Recent Treasures

Has it really been one month since I added a word to my "weekly" comics blog? It has. But rather than waste words lamenting my lack of words in July, I will simply forge on. And what better to change the subject than a couple brief reviews of two recent favorites.

Brave and Bold 15 - Nightwing and Hawkman

I know I have written about Brave and Bold before, but I haven't written about it enough. Rather than relying on the show value of destroying a legend or the nostalgia of retelling an updated version of an old legend, this series just tells great comic stories. And once again when two or three heroes met to fight a common goal, one has the impression that in coming together one is witnessing something unusual. Yet the series is not a throw back to simplicity or comics naivite. This series is my favorite read of every month. It keeps me coming in to the comics shop.

Justice Society of America Annual #1

Earth-2 returns in this tale of Power Girl's homecoming, but from the start of her return the continuity incongruities nag at thoughtful readers.

Power Girl became a part of DC's primary Earth at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths, when all the parallel Earths collapsed into one, along with all the other surviving Earth-2 characters. How could it be possible that she came from the Earth-2 recently reinstated in the DC Universe when it didn't exist three years ago? And if Power Girl was absent from this new Earth-2 while she lived on DC's primary Earth, why weren't the other Earth-2 heroes who lived there with her also absent from this new Earth-2?

At first it seems to be a continuity conundrum we are supposed to accept, but suddenly the story takes a surprising turn, and it turns out our vague sense of disbelief is valid. Power Girl's unease at her sudden departure from DC's primary Earth is multiplied when she discovers this Earth-2 is NOT her original home.