Zatanna #1 (2010)

Zatanna #1 (July, 2010)
Writer - Paul Dini
Penciller - Stephane Roux
Inker - Karl Story
Letterer - Pat Brosseau
Colorist - John Kalisz
Assistant Editor - Chris Conroy
Editor - Joey Cavalieri
Cover Price: $2.99

This is one of those "remember where I was when I read it" issues.  Not so much for the story, as it didn't totally knock my socks off... but for the fact that I read it in my work vehicle while the air conditioner struggled to keep up with the 115° Arizona Sunday Summer Sun.  Warning: My preamble story won't knock any socks off either...

A few years back as I reacquainted myself with the academic lifestyle, I started working part-time as a windshield repairman for one of the larger US firms.  As luck would have it, I drew the straw to work every Sunday.  Now Sunday was a strange day for this gig, as all my customers for the day noted that they be my first appointment... yet, invariably whenever I'd make my first morning "call", the customer would either A) answer their phone in church... and then lambaste me for calling them while they were in worship , or B) answer their phone to tell me that I just woke them up on the only day of the week they're able to sleep in.  Good times.

This would happen every single Sunday without fail.  That being said, I got used to... sitting in my car, waiting for folks to get home or wake up.  On a particularly late work day, I stopped in at a local comic shop and just grabbed the first book I saw to kill a few minutes... that book just happened to be the one we'll be discussing today.

--

We open with Zatanna bound and gagged while Dr. Light and the Joker push a comically-large drill toward her.  The drill appears to go right into her back... then she vanishes.  The Joker and Dr. Light get magically tied up... and Zee takes her bow.  This was all the main event of her magic act.

Backstage, Zatanna is giving some pointers to her assistants when she is interrupted by Detective Dale Colton's five o'clock shadow.  He tells her some heavy stuff went down at the Nob Hill Chop House, and he hopes she can help him sort it out.  [Zee Fact: Zatanna is a vegetarian].  After a car ride, Zatanna and Colton arrive to find quite the strange mass-murder scene.

Zatanna checks out the oddly transformed corpses, and comes upon one of the surviving waiters.  [Zee Fact: Zatanna speaks Spanish].  She psychically goes into his head to relive the horrendous events that transpired.  It was to be a meeting between the heads of several gangster outfits...that was interrupted by a man by the name of Eldon Peck... Brother Night, trafficker of human souls.

Peck called forth his crew... Romalthi the Shaper, Ember the Unborn Dragon, and Teddy... a boy with a box of bugs.  They make short work of the criminal elite, and return to their Underworld realm.

Back in the real world, Zatanna performs some magic of her own, returning the fallen crims to their human shape.  This spell causes Brother Night to feel her presence... and he smiles.

Zatanna, realizing it's time to go to work, gets into her stage duds... and poofs to Brother Night's den... where she absolutely decimates Night's crew... until she's standing before the man himself.

We learn that Night is no longer satisfied ruling over the Mystic Underworld and is now set to expand his influence to the "real" Underworld.  We also learn that Brother Night was something of an acquaintance to Zee's father, John Zatara.  After some tough talk back-and-forth, Zatanna takes her leave.

Back at her home, Zatanna considers all she's found out... and decides to take a wait-and-see approach as she hops into a warm bath.

Back in the Underworld, Brother Night dreams up his next move... by visiting the realm of the one known as the Great Fuseli (Jerry?).

Why Fusilli?  Because you're silly!

--

An enjoyable enough first issue for Zatanna.  Nothing Earth-shattering, but it really didn't need to be.  Actually, it's a pretty quiet table-setting issue.  Zee gets plenty of screen time, and her first major threat is established.

Zatanna is depicted as wonderfully confident here... not letting any of the threats before her get under her skin.  You can tell she's been there and done that, and I really dig that Dini is using her experience as a strength.

Stephane Roux' art is absolutely awesome.  It does get a bit cheesecakey here and there, but that's not always a bad thing.  Zee is drawn to be a very attractive woman... when juxtaposed with the gruesome Underworld mobsters, it is made even more apparent.  I wish Roux's resume was longer, as he's an artist I'd like to follow.

Really not too much to say about it... like I said, mostly table-setting... and clearly written "for the trade".  This was a fun series to follow while it lasted, and if I'm not mistaken was a casualty of Flashpoint.  This is a series to check out... in trade paperback format, if you can find it.

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Detention Comics #1 (1996)

Detention Comics #1 (October, 1996)
"Mama's Boy"
"The Lesson"
"Home"
Writers - Denny O'Neil, Ron Marz, & Ruben Diaz
Pencils - Norm Breyfogle, Ron Lim, & Joe Phillips
Inks - Klaus Janson, Andrew Hennessy, & Dexter Vines
Colors - Jason Wright & Scott Baumann
Letters - Chris Eliopoulos
Editor - Eddie Berganza
Cover Price: $3.50

It's the end of July, and despite the thermometer reading 109°F... summer vacation in Arizona is over.  Today is the day when many teachers report back to school to put their classrooms together before the tikes make their triumphant return next Monday.  Folks who know me, know that my wife is one of those educators who is officially "back to work" today... and in honor of that I decided to cover this mid-90's school-themed oddity.

We've got three stories here to cover... don't worry though, none of this will be on the test.

--

Our first story features Robin.  It opens with the Boy Wonder tangling with a pipe-wielding geek on an upper level of a construction site.  Tim's not trying to hurt his drug-addled aggressor, just defend himself from his blows.  He takes one step backwards... onto a loose board, and begins his plummet to the street below.

As he falls, he ponders recent events and gets us up to speed on just what in the world is going on.  He flashes back to one-week earlier... student Ray Ferdinand has just gotten the news that he did not make the school's track team.  Unfortunately, he finds this out when his mommy's shown up to pick him up for the day.  She's quite protective of Ray, calling him "sweetums" and giving him a smooch in full view of everybody.  To make matters even worse, we learn that the Coach's own son is a member of the track team.  Mrs. Ferdinand absolutely lays into the Coach, even going so far as to threaten to have him fired for preferential treatment.  Nearby, Tim Drake and a pair of his goofball buddies look on in discomfort and disgust.  Tim shows a bit of sympathy for Ray... but is quickly "peer-pressured" out of it.

We now check in with Ray as he overhears his parents arguing about sending their boy to a private school.  Mr. Ferdinand claims that it would be a financial impossibility for them at this time.  Mrs. Ferdinand ain't having it... she tells her husband in no uncertain terms, he'd best figure it out... by hook or by crook.  Ray's dad, the chemist, trudges down to the basement to figure out a way to raise funds... 

The next day at school, we meet teenage junkie Bob Bridgely.  He stumbles through the halls threatening anybody and everybody who dares get in his way.  As luck would have it, Tim witnesses the entire event.  He knows this just might be a job for Robin.

He follows Bridgely to a nearby kiddie park, where he meets up with a group of drug-dealin' scumbags.  Robin watches the transaction, and leaps outta the shadows for a little "citizen's arrest" action.  These geeks won't go quietly, so Tim's gotta twist their arms just a tad.

After taking them all out, Tim shoos Bobby away to the nearest rehab center and takes a look at the drugs.  The baggie the powder is in has a certain chemist's logo stamped on it... that's pretty sloppy slingin', no?

At that very moment, Ray Ferdinand is high on his daddy's supply and goes hunting through the house for a gun.  Doesn't take him long to find it... and he heads out to his Coach's house... but tells Mommy before he leaves.

Ray's parents realize their boy is high as a kite, and console each other on the front porch as he pulls away... in their car.  That's some great parenting... Tim runs up and asks if Ray is okay, and gets the skinny.  Robin's on the hunt.

Robin finds the Raymobile, and finds that the lad is trying to race the Coach's son to find out who's truly faster (at gunpoint).  Point a gun at me, and I promise I'll be pretty damn fast.  We're now right back where we started.

Robin manages to pull out some killer aerial moves to avoid becoming street pizza, and ascends the structure once more.  He finds Ray sobbing, thinking himself a murderer.  Robin tells him to turn himself in... and so he does.  Oh, and he tells off his Mommy too.  The End.

Our next story features the Kid himself, Superboy!  

He's showing off in front of a bunch of college co-eds on the beach.  Bragging about his accolades while checking out their assets.  When suddenly, the mood is completely spoiled by the appearance of Mack Harlin, Truant Officer from Hell (sounds like something DC would've published in the 70's!)

He drags Kon off by the ear and begins reading him the riot act.  Superboy tells Harlin to settle his tea kettle, and states that he don't need no education.

Harlin gets all "oh yeah?", and walks over to the bathing beauties.  The heavyset bookish man rapidly wraps them all around his little finger by quoting Shakespeare.  These ladies are English Lit Majors... and Shakespeare drives them all cray-zee.

Superboy goes all homina-homina, and decides... hey, maybe there's something to all this book-learnin' after all.

Our final tale concerns Guy Gardner, during his Warrior phase.

Guy's back at his old stomping grounds of Hamilton High School.  Before becoming a Green Lantern he taught P.E. here.  Now, he's back doing some emergency substitute work.  As he walks past a classroom, he is surprised to see a teacher get thrown through a window!

Guy decides he'll be teaching Global Studies today, and introduces himself to the class.  This is where we meet perhaps the Amazing Character Find of 1996... Hardcore.  He's a very 90's meta-powered punk kid.  Gardner's tough talk doesn't impress him all that much.  After all, if Guy even dares raise a hand to him, the Board of Education will swarm like so many buzzards.

We meet teacher Elsie Borjas, who pops her head in to check on the proceedings.  She tells Hardcore to cut the crap, and tells Guy that their school is currently at risk of being re-purposed into a mini-mall.  I didn't know that was something that could happen...

Next period is lunch... and we meet a few more of the more prominent student body.  Guy breaks up a fight between a girl called Juicer, and a girl who is able to multiply... her name is, and I'm not making this up... Gang Bang.  We get the distinct impression that Juicer is the sympathetic party here.  She stands up for the oppressed students... and at one point was confined in a wheelchair.

Outside, Hardcore and his buddies Drive-By and Hole (ugh) are wrecking havoc.  Gang Bang reports in about her recent rumble with Juicer, and the crew decides it's time to take her out for good.  In order to do so... they're gonna just burn the whole damn place to the ground.

Next period, Guy's conducting a lesson on the Golden Age of Heroes.  Here we get some wonky math... the Justice Society disbands in 1951... and Superman hits the scene just 10 years later.  Are we talking Golden-Age Superman?  Is this Hypertime?  Am I just thinking too-hard about this?

Anyhoo... there's a fire drill during the lesson, and not one of those fake ones either... there's really a fire going on!  Guy heads out and Warrior-izes before entering the flames.  I don't remember the transformation being so disturbing.  He rescues the lovely Elsie, and they escape the inferno together.

Elsewhere, Juicer is crucified?  Jeez, Hardcore is really hardco... ohhh!  The Crew has her tied up in an American flag while Gang Bang repeatedly punches her in the gut.

Warrior shows up... and he ain't gonna sweat the Board of Ed.  Over the next several pages, he beats the garbage out of the crew... ending with Hardcore begging off like a wimp.

Guy and Juicer head out and she is loaded into an ambulance.  He promises that he'll make sure the school is repaired, and he will be there to see Juicer graduate.

The story wraps up with Guy promising Elsie that he will make a donation to renovate the school.  The students all gather 'round and cheer... and we are out.

--

Well, that was something... some-things... ehh...

Not all that great.  It felt like this wanted to be a PSA, but at the same time wanted to hide the fact that it was a PSA... and for all I know, that's exactly what it was.  What I do know is that it was a fairly middling affair.  These stories feel like the kind of filler that would be used in the Annuals.  Ultimately, they don't matter... and quality may not be the priority.

Going story by story... 

The Robin bit was... alright.  Characters felt a touch archetypal, and didn't really deviate into anything interesting or novel.  The overall story felt very "been there, done that", and sadly Norm Breyfogle's usually top notch pencils appeared to me to be kind of rushed.  I can't remember if Robin was referring himself to as an "apprentice" a lot during this era... but in this story alone, he says it a handful of times.  It reminds me of reading my own academic writing when I use the word "insofar" like I owned it!

The Superboy story, though silly, is probably the highlight of this issue for me.  Very lighthearted, with a simple message... don't be a fool, stay in school.  Art here is very nice as well.  Reading stories with this version of Superboy really makes me feel homesick for the pre-Flashpoint DC Universe.

Guy Gardner's story... while also silly, dealt with much more serious subject manner.  It handled that serious stuff in a humorous way, but still felt kind of off.  The theme here is meta-gang violence in high schools... and features a crew of very... very nineties characters.  Now, that's not a negative... quite the opposite in fact.  I always dig seeing the 90's teen cliche.  Just so much wonderfully dated lingo, spewed out by such wonderfully punchable faces... and thankfully Warrior does punch.

Overall package?  Certainly wouldn't pay (or recommend paying) anywhere near full-price for it.  If you come across it in the cheap-o's, you could do far worse... the novelty of the thing is definitely worth two-bits... hell, even four-bits.

--

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Superman (vol.4) #3 (2016)

Superman (vol.4) #3 (2016)
"Son of Superman, Part Three"
Story - Peter J. Tomasi & Patrick Gleason
Art - Jorge Jimenez
Colorist - Alejandro Sanchez
Letterer - Rob Leigh
Assistant Editor - Andrew Marino
Editor - Eddie Berganza
Cover Price: $2.99

Last issue we caught our first glimpse of a familiar fella in the Eradicator.  Let's see what's what...

--

We open with the Smiths approaching the Fortress of Solitude.  Lois mentions that she feels as though they are trespassing on the old (New-52) Superman's turf... and, she's kinda right.  As they enter they find a visor-wearing fella giving Krypto a belly-scratch.  That panel is making me giggle a bit more than it ought to.

Who's a good boy?  That's right, Krypto's a good boy!
You're so cute I could just eat you u... er...

Superman immediately recognizes the interloper as the Eradicator.  An Eradicator who looks amazingly similar to the one he once knew (and the one who tried to pass himself off as the real-steel-deal once upon a time).  Clark's papa-bear mentality kicks in... and a fight is on!  They rumble around the Fortress and the walls begin to give way.  As a large chunk of rock is about to crush Lois and Jon... the Eradicator saves them, without as much as a second thought.

Superman... now with more questions than before, decides to trust the Eradicator... for now, and he loads his son into the diagnostic hot-seat.  The Smiths are trying to find some measure of consistency in Jon's budding superpowers.  The results show that Jon is still in something of a flux insofar as his powers are concerned.  He's still adapting... and it kinda feels like there's a bit of a Bruce Banner-Hulk dynamic for now.

With that mystery (sort of) solved... Superman turns his attention back to the man in the shiny glasses.  (Then Superman gives Doomsday a Snickers bar... ugh...)  The Eradicator shares his origin... Christened by General Zod, takes care of lawbreakers... scoured the galaxy seeking the one rocket that escaped the doomed planet of Krypton... to Earth.  

He wishes to restart Krypton with Kal-El... and his son... if only he didn't have that pesky human impurity inside him!

The Eradicator intends to wipe out the impure half of young Jon... by ingesting him!  As he turns on his vacuum mouth, noble Krypto leaps into the suction vortex... and gets swallowed.

What follows is an amazingly choreographed scene.  Superman flies off the handle and... well, pummels the living hell out of the Eradicator.  All the while, Jon is holding Krypto's cape... with tears in his eyes.  As the beating continues, we see Jon's brows furrow a bit...

... and the his eyes go red.  Don't mess with a kid's dog, Eradicator.  In two-weeks, you're gonna get your butt whupped by a pre-teen.

--

Wow, you do not wanna be a domesticated animal in this book!  First we lose poor Goldie, and now Krypto?  Our boy Jon's having to grow up real fast here!

General Zod is one of those characters I'd never really glommed on to... he always seemed pretty boring to me.  May have something to do with my never having seen the Christopher Reeve films.  Or maybe it's because so many internetters feel the phrase "Kneel before Zod" is the height of hilarious references, that I'd manufactured a subconscious bias against him.

I liked the gotcha with the Eradicator... he is one of those characters that you really should never feel too comfortable around.  His constitution is really hard to get a read on.  One second he's saving your family... the next, attempting to eradicate it.  I think we all have or had somebody in our lives who is Eradicator-like in one way or another... where your really never quite know where you stand with them.  This evokes a weird, almost personal reaction to watching his antics and observing his behavior.  Really good stuff.

That ending... man that was something.  So well crafted... so well (as I mentioned above) choreographed.  Draws an almost guttural reaction from the reader.  After that page-long trouncing... Jon's gonna get him some too.  Truly amazing work here.

When DC first announced the biweekly schedule for many of their line, I became worried that we'd get like... noticeable fill-in artists every few issues.  I'm happy to report that, while we do get a non-Gleason artist, it's not the severe decline in quality I'd feared.  Jimenez' art is very nice, and almost evokes a similar feel to Gleason... this will not be too jarring a transition if you're a trade-waiter.  If I gotta pick nits... and I do, I'd say Lois is a bit off model.  Somewhere between the Farm and the Fortress, her hair grew an unnatural amount.

Another nit to pick... but one that has nothing to do with the story.  That Snickers ad... yeesh... Hostess Ad, this is not!  I'll admit it isn't nearly as intrusive as it was during the Action Comics issue... ya know, during a scene where Superman was fighting Doomsday... but it's still pretty obnoxious.  I guess I should be thankful this isn't in a Marvel book, otherwise it'd have a page and a half of creator credits attached to it!  For posterity, it is attached below.

Overall, another great issue.  Perhaps a touch on the fighty-fight side, but ya need that every now and again.  It also sets the table for what's to come.  If you're a DC person and you're not reading Superman... ya should be!

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