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Saturday, December 19, 2009

Superman (Vol.2) #165 - Feb. 2001

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Comics Weekend "Help!" by Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness, Cam Smith, and Special Guests!

This being the last Comics Weekend before Christmas, I wanted to do something seasonal. Unfortunately, Aquaman is not in this year's DCU Holiday Special, so we'll just have to go with this issue, where Superman delivers presents to all his JLA pals.

After an introductory segment by then-regular Superman artist McGuinness, we have Superman paying a visit on Martian Manhunter and Plastic Man (both aboard the JLA Watchtower).

Then he heads underwater, in a segment drawn by Rob Liefield, where the Arthur and the Man of Steel see whose nose is pointiest:
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Not having read Superman for many years, I don't know if Aquaman ever returned to the book to follow up on Lex Luthor's sure-to-be-broken campaign promises. Worth a look see!

Supes then vists Green Lantern in space, has a quick race with The Flash, tussles for exercise with Wonder Woman (oh, I bet Lois loves that...), then of course ending his Santa-like trip in Gotham City, where he delivers the gift of a Holmes-ian magnifying glass to Batman.

The issue ends with art by McGuinness again, as Superman carts an adorable Lois Lane (I love the way McGuinness draws women) off to a resort in the bottle city of Kandor for a quick holiday vacation.

A cute premise, cute execution (featuring chapters by, among others, Mike Wieringo and Art Adams), although I'd love to see a version of this story when the heroes aren't all mad and extreme at each other and stuff. But otherwise, a nice holiday tale!

4 comments:

Josh Hill said...

I remember liking this comic overall, but being very upset that Liefeld drew the Aquaman pages. Oh, well, thanks for the trip down memory lane, anyways!

Luis said...

Rob Liefeld drawing Aquaman - or anything else for that manner - is horrendous. The man is unable to draw any other facial expression other than a grimace.

Russell said...

I think Aquaman in Christmas-themed stories are few and far between...he got shafted in JLA 110 when the rest of the JLA is celebrating, he's in Atlantis celebrating "the festival of lights." Then he never had an Xmas themed story in his own magazine...although he did appear in last year's DCU Holiday issue, I believe that has been his ONE appearance there... (sigh)

Airship Over Water said...

Being someone who never read or saw much stuff from Liefeld back in his popularity-prime, I have to say I find the art rather...nice. I've seen some bad Liefeld stuff, and to be honest, this looks really good. But that's just me.

As for Aquaman's appearance in the 2008 DC Christmas Special -- I thought it stole the entire book. Having an Aquaman story that resembled the story of Jesus' birth was really cool. I think it was supposed to be Joseph, wasn't it? Or was it supposed to be an old story with Arthur? Either way, I liked it the best of all the stories in that issue.