Yesterday, ye scribe picked up a few more Free Comic Book Summer entries, just to have something to read besides what's on the pull list at the local shop.
But before we get there, let's take a look at a recent inter-company cross-over that dares to test our imaginations.
A couple of years back, DC & Boom! Studios joined forces to posit a tale in which Green Lantern ended up on the Planet of The Apes, which Boom! had the license to. A trade paperback that was due last week is running late at the hometown shop due to complications, so I needed to fill the void. I wish I hadn't.
With all of Geoff Johns' updates to the Green Lantern cosmic mythos, adding Red & Blue Lanterns, along with Yellow Lanterns in support of Sinestro, in recent years, this took away what would've been an acceptable adaptation of Pierre Boule's original novel, adapted by Rod Serling for the big screen in 1968. Instead, with more supporting characters from DC than needed, the story is just too busy.
In short, this ain't the story your parents would've read had DC teamed with a former license holder, Marvel, back in the 70's, when this would've been perfect.
Rating: C.
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Now, let's look at some FCBS 2020 entries.
Fantagraphics shares the license on Disney legends such as Donald Duck, and one of the stories in this 1-off introduces a new cousin of Donald's, Fethry (yep, that's how it's spelled). It's an inducement, of course, to buy one of Fantagraphics' overpriced reprint albums that includes material from overseas. Fethry hasn't appeared on screen here in the US yet, but will he? Who knows?
Rating: B--.
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Papercutz has the license for Nickelodeon's The Loud House and The Casagrandes. Your kids will dig, but that may be about it. The designs remind me of The Fairly OddParents, which might not be so bad, depending on how you look at it.
Rating: B-.
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John Patrick Green took the idea of private investigators and came up with a delightfully silly comedy series about two crime solving alligators. Investi-Gators should get some attention from the kiddo's, as long as they can find the books.
Rating: A.
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Robert Kirkman's Invincible has been around for a while at Image, and with the series being adapted for Amazon Prime, Image decided to reprint the first issue this year. Kirkman, also the creator of The Walking Dead, has a good idea about how to write a superhero drama, especially involving teenagers. I think this is not the first time this has been reprinted for FCBD, though.
Rating: B.
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Sci-fi icon J. Michael Straczynski returns to comics, joined this time by Mike Deodato, Jr. and his staff at AWA-Upshot with The Resistance, which sounds like something he might've had in mind for television. Deodato can be up & down, but this is fine work.
Rating: A.
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Eric Powell, creator of The Goon, returns with Hillbilly: The Lizard of Rusty Creek Cave for upstart Albatross Comics. Rural horror may never look the same again.
Rating: A-.
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While fans are waiting for his much anticipated Batman-Catwoman maxi-series to hit stores, writer Tom King will serve up a tale of the Watchmen's Rorshach, starting in October. By then, his Strange Adventures will have passed the halfway point. Personally, I'd rather see someone take a chance on a long dormant series from the 60's & 70's, The War That Time Forgot, which was last seen in Weird War Tales (1st series) in the 80's. Yes, it takes its cues from Burroughs, and goes from there. It wouldn't hurt.
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