From Zero To Zero

Avengers: The Initiative was a very promising series. Even during the crossover World War Hulk, the story stayed confined to the main characters, young kids in training to be full-blown Avengers. But now the series fluctuates its attention every panel or so, and there has been really no main focus other than the derailment caused by the Secret Invasion crossover, where new characters were introduced and given far too much attention.

The one mystery that was still interesting and present was that of Mutant Zero, the unknown mutant who was on a black ops hero team. Now, originally we were teased with the notion that this was a former main X-Man, one that non-comic people would recognize. But in the recent issue (#20) of Initiative, Mutant Zero was revealed to be Typhoid Mary, a Daredevil villain. That is pretty weak, mainly because the title is already saturated with B to Z list characters.

I love Marvel because there are so many characters, but that’s its biggest weakness, too. With so much “having” to be addressed, any sort of narrative is tossed to the wind. I expect that from mainstream comics, but not from individual series. When I can’t have more than 6 issues of consistent story and characters, I wonder why am I even reading these sorts of comics. I’m wondering that now.

Thom Zahler, the writer and illustrator of Love and Capes, is one of the fine gentlemen I had the pleasure of meeting at the 2008 San Diego Comic Con. His series is a romantic comedy that plays on romance and super hero conventions, blending the two together into a funny, intelligent comic series that honors and pokes at the genres it replicates.

Today a contest was announced in a press release from Mr. Zahler:

“Valentine’s Day is coming up, and since I write comicdom’s most romantic superhero book, I figure I ought to do something to celebrate. So I am. I’m doing a giveaway.

You can sign up at http://www.loveandcapes.com”

I highly encourage new comic readers to check out this series for several reasons. First off, this series is not based on pre-existing characters. You will discover these heroes and the supporting cast without needing to worry about back issues and continuity. However, the series does play on comic conventions, things that are symptomatic to comics you could soon read. Comedywise, this is a great critique of the super hero formula and can allow a new reader easy access to what usually seems like a monster industry.

But don’t take my word for it, click the link to see what it’s about!

images courtesy Thomas Zahler

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.

They Call Me The Seeker

From the men who brought you Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess comes Legend of the Seeker, a new live-action fantasy series based on Terry Goodkind’s The Sword of Truth series. Like Hercules and Xena, this is a straight to syndication show, so it’s on random networks at various times in the week.

I saw this on hulu.com and decided to give it a try, seeing as Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert were involved. After the first few episodes, I was not at all impressed. This is a generic fantasy - think watered down Lord of the Rings or D & D with a monster manual that is 10 pages long. Everything about this show is predictable, cliché and safe.

I won’t go into a large amount of details, listing grievance after grievance of how the show fails to be any thing other than Hercules without comedy. The show takes itself way too seriously, which you can’t really do in a show like this, where exposition runs rampant and slow mo battle scenes are the norm.

Sorry Mr. Goodkind, I hope they paid you a lot for the rights.

Blinded By The Twilight

On the side I work in Champaign schools. I work with grades 6 to 11, and despite the differences in age, there are similar things about these kids - like gossiping during class, trying to sneakily use cell phones and getting distracted by all sorts of shiny objects. One of the current distractions (in a good way) is Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, the four part book franchise that some have called the new Harry Potter. The series focuses on teen Bella and her romance between vampire Edward. The past two weeks female students have brought up Twilight in some way in almost every class. Since South Park made fun of it, this book is a genuine phenomenon, and with last Friday’s release of the movie adaptation, it seems one that will be around for awhile.

Of course, the question is “does Twilight deserve this much adoration?” Read the rest of this entry »

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.

I think I misjudged this series earlier. I mean, it’s understandable when the comics was promoted as an Ape version of the Marvel Universe and that was it. But the series was actually a lot better than that initial gimmick.

See, what this series did was present an initial premise and then after a second issue, sort of toss that premise out of the window. The Apes were still there, but the comic was redefined with the inclusion of vampires and alternate events, including an original character not found in mainstream Marvel. With a limited miniseries, the writer needs to realize there are no holds barred. They need to do as much with the series as they can, and if that means dropping, downplaying or subverting the gimmick they’ve already put forward, then so be it.

Marvel Apes was sort of cartoony, sure, but I think had this had Alex Ross art, people would see that this was a great book that was quite deeper than many people could give it credit.