Spider-Man Marriage Puzzler

Right off the bat, let me say, I really don't have much of a problem with Spider-Man being married. It's fine by me. I really don't think writers are all that constrained by his marriage. Him living in Avengers Tower? Okay, that's a bit of a constraint, but him being married? I don't see it as much of a constraint. But if he wasn't married, that'd be fine by me, too.

So, here's my puzzler. In his most recent Joe Fridays column, Joe Quesada goes on for a bit about the marriage, and how lame it is, and how much it hurts the character of Spider-Man. Anyhow, he ends by pointing out how the hard part, and the reason why nothing has been done with the marriage is because, "How do you fix it, how do you fix it without saying that years of Spider-Man books didn’t count?"

That's my puzzler.

How is THAT a reason for not fixing the problem?

Who really cares that years of Spider-Man book didn't count?

And I am saying that not as a "continuity is lame" thing. Honest! I am saying, in the grand scheme of things, erasing his marriage will just get a lot of bitching when the story happens, and then life will go on. I do not see Quesada's biggest problem with the idea being much of a problem at ALL.

Look at the whole "crazy Wanda" storyline in Avengers.

Story made basically no sense. Ignored a bunch of continuity. People bitched about it. People pointed out that it made no sense.

And guess what?

Life went on.

Do people even still complain about Wanda going nuts during Avengers Disassembled?

It's just, like, a given now. Just like how it would be a given if some random villain, like, freaking Hyperstorm or some shit like that, shows up and alters reality so that Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson are no longer married.

Major uproar. Tons of people will bitch. People will point out the story is lame (as the story most likely WOULD be lame). People will say it makes no sense.

But life would go on.

And, in ten years or so, you'll have a generation of readers who grew up with THAT being the status quo, and they'll accept nothing more than Spider-Man not being married.

If it is REALLY "like a burr on my saddle grating on the biggest hemorrhoid you’ve ever imagined, coupled by the fact that I’m riding a smelly horse," then "making years of stories not count" is a pretty sorry reason for not making the change.

So, all said and done, I really don't get how Quesada's biggest concern is much of a concern at all.

Read More

Free Comics You Should Read - La Maggie La Loca

Check it out here. What are you still doing here? Click the link!! It brings you the first two pages of Jaime Hernandez's new serialized comic, La Maggie La Loca, for FREE!! I enjoyed Chris Ware's story better, because I think Ware made each installment stand on its own, but so far, Hernandez's story has been good as well, with typical excellent art.

Oh, and it's FREE!

Click on the link!!

Comic Book Urban Legend Revealed #48!

This is the forty-eighth 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 forty-seven.

Let's begin!

COMIC URBAN LEGEND: Dazzler was created as a cross-promotion between Marvel and Casablanca Records.

STATUS: True

In Comic Feature #7 from November 1980, Richard Howell and Carol Kalish interviewed Roger Stern, Tom DeFalco and Louise Jones about the debut of Dazzler, and how the character came about. According to the article,

The collaboration with Casablanca caused many development difficulties in the Dazzler concept, leading Marvel to cancel the book "five or six times" previous to the publication of its first issue (a possible record). Although over the past year, Marvel had begun to guest-star The Dazzler in various targeted-circulation titles in their own comics line, the corporate vacillation of Casablanca over the character's future caused several significant variations of powers and personality between her various depictions. At the time, The Dazzler was guest-starring in SPIDER-MAN, for example (#203), Spidey's then-scripter Marv Wolfman called DAZZLER-writer Tom DeFalco to ascertain the nature of The Dazzler's powers. "At that time," says DeFalco, "I had gotten three different power suggestions from Casablanca. I had to tell Marv, 'Marv, I can't tell you! I told him what the three powers were...'"

Later on, when discussing how Dazzler developed from an initial concept called "The Disco Queen," the interview proceeds...

Comic Feature: Did Casablanca's interest precede DISCO QUEEN or was it the spark for THE DAZZLER?

Tom DeFalco: Casablanca's interest was before DISCO QUEEN.

Louise Jones: Casablanca just came to Marvel and said, "Hey, you make a singer and we'll create someone to take on the persona." It was a wonderful tie-in. And then Casablanca... (Jones puts thumbs down)

DeFalco: So anyway, we worked out a plot, Jim Shooter and I. Jim was editor-in-chief so it was accepted by Marvel. The plot went over to Casablanca. Casablanca said, "No, this is nothing like what we want." So they bounced it back.

Comic Feature: Did they say what they did want?

DeFalco: They had about ten or twelve different things that they wanted. I'm a professional commercial writer and I can put in anything that a customer wants. Especially if they were willing to pay for it over and over again. So we went and did everything that they wanted. Sometimes it was pretty silly, but we did it just the way they wanted.

Comic Feature: Anything in particular?

DeFalco: At this point I can't remember the silly things but it didn't really matter because the second time they saw it they decided again that it wasn't what they really wanted. So I think around the third or the fourth time we finally got what they wanted, more or less, and we had essentially the story that will appear in Dazzler #1 and #2. They wanted some strange things done with the artwork. Take the X-MEN pages which basically come across like bubblegum cards. They said the story was fine and basically everything was fine - they wanted the F.F., THE NEW X-MEN, SPIDER-MAN, THE HULK, and a bunch of other characters thrown in.

Comic Feature: All in one issue?

DeFalco: Yes. By this time we had already decided not to publish it as a regular comic book. We were going to bring it out as a Super-Special. So we had like 34 superheroes in the book?? I don't remember what it was - some outrageous number - and we were going to publish a 34-page book. They liked all the introductory scenes where all the characters were introduced, but they just didn't see any need for a fight scene. Originally there was just a one page fight scene. Didn't you realize that in issue #2 there was only a one page fight scene (to Jones)?

Jones: Oh, I realized that, we changed it...

DeFalco: J.R. [John Romita Jr, the artist] made it work. You almost wouldn't notice it. J.R. really worked on this project, and when he's good, he's fabulous - when she's having an off-day, he's merely brilliant - still they wanted so much introductory stuff in the space allotted, especially the way they wanted it written...

Jones: That's exactly what I thought happened... that they wanted so much introductory stuff that there wasn't room for a fight scene.

DeFalco: They wanted so much introductory stuff that we had a 34-page story with a one page fight scene. It was a weird story with these 34 characters fighting the Enchantress in one page.

At one point, Casablanca wanted the character to be black, hence the following piece that John Romita drew for Casablanca president Neil Bogart in 1979 (with Bogart in the piece), during the creation process.



Weird, eh?

COMIC URBAN LEGEND: DC stopped letting writers edit their own titles in an attempt at squeezing Jack Kirby from the company.

STATUS: False

Reader Ted Watson wrote in with the following question,

Actually, I don't know that this qualifies as an U.L. or just a mystery, since I've never encountered a suggestion that anybody else suspects it, but I've wondered about this ever since the underlying event happened in the mid-70s. At that time, DC instituted a new policy, prohibiting an editor from writing for his own comics. They even changed the job title, with "Story Editor," if memory serves. It didn't last long, and was history when Roy Thomas arrived from Marvel (Gerry Conway also edited his Firestorm revival, Fury of....). As the new policy went into effect, the first issue of Kobra was published, a comic created, plotted and pencilled by Jack Kirby, but admitted to have been reworked by scripter Martin Pasko, with the artwork retouched, by Pablo Marcos, I think. The question: Was the new rule motivated by a desire to get rid of Kirby, who was essentially running his own company out of his studio, and putting out comics that the vast majority thereof suffered from poor sales and quick cancellations (in those pre-direct-distribution-to-comic-shops days)? Please note that no disrespect whatsoever to the King on my part is intended by the above theorizing.

It was an interesting question, so I put it to everyone's favorite "guy who knows a lot about comic, specifically Jack Kirby comics," Mark Evanier.

Here is Mark's reply:

The policy was instituted after Kirby left. KOBRA was published some time after it was done. And Kirby's sales track record at the time was no worse than anyone else's. DC had dozens of comics that were quickly cancelled.

The no writer-editor policy was instituted because there were several people who wanted that status but DC's then-management felt they were not worthy. Rather than alienate those people, the publisher decided to just eliminate the position. But this was a decision made after Jack was already back at Marvel.

Thanks, Mark!

Glad to hear it!

COMIC URBAN LEGEND: John Byrne's first Fantastic Four work as writer/artist originally was meant for a Coca-Cola giveaway.

STATUS: True

In his great book of interviews, Comic Creators on the Fantastic Four, Tom DeFalco asked John Byrne about Fantastic Four #220 and #221, which were the first two issues of Fantastic Four that John Byrne both wrote and drew.

Byrne responds:

Jim Salicrup, who was editing Fantastic Four at the time, called me up one day and asked me if I would like to do a comic book that would distrbuted by Coca-Cola. They wanted me to use the Fantastic Four, so I came up with a self-contained, very innocuous kind of story because that was what Coke wanted. They didn't want anything huge and cosmic with planets exploding or anything like that. My story was slightly less than a double-sized issue, and when it was all finished, Coca-Cola said that the story was much too violent. If you go back and look at it, you'll see that the Thing hits a couple of robots. But it was too violent for Coca-Cola and they rejected it. Jim suggested we cut it in half, add a couple of pages and turn it into two issues of Fantastic Four. They're the two dullest issues of the FF ever published.

Five cool points to anyone who can tell me if Coca-Cola ended up doing a comic, and if so, what was it like?

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!!

Read More

A new day brings us a nice new column!

Another Comics You Should Own column has appeared! Follow the link and read away - it's all about Detective Comics #471-476, the famed Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers/Terry Austin issues, which of course brought us the best Batman girlfriend EVER! If you don't own these comics, find out why you should!

What I bought - 26 April 2006

Cronin, Our Lord And Master, as I've mentioned before, gets comics downloaded directly into his brain as a part of his Faustian bargain with Marvel's Mephisto (or Mike Carey's by-way-of-Neil-Gaiman's Lucifer, or maybe even Garth Ennis' First of the Fallen), so he has already reviewed a couple of these books, but some of us have remained pure and will get our rewards in comic book heaven when 72 virgins, wearing belly shirts and Catholic schoolgirl skirts and all of whom know who Peter Corbeau is, will bring us whatever first printing comic book we desire and say stuff like "You know, there are other things 72 virgins could do for you ..." and we, like Homer when he has two wives, envisions them both doing yardwork. That will be our reward for having to slog our way through the 90-degree heat (it's freakin' April, and it's 90 degrees, or 30 degrees, if you're a Commie who uses the Centigrade scale) to the comic book shoppe and pick up our books the old-fashioned way! And we'll all laugh at Cronin in HELL!!!! Bwah-ha-ha-ha!

Where the hell was I? Oh, that's right, this week's comics. I'm old and lose the thread sometimes. Forgive me, gentle readers! As an added bonus this week, I will stop in the middle of reviewing books and muse about whether Dan DiDio needs to be punched in the brain.

Batman #652 by James Robinson, Don Kramer, Michael Bair, and Wayne Faucher
$2.50, DC

I have many questions about this issue and the whole story arc in general. Not that I'm not enjoying it, and per Cronin's directive, I think it's good enough to recommend to you, the discerning reader, but I still have some questions. To wit:

1. Did the writers get an e-mail from either Dan DiDio or Grant Morrison (isn't he the Continuity God at DC these days?) laying out the groundwork for One Year Later? I'm just wondering if these random comments by various characters in this book and in the other OYL book I read this week (Catwoman, so you're not on pins and needles) are going to be extrapolated upon in 52, or if Robinson and Pfeifer just think it's cool to throw stuff like this in there. Bullock's return and the allusions to Commissioner Akins being corrupt and Gordon and Bullock sniffing it all out, for instance. Are we going to see Harvey in action as Gotham's protector in 52? I'm just wondering.

2. Why does Harvey blow himself up? Okay, I know he didn't blow himself up, but that was a weird scene. Batman asks him if he's the killer, he hedges and hides behind some stupid "innocent until proven guilty" thing (idiotic Constitution!) and then triggers a bomb in his desk? Way to prove that you're sane, Harvey. Are we going to find out how they "cured" him, or has that already been done? I would think that would be something that would make some ripples, but I hadn't seen anything about it prior to this story. For years the line from DC was that plastic surgery was unfeasible because the damage was too deep. What happened?

3. Orca? Really?

Okay, that last one was kind of a lame question, but when you have a lame - and I mean LAME with a capital LAME - villain like Orca, the question simply becomes: Orca? Really? I said I didn't mind that they killed the Ventriloquist, but the Ventriloquist is a billion times better than Orca. I don't even know a lot about Orca and I know she's lame. Orca?

The mystery deepens in this issue, and the best of the book - shockingly enough for a Robinson-written issue - is the conversation between Bullock and Batman. This is one of the reasons why we buy Batman - he's a flawed individual, surrounded by other flawed individuals, all trying to make their way in a deeply flawed city. That's part of the reason why Batman realizes he needs Tim. Robin has not been irreparably damaged by Gotham (although, you know, DC is working on that - go, DC!) and he allows Batman to see a living embodiment of why he does what he does. If DC can just keep that while still having lots of murder and horror in Gotham, they'll have done a good job.

Freakin' Orca?

Catwoman #54 by Will Pfeifer, David Lopez, and Alvaro Lopez
$2.50, DC

Look at the teeth on that cover! I think they're bigger than Angle Man's head!

I'm not sure why Pfeifer begins this book with a two-page flashback showing the drama of ... a pregnancy test! I mean, we know Selina had a baby last month, so why on earth do we need to see when she finds out she's pregnant? It's only two pages long, so I don't bother with it that much, but it's weird.

This is a weird title, in that each issue is pretty good, and I like what Pfeifer is doing, but each one on its own is just adequate. It's like a Snickers bar - good while you're eating it, but then it's gone and you just move on. That means I should probably drop the book, but I still enjoy what is going on in the book. Darn it. The conflict continues!

The interesting development this issue, of course, is the new Film Freak, who looks like a neat character and is, of course, mean and nasty. He got the footage of Holly beating the crap out of Angle Man once he talked his way out of killing her (stupid James Bond moment!) and now he wants a repeat, because I'm sure his ratings went through the roof when he aired it. The Film Freak, of course, was created by Mr. Douglas Moench back in the 1980s, and he tried to kill Selina more than once, but that Selina is different from this Selina (or whatever the hell DC would have us believe), so this Selina doesn't say, "Holy shit - a guy with the same name tried to kill me back in the 1980s!" I don't mind, though - someone commenting on Cronin's post about this book mentioned that they really liked the old Film Freak, and while I agree, he was kind of a one-note villain, so I don't mind that he's dead. This guy is creepy.

I'm really, really, really, really, really hoping Pfeifer does a lot with this idea of filming violence and broadcasting it for ratings. It's been done before (at least once, in Detective #596-597, but probably in other books as well), but it's always an interesting thing. Come on, Will, you can do it!

Freakin' Orca????

Checkmate #1 by Greg Rucka and Jesus Saiz
$2.99, DC

There are very few comic book characters whose appearance in a book will get me to buy it. I can count them on one hand - the hand of Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown, even! They are: Psylocke, Dazzler, Moon Knight, and Fire. I have been trying very hard to resist buying the latest Uncanny X-Men books because Psylocke is in them, because I'm sure they suck. But the lure is there. The lure!!!!

So I bought Checkmate. Beatriz DaCosta, meng! Look - there she is on that nifty Lee Bermejo cover. There she is sticking a knife in a Kobra "hatchling's" neck. ("Hatchling," Rucka? Really?) There she is lighting things up and burning another bunch of Kobra Kannon Fodder™. Ah, Beatriz, you Brazilian Beauty. Why aren't you a superstar in the DCU? WHY?!?!?

Okay, so what about the quality of the book? Well, Rucka is part of everyone's favorite punching bag on yonder Internets, but I like him. Okay, he's not perfect, but I hold onto the memory of Whiteout and hope he still has that kind of comic goodness in him. I keep hearing good things about Queen & Country, and this seems like that kind of book, which he is good at. So I'm willing to give it a chance.

Checkmate is actually an intriguing idea - as Alan Scott puts it, "policing and monitoring global metahuman activity, while providing a diplomatic conduit for super-powered conflict resolution" - and it should be interesting to see what Rucka does with that. I would hope he picks up the international superhero torch that Ostrander carried so well for so many years (through Firestorm, Suicide Squad, and The Spectre) and that The God Of All Comics briefly revived with the Ultramarines (before he, you know, killed them all). This is a good start, as we get a race against time to prove that the cheese-eating surrender monkeys in France supplied poison gas to Kobra to attack the Vatican (why would the French do that - they're super-Catholics!) so that Alan Scott and Amanda Waller can get a resolution through the United Nations to continue Checkmate's charter, a resolution they believe the French will squelch because Checkmate thwarted the aforementioned attack on the Pope's crib. Phew! Got all that? So we go back and forth between the UN and the team's assault on Kobra Central to secure said proof. Oh, the drama!

It all goes kablooey at the end, as we knew it would, and Checkmate's charter is revoked, but not by the C-E S.M (the French). I'll let you find out who screws them! It sets up some nice tension for the future, and I'm on board for while, at least. Until Rucka kills Beatriz. NOOOOOOO!

Again, I have questions. Bear with me:

1. What's up with Sasha Bordeaux and that thing on her eye? I'm sure it's been explained at some point, but the last time I checked in on her (Detective #775, and yes, I know a lot has happened since then), she didn't have it. It's weird.

2. I miss Fat Amanda Waller. Okay, that's not a question. Here's a question: when did Amanda get a personal trainer and chef? I miss Fat Amanda (see, I bring it all back around for you!).

3. JSA two-parter! What's up with Alan Scott's eye - he's wearing an eyepatch but looks nothing like a pirate, so I'm thinking that's not why he's wearing it. And does Mr. Terrific have the absolute worst superhero costume in recorded history? I know it debuted in The Spectre, so he was Ostrander's baby and the look was probably designed by Tom Mandrake, but holy crap is it awful. And I read somewhere something made me chuckle (if you wrote it, sorry I didn't remember it was you) - Mr. Terrific is a black man wearing blackface. Now that's weird.

4. Orca? Really?

All in all, a nice start. Go check it out. Worship at the altar of Beatriz DaCosta!!!!!

Okay, now I have to stop and consider whether, upon meeting Dan DiDio, I would not even say hello and simply punch him in the brain. I have gotten into two (2) fights in my life, both with the same kid, and the last time was when I was in my early teens (15, maybe?) so I am not terribly violent, but I stopped to read his little notes at the back of my DC purchases this week. In Batman and Catwoman, he gives us "notes" that he wrote to Geoff Johns about Infinite Crisis #7. Stuff like: "Page 10 - Ooooh, so that's who The Flash is. Will check to see if Editor Joan Hilty has the same one in the new FLASH series." and "Page 18 - Dude, we did not go to all that trouble bringing Hal back just to kill him again. Please change it." It really didn't bother me that much, but if you're going to waste space with that and the pictures of four covers for upcoming books, why not bring back letters pages? Or actual previews of upcoming books instead of idiotic, "clever" crap like this? Then, in Checkmate, he waxes poetic about Superboy going to Great Phantom Zone in the Sky. Dude (DiDio looks older than I am, but since he's going around acting like he's in high school and calling people "dude," I can too), he's a fictional character, and not one with a particularly long history, either, and certainly not as well loved as what's-her-name and what's-his-name - you know, those two whose deaths in Crisis on Infinite Earths were big things. I mean, who cares, right? If he stays dead, it will be because nobody who has proven to be a sales winner (The God Of All Comics, for instance) gives you a call and says, "I have a great idea for a Kon-El mini-series, dude! We have to resurrect him!" On the other hand, if Warren Ellis called tomorrow and pitched a story in which Kon-El comes back as a nihilistic superhero hell-bent on killing all the puppies in the world while drinking furniture varnish straight up and grabbing his crotch every so often, you would jump through hoops to make it happen! The only reason no one has brought the pre-Crisis Supergirl back is because they keep creating new Supergirls! They should do a series called "Supergrrls!" where all the versions of Supergirl live together in a loft in TriBeCa and shop during the day and fight crime at night, all while lusting after the same hunky guys! Now that would be a series!

Anyway, Dan DiDio. I know you exist solely to pimp your product, but you don't need to pimp Infinite Crisis. Everyone is already buying it or at least not buying it but mocking it, which means they're aware of it. Spare us, please. And don't take that call from Warren Ellis, please!

So. If I met him on the street, should I punch him in the brain? Just wondering.

Gødland #10 by Joe Casey and Tom Scioli
$2.99, Image

You know, Gødland is as close to a perfect comic book as we have right now. I like other books more, but for a sheer adrenalin shot and the kinds of things that you can only do in comic books, nothing comes close. The two media most closely associated with comic books - movies and books - could not do justice to this comic. A movie would be too expensive and we'd have to cut some of the subplots. Therefore, we'd have to ditch the appearance of Supra, Ed, and Eeg-oh on one of the pages (probably). A prose book, on the other hand, would forsake the glorious art of Scioli and rely on describing every single detail through words, and we'd miss the awesome glory of the pyramid thing slowly settling down over New York and destroying the Statue of Liberty, and the Psychotronic Wheel of Influence wouldn't have the same punch. Casey is holding nothing back, and that's a good thing. And I haven't even mentioned that Neela has flown out of the solar system and who the hell knows where she's going?

Another great issue. It's really hard to describe the wonderful goodness that this comic brings every month. Just a wild ride that never slows up but still gives us character development (Adam's dad didn't love him!) and humor - Friedrich Nickelhead even plugs The Milkman Murders - I wonder why ...

If you don't buy this you deserve to have Dan DiDio come to your house and tell you why Infinite Crisis #6 is the single greatest comic book ever published in this or any other dimension. And you don't want that, do you????

X-Factor #6 by Peter David and Dennis Calero
$2.99, Marvel

This continues to be a typical Peter David book. That may be good, or that may be bad, depending on your taste in Peter David books. If you don't like Peter David, this will probably do little to change your mind. I like Peter David, so I enjoy the witty banter, the caustic comments, the vague menace, and the unsolved mysteries. But that's just me.

This is Layla Miller's story, for the most part, as she is thrown out of X-Factor by a suspicious Rictor ("Rictor" is such a stupid name - it sounds too much like "rictus," which always leads me to unpleasant places) - "thrown out" might be too harsh, but he does question what she knows about Theresa's attack, which leads her to leave - and returns to the orphanage whence she came, who's willing to take her back now that she doesn't have mutant powers anymore. Jamie and Rahne go to get her back, but she's not sure if she should, because she did know that Theresa would be attacked, and she let it happen because it was "supposed to." It's all very chaos theory, as she explains. And it's interesting, because as usual, David is not "writing for the trade" - these things have long-term consequences, and at the end, when Layla apparently brings a butterfly back to life, he throws us yet another curveball. The nice thing about David is I've read enough of his work to know he has plans, and he's not just tossing in ideas because they're "cool." I hope the book lasts long enough to see them through.

This is another very good book that is getting better. Just so you know.

MINI-SERIES I BOUGHT BUT DID NOT READ.
American Way #3 (of 8) by John Ridley, Georges Jeanty, Ray Snyder, and Karl Story
$2.99, DC/Wildstorm

I mentioned last time that I had decided to buy the rest of it after reading the first two issues. Don't let me down, Ridley! You would rue that day!

Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein #4 by The God Of All Comics and Doug Mahnke
$2.99, DC

Oh dear. Only one more issue to go, and then I get to sit down and read all of these at once. Will my head explode? Will I understand English afterwards? Will I be transported into the Morrison-verse, where dung beetles rule like emperors and Marlo Thomas is the top box-office star of all time? I like how Seven Soldiers #1 is, according to the back of the book, "in stores April 5, 2006." A little behind schedule, are we? I expect to read the finished product some time before the end of the year. We'll see.

So that's it for this week. Sorry I was ranting. Utter stupidity from the management of major comic book companies does that to me. But remember - there's always Gødland to make things better.

ORCA????

Read More

Reviews for the 4/26 Comic Week

The Incredible Hulk #94

Godland #10

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #5

X-Factor #6

Skye Runner #1

Black Panther #15

Annihilation: Ronan #1

Wolverine #41

Legends of the Dark Knight #204

SOLO #10: Damion Scott

Fantastic Four #537/Amazing Spider-Man #532

NYC Mech: Beta Love #6

Catwoman #54

Storm #3

Runaways #15

Even though this way is a gazillion times more work for me, I figure I'll do y'all a solid.

Comics' magna opera: Part One - the quasi-masterpieces

In comics, we speak of "runs" by creators that imprint themselves indelibly on the minds of readers. These are usually linked to a certain writer, or perhaps a writer/artist team, but rarely specifically to an artist. These are comics that, I would argue, everyone agrees upon as masterpieces - that's not to say that they are universally loved. We can agree that "Hamlet" is Shakespeare's masterpiece even if we don't like the play, right? What I want to examine in this post is the masterpieces of modern comics, and in a somewhat more general context, what happens after you write one?

The idea of a magnum opus in comics is a relatively new one, I would think. Bear in mind I'm not a comics historian, so I could be horribly wrong-headed, but I don't think so. In the early years of comics, they were completely disposable entertainment, and often creators didn't even get credit for the work they were doing (Bill Finger, anyone?). This practice continued in mainstream comics for years, and even after the situation was rectified, the creators didn't own their work and weren't compensated too well for it. The idea that the creators would conscientiously sit down to write a masterpiece (I know, no one decides that, but again, bear with me) wasn't part of the program in comics. We can speak all we want about Lee and Kirby's remarkable run on Fantastic Four, but does it constitute a masterpiece? Maybe. But reading those issues, although they are important from a comics point of view, it doesn't feel like Lee and Kirby were trying to form a coherent whole with their work. They were just cranking out an issue a month, and over the years, it became, perhaps, their masterpiece.

So, in comics, what does constitute a masterpiece? Well, that's a good question. I have made it no secret that I am far more likely to pay attention to the writing side of comics rather than the artistic, simply because I can break down the written part better than the art on any given book. So when I consider masterpieces in comics, my definition will tend toward something that is written. In my mind, a masterpiece has to be a highly regarded work by a writer (or, again, a writer/artist team) on a book for a given length of time, which means that it should be longer than six months or so. Of the masterpieces I am thinking about, only one (Watchmen, which I'll consider in the next installment) is twelve issues. The rest span several years, which gives them a strength and staying power that shorter runs lack. I also don't know if I can consider a graphic novel - one and done - as a masterpiece. We'll see as we go through this. Maybe one will pop up. A magnum opus should also do one of two things: change the way we look at comics OR reveal something about the creator. With this in mind, I want to look at comics that might not be the absolute best work by the writer (Planetary is not Ellis' masterpiece, for instance, although that has as much as it not being finished as other reasons), but the work that best shows us his view of the world and personality (for this reason, Ellis' entry here is Transmetropolitan). You can argue with my definitions, but of all the masterpieces I can think of in realms other than comics, it seems like it's also very often the artist's most personal work. Again, I could be wrong.

So, when do comic book creators shift from being wage slaves to auteurs and we can begin to consider whether what they're working on is a masterpiece? Ah, a fine question. And the easy answer is: the 1970s.

Consider Bernie Wrightson. Or Steve Gerber. Or Jack Kirby. I haven't read the early Swamp Thing issues or Howard the Duck or the Fourth World saga, but it seems that many people consider them seminal works in the creator-driven comics world we now inhabit. Perhaps we should call them proto-masterpieces. But the 1970s saw a shift toward this idea of comics as a long-running novel or mythic epic, and writers and artists began treating them more like stories that fit together in a more cohesive fashion. Granted, Lee and his Marvel ilk had done this in the 1960s, but not to the extent that later writers did. So in the late 1970s and early 1980s, we had the early masterpieces. These were created within the framework of comics' corporate culture, but are still able to transcend those constraints.

So what are a few of the epics? In this installment (this is a long post, so I thought I'd split it up) I want to look at what I would call quasi-masterpieces. They are works that we associate most readily with a certain creator, but they are still corporate characters, and therefore the creators could not do what they may have wanted completely, and of course the characters continue after the creator is done with them. Therefore, as great as the runs of these titles were, I don't know if they can be considered true magna opera - there's just too much editorial control. This can be a good thing (as our first case shows), but it can also curb the infusion of the creators' personality into the work and also make sure that the character cannot follow a true realistic arc, simply because he or she can't die. They are, however, the best these creators could do under the circumstances.

Chris Claremont and John Byrne's masterpiece: Uncanny X-Men #100-138, the Phoenix cycle, August 1976-October 1980. Well, Byrne came on a bit late (issue #108), so I guess part of this could be called Cockrum's masterpiece as well, but this is really Claremont's and Byrne's baby. Basically, Claremont wanted to use his persecuted mutants to tell the story of Jesus. Not too ambitious, is it? At the end of issue #100, Jean Grey uses her telekinesis to land the space shuttle that the X-Men are using to fly back to earth after their adventure in space. She is bombarded with radiation from a solar flare. The issue ends with everyone thinking she's going to die, and at the beginning of issue #101, the shuttle crashes into Jamaica Bay and everyone thinks Jean is dead. She rises from the water as Phoenix, however, and Claremont's epic begins. After Jean recovers from the trauma of her experience, the first fight she gets into is with Firelord, and then she saves the universe. Not too shabby. However, this presented a problem for Claremont: when you have a mutant who can, quite literally, stitch the universe back together, how do you come up with threats that she can't defeat? Claremont and Byrne came up with some ideas - mind control and when she thought the X-Men were dead so they could have adventures without her - but eventually they were going to have to address the fact that she was probably the most powerful mutant on the planet. This came with the Dark Phoenix part of the cycle, which, if we keep the Jesus metaphor going (and why not?) is when she descends into hell. No, she doesn't get crucified, but her mental torment and fall from grace, leading to the crime of killing millions of sentient beings, is hellish enough. Claremont and Byrne had worked themselves into a corner with this one, and despite the controversy over what should happen to Jean Grey, Phoenix's sacrifice in issue #137 is the only way, really, that the story could have ended - not because of editorial mandate and the fact that Marvel couldn't allow a mass murderer to continue as a hero on a best-selling book, but because thematically, it was what Claremont and Byrne had been working toward, no matter how much they try to deny it. Jean sacrifices herself to save the world, just as she was ready to sacrifice herself in issue #108 to save the world. In that instance, she was strong enough to do the heroic thing, but by issue #137, she isn't. The very nature of the Phoenix as well demands sacrifice. Jean "died" in issue #101 and was resurrected by the Phoenix. She dies again in issue #137. It's logical, and adds power to the Jesus metaphor that Claremont and Byrne deliberately set up. Issue #138 adds a strong coda, as Cyclops, a founding member of the team, leaves. The X-Men have been severed from their past, and this adds poignancy to the Phoenix saga as well. These two people, who grew up together and experienced the highs and the lows of being a mutant superhero, have "grown up," so to speak - Jean because she was able to make the ultimate sacrifice, and Scott because he was able to leave his "family."

So what happened next? Claremont continued to write the book for another eleven years, and despite some very strong work (even after Paul Smith left), he was never able to recapture the magic. I would argue that Uncanny X-Men #94-280 form one of the most satisfying pieces of literature you'd ever want to read, but I may be biased. The problem with Claremont is not that Byrne left the book, but that he just isn't all that good a writer. That's not to say he doesn't have his strengths - plotting and characterization (but not dialogue) among them - but his mythology that he created in those first 40 issues of the X-Men eventually took over and he became a self-perpetuating mutant mogul, concerned with the franchise more than the stories. Again, that's not to say they were bad comics - and Claremont has certainly done more with the X-Men as a mythology than any writer since, with the possible exception of Morrison. But when you've made a cornerstone of the Marvel Universe into an omnipotent being capable of re-imagining reality and then you kill her, you really don't have a lot of places to go but down. Claremont's limitations as a writer (his reliance on catchphrases, for instance, which I know is partly because of the serial nature of comics, but doesn't forgive it) made his post-Phoenix work somewhat hit-and-miss. Even in issues that I think are highpoints of his later X-Men (the Jim Lee Psylocke trilogy comes to mind), the actual words on the page are occasionally painful to read. Byrne, on the other hand, just went insane.

Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz's masterpiece: Moon Knight #1-30, November 1980-April 1983. Those people who were mystified by the fan reaction (including mine) to the latest relaunch of Moon Knight have either never read these issues or read them with a cold, black heart. I'm actually a little wary about calling this a masterpiece - certainly I hold them in high regard, but I'm not sure if they hold up in terms of epic storytelling. It's certainly not Sienkiewicz's best work - he was still aping Neal Adams at the beginning of the run, and only slowly evolved into the master he was at the end of the run, but I'm not sure what his masterpiece would be, which is why it's hard to focus on artists for this post. Sienkiewicz's magnum opus could certainly be something shorter than the parameters I've set out - Elektra: Assassin or Stray Toasters or even Big Numbers, of which only two issues saw print. This is certainly the longest he's ever spent on a title, however, and the art is gripping and fun to watch as he gains confidence.

As for Moench, he's a guy who's been around forever but never gets quite the credit he deserves. Again, I'm not sure if this counts as his masterpiece - whether he even has one is another question. This and his mid-1990s run on Batman are probably his two best works, but with Batman, although it is a fine piece of comics literature, he was a mite too didactic, and this affected the work a bit. That's not to say comics can't teach us something, but too often in Batman, Moench made that his whole point. He created Moon Knight in 1976 and was given this opportunity to write the ongoing series, and that's why I count this as his grand work - it's a personal project to him, and he rose to the occasion.

The most fascinating thing about Moon Knight, of course, is his multiple personalities. Writers always hint around the duality of superheroes and their secret identities, but Moench took the next logical step and made Marc Spector a man with many personalities, of which Moon Knight was just one. This allowed him to shunt various aspects of his personality into these personae - Spector was the brutish lout who could kill without compunction; Grant was the urbane millionaire who charmed the ladies; Lockley was the sleuth with all sorts of street connections; Moon Knight was the avenger. Moench is best when showing how these personae conflict with each other - Marlene is constantly bugging Steven Grant to step up, but he often must remain in the background. The persona of a globe-trotting mercenary beholden to an Egyptian god allowed Moench to tell adventure stories, such as when Spector fights Bushman, but the persona of a street-smart cabbie allowed him to tell gritty, tough stories set deep in the darkness of New York, too, such as the Stained Glass Scarlett story and the domestic abuse story, "Hit It," in issue #26. Moench, like Sienkiewicz, got better as the series went on, as he began to bring in more and more of his own thoughts and theories about the world - I've mentioned before that Moench loves paranoia and mysterious government agencies running things, and these begin to seep in a bit toward the end of this run, especially in issues #29-30, when Jack Russell shows up. It didn't take over the stories (like it did in the two Moon Knight mini-series he wrote in the late 1990s), but it did add an edge to the title that had been lacking in the beginning.

It's a tough call on this, but I'm going to stick with it not because the book was the highest quality (it's very good, don't get me wrong), but because of its somewhat revolutionary nature. It was one of the first books to be sold in specialty stores exclusively, and the fact that kids couldn't get it on the news stands meant that Moench and Sienkiewicz could afford to be a bit more "adult" with the themes and ideas presented. It also signaled the rise of a major talent in comics and gave us a very interesting character who probably can never be a superstar in the Marvel Universe but could easily be a vehicle for some great stories. Finally, the personal nature of these issues make this more than just a standard "urban warrior" kind of thing. Close call, but I would argue it's a masterpiece.

Peter David's masterpiece: The Incredible Hulk, issues #347-425, September 1988-January 1995. I may get some argument from this one, but a few things make this a masterpiece. First, David took an essentially one-note character and made him one of the most complex in the Marvel Universe. Second, he kept re-inventing the Hulk, all the while adding to the whole story that he was creating, which is an impressive achievement. This is not just the arc of Bruce Banner/Hulk's life, it's a radical change every so often, while still keeping the arc of his life running smoothly. I doubt if anyone would have the onions to do this sort of thing with a long-running character like the Hulk, but let's face it - he wasn't much when David took him over. First, David had to clear the decks, and he did that prior to #347 (he started writing the book around issue #332, but that first year or so was only so-so, as he wiped the slate clean). In issue #347, he brings us the gray, intelligent Hulk - Joe Fixit, a Las Vegas mob enforcer. It's a bold move, and one that leads, ultimately, to Rick Jones' marriage to Marlo (Hulk's girlfriend for a time). However, David is not satisfied with simply changing the Hulk completely. He understands that this character is essentially goofy - in the cynical 1980s and 1990s, we just can't accept that a gamma bomb would be able to change a man's physical nature so radically, so David begins to build a foundation of how and why the Hulk is this way. He examines the Hulk's multiple personalities, and even integrates the coloring fiasco that changed the Hulk from gray (in his first appearance) to green (in his subsequent appearances). These problems culminate in several blockbuster issues, including #372 and #377, when we get a fully integrated green Hulk who is intelligent and even urbane. David never stops trying to get to the bottom of who the Hulk actually is - Bruce Banner disappears for long stretches during this run, as David points us to the conclusion that "Banner" is just a façade and the intelligent green Hulk is the true personality. Just when we accept that, David again pulls the rug out from under us and makes us once again question what the Hulk actually is. Finally, in issue #425, another integration develops, and we are again thrown into confusion, as Banner is the raging maniac while the Hulk remains lucid.

David wrote the book for another forty (!) issues, and he probably would have kept on if policy at Marvel hadn't pissed him off, but although the issues after #425 are decent, he had lost a bit of the direction that he had managed to keep for the previous 75 issues or so. The art became sloppy until Adam Kubert came on board late in the run, even though the artists (including Liam Sharp, Mike Deodato, and Angel Medina) have done decent work on other books. Throughout his run on the Hulk, David had a succession of good artists at the top of their game - Jeff Purves, Dale Keown, and Gary Frank - who helped bring his vision to life. David's work, it seemed, became sloppier when the art did, and the succession of crossovers Marvel was indulging in during the mid-1990s didn't help.

What was next for David? He is principally known for his work on the Incredible Hulk, unless people know him for his Star Trek comics. He wrote Aquaman and X-Factor during the time he was writing the Hulk, and since his work on that ended, he has done a lot of other stuff. Right now he's working on Fallen Angel, which might be a masterpiece when it's all said and done, plus various other stuff. With the exception of Fallen Angel, however, which is only 24 issues in, he hasn't done anything that has approached not only his longevity on the Hulk but its sheer inventiveness. He still has a lot of comic book work left in him, though.

As far as quasi-masterpieces, these three are good examples. As I have said many times, my knowledge of comics prior to 1988 is somewhat limited (many people would say my knowledge since 1988 is limited, too), so I know I'm missing several. I would count Walt Simonson on the Mighty Thor (#337-382, roughly), but I only own up to issue #355 and don't want to consider it without having read it. Does Byrne's Fantastic Four count? Didn't Gruenwald write a ton of Captain America comics, and aren't they considered brilliant? Is Michelinie's run on Iron Man a masterpiece? What about Wolfman and Perez on Teen Titans? I'm just wondering.

Anyway, thoughts on this are welcome, as usual. It's very interesting to consider when creators hit their peak and what they do after it.

Next time: the rise of the auteurs!

Read More

Cronin Theory of Comics - Comic Reviews

As you all may know, the way that I see the blog working, when it comes to reviews, is that we tell you all what comic books we think are good or, in the alternative, tell you why books that were NOT good were not good At the heart of that, then, is the only "rule" I've ever given the folks who I ask to contribute here - "Don't recommend a book that you do not think is good." That might seem to be a no-brainer, but far too often, elsewhere, I have seen people write reviews like, "Yeah, this comic isn't really that good, but I still like it, so I'll give it a B." I think stuff like that is counter-productive.

I have no problem with people liking books that they don't think are good, heck, I like plenty of books that I wouldn't classify as "good." They just happen to appeal to me. At the same time, I would hope that those same people wouldn't recommend the comics to OTHER people. That's how I like to look at it - "Recommended," to me, means that I am willing to say, "Yeah, I think there is a darn good chance that most people will (or, to be more egotistical, should) enjoy this book." That's all.

Therefore, when I DON'T recommend a book, it does not mean that I think the book is bad. If I think the book is bad, I'll make sure to say I think the book is bad (heck, for the really bad, Nightwing #118-119/Battle for Bludhaven level books, I have a special "Recommended That You DON'T Read" category). In most cases, though, I'll mention a certain audience who I think probably would enjoy the book, but I won't give it an overall recommendation. So, while most books will end up as "not recommended," that does not mean that most comics are terrible, or anything like that. I just think we should make it a point just to make sure people know which comics are GOOD.

Read More

Saying Goodbye to Small Gods

Sadly, Small Gods, which was neat comic (and I know a favorite of Mssr. Burgas) has come to an end, and even the two-issue mini-series that was recently solicited was cancelled, due to low sales. In a somewhat happier note, editor extraordinaire, Kris Simon, has published the first ten pages of art and the full two-issues worth of story up on her forum. Check it all out here, and feel free to log in to say goodbye, if you were a Small Gods fan.

This Book Is Good - Go Die #1

Mark P. Slee's comic strip, Go Die, was JUST ahead of its time, as its cynical, outrageous humor and over-the-top violence would have fit in perfectly in the world post-South Park, but when it became popular on college and indie newspapers in the early 90s, it was definitely a bit...different. In 1993, Threshold Press put out a collection of Go Die strips in a comic book, Go Die #1. If you ever manage to come across this comic - buy it! It is sick, but quite humorous, as I'll explain in a moment, with an introduction of the cast of characters (courtesy of the only Go Die site I know, which has not changed since I first found it on the net about seven years ago, http://www.godie.com/home.html)...

First off, sorry you have to click on each strip to read it clearly - weird quirk in blogger's photo-hosting. At least, by clicking, you DO get a full image, which is nice.



This is Ron, a college student (looks kinda old for a college student, though)...



Ron owns Spoon, a drug-addicted, alcoholic dog.



Ron's young neighbor, Billy, is a violent psychopath.







Ron's next-door neighbors are the married couple, Dead Guy and Naked Lady...





Most of the strips, though, just involve Ron and Spoon, making a lot of deadpan jokes.













Well, I think you've had a good taste - I happen to love Go Die, but the humor is certainly not for everybody. I hope I've shared enough that you can figure if the humor is too twisted for you.

Finally, TEN (which is a lot) cool points to the person who can tell me what Mark P. Slee is up to nowadays!

Read More

Trying Something New Out

I don't think I write enough reviews for new books, so I'm trying something new out this Wednesday. I'm just warning y'all in advance because it may look a little weird - because, so as to not use up too much space, it'll just be the titles.

On a dorkier note, I also wish to announce the "Cool Points" program at Comics Should Be Good. It's simple enough - I ask people for info about something that I am curious about and I offer a certain amount of cool points for it - then whoever supplies the info gets the cool points. Top Three point-getters get listed on the sidebar! There may or may not be material rewards for Cool Point winners (haven't thought that far - seems likely, though) - but you get the immaterial bragging rights, and that's worth its weight in gold (but since bragging rights are immaterial, they do not weight anything, I'm afraid).