Special Insert 2

I was going to hold off on this for another day or so, until I'd read a few more things, but something happened that makes me want to do this today.
 Two weeks ago we celebrated Free Comic Book Day. This was the first one I visited a store on, although it's been going on for years. The publishers and their offerings were:

Marvel - Iron Man/Thor An excellent little story by Matt Fraction and John Romita, Jr. on how to deal with people who want the moon.

Dark Horse - Doctor Solar/Magnus - Two separate stories scripted by Jim Shooter bringing back some old Valiant characters for some new fans, hopefully.

DC - War of the Supermen - James Robinson and Sterling Gates bring newcomers up-to-date with what's been going on with Superman.

Dynamite - Green Hornet - Five little vignettes teasing readers with the titles currently issued by this publisher dealing with another Golden Age hero who had a TV series back in to 60's. One of these is based on Kevin Smith's script (unused) for the upcoming movie.

As you can see, they didn't dump some old reprints on us, so look forward to next year like I will.

Trade Editions

Batman R. I. P. - Grant Morrison, writer, and Tony Daniel etal, artists ($29.99/30% coupon, Batman 676 - 683 and DC Universe 0, copyright 2008, Hard Cover Trade)
 I already read Final Crisis, so I knew what happened to Batman because of it. I wanted to see how the regular book handled it. A pretty good story, showing off Batman's skills and Joker's insanity, but it jumps around a lot without explaining what happened. (Come on - we all know he's nor really dead.) I enjoyed it though.

Wolverine, Old Man Logan - Mark Millar, writer, and Steve McNiven, artist ($34.99/30% coupon, Wolverine 66 - 72 and Giant Size Old Man Logan, copyright 2008, Hard Cover Trade)
There was a lot of hype about this series as it was being issued, so when it came out as a trade I was looking forward to it. I tried waiting for the soft cover, hoping to get it cheaper but no dice. It's an interesting sort of What If scenario that has the heroes having been beaten by the villains and Logan dealing with how his life in this future pans out. I won't give anything away. There are some interesting touches, some disturbing scenes, but ultimately I was disappointed. To me, it didn't live up to the hype. It was OK.

First Wave

My original understanding of these was that DC was going back to before there were SUPER people, or metahumans as they call them. The preview I saw mentioned Batman, Doc Savage, and the Spirit. I've just read the one-shot prelim and the first 2 issues each of the First Wave mini, and the Doc Savage ongoing. NOTE: Batman has been around forever, and the Spirit has been riding a recent relaunch. For all of you out there who don't know Doc Savage, or Justice, Inc. for that matter, they are products of the Pulps magazines from the 30's and 40's. There's an old saying that a picture is worth 1,000 words. That holds true for Pulps versus comics. For every illustrated panel in a comic there were at least 1,000 words in a Pulp, since the writers got paid by the word.

Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze, was the ideal man - a "super" man, if you will - who was a perfect physical and intellectual specimen. He was joined on his adventures by 5 other men, each of whom had a particular field of expertise. It was kind of science-fictiony. Justice, Inc. featured The Avenger - Richard Benson - who was traumatized by the death of his family into meting out justice (in many cases lethally) to evildoers. He was gray-haired and gray-skinned, and so traumatized that he couldn't move his face or show emotion unless he was disguised as someone else.

Both of these characters were attributed to Kenneth Robeson, a House Name owned by the publisher so that they could solicit stories from anyone and every writer was expendable. Actually, Lester Dent is considered to be the main Doc Savage writer, and Paul Ernst the main one on Justice, Inc. No one is credited in the First Wave series, although Bob Kane for Batman and Will Eisner for the Spirit are front and center.

Batman/Doc Savage Special - Brian Azzarello, writer and Phil Noto, artist ($4.99)
As an intro to the miniseries, this isn't too bad. We get to see Batman meet up with Doc Savage, and get some insight into how Azzarello sees them. The "case" - a murder - isn't that interesting, though. There's also a behind-the-scenes section that introduces other characters who'll be making appearances in the mini. Very Interesting.

Doc Savage - Paul Malmont, writer, Howard Porter, artist. ($3.99)
This mag includes a backup feature called Justice, Inc. I've read the first 2 issues, and I like the Justice, Inc. story better, so far. Doc's is about someone trying to get to him and his friends. Justice, Inc. involves the kidnapping of one of the Avenger's men. All of the expected supporting characters are here, the timeline is right in that they take place in the 40's, and hopefully both story lines will improve. I do take offense at them using 5 pages from each mag to "preview" other comics, though. I feel like I'm being ripped off. Interesting.

First Wave - Brian Azzarello, writer and Rags Morales, artist ($3.99)
I've read the first 2 issues here, also, and find this more satisfying. First off, it's the whole mag, no backup story and no previews. The characters are well defined, and the supporting casts are there. They've even brought in some other characters familiar to the timeline such as the Blackhawks (though these are not your father's Blackhawks). Doc starts it off, the Spirit comes in, and Batman makes a brief appearance in issue 2. I enjoyed these.

The reason I wanted to write this now is that I just found out that Frank Frazetta passed away Monday, May 10th, at the age of 82. I owe my vision of what Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Conan the Barbarian, and so many other fantasy heroes look like to Frank's imagination as translated by his brushes. Sometimes, it was his covers alone that attracted me to a book. Thanks, Frank, for a lot of great memories. God Speed!

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