Dr. Flem's Laboratory

Been a While, eh?

2007-02-13T15:18:00.000-08:00

Yeah, so I kind of disappeared for a while.

No, I still haven't finished Cerebus.

Yes, it kind of sapped my energy for getting excited about comics as a medium.

Yes, I needed some really enjoyable superhero-themed comics to get my energy up.

So, I read all of the Gail Simone run on Birds of Prey, which was pretty much just what the doctor ordered. I actually kind of like Black Canary, which is a pretty significant change from the vast apathy I've felt since childhood. Huntress actually seems like a real person instead of a borderline-offensive stereotype. Very nice stuff.

That said, while the character work in the series is fantastic, the whole run feels a little thin on ideas. I mean, it's nearly 4 years of comics and introduces, what, five new characters that seem reusable? I clearly like Savant a lot less than Simone does (based on this) - he and Creote both feel like refugees from 90's comics I've only skimmed. Really, the only new addition I like is Josh, who is perhaps somewhat limited, but useful in the kind of action-comedy scenes Simone seems to like.

I'm probably coming across as more negative than I intend. Like I say, I enjoy the series, and I think it's going to be a decent enough home for Kate Spencer (though I'll feel better if her supporting cast shows up sooner rather than later). I just feel like some of the less tangible concepts aren't handled as well as they could be. The Brainiac virus storyline, for instance, would have just been awesome in the hands of someone like, say, Warren Ellis, but ended up just feeling kind of muddled here. Still, lots of well-written characters, so I can't complain.

Speaking of Ellis, am I the only person reading New Universal? More importantly, am I the only person who really loves New Universal? I'm sure there's probably a lot of scorn towards the New Universe titles, and rightly so (as anyone who read Kickers, Inc. - or, really, any of the New Universe titles other than DP7 - would probably agree), but Ellis is doing a really nice job with the "superhero-y tropes invade real world" concept. This last issue had two totally great conceptual moments that really got me (the discussion of the past appearances of superhumans and the depiction of the shining ancient city) and it's certainly my favorite series in which absolutely nothing is happening.

Some Final Thoughts on Church and State

2006-08-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

I want to get back to the regularly scheduled superhero-themed posting (since the whole point of this blog is to be able to openly talk about comics I can't talk about to those who I'm trying to convince of the value of the medium), but I've got a couple more things to say about Cerebus. I'm just starting Mothers & Daughters now (issue 150 or so), but the ending of Church & State really impressed me.

This post is going to be chock-full of spoilers, so those who are concerned about such things may want to stop reading now.

Earlier, I was a little confused by the narrative decision to make Cerebus a rapist. As mentioned, it certainly allowed Sim to deal with some religious issues, and ended up revealing more about the character of Cerebus than one might expect, but it seemed like a pretty drastic step in turning your readership against your protagonist.

All of that became much more clear in the end of Church & State. Cerebus, having walked out of Astoria's trial to climb a giant tower to meet God, ends up on the moon talking with the Judge from Jules Feiffer's Little Murders. After the judge reveals that the world will end in 6000 years (which puts the events of Cerebus right about at the start date of the planet acc'd to the fundamentalists), Cerebus asks about his own destiny.

These three pages are some of the best I've read in a long while. Cerebus is told flatly, that all the intrigue, aspirations, scheming of the past 100 or so issues is completely moot. He failed at everything, and wasn't even there to see it happen or do anything about it. He is told, with finality, that his life will amount to nothing, and he will soon die - alone, unmourned, unloved. All of which would be bad enough, but the crushing reminder that he has no moral authority left to argue against this outcome after his rape of Astoria. The page and a half of the judge walking away into the bleak landscape of the moon is wonderful. Cerebus is alone with his guilt and self-loathing.

It's a rare emotion - one that doesn't get conveyed in any medium that often - the hidden shame, the fear of being judged (worse, the fear of being judged rightly), feelings of abject unworthiness. I can only think of a couple other examples that even come close (Joel's memory of killing a helpless animal in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Leland's guilt at the first time he let BOB inside of him in Twin Peaks), but neither comes close to this. This is, effectively, the fear of being condemned to Hell for something you know you did and you knew was wrong.

I can certainly see why the Wachowski Bros. tried to rip off this scene.

More Thoguhts on Cerebus

2006-08-09T18:15:00.000-07:00

Immediately after my last post, I hit the first of what I assume will be many scenes that are a little hard to swallow in Cerebus. I was well aware going in of Sim's somewhat controversial views on feminism, but, to date, the book had actually been pretty interesting as far as its thoughts on theology and politcs and such, but this sequence was certainly a little off-putting.

(There are going to be some significant spoilers ahead, if A) anyone is reading this and B) cares)

So, the sequence in question involves Cerebus, in his capacity as Pope, interrogating his former advisor Astoria (who has just killed the other Pope). She has a long history of manipulating Cerebus in a variety of ways, but usually in a non-sexual fashion. This time, she offers to have sex with Cerebus. He hesitates, and she takes the opportunity to gloat that he can't as he's married and, despite his overall amoral pursuit of money and power, he is still an orthodox Tarimite and cannot have sex outside of marriage. This sets Cerebus off and, as an infallible Pope, annuls his previous marriage and marries Astoria, then proceeds to gag and rape her.

It's a rough scene to read. Part of it is, of course, that I tend to identify with Cerebus and his overall sense of misanthropy, and I'm damn sure there is no amount of gloating that could get me to rape anyone. I certainly get Sim's explanation (at least the one he's giving now) about the idea behind the scene. If infallibility is granted upon you, there's not really anything to keep you from doing anything you want. Cerebus is effectively immune from all judgement - either on a temporal legal level or in a larger spiritual sense. It's even more all-encompassing a free pass than the "if the President does it, it must be legal" line of thinking.

Still, it's an odd narrative choice to make your protagonist a rapist. (It's worth pointing out here that Sim, to his credit, definitively refers to this as rape and expressed dismay that the bulk of his letters were of the "she was asking for it" variety) I know Cerebus isn't supposed to be a role model, but there are those of us for whom rape is a much less forgiveable offense than baby killing (which is always good for a laugh).

Regardless, it does provide for some interesting characterization. Astoria's taunting (which certainly seems to have been accurate) does highlight Cerebus' inability to move beyond the fairly simple logic of Orthodox Tarimism (which is to say "Roman Catholicism"). Despite all his professed desire for gold, power, and revenge, he's still bound by an arbitrary set of rules that really no longer applies to him. Even after the rape, he certainly seems to feel uncomfortable about his actions. Neither character discusses what happened afterwards, though I expect it to become a significant issue down the road.

So, rough to read, but an interesting choice.

Some Thoughts on Assorted Indie Titles

2006-08-09T13:46:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been having trouble summoning up much enthusiasm for mainstream superhero comics. I'm not sure if it's fatigue induced by the extended crossoverness with no particular payoff of Infinite Crisis or the increasing dullness going on in 52 (which I'm still reading every week, if only to keep up with Mr. Wolk's excellent blog), but I'm not really enjoying much of what I'm reading. The new Flash title's been horrible. I kind of gave up Teen Titans for those Liefeld-drawn issues. Birds of Prey's been decent, but not particularly exciting. Robinson's Batman story was all right, but not remotely near the bar he's set for himself. I'm hoping the upcoming Morrison run on Detective will help out a bit, but, until then, I've been catching up on all the indie stuff I haven't read.

As I've mentioned before, I stopped reading comics for pretty much all of the 90's (from the time I was 15 until I was 25). While this certainly saved me from some good things (like just about everything Marvel published during this period), it also meant I had a lot of catching up to do. I'm just about caught up on the DC side. I read most of the big event storylines from the time (or at least skimmed them), as well as most of the recommended titles. So, now I just needed to catch up on the indie titles that either started in the 90's or were a little too adult-oriented for me to have read as a kid.

Started with 100 Bullets, which I discussed below, and have since moved on to David Lapham's Stray Bullets. I assume this title, and the fairly dramatic jumps in tone, location, and character must have been a little jarring in serialized form, but they work very nicely when each grouping is collected in the (lovely) hardcover collections. The first volume ("The Innocence of Nihilism") is, as the title states, fairly aggressively nihilistic, bordering on depressing. Once we move forward, and see some of the surviving characters making their way out west, it gets a little less brutal. Now, I'm not against brutality, per se, but it's hard to make much of an emotional attachment to characters that are likely to be dead by the issue's end. Of course, by the third volume, we're largely switched to another set of characters, but even they start to seep into each other's stories. Really, I think I'm mostly just impressed by the very neat way he takes small, compact stories and weaves them into a much larger constuction.

Also reading Cerebus, which was, when I started going to comic shops, THE title everyone (or at least the creepy older guys who hung out at the comic shop) was into. I never really gave it a shot as a kid, but tried getting into it a few years ago (inspired by the hooplah of the series' conclusion). It's not an easy one to get into. The first few issues are very very heavy with parody - mostly of Conan - which didn't really do much for me. Of course, I'm sort of whishing I'd paid better attention to the first few issues, as they were apparently the only introduction to the various countries and peoples of Cerebus' homeland you get during the series. Once I got to the "High Society" storyline, I realized I was getting fairly well sucked in to the elaborately complex religious-political machinations that make up the series (at least in the first third). I'm currently in the middle of "Church and State II" and am just starting to feel like I have a handle on what is going on.

There's still a lot that's off-putting about the title. Sim's insistence on parody is jarring - I really don't understand the purpose of having an Elric parody who talks like Foghorn Leghorn or of making a very important, central character look and act like Groucho Marx. I suppose it's not any more absurd than having an aardvark as your central character, but it's enough to pull the reader out of the story. The worst offense is the "timely" parodies of superheroes. I'm currently having to deal with the Roach (the ongoing superhero parody of, in order, Batman, Captain American, Moon Knight, Wolverine, and Spiderman) engaging in the "Secret Sacred Wars." It's so unfunny I'm not sure it counts as parody.

On the other hand, Cerebus is perhaps one of the more relatable comic characters I've encountered. Shortly before writing this, I came across this:

It's like they made a comic about me.

Also started reading Love and Rockets. I started with the first volume, which may have been a bad idea (based on what I've read about the series). Jaime's early stories all seem to be Archie comics set in a Dadaist sci-fi story. Which, normally, would be right up my alley, but they are so full of gibberish, it's almost impossible to read. Gilbert's stories are possibly worse (at least Bem was), with the exception of the last story in the collection, which is apparently the first of the Palomar stories. I kind of liked that one. Are there any Love and Rockets fans out there who can offer encouragement here? Should I keep reading, or is the first collection a fair representation of the series?

Infinity Inc. #1-16

2006-07-25T18:15:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned a while back, I decided I should probably take a pass at re-reading Infinity Inc since many of the characters are getting worked back into continuity. As a kid, I was always very curious about the series, but could never afford it. If I recall correctly, it was the first of DC's titles to be published in the premium format (or at least the first one that wasn't doing the year-delayed reprints that Legion and Teen Titans did), so given the choice between buying three regular comics or one issue of Infinity Inc, quantity always won out. Towards the end of one summer, however, I found a comic shop that was dumping its back issues for bargain prices, so picked up what was just about a complete run on the title.

I was certainly a sucker for anything Earth-Two as a kid. Some of my earliest superhero comic memories are of the "Countdown to Crisis" JLA/JSA crossover, and I started reading All Star Squadron as soon as it was available. So, you can imagine my excitement when I got my hands on the run of Infinity Inc.

However, I remember the acquisition much better than I remember actually reading the comics. Which, rereading them as an adult, makes perfect sense. The issues themselves are eminently forgettable. Particularly brutal is the initial 10 part story arc that kicks off the series. And it's a stupid story arc. The JSA members drink from the waters of the Stream of Ruthlessness and turn evil. There's some really pointless time travelling thrown in there as well, but, really, it's an unbelievably pointless story arc. I supposes it introduces the characters, but most of the characterization is pretty flat - Todd's got a chip on his shoulder, Hector is a preppy asshole, Jenny likes to talk to herself in thought bubbles at great length. It's rough going. Last time I tried reading it, it was enough to get me to stop reading comics for a week. Fortunately, once the brutal opening arc gets out of the way, things start to pick up. Surprisingly, what really gives the series a kick is Todd McFarlane.

Now, don't get me wrong. I hate Todd McFarlane. I hate his art. I hate his litigiousness. I hate his overwhelming ego. But, his art here? It's not bad. There's certainly some Chaykin/American Flagg influence, but also a pretty odd idea of how to construct panels. Part of this may be due to some very sparse scripting, but it's kind of interesting. Especially for 1985.

I'm not saying it's groundbreaking, but it certainly gives the series more energy than it had before. Which is probably good, given the general turgidness of the plots and characters. Of course, no amount of interesting panel layout is going to compensate for the McFarlane costume design (Chroma, Mr. Bones, pretty much everyone in Helix).

Really, the stumbling block on the series is Thomas' writing. I'm really torn on the guy. He certainly gets a whole lot of points in my book for keeping up interest in the Golden Age roster throughout the 80's. Without him, I'm not sure we'd have the interest in the characters to support the current JSA series. Or at least not the editorial willingness to publish it. On the other hand, his writing is unforgivably dated. Really, none of the characters feel remotely real, except for Nuklon (though, I'm not sure why Thomas wanted to cast Al in the role of fish out of water - wouldn't the guy from the hidden island of birdmen be a better candidate for that than the nice Jewish boy from Florida?). The characters spend an inordinate amount of time arguing, which tends to slow what little plot there is to a crawl. I may continue for a few more issues, just to see where it goes (It ran for over 50 issues? Really?), but I've got better things to read.

ETA: OK, so a few issues after the bit I included above, McFarlane apparently decided to start doing Miller. Or maybe Giffen doing Miller. Honestly, I think I prefer his attempts to be someone else than his "personal" style.

100 Bullets #1-67

2006-07-23T02:32:00.000-07:00

The stack of new comics continues to overwhelm me, so I turned my attention in the last week to the 9 volumes of 100 Bullets the Multnomah County library provided me with. I had tried reading the series a year ago, but only made it a couple story arcs in before I got bored with the seemingly unrelated structure of the stories.

This time, though, I pushed on enough to realize that this story - which seems, on first reading, like an anthology series based around a common narrative element - turns out to be more complex than it seems by several orders of magnitude. Characters that appear as background figures in one story show up years later as central characters in another. And stories that feel like they should be throwaway stories end up being critical to the overarching plot - a plot which didn't really show up at all for the first 9 issues. From a narrative structure standpoint, this is possibly the most impressive comic I've read.

Often, when shooting for a fixed run, writers seem to run a little dry (see my complaints about Ex Machina below - or, for a more dramatic example, reflect on the endless cycle of "Jesse leaves Tulip behind, Tulip gets angry, Herr Starr gets anally raped" that dragged Preacher out well beyond its natural story cycle). So far, Azzarello's 2/3rds of the way done, and nearly nothing in here seems to be wasted. Sure, there are one-off stories that (so far, at least) are just that, but they're still good. And, really, sometimes we need a little break from a main story as headache-inducing as the one he's telling.

All said, it's not quite perfect. Risso's art works well most of the time - the jagged minimalism is a great pairing when Azarello really cuts loose with noir-inflected narratives - but often it can be a little hard to distinguish between hulking, black-suited men. This may be deliberate (and is certainly exacerbated by Azarello's tendency to refer to characters by nicknames with no easy relation to the characters to which we've been introduced), but, given the complexity, seems a little cruel.

But, really, I'll forgive almost any series that gives me an awesome faux-Steranko cover like this:

Original Art

2006-07-23T02:27:00.000-07:00

In general, I try to stay away from the original comic art market. It's way too expensive, and, knowing my somewhat poor money management skills and borderline-obsessive tendencies, I can see myself spending way too much on such things.

That said, when a friend told me a page from Doom Patrol #63 was up on eBay, it was hard to resist. So, roughly $100 later, I am now the proud owner of the art (inked and lettered and signed by Case) for this page from what may well be my favorite single issue of a comic:

Comic-Related Movies

2006-07-11T17:21:00.000-07:00

Most comics bloggers seem to have posted some summary of their thoughts on the big comic movies of the summer, but I have yet to see X3 or Superman Returns. The former mostly on an extremely negative recommendation from a friend whose taste in movies I tend to trust; the latter due to a strong dislike of seeing movies while children are in the theater. Fortunately, there are plenty of 21+ theaters in Portland, so I'll see it as soon as it makes its way down there.

Still, just because I haven't seen those, doesn't mean I can't write about comic movies here. Last weekend, I went to see Art School Confidential, based loosely on the comic by Daniel Clowes. I tend to like Clowes' work, even if I haven't quite read all of it and find much of it fairly depressing (though, as far as depressing comics go, Chris Ware has set the bar so high it makes it hard to say that anyone else even counts). The movie was pretty awful. I've liked all the previous Zwigoff films to date,but this one was just awful and feels like something a first-year college student might have come up with. I mean, I'm pretty bitter about my college experience, but I've moved on. It's sort of sad Clowes hasn't been able to do that quite yet.

After that, watched A History of Violence, which was similarly disappointing. I read the graphic novel a few months back and, upon getting to the end, could finally see why Cronenberg might think this would be exactly the right sort of project for him. Except the film didn't contain the rather grisly elements that meshed so well with Cronenberg's long-running interest in the human body as a source of terror. I'm trying really hard here not to spoil things for people who haven't either read the graphic novel or seen the movie, but I never thought I'd see the day that the Cronenberg adaptation of a work is significantly less troubling and disturbing than the source material.

Last Saturday, went out to Beaverton to see Krrish. Pretty darn enjoyable, if maybe a little overlong. By far, the highlight of the film was the incredible dance number at a circus (right before the hero first dons his mask and adopts the Krrish identity). I learned, after seeing it, that it was a sequel to a wildly popular E.T. knockoff. Without that knowledge, the off-handed explanation of how our hero got his special abilities (i.e., his brain-damaged father befriended an abandoned alien who made him unnaturally smart) was pretty wonderfully strange. Overall, I enjoyed that quite a bit and would certainly recommend it if you get the opportunity (and are predisposed to want to see a Bollywood superhero movie).

Ex Machina #11-21

2006-07-10T17:50:00.000-07:00

All right. I'm back from vacation and have a truly daunting stack of comics to read. Perhaps most daunting was the stack of Ex Machina's, for which I sort of lost enthusiasm about a year ago (right at the end of the "Tag" storyline). Don't get me wrong, I was enjoying the series quite a bit - I just couldn't really get into it on a monthly basis. So, I let it build up for a while, and, after a while, the size of the built-up stack got overwhelming and I continued to ignore it, leaving me with no other option but to read a year's worth at one shot.

It's certainly a more enjoyable series to read this way. The double plotlines that each arc contains (generally a political storyline and a superhero-y storyline) are easier to follow in immediate succession. Vaughan seems willing to make some big jumps in narrative (i.e., the off-issue funeral of Journal and introduction of her sister) which, when reading serially, make the reader (or at least a simple-minded reader like me) pause and try to remember if he missed an issue.

Like I said, I'm enjoying the series, but there's something not quite there. It's the same sensation I've been getting from Y the Last Man, namely that Vaughan has an idea of how the series is going to begin and end, but is a little fuzzy about the middle. Both series focus around one key set of mysteries ("What killed all the men?" and "What is this thing that fused with Mitchell?"), and I'm not sure Vaughan knows how to dole out the answers in little bits. Instead of the normal mystery progression of "clue one leads to clue two leads to clue three leads to solution," he tends to just have his characters wander around for a while until, presumably, the mystery will be revealed at the end.

During the first couple arcs, it looked like we were going to get some faster explanation. Mitchell's explanation of what exactly the project he and Georges were working on consisted of in the middle of "Tag" boded well, but then we've sort of dropped that altogether (except for a brief allusion during a dream sequence).

Now, don't get me wrong here. I'm certainly OK with series taking breaks to build character, explore random stories that occur to the writer, etc. Milligan's Shade really only got going once he gave up on a central storyline and mostly just had the characters hanging out. But, if your entire series is built around a central mystery, completely ignoring that for a year at a time is going to leave some very frustrated readers. Maybe this new treachery/mole angle they've got going is going to lead somewhere, but my faith is a little shaken.

Blue Beetle #3

2006-06-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

I'm currently a little over 3000 miles away from my local comic shop, so I don't really have much to write about lately, but I think I've pinned down what is bothering me about the new Blue Beetle series. Yeah, there's some residual disgruntlement at losing Ted, and having a new Beetle that isn't consciously tied in with the Dan Garrett legacy, but I think what's really bugging me is the Posse.

I can understanding the reasoning behind it. The traditional villain structure in comics is a little removed from how criminal organizations actually work; they're more like small armies than like the franchise structure organized criminals tend to utilize. I can see wanting to make use of a real-world criminal structure instead of the traditional supervillain/henchman structure, and, in a place like El Paso, I can see wanting to use a gang as your model.

That said, "The Posse"? I guess there's a chance they're maybe an International Posse offshoot, but so many gangs are so much more creative. In my old neighborhood in Los Angeles, the dominant gang was Los Avenidos, but nearby were Toonerville, Frogtown, the Rascals. All of which are much more creative than "The Posse." Really, I think it's a less convincing name than Vibe's old crew, Los Lobos.

One of the things I'm really liking about the series is the fairly casual nature of Jaime's daily life in a majority-Latino city. Having The Posse running around makes it feel less like a story about a guy who happens to be Latino and more like tokenism.

Top 50 Summary

2006-05-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

Writing out those paragraphs ended up being much more draining than I expected, as almost everyone fell into some pretty broad categories - characters I actually care about (Jack, Kay, Wes), characters I like for their glorious absurdity (Proty II, Mr. Mind), characters I can empathize with (Swamp Thing, J'onn, Karen) - so felt like I was getting a little repetitive.

Anyway, will get back to writing about individual comics shortly, but wanted to tally things up:

By Gender

Male 86%
Female 10%
Other 4%

Kind of shamefully lacking in females - part of the blame can fall on writers who write lousy female characters, but I shoulda given Dian Belmont and Sue Dibny entries. And, yes, I left Wonder Woman off. But I haven't really read a version of Wonder Woman I liked. Am certainly happy to take recommendations.

By Dimension of Origin

Earth-1 56%
Earth-2 18%
Earth-4 4%
Earth-S 6%
Post-Crisis 16%

Overlap with other blogs:

Pretty, Fizzy Paradise: 15
Written World: 15
Seven Hells!: 10
The Absorbascon: 9
The Comic Treadmill: 21

Anyway, enough listmaking/datamining for a while.

50 Best DC Characters (10-1)

2006-05-23T11:33:00.000-07:00

All right. Onto the home stretch here. My picks for the 10 best DC characters as demanded by the Great Curve.

#10. Swamp Thing (Alec Holland. Sometimes.)

Swampy's had the advantage of having a pretty damn impressive group of writers tackling him. Aside from the most recent (now-cancelled) run, which was really a little dippy, he tends to attract some pretty impressive writing talents. Even Veitch, whose stuff I usually have a very hard time with, does a really nice job with Swamp Thing. Like his fellow swamp-mate Grundy, he's got enough of a blank canvas about him to allow for pretty easy reinvention as each writer takes over. In fact, the whole premise (particularly since, in my mind, Swamp Thing is occuring in the same sort of dream-logic world as Fulci's The Beyond) is incredibly flexible and just unreal enough (and disconnected from DC continuity) that retconning Swamp Thing doesn't really faze me at all. That flexibility, combined with the always dramatically fertile man-becomes-monster-but-still-in-love premise, makes him a character I'm always happy to read about.

#9. The Shade (Richard Swift)

I get the feeling that Robinson's rewrite of the Shade is the most popular retcon ever among comic writers. Since Starman ended, I feel like the Shade has been cropping up all over the place. He's a fun character - I can certainly see why other writers want to use him. The combination of extremely good manners and fluid morality is always fun to write.

#8. Ambush Bug (Irwin Schwab)

Ah, Ambush Bug. While not my first favorite character, he was the first character I liked enough to take note of who was writing. Granted the first series is filled with jokes I don't get to this day (maybe because I still haven't read Thriller or finished Ronin), but I still loved the absurdity of it. He led to me reading pretty much everything by Giffen I could find - at least until 90% of it involved Lobo, which prompted me to reevaluate things. Still, I think the DC universe could use a little more absurdity in it. Maybe they could have him come back from his post-Crisis exile and appoint himself Superman's sidekick again. Now that I think of it, "Rise of the Supermen" would have been so much better if Ambush Bug had decided to take up the mantle of self-appointed heir-apparent. A lost opportunity.

#7. Elongated Man (Ralph Dibny)

I still haven't seen enough of Ralph without Sue to see how he holds up on his own, but DC needs a top-shelf detective who isn't moody, grouchy, brooding, etc. Even though he was created as a Plastic Man analogue, the decision to make him a fun version of Batman always seemed like a very useful character to have around. Granted, it made him a little superfluous in the satellite-era JLA, but he still made a nice counterpoint. I read a lot of descriptions of him and Sue as the "Nick and Nora" of the DC universe, which sort of describes them - Sue seems more openly loving/less tolerating than Nora, and Ralph is certainly less of a drunkard/rake than Nick, but it still captures a lot of the appeal. Anyway, a fun-loving Batman around is certainly a good idea - though I'm not sure how he's going to turn out after the amount of misery they're heaping on him lately.

#6. Zatanna (Zatanna Zatara)

This list is showing that I seem to like mystically-themed characters more than I realized. Zatanna was my favorite JLA member as a kid, and, going back to read the Conway-era, she actually ends up getting more solid characterization than most of her teammates. As I mentioned a while back in a thread on comics' trend to punish women (particularly sexually active women), Zatanna seems to have escaped a lot of that. She manages to date her coworkers with no real ill-effects. Granted, Morrison gave her a bit of a daddy complex in her Seven Soldiers series, but she still seems refreshingly normal. Plus, she's got a fair helping of the legacy issues that I'm always a sucker for.

#5. The Spectre (Jim Corrigan)

Again with the mystical characters! Still, the Spectre gets points for the brutal origin story (pistol-whipped and drowned!) as well as his brutal responses to criminals. The short-lived 70's run, in particular, featured some completely insane stories. Part of this is probably the frustration of writers who are trying to write a story featuring, effectively, God, but it certainly allows for a quality writer to come up with some truly weird stories. Skeates, in particular, seemed to really understand the possibilities of the character.

#4. Superman (Clark Kent)

My feelings on Superman are probably too complex for a single paragraph. I mean, being effectively omnipotent makes him kind of hard to deal with from a story perspective (especially when he's not willing to eat criminals like Corrigan was), but his humanity - or more his desire for humanity - really makes him a much more interesting character than he has any right to be.

#3. Crazy Jane (Kay Challis)

Doom Patrol #63 makes me tear up a little bit every time I read it. I'm actually getting a bit misty-eyed just thinking about it.

#2. Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

Sandman's always been a pretty great character, but in the past 10 years or so, it seems like he's really taken off. He makes a great supporting character in Starman, and the retroactive story with Sandy as a monster adds a nice degree of simmering self-torture to the character. What really moved up into top 5 territory, though, was picking up the first few Sandman Mystery Theater trades the other day. I know I'm about 10 years behind the curve on these, but, man, are they good. And make me really like Wesley more than I thought I could.

#1. Starman (Jack Knight)

The single best character DC has published. No, he's not really reusable anywhere else, but, after spending a weekend reading every issue of Starman, I really feel like I know Jack as well as I do many of my friends. It's a rare accomplishment for any medium, but especially so in comics.

50 Best DC Characters (20-11)

2006-05-22T16:29:00.000-07:00

Continuing with the top 50 DC characters list I submitted for The Great Curve.

#20. Bizarro

I've loved Bizarro for most of my life. And, thanks to Seinfeld, this is the one comic-related reference I can make in non-comic-reading company that everyone will appreciate. Such a reference usually turns into several minutes of Bizarro-speak, which always brightens up my day. So, as thanks for this wonderful addition to my life, I offer a heartfelt "Goodbye, Bizarro! Begone from my list!"

#19. Gorilla Grodd

Really, nothing says DC more than giant, super-intelligent gorillas, and, even with the large pool of giant, super-intelligent gorillas to choose from in the DC universe, Grodd reigns supreme. Part of this might be due to comparison with the other members of the Flash's Rogues Gallery, most of whom are driven more by greed than by desire for world domination. Grodd's inherent belief that he and his fellow gorillas should be running the world made him a bit more of a threat than, say, Heat Wave. He's also the Flash villain who has been most repurposeable as a general, world-class villain (perhaps best seen in the first JLA Classified arc).

#18. Batman (Bruce Wayne)

Yeah, I kind of thought he'd end up higher on this list as well. But then I started applying the "which character (barring writer/artist/premise) would I rather read about," and he just started slipping a little lower on the list. I'm not sure if it's just 40 years of dark, "gritty" Batman that's worn me down, but, no matter how much I like the initial concept - or even some particular presentation - it's so easy for writers to write Batman poorly. Even the recent Batman stories I've read and enjoyed didn't make me like the character any more. Honestly, I don't know how you save the character at this point - tightening relationships with friends and ratcheting down the angst level certainly seems like a good idea, but I'm not sure if that just makes him "less annoying" instead of "interesting."

#17. Atom-Smasher/Nuklon (Albert Rothstein)

I feel kind of dumb listing him above Batman, but there's something about the naked hero worship the character has always portrayed that makes him kind of interesting. He's my favorite embodiment of "batboy gets to play for the Yankees" that is always a useful sort of fan wish fulfillment entry into a story. He's a nice Jewish kid who tries to join the JSA, only to end up having to put up with the tedious melodrama of Infinity Inc. When the JSA finally admits him, that puppydog look of finally having his dreams realized makes it kind of hard to dislike him. All of which makes his attempt to do the right thing working with Teth-Adam (who probably should have made the list, dammit) and saving his mother all the more heartbreaking. I didn't remember much from my childhood reading of Inifinity Inc., but my recent attempt to re-read it really made me realize just how long he'd been waiting to join the JSA. Throwing it all away to do what he thought was right, only to realize it probably wasn't, makes for a pretty interesting character.

#16. Lex Luthor

Probably should be higher, but tends to suffer from bad writing. The Byrne reboot, in particular, really bothered me and killed a lot of what I liked about Luthor. President Luthor was good in concept, but never seemed believably executed. What does manage to get him into the top 20, though, is the recent decision that his motivation is more as a spokesman for the human race. I really like the idea of someone deciding that the mere presence of Superman makes all of humanity's strivings completely moot. That's a much more complex supervillain motivation than we usually see, and one that could have been used really nicely with his run for office (and was in the Red Son miniseries - by far the best thing Millar's ever written)

#15. Chemo

Man, I loved Chemo as a kid. My dad was really into the Metal Men for some reason (who would have been on this list, but I couldn't bring himself to either choose just one or to occupy 6 spots for all of them), so we read just about every Metal Men comic we could get our hands on. Anyway, Chemo featured in a disproportionately large number of the Metal Men stories, and I always liked the idea of a large chemical waste bin coming to life and rampaging through cities. Watching him get dropped onto Bludhaven was one of the highlights of Infinite Crisis.

#14. Human Target (Christopher Chance)

I just reread the first TPB of the Milligan/Pulido Human Target series and it blew me away all over again, even though I just read it a year or so ago. I love that he doesn't really change the character much at all, but really seems to appreciate how disturbing the entire concept is on a psychological level. The series plays out like Rockford Files as directed by mid-60's John Frankenheimer, which is right up my alley.

#13. Wildcat (Ted Grant)

Speaking of Rockford Files, Ted Grant, in my mind, is played by James Garner. Or maybe Robert Forster. Yeah, Robert Forster - in Out of Sight. A man's man - hard-drinking, skirt-chasing, cigar-smoking - but with a strong parental protectiveness towards his female protegees. I could certainly see him giving someone a Sig Sauer as a birthday present. And raising his daughters to drink bourbon. While I'm not crazy about the flimsy explanation for why he's still active (nine lives?), I'd be sad if he wasn't, so I'm not going to argue.

#12. Mr. Mind

The Fawcett characters are certainly representing well on this list. I think just seeing Sivana and Mr. Mind in 52 brought back all sorts of memories of how fond I was of these characters. And none moreso than Mr. Mind. I recently dug up some reprints of the first Monster Society stories in which the Marvel family keeps digging deeper and deeper into the acts behind this villainous organization, only to learn the real mastermind is a super intelligent worm. It's pure genius.

#11. The Flash (Wally West)

As mentioned, the last DC titles I read before giving up on comics as a kid were the Giffen-DeMatteis JLI titles, which (and this may be an understatement) were not terribly kind to Wally. He came off as a bit of a jerk - money-grubbing, hitting on Power Girl, chip on his shoulder about his legacy - so I was really pleased to go back and read the Mark Waid run on the series and realize I really liked Wally quite a lot. Certainly a lot of it has to do with the overall concept - Wally being the first sidekick to take over the identity of their mentor. There's a respect for the past that both Johns and Waid seem to really understand. In addition, I really like the provincialism of Wally. Sure, he may go off jetsetting with JLA, but he also seems to be on a first name basis with a fair bit of his kind of square, Midwestern hometown (in my mind, Central City seems to be less like a St. Louis or Detroit or Chicago and more like a Columbia or Jackson or Madison). Sure, Central City kicked him out for a bit, but he knows that's where he belongs - even if it's not terribly glamorous.

50 Best DC Characters (30-21)

2006-05-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

I'm now about 40% done with this writeup, and I'm already realizing what characters I inadvertantly left off the list. Highly disappointing. Anyway, plunging onward.

#30. Guy Gardner

Now, I'm not nearly the level of Guy Gardner fan that some people are, but I have always liked the character. Like most of the characters in the Giffen/DeMatteis JLI, he was basically a flat joke, with occasional moments of really effective characterization thrown in. It's a very odd writing style, but one that managed to both suck me in completely at age 12 and give me something to chew on now that I'm significantly older. I'm only just now starting to read Warrior, but I really like the new, non-brain-damaged Guy. He's still argumentative and confrontational, but it seems to be a much more self-aware attitude used more for reaction. As mentioned before, I have a bit of a soft spot for self-aware jerks (or so it would seem). Plus, he's always had a bit of a thin shell - there's pretty clearly a fairly emotional Guy just below the surface.

#29. Martian Manhunter

Another character I grew to love in JLI. He had the thankless role of straight man in a mostly comedic series, and, as has been mentioned elsewhere, is really ludicrously overpowered for much use. On the other hand, I kind of like that this guy who is (on paper, at least) on par with Superman prefers to spend his time sitting behind monitors, sneaking about invisibily, and generally playing a support role. His general inability/disinterest in establishing a long-running secret identity puts him into one of the categories of superhero archetype that seems to work for me (i.e., "Alien Whose Entire Purpose Is Superheroing") His motivation isn't particular well-defined, other than that it's something he can do that doesn't discriminate against him for his differences.

#28. Blue Devil (Danny Cassidy)

I'm not entirely clear on what happened to Blue Devil inbetween the end of his own series, his death at the hands of the Mist, and his current revival in Shadowpact. Still, his series was one of my favorites as a kid. It was playful and chock full of cameos from the other vaguely supernaturally-themed heroes that weren't getting much coverage in the DCU at the time (e.g., Zatanna, The Demon, The Creeper, Black Orchid, Cain and Abel). Plus, the intial origin concept is probably my favorite of the "Ordinary Guy Who Accidentally Becomes a Hero." Being mistaken for a demon isn't a plotline that's used often enough. The writers of Blue Devil also really realized the necessity of giving him a solid supporting cast. Within a couple years, he had a boss, a love interest, a kid sidekick, a magical house that allowed for teleporting between Malibu and the East Cost (North Carolina?), and a mystical advisor. Of course, it was then cancelled and Danny seems to have become fully demonic (as did Eddie - how did that happen?), but I'm hoping that Willingham will do a nice job with the mystic/humorous tone the character originally had.

#27. The Phantom Stranger

Speaking of mystical characters that are under-utilized by DC, I love the Phantom Stranger. I think what really gets me about the character is that he went from mysterious plot device to groovy supernatural entity who apparently has a girlfriend. And may be Jewish. Again, I look forward to him getting some nice treatment from Willingham (whom seems to have claimed a large number of my favorite characters - he at least has good taste)

#26. Matter-Eater Lad (Tenzil Kem)

I think he was the second character on this list when I started up. Like Proty II, he's one of the Legionaires who eventually realized that superheroing wasn't for him and decided to go into politics instead. And I'm a sucker for superheroes-turned-politicians. Maybe DC can steal Vaughan away to do Ex Machina in the 30th Century. Starring Tenzil and Proty II. It'll be fantastic.

#25. Blue Beetle (Ted Kord)

Still more JLI-influenced character love. But, even before that, I enjoyed his solo book and the one Charlton issue I got my hands on. I think a lot of what I liked about his original series was his closer ties to his corporation than most other billionaire businessman superheroes in the DC universe - he was much closer to Tony Stark than the Bruce Wayne. Sadly, Grant Morrison didn't think of this when he was casting about for an Iron Man analogue for his JLA run - I liked Steel well enough, but maybe a recent, high-quality use of Ted would have saved him from his grisly fate. Of course, I enjoyed his JLI incarnation as well - though I think I prefered the recent pair of Giffen/DeMatteis presentations of Ted better. He seems fairly happy to have returned to his coprorate lifestyle, gained a bit of a belly, and left superheroing behind - but can't really resist the opportunity to go hang out with his buddies some more. Certainly a motivation anyone can understand.

#24. Manhunter (Kate Spencer)

My grousings about the series' presentation of LA aside, I really enjoyed Manhunter quite a lot. I'm disappointed it's going away, but I'm hoping they do find something interesting to do with the character. She works pretty well with a large supporting cast, so I'm not sure she would suffer that much in a team book (as long as Andreyko keeps writing her). I still have some complaints about Kate's sort of shifting motivations in pursuing superheroing, but I still think she's a pretty solid creation.

#23. Darkseid

Some people seem to take issue with Darkseid's role as the walking embodiment of evil. And, yes, he's a little flat. But, for a universe that tends to deal in absolutes, DC was a little light in pure evil prior to Darkseid's introduction. Plus, if that introduction in Rock of Ages doesn't make you like appreciate Darkseid just a little bit, there's something wrong with you.

#22. Power Girl (Karen Starr)

I realized when I was writing about J'onn that a lot of what I was saying about him applied to Karen as well. She doesn't really fit it - even though she looks human, she doesn't really seem to have the subtleties of humanity quite down. Normal jobs don't seem to stick, even if she's good at them (as J'onn was as a police detective). Certainly, the endless rewrites don't help, but the recent integration of her continuous rewriting as part of her character has actually made her more relatable. Really, the only version of her I haven't liked was her presentation in JLI, which flattenned her down to touchy, man-hating "feminist" parody. Out of character and not funny.

#21. Dr. Fate (Kent Nelson)

As a kid, Dr. Fate combined three of my favorite elements of superhero stories - Golden Age WWII heroes, Egyptian-themes, and magic. I'm not convinced there's really been a Dr. Fate series that lives up the potential of those three elements to date, but I'm holding out hope.

50 Best DC Characters (40-31)

2006-05-18T16:29:00.000-07:00

Continuing with my picks for top 50 DC characters.

#40. Mr. Miracle (Scott Free)

Starting off as one of the more relatable of the wonderfully insane 70's Kirby DC characters, Mr. Miracle ended up getting integrated into the mainstream DC universe much more smoothly than expected. He still gets some fun alien on Earth stories without all the angst of Aquaman or J'onn. The late 80's series of him and Barda settling into the suburbs was really very enjoyable and managed to endear him to me for the forseeable future.

#39. Trickster (James Jesse)

The Trickster was fine in Silver Age Flash - managed to stand out among a great Rogue's Gallery - but really took off once he sort of lost his life's focus with Barry's death. His gradual rehabilitation in Blue Devil was very nicely handled, and made him the only reformed supervillain whose reformation I really bought. Once I started reading the Mark Waid Flash run, I was really pleased to see that James was working the same sort of tech support role there. Plus, the openly damaged Mark Hamill version on JLU was very nice. And will be discussed more later.

#38. Solomon Grundy

Grundy's gotten a more impressive run out of being a mindless rampaging brute than I think anyone would really expect. I think a lot of it is the wide flexibility allowed with the character (initially through editorial neglect, later through Robinson's great explanation of Solomon Grundy in Starman). Much like the Hulk, writers have a full gamut of rampaging beast, gentle giant, erudite scholar in monsterous body, etc. There is a certain degree of blank slate-ness with the character, which, I suppose, kind of undercuts his argument for inclusion on the list. Still, the sadness Robinson conveys when the gentle Grundy dies and his friends realize that a monsterous version would be returning was really well done.

#37. Green Arrow (Ollie Queen)

I've touched on this before, but Ollie really has become such an interesting character since he left behind his Batman-wannabe days. And, like many characters I like, he's kind of a jerk. He's pompous, lecherous, condescending - but he's generally well-intentioned. Or at least aware of some of his faults (at least his lecherousness), but doesn't really dwell on his inability to change himself. It's a nice balance of flawed without being mopey which tends to work pretty well.

#36. Proty II

Shapeless blob. Member of the Legion of Super-Pets. Radical politican and protean rights activist. What's not to like?

#35. Shade (Rac Shade)

I had actually forgotten that Milligan's Shade was publishing under DC for quite a while, so counts under the guidelines provided here. You could probably make an argument for Kathy being the stronger character in the series, but Shade is pretty interesting himself. I don't really want to see him written in anything not-written by Milligan, so he may not be a useful addition to the DC Universe on the whole, but those first 50 issues (or, rather, the 40 issues after number 10 or so) are so good, he makes the list.

#34. Booster Gold (Michael Jon Carter)

I think, in the hands of a more aggressive writer, the initial Booster Gold series could have really fascinating. He's essentially a cheat - his powers are stolen, he already knows what's going to happen - and his motives are pretty shameless. Still, he's really excited to be a hero, and the aspect of fanboy wish fulfillment that has resurfaced in 52 has really reminded me of what I liked about the original series.

#33. The Question (Vic Sage)

It's kind of hard putting the Question on here, since, aside from the handful of Ditko issues, I don't recall liking any Question comics. I suppose it says something about the strength of the character that he still makes the list.

#32. Mr. Tawky Tawny

Arguably the most absurd member of the Fawcett line (even more than Mr. Banjo!), Tawky Tawny represents everything I like about Fawcett characters. He's a talking tiger who wears a suit. If there's not room for him in DC, they're doing something very wrong.

#31. The Demon (Etrigan/Jason Blood)

There's a pretty wide range of characterizations of Etrigan, and not all writers can pull off the rhyming, but, done well, he's a pretty great addition to almost any story. I'm a little disappointed he's not being used in Shadowpact, but maybe he'll show up there periodically.

50 Best DC Characters (50-41)

2006-05-18T11:36:00.000-07:00

All right, The Great Curve has asked for us bloggers to suggest their picks for the 50 best DC characters, and I don't much feel like working today, so here's my list (in 10 character increments).

#50. Dr. Mid-Nite (Charles McNider)

I tend to be a sucker for the minimally powered, first generation DC heroes. I'm not sure if it's the closer connection to the pulp forbears or the fantastic costume design, but I've liked these characters for as long as I can remember. That said, McNider doesn't get much personality to distinguish him, so this vote is really more for concept that characterization.

#49. Krypto

Krypto is perhaps the character whose disappearance post-Crisis bothered me the most as a kid. I was a big reader of The New Adventures of Superboy as a kid, which featured Krypto fairly regularly, so I think it was being told that he never existed that kind of soured me on Superman comics for years to come. What with the death of thought balloons, he doesn't really get much in the way of personality these days, but back in the day, his inner monologues were a fantastic vehicle for whatever loyalty/betrayal issues the 60's Superman writers were working on. I recall a fair number of covers with Superman/boy (presumably under influence of Red-K) banishing Krypto, who flies off with the saddest expression a canine face can muster. Heartbreaking.

#48. The Creeper (Jack Ryder)

Ditko's first DC character (of four?) is the only one that really seemed to work. Really, I think what sells the character is that Jack Ryder is, at least in the first appearances, a complete jerk. He starts off on his TV show harassing a guest who he's been told is a friend of the sponsor. When fired, he doesn't particularly seem to care and promptly takes a gig as an investigator. I know it's more of a necessary plot compression device, but the speed with which Ryder changes professions indicates an impressive lack of interest in his own life. It makes it a little more believable that he's willing to put on a goofy costume and fight crime. Further writers made the Creeper more openly insane, which I also appreciate.

#47. Mr. Banjo (Dr. Filpots)

I'm not sure Mr. Banjo's in DC Continuity yet, but he is pretty fantastic. I haven't checked the dates, but I'm assuming he was Fawcett's answer to The Fiddler. Except he plays a banjo. Which he uses to send coded messages to the Nazis. Really, I am a big fan of almost all the old Fawcett stuff - it seems like it takes DC ideas and just makes them a little goofier. Which is never a bad thing.

#46. Jimmy Olsen

I went back and forth on Jimmy quite a bit. He's been kind of underused for quite a while, but, for a while, he was a pretty great sidekick. Since he was usually powerless (at least when he wasn't Turtle Boy/Elastic Lad), his stories usually ended up very distinct from Superman. It took years for Robin to really be able to stand on his own in a series, but Jimmy had been doing it for years. Plus, the Kirby written stretch with the Newsboy Legion, Dubbilex, and Don Rickles and his evil twin are so wonderfully absurd, it keeps Jimmy on the list.

#45. G'nort

All right, so I like broad, comic relief characters from time to time. Sue me. Plus, the assertion that the Green Lantern Corps had elements of nepotism amused me greatly.

#44. Amanda Waller

Arguably the most important post-Crisis creation. Any story that needed some human personification of governmental authoritarianism/bureaucracy absolutely had to feature Amanda Waller. But, more than just a much-needed plot device, she's been much more consistently written than almost any other character I can think of. True, much of the consistency involves her yelling at/staring down other characters, but there are enough snippets of humanity in her assorted JLI appearances to give me a genuine fondness for her.

#43. The Ultra-Humanite

I'm not entirely clear on what back-story they're going with on the Ultra-Humanite these days, but my greatest exposure to him was during the 1981(?) JLA/JSA summer event in which he led the Secret Society of Super Villains. I loved that run of JLA, and quite a lot of that love was due to the giant albino ape leading the show. Learning that he had previously been a movie starlet and a flying ant only helped. Yes, there is a certainly degree of writer futility visible when a criminal mastermind suddenly becomes an actress, flying ant, and/or giant albino gorilla, but it certainly keeps the character fresh.

#42. Danny the Street

It's been kind of a tough call as to what Doom Patrol characters to pick. Flex Mentallo is a great concept, but I'm not sure how much of that is influenced by the Vertigo series. Danny the Street is pretty solidly within the DC run of Doom Patrol and is such a fantastically weird, but familiar, idea that it deserves some credit.

#41. Killowog

I'm not sure there's anyone out there who doesn't like Killowog. He's been well-used for years as a sort of intergalactic drill sargeant, and I always found the relationship between him and Guy (especially during Guy's brain damaged years) to be very charming.

Checkmate #1

2006-05-13T01:16:00.000-07:00

I'm sure this has been discussed in Devon and Scipio's ongoing Marvel donation project, but this issue seems to combine multiple DC entities that really don't belong. A chess-themed super spy organization that fights an evil snake-based terroist group? I'm having trouble with it.

Now, don't get me wrong. I think there's certainly room in the DC Universe for an over-the-top spy-based book, and, really, they have no choice but to make King Faraday a key figure in it, but I'm having a hard time really getting into this series (or the assorted OMAC books leading up to it). I'd be willing to look the other way and ignore the whole mess, except for the poaching of JSA members. I've sort of fallen behind on my JSA reading (the Levitz OYL storyline is boring me to tears - I have yet to crack the spine of the last 2 issues), but it seems odd to take two characters from one of your more popular books to help boost sales of your new book (or, at least, I assume that's the thinking). Now, neither of them are characters I particularly care about. I like Michael a lot less than many people seem to - much of which may be the costume's fault - but he does seem to be fairly critical as far as team dynamics go. I know he's still doing both series, but spreading out the character just seems ill-advised. Especially when one of your titles is kinda awful.

52 #1

2006-05-13T01:02:00.000-07:00

The stack of things I have to read is growing continuously larger, so I figured I'll start with the top. I have kind of mixed feelings about 52 going in - I like most of the writers involved, it seems to be focusing on characters I am pleased to see being treated nicely again (which is to say, Booster Gold), but I'm not terribly excited about group-written comics (particularly after that Countdown to Infinite Crisis disaster) and don't really want to be buying anything on a weekly basis.

That said, the first issue was pretty good. I felt like Infinite Crisiswas having a little trouble conveying the scale of the disaster they were portraying - after a while, it got hard to keep track of which cities were getting destroyed by whom (Was there a cross-over I missed with the Monster Society demolishing Opal? Because that seems like a shame to skip over...) The slower pace of 52 makes things a little easier to catch up on - gives the reader a chance to really take in the scale of the story they were telling - something that really wasn't apparent from Infinite Crisisitself (though, there was at least a hint in the Villains United one-off). So, while I'm not entirely eager to see more misery dumped on poor Ralph (though, I'm kind of intrigued by the plaque in front of his house? Did he put that there? Or was it the Opal City tourism board?), I'm holding out some hope that he's going to get to move on a little bit.

I was also pretty pleased with the presentation of Booster Gold here. It felt much more like the issues of his own comic from back in the day. It's been a long long time since I read them (since I read them when they came out), but I remember it focusing pretty heavily on Booster's attempts at pre-packaged herodom and reliance on knowing what's going to happen already. Much as I like Giffen/DeMatteis' JLI, their presentation of Booster (and Ted, for that matter) wasn't quite in line with the versions that had been in their respective solo series.

The other big highlight is the apparent return of the Fawcett villains who have been sorely underused in recent years. I want Mr. Mind back to his proper, pre-acquisition status - with the little speaker around his neck... and a boater hat? Or am I remembering that wrong? And looks like we are going to get some more Monster Society appearances, which will make me happy. Now all we need is a reappearance of the Monster League of Evil and Captain Thunder, and I'll be really pleased.

So, I guess I'm kind of sucked in here. We'll see for how long.

All-Star Superman #2 & 3

2006-04-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

I mentioned earlier that I have pretty strong feelings about Grant Morrison. He gets full credit for getting me to start reading comics again, and The Invisibles is pretty much the comic that thoroughly hits pretty much all of my interests from age 14-28 (e.g., Robert Anton Wilson, Philip K. Dick, The Wicker Man, britpop, Terrence McKenna). I've read just about everything he's ever written (even the issues of Zoids), and really liked about 90% of it. I went to see him speak last year in Los Angeles, and most of the talk was taken up with discussing his upcoming take on Superman. Most of what he said has been covered elsewhere (I think there's a Newsarama interview out there somewhere), but it was certainly enough to get me interested in reading All-Staras soon as it came out.

The first issue met my expectations pretty nicely (though I still take issue with Superman letting the suicide bomber blow himself up, given GM's repeated insistence that the central characterization of Superman is that he never kills - which seems like not much of a distinction when it comes to superheroes). The following issues have been a little off, though, and I'm having a hard time putting a finger on what, exactly, is wrong with them.

I think a lot of it is the pervading sense of melancholy that's crept in with Supe's impending death. Maybe I misunderstood the concept of the series, but I had gotten the impression that the goal was to do something relatively fun and in the spirit of the Silver Age Superman stories (particularly the ones that were thinly veiled iterations of the writers' therapy sessions). Using Superman's fear of death as the main narrative element seems a little heavy; it seems to sort of take some of the fun away from all the goofy faux-Silver Age elements being chucked in.

Also, I'm not sure Morrison has the right grasp of repression and seething rage to handle the Silver Age Lois/Clark dynamic. The central argument in #2 boils down to:

"You win. I am exactly as you have always claimed."

"I don't believe you. This is another one of your traps."

That's not really an argument that usually arises in a fun, dating relationship. That's an argument that comes up after 20 years of marriage, full of resentment, bitterness, and spite, when both sides really hate each other, but can't quite give up and admit failure now that they've invested so much time in the relationship. It's not really a dynamic Morrison seems to be good at capturing. Much as I like his work, interpersonal romantic relationships aren't his strong suit - he can handle lust/first love and regret/loss pretty well, but once you get into Tennessee Williams territory, he seems a little over his head.

All of which isn't to say I'm going to stop buying the title - it's just not as fantastic as I was hoping.

Blue Beetle #1

2006-04-04T19:28:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the slight delay. The attempt to read Infinity Inc. was more than a little ill-advised, but more on that later.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this new Blue Beetle series. I'm still more than a little upset at losing Ted Kord, but, I suppose if we have to have a new Beetle, I'm glad Giffen is writing him. I know there are some people who resent the JLI recasting of Ted as more of a comedic relief character, but there's some pretty solid charactization thrown in there among the wacky schemes.

Still, I remain torn by this new series. On the one hand, it is a Giffen-written Blue Beetle series. Featuring a largely Latino cast. And it's a teenager-centric series that is reasonably well-written (I can't remember the last teenager-centric series DC put out that had remotely believable teenager-ish dialogue. Stars and STRIPE?). On the other hand, there's really no reason this needs to be the Blue Beetle. The scarab really has very little connection to Dan Garrett's scarab. And the title seems to be becoming space-oriented now (though still magical, acc'd to Guy? I'm a little confused)

Really, the whole series seems like a retelling of Tech Jacket. Short teenage kid with enormous, goofy best friend and shop-owning blue-collar father, finds a thing that crashes from the sky, starts talking to him, and gives him some sort of exoskeleton. I'm not sure if Giffen is just all excited about Kirkman's writing that he wanted to try his hand at that kind of story or if there was a corporate edict to get in on that, but it does feel quite a lot like an attempt to do something like Invincible.

Which I'm not entirely opposed to. Giffen seems to be able to pull off the same sort of tone and dialogue in the low-key talky parts, and hopefully the non-talky bits (like this issue's fight with Guy) will improve. Still, I'll give it a few more issues to see where it's going.

Manhunter #1-20

2006-03-28T16:20:00.000-08:00

One of the things that I've always liked about the DC titles (and their now-assimilated 40's counterparts) is their general reliance on fictional cities. Marvel's reliance on the New York area had the effect of slightly alienating non-New Yorkers as well as overly raising a young kid's expectations for what New York would be like once I finally got there. Obviously, this isn't a problem with Metropolis, as Metropolis will always be just as I imagine it (and I don't feel resentment for Metropolis residents).

Additionally, the fictional city has the distinct advantage of giving a writer a whole lot of room to define their setting as much as they need. Obviously, Opal City is the benchmark here, but Vanity, Gotham, Metropolis, Hub, etc. all have their own characteristics that wouldn't be there if they were set in a real-life city. Of course, you end up running a bit of a risk of letting the city become largely flavorless and faceless (like Gateway City, Star City, Calvin City, etc.) or just flat recreations of existing cities. But, you don't end up distracting readers with mis-characterizations of cities readers are fully familiar with.

Which brings us to Manhunter. I lived in Los Angeles for about three years before moving to Portland, so I'm full of gripes as to how the city is portrayed. First off, do any native Angelenos go to Mel's Drive-In in a non-ironic fashion? Can assistants at the DA's office afford (or even get reservations) at Murakami? Are there a lot of vacant Chemosphere-knockoff houses that hallunicating ex-superheroes can easily squat in?

Setting all these questions aside, I really enjoyed Manhunter quite a bit, especially for a series that has the misfortune to launch in the midst of DC's cross-over mania. It integrates the required distractions (e.g., sudden appearances of OMAC's) into the plot nicely, without really feeling like everything has come to a dead stop to accomodate company-wide policy. My only real complaint (LA-based griping aside) comes from the shift of the focus of the series away from a courtroom drama-based superhero story into more of a story about a superhero who happens to be a DA.

I'm clearly a sucker for any series or story that deals with ramifications of superherodom in daily life. Gotham Central was really very good (once I got over the degree to which they were lifting from Homicide), so I was kind of excited to read a book that was going to do something similar for a legal drama. Later issues feature Kate's job as more of an annoyance - her boss is angry at her for not paying attention to her work - instead of as a fairly central part of the character.

All of which isn't to say I didn't like the series. I actually have a pretty good feel for the central characters. The dialogue is well-written (unlike a lot of what I'm encountering with my recent foray into reading every OYL title). Andreyko clearly enjoys having the whole DC universe at their disposal (quite literally - I can't recall another non-event title I've read that was so willing to kill off long-running characters). Maybe it's the rush on C-list villains from titles like this and Villains United that's driving people to Mike Barr characters...

Finally, I'm enjoying the re-appearance of Todd Rice. His storyline in JSA was pretty great, and his background rehabilition was handled well-enough over there that I'm very willing to buy his pretty major character realignment here (at some point, I'll get around to unearthing my Infinity, Inc. back issues to refresh my memory of what the character was like before Johns started messing with him).

Oh, and the highlight of the series, by far, is Damon's attempt to pick up Hawkman. I wonder if he gets that a lot. Wearing nothing but leather straps on your chest isn't really a look you see outside of moderate pride parades and WeHo nightclubs (again - WeHo? I've certainly seen it in print, but I've known a lot of people who lived in and near West Hollywood, and I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that out loud.)

Aftermath Bludhaven #1

2006-03-24T13:33:00.000-08:00

Probably not good form to write up a review based on only a chunk of the first issue, but I was wondering earlier which of the cities dismantled by Infinite Crisis was going to serve as the New Orleans analogue. Looks like both Star City and Bludhaven are getting the "walled-in, quarantined city," though Bludhaven is marginally closer, as it's being (mis-)managed by the federal government. More troubling is the decision to bring back the Force of July (now given the equally horrible title of Freedom's Ring).

I'm not sure what the fascination with the horrible Barr-created villains of the 80's is. Maybe it's just coinicidence that I encounter the Duke of Oil and the Force of July in the same week, but shouldn't both have been stricken from continuity by now? What's worse is the introduction of a new character using the name Firebrand, who introduces himself with the following bit of exposition:

"The bomb changed all of us emotionally, but it changed me in other ways. I've been given this flame for a reason. I have to illuminate the truth. I am a firebrand."

Needless to say, he is creating a little fire in his hand while he says this. Now, I know Firebrand's a fairly long-running DC character (and, previously, a Quality character), it's just more than a little heavy-handed to introduce the character like this.

Incidentally, we also seem to meet the new Human Bomb (introduced with "As a result of the blast, he's become some sort of human bomb." - I suppose I should be thankful they didn't bold "human bomb"), so I'm assuming this is all going to be some kind of tie-in to the Palmiotti/Grey Freedom Fighters miniseries, but the dialogue is really very ham-fisted. I actually felt a little embarassed to be reading this. By the time the Nuclear Legion showed up ("We're the Nuclear Legion, and you're about to become little piles of ash") for a completely pointless fight with the Force of July, I was just about done with this comic.

Nightwing #118

2006-03-24T12:22:00.000-08:00

I'm not really a regular reader of Nightwing - in fact, this is the first issue I've read. Nothing against the character, of course. I've been enjoying the other post-Crisis "sidekick assuming mentor's role" sort of stories (like the Messner-Loebs and , and the "sidekick assuming completely different role" has some potential, but he just always seemed like such a dull character back in New Teen Titans, I can't really get excited about a series starring him.

However, I'm kind of curious about the whole One Year Later concept, and, with the massive company-wide crossovers they've been doing, seems like a good excuse to check out all the DC titles I don't read. So far, I've been pleased. Green Arrow and Superman have both been at least interesting, but Nightwing is really kind of awful. I don't really think I'm missing much as far as backstory goes, and (thanks to Kalinara) I was prepared for the high levels of victimization, self-pity, and mopiness that apparently go with the character (which seems sort of out of character for this cheery kid - but I suppose that was pre-Crisis).

Still, none of that really prepared me for dialogue like this:

The combination of gasping and stuttering is possibly more than I can take. That, plus an ill-advised move to a real world city, an incredibly dull stolen identity plot, and WB-style self-pitying dialogue, mean I probably don't need to start reading Nighwing anytime soon.

Wanted #6

2006-03-24T11:03:00.000-08:00

As I stated below, I'm not especially good about actually reading comics when they come out - I tend to stockpile things, so I can read a big chunk in one shot. That said, I did actually read Wanted each month when it came out, but it's taken me a while to really come up with an even partially solid opinion on it.

At first, I had some high hopes for the series. After the first issue (once I got past the kind of shameless decision to cast Eminem in the lead role), I was sort of convinced it had the potential to analyze the appeal of the trend towards anti-heroism throughout the 80's (which eventually pulled me away from comics in general). I'm not sure what sort of analysis I was expecting, given that this is Millar, but after a few issues, it became pretty clear that Millar mostly just wanted to write a "feuding crime elements" story.

Which makes the ending a little surprising. For those who haven't read it, Wesley (our protagonist who is following in the footsteps of his supervillain father), after making a variety of fairly amoral choices, spends the last couples pages directly confronting the reader for being (and I'm paraphrasing here) a fat, fearful individual who is wasting his time living vicariously through the story of an amoral, self-centered bastard, after which he (in a full-page splash), lets the reader know that he's the face of the man who's fucking the reader in the ass (again, paraphrasing).

It's certainly not a conventional way to end a series, but it's certainly direct. Like (I assume) most people, I sort of resent a story (comic or otherwise) resorting to a direct assault on the reader (and, of course, Millar's obsession with anal rape is troubling - between this, the ending of Chosen, and what I'm assuming is the many instances of anal rape I'd have found if I'd read more than three pages of The Unfunnies, I'm a little concerned by Millar's single-minded obsessiveness on the subject). After letting it simmer for a bit, though, I started thinking about the last time a comic ended with its foul-mouthed, blonde-haired protagonist directly addressing the readers.

Wesley really does seem like the complete opposite of Dane. Dane encourages the reader to engage in liberation through creation (which is a bit of an oversimplification, but works for this argument), whereas Wesley goes for liberation through materialism. Wesley's approach is a zero-sum-game; for him to win, everyone else has to lose (i.e., get fucked in the ass). All of which makes the series to date kind of a cohesive argument. The first few issues are kind of fun - Wesley gets to kill all the people who make his petty life unbearable, start sleeping with a Catwoman analogue, and generally act however he pleases - but by the end, we sort of forced to realize that such a path A) isn't achievable for everyone and B) is really kind of apalling (Jones really does a very nice job in making Wesley really unpleasant looking in that last panel).

Dane's path is clearly much more difficult. He spends most of the first volume on the run. His family betrays him. He experiences guilt the one time he does kill someone. Clearly, it would be much easier to jump on the path of amorality, but that's not going to get Dane where he needs to go. This isn't really a terribly new idea, of course, but I think Wanted actually illustrates the end result of the quicker, easier path pretty nicely.

I suspect I'm really giving Millar a lot more credit than he deserves.

Captain Atom Armageddon #1

2006-03-22T15:39:00.000-08:00

First off, let me say that it's going to be incredibly hard for me to dislike a comic that features one of the old Charleston characters flying to stop a giant meteorite in a flying robot that looks like Composite Superman.

The best part is that no explanation is given in the course of the comic to explain why, exactly, they sent Captain Atom into space in a Composite Superman spaceship (or, for that matter, who "they" is).

The second half of the comic was also pretty enjoyable. Capt. Atom ends up in what I assume is the WildStorm continuity, fighting someone who looks vaguely familiar (in that I've probably seen him on a cover of a WildStorm title and ignored it). My own lack of knowledge about the WildStorm world (outside of the Authority and Planetary) certainly seems to be helping, as I'm as confused about everything as the protagonist.

ETA: I didn't even notice the welded-on spit curl on the Superman side of the head. Brilliant.

Green Arrow v3 1-60

2006-03-22T13:27:00.000-08:00

Like everyone else with a comic blog, I grew up reading the satellite-era JLA, which is where I derived pretty much everything I know about Green Arrow. I'm pretty sure my dad had at least a couple of the Adams/O'Neil Lantern/Arrow comics lying around, but, as a kid, I tended to stay away from anything too gritty. Even by the time Longbow Hunters came around, even though I was 12, I didn't really feel a need to read an extra-grim Green Arrow story (which, having now read Longbow Hunters, was probably a good idea) So, pretty much my only exposure to Green Arrow as a kid was as the liberal argumentative hothead from JLA who was dating Black Canary (though, even as a six year old, I certainly got a vaguely creepy, lecherous vibe from Ollie). Not a very endearing role (at least when you're six), but not terribly offensive. Still, now that I am a liberal argumentative hothead, I have greater respect for the guy.

When I started reading DC stuff again, I wasn't overly depressed that he had been killed off. Major DC shakeups filtered my way from the handful of friends I had who still followed comics - I knew they'd killed off, then revived Superman, but that was really about it. The shock of learning that Ollie had been killed and replaced by his son didn't seem nearly as jarring as learning that Hal Jordan had turned evil, then transformed into the Spectre.

Then I read that issue of JLA in which Connor has to defend the Watchtower using his father's selection of trick arrows. That "Dad, you'll be the death of me" line, coupled with the rather dull concept of a new Green Arrow who does nothing but shoot boring old wooden arrows, really made me appreciate what had been lost - not just with killing off Ollie, but the whole Grellification of the character into a more realistic mode. A guy who just shoots arrows is both boring and credulity-straining if he manages to go more than a couple issues without killing people. A guy who can bust out handcuff arrows, screaming arrows, boxing glove arrows, etc. is a much more fun character to read about, as it effectively lets the writers come up with whatever crazy device they need to move the story along at any given moment.

(I should probably point out here that, due to my stretch of non-comic reading, I read almost nothing the way it was supposed to be read. I read the Morrison JLA stuff in 2002, about 2 years after Ollie came back from the dead.)

Last week, I decided it was time to read the Kevin Smith run, in which Ollie comes back from the dead. I got a little enthusiastic, and just kept going through the Meltzer run, into Winick and all the way up to the One Year Later issue that came out last week or so. The Smith run was really much better than I expected. Seeing the reunion between Dinah and Ollie was very sweet, and just about anything that is filled with longing for the way things were when I was reading comics as a kid is going to make me happy. The Meltzer arc was all right, though I still bear him a little ill-will about the whole anal rape thing.

Everything since has been all right. I really appreciate the degree to which they're building up a whole Green Arrow family. I understand they can't really use Dinah full-time (though, this is all based on hearsay, since I haven't quite gotten around to reading Birds of Prey yet), but it would be nice to give Ollie a female partner again. Still, the introduction of Black Lightning as a semi-recurring character is nice, though might make more sense from a narrative perspective to give him someone to argue against instead of someone who pretty much agrees with him down the line. Or, really just push the whole left-wing activist thing to a whole other level and bring in Brother Power to hang out with Ollie.

Really, my only gripe on the series is the decision to pit Green Arrow against giant hulking monsters as often as possible. We've had two fights with Solomon Grundy, a whole bunch of demons, and the African laborers who were turned into monsters. It gets a little repetitive (particularly if you read 20-30 issues a day), and sort of keeps the focus away from the more realistic villains you expect (slumlords, drug dealers, evil corporations). Yeah, I know at least some of those monsters are created by evil corporations, and it's really all allegorical, and, ever since Buffy, using monsters/demons to represent _____ is perfectly OK, but it gets old. Green Arrow doesn't really need a level of fantasy to make his stories enjoyable.

I realize now that this goes against what I was saying earlier about appreciating the overall wackiness of the trick arrow concept, which sort of goes against my push towards more realistic storylines for the character. Let me back up a bit. Green Arrow is basically a Batman knockoff - rich guy, wacky gadgets - but completely lacking the tragic, operatic elements of Batman's origin. Ollie decides to fight crime either A) for fun (in the Golden Age incarnation) or B) to right social injustice (in the Bronze Age incarnation). It's an interesting twist, since most superheroes are de facto upholders of the status quo (which they sort of have to be, or we end up in the Gaiman half of Miracleman). Having a hero who is sort of inherently opposed to the status quo really should be leading to more interesting stories that Green Arrow's been getting on this run. I would be perfectly happy if his storylines were less like Buffy, and more like Bendis' run on Daredevil (though it would be nice if a story arc could be completed in less than a year).

So, I'm pretty pleased with the One Year Later jump. Ollie as mayor kind of works for me, though I'm kind of curious to see how it ends up playing out. What isn't working for me is the decision to treat the destroyed neighborhoods more like a lawless, walled off city (which we've seen before, fairly recently) and more like a New Orleans allegory for governmental failure to protect and help its citizenry. Maybe they're planning to use Bludhaven in that regard, but, really, is there a better argument for the necessity of a liberal, Green Arrow-endorsed style of government than the response to Katrina?

Introductions

2006-03-22T12:33:00.000-08:00

Seems appropriate that, upon starting a new blog to discuss comics and comics-related matters, I should probably provide a little history of my own relationship to comics.

I started reading comics pretty much as soon as I could read. Mostly Archie and Richie Rich at first, though I had switched over to DC superhero comics pretty thoroughly by 4 or so. I certainly recall reading DC Comics Presents and Justice League of America on a pretty regular basis up until I was 8 or so, at which point the Marvel stuff started to creep in (prior to that, it had mostly been confined to Spidey Super Stories, due to my love of the Electric Company).

Adolesence, and acquiring a step-brother who was really into Marvel, shifted me over pretty hard to the Marvel camp around age 10 or 11. At that point, I was reading plenty of Spider-Man, X-Men, New Mutants, Punisher sorts of titles, which continued up until I turned 14 or so. By then, I had pretty much run out of free spending cash that could be spent on comics, and gave up.

College reintroduced me to a couple titles - I had one class where we read Watchmen, followed by a class the next semester in which we read the Sandman graphic novel, Seasons of Mist, as well as the first few issues of Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol. I wasn't especially moved by Sandman, but really liked the Morrison stuff, so picked up what I could off rec.comics.marketplace (or whatever it was that was the online comic vending forum in the pre-eBay days).

Comic reading didn't really resume until I was about 25 or so when, after the Singer X-Men movie got me all nostalgiac for my childhood nerdiness, I learned that Morrison was writing the New X-Men. Started reading that, then decided to work backwards on the Morrison bibliography, which led to The Invisibles, which led to me getting totally hooked on comics again.

Now, I've pretty much slid into reading a pretty wide variety of comics - most of the DC stuff, certain Marvel titles (particularly if they're written by Brubaker, Ellis, or Kirkman), some indie titles (Optic Nerve, Eightball, anything by Andi Watson, Lore, etc.) Mostly, I just wanted a place where I could post my thoughts on what I'm reading at the time, so this is that place.