S is For Supergirl

+Amazon.com and +Google Play both recently had numerous comics featuring leading ladies on sale. I managed to pick up quote a few deals at $2.99 per volume. Supergirl was another character that received a reboot in the new 52 with the first volume being Supergirl Volume 1: Last Daughter of Krypton.

Weighing in at 160 full color pages, this reintroduction to Supergirl is a win for me on several levels. About the only place it's not a win? The costume.

I'm not talking necessarily about design or anything but there's a lot of skin on the legs exposed yes?

So when reading the actual comic and it puts some information in perspective, you have to wonder, WTF?

For those who can't read it, "It's not clothing, it's armor!"

So you send your daughter through space and time with no armor on her legs or head? Now mind you, when I think about it, I have to wonder why the big S doesn't have a mask of the same material. Were the super advanced people of Krypton that vain? "Let us shield our soldiers and people but not the face!" 

One of the bonus features of this volume was a sketchbook showing numerous designs. One of my favorites is probably the all white version. Mind you I could go for it in the traditional colors but the coverage, especially for armor, seems more appropriate.

I'm not going to get into the history of Supergirl. I'm not necessarily the best scholar of such. She's gone through a lot of changes and in most of her incarnations, has had some good writers and some bad runs. The DC staff mandate has changed from Superman is the only Kryptonian to "Hey, we put Zod back in the movies so let's not waste this opportunity!" although to be fair they've been using Zod in various ways in various incarnations for a while now.

The good news is that this is a strong introduction to the character. One of the problems I've often though female leads have is that they lack strong enemies. This Supergirl does not have that problem. Not only does she have a scientist trying to determine who and what she is (as if the Big Red S isn't a huge clue eh?) but she has foes directly tied into her Kryptonian heritage. Enemies that are as strong, if not stronger than her.

The variety in enemies, from characters that are soldiers in power armor, to generically engineered creatures on Earth, to those created from Kryptpton, as well as the solid designs on them, allow Supergirl to finally stand away from Superman in that she has a bit of her own mythos, her own reason, he own motivation. She's not just Clark but with legs.

If you're a fan of superhero comics and the opportunity to pick up at least the first volume in the New 52 happens your way, you won't be disappointed with this volume.

Aquaman: The Trench by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis

Aquaman is one of the oldest DC comics characters still in play. The DC universe recently decided to reboot the setting again. This is a fairly common thing in DC ranging from their time with Infinite Crisis and Zero Hour to the latest round with the Flash of all people messing up the timeline and the readers being rewarded with 'the new 52'.

A good as any time to revise Aquaman.

Geoff Johns is one of the biggest and best known writers. Having him write the 'new' Aquaman for the 'new' 52 seems like an effort to boost Aquaman from his so-so status to a top ranking hero. Geoff was able to work wonders with Green Lantern for example.

Fortunately Geoff Johns is joined by artist extraordinaire Ivan Reis. I enjoy Ivan's work immensely. When you have comic that has great art, even if the story isn't that great, the art can 'save' it. The 90's are full of series that only got as far as they did because the art was enjoyable and top notch.

The nice touch in the book is that in addition to the standard work, Ivan treats the readers to some black and white illustrations including designs of the casts and different covers.

It doesn't do it for me.

There is an effort to make Aquaman a character while acknowledging that he's often considered a joke in the first chapter. He's eating in a restaurant and debunking how his powers supposedly work. Its trying to lay groundwork for the whole of things but really? I didn't care. When you have to start blabbing about how you don't talk to fish but take them over, you're already losing the battle to make the character cool via the whole show don't tell. We also get that Aquaman, like Namor over at Marvel, gets by through the use of 'sunken treasure ships' where he's using gold coins to pay for stuff.

And when I see that I'm like really? That's the best you can do with him? Make him have resources from teh bottom of the sea? At least when Marvel did it, Namor used it to fund a corporation and actually did something, not just you know, eat a a fish shack.

Now for those who like action? They should enjoy a lot of this volume. The name of the book, The Trench, is where a group of humanoid monsters come from seeking food for themselves and their queen. These slick monsters look like they'd fit perfectly among other aquatic nightmares. In this volume their not really built up much and I haven't purchased any future volumes, but probably decadent Atlanteans or something of that nature.

The fighting is intense and we get to see Aquaman and Mera using their abilities to the fullest and it's great. We see Aquaman as almost a reluctant hero in that he's trying to learn more about these individuals than simply destroying them. Their abilities make them dangerous including luminescence to light the dark waters they come from, massive claws and teeth, and a paralyzing paste as well as the ability to create cocoons to hold their food for later. Like I said, their cool.

But the rest of the story? It's some lead up with Mera and some lead up with Atlantis that in this volume, is all ground work and in some ways, undoes the whole Aquaman doesn't suck bit. For example, when Aquaman gets stuck out in the desert and has to be rescued? Why bother spending the first few issues showing that he doesn't suck and is a worthy companion for his allies in the Justice League?

Aquaman in a solo title is a hard sell for me at the best of times. He's not outright powerful enough to give him an interesting rogue's gallery, his wife's tale that their doing here appears to be one already done, and well, personality wise, he's not fleshed out enough to be anything but another boring DC hero, the same problem that a lot of people had with the Silver Age Flash Barry, and why they didn't mourn his loss that much as Wally West grew into his own.

Aquaman's role in the new 52 after this volume is unknown to me, but if you've got some volumes you can recommend, lay 'em on me Internet.

Amazon and Dark Horse Comic Sales

Those who've read my blog here know that I enjoy comic books. Due to physical limitations in terms of housing though, a lot of comics I buy these days are in digital format.

Today only I believe, Amazon has several graphic novels on sale to get you into the DC New 52 series for a low price. Good stuff if you enjoy comics or wanted to see what was 'new' at the time.

Green Lantern: Jokes on you sucker! Remember how I said 'New 52'? Turns out that DC has some intelligence and didn't reset everything. Green Lantern and Batman got to essentially keep going with what they were doing to begin with. Still, this collection of the first arc is by Geoff Johns whose well known and opinions of him are easy to find.

Wonder Woman vol 1: Blood: Everyone is taken by how awesome her new origin is. I think she's now the daughter of Zeus or something. For me that's more blah than her old origin. Her old origin was used a few times in interesting ways. Having super powers because you're the scion of some one? M'eh. It's worked for Thor for hundreds of issues so clearly there can be validity to the process.

Aquaman Vol 1: The Tench. Okay, I know, "He talks to fish!". It's still funny to me. Aquaman can be more than that and often is, but between him and Submariner, overall Subby wins. The later is a often a colossal bastard whose ego gets him into all sorts of trouble. Aquaman is the guy whose son died and is otherwise a nice guy. Except when they make him 90's vicious. There was a brief sword and sorcery run but I think they pretty much nuked that into oblivion. Aquaman as he's done would probably be a better fit in his own setting as opposed to the DC one. It's all like, "Yeah, but Superman!" Poor bastard.

Justice League vol 1: Origin. I already own this one. Fantastic art by Jim Lee but really feeling the crapitude of 'The New 52'. Other people love it so take my opinion here with a grain of salt.

Justice League Dark vol 1: In the Dark. Okay, I got nothing here. I bought it for $2.99 because hell, I'll try most things for an introductory price but really? Did DC see Marvel absolutely stomping them with dozens of Avengers and X-Men titles and was like, "Hey, Justice League rolls off the tongue right? Right?"

Shazam Vol 1. I feel bad for DC here. It's like they can never do this character justice. He's had some great stories like one of the retellings of his first meeting with Superman, or his time with the Justice Society of America, but when you have Superman, and your ownership of Shazam came about directly because you claimed he was a copy of Superman, what's left for Shazam do to? Still, for $2.99 I wanted to see what Geoff Johns did with him. Man, is that guy on everything these days?

Superman: Action Comics Vol 1. Superman and the Men of Steel. Grant Morrison tackles Superman and his 'new' origin or at least his new stylings. It was a nice change of pace even though, like Spider Man, it nullified his marriage to Lois Lane. Still, it, like Spider Man's annulment, has lead to some interesting stories and they start here.

Green Arrow Vol 1. The Midas Touch. Haven't read it yet, but for $2.99 I'm there. With the popularity of the television show Arrow, I'm surprised that DC hasn't been pushing this character more.

But not all comics hail from DC comics! In terms of Dark Horse, every now and again they put their Star Wars comics on 'blow out' prices. I'm a little worried about it but I believe there has been mention that while they will stop selling them, you will be able to access them.

Darth Vader XL Bundle: A ton of comics featuring Darth Vader aka Anakin Skywalker for $24.95.

Captain Midnight Bundle: 255 pages of pulp science brought into modern day times? For $2.99, I bought it and will check it out. That's a hard deal to pass up for a comic fan. Individual issues have previews of the material, so for example, if you go here: https://digital.darkhorse.com/profile/3479.captain-midnight-1-felipe-massafera-cover/ , you'll see the preview avialable for that issue and can use those previews to decide if it's worth the $2.99.

Keep those sales coming you magnificent bastards! Memory is cheap these days and I can always download more!

For those who've already read this comics, any particular favorites? Any that you'd look at this list and warn people away from?

As usual, if you know anyone that would benefit from the sale here, +1 and share it among the peeps. Save the comic fans a few $$$$.