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

Smallvillains - Superman Action Comics vol 7: Under the Skin

 

Cover of Action Comics vol 7

Review:

After the all-caps BIG story arc in the previous volume, filled as it was with powerful villains and global threats, the main tale in this collection goes small, with the action limited to the Smallville region.

Yet it is clearly the stronger story, which shows that we do not need displays of might and massive threats to have an interesting Superman tale. Greg Pak's writing here is taut, well-paced and filled with the raw material of human relations. In the end it is a much more effective and powerful tale than the more prosaic save-the-world fare of the previous volume.

A mist has descended on Smallville, cutting it off from the world and causing terror inside. Both Lana's and Clark's parents rise zombie-like from their graves, to assault them. Dark dreams and memories, creepy bugs and tentacled monsters - this book is filled with classic horror elements. Aaron Kuder partners with several other artists to pull off the chilling visuals, with the muted greys and browns sending a shiver down the reader's spine. Jae Lee with his distinctively creepy visual style is a natural guest artist for this book, and his flashback sequences are as evocative as ever.

The use of light and shadow, color, glimpses of monstrous appendages, all make this a wonderfully frightening collection. Highly recommended, though not for children.

In a side tale, Superman also blunders into Bizarro-World for a standalone story. Bizarro is a Golden Age relic who could stay there, according to many readers, yet remains surprisingly popular with others. I'm in the first camp and would be happy to see the end of Bizarro. And yet Doomzarro and his mist of cuteness makes this a worthwhile entry in the Bizarro canon.


Description:

A new epic begins! The deck is stacked against Superman when Smallville is poisoned by the appearance of dark magic and ancient horrors! Can Superman figure out what's going on and save his hometown before this evil epidemic spreads across the entire world? Superman must stop the evil undead threat of the Ultrahumanite from crushing humanity! 

Collects: ACTION COMICS #36-40 and ACTION COMICS: FUTURES END #1.

Authors: Greg Pak
Artists: Aaron Kuder
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: July 26 2016
Parental Rating: Teen+
ISBN: 978-1401262624
Pages: 168 pages


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts