Highlights From The December 2010 DC Solicitations

Found some sweet hardcovers in the latest DC Solicitations:

BATMAN: HUSH UNWRAPPED DELUXE EDITION HC

Written by JEPH LOEB
Art and cover by JIM LEE
A new, unprecedented edition of the classic Batman epic featuring the art of comics superstar Jim Lee in pencil form for the first time ever, giving comics connoisseurs the chance to study a true master of the form at his best!
This amazing new hardcover presents Jim Lee’s artwork in pencil form, with lettering and in black and white.
Relive the thrilling mystery of the best-selling BATMAN: HUSH as Batman sets out to discover the identity of a mysterious mastermind using The Joker, The Riddler, Ra’s al Ghul and the Dark Knight’s other enemies – and allies – as pawns in a plan to wreak havoc.
On sale FEBRUARY 16 • 320 pg, B&W, 7.0625” x 10.875”, $39.99 US
 

BATMAN: THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE DELUXE EDITION HC

Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by CHRIS SPROUSE, FRAZER IRVING, RYAN SOOK, YANICK PAQUETTE, LEE GARBETT, GEORGES JEANTY, KARL STORY and MICK GRAY
Cover by ANDY KUBERT
Grant Morrison’s best-selling multipart Batman epic continues with this collection of the six-issue miniseries!Witness Bruce Wayne’s adventures across time as he is swept through the time stream, from the ancient days that predate history itself through epics set in the times of pirates and the Old West, through his triumphant return to present day Gotham City!
On sale FEBRUARY 2 • 224 pg, FC, 7.0625” x 10.875”, $29.99 US

THE FLASH: THE DASTARDLY DEATH OF THE ROGUES HC

Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by FRANCIS MANAPUL and SCOTT KOLINS
Cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
The Fastest Man Alive must solve the murder of one of his greatest villains and protect his other foes from an elusive killer in this hardcover pulled from THE FLASH #1-6 and THE FLASH SECRET FILES 2010!
Racing out of BLACKEST NIGHT, The Flash returns to his life in Central City – but when one of his Rogues Gallery of foes turns up murdered under mysterious circumstances, it’s up to The Fastest Man Alive to solve this bizarre crime and protect those who are targeted by the elusive killer.
On sale FEBRUARY 9 • 208 pg, FC, $19.99 US

JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE RISE AND FALL HC

Written by J.T. KRULL
Art by DIOGENES NEVES, MIKE MAYHEW, FABRIZIO FIORENTINO and others
Cover by MIKE MAYHEW
The Justice League of America must hunt down Green Arrow for murdering the villain Prometheus in this hardcover collecting JUSTICE LEAGUE: RISE AND FALL SPECIAL, GREEN ARROW #31-32 and THE RISE OF ARSENAL #1-4!
Green Arrow has become a fugitive after killing the villain Prometheus for destroying Star City and murdering the daughter of his former sidekick, Arsenal. Now, the Justice League of America must hunt down their former teammate while Arsenal must come to grips with the losses of both his daughter and his arm at the hands of Prometheus.
On sale FEBRUARY 23 • 224 pg, FC, $24.99 US

Review: "Crisis On Two Earths" and "Absolute Justice"

It's a wonderful DC weekend for my family and I. Attended five hours of revision lectures taught by a gay professor yesterday. Thankfully, I got to pick up the second half of Smallville: Season 9 on DVD in the evening. Saw the first two episodes and the Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths DVD (that I picked up some weeks back). I haven't had the chance to watch the animated film earlier and was surprised by how good it was - especially I wasn't really in much of a "DC"-mood over the past several weeks. After all, I spent several weeks reading old X-Factor issues (aside from my countless hours working and preparing for my LLB exams).

If you're wondering, the animated film is done in the classic Bruce Timm style with voice direction by Andrea Romano. It's a cross between the over-the-top stuff by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely a few years back but mixed with the Silver Age "Crisis on Multiple Earths" flavour. Former JLA scribe, Dwayne McDuffie, is responsible for scripting it. My kids and I agree that it's the best DC animated feature film so far - even better than their previous GL, Wonder Woman and New Frontier stuff. Especially Owlman - a very frightening villain whose real struggle was with his own existential questions. He reminded me a lot of Ozymandias from "Watchmen".

You'll love this animated film if you like any of the "Justice League" cartoons on TV. Continuity-wise, it's somewhere between the earlier "Justice League" stuff and the later "Justice League Unlimited". In fact, this is the one where Batman and the others finally recruited new members such as Black Lightning, Black Canary, etc.

All in all - highly recommended for anyone with even a passing interest in superhero stories. :)

Visited my grandma this morning. Nearly all the other family members are back here already. She's really getting weaker by the day due to her illness but she's very happy that everyone is back to visit her.

My kids got to watch "The Brave And The Bold" on TV. The episode featured Batman teaming up with the Outsiders and also Jonah Hex against Despero and Mongul. I was spending time talking to my grandma so I wasn't paying much attention to what was going on in the episode. It's good to see that she's facing everything in a very peaceful manner. Spent about 3-4 hours with her.

In the afternoon, my family and I got to see the double-length Smallville episode entitled "Absolute Justice". It features my favourite superteam of all time, the JSA, so that alone is reason to watch it. It's also written by Geoff Johns, who's responsible for some of the best JSA stories ever - including the under-rated "Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E.S" series that first featured Courtney Whitmore (Stargirl). Johns was able to add in a lot of detail to delight longtime comic fans - like he did with the "Legion" episode that he also scripted (see my review here). Some highlights include:

• Hawkman and Green Arrow dukin' it out. The ultra-conservative versus the flamboyant-liberal!

• Courtney (Stargirl) telling Chloe Sullivan how the JSA is more of a family than just a group that meets for missions. Then, Chloe, Ollie and Jonn reflecting on how the Watchtower could be more homely.

• Dr. Fate's helmet - Nabu and everything!

• Flashbacks showing Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, Ted Grant, Al Pratt and even Ma Hunkel resisting the government (while not openly referring to McCarthyism - every comic fan recognises the reference).

• Jonn getting his powers back again - with Dr. Fate's help.

• Star-Spangled Kid (the original Sylvester Pemberton) fighting Icicle. Then Wesley Dodds as well. Stripesy is also mentioned, possibly for the first time ever on prime time TV.

• The JSA Brownstone and Museum is a central feature throughout.

• Hawkman explaining his origins - and Shiera Hall's as well. If you thought that Geoff Johns should be commended for streamlining Carter Hall's convoluted past in the comics, you'll hold him in even higher regard that he actually dared incorporate the entire thing into 2-3 minutes of prime time TV!

• A glimpse of the Superman cape in the vision that Dr. Fate shares with Clark - another push towards his destiny as the Man of Steel.

• Lois Lane as the one clearing the criminal accusations hurled against the original JSA members.

• Pam Grier as Amanda Waller and the revelation that Tess Mercer is also an agent of Checkmate!!!

In short, this is as close as the Smallville series actually got to embracing the entire history of the DC universe. It's unbelievable that Geoff actually injected in so much of the delightful history that have thrilled comic readers for close to a century into two hours of prime time TV. Here's hoping for an even better Season 10 (if Geoff agrees to write more episodes, that is).

Here's a small video featuring scenes from "Absolute Justice":

"To Catch Them If They Fall": Grant Morrison's Answer to "Watchmen"

I had a great Sunday last week. Okay, actually I was so sick that I could barely function. My headache and toothache was giving me excruciating pain but I had an entire day out with my wife. Never mind that I had to skip my lectures and cancel a class that I was supposed to teach in the afternoon. It was still a really good day. We caught a movie ("Old Dogs" starring John Travolta and Robin Williams), we had a great lunch and I picked up the "Watchmen" hardcover for the very first time - along with the Irwin paperback "Watchmen & Philosophy: A Rorschach Test" (edited by fellow geek and scholar Mark D. White). It was a restful day and a much-needed break from my endless studies. But, like the geek that I am, a mental vacation from my law-studies simply mean reading philosophical essays on Utilitarianism vs. Deontological ideals of ethics! Better still, applying those same philosophical concepts to Ozymandias and Rorschach! Overall, Alan Moore's classic work was a rich philosophical piece that deserved to be read countless times in order to mine all the deep philosophical treasures within. The only problem is that, reading that work tends to give you a prejudiced view of comicbooks - somewhat like a bitter taste afterwards because the Bearded Brit literally comes along and thrashes your favourite childhood heroes (read: toys) and exposing them to be nothing more than psychotic, twisted and fascistic megalomaniacs (or in the case of Nite-Owl II, a sexually impotent fat slob who "couldn't get it up" without being in-costume!).

The problem with the aftermath of "Watchmen" was that people really didn't know what to do with superheroes anymore (without looking silly). J. M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen (paired with the expressive pencils of Kevin Maguire) simply celebrated the "silliness" in their Justice League relaunch in 1987 without trying to make the superheroes out to mean anything more. Other folks tried to go the "realistic" route and made their characters even grimmer, grittier and more twisted than Alan Moore's creations. It was not until the late-1990s that we finally got an answer to Alan Moore's "Watchmen". The superheroes that we grew up with need not be fascistic or megalomaniacal. In fact, when we watched "Superfriends" on TV as kids, we didn't fall in love with the characters because they ruled over us. We loved them because they stood for right-over-might and protected the common man while having a few laughs in a fraternising sort of way. In other words, they didn't have to be grim or gritty at all to appeal to the adult. More than anything, they should bring us back to a simpler and more innocent age where we didn't read our politics or philosophy in our comic books.

The said answer came in the form of Grant Morrison's JLA. As I write this, the bald Brit is celebrating his fiftieth birthday. I'm thankful that it's one Brit answering another Brit - that way, you wouldn't get the typical criticism of the work being a result of mindless American jingoism or male fantasies. In fact, Morrison wrote the title in a high-concept sci-fi manner that Brits love (as evidenced from their incessant devotion to the interminable adventures of "Dr. Who") but he did it without the anger of Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns" or the psychosis of Alan Moore's "Watchmen". One of the gems in Morrison's work is that he managed to make Batman cool as hell without resorting to the deep-seated anger that Frank Miller employed - read the first story for the coolest portrayal of Batman in an edge-of-your-seat "Die-Hard" sort of situation to see what I mean. His work was pure superheroism done right - heck, it's done so intelligently that even if you're embarassed by your once-upon-a-time fixation on "Disco Dazzler", you'll still be proud to be seen in public with volumes of JLA Deluxe Edition hardcovers under your arm!

My favourite thing about JLA is that Grant Morrison managed to answer Alan Moore with one simple line from Superman - "Why should they need us at all? To catch them if they fall." Superheroes aren't supposed to rule over us - a lesson we learn from "Watchmen", "Squadron Supreme" and "Kingdom Come". More than anything, they are really fantasies that inspire us. Fantastic creations for a kid like me who grew up looking for role-models after becoming disillusioned with family, school and church. They are not supposed to be megalomaniacs like Ozymandias or distant gods like Dr. Manhattan. They are only supposed to be catching planes that fall from the sky or beat back Starro the Conqueror the next time he comes calling! In other words, superheroes aren't real. They are simply a celebration of the imagination. True celebrations should not be condescending - real comic fans are always wary of self-referential fanboy parodies pretending to be funny while hiding its own inbred cynicisms. Only a writer of the calibre of Alan Moore could adequately write them to represent deep philosophical concepts - others do so awkwardly resulting in some truly awful and ugly comicbooks (Bloodstrike or Deathblow anyone?) For the discerning reader, Grant Morrison's work is the answer to a decade of doom-and-gloom presented not just as a justification for the continued existence of superheroic-fantasies but done so intelligently with the right amount of gusto and fanboy affection.

Finally, if you're not looking for high concept and philosophy but just some mindless fun, there's always Jimmie Robinson's "Bomb Queen"! :)

[Check out this post on Comics You Should Own for an appreciation of Grant Morrison's JLA.]