Suspending Disbelief

You Can't Keep a Good Dead Avenger Down...

2010-08-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

This blog is very much like Marvel these days, we can't have too many Avengers.

The above cover (nicely rendered by Tom Grummett) is for something called Chaos War: Dead Avengers.

Genius.

You have your Avengers, your New Avengers, your Secret Avengers, your Young Avengers, your Pet Avengers, your Ultimate Avengers (not to mention Avengers Next running around, cartoon Avengers in the offing, and rumors of Cosmic Avengers)...how silly of me not to have considered the possibility of having your Dead Avengers shaking the old dust off to do some more Assemblin' for old times' sake...like I said, genius.

Both Marvel and DC have hit upon a formula that suits them well...why bother trying to come up with a bunch of new ideas that people won't care about or buy when you can just milk your existing franchises until you've sucked all of the life out of them? And, much more importantly, you can suck as much money out of the pockets of the fans of the franchises as you can (before those fans get fed up and starting spending that disposable income on hookers, blow, and iPhone apps instead of comic books.)

(Is it too early to put in a request for Black'n'Blue Avengers? Black Panther, Black Widow, Black Knight, Blue Marvel, and, if they could get the rights, Blue Man Group would make a kick-ass Avengers team...)

The Dark Knight Returns

2010-08-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

That Bruce Wayne was going to come back was absolutely assured even at the very moment he "died". It's all good. Grant Morrison has him coming back to franchise the Batman "brand" by training Caped Crusaders around the world in the aptly-titled Batman, Inc. book. I'm intrigued by that...we'll see how it turns out.

Hopefully Bruce will be returning with that stick up his butt finally removed...the post-Dark Knight Returns pompous, arrogant, condescending, inflexible, always "too cool for...and the smartest guy in... the room" Batman had gotten extremely tedious. (I don't mind the guy being driven and intense but dude get over yourself every once in a while.)

Dick Grayson is apparently going to continue as one of the Batmen...and that's cool too. I really like Dick as Batman...more than I expected to. I've even grown to like Damian Wayne, snot-nosed punk that he can be, as Robin (he is, despite all of his bitching and moaning, working hard to be a good soldier and partner...he may complain but more often than not he does what Batman tells him and he comes through when the chips are down.)

Dick shows that Batman can be good at his job and still be a person at the same time. Bruce Wayne will probably never be that kind of Batman again (he used to be before writers took Frank Miller's angry old Batman from the future and superimposed his worst traits onto his younger self)...but hopefully at least a little of it will creep back into him...hey, couldn't hurt :-)

Avengers Assemble...um...again...

2010-07-28T12:44:00.000-07:00

And the buildup to 2012's Avengers movie continues with this fall's animated series from Disney, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. It's got the original Avengers along with teases of Captain America, Hawkeye, and the Black Panther plus tons of villains, Nick Fury and SHIELD, and all that jazz.

Could be cool.

Avengers Assemble! (Yeah, we'll wait...)

2010-07-24T13:18:00.000-07:00

14. For the first 110 issues of the series (roughly 1963-1973) Marvel’s premier super-hero team, the Avengers, managed to get by with just 14 official members (and that number includes 3 “blink and you’ll miss ‘em” members: The Hulk, the Swordsman, and the Black Knight.)

14 Avengers (the others were, of course: Thor, Iron Man, the many faces of Hank Pym, the Wasp, Captain America, the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Hawkeye, Hercules, the Black Panther, and the Vision) during the course of a decade’s worth of issues (mostly written by two guys: Roy Thomas and Stan Lee)…kind of an exclusive club and that was pretty cool.

Since that time though just about every writer who has come on the book has felt the need to put a personal stamp on the series by adding new faces to the team; a fact which has caused the membership to be something less than exclusive with seemingly dozens of heroes (including a couple of X-Men and three-fourths of the Fantastic Four) carrying Avengers ID cards over the years. There are enough Avengers to fill an auditorium and yet all these writers feel they need to add their pet characters to the mix (as opposed to just drawing from the already incredibly deep bench of formerly active Avengers.)

With the recent announcement that the beloved character Red Hulk would be joining up, the beat goes on.

Hell at this point they might as well just issue every costumed hero in the Marvel Universe an Avengers ID card and tell them “we’ll call you when we need you.”

Don’t get me wrong, I know that some of the later characters have gone on to have distinguished Avenger careers (Beast, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, and Luke Cage come to mind offhand) but just once I’d like to see somebody take over an Avengers title and not feel the need to add somebody new to the already lengthy roster of Avengers.

That’s probably not gonna happen but I, as long time Avengers fan (the book was my first favorite Marvel title back when I started reading comics in the 60’s), I can dream…

14…imagine that…

Young Justice

2010-07-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

Preview of the upcoming Young Justice cartoon series. Looks like it could be fun.

Beware His Power...

2010-07-15T11:23:00.000-07:00

Entertainment Weekly, showcasing the Hollywood elements of next week's San Diego Comic-Con (nope, not going...already sold out...too many people (with no parking and overpriced concessions)...too much Hollywood hype and hoopla...many less annoying things to do here in our fair city) with Ryan Reynolds all ringed up and ready to use his might as Green Lantern in the upcoming movie.

First impression is that it's okay (the mask is kinda funky but it's hard to make a mask like that work on real people however cool they might look in the comics)...I'll have to see it more fully...and in action...before I give my full fanboy pontification on it :-)

Wonder Woman

2010-07-02T22:48:00.000-07:00

DC Comics' amazing Amazon, Wonder Woman, gets a new modern look...well, if by "modern" you mean the Eighties (tights and a jacket with rolled-up sleeves? Really?) But hey at least Diana isn't fighting monsters and criminals in a bathing suit anymore...

Wednesday Comics

2010-06-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

This is one huge honkin’ comic book. And it’s one really beautiful comic book too.

Wednesday Comics was an experiment by DC Comics featuring tabloid sized comic pages featuring some acclaimed writers and artists presenting stories of DC characters…iconic and not-so-iconic…one page at a time published weekly (on newsprint no less.)

It seems unlikely to be repeated…16 tabloid pages for 4 bucks is probably too high a hurdle for a lot of comic fans to get over…but it was a grand little adventure just the same.

This big (17+” x 11+”) hardcover collects all of the stories on better paper and it’s a gorgeous comic book. All of DC’s big guns…Superman (with beautiful art by Lee Bermejo), Batman (a fine noir romance that might have needed a bit more room to breathe) and , Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash…are represented alongside of lesser-known (to the general public at least) classic characters like Hawkman, Sgt. Rock, the Metal Men, Deadman, Adam Strange, Metamorpho the Element Man, and Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth.

The art is almost all wonderful and some of the stories are better than other. I was charmed by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner’s whimsical Supergirl story featuring Krypto the Super Dog and Streaky the Super Cat (just go with it…:-), intrigued by Paul Pope’s pulp fiction re-imagining of the sci-fi hero Adam Strange, and engaged by the gritty WW2 Sgt. Rock story written by Adam Kubert and drawn by his legendary father Joe Kubert.

The rollicking Metamorpho adventure…by Neil Gaiman and Michael Allred…is also a great deal of fun as is the unlikely team-up of Catwoman and Etrigan the Demon by Walt Simonson and Brian Stelfreeze and Kyle Baker’s action-packed Hawkman story.

This book is pricey…it lists for $49.99…but it delivers in a big way. Wednesday Comics makes me happy and what more could you ask from a comic book than that?

Long Live the Legion?

2010-06-08T15:32:00.000-07:00

I love the Legion of Super-Heroes. It’s a childish thing, I know…but the Legion is part of my childhood...one of my first great comic book reading loves when the 9 year old me started immersing himself in the fantastic, improbable, thrilling four-color adventures.

Loving the Legion…something that has continued from childhood into my continuing dotage…I am pleased that the ongoing cycle of their popularity has swung back to the popular side starting with Mark Waid and Barry Kitson’s reboot through the use of the team as important players in Justice League of America, Final Crisis, and the Superman books and on to the newest incarnation of their self-titled series (written by Legion legend Paul Levitz no less) along with a companion series in the pages of a revived Adventure Comics.

I’m enjoying it all. And, at the same time, feeling vaguely put off by it at the same time.

Partially it’s because the characters act and behave like adults (some of them are married and have children of their own) and yet the writers, for nostalgia’s sake I suppose, continue to have them refer to each other as though they were still children (above, for example, are Saturn “Girl”, a mother of twins, her husband Lightning “Lad”, and his twin sister Lightning “Lass”.) I have as much affection for the (sometimes silly) codenames the Legionnaires had the beginning but if you’re going to make them adults (which is fine with me, by the way) then you shouldn’t be trying to have it both ways by continuing to have them use names they had when they were teenagers.

But, much more importantly, there’s a very cynical edge to the Legion mythos that feels incongruous and self-indulgent. Waid’s reboot, for example, used a heated generation gap theme as its foundation while the later stories continue to focus on virulent xenophobia as the toxic element in the interplay between the Legion (who have always been an assemblage of beings from myriad worlds come together to protect the greater good) and the government (and apparently many people) of Earth.

The cynicism I spoke of earlier rears its head in the notion that we won’t have overcome petty prejudices like ageism and xenophobia after another 1,000 years have passed. It might make for good drama but it’s a sad (and lazy) commentary on the ability of beings to get past such 20^th/21^st century notions like those.

I understand that conflict is essential when telling stories but the Legion used to showcase how people from different worlds (and even different times) could come together…stand together…triumph together…over threats to the greater good. Legionnaires weren’t distrusted because they were young…or because they weren’t born on Earth…they were, instead, celebrated for what they were heroes who were will to put their lives on the line to make the universe a safer, more united place.

(Previous versions of the series had a decidedly dark edge…Keith Giffen’s "5 years later" reboot and Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning’s “Legion of the Damned/Legion Lost” run…and I quite enjoyed those but they were fighting against ominous forces coming from without and not from small-minded “Earth first” bigots who hate them no matter how many times they save the universe.)

Maybe that notion is not cool enough for modern comic book writers…if that’s the case it’s certainly a sad thing…for comics…for the Legion…for whatever young people who might find their way to comics (I doubt this overriding sense of mistrust and even outright distain for the titular heroes of the book would have engaged the younger me the way the “tales of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes” used to back in the day.)

Maybe I’m just getting too old for these things.

Comic Book Blogging

2008-02-01T11:36:00.000-08:00

I've moved Suspending Disbelief over to the new blog site at Discount Comic Book Service (my comic dealer provider since 2001.

You can find it here: The Daily Blog
(See categories on the right column and click on Suspending Disbelief.

See ya there, true believers!

Justice League: The New Frontier

2008-01-01T12:25:00.000-08:00

This is the trailer for the Justice League: The New Frontier, the DVD adaptation of Darwyn Cooke's wonderful comic book series, DC: The New Frontier. The DVD is due out later this month.

Richest Fictional Characters

2007-12-17T10:11:00.000-08:00

Forbes Magazine has come out with their annual list of the richest fictional characters (you'd think they had better things to do with their time...but hey it's fun) and this year the list is led by the grouchy and stingy billionaire Uncle Scrooge McDuck (see above) with an estimated net worth of $28.8 billion dollars (from mining and treasure hunting) .

The rest of the top 10:

Ming the Merciless ($20.9 billion from technology, slavery, and domination of the planet Mongo)

Richie Rich ($16.1 billion; trust fund baby)

Mom ($15.7 billion; owner of MomCorp, the future's biggest conglomerate)

Jed Clampett ($11 billion; oil man/Beverly Hillbilly)

C. Montgomery Burns ($8.4 billion; ruthless energy tycoon)

Carter Pewterschmidt ($7.2 billion; steel baron/media tycoon)

Bruce Wayne ($7 billion; heir/owner of Wayne Enterprises/caped crusader)

Thurston Howell III ($6.3 billion/owner of Howell Enterprises/castaway)

Tony Stark ($6 billion/defense and technology contractor/armored Avenger)

One Dark (Christmas Eve) Night, Part 2

2007-12-13T07:54:00.000-08:00

As the snow continued to fall, the Batmobile prowled the streets looking for trouble to right. "This snow's gonna send everybody running home tonight to wait for Santa," Robin said tugging his hat down to the top edge of his mask. "Don't think there's gonna be much for us to do tonight, big guy."

Batman stared resolutely forward. "Maybe not. We'll see..."

They cruised past the uptown shopping district. All of the shops there were already closed for the holiday. Bored, Robin was glancing absently about when a movement caught his eyes. "Circle the block, Batman," he said pressing his nose to the window to look back.

"What's up?" Batman asked as he turned at the corner.

"Don't know, " Robin replied. "Probably nothing...but I thought I saw somebody sneaking around that gift store back there."

Batman dimmed the lights as the Batmobile came back around the corner. They pulled up to the store, both of them half-expecting to find a burglar trying to break into the store. What they found instead was a little girl sitting in the doorway shivering and crying.

Robin jumped out of the car first knowing that Batman's appearance would no doubt frighten the girl. "Hey, little miss," he said with a bright smile, "what are you doing out here at this time of night?"

The little girl looked up. "I know you," she said wiping her nose and standing up, "you're Robin! I saw you on TV!"

"That's me, sweetie!" Robin replied taking a short playful bow. "What's your name?"

The little girl looked over at Batman who had gotten out of the Batmobile and was watching from the other side of the car, then she looked back at Robin who had knelt down to her level. "Sara, " she said shyly. "My name is Sara."

Robin pulled off his Santa hat and placed it on her head. "What are you doing out here alone, Sara?"

The little girl looked down kicking a bit of the gathering snow around with the toe of her boot. "It's almost Christmas," she said sadly, a hot tear forming in her eye, "an' I been so busy playin' an' stuff that I...I forgot to get Mommy a present..."

"So you came out here to get her one?"

Sara nodded. "I sneaked out and came down here with my own money," she rattled her pocket full of change, "to get her one. But everything's closed...an' it's cold...an' I'm lost...I don't know how to get home..."

Sara leaned forward into Robin's arms and he picked her up. "Don't worry, sweetheart, we'll get you home." Robin carried her into the Batmobile. settling her on his lap in the passenger seat. Batman climbed back into the car and reached for the radio microphone.

Sara glanced doe-eyed over at Batman. "I'm sorry to be botherin' you, Mr. Batman," she said in a tiny voice.

Batman looked thoughtfully at her face for a moment. "It's okay, little one," he said looking up to meet Robin's gaze," this is why Robin and I are out here...to help people..."

Robin pulled another candy cane from his vest pocket and gave it to Sara while Batman called police headquarters to see if anyone had called in a missing persons report on Sara. And indeed someone had he was told.

"She lives a few blocks to the west," Batman said as he returned the microphone to its cradle. He turned the engine over and pulled out onto the now snow-covered street.

Soon, the Batmobile pulled up to a small house a few blocks away. There was a Gotham City Police car parked in front of the house.

"That's it, Mr. Batman!" Sara said excitedly. "That's my house right there!"

"I know, honey," he said pulling in to park in front of the house.

Robin carried Sara, who was still wearing his Santa hat, up the walkway; Batman hung back a few steps. The front door opened and a policeman stepped out. "...yes, ma'am, we'll let you know as soon as we..." he stopped in mid-statement as he noticed the newcomers.

"What the...?!?"

Another cop and a teary-eyed woman in a bathrobe came through the door.

"Mommy!" Sara cried as Robin handed her into her mother's outstretched arms.

"Sara! Oh baby, where have you been!?!" her mother cried as she hugged her daughter tightly to he chest. "I was so worried! Oh God!"

The first cop nodded to his partner. "Go call it in, Mitch," he said with a broad grin. "Another gold star for the Caped Crusaders! Good work, guys!"

"Just luck, officer," Batman said quietly. "We just happened to be in the right place at the right time."

The policeman looked over at the mother and child hugging and crying in the doorway. "Whatever works, Batman."

"I guess..." Batman replied wistfully. "C'mon, Robin, let's go."

Sara noticed the two of them leaving and leapt down from her mother's arms. "Robin, wait!" She ran up to him holding out the hat.

"You forgot your hat."

He took it and promptly put it back on top of her head. "You keep it, gorgeous, I think it looks even better on you than it did on me! Don't you agree, Batman?"

"Without a doubt."

"Thank you for bringing me home," Sara said. "I'm sorry I caused everybody so much trouble. I just wanted to get a present for my Mommy..."

Batman glanced over at the woman standing in the doorway with the policeman. "I think you just did, sweetheart. Merry Christmas."

Batman slid back into the car. Robin bent down and gave Sara a final hug. "Be good, kiddo," he said with a jaunty grin.

"Merry Christmas, Robin!"

The Batmobile pulled away from the house and back into the night. "Snow's really coming down now," Batman said. "Guess we might as well call it a night. The Commissioner can give a call if we're needed..."

"Yeah," Robin agreed as he stifled a yawn. "And besides, I'm all out of candy canes."

Batman allowed himself a fleeting smile. "At least you got rid of that silly hat."

"I knew you'd say something like that." An impish grin blossomed on the boy's face as he reached under his seat and pulled out another red-and-white Santa hat, this one with a tinkling little silver bell on its tip. "Boy scouts and Boy Wonders are always prepared! Now home, Jeeves, I think I hear them sleigh bells a-ringin' in the distance!"

"You're incorrigible," Batman said as he turned towards the highway that would take them back to the suburban mansion they called home.

Robin nestled back in his seat and closed his eyes. "If you think that now," he said ominously, "wait 'til you see what I got y ou for Christmas..."

"I shudder to think."

Robin shrugged again and pulled his cape around him for the ride home. He smiled and began to hum, "...doo...doo...doo...doo...doo...doo...doo...doo...doo...doo...doo...doo...Batman!"

Batman sighed and gunned the Batmobile through the gathering snow towards home.

One Dark (Christmas Eve) Night, Part 1

2007-12-06T15:48:00.000-08:00

The cave was, of course, cool and dark and still...only the soft hum, and attendant glow, of a bank of sophisticated computer and video monitors disturbing that eerie stillness until the doors of an elevator hummed quickly open. The man in black strode out of the elevator and walked purposefully towards his forbidding black sedan. The sun was hours gone and it was time to go back to work.

Bruce paused to look at his reflection in a full-length mirror hanging near a soft spotlight. There was, he realized once again, something both eminently forbidding and sublimely ridiculous about the costume....the skintight body suit, the flowing black cloak with its jagged edge, the sinister black cowl...but the whole ensemble played nicely into his theory of the inherent cowardice and superstition running rampant in the diseased criminal mind. He realized, once again, that wearing the costume...indeed that going out into the night risking his life in the name of "justice"...was not a completely rational thing to do.

He knew that. But he didn't care as long as he continued to show results in his drive to be the right hand of righteous justice.

Bruce's reverie was shattered by the noisy entrance of his ebullient young friend and partner. The boy's bright red, green, yellow, and black costume was topped off this night with a fuzzy red-and-white hat that sat jauntily atop his head haloing his bright smile.

"Tim," Bruce said patiently, "why are you wearing that hat?"

The boy paused at the mirror to fuss with his headgear. "It's Christmas Eve, Bruce," he replied brightly, "I though I'd spread a little holiday cheer among the thugs and other assorted riff-raff we might run into tonight!"

Bruce repressed a smile and said sternly, "We're about serious business tonight as always, Robin, I'd really prefer it if you..."

The boy ran, jumped, and turned a perfect forward somersault landing precisely where he wanted to...next to the passenger door of the great black car. "Don't be such a grinch, Batman," he said unperturbed by his partner's characteristic gruffness. "C'mon, let's roll!"

Batman fought back yet another smile and walked slowly to the driver's side of the car. He sometimes wondered why he took the boy...as capable and valuable as Timothy was...out with him on his nocturnal forays against Gotham's lowlifes. The truth was that the boy's light...his irrepressible joy for life and living...balanced his more dour outlook on things and kept him in touch with the basic goodness of most people (this being something he tended to doubt in a world like his that was populated with murderers and rapists and thieves and psychotics.) Robin, he realized, kept him from letting his formidable dark side run rampant...kept him from becoming in effect that which he himself hated most.

As Batman slid into the car, Robin began humming the theme from the TV show that had so irked him years ago. "Doo...doo...doo...doo...doo...doo...doo...Batman!" the boy sang mischievously.

Batman pointedly ignored him and engaged the Batmobile's mighty engine. Robin, still humming the song, reached into his bright red vest's inner pocket and pulled out a candy cane. He unwrapped the candy and popped it into his mouth as he settled back for the ride into town to begin.

Batman glanced over at the boy who was contentedly sucking on the red-and-white stick of candy and, not completely able to curtail a slight grin, said, "Do you have to...?"

"Do I have to what?" Robin replied disingenuously loudly slurping the candy cane in the process.

Batman shook his head and gunned the engine. The concealing doors at the far end of the Batcave raised silently and quickly and the Batmobile roared out into the Christmas Eve night heading towards the sparkling lights of Gotham City in the distance.

There was a light dusting of snow on the road leading into the city. "Looks like we're gonna have a white Christmas after all." Robin commented not expecting a reply from his friend.

The city itself was alive with bundled up citizens out and about doing their last minute shopping. Batman knew that the number of honest people out there spending money and carrying tempting packages would bring the vultures out even on a brisk Christmas Eve night. Of this he was sure.

Almost as if on cue, his thoughts were interrupted by a scream from behind them. "Stop! Thief! Stop!"

Robin spit his candy into the litterbag at his feet, his face now focused and wary. Batman wheeled the Batmobile around and roared back to where the cry had come from.

In front of a department store, a flustered woman was being helped to her feet by some passers-by as the costumed duo leapt out of their jet-black car. Batman noticed two new paths in the snow leading from where the woman had fallen down the street and around the corner into a darkened alley. A Salvation Army collection kettle stood untended just outside the doorway of the store.

The crowd of onlookers gave way for the tall man in black...a feeling of awe, coloured with more than a little apprehension, sweeping over them.

"Batman!" the woman cried. "He stole my purse! He ran into the alley!" she said pointing down the street.

Batman nodded and sprinted away, his great black cloak fanning out behind him. Robin paused long enough to say, "It's okay, ma'am, we'll get him!" He winked at her and she smiled; then he ran after Batman into the alley.

Robin, true to his rigorous training, stole cautiously into the alley, his every sense on full alert. He crouched low as he heard a voice from deep in the dark alley.

"Wh-who are you, man?" he heard a nervous voice cry out.

Robin rolled his eyes and muttered, "Jeez, everybody's a straight man..." But then he noticed Batman, standing silent and still, almost invisible in the shadows, against the far wall of the alley listening intently. to the proceedings further down the way.

Then who...? His thought was interrupted as two figures suddenly walked out of the alley. One was a boy about 16; the other was a ruddy-faced man in a Salvation Army uniform, holding a large black pocketbook in his left hand. His right arm is across the boy's slumped shoulders. Both of them drew back wide-eyed as Batman and Robin stepped out of the shadows at the edge of the alley.

The boy's eyes stayed wide with fright but the older man quickly regained his composure. "Evening, Batman," he said pleasantly. "Everything's okay here...young Robert here is quite remorseful about his actions..."

Batman said nothing. He nodded and let them pass. Down the street back in front of the store, the crowd had grown and the woman who had been mugged was standing at the front of it apprehensively.

As Batman and Robin watched from a few yards behind, the old man handed the pocketbook to Robert, who in turn walked over to the woman.

"I'm sorry, ma'am...I..."

She took the purse warily and glanced through it. "It's all here I think," she said looking up at Batman who'd come closer.

Robert, tears streaming down his eyes, looked into her eyes. "P-please, lady...y-you're not goin' to send me to jail, are you? Please...my Ma she'd..."

"I don't think he's a bad child," the old man said to Batman, "just a little misguided..."

Batman frowned coldly. "Aren't they all?"

"Lighten up, Batman," Robin said in a stage-whisper, "it's not like this kid is the Joker or anybody like that..."

All eyes turned to the grim Dark Knight. Batman turned to the woman. "No real harm done," she said somewhat daunted by his dour demeanor. "And it is Christmas after all..."

Batman nodded and turned his withering gaze on the boy. "Go," he said tersely.

The boy nodded to Batman and then to the woman and then he started walking quickly down the street. The crowd dispersed and the old man plucked his bell out of the kettle and began ringing it once more. "Merry Christmas, Batman," he said as the Caped Crusader walked slowly towards the Batmobile. "And to you too, son," he said with a smile towards Robin.

Batman nodded almost imperceptibly and disappeared into the car; Robin paused and reached into a compartment on his utility belt. He brought out a $20 bill and dropped into the old man's kettle.

Batman honked the Batmobile's horn impatiently. Robin smiled and said, "Keep the faith, old-timer!", as he sprinted for the car.

"Always, son," the old man said. "Always."

The Batmobile revved up and sped away into the night. Batman circled the block and came back around until he found Robert walking swiftly along a quiet sidewalk. He pulled up next to him and rolled down the window. Robert stopped, his eyes once more filled with apprehension and fear.

"This is your only pass, boy," Batman said evenly. "Next time you do something like that I'll be worst that your worst nightmare. Do you understand me?"

Robert nodded. "Y-yes, sir..."

Robin reached into his vest pocket and pulled out another candy cane. 'Yo, Robert!" he called out. "Catch!" He tossed the stick of candy past Batman out the window and into Robert's startled hands. "In the meantime," he said as he unwrapped another candy cane for himself, "have a good Christmas, dude!"

"Th-thanks!" Robert replied with a nervous but grateful smile.

Batman rolled up the window and drove away.

"You had to get the last word in with that kid, didn't you?" Robin said glancing out the window as the snow began to fall once again.

"I didn't get the last word in this time, did I?"

Robin shrugged. "Why give the kid bad dreams on Christmas Eve?"

He Sees You When You're Sleeping...

2007-11-26T09:42:00.000-08:00

He came, soaring gracefully, from the North...an almost imperceptible blur of blue and scarlet knifing through the brisk winter's air.

A child, being half-dragged and half-carried by his preoccupied mother, spied the fleeting blur as it whizzed past a crowded shopping mall parking lot. "Mama!" he cried incredulously scanning the heavens for another glimpse of the bright night traveler. "Didja see him?!?"

"See who?" The boy’s mother said absently as she fumbled around in her purse for her car keys.

"I saw him! Up there!" The boy said, wide-eyed and giddy, pointing to the sky.

His mother opened the car door and stuffed her purchases into the back seat. "That's nice, honey," she said as she lifted him into the passenger seat and secured him with the seat belt. "You can tell me all about it later."

She went around and got into the driver's seat. She started the engine and looked back for a chance to pull out. "Right now we've got to hurry home and get everything ready for the big day..."

The boy sighed dejectedly. "Okay, Mama. But I really did see him...flying over the city..."

The woman, warmed by a sudden realization, smiled. "Oh..." She turned and took his face gently into her hands. "Well of course you saw him flying over the city, Michael...it is Christmas Eve after all and that's exactly where he belongs on this night of nights."

She kissed his forehead and then turned back to drive. Michael smiled and pressed his face to the window searching the dark skies for the traveler as the car pulled out into traffic for the short ride to the warmth of home.

The blur came to rest upon the top of the tallest building in the city. The blur became a man...a tall and powerful man...his burnished red boots softly crunching the fresh snow on the roof.

He looked out over the festive, dancing lights of the city...of his city. (He paused and smiled at that thought knowing full well that all the cities of the fragile blue Earth were his cities...so many responsibilities, all freely accepted.)

His kind, knowing eyes grew softly opaque and, randomly, the lives of some of the citizens of the city were fleetingly known to him: shoppers scurrying through the stores one final time...parents cursing and laughing and cursing again as they struggle to assemble magical wonders with only perseverance and arcane instructions to guide them...children sleeping and trying to sleep and pretending to sleep with visions of reindeer dancing in their minds...the faithful gathered in the myriad houses of God reaffirming their continuing gratitude for His gifts.

He saw them all...heard them all...discreetly glancing past each life but feeling that much more content and reassured for having shared even a fleeting instant with each of them.

The twinkle returned to his eyes as his field of vision contracted. It was a good night, he thought, a soft and peaceful night.

His thoughts drifted to his mother...the warm and wise woman who had taken an orphaned child as her own and raised him with all the love her abundant heart had to give. She was, he was certain, fussing with pies or some such at that very moment.

A glance across the miles confirmed this almost instantly. His father and his wife were trimming the stately tree in the living room...his father was telling a story with uncustomary animation (no doubt an embarrassing tale from his son's childhood) and his lady love was laughing that magical laugh of hers.

The crowning star was waiting patiently in its padded box for the tall man's arrival (that he would place the star was lifelong tradition...his father would have it no other way.)

The tall man smiled and drew a measure of bracing air into his mighty lungs. And then, with nary an afterthought, he leapt boldly into the night, his great scarlet cloak billowing gracefully behind him. He cruised slowly, silently, around the city once more chuckling warmly whenever the inevitable "Look! Up in the sky!" reached his all-hearing ears.

"Merry Christmas, Metropolis," he murmured affectionately as he turned towards the west and flew, straight and true, to the comforting warmth and love of his boyhood home and another blessed Christmas with the most important people in his life.

(for Kal)

The Captain and the Kid

2007-10-16T23:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, I am here to confess that when I was a boy I played with dolls. Well actually I only played with one doll (I’d like to call it an “action figure” but that term hadn’t yet come into vogue back in long ago youth) and that doll was, of course, Captain Action.

G.I. Joe never interested me but I loved the idea of Captain Action the first time I saw a commercial on one long lost Saturday morning. The good Captain was not only a hero in his own right but he could become other heroes…Superman, Batman, the Lone Ranger, Aquaman, Captain America, Flash Gordon…simply by switching into different costumes and masks (all sold separately, of course.)

I can only remember two times in my childhood where I actively hounded my poor mother for a specific Christmas gift (I would hint strongly at other times…) once was in my teen years when I just had to have the four-LP set of Chicago at Carnegie Hall (Chicago was a relatively cool band before they let Peter Cetera turn them into the schmaltz factory they were during the 80’s) and the other time was when I was 10 and I just had to have Captain Action.

Mom came through.

I got the main Captain doll…sweet!...and the Superman and Aquaman accessory costumes and I was one happy camper. Never got Action Boy…he seemed a bit lame to me for some reason…but I loved the Captain.

I even bought the 5-issue Captain Action comic book series that DC put out (great Gil Kane and Wally Wood art with stories by Jim Shooter…I still have them, yellowed and dog-eared, in a box somewhere in the garage) though the adventures I came up with on my own seemed a hundred times more interesting.

I’m not sure why I thought of Captain Action today but the memory still warms the imaginative little boy who still dwells somewhere deep inside the cynically optimistic soul of the old man I am today :-)

O Captain, My Captain?

2007-10-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

This then is the new Captain America. He doesn't debut until January's Captain America #34 so we won't be sure who is in this shiny uniform (designed by Alex Ross) until then. Bucky Barnes...the Winter Soldier...seems the most likely candidate but we shall see.

The pistol and the knife make it unlikely that it is a resurrected Steve Rogers in the red, white, and blue (and black) togs but, again, we shall see.

Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting have made Captain America an enormously entertaining book even after they killed off the title character (the post-death cast...including The Winter Soldier, The Falcon, Sharon Carter, the Black Widow, Tony Stark, Maria Hill, and Nick Fury...has picked up the slack admirably) so I'm in for the long haul (though I am still hoping and expecting that Steve Rogers will return to the book and the uniform at some point in the future.)

...instant karma's gonna get you, gonna knock you about the head...

2007-10-11T12:06:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I’m a petty, petty man.

Ever since they firmly established Iron Man as the deacon of super-dickery during Civil War (yes, I know that ol’ Tony has been campaigning for that title for a long time but his manipulative, duplicitous, and smug actions during CW sealed the deal for him in my mind) I’ve been waiting for him to get a little karma slapped upside his arrogant head.

Asked and answered :-) First, he had his ass handed to him by the Hulk and now (I’m not sure where the new Thor series falls in regards to World War Hulk continuity) he got himself a serious beat down from an unamused thunder god in Thor #3 (our recently revived pal Thor apparently not being at all happy that Stark stole his genetic material and used it to co-create the Thor clone that killed Goliath…go figure.)

I presume that Marvel will at some point set about to rehabilitate the image of the comic book Iron Man/Tony Stark (especially with the movie coming out next year)…though they’ll have a long way to go to get me to see the character as likeable again…but for now I’m jazzed to see Shellhead get punked as hard and as often as possible.

Like I said, sometimes I’m a petty, petty man :-)

Gonna Wait 'til the Midnight(er) Hour...

2007-10-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

I’m of the opinion that had The Authority ended when Warren Ellis decided to leave it would be regarded with the reverence given to super-hero comics like Watchmen. It was an absurdly over-the-top, cheeky, cynical, audacious, and fun send up of the conventions of super-hero groups with the team…all ridiculously powerful and full of hubris and snappy quips…battling a mad scientist with an army of supermen, an invasion from another dimension, and, ultimately, “God”. The 12 issues of The Authority (following the lead-in from the old Stormwatch series) were pure, almost perfect pop insanity.

But The Authority was a hot commodity at the time and DC/Wildstorm was not going to let it just go after Ellis left. Unfortunately, every writer who has followed has beaten the concept to death, making The Authority pedestrian and…worst of all…dull. But then once you’ve beaten “God” how much juice can you get from smacking around analogues of the Avengers or even becoming temporary totalitarian rulers of the world?

Of all of the Authority members the one who I found most dull was the Midnighter who became a surly joke…the gay (the seemingly insecure writers after Ellis seemed to need to keep that at the fore as one of his most important character traits…Ellis presented the relationship between the Midnighter and Apollo with respectful subtlety while the writers who followed him treated it with self-conscious oafishness which included every opponent the Authority faced firing off homophobic jibes) Batman/Punisher analogue who likes hurting people and who can kill you in one zillion ways before you can blink an eyelid (or something like that.)

I gave up on The Authority a while back so I was kinda of surprised when I decided to give the Midnighter solo series a try. But I’m glad I did. In the first few issues…a odd, amusing time-travel story involving an attempt to assassinate Hitler…Garth Ennis brought some much needed humanity, humor, and reflection to the character.

Keith Giffen has taken up the reins as the new regular writer starting with issue #10 where a victim was so afraid of the Midnighter that she threw herself out of a window. “You killed God”, the girl said after the Midnighter had brutally dispatched her captors. The Midnighter, shaken to his core, reflected on what he was and then he sat off a mission to discover the man he used to be.

Giffen gives him an assistant to play off and delves into his prickly relationship with his adoptive daughter before sending the Midnighter off to a seemingly normal…but frighteningly abnormal…town that may or may not be where he came from before being brainwashed and turned into a killing machine. At the same time, Giffen doesn’t soft-pedal what the character is as evidenced by his brusque dispatching of a computer nerd/pedophile he drafts to help him in his quest to rediscover his original identity.

In his first two issues, Giffen makes the Midnighter more interesting than he’s been in quite a while while not scrimping on the action. The book is further enhanced by the sterling storytelling of artist Chris Sprouse (in #10) and ChrisCross (in #11).

Midnighter is a comic worth checking out…and who’da thought that :-)

Benny Goodman - All The Cats Join In

2007-09-20T16:48:00.000-07:00

Cool tune and cute animation.

A Comicbook Orange: Green Lantern, Thor, Olivier Copiel

2007-09-12T11:10:00.000-07:00

...and yet we remember...

2007-09-10T14:45:00.001-07:00

The years pass...the pain recedes...and yet we remember. For all of the blood and sweat and tears shed on the day...shed on the bloodied streets and battlefields since that day...attention must be paid.

The years pass...and yet we remember.

The years pass...and yet we must remember.

All politics are Local...

2007-09-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

Indeed. That old saw is, of course, right on the money. All politics…especially the intimate politics of the heart…familial, passionate, emotional…are achingly local. Local…written by Brian Wood and featuring evocative art by Ryan Kelly…explores these politics through a series of 12 self-contained stories about people coping the politics of the heart in different communities in the US and Canada. Each of these locations informs the stories with such unique vibes that they are, by design, characters in the stories being told in their own right.

Local, published by Oni Press, has a (kind of) focal character in the form of Megan McKeenan, who we first meet as a restless 17-year-old in Portland, Oregon as she is contemplating the consequences of trying to score drugs for her strung-out boyfriend using a forged prescription. By the 12^th (and final) issue of the series Megan will be 30 (and fairly well-traveled.)

It’s Megan’s journey but it’s not always her story.

In some issues, Megan is in the forefront…issue #2’s “Polaroid Boyfriend”, for example, she is in Minneapolis and engaging in an odd “relationship” by exchanging instant photos with a guy who breaks into her apartment every day while she’s away at work. Issue #4 finds Megan living out myriad identities (maybe searching for one of her own) while she works in a rundown movie theater in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

In other issues, Megan is a peripheral character in the stories of other characters we meet along the way. She has a poignant cameo in the 3^rd issue, set in Richmond, Virginia, when she has a disillusioning encounter with a member of a defunct band that she was a fan of. The band…Theories and Defenses…and the reasons for its breakup is at the heart of that issue. In the 4^th issue, Megan is an unwilling bystander as an awful…horrifyingly mundane and inevitably violent and tragic…Cain and Abel tales plays out in a roadside café outside of Missoula, Montana.

Each issue tells a bittersweet…but obliquely hopeful…story of characters trying to make their way in a world that they don’t completely understand. Brian Wood has a gift for naturalistic dialogue and for fleshing out characters and drawing you inexorably, compellingly into their lives. Ryan Kelly’s artwork is a wonderful compliment to Wood’s writing beautifully with impeccable pacing in the storytelling and with wonderful detail and strong pencil and ink work that is, as I said early, incredibly evocative.

I’m sure that this series will be collected when it finishes its 12-issue run (10 issues are out as of this writing) but I think that Local is best savored one issue…one town…one compelling story at a time.

Powers: Who Killed Retro Girl?

2007-09-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

The acting is a bit stiff but this is still a clever short film adaptation of part of the Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming story.

Until death...or continuity reboot...do them part...

2007-08-30T18:53:00.000-07:00

Rumor has it that the marriage between Peter (Spider-Man) Parker and Mary Jane Watson-Parker is about to come to an end (someway, somehow, it’s comic books they can do whatever they want to get to where they want to be.) If true, I think it’s too bad.

Spider-Man has never been my favorite character…I like him well enough but I don’t follow his solo titles on a regular basis (in fact, I rather prefer him in guest-star, team-up, and team member roles…I think him being an Avenger is extremely cool)…but I was pleased when he and Mary Jane got hitched (yep, ol’ Pete really hit the jackpot there :-) and I think the marriage…through all of its ups and downs…has made the character stronger and more interesting.

It’s been argued by some…including Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada…that the essence of Spider-Man is that he’s a sadsack loser despite the fact he has cool super-powers and a classic costume…that having a happy marriage to a gorgeous redhead (who is an actress and model to boot) is not what his life was supposed to be. I think that’s silly. The idea that the character should be in the same emotional place now that he was in 40+ years ago when Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created him seems absurd to me.

But then I’ve grown up with super-hero comics…I was 9 years old when I got into them seriously…and now that I’m into my 5^th decade I have no problem with characters growing up, growing older, getting married, having kids, yadda, yadda, yadda.

But as someone (I believe it’s attributed to Jim Shooter) once said, super-hero comics from the big 2 are not about change but rather the illusion of change so that they’re always welcoming to new readers (every comic could be somebody’s first comic after all.) I guess that would still make sense if there were hordes of kids taking up the hobby but that just isn’t the case. The audience, for better or worse, is largely adult and (hopefully) able to cope with the fact that characters age and grow…albeit VERY slowly.

Most super-hero marriages come a cropper sooner or later: Aquaman and Mera, Hawkman and Hawkwoman, Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, the Sub-Mariner and Dorma, the Sub-Mariner and Marrina, the Atom and Jean Loring, the Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye and Mockingbird, Donna Troy and Terry Long, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl (pre-Crisis), the Human Torch and Lyja, and on and on. Through death, continuity reboots, or just plain “irreconcilable differences”, the dissolution rate among super-hero couples is much higher than it is out here in the real world.

Ralph and Sue Dibny, maybe my favorite super-hero couple ever, were ripped asunder in as ugly a way as possible (with having it revealed that Sue was raped by a super-villain in the past and then killed and incinerated by an insane Jean Loring and later Ralph sacrificing himself to contain a demon) and then reunited in the afterlife as ghosts (again, it’s super-hero comics so I guess that qualifies as a happy ending.)

Granted some marriages do endure…that of the Fantastic Four’s Reed and Sue being one that has survived through good times and bad (and hey, their kids are still alive…super-hero offspring don’t usually fare any better than super-hero marriages) with Clark Kent and Lois Lane as another couple that make each other stronger…but they are few and far between.

The Black Panther and Storm were recently married and they seem happy together (at least until some writer comes along and decides that Storm should be back with the X-Men full time) and the union of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones (hey give that kid a name already!) has been interesting and fun so far. Green Arrow and Black Canary are supposedly about to get married but, if it happens, that doesn’t seem like a match that will stand the test of time…though I’m willing to be proved wrong.

Maybe there’s a shift in the way comic book creators think of married super-heroes. But I rather doubt it.

And Pete? MJ? Hey, it’s been real, kids…good luck getting back into the dating pool.

Get Us Out from Under, Wonder Woman....

2007-08-26T08:18:00.000-07:00

Hell's "Angel": Batman #666

2007-08-22T08:53:00.000-07:00

Given constant reboots…nothing sells like a #1 after all…it’s quite unlikely that very many titles will ever make it into the 600’s, much less actually reach the so-called “number of the beast”, 666.

That said, some of DC’s most venerable titles have managed, through thick and thin, to hang on to their issue numbering and to actually reach that “dreaded” issue number (both Action Comics and Detective Comics passed that number long ago.) Superman #666 deals with the milestone by literally going to hell while Batman #666, already published, took a slightly more symbolic route.

In a dystopian future, Gotham City is protected by a new, more brutal Batman: Damian Wayne, the son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul, who has taken up the mantle after the death of his father. The world is turmoil…global warming has the city baking in 120+ degree heat, millions are dead in an epidemic in China, Mecca has been irradiated by a dirty bomb, and criminals are meeting grisly ends at the hands of a false Batman who thinks that he’s the Anti-Christ.

Batman, who is at odds with the Gotham Police Department and Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon (who bears considers Damian a “monster” who is somehow responsible for the death of a “good friend” of hers), lives a solitary, almost ascetic, life with only a cat…archly named “Alfred”…as companion.

Grant Morrison’s story is taut and fast-paced even as tantalizing threads are left dangling (perhaps to be picked up at some point in the future) and Andy Kubert’s art is kinetic and engrossing (the redesign of the Batman uniform with an overcoat…rather than a flowing cloak…as its focal point is an inspired idea that works very nicely.)

Batman #666 is…if you’ll pardon the expression…one hell of a comic book.

A Comicbook Orange: Frank Miller Time

2007-08-16T14:37:00.000-07:00

Gone Too Soon

2007-08-13T08:44:00.000-07:00

Mike Wieringo, the extremely talented artist who had memorable runs on (among others) Flash, Fantastic Four, and Tellos, has died of a sudden heart attack. He was 44.

One prays that his friends and family find themselves surrounded by peace, love, and light (“Ringo” was by all accounts an extremely affable and loving man) even as the dark, inevitable shadows of grief and loss attempt to overwhelm them.

Go West, Young Comic Book Fan...

2007-08-10T23:26:00.000-07:00

Like a lot of Americans of my generation I have always had a certain fondness for Westerns. I’m not a aficionado or anything but I have liked some Westerns very much. Both movies…High Noon, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Searchers, The Wild Bunch, Unforgiven…and television offerings…Gunsmoke, Rawhide, Bonanza, Maverick, Lonesome Dove…but, strangely enough, not so much when it came to comic books.

I never warmed much to the western comic book genre…perhaps because many of them (especially Marvel’s characters like the Rawhide Kid and the Two-Gun Kid) just came off as super-hero stories transposed into the 19^th Century and that held no interest to me.

It’s a bit odd to me then that I’m currently buying and reading (and quite enjoying) 3 western-themed comics. The books in question…DC Comics’ Jonah Hex, Dynamite Comics’ Lone Ranger, and Vertigo Comics’ Loveless…are disparate in tone and theme but each is enormously engaging in its own way.

Jonah Hex is not a character I was ever very interested in…though I did give the strange futuristic Hex series a chance…but his new series is a little gem. Writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti tell taut, flint-hearted morality tales in which their scarred bounty hunter wades through hunting human prey, getting paid, and occasionally meting out brutal justice (as defined by his own personal and decidedly inflexible code of what’s right and what’s wrong.)

Except for a 3-part origin story, we don’t really get into Hex’s head very much…he is very much like Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name” from those classic “spaghetti westerns” from the 60’s…and that’s fine. Aided and abetted by a stellar array of artists (including Jordi Bennett, Luke Ross, and Phil Noto), Gray and Palmiotti are (again with the exception of the origin story) able to tell their gritty, satisfying stories in one issue, which is a delightful change from the so-called decompressed storytelling that too often is the norm at both DC and Marvel these days.

The Lone Ranger is a more straightforward heroic adventure as we follow John Reid, the only survivor of a team of 6 Texas Rangers, in his quest for vengeance, justice, and, most importantly, the building of his friendship and partnership with the enigmatic Tonto, the stern taskmaster who nursed him back to health after he and the other Rangers had been ambushed and he himself had mistakenly left for dead. Unlike Hex, the Ranger makes a decision not to kill, a decision honored…albeit a bit reluctantly…by Tonto, who is very much his partner’s equal in this version of the legendary masked man’s adventures.

Writer Brett Matthews makes the Ranger and Tonto viable for a 21^st Century audience while not compromising the ethos of justice, honor, and righteous vengeance that is the cornerstone of their adventures. He is ably aided with artist Sergio Cariello’s sterling storytelling and art director’s John Cassaday’s evocative covers.

Both Jonah Hex and The Lone Ranger are grand comics indeed…even for someone who thinks they don’t like comic book Westerns.

(I’ll cover the challenging, thought-provoking Loveless in a future entry.)

Those Were the Days, My Friend...

2007-08-06T23:21:00.000-07:00

A promo video for Justice League: The New Frontier, an adaptation of Darwyn Cooke's delightful DC: The New Frontier series, a charming and heartfelt paean to DC's immortal Silver Age. The DVD will be out in 2008.

Everybody's Talkin' at Me...

2007-08-01T09:13:00.000-07:00

Superman…Wonder Woman…Batman…Green Lantern…The Flash…the Justice League of America boasts a membership featuring “the World’s Greatest Heroes”.

With the firepower that the JLA can muster the comic is, to borrow a movie term, most often a big, widescreen action-adventure blockbuster of a comic. And that makes sense…why else gather a powerful team of heavy hitters who are already formidable on their on except to tackle something so overwhelming that even Superman would need partners to watch his back?

Brad Meltzer’s Justice League of America team is as powerful a lineup as the team has had: Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Black Canary, Black Lightning, Red Tornado, Red Arrow (it’s literally and figuratively a colorful lineup), Vixen, and Hawkgirl (with Geo-Force hanging around as an apparently unofficial member and the newly-returned Flash (Wally West) having been invited to join the club.) But instead of feeling like a big action blockbuster (to continue to flog the movie metaphor) Meltzer’s run has felt more like a navel-gazing “indie” movie filled with more talking (and talking and talking and talking) and not as much action as one might have expected from the JLA.

It’s an…um…interesting way to go.

The arc has been more about nostalgia (the fact that the team has two clubhouses…a “Hall of Justice” like from the old cartoons and an orbiting satellite like from the team’s 1970’s days) and relationships (everybody is chummy, which is cool, but I’m still having working on accepting the fact that the teammates call each other by their civilian names even when they’re in the field…hearing them call Superman “Clark” and, especially, calling Batman “Bruce” is still kind of jarring.)

But too often during Meltzer’s run, the team seems to spend a great deal of its time standing around talking (and talking and talking)…the crossover with Justice Society of America and the Legion of Super-Heroes just added more guys to spend a lot of time standing around talking (and talking and talking).

The most current (as of this writing) issue, #11, is a prime example of this. The claustrophobic story features just two members of the team, Red Arrow (an awkward name I think…he had a perfectly workable codename in Arsenal and I’m not sure that changing it to honor “the family business” was necessary) and Vixen (who is the subject of a plot curve ball that Meltzer won’t be around to resolve), trapped under a collapsed building trying to get out. That’s the whole story. Is it a suspenseful character study? Yep. Is there a lot of talking? Oh yeah. Does it work? Yes it does…but it’s not a Justice League story, it’s a Red Arrow story (Roy is shown as the focused strong one, Vixen, who’s been doing the super-hero thing for a while, is presented as panicked, insecure woman who needs to be bolstered up by her partner’s resolve.) Nothing wrong with that, I guess…but as the whole run has been on this same “small screen” vibe it doesn’t have the same impact it would have had if it has been a change of pace from some more expansive JLA adventure.

And leaving after setting up...but not resolving...mysteries and subplots is, to my mind, uncool...but there you are.

Meltzer’s run…bolstered by some sweet artwork art from Ed Benes and, in #11, Gene Ha…has been kinda okay (not great by any means, to be sure, but kinda okay) but I do hope that incoming JLA write Dwayne McDuffie will take the foundation that’s been laid down and craft some adventures worthy of a team with the scope and power of the Justice League of America.

Once Upon a Time...

2007-07-23T14:09:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time…which, as all children and people of good heart well know, is when all tales of note begin….there was a war in the lands where fables and fairy tales are true and not just the fanciful imaginings of scribes like the Brothers Grimm. The forces of malevolence prevailed and those who fought on the side of righteousness fled their homelands for life in the mundane world…for life in our world. Using guile and magic and steadfast cunning, the exiles created a community…Fabletown…hidden in plain view…amongst the mortals and thrived while dreaming of the day when they could return to the land of fables and fairytales and overthrow the Adversary (as the ruler of the malevolent armies was known; the Adversary is, surprisingly enough, actually Gepetto, the puppet maker who crafted Pinocchio) and take back the magical lands that are rightfully theirs.

This then is the back story of Fables, the unflaggingly clever, charming, rollicking, and intriguing Vertigo Comics series created and written by Bill Willingham. The conceit of having legendary characters such as Snow White, Little Boy Blue, Prince Charming, Little Red Riding Hood, Old King Cole, and the Big Bad Wolf interacting in an exile community on Earth could have quickly become gimmicky and cloying in the wrong hands but Willingham deftly avoids every false note and tiresome cliché in his sprawling tales of love, life, adventure, intrigue, politics, and intrigue.

With those Fables who can pass for human living in the city and those who cannot (the Three Little Pigs or the Giants, for example) living, sometimes quite reluctantly, on a secluded farm, the avenues for drama are seemingly endless. And with the breadth of mythology and fable to draw from, the cast of characters are likewise bountiful beyond measure.

Many characters take their turn on the stage but at the heart of the series are the fierce Big Bad Wolf, the son of the majestic and haughty North Wind, who can take human form as Bigby Wolf, the erstwhile Sheriff of Fabletown, and his new bride, Fabletown’s former Deputy Mayor, Snow White. Their prickly…and then passionately romantic…relationship is the emotional foundation of the series. Even having given up their positions in Fabletown for a place out on the farmlands with their children, Snow and Bigby remain important players in the Fables saga.

With the Fables title too small to hold his rampaging ego, one character, the amoral but still charming rogue Jack (almost every Jack in fairytales is and was him) struck out in his own title, Jack of Fables (co-written by Willingham and Matthew Sturges), chronicling his own misadventures (both in the current mundane world as well as his many fantastical experiences in the days before the Fable homelands were conquered the Adversary.)

The Fables experience also flowed through the gorgeous pages of 1,001 Nights of Snowfall, a delightful graphic album featuring Snow White in the role of Scheherazade, the clever woman who survived her murderous husband’s wrath by telling him fascinating tales for 1,001 nights in The Arabian Nights. Charles Vess, Brian Bolland, Jill Thompson, John Bolland, and John Bolton are among the artists who illustrated various chapters in the volume.

Fables (and its spin-offs) are full of love, light, laughter, adventure, and magic. Lots and lots of magic. It’s a wondrous thing indeed.

Death is Only the Beginning...

2007-07-21T09:40:00.000-07:00

This is the trailer for the direct-to-DVD animated movie, Superman/Doomsday, an adaptation of the Death of Superman arc. The DVD is due out on September 18th. It's included here because I think it's kind of cool.

Now the Time is Here for Iron Man to Spread Fear...

2007-07-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

Tony Stark is a tool. That was, for a hot minute anyway, almost the name of this blog. I’ve never completely warmed to Iron Man over the years…he always seemed steeped in patrician arrogance even when he was raging alcoholic and that just irked me for whatever reason…but right now I’m pretty much over him as a character right now.

He has, in a typically smug and self-righteous manner, made himself The Man (writ large) in the Marvel Universe with his zealous championing of the Superhero Registration Act and his assumption of the role of Director of SHIELD. And the Marvel Universe is not really a better place for that.

As far as the Superhero Registration Act goes I can sort of understand his position without agreeing with it. Here in the real world if there were people who had superhuman powers I might indeed want them to be regulated and registered. But the Marvel Universe is not…and nor has it ever been (sorry, Stan)…”the real world” (once you have people who can burst into flame, lift school buses over their heads, or control the weather running around the notion that the MU is just like the world outside your window is immediately revealed as a blatant falsehood) and in the context of that Universe, Stark’s self-serving “futurist” excuses for persecuting his so-called friends don’t hold water. Unless, of course, Tony Stark is a tool…then it makes perfect sense.

Stark has all but forsaken his role as a “hero” with his storm troopers going nuts on draft resisters (which is, basically, what the anti-registration folks are given the so-called 50 States Initiative), the establishment of his other-dimensional prison (where people are held indefinitely without due process), the fact that he gave relatively free reign to a nutjob like Norman Osborn (who, in turn, put nutjobs like Bullseye and Venom on the federal payroll to track down super-beings who refuse to register...yeah, Osborn and the rest of the Thunderbolts are injected with nanites that are supposed to keep them under control but you know that that little plan is going to go horribly astray at some point), and his Draconian manipulation of events to further his ends (as revealed in the final issue of Civil War: Frontline)…”the ends justifies the means” almost never being an acceptable excuse for anything (unless, of course, you’re a tool…and then anything goes.)

Now I will be the first to admit that the Superhero Registration Act goes against every Libertarian bone in my cynical body and thus I was not inclined to be on Stark’s side from the word go (hell, the other side…however smug and self-righteous they were and are as “rebels”…was led by Captain America. CAPTAIN AMERICA…dude, 99 times out of a 100 I’m going to be on Cap’s side because, well, he’s Captain America…and yes I refuse to speak of him in past tense because I know that he will be back sooner or later…) but the heavy handed way the pro-Registration side” continues to act and behave (we could do a whole “Hank Pym is a tool” rant but it would be redundant and not worth the effort) does nothing to win me over to their arguments.

Mayhap Tony Stark can be redeemed in my eyes at some point. I don’t see how but I will continue to try to keep a somewhat open mind. But until that time I will hold firm to my belief that he is indeed a tool until he (and, more to the point, the people writing his adventures) see fit to prove otherwise.

More, More, More (How Do You Like It? How Do You Like It?)

2007-07-18T07:53:00.000-07:00

Countdown to…well apparently they’re counting down to the Final Crisis (“final” huh? Yeah, okay, whatever…) but Countdown itself is already spinning off the tracks by ignoring the things that made 52 work as a weekly comic.

I liked 52 a lot (the weekly thing didn’t mean much to me because I get my comics once a month) even though parts of it rambled pointlessly (the space heroes thing especially) and even though it finished the galling and annoying thing that Identity Crisis started, that being the deaths of the most grounded, happy, and fun-loving married couple in super-hero comics, Ralph and Sue Dibny (are comic book writers really so cynical and/or emotionally scarred that they don’t think there should really be such a thing as happily married super-hero couple?) But hey, they told a good story featuring characters that don’t often get such a high profile spotlight and they got it out each and every week for a year…kudos all around for that.

But the problems already creeping into Countdown did start to crop up near the end of 52. The World War 3 spin-offs were a blatant, undercooked money grab and the truncated final issue of the main series (the writers apparently wanted and expected to have 52 pages for the final issue but were denied by editorial concerns over having the increase the cover price on the last issue of the series) had to cram so much stuff in that it was just barely coherent.The main problem with Countdown is that it appears to be much more editorially driven…as opposed to the writers steering the ship on 52…with its overall impact being diluted by stream of scenes and plots that lead into and out of other titles as well as burgeoning number of crossover series (something 52 eschewed save for the World War 3 thing.) A glance at the latest Previews shows DC scrambling to exploit the Countdown “brand” to the utmost. With 52 weekly issues to tell its story one wonders why so many spin-offs are needed (of course, one really already knows why…mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money…which makes sense DC Comics is a business first and foremost.)

Countdown to Mystery…Countdown to Adventure…Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer…Countdown Presents: Lord Havok and the Extremists…Captain Carrot and the Final Ark (a Countdown tie-in we’re told)…Death of the New Gods (spinning out of Lightray’s fate in Countdown)…yadda…yadda…yadda…

Add to that the continuing attempts to draft off of the success of 52 with series such as Booster Gold, Infinity Inc., 52 Aftermath: The Four Horsemen, Black Adam: The Dark Age, Crime Bible: The Five Lessons of Blood and you get a feeling that DC feels that their bread is buttered on the side of events and as many event spin-offs as they can jam into the pipeline. It’s a short-sighted plan…but hopefully something cool will come of it nevertheless. We shall see.

Palomar, My Palomar

2007-07-16T15:35:00.000-07:00

Gilbert Hernandez is my favorite comic book writer. This takes nothing away from the efforts of others working their craft in the field but for my money Beto is the most engaging, thought-provoking, and imaginative writer currently using comics as his chosen medium. That he is no slouch when it comes to cartooning is a delightful, undeniable wonder as well.

At the heart of his expansive body of work are the tales he continues to craft for the monumental Love and Rockets series he co-created with his brothers Jaime and Mario. The 50-issue volume one run of L&R is inarguably one of the greatest comics series ever published (were I, for whatever reason, lost on a desert island for a long period of time they are certainly the comics I would want to have in library there.)

Gilbert’s most bountiful and intricate L&R tapestry was, of course, the fictional Latin American town of Palomar with its colorful and interesting…simple folk and complicated souls in the same instant…citizens. The sprawling, sobering, humorous, life-affirming, fanciful, bittersweet masterpiece that is the story of the town is told in the massive, utterly magnificent 522-page hardcover collection, Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories (if there is a better comic book collection I haven’t seen it.)

Hernandez left Palomar behind to follow the amazing force of nature that is Luba, the towering id of the Palomar stories, to America but he’s returned to it in New Tales of Old Palomar, a 3-issue magazine-sized series from Fantagraphics Books and Coconino Press.

New Tales throws the spotlight on untold tales from the town’s past with “The Children of Palomar”. We know the final fates of many of the characters already but these grand little stories delve into episodes we were no previously privy to and, in the process, they add nuance, insight, and pathos to the things we know will happen to the characters in their futures.

The first issue features the “secret origins” of two beloved Palomar denizens as well as telling vignettes about relationships that would develop in due course (we can see, for example, the moment when feisty Carmen began to fall in love with bookish but stolid Heraclio.) The second issue focuses on an odd adventure shared by the young, ever-petulant Gato along with the doomed Pintor and Manuel whose deaths would one day become poignant chapters in Palomar history. Sheriff Chelo, the bright and unwavering maternal heart of Palomar, is at the heart of both issues saving, nurturing, and protecting the children (of all ages) of the town.

New Tales is a wonderful addition to the Palomar canon (the 3^rd issue is due to be published in the fall.)

Something Sinestro This Way Comes

2007-07-14T13:39:00.000-07:00

I’ve never been much impressed with Sinestro. Maybe it’s the mustache…that long, pencil thin mustache thing he’s into doesn’t really do much to make him seem as terrifying and imposing as they tell us he’s supposed to be.

Or maybe it’s the name. “Sinestro” seems a bit on the nose (as smart as the self-appointed Guardians of the Universe are supposed to be you would think that somebody named “Sinestro” was going to turn out to be a bad guy but they took him on as one their Green Lanterns just the same.) Of course the name comes from the great, cheesy Silver Age tradition of on the nose super-villain names (Dr. Doom, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Evil Star, the Legion of Super-Villains, Evilbadguy…okay I made that last one up but you get the point :-) so I guess I should cut the guy some slack there (we suspend disbelief…see what I did there?...in regards to so many things in super-hero comics we can and do live with silly monikers on super-villains and disregard the fact that here in real life most “evil” people don’t really think of themselves as being evil and so don’t usually pick a name to brag about how sinister they are.)

But I digress (sorry about that, Peter, but I couldn’t help myself.) The Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special is the proper introduction to a concept that was, in hindsight, long overdue: a corps of yellow power ring wielding brigands being brought together to terrorize the universe and to do battle with the recently-revived Green Lantern Corps. As the title gives away this assemblage of evil is called the Sinestro Corps (on the nose once again but what else were they going to call themselves?) and their rings feed off fear.

Sinestro (who apparently has been watching Disney’s Aladdin a few times and has decided to invoke the spirit of that movie's villain, Jafar…he refers to Kyle Rayner as “alley rat” a couple of times during the course of the issue) is still a bit less than terrifying (though I do like the snazzy new uniform…certainly his best look ever) but the Corps he’s bringing together is as horrifying and deadly a bunch as could be imagined. The Sinestro Corps assault on Oa, the homeworld of the Guardians and the Green Lanterns, to retrieve a couple of recruits being held prisoner there is brutal (much Lantern blood is spilled in the process) and promises much mayhem to ensue.

Geoff Johns gives familiar good guys…Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, the new Justice League…interesting turns but the day belongs to the bad guys as the war (that will rage in the pages of Green Lantern…and maybe, given the revelation of Sinestro’s Guardian, in Countdown and elsewhere) is given a taut, suspenseful kickoff. (We will give a pass to the fact that an extremely powerful character is beaten and turned with surprising ease and that some of the supposedly noble Green Lanterns behave like petty school children.)

The art is top notch all the way through with Ethan Van Sciver delivering the goods on the main story and Dave Gibbons doing the same on the backup story that recaps Sinestro’s origin.

It’s a very promising beginning to what could a very cool storyline. We shall keep a good thought.

More Than Some Pretty Face Beside a Train...

2007-07-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

Superman is THE super-hero…THE comic book character…THE most iconic character to come from comic books (no valid arguments to the contrary exist…this is not a slam against Batman or Wonder Woman or Spider-Man or The X-Men or any other character you can name it is, quite simply, a fact) and there have been times when the stories crafted about him were worthy of his place in literary history. To wit, these stories I’ve chosen as my favorites:

“Superman for All Seasons” by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
A grand, subtle, heartwarming, beautifully drawn…Sale captures the odd combination of Clark Kent’s alien origins and Kansas farmboy upbringing better than anyone before or since…retelling of the Superman story and his place in the world.

“Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” by Alan Moore, Curt Swan, George Perez, and Kurt Schaffenberger (Superman [1^st series] #423 and Action Comics # 583)
Alan Moore’s fond farewell to the “Silver Age” Superman…as the decks were being cleared for John Byrne’s reboot of the Man of Steel…with some lovely art by THE “Silver Age” Superman artist, Curt Swan.

“The Death of Superman” by Jerry Siegel and Curt Swan (Superman [1^st series] #149)
Not the bloated, over-hyped story from the 90’s but the powerful “imaginary story” from the early 60’s that managed to tell a MUCH better story in a single issue.

“Kingdom Come” by Mark Waid and Alex Ross
There is a huge cast of characters in this powerful tale of super-beings run amok but at its heart this is a story of Superman…older and having isolated himself from a world that he no longer understood or fit into.

“Of Thee I Sing” by Garth Ennis and John McCrae (Hitman #34)
Superman’s impact as an American icon…a immigrant who came to this country and embraced its ideals with all of his considerable might…is ably explored in this surprising issue of an otherwise somewhat cynical series.

“For the Man Who Has Everything” by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (Superman Annual #11)
A great story that features Superman getting his heart’s desire…a Krypton that didn’t explode…through the malicious manipulations of one of his arch-enemies and finding, once again, that you should be careful what you wish for. It has great character bits with his friends Wonder Woman, Batman, and, especially, the Jason Todd version of Robin the Boy Wonder (arguably that recently resurrected character’s shining moment.)

“Faster…” by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (All-Star Superman #1)
Freed of the current continuity of the DC Comics universe, this story celebrates the expansive, gloriously over-the-top adventures of Superman and his arch-enemy, the mad genius Lex Luthor.

“Superman’s Return to Krypton” by Jerry Siegel and Wayne Boring (Superman [1^st series] #141)
Superman’s co-creator crafts a moving story about Superman going back in time to his homeworld where he gets to know his parents, falls in love, and, of course, eventually loses it all again as Krypton succumbs to its fate.

“The Exile at the Edge of Eternity” by Jim Steranko (Superman [1^st series] #400)
The legacy of Superman is explored into the distant future in this groundbreaking tale.

“What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way?” by Joe Kelly, Doug Mahnke, and Lee Bermejo (Action Comics #775)
Superman “old-fashioned” values are put to the test against the grittier, more “kewl” actions of more brutal super-heroes…such as The Authority…and they stand up to the challenge.

“Where No Superman Has Gone Before” by Len Wein and Jim Starlin (DC Comics Presents #27-29)
The “Silver Age” Superman goes on the most amazing journey of his life…to the very gates of Heaven itself…in a underrated story co-starring the Martian Manhunter, Supergirl, and The Spectre.

“Survivor” by Dave Gibbons and Ted McKeever (A1 #1/A1 Big Issue #0)
Superman is never named in this delightful tale of a super-powerful alien who fights a battle for truth, justice, and the American way but it is, of course, about him just the same.

All characters and images copyrighted by their respective publishers

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Hulk

2007-07-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

The Marvel Universe is in a state of manic flux of late.

Bucky is alive and Captain America is dead. The Avengers have disassembled, reassembled, dissembled again, split in two, and are now, through the auspices of “The Initiative”, in the process of spreading super-hero police state glory to all 50 states.

The Civil War has codified the differences between super-heroes into two distinct camps: either you’re a good citizen who registers with the government or you’re a lawless vigilante who will be hunted down and tossed into a other-dimensional prison without such pesky concerns as due process (this dichotomy was always there…Captain America, agent of SHIELD versus Spider-Man, masked menace…but the differences are now separated by an angry, burgeoning chasm that is more bitter and poisonous than it has ever been.)

Millions of sentient beings have fallen victim to annihilation out in the cosmos while the mutant population on Earth has been reduced to a statistically insignificant species.

The United States government is at war with the Inhumans and with Atlantis (and not on the best of terms with Wakanda.) And apparently there are Skrulls everywhere.

And then there’s the Hulk.

Having by exiled off the planet by a covert group of self-appointed guardians of the world…Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Black Bolt, and Dr. Strange (the other members of their smug little cabal…Professor X and Prince Namor…were, respectively, not present for this particular decision and violently opposed to it ), the Hulk ended up on a violent world…Planet Hulk…where he became a slave gladiator, a rebel leader, and, eventually, a warrior king complete with a pregnant warrior queen (we suspend disbelief enough to go with the notion that beings from different worlds are biologically compatible enough to co-create children.)

But there are no happy endings in the life of the Hulk, of course. The ship that carried him to his new home malfunctioned destroying the world, his wife, and his unborn child and now, with the aid of the survivors of the cataclysm, the Hulk has come home…angrier than ever, more wily than ever, and more focused than ever. As Black Bolt has already found out, it brings a whole new level of meaning to the pithy phrase “Hulk smash.”

Planet Hulk was a grand story…an epic tale of triumph and tragedy…that worked so well because it was largely removed from the rest of the Marvel Universe goings-on (the over-sized hardcover collection of the storyline is a lovely thing indeed.)

World War Hulk has the potential to be a grand story…and its off to an engaging start for the most part…though its chances are somewhat mitigated by the fact that its editorial tentacles are spreading out so far (when we’re being “red skied” by a WWH branded issue of Ghost Rider that has nothing to do with the overall story beyond its final page, it’s an ominous sign.) We shall keep a good thought for the rest of the series just the same.

Hulk smash. Fanboys rejoice.

All characters and images copyrighted by their respective publishers

Hail and Howdy, True Believers

2007-07-09T16:22:00.000-07:00

When I was a boy (many moons ago) a guy who was trying to get next to my mother gave me a big box of comics he found in a used bookstore in San Francisco. There was some Marvel stuff in there...a couple of things from other companies...but it was mostly DC stuff. Superman, Adventure Comics, Batman, and a bunch of the grand old 80-Page Giants (I loved those things!)

Now I had been reading comics before this but this was the biggest chunk of four-color wonderfulness that I had ever gotten. My love of comic books led to reading Greek Mythology, Science Fiction, and then (and now) everything that caught my eclectic fancy. I am an avid reader still but even as I savor "real books", the comic books remain even as I creak along into my dotage.

My all-time favorite comic series is Love and Rockets but before you write me off as one of those "too-cool-for-the-room" indie comic snobs I am also an unabashed super-hero fan. I know that they are preposterous and utterly silly but I don't care.

And I am a big fan of the most preposterous and unwieldy super-hero concept of all: the super-hero team. I loved the Legion of Super-Heroes when I was boy and I have stayed with them through thick and thin ever since; the same is true of the Avengers.

About this blog, it will be updated serendipitously. I've been out of the weekly comic habit since 2001 when I started getting my comics in monthly shipments from the fine folks at Discount Comic Book Service so current reviews will not be a feature (though reviews there will doubtlessly be.) We shall throw ourselves upon the tender mercies of Great Rao and let whatever happens here happen.

I'm Michael...a comic book fan...suspending disbelief since 1965.

Namaste, y'all.