As everybody should know by now, DC is rebooting its entire line in September. Longtime readers will find this somewhat familiar (Zero Month following ZERO HOUR, naturally), but the observation that a lot of people seem to be missing, or maybe I’m just not reading closely enough, is that the biggest news here is that the lineup won’t necessarily be interconnected anymore. Some of these series are continuing from titles and characters as you might have known them in August, where others are clearly going with a fresh start. That’s a fair bit more radical than the reboot itself, given that DC, even with frequent company-wide crossovers that’ve sometimes led to reintroductions (with MAN OF STEEL being the most famous example) has pretty much stayed with the same basic status quo since the dawn of the Silver Age (with various explanations eventually adopting the Golden Age into that mix from an otherwise clean break that allowed Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman to continue leading the charge). DC hasn’t exactly been Marvel, which has more or less maintained every one of its stories from the introductions of all its characters to remain in continuity, but with one Crisis or another, great pains have been taken in the past to explain how everything fits neatly together.
Well, not anymore! How this actually works in reality versus how it reads now, not to mention whatever impact the conclusion of FLASHPOINT has, won’t really be known until September. This is no Heroes Reborn, though. Every single series is starting from scratch.
Of course, for readers of any particular series, all that’s almost beside the point. Most readers will never read every title; never have, never will. DC’s ambition is to give every potential reader something interesting to discover, and with a selection this wide, it’s a good bet that the success rate will be pretty okay. Every series seems to have a fairly substantial premise, which is a good thing, either an established legacy or some unique hook, rather than multiples and duplicates of a given theme seeking to dominate through numbers and popular trends. Yes, there are a lot of Batman titles. Green Lantern is represented widely, and so is the name “Justice League.” (One of the biggest losers of the reboot is the Justice Society, and then maybe Tim Drake.)
For me, I found the mix of creators to be pretty interesting, almost exactly as intriguing as the titles and characters involved. Without further adieu, a ranked listing, from the series I’m salivating to read, to those I probably could do without…
1. ACTION COMICS
This is the no-brainer winner for me, Superman written by Grant Morrison. Actually, any title written by Morrison would have found itself in this spot, but the Man of Steel and Morrison have done well by each other (ALL STAR SUPERMAN, FINAL CRISIS: SUPERMAN BEYOND) in the past. Superman hasn’t been written with consistency since Geoff Johns was on this title. He’s due for the flagship position again.
2. MISTER TERRIFIC
When you’re at the threshold of a fresh start, you always want to find that one title that captures all the potential of this creative surge. Mister Terrific (who has at least one classic story behind him, “The Fourth Reich” from the pages of JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA) is exactly the kind of character poised to capitalize on this opportunity. He’s been around for about a decade, but he’s been a kind of buried secret for most of that, and as a more cerebral character than superheroes are usually known for being, and with almost exactly only that going for him, he’s got a lot to prove, just like the whole reboot. I don’t have a lot of history with writer Eric Wallace, but artist Roger Robinson has been a favorite for years, and I’ve been waiting for him to find that one project that finally puts him into the spotlight. DC has J.G. Jones on covers, so you know right there that I’m not the only one with expectations.
3. GREEN LANTERN
This is seems to be the one title DC is holding close to the vest. Other than the creative team (Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke), there is very little known about the plans for this one. Given that it’s Geoff Johns, though, and the wave of momentum that he and the property, despite the relative failure of the movie, are still riding, it’s a can’t-miss.
4. STATIC SHOCK
I didn’t really read Milestone back in the day, and I’ve never seen the cartoon series that really put this character on the map. I’m excited for this one because of Scott McDaniel, a creator I’ve been following for more than a decade, and who I’m glad has stuck with DC long enough to perhaps have found his next great project.
5. SUPERBOY
No offense to Geoff Johns and other creators who’ve worked on this character in the past decade, but Superboy never worked better than in his earliest days, when he was a vibrant new concept, a knockoff Superman who eventually realized that he wasn’t even close to being Superman, and so settled into being himself. Scott Lobdell is mounting a big comeback in the DC reboot, and this is probably going to be his best bet for success.
6. RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS
I shouldn’t speak too soon! He’s also working on this one, which was easily the most pleasant surprise. I’m been clamoring for a Jason Todd book since last summer, when the Judd Winick LOST DAYS book came out along with the UNDER THE RED HOOD animated movie. Comics fans have a complicated relationship with resurrected characters, but regardless of the impact to “A Death in the Family,” which after all is now a generation or two in the past, bringing back Jason was one of the most brilliant moves possible, considering how much more he’s worth alive than dead, all the potential and implications of “Batman’s failure” being in play again. He’s been used so sparingly since, it’s only enhanced that potential. This is exactly the book those who’ve been waiting have been waiting for, especially the additions of Starfire and Arsenal into the mix. Wounded souls, outlaws, superheroes. This book has the chance to be revolutionary.
7. GREEN LANTERN: NEW GUARDIANS
The Green Lantern books, like the Batman books, receive something of a shuffle, with Tony Bedard shifting into the “C” book (not in terms of quality, but so far as spin-off weight). I think the concept for this one, replacing the more generic EMERALD WARRIORS, works beautifully with the momentum Geoff Johns brought to the franchise, and just as well with Bedard’s mythology-rich approach.
8. WONDER WOMAN
I haven’t actually read a whole lot of Brian Azzarello, so this is more in testament to my faith in the concept, which weds the “Odyssey” arc with an actual reboot, which the title probably needed to begin with. Few writers seem to appreciate just how special Wonder Woman is, how strong the concept is, and what exactly to do with it. This one seems to understand all of it. If Azzarello nails it, the story of the reboot rests here.
9. BATWING
DC has done surprisingly well with international concepts, even if its readers rarely seem to notice. Judd Winick, another underrated element of this book, is returning to the Batman family with another left field contribution.
10. JUSTICE LEAGUE
Technically speaking, the flagship of the relaunch. It’s not that I don’t have faith in Geoff Johns or Jim Lee, both of whom are legends in the comics field, but that I can’t help but wonder how long either one will stick around, and how quickly all their work will come to naught. That’s the real tradition of the Justice League, as Grant Morrison and Brad Meltzer can attest. Johns stuck around the Justice Society for years, though. There’s a good chance he’ll repeat that here. If he does, we’ll at least have a really good book for a fair number of years.
11. GREEN LANTERN CORPS
Peter J. Tomasi somehow became one of DC’s elite writers without hardly anyone even realizing it, and the GL Corps is one of his signature projects.
12. BLUE BEETLE
I could’ve cared less for Blue Beetle as a member of the Teen Titans, or to a lesser extent, his role in JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST. Jaime Reyes is a strong standalone character with almost as strong as sense of the legacy he continues, which he’s broadly extended . Now he’ll be written by Tony Bedard. Happy to see this one as part of the lineup.
13. LEGION LOST
Written by Fabian Nicieza, who’s been doing some terrific work for DC, with art by Pete Woods, one of the least likely superstars in comics, based on a cult favorite story from the Legion’s past. This one’s a sleeper, but hopefully destined to be one of the best surprises of the reboot.
14. STORMWATCH
Paul Cornell takes something of a step back with the relaunch, but he’s still fairly prominent with this new take on a classic Wildstorm concept, with Martian Manhunter along for the ride. Should be interesting.
15. DETECTIVE COMICS
I don’t really know why Tony Daniel and Scott Snyder flopped books, but my allegiance remains with Daniel, who’s quietly establishing his own iconic take on the Dark Knight.
16. BATMAN AND ROBIN
Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason are one of the classic creative teams at this point. It seems right that they get a chance to reboot their run on this book with a revamped pairing, rather than having to try and live up to Grant Morrison’s iconic original concept. Actually says a lot about them that they’ll get to handle to handle the reunion between father and son.
17. SAVAGE HAWKMAN
Hawkman’s had a number of series, but this feels like it’s the first one that attempts to follow the character in his most basic and appealing context. Happens to be written by Tony Daniel.
18. DEMON KNIGHTS
I have high hope that Paul Cornell will be able to unleash his full potential on a book like this, just completely cut loose.
19. BLACKHAWKS
Writer Mike Costa is half of the team that brought us the brilliant G.I. JOE: COBRA series, which eventually forced IDW to shape its whole Joe line around it. Seems like he’s going to be kicking it DC style this time.
20. NIGHTWING
Hate the art I’ve seen for the cover (sorry, Eddy Barrows!), but I have to stick by Dick Grayson, especially when the series seems to be taking a character approach, which is always good for this character. Still, he’s Nightwing again…?
21. THE FLASH
Even if he apprenticed under Geoff Johns, Francis Manapul essentially has the same problem Johns has on JUSTICE LEAGUE: history. This book did not need a reboot so soon, and it really did not need to lose Johns so quickly. I expect either unexpected awesomeness, or another Flash book lost to deferred momentum.
22. FURY OF FIRESTORM
Love Firestorm almost as much as Blue Beetle, but I wonder if the magic will be with this series as much as the last one.
23. SUPEGIRL
I’ve been in awe of Michael Green since “Lovers and Madmen” from BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL, but he hasn’t really had a chance to shine since. This Supergirl reboot is kind of like the Superboy and Wonder Woman ones I’ve already written about, digging back into the core concept and seeing how vibrant it can really be. Sterling Gates wrote the character pretty well, but Supergirl probably shouldn’t be that identifiable, as least as reintroduced by Jeph Loeb (kinda wish he were involved in the reboot).
24. RED LANTERNS
Long-announced, still a big question. Will these guys really make for an interesting series?
25. LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES
Paul Levitz is the master of the Legion. That much is pretty undeniable at this point. He was the Chris Claremont of the Legion before Claremont was the Claremont of the X-Men. Here he seems to be working with an even more clear break from previous continuities than before.
26. BATWOMAN
Kept getting delayed so long, DC finally figured out that this was the best possible opportunity to finally start publishing this book. Kate Kane and J.H. Williams III will always be worth the wait.
27. JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK
Less quirky than previous attempts at this kind of a team, and that will probably work in this book’s favor. The most Vertigo of the post-Vertigo projects. Might be another sleeper.
28. ANIMAL MAN
It’s surprising that with all the things DC has done with Animal Man in recent years, this is the first time he’s actually gotten another series. Sounds like Jeff Lemire got the concept right.
29. BATMAN
A lot of the appeal for Scott Snyder’s Batman was that he was using Dick Grayson. Will it work as well with Bruce Wayne?
30. SUPERMAN
Two Superman books, neither featuring a classic interpretation (making Geoff Johns pretty much the last writer to do so). George Perez has an uphill battle. Never-ending?
31. AQUAMAN
The most obvious spin-off from BRIGHTEST DAY is a tall challenge, but Geoff Johns is the most likely writer to figure out how to make this character compelling. If he can pull it off, he’ll have revolutionized DC all over again.
32. JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL
On the one hand, Booster Gold lost his own book. On the other, he’s the leader of the team! I’m glad Dan Jurgens is still in the mix, but I’m most excited to see just how August General in Iron (THE GREAT TEN) gets used, almost as excited that he’s being used at all!
33. GREEN ARROW
Another character with a bad track record (J.T. Krul, however, seems to have figured everything out already). Assuming his momentum isn’t totally lost in this reboot, could stand a shot at redemption.
34. CAPTAIN ATOM
Will he be able to sustain a compelling series? J.T. Krul will find out.
35. TEEN TITANS
A team and a book that has faded into irrelevance, and shockingly, Tim Drake’s only appearance in the reboot, the first time he hasn’t had his own book since 1993. Scott Lobdell has his greatest challenge with this one, but he could pull it off.
36. O.M.A.C.
Jack Kirby’s legacy makes it into the reboot, and it’s not with the New Gods! Dan Didio and Keith Giffen have their work cut out for them, with the unenviable task of finally making that whole OMAC thing DC’s been working on finally stick.
37. VOODOO
You can almost see “Witchblade” written on this one, given that Ron Marz has spent most of his recent comics past with that franchise. Could be awesome. Total mystery otherwise. A true “Zero Month” prospect.
38. RESURRECTION MAN
There’s a cult of readers who salivated over this one like I did for Morrison and Superman. One of the best surprises of the relaunch. Not many characters like this receive a second chance, even one who has a hard time staying dead. (Hmm. Apparently quite literally.)
39. SWAMP THING
I know Alan Moore created his legacy with this character, but I’m still not all that convinced, having not read much of even that legendary run, that Swamp Thing makes a compelling character to follow.
40. DEATHSTROKE
This is a character who had a long-running series back in the 1990s, but that’s practically a lifetime ago. This might be awesome. Or it might be a huge mistake.
41. BATGIRL
I kind of hate to say it, but I think I prefer Babs as Oracle. This feels unnecessary.
42. FRANKENSTEIN, AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E.
I loved Grant Morrison’s Frankenstein in SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY. But I’m not convinced he’s as awesome otherwise.
43. BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT
I’m still not convinced I should care about David Finch’s Batman.
44. I, VAMPIRE
Could be really interesting. Could be a huge waste of my time. These books tend to be cancelled on me far ahead of their time.
45. SUICIDE SQUAD
DC’s A-Team/Thunderbolts/Give-Me-a-More-Compelling-Set-up.
46. GRIFTER
Dropping Grifter into this seems to be a little premature.
47. CATWOMAN
I don’t know. I loved Catwoman in Paul Dini’s Hush stories. But at least Judd Winick is doing this one. Could be more entertaining than I’m giving it credit for.
48. BIRDS OF PREY
Black Canary paired with a new character has possibilities. The onus is on Starling to be interesting.
49. HAWK AND DOVE
BRIGHTEST DAY gives and it takes. Sterling Gates and Rob Liefeld were not given the most posh assignment of the group. Hank Hall is a great character, but he’s a better villain than he is a hero. Unless this book quickly makes that transition, it’s kind of pointless.
50. ALL-STAR WESTERN
Maybe this will be the western that makes westerns interesting. But I never really bothered with Jonah Hex before, either.
51. MEN OF WAR
Kind of superfluous, after BLACKHAWKS.
52. DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS
I have nothing against this one, except the tradition of these anthology books falling apart after a time. Still, glad that Deadman gets to open the series. Should’ve gotten his own book, though…
All this translates to my gut instincts about the books I would absolutely want to read sight unseen, to those I wonder about, whether I would be interested upon seeing them, or if they have a realistic chance of remaining published in a year’s time. I’m no prognosticator, though, and clearly some of the ranks are based on my interests as they are now alone. One way or another, this is a list of fifty-two books, and has ambition written all over it. I applaud DC just for having the guts to do it.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Quarter Bin #12 "Blue Marvel"
One of the pitfalls of being a comics reader is that you can sometimes develop impulses that don’t always pan out. As some of the previous editions of Quarter Bin have indicated, I have an instinct to embrace obscure characters, superheroes other fans have all but ignored or dismissed, or just plain forgotten about. I look at them with a mixture of nostalgia and potential, for both what they’ve accomplished and represented in the past, and what they might still have to offer in future stories.
Comics readers often like to connect with other comics readers, to share their passions and opinions, to discover things they’ve previously overlooked. I’ve been a registered member of the Comic Book Resources forums for more than a year now (though “Tekamthi” only has about 200 posts to show for it). Every now and then, there’s a topic that intrigues me, such as when Blue Marvel was brought up.
Wait, so who’s Blue Marvel? The topic of this column, actually:
ADAM: LEGEND OF THE BLUE MARVEL #1 (Marvel)
From January 2009.
Blue Marvel, as it turns out, is exactly the opposite of what I’ve been talking about. There certainly are a number of characters with great potential but very few comics to show for it, but Blue Marvel isn’t one of them. Maybe it’s the writing in the issue I tracked down, which seems to be written almost as a parody of generic comics, so bad you’re left to wonder if Kevin Grevioux weren’t in fact trying to establish a bold new hero but sabotage him.
Blue Marvel is a black superhero, and Lord knows there’s history enough with DC and Marvel struggling over how to do that. Most of the successes are variations on established characters. You also have someone like Black Panther, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone would take him seriously. His name is “T’Challa,” and he hails from the African nation of “Wakanda.” If Marvel were to call do-over on any of its creations before seriously supporting them, Black Panther is that character. He’s as insulting as he’s supposed to be empowering. You also have Luke Cage, but the only way he’s ever been successful is either as a team-up buddy or as a member of Brian Michael Bendis’ Avengers (uh…one of them). I still don’t know exactly what his deal is, other than as the superhero equivalent of blaxploitation, Marvel’s Shaft. I’d take the company’s commitment to him more seriously if he’d at least had one ongoing series to his credit, just one attempt, or even an association slightly more positive than “Sweet Christmas!” Or maybe even a movie deal.
Hey, Blade had Marvel’s biggest success at the movies, to that point. Still doesn’t have his own series. Moon Knight gets more respect. Moon Knight!
Getting to the specifics of Blue Marvel is beyond the point. Not worth dignifying. At least DC has shown considerable support for its Milestone characters (Static might count as the most recent important new character for either DC or Marvel), despite apparent reader apathy. Mr. Terrific, who just about counts as the only version of that character worth mentioning, will be part of the big relaunch, with his first series. Very excited about that one.
Beyond the racial issues, which only compound the disappointment I have for Blue Marvel, I guess the point is, discovering the undiscovered can sometimes be more complicated than it seems. Sometimes a character is undiscovered for a reason, and for a creation like Blue Marvel, the reason is exceedingly obvious in hindsight. So for Comic Book Resources members, or for comics readers in general, let this one serve as a warning for this particular character. But keep the faith alive. Comics have plenty of treasures to discover.
Comics readers often like to connect with other comics readers, to share their passions and opinions, to discover things they’ve previously overlooked. I’ve been a registered member of the Comic Book Resources forums for more than a year now (though “Tekamthi” only has about 200 posts to show for it). Every now and then, there’s a topic that intrigues me, such as when Blue Marvel was brought up.
Wait, so who’s Blue Marvel? The topic of this column, actually:
ADAM: LEGEND OF THE BLUE MARVEL #1 (Marvel)
From January 2009.
Blue Marvel, as it turns out, is exactly the opposite of what I’ve been talking about. There certainly are a number of characters with great potential but very few comics to show for it, but Blue Marvel isn’t one of them. Maybe it’s the writing in the issue I tracked down, which seems to be written almost as a parody of generic comics, so bad you’re left to wonder if Kevin Grevioux weren’t in fact trying to establish a bold new hero but sabotage him.
Blue Marvel is a black superhero, and Lord knows there’s history enough with DC and Marvel struggling over how to do that. Most of the successes are variations on established characters. You also have someone like Black Panther, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone would take him seriously. His name is “T’Challa,” and he hails from the African nation of “Wakanda.” If Marvel were to call do-over on any of its creations before seriously supporting them, Black Panther is that character. He’s as insulting as he’s supposed to be empowering. You also have Luke Cage, but the only way he’s ever been successful is either as a team-up buddy or as a member of Brian Michael Bendis’ Avengers (uh…one of them). I still don’t know exactly what his deal is, other than as the superhero equivalent of blaxploitation, Marvel’s Shaft. I’d take the company’s commitment to him more seriously if he’d at least had one ongoing series to his credit, just one attempt, or even an association slightly more positive than “Sweet Christmas!” Or maybe even a movie deal.
Hey, Blade had Marvel’s biggest success at the movies, to that point. Still doesn’t have his own series. Moon Knight gets more respect. Moon Knight!
Getting to the specifics of Blue Marvel is beyond the point. Not worth dignifying. At least DC has shown considerable support for its Milestone characters (Static might count as the most recent important new character for either DC or Marvel), despite apparent reader apathy. Mr. Terrific, who just about counts as the only version of that character worth mentioning, will be part of the big relaunch, with his first series. Very excited about that one.
Beyond the racial issues, which only compound the disappointment I have for Blue Marvel, I guess the point is, discovering the undiscovered can sometimes be more complicated than it seems. Sometimes a character is undiscovered for a reason, and for a creation like Blue Marvel, the reason is exceedingly obvious in hindsight. So for Comic Book Resources members, or for comics readers in general, let this one serve as a warning for this particular character. But keep the faith alive. Comics have plenty of treasures to discover.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
No Evil Shall Escape My Sight
It still bothers me, that GREEN LANTERN was something of a box office disaster. I’ve since learned that plans for a sequel have not been consequently scrapped, so there’s that much, and anyone who saw the ending of the movie knows that one of the big complaints has theoretically already been addressed to that end; Hal will have a definite, physical foe to fight, and it’ll be Sinestro (I would also bet on Star Sapphire).
Given the rather extended partisan rant I went on in the last Quarter Bin, it should be no surprise that I generally favor DC over Marvel, not simply out of loyalty, but on basic philosophical levels, which seem to extend between the comics and film realms as well. Where Hollywood sees a rather extended and rather extensive success story from Marvel’s properties, I see a series of movies that more often than not take the cheap way out, and the successes are almost always by accident. For every FANTASTIC FOUR (which itself still managed to produce a sequel), a conceptual failure that was easily on the same level as two Hulk failures (which again, is, financially, on a fairly relative scale), audiences have embraced two Iron Man movies and a Thor that have neither of them been that much better. I’m still trying to figure out just how THOR became a success (at this point, I’d embrace the FANTASTIC FOUR model, or the anticipation for AVENGERS), but everyone knows that Robert Downey, Jr. saved IRON MAN from collapsing in on itself. In fact, almost every single Marvel movie has contradicted the assertion that a strong villain is necessary to make a successful superhero film. Every villain a Marvel movie has featured has been, in some way, either a complete joke or a conceptual nightmare, or for all intents and purposes perfectly ready to confront Adam West in a slanted camera angle. (The rare exception to this rule has either been outright rejected, as Thomas Haden Church learned the hard way in SPIDER-MAN 3, or misused, as Ian McKellen routinely was, when he wasn’t talking, in the X-Men trilogy.)
When DC does a villain, and Joel Schumacher not particularly factored into this equation, you have a character who thematically fits into the rest of the picture, without any real compromise. Heath Ledger’s Joker was already legendary before anyone had properly experienced him in THE DARK KNIGHT, and still ended up producing box office records. Kevin Spacey took what even Gene Hackman reduced to a joke and made Lex Luthor menacing in SUPERMAN RETURNS, a true reflection on the humanist outlook for a movie that also failed to properly fill out the regular superhero spandex. Peter Sarsgaard and the voice of Clancy Brown (!) represented unusually cerebral adversaries for a hero with one of the most unlimited powers in comics and movie theaters, but as GREEN LANTERN stressed again and again, it was willpower that was bound to win the day.
Just not the hearts of moviegoers. Everyone’s been attempting to explain the failure of the movie, but very few people were attempting to make it a success. Aside from an uptake in popularity at comic book stores, Green Lantern is a property that meant absolutely nothing to mainstream audiences, a concept that was either thoroughly illustrative of its native medium, or hopelessly dominated by it. Now it seems we have our answer. Why there was no novelization available prior to the theatrical release is one of the great oversights in recent marketing. To assume anyone who might have cared would simply read up with some of the trades doesn’t begin to consider that no single Green Lantern story has ever properly conveyed the scope of the concept, which is why the movie had to moderately tweak certain aspects. To simply say, Geoff Johns’ SECRET ORIGIN covers the bulk of what anyone needs to know, kind of misses the point. Peter Jackson didn’t have a huge success on his hand with the Lord of the Rings trilogy because there was a huge population hopelessly devoted to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien (that would be the case with Harry Potter, or the Twilight Saga), but because he unexpectedly produced a landmark fantasy experience, something no other filmmaker had done before him, or has managed since.
GREEN LANTERN was expected to succeed because of its unique scope, and the fact that most comic book movies tend to be something of a success these days. It was an unknown property with something remarkable to contribute.
But, it was also a comic book movie, with something entirely new to say about comic book movies. Just imagine if Star Wars had originally been a comic. “Come see this awesome new sci-fi movie! It was originally a comic!” Putting aside that many, many imitators quickly proved that George Lucas really did have a singular, unduplicatable vision, Green Lantern as a property developed over many decades a rich tapestry that is completely unrivaled in comics. One might say that if it hadn’t been for the fact that DC did it as a comic book first, a movie version of this mythology would have been inevitable anyway. Anyone who watched Jackson’s movies and wondered what someone else might do with magic rings and complicated histories might objectively look at GREEN LANTERN and easily interpret it as a natural reaction, even if it’s taken a decade to reach. Did anyone object to Sauron being a disembodied eye for nearly the full length of three films, or the fact that even in the conclusion of that story, this main villain never so much as looked Frodo directly in the eye?
I may not be very coherent about this, may not even be very objective, and that’s because I’m just so damned confused and disappointed. I would perhaps sum up GREEN LANTERN’s failure as asking too much of an audience from a property that has existed for decades but in a form that few fans of even its original medium ever bothered to follow. I’m extremely happy that, one way or another, this film does in fact exist, and my own enjoyment of it cannot be dampened by the general reaction of others. Hey, I have a rich history of liking movies other people rejected out of hand, for reasons that are even harder for me to understand. I can handle this. It’s a matter of expectations. With this one movie, I had the idea that Green Lantern would finally come to be embraced on a scale I imagined it always deserved. I wanted a Green Lantern movie back in 1994, when Hal Jordan was a crazy man and one of DC’s biggest villains. I always saw the cinematic potential, even when I myself would never have envisioned quite this way.
I made another trip to Escape Velocity last week, and have planned another this week, and while these are still purely exceptions, I will write about the comics I bought in future columns. I hadn’t even planned on such an extended rant directly solely on GREEN LANTERN, but rather something that would have segued into more direct comics talk, including some relevant material to a starter topic like the movie. Better luck next time…
Given the rather extended partisan rant I went on in the last Quarter Bin, it should be no surprise that I generally favor DC over Marvel, not simply out of loyalty, but on basic philosophical levels, which seem to extend between the comics and film realms as well. Where Hollywood sees a rather extended and rather extensive success story from Marvel’s properties, I see a series of movies that more often than not take the cheap way out, and the successes are almost always by accident. For every FANTASTIC FOUR (which itself still managed to produce a sequel), a conceptual failure that was easily on the same level as two Hulk failures (which again, is, financially, on a fairly relative scale), audiences have embraced two Iron Man movies and a Thor that have neither of them been that much better. I’m still trying to figure out just how THOR became a success (at this point, I’d embrace the FANTASTIC FOUR model, or the anticipation for AVENGERS), but everyone knows that Robert Downey, Jr. saved IRON MAN from collapsing in on itself. In fact, almost every single Marvel movie has contradicted the assertion that a strong villain is necessary to make a successful superhero film. Every villain a Marvel movie has featured has been, in some way, either a complete joke or a conceptual nightmare, or for all intents and purposes perfectly ready to confront Adam West in a slanted camera angle. (The rare exception to this rule has either been outright rejected, as Thomas Haden Church learned the hard way in SPIDER-MAN 3, or misused, as Ian McKellen routinely was, when he wasn’t talking, in the X-Men trilogy.)
When DC does a villain, and Joel Schumacher not particularly factored into this equation, you have a character who thematically fits into the rest of the picture, without any real compromise. Heath Ledger’s Joker was already legendary before anyone had properly experienced him in THE DARK KNIGHT, and still ended up producing box office records. Kevin Spacey took what even Gene Hackman reduced to a joke and made Lex Luthor menacing in SUPERMAN RETURNS, a true reflection on the humanist outlook for a movie that also failed to properly fill out the regular superhero spandex. Peter Sarsgaard and the voice of Clancy Brown (!) represented unusually cerebral adversaries for a hero with one of the most unlimited powers in comics and movie theaters, but as GREEN LANTERN stressed again and again, it was willpower that was bound to win the day.
Just not the hearts of moviegoers. Everyone’s been attempting to explain the failure of the movie, but very few people were attempting to make it a success. Aside from an uptake in popularity at comic book stores, Green Lantern is a property that meant absolutely nothing to mainstream audiences, a concept that was either thoroughly illustrative of its native medium, or hopelessly dominated by it. Now it seems we have our answer. Why there was no novelization available prior to the theatrical release is one of the great oversights in recent marketing. To assume anyone who might have cared would simply read up with some of the trades doesn’t begin to consider that no single Green Lantern story has ever properly conveyed the scope of the concept, which is why the movie had to moderately tweak certain aspects. To simply say, Geoff Johns’ SECRET ORIGIN covers the bulk of what anyone needs to know, kind of misses the point. Peter Jackson didn’t have a huge success on his hand with the Lord of the Rings trilogy because there was a huge population hopelessly devoted to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien (that would be the case with Harry Potter, or the Twilight Saga), but because he unexpectedly produced a landmark fantasy experience, something no other filmmaker had done before him, or has managed since.
GREEN LANTERN was expected to succeed because of its unique scope, and the fact that most comic book movies tend to be something of a success these days. It was an unknown property with something remarkable to contribute.
But, it was also a comic book movie, with something entirely new to say about comic book movies. Just imagine if Star Wars had originally been a comic. “Come see this awesome new sci-fi movie! It was originally a comic!” Putting aside that many, many imitators quickly proved that George Lucas really did have a singular, unduplicatable vision, Green Lantern as a property developed over many decades a rich tapestry that is completely unrivaled in comics. One might say that if it hadn’t been for the fact that DC did it as a comic book first, a movie version of this mythology would have been inevitable anyway. Anyone who watched Jackson’s movies and wondered what someone else might do with magic rings and complicated histories might objectively look at GREEN LANTERN and easily interpret it as a natural reaction, even if it’s taken a decade to reach. Did anyone object to Sauron being a disembodied eye for nearly the full length of three films, or the fact that even in the conclusion of that story, this main villain never so much as looked Frodo directly in the eye?
I may not be very coherent about this, may not even be very objective, and that’s because I’m just so damned confused and disappointed. I would perhaps sum up GREEN LANTERN’s failure as asking too much of an audience from a property that has existed for decades but in a form that few fans of even its original medium ever bothered to follow. I’m extremely happy that, one way or another, this film does in fact exist, and my own enjoyment of it cannot be dampened by the general reaction of others. Hey, I have a rich history of liking movies other people rejected out of hand, for reasons that are even harder for me to understand. I can handle this. It’s a matter of expectations. With this one movie, I had the idea that Green Lantern would finally come to be embraced on a scale I imagined it always deserved. I wanted a Green Lantern movie back in 1994, when Hal Jordan was a crazy man and one of DC’s biggest villains. I always saw the cinematic potential, even when I myself would never have envisioned quite this way.
I made another trip to Escape Velocity last week, and have planned another this week, and while these are still purely exceptions, I will write about the comics I bought in future columns. I hadn’t even planned on such an extended rant directly solely on GREEN LANTERN, but rather something that would have segued into more direct comics talk, including some relevant material to a starter topic like the movie. Better luck next time…
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Quarter Bin #11 "Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating..."
At a time when Marvel is attempting to breath new life into its Ultimate line (or at least reinvigorating ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN) and DC has launched FLASHPOINT and announced a complete reboot of its regular line, now would be a great time to look at another famous comics remaining. Or rather, let’s just imagine…
Okay, whether that was actually clever or not, this week’s column is a look back at Stan Lee’s brief visit to DC from nearly a decade ago, and is prompted specifically by:
JUST IMAGINE STAN LEE’S SECRET FILES & ORIGINS
From March 2002.
JUST IMAGINE STAN LEE’S SHAZAM!
JUST IMAGINE STAN LEE’S BATMAN
JUST IMAGINE STAN LEE’S GREEN LANTERN
Circa 2001 and 2002.
Clearly, not the complete set of JUST IMAGINE STAN LEE CREATING…(which I’m surprised didn’t become a perennial reprint collection, or not), but the SECRET FILES & ORIGINS (have I mentioned before that I wish DC would continue publishing these?) covers the whole field, and gives plenty of reference for the rest of it. I’m not here to argue that these comics are classics, but that they are certainly interesting material, and part of my own interest in them comes from the fact that they were originally released during the 1999-2004 period where I wasn’t reading comics regularly, though I was at least following important developments from a distance. Anyone familiar with the rivalry between DC and Marvel, and Stan Lee’s own prominent role in that feud, will be as surprised today as they were a decade ago that these books happened at all (or maybe not as much, with the increasingly desperate-to-participate Stan working on all kinds of crazy projects in recent years, and only Boom! seems to have been smart enough to temper it).. Fact is, true believer, they did. Excelsior!
Unlike he’s sometimes liked to popularly acknowledge, as Jack Kirby and Steve Dikto might attest, Stan worked very prominently with a battery of famous artists on these books. SHAZAM! was done in collaboration with Gary Frank (slightly ahead of the curve that eventually brought Frank to his greatest heights with Geoff Johns and Superman), while Joe Kubert worked on BATMAN and Dave Gibbons on GREEN LANTERN. Similar blockbuster collaborations could be found in the rest of the set. I chose the particular ones I did because they particularly interested me, Green Lantern simply because through just about every incarnation (including the Tangent Comics variation with the Chinese lantern) never really disappoints, Batman because he seems the least likely to fit the Marvel mold, and the other version of Captain Marvel for reasons I can no longer clearly remember (I ordered these comics last fall, and that’s when I originally read them).
I feel compelled at this point to ruminate a little further on some of those points. What exactly separates a DC concept from a Marvel one? No one but Stan Lee could possibly understand that better, and that’s a little of what made this experiment so interesting. Movie patrons this summer have been getting a crash course, too, even if they haven’t always realized it. I’m thinking right now of the relative failure of GREEN LANTERN versus how audiences have generally embraced, say, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, which to me is a travesty of justice, and here it’s not even specifically a matter of comic book publisher partisanship. The difference in quality and depth, to me, is clear, the actual execution and worth of the films undeniable. GREEN LANTERN is superior.
How do I reach that conclusion? Everyone’s been talking about how socially relevant FIRST CLASS is, whereas GREEN LANTERN comes off almost like a generic geek offering, suitable only for fans, impenetrable otherwise. (What a pity it is that Ryan Reynolds was already a known commodity! Anyone else in that performance would have been a breakout, and this is coming from someone who admired Chris Hemsworth’s turn in THOR, but there is no comparison in terms of how valuable these star turns are as complete packages.) But where FIRST CLASS is a constantly flawed film, GREEN LANTERN is in full control throughout its running time. Even the apparent flaw of villains can easily be explained if you care to. Where Parallax turns out to be the ultimate test of will, Hector Hammond is the test of character. Without either of these opponents, Hal Jordan’s arc would be incomplete, just as he needs his friends Carol Ferris and Tom Kalmaku to support him. There are so many storytelling echoes in this film, so many affirmations of what the audience is supposed to take away from the experience. Where FIRST CLASS is ultimately hollow and functional, GREEN LANTERN is immersive and soulful.
In other words, where FIRST CLASS pays lip service to its intentions, GREEN LANTERN is well-rounded; it does exactly what it sets out to. How this translates to my perception of the difference between Marvel and DC is simple enough. Stan Lee, and his collaborators, famously created a whole world of superheroes defined by their flaws existences, and that has always been interpreted as more relatably human than the larger-than-life figures DC introduced earlier, the archetypes too distance from everyday experience to be continually relevant.
Another way to say that, as the movies bear out, at least as I see them, is that Marvel is really good at origins, while DC sets its characters on journeys. Think about it: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS is an origin movie, just like BATMAN BEGINS was, or even SPIDER-MAN, or GREEN LANTERN. What do you really get from this experience? You watch the pain that creates Magneto, the ambitions of Charles Xavier, and the alienation of your regular batch of mutants, and how all these elements colliding produces a clash of philosophies. That’s great and all, but in the meantime you also get some generic villains (I love Kevin Bacon, too, but even he couldn’t possibly salvage a group of baddies that also included a wooden Emma Frost and Nightcrawler stand-in with no personality). In other words, there’s no story here, just some points that need to connect, like watching mad Norman Osborn transform into Green Goblin, just so Spidey has a villain to physically defeat. That’s the kind of storytelling that may look “great” in live action at the movies, but it’s also what makes most people find it very hard to respect comics in general. And what’s more, they begin to associate that kind of work as inherent to superheroes, and they reject anything that contradicts it.
Time and again, you see a Marvel character with only a semblance of future potential after the origin has gotten out of the way. Why do you think it’s so hard for a good Hulk movie to be made? Because once you get past the origin, you basically end up exactly with the kind of stories the TV show had to do, a version of THE FUGITIVE. The Hulk isn’t really a hero at all. The only thing interesting about him is Bruce Banner. Without Banner, you basically have a villain, or a mentally handicapped superhero, who can’t help himself inflicting all kinds of mindless destruction all around him. “With great power comes great responsibility,” but aside from the moment he realized he should be a superhero, Peter Parker has nothing to separate himself from the villains he eventually pursues, and even after that, he only barely seems to realize the gravity of the role he has assumed. He spends most of his time avoiding that responsibility, actually, when you think about it. Most Spider-Man writers don’t, naturally. Captain America is a steroids metaphor, but I guarantee you won’t see Steve Rogers presented like Barry Bonds in his new movie. Where do you go with a character like that and actually be honest about it?
The reason the X-Men movies are now repeating themselves is because without that rivalry and that social metaphor, the writers have constantly demonstrated that there’s very little else to do with them. They can’t be seen as regular heroes, which otherwise they obviously are, so they have to either become painfully generic and dull down the impact of the same stories, or they have to repeat themselves. There’s nothing different about FIRST CLASS than the first X-MEN, expect a greater focus on Magneto, and even less probing look at Xavier. Everything has to fall in place without a lot of examination or everything falls apart.
GREEN LANTERN, on the other hand, represents a DC comic book just as perfectly. The origin is just another step in the development of that character. Why is Hal Jordan such a perfect selection to represent the Green Lantern Corps? Because even before he received the ring, he had his own problems. Bruce Wayne wasn’t just a spoiled little rich boy, but the son of a philanthropist, who looked for real solutions to the problems he saw all around him. Putting a suit of armor on him wouldn’t make him Iron Man. (Part of the charm of the Robert Downey, Jr. superhero experience is that it subverts as much as supports the Marvel method, actually, something that’s a little more apparent in the second film.) Superman’s home world was lost, and he was adopted by very humble humans. His journey isn’t just about the cape, but about coping with a whole existence that is ripe with storytelling potential. Hal lost his father early on, and never really came to grips with it. His story is ably depicted in the movie, and the superhero layer just another excuse for character growth. “You have the ability to overcome great fear.” It’s just a metaphor. He doesn’t believe in himself, but he’s been proving himself wrong all his life. He just needed other people to believe in him.
To then see what Stan Lee, who comes from a completely different school of thought, work with something like that is fascinating in its own right. Stan sticks by his own formula pretty religiously, but it’s clear he works with a few more tools than he’s used to. These are comics worth revisiting for that reason. They’re at once instantly disposable and compelling at the same time. Just imagine someone else working with this stuff, they seem to say, without anyone involved realizing it. More than the Green Lantern variant, it’s Batman who is most revealing. In many ways, it’s Stan grafting the idea of Spider-Man onto Batman. Can the two coexist? Well, just imagine…
Okay, whether that was actually clever or not, this week’s column is a look back at Stan Lee’s brief visit to DC from nearly a decade ago, and is prompted specifically by:
JUST IMAGINE STAN LEE’S SECRET FILES & ORIGINS
From March 2002.
JUST IMAGINE STAN LEE’S SHAZAM!
JUST IMAGINE STAN LEE’S BATMAN
JUST IMAGINE STAN LEE’S GREEN LANTERN
Circa 2001 and 2002.
Clearly, not the complete set of JUST IMAGINE STAN LEE CREATING…(which I’m surprised didn’t become a perennial reprint collection, or not), but the SECRET FILES & ORIGINS (have I mentioned before that I wish DC would continue publishing these?) covers the whole field, and gives plenty of reference for the rest of it. I’m not here to argue that these comics are classics, but that they are certainly interesting material, and part of my own interest in them comes from the fact that they were originally released during the 1999-2004 period where I wasn’t reading comics regularly, though I was at least following important developments from a distance. Anyone familiar with the rivalry between DC and Marvel, and Stan Lee’s own prominent role in that feud, will be as surprised today as they were a decade ago that these books happened at all (or maybe not as much, with the increasingly desperate-to-participate Stan working on all kinds of crazy projects in recent years, and only Boom! seems to have been smart enough to temper it).. Fact is, true believer, they did. Excelsior!
Unlike he’s sometimes liked to popularly acknowledge, as Jack Kirby and Steve Dikto might attest, Stan worked very prominently with a battery of famous artists on these books. SHAZAM! was done in collaboration with Gary Frank (slightly ahead of the curve that eventually brought Frank to his greatest heights with Geoff Johns and Superman), while Joe Kubert worked on BATMAN and Dave Gibbons on GREEN LANTERN. Similar blockbuster collaborations could be found in the rest of the set. I chose the particular ones I did because they particularly interested me, Green Lantern simply because through just about every incarnation (including the Tangent Comics variation with the Chinese lantern) never really disappoints, Batman because he seems the least likely to fit the Marvel mold, and the other version of Captain Marvel for reasons I can no longer clearly remember (I ordered these comics last fall, and that’s when I originally read them).
I feel compelled at this point to ruminate a little further on some of those points. What exactly separates a DC concept from a Marvel one? No one but Stan Lee could possibly understand that better, and that’s a little of what made this experiment so interesting. Movie patrons this summer have been getting a crash course, too, even if they haven’t always realized it. I’m thinking right now of the relative failure of GREEN LANTERN versus how audiences have generally embraced, say, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, which to me is a travesty of justice, and here it’s not even specifically a matter of comic book publisher partisanship. The difference in quality and depth, to me, is clear, the actual execution and worth of the films undeniable. GREEN LANTERN is superior.
How do I reach that conclusion? Everyone’s been talking about how socially relevant FIRST CLASS is, whereas GREEN LANTERN comes off almost like a generic geek offering, suitable only for fans, impenetrable otherwise. (What a pity it is that Ryan Reynolds was already a known commodity! Anyone else in that performance would have been a breakout, and this is coming from someone who admired Chris Hemsworth’s turn in THOR, but there is no comparison in terms of how valuable these star turns are as complete packages.) But where FIRST CLASS is a constantly flawed film, GREEN LANTERN is in full control throughout its running time. Even the apparent flaw of villains can easily be explained if you care to. Where Parallax turns out to be the ultimate test of will, Hector Hammond is the test of character. Without either of these opponents, Hal Jordan’s arc would be incomplete, just as he needs his friends Carol Ferris and Tom Kalmaku to support him. There are so many storytelling echoes in this film, so many affirmations of what the audience is supposed to take away from the experience. Where FIRST CLASS is ultimately hollow and functional, GREEN LANTERN is immersive and soulful.
In other words, where FIRST CLASS pays lip service to its intentions, GREEN LANTERN is well-rounded; it does exactly what it sets out to. How this translates to my perception of the difference between Marvel and DC is simple enough. Stan Lee, and his collaborators, famously created a whole world of superheroes defined by their flaws existences, and that has always been interpreted as more relatably human than the larger-than-life figures DC introduced earlier, the archetypes too distance from everyday experience to be continually relevant.
Another way to say that, as the movies bear out, at least as I see them, is that Marvel is really good at origins, while DC sets its characters on journeys. Think about it: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS is an origin movie, just like BATMAN BEGINS was, or even SPIDER-MAN, or GREEN LANTERN. What do you really get from this experience? You watch the pain that creates Magneto, the ambitions of Charles Xavier, and the alienation of your regular batch of mutants, and how all these elements colliding produces a clash of philosophies. That’s great and all, but in the meantime you also get some generic villains (I love Kevin Bacon, too, but even he couldn’t possibly salvage a group of baddies that also included a wooden Emma Frost and Nightcrawler stand-in with no personality). In other words, there’s no story here, just some points that need to connect, like watching mad Norman Osborn transform into Green Goblin, just so Spidey has a villain to physically defeat. That’s the kind of storytelling that may look “great” in live action at the movies, but it’s also what makes most people find it very hard to respect comics in general. And what’s more, they begin to associate that kind of work as inherent to superheroes, and they reject anything that contradicts it.
Time and again, you see a Marvel character with only a semblance of future potential after the origin has gotten out of the way. Why do you think it’s so hard for a good Hulk movie to be made? Because once you get past the origin, you basically end up exactly with the kind of stories the TV show had to do, a version of THE FUGITIVE. The Hulk isn’t really a hero at all. The only thing interesting about him is Bruce Banner. Without Banner, you basically have a villain, or a mentally handicapped superhero, who can’t help himself inflicting all kinds of mindless destruction all around him. “With great power comes great responsibility,” but aside from the moment he realized he should be a superhero, Peter Parker has nothing to separate himself from the villains he eventually pursues, and even after that, he only barely seems to realize the gravity of the role he has assumed. He spends most of his time avoiding that responsibility, actually, when you think about it. Most Spider-Man writers don’t, naturally. Captain America is a steroids metaphor, but I guarantee you won’t see Steve Rogers presented like Barry Bonds in his new movie. Where do you go with a character like that and actually be honest about it?
The reason the X-Men movies are now repeating themselves is because without that rivalry and that social metaphor, the writers have constantly demonstrated that there’s very little else to do with them. They can’t be seen as regular heroes, which otherwise they obviously are, so they have to either become painfully generic and dull down the impact of the same stories, or they have to repeat themselves. There’s nothing different about FIRST CLASS than the first X-MEN, expect a greater focus on Magneto, and even less probing look at Xavier. Everything has to fall in place without a lot of examination or everything falls apart.
GREEN LANTERN, on the other hand, represents a DC comic book just as perfectly. The origin is just another step in the development of that character. Why is Hal Jordan such a perfect selection to represent the Green Lantern Corps? Because even before he received the ring, he had his own problems. Bruce Wayne wasn’t just a spoiled little rich boy, but the son of a philanthropist, who looked for real solutions to the problems he saw all around him. Putting a suit of armor on him wouldn’t make him Iron Man. (Part of the charm of the Robert Downey, Jr. superhero experience is that it subverts as much as supports the Marvel method, actually, something that’s a little more apparent in the second film.) Superman’s home world was lost, and he was adopted by very humble humans. His journey isn’t just about the cape, but about coping with a whole existence that is ripe with storytelling potential. Hal lost his father early on, and never really came to grips with it. His story is ably depicted in the movie, and the superhero layer just another excuse for character growth. “You have the ability to overcome great fear.” It’s just a metaphor. He doesn’t believe in himself, but he’s been proving himself wrong all his life. He just needed other people to believe in him.
To then see what Stan Lee, who comes from a completely different school of thought, work with something like that is fascinating in its own right. Stan sticks by his own formula pretty religiously, but it’s clear he works with a few more tools than he’s used to. These are comics worth revisiting for that reason. They’re at once instantly disposable and compelling at the same time. Just imagine someone else working with this stuff, they seem to say, without anyone involved realizing it. More than the Green Lantern variant, it’s Batman who is most revealing. In many ways, it’s Stan grafting the idea of Spider-Man onto Batman. Can the two coexist? Well, just imagine…
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Green Lantern thoughts!
Loved it. Let me repeat, loved it. You can find my review on my Examiner profile page.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Green Lantern in theaters today!
I know I haven't exactly written a ton of things about Green Lantern since beginning the Comics Reader earlier this year, but of all the comic book properties out there, this one has always been my favorite, so yeah, I'm extremely excited that it's gotten the Hollywood treatment. The critics I've read so far are somehow finding the movie more difficult to stomach than Thor or X-Men: First Class, both of which I found uninspired and undercooked, but I haven't actually seen it yet. Oh, and most critics are so full of themselves they can only very rarely see the actual merit of a film, rather than whatever opinion is most convenient to hold.
I will check back in with my own thoughts.
I will check back in with my own thoughts.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Who Wastes the Wasteland?
There’s a comic I’ve been believing every serious comics reader should be reading, but every year, it seems less and less likely that they will, let alone are. It’s called WASTELAND and is published by Oni Press. The industry, at least, seems to be paying attention. Writer Antony Johnston has been working with Marvel recently, maybe not on projects I believe are particularly worthy of his skills, but the recognition alone is certainly gratifying. He deserves so much more, though, infinitely more.
I’m writing about WASTELAND today because of that last trip to Escape Velocity a few weeks back. In addition to the comics I previously wrote about (plus some additional bargains I’ll get back to later), I also picked up WASTELAND BOOK 5: TALES OF THE UNINVITED, which I was more than happy to find, in the first place because this is a comics shop where WASTELAND cannot typically be found (to the point where one clerk hadn’t even heard of it, or thought it’d been cancelled, and there were literally some older issues sitting on a rack in the store). A tiny but devoted readership keeps the comic around, and clearly by some strange coincidence this particular trade collection in the store that day.
Printed back in 2009, TALES OF THE UNINVITED brings together several of the interlude chapters from an otherwise continuing arc, specifically issues #7, 14, 20, and 25, covering backstory elements that otherwise still convey the scope, sweep, and feel of the series as a whole. (On 7/12, BOOK 6: THE ENEMY WITHIN will become available, and conveniently continues the feel of these issues, with spotlight stories for a number of key characters that also continues the overall arc.)
I began reading WASTELAND back when I was still living in Burlington, MA, the place of my comic book rebirth thanks to Newbury Comics, which carried the early issues, and to which I’ll be forever grateful. When I moved to Colorado Springs, I quickly learned the WASTELAND love was not universal. Escape Velocity, then known as Bargain Comics, seemed to have given up on it fairly quickly, and Heroes & Dragons never had it, either. Eventually, I picked up BOOKS 2-4, which helped catch me up, and I started ordering the series through Midtown Comics, one of the greatest perks and justifications of an otherwise financially ill-advised continuation of my comics obsession. Because the issues were always released sporadically, I didn’t often remember just how much I loved WASTELAND, and until that fateful appearance at Escape Velocity, I might have forgotten entirely, or nearly so, which would have been criminal.
Simply put, and without equivocation, WASTELAND is one of the great comic books. The title I chose for this column is a deliberate one. Once you’ve read this series, you’ll realize how much it has in common with WATCHMEN. Its strong sense of character, and the way those characters are strategically utilized, are extremely familiar to the way Alan Moore wrote his most famous work, but as an ongoing series, that experience is able to develop all the more grandly. I don’t want to say outright that WASTELAND is better than WATCHMEN, but I wouldn’t have that hard a time convincing myself, anyway.
One of the things that the Image revolution accomplished was making it more acceptable, and easier, to develop and sustain independent comics that didn’t feature superheroes, and while a great many people seem to have interpreted it as a kind of mandate to then repudiate the work of DC and Marvel entirely, I’ve found it more difficult to believe that the comics most worth reading are provided on a consistent basis by any other companies. There’s a history and tradition that has become inherent to superheroes that few writers are able to master without them. If comics are to be released as an ongoing series of issues and collections, why should I care as much about something that lacks these essential attributes? What truly ends up separating them from experiences I can have in other mediums?
Where some have embraced a book like THE WALKING DEAD as a phenomenon worth lauding and celebrating and translating to other mediums, I see only an extended interpretation of Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD, with zombies. I can read a better version of that in the Marvel adaptations of Stephen King’s THE STAND, without zombies, without a trendy gimmick. Besides, DC has been doing a remarkable job of exactly this kind of work for years. Y: THE LAST MAN is a better version of THE WALKING DEAD. And very few comics, with superheroes or otherwise, are capable of competing with the achievement of Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN.
That’s where WASTELAND comes in. It’s that good. It’s that important. That’s why it needs so much more awareness than it gets. Antony Johnston, and regular artist Christopher Mitten, accomplish this in a kind of vacuum, in black and white (#25 is a rare exception, and even then, its color is still stylized, calculated), with very little recognition. There are blurbs from critics on the book covers, but apparently those opinions have amounted to nothing. This is a book that should dominate all the comics awards. Every reader should at least be aware of it.
If only that were the case.
Just to give you a tiny taste of what you’re missing, and maybe in some friendlier context, one of the central characters is a drifter named Michael. Okay, so when I say “drifter,” I should maybe go back even further and explain the basic premise. WASTELAND takes place in a post-apocalyptic America, a hundred years after the “Big Wet,” and if it helps to explain it like this, when society seems to have reverted to a kind of Arabic communal, paranoid, culture. The book is described most basically as a sci-fi western. We become familiar with Michael when he makes the trip to Newbegin, a town steeped in its own mythology (ably represented in TALES OF THE UNINVITED), a story that has come to dominate the series.
Anyway, Michael is kind of like Wolverine, if Wolverine hadn’t become so popular as to become ubiquitous, diluted. He’s not a superhero, but maybe he has a few strands of DNA in common with Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name. Although he’s most often at the periphery, you almost want to keep reading just to see what he’ll do next. But there’s plenty of intrigue besides.
That’s WASTELAND. That’s the book everyone should be reading, should be talking about. With any luck, that can still happen.
I’m writing about WASTELAND today because of that last trip to Escape Velocity a few weeks back. In addition to the comics I previously wrote about (plus some additional bargains I’ll get back to later), I also picked up WASTELAND BOOK 5: TALES OF THE UNINVITED, which I was more than happy to find, in the first place because this is a comics shop where WASTELAND cannot typically be found (to the point where one clerk hadn’t even heard of it, or thought it’d been cancelled, and there were literally some older issues sitting on a rack in the store). A tiny but devoted readership keeps the comic around, and clearly by some strange coincidence this particular trade collection in the store that day.
Printed back in 2009, TALES OF THE UNINVITED brings together several of the interlude chapters from an otherwise continuing arc, specifically issues #7, 14, 20, and 25, covering backstory elements that otherwise still convey the scope, sweep, and feel of the series as a whole. (On 7/12, BOOK 6: THE ENEMY WITHIN will become available, and conveniently continues the feel of these issues, with spotlight stories for a number of key characters that also continues the overall arc.)
I began reading WASTELAND back when I was still living in Burlington, MA, the place of my comic book rebirth thanks to Newbury Comics, which carried the early issues, and to which I’ll be forever grateful. When I moved to Colorado Springs, I quickly learned the WASTELAND love was not universal. Escape Velocity, then known as Bargain Comics, seemed to have given up on it fairly quickly, and Heroes & Dragons never had it, either. Eventually, I picked up BOOKS 2-4, which helped catch me up, and I started ordering the series through Midtown Comics, one of the greatest perks and justifications of an otherwise financially ill-advised continuation of my comics obsession. Because the issues were always released sporadically, I didn’t often remember just how much I loved WASTELAND, and until that fateful appearance at Escape Velocity, I might have forgotten entirely, or nearly so, which would have been criminal.
Simply put, and without equivocation, WASTELAND is one of the great comic books. The title I chose for this column is a deliberate one. Once you’ve read this series, you’ll realize how much it has in common with WATCHMEN. Its strong sense of character, and the way those characters are strategically utilized, are extremely familiar to the way Alan Moore wrote his most famous work, but as an ongoing series, that experience is able to develop all the more grandly. I don’t want to say outright that WASTELAND is better than WATCHMEN, but I wouldn’t have that hard a time convincing myself, anyway.
One of the things that the Image revolution accomplished was making it more acceptable, and easier, to develop and sustain independent comics that didn’t feature superheroes, and while a great many people seem to have interpreted it as a kind of mandate to then repudiate the work of DC and Marvel entirely, I’ve found it more difficult to believe that the comics most worth reading are provided on a consistent basis by any other companies. There’s a history and tradition that has become inherent to superheroes that few writers are able to master without them. If comics are to be released as an ongoing series of issues and collections, why should I care as much about something that lacks these essential attributes? What truly ends up separating them from experiences I can have in other mediums?
Where some have embraced a book like THE WALKING DEAD as a phenomenon worth lauding and celebrating and translating to other mediums, I see only an extended interpretation of Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD, with zombies. I can read a better version of that in the Marvel adaptations of Stephen King’s THE STAND, without zombies, without a trendy gimmick. Besides, DC has been doing a remarkable job of exactly this kind of work for years. Y: THE LAST MAN is a better version of THE WALKING DEAD. And very few comics, with superheroes or otherwise, are capable of competing with the achievement of Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN.
That’s where WASTELAND comes in. It’s that good. It’s that important. That’s why it needs so much more awareness than it gets. Antony Johnston, and regular artist Christopher Mitten, accomplish this in a kind of vacuum, in black and white (#25 is a rare exception, and even then, its color is still stylized, calculated), with very little recognition. There are blurbs from critics on the book covers, but apparently those opinions have amounted to nothing. This is a book that should dominate all the comics awards. Every reader should at least be aware of it.
If only that were the case.
Just to give you a tiny taste of what you’re missing, and maybe in some friendlier context, one of the central characters is a drifter named Michael. Okay, so when I say “drifter,” I should maybe go back even further and explain the basic premise. WASTELAND takes place in a post-apocalyptic America, a hundred years after the “Big Wet,” and if it helps to explain it like this, when society seems to have reverted to a kind of Arabic communal, paranoid, culture. The book is described most basically as a sci-fi western. We become familiar with Michael when he makes the trip to Newbegin, a town steeped in its own mythology (ably represented in TALES OF THE UNINVITED), a story that has come to dominate the series.
Anyway, Michael is kind of like Wolverine, if Wolverine hadn’t become so popular as to become ubiquitous, diluted. He’s not a superhero, but maybe he has a few strands of DNA in common with Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name. Although he’s most often at the periphery, you almost want to keep reading just to see what he’ll do next. But there’s plenty of intrigue besides.
That’s WASTELAND. That’s the book everyone should be reading, should be talking about. With any luck, that can still happen.
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