Powerless Nightmare - a review of JLA: a Midsummer's Nightmare Deluxe Edition (2017)

 

Review:

Everyone on Earth has been trapped in a dream-state by a powerful villain. Heroes need to gradually realize that it is a dream world and extract themselves to combat and thwart the villain and set the world right again.

Having recently read and reviewed some of the Knight Terrors crossover series, I am struck by the similarities of plot outlines. This book, reprinting the 1996 Justice League reboot, presents a fascinating contrast.

On balance, this earlier iteration of the global threat in the dream-world is better at showing the diversity and complexity of humanity. Whereas Knight Terrors is all about darkness and the worst fears of our nightmares, this story has space for a wider range of experience and emotion. There is fear, of course, and a handful of nightmarish elements. But the dreams also bring pure joy to the Martian Manhunter, confusion to Wally West Flash, frustration to Kyle Rayner Green Lantern, and almost boredom to Clark Kent Superman.

The clever nightmare twist is that our heroes are just ordinary people in their dreams, while millions of other people are "sparking" and developing sudden super-powers. Who has not dreamt of having the power to fly, the strength to hoist cars into the air or to be too powerful to stop.

What this series lacks, compared to Knight Terrors, is a clear purpose behind the villainy. In Knight Terrors, the terrifying Insomnia seeks a magical stone that will give him even more power. Here, the enslaved Doctor Destiny and his manipulator, Know Man, lack a coherent goal. Know Man, as the brains of the operation, seems to have a desired outcome in mind, but seems unable to communicate it to the confused readers. He mutters some things about saving the world from the heroes, whom he critiques for failing to use their godlike powers to maximum effect. But it comes across as inane villain-babble, not solid character motivation.

The 2017 Deluxe Edition hardcover in my hands coincided with the 2017 release of the Zack Snyder Justice League film. A deluxe reprint needs special additions and inserts to raise it above the rest, and this most notably includes concise little profiles that outline the motivations of each of the founding seven JLA members.

Grant Morrison, a writer renowned for his own skills at rebooting characters like Animal Man, Doom Patrol and Green Lantern, was a smart choice to pen the preface. But his words badly overstated the mythic status of this series. Yes, it was pivotal in restoring the Justice League franchise to its pride of place - by the mid 1990s, it had been diluted and tarnished by the likes of Justice League Task Force or Extreme Justice, and this hard reboot reset it on its way to glory.

But his claim that this series was the tipping point away from the gritty realism and dark violence of the preceding decade of comics is a bit much. Did this restore the nobility and grandeur of the superhero genre? Its predecessor Kingdom Come would have a better claim to that honour, and in hindsight its impact falls short of the boast.

As a solid reboot and fun tale, filled with at least the art stylings of the mid 1990s - most notably in both men's and women's hair styles - this is worth a read. But it is far from perfect, slipping too easily into overwrought melodrama and simplistic formulas.

Description:

The most powerful super-team in comics history is reunited in JUSTICE LEAGUE: A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHTMARE, a prologue to Grant Morrison’s legendary JLA series.

Something is wrong. The world’s heroes—Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter—are gone, and in their place, their alter egos live peaceful, happy lives. Meanwhile, millions of everyday people are “sparking,” transforming into super-powered beings whose unleashed abilities are wreaking havoc on law and order and causing panic across the globe.

In a world lost in a nightmare, Earth’s greatest champions must awaken to remember their true identities, reclaim their powers and discover that together they are, now and forever—

From acclaimed writer MARK WAID—the Eisner Award-winning author of seminal works including KINGDOM COME, SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT and celebrated runs on Daredevil and The FLASH—comes this classic Justice League tale that serves as a precursor to one of the greatest comics runs of all time!

Collects: JUSTICE LEAGUE: A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHTMARE #1-3

Authors:  Mark Waid (Author), Fabian Nicieza
Artists:  Jeff Johnson (Artist), Darick Robertson
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Oct. 31, 2017
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  978-1401274320
Pages:  128 pages

More Mouths than Arms - Review of Martian Manhunter Vol. 1: The Epiphany

 

Review:

This is the Martian Manhunter at his most alien. Collected in these pages are the first six issues of his 2015 ongoing series, plus a Sneak Preview short story, all sixty years after his debut. For much of those six decades, he strode through the pages of DC Comics as a tall, green humanoid, clad in little more than a long cloak, blue briefs and a red X across his chest. The green skin and pronounced brow ridges on his bald head lent an alien aura to him but he was otherwise very human-like.

His standard, long-standing look is quickly swept aside in these pages, dismissed as a result of his shape-shifting abilities, chosen to make us more comfortable but with at least a little reminder of his alien origin. Freed of that historic look, artist Eddy Barrows amps up the sheer otherness of his appearance. In these pages, J'onn J'onzz is all spikes and protrusions, long and gangly limbs beneath a more classically alien head. Not quite the four-armed monsters of our imagination, tracing to Edgar Rice Burroughs, but still very alien.

J'onn is hardly the only Martian in this tale. He is not, we learn, truly the last of his kind, pulled to Earth almost by accident. Rather, he is a weapon designed to pave the way for the eventual Martian invasion of Earth. To prevent that from happening, J'onn deliberately splits himself into multiple scattered parts. Most of these pages are the tale of those parts trying to find each other and reunite.

There is the Dubai-based thief, the Pearl, who falls briefly for Aquaman. There is FBI Agent Daryl Wessel, probably the most reluctant of the group. And Mould, a senior citizen in khakis and a cape, who calls himself the Manhunter's head. They are joined by Mister Biscuits - a clever nod to J'onn's classic penchant for cookies - who is an excessively tall and thin deformity; and the mysterious Leo, wheelchair-bound and exhibiting MS-like symptoms. Can they get back together? Should they?

Tying it all together is the coming to Earth of the strangely named Epiphany, which will trigger the Martian conquest of earth and make Mars the only planet with life in our solar system. That would be a revelation, I suppose, but hardly seems to fit the 'Epiphany' label.

If this review sounds disjointed and confusing, all the more so is the story being reviewed. Writer Rob Williams puts these and more disparate plot cards on the table and shuffles them around but fails to put them together into a decent hand. 

Mister Biscuits and his young orphan friend Alicia are the most compelling characters, most of all in their achingly beautiful parting scene; sadly, most of Mister Biscuits's scenes are played for comedy. The rest of the characters fail to gel and seem every bit as confused as the reader.

Eddy Barrows with his pencils and the ink work of Eber Ferreira give us page after page of lively images, keeping us on the edge of our seat that everything is on the verge of going sideways. Their work frequently slips into horror motifs although we could use with fewer mouths filled with super-long and super-sharp teeth. The worst of the monsters have more mouths than arms.

The real highlight of the images in this volume are the covers, variants and initial sketches by Eric Canete. His work visually explores the blend of Earth and Mars, the central tension in the heart of the Martian Manhunter. Very striking and compelling.

What tried to be a powerful reimagining of the Martian Manhunter and his mythology trips out of the gate and ultimately falls flat.

Description:

An unforgettable new take on J’onn J’onzz is presented here by up and coming writer Rob Williams (Star Wars: Rebellion) with stunning art by comic veterans Eddy Barrows (NIGHTWING) and Eber Ferreira (TEEN TITANS).

For some time now, the Martian Manhunter has been lost in our world. An alien in every aspect, he has struggled to find his place even after joining the Justice League of America, Justice League United and Stormwatch. Now his past has come back to haunt him as an alien invasion threatens to destroy the world. In order to prove to the world, and to himself, that he is the hero he knows himself to be, the Martian Manhunter must make the ultimate sacrifice. What happens next is truly alien!

Collects: MARTIAN MANHUNTER #1-6

Authors:  Rob Williams 
Artists:  Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira 
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  March 1, 2016
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  978-1401261511
Pages:  160 pages

Try Rebooting Again - Review of Captain Atom New 52 volume 1 Evolution (2012)

 

Review:

The New 52-era reboot of DC Comics character Captain Atom threw out much of his previous iteration's characteristics and started over. If this volume, collecting the first half of the ultimately unsuccessful 13-issue run, is any indication, too much was removed or changed, and it all fell flat in the end.

The post-Crisis Captain Atom, from roughly 1985 to 2010, could rival Superman in his powers; he was militaristic in leadership style, intense in combat, pushing his Justice Leage teammates to reach new heights in their skills and strategies.

In this rebooted world, Captain Atom's powers now rival those of a god; he still has Air Force history but seems to have forgotten most of what made him a good pilot; he has elements of humanity and compassion, but it comes and goes; he is very much a loner, dealing with people either as needed or as an exercise of his godlike compassion.

Much of writer J. T. Krul's story falls short, in things both big and small. From little things, like a former hotshot Air Force pilot who cannot do mental math, to bigger flaws like the ever-present but never-explained countdown/count-up clock, the story in this book is frustrating and confusing to read.

The amped-up powers Atom exhibits are, on the one hand, almost unmatched - his ability to restore a radiation-burned hand or to find and eradicate the cancer cells in a brain tumour. But on the other hand, they feel less like Superman and more like Firestorm and his elemental transmutation abilities. As powerful as Firestorm can be, it is a downgrade in comparison, overall. The tale sets up Atom to really wrestle with the implications of the more godlike aspects of his powers, but little comes of that setup.

Supporting characters and their relationships, which should also enhance our interest in the main character and his adventures, also fall flat. It is a wonderfully diverse collection of secondary characters, from the wheelchair-bound Doctor Megala, inspired it seems by Stephen Hawking, to his assistant Dr. Ranita Carter, a woman of colour, and more. But in their limited on-panel time in these six chapters, they are little more than one-dimensional bit players.

Over these six chapters, the two main opponents for this immensely powerful hero are General Eiling, who goes from "come work for me" to "I must eliminate you" in the space of just a few panels, and a giant, mutated rat. Neither confrontation plays well, but at least the rat gives artist Freddie Williams II the chance to throw some horror-inspired elements onto the page.

The art by Williams throughout this series is the one shining light in an otherwise disappointing book. From almost the first page, the visual contrast he gives us between Captain Atom and everyone and everything else is stark and powerful. Captain Atom practically glows with light blues and shades of white all washing out his features. Using less inking and more pencil lines creates a stark contrast with the more muted, earthy and heavily inked tones of everything else in the book.

Ultimately, the clever artistic motifs cannot save this ponderous and erratic story. It would benefit from another reboot.

Description:

As a part of DC Comics - The New 52 event of September 2011, comes Captain Atom in his own solo series!

Charged by nuclear energy, possessing vast molecular powers, Captain Atom has the potential to be a literal god among men - a hero without limits. He is taking his powers to new heights - saving people all across the world in the blink of an eye. But as he uses his abilities more and more, Captain Atom realizes that he may be losing control of his powers, becoming a more dangerous foe to the planet than anything he's ever faced! Don't miss start of a legend from writer J.T. Krul (GREEN ARROW, TEEN TITANS) and artist Freddie Williams II (JSA ALL-STARS)!

Collects: Captain Atom #1-6

Authors:  J. T. Krul
Artists:  Freddie Williams II
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Dec 4, 2012
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  978-1401237158
Pages:  144 pages

Which B is Which - Review of Batman: The Brave and the Bold: Across the Universe (2025)

 

Review:

Too many of my reviews are of books and stories from ten to twenty years ago. So I was excited to be able to review this one, hot off the presses. Maybe it would have tasted better with age? Because this tasted terrible.

With three Bs in this team-up series title, Batman: the Brave and the Bold, we readers are subconsciously invited to map which character fits which B. Who is the Brave? Who is the Bold? Is Batman one of the pair?

The answer to that last question is "yes" only for the shortest and final tale in the collection. Batman himself co-stars with Guy Gardner. In that tale, Batman deserves all three of the Bs. With a UFO crashing just outside Gotham, Batman battles both radiation poisoning and vivid hallucinations to save those in need.

This little tale by Joshua Hale Fialkov is teamed with painterly renderings from the pencil of Lisandro Estherren. It is also the standout story of the entire book. But it sets a low bar, as this tale itself lacks cohesion. The author mixes in several terrific and novel science fiction elements and concepts - the mysterious, image-based race of space voyagers; the different angles of radiation poisoning; the hallucinatory side effects. But teaming with Guy Gardner adds little constructive to the tale - he seems to be there only to portray the alien visitor as a unique galactic unknown. His presence ultimately prevents this tale from reaching its full potential.

The cover story team-up is between Nightwing and Deadman, two of DC's heroes with circus roots in their origin stories. Tim Seeley weaves both characters' back-stories throughout their adventure, a likely necessary repetition in the serialized format. It is clear here, going back to our Bs, that Nightwing, who leaps from the top of a high bridge to save a stranger, is the Brave while Deadman, who leaps unapologetically from possession to possession of others, is the Bold.

Seeley's Nightwing is full of reflective narration, pensively unpacking the unfolding action. It works well in Nightwing's self-analysis but the closer he moves to Deadman's mythology, the more it devolves into ridiculous, vaguely spiritualistic mumbo-jumbo.

Artist Kelley Jones's Deadman is gruesome and disturbing to look at. It is perhaps more fitting than the goofy ghost of other renditions. But Deadman is the only standout, visually. Jones's other characters blur together, victims of too few pencil marks. These visuals are not minimalistic overall, why could he not finish their faces or outfits? The result feels rushed and slap-dash, especially in the faces.

Finally, saving the worst for last, is the awful farce of Booster Gold's team-up with the intelligent dinosaurs of the Jurassic League. Nothing works in this story. Author Mark Russell's Booster is the time-travelling idiot of the Flintstones team-up. He shows all the intelligence of an 8-year-old with none of the deep responsibility of his 2007 solo series, which introduced him as a Time Master. And the Booster leadership skills that emerged in the runs of Justice League Generations and Justice League International have clearly been forgotten in another time.

The visuals from Jon Mikel fail to rescue the abysmal story. They are blocky and unrefined. Even the letters contribute to the flop - the funky, supposedly hi-tech or robotic font in Skeets's word balloons is nearly unreadable.

For its mix of one short sci-fi tale with some good ideas that fail to stick together, one decent team-up with rushed images, and a final one so bad it is not worth mentioning, I give this collection just 1.5 capes.

Description:

Nightwing and Deadman team up to face ghosts of the past, and the action continues across the DC Universe in this anthology collection!

In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, top talent and rising stars unite to deliver a variety of memorable stories starring both Batman and his allies in Gotham City, and also heroes across the DC Universe.

This volume features Nightwing and Deadman facing the ghosts of the circus, as presented in spectacularly horrific detail by horror maestros Tim Seeley and Kelley Jones! Their journey will reveal long-forgotten secrets…and they might wish it hadn't.

Elsewhere—or when—Mark Russell and Jon Mikel team for a time-traveling tale starring Booster Gold and the Jurassic League! Batman and Guy Gardner encounter an alien invader, courtesy of Joshua Hale Fialkov and Lisandro Estherren! Plus, stories starring the Flash and more, in a must-read anthology for any DC fan.

Collects: Batman: The Brave and the Bold #13-16

Authors:  Tim Seeley, Mark Russell, Joshua Hale Fialkov
Artists:  Kelley Jones, Jon Mikel, Lisandro Estherren
Published By:  DC Comics
Published When:  Oct. 28, 2025
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  978-1799502852
Pages:  168 pages

Knight Terrors: Knockturnal Creatures Hardcover (2024)

 

Review:

Spinning out of the Knight Terrors DC crossover event came several two-part specials. Each told the story of the nightmares inflicted upon the title characters. This fine hardcover book collects the nightmare tales of several of the most popular Bat-universe villains and adds Zatanna's tale to round out the set.

Dreams are notoriously fluid in both narrative flow and imagery, and each of these stories plays with this fluidity. Visuals cascade one on top of another in a nightmarish swirl, tumbling from moment to moment. Concepts and symbols and suggestions stack up and are not always resolved. Bravo to all the artists here for embracing the non-linear storytelling of these dreamscapes. 

It is especially effective in the Punchline story; I love the portrayal of her own tumble through social media and in-progress videos. Lucas Meyer really leans into the conceit and pulls it off. David Baldeon, though, in drawing the Zatanna tale, attempts something similar but with less success; he takes Zatanna and Robotman, battling the Sleepless Knights, soldiers of Insomnia, through the twists and turns of a magical maze. Sadly, he cannot quite pull it off, leaving the reader almost as confused as those lost in the maze.

The Joker and Poison Ivy tales are more linear, drawing their predominant visual interest from other elements. Both chose to convey the horror of the situation through the eyes and smiles of the characters. In Ivy's case, written by Ivy regular author G. Willow Wilson, the eyes are bugged out and wide open, paired with Stepford Wives-esque perpetual grins on everyone in her suburban nightmare. With the happy-couple Batman and Catwoman next door, the perfect lawns and smiles mask a lurking darkness.

In the Joker story the two-coloured eyes stand out; follow carefully whose eyes they are! The smile, on the other hand, is merely face paint trying to hide the quiet - and sometimes not so quiet - despair of a villain who has lost his humour and purpose. His bitterness makes this the most fun and downright hilarious of the stories in this collection. Kudos to Matthew Rosenberg for this brilliantly playful look at the side-effects of an accidental success! Joker's nightmare starts with him accidentally succeeding in killing the Batman, not through the cleverness of his schemes but a mere quirk of fate. Devoid of his life's mission, Joker winds up in a dreary middle-management job for a large bureaucratic company. How will he ever survive? A hilarious story with at-times moody and twisted visuals.

Harley Quinn, for her part, tumbles through an Elseworlds-like series of scenes. We meet Pirate Harley, then the super-powered Harlequin, and more. Veteran writer Tini Howard has some interesting ideas, but this tale ultimately bogs down in its own insanity - to be expected from Harley Quinn, yet somehow too much even for her. It ultimately lands, for reasons that are never made clear, on a love-hate relationship with Lady Quark, an odd pairing even for an Elseworld.

Zatanna, for her part, is overwhelmed by the strength of the dream forces and their magic. In desperation, she summons any available hero to her side and winds up with Robotman. The result is a very awkward team-up. She acts sixteen while he is in full cynic mode. Little wonder they faced such difficulty surviving and defeating their foes.

Punchline, in a twist similar to Joker's, must deal with the nightmare that follows her success in finally defeating and killing Batgirl. In her case, though, the result is the haunting power of Batgirl's surviving tech. While the visuals do yeoman duty carrying this story, it ultimately lacks both the historical depth of the Batman / Joker relationship and the ironic fun that permeates Joker's own tale.

I found this collection to be beautifully done and filled with variant cover images, but containing an uneven set of stories, leading to an average grade of three capes.

Description:

Horror devastates the DC Universe, and in this volume, Harley Quinn, Poison ivy, Punchline, and Zatanna all respond to the nightmare world of Knight Terrors in their own unique way!

In Knight Terrors, DC’s heroes are taken past the land of the living, beyond the land of the dead, and directly to a new villain called Insomnia...who uses his powers to engulf every single hero and villain in their own dark and twisted nightmares. 

In this companion collection, see how Insomnia’s Nightmare Wave affects four of DC’s most popular characters: Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Punchline, and Zatanna! Enter the Harley Quinn Zone as Harley is confronted by the surreal and unsettling consequences of her choices! It’s a suburban nightmare as Poison Ivy wakes up in the life that she never wanted! Punchline confronts her long-suppressed fears in true horror-movie fashion! And Zatanna teams with Robotman of the Doom Patrol to defend the world from Insomnia’s Sleepless Knights!

Collects: Knight Terrors: Harley Quinn #1-2, Knight Terrors: Poison Ivy #1-2, Knight Terrors: Punchline #1-2, Knight Terrors: Joker #1-2 and Knight Terrors: Zatanna #1-2

Authors:  Tini Howard, G. Willow Wilson, Matthew Rosenberg, Dennis Culver, Danny Lore
Artists:  Dayden Sherman, Stefano Raffaele, David Baldeon, Lucas Meyer, more
Published By:  ‎ DC Comics
Published When:  Feb. 27, 2024
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN:  ‎ 978-1779524690
Pages:  ‎ 328 pages