Afraid of the Light

Continuity 4: Things Fall Apart

2005-07-14T15:10:00.000-11:00

The following post contains SPOILERS regarding House of M, The Omac Project, and current events in the ongoing Batman title.

Before I started writing all of this, I was thinking about Batman. Tim O'Neil has been doing some thinking of his own over at The Hurting, and while I don't have the level of distaste for the character that he does, there are certainly some cracks in the structure of Batman's corner of the DC universe.

Recent months have seen the reveal of the true identity of the Red Hood; Jason Todd is alive and waging his own war on the criminals of Gotham. Jason gave a speech to Batman about how he would do all of the things that Bruce was unwilling to do; he would take the lives of criminals if he felt it was necessary. Unfortunately, anyone who's been reading comics for any amount of time, and is older than the age of five, will be able to figure out that what that means is the red Hood will gun down some no-name street thugs, and perhaps one or two mid-level "name" supervillains will be sacrificed in order to give him credibility.

Of course, the one villain who he'd be most likely to kill will remain on this side of the veil.

Jason Todd was originally "killed" by the Joker, who administered a vicious beating with a crowbar before blowing Robin up real good, as memory serves. Jason has enjoyed a bit of payback--he laid his own crowbar to the Joker--but of course, the beating wasn't fatal. More than most members of Batman's rogues gallery, Joker is a character that readers cannot apply logical thought processes to without coming to the conclusion that he really ought to be deceased by now. The character has been portrayed as a mass murderer many times over, and despite his insanity, poisons and gadgetry, is basically a normal human being, physiologically speaking. Any entity that had caused so much devastation, and had escaped from confinement so many times, would surely have been targeted by some other superhero, vigilante, or angry mob of citizens laying siege to Arkham by now, even if one assumes that Batman himself would not take any action.

Batman doesn't always hold up to extended scrutiny either. Does his vow to his dead parents mean that when someone commits a crime in his city, he'll beat them up, but anything after that is someone else's problem? Does he believe in the law just enough for them to take care of his follow-through so he doesn't have to? I mean, we're talking about a man who developed an intricate network of spy satellites that can keep track of basically every person on planet Earth, if current issues of The OMAC Project are to be believed, and that was to keep an eye on his friends. (Well, perhaps "friends" is too strong of a word . . . let's say "colleagues," then.)

Following that line of thought, why didn't he use the satellites to monitor every inch of Gotham City in order to control crime? You would think that anyone with control issues on that level would at least become frustrated with Arkham Asylum's revolving door, and would do something about it. Bruce Wayne could buy the asylum and upgrade the security. Batman could drag every crook in town to the cave and keep them drugged up on drip-feeds in Matrix body pods. There are plenty of paths that are more logical than his current actions, particularly if one wishes to write Batman and stay true to his current extra-paranoid asshat portrayal.

The issue, of course, is that Batman's trademarks have to be maintained, as do the Joker's and Catwoman's and other merchandisable members of the Batman Family. The illusion of change may reign from time to time, but status quo must be maintained. No matter what situations may arise, the force of inertia will eventually return the flagship icons back to center. Not long ago, in the Superman books, Luthor was elected President of the United States, and shortly thereafter, learned Superman's secret identity. I thought at the time that it was a bold move, and I wondered what kind of stories we'd see when a man with the resources of a country behind him could now meddle with his enemy's entire life. I shouldn't have gotten myself excited; Luthor was mindwiped of that knowledge within a year.

Of course, this sort of problem is always going to be worst with the primary icons who have sold lunchboxes and Underoos for decades. We've had a few different characters step into the shoes of "guy-with-magic-ring" and "guy-who-runs-fast" or "guy-who-shrinks-and-junk." Even there, though, sometimes I find that if I think too hard about the details of a given story, tugging on one thread can make the whole thing fall apart.

The longer a character has been around, the more likely it is that this will be a problem; the chances of contradicting earlier setups or creating adventures based on idiot plots seems to increase with time. In Marvel's House of M, the series started off with a gathering of heroes who were discussing killing the Scarlet Witch due to her reality-altering powers. We-ell, if her mutant power is the problem, why not put one of those power-negating collars on her that they had in Genosha? (Which reminds me--Rogue really should have picked one of those up.) Or, alternately, why not have Forge zap her with the mutant-power-removing gun that he used on Storm all those years ago? Then there's also the "mutant cure" recently concocted in Astonishing X-Men--a title that half of the heroes in the room appear in. It's difficult for me to buy into a situation where then only option discussed is euthanasia, when someone in the room could have--and should have--mentioned other possibilities. If you want to spend a couple of panels with Magneto saying that he won't let his daughter be "neutered" or something, that might be aceptable, but ignoring the possibility entirely veers into "idiot plot" territory.

When the hype on books like House of M proclaims that "nothing will be the same," it's difficult to get too worked up about it. There will still be an X-Men movie next year, and a Spider-Man movie after that. Of course, the original Crisis on Infinite Earths surprised me quite a bit at the time, so one never knows, I suppose.

Ah, well. Don't mind me. I'm just processing.

Continuity 3: "The Man"

2005-07-13T07:39:00.000-11:00

I consider Stan Lee to be the second father of continuity because in those early days of the Marvel of the sixties, Stan was writing every title, and was the architect that made the Marvel Universe into a creation that was consistent with each of the company's titles. Marvel heroes bumped into each other farly frequently, and if there was a large event that certain heroes were absent for, there was probably a footnote explaining how those characters were in Latveria or the Negative Zone or something. Along with the new layers of characterization that he gave to his characters, Lee's worldbuilding attracted the attention of many readers.

Of course, even when only one person is responsible for writing a group of titles, it can still be difficult to keep track of everything. That's why the No-Prize was invented, after all. Of course, the logistics of maintaining a comics universe are even more complicated today; Marvel's X-titles alone outnumber the titles that Stan had to handle. The Ultimate universe, created in part to deliver stories about classic characters without the burdens of decades of history, has already had some inconsistencies in its continuity, particularly in regards to the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom (and their initial portrayals in Ultimate Team-Up). The current House of M event may be an attempt to "clean up" the Marvel Universe, in the way that DC has previously tried with crossovers such as Crisis on Infinite Earths and Zero Hour (and may be again with Infinite Crisis).

Dc seems to be putting great effort into its universe at present, with Geoff Johns installed as head Continuity Cop leading up to the Crisis; there have been some hiccups, but the road to the Big Event has actually gone relatively smoothly, considering the number of titles that seem to be involved. Over at Marvel, change seems to be in the air as well; relationships between separate titles had been fairly loose in the Jemas/Quesada era, but current events seem to be pointing toward a more unified Marvel Universe once again.

Tighter universes can make for good reading, but as with many things, the results will depend on the execution. When I look at events like the original Crisis, I see creators who want to follow in the footsteps of Roy and Stan, who want to answer questions and "fix" things while unifying their respective universes. In and of themselves, there's nothing wrong with these desires; good comics can come of them, if continuity is used as a tool in service of a good story. Alan Moore's "finale' for Superman comes to mind, of course. Mark Waid and Barry Kitson are doing a good job on the new Legion title, sometimes using expectations based on past incarnations of the Legion and subverting them to surprising effect. Don Rosa took snippets and samples from Carl Barks' Disney Duck stories, and used them to craft The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, which I'm currently enjoying immensely. I think Kurt Busiek is another good example . . . that reminds me--I need to re-read Avengers Forever.

If, however, the story isn't told well--or worse, there's no "story" there at all, just retcon-fetishising--then the results may be poor. Moreover, while it may be impossible to fully visualize all of the potential implications of a "fix", creators should certainly make the effort to consider the follow-through of their actions to avoid situations like "the Hawkman problem." (I enjoyed the original Hawkworld mini-series, and it would have been fine if they had simply inserted that into Hawkman's origin, but then they decided to have him come to Earth for the first time right after Invasion!, and everything fell apart.)

This problem is evident in other media--television shows and movie sequels sometimes fail to maintain the tone of previous installments--but it's especially pronounced in a medium like comics, where the adventures of characters like Superman and Batman have been published continually every month for over sixty years. Continuous publication of licensable characters can lead to some fallacies of logic that no amount of continuity patches can correct . . .

. . . I guess I'll talk about that next time.

Continuity 2: "The Boy" and his children

2005-07-12T15:19:00.000-11:00

Continuity, as we understand it today, has two fathers.

One of them is Roy Thomas. Roy grew up in the forties reading Golden Age comics and worked on the first comics fanzine with Dr. Jerry Bails before becoming a comics professional. My personal familiarity with Thomas' work largely concerns his "Earth 2" work at DC on titles like All-Star Squadron (set during WW2 and intertwined with the previously-printed Justice Society tales in All-Star Comics) and Infinity, Inc. (the present day stories of a super-team made up of the children of the JSA), but Roy also did some work at Marvel, and was their editor-in-chief for a time; I remember reading issues of his run on Invaders, which groupd Captain America, the golden age Human Torch, and the Sub-Mariner together as a WW2 team (along with Bucky and Toro, of course).

Mr. Thomas is, I believe, the first and best example of a comics fan getting the chance to work on the characters he grew up with. Comics in the Golden Age were uncomplicated in certain ways, but some of the issues that comics writers were taking for granted raised questions in the mind of young Roy. The Flash originally left the Justice Society of America because he had received his own solo title, and any members popular enough to have their own titles became honorary members. It actually said that was the reason in the pages of the actual issue of All-Star. Of course, that explanation makes no sense within a storyline, unless all the characters know they're just in a comic book. So as Roy went on and began writing comics, he came up with explanations why Green Lantern was only chairman of the JSA for one meeting (in the real world, he was another member to receive a solo title) and the like.

The effects of this today can be seen as both a blessing and a curse. Readers today certainly expect a certain amount of consistency from one issue to the next, and that's natural. Sometimes, however, bad ideas or poorly-executed stories come about, and it may be for the best if some of those are simply forgotten. The same may hold true for good stories, for that matter; I'm sure there are currently a fair number of fans of the JLI era who would have prefered that certain characters simply be left alone, rather than be brought out of mothballs only to have their grey matter aired out and/or stepped on.

Brad Meltzer is, I'm convinced, one of the Children of Roy. I am of the opinion that a large part of his motivation to write Identity Crisis was a desire to "explain" some of the slightly-nonsensical bits of the Silver Age. In those days, it was perfectly acceptable to partially mindwipe the entire population of Earth if it meant hiding the secret identities of the JLA. I believe Brad wanted to look at the "consequences" of those actions under the lens of today's post-Watchmen comics. I don't think that was the big thing for him, though. I see a kid reading his issues of Justice League of America and Teen Titans, and wondering why Doctor Light acted so differently in one title than he did in the other. Comic-book logic might have lead that kid to decide that the Justice League must have done something to Doctor Light to make him act differently. Then, perhaps, he might have wondered to himself, what could Light have done that was so evil that the Justice League would take his personality away, when they haven't done that to anyone else?

A good friend of mine once said that Brad Meltzer wrote the story he did because he's not a fan. I think he might be too much of a fan.

So who's the other father of modern continuity? Oh that's Stan Lee, of course.

But I'll talk about him next time.

I'm still thinking.

Thoughts on Continuity

2005-07-11T16:08:00.000-11:00

Recently I was in the mood to re-read Grant Morrison's run on JLA. I haven't looked at those issues--or any JLA on a regular basis, honestly--in years. I enjoyed reading them again, but I found myself contemplating the relative merits and pitfalls of continuity.

In the first story arc with the Hyperclan, Superman has long hair; the Mullet of Steel was added at the tail end of the Death and Return of Superman. Immediately following that arc, we have Electric Blue Superman for some time. During the Injustice Gang arc, Wonder Woman is dead, and the Flash is out injured for one or two issues--just enough time to cover the issues in Flash's own book where the injury occurred. The Flash does manage to heal up in time to appear for the rest of that story, but Diana remains dead, or a goddess, or whatever her status was at that time. In the following arc, which saw membership in the League double, Diana's mother Hippolyta is a member of the JLA as the then-active Wonder Woman.

There are various other examples of this, such as the "dark Flash" who was briefly a member in Wally's absence, but the most notable (in my opinion) was the issue of JLA that attempted to explain why no superheroes intervened in Gotham during the No Man's Land period; the attempted "continuity graft" was more noticeable than usual, since the timing of "No Man's land" meant that this issue was shoved in the middle of Grant Morrison's ongoing final arc, World War Three, with a different creative team. I believe Mark Waid wrote that one, and it was pretty good for what it was trying to accomplish, but it was jarring when compared to the flow of the story it interrupted.

When re-reading Morrison's run, I started thinking that perhaps they should have been written out of continuity with the DCUniverse at large. Superman could have been the classic Superman in every story. The Flashes, Green Lanterns, and Wonder Women could have remained consistent. Morrison's JLA stories would have potentially been a classic group of arcs without the small, incomprehensible bits that fly past all but the most hardcore of comics readers--I should say, hardcore DCUniverse comics readers. One of my favorite books of last year was Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier, which constructed its own internal continuity. (I really wish that DC had published it in a single trade paperback, instead of two, since it's a standalone story. Well, perhaps it'll be collected that way in a future edition.) One of the best examples of the power of the standalone story is Watchmen. It has been asked before: would that story be as enduring if it used the Charlton characters that its cast was based on? Would it have been as well-received by fandom if that had been captain Atom instead of Doctor Manhattan, the Question in place of Rorshach? (Of course, the Question has since seen a few Rorshach-esque interpretations, but . . . )

Of course, this is all in hindsight; at the time, I'm sure I appreciated the fact that JLA was "in continuity". If Morrison had only used "classic" versions of the characters, as Alex Ross will be doing in his upcoming Justice project, then I might not have seen Morrison's take on Kyle Rayner, which went much farther than his own series did in terms of making me care about that character. Moreover, when it's done well, it can be fun to see the further ramifications of actions or events of a particular title. Of course, that can certainly be overdone. Peter David has been back on the Hulk for a few short months, and he's already involved in the House of M crossover, while his new title, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, will be involved in a crossover with all three main Spider-titles for its first three issues. I was looking forward to trying out a new, standalone Spider-Man book, and this crossover situation makes the book less appealing. Continuity with the other books be damned--I just want to read a book with a good creative team on an interesting character.

A writer with skill can use continuity as a tool that enhances his or her stories. Dan Slott's recent Spider-man/Human Torch mini-series is a good example; each issue took place during a different "era", with one story set during the Spidermobile days, and another set when Spidey had the alien costume and Torch had that funky John Byrne haircut. It all built to an excellent final issue set in today's New Avengers era, which I don't want to spoil, but I will say that it's recommended reading for any fans of those characters.

So continuity in and of itself isn't necessarily evil. Even while reading those JLA stories, I found myself smiling occasionally, remembering certain bits of other stories that I had completely forgotten about. I'd say that the Electric Blue Superman stories in and of themselves were somewhat forgettable--at least, I had forgotten them--but Grant Morrison used him to good effect. Perhaps like many other things, the value of continuity depends on how it's used.

I'm still thinking about it.

Countdown to Infinite Crisis

2005-03-25T02:34:00.000-11:00

Early last year, I was thinking about Hypertime.

I'm not sure what sparked the train of thought, but it was probably the beginning of Chuck Austen's run on Action Comics. I gave the first few issues a try; despite everything I'd heard about his work on the X-franchise, I wanted to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, considering previous stories that had popped up here and there regarding editorial interference (not just with Austen, but with several X-writers). His take on Superman's personality had its roots in the original, Golden Age portrayal of the character. It was a bit too far past his present-day status for me to be entirely comfortable with a Superman who talked so much smack to his adversaries (although his ideas could have potentially served as an excellent take on Superboy).

To be honest, though, I was more irritated by his use of Gog. Superman was basically hospitalized by Gog in Austen's second or third issue (going by memory here), which in itself is fine, particularly since Gog's whole deal was traveling backwards through time/Hypertime and killing Superman every time he stopped. The problem I had was that Superman clearly didn't recognize Gog; Austen was treating him as if he was a new character, when Superman had definitely met him in the Kingdom mini-series. Small continuity gaffes don't bother me--I'm not applying for any No-Prizes--but when you have a story that's presented as a Big Deal Event and then completely disregard it without any attempt at an explanation, that's going to create a disconnect for me. Now, if that's part of the story a writer is trying to tell--"Why doesn't Superman remember?"--then that writer needs to establish that (in my opinion, anyway).

At any rate, the return of Gog reminded me of the concept of Hypertime. I remembered at one point Mark Waid and Grant Morrison had grand plans for Hypertime, but they both left DC shortly thereafter. They were both back and preparing new series. Morrison was doing interviews about Seven Soldiers, in which he would be creating new versions of some older characters. Waid was preparing to do a reboot of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Connecting those projects led me to a conclusion: DC was going to have another Crisis.

Well, that seems to be definite now, but it seems I was completely wrong about the creators who would be handling it. Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, and Judd Winick are the architects of DC: Countdown to Infinite Crisis, on sale next week (though several people have already read preview copies).It makes sense to coordinate things through these three writers; after all, Johns writes Flash, Green Lantern, Teen Titans, JSA, and now JLA (for at least five issues, co-writing with Allan (Young Avengers) Heinberg, while Rucka has one of the main Superman titles as well as Wonder Woman, and Winick covers Batman, Green Arrow, and Outsiders. Between the three of them, the core of the DCU is covered, so they can interweave plot threads between them with little trouble.

Bits and pieces of the greater tapestry of Infinite Crisis will no doubt be spread throughout the DCU titles over the next year, so any DC fan who wants to know everything will have quite a bit of reading to do. Already, there was a brief scene in the last issue of Teen Titans with Batman and Batgirl that I don't fully understand; apparently it was a glimpse at current events in Outsiders, a book I don't read (though I'll be ordering the two issues that explicitly cross over with TT). If you want to know why DC is doing this (aside from the desire to make more money), it's this: they're giving us what we think we want.

The original Crisis on Infinite Earths was noted for many things; one of them was a phenomenon called "red sky crossovers." a term still used today. Over the course of the twelve months that Crisis was published, pretty much every DCU book had a minimum of one issue that billed itself as a "Crisis crossover," but sometimes the only thing the story had in common with Crisis is that the skies were red, and otherwise had nothing whatsoever to do with it. As recently as Avengers: Disassembled, some readers complained that the "Disassembled" tales for Spider-man and the Fantastic Four were "red sky" stories. Avengers editor Tom Brevoort has stated that Marvel had heard previous reader complaints about being required to purchase every issue of several titles in order to follow one storyline, and they had tried to address that complaint with Disassembled. Marvel seems to have swung back in the other direction for"House of M," with crossovers in other titles as well as additional mini-series. DC is doing the same, but over what appears to be a longer term, with the previously-discussed story elements in several DCU titles as well and a handful of mini-series directly following DC: Countdown.

DC's strategy has to be seen as successful so far. When the new logo for DC: Countdown was revealed last Friday, the Comic News Intarweb was basically shut down due to server overload. People are clearly interested. Editorial seems to be focusing in on the aspects of Crisis that made it work the first time. One of those aspects was its massive scope, and there seems to be a clear plan laid out to incorporate all the corners of the DCUniverse (Outer space guys? Check. Magic dudes? Check.) while maintaining a tighter control over the event. Of course, another factor that made Crisis a "must-read" was the rising death-toll of the series . . .

. . . I have some reservations based on some of the comments I've seen regarding DC: Countdown, but I haven't yet read it for myself. I'll likely have more to say about it (and Identity Crisis) after I do. This year is definitely going to be . . . interesting.

Ultimate Spider-Man (and a couple more books)

2005-03-17T01:52:00.000-11:00

My first exposure to the work of Bendis was Ultimate Spider-Man.

Wait, that’s not true—actually, it was the Daredevil: Ninja mini-series. It had Daredevil and ninjas—easy money, right? That mini was . . . not my cup of tea, and probably why I passed on it when he took over the actual Daredevil title. (I wasn’t reading the previous stuff by Kevin Smith, Bob Gale, or David Mack anyway.) At any rate, when USM was first announced, I was skeptical, having sampled John Byrne’s Spider-Man reboot attempt and found it not to my liking. Nevertheless, I thought I’d give it a try; after dropping all of the regular Spiderbooks in the aftermath of the Clone Saga, I was hoping to find one Spider-man title that was . . . well, at least readable.

Ultimate Spider-Man came out, and it was good.

Last year, Tales of Wonder had a sale on their USM hardcovers, offering the first three HCs for $34.95. It was a deal I couldn’t pass up, so I passed along my trades and some singles to some friends at DragonCon in September. I gave them everything except for the arc that had just started, “Carnage.”

It was while reading this arc that I began to have doubts about Bendis.

One of the appeals of the Ultimate universe is that it takes characters and concepts that long-time readers are familiar with, and presents them in different ways. In USM, the new takes on characters like Doctor Octopus, Kraven the Hunter, and the Enforcers were interesting and entertaining, but of all the re-imaginings, my favorite was Gwen Stacy.

The original Gwen Stacy died a couple of months before I was born, so while I’ve read a fair amount of the classic material she was in, I can’t say that I’m heavily invested in that character. I feel I know enough, though, to say that Bendis’ Gwen was very different from the original, with a distinct personality. (Actually, you could say that about Mary Jane as well.) She added something different to the mix of the book, and MJ’s jealousy issues with her promised further conflict down the road. I looked forward to the day when Gwen found out Peter’s secret—it seemed inevitable—and wondered how the relationships would change between the three of them because of that knowledge. Then . . . she was gone.

I’ve heard it said by some creators that one of the reasons why they try not to speak about certain new books or upcoming plot points is that the fans all immediately begin to write the comic (or book, or movie, or what-have-you) in their head, and the more time they have to play out those internal scenarios, the more disappointed they are when the actual material comes out and it doesn’t match what they’d been visualizing. Perhaps that’s true, to an extent, in my case. However, USM wasn’t the only Bendis title I was reading. The Avengers Disassembled event was going down, and it didn’t work for me. Overall, I felt that too many people were acting out of character in order to make the story work; all due respect, but simply being told to “read it again, knowing what I now know about Wanda” doesn’t quite plug enough holes for this reader. I still thought (and think) that Bendis is a hell of a writer, but between The Pulse, Secret War, Daredevil, New Avengers, Powers, and USM, he had put too much on his plate—that’s a lot of books for one guy to write, not even counting his work on the Jinx screenplay and the semi-secret USM video game that I expect will be announced at E3 this May.

So the issues following the Carnage arc were a little light, a palate-cleanser after all the heavy stuff that went down, and they were okay, but I didn’t really know how I felt about the book . . . Bagley was still great (though the newer inks by Scott Hanna were a little funky in a couple of places), but I had doubts that the writing would maintain the level of quality established in the first couple of years (or, alternately, that my feelings about the changed elements of the title would affect my enjoyment to the point that I personally would find the book to be of lesser quality—how’s that for being fair?); I knew that the next big arc would focus on Harry Osborn, and I hoped that it would kick USM back up a notch.

Well, I’ve just read Ultimate Spider-Man #74 . . . and it’s made me remember why I love this book. There's a bit of action served up with the high school angst. Peter’s life is screwed up, just the way we like it (apparently). Harry’s beginning to make his moves. We finally have a chat with a character we’ve glimpsed before—and I hope she’s able to stick around for a while. Mary Jane’s going to be in the middle of things, and it looks like it’s going to be ugly. I can't say too much more without entering spoiler territory, but this is the good stuff, people. 9/10

What else did I pick up yesterday?

Ultimates 2 #4—the Ultimates meet up with some European flag-wearing super-soldiers and find out more about the mighty Thor. Oh, and Tony gets Natasha a new outfit. Millar’s take on Thor has been one of the most interesting facets of the Ultimates; the info given this issue very much appears to be solid (my supposition is based entirely on one panel on page eighteen), but I want to know more. I’m enjoying Hitch’s pencils more now that he’s back with Paul Neary on inks; Andrew Currie’s work was more ”scratchy”, if that makes any sense . . . more gritty. Neary’s work is clearer, but still dark enough for the subject matter. 8/10

Teen Titans #22—the Titans’ battle with Doctor Light kicks into gear. Geoff Johns has thought of some interesting applications for the Doctor’s abilities; I never would have come up with a couple of those bits. We get an appearance by Hawk and Dove as well, and the pairing seems to be very appropriate; I believe Scott will approve. It looks like next issue will be the big mega-Titan throw-down. We have more threads from Identity Crisis here, but Johns seems to be handling them well so far; we’ll see where he ends up. 7.5/10

Coming from DCBS at the end of the month: Wonder Woman #214 (the second part of the crossover with Flash), Black Panther #2, Incredible Hulk #79, and Young Avengers #2.

Previews for May

2005-02-25T08:47:00.000-11:00

I had intended to have some comic reviews up by now. I'll be receiving some books in the mail next week, so I'll definitely get caught up in the next week or so. In the meantime, I picked up the new Previews at my local comic shop on Wednesday, so I may as well take a look at everything else I'm considering for the month of May.

Dark Horse has another issue of Conan. There's also a Conan mini-series by P. Craig Russell . . . I won't be picking up the singles, but I'll consider the eventual trade. Russell's definitely got some fantasy art chops.

AIT/Planetlar has a new TP for True Story: Swear To God. I've heard nothing but good things about the first volume, and especially TSSTG: 100 Stories . . . and those two are resolicited here, along with the new TP (This One Goes To 11). I'm still hemming and hawing a little here, but I'll probably take the plunge and pick these up. Randy and Tegan have some reviews, if you're interested.

Slave Labor Graphics is re-offering Egg Story. I can't find my copy . . . maybe I'll pick up another, and if the first one turns up it'll become a gift. Here's the solicitation copy:

These eggs talk. And in their conversations they decide that sitting in a cold, dark refrigerator waiting to get gobbled up is definitely not for them. So they stage a daring escape. Carefree, the eggs have loads of fun. But life takes a grim turn when one of them turns into a suicidal maniac who yearns to become a souffle, and it all ends up tragically (and messily) on the kitchen floor. What does an egg do after witnessing so much pointless, random death and destruction? For Feather, a good-hearted boy egg, the answer is simple. He becomes a ninja.

Hmmm . . . Digital Manga has the first two volumes of Worst listed. I just read Dorian's review of the first one recently . . . sounded decent. I need to broaden my manga horizons.

Damn you, DR Master! Where's the next volume of Iron Wok Jan? Don't play with my emotions, man!

Oni Press is offering Sharknife once again, for those who didn't see Warren Ellis' recommendation in time to order it before.

I see that Viz has the first volume of Fullmetal Alchemist coming up. I've been digging the show on AdultSwim, which is based on this manga (as opposed to the other way around). I have enjoyed both manga and anime in the past, but there's just so much product on the market nowadays that I had to take off my "Hardcore!!!!!" cap and throw it back in the closet. I know I want to check out Samurai Champloo, solely because it's by the Cowboy Bebop team (and I want to see what Yoko Kanno does with hip-hop music), but other than that, I'm slow to dip my toes in the water . . . though I do appreciate the reviews and recommendations from fellow inhabitants of the blogosphere.

Okay, time to get caught up on my reading . . .

WonderCon Bits

2005-02-23T07:50:00.000-11:00

There were some newsbits from WonderCon this past weekend. They've all been covered fairly well by Newsarama and the Pulse, among others. There were two things in particular that caught my interest.

1. Joss Whedon and John Cassaday will be doing a second year of Astonishing X-Men, which will be capped off by a Giant-Sized annual issue. I'm really looking forward to seeing these stories in hardcovers when they're all done.

2. Some art was shown from Morrison and Quitely's All-Star Superman.

Damn.

(Strangely enough, thanks to Graeme, I discovered something interesting at John Byrne's forum; apparently there are a number of Scottish artists like Quitely who tend to draw figures with large chins, due to the influence of strips such as Desperate Dan.) Hmmm . . .

. . . well, human chins aside, Quitely impressed me greatly with his work in We3. This Superman cover piece is giving an interesting impression of the tone that he and Grant will be aiming for.

If nothing else, I'm glad that Kal has found his "happy place."

Marvel and Image Solicits for May

2005-02-19T05:21:00.000-11:00

Time for some more early peeks, thanks to the usual suspects.

Marvel Heroes

Fantastic Four gets a new creative team, with JMS and Mike McKone jumping on board. I like McKone’s pencils, and I’ll miss him on Teen Titans. JMS . . . I dunno. I tend to prefer his work when he’s playing in his own sandbox. I believe I’ll stick to Supreme Power.

Gotta love that cover for Incredible Hulk #81.

I’m going to be picking up G.L.A. It’s Dan Slott . . . he’s earned my trust with She-Hulk and Arkham Asylum: Living Hell. He seems to work well with Paul Pelletier, too, so I’ll take four issues of comedy from that team.

New Avengers will be focusing on the Sentry.

Secret War: From The Files of Nick Fury? Why is this being written by someone other than Bendis? Who’s Mike Raicht? Who’s doing the interior art? Too many questions for me.

I don’t have a link to a cover, but Runaways is awesome. I just wanted to say that.

Marvel Nemesis

Marvel Nemesis: The Imperfects? What is this? Hmmm . . . I seem to recall a press release from EA back when Marvel signed up with them to do videogames a year ago. Here’s a portion of that press release, found at EA’s Web site:

Redwood City, Calif and New York, N.Y. – February 6, 2004 – Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS) and Marvel Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: MVL) announced today that they have entered into an agreement, whereby EA will develop a new generation of fighting video games pitting Super Heroes from the Marvel Universe against a new, original set of EA heroes.

Under the multi-year agreement, EA has been granted a license to develop and distribute fighting games featuring the Marvel Super Heroes. Additionally, EA has granted Marvel the exclusive rights as worldwide licensing agent for all consumer products and media licensing for the new EA heroes. Marvel will publish new comic books introducing the EA characters. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

So . . . there you go. May also happens to be the month that E3 is held, and many new games (and game systems) will be put on display for the first time. I’m not familiar with Renato Arlem, the penciller. I’ve heard some good things about Greg Pak’s writing, but I didn’t check out the Warlock mini and I’m not reading Phoenix: Endsong. The cover looks somewhat funky, but I have no clue what the interior pencils will look like.

Ultimate Marvel

It looks like Mike Carey will be handling a two-parter on Ultimate Fantastic Four before Mark Millar comes back as regular writer. Art by Jae Lee? I’m cool with that.

The cover for Ultimate Spider-Man #77 seems to provide a clear look at Ultimate Hobgoblin. There’s also another Spidey/Fury chat promised in this issue—those are always fun.

We finally get a look at the Ultimate Defenders in color. Ultimates 2 has been pretty good so far . . . I want to see where they’re going with Thor.

Spider-Man

I’m not really reading any of the regular Spider-Man titles, but Dan Slott’s presence has me picking up the Spider-Man/Human Torch mini-series. The last issue is solicited here.

Marvel Knights

I haven’t read the first issue of Black Panther yet; I should receive it in a package from DCBS in two weeks or so. I’ll give it a couple of issues and see what I think.

Wolverine, X-Men and Tuk the Cave Boy?? Oooooooookay then. Marvel is making some . . . interesting choices in packaging these Milestone issues together.

X-Men

Giant Size X-Men #3, with a new story by Joss Whedon and . . . Dave Cockrum? Interesting.

Wait a second . . . these guys are wearing red. They can’t be Hellions—it’s supposed to be pink! They ain’t reppin’ correctly, yo.

It looks like Excalibur will be starting up early for the House of M event.

Icon Comics

Another issue of Powers . . . that’s good . . .

. . . and a Powers hardcover! Excellent. I’ve got to give Marvel credit for their relatively inexpensive hardcover collections.

Marvel Hardcovers

Uh . . . what was I just saying? Despite reading the description in the solicitation, I’m having trouble fully visualizing the Maximum Fantastic Four hardcover. It appears to be an in-depth examination of Fantastic Four #1, panel by panel . . . in a 224 page hardcover for $49.99. Not FF #1-12, or #1-6 or anything . . . just the first issue. I’m sure something’s just not clicking for me here. I love Mark Evanier, and I’m sure his commentary will be insightful, but I’m just not that hardcore of a FF fan.

Okay . . . over to Image.

There appears to be a new book by Doug TenNapel (Earthworm Jim, Creature Tech, Tommysaurus Rex). Here’s the description for Earthboy Jacobus:

Chief Edwards retires from the Modesto Police Department a lonely man. On his way home he hits a flying whale with his car, opening the beast's mouth to find a boy from a parallel universe named Jacobus. Chief discovers that a society of insect monsters want to kill this boy due to a mysterious virus that grows on his hand. The Chief becomes a father figure to the boy and trains him how to survive insect monsters by becoming a great American ass-kicker.

Sounds like a party to me.

This new Jim Mahfood thing looks intriguing . . .

Here’s a collection of Deep Sleeper by Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston. I finally picked up The Coffin last year and was amazed . . . I hope these two continue to work together.

There’s a new ish of Invincible, but I’m just pickin’ up the trades on this title. Gotta love Allen the Alien, though.

Hmmm—this is new . . . a new City of Heroes comic, written by Mark Waid. Once I get a new PC, I’ll have to try that game out . . .

DC Solicits for May

2005-02-17T08:58:00.000-11:00

DC’s full solicits can be found at Comics Continuum and Comic Book Resources.

Let’s see now . . .

Batman Section

The Batman: Dark Detective mini reunites the creative team of Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin. This is definitely not a bad thing; I was all about Silver St. Cloud and Joker fish back in the day. Speaking of which, it looks like they’re reoffering the trade paperback collecting their original run, Batman: Strange Apparitions.

There’s finally a second collection of Gotham Central. This one contains issues 6 through 10 and focuses on Officer Montoya. I have yet to read any GC, surprisingly enough. (I say “surprisingly” since I love Powers, and I dug most of the first arc of District X, so this should be my kind of book, right? I guess I just suck. I’ll work on that.)

Superman Section

Here lies a small dilemma. Gail Simone’s the new writer on Action Comics, and I love her work. However, the new penciller is John Byrne, who I’m not feeling right now, and the cover isn’t working for me. We-ell, I’ll give the first couple of issues a try, run ‘em up the flagpole and see who salutes. Or something.

DCU Section

I had forgotten that Joe Bennett was going to be the new penciller on Birds of Prey! I enjoyed his Marvel work with Priest on The Crew and Captain America and Falcon, so I’m looking forward to seeing his work here. Oh, and Gail Simone is still handling her business here. Hey, Dorian—Wildcat is popping up here, as well.

Day of Vengeance continues. On the one hand, the “Identity Crisis spinoff” marketing thing is not a plus for me. On the other hand, I like the Spectre and general DCU magic stuff. So, yeah—I’ll check it out. Possibly the Wrath of the Spectre TP as well.

Firestorm #13 will be Dan Jolley’s last issue as writer. It’s unfortunate that this book couldn’t convince hardcore Ronnie Raymond fans to give it a look. It seems quite likely to me that *POTENTIAL SPOILER* Jason will end up being the physical/active part of the Firestorm fusion, with Ronnie taking over the role of the Disembodied Floating Invisible Head Guy role *END SPOILER* but that still may not satisfy those particular fans. Ah, well.

The new Green Lantern series begins here. I’ve been surprised at how well I’ve enjoyed Rebirth, and rotating art teams of Carlos Pacheco and Ethan Van Sciver sounds like a plan to me. I just hope they keep Moose Baumann on colors; he’s done a lot for the atmosphere of Rebirth.

Speaking of Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner apparently has a role in The Rann-Thanagar War series, spinning out of Adam Strange. I know that Adam Strange was sort of retroactively declared to be another turnip from the garden that is Identity Crisis, but it hasn’t read that way, at least to me; true, it’s got a Travelogue-of-DCU-Space thing going on, but I expected that going in from the interviews I’d read, and besides, how else am I going to see Tigorr and Vril Dox in a new comic book? Anyway, the new mini will be written by Dave Gibbons, with art by Ivan Reis, and it’s more outer-space stuff, which is good. Actually, all of the concepts for the mini-series sound interesting by themselves; it’s the IC mentions that make me leery-slash-cynical.

There’s a new printing of JSA: The Golden Age. This was written by James Robinson before his excellent run on Starman. Good stuff.

Huh—there’s a hardcover collection of Alex Ross and Paul Dini’s oversized specials, for less than the total price of the individual specials. (It’s probably not quite as “oversized”, though—I’d have to check the dimensions.) That’s not a ”must-have” for me, but I’ll keep my eyes open when I’m going over things at DCBS. If the price is right . . .

Wildstorm Section

Desolation Jones. Warren Ellis. J.H. Williams III. Yeah, man.

There’s another issue of Planetary solicited as well. A look at the Drummer is welcome.

The final issue of Sleeper is here. I hate to see this book go, but I’m looking forward to a hell of an ending.

Top Ten: The Forty-Niners. If you haven’t read Top Ten yet, you, uh . . . you might wanna do that. I’m just sayin’. (Of course, I haven’t read Smax yet, so I can’t claim to be hardcore or anything. I’ve heard conflicting reports on that series, but I’ll check it out when DC drops a softcover TP.) At any rate, this is a prequel to the original series. More Top Ten = Good Thing.

Vertigo Section

I don’t really read a lot of Vertigo titles, though I note that there’s a new Losers trade coming out. I see that they’re re-releasing Preacher trade paperbacks. Preacher is on my list of Comics I Intend To Read But Haven’t Yet. (That list has a lot in common with Comics That My Friends Keep Telling Me Are Awesome So I Need To Get Off My Butt And Read Them.) Also on that list are Transmet and Sandman.

You should check out the DC listings for yourself, if only to get a look at some funky covers.

Alan Moore: Craft and Mad Theory

2005-02-16T07:37:00.000-11:00

Thanks to Neil Gaiman's Journal, I found this interview with Alan Moore here. It's an interesting look at the craft of writing, and what one can accomplish when one goes beyond fundamentals. I was going along with it fairly well, and then somewhere around the time that Moore began breaking down the meaning of the word "technology," I became somewhat distracted by the sensation of my brain attempting to expand. It's probably an air pressure thing.

I read quite a few articles today, but everything's already probably covered by Thought Balloons or Fanboy Rampage. I need to work on some sidebar links. (I also need to ask some people if it's okay to link them!)

Top 100 Meme!

2005-02-15T09:05:00.000-11:00

Hello there.

I'm Charles W. I've been reading and enjoying several comics blogs for some time, and I finally decided to take a shot at it myself. My primary goal here is simply to write more often and exercise (or gain) certain skills, but I also enjoy good conversations and discussions, so I look forward to that. I may branch into other things at some point, but for now, it's strictly comics.

It looks like I'm just in time to chime in with a list of 100 Things I Love About Comics. (Alan David Doane at Comic Book Galaxy did one recently, inspired by Fred Hembeck's lists from the eighties, and many bloggers have come up with excellent lists since then. Mike over at Progressive Ruin has provided links to several of them.)

This isn't a complete list of everything I love, and it's in no particular order, but here goes.

1. Miracleman.
2. Uncle Scrooge by Carl Barks.
3. Mogo.
4. Mark Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme.
5. Planetary.
6. Frank Miller's 300.
7. Tintin.
8. Steranko's Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
9. Christopher Priest's Black Panther.
10. "In loudest din or hush profound,
My ears catch evil's slightest sound
Let those who toll out evil's knell
Beware my power: The F-Sharp Bell!"*
11. DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke.
12. Street Angel by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca.
13. Calvin and Hobbes.
14. Akira.
15. Walt Simonson's run on Thor.
16. Powers by Bendis and Oeming.
17. Marshal Law.
18. "For the Man Who Has Everything," by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
19. Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness' run on Deadpool.
20. The original Captain Marvel.
21. Hostess Fruit Pies ads.
22. Batman: The Animated Series.
23. Mage: The Hero Discovered.
24. Suicide Squad.
25. Claremont and Byrne's run on Uncanny X-Men.
26. Rocket backpacks that don't burn your booty. (See Adam Strange and the Rocketeer.)
27. Sleeper by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.
28. Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai.
29. JSA.
30. The Spider-Man/Wolverine one-shot written by Jim Owsley (Priest).
31. "Batman: Year One" by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli.
32. Peanuts.
33. The Legion of Doom.
34. Art Spiegelman.
35. The Gen13 "Grunge: The Movie" mini-series by Adam Warren.
36. Alan Moore's run on Supreme.
37. The Invaders.
38. Julie Schwartz covers.
39. Bernie Wrightson.
40. Atari Force.
41. We3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
42. Rocket (from the Milestone book Icon).
43. Peter David on Hulk.
44. JLA/JSA crossovers.
45. Lone Wolf and Cub.
46. The original Books of Magic mini-series.
47. Marshall Rogers' art on Batman.
48. Claremont and Miller's Wolverine.
49. Bat-Shark Repellent.
50. Winsor McKay's Little Nemo in Slumberland.
51. Benjamin J. Grimm.
52. Mad Love by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm.
53. Jack Kirby.
54. Krypto.
55. Kitty Pryde's bedtime story to Illyana.
56. Watchmen.
57. The art of John Cassaday.
58. Walt Simonson's run on Fantastic Four.
59. Grant Morrison's run on JLA.
60. Starman.
61. Spider-Man 2.
62. The DC Digests from back in the day.
63. Frank Miller on Daredevil.
64. George Herriman's Krazy Kat.
65. Spider-Man's "alternate costume" of an old FF uniform and a bag over his head.
66. Asterix.
67. Superman the Movie and Superman II.
68. The Sin City "Electric Chair Marv" "action" figure.
69. Ultimate Spider-Man by Bendis and Bagley.
70. Jack Cole.
71. Top Ten.
72. Ace the Bat-Hound.
73. Boondocks.
74. The Golden Age.
75. Peter David's run on X-Factor.
76. Iron Wok Jan.
77. Mr. Majestic by Joe Casey, Brian Holguin, and Ed McGuinness.
78. Luke Cage.
79. "One punch!"
80. The Fleischer Superman cartoons.
81. Steve Ditko.
82. Super-Gorilla Grodd.
83. Marvels by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross.
84. The Authority by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch.
85. The Golden Age Flash.
86. A biker with a flaming skull for a head.
87. x2: X-Men United.
88. Opus.
89. All-Star Comics #3.
90. Lockjaw.
91. New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Perez.
92. Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday.
93. Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud.
94. The Incredibles.
95. The Legion of Super-Heroes.
96. Major Bummer by John Arcudi and Doug Mankhe.
97. Crisis on Infinite Earths.
98. The art of Bryan Hitch.
99. The fastball special.
100. Superman . . . just for being himself.