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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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Over Under Sideways Down - Batman / Superman volume 2 - Game Over

  

Cover of Batman / Superman volume 2 - Game Over



Review:

This book is constantly disorienting. Greg Pak's stories and the creative vision of Brett Booth and Jae Lee keep the reader on our toes, working to keep up and make sense of it all.

The first sequence is a three-parter laid out 100% in Landscape instead of Portrait page orientation. That's the first disorienting factor - the reader needs to hold the book sideways to read it. Booth uses the wider layout to brilliant effect, spreading out and enlarging the graphics with boldness and creativity. Pak's plot is also a superb twist on the mind-controlled hero, with Toy Master creating an IRL game and inviting some of his eSport hacker friends to operate it. Their in-game banter and trash-talk is hilarious, a clever offset to the carnage being caused by their actions, and a fun social commentary on gaming, violence and the disconnect from real-life actions.

Next up is the Batman / Superman Annual #1. It follows directly after the defeat of Lord Mongul in the previous story, as Jochi son of Mongul invites Batman and Superman to form teams and enter the battle tournament for control of WarWorld. "Invite" is not quite correct - more compels. With their teams of Superman, Supergirl and a wolf-ified Krypto the Dog on one team, Batman, Red Hood and Jochi  himself forming another, and Steel and Batgirl helping in the shadows, it makes for a truly spectacular tournament.

As often happens in annuals, the art team changes for each new section, with wild stylistic swings, from the ghostly backgrounds and striking poses of Jae Lee to the grotesque battle sequences and color saturations of Kenneth Rocafort & Philip Tan in subsequent ones, the differences in visuals are stark yet beautiful.

The third and final arc centers on Huntress and Power Girl from Earth 2 and their struggle to return home. The four-parter blends the Batman / Superman series with World's Finest, and all parts are smartly included in the series. Each keeps their own creative team, with Greg Pak and Jae Lee handling the Batman / Superman chapters, Paul Levitz & RB Silva on the World's Finest ones. Lee's art is particularly striking, stylized and unique, bordering on the haunting and eerie. The plot has a handful of overdone elements (e.g. Batman yet again digs out his little hidden Kryptonite) but shows our heroes struggling with some of their personal temptations.

For solid stories and creative, disorienting and sometimes stare-inducing art, 4 capes out of 5.



Description:

The Dark Knight and the Man of Steel uncover a plot by the Toymaster to use a secret, potentially deadly element in his new video game, the characters created by players manifest in real life.  The ultimate fighting game results--and a world-wide network of players must team up to create the most powerful, skilled Super Heroes imaginable with one goal: To kill Batman.

When Batman and Superman are corned by the Toymaster and Mongul, they are pitted against on another in a battle to the death, with their only hope being the The Worlds' Finest.

Collects: Batman/Superman #5-9, Batman/Superman Annual #1, Worlds' Finest #20-21

Authors: Greg Pak
Artists: Brett Booth, Jae Lee
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: May 12 2015
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN: 9781401254230
Pages: 224 pages

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