Tag: dc

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The Spectre Volume One: Crimes & Judgments

This is a review of The Spectre: Crime & Judgments, which collects the first twelve issues of John Ostrander (writer) and Tom Mandrake’s (artist) 1990’s run of the Spectre. It is no secret that I’m a huge fan of John Ostrander, the man responsible for the creation of Grimjack and the modern version of The Suicide Squad.

The Spectre is an older character who appeared in the Justice Society way back in the 1940’s. Basically, The Spectre is the Wrath of God. His purpose is to wreak vengeance on evildoers, and since he’s beaucoup powerful, he can do whatever he wants. The Spectre’s anchor/human host is Jim Corrigan, a cop killed in the 1930’s. Corrigan’s ghost still hangs around, even though sixty years have passed. Evil never sleeps, and neither does he.

My favorite issue of The Spectre features a trio of kidnappers who bury a child alive and die before they can reveal the child’s whereabouts. The Spectre storms into Hell and fights a devil for one of the kidnapper’s souls. When the kidnapper reveals the child’s whereabouts, the Spectre tosses him back into the eternal flames like a piece of garbage.

I don’t want to say a lot about the plot. If you are the type who’s easily triggered, I might skip this book. I myself had trouble reading the last four or five issues, but then again I’m a sensitive sort. The B-storyline features a character who mirrors the Spectre, in that he says he’s destroying evil. This character is also an enormous monster. Make of that what you will.

Great art, great writing. Highly recommended, especially if you like nihilistic horror.

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The New Teen Titans: Volume One

This is a review of The New Teen Titans: Volume One. I will not lie to you, dear reader. Marv Wolfman (writer) and George Perez’s (artist) run of the New Teen Titans is one of my favorite comic runs of all time. Keep in mind I’m not saying it’s one of the best, just one of my favorites. Yes, some of the content is problematic. Read: Raven manipulating Kid Flash’s emotions. But the synergy between artist and writer works very well. Along with Chris Claremont – writer of the X-Men – Mr. Wolfman is one of the most influential mainstream comic writers of the early 1980’s.

The New Teen Titans consists of seven members: Robin #1, aka Dick Grayson; Wonder Girl, aka Donna Troy, aka Wonder Woman Lite; Kid Flash, aka Wally West, aka Midwestern Americanus. These were the three members of the original team, whose adventures in the 1970’s may be readable to other people. They are joined by Starfire, aka Koriand’r, aka escapee from a Gor novel; Raven, aka Rachel Roth; Changeling, aka Gar Logan, aka Doom Patrol castoff; and Cyborg, aka Vic Stone.

The New Teen Titans are formed by Raven, an empath, because she’s terrified of her father, who is the Devil. The demon Trigon is the lord of an alternate universe who is so over-the-top evil it’s almost comical. His daughter Raven is emotionally manipulative and emotionally withdrawn at the same time, most likely because of trauma. One of the things that escaped my notice when I was twelve years old is that Raven is also a pacifist who eschews physical violence.

The villains of this volume are Deathstroke the Terminator, a villain who’s still around today. Also the Fearsome Five, who aren’t. But the star villain of this volume is Raven’s old man, Trigon, who puts the capital E in Evil. The Titans also have the obligatory brawl with another superhero team, in this case the Justice League of America, for plot reasons I didn’t quite understand at the time (mostly because it made no sense). Years later, I finally get it. Hint: $$$.

Highly recommended.

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Flash: Savage Velocity

Ah, the 1980’s. MTV, Ronald Reagan, Rocky Balboa, The Terminator, Freddy Krueger, buddy cop movies, Pee Wee Herman, Jason Voorhees, Ollie North, contras. Sting, singing Russians. I could go on but I won’t, because boy the 80’s sucked but the decade did produce some great comics. Thus, when Comixology had their annual end of the year sale, I picked up a copy of this book. I read some – not all – of the issues back in the day, and wanted a complete collection. The writer, Mike Baron, wrote a number of quality comics in the 80’s – Nexus, Badger, The Punisher – and of course The Flash.

First things first: this is a very different Flash. Barry Allen, temporarily dead, is replaced by his youthful sidekick Wally West. Wally has been depowered– he can’t break the sound barrier, has to eat two or three times the amount of a normal person, and passes out after he uses his super speed.

Wally himself is written like a 20-year old. An immensely privileged, stupid lucky 20-year old. He buys a lottery ticket and becomes a multi-millionaire. His mom moves in with him and he can’t bring himself to throw her out. His girlfriend is a decade older than him. She’s also married, and when her husband finds out he injects himself with a steroid that gives him super strength and speed and tries to kill Wally. As happens in superhero comics.

Other standout villains in this volume include Vandal Savage, a caveman who dresses like a French lord and designs a highly addictive drug that grants its users super speed. The Chunk is a human event singularity who must consume 47x his weight or implode. The people Chunk consumes are transported to an apocalyptic hellhole. Despite this, Chunk isn’t exactly Doctor Doom, and is written more as a misguided soul than a villain.

This is a nice run by Mike Baron, who only stuck around for 14 issues plus an annual. The issues move fast, pun intended, and there’s an endearing weirdness to the stories, most of which are inspired by the 1980’s – Max Headroom, drug epidemics, the Cold War, ‘roid rage. Wally himself isn’t portrayed in a very heroic light, whether he’s having an affair with a married woman, puttering around his Long Island mansion, or going to parties hosted by Mafia Dons. He’s written as materialistic and horny, a man incapable of saying no to any woman. Unsurprisingly, most of his relationships are shallow and dysfunctional. This was all part of DC’s grand experiment of giving their heroes personalities. It didn’t go on long, but it sure was interesting while it lasted.

I recommend this graphic novel. The first comic book I ever bought was an issue of The Flash, back in 1978 when Barry Allen wore the scarlet tights. I’ve read a lot of Flash since then, and I am here to say that Wally is a more interesting character than Barry Allen ever was. The powers that be might have brought Barry back, but Wally will always be my Flash.