New Teen Titans Omnibus Vol. 3 -- Lies, Damn Lies, and Omissions

DC Comics's New Teen Titans Omnibus series has been controversial almost from the get-go. Aside from concerns over the binding, there was the strange omission of New Teen Titans issue #38 from Volume 2; DC originally solicited Volume 3 with a content listing that couldn't be right (too few and duplicate issues), and then they cancelled the third volume altogether and resolicited it a few months later.

Well, DC has finally released the New Teen Titans Omnibus Vol. 3, and with a hat-tip to Facebook friend and frequent commenter Xavico, it looks like the trouble's not over yet.

DC solicitations, and even their current web page, said the New Teen Titans Omnibus Vol. 3 would collect Tales of the Teen Titans #45-61 and 66-67, New Teen Titans #38, New Teen Titans #1-6, and Secret Origins Annual #3. We knew right away this wasn't right, because among other reasons, Tales #60-61 are actually the same comic as Titans #1-2, and even if what was just included were pin-ups or such, the contents were far too few to make an omnibus.

I've now learned that the contents of the Vol. 3 Omnibus are New Teen Titans #38, Tales of the New Teen Titans #45-50, New Teen Titans (Vol. 2) #1-6, New Titans #50-61, New Titans #66-67, and Secret Origin Annual #3.

In comparison, this means the omnibus collects not Tales of the Teen Titans #45-61 and 66-67, but rather Tales of the Teen Titans #45-50 and New Titans #66-67; added are New Titans #50-61.

Now, even as we might prefer the contents be listed right in the solicitations (and again, they're still wrong at the moment on DC's website), gaining ten or so extra issues isn't a bad thing. Unfortunately, however, there's some significant gaps in this volume that make for a tricky reading experience.

Titans Hunt for Missing Issues

That New Teen Titans #38, the first "Who is Donna Troy?" story, is here and not in the previous book seems silly to me since the first two volumes unfolded chronologically otherwise, but it appears here with the "Who is Wonder Girl?" story, so it's understandable. Tales #45 picks up where the last volume finished and continues to issue #50, Donna Troy's wedding. Still OK so far.

Starting again with New Titans #1, however, jumps over Tales #51-58, and here we get a sense of what's really going on. Though billed as the New Teen Titans Omnibus series, these books are really the Marv Wolfman/George Perez Teen Titans Omnibus series. Tales #51-58 didn't have Perez on art; New Titans #1-6 did.

Then the book jumps again, skipping over forty issues to pick up with New Titans #50 when, you guessed it, Perez returned to the art again. At this point the book has lost all semblance of being a Titans omnibus and has instead become George Perez spotlight book (it's not a Marv Wolfman spotlight book, since Wolfman is the writer on a number of the issues that are skipped). There's nothing wrong with a Perez spotlight book per se (it's probably overdue), but I sincerely doubt that's what readers thought they were getting when they started buying this series years ago.

And even worse, New Titans issues #60-61 are parts 2 and 4 of the Batman story "A Lonely Place of Dying"; the other parts, written by Wolfman but drawn by Jim Aparo, are omitted. At this point if I'd purchased this book, I'd be steamed -- I specifically avoid DC's artist spotlight books because they contain "parts" and don't tell a full story; it's OK if that's your thing, but again, I don't think that's what readers were expecting at the beginning of this series and it feels like a bit of bait and switch now.

Others smarter than me can speak to this -- and in no way do I fault Wolfman or Perez for any of this -- but I wonder if this has to do with royalties, if it's easier to just include one writer and artist in this book and only pay two sets of royalties than to also pay to Aparo and others, the reader's experience irrespective.

Looking at this omnibus one more way, there's thirteen issues here that have never been reprinted (Tales #45-49, Titans #6, #56-59, and #66-67, and Secret Origin Annual #3), versus ten issues that have been collected before. That's not great, but it's actually better comparatively than the second New Teen Titans Omnibus, which only included one or two issues not found elsewhere.

Fool Me Twice ...

Chances are, with all the jumps, that this is the last New Teen Titans Omnibus. DC's track record on these series is not great -- there was the cancellation of the Starman Omnibus paperbacks mid-series recently, a seeming switch from the Chronicles volumes over to omnibus format, and the mid-series cancellation of collection series like Justice League International a couple years ago. After New Teen Titans, I wouldn't blame a reader for being wary here on out of starting to read any high-priced collection series until they know exactly how it's going to end.

Still planning to pick up the New Teen Titans Omnibus Volume 3? Cancelled your order? Sound off in the comments and let me know!

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Number 1376: Kinky Angel

Black Angel (“really Sylvia Manners, American niece of Lady Lawton,” as an early caption explains) looks to have stepped out of a fetish artist's dream. John Cassone is credited as artist, and he was very skilled at Black Angel’s anatomy, as well as action poses and haughty expressions.

Black Angel is paired up with an enemy, Baroness Blood, a Nazi agent, who may have gone to the same costumer as Sylvia.

From Air Fighters Comics Vol. 1 No. 3, 1942:

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Review: Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE Vol. 2: Secrets of the Dead trade paperback (DC Comics)

In Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE Vol. 2: Secrets of the Dead, new series writer Matt Kindt continues the monster mayhem aesthetic found in exiting writer Jeff Lemire's first volume of the series. There are minor blips in the transition from writer to writer, but these are minor; Secrets, however, largely involves a crossover with the Animal Man/Swamp Thing event "Rotworld" that serves the other two series far better than it does Frankenstein. Kindt's writing of Frankenstein won't disappoint fans, but the push and pull of connecting this last volume of Frankenstein with other series' events might.

[Review contains spoilers]

Jeff Lemire contributes the first two chapters of this collection, which respectively close out Lemire's previous storylines and lead in to the larger "Rotworld" crossover found later in the book. The first chapter then (issue #8) is perhaps the first of the "concluding issues of Frankenstein" found in this book, as Lemire reveals that it was controversy over the death of the "Son of Frankenstein" that lead to Frankenstein and his Bride's split. The issue ends with the Bride leaving the SHADE organization and raises the possibility that Frankenstein might do the same, a thread that continues through Matt Kindt's stories but never ultimately materializes (else the book might've needed a title change!).

Lemire's second issue, more exactly, picks up threads from Lemire's own Animal Man series, prior to "Rotworld." Frankenstein and Nina Mazursky (the Creature Commando's human-hybrid sea creature) arrive at Animal Man Buddy Baker's mother-in-law's farm in the aftermath of the events of Animal Man Vol. 1: The Hunt and fight Animal Man's enemy The Rot. Lemire's last issue doesn't add much to the Animal Man storyline per se, but he begins to bring to fruition the romance between Frankenstein and Mazursky, and the issue ends in a way that might equally be the conclusion of the Frankenstein series.

It's mainly because of where Lemire ends that makes the beginning of Kindt's story jarring; Frankenstein is apparently visiting his own book collection in the SHADE library when the librarian embraces and begins kissing him, and also tells him about a conspiracy within SHADE. Why the librarian becomes so amorous is never explained; this is just one of a number of odd "jumps" that Kindt's story makes. To some extent this works with the madcap nature of the Frankenstein title (the librarian rubs up against Frankenstein precisely because it's absurd for her to do so), but it also demarcates, perhaps a little more than necessary, where Lemire leaves off and Kindt begins.

Kindt also takes Lemire's habit of spelling out SHADE's various strange acronyms and stretches it to an absurd degree; sometimes pages after pages have acronym asides. This is a little too cute; however, Kindt also introduces asides that give glimpses of the lives of Frankenstein's assorted body parts pre-monster, which is quite interesting (and chilling) and offered plenty of story potential had Frankenstein not ended.

The three-part "Son of Saturn" storyline that starts Kindt's run, to extrapolate a bit, has a bit more of the secret-agent flair that Kindt is known for (Mind MGMT, etc.) than perhaps Lemire's run did, not that there's anything wrong with that. Frankenstein and the Creature Commandos hunt the SHADE traitor Mission Impossible-style through an alternate dimension; in a series of weird twists, Frankenstein ends up inside a sentient beast that houses SHADE's retirement facility, except some of those retirees are actually prisoners. The rumored conspiracy is actually a plot to trap Frankenstein before he can kill a rogue SHADE agent, who learned of his death at Frankenstein's hands through one of SHADE's future-seeing mechanisms.

If it sounds complicated, it is, and I might add that it's delightfully so, except that the issue ends with Frankenstein having gathered an army of SHADE retirees to fight "Victor" and the Rot. Victor is none other than Victor Frankenstein, the monster's creator, though how Frankenstein knew that Victor has returned or that he needed to gather an army to fight him is yet another of Secrets of the Dead's unexplained jumps. Possibly in tying Frankenstein to "Rotworld," some aspects had to be speeded up or glossed over; this shows also in a couple of issues where Kindt uses considerably heavy narration to move the story forward rather than "in the moment" scenes.

What follows next is the three part "Secrets of the Dead" "Rotworld" tie-in. The first part mainly establishes that the world has turned to Rot while Frankenstein has been away; the second has Frankenstein and the Creature Commando vampire Velcoro hunting pieces of the McGuffin soul-grinder across the Rotworld; and then in the third Frankenstein battles Victor using the soul-grinder. The second issue is the clear winner, as Frankenstein and Velcoro journey across the ruined Rotworld landscape in scenes reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's The Road; Kindt builds up the sarcastic Velcoro's personality well toward an especially effective ending.

Unfortunately, the "Rotworld" tie-in hardly needs its three issues, as some of the battles in the first and third parts get overlong. As well, the "Rotworld" story ends with Mazursky and others seemingly transformed into Frankenstein-like creatures, with Mazursky perhaps pregnant with Frankenstein's child ... and then the last panel directs the reader to the Animal Man and Swamp Thing "Rotworld" collections to see what happens next.

Not only, ultimately, does the book's major conclusion not feel complete, but also how the characters are un-Frankensteined between issue #15 and the final issue, #16, isn't explained, nor how the SHADE leadership, all of whom were apparently killed in the "Rotworld" story, have all come back to life. Surely those answers are in the Rotworld collections -- my guess is time gets rolled back somehow -- but for those interested solely in Frankenstein, it's a disappointing read.

Fortunately, Kindt gets to go out on a high note in which Frankenstein and the Creature Commandos, all live and restored, stop a dirty bomb from exploding over Central City and reveal their existence to a homeland security agent in the process. It is a one-off "regular" story with some deft perspective tricks, and it serves to give Frankenstein and especially the Commandos one last hurrah (Frankenstein appears next in Justice League Dark, but I don't think the Commandos do), before the series comes to a close.

Whether by virtue of style or outside interference, I can't say Matt Kindt's Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE: Secrets of the Dead is quite as strong as Jeff Lemire's War of the Monsters, but it remains that any Frankenstein is good Frankenstein, and Kindt's is close enough; series artist Alberto Ponticelli draws every issue including the Zero Month issue included here, giving the book a nice consistency overall. One chapter for Frankenstein closes; I look forward to seeing the character again in his new home.

[Includes original covers, Alberto Ponticelli sketchbook]

New reviews on the way!

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Review: Journey into Mystery Featuring Sif Vol. 1: Stronger Than Monsters trade paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Review by Doug Glassman, who Tumblrs at Hell Yeah '80s Marvel!]

The tale of Kid Loki, the first star of the modern Journey Into Mystery, came to an end with the “Everything Burns” crossover with The Mighty Thor. While Kieron Gillen continues to work with that character in Young Avengers, there was some concern as to what would happen to Journey Into Mystery. The choice of Sif as the new main character was a smart response to the book’s demographics. Kid Loki has a very strong female fanbase, so giving the book not only a female lead but also a female writer kept the readership levels steady. Journey Into Mystery Featuring Sif Vol. 1: Stronger Than Monsters collects the first five issues of Kathryn Immonen’s run on the Marvel NOW! title, which I hope will last as least as long as Gillen’s Kid Loki epic.

As I said in my review of Captain Marvel: In Pursuit of Flight, Sif is one of Marvel’s answers to Wonder Woman. Physically, she’s the closer match due to her black hair, battle skills, and mythological background. But while Captain Marvel embodies Diana’s friendlier personality and leadership skills, Sif has Diana’s warrior spirit. Immonen’s Sif reminds me quite a bit of Gail Simone’s Wonder Woman, especially when we meet three exiled Berserkers from the early days of Asgard. They’re Journey Into Mystery’s version of Diana’s ape friends, funny (but violent) outsiders who follow Sif around despite her wishes.

Unlike Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman, though, Sif is pointedly not a superhero, a distinction which drives the events of Stronger Than Monsters. While she saves a life within the first few pages of issue #646, it’s that of an Asgardian child, and Sif is dedicated to protecting her home over protecting humans. She pointedly doesn’t understand her neighbors in Broxton, OK, as illustrated in a conversation with a man who criticizes overseas troops but can’t give a good answer as to why he won’t fight alongside them. This would normally come across as heavy-handed, but out of the mouth of a warrior-maiden, it seems perfectly in-character.

There’s a strong theme of being an outsider running through Journey Into Mystery. Sif won’t settle for just being the future wife of Thor as the myths proclaim she will become, and an encounter with a mysterious witch gives her new berserker strength and an angrier disposition. The ensuing rampage injures one of Volstagg’s daughters, forcing Sif’s brother, Heimdall, to send Sif to another dimension for her own sake. Newer readers more familiar with Idris Elba’s turn as Heimdall in Thor: The Mighty Avenger might be surprised to know that Sif is Heimdall’s much younger sister. It’s a holdover from a time when Journey Into Mystery was less devoted to mythological accuracy.

Speaking of the origins of Journey Into Mystery, Kathryn Immonen pays homage to the title’s early days with the reintroduction of a number of old monsters. Like many early Marvel titles, Journey was an anthology book featuring giant monsters and space invaders. After Thor’s introduction in issue #83, it was eventually retitled to The Mighty Thor, and the numbering from there gets sort of complicated. (The math for how J. Michael Straczynski’s The Mighty Thor got renumbered to #600 a few years back is fuzzy at best.) The monsters from the early days of Journey Into Mystery were banished into obscurity, both in the real world and, as it turns out, in the Marvel Universe: they inhabit the dimension Sif is sent to. Immonen brings in Hellcat and Monica Rambeau, characters from previous comics she wrote, to take on some of these invaders in some fun cameos.

Artist Valerio Schiti is a newcomer to Marvel, having worked at IDW for some time, and his artwork is easily some of the best I’ve come across. The treatment of women in comics has become a hot topic recently, with extra scrutiny attached to the provocative designs heroines are given and the poses they are put in. Schiti, thankfully, is not a cheesecake artist, and while Sif is gorgeous, she’s also wearing a mostly practical outfit. Her thighs are exposed, but they’ve been that way on-and-off since her introduction. Schiti also has a gift for facial expressions, avoiding the bland “porn faces” of some artists. Colorist Jordie Bellaire (who also does Captain Marvel) helps with a subdued color palette that knows when to go bold just at the right moments. Cover artist Jeff Dekal also provides dynamic painted covers; I’ll leave my complaints about how he renders Beta Ray Bill for the next volume.

At points, Journey Into Mystery Featuring Sif: Stronger Than Monsters feels like it needs to justify its existence now that Loki is no longer the lead. By demonstrating that Journey Into Mystery has always been a book with a variety of characters, it shuts down complaints from zealous Loki fans who would otherwise dismiss it. Immonen keeps the book fun while illustrating the complexities of Sif’s life. Immonen is aided by one of the best art teams at Marvel right now; I sincerely hope that Schiti gets to draw a big crossover in the near future. Continuing from the Loki run, Journey Into Mystery continues to demonstrate that Thor has the strongest supporting cast of any Marvel hero.

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Number 1375: That dang Cookie!

Cookie O’Toole, who despite the name was a boy and not a girl, was one of the Archie competitors during the late forties and early fifties. I think Cookie is an excellent comic book, and I have shown a couple of stories in the past.* It had a long run at ACG under editor Richard E. Hughes. Cookie was drawn by Dan Gordon, who sometimes signed his name “dang.” Gordon was one of the animator/cartoonists who worked on ACG’s funny animal and teenage comics line.

Cookie may have been a half-pint, but he was also smart, and brash, and had a cute girlfriend named “Angelpuss.” Cookie followed the teenage template for this type of comic. He had friends, and rivals who were supposed to be his friends. He also had a family, including a very funny, excitable dad. Come to think of it, when I was a teenager I followed that template, too!

This story is from Cookie #7 (1947):

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*Click on the thumbnails for more Cookie.

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Review: Criminal Vol. 3: The Dead and the Dying trade paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Guest reviewer Zach King blogs about movies as The Cinema King]

On first glance, Criminal Vol. 3: The Dead and the Dying is a set-up for disappointment. The volume is short -- collecting only three issues -- though the editors have tried to obfuscate this by using noticeably thicker pages. What's more, this the third Criminal collection marks a soft reboot of sorts, with the single issues renumbering back to #1 (no, no Pandora cameo to be found).

What might turn off some readers is the fact that this trade collects three chapters billed as stand-alones, straying from the longer format of the first two volumes, which might lead readers to treat it less seriously. But as usually happens with these Criminal trades, The Dead and the Dying is a marvelous surprise that's almost impossible to put down.

What the book doesn't tell you right away -- and I almost feel bad revealing it here -- is that the three stories aren't stand-alones. Instead, they're interlocking parts of a larger story, and a great deal of the book's enjoyability comes from tracing the way these three stories are related. In the first, "Second Chance in Hell," we learn about boxer Jake Brown and his strained friendship with mob heir Sebastian Hyde. The second, "A Wolf Among Wolves," introduces Teeg Lawless, the father of last volume's Tracy Lawless, and explains how he came to work as an enforcer for the Hyde family.

The final story in the collection, "Female of the Species," fleshes out the character of Danica Briggs, the unlikely femme fatale who enmeshes herself in the book's events and turns out to be more human than any of her lovers know. "Female of the Species" pulls the book's threads together, explaining Danica's motivations and fleshing out her connections to Jake, Sebastian, and Teeg.

The most potent feeling channeled by this volume is that of epiphany. There are many moments of intersection among these three stories, moments when puzzle pieces click into place. Some take the form of repeated panels (almost outdoing Watchmen in this regard), while others fill in storylines the reader hadn't noticed. For example, in "Second Chance" Sebastian Hyde vows to find those who had wronged him, and in the next panel one such enemy turns up dead. But while readers fill in that Sebastian was the killer, "Wolf" reveals that Teeg was the triggerman, a clever and satisfying twist that deepens the shared universe feeling of Center City.

After reading The Dead and the Dying, I have to wonder if Brubaker has a master story in mind. Before this point, it seemed that Criminal was going the route of Sin City, with standalone installments set in the same gritty locale. But seeing how deftly Brubaker puts the pieces together here, I can't help feeling that there may be an overarching narrative developing. (Update: I've since discovered that there is an unwritten "final" Criminal story named Coward's Way Out, suggesting to me that the series is going to end where it began.) This book explains Teeg's coldness toward his sons -- a surprisingly touching moment rendered by the noirish narrator -- and backfills the rise of the Hyde family, pointing to an interconnectivity beyond the Undertow Bar (owned, of course, by Jake).

The artistic consistency on this title is not to be underestimated here. Sean Phillips returns for this volume, and I can't be happier about that. One of my only complaints about The Invisibles was the rotating artistic team which led to an overenthusiastic jam session and characters who could look wildly different from issue to issue (here's looking at you, Lord Fanny). So the continuity provided by Phillips is a welcome presence. Sebastian is instantly recognizable as a young man who will eventually grow up to become the crime boss from the end of Lawless, and the use of visual repetition reverberates throughout the book, echoing across pages when you least expect it. Criminal is subtler than his gory Marvel Zombies, but it's no surprise that Brubaker keeps him around -- Phillips is comics noir.

If I had doubts about the longevity of my interest in Criminal after Lawless failed to surprise me, Criminal Vol. 3: The Dead and the Dying restores my dedication to the series. Brubaker and Phillips prove that they continue to innovate, within both the crime noir genre and the comics form. Center City may be populated by the dead, but the series is alive and well.

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Number 1374: A one-two punch from Fight Comics

In this 1945 Hooks Devlin story from Fight Comics we see a tattooed woman. In that era tattooed women were seen in circuses and sideshows, not walking down every street in cities and towns, large and small. Times, people and fashions change. Nowadays we don't see men going to circuses or carnivals wearing suits and ties. The difference is, of course, that putting on a suit and tie is temporary, whereas ink on skin will live with the wearer forever. However, not in the case of this tattooed woman in the story. You'll understand what I mean when you read it.

I don’t remember if I ever told you that Señorita Rio was a movie star who became a spy. In this episode she meets up with a young admirer and wannabe movie star, Susy, who helps her.

At the Grand Comics Database art credits for “Hooks” are given as Alex Blum pencils and Al Feldstein? inks. It doesn't look like Feldstein to me. His inking is usually heavier than the thin, slick lines in this story. Lily Renée signed the Rio story.

From Fight Comics #38 (1945):

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Number 1373: Mysterious Island

Mysterious Island, which is Dell Four Color #1213 (1961), is an adaptation of the movie from producer Charles H. Schneer and stop-motion animation wizard Ray Harryhausen. Harryhausen died recently at age 92. The comic book doesn’t give any credit to Harryhausen or SuperDynaMation, the trade name for his process, except in a tiny slug on the cover. I suppose somebody reckoned there’s no need for stop-motion animation in a comic book.

Credits for the artwork from the Grand Comics Database are given to Tom Gill, pencils, and Herb Trimpe, inks. You remember Tom Gill was the longtime artist on the Lone Ranger, and Herb Trimpe went on to Marvel Comics.

Mysterious Island, the movie, was not a big commercial success on its theatrical release in '61. I saw it in a theater with some friends. We hooted, hollered, threw popcorn and made obnoxious nuisances of ourselves. It took until VCRs were invented before I saw it again. After you read the comic book, I have a YouTube video with an interview of Harryhausen talking about Mysterious Island. I’ve always admired Harryhausen for his ability to combine such a technical and time-consuming process with fantasy.

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Harryhausen on Mysterious Island

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