The Coast With The Most

On the cover of the new Justice League there's some squawk about a "Bold New Era" beginning. Only fifteen issues in, DC surely doesn't mean to imply that they were faking it during the ostentatious New 52 relaunch, right? Well, not quite. But the first story arc, written by Geoff Johns (The Flash) and drawn by Jim Lee (X-Men) often felt like Superman, Batman, and the rest of DC's best were action figures, getting a perfunctory crash-together by bored toddlers.

It was entertaining, pretty- and little else, despite the appearance of alien dictator Darkseid. That said, the more I chomp on this phenomenon, the more I realize the initial Justice League outing was simplified for as large an audience a possible- especially kids and teens who'd seen the recent Batman and Green Lantern films.

But now, with the visual fireworks of artist Ivan Reis in play, this is indeed a different, more fan-friendly League. Reis helped relaunch Aquaman last year, dazzling fans with a Johns-scripted tale of undersea cannibals (that revitalized the hero like never before). Here, we begin a cross-over with that title in which fish are seen leaving the Atlantic Coast in droves. A great opening page, forbidding and atmospheric, that brings us to test missiles blasting off from an aircraft carrier ahead of schedule. They zoom to the bottom of the Atlantic, hitting the fabled spires of Atlantis.

Action, we expected. Next, however, come the Earth-bound displays of personality that make us root for heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman. "Right in this room," says Big Blue, "I thought about giving up Clark Kent completely. But I like being Clark Kent. I like who I am and who my parents were." And, about whether or not to wear a mask, like Batman, there's this incredible line: "I'd rather good people trust me than bad people fear me." This is essential Superman speaking, whom we'd thought lost as the New 52 proceeded apace with endless intergalactic hay-makers.

Not to worry, those of you uninterested in seeing Clark and Diana wear glasses, sip wine, and revel in their anonymity. Once Atlantis counterattacks, hitting Metropolis with a tidal wave (Reis is at his astonishing best here), our heroes zip to the city's defense. Also, the personal is layered throughout the widescreen, as reporter Lois Lane notices that Wonder Woman is awfully quick to Superman's side.

Even the minor scene where Batman chases and disarms the Scarecrow's thugs (in boats, under the Gotham Bridge) is beautiful. Reis, who years ago polished his muscular style on the brightly-lit Green Lantern, seems particularly thrilled to draw the Caped Crusader. Fighting for just a few panels, he's as acrobatic as he is unholy. Then Aquaman intervenes, and we overhear a few cops try to bring him into their squalid little locker room: "Oh, yeah, sure. He's got an Aqua-Signal that throws fifty pounds of fish food into the bay whenever a sailboat capsizes." Yet when his ravishing wife Mera arrives, they haven't much to say. "Speechless?" she inquires, "Or just a little wet, I guess."

This first issue of "Throne of Atlantis" leads directly into Aquaman, also out this week and welcoming new series artist Paul Pelletier (She-Hulk). We learn that Prince Arthur himself wrote up the plan of attack that his brother now uses against the entire East Coast. In Johns' hands this premise captivates, though it owes much to Mark Waid's 2000 JLA story "Tower of Babel." More than likely, the heavyweight scribe is well aware of this. He might even be teasing us, chumming the water so we sink our teeth in.

Collision Courses

Planets, perceptions and pipsqueaks go BOOM in my batch of comics for September 19, 2012. The planet is none other than Krypton, true birthplace of the Smallville, Kansas-raised Superman. But this telling of the alien world's demise happens in the 0 issue of Supergirl, as told by writers Michael Green and Mike Johnson. Artist Mahmud Asrar and colorist Dave McCaig's reliably stunning teamwork is on hand, too.

"Krypton will die," says rogue scientist Zor-El, as he contemplates sharing his conclusion with the rest of his people. He stands before his daughter Kara as she floats unconscious in a tank of fluid. At his remote lab, far from the eyes of distinguished scientists like Jor-El (Superman's father), he prepares her for a journey she doesn't know she's about to take. "Krypton will die. My daughter will not."

The planet's weather towers have been compromised (as seen last week in Superboy 0), and tremors wrack Argo City's spiraling citadels. As Kara and Zor-El travel among them, they glide in an elegant machine that's surely solar-powered. Or, maybe I just think so because McCaig sets most scenes with incredibly warm amber washes. This allows the rich red and blue costumes of the Kryptonians to pop. Asrar dresses them in a futuristic combination of royal cloaks and armor, reminiscent of Marvel's Asgardians (Kara's mother especially, who could pass for a female Thor in her winged helmet).

By the end, Kara and her father reach yet another strange chamber, this one housing an egg-like pod. Surprising her, Zor-El lets her try on a House of El uniform that's off limits to those who've yet to "pass the trials." She does so ecstatically, then grows too weak to resist being carried to the pod. As it launches, Kara escapes the bright green apocalypse that's made our planet such an interesting place for the last seventy years.

Over in Daredevil, a much more Earth-bound title, blind attorney Matt Murdock finds himself unable to trust the super-senses that carry him over rooftops and into trouble. This issue, almost two years into writer Mark Waid's run, offers yet another stellar dose of cleverness and intrigue. Chris Samnee's art, though more than half of it features conversation, is beautifully buoyant as ever.

Lawyer Foggy Nelson, recently split from his unpredictable partner Murdock, meets a man whose sister is in trouble. She's the nurse and physical therapist for gangster Victor Hierra. Upon finding his body completely drained of blood (between one second and the next), she ends up complicit in an impossible crime. Coupled with the aquatic drab of colorist of Javier Rodriguez, Samnee makes a fascinating premise an irresistibly consumable read. The world they create is dangerous but fun, and will merit frequent revisits once the run ends.

As for Daredevil himself, we don't immediately see him with a switch of the scenery. We're first treated to Murdock returning from a date with Assistant District Attorney Kirsten McDuffie. He's forced to close his apartment door in her face, smoochless but certain that he can hear a familiar heartbeat within. That he finds former wife Milla, blind like him and last seen in a mental institution, is a credit to Waid's willingness to connect his work with that of other writers. Milla is a vestige of hipster scribe Brian Bendis' six grim years on Daredevil, an era that Waid has sought to eclipse with his swashbuckling approach to the character.

Here, Milla's appearance helps throw ole' Horn Head into work. Foggy calls him, asking for help investigating the Hierra situation. During an always welcome penthouse melee with clueless goons, Daredevil sees a drug lord named Salazar run for the elevator. He then "hears" the man fall through an empty shaft with his radar sense. Once the elevator opens, however, the floor's intact and Salazar is nowhere. Combine this oddity with Foggy's in-person confirmation that Milla is still in a padded room, and you've got an unmissable next issue.

Back down the hall, Geoff John's new Justice League is an unmissable issue in its own right, as we finally see the result of multiple back-up stories starring the incorrigible Billy Batson. Gary Frank has been drawing the orphan's adventures with the darkly-rendered realism he brings to everything (most recently Batman: Earth One). The boy thinks his foster parents are imbeciles and his "siblings" idiots. But he does occasionally feed a tiger named Tawny at the zoo, so there's hope...

While running from the Bryer clan, teen bullies that pick on his disabled brother, Billy helps himself onto a train car. An apparently magical train car, that delivers him to the doors of the Rock of Eternity. This fortress of mystical relics is also the home of the heroic entity Shazam, and the prison of The Seven Deadly Sins (Greed, Sloth, Envy, etc.). Here, Billy speaks at length with  a scraggly old man, who is, "the last of the council of the wizards and the keeper of the Rock of Eternity."

After the keeper expresses doubt about Billy, he says,"Of course he's not the one I seek... Why is the magic wasting my time with these flawed people? The Dark One has been released." Bratty Bill is stunned that the keeper could hope for a perfect person. He replies, "People are horrible. They disappoint you. They let you down. I've spent my life learning that... Good people get swallowed up. They get taken advantage of. They disappear."

This heart-felt railing against the injustice of life is vintage Johns. It comes across as the world-weariness of someone with a chip on his shoulder, and the writer will slowly raise the character from this lowly state to someone we can root for.

The keeper, after this talk, sees that Billy has great potential for good, and invests him with the power of Shazam anyway. This means that, upon speaking the word "SHAZAM" with honest intent, the boy takes a lightning strike, no matter where he stands. He then transforms into a larger, less refined version of Superman (or so it seems from the outside).

But the first thing Billy does with his awesome new power is cripple a mugger and ask the victim for a cash reward. His foster brother Freddie says, "We're gonna be rich!" Not {ahem} if the Justice League have anything to say about it. This is their comic, after all, and the BOOM of a Shazam/Superman fight can't hit soon enough.

Statements of Purpose

Tackling controversy in comics doesn't always make a writer great, but great writers sure do love it, as shown in my September 5, 2012 batch of comics. Geoff Johns, who just last week wrote a kiss between Superman and Wonder Woman, this week gives us a newly minted Green Lantern, seen here brandishing a handgun. Yes, your eyes are working. That's a Green Lantern, whose magic ring allows him to create anything from pure willpower, exercising his 2nd Amendment right.

Johns' indictment of this miserable fact of American life couldn't be harsher. That is until you read the new Green Lantern's origin in this special issue. Simon Baz is his name. He's an Arab American, from Dearborn, Michigan, raised in the Post 9/11 World. Typical scenes from his youth include: washing graffiti from the walls of an Islamic Center, standing up for his sister against bigots, and patiently awaiting security to clear his passage.

Artist Doug Mahnke, whose monstrously fertile mind usually fills this comic with bizarre creatures, has only terrestrial terrors to illustrate here. A few pages in, we find Baz driving a truck with a bomb in it. As a car thief, he didn't know about the armed device, but Johns once again leans as heavily as possible on this hot button. Later, a trip to an island prison for hooded "interrogation" seems to finally clear the deck of scathing commentary.

Baz is rescued from a water-boarding by a glowing green ring that bursts through the ceiling. "Simon Baz of Earth," it says, in standard greeting to a new bearer, "you have the {ERROR} ability to overcome great fear." The error is new, but what it means is probably a twist for later. Another war is brewing in the four Green Lantern titles, and as I've said before, if Johns himself wouldn't love to read it, he doesn't write it.

The same is easily said of Dan Slott, who writes Amazing Spider-Man with the maniacal pride of a circus ringleader. Evidently a careful student of comics for decades, Slott fearlessly spins the many plates that keep readers obsessed: a flawed, sympathetic hero, a great supporting cast, and agile, in-character dialogue. Mary Jane's assertion that, "You're not who you are because your Uncle Ben died. You're who you are because your Uncle Ben lived," is brilliant regardless of story or context.

Slott also happens to out-plot the rest of Marvel's entire writing stable (sorry, Jonathan Hickman). His latest opus sees scientist Peter Parker inadvertently invest high school student Andy Maguire, whose class visits Horizon Labs, with Great Power. Next must come Great Responsibility, or so hope the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, because Andy's now possessed of super-speed, super-strength, and capable of shooting energy/creating a force-field. Character-wise, he's an unknown quantity, and all the other heroes insist that Peter wrap the lad in some fatherly webs.

The poignancy of Spider-Man getting a sidekick for his 50th Anniversary would be a story for the ages. This isn't that story. Andy, as the hero Alpha, is a solid-gold asshole. When not endorsing gadgets, tongue-wrestling chippies, and getting himself kidnapped (and cloned, WHEEE) by the Jackal, he finds time to call Spider-Man his sidekick. In this portrayal, Slott eviscerates our modern up-from-the-dumpster celebrities, who routinely perform career-destroying acts of idiocy and then bow.

Humberto Ramos, one of the first (and hardest working) manga-influenced artists of the 90s, is deep in his A-Game this month. He excels in drawing emotion, both exaggerated and subtle, and this being a less cluttered story than last year's Spider-Island, we get the full brunt of his talent on every page. Peter appears grim indeed after deciding, "His power is my responsibility. That gives me all the say I need. And I say- Alpha: No More."

But dire sentiments need not taint this entire review (for two paragraphs, at least). Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre, by the Eisner-Deserving team of Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner, is a spectacle of light, color, and one man's dong (on page 18). Yes sir, this is a comic that takes full advantage of its counterculture backdrop. The first quarter features our heroine, previously seen in the 1986 graphic novel Watchmen, tripping at a love-in and talking to the skeleton of her beloved bird Lamb.

The whole is exquisitely drawn by Conner (and psychedelically colored by Paul Mounts), who along with Becky Cloonan and Nicola Scott, is one of the best artists working today who happens to be female. Most of this comic sticks to the nine panel layout artist Dave Gibbons laid down in Watchmen, and is more cinematic for it. This is especially true when Cooke gives us two dialogue-free pages of the mercenary Comedian visiting the Spectre as she sleeps. She doesn't know it, but the vile man's her father. He drops a note on her dresser, pets her cat, and then leaves grinning. She's taken after him, naturally enough, kicking open doors and heads for the greater good.

Despite a slap-happy tone, however, this comic is unabashedly cynical. It gives us a drug lord, modeled on Frank Sinatra, who preys on those desperate for enlightenment. Elsewhere, a doctor tells Silk Spectre, "You kids had better take it easy on those acid parties," smoking with his nurse, "they could be detrimental to your health." In recent memory, the TV show Mad Men has also raked the Boomers over the coals for that one. Cooke, who wrote an awe-inspiring tribute to the early 60s with New Frontier, surely has more to say on the decade's second half. Here I hold my breath, awaiting the education.

Two by Johns

I've mentioned superstar DC writer Geoff Johns in other posts, but have yet to address his work directly. Today, August 29, 2012 presents a perfect chance to correct this oversight. Two of his New 52 titles have dropped into my hot little hands, and I'd be a prude not to discuss the supposed smooch-fest that is Justice League 12.

Last week, friends forwarded to me a shot of Superman and Wonder Woman lip-locked, asking my opinion. I realized, "DC wants mainstream news outlets reporting this, and so they are." But why? People like me would be reading comics if they were printed on toilet paper, and have seen this kiss before. Hell, we've even seen the tale in which Princess Diana and Clark spend a thousand years trapped together in a medieval world, in the throws of all-or-nothing passion.

No, it's everyone else, readers of one or two comics provided they can afford it, who matters to DC in this case. The publisher took a great risk, after all, in relaunching their entire Universe and reestablishing their characters from scratch. The New 52 is a more diverse Universe (so DC announced last November), featuring a fuller spectrum of minority heroes, and a better representation of gay and lesbian characters.

Overall, the New 52 has been a critical and financial success. In seemingly unrelated news, President Obama came forward in unequivocal favor of gay marriage earlier this year. Marvel, DC's main competitor, snatched some of that spotlight by wedding gay X-Man Northstar to his lover Kyle. DC, not to be outdone by the feats of minor characters, made more noise- I mean news- by saying that one of their MAJOR characters was gay. Um... alright.

What is this in front of me? Is DC trying to assure homophobic readers that their comics are safe? Possibly. As a fan of great stories no matter who's in them, such cynicism doesn't interest me. Johns (lest I forget whom this post regards) is an exceptionally thoughtful, not to mention careful, writer. Rather than flip a status quo because it's in need, like a wool blanket in April, he brings elements into play because he has plans for them.

This kiss heard round the world comes at a time when DC's icons, Superman especially, face accusations of being shallower than their counterparts from the "Old 52." Some fans find them less engaging, and less human, in their exploits. And yet, this Justice League tale, drawn by Jim Lee (and nine inkers, which may be a record), presents a young team coping with the stress of public disapproval.

Caught on film fighting each other, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman both take drastic measures to ensure the League's future. One quits, opting to focus on the cosmic threats that his ring is better suited to handle. The other severs contact with the first and best friend she's made since leaving Paradise Island, Steve Trevor. As the League's government liaison, Trevor helped build the heroes' good reputation.

A recent misadventure, against the villain Graves, leaves him near death. To Wonder Woman's claims that she's blinded him to the dangers they face, he says, "I thought you weren't like everyone else. I thought you didn't think I was a puppy dog following you around."

A fairly organic lead-in to Superman and Wonder Woman discussing (by moonlight) how superheroes can share their lives without destroying loved ones. Johns does fine here what he does with excellence elsewhere- make old ideas fresh, familiar poses startling, and comics something to be thrilled at by just about anyone.

Aquaman, strangely enough, is the character most benefiting from Johns' talent at the moment. The Justice League's walking sight-gag up until last fall, Atlantean ruler Arthur Curry now stars in a no-nonsense action series that one doesn't so much read as snort.

Since the first issue, Johns and workhorse artist Ivan Reis have given Aquaman the bold, cinematic treatment he's lacked for decades. The current issue is the penultimate chapter of a story called "The Others." In it, Arthur's wife Mera finally meets the rough and ready squad of adventurers who know her husband better than anyone. No, not the Justice League, but a huntress named Ya'Wara, a hooded soldier called the Prisoner, a Russian spaceman known as Vostok, and the Operative, who could very well have escaped from G.I. Joe.

Together, they battle Aquaman's nemesis Black Manta for possession of a trident that's one of several weapons said to have destroyed Atlantis. Like most summaries of Johns' scripts, however, I come up short in the face of what an addictive reading experience he creates. Reis, a penciller of muscular grace in the John Buscema range, fills his panels with sinewy dynamite. The action unfolds like a legend in the making, and goes by way too fast. To accuse other creators' work of being a fast read can be insulting. But like literature's best scribes, Johns writes for himself. In doing so, he manages to never insult us.