Sunday on Monday Trade: Wednesday Comics

Wednesday Comics written by many, art by various

For those who don't remember Wednesday Comics was a weekly DC title, done in an old-school Sunday comics style. Each issue featured 15 different stories in one-page installments. Which varied in quality and in how well they took advantage of the change in format. The collected format is a huge-ass coffee table sized book. Too big for me to scan the cover even. Really, really, REALLY big. Also with single pages of two titles that didn't make the cut, Plastic Man written by Evan Dorkin and art by Stephen DeStefano and Beware the Creeper written by Keith Giffen and art by Eric Canete...

First up is Batman written by Brian Azzarello, art by Eduardo Risso, colors by Patricia Mulvhill and letters by Clem Robins. This one basically Azzarello's 100 Bullets. With Batman in it. Nice and all, but nothing truly special. B-

Next, Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth written by Dave Gibbons, art by Ryan Sook. This one has the feel of the classic Prince Valiant comic strips. Plus Gorilla-Men and Tiger-Men and guns and violence in a post-apocalyptic feature. Very cool. A+

Superman is written by John Arcudi, art by Lee Bermejo, colors by Barbara Ciardo, letters Ken Lopez. Which is very much a Superman story. A super-whiny Superman story. Superman deals with aliens who make him angsty and whiny for 6 or 7 weeks. Truly disappointment. D

Murdered circus aerialist Boston Brand is tasked by a Goddess to help the world as the ghostly Deadman written by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck, colors by Dave Stewart, letters by Jared Fletcher. Good use of the format, nice story involving vengeful ghost ladies and demons. B+

Then Green Lantern written by Kurt Busiek, art by Joe Quinones and letters by Pat Brosseau. A perfectly well-scripted story and some nice, crisp art. But theres nothing here that couldn't be a regular floppy issue of the comic. Plus its about Hal Jordan a test pilot who fights aliens with a magic ring and still manages to be one of the dullest fucking characters ever.. C

Metamorpho the Element Man written by Neil Gaiman, art by Mike Allred, colors by Laura Allred and letters by Nate Piekos. Here Gaiman and Allred really try to experiment with the format and do some truly interesting pages. Like the one set out as board game or where Metamorpho and Element Girl, who can turn into any element, chase their evil counter-part across a Periodic Table of the Elements. The stories a little slight though. B+

Ugh. Teen Titans written by Eddie Berganza, art by Sean Galloway, letters by Nick J. Napolitano. This one is just terrible. One its the only one that tris to fit in with the regular DC ongoing continuity. The story goes nowhere, the art is a giant mess and the characters are less then one-note. A total waste of of space. F

Happily the next one is Strange Adventures by Paul Pope. Which is about Adam Strange, an Earthman who is transported by a teleporter ray to the planet Rann where he hangs with his space princess true love and has crazy space adventures. With ray guns and jet packs. And in this story crazy blue babboon aliens. Pope goes all out creating a wild pulp-era scifi story. Lots of love for this one. A+

Bringing us to Supergirl written by Jimmy Palmiotti, art by Amanda Conner, colors by Paul Mounts, letters by John J Hill. Most of this is Supergirl chasing an adorable Krypto and Streaky. And I do mean super-adorable. Plus some really amusing pages involving Aquaman and later Dr. Mid-nite. All-around fun and cute 90% of the reason I'll eventually check out Palmiotti and Conner's work on Power-Girl in trade. A

Then its Metal Men written by Dan DiDio, art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan, letters by Kenny Lopez, colors by Trish Muluihill. Yep this is certainly a comic-book type story about the robotic Metal Men and their creator Dr. Magnus. Stopping a bank robbery. And its even got a predictable appearance by regular Metal Men foe Chemo. And ends with most of the robots getting broken. Really its like 90% of their stories minus any crazy. C

The next one I seem to be one of the few who liked. Wonder Woman by Ben Caldwell. The early pages have a whole Little Nemo-dream adventures thing going on. And yes this is probably the most panel-heavy of the stories. But honestly this is one of the few times I've seen a solo Wonder Woman story and felt interested in getting more. A

Sgt. Rock and Easy Co. written by Adam Kubert and art by Joe Kubert. Whats to say. Its Joe Kubert drawing Sgt. Rock. He and easy company will overcome the bad guys and kill lots of Nazis. There is nothing wrong here. There also isn't anything that really makes use of the format. B

But this next one probably takes the best advantage of the format. The Flash written by Brenden Fletcher and Karl Kerschl, art by Kerschl, colors by Dave McCaig, letters by Rob Leigh. All kinds art tricks, concurrent split-page story telling funky panel lay-outs. All helping tell a very sharp story where Gorilla Grodd tries to take out the Flash using his own powers against him. Plus it manages to make me care about DC's second-dullest character Barry Allen. A+

The Demon/Cat-Woman written by Walter Simonson, art by Brian Stelfreeze, letters by Steve Wands. So Cat-Woman steals from Jason Blood (who is the host for Etrigan the Deomn) which leads to fighting against Morgana LeFay and then Blood and Selina are dating. Or something. Its nice enough but nothing really special. C+

The last one from the original issues is Hawkman by Kyle Baker. This one is just full of crazy awesome. Its like each page is trying to top the last page. Hawkman goes after terrorists. Who are aliens! And the plane crashes on an island. DINOSAUR ISLAND! And Hakwman has to fight a T-Rex. With Aquaman. Who has his giant sea-horse put a choke hold on the Rex so that Hawkman can fly into its mouth and stab it! A+


Average Grade: B

Finally as I mentioned at the top are one-page samples for a Plastic Man comic by Evan Dorkin that has a great cartoon look and feel to it. And Beware of the Creeper looks like it could have been a really..well creepy crime story. Either of which would have made for a better choice than the shitty Teen Titans story. Then again photos of the DC employees cats would have been a better comic than the Titans garbage...