New title: Project Superpowers

Alex Ross, king of painted comics, plots and provides covers for a new Superhero team with a firm nod towards the Golden Age. Without giving too much away, issue #0 (why can't they call it #1?) introduces the team, including The Fighting Yank (imbued with the spirit of his patriotic forefather from the War of Indpendence) looking back on a World War 2 mission to prevent the Nazis from reopening Pandora's box, which since the time of the Titans had gradually 're-absorbed' all the sources of badness in the world. This he achieves at a terrible cost...for the full plot, see Wikipedia. Some blatant nods toward Watchmen's revisitation of an aging and scattered super team (including a graveside eulogy in the rain) and their power dynamic, but very enjoyable with the expected gorgeous art from Braithwaite and Ross. Prelude was issue #0 with #1 and #2 available now.
Verdict: 8/10, on the pull list

New title: RASL (Jeff Smith)

Jeff Smith, cartoonist extrordinaire of Bone and Shazam:Monster Society of Evil Fame returns with an altogether darket tale. Bizzarely that's not reflected in the art - few of the lush swathes of black used to great effect in Bone. Smith's quirky, delicate inks may be sparse on the page but still deliver a sense of oppresive heat and seediness, and his action sequences are as dynamic as ever. Beautiful pacing as always, wordless panels and scenes that would make pacing-expert Will Eisner proud. The plot revolves around an unnamed cat-burglar (who may be called RASL) and his ability to time-shift at great physical expense to himself to get away with the goods. Through continued use of this ability he appears to accessed a parallel world and he is being hunted down by a reptilian detective. A promising first issue.
Verdict: it's made the pull list!

EC does it....

The EC archives are magnificent, and once again full kudos to Russ Cochran for his unceasing efforts to bring the greatest comics publisher's work to a new generation. I've just finished Tales from the Crypt #1, drooling over the Al Feldstein cover, the publication notes, and most of all the incredible colouring. This has improved over the original colouring and was Cochran's reaction to what he thought were unsuccesful attempts in DC's archive editions (especially The Spirit hardcovers, which have quite dull inks). The effort put in has paid off; even familiar classics such as "Ghost Ship", "The Thing From The Sea", "Rx....Death" and "Curse of the Arnold Clan" leap of the page like never before. So far so good, and I've duly ordered the Shock Suspenstories (probably my favourite EC).

Then the problems start - having bought most of the EC double-issue reprints of the early 90's, then the single issue reprints of the mid-90's, and now the archives, I'm now twitching over what I'm missing. First, there's the infamous HUGE hardcover, slipcased, hand-sewn deluxe editions, reprinting every EC publication. Long out of print (except for Picto-fiction), scarily expensive, and of course I have most of the comics anyway - *but* these are in BLACK & WHITE, so you can see those gorgeous inks of Graham Ingels, Johnny Craig, Jack Kamen, George Evans, Wally Wood, Bernie Krigstein, Al Feldstein AS THEY WERE DRAWN!!! It's like an EC story itself - a man goes crazy with a terrible craving for all variations of his favourite comics! And then, just when he thinks he can cope, he discovers that the EC archives *also* come in a deluxe, leather bound, gilt-edged ltd edition of 300 SIGNED BY AL FELDSTEIN!! Which will cost £1800+ for all the books!!!! AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Crossover review: The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul

Score: 7/10.
Total cost of saga: £20 +


Synopsis:
Ra's Al Ghul needs a vessel to return from the dead and targets his grandson (and Batman's 'son') Damian. Meanwhile, the Sensei attempts to thwart these plans using his master assassins and the vital powers of the Fountain of Essence (for full synopsis with spoilers see Wikipedia entry

What's good?
Some fun historical snapshots of Ra's through the ages, decent scraps between Damian and Robin, Nightwing outwitting Batman, generally good art, the insect girls. Sensei's ruck with Bats at the Fountain of Essence is terrific, with a broken Bats refusing to fall, outlasting the Sensei's two minute stamina. The way Bats finds Ra's hideout is novel, using Waynetech echo-locators rather than having had to have been initiated by a 2000-year old monk, or somesuch. The fate of Ra's is well-done, where instead of 'dying' again, he is placed in Arkham under a false identity and kept sedated, thanks to Bruce Wayne's intervention.

What's bad?
Ninjas. When are superhero comics going to treat the common or garden Ninja with respect? Whilst, say, Elektra is always shown as being a master assassin, every other Ninja in the big DC and Marvel titles is typically portrayed as cannon fodder. So whilst you get a moments thrill whenever Elektra is surrounded by the hand, or in this case Wayne manor is attacked by hundreds of Ninja, you just know they are going to be toasted by Nightwing, Damian, Robin, and (ludicrously) Alfred. Also the 'master assassins' that work for Sensei (including Merlyn, the poor man's Green Arrow) are rubbish. Bats goes through them like a knife through butter, with a throwaway comment that the Fountain of Essence must be helping him. A real shame; remember the Deathstroke fight againt the JLA in Identity Crisis? There he had to think of each weakness and how to use the league against each other, nothing as inspired here, sadly.

Should you buy the trade paperback? No.

Welcome to Earth-53

Earth-53 is the version of Earth which stands outside the DC Multiverse of 52 Earths. As such it is the ideal place to read unbiased, straightforward comic book reviews from two hard-working stiffs who spend a fortune on comics (mostly DC) every month. Unfortunately, we can't afford to spend that fortune, so the 40+ titles that total our combined pull-lists can expect a critical slamming if they don't come up to scratch each month. Also look out for general posts on superhero comics and the state of the DC Multiverse.