Too Little, Too Much, Out Of Order, Repeated: Superman: Our Worlds At War Is A Crossover Mess!

The Good: Interesting moments of character conflict, Plot resolution
The Bad: Inconsistent artwork, Repetitive/missing story elements, Scope/New integral characters
The Basics: Another crossover event graphic novel that prioritizes fidelity to issues over fidelity to story, Superman: Our Worlds At War has moments of coolness undermined by plot and art problems.


It seems like lately, I have been getting my enthusiasm for new graphic novels from my love of trading cards. On the marvel front, getting in stock of the 2014 Mavel Universe cards inspired me to read House Of M (reviewed here!). Very recently, I picked up the Cryptozoic Epic Battles trading cards and between those and my love of Wonder Woman, I decided it was time to read the big DC Universe crossover event Our Worlds At War. The volume I found for that purpose was the giant trade paperback anthology Superman: Our Worlds At War.

Superman: Our Worlds At War tells the bulk of the story of Imperiex invasion of Earth. The volume was a major crossover event and I was surprised by how it actually undermined the power of Infinite Crisis (reviewed here, which followed it a few years later). Infinite Crisis was a major crossover event that had the potential to destroy the entire DC Universe (it rebirthed the DC Multiverse). In Superman: Our Worlds At War, a throwaway line from one of the big DC Universe scientists insinuates that the creation and destruction of the DC Multiverse is something that occurs semi-regularly. Instead, years before Infinite Crisis, the DC Universe faced extinction from multiple sources, led by Imperiex and Brainiac.

Following a prior attack on Earth by Warworld, Brainiac, and (apparently) Imperiex, Earth once again finds itself besieged by . . . all three. Superman: Our Worlds At War generally focuses on Superman as he works to thwart the array of villains that face Earth and the volume’s opening has a number of similarities to Batman: Knightfall (volume 1 is reviewed here!) in that Superman goes through a pretty decent array of adversaries that have little to do with the overall story before the real threat pops up. As much as Superman: Our Worlds At War is a Superman volume, it is a Lex Luthor book and this volume takes place shortly after Luthor became President of the United States in the DC Universe.

Superman is contacted by his longtime ally, Emil Hamilton, who informs Superman that he believes he has found Pluto. Hamilton has, instead, found Warworld, which Superman easily appears to thwart (though it is now under the control of Brainiac-13 and Lena Luthor). After repelling attacks by adversaries like Shrapnel and Plasmus, Superman is shocked by the inhabitants of Metropolis being removed from Earth. With most of the population of Metropolis being conscripted to serve on medical space ships, Superman is alarmed to learn that the gambit is one orchestrated by an odd alliance of traditional villains and heroes from off-Earth. When Apokolips materializes above Earth, Darkseid reveals his intent to help save the universe.

War is soon met by Superman as Superman fights General Zod and the Imperiex probes. As Earth is swarmed with Imperiex probes bent upon bringing about the end of the universe, Superman and Earth’s heroes struggle to save the world. With Kansas utterly destroyed and heroes like Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and The Flash incapacitated by Imperiex probes, Superman finds himself allying with Darkseid and Doomsday to fight the main force of Imperiex. But as the inevitable defeat of Imperiex looms, Warworld rematerializes to destroy the fragile alliance between Earth and Apokolips and bring about the end of the universe with Brainiac’s vision of the end!

Superman: Our Worlds At War is a tough sell because the story is not complete and significant elements of it are told out of order and/or are repeated. There are some pretty significant events that are omitted from Superman: Our Worlds At War, simply because Superman is not a part of it. Chief among these is how the Justice League thwarts Imperiex’s main ship in order to leave his probes unable to continue to reproduce. This major event is mentioned as an offhand remark as a tactical note after-the-fact, without any real description or depiction of how the event occurred.

By contrast, Superman: Our Worlds At War has some pointless digressions (like the brief Supergirl subplot) that are repeated and shown from different narrative angles. As a result, Young Justice crashes on Apokolips and suffers a casualty . . . only to have the events repeated and the final solution which puts Darkseid alongside a powerful magic user and several others is shown before the Amazons are marshaled to join Darkseid’s tactic. So, Superman: Our Worlds At War is hampered by a weird fidelity to the issues in which the Our Worlds At War were originally printed, but not the whole story.

In a similar fashion, the disparate volumes from which Superman: Our Worlds At War was assembled leads the book to have dramatically different artwork from chapter to chapter. Superman is given about five different looks throughout the book and other major characters oscillate between incredible artwork and comic strip-quality artwork.

On the story front, Superman: Our Worlds At War also falls down because the book relies far too much on seemingly obscure or new characters instead of keeping focus on the familiar, powerful characters of the DC Universe. The death of the J.S.A. version of Wonder Woman, the disappearance and apparent deaths of Aquaman and Martian Manhunter (who, do be fair is finally referenced again in one of the last chapters) are undermined by Black Racer and Sharon Vance popping up at key moments to dominate critical portions of the plotline. The fact that Steel does not even remain dead for duration of Superman: Our Worlds At War undermines the deaths that occur within the volume. After all, if what is supposed to be one of the big deaths that drives Superman to his breaking point in the war is undone well before the end of the book, it is hard for readers to believe that the other major deaths will stick.

What tends to redeem Superman: Our Worlds At War is the book’s resolution and the character focus on Superman. Superman is brought to the point where he seems willing to kill. Pushing the character to that, despite filling the book with long passages of speeches from major Earth wars (from a U.S. perspective) that are distracting and dull, makes the book intriguing in a “will he or won’t he” kind of way.

The result is a book that is at once magnificent and complex and frustrating and droll. In other words, an annoyingly average comic book experience.

For other major DC Universe crossover books, please visit my reviews of:
Superman: Sacrifice
Blackest Night
Flashpoint

5/10

For other book reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Post M-Day Filler: Why Avengers Vs. X-Men: It’s Coming Is Absolutely Unworth Attention!

The Good: One or two panels of artwork
The Bad: No consistent narrative, No character development, Entirely dependent upon several other books, Some crappy artwork, Comparatively expensive.
The Basics: Avengers Vs. X-Men: It’s Coming poorly bridges House Of M and several follow-up books as a poor sampler anthology.


Recently, I found myself fascinated by the concept of the Marvel Comics crossover event House Of M (reviewed here!). Given how it ended, I was curious as to what might come next and, as a result, I found myself picking up the subsequent volume Avengers Vs. X-Men: It’s Coming. Billed as a follow-up to House Of M, Avengers Vs. X-Men: It’s Coming is an unfortunate mash-up of individual comic book issues that bridge the House Of M storyline and the Avengers Vs. X-Men books. This is, essentially, a trade paperback anthology that does not have a single solid narrative or story it is trying to tell. Instead, this is just an almost random collection of issues, most of which appear in other graphic novels that actually tell the full stories to which they belong.

Avengers Vs. X-Men: It’s Coming is an anthology of five comic books and one partial issue. There is no sense of temporal relation between the issues collected and some seem to be from very different times in the post-House Of M storyline. In fact, the first chapter in Avengers Vs. X-Men: It’s Coming is actually the final chapter of House Of M which eliminates the alternate universe in which mutants are dominant and replaces it with a virtual genocide of mutants. Just as the stories leap around different places in the Marvel Universe, the artwork is similarly inconsistent.

The next chapter is from X-Men: Second Coming. That chapter is a very direct vignette in which Cable and Hope arrive from the future, which sparks the interest of Cyclops. As Cyclops begins to lead the X-Men to the last known location of Cable and Hope, the various anti-mutant organizations unite to wipe out the remaining 181 mutants in the world. This chapter is an utterly uncompelling teaser for the story and for those who only have a passing knowledge of the Marvel Universe, there is nothing to sell them on the story. As one who really only knows the X-Men from the film franchise, the only known adversaries in the big assemblage were Stryker and Trask and the real influence they possess is overstated – X-23 kills one of the human villains pretty easily without any real conflict. The artwork in this chapter is mediocre, though the colors are pretty good.

The next chapter is Schism (issue 5) and it wastes half the page length with a physical battle between Wolverine and Cyclops. A sentinel shows up and makes their fight even more confusing and visually underwhelming. The issue climaxes with Wolverine taking a bunch of the younger mutants away from Scott’s surviving X-Men. The artwork in this section is terrible (particularly lousy is the top panel four pages in where Wolverine looks like he was drawn by Bill Watterson). This might have been a huge character moment for Cyclops, Wolverine and the X-Men in general, akin to Wonder Woman slaying Max Lord in The OMAC Project (reviewed here!), but out of context as it is, it just seems like an advertisement for something better.

Arguably the most out-of-context chapter is the Avengers: The Children’s Crusade chapter. Coming after Scarlet Witch has been recovered and started restoring the powers of the mutants in the Young Avengers, this is a pivotal showdown in which the X-Men (including Magneto), Avengers and Young Avengers converge on Wanda Maximoff and fight over which group is going to sit in judgment of her! The conflict is generally unresolved and the tease of which way Wanda will go, having allied with Dr. Doom, makes it seem very much like a non-sequitor.

Magneto: Not A Hero finds Magneto slaughtering a bunch of anti-mutant extremists, though he claims to Iron Man and Captain America that he has been framed. While it appears he had an alibi, that is only told, not shown in the chapter in Avengers Vs. X-Men: It’s Coming. This seems like a simple beginning to a larger story that is, apparently, already resolved (it’s a frame job – Magneto and Emma just have to prove it!).

The final full chapter has Cable attacking Captain America (without much motivation and no clear backstory between them to explain their hostility to one another). There is also a couple-page “story” with some alien declaring their dominance over the Marvel Universe.

Avengers Vs. X-Men: It’s Coming is a tease and a particularly unworthy one; fans of the Marvel Universe will just find this to be a waste of money.

For other Marvel Universe books, please visit my reviews of:
Civil War: Marvel Universe
Secret Invasion
The Avengers: Assault On Olympus

0/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please visit my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Outside The Artwork, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies Is A Remarkably Satisfying Graphic Novel.

The Good: Engaging story, Interesting narrative technique, Good characters
The Bad: Stunningly simple resolution, Much of the artwork, Unclear of the audience
The Basics: Superman/Batman: Public Enemies starts the team-up series off awkwardly as Batman and Superman must combat the forces of President Lex Luthor.


Lately, I’ve been getting my graphic novels out of order from the library. As a result, I actually read the second volume in the Superman/Batman series, Superman/Batman: Supergirl (reviewed here!) before reading Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, which is volume 1. It is a testament to Volume 2 that I was intrigued enough by the elements alluded to in the second volume that I felt the desire to go back and check out Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. Prior to reading the second book, I had absolutely no interest in the Superman/Batman crossover book.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies tells the story of the end of the presidency of Lex Luthor and it foreshadows some much better stories to come, ironically, not with Superman or Batman. In fact, one of the real thrills for me was how Captain Atom was used in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies and it sets him up for his work in one of my favorites, Justice League: Generation Lost (Volume 1 is reviewed here!). Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is, at its worst, an ambitious start to the team-up stories and while my recommendation is a little weaker than for many other graphic novels, that is mostly the result of the artwork.

When an asteroid composed of Kryptonite enters Earth’s field of detection, President Lex Luthor declares a state of emergency. Despite clues that point to Metallo being the man who murdered Thomas Wayne, Batman sticks by Superman’s side as Luthor declares that Superman is a menace and that the asteroid is headed to Earth because of Superman’s presence there. In an attempt to thwart Luthor and expose him for the corrupt individual he is, Superman and Batman attempt to storm the White House. Unfortunately, they are stopped by a small force of super villains like Solomon Grundy, Mongul, and the Silver Banshee. When Batman realizes they are not acting like they usually do, the pair discovers the real threat.

After stopping the final villain, the heroes are attacked by other heroes. Starting with Captain Marvel and Hawkman, Luthor uses superheroes who are loyal to him to lay a trap for Superman and Batman. Ensnaring other heroes, like Steel and Nightwing, Luthor finally reveals the depths of his machinations and with the world hanging in the balance, Superman and Batman must end his presidency once and for all.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is a sufficiently big story to warrant the team-up and the narrative technique throughout the book has Superman and Batman sharing their inner thoughts in a way that is compelling and sometimes humorous. Sometimes, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies reads like a therapy session between two of the biggest heroes in the DC Universe and that is, at the least, entertaining.

When Superman/Batman: Public Enemies truly devotes itself to focusing on the supplemental characters, the graphic novel works as well. When Lex Luthor explains his thoughts, plan and motive it actually makes a reasonable amount of sense. And the inner monolog of Captain Atom makes him seem astonishingly human, which is tough for the character to pull off.

Unfortunately, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is not without its faults. First, it doesn’t seem to know what audience it is going for. The solution to the problem is somewhat ridiculous and any adult will ask “when did a 13 year-old find time to build this thing?!” And asides about Starfire and Power Girl’s breasts seem out of place in a book that tries to take a mature view of civic duty from Superman’s perspective.

Moreover, the huge superhero team-up in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies feels oddly gratuitous. The strange collection of virtually every major hero like Steel and Hawkman feels like the whole point of Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is to shove almost everyone possible into the book.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies also suffers from frequently poor artwork. The characters too-fequently look like animated characters as opposed to fully detailed individuals. Power Girl, for example, who is most often characterized as angry in her appearance looks downright wholesome and doe-eyed in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is an ambitious start and ultimately, more than any of the other issues with it, I found myself wishing it had been drawn to be taken seriously.

For other works where Lex Luthor is a significant character, be sure to check out my reviews of:
The Black Ring, Part 1
Luthor
Justice League: The Injustice League
Justice

6.5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, be sure to check out my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Boredom And A Growing Appreciation For Supergirl Leads Me To Superman/Batman: Supergirl, Where I Discover A Worthwhile Graphic Novel!

The Good: Engaging story development, Decent character work, The artwork
The Bad: The artwork makes some of the character elements very hard to swallow.
The Basics: The return of Kara Zor-El to the DC Universe nets a solidly entertaining book with Superman/Batman: Supergirl!


I have, for the most part, pointedly avoided the Supergirl franchise. Truth be told, I am not a fan of Superman and Supergirl seems less about empowering women and much more about providing a masturbatory fantasy for men. Given that Supergirl is a teenager, that’s just wrong. But, boredom at work during my breaks and my library being slow to get in new books for my Flash Year has led me to occasionally pick up a Supergirl book. The latest one I have found myself reading is Superman/Batman: Supergirl.

Before I say how good it is, I want to strenuously disagree with author Jeph Loeb, who wrote Superman/Batman: Supergirl. In his foreword for Superman/Batman: Supergirl (ever wonder who reads those things? Well, it’s me!), he is describing the work of his good friend Michael Turner, who did the artwork for Superman/Batman: Supergirl. Loeb comments, “What made them [Michael Turner’s women] sexy wasn’t the typical pinup shot of adolescent male fantasies” in his foreword. I could not disagree more. Having only (to my easy recollection) read Michael Turner’s Fathom (reviewed here!) by the artist before now, I can easily and authoritatively say that all Turner does with his women is make pinups! His Supergirl is no exception and if the book had page numbers, I’d easily cite a dozen (but, sufficed to say the artwork of Kara Zor-El walking beside Clark Kent in Metropolis features jeans so low, thong straps so high and breasts so unrealistically curvaceous that all it is is an adolescent male fantasy! In fact, given that Superman/Batman: Supergirl came to me via my local library system where it was mischaracterized as “Young Adult,” I’m shocked none of the pages arrived stuck together! If that’s gross, my apologies, but that’s the artwork of Michael Turner without and within Superman/Batman: Supergirl and when the subject is a minor, even a fictional one, it’s enough to make an adult queasy).

Opening following the events of Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Bruce Wayne is exploring Gotham Harbor for remnants of a meteorite from Krypton. At the bottom of the Harbor, Batman discovers a ship and when a girl attempts to steal his Batboat, he uses Kryptonite to stop her. Kal-El (Superman) arrives when she awakens and is convinced that she is Kara Zor-El, his cousin, though her own memories are somewhat limited. While Bruce works to verify she is who and what she claims to be, Kal-El drops his guard and lets Kara into his life entirely.

Seeing no other way of keeping the world safe, Batman and Wonder Woman stage an abduction to take Kara to Themyscira. There, the Amazons train Kara until Darkseid’s forces attack the island. In the attack, Harbinger is killed and Kara Zor-El is abducted. With Superman furious, the trio is joined by Barda and they make a trip to Apokolips to get her back and thwart Darkseid.

Superman/Batman: Supergirl may be one of the most character-filled books featuring Superman that I have ever read. His role in Superman/Batman: Supergirl is a decent one and in this book, he is deeply interested in creating a family. Kara Zor-El represents that for him and as a result, her abduction stings in a way that allows him to credibly evoke Jason Todd to Batman and Donna Troy to Wonder Woman. In Superman/Batman: Supergirl, he is not simply the highly moralistic “Boy Scout” type character. Instead, he has enough depth to be hurt and compelling for his anguish.

Bruce Wayne, despite appearing for the vital plot points, is very much a secondary character in Superman/Batman: Supergirl. The book uses his suspicion to set him apart from Clark exceptionally well, though thathas been done in other books frequently as well. Here, Bruce trusts in Wonder Woman and I like that aspect of the story because it justifies Diana’s latent love for Bruce revealed in Blackest Night. So, Bruce is along for the ride.

As for Supergirl in Superman/Batman: Supergirl? Well, she’s a pinup. She functions as a pawn, a source of conflict between Kal-El and Bruce and a tool for Darkseid. But beyond that, Supergirl is less an entity of her own in Superman/Batman: Supergirl and more a way to express Kal-El’s deep desire to have a family beyond just Lois. In the process, Kal-El illustrates his dark side, like tossing Wonder Woman like a rag doll in order to be able to fight Darkseid. Supergirl has no real character, no habits, ambitions or likes of her own in Superman/Batman: Supergirl. Instead, she is introduced and much of her important character development – the training on Themyscira, her friendship with Harbinger, etc. – happens “off camera.”

Outside the artwork in Superman/Batman: Supergirl being a radical departure from the styles of most DC Universe books (but entirely in the style of Michael Turner), it is good. However, things like Kara asking Superman what he thinks of her outfit and not getting a “well, it’s pretty damn short for a minor” seems odd.

In the end, though, Superman/Batman: Supergirl is a pretty compelling resurrection story that is enjoyable and well-assembled (though it does ask for some significant suspension of disbelief near the end). That makes Superman/Batman: Supergirl very easy to recommend.

For other graphic novels featuring Supergirl, check out my reviews of:
Crisis On Infinite Earths
Supergirl: Death And The Family
The Brave And The Bold, Volume 1: The Lords Of Luck

7/10

For other graphic novel reviews, be sure to check out my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Retelling For The Next Generation (Poorly): Daredevil: Yellow Is An Uninspired Interpretation Of Daredevil's Origin Story.

The Good: Includes all of the relevant information, Psychologically interesting
The Bad: The artwork, Nothing new on the character or story fronts
The Basics: Now compiled as an anthology, Daredevil: Yellow only offers fans a rewrite of the first few issues of Daredevil with nothing substantive or truly new.


It doesn't take having worked at a comic book shop to know that classic comic books are expensive. Golden and Silver Age comic books from the 1960s and before are ridiculously hard to come by and very expensive when one is able to find them. To help readers of the most popular titles, then, Marvel Comics has begun making anthologies of their oldest comic books so readers may at least get the stories. As part of my Daredevil Year, I read the origin stories of Daredevil in Daredevil Essentials Volume 1 (reviewed here!), which was less "Essential" and more "everything for the first dozens of issues. Regardless, having read that book, I was pretty knowledgeable on the Daredevil origin story and early adventures.

So, when I discovered Daredevil: Yellow at a local bookstore, I was instantly unimpressed with the concept. The idea behind Daredevil: Yellow, which was originally published in 2001 and 2002 over six issues, was to retell the first few Daredevil stories in a slightly different way in order to inform the newer audiences who might not have caught the other anthology of just what Daredevil was all about. The limited series retells the first few adventures of Matt Murdock as Daredevil and it is pretty true to that whole vision.

Unfortunately, there is little more than that to this particular story. In retelling the Daredevil origin story, along with the subsequent adventures, one must hope that they will get something new or pleasing from the experience. Daredevil: Yellow doesn't do that and that is unfortunate when one considers that the anthology of the earliest Daredevil works are reprinted now in black and white. One would hope that the addition of color would improve the retelling, but that is not the case here.

Told from the perspective of Matt Murdock, Daredevil: Yellow begins as therapeutic letters from Murdock to the now-deceased Karen Page. Matt writes to Karen to try to stop feeling the crushing loneliness he has felt since her murder. This takes him back to considering how she became so very important to him. His recounting begins with him already blind and in law school with Foggy Nelson. The two study together and are best friends. While they work to become lawyers, "Kid" Murdock signs with Sweeney, "The Fixer" and begins winning bout after bout in the boxing ring.

What follows then is the murder of Battling Jack Murdock and the birth of Daredevil, in his original yellow costume. While Foggy and Matt form the legal offices of Nelson and Murdock by day, Daredevil goes into the night in Hell's Kitchen to try to find the Fixer's men and get justice for the death of his father. Nelson hires Karen Page and the fledgling law firm has to deal with a visit from the Fantastic Four, who want legal representation for permits for the Baxter Building. While Matt begins to compete with Foggy for the affection of Karen, Daredevil goes toe to toe with Electro. After defeating that costumed villain, Matt recognizes that Karen is becoming obsessed with Daredevil and that Foggy is interested in Karen. Before either has a chance to act, though, The Owl kidnaps Karen and Daredevil's rescue of her makes her stop looking at either of her employers.

The fundamental problem with Daredevil: Yellow, then, is that it is entirely old news. Early Daredevil comic books were plagued by conceits which one might hope would not be continued. So, for example, the Fantastic Four's cameo in the comic book was an obvious attempt at the outset to sell more books by generating crossover appeal with the built-in Fantastic Four market. So, why do writers Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale feel like they have to include this absurd aspect of the early story in Daredevil: Yellow? This is not vital storytelling and it is not even an interesting part of the meeting of Karen Page and Matt Murdock.

What the writers do right is make the parallels between the romantic contest for the affections of Karen Page with the early Daredevil. While Foggy and Matt vie for Karen's attention, Daredevil works to establish himself as the bane of the criminal underworld in Hell's Kitchen. The sense of conflict works in both plotlines and the book develops them simultaneously well. Moreover, there is a strong sense of character for Matt Murdock and his sense of loss over Karen Page's death is palpable. The tie in to Murdock's sense of loss over his father's death - wherein he admits he has not given up his father's apartment because he cannot bear to lose one more part of his dad - is a great character detail. Loeb even gets in a cute comment addressing the dated nature of the source material when he notes through Murdock in chapter four that the costumed villains back in the day didn't actually kill people.

But it all falls down for me with the artwork. Daredevil: Yellow is presented in simplistic sketches that look just terrible. Sorry, Tim Sale, but the watercolors that cover the simple sketches are utterly unimpressive and I remain firmly unimpressed as a result. Despite having a good sense of movement in many of the panels, the artwork is largely sloppy and that detracts from even the recycled story. The sketchbook portion of the anthology is interesting, though.

Ultimately, it is not enough to recommend to fans or casual comic book readers. As much as I like reinvention, I'll take camp over recycled pulp most days and Daredevil: Yellow does not reimagine, it does not recreate or reinterpret. Instead it poorly recycles and feels like a cashgrab for the Daredevil fans. They deserve better.

For other Daredevil books, please check out my reviews of:
Daredevil Vs. Bullseye
Daredevil: Visionaries Volume 1 - Frank Miller
Typhoid Mary
Guardian Devil
Parts Of A Hole
Batman/Daredevil - King of New York
Daredevil Noir

3.5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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