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J.M. DeMatteis & Eduardo Barreto, Superman: Speeding Bullets: What if Kal-El's ship had touched down just outside Gotham, in front of an amazed Martha and Thomas Wayne? Kal-El is Bruce in this story, which makes his foundational guilt somewhat more credible even for an adult. I think the story errs in merging a big Superman nemesis with a big Batman nemesis, because it would have been better to try the "what if" with only one major change, and it's also a little short. Best if you believe the thesis that Superman will out, no matter what his beginnings.
Kurt Busiek & Stuart Immonen, Superman: Secret Identity: My favorite Superman book (though if we count Lex Luthor: Man of Steel it will have to share the honors). The Kents have a son, and because they're slightly perverse, they name him Clark Kent. But everyone knows who Clark Kent is – Siegel and Shuster worked their magic in this world as well as in ours – and Clark grows up with a few more burdens than the average kid with a funny name. Then, when he is a young man, he gets another one: Somehow, maybe by the combined imagination of a nation, maybe by some other mechanism, he starts gaining powers. But in his world there's no such thing as a superhero; that's for comic books. Not quite Supreme Power in its investigation of how governments would actually react to superpowers, but in many ways stronger, quieter, more intimate and also deeply hopeful. Highly recommended.
Peter David et al., Supergirl: Many Happy Returns: Peter David wrote some of my favorite Star Trek novels, which is actually high praise. He's good at getting at the secret tragic heart of many series premises, which TV shows and the like rarely explore. Q-Squared, for example, makes a standard multiple universes plot painful, and Many Happy Returns is not dissimilar. Kara Zor-El, from a simpler universe of cackling villains and pure heroes, somehow (this is DC, it doesn't require much) lands in Linda Danvers's world just as Linda is getting used to a new phase in her existence as Supergirl. Kara and Linda quickly learn to work together, but their destinies are far apart – and Linda has some hard things to learn about what heroes sometimes do to innocents in her world. As far as I can tell, Supergirl canon is messier than usual for DC, but David makes the compare-and-contrast work.
Neil Gaiman et al., 1602: I can see why this would be a great romp for people steeped in Marvel canon. What would the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, etc. be like if they appeared in the seventeenth century instead of the twentieth? How would the pervasiveness of religion affect their perceptions of their powers? What if their fates were somehow bound up with the New World? I thought it was fine, but I clearly missed a lot of the resonances that someone better educated in Marvel canon would have seen.
Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips, Sleeper: Out in the Cold: Suppose you're a deep cover agent in a world where people with powers work for the mob, not as caped crusaders. You're investigating a global conspiracy. The people around you hate and suspect you on general principles, and you've committed major felonies to get this far. There's a woman, Miss Misery, who lives up to her very Bond Girl name. Oh, and you just found out that your boss -- the only person who knows your real loyalties – has been in a coma for a while. It's a great setup, and I love Miss Misery, though I'm not sure later volumes lived up to the promise of the beginning.
Daredevil: The Official Comic Adaptation: This actually contains the comic book version of the (bad) movie, Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra #1 in which the pair meet cute in college, Daredevil #32 (the beginning of the Bendis "Out" arc, which has a number of good features, not least of which is that it's by Bendis), and – randomly -- Spider-Man's Tangled Web #4, in which one of gang boss Fisk's lieutenants screws up and prepares to pay the ultimate price. The stories are contradictory, given movie-Daredevil's intro to movie-Elektra, the art varies widely, and all and all you'd be better off with Out. I got it for free, so don’t judge me too harshly.
Kurt Busiek & James W. Fry, The Liberty Project: This black-and-white, manga-sized volume was printed from scans of the full-size color comics, since they couldn't find the original film. The images therefore seem a bit squished. The story is of a government-created superteam – created out of criminals hoping for early parole. The conflicts between team members are pretty obvious – there's Rebel Guy, the Bad Girl With a Heart of Gold, the Black Guy with Glasses, and Really Angry Girl – the big thing there being that she's a girl. Later there's an addition to the original team, which creates some resentment, and the end – well, either the end is really depressing, or it's like Farscape's "Bad Timing," since the series got cancelled after eight issues. Completists only.
Paul Chadwick, Concrete: Depths: Mid-80s variant of superhero comic: Congressional speechwriter goes off in the woods, is captured by aliens, has brain transferred to giant stone body with superior vision, jumping ability, and lung capacity. When he returns to civilization, the government lets him loose as long as he’ll claim to be the result of a government supersoldier program. This volume has a collection of episodes, including various attempts to use his powers for good that are more or less unsuccessful. I read a review of the series that praised it highly for showing how superpowers didn’t save Concrete from banality and humiliation, but I didn’t even get that much out of it. Skippable.
Kurt Busiek & Stuart Immonen, Superman: Secret Identity: My favorite Superman book (though if we count Lex Luthor: Man of Steel it will have to share the honors). The Kents have a son, and because they're slightly perverse, they name him Clark Kent. But everyone knows who Clark Kent is – Siegel and Shuster worked their magic in this world as well as in ours – and Clark grows up with a few more burdens than the average kid with a funny name. Then, when he is a young man, he gets another one: Somehow, maybe by the combined imagination of a nation, maybe by some other mechanism, he starts gaining powers. But in his world there's no such thing as a superhero; that's for comic books. Not quite Supreme Power in its investigation of how governments would actually react to superpowers, but in many ways stronger, quieter, more intimate and also deeply hopeful. Highly recommended.
Peter David et al., Supergirl: Many Happy Returns: Peter David wrote some of my favorite Star Trek novels, which is actually high praise. He's good at getting at the secret tragic heart of many series premises, which TV shows and the like rarely explore. Q-Squared, for example, makes a standard multiple universes plot painful, and Many Happy Returns is not dissimilar. Kara Zor-El, from a simpler universe of cackling villains and pure heroes, somehow (this is DC, it doesn't require much) lands in Linda Danvers's world just as Linda is getting used to a new phase in her existence as Supergirl. Kara and Linda quickly learn to work together, but their destinies are far apart – and Linda has some hard things to learn about what heroes sometimes do to innocents in her world. As far as I can tell, Supergirl canon is messier than usual for DC, but David makes the compare-and-contrast work.
Neil Gaiman et al., 1602: I can see why this would be a great romp for people steeped in Marvel canon. What would the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, etc. be like if they appeared in the seventeenth century instead of the twentieth? How would the pervasiveness of religion affect their perceptions of their powers? What if their fates were somehow bound up with the New World? I thought it was fine, but I clearly missed a lot of the resonances that someone better educated in Marvel canon would have seen.
Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips, Sleeper: Out in the Cold: Suppose you're a deep cover agent in a world where people with powers work for the mob, not as caped crusaders. You're investigating a global conspiracy. The people around you hate and suspect you on general principles, and you've committed major felonies to get this far. There's a woman, Miss Misery, who lives up to her very Bond Girl name. Oh, and you just found out that your boss -- the only person who knows your real loyalties – has been in a coma for a while. It's a great setup, and I love Miss Misery, though I'm not sure later volumes lived up to the promise of the beginning.
Daredevil: The Official Comic Adaptation: This actually contains the comic book version of the (bad) movie, Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra #1 in which the pair meet cute in college, Daredevil #32 (the beginning of the Bendis "Out" arc, which has a number of good features, not least of which is that it's by Bendis), and – randomly -- Spider-Man's Tangled Web #4, in which one of gang boss Fisk's lieutenants screws up and prepares to pay the ultimate price. The stories are contradictory, given movie-Daredevil's intro to movie-Elektra, the art varies widely, and all and all you'd be better off with Out. I got it for free, so don’t judge me too harshly.
Kurt Busiek & James W. Fry, The Liberty Project: This black-and-white, manga-sized volume was printed from scans of the full-size color comics, since they couldn't find the original film. The images therefore seem a bit squished. The story is of a government-created superteam – created out of criminals hoping for early parole. The conflicts between team members are pretty obvious – there's Rebel Guy, the Bad Girl With a Heart of Gold, the Black Guy with Glasses, and Really Angry Girl – the big thing there being that she's a girl. Later there's an addition to the original team, which creates some resentment, and the end – well, either the end is really depressing, or it's like Farscape's "Bad Timing," since the series got cancelled after eight issues. Completists only.
Paul Chadwick, Concrete: Depths: Mid-80s variant of superhero comic: Congressional speechwriter goes off in the woods, is captured by aliens, has brain transferred to giant stone body with superior vision, jumping ability, and lung capacity. When he returns to civilization, the government lets him loose as long as he’ll claim to be the result of a government supersoldier program. This volume has a collection of episodes, including various attempts to use his powers for good that are more or less unsuccessful. I read a review of the series that praised it highly for showing how superpowers didn’t save Concrete from banality and humiliation, but I didn’t even get that much out of it. Skippable.
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From:
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As for Peter David's Many Happy Returns, I think it was a great way to wrap up David's run on the book. I think David's version of the Supergirl character is far superior to the current Loeb incarnation--not least because David had some idea of who his character was and where he wanted to go with her. And I quite liked the way David's Fallen Angel (when it was still being published under the Vertigo banner) played on some of the scenes present in Many Happy Returns.
I've only read a couple of trades in Brubaker's Sleeper series. I loved the first trade, and thought teh second volume was pretty good too. But I haven't felt compelled to rush out and buy the rest of them. I don't know if you've tried Greg Rucka's Queen and Country books, but if you enjoy spy stories, you might enjoy those as well...
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I don't know much Supergirl canon, but I probably should investigate more. I read a few of the comics from when she was in love with Lex Luthor (the clone), but my reaction was more incredulity than ability to understand her as a character. I will keep an eye out for Fallen Angel.
I read a volume of Queen & Country but didn't get much out of it. Even within my comics, I prefer superpowers.
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If you like David at all, pick up the Madrox trade and the new X-Factor: straight-up gumshoe noir with a mutant twist, and David's trademark humor.
I've had Sleeper sitting around for over a year, after picking it up on the recommendation of my comic shop manager. I'll move it on up the pile...
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