D.C. Comics

Mark Waid is a living legend in the comic book industry. His career began with DC Comics in the 1980s with runs as editor on titles from Action Comics and Doom Patrol to Secret Origins and Wonder Woman. He eventually left his role as editor in favor of freelance writing for DC, specifically their Impact line, before settling in on an eight year run on The Flash. In the 90s, Waid worked for Marvel Comics on the X-Men series before heading back to DC to produce Kingdom Come with Alex Ross. He has worked on a number of Justice League titles for DC as well as Superman, Legion of Super-Heroes, and the Brave and the Bold. His work for Marvel includes stints on Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, The Indestructible Hulk, Daredevil, and several others. He has served as editor-in-chief of BOOM! Studios and has launched his own digital publishing website, Thrillbent. His most recent venture is breathing new life into the characters of Archie for Archie Comic Publications. Mark Waid is also the 2015 Guest of Honor at the Baltimore Comic Con.

First of all, I’d like to give a round of applause to the cleverness of putting an artist named Bengal on a comic book featuring a tiger themed villain and extended fight sequences of Batgirl against tigers. Batgirl #44 begins immediately after last issue when the new villain Velvet Tiger kidnapped Jo, the fiancee of Barbara Gordon’s friend Alysia and also framed her friend/gadget provider Qadir for murder. The plot of this issue involving the rescue of Jo, several showdowns with Velvet Tiger, and almost a half dozen supporting characters is packed to the brim by writers Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher. However, the sheer expressiveness of Bengal’s art and Serge Lapointe’s colors along with a nice dose of adorable in the several romantic scenes keep the issue afloat and entertaining.

In this one-shot, writers Scott Snyder and Brian Azzarello have decided to tone down Batman into a simple detective story. Set five years in the past, Batman wants to discover who’s murdered a fifteen year-old boy; sounds easy enough. But the world of Gotham is never as calm as it seems. Batman treks throughout the city questioning the likes of The Penguin, the leader of a local gang, and a GCPD detective, but in the end discovers that the young man’s demise came from the young man himself, via Mr. Bloom. Batman wasn’t there to save the young man and in the process learns that he doesn’t know as much about his home as he thought; a staple of the Snyder-era Batman run.

Omega Men #4 Written by Tom King Art by Toby Cypress Colors by Romulo Fajardo Jr. Published by DC Comics There are two stories in Omega Men #4, the story of a hero and the story of a princess.  Both stories may be true, but only one is honest.  Kyle Rayner, a Green Lantern without …

In Midnighter #4, our titular anti-hero continues to hunt down Akakyevich, the man who has the secret of his origins and God Garden implants, but this isn’t all darkness and angst even though readers do find out why Midnighter likes to kill. Instead, writer Steve Orlando and artist Stephen Mooney, who recently illustrated an issue of DC’s digital series Bombshells, bring out DC’s resident chiseled beefcake Dick Grayson for a team-up as they fight Russian vampires (kind of) and a testosterone heavy “thrill killing” club. Mooney uses triangular panels to add punch and panache to the fight scenes while Orlando utilizes both a monster of the week storyline and special guest star to further his long game plot with a jaw dropping final page as the cherry on top.

#43.

Even if the final page villain reveal might not be the most exciting (for now), Batgirl #43 is another opportunity for Babs Tarr to strut her character and clothing design sense, try out some new types of fight scenes, and for Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher to put Batgirl’s well-developed supporting cast to work in another wacky, tech/supervillain/political caper/thriller. It’s hard to fit this comic’s plot in a neat genre box, and that’s a good thing.

Through David Walker and Ivan Reis’ work on Cyborg #2, one can see how the pull of two worlds can be a blessing and a curse to Victor, and it shines bright in moments like these. Showing your body modifications to your cat and Cyborg’s facial expressions when “working” in the lab show a type of maturity to the issue. Victor Stone isn’t the angry son we saw him last issue, he isn’t the isolated computer we thought he was in Justice League. He’s a full on three dimensional character that is making Detroit his own fully realized corner of the DCU with the city becoming a hub of illegal black market machinery, and aliens infiltrating homes to steal technology that will sing them the song of perfection just like this second issue.

The 43rd issue of Batman drops like a ton of bricks. There have been those who have filled Bruce’s shoes as Batman (Dick Grayson, Jean-Paul Valley and now Jim Gordon), but it has never been imagined that Bruce wouldn’t return to the cowl. The reality in this issue is that Bruce doesn’t want to go back to being Batman because he can’t. Scott Snyder has dreamt up an otherworldly Batman pretense: Batman dies and he is then healed by the Joker’s dionesium, but the brain forgets all his past training, experience, and most importantly, past pain. For the foreseeable future it seems that Bruce Wayne is only going to be Bruce Wayne. The motivation to become the Dark Knight doesn’t exist for Bruce and this changes Gotham expansively.

In August 2011, DC Comics changed everything with their line wide reboot dubbed “The New 52”. This reboot started with Justice League #1 and exploded with 51 other titles in September to get things rolling. In the first month of the New 52, every member of the Justice League received their own solo title with the exception: Cyborg. Fast forward four years later, and that issue is rectified with Victor Stone getting his own title written by David Walker and art by Ivan Reis.

Midnighter #2 has attention grabbing layouts and fight choreography from Aco, bold colors from Romulo Fajardo, and witty one-liners that leave both James Bond and John McClane in the dust from Steve Orlando. However, it’s the quiet moments between the mayhem that make Midnighter such a relatable character and set it apart from other superhero and action comics.

One of the things that writers Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher and artist Babs Tarr have shown in their run in Batgirl is that Gotham can be home to other stories and genres other than dark conspiracy, horror, or detective tales. Batgirl #42 could be classified as a techno thriller comedy, or just a straight up superheroes defeat supervillains with an added personal layer because Barbara is teaming up with her dad even if they don’t know it. The art continues to be the biggest highlight, and Tarr’s lines continue to be sweeping and pretty, and her character models are quite adorable. Jake Wyatt and Michel Lacombe handle the layouts and showcase Batgirl’s speed and tenacity with swooping, diagonal panels even if a sequence in the big climactic fight sequence against Lightspeed is a little muddled. Colorist Serge Lapointe brings a bold, bright palette to the issue, but switches up his style for softer, happier scenes with Batgirl in her civilian life as well as going a little Post-Impressionist for the bits featuring Batman and the Gotham skyline.

While DC Comics attempts to play catch-up with their “Divergence” marketing campaign, highlighting new and more diverse status-quo switch-ups along with some #1 issues, Marvel Comics continues to kick ass with more awesome comic books. After Secret Wars, an epic event comic from Jonathan Hickman that changes up the continuity by mashing together the Ultimate and …

When Steve Orlando writes Midnighter (through two issues), he spends equal time on both his personal life and violent crusade of justice. (That he seems to like a little bit too much.) Midnighter #2 does a lot of intersecting between these two beats with Midnighter going out on a date with a man he rescued last issue and getting a little down time in Russia and “saving” the Windcrest Corporation from a woman named Marina, who is getting revenge on them for experimenting on her and killing her husband. The fight and conversation scenes give readers insights into Midnighter’s unique moral compass and fully conveys his motivation for fighting, which is redemption, revenge, and a little bit of fun. Midnighter is not the nicest of guys, and much of his dialogue is taunting snark, but he forges a connection with Marina by the end because he empathizes with their shared connection to the experiments of the God Garden.

On the surface, the title of Final Crisis feels like a misnomer. How can there even be a “final” crisis? There will always be a DC Universe, there will always be earth-shattering dangers, and there will always be heroes to ensure the end is never really the end. But the strength of Final Crisis lies in that it recognizes this, and uses this fact as the crux of the entire event: the promotional tagline was, after all, “Heroes die. Legends live forever.” The characters and stories of the DC Universe are timeless, never-ending, and very much alive in the way that language can be said to be alive. It’s from this angle that writer Grant Morrison attempts to comment on and interact with DC’s complex and often unwieldy history. While Final Crisis is not the final challenge these characters will ever face (because nothing ever will be until the day DC stops publishing — and at this point that’ll likely be the same day CNN puts it “Nearer, My God, to Thee” video to use), one walks away from it feeling like they’ve just experienced the ultimate in everything the DC Universe was, is, and will be.

Writer Gene Luen Yang excels at writing Clark Kent go-getter reporter and Clark/Superman and Jimmy the best of pals. But he abandons the danger and mystery of Clark and Jimmy investigating a piece of futuristic weapons technology that will affect the welfare of Metropolis for a vague mystery story and a costume swap with Daredevil. It’s great that Yang is deciding not to use traditional Superman villains, like Lex Luthor, Zod, or even Parasite, to weaken him, but these baddies lack bite, style, and motivation. Artist John Romita Jr. also abandons his crisp (with some extra lines) compositions for a quick cutting car chase that needed some extra pages to breathe. Superman #41 starts strong, but ends up losing its solar energy just like its protagonist by the final page.

After a break for Convergence, Batgirl is back with a new villain, a new colorist, and most of all, the first real look about how Jim Gordon’s Batman affects the relationship around him. But Batgirl #41 is still both Babs’ show as readers get to see fight crime as well as interact with her roommate Frankie (who is taking on an Oracle type role) and her dad. Artist Babs Tarr also takes over both layouts and pencils and gives the comic the rush of a Saturday morning cartoon using slanted panels and slightly larger gutters to give her acrobatic style an additional “oomph”. Joel Gomez (most likely) helps out in some of the interior scenes adding details to the arcade where Babs and Frankie hang out, and the haunted house-type environment that makes up the first page of the comic, and Gotham Academy colorist Serge Lapointe give Tarr’s art a Studio Ghibli-esque palette like that series.

JLA #1 is another feather in Bryan Hitch’s artistic cap as he excels at showing superheroes in action along with labs, helicopters, explosions, and even a decent flirty interaction between Clark Kent and Lois Lane. However, his plot maybe suffers from some hypercompression as ideas, threats, and allies are introduced at a rapid pace without proper establishment. There are also a few story logic issues, The Flash and Green Lantern are written interchangeably, and Cyborg is kind of treated as deus ex machina. These misfires make JLA #1 an average comic with great art.

With an opening page laid out like a page from one of those free newspapers, writer Brenden Fletcher and artist Annie Wu make the dynamic between Dinah (or D.D. as she is called by the press and her bandmates) and her band the Black Canary the focus in Black Canary #1. Touring and trying to make it as a indie punk band with an eclectic sound courtesy of silent guitarist Ditto and a charismatic lead vocalist comes first before the superheroics, but the kicking and action is always present. And instead of being something, like Scott Pilgrim, where characters accept the musical martial arts matchups without batting an eye, Dinah’s predilection for violence leads to tension between her and her bandmates creating the main conflict for the series along with some mysterious beings drawn in a looser style by Wu with pitch black coloring from Lee Loughridge.

Being a travel agent on Earth-2 definitely has to be the Seventh Circle of Hell of careers. Sure the folks on the Nazi Earth or the Crime Syndicate Earth have their jobs cut out for them trying to convince anyone that their universe is a nice place to visit for even a nanosecond. But as Highfather’s sacrificial lamb to keep Darkseid from preying upon the whole of existence, Earth-2 makes a pretty strong case for having it the worst of all. That’s not the breaks, that’s just harsh beyond measure. But now Convergence has ushered in a whole new world — in the most literal way possible. Taking these characters in a completely new direction, Earth-2: Society makes a bold attempt at getting the Earth-2 line to hit its stride in ways that have eluded it since its inception.

It’s a shame that Gotham Academy #7 seems to be a one-off because there is so much potential for Damian as a regular member of the cast. If you’re looking to get into Gotham Academy, this probably isn’t the place. The impetus for the story and the emotional beats rely on a familiarity with the characters that isn’t established here. You should go pick up the first six issues (and the excellent Endgame tie-in), and then race your way back. Because it’s well worth it.

Sorry James Bond, Jason Bourne, and even DC Comics’ poster boy Batman, Midnighter makes those chumps look like Muppet Babies. Midnighter #1 acts as an effective and thrilling introduction to Midnighter’s personal and professional life displaying both his unique abilities and how he hits on attractive men. Yes, Midnighter is one of the few high profile LGBTQ characters created by the Big Two, and he is the first gay superhero to get a solo series published by DC Comics. Writer Steve Orlando crafts a character, who is a total badass (and will tell you about it while punching you in various organs), but is vulnerable when it comes to matters of the heart because he is newly single after breaking up with his long term boyfriend.

2015 has been quite the eclectic year for comics, and this fact is reflected in our top ten list. Image Comics continues to be the true house of ideas with books ranging from a feminist twist on exploitation films to a murder mystery set in 1940s Hollywood and even a LGBTQ-friendly parody of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Even though they are in the middle of big events (Convergence and Secret Wars), DC and Marvel respectively still have room for offbeat takes on their iconic or not so iconic characters and are represented on this list along with Valiant, which has attracted a veritable Murderer’s Row of creator to shape and develop their shared universe.

This week’s NonCompliant was unintentionally retro as we discuss the 80s indie superhero mixtape comic We Can Never Go Home, disco fabulous Wonder Woman ’77 from DC, and the time travel/sci-fi set in the 80s book Rocket Girl. We also chat about the first chapter of the Gail Simone penned Swords of Sorrow crossover featuring a variety of characters from different eras, including sword and sorcery, jungle adventure, and modern crime noir.