I finally got through all the comics I bought around the holidays, so I haven't been reading as many lately. Here are a few I did pick up:
Golden Age Captain America Vol 1 by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby: Golden Age comics are fun to read sometimes. It was a simpler time back then when plots and characters were kept simple because they were intended mostly for kids. In this case we get the humble origin of Captain America, when he was actually a man IN time. The actual origin of his powers is almost an afterthought in the first issue. There's no thought given to why Steve Rogers is there to get the serum or where he comes from or who his parents are or anything like that. He's just there and gets injected with a serum that makes him superhuman and then a saboteur kills the doctor before Cap stops him.
Despite the famous cover of Cap punching Hitler, he actually does almost no fighting overseas. The focus of the book is on Nazi saboteurs. Private Steve Rogers operates out of an Army camp in New Jersey with his young pal Bucky and either the bad guys come to them or they read something in the newspaper and go investigate. There's no government oversight or Nick Fury or any kind of direction to it. Steve's army life seems pulled from Beetle Bailey for the most part. In a bit of irony, the main female character's name is Betty Ross, the same name used for the Hulk's girlfriend about 25 years later. Anyway, one of these saboteurs is the Red Skull who is just some guy in a red sweatsuit with a swastika on it and who wears a red skull mask. The first time he appears there's a Scooby-Doo ending where they pull off the mask to see who he really is.
It's all very simplistic and yet campy fun, like watching Superfriends or Adam West Batman. And for the $3.99 I certainly got my money's worth because each issue has at least 3 illustrated stories plus a "novelette" written by some guy named Stan Lee. And there are two back-up comics featuring Tuk the Cave-boy and the Hurricane, who is a Greek god who fights the devil. On a side note, for people who make disparaging remarks about Batman and Robin's relationship, Steve and Bucky actually share an army tent, where they sleep only inches apart. Modern cynicism would have a lot of fun with that. (4/5)
X-Men Season 1 by Dennis Hopeless: This is basically a reboot of the original Stan Lee version of the X-Men, when they all had matching yellow-and-black suits like the ones they used in the First Class movie. Only this is set in present day. It has the familiar set-up where Charles Xavier wants to show the world mutants aren't dangerous so he rounds up five of them to make a superhero team. There's Cyclops with his optic blasts, Angel with his wings, Ice Man with ice powers (duh), Beast with his um beast powers, and Marvel Girl (Jean Grey) with her telekinesis. They do battle with Magneto--and with each other. If Marvel ever wanted to do a teen-oriented show as DC has done (and continues to do) this would be a good place to start because there's a lot of teen angst mixed in with all the punching and optic blasting. It mostly comes in two forms: worry about fitting in with the outside world and crushing on someone, often someone on the team. Like any reboot it's mostly familiar but fresh enough not to feel like a complete rerun. (3.5/5)
Punisher Enter the War Zone by Greg Rucka: This was apparently the end of Rucka's run with the Punisher so he decides to go out with a bang by pitting Frank Castle against the Avengers. After the Punisher steals one of Spider-Man's web shooters and uses it to help escape from a tight spot, Spidey convinces the Avengers they should finally go after the Punisher. If they really went after him at full-bore it wouldn't be much of a fight. To drag it on through five issues they first send Black Widow after him, but she gives up when the Punisher leads her to rescue a bunch of enslaved kids in Africa. Then Thor goes to pound a few ales with him and convince him to quit, but he doesn't. So finally the whole team gets involved, but Castle has a few surprises in store for them. It was OK but really feels like it was playing with loaded dice since the whole thing could have been wrapped up in one issue. I mean all that needed to happen was Thor shows up and fries him some lightning or pounds him into paste with his hammer. And since it mostly focuses on the Avengers, I think the Punisher has maybe ten lines (other than grunts or screams or whatever) through the whole thing. So not exactly a character building exercise there. Anyway, I'm sure by now the Punisher has escaped from the Avengers's clutches so it really doesn't mean a lot. (3/5)
X-Men: Curse of the Mutants by Victor Gischler: A while back I read the Namor portion of this storyline since it was on sale. When they put the main story on sale, I figured I might as well buy it. The set up for this is that San Francisco is beset by vampires led by Dracula's son, who has taken the vampire throne by chopping off the old man's head. His idea is that by teaming up, vampires and mutants can take over the world. What should be an epic showdown between vampires and mutants turns out to be a turkey shoot, so really after four issues building it up it ends with a sad trumpet sound or maybe that loser music from the Price is Right. But I guess it is pretty obvious when you have guys who need to bite people in the neck going up against people who can turn their skin to metal or diamond or stone. Blade joins in on the vampire slaying fun, though he's not a mutant. I'm not sure what the title is even supposed to mean since there's really no "curse" in this. Anyway, it was kind of disappointing. (3/5)
Showing posts with label Comics Recap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Comics Recap. Show all posts
Monday, February 24, 2014
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Comics Recap #6: Event Fatigue
This is a follow-up to yesterday's recap post. When I was on Goodreads to update my status on one of those graphic novels (Fear Itself, maybe) I saw a review where someone was saying they might have liked the book more but they were just so worn down from one event series after another that they were getting numb from the whole thing. And I could definitely see that, especially since I read a lot of these in close proximity.
When you think about it, you could do these like in the Bible: And yea Civil War beget Secret Invasion which beget Siege which beget Fear Itself, and so on...
Another part of it is a lot of these feature the same kind of stuff. In a prior post I talked about event comics overusing parallel universes and time travel. The ones I mention above don't really feature that. Instead they rely on the idea of heroes beating up heroes. Civil War involves a civil war between superheroes with Iron Man on one side and Captain America on another. In Secret Invasion Skrull shapeshifters take the form of various heroes, which of course leads to in-fighting among the heroes. In Siege Norman Osborne leads a group of heroes to attack Asgard and is opposed by Captain America and the Avengers. And in Fear Itself the evil fear god's minions possess the Hulk and Thing and others, who of course have to be opposed by other heroes. So you see the pattern there? It's hard to blame anyone who gets sick of that stuff.
Now granted as a writer there are a few things I like to use again and again. If you ever get the chance to read all my books (which you should do) you can note a couple of plot elements I use over and over again. Maybe that's only natural for a person to gravitate towards one particular way of doing or seeing things. But then I'm only one person whereas Marvel has a bunch of different writers, so you think they might not have this much conformity. But then a lot of that happens in publishing. If kids like one vampire series, then every publisher will scramble to put out one of their own. Or they buy up werewolves, mermaids, angels, or whatever they think will be the next big thing.
What they don't think about is as a reader I don't necessarily want the same thing over and over again. On my entry about reboots, I was saying it would be nice if they did something NEW, to which Tony said but if they did something NEW I'd probably hate it. Maybe, maybe not. It depends largely if it's something that makes sense or if it's something dumb, ie ninja butlers. I'd probably have more respect for you at trying something new than if you just regurgitate the same old thing.
Anyway, in regards to series, sometimes it's good to take a little break from these big events. One of the things I liked about Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was that even though they had this involved story about a war with the Dominion, they'd still once or twice a year throw in a funny Quark episode or something. Which is a good thing because it breaks up the monotony of the main story. It gives people a chance to catch their breath before they're plunged back into the main story. In the culinary world you call it "cleansing the palate." It's a lot easier to do in comics that run monthly (or more frequently) than for instance when you're writing a series of superhero novels because each novel is essentially an event unto itself.
Really I think what the person on Goodreads was complaining about was there wasn't enough time between these events so he felt like he was being launched from one to another like a trapeze artist. In my own reading it probably would be good to mix things up a bit, maybe switch more between Marvel, DC, or any other ones. It would seem less monotonous that way.
When you think about it, you could do these like in the Bible: And yea Civil War beget Secret Invasion which beget Siege which beget Fear Itself, and so on...
Another part of it is a lot of these feature the same kind of stuff. In a prior post I talked about event comics overusing parallel universes and time travel. The ones I mention above don't really feature that. Instead they rely on the idea of heroes beating up heroes. Civil War involves a civil war between superheroes with Iron Man on one side and Captain America on another. In Secret Invasion Skrull shapeshifters take the form of various heroes, which of course leads to in-fighting among the heroes. In Siege Norman Osborne leads a group of heroes to attack Asgard and is opposed by Captain America and the Avengers. And in Fear Itself the evil fear god's minions possess the Hulk and Thing and others, who of course have to be opposed by other heroes. So you see the pattern there? It's hard to blame anyone who gets sick of that stuff.
Now granted as a writer there are a few things I like to use again and again. If you ever get the chance to read all my books (which you should do) you can note a couple of plot elements I use over and over again. Maybe that's only natural for a person to gravitate towards one particular way of doing or seeing things. But then I'm only one person whereas Marvel has a bunch of different writers, so you think they might not have this much conformity. But then a lot of that happens in publishing. If kids like one vampire series, then every publisher will scramble to put out one of their own. Or they buy up werewolves, mermaids, angels, or whatever they think will be the next big thing.
What they don't think about is as a reader I don't necessarily want the same thing over and over again. On my entry about reboots, I was saying it would be nice if they did something NEW, to which Tony said but if they did something NEW I'd probably hate it. Maybe, maybe not. It depends largely if it's something that makes sense or if it's something dumb, ie ninja butlers. I'd probably have more respect for you at trying something new than if you just regurgitate the same old thing.
Anyway, in regards to series, sometimes it's good to take a little break from these big events. One of the things I liked about Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was that even though they had this involved story about a war with the Dominion, they'd still once or twice a year throw in a funny Quark episode or something. Which is a good thing because it breaks up the monotony of the main story. It gives people a chance to catch their breath before they're plunged back into the main story. In the culinary world you call it "cleansing the palate." It's a lot easier to do in comics that run monthly (or more frequently) than for instance when you're writing a series of superhero novels because each novel is essentially an event unto itself.
Really I think what the person on Goodreads was complaining about was there wasn't enough time between these events so he felt like he was being launched from one to another like a trapeze artist. In my own reading it probably would be good to mix things up a bit, maybe switch more between Marvel, DC, or any other ones. It would seem less monotonous that way.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Comics Recap #5: Odds & Ends Part 1
Generally with the articles I've written for this site so far I've tried to write about comics I recently read that could fit into a wider context. Then there are some that either don't or I'm just too plain lazy to write about at length. So here we go with these odds and ends, mostly Marvel comics because they had a bunch on sale for the Kindle.
Joker by Brian Azzarello: This came out about the time of "The Dark Knight" and features a Joker who is largely the same as the Heath Ledger version. The story is narrated by a thug named Johnny who slowly becomes disillusioned with the Joker as he accompanies him from one criminal racket to another until of course Batman shows up. If you like the Heath Ledger version then you'll like this book. Which I do, so I did. If you're partial more to Cesar Romero or Jack Nicholson then probably not so much. (4/5)
Captain America in Dimension Z Volume 1 by Rick Remender: After Ed Brubaker's lengthy run on the title the new team of writers decided to beam Cap into another dimension ruled by the evil Zola and populated with bizarre creatures. Cap wakes up in a lab and of course escapes, along with a baby, who over ensuing years he raises as his son. Meanwhile he joins up with a tribe of creatures (they're not really aliens since technically he's the alien here) to try to survive. It seemed kind of like the Planet Hulk storyline where the Hulk was banished to an alien planet, except instead of falling in love with a hot chick, Cap gets a kid. I guess you'd have to read Volume 2 to see how he escapes. I didn't like this all that much. I mean when you take Captain America and put him in another dimension, what's the point? I guess you could say the point was to make him a man out of place and time, but really this might have worked better with another hero. (3/5)
Age of X by Mike Carey: This is another of those parallel universe event comics I so love. In this case it's a world where mutants have been hunted to the brink of extinction, except for a fortress Magneto creates by mashing together much of New York's tallest buildings. Basically every day the mutants fight the same battle with human forces. Most of the familiar mutant heroes like Cyclops and Rogue have different names (Basilisk and Legacy respectively) so it'd probably help if you're familiar with the X-Men comics of the time, which clearly I am not. About halfway through the secret of this world is revealed...and it doesn't make a lot of sense. (Spoilers ahead!) The idea is that Professor X's son Legion has multiple personalities and one has taken over and used his psychic powers to reinvent the world. But why it would create such a terrible world made no sense to me. The only reason I could think of is it wanted to create a world where Legion was an important hero and not a freak. But really it would have made more sense to do like House of M where the mutants were in charge rather than a world where they're being killed, a dream rather than a nightmare. But what do I know? Something that annoyed me is at the end it promises another issue of "the Aftermath" but that's not included. Instead we get two issues of alternate universe Avengers where Captain America is more of a yes-man thug, Iron Man is a zombie, Spider-Woman is a mute assassin, Sue Storm's family has been arrested for harboring mutants, the Hulk can talk and is rabidly anti-mutant for accidentally dousing him with gamma radiation, and Frank Castle (the Punisher) is basically the Nick Fury bossing them around. The alternate universe Avengers first try to assault Magneto's lair and then have to stop a bomb plot. It was OK but sort of pointless. Mostly I think it existed to answer where the other superheroes were during this story. Each of the two issues includes backup stories that have Spider-Man being hunted even though he's not technically a mutant and Dr. Strange--Mutant Hunter! That last one has a clever twist. (3.5/5)
Marvel Universe The End by Jim Starlin: When some ancient pharoah comes back to take over Earth, the evil Thanos ends up with all the power of the universe. This doesn't really involve a lot of superheroes, which isn't unexpected when you're talking about infinite god powers. There's not a lot of action either. It was kind of fun, even though by now "The End" has been overwritten. (4/5)
The Ultimates Vol. 1 by Mark Millar: This is like The Avengers if it had been written by the writers of Grey's Anatomy. The only action is in the fifth of six issues when Banner becomes the Hulk so "the Ultimates" have someone to fight. Other than Captain America the rest of the team is fairly different than the big screen version. Banner is a pathetic loser pining after Betty Ross. Thor is a Nordic hippie. I'm pretty sure Iron Man was a closet homosexual. The Pyms take domestic violence to another level. There are a lot of circa 2002 celebrity references like Shannon Elizabeth and Freddie Prinze Jr who are probably bussing tables or something by now. The most ironically hilarious is the joke, "He's been smashed more times than Robert Downey Jr." It would have been better if they had been referring to Tony Stark. Anyway, if you like a lot of soap opera drama and not a lot of superhero action, then here you go. (3/5)
Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk by Damon Lindelof: This was the miniseries where the Hulk famously rips Wolverine in half. The series actually plays this down because it doesn't present the battle between Wolverine and the Hulk in chronological order so what should be this huge moment fails to become a dramatic payoff and is instead shown at the beginning where it has far less impact. But I guess we already used it for the cover, so it didn't much matter. Also it comes from one of JJ Abrams's stable of writers from Lost, who also wrote the fairly dumb Prometheus, so you can't expect too much. Anyway, this was talkier than I expected, with much less fighting than you'd probably expect. In the end it's about Wolverine and the Hulk coming to have grudging respect for each other or something. Wolverine's healing powers are taken to absurd extremes to where he can not only be ripped in half but also beheaded at one point and still survive. I guess that's what makes him "ultimate" eh? As with any fight between these two it's ultimately (pun intended) pointless. (3/5)
Siege by Brian Michael Bendis: Bendis probably should have looked up the definition of a siege first, because there really isn't a siege at all in this. A siege is where the enemy surrounds a fortified position to weaken the enemy until they either surrender or become easier prey. In this case, for whatever reason Asgard has fallen to Midgard and is hovering over a small Oklahoma town. Norman Osborn and his Avengers team instigate an incident to launch a strike on Asgard. Which again is not a "siege;" more like a sneak attack or a blitzkrieg. The real Avengers have to assemble to save Asgard. (3/5) And that leads to...
Joker by Brian Azzarello: This came out about the time of "The Dark Knight" and features a Joker who is largely the same as the Heath Ledger version. The story is narrated by a thug named Johnny who slowly becomes disillusioned with the Joker as he accompanies him from one criminal racket to another until of course Batman shows up. If you like the Heath Ledger version then you'll like this book. Which I do, so I did. If you're partial more to Cesar Romero or Jack Nicholson then probably not so much. (4/5)Captain America in Dimension Z Volume 1 by Rick Remender: After Ed Brubaker's lengthy run on the title the new team of writers decided to beam Cap into another dimension ruled by the evil Zola and populated with bizarre creatures. Cap wakes up in a lab and of course escapes, along with a baby, who over ensuing years he raises as his son. Meanwhile he joins up with a tribe of creatures (they're not really aliens since technically he's the alien here) to try to survive. It seemed kind of like the Planet Hulk storyline where the Hulk was banished to an alien planet, except instead of falling in love with a hot chick, Cap gets a kid. I guess you'd have to read Volume 2 to see how he escapes. I didn't like this all that much. I mean when you take Captain America and put him in another dimension, what's the point? I guess you could say the point was to make him a man out of place and time, but really this might have worked better with another hero. (3/5)
Age of X by Mike Carey: This is another of those parallel universe event comics I so love. In this case it's a world where mutants have been hunted to the brink of extinction, except for a fortress Magneto creates by mashing together much of New York's tallest buildings. Basically every day the mutants fight the same battle with human forces. Most of the familiar mutant heroes like Cyclops and Rogue have different names (Basilisk and Legacy respectively) so it'd probably help if you're familiar with the X-Men comics of the time, which clearly I am not. About halfway through the secret of this world is revealed...and it doesn't make a lot of sense. (Spoilers ahead!) The idea is that Professor X's son Legion has multiple personalities and one has taken over and used his psychic powers to reinvent the world. But why it would create such a terrible world made no sense to me. The only reason I could think of is it wanted to create a world where Legion was an important hero and not a freak. But really it would have made more sense to do like House of M where the mutants were in charge rather than a world where they're being killed, a dream rather than a nightmare. But what do I know? Something that annoyed me is at the end it promises another issue of "the Aftermath" but that's not included. Instead we get two issues of alternate universe Avengers where Captain America is more of a yes-man thug, Iron Man is a zombie, Spider-Woman is a mute assassin, Sue Storm's family has been arrested for harboring mutants, the Hulk can talk and is rabidly anti-mutant for accidentally dousing him with gamma radiation, and Frank Castle (the Punisher) is basically the Nick Fury bossing them around. The alternate universe Avengers first try to assault Magneto's lair and then have to stop a bomb plot. It was OK but sort of pointless. Mostly I think it existed to answer where the other superheroes were during this story. Each of the two issues includes backup stories that have Spider-Man being hunted even though he's not technically a mutant and Dr. Strange--Mutant Hunter! That last one has a clever twist. (3.5/5)Marvel Universe The End by Jim Starlin: When some ancient pharoah comes back to take over Earth, the evil Thanos ends up with all the power of the universe. This doesn't really involve a lot of superheroes, which isn't unexpected when you're talking about infinite god powers. There's not a lot of action either. It was kind of fun, even though by now "The End" has been overwritten. (4/5)
The Ultimates Vol. 1 by Mark Millar: This is like The Avengers if it had been written by the writers of Grey's Anatomy. The only action is in the fifth of six issues when Banner becomes the Hulk so "the Ultimates" have someone to fight. Other than Captain America the rest of the team is fairly different than the big screen version. Banner is a pathetic loser pining after Betty Ross. Thor is a Nordic hippie. I'm pretty sure Iron Man was a closet homosexual. The Pyms take domestic violence to another level. There are a lot of circa 2002 celebrity references like Shannon Elizabeth and Freddie Prinze Jr who are probably bussing tables or something by now. The most ironically hilarious is the joke, "He's been smashed more times than Robert Downey Jr." It would have been better if they had been referring to Tony Stark. Anyway, if you like a lot of soap opera drama and not a lot of superhero action, then here you go. (3/5)
Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk by Damon Lindelof: This was the miniseries where the Hulk famously rips Wolverine in half. The series actually plays this down because it doesn't present the battle between Wolverine and the Hulk in chronological order so what should be this huge moment fails to become a dramatic payoff and is instead shown at the beginning where it has far less impact. But I guess we already used it for the cover, so it didn't much matter. Also it comes from one of JJ Abrams's stable of writers from Lost, who also wrote the fairly dumb Prometheus, so you can't expect too much. Anyway, this was talkier than I expected, with much less fighting than you'd probably expect. In the end it's about Wolverine and the Hulk coming to have grudging respect for each other or something. Wolverine's healing powers are taken to absurd extremes to where he can not only be ripped in half but also beheaded at one point and still survive. I guess that's what makes him "ultimate" eh? As with any fight between these two it's ultimately (pun intended) pointless. (3/5)
Secret War by Brian Michael Bendis: I remember this story as part of the Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 video game. Basically Nick Fury goes rogue by using some superheroes to overthrow Latveria, with dire consequences. There's sort of a deux ex machina in the form of a young SHIELD agent who's barely shown in the first four issues. (3/5) This helped pave the way for Civil War and then...
Secret Invasion by Brian Michael Bendis: This kind of reminds me of Deep Space Nine where panic struck Earth once they found out Changelings might be among them. So then everyone started to get paranoid and worry that everyone they met might be an alien saboteur. And then one of the Changelings tells Sisko that their are only like 4 of them on the planet and look at all the trouble they caused? Another example is John Carpenter's version of The Thing, where an alien shapeshifter starts to pick off the humans of an Antarctic outpost. In this case, the alien shapeshifters are the Skrull, who are vastly different than the mindless minions we saw in the Avengers movie. The Skrull decide they need a new planet and decide to move to Earth. They take on the form of various superheroes, which starts everyone wondering who's the real deal and who isn't. But whereas DS9 used this to thoughtfully contemplate the problem of mass hysteria and John Carpenter used it to induce terror at not knowing who to trust, Bendis uses it as an excuse for heroes to beat each other up. Again. Also it's pretty easy for Reed Richards to figure out how to tell who's real and who's not. But hey it's comics so we shouldn't expect subtlety or difficult answers. (3/5)
Siege by Brian Michael Bendis: Bendis probably should have looked up the definition of a siege first, because there really isn't a siege at all in this. A siege is where the enemy surrounds a fortified position to weaken the enemy until they either surrender or become easier prey. In this case, for whatever reason Asgard has fallen to Midgard and is hovering over a small Oklahoma town. Norman Osborn and his Avengers team instigate an incident to launch a strike on Asgard. Which again is not a "siege;" more like a sneak attack or a blitzkrieg. The real Avengers have to assemble to save Asgard. (3/5) And that leads to...
Fear Itself by Matt Fraction: While the Avengers are planning to rebuild
Asgard on Earth, Red Skull's daughter finds an old hammer and releases someone called "the serpent" who seeks to destroy the world and Asgard. Then some other old hammers turn the Hulk and Thing and some villains into gods who go around destroying everything in their path. Ultimately the focus is on Thor, who is prophecized to kill the serpent. Since by now all of this has been overwritten it becomes one of those curiosities where you say, "Hey remember when?" This is also notable for killing Captain America...again. As far as event comics go it was meh. (3/5)
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Comics Recap #4: Batman/Superman Origins
To go out on a limb, I'd wager that of all the superheroes in the known universe, Batman, Superman, and Wolverine have had their origin story rewritten, rebooted, reimagined, and reconstituted more than anyone else. In the last couple of months I had a chance to read some of the Batman and Superman origin stories.
I have actually read the original Batman origin story from way back in 1939. The Dark Knight's career begins with Bruce Wayne and Commissioner Gordon pretty much sitting around the parlor smoking cigars and drinking brandy until Gordon asks, "Hey Bruce, wanna see a dead body?" Which struck me as hilarious because I doubt even in 1939 the cops would let a civilian onto a crime scene, especially a civilian who has no real credentials. But it was a long time ago, so maybe they did.
That wasn't an actual origin story. That came later, after Batman became more popular and got his own title. That origin pretty much stayed intact until the whole Crisis on Infinite Earths shake-up in 1985. Then they decided Batman needed a new, grittier origin and who better to do it than Frank Miller, author of The Dark Knight Returns? I didn't like that book or pretty much anything else by Miller I've read, but Batman: Year One was actually good. I think mostly because Miller doesn't let things spiral out of control into camp and silliness like TDKR. There's no Reagan or Letterman or Superman to muck things up.
It's a noir-ish story that splits its time between Bruce Wayne/Batman and Jim Gordon, who has just arrived in town from Cleveland. The animated version actually seems to spend more of its time on Gordon, which I figured was because they paid Bryan Cranston (Heisenberg and future Lex Luthor) to voice Gordon while Batman was some dude I hadn't ever heard of. It's more balanced in the book. It starts with Bruce's first fumbling attempt to find out about crime in Gotham, which leads to a run-in with Selina Kyle, the future Catwoman. It's after this where Bruce realizes he needs to be more than just some guy punching people. The weakest link in the story is probably how he gets the idea to dress as a bat. Meanwhile Gordon deals with a pregnant wife, a failing marriage, a hot chick in his department, and the ire of his coworkers on top of trying to track down a guy who dresses up like a bat. If you watched Batman Begins then you can spot some of the material they lifted, like when Batman calls on the bats from the cave to escape from the cops. There are some holes in Batman's origin, such as where he was after his parents died and how he learned to fight and all that stuff.
The Long Halloween isn't really a Batman origin story. It's more of an attempt to pick up after Year One to show how Gotham developed from the noir-ish city run by the mob into a city dominated by freaks in costumes. In particular it's a Two-Face origin story; if you watched The Dark Knight then the tale of Harvey Dent's downfall into Two-Face should be somewhat familiar. I liked this less than Year One. It took 12-13 issues and after a while just seemed to wear on a little too long. Plus the "solution" at the end isn't all that satisfying.
Batman Earth One is a rewrite of Batman's origin story. The main difference is that Alfred instead of being a butler is a former Royal Marine who teaches Bruce how to fight and stuff. This is an idea being used in the new Beware the Batman TV show/comic. I read the first issue of that comic since it was free and really in both cases the Alfred thing just strikes me as wrong. It seems like the kind of lazy thing I do where I don't want to introduce a butler and a ninja master, so why not make one character: a ninja master butler! It makes Batman more like The Green Hornet, who was created by the same people as the campy 60s Batman TV show--they even guest starred on the show! It also borrows elements from previous movies/comics, like Bruce taking stuff from Lucius Fox's lab to make his bat suit and such. Anyway, this really has no reason to exist because it doesn't add anything of substance to Batman's origin.
Back in November I also read the novel Wayne of Gotham, which isn't an origin for Batman, but is more of an origin of Batman's parents. Which really Thomas and Martha Wayne have probably more different backstories than their son. In all cases Thomas is a doctor and in many Martha is some kind of socialite activist. I think it was the Earth One book where Martha is related to the Arkhams and lived in what would become Arkham Asylum. In the New 52 Batman as backup features during the Court of Owls storyline there's a story about Alfred's father, the previous Wayne butler and events leading up to Thomas and Martha being killed, for what largely seems like Martha making some enemies by trying to institute some reforms. In the novel Thomas and Martha are childhood best friends and while Thomas would like them to be more, Martha is more interested in someone else, until things change. The book alternates between Thomas and Martha in the 50s and Bruce in "present day." There are some things that didn't seem right, like how Bruce makes Alfred his press agent and then is constantly getting pissed at him. His body armor seems more like Iron Man's than what you traditionally see in the comics or movies. But this isn't official canon; it's more of a curiosity--or Elseworlds tale in DC parlance.
If all that isn't enough just in the last year the Batman comic book series had a "Zero Year" arc and the video game Arkham Origins was released, both again focusing on Bruce Wayne becoming Batman. And I guess now there's also going to be a TV series called "Gotham" that is basically "Smallville" only with Bruce Wayne instead of Clark Kent.
For the most part, though, all these origin stories seem to do is rearrange the furniture a bit. The basic framework has always been that Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered and so years later he dresses up like a bat to beat up criminals. You have to wonder why we're so fascinated in retelling this story time and again. With the exception of Batman Year One, I don't think any of these really add much, if anything to our understanding of the character. But I suppose like the point behind Year One, the idea is every generation needs the story updated to fit within its time period.
And the same holds true for Superman. As with Batman, an actual "origin" story didn't occur until after his debut, once he took the world by storm. That's when we first heard about Krypton and being sent through space and all that. Again in the mid-80s there was a reboot from John Byrne, which I read a while ago and found chock full of 80s corniness. And since that time there have been other attempts to retell the story. I read Jeph Loeb's Superman for All Seasons, which was better just because it didn't have the 80s cheese but was otherwise the same story. For the New 52, Grant Morrison used most of his Action Comics run to introduce a young Superman just starting his career, which I mostly enjoyed. In 2013 of course we had "Man of Steel" with its overly complicated, sometimes head-scratchingly dumb origin for Superman.
J. Michael Stracyzinski (creator of Babylon 5) chimed in with Superman: Earth One. A lot of it is pretty similar to Man of Steel, though slightly less convoluted. Krypton is destroyed and some aliens try to track down the last survivor, who is of course Clark Kent, who at the time is trying to decide what he should do after two years in junior college. If they'd stuck to this the movie would have been better. And it also lacks the 80s cheesiness of the Byrne reboot, so that's nice.
Basically if there is a point to this it's that while some things change, the substance of Batman and Superman's origins remain the same and will for perhaps another 75 years.
I have actually read the original Batman origin story from way back in 1939. The Dark Knight's career begins with Bruce Wayne and Commissioner Gordon pretty much sitting around the parlor smoking cigars and drinking brandy until Gordon asks, "Hey Bruce, wanna see a dead body?" Which struck me as hilarious because I doubt even in 1939 the cops would let a civilian onto a crime scene, especially a civilian who has no real credentials. But it was a long time ago, so maybe they did.
That wasn't an actual origin story. That came later, after Batman became more popular and got his own title. That origin pretty much stayed intact until the whole Crisis on Infinite Earths shake-up in 1985. Then they decided Batman needed a new, grittier origin and who better to do it than Frank Miller, author of The Dark Knight Returns? I didn't like that book or pretty much anything else by Miller I've read, but Batman: Year One was actually good. I think mostly because Miller doesn't let things spiral out of control into camp and silliness like TDKR. There's no Reagan or Letterman or Superman to muck things up.It's a noir-ish story that splits its time between Bruce Wayne/Batman and Jim Gordon, who has just arrived in town from Cleveland. The animated version actually seems to spend more of its time on Gordon, which I figured was because they paid Bryan Cranston (Heisenberg and future Lex Luthor) to voice Gordon while Batman was some dude I hadn't ever heard of. It's more balanced in the book. It starts with Bruce's first fumbling attempt to find out about crime in Gotham, which leads to a run-in with Selina Kyle, the future Catwoman. It's after this where Bruce realizes he needs to be more than just some guy punching people. The weakest link in the story is probably how he gets the idea to dress as a bat. Meanwhile Gordon deals with a pregnant wife, a failing marriage, a hot chick in his department, and the ire of his coworkers on top of trying to track down a guy who dresses up like a bat. If you watched Batman Begins then you can spot some of the material they lifted, like when Batman calls on the bats from the cave to escape from the cops. There are some holes in Batman's origin, such as where he was after his parents died and how he learned to fight and all that stuff.
The Long Halloween isn't really a Batman origin story. It's more of an attempt to pick up after Year One to show how Gotham developed from the noir-ish city run by the mob into a city dominated by freaks in costumes. In particular it's a Two-Face origin story; if you watched The Dark Knight then the tale of Harvey Dent's downfall into Two-Face should be somewhat familiar. I liked this less than Year One. It took 12-13 issues and after a while just seemed to wear on a little too long. Plus the "solution" at the end isn't all that satisfying.
Batman Earth One is a rewrite of Batman's origin story. The main difference is that Alfred instead of being a butler is a former Royal Marine who teaches Bruce how to fight and stuff. This is an idea being used in the new Beware the Batman TV show/comic. I read the first issue of that comic since it was free and really in both cases the Alfred thing just strikes me as wrong. It seems like the kind of lazy thing I do where I don't want to introduce a butler and a ninja master, so why not make one character: a ninja master butler! It makes Batman more like The Green Hornet, who was created by the same people as the campy 60s Batman TV show--they even guest starred on the show! It also borrows elements from previous movies/comics, like Bruce taking stuff from Lucius Fox's lab to make his bat suit and such. Anyway, this really has no reason to exist because it doesn't add anything of substance to Batman's origin.Back in November I also read the novel Wayne of Gotham, which isn't an origin for Batman, but is more of an origin of Batman's parents. Which really Thomas and Martha Wayne have probably more different backstories than their son. In all cases Thomas is a doctor and in many Martha is some kind of socialite activist. I think it was the Earth One book where Martha is related to the Arkhams and lived in what would become Arkham Asylum. In the New 52 Batman as backup features during the Court of Owls storyline there's a story about Alfred's father, the previous Wayne butler and events leading up to Thomas and Martha being killed, for what largely seems like Martha making some enemies by trying to institute some reforms. In the novel Thomas and Martha are childhood best friends and while Thomas would like them to be more, Martha is more interested in someone else, until things change. The book alternates between Thomas and Martha in the 50s and Bruce in "present day." There are some things that didn't seem right, like how Bruce makes Alfred his press agent and then is constantly getting pissed at him. His body armor seems more like Iron Man's than what you traditionally see in the comics or movies. But this isn't official canon; it's more of a curiosity--or Elseworlds tale in DC parlance.
If all that isn't enough just in the last year the Batman comic book series had a "Zero Year" arc and the video game Arkham Origins was released, both again focusing on Bruce Wayne becoming Batman. And I guess now there's also going to be a TV series called "Gotham" that is basically "Smallville" only with Bruce Wayne instead of Clark Kent.
For the most part, though, all these origin stories seem to do is rearrange the furniture a bit. The basic framework has always been that Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered and so years later he dresses up like a bat to beat up criminals. You have to wonder why we're so fascinated in retelling this story time and again. With the exception of Batman Year One, I don't think any of these really add much, if anything to our understanding of the character. But I suppose like the point behind Year One, the idea is every generation needs the story updated to fit within its time period.
And the same holds true for Superman. As with Batman, an actual "origin" story didn't occur until after his debut, once he took the world by storm. That's when we first heard about Krypton and being sent through space and all that. Again in the mid-80s there was a reboot from John Byrne, which I read a while ago and found chock full of 80s corniness. And since that time there have been other attempts to retell the story. I read Jeph Loeb's Superman for All Seasons, which was better just because it didn't have the 80s cheese but was otherwise the same story. For the New 52, Grant Morrison used most of his Action Comics run to introduce a young Superman just starting his career, which I mostly enjoyed. In 2013 of course we had "Man of Steel" with its overly complicated, sometimes head-scratchingly dumb origin for Superman.
J. Michael Stracyzinski (creator of Babylon 5) chimed in with Superman: Earth One. A lot of it is pretty similar to Man of Steel, though slightly less convoluted. Krypton is destroyed and some aliens try to track down the last survivor, who is of course Clark Kent, who at the time is trying to decide what he should do after two years in junior college. If they'd stuck to this the movie would have been better. And it also lacks the 80s cheesiness of the Byrne reboot, so that's nice.
Basically if there is a point to this it's that while some things change, the substance of Batman and Superman's origins remain the same and will for perhaps another 75 years.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Comics Recap #3: Superior Spider-Man
In the 90s a big trend was to replace a superhero with another character. Remember when Superman "died" and was replaced by four characters? Or when Bruce Wayne was broken by Bane and was replaced by Jean-Paul Valley? Or when Hal Jordan went insane and destroyed the Green Lantern Corps and was replaced by Kyle Rayner? And Marvel has plenty examples of its own too.
One of the latest examples was when in Spider-Man issue #700, Dr. Octopus switched brains with Peter Parker just before his old body was killed. While this could have been just a couple-issue arc, Marvel has carried it on into the "Superior Spider-Man" series. Since they were on sale before the new year, I bought the first 5 issues. Later I bought issue #6AU which is the Age of Ultron edition, in which Superior Spidey learns a little humility and to be a team player.
Despite that it was a cheap, shopworn stunt, I found I did actually find this Spider-Man superior. The reason why is simple: this Spidey is smarter than the old one. Peter Parker had a tendency (especially in the Raimi movies) to sit around going, "It's so hard being a superhero and dealing with MJ and Aunt May and a job. Oh, woe is me!" By contrast, the Superior Spider-Man analyzes the problem and then finds a solution to it.
That's what these first five issues largely deal with. Starting off, a new gang claiming to be the Sinister Six tries to rob a bank. In swoops Superior Spidey, but when he finds it tough, he retreats and then formulates a new plan. His efforts to win back Mary Jane don't go as well. Meanwhile he uses his job at a lab to create new gadgets to help him fight crime, especially little spider-bots that allow him to spy on all of New York. This is obviously supposed to make us think of drones, the NSA, the Patriot Act, and so forth. Is it better to be free or safe? The thing is, Superior Spidey doesn't give New Yorkers a choice about it.
Which is part of the charm. Maybe he doesn't stick to the superhero playbook, but he's pretty damned effective. The climax of this first volume involves an old foe who's escaped from prison and gone on a rampage. This leads Superior Spidey to make that ultimate decision: take the guy back to jail to probably escape again or just kill him now and be done with it? You can probably guess the answer. And really I can understand the logic behind it. How many times has Batman let the Joker get away to go on another rampage? When do you say enough is enough?
No matter which side you come down on with those issues, to me what they've done is make a replacement character who's in many ways better than the original. It made me think if they'd done this with one of those Superman characters or with Jean-Paul Valley in the early 90s maybe people wouldn't have been so ready to welcome Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne back. Because let's face it, a lot of times with these replacements they rig the deck. Because I'm so familiar with that story, Jean-Paul Valley was definitely rigged to be unlikable: French, paranoid, and part of religious cult--that's not how you're going to win over readers! If they'd allowed him to be more likable then maybe people would have realized that a Batsuit with flamethrowers has it all over tights.
Anyway, in the end I'm sure Peter Parker will get his mind back somehow. Maybe via another deal with the Devil or something. In the meantime, though, it'll be interesting to see where they take this character. If they let people vote to decide like 25 years ago with Jason Todd's "death" then I think you know which one I'd choose.
Despite that it was a cheap, shopworn stunt, I found I did actually find this Spider-Man superior. The reason why is simple: this Spidey is smarter than the old one. Peter Parker had a tendency (especially in the Raimi movies) to sit around going, "It's so hard being a superhero and dealing with MJ and Aunt May and a job. Oh, woe is me!" By contrast, the Superior Spider-Man analyzes the problem and then finds a solution to it.
That's what these first five issues largely deal with. Starting off, a new gang claiming to be the Sinister Six tries to rob a bank. In swoops Superior Spidey, but when he finds it tough, he retreats and then formulates a new plan. His efforts to win back Mary Jane don't go as well. Meanwhile he uses his job at a lab to create new gadgets to help him fight crime, especially little spider-bots that allow him to spy on all of New York. This is obviously supposed to make us think of drones, the NSA, the Patriot Act, and so forth. Is it better to be free or safe? The thing is, Superior Spidey doesn't give New Yorkers a choice about it.
Which is part of the charm. Maybe he doesn't stick to the superhero playbook, but he's pretty damned effective. The climax of this first volume involves an old foe who's escaped from prison and gone on a rampage. This leads Superior Spidey to make that ultimate decision: take the guy back to jail to probably escape again or just kill him now and be done with it? You can probably guess the answer. And really I can understand the logic behind it. How many times has Batman let the Joker get away to go on another rampage? When do you say enough is enough?
No matter which side you come down on with those issues, to me what they've done is make a replacement character who's in many ways better than the original. It made me think if they'd done this with one of those Superman characters or with Jean-Paul Valley in the early 90s maybe people wouldn't have been so ready to welcome Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne back. Because let's face it, a lot of times with these replacements they rig the deck. Because I'm so familiar with that story, Jean-Paul Valley was definitely rigged to be unlikable: French, paranoid, and part of religious cult--that's not how you're going to win over readers! If they'd allowed him to be more likable then maybe people would have realized that a Batsuit with flamethrowers has it all over tights.
Anyway, in the end I'm sure Peter Parker will get his mind back somehow. Maybe via another deal with the Devil or something. In the meantime, though, it'll be interesting to see where they take this character. If they let people vote to decide like 25 years ago with Jason Todd's "death" then I think you know which one I'd choose.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Comics Recap #2: Wonder Woman New 52
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| Protect the baby! |
I've read a few New 52 titles and generally what they do is have a story arc that lasts a few issues and then move on to another story arc. Brian Azzarello takes a different approach by having essentially the same story arc through all 25 current issues. (Spoilers ahead!)
That story arc can be summarized as "protect the baby." For some reason Zeus has gone missing from Mount Olympus. But if you know anything about Greek mythology you should know how promiscuous the sky god is, so it's no surprise that he's gotten some girl in Virginia knocked up with his baby. For whatever reason this baby is some kind of Chosen One and so Wonder Woman decides to protect the girl, which draws the ire of Hera and other gods.
While it is essentially one story arc it has different phases. First Wonder Woman takes the girl to Paradise Island, which leads to her mother being turned into clay and her fellow Amazonian warriors into snakes. Over 20 issues later and they're still that way! Eventually she tangles with Hades and Apollo and so on until (spoiler!) she becomes God of War. Which come to think of it except for the protect the baby thing was the plot of that video game series.
(Another spoiler!) Azzarello does a major revision to Wonder Woman's origin story. Since George Perez's reboot of the franchise in the 80s the idea has been that Wonder Woman was made from clay by her mother, who was unable to bear children. Her mother then prayed to the gods to give her a child, so they made the clay baby come to life. It's kind of like Adam in the Bible (or Pinocchio) I suppose but as far as I know it's a unique origin for a hero.
In Azzarello's version Wonder Woman's mother Hippolyta is just another in Zeus's long line of conquests. Again if you know anything about Greek mythology you know Zeus was always coming down to get with some mortal girl, often as a cow or swan or some other critter. (The Greeks were into a lot of nasty stuff including pedophilia.)
I found Azzarello's version boring just because it's been done so often. Hercules, Perseus, and Theseus are all examples of demigod heroes. In comics we already have full gods like Thor, so who cares if she's half a god? Yawn. You might say the clay thing is a little silly, but at least it's something that hasn't been done hundreds of times before. Taking away that unique characteristic for something so shopworn didn't really sit well with me.
As I've said the story follows the same arc through every single issue. I found this a little annoying after a while. Maybe in part because I'm used to story arcs that don't last for over two years, so as it went on I kept expecting at some point for it wrap up in some fashion. I guess that won't happen until Azzarello stops writing the series. It might help if I understood the significance of the baby a little better. I mean since Zeus has literally hundreds of kids and grandkids and great-grandkids and so on by now (and we added one more with Wonder Woman) who cares that he has another? Why go to all this trouble to kill it?
If you read or even heard about the New 52 Justice League then you'd know Wonder Woman hooked up with Superman--they even have a comic together now! But you won't find any of that in this series. You won't find her traditional boyfriend Steve Trevor either. In fact the closest to a love interest is a sham wedding to Hades. Really she has no personal life at all because again every single issue is consumed with the "protect the baby" story. Which is a shame to me because it's always nice when authors humanize these larger-than-life characters. It's one of the big reasons people like Spider-Man and why I really liked the early issues of Grant Morrison's Action Comics run.
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| No wonder the Olympians faded into myth. |
I don't usually criticize the artwork since I can't draw, but ugh a lot of this was really bad looking. Why are most of the gods freaks? Poseidon is some kind of giant squid-fish thing and Hades has a candelabra melting over his face and Demeter is a giant stalk of celery or something. Even some of the human-looking ones look weird. The artist at least did keep Wonder Woman looking more or less like the action figure I have screwing Superman on a shelf.
Count the last bit as one of the positives. Tony wanted to know why I'd keep reading something I wasn't all that happy with. It wasn't that I really hated this; I just tend to dwell on the negative. As tiring as the story could become at times I did keep reading. I'm annoyed it hasn't wrapped up because I'm not about to start paying $4 an issue for something that could keep going for another 24 months. I'm not made of money! And at least unlike the Spider-Woman series I read she doesn't have to get bailed out by a male hero all the time. Though there are a lot of male gods/demigods who lend a helping hand.
Anyway, if you like Clash of the Titans this is a good series for you. If you're more of a superhero traditionalist then not so much.
Monday, January 6, 2014
Comics Recap #1: Marvel Events
I used to do a feature called "comics recap" on my old blog, which I shut down at the end of 2013. Tony Laplume has graciously allowed me to start contributing comics-related posts to this blog. My background on comics is not nearly as extensive as Tony's; basically I started reading some comics in 2012. Mostly I scoop up what I can get online on sale, so my knowledge is really patchy and almost nonexistent before 1985 or so. You could consider this more of a layman's opinion than an expert's.
Over the holidays thanks to various sales and gift cards I accumulated quite a few graphic novels and such, so I'll break these down over a few posts. Today I'm going to get into what I call Marvel "event" comics, a few of those big crossover titles, in particular House of M, Age of Ultron, and Avengers vs. X-Men (or AvX).
What struck me is there's something pretty same-y about all three. They all deal with creating parallel universes, though in different ways. In House of M it's via the Scarlet Witch, who's manipulated by Magneto into creating a world where he and mutantkind are the big shots. In Age of Ultron it's Wolverine going back in time to kill Hank Pym before he can create Ultron, which thanks to the "butterfly effect" creates a terrible new reality where Iron Man is a cyborg dictator and Asgard fought a war with Latveria where Thor was killed and so forth. In AvX it's the Dark Phoenix who gives Cyclops and other mutants the power to create a new world where again the mutants are in charge. This isn't really a parallel universe at first, but it becomes one thanks to the Scarlet Witch and Hope Summers. Fans who read all these in real-time might not notice the similarities but when you read them back-to-back-to-back like this it's pretty obvious and becomes somewhat tiring. Ultron was actually the last one I read and by the end I was thinking, "Gee, haven't we already done this before?"
And I know I'm missing probably a few more of these events such as Age of Apocalypse, which I'd like to read but from what I can tell it's in 4 volumes and each one is $13.99 and I don't feel like spending that much money.
I can't single Marvel out on this as DC does this stuff all the time too, notably in Crisis on Infinite Earths, followed by Infinite Crisis, followed by Final Crisis, followed by Flashpoint. And especially in the 90s DC and Marvel had a whole slew of Elseworld or What If comics. So it seems parallel worlds are a staple of event comics, or at least they have been since 1985.
It's not to say I hated any of those books. They're all entertaining and it's interesting to see what different characters and associations the writers can come up with. But it would be nice if for the next big universe-spanning comic Marvel and DC could come up with something that doesn't involve parallel worlds or time travel.
But perhaps the reason why these are so prevalent is it's hard to come up with a problem big enough for all these heroes. I mean if you say an asteroid is going to wipe Earth out, then all that needs to happen is Superman goes up there to punch it into little pieces. Other problems like global warming or world hunger or something could also be fixed pretty easily by some costumed heroes but they just seem to choose not to do it because they don't want to meddle in world affairs or some such nonsense. When you get down to it, what does that really leave? Well if you're me it leaves an alien weapon that turns the world's population into women, followed by Omega the World Devourer showing up.
That's it for now! At some point I still have New 52 Wonder Woman, Superior Spider-Man, and Batman/Superman origins.
What struck me is there's something pretty same-y about all three. They all deal with creating parallel universes, though in different ways. In House of M it's via the Scarlet Witch, who's manipulated by Magneto into creating a world where he and mutantkind are the big shots. In Age of Ultron it's Wolverine going back in time to kill Hank Pym before he can create Ultron, which thanks to the "butterfly effect" creates a terrible new reality where Iron Man is a cyborg dictator and Asgard fought a war with Latveria where Thor was killed and so forth. In AvX it's the Dark Phoenix who gives Cyclops and other mutants the power to create a new world where again the mutants are in charge. This isn't really a parallel universe at first, but it becomes one thanks to the Scarlet Witch and Hope Summers. Fans who read all these in real-time might not notice the similarities but when you read them back-to-back-to-back like this it's pretty obvious and becomes somewhat tiring. Ultron was actually the last one I read and by the end I was thinking, "Gee, haven't we already done this before?"
And I know I'm missing probably a few more of these events such as Age of Apocalypse, which I'd like to read but from what I can tell it's in 4 volumes and each one is $13.99 and I don't feel like spending that much money.
I can't single Marvel out on this as DC does this stuff all the time too, notably in Crisis on Infinite Earths, followed by Infinite Crisis, followed by Final Crisis, followed by Flashpoint. And especially in the 90s DC and Marvel had a whole slew of Elseworld or What If comics. So it seems parallel worlds are a staple of event comics, or at least they have been since 1985.
It's not to say I hated any of those books. They're all entertaining and it's interesting to see what different characters and associations the writers can come up with. But it would be nice if for the next big universe-spanning comic Marvel and DC could come up with something that doesn't involve parallel worlds or time travel.
But perhaps the reason why these are so prevalent is it's hard to come up with a problem big enough for all these heroes. I mean if you say an asteroid is going to wipe Earth out, then all that needs to happen is Superman goes up there to punch it into little pieces. Other problems like global warming or world hunger or something could also be fixed pretty easily by some costumed heroes but they just seem to choose not to do it because they don't want to meddle in world affairs or some such nonsense. When you get down to it, what does that really leave? Well if you're me it leaves an alien weapon that turns the world's population into women, followed by Omega the World Devourer showing up.
That's it for now! At some point I still have New 52 Wonder Woman, Superior Spider-Man, and Batman/Superman origins.
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