Alan Davis wrote and drew a few six issue mini-series in the late 90s and early 2000s, “Fantastic Four: The End” and “Killraven” among them.

There are two others he did that I re-read this past week for the first time in a decade and enjoyed quite a lot all over again:

1998’s “The Nail” and 2004’s sequel, imaginatively titled “Another Nail.”

They’re catnip for long time DC fans and a lot of fun for the rest of us who wouldn’t consider ourselves DC trivia experts.As you’d expect from Alan Davis and Mark Farmer, they’re unbelievably beautiful superhero comics.

“The Nail”

In the late 90s, DC still published Elseworlds tales — stories of alternate histories of DC characters and stories.Viking Batman, communist Superman, Union soldier Superman, etc.

Alan Davis stepped up to the plate in 1998 with a three issue prestige format mini-series, “The Nail.”In it, Ma and Pa Kent are smooching (!) because of a nail that flattened their car’s tire and stranded them at home.They miss Kal El’s crash landing on Earth because of that, and all of DCU history from there on out is affected.

It’s a world in which Lex Luthor has turned Metropolis into a shining city through some extreme measures.Jimmy Olsen is his aide. Green Arrow had a gruesome injury while fighting with the JLA and is now a bitter old man railing against metahumans who want to take over the world.The JLA is fighting amongst itself.Things are getting grim on New Genesis.

The dominoes are falling left and right, and the world feels out of control.Heroes are being shamed in public and losing all confidence. There’s one person responsible for all this misery, and that’s the big twist Davis saves for the grand finale of the story. It’s not the obvious, but it makes sense. That’s all you can ask for.It’s a great piece of storytelling, and there’s lots of fun getting there.

On Being a Sprawling Elseworlds Tale

Being an Elseworlds story gives it just enough fatalism to allow for Davis to kill off some beloved characters that would never fly in the main DC Universe.When he does it, he not only surprises and shocks the reader, but also deeply changes the life of the characters around them.

Davis’ story covers what seems like all the corners of the DC Universe.I’m more a Marvel guy, so I’m sure I’m missing some of the nuances here, but I know enough of the major characters to keep up with this story, and that’s a lot of fun.The moments that the characters get when they’re on the page are interesting, too.

It does mean that the story jumps around a lot, though.No scene lasts longer than a couple of pages before cutting to someone else somewhere else, but Davis doesn’t leave anyone hanging in the end.

No, check that. He does gloss over a big chunk of story at the end with the events on New Genesis, but they form the core of the story for “Another Nail,” the sequel that followed six years later.

I don’t know how well planned that was, but it works fine in retrospect.

The Art of “The Nail”

Alan Davis draws the best superheroes in the business.With Mark Farmer’s careful inks, the end results are always well rendered, carefully considered, and heroic.Heroes look like strong and vibrant characters.Their costumes don’t look “realistic” and have lots of needless lines and seams and piping to them. This is the traditional superhero look, and Davis nails that smoothness and that sense of wonder and color in this book.

He gets to draw basically every DC hero character you can think of in these books, though some obviously get more attention than others.The moments where the Green Lantern Corps jump into action give you lots of details for your money, and lots of characters to remember and stare at.

I do mean “stare at,” because there’s never an Alan Davis-drawn comic that doesn’t have at least a few panels where I study the art to try to figure out how he makes such amazing looking art.I try to figure out the angles or the ink brush strokes from Farmer, or the choices in shadows just to try to divine the secret magical recipe he uses.

Also, the art looks cool.I love that.

“Another Nail”

The follow-up series goes bigger and deeper and wider all at the same time.Give Davis credit for not repeating himself or resting on his laurels.

With the Justice League more united than ever and with Superman leading them, they get caught up in situations that send them through time and across the universe, across time, and even into Hell. It starts by picking up where things left off in the first series at New Genesis, picking up those plot threads and expanding from there.

Instead of a single bad guy plotting against them on earth, the struggle is much more multidimensional.The whole thing gets a little far out there, to the point where things are so crazy you just know there’s a reset button of some sort that will need hitting to clean this mess up.

It gives Davis more chances to draw more cool stuff, though, so I can’t complain too hard.

Still, I think this series feels less focused for how many different directions it goes in, and how big the stakes are.

It’s still great, but if I’m doing a comparison, personally I think the first is the stronger book.You still get some strong character motivations and actions here, though, that carry through from the first.Not everything is immediately hunky-dory after the success at the end of “The Nail,” and Davis doesn’t shy away from showing it.

Find a Reprint

I’d love to own a complete collection of these two mini-series in Absolute format.For as many Absolutes as DC has done now, I don’t think there’s any that feature Alan Davis’ art.This is some prime Davis work. I’d love to see it larger, particularly with a couple of those ridiculously busy double page spreads in “Another Nail.”

With the Prestige Format books, each series is basically six issues, so you have exactly 12 issues’ worth of story, which is perfect for an Absolute.

The two minis have been packaged separately as trade paperbacks, but that’s all the reprinting they ever had.In the meantime, your best bet to find this series today is digitally.Comixology has them both for $2.99 an issue.

They’re worth it at that price, particularly if you have a big computer screen you can blow these pages up on.

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