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Random Thoughts
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials
Presented for your enjoyment a series of random thoughts:
* Is it possible that they are publishing more Captain America comics now that he is dead then when he was alive?
* Is the Superman/Supergirl Maelstrom mini-series drawn by someone who had never seen the characters before he got the assignment?
* Isn’t the Secret Wars Requiem a real rip-off because it is mostly old Ant-Man stories?
* With all the different colored Lanterns showing up in the DC universe, will we get to see the Pink Lanterns? You know, the gay ones? Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
* Wasn’t it cool when in Ultimate Spider-Man, Peter answers the phone with “Hall of Justice”?
* Exactly how many named characters in the Marvel universe has Tony Stark slept with? Apparently She-Hulk and the Lady Liberator’s are taking a census. And who thought up the name Lady Liberators anyway? Sounds 1940ish to me.
* If Batman 683 is picking up from 682, a miracle in itself, don’t we still want to know where the heck in continuity this story line lies?
* Didn’t we just have a year without Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman?
* Can we find out once and for all if Earthlings and Kryptonians can reproduce? All-Star Superman says no, but aren’t the All-Star books set in a different universe? Apparently Clark and Lois spent a year together without Super-powers so shouldn’t we know something by now?
* How could they send off SuperGirl in Smallville? In a Smallville filled with gorgeous women wasn’t she the tops?
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Superman gone after “New Krypton”
Posted by David Torres Categories: Editorials, DC Comics
According to the advanced March solicitations for “Action Comics” and “Superman,” Superman will be MIA and other heroes will be patrolling the skies of Metropolis in his place.
The current storyline running through the Superman books is called “New Krypton”. It has the city of Kandor returning to Superman continuity and this time around the people are no longer living in a bottled city, but are now living on Earth. There is tension developing between the people of Earth and the Kryptonians and this will all lead to a “dramatic finale” which will lead into the new “World Without Superman” storyline. So come 2009, DC fans can look forward to not having both the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight staring in their own monthly books.
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| DC Comics
“Final Crisis” Management
Posted by Todd Matthy Categories: Editorials, Reviews, DC Comics
Grant Morrison is a polarizing guy. You either love his work or find it completely incomprehensible. When you try to get someone to explain, a typical answer is “it’s Grant Morrison” as the owner of my comic store, The Phoenix of Westchester and Comix 411 colleague, Joel Rosenberg learned. So where does Morrison’s “Final Crisis” fall in the scheme of his work? A little from column a and a little from column b.
Reading the first three issues of “Final Crisis” was like watching a five-car pile on. Morrison hit you with one thing after another without explaining anything. I felt like I missed an issue (and the tie-ins didn’t fill in any gaps). Then issue four hit and “Final Crisis” started making sense. So if you still don’t understand what’s going on, here’s a little primer to make sense of the basics so far…
Geoff Johns leaving JSA
Posted by David Torres Categories: Editorials, DC Comics
It’s been announced on various comic websites that Geoff Johns is leaving “Justice Society of America” (JSA) after issue #26. I read this last night and was very disappointed. I thought JSA would be a book Geoff would stay on for many more years to come - unfortunately that will not be the case.
I will probably drop JSA after Geoff leaves. I’ve liked Geoff’s run on this title over the past two years, but I think the work he did on the previous JSA title is far more superior. I think by the end there were just too many characters to really focus on. What happened to Mr. America? I’ll flip through the first issue after Geoff leaves to see what the new creative team is doing, but if it doesn’t grab me, I’m gone.
There is no one at DC right now that’s doing anything that would make me consider continuing this book if they came on after Geoff. Maybe Paul Dini. Right now comics are getting too expensive and with a family to support, other things have to take top priority over comics. I’m looking forward to Geoff’s “Flash Reborn” next year and I’m interested in seeing what he does with “Superman: Origins”. Hopefully this reboot of Superman’s origin is much better than “Birthright”; it was so boring. Great art by Leinil Yu though.
JSA is a great book and has great characters. I hope a writer is found who respects and loves the characters as much as Geoff does. Many of these characters have been around for decades and I would love to see them continue to shine in the limelight for decades to come.
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The coming of James Robinson’s Justice League
Posted by David Torres Categories: Editorials, DC Comics
It’s been a busy week for me. Between the birth of my second son this past Monday, as well as Thanksgiving, I haven’t had much time to read or write about comics. Today after coming home from the pediatrician, I went and got the mail and in my mailbox was this month’s “Wizard” magazine. On the cover was a picture of the new “Justice League” comic, which will be written by James Robinson. I completely forgot about this book as the announcement for it came early this year.
James Robinson is responsible for writing one of my all-time favorite comic books: “Starman”. “Starman” only lasted 80 issues, but it was not canceled because it stunk. Robinson created a story that had a beginning, middle, and end that DC allowed him to tell - similar to Neil Gaiman’s run on “Sandman,” Robinson had carte blanche when it came to that book and it’s protagonist, Jack Knight.
Read More | Newsarama
Smallville - January can’t come fast enough!
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Television, DC Comics
The other night we had Chloe’s wedding and it was the disaster that it was projected to be. Doomsday crashed the party and carried off the bride (yes, bride, they did get married before all the hullabaloo). Lana came back after learning Green Arrow’s secret and is working with some suspicious character. Lex came back plugged to some weird machine. Jimmy is half-dead. Lois thinks that Clark might be the One. Clark is plain pissed. A typical “Smallville” cliffhanger because they never put one person in peril when they can end a half or full season with just about everyone up the creek. But what do we have to look forward to on January 15, 2009 when the show returns?
Well, how is Clark to deal with Doomsday? Even with Impulse, Cyborg, Aquaman, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter, and Green Arrow, it seems Supes is going to need more help. Even though a lot of shows, including “Smallville,” are cutting back to reflect the current economy, we still have room for a slew of guest stars. Well, comic book guest stars as opposed to big name actors.
On January 15, we are going to see the arrival of The Legion of Super Heroes. Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl are going to arrive from the 31st century with stock market tips and to help our hero out. No more worrying about corn prices for a certain Kansas farmboy. DC is digging a little deep from the bench, in my humble opinion, because time travel shows, even when fun, makes my hair hurt. Let’s face it. Go back in time, fail in your mission, then try it again 10 minutes earlier until you succeed. Surely those Terminators sending guys back in time must realize their guys have failed when John Connor and the resistance is still there. Didn’t kill him, try again for Sarah. Fail with her, try the grandmother, etc.
If I have the scenario right, this Doomsday is made from Kryptonese genetic material so he should be superior to Supes. Assuming green kryptonite doesn’t kill him, I wonder if magnetism, lightning bolts, and telepathy will do any good. Well, we will find out in January.
Casting Captain America
Posted by David Torres Categories: Editorials, Movies, Marvel Comics
Now that we know that the casting of Will Smith as Captain America was just a rumor, we can continue to debate who we would like to see be cast as Captain America. Personally I would like to go with an unknown. Prior to the Richard Donner “Superman,” not many people knew of Christopher Reeve. Instead of going with a big name for the lead, they went with this unknown actor and surrounded him with well known actors like Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Ned Beatty, and Glen Ford. The movie was of course a big success and is now a classic. In my opinion, it’s the best comic movie of all time. So I would go with an unknown, but here are some of the names floating around.
DC Comics Review: Justice Society of America Kingdom Come Special: Magog
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
This issue was written by Peter Tomasi with the art provided by Fernando Pasarin. It’s a very good issue featuring Lance Corporal David Reid who was resurrected as Magog in the current “One World Under Gog” storyline. I liked the introduction of David Reid to the team by Geoff Johns and Alex Ross. The character is the great-grandson of President Franklin Roosevelt who was a part of the formation of the Justice Society of America (JSA). I love American history and I always love comic stories that weave real history into their storylines.
This issue has some JSA members following Gog on his “mission” to help the people of the world. The group comes across a river with dead bodies floating in it. They discover that it has been poisoned by militants and it will kill everyone in the immediate area who use it for water if they don’t block it’s path. The river is blocked by Gog and he and the JSA members make their way to locate the militants.
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Last Son of Krypton
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials, DC Comics
Part of the Superman mythos is that he is the last survivor of the planet Krypton. This planet orbited a red sun and there weren’t too many of those. Earth’s yellow sun and lower gravity made Kal-el into what he is today. Very unique. Of course, over the years, we have seen a heckuva lot of survivors of Krypton ranging from horses, dogs, cats, monkeys, and quite a few people. Anyone who was ever sentenced to the Phantom Zone seems to have at least one Get Out of Jail Free card. Remember, we are only talking comics here because we could do a whole other editorial on “Smallville”. Other dimensions add a few more. Escaped space pirates: one more. Seemed to me, the last son had a lot of company before the latest storyline takes shape.
Because Superman seems to have freed 100,000 Kryptonians from Kandor when he recently defeated Brainiac for the final, but not last time. I know Supes is a very lonely guy, but I really don’t think even he really thinks this is a good idea. At least I hope so.
Remember the Eradicator? He is from Krypton and wanted to remake earth into a new Krypton a long time ago. In fact, every time a Kryptonian shows up, he wants to remake earth, with its puny humans (sorry, Hulk) into a recreation of this poor dead planet. One already killed a whale and it is only a small step to wiping out all the humans and repopulating the planet with Kryptonians. I can only foresee three endings to this storyline but I’d love to hear some others.
Ending number one is Supes putting them all back in the bottle. Not easy, but I’m sure Brainiac will help. Ending number two is transporting them to some other dimension, unless Crisis finally resolves itself and there is only one. Ending number three is put them on some other planet where they will be powerless. I’m sure they’d be happy to welcome Kal for visits after he strands them there. Then he really will be the last son of Krypton - except for all the others running around.
JLA/Avengers
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials, Reviews, DC Comics, Marvel Comics
This week Diamond Comics shipped the paperback version of the classic JLA/AVENGERS saga. These came out in comic book form in 2003, but was only compiled in hardcover format for $75. Now we have a softcover at $19.99 and it is time to revisit this story.
I believed at the time that the entire concept was flawed. Kurt Busiek wrote a story in which every Avenger and every Justice Leaguer that ever existed made at least a token appearance. He succeeded in his mind, but not mine. By putting too many characters in a story, you lose the ability to focus deeply on any of them. Recall the series of Marvel/DC Crossover books. These stories usually had one hero and one villain from each universe and you had a real interaction among the heroes and villains. Remember Crossover One with a full Superman/Spider-Man story, Hulk/Superman, etc. You really got into how the characters reacted to each other. In Crossover 2 we had Batman/Punisher, Silver Surfer/Superman and Batman/Captain America. The other two books weren’t as good, but it is always fun to match heroes from different universes. In my opinion, confining the epic to 7 or so stars from each universe would have made things much less cluttered and a better read. Characters kept coming and going so quickly it is difficult to keep track.
The story itself starts as one of the generic contest of champions ideas we have seen a million times before. Mystic artifacts being sought by both sides being manipulated by cosmic beings. Ho-hum.
No real detail in the battles to get an artifact and the 12 items are quickly divided up. They we get a mish-mash of heroes from diferrent universes interacting in a confusing way and then A Crisis on Infinte Earths climax against the super-duper villian with everyone throwing in a few shots. Been to the Source, done that.
It was, I suppose, a noble effort and it is certainly a better buy at $20 rather than $75. But as the pundit said about Dicken’s Great Expectations, I hoped for more.
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