Tales from the Trade! - Superman and the Authority

Well, it’s September, and I’m feeling… eh. The kids are back in school, so you know that “Down with the Sickness” is going to be played a lot in many homes. Lately, it’s been hitting us with Liz and Andy being a little down for the count. Even though I’m not around here as much anymore, I got to talk about some Superman comics. I might even throw in a certain show that’s recently made it to Max. Today’s pick is Superman and the Authority, a miniseries that was starting just as Andy was being born. In fact, I got the first issue the day I closed my pick list at the Great Escape in Nashville. If there was one thing that was gonna get me to come out and get the whole trade, it would be Grant Morrison.

Now, the story behind this mini is a weird one that involves a defunct idea called 5G… no, not that 5G on your phone or in the airwaves. I don’t know everything about it, but it was another reboot that Dan Didio wanted to do. The key word is “wanted” because that whole idea blew up in smoke and Didio was let go from DC afterwards. The ideas (That whole DC Future event after Dark Knights Death Metal) kind of made their way into the comics, but things remained the same. I did hear that one idea was to take an older Superman down an authoritative route, but Morrison said “I say thee nay” or something and instead wrote about a lower-powered Superman forming a team of lesser-knowns, villains and sometimes killers. Yeah, that also sounds weird, but this is Morrison we’re talking about.

Random Thoughts On... Grant Morrison's Run on Batman and Robin

Next up for this phase of Batman talk, I thought I’d return to ‘ole Grant Morrison. This time, we’re not dealing with the dankness of Grant Morrison… oh wait, Professor Pyg shows up here. Never mind! Anyway, I’ve talked about Morrison’s Batman run from the 2000’s. I got through Black Glove, R.I.P., and Battle For the Cowl. Yeah, that last one wasn’t Morrison, but you needed it to get to the next phase: the Dick Grayson Era or “Batman Reborn”.

                                               

“Batman Reborn” started off the small era where Dick Grayson donned the cape and cowl, Damian Wayne became Robin, and Tim Drake became a restaurant. I’m only talking about the Morrison themed stuff here, so you’ll have to wait on my thoughts about Judd Winnick’s time on Batman. Morrison left the Batman book and got his own series, Batman and Robin. While he worked on that book for 16 issues, he also returned to Batman to write some issues. Then, he also had a mini-series called The Return of Bruce Wayne. Guess what happens in that mini. There’s also Batman: The Return, a one-shot that basically started off Batman Incorporated, to consider, but I’ll save that for another time.

Tales From the 50 Cent Bin! - JLA #10-15: Rock of Ages

Ah, that three/four day break from work/Nashville worked wonders. Yes, I wasn’t laying on my butt the whole time (my folks live on a farm), but you usually do that when you get a crown put on your tooth. Anyway, it’s time to get back into the swing of things. Some little indie movie called Justice League is coming out soon and I thought I’d look at a few things that feature the team. It’s not completely a themed month, but it’ll be a little DC-centered.

First up for the month is a return to Grant Morrison’s run on JLA. It’s even somewhat topical since it involves a Fourth World element. It’s “Rock of Ages” and it took place through JLA #11-15. At this point, the team had a bit of a change-up. Wonder Woman’s dead (don’t ask me, man), Superman’s in his electric phase, and we got a couple of new recruits in the form of Connor Hawke (Oliver Queen’s son) and Aztek. Morrison’s writes, Howard Porter draws (mostly) and John Dell inks. Porter does get a little help on the last issue from artists Greg Land and Gary Frank.

JLA #10-15: “Rock of Ages”

Writer: Grant Morrison

Pencils: Howard Porter, Greg Land (#15), and Gary Frank (#15)

Inks: John Dell

Colors: Pat Garrahy 
Separations: Heroic Age

Letters: Ken Lopez

Editors: Peter Tomasi, L.A. Williams, and Dan Raspler

Random Thoughts On... Grant Morrison's Action Comics Run

So, I’m at the end of another Superman Month. I’ve read/seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. When I mean ugly, I kind of mean “For Tomorrow” since that story just… let's just say I’m not a fan. I rather watch Steel again than read that. I thought I’d end the month on a bit of a high note by talking about Grant Morrison’s run on Action Comics.

Now looking on it in the Rebirth era of DC, Superman got the short of the stick with the New 52. I’m not saying that weren’t good stories (there were), but some of them weren’t the best. Luckily, it did start out well with Grant Morrison’s Action Comics. Unfortunately, I can’t comment on the Superman book that much. I know what came afterwards with Scott Lobdell was… okay? Maybe I’ll find out one day when I read more of what he did post “H’El On Earth.” I heard Greg Pak’s stuff was good and I even have his part of the recent “Truth” arc.

Morrison stayed with Action Comics from #1-#18 with a #0 thrown in for Zero Month. The artists varied throughout but the main one was Rags Morales. Others were Brad Walker, Gene Ha, Brent Anderson, Ben Oliver, Andy Kubert, Travel Foreman, and CAFU. Starting with Action Comics #4, there were also 8-page back-up stories and that lasted for Morrison’s run. Those were written by Sholly Fisch. He also did the annual for this series. The artists also varied with Brad Walker, Chris Sprouse, CAFU, and others contributing.

The idea, at first, was to show Superman at the beginning. As I’ve said before this month, it’s the thing to do with the character these days. What Morrison and Morales did was throw a lot of the Golden Age into Superman’s new beginning. He wasn’t the nice guy we’ve known for years. Well, he was nice to everyone else but criminals which is something I really liked. If you’ve read those old Golden Age comics, Superman was a rough guy. He even killed some criminals or he at least left some to die. This new Superman also had the same power set he had in the Golden Age, so he couldn’t fly yet. His parents were back to being dead and died when he was in high school.

Nothing to say here. Just Superman doing the impossible.

Tales From The $3.99 Bin! - Action Comics #14-#18

Next up in this final week of Superman Month, I thought I might as well finish off Grant Morrison's Action Comics run. I’ve more or less talked about every aspect of that run here except for #0 from Zero Month. Morrison’s run was pretty good and I will do another post about the run as a whole. The ones I'm talking about today are Action Comics #14-#18.

When we last left off, Clark Kent had died… kind of. Basically, Superman had to let “Clark Kent” die when an accident happened. Anyway, Superman tried on a new identity but he missed being Clark Kent. Mrs. Nyxly revealed herself to be from the 5^th Dimension and basically wished Clark Kent back to life. Yeah, it gets weird and it’s going to get much weirder. This is Grant Morrison, after all.

Grant Morrison handled all of the main stories while Sholly Fisch handled the back-ups. The artwork gets varied up a lot in this one. Rag Morales and Brad Walker handle the pencils for the main stories while Chris Sprouse handles the pencils for the backups.

Action Comics #14-#18

Writers: Grant Morrison and Sholly Fisch (back-ups)

Pencils: Rags Morales (main), Brad Walker (main), and Chris Sprouse (backups)

Inks: Mark Prospt and Andrew Hennessy (main); Karl Story (backups)

Colors: Brad Anderson (main); Jordie Bellaire (backup)

Letters: Steve Wands, Carlos M. Mangual, and Taylor Esposito

Editor: Matt Idelson and Wil Moss

Random Thoughts On... The Multiversity

I think I’m going to make this “Random Thoughts On…” section a thing now. It’ll give me a chance to talk about stuff that aren’t really reviews of different stuff. Heck, I may even go into another tangent like I did with the subject of a black James Bond. I probably won’t go too random with this new thing. I will say that today’s subject may slip into review territory though. 

Today’s subject is actually on The Multiversity by Grant Morrison. It was a limited series that was released around 2014 and 2015. It was basically Grant Morrison’s way to expand on DC’s Multiverse and basically tell a story within it. It’s kind of a sequel to Final Crisis in that he uses some characters and certain ideas in it. He apparently had this idea for years going back as far as 2010. I heard stuff here and there about it but I wasn’t really interested in it until it was officially announced. I also think the fact that I’m more of a fan of Morrison’s work these days helped too. I added it to my pull list and read it as it came out each month. I will admit that I was a little lazy with the last issue though. I’ve been going through my collection lately and I thought I’d re-read this on a whim.

Morrison wrote all nine issues. The art team varies with each issue since most of the series take place on different Earths in the Multiverse. We had guys like Ivan Reis, Frank Quitely, Chris Sprouse, Ben Oliver, Jim Lee, Cameron Stewart, and Doug Manhke handling the art in the miniseries. I’m not even going to mention the rest of the art team for the mini. There are too many names to mention. I heard that this series’ plot structure is similar to another series that Morrison worked on called Seven Soldiers. I haven’t read that yet but I’ve heard things about it.

Tales From the 50 Cent Bin! - Action Comics #13

Well, it’s time to get back to that Grant Morrison fellow. Just know that this isn’t the only Morrison-related story I’ll be looking at this month. I’ve already looked at most of his work on the rebooted Action Comics. Today is no different. I sort of looked at the first 8 issues a couple of years ago and at his “Death of Clark Kent” arc last year. Originally, I was going to look at Action Comics #9 (Black Superman ,ya’ll!!), but I’ve decided to look at Action Comics #13 today.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my family’s dogs, Spot, died from a heat stroke. Unlike most dogs we’ve had, Spot was around for the long haul. My dad got him back in 2001, I believe. He’s been at the house since then. He knew to stay away from the highway. He also tried to sneak in our house during thunderstorms. He was a cool dog and he will be missed. Anyway, Morrison was the writer of the main issue while Sholly Fisch handled the back-up. Instead of Rags Morales, Travel Foreman handles the art duties for the main story. Brad Walker pencils the back-up story.

Action Comics #13

Writers: Grant Morrison and Sholly Fisch

Artists: Travel Foreman (main) and Brad Walker (back-up)

Inker: Andrew Hennessy (back-up)

Colorists: Brad Anderson (main) and Jay David Ramos (back-up)

Tales from the 50 Cent Bin - Action Comics #10-#12

So, Grant Morrison... is bald... and looks like Lex Luthor! Don't worry, those could be considered to be good things as well.


In this post for the Month of Superman, I'll be coming to the 2010's and looking at a couple of issues from the Grant Morrison's run on Action Comics. Since I've looked at the first two arcs of his "good but okay" run last year, I'll be looking at Action Comics #10-12. Now, I can safely say that I'm a semi-fan of Grant Morrison. I've read  most of his recent DC stuff though I may be one of the only Superman fans who hasn't completely read All-Star Superman yet. I did enjoy the movie based off of the story though. I even liked Final Crisis which is something I'll be getting to later after I'm out of "Themed Month Rage." With all of that being said, let's see how this new Superman deals with Clark Kent being _____! By the way, I'm only looking at the main features, not the back-ups.

Action Comics #10-#12
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artists (...): Rags Morales, Brad Walker, and Cafu 
Inkers: Rick Bryant, Brad Walker, Bob McLeod, CAFU, and Andrew Hennessy

Battle of the Super-Origins: Superman - Part 3

The Superman

Finally, here is the section about Clark in Metropolis. His reasoning for coming to the city is still the same: he comes to Metropolis to help people in need. They are all determined in fighting for their cause. All the versions also treat everyone the same way. He treats Luthor the same but he ain’t afraid to choke or punch one.  He regards his parents in the same way and he kind of treats Lois the same way. Of course, there are still differences. His friendship with Jimmy in the Nu52 is different and the way he treats his true heritage is different. In MoS, he doesn’t embrace his Kryptonian heritage like he does in all of the others. He’s like “So I’m an alien with knowledge of my home world? Meh, I’ll pass.”

Insert Wayne Brady joke here.

Graphic Novels - DCnU Superman

Well, I'm finally at the end of Superman Month. I have to say that this was a nice little project. It was so nice that I have decided to start doing more of these themed months for things. I don't know what yet, but I hinted before that the next thing I may do has a "Star" in it, so you may know what it is if you have read more of my stuff (or just know me).

So, we are finally here at the new DCU, and it looks kinda good. I've gotten 6 of the 52. They've ranged from "meh" to pretty good.