Hey fellow Omni-Lovers,

it's Two-Cents-Thursday again, a series where I read and review Omnis from my collection.

Last week I took you through Messner-Loebs and LaRocque's Flash Omnibus Vol. 1, the messy, essential foundation of Wally West's Flash that scored a 7.4/10 for me. I said at the end that we'd be staying in the Wally West era and.. well. We're not leaving. Not for a long time.

This week is a big one. Prepare for a longer read. We're covering four books: Mark Waid's complete Flash run across three omnibuses plus the Morrison/Millar Deluxe Edition that slots in between Volumes 2 and 3. That's roughly 4,900 pages of the Scarlet Speedster. The run that defined Wally West for a generation. The run that invented the Speed Force. The run people call one of the greatest in DC history.

Does it live up to the hype?

The early TL;DR: Yes. Overwhelmingly yes. Waid's Flash is the gold standard for legacy superhero storytelling. There are dips though. Volume 2 gets repetitive in places and the Morrison/Millar interlude is more "fun" than "essential", but the peaks? The Return of Barry Allen. Terminal Velocity. Chain Lightning. These are all-timer comics. The emotional core Waid builds around Wally and Linda alone is worth the price of admission.

Feel free to read through the whole review or simply skip to the overall score and TL;DR at the bottom. Let's go!

The Flash by Mark Waid Omnibus Vol. 1-3 + Morrison/Millar Deluxe Edition

Quick Stats:

• Waid Vol. 1: 1,088 pages, collects The Flash #62-91, The Flash Annual #4-6, Green Lantern #30-31, #40, The Flash 50th Anniversary Special #1, Justice League Quarterly #10.
• Waid Vol. 2: 1,216 pages, collects The Flash #0, #92-129, The Flash Annual #7-9, Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #4, Impulse #10-11, The Flash Plus #1, DC Universe Holiday Bash #1.
• Morrison/Millar Deluxe: 352 pages, collects The Flash #130-141, Green Lantern #96, Green Arrow #130, The Flash 80-Page Giant #1, Secret Origins #50.
• Waid Vol. 3: 1,256 pages, collects The Flash #142-163, The Flash Annual #10-13, Showcase '96 #12, Green Lantern/Flash: Faster Friends #1-2, The Flash Secret Files and Origins #1-2, Speed Force #1, The Life Story of the Flash #1, The Flash 80-Page Giant #1-2, Flash One Million #1.

That's.. a lot of Flash. I added the Morrison/Millar Deluxe because it fits perfectly in between Volumes 2 and 3 of the Waid omnis. Let's dive into the stories!

The Story

If Messner-Loebs made Wally someone worth caring about and paved the way for future iterations of the Flash, Waid made him a legend.

The premise hasn't changed: Wally West is the Flash, the fastest man alive, carrying the mantle of his dead uncle Barry Allen. But Waid shifts the register entirely. Where Messner-Loebs wrote a grounded, working-class hero figuring out adulthood, Waid writes a man coming to terms with legacy itself, what it means to inherit, what it means to surpass and what happens when the past comes knocking.

And oh, does the past come knocking..

Volume 1: Born to Run, The Return of Barry Allen and Finding the Voice (#62-91)

Waid's run opens with a bang. The 50th Anniversary Special is a love letter to Flash history that brings Jay Garrick, Barry Allen and Wally together in a story that spans eras. It's the perfect thesis statement for what Waid wants to do: this run is about legacy and it's going to use ALL of it.

Then comes Born to Run (#62-65) and this is where I knew we were in for something special. Waid retells Wally's origin as Kid Flash, his first summer with Barry, the accident that gave him powers, the idolization of his uncle and it's just.. genuinely moving. Not in a manipulative way. In a "I remember being that kid who looked up to someone so much it shaped who I became" way. The relationship between young Wally and Barry is written with such warmth and specificity that it retroactively makes every Barry/Wally story that came before better.

And then.. The Return of Barry Allen (#74-79).

I need to talk about this arc specifically because I think it might be one of the best Flash stories ever written. Barry Allen seemingly returns from the dead. Wally's reaction, the joy, the relief, the creeping insecurity, the gradual realization that something is WRONG is masterfully paced. Waid doesn't rush it. He lets you feel every emotion Wally goes through, and when the truth hits (Barry isn't Barry, it's Professor Zoom/Reverse-Flash using Barry's face), the payoff is enormous.

But the real stroke of genius? The story isn't about the villain. It's about Wally finally stepping out of Barry's shadow. By the end of this arc, Wally isn't Barry's replacement anymore. He's THE Flash. And he knows it.

I wasn't ready for how good this arc is. I'd heard the hype for years and it still caught me off guard.

The rest of Volume 1 is strong too. The Back on Track storyline builds on the momentum. The Green Lantern crossovers (#30-31, #40) are fun, Wally and Hal (and later Kyle) have great chemistry. The annuals are.. fine. Annuals in the 90s were kind of a mixed bag across the board and these are no exception. They're not bad, just not at the level of the main series.

Greg LaRocque's art continues from the Messner-Loebs run and it works. But then Mike Wieringo starts penciling and.. things shift. Wieringo's style is looser, more expressive, more dynamic. It matches Waid's energy perfectly. When Wieringo takes over, the book starts looking as good as it reads.

Volume 2: Terminal Velocity, Impulse and the Speed Force (#92-129)

If Volume 1 is about Wally finding himself, Volume 2 is about Waid expanding the mythology. And I mean EXPANDING. This is where the Speed Force is introduced. This is where Impulse debuts. This is where Savitar enters the picture. Waid isn't just writing good Flash stories anymore: he's building the architecture that every Flash writer after him will use.

Terminal Velocity (#95-100) is the big one here. Wally learns he's dying (again.. the man has more near-death experiences than any superhero not named Wolverine) and starts preparing his successors. The emotional weight here comes from Wally's relationships: with Linda (who he's in love with but hasn't fully committed to), with Max Mercury (the zen speedster mentor who becomes one of Waid's best original characters) and with the legacy he's building.

And then there's the moment. The scene. You know the one if you've read it. Wally runs into the Speed Force to save everyone and Linda pulls him back. Not with superpowers. Not with some cosmic MacGuffin. With love. It's corny on paper and absolutely devastating on the page. I don't care how cynical you are, that scene just works.

Impulse's debut is another highlight. Bart Allen, Barry's grandson from the future, shows up with super-speed he can't control and the attention span of a caffeinated squirrel. Waid writes him with such infectious energy that you immediately understand why he got his own ongoing (and I'm stil waiting for that Omni. Maybe they reevaluate its cancelation someday. Please?). The dynamic between Wally and Bart adds a whole new dimension to the book.

Dead Heat is the Savitar storyline and it's.. good? It's good. Savitar as a concept, a speed cultist who treats velocity as religion, is Waid at his most creative. But I'll be honest.. the execution doesn't quite match the concept. The race across time and space is visually cool, but Savitar himself feels a bit underdeveloped. He works better as an idea than as a character.

Race Against Time and the later arcs in the 120s.. this is where I have some issues. The John Fox storyline feels like Waid spinning his wheels a bit. The Argus subplot goes on too long. Waid writes Wally and Linda better than anyone, but then keeps putting them through the same plot beats. There's a stretch in the middle of Volume 2 where I felt like I was reading variations on the same story.

Volume 2 also has the Zero Hour tie-in (#0), which is actually fantastic. It's a reinvented origin issue that distills everything Waid has been building into 22 pages. If you want a "Waid's Flash in a nutshell" issue, this is it imo.

The annuals in this volume are a step up from Vol. 1. The Elseworlds annual (#7) is a genuine highlight. It's basically an alternate take on Wally's Flash that's creative and self-contained. Annual #8-9 are solid. The Impulse crossovers (#10-11) are fun if you're a Bart fan.

The Morrison/Millar Interlude (#130-141)

So right between Waid Vol. 2 and Vol. 3, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar take over for a 12-issue run. And it's.. interesting.

Emergency Stop (#130-132) opens strong. Wally is confined to a wheelchair after an encounter with a villain called The Suit and Morrison uses the limitation brilliantly. A speedster who can't run is the kind of high-concept constraint Morrison excels at. The Suit is a super unsettling villain and not a Flash rogue you've seen before, something weirder.

The Human Race (#136-138) is Morrison at his cosmic, wild, ideas-overload best. Wally has to race an alien being called Krakkl across the cosmos to save Earth. It's bonkers. It's also the most purely fun storyline in the entire Waid era + Morrison/Millar interlude. Silver age energy with a modern sensibility.

The Black Flash (#139-141) deals with death coming for Wally.. literally. The Black Flash is the personification of death for speedsters. It's a cool concept and the imagery is striking, but the execution doesn't quite stick the landing. The emotional beats feel a bit muted compared to what Waid was doing in the same issues.

Millar takes over for the later issues and.. you can tell. The tone shifts. It gets a bit edgier, a bit more "extreme '90s." Millar's Flash isn't bad, but it's a different flavor. The crossover issues with Green Lantern and Green Arrow are fun filler but not essential.

My honest take here: Morrison/Millar is a fun interlude, but it's just not essential. If you're reading the Waid omnis and skip this Deluxe Edition entirely, you're not missing anything critical to the ongoing narrative. It's good. It's sometimes great. But it's a side quest.

Volume 3: Cobalt Blue, Chain Lightning and Dark Flash (#142-163)

Waid comes back swinging. And he brings the multiverse with him.

Cobalt Blue introduces one of Waid's most intriguing villains: Malcolm Thawne, Barry Allen's twin brother who was given away at birth and grew up consumed by resentment. The Cobalt Blue concept, a magical blue flame that connects all Thawnes across time to the Allen line is Waid doing what he does best: tying personal family drama into cosmic mythology. The reveal that there's a deep, generational connection between the Allens and the Thawnes (which the Reverse-Flash Eobard Thawne is also part of) recontextualizes the entire Flash/Reverse-Flash dynamic.

Chain Lightning is where things get WILD. Wally has to recruit speedsters from across time, Past, present and future to stop Cobalt Blue from erasing the Flash legacy. It's a love letter to every speedster who ever wore the lightning bolt and the emotional climax involving the gathered Flash family almost brought me to tears. The scope of this storyline is enormous. Waid isn't just writing a Flash story.. here he's writing THE Flash story, the one that ties together every generation of the mythos.

The Dark Flash Saga (Walter West). Oh man. This one hurts in the best way. Walter West is Wally from an alternate timeline, a Wally who lost Linda, who became harder and darker, who never found the emotional center that our Wally built. When Walter shows up in Wally's timeline, it's a mirror held up to everything Waid has been writing for 100+ issues. This is who Wally could have been without love, without community, without the people who made him better.

And then there's The Life Story of the Flash, a standalone special that's presented as a in-universe biography of Barry Allen written by Iris West. It's a beautiful coda, not just to Waid's run, but to the entire post-Crisis Flash legacy. It's heartfelt, comprehensive and moving.

The Faster Friends two-issue mini (Wally + Kyle Rayner, Jay + Alan Scott) is a fun palate cleanser between the heavier storylines. The Secret Files issues are nice supplements. Flash One Million is a fun Morrison-era DCU tie-in.

Volume 3 is where the Waid run earns its "legendary" status. Not because it's perfect, there are still some uneven issues, but because it sticks the landing. The Cobalt Blue -> Chain Lightning -> Dark Flash arc is one of the most satisfying long-form superhero stories I've ever read. It pays off everything Waid set up, ties the legacy together and sends Wally off on a high note.

The Art

This run features a murderers' row of '90s comic artists and that's both a strength and a weakness.

Mike Wieringo for me is the star. His run on the book is iconic for a reason. His Flash is dynamic, expressive and just impossibly fast on the page. His character acting, the way Wally's face lights up, the way Linda looks at him, the quiet moments between action beats is just so great. The man could draw speed like nobody else. His Wally West IS Wally West for an entire generation of readers.

Greg LaRocque handles the earlier issues and does solid work. We already got to know him from the Messner-Loebs run. It's more traditional, more "house style," but it tells the story clearly and the speed effects are effective. The transition from LaRocque to Wieringo is one of those moments where you feel the book level up visually.

The Vol. 3 art rotation is more varied. Salvador Larroca, Paul Pelletier, Oscar Jimenez, Scott Kolins.. they all contribute and the quality is generally high. But the rotating art teams mean Volume 3 doesn't have the visual consistency of Volumes 1-2. Kolins' work in particular points toward his eventual run with Geoff Johns and you can see the style that would define the early 2000s Flash starting to take shape.

Steve Lightle's covers across the run are gorgeous. The man knew how to make the Flash look iconic.

For the Morrison/Millar issues, the art is solid but not as distinctive. Paul Ryan, Pop Mhan, Ron Wagner, all competent workman-like pencils that serve the story without elevating it the way Wieringo did.

The coloring throughout all four books is the usual DC omnibus quality. Decent but not exceptional reproduction of the original coloring. Some pages look a bit washed out, some look great. It's inconsistent in the way most DC omnis are inconsistent.

Where It Stumbles

Volume 2 has a repetitive stretch. The issues between Terminal Velocity and the Savitar arc, the John Fox stuff, the Argus subplot.. they feel like Waid is treading water. The Wally/Linda relationship is written beautifully throughout, but the actual plot beats start recycling.

The Morrison/Millar interlude is optional. There, I said it. It's fun! Emergency Stop and The Human Race are entertaining. But nothing that happens in these 12 issues is essential to the Waid run's narrative. The Black Flash concept would be picked up later by other writers, but you don't need to read Morrison/Millar to understand anything in Volume 3. $50 for "fun but optional" is a tough sell when you're already spending $450 on the three Waid omnis (original price).

Waid's wordiness. Look, I love Waid's writing. But the man does not use 10 words when 50 will do. There are issues in Volume 2 especially where the dialogue just keeps going and going. For a book about the fastest man alive, some of these issues read verrrrry slowly. It's a style choice and it usually works, but when the plot is already spinning its wheels? The wordiness sometimes becomes a chore.

The annuals are consistently the weakest material across all three volumes. This isn't unique to Waid's Flash. '90s annuals were generally filler across the industry, but it's noticeable when you're reading 1,000+ page omnibuses. The annuals aren't bad, they're just.. there. You won't miss much if you skip them, which isn't great for books you paid $150 for.

Volume 3's rotating art teams. When you go from the visual consistency of Wieringo in Vols. 1-2 to a rotating cast of artists in Vol. 3, it's jarring. None of the Vol. 3 art is bad, Paul Pelletier and Scott Kolins are both strong, but the book loses a bit of its visual identity.

What Works

The Return of Barry Allen is a masterpiece. I keep coming back to this arc because it's the thesis statement of the entire run. Waid takes the single most loaded premise in Flash history, Barry Allen coming back and uses it not as a gimmick but as the crucible that transforms Wally from "Barry's replacement" to THE Flash. The pacing. The emotional beats. The reveal. The aftermath. It's as close to a perfect Flash story as I've ever read.

Terminal Velocity and the Speed Force. Waid didn't just write good Flash stories, he INVENTED THE SPEED FORCE. This is the concept that every single Flash writer after him, Johns, Williamson, Adams, Spurrier has built on. It's the mythology that transformed Flash from "fast guy punches things" into something genuinely cosmic and profound. And the way it's introduced here, as part of Wally's sacrifice and Linda pulling him back? Chef's kiss.

Wally and Linda. I need to talk about this relationship because it might be the best romance in mainstream superhero comics. Not because it's perfect, it's definitely not, Waid puts them through the wringer but because it feels REAL. They bicker. They make mistakes. They hurt each other. And through all of it, you never doubt that they love each other. The scene where Linda pulls Wally back from the Speed Force is iconic for a reason. Their relationship is the emotional backbone of this entire run.

Impulse/Bart Allen. What a character introduction. Bart bursts onto the page with uncontrollable speed and zero impulse control and immediately becomes one of the most endearing characters in the Flash mythos. The reluctant mentor dynamic between Wally and Bart adds so much texture to the run. Waid understood that Wally needed to become the teacher to fully graduate from being the student.

Chain Lightning is Waid's magnum opus. The Cobalt Blue reveal into gathering every speedster across time into the generational Allen/Thawne curse into the emotional devastation of the final confrontation. This is Waid operating at peak ambition and mostly pulling it off. It's the kind of long-form payoff that only works because he spent 100+ issues earning it.

The Messner-Loebs connection. Waid doesn't just continue what Messner-Loebs built, he honors it. Linda Park, introduced by Messner-Loebs, becomes the love of Wally's life. Chunk and Pied Piper are carried forward. The grounded emotional work of making Wally a real person? That foundation lets Waid go cosmic without losing the human core. These runs are in conversation with each other and reading them back to back is the optimal experience.

Overall

Alright, if you made it until here, congrats! And thank you for following along. Four books. Roughly 5000 pages. Let me break this down.

Waid Vol. 1: 9.2/10: This is nearly perfect. Born to Run, The Return of Barry Allen, the introduction of Wieringo on art, the establishment of Waid's voice. The annuals are the only thing keeping it from a higher score. If you buy one Flash omnibus, make it this one.

Waid Vol. 2: 8.0/10: Terminal Velocity and the Speed Force invention push this high, but the repetitive middle stretch and the John Fox/Argus stuff drag it down. Still excellent, but noticeably less consistent than Vol. 1. The Impulse debut and Zero Hour tie-in are gems.

Morrison/Millar Deluxe: 7.0/10: Emergency Stop and The Human Race are great fun. The Black Flash is a cool concept with middling execution. Millar's issues are fine. It's a solid read but ultimately skippable if you're just here for Waid's narrative.

Waid Vol. 3: 8.5/10: Cobalt Blue, Chain Lightning and the Dark Flash saga are Waid at his most ambitious. The rotating art teams are a slight downgrade, but the storytelling is so strong it barely matters. The Life Story of the Flash is a beautiful capstone.

For the complete Waid run as a whole? I'm going 8.8/10. This is essential DC comics. It's the run that defined Wally West, invented the Speed Force and proved that legacy characters can surpass their predecessors. The highs are as high as anything DC published in the '90s and even the lows are still good comics.

The only reason it's not a 9+ is the Volume 2 dip and the annuals padding across all three books. But honestly? Those are nitpicks on an all-timer run.

You should buy this run if:

• You want to read one of the greatest superhero runs of the '90s and arguably of all time
• Legacy characters and generational storytelling appeal to you more than power-level battles
• The idea of a hero defined by who he loves rather than who he fights sounds refreshing
• You want to understand why Wally West is THE Flash for an entire generation
• You already read Messner-Loebs Vol. 1 and want to see where Wally's story goes

You should skip if:

• You want every issue to be a banger
• You're not ready to spend $450+ on three omnibuses (and optionally $50 more for Morrison/Millar)
• You prefer your Flash stories lean and punchy over expansive and mythological
• '90s comic writing, thought bubbles, exposition-heavy dialogue, makes your eyes glaze over

Here's the thing: Mark Waid's Flash run is why people love Wally West. Not because of his powers, not because of his costume, but because Waid wrote him as a person who grew, stumbled, loved, lost, and kept running. The Return of Barry Allen, Terminal Velocity, Chain Lightning these aren't just good Flash stories. They're the stories that proved a sidekick could become the main event and do it better than the original.

Messner-Loebs built the foundation. Waid built the cathedral.

And next week? The Flash by Geoff Johns, where the scarlet speedster finally stops running from his legacy and faces the rogues gallery head-on. Also: Wally West cements his status as the definitive Flash, Iron Heights becomes the new gold standard for prison horror and Johns begins his legendary character-defining run.

What's your favorite Waid Flash arc? And does the Morrison/Millar Deluxe earn its spot on the shelf or is it just a fun side quest? Let me know in the comments!

Happy reading!

Read my other reviews here.

Hey r/DCComics!

Last time in Event Deep Dive, we went through A Lonely Place of Dying. Tim Drake's perfect origin. Peak Batman. One of my favorite Batman stories full stop. And the introduction of my personal favorite Robin.

This week.. we're going mythological.

War of the Gods is George Pérez's grand finale to his legendary Wonder Woman run. Every pantheon in existence goes to war. Circe plays the long game. Diana dies. Captain Marvel gets corrupted. And somehow it's still less coherent than it should be. It's the maximalist, operatic spectacle I teased last week.. and it's a mess. A beautiful, ambitious mess.

One post a week until we catch up to the present. Grab your lassos, let's dive in.

(These are my takes, and they can get pretty lengthy, so feel free to skip to the TL;DR if you just want the rundown.)

Event Deep Dive #12: War of the Gods

What Is War of the Gods?

Wonder Woman was turning 50 in 1991. George Pérez, the man who reinvented Diana from the ground up after Crisis, wanted to celebrate. A crossover that would unite mythologies from across the globe, bring Wonder Woman to the center of the DC Universe, and serve as his grand farewell to the character he'd spent years rebuilding.

The premise is irresistible. The sorceress Circe, fueled by the power of the death goddess Hecate, orchestrates a war between every pantheon in existence. Greek gods vs. Roman gods. Egyptian deities. Mesoamerican gods. West African orishas. Thanagarian gods get involved too for some reason. The world becomes a battlefield of divine proportions and only Wonder Woman can stop it.

This should have been Pérez's magnum opus. The culmination of one of the greatest creative runs in DC history.

It didn't quite work out that way. imo.

The Structure

War of the Gods is a 4-issue miniseries with 20 tie-in issues spread across the DC line. 24 parts total, roughly 800 pages. Pérez writes and lays out the main series himself, with a rotating roster of finishers and inkers that changes every single issue. The tie-ins span Wonder Woman #58-61, Superman: The Man of Steel #3, Hawkworld #15-16, Starman #38, L.E.G.I.O.N. #31, Hawk & Dove #28, Captain Atom #56-57, Doctor Fate #32-33, The Flash #55, Batman #470, Animal Man #40, Suicide Squad #58, The Demon #17, and New Titans #81.

That's a LOT of ground to cover. And here's where the problems start.

This event was plagued by editorial chaos. Armageddon 2001 forced last-minute changes to which titles and characters could appear. Issues shipped late and out of order. Hawk & Dove #28 and Captain Atom #56 were added after promotional materials had already gone out to retailers. Suicide Squad #58 was mistakenly labeled as Part 19 on the cover, a part number already used. The reading order is a mess.

And then there's the behind-the-scenes drama. DC didn't plan the story for newsstand distribution, direct sales stores only. They didn't do enough to promote Wonder Woman's 50th anniversary. And DC blocked Pérez's planned ending, which would have seen Steve Trevor and Etta Candy finally marry, a payoff he'd been building toward since issue #1. DC wanted to save that moment for incoming writer William Messner-Loebs.

Pérez would separate himself from DC for several years over this.

All of this matters because the behind-the-scenes chaos bleeds into the final product. You can feel the seams.

The Main Series

• War of the Gods #1 opens strong. Circe pulls the gods of myth into combat, and Earth's superheroes must prevent them from destroying our world. The setup works. Circe's "Hellfire Web" spell, the framing of the Amazons, the mounting dread.. But the issue is already drowning in exposition. Too many plot threads, not enough room to breathe. You can feel Pérez trying to fit a 12-issue story into 4 issues.
• War of the Gods #2 is where things start feeling rough. The heroes of the DC Universe join forces to battle dark gods from many lands. Every character gets maybe two pages. The Diana vs. Captain Marvel confrontation, Diana as champion of the Greek gods, Billy Batson corrupted by the Roman pantheon, is one of the best ideas in the entire event. But it's buried under crossover noise. You barely have time to register that this confrontation is happening before the story moves on to the next dozen characters.
• War of the Gods #3 ups the stakes. Squads of heroes and villains mount the final assault on Circe's island. Wonder Woman is among the casualties. Circe kills Diana by turning her back into clay. It's a stunning image. Pérez drawing Diana reduced to the raw material she was born from. But you know she's coming back. There's no time to sit with the moment. The resurrection machinery is already in motion. A death that should be the emotional center of the event becomes just another plot point.
• War of the Gods #4 is the rushed finale. Six different inkers. SIX. Alan Kupperberg, Dick Giordano, Frank McLaughlin, Gordon Purcell, Pablo Marcos and a young Phil Jimenez all finish pages in the same issue. The visual inconsistency is noticeable. The heroes gather for revenge on Circe in New Olympus, and in the battle that follows, Donna Troy's dimensional star field costume absorbs Circe's power, causing her body to rapidly age. Hecate tries to possess Diana but is destroyed by the Lasso of Truth. Hermes, Eris, Son of Vulcan and Harmonia are dead. The Greek gods decide to leave Earth, giving New Olympus to the Roman gods.

The ending is bittersweet and has genuine weight. These deaths matter. The departure of the Greek gods reshapes Wonder Woman's world going forward. But it all happens so fast. Four issues for a story of this scope is simply not enough.

The Tie-Ins: The Good, the Morrison-Adjacent and the Bad

The Brilliant:

• Hawkworld #16: John Ostrander and Graham Nolan deliver a compelling moral conflict: Wonder Woman is wanted by the law and in Chicago, Hawkwoman IS the law. Shayera will not let anything stop her from bringing Princess Diana to justice, no matter the price. Ostrander's Hawkworld run is underrated and this issue proves it.
• Animal Man #40: Tom Veitch and Steve Dillon. Circe sends hordes of bloodthirsty human-beasts to overrun a town and Buddy is trapped in their midst. Dillon drawing body horror is always a good time. This issue actually matters for Animal Man's character development too, which is more than most tie-ins can say.
• Suicide Squad #58: Ostrander and Yale, doing what they do best. Black Adam recruits the Squad to attack Circe's island. The Ostrander/Yale Suicide Squad is one of the best runs of the era and they bring their A-game here. If you're reading Squad anyway, this is essential.

The Good:

• Wonder Woman #58-61. Pérez writing his own character's book during the crossover, with Jill Thompson on pencils for #58-59 and #61. These carry the emotional weight the main series can't fit in. #61, following Diana's death, Inspector Ed Indelicato recounts past events to Julia Kapatelis is quiet and devastating. The aftermath of losing Diana told through the people who loved her. This is the kind of character-driven storytelling the main series doesn't have room for.
• Batman #470: Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle. At Wonder Woman's request, Batman searches for a goblet essential to the survival of mankind, but it's in the hands of Maxie Zeus. Grant and Breyfogle are always reliable, and Maxie Zeus is a perfect Batman villain for a mythology event. This tie-in knows exactly what it wants to be.
• The Flash #55: Messner-Loebs and Greg LaRocque. Speedy gods Mercury and Hermes appear before Flash to challenge him to a high-stakes race. It's a fun premise and it works. During that time Messner-Loebs is writing both Doctor Fate and Flash tie-ins and he's about to take over Wonder Woman from Pérez. The man is everywhere.
• Doctor Fate #32-33. Messner-Loebs again, with Scot Eaton on pencils. Wonder Woman seeks Fate's assistance just as the Egyptian gods attack. Solid storytelling, and the Egyptian mythology angle adds variety to what is otherwise a Greek/Roman affair.

The Acceptable:

• Hawkworld #15, L.E.G.I.O.N. #31, Captain Atom #56-57, The Demon #17, Wonder Woman #60, Superman: The Man of Steel #3. These are all.. fine. Competent comics that happen during the event. L.E.G.I.O.N. #31 has Lobo vs. Captain Marvel, which is exactly what it sounds like. The Demon #17 features the incredible plot description "Wonder Woman gets killed" and then Etrigan falls head-over-heels for the Amazon Princess. I'm not making that up. It's.. fine.
• Hawk & Dove #28 is the final issue of its series, trapped inside a crossover. An awkward place to end. Captain Atom #56-57 are disconnected from the main narrative. Superman: The Man of Steel #3 sends Ma and Pa Kent on vacation to a country being attacked by an ancient Mesoamerican god. The "heroes' loved ones are in danger" trope, done without inspiration.

The bad:

• Starman #38 didnt do it for me. Will Payton and Phantom Lady recreate ancient Greece for a photo-shoot convincing enough that Achilles believes he's fighting the Trojan Wars again. I have nothing positive to say about this one.
• New Titans #81. Marv Wolfman and Curt Swan. The Pariah connection to Crisis on Infinite Earths is interesting in theory, but in practice this issue adds nothing. It exists because the event required it.

What Works

• The concept is extraordinary. Every pantheon at war. Circe as the master manipulator playing divine factions against each other. Wonder Woman as the champion of the Greek gods, Captain Marvel as the corrupted champion of the Romans. This is big, mythological, operatic storytelling. The bones are incredible imo.
• Circe is a genuinely great villain. She's been built up through the preceding Wonder Woman issues, watching Diana's every move, orchestrating events from the shadows. Her motivation to appease Hecate by destroying Gaea gives her cosmic stakes while remaining deeply personal. She's not just evil. She's driven by a deal with a power even gods fear.
• The Diana/Captain Marvel conflict is inspired. Two heroes empowered by rival divine factions, forced to fight not because they want to but because gods are using them as pawns. It's the kind of mythological tragedy that feels ancient and timeless.
• The Pérez Wonder Woman tie-ins carry this event. Issues #58-61 are where the heart lives. #61 in particular, Ed Indelicato recounting events to Julia after Diana's death, is the kind of quiet, character-driven storytelling the main series doesn't have room for.
• The creative teams on the tie-ins are genuinely impressive. Ostrander and Yale on Suicide Squad. Alan Grant and Breyfogle on Batman. Tom Veitch and Steve Dillon on Animal Man. Messner-Loebs on Doctor Fate and Flash. Quality creators doing solid work within the event framework.
• The deaths have weight. Hermes, Son of Vulcan, Harmonia.. these aren't throwaway casualties. The Greek gods leaving Earth reshapes the mythological landscape of the DCU going forward.

What Doesn't Work

• Four issues is not enough for this story. Full stop. Pérez was trying to tell a story that deserved at least six issues, maybe eight. Every issue is crammed with plot, leaving no room for the character moments that made his Wonder Woman run so special. The pacing is breathless but not in a good way. You're never allowed to sit with any moment before the next plot beat arrives.
• The main series can't stand on its own. This is my biggest issue with War of the Gods. You NEED the tie-ins to understand what's happening between issues. The main miniseries reads like a highlight reel of a story that's actually happening in 20 other comics. If your event requires 800 pages of ancillary reading to make sense, something went wrong.
• Too many characters, too little development. Pérez stuffs every issue with DC heroes, most of whom get a page or two and then disappear. When you're three issues deep and still introducing new characters, the event has a casting problem.
• The editorial chaos is visible on the page. Late issues, out-of-order shipping, last-minute additions, missing part numbers on covers, six different inkers on the final issue. The production problems aren't invisible. They're right there in the inconsistent finishes and the fragmented narrative.
• Circe killing Wonder Woman should be devastating but isn't. The clay transformation is a stunning image. As already written, Pérez drawing Diana returned to the raw material of her creation, but you know she's coming back. There's no time to grieve. A moment that should be the emotional center of the event becomes just another plot point.
• Pérez was robbed of his ending. The Steve Trevor/Etta Candy wedding he'd been building toward for 62 issues was blocked by editorial. Knowing this was taken from Pérez colors the entire reading experience. You can feel the compromise.

The Art

George Pérez doing layouts for a mythological war comic should be an automatic win, and there are moments where it absolutely is. The Circe-Diana confrontations. The pantheon sequences. The clay transformation. When Pérez pencils and someone competent finishes him, it looks great.

But the rotating inker situation kills the visual consistency. Every issue has a different combination. War of the Gods #4 alone had six inkers. Some pages sing. Others look flat and rushed. The coloring from Gene D'Angelo is functional but doesn't pop the way a mythology epic demands.

Compare it to Crisis on Infinite Earths, where Pérez handled the art with consistent collaborators, and the difference is stark. This needed a unified visual vision. It didn't get one.

The Chris Sprouse mini-posters bound into the center of the issues are a nice touch though. And Phil Jimenez inking pages in #4 as a young artist, he'd eventually write and draw Wonder Woman himself. Full circle.

Rating and TL;DR

War of the Gods is a case study in how editorial interference, production chaos, and overambitious scope can undermine even the strongest creative vision. Pérez had a great story to tell. DC's machinery couldn't, or wouldn't, let him tell it properly.

The concept alone is worth points. Gods from every mythology at war, with Wonder Woman at the center. Circe is a genuinely great villain. The tie-ins from Ostrander, Grant and Messner-Loebs are solid. Pérez's pencils are beautiful even when the finishes let them down.

But I can't ignore what this event should have been. When I reviewed the Pérez Wonder Woman omnibuses in Two-Cents Thursday, I gave War of the Gods a 6.8/10. Having gone back and read every single issue and tie-in for this deep dive.. I'm going lower. The main series can't stand on its own. The tie-ins are mostly skippable. The pacing is compressed beyond comfort. The editorial problems aren't subtext, they're text. Pérez deserved a proper sendoff. DC fumbled the 50th anniversary.

I'll give War of the Gods a 5.5/10. The concept is a 9. The execution is a 4. It averages out to disappointing.

Reading Recommendations

Essential Reading

• War of the Gods #1-4 (main series)
• Wonder Woman #58-61 (Pérez's farewell — #61 especially)

Recommended Additions

• Hawkworld #15-16
• Animal Man #40
• Suicide Squad #58
• Batman #470

Skip Without Guilt

• Starman #38
• New Titans #81
• Captain Atom #56-57
• Hawk & Dove #28

Read First

• Pérez's Wonder Woman run, at least #50-57 (Circe's buildup)

Read If...

• You're completing the Pérez Wonder Woman run, it's the ending, messy as it is
• The concept of every pantheon at war excites you
• You want to understand why editorial interference matters
• Ostrander's Suicide Squad and Hawkworld are on your list

Skip If...

• You need the main series to stand on its own
• 800 pages of crossover reading sounds exhausting
• Inconsistent art bothers you
• You're looking for Pérez at his best.. read his Wonder Woman run instead

That's it for Event Deep Dive #12. I'd love to hear what you all think. Is War of the Gods underrated or fairly forgotten? Should Pérez have been allowed to write his own ending? And are you team Greek gods or team Roman gods? Drop your thoughts in the comments. Let's make this a discussion!

Next week: Panic in the Sky. Superman goes up against Brainiac's full-scale invasion of Earth while the Justice League scrambles to respond. It's the post-Crisis Superman event you probably haven't heard of. Let's find out if that's justified.

Grab your lassos, happy reading, see you next week!

If you're interested in my other reviews: read them here.

Happy Thursday r/OmnibusCollectors!

Last week I took you through Paul Dini's Zatanna. It's just such a wildly fun, character-driven romp through the magical side of the DCU that scored an 8.2/10 for me.

This week we're going somewhere I've been wanting to take you for a while. Flash is one of my all-time favorites and today we're starting from the very beginning of Wally West's tenure as the Scarlet Speedster. This is the run that paved the way for everything Mark Waid would later build on. Let's get into it.

The early TL;DR: A rough, sometimes genuinely frustrating first half by Mike Baron almost sinks this book before it finds its soul. Then William Messner-Loebs walks in and turns it into something special, not perfect, but essential reading for anyone who wants to understand why Wally West is THE Flash for entire generations.

Feel free to read through the whole review or simply skip to the overall score and TL;DR at the bottom. Let's go!

The Flash by William Messner-Loebs and Greg LaRocque Omnibus Vol. 1

Quick Stats: 984 pages, $125 MSRP. It collects The Flash (1987) #1-28, The Flash Annual #1-3, Manhunter #8-9, Secret Origins Annual #2 and selections from Invasion! #2-3. That's 34 issues plus extras, covering the complete post-Crisis birth of Wally West's Flash.

The Story

This omnibus tells a very specific story: what happens when a sidekick has to become the hero. Barry Allen died in Crisis on Infinite Earths and Wally West, who's Barry's nephew, his Kid Flash, inherited the mantle. The thing is.. Wally is 20 years old, broke, slower than Barry ever was and.. kind of a jerk.

Mike Baron's Run (#1-14)

The first 14 issues are written by Mike Baron with art primarily by Jackson Guice and Larry Mahlstedt. And let me be honest with you.. Baron's Wally is rough.

He wins the lottery in issue #1 and immediately starts living like a playboy. He hits on basically every woman he meets. He's cocky, impulsive and treats the people around him poorly. The "seductive narrative voice" Baron mentions in his introduction? Yeah, it reads very differently in 2026. Some of these stories haven't aged well at all, particularly in how they treat female characters.

I don't think the unlikeability is accidental. Wally should be a mess. He's a kid who just lost his mentor, inherited a mantle he doesn't feel worthy of and has zero support system. The arrogance is a shield. The womanizing is overcompensation. Baron is writing a 20-year-old who has no idea who he is yet and that's actually.. kind of the point? I guess?

That said, even with that charitable reading, some of these issues just aren't very good. The plotting is uneven. Some of the villains are super silly (I'm looking at you, Kilg%re and yes that's how it's spelled). And the Invasion! tie-in material? Holy hell.. it was terrible. It kills whatever momentum the book builds.

The standout from this era is Secret Origins Annual #2, which retells Barry Allen's origin. That one is genuinely excellent and shows what this book could be.

And then everything changes.

William Messner-Loebs Takes Over (#15-28)

Messner-Loebs takes over with #15 and the transformation is immediate. The playboy act gets stripped away. The lottery money is gone. Wally is broke, living with his overbearing mother Mary West and is actually struggling for the first time in his life. Not just with villains. He struggles with rent, with relationships, with figuring out who he is without the Kid Flash safety net.

This is where Wally starts becoming someone you actually root for. Not because he's perfect, but because he's trying. Messner-Loebs keeps the impulsiveness and the brashness.. he doesn't rewrite Wally's personality, he just gives it depth. The emotional beats land because they're earned through all that messiness Baron put on the page.

The Messner-Loebs era also introduces Linda Park, who would go on to become arguably the most important supporting character in Flash history. Her first appearance here is quiet, easy to miss, but knowing where she ends up? It's like watching the first few minutes of a movie knowing the payoff is coming.

The supporting cast here is the secret weapon. It is where Messner-Loebs truly shines. He doesn't just write Wally well. He makes you care about people you'd never expect to care about:

Pied Piper gets one of the quietest, most meaningful character transformations in late-80s DC. He goes from C-list Rogue to someone with moral conviction and complexity. By the time you're 20 issues deep, you realize Messner-Loebs has been building a real person, not just a gimmick villain-turned-ally.

Chunk is one of the community darling I feel and for good reason. He's bizarre, lovable, completely unique and has no equivalent in modern comics. The man literally absorbed things into his body. And you cared about him. That's writing.

Tina and Jerry McGee bring a grounded scientific angle to the speed powers. Their troubled marriage gives the book an adult emotional texture that Baron's run never achieved. And Jerry's arc, from Tina's husband to Speed Demon to something more complicated is super compelling.

Vandal Savage shows up as well and is a menacing antagonist during this run, not just a plot device. His appearances have weight.

The Art

Greg LaRocque handles the bulk of the art from #15 onward and his work is exactly what this book needs. It's not going to blow your mind panel-to-panel.. this isn't a Mignola or a J.H. Williams situation. But LaRocque tells the story clearly, gives characters expressive and distinct faces and his action sequences have genuine energy. The speed effects work. The quiet character moments work. It's solid, professional and to me: just effective comics storytelling.

Guice's work on the Baron issues is similarly competent. Slightly more polished, slightly less expressive. The real treat is getting Carmine Infantino on some of the annual material. The man who co-created Barry Allen's Flash drawing Wally's early adventures? That's the kind of lineage that gives you chills if you know the history.

The coloring is probably the weakest link. Some of the reproduction looks a bit washed out compared to the original floppies. It's never hard to tell what's happening, but it doesn't pop the way modern coloring does. For an omni, I wish DC had done a bit more restoration work here.

Where It Stumbles

The Baron era is a slog in places. Not "of its time" slog. Just.. not good slog. Maybe it's just me. Issues #5-10 in particular feel like they're spinning wheels. The Invasion! crossover material is terrible and kills whatever momentum the book has built. I almost put this down during that stretch and I'm someone who considers Flash a top-5 character. If you're not already invested? I can see people bouncing off this entirely.

The tonal whiplash is real. Going from Baron's abrasive playboy Wally to Messner-Loebs' more grounded, human Wally is jarring. It works as character development in theory, but in practice you're reading 14 issues of a character you don't like before the book finds its heart.

The crossover material adds bulk without value. The Manhunter issues by Ostrander and Yale are a nice inclusion for completists, but they break the flow. The Invasion! pages are unreadable as standalone entries. I get why DC included them for historical completeness, but they're padding in a book that didn't need it.

The price is steep for a book where the first third is actively off-putting. I own this and I'm glad I do, but I'd have a hard time recommending it at full price to anyone who isn't already a Flash devotee.

What Works

Messner-Loebs' character work is extraordinary. This cannot be overstated. He took over a book that was circling the drain and spun gold. Wally's journey from obnoxious kid to someone you root for happens issue by issue, moment by moment and it never feels rushed or unearned. The supporting cast work alone: Pied Piper, Chunk, Linda Park, the McGees, Mary West would make this run noteworthy. Doing it while also writing compelling speedster action? That's a masterclass.

The omnibus format is the definitive way to read this. Having the complete Baron → Messner-Loebs transition in one volume transforms what was a scattered, hard-to-collect reading experience into a cohesive character study. You need to read the messy beginning to appreciate the transformation. The Annuals and crossover material, while uneven, fill out the picture in ways that piecemeal trade paperbacks never could.

Wally West's origin as THE Flash is essential DC history. This isn't a sidebar. This is the main event. For almost 30 years, Wally West was the Flash. Not a fill-in, not a replacement, but THE Flash. And this omnibus shows you exactly how that happened. Skipping this and jumping straight to Waid's run means missing why Waid's work hits as hard as it does. The Waid run is great partially because Messner-Loebs did the hard work of making Wally someone worth caring about first. One could argue that Messner-Loebs did the heavy lifting and Waid got the glory, but I'll come back to that in a later review.

Overall

The Messner-Loebs material is genuinely great. Issues #15-28, the relevant Annuals, the character work, that's an easy 8.0-8.5 range for me. The Baron material is.. mixed. The first issue is solid, the origin retelling in Secret Origins Annual #2 is excellent, but the middle stretch is a real drag. I'd put the Baron era around 5.5-6.0 on its own. Sorry.

So we're weighting roughly half the book at 5.5-6.0 and half at 8.0-8.5. The crossover material pulls down slightly. The omnibus packaging and the fact that the Baron stuff does serve a narrative purpose (even if not always gracefully) pulls it back up.

As a Flash fan, I'm rating this higher because I know where it leads. The Messner-Loebs run is the foundation of everything I love about Wally West. But I need to be honest, if this weren't a Flash book, if it were some random character I had no attachment to, I'd probably be more harsh about the first 14 issues.

The art is consistent and professional but not spectacular. The writing improves dramatically in the back half. The historical importance is undeniable.

I'll land at 7.4/10.

You should buy this omnibus if:

• You're a Wally West fan who wants to understand the complete foundation of his Flash run
• You appreciate character transformation stories and don't mind rough starts
• You want the essential prequel to Mark Waid's legendary Flash run
• You're building a comprehensive DC post-Crisis collection
• You're curious about Pied Piper's origin as one of DC's most interesting reformed villains

You should skip if:

• You need to like the protagonist from issue #1
• You're on a budget and want guaranteed quality from page 1
• You have no attachment to Flash and are looking for a "blind buy" recommendation
• Crossover/event tie-in issues that break story momentum bother you

Wally West's journey from the arrogant kid in issue #1 to the hero who earns the right to wear the lightning bolt by issue #28 is one of the most underappreciated character arcs in DC history. Messner-Loebs didn't just write good Flash stories.. he built the emotional infrastructure that every great Flash run after him would depend on. Waid gets the spotlight, Johns gets the blockbuster action, but Messner-Loebs? He did the hard, unglamorous work of making Wally West someone worth caring about. And that matters. And I'm still waiting for that Volume 2.

Anyways thats it for this weeks two cents, next week I'll be diving into more Flash staying in the Wally West era. Where we go from here depends on how much you all want to ride the speed force with me. :)

Did the Baron era work for you as setup or was it just bad writing? And is Messner-Loebs underrated compared to Waid? Let me know in the comments!

Happy reading!

Read my other reviews here.

Hey r/DCComics!

Last time in Event Deep Dive we waded through The Janus Directive. Spy agencies at war, Amanda Waller being brilliant and a crossover that was fine when it focused on the Squad and forgettable when it didn't.

This week we're going back to Gotham.

A Lonely Place of Dying is the story of how Tim Drake became Robin. It's also one of the best Batman stories I've read so far. It's tight, emotionally resonant and remarkably consistent. Five issues. No filler. Just peak Batman. Also btw it right follows "A Death in the Family" which is an amazing read as well. Both storylines are collected in the "Batman: A Death in the Family" Deluxe Edition. Anyways.

One post a week until we catch up to the present. Grab your detective notebooks, let's dive in.

(These are my takes, and they can get pretty lengthy, so feel free to skip to the TL;DR if you just want the rundown.)

Event Deep Dive #11: Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying

What Is A Lonely Place of Dying?

Jason Todd is dead. The Joker killed him in "A Death in the Family" and Batman watched it happen.

In the aftermath, Bruce Wayne is spiraling. He's more violent, more reckless, pushing himself past breaking points. Alfred sees it. Dick Grayson sees it. But neither knows how to reach him.

Enter Tim Drake, a kid who's been watching. A kid who figured out Batman and Robin's identities by connecting the dots from a circus performance he saw as a child. A kid who believes, with absolute certainty, that Batman needs a Robin to stay human.

This is his argument. This is his origin. And it's one of the best Robin stories ever told imo.

The Story

The story alternates between Batman and New Titans, weaving Dick Grayson's perspective with Tim's investigation:

• Batman #440: A Death in the Family's Shadow. The opening issue establishes everything wrong with post-Jason Batman. He's brutal. Reckless. Alfred's voice runs through his mind: "We're not brutalizers... We've got to think with our heads, not with our fists" but Bruce isn't listening. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure is stalking both Batman and Dick Grayson, gathering information. We don't know who yet, but we know they've figured out both identities. The mystery hook is compelling even when you know the answer. Jim Aparo's art returns for this story and it's simply superior. The moments of self-reflection from Batman land because Aparo sells Bruce's internal struggle visually. This is an all-time great issue just for how it handles grief and trauma and the acknowledgment that Bruce is letting his pain blind his sense of justice.
• New Titans #60: Dick Grayson goes back to where it all began: Haly's Circus. It's a journey of self-discovery that gets interrupted when Tim Drake shows up with a proposition. The circus setting is perfect. Dick's origin lives there, and returning to it while someone asks him about Robin's future creates beautiful thematic resonance. Tim's approach is bold. He's basically telling Dick "here's how the worst thing to ever happen to you affected me" but it works because Tim's sincerity is undeniable.
• Batman #441: This is peak Batman comics. Peak. Just absolute peak. The issue is all about obsession. Tim's obsession with Batman and Robin. Batman's obsession with fighting crime regardless of cost. Two-Face's obsession with duality. Every thread connects thematically. Tim's fixation on the Flying Graysons' death and how it led him to deduce Batman's identity adds so much to Batman lore. It makes the world feel lived in. It shows Batman and Robin having an impact on regular people in Gotham. Tim isn't just a convenient plot device. He's someone whose entire worldview was shaped by witnessing heroism. The "why does Batman need Robin" question gets its definitive answer here: Bruce works best with people who remind him of his humanity. Without Robin, he becomes something else. Something worse.
• New Titans #61: Batman and Nightwing team up to stop Two-Face. It should be triumphant.. the original Dynamic Duo back in action, but there's tension. Dick isn't Robin anymore. He can't be what Bruce needs. The issue works as action and as character study. Dick and Bruce fighting together highlights how much has changed since Dick left. The partnership is different now. Nightwing is his own hero, not Batman's sidekick. That gap is exactly what Tim is positioning himself to fill.
• Batman #442: "Batman has to have a Robin." -"Where is that written in stone? There's no more need for there to be a Robin..." "Than there is for a Batman?" INJECT IT INTO MY VEINS. The perfect conclusion. With Batman and Nightwing trapped by Two-Face, there's only one person left to save the day. Tim Drake puts on the suit not because he wants glory, but because Batman needs Robin to survive. Every character is utilized perfectly. Alfred's feelings about Batman get explored. Dick's perspective on passing the mantle comes through. Bruce's resistance crumbles against Tim's simple logic: if there's no need for Robin, there's no need for Batman. Tim skirts the line between endearing rookie and Mary Sue just right. He's smart enough to figure out the identities, brave enough to act, but still clearly in over his head. The balance is perfect. This is one of, if not the most favorite Batman stories for me. The conclusion earns everything it's built toward.

What Works

• Tim Drake's origin is perfectly constructed. He's not an orphan who fell into Bruce's lap. He's a detective who figured things out and made a logical argument for why Batman needs him. That's so much more compelling than tragedy-based origins.
• Every character has purpose. Alfred expresses his fears for Bruce. Dick grapples with no longer being Robin. Bruce confronts his post-Jason trauma. Two-Face provides thematic counterpoint. Nobody is wasted.
• The grief is real. Jason Todd's death actually matters here. Bruce's spiral feels earned, not performative. The story takes "A Death in the Family" very seriously.
• The crossover structure enhances the story. Batman issues focus on Bruce's perspective, Titans issues focus on Dick's. The alternation creates natural pacing and avoids repetition.
• Jim Aparo's art is phenomenal. His return for this story elevates everything. The emotional beats land because Aparo draws them perfectly.

What Doesn't Work

• Honestly? Almost nothing. This is very nitpicky territory.
• Two-Face is functional but not exceptional. He serves the plot well and provides thematic duality, but this isn't a great Two-Face story specifically. He's a means to an end.
• You could say you find Tim's deduction a bit much. A kid figuring out Batman and Robin from a childhood memory of Dick's quadruple somersault is a lot. But I buy it. Tim's obsessive attention to detail is his whole character.

The Art

Jim Aparo delivers career-highlight work on the Batman issues. His Bruce Wayne is expressive and haunted. His action is dynamic without losing emotional clarity.

George Pérez handles the New Titans issues with his usual detail-rich style. The circus scenes are gorgeous and his Dick Grayson feels lived-in and real.

The visual consistency between titles, both artists are frickin masters of their craft, means the crossover flows smoothly. No jarring style shifts, no quality drops.

Rating and TL;DR

A Lonely Place of Dying is one of the best Batman stories of the 1980s. It takes Jason Todd's death seriously, uses it as the foundation for genuine character exploration, and introduces Tim Drake in a way that immediately justifies his existence.

Tim's argument is the story's thesis: Batman needs Robin not as a sidekick, but as a reminder of his humanity. Without someone to protect, someone to model heroism for, Bruce becomes something darker. The story proves this through Bruce's post-Jason spiral, and the proof makes Tim's arrival feel necessary rather than convenient.

Five issues. No filler. This is how you do a character introduction. This is how you do a crossover. This is how you write Batman.

If you've never read Tim Drake's origin, start here. If you've read it before, it holds up. One of my favorite Batman stories, full stop.

I'll give the story an easy 9/10.

Read First

• A Death in the Family (Batman #426-429): Jason's death, the inciting incident
• Basic familiarity with Dick Grayson/Nightwing but not really necessary

Read If...

• Tim Drake is your Robin
• You want to understand why Robin matters to Batman
• Character-driven Batman appeals to you
• You appreciate tight, focused storytelling

Skip If...

• You need high action throughout
• Tim figuring out identities bothers you
• You're not invested in Robin legacy

That's it for Event Deep Dive #11. I'd love to hear what you all think. Is this your definitive Robin origin? For me it is at least. Does Tim's detective work hold up? Drop your thoughts in the comments. Let's make this a discussion!

Next week: War of the Gods, where George Pérez orchestrates a divine clusterfudge as every pantheon on Earth goes for the throat. Also: Circe plays the long game, the entire DC Universe gets a headache and Diana tries to prevent a literal apocalypse while her own history is being rewritten. It’s the maximalist, operatic spectacle we need after the grounded grief of Gotham.

Grab your capes, happy reading, see you next week!

I you're interested in my other reviews: read them here.

Happy Thursday r/OmnibusCollectors!

This week we're diving into something I've been itching to talk about: one of DC's most underrated characters finally getting the omnibus treatment she deserves.

Paul Dini's Zatanna run is a wildly fun, character-driven romp through the magical side of the DCU that consistently punches above its weight class. The art roster is stacked, the storytelling is confident, and while it doesn't stick the landing perfectly (thanks to some creative team shakeups), the highs are high. This is a love letter to one of DC's most iconic yet underutilized characters.

Feel free to read through the whole review or simply skip to the overall score and TL;DR at the bottom. Let's go!

Zatanna by Paul Dini Omnibus by Paul Dini

Quick Stats: 720 pages, $100 MSRP, published by DC Comics. It collects Zatanna: Everyday Magic #1, Detective Comics #824, 833-834, 843-844, DC Infinite Halloween Special #1, Zatanna #1-16, Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell HC, and Secrets of Sinister House #1. That's 25 issues total, a meaty chunk of Zatanna content and I loved every bit of it.

The Story

This omnibus is really two things woven together: Dini's Batman work that featured Zatanna prominently and then her solo ongoing that launched in 2010. And honestly? The Batman material is some of the best setup for a solo book I've ever seen.

The Batman Prelude (Detective Comics #824, 833-834, 843-844)

We open with "Night of the Penguin" (Detective #824), which is seemingly a Batman story but plants the seeds for everything that follows. Dini cleverly uses a poker-cheating murder mystery at the Iceberg Lounge to bring Lois Lane and Zatanna into Bruce's orbit and the issue just buzzes with charm. It's fun in a way that mainstream cape comics sometimes forget to be.

Then "Trust" (Detective #833-834) hits and the tone shifts dramatically. This is where Dini tackles the elephant in the room: the Identity Crisis mindwipe. Zatanna's former assistant is killed in a stage trick gone wrong and she turns to Batman for help. The culprit, Ivar Loxias, is revealed to be the Joker in disguise and what follows is a brutal, claustrophobic two-parter that forces Bruce and Zee to confront their fractured trust head-on.

The Ventriloquist two-parter (#843-844) rounds out the Batman material with a new Scarface story. It's solid. Peyton Riley's origin as the new Ventriloquist gets properly fleshed out, though it occasionally suffers from Dini's tendency to write Zatanna as someone whose inner monologue revolves around Bruce Wayne a bit too much imo.

The Solo Series (Zatanna #1-16)

And then the main event begins. Zatanna #1 drops us into San Francisco with a fully realized Zatanna: stage magician by night, superhero by.. also night. The premise is brilliant in its simplicity: a magical crime boss named Brother Night has taken over San Francisco's underworld and the police are powerless. Enter Zee.

The Brother Night arc (#1-3) is a tight, propulsive opening salvo. Issue #1 introduces the concept of magical gangsters running a city. Issue #2 brings in Fuseli, a nightmare imp who attacks Zee in her dreams.. creepy stuff. Issue #3 delivers a spectacular magical brawl on Devil Mountain with a gut-punch of an emotional beat between Zatanna and her father's memory.

Then Dini pivots. Issues #4-6 take Zee to Vegas for a Royal Flush Gang / demonic soul-gambling storyline and this is where the book finds its groove. Issue #6 in particular is a standout. Zatanna's cousin Zachary has to rescue her from a demon and the emotional undercurrent about Zee's loneliness manifesting as a dream wedding? That's Dini writing circles around most cape comics..

Issue #7, written by Adam Beechen, is a slight dip imo. A museum-of-magical-artifacts story that's perfectly fine but lacks Dini's spark. But then comes the Pupaphobia arc (#8-11) and oh man, this is the run's crown jewel.

Cliff Chiang takes over art duties and the book ascends, holy moly. Zatanna has an irrational fear of puppets stemming from a childhood trauma, sounds silly right? Dini makes it really fricking unsettling. Oscar Hempel, a puppeteer who tried to kill young Zee, was turned into a puppet by her father's curse. Now he's free, human again and Zee has been transformed into the puppet. Issues #8-10 are a masterclass in horror-comedy pacing.

Issue #11 wraps the arc with Jamal Igle on art. Solid, if slightly less electrifying than Chiang's work. But the resolution, with Zee learning about the moral cost of magic, adds philosophical weight.

The Back Half (Issues #12-16)

This is where things get complicated. Issue #12, written by Lilah Sturges, features an enemy who can reverse Zee's backward spells. Probably the most brilliant, funniest, smartest use of magic I've ever seen so far.

Issues #13-14 bring back Brother Night for a final confrontation, but Dini departed the book after #13. The last three issues are handled by fill-in writers (Derek Fridolfs, Adam Beechen), and while they're not bad, the Spectre courtroom trial in #15 is really fun. You can feel the narrative engine losing steam.

The Extras

Everyday Magic (#1) is a gorgeous prestige-format one-shot that predates the ongoing. Constantine and Zee's chemistry is electric. Bloodspell, the Black Canary team-up original graphic novel, is pure fun with spectacular Joe Quinones art. The Halloween Special and Secrets of Sinister House are minor anthology entries that add flavor without being essential.

The Art

This book has no business looking this good across 25 issues with this many artists.

Stéphane Roux handles the bulk of the early ongoing (#1-6, #12) and his work is clean, expressive and perfectly suited to a book about a stage magician. His Zatanna is confident and expressive, the Las Vegas sequences in particular pop with energy.

Cliff Chiang on the Pupaphobia arc (#8-10) is transformative. His style is more stylized, more European, and it brings out the horror elements in Dini's script without losing the fun. The puppet designs are genuinely unsettling and his action choreography in the nightmare sequences is top-tier.

Dustin Nguyen on the Detective Comics issues brings his signature watercolor-esque style that gives Gotham an appropriately moody atmosphere. Don Kramer on the "Trust" arc delivers gritty, grounded work that sells the Joker's menace.

Joe Quinones on Bloodspell is the secret weapon. His artwork is dynamic, expressive and captures the Dinah/Zee friendship in a way that feels lived-in and real.

The art isn't perfectly consistent, it probably can't be with this many hands on deck, but there's not a single bad-looking issue in the bunch.

Where It Stumbles

The unresolved threads. This is the big one. Dini clearly had plans for Brother Night, Mikey Dowling's arc, and the larger magical ecosystem he was building. The New 52 reboot killed the book before it could deliver on its promises. Issue #16 ends not with a conclusion but with a shrug. That hurts.

The fill-in issues. Issues #7, #14, #15, and #16 aren't written by Dini, and the difference is palpable. They're competent, but they lack the specific voice and emotional intelligence that makes Dini's work sing. Issue #14 ("Wingman") in specific is the weakest link here for me.. a standalone story jammed into the Brother Night resolution arc that kills momentum.

The Batman relationship whiplash. Dini clearly loves the Bruce/Zee dynamic, but the book can't quite decide what their relationship is. Mentor/mentee? Ex-lovers? Trusted confidants? The Detective Comics issues portray a deep, complicated friendship scarred by betrayal, while the solo series barely acknowledges it. The whiplash is jarring in an omnibus format.

The cheesecake. Look, Zatanna's costume is what it is, and Dini generally writes her with agency and intelligence. But there are moments, particularly in the Roux issues, where the camera lingers in ways that undercut the character work. It's not gratuitous by mid-2000s DC standards, but it hasn't aged perfectly either.

What Works

Dini's voice. The man wrote Batman: The Animated Series. He wrote Harley Quinn's origin. And here he brings that same character-first sensibility to Zatanna. She's funny, she's powerful, she's vulnerable, and she's specific. This isn't Generic Magic Hero.. this is Zatanna Zatara, with all her contradictions and charm intact.

The supporting cast. Mikey Dowling (Zee's stage manager), Dale Colton (cop ally) and Brother Night form a core ensemble that gives the book its backbone. Mikey's arc, revealed in issue #13 to be a trans woman, is handled with surprising grace for 2011.

The magical worldbuilding. San Francisco as a magical underworld hub, magical gangsters, nightmare imps, cursed puppeteers. Dini builds a corner of the DCU that feels distinct from Doctor Strange or Constantine's turf.

The omnibus format itself. Having the Batman prelude stories, the ongoing, Everyday Magic, and Bloodspell all in one place transforms what was a scattered reading experience into a cohesive character study. It's the definitive way to read this material.

Overall

Alright, let me think through this score.

The highs are great. Pupaphobia is an 8.5+ arc on its own for me, the Batman material is excellent, and Bloodspell is a delight. Dini's voice is pitch-perfect for the character. The art is consistently strong even across multiple hands.

But.. the unresolved ending is a real problem for a $100 omnibus. You're investing in a story that doesn't stick the landing. The fill-in issues pull the average down. And some of the relationship writing hasn't aged as well as I'd like.

I'm going back and forth. The Dini-written material is a solid 8.0-8.5. The fill-ins and the abrupt ending pull it down. The omnibus packaging and the extras (Everyday Magic, Bloodspell) pull it back up. I'll give it a very solid 8.2/10. It was a very fun read, I binged it within like 3 days.

You should buy this omnibus if:

• You're a Zatanna fan who's been waiting for definitive collection of her best solo material
• You love Paul Dini's character-first approach to DC storytelling
• You want the Detective Comics Batman/Zatanna stories in an accessible format
• You appreciate strong art variety and don't mind rotating creative teams
• You're building a DC magic shelf

You should skip if:

• You need a complete, resolved story.. this ends with loose threads due to the New 52
• Fill-in creative teams on later issues bother you
• You already own the original trades and Everyday Magic
• $100 is a stretch for an unfinished narrative

Here's what I'll say: Paul Dini understood Zatanna in a way no one before or since really has. He saw past the fishnets and the backward-talking gimmick to find a woman who performs for a living because she doesn't know how to be honest about her feelings, who's powerful enough to rewrite reality but can't fix her own loneliness, and who carries the weight of her father's legacy like a crown she never asked for. That's a character worth 720 pages.

The tragedy is that we never got to see where Dini was going with all of this. The Brother Night arc was clearly building to something bigger. Mikey's story had more to tell. The magical San Francisco ecosystem was just getting started. But what we got? It's pretty damn good.

Did the Pupaphobia arc work for you as well as it did for the community? And who else thinks Dini deserves another shot at Zee? Let me know in the comments!

Happy reading! See you next week! I'll probably start reviewing the Flash next week, what do you think?

Read my other reviews here.

Hey r/DCComics!

Last week we followed Superman through his self-imposed exile. We went through 13 issues of guilt, gladiators and the Eradicator's origin. It was intimate, consistent and surprisingly moving.

This week we're going bureaucratic.

The Janus Directive is what happens when DC's spy agencies go to war with each other. Checkmate, Suicide Squad, Captain Atom, Firestorm, Manhunter.. all convinced the others have been compromised. It's government paranoia as crossover event and it's.. fine. Mostly fine.

One post a week until we catch up to the present. Grab your clearance badges, let's dive in.

(These are my takes, and they can get pretty lengthy, so feel free to skip to the TL;DR if you just want the rundown.)

Event Deep Dive #10: The Janus Directive

What Is The Janus Directive?

Someone is manipulating America's metahuman intelligence agencies into destroying each other.

Checkmate, the Suicide Squad, Project Atom and Firestorm's handlers are all being fed false information suggesting the others have been compromised by Kobra, a terrorist organization. As paranoia spreads, these agencies stop cooperating and start shooting. It's spy thriller meets superhero crossover, with Amanda Waller caught in the middle.

The premise is clever: what if the government's metahuman assets turned on each other? The execution is.. uneven. When it focuses on Waller and the Squad, it sings. When it wanders into Firestorm or Captain Atom territory, it just drags imo.

The Structure

The event weaves through five titles but really lives in two: Suicide Squad and Checkmate. The others feel obligatory rather than essential.

The Journey

• Checkmate #15: Something is destroying America's spy agencies from within. Harry Stein's Checkmate organization is under attack and evidence points to Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad as the culprit. Except Waller's getting the same intel about Checkmate. The opening issue establishes the paranoid tone effectively. Nobody knows who to trust. Alliances that should be solid are fracturing. It's a good hook, I just wish the payoff matched it.
• Suicide Squad #27: This is where the event comes alive. Ostrander's Squad takes on the Force of July and things get dark fast. There's a moment with Dr. Light that shouldn't work as character development, it involves a child's death, but somehow Ostrander makes it land. Only in Suicide Squad can that kind of moral horror feel like growth. The Force of July are fascinating antagonists, holdovers from Reagan-era patriotic superteams who feel increasingly out of place in a morally gray world. Their clash with the Squad is ideological as much as physical.
• Checkmate #16-17: Checkmate tries to grab Waller before she can escalate. Knights are dying. Black Thorn and Valentina Vostok get their spotlight moments. It's competent spy thriller material, though it lacks the Squad's moral complexity. The Black Thorn subplot works well enough, but these issues feel like connective tissue more than destination.
• Suicide Squad #28-29: The agencies are in open conflict now. Bronze Tiger, Duchess and the Squad's heavy hitters get their moments. The action escalates appropriately, but I found myself waiting for the Waller scenes. The problem with crossovers like this for me is dilution. Ostrander's Suicide Squad is one of DC's best runs, but spreading it across five titles means less Ostrander per issue.
• Manhunter #14 / Firestorm #86: Manhunter's involvement feels obligatory.. he stumbles into the conspiracy without adding much. Firestorm's issue involves the Parasite and barely connects to the main plot. These are the issues you can skip without losing anything.
• Checkmate #18: The agencies finally unite against the real enemy: Kobra's floating fortress. It's big action, explosions, the kind of climax a spy crossover needs. Competent but not memorable.
• Suicide Squad #30: The finale returns to what works: Amanda Waller being Amanda Waller. She's the standout of the entire event. A character with depth and nuance that modern interpretations completely lack. Here, she explicitly states she never intentionally throws her people's lives away. That's not the Waller we get in recent comics and it's a reminder of what the character used to be. The resolution is satisfying enough, though there's a dropped thread about a launched nuke that never pays off. Editorial coordination issues, probably.

What Works

• Amanda Waller carries the event. When she's on page, the moral complexity clicks. She's ruthless but principled, manipulative but protective of her people. Modern Waller is just evil, 1989 Waller is interesting.
• Suicide Squad issues are consistently best. Ostrander understands what makes spy fiction work: characters you care about in impossible situations.
• The premise is clever. Government agencies manipulated into civil war is a strong hook. It feels plausible in a way superhero crossovers often don't.
• Force of July are great antagonists. Patriotic superheroes as villains-by-circumstance creates interesting moral friction.

What Doesn't Work

• The tangent issues drag it down. Firestorm and Captain Atom issues feel disconnected. You're reading about Parasite when you want to know what Waller's planning.
• The crossover structure dilutes the best material. Ostrander's Squad is A-tier comics. Spreading it across five titles means less of what works.
• Dropped plot threads. That launched nuke? Never comes back. The coordination between titles isn't tight enough.
• It's frankly a bit boring. I have to be honest.. the spy thriller pacing that works in a single title becomes repetitive across 11 issues. The paranoia premise runs out of steam before the event does.

The Art

Multiple artists across five titles means inconsistent visuals. The Suicide Squad issues benefit from the ongoing team's familiarity with the characters. Checkmate maintains a grounded spy aesthetic that suits the material.

Nothing here is bad, but nothing is memorable either. This is workmanlike crossover art.. it tells the story without elevating it.

Rating and TL;DR

The Janus Directive is a good idea that doesn't quite come together. The premise, spy agencies manipulated into civil war, deserves better than the scattered execution it gets. When it focuses on Amanda Waller and the Suicide Squad, it just works. When it wanders into tangential titles, it loses momentum.

I'll give it a 7.2, it's decent but flawed. The Suicide Squad issues alone would rate higher.. the package deal brings it down for me. If you're reading Ostrander's Squad run, you need this for continuity. If you're looking for a standalone spy thriller crossover, you might find it drags.

Waller is the highlight and the tragedy. She's written here with depth and nuance that modern comics have completely abandoned. Reading this, I understand why people mourn what the character became. 1989 Waller is a person, while 2020s Waller is a plot device.

Read this as Suicide Squad supplemental material, not as a crossover event.

Read If...

• You're reading Ostrander's Suicide Squad run
• Amanda Waller is your favorite character
• Spy thriller crossovers appeal to you

Skip If...

• You need tight crossover coordination
• Five titles feels like too much
• You want consistent quality throughout

That's it for Event Deep Dive #10. I'd love to hear what you all think. Is this crossover underrated or does it deserve its obscurity? Does anyone else miss old Waller? Drop your thoughts in the comments. Let's make this a discussion!

Next week: A Lonely Place of Dying, where Marv Wolfman and Jim Aparo pick up the pieces of a shattered Dark Knight. Also: Tim Drake stalks his way into a job, Two-Face gets a logic check, and Batman finally gets the intervention he deserves. It’s the structural rebuild we need after this absolute catastrophe.

I you're interested in my other reviews: read them here.

Happy Thursday, r/OmnibusCollectors!

Last week I went through Tony Daniel's Deathstroke. A frustrating New 52 run where the art was great but young Slade felt wrong. Annual #2 was the highlight and I gave it a 6.8.

Now we already reach the finale of our Deathstroke journey and boy what a finale it is. Christopher Priest's Rebirth run is widely considered the definitive modern take on Slade Wilson. 1,392 pages. 59 issues. One complete story. Let's see if it lives up to the hype.

Feel free to read through the whole review or simply skip to the overall score and TL;DR at the bottom. Let's go!

Deathstroke by Christopher Priest

This omnibus collects Deathstroke: Rebirth #1, Deathstroke #1-50, both Annuals and the relevant crossover issues (Lazarus Contract, Terminus Agenda). It's Priest's complete run an epic that treats Slade Wilson as a literary character worth examining.

Priest doesn't just write action. He writes family dysfunction, moral ambiguity and unreliable narration. He writes a broken man who keeps making things worse for everyone around him, including himself.

What works

The Professional (#1-8). The opening arc establishes everything. Slade's relationships with his children, his complicated history, his current mission. It is so good, it's ridiculous. Priest's plotting is dense. Traps within traps, spy vs. spy maneuvering, every issue layered with reveals that recontextualize earlier moments. The Batman confrontation is earned. The Superman fight is clever. Using glow stick dye to fake Kryptonite bullets is exactly the kind of preparation that makes Slade dangerous. This is how you write a tactical genius.

Issue #11 (Chicago). A filler issue that's better than most comics' main arcs. This for me was the best issue and it will probably be the best of the entire run. Featuring the Creeper, drawn by Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz. The art collaboration is stunning. The story is tight.

The Psychological Depth. What Priest is doing here feels like a Moon Knight book in terms of crazy, but I think it goes even a little deeper. We got into Slade's mind, how he is broken, why he is broken. The Arkham arc (#36-40) especially digs into Slade's fracturing psyche. We can feel the craziness. This isn't just action, but a character study disguised as a superhero comic.

The Family Dynamics. This run is fundamentally about a terrible father and his broken children. Jericho, Rose, Grant (in memory).. everyone orbits Slade's dysfunction. The Damian interactions are gold. Defiance (#21-27) is Slade's attempt at leading a heroic team. It is compelling precisely because you know it can't last. Watching him try and fail, to be better is the run's emotional core.

Where It Stumbles

Batman's characterization in #5 is weird. "Lost boys are a dime a dozen. I'll just get another one." Batman says this about Damian. He probably would not say that. It works as a foil to Deathstroke's parenting failures, but it reads as out-of-character to Batman fans. Priest pushed too hard here imo.

Too many plots at once. Priest juggles a lot. Multiple children, multiple timelines, multiple schemes.. If you lose track, the book can become frustrating. This requires attention.

Defiance didn't last long enough. I just wanted more time with that status quo before it collapsed.

The crossovers interrupt momentum. Lazarus Contract and Terminus Agenda are necessary for the story, but pulling in Teen Titans issues can feel disruptive if you're just here for Slade.

The Finale

A really strong ending, no holding back. Everything comes together. The threads pay off. The character arc completes. Priest stuck the landing. It's been a bash. And I loved it.

The Art

Rotating artists throughout, but highlights include Carlo Pagulayan, Denys Cowan and Joe Bennett. #11's Cowan/Sienkiewicz collaboration was the visual peak for me. The art serves the story throughout. Never a weak point.

Overall

It's just such a great run, my favorite comic in the last 5 years. Easily an 8.8/10.

This is the definitive modern Deathstroke. Priest treats Slade as a character worth taking seriously.. a terrible father, a skilled killer, a man who can't stop making things worse for everyone including himself. The plotting is dense and rewards attention. The character work is excellent. The finale satisfies.

It's not perfect, the Batman characterization in #5 feels a bit off, some readers will get lost in the multiple plotlines and the crossovers can feel intrusive. But when it works, it's a masterclass in long-form superhero storytelling.

If you're going to own one Deathstroke omnibus, this is the one. I'm super happy that it's gonna be reprinted this year, so please do yourself a favor and get a copy.

You should buy this run if:

• You want THE definitive modern Deathstroke
• Dense, literary superhero comics appeal to you
• Family dysfunction as narrative engine sounds compelling
• You can handle multiple plotlines and timelines
• You want 1,400 pages of quality content

You should skip if:

• You need straightforward, linear storytelling
• Crossover interruptions frustrate you
• You're a Batman purist who'll be bothered by #5
• 59 issues feels overwhelming
• You just want action without character study

That completes my Deathstroke omnibus journey! From Wolfman's 80s action movie energy through Daniel's controversial New 52 take to Priest's literary masterpiece, we've covered nearly 3000+ pages of Slade Wilson.

Is Priest the best Deathstroke run ever? Did the family drama land for you? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for following along! What character should I tackle next? I was thinking about maybe the Flash?

Happy reading!

Read my other reviews here.

Hey r/DCComics!

Last time in Event Deep Dive we survived an Invasion. Invasion! Aliens attacked Earth for our metagenes, Australia fell, yada yada yada, Grant Morrison's Animal Man tie-ins somehow became the best part of the whole event, you know the drill. The Gene Bomb changed everything.

This week we're going personal.

Superman: Exile is not a universe-ending crisis or an alien invasion. It's one man's journey through guilt, redemption and the question of what it means to be Superman when you've crossed a line you swore you'd never cross. It's also remarkably good.

One post a week until we catch up to the present. Grab your Eradicators, let's dive in.

(These are my takes, and they can get pretty lengthy, so feel free to skip to the TL;DR if you just want the rundown.)

Event Deep Dive #9: Superman: Exile

What Is Superman: Exile?

This is basically the aftermath of one of Superman's darkest moments.

In the "Supergirl Saga" that preceded Exile, Superman encountered a pocket universe where three Kryptonian criminals, namely General Zod, Quex-Ul and Zaora had murdered the entire population of Earth. With no Phantom Zone, no Kryptonite prison, no other option, Superman executed them with green Kryptonite. He killed. Phew.

Exile is what happens next. Wracked with guilt, Clark Kent develops a split personality. Gangbuster emerges at night, violently attacking criminals while Superman sleeps. When Clark realizes what he's becoming, he makes a choice: exile himself from Earth until he can trust himself again.

What follows is a 13-issue journey through deep space, gladiatorial combat, ancient Kryptonian artifacts and ultimately, a confrontation with Darkseid himself. It's Superman at his most vulnerable and I think it's excellent.

The Structure

Exile weaves through three Superman titles in the classic triangle numbering era: Superman, Adventures of Superman and Action Comics (+Annual). There are no bad issues here imo, just good ones and great ones. That consistency is rare for crossovers.

The Journey

• Superman #28: The story opens with Superman already broken. He's discovered his Gangbuster episodes, realized he can't control himself and made the devastating choice to leave Earth entirely. This isn't just a hero being exiled by others, but more like self-imposed penance. Ordway and Stern handle the emotional weight beautifully. Clark says goodbye to no one. He just leaves. Gone. The loneliness is immediate and palpable. Reading this, I understood why this storyline resonates. It's not about punching cosmic threats. It's about a man who doesn't trust himself anymore.
• Adventures of Superman #451-452: While Superman wanders space, life continues on Earth. Lois investigates Clark's disappearance. A mutilated body is found that might be Superman. The supporting cast gets room to breathe.. something the triangle-era Superman books did better than almost any modern run. These issues also introduce the Word-Bringer subplot, a cosmic serial killer that gives Superman something external to fight while processing his internal crisis. It's smart storytelling: action for readers who need it, character work for those paying attention.
• Superman #29-30: Deep space Superman is haunting. He drifts. He fights the Word-Bringer. He hallucinates. The cosmos doesn't care about his guilt. It's vast and indifferent, which somehow makes his struggle feel more real. These issues lean into the isolation without becoming boring. Ordway's art sells the emptiness of space while keeping Superman visually compelling. The pacing is deliberate but never slow.
• Adventures of Superman #453-454: Superman is captured by slavers and forced into gladiatorial combat. Enter Mongul's Warworld, a callback to classic Superman stories that grounds the cosmic journey in familiar territory. The gladiator arc is the weakest stretch for me, but "weakest" here means like 7.6+. It's still solid superhero comics. Superman fighting his way through alien arenas while wrestling with whether he deserves to survive is compelling stuff.
• Action Comics Annual #2: The Warworld arc culminates in Superman defeating Mongul and encountering the Cleric, an ancient being who possesses the Eradicator, a Kryptonian artifact that will define Superman stories for years to come. This is where Exile pivots from exile to discovery. Superman isn't just punishing himself anymore. He's learning about his heritage. The Eradicator's introduction feels organic rather than forced, which is impressive given how important it becomes.
• Superman #32-33: The Exile's emotional peak. The Cleric uses the Eradicator to send Superman on a psychic journey through his worst memories and through the Cleric's own guilt over failing to save Kryptonians centuries ago.
• Superman #33 was the best issue of the entire arc for me. It's a vision quest that finally gives Clark closure on the executions that started this journey. The parallel between Superman's guilt and the Cleric's guilt is elegant. Both men carry the weight of deaths they couldn't prevent or chose to cause. It's just beautifully illustrated, so well written amd provides closure on the moral crisis that began in Byrne's final issues.
• Adventures of Superman #455-456: The wrap-up issues basically. Superman heads back toward Earth, the Eradicator in hand. On Earth, Darkseid sends Turmoil to deal with Lois Lane, setting up the finale's stakes. They're transition issues doing.. transition work.
• Action Comics #643: George Pérez writes and draws the finale. I'm happy. Incredible art from the first page. Pérez's Superman flying through space is just iconic. The issue delivers on every level. Superman rescues Lois and Gangbuster from Turmoil, Morgan Edge's Intergang connection pays off and Clark finally returns to a world that missed him. The emotional reunion lands because we've spent 12 issues earning it.

What Works

• The premise is challenging. Superman killed. Not in self-defense, not by accident, he executed three criminals because he saw no other option. Exile takes that seriously instead of hand-waving it away. The guilt feels real because the transgression was real.
• Consistent quality throughout. You can read this start to finish without hitting a wall.
• The Eradicator introduction is earned. This artifact becomes hugely important to Superman mythology. Introducing it during a story about Kryptonian heritage makes perfect sense
• The supporting cast shines. Lois investigating Clark's disappearance, Jimmy dealing with the fallout, the Daily Planet continuing without its star reporter.. these threads make Earth feel alive while Superman is gone.
• The ending is satisfying. Clark comes home. He's not "fixed," but he's ready to be Superman again. The journey feels complete without being tidy.

What Doesn't Work

• The Warworld stretch slightly drags. The gladiator issues are the weakest part. They're fine, but the momentum dips before the Cleric/Eradicator material picks it back up.
• The pocket universe context requires homework. If you haven't read the Supergirl Saga, the executions that haunt Superman feel abstract. The story explains enough to follow, but the emotional impact is stronger with context.
• Adventures of Superman issues were consistently less enjoyable for me. There's a quality gap between the Superman Vol. 2 issues and Adventures. Not huge, but noticeable.

The Art

Three artists rotate through the triangle titles, and all deliver:

Jerry Ordway (Superman Vol. 2) provides the emotional anchor. His Clark Kent is expressive, his space vistas are lonely and his action is dynamic without losing character.

Dan Jurgens (Adventures of Superman) handles the Earth-side material and gladiator sequences. Solid superhero storytelling throughout.

George Pérez (Action Comics #643) delivers the finale with his trademark detail and energy. Having Pérez close out the arc is just a gift. His Superman homecoming is the visual payoff the story needed.

Rating and TL;DR

Superman: Exile is a character study disguised as a space opera. It takes Superman's darkest moment, executing criminals when he saw no other choice and treats it with the weight it deserves. The result is 13 issues of genuinely compelling comics.

This isn't Crisis or Invasion. There's no multiverse collapse, no alien armada. It's smaller in scope but deeper in impact. Superman wrestling with guilt, isolation, and the question of whether he deserves to wear the S is more interesting than most cosmic threats.

Confession time. I'm not a huge Superman fan. But damn, this story was really great. Read this if you want Superman treated as a character rather than a power set. Read it for the Eradicator's origin. Read it because Ordway, Jurgens and Pérez all bring their best. Just maybe read the Supergirl Saga first so the guilt has context.

The Man of Steel fell. This is how he got back up. 8.2/10.

Reading Recommendations

Essential Reading

• All 13 issues. It's just so tight, no skips needed

Read First

• Supergirl Saga (Superman #21-22, Adventures #444, Superman #23). The executions that start this. It's not necessary, but definitely helps a lot.
• Basic familiarity with post-Crisis Superman

Read If...

• You want Superman treated as a human being
• Character-driven crossovers appeal to you
• You're interested in the Eradicator's origin
• You appreciate consistent quality over 13 issues

Skip If...

• You need universe-ending stakes
• Slower character work bores you
• You haven't read the Supergirl Saga (read that first instead)

That's it for Event Deep Dive #9. I'd love to hear what you all think. Is this the best post-Crisis Superman arc? Does the execution dilemma still resonate? Drop your thoughts in the comments. Let's make this a discussion!

Next week: Janus Directive. Spy agencies go to war with each other? Sounds amazing? Let's see.

Grab your capes, see you next week!

I you're interested in my other reviews: read them here.