tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27602425554163457022024-02-17T21:05:46.426-08:00Second Printing!!Fine Blogging Since April 21st, 2008Devon Sandershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08223057696498728357noreply@blogger.comBlogger813125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-82276132959548001562021-07-27T14:46:00.000-07:002021-07-27T14:46:13.038-07:00Trade Weight: Doomsday Clock - The Complete Collection<p> 2021, DC Comics</p><p><b>--DC is a mess--</b> <br /></p><p>Everything DC Comics is kind of a mess these days. The DC Extended Universe movie universe ("DCEU") is a failed experiment that Warner Brothers just keeps plugging money into trying to figure out something that will rival Marvel Studios' brilliant IP-building. The DC-CWverse (formerly "Arrowverse") has felt a little aimless following the big <i>Crisis on Infinite Earths</i> crossover circa Dec 2019-Jan 2020, with many of its long running series coming to an end or starting to feel the weight of their many years, and new pilots like Painkiller and Green Arrow and the Canaries (or whatever it was to be called) stalling out the gate. The one thing DC was always great at, animation (especially that for all-ages), has been kind of absent (DC Superhero Girls burned bright briefly... is Teen Titans Go still a thing?), and their direct-to-video animated movie department seems mostly focused on animating popular comic stories. In comics, DC fired Dan Didio two years ago and started scaling back operations, leaving it leaderless, and taking a new publishing approach of distancing their series from having to maintain over-complicated continuity.</p><p>It's not that there haven't been successes. The disconnected films, like <i>Shazam</i> and <i>Aquaman </i>were great fun, pointing that maybe stand-alone realities are the way to go. Original TV shows for DC's streaming service (now absorbed into HBO Max) <i>Doom Patrol </i>and <i>Harley Quinn </i>have been really quite good or great. In comics, Tom King hasn't let me down yet, Milestone has returned, Tom Taylor's writing <i>Nightwing</i> and Wally West is <i>The Flash</i> again.</p><p>But I'm not as enthused as I once was. <br />DC has see-sawed waaaaay too much over the past decade, and frankly, I put it at the feet of Geoff Johns.</p><p><b>--The road that Johns paved--</b> <br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpGYdT_Mbmsg9NxiAbdmD_noCVm7smN2UHpU8bCTy5cuJZ1NWk1tsbxxsIj-iWsWqizkOodmVAhj7pMcPHAj4Ps4I56oy4stdmce5znz3UKW8uGctJDGou3-Th4bYSM9k5H3U2_z_J030/s600/0d6be6e7ebc70f0668e6a9e221675828.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpGYdT_Mbmsg9NxiAbdmD_noCVm7smN2UHpU8bCTy5cuJZ1NWk1tsbxxsIj-iWsWqizkOodmVAhj7pMcPHAj4Ps4I56oy4stdmce5znz3UKW8uGctJDGou3-Th4bYSM9k5H3U2_z_J030/s320/0d6be6e7ebc70f0668e6a9e221675828.jpg" /></a></div><br />I like Johns, but not unequivocally. I think his need to play with his childhood toys in the late aughts, Barry Allen and Hal Jordan specifically, kind of ruined what DC's greatest strength and advantage over Marvel was: legacy. I mean, Johns had a great run on <i>JSA</i>, and really seemed to get the history of the DC Universe, but he also couldn't let go of it. With Green Lantern, bringing Hal back led to the Spectrum Corps, but it also led to Kyle Raynor (<i>the </i>comics Green Lantern) and John Stewart (<i>the</i> animated Green Lantern) being pushed aside. Kyle in the comics struggled for a new identity. They made a borderline unwatchable movie about Hal Jordan which Johns had a heavy hand in. <p></p><p>Following the return of Hal Jordan, Johns penned <i>Infinite Crisis</i>. With its direct ties back to <i>Crisis on Infinite Earths</i>,
was Johns' first big foray into course correcting and explaining
deviations in the DCU. This is the series that introduced a very evil
Superboy into DC continuity who has been one of John's mainstay go-to
bad guys for a decade and a half. </p><p><i>Infinite Crisis </i>led into the epic weekly series <i>52</i>,
where Johns, partnering with Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and Grant Morrison,
reinstated a new multiverse into the DCU. Meanwhile, Johns (with
Richard Donner) also made a stab at introducing a child into Superman's
life, which didn't really take.</p><p>Then, in bringing Barry Allen back, he pushed Wally West aside. Wally was <i>the </i>Flash of both comics and animation. It pushed Bart Allen aside too, which in a way started the restricting of the next generation of heroes. As Marvel was building up its next gen of Young Avengers and X-Men, and solo stars like Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl, Miles Morales Spider-Man and Spider-Gwen, DC started turning back to the past, and then in a blind fit of madness, wiping the slate clean.</p><p>Thanks to Johns, and Barry Allen, there was <i>Flashpoint</i>, which I deem to be the nadir of DC's 25-year obsession with event-driven publishing. To be completely honest, I've still not read it in full, but the concept just reaffirmed my distaste for Barry Allen as the Flash. If he's the better Flash, he should know better than to muck with time. Obviously the New 52 was the direct end result. The New 52 was never going to be anything but a short-term ploy for DC, and while it may have benefited them financially in the short term, in the long run it was an abject failure. The indirect end result is a large piece of the decade-long spiral into darker DC realities. Flashpoint. The New 52. Injustice. Metal and the Dark Multiverse. Arrow. Man of Steel and the Snyderverse. "Fuck Batman" Titans. Animated Frank Miller adaptations.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3yA1v6G5laIZsu4x2xjzMiu8kgSKIZSc-JQxRkz2W4wu-VZmE56-sr0eU1AVad8xtuFqxE52csrAnDMeeYw91xA3_M8nyuaGNKI4PmlUH-pPsgMNhrPJhTNxXR7KFHUyq8kK67RXf43I/s2048/REBIRTH-splash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1586" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3yA1v6G5laIZsu4x2xjzMiu8kgSKIZSc-JQxRkz2W4wu-VZmE56-sr0eU1AVad8xtuFqxE52csrAnDMeeYw91xA3_M8nyuaGNKI4PmlUH-pPsgMNhrPJhTNxXR7KFHUyq8kK67RXf43I/s320/REBIRTH-splash.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Amid the new 52 Johns also penned the <i>Forever Evil</i> event, where the villains of the DCU took over the world and then had to combat an even greater foe, and then two years later <i>DC Universe:Rebirth</i> (trading off <i>Green Lantern: Rebirth </i>and <i>Flash:Rebirth</i>) which effectively retconned the New 52 and created a new hybrid reality.<p></p><p>I'm not saying the quality of any of these are bad. Johns is a good writer, and a lot of his output is great reading. But I look at so much of what he did as a writer for DC and it was a lot of monkeying with the larger architecture of the DC Universe. As Chief Creative Officer of DC for 8 years, he working with Dan Didio and Jim Lee to plot the path, he's the one who physically laid the bricks.</p><p><b>--Who mans the Watchmen?--</b><br /></p><p>In 2011 (though Johns may have had nothing to do with the decision, but hard to tell given he was CCO) DC started laying the groundwork for more <i>Watchmen</i> product, with long advance notice of the 2012 debut of the<i> Before Watchmen</i> titles, and the fan griping to go along with it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTZt8GK4e7FbJcCWIU-9WLUZDcUVblRI0tmdKhVvKcw8_GJmG9ez_Ok3WlF04N5YmAhIsdat9UNQ6CJhfGjeNOfoAc5IQ-tfGk3rGs5MQOtU_bIiNVgq0UpsNsAq3iiADzS3flox-LsgI/s1200/BeforeWatchmen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="929" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTZt8GK4e7FbJcCWIU-9WLUZDcUVblRI0tmdKhVvKcw8_GJmG9ez_Ok3WlF04N5YmAhIsdat9UNQ6CJhfGjeNOfoAc5IQ-tfGk3rGs5MQOtU_bIiNVgq0UpsNsAq3iiADzS3flox-LsgI/s320/BeforeWatchmen.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p><i>Watchmen</i> was a sacrosanct text for the longest time, a portrait of pure artistic vision. The foundation upon which modern superhero comics (and maybe the American comics industry as a whole) was built. To touch it in any way would potentially dilute its impact. Any falter in how it, or the characters within were presented, and it could tarnish the whole conceit of superheroes as something modern, meaningful, relevant, artful.</p><p>Well, with a stab at making a film in 2009, Zack Snyder got the adapted visuals bang on, but missed all the nuance. Even still, following the film, the collected edition of <i>Watchmen</i> became a massive and sustaining bestseller. More <i>Watchmen</i> was inevitable.<br /></p><p>Yet in the wake of the film, people already were pointing a damning finger back to <i>The Dark Knight Returns</i> and <i>Watchmen</i>
as the guidepost what happened to the American comics industry in the years following their near simultaneous publications.
Grim'n'gritty'n'sexy'n'cool dominated the 90's, but that was catering
not to an adult audience, but a hormonal teenage one. DC dabbled in this, but
they didn't go hardcore like Marvel, Image or the indies did. The
fallout of the "Death of Superman" wasn't a plunge into darkness, but
the introduction of new legacy characters. It didn't stop them from getting there eventually, with things like <i>Identity Crisis</i> in 2004 (where a villain rapes a heroes wife) and, yes, <i>Flashpoint </i>and the <i>New 52.</i><br /></p><p>Alan Moore has said that creators have ostensibly taken the wrong inspiration from <i>Watchmen</i>. Per an interview <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20081216124431/http://www.avclub.com/content/node/22543" target="_blank">with the AV Club in 2008</a>: "<i>I think that what a lot of people saw when they read <i>Watchmen</i> was
a high degree of violence, a bleaker and more pessimistic political
perspective, perhaps a bit more sex, more swearing. And to some degree
there has been, in the 15 years since <i>Watchmen</i>, an awful lot of the comics field devoted to these grim, pessimistic, nasty, violent stories which kind of use <i>Watchmen</i>
to validate what are, in effect, often just some very nasty stories
that don't have a lot to recommend them.... The gritty, deconstructivist postmodern superhero comic, as exemplified by Watchmen,
also became a genre. It was never meant to. It was meant to be one work
on its own. I'd have liked to have seen more people trying to do
something that was as technically complex as Watchmen, or as ambitious, but which wasn't strumming the same chords that Watchmen
had strummed so repetitively. The apocalyptic bleakness of comics over
the past 15 years sometimes seems odd to me, because it's like that was a
bad mood that I was in 15 years ago. It was the 1980s, we'd got this
insane right-wing voter fear running the country, and I was in a bad
mood, politically and socially and in most other ways. But it was a
genuine bad mood, and it was mine. I've seen a lot of things over the
past 15 years that have been a bizarre echo of somebody else's bad mood.
It's not even their bad mood, it's mine</i>"</p><p> Moore wasn't trying
to "correct" anything, he was using the medium of superheroes as a
means of exploring humanity, and to express his concerns over it's trajectory at the
time it was created. It was also an experimental storytelling playground.<br /></p><p>For the better part of Geoff Johns' career (mostly at DC) he's either been trying to influence DCs future, or correct continuity. With <i>Doomsday Clock</i> he's doing both, while at the same time adopting the edifice of what Moore and Gibbons did in 1985. </p><p><i>Doomsday Clock</i> looks like <i>Watchmen</i>, it's structured like <i>Watchmen</i>, it contains <i>Watchmen </i>characters and references...but its purpose is so, so much less. The spirit of <i>Watchmen</i> is not contained within.</p><p><b>--A doomed review--</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwCU7DdxAt1YpbFnYYM5t0oZFP2VYBqqzCZnXJsRTkbvowrZOEimzytqLaTp0hJTBNT2Vdcgz78YGSAr9ksMqCD8Eg5fkDJoYmFJ-MX2XncoOZUsfwRuzcxXVZLDZtEBsGwpoSHFv7CY/s2048/Doomsday-Clock-Part-1-Collected-Edition.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1305" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwCU7DdxAt1YpbFnYYM5t0oZFP2VYBqqzCZnXJsRTkbvowrZOEimzytqLaTp0hJTBNT2Vdcgz78YGSAr9ksMqCD8Eg5fkDJoYmFJ-MX2XncoOZUsfwRuzcxXVZLDZtEBsGwpoSHFv7CY/s320/Doomsday-Clock-Part-1-Collected-Edition.jpg" /></a></div><br />Let me just say, before I continue, that I enjoyed reading<i> Doomsday Clock</i>. It's a very engrossing read. It presents a compelling in-world scenario as well as a mystery that unfurls nicely. The framework upon which the story hangs is a beefy one, build by masters of storytelling, and just in attempting to emulate that structure, Johns with frequent collaborator Gary Frank (with colorist Brad Anderson and letterer Rob Leigh) manage to deliver the impression of importance. Like Snyder's adaptation, it adopts its cues and approximates the rhythms, and does so skillfully enough to entertain, but its missing soul. It's a cover song, performed by an artist that likes the tune, but doesn't really connect with the lyrics.<p></p><p>This 400-page tome starts roughly 7 years after the events of <i>Watchmen</i>, the lie Adrian Veidt had created has been exposed and the world is collapsing. Protests ring out as distrust runs rampant. Rather than successfully bringing the world together he's torn it down practically to the ground. It's on the verge of nuclear annihilation. There's one hope at salvation, Dr. Manhattan, and he's nowhere to be found, at least not in this reality. So Veidt, a new Rorschach and two criminals from their past escape in the Owlship to the modern day 2020 DC Universe in search of the missing blue god.</p><p>The opening chapters feel the weight of its apocalyptic scenario for Earth-Watchmen. The new Rorschach is intentionally too on the nose of the old Rorschach so as to add the weight of the original when perhaps said weight isn't really there. This Rorschach <i>seems</i> to be as astute and as ruthless as the original.... </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_0jAZpRDJa_FAa80ZGyMjUOKtlCPurWBDV0Se9MA1AAh6a_IHvsSieO7e4SlCWJ08MgxKbimnmURiyjb6QLthEflrDoShxuBs33EKdEJix6LKyDbjr0nCRG1grmoW51Yl9v97t9FjMcs/s1400/Doomsday-Clock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="911" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_0jAZpRDJa_FAa80ZGyMjUOKtlCPurWBDV0Se9MA1AAh6a_IHvsSieO7e4SlCWJ08MgxKbimnmURiyjb6QLthEflrDoShxuBs33EKdEJix6LKyDbjr0nCRG1grmoW51Yl9v97t9FjMcs/s320/Doomsday-Clock.jpg" /></a></div><br />Once on Earth-Rebirth, there's a situation at hand, a rumour that America's uneven proliferation of superheroes compared to the rest of the world is as a result of secret government experimental programs. Protests erupt, distrust abounds. It's a much different reality, this Earth full of heroes, but the same problems persist.<p></p><p>Early on you get the sense that maybe Johns is working through a lot of the issues of the day, but then I remember that a lot of the Black Lives Matter protesting and capital building storming hadn't happened yet. But still, disinformation and bull-headed belief in feelings-over-facts I thought would make for a potent undercurrent...but they never really get much past a patch on the surface.</p><p>By the end of the second act, the gritty groundedness of <i>Watchmen</i> gives way to the spandex-clad reality of the DCU. It's a story that slowly turns from maybe having something to say to just being another superhero event comic. There have been stories of distrust in heroes countless times...right out of <i>Crisis On Infinite Earths</i> event came the <i>Legends</i> event which found Glorious Godfrey, a then-equivalent to a modern-day right-wing mouthpiece, spouting off against the heroes and rallying the layperson against them. That storyline feels even more relevant today, with certain supposed "news" media sowing discord among the public by proliferating lies and repeating propaganda. Those machinations are at play in <i>Doomsday Clock</i> but they're buried under the importance of telling a story that's set up to reframe a superhero universe.</p><p>And it's too bad, it's really to bad. There's a lot of craft and care put into this. Gary Frank does what may be the best work of his career here, bringing something of his own to the 9-panel grid structure. Franks figures, forms and faces have never been more expressive and emotive, it's really gorgeous to look at. Similarly, Johns really was trying at matching the level of storytelling intricacy that Moore did, putting so much work into back-matter world building, and seeding throughout his own "Black Freighter" in the form of a Noir movie starring a dormant DC-owned detective. His sifting through annals of DC's pantheon and pulls out so many deep cuts, there is clearly love and care here in what he's doing. At a certain point it even seems that Johns might be making a case that superheroes as a storytelling construct have no place in modern society...but that train is abandoned rather quickly.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7S6Ch1TipzfTCjgZVm7sGiI_4Ay7uTKHlgBpmmIPLAyuSpncetq28c02p_VbFD5lCcaFrmO1WZHcTiAvNW_ep1kJQHMjIbxIJN6zALKWerzIO-zlVZheDEqFOs2uN-xSEh1wN8zvxnCQ/s1800/DoomsdayClock10.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1171" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7S6Ch1TipzfTCjgZVm7sGiI_4Ay7uTKHlgBpmmIPLAyuSpncetq28c02p_VbFD5lCcaFrmO1WZHcTiAvNW_ep1kJQHMjIbxIJN6zALKWerzIO-zlVZheDEqFOs2uN-xSEh1wN8zvxnCQ/s320/DoomsdayClock10.webp" /></a></div>But the end result is not even close to <i>Watchmen</i> caliber. <p></p><p>While <i>Watchmen </i>will still be completely readable and resonant two decades from now, <i>Doomsday Clock</i> is here to serve one purpose... yet again correct the continuity problems of the DC Universe (and answer questions like where are the JSA? Where is the Legion?). In the wake of <i>DC Universe: Rebirth</i> there were still continuity flaws and gaps that couldn't be explained. Just as there were gaps in the <i>New 52</i>. And gaps after <i>Final Crisis</i>, and <i>Infinite Crisis</i> and<i> Zero Hour</i> and <i>Crisis On Infinite Earths</i> and every other attempt to sew some sort of logic into decades upon decades of storytelling with characters who barely age.</p><p>I like that Johns ties in all the timeline fudging directly around the
need to keep revitalizing Superman, as the DC Universe indeed does
revolve around him. It a good acknowledgement. But Johns doesn't just stop at trying to fix the currently broken DC Universe, or addressing why it keeps needing fixing, he also tries to project five different points of <i>future</i> DCU continuity up to 30 years in advance that infers so much the hubris of the writer and his sense that he's the architect of the DCU. I would almost have preferred a Morrison-esque injection of himself into the proceedings as the grand architect, indicting thins grand decider or the reader as complicit beings of unknown origins for their part in continually messing up the reality.</p><p>If it serves another purpose - integrating the <i>Watchmen</i> into the DCU for future exploration - then that's kind of the worst possible scenario.<br /></p><p><b>--Aftermath and aside--</b><br /></p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLD5Ur0ci9CaxRXAZB07m8GKJmV64Zo6KzOZP1Q-47Z50qhkM40cPnVJuva1n01qA6T7U5RX9vIgRX-RUJtIycc8sFHIeJ5lM1NCZTvHvmtoSvq1usx2IqmPC8jLtgU4oW-SZ_IcNn0pY/s2048/1+rKARKMyaD4f3DzMEHGFvfg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1382" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLD5Ur0ci9CaxRXAZB07m8GKJmV64Zo6KzOZP1Q-47Z50qhkM40cPnVJuva1n01qA6T7U5RX9vIgRX-RUJtIycc8sFHIeJ5lM1NCZTvHvmtoSvq1usx2IqmPC8jLtgU4oW-SZ_IcNn0pY/s320/1+rKARKMyaD4f3DzMEHGFvfg.png" /></a></div>The fallout of <i>Doomsday Clock</i> was rapid, and before it was even finished another event befell the DCU, <i>Dark Knights: Metal</i>, which changed everything even more (has to be the absolute fastest retcon in existence). Today, there's <i>Future State</i> and other untethered realities that allow basically any story to be told and be a part of any canon. It all exists at once. It's all valid. Just enjoy what you want to enjoy, don't worry about how it impacts anything else. It's a reality I like, but also one that's hard to invest in.<br /><p></p><p>I wish <i>Doomsday Clock</i> had been a part of this new, post-<i>Metal</i> reality, where it was its own stand-alone, self-contained product, with a beginning, middle and end that owes very little to any specific continuity. It really needed to separate itself from the "now" of the DC Universe (at a certain point I thought it was taking place in 1992 DCU), but since it couldn't, it will be forever tied to 2020 which means it will age and creak, pretty rapidly.</p><p></p><p>The argument that <i>Watchmen</i> shouldn't be continued at all is, now, a moot point. In <i>Multiversity: Pax Americana, </i>Grant Morrison reverted the
Watchmen characters back to their Charlton Comics analogs, providing a
playground to mess with the Watchmen without actually messing with <i>Watchmen. </i>But <i>Watchmen</i> is a brand now, and that will be taken advantage of whether anyone likes it or not. We now have four separate projects that have been built around it, to their own varying levels of success (and failure). If anything, <i>Watchmen </i>needs to be left alone, in that it shouldn't be operating outside its own reality. It becomes abundantly clear in <i>Doomsday Clock</i> that being part of a sprawling superhero reality isn't a great fit for the property. It plays nice for a time, but eventually gets crushed under the weight of everything a shared universe represents. With the exception of Dr. Manhattan (who is perhaps too outsized for the DCU), the characters get lost. Who needs an Adrian Veidt when you have a Lex Luthor. Who needs a Rorschach when you have a Batman or a Question. Who needs Marionette or Mime when you have the Joker. <br /></p><p>An enjoyable enough read for people steeped in DC lore, but not a very accessible read for someone looking for a sequel to <i>Watchmen.</i> For that, I would direct them to the brilliant 2020 HBO TV mini-series that takes the established world of <i>Watchmen </i>and
tries something different, technically complex, that harnesses the bad
mood of the 2010s and makes a work of art out of it. It's expands upon
the world of <i>Watchmen</i> without parroting Moore and Gibbons or
leaning on the past like a crutch. It has ambition and purpose, but
also entertains wildly and surprisingly. While <i>Doomsday Clock</i> barely scratches at commenting on our modern existence, HBO's <i>Watchmen </i>transfers the temperature of the day to another far more effectively.</p>KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-58127775573658171802021-07-10T11:04:00.001-07:002021-07-10T11:04:46.847-07:00Trade Weight: Black Panther by Christopher Priest: The Complete Collection vol 1 & 2<p><i>5-ish years later...<br />Why now?<br />Why is Graig returning Second Printing soooo long after running it into the ground with his prattling on?<br />Because he has no mouth and he must scream.<br />About comics.]<br /> </i><br /><i> 2015, Marvel</i><br /></p><p>I was already late to the party.</p><p><b>[2001] </b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqaDTwPKIRWeODFyWh0zQIQ-zXIO7-ASl50iW8p-sqATIgIezVbcy55-FFbODmUaTyALwc2rSS4l1hh7ehK08WfL0eCAwlv89TbaLstYa60_6JR8hzngYaDg0WWUynhu8gr-dbE9XzXkk/s612/bptheclient.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqaDTwPKIRWeODFyWh0zQIQ-zXIO7-ASl50iW8p-sqATIgIezVbcy55-FFbODmUaTyALwc2rSS4l1hh7ehK08WfL0eCAwlv89TbaLstYa60_6JR8hzngYaDg0WWUynhu8gr-dbE9XzXkk/s320/bptheclient.jpg" /></a></div><br />I started reading Priest's run of Black Panther as collected in the initial Marvel Knights trade paperbacks released in 2001. (oddly, while fact checking this blog post, I discovered my copy of
volume 2, "Enemy of the State" was published in February 2001, and my
copy of volume 1, "The Client" was published in June 2001)<p></p><p>The series had started in '98. </p><p>I was late to the party.<br /></p><p>I loved it but I only got two trades (12 issues) deep into the series, mainly because they didn't keep compiling the run in trade. It made no sense why they didn't keep collecting the series. For a long, long time it just felt like a huge gap in my comics collection. It was a gap I had always intended on filling but never quite did.</p><p><b>[2015]</b></p><p>A couple years back, around 2015, I found a bunch of Priest's run in the dollar bin at a local comic shoppe, so I snapped those up, but they were very random, scattershot issues. A couple of teens, a few in the 20's, a handful of 30s, 40 and 49, most of the 50s. It was a start. But it wasn't something I was dedicated to.</p><p>My "to read" comics pile of trades and floppies had grown huge. With kids and pets and work and board games and tv and movies and all the other things, comics had slid down my list of priorities, nevermind filling in back-issues for a 15-year-old series. </p><p>And now that I had started filling in the collection with dollar bin floppies, I'd be damned if I was paying $40 for the new <i>Black Panther by Christopher Priest: The Complete Collection</i> trades Marvel <i>finally </i>started publishing in 2015. Especially since the first volume collected issues 1-17, and I already had trades with issues 1-12. What kind of scam were they perpetrating here, anyway? At the very least I needed to get issues 13-17 before picking up the Complete Collection volume 2, but then I would have two trades, 5 floppies and more trades. That's just annoying to put on a bookshelf.<br /></p><p><b>[2018]</b></p><p>2018...well, we all know what happened in 2018. <i>Black Panther</i> happened in 2018.</p><p>Wakanda, and the glorious afrofuturist fantasy it presented, the dreams and fandom it sparked, became <i>the</i> <i>best </i>thing of 2018. <br /></p><p>What I had forgotten, in watching the movie, was where it came from (but really, it didn't matter where it came from, only that it exists, and it's something that was embraced like very few films before or since).</p><p>I loved the introduction of T'Challa in <i>Civil War</i> but I was like a child, in complete awe of the world of Wakanda in multiple theatrical viewings of <i>Black Panther</i>. The reality was my knowledge of Black Panther was pretty weak. I wasn't a Marvel kid, and my reading of Marvel books as a teen through twenties was sporadic. The fact that I had read any Black Panther didn't matter because the entire reality created by Ryan Coogler and his fantastic team of designers and stylists and performers and.and.and just everyone was now the definitive take on it all to me. </p><p>I mean, who cared if it was or wasn't authentic. The majority of Black Panther stories were crafted by (hopefully well-intentioned, but probably misguided) white men. Who needs to hold to <i>that</i> as "authentic"? I knew that Priest came along after 30 years and he built a whole new reality (if not entirely new, certainly revised and revamped), but all I really retained of my limited Panther-by-Priest exposure was the goofy antics of in-over-his-head Agent Ross acting as King T'Challa's American liaison. I recalled the concept of the Dora Milaje, T'Challa's elite, exclusively female security force, but the specifics were completely overwritten by their presentation in the film. And while watching the movie, it felt like I had no frame of reference for Wakanda. Priest's Wakanda never stuck out to me because, as noted, I hadn't gotten very deep into his run, and the first two arcs largely take place in America. </p><p>After Feburary 16, 2018, to me, and to most people, Chadwick Boseman was king. I mean, Reginald Hudlin, Dwayne McDuffie in the pages of Fantastic Four), Jonathan Hickman (in New Avengers) and Ta Nehisi Coates had all put a stamp on him, but Boseman literally brought the character to life, and in a meaningful, impactful, inspirational way.<br /></p><p><b>[2020]</b></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm7IbyUah0lMFuQWBd3pK4ue-2KlHECO-8LlJ_xzES6D074HBHQWl-aQ7djxRS2uNgNaJJ0ORVxLAXCyfnvvoDwDrl0DUUcBF90UQ5uOkWtQ955b-ttyUvi4Qr-cNM6H7X8OdnrbDV9mw/s610/bpeots.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm7IbyUah0lMFuQWBd3pK4ue-2KlHECO-8LlJ_xzES6D074HBHQWl-aQ7djxRS2uNgNaJJ0ORVxLAXCyfnvvoDwDrl0DUUcBF90UQ5uOkWtQ955b-ttyUvi4Qr-cNM6H7X8OdnrbDV9mw/s320/bpeots.jpg" /></a>COVID-19 took its pounds of flesh, crippled economies, toppled governments, and sent people down some pretty fucked up paths. It shattered psyches and wore down stomach linings. It forced people apart - physically, ideologically. </p><p>The news wasn't great, for so long, so we all had but one objective...escape into media, into content. But for a time new content had slowed to a trickle, so older content was being explored...and it was time for me to FINALLY get back to Priest's <i>Black Panther</i>.</p><p>Except, because of the 2018 cultural phenomenon that was Coogler's Best Picture Oscar nominated (and award-winning) blockbuster, the price of individual issues of Priest's Black Panther had shot up in value. They were no longer dollar bin fodder but, in some cases, upwards of twenty dollars per issue. I mean, if I'm being completely honest, that <i>Priest's </i>Black Panther run was ever dollar bin fodder is absurd.</p><p><b>[2021]</b></p><p>I've reached a point in my life where I'm making decent money, the bills are paid and, especially since COVID limits what we can actually spend money on, I have some excess disposable income. Some goes to charity, some goes into retirement savings, and some goes into my hobbies, allowing myself a few luxuries, like buying the first volume of The Complete Collection, even though I already have trades that cover 2/3 of that volume.</p><p>I also bought volume 2, even though I had half of that volume from the scattershot dollar bin issues I had found. I tried to find Volumes 3 and 4 but they just seem gone, at least in Canada, and people have started hiking up the price on the secondary market. The last printings of these Complete Collection volumes seemed to be in conjunction with the release of the film in 2018.</p><p>And after all this history, I finally sit down and read.</p><p><b>[I need a young priest and an old priest]</b></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvKZd1UfkZ1zxj8la-SOkDI7bgXfD8D5WpFNgmokOXKsIN3CdfKfhsEFOYjc38kutJfOrYd2RWJEbKXMRM_Ryphq_vqD4ox4SPX0OOVAUVNWcFSd56cosVsioTRJqOoQhU9QWeLJsGGXU/s615/bpbycptcc.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvKZd1UfkZ1zxj8la-SOkDI7bgXfD8D5WpFNgmokOXKsIN3CdfKfhsEFOYjc38kutJfOrYd2RWJEbKXMRM_Ryphq_vqD4ox4SPX0OOVAUVNWcFSd56cosVsioTRJqOoQhU9QWeLJsGGXU/s320/bpbycptcc.jpg" /></a>I wish I was a better fan back in the 1990s and early 2000s. Priest was always a writer I connected with. His storytelling sensibilities were (and still are) so uniquely his own, his sense of humour is right in my wheelhouse, and his thirst for knowledge is evident in his stories. He's easily one of the most intelligent and intellectual writers to ever work in superhero comics. I read all of his DC books in the 1990's but because I wasn't a Marvel kid I didn't really follow his late 90's/early 2000's work over there. It sucks that the industry never really saw fit to put him on the books he wanted to work on the most... a frustration that saw him quit comics for too long a period (2005-2014).</p><p>Priest had said many times he never wanted to be known as the Black writer of Black superheroes. He was an editor at Marvel for a long time, his business savvy was about selling comics. Back in the 70's and 80's when Priest was coming up, you became a name as a writer not by quality alone, but by exposure, by the characters you write. You write Superman or Spider-Man, you maybe take some of that large audience with you to your next gig. I've likewise seen female writers in the industry before the turn of
the millennium say much the same thing, that they didn't want to write
female superheroes because that would paint them in a corner they would
never get out of. As a writer, Priest wanted to write books and characters that sold, and, as he states in "The Story Thus Far...", his 2001 intro to "The Client" trade paperback:<br /><i>"Panther was a black super hero, and the most basic economic lesson this business can teach you is minorities and female super heroes do not sell"</i>.<br /></p><p>Now, that statement has been proven false over, and over again since, but his
run on Black Panther was absolutely necessary in proving that false. A large part of the problem was largely that BIPOC and female characters were written from an inauthentic point of view, as comic books (and TV and Film and pretty every entertainment industry in America) was dominated by white men. "Minorities and female super heroes do not sell" because comics, and comic shops were not always the most inviting place for them. And the industry didn't value them as an audience in any way for a very, very, very long time. </p><p>Priest's approach to <i>Black Panther</i>, as he explains in "The Story Thus Far...":<br /><i>"we withdrew [T'Challa] altogether, pushing him to the shadows and, to some complaint, making him almost a guest star in his own book. Only, in any reasonable analysis of the series, Panther clearly drives the book. Even if he has only a handful of lines per issue, he is the dominating force."</i></p><p>When you watch Coogler's <i>Black Panther</i> that's clearly a lesson he learned from Priest. T'Challa is the dominating force of that film, even if, like in the movie, Killmonger's presence threatens that dominance.<i> <br /></i></p><p>Priest continues in "The Story Thus Far..." to discuss his approach, to make it accessible to the hetero white male audience that was the target demographic of mainstream comics at the time. 20 years later it's more than a little infuriating that he had to put <i>that</i> amount of thought into it, that he needed to think so explicitly about a white audience and be sensitive to them. But for trailblazers like Priest, that's what you needed to do to work, to survive.</p><p></p><p>But what makes his <i>Black Panther</i> run so great is that he made T'Challa and Wakanda accessible not just to white male comic book readers, but to everyone. He built up the character's mystique, his intelligence, his calm, cool, calculating nature, his leadership savvy, and eventually he reveals his heart. T'Challa and Wakanda are treated as sort of unknowns to start, then are slowly revealed over the first few arcs. With Wakanda Priest builds a culture, a prosperous, technologically advanced African nation, but one still beholden to tribal structures and customs requiring an entirely unique sense of diplomacy and leadership. If you've seen the movie, a lot of the foundation of Wakanda comes from the groundwork Priest laid for it.<br /></p><p>As a result of T'Challa and Wakanda being African, and yet fictional and unique, Priest is able to approach American politics, sociology and race from an outside perspective. Using the Matthew Perry-inspired Agent Ross - a wisecracking dope who means well but has a hard time seeing past his own frame of reference (that's called "privilege") - as the tour guide to T'Challa's reality Priest has his cake and eats it too. Via Ross, Priest was also able to make the pop culture jokes and make the book very American. Ross is kind of an inept fool, yet T'Challa still sees value in him as a person and calls him a friend. It's also kind of clear that Priest loves writing Ross, because he's the clown, the book's comic relief, and Priest loves writing comedy. </p><p>In a modern sense, Ross seems like an unnecessary gateway, an appeasement to de-Black-ify Black Panther and make him more palatable. Priest basically says as much ("<i>How do we do a book about a black king of a black nation who comes to a black neighborhood and not have it be a 'black' book</i>"). In the interviews and editorials published in the back of <i>Black Panther by Christopher Priest: The Complete Collection volume 1</i> Priest downplays the book's Blackness. <i>"Panther's ethnicity is certainly a component of the series, but it's not the central theme. We neither ignore it, nor build our stories around it." </i>But that's all just the sell, the pitch to the white fanboys who are maybe thinking "this can't be for me, I can't identify with this". </p><p>I have to think that Priest was thinking about Milestone Comics, the Black-owned imprint over at DC comics which was shut down during the comics downturn the late 90's. Milestone's focus was a FUBU-like mentality to start and quickly expanded into even more diverse voices and characters. It wasn't catering at all to that white fanboy market. I should also note that it was also not excluding it. That it shut down publishing I think was maybe seen as a failure, but it was just the comics economy at the time. Priest's awareness of Milestone's perceived failure meant that Black Panther needed the most eyes on it. If that meant downplaying race or creating a gateway character, so be it.</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNk1pOxcq0OUa6YMM3GL8QNXkGO7mqkChNgDAfnPR7dLCCDq1l7kq4ysgoXVR6rD84IvslyU4jtfFpm16OrHMBLr-YH9iT-ZrHwS6BrNvW4aC3whqIc8AnxFinB6kkq7XvROp0-7BcEds/s500/bpbycptcc2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="325" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNk1pOxcq0OUa6YMM3GL8QNXkGO7mqkChNgDAfnPR7dLCCDq1l7kq4ysgoXVR6rD84IvslyU4jtfFpm16OrHMBLr-YH9iT-ZrHwS6BrNvW4aC3whqIc8AnxFinB6kkq7XvROp0-7BcEds/s320/bpbycptcc2.jpg" /></a>But Priest's words aren't the complete reality. Where a white writer would probably write a bog-standard comic with the occasional treacly "a very special issue", Priest's Black Panther understands the world a Black man lives in, and in this case he gets to envision the viewpoint of a Black man raised to be a king and has powers and technology and intellect and training most people could only dream about. Ethnicity, race, culture, they are all elements of the stories Priest tells throughout the series. Not the driving element, as he said, but they pour out of Priest onto the page in the 35 issues I read, whether he wanted them to or not (and I think he did). They exist in this reality, they exist in any reality, it's just a matter of whether you acknowledge their existence. But Priest never makes "a very special issue" out of them, he treats them as they need to be treated, sometimes as a matter of fact, sometimes as something more.</p><p>As Priest notes in one column "Now every time I mention I'm black, everyone at the office starts having meetings." It's again endemic of who's running the show. I'm reminded of stories about Black sitcom writers being getting jokes cut, being told their jokes aren't funny because the white showrunners didn't understand them. With Black Panther, Priest and his editors fought to let his voice come through undisturbed, that impeding his voice lessens the material. </p><p>I've read pretty much all of Priest's work since his return in 2014. I thought his <i>Deathstroke </i>run was often brilliant, <i>U.S. Agent</i> was tremendous fun, and <i>Vampirella </i>frequent surprising (although buying Vampirella comics is like buying condoms as a teenager...there's nothing actually wrong with it, but it feels wrong somehow, or embarassing at least). I've also spent time over the years catching up on and collecting earlier work, all of it, even his lesser work (like, say, DC's <i>Triumph</i> mini-series) is still a fairly good read. He's incapable of bad work. But I think his Black Panther run is going to be his greatest accomplishment.</p><p><b>[35 issues plus a Deadpool]</b></p><p>Coming back to Priest's <i>Black Panther</i> so long after its original run, and following the film, I found some surprises, good and bad.</p><p>The first thing that got me was the Dora Milaje. Here Nakia and Okoye are beautiful, statuesque teenagers who are betrothed to the King. </p><p>Ew.</p><p>Ross drools in their presence on the reg.</p><p>Double Ew.</p><p>This whole betrothed-teen thing is exceptionally gross, and Ross' objectification of them doubles down on the grossness. I really hate this element of Priest's run.</p><p>To his credit, T'Challa in Priest's hands things of these young women as daughters, not future wives or any kind of lover. He has no interest in them beyond his usual compassion for their well being. Their place in his life is more duty and tradition than anything of his own design.</p><p>Things get complicated when a possessed T'Challa kisses Nakia and the young girl goes crush-mad and becomes the vengeful Malice. If she weren't so over-sexualized (and by 90's standards she's quite tame) nor 16-years-old, the Nakia/Malice arc would still be guilty of being a bit of an overplayed stereotype, and yet Priest still manages to subvert cliches and find a character in there as well as a bigger impact on both T'Challa and Wakanda.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQYnwT0WAbVAAduNMUU86toQRW7pt1FEt6WKezViygwBp4HpwiTpETEf6idzUlX1mXeCvAY71FnBR8V-PHPejSLkzkmu9BvJ1In5eDe2PbOJIuJ-QUbf0TeC0BF1KUgA636uHKiaPVkHU/s755/black_panther_ver2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="509" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQYnwT0WAbVAAduNMUU86toQRW7pt1FEt6WKezViygwBp4HpwiTpETEf6idzUlX1mXeCvAY71FnBR8V-PHPejSLkzkmu9BvJ1In5eDe2PbOJIuJ-QUbf0TeC0BF1KUgA636uHKiaPVkHU/s320/black_panther_ver2.jpg" /></a></div><br />The Dora Milaje in the MCU are incredible, and I like that they've been adapted into something a little different, and much more powerful (I've not finished Priest's run, and I've only read a little bit of Hudlin's run so I'm not sure if they were modified before hitting the screen).<p></p><p>Another thing that stood out was Priest's adeptness at political intrigue. The series in its second arc starts running with the politics of Wakanda, both within and without, and it continues to build, and build and build throughout the run (at least through to issue 35 at the end of The Complete Collection volume 2). It's this intrigue that creates a bingeable comic book, something that you want to just keep devouring because it keeps finding new levels to delve into. Comics have long had a serialized nature but Priest was looking more towards television rather than other comics as a guidepost for serialized storytelling.</p><p>Going back to Priest's Panther now though, is a little difficult because
the film's Wakanda is so strikingly realized. The costuming, building
and vehicle designs are so outstanding that the Wakanda in Priest's book
are underwhelming in comparison. Sal Velluto and Bob Almond, who
handled art chores the longest on the series, are a wonderful team, but
their design sense can't compare to the dedicated team of designers and
artists who worked on the film (and won Awards for it). As much as
Priest's run redefined Wakanda, the film has supplanted that
presentation. Coates took Wakanda on a different journey in the comics
and I'm eagerly awaiting the omnibus for that (I did read the first year
and a half of stories though). <br /></p><p>Priest never forgot he was writing in the greater Marvel Universe. He integrates <i>Black Panther </i>into the Universe so well, mainly as a means of showing how much T'Challa stands out, what makes him different from other heroes (mainly his responsibility as a leader of a nation, but comparing that to, say, Namor or Doctor Doom really puts a finer point on it). Captain America pokes his head in here and there, sometimes with the Avengers, sometimes without, and there's a big international war that T'Challa nearly started which gathered a lot of attention. And there's the time Mephisto gave Ross unlimited pants (twice), as well as the time Queen (an American-born Dora Milaje) took the Hulk dancing.</p><p>But more to Priest's ability to weave through the Marvel Universe is his depth of historical knowledge, of both the Universe and specifically Panther's history. He draws upon it a lot, but reshapes and recontextualizes it. He makes Killmonger a frighteningly sensible foe (there's a framework for what we see from Michael B. Jordan here), while M'Baku, the Man-Ape is given some relevance (though his realization in the 2018 movie is far and away the best interpretation). Klaw has long been worked as T'Challa's nemesis, but Priest shies away from his importance in T'Challa's life (which resembles how downgraded he seemed in the film). </p><p>As a former editor and continuity cop, Priest took what came before and rebirthed it into something new, better, and less problematic, and in the process solidified Black Panther's place as an A-lister in Marvel's pantheon. Without Priest, we don't get the 2018 film (look up what John Singleton wanted to do with Black Panther sometime, and shiver at what could have been instead).</p><p>I'm so excited by diving into Priest's run that I desperately want to finish it. I'll be hunting trades or floppies to complete it, and then seeking out Hudlin's collection hopefully finishing it all in time for that inevitable Coates omnibus.<br /></p><p> </p>KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-24542698571246107672016-08-25T12:22:00.000-07:002016-08-25T12:22:15.837-07:00Trade Weight: Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! Vol 12016, Marvel<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwnCXAjhWvlyGELCnhRgLhZFwKv3NHxHavZALsJV3Io5hQ0FKDXHLAAkSRofeic59JWEu9kuGBCegD3HMV3IFv7Z-g0AqoS4JoSreLOaIqTkdPSXuMVaxqk8fJKtd3t1LXz0xpuZ6OkhE/s1600/hellcatpg1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwnCXAjhWvlyGELCnhRgLhZFwKv3NHxHavZALsJV3Io5hQ0FKDXHLAAkSRofeic59JWEu9kuGBCegD3HMV3IFv7Z-g0AqoS4JoSreLOaIqTkdPSXuMVaxqk8fJKtd3t1LXz0xpuZ6OkhE/s320/hellcatpg1.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
Within seconds of turning* to the first page of the <i>Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!</i> trade, I thought I had made a huge** mistake. Brittany L. Williams' art is just... so ... erm ... for girls. I don't mean that disparagingly. I don't mean in any way it's bad. I just mean it looks more like art coming out of a Monster High early readers book or one of the Rainbow Magic fairy books (with a 7-year-old daughter, I've seen my fair share of both of those) than standard superhero fare. It looks very much like something meant to appeal to a younger, female audience, not to a 40-year-old dad still obsessed with recapturing his youth in paper and plastic***. And you know what, I think that's the point of Williams' art, and Kate Leth's stories. They're decidedly not constructed to appeal to the standard 40-something, hasn't-grown-up, male demographic. I mean the chibi Hellcat that pops up as a stylistic device for emotional emphasis makes my head throb in its non-sequitur-ness, yet another telltale sign this just wasn't meant for me.<br />
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And yet, I flipping loved this book, far more than I think I should. My only exposure to the character was on Season 1 of <i>Jessica Jones</i>, and that character's not even named the same (she goes by Trish in the show), and the don't share the same career (or lack thereof, Trish in the show is a radio host, Patsy here is largely unemployed/self-employed), and in the show Trish is not a costumed vigilante...at least not yet. Ah...crap, I completely forgot about Patsy's role as She-Hulk's best friend in the short-lived, but awesome, <i>She-Hulk</i> series by Charles Soule... erm, nevermind?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGkgY82gG7gpvwOkHu6VAQhIo61nYr2eTD3qxlLUkzYk5avdwqMotOPoYAY_EluBeuOop5FHt1tb2T5Orla1yeyDlPUHBo_frp3SD31B8V6wgceBq0pLYYrfyeLGJt-qRlg9Zc0dZsIbo/s1600/chibihellcat.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGkgY82gG7gpvwOkHu6VAQhIo61nYr2eTD3qxlLUkzYk5avdwqMotOPoYAY_EluBeuOop5FHt1tb2T5Orla1yeyDlPUHBo_frp3SD31B8V6wgceBq0pLYYrfyeLGJt-qRlg9Zc0dZsIbo/s320/chibihellcat.png" width="315" /></a></div>
The comic opens with Jennifer Walters having to lay Patsy off as her P.I., since things are slow. Patsy has dreams of starting an employment agency for people with special abilities who can't find other work, partly as a preventative measure to keep them from crime. Leth also deals with the fact that Patsy was dead for a while and had once married Damon Hellstrom, son of Satan. It creates this curiously deep backstory that isn't even the most interesting part of her past. No, that falls to the fact that Patsy was once the star of an Archie-style teen romance comic named after her, created by her mother. Her mother died and left the intellectual property in the hands of Patsy's best frienemy, Hedy, who has resurrected the comic much to Patsy's chagrin.<br />
<br />Patsy Walker's origins in comics date as far back as 1944, and until the 1970's she was only ever a romance comic character, so it's a delicious bit of meta-fiction, somewhat borrowing from the <i>"It's Patsy"</i> teen sitcom backstory for Trish on <i>Jessica Jones</i>. There's a whole gaggle of weirdness to <i>Patsy Walker, Hellcat</i>, but it comes together in a satisfying manner. It affects much of the tone of a teen romance/comedy comic, but with superhero flourishes, and even some not all that mature legal drama. <br />
<br />
What wins it over, 100%, is Patsy herself. She's a fish out of water in her own life. Having been dead for some time, she's missed out on a lot, and certain technologies are just beyond her grasp. There's a dash of <i>Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt </i>in that, which only makes her more endearing, especially given Kimmy Schmidt's rage issues in Season 2 of that show.<br />
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I'm not sure <i>Patsy Walker, Hellcat</i> will win over the dadbod crowd in droves, but there's no reason she can't. The book features guest shots from Dr. Strange, Howard the Duck, She-Hulk, Valkyrie, and Jessica Jones (among others), so it uses the larger Marvel U in its own ways (just like it's big sister comic <i>Unbeatable Squirrel Girl</i>). I certainly need to get my daughter onto this though. I think she'd love it, perhaps even more than I do. I love that this exists, and that Marvel's line up of titles has become so varied in style and tone and character. <br />
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<br />
*when it's a digital comic, is it really "turning" at that point?<br />
** by huge, I mean incredibly minor, or nominal. This is what we in the blogging biz call "hyperbole", sometimes melodrama.<br />
*** eg. comics and toysKENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-27497599392633943492016-08-05T12:38:00.000-07:002016-08-05T12:38:06.915-07:00Trade Weight: The New Avengers Vol 1: Everything Is New<div dir="ltr">
<i>Trade Weight is a quick look at the heavy stacks of
trade paperbacks (graphic novels, etc) that were purchased with
excitement but left on the shelf, unconsumed for too long.</i> </div>
<br />
2015 - Marvel<br />
<br />
Ugh.<br />
The New Av... ugh. UGH!<br />
Ugh ugh ugh.<br />
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I can hardly even talk about this trade without...ugh!<br />
<br />
It's not good. It's so not good.<br />
It pains me that Squirrel Girl is in this, because I want to read anything with Squirrel Girl because Squirrel Girl makes everything awesome. Except that she doesn't here, nothing makes this awesome. There is nothing awesome here.<br />
<br />
I've read some of <b>Al Ewing</b>'s work before and he's a solid writer. He gets superhero comics and the craft of writing them. But New Avengers is...just...ugh.<br />
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There's no character development here over six issues, and no team building. I can barely even recall off the top of my head who is on the team. Is Deadpool in this one? I don't think so. Squirrel Girl, and uh... White Tiger, and ...uh... the new(ish) young Power Man (whose powers I'm still baffled by), and Wiccan (who gets called out on appropriating a religion he doesn't believe in for his name) and Hulkling, and erm...Songbird? Is that her name? All led by Sunspot from the New Mutants except he's not Sunspot anymore, just a guy in a suit who now owns A.I.M. and has them working for the good guys but in international waters. <br />
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Why is Squirrel Girl on this team? It doesn't make any sense. Why is anyone on this team? None of it makes sense. There's no reason for any of these people to be here. Except Hawkeye, they give him a reason to be there.<br />
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Ewing has brought back The Maker, aka the Ultimate Universe's evil Reed Richards as the main nemesis of the book. Why? After <i>Secret Wars</i> hasn't the Ultimate Universe blinked out of existence? This makes no sense then. Even if it didn't, Ultimate Reed Richards wasn't a teeth-gnashing supervillain, at least not like he's portrayed here, which is as a teeth-gnashing supervillain. <br />
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Storylines are set-up, but there's no teasing them out. In the first couple of issues there's this thing turning people into crystal-headed things... which is acceptably comic-book ridiculous. It's up to the A.I.M. team to rescue the New Avengers with super-science, thus establishing a few members of A.I.M. as supporting players.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4sNy2-odRKXl98U1syTl0MYjeJyvPr7wW7dMgcU_OB_trjPprPZXI33UvMTsqwy0fk-0tEtw5_XwDQNughx39JagbjLVqELT82hhZSDMzlvfclcavXh55uT1UgLJPo5ew_e2qJiqJUEY/s1600/avengers20XX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4sNy2-odRKXl98U1syTl0MYjeJyvPr7wW7dMgcU_OB_trjPprPZXI33UvMTsqwy0fk-0tEtw5_XwDQNughx39JagbjLVqELT82hhZSDMzlvfclcavXh55uT1UgLJPo5ew_e2qJiqJUEY/s320/avengers20XX.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
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Then, Hulking is stolen, whisked out into space and made King of the Skrulls or something, and then immediately fights some Cthulhu-esque demon from multiple timelines prior. The demon is easily defeated (for some reason the New Avengers show up when they're not all that necessary) but it escapes into Wiccan and takes over the world like 30 years from now. You would think the reveal that Wiccan is a traitor in their midst would be a long-game for Ewing, something to play out in, say, year 2 of the book, but no...issue 3 finds a team of Future Avengers traveling back in time to kill Wiccan and save the day. Things don't go down exactly like that but it completely sidesteps any real drama and launches into an unwarranted (and unspecific) XX-years-later Avengers that gets better team and character development than the regular one. In the end Wiccan excises the demon and changes his name, because that's what constitutes character growth in this series. A name change.<br />
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There was a second story in this bit but I've forgotten it already. This book is eminently forgettable, and utterly frustrating. The art from Paco Medina isn't terrible, but it doesn't appeal to me at all. In particular his Squirrel Girl (and Tippy-toe) are kind of exaggerated abominations (in fact, his figure work is often nothing but exaggerated abominations).<br />
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New Avengers, as a thing that exists, doesn't really make a lot of sense. It's got a few refugees from Ewing's <i>Mighty Avengers</i>, members of the Young Avengers, an exile from Thunderbolts, a New Mutant and Hawkeye. But this isn't a Young Avengers team, because not everyone is young...just like on the <i>All-New, All Different Avengers</i>, which sees all the premiere legacy characters coming together: New Thor, New Cap, Miles Morales, new Ms. Marvel, kid Nova... that team makes sense. This one seems like castaway city with no real driving purpose except to have as many Avengers books out as possible to capitalize upon movie success.KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-13851596270244823282016-08-05T11:49:00.000-07:002016-08-05T11:49:01.572-07:00Trade Weight: Thor: God of Thunder Vol. 2: Godbomb<i>Trade Weight is a quick look at the heavy stacks of
trade paperbacks (graphic novels, etc) that were purchased with
excitement but left on the shelf, unconsumed for too long. </i><br />
<i> </i> <br />
2013 - Marvel<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQRjTuEJ-wI8kwod9AqZaJYlQbMJiLtSgQV6N0odzK5D2v13OKlUqDqDSF_I2_U_Hb607awU2gPfKNQh7c8GRbh7CGGzqJLQHjGkiRb4VuvBH1EwNB0oGueHGb0rYlg_CQTJIRhkyckoM/s1600/Thor_God_of_Thunder_Vol_1_9_Textless.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQRjTuEJ-wI8kwod9AqZaJYlQbMJiLtSgQV6N0odzK5D2v13OKlUqDqDSF_I2_U_Hb607awU2gPfKNQh7c8GRbh7CGGzqJLQHjGkiRb4VuvBH1EwNB0oGueHGb0rYlg_CQTJIRhkyckoM/s320/Thor_God_of_Thunder_Vol_1_9_Textless.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://secondprinting.blogspot.ca/2016/07/trade-weight-thor-god-of-thunder-vol-1.html" target="_blank">"The God Butcher", volume 1 of <i>Thor: God of Thunder</i>, </a>was so very, very epic that, in waiting to retrieve the next volume from my father-in-law, I began to have doubts that it could follow through. Well, gods-damn does it ever follow through. I don't know that I've ever been so satisfied by a story arc as I was with this one. By the end I was quite handily satiated. I didn't want more Thor, despite having a mammoth collection of issues 12-25 beside me. I didn't feel I needed it. There wasn't anything that more Thor could deliver that would improve upon what the one-two knockout punch of "The God Butcher" and "Godbomb" delivered. I would be quite happy to never read another Thor story again, thank you very much. This really does seem like the be-all/end-all for what can and should be done with the character. It creates such a large myth, such a grand legend that anything further would just dilute its grandeur, its greatness. This 11-issue arc is, hands down, a masterpiece of comics. <b>Jason Aaron</b> achieves a meaningful story for Thor but gives Gorr, the villain of the piece, both the motivation and the means for accomplishing his vile mission. The scale is epic, it's at once fantasy, science-fiction, mythology, horror, time-travel, and, in no small way, faith-based storytelling (it's just not sticking to one faith here). <b>Esad Ribic</b>'s lavish art with exquisite detailing, gorgeous landscapes, and powerful figure work is cinematic and yet something that can only be done in comics. It wouldn't be nearly what it is without the stunning color work from<b> Ive Svorcina</b>. Between Ribic's shading and Svorcina's digital washes, there's an etherial quality to this that stikes exactly the right tone... not doing too much, particularly with backgrounds, letting the power of the figures tell the story, and in some cases, via only hints, letting the reader's imagination flesh out the setting. It's all so potently unforgettable...and also, given how utterly brutal a story it is, one that will not be replicated into another medium.<br />
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If I have disappointment, it's in the fact that "Godbomb" as a concept didn't live up to what I was picturing in my mind. Aaron and Ribic kept the story tighter and more personal, where as I was expecting something far larger and messier (which while terribly cool, would have ultimately been far less satisfying). But even in this extremely minor disappointment can't minutely tarnish this awesome work. KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-1437478754307913052016-08-05T11:19:00.003-07:002016-08-05T11:21:53.930-07:00Trade Weight: Hawkeye Vol 4 & 5<div dir="ltr">
<i>Trade Weight is a quick look at the heavy stacks of
trade paperbacks (graphic novels, etc) that were purchased with
excitement but left on the shelf, unconsumed for too long. </i></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<i><br /></i></div>
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Hawkeye vol 4: Rio Bravo, 2015, Marvel<br />
Hawkeye vol 5: All-New Hawkeye, 2015, Marvel</div>
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If I remember correctly, the <i>All-New Hawkeye </i>series had started before <b>Matt Fraction</b> and <b>David Aja</b>'s <i>Hawkeye </i>run had ended. Marvel was at least committed to letting Fraction and Aja finish up their character-redefining run, but at the same time weren't willing to wait any longer in getting a new <i>Hawkeye </i>series out as part of their "All-New" initiative.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcKLHcvlqVCitdQIuSOOW0Z-q8AdFJ17wCycRHuLmCEVWdcWDTwrfqz1talH_I03J8dqxZ5c9xz1LYJnh_maDeg379Dtp1oNnuDhxUwNEpRawEjkpxaBBczSAi1aLC83-4_O49tnkkRrM/s1600/Hawkeye_Vol_4_15_Textless.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcKLHcvlqVCitdQIuSOOW0Z-q8AdFJ17wCycRHuLmCEVWdcWDTwrfqz1talH_I03J8dqxZ5c9xz1LYJnh_maDeg379Dtp1oNnuDhxUwNEpRawEjkpxaBBczSAi1aLC83-4_O49tnkkRrM/s320/Hawkeye_Vol_4_15_Textless.jpg" width="210" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AJA's cover game is on point</td></tr>
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It is true, Fraction and Aja's take of the character has become rather beloved by a new set of fans. In their hands Clint Barton has become a bit of a joke, the unlikeliest <i>Avenger</i>, a not-altogether competent hero (or person, for that matter), to the point that he is almost completely made up of flaws. He's a relatable characters for these reasons. He doesn't have all the answers, and most of the time doesn't even know what questions to ask, never mind ask the wrong ones. Pre-existing fans of Hawkeye kind of hate this run for these very reasons. Barton doesn't come out of this series looking particularly rosy. In fact, his not-a-sidekick, Kate Bishop, for all her family money and spoiled-rich attitude, often acts like the senior member of the duo. Bishop, despite being so young, seems to have her shit together, and Barton is practically her charity case at this point.</div>
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This fourth, and final, trade of the Fraction/Aja run collects a hodgepodge of issues (12-13, 15, 17, 19, and 21-22). The reason it would seem is because volume 3 filled those gaps with the alternating Kate Bishop-goes-to-L.A.-with-Pizza Dog story. Thankfully it works and there's no real bleed between the two arcs, until Kate's return late in the story. This trade closes out Hawkeye's feud with the Russian gangster-bros, reintroduces Clint's shifty brother Barney, and leaves a juicy plot thread dangling that doesn't look like it gets resolved.</div>
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Fact of the matter is, it looks like <b>Jeff Lemire</b><i> </i>and<i> </i><b>Ramon Pérez</b> weren't given a lot of insight into the story Fraction was implying could continue, and so the <i>All-New</i> team just went in a different direction. The new series opens away from the cozy confines of Hawkeye's run-down tenement building for bigger adventures, Hawkeyes Barton and Bishop align with S.H.I.E.L.D. and Maria Hill to take on Hydra, but when Kate finds the secret Hydra weapons experiment is a trio of mutated kids she goes rogue and attempts to save them from both of the opposing agencies. </div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA3ZDP3-LBWcCA__j7cM15hY8pCqj8K-DCUeHburshm-iGcNURFyyhcvXzy4bQl0D-mcQCSppb1X1w_c3uZ-70lTkwtf7YccogSR_Ltm1ir1S_Z9H4sAopImrsIVAoapizcGPwYCYtJ44/s1600/All-New_Hawkeye_Vol_1_3_Textless.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA3ZDP3-LBWcCA__j7cM15hY8pCqj8K-DCUeHburshm-iGcNURFyyhcvXzy4bQl0D-mcQCSppb1X1w_c3uZ-70lTkwtf7YccogSR_Ltm1ir1S_Z9H4sAopImrsIVAoapizcGPwYCYtJ44/s320/All-New_Hawkeye_Vol_1_3_Textless.jpg" width="210" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...but so is Pérez's</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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What Lemire and Pérez manage is to continue with much of the dynamic Fraction and Aja managed to set up, and yet veer onto a different course with it. Barton and Bishop maintain much of the same dynamic, and in the latter stages they wind up back at Barton's tenement building so it does share some consistency. Lemire's own particular style comes out with a healthy investment in Barton's backstory, flashing back to Clint's childhood with Barney, escaping from foster care to the circus and both learning a whole new set of skills. </div>
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Pérez likewise both upholds some of Aja's fun quirks, and tosses in more than a few of his own. For instance Perez illustrates the flashbacks in a loose, unframed watercolor wash, while the present day story is Aja-style hard, clean lines with <b>Ian Herring</b> working with mostly solid color base. It creates for a very stark, yet quite attractive contrasting compliment of sequential storytelling. Pérez's style changes yet again at the very end when the book jumps a couple decades into the future. The lines are less rigid and scratchier, while Herring's colours take on a hybrid tone of flatness and a Perez's flashback wash. It's clever to distinguish the eras this way, and effective. </div>
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<br />
I wasn't expecting Lemire and Pérez to compete with their predecessor's run. I liked that run quite a bit. Yet, there's a lot of heart in <i>All-New Hawkeye</i>, more than a few gut punches before the end, which is left on a hell of a tantalizing cliffhanger. Lemire and Perez seem invested, ready to give it their all and make something complimentary and unique. Mission accomplished. Bring on Volume 2. (volume 2 is out and available)</div>
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KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-87020604767705836452016-08-05T10:35:00.000-07:002016-08-05T10:35:54.208-07:00Trade Weight: Morning Glories Vol. 8 & 9<div dir="ltr">
<i>Trade Weight is a quick look at the heavy stacks of
trade paperbacks (graphic novels, etc) that were purchased with
excitement but left on the shelf, unconsumed for too long. </i></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<i><br /></i></div>
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2015, Image Comics</div>
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Morning Glories is a frustrating read in trade paperback. Its dense cast, intricate plotting, and time-hopping story structure make it a challenge to pick up on its many, many story threads with six months' wait between releases (at least). Not to mention that each issue centers on a single character, ala <i>Lost</i>, but with such an immense cast we may not pick up on a particular thread until 2 trades following. It's an engrossing world but it's very hard to track without being regularly invested. I'm fairly certain at this point I just need to wait until Nick Spencer wraps this sucker up and approach it fresh, from the beginning. But then I said the same thing about The Invisibles and I've still yet to reread it (15 years later). The "to read" backlog is deep.</div>
KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-20285291965546312692016-07-21T09:22:00.001-07:002016-07-21T09:22:57.614-07:00Series Run: The Titans #14<div dir="ltr">
2000, DC Comics</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQgUmryuOzeeXRZiAIA0APTQmti09gXfO_0L-qEzrfzKpSjeEgNnu7iTJMWXj4Cxet9BI1lkV4ZTduo958WU2AUEM258rz2qGQJnBJMQuxVnXSfxFom6EGxFjI-UMv9djCylxVCbMf8Vo/s1600/1468689590366.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQgUmryuOzeeXRZiAIA0APTQmti09gXfO_0L-qEzrfzKpSjeEgNnu7iTJMWXj4Cxet9BI1lkV4ZTduo958WU2AUEM258rz2qGQJnBJMQuxVnXSfxFom6EGxFjI-UMv9djCylxVCbMf8Vo/s200/1468689590366.jpg" width="150" /></a>Omen, aka Lilith,has been held prisoner by Tartarus for months, with Vandal Savage using her powers of precognition to form his villainous team and pressuring her into dishing out all the hot gossip on her former teammates.<br /> </div>
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She manages to reach out to Aqualad in his sleep (he sleeps in the pool in the Titans Tower basement, and in the nude) and call for help. Aqualad rousws the team (waking up Donna in Roy's bed so I guess Droynna is *still* a thing). I would love to jote interesting things about the respecive rooms of Damage and Argent and Starfire but guest arist Cully Hamner as fantastic as he is, doesn't paint them with ay exceptionally curious or notable details (though there is plenty of detail)...although Arsenal's room is indicated by a drawing Lian did. Nightwing left a note on his door.</div>
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With Dick out and Jesse gone, there's no defacto leader so the team banters a bit to decide who's in charge of the mission. Aqualad states his case and really it's only Roy giving him a hard time about it. But, strangely enough, Aqualad seems ready. Aqualad is clear, it's an in and out mission, not there to take out Tartarus but just to rescue Lilith (who was apparently a member of Dan Jurgens' Teen Titans with Argent). The rescue goes fairly smoothly until Lilith (who's really seeming like Raven-red) can't teleport everyone because she's too weak. Aqualad as leader elects to stay behind and survives only because Tartarus implodes with in-fighting...which was Lilith's plan by suggesting incompatibile teammates with her precognitive abilities. Kind of a cheap, yet fun way for that gang to go out.</div>
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Meanwhile Dick turns to Bruce for advice about his many responsibilities and many many many lady friends. Bruce's advice? "I trust you'll make the right choice." Hilarious. And Wally's back. Hopefully next issue we get an explanation of who that other guy was (knowing<b> Devin Grayson</b>, she'll have it covered)</div>
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Co-written by <b>Brian K Vaughan</b>, after two issues with co-writers I'm actually starting to miss Grayson's off-beat, overly dense story structures. Hopefully back at it next issue.</div>
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<b>Bryan Hitch</b>'s cover makes it look like Aqualad is fighting alongside underwater Atoms in their red and blue scuba suits</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...and that forced pun feels like swallowing<br />shards of glass. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kory in her wetsuit...uh, where has her hair gone, exactly?</td></tr>
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KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-27374127884413237352016-07-19T12:29:00.000-07:002016-07-19T12:29:33.984-07:00Series Run: The Titans #13<div dir="ltr">
2000, DC Comics</div>
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This is exactly what I was expecting after the events of the last storyline, and exactly what I wanted. </div>
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I love when the big battles start revealing character flaws and exacerbate intra-team conflicts which lead everyone to a situation like this, where unity hangs precariously from a thread. Everything comes to a head here. Nightwing and Kory are in a bad place, Vic is basically under watch from his friend because, you know, he tried to destroy the world, and Flash just can't seem to sit still. </div>
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Nightwing calls out Flash on his inability to trust them with his identity and secrets and yet, not long after Jesse calls Nightwing out on the same thing (so much for the "Quick-Dick" 'ship) and Jesse Quits.. Donna's about had it with everyonr coming to her with their problems, like she doesn't have any of her own. Everyone worries Dick is becoming too much like Batman and nobody can stand to really look at him for too long these days. Roy tries to visit a hospitalized Cheshire with Damage's help (and fails spectacularly in that Roy Harper way). Vic goes back to visit Sarah but it's Gar who sets him straight. The DRoynna 'ship is still a thing, but just barely, and there's strong insinuation that Garth married Dolphin because of the baby and that there's some regrets all around there and that maybe a GArthgent (Garth/Argent) affair is percolating.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DeShaun is a regular joe nice guy who's even got superheroes envious of him.</td></tr>
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Just an all-around solid TCB issue that propels things forward for most characters. Grayson is joined by Jae Faerber this issue on the story, which is interesting to note since he takes over the series by the close of its second year). Fill in on art from Patrick Zircher who had already been kicking around for a few years since the mid-90s. He's a top notch artist in today's comics world (has been for almost a decade) but he's still growing here so there are still plenty of unclean edges. There are scenes that stand out but it's a talking heads issue which he manages it just fine, and managing a talking heads issue is a true test of an artists ability to keep an audience interested visually.</div>
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KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-6773918810104410952016-07-18T16:18:00.002-07:002016-07-18T16:18:23.138-07:00Series Run: The Titans #10-12<div dir="ltr">
1999-2000, DC Comics</div>
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A three-parter with a double-sized finale that basically brings most of<b> Devin Grayson</b>'s story threads together, almost like she's wrapping up her time here completely.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-hvSvKFYHu-D4dMUCi18jXaSfyw1AJFdflbG6xW2v0STRXFIHzq0OdmGWMLc4zLM9_yNO31XMzS7kulaBYmnsxZjBPW43nluk6z152tT0x2RhMoyRnAuNSI1zEDj_1lAQeERwORPX8QI/s1600/1468680753884.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-hvSvKFYHu-D4dMUCi18jXaSfyw1AJFdflbG6xW2v0STRXFIHzq0OdmGWMLc4zLM9_yNO31XMzS7kulaBYmnsxZjBPW43nluk6z152tT0x2RhMoyRnAuNSI1zEDj_1lAQeERwORPX8QI/s320/1468680753884.jpg" width="240" /></a>"The Immortal Coil" opens with Slade Wilson waking up in Titans Tower on the Titans' couch (yep they didn't take him to a medical bay, but to their couch) and in the time he was unconscious they called in Gar Logan, still called Changeling here (but Beast Boy on the cover of issue 11...I forget if the <i>Teen Titans</i> cartoon had started yet, as it was their reverting to calling him Beast Boy that made it happen in the comics....the <b>Wolfman/Perez</b> run on <i>Titans </i>had long otherwise cemented the Changeling moniker in the comics).</div>
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Grayson uses the first page to introduce the team roster ala classic Justice League of America comics and then gives a rather detailed two-page splash of Slade's troubled history... at least all the relevant points required for her story here anyway. It's classic comics flashback stuff and actually quite concise and very useful (I had forgotten a lot of this stuff, like Slade and his ex wife becoming immortals). Slade was on a mission to stop Vandal Savage but he's not revealing who he was working for (as a matter of principle).</div>
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Grayson humorously dredges up the fact that Slade has had romantic entanglements with both Cheshire and Terra in a simple three-panel aside.</div>
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The whole "Roy loving Cheshire" thing really comes to a head these three issues, and it's not just a "she's the mother of my child" thing... he genuinely has feelings for her. Roy is one messed up dude. He even abandons his teammates in the middle of a fight to try and get her medical attention much to Donna's dismay (oh no, is "DRoynna" finished?)... but returns to save Donna's life justin time, which I guess keeps the whole "DRoynna" 'shipping alive for another issue at least.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgya2pEiLk0b5GvJp1hBPOiXr49MDGvZvo-cfYOyiBhWotHRck5A_JBMSDWKLHN9SWQi_ESkiZPenhnLbDX8EShZC0N0dH9TLk1ApqPQ2Clsc3mvJSR1dnAhmhnyqGGDXSqqf6IE9qAnP4/s1600/1468681320894.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgya2pEiLk0b5GvJp1hBPOiXr49MDGvZvo-cfYOyiBhWotHRck5A_JBMSDWKLHN9SWQi_ESkiZPenhnLbDX8EShZC0N0dH9TLk1ApqPQ2Clsc3mvJSR1dnAhmhnyqGGDXSqqf6IE9qAnP4/s400/1468681320894.jpg" width="300" /></a>Kory takes Damage and Argent to the hall of dead Titans (Terra, Jericho, Kole and I suppose that's Jason Todd Robin but he was never a Titan, was he?) to teach them about Slade's connection to the Titans and in the process explain how death works to Argent. Cyborg laments not having a human body and that his "Omegadrome" body kindof has a mind of its own. Jesse has it out with nuFlash. The team, with Slade head for the nation of Zandia where Vandal Savage and Co are hiding out while HIVE plant bombs everywhere (Zandia looks pretty small..like its a city state like the Vatican). As the Titans attack HIVE they all are attacked by Savage's Tartarbots (they're either good with fish sticks or meant for cleaning teeth).</div>
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Savage's whole ploy is to draw Cyborg to him as well as The leader of HIVE (aka "Mother" ) who, if you hadn't guessed from the obvious hinting in Slade's flashback is none other than his crazy and immortal ex-wife Adeline. Savage's ploy is to use Victor's Omegadrome body to synthesize Adeline's immortal blood into a serum that he can use to make other immortals or, at least, extend life spans. He hopes to entice Cyborg to help by offering him a human body (presumably a clone... not sure hoe he's going to transfer the consciousness/soul between the two...probably should have the Ultra-humanite on his team instead of, well, pretty much everyone else in his "Tartarus" group (not sure where I got "Panopticon" as the name for his group earlier...?) In fact, Savage and Damien Dahrk have a rather clever seriescof back-and-forth barbs about what being a super-villain means in the modern day... a fun exchange right up until Savage has Lady Vic run Dahrk throughbwith her sword . </div>
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Unlike in <i>Arrow, </i>Dahrk is not a magic wielder, but by the end of this all he does become immortal (through a very sketchy and unsanitary blood transfusion... I don't think you can just scoop up handfuls of blood and push them into an open wound...not sure that's actually a transfusion...unless they're saying Adeline's immortality is more like a virus...?)</div>
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HIVE's plan was to cause major disaster in Zandia to draw all the super heroes there and then drop a bomb on them. This situation finds Dick, Kory, Jesse, and Vic to jocky for position of who gets to save the day. Vic somehow can't crack the bomb's computers so he Metal Mens/Plastic Mans/Metamorphos himself around it and absorbs the blast. It's a pretty intense explosion but with ZERO drama about Vic's fate as he turns up three panels later on the opposing page all glowing green. Roy, of course, is worried about his nuts.</div>
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So yeah, Grodd had slit Adeline's throat to put pressure on Cyborg to make a decision about helping them, and Cheshire was shot by Savage to try and manipulate Roy into forcing Vic's decision (as the immortality serum would save her)... Kory however has other plans. Having heard Addie's pleas to Slade to kill her, Kory does it herself and makes no apologies for it. Then when Dick tries to say something about it, she unloads on him about ignoring her and avoiding the team for months on end. Real appropriate timing.</div>
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I know, I'm running this all out of order... the second and third chapters of this story are truly chaotic, but in a crazy fun comic booky way. A lot of what's going on is just complete absurdity, just a hair's breadth away from being a complete farce. I think Grayson genuinely wanted to do classic superhero punch-'em-ups but her impulse seems to be rationalizing things in terms of continuity and character. Instead of just letting it go large on its own terms she has to get arch about it or overly playful with tropes or over-explain/overshow to the point that she seems at odds with herself in what she's trying do do with the story.</div>
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Damien Dahrk seems to be her creation for facilitating the unexpected, the anti-tropes. He's the guy who speaks out against Savage's Bond-villain speechifying and talks about the "new school" of villain who cares about things other than money, revenge, or taking over the world. He kills Red Panzer cold ("you always have a second weapon and you shoot anyone who asks stupid questions.... I don't make traps, I don't cut deals, and for god's sake, I don't form a team full of members who hate each other.") and for some reason Savage tries to recruit the dumb eco terrorist Justin from issue 1 as his new Red Panzer ("Aren't you supposed to be a Nazi fascist to wear this?")</div>
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The good guys win. HIVE is in ruins, and Zandia is saved. Tartarus escapes though but on the plus side Dick and Jesse, eh eh?</div>
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KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-61465110516777823542016-07-15T07:05:00.000-07:002016-07-15T07:05:00.182-07:00Catching up on Comics -- Series Run: The Titans #91999, DC Comics<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dan Jurgens draws a shirtless Roy with a hairy chest<br />
but inside Ale Garza draws him hairless. They thought <br />
no one would notice, but I did!</td></tr>
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Forced into doing a tie-in to that year's event (as it was during the 1990s and 2000s), Devin Grayson brings Raven back to the Titans Tower, interrupting Donna and Roy just as they're about to get down to business. Through Raven, Donna once again has to face up to her troubled history and her insecurities, but each time she does so, she seems the stronger for it. Raven meanwhile is having difficulties of her own, but Donna extends to her an open invitation to join the Titans whenever she's ready.<br />
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Meanwhile, Goth is out on the loose again, having busted a kid out of juvenile detention. He's got a sidekick that he doesn't really want in this annoying little nihilistic twerp (he's way too high energy to be a nihilist). Goth doesn't see himself as a villain, per se, but sees that he could be so he explores the possibility. Goth, being some form of demon creature, should be particularly interested in the whole "Day of Judgement" event and happenings, but when the annoying kid wants to go to Dis, Goth kills him to send him there, only to have the kid (his name is Rodman) immediately return and tell him Dis is closed and nobody's around. Goth should be more concerned, but I guess, as is fitting for a demon of malaise, he could care less. This is all weirdly played for laughs, particularly the scene where Goth slits the kid's throat and then his ghost form immediately returns to bitch about the afterlife. It shouldn't be funny, but it actually is, but almost in an ironic way rather than an intentional one.<br />
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Meanwhile, Nightwing talks to Oracle about getting burned out defending Bludhaven, being on call for Batman's many predicaments, and having to deal with the Titans. The latter is, for him, like falling back into a rut. I'm unclear if Grayson means Dick and Kory or if he means Dick and the Titans as a whole. He's not happy whatever it is. A good, tight, one-page scene. Grayson increasingly excels at those.<br />
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Meanwhile, Roy has it out with his babysitter (who, to his face says "you're great eye candy") as she tries to quit because she just can't reconcile Cheshire being Lian's mother (nor can she reconcile Roy's relationship with her). Did Roy just admit to still loving Jade?<br />
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Meanwhile, Deathstroke is being hunted by Vandal Savage's band of goons. Why, exactly? Not sure. Guess maybe he turned down their offer to join them. He gets the holy hell beaten out of him and then somehow winds up on the doorstep of Titans Tower (which here, once more, looks like a proper tower, and not a hologram as was stated back in issue 5...it's another fill in artist so he may not have all the details of what's what with this series), making a pithy comment about hoping Lian is not one of the Titan's latest recruits before collapsing. Deathstroke was in his anti-hero phase at this point still, I believe.<br />
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Meanwhile, Cyborg and his ex-girlfriend Sarah have a heart to heart, with hers trying to convince Vic that it's moved on, while Vic's still aches, feeling like the only thing human left in him. It's a sweet and painful scene...again another nicely written one pager from Grayson.<br />
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Meanwhile, Damien Darhk is back, in that weird HIVE space with his mother, on the phone again. I'm honestly not sure what's happening in this scene. I think his mother, the head of HIVE just gave him whatever he wanted from the HIVE coffers, causing him to drop the cel<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I can't explain it, but she's just...yeah.</td></tr>
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phone that's almost permanently affixed to his ear.<br />
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The art here is from Ale Garza, with inks by "Cabin Boy" (seriously). Garza gets all the details right, but his characters are all wildly exaggerated, disproportionate, unreal... it's less refined Humberto Ramos, in a way. I'm not against this style of character illustration but I never like it for superhero comics. It's too cartoony, better suited for funnybooks or fantasy. And yet, even though I can't stand the style, I've still got the hots for Donna in her star-spangled Troia outfit. Something about that costume, it's not that it's at all revealing or in any real way designed to insinuate sex, but I just love it. It's so striking and powerful and eye catching. My wife and I dressed up as Star Boy and Donna Troy one Halloween in matching spandex starfield costumes, and we looked great (sadly we somehow have no pictures). Perhaps I just associate Donna with my wife (which I'm sure she won't be happy to hear, because she's not a Donna fan), but yeah, I used to love Donna in her old Teen Titans red catsuit too, so I guess I kinda think she's awesome. I supposed I'm a Donna fanboy.<br />
<br />KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-69416740650840252912016-07-15T06:57:00.000-07:002016-07-15T06:57:00.179-07:00Trade Weight: Thor: God of Thunder Vol 1: The God Butcher<div dir="ltr">
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<i>Trade Weight is a quick look at the heavy stacks of
trade paperbacks (graphic novels, etc) that were purchased with
excitement but left on the shelf, unconsumed for too long. </i></div>
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2013, Marvel<i> </i></div>
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Of all the big-name writers in comics today, <b>Jason Aaron</b> is the one name I'm most woefully inexperienced with. I've only read a few excerpts of his work but, of what I have seen, I've been impressed... with one notable exception : <i>Star Wars</i>. And unfortunately it's his run on Star Wars (because I'm an old school nerd) that I've read the most, and it 's displeased me greatly from the second issue in (I've dropped reading the book after 20 issues... his stories read like overblown fan service rather than actual chapters in the Star Wars Saga).</div>
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His run on <i>Thor </i>has become the series he's most identified with. I had read a random issue years ago and loved it (despite finding Thor to be one of the most boring characters in comics). I put his Thor run on the list of things I needed to get back to. </div>
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I don't quite remember the chain of events, but I bought vol1 of his run, "The God Butcher" well over a year ago. I believe my wife read it and said "I think my Dad would like this", thus outing my father-in-law as a Thor fan. </div>
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We passed the book off to him an he loved it, and I took some extra effort to seek out the second volume ("Godbomb") which, for some reason, was incredibly difficult to find. I picked up the second oversized collection (containing volumes 3 & 4) months before I finally found "Godbomb" (I love that title so, so much).</div>
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During this time however, volume 1still resided with my father-in-law, and due to various concerns on the homestead, we hadn't mafe a visit to my in-laws for over half a year. </div>
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Finally, a couple weeks back, we made it there. I brought "Godbomb" and the still-shrinkwrapped volume 3/4 collection for him to read, and in turn get "The God Butcher" back. In morning of the day we were leaving I sat dow and just blasted through "The God Butcher", truly one of the best mainstream comic book stories in recent memory. Jumping backwards and forwards in time it's an epic about an evil, evil entity murdering Gods from pantheons throughout the universe. It explores deities and weird hierarchical structures of Godhood, as well as belief systems and how the affect a population. It's high fantasy, action, horror, mystery and science fiction all in one and it's gorgeously illustrated by <b>Esad Ribic</b>. What Aaron does so well is juggle the multiple genre facets...and not just juggle, but blend them seamlessly together. How he manages to skip across multiple tielines without any confusion is a marvel in itself, but what's more is how it exemplifies the immortal life that the gods have. It's both storytelling convention and world/character building.</div>
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When I finished devouring volume 1 I'm was ravenous for more, but we had to leave the in-laws and venture home and I had to leave behind "Godbomb" and its follow up. I guess it just forces me to go back to the in-laws sooner, rather than later.</div>
KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-82518237461573059962016-07-14T18:43:00.001-07:002016-07-14T18:43:42.149-07:00Catching up on Comics with CGraig: Miracleman Book Four The Golden Age #3-6<div dir="ltr">
2015 - 2016, Marvel </div>
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I get more than a little embarrassed by some of the things I loved with a fairly blind passion when I was young. As a awkard, sensitive, introspective teen, I held up writers, artists, actors and directors as kings and queens and gods, their every output an infallable gem. Yet, it was obviously all a lie, nobody's perfect all of the time. No, not even <b>Neil Gaiman</b>. </div>
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Like a devout Catholic who shockingly discovers doubt in everything they've held as truth, so too did my gods and goddesses fall once I started to see their cracks, their faults, their humanity. Neil was "the best" for so long that once I started to see that he wasn't always "the best", even those things I could justify as "the best" (like <i>Good Omens</i>, <i>Coraline</i> or <i>Sandman</i>) were suddenly shadowed by doubt. </div>
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Gaiman has a thing, a thing he does when he writes, and its a thing I picked up on in my own writing, which is tackling a story from the fringes instead of head on. Tell the story from side observations, build the world around the main story rather than just tell the story straight. He doesn't always tell stories this way, and he's a clever, ingenious fellow at times too (his poetry can be particularly crafty but also too cheeky by half). </div>
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I really used to love the guy, now I tend to avoid him. The turning point was standing in line circa 2004 with his devoted followers ahead and behind me. It was an eclectic crowd to say the least, and frankly, in the end, a crowd that put me off...too devoted, too attentive, too worshippy. I didn't like seeing that and realizing I was that too. There's a lack of critical thinking in being a fan. I find it hard to just be a fan a lot of the time these days, because I note in myself the tendency to become blind and addicted to the fandom without really taking the time too see what it is I'm really drawn to. I want to avoid cults of personality. The <i>Kevin Smiths</i> and <i>Tori Amos</i>' and <i>Neil Gaiman</i>s. All talented individuals who I once created shrines to but no I can barely look at without cringing. It's like leaving the cult and looking at it from the outside. You remember what it felt like to be in it but you're mote glad to be free of it's thrall.</div>
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<i>Miracleman: the Golden Age</i> is a good read, but it's not as good as I remember thinking it was 10 (well, 12) years ago when I first read it. Again, it's Gaiman tackling the story and the world from the sides... of course it's well written and the ideas are fabulous at times, but it's almost a little too precious in avoiding the title character and giving him any story or thrust. After 25 years it's still only a placeholder, a starting point for the as yet unfinished trilogy of the Golden, Silver and Dark ages.</div>
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And whither <i>The Silver Age</i>? The promise of Marvel’s rights disputes settlement over the character was that we'd see the completion of the trilogy. I mean issue 6 of <i>The Golden Age</i> announced <i>The Silver Age</i> for March of this year. Still waiting. For even if Gaiman isn't God amongst menly writers, even if l am tad disillusioned with him and the cult, l still admire his talent, and to have this long unfinished work brought to completion is something worth getting excited over.</div>
KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-88858950532504574462016-07-14T08:05:00.006-07:002016-07-14T09:17:04.992-07:00Catching up on Comics -- Series Run: The Titans #7-81999, DC Comics<br />
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Another two-parter that highlights the growing strengths and diminishing weaknesses of Devin Grayson's <i>Titans</i> run. With issues 5 & 6, Grayson's comfort with the team dynamics of the book increased almost exponentially. With these two issues, she's showing even more capability in juggling the multiple character stories and making the stories relevant to more than one character at a time in certain circumstances. She's also gotten far away from throwing the whole team at a problem, realizing that they do have lives of their own, while also negotiating continuity in a non-obtrusive, nor overly pointed manner.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEginTL4S4nEm_aYftwHPhc8Bvp6P-BabhBMERH9BFYRChKS32olxwgpcmyEEAUwdmYVkBgmkoDHjNwpsJOj7nG3epreAAeSCg8tyLpWlYgPARafcMLl_oDtH0mnQ5G_sRh3Bu1IVgsa7w8/s1600/8-titans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEginTL4S4nEm_aYftwHPhc8Bvp6P-BabhBMERH9BFYRChKS32olxwgpcmyEEAUwdmYVkBgmkoDHjNwpsJOj7nG3epreAAeSCg8tyLpWlYgPARafcMLl_oDtH0mnQ5G_sRh3Bu1IVgsa7w8/s320/8-titans.jpg" width="208" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Uh, nobody, it turns out.</td></tr>
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For instance, this issue starts where last issue ended, with Lian gone missing. Donna and Roy are still on their "date" and are unaware of the situation, while the rest of the Titans at the Tower are freaking out. They contact Nightwing in Bludhaven who obviously can't make it there in time to help. Aqualad's freaking out the most, primarily because, he reveals, he's knocked up his girlfriend, Dolphin (her name is Dolphin, she's not a dolphin, just to be clear) so he's going to be a dad.<br />
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Meanwhile, Lian is back at her babysitter Chandra's apartment, where Chandra's roommate is all hopped up on Velocity 10, a new drug on the street that gives people superspeed, but it's addictive and the side effects can be lethal. One of Grayson's less attractive traits is her continued use of coincidence (and it's particularly flagrant this issue) to bring characters and storylines together. Jesse's been busy working at her CEO job (and traveling through time over in <i>The Flash</i> with other speedsters) but when her co-worker's purse is stolen by Chandra's speeding roommate, Jesse's on the case, which brings her back to Titans Tower, which in turn leads them to Chandra's apartment where Lian is safe but now they have this whole speedster-drug to deal with.<br />
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Meanwhile Damage and Argent are back at Argent's parents home (and it's here I realize that my statement from the issue #1 write up that Argent was a former Team Titans member is totally wrong, she was actually from Dan Jurgen's short-lived Teen Titans series where the Atom led a team of young, newly created heroes, IIRC) where there's been more than a little strife. Argent's dad is a criminal and a big asshole, giving his wife shit for getting impregnated against her will by an alien, and giving Argent shit for not being his blood child. Also, turns out he's the supplier of Velocity 10. What a coincidence! Ugh.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRfOYTgUDqJQz08SluNpIZWYT-5r4AxebBh4ymacANwV5UP5X7Ch5MQC6JHOFMt9BGVEn9t7SOjBGDFbACsQIng9sYKReY9B6-Zji1WDvjQOwfzFENCCXUz33djeop0EhHZXlrRB6fuVs/s1600/1468510673956.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRfOYTgUDqJQz08SluNpIZWYT-5r4AxebBh4ymacANwV5UP5X7Ch5MQC6JHOFMt9BGVEn9t7SOjBGDFbACsQIng9sYKReY9B6-Zji1WDvjQOwfzFENCCXUz33djeop0EhHZXlrRB6fuVs/s320/1468510673956.jpg" width="320" /></a>In trying to save Chandra's roommate from the side effects of V10, they take her to S.T.A.R. Labs where Vic runs into the love of his life, who has moved on since Vic was possessed by an alien entity and tried to destroy the world. Fancy that one, huh? Her new man is fairly understanding, and wholly not threatened by the return of this superhero to his special lady's life. He's quite the standup guy, this DeShaun.<br />
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Meanwhile (as I said, Grayson's gotten rather adept at juggling things), Vandal Savage recruits some goofy-looking sword-wielding chick named Lady Vic (which sounds like a type of razor for women...does she come with a lotion strip?).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7dgD4YO1DJ54VW_Ln6GkvP96k7sc_p8-zzTLRO6lwF92rQ0pXzZ458uSmyb5Noen9ngjcsIMz1E1qPR918N_4UkvktlR1nT0OkOBF6ZR-VoLINWiSNOnSiL7-T74U0tuIidNpiHVPp3U/s1600/1468510624941.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7dgD4YO1DJ54VW_Ln6GkvP96k7sc_p8-zzTLRO6lwF92rQ0pXzZ458uSmyb5Noen9ngjcsIMz1E1qPR918N_4UkvktlR1nT0OkOBF6ZR-VoLINWiSNOnSiL7-T74U0tuIidNpiHVPp3U/s320/1468510624941.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flossbutt</td></tr>
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Issue 7 ends with the Titans all being injected with V10, which makes for a pretty good spotlight of Jesse Quick's, erm, quick thinking at the start of issue 8 when she takes charge and her and Cyborg manage to stop things from getting too out of control. Next to Lian, Grayson has a steady bead on Jesse Quick, and she's a total breakout character. It's just too bad that instead of shorts or full pants, the character's costume design is a bikini cut with total floss butt. It really detracts from an otherwise powerful character. I can't imagine that running at half the speed of light with your costume up your crack the whole time is comfortable.<br />
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So anyway, Argent figures out her Dad is involved in the whole Velocity 10 business, but so does Jesse. Jesse, in an act of mentoring, let's Argent make her own choices about how to handle the situation, and praises her for making the right one in the end, even though it meant sending her parents to jail.<br />
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Two further "meanwhiles"... Cheshire joins Vandal Savage's "Panopticon", while a new Flash shows up at Titans tower (I forgot all about this new Flash, who I think was introduced in Grant Morrison and Mark Millar's ill-fated run on the series). Grayson handles this continuity demand decently.<br />
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I'm actually getting a sense at this point that contrary to my earlier statements, that Grayson's run on Titans was maybe not so forgettable and maybe had a bigger impact on DC Comics that I ever knew.<br />
Again, Damien Darhk (I'm never going to spell that right) debuted here, we have Velocity 10 (which arguably is a piggyback off of the Velocity 9 story from the Flash some time before) which was featured in Season 2 of <i>The Flash</i> TV show, and the Vandal Savage assembly of supervillains which seems kinda like what showed up in<i> </i>the <i>Young Justice</i> series. Just maybe Greg Berlanti is a big fan of this run? <br />
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And now: <i>I hate "Metal Men" Cyborg.</i><br />
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<i> </i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfTqQypcCoZX0nF1EGYsMTvzoaNVrjWqywquaKsnLVeJEXoumeLsIXT3wQpxK_PAGJiJJ4QiaYG2rUG9UUPyvox05TQOpdNxV6c5w-ZBhh3a6QaruzUZPbqOgKKLAsX4YcNkSXLXiJZ4U/s1600/20160714_120100.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfTqQypcCoZX0nF1EGYsMTvzoaNVrjWqywquaKsnLVeJEXoumeLsIXT3wQpxK_PAGJiJJ4QiaYG2rUG9UUPyvox05TQOpdNxV6c5w-ZBhh3a6QaruzUZPbqOgKKLAsX4YcNkSXLXiJZ4U/s320/20160714_120100.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdqcmx7zigIzQxyANVrhDEfyxUAKKN442HT2K6AbQB80ZDmEW0ZE5OnRcTB8rT3Q-3AUBeyJqIobxh3ja4EZXVfG_Vtu8-qn4jCnybJazCgDj7JaKvzZPkegtewAZJ9sJXrMvrgGi-gzo/s1600/1468510742798.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdqcmx7zigIzQxyANVrhDEfyxUAKKN442HT2K6AbQB80ZDmEW0ZE5OnRcTB8rT3Q-3AUBeyJqIobxh3ja4EZXVfG_Vtu8-qn4jCnybJazCgDj7JaKvzZPkegtewAZJ9sJXrMvrgGi-gzo/s320/1468510742798.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NO!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifFv2pwEVMgHl4AmjcwyxqPNiUrDPf1bHAA9myvx_7W-FQzR2Af8GENHjqj9tSZiTx-5knuOO-22sb6ihZVr3-jgjdNapeMrUjK6jOc1RzSPFKNjxCG_Y_UTVED-15Gcf1Tx92CbS6hPc/s1600/20160714_120127.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifFv2pwEVMgHl4AmjcwyxqPNiUrDPf1bHAA9myvx_7W-FQzR2Af8GENHjqj9tSZiTx-5knuOO-22sb6ihZVr3-jgjdNapeMrUjK6jOc1RzSPFKNjxCG_Y_UTVED-15Gcf1Tx92CbS6hPc/s320/20160714_120127.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">GOD, NO! STOP THAT VIC! IT'S GROSS!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-29105850321844315522016-07-14T08:05:00.001-07:002016-07-14T08:08:26.946-07:00Catching up on Comics-- Series Run: The Titans #6<div dir="ltr">
1999, DC Comics</div>
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Maybe I was just sleepy when I read it, but this was almost...pretty good.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Donna and Roy take focus as their date is interrupted when they<span id="goog_492608498"></span><span id="goog_492608499"></span> face their old enemy Red Panzer -- who is supposed to be dead -- and his gang of white supremacist assholes. They're looking outgunned, but Donna's ex-boyfriend -- and Roy's ex-teammate -- Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) shows up to help out. At some point Donna has to face up to a man she once loved that she doesn't really remember him, and to Roy that dating him was maybe to impress upon Wally that she's not a squeaky clean good girl. It does wind up bringing some of Devin Grayson's more frustrating asides from the past few issues full circle in a very satisfying way...so my bad.</div>
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Donna and Panzer get trapped under some rubble and have a semi heart-to-heart (but Panzer is mostly rage, no heart) and it turns out he's full of self hate over his father's murder of his mother cause she was part black and didn't tell him. It also turns out that the Red Panzer role is kind of a Dread Pirate Roberts thing where subsequent people just assume the role without anyone supposed to know who's underneath the mask.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I liked Grayson's use of "continuity logic" here for the first time as Kyle, trying to figure out how to save Donna and the other people in a collapsed building decides to call John Stewart for advice, since he's an architect. It's actually logical for both story and continuity and not just serving the latter.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ63aI_0q7UmK2GSrR72bZtRCzmL_ekb_WZnRFQ6PDyV8vBDY7Sb-TTZOcG51jT3k2i06t05J4drHFU0Nuc9YafOJ6hhHiHqyPCC66ht-ODmmb5Wnyup1LL-LFbno1Ibsh6FSL1_0zdW8/s1600/20160714_104546.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ63aI_0q7UmK2GSrR72bZtRCzmL_ekb_WZnRFQ6PDyV8vBDY7Sb-TTZOcG51jT3k2i06t05J4drHFU0Nuc9YafOJ6hhHiHqyPCC66ht-ODmmb5Wnyup1LL-LFbno1Ibsh6FSL1_0zdW8/s320/20160714_104546.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BAD MOMMY!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Grayson's script occasionally cuts to Lian and her babysitter, who are talking about their diverse ethnic backgrounds, in parallel with Panzer and Donna talk about race and his backstory. There's also a sins-of-the-father/sins-of-the-mother parallel drawn as Panzer tells of his father's crime, Lian reveals that Cheshire is her mother, the same woman that destroyed much of the nation of Qurac where her babysitter's grandparents were killed. Lian is totally the MVP of this series. She could have grown into such an amazing legacy character. RIP.</div>
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Just as Donna's about to use her newfound "soul power" on Panzer to banish his evil, Vandal Savage teleports Panzer to his ever-growing cabal, which includes Sire, and Grodd so far. I have a hard time accepting that a self-loathing multi-ethnic white supremist would collude with a millennia-old non-caucasian former caveman, a giant talking gorilla and a green woman from the ocean's depths. Doesn't really fit the "I hate everyone who isn't white (including myself)" motif.</div>
KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-78636608926370242852016-07-14T07:34:00.001-07:002016-07-14T07:35:44.877-07:00Catching up on Comics -- Series Run: The Titans #5<div dir="ltr">
1999, DC Comics</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf2oEeLnIVuc-0u34FkkozN8BxH89spOeoUheaWUBNH8jIW16FMW9jnJUhoAYcPKxOgrhhlQz5q5Dgmhs2yGZhkb3ESKxfdKnuaFN6dr_cUbBbzOArSukD8js8LMLQk4X0489ThjGKtI8/s1600/Titans_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf2oEeLnIVuc-0u34FkkozN8BxH89spOeoUheaWUBNH8jIW16FMW9jnJUhoAYcPKxOgrhhlQz5q5Dgmhs2yGZhkb3ESKxfdKnuaFN6dr_cUbBbzOArSukD8js8LMLQk4X0489ThjGKtI8/s320/Titans_5.jpg" width="208" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Actually, I think Garth is one of Phil <br />Jimenez's favourites.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr">
Hey, you know what doesn't sell comics? A Titans cover featuring Argent, Damage and Aqualad ...aka nobody's favourites. Actually, you put those characters on the cover in some form of dramatic fashion with the caption "Nobody's favourites" and you might actually catch someone's attention. "Fall for the Siren", not so much.</div>
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In the letter column (hey DC, bring back letter columns with Rebirth...please!), they say "we have some special plans for our least-liked duo of Argent and Damage that we hope will change the way all of you feel about them". Well, at least they're aware of how unpopular they are. Grayson has obviously been setting up Damage/Argent, Donna/Roy and Dick/Kory romances, the second of which comes to the front burner this issue. I don't get it. Any of it.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Aqualad fights a mermaid eco-terrorist and hands her over to the DEO, who, very quickly lose her to Vandal Savage. We haven't seen Damien Dahrk for 3 issues now, but there's three different baddies here. Devin Grayson's on bad guy overdrive in this series. </div>
<br />KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-15044075723693302592016-07-14T07:28:00.001-07:002016-07-14T07:28:30.077-07:00Catching up on Comics -- Series Run: The Titans #4<div dir="ltr">
1999, DC Comics</div>
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</div>
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The cover says "Get DISed". </div>
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The inside splash page titles this issue "The DISsing".</div>
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Consistency? One "s" or two when adding a suffix to a proper name?</div>
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<br />
Dis here is referred to as a city just outside the sixth circle of Hell where the apathetic go (the sixth circle in Dante's Inferno is for heretics, and Dis is a city spanning circles 7-9). They aren't evil, but they aren't worthy of paradise. Goth has trapped a legion of teens and Starfire in Dis by getting them to sign his book and perform a ritual incantation (I guess not everyone has to participate in that latter part to be transported).</div>
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Devin Grayson here is using aspects of Dante's mythos for a parable about teenage disaffectedness to varying degrees of success. Goth's plan is an interesting one for a teen Titans book, and the resolution cleverly deals with Goth's magic, but it doesn't feel like the pieces fit. Starfire really could have handled this solo, it wasn't much of a team effort, and Donna was being set up as the ace in the hole but she didn't even make it to the scuffle in hell.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I notice that the horror convention the Titans go to is a Fangoria event... I don't see any accreditation in the copyright box, so I wonder if DC had permission anyway or if this is just fair use of the name?</div>
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<br /></div>
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Donna Troy exists thanks to Wally West's memories of her. There's a parallel here with Rebirth... where Wally needed someone to remember him or he would fade away. But instead of being grateful, Donna's kind of pissed at Wally because she is only his perception of her, and she feels he holds her up to too high a standard. Yeah, something to be pissed about, sure.</div>
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Goth's plan is defeated by caring. Yes, the Titans pull a Care Bears stare and win the day. </div>
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I want to rag on Goth's design, but it's actually not *that* bad. It does hew close enough to absurd goth style, but then goes large with skull shoulder pads and demon wings to make for a supervillain-esque look. The big "G" that hold his straps is all kinds of silly though. Like when Green Arrow used to have a "G" on his belt buckle. It would be like if I wore a letter "G" around everywhere, just because my name started with it. It's not like Superman's "S" or Aquaman's "A" or Wonder Woman's double "W", which are more stylized iconography, a symbol, a shield...it's just a letter. "What's my name? Roth? Moth?" (Looks down) "Oh, Goth, right, I forgot."</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-CAulGNIKzqVDRFoA_GgGoMzZzIA24xE17YD4s4hgwYhG_boKRowW2OxRHlLQoZsQ2bzVNwGfczQ8fh20m1uhvrCScgJjrPD3Y8C3jyUzJbyju55St8VH01Ns6BsdKXUeZTKdnK0I3Ww/s1600/TitansenemyGoth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-CAulGNIKzqVDRFoA_GgGoMzZzIA24xE17YD4s4hgwYhG_boKRowW2OxRHlLQoZsQ2bzVNwGfczQ8fh20m1uhvrCScgJjrPD3Y8C3jyUzJbyju55St8VH01Ns6BsdKXUeZTKdnK0I3Ww/s320/TitansenemyGoth.jpg" width="209" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"G" is for "goofy" and that's good enough for Goth</td></tr>
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KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-29499604824218996392016-07-14T07:04:00.001-07:002016-07-14T07:04:23.469-07:00Catching up on Comics -- Series Run: The Titans #3<div dir="ltr">
1999, DC Comics </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPpDGV1AkgwgvxgaUYfC4jIqCZIcfJsvbxx3s6wM2jw6m5IhDZLbcjepKpfL8AvnhiTpIV7wpVvubg2GXnOk5dTldItuI28zNEKagVhnQmonyE0Lr7UnsoJW_8leVh97_dt6x9nw2mFrs/s1600/ohmygoth_titans3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPpDGV1AkgwgvxgaUYfC4jIqCZIcfJsvbxx3s6wM2jw6m5IhDZLbcjepKpfL8AvnhiTpIV7wpVvubg2GXnOk5dTldItuI28zNEKagVhnQmonyE0Lr7UnsoJW_8leVh97_dt6x9nw2mFrs/s320/ohmygoth_titans3.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
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"Introducing Goth!", because 1990's.</div>
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<br />
He's a horror movie icon, like Marylin Manson meets Freddie Kreuger, and of course Damage being the youngest is way into him and puts a poster up in his new room 'cause "He's just...cool".</div>
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This issue finds the Titans hanging out, splitting up by gender. The guys stay in, put on their costumes (because Dick is worried about secret identities around the new recruits) and watch Goth's movies. I repeat, it's a half dozen grown men in spandex lounging around with popcorn watching --</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV6WGhBLohm9Ax2gEZ8RF5S-JhD4Elpdjgai4WhaQKlVSF9fEhtY2gfY3LQdJOoD8vWlAstTLDWp-pEsc2RIt_pLIOzPgyeSXxiLoCfXVQgjWjGgieB80KZ-BmBdpgv4I_5AbvOqHMhtU/s1600/20160711_205254.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV6WGhBLohm9Ax2gEZ8RF5S-JhD4Elpdjgai4WhaQKlVSF9fEhtY2gfY3LQdJOoD8vWlAstTLDWp-pEsc2RIt_pLIOzPgyeSXxiLoCfXVQgjWjGgieB80KZ-BmBdpgv4I_5AbvOqHMhtU/s320/20160711_205254.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hey guys, let's put on our tights and masks watch movies,<br />you know...a real guy's night in</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
and getting spooked by-- gory horror films. Cyborg however is parsing through e-mails (cause the Titans have a public email address for the public to get ahold of them, mostly teenagers it seems) and coincidentally as they're watching the film Cyborg finds that some real-life email-calls-for-help are mirroring the film. <br />
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The ladies meanwhile go out clubbing where some rather ominous sounding lyrics pulsate in the background (I never liked trying to illustrate in comics, forcing the reader to put music to lyrics and unless the reader is a particularly good musician or the writer a very strong lyricist, it just comes off as bad music). Starfire is mobbed by fans and Donna freaks out when asked about her past (again Devin Grayson's continuity niggling overtakes the story). Goth shows up and... something happens, it seems... but it's unclear what. Is Donna posessed? Kory? Whatever, really.</div>
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Earlier we meet Lian's new nanny who has to precariously board an awkward floating platform to cross to Titans Tower on an island (which I swear wasn't an island in the last two issues...also the tower is a hologram with the actual base being underground, which again I swear it was an actual tower last issue). Garth pops out of the water, scaring the shit out of her...which I guess is enough for her to confide in him that the dad of the girl she's watching is "massively doable".</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqbnnb3iyq-h76mpP0PaAvVW77GYhQFwX6OsQTArVHx4EjU2Sq8I_k5Q-q5hDx8ytU9hyphenhyphenBRF6f1JLo8J3e81n-8jhhff_QpinKucqIJVj8hXdnPtbyMXrbD9zd9PJslfKEEvxKXNIGTpk/s1600/20160711_205130.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqbnnb3iyq-h76mpP0PaAvVW77GYhQFwX6OsQTArVHx4EjU2Sq8I_k5Q-q5hDx8ytU9hyphenhyphenBRF6f1JLo8J3e81n-8jhhff_QpinKucqIJVj8hXdnPtbyMXrbD9zd9PJslfKEEvxKXNIGTpk/s320/20160711_205130.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, this is how the Titan's welcome visitors to their island...<br />a lonely pier, at night, on a precarious floating platform<br />that you have to awkwardly step down on. Titans Go! and help <br />that poor woman. Jesus.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-62970885141759392812016-07-09T23:11:00.001-07:002016-07-14T07:05:21.172-07:00Catching up on Comics -- Series Run: The Titans #2<div dir="ltr">
1999, DC Comics</div>
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Remember that website "Superman's a dick" (I think it's now the more generic <a href="http://www.superdickery.com/tag/superman-is-a-dick/">"Superdickery")?</a> Well, this issue of the Titans is a prime candidate for it, because, oh man, is he ever a dick here.</div>
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<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrm3Lk8WlLurieYeS9_IXyjFRYj_pQwq-6L2mVPpTShh_Wpqd1Xe26nLEyJJyZfK28C27vfuCzE096ddzYVjnKbmQcN9Ff-YFTaaEVKJw6xJz65fDTHOrXTDo6KyXE-Msl5n-i_lYCDZk/s1600/20160711_205040.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrm3Lk8WlLurieYeS9_IXyjFRYj_pQwq-6L2mVPpTShh_Wpqd1Xe26nLEyJJyZfK28C27vfuCzE096ddzYVjnKbmQcN9Ff-YFTaaEVKJw6xJz65fDTHOrXTDo6KyXE-Msl5n-i_lYCDZk/s320/20160711_205040.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look at that expression, that physicality...<br />
what a dick.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr">
Carrying over from last issue, the Titans finish mopping up the new Hive agents Damien Dahrk sent to interfere with the construction of the new Titans Tower (seriously, the way these two organizations talk about one another sounds more like Cheers vs Gary's Old Town Tavern and less like superheroes locked in a life or death struggle with a terrorist organization), when Superman arrives with the ever so helpful "Is everything all right here." The illustration by Mark Buckingham places the camera from a bird's eye view above a hovering, hands-on-hips man of steel, which only serves to exacerbate the smug condescension going on here.</div>
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The younger Titans are in awe... well, actually they're all in awe, except Flash who is Superman's teammate elsewhere. Supes and Flash fall into "speedspeak" which means only Jesse Quick can follow along. Her and Argent start whispering about Superman's overprotectiveness when Garth points out the guy has super-hearing so whispering doesn't really matter.</div>
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Then Superman basically makes them fall into formation and Sarge-marches down the line making snippy comments like these Titans are preteens and not 20-something-year-old adults now with almost as many years of experience under their yellow belt as he does...<br />
seriously this page is as big a dick as I've ever seen Superman act in the modern age.</div>
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"Jesse Quick. Your father would be proud," says Superman, like he fucking knows the guy....Seriously, show me one modern age Superman story, from '86-'99, where Superman and Johnny Quick exchange words. At all. Flake off man!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUvKGUhxeM89b_22n9YQucElRsrWFwTUERRXS8JHkqKSD8fVMZ7uv6PN8cPVob_nup16pzmYLAg0XGKyro39AJIjbcpDko-QAZgnmJF7QskDIYiIwp3dKevd04eFmrq14FXAfXpAQ1K5g/s1600/20160711_205108.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUvKGUhxeM89b_22n9YQucElRsrWFwTUERRXS8JHkqKSD8fVMZ7uv6PN8cPVob_nup16pzmYLAg0XGKyro39AJIjbcpDko-QAZgnmJF7QskDIYiIwp3dKevd04eFmrq14FXAfXpAQ1K5g/s320/20160711_205108.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dick moves left, right and center.</td></tr>
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As Hive's attack then escalates Superman takes the lead. It's up to Dick to tell him to stop being a dick and back off grampa, go unclench, and do it somewhere else.</div>
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This issue has a couple good moments, and Jesse Quick emerges as a stronw-willed, capable character (and possible leader), but overall it's bad writing. It's that thing where someone has difficulty wrapping their head around the whole shared universe thing, and that if Superman is so powerful, why shouldn't he be turning up wherever there's trouble. Well the answer to that is here: it's not good storytelling. Just because Superman doesn't show up somewhere doesn't break continuity. And if you're going to write him like this...don't even bother. Blerg.
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<br />KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-16705028184461078202016-07-05T20:38:00.001-07:002016-07-14T07:05:43.113-07:00Catching up on Comics -- Series Run: The Titans #1<div dir="ltr">
1999, DC Comics</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGhLmvSU5u98s12zEdHpNLPRVCXtD6iOGjwxJ7iNZIIjEOxp9BFK-78yanymYr_PfJSypAFQHhMUvx9JTIQ7frSSstvjZaPgVY-x_LWo4UCVfpKWfBIqdzMotH7D08Nw34fQ7eGHsyGhw/s1600/Titans_Vol_1_1.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGhLmvSU5u98s12zEdHpNLPRVCXtD6iOGjwxJ7iNZIIjEOxp9BFK-78yanymYr_PfJSypAFQHhMUvx9JTIQ7frSSstvjZaPgVY-x_LWo4UCVfpKWfBIqdzMotH7D08Nw34fQ7eGHsyGhw/s320/Titans_Vol_1_1.jpg" width="207" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw3-CqbVxGiQVaQtkTJ_kvTuvvebV7UgbV-vwtTa_7p3sRyCeZaMyT2czDKpcfaLFzk9FbObMrga7hsB8hems2uLMYlJ1Ago5ywwhT-v0JuUWJt-0eM562Q_Vbhf3KTEeaMorT8Cm8dHo/s1600/Titans_1A.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw3-CqbVxGiQVaQtkTJ_kvTuvvebV7UgbV-vwtTa_7p3sRyCeZaMyT2czDKpcfaLFzk9FbObMrga7hsB8hems2uLMYlJ1Ago5ywwhT-v0JuUWJt-0eM562Q_Vbhf3KTEeaMorT8Cm8dHo/s320/Titans_1A.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
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When you think of the Titans, the1999 series my not exactly be at the bottom of the list but it's not quite the glory days of Titans, either.</div>
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With the growing pains of the New 52 reboot, it's far too easy to be cynical and forget that there have been rough starts and pained runs aplenty before Johns, Didio, Lee and company decided to scratch things and start again. </div>
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This first issue of <i>The Titans</i> is all talk, no action. The bulk of it takes place in a tacky looking seafood restaurant, where Wally, Donna, Dick, Garth, Roy and his daughter Lian sit down for a trashy meal and gab about recent events and re-forming the Titans.</div>
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It is an inexplicably continuity-centric first issue, and quite possibly the absolute worst way to kick off a new series. I don't recall if this was a case of the '90's expectation that continuity is serviced above all else or if writer Devin Grayson deemed reconciling all the recent continuty annoyances to be the important place to start.</div>
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It's not that the issue is badly written as a whole, but it's the most confounding book to me. The fact that Grayson has Wally proposing the re-formation of the team is bizarre since he's currently in the JLA, but it's not like this fact isn't lost on Grayson either. But her witty repartee to explain it away doesn't exactly make it any more logical. It's a case of DC wanting their Flash cake and Flash eating it too.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeqpCmnQp7R6hL-gvoyvtudY6A8XqAu2QUlldhdQ0DHNPSDr6zavH0D1z4oHyWlTtOKWa4wFOiHhYji7mMcc5n6_dhD3C3jsITZJOPC9p6xE8i8nKMviljfjLcyrQiM_mr4n-mdO6dqLo/s1600/20160711_205400.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeqpCmnQp7R6hL-gvoyvtudY6A8XqAu2QUlldhdQ0DHNPSDr6zavH0D1z4oHyWlTtOKWa4wFOiHhYji7mMcc5n6_dhD3C3jsITZJOPC9p6xE8i8nKMviljfjLcyrQiM_mr4n-mdO6dqLo/s320/20160711_205400.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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In the seafood shack booth, where five plainclothed superheroes and an adorable toddler (Lian is the MVP of this story, RIP) are crammed in, they decide on their roster in a weird game of "hey do you remember so-and-so". They pick Damage, Argent, Starfire, Jesse Quick and Cyborg (in his short-lived Metal Men-esque appearance) . I guess they recruit them mighty quick and then they all suit up to help build the new Titans tower, because that's something I'm sure they're all qualified to do. I hope that thing gets a safety inspection before Lian moves in.</div>
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Waitaminute, Jesse can fly? (All the Quicks can fly, my wife tells me. That's dumb. Speedsters run, they don't fly).</div>
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If <i>The Titans</i> #1 is notable for any reason, it's that it's the first appearance of<br />
Damian Darhk, the scenery-chewing villain of <i>Arrow</i> season 4 (as played by awesome Neil McDonough). Here you can see some of the flavour that was brought to the character on the small screen. He isn't your typical villain. His mom is the queen of HIVE, but he's not exactly cowtowing to her. He's too busy on his mobile, brokering deals and being glib. You want to smack him right away, but it's obvious he thinks himself better amd above everyone and everything (even if it's not quite reality).</div>
KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-71925441383026213812016-07-03T11:28:00.000-07:002016-07-03T11:28:18.672-07:00Catching up on comics -- A Sunday Sit-down Spectacular (part 2): Omega Men #7-12(see <a href="http://secondprinting.blogspot.ca/2016/07/catching-up-on-comics-saturday-sit-down.html" target="_blank">yesterday's Saturday Sit-down Spectacular </a>for <i>Omega Men #1-6</i>)<br />
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<b>ISSUE 7</b><br />
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In Scrapps and Doc's attempt at freeing the captured Primus, Princess Kalista and Kyle Raynor last issue, they apparently killed over 37,000 people. Are these hard choices for the Omega Men, to destroy that much of the enemy in one fell swoop, or is it just a necessity that they don't think twice about. Primus is a pacifist and so far he's only personally taken one life, but in the process he's been responsible for thousands of deaths indirectly along the way. As Kalista said last issue, the only sacrifice they need from him is his soul.<br />
<b> </b><br />
Remember me saying that Kyle wasn't falling for Kalista's attempts to manipulate him into loving her... yeah, well, scratch that. <br />
<br />
"I love you."<br />"No you don't. You want to save what you love. You want to love what you save. And you want to save me."<br />
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Even further, pushing him away to bring him in closer, a little bit of rejection while being fully intimate. Well played Kalista.<br />
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An appearance from Omega Men of old on the "Wanted" board in the center spread (which didn't quite make it to the center. I see Harpis and Nimbus on the board, though they haven't appeared otherwise. "Green Man" isn't the same as old, that's just how they reference Kyle...even though he came as the White Lantern...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYDupYc3EbudlW7vqM7nD7p0I7HLVKTupMQbNfxoz1_UJAntkJeKW7GRke3TSnLQNdQu3jgQaJKAAjxuISKarOpL_IaY8WuRNVqsrgkXFArmzdcOP1Bpx0to8kWp4aqxaD5GE4yv4nlMY/s1600/Whos-Who-in-the-DC-Universe-Omega-Men.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYDupYc3EbudlW7vqM7nD7p0I7HLVKTupMQbNfxoz1_UJAntkJeKW7GRke3TSnLQNdQu3jgQaJKAAjxuISKarOpL_IaY8WuRNVqsrgkXFArmzdcOP1Bpx0to8kWp4aqxaD5GE4yv4nlMY/s320/Whos-Who-in-the-DC-Universe-Omega-Men.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Kyle and Kalista work to get off planet. They "negotiate" with a transporter, who eventually agrees to help them. Earth objects, Kyle notes, are rare deep in space, and fetishized, so they're valuable. Kyle exchanges his cross, and a story behind it for transport. B'lorf, their ever so helpful resource, also secures hypnos for "human and Brahmin". Hypnos, like what the agents of Spyral use in <i>Grayson</i>. So do they originate from space or from Earth?<br />
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Ok, maybe Kyle's not so easily manipulated afterall. <b>Tom King</b>'s keeping us guessing on this one. Kyle's also quite observant.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kyle gets a "What's in the box" moment</td></tr>
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<b>ISSUE 8</b><br />
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"Planet Voorl is forbidden".<br />
<b> </b><br />
Back in issue 4, Kalista told Kyle that when the Citadel came knocking, Voorl put up a force shield and no one has entered or left since. Kalista makes it seem like it's a big thing, but if we on Earth were cut off from traveling into space, or having space travel into us, it may not seem like a big deal. Then again if we were cut off from, say, traveling to Australia, and Australians were cut off from leaving, it might seem a bit more...I dunno...forbidden fruit maybe? I don't think humans like barriers instinctively. And yet putting a wall up along the Mexico border seems like a good idea to a lot of people, so maybe I'm wrong about that. You know who doesn't like barriers? Cats. Close a door and a cat wants to see on the other side. Let her go on the other side and close the door behind her, and she'll want to go through again. Oh, cats.<br />
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A young Scrapps asks, "...Mommy, what's the shield?"<br />
"Oh, it's nothing you have to worry about. That's why it's there, my darling. So you never have to worry."<br />
<br />
Ah, and now we learn what the key of Alpha is for. Can't believe I didn't piece that together already.<br />
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After Krypton exploded, a galactic committee was assigned to looking into a solution to preventing planetary deterioration. The answer was "Stellarium" a substance "which may be injected into a planet's core to prevent deterioration and subsequent combustion." It's a property apparently unique to the Vega system but research has learned its mining is "not...beneficial to the inhabitants of the mined world." You see where this is going...<br />
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Is Kalista really asking Kyle to use the White Lantern ring, the ring of life, as a bomb?<br />
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And now statements Tigorr made a few issues back about killing a world make sense.<br />
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<b>Bagenda </b>and <b>Fajardo Jr.</b> nail this shot of what the Citadel did to Voorl. Shocking and stunning, a gorgeous piece.<br />
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A bit of backstory for Doc here. DOC = Defense Operation Cybertronics. The insinuation was that Doc was a medical droid...whelp...not so much. The relationship between Scrapps and Doc comes into focus here in heartbreaking bookends.<br />
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Much like the Omega Men, who have been taking an extensive amount of lives in their fight to usurp the Citadel, the Citadel preach that the sacrifice of Vrool is ultimately the savior of hundreds of billions of lives. Kyle struggles with what he has been asked to do, he struggles with what he's been doing with his life as a Lantern when massacres like this can happen. He rages against his God, though his belief in God never waivers. He just doesn't particularly like God right now.<br />
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<b>ISSUE 9</b><br />
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And now it's Doc's turn to sacrifice... or, perhaps, to<b> </b>atone.<br />
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The Omega Men venture to The Seat of the Audience (basically the assembly of the Vega system's various governments). They're startled to find the Viceroy of the Citadel there, but no really. The Prime Speaker of the Audience: "Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Terrorists or freedom fighters?!? Leaders or oppressors?!? It's all so very exciting!"<br />
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I didn't realize the White Lantern was "the only person to ever master each and every emotion on the color spectrum of lanterns."<br />
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Kyle: "They said...I had to choose between the savagery of empire and the savagery of revolution. And I said, No. I would not choose. I told them there was another way. A third way. Truth. Justice. The American Way." (And yet, what is the American way? What does that represent anymore. At times it seems it is both the empire and the revolution. America is both the alpha and the omega. Life, liberty and justice, but also death, oppression, and injustice). "I chose to come to the people, let them see the horror that is keeping their planets alive." (And when this happens in America, which it doesn't happen nearly enough, showing the horrors America's presence in the world has...but when it does, the people whether outraged or not, largely turn a blind eye, placated by entertainment and the desperate struggle for the fallacy of the American dream which they've been sold. I'm no less guilty. I'm writing extensively about comic books for Alpha's sake.)<br />
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Boom. And it all goes down.<br />
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<b>ISSUE 10</b><br />
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Karna (Tigorr's homeworld). Battle of the Cats, Day 22. Kyle's in the thick of it as the Karnan's face off against the Citadel's D.O.C.s. The D.O.C.s are very effective and efficient murder machines, but all the while they coldly plead "Please surrender.<b>"</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Kyle's a resolute fighter, but a lousy warrior and tactician. He has a superweapon at his disposal which effectively is powered by his emotions and the only limit to what he can do is his imagination. He's fighting with claws and guns and enhanced fists. They're robots Kyle, you're an artist... construct a sky gun that can target them all at once...or a giant masher that can take them out in one fell swoop. So frustrating.<br />
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Why does the chairman of the Galaxies Committee keep making Earth turns of phrase ("wait a country minute", "waddling off as fast as Central City lightning"), talking like a Southerner. Who is this guy?<br />
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Kyle and Primus manage to have a conversation for the first time. In fact, Primus has been relegated to the far background for the past three or four issues. I don't even recall his last line of dialogue. But here, he's talking about being a pacifist at war, and also his conflicted feelings about Kalista and Kyle.<br />
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War is fought. War escalates.<br />
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<b>ISSUE 11</b><br />
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<b> </b>War escalates from Karna to all the 5 worlds of Vega.<br />
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Kyle becomes the Omega Lantern. He brokers deals for soldiers to fight on the Omega Men's behalf. He gets his cross back.<br />
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Scrapps likewise gets the corrupt Changalyn to turn against those who bribed them into complicity. She is being Broot.<br />
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Tigorr, the captured son of the ruler of Karna, the murderer of his own father, the traitor, has returned a warrior and savior and now fights for his place as heir to lead the pride.<br />
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Primus returns in front of the camera, begs forgiveness for what he must ask, which is for others to give up their firmest belief in nonviolence and take up arms against their oppressors.<br />
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An Kalista, patricide or regicide...either way she inherits the throne, and must lead a civilization of Brahmin her family has broken for many, many years. <br />
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There's no doubt a lot of intricacies to how these societies react to their new leadership, but war is at hand and the time to discuss past sins can wait.<br />
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The Omega War rages. And on Day 182, the Omega Men reach the Citadel home world.<br />
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<b>ISSUE 12</b><br />
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"Everyone is savage. Everyone is civilized."<br />
People like to consider themselves good and bad, consider themselves better than others and the actions they do. People like to justify their immorality as part of the greater good. People who are unwilling to accept their own evil. People who blame others, who only see black and white, who see no third option. But the difference, Kyle points out, between the Omega Men and the Viceroy, is that they enter into their actions with eyes wide open. They're not proud of the deaths they cause (not most of them anyway) and they're not blind as to the impact of their actions. Kyle counts himself among their ranks now, but, as seen in the last issue, he sometimes stands while others fight, perhaps watching to ensure lines are not crossed, turning the Omega Men's war ignoble.<br />
<br />
The Viceroy's actions at this point, the whole war is to save himself. The Galaxies Committee will have his head if they don't get their Stellarium, and the Galaxies Committee are willing to turn a blind eye to the Viceroy's actions to get it. It's no surprise the Viceroy has a panic room.<br />
<br />
Scrapps: "I don't want to just blow everything up. I want to, like, shoot him in the face. It's not fair."<br />
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Kyle doesn't know if he has the strength to get to the Viceroy. Kalista gives him a pep talk...well, more like putting the weight of millions of lives on his shoulders. "You want to save everyone? Here's your chance. Open the box."<br />
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Kyle makes a plea, to show that the world doesn't have to be black and white, Alpha and Omega, that there's room in between. "There is always a third way." <br />
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But some people are their their nature, and cannot, or will not change.<br />
And that inability to change shakes Kyle to the core. What is good? What is evil? Where do good intentions go bad? How can bad deeds be good? This is what shakes not just Kyle's confidence him himself, but in his belief in everything.<br />
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The Omega Men win. But it's a hollow victory. They separate, go back to their home planets to rule, who knows how justly (not very, it seems). Kyle's left to walk through the Citadel homeworld and witness the massacre he supported.<br />
<br />
He returns to give a report to the leader of the Galaxies Committee (why? I'm not certain. I'm a little outside of current Green Lantern policies and hierarchies). But this leader, an American, he's once again on the warpath for "the greater good". We need Stellarium and the Vegans, under Kalista's rule, won't just give up a planet for it, so we need to go in and take it. And that is the American way.<br />
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Kyle give a final speech, when pressed to answer whether he's "with them or us"? The answer is Kyle's going to fight for what he believes is right, and he's going to fight to convince others to do what's right. But the final point is who's the savage, who's civilized, and he frames it in the context of grids in a comic book. Purpose.<br />
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I get the sense through all this that Tom King is wrestling with his own feelings about serving his country, about how America acts "in the greater good" but all the more often seems simply self serving. There's obvious parallels to the Iraq war (Stellarium = oil), and again the military viewpoint is "us or them" as if there's no other options, no other way for a soldier to think about what they're doing. King seems to propose a third option, but he's not quite clear how that third option takes shape. America is supposed to be a land of ideals, but in the international market (and moreso at home) they don't tend to exhibit those ideals. They just tend to speak to them while secretly doing something other.<br />
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Each issue ends with a quote from William James, one of the most prominent American philosopher. James wrote a lot about pragmatism, and truth. He tried to see if belief was quantifiable, if there was a commercial element...if people's beliefs could be bought and sold. Does the internal reality have an external value? For instance does a belief in God have an external value? If it brings meaning to the holder of the belief then for certain value does exist.<br />
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I'm sure there's more to James than just that (the result of rudimentary web searches), and King's use of the quotes no doubt have influenced each chapter of the story. <br />
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In the end <i>Omega Men</i> comes together as a deep, dark and rewarding investigation into war, and why we fight, the nature of belief in one's self and one's actions. King story bustles with purpose, with meaning and intent, and Bagenda is on board for delivering both as space war spectacle and as ruminative philosophical essay. It's a surprisingly intense piece of work, well beyond what anyone could expect from effectively minor characters from the 80's largely forgotten. With a more pulpy flair, King could have had the next Guardians of the Galaxy on his hands, but he had a more important story in mind, more important things to say than strictly entertainment.<br />
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I'm glad DC gave King his 12 issues. It leaves teasing a second, much larger war. I'm not certain if this requires playing out. The intent is clear...there's always going to be more fighting. It's human nature. Its wanting what someone else has. It's self preservation. It's any number of excuses. Deep down we know it shouldn't be this way, but we also know it can't help but be this way.<br />
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<br />KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-30864622149080025452016-07-02T18:44:00.000-07:002016-07-02T18:44:08.553-07:00Catching up on Comics -- A Saturday Sit-down Spectacular: Omega Men #1-6<div dir="ltr">
Aw yeah, comics lovers, its time for a Saturday Sit-down Spectacular. Reaction and commentary issue-by-issue of a complete series and/or story arc.</div>
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Let's go, <i>The</i> <i>Omega Men </i><i>#1-6 </i>(come back tomorrow for 7-12)<br />
(+ the 8-page "sneak peek" from <i>Convergence: Batman & Robin </i>#2)<br />
DC Comics, 2015-16<br />
Writer: <b>Tom King</b><br />
Artist: <b>Romulo Bagenda </b>with <b>Jose Marzan Jr.</b> (Sneak Peek), <b>Toby Cypress</b> (issue 4) and <b>Ig Guara</b> (issue 7)<br />
Colors: <b>Romulo Fajardo Jr.</b> with <b>Hi-Fi</b> (issue 10)<br />
Letters: <b>Pat Brosseau</b><br />
Covers: <b>Trevor Hutchison</b></div>
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<b>PREAMBLE:</b><br />
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It was the Sneak Peek that sold me on the book... that plus <b>Tom King </b>was already becoming a fast favourite over on <i>Grayson</i>. But a 9-panel grid book...? How positively <b>Giffen</b>-esque of them (some may say <i>Watchmen</i>, but <b>Giffen </b>is always my go-to reference), and I'm always a sucker for a 9p grid.</div>
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My pickup of the book was not a steady one. I regularly forgot to add it to my pick up list for my weekly Wednesday sojourn to comics shops, and often had to back order the damn thing. And then after issue six I had to find a new shop and the closing half of the series seemed to be getting scarcer and scarcer (either from dwindling sales or the increased word of mouth. Through all the "DCYou" tumultuousness, when series were cancelled without mercy, outcry for<i> The Omega Men</i> to continue didn't fall on deaf ears and DC, showing faith in King as a promising superstar talent, let him finish his 12 issue arc, making <i>Omega Men</i> less a cancelled series an more an old school DC "maxi-series".</div>
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Issue 1-5 (plus the Sneak Peek) will be a reread for me, but I'm so distant from it I remember very little. I've rather anxiously been awaiting this Super Saturday Sit-down Spectacular so I can just drive through it.</div>
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<b>--- </b></div>
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<b>SNEAK PEEK</b></div>
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Now that is how you tease a story!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHimcN42LS4h9iscZqM2V3EFTZ2J5tejA9vz8UFHUJPtZtvL8nRlOo-UHe5CZCmOFdGWl2MvTY36waMkXaW7vCFw17VGkx8Hnk1WfVb8uFrgQRBKBw8csxnlymQAHHxa6a2vuBBUYXwRg/s1600/OMEGAM-DCSneakPeek_SFCovers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHimcN42LS4h9iscZqM2V3EFTZ2J5tejA9vz8UFHUJPtZtvL8nRlOo-UHe5CZCmOFdGWl2MvTY36waMkXaW7vCFw17VGkx8Hnk1WfVb8uFrgQRBKBw8csxnlymQAHHxa6a2vuBBUYXwRg/s320/OMEGAM-DCSneakPeek_SFCovers.jpg" width="208" /></a>8 pages, 72 equally-sized panels, all showing one stationary shot from some type of recording device. It crackles with digital static as a hooded prisoner is dragged into frame by a massive, brute creature (with, incongruously a gentle demeanor). Another figure comes into frame, speaking of philosophy, religion, oppression and tyranny. He is a freedom fighter, or a terrorist, depending on your perspective, and his prisoner is Kyle Raynor, the White Lantern, who was sent to broker a "truce"(tantamount to surrender) between the Citadel overlords and the Omega Men uprising.</div>
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The Sneak Peek ends with a giant orange cat-man entering the shot and slicing Kyle's throat while the camera crackles and blurs with static. </div>
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I'm not going to play by play every issue but I feel the excitement rising once again for the story to come. This is just an amazing intro, both in teasing the story and shocking the audience (they can't just do Kyle like that, can they?). But equally it's just brilliantly crafted execution (no pun intended) from <b>Bagenda</b>. Keeping the shot static while having the charaters move around the frame (even the small movements the bound Kyle make) gives the sequence such a dynamic feel.</div>
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I read this on my phone through Comixology, and the 9p-grid is perfect for the average smartphone display to thumb through panel by panel. It's very close to a flipbook in this regard.<br />
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(<a href="http://www.dccomics.com/comics/the-omega-men-2015/dc-sneak-peek-the-omega-men-2015" target="_blank">READ IT NOW!</a>) </div>
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<b>---</b></div>
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<b> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrbDE-BGhT8-T4g9WO-tTRRK9kPpJtMOXlG2LLuY89E6_UMx8bWbmiEgtafpf0H9OYa-ObjVzdyT0c_KF42Ua6XnlUtV5knCxEoNgFVFOJkzZLrWz49_6THr04s_sJQwDYkJKLZg-LdwM/s1600/the-omega-men-1-cover-666x1024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrbDE-BGhT8-T4g9WO-tTRRK9kPpJtMOXlG2LLuY89E6_UMx8bWbmiEgtafpf0H9OYa-ObjVzdyT0c_KF42Ua6XnlUtV5knCxEoNgFVFOJkzZLrWz49_6THr04s_sJQwDYkJKLZg-LdwM/s320/the-omega-men-1-cover-666x1024.jpg" width="208" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Hutchison's covers for the entire<br />series are great, but the first is my<br />favourite</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</b></div>
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<b>ISSUE 1</b></div>
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And the crew is introduced... facing off against off-world Citadel soldiers (a prerecorded message "We are friends. We will not hurt you" repeats over and over as they blast, beat and shove their way through the populace of a remote outpost. But cause and effect, beginning and the end. These soldiers are the alpha and the <i>Omega Men </i>are their end.</div>
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Tigorr, the brutal cat-man. Broot, a peaceful giant pushed to far. Scrapps, left with no other options. Doc, the medical robot. Primus, their pacifist leader who must enter the fray of bloodshed and violence himself.</div>
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They have what the soldiers were after. Kyle Raynor: the bomb.</div>
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Meanwhile, was that the white lantern ring on the viceroy's finger?</div>
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Bagenda again delivers excellent storytelling and pacin in thr 9p format, often merging panels but always sticking to the grid, occasionally offering up a splash page, which is kind of jarring against the <u>9p</u> but also emphasizes the excitement of the splash.</div>
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<b>---</b></div>
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</div>
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<b>ISSUE 2</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlsZxkiGy-Hcj-8OEycqO2JnGk1FZ3ZVpIKgAvqx6iCNLh-BfkOKkqS2NQrlfYUbfonlmC4wArp5Z1JqpN0VqbFKJD9Cv-4tk1kd4ch0odoLgqoLtpGNE5vYeGDc5V2ce3UB-ot_gBDXM/s1600/1467491997550.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlsZxkiGy-Hcj-8OEycqO2JnGk1FZ3ZVpIKgAvqx6iCNLh-BfkOKkqS2NQrlfYUbfonlmC4wArp5Z1JqpN0VqbFKJD9Cv-4tk1kd4ch0odoLgqoLtpGNE5vYeGDc5V2ce3UB-ot_gBDXM/s320/1467491997550.jpg" width="240" /></a>I love these opening panels... the upshot perspective of the Governor preparing his greeting as the Viceroy's omega-shaped spaceship (very cool,very Star Wars in a way) makes it's landing.</div>
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A wholly evil (and utterly casual) exchange follows between the Governor and Viceroy, as the haggle over how many of the Governor's own people must die in "compensation" for the loss of the 39 Citadel soldiers in the previous issue (according to the contractual terms between the Citadel and the Governor's planet, 100 civilians must die for every soldier killed). It's extremely black satire that comes to bleak fruition later in the book, with a gut punch of a reveal about our protagonists (it's really a question by the end of this issue if we're supposed to be rooting for the Omega Men, despite their extreme methods, or if we're supposed to be more on Kyle's side).</div>
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Meanwhile, Kyle Rayner gets a bomb (kind of like a parolee's ankle monitor) inserted into his throat, and he prays in Spanish as he recuperates. I haven't read a story with Kyle in quite some time, and even when he became GL in the mid-90's (the period when I read the most Rayner-led stories) there was never an indication that he was Hispanic or Latino. Which isn't to say that this is a new change, he may have been this whole time, but it's only now that I've seen his cultural background is presented as a part of his character.</div>
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Tigorr is a big cat-man butvhe can still hide under Broot's cloak while Broot is wearing it. Broot is huge. Meanwhile, it's strange that Doc has room inside his metal body for Scrapps to hide in (then pop out and shoot people in the face... this book is really violent).</div>
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Primus may be a pacifist but he sure knows how to motivate and manipulate.</div>
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That final page, where Kyle recites the Green Lanterns' oath, taking blood from his neck wound and turning the omega symbol on his jumpsuit into a lantern symbol: brilliant, all around.</div>
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---</div>
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</div>
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<b>ISSUE 3</b></div>
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My memories from my original reading of the first 5 issues are mostly of this one, where we're introduced to Princess Kalista. On page one she is swordfighting with a natuve of the planet Euphorix. Kalista's father, though a king, still is a servant of the Citadel. Having been transposed from her homewold to Euphorix as a child, Kalista has been training in swordfighting for almost two decades by combating a handful of desperate civilians (brought to her for that very purpose) every day, to the death. Naturally she's become a pretty good swordsman...swordswoman...swordsperson.</div>
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The Omega Men make a kidnapping attempt, with Tigorr, then Scrapps, entering the fray and nearly dying in the process. Finally Primus and Broot succed and get everyone back on board their stolen ship (from the previous issue) and Doc bandages their wounds</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixph8V3cOiVCBWBal0UMtpPgMdTHm8zfQa4n_QOqwUUza-AbrGkO3orIyGW9MZh6TCbwTYbdmkM2WYlAn5mnIWZ73qqXTUCyKCRZNUHVw34-XpAf-qwkAkVYkhDKQ79vkw5KbPaLnxMOc/s1600/20160702_174222.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixph8V3cOiVCBWBal0UMtpPgMdTHm8zfQa4n_QOqwUUza-AbrGkO3orIyGW9MZh6TCbwTYbdmkM2WYlAn5mnIWZ73qqXTUCyKCRZNUHVw34-XpAf-qwkAkVYkhDKQ79vkw5KbPaLnxMOc/s400/20160702_174222.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"More!"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDJUKmN84cN1iGQefWDASZ4trefJM_8T7F6E38Tr8CtARnGYDdRhFKxCVDhyudJZ8JJKfiyzIQKKAOIzIvPZvMz9mOwvLu6UVbWIJvgdoDj29HpC2rRdbHZiRi7kBEqJRufjQrNNMgSSU/s1600/20160702_174158.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDJUKmN84cN1iGQefWDASZ4trefJM_8T7F6E38Tr8CtARnGYDdRhFKxCVDhyudJZ8JJKfiyzIQKKAOIzIvPZvMz9mOwvLu6UVbWIJvgdoDj29HpC2rRdbHZiRi7kBEqJRufjQrNNMgSSU/s200/20160702_174158.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scrapps looks like Amy<br />Pohler here. like.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Kalista is put in a cel with Kyle and they're told their fates (and neck bombs) are linked. Kyle's white knight syndrome kicks in. What he doesnt know is that Kalista is a plant and she is, in fact, the leader of the Omega Men.</div>
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What has become clearer in reading these past two issues is that there's no amount of sacrifice, civilian or Omega Man alike, that's too small for their cause. But what is their plan?</div>
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I loved the subtle Omega symbol her drop of blood made in the water on pg 3 (echoes of the first issue where the Omega symbol swirls around in the Viceroy's coffee). I also like how Bagenda does a lot of background reveals, training the reader to be invested in the entire frame at all times (just in case).</div>
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I'm wondering if Kalista tells her manservant, Talim, that she loves him (noting that she doesn't say so often enough) because she knows he's going to be killed ...?</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFdFFyn9liiyEVWR-o6lgy1kjGzTlfncCu9PBrtU-kx-D4oeFotGRg58E2XImT9NxXUCm5iHLhME2s5RmKW8kfOu5MJXm21uF8gS19D2aGml-GB3fSn00IUywJ1xwAM0OnT6fllEwXY90/s1600/20160702_212704.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFdFFyn9liiyEVWR-o6lgy1kjGzTlfncCu9PBrtU-kx-D4oeFotGRg58E2XImT9NxXUCm5iHLhME2s5RmKW8kfOu5MJXm21uF8gS19D2aGml-GB3fSn00IUywJ1xwAM0OnT6fllEwXY90/s400/20160702_212704.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">more beautiful grid style fight sequencing from Romulo Bagenda</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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---</div>
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<b>ISSUE 4</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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The bad news is Bagenda is out this issue and fill in artist Toby Cypress either didn't get the memo about the 9p grid format or he was told he didn't have to stick to it.</div>
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<b> </b></div>
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This is a Kyle-focussed issue, as he and Kalista get further acquainted. By the time the team "kidnaps" Kalista last issue, Kyle's been a captive of the Omega Men for a few months.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Kyle quickly retells how he came to be a Lantern and some of the trials he's faced as a result, but King writes Kyle's narrative in such a way that it has meaning to their current situation, and more importantly why Kyle is relevant to the Omega Men. It's obvious they see his potential. Kyle relates how, unlike other Lanterns, he wasn't chosen, or selected, it wasn't fate, and he didn't have the requirements, the fearlessness or strength, he was just there. But here, the parallel is, he was selected, he was chosen by the Omega Men because of his strengths, and perhaps it was just a little fate that brought him.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Kyle talks of the two sides of the coin, the fork in the road where paths diverge and lives take shape. In its own way, the Alpha and the Omega, cause and effect.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Cypress</b> errs in the art here, showing Kyle giving up his ring to the Citadel when he came to broker the peace treaty, which explains how the Viceroy has it in issue one. Only thing is, it's a Green Lantern ring and not the White Lantern ring that it should have been (and he's drawn and colored in a Green Lantern uniform). At least they explain why he gave up his ring (has to do with a longstanding truce between the Guardians and the Citadel that keeps Lantern "weapons" out of the Vega system).</div>
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Kalista tells Kyle her story, of how she was raised to slay the Euphorix natives, of how the Citadel oppresses her people's religion, and then takes Kyle on a verbal tour of oppression throughout the Vega system. But we don't really know with her what's genuine and what's manipulation. As Primus and Tigorr (who Cypress draws like A FUCKING LION!) observe, they note that Kalista has a plan and they need "the bomb", which has become their pet name for Kyle.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Kalista preaches hate for the Omega Men, but sympathy for their plight, and she baits Kyle into having feelings for her. At this stage, Kyle's there as emotional support but he has to forget Carol first, and that may prove harder than Kalista thinks (she was a Star Sapphire, a love lantern, afterall).</div>
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---</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>ISSUE 5</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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In which the Omega Men return to Changralyn, Broot's home planet. It's a very religious society and, as we learned from Kalista's audio tour last issue, one in which its priests have been paid off by the Citadel to preach acceptance of their oppression. We learn "Broot" is a moniker of shame, that he was once Dauphin of the Pontifex, a good priest of high standing. But Broot became an outcast because he spoke against this corruption, and he was ejected, so the masses fling poo as he returns to the temple. </div>
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<b> </b></div>
<div dir="ltr">
"It is being good that it is dung. It is better than throwing stones. Stones are being sacred."</div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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Their visit here is to meet with the King of Euphorix, Kalista's father, acting as neutral ground to make an exchange: Kalista for a magic key, the Key of Alpha.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5e1TvYt2KvPvGIbP1Soia2K8W_X2bb-KO6IwXPB-b7dNla8BY9ZM7KYI2YcEvc4dNDBO7cZlgxKyqt1gnWeVRfjMp1F87HrDy5X1ds1ep10BaJelmOpqA1ZyGayaSPHl9LjS4jpsyIWI/s1600/20160702_204248.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5e1TvYt2KvPvGIbP1Soia2K8W_X2bb-KO6IwXPB-b7dNla8BY9ZM7KYI2YcEvc4dNDBO7cZlgxKyqt1gnWeVRfjMp1F87HrDy5X1ds1ep10BaJelmOpqA1ZyGayaSPHl9LjS4jpsyIWI/s200/20160702_204248.jpg" width="150" /></a>I like that King writes Kyle as being more aware and more intelligent than someone usually is in their surroundings. He's not fully aware he's being manipulated but he can tell the Omega Men are up to something. I like his new mask, and how Bagenda alternates the panels between looking at Kalista and Kyle and Kyle's red-tinged POV.</div>
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</div>
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Bagenda's first two-page splash is a beaut as the Omega Men realize they've fallen into a trap.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Broot and Scrapps have a real Groot and Rocket thing going here. The gentle giant, and the quick witted foul-mouthed weapons nut. (It should be noted that Broot predates Groot's current popular public persona, though I believe that Groot still appeared in the 1960's, well before the Omega Men debuted in the 80's).</div>
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Fajardo Jr.'s coloring this issue is absolutely gorgeous.</div>
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<br /></div>
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And a beaut of a cliffhanger ending. I'm hoping poor Broot isn't being sacrificed, the trope of the gentle giant making the sacrifice for others to live is a bit played (Groot, Hodor, <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Chukha-Trok" target="_blank">Chukha-Trok</a>).</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdiLW2BoKGgyYFRrKt7RURADDXG8llVEOx_9d15XgUO6Hbu1L-0vSKkti0Wl5970cNy2NNtq9H4c7y_pewrnSBqRIgvOleCp80fjeXt0yaX0qgXbDxRmUqZdZINgKu1e3hd2Kp9EGaxTg/s1600/20160702_205023.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdiLW2BoKGgyYFRrKt7RURADDXG8llVEOx_9d15XgUO6Hbu1L-0vSKkti0Wl5970cNy2NNtq9H4c7y_pewrnSBqRIgvOleCp80fjeXt0yaX0qgXbDxRmUqZdZINgKu1e3hd2Kp9EGaxTg/s400/20160702_205023.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
</div>
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---</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>ISSUE 6</b></div>
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Oh my Alpha! They've really been captured. The Citadel is extracting the bomb from Kyle's neck. The Omega Men's plan is undone. Their interrogation is...oh my god wee Tigorr is sooo cuuuute! He was the adopted by the Viceroy. That explains why there was so much commotion about Tigorr in the first issue (they were speaking another language but Tigorr, Kyle Raynor, and Omega Men all went untranslated).</div>
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Just like everyone else (including the reader), the Viceroy's only question is "Why do the Omega Men need Kyle Raynor?"</div>
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And now the Viceroy is treating Kyle as if he is indeed one of the Omega Men, interrogating him (while still wearing Kyle's White Lantern ring on his finger), calling into question his kidnapping story. So the question is, as asked "Are you Kyle Raynor? Or are you an Omega Man?</div>
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Ahh, finally some insight into Scrapps background. It's only 3 panels, but it's about high time we got something. In fact we get insight into how Kalista recruited the whole gang, leaving more tantalizing bits of backstory on the table.</div>
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Just like I didn't know that Kyle was Hispanic, I also didn't know he was so religious. Was this something they started really hitting upon when he became the White Lantern? New 52?</div>
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Aww and they confirm Broot did actually die last issue. Suck. </div>
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Another hell of an ending. King's storytelling here is really building, very propulsive.</div>
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KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-81852919402157930192016-06-16T19:00:00.000-07:002016-06-16T19:00:14.951-07:00The Lives and Deaths and Rebirths of SupermanSuperman # 51/52<br />
Batman/Superman #31/32<br />
Action Comics #51/52, #957<br />
Superman/Wonder Woman #28/29<br />
Superman: Lois and Clark #1-7<br />
Superman: Rebirth #1<br />
<br />
---<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKZVTVRnctdweQmYrNaYtHyjsfLaKheAWh13awj6DdVx3o5o46NX0OYU0Ypowk4maedMPdd9T1kchOVzcIRQm7dcXUTGtSpV1qDDgxXoapYyHki2N3WqFJMW4iHfPwvuDd6nKJKCivBqQ/s1600/Sup51c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKZVTVRnctdweQmYrNaYtHyjsfLaKheAWh13awj6DdVx3o5o46NX0OYU0Ypowk4maedMPdd9T1kchOVzcIRQm7dcXUTGtSpV1qDDgxXoapYyHki2N3WqFJMW4iHfPwvuDd6nKJKCivBqQ/s320/Sup51c.jpg" width="208" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Super League Is Forged"...<br />uhh, what does that even mean?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
After Grant Morrison's <i>Action Comics</i> run ended with issue 18, I didn't pick up another Superman solo title until <i><a href="http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/04/13/thors-comic-review-column-miles-morales-ultimate-spider-man-11-12-double-jumpers-vol-1-convergence-the-question-superman-speed-force-batgirl-nightwing-and-oracle-harley-quinn/" target="_blank">Convergence: Superman</a> </i>last year. It's kind of telling that it took the return of the pre-New 52 Superman to draw me back to the character. If you had asked me then specifically what was it about the New 52 Superman that I wasn't interested in, and I know I wouldn't have been able to tell you. Today, though, I'm very close to being all-in on <i>Superman</i> because of <i>Rebirth</i>, and I think I have an idea of what kept me away from the character's published exploits for almost 4 years.<br />
<br />
But I'll get to that.<br />
<br />
Let's start here.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Past Lives</b></u><br />
<br />
I know Superman. I grew up with him. I had some random pre-Crisis issues of <i>World's Finest</i>, <i>Superman,</i> and <i>Action Comics</i> comics, but <i>DC Comics Presents</i> were my favourite. In <i>DCCP</i> Superman would team up with heroes (and sometimes Villains) across the DC Universe. What spoke to me about these books as a youngling was how effortlessly Superman interacted with every corner of the DC Universe. He was the heart of the place. It felt like he belonged there, everywhere, always had and always would. Hell, one of my favourite Superman stories is still Superman vs. Muhammad Ali (my beaten and battered oversized treasury edition one of my most favored childhood keepsakes and it's really just the best DC Comics Presents story they ever made), where two very different worlds collided and yet these two great heroes, one fiction and one real, managed to both feel at home together.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ5ExVoOIOIokjPuYoEnSAtF84epxsqdt4oC1wlc0loxi6tIWQHk_uBHt5nvsLZIX0XdtZmsIIjQ4ehZPzrxyyl7mrfMWShcL0EeraoEFOCTRVYsiuEZz_3jvm-I8Vh_bXdJmuN0-sfJ4/s1600/Superman_v.2_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ5ExVoOIOIokjPuYoEnSAtF84epxsqdt4oC1wlc0loxi6tIWQHk_uBHt5nvsLZIX0XdtZmsIIjQ4ehZPzrxyyl7mrfMWShcL0EeraoEFOCTRVYsiuEZz_3jvm-I8Vh_bXdJmuN0-sfJ4/s320/Superman_v.2_2.jpg" width="210" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lex's computer tells him Clark Kent is <br />Superman and Lex literally cannot <br />believe it...in issue #2!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I was a fairly steadfast reader of Superman Post-Crisis. Before I discovered comic book stores, I would truck on down to my local dirt mall and jump between the smoke shop and the book store looking on the magazine and spinner racks for the latest issues of Superman, Action Comics, Adventures of Superman, and Justice League (and the occasional dip into something else, but those ...those were my must buys). They had literally just relaunched Superman into three new titles, and depowered him, started from scratch. And yet, the costume was Superman, the character was Superman from the get go. This was not a reluctant hero. This was a man of confidence and ability.. He just felt right. He fit the DC Universe perfectly and he felt refreshed. <br />
<br />
Those first 6 years were glorious for the character. Not perfect by any means, but they felt like the character at his best. By 1991 Superman was basically weekly, with a fourth Superman title added (<i>Man of Steel</i>) and a tighter continuity between books. This saw the introduction of the infamous weekly triangle, which would show the story order number for each year (a feature which persisted until 2002). The stories through this time saw Superman kill some evil Kryptonians and have a serious emotional crisis as a result, disappearing into space. He also lost his powers to Red Kryptonite for a short stint, and bounced around time for a while. There's are some tremendously fun (if very 90's) stories that efficiently established this character as the preeminent hero of the DCU (and it's worth noting the character continued to grow in popularity even during the marketing chaos of Tim Burton's <i>Batman</i>).<br />
<br />
By the time Superman faced Doomsday and was killed late in '92, it felt like this character had earned the hype that the event was receiving. It was a very big deal, because this was a character who was the epitome of "hero" in the DC Universe. His loss was Earth-shaking. Less than a decade into the post-Crisis DCU and it had already been established that the GALAXY knew and respected Superman. <b>John Byrne</b>, <b>Marv Wolfman</b>, <b>Dan Jurgens</b>, <b>Jerry Ordway</b>, <b>Louise Simonson</b> and numerous others, through fleet, exciting storytelling, built a Superman that was legendary without relying upon scraps from the past, but also not completely discounting his heritage either. <br />
<br />
He returned to life, revealed himself to his true love, got married, and after about 10 years, entered a weird holding pattern. The storytellers had put him (and the audience) through the wringer with the character, so it was only natural that he hit a lull. But for me, like for a great many, I'm sure, that lull persisted for some time. I wasn't much of a regular Superman reader again after that. I would check in for certain story arcs or just hop back on an issue for fun, but the thing was it was always a Superman I could recognize, and it would take no time at all to feel at ease with the character.<br />
<br />
<u><b>A New Life</b></u><br />
<br />
The New 52 completely rebooted the character, turned him into something unrecognizable. Here wasn't the Superman we recognized as the guardian of Metropolis, protector of Earth, hero to the galaxy. It was almost as if DC was resistant to building him up as a hero, like they didn't want to shine the spotlight on him and make him stand out in any way. He wasn't even a familiar Clark Kent. And we had three very different writers in<b> Grant Morrison</b>, <b>George Perez</b> and <b>Geoff Johns</b> approaching the character from completely different angles.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhieI9uOrthvFVVGgA6fwuGqDABHJ5vzb-kFPyHtgAa0OoYWOdWqekZKYHPksqOvJ-rgsv1wxeCr8V-oYzPWAQu-JkkXwqg_LzZO02C6lcU35zotwBxSJ9lUeAftu40QmjQEoZEKAPXPjc/s1600/morrison-superman-action-comics-vyndktvx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhieI9uOrthvFVVGgA6fwuGqDABHJ5vzb-kFPyHtgAa0OoYWOdWqekZKYHPksqOvJ-rgsv1wxeCr8V-oYzPWAQu-JkkXwqg_LzZO02C6lcU35zotwBxSJ9lUeAftu40QmjQEoZEKAPXPjc/s320/morrison-superman-action-comics-vyndktvx.jpg" width="208" /></a><br />
Morrison's <i>Action Comics </i>was building the character in the past, exploring his origins, what brought him into the public eye. But at the same time, Morrison was exploring concepts of heroism and toying with elements of the archetype's past, which made for fascinating reading but didn't quite build an inspirational hero fans could glom onto. It was a little to heady, a little to scattershot, and a lot too condensed to be meaningful.<br />
<br />
Perez was playing in the "5 years later" present-day of the New 52 (the dual timeline did the New 52 no favors at all) and seemed more interested in building around Superman than building Superman himself, putting focus on rebuilding supporting players. Perhaps it's so he wasn't conflicting with Superman's depiction in Johns' <i>Justice League </i>where he was a lot more aggressive and angry than Supermen past, a signature flaw of the New 52's many missteps.<br />
<br />
I quit Perez's Superman after only a couple of issues (Perez quit soon after himself) and I rode Morrison's whackadoo story through to it's conclusion, after which I put Superman on a shelf. I wasn't sure I'd ever return.<br />
<br />
<br />
He just didn't feel like my guy. He wasn't completely
mishandled like <b>Zack Snyder</b>'s Superman, but he didn't feel at all
familiar. Brooding and kind of angry, aimless...he wasn't the epitome of heroism, and I didn't admire him as a character. There wasn't really a bright beacon to the New 52 and this Superman was most assuredly not trying to be it.<br />
<br />
<u><b>A Return of Sorts</b></u><br />
<br />
In <i>Convergence: Superman</i> I was reintroduced to Clark and Lois of pre-<i>Flashpoint</i>. I hadn't seen them in years... even before New 52, it'd been a while. As crappy as the overall <i>Convergence</i> event was, though (I reviewed Convergence, painfully, week-by-week for Bleeding Cool last year, links to week <a href="http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/04/06/thors-comic-review-column-the-new-52-futures-end-48-earth-2-worlds-end-26-convergence-0-ufology-1-avengers-rage-of-ultron-avengers-ultron-forever-1/" target="_blank">0</a>, <a href="http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/04/13/thors-comic-review-column-miles-morales-ultimate-spider-man-11-12-double-jumpers-vol-1-convergence-the-question-superman-speed-force-batgirl-nightwing-and-oracle-harley-quinn/" target="_blank">1</a>, <a href="http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/04/20/thors-comic-review-column-ares-aphrodite-love-wars-convergence-titles-archie-vs-predator-1-godzilla-rulers-of-earth-vol-5/" target="_blank">2</a>, <a href="http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/04/27/thors-comic-review-column-convergence-week-3-titles-the-infinite-loop-1-empire-uprising-1/" target="_blank">3</a>, <a href="http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/05/04/thors-comic-review-column-fantastic-four-645-thomas-alsop-vol-1-convergence-titles-multiversity-2/" target="_blank">4</a>, <a href="http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/05/11/thors-comic-review-column-convergence-week-5-minimum-wage-so-many-bad-decisions-1-arcadia-1-secret-wars-1/" target="_blank">5</a>, <a href="http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/05/18/thors-comic-review-column-convergence-week-6-harrow-county-1-in-real-life-secret-wars-2/" target="_blank">6</a>, <a href="http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/05/25/thors-comic-review-column-convergence-week-7-insufferable-1-sword-of-sorrow-1-injection-1-a-force-1-ultimate-end-1-battleworld-master-of-kung-fu-1-and-secret-wars-1/" target="_blank">7</a>, <a href="http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/06/01/thors-comic-review-column-convergence-week-8-providence-fight-club-2-captain-marvel-15-secret-wars-where-monsters-dwell-1-old-man-logan-1-uncanny-avengers-ultron-forever-1-captain-canu/" target="_blank">8</a>), what it had going for it was that it allowed the writers to advance the pre-Flashpoint characters. I mean, Lois and Clark got married in 1996 and for 15 years their story barely advanced. Richard Donner and Geoff Johns wrote a wonderful arc around 2008 which gave Lois and Clark an adopted Kryptonian son (the product of Zod and Ursa in the Negative Zone) but it was short lived. Apparently DC editorial didn't want Lois and Clark to have a kid.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC9QRygFQU_O7OhYdmNLyZoEUQCNytTzvwBzRWwZnEcZTVPvGQztLhJJZob4Cqnyqc8EONdHrkGnzGlXGfxXvfaMH8xPq1D71kOZpJq5R8-ku7TmWPtCMCu6PI0KIP-UmfoYDJE3nuWhw/s1600/Convergence_Superman_Vol_1_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC9QRygFQU_O7OhYdmNLyZoEUQCNytTzvwBzRWwZnEcZTVPvGQztLhJJZob4Cqnyqc8EONdHrkGnzGlXGfxXvfaMH8xPq1D71kOZpJq5R8-ku7TmWPtCMCu6PI0KIP-UmfoYDJE3nuWhw/s320/Convergence_Superman_Vol_1_1.jpg" width="208" /></a>With <i>Convergence</i>: <i>Superman</i>, Lois and Clark were trapped, away from home, and Clark was depowered. They were adjusting to their new life in a bottled up Gotham (yes Gotham), although Superman had never given up hope, nor stopped exploring the possibilities of returning home. Lois was pregnant. The New 52 said that happiness was a suckhole of good storytelling, so they didn't allow happy couples, and definitely no weddings, and no kids. But with just those two <i>Convergence</i> issues of seeing Lois and Clark together, a content, unified couple, it was a tidal wave of exactly what was missing from the New 52, and the New 52 Superman specifically. <br />
<br />
<br />
The Post-<i>Crisis</i> Clark's interest in Lois comes from her as an
inspirational figure, of the strength of humanity to fight injustice
even without superpowers. Superman is a god amongst men, but Clark
doesn't see himself like that. He's a human being first,
Kryptonian/Superhero second and third. Lois is his match. Oh, post-<i>Crisis
</i>Superman had a moment with Wonder Woman (see <i>Action Comics</i> #600)
but they understood a relationship based on the fact that they were the
strongest man and woman on the planet wasn't a solid foundation for a relationship.<br />
<br />
<br />
Like <i>Man of Steel </i>and<i> Batman v Superman</i>, the New 52 didn't start Superman out properly. They didn't establish him as a human first... and Superman shouldn't be just any human, but the best of them. Altruistic and good, selfless and caring. This New 52 Superman distanced himself, was a bit of a loner, and felt different in such a way as to keep him at arm's length from people. I don't know/remember how the New 52 really detailed his relationship with Jonathan and Martha Kent, but pre-<i>Flashpoint</i>, they were his home. They were always there for him, and they were even there for his extended family...Kara, Connor... Clark Kent is the reflection of his parents. Take them out of the picture or mishandle their parentage and you get a Superman who's not quite right.<br />
<br />
Spinning out of <i>Convergence</i> came <i>Superman: Lois and Clark, </i>an 8-part mini-series which jumps ahead a few years from the end of <i>Convergence</i> where pre-<i>Flashpoint</i> Lois, Clark and baby Jonathan have escaped obsolescence. In <i>Lois and Clark</i> the family has been living on the New 52 Earth in secret, taking the last name "White". Lois had been writing copy for local Northern California press, while Clark was taking on odd jobs and doing a little clandestine superheroing on the side. They weren't home, but they weren't commiserating about the loss of their entire reality, they were making due and they were happy.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNgAI2QucZrL4xcFUPCniIYmYg8g7X38HLhgpuUPKVPHSO-8QpsEdd1UEoiR9yajzd6UK5boYRJtJ9tBk0oIKw9Eilt26P2uWnYZ0w6CFlHL_jJ4S1VHifHO0H5W6pOgaOMjlUAJDYITg/s1600/superloisclark1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNgAI2QucZrL4xcFUPCniIYmYg8g7X38HLhgpuUPKVPHSO-8QpsEdd1UEoiR9yajzd6UK5boYRJtJ9tBk0oIKw9Eilt26P2uWnYZ0w6CFlHL_jJ4S1VHifHO0H5W6pOgaOMjlUAJDYITg/s320/superloisclark1.jpg" width="208" /></a>As with <i>Convergence: Superman</i>, here <b>Dan Jurgens</b> gets to the beating heart of this couple. They're two incredibly strong people who are even stronger together. The loss of one's entire reality may drive some to madness or depression, not these two. They soldier on and continue to fight the good fight. Clark can't help himself, he has to do good. It's what he was born to do. He's realized that coming out in public wouldn't be good for him or his family, so he's taken a page from his old friend Batman and operated in the shadows. Lois, meanwhile, is taking on the Intergang of this Earth, both acknowledging for all this reality's differences from their own, there's a lot the same too.<br />
<br />
I haven't finished reading <i>Superman: Lois and Clark</i>, because I came late to it and I'm trying to catch up. I really should have added it to my pull when it came out, considering how much I liked the return of these characters in <i>Convergence: Superman</i>, plus how amazing <b>Lee Weeks</b>' art was. I just didn't want to keep being reminded of the old DCU and how little it really mattered in the world of the New 52. My Superman wasn't <i>the</i> Superman anymore, so it didn't seem worthwhile to pick up this mini-series.<br />
<br />
Then came the news, the news of <i>Rebirth</i> and solicitations which seemed to indicate that old-DCU Superman was once again going to be <i>the </i>Superman, and "The Final Days of Superman" was going to be the death of the New 52 Clark Kent. I had to get on this. I had to see this transition for myself, else I wouldn't believe it.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Death</b></u><br />
<br />
I returned to New 52 Superman for his final days... and it was ...I dunno... I can't say disappoitnting, because I had no real investment in this Superman. It was eye opening though. <b>Peter J. Tomasi</b> spends 8 issues with Superman saying goodbye (the return of the weekly triangle, at least for this short stint was a welcome sight), and despite the best of intentions, it still felt like there was no heart there. In the first page of the first book, <i>Superman</i> #51, Clark says "I'm dying".<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjneUCv5m2pUbtWj7JccnKaEPqW9SBY9J5dhSrKBGzF4phH16AzOjLTk5V4KTM_B49BM94f_3RQv_C_hJBn6xtN3YqkNStDmxuzgwE6bTtTNBMCOK-1Z9N4qMD0x3mZanK8WtWTpTmKSyE/s1600/Superman-2011-051-003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjneUCv5m2pUbtWj7JccnKaEPqW9SBY9J5dhSrKBGzF4phH16AzOjLTk5V4KTM_B49BM94f_3RQv_C_hJBn6xtN3YqkNStDmxuzgwE6bTtTNBMCOK-1Z9N4qMD0x3mZanK8WtWTpTmKSyE/s320/Superman-2011-051-003.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
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It's a perfect storm, he realizes, having fought in the fire pits of Apokolips, been subjected to A.R.G.U.S.' kryptonite room and battled Rao (I didn't read this, but was this supposed to be a personification of the Kryptonian god?). By page 6 Superman has given up. He's stopped fighting. He's accepted his fate, and from there he's out to say his farewells.<br />
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First stop was Lana, to tell her his final wishes, then to Lois, to give her the life story of Clark Kent: Superman. He's then off to see Batman, to tell his friend of his situation, but it's a dual-purpose visit, since he needs Batman's help to find Supergirl. Their dynamic still feels young, and there's still more than a bit of playful antagonizing going on. Batman wants to fight for a cure but Superman waves it off. They find Supergirl in National City where she's enlisted the DEO to help get kickstart her powers (to tie the comics closer to the <i>Supergirl</i> TV show). Apparently Kryptonian powers on this Earth are pretty sketchy in their consistency.<br />
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Wonder Woman shows up at the Fortress of Solitude, kind of pissed. "Am I the last to know?"<br />
"Batman told you," Superman accurately guesses.<br />
Their conversation from there doesn't feel like that of a couple who really knows each other. There's no sense of comfort between these two. These scenes feel like characters who are attracted to each other and have an emotional investment, but they don't feel like a part of each others' lives. They fight together, they kiss...but they both have whole other lives, other lives that really matter to them, other lives where they don't fit together.<br />
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As I was saying earlier, Superman and Wonder Woman don't work because for Superman, she would be alien to him. He's a Kansas farm boy, she's an Amazon Warrior. She is the god he shouldn't see himself as. That doesn't fit.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinajYEUlQ8UV1LoSdmP22OoQtbLstbPSLW_0TtI7wQvF3fwSPPT9pKiI9JmROGkDtDsdkaDTvEqCEcMIzmbMRVWsIztlq1ZOgFMrpAT3QCCkytIdbDNZ4zBugmOmnr4XOyWysjjsXd_XA/s1600/BMSM_Cv32_ns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinajYEUlQ8UV1LoSdmP22OoQtbLstbPSLW_0TtI7wQvF3fwSPPT9pKiI9JmROGkDtDsdkaDTvEqCEcMIzmbMRVWsIztlq1ZOgFMrpAT3QCCkytIdbDNZ4zBugmOmnr4XOyWysjjsXd_XA/s320/BMSM_Cv32_ns.jpg" width="208" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There's so much awesome 1970's<br />Super-Team Family/DC Comics Presents<br />flavour to this Yannick Paquette cover.<br />Love it.</td></tr>
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I missed Batman/Superman #32. By this point people had caught on to the fact that they really were killing off New 52 Superman, and, like me, their curiosity started driving up demand. I did the rounds at a half dozen local comic shops just prior to the end of this 8-part arc, and all of them were void of most back issues of this storyline. Batman/Superman #32 the scarcest of all since it introduced the New Superman of China, and some of <i>those types</i> (meaning comics speculators) snatched it up, hoping it'll jump in value very quickly.<br /><br />[A, ahem, <i>second printing</i> just came out of B/S #32, and it is by far my favourite issue of "The Final Days of Superman" arc. Any appearance by the Morrison-created Chinese super-team, the Great Ten is welcome. If they're a supporting player to <i>The New Super-Man </i>series I may just have to check it out. Tomasi seems to have a great feel for the characters, and <b>Doug Mahnke</b> is just a monster this issue. It looks sooooo gooood.]<br />
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Throughout this story, Tomasi had a thread of an escaped convict who wound up with Superman's solar flare power, as well as gaining some of Superman's memories in the process. He was confused into thinking he was Clark Kent as well as the one true Superman, but through his confusion his true nature meant his ego couldn't handle there being other Clark Kents or Supermen, so he sought to eliminate them. He kidnapped New 52 Lois and took her to the White's house, where he threatened old-DCU Superman's family. It's worth noting here that above all, Old Clark's priority is his family's safety. So even though he could help Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman take on this Solar Flare guy, his initial impulse was to secure his family in a makeshift Fortress of Solitude he built in the Colarado rockies. Afterall, surely this Earth's trinity can handle a rogue Superman on their own at least for a little while?<br />
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He does return to help, but New 52 Superman needs to do it alone and fights him off. Defeating the Solar Flare dude, he's exhausted himself. Old Superman helps bring him to Earth gently, but he's in his dying moments. The kryptonite poisoning consumes him from within, and he turns to...dust? Stone? Can't really tell. In the process of dying, a surge erupts from Superman's body, knocking over Lois and Lana (given that there's a "Superwoman" comic comic starring Lois lane, there was a power transfer happening here...because transferring Superman's power to other people is a thing in the New 52).<br />
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Superman's death in the New 52 is literally a whimper. A cough, and the spark goes out. Some people are there to say goodbye, and it's sad, but it's not the tragedy it should be. Old Clark is there, watching his doppleganger succumb, Batman too. Superman dies before them and then Batman turns to old Clark and says "There's lots of questions...."<br />
Old Clark replies "Which I'll answer at another time," and flies off. It's such a draw away from the moment. It's like Tomasi and DC in general were saying "your focus is on old Superman" here.<br />
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New 52 Superman's death is kind of nothing at this point. Certainly nothing like the epic 22 splash pages of <i>Superman </i>#75 and the palpable sacrifice Superman made in a kill-or-be-killed tussle with an unstoppable creature. This was a cumulation of sacrifices made to be a hero, but there was no drama to this death, and equally no fanfare. I'm not hearing much in the way of lamentation over New 52 Superman being killed off.<br />
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<u><b>Rebirth</b></u><br />
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There's a 2-page spread in <i>Rebirth</i>, heroes and media have gathered at the site of Superman's death. Cyborg seems to be looking for something while Shazam strokes his chin in puzzlement. Wally West's narration states "Someone's died... Superman, or... I can't see him clearly for some reason." It's as if there's some confusion over the validity of this Superman. There's a Mr. Oz character, who apparently trained the New 52 Superman, states "You and your family are not what you believe you are. And neither was the fallen Superman."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzgZVXVBbmaEuB0ImMLymz3W2AnagdQTKfJoz2jJR3P2Mq53PQggQIYdSJo4uRejgNHNV2S2mC7-bzl32DHlepkwnrJMaWFfQcE2sOjzt9BJXXPSDUILediOZbFDheHiB6lEXIH7osWQo/s1600/b027_-_superman_rebirth_smreb_cv1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzgZVXVBbmaEuB0ImMLymz3W2AnagdQTKfJoz2jJR3P2Mq53PQggQIYdSJo4uRejgNHNV2S2mC7-bzl32DHlepkwnrJMaWFfQcE2sOjzt9BJXXPSDUILediOZbFDheHiB6lEXIH7osWQo/s320/b027_-_superman_rebirth_smreb_cv1.jpg" width="224" /></a>Mr. Oz is neither friend nor enemy, terms that are "too simple...when you consider the long game. Some might call this that." If Mr. Oz is Ozymandias, Adrian Veidt, it's possible that he and Dr. Manhattan are playing a game in universe creation for their own science or amusement, like some ersatz Rick Sanchez (from <i>Rick </i>and <i>Morty</i>).<br />
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<i>Superman Rebirth</i> was scripted by Tomasi, and paves the way for Old Clark's reintroduction as <i>the </i>Superman. In this story he looks to take Superman's remains to the Fortress of Solitude, where he can be put into the regeneration matrix. He's surprised to find Lana Lang already at the memorial monument stealing the remains, fulfilling her promise (form <i>Superman </i>#51) to take him home and bury him next to his parents.<br />
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Tomasi's script here is at times completely on-point, and at others a complete mess. In the early pages old Clark is so cagey about some things to Lana. "It's a long story that I'm not able to talk about for a variety of...personal reasons." One panel later he reiterates "Like I said, there are personal reasons at play here that prevent me from revealing too much about...". But then he goes on to spill his guts about alternate realities and his own, somewhat different past, Tomasi inserting a wholly unnecessary 7-page recap of the death of Superman.<br />
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Old Clark gets into it with Lana about his decision to stay out of the affairs of this world, to keep himself secret, to stay out of New 52 Clark's life. But he knows a world like this needs a Superman, a hero to inspire the best in others, to right wrongs, and to help those needing help, doing the best one man can do. "I came back from certain death -- which means so can he."<br />
"You seem so sure of yourself that I want to believe you," Lana replies.<br />
"Why don't you?"<br />
"Because Clark was my closest friend. I can feel in my heart that he's gone."<br />
Once again, the old DCU Superman talks of hope. The New 52 character accepts the tragedy.<br />
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The best moment here is old Clark realizing that his doppleganger had made some improvements to the Fortress. "Never occured to me to do it in my fortress...but how obvious... he honored both."<br />
Right next to the crystal statue of Jor-El and Lara holding Krypton aloft is a giant statue of Jonathan and Martha Kent holding up the Earth. The reason it didn't occur to you, old Clark is because your Ma and Pa Kent were still there for you (Jonathan Kent died not much before <i>Flashpoint</i>). Even still, even if they were alive still, a tribute to both sets of parents is a great idea.<br />
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But old Clark has to succumb to the brutal realities of the New 52 Earth, and accept that he can't bring this world's Clark back. There is no regeneration matrix in this reality. In a way, old Clark has to accept his own mortality along with the other Clark's as well.<br />
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For the past year, combining <i>Convergence Superman</i> and <i>Superman: Lois and Clark</i>, Jurgens has been the shepherd of old Clark into the new DCU, just as he was the shepherd of Superman into both his death and rebirth 20 years ago (I just felt a shiver up my back at the realization of how long ago that was). Jurgens has been tied to the character ever since, despite having gone on to do countless other projects (including a triumphant return to <i>Booster Gold</i> in the late aughts, a character he created). He's not necessarily a beloved figure in that association. All the scrutinizing of "The Death of Superman" over the years has called into question how good a story it actually was (and to be fair, it's not the best ever, but you cannot deny it's place in comic book history) or how good a villain Doomsday is (he's fairly one note, but he served a purpose and has been way overused since), but it sits uncomfortably on Jurgens, like it's his only contribution to the character, when his contributions are voluminous.<br />
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<i>Action Comics </i>#957 serves a dual purpose: to bring old Clark back into the fold as <i>the</i> Superman (based on Tomasi' groundwork in "The Final Days of Superman" and <i>Superman: Rebirth</i> ) and to put Lex Luthor in some power armor and adopt the role of Superman of Metropolis.<br />
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On of the immediate problems (and not just here but in <i>Rebirth</i> as well) is the continuity flow. Has Superman been reported dead? Or missing? There seems to be confusion between the <i>Rebirth </i>books exactly what the public knows. Hell, Jimmy Olson seems surprised by the news for some reason. I mean, they built a monument with a statue having been commissioned. It's just weird that there's this much confusion around what Superman's status is. Not that it's important, long term, but it makes for a messy transition.<br />
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There are, however, two bigger problems with <i>Action Comics</i>' Rebirth. The first finds Clark shaving the beard (or, rather, singeing it off with his heat vision...that bathroom's gotta stink) and putting on the old red and blue tights (only they're not the old ones, there's no red underroos and no red booties. But the Nehru collar is gone as is all the ornate piping, so it's not quite classic, but also not trying so hard to be "new"). He flies off to Metropolis to publicly show that there is still a Superman and to call out Luthor as a villain, despite the fact that in all their investigation of this Earth's Luthor he and Lois have not found any dirt on him. Superman -- MY Superman, remember -- then slanders Luthor publicly and assaults him, pawing at the "S" on his chest like a madman.<br />
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I don't know what kind of relationship Lex and New-52 Superman had...I think Lex was even in the Justice League for some reason...but for MY Superman to do this is way out of character. He's the bad guy in this scene, and in front of the cameras, he's the one in the wrong. MY Superman is smarter than that. He would stare Luthor down, take the measure of this man, and play the long game. He would shake Luthor's hand, announce their cooperative spirit to the public and keep an even closer eye on him as a colleague. Keep you friends close, and your enemies closer, no?<br />
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Man, add this one to the "Superman's A Dick" blog.<br />
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"Making it appear like I attacked you? Tricky as ever Luthor."<br />
No, I don't like this, don't like this one bit. I know this is <i>Action Comics</i>, but out-of-character action is not what we need. Luthor's responses are all on point here, this "imposter" is indeed an imposter, and the instigator. Superman's ego is not so big as to let another world's Lex try and fight in Superman's image. Surely he remembers Alexander Luthor form Earth-3?<br />
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The next big issue is where this ends, and where the solicits for upcoming issues have already noted where it's going. Doomsday. Again. Bloody again. And again and again and again. Each appearance of this mindless, characterless beast dilutes his initial appearance, taints the threat he represents. Because he killed Superman once should make him such an immense threat always, but that's the very reason why he's not so scary. He's already killed Superman, and the writers aren't going to let it happen again. So he's not a stakes raiser. He's just a tiring obstacle.<br />
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It's the best and worst of Jurgens here. I mean, he made it through 10 issues of <i>Convergence</i> and<i> Lois and Clark </i>presenting some pretty challenging obstacles in old Clark's way, but the character triumphed a Superman's triumph, with smarts, and patience. Throwing him back in the red and blue seems to have given Jurgens a seizure and he doesn't know what else to do but have him fight both Luthor and Doomsday for no good reason.<br />
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I like the family scenes, and the mystery of <i>another </i>Clark Kent showing up at the Daily Planet and meeting Jimmy in the crowd of the Superman/Lex tussle... that's a nice lil' mystery to set up. Enough with this Doomsday malarky. And we've had our aggressive Superman. He died. Let the real hero please stand up, now, thanks.<br />
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<u><b>And the End</b></u><br />
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Those differences, between pre-Flashpoint Superman and New 52 Superman. They were actually fairly tangible. A lot of it had to do with the relationships the man had, and even more had to do with the actions of the character. And hope (really leaning on the meaning of the "S" shield from <i>Man of Steel, </i>perhaps the best new idea in the film)<i>.</i> As I said, I didn't stick with New 52 Superman very long, so I may have missed some incredible character growth there. During "The Final Days..." I was surprised that Lois was Superman's best friend... but all the other connections, Batman, Wonder Woman, Steel, Supergirl, they all felt like relationships with impediments. I want old Clark's return as Superman to be as open and outgoing. I want characters to notice how much more hopeful he is, how much more resolved he is. MY Superman has been a mentor to everyone from day one, and it's going to be amazing watching him inspire his own son as a hero. I wasn't even considering it, but now a Super Sons book, with a 13-year-old Damien babysitting a 5-year-old Jonathan... that seems exciting. The trinity book, where Wonder Woman and Batman have to learn to work with a Superman different from whom they knew and loved...that's all the more fascinating. There's a whole new world for Superman to inspire, perhaps even Lex Luthor. Let's remember part of <i>Rebirth</i> is to change the way we look at the modern DCU (and perhaps our own world), and a Superman from a brighter past seems like a logical guide to take us forward.<br />
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KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-80137064776016827952016-06-16T18:35:00.001-07:002016-06-16T18:35:45.702-07:00Catching up on Comics with CGraig: Fight Club 2 #8-10<div dir="ltr">
2015-16, Dark Horse Comics</div>
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I read <i>Fight Club 2 </i>in four separate chunks. First, 1 and 2 together, then 3-6 (thinking it was only a 6-issue <u>series</u> only to be perfectly confused by such a non ending that I had to take to the unternet to find out what was up). I then read issue 7 but decided to wait for the series to complete before I finished reading (now a common habit of mine). Unfortunately, that trip to the internet only further confused me, since I thought for some reason it was a 12 issue series.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhexcpsHijbK_eBsguVEAfajMc26LheXuL5Niau-i9UHt9_OkCH9CjlVWlwTnpUq2sUUfBAOivaTPkbh7T8UveOC12Va2oULVA3NFuFlQAVqjJTVaH0IrybSdU3R4qjH1ypz_-HLfDwJKA/s1600/27640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhexcpsHijbK_eBsguVEAfajMc26LheXuL5Niau-i9UHt9_OkCH9CjlVWlwTnpUq2sUUfBAOivaTPkbh7T8UveOC12Va2oULVA3NFuFlQAVqjJTVaH0IrybSdU3R4qjH1ypz_-HLfDwJKA/s320/27640.jpg" width="207" /></a>When I was checking upcoming releases last week, I noticed the Fight Club 2 hardcover was on its way this week, and I was a bit confused, a bit angry...how could the collected edition be published before the final issues? I only had issue 10 to that point. That didn't seem right at all. But I decided to check the last page of the most recent issue, and yeah, that seemed pretty conclusively to be an ending. So I dove in.</div>
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I saw <i>Fight Club</i> in Toronto at the Varsity. This was back in '99, before I lived here. I was living in Barrie at the time, and I had made the sojourn into the big smoke for the first time on a bus. My hermano Gary was playing host and tour guide. The walk from his apartment (just off Carlton) up to the Varsity was like a maze of bright lights and back roads. The Varsity was a movie theatre in a skyscraper. The seats inside were red velvet and the whole experience was just out of this world to me. Not to mention it was David Fincher's mind fuck of a film, promoting counter-culture action, and glorifying violence as a creative outlet for stress relief. Watching the towers fall at the end of the film while sitting in a theatre inside of a tower blew my feeble small-town mind. The cinema was an integral part of the experience, as was the company. We went up to the restaurant on the 51st floor afterwards for cocktails I definitely couldn't afford on my maxed out credit card, the whole evening was surreal.</div>
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So<i> Fight Club</i> holds a very special place in my memories, but also it's just a film I loved thoroughly. The Dust Brothers' soundtrack is a unique work that stands tall on its own merits, not just as cinematic accompaniment. For as much as I love the film (and I still do, even though I haven't seen it in quite some time, and much of it has been strip-mined down to cliche at this point) I never bothered with the book. As the guy who writes on a comic blog, you may have guessed I'm not much of a reader.</div>
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<i>Fight Club 2</i> is a rather remarkable piece though, in that <b>Chuck Palahniuk </b>caters both to the fans of the film and of the book. It acknowledges the film is responsible for much of people's awareness of the title, but also notes that this comic is a direct sequel to the novel. It's a goofy, warped adventure, one that posits Tyler Durden as a kind of genetic virus, more than a mental disorder. The worry of Sebastian (Jack in the film) is that his son (with Marla) will be Tyler's new vessel. </div>
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By issue 8, things have gotten way off the rails, with Marla having militarized her support group (a support group for children with progeria, who all look like they're in their 80's) and Sebastian impersonating Tyler to gain control of his extremist group and get his son back. Meanwhile, Robert Paulson is actually still alive, though missing half his brain and is a brute force vegetable. </div>
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Yeah, like I said, it gets weird. But I'm okay with weird. It's actually quite like Grant Morrison weird, which is apt given that Palahniuk here collaborates with <b>Cameron Stewart</b>, one of Morrison's go-to artists. </div>
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Issue 8, however begins a thread (or maybe continues a thread, my staggered reading has left me unable to fully recall) of metacommentary where Palahniuk addresses his writers circle about the trouble he's having resolving the central conflicts and dovetailing the separate threads. It's a hoary cliche and smacks of the easy way out, especially when everything that happens from there on out is almost entirely deus ex machina at its most blatant. Yet, it's still kind of fun. I tried to go with it, but it still bothered me.</div>
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I've skipped the letter column every issue, which features a lot of lunatic ramblings from people who seem to take too much joy (or not have enough separation from) the world of <i>Fight Club</i>. Photos of people placing "Tyler Lives" in public areas seems almost sad in a way.</div>
KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2760242555416345702.post-6748921529873308442016-06-09T18:48:00.001-07:002016-06-09T18:48:34.914-07:00Toy Talk -- Wonky Legs and Inconsistent Sizing: Hasbro's Troublesome MiniverseTwo years ago Marvel decided to test the weight of their box office behemoth of a name and deep dive into a quintet of characters that even hardened Marvel readers would be somewhat unfamiliar with. The gamble on a talking raccoon and a sentient tree paid off, <i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i> has become perhaps the most universally accepted and beloved of Marvel's cinematic output.<br />
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Soon enough the film's unusual characters started popping up in toy aisles everywhere, as Lego sets, as wearable costumes and play accessories, and, of course, as action figures. Only, just like the film was a gamble, Hasbro gambled on trying something different. Instead of 3 3/4 in figures -- the standard set by Kenner's Star Wars in 1978, and upheld by G.I. Joe for the decades to follow -- Hasbro introduced a 2 1/2" line. Oil prices were high, but smaller figures meant smaller
vehicles and accessories which meant they could price things cheaper.<br />
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I still see piles of Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: Winter Soldier action figures all over the place. Obviously they weren't gargantuan sellers, so the shift seemed at least worth a shot. Honestly, I can't tell you whether the 2 1/2" Guardians sold well or not. They appeared to languish a bit on the shelves, but not at all like Thor:TDW or CA:WS... I'm not still coming across them everywhere, so they obviously cleared through all right. I know personally, as an action figure fan, they didn't appeal to me. The five points of articulation, the poor detailing, the awkward-looking limbs, the rudimentary painting... they weren't very attractive. The ships, however, were gorgeous, and I contemplated a long time on buying a Milano. I never did. (Note that the CA:WS and Thor:TDW figures weren't all that appealing either...bad sculpts were the primary culprit).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mega Rigs dudes</td></tr>
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Marvel's next film after <i>Guardians</i> was <i>Avengers: Age of Ultron</i> and I was sad to see in the advance promotion of the toys for the film that they were sticking with the 2" figure. One thing caught my interest though... a three-tiered playset. In actuality, three different playsets, sold separately (but with figures) that formed one large Avengers tower playset. That...that was cool. I was intrigued. When they finally hit the shelves, though... I couldn't must the enthusiasm anymore. These wee 2-inch figures just weren't doing it to me. They looked like the action figures that come with Matchbox Mega Rigs... and I didn't consider them action figures at all. Plus my kid wasn't playing with Mega Rigs anymore so the crossover appeal wasn't even there. I gave them another hard pass. These guys didn't seem to linger on the shelves as long as the Guardians did, though you can find the odd two-pack of hero+"Sub-Ultron" occasionally. The playsets especially seemed to disappear quickly<br />
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Fast forward another year. <i>Captain America: Civil War</i> was basically another Avengers film, and so I awaited the toy onslaught, only to find that stores, at least local Toronto stores, seemed a bit more wary of carrying Marvel stuff. Stock for Civil War at Toys R Us and Wal-Mart (pretty much the only first run toy retailers we have outside of specialty shops) were pitiful. Not like "we've sold out already" pitiful, but "we didn't bring that much in" pitiful.<br />
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The wife is a huge Winter Soldier nerd and likes to pick up most things Bucky (and anything Cap that looks good too), so when I came across the "Miniverse" (which Hasbro officially started calling this line with this release) Civil War Winter Soldier/Ant Man 2-pack, I just had to get it for her.<br />
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As soon as I got my hands on them, I knew they were trouble. These bitty little action figures are both adorable and cool. Ant-Man in particular -- who has become a favourite of mine through his movie, Civil War and Nick Spencer's great current run in the comics -- I just love. And he comes with this little armor boost stuff...hearkening back to M.A.S.K. I was never a M.A.S.K. kid but now I feel like I missed out on something great. This tiny size is kind of awesome.<br />
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A Falcon/War Machine 2-pack followed quickly by a Black Widow/Iron Man 2-pack, followed by a Captain America/Crossbones 2-pack. Suddenly the Black Panther/Hawkeye 2-pack has become our holy grail. Easily the most difficult to find. I kind of love that Black Panther is hot right now. He's finally getting the recognition he's long deserved. And in this mini form, he's just the bestest.<br />
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Actually, the Giant-Man/Ant-Man 2-pack is my holy grail right now:<br />
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I was wrong about these mini guys. They turned out to be pretty awesome. And, as my collection-obsessed brain does, it started to go into overdrive, thinking back upon Age of Ultron and Guardians of the Galaxy. <br />
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So I hit up eBay ...and it's always a dangerous thing when I decide to start "collecting" via eBay. eBay must be fantastic for my American friends. Things are dirt cheap, and in-country, shipping is pretty tight. But in Canada, most things are sold in US dollars, even if they're a seller from Canada, which means biting the exchange rate bullet (+25%, thanks! ugh). Shipping within Canada is okay, but shipping from the states is a nightmare. A $6 toy will cost almost $30 to ship. It's totally cost prohibitive. Anyway, I found a quartet of Age of Ultron figures totalling $12 (+$8 shipping) and a lot of all the Guardians figure releases plus two ships (no Milano sadly) for $40 US (even though the seller was Canadian). Shipping was priced at $18 US. So it wasn't a bad deal, in US money, but converted to Canadian and it was probably a little more pricey than I'd have liked.<br />
<br />I later found an Age of Ultron Quinjet on the Toys R Us website for $17.95 (on sale from $40) but thought I'd spent enough. The next day I found myself in Toys R Us (as I said, I get a little obsessive) and found the Quinjet in store, same price, no shipping fees. Bonus. <br />
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(SIDE NOTE : The longer I writer about this topic, the less proud of myself I feel)<br />
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So immediately I unpack the Quinjet, I put the decal stickers on and I figure out how it plays, and then I go and grab some of the Civil War figures and...well...the Quinjet is supposed to seat four, and it's tight with just Iron Man and War Machine in the cockpit. This doesn't make much sense.<br />
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I take hunched-over Cap off his motorcycle (technically it's Black Widow's cycle...ahem) and compare the size of Iron Man to him. It's just not looking right. Iron Man is noticeably bigger. I started to wonder... did they change the sizes on the figures between Age of Ultron and Civil War? That wouldn't make much sense, given how unusual the size is and how there wouldn't be much backwards playability as a result. <br />
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Yesterday the Age of Ultron eBay order arrived, and my suspicions were confirmed. The Age of Ultron figures are noticeably smaller than the Civil War figures. The AOU figures are a true 2 1/2", while the Civil War figures are 2 3/4" - 3". I was beyond disappointed. My aspirations of collecting all the Age of Ultron figures (and more on point, getting those awesome Avengers Tower playsets) were dashed on the spot. What would be the point? It's obvious Hasbro wasn't sticking with the dimensions, the figures and vehicles and sets would we obsoleted by any new releases.<br />
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Today the Guardians of the Galaxy figures came, and it only got worse. These figures aren't even true 2 1/2". They're actually smaller than the Age of Ultron figures (except Groot, who is a 3" figure, but scrawnier than the Civil War guys), averaging around 2 3/8". So over three releases of Hasbro's mini-figure toys and playsets they've adjusted the size by 5/8ths of an inch. That's a noticeable difference especially when it comes to placing figures in vehicles... which is most of the fun of having vehicles.<br />
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Above is the Nova Corps dude from <i>GotG</i>, Nick Fury from <i>AoU</i> and War Machine from <i>Civil War</i>. You can see Nick has slight height above the Corpsman, while War Machine towers over them both by a full head. Now, these mini figures are scaled pretty well within their lines. Some figures are taller or shorter than others (like Groot is much taller than all the other GotG figures and Rocket is much smaller) but each of the above represents the average heights of figures in their lines. So AoU guys are all a little taller than GotG guys, and Civil War guys are huge compared to both.<br />
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Look at Civil War Iron Man next to the Corpsman, or even AoU War Machine beside Civil War War Machine. That's some insane sizing differences for what should be compatible lines. Groot looks so scrawny.<br />
<br />Having just got the GotG and AoU guys over the past two days, I'm reminded why I didn't buy them in the first place. They don't look good. They look flimsy and junky. The Civil War guys in comparison are stury and feel good in the hands. As annoyed as I am about the inter-compatibility of the figures, the Civil War line is literally and figuratively heads above the previous lines.<br />
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It just makes me wonder what's going to happen when Guardians 2 comes out next year? Are they going to keep going with the Civil War line, and make a new Milano that fits the larger figures, or are they going to shrink the line again so that at least there's consistency within the Guardians line. I actually hope it's the former, because they're nicer figures all around. And I like the weirdo fractal armor (to borrow a term from total justice) <br />
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One of the problems that plagues all three lines is wonky molding, particularly the legs. There's a lot of inconsistency. Civil War War Machine's left leg is 1/8 of an inch longer than the right. The base of his left is sturdy enough that you can bend back the right and make him stand, but you shouldn't have to fiddle so much to get an action figure to balance. Nick Fury, likewise, has a shorter left leg than right. You can see in the pictures above him leaning to the right (his left). And the Corpsman also has a right leg longer than the left. It's more like a club foot, and it's almost impossible to get him to stand because of how the plastic has bent outwards. I'm curious to know if these are consistent flaws for these figures or a product of the way the plastic is cooled or something technical like that.<br />
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In any case... Civil War Miniverse is where it's at...except their playsets (still unseen around these parts) are so uninspired compared to the Age of Ultron tower sets:<br />
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And whither Spider-Man?<br />
<a href="http://www.comicbookmovie.com/captain_america/captain_america_civil_war/first-look-captain-america-civil-war-a141149" target="_blank">Comic Book Movie</a> shared this article earlier this year, and yet, I've no idea where this set with Spidey is.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwmrRrcsZx29vvLbg9InUNiNNW0JcWUssgnbiTaK3BSHmbBioG56y6ldQZkp3a4Ue-PyL8hLuklZM_49z9HYHzHD0deJvYe6C-JgHDUtEvrtpYu4GwANAXrqv2HgStVJLkpTigJvXo4EA/s1600/Civil_War_Spiderman_Figure_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwmrRrcsZx29vvLbg9InUNiNNW0JcWUssgnbiTaK3BSHmbBioG56y6ldQZkp3a4Ue-PyL8hLuklZM_49z9HYHzHD0deJvYe6C-JgHDUtEvrtpYu4GwANAXrqv2HgStVJLkpTigJvXo4EA/s320/Civil_War_Spiderman_Figure_1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The Target exclusive multipack doesn't contain him. But then they seem to be two different packs. The one above has no Winter Soldier, Vision or Hawkeye either.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm8EFTi4_G0d05uDLx6XP9raROPruVvdAZ1u8o4OCIK5vdWo4y_lIjcKFdNSHqxtCTlglBLZbC_gsEN9h57kP3nu61xo3uqLdft5YHVRyQvF1jOY6kAk5lzfYDel1Shn-5kU6XsQcVIiY/s1600/targetminiversemultipack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm8EFTi4_G0d05uDLx6XP9raROPruVvdAZ1u8o4OCIK5vdWo4y_lIjcKFdNSHqxtCTlglBLZbC_gsEN9h57kP3nu61xo3uqLdft5YHVRyQvF1jOY6kAk5lzfYDel1Shn-5kU6XsQcVIiY/s320/targetminiversemultipack.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I wonder if last minute, they realized they don't have the rights to distribute Spider-Man within the Civil War brand, only under their Spider Man brand (which they also have the rights to).<br />
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Okay, I've embarassed myself enough for today.<br />
Nerd -30-KENT!http://www.blogger.com/profile/00182281723355828663noreply@blogger.com1