Comic Books: Generations

Among my comics from January and February were two oversized issues called Generations: Shattered and Generations: Forged. 

It's a project that began life as a big thingamabob of cosmic shattering import blah blah blah that was the brainchild of publisher Dan Didio. Then Dan Didio got canned and the big thingamabob of cosmic shattering import blah blah blah became something a tad more streamlined and in the end a bit more fun.

Essentially, the two Generations books are dealing with a sort of Crisis on Infinite Earths redux, a big wave of white nothing is eating up worlds and time. A rag tag collection of heroes from the up and down the DC pantheon are called up to make things right.

Of course a self respecting DC crossover event has to have Batman and there he is. But specifically, he's the Batman we saw in Detective Comics #27, dark, taciturn and wearing purple gloves. This is not the Bruce Wayne of modern times who is crazy prepared for anything. This is a Bruce Wayne from 1939 who only just decided last week to dress up like a bat and fight crime. Now he's teaming up with a cadre of heroes from across time and space to take on a big wave of white nothing eating up worlds and time. 

Of course we have to include Superman but it's not. It's the classic version of Superboy, still young and innocent as only an adopted farm boy from Smallville, Kansas can be.   

We also get a Green Lantern but it's Sinestro before he turned all evil. 

Kamandi, Jack Kirby's classic "Last Boy on Earth" is part of the team. 

As is Superman compatriot John Henry, aka Steel, Starfire from the Teen Titans, Booster Gold and Dr. Light (the female scientist hero version) are among the very eclectic characters to assemble against the threat of the big wave of white nothing eating up worlds and time. 

Since Dan Jurgens is involved, Booster Gold is involved along with Waverider and the Linear Men.  And the big bad is a Jurgen's created cosmic villain from Jurgens' time on Superman, Dominus. 

Dominus is using the big wave of white nothing eating up worlds and time to power up an alternate reality where he can live with his wife and kids in a 1950s black and white utopia.

Yes, Generations is ripping off WandaVision before WandaVision came out. Weird, huh? 

I want to call attention to letterer Tom Napolitano whose crisp white word balloons filled with thick easy to read lettering made this book a joy to read. None of that fine yellow lettering on a red background for this book. This is classic comic book lettering that does the job of helping me read the book instead of making it a challenge. 

The two Generations volumes are exercises in big dumb comic book tropes, filled with lots of dramatic proclamations, punching and zapping against a backdrop of cosmic shenanigans. 

Generations  is also a lot of fun, an odd mixture of characters from across DC's long history fighting the good fight across  locations spanning all of time and space.