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George Perez

Batman: A Death in the Family

I’ve never been a fan of the morose Batman, but I recently read the excellent Three Jokers which is built upon this book that killed off Jason Todd who was the second Robin, and the trauma that Batgirl endured at the hand of the Joker in The Killing Joke. This book collects the six-chapter A Death in the Family and the five-chapter A Lonely Place of Dying that introduced Tim Drake as the third Robin.

This 1988 book was groundbreaking in that it killed Jason, and he truly didn’t return as the anti-hero Red Hood until 2005. On top of that, it was up to readers to decide if Jason would live or die within a three-week period in which they could make a 50-cent call to a 900 number. Alas, his character wasn’t as popular as Dick Grayson who was now Nightwing, and his death was sealed by a slim margin.

A Death in the Family

This storyline occurred in the later years of the Bronze Age of Comics, so it still had the superhero look of past decades, but more mature themes were being explored. Jason Todd is shown pushing boundaries, by being petulant and too violent, and Batman and Alfred feel he hadn’t properly grieved his parents before becoming the new Robin. When told he needs to take a break from crime-fighting, he heads back to his old neighborhood and a former neighbor gives him a box of belongings from his parents. He discovers a birth certificate that shows he had a different mother than he thought, so going off a few clues heads to the Middle East to figure out which of three women she could be. But in an improbable twist, both Batman and Joker are there too. This part of the story has not stood the test of time, for the era of the 80s with Reaganomics is mentioned and the Iranian Allatoyah is shown in a very uncomfortable plot point in the story. The woman who was his mother (now retconned I believe, and no longer viewed as his mother in his bio) is perfectly awful and lets Joker attack Jason after they have been reunited. Spoiler alert- he is killed- but everyone knows that. The concluding chapters bring in Superman and yet another improbable plot twist with the Joker.

A Lonely Place of Dying

Can Batman be any more emo than usual? Of course, he can! He is now taking bigger risks as he feels guilty over Jason’s death. Nightwing who is now part of the New Titans comes to help his former partner deal with new threats from Two-Face. We are introduced to a brilliant and earnest teen, Tim Drake, who has pieced together clues and figured out Batman and Nightwing’s secret identities. He convinces them that Batman still needs a Robin, and who better than him?

An afterword by writer Marv Wolfman was interesting and gave context to the story. The art and layouts were good but rather standard for the time period. Joker’s face was so exaggerated that it was distracting for me and hard to take him seriously as a villain. While this book hasn’t changed my opinion of Batman, I’m still glad I picked it up for it is considered a classic and fills in some gaps in my DC knowledge.

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The Infinity Gauntlet

Thanos is a big whiny crybaby!

Despite Thanos achieving omnipotence by collecting the six Infinity gems of time, space, mind, soul, reality, and power he is distraught that Lady Death does not love him back. Desperate to impress her, and egged on by Mephisto, Thanos kills half of humanity including many of the Avenger and X-Men heroes.

A seemingly random group of heroes remain: Captain America, Doctor Strange, Silver Surfer, Hulk, Wolverine, Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, Spider Man and a few others. They band under the direction of Adam Warlock, who is mysteriously alive again, to defeat Thanos. There were some confusing interactions with some cosmic deities,  and eventually his own self doubt leads to his undoing. But what of the huge swath of death that Thanos cut across the universe? You will just have to read this classic series to find out how!

I admired Jim Starlin’s story, as it didn’t become too convoluted and he gave Thanos a real pathos. The art work by George Pérez and Ron Lim is outstanding, of course.  I like how people are drawn realistically and proportionally, none of this bulked out men and sex kitten females that some artists feel they need to draw. I laughed out loud when in the background of a panel depicting a giant wave, a Trump tower was seen collapsing. Written in 1991, who knew what that picture would symbolize years later.

Depending on when you come into a fandom, there will be certain characters that you know better than others. As I was an X-Men & ElfQuest fan originally, and did not read many Avenger titles, Thanos is a new character to me. And although this book is due for some attention because of the upcoming Avengers Infinity War movie, I actually picked this up because I am on a Pérez kick (thanks to Kathleen!). Two other characters that I have recently come to know better in this book and last week’s JLA/Avengers are Galatcus and Nebula. While I vaguely remembered Nebula from Guardians of the Galaxy (I have not seen part 2 yet), I find it funny that my first connection to Galatcus came from The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl!

I enjoyed reading throw back stories these two weeks, for they give me a better understanding of past adventures and spotlighted characters I didn’t know that well. This was an epic story, one that newer Marvel stories pale next to.

-Nancy

Starlin, Jim, George Perez & Ron Lim. The Infinity Gauntlet. 1991.

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JLA/ Avengers

When Universes Collide!

The DC  and Marvel Heroes go head to head when their two realities combine, putting both their universes in danger.  Kurt Busiek writes and George Pérez illustrates this fun crossover tale in which all your favorites have to work together to save the cosmos!

Evil super scientist Krona (from the DC universe) is desperate to understand how it all began- what came before the Big Bang? In his millennia of searching, he has destroyed planets and civilizations without a second thought, but comes up against his equal when he meets the Grandmaster (from the Marvel universe). The two of them devise a plan to pit the two teams of superheroes against one another, in a game within a game.

The two teams are initially unaware of one another, and are confused when they are tasked to retrieve twelve magical items, found in both universes. Once they move into each other’s universes, they meet, and the competition is on. Initially rivals, their retrieval of the icons is kept track of by Krona and Grandmaster in a competition of which team can find them first. Not surprisingly, the teams eventually forge an allegiance, but not before Galactus gets in on the action and several betrayals and twists and turns occur. This is a hard story to describe, you have to experience it yourself to truly appreciate it.

Look at Scarlet Witch’s hair! She is a permed 80’s goddess!

As a practical person who often struggles with a “suspension of disbelief”, I loved how Busiek explained the two different worlds and their contradictions to one another. The DC heroes are revered on their world, while the Avengers (and definitely the mutants) are met with hostility on theirs. Because of this differing opinion of the masses, they each accuse the other team of being out of touch with what their citizens need. How their powers work on each world is also explained in a plausible way. Plus, the way they touched on the possible future that they had a chance to witness, was handled better in a few pages than Civil War II did in a whole book.

Although released in 2004, this story has a Golden Age/retro feel to it, as Pérez expertly recreates the heroes. He absolutely captures their essence, and without giving away too many spoilers, he also has a chance to show the heroes in different costume eras. That was a hoot, as some of the heroes have had extreme makeovers over the years, or have had different people representing them.  The layout of the narrative had an easy flow, with impressive title pages and two page spreads. In fact, I am on a George Pérez kick right now, because of Kathleen’s recommendations. I bought some of his Wonder Woman books for my library, and have The Infinity Gauntlet on my TBR list.

This was a fun book to read, and I was extremely impressed with the Busiek/Pérez team up and how they wonderfully melded together two rich histories into one outstanding story.

Asides:

I HATE PLASTIC MAN! Not just dislike- I hate him! As a child he creeped me out, and I found his slap stick humor distasteful. Every time I saw him in a panel in this story (which was a lot) I cringed.

Why is Hawkeye such a ladies man? I found him ugly with his purple costume and ridiculous boots.

I enjoyed the rivalry between similarly powered heroes: Hawkeye/Green Arrow, Flash/Quicksilver, Superman/Thor, Batman/Captain America.

Aquaman is a buff, bearded blonde here, as he is in most recent incarnations, so I am anxious to see how the dark haired DC movie actor Jason Momoa handles the role. JM is mighty fine, so I am looking forward to seeing his interpretation of the role.

Avengers Assemble! has a much better ring to it than Justice League Lambaste!  Man, that was funny when Superman tried to come up with his own catch phrase.

-Nancy

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Wonder Woman by George Perez Omnibus, Vol. 1

I’ve been teasing this review for way too long, and in honor of the movie coming out (review of that coming on Wednesday!), thought it was time =P

Long ago, the Amazons were created by the gods to worship them and keep to their ways. Heracles sought to conquer them, and the gods were angry when the Amazons took their revenge. They were banished to the island of Themyscira, to stand guard over the evil there, and they were to keep their chains of bondage in order to remind them never to err again from the ways of the gods. Their queen, Hippolyle, wished for nothing but a daughter, and the gods granted her one last miracle – Diana. She is raised as the daughter of all the Amazons. When Ares rises and starts to wreck Man’s World, the Amazons hold a tournament to decide their champion, who will leave their home and slay the evil. None other than Diana wins the tournament, and what kind of heroine will she be to Man’s World?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This is my favorite incarnation of Wonder Woman. The origins of the Amazons and Diana herself are steeped strongly in Greek mythology, and we get multiple scenes of the Greek pantheon. Quite a while is spent on the origins stories, but once Diana gets off the island, the action ratchets up, with appearances by Cheetah and Silver Swan. Diana is strong and beautiful, dedicated to her mission, but never forgets where she comes from. I absolutely love all the ’80s cheesiness in the dialogue! The art is GORGEOUS. The palette is mostly pastel, with light shading, but stronger colors and starker shading are used as appropriate. Each illustration is filled with light, as befitting the Amazon princess. I highly recommend it to anyone – especially those who want to start reading Wonder Woman.

❤

Kathleen

Perez, George. Wonder Woman by George Perez Omnibus, Vol. 1. 2015.

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Top 5 Wednesday: Books That Would Make Good Video Games

Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme from Goodreads, created by Lainey from Gingerreadslainey and now moderated by Sam from ThoughtsOnTomes.

I’m going back in time in the T5W bank, because today’s was sci-fi/fantasy related again and I just did one of those! Let’s mix it up a bit =P I’m slowly getting back into games after trying Horizon Zero Dawn~

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5. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Thought of you, Nancy! =P Eleanor & Park is an incredibly cute but incredibly heartbreaking story about two misfit teenagers falling in love. It’s set in the ’80s, but I often forgot that while reading it because the story and themes are so timeless. I think it would make a great 8 bit platformer game. You could alternate playing as Eleanor and Park every other level, and find different comics and tapes referenced in the book to give to the other person. There could be a heart meter that goes up or down depending on how many or what you find and give. And maybe the game would reveal the three mysterious words on the postcard – and change every time depending on how you play and how full you get the meter!

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4. Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor

The first book is amazing and even if the sequels aren’t on the same level, y’all should read it. This trilogy is about a girl with blue hair named Karou, an artist who’s raised by monsters. One of her guardians deals in animal teeth, and you find out later he builds other creatures from the teeth he collects and strings together like necklaces. Wouldn’t that be an awesome sidequest in a game??? Finding teeth and stringing them together to build creatures for an army, each animal with different stat attributes? Deal me in!

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3. Wonder Woman by George Perez

Okay, I admit I’ll take any incarnation of WW as a game, but the story and art of this run are iconic and stellar! I think it would lend itself well to a video game. There are also plenty of plot threads – main and side – that would translate well to a game. As it was written in the ’80s, I imagine it as another 8 bit sidescroller… complete with all the melodramatic cheesy dialogue goodness!

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2. Birds of Prey by Gail Simone

There are a lot of angles from which a Birds game could be played. You could play strictly as Oracle, where you choose the heroes you send into the field, and see them from a birds-eye view (pun not intended!), and manipulate them as if you were playing a tactical board game. In addition to moving your heroines around, there could also be puzzles to solve and codes to crack in order for the mission to succeed. You could also play as one of the heroes and go into the field, with Oracle as your AI guide, for a more action-oriented game. I feel no matter which incarnation you get, there should be a role-playing element, to highlight the bond between the Birds so evident in the comics!

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1. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

Okay I know we’ve had ports of movie tie-ins to just about every console and handheld from the PS1 and GameBoy on… we had Pottermore back when it was actually a game (and I’m still incredibly salty it’s not anymore)… but wHERE IS MY HARRY POTTER SIMULATOR??? WHEN CAN I MAKE MY OWN CHARACTER AND PLAY AS HER THROUGH HOGWARTS??? WHEN?!!?!? IT’S 2017 AND WE DON’T HAVE THIS YET AND IT’S A TRAVESTY TO HUMANKIND TBH

Honorable mention was a Batgirl game… one half-baked Arkham Knight DLC is never going to be enough… #saltyaboutit

What book to game incarnations would you want to see? =D

– Kathleen

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