Publisher DC Comics - Review

Shazam! 1

The first impression inside is that either some weird meta move is being pulled, or someone fucked up the colour registration, as much of it is out of focus. I am pretty sure it’s the latter. If that was the worst I could say about this dreary, vacuous comic, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad, but it’s terrible throughout.

Wonder Girl 1

I believe this is a one-off, and I am mystified how it got sold to DC. Perhaps they just wanted to put out a Wonder Girl one-shot (has she been hugely popular in the Titans or something?), and the fact that no one had any ideas didn’t deter them. I just can’t see any reason for this comic to exist.

Starman/Congorilla 1

If you have a comic starring a blue alien superhero who also happens to be a bit of a slut, a giant, talking gorilla and Rex the Wonder Dog, then you expect it to be entertaining and a bit surreal. You expect in fact, something like a Grant Morrison comic. This isn’t quite what you get.

Plastic Man Archives 2

I don’t suppose many would argue against this being the greatest comic book work of the 1940s, given that The Spirit ran as a newspaper insert. But on the other hand, is even this still worth reading over 65 years on (these stories are from 1843-44)?

JSA All-Stars #13

The first time I read JSA All Stars 13 I was quietly impressed. It was a nice break in what is often an incomprehensible team book which itself spun off from another overpadded team book whose purpose and indeed distinction has often been unclear to me.

Legion of Super-Heroes 8

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Legion of Super-Heroes. It was a series that was always aware of its own absurdity, with its multitudinous cast of members, all of whom had ridiculous names and often even more ridiculous powers.

Batman The Dark Knight 1

This is the first comic in a very long time that I have bought for the artist rather than writer – well, they are the same person, but I like his art a lot and had never read his writing. I guess the fact that Batman is a fresher proposition now than for ages helped incline me towards trying this, too.

Showcase Presents Doom Patrol 2

The team is more or less an attempt to do what Marvel did with the Fantastic Four (it’s all too easy to parallel the characters), but making it weirder, ending up more like the X-Men (who I believe debuted after the DP): the team are freaks and misfits, and the villains are weirdoes.

Showcase Presents Our Army At War 1

I think this is the earliest material DC have reprinted in a Showcase volume – it starts in 1952. I guess this is partly because that’s where the series started, but the fact that it doesn’t look Golden Age must have helped the decision – the standard style for war comics doesn’t seem to have changed so much, and bar the odd racist exaggeration of the Japanese enemies, a lot of this would hardly look out of place today.

Power Girl 18

I’ve just sat down and read Power Girl 18 and I thank God that I’ve been following the JLA/JSA titles as well, because if I hadn’t I wouldn’t have understood the deeper story here.