John K. Snyder III

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

This slim collection contains three stories (four issues originally, one double-sized) about Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern. One is a "retro" story, set in 1944; the other two feature him in the present day. The first story is "Brightest Day, Blackest Night," which tells the story of Alan's first run-in with Solomon Grundy in the Slaughter Swamp outside Gotham City. Nazi agents crash a passenger airplane in the swamp to get their hands on an inventor aboard it, as well as his invention, but run afoul of an angry Grundy. Green Lantern comes to the rescue, aided by his romantic interest, reporter Irene Miller, and taxi-driving sidekick Doiby Dickles. The story seems designed to show off the painted art of John K. Snyder III, which is brimming with atmosphere, and captures well both the brutality of Grundy and the majesty of the Green Lantern. Unfortunately, the art isn't consistently great at storytelling: though I thought on the one hand, the body language of Irene really brought her to life, on the other hand, there were times it was just completely unclear to me what was happening. That the scientist had a niece also on the plane who also survived the crash was something the illustrations only seemed to intermittently depict, for example.

The second story, "Johnny Mimic," is the best in the volume. Johnny Mimic is a criminal with an uncanny ability to recreate heists; Alan apprehended him back during the Golden Age, but let him go if he promised to be good—and he did. But decades later, the Super Human Advanced Defense Executive want Johnny to help them figure out a heist, and if Alan can't convince him nicely, S.H.A.D.E. will do it by force. The three-way tension between Alan, Johnny, and Father Time (leader of S.H.A.D.E.) is well done, and the story is genuinely surprising in terms of both what had happened and what goes on to happen. Johnny is not an actual preexisting character, but feels like one. The story does a strong job of playing Alan's optimism off the more cynical tone of contemporary comics. This is a solid, perfectly executed done-in-one comic with good moments of charm. Unsurprisingly, it's written by Tony Bedard who's good at this kind of thing in general, and Dennis Calero handles the art well.

The final story is "Giving Thanks"/"Ghosts of Christmas Past"—you might not be surprised to realize it takes place across the holiday season, going from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Alan battles perennial JSA villain Vandal Savage, who taunts him by seemingly bringing Jade back to life. It's a bit plodding at times (the battle went on too long with the same character beats repeated again and again), but the final ten pages or so really shined, as Alan must make a tough decision, and then we follow the emotional fallout of it. I get that she wasn't really there, but Jade felt very generic here, not the well-rounded character that Roy and Dann Thomas created in Infinity, Inc. Anyway, it's fine. I remember not liking how Jade was killed off in the Infinite Crisis Companion, but in my reading of JSA comics, I haven't gotten to her death yet. I'm curious to find out if she has any kind of meaningful role in JSA before she's killed, or if she's brought back just to die as so often happens with minor female superheroes.

The Justice Society and Earth-Two: « Previous in sequence | Next in sequence »… (plus d'informations)

Once again, old guy alert here...I'm old enough (and Canadian enough) to have actually watched The Starlost series when it came out.

Can't say I ever enjoyed it, but it was one of those things where, I'm only 12 or 13, I only had five channels, and when four of them are playing stuff I hate, well, hey it was SF, and the ship looked cool...and it did have that dude from 2001: A Space Odyssey...and even Walter Koenig showed up in one of the shows...



Okay, yeah, it was bad. Real bad. Ellison wasn't wrong.

Which brings us to this book, which is based on the script Ellison originally wrote. And I can totally see why a low-budget Canadian broadcaster would turn their nose up at it. It's far too good for what passed for quality Canadian programming back then.

It's actually a fun little story, and the art, by Alan Robinson, has a Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key) vibe to it. The pacing could get a little weird at times, but I put that down to Harlan Ellison being...well...Harlan Ellison. He's the quintessential curmudgeon who's field of fucks was always barren, but he always firmly believed in his own work. If you don't believe me, read [b:The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Teleplay|216177|The City on the Edge of Forever The Original Teleplay|Harlan Ellison|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387701962l/216177._SY75_.jpg|209287] and witness the debacle between him and Roddenberry. It's good stuff.

Anyway, I can't seem to find any follow-up to this volume, which is a shame, because I would have loved to see where Ellison would have taken it.

Either way, if you're a fan of Harlan Ellison's work, this is fun. If you're just an old fart like me who remembers (not quite fondly) those sporadic episodes of The Starlost you caught as a bored kid, this adds some extra dimension.

Worth the read.

… (plus d'informations)