Comic Book Coffee Break #51

 Thanks for joining me on my Comic Book Coffee Break!  This morning I had Yuban Coffee with cream and Irish Creme syrup.  Good stuff.

DC Comics

My copy of the DC Pride anthology came in just in time.  I'm loving these DC anthologies. Standouts for me were the Green Lantern/Alan Scott story and Flash vs. Reflek. It was also cool to see Dreamer make her way to comics. I'd love to see more from that character.

Continuing with New 52 Superman, I read Batman/Superman: Truth Hurts. Look, I am loving this whole arc. I don't care much about Jim Gordon Batman, but it worked well in this collection.  Plus Superman teams up with Batgirl, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd as if it were a gift just for me.

Marvel

I got back on track with Cap and Falcon, reading Marvel Masterworks: Captain America V. 10.  This set of issues from 1976 sees Jack Kirby return, this time as both artist and author.  I love and will continue to love Kirby, but his complete disregard for the story that came before is pretty bold. He did the same thing with Black Panther. I loved seeing the Kirby style return, but I was digging the contemporary 70s stories that came before and this felt like an unnecessary disruption. (More on Kirby in a minute)

Other Stuff

We were working on a "Tales & Tails" Summer Reading Program over at the library so I picked up some of Erin Hunter's Warriors series.  I read the first novel Into the Void, then picked up a three-volume manga series called Graystripe's Adventures. The book was a little too serious for my taste, but I had a pretty good time with the manga. Basically a wild cat and a house cat (or "kittypet" as they are called) opt to hit the streets and returns to the Warriors home in the forest.  The story is pretty straightforward they have highs and lows, they save a group of barn cats and then continue on in their quest. It's written by regular comic book writer Dan Jolley, and he does a nice job of adapting the series. I probably wouldn't read more, but this was a fun little excursion nonetheless. 

Finally, back to Kirby. I read The Simon & Kirby Library: Crime.  This is made up of mostly true-crime stories from the 1940s.  They were a little do similar to read back to back like this, so I'm sure that colored the experience.  My main complaint is similar to one I had with the Science Fiction volume. There just isn't enough editorial content.  You're given an into and then you're off.  I would have liked it if the issues had more commentary or were broken up into sections.  As is it just felt like a content dump and it wasn't a particularly enjoyable read.  Still, as a fan of early comics history, I'm glad to have read it. (My copy has a bookplate signed by Joe Simon, so that made it extra cool.)

Next Time...

I'm in the home stretch with New 52 Superman so I will check back in when I finish that. 

Oh, also, I guest hosted an episode of 90s Music Got Me Like.  You can find it here or wherever you get your podcasts. 

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You can find back issues of the video version of Comic Book Coffee Break here.
The audio version of Comic Book Coffee Break is over there. 
You can find me as the co-host of 9021 Here We G0: A 90210 Rewatch Podcast and This Endorian Life, both for the Radio Meanwhile Network. 
I also host Howe's Things, the podcast and radio show of the David A. Howe Public Library. 

Comic Book Coffee Break #48

  Thanks for joining me on my Comic Book Coffee Break. We were at a an Airbnb this morning so I had Donut Shop coffee from a Keurig with a little cream and sugar. Not bad.

Let's talk Comic Books!

I'm still reading and writing in the midst of Asian American and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month so that's still my guide at the moment.

DC Comics

My copy of DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Super Hero Celebration arrived in the mail from Midtown Comics and I was pumped to dig in.  I've been really enjoying these anthologies DC has been doing. This features 11 different stories with a stellar lineup or authors and artists. Here are some of the standouts.

• Dress Code by Minh Le and Trung Le Nguyen revisits the Green Lantern character Tai Pham from Green Lantern: Legacy. I thoroughly enjoyed the original graphic novel, and while this isn't a full sequel, it was nice to check in again with that world.
• Hawke & Kong by Grek Pak and Sumit Kumar was a team-up between the Connor Hawke Green Arrow and New Super-Man. It's an unusual pairing and has a fun, buddy-cop kind of vibe.
• Finally, a new character was introduced in The Monkey Prince Hates Superheroes. The story is by Gene Luen Yang and drawn by Bernard Chang. This was a lot of fun.  I really liked the team-up with Shazam. This ends with a teaser that the series will continue down the road and I'm looking forward to that.

Marvel Comics

My wife has been a fan of Runaways since the beginning, but I only became familiar with the series from the TV adaption. I picked up my wife's old copy of Pride & Joy and read through it.  This was in digest form, back when Marvel was doing that on the regular. It was interesting to read this coming from the TV show.  I really enjoyed the first season, but the premise is watered down by making the parents sympathetic. Here they are just plain villainous and it works much better. While I wasn't all in on this one, I would likely read more.  I know we have a stack of digests here, so why not?  It was interesting to see Nico's introduction because it seems her stock has risen more in recent years as Marvel tries to expand their magic characters beyond Doctor Strange. Also, interesting how quickly things changed. Some very obvious issues with words used as pejoratives here.

Image Comics

 While at that Airbnb, we had access to the streamer that is airing Robert Kirkman's Invincible and we took full advantage, binging the full season over of the course of two nights. My wife had never seen it before so it was fun to see her reaction to some of the more shocking moments. My love of the comic books series is well documented across The All the Books Show and Comic Book Coffee Break, so I was excited to see this. While I did enjoy it, it's not the kind of adaptation that really adds much to the experience. The voice cast is great and I don't really have complaints about the series; I guess it's more that I just didn't need it. When the change presents itself, I'll likely watch the future seasons, but I'm not particularly invested.

Next Time...

I picked up a few graphic novels at a comic shop while we were away, so I'm going to read some Captain America, continue my New 52 Superman reread and dig in to my Simon & Kirby Library: Crime collection.

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You can find back issues of the video version of Comic Book Coffee Break here.

The audio version of Comic Book Coffee Break is over there. 

You can find me as the co-host of 9021 Here We G0: A 90210 Rewatch Podcast and This Endorian Life, both for the Radio Meanwhile Network. 

I also host Howe's Things, the podcast and radio show of the David A. Howe Public Library.

Comic Book Coffee Break #40

 For 37 weeks I co-hosted Comic Book Coffee Break with Eric Mikols for the Radio Meanwhile Network.

You can find the early video episodes here and the 37th and final episode here.  While that version of the show came to a restful end, I'm still reading comic books.  So welcome to Comic Book Coffee Break: The Text Adventure. 

Still not a fan of Tim Horton's coffee so whenever I find myself at one,  I go for tea. XL, 4 sugars.

Let's talk comic books. 

DC Comics

I've finally reached the first stage of  my New 52 Superman re-read where I can say I enjoyed it. I read the major crossover event, H'El on Earth.  This includes issues from the mainline Superman title, plus Superboy and Supergirl.  (If you are reading this in grade avoid the collections of the individual titles and go for the bulkly H'El on Earth collection.)  The art here is great and that goes a long way.  Plus, I like Scott Lobdell's take on Superman as well. (By coincidence, last week I was discussion Lobdell's Generation X novel.)  This story isn't particularly groundbreaking (rogue Kryptonian shows up and havoc ensues), but it is a lot of fun. A It's a good showcase for the tenuous relationship among Super Man/Boy/Girl.  It's exciting and splashy and does manage to feel like an event.  There are downsides though. For starters it seems to come out of nowhere and resolve almost as quickly. (It does end on a cliffhanger in the epilogue, and if that's resolved it has been completely wiped from my memory.) Also, Supergirl's role in this is to fall for H'El and go along with his scheme. While, that does make some sense considering the fragile place she's at in the Supergirl title, it does feel dated and sexist. Especially considering Superboy's role as a sort of faux Kryptonian would play right into H'El's whole thing as a faux member of the El clan. I would have much preferred that Superboy be the pawn, giving Clark and Kara an opportunity to team up. That's a missed opportunity. Still, this has been the brightest spot of New 52 Superman so far. Onward to vols 4 of both the mainline title and Action Comics.

Next, I read the Green Lantern 80th Anniversary special. I'm a sucker for these, though I have to admit this was not nearly as good as the one they put out for Robin last year.  For starters, Alan Scott, who is actually the character celebrating 80 years, gets very little to do.  He has the lead story, but we only see him in costume for one panel. The rest of the stories are relatively forgettable, though I did love the Denny O'Neill/Mike Grell Green Lantern/Green Arrow story.  It felt and looked just right. I also really enjoyed the various splash pages and covers from artists across Lantern history.  I have the Catwoman 80th to read for next time.

Marvel Comics

Over in the world of Marvel I picked Marvel Masterworks: Captain America & Falcon vol. 9. Reading this story in rapid succession was not beneficial. In these pages we see Cap drop the mantle to start a new superhero career as Nomad.  I actually kinda liked that, but it felt like it went by in a flash.  Then Sam Wilson is giving a pretty awful retcon thanks in part of the Red Skull.  I don't really understand the point of giving him a criminal past and I wasn't a fan. As the Steve Engelhart run ends there's a bit of a vacuum where other creative teams spin some wheels. Overall, there was a lot I enjoyed, but the collection as a whole feels a little disjointed.  I'm soon running out of track with the Masterworks series and will have to switch to single issues.

In the world of prose fiction I read Alex Irvine's adaptation of X-Men: Days of Future Past. Last week, I'd read the comic for the first time and found it a little lacking.  This extended novel format gave a lot of insight and was particularly good at fleshing out both version of Kitty Pride.  That gave the story a little more bite.  I recommend it.

IDW Comics

This week I read a recent Star Trek comic, Picard: Countdown by Mike Johnson and Kirsten Beyer.  Back when they were announcing these book and comics leading up to the series, we debated on The All the Books Show whether or not I should read them in advance. I opted not to, but in hindsight, wish I had.  This is good setup for the series, focusing on Picard's Romulan staff from the series. You could read it as a standalone, but it does lead right into the series and probably works best that way. 

For Next Week

I didn't get to Alex Irvine's Iron Man: Rapture as I'd hoped so I plan for that as well as his graphic novel adaptation of James Patterson's The Murder of King Tut.  I'm interviewing the author for Howe's Things this coming week.  I also intend to get in to that Catwoman 80th as well as some more New 52 Superman and maybe some Black Lightning.  I'm open to suggest, so let me know if I'm not reading something I should be.

______________________

You can find back issues of the video version of Comic Book Coffee Break here.

The audio version of Comic Book Coffee Break is over there. 

You can find me as the co-host of 9021 Here We G0: A 90210 Rewatch Podcast for the Radio Meanwhile Network. 

I also host Howe's Things, the podcast and radio show of the David A. Howe Public Library.

Book Review: DC Superhero Girls: Spaced Out

DC Superhero Girls: Spaced Out
by Shea Fontana

***

I've been a fan of this series since the early days and was pleased get to get an advanced copy from Net Galley.  As always, the series looks great.  This volume in particular was colorful and visually interesting. The author knows this world and has a good handle on her versions of these characters.  It's always nice to see this world expand, but this one was pushing it a little.

New Green Lantern Jessica Cruz is on her way to Oa with Star Sapphire and Supergirl along for the ride. On the way Supergirl gets caught up in a plot involving Kryptonian survivors and the dreaded Phantom Zone.  Meanwhile on Earth, Flash and Krypto get into some shenanigans.

I enjoyed the story, as I usually do with this series.  However, it's hard to really buy these versions of the characters going into space, let alone the Phantom Zone.  I applaud the author for taking steps to keep things fresh, but I feel like maybe it's gotten a little too far from the initial premise this time around.  This type is story is better served in a more grounded setting.  I prefer it when this series sticks to what it does best, exploring the relationships and adventures happening in and around Super Hero High.  Still fun, just not quite right.

I interviewed author Shea Fontant for the All the Books Show!  Find it here.