DWD's Reviews

Winner of Will Eisner Comic Industry Award, 2021. Winner of Harvey Award for Best Children or Young Adult Book. Published by DC Comics in 2020. Story by Gene Luen Yang. Art by Gurihiru. Superman Smashes the Klan is a graphic novel interpretation of a story arc from the old Superman radio show. At that time, Superman was the most popular radio show for children in the United States and the show's writers wanted to address racism with their young listeners. They wrote six 15 minute episodes with Superman opposing the racists of the Clan of the Fiery Cross. This was a big risk. They were worried that it would turn off their fans since 1946 America was a very racist place. The actual Klan was experiencing a moment of resurgence. Superman had only been published for 8 years at the time - he was very new and his young fans and their families could reject this move into current day politics. Turns out that the kids loved it. Ratings increased! Follow this link for another review on this...

Published in 2021 by DC Comics   When I first heard of this crossover graphic novel I thought to myself that this could be a horrible mess of a book. I actually flipped through it just to be ready to make fun of it. After all, how could a book based on a videogame that's using Batman as a promotional gimmick be any good?  Turns out I was wrong.  The plot makes sense. Even more importantly, it is an interesting and compelling read. In the story, what Batman suspects is a crack in time and space opens up over Gotham City. People are fleeing. Batman consults with Chief Gordon and learns that some people are actually drawn to this tear in reality.  As Batman gets closer to investigate he finds Harley Quinn. She is heading directly towards the tear and Batman cannot stop her. However, his efforts have placed him in a vulnerable position and a shadowy figure pushes Batman in. Batman arrives in the world of Fortnite with no memory and surrounded by violence. The world gets ...

  Published in 2020 by Listening Library. Read by Kathleen McInerney. Duration: 8 hours, 29 minutes. Unabridged. Synopsis: The DC ICONS series tells alternate origin stories for DC superheroes, focusing on them in their high school years. This is the fourth in this YA series that I have listened to as an audiobook. My previous ones were the "big three" of the DC Comics Universe - Superman , Batman , and Wonder Woman . This time I listened to an often overlooked character, Black Canary.  To be clear, this book focuses on Dinah Lance, the daughter of the original Black Canary. Black Canary was talented at martial arts but her main power was the ability to use her singing voice as a weapon. The book is set in a dystopian future Gotham City. Think Gotham City meets The Handmaid's Tale . It is a generation after Batman and Commissioner Gordon have passed away.  Based on a single comment from one of the characters, women's rights have been rolled back across the country. Th...

  Published by Listening Library in 2018. Read by Will Damron. Duration: 8 hours, 39 minutes. Unabridged. The books in the D.C. Icons series are a re-writing of the origin stories of D.C. Comics' iconic characters. To be fair, these YA stories are not complete re-writes. Instead, they are basically about the largely unexplored teen years of these characters (the exception being the 10 year run of the  Smallville TV show featuring a teenaged Superman.)  In this book we meet Bruce Wayne in the 12th grade and he is turning 18 - the age where he inherits the Wayne family fortune and the family business. He may be a legal adult, but he is still an impulsive teen. Bruce joins in on a police chase with a high-tech car created by Wayne Industries. He helps catch the bad guy but he gets arrested for getting in the middle of a police chase. Wayne gets assigned community service in, of all places, Arkham Asylum. Can you imagine why anyone would assign anyone community service at Ar...

  Originally published in 1982. Originally published in completed form in 1988 by DC Vertigo. This iconic graphic novel has been on my to-be-read list for a long while. I tried watching the movie, but it had been a long week and I soon fell asleep. I assumed that the movie missed some of the pizazz of the graphic novel. I decided to go ahead and read the book when I noticed it was on t he list of some 850 books that a Republican Texas state legislator wanted to ban from all Texas schools.  V for VENDETTA is the story of a masked vigilante who decides to stand up against the fascist government of an alternative history version of the United Kingdom. The masked character has become the single most recognizable feature of the book and the face of the "anonymous" movement that swept over social media a few years ago. Many people assume that it was put on the censorship list because it features a character that fights back against a repressive government. They assume that Texas ...

Published in 2017 by Listening Library. Read by Mozhan Marno. Duration: 11 hours, 56 minutes. Unabridged. D.C. Comics' DC ICONS series creates a new YA version of their flagships character's origin stories. DC went out and found established YA authors and let them do their thing in books like Wonder Woman: Warbringer. Leigh Bardugo is an established YA fantasy author and she brings that vibe to the story of Princess Diana of Themyscira, the character who will eventually be better known as Wonder Woman. Diana is a teen that lives on the island of the Amazons - female warriors who died in battle but were reborn on Themyscira, where they can no longer intervene in the lives of mortals. Her mother is the queen of the island. Diana witnesses an explosion of a ship off the coast of Themyscira and breaks the rule of non-intervention by rescuing the sole survivor, a teenage girl and brings her back to the island. And then everything started to fall apart... This book borrows a...

Published by Listening Library in 2019. Read by Andrew Elden. Duration: 7 hours, 28 minutes. Unabridged. Set in modern America, Matt de la Peña delivers a traditional Superman origin story with a little bit of a twist. This book follows along the line of the Smallville TV show, with Metropolis being within driving distance of Superman's Kansas hometown instead of basically being a stand-in for New York City. Big things are going on in Smallville. A tech firm has moved in, bringing in lots of jobs and a new corporate headquarters. They also are buying up farm land. And, a new smaller company has come in as well. Also, LexCorp is sniffing around. Smallville is considering passing a law requiring people suspected of being illegal immigrants (there is a burgeoning Hispanic population who serve as farm workers and work in a meat processing plant) to produce papers on sight and Hispanic men are disappearing. Clark Kent has always been amazingly strong, but that could be passed of...

Art by Ed Benes, Rafael Albuquerque, Rags Morales, and John Dell. Published in 2010 by DC Comics. There are three stories in this collection. Story #1. "The Fathers" The weakest of the three. A piece of Kryptonian technology is found in a farm field near Smallville. It comes to life for a few seconds and triggers a reaction in the Batcave. It turns out that the Caped Crusader and the Man of Steel have a previously unknown connection... I rate this story 3 stars out of 5. Story #2. "Lil' Leaguers" Worlds collide in this one. Smaller, more childlike versions of all of your favorite DC superheroes and supervillains enter the Superman / Batman world. Their world is literally smaller and weapons don't really hurt each other in that world. In fact, their universe is just a much more pleasant place on every level. The page where Superman and Batman meet their miniature selves is quite amusing. Lil' Batman and big Batman do not get along and mayhem ensues. S...

Published by DC Comics in 2016. Art by Neal Adams. A group of men dressed like Superman crash land in an older couple's Iowa cornfield. They then fly to Lex Luthor's corporate headquarters and engage in a fight against an invasion. It is Darkseid's soldiers coming through a red "tunnel" called a "boom tube". The boom tube allows people to travel from one planet to another instantaneously - like a tunnel between worlds. But, these three new Supermen are not very good at fighting the bad guys are are fairly confused about how to use their super powers. Turns out they are three Kryptonians that have come to defend Earth from an invasion of Darkseid's troops led by his oldest son, the immortal Kalibak, in the hopes that Superman will go to Krypton to deal with a Darkseid invasion.  Meanwhile, Superman is in the Middle East saving civilians in a war zone. Among those civilians are an orphan and his dog. Superman is stopped by a time-controlling alien...

Published by GraphicAudio in 2013. Multicast Performance. Duration: Approximately 6 hours. Unabridged GraphicAudio has been adapting novels into audiobooks that are performed by 20+ people like an old-fashioned radio play for years. In this case, they have adapted a novel by veteran fantasy/sci-fi writer Tracy Hickman. Hickman doesn't usually write about DC Comics characters, his reputation was made writing books related to the Dungeons and Dragons universe. That being said, the if you are going to make that move, going from knights in shining armor in big castles to the Dark Knight in Wayne Manor is a logical move. The idea behind the book is a good one - Batman is getting threats and clues relating to his parents and family secrets that would be best kept secret.  The fact that Batman, not his alter ego Bruce Wayne, is getting these threats is significant because it shows that the unknown person knows his secret identity. While Batman is trying to work this out, it becom...

Published in 2011 by DC Comics. 320 pages. I am a fan of Superman. Actually, he's my favorite superhero. All Star Superman started out as an intriguing take on the Man of Steel but it ended being a mish-mash of a mess. This is a collection of multiple original comics and follows a story arc that is based on a dying Superman. In the first episode, he saves a scientific mission to the sun and ends up overloading his cells with the power of our yellow sun. There is no recovering and the overdose takes several months to kill him. ******Warning****** Spoilers******* Superman responds by getting more serious about his relationship with Lois Lane and gives her a medication that gives her powers like his own for one day. This would have been a wonderfully interesting story line except for the arrival of two strong men from history that are now time traveling seeking adventure: Samson and Atlas. They decide they like Lois Lane, flirt with her incessantly and challenge Superman for her ...

Published in 2011 by DC Comics. Batman: The Long Halloween is a collection of 13 comics compiled into a single book that tells about the mystery of a serial murderer called Holiday. Holiday always strikes on a major holiday and is particularly fond of killing figures in Gotham City's network of crime families. Batman, Gordon, and Harvey Dent decide to work together to solve the mystery but this triumvirate of crime-solvers has its own internal troubles as both Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent become suspects. Calendar Man is an immediate suspect since this sounds like his kind of crime spree. But, he is locked up in Arkham Asylum. But, lots of other super-criminals are sprung free and pretty soon Gotham is awash in their machinations on top of a serial killer. Plus, Catwoman is also on the prowl... This was a great mystery - I thought I had it figured out and then I found out that I was entirely wrong - twice! Powerful story and Batman nearly gets taken out. Loeb and Sale are a powerfu...

Published November 1, 2008 by GraphicAudio. From an original novel first published in 2004. Graphic Audio has a long tradition of creating excellent audiobooks by going back and telling stories the way that they used to tell them in the old days on the radio - with actors and sound effects. Rather than reading the story to the listener as the author wrote it, they act it out like an old-fashioned radio play. In The Flash: Stop Motion the story focuses on Wally West, the young protege of the previous Flash, Barry Allen. Barry Allen is gone now and Wally is taking the responsibilities associated with wearing the red tights seriously. But, he is so much younger than most of the rest of the Justice League and he feels a little outclassed by the others. How can he hope to contribute as much as Superman who can practically do anything? Or the Martian Manhunter who can almost keep up with Superman and has telepathic powers? The Green Lantern is young but everyone knows that his ring g...

Published in 2008. Originally published in 1996. This edition collects the original four volumes of this limited series into one complete volume. If you liked the feel of the recent Batman v Superman movie, you will likely enjoy this graphic novel. If not, you are probably better off skipping this introspective spectacle. We start with a world out of control. A new generation of Meta-humans abound. They have the skills of the old Justice League but none of their standards. The good ones still fight with the bad ones but they do it with little regard to the regular people who live all around them. Cars explode, buildings crumble and people get hurt. In a single fight Kansas was obliterated in a massive explosion caused by the death of a nuclear-powered Meta-human. Where is old Justice League? It has disbanded since Superman retreated from the world and is living on a pretend hologram Kansas farm inside of his Fortress of Solitude. He is sick of watching his regular friends age ...

Published by BBC Worldwide Unlimited in 2010. Multicast Performance Duration: 44 minutes Even though I enjoy the comic book movies and I listen to a few comic book-based audiobooks, I am not a serious comics fan. I dabble. I haven't even been into a real comic book store. I know the big names and their back stories and that's about it. But, the title of this story ruined the story for me. If you know about the Lazarus Pits then there was no mystery at all. This was just one more problem in a problem-filled audiobook. First things first, let me be clear that none of the problems in this audiobook come from the actual performance of the book. It is performed like an old-fashioned radio play and the BBC performers did a great job.  Sadly, the story itself does not live up to the performances of the actors. In this story, Batman is supposed to be dead. He hasn't been seen in a while and Commissioner Gordon receives a tape from Batman that was to be delivered when...

Too Short. A Lost Opportunity to Create Something Truly Amazing. Published in 2010 by BBC Audio Multicast Performance Duration: 1 hour Superman is captured and on trial. Lex Luthor is the prosecutor, Lois Lane is Superman's sole defender. A Guardian of the Universe is the judge and if Superman is found guilty, he is to be sentenced to the Phantom Zone.  The charge? Superman is not the defender of humanity - he is actually committing crimes against humanity. Luthor's arguments go along this line - Superman is an alien and he is interfering with life on Earth. As Lois Lane makes her arguments that Superman is actually helping, Luthor blunts them with his own arguments. For example, Luthor calls Batman to the stand to testify that Batman feels the need to monitor Superman to make sure that he does not abuse his powers to enslave humanity. The audiobook ventures into some fairly unique territory. Not only are Superman's peers questioned but the assumption is that...

       Just About as Perfect as It Could Be Published by GraphicAudio in 2013 Multicast Performance Duration: about 6 hours Adapted from the original book. As D.C. Comics gears up for their big Batman vs. Superman release next year it is interesting to look at how these two iconic characters ever ended up meeting, working together and then become trusted allies. I grew up in the era when Superfriends and the Justice League were Saturday morning mainstays. Unfortunately, these were horrible days for the Batman franchise. Batman was reduced to being a sidekick of Superman with his only saving grace being that he was the only sidekick with a sidekick (Robin). The first Micheal Keaton Batman movie brought a dark side to the character that had probably never been seen on screen.  Batman has trust issues. He is secretive and he is often the only force for justice in a city that perverts the law to do the work of evil men. He must work in secrecy and ...

How Hard Is It to Nail Down Superman's Personality? Published by GraphicAudio in March of 2014 Adapted from the novel It's Superman by Tom De Haven Multicast performance Duration; Approximately 7 hours Let me be clear from the beginning about two things: 1) I am a Superman fan 2) I do not mind re-makes or re-interpretations so long as they are done respectfully of the source material. However, It's Superman does not do that, with the exception of Lex Luthor. This re-imagined world of Superman is set in the 1930s, which I liked as a choice because that's when Superman was created. Most of the first part of the book deals with a struggling Lois Lane living with a a freelance photographer named Willi Berg in an apartment in New York City (the book dispenses with the Metropolis conceit). Lois is much more worldly than I have ever seen her, but I was fine with that.  Willi Berg witnesses Lex Luthor, a New York City politician, in the middle of a crime and d...

A Dual Biography of Sorts Published by National Geographic in 2012. Note: This is a YA book aimed at 5th graders and above. This adult enjoyed the book also. From time to time the dual biography comes back into vogue. Dual biographies are a great way to compare and contrast two people's lives and, in this case, this style is used to compare and contrast two different organizations: The Ku Klux Klan and Superman, Inc. and see how these two radically different groups interacted. There is, of course, so such thing as Superman, Inc. - I made that up. Superman is owned by D.C. Comics, but there are people who make all sorts of decisions on how to present Superman. What will he stand for and stand against? What will the next comic be like? How about the next movie? Superman Versus the Ku Klux Klan   tells the story of the creation of Superman (and the two young Jewish boys from Ohio who created him) and how Superman quickly caught on once a publisher finally took him on in 1938. ...