Forget a Reboot, can we get a Reset?

I was in Target the other day, getting some dental floss and fishing line, but otherwise browsing. Takes me about 30 minutes, my wife 3 hours and then she can go back in a week. Me? I'm good for a month. Anywho, I'm cutting through the aisles from the back of the store and end up going through stuff for school kids where I see a couple of floppy binders for papers based on comics. One is Wonder Woman. The other is the Justice League. Only, it's a Justice League cover by Perez from 1983! It includes some other marketing artwork from about the same time (judging by the appearance of Starfire). The source of the Wonder Woman artwork is not readily apparent, but the design also places it from about the same time period.

It highlights a problem with much of the DC comics. Here's material marketed for kids. But, it's material from almost three decades ago! Makes sense, because that's the last time that most of these characters still looked iconic. Hawkman hadn't been changed to wearing body armor with mechanical wings. Firestorm hadn't gone through his transformation into a fire elemental, much less other changes. Aquaman hadn't had worn his blue costume much less grown long hair, a beard, lose a hand and become the sour underwater character. Hal Jordan hadn't yet gone crazy and been replaced nor taken on the job of the Spectre. Elongated Man hadn't gone through a succession of bad costumes, was still alive and not more or less replaced by Plastic Man. The Atom was still happily married and the second and latest person to make use of the name.

Marketing obviously recognized something that the people writing the comics don't. Building a brand demands a bit of consistency. Not knocking creativity and trying different things, but there's inherent problems when trying to shake things up and write creative stories. If you go too far, change too much, you weaken the brand. Take Aquaman. When fans talk about what they think it will take to make the character successful and what they want out of the character, it's divided. Some people want the pre-Crisis Aquaman. Others want the Peter David version. In an effort to modernize the character and get away from the jibes the character often gets, the David version ultimately proved polarizing. It was good for short-term sales, but now it's an "either-or" proposition. Despite the acclaim of David's series, the Aquaman that's marketable is the one in orange and green. Kyle Raynor as Green Lantern did the same thing for that franchise. You can see the polarizing of fans over Blue Beetle and Firestorm, only with the added fuel of racism charges if you so happen to like the original versions over the newer ones. Or those that like Morrison's Doom Patrol versus the ones that didn't. Truman and Ostrander's Hawkworld proved to be damaging to the whole concept of the DCU as a shared continuity that the character nor company fully recovered from.

I'm not saying that the modern versions were badly done. But, they were badly thought out. When Superman became the electric blue Superman, it wasn't thought to be permanent. Likewise the death of Superman that launched several new characters. They were temporary changes to the status quos that allowed some character exploration. When John Walker took over the identity of Captain America while Steve became the Captain, it was obviously nothing more than a chapter in the ongoing story. Status quos were reset in about a year's time or less.  Peter David claims that he was going to restore Aquaman's status quo when he was done, but there was no sign of that in the actual book. When Morrison was done with the Doom Patrol, every previous member was dead or completely changed into an unrecognizable character and the team hasn't been able to recover.

DC seemed to recognize that a little bit. Hal Jordan was made Green Lantern again. Barry Allen returned as the Flash. Somewhere, Ray Palmer is the Atom. Recently Aquaman was brought back in his green & orange suit. Hawk and Dove returned. But, for each course correction we get Firestorm struggling out a compromise solution between the Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch fans. PC versions of the Question and Blue Beetle. Roy Harper (Speedy/Arsenal) becoming villainous and a cyborg. Green Arrow killing criminals again, still ruining his relationship with Black Canary. Hawkman maiming opponents. Wonder Woman gets a badly designed costume. Superman and Batman both absent from their core books for extended period of time at the same time. Redesigned and "revamped" versions of the Red Circle and pulp heroes to the point they have little to nothing in common with the source material.

So, I was thinking, "What DC needs is a reboot of all characters to about the 1983 continuity."
I was a bit surprised when it was announced that DC was indeed rebooting their line. With talk of making characters a bit younger, stories accessible. Sadly, it also carried buzzwords like "modern". In fact, what makes sense about saying Jim Lee is going to redesign 52 characters so that they are more modern and recognizable? How do you redesign Wonder Woman, the Flash, Superman or Batman to make them MORE recognizable? The very nature of redesigning an iconic look is the EXACT OPPOSITE of their proposed intent. Then, there's the inherent conflict of goals. Making something modern doesn't make something necessarily recognizable. As I started off with, the problem is that DC has some iconic designs, but they and Hollywood seem intent on moving AWAY from them when what they need to do is move back towards them. The designs of the characters have stood the test of time for decades with minimal tweaking. I have no problem with redesigns, if the character truly needs it. But, the goal shouldn't be MODERN. It should be TIMELESSNESS. There's a reason when talking about character designs, people mention words like "iconic" and "classic". Most costumes are iconic because they are timeless. This usually means there's a simplicity and instantly identifiable and reproducible elements to the costume. Don't know who said it, but a comment I liked was a good costume should generally be akin to one that an eight year old can reproduce in his own drawings. The recent Doom Patrol relaunch had new uniforms for the team, with piping and such. Not bad designs per se, but instantly forgettable in they were not only generic but needlessly busy with extraneous details. When redesigning costumes, one should look at a few factors. Has this costume been worn for two decades or more and do you understand the difference between "classic" and "dated"? Was it designed by Gil Kane/Steve Ditko/Jack Kirby/Dave Cockrum? If the answer is "yes" to either of these, then the answer to redesigning the costume should 95% of the time be "Hell no".

The other problem is that they have ONE artist and writer redesigning the line. On the artist end, it's an artist whose last design has met a lot of resistance and who has yet to produce a design that can be said to stand the test of time. Not to say he isn't talented and produces pretty pictures. But, a less than zero track record. On the writer end... the concept of a "planned" shared universe just doesn't work. Every company that has tried to launch a planned universe with a central vision has ultimately failed. EVERY. ONE. Valiant. Dark Horse. Marvel's New Universe. Malibu (with two different universes). Defiant. DC doesn't even have to look any further than last year with their Pulp and Red Circle launches. Yes, I know. Red Circle was within the context of their regular Universe, but it was still formed, linked and sold on mainly one man's name who had nothing to do with it after creating the bible and the first issues. Not saying go in without a plan. But, what made DC and Marvel work was that it was organic. Continuity was built by telling stories, usually trying not to conflict with events elsewhere. It wasn't about continuity in and of itself. However, launches like this ARE about continuity, even when it's trashing old continuity and establishing new ones. (There actually is ONE exception: Marvel's Ultimate line which is still going strong. However, it's a shared universe that is built on the concept of a previous one, not an all new continuity. Even when it's going somewhere different, it cannot help but be a reflection of the main line. I don't read the comics, but I've never seen any advertising for pushing a NEW character in the Ultimate Universe that didn't already exist elsewhere.) Unless you're Kirby, one creator generally doesn't have that much creative variety in him to really fuel a whole universe. And, even Kirby's Fourth World books didn't succeed.

The first descriptions and covers of the relaunched titles further shows that while they seem to recognize that the line has problems, characters too convoluted and written into corners to the point of not being viable, they don't seem to realize the source of the problem. From indicators, Captain Atom has nothing to do with any previous version, visually or story wise. Striving for a compromise with Firestorm, he is now Ronnie Raymond AND Jason Rusch who are high school buddies. The Hawkman description tells us a little about Carter Hall but not anything about Hawkman himself, other than it seems to be an all new take on the character with some nods to original elements. It was messing with the concepts to begin with that lead to he mess we're in. It's partly why Red Circle and the pulp line failed as it sacrificed built in readership and built in character identification. It's why Target has binders with artwork of the characters as they were 30 years ago. Green Arrow and Mr. Terrific sound like they could be all right, but the redesigns are horrible. The latter looks like he stole a costume from the Emo-LSH and reflects none of the character's legacy and history, but otherwise he didn't need a new universe setting to launch a book. It looks more like change for change sake in his case. Green Arrow's costume looks like it came from Hollywood and is overly busy and looks fated for early shredding and return to a more classic look. The fact that Green Arrow has been written into corners twice now by being taken too far from center and requiring a resetting and looking at what's being solicited with other heroes, doesn't bode well that the creators have learned anything from the past.


If anything, the ability to reboot and reset seems to allow writers the freedom to continually move characters in extreme directions as well as the freedom to just ignore or contradict what a previous creator wrote just last month. Every writer that came along felt the need to redefine or rewrite the origin of Powergirl, Donna Troy. Or a new Legion of Superheroes every couple of years after previous writers kill off several characters. We're not seeing anything in the new reboot that DC has learned from that, instead just the opposite. With new and ugly designs, more casual rewriting of some pasts and leaving some in place (such as Blackest Night), it's setting up for more of the same mistakes they've been making and the problems that have plagued DC since post-Crisis on Infinite Earths. The exact opposite from what they need if the goal is to make the characters memorable. Want them to be memorable, don't make long term lasting changes every time the wind blows. Get back to telling compelling action and adventure stories using continuity as a tool and backdrop but not making the stories be about continuity. The one book that looks the most appealing to me is Aquaman. In part because his costume is the least re-designed although now he seems to be incomplete unless he's carrying a trident weapon, much as Bucky now must always be shown with a gun. Ironically, the title will be by the artist I took to task for not knowing how to draw gloves and drawing his gloves inconsistently from one panel to the next.

The Firestorm description makes me wonder if Blue Beetle will be the same. I think we can safely assume it's NOT going to be Ted Kord, the question is will he still be dead, a mentor to Jaimie or just written out of continuity altogether?

Reviews and Happenstance

ABE SAPIEN: THE DROWNING #5 (of 5): This murky tale comes to its conclusion. I still don't know what to think of it, maybe I should read all 5 at one time to immerse myself in the total experience. The art is gorgeous, with Mignola's layouts and pacing, but a very different rendering sensibility. And the color is spot on. Somewhere, it just doesn't quite come together. I can't help but think that it's because Mignola is a better artist than writer. Without him on the art chores and with Abe Sapian as a lead character, what one really gets is, this is no Hellboy. The story and art are too serious for how shallow of a tale it really is. Shallow tales work great with Hellboy because in many ways, he's a shallow character who survives through toughness and sheer audacity. Abe is more sedate, as is the artwork. The story reflects that as well, it doesn't have quite the off-the-wall creativity and imagery of the menaces and ideas that get thrown out there normally. Unfortunately, Mignola doesn't replace what is missing with anything to give the story more depth.

THE ALL NEW ATOM #24: Part of me says the reason why this title suffers and is about to be done away with is its title. Seriously, "All New" should have been dropped after issue 6. After 2 years, it seems like it's still trying to be taken seriously by distancing itself from all other Atom series. Still, it had a good run, beating out all the other launches.

As usual, the cover by Ladronn is gorgeous. Both iconic and indicative of the interiors of story in the book. I've always liked Chronos and his rather goofy costume. For some reason, on a woman, that costume actually looks a bit creepy and dangerous. I liked him better as a thief with a penchant for clocks and time than an actual time-traveler though.

We get a bit more direction as the story rockets to its conclusion. As time travel is involved, there's still some confusion as timelines overlap. Remender tries to keep the craziness up that Gail Simone brought into the series, where almost anything can happen yet keeping it well-grounded in characterizations and nice-guy hero Ryan Choi. The only thing missing is the personal feel that was brought to the story by all the quotes from scientists, famous within and without the DCU.

Pat Oliffe tries his best to ape Gil Kane in places, the microscopic serpents are out of Kane's Sword & Sorcery comic work and I see a sense of his anatomy and musculature in some of the superheroic renderings. And he shows off just how creative he can be when Ryan is brought to Lady Chronos' lair. Almost completely lost are in the background we see the Chronos costume from the wonderful 1998 Chronos series by John Francis Moore and a little robot whose job is to sweep up the broken glass from Ryan's arrival.

Can hardly wait to see how it all ties up next issue.

AVENGERS/INVADERS #2 (of 12): We get more Avengers this time out. We see Stark trying to control a situation that he cannot really. If for no other reason that not just the Invaders came through but also one of the soldiers. There's plenty of action.

Yes, you have to be aware of a lot of what's going on in the Marvel Universe outside of this title to understand quite a bit of the character conflicts and the other characters involved. The Bucky here is in full Brubaker mode as his first response when the Avengers attack is opening fire with a machine gun on them, luckily choosing a target that is bullet-proof. And when he's able to escape, it's because of just how much of an edgy trained commando he is. Hate to tell you Bucky but three out of four Robins would have been able to escape without scarring their arms up.

The coloring or the printing is off this issue, the magenta plate is way too strong. Thus the reds are dark and the blues are more lavender.

FX #4: Another great issue knocked out of the park. It follows the structural format of the previous ones in that the first act is a continuation of the second act from the previous issue. That story wrapped up, it introduces a new menace (as well as Wayne Osborne's homage to the FF). We also get a few other little mysteries hinted at, hopefully leading to more revelations about the origins of FX's powers and such. The comic manages to present what feels like a fully realized superhero universe without bogging us down with all the details. And more importantly, so far without tying all the characters and powers to a single origin source, thus sapping out the sense of wonder important to superhero comics. I only hope this will somehow continue as an ongoing, or at least as a series of mini-series.

JUSTICE LEAGUE of AMERICA #21: OK, this has been out for a little while, but just now getting around to getting it off my chest. Even Dwayne McDuffie, the writer of this series, knows it's been plagued by being nothing more than a tie-in book since he's come on board. Each issue has been to set up themes continued somewhere else. Next issue he promised in a press release is supposed to be tie-in free. Now, how bad does this mean this has actually become for what should be one of DC's flagship titles?

Overall, this isn't a bad issue. We see a super powered crook actually acting somewhat intelligently by using his powers to pull off bank jobs and NOT embroiling himself in some free-for-all with the heroes. Of course this means that he gets targeted by Libra to be part of a new Secret Society of Supervillains. The villain is such a two bit schmuck, it's hard to believe that he's being trotted out as the reason that the skrull formerly known as the Martian Manhunter is being offed, in another book. Pacheco does a wonderful job on the artwork. Probably too much to hope he stays.

What really bugs me though is the opening sequence where Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman have a private secret meeting. You'd think that for such a meeting, just a side-room in the new over-the-top sci-fi Hall of Justice would suffice. Or in the Batcave. Or the Fortress of Solitude. Or in the Invisible Jet while it's on cruise-control. No, this meeting is in some trans-dimensional secret room that John Henry Irons and John Stewart were able to come up with in their down time that would make Reed Richards envious. Then there's this whole "Trinity" matter of this over-long scene. Even Batman seems to recognize that the meeting and scene is all about setting themselves up as being special and elitist. It's not them being special by virtue of who they are and how genuinely good they are, but it's them deciding that they are indeed better than all of the other heroes. Cannot help but think of how the Question viewed a similar situation on the JLU, and there it was just another regular room and it was for the Seven original JLA'ers, not just three. It's dangerous uncomfortable ground, where one has to question the motives of the "heroes"... is it ensure that justice and fairness are done or is it about keeping control now that they are the ones in power? Where's the safeguards to make sure the world doesn't need protection then from what's decided by them in their little safe-room? Who told them they could have that kind of power? These are issues I'd almost expect to be raised in a pseudo-Justice League book, that it's part of the whole point of something like The Authority. But, when you're actually dealing with Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, this type of self-importance leaves a bad taste.

JUSTICE SOCIETY of AMERICA #16: The story takes a bit of a left turn as the big bad seems to be a genuinely good "Old God" of peace and who couldn't take sides in the war between good and evil. What we're missing from this issue is the actual conflict. There has to be something more here beyond a god who only wants people to be happy and will cure all our ills. Let's face it, if he can come and cure the sick and the broken, why wouldn't we let him? It's not like we're doing such a great job on our own. All we're getting in this issue is the pitch, we've not seen the cost or fine print yet.

Sadly, the story starts off re-iterating James Robinson's take on the golden-age Atom and Ditko's Stalker. It's not depicting the Atom as someone that struggled against adversity and could serve as an inspiration to people, but the Atom as a mindless thug (and the Stalker as a villain). Robinson set the Atom up that way in THE GOLDEN AGE so that he could then rescue the character at the end. But it's also a characterization that he pretty much kept in place in the All-Star mini. Here, the depiction is blunted a little bit by it being mentioned third-hand by Damage who seems a bit resentful to the guy, not really doing either character justice.

I will state it's that tendency of James Robinson that's keeping me from getting his upcoming Justice League series as well as his run on Superman. Apart from the JL series concept being totally re-tread of the Outsiders and Justice League Elite, it's him showing how cool classic characters are by changing them. His take on Kirby's Atlas is much like the Stalker as it is turning the character into a villain. He's great with his own creations, with other characters not so much because his idea of well-rounded characterizations are saddling heroes with great character flaws not small human traits, emotions and individual voice.

JSA CLASSIFIED #38: One Wildcat storyline finished up, another one begins. Like the last one, it's a good story overall, showing the strength of the character. Part of that is it's by veteran Batman writer Mike Barr. The artist this time around is Shawn Martinbrough, an artist I've not seen much of. I remember him also from Batman titles a while back, doing an excellent job. This time around, Wildcat has dropped the wrappings on his arms and looks the better for it.

A few questions pop out. One is plot related. Somehow, Wildcat picks up the hand print needed to get by a secure door. But, we don't see just how managed to lift a whole hand print. Just kinda glosses over that story point.

The other problems are outside the actual story. Does EVERY story about Wildcat have to center around fighting and sports? Sure, he's a boxer and a good fighter. But that'd be like having every Iron Man or Batman story centering around white-collar crime and high finance, all of Dare-Devil's be courtroom dramas, Superman would only fight space aliens, and Wonder Woman would be about Greco-Roman Mythology. It's part of who the character is but it shouldn't be used to limit the stories.

Another question is the nature of his identity, Ted Grant. Does the world know he's Wildcat? Because, Ted Grant, unlike the rest of the JSA-ers, is a celebrity outside of the costume. Possibly even more famous in certain circles if sports fans in the DCU are like the ones in the real world. Yet, no one reacts when they see Grant looking 40 years younger than he should. Another reason not to have stories playing up the fact that he's a known sports figure.

STAR TREK - ASSIGNMENT: EARTH 1&2: If you're paying attention, John Byrne has three comics coming out. This and a mini about Romulans are two of him playing in the world of Star Trek, the original series. This is an interesting series in that it's a spin-off from a specific episode that was supposed to be a pilot for a tv show that never happened. Sadly, I don't even remember much about the episode other than it had Terri Garr in it. So, there's a lot about Gary Seven I really don't know much about and this comic doesn't really help matters much. The comic has the feel of how Doctor Who might have been developed in America and they hired Steve McQueen to play the lead. The time frame is unabashedly the 60's, Byrne goes through quite a bit of effort in keeping the feel of the original series to the designs and such. I wish a little more effort was spent in developing the lead character some instead of keeping him a generic cypher.

The second issue is further maddening as it has a nice little conceit in that it's taking place during a specific episode, the second time the Enterprise came into the past and tells the story from a slightly different point of view (think DS9 doing "The Trouble with Tribbles" episode). However, great pains are taken not to use the likenesses of any of the original cast members, so bad photography tricks are used to cut off heads, catching them from their backs, etc. I assume this is so not to have to pay royalties, but it's so obvious as to what it's avoiding, it keeps the story from actually being a fun romp.

TWILIGHT GUARDIAN #1: An interesting experiment for a superhero comic. It has been unfavorably compared and contrasted to KICK ASS but to do so is to do both series a disservice.
Sure, both are looking at what would it be like if a comic fan really chose to dress up and go out as superheroes. However, this character is about someone who decides to patrol her neighborhood in suburbia, not actually seeking out people to fight. It's an introspective story of someone who has become a bit disassociated with real life and seeking to make her real life more like the fantasy one she reads about. It's Don Quixote without the parody, satire and wit. She patrols her neighborhood, commenting on life in suburbia from the point of view of someone who chooses to be an outside observer of life instead of living it.

The chief reason I picked this title up though was something about it struck me as being familiar. I've read a story extremely similar to this but I'll be danged if I know where. The concept strikes me as being worthy of a mini or even a novel, but I cannot imagine it as an ongoing comic.

THE WAR THAT TIME FORGOT #2 (of 12): Wonderful cover by Bolland. With the last issue cover by Neal Adams, this looks to be at least a beautiful series on the the front end. The Golden Gladiator, Viking Prince and G.I. Robot get added to the cast of time lost soldiers, which should be wonderful stuff. The Gladiator, Prince, an ancient Greek by the name of Cassus and a few others seem to be the other side of this conflict as they follow the orders from a malfunctioning G.I. Robot, mistaking him for some kind of god. Where it slips is the writer plays up his Mary Sue characters, making them look good. Instead of opting to find what made the likes of the Golden Gladiator and Viking Prince heroes, they serve to be more "realistic" by being brutes and ruffians, close minded due to their barbaric time periods and natures. After all it wouldn't have been too hard to have some other Romans and such also involved and contrast the nature of Gladiator and Viking Prince with them. Bruce Jones could stand to revisit the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and even Robert E. Howard and see how to write characters that can be savage and brutal but still retain that heroic and noble nature. Hopefully, we'll see the classic DC characters take on bigger roles instead of just background guest-stars.

TELLOS COLOSSAL: I missed this mini-series out when it first came out years ago and was very happy to see that Image was collecting it in a single volume. It's a good mini-series and the late Mike Wieringo's artwork is such an obvious joy to behold. Apparently, Mike was still with us when this was going to press. I'm reminded a bit of LEAVE IT TO CHANCE though the two series don't have much in common other than an infectious sense of fun and whimsy while not shying away from touching on real life. What Jeff Smith's MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL almost achieved. I hope that writer Todd Dezago is still able to bring more of his and Wieringo's vision to us.

REAL LIFE

I apologize for the random nature of my postings. About 6 months ago, the newspaper I worked for announced layoffs, that it was getting rid of the majority of the people that produce the ads and graphics for the advertising sections in favor of outsourcing said jobs. But, I had the job until the beginning of June and I couldn't really argue with the severance package as I'd been there for over 18 years, the majority of it scanning, toning, and sometimes creating graphics for publication. I trained on Photoshop 2.0 or 2.5.

I think a lot of the thinking going into the layoffs is backwards, that they are looking things primarily from an accountant's point of view. Shortly after I started working at the paper, back when it was family owned, the industry was going through some changes. Many cities also used to have both morning and afternoon papers, at one point these were competing papers, but some of them had merged such as Greensboro News and Greensboro Record, became a single morning paper The Greensboro News & Record. The News & Observer had an afternoon paper by the name of the Raleigh Times, and it was one of the last that I'm aware of before it bit the dust. Now there's a bar and restaurant downtown by that name.

But, a big wave of exciting changes was pretty much begun by the publication of a national newspaper by the name of USA TODAY. Computers were increasingly more powerful and essential to the work. USA TODAY embraced computer technology, state of the art printing, and a pop-culture approach to news with colorful graphics, not just photographs, but graphs, maps, side-bars, etc. Being national, they pushed carrying last of the minute sports scores, photos, stocks, etc. Being national, this affected papers across the country in a way that if it was just The Washington Post wouldn't have. USA TODAY was a direct competitor in ways that television and radio weren't. They were in almost every newspaper market putting together a slicker package than any of the local boys were capable of doing.

Did newspapers retreat into their shells, start laying off people in efforts to cut costs due to lost revenues? No. Because if they had, they'd have lost the long game. That didn't address the core problem. To be competitive in this new market, papers were going to have to spend money.

I was one of the last people trained on the system of producing two daily papers. Half of my training was followed by "this won't matter in 3 months." I was also the last person trained on setting ads on the old machines before the Macs were brought in. Being one of the few people that had worked with Macs, I was also about the quickest to be trained in the new system. I taught myself rudiments of Photoshop and Illustrator (ironically for doing comic-fan stuff) before it became part of my job. Scanners were bought, more and more graphics would be digital as opposed to being "pasted up". We worked at streamlining color processes and receiving satellite photos digitally. The big push was also in deciding about upgrading the press and whether it would involve getting a new building. Millions were spent in new equipment, training, and even bringing in new people. Risks were being taken. Our paper was one of the first to have an online presence and because it was all so new, we had to also be an IP provider to the community. For quite a while, my pastor had a newspaper email address. The son of the publisher was quoted in THE INDEPENDENT when talking about the risks in the new designs and such to the effect, "It's not brain surgery. If something doesn't work, we can change it. No one dies."

A shift slowly happened. Typesetting and pasting up ads and newspages were considered trade jobs. By coincidence, I was the first of many to come later that had a college degree in Journalism, with a background in art, photography and some computer experience. As what was considered pre-press morphed into something different, the new ad-designers would have more formal training in graphic arts and design. More and more of them, this was part of their career choice, not part time jobs or something you could just train on the job.

I talk about that to show the difference in thinking between the newspaper when it was privately owned and now that it's corporately owned. It's not just us, but newspapers across the board. The last time the industry underwent fundamental changes, it was seen as opportunity. To stay competitive, money had to be invested into the people, their tools and their training. Those blue-collar people weren't laid off. Some did leave. Most of them stayed. They learned the new skills and were in place when new people were brought in to plug gaps. One of the reasons of the outsourcing? They figure they can save money in the long run by not having to update computers and software (and people I assume) even though they are spending thousands right now. It was that kind of thinking that lead the newspapers to either go under or spend millions in upgrades and updates when USA TODAY came out. Because most of the equipment hadn't changed at that point in decades, the press alone was close to 40 years old, even though the technology had made huge gains. Comic books were printing using newer technologies than the newspapers were.

Instead, having trained and talented people is considered not an asset but a liability in the new newspaper environment. Don't look to ways to make use of them to make money, but as ballast to toss off. Instead of looking to improve quality and customer service, decisions are made that EVERYONE including the people responsible for making the decisions know are going to result in worse quality, more mistakes, and less customer service to the advertisers. The one person to benefit from this? The guy that is responsible for making many of these decisions just got promoted, he's going to be making more money.

It's hard for me to be too upset. As I said, I'm getting a nice little severance package that allows me some time to decide where to go from here. And there was a 50/50 chance that I'd leave anyway in a year or so as I'm dating someone from another city, a 2 hour drive. So, I've got options. I've been developing some freelance work, ironically supplying realtors with graphics for their big real-estate book that is printed and published by the paper that laid me off.

And, I'll be taking a trip to India starting on Friday, so I'll have minimal computer and comic exposure the next couple of weeks. After that, who knows? I plan on taking some classes to buff up my web-design skills and continuing with my freelance work while I decide what shape the next stage of my life will be.

A Call to Action!

Spirit #16. A lot of what I said about this book a few blogs ago, pretty much still stands. It’s now Paul Smith on the artwork, normally a favorite of mine. However, his art here matches the storyline in that it is more of a pastiche of the Spirit. Smith’s lush linework and talent is wasted on him using a more cartoony style. Eisner’s style on the Spirit was often exaggerated, almost a parody of those creators and characters that played it straight, but it was also a bit gritty, the Spirit’s clothes often looking rumpled and slept in. The end result is the book that is almost charming but it and the characters don’t come alive because they are too much about mimicking. And that’s not what Darwyn Cooke was doing that made the book seem so vibrant and a joy to look forward to. It’s like Brandon Routh’s performance in SUPERMAN RETURNS. He’s not allowed to play Superman/Clark Kent as a real character. Instead, he’s playing Christopher Reeve playing Superman/Clark Kent which comes across a little bit creepy and out of place.

JLA #20: Ethan Van Sciver takes over the art chores from Ed Benes this issue. This is a breath of fresh air as we go from Benes’ scratchy lines and muddy artwork giving the impression of detail to Van Sciver’s deliberate linework and meticulous attention to true detail. Ethan Van Sciver’s ability has grown quite a bit since I last saw him. While his work is still very detailed, he goes easier on the amount of lines put on the page so that the panels aren’t as dense and cluttered. In fact some panels would be almost spare if it wasn’t for the colorist making up for it by filling backgrounds with textures and such, really ruining the overall mood of the artwork that would have been better served by leaving it alone. Remember when the Flash used to run with only thin parallel speed lines depicting his speed? Now it’s flashy color blends and zigzaggy lightning cluttering up something that should be streamlined to truly speak speed. In many ways he’s to Brian Bolland the way that Phil Jimenez was to George Perez for the longest time. Both, captured the look and the lines of the originals, but not the actual spirit. Both were very deliberate in their lines, but their figure work and storytelling was limp when compared to the originals. To the degree, that only someone really unfamiliar with the artwork would confuse them. As I said, Van Sciver has come a ways. His figures aren’t as overly rendered as I’ve noticed in his earlier work, but they are still a little stiff in places, maybe because the linework is so impeccable, so deliberate, it gives everything the same type of artificial feel whether it’s a stone or a human being.

The story is a done in one issue that for once doesn’t serve as a lead-in to some story in another book. However, it falls flat considering that it not only doesn’t address any ongoing plot issues, it also doesn’t address the cliffhanger from the last issue, namely that the Martian Manhunter is missing on a planet full of supervillains. Yes, I know that is probably being addressed in SALVATION RUN, but as I’m reading JLA and this was brought up in the last issue, it’s odd to see Wonder Woman cheerfully having a chit-chat with the Flash without addressing it. It’s been an ongoing problem with this title and it will continue with the next issue as we get a story that serves as lead-in to FINAL CRISIS. Bleh.

CAPTAIN ACTION #0: There’s no reason for this to be a “Zero” issue. It’s basically the first issue, just extremely short. To the point of wondering why you’re having to pay for it, online previews are almost as long and they are free.

The artwork by Mark Sparacio is passable, but it makes the new Captain Action’s costume look like it was designed by the people that make the costumes for “Who Wants to be a Superhero” with seams and rubber padding.

The story on the other hand makes a big blunder. At least it’s a blunder if you are planning on creating an ongoing series vs a limited story. It ties in the lead character’s origin and motivation too tightly with the conflict of the plot/story that it makes it hard to resolve the story and yet keep a reasonable motivation for the character to continue on as the hero. Ultimately, the market tires of the ongoing, never-ending battles of maintaining the status quo. Dr. Kimble cannot find the one-armed man, the lost space travelers of “Lost in Space” and “Voyager” cannot find their way home, etc. It’s why both Rom and Micronauts floundered once they succeeded in their primary missions. Otherwise, the zero issue doesn’t do much other than establishing the basic plot and status quo. Captain Action is the leader of an organization that exists to combat microscopic alien parasites that get in the blood and control people. Time’s passed and the threat is neutralized. There are now superheroes in the world, making Captain Action a bit redundant as he only had some cool weapons and ability at disguise going for him. Then the aliens come back and it looks like Action's son is the world's last hope. Again, these other superheroes all have one origin, they are beneficiaries of knowledge gained while fighting the alien menace. By tying everything in to one core concept, we have a superhero universe that is self-limiting. This is fine when planning a finite series. But, when you start out from the offset and define things so narrowly, it also takes out a bit of the sense of wonder and excitement that fuels superhero universes. It’s where the books of Valiant started becoming dull as they tried so hard to reflect the world outside the window apart from the “superheroes” and spider-aliens. Got tired of the one trick. It’s fine to build one book around a central concept, but one shouldn’t build the whole fantasy world around one with such limiting boundaries.

With Moonstone doing Captain Action, think Dynamite will respond with Big Jim and his P.A.C.K?

A HISTORY OF PACIFIC COMICS:

An interesting look at the early days of the comic publisher Pacific Comics and the impact they had on comics today. Go, read it and come back. I’ll wait. History of Pacific Comics

Definitely learned a lot there. I think a big problem with some of Pacific's early comics was they hired big-name artists, but not writers. Any fan of Kirby's should have been able to recognize that his biggest successes were done in conjunction with someone. And I say this as enjoying Kirby's superhero work, even his 70's run on Captain America and Black Panther. But it doesn’t take a genius to recognize that even with all the creativity behind projects like Omac, the New Gods, Kamandi and the Demon, his actual writing style wasn’t the stories strong points. And I liked the concepts and the art on Silver Star and Captain Victory, but the execution of the stories lacked. And the shoddy printing didn't help. I'd snap up a nicely done trade in a heartbeat. Then you have Neal Adams. Hardly a proven writer/character creator or even a timely artist, his biggest achievements being re-designing long-standing characters and some wonderful covers.

Another thing that struck me as strange that needs a little more information was this: Jack Kirby’s Captain Victory was revived in the ‘90s, planned for a short-lived publisher called Topps Comics, owned by the baseball card company. Comics legend Steve Englehart wrote the revival. “I wrote three double-sized issues,” he says on his website, “but the artist they chose for the interiors - not Paul Gulacy, [who did the covers for #1 and #2 below] - turned out to be not ready for prime time. They chose not to publish the issues they had, and by the time they went to look for a new artist the company was abandoning comics.”

Now, Topps did release a single issue of SILVER STAR (as well as VICTORY), but Steve Englehart wasn't involved with either of them. Silver Star was by Kurt Busiek and James Fry. No Gulacy cover either. Another project if I had the money for my own company, to get Busiek to revisit and finish those comics.

Some Comic Book Reviews

There are times when I think I focus too much on the negative, what about stuff that I like? Stuff that I think works?

Like many comic fans, I went to the store to pick up the shipment for this week. There are times now when I don’t go every week much less on the Wednesday of the shipment. The excitement isn’t quite at the level it used to be.

It was a light week, comics wise. Luckily for my comic shop, my interest in pulps and the pulp reprints make up for the dramatic drop in the comics I get. I’m spending about the same each month, maybe more on some, but the money doesn’t go to DC or Marvel or even the independent comics. It’s a great time to be a fan of pulp heroes. For the first time in decades, there’s more pulp stuff out each month than one can reasonably read, especially with the Spider, Shadow, and Doc Savage doing two novels per book. Unfortunately, since these come from small independent publishers, they aren’t exactly cheap. So, it pays to be discerning. More discerning than I was as I looked at the Operator 5 novel in my bag and was thinking “Secret Agent ‘X’”. I’ve developed a liking for the “X” novels, but I’ve yet been able to finish and Operator 5 one and would have preferred to save money. Especially as there was the attractive TALES OF MAGIC AND MYSTERY with it’s stark and powerfully minimally rendered and colored cover. I almost passed it up, but the short stories intrigued me as did some of the artwork. I justified it by the fact that I was only getting 3 comics: THE AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL, SHADOWPACT, and JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA.

What’s great about the three comics, at least for reviewing and comparing and contrasting purposes is that they all fall well into Good, Mediocre, and Bad.

THE GOOD

AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL #16. I should point out, that this is the only book from Marvel that I trust enough to have in my pull list and not pick up off the shelves. Of course, other than THE TWELVE, I hadn’t even seen anything even tempting to pick up apart from the odd reprints. Starting with the cover: As a general rule, I don’t like computerized effects with comic art. It might be because I use Adobe Photoshop in my work, but when I see a blur special effect or lens flare it throws me out of the illusion of the art because the first thing I notice about it is process of the artist and not the art itself. For some reason though, it works for me here to give the illusion of an invisible hand reaching out to Spider-girl’s back. The sense of impending menace comes across well.

Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz deliver as well on the story, juggling various sub-plots and soap opera moments while also delivering a solid main story with a beginning, middle, and end. DeFalco is not the best writer of dialogue or wordsmith, but he knows the craft and his genre. You never feel cheated when reading his books, they don’t feel padded, scenes don’t feel useless. And even though this issue doesn’t actually resolve much other than some tension between May and her parents, you still feel like you got a complete story, as May manages to at least fight off the villain of the month if not outright defeat it.

Frenz is up to the task of illustrating the scenes, even quiet moments. Here you have a discussion between Peter and his daughter, communicated through the art and not dialogue balloons (I do think his style has gotten a bit more of caricature and angular of late). The action scenes are clear and dynamic. He knows how to tell the story through his artwork while paying attention to detail and setting the scenes.

THE MEDIOCRE

SHADOWPACT is an anomaly of a DCU title in that the powers that be seem content to let it reside in its own corner of continuity, free of the vast stuff going on elsewhere. Which is strange in that it actually spun out of crossover madness from two years back. Somewhere along the way Willingham left the book and another writer came on board, seamless enough that I really didn’t notice. Issue 21 is in the middle of a longer story arc that you either find interesting or not.

Tom Derenick lacks some of Frenz’ storytelling/layout skill, but makes up for it with style. His heroes look heroic and dynamic, his women lithe and sexy. And he rarely mis-steps in telling the story in each panel. In a fantasy setting as this one, it’s important to have an artist that can deliver the appropriate level of detail of backgrounds and such when called for, but to also know when it’s the figure work that is to take the center stage.

It’s Matthew Sturges’ writing that really drops the ball. There are just times that you just make you go “huh?” Such as when they mention that the Enchantress cannot figure out which dimension Nightshade, Nightmaster, and Ragman are lost in and then make this big announcement after two days of searching it’s the Nightshade dimension! Ok, they know that the two left with Nightshade who “teleports” via traveling through the Nightshade dimension, and it took two days of peering through a bunch of dimensions to find them in what should be the first place thoroughly checked? You know, I need to go to the store to get some cat litter. I think I’ll first look in the produce section, then the chips and crackers aisle, then the dairy aisle… you get the idea.

And then there’s the whole thing that the story has just revealed that Nightshade’s dimension is the same world that is Nightmaster’s background and not a single character seems really surprised or reacts to that knowledge. It’s like heading for New York, finding London and your reaction is “hey let’s go visit the Queen.”

Then there’s this great scene, where Nightmaster asks the Old man there for exposition purposes what happened. Nice big panel of the old guy who replies, “I will tell you, since you were not here to see for yourself.” Huh? It’s obvious that Sturges had no clue what to have the guy say as the flashback exposition begins on the next page but had to have the guy say something, so he has him re-state the obvious.

And, then there’s Sturges’ preoccupation with sex. Last issue and this we get nice visual innuendos that Nightshade is probably going commando under her mini-skirt and Ragman’s discomfort of constantly finding himself in positions of noticing this. And Detective Chimp’s using the internet to surf for girlfriends. It’s not needed for the story at hand and, frankly, comes off as frat boy level humor and writing. It falls flat and mars what is otherwise a good adventure story, especially through the repetitive nature of the scenes. It places Sturges as being somewhere between Judd Winnick and Chuck Austen as far as writers go without the flashes of above average capability from the former or the excesses of the latter.

And next issue implies the death of a character! Joy.

THE BAD

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #17 is ugly from the get go. Like the monochromatic dark color cover featuring Black Lightning that is all about the special effect of his hand looking like it’s glass filled with lightning? Hope so, because the inside art is very similar in that it’s so dark it’s a chore to read even the action oriented pages. Benes was a decent if somewhat cheese-cake focused artist on Birds of Prey, but here he’s just a mess. It took three inkers to actually ink this, I guess it takes time putting that much black on the pages. Truthfully, it might not be the inkers, it could be the colorist, but whoever’s at fault should not put this book on the resume. It’s not helped that Benes work on the JLA has been one of filling characters up with scratch lines to give the impression of detail so the end result is just a muddied mess. It’s at the point that the when you get to the second non-story of Vixen, the manga-esque artwork by Jon Boy Meyers is a relief. It’s still too dark. She’s supposed to be shooting an arrow at two football fields away and if the coloring would imply that she forgot to turn out the lights. And thankfully the text tells us about the distance because the art at no point sets the stage to let us know that. But other than that, I like Jon Boy Meyers artwork here. It’d be better served to have a decent coloring job and a little more of a plot than just moving a subplot along.

The writing by veteran Dwayne McDuffie isn’t any better. I had high hopes with him taking over the writing chores from Brad Meltzer. But, his writing has been almost just as much a mess. Starting with the Red Tornado. Meltzer started off by writing the Tornado in a way that seemed to contradict 20+ years of continuity without actually explaining anything about the new status quo or nature of what the Red Tornado is (mainly because his whole overlong opening story arc was dependent on the Red Tornado being a substantially different character and instead of making his story fit the characters, he chose to make the characters fit the story). McDuffie’s handling of the Red Tornado is incompatible with both Meltzer’s and previous history as well and still doesn’t do anything to explain as to why this retcon exists (not asking for the “how” necessarily, but there should be a reason at least to why we’re changing history beyond just lazy writing)

Last issue was a crossover with the Tangent universe without actually explaining anything about the Tangent characters or why we should care who they are and the world they are from and then left on a cliffhanger of sorts as that universe’s Flash was in ours (although I had heard she was killed in COUNTDOWN: ARENA). But, then this issue has nothing to do with the main plot from that issue, if it was introducing a subplot, it should at least be touched on. Instead, last issue reads now as an anomaly. I understand that it might be a plot point picked up later on, but one should remember, even when writing for the Trade, you need to write for the month to month as well. Last month’s implied a follow-up and anyone following from issue to issue is going to expect some kind of reference. Otherwise we get what we have of McDuffie’s run so far, stories that just seem very disjointed. To further compound issues, to even remotely understand what’s going on in this book, you have to have knowledge of other DC books, especially SALVATION RUN. You have the Suicide Squad going after various villains but nothing really tells you anything about who the members of the Squad are and since they are mostly villains themselves, you really don’t know which group is which. Even if the motivations of the gang of villains headed by Dr. Polaris (didn’t he die too?) invading the Hall of Justice was a clever reveal on that story’s last page, it doesn’t undo the fact that instead of actually getting a Justice League story, we got what should be part of the plot of SALVATION RUN.

And, then there is the discussion of Roy’s daughter visiting her birth mom, the psychopathic murderess for hire Cheshire. Who in their right mind would actually allow such a thing? Do people not even think about what they are writing? Such a move is about as stupid and wrong headed as the idea of having someone with HIV actually be a superhero and shooting people with pointed objects. Seriously. I know it’s a fantasy setting, but there should still be some logical extrapolation of known facts and rules. The actions and decisions of the characters still have to make sense within the setting.