Comic Book Coffee Break: Giant Sized Annual #2

 New year, new episode of Comic Book Coffee Break! Eric and I settled in for our second annual episode of the show covering our favorites from 2022. And, of course it wouldn't be complete without a dive into my quarter bin. This time Superboy is in the spotlight with #99.

------------------

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 #41

 Thanks or joining me on my Comic Book Coffee Break. Today I'm having Folger's Coffeehouse Blend with Irish Cream syrup.  Pretty good start.

Let's talk comic books. 

Marvel

This week I interviewed Alex Irvine for an upcoming episode of Howe's Things. I also sat in on the interview he was doing for Previously on X-Men, so I got to talk some Marvel with him as well. I really had a great time chatting with him, but I can't say the same thing for reading Iron Man: Rapture. It's a standalone, What-If kind of story and it just falls flat. However, I highly recommend his Daredevil: Noir.

Next, I picked up Generation X: Classic, V.1.  I'm inadvertently on a Scott Lobdell kick I guess. I read the Generation X novel he wrote with Elliot S! Maggin and was intrigued by the team so I decided to go to the source. The vibe is weird, but I really like the Banshee throws Emma Frost off of her game.  It works well to have this second branch of the Xavier school, and I like the showcase it gives to Jubilee.  I'm not sure that I will read it through to the end, but I do prefer it to Mutant X and New Mutants. I've read a lot of  X-Men offshoots lately, which reminds me that I need to get back to Exiles.

DC Comics

My New 52 Superman continues with Action Comics V.4, Hybrid; Superman V.4, Psi-War; Superboy V. 4, Blood & Steel, and Krypton Returns.  This is not a good bunch of comics. I remember at the time I was really excited about Andy Diggle taking over Action Comics.  I'd heard him speak of Superman in interviews and he seemed to get the thing that made Superman special.  Sadly, his tenure was only a few issues long.  And while it showed promise it was really about transitioning from the Grant Morrison era and didn't really have a chance to be it's own thing.  The rest of Hybrid and Psi-War make up this convoluted and ugly Hector Hammond story that is best forgotten. Weirdly, I kinda liked the Superboy volume.  That story got a little more grounded after the H'El on Earth storyline, only to be disrupted again and the messy retread that was Krypton Returns.  I was really hoping this reread would lead to me finding a new appreciation for this era, but so far my pereceptions haven't shifted even a little. 

Next, I got my hands on the Catwoman 80th Anniversary Special.  Unfortunately that's a bit of a misnomer because there wasn't much of anything special about it.  It was utterly forgettable to the point that I genuinely can't remember enough to even write about it... 

Justice League V. 7: Justice Lost.  Why do I do this to myself?  The Rebirth run of Justice League makes New 52 Superman look like an unrivaled masterpiece. 

Firestorm: The Nuclear Men: The Firestorm Protocols. Yeesh. Poor Jason Rusch can't catch a break (or a decent storyline). Really though, haven't we all thought at one time or another, "Yeah, Firestorm is cool, but what if there were 45 of them."

Mercifully, that was it for DC this week. Hard to pick a winner but I guess I'll go with Catwoman since that was harmless.

For next week, I'm at Action Comics v.5 in the great Superman reread.  Also, I feel like I'm on a hot streak with X-Men offshoots, so I might pick up the Jubilee standalone series. I'm open to suggestions as well. 

______________________

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.

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.

Comic Book Coffee Break #39

No coffee today. We swung into Tim Horton's and I don't love their coffee so I got tea, which I do like. XL, 4 sugars.

Let's talk comic books. 

DC Comics

So in the last issue I said I was planning to re-read the Superman Truth arc from the New 52. As I was looking for the right place to start I decided to just do a whole reread of New 52 Superman.  This era of Superman has a pretty notorious rep and I hadn't read it since it dropped the first time and I really couldn't remember. I started with Grant Morrison's Action Comics Omnibus. This comprises the first 18 issues plus an annual and a #0.  The art is primarily by Rags Morales. Right away were are off to a weird start.  As I recall the lead up to the New 52 was a streamlined, back to basics kind of take on DC Comics. If that's really the goal, who in the world thought Grant Morrison was the one? I do have to admit the first 5 or so issues where we have t-shirt Superman doing some street level stuff, I was a pretty in. But then that vanishes and we go on the typical trippy, Quaalude-fueled ride that is a Grant Morrison story.  And there's no transition.  It's just suddenly aliens and demons and time travel and Mxyzptlk. I don't get it. 

Then there's the art. I guess that's a place where I would have gone with a classic, shiny, spit-curled kind of vibe.  Instead it feels very loose and inconsistent. Superman is unrecognizable from panel to panel.  It's weird and I found it to be very unpleasant. What's more, nothing from this run made any lasting impact on the character.

Over on the mainline title we have two volumes, Superman: What Price Tomorrow? and Secrets and Lies. While the art feels better and the clear shake up in status quo with Lois, Clark and Jimmy is there, nothing feels fresh about it. Again, if you are going for a shiny, modern take why dust off old guard writers like George Perez and Dan Jurgens. I don't say that to throw shade, it's just an odd choice, one that doesn't pay off.  Neither lasts long and I think that's for the best. My estimation of these volumes hasn't changed with this reread.  They are utterly skippable and ultimately inconsequential, but the art in Secrets and Lies is pretty great.

Next comes the big H'El on Earth storyline which features crossover issues from the Superboy (just awful) and Supergirl (my favorite of the New 52) series.

Marvel Comics

Over in Marvel, I finally sat down and read the two issues that make up X-Men: Days of Future Past.  I feel like this is one of those rare situations where the later adaptations really make the story. I found these two issues to be relatively brief and not particularly exciting. I am, of course, familiar with the animated adaption from the 90s and the later Fox film (Rogue Cut, all the way), but for whatever reason I had never read this. I'm a sucker for time travel and those adaptations were some of my favorites from their respective series. 

Next, I read Daredevil: Noir by Alex Irvine in preparation for my upcoming interview. My first experience with the Noir line came a few years ago when I was prepping to interview author Fred van Lente. He had written X-Men: Noir and while I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with Fred, I can't say the same for X-Men Noir.  More recently I read Luke Cage: Noir and that was a real standout. I think Cage just works in that setting and the same is true for Daredevil. 

It makes sense that this would be a good spotlight for the character. Saying Daredevil: Noir is practically redundant. I haven't read a ton of Daredevil comics, but I recognized the changes from the source and found it worked really well in this standalone story.

This is cheating because it isn't a comic, but I read the prose novel Generation X. What a weird one this was. I loved the old X-Men prose novels and typically enjoy the writing of Elliot S! Maggin and Scott Lobdell.  This was a little wacky though. They did a good job of establishing this team as connected, but separate from the X-Men proper. It didn't have that feel of X-Men without the X-Men as these types of things so often do. It also made me want to read the Generation X comics, so that's a win all around. 

 (Fun fact: I interviewed author Elliot S! Maggin over on the All the Books Show.)

Everything Else

Finally, I read The Comic Book Story of Baseball, also by Alex Irvine. I likely wouldn't have picked this up had it not been for my upcoming interview with the author, but I'm glad I did. It was an incredibly thorough history, but still managed to be fun and engaging. I learned a lot and it made me want to pick up some more Baseball books.  We'll see.

For next time, I'm planning to pick up Alex Irvine's Iron Man run, continue my New 52 Superman re-read and maybe pick up an X-Men book. I'm in the mood.

P.S. Another feature of the video version of Comic Book Coffee Break was the Quarter Bin segment.  Each week I would drag a random issue out of my childhood longbox and revisit. Look for that dropping on Wednesday. 

______________________

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: Action Comics V.1: Invisible Mafia

Superman: Action Comics V.1: Invisible Mafia
Brian Michael Bendis
*****

Props to my pals at Netgalley for the early access.

I was excited about the prospect of Bendis taking on Superman but have been on the fence with the previous two volume. (Man of Steel left me underwhelmed but I thought Phantom Earth was a little closer.) I'm happy to report that this one found the sweet spot.

With Lois and Jon still gallivanting around the cosmos with angsty Jor-El, Clark is getting down to business and settling back in to his life.  Things go off the rails when a rash of crimes are blamed on Superman and a mysterious cloud lady gets in to some shenanigans.

As Dean Cain can attest, I love Superman stories though focus on Clark's everyday life and struggling to find a balance with the power he has.  Clark certainly took center stage in this volume and I thought Bendis did a great job of making the Daily Planet and crew feel like an actual newspaper. Superman is there plenty, but he's not moving planets or fighting some crazy powerful monster menace.  To me, this is the right mojo.

I also appreciate sidelining Jon and Lois.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a Lois fan tried and true. And I think Jon was a good addition.  That doesn't mean I want to read about everyone's favorite nuclear family, the Supers all the time. This is a clever way to recapture some of that old school feeling without just erasing those relationships.  Hats off to Bendis for the subtle dig at Spider-man's infamous One More Day nonsense that did just that.

I hate to rate Superman comics low because he's my pal, so I am pleased to report that this gets tops marks.

To hear more about some of my old-school favorite Superman stories tune in to this special episode of the All the Books Show.