Writer: Michael Reaves
Artists: Stan Woch and Rodin Rodriguez
Editor: Marv Wolfman

Cover Price: 75¢

My copy: 50¢ at Roger’s Time Machine in Manhattan

Nightwing has a great solo book out now, maybe one of the best series in DC history, so this book caught my eye. I missed out on the late eighties and early nineties in comic books, so this was a welcome missing link. I worshipped the Perez/Wolfman Titans, but was unsatisfied by any post-Perez appearance of Nightwing until the current series. This book is worthy of Dick Grayson.

Dick Grayson meditating: “C’mon, Grayson. Try to relax... Hah. There’s a contradiction in terms if there ever was one.”

Reaves has a hold on the forces pulling at Grayson. He’s a young adult becoming a man. To this day, Grayson is still trying to find balance. Devin Grayson and Chuck Dixon write him that way now, and Reaves is clearly interested in that aspect of the character. It is something I feel Wolfman neglected in that era, but it is very nice to see it here.

After not beating up a “lowlife”: “I’m not the Batman. I can’t use his methods.”

The eternal question: Can I be the good parts of my father without being the not so good parts of my father? It’s an epic question that Reaves addresses through action as much as reflection. Nightwing is becoming a classic DC character, and this is where he is carving his niche.

The art isn’t so great in this book, and the plot isn’t as believable as I would like. Fortunately, the plot problem, too much luck, is addressed in the end, so that’s a wash. It’s strength is exploration of character. Grayson is thoughtful and expressive, not the quiet, brooding Batman. That’s why Nightwing doesn’t need a Robin. This book is a thoughtful spotlight on the character, just like the cover says, and is definitely worth a buck to have in your Nightwing collection.

Writer: Gerard Jones
Artist: Eduardo Barreto
Editor: Brian Augustyn

Cover Price: $4.95

My copy: $5.25 each at Fat Jack’s Comicrypt in Oaklyn, New Jersey

Five bucks an issue doesn’t really count as cheap, but bear with me. This is one of the best pieces of writing published by DC Comics. For real. Gerard Jones seems to be doing a little experiment with writing in noir style, a genre I’m neither familiar with nor drawn to. But I love that J’onn J’onzz. Ostrander’s current series is welcome, but the template he works from should be this series. John Jones, the Martian Manhunter, is the star of this book. He runs into a young Elvis type, a TV quiz show, a white-bread suburban little girl, Castro, mad poets, an M.C. Gaines-type, and lizards who walk like men. He does a ton of detective work in a confusing dream-like world, and you actually can solve the crime with him if you’re paying attention to the right clues.

This series is a great take on the character of the Martian Manhunter, a strong basis for all that has come before and since. A thoughtful and spiritual adult transported from a dead world who becomes lovingly fascinated by the pulpy, popular elements of his new home through the course of the story.

I’m going to start giving away plot points now, so skip to the next book if you want to avoid spoilers.

“He’s a beatnik. I’m a martian” is an early line expressing how apart from his new world he feels when a young stranger dies in front of him. By the end of the story, he has defeated another martian who had suppressed extraordinary human achievement in order to postpone the second wave of super heroes. When explaining to Charles McNider, Dr. Midnight, why he didn’t join his only surviving martian, J’onzz replies “He’s a martian. I’m a beatnik.” It’s a transformation as clearly drawn as the plot.

“There are no communists on this world. There were on mine. They’re all dead now.” Heavy, thoughtful stuff, and Gerard Jones digs into social issues with an entertaining vigor. “Our quiz shows reduce truth to bits of entertaining information! We teach them to memorize rather than think!” It even offers an explanation for why there are so many heroes on earth: “This planet has become an event nexus, an intersection of cosmic forces that create great beings and attract great beings. It would have continued to produce “heroes” had I not come.” How nefarious misguided paternalism can be!

The art wasn’t particularly special. It is clearly a labor of love for Barretto, he did all the inking, and tried harder here than in other books, but he’s about as innovative as Aparo. His depictions of J’onzz in his martian form are quite nice, but they aren’t very frequent. It’s mostly a book about Jones the detective and other humans. To see Tony Harris do the book, now we’re talking. Or Kevin Maguire, with the subtleties of expression on the bad guys. Barretto does a workmanlike job, and that’s good enough. If it doesn’t enhance the story much, at least it doesn’t distract from it. The book itself is bound in such a way that it is tough to keep pristine. With any luck, this means the books look beat up and can be sold cheaper.

This is an epic story about a classic DC character who is the heart of the most popular book on the rack (JLA). Don’t be turned off if you don’t like noir, the style is very much a part of the substance. It’s expensive for a cheap book, but it is really worth saving up for.

Writer: ???
Artist: ???
Editor: Mort Weisenger

Cover Price: 12¢

My copy: $2.00 at Roger’s Time Machine in Manhattan

Every single plot in these years of Superman seemed to be centered around Superman needing to keep his identity secret. Why? Maybe because Superman was so absurdly powerful that nothing could defeat him? Whatever it was, it made for very boring stories. Suddenly, thumbing through the Superman section of Roger’s, I see a Joe Kubert cover with some interesting charcoal work. Superman at war. The Vietnam War.

Superman gets mail chastising him for not helping the G.I.’s, so Clark volunteers to go to Vietnam to write a story. When he gets there, he saves a few American soldiers and fights a soldier who has been drugged and turned into a super-giant by a North Vietnamese woman who turns him against his own soldiers. We see an attack on the Viet Cong, who apparently wore no pants and identical blue shirts.

Really, the reason to buy this book is the comic book treatment of our national nightmare. My jaw dropped when I opened the book, and it stayed dropped until the end. It would be like Kyle Rayner playfully helping a single ward of AIDS patients clean their bed sores and then flying away, just outrageously tasteless. You can’t put the story down, you just have to know what Superman does next. With our military policies still shaped by the Vietnam War, the impact is still clear, and to see Superman mucking around in it is unbelieveable. And he still manages time to kiss Lois Lane, who’s in Vietnam also.

If you can find this book, pick it up. Somebody wanted to do a socially relevant story, but they botched it up so badly that it is fascinating.

Writer: Alan Brennert
Artist: Jim Aparo
Editor: Dick Giordano

Cover Price: 60¢

My copy: $1.00 at Roger’s Time Machine in Manhattan

This is a good, solid comic book. A complete story in one book, which is so rare nowadays. Bang-up action. Classic characters and rare guest stars. A great villain.

Earth-Two was such a great place. Any time you can buy a book that takes you there, especially one from the early eighties, you should buy it. They married off and then killed Batman, grew up Robin, married Lois and Clark, all kinds of fun stuff. In this book, Earth-Two’s Robin is visited by Earth-One’s Batman, and all kinds of emotional baggage is kicked up. Imagine if your dad died, then two years later, a guy who is your age and your dad on another earth shows up. What do you talk to him about? That’s the stuff this book squeezes between the action. The Batman/Nightwing or Nightwing/Robin conversations we see in Dixon and Grayson’s books are great, and here’s a complex version of that from 1982.

Hugo Strange gets a hold of Starman’s Cosmic Rod and causes all kinds of trouble by bringing Batman to Earth-Two. Simple, classic, and fun. There’s also a Nemesis backup story, but I still haven’t read it.

The art is Aparo, so there’s nothing special, but it’s appropriately breezy and vividly colored. I just think this is the best of the B&B books from this era. Grab it up for a dollar or so.