Comic's I'm Reading: Inaugural Edition

In honor of Free Comic Book Day, here is my inaugural installment of “Comics I’m Reading!”  Since it’s getting late on Saturday night (and well ALL know that Saturday Night Live equals Sunday Morning Dead), I’m going to keep it to two titles for this entry.  The cover images included in this post come from each comic publisher’s respective website. 

So, without further ado, I’ll begin my list with:

1). JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA (DC)

Once I heard that Mark Bagley (penciller, known for his YEARS of work on Marvel’s Spider-Man family of books) and James Robinson (writer, know for Starman, Justice League: Cry for Justice, and many other works) were the new primary creative team on the book starting with issue #38, JLA became an instant add to my monthly pull list.  There is some criticism about the art and story pacing for the first few issues of the book, specifically issues 38-43, and I will agree with most of it.  However, there are a few things to consider:

            a).        Issues 38-40 were a ‘Blackest Night’ tie-in story, so Mr. Robinson couldn’t really start telling his stories;

            b).        While Mark Bagley has still ‘got it,’ he hasn’t been paired up with the best inker to match his art style in the first few issues; and

            c).        The first few arcs depended on the conclusion of the Cry for Justice mini-series.

            But with issues 41-44, Robinson finally establishes his core JLA team—Batman (Dick Grayson), Donna Troy (what name is she going by these days?!), Starman (Mikaal, the blue one) and Congorilla (one of my favorite vintage DC characters).  That, and issues 43 and 44 were both VERY good reads!  I think that all Robinson and Bagley needed was time to get through all of the events, and now they’re finally able to tell the JLA story they want to tell.   

2). RED ROBIN (DC)

            Your adoptive Dad is missing and believed to be dead, people think you’re crazy, and your job has replaced you with a younger, angrier, and borderline psychopathic employee.  What do you do?

            Simple: you put on a new costume, go globetrotting to find your Dad, and also destroy two major assassin cadres along the way, along with re-connecting with your best friend who has just come back from the dead.  And that’s only the first 6 issues and a guest appearance in Adventure Comics. 

            Red Robin follows the adventures of Tim Drake, formerly Robin, as he attempts to find proof that Bruce ‘Batman’ Wayne is actually alive.  In doing so, however, he has to deal with the Spider’s Guild of Assassins, the League of Assassins and their leader, Ra’s al Ghul, and (at a few times), his ‘kid brother’ Damian (the “younger, angrier, and borderline psychopathic” kid picked to be the current Robin by the current Batman, Dick Grayson).

            Like Justice League, this is another book that took awhile to pick up steam, and I think part of that is due to the art on the first few issues, as well as the writing.  The first two arcs, “The Grail” and “would probably read better in trade format rather than as single issues with a month’s gap between stories.  Christopher Yost has done a great job of covering Tim’s state of mind both as he’s coping with Bruce’s ‘death’ and discovering his new role as Red Robin vs. Robin.  And while it will be sad to see Yost leave with issue 12 later this month, I have a feeling that this book will continue to pick up steam once Fabian Nicieza takes over the book starting with June’s Issue 13, as well as in the throes and aftermath of The Return of Bruce Wayne mini-series. 

            Though truthfully—I do hope that Tim remains Red Robin once Bruce puts the cape back on. 

So, that concludes this installment of “Comics I’m Reading.” Stay tuned for more!