World Comic Book Review

28th March 2024

Justice League #50: The Broken Springboard

Justice League #50 (review)
(DC Comics, May 2016)
Writer: Geoff Johns

As the fiftieth issue of this title, American publisher DC Comics have published an extra long issue, concluding an ongoing story line entitled “The Darkseid War”.

The Justice League are a collection of DC Comics’ principal character assets, teamed-up and pitted against various threats in what is now many decades of stories. For reasons not explained in the issue but which have apparently unfolded in earlier issues of Justice League, some of the Justice League’s members are imbued with the powers of the New Gods. The New Gods were a concept created for DC Comics by legendary American comics writer Jack Kirby in 1971. The characters comprising the New Gods each have a separate and distinctive set of superpowers.

In this single issue, the superheroes face a panoply of threats:

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Review: Batman/Superman #30

Batman/Superman 30 (review)
DC Comics, May 2016
Writer: Tom Taylor
Review by DG Stewart, 6 April 2016

In this comic, two iconic superhero properties, Superman and Batman, team up to fight an enormous sentient lizard residing in space and with a penchant for eating his own live children, who has somehow trapped a dying alien with the same superpowers as Superman.

The alien has in turn chained Superman with the assistance of kryptonite, a substance which is toxic to Superman. For reasons not apparent the alien decides in this issue to help Superman escape.

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Satire predicts politics – Allusions to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in DC Comics’ The Demon #26-29 (1992)

“The Demon” #26, 27, 28, 29
Writer: Dwayne McDuffie
Artist: Val Semeiks
DC Comics, 1992
Review by Max Yezpitelok

One highly peculiar and clearly satirical 1992 storyline contained in the pages of an obscure comic book called “The Demon”, published by American comic book company DC Comics, where a rhyming demon runs for president of the United States is amongst the oddest of all US mainstream comic book stories. But from the perspective of a very cynical reader in 2016 the story has some uncanny similarities to the current presidential election.

1

“The Demon” is an anti-hero created by acclaimed writer Jack Kirby in 1972. The character has yellow skin, blazing red eyes, and horns. There is an underlying sense of Jekyll and Hyde schizophrenia to the character, premised on the idea that an evil demon of hell named Etrigan is harboured within a well-meaning human named Jason Blood. Etrigan breathes fire and is just as likely to incinerate other characters within storylines as to assist them. As such, the character is difficult to define within the genre of superhero comics and but for being part of its famous creator’s legacy to that genre, would more properly sit within the realm of horror. Etrigan is magically summoned by the incantation, “Gone, gone, form of man, arise the demon, Etrigan!”

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Fatherhood and Strangeness

Superman: American Alien 1
(DC Comics January 2016)
Writer: Max Landis
Review by DG Stewart 16 January 2016

“Superboy” was a title first published by DC Comics in 1949. The title focused on the adventures of Superman as a young teen. It was a popular title that was only cancelled in 1984, its appeal to teen readers who could perhaps better identify with a youthful version of their adult hero. Superboy had entirely mastered his powers throughout the series and wore an identical version of the costume made famous by Superman, with the only discernable difference in appearance being that Superboy was slighter of frame and possessed a rounder face. (Subsequent “Superboy” titles beyond 1984 dealt with the adventures of youthful clones of Superman.)

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