On The Shelf: Public domain has its advantages, and other ruminations

 We're continuing our series of reviews of this year's Free Comic Book Day.

Marvel's most ambitious project for the summer brings the Avengers, Eternals, & X-Men together in Judgment Day. Recent storylines have brought the latter two groups closer in scope than originally conceived by co-creator Jack Kirby (who was the sole creator of The Eternals in the mid-70's). Anyway, the living island of Krakoa has returned to X-continuity as a prominent player. Personally, I long for the simpler, less complex plots of Chris Claremont back in the 80's than this shmozzola. 

What's even worse is how Moira McTaggert, the former companion of Banshee and confidant to the X-Men, has been rebooted as a malevolent android. I'd like to meet the jabroni who came up with that idea, and who also decided that Spider-Man's honey, Mary Jane Watson, is a player in this drama.

The Bible tells us love of money is the root of all evil. Marvel is run by Disney, which has its own problems, but the writers of these books need to go back to creative writing 101.

Rating: C.

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Before Daredevil was introduced to Marvel readers in the 60's, Lev Gleason had created a different iteration of the character, repackaged as the Death Defying Devil for Dynamite's Project Superpowers line. However this DD has fallen into the public domain with some of Gleason's other creations, and so, Comic House decided to bring Daredevil, Silver Streak, and other heroes together for a new book, Equilibrium, which has them in a dystopian future (here we go again) against their old foe, The Claw, who has done the impossible, and taken over the world.

Writer Keith Champagne is better known for his past work as an inker at DC back in the 90's. There are too many doom & gloom books already, and this is not a good way to reintroduce heroes like Silver Streak to a new generation. Ugh.

Rating: C.

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Former AEW women's champion Nyla Rose, a transgender woman and Native American, collaborated with Steve Orlando to produce a 1-shot showcasing the X-Men's Thunderbird. John Proudstar held the distinction of being the first of the "new" X-Men of the 70's to be killed off, and brother James later was part of Emma Frost's Hellions before both resurfaced. This is a labor of love, but with the labryinthine X-continuity these days, Proudstar deserves a solo series devoid of such tangled drama.

Rating: A-.

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Archie Comics' The Fox returns in a 1-shot special, written & drawn by Dean Haspiel. Paul Patton has reconciled with his wife, code-named She-Fox, and with son Sunji, aka Ghost Fox. Haspiel has taken the old "superheroes with problems" trope Stan Lee mined at Marvel back in the 60's, and raised it to 11. Included is a reprint from the 1983 Black Hood series, but this Fox tale is written & drawn by the legendary Alex Toth, who was an influence on Haspiel, to be sure. Take it or leave it.

Rating: B-.

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Comics on the tube: The CW is delaying the 3rd season of Stargirl to the fall, likely October, where it will air on Wednesday nights. Apparently, the new season is still in production. Greg Berlanti's remaining comics adaptations, The Flash, Riverdale, & Superman & Lois, plus the freshman drama, Gotham Knights, are all being held to mid-season (winter 2023), and it's clear now that Riverdale will say goodbye after 7 seasons at the end of the 2022-3 season. Mischa Collins (ex-Supernatural) is co-starring in Knights as Harvey Dent.

We talked about this over at Saturday Morning Archives, but it bears mentioning here. WB was planning on a movie featuring the Wonder Twins, Zan & Jayna, but not as an adaptation of Mark Russell & Stephen Byrne's acclaimed 2019-20 series. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav shut the project down, citing a massive budget in the neighborhood of $75 million, so the movie, which was intended for HBO Max, will not go forward.

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Fans of Bill Willingham's acclaimed Vertigo series, Fables, are rejoicing over the return of the series with a 12 part arc, drawn by series artists Mark Buckingham & Steve Leialoha. To illustrate how far out of the loop I've been since I was forced to give up the series a few years ago, Bigby Wolf, who recently co-starred with Batman, is married to Snow White (!!). Whodathunk? Going shopping for trade paperbacks to get caught up on what I've missed.

Rating: A.