Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (2017)

Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (2017): adapted by Ernie Altbacker from the graphic novel by Marv Wolfman and George Perez; directed by Sam Liu; starring the voices of Stuart Allan (Damian Wayne), Jake T. Austin (Blue Beetle), Taissa Farmiga (Raven), Sean Maher (Dick Grayson), Christina Ricci (Tara), Brandon Soo Hoo (Beast Boy), Kari Wahlgren (Starfire), Miguel Ferrer (Deathstroke), and Gregg Henry (Brother Blood):

Enjoyable DC Animated film adapts the 1980's Teen Titans story arc The Judas Contract with a few character additions and subtractions mostly centered around the addition of Bruce Wayne's son Damian as Robin (with the original Robin here too as Nightwing) and the baffling newish Blue Beetle. 

Beast Boy's pursuit of new Teen Titan Tara/Terra now plays a lot like sexual harassment and stalking, and really needed to be toned down for a contemporary audience. Kevin Smith (voice) cameos as himself. Lightly recommended.

Wonder Woman and the Justice League of America

Wonder Woman and the Justice League America Volume 1 (1993-94/ Collected 2017): written by Dan Vado, Chuck Dixon, and Bill Loebs; illustrated by Kevin West, Mike Collins, Chris Hunter, Greg LaRocque, Rick Burchett, Ken Branch, and others:  

DC repackaged these early 1990's Justice League America issues to put Wonder Woman's name above the title. Which is fine. It's an undercollected era of DC's super-group, so whatever helps it sell!

Wonder Woman takes over as leader a few months after the Death of Superman event removed the Man of Steel from the group. The surviving members, most of whom took a beating at the hands of Superman-killer Doomsday, are still pretty traumatized. Booster Gold needs new armor, his 25th-century duds having been shredded by Doomsday. Blue Beetle is still recovering from his own physical and emotional trauma. Fire still hasn't regained her fire powers. Former Green Lantern Guy Gardner, now wielding Sinestro's yellow power ring, is unusually pissy even for him.

The group gets asked by the United Nations to intervene in an African military coup. There may be no super-villains involved in the coup, but that rapidly changes. The Extremists show up. Or maybe The New Extremists. A sort-of generic group of super-villains, they're working for a sinister mastermind who won't be revealed until the next collected volume.

The JLA makes its way through several problems, from alien fugitives to problems in member Ice's frozen Northern kingdom. The Extremists and the political problems in Ice's homeland are both part of a larger strategy from a mystery figure. Guy Gardner's ultra-belligerence is not -- it's something from his own book crossing over into JLA. We also get a chapter from perhaps DC's least-loved title-wide crossover of the 1980's and 1990's, Bloodlines.

New writer Dan Vado keeps things chugging along with what is really a Marvel-level of angst and superheroic sorrow. New regular artist Kevin West is certainly a competent penciler, though he's outshined in a one-off appearance by Mike Collins. The JLA was never really an 'Art book' -- it's hard enough to keep all the costumes straight, I think! Overall, it's a solid slice of 1990's superheroics, complete with some truly hair-raising costumes and hair-styles. Recommended.

Wonder Woman and the Justice League America Volume 2 (1994/ Collected 2017): written by Dan Vado, Gerard Jones, and Mark Waid; illustrated by Marc Campos, Chuck Wojtkiewicz, Sal Velluto, Ken Branch, and others: 

Wonder Woman leads the Justice League America against the somewhat wiggy Cult of the Machine. But that's just the warm-up for the six-part crossover with Justice League Europe and Justice League Task Force as the three Leagues must join forces in the Day of Judgment story-line to save the Earth from the Overmaster and his Cadre.

Primary JLA penciler Marc Campos does a decent job throughout, though he's occasionally overwhelmed by a desire to do unusual page lay-outs that compromise the reader's ability to understand what the Hell is going on. But he does seem very energetic and enthusiastic. Because the book crosses over with two other titles, the artists change between Day of Judgment chapters, which can be a bit discombobulating.

Wonder Woman does her best as team leader. There's a sly visual nod to Watchmen at one point which I like a lot. Booster Gold screws up. Blue Beetle gets off the mat. Vandal Savage gets to be non-threatening for once. Co-writer on Day of Judgment Mark Waid seems to do a practice run for the Quintumvirate of Kingdom Come with a trio of immortals here debating what to do about Earth's potentially dire fate. 

Overmaster never comes into complete focus as a villain. He's like Galactus if Galactus were into eugenics rather than planet-eating. Superman and Batman are completely absent from the shenanigans because of events over in their own books. They should probably have appeared for at least a cameo, given the stakes, but editors can be really, really fussy about appearances of their characters in the books of other editors. This is how one sometimes ends up with a Justice League or an Avengers that would have problems defeating the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Oh, well.

One of the period-specific curiosities here (well, other than a book called Justice League Task Force, a name it shared with a video game of the time) are repeated references to Wonder Woman's loss of the ability to fly. Clearly this happened in her own book. We're told again and again that she can no longer fly, but never is it explained further. Get this woman an Invisible Jet stat! Recommended.

Superman and the Justice League of America (1992)

Superman and the Justice League of America Volume 1 (1992/ Collected 2016): written by Dan Jurgens and Gerard Jones; illustrated by Dan Jurgens, Rick Burchett, Ron Randall, and others: From the months before 1992's Death of Superman event comes this collection of Justice League stories. 

In the continuity of the time, Superman didn't help found the Justice League and had never really been a member. Until now! I have a feeling adding Superman to the roster was part of the set-up for the Death of Superman. And maybe an attempt to boost sales for the decidedly underpowered, underpopular Justice League of 1992.

After a double-sized special introducing the new Justice League (and reintroducing classic JLA foes The Royal Flush Gang!), the regular stories are written by Dan Jurgens and drawn by Jurgens and finisher Rick Burchett. Jurgens and Burchett deliver solid, meat-and-potatoes superhero storytelling. 

That can often look like genius 25 years on when compared to today's often over-rendered, over-coloured, and poorly coordinated superhero comics. One can actually follow the action from panel to panel and page to page in Jurgens' work. Wow!

Jurgens and company do a good job with an underwhelming group of Justice League members and a bunch of sketchy super-villains. They manage to create a good storyline around better-left-forgotten JLA foe Starkiller. They manage to make C-list heroes that include Fire, Ice, Maxima, Booster Gold, and Blue Beetle interesting. They manage to make a satisfying mystery out of new hero Bloodwynd. 

Through it all, Superman, also written in his own title by Jurgens at the time, is his usual decent, occasionally self-doubting self. You'd think he'd been a Justice League member before! Recommended.

Superman and the Justice League of America Volume 2 (1992-93/ Collected 2016): written by Dan Jurgens and Dan Mishkin; illustrated by Dan Jurgens, Dave Cockrum, Rick Burchett, Sal Velluto, and others: The Death of Superman arrives early in this volume, which reprints only the one issue of JLA that was part of that story arc. It's not like it's hard to find a copy of the Death of Superman story from 1992, so stop complaining!

Superman's brief leadership of the JLA comes to an end off-stage, then, after which we deal with the aftermath. Superman went into battle with his killer Doomsday after the mysterious juggernaut mopped the floor with the rest of the JLA. This reality has left the JLA feeling like a failure. Well, and Blue Beetle is in a coma after getting his head somewhat crushed by Doomsday. Booster Gold's power suit is also in dire, perhaps irreparable shape. Everyone is bummed.

Before the Death of Superman comes 1992's JLA Annual, a double-length story that's part of DC's title-wide Summer Crossover Event featuring Silver Age cult character Eclipso as the villain. While the story is obviously inconclusive and not really a standalone, it's notable for art by New X-Men great Dave Cockrum, who supplies some nifty visuals, especially of Superman.

In the issues After-Death, the JLA mopes a lot until being forced into what is a really strong four-parter dubbed Destiny's Hand. It's a great 'short-long' story arc that nods to the JLA's past without sacrificing sense or clarity to continuity. It really is a gem of a story. It also manages to nod to past JLA rosters that were in 1992 'out of continuity' without requiring the reader to be aware of this if that reader doesn't know those pre-1986 JLA rosters.

Destiny's Hand is sly. And it slyly uses long-time JLA villain Dr. Destiny. By 1992, Destiny was best-known by comic-book readers as the villain in the first arc of Neil Gaiman's Sandman. There's a nod to that as well in the storyline that doesn't require the reader to know Sandman. Does Destiny's time in the realm of Sandman allow him to remember JLA rosters that never 'existed' in this continuity? Good question!


As the collection ends, so too does Dan Jurgens' year-plus stint as writer and co-artist. It was a very good year. Well, really more like 18 months or so. Recommended.

Bitten by a Radioactive Ayn Rand

DC Archives: Action Heroes Volume 2, written by Steve Ditko, Roger Stern, Steve Skeates, and others; illustrated by Steve Ditko, Alex Toth, Frank McLaughlin, John Byrne and others (1965-68; collected 2007): This collection contains a pretty clear moment at which comic-book great Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-man and Dr. Strange for Marvel, crossed the line into Ayn Randian propagandist. It occurs towards the end of the Charlton Comics 'Action Heroes' line from which these archives take their name.

It's a mind-boggling moment because it marks one of the few times that mainstream Ditko and self-published Ditko would merge into one angry, Objectivist loudspeaker. Ditko's two streams of output -- one for himself and one to pay the bills -- would pretty much permanently diverge after the demise of the Charlton superhero line, and others would pretty much handle all the scripting on his mainstream superhero titles.

Ditko helped revamp or create most of the always lame-duck Charlton Comics' superheroes, co-creating Captain Atom, Nightshade, and The Question and revamping Golden-Age crimefighter Blue Beetle into a nifty mix of Spider-man and Iron Man. This archive collects his later work on those Charlton superheroes. Captain Atom is a lot of fun, especially once inker Frank McLaughlin comes on board, and it's mostly free of cant. Blue Beetle is also jolly, zippy fun until the aforementioned Rand Moment, at which point the Blue Beetle becomes a Ditko mouthpiece. Not for long, mind you -- cancellation of the entire superhero line loomed.

And then there's the Question, a visually inspired Ditko creation whose main costuming as a superhero was a face made perfectly blank by a special mask. Alan Moore would base Rorchach in Watchmen on this guy, and you can see why. While the Question begins life as a fairly normal urban vigilante (albeit one wearing a suit, tie, and hat), he rapidly turns into Ditko's spokesperson for his Ayn Rand-derived ethics.

And boy, does he speak. A lot.

The Question's only book-length adventure from the 1960's, from the pages of Charlton's Mysterious Suspense, is one of the wordiest slogs you'll ever encounter in comic books of this or any other time. The sheer volume of verbiage crowds out much of Ditko's visual dynamism, leaving us with talking heads and the Question demonstrating that, for a brief time, he was the stuffiest of all stuffed shirts on the superhero scene. And his hatred of hippies was positively Cartmanesque.

The Blue Beetle also develops advanced Randitis and, in a memorable two-story team-up, he and the Question battle both evil, non-heroic Art and an evil, non-heroic Art critic. I kid you not. It's like Philosophers at Work played straight. Fascinating stuff. Come for Ditko's visual excellence, stay for the interminable lectures. Recommended.