Infinite Frontier #2 review

Posted on by martingray1

In which Agent Chase turns up at the Hall of Justice to annoy Superman and Batman with some rather reasonable questions.

The usually savage Thomas Wayne Batman tells President Superman that he’s mellowed.

Obsidian learns that it’s not just his sister Jade who has vanished from the superhero community.

The recently resurrected Roy Harper begins to suspect which cosmic power is behind his new Black Lantern gig.

And Agent Chase continues dropping in on superheroes.

Well, this is a fun issue. Cameron Chase’s interaction with Superman is a treat, given her inability to understand that it’s perfectly reasonable for him to be less than thrilled with her (‘Last time we saw each other you tried to arrest my wife’). I likewise enjoyed her run-in with Captain Atom, the climax of which could see her manifesting her own super power for the first time in years.

Obsidian’s anger that he hadn’t been told earlier about the missing heroes leads to a cracking run-in with Vandal Savage. And Roy’s memory of talking to Hal Jordan about how his Green Lantern ring worked is a reminder that not every DC writer hates the Silver Age GL.

The only main player I’m singularly uninterested in is Thomas Wayne; his (supposed, I don’t trust the fella) new perspective makes him a better fit for a team setting, but he’s still one more Batman in the DC Multiverse, when we already have regular Batman as an omnipresent figure in DC books – Batman does not need a variant. Even less so if said variant is leaving behind the Dirty Harry bit and becoming more like his cross-dimensional kid.

The reference to Chase’s brief role in Brian Bendis’s Action Comics run is unexpected and has me wondering if Bendis was deliberately seeding multiversal shenanigans that will pay off in this series. If you missed Bendis’s excellent arc, he had Lois accused of being a parallel version of herself.

Writer Josh Williamson does a good job of laying out the scenes and accompanying mysteries, the only time I scratched my head was when I misread a reference to Roy’s ring having worked at the diner last issue as meaning it had previously been a waitress… what can I say, I read a lot of comics!

One great thing about Roy’s new hero (?) look is that it’s finally gets him out of the hideous baseball cap he’s work since the beginning of the New 52. Bravo!

Talking of outfits, I love that Jesus Merino, illustrating the opening sequence, keeps Chase in the chic look she had when Mr Bones interrupted her holiday in Paris last time. She even has the curly bob, it’s clever how the softer look contrasts with Chase’s typical tough talk. It’s always good to see Merino’s storytelling, there’s a fun vibrancy to the characters. Mind, I don’t think colourist Romulo Fajardo Jr’s facial shading sits as well on his work as it does on illoes by the issue’s other artists. Give it time.

Said artists are the excellent Xermanico, continuing from last month, and two more new arrivals, penciller Paul Pelletier and inker Norm Rapmund, a fine team I’m always glad to see. I think the way the book breaks down, after Merino’s opening with Chase, Batman and Superman, is that Xermanico illustrates the President Superman and Thomas Wayne sequence, and Pelletier and Rapmund the Roy and Captain Atom scenes… if anyone sure of the facts is reading this, and I’ve got it wrong, please do let me know. As ever, I wish DC editors would give us detailed credits.

There’s no doubt as to who did the colours and letters as it’s one person in each case; the aforementioned Fajardo provides generally sensitive work, while letterer Tom Napolitano gives us the Super-Clark logo we never knew we needed.

I’m a fan of Mitch Gerads but his cover doesn’t work for me – the stiff poses, the drab colour treatment…it needs more pop all round.

Still, this was an engrossing read. I do hope that future issues will feature single artists or teams, though – it’s been a decade now of DC failing to give us consistent visuals within, probably, at least a third of their books each month, and it’s very distracting even when you’re not trying to give proper credit. Surely it can’t all be a last-minute deadline thing, especially on what’s sold as an event book, like Infinite Frontier. Please try harder, DC.

43 thoughts on “Infinite Frontier #2 review”

  1. I commented elsewhere on how a writer who knows his character handle Chase’s predicament. BTW, wouldn’t it be nice to see her still with her Manhunter boyfriend? Dylan and her broke up in the future which I hope hasn’t happened yet.

    This book is already better than the writer’s mind numbingly bleak Flash but to me it shares one thing. I don’t buy the stakes. They say things but doesn’t sell them.

    And Savage needs to go after his storyline ties into his descendant’s. This isn’t Krakoa. There the unwise pardons are foundational to the story and very clearly unwise. Savage and most of the other villains on the team have too much blood on their hands. Using their expertise is like using the results of Nazi experimentation and should not happen.

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    1. I totally agree about the villains, I don’t see any world in which they would be working with the JLA, there’s too much history. And yeah, murders.

      I’d love Scandal Savage and Kassidy Sage to show up, as Vandal’s children… reminding myself of Kassidy’s name I’m told by Wiki that Roy is a relation… and Angle Man. Blimey.

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  2. For me, this Infinite Frontier series is the result of Bendis running with the suggestion from DiDIo that all of DCUs spy agencies should be collapsed into a single organization. That is an achievable goal and this project feels like Joshua Williamson is operating from a clear editorial mandate. Cameron Chase was created in 1998 and DC using her to navigate the Multiverse is a smarter decision than cramming the Multiverse into the Lois Lane maxiseries. As a character, Cameron can be reasoned-with and is well-connected — she is a velvet glove carrying an Uzi. While the 21 upcoming DC books will explore the ramifications of Infinite Frontier more explicitly, I suspect that like most company-wide events, these crossover books will be of variable importance. The creators to watch will be Williamson (who did amazing work on Infinite Frontier Special), Morrison on Superman & The Authority (a junky idea from DiDio but Morrison has been the honest architect of the DC Multiverse since Animal Man in 1988), and Tom Taylor with his superb Nightwing run along with his upcoming Superman Son of Kal-El which obviously will be crucial. I believe that most of these Infinite Frontier tie-ins will not sell well yet are necessary to wean DC off of its addiction to Batman. I have hope 😀

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    1. I love ‘she is a velvet glove carrying an Uzi’, nice one! I hadn’t thought of this series as being especially ‘spy, given Bendis is still exploring the Leviathan stuff in his own series, Checkmate. Chase is, though, a great utility character. It’s high time I reread that series!

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  3. Steve, I think you nailed my main problem with Williamson’s writing — I don’t buy the stakes! Thank you.

    That said, this issues is scattershot fun. (Aside from the cover, which I agree, Mart, isn’t up to Mitch Gerads dramatic standards.) I’m expecting a full-on invasion by alternate versions of characters now!

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  4. I had to look back at the end of the last issue too – I thought a league of alt Black Lantern Roys had shown up from somewhere, surprising regular Roy, but now I see it’s just him and a ring, and the other Roys must be his constructs. I had not noticed him wearing a ring before that last panel.

    Anyway, after my confusion over the two sets of teams last time, it’s nice to see that both the Totality team and the Justice Incarnate team are being featured, each with their own stories and, perhaps, slightly different missions.

    I’m curious, what are the “21 upcoming DC” books? All event tie-ins of some kind?

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  5. Hi, T.N.! Leviathan: Checkmate is not listed among the 21 books, which is the 4th page of the Director Bones supplement in Infinite Frontier #2. Blue And Gold; for example; is an 8 part series by Dan Jurgens — Jurgens has used Booster Gold since 1986 to correct continuity glitches with some success but not without controversy. Maybe Task Force Z will become the ongoing series which features the new solitary spy organization for the entire DCU. This rollout will take about a year to complete its course, apparently. Lots of books are being devoted to making the Infinite Frontier concept work throughout the DCU 😀

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    1. Oh, those 21 books! Thanks. Looking at them, I suspect they’re not all part of the main Infinite Frontier storyline, it’s just a continuing branding thing. I can’t, for example, see Tom Taylor’s Jon Kent book being heavily tied in, as Taylor likes to have his own corners to play in. But we shall see! The main thing I want is the end of Future State.

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    2. I think Task Force Z is more Waller nonsense, with a pre-dead Suicide Squad featuring villains killed at Arkham by Simon Saint and Scarecrow that kicked off the current Batman run. The team will be led by Jason Todd. :/

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  6. Count me as another who initially misread the “worked at the diner” line, BTW. I was thinking he was talking to a waitress, off-panel.

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  7. Okay okay okay, Batman: Fear State Alpha is a one-shot. I Am Batman is John Ridley’s New Batman comic. Aquaman: The Becoming is the new Aqualad comic. Most concerning to me is Task Force Z, because Z stands for zombie, so undead superheroes are teaming up and getting their own comic. I am worried that DC is concentrating on reinventing the wheel and chasing after shiny objects instead of getting back to basics along with respecting their deep bench of legacy characters. There is another 12 issue maxiseries called DC v Vampires, and DC making a big bet on superhero horror comics feels like a cash grab, just like having most of their books being about Batman, does. I’m less confident about what DC is trying to do with Infinite Frontier, now 😀

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    1. I think you’re right about DC’s direction of travel right now, look at the latest solicitations – October, I think – and it’s all very samey, Batman comics with a dollop of Future State. I might like DC vs Vampires, though… I love the idea that James Tynion came up with it in order to avoid working on the aborted (though who can tell?) 5G.

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      1. Williamson also said he was going to leave DC until 5G fell apart and he was offered the chance to develop Infinite Frontier.

        The October solicitations are replete with books I’m not getting. Among other things, I don’t want a 1 year vampire max-series. Quite a lot of the new books will be expensive, too. Prestige Plus titles coming back after a long absence (the magazine sized books).

        Looks like DC is going to be putting out almost 80 titles that month. (Bleeding Cool’s version of the solicits includes screencaps of what appears to be a leaked copy of the next DC Connect, and the last page of that has a complete list of comics, by week.)

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  8. I do think “Infinite Frontier” is mostly branding.

    DC has also announced another horror project: DC HORROR PRESENTS: SOUL PLUMBER. I thought it was a joke when I read about it on Bleeding Cool, but no, I found it at dccomics.com too.

    The only new title mentioned in the Infinite Frontier promo page is Task Force Z. All the others are either ongoing or already announced.

    Aquaman is the story of Jackson Hyde, and it’s coming out only because Future State: Aquaman was a smash hit. (And, because a movie is coming.) Unfortunately it’s the story of Jackson, not the future story of a slightly older Jackson training Andy Curry, who was the hero in Future State. Black Manta is his father, and who exactly is interested in buying a Black Manta series?

    Catwoman, Green Lantern, Justice League, Nightwing, Robin, Suicide Squad, Teen Titans Academy, Flash, and Swamp Thing are just continuing their current stories. (Swamp Thing is a limited series).

    Shazam! is going to be a limited series spinning out of Teen Titans Academy. Billy Batson has been attending the academy and having problems accessing his power. That plot will be followed in his own book.

    It is possible that Blue and Gold will have some timey-wimey time travel impact on the universe, but for some reason I just think it’s going to be an old fashioned cornball humor Dan Jurgens affair of no consequence – and the solicits for it don’t lead me to believe otherwise. It does have Ryan Sook going for it, but otherwise I think it’s eminently ignorable,

    I guess the Authority has something to do with the upcoming Warworld story?

    And we know what the Son of Kal-El book will be – the only reason I have any hope for it at all is because of Tom Taylor, who has done wonders with Nightwing. Normally I don’t read Nightwing, but now I do, and while I find Jon Kent to be a complete bore when he isn’t being a complete jerk, I’m willing to see what Taylor can do with him.

    Batman: Fear State Alpha is the first part of the Fear State event, a story which has already really been underway for quite a while in Batman AND Detective. And Harley Quinn actually. Actually it started last year before Future State, and Future State was all about it, so ultimately we’ll look back and see that this has been an entire year of one Batman story.

    Interesting that they are using the Marvel convention of officialy introducing an event with an “Alpha” title – I wonder if the final tale will have an “Omega” title.

    I Am Batman is the continuing tale of Jace Fox coming off the Next Batman: Second Son origin story (which was a digital first now being released to print – digital firsts get almost zero attention in the comic book reading and reviewing community even when they get printed). This book will be an integral part of the Fear State event.

    Fear State as far as I know so far will probably encompass these announced books, more or less:

    8/10 I Am Batman #0
    8/14 Batman FCBD Special Edition
previews Fear State and I Am Batman
    8/17 Catwoman #34
Magistrate comes to Alleytown
    8/24 Harley Quinn #6
Teams up with Catwoman

    8/31 Batman: Fear State Alpha #1
    9/7 Batman #112
    9/14 I Am Batman #1
    9/21 Batman #113
    9/21 Batman Secret Files: Miracle Molly #1
    9/21 Catwoman #35
    9/21 Nightwing #84
    9/27 Batman Secret Files: Huntress #1
    9/28 Detective #1043
    9/28 Harley Quinn #7

    After that, I’ve heard it runs through Batman #117, but don’t know if Batman will be coming out twice or once a month — either way it will probably run through December, so I would expect the October, November, and maybe December Bat family books (HQ, Cat, Night, Tec etc.) to be involved too. Probably more Secret Files one-shots. DC events these days are usually at least 25 issues including tie-ins (that’s how long Death Metal was, and that’s how long Joker War was – and Future State was around 50). And at some point we are surely going to see whatever Batgirls or Gotham City Sirens book Tynion has been teasing for months.

    Oh and on a separate matter raised earlier: I have absolutely no idea who drew what pages in Infinite Frontier #1. Not even a guess. I think it does a disservice to the talent to not credit their work, though it gets even worse in collections, where contributors are only named en masse on the title page of the book.

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    1. Soul Plumber sounds the worst thing ever, and do we really need more stories about the latest Aqualad facing his father’s villainous nature? Was Future State Aquaman a hit? I’ve not heard reports on individual titles. I can’t even remember, was that the one with Aquawoman in it? I thought it pretty but a bit dull, I only read the one issue.

      I really appreciate the rundown of titles.

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  9. Hi T.N.! DCs Soul Plumber appears to be part of the Hill House school of Horror comics that they are building up. When I was growing up, DC had House of Secrets, House of Mystery and The Witching Hour; these anthology books were a legitimate category for them and a great training ground for new talent; but now DC is launching stand-alone series by creators new to comics and these books don’t seem to attach to the larger DCU.
    You did a great job of running down how Fear State is going to be rolled out; and what a stack of comics it is; but it seems to be in support of John Ridley’s Black Batman universe. I admire Ridley’s Other History Of The DCU series, but it’s not actually a comic book like Watchmen, it’s more of an illustrated essay about how comic books have portrayed Persons Of Color and those outside of the mainstream. Ridley’s Jace Fox has not impressed me as a fresh take on how to do a Batman comic in the 21st century, and giving Ridley so many Bat Books to curate seems premature.
    I agree with Martin that Future State needs to be resolved, but I am not certain that Infinite Frontier is only a branding gimmick. Creatively, Future State did not work: whatever Scott Snyder was trying to accomplish completely ran out of steam, and whatever Dan DiDio thought would become the New Normal at DC resulted in different problems from the Usual Suspects.
    For me, the bright spots have been Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Aquaman (which finally reconciled Arthur and Mera after their split in The New 52), Far Sector (N K Jemisin’s assured comic book debut with career-peak work from Jamal Campbell), Amethyst (Amy Reeder doing a girl’s quest in high style) and Bendis bringing back the Superman Family of comics which have been missing since the 1970s (Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, Supergirl, Young Justice, Dial H For Hero, Wonder Twins, along with Action & Superman). Particularly, Jimmy Olsen was just a stunning project, not only resolving decades of Jimmy continuity, but making him a billionaire — sometimes comic books get it right.
    There are still problems that DC needs to deal with. With Three Jokers and Batman Earth One Vol 3, Geoff Johns has shown he’s only brilliant with Stargirl. Editor Jamie S Rich has shepherded much of what was successful at DC, and he has quit the company. Tom Taylor should be given a DC Exclusive contract: he gives Australia a good name.
    Female editors like Jessica Chen and Brittany Holzherr should be given more books: stop taking their genius for granted 😀

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    1. “DCs Soul Plumber appears to be part of the Hill House school of Horror comics that they are building up.”

      There’s a new “DC Horror Presents” imprint now – its debut title was “The Conjuring: The Lover.” (The full title therefore is “DC Horror Presents: The Conjuring: The Lover.” DC never runs out of colons.)

      “Soul Plumber” will be the next title in the line.

      Hill House is its own imprint. They have their own “Back Label Joe Hill Hill House Comics” logo in the top left.

      And two October horror-related series that aren’t part of either imprint are “Task Force Z” and the “DC vs. Vampires” 12-part maxi. Plus there will be this year’s Halloween seasonal anthology special, “Are You Afraid of Darkseid #1”.

      “When I was growing up, DC had House of Secrets, House of Mystery and The Witching Hour; these anthology books were a legitimate category for them and a great training ground for new talent; but now DC is launching stand-alone series by creators new to comics and these books don’t seem to attach to the larger DCU.”

      I remember and occasionally read those DC mystery/horror books too.

      I never read the Marvel equivalents of the era, but they morphed into vehicles for the early Marvel super-hero tales: Strange Tales, Journey into Mystery, Tales to Astonish and Tales of Suspense all became the vehicles for the Marvel super-hero stories (Dr. Strange, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and many others), and of course the final issue of Amazing Fantasy….

      “You did a great job of running down how Fear State is going to be rolled out; and what a stack of comics it is; but it seems to be in support of John Ridley’s Black Batman universe.”

      The October solicits are out as of Friday, so I might update my list – looks like around eight October books are being officially labelled on their covers as Fear State tie-ins. It is interesting that not all the books that, based on their solicitation text, are tie-ins, will be actually getting that “Fear State” logo.

      If Fear State is in support of Ridley, then I wonder why “I Am Batman” #2, which is definitely a Fear State tie-in, will not be showing “Fear State” on the cover? Strange. Seems like a coordination failure.

      “I admire Ridley’s Other History Of The DCU series, but it’s not actually a comic book like Watchmen, it’s more of an illustrated essay about how comic books have portrayed Persons Of Color and those outside of the mainstream.”

      I bought the first 3 issues. Found them to be very slow reads, and tedious. He had some interesting ideas, but it was tiresome, and there was a never-ending takedown of Superman that I got tired of reading, over and over.

      On top of that, my knowledge of a lot of DC history is weak – without doing a lot more work, I wouldn’t be able to tell what “history” Ridley was inventing out of whole cloth, vs. what alternate and plausible perspectives he was providing to actual events. These books were too much work for me.

      “Ridley’s Jace Fox has not impressed me as a fresh take on how to do a Batman comic in the 21st century, and giving Ridley so many Bat Books to curate seems premature.”

      Isn’t he doing some work for Marvel now, too?

      It looks like he’s finished his Other Universe series and is now just writing The Next Batman for DC.

      I wonder what Ridley had in mind in writing the Jace Fox origin story in Second Son. Jace’s motivation seems to be guilt over perpetrating a hit and run, one that his family (using the Wayne money they have evidently decided is theirs to keep for themselves since Selina transferred it to them for safekeeping) used to pay off the victim’s family. I think his sisters are the only members of the Fox family that I have any sympathy for at this point. Lucius had turned quite weird before Punchline tortured him. And Lucius and his wife bribed the hit and run victim’s family. None of it admirable. Meanwhile, Luke Fox has been acting like a jerk to Tim/Jace.

      Obviously it was very weird writing that made the Fox family keep the Wayne money Selina transferred to them from the Underbroker. Was that because Ridley wanted that to happen as a foundation for the tale he wanted to tell? Or was it just a weird thing for Tynion to write? But now that they have the money, the Fox family is very unsympathetic.

      “Creatively, Future State did not work: whatever Scott Snyder was trying to accomplish completely ran out of steam”

      Snyder didn’t write any of the Future State stories, and I didn’t think he had anything to do with it, or with 5G. I heard him on Word Balloon saying he wanted Metal to be separate and fought with DiDio over that, and in the end made some reluctant changes to it – he wasn’t specific, but maybe it was the scenes at the very end of Death Metal that introduced the new omniverse that were inserted to try to accommodate DC’s intended direction.

      I agree with you completely about Bendis. He brought a lot of heart to things, and I hope he accomplished all that he intended – though I think his run was cut short.

      I’m not a big fan of Geoff Johns (heresy!) but I liked Three Jokers. And I didn’t expect to like the Stargirl special, but did.

      Tom Taylor should write all the books!

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      1. It’s OK to not be a big fan of Geoff John’s, he had some great runs – in my opinions, Stars and Stripe, Flash, JSA – but the rest of his work varied in quality. I got bored very quickly with his Crayola Corps in Green Lantern.

        The Fox family business sounds appalling. Lucius covered up a hit and run? Ye gods.

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    2. I’ve been enjoying the Other History of the DC Universe, it’s been interesting getting Ridley’s take on the characters, and seeing where he changes things a tad, and the reworked art has been fascinating.

      I’m not interested in these horror books, as another fan of DC’s Seventies ‘mystery’ books, I want anthologies filled with shorts, not ongoings.

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  10. Thanks for all the thoughts, especially the Next Batman background… I managed one issue of the first digital issue and gave up. I just do not care. Also, the quality wasn’t great.

    I reviewed #1 and #3 of the Other History if you’re interested in fan’s take.

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  11. It seems there is a limit to how deep a “reply” can go, so I can’t reply directly.

    I didn’t even notice there’s no Supergirl book in October. All of King’s mini-series eventually have delays. Maybe DC saw so much negativity that King is retooling the book a bit (one can hope). More likely Evely simply needed a break.

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      1. I’m sure it’s just to give Evely time to catch up. King writes his miniseries in full before giving the scripts to the artist, so I doubt there’s a lot of re-tooling going on.

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  12. Maybe I should re-read it, but I recall finding the Geoff Johns Flash Rebirth baffling, and then Green Lantern Rebirth just as bad. Didn’t see the need for Superman Secret Origin considering we’d recently had the superior Superman Birthright.

    The Second Son art by Travel Foreman was weak. He’s also drawing I Am Batman #0. Olivier Coipel is drawing #1, then Stephen Segovia is drawing #2. The changing roster is not a good sign, but Coipel and Segovia are both very good.

    I don’t understand the Fox family names: mother Tanya, children Tam, Tim, Tiffany; father Lucius and son Luke. I need a cheat sheet to remember who people are. Maybe that’s why Ridley changed Tim’s name to Jace.

    I’m sure I read your reviews of Other History – I check in on everything I’m reading. In fact I vaguely recall discussing covers, that I really liked the Jamal Campbell variants. Not that I disliked the main cover at all. The illustrations were great throughout.

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  13. T.N., I apologize for mislabeling where I find Scott Snyder to be at fault with his DC efforts. His multi-title Justice League family of books sprang out of Death Metal. While his launch with No Justice was promising, very quickly the narrative spiraled out of coherence.
    For me, Snyder’s Superman Unchained seemed to be about adding a new villain to Superman’s Rogues Gallery, when what was actually needed was to get back to stabilizing the Daily Planet, making Lois Lane once more the undisputed great love of Superman’s life, and having Superman display the small town values which have always made him superhero royalty. This is what the Bendis run did, IMHO.
    Ridley’s Other History of the DCU is about what apparently would be in the dime boxes of your LCS. DC has not provided much in the way of affordable reprint editions of its 1970s and 1980s comic book runs, so how could you be expected to have familiarity with them? I’ve read the original run of Black Lightning (DCs rough equivalent of Luke Cage, Power Man). I’ve read the original Batman & The Outsiders run where Katana and Halo debuted. Ridley isn’t making this story up from the whole cloth, so much, as he is putting into a new context dozens of minor characters from hundreds of mostly forgettable comics. But Ridley is not dramatizing his narrative: he is writing a position paper.
    Martin, Geoff Johns was once on the Mount Rushmore of DC writers, full stop. Johns and Gary Frank on their Superman books in 2018 were spectacular. Doomsday Clock was a misstep, but Johns should have been able to relaunch the Legion Of Super Heroes book instead of Bendis, that’s how subtle his knowledge of DC history, is. Instead, Johns is falling short creatively on his big, prestige Batman books while he is now doing an Image comic book with Gary Frank. It is painful to see Johns put out such indulgent, naval-gazing DC books when he used to be our Sultan of Swat.
    Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by King & Evely had a worrying premiere issue, but it could become a series reminiscent of Gil Kane’s Sword of the Atom (1983). Getting Supergirl out of her comfort zone on a Red Sun planet is closer to a Wolverine miniseries, yes, but King has never shied away from the combat zone. If King expands the narrator beyond Ruthye, the tone might become less oppressive. Obviously, Kara and Krypto are not dead, yet, so I say: let King do his thing 😀

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    1. Brilliant points about Other History being a position paper… maybe it’s my love of Back Issue and the like that makes me enjoy it so.

      I still don’t like Sword of the Atom 🙂 Have you seen the preview of the upcoming SWoT #2… five angels and it’s all Ruthye, with Supergirl asleep.

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  14. Martin, there are legitimate reasons for not liking Gil Kane’s Sword Of The Atom: arguably, Ray Palmer as a character effectively evaporated, wound up as road kill for Meltzer’s Identity Crisis (2004) and has been wandering around the DCU mostly as a drunken sailor ever since. (However, Bendis used Ray Palmer brilliantly when Earth wound up in the Phantom Zone in his Superman run.)
    The previews which you saw for Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #2 honestly makes me sad. Bilquis Evely drew plenty of feathered characters during her The Dreaming run, so maybe that was why she was chosen to do this project.
    However, Tom King revisiting Kara’s Earth Angel era from Peter David’s Supergirl run is just odd: King’s DC work has been more science-fantasy (Omega Men, Strange Adventures) than sword&sorcery-fantasy. Kara might be being done dirty by DC in this project.
    If King is doubling-down on Ruthye and this is Supergirl being used as a marketing feint to put a Red Sonja/Captain Marvel type of Hyborian Age meets the Kree-Skrull War book on the stands, then DC has lost its d*** mind.
    Far Sector and Amethyst were honestly creative efforts by DC to do female-led fantasy adventure comics. If DC is once again putting Supergirl into a corner… then there shall be a Rage Of Angels, indeed.
    Hi, Steve McBeezlebub!
    I was thinking of how Geoff Johns wrote the Legion in his Superman arc with Gary Frank in 2007 and also his Legion of Three Worlds issues for Final Crisis in 2008.
    Johns has to my knowledge never written a self-contained LSH story: he has always the Legion in Time Bubble stories, or stories where Time Master is disrupting the fabric of reality. I don’t believe Johns has written LSH in a stable 31st century where time itself was not under attack.
    Johns writes Imra and Garth and Brainy extremely well: that’s why I think he could write a good LSH book. However, strong character work is not enough to make a great LSH book.
    So I admit that your world-building point is well-taken: Johns’ New 52 Justice League run immediately destabilized the team by pairing Superman with Wonder Woman, then by Green Lantern quitting the team because Hal couldn’t play well with others. Maybe Johns is expert at putting sand into the gears; as it were; than he is at building a better mousetrap. Perhaps Johns puts more effort into his villains than into his heroes.
    Johns’ version of Atlantis had Arthur sleeping on the couch in his own throne room. Johns’ version of the Green Lantern Corps allowed Sinestro to take a leadership position above the Guardians of Oa. Johns’ Thanagar during his Hawkman run was not the utopian society established by Gardner Fox & Joe Kubert in their 1962 stories.
    Johns has not demonstrated that he can portray a utopian society, so he might be a bad fit to write a Legion book 😀

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    1. Hmm, I’d not thought of King’s Supergirl as being PAD revisit, tell me more!

      Great point about Johns’ Legion; I’d have enjoyed it a lot more were it not treading on the Waid/Kitson version that was being printed around then.

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  15. Bit of a step down from the first issue because it doesn’t continue each and every plot started there. In a tapestry story like this, you’re always in danger of losing sight of certain threads (just like I’m at risk of mixing my metaphors here) even as you add more. Like here, we gain Captain Atom, but lose sight of the Flash. Justice Incarnate should also have been more prominent and taken over the storyline by now.

    As with other DC event books, my fear is that it doesn’t really conclude but just spins out into other books,

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      1. It’s bi-weekly, though– which came as a total surprise to me!

        But I totally agree… I would have liked a check-in with Barry.

        Liked by 1 person

  16. As enjoyable as this book is, I do wish DC would just leave the multi-verse stuff alone for a while. It just seems like there is this constant need on the part of writers/editorial to “define” it. Remember how Infinite Crisis resulted in the very specific 52 Earths and then Morrison’s multi-verse map? And now we have yet ANOTHER series making an effort to lay out the rules of the DC cosmos left behind following Death Metal. Sometimes leaving things open/vague is better. Let writers who want to dip into the multi-verse if it makes for interesting stories in their titles, but don’t bash us over the head with it. While these types of stories used to be catnip for me, I have to say I’ve lost interest.

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      1. I totally agree… but I’m reading this in the hope that its intention is to explore, and not define. That’s the vibe I’m getting from it so far.

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  17. Martin, PAD’s Earth Angel Supergirl stories began in #17 and had much to do with her having merged with Matrix, but it is debatable how much of PAD’s 75 issue run is canon. Honestly, it’s not like Tom King is pulling this stuff out of thin air.
    Considering that Supergirl is vulnerable to magic, PAD toyed with demonic possession for her, which served as a form of character development; even allowed for her having been in a Satanic cult; but also was an easily dismissed backstory once PAD left her book after 6 years 😀

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Published by martingray1

Journalist, comic reviewer, theatre critic, film lover, biscuit fan, cat indulger