Birds of Prey & Harley’s Crew | Book Club 29 Crossover | Harley’s Coven

DC89 · October 6, 2021, 5:23am

Can my third fave super join the party? This is def her fave time of the year as well.

Razzzcat · October 12, 2021, 3:39am

Those are the 2 best issues, imo.

I was happy to see them working together again on that one, for sure.

We only take first and second place, miss. No, lol, jkjk but we’re mainly focussing on JLD characters (made some stuff w/ HOH for things and stuff later ), and Wonder Woman since it’s her 80th B-Day! This coven takes all, tho. You know that.

Razzzcat · October 12, 2021, 3:41am

I’m toootally reading Young Monsters in Love first , just FYI, everybody. Love this: I’m here for you, Kirk!

And then straight to these two…

DC89 · October 12, 2021, 4:17pm

Yay!

jx336699.57085 · October 13, 2021, 6:12am

good

Jay_Kay · October 14, 2021, 5:41pm

Though when you think about it, Raven absolutely deserves a place in Justice League Dark.

Angel212 · October 18, 2021, 1:46am

I reread “Witching Hour” this week. Last time I read it as part of the Wonder Woman current series continuity - but I’ve read a whole lotta stuff between then and now, so I definitely forgot a lot.

I also think I had better context overall since I started at the beginning of Justice League Dark this time. Prior to reading this the first time, I knew none of these characters other than Zatanna and Constantine (and really only them from Bombshells).

Witching Hour thoughts

Anyhow! I enjoyed this, other than having a hard time watching bad stuff happen to/be caused by my girl Diana. I’d forgotten somehow that we’d be seeing Circe, which is of course always fun.

I also had forgotten that Hecate was the big bad. (Yeah I basically remembered nothing about this story lol.) But anyway, I’ve recently become obsessed with Lore Olympus and Hecate is one of my favorite characters in that comic. Although obviously she’s quite a bit more fun in that world.

SN: This goes beyond the club reading, but I kept going with Justice League Dark. I’m hoping to finish it, but I’m pretty easily disturbed, and issue 7 was honestly the most creeped out I’ve ever been by a comic:

Justice League Dark (2018-) #7

Obviously take that with a grain of salt because I really do have an incredibly low threshold for scary stuff. But just thought I’d mention it to any interested since it is almost Halloween.

Jay_Kay · October 18, 2021, 6:00pm

So here’s what I’ve finished so far:

Madame Xanadu #1-2

I was interested in this one because it’s a character I haven’t read a lot of in the past, at least not in this way. When I’ve read her in the past, it was mostly in books like Justice League Dark. So I was curious to see her origin.

And here…it’s okay, but I feel like we didn’t really get enough. I don’t think I really got a bead of what her life was like before things went to hell, and I was never really sure of who or what she was. Was she some sort of fairy, or magical creature, or was she a witch? How old is she? Because from the art I thought she was like 13-16, so when they talked about her being with Merlin I was like WTF?!

And I guess her sister is Morgan Le Frey? Is that new? I vaguely know her from the Justice League animated series, but if I didn’t have that knowledge I would have no context as to why she wanted to take down Camelot.

I get the feeling that this was a series that was meant to be for people who have read a lot of Madame Xanadu in the past and have an idea of her origins already, and this is just compiling it all together in one form. Or maybe it just wasn’t what I was expected? I dunno. I’ve read a bit of this book a while back for DCU Book Club, so I know it’s good, but I don’t know, this was just a rocky start for me.

Seven Soldiers: Zatanna #1-4

I was talking about before whether I wanted to read this on it’s own or reread all of Seven Soldiers to put it all together, but I decided to read it on it’s own. For one thing, I already got a lot of stuff between book clubs and just my own interests to read as is, and I was curious to see how well it reads on it’s own.

So I can say it reads pretty well on its own…at first. The first two issues are pretty stand-alone, with Zee and her new “apprentice” taking on a shapeless demon that I guess is the man of her dreams? It’s a pretty fun story, I really enjoyed how the first issue especially played around with the panels and three-dimensional space in a way Grant is a master of.

The second half is where things get a little…dicy on how standalone it is. Stuff like the talking horse and the Sheeda may not make sense if you haven’t been reading the other books, especially the Shining Knight series. I’m not sure if the stuff with Zor is also in those other books or if I missed something in the Zatanna series.

It’s still some fun comics, don’t get me wrong. I loved Zee’s characterization and power in this series, and Ryan Sook did some AMAZING art.

Jay_Kay · October 19, 2021, 5:33am

I thought I might have read it for a book club at one point and I did, here’s my thoughts for Young Monsters in Love when I read it for House of Horror:

Forgot about Young Monsters in Love! My thoughts:

Man-Bat in “Nocturnal Animal”

Interesting story, not exactly the kind you would expect for an anthology like this. There’s some of the idea of romantic love, with Kirk trying to regain the love of Francine, but in the end it’s more about self-love, and doing something that’s good for you, even if it hurts. It’s a decent metaphor for the battle addicts face every day.

Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E in “Pieces of Me”

I think one of the things I love about Frankenstein is that while he’s different from the classic creature from the story in some ways, he is steeped in the Gothic/romantic tropes of that time, and this is highlighted in his heartfelt and yearning letter.

The only critique I can say from this is that while the letter as an idea feels right, it seems a little off in terms of their history. In the past, Frank and Lady Frankenstein were husband and wife but separated. Here, the letter feels more unrequited, like something one would write to someone they’ve never been with but longed for, not someone who has been loved and want that love back.

Still, between that and the amazing art and action, this was a really good story.

Solomon Grundy in “Buried on Sunday”

Another nice story. One thing that I’m really liking about this anthology so far is that it seems less focused on the obvious sort of romantic love that Valentine’s Day is associated with, and here we get a humanizing moment for Solomon Grundy. Nice little moment.

Raven in “The Dead Can Dance”

I liked this story – Raven answering poltergeist calls is a little different, but fits her character, and I liked this moment of Raven letting loose and doing something normal like dancing with a boy, even if he is a ghost.

The only thing that nagged at me – is my colorblindness showing, or did they color Raven to have pink hair? That’s an odd choice, her hair is usually black with maybe some purple highlights.

Deadman in “Be My Valentine”

I really love this story. Paul Dini is such a great writer (I wonder if he’s willing to do more than just little stories for anthologies?) and Guillem March does some amazing work. The story I guess could be a bit hammy and after-school special-y, but I think it was well executed and the message is a good one.

Swamp Thing in “Heart-Shaped Box”

My thoughts while reading, “Wow…this is such a beautiful, heartfelt story. I wonder who…Mark Russel wrote this! No wonder!” While seeing Swampy with someone other than Abby was weird at first, and you kinda knew that things would not end well for the two, I thought this was really good. Swamp Thing’s dialogue was poetic and beautiful. The line of “Without love, my heart becomes a prison without a key” is going to stick with me for a while.

And the art…oh man, Frasier Irving is a GOD-TIER artist, his storytelling and use of color sets him apart from so many other artists working currently in the biz. I wish he would get more work.

Monsieur Mallah & The Brain in “Visability”

A nice story – while kind of standard “villain with good intentions gets persuaded to do things the right way,” but with solid execution.

I, Vampire in “The Turning of Deborah Dancer”

Decent story, AMAZING art by Stephanie Hans, who is a perfect fit for a character like Andrew Bennett. I’ve mostly only read his adventures in the New 52, so I was confused by this Deborah Dancer character, so I looked her up and found that she was from his original series back in the 70s, so it’s kind of cool to see them combine continuities a bit.

I do feel that while the moment of Bennett letting go of his fears to give himself to Dancer is nice, it feels…kind of empty without knowing what their relationship is. Like, I don’t have any attachment to them, I haven’t seen how they gotten together, how they act together. I think a story like this is too big for an eight page story.

The Demon in “To Hell and Gone”

Anything with rhyming Etrigan will always get me, especially if the rhymes are in sonnett and iambic parameter. The stuff with Rose was interesting – I wonder if that was history that was in the past Demon comics, or something they made up for this story.

The Creature Commandos in “Dear Velcoro”

The soldier getting a “Dear John” letter has been around since probably the invention of war, but seeing it happen with a vampire was kind of interesting. That’s about all I got for this one. Not sure if I didn’t have the right wiring at the time, or if this one is just boring. Oh well.

So yeah, overall some pretty good stuff in this one, glad to have read it.