The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2411: Martian Manhunter Special #1, 1996

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 Publisher: DC Comics

Writer: Paul Kupperberg

Artist: Mike Collins

I fully admit I have not read a lot of the solo J'onn J'onzz material. When his solo series began back in the early 2000s, I checked it out, but it didn't resonate with me, even though the Ostrander/Mandrake creative team had done some amazing things with the Spectre. I wonder if the Manhunter is one of those characters who, because of his remarkable power set, is a difficult one to write dramatically. Much like Superman, J'onzz is virtually unstoppable. Granted, his Achilles' heel (fire) is a lot more accessible and prevalent than something like kryptonite. Having a more ubiquitous weakness allows perhaps for more drama.

But I don't know why he doesn't pull me in like some other heroes. He's cut from the same cloth as a well-done Superman, or Starman, or Wonder Woman. But, I think, some characters have yet to find their personal genre, and perhaps J'onzz is one of them. While we may have had some great stories, I don't think the character has found his great story yet.

Today's story was pretty good, some spacebound conflict in which the Manhunter gets embroiled. But, as with a lot of Paul Kupperberg's work, I found it to be a competent superhero story, but not a great one.

Onward.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 2384: DC Comics Presents #89, January 1986

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Publisher: DC Comics

Writer: Bob Rozakis & Todd Klein

Penciller: Alex Saviuk

Cover Artist: Denys Cowan

Oh, hey there. Happy December?

I've recently developed a bit of a sweet tooth for late Bronze Age Superman stuff. It's really good and thoughtful, and really trying to be what comics become in about the mid 90s or so. But it's also revelling in the weirdness that was Silver Age DC. As an advent calendar this year, my partner took 25 comics and put wrapping paper in front of the covers in the bag and taped them up to our bedroom closet door. It's awesome, and most of it is this Bronze Age Superman stuff I'm into. Though, really, it's more Bronze Age Superman and Supergirl. I've been grooving on the Superman Family book as well as DCCP. Oh, and Lois Lane in Family. The stuff written by Tamsyn O'Flynn is fucking excellent.

Gonna try to be a bit more mindful of this blog. I'm also considering moving it over to Wordpress, as that's what I use for work and I'm getting pretty good at it. We'll see.

Onward!

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1183: Action Comics #563, January 1985

We come to the end of our Action Comics reading today with an amusing issue, the pro- and antagonists of which you can see on the cover here. It's really a showcase for the three in the foreground, with Superman popping in and riding herd on the chaos that ensues.

There's mention in the letters pages of these issues of a switch in format which must have come slightly before this run of issues, and I think it's referring to the division of stories in the title, as well as the tone of those stories. Everything's a bit more light-hearted than contemporary Superman tales. And while there seem to have always, or almost always, been multiple stories in Action Comics, these stories all feature either Superman or members of his supporting cast, rather than B-listers like The Atom or the Human Target. I'm torn as to whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. I'm finding the Superman stories to be less-compelling than the ones that were being told in the more anthology-style issues from about 10 years earlier. This line of thought definitely looks ahead to the weekly anthology that starts in issue 601, which we'll get to eventually.

It's been nice getting back into Superman, and I imagine I'll hit him up a bit more once July rolls around. I have a big project in mind for June, but until then we've got a few days of random bits and pieces from the collection to look at.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1180: Action Comics #560, October 1984

I think that despite our mutual love of the Doom Patrol, Kieth Giffen and I have very different senses of humour. I just don't get Ambush Bug. I was thinking about this before sitting down to write, and it feels to me like every Ambush Bug story I read, at least the Giffen/Fleming ones, are set in a strange parallel version of the DCU, though AB's presence on Oolong Island in Giffen's Doom Patrol suggests otherwise. Though, with the Doom Patrol, you never know.

Today's lead story was an interesting one-off (unless John Doe every returns, I guess), most notably because we see a scene of the super-villain buying weapons from the Monitor. I wish I'd been following comics at the time, to see the build up through these titles to Crisis on Infinite Earths, but alas I wasn't even reading comics regularly (not superhero ones, anyway) at this point. And certainly not DC stuff. I was a dyed in the wool Marvel fan in my early youth.

What makes this appearance of the Monitor doubly interesting is that this issue of Action was not written by Marv Wolfman, so we see insertions of the Crisis lead-up in other titles by other writers. This has got to be one of the earliest instances of cross-continuity story telling by numerous writers. And for someone who's interested in how these universes grow and evolve, that's a pretty bit thing.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 300: World's Finest Comics #269, July 1981

300 days!

Not that I want to give the impression that I can't commit to anything, but I'm surprised that I've managed to do a consistent 300 days of posting to this blog. As the old saying goes, "Practice makes perfect," and this amount of writing is certainly great practice. But after 300 days, I'm only in the early stages of my journey toward perfection, I think.

From sentient viruses to being buried alive. It seems this stack of comics from the dollar bin is demonstrating Jungian synchronicity. As I noted yesterday, the idea of a virus that takes over one's body is amongst my greatest fears. Perhaps the greatest, at least in terms of irrational terror, is of being buried alive. I'm quite claustrophobic, and what happens to Batman in the cover story of this issue is just about one of the worst things I can imagine. Thank goodness he remains more calm and collected than I would in the same situation.

This issue, arriving 4 years before the tumult of Crisis, offers a showcase of some of the best artists of the last years of the Silver Age. Rich Buckler is a great exemplar of the DC style of the late 70s and early 80s. Trevor Von Eeden, in the "Green Arrow" story in this issue offers one of the more realistic depictions of breasts that I've seen in superhero comics (it's the little details that matter). In the "Hawkman & Hawkgirl" story, Alex Saviuk gives Shayera Hol wonderful muscle definition, showing us that it's not only the male superheroes that have to be "ripped" in order to do the job they do. Of all the art in this issue, the Saviuk/Rodriguez stuff in this story is probably the best. Don Newton's "Captain Marvel, Jr." work offers a nice combination of the more realistic art toward which DC moves in this era and the stylized art that's characterized the Marvel Family work through its existence. In particular, Newton captures facial expression in a way that many comics artists cannot.

The writing is less impressive than the art, unfortunately. Gerry Conway is a capable writer, and his deployment of the 70s address to the protagonist in the caption box is effective, but the story as a whole is relatively tame. The same goes for the rest of the stories - tame. It's hard to feel like there's really anything at stake in any of these adventures, hence my concentration on the art, rather than the writing. Oh, and if I can just offer an opinion here, too, this version of Green Arrow, roving reporter for the Star City "Daily Star" is a complete dick. As a poor woman relates the story of her incarcerated brother, GA is trying to decide if she's a "10" or an "11." Total. Dick.

What I actually found the most interesting about this comic was the inside back cover, which features "The Daily Planet Feature Page." The creator profile on this page is for one Laurie Sutton, a woman who scripts the "Adam Strange" adventures of this era. It's always great to hear of women working in the industry at this time (and at any time, really). Mainstream comics still struggles with the "boys club" mentality, though greater strides are taken with each passing year to quash that notion. In the late 70s and early 80s, however, I imagine the idea of a woman working prominently in comics was even less likely, so to see Ms. Sutton profiled is lovely. I'm curious to read some of her Adam Strange stuff.

We've almost worked through the dollar bin comics I recently procured. It's probably time I pulled out my holiday comics and read one or two, in the spirit of the season.