Skip to main content

Featured

Of Embassies and Origins - Justice League International Part 2 (Eaglemoss Collection v77)

  Review: Since we are doing a series of reviews focusing on Booster Gold over his nearly 40-year history, we include this one as a collection of some of his earliest appearances, dating to late 1987. That places the original publish date of these tales while his original solo series was still going strong.  This book is a beautiful, glossy hard-cover with smooth and heavy-stock paper inside, although the sometimes-low print reproduction quality leads to blurred and hard to read word balloons on occasion. It is also a rare book here in North America, as Eaglemoss Collections targeted UK fans with this series. At this point in the history of the 1987-rebooted Justice League, they have gained official United Nations recognition and sanction. To ensure their reach truly is global, they rebrand as Justice League International (as does the title of the series!) and they open new headquarters buildings around the world: New York, Paris and Moscow are included here. As this is a product of 19
Post a Comment
Read more
Labels

Review - Superman for all Seasons graphic novel

 

Cover for graphic novel Superman for all Seasons

Description:

Before the legend...

Before the icon...

Before the Man of Tomorrow...

...there was Clark Kent, a young man coming to terms with the awesome power that fate had granted him. Experience this majestic tale of his transformation from country boy to the world's greatest superhero.

Superman For All Seasons features tales of Superman's earliest adventures told on a mythic scale by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, the Eisner Award-winning creative team behind Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: Dark Victory, with spectacular coloring by Bjarne Hansen.

Collects: Superman for all Seasons #1-4 and stories from Superman/Batman Secret Files #1, Superman/Batman #26 and Solo #1
Authors: Jeph Loeb
Artists: Tim Sale
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: July 31 2018 (new edition)
Parental Rating: PG

Review:

The title of this trade paperback collection nods to the classic play and 1966 film, "A Man for all Seasons"

That story is about a man with a powerful strength of character, one with a willingness to stand by his conscience, whatever the personal cost. And there are elements of that narrative in "Superman for all Seasons" as our title character struggles with his role and the place of his power and gifts of strength and character, in a society where individual advancement and power seem the higher virtues.

The graphic novel is also framed around seasons of the year. It is a beautiful coming-of-age story, in which the turning of the seasons from Spring to Summer to Fall and Winter mirror the arc of Clark's gradual maturing into the classic Superman, beloved icon of truth and justice. We see the small-town country boy growing into his full stature, first in his small community then finding his larger purpose in life in the urban center.

It starts with the discovery and exploration of his powers in Spring. This leads into his bursting onto the world scene in the Summer, with lots of nods to classic and Golden-age Superman moments. Fall bring the excruciating tension of darker turns in the plot. Our story reaches its climax, its apex in Winter, bringing us full circle again to a new Spring, filled with renewed dedication to being Superman.

Helping to delineate the seasons of the story, each turn of the season proceeds with a new narrative voice. Jonathan Kent in Spring changes to Lois Lane in Summer, then surprisingly Lex Luthor for Fall and ending with Lana Lang in the winter tale. As the narrative voice shifts, so too does the font of their text boxes. Just one of the many subtle yet deft touches throughout this book.

At crucial moments, the still-maturing young hero must center himself, and does so with a return home. To refresh and renew, then to return to the battle with stronger resolve, fortified and informed by this touchstone of the rural perspective.

Relationships, in all their human affection and messiness, also are central to this story. Father and son watching a sunset. Flirting with a favorite girl and sharing deepest secrets. The local minister. The barber. The young child unaware of how dangerous are his surroundings. Countless other connections, that add depth and new angles. I found myself often pausing, rereading a given page more slowly, sipping and savoring these encounters and interactions.

The art throughout this book is absolutely gorgeous. Tim Sale fills page after page with passion, emotion and action. Occasional sepia-toned photo album memories add texture and nuance to Clark, and depth to his origins.

Clark is rendered as a big-hearted, big-bodied rural farm boy, more bulky than muscular. The stereotypical washboard abs and layers of muscle upon muscle so typical of the superhero genre are replaced here with the clean lines of a frame-filling big guy.

The contrast of sweetness and gentleness in an oversized body is evoked even more by placing such small and simple features on the large form. It's almost an anti-Manga style, with small eyes and subtle lips set into the vast expanse of space that is Superman's head and face. A clever artistic choice that conveys the character's simple, uncomplicated outlook and his honesty and trust. His conscience is clear and he has the strength to stand by it.

The colors by Bjarne Hansen blend and soften these features even more , in a beautiful watercolor palate, rounding out the power of the simple lines and inks.

Superman for all Seasons is a fresh take on a much-covered character, told with subtlety and sensitivity, and wrapped in breathtakingly beautiful art. It is one of the true treasures of my graphic novel / TPB collection.

Score: All 5 capes

ISBN-10: 1401281095
ISBN-13: 978-1401281090
Language: English
Pages: 224 pages


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts