This recently concluded series has a lot going for it. It’s been lauded as the best Superman story in years with many levels of subtext, and people are waiting for the inevitable Absolute edition.

I liked it, but I didn’t think it was the best story in years. I probably missed all the metaphors (I enjoy them, I just never get them by myself). However as a superhero story it’s very good.

This being out of continuity it’s the perfect story that summerizes Superman’s character. It also has a silver age feel to it, where Superman has many different powers and is also a scientist.

There are many important events in the history of Superman, some of them are re-interpreted here. Clark telling Lois about his real identity, then giving her superpowers for 24 hours. Pa Kent dying. Jimmy Olsen (never liked him though). Bizzarro world ( also never likes this, but it was a nice parallel to Superman’s role in the world.

The main focus of the series is Superman’s place in the world and Lex Luthor’s plan to destroy him. Superman is actually dying of cancer (his version of it) and this being a standalone series actually made the threat real.

The final confrontation with Lex is both action oriented and philosophical. I really liked that Lex finally saw things from Superman’s perspective, that really changed him on a fundamental level. Which is why I like the theory that Quintum is actually a reformed Lex from the future.

But Superman’s final fate was really the high point of the series for me. He basically is gone, but he’s powering the sun from its heart. What better final fate than that of keeping the whole world alive.

Quitely was at the top of his game. The subtle expressions, the angles, the action scenes. All were greatly executed. It took a while for him to finish this series, but it was well worth it.

There’s so much more to this story, the future Gold Superman, the cast at the Planet etc… I’ll still enjoy it on multiple reading.

I’ve written about Snapture in the past but their new release deserves another post. Version 2.1 (compatible with firmware 2.1) contains free trials for people to experience the premium version of this great app. My favorite premium feature is the preview, which allows you to check out the latest photos you’ve taken without having to quit Snapture and go to the Photo app.

There are other features, but hurry if you want to try them. There are only about 150k trials left out of the million trial challenge. Simply tap on the “Try Now FREE” on the opening popup, it will convert your basic Snapture into the full Premium Snapture for the rest of the session.

More info here:

www.snapturelabs.com

This issue is basically an epilogue to the CSA story arc. The anti-matter world is in chaos after their trinity is gone. Which is why our trinity is becoming evil (sorry, don’t really buy that).

In the meantime we still don’t know what is going to GL, and then Enigma appears and sends everybody back to their own dimension. But not before allowing the howlers to brand Superman. Now Batman is the only one missing, if I remember correctly.

There were some panels depicting alternate versions of DC characters, but I get those references. Which didn’t prevent me from enjoying the story at all. The main point of this story is the dilemma of what to do with the anti-matter world, is there hope for these people? An interesting question though I don’t know if we’ll get an answer any time soon.

The second story picks up where we left off last issue, with the Dreambounds trying to steal Max Lord’s tomb. This is basically a big fight between them and a whole lot of superheroes. The main one is still Hawkman, and he manages to defeat the Dreambounds except for TVM, who teleports away with Max Lord’s skull.

I noticed that the other Dreambound didn’t seem too upset at being captured, and I am sure we haven’t seen their last appearance yet.

Good action issue for both stories, good art by Bagley and Derenik. I haven’t mentioned the covers yet, so this is a good time to start. Each 3 covers are connected and form a bigger image.

1-3 is by Carlos Pacheco: these are 3 iconic images of the trinity, not very connected but very beautiful.
4-6 is also by Pacheco, this is an action image, with the Trinity attacking Konvikt. The way the three covers are divided is very smartly done, but the figures look off, especially Konvikt and Wonder Woman.
7-9 is by Andy Kubert: this is his version of the iconic images, standing in front of their tarot cards.
10-12 is also by Kubert: these are more dynamic poses, but they’re still not very connected. The connection between the 3 covers is the American flag in the background, and the writing “Truth, Liberty, Justice for All”.
13-15 is by Jim Lee: each Trinity is fighting a member of the CSA trinity. Always love Jim Lee drawings, though these are again not well connected covers.

So far the best image in terms of connection between the 3 covers is 4-6 by Pacheco. Too bad that the figures don’t look as good as the others. I understand it’s not easy, but I am hoping future covers will be smarter.

This is one of the best new series of the year, created by Joe Hill. It has an original high concept: a house with many different keys that allow you to magically go to many different places, including becoming a ghost.

But the story itself is much more grounded, it’s about a family tragedy and how this tragedy affects its individual member. It really feels more like a thriller with supernatural elements, with very good characterization.

Even though this is a self contained story, there is a lot of their past that is only hinted at, and the bigger picture is still to be revealed. Not to mention that the end really makes you want to read the next story.

The art by Gabriel Rodriguez is very good at distinguishing the characters, so I had no problem recognizing them. That’s very important in a certain scene where it was revealed how things really happened.

I don’t want to talk about the story too much, I really want everyone to check this series out. This is only the first mini series, the second one should be out by the end of the year. I can’t wait for that.

I haven’t been reading recent Warren Ellis comics, mainly because I want to read the whole story and because I still haven’t finished reading Transmetropolitan. But this is a very recent series and it is concluded, so I jumped at it.

This actually feels like a continuation of his Authority work at Wildstorm, only it’s very openly about politics. There are two levels to this story.

One is all about the heroes and their powers. This story starts in the present, but things go bad very quickly, but there is a whole history behind how these people got power and what happened to them. These flashbacks are presented in black and white, so that it’s very clear when they take place.

The other level is obviously about American politics. The story starts with John Horus killing the president of the US and wanting a new election. He doesn’t think of himself as evil, on the contrary he judge the president to be a criminal, all he wants to do is to make USA a better place.

That single act spawns many political discussions, between his fellow superheroes, between soldiers, government people etc…. all very interesting debates, though it’s clear what most people think.

There is a little mystery about Tom, but I saw that twist coming from the beginning. One of the problems I had was that there wasn’t one character that we could follow from start to finish, someone we could latch on for this world. It started with Tom, but as soon as everybody else was introduced he disappeared.

Other than that, I really enjoyed this series, it had both plenty of action as well as high brow discussions about morals. The art by Juan Jose Ryp is very detailed, especially in gory scenes. Sometimes though it’s a bit confusing, I can’t quite understand what is going on. But overall it does a good job.

Lately I’ve been watching only comedy tv shows, and this is one more. Luckily it is short, so it shouldn’t take me too long to watch the rest.

This seems the perfect series for a comic geek like myself. This animated series has a lot of comics references, as well as other pop culture references. It starts out slowly, focusing on the “heroes” at first.

The Venture brothers are just really dumb boys, but they’re really funny. Their father is Doc Venture, the smart one. While his body guard is Brock Samson, the coolest secret agent ever. He’s my favorite character, his scene with the Russian spy was hilarious.

Then there are a ton of supervillains, all pretty funny. But this series doesn’t start to click until the last part of the season, when all the characters introduced previously start to get tied together. We also delve into the characters past, which is both good storytelling and just funny.

There are some problems that seem to be dictated by limited budget. The intro music is really annoying, I always try to skip it if I can. The title credits are also not that interesting to me, I really don’t see why the skull is so prominent.

Also there are only a few voice actors that dub multiple characters, and sometimes they’re not distinguishable, which is confusing and distracting. Some of the villains I just don’t care about, others I laugh every time they speak (I love it when Doc Orpheus speaks seriously and menacing).

I should mention that this is not a show for kids, their jokes are often of sexual nature or just mature by nature.

This first season is promising, I am looking forward to the rest.

Season Rating: 2.5 Stars

John Byrne is the first comics artist I ever started to follow. I read all of his major works and I’ve enjoyed most of them. I haven’t been following him in the last 2-3 years, there’s just too much new stuff to read.

The fact that I know much about his work definitely decreased my enjoyment of this volume of Modern Masters. I really knew much of what he discussed about his work, and even some of his personal opinions about the comics industry and other people.

I don’t care about what people perceive him as, I don’t know if it’s true, and even if it is I just like to read his comics. This volume is still very well done, but the interviewer obviously tried to get some spark (not necessarily controversy) from Byrne, because that’s what he’s most known for these days. So there’s not as much history about his past work as I would have liked (but he had such a long career, it was have taken 2-3 volumes to cover it all).

But let’s forget about that for a second and let me discuss some of his work.

I recently re-read his run on X-Men with Claremont, and it is really a classic run. His pencils and the plot he contributed definitely created some incredible stories. But it isn’t my favorite work of his. I think his Fantastic Four really accomplished a higher level of quality. Not all of his run was great, but it was a long run, so it’s inevitable.

Moving on to his Superman, that’s the Superman I know about. I didn’t read any pre-crisis Superman, so this is really the definitive Superman in comics for me. They were fun stories that defined a modern version of Superman, as well as some important relationships.

The first run by Byrne I ever read was West Coast Avengers, so that run will always have a special place in my memory. It really was full of events for Scarlet Witch especially, I really had a great time. Too bad it didn’t last too long.

There were a couple of time travel stories he did for DC that I really liked. Those were some of the first time travel stories I ever read, and I was a sci-fi geek since then. Omac was one of them, I was blown away by the time travel paradox. GL: Ganthet’s Tale was another story, though it was co-written with Larry Niven. Just great sci-fi stories.

Time travel would once again play a big role in what is probably my favorite Byrne series: Next Men. I must have read this series 10 times in 2 years, I bought all the TPBs (didn’t read it until it was almost over) and I kept waiting for him to continue it. That was probably my first exposure to more mature superhero comics (I had read Vertigo/indy comics, but not “adult” superhero), but it was also a cool sci-fi story, or at least it was hinted at. Unfortunately we never got to see that part paid off. I hope he’ll be able to finish this series at IDW now.

I also got all his other Dark Horse comics. Babe was an interesting concept, but I was happy with the 2 minis. Danger Unlimited was also interesting, though probably a bit too similar to FF. Still I would have liked to see that continue.

After his Dark Horse years he continued to work for DC (Wonder Woman, 4th World etc…) and Marvel (Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, X-Men Hidden Years), but the only project that I really loved was Generations. I thought the concept was a brilliant idea, seeing the DC characters age in real time from the year they were introduced.

One of the things I hated most about superhero comics was the status quo. No matter what happened to them, sooner or later they would revert back to status quo. Of course there are some things that changed, but they were very few and far between each other.

In Generations they would grow old, get married and have kids and grand kids. There would be really tragic events that would affect them forever, real deaths too. I was just thrilled to read their entire life go by in a few issues of comics. Of course by the last page Byrne still managed to restore the “status quo”, but we already got so many great stories.

The art style was also well thought out. Each story would reflect the art style of that era, from Golden Age, to Silver Age, to Bronze Age and the modern age. Their costumes would also reflect that, as well as the story itself obviously. Each story was self-contained, but the character arcs would develop among all issues.

The second Generations mini was very much like the first one, it just tried to show us even more characters, and filling in some of the gaps from the first mini.

The third mini changed the format, so I didn’t think it was as good. It just felt like a normal superhero story. Unfortunately this mini might have damaged the Generations brand, so that Byrne didn’t do any more stories. I actually wouldn’t mind an ongoing Generations series, there are so many years to cover still, and so many characters to deal with. I think Byrne could pull that off, effectively creating his version of the DCU.

At this point there are 2 series I would love for him to do: Generations and Next Men. Hopefully IDW will allow him to finish Next Men, while DC could just give him one ongoing Generations series, something any reader could pick up and enjoy every month (unlike their current incomprehensible series).

The battle between JLA and CSA continues here with Superman really defeating them by himself, using Diana’s determination and Batman’s strategic skills. It was cool to see Superman so smart, I’ve always thought of him as dumb. Great action scenes by Bagley.

In the meantime GL is still dealing with his techno problem, but at least he knows what it is now.

I loved seeing Enigma in his natural habitat in the anti-matter. He obviosuly cares deeply about his world, which is why the CSA’s defeat is actually bad for everyone. How ironic.

I was surprised that Despero figured out Enigma’s real intesions, I pictured him as a dumb big guy. Obviously he’s more than meets the eye.

The backup story sees a lot of superheroes lead by Oracle to track down the Dreambounds. Oracle has a preeminent role in this series. This is just the start of the big fight, the cliffhanger is just when things start to get interesting.

My enjoyment of this series is growing exponentially, I am glad this is a weekly.

This is a very old mini-series that I dismissed as not important story. But I was very very wrong. First of all it’s written by Claremont, so it fits perfectly into X-continuity. Kitty leaves the X-Men in Uncanny 183, and this is where she ends up.

This story starts with Kitty finding out about her father’s involvement with the Yakuza, which brings her to Japan. It’s a very sad and scary situation for her, she’s homeless in a foreign country (though she can speak the language), she doesn’t have money and is chased by the police and the Yakuza.

Luckily for her Wolverine comes into the story, which again makes sense given his past in Japan. From here on it also becomes a sequel to the Wolverine mini by Claremont/Miller. There are some of the same characters (Yukio, Mariko etc..), and a new (is it new?) villain, his old mentor Ogun.

The transformation Kitty goes through was very well done, a dream-like sequence where Kitty grows up again trained by Ogun. Both Kitty and Wolverine have to go through many trials to find themselves again and defeat Ogun, both psychologically and physically. This bring Claremont I am sure Kitty will go back to the X-Men a changed girl. This is also where she decides to change her name to Shadowcat, which actually totally makes sense in the context of this story.

Allen Milgrom’s art style looks dated, but at the same time it really works for this story. His layouts are all very interesting and easy to follow. I was actually surprised by how much I liked his style here. Same goes for the story. I can’t wait to see how Kitty goes back to X-Men. She’s definitely grown a lot in this story.

After getting the Modern Masters issue about Mike Wieringo I wanted to try out other interesting artists. Alan Davis’ style is definitely one of my favorite. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to read most of his comics, though I had a good sampling.

This magazine definitely helped giving me a good overview of Davis career in comics and allow me to note what I’m missing. In the interview there are a lot of references to British comics, so unfortunately I didn’t really enjoy those parts. But that’s not the fault of anyone.

However once they get into his professional career at Marvel and DC I really started to understand more his thinking towards comics. He seems very practical about earning money for his family, but at the same time he really hates having editorial interfering with his work.

That’s probably why he hasn’t done any long series since Excalibur. That’s probably the series he’s most known for, which goes back to his beginnings on Captain Britain. I really need to read those early stories, since a certain Alan Moore was writing them.

I have read some of his Excalibur issues, but not enough to appreciate them. Obviously the art is always good and fun to look at. In the last few years he’s only been doing mini series, or some fill-in art here and there, which is actually fine by me.

One thing I wish he did more is creating new characters and properties he can own, instead of working for the big two. But that seems to go back to his philosophy of earning a steady income for his family. The created many characters for Marvel, especially Clandestine, which is as close as it gets to his own series.

I read that first series of Clandestine, and I really liked it at the time. Too bad it folded when Marvel UK closed. He did make a new mini series recently, I can’t wait to check it out.

His JLA: The Nail mini was fun to read, even though I wasn’t familiar with those Silver Age characters. I haven’t read the sequel yet, so that’s on my list.

The magazine contains many sketches and pencils by Davis, all cool to look at. Another great book for a great artist.