Review: Batman Beyond: 10,000 Clowns

Or, "Norm Breyfogle hasn't gotten any less good at drawing awesome Batman comics in the last 20 years or so."

As I recall, the 1999-2001 Batman Beyond cartoon show came about because Warner Bros executive types told the guys who were making the Batman: The Animated series that they wanted to follow it up with a cartoon featuring a new, teenage Batman in the future, and the animators universally hated the idea—but decided to do the show anyway, for fear of someone else doing it and turning it into something as bad as they feared.

And as I've probably prefaced everything I write about one of the spin-off comics with, it wasn't really my thing. I wasn't watching TV during those years, and, when I eventually saw some episodes on Cartoon Network a few years later, I wasn't terribly impressed, although the main character design was a nice, radical departure, and it was admirable how far the producers went in trying to not simply future-ize everything about Batman (Like, he didn't have a robot butler named Alfred 3000, or patrol Gotham Galaxy in the Bat-ship or whatever).

Basically set one generation in the future, during a time in which Bruce Wayne, who seems to be in his 70s or 80s instead of in his 20s or 30s, is so old and injured he's been forced to retire from crime-fighting. Barbara Gordon, a gray-haired old lady, succeeded her father as Commissioner Gordon, but other than that, few of the old Gotham cast seems to be around (Dick Grayson and Tim Drake both appear in this particular story, though).

The new Batman is Terry McGinnis, a teenager who loses his father in a violent crime, and Old Man Wayne gives him a fancy new flying Batman suit and coaches him in the fine art of being Batman.

That's all well and good, I guess. The thing that left me cold about the series was its extremely generic vision of the future, which is, here, a very near future, and yet is at once one that is radically unlikely to transpire in so short a period of time and the very same vision of the future that we've seen in pop culture since, I don't know, the 1940s, maybe...?

Gotham is now Neo-Gotham, a city of huge skyscrapers and various "levels" stacked atop one another. There are flying cars, the fashion is built around goofy neck-lines, the lenses of eyeglasses no longer have frames (apparently, surgery and contact lenses didn't replace eyeglasses), computers project floating holographic monitors, slang is dumb and while our hero doesn't have a jet-pack, per se, he does have jet-boots, which is close enough for horseshoes.

It's all a little...Jetsons, really.

Now, if you've already read Batman Beyond: 10,000 Clowns, or any of DC's more recent Batman Beyond comics, which they published first digitally, then as comic book-comics and then as trade paperbacks, you probably already know all this and are wondering why I'm wasting your time with this tiresome Batman Beyond 101 nonsense.

The answer is that I'm not really writing this post for you; I'm writing it for anyone who doesn't really know or care anything at all about Batman Beyond, but might want to check this one out because either A) Its drawn by Norm Breyfogle, an incredible artist whose 1987-1993 run on various Batman comics cemented his reputation as one of the Dark Knight's definitive delineators (His artwork was my gateway into Batman comics and, through them, superhero comics in general, and he remains my personal favorite Batman artist of all time...edging out even the great Kelley Jones, whose Batman run was phenomenal and still makes me freak out a little whenever I reread any of it, or see his more recent Batman work), or B) It is a pretty awesome superhero comic with great art.

The stories collected in this trade are pulled from 13 issues of Batman Beyond Unlimited, and they're all written by Adam Beechen and drawn by Breyfogle, the artist here making his long-awaited return to the character after the 2011 flirtation of DC Retroactive: Batman—The '90s #1, his art here colored by Andrew Elder. DC, being DC, naturally doesn't put the interior artist's work on the cover; that's a piece by Dustin Nguyen, the cover artist for this volume of Batman Beyond.

They all hold together remarkably well, and read as a single narrative meant to be read as one, big, epic story, although there are a few mini-arcs within the story of "10,000 Clowns," and at least one sub-plot that is introduced in these pages without being resolved before the end of the book (Terry's friend gets recruited into an underground group of computer hackers, which she hopes to infiltrate for the Batmen).

In this near-future, the (presumably late) Joker has become a sort of inspirational, counter-culture hero to young criminals, something akin to a killer clown version of Che Guevara. Every city apparently has its own chapter of a Jokers, and Breyfogle and Beechen give each of these chapters their own distinct, evil clown look (one gang look like a cross between circus strongmen and clowns, another are dapper British dandy clowns, another are done up like punk rock clowns, etc).

They are all gradually convening in Gotham City, and Batman finds himself dealing with them at various crime scenes, but the full extent of the plan doesn't become clear until about half-way through the book, at which point the gangs organize into a sort of Joker super-army, under the leadership of a new character calling himself King Joker who, through mind-control chemicals, has turned the Jokers into an army of terrorists suicide bombing Neo-Gotham. In an unlikely comic book coincidence, this King Joker happens to be the long-lost, black sheep-of-the-family older brother of Terry's estranged ex-girlfriend, Dana.

As the threat mounts, Bruce Wayne is taken out of the game by a failing liver, and he finds himself stuck on his deathbed in the hospital (although he does manage to kick a little ass even there).

And the current Batman finds himself with a bunch of allies, some of whom are rather reluctant to be his allies. These include the new Catwoman (Or do I have to call her "Catwoman Beyond"...?), who can apparently split into nine different bodies simultaneously; Grayson, who in the future will look like Marvel's Nick Fury (with a great butt); Tim Drake, a paunchy, married man who for some reason unknown to me wants nothing to do with Batman anymore (According to the Internet, I think I have to watch Batman Beyond: The Return of The Joker for answers); and, finally, a new version of Vigilante, this one having a secret identity—given as the surprise ending of a solo story interlude—that connects him to both Wayne and McGinnis in ways neither would likely appreciate.

Things end happily...ish. Sure, hundreds die all over the city, but no on with a name, and all the main characters make it out relatively unscathed (Bruce Wayne's health is still up in the air at the point the book ends, but I have a feeling he'll pull through okay, as he was in the first issue of the re-launched version of this book).

Still, there's quite a bit of drama in the final battle between Batman and his allies and King Joker, in large part because this Batman is, rocket boots or no, still a less-skilled teenager compared to the invincible super-Bat of the regular Batman comics and, in larger part, because this is an out-of-continuity, possible future, alternate Batman story, so if, say, Dick Grayson were to fall in battle, well, it would be a surprise, but it's not like this Grayson's carrying a monthly book like the "real" Dick Grayson in the DCU/New 52 line is, you know?

As for Breyfogle's artwork, I was thrilled to see that my appreciation for it wasn't simply colored by nostalgia for the time in which I was reading those first Batman comics I read. He remains really great. He's killer when it comes to action scenes, whether something relatively simple as drawing (almost) the same panel twice with a variation to show how fast an action occurred, or how it occurred mechanically...

...or the thin, angular, all-muscle figure of the cape-less Batman in action, sometimes flying, leaping or jumping heroically about, and sometimes being flung around by his opponents.

It was interesting to see Breyfogle drawing a Batman that wasn't his Batman, as there are quite a few scenes where McGinnis makes faces like those of the old Batman that Breyfogle used to draw (generally when his face is in shadow, and all you see are white eyes and white teeth emoting), or when his legs fade into action lines, as when he's kicking or jumping, but there are also quite a few scenes where McGinnis makes faces Breyfogle's Batman never did: Smirking, smiling, laughing, joking.

That's one pleasure to this Batman, I suppose. While he gets dark and vengeful, his attitude is more akin to that of Nightwing or Robin or even Spider-Man. He's young, he has a sense of humor, and sometimes fighting crime seems like something he enjoys doing. It can be unusual to see a Batman quipping, hectoring his opponents—I think maybe Bob Haney wrote the last Batman I read who actually, actively ribbed his foes while beating them up—but that's a key to making successful corporate superhero comics, giving readers the same thing, but different, which is a lot harder than it sounds and, often, looks.

Another interesting thing about having a guy who used to draw Batman for a really long time return to drawing Batman? Breyfogle already had his Bruce Wayne down, so his variation on the character rings truer. That is, he's better able to draw an old man Bruce Wayne because he had so long ago mastered young man Bruce Wayne, so it was neat seeing how he aged the character with weight and wrinkles, and yet managed to keep his expressions the same.

Finally, I think Breyfogle's time drawing the teenagers of Riverdale for Archie Comics these past few years informed this work rather positively. While his teenage characters never quite look like the Bruce Timm-style designs from the cartoon this series is named after, they do look younger, more teenage, more cartoony—slightly smoother, slightly bigger eyes, a greater range of emotional expressions than I recall from Breyfogle's early '90s Batman work (where Tim Drake and Lonnie Manchin were like the only two teenagers). Max, Dana and the two Dee Dees look a bit like Dan DeCarlo girls filtered through Breyfogle's art, aimed in the direction of Timm designs.

If you've been reading EDILW for very long, then you know how hard I am to please. But this? This pleased me quite a bit.

Even in the far-flung future, when he's a grizzled, one-eyed old man...

...Dick Grayson will still have a great butt.

(Panels from Batman Beyond: 10,000 Clowns, drawn by Norm Breyfogle, colored by Andrew Elder and written by Adam Beechen)

Is 2008's Batgirl #1 the worst comic ever?

It's definitely a contender. Here are three consecutive pages from the comic, which was written by Adam Beechen, pencilled by J. Calafiore and inked by Mark McKenna (and I hope they're all ashamed of themselves):

I suppose it's technically possible for those pages to be worse. Beechen could have spelled half of those 1,500 words wrong, for example, or Califiore could have drawn the characters without necks, or perhaps even less symmetrically than he already did or something, but man, the "creative" team would really have to put some effort into making worse comics pages than these. Because that? That's about as wrong as you can possibly get a comic book.

If you read through all that dialogue—and I wouldn't recommend it—you'll see the characters aren't even really communicating throughout the second and third pages, they're merely summarizing the events of other comic books in which Batgirl appeared over the course of the last two years, occasionally adding details that happened off-panel by way of explaining the many inconsistencies between those comics and the Batgirl appearances that preceded them. It's the type of information you'd find in an Official Guide to the Marvel Universe entry, or perhaps a very thorough Wikipedia page, only put in dialogue bubbles.

That isn't comics, it's Adam Beechen trying to explain and apologize for a bunch of other shitty comic books, many of which he himself also wrote. It cost $17.94 as part of a six-month payment plan, or $19.99 to get it all at once.

On Thursday we linkblog

—Columbus’ Vaneta Rogers interviews Columbus’ Jeff Smith. And then interviews him some more. Columbusites take note: Spring brings a cool Smith show to the OSU Cartoon Research Library.



—So the problem with Garfield is simply that Garfield is in it, then? Judging by the results of simply removing him from the strips, I’ll buy that.

Related: This is funny. A few years old, but new to me.



—Blogger Dick Hyacinth does one of those things I’m really glad someone did because it seems like a pretty useful resource but also seems like a lot of work, more than I’d ever dare personally attempt. He’s been compiling all of the “Best Of 2007” lists, and, having finally got the last big chunk of lists he was waiting on, has compiled an aggregate list that adds up to the top 100 best-reviewed books of 2007. Check it out here.

The list makes for a good reading—as does Hyacinth’s commentary throughout—and it’s a great place to see if you missed anything significant last year, or, if you work in a library or shop and are in charge of stocking the shelves, this seems like a good thing to have on hand.



—Zack Smith talked to Grant Morrison about his Batman work, and Morrison once again lays out a neat way of looking at Batman comics, and his theory that essentially every single Batman story from the Golden Age on really did happen in some way.

The most interesting part was when Morrison addressed the New Gods-reborn-as-DC-heroes rumors:


That was some wee wisp of nothing that got out. When we first spoke about Final Crisis, coming out of the Seven Soldiers series, I had the New Gods cast down onto Earth, and because they’d lost their former shapes, they were cast as spirits or avatars possessing human bodies, like Voodoo gods. [as shown in Seven Soldiers: Mr. Miracle.

For a brief moment back in 2006, I discussed the idea that the gods could then take over the bodies of familiar DC characters - so that an appropriate hero or villain could become the new Orion or Darkseid, say, and someone equally appropriate would become the new Lightray, kind of thing.

That didn’t happen because no one wanted to mess with either Jack Kirby’s or Gerry Conway’s intellectual property by saying Lightray was now inhabiting Firestorm or something like that. Quite rightly, no-one was willing to change existing DC characters into Kirby characters, because that would immediately confuse the ownership of the character and somebody would get cheated out of equity if that character was used in a movie or TV show or whatever. It’s very much a copyright issue.

Obviously, someone heard some faint years-old echo of this discarded idea and pawned it into the notion that Bruce Wayne was going to become a New God. That was never going to happen. That’s just insane. (laughs)


Yeah, it’s crazy, but it’s really a good kind of crazy. Obviously that wouldn’t work for very long, but as a temporary, one-story kind of thing? It would be extremely cool, whether it’s something of a temporary status quo (bridging Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle and the Countdown status quo of the Fourth World, for example) or something in an Elseworlds type of story.

Beyond it’s potential for a fun story though, it would have been a great chance for some artist or artists to come up with Kirby-inspired versions of the DC heroes’ costumes. Like, what would a Mister Miracle-as-Batman costume look like, or Orion-as-Wonder Woman or whatever? Considering the mileage DC Direct has gotten out of Alex Ross’ Justice costume redesigns, or the fact that DC Direct made a freaking toy out of Batman-as-Green Lantern, a costume that lasted all of two-panels, I think a DCU-as-Fifth World could have lead to some neat visuals and some very happy DC Direct number crunchers.



—Best Shots kingpin Troy Brownfield recently interviewed Kurt Busiek about Trinity. It’s well worth a read for Busiek’s discussion of the project’s origins, and the hints he drops about its future. I’m really looking forward to it, although, I’ve got to say, I really dug Busiek’s original pitch for a shorter, cheaper weekly book too; particularly if he could make it work so that rotating back-ups could be used to push other books.

I ended up being quite enamored of John Rogers’ Blue Beetle once I finally gave it a try, for example, but it took months and months of reading positive reviews of it to get me to tryi it. Once I did, I was instantly hooked. I imagine if I ran across eight-page story by the regular creative team in the back of 52, I would have been on the bandwagon much, much earlier.



—Adam Beechen, the man responsible for one of the worst single issues DC has ever published, as well as one of the worst Batgirl stories and some of the worst Robin stories, will be writing a new Batgirl miniseries, according to a Wonder Con panel announcement.

It was Beechen who, after apparent heavy editorial prodding, took Cassandra Cain from the happy off-into-the-sunset ending that the creators of her monthly ongoing gave her and then turned her into a villain, without, apparently, having ever read a story featuring her before.

Subsequent attempts to make sense of the 180-degree turn in the character—she was jealous of Harvey Dent in World War III, she was hopped up on Terminator drugs in Teen Titans—haven’t even come close to succeeding. Will this be the series to do it?

Well, putting Beechen on the project pretty much assures us that it won’t, doesn’t it? I mean, it doesn’t seem like a great idea to say, “Hmm, the fans of this character and this book we cancelled for no reason really didn’t care for that story we made Beechen write; let’s try to fix the mess, and have Beechen do it!”

On the other hand, I kind of like the idea of Beechen doing penance. Like, he put his name on that dumb-ass story, then he should have to atone for writing it, you know?

I do hope he’s read some Batgirl stories since that “Boy Wanted” arc in preparation for this miniseries. And, if he’s looking for ideas, he can have this one: The Cassandra Cain we’ve seen since the end of Batgirl is actually the Earth-3 Cassandra Cain, marooned on “New Earth” during all the Multiverse-making shenanigans of Alexander Luthor. The real one has simply been off-panel, or trapped on Earth-3.



—Does it make me a bad person that I really enjoy watching Heidi “The Beat” MacDonald and Dirk “Journalista!” Deppey fight?

Lately they’ve had differences of opinion regarding the BookScan numbers or, to be more precise, Brian Hibbs’ analysis of them, and what, exactly, they mean.

Personally, I don’t know enough about book publishing to care one way or the other, but I’ve been reading all the analysis anyway. Everyone seems to have some level of vested interest in publishing among the folks participating in the dialogue—Hibbs runs a Direct Market shop, MacDonald’s paycheck comes from an institution which covers publishing houses with an emphasis on book-books, Deppey’s comes from a graphic novel publishing house—and all of them know a hell of a lot more about all this than I do. (The extent of my relationship with book publishing? I sometimes read but hardly ever buy books; I often read a lot of graphic novels, and buy too many of ‘em).

Anyway, has the BookScan debate—most of which seems centered in the comments section here— renewed their timeless arch-rivalry?

Perhaps.

Tuesday Deppey made an amusing observation about Marvel's decision to rename all of their Marvel Universe Spider-titles Amazing Spider-Man just a few months before a cartoon series entitled The Spectacular Spider-Man made its Saturday morning debut (Although it’s not like they just cancelled the one called Spectacular Spider-Man, which would have been even funnier; that one’s been gone for a few years now, and the two they renamed were actually Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and Sensational Spider-Man. But Deppey’s point that wouldn’t it be smart for Marvel to tie-in a bit through branding still stands, and his “Face it Tiger, you just dodged the jackpot!” gag is still funny).

On The Beat, MacDonald sets Deppey up with “Oh this is so easy. Dirk:” and then quotes his paragraph about Marvel branding their Marvel Universe comics differently then their new cartoon.

Then she follows with the word “Fact.” which links back to a solicitation for an issue of Marvel Adventures Spider-Man which…also has a different name than Spectacular Spider-Man….?

After MacDonald’s post, Deppey’s point still stands, and his joke is still funny, and while her point is somewhat muddy, I assume she means that Marvel does have a kid-friendly book on the stands for fans of the new Spider-Man cartoon to pick up. (Will they? I don’t know; Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends was my first real intro to Marvel characters, and back then all of Marvel’s comics were appropriate for a reader my age).

Stylistically, MA Spider-Man seems pretty different than what little I’ve seen of the cartoon, with the character designs at least being rather different, and I imagine the status quo will be pretty different between the two as well.

But both will be about a kid who dresses in a Spider-Man costume and shoots webs at people, so I'm sure it's close enough for horseshoes.

Maybe Marvel should retitle MA Spider-Man Spectacular Spider-Man though, if they’re not using the name anyway. Of their various Spider-Men—Marvel Adventures, Ultimate, "616", the retired dad in theSpider-Girliverse—that's the one that will most likely most strongly resemble the cartoon.

The words “Marvel Adventures” is essentially meaningless anyway, translating roughly into, “Hey assholes, these are for kids—you want the bleaker stuff with the devil and the photo-reference art and the continuity the next shelf over.”

I’ve also heard it suggested that the MA titles just drop the MA, since most of the 616 titles use adjectives, while the movies of the same characters don’t (For example, the Spider-Man movies are just Spider-Man, not Amazing Spider-Man, like the comics; The Avengers books are either New or Mighty, but there’s no just plain The Avengers, and so on).



—Speaking of the Marvel Adventures line, this sounds awesome.





—So, how does Hercsrkrulles shave around those chin grooves?




—I wonder what Ed Benes’ page rate is for his work on JLoA. I’m sure he must be doing pretty well financially if royalties are included, it just strikes me as insane that someone like, say, George Perez, will draw this on just part of a page,



And that Benes can spend an entire page of a comic book just drawing Wonder Woman’s butt.


That’s 1/22nd of the entire book there. And that’s part of a two-page splash spread, making it 1/11th of the overall book. Since it’s only $2.99, consumers are paying about 13-and-a-half cents for that particular page. That might not sound like too much, but if you read an issue of JLoA and an issue of Brave and the Bold in the same month, the Justice League book sure seems like a rip-off.

Kind of unfortunate placement of the work “Sanctuary” so close to Wonder Woman’s woman parts too…

See, this is why I can’t read JLoA; just looking at the previews posted on Newsarama makes me feel skeevy!



—Spurred on by the particularly Alias-like last issue of New Avengers, Don MacPherson thinks back on Brian Michael Bendis’ prolific career, and wonders what exactly happened to that guy who did Torso, Jinx and Fortune and Glory that he became the guy who does Mighty Avengers. Give it a read.

MacPherson mentions that Bendis seems to perhaps simply be spread thin, and dude does have a huge-ass work load. He’s currently scripting Ultimate Spider-Man, New Avengers, and Mighty Avengers monthly, with Powers and Halo whenever-ly, and spear-heading Secret Invasion, right? Am I missing anything?

I’ve noticed that much of Bendis’ Avengers work has seemed to be inspired by the writer’s own struggle against boredom. The use of thought clouds, the odd narrative structures of stories being told as flashback or conversations between characters recounting the events, the interlocking storylines, Iron Man’s armor narrating—Bendis seems to try new things constantly not because they necessarily serve his story, but simply to try something new.

As to why so much of his Marvel Universe output seems to fall somewhere on a range between pretty decent and pretty terrible, and never really reach the heights of his earlier work, I think a lot of it might have to do with Bendis being a victim of his own success, with nothing left to prove.

And it might have something to do with Bendis transitioning into just a writer instead of a writer/artist. A lot of his best work is the work he did as both a writer and an artist. My own personal experience with comics writing and comics writing and drawing is obviously extremely limited, but I’ve noticed when you sit down in front of a blank piece of paper and start putting that script into panels, you immediately begin editing in your mind, and stay in that editing mode throughout. If you’re leaving it to an artist you trust implicitly, like Mark Bagley or Frank Cho or whoever, not only are you less likely to worry about how challenging something is, but you’re constantly thinking about every panel of the story, because you’re concentrating on it as you draw it.

In short, scripting an issue of Mighty Avengers may just be the work of a few hours in front of the computer and an hour’s conversation with Bagley on the phone, whereas if Bendis were drawing it too, it would be a month (or months) spent at the drawing board, scrutinizing every line of dialogue, narration and art.

Anyway, that’s just a theory.

Personally, I’d like to see Bendis give up the Avengers book and spend that creative energy on a second book of Ultimate Spider-Man’s quality. For about eight years now, it’s been one of the very best super-books; I’d like to see one masterpiece, or two great super-books, more than one great book and a half dozen decent ones.

But it’s all moot, really. Even Bendis’ worst work (that last issue of MA is one of ‘em) is no worse than average, and I’m sure he’s making money hand over fist…a lot more than he could possibly make writing and drawing crime dramas or humor work.



—Don’t forget, this week is SPACE, which, in addition to the usual availability of a lot of great small press and mini-comics and the presence of Dave Sim, will also see the debut of his top-secret project Secret Project #1.

The secret of the project started getting widely disseminated on Tuesday, and chances are you’ve already heard all about, but I’m still gonna keep it secret here anyway. You can find out more here at the project’s home site.

Because it’s a weekend in which something super-exciting is going down here in Columbus, I naturally will have to spend much of it at work. But if you see me during the hour or two I might get to visit SPACE, please feel free to give me your comic books and I’ll review them here or in Las Vegas Weekly or on Best Shots @ Newsarama.com, depending on which readership it seems most likely to appeal to. (Or, if you’re planning on coming to SPACE to sell your books, please feel free to mail ‘em to me at the address in the upper right-hand corner and say, “Here, you cheap bastard; here’s the comic I was selling at SPACE” or something along those lines).

Also this weekend are the two SPACE launch parties. The info on those again follows:

Friday, February 29th
8 to 11 p.m.
Monkey's Retreat
1202 North High Street
(near the corner of High and 5th Ave in the Short North)

Saturday, March 1st
8 p.m. until ???
Momo2
2885 Olentangy River Road

And here’s another Tom Williams flier for the events:

One of the half-dozen or so things that bugged me about Countdown #48

Like each of the previous three issues, there was a whole lot to dislike about this week's Countdown. This time out, a lot of it came on page nine, a brief five-panel scene between Donna Troy and Jason Todd that is breathtaking in the amount of continuity mistakes it manages to cram into such a small space.

Donna Troy is standing over the fresh grave of former Titan Duela Dent, The Joker's Daughter, and up walks former Titan and former Robin Jason Todd, who is currently a multiple-murderer and fugitive from justice, a walking threat to Donna's pal Nightwing's very existence as a costumed hero (not to mention Robin and Batman's).

Instead of smacking Jason across the cemetery or calmly asking him to surrender himself to the proper authorities, Donna just kind of chats with him.

Even if I wanted to be extremely generous with writers Adam Beechen and Paul Dini and assume that maybe Donna doesn't know about all the guys Jason has beheaded, and that she for some reason trusts him not to ever reveal Nightwing's secret identity to anyone, I still can't understand why she's not a little more pissed at the guy.

After all, as far as I know, the last time the two of them crossed paths was in this comic book



Now, it was a terrible comic book, probably the worst issue of Titans with Geoff Johns' name on it prior to "Titans East," so I can hardly blame Dini and Beechen for not wanting to read it.

In fact, I've tried very hard to block it out of my own memory because this issue, primarily because, in addition to containing Jason Todd (alive, aged, and evil), it also features an incredibly stupid scene in which he rips off his Red Hood costume



to reveal this costume


which he was apparently wearing underneath his Red Hood get-up...cape, gloves, boots and all.

But anyway, in that issue, Jason Todd broke into Titans Tower, gassed Raven in her sleep, shot Cyborg and Beast Boy with some kind of electricity-emitting darks that knock them both out, and then attacked Robin, beating him into unconsciousness and knocking down the Donna Troy memorial statue in the Titan's creepy Hall of Statues of Dead Titans.

Donna, who has arrived at the Tower in search of cannon fodder to take into her space battle against Alexander Luthor's giant space hands, is there when the team finds her nominal teammate Robin,



who tells them all that Jason Todd just did this to him.

So I gather Donna either has very bad short-term memory (this happened just before Infinite Crisis, so it was only about a year ago her time), or she really, really, really doesn't like Tim Drake.

That, or Beechen and Dini didn't read Teen Titans #29. Like I said, I don't blame them for not wanting to read it, and I'd excuse them both, if they weren't using both of those characters in this story.

Beechen is an even worse offender here though, since he took over Teen Titans from Geoff Johns. Apparently I don't understand what is involved with writing universe comics for one of the Big Two, but I always thought that part of preparing to take over as a writer for a pre-existing title included reading the previous issues.

I mean, it's not like Beechen was taking over Action Comics or Detective Comics here, where there are hundreds of issues featuring characters who have weathered thousands of appearances that no one could keep track of every single one of, but Titans was only forty-some issues old when he took over...that's an afternoon's worth of "research."

EDILW gets existential over the concept of entitlement among superhero fans/comics bloggers

Not quite as outrageous as Package-gate nor as linked-to as Johannagate comes Comiquette-gate, the latest disturbance in the blogosphere.

Eisner-nominated Comics Journal curmudgeon, superhero-bashing blogger and all-around EDILW favorite Dirk Deppey weighed in with today’s Journalista entry, in one of the occasional thought-provoking essays couched in his linkage.

In addition to repeating a point Kevin Church hit on a few months regarding energy spent getting Batman to put a Robin IV or Spoiler case in the Batcave, Deppey says this:


“So why the big freakout over a harmless statuette? I’d say it had to do with the earlier point raised: the fangirl’s inflated sense of entitlement, and the unwillingness of the rest of the world to feed it. It’s no different than the complaints that fanboys lodge over the perceived injustices of the funnybook world, of course, though they usually don’t waste time trying to wrap their enormous self-involvement in pseudo-ethical trappings…

“Women don’t buy superhero comics in sufficient numbers to make DC Comics pay attention to their demands. Like Marvel, they have an audience that buys their wares: adult male fanboys. Lacking financial motivation, there’s no reason to pay heed to Project Girl Wonder’s demand for fan fiction written to their specifications.”


Which got me thinking. Not necessarily about the fact that those who find the Mary Jane “comiquette” offensive are getting upset over nothing (It’s certainly not hard to see how it could irritate some; I don’t find it morally repellant personally, but at the same time I’d be mortified to have it on my mantle). But rather that last phrase above, which I’ve emboldened: “Fan fiction written to their specifications.”

It got me thinking because I wonder how much of the stuff I expend so much energy on here could be dismissed by saying that what I really want is just fan fiction written to my own personal specifications?

And then there’s Deppey’s solution—“they’re going to have to make the fucking comics first.”

Now that makes sense. If what female super-comics fans want is to see female superheroes and supporting characters treated with an equal amount of respect to male superheroes and supporting characters, then, yeah, they may have to make those comics themselves.

If what they want is Batman to erect a Stephanie Brown shrine or Power Girl to get a new costume, well, they’re not going to be able affect those particular changes…not without getting jobs working as writers, artists and editors for DC comics, and thus gaining access to the DCU (The first step of which is probably also to make their own fucking comics, too).

Anyway, after reading Deppey’s piece earlier in the day, I spent some time this afternoon wondering if EDILW is nothing but a waste of energy, spent on a misguided quest for fan fiction written to my specifications, wherein Cassandra Cain isn’t made a villain for no reason and Martian Manhunter gets to kick a little ass once in a while.

Shouldn’t I spend more time inking Caleb's Incomplete Self-Published Comicbook #1? Does online kvetching about the way the DC and Marvel universes are run really ever accomplish anything?

And then I saw this announcement on Newsarama.com.

According to the brief story, DC has announced a new miniseries in the Tales of the Unexpected/Mystery in Space featuring Animal Man, Adam Strange and Starfire, which will be entitled Countdown to Adventure (Yeah, that’s a stupid title), to be written by Adam Beechen.

The spin of the announcement/story goes like this: “Beechen’s move to the new miniseries does come with a cost – he had to give up Teen Titans, where he was recently named as the series’ new writer, stepping in for the departing Geoff Johns. Moving over to that series will be another member of the Countdown team, Sean McKeever.”

Which sounds like a more positive way of saying that DC belated realized that Beechen is actually a pretty awful comics writer whom too few fans are willing to put up with, and they snatched Titans away from him, giving him Countdown to Adventure as a sort of consolation prize. (Certainly the trio of C-Listers in Countdown to Adventure aren’t as high profile as a title starring Robin, and the latter is less likely to earn more money for Beechen than the former.)

What’s interesting about the announcement, and its timing, is that Beechen literally just started working on Titans. He co-plotted and co-wrote much of the last arc of the series, and the very last issue, #46, was his first issue of this run solo. It was also the worst goddam DC comic I’ve read in a good, long time. I’m hard-pressed to even think of a worse written DC comic. Maybe something from Erik Larsen’s Aquaman? Or Extreme Justice?

I’m not the only one who noticed, and loudly complained that this fan fiction was not living up to my specifications. I can’t recall hearing a single person issuing any sort of praise for Beechen's solo issue of Titans; the most positive reaction among Newsarama.com posters following a “Best Shots” thread that week seemed to be, “Yeah, it was bad, but I’ve read worse, so I’ll give it another four issues to improve before I drop it.”

Now obviously DC editorial didn’t see a problem with it. The script came across someone’s desk, they read it, approved it and handed it over to the artists (who also did a shitty job) to draw, and then they printed and shipped the damn thing. So it wasn’t until after the blogosphere panned it that they decided maybe it wasn’t so good and that someone else should write the title from now on.

The lesson? Well, maybe online bitching does accomplish change in those superhero universes once in a while after all (For another example, see World War III which, while badly bungled, seemed plotted entirely in response to Newsarama.com posters’ questions about “One Year Later” changes).


So maybe EDILW isn't a complete waste of time. But I probably should get some inking done tonight too.


A final note on Deppey’s piece: Johanna Draper Carlson linked to it as, I don’t know, Round Three of her “superheroes aren’t for girls” coverage of the last week. I honestly didn’t think of Deppey covering the same ground as Carlson until she pointed it out herself, but she says, “It’ll be interesting to see if he receives the same level of outrage I did. I suspect not, for several reasons: the first blush of venom has already been expended; he’s known for being outrageous (working for Fantagraphics gets you that rep); and he’s not female, which I suspect played into the kind of attacks I received. (I think both men and women see females as easier targets online, and I could be considered more of a betrayer to my gender, thus raising more of an emotional response.)”

So if you think Deppey’s full of shit, be sure to tell him so in the comments section at Journalista.

Otherwise, you hate women.

Jerk.





Did things get a little too heavy this post? Yeah, maybe. So let's take a deep breath, and cleanse our souls by contemplating this image, which, like the MJ comiquette, combines elements guaranteed to stimulate male interest—a pretty young woman, sports and a gorilla.



Is it demeaning to women because Wonder Woman is portrayed as prone and forced to play sports against a sub-human opponent, as if she isn't even worthy of playing against men?

Or is it a pro-feminist image because she seems to have outrun the throw and be sliding into home safe, winning at a man's game?

Discuss.

Teen Titans #43: The Awesome and the Terrible

The cover of this week’s issue of Teen Titans seems incredibly symmetrical to me, probably because artist Tony S. Daniel made the line between the orange and navy halves of Deathstroke’s (snicker!) mask so straight. While the members of “Titans East” are sort of almost kinda positioned symmetrically, it’s that line on Deathstroke’s (heh!) mask that really seems to divide this image into two perfect halves.

Perhaps that’s what’s got me thinking in terms of two, easily divisible extremes, but as I was reading this issue, my mind kept leaping back and forth between excitement and disappointment, with each new detail being assigned a position in either the awesome or terrible category.

Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

First, the Awesome:

1.) Geoff Johns finally gets around to using some villains from the rogues galleries of some of the characters who have made up this version of the Teen Titans, namely Superboy clone Match and Impulse clone Inertia (unfortunately, he does this after he’s killed Superboy off and aged Impulse first into Kid Flash and then into Flash).

2.) Someone tries to make some sense out of Batgirl’s sudden and complete change in characterization between the end of her own series and the re-launch of Robin during the “One Year Later” initiative. Are you ready? Deathstroke (snort!) has been injecting her with some sort of drug that makes her evil. Now, is this a perfect solution? No. It explains why she’s evil (“Why do you think that Batgirl’s been acting rthe way she has?” ‘Stroke asks before administering an injection), and you could explain why she seemed to forget her own continuity (as evidenced here), her refusal to ever take another human life, what kind of clothes she liked to wear, why Robin kicked her ass so easy and why she was talking so eloquently (All side-effects of the serum!) Johns deserves a gold star, if not a gold medal, for this solution, but Adam Beechen still deserves derision for the original “Boy Wanted” story, as this doesn’t explain why Tim Drake thought Cassandra knew Navajo, why Batman is so blasé about a former sidekick who knows his secret identity running loose, why Oracle was so dumb that she took a police report that Batgirl was killed as the honest-to-God truth, or why Lynx came back to life all of a sudden for no reason. Still, way to go Johns! After this story arc, maybe DC will wise up and let Cassandra Cain recede into off-panel limbo, which is exactly the direction that Andersen Gabrych wrote her into at the end of Batgirl. (And no, I’m not reading Teen Titans when Beechen takes over. I read six issues of his Robin, and even after the Batgirl mess, it still really, really sucked, and showed the same lack of familiarity with the character. Teen Titans requires familiarity not only with Robin an Bat-history, but also about four or five other continuities on top of that).

3.) Lionmane makes an appearance. I love that dude’s name, and the fact that he’s a lion-man, but chose to go by “Lionmane” instead of “Lionman.”

4.) The “Titans East” Titans Tower looks pretty damn sweet.

5.) Johns’ Kid Devil, who is becoming the ultimate “foxhole Christian,” sneaking into mass and hanging out in the church rafters hoping God can save his soul from the devil he sold it to.


And now, the Terrible:

1.) Daniel’s art looks pretty good in single panels now and then, but he’s not a very good visual storyteller, a terrible “actor” with a pencil, and the story and art don’t match up as well as they should. Take the second panel, for example, in which Nightwing says goodbye to the Wilson kids while jumping off a roof. It’s a friendly parting of ways, but Nightwing looks grim and worried, and isn’t facing in their direction at all. He also has his little fighting sticks out…one has a weird hose near it, so maybe he shot a cable out of it, but I who the hell knows? He doesn’t look like an lifelong acrobat bidding a friendly farewell, he looks like a grim avenger of the night about to jump on the reader and buffet him or her about the face with his Daredevil sticks. There’s a certain Land-ishness to Daniel’s art, only it’s much, much, much more natural (which is a commentary on the lack of quality present in Land’s work, not the amount of quality in Daniels’).

2.) I give up, why is Match the Superboy-version of Bizarro now instead of, well, Match? Match was originally an exact clone of Superboy (albeit a blonde one) with a perfectly normal, not-backwards brain—he was sharp enough to impersonate Superboy and infiltrate Young Justice for a good long time. Here, we see that Match has the exact same haircut and taste in clothes that Superboy had right before his death (despite the fact that they haven’t had any interaction since Sins of Youth and, like the dark, mean Bizarro that Johns wrote in Infinite Crisis and Action Comics, Match has white crumbly skin, and talks in opposites. Oh, and he has a backwards “S” T shirt. What the fuck? Now that Superboy’s dead, think how much more interesting a Titans villain Match could have been. He could have easily claimed to have been the resurrected Superboy, and just about everyone would have believed him. Hell, in 52, Wonder Girl thought just about every new person she met was Superboy resurrected. Inertia explains that Match has been “rotting away little by little,” and that he’s “not much of a conversationalist anymore.” That’s Johns’ explanation for why Match is now Bizarroboy, but it’s just a way to force the dots to connect.

3.) Robin’s clothing collection is just goddam weird. Trying to clone Superboy back to life makes a certain amount of twisted sense, especially as the unhealthy reaction of a psychologically hurt young boy, but here Robin has a whole collection of the clothes of the loved ones he’s lost—his mom, his dad, Spoiler…was he planning on cloning them all?

4.) Deathstroke’s (hee hee!) explanation of his Evil Serum being responsible for Cassandra being bad comes too close on the heels of Robin’s accusation that ‘Stroke was driving Ravager mad by “pumping Rose full of the same serum that enhanced your strength and speed,” which makes one wonder if ‘Stroke was giving Cassie (and presumably Risk and Joker’s Daughter) the Slade Wilson super-serum and it was turning them crazy evil, or if that is an entirely different serum.

5.) When Inertia runs past Wonder Girl at super-speed, he mentions that her hair smells really nice. This is just a little thing, I know, and we are talking about a bunch of teenagers in skin-tight suits with super-powers, but must every villain these days be some kind of sex-pervert? Whatever happened to robbery, murder and ruling the world as villainous motivations?