Stay, City, Smokily Enchanted

Last day of the Tattie Holidays and time for reviews of comics I bought in Glasgow. I may not return from the Pictish Wilderness until December, which seems awfully far away. After 25 years, a parochial, rural lifestyle has little appeal. I should  have new comics mailed to me directly, like I did thirty years ago. 
Anyway,  I'll grade these in Olympic-medal parlance.

Bronze: Earth-2. I just haven't warmed to this gaming-inspired goth-fest with its warfare and misery and Solomon Grundy in a butcher's apron.  I realise that Robinson is mimicking the World War Two origins of the real JSA with the Apokolips attack. There are also Call of Duty echoes in Commander Dodds and his Sandmen, the "unfinished" Red Tornado and Captain Steel. Another new player, Mr. 8, the Terry Sloan of this Earth is pitched like Watchmen's Ozymandias and that's the most interesting thing about this series. I'm irrationally annoyed by the size-changing Al Pratt.The Atom was always small; that's the whole point. This nonsense about becoming a giant goes back to Roy Thomas and Nuklon and it's dopey.

Justice League: Was grisly Graves just a modern version of Dr. Destiny? After some stupid squabbling, Hal Jordan quit simply to make room for the Muslim Green Lantern. Also, Superman and Wonder Woman romance is out of character no matter who writes it. If Diana were interested in any JLAer, it would be fellow-royal Aquaman. The Cheetah was reintroduced but doesn't seem very different from the 80s iteration. Anyway, this gory version of Super Friends seems to serve as little more than a prelude to Justice League of America, the militaristic direction I predicted for the Justice League some time ago.

The best thing about the series is the modernised Shazam feature which, oddly, dominated the Zero Month issue. Gary Frank's realistic style creates a mysterious, cinematic world for Billy Batson et al.However, at this decompressed pace, it'll probably be a year before we see the Shazam Family. Why wasn't this one of the Earth-One graphic novels?

Silver: I've read that Legion of Super-Heroes is one of the poorest-selling titles in the New 52. The long-form plotting certainly seems extremely slow and unrewarding: the Fatal Five storyline began five months ago. Sub-plots and character moments orbit the comic like satellites.

And yet...this is recognisably the Legion from, oh, 1985-8 and the first version I've followed every month since the early 90s. Several minor Legionnaires went on a covert operation in the creepy culture of the Dominion. Comet Queen betrayed the team ( probably due to Saturn Queen's mental tampering  back in Adventure:" someone who really, really didn't like you") The Zero issue tweaked Tharok's origin linking him, unnecessarily, to the Brainiac legacy and introduced the appealingly cartoony art of Scott Kolins. I also liked seeing Chemical Kid working- logically- with Element Lad.

The Legion membership has dropped to fourteen although that will change when Legion Lost is cancelled and the most visually interesting Legionnaires return. But will there be room for rookies Otaki and Mwindaji? They contribute to the ethic mix while duplicating extant members. I also want to see Colossal Boy reinstated double-quick. I was surprised to see the Legion leader contest , an ancient bit of fan interaction, is restricted to a postal vote. My prediction is Star Boy or Dream Girl (again.)

Next: All that glisters is Gold.

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