BATMAN/SUPERMAN WORLD’S FINEST ANNUAL #1
This is what the World’s Finest title was always meant to be since it’s inception as World’s Best Comics in 1942. Superman, Batman, and Robin as the lead feature with multiple stories added in. And who better to fill in for the Big 3, than Bat-Mite, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and the Just-Us League! And to use them to give us a preview of an upcoming storyline which doesn’t feel like a preview of an upcoming storyline. But to throw in those late 60’s-early 70’s characters such as the Challengers of the Unknown and Metamorpoho was really just too much for my nostalgia meter! I can even overlook the Bumblebee story as it is a crossover from the World’s Finest Teen Titans book which is equally as good. This one hits all the right buttons in the correct order! 10 out of 10 Grahams.
DEAD X-MEN #1 MARVEL COMICS
Really? Dead … X-Men? I thought Marvel was trying to clean up the mutant franchise, not combine the old Exiles concept with the original House of M confusing fiasco from the early 2000’s. And better yet, you need a checklist of crossover titles to make sure you don’t miss an issue. Arrrrggggg! The sad part is that if this would have been toted as an updated version of Exiles, I might have been a little more tolerant. It’s my opinion that Marvel hasn’t know what to do with the X-Men since the late 80’s. Sure there was a bright spot here and there but nothing like the good old days. That being said, Steve Fox’s story works well as an Exiles story and some of the art by the art team of Jonas Scharf, Bernard Chang, and Vincenzo Carratu is really quite stunning. It all sort of balances out and if I keep telling myself it’s an issue of Exiles, I can muster up a 6 out of 10 Grahams.
TRINITY SPECIAL #1 DC COMICS
The brief stories of the next generation of heroes taken from their original sources. The only problem with that idea is that these short tales are not that old. And unless the speculator’s market has sprung to life again, the books that these stories are in should be easy to track down. And to be honest, the only member of this next generation of the Big 3 that has any interest for me is Lizzie. Anf the only reason for that is due to the mystery behind her father and her three lassos. With a Son of Superman and a Son of Batman, there was always going to be a Daughter of Wonder Woman. Especially these days when each of them has an entire “family” of related characters in their respective titles. Heck, even the Flash and Green Arrow have “families” these days. But at the end of the day, this is a reprint book. Plain and simple. I give it a 6 out of 10 Grahams.