The Classy Comics Podcast

Batman has a terrifying team up with the Phantom Strangler, is paralyzed and has to rely on his team and dumb luck, and then has to team up with Sgt. Rock to battle Satan-or is it Hitler or both?
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Transcript below:

Batman teams up with Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, Metamorpho, and of course his old buddy, Sergeant Rock. We'll talk about it as we examine ‘Legends of the Dark Knight: Jim Aparo Volume One', straight ahead.
Recently, DC has released a lot of books that have reprinted Batman comics from the 1970s and early 80s when a lot of them had been reprinted. Certainly, when I really got into reading through the trades they weren't around a whole lot. One series of ‘Legend of the Dark Knight' books focused on Jim Aparo, who a lot of people tend to overlook but was actually very influential on artists that followed. And I noticed that my library through Hoopla had access to that book, and that had a lot of the same titles as in the Showcase Presents Brave and the Bold, and even more. Though we'll talk Mr. Aparo's work and in today's episode we'll talk about all of the comics that were both in Showcase Presents Brave and the Bold Volume Two, and Legends of the Dark Knight: Jim Aparo Volume One, and we'll finish the rest of the comics in that volume in our next episode. Aparo really began his work on Brave and the Bold as just a guest artist. He drew the Phantom Stranger character, so it was decided that he would draw Brave and the Bold Number Ninety-Eight which featured a guest appearance by the Phantom Stranger. And then in Issue 100 he took over the book for the most part all the way until Issue 196. And Brave and the Bold ran until Issue 200, so throughout the rest of the '70s into the '80s he would be the predominant artist on that title. He's got a great style and it is just a beautiful way to draw Batman as well as the related characters. And he's definitely at the peak of his ability here; in later years he got kind of burdened by just all of the books he was being asked to draw on, but here are some great examples of his work.
Issue Ninety-Eight, ‘Mansion of the Misbegotten' is probably the scariest story in the book. In this story Batman goes to visit his old friend Roger Birnham Now Roger Birnham hadn't been in the comics before, and he promises to watch out for Roger's wife and young son. When Batman finds a funeral guest dead of a ritual murder he goes in to investigate and finds himself caught up in cult ritual. It's a really chilling little story – pretty intense for the time, it's not black R-Rated or anything but it's definitely very creepy and haunting. And it shows the strength of Batman's character that Batman's able to do those sort of stories. He's able to be in pretty much anything, whether it's something that's a bit on the supernatural side or if it's aliens or if it's something a little bit offbeat, or if it's just a plain old crime story. Batman is pretty much able to carry any story you'd like to put him in, which is one of the strengths of the character. Now I will say that as usual I'm not going to comment on those stories that don't really stand out to me, but a lot of these do stand out and are pretty interesting.
The next appearance, Issue 100 is called ‘Warrior in a Wheelchair'. In this story Batman is shot and put temporarily in a wheelchair until a surgeon can fly in from out of town, but he has got to stop the narcotics trade which he was trying to do when he got shot, and so he needs some help from his friends. And so he calls in four heroes to help him: Green Arrow and Green Lantern who are kind of a team at this point, along with Black Canary and Robin. Now in many ways I think the idea to put Batman in t...

Batman has a terrifying team up with the Phantom Strangler, is paralyzed and has to rely on his team and dumb luck, and then has to team up with Sgt. Rock to battle Satan-or is it Hitler or both?

Affiliate link added.

Transcript below:

Batman teams up with Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, Metamorpho, and of course his old buddy, Sergeant Rock. We’ll talk about it as we examine ‘Legends of the Dark Knight: Jim Aparo Volume One’, straight ahead.

Recently, DC has released a lot of books that have reprinted Batman comics from the 1970s and early 80s when a lot of them had been reprinted. Certainly, when I really got into reading through the trades they weren’t around a whole lot. One series of ‘Legend of the Dark Knight’ books focused on Jim Aparo, who a lot of people tend to overlook but was actually very influential on artists that followed. And I noticed that my library through Hoopla had access to that book, and that had a lot of the same titles as in the Showcase Presents Brave and the Bold, and even more. Though we’ll talk Mr. Aparo’s work and in today’s episode we’ll talk about all of the comics that were both in Showcase Presents Brave and the Bold Volume Two, and Legends of the Dark Knight: Jim Aparo Volume One, and we’ll finish the rest of the comics in that volume in our next episode. Aparo really began his work on Brave and the Bold as just a guest artist. He drew the Phantom Stranger character, so it was decided that he would draw Brave and the Bold Number Ninety-Eight which featured a guest appearance by the Phantom Stranger. And then in Issue 100 he took over the book for the most part all the way until Issue 196. And Brave and the Bold ran until Issue 200, so throughout the rest of the ’70s into the ’80s he would be the predominant artist on that title. He’s got a great style and it is just a beautiful way to draw Batman as well as the related characters. And he’s definitely at the peak of his ability here; in later years he got kind of burdened by just all of the books he was being asked to draw on, but here are some great examples of his work.

Issue Ninety-Eight, ‘Mansion of the Misbegotten’ is probably the scariest story in the book. In this story Batman goes to visit his old friend Roger Birnham Now Roger Birnham hadn’t been in the comics before, and he promises to watch out for Roger’s wife and young son. When Batman finds a funeral guest dead of a ritual murder he goes in to investigate and finds himself caught up in cult ritual. It’s a really chilling little story – pretty intense for the time, it’s not black R-Rated or anything but it’s definitely very creepy and haunting. And it shows the strength of Batman’s character that Batman’s able to do those sort of stories. He’s able to be in pretty much anything, whether it’s something that’s a bit on the supernatural side or if it’s aliens or if it’s something a little bit offbeat, or if it’s just a plain old crime story. Batman is pretty much able to carry any story you’d like to put him in, which is one of the strengths of the character. Now I will say that as usual I’m not going to comment on those stories that don’t really stand out to me, but a lot of these do stand out and are pretty interesting.

The next appearance, Issue 100 is called ‘Warrior in a Wheelchair’. In this story Batman is shot and put temporarily in a wheelchair until a surgeon can fly in from out of town, but he has got to stop the narcotics trade which he was trying to do when he got shot, and so he needs some help from his friends. And so he calls in four heroes to help him: Green Arrow and Green Lantern who are kind of a team at this point, along with Black Canary and Robin. Now in many ways I think the idea to put Batma...

Batman team-ups from the 1970s including Batman tries to exorcize himself of the ghost of a Portuguese sailor, trying to foster mutual understanding between adults and some well-intentioned teenagers who are holding Gotham City hostage with a nuclear bomb!And will the Metal Men refuse to help Batman because of robot lib?
Affiliate link added.
Transcript below:

Batman joins forces with the fastest man alive! Killers[?] from another dimension and three random British people. We'll tell you all about it as we look at Showcase Presents Brave and the Bold: Batman Team Ups Volume Two.
Welcome to the Classy Comics Podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise, Idaho here's your host, Adam Graham.
I love a good team up book and DC was kind of the leader in getting those started. They had the original monthly team up between Batman and Superman in World's Finest. In the Silver Age they took Brave and the Bold, what had been a series with a colored past and various formats – more recently a tryout book like Showcase Presents, and the featured team ups between various superheroes. Batman team ups begin to dominate, and then with Issue Seventy-Four it became an exclusive Batman team up book. I am reviewing this using Showcase Presents the Brave and the Bold: Batman Team Ups Volume Two, but there have been some more modern collections from DC called Brave and the Bold: The Bronze Age Omnibus and then just plain Brave and the Bold. Bronze Age, the one that's the Omnibus takes Issue Seventy-Four and goes all the way up to Issue 121, while the Brave and the Bold goes from Seventy-Four to Ninety-One.
Now while these stories are set in where many define the Bronze Age to be – they were written in the 1970s and the art reflects a lot of that '70s artistic style, particularly in this collection. You have art by Ross Andru and then Nick Cardy, they fully invested into the 1970s style. However, a lot of the stories have a Silver Age feel to them. At this point the comics were changing – there was more of a focus on being a little more grown up, not talking down to kids; and Marvel had captured the imagination of a lot of older kids by – while still being fairly family friendly by modern standards – also being a bit more grown up. DC is trying to do this, and there's a sense of trying to be a bit more mature, but there's still this underlying layer of goofiness that comes off so often. And it's not like the intentional goofiness of the '60s stories, so there can be some of these that are just a bit awkward. That said, we're going to take a look at the first few issues. I won't cover every single team up. Someone not particularly impressive either as good or bad.
Most of these – with one exception…all of these actually are written by Bob Haney – the art is by various people: Nick Cardy is on most of the ones that we cover here.
Issue Eighty-Eight was a notable, ‘Count Ten and Die' because it had Wildcat, i.e. Ted Grant, a former boxer meeting up with Batman, and Batman bringing him out of retirement both as a boxer/boxing coach and eventually as Wildcat. And it's a fun adventure that involves Batman and Wildcat having to contend with the Soviet propaganda machine. I enjoyed that one pretty well. I
Issue Ninety is another one of those stories which really is not so much a Bronze Age story as it is a Silver Age story with a bronze coat of paint. Adam Strange is the guest character and I love Adam Strange. He is this character who was on earth and hit by a Zeta beam that took him across the galaxy, and he goes to this planet Rann where he is a hero who manages to save the day. And he's continually being shot back and forth between Rann and Earth by the Zeta beam. Anyway, the Zeta beam sends Adam Strange into the future,

Batman team-ups from the 1970s including Batman tries to exorcize himself of the ghost of a Portuguese sailor, trying to foster mutual understanding between adults and some well-intentioned teenagers who are holding Gotham City hostage with a nuclear bomb!And will the Metal Men refuse to help Batman because of robot lib?

Affiliate link added.

Transcript below:

Batman joins forces with the fastest man alive! Killers[?] from another dimension and three random British people. We’ll tell you all about it as we look at Showcase Presents Brave and the Bold: Batman Team Ups Volume Two.

Welcome to the Classy Comics Podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise, Idaho here’s your host, Adam Graham.

I love a good team up book and DC was kind of the leader in getting those started. They had the original monthly team up between Batman and Superman in World’s Finest. In the Silver Age they took Brave and the Bold, what had been a series with a colored past and various formats – more recently a tryout book like Showcase Presents, and the featured team ups between various superheroes. Batman team ups begin to dominate, and then with Issue Seventy-Four it became an exclusive Batman team up book. I am reviewing this using Showcase Presents the Brave and the Bold: Batman Team Ups Volume Two, but there have been some more modern collections from DC called Brave and the Bold: The Bronze Age Omnibus and then just plain Brave and the Bold. Bronze Age, the one that’s the Omnibus takes Issue Seventy-Four and goes all the way up to Issue 121, while the Brave and the Bold goes from Seventy-Four to Ninety-One.

Now while these stories are set in where many define the Bronze Age to be – they were written in the 1970s and the art reflects a lot of that ’70s artistic style, particularly in this collection. You have art by Ross Andru and then Nick Cardy, they fully invested into the 1970s style. However, a lot of the stories have a Silver Age feel to them. At this point the comics were changing – there was more of a focus on being a little more grown up, not talking down to kids; and Marvel had captured the imagination of a lot of older kids by – while still being fairly family friendly by modern standards – also being a bit more grown up. DC is trying to do this, and there’s a sense of trying to be a bit more mature, but there’s still this underlying layer of goofiness that comes off so often. And it’s not like the intentional goofiness of the ’60s stories, so there can be some of these that are just a bit awkward. That said, we’re going to take a look at the first few issues. I won’t cover every single team up. Someone not particularly impressive either as good or bad.

Most of these – with one exception…all of these actually are written by Bob Haney – the art is by various people: Nick Cardy is on most of the ones that we cover here.

Issue Eighty-Eight was a notable, ‘Count Ten and Die’ because it had Wildcat, i.e. Ted Grant, a former boxer meeting up with Batman, and Batman bringing him out of retirement both as a boxer/boxing coach and eventually as Wildcat. And it’s a fun adventure that involves Batman and Wildcat having to contend with the Soviet propaganda machine. I enjoyed that one pretty well. I

Issue Ninety is another one of those stories which really is not so much a Bronze Age story as it is a Silver Age story with a bronze coat of paint. Adam Strange is the guest character and I love Adam Strange. He is this character who was on earth and hit by a Zeta beam that took him across the galaxy, and he goes to this planet Rann where he is a hero who manages to save the day. And he’s continually being shot back and forth between Rann and Earth by the Zeta beam. Anyway,

We take a look at Gambit's first appearance and his first mini-series preceded by a completely pointless comic with a flying alien.
Affiliate link included.
Transcript follows:

Find out about Gambit's first comic book appearances as we take a look at Gambit Classic: Volume One straight ahead.
Gambit Classic: Volume One was the book that I'd hoped to get for my inter-library loan request last year, and I talked about the book I got instead on our second and third episodes. This book collects Gambit's earliest appearance on Uncanny X-Men, and then his first mini-series. He appeared in Issue 266 of The Uncanny X-Men. So, of course this book collects Issues 265 to 267.
Issue 265 is one I really could have done without reading. After the initial appearances in 266 and 267, Marvel put a page of exposition to explain his entire tenure with the X-Men over two year prior to the mini-series. It seems like the relevant parts of Issue 265 could have just as easily been summarized. The relevant part is that at this time Storm has amnesia and is regressed to a child physically, and so doesn't know how to use her mutant powers. She's operating as a thief, stealing from other thieves and returning the items to their rightful owners for rewards, I guess.
But beyond that there is so much more going on in the book. The book opens with four pages in space with alien space warriors, and there are no alien space warriors in Issues 266 or 267, so that's kind of weird thread anyway. This really should have started with 266, but that said, once it gets started it's pretty good. Storm has stumbled into the Shadow King and his minions, and she tries to get away and ends up being rescued by Gambit who had his heart set on stealing some art but instead decided to save Storm instead. Saying, "paintings will keep, us thieves we have to stick together". And they have to escape the Shadow King together, and the minions who are under his control. There is some pretty good action and they end up becoming sort of a Robin Hood pair. They steal but only from those who have stolen in the first place, and it's shown through an entire comic strip montage. However, their good times together are spoiled when the Orphan Maker, who I guess from reading this had something to do with Storm losing her memory. About the story in these two issues, Gambit is a really fun character. He is a roguish character but who follows a code of honor and genuinely cares about other people, particularly Storm – this girl who he doesn't know what her powers is but he takes on the role of her friend and protector. And he is very clear that it will be no more than that because you do have this picture of Gambit as this sort of ‘gentleman thief'.
There are lots of pieces of art that show his coolness, his skill, the strength of his powers as well as his great coordination. 266 and 267 are a fun introduction to Gambit. The Gambit mini-series really brings him back to New Orleans and to his roots where his wife, or is it ex-wife or is it comatose wife, is dying and can't be waked, and at the same time the Tithes Collector is at work. Remy's Guild, Remy LeBeau which is his true identity, is part of the Thieves Guild in New Orleans and they are opposed by the Assassins Guild who are picking off members of his Guild and of his family. And so Remy and Rogue they go down to New Orleans. It's a pretty well-packed four issue mini-series. Most mini-series today are six issues but they tend to meander on a bit. This one is four issues and it is full of conflict and intrigue, great character relationships and interactions. It gives you a good insight into who he is as well as into the culture of this whole Guild, and he has to deal with things.
One thing that does occur to me as I read it is this entire Guild system is incredibly d...

We take a look at Gambit’s first appearance and his first mini-series preceded by a completely pointless comic with a flying alien.

Affiliate link included.

Transcript follows:

Find out about Gambit’s first comic book appearances as we take a look at Gambit Classic: Volume One straight ahead.

Gambit Classic: Volume One was the book that I’d hoped to get for my inter-library loan request last year, and I talked about the book I got instead on our second and third episodes. This book collects Gambit’s earliest appearance on Uncanny X-Men, and then his first mini-series. He appeared in Issue 266 of The Uncanny X-Men. So, of course this book collects Issues 265 to 267.

Issue 265 is one I really could have done without reading. After the initial appearances in 266 and 267, Marvel put a page of exposition to explain his entire tenure with the X-Men over two year prior to the mini-series. It seems like the relevant parts of Issue 265 could have just as easily been summarized. The relevant part is that at this time Storm has amnesia and is regressed to a child physically, and so doesn’t know how to use her mutant powers. She’s operating as a thief, stealing from other thieves and returning the items to their rightful owners for rewards, I guess.

But beyond that there is so much more going on in the book. The book opens with four pages in space with alien space warriors, and there are no alien space warriors in Issues 266 or 267, so that’s kind of weird thread anyway. This really should have started with 266, but that said, once it gets started it’s pretty good. Storm has stumbled into the Shadow King and his minions, and she tries to get away and ends up being rescued by Gambit who had his heart set on stealing some art but instead decided to save Storm instead. Saying, “paintings will keep, us thieves we have to stick together”. And they have to escape the Shadow King together, and the minions who are under his control. There is some pretty good action and they end up becoming sort of a Robin Hood pair. They steal but only from those who have stolen in the first place, and it’s shown through an entire comic strip montage. However, their good times together are spoiled when the Orphan Maker, who I guess from reading this had something to do with Storm losing her memory. About the story in these two issues, Gambit is a really fun character. He is a roguish character but who follows a code of honor and genuinely cares about other people, particularly Storm – this girl who he doesn’t know what her powers is but he takes on the role of her friend and protector. And he is very clear that it will be no more than that because you do have this picture of Gambit as this sort of ‘gentleman thief’.

There are lots of pieces of art that show his coolness, his skill, the strength of his powers as well as his great coordination. 266 and 267 are a fun introduction to Gambit. The Gambit mini-series really brings him back to New Orleans and to his roots where his wife, or is it ex-wife or is it comatose wife, is dying and can’t be waked, and at the same time the Tithes Collector is at work. Remy’s Guild, Remy LeBeau which is his true identity, is part of the Thieves Guild in New Orleans and they are opposed by the Assassins Guild who are picking off members of his Guild and of his family. And so Remy and Rogue they go down to New Orleans. It’s a pretty well-packed four issue mini-series. Most mini-series today are six issues but they tend to meander on a bit. This one is four issues and it is full of conflict and intrigue, great character relationships and interactions. It gives you a good insight into who he is as well as into the culture of this whole Guild, and he has to deal with things.

One thing that does occur to me as I read it is this entire Guild system is incred...

Find out who breaks up the Green Lantern Corps/Sinestro Corps alliance as we look at Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, Volume 4: Fractures
Affiliate link included.
Transcript below:

Breaking up isn't hard to do, not when you're two enemy factions trying to forge a fragile peace, and Kyle Rayner ticks off the one person who can send it all into a tailspin. We'll tell you all about it next as we look at Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, Volume Four: Fractures. Welcome to the Classy Comics Podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise, Idaho here is your host Adam Graham.
‘Fractures' is the fourth volume of the Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps trade for the current series. It collects issues Twenty-Two through Twenty-Nine, and contains two separate four-part stories. First up is ‘Fractures', and to explain this story a little bit of continuity in the series. The Green Lantern Corps was thought to have disappeared from the galaxy, and Sinestro, a longtime enemy of the Corps stepped up to fill the gap with his Sinestro Corps. Unlike the Green Lanterns, the Sinestro Corps are Yellow Lanterns, harnessing fear in order to obtain their power. Joining Sinestro was his daughter Soranik, former Green Lantern.
However, when Hal Jordan exposed that her father was really behind the disappearance of the Lanterns, and that he was masterminding yet another really evil plan in his long history of really evil plans, Soranik, shocked that her father would have a really evil plan turned on him and joined forces with Hal in order to thwart Sinestro. Many members of the Sinestro Corps survived and she proposed banding them into a force for good and joining forces with the Green Lanterns. The Lanterns, while not eliminated from the galaxy, had their numbers dwindle and so, John Stewart the leader of the Lanterns was open to this alliance and it appears to be making some progress.
As in the last volume the two toughest, meanest members of each Corps – Guy Gardener of the Green Lanterns and Arkillo of the Sinestro Corps forged a friendship and partnership, and many were starting to work together. That leads to Sarko coming to try and break up the harmony of the two Corps. Sarko was killed at the end of Volume Three and shortly after that Kyle Rayner discovered that Sarko was his son with Soranik who he's had a romantic interest in. And that is our story upon until Volume Four, even though that this was probably going to happen with a division between the two Corps. After all, the Yellow Lanterns kept the name Sinestro Corps. It would be like a branch of the Hitler Youth wanting to join with an international youth club after World War II and saying, "We realized Hitler was totally wrong but we want to join with you and keep together as a group". Well, OK, you can do that, great. “Everyone remained being called the Hitler Youth.” Wait, what?
If you're really making a break with the past and you don't agree with the ways of Sinestro, why the heck would you still continue to call yourself the Sinestro Corps? But I digress…
Strains on the alliance come in two ways: first, both corps joined forces to stop the robbery of a great intergalactic bank. It's an epic battle and it gives us a chance to see them really work together as a team before the fracture. However, the leader of the raiders reveals that a member of the Green Lantern Corps committed murder, and he is going to reveal it unless John Stewart lets the raider and his crew go. The murder itself turns out to be of little consequence, and is more a pretext for the fracture rather than the reason for it. The person who the Green Lantern murdered was a Sinestro Corps member who refused to join with the new alliance, and he was also a murderer of children from that Green Lanterns' home world,

Find out who breaks up the Green Lantern Corps/Sinestro Corps alliance as we look at Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, Volume 4: Fractures

Affiliate link included.

Transcript below:

Breaking up isn’t hard to do, not when you’re two enemy factions trying to forge a fragile peace, and Kyle Rayner ticks off the one person who can send it all into a tailspin. We’ll tell you all about it next as we look at Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, Volume Four: Fractures. Welcome to the Classy Comics Podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise, Idaho here is your host Adam Graham.

‘Fractures’ is the fourth volume of the Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps trade for the current series. It collects issues Twenty-Two through Twenty-Nine, and contains two separate four-part stories. First up is ‘Fractures’, and to explain this story a little bit of continuity in the series. The Green Lantern Corps was thought to have disappeared from the galaxy, and Sinestro, a longtime enemy of the Corps stepped up to fill the gap with his Sinestro Corps. Unlike the Green Lanterns, the Sinestro Corps are Yellow Lanterns, harnessing fear in order to obtain their power. Joining Sinestro was his daughter Soranik, former Green Lantern.

However, when Hal Jordan exposed that her father was really behind the disappearance of the Lanterns, and that he was masterminding yet another really evil plan in his long history of really evil plans, Soranik, shocked that her father would have a really evil plan turned on him and joined forces with Hal in order to thwart Sinestro. Many members of the Sinestro Corps survived and she proposed banding them into a force for good and joining forces with the Green Lanterns. The Lanterns, while not eliminated from the galaxy, had their numbers dwindle and so, John Stewart the leader of the Lanterns was open to this alliance and it appears to be making some progress.

As in the last volume the two toughest, meanest members of each Corps – Guy Gardener of the Green Lanterns and Arkillo of the Sinestro Corps forged a friendship and partnership, and many were starting to work together. That leads to Sarko coming to try and break up the harmony of the two Corps. Sarko was killed at the end of Volume Three and shortly after that Kyle Rayner discovered that Sarko was his son with Soranik who he’s had a romantic interest in. And that is our story upon until Volume Four, even though that this was probably going to happen with a division between the two Corps. After all, the Yellow Lanterns kept the name Sinestro Corps. It would be like a branch of the Hitler Youth wanting to join with an international youth club after World War II and saying, “We realized Hitler was totally wrong but we want to join with you and keep together as a group”. Well, OK, you can do that, great. “Everyone remained being called the Hitler Youth.” Wait, what?

If you’re really making a break with the past and you don’t agree with the ways of Sinestro, why the heck would you still continue to call yourself the Sinestro Corps? But I digress…

Strains on the alliance come in two ways: first, both corps joined forces to stop the robbery of a great intergalactic bank. It’s an epic battle and it gives us a chance to see them really work together as a team before the fracture. However, the leader of the raiders reveals that a member of the Green Lantern Corps committed murder, and he is going to reveal it unless John Stewart lets the raider and his crew go. The murder itself turns out to be of little consequence, and is more a pretext for the fracture rather than the reason for it. The person who the Green Lantern murdered was a Sinestro Corps member who refused to join with the new alliance, and he was also a murderer of children from that Green Lanterns’ home world,

A look at Jan Van Meter's 21st Century updated take on Black Lightning's origin story.
Affiliate link included.
Transcript:
"Justice like lightning should ever appear, to some men hope, to other men fear." We're taking a look at Black Lightning, Year One, coming up next.

Black Lightning was created by Tony Isabella in 1977. Black Lightning, Year One was published in 2009 and is a modern updating of Black Lightning's origin stories. The reason this was done is that he was introduced prior to Crisis on Infinite Earth where the DC Universe could be rebooted, and its continuity simplified so that that would never happen again. And about twenty-five years later they had to do it again.
The original origin story from the 1970s really worked pretty well for the most part. The story was that Jefferson Pierce, a gold medal Olympian, returned to his old high school – Garfield High in a suicide slum in Metropolis – to serve as a high school teacher; and the murder of one of his students leads him to become Black Lightning and to take on the 100, the evil gang that dominates his city. 2009 Update changes some things. First, rather than coming in as a teacher he arrives as the principal. In some ways I think this is kind of a nod to Lean on Me where Morgan Freeman plays Joe Clarke, a principal who comes to restore order to a troubled school.
In the original story Pierce was divorced and his ex-wife showed up working at the same school he was at, and she is in the school and frequently ignored until finally they become friends and happily divorced as was the big trend in the 1970s, the cultural push for people to become divorced, be good friends and have it all be very socially acceptable. This not really being a thing in 2009 he is actually still married to his wife Lynn and they have one child and another child's quickly on the way. But Jeff's decision to become Black Lightning creates a lot of friction in his marriage, ending up with her leaving him though not getting divorced. She doesn't come off particularly well in the exchange but there's actually a reason for it, and it's probably the book's most clever innovation.
And what makes a good retelling of an origin story stand out from one that is a bit weak, a good retelling will take a look at some element of the story that wasn't explained or fleshed out and flesh it out and provide a remarkable twist that fills in a hole that a writer in a previous age hadn't thought of. And writer Jen Van Meter really does that here. When you think about it a key problem with the original story of Suicide Slum called Southside here in Year One is the idea that there is a portion of Metropolis that is overrun with crime, and that Superman doesn't do anything about it.
When you think about it the idea then is that Superman is not addressing the problems with crime in this neighborhood unlike crime in other parts of Metropolis, because he doesn't really care about black people. I'm sure that is not what Tony Isabella was going for. He was used to dealing with Marvel characters, and Marvel characters do not generally have as much power or scope as Superman. There's a reason Spider-Man doesn't fight crime in Harlem as a practice, because his main area is Manhattan and Queens, and he cannot fly everywhere in the city. Superman is different and the original take on this leaves the impression that there's a portion of Metropolis that Superman is ignoring even as he flies all over the world and universe to fight crime elsewhere.
And Van Meter does something clever and introduces an evil mystical force into the equation as the key cause behind this. And as most people know, Superman does not have powers against magic; and in the books it's referenced that Superman is weakened inside the Suicide Slum....

A look at Jan Van Meter’s 21st Century updated take on Black Lightning’s origin story.

Affiliate link included.