Creator Misc. - Review

Strange Adventures 1

On the one hand, I’m all for a revival of DC’s ancient SF anthology; on the other hand, this is Vertigo, and I often get exasperated with them. Unfortunately the balance comes down on that side, for me.

The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics

This huge collection is great value at £12.99 for nearly 500 pages, and it’s nearly all top quality material, from a range of periods.

Essential Thor 5

My first article in my first fanzine, almost 30 years ago in World Collide 1, was called ‘Why Is Thor Boring?’ It covered the last decade of the character, i.e. since Kirby left him, and this collection covers a couple of years at the start of that period. I pointed out then a few things that still strike me as true, reading this and that article so long after.

Dark Horse Presents 1

Does anyone bother reading anthology comics any longer? Dark Horse appear to think so, and credit to them for attempting to bolster what’s never been a particularly popular format, in the US at least. Most of the names here appeared in the original DHP when it first appeared many years back, giving this comic an aura less of a new series than of a title that’s been temporarily out of action.

Showcase Presents Green Lantern 5

They have the back cover blurb right on this: it’s the run of Neal Adams Green Lantern & Green Arrow issues, nearly 350 pages, that will sell this. They call it one of the “most celebrated runs by a creative team in the history of comic books,” and they’re right – except it was also the run that led to the cancellation of the series because of dropping sales, after which GL became a backup story in broken runs in Flash.

Blazing Combat / It Was the War of the Trenches

What makes a comic an Important comic? Here are two collections that are thematically linked, and which can both be considered to be landmark comics of their type.

Archie & Friends 153

This themed issue looks at four successive April Fools’ Days in the life of Riverdale High’s premier prankster, Reggie Mantle. Each story is by a different artist/writer combo, each a little different from the Archie ‘house style’ – retaining enough of the characteristic flourishes so that the characters remain on-model, but still giving a slightly different flavour to each tale.

Madman: All-New Giant-Size Super Ginchy Special

Immediate warning: the Allred content here is one 18-page story. The rest is stories by other creators, plus loads of pin-ups.

Uncanny X-Men 534.1

Another week, another .1 issue to review. Thankfully this is one of the best of them that I’ve read. The current team is reasonably compact and all really famous (the line-up is all on the cover), so it’s not much effort, but Gillen gives them all a moment anyway. More importantly, he zooms straight in on the point of greatest interest: why is Magneto now an X-Man, and how will this be accepted by the world?

Justice League of America 80-Page Giant 2011

I love the JLA: as a concept, in that I love plenty of past issues, and in that I love many of the mainstays of the team. I always want a reason to read it, and rarely regret it. But oh my god this is fucking dreadful.