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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
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Putting the Teen in Teen Titans - Review of Teen Titans: Earth One Vol. 1

 

Cover of Teen Titans Earth One - volume 1


Review:

The Earth One imprint of DC Comics was given an unusually free hand in rebooting and reintroducing some of the central DC characters to new readers. Their updates to the origin tales and some of the foundational mythology of the DC universe has been received with rave reviews from critics like me.

This entry, part one of a two-part Teen Titans reboot, fits that same pattern. It is another solid original graphic novel, a complete self-contained story without the usual constraints of 24 pages per issue per month and is all the stronger for it.

The Teen Titans started life as a team of sidekicks. Here they are spared their original junior-partner treatment; instead, they are allowed to grow and blossom all on their own.

The Teen part, however, is retained. In fact, Jeff Lemire's story makes it a central, core theme as he fills these pages with teenage stresses, priorities, moods, conflicts and more. Many of the Marv Wolfman-era favorites are here:

  • Raven - a Navajo girl living on a New Mexico reservation with her grandfather
  • Gar - or Garfield as his classmates relentlessly tease him, an intelligent but young newcomer to the high school
  • Vic - a tall, sullen African American kid with a testy relationship with his mother; he is honest but a touch lackadaisical
  • Tara - Vic's high school sweetheart, filled with barely suppressed anger at everything, especially her drunk mother and absent father
  • Joey - another newcomer at the high school, a quiet young man, a bit aloof and mysterious

In the span of just a few hours, they all begin manifesting their latent powers. Tara causes earthquakes. Gar changes into a cat-faced guy. Vic starts to turn to metal. Lemire's tale lingers on their fear, their confusion and sense of loneliness. The body changes come on much more quickly than puberty, and with even more shame and anxiety.

The Vic's mother knows more than she lets on and moves to both capture the teens and reassert her control over Starfire, an imprisoned alien.

The husband-and-wife team of Terry and Rachel Dodson fills the pages with eye-popping art. Every panel is gorgeous, drawing the reader inside the story. Backgrounds are rich, foregrounds are packed with emotional wallop. The visuals match exactly the moods and frustrations and joys and sorrows of the characters. And there are so many little details to watch for. A personal favorite is the mouthful of braces on one kid as he openly mocks the new kid Gar, and the irony in that whole scene.

4.5 capes out of 5 for a powerful reimagining of the Teen Titans, one that is overflowing with believable emotion, dramatic tension and outstanding visuals.


Description:

A new original graphic novel in DC's popular "Earth One" series, TEEN TITANS: EARTH ONE follows in the tradition of SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE and BATMAN: EARTH ONE, both of which were #1 New York Times bestsellers.

The Teen Titans never felt like normal kids... but they had no idea how right they were. Their seemingly idyllic Oregon upbringing hides a secret -- one that will bring killers, shamans, and extraterrestrials down on their heads, and force them into an alliance that could shake the planet to its foundations!

Superstars Jeff Lemire (ANIMAL MAN, GREEN ARROW) and Terry Dodson (WONDER WOMAN) reinvent DC's youngest heroes, with an all-new mythos in an all-new world!

Collects: Not Applicable - an Original story

Authors: Jeff Lemire
Artists: Rachael Dodson, Terry Dodson
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: Nov. 25 2014
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN-10: 1401245560
ISBN-13: 978-1401245566
Language: English
Pages: 144 pages

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