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 1987, with the Cold War still raging, geo-political reality factors in. The United States insists that Captain Atom be a part of the new JLI. The Soviet Union likewise does the same, installing one of their Rocket Red Brigade on the Moscow-based squad,

But the politics, like everything else in this series, is kept light-hearted and suffused with humor. From the Martian Manhunter's straight-faced delivery and the "is he pulling our leg?" reactions it engenders, to the slapstick and accident-prone Captain Atom and the punny buffoonery of Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, it is a fun read that puts the comic in Comics.

These early chapters of Justice League International's history are most notable for two other things, beyond the humor and global politics. First is the crossover with the Millennium event. "No man (or woman!) escapes the Manhunters!" Nearly every character had their own sleeper-agent Manhunter to deal with in their own books, and the whole team was shocked to discover their Rocket Red was an infiltrating Manhunter. They eventually draw on old-Justice League America alums Superman, Hawkman and Hal Jordan Green Lantern for a final confrontation on the Manhunters home world. It is a solid story arc in its own right, and introduces the first appearance of the farcical Lantern G'nort, who would become a recurring character.

The second notable element in these pages is the original origin story of Maxwell Lord. His scheming and manipulative control of the team have been evident from the start, and in the final chapter of this collection we learn of how he is under the influence and control of a sentient bot sent by Metron. The history, origin and character of Maxwell Lord would continue to evolve, of course, to the point that he gets mind control over Superman and then with his bare hands executes a cold-blooded killing of Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle, in the run-up to the Infinite Crisis event. But here in these pages, we get the first hint of his motivations and complexity of character.

Since I selected this book in part for Booster Gold's early history, it is notable that his involvement in these pages is mostly comic-relief. Contrary to the more self-centered arrogance in his own book, Booster is a joker and not to be taken seriously, almost from the start of his Justice League involvement. There are jokes. He is spectacularly shot down and his ego popped by Parisienne women. He does, however, save the day at the climax of the Manhunters crossover - which he, naturally, wants full credit for!

Skeets is nowhere to be found. Perhaps his flying, robotic best-bud and partner from the Booster Gold solo series is redundant here, as Booster bonds with Blue Beetle?

Finally, this collection adds a bonus story: reprinting Mister Miracle #1 from 1971. It introduces Scott Free and his mysterious gadget. While this is one of Jack Kirby's Fourth World stories that cross multiple titles, including the New Gods, in this first issue there is no hint of that larger reality - well, except for the mystery gadget!

Decades later, these stories are still fun although do feel quite dated. And several characters fit the humor mood of the series but contrast strongly with their canonical personalities. The poor print quality of the book also drops its score. Overall I give it 3 capes.

Description:

The World's Greatest Super-Heroes, the Justice League, have dropped the "of America" from their name and are going international! But it's the most unlikely grouping of heroes you'll ever see! Batman, Blue Beetle, Martian Manhunter, Black Canary, Guy Gardner, Mister Miracle and Booster Gold are now joined by U.S. representative Captain Atom and Russian representative Rocket Red.

But can this ragtag group work as a functioning unit and prevent an international incident from happening, all while stopping the robotic menaces of the Manhunters and The Construct? And just what is the shocking secret of their mysterious benefactor, Maxwell Lord?

Collects: Justice League International #8-12 (Dec 1987-April 1988) and Mister Miracle #1 (1971)

Authors:  Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Jack Kirby
Artists:  Kevin Maguire, Jack Kirby
Published By:  DC Comics and Eaglemoss Collections
Parental Rating: PG-13

Kicking off a Booster Gold set of Reviews

 

Booster Gold is fast approaching 40 years of age! This time-traveling, self-aggrandizing fugitive from the future made his debut in early 1986, the first new character with a new solo series after the Crisis on Infinite Earths mega-event.

And while he became known as the "greatest hero you've never heard of", his fame and his place in the DC Universe continues to slowly rise. He has long had fan-sites like Boosterific and the Gold Exchange, created by dedicated fans who have always seen the fun and potential of the character. 

Now, as part of the DC Cinematic Universe reboot coming in 2025, Booster Gold is scheduled to receive his own TV show!

Other characters with a similar pedigree - B-list or C-list powers, maybe their own ongoing series for a time, followed by membership in a team of heroes and occasional cameos or guest appearances - gradually fade to the fringes. But Booster Gold keeps coming back. There is something compelling in his bio and character that a subset of fans loves and some writers can't resist.

It led to Booster Gold getting a second solo series. His first one lasted just two years in the late-80s; volume 2 started in 2007 and lasted for 47 issues, wrapping up between Flashpoint and the New 52 reboot of the DC world.

The issues of this second solo series are now being collected into new trade paperback editions, the first of which hit store shelves this past spring, with the next volume scheduled for early 2025. It's all building the excitement toward that upcoming TV series, I'm sure!

To celebrate the growth and maturation of this intriguing character, over the next few weeks we will review several of the prominent moments of Booster Gold's nearly 40-year history. Since these reviews are for graphic novels and trade paperback collections, we will not be talking about the original 1986 series as it, to my knowledge, has never (yet!) been collected into a TPB or omnibus - Update: indeed they do exist! Two hardcover volumes were published in 2019 to collect the entire 1980s run of Booster Gold's original solo series! Booster Gold: The Big Fall collects issues 1-12 and Booster Gold: Future Lost includes issues #13-25 and excerpts from key other appearances. If and when I get a hold of copies, I will post reviews of them, and they are available in Kindle editions now if you just must have them right away!

Instead, we will start with Booster's time in the Justice League, with some late-80s and early-90s Justice League of America and Justice League International collections.

Then we'll jump into the early 2000s and Booster's involvement in some of the major crossover events of the day in the DC Universe, leading us into the 2007 ongoing series that is being newly collected and reprinted.

And we will peek at significant Booster Gold appearances in other titles, such as Action Comics and Batman.

For Booster Gold fans like me, it will be a fun few weeks! If you are more indifferent or a Booster detractor, please join us anyway, we will be visiting several other books and characters along the way, from Superman and Batman to Blue Beetle and Elongated Man!

Stop the Ceremony! Scion volume 6 - Royal Wedding

 

Review:

The Heron Dynasty, led by royal family King Dane and Prince Ethan, are in a tense and potentially temporary peace with their rival the Raven Dynasty led by King Bron. In these pages, Bron seeks to bring a more lasting peace, merging the two Dynasties by marrying Heron Princess Ylena.

When Ethan hears of it, he rushes home from his travels and his work helping the genetically engineers lower races. He barges into the ceremony - but too late! Yet his reactions and suspicions barely scratch the surface of understanding Bron's devious plot, which all culminates in a rescue mission for his sister and a quest to find their missing and possibly magically controlled father.

The Scion series blends elements of medieval fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, science fiction and romance into an intriguing setting. It's a part of the larger CrossGen Sigil Universe (now owned by Disney and rumored to be resurfacing under Marvel Comics in the future).

Author Ron Marz, most known for his long and legendary run on Green Lantern, knows the Sigil Universe well, having written for 6 different titles over a a five-year period. He has given them incredibly high stakes - life and death, freedom, duty and destiny, kingdoms, dynasty and power. Yet what he has not given them, at least in this volume, is cause to be happy. No one is having any fun here, with the possible exception of Bron. This scarred and cruel villain also shows a human streak, as he carefully, occasionally even tenderly, walks his new bride through the new social expectations.

Artists Jim Cheung and Jim Fern have a way with faces. The features may feel out of proportion, with tiny eyes and mouths set in long, smooth cheeks and foreheads, yet so much is communicated in those faces. A sneer here, a creased brow there, convey so much weight and emotion. The rest of their art is fluid, with strong and striking half and two-third page spreads decorated by thumbnail panels that help to emphasize the main moment portrayed on the page. A clever technique that is used multiple times in these pages.

With strong if somber characters, gorgeous scenery in the visuals, and emotion-laden faces, this book is a treat, even as it marked the end of Marz's three-plus year run on the Scion series.

Description:

"Royal Wedding" is the sixth volume in the original sci-fi gothic romance series Scion. Contained here are hard-to-find, out-of-print issues 34-39, never before published in collected form. Fans of Scion familiar with its history will recall that its original publisher suffered unfortunate financial difficulty that led to its downfall before the series could be completed and Volume 6 published. Now Checker Book Publishing has made this release a reality.

Nightmares plague Heron and Raven equally as sigil-bearer Prince Ethan's story is continued in Volume 6 by award-winning writer Ron Marz. While his estranged father plans for the peace, the sigil-marked hero, Prince Ethan, tries to establish a free island nation for the genetically engineered lower races. Ethan returns to the West Dynasty with news of an invasion, too late to prevent his sister Ylena's marriage to his enemy King Bron of the Raven Dynasty. With a foreign invasion imminent, Ethan and Kai move deep into Raven territory to reclaim their sister and find the ensorcelled King Dane.

Expressive faces and regal Arthurian atmosphere are the work of Jim Cheung and guest pencillers, as is fluid movement, highly expressive postures and expressions and beautiful surroundings. Eisner Award nominated colorist Jason Keith and others capture changing daylight and dim shadow, the heat of conflict and coolness of tranquility; the saturated colors of determination and the muted shades of resignation. Castles, ancient forests, elements of the supernatural, omens, blood feuds and chivalry combine with futuristic technology to make this part of the Sigil-verse completely unique.

Collects: issues #34-39

Authors:  Ron Marz
Artists:  Jim Cheung, Jim Fern
Published By:  Checker Book Publishing Group
Published When:  2007
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  9781933160603

Disjointed Diversity - Review of Summit volume 2: Price of Power

 

Review:

Amy Chu's Summit series presents a fascinating portrayal of a new superhero and the super-smart team of MIT grad students and researchers that enable her to take her heroic actions. Potential oozes from these characters and concepts, and when the storytelling gets stronger, this could be an awesome series.

Our hero is Valentina "Val" Resnick-Baker, a super-powered ex-astronaut, settling into her new life as a lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the team assembled to study her powers and support her heroic actions.

Her support team of intelligent scientists and researchers is reminiscent of the Flash TV series and his supporting cast of scientists - only Val's team is 2-3 times larger than Barry Allen's. But the bigger the team, the bigger the security risk. And in these chapters she is betrayed and played perfectly, leading to her capture and - cliff-hanger! - an unexpected "cure" for her solar powers.

That team is one of the most diverse in all of comic-dom. White, Black, Indian, Asian, gay and straight, singles and blended families - it's a who's-who of minority groups, yet feels perfectly rational in the context of MIT-based scientists. And Chu has not only assembled this stunningly diverse collection of main characters but imbues them in these chapters with intriguing back-stories, nuanced characteristics and depth. Their relationships and interactions become one of the main strengths of these tales, although the crew is, if anything, perhaps a little too large and diverse. There is not enough story space for the reader to connect with the entire team.

Which is fine, as at least one of the team is not who they appear to be, and the betrayal nearly destroys the group and our budding new hero.

As mentioned, Chu's strength is in the relationships among the widely diverse main characters. The rest of the narrative suffers on occasion from rushed pacing, cramming too much revelation into too small a space and dropping jarring revelations on the readers. These weaknesses are learnable skills, and as Chu masters the art of graphic storytelling, her foundation of characters and relationships will blossom into ever stronger tales.

The artwork, led by Federico Dallocchio, is solid and engrossing. With rarely more than four panels per page, he has lots of room to work, and he makes good use of that room. Facial expressions and dramatic physical postures carry much of the drama of the visuals, aided by an occasional creative layout , as in the rays of semi-circular story-so-far exposition.

Summit is a fast and engrossing read, and with these characters and relationships, this book will only get stronger as the author's skills in pacing and comic storytelling mature.

Description:

The second arc in the Summit series, part of the Catalyst Prime superhero universe!

Having helping hands does wonders for one's recovery, especially when you have both superpowers and the media breathing down your neck. After beginning to recover from her experiences in space, losing her girlfriend Kay, and realizing she has superpowers, Valentina “Val” Resnick-Baker has found herself in a better place surrounded by new friends, Fiona, and a new job at MIT. Unfortunately—because life can never be easy for Val—there's a new threat on the horizon; one that's threatening to steal her suit and her powers. All Val may want is peace, but the world needs her to be a superhero.

Collects: Issues #5-9

Authors:  Amy Chu
Artists:  Federico Dallocchio, Will Rosado, Marika Cresta
Published By:  Oni Press
Published When:  Dec 11, 2018
Parental Rating: PG-13
ISBN:  9781549302855
Pages:  144 pages

Identity Crisis turns 20!

 

Review:

The murder of Sue Dibney, wife of Ralph "Elongated Man" Dibney, shook the Justice League to its core and cast a shadow over large parts of the DC Comics Universe for years. It became a significant sub-plot - Ralph's attempts to bring her back - in the grand, magisterial weekly cross-over series 52, thereby influencing the shape of the DC universe that followed.

To mark the 20th anniversary of this event and the shocking mini-series in which it took place, DC Comics is reissuing the Identity Crisis as a deluxe anniversary edition, collecting all seven of the issues in the original limited series. On this reading, it remains as profound, shocking and beautiful a story as ever!

First, a refresher: Someone knows intimate details about the personal lives of Justice League heroes in particular, and certain others too. They then use this knowledge in attaching the loved-ones of the heroes. Publicly known figures like Sue Dibney and the Atom's ex-wife Jean Loring - who barely survives an attempted hanging - are attacked first. But as the attacks and threats spread - to Lois Lane, to the father of Tim Drake / Robin - it's obvious that the attacker(s) know some of the deepest secrets of our heroes.

There is, in these pages, shockingly little hero vs villain fighting. Sure, there is the fantastically paced and narrated seven-versus-one Justice League takedown of Deathstroke, plus some memories of a previous defeat of Doctor Light. But that is all you'll find of the classic capes-and-tights battles.

Instead, author Brad Meltzer and artist Rags Morales deliver seven chapters packed with character, emotion and a superbly-paced mystery tale. Grief, horror and despair explode from these pages, especially around Sue's murder, memories of her earlier rape at the hands of Doctor Light, and of course her deeply moving funeral. Robin's panic to save his father spans a half-dozen pulse-pounding pages. The intense and fraught conversations between Green Arrow and Flash (Wally West). Atom's conversations with his ex-wife. These are all grippingly narrated and written, and the art steps up with the tiniest nuances of line and color packing so much into the scene. Graphic storytelling has rarely been done better, especially in the superhero genre.

Seedy and creepy old Captain Boomerang; Firestorm's explosive nuclear meltdown; Batman's immovable moral compass and deep compassion. So many moving scenes and powerful details in every chapter of this amazing collection.

Identity Crisis turns 20 this year, and it is as relevant and powerful as ever. A full set of 5 capes!

Description:

When the spouse of a JLA member is brutally murdered, the entire super hero community searches for the killer, fearing their own loved ones may be the next targets.

The stunning mystery from #1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Meltzer is back in stunning deluxe edition hardcover!

In the wake of a murder, the superhero community mourns the loss of one of their most beloved. Holding their loved ones close, they embark on a journey to find those responsible.

In the hunt for a killer, a long-held secret held by members of the Justice League will be revealed.

Collects the complete series, along with commentary by the creative team, the Identity Crisis #1 script, and an extensive gallery of never-before-seen art from Morales and Turner.

Collects: complete series, issues #1-7

Authors:  Brad Meltzer
Artists:  Rags Morales
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  June 4, 2024
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  978-1779525925
Pages:  312 pages