How Green Was My Lantern by Richard Llewellyn
Set in Coast City, California, the novel tells the story of the Jordans, a family of poor but respectable test pilots. After their father dies in a crash-landing, Hal goes to work for Ferris Aircraft to pay off the family debt. His ability to overcome great fear sets him apart from the other pilots, and when he discovers a crashed spaceship and is given an alien power ring and battery, he decides to leave behind the troubled test pilot environment and become a spacecop, telling the reader the story of his life before shipping out to Oa.
Super Expectations by Charles Dickens
In 1812, the orphan Kal-El encounters an escaped convict named Lex Luthor, who scares him into stealing food for him and using his heat-vision to melt his shackles. Young Kal-El then meets the wealthy spinster Miss Kent and her adopted daughter, Lois Lane, with whom he falls in love. He begins apprenticing at Perry White’s print-house, however, Kal-El soon falls ill with kryptonite poisoning and must accept an offer by a mysterious benefactor to move to Metropolis and become a reporter for the Daily Planet, in exchange for a cure. When the benefactor, revealed to be Lex Luthor, is captured and sentenced to death, all hope seems lost. Miraculously, Perry White takes over the Daily Planet and nurses Kal-El back to health. He and Lois Lane reunite after the death of her husband, with a promising future ahead.
Emma Frost by Jane Austen
Although convinced that she herself will never marry, Emma Frost, a precocious, telepathic mutant, fancies herself quite the matchmaker. When she attempts to find an eligible match for her friend, Rogue, suspicion, intrigue, and misunderstandings ensue. She persuades Rogue to turn down the affections of a local pickpocket named Gambit, for whom she clearly has feelings, and to pursue the town vicar, Nightcrawler. Complicating things is Mr. Summers, a friend of Emma’s family who views her matchmaking with a critical eye. All of Emma’s plans go awry when Nightcrawler reveals that his true affections are for her, and feeling spurned, he leaves to join Excalibur. Emma comes to realize that she is actually in love with Mr. Summers, but so is Rogue! However, Gambit returns and asks for Rogue’s hand in marriage, paving the way for Mr. Summers to declare his love for Emma. The two couples marry in a joint ceremony at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters.
The League of Extraordinary Little Women by Louisa May-Alcott
Released in the 1950s, with The Red Scare and McCarthyism in full swing, TLoELW features four sisters living in an alternate Civil War Era Massachusetts. The Reds from the East take advantage of the South’s instability, sending over its top agents, The Brothers Karamazov, to infiltrate and lay the groundwork for Confederate-Soviet dependency — and war. Problems arise when a chance encounter leaves the sisters March no choice but to investigate the true intent of the Karamazovs’ visit, and Beth’s subsequent mysterious death leads her beloved Alexei to betray his brothers and declare his loyalties to the side of Justice. Together, Alexei, Jo, Meg, and Amy discover just what Love, Redemption, Growing Up, and Xenophobia really mean.
Poison Ivita by Vladimir Nabokov
Before her days as one of Batman’s arch nemeses, a young Poison Ivy gets her first taste of the power of seduction and eco-terrorism when a corrupt professor of botany becomes her step-father.
To Kill a Robin by Harper Lee
Following an unfortunate incident for which Robin was wrongly accused, Batticus Finch comes to his sidekick’s aid and defends him in court. Finch’s closing argument is one of the most renowned monologues in graphic novel history, addressing the importance of defining a man not by his tights, nor by the false rumors those tights inspire, but by his character.
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