I would like mounds of continuity for Superman too. Unfortunately for a lot of the stuff I like with Superman, the continuity I prefer hasn't been consistently around since the 80s
But we're in agreement that the idea is nice instead of just relying on minis!
It's not just you. It's a vehicle for Lee's art, designed to show the "greatest hits" of Batman with most of his prominent allies and villains, but has a transparent mystery and an utterly lame new villain. Plus all the villains speak in their weird "Loeb" speak that was annoying in their TLH/DV appearances (Scarecrow speaking in nursery rhyme, Ivy's "did you know no man can resist me?!" stuff).
Hard to feel the Bat-Cat romance scenes too. And not because it's Selina, it'd be the same with anyone else. The problem is Bruce coming across as dull and emotionless with some of the most boring dialogue the character has ever uttered.
This. The writing came across as pretty hamfisted even when i was first reading it in back in 1985 or so (DC had reprinted the run in a 7-issue series on baxter paper). But you could see why it was considered important even the writing was kinda eyeroll-inducing. And of course the artwork is still remarkable.
I didn't think the Levitz/Giffen Legion run quite lived up the hype when i got a trade of the great darkness saga awhile back... but then, most things don't. Still an entertaining enough read, though.
I thought King's Omega Men run was extremely, extremely overrated.
Okay recommend some Volumes from 80s runs you like.
I'm always collecting and admittingly havent got that far back for Superman... most of my stuff is 90s to present.
I got an epic used book store 1 block from my house I'm guessing they'll have something from your list.
DCeased is also quite bad but that goes without saying when you combine Tom Taylor and a Zombie apocalypse story.
Yeah, it worked a heck of lot better back in the '70s than it does now, but the whole "GL hasn't done anything for the black man" rubbed me the wrong way even then. The late, great Denny O'Neill wrote a lot of wonderful stories, but I don't find this run as near the top of his heap. Adams, of course, was always top of the line.
A bat! That's it! It's an omen.. I'll shall become a bat!
Pre-CBR Reboot Join Date: 10-17-2010
Pre-CBR Reboot Posts: 4,362
THE CBR COMMUNITY STANDARDS & RULES ~ So... what's your excuse now?
Unfortunately, a lot of pre-Crisis stuff isn't available in convenient trades. Of the stuff that is that I've read, I'd go for Steve Gerber's Phantom Zone mini series, plus of course Alan Moore's stories. They aren't comics, but Elliot S! Maggin did a couple prose novels ("Last Son of Krypton" and "Miracle Monday") that are pretty great.
Other Maggin stories that are worth a read are Superman #400, "Who took the 'Super' our of Superman?'" in #s 296-299, #247 (this one is in a few of the "Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told" trades). Again though, they are dated in writing styles due to being written in the 70s. They get the character and what makes him interesting and inspirational way better than most modern stuff though if you can get past that, but that's kind of what makes being a fan of pre-Crisis Superman's characteristics not being around consistently anymore so frustrating.
Even in that stuff, Hush himself is usually the least interesting thing going on.
I guess it does line up with post-Crisis Bruce in general, though that doesn't help in my case because that dude is a tedious bore
I feel like Loeb's Bruce, with every other narration box, he's angsting about his dead parents and how he has so few friends and even the ones he has, there are obvious issues. It just gets tiresome
Last edited by SiegePerilous02; 01-09-2021 at 05:03 PM.
I thought Kevin Conroy as evil Bruce Wayne was pretty fun and Dini wrote a great elitist egomaniac obsessed with Bruce Wayne, but to each their own .
I was thinking Post-Crisis from B:TAS, but that was just my take...
I think internal narration just tend to lend towards a lot of self-reflection in general, especially for a stoic character like Batman, and in some ways give context to the characters within the story.
I think they ran a similar gamut of emotions, to be honest.
I don't think it was that repetitive, but I might need to re-read it again. But there was more than just Tommy in there so it probably didn't bother me.the problem with the narration boxes is that Bruce is still stoic and they are not revealing anything particularly deep. How many "Tommy is a good friend...of which I have so few." dialogue boxes do we need? he's just so flat.
They really didn't, though that may be down to different mediums and Conroy having different inflections.
Loeb's Bruce just reads as monotonous.
It wasn't just Tommy. He had the same flat "tone" to the dialogue when talking about everyone. Selina, Dick, Clark. etc.
It definitely hasn't aged well at all. The hoopla was based on comparing it to what else was on American news stands at the time and it's pretty factual that GL/GA was dramatically different with subject matter and Adams photorealistic art. I can see loving or hating the work, but "average" seems a totally inappropriate description for the run.