This Weeks Comics. By Me.

I don't usually do this, figuring that Greg and other Blog-Folks have this department pretty well sewn up... But what th' hell. There was enough interestingly GOOD and interestingly BAD stuff I got this week that I think it's worth an overview.

First: BeaucoupKevin (I think) brought to my attention that there was a new book by Norwegian Cartoonist Jason "No-Last-Name" this week. Sadly, because I live way out in the boonies of armpit-ville Michigan, none of my comic shops got it in.

But Lookit it! Isn't it beautiful!


Mmm. Mummy-y, Caveman-y, Elvis-y goodness. I'll drop a review when it finally comes from special order.

So, onward. In alphabetical order:

All Star Superman # 2 Grant Morrison (Writer) Frank Quietly (Drawer 'n Inker) Jamie Grant (Beautiful Digital Inker Who Deserves a Medal.

I'm gonna assume y'all read this one. So SPOILERS, especially about things that pissed me off.

What we got here is a character piece, as Supey and Lois Lane take a leisurely stroll through his Fortress of Solitude 'n leisurely reflect on their relationship. Granted, 'cause this is a Grant Morrison book it's a character piece with a decent helping of cool sci-fi closet ideas. (Miniature suns! Singing Crystals! Future Supermen!) And because it's a Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly book, it's a very well drawn and designed peice of comic art.

The only real problem? The writing parts kinda blew.

The major problem with ASS 2 is that, for all his varied and potent strengths as a writer, Morrison just can't seem to imbue his characters with the sort of emotional depth that they need to have to carry an issue long examination of Lois and Clark's relationship.

Granty M, Like, even when his characters should be freakin' out out of their freakin' minds they're always cool rationally extolling their point of view. Nobody is ever, like, carried away by a windswept torrent of emotion. Morrison's characters are ALWAYS type-A logical.

And, y'know, people who in love don't act like that. A more cynical man than I might use the adjectives 'Bug Tits Crazy.' ASS # 2 is a book about how to people feel about each other that didn't convince me that the two leads felt ANYTHING. I'm not the hugest fan of soap opera hysteronics, but even that seems to reflect real world truth more than Morrison's parade of logic-o-bots.

The comic kept trying and trying to be a sort of nervos love story, and kept Failing and Failing.

And the last page climax? That woulda happened on page 4 of a Mort Weissenger comic. Stupid Decompression! I hates you!

Call this one Sorta Recommended but mostly for the brilliant choice of camera angles, page layouts, and coloring. And the mniature suns. The miniature suns were cool, and should have their own comic.

Side Note: At first I thought this issue was going use a bunch of fairy-tale tropes; Lois encounters a "Pandora's Box" and a Magic Mirror, but that seemed to fizzle out by the time the central drama hit, where Lois' freaks out at her Super-Stud's current behavior and new solar granted powers and tries to off him. (Remaining, of course, perfectly, calmly, compelely logical and rational and NOT EVEN REMOTELY like a woman driven to kill the man she loves throughout.)

But THAT would have been cool. And an issue long examination of Lois' thought process as she decides that Supes has gotta bite it for the good of the planet and her emotional travails t' reach that decision would have been cool. Instead, we get a lotta nothing.


X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl Peter Milligan (W) Nick Dragotta (A) Mike Allred Inks and Cover.

Lemme lay some metaphor on you hep cats.

Imagine you venture towards your local grocery store to purchase a box of raisin bran. When you get home with said box of carb-laden goodness, you find that the box is chock full of Shredded Wheat with three bran flakes and one measly lookin' raisin at the bottom.

That's this comic.

It SAYS Dead Girl on the cover in, like, Big Type and everything, but our titual heroine shows up on page 22, (out of 22!!!!!) and the rest of the book is a bunch of characters the writer doesn't define very well hanging out and being boring.

The emotional weight of the story rests on the audience being familiar with Doctor Strange, (A major writing mistake all by it's lonesome) but Milligan's Doctor Strange doesn't really act like anyone else's Doctor Strange, so we're just left with a bunch of blah.

One of the strengths of Millian 'n Allred's X-Statix, which I love-love-love-love-loved, was that it nested itself in it's own little corner of the Marvel Universe. Milligan and Allred's characters kind of inhabit a reality all of their own; The dialouge isn't even remotely naturalistic/Bendis-y, and Allred's Kirby-by-way-of-Manga characters would certainly look out of place in, say, Wolverine. In their own litte X-Statix-verse not-reallyconnected with the rest of Marvel Universe, this worked just fine. Here, where Doctor Strange is the main character and the only X-statix member to get any face time is the Anarachist...

Well, the whole thing just falls flat. The X-Statix work best when they can satirically reflect the cliches of the rest of the Marvel Line, but not quite participate. The POINT of the X-Statix is that they're a different breed of superheroes, only tangentally related to Lee and Kirby's brood in attitudes and appearance. Making 'em team up with Doctor Strange and Kraven the Hunter weakens th' strength of the parodiac, tangental connection.

But, if you discount the total story failure and the lying-ass title, there are some nice touches:

The art was nice-and Allred-y all the way through even with the man himself reduced to inking duties.

The introduction, two kids finding a rather grotesquely expired supervillain (Who's name was never mentioned, despite his reppearance as a main character) was pretty snappy.

There's one really cool scene where Doctor Strange is peering into some ethereal alternate dimension and his man-servant Wong looks and says"It's beautiful. Master. What is it?" And Doc Strange is all "It's Hell. It's Where the Lower Life-Forms Congregate and those souls are corrupted or spoiled descend. Not quite so beautiful now, is it? (See, now, I just gave you the best part. So you don't have to buy it.)

Doctor Strange going to a shrink was fairly novel, with an interesting twist at the end, even if it didn't tie into the rest of the story at all.

We got to see X-Statix Anarchist again, and Miss America, member of the GREATEST SUPERHERO TEAM EVER,


made an appearance. (And had one line, but I'll take what I can get.)

Still: Not Recommended.

Mister Miracle # 3 Grant "No longer on my shit-list" Morrison (W) Freddie E. (The "E" is for "I'm not Pasqual FErry" Willians II)

This, I say, THIS is more like it.

Recommended. An' Then Some.

Let's get THAT outta the way right now. A couple of truly awesome fight scenes, one of which is Man vs. Math, some heavy metaphors 'bout free will and individual identity, a Darkside who stays in the shadows, only reaching out to toy with his prey like some kinda sadistic alley cat, surprisingly solid art from Mr. "I'm not Pasqual," AND a hot tub scene with S 'n M overtones that nudges us towards some interestin' parallels between sex and the loss of self...

That said, I'm still processing, and I think I need to go back and re-read my Kirby afore I really figure out what Morrison's doing here. But since the POINT of this whole Seven Soldiers thing is for people with BAs in literature to overanalyze the subtext!

Wayull... I'm just gonna toss some random chunks of brain-detrius at the screen here an' see what sticks. 'k?

The most interesting aspect of this whole series, t'me, is the re-casting of Kirby's New Gods as universal archetypes.

Kirby's New Gods was the King trying to write pure, undiluted mythology. Not "Modern Day Mythology" so much, but myth that works in the same way Greek Myth works. Basically every character, event, and location is SYMBOLIC, designed to teach moral lessons, but myths are also a functional narrative which can be read completely seperate from the symbolic truths.

Joseph Cambell basically asserted that the symbolic truths of myths permeated cross-cultural boundaries. Like, if you compare and contrast Greek Myths with say, Cherokee Indian Myths, you'd find that they're not only teaching some of the same Moral truths, but generally have the same narrative structure.

So I'm wonderin' if Morrison didn't have the good Professor in mind when recasting myths in a different cultural context. (Specifically, and this just tickles me Pink, a kind of updated version of Seventies Blacksloitation. I'm Talkin' Bout Metron! Can You Dig It?!

Without givin' TOO much away for folks who an't read it, the Seven Soldiers books as a whole are 'bout the transformation and evolution of their individual protaginists. Which is actually fairly novel in superhero comics, where the hero tends to stay as a fairly static archetype, at least after their origin.

In Mister Miracle's case this is even MORE extreme. Shilo's story is more than personal transformation; He's got to reorientate his whole reality away from celebrity artifice to allow himself to see THE TRUTH, Matrix or born-again Christian Style. Poor Shilo, far from the competent ubermensch's you get in most of the spanex books, doesn't even know what the hell's going on around him, and this lack of knowledge can, well, get his arse really, truly good 'n kicked. (As we see in the end.) Anyway, it's a brave storytelling choice, drawing more from epic Fantasy (Think Narnia, ferinstance) than the usual way that superhero books work.

Seargent Rock: The Prophecy Joe Kubert (W an' A)

So, er, who was it that's in the house?

JOE KUBERT in da MOTHER FAWKIN' HOUSE!

WHOOOT! WHOOOOT! WHOOOOT! WHOOOT! WHOOOT!

Now, when it comes right down to it, I'd probably call papa Kubert the single best comics artist t' ever lay pencil to paper. More than any other comix drawer he bridges the gap between artist and cartoonist. His characters SEEM exaggerated, with facial expressions that are more alive than life, but, unlike Eisner or Crumb or Jaime Hernandez his characters always remain true to life in terms of anatomy and perspective and stuff. And, even more importantly than that, he manages to give his characters a kind of quiet dignity and depth.



Well, except for when he's drawing fuck-off big monsters, which honestly come off pretty doofy. (And, admitedly, this was fairly early in his career.)


Of course, Kubert's not best known for his monsters. (Fer obvious reasons.) He's known for his blood 'n thunder war comics. In fact, there's probably no long running series from the big two that's as closely associated with a single artist as Seargent Rock an' Easy Company are with Joe K.

SO, after twenty-or-so odd years not associated with the main title, Kubert's return to the Rock is somethin' of a major-big deal, 'specially as a writer; This is, far as I know, the first full issue of Seargent Rock that Kubert's writ by himself. Ever!

But is it good? Oh sweet lordy, yes!

Let's take a look at JUST the first page.


See the range of emotion on our puppy protaginist's little muzzle? That ladies and gen'men, is Cartooning!

Aside from the art, the story is more'n competently executed. Seargent Rock and the ethnically bemixtured band of misfits who tag after him are dropped into Vilnus, Lithuania, a "No Man's Land Between the Germans and Russians" in order to meet up with their Russian contact, recover a mysterious "valuable" object from said contact, and hork their keisters back to the Allied side of the line, prize in tow.

Along the way Easy Company (Named 'cause nothing's ever Easy for Easy) run into a squadron of tanks, capture some prisoners of war who are summarily executed by Rock's Russian contact, (A husky bearded fellow name 'o "Bear," and pick up the pooch seen in the first few panels.

In the last decade Kubert's turned from documenting made-up-in-someone's head soldiers to well, not quite TRUE stories, but a minimally embellished account of actual war survivor's and alternative historical fiction..

And his work is even BETTER for it. There's a sense of scope, of focusing on the small moments (Like the pooch panels above) amidst the chaos. The book feels true.
Kubert effectively maintains a balance between the tanks-blowing-up action scenes and the Easy-crouched-in-a-foxhole quieter moments that serve to both make us care about the characters and ratchet up the tension for when the enemy starts shelling.

Sadly, it's not done-in-one like the Seargent Rock stories of old, but the story doesn't feel decompressed, or that you're only getting one eight of a story for your money.

And the cliffhanger at the end is one Heck of a Humdinger.

Highly Recomended!

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The Best Comic Most People Ignore

Every week, we are treated to a delight of human fraility, human emotion (building emotion, too), and the everyday adventures of the human existence. Every week since late September. And yet, I do not know if everyone is appreciating the treat. I, of course, am referring "The Funny Pages," the one-page a week segment of the New York Times Magazine devoted to essentially whatever Chris Ware wants to produce. Since September, he has provided us with seventeen excellent (okay, probably only 14 of them have been excellent) installments of his "Building Stories," detailing the life of four inhabitants of a New York City building, plus, occasionally, the building itself. And this comic is outstanding.

The art is pure Ware. You are either going to be a fan of his cartoon-like, but effusive, style, or you're not. Not much leeway there. I happen to think that it is quite good, and I think he manages to get across a series of emotions without expending that much effort.

In fact, above all, the most remarkable aspect of Building Stories is the ECONOMOY of it all. One page a week. That's all. And yet, in that one page, Ware quickly delivers emotions to us so effectively, it is like he is just injecting it directly into our veins. And the emotions he delivers are often so brutally effective, it is a sight to see. Like the one he did of the old landlady, sitting down for breakfast, suddenly recalling an invitation she received decades earlier, and how, even now, while just sitting down for breakfast, she remembers those slight tingles of regret for actions not taken. Ware makes the mundane come alive, while still remaining unmistakably mundane. This is similar to the way he makes sure to include all the little touches, like the strip that ends with a woman (the closest thing this story has to a protagonist) absent-mindedly scratching her ass while thinking about how she has avoided visiting her landlady the entire time she has lived in the building, except for when she needs her help. It's something that people do, but Ware is not afraid to SHOW it.

There's a great fight scene between a married couple that opens with the husband's ideal result of what will happen when he comes home, and Ware slowly peals back the ideal panel as it becomes less and less likely of ever occuring. Very clever there.

That being said, I must say that what I enjoy most about Building Stories is when the Building itself talks. That, I think, is the most unique discussions of life that Ware gets across, and some of the best lines occur when the Building speaks. I especially LOVED the one from last week, where the Building regrets the transformative powers of a failed relationship, as the Building itself bears the brunt of the break-up, without doing anything wrong. Says the Building, "One day I'm 'the home where the heart is,' the next I'm 'the place where that bastard lives.'" That line is sooo good!

So, yeah, The Funny Pages. Building Stories. Chris Ware. The New York Times Magazine. Do yourself a favor, and not skip it this week while looking to see if Randy Cohen approves of your behavior.

HOWEVER, just as an added treat for you folks who do not read the New York Times (or those who have missed the first 17 installments), the New York Times offers all the installments for FREE on their website here. Enjoy!!

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This Comic Kicks All Star Superman #2

I've got sunshine...on a cloudy day. When it's cold outside, I've got the month of May. Well, I guess that you'd say, "What can make you feel that way?" The answer? All Star Superman.

#2 came out this week, and it was like the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich that you could have. A little bit of grandeur mixed with a little bit of subtlety to form a delicious confection called All Star Superman #2.

First off, let me tell you, before you read All Star Superman #2, it does NOT, in fact, cure cancer. So if you expect to read it and have it jump up and, like, do your laundry and pay your taxes, it does not do that. I only have one copy of the comic, so I do not know if you could get fucked up by grinding the pages into ashes and then smoking All Star Superman. It IS possible, but unlikely.

All this comic does is give the reader a cool story where every other panel had one of those "Woah!" moments that comics really should give us more of, rather than making us wait six issues to get, like, three "woah" moments (Please note that "woah" is a good sound you make when something cool happens...this is compared to the "wha?" sound that people make when they read Superboy ripping some loser Teen Titan's arm off).

As for what happens in the comic book, I will create a diagram to examine the plot of the issue.

Beginning - Superman takes Lois Lane to his Fortress of Solitude to talk about their relationship, as he just revealed he is Clark Kent because he thinks he is going to die.

Middle - He gives her (and us) a tour of the Fortress, while working in a mysterious room. Lois reflects about their relationship,while freaking out about why Superman is acting so mysterious.

End - Lois gets so paranoid that she thinks that Superman has gone nuts, so she attacks him in an emotional outburst, and we learn what is in the mysterious room.

Mixed in with this plot are scenes of, as I mentioned before, classic Superman style grandeur and subtlety.

The grandeur of the depiction of Superman's fortress.

The subtlety of Superman having Lois's engine block fixed.

The grandeur of Superman's new entrance key (which weighs a hundred million tons).

The subtlety of Superman's Mirror of Truth showing that Superman can never truly be Clark Kent (that moment just KILLED me. If you weren't bowled over by that scene, then you must have read Infinite Crisis #4 before reading All Star Superman #2, and were temporarily blinded).

The grandeur of Superman having the Titanic in his living room.

The subtlety of comparing the differences in how Superman and Lois process her thoughts. She goes to her words, but Superman does not have that luxury (it is certainly no accident that Morrison has not shown us any of Superman's thoughts during this series), as he can only ask a Mirror of Truth questions - and that is ultimately frustrating beyond belief.

The grandeur of the Superwoman suit.

The subtlety of the mystery Superman's outfit (nice question mark).

The grandeur of Superman creating mini suns.

The subtlety of Lois seeing their relationship in black and white.

These moments are present throughout the comic, and while each piece of All Star Superman was good, it is when you combine it all into All Superman as a whole that you get just the right mixture of coolness.

Quitely and Jamie Grant were amazing.

So, yeah, I thought that this comic was very good.

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100 Days of Justice League Day 5: JL Annual #1

Justice League Annual #1
Story: Germ Warfare
Plot & Breakdowns: Keith Giffen
Script: J.M. DeMatteis
Pencils: Bill Willingham
Inks: Dennis Janke, P. Craig Russell, Bill Wray, R. Campanella, Bruce Patterson, Dick Giordano. Whew!
Letters: Bob Lappan
Colors: Gene D’Angelo
Editor: Andy Helfer

Do you like The Walking Dead? So do I. Now picture that as a sit-com with superheroes. But, well, not as good. That’s Justice League Annual #1. I’m not really selling it, am I? In my defense, it is an annual. From the 80s. Annuals have never had the reputation of being superior comic stories. Now, I’m not knocking all annuals. I’m sure there are some annuals out there with excellent stories. Feel free to discuss your favorites in the comments section. But this particular annual, while not absolutely horrible, isn’t of the same quality as the stories we’ve seen so far and will see in the future in the monthly Justice League titles.

The premise, for one, is not really that original. Ted Kord a.k.a. Blue Beetle, at some point in the recent past, bought a company with a research facility on an island in the South Pacific. I was going to say a “remote” island, but that goes without saying since islands in the South Pacific are pretty much all remote. You never hear anybody say they’re going to run next door to Tahiti. That’s why people go there. It’s remote. It’s probably also why this company put its research facility there. When Kord’s crew gets there to check things out, they encounter a woman with red glowing eyes and a creepy voice. We know it’s creepy because the dialogue appears in these squiggly sort of word balloons and the words themselves are all squiggly. Creepy. She gazes into the crew members’ eyes and their wills melt away. They become living zombies -- mindless drones under the control of a malevolent intelligence.

I’m not necessarily one to expect that every story doesn’t borrow (or, heck, steal) something from other stories. There’s not really anything new under the sun. It’s all in the delivery. A story can be derivative and still be entertaining. Superhero comics are built on this idea. This one tries to be entertaining. The first few pages interested me. Anyone with passing knowledge of Star Trek assumes that something’s going to happen to these guys. One of them alludes to their being like a Star Trek landing crew. I think there were several classic Trek episodes (not to mention more recent ones) where one or more crew members were infected by a microorganism or had their minds taken over by an alien only to return to Enterprise and either infect everybody else or generally cause trouble. That’s what happens here. These guys hop back on their helicopter and end up infecting people at Kord facilities in Paris, Los Angeles, Sydney, and Tokyo. That’s where the League comes in.

The League are hanging out at their headquarters bickering and bantering. Already that is becoming a staple. Most of the time the banter is directly related to Guy Gardner. Let’s face it. He’s integral to this series. It just wouldn’t have been what it was without him. In this issue, he has to be coerced into monitor duty. Normally, Batman is the heavy. This time it’s Doctor Fate. So, Guy reluctantly mans his station and immediately learns of large populations of people who seem to be under the control of some outside force. This is where the League splits up into two-person teams. Blue Beetle and Mister Miracle go to L.A. Booster Gold and Black Canary go to Paris. Batman and Guy Gardner go to Tokyo. The Martian Manhunter and Doctor Fate go to Sydney. One-by-one, they all fall prey to the “body snatcher” except J’onn J’onz because he’s, you guessed it, Martian and, evidently, immune to the unidentified evil.

The way that J’onn identifies the source of the evil is overly simplistic and overlooks a major hole in the plot. He puts on Doctor Fate’s helmet and suddenly just knows that people’s minds are being taken over by a sentient cell, which was mutated in a lab and dominates its victims cell-by-cell. Now, in J’onn’s place, I might’ve tried putting on the helmet, too, if I thought it would reveal the source of the problem. But, why couldn’t Fate have done this before he succumbed to the sentient cell? I don’t see why he couldn’t have other than this issue is intended to remind us that the Martian Manhunter is a veteran hero. Veteran heroes don’t become veteran heroes unless they have the chops. Still, it’s weak.

Further, in Legends #6, when Glorious Godfrey donned the helmet, it broiled his brain in its own juices. Is the Manhunter also immune to this? Apparently. Later, he all but says, I’m a bad ass if I do say so myself. He says, “My strength is second to none.” Okaaay. Tell Superman that. He goes on to list his other major abilities. Perhaps he’s just trying to psych the cell out. Maybe it’s the Martian equivalent of a bunch of Scotsmen standing on a hill screaming at the English.

The cell by now is controlling a lot of people, including the other League members, and using them as weapons more or less to attack J’onn. After a while, it creates an ogre-like body for itself composed of some of the people it’s controlling. I don’t mean it reshapes them. They’re all still there, whole. But there’s just a bunch of them mashed together to form this giant humanoid shape. Very surreal. In doing so, however, it somehow leaves itself vulnerable by allowing J’onn to isolate the cell’s central consciousness. It’s completely unclear as to how he’s able to do this. But he does it and at precisely the right moment, he hurls Doctor Fate’s helmet at it and Fate is able to manifest himself although weakly and temporarily wrest control away from the sentient cell.

During these few moments, Fate tells J’onn that the cell can’t control him since he’s not human and, therefore, J’onn can absorb it into himself, using his own body as a prison for it, which he does. I don’t know if this little point has been addressed since then. If not, presumably, the Martian Manhunter is still walking around with a sentient cell imprisoned inside of him. That seems like a cool story just waiting to be written to me. Perhaps the cell mutates further as cells are wont to do and gets to a point where it can control Martian physiology. Hoohah! That sounds like fun.

This is one of those comic stories that seems padded to fill out an annual’s higher page count. If the Martian Manhunter and Doctor Fate had done at the beginning of the story what they did at the end, we wouldn’t have needed an annual. Fate is practically omniscient and that takes the oomph out of the story because he and J’onn don’t have to struggle to figure anything out. They just spontaneously know. So when everyone realizes that J’onn saved their keisters, it doesn’t have nearly the impact one wants even though we’re supposed to feel like he made some great sacrifice.

Now for some random thoughts.

1. It always worries me when a comic has a bunch of different inkers. It makes me think the editor was under the gun to get an annual out and he had to hire that many inkers to get it done by deadline.
2. Woowee! Look at the pink background on that cover. This is definitely an 80s comic.
3. How’d Mister Miracle end up as the League’s IT guy? Just because he grew up on a more technologically advanced planet, that means he’s the one to set up their defenses and program the League’s computer? The Blue Beetle and Batman are no slouches. Plus, they’re CEOs of tech companies. Wha?
   

Next issue: Justice League #5 – “Gray Life Gray Dreams”

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Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #34!

This is the thirty-fourth in a series of examinations of comic book urban legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous thirty-three.

Let's begin!

COMIC URBAN LEGEND: Jimmy Carter's diplomatic policies led to the Contest of Champions.

STATUS: True

In late 1979, Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan. The United States saw this as a gross diplomatic violation, and President Jimmy Carter threatened the USSR with the following diplomatic ultimatum - pull their forces out of Afghanistan by February 20th, 1980, or the United States would boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics, which were being held in Moscow.

The USSR did not pull their forces out, and as a result, in March, President Carter announced that the United States would be boycotting the Summer Olympics in Moscow, and a number of countries joined in (the previous Olympics had ALSO had a boycott of the Games by a number of African countries, protesting the tour of the New Zealand rugby team in South Africa). A total of about 50 countries joined the United States in the boycott.

As you might imagine, such a boycott affected many people (including NBC, which had just spent a record amount on the rights to broadcast the games), and one group that was also affected was Marvel Comics.

In early 1980, Marvel released Treasury Edition #25, which was titled "Spider-Man vs. Hulk at the Winter Olympics!"



Written by Mark Gruenwald, Steven Grant, Bill Mantlo (with art by Herb Trimpe and Bruce Patterson), the story depicted a battle between the Mole Man and Kala over the control of the de-aging waters under Mole Man's control. Kala kidnapped a number of Olympic Athletes and gave them weapons based on their skills, and forced them to battle for her against Mole Man's super-powered servants.

Overall, it was a pretty hokey story.

In any event, at the end, there was an ad for a SEQUEL to this story, ANOTHER Treasury Edition.

The title? Marvel Superheroes at the SUMMER Olympics.

The ad features a number of Marvel Superheroes, plus a few unfamiliar faces. What it basically was was the exact comic that was later turned into Contest of Champions (which was also written by Mark Gruenwald, Steven Grant, Bill Mantlo.

Notice how the Contest of Champions featured the debut of a number of international heroes?

JUST in time for the international games!!

However, the boycott forced Marvel to sit on the project, only to revisit it two years later, change the format from a Treasury Edition to a mini-series, and adapt the content for any changes made since 1980.



What makes this especially amusing is, if you recall, the Contest of Champions featured a text page where Marvel crowed about how innovative they were for introducing the concept of "Limited Series." Forgetting the fact that, at this point, DC had done about five mini-series (only not called "Limited Series"), but this project was not even INTENDED to be a mini-series at first!!

COMIC URBAN LEGEND: Kieron Dwyer is John Byrne's son.

STATUS: Technically False

It is often rumored that Kieron Dwyer is the son of John Byrne. They are not blood relatives, but Byrne DID marry Dwyer's mother, photographer Andréa Braun, in 1980, when Dwyer was 13 (Byrne and Braun have since divorced).

As Dwyer retells it (in this Jon Ellis interview), "I was just getting into Byrne's art when my Mom met him at a convention in Chicago. She had brought me down there to check it out (my first convention!), and the rest, as they say, is history."

Dwyer elaborated on the relationship, and whatever help Byrne gave him in his entry into the comic business, in this interview with Michael Thomas:

MDT: How strange was it to have a stepfather who was also a professional comic book artist you read and admired (at least professionally)?

Kieron Dwyer: Well, while I definitely liked his work, I wasn't specifically a fan of his when they met. It was cool at first, especially for me to watch him draw and to see up close how it was done and to know that a person could have a very successful career and life in the comics field. Also he was very supportive and encouraging of my talents.

MDT: What was John Byrne, the stepfather, like in the brief time you lived with them?

KD: I won't go into specifics. Suffice to say, there's usually a big gap between our heroes as we perceive them and then as they really are. It's best to appreciate a person's work as separate and distinct from them personally, I find.

MDT: What kind of help did he give you when you were looking to get into the comic book business?

KD: Around 1986, I had moved back in with him and my mom to be closer to the east coast publishers. Just getting to know the editors at Marvel and DC socially through living with him, I had a nice opportunity to get to know some people from both companies in a social way before hitting them up for work. I did sample script pages for about 5 or 6 months and got a lot of helpful advice and info from many sources, including JB. One day, Denny O'Neil called him to ask him to do a fill-in on Batman. He couldn't do it and suggested me. Denny had seen my samples and liked them, so he decided to give me a shot. I owe them both for that.



MDT: When you worked with him on the "Torch of Liberty" stories, was it business as usual or was it different from a usual artist/writer collaboration?



KD: It was pretty much the same, although he gave me a lot more room to add stuff than many other writers. The plots were very simple. Whether that was trust or laziness, only he could tell you. ;)

MDT: Do you keep in touch today? If so, what are the conversations like? If not, why not?

KD: No, but not from any animosity that I'm aware of. There just isn't any need. He and my mom split up some years ago and they are still very good friends. So long as she's happy, my concerns are met.

COMIC URBAN LEGEND: DC produced a completely different version of Emerald Twilight before it was scrapped.

STATUS: True

In 1993, DC was seeing first hand the benefits of "event-driven" stories. They were having their best sales in YEARS with their Knightfall event in the Batman titles and their Death of Superman/Reign of the Supermen/Return of Superman event in the Superman titles.

Therefore, in late 1993, DC decided to turn their attention to Green Lantern. At the time, the Green Lantern titles were selling moderately well, enough to support a regular title and TWO spin-offs (Guy Gardner and Green Lantern Corps Quarterly). However, sales had begun to go down the last couple of years (from the high point of early 1992), and DC thought it time to shake things up.

Their plan? Turn Hal Jordan into a villain, get rid of the Green Lantern Corps and the yellow impurity and introduce a brand new Green Lantern!

Writer Gerry Jones was willing to do as DC asked, and crafted a story along these lines.

However, Jones' story just did not go far enough for Editor Kevin Dooley (and presumably his higher-ups), so even though Jones' #48 and 49 were SOLICITED already (solicitation scans courtesy of the Continuity Pages)...





DC still scrapped the storyline. They then hired a new writer, Ron Marz, to craft the new story, and took a month off to catch up on the time they lost.







Ultimately, Marz' new Green Lantern series increased sales significantly, so from that perspective, the change seemed to be a success. Story-wise? You be the judge!

Well, that's it for this week, thanks for stopping by!

Feel free to drop off any urban legends you'd like to see featured!!

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What I bought - 18 January 2006

Sweet fancy Moses, what a week! Four, count 'em, four of my favorite titles came out. FOUR! Plus, a very good mini-series that has been delayed for a while. Plus, the beginning of a mini-series starring a sadly-missed character and a kooky Doctor Strange! Plus, ASS! ASS, people! Phew. Can I handle the comic goodness?????

Ex Machina #17 by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, and Tom Feister
$2.99, DC/Wildstorm
 
 
After a few issues of short story arcs and decent single issues but less-than-satisfying arcs, this issue starts a story that has "intriguing" written all over it. Some guys in Baghdad are wondering whether President Bush will send Mitchell over to Iraq when the war begins (the issue takes place in February 2003). Meanwhile, back in New York, Mitchell is in a bit of a pickle because he is allowing a peace march through Manhattan to the United Nations building even though most people are for the invasion of Iraq and think those Commie hippies should shut the hell up. Mitchell has a couple of interesting conversations about the march and the war, one with Journal Moore, the youngster on his staff, who resigns so she can march (Mitchell denies members of his staff to make such overt political statements). Then Mitchell goes and talks to a priest about the impending invasion and whether it's the right thing to do. As usual with this book, we get no easy answers. Vaughan continues to do a nice job of presenting all sides of an issue without really allowing Mitchell to have an opinion. It could be annoying, but he makes sure that Mitchell has opinions, it's just about what to do in New York itself. He doesn't care about anything bigger, which is probably how it should be. The march goes off, and something bad happens. Doesn't it always?

Readers of this book might wonder if I'm going to go off on the fact that Journal carries on her entire conversation with Mitchell basically naked (she's wearing a sheer babydoll nightie that reveals pretty much everything). Well, I'm not. It's not gratuitous (she has just gotten laid) and it's not titillating. It's just what she happens to be wearing. I don't mind it, because it's not obnoxiously degrading. So there.

As usual, an excellent issue. Good stuff.

The Iron Ghost #5 (of 6) by Chuck Dixon and Sergio Cariello
$2.99, Image
 
 
Whoo-hoo! It's an issue of The Iron Ghost! I mentioned that it had been delayed by Katrina, so it's nice to see it back. I didn't read it, in keeping with my by-now world-famous statement that I will not be reading mini-series beyond the first (and maybe second) issue until they are completed. But I still like it, and it's been good, and it wraps up next issue, and if you're not buying it, you should check out the trade. Right?

The Maze Agency #2 by Mike W. Barr, Ariel Padilla, and Ernest Jocson
$3.99, IDW
 
 
See, the only thing we have to do with The Maze Agency is see if it holds up as a mystery and if the clues are there. That's its point, right?

Okay, we're at a beauty pageant. There are four contestants (it's to be the queen of the four boroughs of New York not called Manhattan - you know, the ones nobody cares about) and someone is trying to knock off people involved with the contest. First, the previous year's winner topples down a sabotaged staircase! She doesn't die, though. Then, one of the contestants is poisoned! She too, lives. But then the production assistant is murdered. Horrors! Jennifer and Gabe are on the case!

Do we have enough clues? Well, we get a crucial one that is there if you're looking. But another one is missing completely. I looked. It ain't there. It's kind of annoying.

In the case of The Maze Agency, I think, perhaps, two-issue stories would work better. I admire what Barr is trying to do, but I wonder if he's leaving stuff out just to fit it all in. We don't need a huge, sprawling mess of a six-issue mini-series, but I think all the clues could have been presented in two issues much more easily, and then we, along with Gabe, could have solved the mystery and made sense of it. In this issue, we're still not completely clear at the end why the crimes have been committed. We think we know, but we're not sure. It's a shame.

Noble Causes #16 by Jay Faerber, Fran Bueno, and Freddie E. Williams
$3.50, Image
 
 
Another of my favorite titles comes out this week, and more craziness ensues. The Nobles have found out that the Blackthornes have targeted Liz for termination, so they lock her away. Then they plot to lure the bad guys into a trap. The trap springs, and the bad guys win! Well, no they don't, because it's all a ruse, but at the end, the bad guys find out they've been hornswaggled. That can't be good.

It's a fast-paced issue, with not a ton of forward movement, but there are some nice issues. Rusty gets a new, synthetic body, which has benefits that Cosmic Rae enjoys. Liz is finding out that marrying into a superhero family can get annoying. And Zephyr confronts Frost about his nighttime activities from last issue. So things are still moving forward, but Faerber catches his breath a bit and gives us a big fight. Nothing wrong with that!

And just in case you're not reading the comic, Faerber gives all the slobbering fanboys a reason to pick up next issue:
 
 Chicks making out! Can't get better than that! So far Faerber hasn't gone all gratuitous with Celeste and Dawn's affair. Let's hope it stays that way.

Planetary #24 by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday
$2.99, DC/Wildstorm
 
 
What's this? An issue of Planetary? Hi there!

Issue #23 came out in June, so we're all forgiven if we don't remember what happened. Hell, I don't. I also don't care. This, more than Transmetropolitan, is Ellis's masterpiece. It's brilliant. It's freakin' brilliant!

Okay, I haven't convinced you. Maybe not. It's difficult to review this sucker, because it's part of the big grand storyline and since each issue only comes out every so often, it's just hard. Elijah reveals a great deal about what's been happening and what he's going to do about it. Ellis actually does make it a bit easier to remember all the fun stuff that's been happening, so that's nice of him. And Cassaday's art is, well, spectacular. Did you think it wouldn't be?

So, apparently, the endgame is upon us. I'll be there. Buy Planetary, people. It will make Baby Jesus smile.

Rex Mundi #16 by Arvid Nelson and Juan Ferreyra
$2.99, Image
 
 
Finally, it's another of my favorite titles, coming out when promised! With a new artist, Juan Ferreyra from Small Gods. His art on that book was beautiful, and here it's in glorious Technicolor!

This issue brings us closer to the end of the first half of the book, as the Duke of Lorraine issues an ultimatum to the Cordovan Emirate (in Spain) because he wants French troops to go into Iberia and search for of "Muslim extremists" who have been assassinating French nobles (or so they tell us). When Cordova naturally rejects this, the French prepare for war. Even though this takes place in the 1930s, it's set up for the alternate universe World War I, as Ottoman Turkey naturally backs Cordova and will enter the war with France, while Prussia and Austria are allied with Turkey, and England with France. So the shit is going to hit the fan hard, and soon. In the meantime, Julien meets the hot daughter of the Duke of Lorraine, and his ex-girlfriend doesn't like that. That should heat things up nicely.

Rex Mundi moves slowly. I won't deny it. It comes out slowly. I won't deny that either. However, it's amazingly rewarding to read. The story is fascinating, the art is gorgeous (all three artists have been very good), and all the machinations are starting to pay off. I did not like the somewhat un-subtle dig at our war in Iraq, even though I disagree with it, because it takes us out of the story a bit. It's a bit annoying. Other than that, an excellent book. Go buy the trades!

Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle #3 (of 4) by Scotty McBalderson and Freddie E. Williams II
$2.99, DC
 
 
Six months ago I had no idea who Freddie Williams was. This week I bought two books featuring his art. I just find that amusing.

All-Star Superman #2 by Morrison, Frank Quitely, and Jamie Grant
$2.99, DC
 
 
Hey, look, everybody - it's ASS!

Yeah, I didn't like it.

(Brief pause while I wait for the Internet to stop throwing things at my head.)

Why didn't I like it, you may ask after you've calmed down. Well, I'll tell you a charming anecdote about my bygone collegiate days to illustrate my reasoning:

Back in my bygone collegiate days at venerable Penn State, I took an honors creative writing class with many snooty honors students, one of which I of course was. The students were smart people, full of fascinating ideas for stories, and we would sit around and critique each other (as one does in a creative writing class). So after reading yet another story about some fascinating idea, I brought up the fact that none of the stories we had read that week had a plot. Plots are good, I said. I was roundly criticized by the students. I was criticized by the teacher, who wrote this book (an extremely densely plotted novel, I might add). All I said was that plot is good. Which, if you're paying attention, brings us back to ASS:

Nothing happens.

Why, exactly, does this issue exist? Although I had some problems with issue #1, I enjoyed it. But now we get this, in which Superman takes Lois Lane to the Fortress of Solitude and nothing happens. On the cover it asks, "Can YOU guess the secret of Superman's FORBIDDEN ROOM?" Well, no I can't, but when it's revealed, it's stupid. The two principals spend the entire issue flirting obliquely and doing, well, nothing.

Morrison does this sometimes. The "Good" Morrison knows that fancy ideas should always work to service the story. The "Bad" Morrison finds the ideas so freakin' fabulous that he can't be bothered to come up with a story. I do not like the "Bad" Morrison, because there's only so much goofy, incomprehensible crap we can take before we call bullshit and move on. I could deal with the largely incomprehensible Rebus issue of Doom Patrol because it was part of the greater storyline, and, more importantly, it wasn't the second issue of the series! Yes, Morrison has earned credit over the years, so he thinks he can pull this weird shit off early on before he delves into the story, but should we let him get away with it?

I will keep buying this, because I do trust Morrison, and I do like the art, and it appears, from the first issue, that he has some interesting plots to consider. However, next issue better be good. Really good. Because here are some things from this issue that sound clever but don't advance the story at all (unless in some obscure way that will be revealed in the future) and annoy me:

Keys made out of dwarf star material
Life-sized chess pieces of all of Superman's friends and enemies
The Titanic in his living room
Whistling flowers from Alpha Centauri 4
Ooh, look - Grant references Seven Soldiers!
Ooh, look - Grant references 1,000,000!
"What do you feed him?" "Baby suns, of course."
Traditional Kryptonian formal wear - it's a bath robe!
References to the Superman of the 1950s and '60s - we get it - everything was cooler before we were born!
Mummified Superman making cryptic remarks (actually, that will probably be an important plot point, but it's still annoying)
Alien chemicals that can cause visual distortions and extreme paranoid reactions
Exo-genes

How about next issue something happens? Would that be too much to ask?

Sigh. I have to go make my apologies to The God Of All Comics. You'll have to excuse me.

X-Statix Presents: Deadgirl #1 (of 5) by Peter Milligan, Nick Dragotta, and Mike Allred
$2.99, Marvel
 
 
Since I will no longer be reading mini-series until they're all done, my job on first issues is to tell you whether it's worth buying the rest of them. Sound fair? So what about this?

Well, it's Milligan returning to at least one, if not more, of his wild and crazy X-Statix creations. It's about why Marvel characters come back from the dead with such stunning regularity. The art is neat. I say go for it! Buy the whole thing!

The best, or worst depending on your point of view, part of the book is the depiction of Stephen Strange. Deadgirl herself appears only on the last page of the book, and the main character throughout is Dr. Strange. He's kind of goofy. I don't mind it, but I also wonder why we need a Dr. Strange who suddenly feels necessary to change his speech patterns from the pompous blowhard we all know and love. It's a comic book - of course people say things like "By the hoary hosts of Hoggoth!" (Or however you spell it. Sorry, people, I don't have my Dictionary of Marvel Words in front of me.) And I don't need to know that Strange has hemorrhoids. Sweet Jebus, what is up with Too Much Information these days? Anyway, I kind of like this version of Dr. Strange. He's bizarre. He has to go find out why certain Marvel characters (including Deadgirl's old teammate, Tike Alicar) are coming back from the dead. For this, he'll need Deadgirl. See how it all fits together?

This is a fine first issue, and I have no problem with buying the rest of it without reading the issues. Lots of weirdness to ensue, I'm sure. And it's the "Good" Milligan, so it's sure to be fun.

Do your worst! But be gentle!

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Judging (Marvel's April) Books By Their Covers

Marvel's April Solicitations are up, so let's make some prejudgements based just on the covers (as we all love to make prejudgements, don't we?).

Let's begin!
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Yikes.



PLEASE tell me that this is not the Orgasmatron!
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I'll cop to not paying THAT much attention to the last cover. However...



...this cover IS pretty darn similar to the last issue's cover, right?
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For what it's worth, that is a fine drawing of Deadpool.



I doubt that that is worth that much, but your mileage will vary.
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Here's my question...



how, exactly, did Yu research what the shadows of the blades would look like?
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Isn't Ultimate Wolverine supposed to be six feet tall?



Please note that I do not really care, but I am just checking.
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Mike Wieringo is a fine artist with many string talents.



However, dramatic covers are not one of them.

Strong, fundamentally sound covers?

Sure, definitely.

Covers detailing a range of emotions?

You got it.

Dramatic?

Not so much.
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I realize that this is probably just me...



but I can't help but get a nice kick out of Tom DeFalco writing Roderick Kingsley as Hobgoblin, when DeFalco was the writer who took over from Roger Stern and changed the reveal of Hobgoblin FROM Kingsley.

And nice to see Frenz draw Hobgoblin again. He certainly has an affinity for the character.
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Not a bad cover, but not all that engaging, either.


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A fine drawing by Yu.



I don't know how effective it is as a cover, though.

Storm sure does love to not wear a lot of clothes, doesn't she?
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This is a very ominous cover from Travel Foreman...



and I think it works even BETTER when you know the plot of the comic book.

Who wrote Thor: Blood Oath? Was that Oeming? If so, it would explain a LOT.
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Well, we already know that a BEAR shits in the woods...


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Gulacy's covers show a nice style that I have not seen from him in awhile.



I like it.
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Where do you think Crain got the fire from?



Also, did you notice that Marvel officially renamed the title Marvel Knights FANTASTIC FOUR instead of Marvel Knights 4?

It reminds me of when they changed the name of The Madness of King George III to The Madness of King George, because people would think that they missed the first two.
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Did I miss the time warp that brought us back to 1991?



Just checking.
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And then Kirkman actually HAS a book about 1991!! HAHAHAHA!



Although, I think it is VERY telling that, even when the assignment is TO DRAW like the 90s comics, Hester is too good of an artist to do it.

Nice.
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........................Huh?!!? Wha?! What?

Sorry, the cover put me to sleep.
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Do not fret.

It is okay to laugh at a story named "The Bottom."



Okay, in a rendering contest, who would win?

This renderer



or David Finch?

I wouldn't bet against Finch!
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Was their Wolverine story THAT big?



I liked Stuart Moore and C.P. Smith's story.
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This is a fine cover and all...



..but, I dunno.

Here, I'll show you my concern.

Here is the Nova one, check out the Ronan one...



Okay.

Now check out the Super Skrull one...



It's, like, the same freakin' cover!!!!!
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Luckily, this Dell'Otto Surfer deviates from the pattern a bit.


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I am not some big Black Cat fan, but I like the idea of doing something other than just Ditko stories in this title.


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I think Juan Roman Cano Santacruz has the longest name in comics. Anyone I'm missing?
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IT'S MARVEL MAKE OUT MONTH IN APRIL!!!







I think the Thunderbolts cover works the best, actually, which is surprising, as Grummett's covers have not been that strong during this run.
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Nice drawing by Yu, but I think he seems to go for the "nice drawing" instead of actually designing a COVER.


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This is a strong cover image.



Too bad I don't care about the characters on the cover.
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Please.

Stop.



Just stop.
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Wouldn't it be cool if they did an issue of superheroes just shooting heroin?
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Nice cover by Frank Cho.



I am particularly impressed at how he made it so it doesn't even look like his normal style.

Impressive range.
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The covers on this series are getting progressively LESS impressive.



Next week we will learn how impressive the comic itself is!!
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Di Vito is doing a strong job on the covers of this title.


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I wish to thank the person who came up with the idea of spicing up the boring Luna covers by adding an explosion in the background.



It probably SHOULDN'T, but I think it really helped.
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When did Deadpool's mask start having that backpart to it?



I've noticed it recently.
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How weird is this "Every other cover drawn by Gabrielle Dell'Otto" thing?



And two issues in a row not drawn by Sook?

Weak.
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What do you think?



Muscle magazine or gay porn?

Either way, Mike Mayhew's mailbox must be an interesting place.
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Ahhhh....



A nice glass of suck.
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I am glad that Granov is still on covers for this book. Very strong cover.



I just hope Zircher's uses his old style, and not his "Draw like Mark Brooks" style.
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Speaking of Mark Brooks...



Is THIS the cover he is homaging here?



If so...isn't it a bit of a stretch to call this an homage? Have you seen an homage more different than the book it is "homaging?"

Unless there's another BWS cover that Brooks is homaging that I do not know of.
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Man, the Seven Soldiers artists are good.



A good deal better than some of the other artists Morrison has collaborated with...



{whistles innocently}
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That's a heckuva cool design there!



Although I wonder if it is not expecting a level of effort that most readers are not willing to exert.
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Of course, even Seven Soldiers artists cannot save a dorky concept.



Case in point.
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When will Marvel give Martin a COMIC to draw, instead of just sweet looking covers?


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Man, the NERVE!!!



Forcing Tim Bradstreet to DRAW!!

An OUTRAGE!

But wow...worth the outrage.

Excellent cover by Bradstreet.
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I like that each cover of Powers would make a cool movie poster.


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It's like Ryan just threw a bunch of characters up on the cover.



Not that impressive.
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Paolo Rivera continues to come up with interesting cover designs.



I do not necessarily LIKE them, but they are interesting.
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Definitely not winning over any fans swayed by Mssr. Burgas' comments about the art in #1.


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That's a pretty boring cover.
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I like covers that require us to have read Future Imperfect to get the cover.



Or do I not?
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I like Weston's work a lot.



I don't know if I can get over the whole "Moe Howard as Thing" thing, though.
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The Cap covers ALSO work a lot like movie posters.



James Bond posters, in particular.
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Oh mannnnnnnnn....



The new Death's Head is suuuuuuuuuch an ugly design.
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Juan Doe comes up with some cooool cover designs.


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I guess I'm glad that she is getting mainstream work, but man...



This book is like "Colleen Doran beautifully draws some boring ass stuff."
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Just you wait...



Next it will be "Power Pack and Pornstars."

Anything to keep Power Pack in print.

And I will applaud it!

Because I love me some Power Pack.
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TOP FIVE COVERS THIS MONTH!!!

5.

Tommy Lee Edwards is cool.

By the way, I bet you could get a lot of cool stories if you killed off Lois Lane to see how Superman deals with it.

But you wouldn't DO that, because the balancing test doesn't weigh out the stories you get from her death versus the stories you get from her life.

We have not seen Brubaker's story about Foggy Nelson's death, but they have got to be pretty darn good for it to pass the balancing test.
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4. John Watson is on a ROLL!


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3. This is hilarious!




What a hilarious idea!

Does Arthur Suydum pick these covers to homage himself?
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2. When all a cover is is of a head, you have to be VERY impressive for the cover to still work.



Ladronn is very impressive here.

Wow, what a good job.
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1. How classic.



Great job by Bryan Hitch.
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Well, that's it for me! Feel free to share your thoughts and your top five covers!

A surprisingly large amount of cool covers this month from Marvel!!

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