The spirit of wide-eyed adventure that has been largely missing from today's comics world comes back with a vengeance in this compilation of DC's 2009 retro-themed series. Originally printed on newspaper broadsheets, appropriate to its prewar pulp roots, each of the series' dozen issues featured one-page installments from 15 different original tales with heroes culled from the DC back catalogue. Though selections range from the preadolescent goofy (Dan Didio's Metal Men
, Jimmy Palmiotti's Supergirl
) to the surreal (Neil Gaiman's tongue-in-cheek Metamorpho
, Paul Pope's Adam Strange
), the operative word is action. With few exceptions, the Wednesday Comics feature enough two-fisted, exclamation-heavy action to satisfy any easily bored kid or adult—Dave Gibbons's take on Jack Kirby's Kamandi
(“The Last Boy on Earth!”) is particularly rousing, heroic stuff, a postapocalyptic Prince Valiant
. Some of the comics do less well; Joe and Adam Kubert's Sgt. Rock
is particularly rote, as is Brian Azzarello's thin Batman
story, which is at least energetically drawn by Eduardo Risso. But on the whole, this is a thrilling piece of work, re-energizing past classics without losing the spark that made them special in the first place. (May)
