100 Page Giant! From Beyond The Unknown // Review
DC’s 100 Page Giant books have apparently been a massive success. DC went beyond the original 12 issues for their four books, introduced more books, and have even launched a second run of key characters like Superman. There have also been holiday celebrations and movie tie-ins like Birds of Prey. However, someone at DC seems to have gone slightly crazy with this idea: what about an anthology book about the crazy stuff in space?
That’s what From Beyond the Unknown brings to the table, with three different original stories and three classic reprints from unlikely sources. As with all of the 100 Page Giants, the books are stuffed to the gills with original content, reprints of older content, and house advertisements for relevant content. However, this one has a twist. Rather than content from the beginning of DC’s Rebirth (2016) or from the start of 52 (2011)... the archives have truly been cracked wide open. The editor for this mag has reached into the 1970s and 1980s for their content.
The anthology begins with Green Lanterns In Gloom. Written by Dave Wielgosz, Kenneth Rocafort joins as the artist. Daniel Brown works as a colorist, and Zakk Saam letters the book. Taking place during the early days of Hal Jordan’s tenure as Green Lantern, Hal Jordan is forced to confront what could happen when he neglects his duties as the Green Lantern of Sector 2814. The Gloom, the remnants of a species left near-extinct by a relentless destroyer, are now our for both its blood and Hal’s for not protecting their world when he could have. Can Hal confront his own failure and survive?
The art for In Gloom is great. The design of the Gloom is incredible and feels like it came from Morrison’s current run on GL with Liam Sharp. Alien beings don’t look like the stereotypical rubber-forehead aliens, and the action is fast and snappy when it needs to be. For a brief 16 page story, the writing is also excellent. Wielgosz examines Hal’s neglect of outer space from the Silver Age of comics and brings depth to those earlier stories with a twist of consequence.
The second original story stars the Jack Kirby creation Kammandi, the Last Boy on Earth. Called The Butler, the story was written by Tom Sniegoski with Eric Gapstur on art. Marissa Louise colors the book, with Ferran Delgado lettering the book. When a storm and a collective of rat-men force Kammandi to seek shelter, he finds the lone robot Butler watching over a surprisingly well taken care of estate. With the rat-men invading the estate, can Kammandi and his newfound friend survive?
Another short and sweet tale, Sniegoski, has a great handle on Kammandi as a character. While it won’t blaze any new trails, Kammandi feels as fleshed out as he did back when Jack Kirby wrote him. However, the stand-out here is the art. The faded colors provided by Louise look fantastic and help make the well-designed world from Gapstur look worn down and aged. While an interesting choice for the book, it works well.
The Legion of Super-Heroes also appear in a feature called Stealth Mode. Written by Dan Jurgens, with art by Jurgens and Norm Rapmund. Colors are by Hi-Fi, and Ryan Christy lettered the book. With Wildfire and Sun Boy missing, the Legion sends out Dawnstar and Brainiac 5 to track them down. When the two are found on the savage world of Hustrava, how can the Legion save their friends without causing interstellar war?
This story feels like it could have fit in the older days of the Legion, back in the 80s before reboots gave us another four iterations of the team. Jurgens has a fantastic handle on the characters, and it feels like he may be cribbing from the original Star Trek series for this comic. However, that is actually a compliment, in this case, making for a grand adventure with the Legion’s starship, even looking like the USS Enterprise as a nod of the head. The art is also great, with the retro costumes represented wonderfully. While the story is short at 8 pages, Stealth Mode is a fantastic piece of Legion fanservice.
The first issue from DC’s archives comes from the Superman Team-Up comic DC Comics Presents issue 3: The Mystery of Little Earth Lost. Coming from 1978, David Michelinie makes a rare DC appearance to write the story. Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez worked on the art, while Jerry Serpe colored the art. Ben Oda lettered the pages, and Jack C. Harris worked as an Adam Strange Consultant for the issue. Taking place in the weird era where Clark Kent was a television anchor, Superman returns home from a deep-space mission only to discover that the Earth is missing! In its place, Rann - the sometimes home of deep space hero Adam Strange! Across the universe, Earth has taken Rann’s place as well, causing all sorts of chaos with the different atmosphere of each world wreaking havoc. Can Superman and Adam Strange figure out what went wrong before disaster strikes?
The writer of this review pleads bias, as this issue was one of his first Superman comics back in the day. However, the art has been cleaned up incredibly well, and Garcia-Lopez’ pencils and inks look nothing short of spectacular. Being a bronze age comic with more pages, the story is faster-paced and filled with action across three major chapters. While neither Superman or Adam Strange will have any major character development, Michelinie does a fantastic job introducing the characters and cooking up the most bizarre disasters when single-sun Earth is swapped with triple-sun Rann. This is a well-written tale that just might let readers know who that Adam Strange guy is who happens to have a new book on the stands.
Batman also shows up from the archives, using his own team-up book with Brave and the Bold’s issue 113: The 50-Story Killer. Amusingly, this story was originally printed in a 100-page edition of Brave and the Bold back in 1974, making this a fitting choice for the anthology. Bob Haney brings his unique flavor of crazy as the writer, while Jim Aparo seems to handle all the duties on art with his own incredible style and flair. With a new mayor elected for Gotham City, the Batman finds himself forced into retirement! His new replacement? The Metal Men! Can Bruce Wayne adjust to a normal life, or will the Batman return when Bruce Wayne himself is held hostage by criminals?
These tales are something that Haney and Aparo seem to have been built for. Haney writes whatever he seems to desire, and his scripts make for some fantastic concepts and set pieces. After all, why would Batman be told to retire? Well, he is here. Deal with it. Jim Aparo is one of the best Batman artists ever, and his Batman is in his best form. This story has tons of detail, unique artistic angles not seen often back in the era, and a ton of flair. While it’s weird that one of Haney’s Batman-in-Space issues weren’t used for the collection, this is a welcome addition to the book.
Finally, a Green Lantern tale ends the book as well. In Blackest Night comes from 1987’s Green Lantern Corps Annual #3. Shockingly, Alan Moore himself wrote this little tale, with pencils by future Fables creator Bill Willingham. Terry Austin inked the story, while Gene D’Angelo colored the pages, and John Costanza lettered. Told as a flashback, Lantern Katma Tui relates to the Guardians of the Universe how she was able to recruit a Lantern for the space sector known as the Obsidian Depths. With a candidate from a species that possesses no eyesight, how could such a creature become a space cop with an item dependent on vision? The answer may surprise you.
Despite the name being re-used for one of DC’s best event comics ever, In Blackest Night is a character study on the now mostly-forgotten Katma Tui and an examination of what willpower means for different species. As usual from Alan Moore, the story is excellent, even if it was probably something he just shot out to fill pages in an annual. The art is moody and dark, excellently tying in with the setting of the Obsidian Depths. It stands out as a rare non-action story and works as a nice, decompressing story to cap off a fantastic book.
As usual, DC has provided a ton of classic and new content for just $5.00. However, by dipping into their archives further back than usual, and using some real top-notch talent for their new stories, DC has easily made one of the best collections in their Giant-Size line yet. It’s just an honest shame that this seems to be a one-shot like Birds of Prey because a monthly book of the best of DC Sci-Fi would be incredible.
