Comics are Awesome III

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Sparky Prime
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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andersonh1 wrote:I think the original series crew would have worked better for this crossover than New Trek, with the Guardians fitting right in with the various godlike aliens that Kirk and crew came across in their travels. Modern Trek ever since TNG has tried to maintain a veneer of sci-fi rather than fantasy with all the technobabble and constant emphasis on technical solutions to the various challenges they come across. Q aside (and he's very human and flawed in his characterization), godlike aliens don't fit modern Trek. The two recent movies ditch even that in favor of mindless action, and they don’t try all that hard to world build the way TNG, DS9 and Voyager did. All of that is a long-winded way of saying that they picked the wrong Star Trek crew to crossover with Hal Jordan and the Corps. They should have gone with Shatner and Nimoy rather than Pine and Quinto. Ganthet would be right at home among the Organians or the Metrons.
I dunno, I think either TOS or NuTrek work with this crossover personally. NuTrek I don't feel is all that concerned with technobabble solutions, unlike the previous Trek series, NuTrek just seems to pull a technological solution out of thin air for plot convenience or because it looks cooler, making it a very different sort of series from previous Treks. And I wouldn't say that godlike aliens have no place in modern Trek with aliens like the Q, The Prophets the Caretaker to name a few. The Guardians arguably aren't even as powerful as some of them.

Anyway, yeah, this was an introductory issue, setting the stage and introducing the characters. Can't say I was all that impressed with it but I am intrigued to see where they take it and who was after Ganthet.
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andersonh1
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Nice. I was hoping for something along these lines:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/artic ... off-titles

Telos is a maybe, the Titans is a probable buy, and I'll definitely buy the Superman title. It doesn't look like he gets to keep the classic costume even though it's post-Crisis Superman, but we'll see.

More details: http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/07/10/ ... -their-son
Written by Dan Jurgens | Art by Lee Weeks | On-sale October 14

Following the epic events of CONVERGENCE, here are the adventures of the last son and daughter of Krypton and Earth as they try to survive in a world not their own. But can they keep this world from suffering the same fate as their own? Can this Superman stop the villains he once fought before they are created on this world? What is Intergang, and why does Lois’s discovery of it place everyone she loves in jeopardy? And what will happen when their nine-year-old son learns the true identity of his parents?
Written by Dan Abnett | Art by Paulo Siqueira | On-sale October 21

CONVERGENCE is over, but the ripples are still being felt, especially by a young precog named Lilith. What are these visions she’s having of a Teen Titans team the world never knew? And why does she feel compelled to seek out Dick Grayson, Roy Harper, Donna Troy and an Atlantean named Garth and warn them that something dark and sinister is coming after them? Who are Mal, Gnarrk, Hank Hall and Dawn Granger, and what is their connection to the others—and to the fate of every soul on Earth? This is the Secret History of the TEEN TITANS!
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Sparky Prime
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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I'm actually kind of interested in the Telos title. They left a lot open with him in Convergence when they revealed nothing he knew about his life was true, including his name.

The Superman book I'm also really interested in. I don't understand the mentality Marvel and DC seem to have about married super heroes married are somehow boring, so it's good to see a book about Superman and Lois with a kid.
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Yeah, I'd been hoping that we'd see Superman and Lois Lane's story continue, so that's obviously a title I'll be reading. Dan Jurgens isn't the flashiest writer, but he has written for post-Crisis Superman for years and should know the character well and should do him justice. And Lee Weeks is a good strong artist. I hope the book is successful. It'll be good to read about "my" Superman on a regular basis again. I've followed that version of the character since 1988 and wasn't too thrilled to see him go away. And a married Superman with a son isn't something we've seen a lot of, so there's some new storytelling material to be mined there, surely.

edit: http://comicbook.com/2015/07/12/dan-jur ... ifies-the/
In his newly-announced series Superman: Lois and Clark, writer Dan Jurgens will return to the pre-Flashpoint Superman, his wife Lois and their newly-introduced son Jonathan.

The difference is, unike the hundred-plus Superman issues Jurgens wrote and/or drew in the '80s and '90s, he and artist Lee Weeks will be taking the Kent Family into the post-Flashpoint world, where that Superman has been secretly living for nine years on an as-yet-undisclosed mission, raising his family looking on in wonder at the strange world around him.

Jurgens joined ComicBook.com for a brief discussion on the new title, which is due out in October.

Right around the time you came on Superman the first time, they had launched Adventures of Superman, based on the radio and TV series of the same name. Is Superman: Lois & Clark named for Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman?

I think what it really reflects is the relationship between Lois and Clark, and the whole idea is that I understand what you're saying about the TV show. That show was about their relationship. This book is about their relationship, wrapped in the world of Superman and with the addition of their son Jonathan.

And it is how they live on this world. What are the ramifications of living in this universe where we've seen Superman's secret identity outed? That kind of thing. How have they been able to pull this off? How has no one noticed, "You look kind of like that guy?" That's part of the beard right now, for example.

So it's a very different story, but at its core, it's a family book. It's a family unit. It's Lois and Clark and Jonathan and if you go back to the Convergence issues that I wrote, where Thomas Wayne talked to him about doing what he could do -- "whatever you do, keep your child safe" -- that's the core of the book in terms of that part of it.

Superman has had a mission here all along, and we're going to explore all of that.

With Jonathan, what motivated the decision to jump to nine years old, or was it just that you needed Superman's history on this planet in the story?

It's a couple of things. First of all, when you write about an infant, it's not like that infant becomes that character in and of itself. But we have some definite ideas for what we want to do with Jonathan and that nine-year-old timeline sort of fits in perfectly -- in a way just like it did with Damian and Bruce Wayne in Batman.

That nine-year-old timeframe fits great, and it also fits great with this idea that they have been here all along. They have been monitoring events, Superman has been doing stuff behind the scenes and had a very active role all along, and it is how do they react to this different universe for them, where people may have the same names, but they're not at all the same characters?

Now, we really take that on like a head-on question because that's part of the core of the book.

The version of Superman that you wrote for many years had a very different Krypton. Once they changed that around, it changed a lot of the trappings and a lot of his villains. Does this Superman have The Man of Steel or Secret Origin in his rear-view mirror -- or does it not matter?

I won't say that it doesn't matter. I think what's most important to understand is, his background still reflects that very classic Superman background that was of that era. Yes, visually things were changed with Krypton, but still the same basic core concepts were in place, and they're in place here.

This is a Superman whose parents lived on -- and when I say "parents," I mean Jonathan and Martha Kent -- and that makes him different from the current Superman. And it's someone who has this relationship with Lois as such that he would look at this world's Superman and Wonder Woman and say "Everything is different."
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Previews for post-"Secret Wars" Marvel are up. So far, the Robinson "Squadron Supreme", Costa "Spider-Verse" and Taylor "Wolverine" series interest me. (Although, I really hope that the preview image for the "Woverine" series is not indicative of the over-all tone and quality.)

So far, aside from the fact we know there will be a Gwen series, there is no sign that Marvel plans to make their multiverse a thing. ("Squadron Supreme" is a team of characters from dead worlds. And, the Costa book is likely to have dimension hopping. But, "Spider-Gwen" is the only one I can think of that is just set on an alternate world.)


As for DC....
The difference is, unike the hundred-plus Superman issues Jurgens wrote and/or drew in the '80s and '90s, he and artist Lee Weeks will be taking the Kent Family into the post-Flashpoint world, where that Superman has been secretly living for nine years on an as-yet-undisclosed mission, raising his family looking on in wonder at the strange world around him.
If I read that right, the old Superman (1986 to 2011, if we are generous) is now living on the new Earth 0. This is the ultimate in character redundancy. And, we all know how much DC loves character reduncancy.....
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Final sales figures for Convergence, give or take any future adjustments:

http://yetanothercomicsblog.blogspot.co ... -2015.html

Not bad for a filler event, and we'll see the three ongoing titles spun out of it, so I can't complain at all. :)
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Green Lantern Lost Army #2
The issue opens with another flashback of John Stewart’s time in the Marines which is relevant to the current situation he finds himself and his GL unit in. The group of Green Lanterns and Krona are attacked by a group of Red Lanterns, but it becomes apparent here and at the end of the issue that they’re somehow stranded in Relic’s universe, with the “lightsmiths” and different terms for what each color on the energy spectrum represents. Green is resolve rather than willpower, for example.

The Lanterns are all just about out of power when the fight is over, but Krona insists that they can recharge off of the red pyramid, regardless of the type of energy they’re using. They do so and the pyramid and energy it emits change to green. The energy is far more pure than what they’re used to, and the rings declare a charge of 200%. Which is a bit silly since 100% would by definition be everything possible, but I’m rationalizing it as a measuring error by the rings, unable to properly gauge the unfamiliar energy. Using energy native to the universe they’re in also spares them another attack by the “antibodies” they were fending off at the beginning of the first issue.

At the end, a normal sized Relic joins them, interested in their theories about the energy. Either he’s normal, or else they’ve grown to giant size in this universe.

Overall: while I’m not a fan of the “emotional reservoir” idea, I did enjoy the concept behind Relic as the last survivor of an older universe with different physical properties. Sometimes imagination and what’s not revealed does more to keep a place like that mysterious and wondrous than actually showing it, something I hope the writer keeps in mind. But I’m glad Lost Army is building on Vendetti’s earlier storyline. It gives this era of Green Lantern distinct from the writing of Geoff Johns', who similarly built his additions to Green Lantern a bit at a time and kept exploring his themes. The art remains excellent. This book is two for two, and I’m glad I tried it out.
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Interesting analysis of "Convergence". The store I go to was returning significant numbers of comics. (I do not have specifics by title. But, it was enough to cause the manager some distress from tearing so many covers. As he put it, "Nazis burn books." Truthfully, I was a little squeamish being in the room.)


Along with the expected glut of "Secret Wars" tie-ins, the fourth "Zenith" volume shipped this week. (Sort of glad that TF and Joe did not now ship at all, as my pull-file is getting crowded. Gotta catch up on my reading....so I can buy more stuff.)
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Sometimes it seems like Dan Didio is pretty tone-deaf.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/artic ... e-dcu-more
On the post-"Convergence" DC Universe:

DiDio: The goal for us was to bring everything together. We never wanted the New 52 to be divisive -- never. We wanted it to be exciting and inviting. Now, we realize the only way to make it inviting is to make it all-inclusive. Where sometimes the message got lost was that we really wanted to move the universe forward while acknowledging the past. It's not about revisiting the past or going backwards, it's about going forward consistently. But now, we want to bring the past in with us, incorporate it into our storytelling and fill out our world we've created since the launch of the New 52. And I feel that with the talent in place, with the ideas in place. ... We're really ready to take the DC Universe and push it into new and greater directions.
They never meant for it to be divisive? I can believe they didn't want to run off loyal fans, but how could a massive reboot like that have ever been anything but divisive? The fact that it took them four years to own up to it is a sign of how little they understand their audience and readership. Or perhaps rather that they're too busy spinning and hyping to acknowledge valid criticisms from their reading audience. It took falling sales and many failed series to bring them to this point.

On the other hand, I have to applaud this decision and this thinking:
On Len Wein, Marv Wolfman and other older creators returning to DC:

DiDio: Part of what we're doing right now is trying to find the core conceits of the characters and try to move them forward. What these guys are doing is they're taking what we've built in the New 52 and examining what they brought to the character originally, identifying it and really polishing it up -- so we can still have it as part of the continuity moving forward, but really be something people can identify with in a strong way. There's another twist to this, which we mentioned, which is that we have a lot new editors and quite honestly, a lot of young editors. What we've done is we've teamed these books with our younger editors. And we're hoping through osmosis and through the working process, they pick up the craft that these men had. You've got to understand, when you have Len [Wein], Marv [Wolfman], Mike [W. Barr], Gerry [Conway], these guys aren't just writers, these guys are editors. They understand the construction of comics. They understand how to build strong storytelling. And through their stories and working with the younger crew, we're hoping to find a nice alchemy. We're able to bring a contemporary feel but also elevate the craft that we do in our books.
The young guys could learn a lot from the old pros. Well done.
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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andersonh1 wrote:At the end, a normal sized Relic joins them, interested in their theories about the energy. Either he’s normal, or else they’ve grown to giant size in this universe.
Yeah, I'm curious about the difference in size, or should I say the lack thereof... As I recall, around when they first introduced Relic, he made it sound like all life was on a larger scale in his universe compared to the DC universe. I suppose surviving the destruction of his universe could have somehow altered him somewhat, making him a giant without him realizing. At any rate, hopefully they'll explain it at some point.
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