New Year, new musings, a War of the Gods?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Been a busy one for me. Driving to and from Greensboro for extended weekends. A little writing. A little job searching. Some reading. Due to unemployment, mostly agreed to not really exchange monetary gifts this year. For my girlfriend, I wrote a poem, and took some photos of us from different trips and events with friends and family over the last 3 years including trips to the beach, the mountains and to India and placed them in a scrapbook. Some were serious and some were silly and some a little bittersweet such as my cat Fred who I had to put to sleep this past year.

I got three great comic related gifts. From my gal, a large Peanuts hardback "Celebrating 60 Years". It doesn't contain every Peanuts strip but does have thousands of them. Included are also quotes as to what Sparky thought about when he created different characters and concepts, what fueled the variety of stories such as why Snoopy fights the Red Baron and why Schroeder idolizes Beethoven. And, there are strips I remember from childhood books but not seen since such as the time Snoopy's doghouse burns down. Did you know he had a Van Gogh? Also from her, a collection of "Mutts" strips. "Mutts" and "Get Fuzzy" are probably my two favorite modern day strips and pretty much what I miss most from not seeing the daily newspaper although I do get to read "Get Fuzzy" from time to time when visiting and I pick up "The Rhinoceros Times". From her nephew a signed collection of Chad Carpenter's Tundra comic strip. Her sister's family lives in Alaska where Chad is from and his strip is set. So, for the last two years, he goes to a book signing and picks up the latest book for me. It's funny stuff though she claims it's very guy humor. She might be right. My brother and I laugh out loud at the same strips and she just rolls her eyes. You can check it out online at http://www.tundracomics.com/

Going into the new year and Steven Grant has done his last Permanent Damage column while Erik Larsen has started a column over at comicbookresources. I'm going to miss Grant's column. I didn't always agree with him, but he often made you think. And, he had some unique insight into comics and the business. He chooses to end with his last few columns on the one subject that we are in absolute agreement: Gil Kane's wonderful art and especially his Western covers. It's not the first time that he broached the subject and I think it was Grant that pointed out the first time why Kane's covers (and much of his splash pages and climactic scenes inside) work to such a degree. Kane uses all three planes of the page: the background, midground and foreground. All artists do to a degree, but Kane had the panes communicate with each other, action crossed the various panes. The background wasn't merely scenery, the action didn't just take place in the midground, the foreground often was so much at the surface of the plane that it involved the reader as if he was part of the scene. He also turned the camera 90 degrees. Instead of looking at a scene of action perpendicular that read from left to right, his action moved from back to front and back again, the action coming towards the reader as if everything was for a 3-D comic. It's what gives his covers and art power. Kane also mined other tricks to show emotion or to transcend just the three planes such as the "up the nose" shots of heads often looking omniscently from the air above a scene. It's not meant as a literal depiction of the scene but a way of presenting several sides of a scene in one panel and to heighten the emotional response. I won't say Kane was the perfect comicbook artist. I think there's a reason why he rarely did team books or ones that contained heroes with the sole power of superspeed. And, the few times he drew the FF, it seemed an uncomfortable fit. But, when it came to drawing cosmic and sci-fi heroes and Westerns, he was the tops. There are times I wonder about the companies and creators. Kane was a name that had enough of a draw that one would think to just have centered a book around him. Separate him from the mainstream ongoing continuity and just have him work with writers on various characters from their vast history as well as creating new characters. Get him to draw the Shining Knight one month, the Western Johnny Thunder, and the JSA Johnny Thunder another, then Space Ranger, the Simon & Kirby Manhunter and the Demon after that.

Larsen seems to be a little more in line with what I think but I think he suffers a bit of diarrhea of the mouth, he often says or presents things in ways guaranteed to get some kind of response and often causing people to really miss the point of what he's saying. Especially, this week's column judging from most of the responses. As it has come down to people defending their buying the monthlies vs. the trades when what he was talking about was the need for the monthlies to get back to the point that they can stand on their own. How many titles have you dropped just because there wasn't enough there in the monthly comic? Even when telling a multi-part story, each issue also has to carry enough to make it a satisfying read on its own. But, as more and more writers write for the trade, the stories have become so long and stretched out, there's not enough meat in a single issue. No beginning, middle or end. In other words, to wait for the trades should be a financial decision but not because the story is written in such a way that it's read better that way. I recently read in one forum about a disgruntled Captain America reader, that he kept trying Brubaker's Cap in the monthly format but kept turning away. He lately became a fan because he got a whole bunch of the comics at one time in a deal. When he was able to read a large chunk of them at one time, it made him appreciate what Brubaker was doing. I couldn't help but think that was a bit of a backhanded compliment, though. Because it meant that on a month-to-month basis, Brubaker was failing him as a creator because the story that was being told was not being properly told, delivering enough story to really draw him in and care in short installments. I know it was one of the factors for me. It is also one of the factors that have lead me to stop getting BPRD and Hellboy books that Mignola doesn't have a direct hand in. The stories drag on too long and ramble a bit too much. I often feel that they would be best read in one sitting and if that's the case, why get the monthlies?

Larsen also nails why anthologies should work yet often don't (and why Wednesday Comics didn't work for me, by the way). Again, it's about making sure there's enough story in there to warrant getting the book, to not just rely on the lead story or lead character. Make sure that you're delivering a satisfying read for the money each and every issue. An anthology needs more than just one story to draw the reader in, he should want to read about half or two thirds of the stories in it, all of which need not be a complete story but it should be a complete narrative and not just a bite. You can make Detective an anthology, with the lead story being twice as long as the others, usually complete or a two-three parter while backed up by various other stories by top creators, such as Gotham Central, Batgirl, Man-bat. Some of which would be done in one short stories and some longer serialized features over 6 to 12 months. The model I'm thinking of is the old 100 Page Giants the books used to be as well as Batman Family and Superman Family. Ever try to find those at affordable prices these days? The Goodwin-Simonson Manhunter storyline from those days has been a gold-mine for DC not only in reprints but in how many storylines and characters have drawn inspiration from it. And, it was just a measly little back-up strip by two barely known creators with a forgotten character.

Comic Reviews

One of the dangers of not blogging in a while, comics get forgotten about and not talked about. You know, one of my favorite things to rant and rave about.
Black Coat: The mini has come to an end and America is on the precipice of war with England. Black Coat has to come up with a cure for his immortality since it carries with it a curse of madness as well as defeat the agent of a secret mystical brotherhood that is engineering the war. It's wonderful stuff! Set against the historical backdrop of the American Revolution, it lends a certain inevitability/fatality to the story. While certain people don't want war and others are fighting against being manipulated though they recognize the war as necessary, on some level you know that the war is going to happen regardless of their actions. The best they can hope for is that the wrong people don't profit from it. The story mines Mignola territory but there's more subtlety to it. There is intrigue and action. Likewise, it mines Captain America and Batman territory, but the story moves at a more brisk pace with plenty of action and the hero more engaging than either of those have been in ages. If this book was an ongoing monthly, I could probably be easily happy with just reading it and Astro City.

Hellboy: Bride of Hell: I commented before how I am not a big fan of Richard Corben's artwork but with Hellboy it's a great fit. His detailed yet stark contrasts works perfectly with Mignola's characters and storytelling. This comic is also a complete story in one issue, harkening back to classic Hellboy (and older horror comics' stories) as a tale of mood and dread yet with a quick rhythm and pace. Also contained is an excerpt of Guy Davis' Marquis which I might have to try to find at some point.
Julie Walker is the Phantom: I don't mind spending a little extra when the book is something like this. Longer than a regular comic, with a full story, wonderful artwork AND appropriate coloring! For those who came in late, Julie Walker was the twin sister of the Phantom of the late 1800's and when her brother is incapacitated she puts on the costume though no one ever comments on why the Phantom should change sexes. This story involves real-life reporter and crusader Nellie Bly recreating Phineas Fogg's trip around the world in less than 80 days. However, a man that has been inconvenienced by her previous articles decides that at some point, she should suffer a fatal accident on this trip. When the Phantom breaks a leg stopping the first attempt, his sister takes over secretly guarding Nellie Bly. The subtext of women's lib and sexism runs through the story but without actually taking over or being preachy and stands as a good superhero story against the historical backdrop. While I don't know if it's intentional or not, it also raises the question of other branches to the Phantom line. Julie is mentioned as being married and having kids, which means there's at least one more line to the Phantom heritage. It might suggest why in the 20th Century, there'd be other characters to adopt Phantom like m.o.s, if you take a Wold Newtonian view of comicbook characters.

JSA: One of the things I'm not liking about the JSA books is how they split up the stories and such. In others words, a big part of the plotting of the last several months of the JSA books is basically getting covered now in the split-off book. If you want to find out the villain behind the attacks of the gang of supervillains and why they were not going after Stargirl, you got to get the other book. While the attack by Kid Karnevil against Mr. Terrific and Obsidian's reduction to an egg and being taken is covered in the main book. And, a different big villain is brought back to fight the JSA while that story continues as a subplot since they cannot go after the big villain of the other plotline, even though that's what was driving the book for the last few months. I like the division in that it allows me to get just one book and it allows more characterization, but this is a bit backasswards. The bringing Mordru in as a big threat villain for the team to immediately face should have gone into the new book as the new threat while the ongoing plotline actually gets addressed in the book that it started.

Otherwise, the newest issue has art that is straightforward and tells the story well. There are funny bits as people think that Liberty Bell and Hourman being on different teams means they broke up, and Mr. Terrific balking at inactivity while he recovers, a light-hearted touch often missing in many of today's comics. The deal with Mr. America's whip fell flat as it turned a decent and non-lethal weapon into a weapon that would be lethal against anyone this side of Solomon Grundy and he wouldn't be able to use it to disarm, as an impromptu swing line, etc.

JSA ALL-STARS: Not really getting this book, but my brother picked up my comics this week, and they placed this in my bag since I do get the JSA. I like the cover, specifically the coloring style. Sadly, that's the best thing to recommend this book. My brother made the comment that the artist might need to get laid a bit more often. While Power girl's chest has always been a bit robust and is part of her thing, the artist pretty much draws the Asian Judomaster, villain Tigress and teenager Stargirl with the same proportions! In this book we have the modern tendency to take last seen colorful characters in new, mundane and colorless outfits ie Arthur Pemberton. Also on hand is to treat his last appearance apparently was in real time since he's now 30 years older since then. Bleh. The back-up story also has a few mis-steps. The Tigress and Icesickle are two of the villains in the lead story but also in the back-up. No one could be bothered to possibly create NEW villains to use instead of trotting out the same ones over and over. And poor Johnny Quick who isn't even in the story, they manage to completely mischaracterize as a big part of the motivation serving the story is that he had a "Speed Force" fixation. Only he didn't. He believed in his magic formula and the Meta-Gene explanation NOT the Speed Force and apparently often butted heads with Max Mercury over it. In fact, until Wally's accessing the Speed Force and Johnny's being absorbed by it, Max Mercury was portrayed as being the only one of the heroes to believe in it. So, Jesse Quick would not have been told any bed-time stories about it.

JSA Blackest Night: Did not get this, but it was in my bag the other week so I leafed through it and considered it. Ultimately, saw it was a mini by James Robinson who hasn't impressed me enough to buy anything lately and not a one-shot, and I'm not getting any of the other BN tie-ins, so there. But, in it Damage is dead? Yet in All-Stars he's fine. So, either he dies at some point in the future of the JSA books or he recovers from his dead status here. See, the JSA annual does set up the fact that something serious happens to Damage and could die, that's nice foreshadowing and setting up of tension and dread. This is just removing the teeth from that future story as we now know the outcome. The Annual was fairly weak, it might have been better if the whole comic was made to be about Damage's death instead of character vignettes (though the Damage one was nice and moody while the rest pretty much forgettable).

Superpowers: The latest issue is the lull before the storm. The villain is revealed as is his plot and the heroes put together a plan and position themselves while the villains behind the scene bicker. While I have lauded the story for moving at a faster pace this go around, this issue raises some of the same flaws that plagued the first one. Characters are made to fit the story and logical extrapolations are bypassed to tell the story the way the writers want to instead of following internal story logic. Captain Future is revealed as Zeus who wants the Promethean fire stolen from him back. An interesting idea but so far it isn't really explained as to how and why he became Captain Future or if there ever was a real Captain Future. Nor, why he would choose this scheme, and if he was behind the Pandora's urn angle that trapped the heroes for decades and why he'd fall for it himself.

Just as in Chapter One, the Lama was made into a full-blown magician instead of using characters who WERE full blown magicians, this issue makes some characters into adversaries for Zeus while ignoring all the mythological heroes actually available. Samson makes some sense, but Twister is given a mythological origin as a descendant of Odysseus AND cursed by a wind god. Admittedly, as far as I know he was never given a real back story, but it just seems a little pat, whereas another character from the 1940s who hasn't appeared was Tornado Tom. Tom had been picked up by a tornado and deposited hundreds of miles away and left a victim of amnesia and now with tornado powers. If a character suggested being cursed, it was he. Not to mention if you wanted a hero with abilities descended from a Greek hero there was the Nedor hero Thesson, descended from Theseus and with a ring that grants him super strength and endurance. Meanwhile the Flame and Flame Girl whose mastery over flame given to them by those friendly Tibetan monks are made to tie in to the Greek myth. Acceptable enough. However, what gets ignored are characters like Vulcan who has been captured by the cabal that is helping Zeus. They feed him Flame Girl when they have a hero who claims to be descended from the Greek gods themselves. Part of that group are other characters like Lash Lightning and Lightning Girl who got their lightning based powers from the mystic Old Man of the Pyramid, the Sword who received powers through Excalibur and others with no origins and pseudo mystical underpinnings such as Captain Courageous and Unknown Soldier. Also serving them through President West is Man of War, a being created by Mars and imbued with the powers of the greek gods including a flaming sword. Meanwhile, Man-Cat (nee Cat-man) got his abilities from a Cat goddess. Other GA characters with powers from the gods: Diana the Huntress (the actual goddess given the mission by Zeus to fight Nazis in Greece), Thor (the Fox hero given the weapons of Thor and his powers by the Norse gods), Craig Carter (Centaur hero with a ring that allows him to call forth the gods including Zeus to serve him). As well as various heroes empowered by various spirits like the Fighting Yank: Captain Red Cross, Yankee Girl, Major Victory, Captain Fearless, Citizen Smith, Steel Fist, the Flag (also in service with other patriots to the President and the cabal) and then a host of other mystically powered heroes. And, there's ole Hercules himself who pops up enough in various GA companies that an appearance wouldn't be out of the question.

Lastly, what about Mars himself? Mars who was a villain in the Fiction House titles. Mars who was a villain and accidentally created a hero in Man of War and spent time trying to destroy him. You have a precedent with Mars, using the actual history and stories that this series is supposed to be celebrating. By making the villain Zeus, it raises the question why him and why not an actual GA bad-guy god? Or at least other dark gods such as Shiva, Loki, or Set whose pantheons are not as extensively intertwined already with the heroes and history. It's a case where the story hasn't sufficiently explained the motivations behind the extreme actions. As it sets forth to cast a character against type, the explanation given is weak and raises other questions. By making the changes to characters to use the ones they did use, it calls attention to all of the other characters that would have made more sense or at least the equal amount of sense to use, even with ones that have already appeared at least in cameos. It calls forth questions in its internal inconsistencies instead of presenting a story that makes sense.

What is sad is there really is a story hidden in this, that is logically extrapolated from the series central conceit that all of the GA heroes of the various public domain companies were active in one continuity, the question of the plethora of mystical based superheroes. Why at this time the gods of various pantheons and mystics got involved in the War, that all these heroes and villains would receive powers from them and places like Tibet. What about this World War involves restless spirits of the American Revolution, Far Eastern mystics who would pass knowledge and powers on to those of European descent, the resurrection of mummies on both sides, etc. And, keep in mind that it has to have been seen coming for decades, people like Amazing Man and the Flame were raised in Tibet from infants.

Marvels Project: With the fourth issue, I stopped getting this title. In four issues, we've had the deaths of three characters. What is sad, is that none of them are well done and they all serve the same purpose, to motivate the actions of the Angel who is ostensibly the central character of the book. With the death of the Two-Gun Kid we had what seemed to be a cool moment that makes no sense in regards to character motivation, why his "friends" would send him as an old man to a time period he never lived in, where he had no friends or family away from friends and family he probably cultivated in the 40 years he lived in the future, and where medicine and treatments were a hundred years out of date. With the death of the Phantom Bullet, it was completely off panel, we never get to see or know the character and the Angel's actions and reactions are not supported by the story. We don't know why he takes it so personal or why he thinks the death was in some way involved with a case the Phantom was working beyond getting killed while stopping a crime he had just come across. Then, we have the death of the Ferret. The Ferret's death serves the exact same purpose of the Phantom Bullet's to the point that nothing is gained. The Ferret could have easily just as been wounded/placed in the hospital. It violates a story that otherwise fit into continuity from just a few months back that has the Ferret living at least long enough for the Human Torch and Namor to become uneasy allies. This time, we find out there is a friendship between the Ferret and the Angel that existed somewhere in between the panels of the books though it's important enough to serve as explanation for the Angel to take personally. Lastly, it's a death that pretty much demeans the Ferret in its treatment. The deal with the Ferret is he's a pulp styled detective, an ace detective. But, from his handling here, it gives the reader more of the idea that he's just merely eccentric and lame enough that he cannot handle a simple shadowing job and is very easily killed. In order to build up the Angel as a character, the Ferret (and to a degree, the Phantom Bullet) come across as ineffectual, characters to make jokes about. It's a storytelling tactic that seems a recurring theme in Brubaker's writing. I had hoped this would be different, it started off strong enough. But, this was enough to call it quits on his writing. I hate it because he otherwise handles characters, themes and time periods that interest me. But, we obviously get different enjoyment from them.

Comic reviews and musings

Batman/Doc Savage Special: Despite all the indications of Azzarello not really getting it, this is a decent one-shot. It involves Doc, early in his career (actually would be contemporary with the events of the first Doc pulp story, "Man of Bronze".) Avoiding some unpleasant business, he decides to investigate the actions of the Batman of Gotham City and a possible murder committed by him. Much of the story explores similar tropes of the Batman-Superman relationship or the crossover storyline several years back of Doc Savage and the Shadow in DC's last time licensing of the comic.

The cover has the wonderful feel of being Bama influenced and the interior artwork is adept at storytelling. However, the style lacks solidity, looking more like animation cels, a feel that grows as the story progresses, being very ephemeral looking by the end.

While the story is decent, it underscores the problem with the concept. As noted, the Doc-Shadow crossover did the same thing better, telling a story with a villain that suited the strengths of the characters and their style. Batman feels almost shoe-horned into the story, made to fit a role that he's not suited for.

Then, there are the end-notes about other characters appearing as part of this "First Wave". It's more of Didio's New Earth style madness. Instead of going with the purer aspects of characters, it's seen as a chance to make judgments and arbitrary changes of characters. So, instead of a chance seeing the GA Black Canary free of 40 years of retcons, we have the character being re-cast as an Asian American. The Blackhawks are now a second generation team, the original Blackhawks being mostly dead. Why? The whole idea behind this pulp-Earth was to make characters like Doc Savage and the Blackhawks work. Instead, we get a Blackhawks team that is less pulp-like and completely at home in modern DCU. Azzarello apparently doesn't think Ebony can work unless as a cliched sassy African American woman. Except that Cooke made the character work completely well in his Spirit series. Ugh.

To the point that it seems that they have a better handle on the pulp characters than the others, though it still seems like they are adding and changing complexities and dynamics than working with what's there. There is quite a bit of interest to the Avenger and the original stories. Such as the efforts of the creators to make the characters more racially enlightened (one of his chief aides, Smitty was originally meant to be African American judging by the artwork and eventually he did get two African American aides that played up their intellect and society's pre-judging the characters). Despite his and his team's personal losses to crime, they DON'T actually kill criminals, he goes out of his way to not personally kill them. However, he does set things up that criminals often kill themselves through their own ruthless actions. The books also often have a fatalism about them, how the Justice, Inc crew expect this profession to kill them one day.

Likewise with Doc. While Monk will kill though Doc chooses not to, Monk always feels a bit guilty about it, usually making excuses. On the other hand, Renny has killed if he thought that was the only way and without excuse. The books don't suggest Monk and Ham as Doc's enforcers with Ham keeping lease on the pit-bull. I guess just being best friends isn't edgy enough. Lastly, Azzarello sees Renny as being an ugly man. Did he not actually read the stories? Dent gave all the characters specific physical looks and other than Ham and Doc himself, none are described as being actually good looking. But, the books are consistent in describing Monk as being incredibly homely NOT Renny. It's the creator re-casting the characters to fit his agenda than actually working with the characters.

The Black Coat: Ok, there is obvious stupidity here in the numbering. This issue is listed as being Two Issues, 1 & 2 of 4 (the next issue will be 3 & 4). Man, zero issues were bad enough of gimmicks.

Beyond that, it's a wonderful two-chapter comic, very pulpish story of a costumed hero in the days of colonial America (not too dissimilar to the Disney adaptation of Dr. Synn in "The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh") mixed with some of the occult stylings of Mignola. The publishing of Black Coat has been very sporadic, the long gaps in this little known title making you wonder if that's the last to be seen of the title, that it will just fade away like Xenozoic Tales, then, bam, a new issue comes out.

The story of this 2/4 parter begins with the death of the Black Coat and his resurrection and occult menaces that aren't flesh eating zombies as well as the menace of a traitor in his organization against the backdrop of the American Revolution. The artwork of the first half is Francesco Francovilla who has a wonderful old school illustration style, full of cross-hatching and atmosphere and making a name for himself on Dynamite's Zorro book. The second half is by Dean Kotz, a name unfamiliar to me but whose style is similar to Brett Blevins' and appropriate to the feel of this book (his cover is gorgeous by the way).
Black Terror #5 (picking up the numbering where the mini ended): The comic spins off into its own owngoing of a sorts, though the concept of Project Superpowers doesn't really lend itself to ongoings at this point in time. Hester shows himself to be a capable writer and focuses on a small story against the big picture. While most of the heroes went into the urn, the American Crusader apparently did not. When the heroes returned, they found zombie like beings in black wearing the Crusader's symbols and having a modicum of his power. The opening arc of this story goes into the background, establishing a friendship between the Black Terror and the American Crusader in the days of the War and making AC into a perfect martyr character ala Barry Allen crossed with Captain America. It's very well done, perfectly setting up the twist at the end. Especially considering that American Crusader was in many ways a very generic character, a variation of Nedor's basic template and often with art that was crude even by their standards. The most notable thing about him is metafictiona, one of the earliest patriotic heroes and the first to use atomic power as a basis for an origin, but he's generally overshadowed by the likes of the Fighting Yank, Black Terror, Doc Strange, Captain Future and even American Eagle.

The artwork is the weakest part. It's actually hard to judge the pencils as the coloring is extremely dark and completely overwhelms the artwork. To the point that if you weren't aware of the American Crusader was supposed to be a patriotic hero by his name, you really wouldn't get it from the art as it looks like he's wearing red & black and not red & blue (admittedly, on the covers of the 40s, his cowl and cape does look black with blue highlights).

JSA vs Kobra #6 of 6: After a very solid story of a team of heroes fighting a super-villain terrorist, the mini ends with whimper as it just ends without resolving anything after all of the set-up. As if the powers that be lost the resolve to go where the story was taking them, that the heroes are not allowed a clear cut win. At the end, the status quo is the same as where it was at the beginning of the book, the very definition of a bad story, the central conflict has resolved nothing. If the reader wasn't paying attention, one could expect another issue or two to go. Tacked on is that Mr. Terrific's girlfriend is cured of her ill-defined techno illness. But, other than a mention in the first issue, her plight and what it means to Mr. Terrific is not dealt with or touched on the rest of the mini, this isn't an ongoing theme of the story or a central motivation or struggle on the behalf of Mr. Terrific. So, her curing is just an afterthought, an attempt to give the story a feel of some kind of resolution, but is forced as it has nothing to do with what the story or characters have been about, her condition is a minor footnote for all that it has meant.

The sad thing is the artwork is good and there are some great panels and scenes scattered throughout. But, it's a case of when in the end, all is said and done, more is said than done.

Supermen! and Impact redux?

I lambaste quite a few comics from the current wave so I think I should also mention a few that seem to hit the right spots for me. Or, at least closer to the mark.

Such as John Byrne's Angel: Blood in the Trenches. Wasn't too long ago that based on a movie we saw that kinda missed the mark, I mentioned to my brother that a vampire story set during WWI in the trenches of No Man's Land could be a very interesting tale. It could even be done from the enemy's perspective. Turns out that Byrne seemed to be thinking along the same wavelengths and we get a comic set in the Buffy-verse of what the long-lived Angel was up to during the days of WWI. There are a few other nods to the continuity such as the inclusion of one of Wesley's ancestors and a demon that had appeared on television.

Byrne's art style has changed over the years. His line is more organic, his people more individualistic and natural. He's also loosened up the lines in some of the comics to make way for the more elaborate colorings of the day. Strangely enough, this has lead me to being not really as satisfied with his superhero work as the characters look more like caricatures, not as solid and iconic but strangely more stiff looking.

However, it works perfectly here. Shot directly from the pencils, there's detail and texture and line variety and capturing the grittiness of war as well as your 70's Kubert tales. The b/w quality is works wonderfully, showing off what his pencils and line can really do. Not exactly pleased with the idea of coloring the blood though, maybe if it was a deeper, darker red. Otherwise, I'd love to have the book all in b/w and drop the price on the cover (printing in color is a huge expense). Likewise, Byrne is suited well for telling horror stories such as this, perfectly at home with the macabre and bizarre.

Star Trek: Crew is also interesting. Each issue is a done-in-one tale much as his Assignment: Earth mini. The art doesn't work as well for me here, but he does manage to remain faithful to the general look and style of the original Star Trek series without actually looking anachronistic.

Sometimes books are so long between issues and series, that I forget it's even on my pull list. Thus, I am surprised when it appears in my bag. Such is the case of the usually excellent Black Coat which came out with a one-shot. It tries to promote itself on the basis of being only $2 and yet in color, but that's a bit wasted on me since it was in my bag automatically. But, it's an enjoyable series of a masked hero during the Revolutionary War where the war was a little stranger than you might realize.

Marvel's 70th Anniversary books are a bit of hit and miss. A definite hit was Sub-Mariner Comics. The two main stories set in the days of WWII are enjoyable and better written and drawn than almost all of Marvel's other books. Roy Thomas manages to actually tell a tale that doesn't get bogged down in meta-continuity while Mark Schultz is the one that gives us a little nod to a classic comic strip and the creator behind it as we meet an aviatrix by the name of Jenny Keaton (Flying Jenny by Russell Keaton). The artwork on that story by the ever wonderful Al Williamson who really should be doing more, even if it's just small stories like this. The only thing to mar it really is the reprint of Namor's origin. Couldn't we have gotten a story that hadn't been reprinted a dozen times already? Heck, 90% of it was a reprint when it first appeared in Marvel Comics #1.

For those fans of golden-age comics or whose interest might have been piqued by Dynamite's Project: Superpowers, Fantagraphics has published Supermen! The book looks at various heroes that came out between 1936 (Dr. Mystic) thru 1941. Heroes from various companies including Silver Streak, Daredevil vs. Claw, Blue Bolt, the Face, Skyman, the Flame, the Clock, Rex Dexter, the Comet, Stardust, Fantomah, among others with creators ranging from Shuster and Siegel, Simon & Kirby, Will Everett, Jack Cole, Lou Fine, Fletcher Hanks.

It isn't too surprising that there are no Timely or National/American (DC) characters, but with the inclusion of the Comet from MLJ, have to wonder why not an early Fawcett character or Quality. Standard is also completely ignored which seems very strange. Meanwhile the Centaur entries are among the least notable of characters available. Seriously, TWO stories of Dirk the Demon as opposed to Amazing Man by Everett, Iron Skull by Burgos and other luminaries as the Ferret, Fantom of the Fair, the Arrow, the Shark, etc? There's no Ace, Holyoke, Dell, Harvey, Hillman or Prize Publications either. Standard just struck me as being obvious because of the company's sheer size and variety of output compared to Columbia which is more than well represented.

Also notably missing are the patriotic heroes other than Skyman. Especially true if you read the notes delineating the history behind the characters and creators of each story, giving a nice progression of the history of the time. However, the way it ends talking about how the War would change things is more than a little misleading. Most of the super-patriots debuted BEFORE Pearl Harbor and many were fighting Nazi stand-ins and defending the Chinese from the Japanese (which makes for interesting reading when you move from the days of WWII to the Red Menace days half a decade later).

The other mis-step is the foreward which is just wasted space, not really talking about the book, the characters or time other than to say that it wasn't all pure and pearly white as our reminisces of any "golden-age" tend to make them.

Other than that, just ignore what's not there and enjoy it for what is: some great reprints in full color of some of the enjoyable heroes of the day.

Impact redux?

Sometime ago it was announced that the Archie heroes were being folded into the DCU continuity, in the pages of The Brave and the Bold written by J. Michael Straczynski. There have been a few snags and changes along the way. As B& B is an anthology series, don't really know why he felt that he couldn't really do it proper there and instead it is announced as a mini titled Red Circle. More details are found at an interview at Newsarama.

See, my problem is, while the structure of the mini sounds nice, these aren't the original Archie characters anymore than Impact was or the Heroes Reborn was really the Marvel characters. These are all NEW characters using the names of the originals and a bit of their modus operandi but nothing else. It might as well be a new take on Minute Man or Steel the Indestructible Man as the Shield. It's like not drawing any distinction between the Silver Age Hawkman and the Golden-Age Hawkman. Looks mostly the same, has the same name and alter ego, must be the same character. At least Simon & Kirby obviously created a whole new character with their Shield and not claim they were just updating the original charachters.


They start with the Hangman whose original story is dependent on another hero debuting first, the Comet. Take WWII out of the Shield, you lose a big part of what makes the character significant, his context. He was the first of the super-patriot super heroes, now he's just a copycat. Why go through the trouble of getting the rights when you're obviously not interested in what makes them great characters, their actual stories and history? All that richness and texture that could be brought in, completely gone with a writer's pen.

Hellboy II & Comics

Hellboy II
Guillermo del Toro delivers in this sequel. Where the character and the comic stories tend to be plot heavy, del Toro continues along the vein from the first movie in giving the characters heart that can be identified despite their bizarre appearances. The story builds on the romance between Liz Sherman and Hellboy as well as getting more into Abe Sapien's skin. The end result is a story that is at times a little more introspective and fairy tale than just a plain action/adventure.

There's plenty of action, though. Because, Hellboy is hardly the intellectual type, his solution to a problem, punch it or shoot it. And, what is a Hellboy story if there aren't plenty of bizarre creatures and giant monsters to fight? Del Toro manages to balance physical conflict with a more personal and cerebral. Hellboy cannot confront his personal problems with Liz by punching them. And, he chafes at being kept on a short lease as the government wants to deny his existence to the world and he desires to be part of it, to be recognized for the job that does. And, the government brings in a new handler to control him, one who is both tough and cerebral, the ghost in a containment suit similar to an old diving suit, Johann Krauss.

It's not just Hellboy as the secondary characters Abe Sapien and Liz also have their stories to work through, as Abe discovers his own human side and Liz must decide her own future and whether Hellboy should continue to be in it. Ironically, the most human of the three, she seems to be more honest with who she is. Abe and Hellboy both deal with their freakish appearances in different ways. Abe denies his human side and Hellboy wishes to deny that which sets him apart. Liz may look human but she has come to terms with the freak within her, and understands better than the rest risk humanity poses.

Del Toro and Mike Mignola prove to be a great blending of the visual talents of the two. Even when the story is more, well, story than action, it is a sumptuous visual feast from creature designs to massive sets such as the walk through the BPRD, the Troll market or even the library and Hellboy's quarters. If anyone should direct a John Carter of Mars or a movie based on R. A. Salvatore's dark elf fantasy novels, it should be someone with del Tormo's sense of vision, who can make a fantasy look both strange and familiar and blend seamlessly with the everyday.

He also balances a sense of humor with the horror, the fantastic and sentimental. A scene near the middle between Abe and Hellboy manages to be both funny and moving. It's an achievement on the parts of the director as well as actors. It helps that Ron Perlman and Doug Jones are both used to making sure their acting is carried through layers of make-up and special effects. Perlman from seasons as the Beast, the romantic hero of the tv series BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and Doug Jones who has been the body actor of several creatures in PAN'S LABYRINTH, Silver Surfer in last year's FANTASTIC FOUR, and the body but not the voice of Abe Sapien in the first Hellboy movie. Unless a viewer is closely paying attention, the replacement of David Hyde Piece with Jones as the voice this time out is not noticed. Both make the characters seem totally human and sympathetic despite their appearances and in Abe Sapien's case, very limited facial emoting range.

The story also sets up the elf prince Prince Nuada as a sympathetic character, more antagonist than villain. His actions are one that honestly sees the events he sets in motion as the sole way to save the race and the world itself before humanity destroys it. While he is willing to do bad things to achieve his ends, he doesn't really come across as necessarily being wrong. If the story falls anywhere, it skirts over this a bit in the middle. It's too quick in setting up humans fearing and turning on Hellboy and the rest and doing the turn towards "fighting for a humanity that fears and hates them" and dealing with the allure of Prince Nuada's cause and the Fairy people where they can fit in. The issue is gone almost as soon as it is raised. Likewise, we don't really see how the rest of Fairy feel about being drawn into a new war with humankind.

Jeffrey Tambor's character also gets short shrift, played up a little too much as being the straight man for Hellboy and the rest as well as being the one person that's wrong so everyone else is right. The humor is used to diffuse the fact that the character really does have a thankless job made impossible by Hellboy's antics and he devolves further into just a brainless bureaucrat and suck-up.

Another issue that this and the last movie basically ignores but cannot help wondering about, why normal people only armed with guns serve the bureau? They serve as nothing more than cannon fodder and considering what they have to face, it would seem a job that's only suitable for the suicidal, that no one normal is going to make it to retirement age. If a situation calls for someone like Hellboy, normal agents without special weaponry, abilities or at the least, body armor are all but DOA. Why would they be sent in and why would they go along with it?

But, minor quibbles to a gorgeously told comic book movie with more story and layers than your average action flick much less one based on a fairly shallow comic book character.

Avengers/Invaders #3: Missed this one when I went to the store last week. It's easy to miss a title when you're gone for 3 weeks. I also came close to missing a few other comics this week as some titles I just picked up and read last week so I wasn't really looking for a new issue this soon of the Captain Britain and Guardians of the Galaxy titles.

The coloring of this issue has the same problem as issue #2. The reds are too magenta, the blues of Bucky and Captain America close to being purple. The cover is beautiful, being more Romantic than the photo-realism of Ross' painted style had previously allowed. Maybe he learned a little painting over another artist's pencils (Doug Braithwaite in JUSTICE). One can feel the warmth of the sunny blue skies reflecting off the Sub-mariners over the ocean. Likewise, Steve Sadowski's pencils are very strong.

The story likewise delivers on setting up the conflict between the Namor of the 1940s and of the present day. It's faithful to the more headstrong persona the character was not only originally but when he was dusted back off in the 60s, the character who always seemed to be spoiling for a fight and leading with his fists while the present-day Namor is one who has learned hard life lessons and the power of diplomacy. If only Krueger showed such faithfulness to characterization and history when writing SUPERPOWERS.

Captain America and Bucky... it's still playing up Bucky as the bad-ass commando, even though this is still the youthful Bucky. To the point, that Captain America seems almost a fraud, willing to let Bucky take charge and take point.

The Black Coat: Been too long since an issue of this has come out. To make up for it, there's 2 stories in this special, one b/w and the other with a limited color scheme. Black Coat is taking the patriot superhero and setting him in the days of the American Revolution. As such, he not only fights the British but also more fantastic menaces such as a couple of monsters in these two adventures. Top shelf stuff.

Captain America: White #0: Shows how to re-tell an origin, remaining faithful to the source material while adding to it. The artwork by Tim Sale is a beauty to behold as well. These minis by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale are so true to a graphic novel concept and so beautiful and comepelling in their own right, they are the few works that I feel are really worth waiting for and getting in a collected format. They belong on a bookshelf as their own self-contained entities.

Captain Britain and MI13: There are several references to Alan Moore's Captain Britain series and Merlin's schizo history in the Marvel U, but none that are really germaine to the ongoing storyline, just a few bits of dialogue might leave you scratching your heads. The resurrection of Captain Britain is not a big spoiler, the book is named after him after all, but it does make one wonder why have him die to begin with. Other than it gave a neat cliffhanger and allowed the story to be dragged out for another 2 issues, it does seem like a lot of hoopla over nothing. Barring that, this is still a decent read with upstanding clear superhero artwork. It will be interesting to see where this goes when the storyline is not dictated by the Event.

The Last Defenders: Disappointing all the way around. One, apparently the artist or the writer doesn't know, Kyle Richmond wears a jetpack to fly, it's not a natural ability. But, like every issue so far, all he does is whine and fly around trying to avoid getting hit. If anything, the book makes it hard to care for the character at all, it plays him as such a putz. Two, the last issue blurb for this one mentioned the Son of Satan was in a "defenestrating" mood. It's an odd word choice and has nothing to do with this issue. Three, so much of this issue is not only so much gibberish, it's Casey basically crapping on the history of the Defenders by saying all the other writers got it wrong, that the Defenders should never have been about the Hulk, Namor and Dr. Strange. Even if you think that it is a bad line-up, Casey solidifies his position AND his choice of Defenders by having the story itself say that it was wrong. It's him using his power as writer to have the story STATE that his position is correct instead of using his ability as a writer to SHOW us why his team is so great. And, consider this is the whole point of his mini-series, to completely deconstruct the Defenders concept to put his own team in place as replacement, but we're not really getting a storyline that really showcases those members. Throw in Initiative machinations and a couple of villainous plots that really made no sense and got zero development, and this is a mini slated for the quarter boxes of the future.

Guardians of the Galaxy #3: Hopefully the narration device of the characters giving mission briefs from the futre while the mission is still unfolding for the reader won't be kept up. For one, it takes away any sense of jeopardy when you can see that the character survived the storyline as he's talking at some point in the future while in the present he's getting a grievous knife wound. Likewise, Mantis' ability as fortune teller doesn't do much to endear her. Right off the bat, a cosmic being that she cannot read is introduced. It's having Superman or the Flash on a team, stories have to be constructed so that her ability is not a factor.

Adam Warlock has real magic powers? Just one more instance of these characters having the same name as heroes in the Marvel U., but they don't really look or act much like it. Oh, we can apply that criticism to Starhawk as well as he also gets a kewl makeover so that he only generally looks like the old Guardian of the Galaxy. Let's see, even though they were saving the universe in the first issue, they still came into the space church with guns blasting and killed scores of the church members. While this church is pretty much scum and little regard for life, it still doesn't say much for our heroes either. That they cannot even see why the church would have a legitimate beef with them after they killed a whole bunch of their members... I had hopes for this. The Annihilation minis that lead into it seemed to receive generally good marks from comic fans so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Justice Society of America #17: Likewise, this is more of the same as members try to come to terms with Gog, both in costume and out. It's a bunch of nice character bits in a team that has too many characters, a situation that Hawkman at least seems to recognize. I didn't get the Hawkgirl series so I don't know how they resolved things between Hawkman and Hawkgirl, but we know in the pages of the JLA, she and Red Arrow are getting it on. Part of me just feels that isn't right, this Hawkgirl is in part the reincarnation of Hawkman's wife, it's her spirit. Then again, the mechanics of religion and souls and such have been a subtext to this book since the beginning with the ideas of people being good and moral beings but born without souls, people losing souls but still able to go on as good as ever (not being close-minded here, in the DCU, souls are proven to exist), and in the case of Kendra, she has the biological brain of one person but the soul of another, who is she really? Issues raised but never really resolved or made sense of. In the midst of it all, you then have Mr. Terrific who's an atheist. So, it's best to pretend that these questions don't exist and move on. Johns does manage to further the plot in the midst of all the character moments which is great. No one really seems to question Gog's basic healing and solving all of mankind's problems, think someone might raise the question if we have a god that meets all our needs, what is left for us to aspire to? And, then there are the reasons we haven't solved those issues that also isn't raised here (or in books like JUSTICE), the solutions to those problems have human obstacles. There are people that are in power that keep their people hungry, starving, etc. Where are the people that see the arrival of Gog and his goodworks being a threat to their powerbases and the status quos that keep them in power? And, even if you can cure the land of pollution, people of malnutrition, what do you do tomorrow when they still aren't getting food, when more pollution gets dumped into the air and streams. Likewise, Gog setting out to abolish war... how does he do that without taking away free will? It's one thing to feed the hungry and heal the sick, but how do you stop the very concept of war? The idea of Gog and the story being told raises a lot of issues and questions. It's good Johns spent an issue dealing with some of them and even better that he made sure to go ahead and advance the plot before much more time has to be spent examining those issues for which there may not be near enough space to come up with answers for, or at least honest examination.