Reading Comics #134 "Bull Moose Bargains II"

The second (possibly of two) batch of comics I got for fifty cents each at my friendly neighborhood Bull Moose:

Justice League #26 (DC)
I used to have an excellent track record with this series.  I'd like to think I used to be one of its biggest fans (a statement not to be misunderstood as meaning I decided at some point I don't love it anymore).  But I lost track last year and have had a hard time getting back into it.  The whole Forever Evil event was something I failed to follow monthly, and so I skipped the majority of it.  Unfortunately that meant skipping out on a lot of Justice League, too, because throughout the event this series was directly tied into it.  So I've slowly started making my way back in.  This issue features an origin story for Power Ring, which allowed Geoff Johns to write an alternate version of the classic Green Lantern origin.  Obviously he had great fun with it.  Obviously it made me wish all over again that he was still writing Green Lantern.  The other most interesting element of the issue, for me, was the page dedicated to Deathstorm, who of course is the evil version of Firestorm.  This made me nostalgic for the great Stuart Moore Firestorm comics.  Anyway, a lot of fans had a hard time with Forever Evil.  I still don't get that.

The Mysterious Strangers #4 (Oni)
A while back I wondered whatever would become of Chris Roberson, who was part of a flood of writers who fled DC over creative rights issues.  Well, here he is again.  I have to admit, he impressed me here, turned the Beatles into accidental harbingers of a near-apocalypse, based on their Maharishi period (John Lennon receives the brunt of the blame).  The Strangers who help prevent it are a little less distinctive than that, but it was certainly interesting to read another comic based on classic 60s rock (after the Hawkeye issue that spun off from the Smile! project that was such an issue between Brian Wilson and the rest of the Beach Boys).

Nova #5 (Marvel)
You may recall how much I loved the first issue of this series, and how disappointed I was that subsequent issues didn't seem to catch the same vibe (and how I love Starlight so much in part because it does).  The cover to this issue

via IGN

strongly suggests that Jeph Loeb, before he abruptly left the series, actually did what I'd hope he would, and return to the emotional crux of Sam Alexander's quest to reconnect with his father.  But it's basically a case of bait-and-switch, alas.  There's a stronger link to Nova's appearance in the Original Sin prelude.  I suppose there's nothing wrong with the series if it doesn't have what I want to see from it.  You can enjoy it for other reasons.  But for me, if it doesn't feature what for me is clearly it best material, then I personally have no reason to read it.  And besides, Loeb left.  I don't see a point in sampling it again.  Feel free to give me a heads-up if any of that changes in the future, if you haven't given up on it like I have.

Steam Wars #2 (Antarctic)

I caught the first issue back on Free Comic Book Day and was surprised to find that I loved it a great deal.  So when the opportunity came around to read another one, I figured I might as well, right?  As the title may or may not imply to you, Steam Wars is Star Wars as steampunk.  It's from Fred Perry, who otherwise is better known for his long-running Gold Digger.  Alas, once again I am quasi-disappointed.  It's not particularly that the second issue is worse than the first, but I guess, for me, much more so than with Nova, the magic simply wore off.  But we'll always have FCBD!

The Unwritten #51 (Vertigo)

This was a series that perhaps was impossibly high-concept when it debuted.  Mike Carey envisioned Harry Potter as if Harry Potter himself were a real boy whose life inspired his author to create a fictional version of him.  The author disappears and Tom Taylor (our Harry; it strikes me as funny that DC later acquired the services of a writer named Tom Taylor, current writer of Earth 2) has to put up both with his celebrity status and the apparently very real magical life his father left behind.  As I said, almost impossibly high-concept.  When it launched I was hugely intrigued, but I wasn't sure Carey pulled it off, or I simply didn't stick around near long enough to find out if he had.  It's a series I definitely want to revisit in the trades at some point.  And it's also a series that came to an end last year without my realizing it, right around the time of a tie-in arc with the more popular Fables.  Kind of an inglorious end, being told in no uncertain terms you're not as success as that, so we'll bring that in to make the point clear, and then we'll cancel you.  It does seem as if Tom became Harry pretty literally by the end.  I guess I want to see how that happened.  As convoluted as my relationship with Unwritten was, I'm sad to have seen it go so relatively early.  Vertigo already had a Harry Potter kind of comic years ago, before Harry even existed, in Neil Gaiman and subsequent writers' Books of Magic.  Because I'm obliged to reference either Geoff Johns or Grant Morrison as often as possible, I'd love to see Morrison do an out-and-out magic series.  The dude did make himself known as a practitioner of chaos magic at one point...

Wonder Woman #22 (DC)

Clearly these bargain comics were/have been a great way for me to catch up with some series and/or creators I've been meaning to revisit.  Some of them have been ones that in other circumstances I would probably have been reading religiously.  This is one of those series.  I've been impressed with the level of quality Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang have brought to Wonder Woman, not the least for the apparent fact that this is much harder than it seems.  When Orion and/or the rest of the New Gods was brought into the mix, I was beyond intrigued, so it's nice to finally read some of that material.  This is one of those developments that seems like it should have happened a long time ago.  Maybe it's because Jack Kirby created his Fourth World with Superman in mind that someone didn't think of it sooner (although for some reason Darkseid long ago made the jump to Legion of Super-Heroes lore with the "Great Darkness Saga," while this much more logical conclusion remained ignored).  Anyway, half the reason Orion joined the narrative was as a way to link the series with the rest of DC proper, which was always the one stumbling block.  As great as Azzarello's run has been, it's also been isolated.  Orion serves as a romantic possibility, and therefore default rival for Superman, which became a thing last year and then became a whole series (Orion/Big Barda Superman/Wonder Woman).  Wonder Woman as a result also boasted the distinction of getting a jump on the New 52 version of the New Gods, which is fast expanding this year (Batman and Robin, Green Lantern, Infinity Man and the Forever People).  I skipped out initially because I didn't particularly want to see just Orion hanging around.  I wanted to see the whole line-up.  Rest assured, they're here this issue.  

X-O Manowar #13 (Valiant)

This is the series that won Robert Venditti the right to write Green Lantern.  I've meant to sample it ever since I learned he'd be succeeding Geoff Johns (a very tall order, one he's sometimes seemed up to) in that regard.  X-O is one of those heroes who keeps getting revived in the hopes he'll be a legitimate alternative to the DC/Marvel big leagues.  This does not appear to have been the best issue to sample.

Digitally Speaking...#8 "Elric, Adam West, Worlds of Aspen"

FCBD 2011 Elric: Balance Lost (Boom!)
Elric is one of those quasi-classic characters floating around, who certainly has a considerable following, but mostly on the basis of how creator Michael Moorcock has lent him out over the years, to the point where the character sometimes seems to be ubiquitous.  The question is, does Elric even warrant this kind of treatment?

My judgment at this point is that the character is little better than C.J. Henderson's Lai Wan, who I first discovered in a short-lived Moonstone comics adaptation.  Henderson is an almost-entirely self-generated publishing figure, and Lai Wan is not even his major creation, nor has he ever written a book based completely around her.  The comic is based on a series of short stories.  I read the first issue on a whim, and found little merit in it, although Henderson is clearly devoted to his creation, viewing her in almost a mythic fashion, one that is not really warranted by the material.

The same can be said for Elric.  The only reason I know about Moorcock or Elric at all is because both periodically pop up on my radar, usually in association with each other but almost never with any definitive work between them.  Elric is just a character that has been relentlessly promoted over the years (originally created in 1961), and has appeared in a number of books and scores of adaptation revivals.

This comic is the latest.  I hope it's not representative of the overall Elric material, because it's pretty terrible.  I realize I don't write in the most traditional sense myself, but I think I can tell the difference between dialogue and declarative statements.  Every shred of dialogue in this comic is a declarative statement.  This is not storytelling.  To go by this comic, Elric doesn't have a story at all, but a general character description.

Another painful layer of the comic is that it's written by Chris Roberson, who at one point was one of DC's heirs apparent, until he and the company came to disagreement over the issue of creator rights, which was incredibly odd for a creator who hadn't really done anything at that point, and now writes characters who are all but in the public domain.  It's an especially poor reflection on his talents one way or another, and beggars the question of a major company even wanting to work with him again, regardless of his views.

FCBD 2011 Misadventures of Adam West #1 (Bluewater)
This comic, on the other hand, is another of those polar opposites I keep finding in my comiXology collection, featuring a character very much the cult variety of Elric, but whose complicated march to a 2011 Free Comic Book Day entry ends up looking very different.

That cult character is of course Adam West, who starred in Batman on TV from 1966-68 (including one theatrical release).  The actor never really did anything else, and seemed fairly fine with it, having once become an icon (which is sometimes, if rarely, good enough for actors), although he's had a tough time with the portrayal of his Caped Crusader on film ever since.  He campaigned to appear in Tim Burton's 1989 film, which would certainly have been a jarring inclusion in a famously Gothic production.  West's interpretation of the character has been reduced to being considered not just comic but campy, what's otherwise known as throwing a wink to the audience, letting everyone know that the material is not exactly being taken seriously.

This comic, however, casts a different light on the series.  What if West's version, if being a little silly, really was a legitimate take on the character, a more innocent perspective, family friendly in a way only cartoons have been in recent decades?  What if West's Batman, even if only his his own mind, is a more heroic version of the famous superhero?

One of the clever things the comic does is sort of mold West into a Georges Reeves figure, a martyr that emerged in the excellent film Hollywoodland, except it replaces Reeves' reluctance to be Superman with West's eagerness to continue the spirit of his Batman.

It's a classic Bluewater comic book, certainly, and I'm not saying this because I've got two Bluewater biographies under my belt (with a third hopefully on the way by the end of the year).  I've read basically a handful of Bluewater comics.  I don't go out of my way to read them.  One celebrity biography comic is basically like any other celebrity biography comic, and because the vast majority of the company's publishing schedule is made up of them, it's hard to gage what else it has to offer.  I first saw this as a goofy extension of those efforts, without having read it.  It's not even the only one of its kind.  But then, Bluewater comics have been adapted into major motion pictures (Wrath of the Titans).  Bluewater is basically one of the lower rung spinoffs from Image (where other Bluewater comics like The 10th Muse and Legend of Isis came from), and like pretty much any comic book company ever has latched onto known properties in order to establish its brand.

The approach to Misadventures, then, is pretty clever.  It uses the biography template to launch West's further exploits (he is not the writer, by the way).  I don't know if further issues have touched on the fact that West has very cleverly subverted his reputation on Family Guy over the years, or if that's even possible, given the conceit seems to switch to a magical youthful regeneration by the end of this debut, which would lead one to assume that perhaps further issues feature less melancholy and more '60s-style Batman adventures.

As for the whole cult of Adam West I originally referenced, there are of course now DC's own Batman '66 comics, plus the recent news that the '60s series is finally being released on DVD (even George Reeves didn't have to wait that long!), and West's own improbable continuing cultural relevance (via Family Guy), now offered in these comics themselves.

Was he actually on to something?  Very probable, indeed...

FCBD: Worlds of Aspen 2013 (Aspen)
Aspen is another Image spinoff, the baby of the late Michael Turner, responsible for some of the most gorgeous pinup comic book art of the past twenty years.  His legacy is also dominated by his style, however, despite the fact that he didn't just create a style but at least one long-lasting character (Fathom).  His is the lithe version of the Babe Comics otherwise known as the Bad Girl Comics, or in other words Turner was best known for drawing beautiful women with very little clothing on them.  The lead story in this sampler is a perfect example of why this needs to be reconsidered as the dominant form of his legacy.  There seems to be a pretty good story in there, but it's buried under the dominant images of the two lead women in bikinis.  The fact that they're in bikinis is not itself distracting, but the fact that the artist is trying his hardest to evoke Turner is.

And apparently Aspen publishes a lot of stuff that doesn't rely so heavily on the Turner template.  You'd hardly know it.  Both Bluewater and Aspen could use to not so heavily promote only one version of themselves, or they will always be marginalized in the community.  Aspen doesn't do itself many more favors by reducing the rest of the looks at its offerings to barely-anything, with the biggest example being a two-page spread with prose imposed on a single image, and prose not particularly well-displayed on it.

These are decisions that will need to be corrected.  Whereas a creator like Chris Roberson, having once taken a principled stand, seems incapable of doing himself any favors, and a guy like Adam West just sort of stumbles into them, Aspen might fall into an Elric fate, well-known but obscure (via a creator, whether it's Michael Moorcock or Michael Turner), or it could move on to something greater.

The decisions are entirely in the air.  The subjects of this particular Digitally Speaking... are all in transition.  Their fates could be great, or they could sink into obscurity the more history has its say on them.