The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect

The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect by Peter David
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In a future dystopia, The Maestro reigns supreme! The small resistance recruits the one foe capable of beating the Gamma-powered tyrant: himself! Can the Hulk defeat an older, more brutal version of himself?

The recent Immortal Hulk excepted, The Hulk has never been one of my favorite characters. Some of my earliest nightmares featured the Lou Ferrigno version. I've got maybe ten issues scattered among my thousands of comics. On the heels of reading Back Issue #111, specifically the interview with Peter David and George Perez, I had to read this.

The book stars in the Maestro's time. I don't know if events in the regular Hulk series led to this or I'm just supposed to connect the dots. Anyway, people use Doctor Doom's time platform to bring the Hulk to the future so he can fight himself. The best slugfest since Superman vs. Muhammad Ali eventually ensues.

The story is pretty good for the early '90s, a couple slugfests wrapped in a timey-wimey tale about the Hulk confronting what he could become. The art, however, is fantastic. The devil is in the details and George Perez invokes the horned one in every panel. Page after page is crammed with detail, from the two page crowd shot near the beginning, complete with hidden Waldo, to the Maestro's trophy room. I had way too much fun spotting the artifacts of dead heroes.

My edition contains a second story, The Last Titan. Peter David serves up a yarn of Bruce Banner wandering the earth a couple centuries in the future, the last human alive, a human haunted by The Hulk! Dale Keown served up on the art on that one, an introspective tale about the Hulk's last days. It was surprisingly good.

As far as products of 1990s go, The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect was pretty damn good time travel slugfest. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

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New Gods by Jack Kirby

New Gods by Jack Kirby by Jack Kirby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Orion of New Genesis battles the forces of Darkseid at every turn! But what is their connection? Can Orion stop Darkseid before he seizes the Anti-Life Equation?

I've been wanting to read this saga for decades. My first encounter with the New Gods was when Darkseid became a regular villain on The Superfriends. A little later, I picked up Who's Who in the DC Universe and became enthralled with the saga of the New Gods and Orion vs. Darkseid. Now, probably thirty years later, I've finally read it.

The New Gods is a sprawling epic, the comics of cosmic scope that Jack Kirby was known for. Orion goes to war to save his adopted home against the father that sent him there in the first place, a war that will take him from New Genesis to Earth to Apokalips.

Without giving away too many nuts and bolts, this is the Kirbiest of Kirby books, combining the things I love about Thor, the Silver Surfer, and the Fantastic Four into one epic adventure. Kirby was at his peak during New Gods 1-11 and he pulled out all the stops. There is one epic battle after another, cosmic vistas, creatures of all description, philosophy, cheesy silver age dialogue, the whole magilla.

The New Gods was a foundational work much like the Fantastic Four, laying the groundwork for stories that DC would do decades later, most without Jack Kirby. So many big ideas and interesting characters are thrown around, many of which an entire series could be built around.

My highlights would be Orion, Lightray, and Forager teaming up against Mantis and the Bugs and the Death Wish of Terrible Turpin, when an earth cop takes a Daredevil-level beating trying to arrest Kalibak. If a New Gods movie gets made, it should be a buddy movie featuring Orion and Lightray.

My major gribe is that Jack Kirby wasn't allowed to wrap things up before New Gods was cancelled. Even Gods Must Die and the Hunger Dogs were followups over a decade later but both the art and stores aren't up to snuff. Shit, Kirby was probably around 80 at the time so he can't really be faulted. Still, I have to dream about what might have been. Lastly, I found it interesting that the New Gods were referred to as Eternals or Celestials on several occasions since Kirby would create The Eternals with a lot of the same inspiration when he returned to Marvel not long after the New Gods wrapped.

The New Gods was the Kirbiest of Jack Kirby books. Four out of five stars.


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Super Gorillas vs. The All-American Victory Legion

Super Gorillas vs the All-American Victory Legion #1 by Alan Kupperberg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Super Gorillas vs. The All-American Victory Legion collects two tales of the All-American Victory Legion by Alan Kupperberg.

Super Gorillas vs. The All-American Victory Legion was another impulse buy after seeing the Charlton Neo guys talking it up on Twitter. The All-American Victory Legion are public domain characters published by Centaur Comics in the 1940s and Alan Kupperberg did these stories on commission for a fan. Paul Kupperberg found them upon his brother's death and published them through Charlton Neo.

The first story, Monkey Trial, is by far the best. Mayor LaGuardia is kidnapped by a bunch of super-powered gorillas and it's up to the AAVL to save him. This story features a Nazi Green Gorilla, Hitler, and Chimp Pan-Genius, Primate Investigator. It's a fun slice of Silver-Age cheese as the AAVL splits up to combat the menace of the super gorillas.

The second story, Time Out of Mind, sees the AAVL living other identities in the Old West, courtesy of Amazing Man's arch-nemesis, The Great Question.

The art on these tales reminds me of Dick Dillin's monumental run on Justice League of America and the writing reminds me of early silver age DC comics. By today's standards it's extremely cheesy but it's still a lot of fun. 3 out of 5 stars.

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Charlton Arrow Volume 2 #1

Charlton Arrow #1 Volume 2 by Nicola Cuti
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Charlton Arrow Volume 2 #1 contains stories featuring E-Man, Mr. Mixit, Colonel Whiteshroud, Deathwatch, and Edison Corliss, done in the spirit of the Charlton Comics of the silver and bronze age of comics.

I bought this not long after it came out after seeing it hyped on twitter. It languished inside the end table next to the couch until I unearthed it earlier today.

Charlton Comics Group was the rogue comic book company of the '60s, '70s, and early '80s. Lots of creators got their starts there and other, more established creators honed their skills on titles like Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, and various other Charlton titles. Eventually, the company went tits up and DC acquired the assets around the time Crisis on Infinite Earths dropped.

Gone but not forgotten, Mort Todd and others have revived the Charlton name and got the Charlton Arrow going. This volume contains some standalone tales, as well as the beginnings of longer tales featuring E-Man and Mr. Mixit.

Joe Staton's art on E-Man makes me wish I would have been digging through back issue bins for E-Man years ago. While I knew him from a stint on Green Lantern, I really like Joe Staton's art in the E-Man installment, although it was mostly setup for a longer tale.

Mr. Mixit is why I originally picked up the book and, no surprise, wound up being my favorite feature. Barry Baxter gets super powers from a magical spinner rack of silver age comics. What's not to like? Mr. Mixit is a fusion of many Steve Ditko creations, namely Spider-Man, Blue Beetle, The Creeper, Captain Atom, Speedball, and probably others. A showdown is brewing with the Dream Weaver and now I definitely have to grab the next installments.

The stories featuring Colonel Whiteshroud, Deathwatch, and Edison Corliss all share the early Bronze Age feel of E-Man and Mr. Mixit. The writing and art of the various features feel like the best of the Bronze Age, from the horror of Deathwatch to the bombastic fun of Mr Mixit.

Charlton Arrow feels like a glimpse into the forgotten past. I'm on board for the duration. 4 out of 5 stars.

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Usagi Yojimbo Saga: Legends

The Usagi Yojimbo Saga: Legends by Stan Sakai
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Usagi Yojimbo Saga: Legends contains Space Usagi, Senso, and Yokai.

To be honest, I've been avoiding reading this volume for a while. The stories aren't part of the main saga and it's the last volume in Usagi Yojimbo Saga. While being stricken by the worst case of allergies yet this year, I finally bore down and read it.

Space Usagi started the trade and it was by far my least favorite Usagi Yojimbo story yet. It isn't terrible but doesn't feel a whole lot like the rest of the saga. Stan Sakai's art is as good as ever, though, and he gets to draw a wide variety of creatures. The creatures remind me of all the insectile monsters in Nausicaa, making me wonder if Sakai is a Miyazaki van.

Senso, the second story in the collection, is H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds set in Usagi's feudal Japan and a possible ending to the Usagi Yojimbo saga. The art is great and a lot of serious shit happens. There's also a great fight involving a Martian Tripod and a secret I don't want to reveal. There were some tragic elements to this story. It fit into the Usagi Yojimbo canon a lot better than Space Usagi but I can see why it's not an official part of the Saga.

Yokai was my favorite story in the collection by a wide margin. Usagi and Sasuke fight a bunch of monsters in a tale done in water colors by maestro Sakai. It could easily have fit into one of the other books.

With Usagi Yojimbo Saga: Legends, I'm all caught up on Usagi until Usagi Yojimbo Saga book 8 comes out in May. Not bad for a bunch of odds and ends but not essential. 3 out of 5 stars.

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Usagi Yojimbo Saga Book 7

Usagi Yojimbo Saga Volume 7 by Stan Sakai
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Usagi Yojimbo Book 7 collects Usagi Yojimbo #117-#138 plus "One Dark and Stormy Night" and "Cut the Plum."

In this volume, Stan Sakai sends Miyamoto Usagi on a collision course with bandits, zombies, monsters, and the usual fare. Old favorites like Kato, Sasuke, and Kitsune make appearances. There are big battles, encounters with monsters from Japanese folklore, and touching moments.

Honestly, I'm running out of ways to say this is the best comic around. Stan Sakai's minimalist yet still complex art is as masterful as ever. He's as adept with facial expressions as he is with battles and decapitations. The writing is as smooth as fine sake, expressing humor, disdain, happiness, and sadness with equal skill.

My favorite stories in the collection were "A Town Called Hell," Sakai's take on Red Harvest, and "The Death of Lord Hikiji," an Eisner Award-nominee. Honestly, they were all good, though. Anyone already reading Usagji Yojimbo knows what to expect.

While I already have Usagi Yojimbo Legends and I've pre-ordered Usagi Yojimbo Saga Volume 8, I dread the day when I have no Usagi Yojimbo comics left to read. Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo Saga continues on it's meteoric course toward the comics hall of fame. 4 out of 5 katana.

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Batman: Dark Victory

Batman: Dark Victory by Jeph Loeb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A year after Holiday was brought to justice, a new killer haunts the nights of Gotham City. The Hangman is killing cops, cops that seem to be linked to Harvey Dent in some way. Is Harvey Dent The Hangman?

On the heels of Batman: The Long Halloween, I just had to read this. Fortunately, I snagged it on the same trade-in deal when I acquired The Long Halloween.

Dark Victory and The Long Halloween share a similar structure. The Hangman only strikes on holidays. Each issue is centered around a different murder. Batman and James Gordon race to catch the Hangman before their heads wind up in nooses. Meanwhile, on the periphery of the case, Holiday is out on bail and something is brewing in the Gotham Underworld.

To be honest, it felt like a retread of The Long Halloween for a while. Not bad but not really anything new. However, once the added wrinkle of some shady shit going down at the Haly Circus surfaced, I was all in.

I've had a lot of favorite comic characters in the past four decades but Robin was the first. While I normally don't like retellings of characters origins, I enjoyed Loeb and Sale's take on Robin's origin quite a bit and it fit seamlessly with the rest of the day. The conflicted relationship between Harvey Dent and his former friends drove the rest of the book very well.

I complain quite a bit about decompression in today's comics but it works great when Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale use it to tell a slow-burning mystery like The Long Halloween or Dark Victory. Just like the Long Halloween, the clues were in place but I missed them. Tim Sale's cartoony, moody art did a great job setting the tone, although I don't care for his Joker or Scarecrow. Loeb and Sale do a great Batman, too, complete with Kevin Conroy voice in my head.

As far as sequels go, Dark Victory did a great job following up The Long Halloween. Four out of five Batarangs.



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Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby

Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby collects issues 1-18 of Mister Miracle, written, drawn, and edited by the King himself.

On the heels of Tom King's Mister Miracle, I decided to go back to the Source. I knew the bare bones of Kirby's Fourth World from entries in Who's Who back in the day but this was my first foray into one of the King's last great works.

Mister Miracle is a gadget-driven hero, an escape artist. Consequently, most of the stories start with him escaping a trap of his own devising and feature deathtraps constructed by various villains. Over the course of the book, Mister Miracle and Big Barda go up against Virman Vundabar, Granny Goodness, Funky Flashman, Doctor Bedlam, and a lot of scrubs in one shot appearances. It only intersects with the greater Fourth World saga at the very end and barely scratches the surface of what I know of Fourth World lore.

In many ways, Mister Miracle feels like a silver age Marvel book, not surprising given how much of the foundation of the Marvel Universe was laid by Jack Kirby. Mister Miracle feels like Captain America minus the patriotism at times, a superb physical specimen that relies on strategy and gadgets to beat mightier foes.

Scott Free's relationship with Big Barda is one of my favorite parts of the book, a far more equal partnership than Reed Richards ever shared with Sue Storm. Later in the book, Shilo Norman joins the cast. Shilo, of course, would later adopt the Mister Miracle identity himself decades later. Oberon is a mother hen but still a fun part of the cast. The Female Furies are also an entertaining bunch. It's a shame Bernadeth, Stompa, Lashina, and Mad Harriet don't make all that many appearances once the series is over.

While the dialog is clunky in places, the art is vintage Kirby. The King was still at the top of his game, depicting earth scenes and cosmic vistas with equal skill. I kept imagining what might have been if Kirby had done The Fourth World with Marvel but I think he did pretty well for himself at DC. If nothing else, Mister Miracle has whetted my appetite for more Fourth World action.

Mister Miracle is a fun read and one of Jack Kirby's last great works. Four out of five stars.

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Batman: The Long Halloween

Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Someone is killing off associates of Gotham City's crime lord, Carmine "The Roman" Falcone but only only holidays. Can Batman, Commissioner Gordon, and Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent stop Holiday before the entire Falcone crime family is dead?

I first read Batman: The Long Halloween in that mythic time before I felt compelled to write reviews for everything I read. I didn't care for it at the time but when a copy fell into my lap last week, I decided to give it another go.

Batman: The Long Halloween is a 13 issue murder mystery. Someone is knocking off criminals with a .22 pistol and Batman and the law are stumped. Who is Holiday, aka The Holiday Killer, and why is Catwoman nearby every time Batman tries to investigate The Roman? And what does Calendar Man have to do with it? And what's up Harvey Dent's ass? All of these questions and more are answered over the graphic novel's nearly 400 pages.

I don't normally go for retellings of stories I already know but The Long Halloween fleshed out a chapter in Batman's early days, Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face. While Tim Sale's artwork isn't my favorite, its cartoony, moody, dark feel perfectly suited the story. I've never been a huge fan of Jeph Loeb but he did a great job here. The mystery was great and even solveable if you were paying close attention. I wasn't and was surprised by the reveal, even though I read the Long Halloween before back before the world moved on.

The Christopher Nolan Batman movies borrow a lot from the Long Halloween. I once said Grant Morrison's Batman felt the most like movie Batman but I think I'm going to have to issue a retraction for that. The Batman in Long Halloween IS the Batman from the Christopher Nolan trilogy.

I will say that some of the story felt like filler. The bit with Poison Ivy was a little unnecessary and the whole Sofia Falcone Gigante thread could have been cut. It felt like the book was slightly stretched to fill thirteen issues instead of twelve. Those are pretty much my only gripes with it. Batman felt more like a detective in this and less an uber-prepared scientist super soldier, as it should be.

Batman: The Long Halloween is right up there with Batman: Year One in the upper echelon of Batman books. 4.5 out of 5 Batarangs.

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Supergods

Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human by Grant Morrison
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human is part history of comics, part Grant Morrison's autobiography, and part Grant Morrison's opinions on popular comics.

I've had mixed reactions to Grant Morrison over the years. I loved All-Star Superman, 52, some of his Batman work, and Marvel Boy. His X-Men were good and I liked his run on Doom Patrol quite a bit, even though I didn't understand it, and I loathed Final Crisis. I think Morrison is a great idea man but works best when someone is reining him in. When this popped up on the cheap, I was cautiously interested.

First off, the subtitle is misleading. Maybe the first 40% of the book is actually "What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human" and even that is debatable. It's mostly comics history with snide remarks from Grant Morrison.

The rest of the book is Grant Morrison's autobiography with plenty of potshots at Alan Moore, Watchmen, and pretty much every popular comic from 1984 on. I find it interesting that Morrison didn't insult anyone that could have an adverse effect on his career, only Alan Moore and a bunch of dead guys.

There's lot of talk about Morrison's life of drugs and jet-setting when Arkham Asylum took off and lots of twaddle about putting himself in the 2-D world of comics. I remember reading years ago that Morrison was writing a book about his experiences while writing The Invisibles. I'm guessing a lot of that material found its way into Supergods.

Just to make it clear, I'm not shitting all over this book. There were interesting bits of information to be had but there were a lot fewer in the second half, when it became a meeting of the Grant Morrison fan club. Also, I'm really curious about what he's doing on Green Lantern so I guess the joke is on me at the end.

Morrison covers the big crossover events in the home stretch and then it's on to recommended reading, which curiously includes Watchmen. He hypes Astro City so he scored some extra points there.

At the end of the book, I'm still conflicted about Grant Morrison. He's part interesting figure, part full of his own bullshit. If you're already a member of the cult of Morrison, you'll probably enjoy this. If you already suspect Morrison isn't the messiah of modern comics, this will add more fuel to that fire. 3 out of 5 stars.

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