Thank you very, very much for the kind words! They mean a lot to me, they really do.
I love your reading list! It's so very, very cool. It's great that you and your lady are reading all those wonderful stories together. As an old Silver Age guy that remembers when characters like Deadman and the Teen Titans were brand new, I find it extremely gratifying that there are fans like yourself that are discovering those stories and enjoying them.
Thank you again!
Of course!!
I wouldn't miss these Silver Age stories if it were the death of me! While most of my growing up was firmly built in the 90s, and Post-Crisis, my first DC passion rekindling was actually through Golden and Silve Age Aquaman, Elongated Man, and Detroit Era Justice League. I was 14-15 around then, and had been away from reading DC for a while, focusing more on Marvel for maybe two years.
This is actually my second time reading through Deadman, and for my tastes at least, it's essential reading. When in a heavily curated reading order, it plays almost perfectly as a prelude to what will later come when Adams and O'Neil jump onto Batman.
And on that note, it's also great to just see how these characters have evolved over time. With Batman especially, from that very early gothic period, into the typical formula that nearly ran itself into the ground before its rejuvenation in the New Look era. Not to say there aren't standout issues, though. Both Joe Chill stories, and Catman's poetic crimes were really solid, and characters such as The Cavalier (a lot of the reasoning behind starting here was to see the stories of these very era-specific characters) were just a lot of damn fun.
But New Look was such a breath of fresh air, even with us only having read a hundred and twenty-ish stories before it. And the near end of New Look, after the cancellation of the TV series, keeps ramping the investment up further and further. I know I'm about 30 issues of DC, TBATB, and BM away from Bronze Age, but it's already so enticing.
On Teen Titans, Bob Haney was a hard sell at first. His initial issues we read (I believe Batman & Green Lantern vs Time Commander, and Batman & The Flash vs those guys with the funny sneakers) were fun enough, albeit a tiny bit out of character for Bruce especially. Batman & Eclipso almost made us skip out on TBATB entirely, but I am incredibly glad I am not. His crossover with Deadman brought it back entirely. Besides Adams being on art duty obviously bringing it up quite a few notches, it was such a wonderful weaving of Boston and Bruce's respective origins and the aforementioned Joe Chill stories into a really compelling plot. Bruce being genuinely fascinated by the appearance of the ghost was fucking sick as well. I still feel the dialogue Haney gives everyone is a bit out of whack, but if the plotting is THAT good, I can excuse it. The Creeper issue was a lot of fun as well. I know Aparo will be another lead artist, so I suppose I'm stuck reading everything here.
That style of overly cheesy dialogue and characterization is not at all a problem with Teen Titans, though. It works in its favor, being a team of goofball teens and all, with maybe the biggest smiles I've had reading a "new" comic in a long time. Speedy issues are all a delight (and we are on him joining the team fully now), and I am an Aquaman fan, so Nick Cardy art is always someone I adore the work of as well.
Upcoming after Flash and Aquaman catchup will be New Gods. That'll be my first time as well.
