Category: DC

Written by Mike Carey
Penciled by Sonny Liew
Inked by Marc Hempel
176 pages, black and white
Published by Minx/DC Comics

One of my absolute favorite books of 2004 was My Faith in Frankie by Mike Carey, Sonny Liew, and Marc Hempel, a fun story about friendship, love, and personal gods. When I’d heard that they were teaming up to create Re-Gifters, a graphic novel about martial arts and crushes, I was cautiously optimistic. It’s easy to get one’s hopes up a little too high based on past successes; after my large expectations were created, would a book about a girl living in Los Angeles studying hapkido still be able to make me happy?

Continue reading “Re-Gifters”

Written by Cecil Castellucci
Art by Jim Rugg
176 pages, black and white
Published by Minx/DC Comics

There’s a big difference between a plot synopsis and the actual finished product. So often, the two end up mismatched, with one of them being lackluster and the other being fantastic. Ideally, you want the two to be on equal footing, but in the case of books like Cecil Castellucci’s and Jim Rugg’s The Plain Janes that’s not always the end result. For what was the big initial launch book for DC Comics’s new Minx line, that can be a little worrisome, because no matter if it was the idea or the execution that fell down, somewhere along the way you run the risk of scaring off potential readers.

Continue reading “Plain Janes”

Written by Kurt Busiek and Geoff Johns
Art by Pete Woods
32 pages, color
Published by DC Comics

It’s tough to write Superman. Maybe it’s because the character’s been around for so long that everyone has grafted in their head exactly what he should be like; maybe it’s a perception from the first two movies starring the character. Regardless, he’s a very difficult character to write. Fortunately, Kurt Busiek and Geoff Johns seem to know exactly how to do just that.

Continue reading “Superman #650”

Written by Gail Simone
Penciled by John Byrne
Inked by Nelson
32 pages, color
Published by DC Comics

I’ve never understood why so many writers find it hard to write Superman. One of the oldest characters in comics, you’d think that would make it easy to get a handle on him, with so much history already established. Yet, time and time again, writers come on board the various books and fail to get a grasp on him; that’s probably why Gail Simone’s debut on Action Comics is all the more refreshing, because she “got it” immediately.

Continue reading “Action Comics #827-828”

By Darwyn Cooke
208 pages, color
Published by DC Comics

One of the things that struck me the most about DC: The New Frontier is that creator Darwyn Cooke’s entire focus is on telling a good story. It’s not wondering on how the book fits into the continuity of 1950s comics, or if the book should be an “Elseworlds”, or if there’s some sort of agenda or big event spin-off that needs to get across. To me, DC: The New Frontier felt like a book with a singular goal, and that’s to be written and drawn as best as it possibly can. It succeeds, too.

Continue reading “DC: The New Frontier Vol. 1”