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: Daring New Adventures of Supergirl volume 1

   

Cover of Daring Adventures of Supergirl TPB

Review:

Early-80s fashion and story-telling in an early 21st-century collection - a clash of sensibilities with hints of nostalgia.

This collection of the first 12 issues of the 1982 Supergirl series was released in the midst of the excitement around the 2015 Supergirl live-action TV series. While the collection is solid on its own, I'm not certain its 35-year-old comic stories would have appealed to the modern, new TV fans.

The art jumps out more than the stories they illustrate. The are penciled by the legendary Carmine Infantino, who made his name as the artist of The Flash of the Silver Age of comics. It was the 1956 debut of the Barry Allen Flash that kicked off a revival of super heroes, with Infantino doing the drawing. He would return to The Flash for the final issues of Barry Allen, in the early 1980s.

Since this collection is from the same late-career Infantino era, it is no surprise that the familiar Infantino style is present on every page. The facial features, the long flowing lines and details of the period clothing, and especially the slender fingers are all vintage Infantino. Supergirl in her flowing-sleeved blouse with hot-pants and boots looks every bit the early-80s celeb.

In contrast to the art, the stories are middling. While this 1982 series was a bold revival and return to a solo story for Supergirl, the decision to add a backup feature to each issue effectively cuts each story down to only 16 pages. But while that could feel too short and over too quickly, instead author Paul Kupperberg throws so much prose and exposition at us that the opposite happens. We weary of the constant dialog and the endless large word balloons crowding out Infantino's images.

That said, Kupperberg does take Supergirl in interesting and exciting new directions. She is all grown up now, no longer the teenaged kid tagalong of her more famous cousin. She moves away to Chicago, meets new friends, starts to flirt and date, enrolls in university. All are important rites of passage and Kupperberg gives them lots of space in the plot arcs.

The villains she must confront are uninspiring - Psi, Decay, The Gang, The Council all start out appearing more formidable than they really are. The Doom Patrol and Reactron lead into a stronger multi-issue story arc, as Kupperberg, who is very familiar with the larger Superman world, seems to warm up to the task. The attack by six doll-sized Supergirl clones slips back into the absurd however, and the collection ends on a weaker note.

Overall this is a beautiful collection of 1980s stories, the villains are a mixed bag and the stories have loads of promise with the newly independent life of Supergirl and her alter ego Linda Danvers. It just takes so much reading to get through due to excessive exposition and narration.

I give it 3 capes out of 5.

Description:

She was only 15 when she first came to Earth, fleeing the destruction of her world’s last refuge. Following in the footsteps of her legendary cousin, the Kryptonian teenager named Kara Zor-El joined Superman’s never-ending battle for truth and justice as his partner in crime-fighting—Supergirl!

But the Girl of Steel isn’t a kid anymore. With high school behind her, this hero is ready to fly on her own!

Disguised as the brilliant brown-haired college student Linda Danvers, Supergirl sets out from the safety of Metropolis to see her adopted country for herself. From the streets of Chicago to the hills of San Francisco, she encounters loyal new friends and powerful new foes, astounding new discoveries and terrifying new dangers. Can she stand on her own outside of Superman’s shadow? Looks like this is a job for…Supergirl!

The original icon of girl power hits new heights in THE DARING NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERGIRL, collecting issues #1-12 of the classic series by writer Paul Kupperberg and legendary artist Carmine Infantino. Whether you’re a longtime fan or a newcomer to Kara’s world, you’ll believe a girl can fly!

Collects: The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #1-12
Authors: Paul Kupperberg
Artists: Carmine Infantino
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: July 19 2016
Parental Rating: PG
ISBN-10: 1401263461
ISBN-13: 978-1401263461
Language: English
Pages: 226 pages

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts