The Crisis Connection - Review of Green Lantern Sector 2814 book 3

 

Review:

Comics issues with big, round numbers like #200 are natural places for big celebrations, classic villains in memorable confrontations, and momentous events. And when it coincides with the end of DC's universe-reshaping Crisis on Infinite Earths, multiply the significance ten-fold!

The creative team of writer Steve Englehart and penciller Joe Staton deliver. By the end of #200, the final chapter in both this book and the three-book run of "Sector 2814" books, they have shaken the Green Lantern universe, corps and mythology to its core and sent it off in an intriguing new direction.

Issue #200 is the clear standout of the seven comics collected here. From Hal Jordan's sheer joy and exuberance at becoming Green Lantern once again, to the duplicitous sneak attacks from, first, Star Sapphire and then Sinestro, to the shocking departure of both the Guardians of the Universe and the Zamarons, the extended, double-sized issue could barely contain it all. Englehart's breakneck pace of narration, coupled with Staton's strong and emotionally rich visuals carry the reader through this emotional roller coaster. With brilliant nods to the rich history of Green Lantern, we finish the book excited to see the new developments to come.

The other six chapters here are less compelling. Englehart's storytelling shines with moments of surprise and delight - through shocking team-ups like Guy Gardner and Star Sapphire, or John Stewart and Sinestro, or the touching moments around the death of Tomar Re, a significant secondary character with a long history with the Corps.

But the Crisis tie-ins pull against these elements and ultimately fragment the tales too much. With so many threads on the go, so any cuts between scenes, sudden reversals and shifts in tone and direction, these other chapters fail to live up to the strength of #200. It is also fascinating, in today's retrospective view, to see how much more central to the Crisis storyline the Green Lanterns and the Guardians are here, in the Green Lantern title, compared to the mainline Crisis books. Like a bratty child acting up to get more attention, it feels almost undignified.

Joe Staton turns in solid work through a wide range of characters and locations - Earth, sea, air, space, Oa and a dozen other planets. Lots of angry confrontations and green energy blasts, with notably fewer light constructs in these pages. A particular favourite of Staton's work here is the spread of close-ups to show the different reactions in the audience when the Guardians announce they are leaving. The emotional range goes far beyond mere shock.

Staton's habit of switching from rectangular to more slashing, almost triangular panels gets a little out of hand here, a visual style that can be effective and shocking when well-used but that, in these stories, distracts more than it enhances.

The run-up through all three Sector 2814 books, with different Green Lanterns of Earth as the focus of each book, sets up very well the shift to the Green Lantern Corps with issue #201, giving the series a new title while continuing the numbering and doubling down on the ever-growing cast of Lanterns.

Description:

In this new collection of 1980s Green Lantern adventures, John Stewart clashes with Guy Gardner to see who will be the Green Lantern of Earth. And while Stewart battles Harbinger during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Gardner recruits enemies of the Green Lantern Corps to stand against an evil that could destroy the entire universe--including The Shark, Hector Hammond, Sonar, Goldface and more! As the two factions fight each other--John Stewart and the Green Lantern Corps vs. Guy Gardner and the villains--a fallen Lantern's ring finds Hal Jordan, who reclaims his place in the Corps.

Collects: Green Lantern (vol 2) #194-200

Authors:  Steve Englehart
Artists:  Joe Staton, Bruce Patterson
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Jan 21, 2014
Parental Rating: PG
ISBN:  978-1401243272
Pages:  200 pages

Rookie Call-up to Big Leagues - Review of Green Lantern Sector 2814 volume 2

 

Review:

Book two of the three-volume Sector 2814 set of Green Lantern trade paperbacks puts John Stewart at the center of the action. The set continues to collect some momentous and turbulent times in the life of Green Lantern, whoever bears that title.

Len Wein and Dave Gibbons establish the new Green Lantern out of the gate with battles against some classic foes, first Major Disaster, closely followed by Eclipso. Through these confrontations, the new guy is clearly learning the ropes, making mistakes, slowly getting better and more confident.

It includes one of my favourite scenes in the whole collection, the sanity-breaking "everyone is a Green Lantern" sequence. Whether or not it's an early nod to the cosplay culture, it is a fun page. I am less impressed by some of the sloppy green-power structures John Stewart creates - sure, he is still learning, but he is supposedly a highly regarded architect and the best he can imagine is an elevated platform without safety rails for his date with the reporter?

As the Wein & Gibbons run ends, Paul Kupperberg steps in for a one-parter standalone "day in the life" tale, although still contractually obligated, it appears, to move some of the secondary plots forward with a panel or page here and there. Fill-in artist Bill Willingham is already in this era showing the distinctive visual style elements that will become so strong in his Fables series in the future. Unfortunately, here in Green Lantern, those traits of posture and expression just feel awkward.

With #188, Steve Englehart takes over the writing and Joe Staton becomes the penciller. This new team immediately starts moving the characters and themes in intriguing new directions. They reveal John Stewart's secret identity in their very first issue, so he loses the mask - because what is the point, who are you hiding from now that everyone knows?

They also start a budding romance between Stewart and Katma Tui, the veteran Green Lantern assigned as his tutor by the Guardians. In their hands it feels natural and sweet, building to their first kiss and beyond.

And over several issues the creative team builds the tension brewing between Hal Jordan, Carol Ferris and the mysterious Predator. Ringless Hal is still without fear and does his best to confront the vicious Predator who, in turn, becomes increasingly romantically fixated on Carol. It all culminates (spoiler alert!) in the shocking return of Star Sapphire!

In all, it is an audacious debut for this new creative team, as they take a big swing at putting their own stamp on the Green Lantern mythology. Not everything they try is a hit - the Hal Jordan vigilante arc foremost among them. And Staton occasionally switches from rectangular panels to slashing diagonals and triangles for no apparent reason, just a page here and there of sudden visual disorientation.

I also appreciate how they are slowly setting up Guy Gardner for a future role, and the many nods to the long and rich history of Green Lantern. In particular, the retrospective of past confrontations with Star Sapphire and the extra legwork on the Editor's part to stick in references to issues past, where these events took place.

Description:

The mid-1980s run of Green Lantern tales continues with the final stories by the team of writer Len Wein (creator of Wolverine and Swamp Thing) and artist Dave Gibbons (Watchmen). Over the course of these tales, John Stewart becomes the new Green Lantern of Earth, only to face the threats of Eclipso and Star Sapphire. Plus, John Stewart battles his predecessor as Green Lantern of Earth, Hal Jordan.

Collects: Green Lantern (vol 2) #182-183, 185-193

Authors:  Len Wein, Steve Englehart
Artists:  Dave Gibbons, Joe Staton, Bruce Patterson
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Aug 27, 2013
Parental Rating: PG
ISBN:  978-1401240783
Pages:  232 pages

Not Cloned, Not Fun: Review of Justice League 3000 volume 1 Yesterday Lives

 

Review:

A legendary Justice League creative crew is reunited and given a brand new New 52 era Justice League book. Keith Giffen and JM Dematteis, who co-wrote Justice League titles (Justice League, Justice League International, Justice League Europe) for many years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, team up for a new take on the league. They bring in Howard Porter, who provided art for them on such lesser-known titles as Magog and Scooby Apocalypse.

It all held so much potential with high expectations from fans of their previous run. Unfortunately, this time it doesn't work. The magic fails to click.

The so-called Wonder Twins, Terry and Teri, have resurrected key members of the classic Justice League - Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash and Green Lantern.

It's now the 31st century and half the known universe is run by The Five, ruthless and near omnipotent beings. There's Kali the 6-armed god, Locus the reality-altering teen, Coeval the sentient program, the Convert who can possess several thousand other beings simultaneously, and one other to be named later.
Can the resurrected Justice League defeat The Five and saved the oppressed?

No, in part due to the flawed process used in their resurrection. Ariel Masters knew of the flaws and sought to prevent the process, but is now on the run in an effort to preserve her secrets. The results of the process once executed give us, not the classic heroes everyone knows, but beings with some hiccups.

Superman is an arrogant frat boy with immense power but not flight. Wonder Woman is a blood-thirsty warrior. Green Lantern is slowly being killed by the Green energy. Flash has no anti-friction aura. The closest to their old self is Batman, yet something is still off.

The result is that these beings, flawed in powers and personalities, fail to bond into a team that transcends its individual parts. With all this internal squabbling and self-doubt, how can they possibly overcome the awesome power of The Five?

The ongoing series is flawed in its attempts to resurrect the magic of this creative team, too. Howard Porter's art is chunky and slapdash. The constant exotic panel layouts do little more than distract and confuse. Even Hi-Fi on the colours, in other places so jaw-dropping, here are blocky and sub-par. 

For a couple issues, Keith Giffen handles the layouts and it does make an immediate, if not lasting, difference. 

Giffen's primary involvement is with the plots, with longtime collaborator JM Dematteis putting those ideas into words. But the fun banter and non-sequiturs of their renowned Justice League run are missing here. A handful of forced and one-dimensional exchanges give hints of levity and fun, but they are too few, too wooden, too uninspiring.

Maybe these are just not the right characters for this team. When they wrote for Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Fire, Ice, Captain Atom and more, they excelled with mid-tier heroes or new characters of their own making. This attempt to reinterpret this set of A-List heroes is forced, not much fun and ultimately falls flat.

Description:

In the far-flung future in the year 3000, the Justice League still exists and they're more familiar than you could imagine. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and Green Lantern comprise the League, but how is it that a millennia from now, these heroes could still exists? JUSTICE LEAGUE 3000 VOL. 1: YESTERDAY LIVES is a new series starring the heroes of today--tomorrow from the classic Justice League writing team of Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis with legendary artist Howard Porter (JLA).

Collects: Justice League 3000 #1-7

Authors:  Keith Giffen, J. M. Dematteis
Artists:  Howard Porter
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Oct 21, 2014
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  978-1401250461
Pages:  176 pages

Hal Jordan Checks Out: Review of Green Lantern - Sector 2814 volume 1

 

Review:

Writer Len Wein and artist Dave Gibbons are both highly regarded for their comic book work over the decades. Wein is perhaps best remembered for co-creating the Swamp Thing for DC Comics, and Wolverine and several other key X-Men characters for Marvel Comics. Gibbons most famously teamed with Alan Moore in the Watchmen series, described as "one of the most important literary works the field has ever produced" (Paul Levitz)

Despite these accolades and accomplishments, these Green Lantern tales are not among their best work. And yet even in the midst of standard mid-80s superhero fare, there are memorably transcendent moments.

This book is the first of three volumes that collect #172-200 of the ongoing Green Lantern series that started in the late 1960s. It was a critical couple years in the Green Lantern universe, moving Hal Jordan out of the centre and letting other Earth-born ring-wielders take centre stage. It all culminated in the series switching to become the Green Lantern Corps with #201, kicking off a more team-based series with more extra-terrestrial characters.

Wein dazzles with a poetic touch in the narrative-heavy sections. Exhibit A is the repeated use of a newspaper image in #175, as he takes a potentially trite and contrived idea into the backbone of the story. And the personal tension and internal turmoil that leads to Hal Jordan's resignation as Green Lantern is nicely built over several chapters.

Where he falls short of his reputation are, first, how small-thinking Hal Jordan becomes upon his return to Earth - having seen the universe, it is unexpected that he would become so focused on the problems of one company in once city on one planet; and second, the middle section of this collection is decidedly ho-hum standard superhero fare, especially the chapters with the Javelin and the Demolition Team. 

The Shark chapters pull that way too, but Wein manages to mitigate the worst with the newspaper and the inner-mind battle. Wein also gives characters different accents - Irish, southern USA, east-coast USA, which injects more variety into the voices but becomes too cute.

Dave Gibbons nails the art in the Shark chapters. The inner-mind battle especially stands out, with its jagged tooth-like panels and reduced colour palettes. Some other charming touches show up too, like the Flash with one leg casually draped over the arm of an easy-chair. And he is reasonably restrained with the light constructs created by the power ring. But much of the rest is cookie-cutter work and some secondary characters are hard to distinguish - good thing they rarely change their clothes, so we can tell them apart!

Reading these 40-year-old stories today, they are obviously dated and did not always age well. But there are some sparkling moments and it sets up a key moment of succession in the Green Lantern character, a radical change that did not come with any attempts to kill off a character as historically significant as Hal Jordan.

Description:

In 1984, DC Comics introduced British artist Dave Gibbons to U.S. readers with Green Lantern #172, the start of a popular run by Gibbons and writer Len Wein, best known as the creator of both Swamp Thing and Wolverine. Over the course of thirteen action packed issues, Green Lantern battled some of his greatest foes, clashed with the Guardians of the Universe, and was replaced by another human Green Lantern - John Stewart! This title is a showcase for the art of Dave Gibbons, who moved straight from Green Lantern to Watchmen, the best-selling graphic novel of all time. Gibbons returned to the world of Green Lantern in 2007 as the writer of the new series Green Lantern Corps.

Collects: Green Lantern (vol 2) #172-176, 178-181

Authors:   Len Wein
Artists:  Dave Gibbons
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Nov 20, 2012
Parental Rating: PG-13
ISBN:  978-1401241667
Pages:  192 pages

An Ill Wind: Review of Justice League America volume 1 The Tornado's Path

 

Review:

The 2006 Brad Meltzer reboot of Justice League of America resulted in a team with a nice diversity of heroes. It included heavy-hitters like Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern; with a mix of lighter-powered characters with other expertise like Black Canary, Vixen and Red Arrow. And of course the Red Tornado.

Red Tornado debuted in 1968 and was a frequent member of the Justice Society of America in their annual cross-overs with the JLA. He eventually moved permanently between dimensions, landing on Earth-1 and joining the Justice League.

In his history, the sentient android/elemental fusion has seen his body badly damaged or destroyed countless times, followed by a reanimation /resurrection story. The years have seen a dozen reboots and retcons of his story.

It has all left DC readers in three camps - some who find the character compelling and who crave more; a second group (this reviewer included) who find the repetitiveness of the destruction and reanimation tales annoying and overdone; and a larger third group for whom Reddy is a trivial minor character who deserves little more than the occasional non-speaking cameo.

Brad Meltzer and Ed Benes, in this reboot of the whole JLA, take their turn resurrecting and rewriting Red Tornado. How did their version do on this well-trodden path?

In this book, the soul of Red Tornado aka John Smith longs to be human. With the help of Felix Faust, disguised as Deadman, and a schema ultimately masterminded by Solomon Grundy, that soul is successfully transplanted into a flesh-and-blood human body.The bad guys then steal the empty android shell for their own nefarious purposes.

But the human body is intentionally more flawed than Reddy was led to believe, and he must fight for his life and ultimately (spoiler alert) sacrifice for his loved ones. While Meltzer's writing gives us a few genuinely moving moments, the arc is prone to lapsing into melodrama and over-sentimentality.

Much stronger is the ongoing voting among the big three of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman, as they discuss the pros and cons of other heroes and decide whom to invite into their newly reformed club.

Or the spotlight on Black Canary's immense courage and ferocity in combat. Or the Vixen arc as she struggles with her sanity after the loss of her totem. Putting Red Tornado at the centre of this whole narrative feels out of place and produces somewhat predictable plot twists.

The powerful images Ed Benes gives us with his art do a lot of the heavy lifting in the parts of the story where Tornado's involvement actually works. I love the cute nods to the four-colour newsprint days of the Silver Age in the Tornado flashback sequences. While Benes gives us some intense action framing and combat sequences, the poses and expressions become as repetitive as the Tornado destruction / reanimation cycles. The one exception is Black Canary, who has seldom looked better in hand-to-hand combat scenes than in these pages.

Description:

New York Times best-selling novelist Brad Meltzer teams with artist Ed Benes to redefine the Justice League for today...and tomorrow! After the darkest hour in the DC Universe, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman meet to once again choose who among Earth's greatest heroes will comprise the new Justice League of America. But while they meet in secret to decide the fate of the team, dark forces move against their friends and allies.

Collects: Justice League of America (2006) #1-6

Authors:  Brad Meltzer
Artists:  Ed Benes
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  June 7, 2007
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  978-1401213497
Pages:  226 pages

Training Raw Recruits - Review of Green Lantern Corps - To Be a Lantern (Eaglemoss Collection volume 103)

Review:

With the mythology of a Corps of Green Lanterns - a small army (numbering in the low thousands) policing the many sectors of space - dating back to the Silver Age of comics, the possibilities for stories and adventures of this team are nearly infinite.

This hardcover book, volume 103 of the massive Eaglemoss DC Comics Graphic Novel collection, brings together two starting points of the Corps.

The title tale comes from issues #1-6 of the 2006 ongoing Green Lantern Corps series. These characters and stories were not occurring in a vacuum, other than that of space, and the book helpfully sets the table of the Geoff Johns tales of Rebirth and Recharge work in the Green Lantern universe. This new series emerged from those plot lines, with writing duties going to longtime Green Lantern penciller Dave Gibbons.

Why did Eaglemoss choose this story for its larger collection of key stories from DC Comics history? It's because these pages set in motion elements that will ultimately lead to and culminate in the War of the Green Lanterns and Blackest Night. I will have to take their word for this long-term impact and importance of these stories as, on their own, they are not very interesting or satisfying.

Guy Gardner, sick of training raw recruits, tries for some Rest & Relaxation, only to be interrupted by the bounty hunter Bolphunga the Unrelenting. This is the comic-relief arc, I suppose, with Guy's lecherous resort getaway and running battle, sometimes while missing his power ring.

Soranik Natu and partner Myrrt are put through the emotional wringer with death and devastation, the execution of a prince of the ruling dynasty, elements of self-doubt, naked racism and the death of a Lantern.

Elsewhere, Vath Sarn and partner Isamot Kol, who should be enemies based on the interplanetary war between their peoples, work through their sometimes-tense interpersonal differences and fend off a surprise assault from a third force.

The story jumps to other settings, too, such as Kilowog's boot-camp for new recruits and a battle against kidnappers hiding in a sentient city. As I said, infinite possibilities. And yet somehow the result is a dull and uninteresting read. The scattered Corps has no unity, their powers are all identical, and the jumps between scenes ultimately fail to make us care about these heroes. Some character depth does emerge for Soranik Natu but the others are forgettable and one-dimensional.

Art duties switch from Patrick Gleason to Dave Gibbons after the first three issues. The difference is immediately noticeable, with Gleason's darkly inked and brutal images yielding to the more goofy and bright style of Gibbons, showing his deep familiarity with the Green Lantern concepts.

Eaglemoss books almost always include one much older chapter as well, and in this volume it is Green Lantern Corps #201 from the mid-1980s. It is an important pivot point in Green Lantern history, moving from a focus on in individual Lantern in its first 200 issues to a team book. The events of the major DC crossover event Millenium triggered this switch. Some highlights in this one packed issue include the first appearance of Kilowog, new and varied uniforms, and Earth becoming the new base of operations for the team. It is a tale packed with new beginnings, new villains and schemes. Still not a terribly interesting read, 40 years later, but it serves as a fascinating counterpoint - this old group is a much more integrated and cooperative team than the scattered pairs shown in the rest of the book.

Description:

Eaglemoss Collections volume 103

The beacon of hope that was the Green Lantern Corps shines brightly once more. Following its destruction at the hands of an insane Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern Corps has been resurrected as a force for peace in a chaotic universe. Now veteran ring-wielders like Guy Gardner must hep raw recruits learn what it means to wear the emerald insignia...

and

With the powerful Guardians of the Universe departing for parts unknown, it falls to Hal Jordan and a band of extraterrestrial Green Lanterns to defend the Earth from any and all threats.

Collects: Green Lantern Corps (2006) #1-6 & Green Lantern Corps (1986) #201

Authors:  Dave Gibbons (1-6), Steve Englehart (201)
Artists:  Patrick Gleason (1-3), Dave Gibbons (4-6), Joe Staton (201)
Published By:  IDW Eaglemoss
Published When:  July 18, 2019
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  9772054373515
Pages:  170 pages

 

Attack of the 50-Foot Relic: a Review of Green Lantern Lights Out

 

Review:

Relic is a fifty-foot-tall sole survivor of the universe before ours. More super-scientist than super-villain, he tried to warn the light-wields of his own universe that the energy they channeled was a limited, finite resource. Those light-wielders were far more advanced in their constructs and other uses of the light than the coloured Corps originating with Oa and the Guardians, building whole cities and more in their societies and universe.

But when none heeded the scientist's unprovable theories, they eventually exhausted the finite supply of emotion-based light and everything collapsed.

With this as his back-story, Relic is both a villain, in his attempts to halt the Lanters of all colours and to steal their lights, emptying their central batteries, and also a hero, attempting in his own way to ultimately save their universe.

It is a narrative setup with imperfect parallels to our 21st century environmental concerns, with its obvious echoes of our own fuel-driven destruction. Yet unlike our world, with its melting ice caps and more, Relic lacks tangible evidence that using the Lantern power rings is contributing to the destruction of the universe. 

Into this grey area step all the colours, of course with different intentions. Hal Jordan and his Corps of Green Lanterns are bent on stopping Relic. The Red Lanterns, behind their new leader Guy Gardner, are bent on destroying anything they can. Kyle Rayner as the White Lantern, wants to help Relic while many of the Guardians themselves want to join Relic in his quest for deeper knowledge.

The complete story of this crossover tale, bridging all the Green Lantern-based titles of the New 52 era (around 2013 in this case), is collected here in this hardcover volume. Robert Venditti's Green Lantern books form the backbone of the story, from the backgrounder in the oddly numbered #23.1 to a couple other issues and the Annual. All the other contemporary Green Lantern spin-offs join the action with crossovers and tie-ins. Green Lantern Corps, Green Lanterns: New Guardians, and Red Lanterns all contribute to the unfolding tale, using their own creative teams and spins. One key element missing from this collection, however, is any indication of which series is which as the tale unfolds. Not that the attentive reader is terribly stumped, it's not too hard to figure it out, but frustrating that I have to do that work.

It all culminates in an ultimately unsatisfying final confrontation at the Source Wall at the edge of the known universe.

More than a dozen pencillers take turns telling the story with their visual touches. Most stunning among these pages are the series of full-page, poster-style images from Rags Morales illustrating the Relic backstory as told by Robert Venditti. Brad Walker's dynamic use of non-rectangular and overlapping panels also stand out in his work. And Alessandro Vitti's appropriately rage-filled visuals in the Red Lanterns chapter match the theme of that series very well.

This hardcover book gives the reader the entire story of Relic, in order, but lacks any extra features worth mentioning. We are left with a tale of intriguing possibilities behind the non-renewable nature of the light powers, without too heavy a political or environmental statement. The reader can judge if that is for good or ill.

3 capes for an interesting tale and above-average crossover with some visual highlights, even if the packaging leaves some things to be desired.

Description:

The epic event that will forever change the universe and the different color Lantern Corps forever!

Relic has arrived and the universe with shiver in his wake. The lights of the Lanterns are fading as the emotional spectrum is being drained. It is up to Hal and the Green Lanterns to rally the other Corps together if they are going to survive. Many won't and others will change allegiances, but one thing is certain--nothing will ever be the same.

Collects: Green Lantern New Guardians #23-24, Green Lantern #23.1: Relic #24, Red Lanterns #24, Green Lantern Corps #24, Green Lantern Annual #2

Authors:  Robert Venditti, Justin Jordan
Artists:  Billy Tan, more
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  June 24, 2014
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  978-1401248161
Pages:  192 pages

Hal in Charge: a Review of Green Lantern volume 4 Dark Days

 

Review:

In the early pages of this hardcover book, Hal Jordan Green Lantern is promoted to leader of the entire Green Lantern Corps. And while he brings the Corps through a serious challenge, including the destruction of Oa, there is room for growth in his leadership style and skills. His Command-and-Control style is not so out of place in a universe-spanning police force with military overtones. But there is no structure in place for leading the thousands of Corps members. He is more vanguard than general, leading a small, central team from the front lines.

Granted, the Corps is much in flux in this book. Collecting issues #21-26, including #23.1 and Annual #2, it spans the runup to the Lights Out cross-over, the three issues from this series that contribute to the cross-over, and some follow-up issues.

There is a lot to like about this book. Author Robert Venditti introduces several intriguing plot threads and interpersonal relationships to be mined. Relic is a fascinating new villain, and his quest to exterminate the ring-bearers before the source light is extinguished. Nol Anj is also a striking new Star Sapphire with a mean streak and legions of criminal followers who do truly love her. Tensions with Carol Ferris, and a dozen new recruits with scattered teasers about their back-stories round out the many little promises of future tales.

Billy Tan handles most of the art duties in these pages. I love the variety of panels and layouts he employs as he plays with the tempo of graphical storytelling made possible through his multiple techniques. He gives us a few classic Green Lantern constructs too, although most often the rings seem to simply shoot power blasts.

Somehow, the solid art and intriguing and daring plot hooks fail to gel into a strong book. Hal's need to grow up, if he is to lead, is obvious but not terribly compelling, and goes nowhere anyway in these pages. Like Booster Gold in his new leadership role in the pages of Justice League International, Hal needs a career coach or mentor. Nol Anj and her followers should clearly not have been such a large challenge, one needing the Corps leader to summon all available personnel to handle. It is just one of the leadership fails on Hal's watch in these pages, none of which seem to amount to anything.

So many strong ideas yet the overall result is disappointing.

Description:

Just as Hal Jordan, John Stewart and Guy Gardner are putting back together the Green Lantern Corps, lights across all of the different colored Corps begin to flicker. Lanterns from all over the universe begin to lose power, but unlike times' past, the reasons for the outage don't seem to be in-fighting between one another. Allying with enemies and friends alike, Hal links the answers to the mysterious alien Relic and their confrontations will leave all the corps forever changed.

GREEN LANTERN VOL. 4 begins a brand-new era for the entire emotional spectrum, from writer Robert Venditti (X-O Manowar) and artist Billy Tan (New Avengers).

Collects: GREEN LANTERN #21-26, #23.1: Relic, GREEN LANTERN ANNUAL #2

Authors:  Robert Venditti
Artists:  Billy Tan
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  April 29, 2014
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  978-1401247447
Pages:  200 pages

Assassin Vs Spy: a Review of Cinderella: Fables Are Forever

 

Review:

Creative team Chris Roberson and Shawn McManus join forces again to bring us another Cinderella Super-Spy story from the larger Fables universe created by Bill Willingham. With another titular nod to the James Bond franchise, this book collects the full limited series of Cinderella's ongoing and historic adventures.

This time, she must find and do battle with a villain from her past - the skilled assassin Dorothy. Long after she fled both Kansas and Oz, Dorothy became one of the most successful and dangerous hired guns to ever flee the Homelands for the Mundy world.

Cindy watched Dorothy fall to her death years earlier, and this tale is sprinkled with reminisces and flashbacks to battles past. From Russia to Thailand, from Switzerland to Burkina Faso and beyond, their epic confrontations spanned the globe and involved the narrowest of escapes - from each other and from other magic-infused creatures.

But these are memories, and the present has its own dangers. Roberson's writing strikes a superb balance between past and present. Even with the occasionally heavy narration, it successfully builds to a satisfying final confrontation.

On the visual side, McManus gives us a Cinderella who is strong, soft and sexy. Despite the occasional facial flop, his images flow smoothly between the normal and the magical. The book has a Mature rating, and I am not sure why - certainly not for the art. There is no nudity, only a panel or two of tastefully handled sex, and no more than a comic book level of violence. There are lots of hot ladies in various stages of undress but no peeping past well-placed objects.

Fables creator Bill Willingham gets one of his own Cinderella tales added as a special feature at the end. The collection would be stronger without it. It's the tale of Cindy switching from spy to diplomat and ambassador to the Giants and is goofy and light. After all the fun of Fables are Forever, the silliness does not compare well. Such collections often include special features or alternate covers or glimpses into the creators and their work, but we get no such thing here, only this weaker one-off tale.

Description:        

Fabletown's favorite secret agent and bon vivant Cinderella is back on the job again in this follow up limited series to CINDERELLA: FROM FABLETOWN WITH LOVE. Someone is killing sorcerers out on the Farm, and all signs point to Cinderella's archnemesis from the old days. The only problem is, Cinderella has always believed that her nemesis has been dead for years.

Collects: Complete 6-issue limited series

Authors:  Chris Roberson, Bill Willingham
Artists:  Shawn McManus
Published By:  Vertigo 
Published When:  April 24, 2012)
Parental Rating: Mature
ISBN:  978-1401233853
Pages:  160 pages

Cinderella Bond: Review of From Fabletown with Love

 

Review:

Cinderella, in the finest British tradition of dashing super-spies, moves with ease through the crustiest layers of modern society, both Fable and Mundy. With a titular nod to one of the earliest Bond films, this book easily sells her haute-society lifestyle. Little do any of her peers in the Bill Willingham-created Fables universe know of her real purpose - to find and retrieve any illicit magical artifacts before they can fall into the wrong hands.

In this adventure, she even encounters a sexy companion, Aladdin. His turn as a gender-flipped Bond Girl serves as both collaborator and dude-in-distress in need of rescuing. Together, they must find the source of the magical objects flooding the black market and put a stop to it.

From Dubai to the North Sea and finally the Fable-world Ultima Thule, they must dodge weapons of both the magical and Mundy varieties as well as shape-shifting monsters, harem girls and a not-so-friendly fairy godmother.

Writer Chris Roberson weaves a tightly plotted and fast-paced tale, befitting the super-spy genre. The comedic banter between Cindy and "Lamp Boy" Aladdin is delightful; her reflections on her past battles and training add depth, although they do become a touch repetitive. The result is a strong female lead character with a nicely balanced blend of brains, brawn, beauty and bewitching.

The biggest flaws in Roberson's spy tale are the "meanwhile back in Fabletown" interruptions. These moments, fundamentally intended for levity, fail to serve any real purpose in the overall story, nor do they contribute anything meaningful to the growth and development of these or other characters in the Fables universe. Given how well the Cinderella and Aladdin parts are written, there is no need to pull our attention away with these distracting asides.

Shawn McManus' visuals are soft and beautiful. He mixes clean lines and panels with exaggerated facial expressions to sometimes amusing effect, especially with the shapes of mouth and nose. The pages are sexy but discrete, with no nudity or on-panel sex scenes. Since the moments of violence are also tastefully done and far from the gore found in other Fables books, the "Mature" rating on the book is excessive; Teen would certainly be enough, and some more liberal cultures would classify it PG.

I give this fun, fast-paced, clever and beautiful book four capes.

Description:

When supernatural artifacts from the Homelands begin surfacing in the modern world, it falls to Cinderella, Fabletown's best kept (and best dressed) secret agent to stop the illegal trafficking. But can Cindy foil the dark plot before Fabletown and its hidden, exiled inhabitants are exposed once and for all? And how does her long lost Fairy Godmother factor into the equation?

Whether she's soaring through clouds, deep-sea diving, or cracking jaws, Cindy travels from Manhattan to Dubai and hooks up with a handsome, familiar accomplice who may be harboring secret motives of his own. Meanwhile, trouble brews back home in Fabletown when Cindy's overworked, underappreciated assistant decides to seize control of The Glass Slipper, Cindy's exclusive shoe boutique.

Collects: the complete 6-issue limited series

Authors:  Chris Roberson
Artists:  Shawn McManus
Published By:  Vertigo 
Published When:  Aug. 10, 2010
Parental Rating: Mature
ISBN:  978-1401227500
Pages:  144 pages

Memories of One Perfect Day - Review of Batman the Dark Knight volume 3 - Mad (New 52)

 

Review:

A substantial portion of the Batman's Rogues Gallery of villains have an at-best tenuous grasp on reality. Hence the need for Arkham, an asylum for the criminally insane. Joker, Riddler, Scarecrow, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, to name a few, are less about super-powered villains, leaning more to the twisted, sadistic, psychopathic or deranged.

Gregg Hurwitz gives us a deep-dive origin backstory of another member of this group of twisted psychopaths, the Mad Hatter and his Wonderland prism through which he sees the world. A childhood marred by medical issues and experimental treatments with risky side-effects collided with heartbreak over a teenaged crush who dumped him after a seemingly perfect day together.

In this six-chapter story arc, Hatter seeks to recreate that perfect day through mind control, abductions, murderous auditions and staged rehearsals and more. It is a dark, disturbing tale, befitting the collision between a Dark Knight and an insane, diminutive Wonderland escapee. 

Hurwitz does give us occasional moments of humour scattered throughout the narrative, for example playing on the famous turn-around-and-he's-gone Bat-trope ("Nope. Still here.") but they ultimately either fall flat or are dwarfed by the sheer depth of darkness.

Overlaying the insanity and paralleling Hatter's own lost love is a love story between Bruce Wayne and a world-famous pianist. Will he share his deepest secrets with her? This love story attempts to give depth and social connection to Bruce Wayne, to pull him out of his bat-cave and dark obsessions. Unfortunately, it does not work. It blooms and advances so quickly that the reader can't help but feel that it is just a plot device and, sure enough, a tragic twist leads to a predictable Bat-rage.

The art is deliberately repulsive throughout this collection. Ethan van Sciver does most of the heavy lifting and casts the Mad Hatter's flashbacks in appropriately nostalgic sepia tones. Hatter's face is ugly, a horrific mask of hate and insanity. His henchmen, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, flit between cartoonish, roly-poly buffoons and dangerous thugs. 

Yet the chapters drawn by Szymon Kudranski are even less pleasant. The sepia is replaced by a harsh back-lighting; the panels are reminiscent of water-colour paintings but over-inked and indistinct, and it is frustratingly difficult to tell the characters from one another.

Where Kudranski's style works best is in the Annual, a standalone Hallowe'en tale in which Hatter, Penguin and Scarecrow are trapped in a house of horrors. They are convinced that Batman lurks around every corner. Can they work together enough to survive the night and escape the trap? This limited cast of very distinct characters eliminates the character-recognition issue and Kudranski's images can shine in this moody, spooky context.

The book itself, the hard-cover collection, feels like a cynical attempt to take advantage of Batman's enduring popularity. There is nothing special about the volume, no extras features or insights. Just a ho-hum book collecting a dark and twisted but ultimately ho-hum New 52 Bat-tale.

Description:

Everything hangs in the balance in the Dark Knight’s life as Bruce Wayne grapples with revealing Batman to the woman of his dreams. But just as he’s ready to give her his all, the Mad Hatter joins the ranks of one of the greatest threats Gotham has ever known. By poisoning and kidnapping its citizens, he terrorizes Gotham in an attempt to rebuild his lost hopes into a wonderland.

Can the Caped Crusader save the city-and his new love-before the Hatter shatters their world forever?

Collects: Batman: The Dark Knight #16-21, Annual #1

Authors:  Gregg Hurwitz
Artists:  Ethan Van Sciver, Szymon Kudranski
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Jan. 21, 2014
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  978-1401242473
Pages:  176 pages

A Twisted Sacrament - Review of We Only Find Them When They're Dead volume 1

 

Review:

The creative team of writer Al Ewing and artist Simone di Meo gives us a visually gorgeous and conceptually ground-breaking sci-fi thrill-ride. This collection brings together the first five issues of the 2020-2021 series by BOOM! Studios.

At the centre of the story is Captain Malik and his crew of four. Their livelihood is best considered as deep-space miners. Except what they mine are the corpses of giant alien gods, found drifting at the very edge of the galaxy. Beyond them is the vast, empty darkness of inter-galactic space.

But they are not alone in their mining quest. Each of the dead gods, the size of a mountain or more, is mined in a cutthroat competition between dozens of "autopsy ships" - with each one staking their claim to a divine eyeball or sector of cheek, or to the metals and fabrics making up the garb of the gods. Each of these competing ships, like Malik's, includes a quartermaster, an engineer and most crucially a surgeon to operate the giant laser "knife" for carving up the flesh of the god.

Novelty of concept is not enough, on its own, to support a compelling story. Even with the potential Judeo-Christian overtones and themes around devouring divinity, all left surprisingly untouched and unexplored in these initial chapters, the story needs more. 

So, Ewing drops human conflict, broken relationships and long-simmering interpersonal feuds into the mix. Malik's history with one of the law-enforcement escorts unfolds through at times jumpy flashbacks - an engagement between the escort and Malik's brother, a family smuggling and black-market scheme, a suspicious last-minute swap of work shifts, a horrible accident - all work to foster a personal vendetta against Malik by the law enforcer. And when Malik sets out into the void with his little ship, in search of a still-living god, she pursues him to hunt him down.

Simone di Meo's visuals are gorgeous with painted splashes of colour on black backgrounds. It gives the feel of deep-space action, while leaving lots of room for attention-directing bursts of light and flashes of colour. His innovative art matches the unique scenario of the series.

The story is not without its flaws, however. The flashbacks try to hold our hand through the jumps in time and place. Using references to the year, tucked subtly into the panels, helps a little, but is over-used and winds up fragmenting our attention and confusing more than helping.

Likewise, Simone di Meo is freed from the confines of standard panel structures and layouts. This frequently enhances the overall story; but when his free-flowing images fail to draw the reader's eye in the right sequence, a frustrating amount of extra effort lands on the part of the reader to make sense of what is happening. And the comic-standard word balloons feel jarringly out of place on top of the beauty and innovation of these pages. Given the creativity and innovation displayed in the graphic storytelling, could they have imagined a better way to communicate the characters' speech?

Overall, this beautiful and imaginative book rates 3 capes.

Description:

Captain Malik and the crew of his spaceship are in search of the only resources that matter – and can only be found by harvesting the giant corpses of alien gods that are found on the edge of human space.. and now they see an opportunity to finally break free from this system: by being the first to find a living god.

THE GODS ARE ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL... ...AND THE GODS ARE ALWAYS DEAD. Captain Malik and the crew of the spaceship the Vihaan II are in search of the only resources that matter – and can only be found by harvesting the giant corpses of alien gods that are found on the edge of human space. While other autopsy ships and explorers race to salvage the meat, minerals, and metals that sustain the human race, Malik sees an opportunity to finally break free from this system: by being the first to find a living god. But Malik’s obsession with the gods will push his crew into the darkest reaches of space, bringing them face to face with a threat unlike anything they ever imagined, unless the rogue agent on their trail can stop them first... 

Superstars Al Ewing (Immortal Hulk) and Simone Di Meo (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) present a new sci-fi epic about the search for meaning and the hard choices we make to find it, no matter the cost to the world – or universe – around us.

Collects: We Only Find Them When They’re Dead #1-5

Authors:  Al Ewing
Artists:  Simone Di Meo
Published By:  BOOM! Studios
Published When:  May 11, 2021
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  978-1684156771
Pages:  112 pages

Hungry Children! Review of Fairest: The Hidden Kingdom (a Fables story)

 

Review:

Bill Willingham's multiple award-winning Fables universe brilliantly reimagines the characters from classic fairy tales and nursery rhymes, setting them as long-time refugees settled into our real world. In this collection, Willingham provides overall guidance but hands the creative reins over to South African writer Lauren Beukes. The result is recognizable Fables Universe characters but cast in a tale that feels closer to Asian Horror films than either the urban fantasy fiction of the original series or the fairy tale land of the source material.

The result is both starkly beautiful and deeply unsettling.

Rapunzel, with her faithful companion Joel Crow and a tagalong Jack Horner, leaves Fabletown for Japan, to search for her long-lost children and put right a past she thought long buried. 

Fables she knew, loved, betrayed and lost long ago, whom she thought long dead or gone, are still there, hiding in plain sight in modern day Japan. When she arrives, some of those old friends seek to use her, others to kill her. 

Characters like Tomoko, her fox-woman former lover with a spherical and magical soul of fox-fire, and whose current loyalties are decidedly mixed. Her torture of Jack is gruesome and cruel.

Or like blue-haired Mayumi with her grotesquely disfigured face, thanks to the sword of a warlord long dead. She has emerged as a Yakuza assassin par excellence.

Rapunzel must navigate these and other past sins and wounds and shifting loyalties in the present and come to terms with what she left behind upon fleeing Japan centuries earlier.

Inaki Miranda's art is disturbingly effective at evoking the horror underlying Beukes' story. His attention to fashion detail, from ancient dress codes to the modern streets of Tokyo, adds to the fun. But he does not shy away from the violence and freaky visuals in the more terrifying sections. His use of cross-panel slashes, selective heavy inking and blue-tinting (most critically in the scenes at the well which lies at the heart of the tale) elevate and complement the narrative, helping to make sense of a complex and at times confusing story.

Bill Willingham's only writing in this collection is the backup tale at the end. It contrasts heavily with the main story in both tone and visual mood and really does not belong here. Was it only included for marketing or royalty purposes? It sticks out like the fabled sore thumb from the rest.

It is the tale of Raymond T. Fox and his date with Princess Alder, a living humanoid tree. It provides some frivolous fun and the only nudity in the whole book. The story would be fine elsewhere but here it undermines what Beukes and Miranda have created, and I must dock the overall collection a cape as a result. I would give the Rapunzel tale three and a half, but the overall collection just two and a half capes.

Description:

New York Times bestselling, award-winning creator Bill Willingham presents a new series starring the female FABLES. Balancing horror, humor and adventure in the FABLES tradition, FAIREST explores the secret histories of Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Cinderella, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, Snow White, Rose Red and others.

In a stand-alone tale, Beast must hunt a beauty, but what is her relation to his past? And then, in a 6-part epic, Rapunzel lives one of the most regimented lives in Fabletown, forced to maintain her rapidly growing hair lest her storybook origins be revealed. But when word of her long-lost children surface, she races across the sea to find them--and a former lover.

Collects: Fairest #8-14

Authors:  Bill Willingham (Author), Lauren Beukes
Artists:  Inaki Miranda (Illustrator), Barry Kitson
Published By:  Vertigo 
Published When:  July 30, 2013
Parental Rating: Mature
ISBN:  978-1401240219
Pages:  128 pages

The Big Bad Wolf Nearly Bites It: Review of Fables volume 3 - Storybook Love

 

Review:

Bill Willingham's ground-breaking Fables series ran from 2004-2015. The critically acclaimed series won more than a dozen Eisner Awards. Its fantastic premise brings fairy tale characters into new relationships with one another and transposes them into modern-day communities, most notably in a New York City neighbourhood.

The opening chapter of this third volume of the original series follows Jack (of Beanstalk fame) and his adventures back in the civil war. While these Fables characters are not immortal, they are long-lived. It is a playful tale with bayou poker, a magical sack, a reprieve from the Grim Reaper and more. Opening the volume as it does, it very much sets the tone of imaginative situations, gory violence and sexuality for the chapters to come.

It is followed by a two-part tale in which a sensationalistic reporter is sniffing around for their secrets. Putting together several clues, historic photos and some modern-day paparazzi stalker skills, he correctly deduces their extremely long lives. His conclusion? Vampires! Bigby Wolf's scheme to destroy evidence and shut him up leads to a heist-film feel involving Sleeping Beauty and a little table-turning blackmail of his own.

The title tale, 'Storybook Love,' is a four-part thriller drama as Blackbeard and Goldilocks scheme to kill Snow White and Bigby Wolf. Charming them and sending them away on a remote camping adventure on the West Coast gives Goldilocks plenty of opportunity to hunt them down and kill them. But Bigby Wolf is more than a rugged and dour security head - he is the Big Bad Wolf, seventh child of the North Wind, and he turns the tables, although it is ultimately Snow White who saves the day.

Meanwhile back home, Prince Charming duels Blackbeard to the death, proving they are not immortal and one main character will die.

Mark Buckingham handles the art duties in this story arc, and he delivers tremendous work! His turn in these chapters led to becoming the primary artist of the series. Especially remarkable are his creative layouts, with plane-shaped panels while Snow White and Bigby Wolf fly back home, or the shield-shaped pages during the sword duel.

The whole collection is filled with loads of gory violence, no matter the artist, as well as some sex and nudity thrown in, earning the volume's Mature rating.

This book gives us gorgeous visuals, a brilliant premise, intense drama, major character developments, even if some of them do feel flat and uninteresting.

Description:

A new Softcover collecting the acclaimed FABLES #11-18, including the 4-part "Storybook Love." Also included are the 2-part "A Sharp Operator" and the single-issue tales "Bag o' Bones" and "Barleycorn Brides." Don't miss this amazing third collection, topped off with a stunning new wraparound cover by James Jean

Collects: Fables #11-18

Authors:  Bill Willingham (Author), Mark Buckingham (Author
Artists:  
Published By:  Vertigo 
Published When:  May 1, 2004
Parental Rating: Mature
ISBN:  978-1401202569
Pages:  192 pages

Beware Story City: a Review of Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland

 

Review:

Bigby Wolf gets a solo story in this original graphic novel by the creator of the award-winning Fables universe. Bigby, whose appearance, demeanor, powers and ferocity are reminiscent of Wolverine from Marvel's X-Men, gets to show off all of those traits in this violent book, well rated for Mature readers.

From his opening narration, Bigby sets the scene and fits this tale into the larger Fables universe and timeline. His road trip is part of a quest to find a new place for the Fables to call home after the battles with the Adversary and the Dark Man. Since Bluebeard had some connection to a place called Story City, he concluded it was worth checking out.

What he finds is a town filled with a couple thousand werewolves. Young children. Happy parents. Young adults. About the only middle-aged folks are connected to his distant past: a former World War 2 partner, Arthur Harp, and his wife Dr Sieglinde von Abensberg und Traun. 

But how could they have aged so little in sixty years? And what is the connection to a town full of werewolves?

Cue the flashback narrative, showing how an explosion splattered them with Bigby's own blood, giving them a lesser form of his own wolf powers.

Not everyone is happy, though, with the town's status quo. With several factions sniffing for more power and influence, it was already an unstable place. Mix in Bigby, whom many revere as the God of the Wolves, and the match is lit.

While the first half of the book is heavy on narration and conversation, all wolf-hell breaks loose in the second half. The result is a gory battle royale, with blood and guts, deep bites and severed limbs aplenty. Mix in loads of human and werewolf nudity, full frontal both male and female, plus some sex and seduction and this book earns that "suggested for Mature readers" caution.

Ultimately, though, the two halves - the talking-heavy start then the violence and destruction - fail to mesh. The tension inherent in the town fails to transfer onto the pages and the final conflict is a disappointing fizzle. The ultimate showdown is so one-sided, as the town of lesser werewolves never really had a "ghost of a chance" in Bigby's own words. It's loud, ferocious and bloody but ultimately forced and foregone.

A nice touch is author and Fables creator Willingham's tale of encountering the real-life Story City, Iowa. It does fill in some seemingly random bits - it turns out that the Skunk River is real, as well as the town's historical carousel. His anecdote made this reviewer smile; unfortunately, not much else in this book did.

Description:

A #1 New York Times Best Seller!

At long last! The long-awaited original FABLES: WEREWOLVES OF THE HEARTLAND graphic novel is here!   

Bigby Wolf embarks on a quest through the American Heartland to find a new location for Fabletown, a secret society of exiled fairy tale characters living among the "mundys." In his wanderings, Bigby stumbles across Story City, a small town that seems to be occupied solely by werewolves. Oddly enough, they seem to already know and revere Bigby, but at the same time they've captured and caged him.  

FABLES: WEREWOLVES OF THE HEARTLAND tells an epic tale that began well before Bigby Wolf set foot in the bucolic plains of the Midwest. It began long ago when he served in World War II and became mired in a Nazi experiment that would change nations. It's soon evident that murder in Story City is the least of their sins, and unraveling the town's many mysteries may cost Bigby, the seventh son of the North Wind, much more than his own life.  

Collects: NA - Standalone graphic novel

Authors:  Bill Willingham
Artists:  Jim Fern (Illustrator), Craig Hamilton
Published By:  Vertigo
Published When:  Oct. 8, 2013
Parental Rating: Mature
ISBN:  978-1401224806
Pages:  152 pages

Virtuous but Lethal: a review of Poison Ivy volume 1: The Virtuous Cycle

 

Review:

Writer G. Willow Wilson, in this collection of the first six issues of the Poison Ivy ongoing series (2022), leans into several of Poison Ivy's most defining character traits.

Plant-based powers? Check - although with significant limits, as something is slowly poisoning her and she cannot stop it.

Homicidal maniac? Check! At least ten people are killed in these six chapters. Some definitely deserve it more than others, like the abusive boss or the attempted rapists, versus others who just got in her way en route to fulfill her commitment to wipe out all of humanity.

Questionable sanity? Check. Especially fun is the sequence of Batman hallucinations.

Love for Harley Quinn? Check, although restricted to bittersweet flashbacks and touching letters Ivy writes as she travels across the country. This touch of humanity in our plant-powers homicidal maniac of questionable sanity also spills over int a heart for others she meets and helps, even as she prepares to wipe us all out.

Wilson, whose biggest claim to fame was the ground-breaking and Hugo Award-winning series Ms Marvel, splices all these pieces together so tightly that, by the end of the volume, it feels like a limited series, not an ongoing one. After the climactic battle with Jason Woodrue aka the Floronic Man aka the Green Man (he has lots of different names in this book), it feels very much like the story is done, with nowhere to go from here.

And indeed, it was originally envisioned that way, announced in March 2022 as a six-issue limited series. By the mid-point, DC decided to extend it to a further 6 issues, then by around issue #8 they committed to running it as an ongoing one. And as of this review, it has reached #34.

Wilson gives us a tale with themes of love and loss, nature and destruction, all overlaid throughout with dark horror motifs. In a jarring new take on the ravishing beauty with which Poison Ivy has traditionally been portrayed, Wilson also weaves in elements of body-horror at the increasing growths on that usually so striking body. Artist Marcio Takara illustrates her wearing more clothing and coverings than usual - baggy pants and yard-work clothing instead of the more typical leaf-based fabrics barely covering anything at all.

Takara also gives us artistic and horror-inspired Green Man and psychotic hallucinations, filled with monster tropes and nods. Even something as innocuous as mushrooms become, in Wilson's and Takara's hands, a horrifying and disgusting murder weapon.

While complete whole that feels unsuited to start an ongoing series, this tale is far from neat and tidy. Its carefully cultivated darkness is a powerful new direction for the beautiful and deadly Poison Ivy.

Description:

Humanity had its chance. Now it’s time for Poison Ivy. The fan-favorite Batman villain steps into the solo spotlight, in a thrilling and tragic adventure written by Ms. Marvel co-creator G. Willow Wilson!

Winner, Outstanding Comic Book - GLAAD Media Awards 2023

Pamela Isley has been a lot of things in her life. A living god, a super-villain, an activist, a scientist, and dead. In a new body that she didn’t ask for and with a renewed sense of purpose, Ivy leaves Gotham and sets out to complete her greatest work—a gift to the world that will heal the damage dealt to it...by ending humanity.

On her journey to doom humankind, a heartbroken and betrayed Poison Ivy encounters obstacles (plant assassins!) and dodges the law along the way, in a body horror-infused character-defining epic from the visionary creative team of writer G. Willow Wilson and artist Marcio Takara.

Collects: Poison Ivy #1-6

Authors:  G. Willow Wilson
Artists:  Marcio Takara, Brian Level, Emma Rios
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  May 14, 2024
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  978-1779525031
Pages:  160 pages

Roses for Riverdale - a Review of Harley and Ivy Meet Betty and Veronica (HC)

 

Review:

Who knew Gotham and Riverdale were so close together? Our characters pop back and forth between the locations so much and so easily throughout this fun six-part limited series cross-over that, if not exactly a suburban commute, it's certainly day-trippable.

I picked up this gorgeous hardcover collected edition, a beautiful book with glossy finishes and packed with fun extras. The variant cover gallery shows the sheer delight artists like Jae Lee, Gene Ha and Dan Parent took in pairing these four ladies. And the draft sketches give great peeks into their artistic and creative processes.

This is fundamentally a concept piece - overlapping two very different worlds - and to some extent the story scarcely matters. For what it's worth: Veronica's father, Mr. Lodge the wealthy businessman, wants to turn the local swamp into a university and mall as his next grand business venture. On hearing the news, Poison Ivy determines to preserve the area's biodiversity and endangered species. So she and Harley Quinn travel to Riverdale to persuade him to change his mind. When he inevitably turns them down, Gotham's anti-hero duo decides to infiltrate the local high school scene and kidnap Veronica.

But at a teenager party, they wind up magically body-swapped, Freaky Friday style, with Betty and Veronica. Hilarious hijinks ensue as they encounter loads of other characters from both universes. Riverdalians like Reggie Mantle, Moose, Midge and Principal Weatherbee on one hand; Gothamites like Zatanna, Joker, Catwoman and even Alfred on the other.

It's an odd, occasionally indulgent romp of a collision between Gotham and Riverdale. And it works, for the most part. By pulling from the lighter, goofier side of the Harley and Ivy spectrum and pairing it with the more YA end of Archie and friends, writers Paul Dini and Marc Andreyko find enough overlap to sell this crossover. The result is much more successful and entertaining than the awful DC Meets Hanna Barbera crossovers, which fell flat in part because of the vast differences between those universes.

Artists Laura Braga and Adriana Melo match the fun tone with their bright, open images and the glossy treatment of this collection really lets them shine. And I loved the attention to detail of the fashions - de rigueur in the land of Betty and Veronica comics, in which the teens have a seemingly endless closet. But superheroes tend to wear the same thing over and over. But even Ivy and Harley get into the changes, and I count at least five different outfits on them as well.

This is a delightful meeting of two beloved comics universes and their much-adored leading ladies. With a beautiful package and loads of attention to the little details, it's a success!

Description:

The bad girls of Gotham meet the good girls of Riverdale!

Hiram Lodge (Veronica's father) wants to invest in the future by building a university with free tuition for Riverdale's residents. His site is a protected swamp on the outskirts of town, and once news of the plan reaches Gotham City, a certain eco-warrior (a.k.a. Poison Ivy) is determined to prevent the dream from becoming reality.

However, once Poison Ivy and her bestie Harley Quinn arrive, they get mixed up in the sort of hijinks that can only happen in Riverdale. At a superhero-themed costume party, the night's entertainment--Zatanna-- manages to place the personas of the Gotham City Sirens into the bodies of the town's notorious frenemies: Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge. While Ivy (in Ronnie's body) seeks to derail Lodge's agenda from within, more than a few nefarious forces--from Jason and Cheryl Blossom to the Clown Prince of Crime himself--have their own foul plans.

This groundbreaking miniseries teams up two of fandom's best-known duos, bringing the ladies of Gotham and Riverdale together for the first time! This madcap mayhem comes courtesy of Paul Dini (Harley Quinn) and Marc Andreyko (Wonder Woman '77), with art by Laura Braga (DC Comics: Bombshells)!

Collects: Harley and Ivy Meet Betty and Veronica #1-6

Authors: Paul Dini, Marc Andreyko
Artists:  Laura Braga, Adriana Melo
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Sept. 4, 2018
Parental Rating: PG
ISBN:  978-1401280338
Pages:  160 pages