Long Box Jury

Spoilers! Tonight's post is a review of comics bought in Glasgow during my last visit in mid-May.

Earth-2: In an attempt to rework the parallel Earths tropes of the Silver Age, the overrated James Robinson delivers a stale apocalyptic Elseworlds tale, wiping out a version of DC's Trinity. Meanwhile, Jay Garrick's romantic interest Joan is recast here as a thoroughly dislikeable emasculating bitch. And it looks like E-2 Flash gets his helmet and powers from the Roman God Mercury. How literal. 1/5


Legion of Super-Heroes: 80s LSH artist Steve Lightle returns, almost unrecognisably, for a thin episode foreshadowing the return of the Fatal Five. Neglected Legionnaire Invisible Kid II gets some facetime. Cos and Night Girl are reunited; next, get Lydda Jath in the Legion proper! I'd like to see Evil Pink Gerbil Girl return but this is another yet unsatisfactory issue of a title that has such promise and fails consistently to deliver it. 1/5

Worlds' Finest:  A future post on Place will look at the Bronze Age adventures of Power Girl and the Huntress. Here,Paul Levitz, their " godfather" and George Perez reunite them in a curiously unsatisfactory "old school" revival, Helena is the Batman's daughter again but still sports her Catholic Mafia princess look. PG has a new but typically fussy and unflattering Perez costume. These were two of DC's most popular female characters in the 70s but I find them a bit redundant in a comics universe with multiple Batgirls and Kryptonians. 2/5

New Avengers: a gorgeous comic from Mike Deodato and Will Conrad but, as is often the case with Bendis, very little happens. It sets up a logical connection between Phoenix and Iron Fist -see "Shall I Love the Bird of Fire", Deadly Hands of Kung Fu 19, Dec 1975- but there are no actual Avengers, new or otherwise, in it. 3/5

Justice League : Green Arrow tries-and fails- to join the new iteration and we learn the Martian Manhunter was a member whose tenure ended in conflict. It's no great surprise to see Jim Lee can't maintain a monthly schedule and the Pandora/Phantom Stranger subplot from last issue could have been continued. However, the saving grace is the Johns/Frank Shazam serial. This second chapter introduces us to the new Freddy Freeman and Mary Bromfield, both appealing members of Billy Batson's foster family. I'm really enjoying this back-up so far. 3/5

Avengers Assemble : An action-packed story featuring those cinema-friendly Assemblers.Again, the art reminds me of Alan Davis. Bronze Age Babies may be pleased to see the last-minute arrival of a certain death-worshipping Mad Titan. 4/5

Wolverine/X-Men: Two issues that tie into the AVX crossover but  although they're largely about drawing battle lines the art, subplots and characterisation are highly entertaining. 4/5

Action Comics  4/5: A playful parallel worlds story by Grant Morrison in which Superman is Barack Obama. At first I was a little bit irritated by yet another alternate Earth (23) and another Superman outfit. But actually, this is a Bronze Age tale in modern drag, as indicated by the reference to Krypton's Vathlo Island. This issue also features a cameo by Vixen, one of my favourite DC females.

Trio: John Byrne's new superhero project is a group of young people based on the Rock/Scissors/Paper game. Printed on heavy card stock by IDW, it's very reminiscent of Byrne's Marvel work: the villain is a grandiose blend of Namor and Triton. Like WF, this is a self-consciously "old-school" comic but I loved it. The big question is: will it be one of Byrne's short-lived runs?  5/5


Coming soon: The Dead Man and...The Spectre!
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