Avatar: The Last Airbender: Free Comic Book Day 2014 All Ages

Title: Avatar: The Last Airbender: Free Comic Book Day 2014 All Ages
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Date: May, 2014
Writer: Gene Luen Yang, Art Baltazar, Franco, David Lapham
Artist: Faith Erin Hicks, Art Baltazar, David Lapham
Colorist: Cris Peter, Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Michael Heisler, Nate Piekos of Blambot
Editor: Dave Marshall, Scott Allie, Jim Gibbons, Shantel LaRocque, Daniel Chabon

Three stories, featuring Avatar: The Last Airbender, Itty Bitty Hellboy, and Juice Squeezers respectively.

The Avatar story has Suki and Sokka dealing with the sexist owner of a collectible seashell shop, in an amusing commentary of the "fake geek girl" trope. The initial action is satisfying in a jobber-squash-for-a-good-cause kind of way, but the ending of the story is quite good and shows some real heart.

Itty Bitty Hellboy has some fun trying to teach a ghost how to do his job, and also plays on the old "cough syrup for the coffin" joke. Not much to it, but I give credit for bringing up a classic dad-joke I got told as a kid.

The Juice Squeezers story involved some kids braving a nest of giant ants to exact a bit of revenge on the local school bullies. I'm not clear on why there are giant ants, but the story did a decent job of representing the "kids on bikes" subgenre (ET, Goonies, Stranger Things, etc). I'd be interested in seeing what this series does when it has more to work with in the way of plot.

Rating: 6/10

Tiny Titans #1 (Free Comic Book Day Edition)

I have a lot of Free Comic Book Day editions in the stack of unread comics. Here is one from 2008.

Title: Tiny Titans
Issue: 1
Date: April, 2008
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Art Baltazar, Franco
Artist: Art Baltazar
Letterer: Nick J. Napolitano
Editor: Jann Jones, Stephanie Buscema
Cover: Art Baltazar

This book is split up into five short stories, plus a one-panel cartoon, a pinup page featuring the whole team, and a maze activity page.

The stories are humorous and cute, mostly aimed at the young audience, although there is a bit for the adult audience in a pretty clever parody of some of the recent controversies over changes in comic book characters traditional costumes.

I also thought that the wordless Beast Boy story was adorable.

Some of the other jokes fell a bit flat, although one gained a bit in its repetitive use and could be good as a running gag as the series continues.

The art style is very cute and straightforward, with the characters totally recognizable in these "cartoony" incarnations.

Nothing too groundbreaking here, but a fun kid-friendly book with a bit to get a smile out of any Titans fan.

Rating: 6.5/10

Superman Family Adventures / Green Lantern Young Justice Super Sampler

This is the first of many reviews of 2012 Free Comic Book Day editions.

Title: Superman Family Adventures / Green Lantern Young Justice Super Sampler
Date: 2012
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Art Baltazar, Franco, Kevin Hopps, Greg Weisman,
Artist: Kristy Quinn, David Brizuela, Christopher Jones
Colorist: Gabe El Taeb, Zac Atkinson
Letterer: Siada Temofonte, Dezi Sienty
Editor:Kristy Quinn, Sarah Gaydos, Jim Chadwick

Flip book. On one side we have Superman Family Adventures, the new DC Superman title for young readers.Awesome bit when Lois questions aloud why Clark is never around when any excitement is happening. Clark replies "Maybe it's because I'm really Superman.", and Lois comes back with "Oh, Clark! You're such a joker! Maybe Gotham City is more your style!" Ha!

With a cartoony art style and dialogue that is quick with the jokes, this is a fun story that sticks close to standard Superman mythology and doesn't talk down to young readers.

Flip the book over and you get Green Lantern and Young Justice.

The Green Lantern story plodded along toward an obvious climax, as Hal and Razer get trapped in a pocket dimension with an alien who was "unjustly" imprisoned. It's pretty obvious where this one is going, and not much of interest happens getting there.

The Young Justice section is really just some teaser material without even an attempt at a complete story. There were two segments, one featuring Green Arrow and Artemis and one with Batman and Robin.(Tim Drake, I think, but I could be wrong about that). Both end before much happens, and it doesn't help that the bad guys are generic thugs in ninja outfits.

The Green Lantern and Young Justice stuff is aimed older than Superman Family Adventures, but I definitely preferred the Superman story.

Rating: 6/10

Young Justice / Batman: The Brave And The Bold Super Sampler

Title: Young Justice / Batman: The Brave And The Bold Super Sampler
Date: 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Art Baltazar, Franco, Sholly Fisch
Artist: Mike Norton, Rick Burchett, Dan Davis
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual, Travis Lanham
Colorist: Zac Atkinson, Gabe Eltaeb
Cover: Mike Norton, Alex Sinclair
Editor: Jim Chadwick, Michael McCalister, Cynthia Clugston Flores

This is the 2011 offering from DC comics for their all-ages titles.

First up is Young Justice taking on Psycho Pirate and Atomic Skull. Young Justice, we are told is a special team of "sidekicks" who handle covert missions for the JLA. They are quite possibly the least-covert team of heroes of all time. Let's see, who do we have that would be good at keeping secrets and remaining discreet? I know! Teenagers! In brightly-colored costumes! And this was the Batman's idea?

They attempt to do a scene where the characters have to face their greatest doubts/fears, but it comes off as wordy and clunky compared to many, many scenes that have done a better job with this same (and rather tired) idea. Once we get back to action it gets better, and Kid Flash gets a well-deserved spotlight.

The second story was from Batman: The Brave and the Bold. It was also an idea I've seen done before. There was a charity party, which Bruce Wayne was supposed to be attending. He was a no-show, because he was off doing his thing as the Batman, so all of the high society guests took turns mocking him. Their observations were then contrasted with the action of the story, which was the Batman and the Flash battling Heat Wave and Firefly (The third-rate villain, not Joss Whedon TV show, but you knew that, right?). Much like the facing-worst-fears bit in the first story, this came across as wordy and forced.

I feel like in the effort to write for a younger audience the writers here lost track of the need for good writing.

Rating: 5/10

Kids Love Comics: Comic Book Diner Special Edition

Title: Kids Love Comics: Comic Book Diner Special Edition
Date: 2008
Publisher: Sky-Dog Comics, Kids Love Comics
Writer: Rich Faber, John Gallagher, Art Baltazar, Franco, Scott Christian Sava, Diane Mulrenan, Off White, Ray Friese, John Gallagher
Artist: Rich Faber, John Gallagher, Art Baltazar, Franco, Scott Christian Sava, Kevin West, Mark McKenna, Ray Friesen, John Gallagher
Colorist: Lisa Lubera
Letterer: Erin Mulrenan

This Free Comic Book Day collection of all-ages friendly comics previews six different titles. First up is Roboy Red in a story where two siblings are debating the existence of the rogue robot title character. The older sister is so fixated on her opinion that Roboy Red is merely a "suburban myth" that she's oblivious to the actual battle that Roboy Red is fighting overhead. This was a bit predictable, but worth a couple of smiles.

There are two Patrick the Wolf Boy stoties here, which are both basically gag strips.

The Dreamland Chronicles is an epic high fantasy that evokes Peter Pan and the like. There are two scenes in the seven pages that appear here, which could have been better connected. This looked like a well-developed fantasy world with some fun characters.

Bananna-Tail is a humorous story about a monkey dream sequence that quickly turns into a nightmare.

Finally, ostrich Tybyrd Fearlessness tries to get himself a meal in spite of being flat broke. Like the other comedy pieces, this was pretty formulaic, but I liked a lot of the jokes along the way.

I was really impressed by the general attitude of this collection as it celebrated comics for all ages of readers.

Rating: 6.5/10