dc comics – PopCult Reviews

Comic Book Review – Superman by Geoff Johns Part Two

Superman: Escape from Bizarro World (2008)
Reprints Action Comics #855-857, Superman #140, DC Comics Presents #71, and The Man of Steel #5
Written by Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, Otto Binder, E. Nelson Bridwell, and John Byrne
Art by Eric Powell, Wayne Boring, Curt Swan, John Byrne, and Dick Giordano

Superman: Secret Origin (2009)
Reprints Superman: Secret Origin #1-6
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Gary Frank

Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes (2008)
Reprints Action Comics #858-863
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Gary Frank

It was Escape from Bizarro World where I started to think Richard Donner wasn’t as involved in Geoff Johns’s Action Comics run as suggested. Something about the story beyond Eric Powell’s art makes me believe The Goon creator had more of a hand plotting the story. It makes sense because his tone to Bizarro’s cube-shaped version of Earth feels very similar to his cult-hit comic book series. The Donner involvement was likely little more than he and Johns talking on the phone over coffee about plots, which generally served as a good marketing tool to bring readers to Action Comics at the time.

Comic Book Review – Superman by Geoff Johns

Superman: Up, Up, and Away (2006)
Reprints Superman #650-653 and Action Comics #837-840
Written by Geoff Johns and Kurt Busiek
Art by Pete Woods and Renato Guedes

Superman: Last Son of Krypton (2013)
Reprints Action Comics #844-846, 851, 866-870; Action Comics Annual #11; and Superman: New Krypton Special #1
Written by Geoff Johns (with Richard Donner)
Art by Adam Kubert, Gary Frank, and Jon Sibal

Geoff Johns had his plate full in 2006. He was the top writer at DC Comics, having just penned Infinite Crisis and writing one of the best Flash runs ever, and was helming Green Lantern. He was also writing Teen Titans, having led a reboot to introduce a new generation to the book. Toss in 52, which he co-wrote with three others and other event books, and Johns was quite busy. Amid this, he picked up Action Comics and worked on a soft reboot of Superman that sought to fold back in elements from the Silver Age that had been removed following 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Comic Book Review – Sideways

Sideways: Steppin’ Out (2018)
Reprints Sideways #1-6
Written by Dan DiDio and Justin Jordan
Art by Kenneth Rocafort, Robert Gil, and Carmine di Giandomenico

Sideways: Rifts and Revelations (2019)
Reprints Sideways #7-13, Annual #1
Written by Dan DiDio and Grant Morrison
Art by Kenneth Rocafort, Max Raynor, Trevor Scott, Will Conrad, Cliff Richards, Shane Davis, Michelle Delecki, and Ibraim Roberson

Following the events of DC: Metal, a somewhat ludicrous storyline, DC Comics rolled out a line of comics that clearly attempted to create Marvel knock-offs. That’s nothing new. We’ll see later this month when I review Marvel’s Squadron Supreme that the Big Two have been doing this for decades, a playful series of non-copyright infringing homages that let writers make commentaries on the other company’s characters.

Comic Book Review – Green Lantern: Brightest Day and War of the Green Lanterns

Green Lantern: Brightest Day (2011)
Reprints Green Lantern #53-62
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Doug Mahnke and Shawn Davis

Green Lantern: War of the Green Lanterns (2011)
Reprints Green Lantern #63-67, Green Lantern Corps #58-60, and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #8-10
Written by Geoff Johns, Tony Bedard, and Peter J. Tomasi
Art by Doug Mahnke, Tyler Kirkham, Fernando Pasarin, Ed Benes, and Ardian Syaf

Blackest Night was a big success for DC Comics. It did something that few DC Comics event crossovers had done in recent history: put the spotlight on someone other than Superman or Batman. In this instance, it was Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps (and their multi-colored kin) that were made the focus. Bruce Wayne was dead (for the moment), and Superman was in the backseat for the story. The success of Blackest Night and Geoff Johns’ prominence was likely why Green Lantern’s continuity was left fairly untouched with the radical New 52 reboot. Brightest Day was a weekly series that followed BN, and the first collection we’re reviewing here are the Green Lantern issues that tied into that. In particular, they are part of an arc known as “The New Guardians.”

Comic Book Review – Blackest Night/Green Lantern: Blackest Night

Blackest Night (2010)
Reprints Blackest Night #0-8
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Ivan Reis

Green Lantern: Blackest Night (2010)
Reprints Green Lantern #43-52
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Doug Mahnke, Ed Benes, and Marcos Marz

Geoff Johns’s run on Green Lantern was intensely inspired by Alan Moore’s work on the title during the 1980s. The short story “Tygers” was most influential, which mentions the rise of the Guardians of the Universe’s greatest threats in the form of Ranx the Sentient City and the Children of the White Lobe, both of whom had shown up as enemies early in Johns’ run. In these Green Lantern Corps short tales penned by Moore, he introduced the prophecies of a Blackest Night. The details of this weren’t fully developed, but Nekron, a cosmic god of the dead, was involved. As Johns loves repurposing bits of DC Universe history, he devoted a large chunk of this run to the build-up of Blackest Night.

Comic Book Review – Batman: The Dark Knight Detective Volumes Five and Six

Batman: The Dark Knight Detective Volume Five (2021)
Reprints Detective Comics #612-614, 616-621 and Annual #3
Written by Alan Grant and Archie Goodwin
Art by Norm Breyfogle and Dan Jurgens

Batman: The Dark Knight Detective Volume Six (2022)
Reprints Detective Comics #622-633
Written by John Ostrander, Marv Wolfman, Bill Finger, Mike Friedrich, Alan Grant, and Peter Milligan
Art by Flint Henry, Mike McKone, Jim Aparo, Bob Kane, Bob Brown, Norm Breyfogle, and Tom Mandrake

We see a change of hands as we finish this round of post-Crisis Batman reviews. These issues will mark the conclusion of Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle’s run in Detective, as they were handed the reins of the Batman title. I would say these are not the duo’s best work. We get several one-shot stories before a dramatic conclusion that pushes Tim Drake into his next steps of becoming Robin.

Comic Book Review – Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying & The Caped Crusader Volume Three

Batman: A Death in the Family (2011) – “A Lonely Place of Dying”
Reprints Batman #440-442 and New Titans #60-61
Written by Marv Wolfman
Art by Jim Aparo, George Perez, and Tom Grummet

Batman: The Caped Crusader Volume Three (2019)
Reprints Batman #445-454, Detective Comics #615, and Batman Annual #14
Written by Marv Wolfman, Alan Grant, Andrew Helfer, and Peter Milligan
Art by Jim Aparo, Norm Breyfogle, M.D. Bright, Chris Sprouse, and Kieron Dwyer

In November 1988, Jason Todd, the second young person to hold the title of Robin, was murdered by the Joker in the pages of Batman. In March of that same year, The Joker shot & paralyzed Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) and kidnapped & tortured her father in the one-shot graphic novel The Killing Joke. Things had taken a dark turn for Batman. Tim Burton’s 1989 feature film furthered that with a Gothic, haunting version of the character and his world.

Comic Book Review – Batman: The Dark Knight Volume Four & The Caped Crusader Volume Two

Batman: The Dark Knight Detective Volume Four (2021)
Reprints Detective Comics #601-611 and Annual #2
Written by Alan Grant, Brian Augustyn, and Mark Waid
Art by Norm Breyfogle and Val Semeiks

Batman: The Caped Crusader Volume Two (2019)
Reprints Batman #432-439, 443-444 and Annual #13
Written by Marv Wolfman, John Byrne, James Owsley (Christopher Priest), and Kevin Dooley
Art by Jim Aparo, Pat Broderick, Michael Bair, and Malcolm Jones III

Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle continued their run on Detective Comics with a series of multi-part stories. In The Dark Knight Detective Volume Four, we get four plus a novel-length annual. This creative duo was a case of being in the right place at the right time on top of being immensely talented. They were working on Detective as Tim Burton’s Batman was released. Sales on the title went from 75,000 a month to 650,000 with that film’s debut. Their success on Detective would follow them to the Batman title for a couple years and even garner a spin-off ongoing with Batman: The Shadow of the Bat in 1992. Eventually, we’ll get to that one.

Comic Book Review – Batman: The Dark Knight Detective Volumes Two & Three

Batman: The Dark Knight Detective Volume Two (2018)
Reprints Detective Comics #583 – 591 and Annual #1
Written by John Wagner, Alan Grant, Lewis Klahr, Steve Piersall, and Denny O’Neill
Art by Norm Breyfogle, Dean Haspiel, and Klaus Janson

Batman: The Dark Knight Detective Volume Three (2020)
Reprints Detective Comics #592 – 600
Written by John Wagner, Alan Grant, Sam Hamm
Art by Norm Breyfogle, Irv Novick, Eduardo Barreto, Denys Cowan

Unlike Superman, Batman didn’t have a hard reboot following the continuity shuffling Crisis on Infinite Earths. Superman got a stand-alone mini-series, Man of Steel, that retold his origins and reshaped his supporting cast. Batman did get Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli’s Year One arc, but it didn’t wipe the slate clean like DC did with Superman. Superman also had a reasonably solid writing team during this period, helmed by John Byrne and Roger Stern. Batman has creative teams rotating in and out on his two monthly books in shorter runs.

Comic Book Review – Danger Street

Danger Street (2024)
Reprints Danger Street #1-12
Written by Tom King
Art by Jorge Fornés

Why do I pick up a new Tom King comic if I dislike his work? [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] You might be asking that. The premise for Danger Street is the sort of thing that would naturally hook someone like me. It’s based on First Issue Special, a short-lived D.C. Comics series from the 1970s, in which each issue served as a “pilot” for an ongoing project. The proposed titles spanned a diverse gamut from established but obscure heroes (Dr. Fate, Creeper, and Metamorpho) to reboots of concepts (New Gods, Manhunter, and Starman) to new ideas that used familiar tropes (Atlas, Warlord, Codename: Assassin) to complete weird left turns (The Green Team, Lady Cop, Dingbats of Danger Street, and The Outsiders). King takes all these characters, and attempts to weave a sprawling tale that mixes the epic feel of comics with the grounded takes of more post-modern comics. Like most of King’s work, the concept is far more interesting than the execution.