Hopping on the Bandwagon

I'll ask the important question:

When's John Byrne buying his copy?

I mean, this one's a character he actually likes.

(Someday, somone's going to inform me that image is edited and not his real studio, thereby ruining it for me. Until then, I'll believe what I want.)

The Other Spider-Clones

I've never been much of a Spider-Man fan. When I was a kid, I remember excitedly playing the Game Boy game and pouring through the random issue here and there, hungrily learning about his world, but I was just a kid then. At that age, if it involved superheroes, I automatically loved it, and Spider-Man was conveniently available, ubiquitous as he was and is.

Since then, however, my interest in the character has been outstripped by my interest in others. In a sense, it's waned. These days, I have no particular interest in the guy. Whatever interest I do have comes stems solely my love for superheroes in general.

And I think I've figured out why. And it's sorta ironic. In the comics, Spider-Man's plagued by unpopularity, but I think in the real world he's a victim of his popularity.

Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's idea of an everyman superhero who struggles with relateable problems was such a good one that it's been copied. And copied and copied and copied. These days, relateable superheroes who are like you and me are the norm, not the exception.

The problem is, that was Spider-Man's defining trait, his schtick. But it can't he his schtick if everyone else is doing it, too. And while all those characters who follow in his footsteps having something else going for them as well ("S/he's an everyman AND s/he has this or that gimmick..."), Spider-Man wasn't designed that way. He didn't need to be because at the time the relateability thing was unique. But now it's commonplace, making him just some generic superhero. Forget the Clone Saga, these imitators are the clones that really hurt the character.

Or at least that's my perspective, as someone who admittedly hasn't read too many Spider-Man comics.

Then again, I've heard people use the same argument for why Superman is uninteresting. Supposedly, having been the first superhero, he's just a superhero, while everyone else takes the superhero concept and adds something on top of it. Yet, I like Superman just fine. So who knows?

Flipping Through Superman 662

Oh god, this issue... wow! This comic's back to being my favorite current superhero title. It lost its spot during the small spate of issues between this one and the end of Book 1 of Camelot Falls, but it's back in full swing as of this Wednesday. (Those issues weren't bad by any means, just not up to the same standards as the rest of the current run.) And that's something that makes me happy because this title at the top of its game is very, very enjoyable indeed.

The cover for this issue is very fitting, as this is a "Superman contemplates" issue. In fact, there's only a little action or danger in it. Not that I'm complaining, though, because Busiek handles Superman's inner thoughts very well. The Man of Steel comes off as thoughtful and human.

And this is a dense read too, in a good way. While there's not a lot of forward movement on the plots, at least as defined by "stuff" and events happening to the characters, there's still a lot going on. Looking back, I'm surprised how short (in page count) many of the scenes were because so much story is packed in them.

1: I like how the first caption has a corner shaped like the S-shield, even if it was a little weird, given that not only is it not Superman's thoughts, Superman's nowhere in the scene. Who cares, though; it looked cool.

I think ALL STAR SUPERMAN did something similar on the first caption of its first issue (not that it uses many captions), but it wasn't as prettily designed.

2: Subjekt-17 is looking more white than when we last saw him. I wonder if it's just an art thing or if all his coloration was supposed to be bruising and other injuries from his years of being experimented on, injuries that he's now completely healed of.

I'm curious as to what direction this character is going in. When we last saw him, he wanted to kill humanity because of how much it hurt him; what will he want now?

In addition to updating us on Subjekt's status, this scene also dovetails with the rest of the issue. The way even these isolated Tibetans love Superman ties in with how, as Lois Lane brings up, he's so much a part of the life and culture of DC Earth.

3: I like Power Girl's costume better without the lateral seams.

As far as I can tell with the help of an online Kryptonese alphabet key, the writing on Superman's screens on this page and the next aren't actual words but just there to look cool. Maybe I'm wrong.

The Auctioneer's appraisers didn't have those crystals sticking out of them, did they? That's a nice touch, implying that Superman incorporated sunstone tech into it when he salvaged it so that his computers could remotely control it or whatever.

Interesting that it's just "The Weight of the World," not "Camelot Falls, Part X: The Weight of the World." Up, Up, and Away and Back in Action prefaced the individual issue titles with the arc names.

I suppose this way suits this storyline better. "Camelot Falls" isn't an arc in the same way those stories were. It's not so much the A-plot but the B-plot in the background while Superman is dealing with various A-plots. Regular serial storytelling rather than the more specific arc storytelling.

4: I like that Krypto has a regular doggie bowl, and it even has his name on it in English. Not Kryptonese but English. Even here at the alien Fortress, he carries Clark Kent inside him.

5: I wonder if this Prankster panel was written as a reference to the Prankster spotlight issue, or if this was written first and the Prankster story shaped to include this scene.

6 & 7: When I saw this, I thought for a moment that we were about to get more story taking place in the future Arion showed. The prospect excited me; it was an interesting future.

9: "Dice-K blanks Monarchs 4-0." Ah, a sports reference, something that would leave me helpless but for the grace of Google. Wikipedia tells me he's a Red Sox pitcher. I still don't know what "blanks" means, of course, though I can guess from context.

It was mentioned in an issue of "Up, Up, and Away" that the Metropolis Monarchs are terrible, too.

11: I like Superman's acknowledgment of Jimmy's unwavering support of him. I like small depth-adding details like that.

12: Zatanna's wardrobe choice here is just awkward. I mean, she has a guest over. I think it's from the whole SEVEN SOLDIERS mega-miniseries.

I notice that her hair is solid black rather than the black with grey/blue highlights that Pacheco normally uses for black hair. Did Ryan Sook draw it that way in SEVEN SOLDIERS: ZATANNA?

13: Hey, it's the ARROWMSMITH font! Or something close to it. In Zatanna's backwards spell. In that mini-series (also by Busiek and Pacheco), a similar balloon and lettering was used when spells were verbally cast.

According to Zatanna's 52 bio, Arion is her ancestor. It's a little odd that she doesn't bring that up. Then again, when a man's that old, who isn't his descendant?

15: I'm not clear on whether Sirocco stopped the bullets with that wind-wall thing of his or if he literally caught them à la the Flash.

17: Most people who've heard the phrase "Al-Dabaran" probably know it as the star by that name. What's less well-known is that it's also the name of a seasonal wind that blows through Iraq. Sirocco's usage was probably more of a reference to the second.

18: I liked how Sirocco had a spiel for his fabricated origin all worked out, fancy phrasing and all. "An ifrit of air and might." C'mon Sirocco, people don't just make up phrases like that off the top of their head in the middle of a sentence!

Also, his fake origin is cool enough that part of me wishes it were true.

20: I notice that it's not just Superman's cape that's drifting freely in the water, his hair is as well. Nice touch.

I really like scenes like this, where a superhero's just casually being super. There's a real sense of wonder about that kind of juxtaposition.

Why wouldn't he take a walk at the bottom of the ocean, after all? Shades of SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY.

21: I wonder if the lines Lois is reading are from an actual Three Nitwits story. I know they were scientific inventors in some of their stories.

I think this scene squarely places this issue after the Last Son arc in ACTION COMICS. I'm not reading that book, but I flipped through the newest issue of the arc and think there was a scene where Superman learns Chris's origin. He knows that Chris is from the Zone here, so this takes place after that. And since multiple Zone criminals are loose on Earth by the end of that issue, and they clearly aren't so here...

Oh, and I guess the Jupiter reference means Chris still has his powers. Or does it? Would a Kryptonian kid need naps? It's not impossible.


One of these days, I'll muster the ambition to figure out how to perform the lofty, awe-inspiring task of making a text cut so that these long entries won't hog the screen.

New Earth, New Continuity. Old Confusions, Old Delusions

I couldn't read when the Crisis on Infinite Earths happened. In fact, I'm not sure I had even been born yet. All my knowledge of its aftermath, how continuity was uprooted and finally settled back into place, is indirect.

But what I hear is that it was a complete mess. It was confusing and nobody could make sense of what's what. Today, people are saying the same mistakes are being made with DC's newest version of continuity, the whole New Earth thing.

Well, I am directly witnessing how DC's handling a new continuity this time. And you know what I've concluded? If the continuity changes growing out of the first Crisis were handled the same way as the ones from the newer one are, it's not DC who's made their continuity confusing. It's the fans who make major continuity changes confusing. Them and their weird inability to let go of the old continuity and treat the new one as a separate entity. If the changes were handled the same way, because it's possible there are key differences. Given that the complaints about both Crises seem to be of a similar nature though, I have my doubts.

I keep hearing people making non-sensical complaints that Superman's history is now "confusing." Comparison are made to Donna Troy and Hawkman. What are they talking about? I'm sorry, but there's a difference between confusing and unknown. Not knowing New Earth Superman's history except in the broad strokes makes his history (partly) unknown. I fail to see how it makes it confusing. What is there to confuse it with?

Did New Earth Superman know a Supergirl who was protoplasmic organism? Who cares? Well, no, I can understand why someone would care. It affects much of the character's history, and as fans we're interested in that sort of stuff. Someone who's as much of a trivia hound as myself can't cast stones over that. But not knowing how Superman first met Metallo isn't confusing by any definition of the word.

In fact, the moment information like that is confusing, the writing's failed. Because a new reader won't know if Superman ever met a protoplasmic Supergirl. Will s/he even know a protoplasmic Supergirl once existed? And if a book can't attract new readers, then it might as well give up.

This is hardly rocket scientist. We were all new fans once. Having no idea about the characters' histories didn't keep us from becoming fans sans new. We enjoy newly-created characters despite not knowing their histories at first. "Look, the first issue of that new Astro City book is about some guy named Samaratin. Wait, what? It stars in media res, in the middle of his crimefighting career? Is this Busiek guy crazy? How can we enjoy his story if we don't know his history?"

And we also enjoy works like ALL STAR SUPERMAN, where we don't have any specifics on Superman's past. Did that Man of Steel ever fight Bizarro in the past? We didn't know until the latest issue, where there was a mention of past bouts. Until then, zilch information. And no one minded.

Wait, I have no idea what this Superman's first encounter with Mongul was like! How am I expected to enjoy this story that has nothing to do with Mongul?

This is so obvious that I suspect it's not any real "confusion" that's bothering the people complaining. They're not confused, they're unhappy that the previous continuity no longer applies. (And as a trivia-hound, I completely understand that.) But they understand that's not a criticism with any objective weight. It's just a matter of taste, so they twist it, whether conciously or un-, into something about "confusion."

I think there is a place for genuine complaints about confusion, such as when two books offer contradictory New Earth backstory for a character. But the complaints I keep seeing aren't of that color; the main issue is that the backstory's simply as yet unrevealed.

So now I wonder if Hawkman's continuity post-Crisis continuity ever really was that confusing. Or were the fans simply unwilling to separate it from the old one?

Note 1: The image, from the first issue of the Busiek/Pacheco Superman run, I got from www.newsarama.com.

Note 2: If Blogger allowed repeating a tag within one entry, this one would deserve two.

Not An Entry

Me so glad so many people on Internet use bizarro-speak to review oldest All Star Superman. Doing so am so original and creative. Small number people will think to do so.

The image is from DC's website, at www.dccomics.com.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, WOW!

Yesterday, I somehow got to thinking about the Japanese Spider-Man live action show I heard about some years back. Which got me to thinking that I've never seen so much as a clip of it before. Well, I thought, aren't curious oddities like this the lifeblood of YouTube?

Sure enough:



The face of the actor who plays Spider-Man actually looks a lot like how I'd picture the face of Peter Parker if he were Japanese. Something about the eyebrows, maybe? Or at least the similarity's there when he's wearing his motorcyclist's helmet. When it's off (as can be seen in other clips from the show on YouTube), not so much.

Also:



That's apparently an interview with Stan Lee from the DVD collection of the show.

Maybe I'm being too cynical, but I have to wonder what parts are him being honest and what parts are him being diplomatic.

I especially like his reaction when the off-screen lady tells him, in reaction to his question about what the tiny rocket was, "That's the Spider-Man's car." Look at his face as he takes it in.

John Byrne once related an amusing anecdote about the show on one of the incarnations of his infamous message board. He was visiting the Marvel offices at the same time as some of the Japanese folks behind the show. They showed him either an image or clip of their stuntman in the Spider-Man costume climbing the side of a really tall building. It wasn't a cinematic trick; the stuntman was really climbing.

Not noticing anything along the lines of safety nets or a bungee cord, Byrne asked one of the Japanese men, "What happens if the stuntman falls?" The man looked at him as if he were an idiot and replied, "Then he dies."

Wright-Sized Pull List, 3-28 & 4-4

Updates will be scarce for a while as I work on getting my life back in order.
***
Batman 664
Three Ghosts of Batman
-- Probably my favorite issue of Morrison's BATMAN run yet. I didn't enjoy the Batman and Son arc much -- the inter-family dynamics never surpassed the two-dimensional, it felt to me -- but this was really fun. It's nothing breathtakingly innovative or anything, just a very well-written, strong superhero story. There's nothing at all bad about "just" being that, though.

This felt like Morrison giving his ALL-STAR SUPERMAN treatment to Batman. There was that sense of the story telling us, "This is what I, Grant Morrison, see as Batman being all about," the sense of him checklisting -- and I'm not attaching any criticism to that word -- through the elements that he sees as being definitive Batman.

Even the art seemed better somehow. I've never been much of a fan of either Kubert brother, but this issue clicked for me. That shot of Batman against the neon ads oozed presence.

I'm a little worried about the whole serial-killer-dressed-as-Batman plot. There's the danger of going down the road of cliché there, what with the hero who uncovers serial killings that are being covered up because the killer has pals in high places. No, who I am I kidding? I'm not really worried. After getting so much enjoyment out of this issue, I'm in far too optimistic a mood for that.

One thing..why is the title of this issue what it is? There's the musclehead disguised as Batman, one, and the actual Batman, two... Who's number three?

Fables 59
Burning Questions
-- Argh, my question wasn't picked! Blast it, how can I sleep at night until I know what Beauty's reaction was to finding out Beast had gained control over his transformations!

I'm surprised this issue was enjoyable as it was. I've never associated Willingham's writing with rip-roaring humor. There are amusing jokes throughout FABLES, but I can't recall anything "ha-ha" funny. And the same goes for the stories here really, but it still works. It's a charming "day-in-the-life" affair, giving us some rare glimpses of the normal activities of the characters when they're, for once, not busy keeping their heads above the water. It's not something we see too much of, which is what makes it such a treat.

And the formerly-giant pigs were absolutely adorable.

Gargoyles 3
Clan-Building, Chapter 3: Invitation Only
-- With this issue, we get our first genuinely new story. It's good stuff. It's nice to see Weisman is taking advantage of the comic book medium (e.g. the first page being a splash of the invitation) instead of simply writing TV-episodes-divided-into-panels.

We see a lot of story stands here, not just an A plot and B plot, but all the way to an E plot or something. I'm fan of that sort of diversity, so I enjoyed it.

One of the things I like about the show is that one had no idea what would happen next. Anything and everything was up for grabs, nothing could be taken for granted. From what we see in this issue, it looks like the comic is continuing in that fine tradition.

What does Thailog want? Why does Demona want that crystal? How will the dinner party go? What's Mr. Hacker's real agenda? Who knows! I have no idea, and isn't that great.

Buffy Season Eight 2
The Long Way Home, Part Two
-- As I thought, now that the first issue's set-up is out of the way, the quality spikes up, here in Issue 2.

Given that Andrew never seemed to be more than a well-intentioned-but-ineffective twit on the show, I'm finding it a little bizarre that they'd make him a slayer instructor. What exactly qualifies him for such a task? It did make for a pretty funny scene, though.

I like that, like the show, despite being called BUFFY, this comic is halfway to having a true ensemble cast. We got nice moments with various main characters this issue. The spread focus keeps things fresh.

And the thrill of seeing Whedon telling Buffy stories without the constraint of a SFX budget hasn't died out.

Jack of Fables 9
Jack of Hearts, Part Three: Luck Be a Lady
-- At this point, I'm most interested in what's going on with Mr. Revise and the Pages. The hints about their past and their current goals definitely upped my curiosity and, consequently, my interest. Was that a map of some sort of Homelands counterpart to America? Hmmm.

It's interesting how Revise actually treasts Melissa with something other than mild contempt. Looks like the dynamics over at Golden Boughs aren't as simple as they first appeared.

The parts of the issue about Jack are good, too. Fun. I've said in the past that I think Jack's narration captions are somewhat overdone, but I didn't feel that way this time. For whatever reason, this time around they felt just right.

Still not a big fan of Gary, though. While the way Tony Akins draws the character's "friends" makes for terrific visuals, Gary himself doesn't interest me much. In fact, I'm kind of hoping he won't be a permanent sidekick; his abilities are helping Jack out a whole lot, while I want to see more of Jack worming his way out of nasty situations via his base cunning instead.

Superman 661
Dangerous Lady
-- There seemed to be a disconnect between this issue's art and writing in a way I can't quite put down. The body language and facial expressions of the characters weren't... specific enough? Does that make an ounce of sense?

The real highlight here is the interactions between Lois, Clark/Superman, and Diana/Wonder Woman. There's something very... convincing about it all.

I can't say the story's villain did a great deal for me. I don't find myself eager for her comeback, at least. Still, she serves her purpose well enough, and it's not like she was designed to be someone with staying power instead of a one-timer (or at least I don't think she was).

Also, the way her defeat was illustrated was lacking, in my opinion. The art for those panels conveyed very little in the way of energy or drama.

Overall, this was a decent issue, though below the standards of the rest of Busiek's run so far. (In fairness, this issue was co-plotted.)