Wow, this was shockingly good stuff. I am a lifelong Logan's Run fan and this is closer to the original novel than the 1976 feature film which, in my opinion, is one of the greatest movies ever made. I will probably wait for the trade to read the rest of this, and I can't wait for it to be collected. This comic book is printed on some super heavy-duty paper, with each page being roughly as thick as the cover.
SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL VOL. 2 (DC, 2003)
Collects Action Comics Nos. 584-586, Adventures of Superman Nos. 424-426 and Superman Nos. 1-3 (cover dates January- March, 1987).
Another enjoyable batch of issues by John Byrne, Marv Wolfman, and Jerry Ordway.
SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL VOL. 3 (DC, 2004)Collects Action Comics Nos. 587-589, Adventures of Superman Nos. 427-429 and Superman Nos. 4-6 (cover dates April- June, 1987).
Man, this is some good sh*t! I especially enjoyed the issues featuring the Demon and the Phantom Stranger, as I have a soft spot for '70 quasi/pseudo-Horror 'heroes'. The only problem is that I now want to buy the Phantom Stranger phonebooks. %^$#^&%@&&!!!
SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL VOL. 4 (DC, 2004)Collects Action Comics Nos. 590, 591, Adventures of Superman Nos. 430, 431, Legion of Superheroes Nos. 37, 38 and Superman Nos. 7, 8 (cover dates July- September, 1987).
Man, this is mostly sh*t! This is why I loathed DC so much growing up. Superboy? Superdog? The cheeseball Legion of Superheroes and the Metal Men? Marvel stomps any and all of these concepts. What had been a clean, cohesive reboot until this point has been derailed by the whole Crisis on Infinite Earths thing, which was an attempt to undo DC's lack of any real continuity(ies?) until that point. Even John Byrne, who at Marvel always did a great job at streamlining continuity, has a tough go at making this believable. Add in the craptastic artwork by a neophyte Erik Larsen in the last issue in the book and the insult to injury was complete. This book has it's moments, but they are few and far between.
SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL VOL. 5 (DC, 2006)Collects Action Comics Nos. 592, 593, Adventures of Superman Nos. 432-435 and Superman Nos. 9-11 (cover dates September- December, 1987).
OK, things go back to being enjoyable here. Whew! I was worried that I sunk money into 2 books that might suck. Superman #11, with Mr. Mxyzptlk was especially good. I am glad that they phonetically spelled his name, as I had no idea how to pronounce it until now.
SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL VOL. 6 (DC, 2008)Collects Action Comics Nos. 594, 595, Action Comics Annual No. 1, Adventures of Superman Annual No. 1, Booster Gold No. 23, Superman No. 12 and Superman Annual No. 1 (cover dates November- December, 1987).
...and my marathon comes to a halt. It's been quite a journey, and a mostly enjoyable one at that. Superman No. 12 is the star of this book, a heartfelt love story with a twist, but all of the issues contained in this trade were good, solid reads. I hope that DC continues this line, as there are many more issues in Byrne's run to be collected in trade paperback.
Collects Sandman No. 1 (Winter 1974) and selections from Adventure Comics Nos. 72-91, 101, 102 and World’s Finest Comics Nos. 6, 7 (cover dates March, 1942- February/ March, 1946).
Shame on you, DC! You have top shelf Golden Age material by two of the all-time greats, and THIS is the respect and the treatment that you feel that this material deserves? Shoddy restoration, shoddy paper, and shoddy binding, this package is a disgrace to the legacy of Simon and Kirby. Before there was Stan and Jack there was Joe and Jack. The pair did a wonderful job creating Captain America, and this was their 'next big thing'. DC insisted on scanning old yellowed pages, which Dark Horse and Fantagraphics also do for these vintage collections, but they clean up and color correct the pages. DC only color corrected the word balloons and captions, leaving the rest a yellowed, discolored mess. Every single color looks off because they took no time whatsoever and put no effort into restoration or using modern color values to replicate the original color palette. The paper is the same crappy pulp paper that DC uses in most of their hardcovers these days, being scarcely thicker than toilet paper. Couple that with glued binding, and you have the most sucktastic presentation imaginable. The real shame of it is that these are such good stories.
THE BATMAN CHRONICLES VOL. 8 (DC, 2009)
Collects Batman Nos. 14, 15 and selections from Detective Comics Nos. 71-74 and World’s Finest Comics Nos. 8, 9 (cover dates December, 1942- April, 1943).
To say that these are good reads would be an understatement. Golden Age Batman rocks, plain and simple. The writing begins to take on a campy tone similar to the '60s television series, i.e. Batman and Robin are in a trap and a caption reads 'can they escape?' or something similar. Batman refers to villains as 'fiends'. The villains! The Penguin. The Joker. Catwoman. The Scarecrow. Tweedledee and Tweedledum. These villains are great! I will let my son read these when he gets a bit older, which is something that I can't say about modern Batman comic books. Why did comic books take such a wrong turn? They are intended for children, and should be accessible to them. I prefer this 'wholesome' Batman to Frank Miller's version.
ESSENTIAL MARVEL TEAM-UP VOL. 3 (Marvel, 2009)Collects Marvel Team-Up (Vol. 1) Nos. 52-73, 75 and Marvel Team-Up Annual No. 1 (cover dates December, 1976- November, 1978).
The creative team of Chris Claremont and John Byrne are akin to Lennon and McCartney or Simon and Garfunkel, in that together they created wonderful and memorable works but found it difficult to maintain their creative partnership. Their Marvel Team-Up run is fantastic. Iron Fist, Arcade, Captain Britain, the Living Monolith... this is such good stuff! It's almost criminal that Marvel only reprints this title in black and white phonebook format rather than the Masterworks format that it deserves.
SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE VOL. 6: THE HOURMAN AND THE PYTHON (DC, 2008)Collects Sandman Mystery Theatre Nos. 29-36 (cover dates August, 1995- March, 1996)
I am really enjoying these trades, and was delighted to see Vol. 8 recently solicited. This series ran up to issue 70, and I am hoping that they collect the entire run in trade.
The Wolfman As far as remakes go, this is about as much as one could hope for in this day and age. There were a few digital drag and speed type edits in the beginning, but by and large the editing and pacing were quite tasteful. The camera angle changes were slow by today's ADD standards but were pleasing to those of us who still have an attention span. The sequence where he changes into the Wolfman were almost as good as The Howling. All in all, an enjoyable movie, especially for a buck at the dollar show. 7 out of 10.
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