A slightly shorter Comics Are Expensive than planned this week, as work and generally not feeling great conspired against me to to knock the books being talked about down from three to two. While I’m not super happy with the way this week’s piece turned out, the two books up for review are still good in their respective ways (though Proof #9 isn’t the best introduction to a series ever), and worth a look if you’re interested in the increasingly rather great range of comics not coming out of either Marvel or DC.

And with that, on with the rest.

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All Star Superman #10 (Morrison, Quietly): There’s a bit where the problem with Kandor, miniaturized last city of Krypton, is solved with a stupefying degree of elegance it’s hard to believe it hasn’t already been done elsewhere. There’s a bit where Lois shows why everybody should own a cellphone, if only so Frank Quietly can use it to instill a tremendous sense of vertigo a few pages later. There’s a bit with Luthor being Luthor, summing up his entire history with Superman in four panels. There are bits hinting at tyrant suns to come and riffing off of the largely ace Seven Soldiers event from a few years ago, but here they’re just two more bits of wonder to take in amidst a volley of the stuff. There’s a bit with microscopic doctors holding cells together with their bare hands, and another with with the birth and fast life of Earth Q. All Star Superman has been one of the best comics around since it first appeared, And #10 is its finest moment thus far. Read it and revel in the sheer number of incredible moments on hand, then struggle to imagine where things could possibly go next.

Teen Titans #57 (McKeever, Barrows): Slightly more hit and miss than McKeever’s last few issues, but still lots of broad strokes to enjoy. Lots of fighting happens with Ravager taking on two (and then three) of the new Terror Titans before doing something that will probably sting in the morning. Elsewhere, Kid Devil’s seen better days and Robin tracks down Wondergirl at college for some clumsy exposition about her secret identity there being Drusilla. Horrible made up names aside, it’s still a solid issue, setting up the new bad guys as a threat with a great deal of property damage and the potential death of a Titan. McKeever continues to write one of the stronger team books around.

Green Lantern #29 (Johns, Reis): Things slow down a bit here, with the birth of the various other Lantern Corps being put on hold for a trip down memory lane and a retelling of Hal Jordan’s origin meant to solidify the history between him and Sinestro. Despite the tour of the events that shaped Jordan into who he would eventually become, he’s still a bit cardboard, still trying to replace an actual personality with a set of motivations. This works well in the direction Johns has taken the series, where Jordan plays both a large part in events while serving as our eyes for the more interesting things happening around him, but with the focus on his younger, pre-ring days the momentum definitely takes a hit. Thankfully we also have a story of Abin Sur, the Lantern Jordan would eventually replace, as he returns to the prison world where he first heard the prophecy of the Lantern Corps’ forthcoming doom. When its all said and done, I think this arc is going to make a nice companion piece to the “Sinestro Corps War’ storyline and whatever comes next. Let’s just get past the family drama stuff, please?

Flight Explorer Vol. 1 (Various): As briefly mentioned in this week’s column, Flight Explorer is a genuine delight, and exactly the sort of direction the series should be branching out in. Focusing on creating the ideal all-ages comic so many libraries and bookstores continue to have an empty space on their shelves for, each of the ten stories here is a unique adventure, with subject matter covering space-faring mouse heroes, a monster’s first brush with snow, or just the thrill of running across a valley full of toadstools the size of redwoods. Combined with the series’ trademark accessibility and sense of wonder, it’s the perfect entry point to comics for all those potential readers that just aren’t interested in yet another retelling of Spider-Man’s origin story.

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