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.
Superman Vs. Aliens (1996): written and pencilled by Dan Jurgens; inked by Kevin Nowlan: 20 years ago, DC and Dark Horse put out this fairly nifty battle between Superman (still in his mullet phase) and the Alien film franchise. It was a time when the Kryptonian Supergirl was still gone from DC continuity. That fact explains much of the storyline, in which Superman responds to a distress signal from a domed city in space that appears to have once been part of Krypton. It comes complete with a spunky blonde girl named Kara who's pretty much the image, in appearance and name, of the pre-1987 Supergirl.
The story is a bit heavy on the then-continuity of the Superman comics, from the mullet to the absence of Lex Luthor from the storyline. Superman can't travel unaided through space for long at this point in his career, necessitating some technology help from LexCorp. Or LuthorCorp. Whatever.
It's solid, unspectacular, and relatively unbloody fun. There's a bit too much harping on Superman's decision not to kill anything, including hordes of acid-blooded aliens. Is this a workable moral stance for the Man of Steel under the circumstances? Well, yes, but as written it relies an awful lot on other people killing aliens, which makes the moral stance seem awfully dubious, if not completely daft. A sin of omission rather than commission is still a sin.
Inker Kevin Nowlan makes the normally straightforward pencils of writer-penciller Dan Jurgens broody, moody, and intermittently menacing. It's a great job of inking in terms of establishing a tone a penciller isn't known for -- Nowlan did something similar with his inks on the sunny Jose Luis Garcia Lopez's Dr. Strangefate during the Marvel/DC crossover around the same time. Lightly recommended.
JLA: Justice League of America: Power and Glory (2015-2016): written by Bryan Hitch with Tony Bedard; illustrated by Bryan Hitch with Tom Derenick, Scott Hanna, Daniel Henriques, Wade von Grawbadger, Alex Sinclair, and others: Maybe getting the perennially late Bryan Hitch to both write and draw a new Justice League comic book way back in 2015 wasn't such a great idea because, well, perennially late.
It took so long for the nine issues of his initial story arc to appear that DC had already rebooted Hitch's Justice League title (now known as Justice League and not JLA: Justice League of America) when the last issue of this title came out. And by rebooted, I mean, there were as many issues of the subsequent title on the stands as there were of this title when that last issue appeared. Whew!
Hitch writes the reboot, but the art has been left to others. That's too bad because of Hitch's strengths as an artist, strengths that outweigh his strengths as a relatively new writer. Hitch's art, a career-long riff on Neal Adams and Alan Davis, made him a superstar nearly 20 years ago in the pages of ultra-violent superhero book The Authority. And he does good work here -- 'widescreen,' as they say, cosmic though sometimes crowded.
His writing seems a bit padded at times. Nine issues seems like about two issues too much here, with about 40 pages too many of running back and forth without resolving anything plot-wise. Hitch's new Justice League has shorter story arcs so far, suggesting that something may have been learned.
Power and Glory pits Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and the usual gang of super-powered idiots against the Kryptonian Sun-god Rao, who arrives in near-Earth space with a whole lot of super-powered followers and an offer to bring peace, health, and long life to all the citizens of Earth -- and indeed, someday, everyone in the universe. He's initially greeted as a saviour. And of course there's a catch.
Hitch throws a lot of super-science and bombastic, epic battles around the nine issues. And time travel, strange visitors with hidden agendas, and weird standing stones waiting to fulfill some plot point or another. It's good, overlong fun. One caveat: in order to finally put a capper on this story (and this JLA title), DC elected to have other people write and draw the final issue, with only the plot by Hitch. Given how long readers had waited by this time, a few more months could probably have been survived if the end result was an all-Hitch writing-and-drawing issue. Oh, well. Recommended.
Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite!: written by Roger Stern, Jerry Ordway, and Dan Jurgens; illustrated by Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Curt Swan, John Byrne, Bob McLeod, Brett Breeding, Art Thibert, Dennis Janke, Dave Hoover, Kerry Gammill, and Scott Hanna (1990/ Collected 1996): An entertaining, short story arc from the various Superman titles in 1990. Why they decided to go with a title that spells out 'KKK' in acrostic is a really good question, though.
Coming four years after John Byrne and company had rebooted Superman into a less god-like version of himself, Krisis offers us a Superman who already seems as comfortable as an old shoe. And there's nothing wrong with that. The art is also solid, workmanlike, no-fuss stuff. The three writers give us a Superman who's as noble as ever, faced with a situation in which his powers have mysteriously vanished because of Red Kryptonite.
As there is no Red Kryptonite in the rebooted world of Superman post-1986, this offers an intellectual challenge for the Man of Steel. Not only does he need to find out why he's a normal human now, he also finds himself obligated to continue fighting super-villains by whatever means necessary. My only regret is that the writers didn't figure out how to bring back the Super-mobile, a toy from the late 1970's that was forced upon the Superman creators of the time as something that just had to appear in the comic books. See also the Spider-mobile.
The supporting cast is likeably constructed here, from the tough Lois Lane to the mostly competent Jimmy Olsen and onwards to relatively new cast addition Professor Hamilton. The main villains of the piece are Lex Luthor and Mr. Mxyzptlk. Luthor is dying of Kryptonite exposure because he's been wearing a green K ring on his hand for several years to ward off Superman. Mr. Mxyzptlk has undergone an unfortunate redesign in the post-1986 Superman universe: the skinny, almost snake-like look wouldn't survive much longer, thank Rao.
Along the way, we do get a terrific joke that brings Superman reboot co-architect John Byrne back to the Man of Steel after a two-year absence with a funny riff on alternate universes and Byrne's work on the Fantastic Four prior to his work on the Superman comics. Recommended.
Batman: The Dark Knight Archives Volume 2: written by Bill Finger; illustrated by Bob Kane, George Roussos, Fred Ray, Jerry Robinson, and others (1941/collected 1993): Bob Kane worked out a sweet legal deal in 1939 with what would become DC Comics. It got him sole credit in perpetuity as the creator of Batman. This also screwed over writer Bill Finger, who by all accounts came up with about 90% of Batman's recognizable features.
Kane generally got full credit on art and story for Batman stories until the 1960's. It's not entirely clear whether he actually did anything other than supervise the stories included here from 1941 issues of Batman magazine. So it goes.
The stories collected here are interesting in a historical sense -- this is not the hyper-competent Batman who has really only existed in comic books since Frank MIller's 1985-86 miniseries The Dark Knight Returns. Instead, he's more of a costumed adventurer with an incredible propensity for getting knocked unconscious by everyone he fights.
Seriously, post-concussion syndrome should really be the Golden Age Batman's Kryptonite. That and Robin the Boy Wonder's ability to get taken hostage at inopportune moments. They're stories for kids (as, indeed, most stories about super-heroes should be), capably illustrated by Kane (?), Jerry Robinson, George Roussos, and others.
Bill Finger's pulpy inventiveness was already in full swing by 1941. My favourite example here involves Batman fighting a professor who's been exposed to too much radium radiation. He may be a mad, highly radioactive scientist, but his heart was in the right place: he wanted to cure disease. The Joker makes three appearances in the course of the collection (which spans one year of comic books in 1941). Yes, he was already being over-used. But while he's kooky, he's also a homicidal criminal And, as always, something of a dick. Recommended.
Thor: Death of Odin: written by Dan Jurgens; illustrated by Stuart Immonen, Jim Starlin, and others (2001; collected 2008): Dan Jurgens and Stuart Immonen were longtime members of the Superman family of comics creators over at DC in the 1990's. Their take on Thor is definitely Supermanesque, with the God of Thunder having secret identity problems galore.
Oh, and he also gets a self-styled 'cousin' who wears a distaff version of his costume and hammer and calls herself Thor Girl. She's actually a shape-changing energy being, though that, too, has its antecedent in 1980's Superman mythology and its bizarrely rebooted Supergirl/Matrix.
It all makes for light, mostly enjoyable superhero stuff. Odin is his usual pontificating, dopey self (a tradition continued from the Lee/Kirby Thor of the 1960's). Ragnarok/Gotterdammerung looms. The Muspelheimian fire giant Surtur again threatens the Earth. Thor is once again mortal for awhile as a punishment from Odin (a punishment which crops up metronomically every four years or so in the Thor comic book).
Much thee-ing and thou-ing occurs. A heavily inked Jim Starlin draws one issue. The Enchantress once again tries to get into Thor's pants. Hercules shows up for comic relief. Volstagg is still really fat. Dire future events are foretold should Thor become the ruler of Asgard. Balder and Sif have almost nothing to do. A new enemy from space threatens to kill off all the gods in the universe -- given that we're shown a bunch of awful, vindictive pantheons, I can't say this strikes me as a totally bad idea. But the climax of that storyline will come after this collection. Hidey ho. Lightly recommended.
