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.

Justice Incorporated!

I haven't been getting Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon for some years, but the cover for the upcoming issue has me intrigued enough to get it. The storyline has had the Dragon teaming up with some other Image luminaries (Spawn, Witchblade, Invincible and Shadowhawk) to take down the Superman-esque Solarman who has been using unnecessary lethal force on villains. And, seems willing to do the same to heroes who stand in his way. In the next issue various golden-age characters seem to be jumping in to lend a hand. Featured on the cover: from Fox are Thor, the Flame, and Samson; Standard's Black Terror, Pyroman and Wonder Man; Lev Gleason's Silver Streak and Daredevil; Columbia's Skyman, Harvey's Captain Freedom; and Fawcett's Bulletman. If nothing else, the story ought to be fun.

Don't know what happened to Image's Issue After Next project, the series that was doing the "next" issue of public domain comics and characters, featuring all new stories of golden-age characters. The first, Fantastic Comics was a very mixed bag of pastiche, parody and not-sure-what. They were all too self-aware, self referential; none really being just plain stories featuring the characters.

Thankfully, Moonstone pretty much dodges that bullet with The Avenger Chronicles, their tpb collection of short-stories featuring the Street & Smith pulp hero. It's a great collection of writers, drawing from pulp historians, comics, fantasy and sci fi writers, and even a new story by Ron Goulart who had penned a few new Avenger novels back when the character was being reprinted in the 1970's. I've not gotten completely through the book, but the stories seem to capture the feel of the original pulp stories without being mocking, even in a gently manner. The creators take the character and their stories seriously even while delivering plots that would have been at home 60 years ago. The flaws in the stories would be flaws regardless. Will Murray is writing a bit more like he's writing one of his Doc Savage epics and the format doesn't have room for his prose. Thus, the reader is short-changed on the resolution. The motivation and unmasking of the villain hinges on personal information that was always known by the Avenger but is kept from the reader until the big reveal. It's a cheat and lazy writing. Several stories all have elements of the Avenger's past, from before the days of his war on crime. The Avenger always was a bit more psychological of pulp characters, but this is a bit of modern writing creeping in, the desire to mine the past, to delve further into the character's history and past. While one or two of these type stories are interesting, when you get several in a row, it telegraphs the twist and ending of the story to a degree. M. Night's The Sixth Sense works largely because he was a new creator, one wasn't expecting a twist. But, once you know what to look for, that twist doesn't come as a surprise.

Interestingly, when this came out, I was halfway through one of those 1970s paperback reprints of the Avenger: Midnight Murder. The story is a bit more of an espionage thriller than I would normally expect but that seems to be one of the strengths of the Avenger character. Created by committee of Walter "Shadow" Gibson and Lester "Doc Savage" Dent, the character embodies character concepts of both and is at home as both a detective and scientific hero. The plot is an airplane is testing a top secret device and seems to deliberately crash into a mountain. Crooks seem to be after the device, the scientists are striving to recover and keep it secret, and the Avenger and his crew are trying to find out what truly caused the plane to crash and put this gang of international crooks out of business. The two head crooks are portrayed in a wonderful over the top suave and dangerous manner that would serve them well in a James Bond flick. What's also great about this novel are the Avenger's aides. They come across as being efficient and capable, not needing his constant rescuing even though they get into as much trouble as any pulp's second bananas.

I feel I should at least give some props to the latest issue of Golden-Age Men of Mystery by AC Comics. Issue 11 has what initially attracted me to these reprints. The inside cover gives a history of the stories contained therein, credit to where the stories AND reprints came from. It tells how the Cat-Man story is a completely second and incompatible version of his and Kitten's origins as well as how the Phantom Lady story reprinted was originally a story of a non-costumed heroine called Spitfire Sanders with the lead re-drawn and the script changed so that it referenced the Commies and not the Nazis. When he lately seems to more often confuse history by making changes to stories and texts, it's refreshing to see him shedding light on some of the often convoluted real history of the characters and stories.

My Own Worst Enemy has gotten the axe in the first round of cancellations it appears. This is one of those shows where the central concept has interest but it's badly thought out, yet the stories and characters are interesting and sympathetic. The conceit is that Christian Slater plays a man entering the intelligence field (at some point in college apparently), and agrees to a procedure that will split his personality into two. Henry, his second personality is given a whole new background and he's free to marry and have kids without knowing about his other self, Edward who goes around as a super-spy. Edward knows about Henry, but as soon as a mission is over, he goes to sleep and Henry wakes up and goes about his life until Edward is needed again and he's awoken by the agency. The problem is that the characters are now waking up on their own in each other's lives. Henry isn't good at the spy stuff and Edward isn't all that good at being a faithful husband and dependable dad.

The problem is the premise makes zero sense. Even if you buy that they would go to such expense and trouble for cover identities for just two spies, why give Henry a fake history and life when Edward is the one that's not really living a life? Much of the show is spent of Henry trying to figure out how much of his life and memories are really fake when it makes more sense to reverse the two.

Much of the show spends time dealing with the very obvious problems that anyone could predict would happen under this type of setup and that you'd think a competent spy organization spending this kind of money would know they couldn't keep a lid on. While the spies Edward and Tom know about their dual lives, their respective identities and spouses do not. Naturally, one spouse gets suspicious, especially when she decides to surprise him on one of his "business" trips by waiting for him in his hotel room in one city while he's really on the other side of the globe. That episode is further undermined by a later episode that reveals Henry's wife was not the woman that the company had picked out for him, he was supposed to marry another agent to help keep tabs on him. It follows then that the company had also picked out a wife for Tom, are we to assume this company was so inept that they failed twice in the same area?

Indeed, the setup would make far more sense if Henry is the real identity (as in the classic Jekyll-Hyde story). He agrees to the split personality, his real identity is brain-washed only to the degree to make him think he decided NOT to pursue a career in the intelligence field. Edward also does not realize he's two people or that he has a life outside of being a spy, the brainwashing is to prevent him from questioning his own lack of identity too closely. This makes him efficient and deadly as he doesn't realize he has any family ties, anything to lose. The tension arises as the brainwashing starts breaking down and the two become somewhat aware of each other. Henry is trying to find out just who he is and how much of his life is a lie (because the company does have to keep tabs on him) while Edward wants the life his other half has and thus at times is either sabotaging it or trying to take it over. And, then you have the mystery of just who this company really is or their goals, that some in it may have plans for Henry-Edward to be the ultimate sleeper terrorist with the right verbal command.

I've been enjoying Crusoe, more than I thought it would. Part of me hopes that it's really just a long mini-series as the central idea seems like it would be limiting in story types. Already the show had to take steps to address the Gilligan's Island scenario of having other people constantly finding the island to set up conflict between them and Crusoe and Friday yet end with them not getting off the island. In this case, they stranded a ship that had been taken over by mutineers also on the island. Some of the original crew get along fine with Crusoe but the mutineers are in charge and would kill him on sight. But, they respect his and Friday's knowledge of the island well enough to keep to the beach until they can get the ship repaired and leave. Thus the show has a cast and storytelling possibilities larger than two people on an island, even one as big as this one seems to be.

The flashbacks are also intriguing, that slowly give the story of how Crusoe ended up on the island and the life that he left behind. It serves as reminding each week how imperative it is to him to risk his life and leave this tropical paradise, that he has wife and family he loves and must get back to. Likewise, there are conspiracies afoot that slowly unfold. Is Sam Neil's character really the benevolent family friend he seems to be or is there something more sinister to him?

It's not without flaws. We are told that Friday is a cannibal, yet is able to speak six languages and picked up English very quickly. The creators strive to make Friday a sympathetic and strong character, reinforcing the fact that he is Crusoe's friend and equal and in some ways such as language as well as survival skills, his superior. Where would a cannibal become fluent in six languages? It has to be politically correct. Friday cannot be treated as a true native savage would be and their relationship has to be more palatable than what one from that time period would normally have been. As the show starts with them already friends, a lot of them coming to terms is glossed over. His intelligence is played up as is Crusoe's lack of cultural prejudices. In a sense, that's a shame as that would be quite a bit of fodder for story material. The show does give props in recognizing that the time period isn't one of racial and gender equality though. Even Crusoe can be shown to have some sexist attitudes, a more acceptable form of prejudice than racism.

The other chief flaw is the one that people made fun of concerning the Professor on Gilligan's Island: Crusoe is capable of making a huge tree house with so many gadgets feasible for the time and yet is unable to build a decent raft. Even when he has a small boat that is almost completely fixed, he's unable to make it water tight. And, Friday is equally deficient in this knowledge, even though he's from a culture that makes sea-worthy canoes. Sure, the tree house and gadgets are cool looking, but they over-ride the credibility of the central conceit of the show, the two are stranded on this island with no way off.

Some Comic Book Reviews

Gotten a little behind. News of impending layoff, a car accident and subsequent health dealings and a few days off to spend Valentine’s Day with the one I love can do that to a person. Well, the Hallmark holiday has come and gone, I’m mostly recovered, got a new car and still face an uncertain future on the job front in a couple of months. Hey, here’s a thought. Instead of worrying about immigrant labor taking menial and blue collar jobs while still putting some money back into our economy (they still gotta live and eat while here), how about doing something about all of those jobs being sent overseas to third world countries. Far more Americans are actually losing jobs to outsourcing than laborers being brought in to clean Wal-mart in the pre-dawn hours.

THE SPIRIT #14. A new creative team comes aboard, Aragones, Evanier, Ploog and Farmer. The results… it’s an OK book. It’s actually more akin to the type of book I would expect when someone announces they are bringing back a character like Will Eisner’s Spirit. Stylistically, it’s more akin to Eisner’s work which unfortunately means it’s devoid of any real life because the story is really about capturing the spirit of the creator and not the spirit of the character, the Spirit himself. Darwyn Cooke had taken the character and combined the retro charm and some stylistic flourishes of Eisner and merged them with his own style and storytelling creating a piece of Fusion Jazz in comicbook fun. Whereas this is more of a college band doing a cover tune and just succeeding with it mostly.

ZORRO #1. Like Dynamite’s SUPERPOWERS, there’s a painted look to the comic that I feel sadly undercuts the artwork. It’s a pretty book, but the artist, Francesco Francavilla is capable of such lush linework it seems a shame to lose it. http://www.francescofrancavilla.com/

Like THE SPIRIT, the end result of the book is one of being merely OK. While it’s giving us the origin and background of the character, it does so through flashback and narrative so we still see the title character in action (which they didn’t do with the Lone Ranger book which is why I didn’t get it, I’m sick of monthlies that are written solely for the Trade Collection in mind).

However, I hope that they paid some serious royalties to Isabella Allende as it makes heavy use of her over-hyped novel. Maybe not “over-hyped” since that implies that it was heavily hyped. It just seemed that those that read it loved it whereas I thought it was good but nothing really special. She romanticized the Indians too much in contrasting them with the evils of civilized men. Plus, making Zorro being truly part-Indian weakens the character a bit. His empathy now stems not from just a sense of justice and right & wrong, but partially because he's one of them. He has a vested reason to care. It’s subtle, but I think it’s also very significant as it changes the character’s basic motivation.

I’m not really sure why there needs to be a big focus on the origin story anyways. The concept of Zorro is fairly simple to understand and thanks to movies and such, people already understand the basic nature of the character. A little bit to establish the context and status quo and take us directly into the actual stories. And give him back his mustache! It’s better than no Zorro comic, but if you haven’t read them, I’d recommend going to the store and through the back issues for Topps’ version done by Don McGregor (which he continued as a gorgeous daily newspaper strip that also has been collected).

BRAVE AND THE BOLD #10: This comic keeps getting better and better. Although why they are replacing Perez on the book in what’s the final issue to the current story arc makes no sense, even as much as I love the work of incoming artist Jerry Ordway. At least it’s an artist of a comparable style and skill.

Here it’s still Perez and continuing the story of the classic Challengers of the Unknown reading the Book of Destiny serving as framing stories of various team-ups. We have Superman traveling to the past and teaming up with the Silent Knight and a slightly more recent past as Aquaman teams up with the newly formed Teen Titans on the day of his wedding to Mera. The book deftly shows why Perez is a natural for this title as he is able to draw superheroes, knights, a dragon, kid sidekicks in an underwater environment and make it all work wonderfully. Waid gets credit for actually making me laugh with a comment by Green Arrow about why Speedy wasn’t present.

Waid also makes me groan though with the Silent Knight giving his last name as “Kent”. It’s just too cutesy. Not to mention, wasn’t the Silent Knight one of the Hawk God avatars and thus according to Geoff Johns’ cosmology, a reincarnated Carter Hall? It’s one of the big problems with DCU right now, their continuity is totally screwed up, this time just rebooting and changing things arbitrarily such as the Doom Patrol, the past Justice League membership (again), the various books with different versions of Teen Titans. B&B seems to embrace that convoluted continuity as we have the original Challengers of the Unknown (though Red was wiped out of all existence a reboot or two ago), the current Doom Patrol makeup, but the old Metal Men who have also been recently rebooted if I got the gist of Will Magnus’ involvement in the mega-crossover last year and the current mini-series. So, ignore all the stupid retcons and such and just read this title. It’s more fun anyway, better written and drawn than about anything else put out by DC right now.

The Twelve #2. A good second issue. I only had a few quibbles. Such as why does Captain Wonder's chin look so humongous when he's not wearing the mask but more square jawed generic when he is wearing it? It's just plain distracting. We really don't see anything about Fiery Mask, Laughing Mask, Witness, or Mr. E. That's a pretty large chunk of the cast. Reading a bit about Mr. E's golden-age stories, he strikes me as being far more interesting a character than he's been played as here. He had a vampire as an arch villain! Bringing Electro into the compound makes zero sense in context of the story other than JMS needs him to be there.

Have to wonder about the timing of the narration as well. We know that it's the Phantom Reporter looking back to the early days out, but it implies that he's still ignorant of Vietnam and television especially if he's aware that the Rockman's people had never been discovered. JMS seems to not be able to keep PR's narration sound logically as if it's being done in the present, after the fact that he and the others have returned to active duty and not revealing too much when talking about the events happening in the recent past, so depending on the scene PR sounds as if he's narrating just as it happens. Instead of his narration being fully in the present after the end of the story, it reads as if it’s only in the present of whatever scene is being presented. That’s bad writing. Also, with PR’s job and background, it's a bit hard to bite that he's still out of the loop and having that hard of a time adjusting. The fact that there are still newspapers and such, he'd easily find a job regardless of the loss of "sources". Technology has changed, but a reporter’s job wouldn’t be that different.

My biggest quibble is the main plotline isn't delved into at all, despite it being the final climactic page of the first issue and the first page of this one. Will probably read fine in trade format, but a little frustrating in the monthly. It’s coitus interruptus of comic book storytelling.

However, JMS totally delivers on the heroes out of time bit and looking into different characters. The Captain Wonder scene was completely natural and organic and very powerful. It defines for us the type of man that he is and is heartbreaking in its pathos. I liked in seeing the hints of the Black Widow's dark background. And we feel a bit for Rockman. I hope his origin stays in place though (I don’t really care for mentally ill superheroes). Sure, in today’s context it is a bit fanciful, but this is the Marvel Universe after all. We know there are undersea and underground kingdoms and such. One more isn’t really a stretch.

FANTASTIC COMICS: Erik Larsen had this to say about his book:

And yeah, you may have seen "The Twelve" and maybe even "Superpowers," but this is another animal entirely.

This isn’t a depressing “everything has turned to crap and look how old, tired and silly looking these characters are” story -- we’ve seen those tepid tales time and time again ever since Alan Moore trotted out Marvel Man. This isn’t some pale imitation of an Alan Moore story -- it's an upbeat, energetic “look how cool these characters are and can be” type of thing.

Unfortunately, he’s wrong and this really didn’t live up to its potential. Overall, it was more pastiche than anything else, full of cutesy and slightly mocking elements in its attempts to be lighthearted. A big indicator of where it went wrong is the fact that it chose to mimic the bad paper and printing of 25-60 years ago with rough paper and out of register printing. See, right there it’s not about the story-telling and the characters, it’s about Artifact creation. It’s not about embracing cool characters and looking at what the creators did right in those days and telling stories that live up to that but looking at what was limiting and wrong, the parts you make fun of now that things have advanced past that. And, it’s trying to recreate an experience not through the story itself but through the physicality of the product. This prevents the art and writing to really deliver the story because the product itself is part of the story and as such the whole point is to be aware of the fact that it’s not real but a fake.

The individual stories are a hodge podge themselves. Larsen’s Samson tale illustrates the weaknesses of Larsen as a writer as it’s mostly just fluff mocking the idea of kid sidekicks. I’ve not read SAVAGE DRAGON in some time, but here his artwork looks rushed despite the powerful cover. Captain Kidd and the Golden Knight are the two of the most obscure heroes here, but their stories are also the best of the lot with only a few cutesy groaners. Yank Wilson starts off well, but denigrates into being more cutesy over-the-top parody than an action story. Stardust is an essay disguised as a story in that it’s more or less “about” something than a story in and of itself. Flip Falcon is interesting but it also is an exercise in completely re-inventing the character into something drastically different. Space Smith reads as a chapter in an ongoing story that’s completely pastiche and low on substance. Sub Saunders is appropriately 90% in German in that it makes the text of the story as indecipherable as the hideous artwork.


THE PHANTOM #16. Another book that has been getting better and better lately. The artwork and storytelling has settled into a decent consistency. A couple of story arcs are being tied together, telling a moving opening chapter to the next arc. One thing I liked with the recent issues is they are finally bringing something to the Phantom that was solely needed: villains worthy of the character. When superheroes were starting out, there was a tendancy for the flashy heroes to have a bit more mundane foes. The more mundane the hero though, the flashier his villains were, as if there was only so much un-reality they could put on the page. Eventually, supervillains become more and more prevalent as the public became used to the idea of super-characters and wanted to see adversaries worthy of the heroes, not just situations requiring Superman to bust down a wall (thus, a shift towards the story being about conflict and jeopardy and not just a display of ability). Eventually, Holmes had a Moriarty.

For some reason, the Phantom never really caught up. While he’s been in print for decades in both strips and comic books, his foes seemed to get increasingly mundane. The only fanciful stuff about the Phantom seemed to be the Phantom himself. He needs stories and adversaries that are as colorful as he is. I’m not calling for superpowers, aliens, and true supernatural elements to be brought in, but I am saying I wouldn’t be adverse to seeing a little of the larger-than-life sense of those things to be injected alongside the stories of real concerns of Africa and the jungles.

Also, of interest in this book are two of the ads of upcoming comics by Moonstone. One, the return of Captain Action! As a big Gil Kane fan, there’s a lot this series is going to have to live up to, but I’m hoping for a fun book. And Chuck Dixon is returning to a classic character he helped re-introduce people to 20 years ago: Airboy! A little pet peeve as the ad is a bit misleading that if you aren’t aware of the fact you might assume that Chuck CREATED Airboy himself and not just updated the character for the 80’s.

Flip Falcon returns from the 4th Dimension

Talk about a little serendipity. I was reading some Golden Age tales, getting a few more villains for my home website. In the bunch were a couple of Flip Falcon stories. Flip is your standard non-costumed adventurer that was prevalent back in the day. His home was in FANTASTIC COMICS from Fox. His hook was he had a dimension machince that allowed him to travel into the 4th Dimension. More than just the dimension of Time, the 4th Dimension was home of all sorts of otherworldly and supernatural beings.

So, when I head over to Comic Book Resources, they reveal that as part of the first comic from The Next Issue Project from Erik Larsen and Image Comics will be Flip Falcon himself! Handling the writing is Joe Casey and art by Bill Sienkiewicz. Bill S. is thankfully using a bit more of a straight forward style though unmistakenly still his scratchy bizarre self (not one of my favorites, but that's alright).


One of the things I like about this project is that while some of the creators like Allred seem to be creating almost pastiches, Casey and Sienkiewicz are handling it as if the most recent issue with this character was last month, not over a half century ago. It looks to be a pretty straightforward modern take on this character. It's just a shame the colorist didn't follow that lead, and instead we have the artwork printed deliberately out of register. Which kinda gives the whole thing a late 70's - early 80's type of vibe.

Can't wait.

Meanwhile.... Read THE TWELVE #0, a reprinting of several of Timely's more obscure heroes that wil be featured in the upcoming mini-series by that name. It also reprinted several of the promotional pieces that had been circulating the web and found on the artist Chris Weston's blog as well as the opening pages to the mini. Have to say that color adds a lot of much needed vitality to the previously seen stark b/w art.

However, in those opening pages, the Phantom Reporter serving as narrator refers to himself as being seen as a "tourist" next to the super-powered and brightly costumed crowd as he and Mr. E only wear suits plus a mask and capes as costumes and with the Laughing Mask and the Witness, have no superpowers but rely on the use of guns, wits and fists. Which is fine as a bit of character narration, it tells us a little about the character.

Only it's not just narration. From an interview, we know this is actually Straczynski's own point of view: In selecting his roster, Straczynski asked Marvel for a laundry list of unused characters that hadn't been seen or heard from in more than half a century, and simply picked his favorites. "[Editor] Tom Brevoort, knower of all things Marvel, gave me a list of, I think, 20 or 25 characters," Straczynski explained. "I went through them carefully, researching each one individually, looking for characteristics that might make for good combinations and good conflict."

"I eventually opted for splitting them into three groups: the typical super-hero/scientifically created hero like Captain Wonder, Dynamic Man and Electro; those with a touch of the supernatural such as Black Widow and Master Mind Excello' and those I classified as 'tourists,' heroes with no powers, just a cool costume and a .45 caliber such as The Phantom Reporter and Laughing Mask."

"This gave me a really good cross-section of the kind of heroes you had back then."
(http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=12252)

See, the term is that of JMS' own classifying the type of heroes he was researching. While it shows up in story, such as the Phantom Reporter looking down at himself in a self-deprecating manner, it still stems from what seems to be JMS' shallow understanding of the characters and their historical context. And sadly, that point of view is then being reinforced by his projecting it into the words of the characters so it makes it into story continuity.

He uses the term`tourists' because frankly he's a tourist in regards to the history of superhero comics. Like Knowles' analysis of Superman & Action Comics #1, he's not looking at the real context & evolution of the genre. To a tourist, especially one whose appreciation of the genre really extends to the Silver Age if that far, superheroes are about powers & tights. To the mindset of a tourist, the superhero genesis must go no further back than superman, a footnote. Thus, the likes of the Phantom Reporter, Witness, and the Laughing Mask are considered second rate character types even alongside the likes of equally obscure Rockman & Fiery Mask. In reality, they come from an older and richer pedigree, the pulp heroes. The
Phantom Reporter's heritage is even richer with his name putting him in that subset of Phantoms running about, which also included Timely's Phantom Bullet. Instead of downgrading the character, it should be recognized that the Phantom Reporter is a bit more purer to the time and the heritage. What should be celebrated and the character should be likened to are the likes of the Shadow, the Spider, the Green Hornet, the Phantom, and the Phantom Detective. If anything, the likes of the super powered Joes should be the tourists, heroes more because of the posession of power than desire and drive to see the innocent protected and justice to be done.



Also released over the web, the cover to issue #3, an "homage" to two Doc Savage covers, specifically the Bantam reprints of THE MAN OF BRONZE and THE MYSTIC MULLAH. Questions raised got me thinking about the differences between parody, homage and swipe and the legality of it all. We see swipes and homage covers, so often, we don't really give a second thought to legal issues behind them.

Copyright and trademark law do allow fair use in terms of Parodies and Satires. So, parodies are actually protected. Swipes are not. Homages are a bit trickier, and I'd say they are NOT protected legally. So, it's fine for Marvel to do homages to infinity of FF#1 and they might turn a blind eye towards DC doing so, but it wasn't that long ago that Guice using an Amy Grant cover for Doctor Strange that got Marvel into some legal trouble (though one could argue that would fall under a parody/satire of taking an album cover from popular crossover Christian singer and putting it on a comic book with vampires and sorcerors). However, a parody or satire means poking fun at the original AND that the audience would recognize it as such, it is making a comment on the source material. I'd be hard pressed to make that case here. A swipe is usually done in the hopes that others won't recognize the original source, putting a vaneer of your own style over someone else's work. An homage is in between the two. It's usually up front about the source (so not a swipe), but it's using that source to make a statement about the current work and not the other way around as in the case of satire and parody. In other words, here we are using Doc Savage's trademarked and copyrighted paperback covers to build up and legitimize the Fiery Mask. That's a very good argument for a lawyer to take to court as trademark infringement (and it's being used as promotion and advertising material, more ammo for trademark lawyers, it's EXACTLY the sort of thing copyright and trademark laws are in place to prevent). And when you consider that Marvel couldn't even get permission to reprint the MARVEL-TWO-IN-ONE that their comic book version Doc Savage appeared in, ouch.

Now, what would have been funny is if in this cover, the pic of Doc was based on their version with the bare chest, short vest and white pants... And that indeed would have been considered a parody and satire, a backhanded comment on them not being able to reprint that take on the character.