There Is No Hope In Crime Alley, Hour 18

Panels from Justice League Unlimited #37 (November 2007), script by Matt Wayne, pencils by Min S. Ku, inks by Jeff Albrecht, colors by "Heroic Age," letters by Mike Sellers

365 Days with Plastic Man, Day 2

Panels from Justice League Unlimited #10 (August 2005), script by Adam Beechen, pencils by Carlo Barberi, inks by Walden Wong, colors by Heroic Age, letters by Phil Balsman

Join us tomorrow for Day 3 with the Bendable Being! He'll do in a stretch!

Monday Night Murals: Throw them hands up and show some love/And I welcome you to Detroit City

When you think of great superhero teams, there are some big names that come to mind. The Avengers. The X-Men. The Green Lanterns! The Fantastic Four! The Defenders! The Great Lakes Avengers! WildC.A.T.S.! Kickers, Inc.! The Thor Corps! The Smurfs! Gen13! Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! Wait, wait, surely that's wrong there, sorry. Nobody thinks of WildC.A.T.S. as a great superhero team.

But each and every one of 'em owes a debt of gratitude and perhaps a monetary kickback or two to the premier superhero team of the Silver Age, the high-powered assemblage that inspired them all: The Justice League of America! And when you think of the Justice League of America, a lot of people think of Super Friends. And when you think of Super Friends, a lot of people think of the opening narration, done by Ted Baxter on one of his days off from frustrating Mary and Murray and Lou: "In the great Hall of the Justice League...there are assembled the world's four greatest heroes...created from the cosmic legends of the universe! Vibe!...Vixen!...Steel!...Gypsy!"



Ah, yes. The team nicknamed Justice League Detroit: because even DC Comics didn't want these guys in one of their fictionopolises. Nowadays there's an air of fond nostalgia around these Motor City mustangs, but they seemed to have been created to fulfill a "throw everything against the wall and try to be a new X-Men" idea...a gap that DC spent most of the eighties trying to fill. Give or take a Dale Gunn or two, there's not an awful lot memorable about the JLD era of the JLA.

Although...they did kick off their run with a pretty cool four-part cover mural:

Justice League of America #233-236 (December 1984-March 1985), art by Chuck Patton and Dick Giordano

(Click picture to Built-Ford-Tough-a-size)

Whoa, you certainly can't say that cover isn't full of colorful characters and lots of action. And, floating heads. In fact, each of the four new members of the JLA appears twice on these series of covers: once on their "spotlight" cover and on one other issue as a fine floating head. And I think we all know how painful that can be.

I like these interlocking covers and remember them a lot better than the stories inside. Sure, there's some inherent goofiness in the image, especially when you realize that Steel is the only thing holding that big-ass chunk of chocolate cake slab of stone up. I like the dynamism of the whole piece, with lots of implied action and movement, even though Vibe is the only shown shown to be actually attacking someone. In fact, he's tossin' his specially patented vibe-rays at that thug so hard he gets knocked straight into the next issue. That's not only strong, that's metafictional.

The JLD didn't hang around long. Although they made it through the Crisis on Infinite Earths, where characters much more popular than they were eaten like popcorn by the Anti-Monitor, the guy who makes it impossible for you to see what's happening on your computer screen, half of them were dead by the time Legends rolled around, the other half on the run. A brand new series just called Justice League was right around the corner, and it wouldn't be long until every kid in America was running around declaring "Bwah-ha-ha-ha!" and "One punch! One punch!" and "Kooey Kooey Kooey!" Ah, those were happy days.

Guest-star bits and references to the four new characters of the Detroit era would pop up here and there in the DCU for the next several years, but my favorite recent appearance was in the Justice League Unlimited TV cartoon series, which put Orin's Quirky Quadrumvirate in the background of a lot of episodes, although Vixen had a running subplot romance and the others did get more face time in the accompanying comic book based on the series. Here's the last moments of the final episode of JLU, with each of the Justice Leaguers rushing towards us. In a clever moment of fanboy fancy, the heroes are grouped thematically: sprinting together in packs are members originating with the Justice Society, characters created by Steve Ditko, the JLI-era heroes, Ollie and Dinah, and of course, all together now...Justice League Detroit:



Nowadays, tho', you don't see a whole lotta references to the Detroit League, with the exception of Vixen. She's made quite a comeback for herself these days with her own miniseries and a prominent role in the brand-new, reborn JLA. Hmmmm, why is Vixen is getting all the attention, huh? I mean, Vixen!?! Gimme two good reasons why Vix..



Oh. Ohhhhh. Okay.

Want to "read more about" the Justice League of Detroit? Check your local library, or better yet, head on over to BitterAndrew's Armagideon Time for a Detroit-Rockin' survey of the JLD era! Tell 'im Bully sent ya!

May you not only get what you want, but also what you need.

Panels from Justice League Unlimited #28 (February 2007), script by Mike McAvennie, pencils by Sanford Greene, inks by Nathan Massengill, colors by Heroic Age, letters by John J. Hill

Separated at Birth: When you fish around a star

L: Justice League of America #190 (May 1981), art by Brian Bolland
R: Justice League Adventures #5 (May 2002), art by John Delaney
(Click picture to Mon Calamari-size)

Solomon! Hercules! Atlas! And the rest!

DETECTIVE COMICS #828: This comic is fun. Paul Dini's Detective stories are reminiscent of an episode of Batman: The Animated Series, right down to the faintly-reminiscent font used for Batman's narration-stories skewed for a slightly older audience, but you can still hear the definitive voice of Kevin Conroy behind each speech bubble. I'm really enjoying the done-in-one tales Dini is bringing to this Bat-book, with the added bonus of a running sub-plot: the Riddler as private detective. I'm hoping...no, make that betting...that Dini has a great payoff for Eddie Nigma's storyline. For a bonus, there's a lovely quiet moment where Bruce admits his affection for Alfred, Dick and Tim. That alone is worth the price of admission: a Batman who realizes he needs a family. He does rather illogically pass up the possibility of help from Aquaman while investigating a shark-attack death...but that's all forgivable, as it leads Batman to be what, before Dini, he hasn't really been over the past couple decades: a Detective.


FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #17: This comic is fun. You know, I haven't the faintest idea why Spidey is "back in black" or where Mary Jane and Aunt May are or even if this is all s'posed to take place after Civil War has ended, but it don't really matter, because even without an explanatory intro text page, this comic hits the ground running with Spidey pursued by police and on the run from the law. That's all you really need to know, isn't it? But what tips that usual Spider-Man theme into fun overdrive for me is the portrayal of Flash Thompson, a man who once gave the word "bully" a bad name but who now seems intent on making up for past sins by befriending and helping out a down-on-his-lucky Pete. Or...is he? And bonus points for a fun and quirky "Franklin Richards" backup in which the son of the genius accidentally de-evolves the members of the FF into hilariously-downgraded heroes and ends on a silly moment with a happy Richards family. That's is the FF I like.


52 WEEK 40: This comic is fun. Now this is more like it! If you're like me, you've been twiddling your thumbs and ho-humming at the needlessly-extended John Irons/Natasha/Lex Luthor subplot bubbling away in 52 since week 1. Well, surprise! 'coz it explodes dramatically this week in all-out action as Doc irons storms LexCorps swinging that big-ass hammer and decked out in the old-style, Reign of the Supermen-era Steel suit, complete with S-shield. Aided by the Teen Titans—most of whom I didn't recognize, including Raven (hey, thinks I, is that Batgirl?), Steel takes down LexCorps, rescues Natasha, and Luthor? Whoo boy, he gets what's comin' to him. A stand-up-and-cheer victory here with a wonderful triumphant splash page towards the end. (But did we really need to hear about John Henry's fecal matter leaking? No, we did not.)


JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #30: This comic is sorta fun. Oh dear, oh dear, I do love this book, and it's so much more entertaining to me than Justice League of America, but why must so many of its stories involve self-doubting heroes learning a lesson at the end? Speedy's our reluctant Afterschool Special star this issue, and he's paired with a Booster Gold who seems oddly different than the Booster in previous issues or on the JLU cartoon: a Zen master of history is a great idea for a character; I'm just not certain that character should be Booster. Dynamic art and decent action against Polaris do salvage the issue, and as if anticipating my jokes a couple days ago about the uselessness of Hawkeye against Magneto, the Speedy versus Polaris battle addresses how an archer can overcome a master of magnetism. I do wish this book would go more in the direction of Batman Adventures or Superman Adventures and give us solid and fun adventures minus the moral lessons, but it seems to be the trend much, if not all, the time for this title.


ACTION COMICS ANNUAL #10: This comic is fun. This return to DC Annuals harks back to the era of the go-go checks and multiple stories, with a gorgeous Silver Age-homaging cover (even though they seem to have accidentally dropped the Monster Mash-fonted captions from two of the panels). There's only the sliver of a continuing story in this annual that features several short pieces illustrated by a lot of artists I really like: Art Adams, Joe Kubert, and Eric Wight are among the illustrators exploring an updated version of the Mon-El story, a Superman: The Motion Picture-esque retelling of the Phantom Zone Criminals' origins, and best yet, a two-page spread diagramming the Fortress of Solitude! It's light on substance but high on both fun and nostalgia factor, proving that yes, DC can recapture the magic and adventure of its heyday while still telling ultra-modern stories. If this sort of approach is the legacy of Infinite Crisis, then, well, I'll gladly gobble down this fine omelette made from those broken eggs.


SHAZAM! THE MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL #1: This comic is fun. Oh. Oh my. Ohhhh, my. Jeff Smith gets it. Hello, Judd Winick? Read this. Because Jeff Smith gets Captain Marvel. I've been waiting for this for months and months until it could not possibly live up to the expectations I was putting on it, and guess what? Totally did! This is a wonderful intense, surprisingly dark, startlingly imaginative, and utterly respectful updating of the Captain Marvel origin story and myth, highlighted by Smith's bold and moody artwork, expressive lettering and sound effects (some of my favorite in the business after Dave Sim and John Workman), and a story of magic, wizards, heroes and an orphan kid that will appeal to long-time comics readers as well as fans of (natch) Bone and Harry Potter. Jeff Smith adds some different twists to the story I don't remember in earlier versions: Captain Marvel existing previously to Billy Batson, or a scene where both interact together (or the upcoming younger Mary Marvel)...but it's done with obvious affection and attention to the spirit of the original character without being a slavish copy. If I wanted to point to one part alone, I'd tell you the hot dog scene is worth the price of admission all by itself, but every page has beauties and terrors and the promise of adventure round the corner. I hereby speak the magic word: FUN! Because SHAZAM! THE MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL #1 is the most fun comic of the week!


(Seriously, Judd. Read this comic.)

Catchin' up with comics

And...I'm back. Hope you didn't miss me too much! The week's holiday from blogging was just what I needed to mentally catch up after a busy busy December—I loved blogging in London, but each night in the hotel was spent tap-tap-tapping away capturing the adventure of the day, just to keep up. A few fill-in-the-blanks posts aside, I managed to keep myself from falling more than a day behind (as opposed to 2005 where it took me almost a year after my London holiday to finish transcribing my scribbed hoofwritten notes into the blog), but the lesson I learned is blogging is a harsh and demanding mistress. (Even tho' I'm too young to know what a mistress is.) At various times on my holiday I thought "Well, I won't blog daily next London trip"...and "But I like keeping such a timely souvenir of my adventures!" I did notice my daily readership drop down to less than half of its usual velocity, although that may have been a factor of a Christmas week. In any case, next time I go to London, who knows? But I'm back, and this little bull is rested and ready to talk about comic books again.

Oh yes, comic books! I'm sure some of you have asked (go on, say it aloud) "When's he gonna get back to blogging about comics?" A: Right now, because I'm got a stack of three week's worth of comic books to review, all the comics I didn't buy when I was in London purchased this past week in one fell swoop at Jim Hanley's, and to stay on schedule I'll review 'em all, but swiftly, in a pithy sentence or two each (and minus the time-consuming jpegs for this week only):

52 WEEKS 33-35: These comics are fun. 52 heads into its home stretch and continues storylines that make me wonder: will they ever intersect towards the end? Dandy cliff-hanger in #34 leads into pure Luthor bwah-ha-ha evil in #35, and reading three of these at once really keeps the pace rolling. I plan to read all 52 issues in one marathon sitting when the series is done; three-in-a-row suggests to me they might make more sense and have more forward movement that way. Still, week after week a fun ride.

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #29: This comic is fun...sorta. A story basically focusing on what a jerk B'wana Beast is. Another one of those too-often "JLU member learns a valuable lesson at the end" stories. Still the best Justice League comic out there, though.

FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #15: This comic is fun. Take it from this little stuffed bull who works in book publishing: the book-signing scenes in this comic are actually pretty accurate. Well, except for the supervillain attacks, but I'm told that does happen at some Janet Evanovich signings.

BART SIMPSON #33: This comic is fun...sorta. Bart generally seems to be written for a younger audience than Simpsons Comics, but this issue feels like it skews even younger. Entertaining and funny stories but very little of the subversive element than sets Simpsons comics ahead of the crowd. Great iconic cover, though.

SIMPSONS COMICS #125: This comic is fun...sorta. Short stories feel like inventory comics leftover from Bart Simpson. A funny and clever Bart-meets-Cletus comedy in the first story, but the two remaining stories (by Tom Peyer and Chuck Dixon) seem flat and just not my cup of tea. Still the most consistently fun comic I buy, but just a slight dip in the ha-ha level this issue.

HEROES FOR HIRE #5: This comic is fun. Fast-moving action comic that doesn't take itself (or its Civil War tie-in elements) too seriously. I'm very interested to see if the pace (and humorous patter) can be sustained.

SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL #3: This comic is fun. Suffers a bit from mid-storyline lag: this always seems to hit around issue 3 or 4 of a contemporary storyline, doesn't it? But great cliffhanger and wonderful scenes of, as I've said before, my favorite element of the Superman mythos: the Lois/Clark/Superman triangle.

NEXTWAVE #11: This comic is fun. "Fun" doesn't quite do it justice, does it? It's like a Brueghel painting mixed with a Where's Waldo book—half the comic is double-page spreads as Nextwave battles their way to the completely insane Dirk Anger...never have I wanted original comic art so much! Buy two copies and paste one together, coz it all fits together end-to-end, like the Bayeux Tapesty. Except with Elvis M.O.D.O.K.s and rampaging Elanis.

ALL STAR SUPERMAN #6: This comic is fun. Still the most beautifully subtle Superman comic currently being published. It's not short on action but there are iconic scenes in here and other issues in this series that I think will be remembered and referenced for years to come: the appearance of Krypto in this issue is one of 'em. Definite proof to all nay-sayers that you can still pay homage to the history and continuity of Superman and yet write an original and touching story. This definitely have been the most fun comic in a week that didn't include...

GUMBY #2: This comic is fun. 34 ad-free pages of beautifully-colored quirky and elegant Rick Geary art and Bob Burden's signature weirdness and whimsy ad up to the perfect comic mix. If you didn't pick this up because you don't read "kid's comics," you're missing out on one of the most imaginative illustrated works of 2006. It also features The Best Line of the Week which must be seen rather than just reported:



That's why GUMBY #2 is the most fun comic of the week and one of the most fun comics of the year.

"Most fun comics of the year"? you ask. "What are those?" (Tune in tomorrow Thursday or Friday, fun fans!)

In the meantime, I hereby declare it Comic Book Reviewing Amnesty Day. I take a deep gulp as I peer up at the huge pile of comic books I bought but never got a chance to review weekly in 2006, a stack taller than me:



I've kept this stack of 2006 comics sittin' on my coffee table vowing to, even at a late date, to review 'em. Pish-posh to that now, I say: it's a new year with new comics and I must look forward and not backward. (Um, except for my post tomorrow.) I can barely attack those books now, even with my little mountain-climbing gear. So I will box them or shelve them and move onwards, looking ever-forward into our brand-spankin' near-mint all-new all-different Uncanny New Year. And to go along with that, what fits better than some lovely New Year's Resolutions? So here is your Comics Oughta Be Fun Semi-Solemn Cow-Vows for In 2007:

• Although my budget means I'll be trying to buy fewer comics this year, I will still buy 'em weekly.
• Despite cutting down some titles I'm not getting a full fun-quotient out of, I still want to have a variety of titles, so once again I'll do my best to Pick Up One New Comic Title Each Week That I Haven't Been Reading.
• I will do my best to review each week's comics within the week I buy 'em. However, if I start building up a backlog of unreviewed comics, I'm not gonna worry about it and build up another huge stack. Life goes on and there will be more next week, so if you don't see comics reviews every week, don't panic. Like a London bus, there'll be another one along in just a little while.
• I still ain't readin' Civil War.

Also, I vow to pick up after myself, do my chores, not eat so much candy, and to be nicer to my little sister. May you have a wonderful 2007 and best of luck with your New Year's resolutions. As always, enjoy your comics, and remember this: they oughta be fun!

It's a good time to be a Superman fan.

52 WEEK 26: This comic is fun. We're at the halfway point of the series I considered to be a wacky experiment on DC's part and which has turned out to be one of the greatest delights for me for far this year. I like the fast movement that the weekly schedule provides, the slow but steady mysteries twisting around each other, and the examinations and growths of a core group of the DCU's second-tier heroes and villains. This one brings the beginning of a new storyline for Montoya and the Question, a faceoff between Steel and Starlight (my least favorite plotline of the series so far, but I'm still eager to see where it's goin'), a nicely Fawcetty dinner party, a Mr. Tawky Tawny analogue for the Black Marvel Family, and The Best Line of the Week: "Everyone knows you can't have a Justice League without a Manhunter from Mars!" And as tangled as Hawkman's origin has been post-Crisis, didja ever think you'd see his story as something you could sum up in two pages? Me neither. Here's to another twenty-six weeks of a world without Superman, Wonder Woman or Batman, 'coz I'm enjoyin' the DCU jus' fine without 'em.


AGENTS OF ATLAS #4: This comic is fun. Whoa! How's that for a psyche on this little stuffed Namora fan after last issue's startling final page! This issue is a perfect all-out action adventure following #3's lengthy recap, leading me to believe, man, this thing's gonna read great in the trade. (But don't wait for the trade, pick it up now! It's got giant crabs!) My favorite bit was a clever meta-fiction tip of the hairstyle to the problem of making characters look different: now that blonde Namora is a cast member, Venus decides to go redhead so she looks different! Thanks, Venus...you're a very thoughtful mythical being! Plus, who says comics aren't education: I learned that Venus was born of foam! Some of the pellets inside me are a foam/styrene compound, so me 'n' Venus have a lot in common. Maybe she will come over and give me little nose kisses. Nose kisses from Venus. Sigh. (And don't miss Gorilla Man's typed report on the back page listing the Atlas companies they've targeted, especially Atlas Comics: "They only had superhero books, and all those had crossover stories, so you can do buy all of them to get one damn story! Gotta be a racket. And where's all the war books?" Haw! It's funny because it's true.


SHE-HULK #13: This comic is fun...sorta. This issue wraps up the Trial of Starfox storyline which has been danglin' around since #7 (I don't blame Dan Slott for the delay; Civil War not only split the Marvel Universe in two, it split this running plotline!), and hooray hooray! Mister Starfox is not a creepy nasty naughty perv like he's been accused of being. So why is this comic only sorta fun? Well, like I said last issue, I'm less interested in the cosmic storylines of this book than I am the down-to-Earth legal matters of Marvel Manhattan, so the Trial on Titan just makes me a li'l jumpy and eager to get back to planet Earth. But my biggest complaint would be that Dan Slott basically unpacks a deus-ex-Thanos in the last handful of pages that undoes what was a kinda clever and interesting twist of last issue: turns out the real reason behind Thanos's obsession with Death wasn't Starfox after all. Hmmm, that was a lot of ado about nothing then. Still, She-Hulk has the usual clever Slott dialogue that, unlike a lot of comics, is actually funny, and next issue's got Awesome Andy in it, so that's okay by me.


JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #27: This comic is fun...sorta. When JLU is good, it's really, really good. When it's not so good...well, it's just falling into a common trap for the series that there has to be a learning lesson for one of the heroes attached to the action. Black Lightning's pretty-well written in this story (Tony Isabella oughta be proud), but it's a fairly standard story of a hero doubting himself and then finding strength by believing in himself. It wouldn't be a problem if it didn't happen so very often in this series. Plus this issue contained a pretty weird-ass insert comic starring the Teen Titans and Li'l Lara Croft some character named Sara Hunter and her dramatically-overcome-at-the-last-second reading disability. For what turns out to be a PSA comic, it's not quite as in your face campy as this one, and its intents and audience are in the right place, but in putting out its "use your strengths to overcome obstacles" message, it lacks the clever quirkiness and energy of the Teen Titans cartoon and Teen Titans Go! comic book.


FANTASTIC FOUR: THE END #1: This comic is fun. I've been a fan of only a handful of Marvel's "The End" comics (The Hulk, The Punisher), so I approached this book with a little trepidation as well as a little dictionary to look up what "trepidation" means. I shouldn't'a worried: I luvs me some Alan Davis artwork somethin' fierce, and his story is every bit as colorful and dynamic as his trademark art: in the not-too-distant future, the FF is split up and each living their own lives and adventures: Reed throwing himself into his work on a space station, Johnny as a member of the Avengers, Sue exploring the undersea world with Namor, and Ben raising a happy family on Mars with Alicia and the Inhumans. Tantalizing hints of what went wrong to pull superherodom's first family apart are dropped, but the real focus is on an imminent danger that you just know is gonna bring them back together...for one last time, according to the title of this comic. It's a great fun adventure that's filled with both savvy quiet character moments and big splashy fight scenes, but the best part is seeing a logical reason that the FF might be pulled apart and how they deal with it. Published smack-dab in the middle of the highly-suspect actions of 616-Reed Richards, Alan Davis shows up the entire motivation of Civil War by remembering that the FF is, first and foremost, a family.


SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL #1: This comic is fun. Between All Star Superman, Busiek on Action and Superman and the new Legion cartoon series, it's a better time than ever to be a Superman fan. Need more proof? Enter Superman Confidential! This new Superman series begins with two of my favorite artists: Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale, and even tho' Darwyn's writing rather than drawing, his love and respect for the joys of Silver Age comics is evident on every page (well, except for those with the weird Teen Titans insert. Do what I did—rip it out!). I've been a big, big little fan of Tim Sale's artwork on special projects for DC and Marvel: Superman For All Seasons, Batman: The Long Halloween, Catwoman: When in Rome and Spider-Man: Blue have been my favorites. This looks like it's shapin' up to be another one, not merely for good solid superhero action but for its portrayal of one of my very favorite elements of the Superman mythos: the Clark/Lois/Superman love triangle. There's a gorgeously-written and illustrated three-page romantic sequence where Superman and Lois share a champagne toast on top of the Eiffel Tower that is the sort of scene I'd love to see in a Superman movie. Even if the Lois and Clark dialogue is a little more Dave-and-Maddie than Tracy-and-Hepburn, this is a delight. And Kryptonite is coming! Kryptonite is coming! That's why SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL #1 is the most fun comic of the week!

No lessons have been learned in the reading of these comic books.

FUTURAMA #23: This comic is fun. There's nothin' like a comic book story about evil twins! And this is nothing like a comic book story about evil twins! (Ha! Ha! Did you enjoy my little joke! Hmmm? ......................Didja? ............Hmmm? Hmmm?..........Oh, like you could do better!) Seriously, this may look like evil twins, but there's a twist even I didn't see coming! And I'm pretty savvy about comic plotlines in advance: f'rinstance, I knew, months before it happened, that Avengers: Disassembled was gonna stink. (Ha! That was another one. I'm tot'lly on a roll.) Anyway, more fun with Fry, Leela, Bender and company (with a big in-your-face Bender cover!), makin' me miss the cancelled TV series yet again, but fillin' a nice void with this story. What's more, FUTURAMA #23 features The Best Line of the Week: "Once Joss Whedon reads my online Buffy fan fiction novel, I know he'll want to go camping with me!"


SIMPSONS SUPER SPECTACULAR #2: This comic is fun. Here's more fun from the House of Bongo. This issue of the Simpsons-universe superhero title isn't as much fun as the first one, but it's still a highlight of this week. The first story is a kinda pedestrian Crisis on Three Earths crossover called "The League of Extraordinary Barts," but where this issue really shines is in the second story, Batton Lash's "Bongos," a parody of the comic series Marvels. Sure, Marvels is not the most fresh of parody topics, but nobody's done this in this way, and it's especially fun to see the Radioactive Man universe in a pseudo-photographic style. Fun stuff, even if a non-comics fan won't get a word of it.


FURY: PEACEMAKER #1: This comic is fun. Nick Fury: before S.H.I.E.L.D.*! Before the eye-patch! And, apparently, before the Howling Commandos! Garth Ennis has made a name for himself writing some fairly realistic and pretty darn good war comics in the last couple years. Now he puts Marvel's Sgt. Fury in the middle of one. Rather than fighting Baron Strucker and the Red Skull, Nick's heading a platoon in Tunisia in 1943 as the Afrika Corp bears down on them. There's a neat framing sequence that shows the foolproof plans the platoon trained for being shattered left and right, and I guess it's a good thing this book doesn't feature Dum-Dum Dugan, Gabe Jones and Pinky Pinkerton, 'coz Nick's platoon has about the same chance as a snowball in Tunisia. There's a great scene at the end of the issue where Nick faces off against a German Lieutenant General and we...and he...can't see how he's going to escape. The answer may, as Stan Lee used to say when he wrote Fury's adventures, shock and astound you! Seriously, this is good war comics in the vein of Joe Kubert and Robert Kanigher. It does kinda seem like one of Ellis's Vertigo war comics with Nick Fury shoehorned in, but I'll definitely be around for issue two to see what happens next. I bought this book because of my New Year's Resolution to Try Each Week to Pick Up One New Comic Title I Haven't Been Reading, and this week's choice of FURY #1 was definitely a good impulse.


X-FACTOR #3: This comic is fun. First off: when's the last time you saw an orange comic book cover? Pretty cool, huh? Well, I thought so. I like orange. Anyway, the fallout from a couple stories I didn't really wanna read ("House of M" and "Decimation") continues, with most of Mutant Town having lost their powers and bands of rampaging normal humans rioting in the streets. Time for Strong Guy to cut loose, M to dance in her bathrobe, and Layla Miller to do her thing, whatever the heck that is. I'm diggin' Peter David's new series: he clearly knows and enjoys these characters, his dialogue is sharp, realistic, and funny, and the ongoing storyline is compelling and makes me wanna come back for more, but I just have to say this: Enough with Layla Miller, already. The "I'm Layla Miller, I know things" joke is already pounded into the ground too many times, and she shows every sign of being plopped there as the series' resident deus ex machina. More to the point, PAD's trying to give her this whole River Tam spooky power chick vibe, and does the universe really need more than one River Tam? No, it does not.


JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #18: This comic is fun. Superman meets Space Cabby. Let me repeat that. Superman meets Space Cabby. This is not only fun, it's so brilliant I don't know why it hasn't been done before. This is a comic chock-full of oh, yeah! moments (amazing comics blogger Dave Campbell calls these moments something different, but I'm a little stuffed bull so I'll keep to "oh, yeah!"): Superman uses his super-breath; "It tickles!", and, oh yeah!: the cavalry arrives just in the nick of time! What's more, this comic avoids one of the problems I've had with previous issues of JLU: it doesn't end with a moral or a lesson learned of the sort that sometimes makes JLU read like an episode of G.I. Joe. No moral? No lessons? That's why JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #18 is the most fun comic of the week!


*Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage and Law-Enforcement Division.

The only lesson we need to learn this week is: Wildcat does whatever the heck he wants, baby!

I'm finally catching up on a couple comics from last week! Were they worth the wait? Heck yeah!

JSA #81: This comic is fun. I dropped JSA a couple months back in the middle of all the dark, gloomy Infinite Crisis crossovers, but I had to pick this issue up. Why? Stargirl! My favorite JSAer...hmmm, is JSAer a word? Anyways...Stargirl is my favorite member of the Justice Society, even more so now that she's got Starman's cosmic rod (one of the single best designs of equipment and weaponry in the last ten years in superhero comics!) Despite some kind of confusing continuing Infinite Crisis subplots, this issue is even better than I expected as it ties in elements from Starman (The Shade guest stars and it takes place in Opal City!) and continues some of the plotlines from Stargirl's first series, Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., which is a difficult title to type but which was a pretty fun comic book. There's some sadness and tragedy in this done-in-one story but despite the not-too-subtle "lessons learned" aspect of the ending, this is still a fun comic. In fact, it's the most fun comic of the week and it's got the Best Line of the Week: "What did I tell you about the language?" "Blame Wildcat." Hah! As Pal Dorian could tell you, you can't rein in Wildcat...the man does what he wants! Coz he's Wildcat, baby! Yeah!


JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #17: This comic is fun. Here's the thing I love best about the JLU comics: they have more respect for the DC Universe than the regular DC Universe comics. In the regular DC Universe, Sheyera Hol is dead in Rann-Thanagar War. In the JLU Universe, she's had a more full storyline than Superman. In the regular DC Universe, Vibe is a joke. And he's dead. In the JLU Universe, he's not only alive, he's front and center of his own issue. In the regular DC Universe, The Freedom Fighters are dead. In the JLU Universe, they're not only alive and starring in this issue, but they kick the JLU's butt! Boo-yah! What's more, they look great in the animated DC style. (I mean...Phantom Lady..gosh, I don't know what to say about Phantom Lady.) If I've got any complaint, it's my usual one about JLU: the wrap-up with "a lesson learned" about how important a hero is and how he needs to believe in himself. We've seen this same ending again and again in JLU and it begins to feel like the end of G.I. Joe or a segment of "The More You Know." Despite what I said about the ending of JSA above, don't be afraid to just give us an exciting issue without a moral at the end, DC! Morals! Who needs 'em?!?

Two! Two! Two weeks of comics in one!

Uh oh! I might have to turn in my comics blogging badge, because I didn't get a chance to review last week's fun comics at all. (I was busy traveling around upstate and central New York! Brrrrrr, it's cold, even if you happen to have been born in a natural leather jacket and have it on you at all times!) I know you fine Bully-fans have been patiently waiting and thinking: "I wonder what Bully thinks of this week's comics!" And I know no number of reasons why Ben Grimm rocks, delightful as they are, can satisfy that comics-reviewin' craving. So, let me roll up some of the comics from this week and the comics from last week into a big ball of comics fun (please note: comics were not actually rolled up into a ball).

GIANT-SIZE INVADERS #2: This comic is fun. One of these days I'm gonna do a post (or two or three) on some of the often-overlooked past comics that John has let me read out of his collection that I think are the funnest of them all. Atari Force. Damage Control. The Shadow. And, let's not forget The Invaders. Marvel doesn't seem to have forgotten them, 'coz here they are again in a big glossy of five stories for a measly fifty dimes! I do hafta wonder: what inspired this nice repackage? It doesn't seem like The Invaders is one of Marvel's top properties. Maybe they are just aware so many of their fans are older and remember the original Invaders comic from the seventies. Not me! I'm new to the whole thing. And I still liked this a lot. There's a brand-new Invaders story by Roy Thomas (and who better to write a WWII adventure of Golden Age heroes than Rascally Roy?), plus four excellent reprints: the seventies Invaders #1-2 by Roy Thomas and Frank Robbins (and I'll get to Mister Robbins in a minute) and two 1940s reprints: a Sub-Mariner story from All Winners Comics #1 and a Human Torch story from All Winners Comics #2. Why, that's three great ages of comics all in one book! My favorite of the stories, though, even after having read them before, is the Frank Robbins stories. I just love the look of Frank Robbins. His artwork is instantly recognizable and you'd never confuse his work with someone else's. I know he was never the most popular or acclaimed of artists but his work on Invaders and (even more obscure) the Man from Atlantis comic is dynamic, powerful, and even in this day and age of Image Comics-inspired artists, totally unique. All hail the Golden Age! All hail Mister Frank Robbins! All hail the Invaders!


MARVEL HOLIDAY SPECIAL ONE-SHOT: This comic is fun. Yay! I sure do like Christmas comics! I like to read them all season long. I like to get a big mug of hot chocolate after I've been out sledding or making snowbulls and curl up on the floor next to the Christmas tree and read a big stack of Christmas comics. Each year we put them on the shelf with the Christmas books—they don't go stored away in a longbox where you can't get at 'em, oh no, no no no no no sirree! They stay out where we can get at them every year and I can read them again and again and again until they fall apart and have hot chocolate stains on them and I know all the words in every panel by heart. Well, here's another one! This is an anthology too: three Marvel Christmas stories. I liked the first one best: the Fantastic Four (with some Christmasy help from the Sub-Mariner!) try to track down the missing Mole Man. Art is by one of my very favorite current comics arts, Roger Langridge (who did the amazing Fred the Clown). John says it is a Citizen Kane parody but all I know is that this comic is as sweet as a candy kane! (Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!) Give Mister Langridge a reg'lar comic, Marvel! He'd make it the most fun of all! The second story takes us inside the New Avengers first holiday party. It is silly more often than it is funny but it does feature not only a nice sentimental Christmasy ending (inspiring speech by Captain America at no extra cost!) but also The Best Line of the Week: "I don't think he writes his name 'Wool Vereen.'" The last of the three stories was a little hokey: an illustrated poem about an old Captain Britain villain versus the FF on Christmas Eve. Happy endings abound even here! But I was least interested in this story because of the format and because I didn't even know who the villain was until the magic of Google showed me the way. Still! Good enough to put on the Christmas shelf!


JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #16: This comic is fun. And what's more fun than a Christmas comic?...Two Christmas comics! This week's JLU is the special holiday issue (and they even take time out to remind you the holiday is more than just Christmas: Atom-Smasher, who's Jewish, and Hawkgirl, who's completely from another planet, all get in the "holiday spirit" too!). The "junior members" of the JLU, under the leadership of Hawkgirl, try to stop a rampaging, unstoppable villain. And yet, at the end: happy sentimental Christmas story! (Sniff.) The JLU has many of the same elements of each issue: a hero doubts himself and becomes the one to make the big difference in the end, not only in the battle but in Learning a Very Important Lesson™. (And while we're at it, the whole story kinda reminds of a similar Marvel story in which a hero—Spidey? The Hulk? Daredevil?—fights to stop a villain who just wants to get home for the holidays. Anybody remember what story it is I'm thinkin' of? Anybody, Bully fans? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?) A couple other minor quibbles: the reason Hawkgirl gets back in costume for just this issue is kinda contrived and doesn't serve any real purpose, and, great as that cover is (I love the animated Supergirl!), where's my favorite Leaguer: Stargirl? But hey! It's Christmas, this comic is fun, and I like it. In the end, isn't that all that matters?


MISTER MIRACLE #2: This comic is fun. (But late! Don't make me wait for my Seven Soldiers fix, Johnny DC!) I've been enjoying the heck of of the Seven Soldiers comics, but I think the whole storyline, not only of each character but the crossover threads winding through each title, is really only going to be clear when I sit down and re-read the whole stack o' story after DC publishes Seven Soldiers Special #1 on April 5, 2006. (I can't wait!) Even so, I'm filled with awe and admiration for how many different genres Grant Morrison is working in through all these seven comics. Even though each of the characters is based on a previous incarnation, you have to say what he's doing here with them is startling, surprising, new-direction stuff that is still reverent (thank you, Vocabulary-Word-a-Day Calendar 2005) to what went before. There's no better example of that than Mister Miracle. You know I love the work of King Jack Kirby. Jack drew like I want superheroes to be: big and bold and bombastic and larger than life and twice as loud! Some of his creations are more popular than others, but some of the others are treated like sacred cows: even tho' Mister Jack is no longer with us, most times these characters get used it's like reading Jack Lite: sorta the same thing Jack would do, sorta the same larger-than-life in-your-face feel, sorta the same big bombastic storylines and events. Here's little stuffed me going out on a limb here: I think doing Jack Kirby comics almost exactly the way Jack Kirby did them can get boring after a while. I don't claim to know what Jack thought about others doing his characters and storylines, but everything I've read about him tells me that even if you were using his characters he didn't want you to copy his style—he wanted you to develop your own way of doing things, that that was where artists and creators were at their strongest. That's why I would like to think that Mister Miracle, which takes the New Gods characters and spins them in different dramatic directions than the oft-overused Orion and his Pals versus Darkseid in the Fire Pits of Apokalips. Kirby's characters here are weird, hidden, changed, different, and not just for the sake of Ultimizing or All-Starring them: some plot's going on that we (and Mister Miracle) aren't aware of yet. Are the Sheeda manipulating "Dark Side"? (Or vice versa?) Why would anyone have Doctor Dezard as a therapist? And why do "The Troops" look so familiar? Those are questions that make me turn the pages in this comic fast, eager to see what happens next, that make me wait impatiently and eagerly for the next issue, that cause me to declare that Grant Morrison is better at re-interpreting classic comics characters in ways that are both different and unique but don't make them unrecognizable (yeah, I'm lookin' at you, All Star Batman!), and that make me declare MISTER MIRACLE #2 the most fun comic of the week.

Last week's comics, this week.

I'm finally catching up on a couple comics from last week! Were they worth the wait? Heck yeah!

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #15: This comic is fun. Nobody expected a character almost universal'ly considered to be one of the lamest heroes in the DC Universe to make any sort of comeback, much less a starring role in a Justice League Unlimited story! That's one of the best things of all about JLU: any character, no matter how they were treated or written before, or even if they died, has Justice League potential! (Or, as Superman has been heard to say once or twice, "Each of you brings something to the table." I guess that means even a little stuffed bull has Justice League potential! Mind you, what I usually bring to the table is the silverware and the napkin rings...) Take away the kinda-clichéd "here's the moral of the story" ending and a writer who doesn't know the difference between "el" and "los" and at the heart of this book you have a story that defines the joy 'n' wonder of comics: every character is someone's favorite, and if you dismiss a character as lame, well, he or she just hasn't been written right—yet. I doubt they'd ever bring back Vibe in the real DC Universe, so all hail the Animated DC Universe! May your skies never turn red!


FLAMING CARROT COMICS #4: This comic is fun. Sentences can't express how cool it is that Flaming Carrot is back in a regular comic book series. So, I'll use a series of partial, disjointed, sentence fragments to explain what I loved about this issue, much in the vein of a hip beatnik hep cat or maybe even the Carrot himself, starting...now!

Adventures in his pajamas. Ducky soap! "Pants all pie now." Sponge Boy? SPONGE BOY! Uh oh, evil baby! Dead man's party. Joe Izusu?!? Fumetti! "You made a deal not me!" Carrot secrets! Next issue: all photo Carrot. And...Gumby and Pokey by Bob Burden and Rick Geary!?!?!? Hoo hoo! That's why! FLAMING CARROT COMICS #4! Most fun comic of week! Oh, sorry, I started sounding like the Hulk a little at the end there. Seriously, pick it up. I laughed, I cried, I kissed three-fitty goodbye.

The JLA is still fun; you just have to know where to look.

Not many comics at all this week! Does that mean fewer fun comics? Let's find out, shall we?

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #12: This comic is fun. Kids who don't know there was a Flash before Wally West (hey, haven't you kids read Crisis on Infinite Earths?) don't believe that Jay Garrick is the Flash. Wally West and Jay team up to stop the Mirror Master, learn from each other, and we all find out (even the obnoxious kid from page one) that two Flashes are better than one! That's about it, but it's bright and colorful and while it's one of the kids' DC comics, it's definitely not just for kids only! (And even me, a little stuffed bull, can tell you that!) If you're looking for a comic book with the fun and wonder and variety and excitement of the Silver Age DC Universe in a modern-day setting, only place you have to look is these comics based on the cool Cartoon Network show, where every DC Universe hero could possibly appear. (Even poor dead Blue Beetle!) In a day and age when the "real" JLA is getting their throats cut and murdering people, I'd much rather hang out with these guys, thankyouverymuch! That's why JLU #12 is the most fun comic of the week!


JSA #76: This comic is not fun. I'm a big fan of Geoff Johns's recipe for a decent comic book: one part nostalgia, two parts continuity, a dash of drama and a big chunk o' Wildcat. The trouble with JSA this month is too many cooks and that the restaurant Johns is cooking for suddenly decided to stop serving...oh, shoot, that metaphor jus' isn't gonna work. Let's start again. The trouble with JSA this month is "Countdown to Infinite Crisis" and its "OMAC Project" tie-in. I'm jus' not interested in this miniseries and its spin-offs. Maybe I'll regret later on not leaping aboard what seems to be DC's big universe-recreating project this summer but everything I've peeked at about it is not fun: heroes getting murdered, heroes murdering, heroes not being very heroic anywhere you look. Ick. No thank you, Johnny DC! JSA's too tied into "OMAC Project" this month to be of interest to me (or even understandable). There's two nice pages in the whole book wrapping up the Atom-Smasher storyline: Al proves whatever he's done, he's a hero who takes responsibility for his actions, and Stargirl realizes it. But two pages does not a fun comic make.