American Century is winding down and Battle of the Planets also doesn't have long to go. The former was great stuff, but probably a narrow market, within the audience for comics that existed. It probably would have had greater appeal to a mass audience, either as prose fiction or a tv series, given a decent budget to capture the period. Too much of real life and history for comics. BOTP tied; it really did, and came close; but, something always seemed to hold the story back. There was a tease of something big, but it ended with issue #12 and it never got a chance to be epic. Let's face it; most people bought it for the Alex Ross covers. I could get those on the DVD collections (and did).

JSA: Unholy 3 continued the pulpy fun of The Liberty Files. The regular JSA series was reaching its end, for me.

Zatanna was because of Paul Dini...and I always liked the character....until Morrison got his hands on her and they started drawing her like a stripper or fetish model. I mean, yeah, she had a certain subset of fetishist fans; but, she had previously kept a classier look.....well, apart from the elf costume, with the boob window, when she joined the JLA.

I liked the story of The Truth but Kyle Baker's art never really worked for me, with that subject matter. The cartoony nature detracted form the serious themes, I thought, though he handled the grotesque aspects of the experimental failures well. He certainly captured emotions well. It just felt....off. I think I would have rather seen Denys Cowan or Trevor Von Eden draw it, if we specifically wanted an African-American artist. Or Brian Stelfreeze. I liked Baker's work better with Why I Hate Saturn and The Cowboy Wally Show, not to mention Plastic Man (which was lighter material). I haven't re-read it since it came out; so, I might feel differently, as I have grown to be more receptive to more stylized art than when I was younger.

Whoops....forgot Killraven.


Parliament of Justice was a cool, if dark little one shot, from Michael Avon Oeming, with a sort of steampunk/pulp atmosphere to it.

Tom Strong brings a new epic into line, as Alan Moore winds down his involvement with the ABC line. Then DC screws it all up.

January to April 2003:

Shang Chi: Master of Kung Fu - overall I have to call it a disappointment in that it didn't reach the heights of MoKF at its best. The art seemed up and down which has sometimes led me to wonder if different parts of it might have been done at different times. I think some of the changes or updates might have had potential had they been given more time to develop in an ongoing series rather than just thrown out abruptly in the miniseries - Tarr's new look and position as head of MI6 (or whatever), for example. The story premise wasn't brilliant: a Shang Chi clone - hadn't Moench already done something similar with Gene Day?

Re-Load - this might have been my first Warren Ellis comic. If it wasn't this, it was the one he did with Amanda Conners, another 3-issue miniseries from around the same time. I liked Re-Load but it felt a bit light, as perhaps is unavoidable with such a short series. I was attracted as much by Gulacy's name as by wanting to try something by Ellis.

Birds of Prey - bought this because of Gilbert Hernandez. I was curious to see him working with established DC characters. Nothing particularly awful about it but I don't think it amounted to much. Maybe if I'd been invested in the characters or if Id really loved the artwork it might have worked better for me, but as it was, it didn't give me anything like the pleasure I get from Gilbert's own comics.

codystarbuck, I do enjoy seeing a snapshot of all the covers for a particular month. Is there a site you go to, which showcases all the titles that went on sale in a particular month? I like milestones, and at times, it’d be nice to read a comic (if available) on its anniversary date.

May 2003

Batman #615
Batman Adventures #1, 2
Batman:Nevermore #2
Green Lantern #164, 165
Marvel Universe:The End #5
Ultimate Spider-Man #40, 41
X-Treme X-Men #25, 26

Not much here. American Century is rounding the final curve to the home stretch. Battle of The Planets focuses on Jason, in this one-shot. JSA All-Stars is okay, but not spectacular. I had given up on the regular book, around this time, and gave this a shot. Got the Alan Moore trade, because I had only seen the Superman story. The Mogo tale was pretty good. Astro City continues the fun, with a rural hero, something you never saw at the Big Two. Having grown up in the country, I especially liked that. Terra Obscura is kind of the forgotten book of the ABC line. I loved it. The characters were first seen in Tom Strong, when he aids Tom Strange, aka Doc Strange, in freeing the heroes of the parallel Earth, Terra Obscura. The characters were all from the defunct Nedor (Ned Pines/Better/Standard/Nedor) Golden Age company, with heroes like The Black Terror, The Fighting Yank, Miss Masque, Doc Strange and more. This picks up as they try to find their place in the world again. The Terror is gone, but left behind an Artificial Intelligence security system and his sidekick, Tim, must deal with its consequences. Interesting art from Yanick Paquette.