Quick bits

Well, it's been awhile. And it may be awhile again, because I've been some kind of crazy busy. That said, I've also been catching up on various things, and what the hey, let's talk about 'em.


"Justice League" #7 was the first issue I didn't hate, and thus stayed its execution from my pull list for another month. It wasn't perfect or great by any means--the team certainly doesn't act like they've been working together for five years (especially Green Lantern, who seems like a very different character here than in his own title), and the only thing that's developed seems to have been the League's technology and involvement in bureaucracy. It would be nice, too, if the DC writers would collaborate a little; Batman's angry calls to shut down the JLI seem to stand at odds with his complimentary and laudatory comments to Booster in that title. But giving us a viewpoint character in the beleaguered Steve Trevor was a smart move, even if it meant inventing yet another DCU paramilitary organization. Trevor couldn't work for S.H.A.D.E.? The D.E.O.? The Dept. of Metahuman Affairs that Diana Prince worked for pre-Flashpoint?

I'm not sure I'm interested in where Johns is going with the title, and I certainly don't like the feeling he's recently cultivated that we'll take a long time getting there, and then not actually do anything. But at least I don't hate the characters so much anymore.

Though I have to wonder when Hal Jordan swapped brains with Guy Gardner. Seriously, he's cruising for "one punch."


One thing I did hate about "Justice League" #7 was the Shazam backup. Sure, everyone else's complaints about how Dr. Sivana now looks just like Lex Luthor for no discernible reason, and how Billy Batson is suddenly a jerk for no discernible reason, absolutely apply. The fact that the Wizard has been apparently reduced to a kidnapping transient doesn't help. But the thing that strikes me is just how tone-deaf and unnecessary the whole thing is. I mentioned elsewhere that Captain Marvel should be a license to print money. It's the superhero-as-childhood-power-fantasy concept made manifest. It's "Harry Potter" with a superhero, right down to the lightning theme and magic train. The problem isn't that the Shazam Family is confusing or corny, or that it needs to be made somehow more mature. The problem is that it's a property calculated for children's enjoyment, but there's not enough of a children's comic audience to support it. Shazam needs to be a cartoon, or a digest-sized comic available in supermarkets, or a digital comic advertised on Cartoon Network (maybe a gimmick, like "Captain Marvel fights the Monster Society of Evil--and you design the monsters!"), or a series of standalone OGNs targeted at a younger crowd.

What it doesn't need to be is revamped again into a more gritty, "adult" version of what's gone before. It didn't work or take with "Trials of Shazam," and it certainly won't work here, trying to make the character more of a wizard in a superhero comics audience that has, traditionally, not well-supported comics about magic users.

And holy moley, can we stop with this trend of making every superhero a jerk?


I gave "Green Arrow" #7 a shot, what with the transition to Ann Nocenti as writer. I liked the story well enough, but hoo boy the art. Harvey Tolibao is trying to have a Travel Foreman thing going on, but with more cheesecake and less coherent visual storytelling, and I just do not care for it. I might try the next issue, but I'm really not sure.


Also, in the same vein, I gave "Night Force" a shot. Tom Mandrake is one of those few acclaimed artists whose work I just don't care for--there was a lot of "Martian Manhunter" from years ago that looked like someone just smeared the whole image to one direction or another. But this is easily the best art I've seen from him (even above books I liked, like "The Kents"), and it was darn good. Unfortunately, I had no idea what was going on. I'll give it a re-read, but this may be one I wait on, to see how the buzz goes come trade-time. That would also give me the chance to buy the original series in trade.


I saw "John Carter," which was pretty great. It makes me feel bad that I've only read two pages of "A Princess of Mars." But it was the kind of super-enjoyable adventure romp that makes me feel really bad that its terrible marketing campaign and box office flopping will likely prevent the production of sequels.


The official Facebook page for "Man of Steel" is up. I feel the trepidation with Zack Snyder at the helm, and I know I'm the guy who still likes "Superman Returns," but the graphic they have up looks pretty cool. Like, seriously cool. Good or bad, but hopefully good, I can't wait for this movie.

Solicit groanings

The DC advance solicits are out! Time to get upset about books I won't see 'til June!

• Remember how much I liked the new Power Girl costume?
  
  
  
  Why? It was such a good costume (if a little derivative of Supreme)! Like, has someone at editorial decided that all the costumes need to be equally awful?
  
• I really like the name "Vostok-X," but I don't think that's enough to keep me buying Aquaman. I'm just burned out on Geoff Johns constant "let's set up these cool future plotlines" that ultimately fizzle out because he's not paying enough attention to the current plotline. See also: Justice League #6, which gave us a major anticlimax (set up by the last 5 issues) and rushed right into setting up the next big thing.
  
• I like the "Firestorms around the world" thing that Firestorm's working with, and Firestorm as an allegory for nuclear power, but I just have no interest in the book anymore. There's too little going on for such a rich concept, and there's been nothing that Firestorm was doing that one of the other government-sanctioned hero books wasn't doing better.
  
• Really wish I could care about Superboy, but "Superboy and Wonder Girl without adult supervision, wink wink" is...not what I want. Maybe "Superboy and Wonder Girl fight dinosaurs will make up for it--a similar plot, after all, got me to start buying Power Girl again. Heck, if this issue were just that one but with a find-replace on the dialogue, I'd be okay with that.
  
• "Batman: The Dark Knight" looks straight-up terrible. Also, "it's not about [WORD], it's about [SYNONYM FOR THAT WORD]" is pretty terrible, even for solicit writing. Even for solicit writing that credits the wrong Batwoman artist and misspells "Kryptonian."
  
• "Red Hood & The Outlaws" finally put some clothes on Starfire. I love the solicit: "RED HOOD learns that STARFIRE is one of the most respected and feared commanders in all of space! Who knew?" Who knew? Certainly not the potential readers who were turned off at the character's one-dimensional sex-object introduction. Man, if only issue #1 had decided to portray Starfire as a kickass starship commander instead of a contorted bikini.
  
• I have to remember to drop Green Lantern Corps at the shop this week. "John Stewart just keeps killing Lanterns! The Guardians are bad people!" Ugh.
  
• Every cover should be a Brian Bolland cover.
  
• I was worried about Frankenstein post-Lemire. Then I read this: "Their first stop is the UNTROPOLIS – an exact copy of Metropolis that floats upside down in the 4TH CLOUD above Superman's home town." That is amazing, and I would like more of that please.
  
• If I'd known ahead of time that Cully Hamner was off "The Shade," I would have considered dropping it again. But Frazer Irving is all kinds of great, so I guess I'm getting the whole thing.
  
• Bat Lash backup in "All-Star Western"? Drawn by José Luis García-López? That's...wow, there aren't words. Crazy.
  
• "The Ravagers" does the amazing by making costumes designed by '90s Wildstorm artists look well-constructed and sensible.

Okay, so there are definitely some highlights, but man does that costume redesign put a bad taste in my mouth.

New new 52

I approve.

Seriously, how cool does that look? I mean, George Pérez is amazing, but I don't think I've ever seen him do a face that looks like Power Girl's there before. And having Huntress start out as Robin? That's a stroke of brilliance. I really like the redesigned Power Girl costume, too. Just, top-notch work there.

I'm less thrilled with the variant cover for Earth-2, but I'm interested to see what the whole premise is.

Oh, and Superman Family Adventures!

I really wish it wasn't the New 52 costume, but what are you gonna do? At least it isn't covered in stupid lines.

Wisdom of the Ancients

As a kid, and well into adulthood, I was a pretty typical pretentious dork. I absorbed knowledge and loved to share it--or more accurately, to lord it over others. "Um, actually," has been one of my go-to phrases for most of my life, even well before I got access to the Internet. I picked sides, even among things where there was no conflict. And all this manifested in a very particular way when I found out about the Crisis, and how it changed Superman.

I've mentioned before that my first real comics, outside of the ones that came with He-Man toys, were books that my mom had from the late '60s and early '70s. I read them over and over, and I could still outline nearly every story from them--the one where the Super-sons team up with Green Arrow and the Flash, the one where three-eyed aliens imprison the Legion and Blockade Boy is killed, the one where Superman uses the yellow S-shield on his cape to block Green Lantern's power ring, and so on. I absorbed every bit of information I could from them, from identifying obscure characters to memorizing Johnny Quick's super-speed formula. I did the same with books from the library and school book fairs that gave information about Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Hulk, and Captain America. I could tell you what strength class Wolverine was in, and what that meant in terms of tonnage.

But the apex of all that was when I subscribed to the Superman titles in late 1992, and came across the Wizard Death of Superman special edition at, I believe, a Toys 'Я' Us. I read it cover to cover multiple times, poring over the little facts at the top of the page. And I learned all about what made the new, modern Superman different from the old "pre-Crisis" version. And I spent countless conversations with my mom correcting her on how Superman is now.

So I sided with the post-Crisis Superman, and for a long time I wouldn't accept any deviations from that. I disliked Birthright in large part because of its departures from Man of Steel. I even came into All-Star Superman with that attitude. And I'll admit, there are still things I think Man of Steel got more right than some subsequent versions. Like keeping the Kents alive and having a non-indestructible costume. But as time and reboots and retcons have worn on, I've softened my stance and opened my mind to other alternative takes.

It's only very recently, though, that I've realized just how much I internalized that "post-Crisis is better" mindset. I own, in one form or another, nearly every regular Superman comic released since 1986, but until recently I never dipped more than the occasional toe into that era between the Silver Age and the Crisis. I still saw those stories as illegitimate, as less-than. It was last year's "Walking with"-related Superman-binge that really pulled me out of that headspace, and I've found myself trawling through various back-issue boxes for issues with striking covers and interesting motifs ever since.

And a lot of those comics are really good. There's a sense in that Bronze Age Superman era that the creators were really trying to take the Silver Age style of storytelling and modernize it, making bold changes and introducing new characters, telling longer and more complex stories, while maintaining the general hook of crazy ideas that could be represented with an interesting cover. While some creators--like Geoff Johns and Brad Meltzer--are clearly and heavily influenced by this era, it's guys like Grant Morrison who are really the embodiment of that sensibility in the modern age.

The best part about all this--besides giving me lots of fodder to draw from for "Walking with Superman"--is that when confronted with modern Superman stories that just aren't up to snuff, I have this whole twenty-year-or-so span of comics to check out, that are largely available in good condition for very low prices.

And the worst part is that I have twenty-odd more years of comics to take up space and cost me money.

Before Watchmen

I doubt that I even need to link to the news that DC is officially doing prequels to "Watchmen," with a list of some of the hottest stars in comics talent, and also J. Michael Straczynski. A few years ago, I might have been incensed. I had choice words a few times over the "Watchmen" film when it came out, but my opinion on the book--and on Alan Moore--has somewhat mellowed in the intervening time. It's a great comic, to be sure, but literature didn't stop producing masterpieces after Moby Dick, to borrow Mr. Moore's example, and I kind of wish we could get past "Watchmen" as the be-all, end-all of comics storytelling.

In terms of the project, they've certainly done their best to pack it full of great creators, but I can't even feign interest in it. It's a huge amount of single issues for a story that, as far as I can tell, has already been completely told. I'm glad it's not a sequel--that would have been even more pointless--but I have absolutely no desire to read any more about these characters. I can't say that about other great comics, either; I'd read more "Sandman" in a heartbeat. But "Watchmen" has a sense of completeness about it, and I just can't really see the room for any other interesting stories in there. I suppose I could easily be wrong, and I'm sure there's a market for it--I spent much of my childhood reading the bizarre minutiae of why every weird alien was in Mos Eisley Cantina or Jabba's Palace--but that market no longer includes me.

What I'd really like to see is for the comics industry to get to a place where it's possible to take a gamble on a satirical pastiche of politics and society and comics again, rather than continuing to re-hash ones that still involve Ronald Reagan. I wanted to criticize this project for its irrelevance, but as Chris Sims aptly noted, there are parts of "Watchmen" that are even more relevant to comics now than they were in 1986. I don't know how or if comics will ever get back to that point--at least, conventional comics--and I don't see "Watchmen"-level satire happening over at The Gutters.

I can't fault DC for doing this project (though I can wonder why they'd do it now and not three years ago as a movie tie-in). It's going to make money, and that's what business is about--especially in a shrinking market that does not reward experimentation, innovation, or anything better than rote recitation of the old and familiar. I just hope the project is successful enough to allow DC to take some chances in other places. It would be a stroke of brilliance--and a boon to the entire industry, if "Before Watchmen" bankrolled the comic that takes the place of "Watchmen" in the comics discussion lexicon.

Newslets

Some other bits of big DC news recently:

• ]"Justice League" is getting the widely-anticipated delay suggested ever since Jim Lee was announced as the penciller. Hopefully the book can quickly get back on track, even if it means bringing some fill-in artists in, but it doesn't bode well for the flagship title to slip a week.
  
• Steig Larsson's Millennium Trilogy is getting a graphic novel adaptation at Vertigo. I had no interest in the series, but I watched the American version of the film, and it was entertaining enough (except, unsurprisingly, the extended and graphic rape scene). I'd actually be much more inclined to read the graphic version, though I doubt that I'd want to pay for the full price of two graphic novels to get one story that I'm kind of lukewarm on. Maybe I'll look into the digital pricing when it comes around.
  
• Rumor has it that CW is developing a Green Arrow series as a follow-up to "Smallville" it's definitely an odd choice (though not too odd, given that GA was basically "Smallville"'s Batman), but maybe it'll lead to the wheels turning on that old "Supermax" movie project. The idea of Green Arrow (or almost any other superhero, really) going undercover in a supervillain prison would make a great, original superhero movie. Or a terrible one, but hopefully the former.
  
• Rob Liefeld is joining the creative teams for three more titles, what with the cancellation of "Hawk & Dove." I...I don't understand this at all. Okay, sure, keep the guy working, his name is still a draw for some folks. But his name is also synonymous with lateness, and he wasn't enough of a draw to keep his last book afloat sales-wise. It might actually be interesting to see a title that he's writing but not drawing, because the interview makes him sound like an excitable child talking about the storylines he's concocted with his action figures. And that's...kind of awesome, that after all the hate and jokes, this is a guy who still loves the hell out of comics and gets super-excited about the things he's working on. I wonder what a book written by Rob Liefeld and drawn by Ethan Nicolle would be like.
  
• With the revelation that "Huntress" is following Earth-2's character, I'm wondering what other glimpses of Earth-2 we've gotten already. "The Shade" almost has to be an Earth-2 title, because it's the only way that the long Starman history makes sense. I'm willing to bet, though, that "The Ray" is on Earth-2 as well, if not a modern Earth-X. There's the casual and oblique references to an earlier hero using "The Ray" as an alias before, but also the specific reference to Happy Terrill's ballooning origin story. Plus, this world is apparently quite used to superheroes zipping about in the sky, something that really can't be said for the "heroes showed up five years ago" fear and distrust in the New 52 Earth.
  
• Which brings up a point that I talked about with my retailer: the Earth-2 Earth is probably going to look a lot more like the pre-Flashpoint DCU we're used to. That could mean good things for people who miss the fun/whimsy of a world saturated with superheroics, and the legacies that are missing from the New-52 Earth, and could provide a story outlet for folks who want that material. It, of course, means making the universe potentially so confusing that it needs a major reboot in 20 years, but that's the way these things go anyway.

The New New 52

By now you've all heard that six DC titles are getting cancelled, and six new ones are starting. I'd like to say that this will result in me buying fewer titles, but it really doesn't look like that's the case. Some thoughts, first on the outgoing books:

• O.M.A.C.: The only book on the list that I'm actually sorry to see go. I kind of wonder how this title would have done if Dan Didio's name weren't attached. It's a shame, but I think the low expectations that set at the start helped keep the book from ever finding a footing, despite widespread acclaim from the Kirbyphiles of the Internets. It was crazy fun, and I'm sad to see it go. Hopefully, though, we'll see Cadmus and Co. popping up in Giffen's run on Superman--because honestly, Cadmus ought to be closer to Jimmy Olsen anyway.
  
• Men of War: I thought this might not have been long for this world when they didn't announce a creative team beyond issue #6. This title ended up being kind of a mess, without a consistent tone or concept; it might have done better if that early backup hadn't been so...bad. The later ones--with mech-battlesuits and something like the Sea Devils--were a step up, but the main story was kind of incomprehensible.
  
• Mister Terrific and Static Shock: Both books I wanted to like, both books that just didn't do it for me. It makes me fairly uneasy that DC's cancelling two titles featuring minority characters, especially when none of the new books (apparently, so far) have minority leads. I wouldn't be surprised to see Static popping up soon, but I'd like to see DC do a real push with some of the other Milestone properties. Innaworld where superheroes are mistrusted and feared, a book about superhuman gangs like "Blood Syndicate" seems like it'd be a really good fit. In fact, I'd love to see a "Steel" book where he became the primary superhero in a city where ostracized metahuman teens found acceptance (and too often, violence) in meta-gangs. Wrap Intergang around it as the reason for the explosion in meta-gene activations and a recruitment agency/old-mob rival to the rising Blood Syndicate of meta-gangs, and you've got the recipe for a pretty good superhero crime comic.
  
• Hawk and Dove and Blackhawks never made my pull list, so I can't say I'm sad to see them go. It's probably for the best for "Hawk and Dove," because past history suggests that "Rob Liefeld scripting and drawing a monthly comic" is not a sustainable situation.
  

And for the newcomers:

• Batman, Incorporated is no surprise, although I didn't expect to be getting it quite so soon. I should probably finally read the "Leviathan Strikes" book.
  
• Earth 2 is the other previously-announced title, James Robinson and Nicola Scott's Justice Society book. I'll be interested in seeing how this title works out; I've been pretty cold on Robinson in recent years, but I'm enjoying "The Shade" well enough, and he helped put the Justice Society back on the map in their last big relaunch, so maybe the return to more familiar environs than the Justice League will result in a marked improvement. I'll at least be checking this one out, and I'm cautiously optimistic. At the very least, though, it'll be pretty.
  
• Worlds' Finest seems like a pleasant surprise. Based on various interviews and some dot-connecting, it looks like Huntress, Power Girl, and possibly Black Canary are stranded on Earth-New-52, which makes BC's whole relationship with Starling and Barbara interestingly wrinkled. It also makes me wonder just what Helena's connection is to Italy, without the mob background, but it's not as if there's no reason for a Wayne-kid Bat-family member to go globetrotting.
  
• G.I. Combat sounds like it's poised to succeed where "Men of War" failed, with a little more well-defined focus and a better distribution of interest between the main and backup stories. I kind of wish it were called "Weird War Tales," given its stated focus of Haunted Tank and War that Time Forgot stories, but I suppose that leaves it open to more Sgt. Rock or other stories--and there's not necessarily a "Weird" element to the Unknown Soldier. I'll definitely give this one a shot.
  
• Dial H: As a big "Dial H for Hero" fan, I'm excited to see the concept making a comeback, and with a nice Brian Bolland cover to boot. This is probably the book that most excites me from this announcement.
  
• The Ravagers: And this is the one that least interests me. I'll re-evaluate once we see who the characters are (no doubt Rose Wilson, spinning out of "Superboy"), but I have no desire to read "Teen Titans," Howard Mackie and Ian Churchill aren't exactly a draw, and I'm barely even interested in the "Superboy" title, despite being more inclined toward reading it. The "Young Justice" line of the New 52 is the one that least holds my interest at this point, which is a shame, because you'd think it would be a focal point to draw in new readers. Then again, I'm not exactly a new reader.

A resolution

I've decided to resolve to be a bit more positive and less reactionary in 2012. I started this blog, after all, way back when I was a young'un of 21, and any time I look back to some of those old posts, I feel pretty embarrassed. So I'm going to do something I never thought I would: I'm going to prune away some of those negative nelly posts that I wrote in the rage of an angry, nerd-entitled youth. If you've got favorites in the archives where I've done a bit of petty namecalling, I recommend looking at them soon, because they're not long for this world.

2012 is the year that I write a little more professionally...if nor more regularly.