Batman Brings His Mission to the World

Batman Day was officially earlier this month, but, if you're looking for an innovative approach to the character, check out the recent graphic novel Batman: The World (2021). It's created by an international group of writers and artists each presenting the Caped Crusader on their home turf. Most stories feature Batman/Bruce Wayne as a familiar figure; however, a few of the tales adapt him more distinctly as a more  "local" hero.

Worth Reading: DC's Batman: Last Knight on Earth

I usually post short reviews to Amazon; this summer, I thought I'd try some blog posts.

Batman: Last Knight on Earth
https://www.dccomics.com/graphic-novels/batman-last-knight-on-earth-2019/batman-last-knight-on-earth

Billed as "The Last BATMAN Story Ever Told...," Snyder and Capullo's series Batman: Last Knight on Earth (now collected in a hardcover edition) builds on their last arc of the New 52's Batman series.

Batman: Last Knight on Earth positions a new Batman/Bruce Wayne to rise to become a hero in a potential future of the DCU. It is a bleak world (rather like DCeased and Justice League Dark: Apokolips War), but there is a lot of hope in the end (and some intriguing use of the Joker character).

See below for DC's teaser trailer for the series:

Art of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

An informative read with much insight into the creative process:

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: The Art of the Movie Slipcase (Hardcover)

Writer: Jacob Johnson

Extended credits and info
Imprint: Marvel Universe
ISBN: 978-1-302-90270-4
Format: Hardcover
Price: $50.00
FOC Date: Mar 13, 2017 Published: May 03, 2017
Rating: All Ages

The Guardians are back! After saving the universe, Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot find themselves with expunged records and a new mandate: Guard what needs guarding. Now, go inside the Marvel studios in this new collectible volume! Discover exclusive concept art, production stills, and commentary from cast and crew — including returning director James Gunn and Marvel’s extraordinary Visual Development team. Complete your ART OF THE MOVIE collection with this latest installment as the Guardians soar to new heights!

http://marvel.com/comics/collection/60045/marvels_guardians_of_the_galaxy_vol_2_the_art_of_the_movie_slipcase_hardcover

Song of Spider-Man

An interesting read offering insight into the creation of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark: 

Song of Spider-Man: The Inside Story of the Most Controversial Musical in Broadway History
By Glen Berger

Simon & Schuster
384 pages
Hardcover (ISBN 9781451684568) $25.00
eBook (ISBN 9781451684582) $12.99
November 2013

Trade Paperback (ISBN 9781451684575) $17.00
November 2014

As one can imagine, writing a Broadway musical has its challenges. But it turns out there are challenges one can’t imagine when collaborating with two rock legends and a superstar director to stage the biggest, most expensive production in theater history.

Song of Spider-Man is playwright Glen Berger’s story of a theatrical dream—or nightmare—come true. Renowned director Julie Taymor picked Berger to cowrite the book for a $25 million Spider-Man musical. Together—along with U2’s Bono and Edge— they would shape a work that was technically daring and emotionally profound, with a story fueled by the hero’s quest for love—and the villains’ quest for revenge. Or at least, that’s what they’d hoped for.

But when charismatic producer Tony Adams died suddenly, the show began to lose its footing. Soon the budget was ballooning, financing was evaporating, and producers were jumping ship or getting demoted. And then came the injuries. And then came word-of- mouth about the show itself. What followed was a pageant of foul-ups, falling-outs, ever-more-harrowing mishaps, and a whole lot of malfunctioning spider legs. This “circus-rock-and-roll-drama,” with its $65 million price tag, had become more of a spectacle than its creators ever wished for. During the show’s unprecedented seven months of previews, the company’s struggles to reach opening night inspired breathless tabloid coverage and garnered international notoriety.

Through it all, Berger observed the chaos with his signature mix of big ambition and self-deprecating humor. Song of Spider-Man records the journey of this cast and crew as a hilarious memoir about friendship, collaboration, the foibles of hubris, and the power of art to remind us that we’re alive.

Hickman's Avengers

A quick post:

As part of the Marvel NOW! relaunching of the Avengers franchise, Jonathan Hickman offers an engaging rebirth of the Avengers team in the new Avengers title, and he comments in depth on his vision in a December 2012 interview on Newsarama at http://www.newsarama.com/10587-jonathan-hickman-brings-the-world-to-marvel-now-avengers.html.

So far. the series has been collected into two hardcover editions: Avenger's World and The Last White Event. The story thus far is reminiscent of aspects of Warren Ellis's oeuvre and offers, in part, an incorporation of Marvel's New Universe (last revived by Ellis) within the Marvel NOW! Marvel Universe. The collected editions include numbers 1 through 11 of the series and are an entertaining read, for the most part; however, the series falters a bit towards the end of volume 2 and grinds to a halt with the (apparently) unrelated and very mundane story in issue 11. Based on the ending, I'm not sure I'll pick up volume 3.

Hensoniana Better Left Unfound?

I've long been a fan of Jim Henson and grew up with the Muppets and the later products of the Creature Shop as frequent companions (and babysitters), so I've been thrilled to discover Archaia's recent collaborations with The Jim Henson Company. Some of these have been good (more on those in a later post), but others have been disappointments. For example, Archaia recently published Jim Henson's Tale of Sand (2011), a hardcover graphic novel adaptation of a screenplay from the late 1960s by Jim Henson and frequent collaborator Jerry Juhl. Archaia's information on the book suggests it might make and interesting read, noting as follows:

Join us as we explore this missing piece of Jim Henson’s career in a celebration of his creative process. Discovered in the Archives of The Jim Henson Company, Tale of Sand is an original graphic novel adaptation of an unproduced, feature-length screenplay written by Jim Henson and his frequent writing partner, Jerry Juhl. Tale of Sand follows scruffy everyman Mac, who wakes up in an unfamiliar town, and is chased across the desert of the American Southwest by all manners of man and beast of unimaginable proportions. Produced under the complete supervision of Henson Company CEO Lisa Henson, Tale of Sand will allow Henson fans to recognize some of the inspirations and set pieces that appeared in later Henson Company productions.

The work, rated Teen +13, has received a number of awards (listed on the book's page at Archaia's website) and been fairly well received (as reviews accessible from the website make clear). Despite this praise, I'd have difficulty recommending it to any reader. It is a very weird story--a journey or, possibly, challenge but certainly not a quest--with an odd sort of hero. (Previews can be accessed from the book's website and more from the reviews posted there.) There seems to be no narrative structure per say, and one is left unclear at the end what has been accomplished. Back to the rating, the images are violent at time and towards the end include some nudity best left unseen by younger readers. Of better value are some of the supplementary material. In addition to the comic, there is a foreword by Karen Falk, Archives Director and historian for The Jim Henson Company, that offers an introduction to Tale of Sand that situates the work within the context of the two men’s careers as entertainers and an afterword by Lisa Henson, daughter of Jim Henson and Chief Executive Officer of The Jim Henson Company, that describes the process by which Tale of Sand came to be adapted into the comics medium. Biographical sketches of Henson and Juhl are also included, by Craig Sherman, President of The Jim Henson Legacy. The work concludes with a short biography of the artist, Ramón K. Pérez, and a series of preliminary character sketches.

Bill the Boy Wonder

I've known about this for a while but only today received a copy to peruse. It is an interesting book (as was Boys of Steel, which I need to blog about one day).

Nobleman, Marc Tyler. Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-creator of Batman. Illus. Ty Templeton. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge, 2012. N.pag. Print. 978-1-58089-289-6

Binding Information:
Hardback
Ages: 8 - and up
Price: $17.95

From the Publisher:


This is the true story of how Batman began. Every Batman story is marked with the words "Batman created by Bob Kane." But that isn't the whole truth. A struggling writer named Bill Finger was involved from the beginning. Bill helped invent Batman, from concept to costume to character. He dreamed up Batman's haunting origins and his colorful nemeses. Despite his brilliance, Bill worked in obscurity. It was only after his death that fans went to bat for Bill, calling for acknowledgment that he was co-creator of Batman. Based on original research, Bill the Boy Wonder is the first-ever book about the unsung man behind the Dark Knight.

This book is good for your brain because it provides: Biography, character and plot development, point of view


Comics Medium Links and More annotation:

Follow-up to Nobleman’s Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman, Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-creator of Batman is a picture book biography of comic book writer Bill Finger that presents him as the originator of the essentials of the Batman character (though the name was conceived first by Bob Kane, the man usually given credit for having created Batman) and his most prolific early chronicler. Concludes with an “Author’s Note,” in which Nobelman describes some of his sources (listed more fully in the “Selected Bibliography” at the end) and writing of the book (including his discovery of Finger’s only living heir) and a brief discussion of the growth of the Batman franchise. An online companion to the book, with activities and resources for educators, can be accessed at http://www.charlesbridge.com/BilltheBoyWonder, and the publisher's page for the book (at http://www.charlesbridge.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=5655) includes links to interviews with Nobleman about the project.

Batman Family Origins

 Concluding today's look at DC Comics-based books, here's one I did like:

Sazaklis, John. Batman: Dawn of the Dynamic Duo. Pictures by Steven E. Gordon. Colors by Eric A. Gordon. I Can Read! 2. New York: Harper-HarperCollins Children’s Books-HarperCollins, 2011. Print. 978-0-06-188520-4

A laudable combination of text and comic-book-like illustration, Batman: Dawn of the Dynamic Duo offers beginning readers an adventure featuring Batman, Robin III, and Nightwing in battle against Two-Face and his men. Serving (in part) as an introduction to Batman and his world, the book is noteworthy for its presentation of origin stories for Tim Drake (12-15) and Dick Grayson (16-17), as Robin and Nightwing, respectively, and its silent omission of Batman’s second partner Jason Todd. The story is therefore most in line with the continuity of the DC Animated Universe in making Drake and Grayson the only partners of the Dark Knight.

Kid-Friendly Origin of the Justice League

DC has begun to extend the Justice League franchise into alternate media, including a new ongoing series of children's books, of which the following is the first. Sadly. its not the best translation from the comics page:

Rosen, Lucy. Justice League: Meet the Justice League. Pictures by Steven E. Gordon. Colors by Eric A. Gordon. I Can Read! 2. New York: Harper-HarperCollins Children’s Books-HarperCollins, 2013. Print. 978-0-06-221002-9

Inspired by the first story of the Justice League of America from The Brave and the Bold No. 28 (February-March 1960), Justice League: Meet the Justice League recounts the formation of the Justice League when Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman—the stars of an earlier series of books in the I Can Read! series—enlist Aquaman, Flash (presumably Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), and Martian Manhunter to thwart the plans of Starro (a relatively obscure villain from the team’s sixty-plus-year history) for world domination. The art is unexceptional and not truly representative of the characters’ comic book origins, and, at some points, figures appear grossly out of proportion and/or distorted.

Wonder Woman Documentary

A head's up from the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly:

PBS is currently airing a film called Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines. More details at http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/wonder-women/.

Trailer follows:

Watch Coming Soon to Independent Lens: Wonder Women! on PBS. See more from Independent Lens.

Wonder Woman for Kids

Both Stone Arch and Harper's I Can Read series have recently tackled the origin of Wonder Woman. Both do a good job with the story and offer a nice balance of old and new. (Stone Arch also has additional adventures of Wonder Woman; details at http://www.capstonepub.com/product/9781434226518.)

Dahl, Michael. Trial of the Amazons. Illus. Dan Schoening. DC Super Heroes: Wonder Woman. Minneapolis and San Diego: Stone Arch Books-Capstone, 2010. 56 pp. 978-1-4342-2263-3

Retells the origin of Wonder Woman and details how the Amazon princess Diana, by showing “not only bravery and strength, but also […] kindness, fairness, and self-sacrifice,” proved herself worthy of being her people’s emissary in the outside world (43). Her mission, as it has always been, is to aid humanity in its ongoing struggle with the war god Ares and, as Diana vows, “lead the mortals to peace and harmony” (18).

Dahl’s story also includes two nods to older fans of Wonder Woman. First, Diana is prompted, at least in part, to leave her home in order to see a wounded pilot (obviously meant to be Steve Trevor), whose plane has crashed nearby Themyscira, returned safely to his home, and, second, Dahl makes use the Invisible Jet as one of Wonder Woman’s tools to be employed in achieving her goals.

The book concludes with brief histories of Hippolyta, Diana’s mother, and of the Amazons, a glossary, discussion questions, and writing prompts



 

Stein, Erin K. WonderWoman: I Am Wonder Woman. Illus. Rick Farley. I Can Read Level 2. N.p.: Harper-HarperCollinsPublishers, 2010. 32 pp. 978-0-06-188517-4

Stein’s Wonder Woman: I Am Wonder Woman is an account of Wonder Woman’s origins and career as told by the hero herself. Princess Diana of Paradise Island, seeking “to fight for justice,” wins a contest among her Amazon sisters to be the gods’ champion in the world, for, as she explains, “Mankind needed someone to keep the world safe” (9, 6). 

As Wonder Woman, Diana is granted a variety of powers and tools, including the Invisible Jet, to achieve her mission. 

In keeping with popular conceptions of the character, Wonder Woman also describes her life as Diana Prince, her mundane alter ego, and in further homage to the television show, notes how she spins to effect a transformation between her two identities. 

The final pages show Wonder Woman in action and describe her relationship with fellow heroes Superman and Batman.

Superman for Kids

Stone Arch Books has recently published a series of kid-friendly books based on classic DC Comics superheroes, including Superman. The origin story volume is of especial interest for its revisions to the mythos:

Dahl, Michael. Last Son of Krypton. Illus. John Delaney and Lee Loughridge. DC Super Heroes: Superman. Minneapolis and San Diego: Stone Arch Books-Capstone, 2009. 56 pp. 978-1-4342-1370-9

The DC Super Heroes line is created for reluctant readers, but Dahl’s Last Son of Krypton seems to have missed the mark a bit in focusing not on the exploits of Superman but, rather, on some of his earliest adventures as a child. 

Dahl’s narrative combines both old and new elements of the Superman mythos and details how young Kal-El of Krypton (the future Superman) survived the destruction of his home world and found a new family with the Kents on Earth. Of interest, Jor-El, Kal-El’s father, faces opposition by the supercomputer Brainiac in his efforts to warn Krypton’s populace of the plight of their world. Brainiac, who is aware of the impeding cataclysm and merely seeks to be the sole survivor of the planet and its advanced civilization (thus setting up his motivation in future conflicts with Superman), escapes Krypton just before Kal-El. 

Also of note, Kal-El, now Clark Kent, is depicted as absorbing solar radiation from the sun while a small child and, in accordance with the pre-Crisis origins of the character, displays his super-human (and solar-powered) strength while a toddler as opposed to the now canonical approach that his powers developed more slowly and did not fully manifest until his teenage years. 

A brief epilogue concludes the work and addresses Kal-El’s other powers and his efforts as a costumed hero upon reaching adulthood. Appendices include a glossary, discussions questions, and writing prompts.