Bearded Thor sometime in the next volume.

I'm as pleased as Volstagg at a buffet that Walter Simonson's Thor run has stood the test of time as well as it has. Four out of five Mjolnirs.



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Thor by Walter Simonson Volume 2

Thor by Walter Simonson, Vol. 2 by Walter Simonson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A dark elf named Malekith seeks The Casket of Ancient Winters, which is in the hands of a mortal named Eric Willis. Can Thor prevent Malekith from getting the Casket and releasing his master, Surtur, on Midgard?

Thor by Walter Simonson, Volume 2 contains issues 346 to 355 of Simonson's revered run on Thor. And it's pretty spectacular.

I'll get my one gripe out of the way first: this book is stuffed to the gills with long-winded Asgardian dialogue.

Now that that's out of the way, this was, as I said, pretty spectacular. Simonson manages to convey an epic scope without using tons of full page spreads and his art is more heavily detailed from other comics of the same time period. AND he managed to make the deadlines every month despite being the writer AND the artist. You can feel his love for Norse sagas and comics in general on every page.

The story is much bigger than my teaser conveys. Malekith wants to free Surtur so Surtur will set the Nine Worlds ablaze. Once the Casket of Ancient Winters is open, it's all Thor, Beta Ray Bill, and the assembled might of Asgard and the Avengers to stop Surtur and his numberless horde. It's an epic battle between good and evil that rivals old Norse sagas and it is not without consequences.

Lots of stuff from the Thor movies was pinched from Simonson's run, like Malekith and Surtur. It could even be argued that parts were used to craft the template that a lot of Marvel's bigger movies use: hordes of disposable foot soldiers for one group of heroes to grapple with while Thor goes after the big guns. Odin and his sons facing down Surtur with the rainbow bridge destroyed and Earth being overrun by Surtur's minions is one of my favorite moments in the run so far.

Walter Simonson's Thor run is one of the best runs of the 1980s and this volume is a prime example. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

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Superman vs. Muhammad Ali

Superman vs. Muhammad Ali by Dennis O'Neil
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When aliens are threatening to annihilate Earth and demand Earth's champion face theirs, Superman and Muhammad Ali duke it out to see who really is the greatest and earns the right to face the alien champion!

I've been aware of the existence of this crossover almost as long as I've been reading comics. When 2019 was staring me in the face, I resolved that this would be the year I finally read it.

The very concept of this is kind of absurd. The greatest boxer of all time vs. the greatest super hero of all time? Shouldn't Superman be able to punch Muhammad Ali's head off? Fortunately, Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams made chicken salad out of chicken shit on this occasion.

The story starts simply enough. Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen are in a bad part of Metropolis, chasing a rumor that Muhammad Ali is in town. The Champ is and he and Superman quickly get pulled into the schemes of a mad alien dictator bent on destroying Earth. Yeah, it cheesier than a box of Cheez-Its but it could have been so much worse.

Neal Adams' art was fantastic. Superman looked iconic and Muhammad Ali looked great, like the man himself. I always forget how ahead of his time Neal Adams was. His art still looks contemporary 40 years later. His illustrative style forever changed comics and you can still see his influence today. Also, it's mindboggling how many real life faces he worked into crowd on the wraparound cover. There are 124 and most of them are real people.

Highlights of the issue include Ali teaching Superman to box, Ali beating the shit out of Superman, and the big boxing match with Hun'Ya, the alien champ. Was this ever referenced in the main DC books? "You know, that Doomsday is tough but did you see the Ali-Superman fight in 1978?"

Scratch Superman vs. Muhammad Ali off of my reading goals list for the year. Superman vs. Muhammad Ali was way better than it had any right to be. Four out of five stars.

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The House of Mystery: The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol. 1

The House of Mystery: The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol. 1 by Joe Orlando
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The House of Mystery: The Bronze Age Omnibus Volume 1 contains issues 174-200 of The House of Mystery. Do You Dare Enter... The House of Mystery?

After the demise of EC Comics, Joe Orlando drifted until he landed at the helm of DC's House of Mystery. Joe steered it away from the cancellation iceberg and turned into second coming of Tales From the Crypt. Well, that's not completely accurate, I guess. Since the comics code was still trying to suck all the fun out of comics at that point, the tales felt more like episodes of The Twilight Zone.

Even without gore, vampires, werewolves, and zombies, the House of Mystery contains some fun stories. Since ghosts, witches, and black magic were still on the table, quite a few people meet their ends by supernatural means. Most of the tales feature the Tales from the Crypt reversal of fortune ending, although they have to work harder to get there. For what they were, few of the stories strayed into dud territory but most of those were culled from issues of House of Mystery, House of Secrets, My Greatest Adventure, and Tales of the Unexpected from the '50s. It seems Joe Orlando needed to pad things with reprints when the deadlines got tight.

The star of the show is really the artists. Old pros and young up and comers alike illustrate the tales. Neal Adams, Alex Toth, Bernie Wrightson, Jim Aparo, Sergio Aragones, Gil Kane, Gray Morrow, Michael Kaluta, Jack Kirby, the list goes on and on of noted artists who graced the pages of House of Mystery during this era.

I never realized how indebted the early issues of Sandman were to House of Mystery, not just the inclusion of Cain and the House of Mystery, but the artwork style was heavily borrowing from Alex Toth and Bernie Wrightson. It's also interesting to see some evolution in action. For instance, there was a little person in a Gil Kane tale that Kane later reused the look of for Myrwhydden in Green Lantern a few years after. A Bernie Wrightson tale featured a Moss Man that looked quite a bit like a certain muck-encrusted avenger he'd latter draw. And Jack Kirby served up an early version of Negative Man years before he showed up in Doom Patrol.

The House of Mystery: The Bronze Age Omnibus is an interesting look at horror under the Comics Code. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

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Usagi Yojimbo Saga Book 4

Usagi Yojimbo Saga Volume 4 by Stan Sakai
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Usagi Yojimbo Saga Book 4 collects issues 53-75 of Usagi Yojimbo.

The saga of my favorite anthropomorphic rabbit samurai continues with this volume. Within this weighty tome are tales of violence, monsters, honor, dishonor, family, tragedy and the unspoken love between a father and his son.

Jotaro and Usagi travel together for a time, forging a bond, neither wanting to share what they're really feeling. Some of Katsuichi Sensei's tragic past is revealed. There's some tear-jerking stuff going on in these pages.

But there's also action! The Duel at Kitanoji, specifically the final issue, is one of my favorite single issues of the run so far. The ronin's path is tough but some people have it even tougher.

Some old favorites make some welcome reappearances. It was great seeing Sasuke, Kitsune, Tomoe, and Lone Goat and Kid again. While I missed Gen, it was nice how Stan Sakai changed the status quo for quite a few issues, swapping out Gen for Jotaro, making for some fresh stories.

The art continues to be honed to a fine edge. Stan Sakai is one of the modern day masters of the genre, able to convey so much emotion with such few strokes of the pen. As I said before, he can do action as well. And comedy. And big ass monsters.

The best comic going today continues to kick ass and take names. Five out of five stars.

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Night of the Living Dead

Night of the Living Dead by George A. Romero
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When a space probe returns from Venus, alien energies re-animate the dead with an appetite for the flesh of the living! Can the strangers trapped in a Pennsylvania farmhouse escape before they join the ranks of the Living Dead?

I remember seeing ads for the individual Night of the Living Dead issues in the early 1990s but I wasn't that into horror at the time. When I saw a Kickstarter to bring this back in print, I kicked in some money and I'm glad to reap the rewards.

"They're coming to get you, Barbara..." Who doesn't remember that iconic line at the beginning of the movie? The Night of the Living Dead graphic novel starts a little before the movie does. We see how Cooper, his family, Tommy, and Judy Rose end up in the farm house before Ben and Barbara wind up there. Other than that, it's a pretty faithful adaptation of the original version of the film.

The black and white, fully painted artwork does a phenomenal job of setting the nightmarish mood with grotesque, exaggerated figures. And gore, so much gore! While some panels aren't fantastic, others are perfectly chilling. Carlos Kastro and Eric Meheu did a fantastic job.

Just like in both versions of the movie, the humans wind up being their undoing. Cooper is still a colossal dickhead, thinking it's more important to be right than to survive. I feel bad for Ben, as I do every time I watch the movie.

Night of the Living Dead is one gorgeous gorefest and I'm glad the guys at FantaCo went through the trouble of restoring it. 4.5 out of 5 brains.


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