Comic Book Interlude 3

Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes: The Search for Cosmic Boy

Supergirl, visiting from the past, joins the Legion of Superheroes in the future.  The Legion have always been DC's most forgettable superheroes, and this can be both a blessing and a curse.  On the one hand, their obscurity gives writers the freedom to take certain risks, and on the other hand it's hard to care about characters whose names you can't remember.  This installment continues the brand of arbitrary storytelling that makes the Legion hard to care about, even though it's well drawn and has a relatively cohesive plot structure.

Stormwatch Volume 1: The Dark Side

So, um, this like secret society of superheroes - or something - have to FIGHT THE MOON.  There's this, uh, dude that can talk to cities, and a - uh - girl who can only use physics concepts understood in the present century, and a, uh, like robot lady with nanites in her blood, and and then some stuff happens, and then they talk about some other stuff, and it ends with a, like, big explosion.  This is the kind of material that Grant Morrison could have done a lot with.  But Paul Cornell?  Not so much.

The Amazing Spider-Man: American Son

Peter Parker/Spider-man tries to rescue Harry Osborne from both his father and the "fake Avengers."  It's an excellently written comic book full of great art.  The guys that did this have a real love for the character.

The Shadow Hero

A Chinese-American superhero battles a crime lord.  I've also read the author's "American Born in Chinese," and this one is a lot less heavy-handed.  It takes a while to get going, but it's very good by the end.  An interesting side trip into comic book history can be found after the story's conclusion.

Ratfist

A rat-themed superhero, a tiki god, time travel, and a trout monkey.  I could try to explain the plot but I'd fail.  It's hilarious though.  I haven't laughed so hard in a while.

The Amazing Spider-man: The Original Clone Sage (TPB)

Run of Spider-man comics featuring the Jackal, the clone Spider-man, the "return" of Gwen Stacy, and various other friends and foes.  Reading this in 2015, it's fun to reflect back upon the subject of cloning in 1970s-era comics.  Clones are treated as fake people, and at one point the real (?) Spider-man disposes of the clone Spider-man as if he was so much garbage.  Gerry Conway wrote some good Spider-man comics before he switched to DC, and the art here is competent if not showy.  A couple of the issues feature work by a (very) young Frank Miller, just beginning his storied career in comics.