Tales from the 50 Cent Bin! - Superman: The Man of Steel #0

Well, I’m back in the mid 1990’s. I don’t have too many books from the late 90’s, so I decided to look at this issue from 1994. At this time, Superman had been back from the dead for a while and was dealing with a crapload of stuff. Bizzaro came back, Lex Luthor went nutso, and Superman put on some weight… that was weird. Anyway, the “Crisis” event, Zero Hour, happened and while that was pretty convoluted, it was cool. I talked about it and the Superman tie-ins last year. Now, Superman’s done with his space and time adventure.

After Zero Hour ended, DC released zero issues for their titles. All four Superman books went through this as well and they all tied in together pretty well. I might touch on the rest of those issues someday since they actually introduced a new villain for Clark. Superman: The Man of Steel #0 was written by Louise Simonson. The pencils were done by John Bogdanove and the inks were done by Dennis Janke. So, let’s see what happens when someone has their sights out on Clark Kent!

Superman: The Man of Steel #0

Writer: Louise Simonson

Pencils: John Bogdanove

Inks: Dennis Janke

Colors: Glenn Whitmore

Letters: Ken Lopez

Associate Editor: Frank Pittarese

Editor: Mike Carlin

Tales From the 50 Cent Bin! - Superman #1

Well, it looks like I’m stepping back into the world of Superman. Since Robocop is coming out this week, I thought I would try to see if I had an issue that featured a cyborg. While Vic Stone (Cyborg from the Teen Titans) was too obvious, I thought I would go with another cyborg: Metallo. For those who don’t know, Metallo is one of Superman’s deadliest foes. He’s a cyborg who carries a heart of kryptonite, a substance that’s deadly to Superman. Today’s issue is Superman #1, and no, it’s not the Perez/Merino one. This is the Post-Crisis Superman fresh off of Man of Steel from 1986. Hey, I’m looking at a reboot when another reboot’s coming out… Cool!

The writer and penciller is John Byrne. If you don’t know already by looking at this blog, you can tell that Byrne is one of my favorite classic artists. I don’t know about his current stuff, but his classic stuff from Marvel and DC is pretty awesome. The inker is Terry Austin who is one of Byrne’s regular inkers. He’s inked with Byrne on books like Uncanny X-Men and this book. He’s also inked a lot of stuff for DC over the years. Well, let’s see what happens to Superman as he goes up against this terrible-dressing robot for the first time

Graphic Novels - Superman: The Supergirl Saga

Superman: the Supergirl Saga
Writer: John Byrne
Pencillers: John Byrne and Jerry Ordway

Well, it’s here. I finally have the will and the time to start this. I got these three issues at The Great Escape for a decent price ($3.00 maybe?). I got these mostly because I heard so much about it. The last issue is also John Bryne’s last time on the Superman books (I think it was creative differences, I don’t know). At this time, he was writing both Superman books. Action Comics (a book he also wrote on for a time) had ended up becoming weekly for a while. Anyway, these issues are Superman #21-22 and The Adventures of Superman #444. So let’s get to it.

Graphic Novels - Legends

This installment of Graphic Novels is brought to you by Dr. Zaius: Minister of Science and Defender of the Faith -- Man, that does sound weird.

"There is no contradiction between faith and science... true science!"

Okay, enough of that.

Legends
Writers: John Ostrander and Len Wein
Artists: John Bryne and Karl Kesel

Well, with names on a mini-series like this, you would think that this is the greatest thing out there. You would be mostly right and a little wrong. It's good in some places and not so good in others.

I had actually planned on getting this for some time now. I found issues 1-5 in a 50 cent bargain bin (I actually got 2-5 for free somehow - the cashier either didn't know what she was doing or I somehow wooed her, I don't know). On the other hand, issue 6 was...well, too much. So, I spent about $7.00 on the whole thing.

Today's post is a mix of stuff: synopsis, critique, highlights, etc. I'll give a quick synopsis of the whole thing (a lot of stuff happens), critique it a little, and talk about the highlights of the series. So here I go:

Graphic Novels - Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn 2

Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn 2
Writers: Keith Giffen and Gerard Jones
Artists: M. D. Bright and Romeo Thangal

Well, it’s the 31st of May, and I’m at the house in Nashville on a Tuesday night...not at work. By the way, I really hate cars that sing the song “The Song Known As Forget You” (My Camry gave out…again). Anyway, since I have the time, it looks like I’ll move on to Part 2 of Emerald Dawn. It’s done by the same creative team that did the first part. The series came out in 1991 and it was a 6 issue mini-series. Now it’s time for a little back story on why I got this. I was at the Great Escape (great place, by the way) and I was looking for something good to read. I actually got issue 2 of the miniseries because I heard something about the current DC Editorial not liking the Emerald Dawn series. So I got it, and didn’t really read it till a few days later. When I read it, I enjoyed it and set out to get the rest of the series, as well as Emerald Dawn. So let’s get on to this pretty good story:

Graphic Novels - Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn

Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn
Writers: Jim Owesley (Issue 1), Keith Giffen (issues 2-6), and Gerard Jones (issues 2-6)
Artists: M.D. Bright and Romeo Tanghal

So why did I get this? Simple, I read Emerald Dawn 2 and enjoyed it. I wanted to see how it all began for the Green Lantern. Also, the new movie is coming out. Now, I’ll talk about why I got Emerald Dawn 2 in the first place later. I’m only doing this post of Emerald Dawn because to understand what happens in 2, you have to read 1 first.

I don't know much about the creative team, only that they are real good. most of this team was already on the main Green Lantern book at the time this came out, so that definitely helps the situation. the Mini-series came out around 1990. So, let’s jump into this origin for Hal 'Swingin' Jordan.

Graphic Novels - "I'm back!"

Well after about a month of not doing the GN thing, I'm back and I'm doing something new...sort of anyway. For the last few months, I have been getting a lot of DC stuff from the mid 80’s to early 90’s. I have to say, it’s some real good stuff. So, I am going to take a break from the “Geoff Johns Saga” and I am going to go over stuff from DC post-COIE. Since I got "Man of Steel" out of the way, I'm going to go over another hero's origins and first days.


Remember that hero who went to prison for 90 days on a DUI charge? Well, that hero was Hal Jordan, Green Lantern of sector 2814. Who knew? The Emerald Dawn series goes into Hal’s early days as a GL. It also goes into the story of a well-known villain of Hal’s, which is some fun stuff. Before I hit , I have to talk about how Hal got to that road, as well as how he got the ring and began to be the “Greatest Green Lantern of All Time”. The story is called Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn. Now I’m not going to give a big synopsis of the 6-issue tpb, but I will give you a small synopsis of the story and my feeling about the story. Plus, since the movie Green Lantern is coming out in about a month, this sounds like a nice time to do it.

Graphic Novels - The Man of Steel

And after two weeks, I'm back, perplexed as ever. I may be starting Grad school in the summer instead of the spring now, I am still unemployed (but still looking around, and if anyone knows of a job in my immediate area, tell me), and I'm still wondering why in the heck does a test need to cost 250 George Washingtons? I must know!

Well, since I have gotten all of that out of the way, I can once more go through this little collection of mine. Today's (or tonight's) topic is called "The Man of Steel".

The Man of Steel

Written and Pencilled by John Byrne

Inked by Dick Giordano