Showing posts 1 - 5 of 47 matching: j.m. dematteis
Monday, March 10, 2025
Keith and Booster
Last April, J.M. Dematteis posted to his blog, jmdematteis.com, pictures of the late Keith Giffen's plots for Booster Gold Volume 2, #43, and for some reason, I bookmarked them but never posted about them here at Boosterrific.
I'm correcting that oversight now.
This is page one of the issue, with Giffen's signature thumbnail plotting on the left and finished art (by Chris Batista, Rich Perrotta, Hi-Fi Designs) on the right.
I enjoy Bastista's work (I even own some), but side by side, I definitely prefer the Keith Giffen-drawn comic.
By all means, visit jmdematteis.com to see some more.
Comments (7) | Add a Comment | Tags: chris batista j.m. dematteis keith giffen
Monday, May 13, 2024
New Release: JLI Omnibus Vol 3
Arriving this week in a Local Comic Shop near you is the third (and final?) volume of the Justice League International Omnibus.
According to the solicitation, this issue (with a brand new wraparound cover by Kevin Maguire) reprints "stories from Justice League America #51-60, Secret Origins #33-35, Justice League America Annual #5, Green Lantern #18, Justice League Quarterly #2-5, JLA 80-Page Giant #1, Formerly Known as the Justice League #1-6, JLA: Classified #4-9, Justice League Europe #26-36, DC Retroactive: JLA - The '90s #1, Justice League Europe Annual #2, and Justice League International Special #2."
It's funny: when you're reading them as you go along, they didn't seem like so many comics, but in hindsight, that's a heck of a long list.
That's at least part of 46 different comics, which pretty much A) justifies the $150 price tag, and B) puts a cap on the Giffen/DeMatteis era (with the exception of Justice League 3000-3001, which is collected elsewhere).
And the best part is that it excludes the JLI's appearances under the pens of other writers, so if we want to, we can all just pretend that Identity Crisis and Countdown to Infinite Crisis never happened. I can live with that.
Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: j.m. dematteis justice league international keith giffen kevin maguire new releases omnibus reprints
Friday, November 3, 2023
My Favorite Pages: Justice League Intl 15
A few weeks ago, while discussing my favorite page of Justice League International #14, I said that Steve Leialoha's loose style was a bad match for Keith Giffen's layouts. I've been looking at a lot of Giffen's layout art since his recent passing, and I've changed my mind. I now think the problem with Leialoha's art in JLI #14 and #15 is that Leialoha's finishes are probably too loyal to Giffen's layout style.
In any event, the art in Justice League International #15, while still not up to the standard set by regular series artist Kevin Maguire, is at least more consistent from panel to panel and page to page than the previous issue managed.
Thanks to J.M. DeMatteis's dialogue, there are several pages competing to be my favorite of the issue, including Booster Gold flying into action in page 10, Booster Gold saving the day on page 15, and Batman's punchline on page 22. But since this will always be the first meeting between Blue and Gold and Fire and Ice, page 6 steals the show:
I can't say the four of them really get along any better these days, but they'll always be family.
Comments (2) | Add a Comment | Tags: blue beetle favorite pages fire ice j.m. dematteis keith giffen steve leialoha
Wednesday, July 7, 2021
New Release: Justice League Infinity
The Justice League Unlimited returns to your Local Comic Shop today for their first new adventure since 2008 in Justice League Infinity #1.
The issue is co-written by Justice League International scribe J.M. DeMatteis, so you just know there are going to be some old-fashioned Blue and Gold antics.
I say let him eat cake!
Justice League Infinity is only a seven-issue mini-series, but if that's not enough Justice League Unlimited for you, DC has also released a new reprint collection of old JLU comics, Justice League Unlimited: Girl Power. Despite its focus on female heroes, Booster makes small appears in two of the stories in that reprint. Some Booster Gold is always better than no Booster Gold.
Buy either of these books and make Skeets happy!
Comments (0) | Add a Comment | Tags: blue beetle j.m. dematteis justice league unlimited new releases
Friday, April 16, 2021
Rani-ing Through My Head
I was recently asked whether we would ever see Rani again. I think that's a pretty good question.
For those who don't know or don't remember, Rani was a supporting character in later issues of Booster Gold Volume 2. Displaced from her natural era (the 30th century), she was taken in by Booster Gold who treated her as family. That makes Booster something of a surrogate father to the young girl. Rani was still a member of Booster's family when the events of Flashpoint changed the DCU. She hasn't been seen or mentioned since.
Now Infinite Frontier has restored all previously existing chronologies into an infinite DC Multiverse, Rani certainly exists somewhere. But it remains an open question whether readers will ever see her in the pages of an ongoing comic again. In other words, will we ever learn what became of Booster Gold's young ward?
Obviously, I can't predict the future, but past experience leads me to believe that Rani's story may never be told. Comic book supporting characters rarely follow the heroes they support from title to title. Artist turnover is high in the world of comic book publication. New storytellers often want to tell their own story, not continue the story of a previous teller. So even if Booster Gold gets another chance at the spotlight, it's unlikely that Rani will follow him (unless Rani's creators, Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, are the ones telling that story, and even then it's no guarantee that they would want to retread old ground).
Which is not to say that it's impossible. Creators like Roy Thomas, Grant Morrison, James Robinson, and Geoff Johns have made careers out of breathing new life into long forgotten characters. Who's to say that someone won't pick up the loose threads of Rani's story and run with them?
I sure hope so, Rani. You can't ignore family forever, can you?
Comments (6) | Add a Comment | Tags: j.m. dematteis keith giffen rani
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