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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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Superman's Joker : Batman / Superman volume 4 - Siege

 

cover of Batman / Superman volume 4 - Siege


Review:

Batman's arch-nemesis the Joker has evolved over its history from a hatcher of madcap plans with a side of mocking cruelty, into a psychopath capable of, in Batman's words in this collection, "poisoning a city" if it brings psychological pain and destruction to his foe.

What if, ask author Greg Pak, those personality traits were applied to a member of Superman's "Rogues Gallery?" What if Superman faced an enemy who sought to psychologically destroy him before ultimately killing him too? The five-part answer Pak offers is the centerpiece of this collection. Strangely it is not the title of the collection, which comes from the included Annual that sees Superman temporarily powerless and hunted through the jungles and ruins by Bane, Cheshire, Killer Croc and Man-Bat.

But while the Annual draws villains from around the DC Universe, the superman's Joker story is firmly set in Superman's own mythology. Characters from Phantom King to the bottle-city of Kandor, plus surviving friends and relatives all play a role. 

Pak gives us a mystery: someone is attacking and killing people close to Superman, with bullets that evade even Superman's detection or ability to catch. Especially poignant is the death of a civilian who dresses up as Superman to visit a Sick Kids hospital.

Some fine detective work by Batman traces the villain to Kandor, hidden as it is in Iceland, and the final micro-sized confrontation with a villain who cares nothing for who may be collateral damage and who has brainwashed an army of mini-Kryptonians.

Ardian Syaf handles the artist duties through the Superman's Joker tale, He excels at brooding or emotionally intense, heavily inked faces, and creative framing and composition. The pinnacle is his full-page layout of exactly what Joker has cost Batman over the years - intense, horrifying, moving, perfect!

The final tale in this collection, from Future's End, is nothing worth mentioning so I will not.

4 capes for strong stories on balance, and creative artistic renderings.



Description:

It’s the Man of Steel’s worst nightmare: an obsessed villain who not only knows all of Superman’s secrets, but is also willing to kill anyone who has ever stood by him in order to destroy his true target.

…It’s Superman’s Joker.

It falls to Batman to track down this murderous madman, but with no clues left behind and no leads to follow, will this killer outwit the World’s Greatest Detective?

Writer Greg Pak (ACTION COMICS) and artist Ardian Syaf (BATGIRL) add a deadly new name to Superman’s Rogues Gallery…one that will test Superman’s strength and Batman’s mind equally! 

Collects: Batman/Superman #16-20, Batman/Superman Annual #1 and Batman/Superman: Futures End #1

Authors: Greg Pak
Artists: Ardian Syaf
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: Aug. 16 2016
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN: 9781401263683
Pages: 144 pages

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