Comics are Awesome II

[andersonh1]

Adventures of Superman #1

The cover alone convinced me to pick this up. Superman in the classic costume. This is the character I enjoy reading about, rather than the New 52 iteration. Adventures of Superman is apparently a reprint of comics that were first made available in digital format, so it’s the second go-round for this material. Which is fine, it’s all new to me. This book is an anthology, with three short stories by various writers and artists.

The first story is by Jeff Parker and Chris Samnee (the artist from Daredevil, which is why the art looked so familiar to me). Set in the post-Crisis, pre New 52 continuity, it features the best art of the three stories, with Superman trying to stop a mentally unstable vagrant who has gained dangerous mental powers. The guy is known locally for drug abuse, but someone gave him something far worse. No points for guessing that the culprit turns out to be Lex Luthor, who notes that results on the substance he gave the man are improving.

The second story is written, drawn and colored by Jeff Lemire. I can only assume the very “loose” art style is meant to complement the subject matter. The story follows two kids who are playing Superman versus whoever, with the one kid constantly switching between villains, going from robots in the Fortress of Solitude to Brainiac to Bizarro to Luthor, and on and on, until the story ends and the two go to get something to eat. Brainiac and Luthor’s designs place this pre-Crisis, not that it’s terribly important. On the other hand, one of the kids mentions Bane, who is clearly post-crisis. A prime example of the "out of continuity" nature of this series.

The final story is by Justin Jordan and Riley Rossmo, and is a pretty standard Bizarro story where Bizarro’s backwards speech causes all the problems. Because people ask for help, Bizarro hurts them, until Superman figures out how to talk to him in language he understands. The ending is fun… Bizarro is sent off to fly around Jupiter so NASA can photograph the planet in fine detail, with Bizarro convinced he’s “hurting” people now.

I’m delighted to be able to buy a Superman comic featuring the version (or versions) of the character I like so much. It’s a lightweight read, with wildly varying art, but well worth it. It's a Superman book that's largely free of continuity, with the most archetypal aspects of the character and his enemies brought to the forefront to tell some short and to the point stories.

Domin-Oa's!

[Dominic]

Iron Man #258.4:
I usually like curve-balls and suprises with my comics. But, in this case, the suprise is a punch in the face. Despite having a solid premise, a strong start, *and* being drafted by one of the definitive "Iron Man" teams (Michelinie and Layton), this series falls apart completely. After last issue being a drawn-out fight scene, this issue features Stark, Hammer, and Rhodes resolving things really easily. There is a sequence towards the beginning (Stark breaching Hammer's space fortress) that reads like it was intended to be depicted over the course of more panels than it was allowed here. (Older comics, that would have been contemporary with this story had it been published as intended, would have had more panels per page.) Even putting aside issues of format, there is a McGuffin used for communication (dropping messages cannisters from orbit) that would be clumsy in the hands of the best writer and is handled idiotically here. 80s and 90s "Iron Man" comics typically applied some degree of real world physics to various plot points. In this case, however, it is more "Looney Tunes" physics. I get the impression that this comics was based on an incomplete and/or very rough draft and that Marvel simply published it as they found it. (I have a *very* hard time believing that Michelinie would write anything so overtly clumsy at all, never mind at the top of his game.) And, the resolution of the story (defeating Stark 2) is just flat.
Grade (for the series): D


Earth 2 annual #1:
Robinson seems to have handled this as a double sized issue of the main series, complete with a lead in to the next arc (starting in issue 13). As two issues (or a double sized issue) of the main book, this would have been fine. But, an annual should be more polished. The much bally-hooed first appearance of Earth 2's Batman is....no big thing. Batman is prominent for maybe half a regular issues worth of pages. It feels like Robinson (or maybe DC editorial) decided to make the annual a lure (Batman) and jumping on point (the "to be continued) for new readers. It might work. It might not. In any case, I am grading this a big more harshly than I normally would because it was branded as an annual.
Grade: C


World of Warcraft (Dark Riders):
Costa seems to be trying to expand beyond military themed fiction again. He does a competent job of mixing and matching various sword and sorcery cliches. But, the basic structure and plot-beats are all more or less what one might expect from a sword and sorcery comic. There was potential for Costa to have done more. But, I get the impression that he is trying to get the basics of the genre down first. There is a "further reading" page at the end, which works well as a thinly veiled advertisement for other "World of Warcraft" comics. A "World of Warcraft" fan could do much worse than to pick up "Dark Riders". And, a Costa fan (such as myself) might want to at least skim "Dark Riders" to see how he adjusts to a new (for Costa) setting.
Grade: C



Dom
-been busy of late.

[andersonh1]

Earth 2 annual #1:
Robinson seems to have handled this as a double sized issue of the main series, complete with a lead in to the next arc (starting in issue 13). As two issues (or a double sized issue) of the main book, this would have been fine. But, an annual should be more polished. The much bally-hooed first appearance of Earth 2's Batman is....no big thing. Batman is prominent for maybe half a regular issues worth of pages. It feels like Robinson (or maybe DC editorial) decided to make the annual a lure (Batman) and jumping on point (the "to be continued) for new readers. It might work. It might not. In any case, I am grading this a big more harshly than I normally would because it was branded as an annual.
Grade: C

Have you seen that Robinson is gone as of issue 16? Another victim of the revolving door of creators at DC, though it's not clear why he's leaving.

[Dominic]

16 issues (plus a zero and an annual) is about the average run that one can expect on a modern comic. (Bendis on the "Avengers" books is a rarity in this day and age.) This might just be legit turn-over.

Any word on who is replacing Robinson? Unless it somebody on my "no-go" list, I will probably keep this book.)

[andersonh1]

16 issues (plus a zero and an annual) is about the average run that one can expect on a modern comic. (Bendis on the "Avengers" books is a rarity in this day and age.) This might just be legit turn-over.

Any word on who is replacing Robinson? Unless it somebody on my "no-go" list, I will probably keep this book.)

I haven't seen anything on a replacement yet, no.

[andersonh1]

Preview and interview for Green Lantern #21, the first post-Geoff Johns issue: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/03/ ... EA.twitter

Bought the book today. First New 52 book I've picked up since GL #0. The Nice thing about Green Lantern is that if I squint, I can ignore the fact that it's even set in the New 52. So far, anyway.

So issue 21 is largely setup. It isn't really a self-contained story, it's a series of scenes establishing the new status quo for the book. It's an opening chapter. That's not a criticism, they're good scenes and they leave us with a lot of story possibilities, both on a personal level for several of the characters, and on a grand scale involving the entire Corps. And we even get a reference to Hal decking his Air Force superior in the jaw and the fact that he hasn't been on Earth much lately to do his job as a test pilot for Ferris. Vendetti picks up right where Johns left off.

So we've got new "Templar" Guardians. The original Guardians administer the Corps for a million years, then they leave the universe after the Crisis, then they come back to stop the Old Timer, then they sit around and watch while Hal decimates the Corps, and they apparently commit suicide. They Kyle brings them back as children, they grow up (with half of them becoming female this time around), then they turn evil, and Sinestro kills them all. And a group that's been locked away with the First Lantern for billions of years are taking their place. Only they aren't, because they need to tour the universe and get caught up on what's been happening, so they put Hal in charge.

That's a great direction for the series, and for the character. As often as Hal has been willing to ditch responsibility in the past, it will be interesting to see how he handles it this time around. The last time he was a senior member and recruiter, he was eager to ditch that role and get back to Earth. He's got even more on his shoulders now than he did then, so it'll be interesting to watch him cope.

And Sinestro is nowhere to be seen, thankfully!

[andersonh1]

DC and the bullying of creators. Yet another behind the scenes indication that DC is being mismanaged into the ground these days. It's also a case of corporate interests dominating the product. As Jenkins points out, when Marvel's characters are in a movie like the Avengers that makes a ton of money, they aren't going to rock the boat and sabotage those characters or take many chances with them. Anyway, check out the article and the links in it. Very interesting.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/06/05/ ... -for-boom/

Perhaps if I sent you the actual script that I wrote for Dark Knight #5 to compare against the pile of turd they published? I don’t know. Perhaps if I told you that I refused to rewrite #6 when it was handed in because I had already written the script a few times and then reworked it to fulfill editorial requirements prior to the penciling, only to have a completely different story handed to me? If you read the credits you will see that someone is given credit for “dialogue assists.” That’s actually quite unfair on that creator – I told DC to take my name off the book. It pained me that they did not do so, nor on #7. Issue #8 of that series was begun as a five-part story. It was then pared down to two issues by me when it became clear the relationship was not working. It was actually published as one issue. That’s what the fans paid for: my name, and a reworking of the issue done without my knowledge, where I was alerted to the fact only when the issue hit the stands. What a repulsive mess. Shame on the editors and shame on the publisher.

DC is in the toilet right now. It reminds me of the way Marvel was just before we did Marvel Knights. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about the similarities and connections. Suffice it to say they have created a culture of dishonesty that affects too many creators. And the worst part of all is that they bully their creators. They tried to bully me, and I told them to go to Hell. The horror stories are many and varied. I have a few of my own, and I have heard way too many of them from various creators who are being beaten into submission with the threat of losing their jobs if they do not play ball. DC seem to have developed a culture where they think “professionalism” is screwing a creator in some fashion, and then pretending to be friendly at a convention. Professionalism is about handing in quality work on time, or about being friendly to fans at conventions, or about working towards a mutually beneficial goal. Professionalism is about dedication to your craft, not about running around the offices like a demented gerbil telling everyone how busy you are – so busy, in fact, that you forget to do any actual work. Here’s what pisses me off about this situation: it does not take a rocket scientist to see that there are a lot of very unhappy creators at DC lately. Well, can you imagine how many more are unhappy that we don’t know about because they feel if they speak out they will be blacklisted? Can you imagine the miserable conditions some of these creators are subjected to? (Disclaimer: not all creators, I am sure. Some are perfectly happy. Just not me.) The point is that DC has begun to act like a bully, to subject people to shitty working conditions as if it is doing them a favor. If I have seen good comics come from the creator/publisher collaboration, why the hell would I allow myself to be subjected to that nonsense at this stage of my career? I have numerous other interests, including film and video game work and my first novel.

Marvel is a different story. I would say it is a bit of a stretch to suggest I failed at Marvel, considering the success of my work there. Band of Heroes was cancelled during the worst economy in seventy years, where the publisher had every right to let go of a book that could not find its audience. Had it been finished, it would have been one of the works I was most proud of during my time at Marvel. I have had a long relationship with them but I rather think we are simply growing apart. I think they have a certain publishing plan that suits them well for this moment in time, and who am I to argue against it? They are having a lot of success, and more power to them. I am not particularly a crossover guy, and I am not fully versed in what is happening in each issue of the various series. I have a particular style that I feel works for me, and it probably doesn’t fit Marvel right now.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page ... e&id=45745

I feel that we are once again moving in the wrong direction, creatively. I’ve been down this road before, and it’s a road we can and should avoid. I don’t need to tell you what Greg Rucka and numerous other respected creators have already told you – that the Big Two have removed their focus away from the creators and towards the maintenance of the characters. I don’t blame Disney or Warner Brothers. After all, Avengers made a lot of money, didn’t it?

But me, I love to write comics. I have always been captivated by the potential of the medium. Comic book creators enjoy a tremendous advantage in the way we can tell a story, with our wonderfully collaborative interaction between artist and writer. Over the course of my career in this industry I have had the opportunity to work on all of the major characters at Marvel and DC, and for much of that time it has been a lot of fun. But honestly, the entire medium deserves more than we are currently giving it. So do the fans, the people who currently shell out four dollars for each comic that they buy. We have taken away the consequences of the stories we present to them, and I feel the mainstream product is becoming a homogenized puddle of "meh." I have no desire to appeal to a reader's indifference, nor be involved in a final product that I do not fully support.

I have discovered in my forties that I am primarily driven by a desire to tell good stories and shepherd them through the creative process as best I can. I am immensely frustrated by the fact that we have come full circle, back to the days of simply managing characters. I am even more frustrated that my name is attached to a creative product that I did not fully create. Lord knows I am not always perfect as a creator... but as I sit and try to find the right words to say I can tell you one thing with certainty: I know when it was a lot easier, and that was back in the days of Marvel Knights. In those times, Marvel had been in bankruptcy, and they had little choice but to allow the creators the freedom and trust that so many of us deserve. I look back on "Inhumans" and "Sentry," on my Spidey runs with Bucky and Humberto, and on various successes with "Wolverine: Origin" and others, and I know - because I was there - that they succeeded in large part because I was given freedom to create without being handicapped by editorial mandates. It just hasn't been that way for a while. In recent years, I have watched, helpless, as editors made pointless and destructive changes to scripts and artwork that they had previously left alone. It bugs me that the creators were a primary focus when the mainstream publishers needed them, and now that the corporations are driving the boat, creative decisions are being made once again by shareholders. I want to create comics the way we are supposed to. I want characters to die and stay dead, or at the very least make sure that creative decisions in a series lead to something more than an inevitable return to the status quo.

[Dominic]

Age of Ultron #9:
Things go badly in the revised timeline, and, Wolverine double-dips on the time-travel despite the warnings from a dying revised timeline Stark. Hookay. Wolverine finds an old costume at the Savage Land hideout (for some reason), resulting in a Wolverine in his first appearance costume confronting a modern Wolverine and Sue Storm in the past (Pym's present). Bendis played with this in "Secret Invason", using costumes to represent sides of an arguement relative to "then v/s now". Later, the two Wolverine's switch costumes, and the guy wearing the old suit kills the modern garbed Wolverine (who time jumped twice to get to this point).

I do not really like doing point by point summaries, but that one was kind of necessary. In any case, Pym is going to build Ultron while including a fail-safe (to be triggered at the last possible moment) and he will also be giving himself amnesia. Next issue will wrap up this very stange story.

Grade: C


Iron Man 011:
Read this book dammit. Seriously, no excuses. Gillen is knocking it out of the park. Stark's revised origin looks to be Gillen's attempt to redefine him as a conceptual character (technological advancement), similar to what DC (usually through Morrison) has done with some of their characters over the year. In the process, Gillen manages to address some of the more problematic bits of Stark's long history as a character, and delivers what is probably the most credible back-written explanation for Stark's back and forth on designing weapons that we are likely to get. Oh, and along with the good high-concept and competent back-writing, this book still features "Irrron Maaaaan in Spaaaaaayce!", which is just awesome.

Grade: A (in spaaaayce!)


Earth 2:
CSN reported that Robinson is leaving "Earth 2", and makes not mention of the replacement. This makes me think that DC does not have a definite replacement picked, and that we are probably looking at at least a few months with a fill-in writer. ("Earth 2" shipped this week. But, I left it behind after having read last week's annual and being a little pinched for money. I will likely grab it next week to bulk up what is going to be an otherwise light haul.)


Daredevil Dark Knights:
This is Marvel's answer the to "Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight" book. the first issue is sitting in my pull-file.

I feel that we are once again moving in the wrong direction, creatively. I’ve been down this road before, and it’s a road we can and should avoid. I don’t need to tell you what Greg Rucka and numerous other respected creators have already told you – that the Big Two have removed their focus away from the creators and towards the maintenance of the characters

And, if this trend keeps up, it will be more reason for readers to think about why they are really picking up the comics. Are they reading comics because comics are good, or are they reading comics because comics have characters in them? (And, if I have to read secondary titles to follow good writers, then that is what I will do.)

I want characters to die and stay dead, or at the very least make sure that creative decisions in a series lead to something more than an inevitable return to the status quo.

And, ironically, this would require strong editorial mandates to enforce....


Dom
-sticking with "Earth 2" unless given significant reason to drop the book.

[Sparky Prime]

I want characters to die and stay dead, or at the very least make sure that creative decisions in a series lead to something more than an inevitable return to the status quo.

Hrm... That's exactly what Geoff Johns said he'd set out to do when he was writing Teen Titans, and then again with Blackest Night since DC pretty much overlooked his Teen Titans storyline.

[BWprowl]

The Superior Spider-Man #11-
Oh man, and you guys talk about good comics this week (Adventure Time’s issue this week was also really good). This one just nails it. Okay, so back in that part where Otto killed Massacre, the story brought up the point that one reason heroes don’t kill villains is because there’s the chance they can change, they can be redeemed. Otto disregarded that and shot Massacre anyway. Well in this issue, Jameson asks Spider-Man to be present at The Raft when Alistair Smythe is executed, since he figures he’s got an escape plan (spoilers: he does). So while Otto’s there, a reporter asks him what he thinks about execution and the possibility of redemption, and Otto starts back that that’s ridiculous, there’s absolutely no way a super-villain, a former murderer, could be changed and turn to a life of heroism…and then he realizes what he’s saying, and just stops. That one moment is powerful, absolutely brilliant, and shows that, of all things, Slott is VERY aware of what he’s doing here, and how the concept stands on its head and shows what it does. As soon as Ghost-Peter was taken out of the picture and didn’t have his old Spider-Man-ing style to compare Otto’s ‘superior’ methods to, Slott started showing the cracks and flaws in Otto’s ways, and exposing that his entire philosophy on how he deals with super-villains is undermined by his own existence is a testament that nothing is as flawless as it was presented earlier. Conversely, when Smythe does inevitably stage his breakout, we do get to enjoy more of Otto’s methods at work. He plans for every conceivable escape route Smythe tries, and when Smythe rationalizes that there’s no way Spider-Man could have been able to asses and guess all the ways out of the prison, Otto replies that he did, and of course we know he did, because he was just imprisoned there himself a few months ago. It’s all illustrated wonderfully, and it’ll be interesting to see how this whole thing plays out in the next issue (Smythe is a c-level-enough villain that I can see them killing him off by the end of the story, but with the points raised in this issue, it’s a tough call). This is the concept and ideas of ‘The Superior Spider-Man’ firing on all cylinders, and it’s definitely one of my favorite issues of the series. Seriously, if you’ve been mildly curious at all and just want to see what this series is all ‘about’, you could do worse than to check this one out.