What's your latest read?

Considering that Gerard Jones, who wrote much of the early 90's Green Lantern titles, including Mosaic, is now in prison for child pornography, it's unlikely that DC will collect his work every again. They cancelled a whole bunch once the charges were brought to light. But the Mosaic stuff is pretty cool, and Green Lantern #19's one of my favorite comics ever. But it's completely tainted now.

Anyways, I finished reading both Scout and Scout: War Shaman by Timothy Truman, published by Eclipse comics. Those are some damn fine comics. Truman also wrote and illustrated Hawkworld, which is probably THE finest Hawkman story ever written, if not one of the finest mainstream superhero comics ever published. They truly do not make comics the way Truman made Hawkworld these days.

I also started reading J.M. DeMatteis' Dr Fate run and I'm loving it so far. Very introspective and a little goofy, but it packs a punch and a lot of heart.

 

I can see why that might influence their decision on that one...

 

Batman '89 and Batman Returns. Dug out my original comics adaptations, having rewatched both movies in the last week following the news/rumour about Keaton returning

 

That’s awesome. I remember reading a few pages of the Batman 89 adaptation in a bookstore when it came out. I never read it since.

 

Batman Forever original comic adaptation, after rewatching the movie a few days ago.

 

Just finished reading Catwoman/Vampirella (1997 DC/Harris one-shot crossover) -- I've reviewed it on the Vampirella appreciation thread if anyone's interested.

 

Just finished reading Hawkman: Awakening. This collects issues 1 - 6 of Hawkman's ongoing series.

My experience of Hawkman's solo stuff is pretty limited. Most of my exposure to him has been from 'events' and Justice League. To be honest he never interested me much. He seemed to be an angry a-hole, whose sole reason for being was to shout and hit things. But a few weeks ago I saw this. The cover called it 'an adventure that flies out of Dark Nights: Metal'. Whilst Metal was far from perfect there were enough things that I liked that I paid a bit more attention to Hawkman: Awakening than I would otherwise have done. And I bought it.

The whole thing has a very strong Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider/Relic Hunter vibe. After the events of Metal, Carter Hall is plagued by visions of a coming apocalypse (brought about by the aforementioned 'Deathbringers') that seems connected to him and his past lives. He sets out on a quest, beginning at London's British Museum, to try to unravel his past and his own lost memories in an attempt to prevent the coming destruction.

I knew that Carter Hall was an archaeologist but this book really plays that aspect up. I'm a sucker for stories where people discover documents/relics than have lain 'hidden in plain site' for centuries. Carter's quest leads to several such objects - and each time he finds himself instantly transported to the time/place of their origin, where he encounters past versions of himself. To say any more about the plot would really start to spoil, so I'll just say that I really, really liked this.

Robert Venditti's writing is spot on. He has a fantastic turn of phrase. The first words on the first page ...

'I am Carter Hall. I am Hawkman. I'm an archaeologist. A scholar and preservationist of history. More than that, I am history. I've reincarnated across time, stretching back to the dawn of man. I ruled as an ancient Egyptian prince. Battled as a medieval knight. Dueled as an Old West gunhand. Yet lately, I'm plagued by the thought that the subject I know the least about is myself. That pieces of my history are missing. There remains only one truth that I know to be certain -- I am made to soar.'

... pulled me in and the quality never dropped. And for the first time I actually found Hawkman to be a person. Not just shouting, not just hitting. A person with different facets to his personality, emotions other than anger. And he was really interesting.

Bryan Hitch's artwork is excellent. His faces, figures, and landscapes are fantastic. And his action scenes are gripping, and so lifelike that you can almost see them move.

Seriously, I can't remember the last time a comic book surprised me so much. We don't get an answer to the riddle yet, but Hawkman Volume 2: Deathbringer is now on my list.

8/10

 

Great review, as usual. My association with Hawkman has always been the same as yours. I thought he was most interesting when he was playing right wing heel to Green Arrow’s left-leaning SJW. And even then (and maybe especially then) he’s not very likable. Your review intrigued me though. I read Metal and I think that next up for me will be Death Metal. So I might give this a chance as well.

 

Thanks @Babillygunn Yes, I'm looking forward to Death Metal too. I also need to catch up on The Batman Who Laughs mini series. Have you read that one?

 

I have. And I really enjoyed it, which somewhat surprised me because I was not a fan of Metal. I think that the difference was ironically related to our previous discussion we had a couple of weeks ago. Whereas Metal tried to be a colossal “event”, The Batman Who Laughs just tried to be an intimate, self-contained adventure story. It very much succeeded whereas, to me, Metal felt too confusing and over-blown with forced stakes that were much higher than they should’ve been.

On a related note, I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this, but one thing that I did take away from Metal as a bright spot: if there is ever another comic that would feature a team up of Nightwing, Damien, Green Arrow and Suicide Squad, I would buy it without question. That was pure lightning in a bottle. The way Nightwing related with Green Arrow was reminiscent of O’Neil’s Green Arrow and Green Lantern. In the hands of a good writer, they’d be great together.

 

Agree, that was definitely one of the highlights.

Thanks for the heads-up re The Batman Who Laughs. I'll try to get hold of that as soon as I can

 

Just finished reading Batman: Universe (collecting Batman: Universe issues 1 - 6 from 2018/2019).

All that's missing after those last two sentences is 'Tune in next week! Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!' And that's a clue to the tone of this. Okay, it's not quite Adam West, but it's getting there.

Writing is by Brian Michael Bendis, he of the unbridled hate following his work on Superman. I've never read any of his work at Marvel, but I see a number of people saying that his take on Daredevil showed that he'd be a good fit for Batman, and that his strength is writing for street-level characters. I found his style took some getting used to. It's very... quippy, almost distractingly so. Again, looking online I see that 'snappy banter' is Bendis' thing, and there's certainly plenty of it;

Batman: I don't fly.
Thanagarian: You have wings.
Batman: It's a cape.
Thanagarian: I'm sorry. I assumed it was for a purpose.
Batman: It glides.
Thanagarian: Aw. Cute.

Hal Jordan: Dinosaur Island!
Batman: I love dinosuars.
Hal Jordan: You do?
Batman: Of course I do.
Hal Jordan: "Batman loves dinosaurs".
Batman: I have a giant dinosaur in my Batcave.
Hal Jordan: Oh... Yeah. I need a cave.

Have to say, the banter feels more natural to me coming from Nightwing, Cyborg, Green Arrow, Hal Jordan, and Alfred (he's here, this is a non-continuity story) than from Batman. I won't lie though, some if it did make me chuckle. The plot itself isn't exactly complex. A Faberge egg possesses some strange power that can (amongst other things) zap people around the universe when they're not expecting it. Riddler steals it to order. Batman wants to know who for, and why they want it. That's pretty much it. It reads like an excuse to put Batman in some off-the-wall situations, throw in a few guest stars and generate some laughs. There's no substance to it. I realise that the story isn't meant to be particularly profound, but it feels like the comic book equivalent of fast food/empty calories.

Art is by Nick Derington. A lot of people have praised it. For me it's a little too cartoonish. I guess it fits the tone of the story, but I prefer my Bat-stories more serious, and my Bat-artwork more dramatic.

I can't say it's bad. It's entertaining enough, but I won't read it again (I'll admit I seem to be in the minority, by the way. Most of Reddit seems to praise it, and Goodreads rates it 4/5 stars).

7/10

 

I strongly recommend picking up Timothy Truman's Hawkworld and bin diving (or buying online) the John Ostrander-penned ongoing series of the same name that followed.

It deals with the Thanagarian version of Hawkman, and despite there being more than a few narrative hiccups in the ongoing series, Truman's Hawkworld is one of the most thoughtful interpretations of any comic book character I've read published by DC or Marvel. The ongoing capitalizes on it in a very clever way, especially the Escape From Thanagar arc. While I like Hawkman as a general character, it's this brief moment of Hawkman publishing history that I'm a die hard fan of.

 

Thanks for the recs @CrimsonMist

 

Finished Doomsday Clock, and would rate with an 8.

 

I rated Doomsday Clock an 8 as well.

Of course, I rated it 8 out of 50. Lol. Admittedly I might’ve liked it if I had read it collected and not as it was released. The delays really killed it. But I still don’t think I would’ve liked it that much more. I didn’t like Geoff Johns’ attempt at doing an Alan Moore impersonation. I also had trouble with the Watchmen universe’s inability to tonally connect with the DC universe. In the end, neither really felt like themselves. I felt like the tease at the end of Flash Forward was more interesting than anything in Doomsday Clock. And I am going through Death Metal to get up to Speed Metal so that I can see where that plays out.

I will give you that Mime and Marionette were cool characters though.

 

I disagree but yeah, you're allowed yo have your opinion.

 

Thanks for allowing me that luxury.

 

I read the 1st book in Batman: The Smile Killer and I'm intrigued enough to keep going. Andrea Sorrentino's artwork is as awesome as ever, though I feel confident in my prediction that .

I haven't come across a Batman-mythos Black Label book I haven't enjoyed yet. Damned and Harleen have been the best of the bunch. I don't necessarily dislike Joker/Harley: Criminal Sanity. The story is good and I like seeing Harley Quinn as a detective, but I could've done without the section near the beginning where Harley gets into an argument with an older detective because "I'm a woman and you hate that". At least that hasn't shown up again in subsequent books in the series.

 

Iron Man: Enter The Mandarin

Great and fun story, with a solid origin and villain, art was good and it's a lot of fun.

8/10

 

I didn’t realize that Smile Killer is a sequel to Killer Smile. I might give it a read. Killer Smile started so well only to fizzle out in the last issue. I’m going to have to see if this redeems that ending.

 

What didn't you like about the ending?

 

Sorry I missed this post.

I thought the book opened in #1 like gangbusters and was terrifying and intriguing. At times it even made you physically uncomfortable. Then that continued through the first 2/3 of book 2, right until the psychiatrist starts to unravel mentally. In the end, when he appears in clown makeup, it completely jumped the shark for me. Book 3 was just kind of generic in my mind.

I probably would’ve liked it more had issue 1 not started off at such a high level. I guess it was unsustainable and just kind of disappointed from them on.

 

Batman: Death In The Family

9/10

 

Batman: White Knight & Curse of The White Knight

loved them both.

Dark Nights Metal.

A tad confusing and convoluted, but pretty cool. I want to read Death Metal but have no clue where to start after Metal.