| Written by Chris Fluit | |
| Friday, 05 October 2007 | |
Box #1: Amethyst,
Princess of Gemworld, Aquaman, Batman, Batman and the Outsiders, Birds of Prey A couple of years back, I was able to pick up lengthy runs of a bunch of DC’s ‘80s titles like Arak, Son of Thunder, Arion, Lord of Atlantis and Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld (notice a trend?). The only one worth keeping was Amethyst. I’d like to say that I kept it so that I could read it to my daughters some day. But the truth is that I also enjoyed it for myself. Gemworld, despite the simplistic surface scenario, had a complicated political landscape and shifting alliances. Plus, I adored Amy, the protagonist who balanced her duties as a princess on one world with her role as a daughter and a schoolgirl on another.
The big prize in this box is Birds of Prey. I’m only missing the original Black Canary/Oracle one-shot and possibly some of the fill-in issues between the Chuck Dixon and Gail Simone runs. Birds of Prey has long been a favorite of both my wife anacoqui and myself.
Now, that’s a run of superheroes. The Firestorm stuff is mostly from the more recent Jason Rusch series. I do have a few issues of the earlier Ronnie Raymond Fury of Firestorm and that remains a series that I’d like to collect at some point down the road. The Flash issues are of recent vintage with pretty much the complete Mike Baron run and then good chunks of the William Messner-Loebs and original Mark Waid. I also have Grant Morrison’s year on the title, which happened to be the first time that I started collecting the title. The majority of my Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps come after Green Lantern: Rebirth which I was when I really became interested in the character. However, I do have a few Kyle Rayner issues, mostly those that featured a prominent guest-star like the Hal Jordan story starting with issue 100 or the three-way crossover with Connor Hawke and Wally West. The Green Arrow stuff is a mish-mash of things like the Longbow Hunters and the Brad Meltzer story. Oh, and I also have reprints of the O’Neil/Adams Green Lantern/Green Arrow stories. That title has imprinted itself on my mind so strongly that for a long time, I filed Green Arrow after Green Lantern before realizing that “A” precedes “L” in the alphabet and therefore the Emerald Archer should be in the box ahead of the various GL titles. Finally, there are the Geoff Johns issues of Hawkman. He did nearly as great a job bringing Hawkman back in the pages of JSA as he did in bringing Hal Jordan back in the pages of Rebirth. It’s pretty much the only time I’ve ever been interested in Hawkman as a solo character and I dropped the title shortly after he left.
I was a big fan of Grant Morrison’s JLA. It led me to buy Flash for the first time. And it led me to try Tom Peyer’s Hourman. This is a truly under-rated series. Sure, it’s doing the typical Pinocchio/Data “what does it mean to be human?” shtick, but with the added bonus of Snapper Carr as a Generation X slacker and some really crazy time-travel stuff. I highly recommend it. Icon is the first of many titles from the early ‘90s independent companies. Infinity Inc. is a lot like Batman and the Outsiders in that it’s an ‘80s title that isn’t all that good. But it came out when I was a kid, it features a generation of heroes that I relate to, and it gives me a nice nostalgia kick that makes up for most of its deficiencies. Plus, it has Power Girl, Huntress and Jade. I guess Amethyst wasn’t the only oddball ‘80s title worth keeping as here’s J’emm, Son of Saturn. I can’t tell you how happy it made me when J’emm showed up in Grant Morrison’s JLA, even if it was as a captive of the Injustice League.
And speaking of the JLA, here’s the first box featuring this
preeminent super-team. I used to have
a handful of older issues, but those are among the things that I sold off. I just don’t enjoy Silver Age JLA. For me, the JLA starts around issue 100 with
Len Wein as the writer. I own about
half of the issues from that point on, with most of the gaps occurring either
between 100 and 150 or after the Justice League relocated to Detroit. Despite my frequent fondness for underdog
characters, I just don’t like that era of the JLA. Then there’s an era of the JLA that I absolutely love: Giffen and
Maguire, Batman and the Martian Manhunter, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. It’s the Bwa-ha-ha Justice League and, for
the first time since Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, I can say with confidence
that I have every single issue.
Box #4: Justice
League America, Justice League Europe, Justice League Task Force, Extreme
Justice, Justice League Quarterly, JLA
More Justice League!
And one of the first boxes to feature one of my filing
idiosyncrasies. There used to be a lot
more like this but as my collection has expanded, I’ve slowly shifted to a
straight alphabetical listing. It’s
also made it easier for other people to find things that they were looking
for. But I do have a few quirks left
over and this is one of them- the various JLA titles are listed chronologically
instead of alphabetically which is why they’re placed Justice League of America
then Justice League America then JLA when a strict alphabetical system would
have them in the reverse order. Of
course, that doesn’t explain why Quarterly is languishing after Task Force and
Extreme. Like I said, it’s an
idiosyncrasy.
Box #5: JLA
continued, JLA Annuals, Specials and Mini-Series, JLA Classified, new Justice
League of America, JSA
Even more Justice League! And the start of JSA.
Box #6: JSA
continued, JSA Annuals, Specials and Mini-Series, JSA Classified, new Justice
Society of America, Legion of Superheroes, Legion of Superheroes volume
III/Legionnaires, Legion Lost, Legion Worlds
The Legion of Superheroes joins Fury of Firestorm as one of the titles I’d like to collect next. I have some scattered issues but not nearly as many as I’d like. Happily, the Great Darkness Saga is among the issues I do have. My Legion collection really picks up post-Zero Hour. That’s my version of the Legion and I have the entire run from the zero issues in 1994 right up until earlier this year. At that time, Legion and Legionnaires were inter-connected titles (with little triangles on the covers for several years, just like Superman) so I have them filed alternately in chronological order rather than as separate titles.
Box #7: Legion,
Legion of Superheroes volume IV, Martian Manhunter, Monolith, Nightwing, I used to file titles thematically. Back then, I had Martian Manhunter in the same box as Hourman as titles spinning out of JLA. The system worked for me, until it didn’t. Now, Martian Manhunter is in his proper place within the alphabet. This is pretty much the Truman and Ostrander series. Monolith was an excellent, though overlooked series. His appearance was one of the few reasons why I bought the Battle for Bludhaven. Monolith also makes it into a box because the series lasted 12 issues, which is my cut-off for titles receiving their own entry rather than being shoved in a miscellaneous box at the end. Nightwing is one of my favorite characters and his series takes up the largest chunk of this box. Unfortunately, his series has wavered between awful and merely mediocre for quite a while so he hasn’t actually been increasing his share. The Power Company was another series that I really enjoyed. Unfortunately, it had a few missteps starting out so I can understand why a lot of fans didn’t hang around as long as I did. And finally, there’s Resurrection Man by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Butch Guice. Even as I explain the 12-issue cut-off, I have to confess that I think I only have 8 or 9 issues of Resurrection Man so it should technically be in the miscellaneous box instead of here. But I’d like to get the rest, so that seemed like a good enough reason to make an exception to my own rule.
One of my all-time favorite characters and one of my
all-time favorite series starts off this box: Starman. We all have characters that we really relate
to. For Mark Waid, that’s been Wally
West. For Jack Kirby, it was rumored to
be Ben Grimm. For me, it’s Jack
Knight. We came of age at the same time
and though I don’t have nearly as many tattoos as he does (for the record, I
don’t have any), we have a lot in common.
Plus, Jack Knight (and by extension, writer James Robinson) has had a
lot of impact on my thinking, from important matters to trivial ones. As an example of a trivial one- I loved
Robinson’s defense of Jack’s goatee in a letter column. Sometimes he grows a goatee. Sometimes he shaves it off. It’s not a political statement, fashion
statement or fad. It’s just what he
does. And it’s what I did for a while too. Although I’ve stopped growing it out again
as one of my daughters doesn’t like it when I’m “scratchy.” As an example of an important one- Jack went
to Superman for advice when he was considering dropping out of the superhero
business. Superman gave him some great
advice. Some heroes are called for a
lifetime (which is what Superman considered himself to be). Some are called only for a season. It’s no shame for Jack to be called only for
a season. This was a comfort to me when
I entered the ministry. It’s possible
that I’ve been called to this for a lifetime and that I’ll still be doing this
when I’m 65. But it’s also possible
that I’ve been called to this for a season.
And it gave me confidence to enter the ministry knowing that I could be
committing for 5 years, and not necessarily 40.
Then there’s Static.
He’s one of my favorite characters, though he’s not quite in the same
class as Starman. He, however, is in
the same class as Spider-Man and Invincible as far as I’m concerned.
Next up is Superman.
The Superman section is very similar to the Batman one, except a little
bit bigger. There are some of the John
Byrne and George Perez issues from the late ‘80s (instead of the George Perez
and Alan Davis issues of Batman). There
are some random issues from the ’90s and early ‘00s as I tried new creative
teams (Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness instead of Scott McDaniel). And there is the recent stuff coming after
One Year Later. However, I already have
all of the Death of Superman and a significant part of Reign of the Supermen so
I’m a little ahead in that regard. And
unlike, Batman for which I’m only collecting the one title, I am collecting
both Superman and Action so the Superman section is getting bigger. That also means that this section is in need
of some re-organizing. And finally, I have a few issues of the Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett Superboy. Not my favorite series, but not something I wanted to get rid of either.
This is one of the highlights of my collection. The New Teen Titans was one of the first
superhero comics I ever read and one of the first series I ever collected. Plus, I discovered that unlike Justice
League of America, I actually enjoyed reading the Silver Age issues which made
collecting the older stories a lot of fun.
I’m still missing half a dozen issues from the Silver Age, but
considering that the original series lasted more than 50 issues, I think I’m
doing pretty well. I have the complete
New Teen Titans volume 1. However, I
don’t have the complete New Teen Titans volume 2. I’m missing exactly one issue, from after the title shortened its
name to New Titans. Its part of the
huge Total Chaos crossover- a crossover so bad I just haven’t been able to make
myself pick up that one last issue. At
this point, I doubt I ever will.
Box #10: Titans
miscellaneous, Teen Titans volume 2, Titans, Teen Titans Vol. 3, Wonder Woman
More Titans! I have
a lot of miscellaneous Titans stuff.
Some of it is really good, like the X-Men/Titans crossover. Some of it is really bad, like some of the
later issues of Teen Titans Spotlight.
And some of it is so quirky that it’s hard to decide if it’s good or
bad, like the issues done for the war on drugs. The second volume of Teen Titans is the Dan Jurgens run featuring all-new characters. I know that this didn’t catch on, and these certainly weren’t the characters that I grew up with and loved, but I enjoyed this title for what it was. I liked the Devin Grayson/Mark Buckingham Titans series even more. It did have the characters that I grew up with, plus a nice mix of newer members like Argent, Damage and Jessie Quick. My only complaint is that this title dropped in quality so quickly. Buckingham jumped ship for an even better opportunity with Fables. And Devin Grayson seemed to lose interest as she mostly wanted to write Nightwing instead of a team book. It’s too bad as that series started out with great promise but ended up being really bad before it was done. And there’s the current volume of Teen Titans. It started out great as well, with Geoff Johns and Mike McKone, and the greatness has lasted a little bit longer. But lately, it’s gotten kind of sketchy, and it remains to be seen if the new creative team will be able to turn things around.
I started collecting Wonder Woman long before I started
dating anacoqui because of the George Perez art. Marrying another Wonder Woman fan only made me like the character
even more. And as far as DC’s “big
three” are concerned, the Wonder Woman entry is bigger than the Batman and
Superman entries combined. However,
that’s all I’m going to say about that title for now as I’m working on some
Wonder Woman articles for later in the year.
Young Justice was a great, fun title. I especially liked seeing Red Tornado in the
mentor role. With Red in YJ and Hourman
in his own title, the DC androids were getting some serious face time there for
a while. Unfortunately, Young Justice
was canceled in order to make room for a Teen Titans that had a cast closer to
the cartoon. Fortunately, the new Teen
Titans was a really good title too otherwise I’d have been even more upset than
I was.
Box #12: DC
miscellaneous
This box got hit hard by the big clearance sale. Yet I did keep some things. I’m pretty sure I kept a couple of issues of
Impulse (though I wouldn’t swear by it).
I know I kept a bunch of issues of Secret Origins, Stars and Stripe and
Young All-Stars.
I know that other fans like to complain about big crossovers
and events but I kind of like them.
I’ll admit that they’re not all done well. But I could have sold a lot of these off and I didn’t. I kept Crisis on Infinite Earths (which is
better than the old farts among us care to admit), Final Night, Legends and One
Million. I may have kept Genesis
(though I don’t think I did). I know I
kept War of the Gods (though I know I shouldn’t have). I kept Identity Crisis and Infinite Crisis
and all of the spin-offs. And I kept
fifth-week events like Tangent Comics (coming soon to a trade paperback near
you) and other specials like DC’s Millenium Editions. Oh, and 52 is in here, too. I enjoy rereading comics and I probably reread things out of this box more than any other. It’s just so easy to pick up a four issue mini-series like One Million and have a good time for an hour or so. Plus, one of my all-time favorite stories is in here in Kingdom Come.
Now, we’re getting into the DC imprints. I don’t have the complete ABC but what I do have, I’ve read more than once. There’s Top Ten, Tom Strong and Terra Obscura (though they’re in correct alphabetical order in the box). There’s some Promethea- though not everything- and one or two issues of Tomorrow Stories. The Vertigo section is dominated by two titles: Fables and Y: The Last Man. Generally, I’m not a Vertigo kind of guy but both of these titles are among my favorites. I got started on Fables fairly quickly, picking up the first trade and buying issue 7 before number 8 hit the stands. I was a little slower in coming to Y: The Last Man. Captain Comics actually gave me a couple of Y: The Last Man trades as a reward for some favor or other. I was trying them just to see what they were like. Both anacoqui and I liked them enough that we quickly tracked down the remaining trades and individual issues in order to get caught back up. There is some other Vertigo stuff in there, like the first ten issues of Crossing Midnight, but not much.
Box #15: Wildstorm This is quite the box. I’m a big Wildstorm fan, but I admit that their product is all over the map in terms of style and quality. At the front of the box are some great, award-winning comics by Kurt Busiek. There’s Arrowsmith, which ended way too soon when Gorilla Comics came crashing down (and yes, I know that should be in the Image box and not the Wildstorm one but I like it better here). And there’s Astro City, which just doesn’t come out as much as I’d like it to but is always worth it when it does. After that, we get into the Wildstorm superhero fare. There’s Backlash and Gen13. There’s Majestic and Stormwatch. There’s Wildcats and Wildcore. I love the Wildstorm superhero verse, but I don’t like what it’s become since Stormwatch was replaced by the Authority. The Wildstorm heroes always had a bit of an edge, but they were still heroes. The Authority characters are villains. So I may not like everything that’s being done now. Yet I fondly hang on to what was done then. There’s some other Wildstorm stuff in there as well. There’s Battle Chasers, a pretty good fantasy story that got sidetracked into following the uninteresting villainess hottie (who wasn’t all that good-looking if you ask me) instead of the more interesting ex-soldier and powerful kid. And there’s Danger Girl, a fun comic that has enough humor about its cheesecake that I let them get away with it. And there’s Ex Machina, which doesn’t quite come right after Danger Girl (DV8 sits in between them) but comes close enough that it causes more than a little cognitive dissonance when I used to file them away at the same time. That’s not quite half of the collection, but that’s more than enough for now. Come on back next week to find out what else I made the movers take.
|
|
| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 03 October 2007 ) |
Comments