Spoilers of course.
From the astonishing Pinderpanda.
What does it mean?
Note: Batman RIP is polysemic, ambiguous, elliptical and all those other things that're great for literature and troublesome for bald 'fact files' like this. The section that follows therefore cannot aim to be as 'definitive' as does the rest of the guide, but can only aim to be plausibly interpretive.
What do the red skies mean?
Red skies appear on a number of occasions throughout Morrison's Batman RIP.
In the opening 'flash forward' sequence to events six months after the main storyline, over the skies of contemporary Gotham as Batman pursues 'The Green Vulture', during the sunset Honor Jackson shares with Bruce, and during Bruce's subsequent transformation into the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh.
Red skies have a particular meaning in DCU-lore. They were first seen during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, most notoriously in what became known as "Red Sky Crossovers" - issues marketed as Crisis tie-ins which had little connection to the storyline other than that particular colouring choice.
They are now a familiar omen of disaster. As DCU#0 puts it, "When the Multiverse is on the verge of destruction, when the skies drip red as the barriers between parallel universes bleed... When Earth's greatest heroes rise up together, willing to sacrifice everything they have in defense of all they hold dear... That war is called a Crisis."
2006's Ion maxiseries eventually revealled that the reason for this is that the weakening of the walls between universes during times of Crisis allows for a glimpse of 'the Bleed', an arterial channel between realities first introduced in Warren Ellis's Stormwatch run which went on to become a major part of the cosmologies of both Wildstorm and Final Crisis.
The association of red skies with Crises raises the question of RIP's association with Final Crisis. Addressing this in an interview Morrison says, "it could be the start of it, because those red skies have been seeping in for a while, but it's certainly not happening at the same time as Final Crisis #1. It could be happening a week before or something, but I haven't exactly specified it." (IGN, August 2008 ). So the red skies should be seen as signs that the Final Crisis was immanent, rather than that it was underway. This fits the sequence of events in the story.
This leaves the red skies in the six-months-later 'flash forward' sequences however...
"That's actually even more in the future than Battle for the Cowl," says Tony Daniel, "[That] would, hypothetically, appear at the very end of it" (Daniel, Newsarama, December 2008).
This places them well after the conclusion of Final Crisis, and would seem to suggest that on that occasion a red sky was simply a red sky.
Red also has a significance (or at least a significant lack of significance) in the red and black pattern the Joker is making throughout the story. The red skies also serve as visual references to this.
How exactly did the Joker talk with his tounge sliced in half?
In Batman #680 the Joker reveals that he knows Doctor Hurt's true identity by mutilating himself to display a serpent's tongue. It has troubled many readers that he appears capable of comprehensible speech after doing so.
It is however entirely possible that the Joker wasn't capable of comprehensible speech before doing so, and the tongue slicing merely serves to make this explicit.
The Joker was shot in the face in Batman #655 and, when he reappeared in #663 had undergone facial reconstruction surgery leaving him incapable of producing any sounds except "a subhuman paste of of slobbery vowels and clicking consonants." The prose story in that issue makes it very clear that, while the Joker thinks he's talking, all that's coming out is "mangled phonetics and toxic intent."
When this version of the Joker reappears in DCU#0, Tony Daniel draws him with retracted lips which would be unable to manufacture any rounded vowels or labial/labio-dental consonants. Daniel is careful never to actually show him speaking.
It seems very likely that the Joker we see in RIP is talking in the same "subhuman paste" and that his speech balloons (coloured green to distinguish them from conventional dialogue) contain the words he's trying to say rather than the actual noises coming out of his mouth.
Careful reading of the arc shows that nobody, from the Arkham psychiatrist, to the Club of Villains to the members of the Black Glove, show any sign of understanding him before or after the tongue-slicing. They respond only to the fact that he has spoken or to actions that he's taken rather than to the content of anything that he has said. There's no evidence that any characters with whom he converses in Batman RIP can makes heads or tails of what he's saying.
There's one exception to this.
The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh has an extended and two-sided conversation with the Joker, and is able to fully understand him both before and after the tongue-slicing.
But then, the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh also has two-sided conversations with gargoyles.
Batman typically works by gathering evidence and consciously interpreting it. In RIP we're shown that as the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh this process is unconscious. Whereas normally he'd read the city and deduce what the clues were telling him, in this state of mind he experiences this as direct linguistic information; "Shh! The city's talking" (Batman #679).
It follows then that he'd also be the only one able to converse with the Joker. Just as he interpreted the city's clues and experienced them as talking gargoyles, he'd be able to read the Joker's body language, intent and phonetics and experience them as actual speech.
It's also worth looking at what the conversation is about. The Joker is insisting that all life is fundamentally meaningless and that all attempts to make sense of it are doomed. And the World's Greatest Detective is making a liar of him...just by the simple act of understanding it.
Who (and why) was the Black Glove?
At San Deigo 2008 Grant Morrison said that the Black Glove's true identity would be someone "everybody in the world knows." Curiously, when the identity was eventually revealed, much of the readership failed to recognise him.
Lets go back to when Morrison first took on the Batman monthly and he mentioned that he'd "rather Batman embodied the best that secular humanism has to offer" (Newsarama, 2006). This take on the character has proved vital to how Morrison has written Batman throughout his career and is crucial to understanding why the Black Glove is who he is.
By 'Humanism' here, we're talking about the whole raft of philosophical ideas that came out of the Enlightenment and told us that it was possible for us to stop thinking of life as one long downhill ride from the Fall or the 'Golden Age' and to start thinking that humans had a chance to improve the world and themselves if they started playing smart and making the effort.
Where Batman comes in is that humanism does this through reason, rationality, science and all that sort of stuff, to the exclusion of all the irrational mumbo-jumbo that's also a part of being human. Arkham Asylum, by a younger and angier Grant Morrison, punishes Batman for his humanism by painting him as a repressed, joyless prig and having him suffer humilation and agony for his failure to integrate into himself myth, ritual, chaos, the Id, and all the other things reason excludes.
By the time of Morrison's JLA run things are very different. Here Batman is routinely defeating gods and ur-gods by holding to these values.
Inbetween we get Batman: Gothic, where reason and rationality are shown to be effective but limited. Batman solves the mystery, but an epilogue reveals that he's been blind to a major player in the events....the Devil himself! Humanism works here, but remains oblivious to the man behind the curtain.
The Devil next reappears in Morrison's Batman mythos during RIP, where he's wearing Mangrove Pierce's body and using the name 'The Black Glove'.
Batman is invested in a project which attempts to improve humanity through reason and rationality. There's no greater threat to that than the possibility that deep down inside humanity is a kind of irrational evil from which it can never escape.
The Devil's the ultimate supernatural bogeyman. There's no greater threat to it than the possibility that people might one day be able to work and think their way free. If that's true then the Devil's days are numbered.
The Joker is well aware of who the Black Glove is, making numerological references to the Devil, quoting the Rolling Stones and illustrating the point by fashioning himself a serpent's tougue. He also claims to know why the Devil hates Batman (#680) and it has to be because of this; the possibilities for humanity that Batman's values and achievements represent scare the Devil (#681).
Batman has to acknowledge though that the Devil is a part of him. Just as humanism tried to exclude from its discourse the irrational side of human experience, Batman tried to fence off the nonsensical aspects of his own life experience inside The Black Casebook; "All the things we'd seen that didn't fit and couldn't be explained went into the Black Casebook" (#665) but when he writes the final entry in the Casebook he faces the posibility that he's reached the limits of reason.
In the various isolation experiments, initiations and Thogal rituals we've seen Batman undertake he's found this 'source of pure evil' deep down inside himself. And as Doctor Hurt breathes, "The Black Glove always wins" it is Batman's own black glove we see smashing through the helicopter window.
Since we're talking about a book set in the shared universe of the DCU we have to mention that this is a world not short of Devils and Devil-analogues... Neron, Satanus, the First of the Fallen, Lucifer and plenty of others could all in different ways be thought of as 'The Devil' in DCU continuity.
I would suggest that it is not helpful in understanding Batman RIP to do so here. What Batman trimuphs against here is the idea of the Devil rather than any specific pre-existing variation on that idea. Although perhaps we should mention Orion's warning from Final Crisis #1 concerning Darkseid and his retinue of evil gods; "They did not die! He is in you all!"
It'd be tempting to give the last word to Damien, who says, "I know the Devil exists, or at least something exists which might as well be the Devil. I've met him." (Batman #666)
The Black Glove is something which might as well be the Devil.
Showing posts with label comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comics. Show all posts
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Friday, November 14, 2008
R.I.P.
If you've read my blog ever, you probably know that I'm a pretty huge comic book nerd. If you're read my blog for more than two days, you probably know that a lot of the books that I like are a smidge off the beaten path. Not too far off...just a little to the side. Through my 'The Best Books You Aren't Reading', I offered a series of articles, and will continue to offer them, pointing out little-read books that deserves your attention. Unfortunately, I am now left to demonstrate what happens when they don't actually get your attention.
I must warn you all - this is an image-heavy post, and it is a bile-heavy post. While the fires of my wrath have cooled, there is still a lingering aftertaste of anger in my mouth, and this will seep through at time. For the most part, though, this is meant to be a relatively loving post. If you don't want me to insult you and everything you love repeatedly, I'd recommend you stop reading right now and move on your way.
Blue Beetle: Cancelled
- Blue Beetle was one of the best teen comics out there. A pitch-perfect blend of comedy, drama and action, Jaime Reyes was one of the best new characters of the decade, and I'll hold his supporting cast up against any in comics in a heartbeat. After John Rogers left, we saw Will Pfiefer and Matt Sturges each take a turn with the character, and through some arcane magic, each was still awesome. Blue Beetle deserved much more than it ever got, but that's okay - its readers will remember it fondly for a good, long while....
Checkmate: Cancelled
- Checkmate is another book to come out of the overbearing, overlarge, overambitious Infinite Crisis. Written by Greg Rucka, it detailed a United Nations-run Peacekeeping Organization and the crazy stuff they go through in a world like the DC Universe. Imagine Marvel's S.H.E.I.L.D. if someone bright and uncynical were writing it. Always clever, Checkmate gave us an enormous cast of B-D list characters and made them all awesome in their own way. For a time in comics that many fans claim to be a bitter, depressing era, Checkmate was a beacon of hope, offering relatively complex metahuman espionage, new characters, and an infinitely more satisfying answer to the question of lethal force in superhero comics. Of all the new characters Rucka created in his run of Checkmate #1-25, perhaps my favorite is Josephine Tautin, known as Mademoiselle Marie.
Checkmate wasn't perfect - it was often wordy and many were turned off by the occasional moral grey areas in which the characters found themselves - but in a comicdom populated frequently by bitter naivete and fanboy pacification, Checkmate managed a strong run.
Criminal: Cancelled.
- Criminal. Ah, why am I not even remotely surprised to see you on this list? Every arc, you introduced us to new characters. Every single arc. The lack of a recurring cast certainly couldn't have helped you out. The fact that almost every character in the setting was a dirtball of some sort also couldn't have helped. Where Checkmate let it's characters occasionally visit moral grey areas, Criminal lived in them. Solid writing from Ed Brubaker combined well with art from Sean Phillips that perfectly complemented the noir stylings, Criminal was a rock solid love letter to comics and to noir. Dark and slow-paced, it was never destined to be a big seller, but I'm still sad that it is going away.
EDIT: As a note, I have had my tragic misinformation fixed, and return to you a cleaner, happier man - Criminal remains. While it will be taking a break for the beginning of Incognito, it is not dead, merely napping. Rarely have I been happier to be wrong.
To Sean Phillips (!) for correcting me: merci beaucoup, どうもありがとう, and stay classy.
To everyone else: go give Criminal a shot!
Birds of Prey: Cancelled
- It's sad to see Birds of Prey on this list, but when excellent writer Gail Simone left the book to move on to Wonder Woman and Secret Six, you can bet that we all saw this coming. Birds of Prey, under Gail Simone, turned out to be a fun, clever action book that served to flesh out the characters of a number of the premier heroines of the DC Universe - most notably, of course, Barbara Gordon, Black Canary, and Huntress.
After Barbara Gordon was shot in the spine by the Joker in an attempt to torture and drive insane her father, Commissioner James Gordon, she was devastated. As Batgirl, she had always fought hard at Batman's side. It wasn't until John Ostrander used her in his Suicide Squad mini as the enigmatic Oracle, though, that her crime-fighting career really took off. As Batgirl, she beat up muggers. As Oracle, she masterminded the information technology of the DC Universe. Quickly becoming a vital organizational hub, Oracle and her team of superheroes-turned-spies had some awesome adventures.
With the cancellation, we've been assured that we're getting a wonderful Oracle mini. I somehow suspect that this will see her return to Gotham City as the sidekick of Batman, and will be written by whoever does it cheapest. I'm sure it will make money, but Birds of Prey was a great lens through which we could see all the heroines of the DC Universe treated, as they so rarely are, with a little respect. Here's to hoping that DC doesn't forget this lesson, shove these characters out of the way, and relegate them to sidekicks of their male peers.
Manhunter: Cancelled
- This one comes as a surprise to precisely no one. Cancelled once, Manhunter was saved by one of the most passionate fanbases I've ever seen. Cancelled a second time, they redoubled their efforts, trade sales did well, the book got brought back. Unfortunately, it got brought back without telling anyone about it, and to an arc that, while decent, wasn't quite up to the quality of the rest of the run. And so now, it's on its last legs, on the verge of cancellation once more.
Manhunter shouldn't have been good. Overly violent without offering any real danger while having a super-complex, almost incestuous relationship with DC's deepest continuity, it should have been purely mediocre. Instead, it offered a great supporting cast, from one of the only well-done gay relationships in comics to the novel support of a former tech-geek for supervillains who entered the Witness Protection Program. It also offered a no-nonsense, smoking single mother as a heroine willing to kill - and who thought that'd come from DC?
The All-New Atom: Cancelled
- The All-New Atom was, much like Blue Beetle, hampered in large part by a whiny, clingy fanbase that pouted the book to death because it wasn't veteran Atom Ray Palmer helming, but newcomer Ryan Choi. If I'm being honest, and I rarely am, then I will say that it was also hampered by a creative attitude that comics don't like - which is to say, that of almost manic creativity. Ivy Town was a bizarre, surreal place, a place that I couldn't picture existing anywhere but in the DCU, but which feels almost completely necessary to the DCU. Severely warped by the bizarre super-science occurring in the town, Ivy Town feels like the setting of a David Lynch movie, if David Lynch was on crack and had a 500,000,000,000$ budget.
A perfect blend of action and comedy, of the mystic and super-science, The All-New Atom was doomed from the start. But throughout Gail Simone's run, it was an enjoyable book, and I'd highly recommend that you give it a shot.
Shadowpact: Cancelled
- Once again, say it with me: Shadowpact spun out of Infinite Crisis. Shadowpact was a book dedicated to a team of magical misfits. Wow, who didn't see this cancellation coming. I'm sure some of you have heard my thoughts on the fanboy opinion of magic, and they all worked against this book.
"Why," posits the fanboy, "would I want to read a fun, well-written book with good art? There are people casting spells fer chrissakes."
"But...you just said so yourself - 'tis a fun, well-written book with pretty good art," quoth I.
"Ah," laughs the fanboy. "You misunderstand. Magic is totally for fags, my friend. Because I am Super Manly, I am going to read Wolverine."
"But," beginneth I, "is not Wolverine essentially magic? What with the whole 'a billion tons of super-metal welded to the spine of a midget who can heal from anything in seconds?"
"No," answers the fanboy. "No. That, my friend, is Science."
There may have been some exaggeration, or a vast amount of imagination, in that conversation, seasoned with bitterness and left in the oven far too long, but Shadowpact nonetheless had just such a problem, as have many other books in recent days. I can't say that highly-publicized stories like Spider-Man's frankly embarrassing 'One More Day' are much of a help in converting people to the 'magic is fine in the hands of a decent writer' side of things, though.
It's unfair, though - for all that Shadowpact was a pretty good book, it was far from the breathtaking example of awesome that was Blue Beetle or The All-New Atom. It was just...good. You picked up an issue of Shadowpact, you knew you were getting a pretty quality comic. Simple as that. It's unfortunate that it didn't last longer, and got spun into the current relatively average mini-series 'Reign in Hell', but it was fun while it lasted.
*
I could, of course, go on. A bunch of books have been cancelled in recent months that seem to be heralding some sort of bizarre comic book armageddon, while perennial mediocrities like Green Lantern swim in a vast pool of adoration.
Still, why focus on the bad? Sometimes you must, I admit, to clear yourself, to prepare yourself for more wholesome fare in the future. And thus shall I do. I recent months, I have let slack my list of The Best Books You Aren't Reading. An enormous part of this is because I am reasonably sure that they are not widely-read. Of the audience of this blog with which I am familiar, few have the resources or interest to pick up a comic book merely on my say so, however awesome my say so might be.
However, as someone who is absolutely convinced that I have better taste than everyone else alive - well, okay, not everyone else, but, I have better taste than at least five living people right now, and that'll have to do for you all - I feel a peculiar responsibility to nonetheless inform you of all the juicy offerings that are out there, waiting for you to come and save them, or at least distract them from their imminent doom.
And so with that, I leave you. I hope all of you have a fabulous night, and I hope that I will be forgiven for interjecting the occasional less-than-polite comment. Not every insult is directed at you, faceless fanboy - they are merely comments on broad, sad trends I occasionally see pop up. I shall, I swear to you all, be more hopeful from here on out.
At least until the next Cancellation Season.
Signing off,
-Still bitter about the cancellation of Veronica Mars
I must warn you all - this is an image-heavy post, and it is a bile-heavy post. While the fires of my wrath have cooled, there is still a lingering aftertaste of anger in my mouth, and this will seep through at time. For the most part, though, this is meant to be a relatively loving post. If you don't want me to insult you and everything you love repeatedly, I'd recommend you stop reading right now and move on your way.
Blue Beetle: Cancelled
- Blue Beetle was one of the best teen comics out there. A pitch-perfect blend of comedy, drama and action, Jaime Reyes was one of the best new characters of the decade, and I'll hold his supporting cast up against any in comics in a heartbeat. After John Rogers left, we saw Will Pfiefer and Matt Sturges each take a turn with the character, and through some arcane magic, each was still awesome. Blue Beetle deserved much more than it ever got, but that's okay - its readers will remember it fondly for a good, long while....
Checkmate: Cancelled
- Checkmate is another book to come out of the overbearing, overlarge, overambitious Infinite Crisis. Written by Greg Rucka, it detailed a United Nations-run Peacekeeping Organization and the crazy stuff they go through in a world like the DC Universe. Imagine Marvel's S.H.E.I.L.D. if someone bright and uncynical were writing it. Always clever, Checkmate gave us an enormous cast of B-D list characters and made them all awesome in their own way. For a time in comics that many fans claim to be a bitter, depressing era, Checkmate was a beacon of hope, offering relatively complex metahuman espionage, new characters, and an infinitely more satisfying answer to the question of lethal force in superhero comics. Of all the new characters Rucka created in his run of Checkmate #1-25, perhaps my favorite is Josephine Tautin, known as Mademoiselle Marie.
Checkmate wasn't perfect - it was often wordy and many were turned off by the occasional moral grey areas in which the characters found themselves - but in a comicdom populated frequently by bitter naivete and fanboy pacification, Checkmate managed a strong run.
Criminal: Cancelled.
- Criminal. Ah, why am I not even remotely surprised to see you on this list? Every arc, you introduced us to new characters. Every single arc. The lack of a recurring cast certainly couldn't have helped you out. The fact that almost every character in the setting was a dirtball of some sort also couldn't have helped. Where Checkmate let it's characters occasionally visit moral grey areas, Criminal lived in them. Solid writing from Ed Brubaker combined well with art from Sean Phillips that perfectly complemented the noir stylings, Criminal was a rock solid love letter to comics and to noir. Dark and slow-paced, it was never destined to be a big seller, but I'm still sad that it is going away.
EDIT: As a note, I have had my tragic misinformation fixed, and return to you a cleaner, happier man - Criminal remains. While it will be taking a break for the beginning of Incognito, it is not dead, merely napping. Rarely have I been happier to be wrong.
To Sean Phillips (!) for correcting me: merci beaucoup, どうもありがとう, and stay classy.
To everyone else: go give Criminal a shot!
Birds of Prey: Cancelled
- It's sad to see Birds of Prey on this list, but when excellent writer Gail Simone left the book to move on to Wonder Woman and Secret Six, you can bet that we all saw this coming. Birds of Prey, under Gail Simone, turned out to be a fun, clever action book that served to flesh out the characters of a number of the premier heroines of the DC Universe - most notably, of course, Barbara Gordon, Black Canary, and Huntress.
After Barbara Gordon was shot in the spine by the Joker in an attempt to torture and drive insane her father, Commissioner James Gordon, she was devastated. As Batgirl, she had always fought hard at Batman's side. It wasn't until John Ostrander used her in his Suicide Squad mini as the enigmatic Oracle, though, that her crime-fighting career really took off. As Batgirl, she beat up muggers. As Oracle, she masterminded the information technology of the DC Universe. Quickly becoming a vital organizational hub, Oracle and her team of superheroes-turned-spies had some awesome adventures.
With the cancellation, we've been assured that we're getting a wonderful Oracle mini. I somehow suspect that this will see her return to Gotham City as the sidekick of Batman, and will be written by whoever does it cheapest. I'm sure it will make money, but Birds of Prey was a great lens through which we could see all the heroines of the DC Universe treated, as they so rarely are, with a little respect. Here's to hoping that DC doesn't forget this lesson, shove these characters out of the way, and relegate them to sidekicks of their male peers.
Manhunter: Cancelled
- This one comes as a surprise to precisely no one. Cancelled once, Manhunter was saved by one of the most passionate fanbases I've ever seen. Cancelled a second time, they redoubled their efforts, trade sales did well, the book got brought back. Unfortunately, it got brought back without telling anyone about it, and to an arc that, while decent, wasn't quite up to the quality of the rest of the run. And so now, it's on its last legs, on the verge of cancellation once more.
Manhunter shouldn't have been good. Overly violent without offering any real danger while having a super-complex, almost incestuous relationship with DC's deepest continuity, it should have been purely mediocre. Instead, it offered a great supporting cast, from one of the only well-done gay relationships in comics to the novel support of a former tech-geek for supervillains who entered the Witness Protection Program. It also offered a no-nonsense, smoking single mother as a heroine willing to kill - and who thought that'd come from DC?
The All-New Atom: Cancelled
- The All-New Atom was, much like Blue Beetle, hampered in large part by a whiny, clingy fanbase that pouted the book to death because it wasn't veteran Atom Ray Palmer helming, but newcomer Ryan Choi. If I'm being honest, and I rarely am, then I will say that it was also hampered by a creative attitude that comics don't like - which is to say, that of almost manic creativity. Ivy Town was a bizarre, surreal place, a place that I couldn't picture existing anywhere but in the DCU, but which feels almost completely necessary to the DCU. Severely warped by the bizarre super-science occurring in the town, Ivy Town feels like the setting of a David Lynch movie, if David Lynch was on crack and had a 500,000,000,000$ budget.
A perfect blend of action and comedy, of the mystic and super-science, The All-New Atom was doomed from the start. But throughout Gail Simone's run, it was an enjoyable book, and I'd highly recommend that you give it a shot.
Shadowpact: Cancelled
- Once again, say it with me: Shadowpact spun out of Infinite Crisis. Shadowpact was a book dedicated to a team of magical misfits. Wow, who didn't see this cancellation coming. I'm sure some of you have heard my thoughts on the fanboy opinion of magic, and they all worked against this book.
"Why," posits the fanboy, "would I want to read a fun, well-written book with good art? There are people casting spells fer chrissakes."
"But...you just said so yourself - 'tis a fun, well-written book with pretty good art," quoth I.
"Ah," laughs the fanboy. "You misunderstand. Magic is totally for fags, my friend. Because I am Super Manly, I am going to read Wolverine."
"But," beginneth I, "is not Wolverine essentially magic? What with the whole 'a billion tons of super-metal welded to the spine of a midget who can heal from anything in seconds?"
"No," answers the fanboy. "No. That, my friend, is Science."
There may have been some exaggeration, or a vast amount of imagination, in that conversation, seasoned with bitterness and left in the oven far too long, but Shadowpact nonetheless had just such a problem, as have many other books in recent days. I can't say that highly-publicized stories like Spider-Man's frankly embarrassing 'One More Day' are much of a help in converting people to the 'magic is fine in the hands of a decent writer' side of things, though.
It's unfair, though - for all that Shadowpact was a pretty good book, it was far from the breathtaking example of awesome that was Blue Beetle or The All-New Atom. It was just...good. You picked up an issue of Shadowpact, you knew you were getting a pretty quality comic. Simple as that. It's unfortunate that it didn't last longer, and got spun into the current relatively average mini-series 'Reign in Hell', but it was fun while it lasted.
*
I could, of course, go on. A bunch of books have been cancelled in recent months that seem to be heralding some sort of bizarre comic book armageddon, while perennial mediocrities like Green Lantern swim in a vast pool of adoration.
Still, why focus on the bad? Sometimes you must, I admit, to clear yourself, to prepare yourself for more wholesome fare in the future. And thus shall I do. I recent months, I have let slack my list of The Best Books You Aren't Reading. An enormous part of this is because I am reasonably sure that they are not widely-read. Of the audience of this blog with which I am familiar, few have the resources or interest to pick up a comic book merely on my say so, however awesome my say so might be.
However, as someone who is absolutely convinced that I have better taste than everyone else alive - well, okay, not everyone else, but, I have better taste than at least five living people right now, and that'll have to do for you all - I feel a peculiar responsibility to nonetheless inform you of all the juicy offerings that are out there, waiting for you to come and save them, or at least distract them from their imminent doom.
And so with that, I leave you. I hope all of you have a fabulous night, and I hope that I will be forgiven for interjecting the occasional less-than-polite comment. Not every insult is directed at you, faceless fanboy - they are merely comments on broad, sad trends I occasionally see pop up. I shall, I swear to you all, be more hopeful from here on out.
At least until the next Cancellation Season.
Signing off,
-Still bitter about the cancellation of Veronica Mars
Friday, October 17, 2008
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
For those of you unfamiliar with the work of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, I've provided a link to their homepage. I know that with the current state of the economy, asking for a donation is a bit much...but right now, I just want to draw attention to them.
The CBLDF is dedicated to defending the first amendment rights of comics creators, sellers, and consumers. A good example of their work can be found in their most recent case: http://www.cbldf.org/pr/archives/000372.shtml.
If you don't like donating and enjoy collecting autographs, they also have a store available with signed trades and hardcovers from big name creators like Jeff Smith, Ed Brubaker, and Robert Kirkman. Meanwhile, the Board of Directors of the Fund includes writer Neil Gaiman, Peter David, and Paul Levitz.
A first amendment group for comics nerds.
Enjoy.
The CBLDF is dedicated to defending the first amendment rights of comics creators, sellers, and consumers. A good example of their work can be found in their most recent case: http://www.cbldf.org/pr/archives/000372.shtml.
If you don't like donating and enjoy collecting autographs, they also have a store available with signed trades and hardcovers from big name creators like Jeff Smith, Ed Brubaker, and Robert Kirkman. Meanwhile, the Board of Directors of the Fund includes writer Neil Gaiman, Peter David, and Paul Levitz.
A first amendment group for comics nerds.
Enjoy.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
The Year of the Bastard
Well, as I suspect you’ve noticed, it’s comin’ up on election time. I know a lot of people who, despite complaining an awful lot about The Way Things Are really, honestly don’t care, and thus won’t vote. Obviously, I can’t tell you what to do, and equally obviously, many of you aren’t like this, but I suppose I want to urge you all to do the research on the candidates and head out there, when the time comes, to vote.
And, because I’m me, I have to do it in the most amusing way, to me, possible. Generally, that involved telling you to read something. This is no exception, as, in an election year, I feel compelled to offer up this particular suggestion: Warren Ellis’ Transmetropolitan.
Transmet features Spider Jerusalem, drugged out gonzo journalist in the style of Hunter S. Thompson (with notably more violence), and a fair number of volumes deal with his coverage of the election and subsequent clashes with the President as he tries as hard as he can to make an increasingly apathetic culture care about who will be running the country and how they'll be doing it.
For all the absolutely insane sci-fi elements to the story, the story definitely rings true to where we are in the world today. We live in a world where people remain gleefully uneducated about many of the most serious issues facing our nation while turning elections into a matter of “who’s the most like me?” We’re blinded by sound bites of flashy issues, ignoring follow through, ignoring compromise.
Transmet is hardly a new book, but there are a lot of people who’ve never heard of it, and a lot more who’ve never read it. It’s a frenetic, powerful book that’s wildly entertaining, and while it’s preachy at times, it’s relevant, and the scolding is well-deserved.
So, head up to your local library and ask about Transmet. Many public libraries have the full series, and others will think about ordering it if you ask. It’s a worthwhile read, especially in an election year, and if you aren’t interested in spending the money yourself, there’s no reason you can’t ask a library to do it for you.
And, because I’m me, I have to do it in the most amusing way, to me, possible. Generally, that involved telling you to read something. This is no exception, as, in an election year, I feel compelled to offer up this particular suggestion: Warren Ellis’ Transmetropolitan.
Transmet features Spider Jerusalem, drugged out gonzo journalist in the style of Hunter S. Thompson (with notably more violence), and a fair number of volumes deal with his coverage of the election and subsequent clashes with the President as he tries as hard as he can to make an increasingly apathetic culture care about who will be running the country and how they'll be doing it.
For all the absolutely insane sci-fi elements to the story, the story definitely rings true to where we are in the world today. We live in a world where people remain gleefully uneducated about many of the most serious issues facing our nation while turning elections into a matter of “who’s the most like me?” We’re blinded by sound bites of flashy issues, ignoring follow through, ignoring compromise.
Transmet is hardly a new book, but there are a lot of people who’ve never heard of it, and a lot more who’ve never read it. It’s a frenetic, powerful book that’s wildly entertaining, and while it’s preachy at times, it’s relevant, and the scolding is well-deserved.
So, head up to your local library and ask about Transmet. Many public libraries have the full series, and others will think about ordering it if you ask. It’s a worthwhile read, especially in an election year, and if you aren’t interested in spending the money yourself, there’s no reason you can’t ask a library to do it for you.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Coming Soon to a Blog Near You
Recent troubles with Verizon have forced me to cut back a tad on my Internet use, but I'm working through that right now as best I can, and thought I'd keep you all apprised of the situation. Meanwhile, not a huge update today, as I'll largely be job hunting, homework doing, working on a new story, scripting a comic, and reading - a fairly busy day. Still, I thought I'd give a list of what's to come on the Seventh Soldier of Apathy this month, beginning, in all likelihood, tomorrow, and in no particular order whatsoever.
On top of the occasional Clone Wars deck list, I'll be branching out and embracing the current Bring Your Own Two Teams format with a few strange deck lists.
Another 'The Best Books You Aren't Reading' or two, and a few extra comics related posts. On top of that, I figure I'll branch out even more and continue to flaunt my excellent taste by suggesting some fairly excellent novels in a variety of genres.
Reactions to the beginnings of the MEV previews, since we've now seen a grand total of 5 shockingly solid cards in a set that looks like it'll be a blast.
And finally, at the end of the month, updates on where my stories are submitted, and whether they've been rejected or accepted.
So, that's that. Another month on my blog as we come up on my one year anniversary. To my loyal reader in New York City, the one I think I have in Chicago, and another one I'm kind of confident about in mid-Ohio - I hope you have an excellent month, I hope you stick around, and if you have any sort of feedback on the kind of things you'd like to see more - or less! - of, feel free to let me know.
On top of the occasional Clone Wars deck list, I'll be branching out and embracing the current Bring Your Own Two Teams format with a few strange deck lists.
Another 'The Best Books You Aren't Reading' or two, and a few extra comics related posts. On top of that, I figure I'll branch out even more and continue to flaunt my excellent taste by suggesting some fairly excellent novels in a variety of genres.
Reactions to the beginnings of the MEV previews, since we've now seen a grand total of 5 shockingly solid cards in a set that looks like it'll be a blast.
And finally, at the end of the month, updates on where my stories are submitted, and whether they've been rejected or accepted.
So, that's that. Another month on my blog as we come up on my one year anniversary. To my loyal reader in New York City, the one I think I have in Chicago, and another one I'm kind of confident about in mid-Ohio - I hope you have an excellent month, I hope you stick around, and if you have any sort of feedback on the kind of things you'd like to see more - or less! - of, feel free to let me know.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Apologies, Apologies
Ah, see, just as I was getting into the habit of an update every other day, I am forced to break it. I must apologize to my loyal reader, and explain, briefly.
I have only recently started grad school, studying for my Master's in Library and Information Sciences. I've moved to a new city - where no one seems to play VS (yet), curse the souls of all around me - and have been looking for a job. More than that, though, is the mad-crazy amount of work expected of a graduate student that, to be frank, leaves me with far less free time than I might have otherwise hoped.
Still, fret not. I shan't abandon the you for long. While I don't think that I can keep up my recent update rate when I can't even find people to play the damn game with (yet), I shall definitely try and update regularly - if not every other day, then at least twice a week, thrice a week on a good week. And of course, as I settle in, find a job, get a schedule, and learn not to wait to the last moment to do the massive projects expected of me, I shall surely find more time to update.
In other news, All-Star Superman came to a heart-breaking ending yesterday with #12. It's a great series, and I once again implore any comic fan reading this to urge a local library to pick it up. Here are a few covers from the series...
And, finally, while Ed Brubaker is not working on the Marvel Noir project, as I had hoped he would be, he is starting up a new project. Described, apparently, as a meld between Sleeper (a book you will get a post on sooner or later) and Criminal, Incognito looks like a promising new book, well worth checking out. Brubaker is an extremely competent writer, and one of the relatively few who seems more interested in telling good stories than getting you to like his pet characters.
I have only recently started grad school, studying for my Master's in Library and Information Sciences. I've moved to a new city - where no one seems to play VS (yet), curse the souls of all around me - and have been looking for a job. More than that, though, is the mad-crazy amount of work expected of a graduate student that, to be frank, leaves me with far less free time than I might have otherwise hoped.
Still, fret not. I shan't abandon the you for long. While I don't think that I can keep up my recent update rate when I can't even find people to play the damn game with (yet), I shall definitely try and update regularly - if not every other day, then at least twice a week, thrice a week on a good week. And of course, as I settle in, find a job, get a schedule, and learn not to wait to the last moment to do the massive projects expected of me, I shall surely find more time to update.
In other news, All-Star Superman came to a heart-breaking ending yesterday with #12. It's a great series, and I once again implore any comic fan reading this to urge a local library to pick it up. Here are a few covers from the series...
And, finally, while Ed Brubaker is not working on the Marvel Noir project, as I had hoped he would be, he is starting up a new project. Described, apparently, as a meld between Sleeper (a book you will get a post on sooner or later) and Criminal, Incognito looks like a promising new book, well worth checking out. Brubaker is an extremely competent writer, and one of the relatively few who seems more interested in telling good stories than getting you to like his pet characters.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Superman
So, has there ever been a character you just really didn't like? I know that, for a lot of people, Superman is targeted as a cookie-cutter character, a cardboard cut-out, and numerous other unflattering titles, many of which begin with 'c'. It's a fair commentary - a character that's been around as long as he has, in this day in age, absolutely HAS to be 'safe' in every way possible. There's a certain amount of leeway with him, but he's just not allowed to change beyond a certain degree. Same goes for his cast. So, just how do you give personality to a 70 year old character, the icon of the stagnation of comic books? More importantly, how do you boil down 70 years worth of stories to a readable amount? And there's a lot of garbage in there - how do you know what you can safely skip?
All-Star Superman
A single recommendation. Rare for me, I know. Still, pay attention.
All-Star Superman takes place outside of the standard DC Continuity, meaning it can set its own rules, pick and choose what baggage it wants to deal with - and it doesn't have to leave the toys intact for the next writer. Saving the astronauts aboard a space shuttle attempting to 'map the sun' from a death engineered by Lex Luthor, Superman is fatally wounded. Slowly dying, Superman begins to tie up the loose ends of his life, everything from revealing his secret identity to Lois Lane to trying everything he can to finally save the Kryptonians trapped in the Bottle City of Kandor.
All-Star Superman is a love letter to the Silver Age of comics, a time of rampant insanity and bizarre ideas. It's also a wonderfully imaginative series with just a hint of sadness running throughout. Watching Superman confront his own mortality allows for some interesting facets of his personality to come to the forefront, and the series as a whole gets better and better at building Superman's cast and character. It also just happens to be a good book in general.
There's not much detail here. This isn't meant to be a long post, and it isn't meant to tell you everything about the book. It's to say, if you're interested in comics, if you've always hated Superman and are willing to be proven wrong, if you just want a good sci-fi adventure story, you owe it to yourself to read some All-Star Superman. If you don't enjoy it by "Funeral in Smallville" or even "The Gospel According to Lex Luthor", you probably won't enjoy it at all, but it's a cold-hearted bastard what can't appreciate this book.
Enjoy your weekends!
All-Star Superman
A single recommendation. Rare for me, I know. Still, pay attention.
All-Star Superman takes place outside of the standard DC Continuity, meaning it can set its own rules, pick and choose what baggage it wants to deal with - and it doesn't have to leave the toys intact for the next writer. Saving the astronauts aboard a space shuttle attempting to 'map the sun' from a death engineered by Lex Luthor, Superman is fatally wounded. Slowly dying, Superman begins to tie up the loose ends of his life, everything from revealing his secret identity to Lois Lane to trying everything he can to finally save the Kryptonians trapped in the Bottle City of Kandor.
All-Star Superman is a love letter to the Silver Age of comics, a time of rampant insanity and bizarre ideas. It's also a wonderfully imaginative series with just a hint of sadness running throughout. Watching Superman confront his own mortality allows for some interesting facets of his personality to come to the forefront, and the series as a whole gets better and better at building Superman's cast and character. It also just happens to be a good book in general.
There's not much detail here. This isn't meant to be a long post, and it isn't meant to tell you everything about the book. It's to say, if you're interested in comics, if you've always hated Superman and are willing to be proven wrong, if you just want a good sci-fi adventure story, you owe it to yourself to read some All-Star Superman. If you don't enjoy it by "Funeral in Smallville" or even "The Gospel According to Lex Luthor", you probably won't enjoy it at all, but it's a cold-hearted bastard what can't appreciate this book.
Enjoy your weekends!
Saturday, August 23, 2008
You're On The Global Frequency...
Warren Ellis is one of comics most popular writers, one of the VERY few known more for his creator-owned work than for his mainstream projects. His creator-owned projects range from the famous political satire Transmetropolitan to low-selling, darkly comedic fantasy Gravel. And while projects like Transmet have gotten a lot of publicity and mainstream recognition, Ellis has had two brief comics that I think deserve special mention: the currently-ongoing Fell, and the 2002-2003 series Global Frequency. If you can't tell from the title of the post, this'll mostly be about GF, but I'll get to Fell sooner or later.
Global Frequency ticks many of Ellis's strongest boxes. While he does just fine on mainstream, continuity-heavy, company-owned titles, his heart never seems to be in it. Instead, he seems to be at his strongest bucking the comics trend with small-press books that he owns, that don't have coherent 'arcs', but instead focus on telling the entire story in a single issue.
Global Frequency features with a global civilian organization of 1,001 agents working under Miranda Zero and a young woman known as Aleph to deal with the bizarre threats that have begun to crop up in the world, or simply with things governments can't, or won't, deal with. Ellis mines a number of sci-fi tropes to find a his plots, but he does a lot with them, given that he only has 22 pages to tell each story.
Each of the twelve issues of Global Frequency has a wildly different tone. Heaven's One Hundred is an old-school shoot-'em-up action comic. Superviolence is a brutal 20-page fight between two cannibal martial artists. Invasive deals with a memetic alien virus taking people over, while Big Sky is about a mass hallucination in Norway where every person in a village is driven insane after claiming to see an angel. The comics range from exciting to horrifying, but they're never bad.
If a series of interconnected sci-fi done-in-one stories sounds like something you might find in television, you'd be interested to learn that Global Frequency was, at one point, scheduled for adaptation to TV. A pilot was shot, though when the show was not ultimately picked up, it was leaked on to the internet. If you look search around, you should still be able to find it. It's a loose adaptation of the first GF issue, titled 'Bombhead', and while there were a number of changes made in the general tone of the series, including the introduction of two 'regulars' that weren't Aleph and Miranda, the pilot was still remarkably true to the comic. And while Global Frequency was declared by one UK newspaper as 'the most popular TV show never screened' for its cult following and frequent downloads, network execs were so frustrated by the leak (ah, 2005 - more innocent times) that they declared that the show would never be released in any official way. Ever. Forever.
Check out the comic if you want to enjoy one of the best sci-fi comics around. And if you want a little taste of what might have been, head out online to try and find the Global Frequency pilot episode. As we get further and further from 2005, it seems more and more likely that we really never will get a Global Frequency release, so I think that, even for the most squeamish of conscience, you can download this without worry that you're taking money from the good people who nixed the show.
Global Frequency ticks many of Ellis's strongest boxes. While he does just fine on mainstream, continuity-heavy, company-owned titles, his heart never seems to be in it. Instead, he seems to be at his strongest bucking the comics trend with small-press books that he owns, that don't have coherent 'arcs', but instead focus on telling the entire story in a single issue.
Global Frequency features with a global civilian organization of 1,001 agents working under Miranda Zero and a young woman known as Aleph to deal with the bizarre threats that have begun to crop up in the world, or simply with things governments can't, or won't, deal with. Ellis mines a number of sci-fi tropes to find a his plots, but he does a lot with them, given that he only has 22 pages to tell each story.
Each of the twelve issues of Global Frequency has a wildly different tone. Heaven's One Hundred is an old-school shoot-'em-up action comic. Superviolence is a brutal 20-page fight between two cannibal martial artists. Invasive deals with a memetic alien virus taking people over, while Big Sky is about a mass hallucination in Norway where every person in a village is driven insane after claiming to see an angel. The comics range from exciting to horrifying, but they're never bad.
If a series of interconnected sci-fi done-in-one stories sounds like something you might find in television, you'd be interested to learn that Global Frequency was, at one point, scheduled for adaptation to TV. A pilot was shot, though when the show was not ultimately picked up, it was leaked on to the internet. If you look search around, you should still be able to find it. It's a loose adaptation of the first GF issue, titled 'Bombhead', and while there were a number of changes made in the general tone of the series, including the introduction of two 'regulars' that weren't Aleph and Miranda, the pilot was still remarkably true to the comic. And while Global Frequency was declared by one UK newspaper as 'the most popular TV show never screened' for its cult following and frequent downloads, network execs were so frustrated by the leak (ah, 2005 - more innocent times) that they declared that the show would never be released in any official way. Ever. Forever.
Check out the comic if you want to enjoy one of the best sci-fi comics around. And if you want a little taste of what might have been, head out online to try and find the Global Frequency pilot episode. As we get further and further from 2005, it seems more and more likely that we really never will get a Global Frequency release, so I think that, even for the most squeamish of conscience, you can download this without worry that you're taking money from the good people who nixed the show.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Read/RANT
I don't really know how many people check this out, and I believe that almost everyone who does is a VSRealms member, but just in case you hadn't been reading the best comic review blog on the 'net, I thought I'd link here to a group review blog done by myself and a few other VS mainstays...
www.readrant.wordpress.com
www.readrant.wordpress.com
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Rant: The Age of Fan Fiction
In the past, the very recent past, fan fiction has been considered a 'lower' form of writing than legitimately published fiction, be it comics, television, manga - whatever. Even today, it is widely considered to be beneath those other writings. But, as I read more and more comics, it seems as though we've moved from the Modern Age of Comics to the Fan Fiction Age of Comics. This is the first big generation of creators who grew up enormous fans in the industry.
However, instead of being enormous fans of the medium of comics, of the storytelling potential of these massive shared universes, they became enamored of certain characters. They didn't grow up saying, "I want to write comics," but, instead, "I want to write Hal Jordan." For a little while, this wasn't really a problem, but as time progressed, I began to see a trend, People refusing to read comics because it wasn't the 'right' Green Lantern, it wasn't the 'right' Flash, it wasn't the 'right' Batgirl.
Worse yet, I saw creators begin to follow the same trend. This was recently epitomized in a series titled Green Lantern: Rebirth, by Geoff Johns. In it, he found a way to resurrect Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern of his youth. By itself, this is nothing sinister, but it was the manner in which he did so, the content of the series, that I found worrying as I saw it becoming a trend in comicdom.
Within Rebirth, we see Hal Jordan brought back to life after his demise more than a decade ago, in which Hal turned evil, called himself Parallax, and nearly destroyed the universe. This occurred after a few years of excellent stories, most notably 'Hard Traveling Heroes', in which Hal Jordan and Ollie Queen travelled across America. In it, we saw a more human version of Hal. He was confident, but willing to admit when he was wrong. He was introspective.
This, however, was not the Hal Jordan Johns wanted. He wanted to cocky, confidant Golden Child. He didn't want the aging Hal, with a little grey at his temples. He didn't want to deal with the fall-out of Hal killing people. He didn't want any other Green Lantern to be respected above Hal. And so, when Hal comes back, we learn that he didn't actually kill those people - he was forced to by a yellow fear bug. He was fighting it. He grayed a little, not because he was getting older, no - instead, it's because he got possessed by said yellow fear bug, and what happens when you get scared? And that shit about Hal traveling the country, learning that he wasn't always right, that race-relations are important, drugs are a problem, all that - that was the fear bug, too. And in the Sinestro Corps War, Kyle Rayner, Hal's replacement, is possessed by the aforementioned bug and he kills someone. The Guardians strip Kyle of his honors, all the while, everyone learns an important lesson that Hal didn't actually hurt anyone. Oh, and did I mention that a super-villain who was slapping Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman around all at once was taken out in mere seconds by Hal? And Hal's hair turned back to pure brown. Magically. Because he was unscared.
Think about all that. Johns undid two decades of story-telling, removed every single flaw of the character, made him more powerful than any of the other established, popular DC heroes, and blanket forgave him of every sin he ever committed, all while removing his replacement (Kyle) from Earth, and removing all trust the other heroes had for Kyle. Oh, and Kyle's mom died.
Now, credit where credit's due. The 'yellow fear bug' idea was well-executed here, becoming an integral part of the Green Lantern mythology and opening up a number of really interesting paths for comics to take. Johns is creating a massive mythology for the Green Lanterns, and he's doing it in such a way that he's greatly expanding the story-telling potential of the once-faded franchise.
Still, was it worth it? Johns not only felt the need to bring a long-dead hero back to life, but he felt the need to discredit anyone who doesn't like him, flat-out taunt fans who don't like him by turning Batman into a ridiculous straw-man for anti-Hal arguments - and then have Hal one-punch him to the jaw. He reversed every wrong Hal ever did, put him in charge of thousands of Green Lanterns, and gave him back his city.
This is a common trend in comics, now. When Hal was brought back, respected artist Alex Ross famously declared 'We won!', leaving me to ask, "What did you win? Who did you beat, and do you care that that you had to 'beat' someone?" Of course not. That would require too much emotional maturity. Recently, Barry Allen, dead for over two decades, famed for dying one of the most heroic deaths in comicdom, was brought back. Of course, his replacement for over twenty years, Wally West, will be force to change his name and his costume. I would also be worried for Wally's family, were I you. Now, there's a movement to un-paralyze Barbara Gordon, the heroine now known as Oracle, so that she can return to action as Batgirl - and Jason Todd, the second Robin, has come back to life. In an upcoming mini-series titled Legion of 3 Worlds, we will see the original Legion of Superheroes, the second Legion of Superheroes, and the current Legion of Superheroes. Also being written by Geoff Johns, who has stated repeatedly his dislike of the 'new Legion', he has promised that there will only be one Legion when the book is over. Who wants to take money that it'll be the one he grew up with?
And we can't forget Marvel, can we? Marvel, with one of the worst offenses of FanBoyishness in history? Marvel decided that Spider-Man wasn't relatable enough. He was too old. His job as a high school teacher was too mundane - who likes a high school teacher, anyway? He had a hot wife. Maybe even kids, one day? Nope! Instead, Peter Parker made a deal with the devil (literally) to save his aunt - who is, by the way, over 100 years old - that resulted in him magically being divorced. No explanations given. Just...he forgot that he was ever married. Everyone did. No one on Earth recalled this. All evidence was wiped. It was a bad plot device that was so obviously an editorial mandate that the editor actually came out and said 'We don't have to explain it - it's magic." Oh, and somehow, one of Spider-Man's dead friends/enemies Norman Osborn came back to life. Because everyone forgot he was dead?
Meanwhile, what has come of the new characters or ideas? Manhunter is barely chugging along. Blue Beetle is surviving pretty much only on mercy. Checkmate is cancelled. Shadowpact is cancelled. Cassandra Cain, the new Batgirl, turned evil. Kon El, Superboy, died. Bart Allen, the newest Flash, died. The Sentry occasionally shows up and cries, having become one of fandom's biggest jokes.
As trends go, there've been worse. It's just sad, is all. People are more attached to characters than they are to stories. An average story featuring Batman will outsell a spectacular story featuring a character created in the last decade. Comic fans have become terrified to step out of their comfort zones. Comic creators just want things to go back to the way they were when they were kids. People sometimes forget that if you're too busy making the character you love look cool, you'll forget to make them look human. And what is this insatiable urge to make your favorite character the coolest person ever if not a part of the Dark Side of Fan Fiction?
However, instead of being enormous fans of the medium of comics, of the storytelling potential of these massive shared universes, they became enamored of certain characters. They didn't grow up saying, "I want to write comics," but, instead, "I want to write Hal Jordan." For a little while, this wasn't really a problem, but as time progressed, I began to see a trend, People refusing to read comics because it wasn't the 'right' Green Lantern, it wasn't the 'right' Flash, it wasn't the 'right' Batgirl.
Worse yet, I saw creators begin to follow the same trend. This was recently epitomized in a series titled Green Lantern: Rebirth, by Geoff Johns. In it, he found a way to resurrect Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern of his youth. By itself, this is nothing sinister, but it was the manner in which he did so, the content of the series, that I found worrying as I saw it becoming a trend in comicdom.
Within Rebirth, we see Hal Jordan brought back to life after his demise more than a decade ago, in which Hal turned evil, called himself Parallax, and nearly destroyed the universe. This occurred after a few years of excellent stories, most notably 'Hard Traveling Heroes', in which Hal Jordan and Ollie Queen travelled across America. In it, we saw a more human version of Hal. He was confident, but willing to admit when he was wrong. He was introspective.
This, however, was not the Hal Jordan Johns wanted. He wanted to cocky, confidant Golden Child. He didn't want the aging Hal, with a little grey at his temples. He didn't want to deal with the fall-out of Hal killing people. He didn't want any other Green Lantern to be respected above Hal. And so, when Hal comes back, we learn that he didn't actually kill those people - he was forced to by a yellow fear bug. He was fighting it. He grayed a little, not because he was getting older, no - instead, it's because he got possessed by said yellow fear bug, and what happens when you get scared? And that shit about Hal traveling the country, learning that he wasn't always right, that race-relations are important, drugs are a problem, all that - that was the fear bug, too. And in the Sinestro Corps War, Kyle Rayner, Hal's replacement, is possessed by the aforementioned bug and he kills someone. The Guardians strip Kyle of his honors, all the while, everyone learns an important lesson that Hal didn't actually hurt anyone. Oh, and did I mention that a super-villain who was slapping Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman around all at once was taken out in mere seconds by Hal? And Hal's hair turned back to pure brown. Magically. Because he was unscared.
Think about all that. Johns undid two decades of story-telling, removed every single flaw of the character, made him more powerful than any of the other established, popular DC heroes, and blanket forgave him of every sin he ever committed, all while removing his replacement (Kyle) from Earth, and removing all trust the other heroes had for Kyle. Oh, and Kyle's mom died.
Now, credit where credit's due. The 'yellow fear bug' idea was well-executed here, becoming an integral part of the Green Lantern mythology and opening up a number of really interesting paths for comics to take. Johns is creating a massive mythology for the Green Lanterns, and he's doing it in such a way that he's greatly expanding the story-telling potential of the once-faded franchise.
Still, was it worth it? Johns not only felt the need to bring a long-dead hero back to life, but he felt the need to discredit anyone who doesn't like him, flat-out taunt fans who don't like him by turning Batman into a ridiculous straw-man for anti-Hal arguments - and then have Hal one-punch him to the jaw. He reversed every wrong Hal ever did, put him in charge of thousands of Green Lanterns, and gave him back his city.
This is a common trend in comics, now. When Hal was brought back, respected artist Alex Ross famously declared 'We won!', leaving me to ask, "What did you win? Who did you beat, and do you care that that you had to 'beat' someone?" Of course not. That would require too much emotional maturity. Recently, Barry Allen, dead for over two decades, famed for dying one of the most heroic deaths in comicdom, was brought back. Of course, his replacement for over twenty years, Wally West, will be force to change his name and his costume. I would also be worried for Wally's family, were I you. Now, there's a movement to un-paralyze Barbara Gordon, the heroine now known as Oracle, so that she can return to action as Batgirl - and Jason Todd, the second Robin, has come back to life. In an upcoming mini-series titled Legion of 3 Worlds, we will see the original Legion of Superheroes, the second Legion of Superheroes, and the current Legion of Superheroes. Also being written by Geoff Johns, who has stated repeatedly his dislike of the 'new Legion', he has promised that there will only be one Legion when the book is over. Who wants to take money that it'll be the one he grew up with?
And we can't forget Marvel, can we? Marvel, with one of the worst offenses of FanBoyishness in history? Marvel decided that Spider-Man wasn't relatable enough. He was too old. His job as a high school teacher was too mundane - who likes a high school teacher, anyway? He had a hot wife. Maybe even kids, one day? Nope! Instead, Peter Parker made a deal with the devil (literally) to save his aunt - who is, by the way, over 100 years old - that resulted in him magically being divorced. No explanations given. Just...he forgot that he was ever married. Everyone did. No one on Earth recalled this. All evidence was wiped. It was a bad plot device that was so obviously an editorial mandate that the editor actually came out and said 'We don't have to explain it - it's magic." Oh, and somehow, one of Spider-Man's dead friends/enemies Norman Osborn came back to life. Because everyone forgot he was dead?
Meanwhile, what has come of the new characters or ideas? Manhunter is barely chugging along. Blue Beetle is surviving pretty much only on mercy. Checkmate is cancelled. Shadowpact is cancelled. Cassandra Cain, the new Batgirl, turned evil. Kon El, Superboy, died. Bart Allen, the newest Flash, died. The Sentry occasionally shows up and cries, having become one of fandom's biggest jokes.
As trends go, there've been worse. It's just sad, is all. People are more attached to characters than they are to stories. An average story featuring Batman will outsell a spectacular story featuring a character created in the last decade. Comic fans have become terrified to step out of their comfort zones. Comic creators just want things to go back to the way they were when they were kids. People sometimes forget that if you're too busy making the character you love look cool, you'll forget to make them look human. And what is this insatiable urge to make your favorite character the coolest person ever if not a part of the Dark Side of Fan Fiction?
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Public Service Announcement: Want to Write Comics?
Comics is a freakin' hard business to break into. One writer famously (to certain circles...of extreme geeks) compared breaking into the comics industry to breaking into a fortified medieval castle. As soon as one person finds a way to break in, the people at the castle say, "Well, shit, this is obviously waaaaay too easy" and they seal that entrance off. What the person was trying to say was, everyone has to find their own way in, because there is no surefire way to get in aside from, of course, being personal friends with Joe Quesada or Dan Didio.
Now, there are a lot of things you can do. There's the "Keep plugging away at it and hope you get it right some time" approach, and I suppose if it works for sex, it could work here, too. It's tough, but if you get published in a variety of places and occasionally drop your name in the right circles, you could get an invite to pitch a story, or you could just get a pitch accepted at certain publishers.
There's the contest route - that's more for artists, though. Writers rarely get contests (though the Shadowline segment of Image comics deserves a MASSIVE heaping of respect for their recent writing contest - "Who Wants to Create a Super-Heroine?" Look it up.) so that's unreliable.
There is always, of course, showing up to conventions and praying. Wouldn't recommend it, but it's worked before.
The point is, there are plenty of ways. That's not what this post, which shall be quite brief, is for. This post is for one thing: to begin to compile a list of comics companies that accept blind or relatively blind submissions. If you want to write comics but aren't confident in your networking skills, these guys are your best bets to get that foot in the door. This list is pretty small right now, but as I do more research, I'll update this occasionally.
Avatar Press
Avatar Press has recently begun to make a pretty sizable splash in the comics world, getting a number of projects from creators like Warren Ellis. Books like Anna Mercury, Gravel, and Doktor Sleepless are all published by Avatar, as well as a number of other projects. Avatar also accepts submissions from unknown writers AND writers pitching projects with no artist attached - a relative rarity, it seems.
There are problems, of course: one thing Avatar wants is an 8-12 page story featuring a character they own, but as you peruse the website, you may realize that it's rather difficult, or potentially impossible, to find a list of characters they own. That's just one small problem with the whole process, but they're still a good potential publisher for you. Violence, sex, and language all seem to be acceptable, and their content ranges from spandex to occult murder mysteries.
Dark Horse
Dark Horse seems to accept blind submissions as well. Their guidelines for submissions are clearly spelled out. They don't seem to accept e-mail submissions, which is honestly a little bit disappointing, but totally understandable. Dark Horse is probably a more recognizable name to you than Avatar Press, so you may want to give them a shot.
Finally (for tonight), a surprise...
Marvel
Marvel Comics, as one of the big two - as, perhaps, the bigger of the big two - is something of a shocker. But they do accept 'blind' submissions. Their process, however, is notably more rigorous. Before you get to pitch your series "Gambit and the Sex Hounds of the Bayou", you first need to send an inquiry listing your writing experience. Then, that on file, they'll contact you if they want to hear from you. It's at that time it seems you can make your pitch. So, not quite blind acceptance, but it's pretty damn close to accepting unsolicited submissions.
Ultimately, with hard work, you can probably break in. I wish any of you trying luck, and I'll talk to you all later. Hopefully about VS. It's hard to talk VS when you don't have anyone to play with, but I'm trying to teach my girlfriend how to play. I don't think it's going well.
Ah, oh well. Enjoy your reading, your writing, and your gaming, in whatever order you most enjoy reading, writing, and gaming, and I'll be posting again semi-soon.
Now, there are a lot of things you can do. There's the "Keep plugging away at it and hope you get it right some time" approach, and I suppose if it works for sex, it could work here, too. It's tough, but if you get published in a variety of places and occasionally drop your name in the right circles, you could get an invite to pitch a story, or you could just get a pitch accepted at certain publishers.
There's the contest route - that's more for artists, though. Writers rarely get contests (though the Shadowline segment of Image comics deserves a MASSIVE heaping of respect for their recent writing contest - "Who Wants to Create a Super-Heroine?" Look it up.) so that's unreliable.
There is always, of course, showing up to conventions and praying. Wouldn't recommend it, but it's worked before.
The point is, there are plenty of ways. That's not what this post, which shall be quite brief, is for. This post is for one thing: to begin to compile a list of comics companies that accept blind or relatively blind submissions. If you want to write comics but aren't confident in your networking skills, these guys are your best bets to get that foot in the door. This list is pretty small right now, but as I do more research, I'll update this occasionally.
Avatar Press
Avatar Press has recently begun to make a pretty sizable splash in the comics world, getting a number of projects from creators like Warren Ellis. Books like Anna Mercury, Gravel, and Doktor Sleepless are all published by Avatar, as well as a number of other projects. Avatar also accepts submissions from unknown writers AND writers pitching projects with no artist attached - a relative rarity, it seems.
There are problems, of course: one thing Avatar wants is an 8-12 page story featuring a character they own, but as you peruse the website, you may realize that it's rather difficult, or potentially impossible, to find a list of characters they own. That's just one small problem with the whole process, but they're still a good potential publisher for you. Violence, sex, and language all seem to be acceptable, and their content ranges from spandex to occult murder mysteries.
Dark Horse
Dark Horse seems to accept blind submissions as well. Their guidelines for submissions are clearly spelled out. They don't seem to accept e-mail submissions, which is honestly a little bit disappointing, but totally understandable. Dark Horse is probably a more recognizable name to you than Avatar Press, so you may want to give them a shot.
Finally (for tonight), a surprise...
Marvel
Marvel Comics, as one of the big two - as, perhaps, the bigger of the big two - is something of a shocker. But they do accept 'blind' submissions. Their process, however, is notably more rigorous. Before you get to pitch your series "Gambit and the Sex Hounds of the Bayou", you first need to send an inquiry listing your writing experience. Then, that on file, they'll contact you if they want to hear from you. It's at that time it seems you can make your pitch. So, not quite blind acceptance, but it's pretty damn close to accepting unsolicited submissions.
Ultimately, with hard work, you can probably break in. I wish any of you trying luck, and I'll talk to you all later. Hopefully about VS. It's hard to talk VS when you don't have anyone to play with, but I'm trying to teach my girlfriend how to play. I don't think it's going well.
Ah, oh well. Enjoy your reading, your writing, and your gaming, in whatever order you most enjoy reading, writing, and gaming, and I'll be posting again semi-soon.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
The Best Books You Aren't Reading Best Deal You Aren't Taking Deal Offer Extravaganza
Now, I've opened my mouth and gone and told you exactly what books I think deserve your attention. But it's not just your attention I'm asking you to give - it's your money*. And your money could be going towards other things, not better, but at least as good. VS, just to name one.
And not all of you are comics fans, or you don't read too much beyond a core set of books you've always read. It's tough, generally, to convince people to branch out to these titles with characters they know nothing about.
So, I'm making you an offer, and I'll remind you of this offer every time a do a new The Best Books You Aren't Reading segment. If you buy an issue of one of these series on my recommendation and don't like it, PM me on Vsrealms at SeventhSoldier, let me know what series is was. I'll mail you a random Marvel Legends or DC Legends rare or foil, or a random EA (don't worry - I'll only pull from my pile of Silver Age hobby league stuff)
Now, you can't go and buy 10 issues of Blue Beetle, tell me you hate them all, and then expect 10 rares. I'll give you once chance per series.
I know you won't make back the money you spent on that issue, probably - I don't have a lot of the pricey rares. So, I apologize for that. But, hey, you get a random card if you give one of these series a shot and aren't satisfied with it. That's not a bad deal, all things considered.
And, you know, you'll have an issue of a comic that you don't want. I won't ask you to send it to me, 'cuz that would be too much of an expense to you. So, I'll ask you to give that comic away somehow to another reader who has never done it.
You could give it away as part of a hobby league, or as a contest of some sorts - deck-building, a small tournament, I don't know. Or, you could just ask your local comic shop to give the copy away to someone else who hasn't read it before.
So, there you have it - pick up an issue of John Roger's Blue Beetle, Ed Brubaker/Matt Fraction's Immortal Iron Fist, or Ed Brubaker's Criminal. If you don't like it, tell me about it, I'll reward you for giving it a shot. That's the deal. I'll remind you sometime soon.
Finally, if you want to give this a shot, you can always ask me what issue I think you should pick up. 1 isn't always the best place to start, after all...
Enjoy!
*Unless, of course, you do what I did when I first tried a number of series' and avail yourself to your excellent local library system.
And not all of you are comics fans, or you don't read too much beyond a core set of books you've always read. It's tough, generally, to convince people to branch out to these titles with characters they know nothing about.
So, I'm making you an offer, and I'll remind you of this offer every time a do a new The Best Books You Aren't Reading segment. If you buy an issue of one of these series on my recommendation and don't like it, PM me on Vsrealms at SeventhSoldier, let me know what series is was. I'll mail you a random Marvel Legends or DC Legends rare or foil, or a random EA (don't worry - I'll only pull from my pile of Silver Age hobby league stuff)
Now, you can't go and buy 10 issues of Blue Beetle, tell me you hate them all, and then expect 10 rares. I'll give you once chance per series.
I know you won't make back the money you spent on that issue, probably - I don't have a lot of the pricey rares. So, I apologize for that. But, hey, you get a random card if you give one of these series a shot and aren't satisfied with it. That's not a bad deal, all things considered.
And, you know, you'll have an issue of a comic that you don't want. I won't ask you to send it to me, 'cuz that would be too much of an expense to you. So, I'll ask you to give that comic away somehow to another reader who has never done it.
You could give it away as part of a hobby league, or as a contest of some sorts - deck-building, a small tournament, I don't know. Or, you could just ask your local comic shop to give the copy away to someone else who hasn't read it before.
So, there you have it - pick up an issue of John Roger's Blue Beetle, Ed Brubaker/Matt Fraction's Immortal Iron Fist, or Ed Brubaker's Criminal. If you don't like it, tell me about it, I'll reward you for giving it a shot. That's the deal. I'll remind you sometime soon.
Finally, if you want to give this a shot, you can always ask me what issue I think you should pick up. 1 isn't always the best place to start, after all...
Enjoy!
*Unless, of course, you do what I did when I first tried a number of series' and avail yourself to your excellent local library system.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Recommended Reading: DC Legends
Many apologies for the long delay between posts. As the quarter winds down, I find that I am running out of time to get all my graduate school preparations in order, so I have been rushing about. The weather has screwed me at least once on this, but I persevere - and, eventually, return.
This list won't be quite as extensive. The JLA is comprised of some of the most well-known superheroes the world over. The Injustice Gang is comprised of some of the greatest villains the world has ever known. Great villains, however, rarely have solo-books. Still, I'm going to give you this brief intro the the Injustice Gang Legends - The Joker, and Lex Luthor.
The Joker
The Joker has been the core of many interesting stories. Done right, he's an absolute terror. Like Batman, he doesn't necessarily react well with the DC Universe as a whole, but in Gotham City, the Joker is one of the most terrifying faces evil wears.
Batman: The Killing Joke is alternately one of the most well-loved Batman stories around, and one of the most loathed. Written by comic legend Alan Moore, it is nonetheless a great look into the mind of a madman.
Batman: The Man Who Laughs is a retelling of Batman's first encounters with the Joker, as told by extremely respected author Ed Brubaker. Here are some 'Year One' style stories about the scariest guy around town.
Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor is Superman's most famous enemy, and he's played every role humanly possible. He's been the hero, he's been the mad scientist, the politician, the man of the people. He's been everyone, which can make it...difficult to get a handle on just who the hell he is. Still, here are a few books to check out.
Lex Luthor: Man of Steel is an examination of the rivalry between Lex and Superman. It shows a Lex Luthor enraged at what he believes Superman is doing to our society. It's a little darker than the normal superhero story - obviously, with Lex at the center - and a little slicker thanks to some nice art, and it's a great book to check out to see about the character.
In 52, we saw an absolutely monstrous side of Lex. There's a lot of other stuff going on, but 52 also has some of Lex at his most cold and calculating.
All-Star Superman has been talked about once before, but All-Star Superman #5, titled "The Gospel According To Luthor", is a crazy examination of both Superman AND Lex Luthor. While many A-SS issues have great Luthor moments, this one shines.
So, only two legends. Oh well, I'll be back by the end of the week with another post. Hope you all have an awesome day!
This list won't be quite as extensive. The JLA is comprised of some of the most well-known superheroes the world over. The Injustice Gang is comprised of some of the greatest villains the world has ever known. Great villains, however, rarely have solo-books. Still, I'm going to give you this brief intro the the Injustice Gang Legends - The Joker, and Lex Luthor.
The Joker
The Joker has been the core of many interesting stories. Done right, he's an absolute terror. Like Batman, he doesn't necessarily react well with the DC Universe as a whole, but in Gotham City, the Joker is one of the most terrifying faces evil wears.
Batman: The Killing Joke is alternately one of the most well-loved Batman stories around, and one of the most loathed. Written by comic legend Alan Moore, it is nonetheless a great look into the mind of a madman.
Batman: The Man Who Laughs is a retelling of Batman's first encounters with the Joker, as told by extremely respected author Ed Brubaker. Here are some 'Year One' style stories about the scariest guy around town.
Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor is Superman's most famous enemy, and he's played every role humanly possible. He's been the hero, he's been the mad scientist, the politician, the man of the people. He's been everyone, which can make it...difficult to get a handle on just who the hell he is. Still, here are a few books to check out.
Lex Luthor: Man of Steel is an examination of the rivalry between Lex and Superman. It shows a Lex Luthor enraged at what he believes Superman is doing to our society. It's a little darker than the normal superhero story - obviously, with Lex at the center - and a little slicker thanks to some nice art, and it's a great book to check out to see about the character.
In 52, we saw an absolutely monstrous side of Lex. There's a lot of other stuff going on, but 52 also has some of Lex at his most cold and calculating.
All-Star Superman has been talked about once before, but All-Star Superman #5, titled "The Gospel According To Luthor", is a crazy examination of both Superman AND Lex Luthor. While many A-SS issues have great Luthor moments, this one shines.
So, only two legends. Oh well, I'll be back by the end of the week with another post. Hope you all have an awesome day!
Monday, March 3, 2008
Recommended Reading: DC Legends
I know, I know. Vssystem.com generally has a required reading list up before a new set. A...uhh...comprehensive one, though I don't always understand their choices. Still, I've gotta give it to 'em, they've got pretty good taste. But, I figure, a second opinion never hurts, right? So, I'm going to try and go set-by-set to pick out one or two good bits of reading for you, so you can become more familiar with those particular characters.
This first segment will be for the JLA Legendary characters of DC Legends.
Aquaman
I'm going to give you a few options for Aquaman. Three, in fact. First off, we have the recent reboot. It's not the Aquaman you grew up with, true, but it's certainly an interesting story, and it may well be worth giving a shot.
Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis: Once and Future
Alternatively, you could start with some really old school examples.
Showcase Presents: Aquaman volume 1
Finally, Peter David is a talented writer, and his take on Aquaman was pretty popular for a long time.
Aquaman: Time and Tide
Barry Allen
Barry Allen is old-school popular, and he died one of the most famous deaths in comicdom. He's still got an enormous fanbase, and people are constantly begging for his return. Here's a few adventures central to his mythos.
The Life of the Flash by Iris Allen is a good place to start, as it's basically a 'biography' of Barry Allen, written by his wife Iris after his death.
The Life of the Flash by Iris Allen
Just like Aquaman, the Flash has his own Showcase collection.
Showcase Presents: The Flash volume 1
Finally, the moment that rocketed Barry into legend.... It's dense reading, but if you want to see how Barry Allen died, this is where you go.
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Batman
You all know who he is. Batman is one of the most famous superheroes of all time, and his story has been told over and over again. Here are a few places you might like to begin.
Widely considered to be among the best tellings of Batman's Origin, this is the story of one of Batman's first adventures.
Batman: Year One
That was Batman at his peak. If you want to see him gone way off the deep-end in the story that turned the Dark Knight into what he is today...
The Dark Knight Returns
Jeph Loeb is a controversial figure for some comic fans. Some of his work is despised. Most people, however, fully admit that his Batman stories with artist Tim Sale are some of the best around. For another early Batman adventure...
Batman: Long Halloween
Hal Jordan
Hal Jordan is a pilot famous for his lack of fear. He's also famous as a member of the Green Lantern Corps, and one of DC's enduring Silver Age fan-favorites.
With all the reboots going around, how can someone know where to look for a good origin? Well, it's tough, but a friend pointed me towards this collection for a modern retelling of Hal Jordan's origin.
Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn
Most comic fans know, Hal went a little off the deep end for awhile. In another famous story, here we see a hero driven to the edge, and pushed over, and what just a little bit of willpower can do in the wrong hands.
Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight & A New Dawn
Of course, nothing is forever in the world of comics. Hal was both unkilled and un-evilled, and the only shock there is that the story is actually supposed to be very good.
Green Lantern: Rebirth
Martian Manhunter
Martian Manhunter is a funny character. Never quite popular enough to hold his own title for long, he is nonetheless widely considered to be the single most crucial character in the dynamics of the Justice League. Here are a few places to look for him, though to be entirely frank, Grant Morrison's JLA is probably the best for him.
Another Showcase, for his older adventures.
Showcase Presents: Martian Manhunter volume 1
Martian Manhunter was one of many characters who, in recent years, has taken on a brand new direction.
Martian Manhunter: Others Among Us
Superman
Another of comics' most popular and enduring icons, the Man of Steel has an enormous tally of stories to his name. Here are a few.
Superman has a ton of origin stories. Seems like his origin gets retold every 5-10 years. This is the most recent retelling, so it's the one they'll be going with for the next few years.
Superman: Birthright
Remember what I said about Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale? Well, they also did some work on Superman on this popular book.
Superman for All Seasons
Finally, if you just want an awesome, absolutely epic set of Superman stories, this is a must read. One of two Superman stories that even people who dislike Superman (like myself) love.
All-Star Superman
Finally, and I'm only doing this because I think this is a book you'll like, Superman gets a 4th book. It isn't in continuity, and it isn't the Superman you recognize, but it's a wonderfully good comic.
Superman: Secret Identity
Wonder Woman
The last of the JLA Legends on one of DC's Trinity, Wonder Woman is perhaps the most important female character in comic book history. Not necessarily the best, though - she's had something of a spotted run, with some highs and some extreme lows. Here are a few good places to start with her.
This is from the Perez-reboot, a fan-favorite take on the Wonder Woman character.
Wonder Woman: Gods and Mortals
This is the beginning of Greg Rucka's run on Wonder Woman, which managed to consistently be one of the best titles DC was putting out for awhile. Rucka goes to great lengths to get into her character.
Wonder Woman: Down to Earth
Finally, Gail Simone has just recently begun writing Wonder Woman. She's the first female ongoing Wonder Woman writer, and her first arc just concluded. Here's DC's Wonder Woman solicits.
Wonder Woman
Okay, there's plenty of stuff there to help you get familiar with these iconic characters. I haven't read everything on this list yet, but I'm scouring libraries trying to find the ones I don't already own. Coming soon, I'll work on some of the bad guys of the set. Hope you enjoyed!
This first segment will be for the JLA Legendary characters of DC Legends.
Aquaman
I'm going to give you a few options for Aquaman. Three, in fact. First off, we have the recent reboot. It's not the Aquaman you grew up with, true, but it's certainly an interesting story, and it may well be worth giving a shot.
Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis: Once and Future
Alternatively, you could start with some really old school examples.
Showcase Presents: Aquaman volume 1
Finally, Peter David is a talented writer, and his take on Aquaman was pretty popular for a long time.
Aquaman: Time and Tide
Barry Allen
Barry Allen is old-school popular, and he died one of the most famous deaths in comicdom. He's still got an enormous fanbase, and people are constantly begging for his return. Here's a few adventures central to his mythos.
The Life of the Flash by Iris Allen is a good place to start, as it's basically a 'biography' of Barry Allen, written by his wife Iris after his death.
The Life of the Flash by Iris Allen
Just like Aquaman, the Flash has his own Showcase collection.
Showcase Presents: The Flash volume 1
Finally, the moment that rocketed Barry into legend.... It's dense reading, but if you want to see how Barry Allen died, this is where you go.
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Batman
You all know who he is. Batman is one of the most famous superheroes of all time, and his story has been told over and over again. Here are a few places you might like to begin.
Widely considered to be among the best tellings of Batman's Origin, this is the story of one of Batman's first adventures.
Batman: Year One
That was Batman at his peak. If you want to see him gone way off the deep-end in the story that turned the Dark Knight into what he is today...
The Dark Knight Returns
Jeph Loeb is a controversial figure for some comic fans. Some of his work is despised. Most people, however, fully admit that his Batman stories with artist Tim Sale are some of the best around. For another early Batman adventure...
Batman: Long Halloween
Hal Jordan
Hal Jordan is a pilot famous for his lack of fear. He's also famous as a member of the Green Lantern Corps, and one of DC's enduring Silver Age fan-favorites.
With all the reboots going around, how can someone know where to look for a good origin? Well, it's tough, but a friend pointed me towards this collection for a modern retelling of Hal Jordan's origin.
Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn
Most comic fans know, Hal went a little off the deep end for awhile. In another famous story, here we see a hero driven to the edge, and pushed over, and what just a little bit of willpower can do in the wrong hands.
Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight & A New Dawn
Of course, nothing is forever in the world of comics. Hal was both unkilled and un-evilled, and the only shock there is that the story is actually supposed to be very good.
Green Lantern: Rebirth
Martian Manhunter
Martian Manhunter is a funny character. Never quite popular enough to hold his own title for long, he is nonetheless widely considered to be the single most crucial character in the dynamics of the Justice League. Here are a few places to look for him, though to be entirely frank, Grant Morrison's JLA is probably the best for him.
Another Showcase, for his older adventures.
Showcase Presents: Martian Manhunter volume 1
Martian Manhunter was one of many characters who, in recent years, has taken on a brand new direction.
Martian Manhunter: Others Among Us
Superman
Another of comics' most popular and enduring icons, the Man of Steel has an enormous tally of stories to his name. Here are a few.
Superman has a ton of origin stories. Seems like his origin gets retold every 5-10 years. This is the most recent retelling, so it's the one they'll be going with for the next few years.
Superman: Birthright
Remember what I said about Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale? Well, they also did some work on Superman on this popular book.
Superman for All Seasons
Finally, if you just want an awesome, absolutely epic set of Superman stories, this is a must read. One of two Superman stories that even people who dislike Superman (like myself) love.
All-Star Superman
Finally, and I'm only doing this because I think this is a book you'll like, Superman gets a 4th book. It isn't in continuity, and it isn't the Superman you recognize, but it's a wonderfully good comic.
Superman: Secret Identity
Wonder Woman
The last of the JLA Legends on one of DC's Trinity, Wonder Woman is perhaps the most important female character in comic book history. Not necessarily the best, though - she's had something of a spotted run, with some highs and some extreme lows. Here are a few good places to start with her.
This is from the Perez-reboot, a fan-favorite take on the Wonder Woman character.
Wonder Woman: Gods and Mortals
This is the beginning of Greg Rucka's run on Wonder Woman, which managed to consistently be one of the best titles DC was putting out for awhile. Rucka goes to great lengths to get into her character.
Wonder Woman: Down to Earth
Finally, Gail Simone has just recently begun writing Wonder Woman. She's the first female ongoing Wonder Woman writer, and her first arc just concluded. Here's DC's Wonder Woman solicits.
Wonder Woman
Okay, there's plenty of stuff there to help you get familiar with these iconic characters. I haven't read everything on this list yet, but I'm scouring libraries trying to find the ones I don't already own. Coming soon, I'll work on some of the bad guys of the set. Hope you enjoyed!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Passions
"If a superhero can be such a powerful and effective metaphor for male adolescence, then what else can you do with them? Could you build a superhero story around a metaphor for female adolescence? Around mid-life crisis? Around the changes adults go through when they become parents? Sure, why not? And if a superhero can exemplify America's self-image at the dawn of World War II, could a superhero exemplify America's self-image during the less-confident 1970s? How about the emerging national identity of a newly-independent African nation? Or a non-national culture, like the drug culture, or the "greed-is-good" business culture of the go-go Eighties? Of course. If it can do one, it can do the others."
-Kurt Busiek, in his introduction to "Astro City: Life in the Big City"
I've been asked before, by family, by my girlfriend, by friends, why I read comics, and even more geekily, why I invest so much time, money, and passion into the Vs. System card game. It's hard to explain, but I think Kurt Busiek does a pretty good job. Superheroes have a metaphorical, a symbolic power, almost by their very nature, both in their own fictional world but also, more importantly, in ours. A superhero can emulate the angsts and needs of his time, but he can also reflect the bygone values of a lost age, or the emerging hopes of a potential new one. In a way, the genre of 'superhero fiction' - not really a genre, I know - is among the most modern and versatile genres there are.
Vs captures some of that passion for me, some of that screaming power. Don't get me wrong, I don't play it just because of the superheroes - I play it because it's the best damn game out there. But without that initial push, I might never have learned about it.
I don't know where you're coming to this blog from, if you're coming at all. Some of the posts - obviously! - are extremely Vs-centric, and some are very comic-book-y. Sometimes I'll talk about movies, and sometimes music, and sometimes I'll tell you what my favorite novels are, or what I love in role-playing games. Whatever. I guess this post was a little post-intro-explanatroduction, and as such, I'll keep it succinct.
Go out and try something new. If you're a Vs. fan who never picked up a comic book, or never strayed from the Big Guys (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Wolverine, etc...) give something else a shot. Try out Blue Beetle, by John Rogers, or Grant Morrison's Animal Man, or Seven Soldiers. Or go way out there, and hit up something like Lucifer, or Y: The Last Man.
If you're a comic book fan, give Vs. a shot. You can build decks and play them for free online, and if you want me to teach you with a game or two, let me know. It's a great game, it really is, and it has one of the best player-bases I've ever had the pleasure to interact with.
And, if you don't like either Vs OR comics...well, you've got a whole helluva lot of things to try out, don't you? Enjoy them!
Download for the program to play Vs free online: http://forum.tcgplayer.com/showthread.php?t=114390
-Kurt Busiek, in his introduction to "Astro City: Life in the Big City"
I've been asked before, by family, by my girlfriend, by friends, why I read comics, and even more geekily, why I invest so much time, money, and passion into the Vs. System card game. It's hard to explain, but I think Kurt Busiek does a pretty good job. Superheroes have a metaphorical, a symbolic power, almost by their very nature, both in their own fictional world but also, more importantly, in ours. A superhero can emulate the angsts and needs of his time, but he can also reflect the bygone values of a lost age, or the emerging hopes of a potential new one. In a way, the genre of 'superhero fiction' - not really a genre, I know - is among the most modern and versatile genres there are.
Vs captures some of that passion for me, some of that screaming power. Don't get me wrong, I don't play it just because of the superheroes - I play it because it's the best damn game out there. But without that initial push, I might never have learned about it.
I don't know where you're coming to this blog from, if you're coming at all. Some of the posts - obviously! - are extremely Vs-centric, and some are very comic-book-y. Sometimes I'll talk about movies, and sometimes music, and sometimes I'll tell you what my favorite novels are, or what I love in role-playing games. Whatever. I guess this post was a little post-intro-explanatroduction, and as such, I'll keep it succinct.
Go out and try something new. If you're a Vs. fan who never picked up a comic book, or never strayed from the Big Guys (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Wolverine, etc...) give something else a shot. Try out Blue Beetle, by John Rogers, or Grant Morrison's Animal Man, or Seven Soldiers. Or go way out there, and hit up something like Lucifer, or Y: The Last Man.
If you're a comic book fan, give Vs. a shot. You can build decks and play them for free online, and if you want me to teach you with a game or two, let me know. It's a great game, it really is, and it has one of the best player-bases I've ever had the pleasure to interact with.
And, if you don't like either Vs OR comics...well, you've got a whole helluva lot of things to try out, don't you? Enjoy them!
Download for the program to play Vs free online: http://forum.tcgplayer.com/showthread.php?t=114390
Sunday, December 16, 2007
New School: Wonder Woman
When people talk about comic books, there are a few characters that are always mentioned. Spider-Man is the Marvel stand-out: everyone knows who he is, and most people geeked out to him at some point in their lives. He's the big guy for Marvel - yeah, a lot of people know who Captain America, the Hulk, and Wolverine are, and a few others, but none of them have the power over your average American that Spidey does.
DC is fortunate in that they have three such individuals: Batman (and, by extension, Robin), Superman, and finally, Wonder Woman.
Now, Spidey, Superman, and Batman all have had some good runs on their books, created memorable stories. People know what they're about.
Wonder Woman, on the other hand? ...Amazons Attack. ...Love and Murder. It's stories like those that have given Wonder Woman a bad name recently. More than that, it's that no one knows who she is. I've really only read one Wonder Woman run that I really liked: Greg Rucka's Wonder Woman, for me, nailed a lot of things about the character that I thought had been missing. But, in the end, Rucka had to leave, and she was back to the status quo of terrible-bordering-on-nonsensical writing...
So, when fan-favorite writer Gail Simone decided to take on Wonder Woman, a lot of people were pretty happy to hear the news.
Her first issue, Wonder Woman #14, was okay. Not spectacular, not amazing, and not what the character needed, it was still a step up from the average Wonder Woman story. I wasn't sure if I was going to keep buying it, but Gail Simone is on a very short list of writers who gets 4 issues on anything they do. If I don't like it after that, I'll occasionally check scans to see if it's picked up, but she always gets 4 issues.
Wonder Woman #15 came out on December 12th, and it's in the run for my favorite single issue of the month. Gail Simone was telling three different stories in the issue, and shockingly, they were ALL good. She made me care about characters in four pages that I had never cared about before; I learned things about Amazon culture. Oh, yeah - Amazons have a culture now! There were super-intelligent gorillas, a whole crockpot of gods, Wonder Woman has a new patron deity, and Hippolyta is fighting a guerilla war against super-powered Nazis who have come to take over Paradise Isle. Think about that: Wonder Woman's mom killing super-Nazis...
It's important, however, to pay attention to what Hippolyta is saying, because it looks like it's going to be an important part of Wonder Woman in Gail Simone's run: Amazons are NOT afraid of bloodshed. They are NOT afraid to kill. BUT: they don't want to. They want to forgive you, if you'll just let them. They want to help you. If you won't let them, if you want a fight, they'll jump in without hesitation, without shedding a tear. But they want what's best. Even for their worst enemies. The issue is worth buying alone for Wonder Woman's scene with Captain Nazi, in which she explains the Amazon philosophy for such matters.
I think that's what sets her apart, to me. At her best, Wonder Woman is more dedicated to truth than Batman or Superman ever will be. She may not be as smart as Batman, or have the senses of Superman to allow her to discern truth...but when it comes down to it, it will be Wonder Woman who discovers the Truth. The motive. She'll understand. She'll fight with the best of them, but where Batman would despise you and Superman wouldn't get why you were doing it...Wonder Woman would understand why you were doing it, and if you wanted, she would help you undo it, too. You would still be punished, because punishment is important to learning, but she would help you make things right.
Anyway, what this all boils down to is this: give Wonder Woman a shot. She's got a good writer, finally, and the arc is literally just now starting. It's a great place to jump on, even if you have no familiarity with the character, and Gail Simone is one of the classiest writers working today.
And if you need just a little more convincing...
Yes, Wonder Woman is currently living with a group of super-intelligent apes. Go buy it.
Reading List
Greg Rucka has written some wonderful Wonder Woman stuff. This is the first arc in his respected run.
Alternatively, DC publishes archives of some of the older stories. I can't speak for their quality, but it's certainly a place to start.
Finally, Gail Simone is currently writing a fantastic Wonder Woman title.
DC is fortunate in that they have three such individuals: Batman (and, by extension, Robin), Superman, and finally, Wonder Woman.
Now, Spidey, Superman, and Batman all have had some good runs on their books, created memorable stories. People know what they're about.
Wonder Woman, on the other hand? ...Amazons Attack. ...Love and Murder. It's stories like those that have given Wonder Woman a bad name recently. More than that, it's that no one knows who she is. I've really only read one Wonder Woman run that I really liked: Greg Rucka's Wonder Woman, for me, nailed a lot of things about the character that I thought had been missing. But, in the end, Rucka had to leave, and she was back to the status quo of terrible-bordering-on-nonsensical writing...
So, when fan-favorite writer Gail Simone decided to take on Wonder Woman, a lot of people were pretty happy to hear the news.
Her first issue, Wonder Woman #14, was okay. Not spectacular, not amazing, and not what the character needed, it was still a step up from the average Wonder Woman story. I wasn't sure if I was going to keep buying it, but Gail Simone is on a very short list of writers who gets 4 issues on anything they do. If I don't like it after that, I'll occasionally check scans to see if it's picked up, but she always gets 4 issues.
Wonder Woman #15 came out on December 12th, and it's in the run for my favorite single issue of the month. Gail Simone was telling three different stories in the issue, and shockingly, they were ALL good. She made me care about characters in four pages that I had never cared about before; I learned things about Amazon culture. Oh, yeah - Amazons have a culture now! There were super-intelligent gorillas, a whole crockpot of gods, Wonder Woman has a new patron deity, and Hippolyta is fighting a guerilla war against super-powered Nazis who have come to take over Paradise Isle. Think about that: Wonder Woman's mom killing super-Nazis...
It's important, however, to pay attention to what Hippolyta is saying, because it looks like it's going to be an important part of Wonder Woman in Gail Simone's run: Amazons are NOT afraid of bloodshed. They are NOT afraid to kill. BUT: they don't want to. They want to forgive you, if you'll just let them. They want to help you. If you won't let them, if you want a fight, they'll jump in without hesitation, without shedding a tear. But they want what's best. Even for their worst enemies. The issue is worth buying alone for Wonder Woman's scene with Captain Nazi, in which she explains the Amazon philosophy for such matters.
I think that's what sets her apart, to me. At her best, Wonder Woman is more dedicated to truth than Batman or Superman ever will be. She may not be as smart as Batman, or have the senses of Superman to allow her to discern truth...but when it comes down to it, it will be Wonder Woman who discovers the Truth. The motive. She'll understand. She'll fight with the best of them, but where Batman would despise you and Superman wouldn't get why you were doing it...Wonder Woman would understand why you were doing it, and if you wanted, she would help you undo it, too. You would still be punished, because punishment is important to learning, but she would help you make things right.
Anyway, what this all boils down to is this: give Wonder Woman a shot. She's got a good writer, finally, and the arc is literally just now starting. It's a great place to jump on, even if you have no familiarity with the character, and Gail Simone is one of the classiest writers working today.
And if you need just a little more convincing...
Yes, Wonder Woman is currently living with a group of super-intelligent apes. Go buy it.
Reading List
Greg Rucka has written some wonderful Wonder Woman stuff. This is the first arc in his respected run.
Alternatively, DC publishes archives of some of the older stories. I can't speak for their quality, but it's certainly a place to start.
Finally, Gail Simone is currently writing a fantastic Wonder Woman title.
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