My reading list for August was a bit shorter on the surface. But, I spent some time getting caught up on some issues of Alter Ego magazine which had been piling up. I don’t list magazines and other like materials in The Stack. But, there is still plenty of comics. Here’s August:

Action Comics #903
All New Batman: Brave and the Bold #9
Batman Chronicles Vol. 5 trade paperback
Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search For Swamp Thing #2
DC Comics: The New 52
Green Lantern (Vo. 4) #67
Green Lantern Corps (Vol. 2) #61-62
Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #12
Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil trade paperback
Steel #45-50
Superboy (Vol. 3) #46-51
Superboy and the Ravers #16-19
Superboy/Risk Double Shot #1
Supergirl (Vol. 4) #16-21
Supergirl/Prysm Double Shot #1
Superman #713
Superman/Batman #86
Team Superman Secret Files #1
War of the Green Lanterns: Aftermath #1
Young Justice (Vol. 2) #5

Total: 37 comics, 2 trades (Year total: 285 comics, 10 trades)

I started the BATMAN CHRONICLES volume last month, but finished it up in August. I also started SHOWCASE PRESENTS: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA Vol. 4. This volume collects JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #61-83. These issues wrap up Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky’s runs and kick off Denny O’Neil and Dick Dillin runs. The JLA/JSA crossover in these issues introduces (again for the first time) the Superman of Earth-Two (though he was mentioned in a line of dialogue in prior issue).

On the Reading Project front, in August I bid farewell to SUPERBOY AND THE RAVERS and am winding down on STEEL, with only a couple more issues to go. I really feel bad for that title. It never really got off of the ground. John Henry Irons is a strong character, but I’m not convinced Louise Simonson had a completely fleshed out idea of where she wanted to go with the character when the title started. And then there were many events and crossovers that derailed the title even more. By the time Priest came on, I think it was too far gone.

Crossovers have to plagued the character from his beginning. He was born out of “Reign of the Supermen.” Nothing wrong with that; characters frequently spin out of from events. But when given his own ongoing, that title was dragged into “World’s Collide,” “Zero Hour” and the Zero month all within the first nine issues. Less than a year later, issue 21 saw an “Underworld Unleashed” tie-in. It was finally crossover free for nearly two years, but had some uneven times when Simonson left and Priest started.

Issue 43 saw the title involved with “Genesis” and the title’s 50th issue was derailed by the “Millennium Giants” story. A non-A-list character making fifty issues today is an extreme rarity and even in the nineties it was nothing to sneeze at. Granted, the character had a little higher profile spinning out of “Reign,” but dozens of characters have had even higher hype behind them and never made it near 50 issues.

Sadly, “Millennium Giants” might have been the final nail in the coffin for Steel’s ongoing and the title was canceled two issues later. Steel then moved on to being a member of the JLA and eventually a run as a supporting character during Mark Schultz’s run on SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL. However, little significant was done with the the character in either place, save for being crippled and taken out of the game during yet another crossover, “Our Worlds at War” (and the aftermath).

Eventually he got better, but the character was pretty much off the table until 2006 with 52 and the spin-out book, INFINITY INC. (yep, another event or spinoff from). Even worse, 52 and INFINITY INC. were less about Steel and more about Lex Luthor and Natasha Irons, respectively. (In INFINITY INC., he made only one or two brief appearances as Steel; the rest of the time, he was the armor-less John Henry.)

He was then brought back into the super-titles, but ended up being used as cannon fodder and put in a hospital until the big “get all the heroes together to beat the bad guy” ending. Most recently, he was to finally get his own one-shot. but the original plans for that were jettisoned in favor of using that issue to kick off another event: the “Reign of the Doomsday” storyline.

I really hope “Flashpoint” and the DCnU won’t be the death knell for the character. As I recall, Grant Morrison said he would be appearing in his first issue of ACTION COMICS, but would be “much different.” As I write this, that issue is a week away from release and we likely won’t get the full scope of what has been done to him for a while. So, let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Anyway… getting back to The Stack.

SHAZAM! THE MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL was a very fun read. I highly recommend it for those of you who have young children. The all-ages title BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM! loosely follows it. But, you don’t need to read or know anything about one to enjoy the other.

But that’s it, I think. In just a couple days, I will be receiving my latest shipment, which will have the last month’s worth of books prior to the DCnU. So, I will be saying my own farewell to the prior continuity over the next month and at the same time, welcoming the new.