It was the late nineties and the venerable Justice League, DC’s premier super-team, had fallen on lean times. The roster was filled out with…oh, let’s be charitable and say “second stringers”… and sales of their comic book were not exactly booming. How do you restore the old glory? Get the old band back together.

Enter the big 7…Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman, and the Martian Manhunter…the original JLA members (not exactly all of the originals…Wally West had stepped into his Uncle Barry’s lightning fast boots and Kyle Rayner was at the time the only Green Lantern…but close enough.)

Enter Grant Morrison with his feverishly imaginative ideas and storylines and Howard Porter with his dynamic, widescreen artwork that just popped off the pages.< SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> (They get able support from Mark Millar, who co-wrote one of the stories, and from Oscar Jimenez, who penciled a mind-bending tale of the League trapped in “be careful of what you wish for” worlds.)

And there were aliens and androids and angels (oh my :-) and the Justice League of America was back in full effect, kicking butt, taking names, and saving the world in the audacious, furious, and heroic way that “the World’s Greatest Heroes” should do.

JLA: THE DELUXE EDITION, VOLUME 1 collects JLA 1-9 and a story from JLA SECRET FILES #1 in a handsome hardcover volume.

Morrison’s Justice League were contentious but utterly formidable and the threats they faced were big enough to warrant a powerful assemblage of heroes banding together to tackle them.

Aquaman is in his cranky old man of the sea phase (with the beard and the harpoon arm and always gassing on about how he was the king of the seven seas) and Superman was in a couple of his more unfortunate incarnations: the mullet era and then the bizarre “electric blue” period; Flash and Green Lantern were sniping at each other like schoolboys, Wonder Woman was the goddess that awed, aroused, and terrified the boys in the band, and Batman was, of course, the most dangerous and capable guy in the entire world.

J’onn J’onzz (may he rest in peace until they decide to bring him back) held the whole thing together with bemusement and infinite patience.

Morrison’s stories were big and bursting with energy, fun, and sprawling, engaging ideas. And he blended in new characters (including the duplicitous Hyperclan, the angel Zauriel, and the mysterious Tomorrow Woman) and older characters (including and especially Connor Hawke, the then current Green Arrow, who joined the team wit h a memorable arc featuring a terrifying re-imagining of the JLA’s old nemesis, the Key.)

It was all weird and wild and sometimes downright wonderful (“electric blue” Superman gets a couple of serious wow moments along the way: moving the descending Moon back into his proper orbit and wrestling an angel) and it looks great in this book and on this paper. I believe the plan is to collect all of Morrison’s run in hardcover volumes and I’m definitely down with that.

9:38 PM. “Tusslin’ Tom” Gurney won a hard fought wrestling championship by knocking out the space squid from Rigel 9 with a devastating atomic flying elbow. At the same moment…coincidentally it would seem…43 extraordinary children were born to women who had not previously shown any signs of being pregnant.

Most of these strange, totally unexpected children were given up for adoption.

7 of these children were tracked down and adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves (“The Monocle”), a wealthy inventor/Nobel Prize recipient/Olympic Gold Medalist (fencing) with strange secrets…and unspoken motivations… of his own. Why? “To save the world, of course,” said Hargreeves before he took the children and left the public stage.

10 years later, these 7 children…given only numbers instead of names…reappear in Paris as the Umbrella Academy, wielding odd super-powers (save for Number 5, who has disappeared into the time stream, and Number 7, who apparently has no powers) to thwart the nefarious plans of Zombie-Robot Gustave Eiffel.

And then things get weird.

THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY: APOCALYPSE SUITE trade paperback collects the first 6 issues of the remarkable Dark Horse series by writer Gerard Way (of the band My Chemical Romance) and artist Gabriel Ba.

20 years pass and the team is no more. Number 1…Luther…”Spaceboy”…has been grafted onto a gorilla’s body after a life-threatening accident during a mission to Mars. His siblings are all emotionally scarred by their childhood (Hargreeves was distant, forcing the children to call him “Monocle” and/or “Sir” and certainly not “Dad” and their “mother” was an artificial construct that looked like an unfinished mannequin) and they only reluctantly come together again when Dr. Pogo, a super-intelligent chimpanzee, informs them that their “father” has died.

Over the course of the series the team (save for one who has died in the interim) is forced to reform to do battle with an old enemy of the Monocle’s and to deal with the secret of Vanya…Number 7. Way’s story is packed with much mayhem, intrigue, death, and delightful strangeness…super-hero comics on the edge of madness, much like Grant Morrison’s odd and wonderful DOOM PATROL stories…but it is never anything less than engaging. Ba’s wonderfully expressive and kinetic artwork compliments the story perfectly.

THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY is stylish, funky, and engaging, an off-kilter take on super-heroics that is enormously entertaining and satisfying.& nbsp; I look forward to seeing where the series…the second series, UMBRELLA ACADEMY: DALLAS, is solicited in the next PREVIEWS…will go from this intriguing, heartbreaking, exciting beginning.

Wow, it’s hard to believe that the kids have been around for half a century. This volume celebrates the golden anniversary of the Legion of Super-Heroes with a sampling of stories from a number of their eras (there have several continuity reboots for the team over the years) and their most notable creators.

The main image on the cover is by Mike Grell from the20period when he redesigned a lot of the teenage heroes’ costumes (including the unfortunate swimsuit outfits he put on Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl :-)

The collection leads off, appropriately enough, with the very first LSH story from SUPERBOY #47 (by Otto Binder and Al Plastino) wherein the time-traveling Boy of Steel is invited to join the team.

Next up is a story from ADVENTURE COMICS (the long-time home of the team) by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and John Forte featuring the death of Legion co-founder Lightning Lad followed by the story which was published 8 months later which resurrected Lightning Lad.

The classic LSH creative team of Jim Shooter (a teenager at the time) and the great Curt Swan are up next with the memorable 2-part “Adult Legion” featuring Superman reuniting with the grown-up Legion (this story featured hints about the future of the teen team which were later incorporated into the seriesA 6one of those events comes to pass in the next story…from the time when the Legion had taken over the SUPERBOY title…by Shooter and Grell which is called, ominously enough, “Last Fight for a Legionnaire”.)

An all-star team of creators joined together for the gala celebration of LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #300 (the numbering had started with SUPERBOY but the title was changed with issue #259) for time and reality hopping story that featured just about everyone who had ever been a member of the team and a lot of the artists who had worked on the series (including Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen, who had turned the team into a “fan favorite” along with Swan, Grell, Kurt Schaffenberger, and Dave Cockrum.)

They skip past the infamous “Five Years Later” period (hey, I liked most of that period, anyway :-) and move on to the ZERO HOUR reboot where things were turned back to the beginning with a new version of the Legion origin story and end up with a story by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, and Olivier Copiel that reunites the team after their LEGION LOST maxi-series.

The book also features group pin-ups (including a two-page nod to the current series with art by Francis Manapul), excerpts from the Legion constitution, some covers, and some “who’s who” character pages.

The Legion’s history is too convoluted to be encapsulated in one trade paperback but, that said, 1,050 YEARS OF THE FUTURE is a charming hodgepodge of Legion stories (from the dated early days to the more complex recent stories) that makes for fun, nostalgic reading for both longtime Legion fans and newcomers.

When we first meet Jack Knight in this book he is many things: he’s a somewhat self-absorbed hipster/hustler, a collector and seller of nostalgic memorabilia; he is a son and brother with little connection to the two closest people in his life, his father and his brother; he is casually and unthinkingly disdainful of his father’s heroic exploits and scientific accomplishments and he is embroiled in a lifelong antagonism with his brother. He is a man running as fast from a fate that will, in the end, not be outrun. He is an unabashed paramour of the gloriously colorful and fanciful city that he and his family are vital parts of.

When we first meet Jack Knight in this book he is many things…but he is not a hero.

But that will quickly change.

THE STARMAN OMNIBUS, Volume 1…the first of 6 volumes which will collect Jack Knight’s epic story (80 issues of STARMAN, annuals, the SHADE mini-series, and more including the fascinating text pieces that appeared throughout the series)…introduces us to a cynical young man who blossoms into a true hero right before our eyes. This book collects the first 17 issues…#0 and #’s 1-16…of the saga as written by James Robinson with principal artwork by Tony Harris.

Following the tragic events of #0, Jack finds himself reluctantly taking up the mantle of Starman…in a tradition begun by his father Ted, the Justice Society’s golden age Starman…fighting the good fight to protect the city he loves.

In this volume when are introduced to many of the characters, good and bad, who will inform Jack’s far-flung adventures during his super-hero career: his father, his brother David, the enigmatic Shade, the flawed but basically stalwart O’Dare clan (red-headed cops one and all), Mikaal Tomas (the blue-skinned alien who is the once and future Starman), Ted’s arch-enemy, the aged Mist, the Mist’s villainous daughter Nash (who will be an intimate part of Jack’s life throughout the series), the monstrous Solomon Grundy, and Sadie, another woman who will play a major part in Jack’s life. We are also introduced to the character who completely informs the lives and destinies of all of them: Opal City itself, a place where time proceeds and changes at its own willful, delightful pace.

Robinson’s story…the arc of Jack Knight’s super-hero life…is a masterful one even from the very beginning as we watch Jack, who eschews the conventions of spandex and super-hero bravado in favor of a beloved leather jacket, practical goggles, and a pragmatic desire to get the job done with as little fuss and nonsense as possible, grow right before our eyes. The story…full of heroes and villains, lovers and strangers, parents and sons and daughters, ghosts and demons and psychics and circus freaks, cops and robbers and everyday folk…inhabits a present that is ever colored and contoured by times past (thus its scope easily and naturally includes conversations with Oscar Wilde, golden age adventures with the Justice Society, and Jack’s bittersweet memories of childhood.)

Tony Harris’ atmospheric, kinetic, and wonderfully expressive artwork is a vital component of the package giving distinctive appearance to the characters and their environs.

Jack Knight’s amazing story…one of the few long-running super-hero sagas with a definitive beginning, middle and end…is well served by this beautiful hardcover series. Well served indeed.

I continue to have a complicated relationship with Esperanza Leticia "Hopey" Glass. In this I am not alone. When I first started reading LOVE & ROCKETS (the first 50-issue volume of which is my all-time favorite comic book run) I was drawn into Hopey’s orbit. She was, after all, smart, funny, hip, rebellious, and charismatic with a sharp tongue and a devastating wit and, most importantly to me, she seemed to be infinitely patient with her seemingly flighty girlfriend Maggie.

But as the stories unfolded I came to realize that Hopey was an emotional force of nature, blowing through the lives of those drawn to her magnetic personality while keeping them at arm’s distance emotionally and dropping them blithely when they were no longer of interest or value to her. Even at that, I still liked Hopey…she was sometimes callous and self-serving but not, I reasoned, willfully malicious. That said, I started to keep her at arm’s distance while watching my affections swing inexorably over to Maggie who has learned and grown from her setbacks and mistakes and who approached the world with hope (no pun intended) and an optimistic heart.

The first half of Jaime Hernandez’s compelling THE EDUCATION OF HOPEY GLASS, the 24th LOVE & ROCKETS collection, finds Hopey coming to grips with aging, maturity, and the consequences of the choices she’s made throughout her colorful life. Hernandez presents us with a thirty-something Hopey who spends time in self-reflection (something she seemed to deliberately avoid as much as possible early on) and finding that she is not completely happy with what she sees (especially when it comes to her capricious love life.) The “new” Hopey has quit smoking, found that she needs glasses, and has taken on the responsibility of a real job. Hernandez deftly presents the subtlety of Hopey’s changes, both is scripting and his artwork beautifully rendered and presented.

Maggie is the one constant in Hopey’s life and her presence informs both the first half the book and the second which focuses on Ray Dominguez, Maggie’s former boyfriend who is, years after their relationship ended, still carrying a torch for her. The second half of the book follows Ray as he is swept up into the exploits of a troubled woman with the unfortunate nickname of Frogmouth…it doesn’t have the same resonance of the Hopey stories but it is mighty fine in its own right.

The book isn’t a “reader-friendly jumping on point” for the series but that’s okay. I’m of the mind that LOVE & ROCKETS is a series that is best savored by jumping in feet first and immersing yourself in it. Yes, it’s a more than a little bit confusing at first…it is, in my experience, a leap that will pay off grandly over the course of time when you’ve come to better understand and appreciate the intertwining relationships.

For my part, I found THE EDUCATION OF HOPEY GLASS, a sturdy hardcover volume, to be an entertaining and engaging addition to the remarkable LOVE & ROCKETS library.

In 1946 the so-called “wild card” virus (it being of alien origin) was released over New York City. Most people exposed to the virus…about 90% of the population…drew the “Black Queen” and suffered horribly painful deaths. A few…roughly 9% of the population…drew the “Joker” and didn’t die but were instead mutated and disfigured. Fewer still…about 1% of those exposed…drew the “Ace” and gained superhuman abilities. Outbreaks of the virus are still possible and, of course, the world has been forever changed.

This world is chronicled in WILD CARDS, the long-running series of speculative fiction “mosaic novels” created and edited by George R.R. Martin and it returns to comics in an intriguing new series from Dabel Brothers Publishing.

The story…”The Hard Call”…is set in the present, focuses on a murder mystery that might have long-term ramifications for the Aces and the Jokers alike. Croyd Crenson a powerful renegade Ace known as “The Sleeper” because he hibernates for long periods of time awakening each time physically changed, finds himself in the middle of things as both a suspect and a investigator trying to find the truth in Jokertown, the ghetto in Manhattan where Jokers can live more or less free from the fears and prejudices of the “Nats” (unaffected humans.)

While characters and events from the books are referenced Daniel Abraham’s story is welcoming enough that one can get involved without having knowledge of all of the back story (though that knowledge would, naturally enough, make it a different, richer experience.) In the first issue Abraham manages to skillfully introduce Jokertown, Crenson and his acquaintances, the murder mystery, and a horrific (and deliberate) virus outbreak at high school science fair.

The art…by Erik Battle…shows real promise and is, in places, already quite nice (some of the close-ups and reaction shots are quite good while some of the art, especially group scenes and wide shots, show that Battle is still learning how to effectively use perspective.)

The first issue is interesting enough to make me want to see how the limited series plays out (and it’s enough to make me want to dig out the old WILD CARDS paperbacks I have packed away somewhere in my garage and dive into them again as well.)

There’s something strange going on in Gotham City. This, of course, is not really unusual…there’s almost always something strange going on in Gotham. But these strange goings on…occult mysteries and blood sacrifices and conspiracies within conspiracies in shadowy corners of quiet streets in an apparently quiet Gotham neighborhood…are (seemingly) outside the notice of the city’s caped dark knight.

They are not, however, outside the notice of another crusading protector…a masked patchwork man, a Frankenstein creature slipping out of the night to mete out brutal justice with superhuman agility and preternatural strength…the people of the neighborhood know him and zealously keep his secret, the children jump rope to a rhyme about him:

“…lurks in shadows, hides in the park. Simon. Simon. Simon Dark…”

Simon Dark is a macabre creature who has only vague, maddening recollections of how he was born…or, perhaps closer to the point, how he was created…but he is driven by fierce sense of right and wrong (balanced with a child-like lack of understanding about the gritty realities of life and death) and he is willing and able to mete out brutal justice in defense of the neighborhood he…for lack of a better term…haunts. Simon lives under the ruins of a burned-out church with his only friend, a cat, and his collection of books (many copies of the same book…Herman Melville’s MOBY DICK…in fact; the reason for this is as yet unrevealed.) Simon survives on handouts from those whom he comes to the aid of…slipping through the shadows and over the rooftops of the neighborhood stealthily exchanging money for groceries and books in the cool quiet of the night.

And Simon has attracted new allies/supporters of a sort…a medical examiner and a teenager, both newcomers to the neighborhood…through whom we discover aspects of Simon even as they themselves strive to get to know and understand the strange hero.

SIMON DARK, masterfully written by Steve (30 DAYS OF NIGHT) Niles with quiet but powerfully evocative art by Scott Hampton, is a series filled with nerve-tingling suspense, macabre black humor, and ominous horror with muted, but still startling, bursts of violence; it unfolds slowly but surely, revealing its secrets and its conspiracies in tantalizing, provocative fits and starts. It demands careful attention and willing engagement but it delivers intriguing and thought-provoking rewards as a fair exchange.

That this series is set in Gotham would seem to portend an appearance, sooner or later, by the aforementioned dark knight but for now anyway SIMON DARK exists in its own dark, relatively secluded corner of the city outside the more bombastic, more garish interactions between Batman and his rogues’ gallery. And that, to my mind, is all to the good.

A trade paperback collecting the first 6 issues of this deliciously disturbing series is being solicited in the May issue of PREVIEWS…it is highly recommended for anyone who is willing to take a walk on the mysterious, horrific fringe of the DC Universe.

Of late POWERS, the always-compelling Brian Michael Bendis/Mike Avon Oeming series that combines a hardcore police procedural with super-human goings on, has been published at…oh, let’s be generous and say whimsical intervals (while Bendis is up to his shiny noggin with all of the marvelous avenging and secret invading and whatnot he’s doing these days at the fabled House of Ideas.) But despite those intervals the arrival of a new issue of this book is usually a cause for celebration.

POWERS #28 is indeed a cause for celebration. Why? Stuff happens. (Bendis would have put that differently but we’re not all the potty mouths that he is :-)

In this crisply-paced issue, Christian Walker, the once and future super-hero/police detective who is the hero of the piece, is bombarded on all sides by his hunt for super-powered serial killer who is murdering young girls, his super-powered young ward (well sorta) putting her life on the line to flush out the killer, a dangerous old comrade who is also searching out the killer, a bright young partner who suspects that Walker has powers (which, indeed, he secretly does), and his former partner who is being consumed…body and soul…by a virus that gave her unwanted powers which she is using to cut a bloody swath through the underworld.

That aforementioned former partner, my girl Deena Pilgrim (who was on the short list…along with Maggie [from LOVE & ROCKETS], Darwyn Cooke’s Wonder Woman, and Catwoman…of characters I would love to hang out with if they were real people…which, of course, they’re not…and I know that and I don’t…well…um…you know…uh…hey, let’s move on…) continues her desperate downward spiral in this issue and it just breaks your heart (while, at the same time, it also finds you wanting her to find some measure of redemption.)

Bendis and Oeming pack a lot into the issue while still making it flow at brisk pace that keeps you swept up into the narrative. Bendis’ justly celebrated facility with dialogue…with all of its agile byplay, profane humor, evocative characterization, and clever asides…always finds its best showcase in the pages of this comic book.

Bendis even works in a cute (and, cheekily, unsubtle) plug for SECRET INVASION in this issue. It’s all good.

Oeming’s dynamic artwork and layouts are, as ever, note-perfect as is the grand coloring…muted where the story demands it, bright and almost garish when that’s what’s called for…by Nick Filardi.

And, as usual, POWERS features the best letters column…a heady combination of wit (sometimes clever, often snarky, sometimes juvenile and, again, profane), pop culture recommendations, good natured self-promotion and hype, personal ads (seriously), and stuff like that…in comics.

This issue may not be the perfect “jumping on” point for the series…it’s in the middle of playing out a few relatively long-running, intricately woven plotlines…but, if you haven’t been reading it, you should jump on anyway and go with it. It’ll be more than worth your time.

Dan Dare is a stalwart, old school space faring hero…smart, courageous, inspirational, radiating understated steely British resolve…and his Virgin Comics series is solid testament to that.

Dan Dare, “the pilot of the future”, is a classic British comic character; he was created by Frank Hampson and he made his first appearance in early 1950. Garth Ennis, writer of the new series, describes the character in glowing terms: "Dan Dare is the quintessential British hero", he's quoted as saying. "He's our Captain America, our Superman, our Batman, he's all of them rolled into one. He's the original and the best."

I will admit that I had heard the character’s name but had never read any of his adventures before this.

The new series began with Dare having retired after a lifetime of world-saving daring-do. A new threat from Dare’s arch-nemesis, the brilliant and ruthless green-skinned mastermind known as The Mekon, brings Dare (and his faithful sidekick Albert Digby) out of retirement and into a complex web of war, heroism, political nefariousness and betrayal, terrorism, marauding monsters, and potential genocide. The Mekon and his slave army is threatening Earth from within and without and Dan Dare, still and always a true hero, quite willingly accepts the call to return to service.

Ennis clearly has an abiding fondness for Dare, something that shines through in every issue of this engaging science fiction series. In this particular issue, the scope of official betrayal is revealed as is the terrifying power of the Mekon’s ultimate weapon of terror and destruction.

Gary Erskine’s artwork is not flashy or overly dynamic but it is solidly expressive with clear, fluid, totally engaging storytelling, a perfect compliment to Ennis’ economical but totally engaging prose.

The empathetic partnership between the two creators is displayed to fine effect during the tragic, powerful climax to this issue…Erskine’s images are heartbreakingly evocative and powerful carrying the narrative along (Dare’s face speaks volumes throughout this sequence) while Ennis deftly uses language and, just as importantly, silence to underscore the bittersweet drama that unfolds here.

Dan Dare is a thoroughly entertaining adventure comic that promises to deliver more good old-fashioned action, intrigue, and unabashed hero vs. villain interaction. I’m down for the ride for however long Ennis and Erskine want to tell the tales of the intrepid pilot of the future.

I’m not really a big fan of retcons….retroactive continuity inserted into the previously established back stories of comic book characters…but I understand the reason that current writers use them to flesh out older stories (or, in some cases, to correct “mistakes”.) I approached NEW AVENGERS: THE ILLUMINATI with some wariness due to my skepticism about rewriting “history” but the story itself easily won me over.

The central conceit of the series is that a group of influential super-heroes gather in secret (not even sharing the existence of the gathering with their closest loved ones) to keep an overview of important superhuman affairs and to influence them in a proactive way for the betterment (as they see it) of Earth’s population. It’s a lofty (and, it must be said, somewhat arrogant) goal. The heroes…who do not refer to themselves as “the Illuminati”…are Tony (Iron Man) Stark, Reed (Mr. Fantastic) Richards, Professor Charles Xavier, Dr. Stephen Strange, Black Bolt, and Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner (the Black Panther was also recruited to join but he declined because he felt such a secret cabal was a bad idea that would eventually blow up in their faces…which, of course, is exactly what happened when four of their number decided to exile the Hulk from Earth, an act which eventually led to “World War Hulk”.)

The current “Secret Invasion” by the Skrulls is in part a result of the group’s actions right after the fabled Kree-Skrull War. The group (it’s not really a “team”) secretly went to the Skrull home world to warn them off from bothering Earth further only to get their asses handed to them before they barely escaped with their lives. As a result of intelligence gleaned from the heroes before they escaped, the Skrulls finessed their tactics making themselves able to infiltrate Earth without fear of detection.

Writers Brian Michael Bendis and Brian Reed inject the group into the aftermath of the INFINITY GAUNTLET/WAR/CRUSADE trilogy (leaving in its wake a major, potentially universe changing dangling plotline that will doubtlessly come into play in the near future) as well as the SECRET WARS (with an unexpected reveal of the true nature of the Beyonder and sly retconning of the misbegotten SECRET WARS II) and the invasion by Grant Morrison’s MARVEL BOY (planting that series squarely in the regular Marvel Universe when some had theorized that it was in fact the first Ultimate Universe story.)

Bendis and Reed deftly play the outsized personalities of the principals against each other with effective combination of subtlety and drama (the tense relationship between Richards and Namor, both of whom love Sue Richards, is especially piquant) while adding interesting color to past events and also presenting nice foreshadowing to future events.

And the book is flat out gorgeous. Jim Cheung’s pencils are dynamic, expressive, and beautifully detailed; Justin Ponsor’s exceptional coloring is equally atmospheric and wonderfully evocative.

Despite the deliberately episodic nature of the story…from the invasion of the Skrull home world to the eventual betrayal that undoes the association of heroes…the writers maintain a solid narrative thread all the way through and deliver a taut, fascinating story that will continue to have major ramifications for the Marvel Universe for some time to come.

Last year CAPTAIN AMERICA #25 literally featured the shot heard ‘round the four-color world. When the smoke cleared Steve Rogers…the legendary Captain America…was dead and you had to wonder if Ed Brubaker had written himself and the title into an impossible corner.

Of course, he had not.

Brubaker had already taken the book to a place that I hadn’t expected…namely finding a way to revive and revitalize Cap’s first partner, James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes, long considered irrevocably dead. Bringing Bucky back as the monstrously efficient brainwashed assassin codenamed the Winter Soldier was an audacious stroke and Brubaker…whose run on the book started with yet another shot, one that seemingly killed Cap’s arch-enemy the Red Skull…made it work masterfully. (If you haven’t read Brubaker’s run from the beginning…or even if you have…the massive CAPTAIN AMERICA OMNIBUS, collecting issues 1-25 as well as the Winter Soldier special, is highly recommended.)

With the titular character dispatched from the mortal coil the book continued to thrive with the narrative being carried forward by those characters in Cap’s rich supporting cast that he cared for most…Sharon Carter, the Falcon, the Winter Soldier, Nick Fury, and, yes, Tony Stark…as well as those who hated him…the Skull, Aleksander Lukin, Dr. Faustus, Crossbones, and Sin (the Red Skull’s psychopathic daughter.)

And now this issue, a new Captain America takes up the shield and the good fight. The new Cap…the only man who could logically take up the role…is not completely comfortable stepping into the role but he does so just the same. Lacking the super-soldier formula that made the original Cap the peak of physical perfection, the new Cap supplements his own considerable skills and the shield with weapons he has had ample opportunity to utilize: a gun and a large dagger.

In this issue, the Skull’s multi-layered plot to destabilize and overthrow America kicks into high gear and Cap…along with the deadly Black Widow (not to mention Tony Stark and the agents of SHIELD)…is playing catch up. And the horrifying climax of the issue ups the diabolic ante mightily.

Brubaker deftly weaves the debut of the new Cap…highlighting both his similarities and his differences from his predecessor…while also skillfully keeping the Skull’s over-arching scheme at the fore. Steve Epting’s dynamic pencils and powerful storytelling complements the writing to make this issue an action-packed, entertaining gem, a grand continuation of one of the best Captain America runs ever.

Huh. I guess sometimes you can go home again. When I was a lad of 13 I was an avid reader of ADVENTURE COMICS which featured Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes. When he was a lad of 13, Jim Shooter was writing some of those selfsame stories.

All of these many years later we are in relatively the same place when it comes to the Legion. I’ve stuck with the team through highs and lows (and there have indeed been some loyalty-testing lows over the years) and, wonder of wonders, Shooter is back writing LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES.

I came into the latest reboot of the Legion with a lot skepticism because I was really enjoying the previous incarnation written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and the early issues of the current series, with the tired generation gap premise (“Eat it, Grandpa!” as the rallying cry for kids living in the 31st Century? Seriously?)…not to mention some really questionable costume designs (Element Lad, what were you thinking, bro?)…did nothing to alleviate that. But I stayed because I loved the Barry Kitson art, because I had faith that Mark Waid would find his footing, and, frankly, because it was the Legion.

Waid did indeed find his footing by cutting back on the teenage rebellion stuff and adding Supergirl (who turned out to be more fun and more interesting in this book than in her own comic.)

Now Waid, Kitson, and Supergirl are all gone and Jim Shooter has returned to the fold to write the adventures of the super-team that gave him his start in comics. Instead of yet another reboot (the Legion has had more than its share of those) Shooter is using the concepts laid down by Waid and Kitson and moving on from there. To an old school fan like myself, this Legion pales in comparison to the very different Legion currently appearing with Superman in ACTION COMICS (gotta love the return of the Multiverse) but it still has a lot of potential and Shooter seems determined to explore that potential to the fullest.

There are some very nice character bits as Shooter gets up to speed on this incarnation of the Legion including some interesting scenes with Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Invisible Kid, and, especially, two Legionnaires that he created the original versions of: Karate Kid and Princess Projectra. Shooter seems to have come into this with a lot of intriguing ideas for the team…he quite effectively hit the ground running with both the action and quieter subplots… and it will be fun to watch them play out.

The artwork, by Francis Manapul and Livesay, is solid (though there is a sameness to facial features that will hopefully work itself out as Manapul gets a better handle on the individual characters) if a bit rough around the edges (certainly when compared to the smooth Kitson efforts) but there is an impressive dynamism to it that is quite compelling (and which hints that it will get better and better as the issues go along.)

All in all, it’s a promising return by Shooter, an interesting time for the Legion, and a very hopeful time for Legion fans both casual and diehard.

Alan Moore is spending less time on comics these days. It is not that he no longer cares for them but rather because his muse pulls him in so many directions (novels, plays, music, etc.) that comic book writing has become a much smaller part of his creative endeavors. Thankfully, the one comic that Moore says he intends to keep writing for the foreseeable future is the often wonderful LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN (LOEG), his series featuring diverse historical characters coming together as team of covert operatives doing battle with fantastic threats to humankind.

The team presented in the first two LOEG volumes…Dracula survivor Mina (Harker) Murray, swashbuckling adventurer Allan Quartermain, the monstrous Mr. Hyde, the duplicitous Invisible Man, and the fabled Captain Nemo…was not the first League assemblage and nor will it be the last.

LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN: BLACK DOSSIER, a gorgeous hardcover album, is (presumably) the final offering from Moore’s America’s Best Comics (ABC) imprint.

BLACK DOSSIER is a grand end to the ABC run…it’s whimsically eclectic and wonderfully engaging…and it exploits the graphic album format to great effect. The main story features two of the main characters from the first two LOEG volumes in a cat and mouse chase with various foes…including and especially a brutish and callow young British secret agent who will one day become a debonair spy with a license to kill…over the possession of the titular dossier, an extensive file on the LOEG stretching back to include an immortal born in 1260 BC.

Beyond that story, which is interwoven throughout the book, there is a wonderful array of prose (including an especially bawdy illustrated story featuring the free-spirited Fanny Hill, a member of the League in her day), comics, Shakespearian poetry, satire, and even fanciful fantasy (in 3-D no less…"glasses" are included) that throws light on the ages long history of the League and lays hints for the team’s future adventures. It’s a bit of a hodgepodge…and a it requires time and diligence to get through it all…but it really works well when taken as a whole.

Both Moore and his co-creator artist Kevin O’Neill are both at the top of their respective games with this beautiful volume which is, at turns, challenging, fascinating, risqué, amusing, uncompromising (some of this unabashedly adult oriented material), and utterly entertaining. The book itself is beautifully constructed, laid out, colored, lettered, and bound.

The League will return later this year with LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN: CENTURY, a series of three 72-page volumes to be published by Top Shelf that will continue the ongoing tales of the team from around 1910 through the turbulent sixties and right up to the present day (with at least 3 of the teammates being immortal for one reason or another there will be some continuity of membership along with the addition of other historical figures joining along the way.) However long it takes Moore and O’Neill to produce the new series (with the two of them it’s best to adhere to a “it’ll be done when it’s done” frame of mind) it will undoubtedly be well worth the wait.

The Kree soldier Captain Mar-Vell came to Earth as a spy but he came to have a fierce affection for the people of Earth (in comics we have that effect on alien folks) and he turned his back on his people and, as Captain Marvel, he became a stalwart hero.

The good Captain fought the good fight and went through many changes and conquered many challenges but his fate was sealed during a battle with Nitro (yep, the same guy who blew up a big part of Stamford while fighting the New Warriors and precipitated the super-hero Civil War…for such a b-list villain this guy does cause a lot of ruckus, don’t he?) when Marvel was exposed to toxic gas that would, in time, give him cancer.

In Jim Starlin’s acclaimed graphic album “The Death of Captain Marvel”, the hero succumbed to “the black end” (as the Kree refer to the affliction) while surrounded by his many friends in the super-hero community.

And during the Civil War, he returned. He wasn’t resurrected exactly he was, instead, shunted through time from a point before his death ending up in the present (the same time travel loophole that allows Barry Allen to keep making guest appearances in the DC universe years after his death.) Eventually, given the vagaries of time travel, Captain Marvel will have to return to the past to meet his fate but for the time being he walks the Earth once again.

This 5-issue series kicks off with Marvel, having left during the climatic Civil War battle (the Captain found the acrimonious conflict between former friends and allies to be almost incomprehensible), contemplating his own mortality while appreciating art in the Louvre.

Writer Brian Reed deftly delves into Mar-Vell’s psyche in this first issue…the Captain is a man out of time who knows exactly when and how he’s going to die and he’s a warrior who knows that he doesn’t get a warrior’s death; he’s also, despite his blond haired/blue-eyed appearance, an alien who appreciates, but doesn’t always completely understand, the ways of humankind.

The super-heroes who watched him die don’t know exactly what to make of Captain Marvel’s existence in the present and, in a fitting, and utterly logical, touch, his seeming resurrection inspires the creation of a cult worshipping him as a god.

Veteran artist Lee Weeks quietly expressive art and excellent storytelling skills serve Reed’s story well as we watch Mar-Vell decide how he’s going to cope with his strange new circumstance. His eventual decision is the one you might expect and groundwork is effectively laid for the rest of the series by the end of this first issue.

Captain Marvel’s return, which seemed at first blush like a pointless stunt to me, appears poised to lead into a compelling, if bittersweet, story of a proud (but doomed) hero finding his way in a world he was never supposed to see, for my money, that’s a good thing.

Garth Ennis & John McCrae’s Hitman was a darkly humorous gem of a comic book series. It spun out of the otherwise forgettable “Bloodlines” crossover and it had a healthy 60-issue run. Tommy Monaghan, the titular character who gained super-powers (X-Ray vision and the ability to read minds) during the aforementioned crossover, was a killer but a killer with his own (admittedly twisted) code of honor. Tommy and his best friend, a fellow hitman, died in a blaze of glory in the final issue of the series.

Hitman #34 was one of the series most remarkable offerings. It featured a conversation between Tommy and Superman. Superman had just failed to save a life and Tommy, of all people, gave the Man of Steel some perspective on his limitations and, more importantly, on his place in the world. Ennis used Tommy to extol much of what is generous, important, and amazing about America (Superman being the ultimate American success story, an alien who embraces and embodies the American dream.)

Hitman #34 is one of my 10 all-time favorite Superman stories (I really do have a list…as much of a Superman geek as that might reveal me to be.)

The 2-issue JLA/Hitman limited series allowed Ennis and McCrae to let Tommy Monaghan to take another funny, bloody, oddly inspiring bow in a taut flashback story that features the JLA…Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, and Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner)…and their since-destroyed lunar headquarters.

Superman learns the truth about Tommy’s profession (on that night they met Tommy was waiting to assassinate someone…something he did indeed do after Superman flew away) and it cuts him to the quick. But when the JLA is taken out by aliens on their way to Earth it’s up to Tommy’s bloody skills to save the day.

Ennis’ story is careful to highlights the differences between the worldviews of the JLA…super-heroes who save the day without bloodshed…and Monaghan…a paid killer who is not afraid to use lethal force when he thinks it’s called for…but he remains oddly respectful to both (heroes will be heroes and killers will be killer…and in this case the solution to the crisis, however much the Justice Leaguers might want to deny it, required a killer not a hero.)

McCrae’s kinetic artwork is a wonderful here; his sterling storytelling skill moves the story along nicely.

The coda to the story is wonderfully absurd, funny, and touching…a wholly appropriate nod to Monaghan’s life (and to Superman’s capacity to want to see the best in everyone.)

JLA/Hitman kind of flew under the radar what with all of the counting down and whatnot going on but it’s a grand little story well worth your attention.

Returning from several months of hiatus, the second "album" of Matt Fraction's critically acclaimed Casanova returns with new artist Fabio Moon, replacing the fantastic Gabriel Ba and begs the question many fans have been wondering since reading the initial solicit: When is Casanova Quinn?

Casanova is the story of the involuntary inter-dimensional traveler Casanova Quinn and his exploits in a world where he is no longer a lovable rogue but a hero among his compatriots at E.M.P.I.R.E., the world's defense against evil and naughtiness. As Casanova begins to uncover the mysteries of the new world he finds himself in, he also begins to find himself, and by the fantastic finish, he has decided to try out the hero thing with his new brigade of babes and a giant robot.

Fraction doesn't waste any time at the beginning of the second album. He assumes that we know the players and know what the basic score is, and just runs with it. From Cass's exploits in a deranged hospital to it's ever cryptic conclusion, Fraction is firing on all cylinders with a story that moves quickly but remains cohesive and sly in it's storytelling. The dialog is refreshing and fun with its appreciation for popular culture within the wit and intrigue. Moon's art, while being dissimilar enough to Ba, has enough nostalgic charm to work it's web and make a solid crossover to the new style and new color palette (blue as opposed to the green from the first album). What works the best in this issue is Moon's ability to tell the story without words, which is incredibly prevalent in one section of this issue.

From it's affordable cover price to the fascinating editorials by Fraction at the end of every issue, Casanova is definitely not a book to miss.