I still have images of Superman comic books stuck in my head from when I was growing up in the 1960s. They were fantastic, a mixture of superhero and science fiction, two of my greatest loves ever at that age. I loved the stories of Lex Luthor (in his traditional gray prison uniform) teaming up with Brainiac (in a pink shirt and shorty-shorts). One of the most prevalent of those images was of Superman shrunken down and trapped in a birdcage.

Ahh, those were the days. But as I grew older, Superman grew more serious and so did his problems. Sadly, so did I. I realized there were worse things for Superman – for anyone —than being trapped in a birdcage. However, I still loved those stories. They were part of my childhood and I won’t feel badly for hanging onto them.

Especially since Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely are revisiting Superman with the same love and tenderness I remember from those comic issues. Those plots were innocent and fun in a way that comics haven’t been in a long time. Now, Morrison and Quitely are doing the same thing in the pages of All-Star Superman.

The series exists outside of the traditional Superman universe. From what I’ve seen of this first graphic novel, anything goes. Clark Kent is still something of a boob. Lois Lane is sharp and still doesn’t have a clue that Clark is Superman (until he tells her). Jimmy Olsen is perky and sharp and a geek all at the same time. Luthor is violently opposed to Superman breathing the same air as him, and is brilliantly carrying out multi-layered plans to bring that to an end.

And Superman is quietly heroic throughout it all.

The graphic novel gathers the first six issues of the series. Some of the stories function as stand-alone tales but they all have continuity threads. And they’re all just good fun. This is a Superman book I’m gleefully handing off to my ten-year-old because I know he’s going to have a blast with it too.

The first story shows Morrison’s deviousness. Luthor has a plan to destroy Superman by overexposing him to the sun’s rays. During the initial set-up of the story, Morrison quickly and quietly introduces his readers to the familiar cast of characters, letting everyone know just how he’s going to spin the relationships and at what point in their lives we are. The sequence of Clark entering the newsroom on the double is a long montage that expertly showcases Quitely’s artwork. I loved it.

The first issue leaves us hanging regarding Superman’s fate after the overexposure to the sun. But the second issue is a fan’s dream come true: Lois Lane is given super-powers for a day and becomes Superwoman the way we all imagined she might back in the 1960s. Not only that, but Quitely draws her smoking hot! The two-page spread of the Fortress of Solitude is awesome.

I also loved the calm, every-day way Superman discussed Batman and Robin, and the casual way the Superman robots got introduced. They were a staple of the 1960s as well. The secret of Superman’s key to the Fortress was terrific, and the stuff of science fiction. The way Lois’s paranoia about Superman backfiring was terrific plotting. Instead of being suspicious of Clark being Superman, she starts wondering if Superman has gone insane due to his exposure.

The third issue where Lois tries to make Superman jealous of Atlas and Samson is a hoot. So is the ending where Superman finally gets tired of their constant haranguing.

Issue four concentrates on Jimmy Olsen, and it’s the Jimmy I grew up with. The one that’s still young and naïve, and always in the middle of trouble Superman has to get him out of. This one also contains some of Morrison’s trademark outside-the-box SF.

Lex Luthor takes center stage in issue five. The team-up with Clark Kent was absolutely fantastic. Can’t believe no one ever tried that before. Of course, there’s probably some credit due to the Smallville television series there. “You write like a poet but you move like a landslide,” is a quote from Luthor about Clark Kent that I’ll probably never forget. The resulting adventure as they run from the Parasite (and Clark repeatedly saves Lex) is a series of neat twists. There’s even a cameo of Beppo the Supermonkey that’s hilarious.

Issue 6 hosts a lot of surprises and nostalgia. We get to see Ma and Pa Kent, watch Superman play with Krypto the Super-Dog, and even hang out in the Smallville malt shop with Lana Lang. Seeing the Supermen of the futures was a trip down memory lane as well. You just know Morrison is having fun with the cornucopia he’s laying down. But his is one of the saddest tales Morrison weaves, and it sneaks up on you in the end.

I can’t name a graphic novel I’ve read yet that seems to span the decades and the generations Morrison’s loving tribute does in All-Star Superman. For long-time fans that haven’t read comics in a great many years, this one is a perfect return. Pick this one up and prepare to enjoy the feast.

He still remains as DC Comics’ most radical hero. Mike Grell created The Longbow Hunters and pushed away the trick arrows for a time, getting Ollie back to his roots as a cutting-edge back street brawler, then enjoyed a long run on the strip. Chuck Dixon shortly followed Grell and even killed Ollie off long enough to give us a new Green Arrow in Connor Hawke.

Even though he’d died and gone to Heaven, Ollie come back in issues penned by Kevin (Daredevil, Clerks) Smith. Lately Judd Winnick has married him off to Black Canary and invented a whole new Speedy for this generation.

But Andy Diggle (The Losers) got the green light to pen the adventures of Oliver Queen’s Year One origin while so many longtime DC Comics heroes are getting spotlight treatment. I really enjoyed Diggle’s run on The Losers as well as some of his other forays, but I didn’t know if he was the right guy for Green Arrow. As it turns out, Diggle was just the guy to bring Ollie once more to the masses.

Diggle’s scriptwork is excellent. He moves the story along and finesses the characters and relationship through dialogue and action, and the overall effect is like watching a movie with first-person voiceovers. An added bonus in the graphic novel contains the first few pages of the actual script Diggle turned in to the editor and artist. He didn’t just put the words on the page, he actually planned on where the action would go and how it would be revealed.

In the beginning, Oliver Queen was a playboy with more money than he knew what to do with. He rambled and tried extreme sports to fill the gaps in his life, constantly trying to find his happy. Diggle does a masterful job of portraying that, and even ties in the Robin Hood touchstones of Errol Flynn and Howard Hill’s longbow at a fundraiser where Ollie really makes an idiot of himself.

Jock’s artwork is fantastic. The panels and spreads flow cinematically across the pages. Movement comes alive, tension is as tight as a bowstring, and the sweeping majesty of nature fills the senses so much I could almost smell the grass and the gunpowder. The fact that Diggle and Jock have worked together before shows. They’re a well-oiled machine attuned to turned out powerful stories.

The plot of Green Arrow: Year One is absurdly simple, but it shows off so much of what has become canon for the character. Oliver’s disenchantment of his own prosperity, the dislike of the image of so many of the rich and celebrity, the false platitudes so many hucksters and politicians spout, and his search for real meanings takes shape in these pages.

His inherent survivalist’s nature shines through in the wilderness and the human adversity he faces. Diggle also touches on Ollie’s abhorrence of drugs (which became a major plot point in the 1970s when it was revealed that Roy Harper, Green Arrow’s original sidekick Speedy who has now gone on to become Red Arrow, had a drug problem). Understanding that Ollie got addicted to opium while healing on the island actually shores up Ollie’s overreaction and disappointment in Roy at that time. There’s even a comment made after a drastic injury regarding the potential of Ollie losing his arm that plays off the way Ollie was killed – for a time.

There’s a lot to love about this graphic novel if you’re a Green Arrow fan. I had a blast reading it, then re-reading it. And it’s a great introduction to the character if you’ve never read anything about him. Despite the fact that his series seems to constantly respawn, there’s a resiliency of Oliver Queen that just won’t go away forever. He’s become an icon in the DC Comics universe, and Diggle and Jock reveal here in these pages.

Green Lantern: No Fear is far less technically ambitious than its predecessor, Rebirth. The previous novel in the “new” adventures of Hal Jordan basically had to re-invent the character and discard a decade and more of maltreatment of the character, in my opinion.However, that said, No Fear offers a lot in the way of great character building. Geoff Johns’s first graphic novel in the Green Lantern saga was all about getting back to the basics and skewering missed approaches to Hal Jordan. This volume reintroduces Hal Jordan and Green Lantern to the world as a human being and a hero. It’s about history and family, about dreams and responsibilities, and the fact that there’s precious little wiggle room for anybody trying to balance all those things and live a good life.

I especially loved the first story. The art by Darwyn Cooke was amazingly simple and really underscored the light but deep tale as Hal remembered his relationship with his test pilot father. The fact that Hal and Kyle Rayner (the latest Green Lantern, and the character that really split the polls on favorite Green Lanterns) are shown together and we get a sense of how that relationship is going. Johns could have totally blown off the Rayner character, but he chose to embrace him in the series to offer the readers the best of both possible worlds.

From there, the stories move into more Green Lantern history with the threat of a Manhunter, the androids created by the Guardians to police the spaceways before they created the Green Lantern Corps. The art is pretty cool, shows lots of action, and allows a great pacing for Johns’s story.

I enjoyed the sequences with Hal’s brother a lot too. Johns seems intent on advancing stories as much as he is on introducing back stories that we hadn’t before seen. The story of why Hal got dishonorably discharged from the United States Air Force was especially emotionally compelling.

Johns also broadens his current Green Lantern universe by bringing in other old enemies: Hector Hammond and Black Hand. Both of those characters are far creepier and more dangerous than we’ve ever seen them before.

I have to admit that the scene where Hal pounded away at Hector Hammond when the man couldn’t defend himself made me uncomfortable. On one level, I understood it because Hammond had used his mind-probing powers to assault Green Lantern, but it still just didn’t seem like something Hal would do.

This collection of stories was much lighter than the arc that ran through Rebirth. Since I read them so close together, I’m glad there was such a difference. Rebirth emotionally exhausted me, but No Fear was – mostly – a fun romp.

The scene where Hal busted General Stone in the mouth the way he had all those years ago, and the fact that that clue was what gave away Hal’s secret identity as Green Lantern, was great. I think having a USAF general know that Hal and Green Lantern are the same guy can’t be anything but beneficial. (You still have to wonder how Clark Kent can go missing all the time from the Daily Planet.)

I’ve got two more of the graphic novels lined up to read, and I’m really looking forward to them. Johns is making magic again, and it’s fun to watch.

Though I’m ashamed to admit it, I’ve never read a single issue of The Spirit until Darwyn Cooke’s graphic novel collecting the first six issues of the new series put out by DC Comics. I’ve read comics nearly my whole life, and heard about Will Eisner and the Spirit for nearly as long.To tell you the truth, the Spirit didn’t fit my idea of a superhero. For one, there was the problem of no superpowers. And two, the costume was really lame for a kid who grew up with superheroes wearing Spandex and their underwear on the outside. The Spirit just looked too…real. That meant boring to the child that I was.So I went on for nearly fifty years with my assumption that I wouldn’t like the Spirit.Enter Darwyn Cooke. Actually, I didn’t know that I liked him at first either. I thought his art was too raw at the time, too two-dimensional and unfinished. Then he did New Frontier, which became an overnight bestseller and is coming out as a straight-to-DVD animated movie soon. I picked up New Frontier and really liked Cooke’s writing and art. His artistry is flamboyant and unique. He played fairly with the characters and showed real talent when reimagining the DC Universe for his story.

Now he’s brought that same understanding of character to The Spirit, a monthly comic from DC. He writes and pencils the comic, something that few people in that business do any more, or are skilled enough to accomplish. From what I understand of the character since I’ve been poking around after getting curious, he’s captured the flavor, pacing, and zest of Will Eisner’s work.

Denny Colt is a private investigator that cracks a big case but gets overwhelmed by the villains. He is also doused in chemicals that makes it look like he is dead. After he recovers and crawls out of the family crypt, he decides to remain “dead” and adopt a new identity to fight crime. He does this with the reluctant acquiescence of Central City Police Commissioner Dolan. Dolan also happens to be the father of Denny’s girlfriend, Ellen.

Even though he looks like a 1940s private eye with a domino mask under his slouch hat, the Spirit is much more than a bare knuckles hero. He doesn’t just investigate; he has adventures. Those adventures are by turns deadly serious, humorous, absolutely loopy, or anything in between.

As I read the stories, I was at first confused. Then I realized that the Spirit was a lot like Jack Cole’s Plastic Man series. Totally malleable. (Yep, that’s a pun, and I’m not sorry.) I settled into the graphic novel for a light-hearted and fun read that vamoosed through the panels with the pacing of a runaway avalanche.

I call the volume a graphic novel, but that’s doing the book an injustice of sorts. In this day and age when every writer and artist is trained to produce a five- or six-issue arc that will fit neatly and conveniently into a graphic novel format a few months later, Darwyn Cooke decided to be daring and write standalone tales. That’s right, you can sit down and read a single comic-length story and get it all in one shot. That was like a breath of fresh air. It also made for more tightly plotted stories.

One of the other things I really liked about the book is the collection of secondary characters culled right from Eisner’s works: the ever missing-in-action Octopus, P’Gell, and others. Cooke even introduces us to Silk Satin, a hard-as-nails female character and member of the CIA, and she’s tough enough to take out Dirty Harry. You never know what to expect from story to story within the pages of this beautiful hardback book.

I do wish that some kind of primer with an art gallery of iconic Spirit characters had been included with the graphic novel as added value. I understood from the stories that some of the characters were ongoing from Eisner’s original run, but it would have helped with more. Eisner evidently created a deep, rich world and Cooke is running elegantly with the ball. There’s no reason for Cooke to try to stumble through all that had gone on before for Denny while in the middle of his own stories, and you can pick up enough to get by. But now that I’m hooked, that little bit of extra would have been great.

If you haven’t read the comics and still maintain your love of great storytelling combined with sheer fun, pick up this graphic novel and prepare to be wowed. Cooke has brought major wowness to a whole new level.