DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #4

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I’m now incredibly confused. The backup, illustrated by Kubert, all about the DC WWII heroes reuniting on the Bicentennial is this lovely little piece. I mean, Wein’s dialogue is still really weak and I’m sad Alfred didn’t get jiggy with Mlle. Marie in current continuity like he did before… but it’s lovely. It’s the closest Legacies has gotten to being what it ought to be….

And the preceding feature is the same crap as usual. What Gibbons do to Garcia-Lopez’s pencils to make Superman look bad? Garcia-Lopez has only drawn Superman in hundreds of comic books and Gibbons just… yuck.

There are timeline problems again (it seems to take place in the late sixties to mid-seventies, which isn’t right), bad narration, bad dialogue and the stupid criminal brother-in-law showing up.

The only good moment’s when Black Canary I gets flirty with Superman.

Otherwise, it’s lame.

DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #3

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Does anyone proofread these? I mean, does Mike Carlin do anything as an editor or just sit around in an office? This issue of Legacies sets the start of the modern superhero—regardless if they want to call it the Silver Age, it’s Superman and Batman—in the mid-sixties or, at latest, late-sixties. It also totally ignores racism in the United States. Apparently Wein and DC think their readers are so out of it, this time lapse isn’t going to be noticeable.

Now, if the series were out of continuity, it would be one thing (of course, didn’t John Byrne already do something called Generations along those lines), but it appears to be a retelling of the DC Universe. Only a really poorly thought-out one.

Garcia-Lopez is good, but I was expecting more. Gibbons’s inks on him just didn’t work.

Same lame Wein dialogue as usual.

DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #2

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I didn’t mention this part of the last issue because I was hoping Wein wasn’t going to use it as a plot device, because it’d be stupid. Silly me, apparently he’s going to use it. The narrator has a friend who goes bad. It appears he’s going to show up every issue as a thug, to show how regular people can either be good or bad. It’s awful. Worse, the narrator marries his sister.

Again, it’s Marvels-lite.

Also again… great artwork from the Kuberts. There’s a lot more superhero action this issue and they handle it all very well. In fact, this issue works better, because they’re more suited to Hawkman and Green Lantern than the pulpy heroes last issue.

The Newsboy Legion cameo’s great here, maybe Wein’s best writing on the series so far. The narration’s still bad though.

The Williams illustrated backup is lovely looking, but stupid.

DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #1

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Near as I can tell—down to the old man narrator—Legacies is just DC’s attempt at doing Marvels, only without such a cool name. Scott Kolins does the opening frame, the nice old man with his superhero memorabilia and so on, then they flashback to the thirties and Suicide Slum.

The draw of the issue is the art from the Kuberts. It has a great feel of the era. Len Wein’s narration is atrocious. I mean, it really is like reading Marvels-lite. Or the Marvels sequel, come to think of it. I can’t believe DC did such a weak imitation fifteen years later….

Anyway, the Kuberts beautifully handle the poverty of Suicide Slum, juxtaposing it with the early superheroes. Any art issues are because they’re illustrating a contrived script.

The backup—though Jones’s art is beautiful—is even worse. Wein seems to lose his place in the dialogue.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #119

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I’m not sure what Nixey’s Trout is about or if it’s going to be about the events of this installment (in some fantasy land, an elf brings a living nightmare back from his sleep… or something along those lines). Since the writing’s so tied to the confusing plot, it’s mostly about Nixey’s art. He combines a fantasy setting with some disturbing ideas (more than imagery) and creates something quite nice.

Dorkin’s Hectic Planet is about a girl’s mysterious new boyfriend. Some good art, totally fine writing… it’s like “Friends” for nineties hipsters.

Adams’s Monkeyman and O’Brien this time features a giant monster (who’s more detailed than anything else, art-wise) and absolutely no excitement, of course. His script’s plotting is exceptionally anticlimactic from the start.

Finally, Predator from Barr and Kolins. Kolins’s work is very rough here (weak perspective). It’s a pointless story, just Presents giving a licensed property pages.

Dark Horse Presents 119 (March 1997)

Dorkin’s Hectic Planet is about a girl’s mysterious new boyfriend. Some good art, totally fine writing… it’s like “Friends” for nineties hipsters.

Finally, Predator from Barr and Kolins. Kolins’s work is very rough here (weak perspective). It’s a pointless story, just Presents giving a licensed property pages.

CREDITS

Trout, Nicky Nicky Nine Doors, Part One; story and art by Troy Nixey. Hectic Planet, Part Two, Shot on Goal; story and art by Evan Dorkin. Monkeyman & O’Brien, Gorehemoth – The Garbage Heap That Walks Like A Man, Part Two; story and art by Art Adams; lettering by Lois Buhalis. Predator, No Beast So Fierce…; story by Mike W. Barr; pencils by Scott Kolins; inks by Dan Schaefer; lettering by Sean Konot. Edited by Bob Schreck and Jamie S. Rich.