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Rating:  -
This sequel to Generations continues the concept of Superman and Batman aging over the years. Like the first one it starts in the 30s and proceeds to the 2000s this time with chapters set 11 years apart.
We get more glimpses of how Superman and Batman's lives (and that of their heirs) proceeded over nearly a century and get glimpses of multiple generations of Green Lanterns, Flashes and Wonder Women.
As with the original there are some weak chapters but overall it presents an interesting glimpse into the sort of world mainstream comics avoid.
Rating:  -
Summary: Generations 2 is John Byrne's follow-up series to Generations. It includes eight interrelated stories set eleven years apart involving the aging superheroes of the DC Universe in era-similar stories. While Generations followed the careers of Batman and Superman very closely, Generations 2 expands the scope of the series to include Green Lantern, the Flash, and Wonder Woman as well as the Justice Society/Justice League of America. The stories aren't as cohesive as those in Generations, but still fit together well in conjunction with the first series.
Writing: In Generations 2, John Byrne has the unenviable task of keeping track of many similar characters over eight stories and trying to keep their personalities straight. He does this, but none of the characters proves to be very inspiring and none of the dialogue is particularly clever. On the other hand, the script is deft in keeping the story flowing and explains what can't be seen on the page. It's vanilla, but it's homemade vanilla hand cranked by your grandfather.
Since the stories are supposed to be era-similar, the plots might seem weak at times. I'll therefore try to discuss each chapter in turn.
1942: This chapter loosely connects two stories, a JSA story with Superman and a Batman. Neither is particularly complicated, and both insert the reader into the middle of the action. The JSA story is a Giant Nazi Robot story and the Batman story is a Nazi Conspirator story. Both are fun stories and together serve to connect the series to Generations, but neither is a full story on its own.
1953: This chapter has one main story and a lot of back story. The main story is Superman's fight to get off of a planet with a red sun. It also introduces a subplot that culminates in "1997" that is one of the most striking aspects of the series. The rest of the back story mainly deals with maternity issues.
1964: This is one of the three most cohesive chapters in the collection. Although there's some back story about Dick Grayson as the Batman and his fling with Batgirl, the story is mostly taken up with the formation of the JLA. I this series the sons and daughters of the original Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman join up with Wally West as Kid Flash in Infinity, Inc/Teen Titans style to form the Justice League while fighting Flash villains.
1975: This is another coherent story. This story is basically a team-up, a type of comic book common in the 70s. In this story Batman teams up with Dead Man to help solve the problem of a phantom that's stalking the Joker. There is a Green Lantern subplot connects this chapter to the rest of the series.
1986: This is a coherent Batman story. It involves Batman's deepening obsession with crime-fighting, his conflict with the Gotham police department, and what the JLA does about it. This chapter has a rationale giving the story the grittiness that infected Batman comic books in the eighties. In this chapter Batman pursues a super villainess and is in turn pursued by the JLA. It also ties in with the Green Lantern subplot.
1997: This, like 1942, is actually a chapter with two stories. One is the conclusion of the Green Lantern subplot and the other is a Knightwing (Superman's grandson, Batman's adopted grandson) story where he fights with a random guy in a Supervillain Combat Robot.
2008: Here, a random Kryptonite-powered robot attacks Metropolis and the JLA tries to stop it. This story mostly connects Generations 2 to Generations.
2019: This is a story about Superboy and the young Bruce Wayne teaming up against the villain of Generations and seems to be an alternate first meeting to the one included there.
Generations 2 isn't well connected from story to story. Three of the individual stories are excellent and others are good, but the connections between them are the characters instead of the story. Most of the plot-based connections over time are actually Generations connections. I'm not sure if the series was designed to be read intermixed with the first series or not, but it certainly reads that way.
I'd like to give Byrne three-quarters of a star for the script and one-half of a star for the plots, so the writing gets one star.
Art: John Byrne is one of the premier superhero cartoonists today, and one of only a handful of really talented illustrators to continue to work on monthly comic books over several decades. Byrne has a cartoony style, but he can make very subtle distinctions between characters. In "1953" he has a panel, for example, with Wonder Woman as an adult talking to a "projection" of herself as a teenager, and they are recognizably the same person at different ages. He doesn't skimp on backgrounds, either. There are astoundingly intricate drawings of skyscrapers in Metropolis and elsewhere peppered throughout the collection.
One place Byrne really shines here is in giving the separate chapters a feel distinctive to their era. This is rather difficult because he's much more technically proficient than the earliest illustrators and no one would buy a comic book drawn as poorly as many of the WWII era comic books were. However, especially in "1953," "1964," and "1975," he does a great job. The revenant Batman in 1975 reminds me of several stories in the 1970s, for example. The art earns both its stars.
Conclusion: Generations 2 is a very enjoyable comic book on its own, even if it is a little fragmented. The three very cohesive chapters-1964, 1975, and 1986-are good enough on their own to justify the cost of this collection. Because the story relies on so much in Generations, I would read Generations before reading collection. The art is superb and the stories are good. Since there are no quarter-stars, I've only given John Byrne's Generations 2 four of them, but it's a large four.
Rating: -
I loved this trade as much as the original Generation series. The Generation "Universe" has evolved into an interesting place full of new superheros and old favorites. This is one of those series where the concept was good was it was thought of...and then it was extremely well executed. Who is the new Wonder Girl? How can the ghost of Batman be haunting the Joker if Batman is still alive? What old foe of the JLA returns to battle the JLA's decendants in the future?
All of this and tons more in one book! Loved it!
Jeff
Rating: -
Generations 2 is an ELSEWORLDS story that takes place mainly around Superman and Batman. The concept is that heroes actually first appear in the date their first comic appearence was and they age nromally from there (so by the 60's Bruce Wayne is in his 40s-50s with a kid of his own). The story jumps every 11 years and gives you small snipits of the DC Universe according to John Byrne's unique vision.
This is the book to read if you want to read about super-HEROES.
Rating: -
I thought G2 was an amazing read and the perfect example of John Byrne's excellent ability to tell complicated stories with faultless plots and an uncanny ability to understand his characters.
The comics of the "imaginary story" DC universe are my all time favorite comic books and give readers an unprecedented take on superheroes and how they would change and affect the world in "real time".
What stunned me the most about this series was the wonderful way it touched and connected with the first series and took the stories where no reader would guess until after the fact.
Also the ending where Superman helps Batman learn something he didn't know about his past was one of the most touching and heartfelt stories in a comic I have ever seen.
Buy this book; the artwork alone is worth the price.
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