In Which I Talk About Everything Flash…

A lot has happened as far as the Flash is concerned. Some of it good, some…questionable at best. Either way, I’ve decided to compile all my thoughts on the matter in one place (been commenting on this on various blogs) and basically get all my thoughts online.

So, anyway, let’s begin with Flash #13, shall we?

DC Comics Reviews!

Another text-only post I’m afraid. Don’t worry, the Legion posts will be image-intensive enough to make all these rambles worthwhile.

Green Lantern #20 – I loved the last panel. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to have a character’s status quo be returned to ‘normal’ as I was when I read the word “divorce”. I thought it was a huge mistake when Johns decided to have Carol be married when Hal returned to life, but I accepted it because it seemed to make sense that Johns wanted to leave his own mark on the character. Of course, this was pre-OYL, since post-OYL has been nothing but a major reboot session brining Hal to almost exactly the same point he was at when Emerald Twilight hit. Of course, Carol’s freedom also adds a much-needed triangle element to the Cowgirl-Hal relationship and I can appreciate the soap-opera elements inherent in that. Btw, I commented on this here, but seriously…what’s with the “We must collect them all” schtick by the Zamarons? Are emotions truly the Pokemon of the DCU? And what emotion does the “green” represent anyway? I’m guessing courage and fearlessness…but I’m very rarely right on these things.

Countdown #51-48

So I read the Countdown. What did I discover? Quite simply…it sucks. I don’t really have a problem with the art (it isn’t exactly special, but its perfectly servicable) but everything else? Oy! Where to begin…First off…how the hell does the entire world not know that Batman is Bruce Wayne? I mean if Jimmy knows Jason is the Red Hood (and so does..Perry?!?!) and he knows that Dick is Nightwing…anyone with half a brain could figure out the next logical step. I’m sure this will be explained, but therein lies the major problem of this book: the pacing. 52 managed to side-step this issue by using “real-time” instead of sticking with DC-continuity time. Countdown works more like Action Comics Weekly, in that it showcases some stories of some characters which seems to have no resolution or any sort of direction and it all magically comes together in the end (I’m guessing with the last bit). Either way, bah…I’ll probably continue reading this for a couple more issues, but I don’t expect to get through the whole series.

Justice Society of America #6

Damn my inner-Legion fanboy! While it was fun for a while being ahead of the actual storyline (I swear…I knew Triplicate Girl was going to become Duo Damsel at the hands of Computo two pages before it actually happened…and no I did not flip through it) and then I knew it was Princess Projectra (yeah, I failed to take into account that this was the Legion of the baxter-era series where she was Sensor Girl.) and don’t even get me started on my theories for the Legion of Three Worlds (the way to reconcile the various legions, natch – Pre-ZH Legion, Post-ZH Legion and of course the current Legion) Of course it was nice of them to acknowledge that Thom went to Earth-22 before coming here. Although…and I’m not 100% on this…since when has Thom been schizo? I remember something about hospitals in his origin story, but IIRC, that was because the doctors were trying to figure out what gave him his powers, not cure him of being crazy. It just strikes me as a horrendously stupid retcon because Johns wants a crazy Legionnaire around. Also, I’ll probably make a whole post about this, but what the hell was up with Liberty Belle playing matchmaker? I know marriage makes you go nuts, but c’mon! This is Jesse Quick! She would never be trying to set Wonder Woman (WONDER WOMAN!!) up with guys on blind dates. I was seriously disturbed by those two pages. Overall though…interesting storyline, but the ending is where everything will be decided for good or ill.

Action Comics #850

I liked this. It was nice, sweet without being sappy, and I like the Legion Supergirl a lot more than the whiny little biatch everywhere else (although this issue is the first time I’ve felt sorry for the bad side of her) Nice issue and definitely makes me think Busiek should be writing both books.

Geoff Johns ruined Wonder Girl!

Now that I’m actually writing this down, I actually feel kind of scared, because I’ve been talking about this post for so long that at this point anything less than excellent would be a letdown, right? Unfortunately, I don’t do excellent…I do passable and so you will have to settle for that and hope that it works.

Marvel is better than DC?

“Why is Matt Fraction more popular than Marc Andreyko even though they more or less cater to the same audience, write equally superb comics and have indie backgrounds surrounded by some of the industry’s current greats?”

This was the question I asked (well…not exactly but close enough) a couple of friends of mine when we were discussing how Countdown needs some more high profile writers to get anywhere near the same number of sales that 52 had. Yeah…I know, none of these two are more high-profile but I never said our conversations progressed in a particularly linear fashion, now did I?

So, we started to think about what differentiates Andreyko, who is primarily a DC writer, from Fraction, who is (at least right now) primarily a Marvel writer. Well, the first difference is the company divide. While this may seem minor right now, it becomes the crux of this post later on so pay attention.

Now, on Fraction’s side, we have the ultimate shilling in the form of the Basement Tapes, which he did with Joe Casey for like a year over on CBR long before he started writing for the mainstream. This got him some much-needed exposure (hell, like a friend said, it was the main reason behind me reading Casanova) and gave him an in with the comic reading public in advance. He also established himself as a collaborator through this and it worked in his favour for Immortal Iron Fist, a book that he is co-writing with Ed Brubaker, who is the current media/comic “star”. Fraction also had a boost from writing a new ‘all-ages’ Punisher title that had been missing from the line-up for years. He has written the critically acclaimed Five Fists of Science and the superb Casanova as solo efforts. He also, in a surprising move by Marvel, got his hands on Spider-man and wrote an awesome Annual devoted to the marriage Quesada seems to hate so much.

On the other hand, Andreyko has the support of Bendis, Mack and Oeming, people that praise him to no end and encouraged him to shift to mainstream work from his previous excellent work on Indie crime comics (like Sam and Twitch and Torso). He has also been writing Manhunter for DC, a book that has become the company’s Spider-Girl with two cancellations and renewals to date already in its 30-issue history. The book even got a boost from DC’s Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis and Wonder Woman developments as it truly was allowed a chance to become a real part of the DC Universe. He is also well-regarded in gay community with interviews in the Advocate and through Prism Comics. He also got the chance to explain away what, for me, was the most glaring missing continuity in the recent Nightwing Annual in which he, surprise, wrote an excellent examination of Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson’s relationship.

Now, based on that, the two seem fairly evenly based no? Sure, Fraction has slightly more works to his name, but Andreyko makes up for that with creating a new character for a Big-Two Universe. Yet, nine times out of ten Fraction is far more known than Andreyko. This isn’t a slight against Fraction, whose work I adore, but more a questioning of the public that hasn’t embraced an equally talented writer like Andreyko.

Now comes the theory…Marvel supports and promotes its creators a lot more than DC. I can possibly come up with a load of examples of this, but I’ll go with only the ones we discussed. First off, Marvel seems to have, at least from the Jim Shooter era if not earlier, believed that if you market the creators the books will sell better while DC has mostly (with the exceptions of I think Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns) believed that if you market the characters the creators don’t matter. There are of course exceptions…but this is the focal point. Marvel has had the Ten Terrifice, the Young Guns, and various other creator-boosting programs that focus on the creators behind the book. Their success might be debated, but there is no doubt that this honours the workers…the people behind the pen and pencil rather than the people they have been hired to bring to life.  

What does this mean? DC is a great company to work for if you are an established talent in your right and a ’star’ while Marvel is the place you want to go to when you’re starting out on your mainstream career. Let’s not forget some of the previous creators Marvel has pushed to the mainstream forefront: Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld (nothing when he was on Hawk and Dove…instant success as soon as he started New Mutants), Ed Brubaker (he wrote one of the best Batman runs ever, made Catwoman truly kickass for the first time in the character’s history, and wrote an awesome crime book with real characters in Gotham Central, yet didn’t become a ’star’ until he wrote Captain America and X-men), and of course Mark Millar. Let’s face it, Millar was known but not FAMOUS! during his days on the Authority for DC, yet as soon as he he took over Ultimate X-men, his star took off and he became THE STAR. This already seems to be working for a few other people currently on Marvel’s writing staff; Mike Carey was well-regarded on Hellblazer and Lucifer, but X-men is making him a star with the Endangered Species crossover, Dan Slott wrote some of the best all-ages Batman titles, but Marvel pushed him and has made him a viable name in the comics biz.

Now, some disclaimers before people point them out to me. Brian K Vaughan became famous because of Y – The Last Man yes…but his mainstream popularity came from Runaways. Much the same way, Bill Willingham, who had been around for over 20 years before the book even started, truly came to fame with Fables, but still struggles with mainstream acceptance (I’m sure War Crimes/Drums/Crap didn’t help but whatever). This proves that Vertigo has different rules than DC/Marvel proper.

So, basically what I have been trying to say…Marvel is better than DC…if you want to be a famous, truly mainstream creator.

Oh, Hell Yeah!!!

Gail Simone is finally on Wonder Woman!!! My prayers have been answered! More later. This is fracking awesome!!!!!

Wonder Woman #6: Or I Go On About the Wonders for FAR too long

Ah, Jodi Picoult. I had such high hopes for you. Unfortunately all you’ve managed to do is make me miss Allah Heinberg’s run…something I was sure was not possible. I’ve been hesitant to talk about the whole Wonder Woman fiasco because it was actually getting to be painful what was being done to a book that had been one of my top reads during the Perez, Messner-Loebs, and Rucka runs. So…since Picoult’s much-awaited (I hate how sarcasm cannot be conveyed through the internet…) run is finally here…I thought I’d discuss what I like about the book and the character. Also…since this a blog…I thought I’d say where I think DC went wrong with the handling of the character.

I think the best Wonder Woman was probably the one under Greg Rucka. Admittedly it took me a long time to realize this because I adored the Perez Wonder Woman. She was just perfect. Naive until the time came for her to finally grow up. She also had the most awesome villains ever. The new Silver Swan, the revamped Cheetah, Eris, the frackin’ God of War himself, Ares!! It was an excellent time to be a Wonder Woman fan I’m sure, and I’m sorry I was too young to appreciate it when it was first coming out (I think I was 4, maybe 5…) But Rucka…I was front and center for that run. It introduced the grown-up version of Perez’s Diana. She developed into a novelist preaching her message of peace to the world. Themyscira wasn’t outright destroyed by an incoming writer for once (I mean seriously…Perez endangered it, Loebs messed it up, Byrne obliterated it, Jimenez tried to improve it but it didn’t take…) It was nice to see a Diana who was confident of her role in ‘man’s world.’ Also, Rucka was the first writer since Perez to actually bother developing and maintaining a supporting cast (I don’t count Byrne because…well…his supporting cast sucked. It was horribly one-dimensional and were used only as foils for Wonder Woman rather than characters in their own rights).

Anyway, Infinite Crisis ended Rucka’s run. What could’ve been an incredible battle between the US and the Amazons (as Rucka had been hinting since the start of his run) was merely a fizzle and something that just cheapened his whole run. Diana’s backbone, the Amazons, were gone and she was left alone in man’s world (something that NEVER worked in the past, so of course it’ll work fantastically now!) And she had a secret identity…the one thing that I did not miss at all from the silver age stories. That was the main contention I had with Heinberg’s run. It’s beside the point that I did not agree with Donna being Wonder Woman. She had abandoned all rights to the name when she accepted her role as the new Harbinger. If anyone deserved to be the new Wonder Woman, it should’ve been Cassie. I know people believe she’s too young and under-developed as a character to truly exist in that respect, but she was the best character during PAD’s Young Justice. If anything, I think Johns messed her up. What was a vivacious character with the potential of leadership capabilities and good confidence in herself suddenly became a whiny little girl who was obsessed with playing dress-up with Raven and house with Superboy. Johns un-evolved the character such as it were…she became ridiculous. (Ok…moving on…my problems with Johns Titans shall wait for another day…)

Anyway back to Heinberg. I’m a child of the late 80s-early 90s and thus have no affection for the Wonder Woman tv show. And while I do enjoy the silver age adventures quite a bit, I accept that it is time to move on and not dwell on them. So, of course…I hated the spinning stars transformation. He didn’t even bother to explain it like during the SA (chemically treated costume and wardrobe that allowed her switch when she achieved a particular frequency with her spinning) and then he brought back Hercules, who was overdone when Byrne brought him in. Hercules only occupies one role in the entire DC-verse…that of jackass who was responsible for the Amazons having to move to Themyscira. Any other use is stupid and especially in light of the amazons…makes no sense for the character. He has repented…there is no need for him to return ever again. The only really good thing during Heinberg’s run…and I will admit this much…he made Circe truly bad-ass. Which brings us back to Ms. Picoult.

This issue had a ton of problems that I don’t even need to go into since people who are far better writers than I have already delved into them in detail. I shall just summarise the salient details for people who may be particularly forgetful. Diana is not THAT naive anymore. She has been in ‘man’s world’ for a long, long time. She knows about credit cards and most of the other simple functions of life. She is also NOT so obsessed by her identity crisis issues (which shouldn’t even exist in the first place) that she would become Peter Parker in trying to reconcile her role of capturing herself as well as continuing her role as Wonder Woman. And the biggest offense of Wonder Woman #6: Circe became boring. I know she’s aware of her secret identity and all that crap…but why would she continue the same storyline that we just escaped from after a year of being held hostage by it?? Another ‘friend’ captured by Circe who is demanding Diana to show up and save him. Bah! I seriously cannot wait for an actual comic writer to come onto the book and atleast try to restore Diana to her Rucka/Perez glory. That’s all that’s keeping me holding on to the book at this point. DC really dropped the ball on this. What was supposed to be the year that Wonder Woman would truly become part of the Trinity instead became the year which had no Wonder Woman. And nobody wants that.

Well…that was…extensive, eh? (What can I say…had a free hour at work and I was itching to get all this out on ‘paper’.)

Happy Birthday!!

It’s my birthday…and I’m celebrating by posting a 6-pager from House of Mystery #87!! I recently found this issue and of course wanted to read something from 1959. Imagine my delight at the awe-inspiring first 6-pager…where a guy ‘turns’ into a diamond creature in a story they had to call: The Human Diamond!

Our story begins with a group of three scientists heading into a South American jungle. Dr. Gray, apparently the leader of the expedition, has invented a diamond counter. A diamond counter that’s a carbon detector!! Hell…a carbon detector that discovers diamonds because of their carbon composition…Genius!!

Over 350! That’s the most carbon ever!! Never mind the fact that the entire Earth is carbon-based. That the whole damned planet is carbon including the life on it…but no it’s 350!!! Of course…Dave falls into the mysterious gas pit that points to that motherlode of carbon.I’m assuming if Dave were on Star Trek he would be wearing a red shirt.

Uh yeah…the first thing that would pass through my mind would be that Dave had turned into a crystalline statue by excessive pressure exerted by a mysterious gas. A gas that I’m walking hip-deep in with no crystalline formations on me. Not to mention the fact that again…carbon everywhere…the whole frickin’ mountain should be diamond-ified by that gas. And when the diamond man goes on a rampage…as he has to…he MUST be stopped!!

Apparently ’speeding away’ in the 1950s referred to waiting in your car until a diamond creature comes and rips it in two. Of course…the creature is still running rampant. RAMPANT!!! And the only way to stop him? Hit him with a big honking hammer of course. All diamonds break when hit by a huge mallet after all.

I never knew diamond seams were so…precise. And that hitting them resulted in such utter destruction of the diamond in question. And lo and behold…Dr. Gray’s diamond counter (which is supposed to detect carbon content!!) is pointing towards zero. Apparently the diamonds were vapourised to non-carbon content when they were destroyed and I guess the Earth has no carbon content in South America that is not diamond creature related. Good to know. Wonder what those South Americans are made of if they’re not carbon-based. Also…love the sorrow at the ‘death’ of Dave.

Damn…the Dr. is actually capable of some kind of thought processes. Who would have thought? And suddenly Dave is alive and well. And there is a whole race of diamond creatures waiting to kill us. Awesome!!

This story pretty much covers all the reasons I love and loath the silver age at the same time. Short, self-contained stories…but mind-numbingly plot-hole ridden. It shows that these were for kids since only someone less than 6 years old could read this without wondering at all the incongruities. But if you do ignore all the holes in the story…it’s awesome escapist-fun. The Silver Age: Truly a paradox of storytelling oppurtunities.

Coming soon…the long-awaited Butt-Shots #4 and a couple more reviews.

Shadowpact: A Bad Book or Just Misunderstood?

I tried reading Shadowpact after OYL. It wasn’t exactly bad, but it clashed horribly with continuity and the artwork left a lot to be desired. It also didn’t help that I thought Days of Vengeance was one of the weakest minis spinning into Infinite Crisis and thus was biased against the book from the start. So, I gave it the nominal first issue and decided it wasn’t for me. I haven’t really re-examined that decision in the past 9 months, but last month the book was guest-starring The Demon and I couldn’t resist picking it up. Suffice it to say, I was more than pleasantly surprised.

Having the book out of OYL’s shadow is really helping it, and the fact that it doesn’t have any super-hero guest stars isn’t hurting it either (well, maybe in sales it is…but the story seems to progressing better for it). Anyway, I liked issue 9 enough to go back and get the missing 8 issues. As soon as Willingham stopped drawing the book, I started to really enjoy it. Shawn McManus and Cory Walker are old favorites and I loved their issues. I especially enjoyed the Ragman story with McManus. Tom Derenick has also managed to bring a new look to the book that works with the previous artists’ takes on the characters and adds something new to it.

As far as the stories are concerned, I like the ’spotlight’ issues, but the team issues are still not really clicking for me. The team just doesn’t seem like a team if you get my meaning. It should be a lot more cohesive by issue 9 but it still just seems like an issue of Secret Defenders with random characters thrown together and made to function in a team setting when they really shouldn’t be. The book has great potential, but if it’s to become good, I think Willingham needs to rethink the team or the team dynamic at the very least otherwise I don’t expect it’ll last much longer.

Strangely enough, even with all the flaws I still do like the book, and plan on continuing to read it for as long as it’s around (which like I said before, I don’t expect to be much longer since sales are pretty damned bad.) And well…the Nightmaster-Enchantress romance really looks interesting, and I can’t wait to see it reach a nice conclusion. Although considering this is DC she’ll get raped and want to kill all men while he’ll get killed, period. Not to mention the fact that Blue Devil is finally getting some much-needed development after far too many years of lying in limbo. His rise of demonhood is a nice take especially with reference to the new 10th age of magic.

I hope more people give this book a chance. It isn’t perfect (then again…name more than 3 books from the Big Two that are) but it’s pretty damned good and there’s potential for it to be much better.

Could Watchmen Have Better?

I was reading through “Comics Should Be Good” and this week’s question about Curious Cat really stood out to me. Here’s the question in it’s original context: Curious Cat. I posted a comment about my feelings on the matter, but that got me thinking about it. Would Watchmen have been just as good if it had contained the original Charlton characters? The more I think about it the more convinced I become that it not only would’ve been just as good…it would’ve been better. Mind you, this is coming purely from a continuity-junkie fanboy, but hear me out before you reach your own conclusions.

Now, for my purposes I am going to say that DC Editorial would not have interfered with Moore’s vision in any way (in actuality the reality of that statement is suspect…to say the least) and therefore the end result would have been very similar to the version we have now. Taking that into consideration, having a storyline as revolutionary as Watchmen using characters that people were growing up with at the time would have been mind-blowing. It would have been Kingdom Come before there ever was a Kingdom Come. Just imagine, Blue Beetle working with the Question.

It would’ve been incredible. I’m going to elaborate on an example I gave in my reply; that of Golden Age. Golden Age was an incredible story by James Robinson that was at one time supposed to be in continuity as DC really had no clue about what to do with the Golden Agers that were lying around in Limbo. It would’ve acted as a last hurrah for the heroes and served to provide a stupendous entry point for the silver age.  I initially read Golden Age at a friend’s and did not notice the Elseworlds logo on the front of the trade. My little mind was blown away by the possibilities of the reality of the heroes. The story was so raw, so visceral, it just took a hold of me and I couldn’t think of anything else for days after. I of course went out and bought a copy of the trade for myself. It was at that time that I discovered the story was an Elseworlds. I still loved it; you don’t just stop loving a tale as moving as that based on it’s presence in continuity, but it never had the sae impact for me again. Knowing that this was all not having any affect on the heroes, knowing that Alan Scott didn’t in fact swoop in at the end, it just left a bitter taste in my mouth and I couldn’t enjoy the story at the same level anymore.

So, that’s my opinion. I think Watchmen would’ve been great if not better with the Charlton heroes…what do you think?

Teen Titans One-Year Gap Members…and Traitor!

Well…I’ve gone over the Titans East roster to a great extent. Will probably do more on that as the info becomes available. But I figure having done that, I should examine the Titans membership during the Year-Without-The-Trinity. And since Geoff Johns and Tony Daniel have been kind enough to give us a huge peek at the entire line-up, I figure it’s a good place to start. So here goes…