Customer Reviews

Showcase Presents: DC Comics Presents Superman Team-Ups Vol. 1

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Just like the "Showcase Present Batman Brave and the Bold Team Ups", this book collects the other great DC team-up book of that era. Superman finds himself allied with A-list heroes like the Flash, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman, along with a few lesser-knowns like Adam Strange, Red Tornado, and even Swamp Thing. Of course, those DC team-up staples The Metal Men make their obligatory appearance here (though thankfully not once every four issues like they do in the BATB team up books).

Jose Garcia Lopez's artwork is incredible and it's a shame more of the stories weren't drawn by him. Most of these are self-contained stories, though a few run two issues. The first two issues are stand-outs as far as storyline is concerned, while the Aquaman and Green Lantern team-ups seem a little weak. The Swamp Thing team-up is probably the weakest artistically, but even that's not too bad. This is 80's storytelling at its best.

Hopefully this will get another volume, as the title was still going strong for a little while longer before deteriorating into the standard DC fare that was easily avoided in the late 80's/early 90's. The nice thing about a book like this is even if you aren't a real fan of Superman, you're going to find a hero or two in there that you love reading about.

I have to be honest, i have an addiction and the only cure is Showcase and Essentials Books!

This Volume of Superman team-ups is fun, some stories suffer from bad writing but still fun.

And i have to tell you all how much i love these black and white collections. I actually prefer them the color collections. The black and whites take a little more reading a little more brain power to work out the story. Plus its the pure creative team, its up to the pencils (And inks) and the writer to tell you a good story. I love the format and i would actually buy all my comics in this format i would love it of Both DC and Marvel just collected every issue of a character on going tittles in this format.

I haven't read some of these stories since they were in print 30 years ago. The stories with art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez are some of the best drawn Superman stories ever.

I only pick up these Showcase volumes for material that I really, really want, and when there is no hope that there will ever be a full-color trade-paperback or hardcover DC Archives Edition. With the apparent demise of the Archives, that's quite likely the case with DC Comics Presents.

I'm a big fan of the Brave and the Bold team-up title, going all the way back to issue number 50 of the original series in 1963, through the Bob Haney era including brief periods with art by Neal Adams, Nick Cardy, and an extended run by Jim Aparo. For the most part I've enjoyed the current series as well, especially the J. Michael Straczynski issues. I've even found myself enjoying the animated series.

As a fan of team-ups and odd pairings, I checked out the Marvel Two-in-One series and Marvel Team-up in the 70's, but because I'm not much of a Marvel fan, I wasn't as engaged as I was with B&B. But I wanted more. Then along came DC Comics Presents.

Batman, after his popularity in the 60's, became more of a loner. Robin moved off to college and solo adventures, and despite forming a team of Outsiders, Batman just didn't work and play well with others. This became a challenge in crafting team-up tales. Superman didn't have that baggage. He's always been sort of the big brother of the superhero community. He's everybody's best friend. He's the cool kid that fits in with the jocks, but is also chummy with the nerds, geeks, and freaks. Superman could run around with Batman as part of The World's Finest team, hang with Wonder Woman, but also make time for Air Wave or Amethyst and make them feel equally important and deserving of his attention.

As to this package, I found it a bit disappointing. I was prepared for it to be strictly black and white. While not happy about it, I accept that it's the only format available. And it is a terrific value. It's 512 pages and reprints the first 26 issues (excluding the back-up feature and other extras): over two years' worth of the series, for only $20 ($12-$13 on Amazon). And I have a great appreciation for single or two issue stories. But I'd forgotten how uneven and inconsistent the artwork is. I had it in mind that José Luis García-López, like Jim Aparo in Brave and the Bold, had done most of the art for this title.

Turns out of the 26 issues in this volume, he only provided pencils (and in a few cases the inks), for 7 issues. There are a couple stories featuring Murphy Anderson, one drawn by Curt Swan, one by Jim Starlin, and one by Rich Buckler. The rest are Dick Dillin, whose work I've come to appreciate, and Joe Staton, whose work I have not. But even those whose work I like have been paired with inkers like Francisco Chiaramonte, Joe Giella, Vince Colletta, Dick Abel, Steve Mitchel and Frank McLaughlin. In my opinion, they are at their best adequate, and at their worst just unbearably awful. Giella inks one of Garcia-Lopez's stories, and if it didn't say so in the credits I wouldn't have recognized Garcia-Lopez's fine, dynamic figure work.

In all, it was fun taking a trip down memory lane. There are a couple stories that delighted me almost as much as they did when I first read them 30 years ago. But those gems weren't enough on balance for me to really enjoy this volume as much as I'd hoped to. If I'd done a bit of research first, I probably wouldn't have picked this one up.

I saw these stories when they origanially came out so it was fun to see them again. The one thing I did not pick up was that these comics are not inked they are black and white line drawings only.

I expect comics in color and this detracted from the enjoyment of the book. :(

I won the letter colomn contest when this series started in issue#1. The prize was to draw me in and include me in the Hawkman team up. Trade is very good for most stories. My only issue with my Hawkman story is DC messed up in obtaining permission using my name and likeness for the reprint and they(DC) were jerks when I called them to task on it and did not make good for their mistakes to me.