courtesy DC

The War is over. The Adversary deposed and the Homelands are in shambles. Ancient evils that the Empire had contained are now free, changing the status of magic and the Fables world. The first big change - the complete destruction of Fabletown.

It seems as though writer Bill Willingham spent years building up the characters and the status quo just so he could tear it apart. The real story is just beginning, Willingham claimed at San Diego Comic Con, and we can see what is going to happen: new enemies, new problems, Charming is dead, Boy Blue injured and a mechanical tiger leads a resistance of Jungle Book Fables with Mowgli.

What Vertigo books do in general, unlike DC or Marvel books, is change. You can see this in DC and Marvel’s constant story rebooting with franchises like Superman or Spider-man. There’s a formula and we have to stick to it. Willingham and other “graphic novel” writers write more like TV or movie writers, where things do change. Unlike shows like House or comics like Spider-man, where the status quo is rigidly enforced with the illusion of change, Fables progresses. The rigid formula shows aren’t bad of course, but after awhile of the same web-slinging and similar trial-by-error diagnosis wear a bit thin, and comics like Fables set up a formula to break it down, making the alteration much more satisfying and expected.

So what I’m saying, in the semi-words of The Simpsons‘ Comic Book Guy, is: “Best comic ever.”

With issue #14’s departure of long-time writer Judd Winick, Green Arrow and Black Canary has been taken over by writer Andrew Kreisberg. Is the series over or starting anew?

One of the things that Winick kept with the book was a consistent humorous chemistry that played out between the supporting cast, the Arrow family, and their interactions with the diverse community of heroes and villains that live in the DCU. Continuing almost breathlessly from Kevin Smith’s relaunch of the series, Winick’s run of this book saw the marriage of Green Arrow and Black Canary, plus redefined Arrow’s kids.

The brightly colorful book was one of my favorite DC titles, and I hate having a bias going into a series, but I admit I am already against this new writer because he’s not Winick. So far I don’t hate Kreisberg, though. This issue was a summary book, designed to get readers up to speed with what’s happened in the past, so as such couldn’t really do too much. Characters parted ways, sadly, as I love the new Speedy, but really there was not so much story as there was flashback. This is okay, of course, but not a strong indicator of the series’ future potential.

What I did like was the book didn’t suck. For a recap, it did a good job of keeping me reading and the dialog was humorous, reminiscent of Winick’s style. While nothing really pulled me in, probably due to my negative predisposition, the book didn’t push me away, either. I’m willing to give this book a chance.

According to recent news, Bill Willingham’s comic epic, Fables, will be given the chance to wow the top ABC brass to see if the show could make it to air. Fables is about a world where fairy tales are real and live in our world. Forced from their otherworldly fairy tale dimensions, the Fables try to keep themselves hidden from us and the foe they have fled.

The series is one of the best comic books out there today, mixing spy thriller, comedy, romance, epic fantasy and political genres into one massive story that deals with the lives of several popular, less popular or never heard of fairy tale legends. While the story focuses primarily on the Big Bad Wolf, reformed of course, and Snow White, later we see characters like Little Boy Blue, King Cole, Beauty, Beast, The Frog Prince, and dozens of others take center stage.

Fables would make a great TV show in the current market due to this chemistry. Shows today focus on several characters (think Lost or Heroes, even Grey’s Anatomy has several players). More people means more drama and more story-driven conflict due to various interactions. This would be on top of the epic fantasy and political drama the external storylines Willigham crafted to guide the characters.

But of course, a pilot is just a first episode, meant to see if the show would be worth it in the long run. Fables the comic had a lot of mileage, but if we try to slow down the conflict to have a lot of star-studded drama scenes, would the show be a legitimate translation? Probably not, but then again, for this series, I’m willing to wait and see what we get.

Christian characters in modern comics are jokes. This can be debated, of course, but the general attitude towards these token characters tends to be hostile. The secular mindset prevails in most comics and gets the last word over Christians that may be in any given book. Other religions are another issue - non-Christian religions are usually respected, yet when secular or atheist negativity appears it is usually directed towards the Christians. Every once in awhile a writer will throw in what they feel is a genuine Christian character, you know to be nice to that minority, and it usually comes off as a flat representation of what people think Christians are.

courtesy DC

Alan Moore’s Top 10 was a fantastic series, not just because of the crazy homages to super hero and comic conventions, but because its characters where fully developed in the short time they were introduced. Peregrine is a super hero who flies using a wing suit, happily married to her husband, and a member of the Top 10 police force. She also happens to be Christian. Moore handles this character with respect, putting her in a faith questioning situation in the original comics, and reinforcing her beliefs even though Christianity is in disagreement with Moore’s practice of magic and belief in a Roman snake god.

Let’s jump forward to the first “sequel” to Top 10, Top 10: The Farthest Precinct. Here writer Paul Di Filippo was just mean to the character Peregrine. He has Peregrine see Jesus drunk in a bar, having been called in to deal with his disorderly conduct. This sends her into a faith questioning spiral that was handled without regard for the way Moore had already set up the character. Likewise, this recent issue of Top 10 Season Two, not written by Moore, has Peregrine’s husband cross dressing into other costumes, a socially unacceptable practice, especially for this conservative Christian. In fact, the couple goes to Premise Keepers, clearly a parody of the Christian men group, the Promise Keepers. Read the rest of this entry »

Oh My Gog

This single issue is a tie-in to the Kingdom series, the “sequel” to Mark Waid and Alex Ross’ masterpiece Kingdom Come, which featured a futuristic DC Universe driven mad by its heroes, beautifully rendered as lifelike paintings. Recently the series Justice Society of America, the precursor team to the Justice League, has been involved in a Kingdom Come crossover, where the Superman from that alternate reality has come to the main DC universe. In the course of uncovering his purpose and the mystery in the series, the god known as Gog has appeared to usher in a better tomorrow for the world.

courtesy DC

Branching away from Justice Society, three single issues have come out to expand and/or continue that storyline - Kingdom Come Special: Superman, Kingdom Come Special: Magog and Kingdom Come Special: The Kingdom. The Magog issue specifically focused on a new character, Lance Corporal David Reid, the great grandson of FDR who was given super powers during a mission in Iraq. As far as the character goes, he’s not the only new character. DC and JSA in particular have become saturated with new heroes with manufactured legacies that confuse and sidetrack the story and readers, and Magog is one of them.

I can respect this character as he is allegorically meant to be a hero of our time, a soldier who volunteers for the armed forces after 9/11 and fights in current, real-life conflicts. But as far as that goes the purpose of the character is pretty straightforward - he is allegorically meant to be a hero of our time, a soldier who volunteers for the armed forces after 9/11 and fights in current, real-life conflicts. The idea of respect and honor of our armed forces is there, but not really - how can it be when that very character who is meant to be a positive American role model is statically portrayed as a “conflicted” and stereotypical soldier?

That aside, the story was decent. While the whole tie-in nonsense and this ploy to get more money is evident, this specific story did have an engaging story, the only problem being it was constructed of the above flaws. While Final Crisis is dying down and all the DC crap is getting straightened out, JSA is sadly still askew. The writer who prompted this stuff, Geoff Johns, is Mr. DC right now, writing several titles, and because of this he is given what seems like total creative autonomy (unless some of the titles are ghost written). Johns is a great writer, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be kept in check. Every cool idea, like making up 3 new characters an issue, or making a sequel to a perfect title from over a decade ago, should be shot down by the water cooler.

Get Me My Toga

Jay and Silent Bob’s Kevin Smith is a passionate film-maker, and from seeing movies like Chasing Amy and Mallrats, it is apparent that Smith is also a passionate comic enthusiast. Smith has even written comics, and not just View Askew related. Smith headed the relaunch of Marvel’s Daredevil and DC’s Green Arrow a few years back, giving a fresh take and new look to series that would have died, and still influence writers of the current series today.

courtesy DC

At San Diego Comic Con Smith announced his three issue Batman miniseries, Batman: Cacophony, illustrated by View Askew cult favorite Walt Flanagan (see Walt Flanagan’s dog). And unlike some of Smith’s comic projects in the past, where publishing schedules were delayed by late scripts, this short mini was almost completely written before it was released, assuaging the fears of all us nerds in the crowd.

So now that the first issue has hit stands, does it live up to the hype? Smith does a good job subverting our expectations - Batman’s role, while prominent, is downplayed. The focus of this issue is on Joker, Maxie Zeus (see Batman: the Animated Series) and the Smith created villain of Green Arrow fame, Onomatopoeia, who says the sounds the environment make instead of speaking. This comic was a darker version of Batman, which included several (crying) children held hostage at knife point, the Joker depantsing in eager anticipation of sex and a pair of bloodied corpses (the parents of said crying children).

The comic was well written, set up a compelling plot, yada yada yada. I hate that this good writing had to be shrouded in juvenile “dark” and “mature” gimmicks like death and trauma that were without purpose or reason. There is a legitimate point going to be made with the violence against children and parents, paralleled against Batman’s past, especially knowing Onomatopoeia tries to kill the kids of super heroes.. probably… I hope. For that, I can excuse Smith’s choice of the graphic, for now at least, but knowing there’s these so far unnecessary “realistic” elements present, you can decide for yourself if you want to read this book.

America’s Best Comics Returns!!!

Yes! This is it! I’ve been waiting 4 years for this! Top Ten: Beyond the Farthest Precinct was a travesty, a book too bizarre and random, undercutting the serious human issues Moore presented in his original series.

This new series, the second season, is what Farthest Precinct should have been. The characters are set up; old, new and underused alike to get set loose in a brilliant maze of story that all converges at one glorious end.

America’s Best Comics are the best modern comics readers can find, and naysayers need to read Top Ten to prove them wrong. Everything a super hero book should be - bizarre, epic, emotional - Top Ten is. Zander Cannon and Gene Ha know what they’re doing, and we should listen when they speak.

courtesy DC Comics

courtesy DC

I was excited about this issue when I heard about it in San Diego. I’m less excited about the Page sisters, and more interested in the forgotten Fables - the legends and stories erased from the collective unconsciousness.

The cover and interiors are riddled with these invented legends, like Captain Scurvy the pirate and the bipedal camel. Writer Bill Willingham continues to amaze me with his crazy, off the wall stories that still have a touch of humanity to them (which is really the crude and campy humor).

I’d say at the beginning the series would only be fun to read for fans of Fables, but now Willingham has put enough time and development into these past few issues that Jack of Fables is something non-Fables fans can enjoy.

courtesy DC

While many of you know about Alan Moore’s V For Vendetta and Watchmen, no one outside of comics will have heard of Moore’s sub-imprint of DC’s Wildstorm imprint, America’s Best Comics.

These stories are the best comics have to offer. What Moore did was instead of write a single title, he wrote a dozen series all part of the same universe. With each title, he could use different artists to tell different stores. Tom Strong was a campy Superman/Doc Savage pulp hero, while Promethea was a dark fantasy exploration of Moore’s religious philosophy. Each title had a different theme, but the characters shared a central universe.

America Best Comics’ was Moore’s attempt at saving comics. He gave different writers and artists the chance to play in a unique toy box of characters that homaged the wonderfully stupid legacy of comics. But, all of the series were eventually canceled, and ABC was left on hiatus.

Hopefully, with this trade paperback that reprints all the title’s first issues and the announcement of a Top Ten (the super hero police title) sequel, ABC may be back on the rise. If sales and interest justify it, these brilliant series may soon return.

Plus, this book is only $5.

courtesy DC

Gail Simone’s Wonder Woman is one of the few DC titles I still read, having dropped the majority of them when Final Crisis started and continuity went to hell. Wonder Woman herself is a character apart from other DC heroes. She has a secret identity, but her powers and costume are less about the super hero trend and more about mythology. She’s a mythical hero for the modern age.

Simone understands this uniqueness inherent to Wonder Woman. Her past few arcs have dealt with Wonder Woman’s mythological origins - her birth - and this current arc that just ended dealt with her life and possible future. But comic traditionalists don’t fret! There are still several DCU elements present in the comic that don’t detract from the integrity of the myth stories being told. Talking Gorillas are the way to go.

I think the thing I most respect about the series, beside its ability to stand on its own, is how the story propels itself from issue to issue without skipping a beat, organically setting up characters and future plots. There is a respect for the current story being told and foresight to plan for more. If you only read one DC book monthly, read this one.