JSA: Unstick in time?

I'm a stickler for context. When dealing with established characters and stories, I'm all about context. It's the context that makes them matter. It's why I don't like it when DC or Marvel touts the latest character revival or ongoing and then pull a bait and switch, either by creating a totally new character making use of the name or powers and treating them as if they are the same or just radically altering the originals past the point of recognizability. It's a big reason why I don't like DC's take on the pulp heroes or the Red Circle heroes after all their talk about bringing them into continuity. So, it may come as a bit of surprise and seem hypocritical that I propose the following: take the JSA out of WWII. Or, rather, take WWII out of the JSA.

This would solve so many problems that are inherent with the JSA and modern continuity. Plus, it's not as hypocritical as it seems. In the 1940s, the owners of National and All-American didn't think the readers wanted to read about the War, so for the most part the stories didn't center or involve the War. Incidentally, this tactic is about the exact opposite taken at every other comic company at the time. What this means is that unlike Captain America and the Shield, the War plays little part in the original history of the JSA. In fact, it doesn't really play a major part in their history until Roy Thomas' excellent All-Star Squadron.

Where the context of the JSA matters is that they are the older heroes compared to the JLA. They don't need WWII for that. If the current heroic age is about ten years long, then the JSA should be permanently be around 15 - 20 years before that, about the same relationship they shared when the JLA and JSA first met. Just as the main DCU is in an eternal now, the JSA's prime should then be in an eternal now minus a decade or two. Since the original JSA stories didn't center around WWII, this means that very little apart from Roy Thomas' All-Star Squadron books need to be thrown out. They still fought their big villains Brainwave, Icicle, Vandal Savage, Per Degaton, Solomon Grundy, Psycho Pirate, etc. It solves a host of other problems.

• Wildcat's secret identity is that of a celebrity and most of his solo stories center around that but don't address why no one is surprised that he looks half his age. Now, as Ted Grant, he'd be expecting to look middle-aged.
• Likewise, the JSA's spouses now don't need to look several decades older than their husbands.
  
• Infiniti Inc. As the eternal now progresses, the Infinitors stay the relatively same age as the original Teen Titans meaning that the JSA had to have children later and later in life. This allows them to have had their children in their mid- to late-thirties as opposed to well into their senior citizen years.
  
• Wonder Woman can be made into a member of the JSA again. She served with them, possibly Steve Trevor died. Regardless, she retires to Paradise Island and raises/trains Donna Troy and Fury. Returns to help the JLA no older than before.
• A little time manipulation/time travel and we only have to have ONE Black Canary again.
  
• Don't need as many "legacy" heroes as the originals are hardly senior citizens. Johnny Thunder, Dr. Mid-nite, Dr. Fate, Sandman, Starman and the Atom can return to active duty without a problem (after un-killing them)
  
• Green Arrow & Speedy served with the Seven Soldiers... wait, what does that have to do with the JSA? Well, along with the JSA, I'd unhook the Seven Soldiers of Victory (and almost every character that made up the GA DC) as well. They'd still get thrown through time and rescued by the JLA & JSA. But, by making Green Arrow being only from a few years and not several decades earlier, it doesn't make him quite the man out of time with a complicated back-story while the rescue sets him up as still being the same age as the JLA and leaves the JSA as the team with the most experience.
  

So, what about WWII? What about heroes that were definitely tied to that era such as the Blackhawks, Steel, Spy Smasher and Minute Man? Remember Earth X and the Freedom Fighters? Originally, it was a place for the Quality heroes but with the added quirk that Hitler more or less won, WWII was never really over until after the help of the JLA and JSA. Instead of another Earth, they become THE heroes of WWII alongside the non-Marvel family Fawcett characters and WWII retcon heroes like Steel and Judomaster. If a story involves traveling to the time period or referencing it, they are the heroes of the time. The idea would also involve for the most part leaving them there. No referencing their final battles, seeing them as 90 year olds in the present or a host of legacy characters. Modern age appearances would be due to the nature of the characters themselves lend them to such for example Uncle Sam.

In the end, I think this one retcon would allow the undoing and uncomplicating a host of other retcons from over the years. It would allow the original JSA be the JSA again as you don't need countless explanations and legacy heroes to make up the team (though it does mean undoing some senseless deaths along the way). And, they'd still serve as the previous generation's team of heroes and inspiration to the modern heroes which is the important context they provide.

Green Hornet Year One #2: This continues the separate paths that opened the eyes of Kato and Britt Reid to the injustices of the world while also depicting the events that lead them to have the persona of Green Hornet be of a rival gangster. There's a lot of wonderful layering of the story as we see the idealism of justice of young Britt being challenged by the face of real violence and brutality just as Kato sees the difference between the honor of the ideals of martial skills and the way of the samurai against the backdrop of the horrors and modern warfare. There's real meat to this story, providing in depth characterization and motivations of all of the characters.

Doc Savage #1: The Doc story wasn't all bad. Most of the bad notes were dictated by the First Wave "bible" ie Renny being the ugly one, the total mix-match of science and technology (Monk is talking about quantum physics, but Doc flies a blimp from Africa?). None of the aides look quite right, Ham looks too vintage in manner of dress as opposed to best dressed, Long Tom has brown hair and looks fairly normal, and the torn shirt seems to be treated as Doc's uniform as he never bothers to change to a fresh shirt. The plot and storytelling seem fairly solid though, a very pulpish threat and beginning and introduces the individual characters quite well. If DC had lead with this instead of a mini-series whose second issue hasn't come out yet. How is a mini-series late by issue 2? Throw out everything dictated by the First Wave bible, and you'd have a solid Doc Savage adventure story that doesn't really contradict much of the Doc canon.

The Avenger was worse than I even thought it would be based on reading prior reviews. Other than the character names, the story and art completely miss the boat on the character. It has less in common with the source material than the FF and X-Men movies did with the comics. Honestly, it takes deliberate work to depart that far from the source material without just creating a whole new character by the same name. It left such a sour taste in my mouth, that when The Spirit relaunch from the First Wave imprint showed up in my bag, I returned it and told the store owner no more First Wave books. Instead of being a built in buyer, they made me decide to actively avoid the whole line.

Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor #1: John Byrne's work on the Star Trek and Angel related projects play to his strengths as a storyteller. His best stories tended to be the more science fiction and horror ones, even when doing superheroes such as the Fantastic Four and Alpha Flight. His art has changed, grown far more organic in its depictions. He has a wider range of body types and faces, but his figure work has also become a bit looser and less iconic looking. With his books for Angel, he explores the genre of horror that did so well with the overlooked Blood of the Demon. With the first issue of "Frontier Doctor" we get those exploration sci-fi stories that he did with the FF so well. The first issue is a stand-alone that takes place some time in between the original series and the first motion picture. It's a slightly older McCoy (and Kirk) doing medical work in the vast reaches of space. The story has a feel of one that could easily take place in the original series, provided they had the budget and ability to do the fx. The only discordant note of the whole thing is when the nature of using computer technologies to produce the inks and colors shows its hand ie, you see the computer enhanced backdrops in some scenes that throws you out of the narrative due to their obviousness.

Other natter:
Probably the funniest thing coming out of the new Rawhide Kid mini is that in an interview, Zimmerman references Blaze of Glory and then talks about how the new mini is an homage to The Magnificent Seven indicating he doesn't realize that whole point of Blaze of Glory was to rip off that classic Western. Can count on Zimmerman trying to write Rawhide Kid as being more stereotypical gay than Jack of Will & Grace not being nearly as humorous.

Supermen! and Impact redux?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Impact redux?

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

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


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

Some ole Comic reviews

Thoughts on comics from the last couple of weeks

The Amazing Spider-Girl #23: Have to give Tom DeFalco credit. His little corner of the Marvel universe allows him to play around with the company characters and concepts. He's been titling this arc as "Brand New May", playing off of the "Brand New Day" slogan for the new Spider-man status quos. Meanwhile, the story also wryly touches on an era and concepts that most Spider-fans wish to forget, clones. Like that saga, at the heart of the storyline is the question as to whether the character we've been following for years is the real deal or not. He juggles this against the backdrop of the soap-opera of May's school life, romantic intrigues, and the issues of bigotry and hate groups using the Marvel chestnut of mutants. Ron Frenz continues to deliver on easy to understand yet dynamic artwork. Special kudos also to Irene Lee who has a little fun in designing a re-cap page that perfectly fits in with the tone of the book and shows that even the most humdrum of things can be done with a little bit fun and whimsy.

There's an ad in the book, apparently tiring of zombies, Marvel is borrowing a page from Silver-age DC and going ape with MARVEL APES. Guess the promotion department isn't up on their zoology as their slogan is "with great power comes a prehensile tail". Hmmm. That would be monkeys, not apes. Different animals. The art gets it right though, none of the heroes-turned-ape have tails.

Avengers/Invaders #4: Captain America vs SHIELD's LMD's, the original Human Torch flips out, Namor has growing up to do, Toro's identified as a mutant and Bucky isn't having a good day while Doctor Strange conjures up a Vision from the past. Meanwhile, editorial hasn't seen fit yet to fix the problems with the coloring and too heavy inks (adjusting the penciled art too heavily for shooting from the pencils?). Even the Ross cover is a bit of an eyesore.

Captain Britain and MI:13 #4: A fun book that manages to be enjoyable enough to forgive its oversights and flaws. Like Avengers/Invaders, there are production issues. In this case, it's the fact that pages 1-3 of the story are actually pages 4-6. At least in the copy I got as well as the copy that the person got that posted the online previews as they had the same problem of not quite making sense. The Black Knight has a stone heart? If that were true, that would hardly be the only thing that didn't make sense about his body as Faiza was trying to mystically knit him back together. I had hoped that maybe with her powers, she'd remove his link to the curse as well (seems with everything else she could, healing a stone heart wouldn't be too difficult).

The emphasis on a no-kill clause and Captain Britain's forsaking the sword for someone who hasn't killed doesn't quite make sense after slaughtering all those skrulls and considering the sword Excalibur's own bloody history. Factor in you have another member a man who wears a sword and a half-vampire. I know the skrulls are a special case, it's a war after all, but there seems to be an odd dichotomy that's not really addressed.

Faiza's drawing Excalibur, I couldn't help but wonder about the female Captain Britain that Chuck Austen created. I thought she was a character with potential, it'd be good to see her again even if not as Captain Britain. Likewise Captain Britain's speech about the flag and all, where's ole Union Jack during all of this. He also has links to the Pendragon, a former love of Spitfire and ties to Britain's intelligence community.

The emphasis on Britain's link of magic still doesn't quite carry the weight it should. It raises questions about other areas of magic and other types of magic. Even though the skrulls are stopped here, what about the other places? By addressing this one front, it opens the door for others. And, just because they stopped the invaders here and rigged things to prevent other incursions, the war itself is hardly over, but this suggests that these guys aren't really worried about the rest of the world's problems. A problem by tying in the opening story to a mega-crossover event, it's hard to give a plausible ending in one book while the event is still going on. In for a dollar, in for a pound.

FX#6: Wayne Osborne brings his mini-series by John Byrne to a rocking conclusion as our hero, his not-his-girlfriend and the heroes of the team Front Line storm Olympus and face down monsters and the big villain in efforts to save the soul of his friend and the lives of kidnapped friends and family. Whew. For a first time writer, Wayne does a wonderful job telling an old-fashioned superhero story with likeable characters and manages to introduce us organically to his larger superhero universe, actually making it seem large and with a history and past that the hero FX is linked to. By playing with archetypes, he is able to make the new characters and guest-stars seem familiar enough that we don't need a lot of exposition to get us up to speed but different enough to intrigue us. In fact, if there is a flaw with this issue, I really want to see Home Front in their own series, see more villains. I'm just glad that at the end we see a return of the ghost-knight.

Green Arrow & Black Canary #10: Reports are that with issue 15 there will be a new writer on board. While I liked Winnick on Green Arrow, I think he did a fine job in helping emphasize Green Arrow as a superhero, I think he's a bit tired on the book. Since the relaunch, he never seemed to really grasp Black Canary and the book has become more of a team book, especially in the recent issues, completely losing the focus on the leads. This particular story has been especially drawn out. This issue is mostly exposition, tying the past issues together. Or at least trying to, the kidnapping of Plastic Man makes no sense with what is revealed, this group of would-be assassins are fleshed out but still coming off inept. One character is revealed as a vampire but isn't the least bit scary or have any of the trappings that would make him memorable. It seems tacked on, to give an easy explanation as to why he can tell that the hologram of Ra's al-Ghul is telling them the truth in that he didn't hire them or meet them. However, if he is so good at reading people, how did he fall for the sham-Ra's al-Ghul then? Winnick sets up a big job for himself in explaining he mystery villain's motivation after the big reveal at the end.

The Last Defenders #6: The book ends where it should have started or at least been around issue #2 or 3. If this storyline had been part of an ongoing, it might have worked, but for the most part, it just feels like a "why bother?" To completely deconstruct the team, take Kyle Richmond out of the costume only to put together a new team at the very end? And, anyone reading comics for any length of time can bet how long that will last. If a writer or the company doesn't have concrete plans for a new character or group, they fade away as soon as the mini or series is done. Just as Casey felt like he had to create his own team and completely discard the previous members, what makes him think this will have more lasting power? Especially as he didn't do anything with them as a team or even really make them work together beyond cosmic fiat that is basically a fictional stand-in for "because I'm the writer and I said so". Thus, Krang is a better choice than Namor, Joaquim is a better Nighthawk than Kyle (conveniently ignoring that Kyle has powers and was created to be able to go toe-to-toe with Captain America). For five issues we've seen Kyle being torn down as a character, a complete putz who cannot get his act together, that the conversion in the final issue is as unconvincing as the rest. A waste of some good characters and opportunities.

Star Trek/Assignment: Earth #4: John Byrne's artwork is top notch in this series. Wonderful attention to detail, especially in portraying period detail. And each issue has been a complete story. The only short-comings really have been the lead characters still come across as cyphers. Beyond his job, we don't really know anything about Gary Seven. He comes across almost as unemotional as Spock, totally dedicated to his mission but with less of a sense of humor.

Superpowers #5: Some great superhero action. The painted coloring has improved, giving the proper mood though still too dark at times. Especially odd is a scene of Pyroman flying on page 3 where the bottom half of his body is missing. But, that's a minor quibble. Krueger steps up the story and the problems for the heroes as Dynamic Man manages to maneuver the situation that paints them as turning bad. And, at least Kruegar has seen fit to leave Hydroman, the Flame and Pyroman largely intact as their GA selves despite Pyroman's misleading moniker. Even Ross didn't feel a need to heavily re-design them.

The Target and the Targeteers aren't so lucky. The three are linked, talking and acting as one. It's an interesting gimmick, but the characters already had an interesting gimmick. They were part of a small sub-set of GA heroes, where (usually 3) men put on similar costumes and fight crimes. They had the added wrinkle that the leader of the trio was a pseudo Doc Savage in that he better at many things overall than the others as well as being a scientific genius and designed the bullet-proof costumes they wore (hence the large targets on their chest).

Turns out it was V-Man who got the abilities to transmit some kind of disease and not Miss Masque, playing on Poe's "Masque of the Red Death". It's hard to find a more obscure patriotic hero than V-Man and an odd story-direction for the character with a cast of so many characters and many we haven't seen yet. Considering that the Face cannot take off his fright mask and seems to have some powers, the 'Devil is now mute, maybe Krueger has a problem with non-powered heroes and feels the need to change them to give them each his own defining characteristic?

A nice look at the giants of Superpowers: the Green Giant (notably, his name ISN'T changed), Phantasmo, Boy King's golem Giant (with the normal sized Boy King standing on his foot) and the villainous Claw.

The Twelve #7: The plot moves forward. The police investigate the killings of the last issue coming after the most likely suspect, Dynamic Man. And, he has an iron-clad alibi as I already figured it would play out. He was conspicuously hanging out at the mansion right by a clock showing the time. As a mystery, it's fairly obvious that he's using Electro. Being an android, Dynamic Man is probably aware of the surveillance the team is under thus setting his alibi and is able to control Electro without the use of any devices. Although it could reasonably play out that he's unaware he has the link with Electro and the robot is carrying out his sub-conscious wishes. Being the obvious choice, it's always possible that it's someone else, but JMS would have his work cut out to make it plausible other than a deliberate and complex frame job. Because for that to work, the police have to be aware that Dynamic Man is an android and could control Electro, that his alibi is not sound. In that sense, JMS really could be going after a Watchmen vibe as each hero is undone. Electro is hauled off by a descendant of its owner, Laughing Mask is sent to prison (maybe not a coincidence the police still had that old evidence), the Phantom Reporter is about to find out the Black Widow's dark secrets that could have dire results for one of them. Then, the arrows would point to Mastermind Excello, as it still hasn't been addressed how they happened to walk conveniently into a Nazi trap that he didn't foresee that would put them in suspended animation into the future.

Otherwise, the story is more of the same as Captain Wonder is visited by his old sidekick, emphasis on old. And, it's yet another sad story. This is JMS being literary and realistic as the emphasis in storytelling is all on character flaws and the negative aspects of life. Yes, you live long enough and life will deliver pain, heartbreak and loss. But, life has joy, fun and beauty as well for most of us. There's none of that here. Those that seem to get any kind of joy or fun out of life in this storyline, it's either a bit delusional (the Blue Blade), or the kind a bully gets from beating up his favorite wimp (Dynamic Man, Laughing Mask).

Meanwhile, Laughing Mask, the Witness, and Mister E are completely absent from the issue and the Fiery Mask is barely there.

And, this is the writer Dan Didio thinks is perfect for reintroducing the MLJ characters to the DCU?

The War That Time Forgot #4: I love Russ Heath's artwork and it's a beautiful dinosaur cover. Yet, looking at it, it looks more like "The Love That Time Forgot". At least it does accurately illustrate a scene in the book. The book continues along with shifting status quos and alliances as people from such different backgrounds time periods are unable to work with each other for any length of time. Jones continues giving most of the face time to his Mary Sue characters when Tomahawk or the others could just as easily been used. Still a fun book if you're tired of Final Crisis/Secret Invasion stuff.

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.

Sci Fi Starship Comparison

Alright, I know this doesn't fit into the comics/pulps theme of the site, but a friend sent it to me and I thought it was too cool not to post. I'd love to have a full size print of this!