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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.
Click to continue reading The coming of James Robinson’s Justice League
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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.
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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.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Justice Society of America Kingdom Come Special: Magog
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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.
Are Comics Over?
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,
I wonder if there will be comics in our future. The reason for this is that it seems that no one wants to write comics anymore. No, what they want to write is the Great American Comic Novel.
As the proud owner of Phoenix Comics in beautiful Eastchester, New York (shameless plug), I have the great fortune, or misfortune, of reading just about everything that DC and Marvel publish. Back in the day, going back as far as 10 cent comics, a huge percentage of books were what we would call today, stand alone stories. Batman caught the bank robber, jewelry store heister, or murderer in one issue. Superman battled the evil monster and/or fooled Lois about his secret identity in one book. A two-issue story was a major event. Even as a youngster, I realized Superman was fighting a never ending battle against evil and we all moved on to the next story.
Starting with “The Death of Captain Marvel,” the first mainstream graphic novel, everyone seems to be writing 120-page comic novels and slicing them into six parts. Before the ink is dry on part six, the whole thing is published in a trade paperback. At least you had a good read on an airplane. But even that doesn’t seem to be enough.
Now we have continuing sagas that seem to go on forever: Crisis on Infinite Earths to Infinite Crisis to Identity Crisis to 52 to Countdown to Final Crisis to….? And don’t even start with all the tie-ins. When they hit Final Bar Mitzvah I quit. Of course the X-Men books have been doing this for years. They even put numbers on the spine so you can keep reading, and reading, and reading and the story line goes on forever. At my age I have to keep reading the books because I would hate to miss a possible ending. Some of my customers have given up and just read the trades as they come out.
Is this progress?
How Does Superman…?
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials, DC Comics,
Back in the 1950s, also known as my misspent youth, the editors at DC Comics actually tried to answer all the “real life” questions that got tossed at their superheroes, particularly, Superman. Ignoring the fact that this isn’t real life in the first place, there were a million questions. As no one seemed to worry about continuity back then, a story was written that explained various things such as the following questions.
How did Superman cut his hair? Afterall, it was invulnerable, just like the rest of him. The answer is he used his heat vision reflected off a mirror. How he shaved they never got into.
Where did the supersuit come from? It had to be invulnerable because the bullets everyone always futilely shot at Supes bounced off it. If it wasn’t invulnerable, there would have been holes in the suit after the shot bounced off Superman. The answer was that Ma Kent sewed it from the blanket he was wrapped in when the ship that brought Superman to earth crashed. That, of course, begs the question of what kind of super needle she happened to have in her sewing kit. That’s neither her nor there at this point though.
And the glasses? I mean, was that all it took for anyone to not notice the resemblance between Clark and Superman? The answer is that one of Supes’ little know powers is super hypnotism and he used the glasses to focus it so that no one in the world would notice how much they looked alike. Believe me, I wish I was making this explanation up, but I am not. My colleague, David Torres, wonders what happens if Clark Kent loses the glasses.
Anyway, does anyone remember any more of these? Want to make up your own scenarios and answer them or have other readers answer them, leave your comments below!
Clark Kent Without Glasses?
Posted by David Torres Categories: Editorials, DC Comics,
In one of the latest issues of “Action Comics,” Clark Kent is asked whether he would consider laser surgery so he can get rid of his glasses. This got me thinking. In order for Clark Kent to hide his secret identity as Superman, he wears a pair of glasses. Over the past decade more and more people have been getting laser eye surgery to eliminate the need for eyeglasses. If things continue to go on like this and technology continues to improve, will no one in the world have to wear glasses? If so, what does it mean for Clark Kent? Does DC Comics have to find another way for Clark Kent to hide his identity? The removing of the glasses and the ripping open of the dress shirt to reveal the “S” on his costume is an iconic image for Superman. Will this hurt the character if he no longer wears glasses? Sounds silly? Maybe. Something to think about kids… feel free to leave your comments!
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