"Action Comics" #844

posted by JediSheltie @ 8:38 AM

844? Not exactly an “anniversary” issue, why so special? Wait, that “Donner” guy credited on the cover sounds familiar for some reason... Oh, right...

Well, it has finally arrived, the first taste of the writing team of Richard Donner, director of Superman and a significant part of Superman II, and Geoff Johns, now perhaps best known for Infinite Crisis. As might be news to no one at this point in time, Johns once worked for Donner as an assistant on some of his films. So what has all this Superman synergy wrought?

Plot

A good read. It's basically the first issue of the new story arc featuring the appearance of a boy in a rocketship crash landing in the middle of downtown Metropolis. There's some short preliminaries on the current “status quo” for those who might, for some strange reason, be picking the title up for the first time. Primarily we're reminded that Clark Kent and Lois Lane are wedded in the bounds of holy matrimony.

The question of whether it is, in fact, legal to marry another species has yet to be addressed... But I digress.

Perry White is still a curmudgeonly “old school” newspaper editor, Jimmy Olsen is the young photographer, struggling to please the Chief, and Clark Kent is just slightly unreliable for reasons no one can quite figure out.

Unlike rocketships crash landing in the wilds of Kansas, ones that do so in the middle of a major metropolitan area illicit not only the response of flying men, but of the United States government, who take the only occupant of the one that crashes in the middle of Metropolis, a brown haired boy of about 6 or 7, into their "care" with few questions asked. While visiting the local research facilities, Clark establishes the boy can speak Kryptonese fairly quickly, and the boys at the labs confirm he's Kryptonian shortly thereafter.

The boy is whisked away once his heritage is confirmed, and Clark doesn't get the memo. Angrily confronting the leader of the local facility, Clark learns where he's being taken. Moments later... the caravan is attacked by a masked man wielding smoke grenades. The boy is gone. I suppose I'll leave the last page unspoiled, but suffice to say, one can always hit up their parents for advice in times of need.

As a beginning, this looks to be an interesting arc. It's a decent compromise on capitalizing on the buzz of Superman Returns storyline without actually saddling the principal characters with a real biological offspring.

Go ahead, ask me about the one thing I didn't much care for about Superman Returns...

Ahem... At this point in time, I doubt the boy is going to be a permanent addition to the cast, thank god. There's the interesting question of the last arc, where in the Collector mentioned the presence of 3 Kryptonian life forms on Earth before the boy's arrival. Maybe it wasn't the boy, maybe it was a continuity error, maybe it was a setup to a different story, but all is probably not as it seems.

Art

Adam Kubert's art is excellent, and suits the series well. He provides a good balance of realistic rendering with some liberal flair. I'm generally more a fan of the realistic school, but that's not to say I don't care for more liberal styles. I find some very liberal styles hit-or-miss, though. Kubert's Superman is a big man, with a wide chest and powerful arms, just a bit out-sized, but not ridiculously so. That nails it for me. The style is a bit reminiscent of Jurgens and Breeding's work on Superman back during the Death arc, with strong lines that don't sacrifice detail.

Conclusions

This should be a good arc. It addresses one of the core ideas behind the character, that, in their own way, the elder Kents are the ones that truly saved the world. The houses of a thousand “Elseworlds” were built on this idea, but we see now what will unfold when Clark is in their position.

And, of course, the boy will eventually die, get sent off to some parallel dimension, or be revealed as an android... Something, anything, that will return my nice, comfortable status quo.

Related Film Frontier Articles
"Last Son" launches Donner/Johns Action Comics run
Donner/Johns reveal Superman movie concept in Action
Donner joins Action Comics writing staff
Coming Soon—Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut DVD

"Superman: Sacrifice" graphic novel

posted by Tygrrius @ 9:53 PM

Superman: Sacrifice graphic novel (DC Comics, 2006 compilation)
Writers: Greg Rucka, Mark Verheiden, and Gail Simone
Pencillers: Ed Benes, et al.
Inkers: Alex Lei, et al.
Colorists: Rod Reis, et al.
Letterers: Todd Klein, et al.
Front cover art: J.G. Jones (Wonder Woman #219)

Trademark Film Frontier Long-Winded Review Intro

When Richard Donner announced that he would begin writing for DC’s Action Comics Superman title, I’d not read a new Superman comic book in 10 years.

And that’s not due a dislike of Superman comic books.

Since the storylines back then spread between Action Comics, Superman, Adventures of Superman, and Superman: The Man of Steel, there was a Superman comic to buy every week.

On those odd months that included five weeks, there was even a Superman: The Man of Tomorrow title to fill in the gap. So it was hard to keep up with, in terms of both time and money, so I eventually stopped trying.

Another reason I was able to let Superman go back then was because I really don’t like comic book stores. Harrowing experiences with "comic snob" staff members at a certain store as a child and teenager still make me hesitate to this day to go into them.

But hey, if Richard Donner’s gonna start writing Superman stories, I’m there. Donner's vision of Superman in his 1978 movie pretty much defined the character for me. 2006 is notable to me as a Superman fan not only because Superman returned to theaters, and because it will soon see the release of the Donner version of Superman II, but also because it marks a new era of Superman stories written by the Richard Donner/Geoff Johns team.

Fortunately, JS let me know that DC now offers a third-party subscription service. So, I won’t have to go into a scary comic book store to check out Action Comics. Sure, I'll get them two to three weeks later, but I can live with that.

He warned me, though, that I’d missed a number of things in the last ten years. You see, when I stopped buying the Superman comics, I’d planned to keep up as much as I could by buying graphic novel compilations every now and then.

Well, ten years comes around real quick, let me tell you. From the time I stopped buying the weekly comics until the time Donner made his announcement earlier this year, I’d bought exactly three graphic novels, all of which took place before that last comic I bought back in 1996: Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (the first half of which I'd read back in 1986), Crisis On Infinite Earths, and Superman: The Man of Steel.

JS has now placed me in a "Superman boot camp" of sorts, to get me caught up on comics continuity. Or at least caught up enough to start reading the Donner/Johns Action Comics.

He tells me that each Superman title can now be read stand-alone, that the stories generally don't intermingle between titles. That’s great news, since I only have to subscribe to one for now.
JS's Superman boot camp consists of the following graphic novels:

Superman: Birthright
Superman: Sacrifice
Infinite Crisis
Superman: Infinite Crisis
Superman: Up, Up, and Away

I read Birthright first. I’m not going to write a full review of that one, since the compilation was released two years ago plus it was my first foray back into Superman comics. It was definitely enjoyable, though it raised a number of comics continuity issues just based on the Superman I was familiar with from 10 years ago.

I don't want to get too hung up on that kind of stuff. In some ways, Birthright is actually similar to the Superman Returns movie in that they both represented "soft" reboots of their incarnations of the character. In both cases, you have to allow for the fact that the continuity logic may be a bit fuzzy. I'm fine with that, since the stories were so strong.

Up next, Superman: Sacrifice. The topic of today’s review, which I’m finally getting around to presenting.

Story

First of all, as stories go, wow, this was a great one. Though perhaps not recently, I’ve read a lot of Superman stories over the years. And, despite the many changes to the character, all of those stories shared one thing in common: Superman was the hero.

The true hero of Sacrifice, though, is not Superman. For Superman, albeit under the mind control of Maxwell Lord, is actually the antagonist of the piece.

The true hero of Sacrifice, as demonstrated in an extremely compelling scene that I will not soon forget, is Wonder Woman. If this whole Donner/Action Comics thing doesn't work out, I think I know which comic I'll make my backup.

I would have liked to have seen the Superman vs. Batman fight depicted from Batman’s point of view. Despite her powers, Wonder Woman barely survives her brawl with Superman, so it would have been interesting to see how Batman was handling the situation in reality.

Art

Everyone has favorite Superman artists. For some, Curt Swan was the ultimate. While I admire and respect Swan's work and understand its historical significance, for me, coming from a later generation, the ultimate Superman depiction was by the Dan Jurgens/Brett Breeding team.

As for the art in Sacrifice, it was a mixed bag. Sacrifice was originally released last year as eight individual comic books drawn from Superman, Adventures of Superman, Action Comics, and Wonder Woman. So there were a lot of different art teams.

The best art in the series was from Action Comics #829 (John Byrne/Nelson). The characters, particularly Superman, looked more realistic there. I don’t like Superman to be built like the Incredible Hulk, as he seems prone to appear these days. His strength should come primarily from his superpowers, not the enormity of his muscles. Anyway, he seems better proportioned in the Action art.

The worst art in Sacrifice was, by far, the sections consisting of Adventures of Superman #642 and #643 (Karl Kerschl, et al./Cam Smith, et al.). Everyone has beady eyes, Superman looks like a big dope, and I found the whole thing distracting.

The other issues fall somewhere in between, though closer to Action than Adventures—fortunately.

Perhaps the disparity in the art wouldn’t have been as noticeable if I had collected the series on a comic by comic basis.

All eight covers are included in full size. Of the eight, only two truly stand out as being noteworthy: Wonder Woman #219 and #220, both by J.G. Jones. They are both beautiful paintings. #219 makes up the graphic novel’s cover as well.

All in all, though, definitely a very compelling story and a great graphic novel.

Story/Writing: 9 (out of 10)
Art: 7
Cover Art: 10
Overall Experience: 9
Recommended: Yes

"Star Wars" graphic novel

posted by Tygrrius @ 5:15 PM

Star Wars graphic novel (Dark Horse, 2006 edition)
Script: Roy Thomas
Pencils: Howard Chaykin
Inks: Steve Leialoha, Rick Hoberg, & Bill Wray
Colors: Pamela Rambo
Lettering: Tom Orzechowski, Carol Lay, & Mike Royer
Front cover art: Howard Chaykin

For around $5.50 more than buying only the DVD (based on first day of sale prices), Wal-Mart bundled a new printing of Marvel's 1977 Star Wars comic book adaptation with the Star Wars: Unaltered DVD. This 2006 edition from Dark Horse collects all six parts of the 1977 series--which kicked off Marvel's Star Wars comics title.

This was the first time I'd read the Star Wars adaptation, and I was in for a real treat. As with Empire, the comic version of Star Wars was adapted from an earlier script than the final movie, so bits and pieces of dialogue as well as the flow of certain scenes are different.

There are also some additional scenes. Unlike the 1977 version of the movie, Jabba makes his first appearance here. Though alien, he looks completely different than the character that would later be established in Return of the Jedi.

Even more so than Empire or Jedi, the first Star Wars seems well-suited to the comic book format. The story flows very well, and is quite exciting despite the fact that I knew how it was all going to turn out.

Though Luke and Han rarely look like Mark Hamil and Harrison Ford, the art here is fantastic considering it was obviously created prior to the release of the film.

Anyone who has read my reviews knows that the nostalgia factor can rate high with me, and there's no shortage of that here. This is Star Wars in its infancy. Star Wars at the beginning. Star Wars at its best.

My only wish is that the panels had not been re-colored (likely for Dark Horse's 1995 reprint). I guess I'll have to seek out the original versions to get the true experience of 1977.

The comic offers an interesting theory on why Chewbacca was denied his medal at the closing ceremony:

Chewbacca the Wookiee, too, will have his own medal . . . but he will have to put it on himself. Few space princesses are that tall.

29 years later, mystery solved!

Story/Writing: 9 (out of 10)
Art: 8
Cover Art: 8
Overall Experience: 8
Recommended: To all Star Wars and 1970's era comic fans

"The Empire Strikes Back" graphic novel

posted by Tygrrius @ 9:31 PM

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back graphic novel (Dark Horse, 2006 edition)
Script: Archie Goodwin
Pencils & Inks: Al Williamson & Carlos Garzon
Colors: James Sinclair & Frank Lopez
Lettering: Rick Veitch
Front cover art: Bob Larkin

The comic book version of The Empire Strikes Back first appeared as a six-issue series from Marvel in 1980. By 1995, Dark Horse had taken over the Star Wars comics license and re-released The Empire Strikes Back as a two-part graphic novel.

For about $5.50 more than buying only the DVD (based on first day of sale prices), Wal-Mart bundled a new printing of the comic book adaptation with The Empire Strikes Back: Unaltered DVD. This 2006 edition is also from Dark Horse, and collects all six parts of Marvel's 1980 The Empire Strikes Back series.

Though it has been around for 26 years, this was actually my first time reading the comic version of Empire. After recently re-reading the Marvel Return of the Jedi adaptation, I was not exactly jumping at the bit to read this one.

Whether due to the various personnel differences, or perhaps more time allowed on the project, or just a more comic friendly story, The Empire Strikes Back turned out to be a surprisingly good comic.

The writing is a lot less jarring than Jedi. Sure, there's still a lot of exposition stuff that they work into some of the lines, but it works a lot better than the clunkier dialogue of the Return of the Jedi comic.

Though the quality varies a bit, the art is generally very well done. Most characters are recognizable in most frames. There are some nice full-page spreads, which were rather rare back then as I recall.

A great full-page image of the Falcon racing back to Cloud City is unfortunately ruined by horrible coloring, though. Like Return of the Jedi, The Empire Strikes Back was re-colored (likely for the 1995 edition) to accommodate modern printing techniques. In this case, however, I don't have the original comic book to compare the work.

A minor item that I also found slightly disappointing is that Yoda's coloring (and possibly some of his artwork) was updated to reflect his actual appearance. The original version was colored based upon concept art for Yoda and not the finished puppet. As a result, he was apparently purple and more elf-like. I had been looking forward to seeing this, for fun, but it's not included here.

Still, all in all, this is a great graphic novel. Since, again, it was based on earlier versions of the film, it includes the deleted attack of the wampas on the Rebel base, as well as a longer training sequence for Luke on Dagobah. And in this version, Leia actually takes Luke to task on Hoth for deciding to go off to Dagobah, much like she does with Han regarding Jabba.

Though the Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back comic adaptations were six issues long, Return of the Jedi was trimmed to only four issues for some reason and, as a result, felt rather compressed.

With Empire's six issue format, there's plenty of time to properly build the exciting story. I'm definitely happy to have added this one to my collection for such a reasonable price.

Story/Writing: 8 (out of 10)
Art: 7
Cover Art: 6
Overall Experience: 7
Recommended: To all Star Wars fanatics

Battlestar Galactica: Season 3 Premiere “Occupation / Precipice”

posted by JediSheltie @ 11:42 PM

Okay, this is my bid to get fired. This concludes our cryptic opening statement for the day.

I'm not sure when exactly I started to really enjoy feeling like my face had just been smashed into a counter-top after spending an hour watching TV. Okay, perhaps that's veering into hyperbole, but suffice to say, the grueling experience of making it through the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica brings with it a personal sense of accomplishment. Some might say, “Isn't that a bad thing?” No, it's a very good thing. Eliciting visceral emotion from something as passive as sitting on a couch and watching TV is a very good thing.

I love My Name is Earl, huge Doctor Who fan from a while back and the new episodes are like visiting an old friend with a very nice new suit, I like Monk and Pych for the humor and mystery, and Heroes is still promising, but it's only after watching Battlestar Galactica that I think, “Best damn show on TV.”

Well, after far too long an absence, Galactica came roaring back, and there's no lack of the sharp, pointy edges that make you bleed for wanting to hug it when it shows up on your front door.

The 2 hour season opener begins roughly 4 months after the season finale. The Cylons have found humanity's new home thanks to the nuclear detonation aboard the Rising Sun over a year ago. They showed up feeling kind of bad about that whole “genocide thing” and wanting to forge a new era in human-Cylon relations.

The phrase, “Too soon,” seems to sum it up. Much like Gilbert Godfrey's audience at the Hefner Roast, humanity did not warm to the idea of the Cylon's self-appointed stewardship so soon after the whole “we're going to exterminate you” episode. Leading the charge is Col. Tigh, who was not known as the most upbeat, conciliatory of individuals prior to spending a few weeks in Cylon detention where his eye is removed, forcibly. Now he's seen the bend and rowed very far around it.

In his absence, Chief Tyrol and Anders have been keeping the resistance warm. Tyrol leaves his wife, Cally (whom I totally dig, it's the red hair), and kid each night to go blow things up. Tigh's release signals a ratcheting up of the “insurgency,” as the Cylon's refer to it, wherein people strap on explosives and enter crowded places in which they... explode.

I mentioned the pointy bits, right?

You're not here to agree or disagree with a certain country's foreign policy. You weren't there to agree or disagree the same country's foreign policy when Doctor Leonard H. McCoy complained about the "brush wars of the 20th Century" in A Private Little War. You're here to think. That's good sci-fi, it's always been good sci-fi. The new Galactica is smart enough keep the edges dimly defined. There's no completely obvious road map for comparison to real world events, but the events of the show have relevance to the events in our own world.

Somewhere in nearby space, the Galactica, Pegasus, and the remaining fleet lay in wait, as Admiral Adama pushes every member of the fleet to the breaking point and beyond in preparation for the rescue attempt he must stage. Ever the pragmatist, he knows a rescue isn't in the best interests of the space faring survivors, so he plans to split the fleet. The Galactica will lead the rescue of the inhabitants of New Caprica, while Lee Adama will take the Pegasus and the remainder of the fleet on in the search for Earth.

Starbuck, sporting a far more fetching long cut, has spent the last four months since the inception of the occupation killing Cylons. Well, the same Cylon. Leoben, who seems representative of the greater Cylon problem of wishful thinking, is trying the “personal touch” in the crusade for monotheism and true love. Inhabiting a cozy cell built for two, Leoben tries to get Kara to see things his way. She kills him. Five times, so far. Everything is generally going swimmingly for Kara until the Leohen the Sixth shows up with, well... she's shorter, just as blond, named Kacey, and supposedly the fruits of Starbuck's purloined ovaries.

C'mon, this is the only review of this show that will use the term “purloined ovaries.”

Finally we have our respective leaders. Former President Roslin has settled into her previous career as a school teacher, with a little insurgency on the side. She expresses a bit of displeasure with Tigh's most recent “explody” course of action. She and the Cylons both, for that matter. Baltar, on the other hand, is wallowing in his misery as the human puppet President of the Cylon regime.

I love this version of Baltar. In a way, it's emblematic of the entire “re-imagining” of the original series. The first Baltar was little more than a Snidely Whiplash, mustache twirling cartoon villain who willfully sold out his entire race for his own survival and gain. Complexity to this character, there was not... His crime was the attempted murder of the human race. The Gaius Baltar of this series is a self serving egomaniac whose own tragic failings are preyed upon by the Cylons. This Baltar is guilty, at most, of the criminally negligent homicide of the human race.

The episodes weren't complete perfection. Tigh's human bombs are curiously ineffective when it is plot convenient, and, as I've alluded to a couple times here, the Cylons seemed way too optimistic about "forging a new era of human-Cylon relations." Someone was thinking they'd be greeted as liberators, maybe... I'll allow a couple plot contrivances to tell a compelling story, and that is certainly the case here.

So that's where we begin, and god only knows where it will end. I will be glued to the tube every Friday, nails buried in the arm of the couch, waiting to find out.

Run, Cally, run.

A few words in closing...

I will state, unequivocally, that Ronald D. Moore perpetrated one of the worst offenses in the history of science fiction by his pointless portrayal of the demise of one of the greatest characters in all of sci-fi history. It will remain forever inexcusable.

As far as penance goes, I don't think you could do much better than this show.

I know, if you haven't watched the show, it's harder than most episodic television to hop on board. It's one of the catch22s of serialized dramas that their most compelling aspect can also be their most forbidding. Grit your teeth and jump in. Find kindred geeks who will explain what's going on to you. It shouldn't be too hard.

Oh, and if you're one of those really stubborn people who only dig their heels in harder whenever “everyone” tells them something is good. Well, sorry. But it really is good. Very, very good.