JSA 80
The conclusion of the Mordru, Jakeem, and some other loose ends story, leaving, of course, some loose ends, mainly, what happened to Hector and Lyta? I've really been enjoying the realistic art against black covers on this series, and Mr. Terrific convincing Thunderbolt that he's his own, uh, thunderbolt, was really nice, as was Jakeem using "please" near the end to ask Thunderbolt to carry out what would once have been an order. Nice, human touches in this book.
Outsiders 31
Speaking of nice, human touches, this one had one of my favorite scenes this year (so far, and the year's growing very short): Grace telling Roy in 3 whole pages that he's not devious enough, that he's just a "honest-to-God superhero." I know a lot of folks would view this as a lot of wasted panels, but I live for these moments, especially when they focus on Roy. I'm also liking the art on this book these days. Clark and Smith, with Thibert's inks, mesh well and they draw fairly expressive faces. The coloring was wonderful, too. This was an Infinite Crisis crossover, so it'll be interesting to see how it all fits in. Meanwhile, Katanna is back, so that's cool, too.
Lyta and Hector went off to the Dreaming with Dream of the Endless. From Neil Gaiman's Sandman series back in the 90s.
ReplyDeleteThere is loads of backstory with Lyta in that series.
Thanks. I never read the Sandman series, which I suppose was published mostly during my comics boycott. :)
ReplyDeleteOf course, we need to know if this is the last we'll see of them or if they'll be back, and of course, what will Hawkman's reaction be.
Well, when Champagne took over writing chores he promised two characters would never be seen again after he was done with this story, which generally translates to "won't be seen until the editor forgets this promise."
ReplyDeleteNot sure what Dad's reaction his son being replaced by a floating helmet and cloak will be, but it could be priceless.
Hmm.. If you stopped with Supergirl's death and took up again with Hal Jordan's return like I'm getting the impression you did -- you missed a lot of good stuff like Sandman, Starman, the JLA relaunch under Morrison, the JSA relaunch under Johns and Robinson... I only started reading in the 90s, so you'll have to excuse me while I enter "Recommendation" mode. If you can't afford or aren't looking for reading, it's still a good list of stuff to keep your eye out for when you can pick it up.
The Sandman is Gothy Vertigo stuff, but excellent for anyone who likes stories. It touches on just about every genre you can think of, and features a different artist every storyline because the mood changes a bit every storyline. It is intensely serious, though. Lyta shows up in the second volune, and later on in the second-to-last volume. Suggest you read it in order, though.
Starman is an excellent Superhero book that explores the Golden Age characters. It's written by James Robinson, who wrote the first JSA storyline, before Johns got the book. You must read Starman in order. It's just the way it has to go.
JLA from Grant Morrison is pure superhero wierdness, extremely fast-paced and filled with wild superhero feats. Just about any character he got his paws on got a moment to shine during his run, even Aquaman. He was particularly fond of Batman and Green Lantern, though.
You're a Hal fan, so the best pre-Rebirth Green Lantern story for you would be Emerald Knights -- the one which made me a Hal Jordan fan after having only seen Kyle for a few years.
If you like Geoff Johns, I suggest you keep an eye out for Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. back-issues. It's just a fun, playful series starring a teenaged girl who takes up superheroics to annoy her parents, and finds there's a little mroe to it. It ran 14 issues before the Star-Spangled Kid (now Stargirl) got moved to JSA. It was Johns' first writing assignment.
My comics reading between 1985 and 1991 is a bit complicated. I dropped almost all titles except Titans, and a couple of others where the Titans characters appeared but most I had to drop because they were working in the new continuity and were confusing. I hated losing the multiverse. In 1991, Titans got so annoying, I dropped that, which was my last book by then, and wrote a farewell letter that they actually printed in its entirety. I've had about 6 LoCs published and that was my best one. The answer was almost as long and fairly thoughtful.
ReplyDeleteI picked up comics again when I heard about the Nightwing mini, then started getting Arsenal-related comics, but it took a while to fill in enough of the blanks of what I missed so I could keep up.
I've been reading JSA since Hawkman's return (he's a fav character), but never did pick up JLA again. I just slowly started adding books back in, but pretty much ignored all the Superman titles and most of the Bat books, tho I love BoP and got the back issues I'd missed.
You didn't miss much of anything in the Super or Bat books. Those two characters were being written much better in JLA anyway.
ReplyDeleteTrust me on Starman, though. It's not as acclaimed as Sandman (mostly because it was obscure), but I've yet to hear anyone pan Starman.
I'll keep Starman in mind. One problem is I don't have as much time to read comics as I used to. Back when I stopped reading most of them in protest, I was up to 45 per month. Now I read about half that and am very far behind. I'm about to tackle Adam Strange and then the Rann Thanagar War. :)
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