Marvel's November previews reviewed

I had a blast reading through this month's release of Marvel Entertainment's plans for November releases, because of the way in which they employed the "Marvel NOW!" branding throughout.

See, Marvel's retaliation plan to DC's inspired idea to put an unprecedented PR push behind a complete reboot of their entire universe, renumbering of their entire DCU line and the shuffling of their creative teams was to do the same thing, only without the reboot. And, instead of calling it "The New 52," they would be calling it "Marvel NOW!" with an all-caps "now" that in our post-Internet age of course reads like a shout.

And so, sprinkled throughout their solicits of the word "now," only it must always be capitalized, and with an explanation point.

So, for example, you get a lot of sentences like, "NOW! in the aftermath of Avengers vs. X-Men, Legion will finally attempt to conquer his demons and embrace his father’s legacy!" and "NOW! the Mighty Thor follows a trail of blood that threatens to consume his past, present and future selves," and so on.

Read 'em out loud!

Anyway, you can read Marvel's full solicits here, and NOW! as ever, you can read my thoughts on a few of note below.

A+X #2
KAARE ANDREWS & PETER DAVID (W)
KAARE ANDREWS & MIKE DEL MUNDO (A)
Cover by KAARE ANDREWS
Variant Cover by ED MCGUINNESS & TBA
Sketch Variant by ED MCGUINNESS
• Spider-Man and Beast fight zombies in a story by Kaare Andrews (AVX: VERSUS)!
• Iron Man, Kitty Pryde and Lockheed fight the Brood in a story by Peter David and your favorite artist!
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99

My favorite artist? Cool; I'd love to see a Kelley Jones version of the Brood!

I like the logo and the silliness of the title, and I love Kaare Andrews' art.

That said, this is $4. This is one of the books on sale this month that I would read for $2.99, but won't read for $3.99. There will be a lot of them. I wonder if I'm uniquely stubborn and cheap, or if Marvel fails to sell a lot of comics because of their pricing. I'm sure they make more than they lose though, at least in the short term though, or else they wouldn't keep launching $4/20-22-page books.


All-New X-Men #1 
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS (W) STUARD IMMONEN (A&C)
...
It’s a blast from the past as the original five students of Professor X – Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Angel and Beast – are plucked from the past and brought to the present. But what they find, the state that their future selves are in and the state of Xavier’s dream, is far from the future they dreamed of. And how will the X-Men of the present deal with their past coming crashing forward?
32 PGS. (EACH)/Rated T+ …$3.99 (EACH)

I'm sure someone, maybe everyone, has already mentioned this, but the premise of this series seems really, really, really, really familiar. Like, I think they've done multiple Legion series which was like this in reverse. I know Ron Marz wrote a Green Lantern story like this featuring Hal Jordan, back when he was still dead. Kurt Busiek played with a similar concept in parts of his Avengers/JLA crossover story. Mark Waid did something similar with the Barry Allen version of Flash (when he was still dead), although there was a twist...at Marvel, between Civil War and Secret Invasion they did this with the Captain Marvel character, although that too ended up being a twist.

I can't imagine what will make this all that different then, save that the characters will all talk like Brian Michael Bendis, and probably act nothing like themselves. The art should be pretty though.

That's the final cover for Avengers Academy, which is being cancelled. It's a pretty effective cover, I think.

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #9
KELLY SUE DECONNICK (W) • STEFANO CASELLI (A)
Cover BY STEVE MCNIVEN
...
ALL-NEW CREATIVE TEAM WITH ALL-NEW OUTSIZED ADVENTURES!
• Kelly Sue Deconnick (CAPTAIN MARVEL) and Stefano Caselli (AMAZING SPIDER-MAN) team up to tackle the titanic tales YOU DEMANDED! And in continuity to boot?!
• Two scientists. Two giant egos. One wears a tank. One is a tank. Tony Stark and Bruce Banner are SCIENCE BROS!
• When a fellow bigbrain goes missing, wanna bet who can find him first? It’s Amazing Race, Avengers-style, as Iron Man and Hulk form their teams and embark on a global manhunt with the ultimate prize at stake…bragging rights!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

I think I'm pretty Avengers-ed out, but that's an intriguing creative team, and the "SCIENCE BROS!" bit makes me smile. I'd sample for $2.99, won't for $3.99.

That's a really shitty cover, by the way.

AVENGING SPIDER-MAN #14
CULLEN BUNN (W) • GABRIELE DELL'OTTO (A&C)
Horizon Labs take a field trip to the Savage Land! But when has a trip to the Savage Land ever gone right?
When a horde of super-powered lizards attack, it's up to Spider-Man, Devil Dinosaur, and Moon Boy to save the day!
Raptors are bad enough, but can Spidey overcome a prehistoric language barrier, too?
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$3.99

Devil Dinosaur! Gabriele Dell'Otto isn't an artist I would think would do a good Kirbysaurus, but that might make for a great pairing because of that.

I like the choice of a blue field background too; it makes Spidey and DD match remarkably well on this cover.

All that said, $4?! Here's one more for the the "I woulda totally read that for $2.99, but..." column.


CAPTAIN AMERICA AND BLACK WIDOW #639
KELLY SUE DECONNICK (W) • DEXTER SOY (A)
Cover by Jamie McKelvie
• Cap and Black Widow face Lizard-Ock!
• Chased by a super-powered kill squad, Cap and Widow jaunt through the multiverse!
• The stage is set for a final assault against Venemma Multiversal!
32 PGS./Rated T ...$2.99

"Lizard-Ock" looks and sounds dumb. That said, if "Venemma" is the name of a a Venom-possessed Emma Frost, that pretty much makes up for the formers lameness.

Holy shit! Geof Darrow! Wow.

FF #1
MATT FRACTION (W) • MIKE ALLRED (A&C)
...
We have seen the future and it will be fantastic! In the absence of the Fantastic Four, a substitute Four, hand-picked by the real deal--Ant-Man, Medusa, She-Hulk and Miss Thing--stand ready to guard the Earth and the nascent Future Foundation for four minutes... NOW! what could possibly go wrong?
32 PGS./Rated T …$2.99

I'm super-excited about the possibility of Mike Allred superhero art on a monthly basis again. I'm curious about what Ant-Man that will be. I'm seriously a little freaked-out looking at "Miss Thing."

I don't understand; what's Gambit doing with that card that it's energy trail looks like that? If the trail is the path of the card, he must have been dancing around rather weirdly with it.

That's the cover of Hawkeye, and it's a nice, minimal one. Looks like Hawkeye is gonna be competing with Daredevil for best covers....

I like the color scheme, and it seems almost daring for Marvel to change it so radically from the movie version.

This is a Greg Land comic though, so it's going to be risible trash.

INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK #1
MARK WAID (W) • LEINIL FRANCIS YU (A&C)
...
Hulk - Indestructible force more weapon than man. Banner – smartest man alive. Combined they are the Strongest, Smartest Weapon on the planet! And NOW! the INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK is an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

I like the creative team. I like the character.

I love the giant-ass one that's part of the logo...they should do that with each issue (It sure would make keeping up with the series easy, especially if they do that accelerated-publishing thing they do with so many of their books).

I'm intrigued by what looks like the big, chunky, foul-mouthed Skeets floating next to him.

I'm confused by the reference to Banner as the "smartest man alive"...what does Mr. Fantastic have to say about that?

I'm surprised that there are six variant covers for this, for a total of seven covers.

I do not like the pants, or the "Agent of SHIELD" premise, which seems like it has been done with, let's see, every single Marvel character ever, so that sounds a little tired.

I hate the price point. I would read this for $2.99. I won't read it for $3.99.


MARVEL'S IRON MAN 2 ADAPTATION #1 (of 2)
WILL PILGRIM (W) • TBD (A)
• The Marvel Cinematic Universe returns with Iron Man 2, the adaptation of one of Marvel Studios blockbuster films!
• Why does the government go after Iron Man?
• Plus a mysterious figure from Tony's past returns-and he's got a vendetta.
• Featuring: the first appearance of War Machine!
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$2.99

The fuck is this...? A November 2012 comic book adaptation of a movie that came out in 2010...? And the artist hasn't yet been determined...? There is absolutely nothing about this solicitation that I understand.


VENOM #27
CULLEN BUNN (W)
DECLAN SHALVEY (A)
COVER BY Patch Zircher
MINIMUM CARNAGE – PART FIVE!
• Venom, Scarlet Spider and the Micronauts fight to save a universe – but in the process, have doomed our own!
• Cullen Bunn and Declan Shalvey bring you the pentultimate chapter of the mega-levolent masterpiece!
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$2.99

Ha ha, I really like the term "mega-levolent." Sue me.

I kinda like the design of this cover and the way the logo, giant skull and radiating red and white lines look, even though I don't really care all that much for Cassaday's rendering.


X-MEN: LEGACY #1 & #2
SIMON SPURRIER (W) • TAN ENG HUAT (A)
...
Legion, the most powerful and unstable mutant in the world and son to Professor Charles Xavier, has killed gods and reshaped the face of the universe. NOW! in the aftermath of Avengers vs. X-Men, Legion will finally attempt to conquer his demons and embrace his father’s legacy!
32 PGS. (EACH)/Rated T …$3.99 (EACH)

Just wanted to point out that this one is by a good writer and an excellent artist with a very quirky, very un-Marvel style. It should be one to watch...or at least catch up on in library trade some day. Again, intriguing looking book, curiosity-killing price.


I think I'm gonna add Fantastic Four and FF to my pull-list, and see how those first few issues go. And while that's only two new titles, it does double my current Marvel pull-list, which currently consists of only Daredevil and Hawkeye.

Meanwhile, at Robot 6...

I have a review of Harvey Pekar and JT Waldman's Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me at Robot 6 today, which you can go read if you like.

And if you want to read any of my writing about comics today, you're going to have to, because that's all you're getting.

DC's November previews reviewed

DC Comics has released their solicitations for the comics they intend to release in November of this year. You can read them, and look at the cover images, in various places around the Internet, like right here, for example. But you can only read my thoughts and feelings about them here, on Every Day Is Like Wednesday!

One thing I noticed while scanning through the solicits for those dumb Before Watchmen solicitations, which DC will apparently still be publishing in November, is that each includes the words "Plus, writer/artist JOHN HIGGINS brings you the latest chapter in saga of the CRIMSON CORSAIR!" In October's solicits, Len Wein was credited as the writer of the Crimson Corsair back-ups, and Higgins as the artist.

So what happened to Wein? Did Pam jump in?

I really dislike Ariel Olivetti's style. Look at that background. Ugh. It seems especially inappropriate for a Western title, too, as the genre seems to demand a certain tactile quality of dirt, grit, dust, sweat and messiness that Olivetti's strangely smoothed out, super-clean imagery can't conjure. It looks so real and unreal at the same time that I sometimes feel like I'm looking at photographs of holograms or something.

AME-COMI GIRLS: FEATURING BATGIRL #2
Written by JUSTIN GRAY and JIMMY PALMIOTTI
Art and cover by SANFORD GREEN
On sale NOVEMBER 14 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
• The first time in print for these digital-first adventures!
• Part 2 of the first Ame-Comi storyline starring female versions of Batman and Robin.
• Batgirl falls into Duela Dent's trap!

I really love Sanford Green's art, but, like Amanda Palmer who is to draw a Wonder Woman Ame-Comi book, I question whether he draws sexy/fan-service-y enough, and if he draws manga-influenced enough for this particular project. These are, after all, comics based on cheesecake/fan-service manga-style statues for the mildly perverted, and this looks and sounds like just another superhero comic book, albeit one with a pretty awesome artist attached.

The New 52 Black Orchid—that is who that's supposed to be on these covers for Animal Man and Justice League Dark, right?—looks like she's wearing red cabbage.

Hmm...maybe they'll spin her off into her own book with a new costume, with variant photo covers featuring a live model, at some point...?

AQUAMAN #14
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by PETE WOODS
Cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
...
On sale NOVEMBER 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
...
• In the aftermath of "THE OTHERS," who lives? Who dies? And what is the fate of the Atlantean relics?
• The debut of the OCEAN MASTER!

So there's the new New 52 Ocean Master. Not a whole heck of a lot different than the old Ocean Master; costume has different colors, looks more like armor than a supervillian costume, he has a trident instead of an "O" shaped blade, and he and Aquaman have matching belts now. That's kinda cute.

Note that Pete Woods is providing art. Either I didn't notice it/can't remember it, but I'm fairly certain this is the first time pencil Ivan Reis has taken a month off. Wait, just remembered that awful issue about bad-ass Mera being made at people calling her "Aquawoman," breaking the arm of that handsy strawman sexual harrassing grocery store manager, almost killing another dude. Let me check: Yeah, Aquaman #6 had Joe Prado finishes over Reis layouts, rather than Prado inks on Reis pencils.

Every time I finish an issue of Aquaman, I tell myself I'm gonna drop it and switch to trades. So as I look at this, I'm thinking, "Well, I"ll read that in trade next summer," and I don't know, now I don't know if I can quit it.

Not to belittle their love or anything, but that's how I feel about Aquaman: Like the gay cowboys in Brokeback Mountain.

Having cut off his face for some reason in last year's Detective Comics #1, DC was apparently supposed to be making something of a big deal about what he would look like in November's "Death of the Family" crossover story thingee, and the fact that he just kinda taped it on and and wrapped a leather belt around it was supposed to be a big reveal...that the publisher kinda messed it up, to the annoyance of one of their most popularly lauded artists.

Looks like Ed Benes is doing his regular bang-up job there. Great background and sense of place.

That's a fine cover by Dustin Nguyen. I like how normal everyone looks, just kinda standing there as if for a class photo or something, despite how bizarre the many crazy aliens are. Props to Nguyen too for inventing so many of his own crazy aliens to draw there, rather than just draw the same old homages to the same dozen or so crazy alien Green Lanterns you usually see (Although maybe those props belong to whoever designed the aliens inside the book; I don't know).

I really like this cover too.

I don't know Flash; I don't want to be a armchair super-combat coach or anything, but if I had super-speed and were fighting a gigantic gorilla, I'd probably stand well out of arm's reach and throw rocks at him or wave my arms to hit him with little red tornadoes or whatever that thing you do is. I probably wouldn't get in that close. I'm just saying, is all.

I'm kind of excited about this issue of Green Lantern, as it will feature artist Doug Mahnke drawing the Justice League again...even if they're all wearing lamer costumes than the last time he drew them during his JLA run. Jeez, even Batman's costume looks over-busy. How to take Batman's costume and turn it into a shitty design? Sheesh.

GRIFTER #14
Plotted by ROB LIEFELD
Written by ROB LIEFELD and FRANK TIERI
Art by SCOTT CLARK and DAVE BEATTY
Cover by ROB LIEFELD
On sale NOVEMBER 14 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• Midnight in Paris! Grifter vs. Midnighter in the city where Cole was forced to kill his brother!
• Guest-starring Voodoo!

Ha ha, it's 2012 and DC Comics is publishing this comic book!

I am fascinated by the fact that DC apparently never says "no" or "try again" to Rob Liefeld, they just accept and print whatever he turns in. They never send him a note saying, "We like the idea of this piece, and the energy is good, but it kinda sorta maybe looks like Midnighter is ten feet tall, or Grifter is three feet tall. If the latter is on his knees or something, you should probably pull out on the image a little so we can actually see their legs. Some form of background might also help sell what you were going for."

Here's another great Simon Bisley cover for Hellblazer.

JOE KUBERT PRESENTS #2
Written and illustrated by JOE KUBERT, BRIAN BUNIAK and SAM GLANZMAN
Cover by JOE KUBERT
On sale NOVEMBER 28 • 48 pg, FC, 2 of 6, no interior ads, $4.99 US • RATED T
• At last: A lost Joe Kubert classic sees print! The amazing sci-fi epic THE REDEEMER begins in this issue!
• New stories with classic characters ANGEL AND THE APE and the crew of the U.S.S. STEVENS!

Last month, when DC solicited the first issue of this series, I was super excited. Today I see this solicitation and that wonderful drawing, and I feel sad. For a telling example of what an incredible artist Joe Kubert was, take a moment to scroll through all of the cover images DC has released, and see how poorly so many of them compare to the above, which looks particularly dashed-off and is lacking in color and other production.

I will link to this in next Sunday's links round-up, but since Kubert has come up in the course of this goofy feature of mine, here is Tom Spurgeon's obituary for Kubert, and here's Spurgeon's "Collective Memory" feature which compiles various remembrances, tributes, appreciations and galleries of Kubert and his work.

So, is that a picture of Green Arrow straight-up killing a dude on the cover of The Savage Hawkman #14? If so, then I think GA may be out-savaging The Savage Hawkman, whose giant-ass mace only maybe kills his foes.

Of course, those aren't humans from the planet earth they're fighting with apparently deadly force, but humanoids from the planet Thanagar, and I think there's some loophole in the New 52 where superheroes can kill their enemies as long as those enemies weren't born on Earth (see the first few issues of Justice League for a half-dozen examples).

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: WEIRD WAR TALES VOL. 1 TP
Written by ROBERT KANIGHER and others
Art by JOE KUBERT, RUSS HEATH, SAM GLANZMAN, ALEX TOTH, ALEX NINO, ALFREDO ALCALA, GEORGE EVANS and others
Cover by JOE KUBERT
On sale DECEMBER 19 • 576 pg, B&W, $19.99 US
• A value-priced collection from WEIRD WAR TALES #1-21!
• War stories turn creepy as soldiers battle ghostly foes, haunted weapons and much more.

More Kubert. Plus art from Russ Heath, Alex Toth, Alex Nino...Kanigher stories...Wow, this is gonna be a good one.


SUPERGIRL #14
Written by MIKE JOHNSON
Art and cover by MAHMUD ASRAR
On sale NOVEMBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• A "H'ELL ON EARTH" crossover chapter!
• Picking up from SUPERBOY #14, Supergirl meets the villainous H'el!
• What happens when she finds herself agreeing with his pro-Krypton/anti-Earth plans?
• Continued this month in SUPERMAN #14!

A character with some kind of Krypton connection named "H'el" is kinda funny, but shouldn't it be "He-El" or "Hel-L," to stick with Krptonian naming conventions...?

Or does he have nothing at all to do with Krypton, and it's just a goofy coincidence...?


WONDER WOMAN #14
Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO
Art by TONY AKINS and DAN GREEN
Cover by CLIFF CHIANG
...
On sale NOVEMBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
...
• Wonder Woman's twisted "family" grows larger than she could have imagined.
• On the trail of the god who betrayed her, Diana crosses the path of the deadly SIROCCA!

The "deadly SIROCCA," huh? I wonder if that's an all-new character with that name, or if it refers to the Iranian speedster that Kurt Busiek introduced during his fairly excellent run on the Superman books, one of the many, many, many, many characters who were "de-created" by DC's somewhat perplexing New 52boot, in which they purged their universe of hundreds, if not thousands, of IPs.

WORLDS' FINEST #6
Written by PAUL LEVITZ
Art by KEVIN MAGUIRE, GEORGE PEREZ and SCOTT KOBLISH
Cover by KEVIN MAGUIRE
1:25 B&W Variant cover by KEVIN MAGUIRE
On sale NOVEMBER 7 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. The variant cover will feature the standard edition cover in a wraparound format.
• What happens when Huntress, the former Robin of Earth 2, meets Damian? The same thing that happens when anyone meets Damian: a massive fight!
• Huntress has managed to keep her true identity on this Earth a secret so far, but with Damian on her trail, can the world's greatest detective be far behind?

So that's what Kevin Maguire drawing Damian would look like. Huh. This is the first issue of this comic where the cover and solicitation made me want to pick it up. There's something really appealing about that character, smug little bastard that he is.


Finally, if you thought the new Captain Marvel design looked stupid when drawn by Gary Frank, just wait till you see it rendered in a small, plastic sculpture!

If that doesn't say "Not Captain Marvel," I don't know what does...n't.

Comic shop comics: August 1-8

Wow, it's Monday night already...? So I've been sitting on these books for, let's see, five days now. I must have been awfully busy over the course of the last five days. Which is weird, because it sure doesn't seem like I've accomplished much of anything. Anyway! Some comics released on the last two Wednesdays that I purchased from my local comic shop, along with what I thought of 'em, below!

Daredevil #16 (Marvel Entertainment) This issue is divided rather neatly into two parts. The first deals with Tony Stark, Dr. Strange and Night Nurse helping a very shrunken Hank Pym operate on Daredevil's brain by wandering around it, shooting the nanomites in it with a huge (well, relative to his microscopic size) gun. The second deals with the fall-out of Foggy Nelson finding something weird in Matt Murdock's drawer, and suspecting it is weird enough to prove Matt is 100%, certifiably cuckoo for coco puffs (to use the medical term), and then proceeding to kick him out of their law firm.

Both parts are written by Mark Waid, who is a very good writer. And both parts are drawn by Chris Samnee, who is a very good artist. Making this a very good comic book. The first half is perhaps especially exciting, because the shrunken Pym finds himself picking up radiation from Matt's memory, and so we get to see words describing Matt's biography super-imposed on images drawn of Pym's biography.

One of the best Ant-Man and Wasp comics I ever read was the issue of The Mighty Thor they guest-starred in that Samnee illustrated, so it was nice to see him drawing them, even just briefly, here.

It's sometimes depressing how good this comic is, because it shouldn't be special. Great, imaginative writer and great, imaginative artist brining their A-game to the decades-old Marvel formula of superheroes and soap opera that. It's a shame this stands out as so exceptional, because it puts underscores just how bad almost everything else is these days.

Hawkeye #1 (Marvel) I was mildly interested in this book due to the creative team (Matt Fraction and David Aja's first few issues of Iron Fist were pretty dynamite) and the wonderful covers, but I was mildly interested in a wait-for-the-trade-which-I-may-or-may-not-actually-ever-get-to kind of way. I was in the shop the week it came out though, and there was only, like, one (1) other comic that I wanted to buy, so, seeing it was only $2.99, I grabbed it—total impulse buy ($2.99 is a more attractive cover price for impulse buys than $3.99 by the way, Marvel).

It's a very good, done-in-one, self-contained and complete modern action-adventure comic book, rather like what Marvel has been producing with Daredevil, save without any of the fantastic signifiers of that particular character and franchise, and with a bit less personal personality in the artwork.

For some reason, Aja decided to draw it in the style of David Mazzucchelli...or at least Mazzucchelli's style from his seminal Daredevil run and, more immediately, his Batman: Year One, which the narration and captions further call attention to. It's a good Mazzucchelli impression, but for the life of me, I don't see why he's doing it at all.

Another odd choice is in how generic a character Hawkeye is. He's a nobody, really, defined no further than maybe kind of a smart-ass, kind of immature for a superhero, interested in doing the right thing. This could be a comic book about, well, almost anyone (well, at least almost any superhero; it wouldn't work as well if it was about me, or Tom Brevoort, or your mom, or Congressman Paul Ryan). Hawkeye doesn't even wear his costume in it at all, save for in the first five panels of the book (and his new, post-movie costume, at least as rendered by Aja, is simply a black T-shirt with a vague arrowhead shape on it, and purple-tinted sunglasses). And he doesn't use a bow and arrow at all, save for in the very first panel.

Rather, he demonstrates his powers or skills by having really, really good aim, like Ultimate Hawkeye, who stole that from Roy "Arsenal" Harper, who stole it, I believe, from Bullseye (And we're back to 1980s Daredevil again!)

Beyond the pleasures of Fraction's well-realized craft and Aja's great, if weirdly modulated to Mazz's frequency, artwork, it's also a pretty funny comic.

I like the fact that although he doesn't wear his costume, when in street clothes, Hawkeye is always wearing purple: A purple t-shirt and Converse All-Stars when leaving the hospital, a purple tie with his suit when he infiltrates a gangster-run poker club. It reminded me of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, how the various Rangers would always wear only the colors of their uniforms when in street clothes, so that the Red Ranger was always wearing red T-shirts and jackets and shoes, The Pink Ranger was always in pink, and so on.

Also, the bad guy says "bro," like, constantly. I thought that was a funny tick, well executed.

Oh, but I thought this one scene was really weird:

If you get hit in the throat by a playing card thrown by "the greatest sharp-shooter known to man," is the result a paper cut that is also a mortal wound? Or does it just stun you?

I have no idea, having never seen that in real life. Like, I think I've seen The Joker kill people like that, but I think he also had trick cards with razor-edges.

Anyway, I know Brian Michael Bendis has written Hawkeye to be driven to genocidal mania in the past, during Secret Invasion,

an epic story whose prelude included Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man and their Illuminati pals slaughtering thousands of Skrulls, but I'm not sure what the Avengers rule book says about killing dudes, or if that dude who got hit with a card even died.

Either way: Pretty good comic book.

The Lake Erie Monster #2 (Shiner Comics Group) It's the latest installment of Clevelanders J. Kelly and John G's self-published local horror anthology (the first issue of which I reviewed here),a big, thick comic that stinks of ink and is packed with the pair's commissioned ads for cool local businesses, that it kinda sorta functions as a visitor's guide to town (for example, while I can't second all of the businesses advertising, I can definitely recommend the music venues who are advertising in this issue).

In this installment, there's the second-part of the title story, in which several of the characters begin to figure out that there may be a monster involved in the various pet-killings and disappearances, a few kids stumble upon where the monster might be making its home (hey, it's a semi-famous local landmark!) and we readers get a pretty good look at the monster itself.

The back-up story is "Greens," in which some hipster college girl and her roommates encounter a horror brought home from a farmer's market. It may be in large part because of the character design and inking, but the art on this one reminded me of Daniel Clowes drawing an EC horror short and that...well, that's something to see.

The "Commodore's Cleveland" installment lacked hobos, Bigfoot and a hobo Bigfoot, so it wasn't as storng as that in the first issue.

There's a clever gag featuring redaction marks, but otherwise, it lacks the immediacy and vague truthiness of the first one.

Spongebob Comics #11 (United Plankton Pictures) There are particularly strong installments of regular features like the pirate-themed credits page (this one about the dangers of "book barnacles," and how to keep your comics clean of 'em) and James Kochalka's strips (this time, it's "How To Not Draw SpongeBob). Of the four longer stories that make up the rest of the comic, including a particularly funny one in which Patrick keeps a Diary of a Wimpy Kid style of Squidward's activities by totally stalking him, the strongest is probably Graham Annable's "The Big Cover-Up!", in which a late-for-work SpongeBob doesn't realize he forgot to put on pants until he gets to work and, rather than return home, he manages to get through an entire work day without anyone noticing he's in his underwear.

Here's one particularly strong gag:

And that's all I got the last two Wednesdays.


Why on earth didn't you read that awesome-looking Godzilla comic by James Stokoe, one of your favorite artists? you may ask. I answer: Because it is $4 instead of $3 or $3.50, and I am poor. What about It Girl and The Atomics, or Beasts of Burden?, you may further ask. My shop didn't receive any pre-orders at all for the former, and thus didn't rack it (not a great sign for that book!), and sold out of the few rack copies of the latter. Maybe I'll get to those next week.

(links)

As you may have heard, Joe Kubert has passed away. He was one of the very best artist's to touch pen or pencil to paper in the American comic book industry, and he never stopped doing it—DC just recently announced an anthology miniseries entitled Joe Kubert Presents featuring his work. More remarkably still, the huge body of work work Kubert leaves behind accounts for but a single area of his contributions to the field, which also working as a comics editor, siring two of the most popular superstar artists and founding an art school that taught a large swathe of an entire generation how to draw.

I've never met him, but I'll miss him.

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Here's a public service announcement of sorts from Challengers comic shop in Chicago, regarding the proper way to let your shop know you no longer wish to purchase comics from them.

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In last week's Grumpy Old Fan column, Tom Bondurant compared the relative lack of history, invention and direction in the now one-year-old New 52iverse, compared to the last similar reboot DC did (in the wake of Crisis On Infinite Earths).

He singled Geoff Johns, Jim Lee and company's Justice League book as one that feels especially hurt by the lack of a cohesive universe, which, he later explains, doesn't just refer to a place with continuity, but a vibrant setting full of possibilities:

Most of the A-list books are like Action in that they have established their new status quos pretty definitely. I mentioned Flash and Wonder Woman already, and Scott Snyder on Batman has done a good job making the Court of Owls feel like it’s been a credible behind-the-scenes menace. Similarly, with Green Lantern and Aquaman, Geoff Johns is working the characters’ mythologies at appropriate stages. On GL, he’s trying to distill eight years’ worth of stories into something which will inform a relatively-simple rebellion against the Guardians, and on Aquaman, he’s in the early stages of something which could conceivably last several years itself.

I think that’s what frustrates me about his Justice League...it just feels like Johns isn’t taking full advantage either of the characters’ own backgrounds or of the DC Universe as a whole. Clearly part of that is the need to make the book accessible, part of it is the “newness” of the Leaguers’ revised backgrounds, and part of it is the desire to create something new (as opposed to another Starro or Despero story). Nevertheless, of all the books in DC’s lineup, Justice League is the one best-suited for a global perspective on the entire shared universe, and now it feels hobbled by self-imposed restrictions.

Part of the problem with Justice League is that even though it stars six characters with their own books (or, in the case of Batman and Superman and Green Lantern, their own line of books), the characters that appear in Justice League seem to be entirely different versions of the characters that appear in their own book.

I suspect much of that has had to do with the fact that the first Justice League story arc was set five years before the rest of the New 52 books, but I would wager even more of it has to do with the fact that DC writers, editors and artists never really hammered out who Wonder Woman was now, or who Superman was now, and so the ones in Justice League read like different characters than the ones in Wonder Woman, Action, Superman and so on.

I think it's telling to remember that the Justice League didn't debut until 1960, between 15 and 20 years after Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman debuted and started starring in multiple comic books (and other media), five years after the debut of Martian Manhunter and four years after the debut of Silver Age Flash Barry Allen.

The characters were therefore all extremely well fleshed-out and had their own, independent (if fictional) lives before they banded together in a single book.

In the New 52iverse, the Justice League debuted the month before all of the other books, and was set five years prior to all of the other books, giving us the inverse. It wouldn't make sense for DC to reboot their universe and then wait until, I don't know, 2031 before debuting Justice League #1 (especially since the reboot is unlikely to last that long), but I think it's worth noting that when the Justice League originally came along, its creators were familiar with its characters from years, even decades of reading about them.

When the new, New 52 Justice League came along, Johns and company were re-creating the characters on the fly, simultaneously to and parallel with the other creators or teams of creators re-creating them in other books.

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Writer Mark Waid and aritst Jeremy Rock present "Mark Waid's 4 Panels That Never Work."

I don't know, Brian Michael Bendis has been writing entire runs of popular comic books using various configurations of that first panel that never works (sometimes it's vertical though, and sometimes it's a splash page) for well over ten years, and it certainly seems to work for him.

And by "works" I don't necessarily mean it results in good comics, but that he remains popular, continues to get a lot of choice work from his publisher and makes a crazy amount of money for someone who seems to still be struggling with the vocabulary of comics. (Via The Beat

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I really enjoyed reading Tom Spurgeon's essay on the first 150 issues of Amazing Spider-Man, part of his Spider-Man Day noting the character's 50th anniversary.

I've read very little of that chunk of comics, but I was pretty fascinated by the way Spurgeon argues that it hangs together as a more-or-less complete story, and it reminded me again what a shame it is that Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley and company's Ultimate Spider-Man comic turned out like it did.

Unlike Marvel at the time they published >ASM #150, Bendis was free to end Ultimate Spider-Man at almost any time, and he really could have written a complete story, with a climax and an end for Peter Parker. He had the opportunity to, for the lack of a better term, "so Amazing Spider-Man right," having Peter Parker grow up, finish school, go to college, fall in love, get married, get divorced, bury Aunt May, ultimately die, whatever. Bendis has stuck with Ultimate Spider-Man in its various iterations for 12 years and what has to be about 200 issues now.

During the period I was reading it, it was a very good comic book, if suffering from the same flaws of all of Bendis' books. But it wasn't what it could have been, something akin to the first 150 issues of ASM and/or the 300-issue Cerebus, the complete story of the entire life of one of the greatest superheroes, from start to finish.

Bendis did, of course, "ultimately" kill off Peter Parker, and replace him with a new, legacy version of Spider-Man, but his Spider-Man didn't grow up at all like the original Spider-Man of the 1960s did; I quit reading after the first renumbering of the series, but I would be surprised to learn if more than two years passed during the entire run of Ultimate Spider-Man.

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The other day I shared a quote of a writer talking about Superman, which mentioned Superman's costume, and half-jokingly wondered about what the fact that DC changed that costume last fall in an attempt to appeal to a new, wider readership said about us.

I haven't heard many people praising the new, "New 52" Superman costume, which consists of metallic armor and, rather than red shorts, has Superman wearing what looks like an iron metal diaper.

This week I read a kids book by Leslie Patricelli entitled The Patterson Puppies and the Rainy Day (Candlewick Press; 2009), and saw one way Superman could have change his costume for the worse, a worse worse than his New 52 costume.

The puppies are stuck indoors due to the rain, and each are pursuing their hobbies about as far as they can go. Zack, who likes to play superhero, is pushed to experiment with his costumes:

I suppose that would maybe look worse than the New 52 Superman costume...if Superman took off his shorts, and then put them over his head.

When I looked at Patricelli's funny little drawing, I immediately thought of the new Green Lantern character, and now I fear I may never be able to look at that Green Lantern the same way again:

I had some issues with Justice Society of America: Supertown

Justice Society of America: Supertown collects the sub-titular story arc from last year's JSoA #44-#49, or the first half of writer Marc Guggenheim's aborted, 12-issue run on the title (I reviewed the second half here).

It is, on balance, a fairly decent collection of comics. Guggenheim had some interesting ideas, including making the Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick the principal character, Alan Scott the main supporting character, and the rest of the team more-or-less the supporting cast. He introduced a DC Universe-style faux city they could call home (Monument Point, an apparently pretty big city just outside Washington D.C.). And he tried tackling the "Society" aspect of the team from a different angle; when this volume of the series launched, Geoff Johns and co-writer Alex Ross looked at "society" as a sort of large, social club and support group, with the many members of the team forming a sort of caste within the DC Universe, while Guggenheim entangled the super-team quite directly with the affairs of their new city and the people who live there, apparently wanting to eventually make the book about the Justice Society as they operate within "society."

He, of course, never quite got there, as the book was apparently quite suddenly canceled...although its too-swift end isn't evident in this, the first chapter.

There's also a pretty cool new freelance supervilain, a Dr. Chaos, who talks like a giggly Warren Ellis character.

And while Scott Kolins' art is perhaps (okay, definitely) over-colored and over-produced, he at least hit his deadlines, so there's a consistent look to the book (in the next volume, he would be replaced by Tom Derenick, whose style wasn't totally incompatible, especially since it was similarly over-colored, but then Jerry Ordway came in, and while he's probably the best of the three, his work looked nothing like theirs).

That said, I had some pretty serious problems with this book, one set of which is political (as in, "Wow, the politics of this comic are pretty fucked up!"), the other set of which are pretty anal-retentive in the way fans of superhero universes (like me) can be, but, well, the comics brought it on themselves.

First, take a look at the panel at the top of the post.

A half-dozen members of the JSA are off to fight a super-powered terrorist, or super-terrorist, who has attacked Monument Point. Lightning, the yellow lady with a mane of cartoon lightning bolts emanating from her, says, "Terrorists? Like real terrorists? Like Al Qaeda-type terrorists?"

Wildcat, the guy dressed like an agry cat, responds, "Are there any other kind?"

And Mr. Terrific, the guy reading some iPads that his floating Phantasm balls are carrying for him, says,

"Actually, yes. But that's not what's important right now...Minutes before he attacked, he released a statement on the Al Jazeera website announcing his intentions."

Let's tear this apart a bit, shall we?

Wildcat, AKA Ted Grant, was probably born sometime in the 1920s, having come of age shortly before World War II (as did Garrick and Scott). He and his fellow founders of the JSA were already old-ass men when Islamic terrorism became a serious concern of governments beyond those of the Middle East in the 1970s. On 9/11, dude would have been somewhere in his eighties. At least. For Wildcat and company, the anarchist bombers of the first two decades of the 1900s would have been just about as relevant as go-to examples of terrorists as those affiliated with Al Qaeda. And these guys have been fighting terrorists for at least seventy years. Is there any other kind? Yeah, fuck you, you dumb comic book! Even if you want to ignore the real world—although referencing Al Qaeda and Al Jazeera is a pretty poor way of ignoring it—there's still the DCU terrorist organization Kobra, whom these guys fought in the previous volume of this series.

And then there's that bit about Al Jazeera. "Minutes before he attacked," Terrific said, "he released a statement on the Al Jazeera website announcing his intentions."

Not to but on; as in he didn't email a statement to the news organization Al Jazeera, to either report on or ignore, but he posted it directly onto their website, as if he was, like, working with them, or at least had a user name and password to post on their site.

Even if the only place you've heard the word "Al Jazeera" before was on Fox and Friends, try this: change the word "Al Jazeera" to "CNN" and see if that sentence makes any sense. Because that's what Al Jazeera is, a news organization akin to CNN (only not as anywhere near as lame), albeit it one with a foreign sounding name. And oh my God, it has the syllable "al" in it, just like "Al Qaeda"...they must be practically the same damn thing, then!

God, what an ignorant fucking panel...

Weirdly, the comic never explains what this super-terrorist, whom we'll eventually learn has been codenamed Scythe, is all about. He just appears in Monument City and starts destroying it. What makes him a "terrorist" instead of a monster or supervillain? What's the difference between Scythe and, say, Doomsday or Solomon Grundy? That he released a statement...?

The JSA never really talk about what's in the statement, although Mr. T is apparently familiar with it and, despite his professed ignorance of it here, Wildcat later expresses familiarity of it, saying only that it was "pro-terrorist" (which is kinda weird, as the definition of terrorism includes the qualification of a goal or purpose to the violence...whether or not it actually makes sense to anyone other than the person committing it).

Wildcat later derisively refers to Scythe as "Bin Laden," and Alan Scott mentions Scythe's "politics", but Guggenheim never explains what the guy has in common with Bin Laden, save the obvious—a desire to attack an American city—or what those "politics" might be.

All we learn from this comic is that he spent five years in a CIA black prison in Afghanistan and that he was created as a living super-weapon by Nazi scientists in the 1940s. The only things he says in the entire book are:

"I do. I do speak English. Ted."

"DEEEAAATTHH"

"All right."

"Stay down. You don't have to die today. My quarrel isn't with you. It's with them...Not your concern. Monument Point never was. In your next life, don't meddle in affairs not your own."

("Next life," huh? Sounds more Hindu or New Age than Islamic, Wildcat).

In other words, this comic book was suggesting he's some sort of Islamic terrorist now simply through word association—Al Jazeera, Al Qaeda, Bin Laden—and that's pretty fucked up.

Okay, now on to the second point.

The story arc opens with Jay Garrick and Alan Scott out to dinner with their practically dialogue-less wives (Scott's wife Molly says, "Where is this coming from, Jay?", and that's it for the female half of their table), with Jay telling Alan he's thinking about retiring from being a superhero, since his successor Flash II Barry Allen is back from the dead and there are so many speedsters around now, who will miss him?

Then the two of them receive some sort of distress call on their "coordinated J.L.A./J.S.A. response system" doohickeys, and meet up with Lightning, Wildcat, Mr. Terrific and Dr. Fate to respond to the already in-progress "terrorist attack" in Monument Point (Wait, if Scythe announced his plan to attack Monument Point ahead of time to or, sigh, on Al Jazeera's website, why weren't any superheroes on site to stop him before he started knocking down buildings and killing folks?)

Within the first seconds of their conflict, which a caption helfpully tells us begins at "10:06 P.M. E.S.T.", three weeks later than five months earlier than two months earlier than whenever (modern super-comics are weird, aren't they?), Scythe tears the throat out of/snaps the neck of Green Lantern Alan Scott (the art's not clear on this), the JSA's most powerful member, mortally wounding him (he pulls through, but at the cost of complete paralysis).

The remaining members of the small JSA contingent fight against Scythe for the next seven-and-a-half hours. It is 5:30 A.M. E.S.T. when Lightning zaps him hard enough with lightning that Dr. Fate can magically bind him in a glowing bubble.

This is extraordinary for several reasons.

First, none of them get their throats torn out or spines broken over the course of 7.5 hours, despite the fact that only three of them have any powers at all. Flash has super-speed, Lightning has lightning and Fate has undefined magical powers, but Wildcat is basically just a retired boxer dressed up like a cat and Mr. Terrific is a really smart guy in really good shape. They all somehow last almost an entire work day against a guy who practically killed Green Lantern in the space of a panel (for a good illustration of how powerful Alan Scott is, he fought some 20 superheroes for a half-dozen or so issues in the JLA/JSA crossover immediately preceding this story arc).

Next, NO ONE ELSE ever bothered to show up to help them fight Scythe, despite the fact that the fight lasted almost eight hours. (That's a very long time. How long? Well, let's put it this way. I have no superpowers, but if I was listening to NPR while writing this post, and I heard Scythe was attacking Washington D.C., I could grab my pants, put on my shoes, hop into my 2002 Buick Century and be there in 6 hours and 54 minutes, according to Google Maps. I'm assuming most DC superheroes have the means to travel about the country faster than I).

Now, that is of course one ongoing problem with shared superhero universe settings. If Superman can fly at super-speed and see and hear everything going on around him (at least in his hemisphere) and is pals with all the other superheroes, shouldn't he constantly be guest-starring in everyone's books all the time? The Flashes—all three of 'em—can be in Gotham City within seconds of an Arkham break out. The Green Lanterns—there's four of those guys on Earth, five if you count Alan Scott!—can similarly travel the country at phenomenal speeds. Hell, the Justice League has a teleportation system, and the DC heroes even have (well, had) a lady who spent most of her waking hours in front of a bunch of computer screens, relaying information to all the superheroes in the world and coordinating their responses to various threats.

Realistically, Batman shouldn't ever have to fight Killer Croc without a Flash, a Green Lantern and Superman or Martian Manhunter spotting him. It's that whole cake issue that Kurt Busiek explained so well.

So in most DC superhero comics, the writer has to sort of ignore these questions, and we readers are more than willing to suspend our disbelief, imagining that Superman was busy in space and The Flash was asleep and Orcale was taking a bath whenever a villain has Batman on the ropes or whatever.

It only really becomes a problem when the writer really pushes the fact that there's a big, huge, public threat going down in the DC Universe that will affect the setting itself (for example, the Justice League had to fight Doomsday at some point before Superman gave his life fighting him, and Superman and other heroes had to at least check in on Gotham City during the year-long "No Man's Land" crisis), while the writer simultaneously emphasizes the fact that the DC Universe is a shared universe full of plenty of other superheroes. And oh boy does Guggenheim do that here. I've got a lot of practice suspending my disbelief, but good God, it's impossible to suspend one's disbelief this hard.

Scott and Garrick learn about the Scythe attack via a JLA/JSA communicator that they mention was designed by Batman, right? So where exactly were the Justice League? Where was Batman? Where was the rest of the JSA? (Mr. America and Dr. Mid-Nite appear in later issues; Power Girl, Citizen Steel and the rest of the "JSA All-Stars" don't show up until the last issue of this story arc).

As the fight goes on for a few pages, Lightning asks, "Who the hell is this guy?" Mr. Terrific replies, "Oracle's never heard of him," implying that he's just called Oracle, who responded with, um, "Sorry bro; I've never heard of him," and hung up rather than sending in her own personal strikeforce of superheroes,

or any of the Bat-people she knows so well.

And just a few pages prior to that, Garrick was introduced as the "third fastest" man, after Barry Allen and Wally West, and said he was thinking of retiring, since there are so many other speedsters no one would even miss him. Where on Earth were Barry and Wally and all those other speedsters, then? (On that point, it may have been that Guggenheim was purposefully contradicting what Garrick said with the reality of the situation—that is, that he was still needed, since obviously Barry and Wally and Jesse Quick and Kid Flash and Impulse II didn't show up to the fight but Garrick did, but it still doesn't explain why those characters didn't while also cueing the reader to think about it).

Essentially Guggenheim repeatedly reminds us that this is a world full of superheroes and, for some reason, none of 'em much care about Monument Point and/or the fate of a half-dozen of their peers (Especially weird? Alan Scott is almost killed, and his superhero son Obsidian, his superhero daughter Jade and the four dudes calling themselves "Green Lantern" never show up to lend a hand...although Obsidian does come looking for revenge after the fact. Similarly, Lightning's dad is also superheroes, and her father even lives in the next town over, as is explicitly mentioned in a later chapter, but he never comes to help his daughter fight for her life...?)

A reader can rationalize these few heroes standing up against an unstoppable villain all by themselves for a while, but for seven-and-a-half hours? In all that time, no other superhero cares to stop by and lend a hand? In all that time, none of the assembled JSA members call for back-up? Bullshit.

In the next issue, Superman does finally arrive, at "7:30 AM EST, TODAY". Or, in other words, nine-and-a-half hours after a super-powered terrorist began attacking a major American city and attempting to kill the JSA.

"I was with the League actually," Superman tells Lightning, "Dealing with an incursion from Dimension-3181...I'm sorry I wasn't here to stop this." So that's something. Of course, it's an issue too late (that explanation would have come one month after reading this serially, as it was originally published), and only goes so far in explaining where all of the other superheroes in the world were. And "The League" was, of course, at that point not Every Other Superhero In The World, but just these guys:

So, like I said, bullshit.

After that first issue though, the weird politics and poorly formulated aspects of the plot (like, if that fight lasted one hour instead of seven-and-a-half, nothing would have changed saved how hard it was to swallow it really going down like that), it's not a half-bad read.

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Oh, and this collection contains the story where in Alan Scott adopts his new Green Lantern costume, which is green and white instead of green and red and purple and gold, and makes him look like an actual green lantern with arms and legs and a head and a cape.

It's a super-goofy costume, but I like it. Alan Scott is technically made out of pure energy now, so the fact that he could have his neck broken at all is kind of impossible. The in-story rationalization is that Alan is using SO much willpower containing the power of the Starheart (explored in JLoA: Dark Things) that he doesn't have enough left over to convert his broken bones and damaged nerves into energy enough to repair 'em or whatever.

So the new costume, which looks kind stiff and has, like, a lantern handle connecting to his head, is apparently to keep his head and neck immobile. (Although I imagine the real reason is they just wanted to change his costume). Anyway, Alan Scott dies in the next storyline anyway, taking his new costume with him, and then DC rebooted the DC Universe so that he never existed at all anyway, but there's a guy named Alan Scott who is also Green Lantern in a neighboring parallel universe. And that guy's gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But I probably won't read about that for a few more months.