Shade: The Changing Man #44

From the Random Stack of Unread Comics.

Title: Shade: The Changing Man
Issue: 44
Date: February, 1994
Publisher: DC Comics (Vertigo)
Writer: Peter Milligan
Penciler: Chris Bachalo
Inker: Rick Bryant
Colorist: David Hornung
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editor: Shelly Roeberg, Karen Berger
Cover: Duncan Fegredo

Trapped in the midst of an outbreak of 17th Century witch hysteria, Lenny and Karen are about to be hanged, and Shade is not helping matters at all. In fact, he's actually transformed himself into the gallows tree as he wages an internal battle between his love and hate for Karen. Meanwhile, John Constantine tries to figure out the spell to get all of them out of this mess, only to find that the secret he needs is buried in a very dark place in his own past.

Loaded with overtones of abortion politics and religious puritanism, the story also features some heartbreaking interactions between all of the main characters. It also fills in some interesting backstory on Constantine, and serves up a side helping of time paradoxes.

I didn't read the issues leading into this one, so I probably missed some of what was going on here. There was a LOT going on. But even without all of the backstory, this was a memorable chapter in the tale of Shade and his fellow travelers.

Rating: 8.5/10

Shade: The Changing Man #54

Reading and reviewing comics at the airport in Mumbai, India! First of the last two in that stack I've been working my way through.

Title: Shade: The Changing Man
Issue: 54
Date: December, 1994
Publisher: DC Comics (Vertigo)
Writer: Peter Milligan
Penciler: Mark Buckingham
Inker: Rick Bryant
Colorist: Daniel Vozzo
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editor: Shelly Roeberg
Cover: Duncan Fegredo

Lost in grief, Shade moves to New York City and becomes a dance floor. Literally. But when the routine of peaceful days and raucous nights is broken by the arrival of a woman who wants to dance alone to any music as long as it's loud, Shade discovers the possibility of human interaction again.

There is also a man who claims to be the reincarnation of Nikola Tesla, and who may have invented a perpetual motion machine that he's just not quite ready to turn on.

There are some great lines and some cool surprises in this story, although it lost me a bit when Shade got a bit too far into creep-stalker territory with the potential new love interest that is introduced here. His actions all make reasonable sense given his mental state, but the Edward Cullen routine is still problematic.

And in spite of that, there is a lot to love in this story, including the whole concept of becoming a dance floor, which is handled beautifully. The Tesla subplot is also very clever, and provides a nice parallel to the difficulties that Shade is going through.

Rating: 5.5/10 

Shade: The Changing Man #35

Well, here we are about an hour until we head to the airport. Two more comics in the stack after this one. Looks like I will be reading (and possibly reviewing, wifi permitting) those two on planes and in airports. The itinerary is Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok to Mumbai to (lovely) Newark NJ. Long trip with long layovers. Definitely adventure material.

In the meantime, here is some more classic 90s Vertigo for you.

Title:Shade: The Changing Man
Issue: 35
Date: December, 1993
Publisher: DC Comics (Vertigo)
Writer: Peter Milligan
Penciler: Chris Bachalo
Inker: Rick Bryant
Colorist: Daniel Vozzo
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editor: Shelly Roeberg, Karen Berger
Cover: Chris Bachalo

Shade and Lenny are trapped in Brian Juno's Garden of Pain, where Juno intends to torture Shade as part of his plan to ascend as a god. Meanwhile, Kathy is dead, or at least having a near-death experience, sitting in a cosmic waiting room with a group of angels who have a deal to make with here.

Wordy in places, but once it gets going, this story brings the intensity. Like the other issue of Shade that I recently reviewed, this is the conclusion of a major storyline, and it hints at another new phase in the relationship between Shade, Lenny, and Kathy.

Lenny, as is often the case in this series, gets most of the best lines and moments. I always enjoy reading stories she appears in. She's one of the very few characters that exist truly outside of tropes and classification.

Aside from the general verbosity in places, and some confusing elements early on (understandable as I has not read the issues leading up to this), this is a really solid conclusion with great dialogue and a few surprises. 

Rating: 7.5/10 

Action Comics #4

Title: Action Comics
Issue: 4
Date: February 2012
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Grant Morrison, Sholly Fisch
Penciler: Rags Morales, Brad Walker
Inker: Rick Bryant, Sean Parsons, Brad Walker
Colorist: Brad Anderson, Jay David Ramos
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau, Carlos M. Mangual
Editor: Wil Moss, Matt Idelson
Cover: Rags Morales, Brad Anderson

In the midst of a full-scale robot invasion, the people of Metropolis begin to realize that Superman is one of the good guys. I particularly liked Clark's reaction to the police who try to arrest him (As a huge robot looms over them: "Slap on the bracelets, boys. Otherwise, stand back and let me do my job.").

The alien force behind the robot invasion is the same force that "collected" Kandor. Now it's grabbing a significant chunk of Metropolis (including Lois Lane). Meanwhile Superman has his own problems in the form of John Wayne Corben AKA Metallo.

But Superman has some backup too. As it turns out, Corben isn't the only guy named John who can put on a suit of armor.

Steel gets the backup feature, and his introduction is handled in short-and-sweet style that integrates nicely into the overall plot. And references back to the original tale of John Henry are always fun in Steel's stories.

Rating: 7.5/10

Action Comics #1

Title: Action Comics
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciler: Rags Morales
Inker: Rick Bryant
Colorist: Brad Anderson
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau
Editor: Wil Moss, Matt Idelson
Cover: Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Alex Sinclair

The first Action Comics #1 since 1938! I'm still disappointed that the series won't go to #1000, but as I've mentioned before I understand how DC felt that the renumbering would only be seen as a true relaunch if they renumbered all their titles, including the "big number" books like Action and Detective.

I bought the variant cover version with Jim Lee's artwork, which is actually taken from a (really good) splash page in Justice League #1 (my review of that issue is here).

What we have here is a new take on Superman. He's younger, and clearly inexperienced. He's also got a solid case of cynicism for the legal system, and a cocky and arrogant attitude, particularly toward the Metropolis Police Department. Detective Blake: "We used to have laws in this town. Like gravity." Ha!

The opening scene has him pulling a Batman-style stunt of dropping a white-collar criminal off of building ledge and catching him just before impact to force a (clearly inadmissible!) confession.

Superman's powers have also been scaled back considerably. He's a lot more vulnerable to harm (although still tough enough to take a shot from a tank's main gun).

As for villains, we've got a decent (and pretty much by-the-book) portrayal of Lex Luthor working as a consultant for General Lane (Lois' father). Oh, and the other major adversary in this issue is a bullet train (emphasis on "bullet").

A lot of people probably won't like Superman's new cocky attitude. I didn't think I would. But I did find myself enjoying this portrayal of the character, particularly if the direction we're going in is toward a some growth and maturing. The villains were spot-on (bonus points for Luthor's reference to the brown tree snake and the cane toad!). I liked Clark's interaction with his landlady, who seems like a good supporting character, and I liked his vibe with Jimmy Olsen. There was also a fun scene where some bystanders came to Superman's aid against the military.

The ending sequence was visually pretty cool, but I was a bit lost on the logic behind the scene, which involved a bomb on a train for no reason that I could figure out. It looked like this was a case of trying to fit too much material into a limited number of pages. Something had to get rushed. The ending cliffhanger was still pretty effective, with an great visual.

Rating: 7/10