On The Shelf: An assortment of goodies

She is to Sherlock Holmes what Catwoman would ultimately be to the Batman.

So it seems so fitting, then, that before Tom King's much-anticipated Batman-Catwoman limited series from DC hits shelves, Titan Comics gives some spotlight to one Irene Adler.

As Sir Arthur Conan Doyle envisioned her, Irene is an opera singer by trade, and earned the respect and admiration of Holmes by outwitting him on at least one occasion. As Titan has a license to adapt the BBC's Sherlock (which also begat CBS' just concluded Elementary), so the publisher decides to give Adler a forum for an undetermined length, mixing in another literary starlet, Jane Eyre, among others, as Adler is set to meet with Holmes' nemesis, Professor Moriarty.

Even though she only appeared in one of Doyle's books, A Scandal in Bohemia, that hasn't stopped today's writers from envisioning Adler & Holmes as a couple, and I'd not be surprised if Holmes does turn up before this story ends.

Rating: A.
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A while back, we reviewed 80's wrestling icon Jim Cornette's graphic novel history of wrestling. Now, there's another volume which expands upon the ground Cornette already had covered, and then some.

The Comic Book History of Professional Wrestling was actually published first, released in either late 2018 or early 2019, and begins its tale at the very beginnings of the wrestling business, tracing its history from early pioneers including Farmer Burns, George Hackenschmidt, and Frank Gotch, to some of today's talents. Speaking of modern talents, current stars such as Christopher Daniels (AEW) and Roderick Strong (WWE/NXT) endorsed the book, and that says something.

Rating: A.
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Meanwhile, we're revisiting Aimee Garcia & AJ Mendez's GLOW vs. The Babyface, the final chapter of which hit stores last week. The trade paperback is on course for a spring release. Anyway, it turns out that one of the new characters in the story was an analogue for one of the two authors. I'll let you guess which one.

Artist Hannah Templer's artwork is of the popular Cal Arts style popularized on TV by the likes of Steven Universe and Gravity Falls.

Final rating: B-.
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DC recruited legendary filmmaker John Carpenter to write a Joker one-shot not as any tie-in to Todd Phillips' Oscar & Golden Globe winning movie (Joaquin Phoenix won both awards for best actor), but as part of the Year of The Villain event. In this writer's opinion, Carpenter's opus should've been allowed to stand on its own merits. as it really has little or nothing to do with the event itself. Contrary to a popular cliche, ignoring such facts gets in the way of a good story.

Rating: B-.
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As Brian Bendis' reimagining of Young Justice begins its 2nd year, Bendis has brought in Naomi co-creator David Walker as co-scripter, now that Naomi is a part of the cast. That's the good news. The bad? The latest issue is a case of too many cooks.

The flashback sequence with Travis "Warlord" Morgan, drawn by his creator, Mike Grell, is superior in every way to everything else in the book. A framing sequence with Morgan and Superboy (Conner Kent), illustrated by Michael Avon Oeming, Bendis' collaborator on Powers, drags the story down. Oeming's downfall is in how he draws faces. If he was looking to the Golden Age for inspiration, I could understand, but this was just not good. I'd take Grell drawing a whole issue or two any day of the week.
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On a lark, I picked up Frank Miller & John Romita, Jr.'s DC Black Label miniseries, Superman: Year One, which posits a young Clark Kent serving in the Navy before formally beginning his crime fighting career. I think there was a scene in an early story in the Golden Age that depicted the difficulty of collecting a blood sample from the Man of Steel, and that's addressed here. Downside, though, is that Miller's script is way too chatty, and nearly overshadows one of young Romita's better efforts to date.

Rating: C+.