Big Themes in Small Places - Supergirl Book 1 by Peter David (1996)

  

Front cover of Supergirl (1996) by Peter David book 1

This book collects the following comics: Supergirl #1-9, Supergirl Annual #1, Supergirl Plus #1 and a story from Showcase ’96 #8

Score (out of 5 Capes)

3 out of 5 capes for stories that take the protoplasmic Matrix version of Supergirl down into intimate family-level drama. 

My Review

The late author Peter David was a prolific and award-winning author. On several occasions, he took well-established characters and given them new life and new direction. 

One of my personal favourites was Aquaman who, under David's pen, lost his hand in battle and became a much stronger, imposing and dangerous character. For Marvel Comics, he also won multiple awards for his innovative work with The Incredible Hulk series.

So I can think of no one I would rather see writing for the protoplasm-based Matrix version of Supergirl. After the traditional Supergirl was killed in the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the character was rebooted with none of the Kryptonian mythology and with very different powers and experiences.

In the new mid-1990s ongoing series, the first nine issues of which are collected here, David shrank her world down. Down from anything cosmic in scale, or inter-planetary or earth-sized, all the way down to the small town of Leesburg, and even the bungalow of the Danvers family.

In fact, the climactic battle between the forces of Good and Evil, angels and demons, takes place around the Danvers' dining room table as Linda / Supergirl faces her Cockney-accented antagonist Buzz Aldrin. Flan for dessert has never been so explosive!

While the setting is collapsed down into a small but overheated, dense mass, the themes David weaves into the stories are big. Good vs Evil, not in the abstract, but in the spiritual realm. Religion, belief, faith, trust, power, authority and its potential for abuse all factor into the almost mystical feel of these pages.

Linda's mom, Sylvia Danvers, is a leading point of connection between Supergirl, Linda, and these spiritual forces at play. Her involvement in her local church, helping out both the parish and the priest, put her at the center of the ultimate confrontation between Supergirl and Buzz. The jaded cynicism and suspicion of religion that dominates the tone of the tales ultimately refuses to dismiss the spiritual realm altogether. Rather, it is co-opted into the ultimate conflict.

Breaking up the intense and at times overly melancholy central conflict with Buzz are several appearances by more standard superhero friends and foes. Gorilla Grodd takes over the church and causes mind-controlled chaos for a couple chapters. Chemo makes a brief but destructive appearance. Rampage pounds a Ferrari to pieces. Superman and Mary Marvel pop by, not necessarily for pleasant visits.

Gary Frank, who shares some writing credits in this collection, is the lead artist for the ongoing series. At the height of the mental confusion between where Linda ends and Supergirl begins, he shines at sharing that sense of bewilderment with his viewers. His flashback sequences are superb, filled with dark and foreboding teases, as Linda slowly recovers glimpses of what led to her death before the merger with Supergirl. 

Overall, in true mid-1990s fashion, his characters are all impossibly tall and slim, long-legged beauties. Except for Buzz, whose unnaturally long and straight nose becomes increasingly unsettling as his mask slips and his evil intentions are revealed.

This collection drew its stories from several different titles: the first nine issues plus an annual from the Supergirl ongoing series, a Supergirl Plus one-shot and an issue of Showcase '96. It all adds up to seven different writers, eight pencillers and seven inkers getting a credit somewhere in these pages. 

The David / Frank team serves as the backbone, and the shifting visuals are the best hint that we've reached the Annual or Showcase sections. It is frustrating, though, that nowhere in the collection is the source of each chapter identified. Mary Marvel's appearance - Peter David wrote it, but Gary Frank was not part of the art team, so was it in Supergirl or Supergirl Plus? or maybe the Annual? Some tighter collection editing was definitely needed.

Matrix / Supergirl was a strange period in this long-established and easily recognized heroine. Peter David grounds it in the intimacy of family relationships, a bold change of direction that, at least in these first chapters, is ultimately too chaotic and not enough to restore the shine of the classic character.

3 out of 5 capes.

What I loved

An aggressive reporter is touched by Supergirl's vulnerability

I love the more intimate scope and setting of these stories.

Silver Age Supergirl was always popping over to Atlantis, travelling to a distant planet or jumping backward and forward through the time barrier.

Pre-Crisis 1980s Supergirl was all grown up and facing adult problems while making her way in the big city.

Post-Crisis Matrix Supergirl stories took a whole different approach to the character, jettisoning the mythology for something radically different.

In these stories, Peter David is still working with the protoplasm-based Supergirl. But while she is arguably less human than the Kryptonian version, David roots her adventures in very relatable human circumstances.

In the opening Showcase story, Supergirl must cope with the physical, mental and emotional stress and exhaustion of making an impossible choice: save the life of a pregnant woman or that of a middle-aged priest. Only one can be saved, she has just fractions of a second to make her choice and will have to live with it ever after.

This emotionally wrenching tale concludes with the powerful panels above: an aggressive reporter, doggedly pursuing her story by seeking comment from Supergirl, finds her sleeping peacefully beside the recovering new mother in a hospital bed. Such a tender and touching moment that sets the tone for the whole book.

What I didn't love

The Psi-blast power of Linda / Supergirl / Matrix

From her late-1950s debut, the conceit around Supergirl had always been: all of Superman's amazing powers - super-strength, invulnerability, flight, heat-vision, etc. - in the body of his teenaged cousin.

Her death in Crisis on Infinite Earths three decades later was a shocker, a powerful moment in the evolution of the DC characters. DC Comics wanted to bring back the Maid of Steel but also wanted to honour that courageous twist. So they gave us Matrix, a protoplasm being mimicking Supergirl.

Naturally, the powers and abilities of Matrix-Supergirl should not be required to line up with her traditional powers. That's canonical and continuity-baggage thinking that had no place in the post-Crisis world.

But the power to project a mental psionic blast of energy, as pictured here, or to turn invisible, and the seemingly reduced invulnerability leading to several wounds and bruises, really shake up the Superman comparisons. The name and outfit still look like his, and like her traditional appearance, but this is a very different character. 

The change in powers and abilities subverts our expectations, opening the door for new angles on the character. And Peter David does try to lead us through that door, with occasional success. But he can't quite bridge the differences in the battle sequences. At least the ensuing chaos builds on our sense of the disorientation Linda is experiencing in these pages.

Related Reviews

Supergirl: the Silver Age volume 2 (1962-3)

Daring New Adventures of Supergirl from the mid-1980s

Aquaman Book 1 by Peter David

Quick Reference Details

Writers:  Peter David
Artists:  Gary Frank,  Terry Dodson, Cam Smith
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Oct. 25, 2016
Parental Rating: Teen

Back cover of Supergirl (1996) by Peter David book 1

World, Meet Supergirl! Review of Supergirl the Silver Age volume 2 (1962)

  

Front cover of Supergirl: the Silver Age volume 2

This book collects the following comics: Backup stories from Action Comics #285-307 (1962-3)

Score (out of 5 Capes)

Silver Age sensibilities sensibilities and assumptions are very different from current ones, more than 60 years later. Nothing here is too consequential or, really, very interesting. 2 out of 5 capes.

My Review

With the new Supergirl movie opening in a few weeks, let's take a look at past comic book representations of the hero.

Supergirl's early years included a run of backup stories in Action Comics. Her more famous cousin got the lead, of course, but she had a solid run of her own tales tucked into the end. This book collects nearly two years' worth of these tales, ones that originally ran between February 1962 and December 1963.

The collection starts off with a splash - a full-length feature telling of the great unveiling. In Supergirl's earlier adventures, she had been limited in action and hidden to the world. She would, when requested, swoop in and assist Superman, but they otherwise took pains to hide her existence from the world. But with Action Comics #285, her existence is revealed and she is introduced to the world, to international and even inter-planetary fame and acclaim.

But she still must protect her secret identity. So she builds a tunnel from the home of her adopted family that would allow her to come and go unobserved. Mom and Pop Danvers take in stride the shocking revelation that this sweet teenaged high schooler they have been raising is none other than Supergirl!

Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel handled the writing duties for the first seven stories included here, before Leo Dorfman took over the scripting role. While Dorfman kept his changes to the character and mythology to a minimum, with Super-horse being perhaps the biggest new twist, there is a noticeable difference in the writing styles of the two men.

Siegel's stories unfolded at a breakneck pace. Supergirl would go from Atlantis to Metropolis to Space to miraculously resurrecting Lex Luthor over the course of just a few pages. Siegel's dramatic plot twists were frequent, dramatic and extreme.

Dorfman still packed in no shortage of drama, space travel and time barrier crossing. But he slowed the pace, resisted throwing in dozens of swings, and instead went deeper into the back-story, relationships and emotions of the characters.

Several of the stories in the collection feature Super-Horse, a former half-man, half-horse centaur whose lover was duped into giving him the wrong potion - rather than making him fully human, he became 100% horse. Immortal and super-powered, sure, but also and always a horse.

These tales of the Super-Horse are some of the oddest in this collection. His courage and powers enable him to save a damaged submarine and rescue Supergirl on more than one occasion. But the extended bout of amnesia and the story of being turned human for 24 hours, during which time he sparks a romance with Linda Danvers, are ripe for psychological analysis.

In these stories we are reminded repeatedly that our hero is a high school aged girl in her mid-teens. Stereotypes of a girl's interests and emotional state are regularly on display. 

Most out of step, though, with our 2026 sensibilities is surely the speed with which she and her parents agree on her marrying Tor-An. In the collection's final tale, a Kryptonian villain and escapee of the Phantom Zone seduces Supergirl and moves to marry her within days - with the blessing of her parents, Superman and key people of the bottle-city of Kandor (which makes regular appearances in these pages). 

The pictures throughout the collection are provided by artist Jim Mooney. While largely following the Silver Age's standard 6-panels-a-page layout structure, he packs in loads of close-ups on our heroine. She is often front-and-center in these images, allowing him to convey her emotional reactions. Whether she responds with courage, shock, dismay or humour, Mooney manages to embody and portray her emotions with clarity. With just a few lines, he communicated so much emotional detail.

The body postures in Mooney's images are somewhat static and simplistic, which works against him in the action sequences in particular, leaving them stiff and awkward. His renditions of Supergirl in flight are the clearest and most frequent examples of this stiffness - she looks like a soaring star-fish, limbs splayed in all directions like she is about to fall off a wire.

With its wild swings through time and space, era-based stereotypes and so much focus on other characters like Super-Horse to the detriment of our heroine herself, these stories would not have the success today that they did in the early 1960s. But they serve as a great touchstone of the history and starting point as we explore the evolution of Supergirl.

2 out of 5 capes.

What I loved

Supergirl flies away from a super-conundrum posed by Black Flame

Supergirl is the star of these pages, obviously. Artist Jim Mooney reminds us of that fact by placing her in the foreground on panel after panel and page after page.

One of his most-used techniques is to place her face in profile in one corner of the image, reacting to the words or actions of others depicted in the rest of the image, an approach he leans on especially when she is in her Linda Danvers secret identity.

In the image above, the villain's boastful, gloating words dominate the top half, and Supergirl fills most of the bottom half of the frame. It focuses our attention on her emotional response more than the cruel words of Black Flame who, in turn, shrinks in the distance.

With these visual choices, here and elsewhere, Mooney very effectively keeps his readers focused on our young hero.

What I didn't love

Time travel sure is easy! Supergirl pops over to the year 4,000 AD

Hardly a story goes by, in this collection, without Supergirl flying off to another past or future time or, less frequently, another planet, meteor or galaxy.

These stories were created in the early 1960s, as the jet age and space age ramped up. So our writers might be drawing on the contemporary interests in space travel and science fiction. But their frequency grows wearisome. Can we think of so few stories where both the challenge and the solution are entirely in our own time and on our own planet?

Writers Jerry Siegel and Leo Dorfman both seem convinced that Supergirl would only face a villain, natural disaster or other challenge if Superman were away. Not off battling challenges elsewhere, but entirely unable to intervene. So nearly every story has an almost throwaway line that Superman is off-planet or traveling in the past or future.

Even Supergirl, though, cannot stay on little old 1960s planet Earth. Need to know more about the origins of one of the characters? No problem, just pop through the time barrier to go see their history for yourself. 

I grew weary of the conceit long before the end of this collection.

Related Reviews

A flirty teenaged Supergirl teams with Green Lantern in the Brave and the Bold - Lords of Luck

Linda Danvers goes to college and Supergirl moves to the big city in the 1980s Supergirl books one and two

Quick Reference Details

Writers:  Jerry Siegel, Leo Dorfman
Artists:  Jim Mooney
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Aug 7, 2018
Parental Rating: General

Back cover of Supergirl: the Silver Age volume 2

So Many Storms - the Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Men (2011) vol 1 - God Particle

  

Front cover of the Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Men vol 1: God Particle

This book collects the following comics: The Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Men (2011) #1-6

Score (out of 5 Capes)

3 out of 5 capes for a creative new take on Firestorm. Is it an improvement over previous mythologies?

My Review

With the new The Fury of Firestorm ongoing series kicking off a few weeks ago, let's revisit the trade paperbacks of some past iterations of the flame-headed nuclear fusion hero.

Firestorm's earliest comics are hard to find in collected editions. His original series, Firestorm the Nuclear Man, debuted in 1978 but only lasted five issues. The character had lots of potential, though, making appearances in the Justice League of America series and getting more than a dozen backup stories in The Flash.

When he returned in his own solo series, The Fury of Firestorm in 1982, it kicked off a long run, lasting until 1990. Like the short first series, these tales all centered around teenager Ronnie Raymond and middle-aged professor Martin Stein.

The third Firestorm series brought Jason Rusch into the Firestorm fusion, following the death of Ronnie in the DC crossover event Identity Crisis. This third volume ran from 2004 to 2007.

Fewer than 20 of those first 150 or so Firestorm comics have been reprinted in collected editions like a TPB. So we are kicking off this review of Firestorm books with God Particle, which collects the first six issues of Firestorm's fourth series, 2011's The Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Men.

It's a long and somewhat unwieldy title. But don't miss the subtle shift to the plural - nuclear men not nuclear man. Because this new series has Firestorms popping up all over the place. Eight of them appear in this collection of the first six issues, and we get big hints that there are many more. So many that one of them, Mikhail Arkadin of Russia who calls himself Pozhar, takes on the personal mission to eliminate as many of them as possible.

In this take on the character and mythology of Firestorm, part of DC's line-wide New 52 books, professor Martin Stein is already dead. But his research had discovered what he called the Firestorm Protocol which he distilled into a substance that could imbue humans with the classic powers of Firestorm: element transmutation, nuclear blasts, flight and more, always with flaming heads.

Individual scientists trying to keep up with Stein's research and make a name for themselves, corporations and industrial espionage, military strategists and more all have an interest in Stein's work. But the whole protocol was unstable and the resulting Firestorms it created are dangerous to themselves as well as others.

Within this larger, globe-spanning battle over the Protocols, we meet our two teen heroes. Ronnie Raymond is the high school star quarterback; Jason Rusch a brilliant science-minded teen who has been working after school assisting Martin Stein. They have a testy relationship, in line with the classic jocks-vs-nerds conflict.

When a corporately funded assault team attacks, Jason triggers the vial of the Protocol that Stein had left in his possession. The result endows both him and Ronnie with separate, individual and remarkably stable Firestorm powers - maybe Stein had solved the instability flaw before his death?

They also discover that they can fuse together, but unlike classic Firestorm, this time neither of them is in control of the result - a monstrous, towering flame-headed monster calling itself Fury.

Gail Simone handles the writing duties, with a plotting assist from Ethan van Scriver. Simone injects a lot of layered relational elements into the plot. If classic Firestorm always had the Raymond - Stein partnership at its core, this one replaces that with a Raymond - Rusch tension. Jason's relationship with his father also plays a central role, and we get several other tender or emotional moments involving other characters like teenaged love interest and friend Tonya, the mysterious Director Zither and her personal history with Stein's research, even some interpersonal connections in the attack team.

The story itself settles into a regular rhythm. Each chapter opens with a violent encounter with an international Firestorm, then zooms in on Ronnie and Jason in their struggles, zooms out to reveal another angle of Zither's complex history and motivations, moves back to lots of blazing nuclear explosions, and ends with a twist to hook us into the next chapter. It's a comfortable, standard formula and Simone paces it reasonably well.

Yildiray Cinar leads the art duties, with an assist for a couple issues from Norm Rapmund. Firestorm has never looked better. Each of the many nuclear men wears a variation on the theme, with their own unique colour combination as a nice assist to us potentially befuddled readers. These outfits shine and almost glow with ripples of power and flames everywhere.

The page layouts vary widely and can get a little over-crammed with small visuals. For one key example, Cinar uses 20 panels on a single page to show Jason's medical intervention to save a friend. For all their compactness and occasional clutter, the narrative flow is rarely unclear.

Overall, it is an intriguing new beginning, a whole new direction for Firestorm. The first volume ends with almost nothing resolved, as Simone draws out key plot points into the second book. I am curious enough to look for the next volume.

3 out of 5 Capes.

What I loved

Firestorm has never looked better, even with the goofy transmutations

These Nuclear Men look good! Firestorm has never looked better. 

Gone are the goofy, poofy sleeves, so painfully dated to his origins in the late 1970s and the fashions of the day. The original outfit avoided bell-bottoms but certainly quickly became very dated.

The other elements that remain from those earlier outfits - the red and yellow colours, the nuclear symbol, the fiery hair and wrap-around balaclava-like face frame - just look and work better in this book than they ever have before.

High praise for that goes to lead artist Yildiray Cinar. He pulled off a solid redesign. It is helped, in no small part, by the ability to roll out variations as this book has a surprisingly large number of Firestorms. He kept the core characters - Raymond and Rusch in the frame above - true to the origins, while leaving them easily distinguishable and with strong ties to the history and mythology of the character.

Even the cheesier parts of classic Firestorm are presented in a well-handled reinterpretation. In the panel above, Jason has transmuted the ground into hands grabbing hold of Ronnie's ankles, an action reminiscent of the power ring constructs of Green Lantern. In this book, such moments are present but far fewer and more subtle than in Firestorm's 1980s books. 

What I didn't love

The classic Firestorm fusion produces this unpleasant monster, Fury.

The fission and fusion elements of Firestorm are present in this book, but they look a lot different. I am not a fan of this take.

Classically, Firestorm is composed by the fusion of two people. Not so here. Any individual infected by the serum or protocol or particle - the narrative is not as clear about this as I would like - can become a metahuman endowed with all the nuclear powers simply by shouting their magic word. But unlike the "Shazam!" that gives the Marvel family their divinely sourced powers, these diverse Firestorms do a lot of nuclear blasting, brooding and sizzling.

Fusion only appears a couple times in these pages, when Ronnie and Jason fuse to become the monstrous nuclear giant named Fury. He towers over mere humans, standing 15 feet tall or so. He can grab hold of the half-dozen fiery strings that are attached to his chest and crack them like a whip, with devastating results on any human flesh they touch.

He is loud and rude, immensely powerful and uncontrolled, and while Ronnie and Jason are both inside the monster, neither has much sway over its actions.

As good as these Firestorms look, the abundance of individuals and ferocity of the fused version are ultimately disappointing.

Related Reviews

New 52 Futures End volume 1, volume 2 and volume 3 take Firestorm in a whole new direction.

Firestorm rejoins the Justice League in New 52 Justice League volume 4

Quick Reference Details

Writers:  Gail Simone, Ethan van Sciver
Artists:  Yildiray Cinar, Norm Rapmund
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Sept 18, 2012
Parental Rating: Teen

Back cover of the Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Men vol 1: God Particle

FOMO - Review of Absolute Batman vol 1 - the Zoo (2025)

  

Front cover of Absolute Batman volume 1 The Zoo

This book collects the following comics: Absolute Batman (2025) #1-6

Score (out of 5 Capes)

4/5 Capes for an exciting and novel new take on Batman and the entire circle of characters, a little rough on the edges but with loads of potential.

My Review

The Absolute line of books from DC Comics has made a huge splash with comics fans. None more so than Absolute Batman. The first issue has been reprinted multiple times and every new issue of the ongoing series places high on the monthly sales charts.

The series has been getting so much attention that I could not ignore its trade paperback collection any longer. I needed to get myself a copy to read now, so I would no longer feel like I was missing out.

I see why there is so much buzz behind this title. Writer Scott Snyder has done a superb job of reimagining and reinterpreting the entire Batman mythology and universe.

The previous high-water mark, the set of three original graphic novels Batman: Earth One, included some clever new twists and takes of Batman's origin story but left many of the secondary characters roughly within their canonical takes.

Snyder feels no need to hew so close to canon. The characters are still there - Selina Kyle, Edward Nygma, among many others - but rather than homicidal or psychotic villains and anti-heroes, they are part of Bruce Wayne's circle of peers, poker buddies, former classmates. Still all special, with their gifted intelligence, curiosity and acrobatic skills, and so on, but at least in the early days of Absolute Batman, they help more than they battle.

Snyder likewise gives us a fresh take on Bruce Wayne. Still driven, strong, athletic and acrobatic, still highly intelligent with clever inventions. But no longer the wealthy playboy and business tycoon. Now, he is a construction worker.

Its outside-the-mansion take on Bruce is reminiscent of the limited series The Return of Bruce Wayne, in which he was reimagined as a pirate, a Puritan-era man, a Stone-aged primitive and more. But those were much more limited in length of run and in size of the Bat universe. This series uses the ongoing format to go much deeper into the details of its reimagined Gotham and all its characters.

This Bruce Wayne, rather than rely upon his millions and billions, deliberately torches in flames and smoke the hundreds of millions of dollars given him as a bribe to look the other way from the villainous chaos exploding throughout Gotham.

The zoo of the book's title and first story arc of the ongoing series is the literal Gotham Zoo, where beloved and wise teacher Thomas Wayne was killed while protecting his son and classmates on a school field trip. The tragedy's telling is carefully paced out with flashbacks running throughout the book, raw memories from the invention competition that was rewarded by the field trip to the day itself and the police and courtroom scenes that followed.

These flashbacks and their gradual unpacking of such critical events in the life and formation of young Bruce are one reason why I prefer reading - and reviewing - graphic novels and trade paperbacks. By collecting so many chapters in one place, it is easier on the reader to follow the threads and emotions that run through these scenes. No need to wait until next month or the one after that to start putting those pieces together.

In these first chapters of the ongoing series, Batman is still rough around the edges in his tactics, strategies, equipment. Through other flashbacks, we get a glimpse of earlier outings, when he was even less polished in his abilities, but he is clearly a quick study and is making his way toward the incredible, nearly flawless crime-fighter of legend. Will the Absolute Universe Batman wind up in that same place?

The visuals also show some rough edges that could stand some polish. Yes, they convey the gritty, intense and dark mood of the series, but on several occasions lead artist Nick Dragotta and fill-in Gabriel Hernandez Walta seem to take short cuts, leaving us with some sloppy and over-inked panels.

But those are just the edges. At its core, this book and the Absolute Batman series are beautiful and intense. Dragotta in particular makes great work of silhouette and shadow in controlling the mood of the scene and the flow of the narrative. Battle scenes are intense. This new Batman is truly terrifying, dangerously violent and slightly unbalanced, all of which is conveyed by Dragotta's art.

A new take on Batman also needs to wrestle with the tools of the non-meta man in the costume. The decades of accumulated miracles on his utility belt are not completely swept away but rather are replaced with several shocking and brilliantly creative new tools and weapons.

The bat-trimmed dump truck. The collapsible battle-axe with logo-shaped head. The mask's ears that can be detached and used as daggers or rotated for a bloody head-butt. The extendible arms. The multiple pieces of the cape and the diverse ways such a cape could be used. Snyder must have had no end of fun brainstorming these ideas, and I suspect more will come in future books.

My FOMO - fear of missing out - caused me to bump this up my list of books to acquire and review. And I am glad it did. This is a delight and sets up well for a long run of an alternate but very enjoyable take on Batman.

What I loved

Innovative and genuinely bat-themed tools of the trade

Batman's famed utility belt has long held all manner of clever inventions and tools for his battles with the evil villains he confronts. We have emerged from the more comical era where everything became bat-themed simply by slapping the prefix "bat-" on it: bat-cave, batmobile, batarang and so on.

The creative teams behind Absolute Batman kept the core idea - a man with no super-powers but lots of intelligence, inventing things to help him battle his enemies -  while throwing out most of what came before and doubling-down on the tie-ins to the Bat theme.

My personal favourite is the one pictured - extendible rods, inspired by the way some bats walk around using their arms. And in the stories in this volume, he makes good if occasional use of this innovation.

It is hardly the only one. Another impressive new weapon is the collapsible battle-axe with two-bladed head shaped to match the blocky logo on his chest. The bat ears on his cowl and mask are also cleverly converted into weapons with multiple uses, whether removable knives or ones that can be rotated for other uses.

And since he needs to get around, there are also vehicles like a motorcycle and a dump truck (!) bedecked in subtle but functionally important bat logo trimmings.

Every Batman era and writer introduces new such Bat-weapons. In this heavily reimagined Absolute universe, though, these stand out as brilliant, innovative and on-point. Nice!

What I didn't love

Scratchy, over-simplified art

For such a high-profile, imaginative and innovative rethinking of one of comics' flagship characters, the visuals frequently disappoint. Sure, they evoke a dark, gritty and violent world with a hero ready to meet the challenges before him. But too often artists Nick Dragotta and Gabriel Hernandez Walta give us something that feels slapdash and rushed, or that spends too much time on the wrong details.

Take the image above, for one example. It is a flashback panel to the earliest days of Batman's vigilante crime-fighting, so a simplistic profile layout and basic framing and facial details is consistent with the basic beginning and simplistic approach of the budding new hero.

But the effect is overwhelmed by the dominant detail of the background, the metal bars on the window, dirty brick and graffiti walls, rusty pipes and shadows. It sets the mood but overshadows the main actors in the scene. The net result is even more attention on the scratchy, careless look of our hero and his prey.

The problem continues outside these flashbacks as well, with so much time spent on the novel tech and tools or the hellhole of Gotham that the main characters wind up looking rushed and half-finished.

Related Reviews

All In Saga that kicks off the Absolute DC Universe

Another take on Batman in Justice League 3000

Batman as Pirate, Puritan and more in the Return of Bruce Wayne

Quick Reference Details

Writers:  Scott Snyder
Artists:  Nick Dragotta, Gabriel Hernandez Walta (#4)
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Aug 5, 2025
Parental Rating: Teen

Back cover of Absolute Batman volume 1 The Zoo

Back to High School - Amazing Spider-Man Renew Your Vows vol 3 Eight Years Later (2018)

  

Front cover of Marvel Comics TPB Spider-Man Renew Your Vows volume 3

This book collects the following comics: The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows (2017) issues #13-18

Score (out of 5 Capes)

2.5 capes - The creative team took an imaginative but risky decision to jump the time line eight years into the future between issues #12 and 13. It makes for a stronger role for Annie and more focus on the tensions a teenaged super hero has with her parents. But with shaky visuals and uneven storytelling, it comes out as a mediocre book.

My Review

Spider-Man's earliest stories give us a smart but socially awkward Peter Parker in his late teens, at the tail end of his high school days and the years that follow. Some versions of his origin story have the radioactive or genetically altered spider biting Peter while he is on a school field trip.

The new creative team on the Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows ongoing series gave themselves a cleaner slate by jumping the timeline eight years into the future. Now, Spider-Man Peter, Spinneret Mary Jane and their daughter Annie's Spiderling have had years to work out the kinks in the family super-hero business.

This eight-year jump also moves Annie from a little super-powered kid to a sophomore in high school. She has become a mid-teens young person navigating the treacherous waters of growing up and transitioning from childhood into adulthood. Her struggles and journey are central themes of this book.

The opening pages of the book show her battling six classic Spider-Man villains at once. It would be a tall order for her father, so imagine how she fares as a 15-year-old. When things start to go badly, good old Dad is there to swoop in and assist. At least until Wolverine kills the Battle Room simulation. Turns out Annie is undergoing some intense education and training.

But her lessons are learned on the job, not just through lectures Battle Room sessions. So it comes as no surprise to anyone, the Spider family included, that their relaxing trip to the Coney Island fairgrounds is interrupted by a rampaging, out of control Lizard.

Over the course of the three-chapter arc, she learns some important lessons about jumping to conclusions, using only her fists when she should also be using her head and her heart, and what is really important when battling super-powered villains. Best of all, the lessons give her - and us - a glimpse of Annie emerging from a child hero, with heavy-handed parental lessons, to something closer to an intern or even a peer, a valued contributing member of the heroic team.

In the second three-part story, the family finances are tight so Peter takes on a teaching position at Annie's high school. His excitement at the potential for super-fun father-daughter time is equalled by her dread and dislike for the new arrangement.

Annie also learns some important self-taught lessons about super-hero team dynamics when two new meta-humans she befriends are driven by a passionate desire to kill Normal Osborn Jr. for the sins of his ancestors.

Teens having disagreements with people in authority is nothing new. And when the teen is actively teaming up and working closely with Mom and Dad in the emotional blender of the super-hero work, the possibilities are that much stronger.

Author Jody Houser does not shy away from moments of conflict and tension at home between Annie and her parents, or even between Peter and Mary Jane themselves. Although admittedly those moments of tension are pretty mild - everyone is just too light-hearted for anything too serious to last more than a few panels.

That also describes the stories overall: pretty mild and light. It is fun to watch Annie growing up into her heroism and, conversely, her parents learning to let her figure it out on her own, when to guide, or when to step in and take over. None of this feels too threatening or broken or dysfunctional, always staying on the light and fun side of the line. 

Houser's writing is simple and straightforward, with only a couple threads weaving together at any one time and everything proves to be resolvable within an issue or two. 

The art duties are split between Nick Roche (#13-15) and Nathan Stockman (#16-18). Both artists favor a style that is overly cartoony for my tastes but does match and help keep the overall mood light. The deliberately cartoon-influenced expressions, poses and style sometimes turn into a visual hash and it can be hard to distinguish the characters, beyond hair style and clothes.

The three heroes wear very different and somewhat gaudy costumes, which does help us tell the spiders apart. The three certainly want nothing to do with any family Christmas-Jammy matching cuteness. While Spider-Man's outfit has become a classic with its mix of blue and red with webbing pattern in the red parts, the women have much worse costumes.

Spiderling's two-tone blue with the common web-and-spider elements is offset by pops of red on her boots, ankles, wrists and mask and a bit of a neckline. The satchel on her right hip is a twist on the utility belt of other heroes and adds to an overall goofy effect.

Mary Jane's Spinneret costume is the worst of the bunch. I say more in the "What I Didn't Love" section below, so for now let me just say that the colors, cut and accessories exude a "Mom on a fitness kick" vibe.

The concept of a Spider-family, one of whom is now a teenager, breathes fresh air into a long-standing pillar of the Marvel universe. At times heavy-handed and uneven, and dragged down by an overly cartoony style, it results in a middling book with intriguing potential.

What I loved

Taking on adult levels of leadership and responsibility

With the jump eight years into the future, little Annie Parker is now a sophomore in high school, with all the attendant teenaged angst and challenges. I love the many various ways the creative team shows her wrestling with the transition from childhood to adulthood.

She wants to reject the childish hero codename name "Spiderling" but is not quite sure how to shake it.

She is mortified when her dad Peter winds up teaching at her school and, even worse, trying to make eye contact in the hallways.

And, best of all, when she encounters some fellow teens in her school with new super-powers, but still very rough around the edges, she takes them under her wing, steps into her first leadership role and guides them into becoming more effective and making better decisions in the application of their new-found abilities.

The "Annie is growing up" arc can be overly cliche and wordy, but has some powerful moments and real character growth.

What I didn't love

Spinneret's hideous costume

Mary Jane Parker has usually been portrayed as a classy, sometimes even sexy lady in Peter's life. Now, in the Renew Your Vows universe, she is married and the mother of a teenaged daughter. So there is a definite Mom vibe to her portrayal in these pages.

Which is fine. It is nicely offset by her heroism as the costumed hero Spinneret; her parental wisdom and relationship with Peter are well handled; and she gets a few pages about how she runs her small business, showing good acumen and skills. Mary Jane is a multi-faceted character, even though she is clearly the third-wheel to father and daughter, the supportive mother who quietly fades into the background for much of this book.

But then she pulls on that hideous Spinneret costume. It hurts my eyes just to look at it. The goofy little elf-booties; the boundary lines and cut of the red areas and dominant white sections; the ridiculous mid-thigh cycling-shorts look of the webbed red areas. The mid-thigh thing is so bad that the artist draws it differently whenever he can get away with it, sometimes condensing the red area all the way up to the bikini line.

The overall effect of Spinneret's costume screams "middle-aged mother on a fitness kick." It is completely at cross-purposes with the woman Mary Jane is portrayed to be while out of costume.

Related Reviews

Spider Island Warzones! has an imaginative take on the spiders

Spider-Verse Warzones! brings together lots of other spiders

Quick Reference Details

Writers:  Jody Houser
Artists:  Nick Roche (#13-15), Nathan Stockman (#16-18)
Published By:  Marvel Comics
Published When:  May 30, 2018
Parental Rating: Teen

Back cover of Marvel Comics TPB Spider-Man Renew Your Vows volume 3

Earth-shaking Whimper - Wonder Woman: Earth One book 3 (2021)

  

Front cover of Wonder Woman Earth One volume 3

Score (out of 5 Capes)

A disappointing conclusion to an innovative new take on Wonder Woman's origins and foundational mythology.

My Review

With book three, the remarkable new vision for Wonder Woman and her origin story as told by Grand Morrison and drawn by Yanick Paquette reaches its conclusion.

Diana is no longer the princess, after the death of her mother she is the Queen of the Amazons. She bears the weight and responsibility of uniting her people and leading them in the battle that descends upon Amazonia, on Paradise Island.

And what a spectacular battle it is! The remote-controlled battle suits of Maxwell Lord's division of the United States military pack a considerable punch. Especially when he takes personal control of the giant, experimental A.R.E.S Mark 2 suit.

Unfortunately, like that giant battle suit, this story is ultimately brought to its knees by the sheer volume of the scattered plot threads.

Morrison has brought to these pages so many elements from different eras of Wonder Woman's long and storied history. He presents many of them with a new twist. Elements like the evil Nazis; tensions from both involvement and conflict with the military and other agencies of the United States; Doctor Psycho as a master manipulator; Maxwell Lord mind-controlling attack androids through technology; Etta Candy and Steve Trevor in recognizable roles but with a unique new angle; and most of all the Greek mythology.

He succeeds in his efforts to reinterpret and rearrange these elements, with a surprising dose of new and contemporary ideas and issues.

Where it falls flat is the overall coherence of the story. It is a challenge that I noted back in my review of book one, but it reaches a critical crescendo in this final volume. The sequencing and collisions between the plot lines was so sloppy that at one point I wondered if my copy had been bound with pages out of order.

The work by artist Yanick Paquette remains astounding. These are some of the most beautiful superhero pages you'll find. Paquette packs so much detail into foregrounds and backgrounds yet none of it feels superfluous. His images work together front to back. They flow smoothly from panel to gorgeous panel. His battle scenes burst with energy. His Hades scenes are appropriately spooky, even horror-tinged.

These three books have been a fun and visually fetching read. They are imaginative, beautiful, filled with intriguing new takes on so much of the Wonder Woman universe. If only the pieces were less scattered; sadly, the whole is less than its individual parts.

What I loved

The three books of this graphic novel series pull in so many themes and characters from Wonder Woman's history, as described in the main review above. Author Grant Morrison then reimagines and reinterprets them. Some work well, others fall a bit flat.

One of them stands out above all the others. Morrison's new vision and portrayal of Wonder Woman works best when it leans fully into its Greek mythology roots.

From Hippolyte battling and defeating Hercules in the first pages of book one, to Diana wandering the dark paths of Hades as the series climax approaches in book three, and a dozen times in between, the nods to this rich mythology are many and they almost always land the punch their creators intended.

Best of all, Morrison presents these sections in a way that rarely needs the reader to have much previous understanding of these ancient characters and their stories. With the possible exception of the Fates, whose pseudo-poetic snide commentary falls flat on occasion, this blending of Greek mythology is a standout feature and adds depth and texture to the tale.

What I didn't love

While Morrison takes so many elements throughout Wonder Woman's long history, reimagines them and recombines them into a creative whole, several elements do not work well together, or go astray.

None more so than the ending of the conflict, a silly twist in which Amazonia or Paradise Island uses advanced technology from a parallel universe to remove their island completely from the earthly oceans.

A nod, sure, to past multiple-earths elements in DC books and Wonder Woman history, but one that ultimately undercuts much of the tension between the world and Amazonia, or between men and women, with the equivalent of a magical snap of the fingers.

For this review, I read in part from my Compact edition that collects all three volumes of this series. DC Comics has done well with this new format, making its works available in an accessible and affordable book.

I can see why they are so popular; they are a great value, packing lots of comic book adventure into an affordable package.

But I am not enamoured by them. The page quality is medium at best, with the darker printing and extremely flat finish reducing the thrill and sparkle of the art - although in this book, Paquette's brilliance still shines through.

The binding quality of the book is also very low. The glue holding the page signatures in place let go on both the top and bottom of the book, so now the pages are almost falling out before the end of the first read through the book.

Related Reviews

Wonder Woman Earth One volume 1

Wonder Woman Earth One volume 2

Teen Titans Earth One volume 1

Quick Reference Details

Writers:  Grant Morrison
Artists:  Yanick Paquette
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  March 9, 2021
Parental Rating: Teen

Back cover of Wonder Woman Earth One volume 3

Cover Girl - Wonder Woman Earth One volume 2 (2018)

  

Front Cover of Wonder Woman Earth One volume 2

Score (out of 5 Capes)

Packed with elements from across Wonder Woman's storied history, this is another piece of a stunning reimagination of our favorite Amazon princess, filled with page after page of jaw-dropping images.

My Review

Writer Grant Morrison and artist Yanick Paquette return for the second volume of their original graphic novel series reimagining Wonder Woman's origins.

True to their vision from book one, they draw elements from across Wonder Woman's long and storied history, pulling from Golden Age tales here, Silver Age there, and even more contemporary elements and themes.

It starts off with a 1940s-era Nazi raid on Paradise Island. The Nazi troopers and seamen, regular foils in our hero's earliest appearances, are led by the tall, blond haired and blue-eyed woman calling herself the Uberfraulein.

She temporarily gains the upper hand, even stealing the magic girdle of invulnerability from Queen Hippolyta. But in the end, she bows in submission to the loving authority of the queen she sought to destroy.

This concept of submission to loving authority first arose in volume one, and was presented in contrast to how Steve Trevor hears it clashing with his core values formed in his freedom and individualism. It gets a much deeper look in this second volume.

It comes through most intensely in the exchanges between Diana and Doctor Zeiko, revealed to be Dr Psycho. The villainous character has had a range of powers and motivations, dating all the way back to the earliest Wonder Woman comics. Here, he is a brilliant manipulator, tasked with making special use of his skills and talents on Diana.

She indulges many of his curious questions, even demonstrating her bracelets while he fires a gun toward her - at her insistence of course! But the truth and honesty gets especially strained on the topic of submission and when the lasso of truth comes out.

Over the course of the book, Diana goes from globally admired - with baseball hitting demonstrations and cover profiles on magazines - to feared and hated. The full-page spread of magazine covers is delightful!

But when Uberfraulein returns to her original programming, throws off her submission to loving authority and again attacks Queen Hippolyta, Wonder Woman must return to Amazonia and take on a whole new role in preparing her people for the challenges ahead.

Morrison continues to play with a large number of loosely woven plot threads. I admire how well he sprinkles reimagined villains from both long history (Dr Psycho and the Nazis) to much more modern ones (Maxwell Lord pulling strings behind the scenes). The sheer size of the collection of plot threads means that this book cannot be the end - we need the third volume to see if he can tie the whole package together.

Artist Yanick Paquette continues to lift the story to new heights with stellar visuals. There is a beauty in the faces and body language of the good guys, and an emerging darkness in others with less virtuous motives.

His panels and pages flow together with such dynamic power, each one packed with detailed backgrounds and attention to the smallest details. A truly magnificent work, a testament to his craft!

We are left with a strong and satisfying final page, but we know that more books must follow, for too many balls are in motion to feel like this could possibly be the final word.

What I loved

Wonder Woman wears a more culturally-influenced garb

The book is every bit as gorgeous as volume one. Yanick Paquette does another fantastic job at filling in backgrounds with spectacular scenery. It is most noticeable in Paradise Island settings, but his creative attention to every beautiful detail oozes from every pore of this book.

One of my personal favorites is the outfit Diana chooses for her rescue mission of a man held prisoner by some Middle Eastern terrorists. Pause and admire the overall look and the finer details. 

The red, gold and blue tones, in step with her other outfits; the symbols of stars and feathers, too; the accommodation to cultural sensitivities, with the flowing sleeves and the head and face coverings; even the stars-and-rainbows along the seams of the robe, that call to mind some of the scene-transition bursts in the 1970s Wonder Woman TV show.

What I didn't love

How easy it is to lose your best defensive shield!

Imagine you had a defensive tool that made you invulnerable - a shield, a force field, maybe a magic girdle as worn by Queen Hippolyta. You would want to ensure that it could not be disabled or stripped from your possession without great effort.

How shocking, then, to twice in these pages see Hippolyta so easily stripped of her wonderful magic girdle. Wearing it, as she does, outside her clothing and tied with an easily broken or untied knot, it turns out to be a simple enough matter to rip it from her possession.

Now, spoiler alert, the second occurrence shown in the above panel may not have been unexpected, possibly part of a larger plan. But the first time Paula the Uberfraulein confronted the queen, she pulled the same stunt in the middle of the battle.

Do we need a lesson in double-knots?

Related Reviews

Wonder Woman Earth One Book One

Wonder Woman Earth One Book Three (coming soon)

Teen Titans Earth One Book Two

Quick Reference Details

Writers:   Grant Morrison
Artists:  Yanick Paquette
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Oct. 9, 2018
Parental Rating: Teen

Back Cover of Wonder Woman Earth One volume 2