The
House of Secrets Reveals the Best in Trade Paperbacks for 2009.
Praise. Not something you hear a lot from this column often, but there are those rare times when it is well justified. Writers, artists, storylines — it’s when these three components are going on all cylinders that you know you have a jewel of a book.
The "Best" in anything is a highly subjective declaration, we get that. We at the House of Secrets believe that the "Best" books are always in the eye of the beholder. We've cobbled together a little "Top Ten" list here for ya, so you can get some ideas on some great reads available right now to fill your spring and summer reading list.
Such is the case with the Starman Series. Having read the entire series in first run, I can’t think of a more complete and satisfying heroes journey in a comic book series — ever. Here it is, over a decade later and I can still remember some great character and story arcs throughout the series. This was a book that took readers through decades of forgotten heroes/villains, dangling plot lines, dated storylines and second-tier characters of the DCU to weave a grand tapestry of the past, present and future for one of DC’s original superhero legacies.
Our Picks for Upcoming Reads...
The Art of Blade of the Immortal - Miroaki Samura
[FC 160pgs, HC 9x12, June 2nd]
Seven Soldiers of Victory Volume I - Hard Cover
[FC 400pgs, HC, June 16th]
Sweet Tooth Volume I: Out of the Woods
[FC 128pgs, Mature Readers, May 12th]
Turf #1 [of 4] from Image Comics
[FC 32pgs, April 7th]
Wilson HC - Daniel Clowes from Drawn & Quarterly
From a family of Opal City cops, ghosts of dead obscure superheroes and villains of bygone eras, carnie folk, pirates, gun slingers, hired muscle, the JSA, Solomon Grundy and rulers of distant planets, Robinson breathes life into the most antiquated of Golden Age characters and provides a diversity of character voices to flesh out Opal City and the Starman legend.
Unlike most solo superhero books, the charm of this book really comes from the fact that Jack Knight functions more as a member of an ensemble cast rather than the central focus of the series. Robinson words coupled with the dark, noir tones of artwork by Tony Harris, gives Opal City a truly distinct look and feel that resonates through the character arcs, twisting plots and the grand storylines.
Robinson launched Starman right after his flashback Elseworld’s tale “The Golden Age” featuring Golden Age JSA and All Star Squadron members and through the success of Starman was able to bring the JSA back into active publication. I would highly recommend “The Golden Age” as a great read and as a loose primer TPB for those not familiar with the Justice Society of America’s (JSA) rich long history. If you can’t find the numerous soft cover TPB’s of the Starman series, I suggest you get your copy of Starman Omnibus I & II today.
