Return to Comics

Like Guy, I have no burning desire to rush out and see Superman Returns, but I probably will see it as we’re out of town for an all star baseball tournament this weekend and we’ve got a huge gap between games on Saturday. When the idea arose my oldest says to me, “Hey Dad, since we’re going to see Superman and it’s an all star tournament we can call it ‘All Star Superman’ – like the comic.” [sniff] The apple doesn’t fall too far from the longbox.

In truth, I don’t see many movies at the theater anymore. Is still haven’t seen X3 and will probably wait for the DVD. I can’t actually remember the last movie I saw in a theater although I think it was Fantastic Four, and that was because my son really wanted to see it. I could have easily waited for that one to hit the stores. (Although I did enjoy it.) In fact the last three or four movies I’ve seen we’re with my kids.   

The thing about Superman is that there’s nothing terrifically compelling about the actual execution of the thing. I wasn’t a whole lot older than my oldest when the first Superman movie came out. As a comic fan my biggest fear was that the darn thing would be dopey and poorly done. There didn’t seem any way they could make a movie believably depicting the last son of Krypton flying or throwing buses around. But they did. And Reeves actually looked like Superman, although a little too much wide-eyed farmboy innocence and purity for my taste. But the effects rocked! You know, for 1978.

I lost a lot of interest after that first movie. They showed they could make Superman look real and that was enough for me. It’s another task entirely to tell fascinating Superman stories, as decades of comic writers have proven. And the fact that this one seems once again to focus  on the origin, rather than telling some new story. Hopefully it;s more than that. Casting-wise, Brandon Routh seems to look the part, maybe a bit young. Honestly, I don’t get Kate Bosworth as Lois at all - but Margot Kidder didn’t seem right at first either. It won’t matter too much unless they totally muck up the scenes – which I don’t expect with Singer calling the shots. I’m sure there will be plenty of gee whiz moments and solid, if unremarkable conflict, although I’m skeptical this will translate into $300 million US dollars. But I’ve been wrong before. (Once, I think.)

Now if you were to tell me this movie captured the feel of what Morrison has been doing in ALL STAR SUPERMAN, well, even I might get excited about that.   

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I think it’s important to talk about CASANOVA and THE FIVE FISTS OF SCIENCE at the same time. Mainly because I’m about to take some shots at CASANOVA so I’ll feel better about myself if I have something nice to say as well.

I was sold on this title months ago when I first saw the advert showing a Bond-like character firing handguns as he fell backwards out of a UFO. I am very much buying this, I thought. Sadly, I found the first issue of CASANOVA just plain painful. (And it’s not even a real UFO – dangit.) I think my problem with the book is my incessant need to understand everything I read. I can get by without knowing the mysteries of the universe or understanding women (like I have choice) but when I read something I damn well want to know what’s going on. And with CASANOVA you never really do.

Fraction seems to have taken every wild idea he’s ever had and compressed them into CASANOVA’s 32 neat little pages. Genome bioreaders, recreational supermechanix helicasino’s, n-state probability caps, aural anomalies, timeline insertions and there’s even a plot of sorts in there somewhere. It all sounds pretty cool but it felt like he was trying a bit too hard to bring across this whole Phil Specter does comics thing. There’s a boatload going on here – too much for my tastes. It needed a bit more harmony and less cacophony. Maybe I’m just getting old. All this is tempered, by-the-by, with some marvelous Gabriel Ba artwork.

Disclaimer: judging from the various reviews I’m about the only one who didn’t love this book, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

THE FIVE FISTS OF SCIENCE is another matter entirely. I’d swear this thing was written specifically for me. Mark Twain, Nikola Tesla and an evil JP Morgan and Thomas Edison? Are you kidding me? Years and years ago there was an entertainer named Jaye P. Morgan who used to make regular appearances on The Gong Show and Match Game. As a kid I found her totally annoying -- not Brett Somers level annoying, but real close -- and from that point on I’ve had an irrational dislike of the original JP Morgan, who is, to the best of my knowledge, no relation. Equally, when I was twelve and going through my I’ve-decided-to-be-an-inventor phase I read a book that detailed the whole Tesla-Marconi ordeal and have been sympathetic towards the reclusive Mr. Tesla ever since. And yes, I’ve read and loved plenty of Twain. So, to say this book pegged the needle for me would be putting it mildly.

The whole concept is fabulous. Smart, funny, well-conceptualized. Fraction manages to take some of the most quoted, documented and written about personas in history, instill his own unique breath in them and then send them careening out in one of the more original turn-of-the-century era stories I’ve ever read. And he's funny.

The personalities, at least of the protagonists, are more accurate than Fraction disclaims. Tesla was absolutely eccentric and a major germophob. And of course a genius on an order rarely seen. And Twain, particularly when he was younger, loved inventions and inventors and was a bit of one himself. The plots of "Life on the Mississippi" and "Pudd’nhead Wilson" hinge on the use of fingerprinting, a fairly revolutionary idea at the time. Twain also lost a great deal of money investing in the inventions of others, leading to a certain amount of bitterness about the whole business. Upon receiving a letter from a writer who had written a book to assist inventors and patent-seekers, the then aged Twain replied:

Dear Sir: I have, as you say, been interested in patents and patentees. If your book tells how to exterminate inventors, send me nine editions. Send them by express.

S.L. Clemens 

It’s not hard to imagine the events in THE FIVE FISTS OF SCIENCE playing a part in Twain’s later acrimony.

Steve Sanders' art is excellent here as well. The panel layouts are standard stuff, which really work towards setting off the very rare full-page spread and the visual  storytelling never distracts from the script. My one quibble is that in a number of places the black background of the panels washes out against the darkness of the panels themselves, but in other places this works fine. I’m not sure there’s a ready solution to this problem and not a major distraction.

A fun book all-in-all, well worth the $13 price of admission.

So, it’s been a while. Anything interesting happen while I was gone?

Week 7 already with 52. That sentence doesn’t make a lot of sense outside its comic book context.

I don’t think there’s any doubt that Montoya & The Question (sounds like a bad 80’s cover band) are carrying 52 right now, although the TO Morrow and the lost scientists thread is running a close second. The Steel storyline is going somewhere, but it’s moving soooo slow (is Brian Bendis plotting that one?), Booster Gold hasn’t worn me out yet, but I can see it from here and the whole Cassie/Conner Cult thing is so damned goofy and from far left field that it’s almost got me interested. Almost.

This latest issue doesn’t drop all the little plot hints that week 6 did -- the two page spread of Rip Hunter’s time lab is my favorite of the series so far -- but it does manage to move the story(ies) along. I can say now that The History of the DCU is an unquestionable failure. What exactly is the point of this? It's incomprehensable to anyone not vested in the DCU and a waste time to those who are. Despite this, the book has me interested enough to follow for another month or two at least. 

One odd thing that occurs to me with this book: there’s a great deal of hint dropping that time and/or reality is slipping or at least not what it’s supposed to be; the scenes with Booster and Skeets in particular hint at a the wobbliness of the current time-line. And yet this book may be the single most clock and calendar driven title in the history of comics. There will be a certain irony if we reach the end of this series and discover that a full year has not really passed in the DCU after all. 

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Speaking of being away for while, JUSTICE #6 was surprisingly slow for a bi-monthly book. Although it had some nice, silver-agey moments.

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I really like what Mark Millar has been doing in THE ULTIMATES 2. Dollar-for-dollar there have been more F@*% Yeah! moments in the last two issues of this book than any five others combined.

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Joe Quesada has a blog now? I give it three months at the outside. Six if it’s not actually him writing it.

And what’s the deal with Marvel’s “Hot Blogs”? (Check the lower left hand corner.) At Marvel a blog seems to be defined as “Press Releases with comments.” 

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Here’s an interesting article in the Detroit Free Press about the increasing attention the big dogs of advertising are paying to comic books. Or rather they’re paying comics to get people to pay attention to them. Product placement, baby. Learn to love it.

DC’s newest crime stopper, RUSH will apparently spin around town in a Pontiac Solstice when he’s not hosting a conservative, daily radio program. I may not have that last part right.

Check out the article if for no other reason than to see the single worst on-line reproduction of a comic book page in the history of the Internet. 

No, I haven’t died and neither has this blog. I’ve just been unbelievably swamped between completing a project for a client (business would be so much easier if I didn’t have to deal with clients – it would also much more closely resemble unemployment), dealing with sick family members and youth baseball. Every time I sit down to write something about comics I wake up 30 minutes later to find drool on the keyboard and an entry that looks like this:

nlhjnknhjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjlkkkkkkkkkkkkkkklllllllllllllllllllllllll    

And I’m completely behind on whatever is the hot comic blog topic de jure. Oh well. Maybe I’ll just recycle an old IDENTITY CRISIS post.

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Even with my cramped schedule I thought about creating my list of 50 Best DC characters. I love stuff like this even though I’m constitutionally incapable of completing a list that long. My ADD kicks in around number 25 at which point I start rattling off any characters I can think of just to finish the thing. Hmm…Ace, the Bat Hound, uh, Triplicate Girl, Kid Eternity, and, er, Brother Power The Geek…

I will say that I would probably have The Creeper farther up the list than most of you, Composite Superman is on there somewhere and Darkseid doesn’t get a sniff. After that it’s pretty much the usual suspects. I can’t even tell you who my number one is because that changes from moment-to-moment, book-to-book too.

Anyway, what were we talking about?

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All Star Batman & Robin The Boy Wonder #4

This title has the weirdest distribution of time I’ve ever seen. Each issue covers what, about an hour? It’s like 24 - without all the action. And I could easily see Kiefer Sutherland as Miller’s Batman – after a few “training” sessions Barry Bond’s chemist anyway.

The six page Batcave pullout was cool in the way these often are. Six pages seems like one-upmanship though. Did the last guy do a five page pullout? The multi-page Batcave spread has become one of those stock Batman images that every artist has to have in his repertoire. Everyone does it pretty well because the concept is so cool, but the basic problem is that everyone does it. (And I can’t imagine this the first one Lee has done - I’m just too lazy to go back and find another.) So to differentiate they add pages. Eventually someone will publish an entire comic that’s just one big foldout of the Batcave. Or has that been done too?

So not much really happens, but Miller does manage to work in a little de-creepifying of the whole Batman as Dick Grayson’s stalker theme. And Bruce Wayne does not eat rats. That’s just wrong. I think to further prove the whole tough guy talk was largely that, my panels would look something like this (click for larger):

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SQUADRON SUPREME kind of fell off the truck in issue #3. This group has always been Marvel’s little bastion of superhero meta-commentary but Straczynski turned the thing into an anti-US screed and kind brought the train to a grinding halt. The writing has been on the wall since the early issues of SUPREME POWER, but honestly, I didn’t expect the whole of the first plot line to be resolved like this. Eh. It seemed like even the Squadroner's themselves were looking around at each other thinking, "What just happened?"  If I want real-world influenced plot lines I’ll read CIVIL WAR. At least there I’ll get Cap surfing a fighter plane.

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FANTASTIC FOUR: A DEATH IN THE FAMILY would make a perfect FCBD comic. I offer this advice free of charge to the Marvel powers that be.

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Speaking of meta-commentary…

If you’ve read this blog for a while you’ve noted that I’ve a weakness for the super hero genre, particularly ensemble (i.e. super teams, but not always) efforts by smaller publishers. I’ve followed titles like GROUNDED, BATTLEHYMN, INTIMIDATORS, PLANETARY BRIGADE and LIVING IN INFAMY all to varying degrees of satisfaction. Of all the derivations I’ve read so far, John Ridley’s THE AMERICAN WAY has been the best.

There’s a lot going on here, and I’m not completely sure Ridley will pull it all off, but so far he’s hit most of the notes pitch-perfect. I love his choice of eras and he’s very deftly established a large cast of characters by spinning off slight variations on the standard archetypes. This kind of thing can easily fall in to the “me too” category, but Ridley avoids that. The last few pages were a bit grizzly. For a minute I thought I was reading a Geoff Johns’ book and then I realized the violence wasn't gratuitous.

I may have to stop using this date-in-the-title format – it’s too easy to tell how infrequently I’m posting these days. I’ll be back to full strength soon, just waiting for the yellow rays to kick in.

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I don’t feel like discussing 52 yet. I will say that I think it’s a fairly good concept and I like DC’s plan not to release any trades until after the thing has run its course. Smart. I would definitely wait for trade on something that could likely put one out every six weeks or so.

I’m not sure I agree with Douglas Wolk’s analysis that the 52 heroes are analoging for the Big Three – idealizing/idolizing, maybe - but I do think there’s a bit of a WATCHMEN homage going on. Either way, his post was a great read and I hope he can keep the fires burning for the full run of the series – or at least until just after I get bored with it.

And I’m somewhat curious to see how the Question in Gotham is rectified against what’s been going on with Two-Face in the pages of Batman. Didn’t Batman leave Harvey in charge? It's a big city I suppose.

Do you think they’ll really bring back Sue Dibny? (I can’t even find where I saw the hint of this…) If so it will confirm my suspicion that the real purpose of INFINITE CRISIS was not to reset the tone of the DCU but simply as a Get Out Of Continuity Free card. 

Guess I did want to discuss 52 – a little.

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So it looks like Bart Allen is not to be the new Flash and clearly Jay Garrick is not going to set his helmet aside and don the red and gold, so who is the new guy going to be? I find it interesting the creative team for the revamped book was part of the production team for the TV series but that gives little hint to any character direction. Now if I had to guess, based on the ads alone, I’d say the new Flash was going to be black – it could simply be the lighting in this pic, but it certainly could go either way.

This would disappoint me. As I’ve said before, awarding super speed to a black character is one of the biggest current cliché’s in comics. I’d love to see more black characters but let’s be a little more imaginative about it.

Having said that, how about some idle speculation: if I were in charge of DC I think I’d have Black Lightning “discover” that his lightning/electrical powers had imbued him with super speed as well. I’ve always liked the BL character and DC has worked him into the IC story prominently – albeit briefly - enough that I think the timing would work.

If I’m completely truthful, part of my fondness for the character is that Jefferson Pierce was supposed to have been an Olympic gold-medal winning decathlete, which was my event in college. I think all decathlete’s make great superheroes.   

UPDATE: If you're coming here from Newsarama, you know by now that the new Flash is very likely not black, based on the covers of the upcoming issues. I'd say those are decidedly more reliable than what I've provided here. (Which is "unretouched" as they say.) But hey, what's more fun than a little idle specualtion?

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The current run settles it, Superman is more interesting when he’s less powerful. But you knew that.

I have to imagine he’s easier to write as well. There’s a big difference between writing about a god-like hero which forces a writer to spend all their time coming up with villains and plot devices that might possibly be worthy, as opposed to coming up with ways for your protagonist to find victory over your plot devices and villains.

Let’s hope Johns and Busiek don’t feel the urge to boost Superman to full, universe-crushing power too quickly (if at all).   

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The last two issues of JONAH HEX have been the best so far. I’m not a big Palmiotti and Gray fan, but they seem to be making strides away from the Western-by-the-numbers storytelling of the first few issues.

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I've given up on Hawkgirl already. Just didn't resonate for me. I'm giving Aquaman a couple more issues.

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Finally got a copy of the Marvel offering from Free Comic Book Day. Gaaack. Talk about mailing it in. They should have just pasted together odd pages from a random selection of books and left it at that. Hey, wait a minute…

For DC FCBD is about the kids, and the first issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED is certainly a solid effort in that direction. My oldest was disappointed that it was the first story from his digest edition, but just as the adult fare wasn’t truly aimed at someone like me, this book isn’t really for kids who already are reading or have access to comics.

After five years FCBD has become something different for every retailer. Anecdotally, it seems like savvy, newer(ish) retailers are leveraging it into a larger promotional effort that builds goodwill, the customer base and generates a decent sales bump on the day itself. For the more established it’s a busy event than may or may not do a lot for long-term or even day-of sales, but still generates a fair amount of buzz and once again, goodwill. My own LCS falls into this category. Others question its worth altogether – I’ve seen it characterized as a “pain in the ass” and as an event that creates neither same day sales nor return customers of any kind. That's unfortunate.   

Outsiders perspective: as a recognizable grass roots campaign I give it a B+. If a retailer is of a PR mind he can probably garner some free media coverage out of it (and believe me, this type of coverage goes farther with the general public than your garden variety business profile piece) but the event itself has settled in to a bit of a comfort zone where the big gun publishers participate in the most painless way they can and the smaller ones target the existing base. From a retailer perspective it’s natural to start wondering if the payoff is truly worth the effort, but I think this is one of those vague marketing things that sees its return not so much in same day sales or near-term customer loyalty but in broader good will and industry awareness.

As a retailer (and I was one for nearly 15 years of what seems like another life now) when you invest in a marketing/advertising campaign you really want to see results NOW. Particularly small to medium sized retailers. Branding, good will, industry awareness - those niceties are for the big boys to spend their sheckles on. And an event like this, which, for some at least, has meant lots of traffic but not lots of dollars, is one that feels great the first time you do it, on the fifth pass through it becomes a chore. I sympathize with that, but suspect this event does actually raise awareness and help even those retailers who participate in a limited fashion to some degree.

To those who have lost faith in FCBD I’d say, stay the course, make the most of it, and remember that if it truly doesn’t work well for you it’s only one day a year. For the rest, thanks for your involvement and here’s hoping FCBD is a permanent fixture.

Free Comic Book Day. Missed it by that much.

I was pulling in to the parking lot when my wife called to say she’d misread the invitation to a birthday party my oldest was attending and it was actually ending NOW, instead of 30 minutes from now. And from there it was off to yet another makeup baseball game. We had four of those on Saturday, thanks in large part to an April that had Fresno vying for the title, Most Rained on City Not Found in a Rain Forest or Named “Seattle”. I really don’t mind. I love baseball, especially kid’s baseball, although making up rained out t-ball tilts (which accounted for two of the games) makes about as much sense to me as complaining about it on a comic book blog.

So I missed out. I’m not too broken up about it, truth tell. There wasn’t anything offered that really grabbed me and I’ll probably be able to get copies of the kids titles tomorrow and I’m not really the target for this promotion anyway, am I? I feel a little guilty about not showing my LCS some love, but the $40-50 a week I spend there goes a long way towards internally absolving myself of that.

More on the marketing aspect of FCBD another time.

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Douglas Wolk’s Salon article on the recent DC and Marvel Crisis events is excellent. (Hat tip: The Beat.) Wolk provides an excellent sum up of CIVIL WAR:

The figurative significance of "Civil War" is easy to see: It's supposed to address the question of trading privacy and liberty for security. That's not exactly new to mainstream comics, though. The "government makes superheroes unmask/register or quit" plot was used in the '80s in both Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' "Watchmen" and James Robinson and Paul Smith's "The Golden Age," and a few years ago in Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming's "Powers." Millar's great at writing action scenes and delving into his characters' ideologies, but a few seconds' thought reveals that his metaphor for America's security mania is actually pretty deeply flawed. It's hard to imagine either "army" of familiar characters countenancing any kind of civilian casualties, or voluntarily deciding to get in step with the government -- if superpowers are outlawed, only outlaws will have superpowers, as they say. And despite all of Marvel's "No, really, nothing will ever be the same again, you can't miss this, really" publicity, it's inconceivable that a major change in the status of Spider-Man or Captain America or the X-Men could last more than a few months -- as we've seen in every other crossover, the company's got too much riding on its icons staying pretty much the same forever.

I’m sure this idea struck the Marvel powers that be as wonderfully topical and relevant given the current political climate. Time is the built-in rate-limiter on that sort of thing as the news cycle renders these type of issues rapidly irrelevant, or at least pushes them below the fold and then to page A17. I think Marvel is probably a year or two late with this story, as the fear of lost privacy - largely fueled by the formation of Homeland Security - has receded from the national consciousness.

Which is not to say that the people have stopped worrying about electronic privacy, digital surveillance, etc. - it’s just not the hip topic to be angry about right now.

This doesn’t even address the question of whether or not we readers really want our comics to cut that close to reality, allegorically or not. But when Joe Q makes a comment like this:

I just came back from doing an ABC radio show with a reporter who told me he could wait for Civil War: Frontline. Outside of being a comics’ fan he was also an imbedded reporter and loves the idea behind it. He also mentioned that he would be sending issues of Civil War and Frontline to some pals he has on Capital Hill. As he told me, “this story is that important.” That made me feel great.

I do start to wonder if he remembers who he assigned to this little project.

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On a more comics related note, from the same link as above, Our Man Quesada posits this:

House of M was the opening salvo. The loss of all those mutants got the attention of many people in positions of power. With so many mutants depowered, the whole superhero landscape changed dramatically. It’s like super-power nation suddenly announcing that they’ve lost three quarters of their military and all of their nukes. You could be sure that other countries would be looking over at their borders and thinking thoughts that they may not normally have and there would also be internal upheaval. The power structure in the Marvel Universe has taken a radical shift.

I’m not buying that one. Are you? Weren’t mutants the group the government least trusted and most feared? If anything I’d think House of M would have all the legislators breathing a sigh of relief.

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I thought INFINITE CRISIS #7 was okay until I read Brian Hibbs’ review and realized I didn’t really like it all. I hate when that happens.

For all the build-up and fanfare I have a hard time envisioning this one having the lasting impact on the DC universe that CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS has had. And no matter how they package it I can’t imagine a $100 “Absolute Edition” gaining any traction 20 years from now.

Picked up the first two books (can’t really call them “issues”, they’re more than that) of SKYSCRAPERS OF THE MIDWEST. I won’t be buying the third whenever it should publish. As well done as these are, I can’t handle the unrelenting pessimism and glumness. The darn things come with their own dark little rain clouds that hover over you as you read them and then follow you around for the rest of the day.

The first book is sort of a “life sucks” montage that serves as a nice primer to Joshua Cotter’s state of mind. Some of the stories were good, some just okay. The second book is more cohesive and nuanced, and perhaps slightly less depressing as you can tweeze out a few upbeat notes if you close your eyes and squint in the right places. Though not my poison of choice, Cotter's work is very affective.

For a bit different perspective read Guy LeCharles Gonzales’ review of book two and the interview with Cotter that follows it.

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Staying on the Indie circuit.

I picked up the first two volumes of Scott Chantler’s NORTHWEST PASSAGE and if you like “pulse-pounding western action” or “two-fisted historical adventure” this is for you. I lean more towards heart-hammering frontier exploits, but I loved these anyway.

The pacing and storytelling are very solid across the two books and Chantler ably balances a large cast without crossing the line into caricature and stereotypes. As a period piece it really holds up well, although Chantler has taken unabashed Hollywood style liberties with certain character and plot points – all to the best in my opinion.

My understanding is the third volume hits in August. I can’t wait.

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Did it feel to anyone else like Perez’s cover for INFINITE CRISIS #7 should have been a wrap-around?

Not  a completely unsatisfying ending but the whole of it could have used much more cohesive pencil work and the Wonder Woman resolution was way too pat. I felt kind of bad that Gail Simone’s wonderful set up from the VILLAINS UNITED special was resolved in about six panels. But that’s the way of these things. And there’s a half dozen or so other threads still dangling so I guess we’re lucky for what we got. My general feeling is one of a rush to the finish. You get the sense DC wanted to just wrap this baby up and move on with 52 and the One Year Later stuff. Whether or not the plot was intentionally loose, allowing the ongoing books and relaunches to address all the unresolved plot points or forcing them to, would make for an interesting debate. Some combination of the two, I suspect. For all the long-range planning and promotion, I think Johns let this get away from him somewhat.

Nice wrap-up for Breach, by the way. Made me think of that line from the penguin skipper in MADAGASCAR, “You didn’t see annnnnything.”

And Hoover Dam! That last two-page spread was intriguing, wasn’t it?

~

CIVIL WAR.

This one just doesn’t quite grab me like IC or even HOUSE OF M. The overriding theme isn’t particularly original and maybe a little too grounded for my taste. Superheroes divided over legislation. Whoopee. Of the various Marvel bullpenners I wouldn’t have thought Mark Millar the obvious choice for this type of saga -- Ed Brubaker perhaps -- but maybe that means this will take a turn towards the grand, exploding dénouement, which would be fine by me.

The first issue was solid enough, although the whole Captain America sequence felt extremely compressed and forced. Or maybe I’ve been reading too much Bendis lately.

I’m also skeptical of this event-in-seven-parts having a lasting impact on the Marvel Universe. Which is fine if the event itself is entertaining, but the build-up so far hasn’t been. Time will tell I guess. If this thing boils down to the government deciding maybe they went too far on the superhero registration thing, but to go ahead and register mutants, immediately followed by six new X-books, I may swear off Marvel “events” for good.   

New format. For a while.

Rather than tailor each post to a specific topic I’m going to try one large, column-like post a few times a week, wherein I’ll run the gamut of what’s on my mind. Lately I find I’ve got lots of partial thoughts across a variety of comic subjects and quite less time to fully flesh them out; I’m sitting on about a half dozen half-finished posts, none of which meet even my own modest standards for blog publishment. I figure this format allows me to disguise these fragmentary thoughts as cleverly tossed off observations. I assume you’ll humor me.

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I’ve been thinking about variant covers a lot lately. You’d think I have nothing better to do, but that’s not so. I simply tend to obsess over things I perceive as business problems.

What I find fascinating about this topic is the crankiness it engenders from those who have no horse in the race.

For most of us variant covers simply mean one more buying decision, Lee or Perez? The decision is made all the easier if one version happens to cost 10 times the other – hey, the inside’s the same, right? For some reason the idea of one book carrying a different cover, lower distribution and costing more is in itself an affront to people who have no intention of buying either book. A few weeks back I listened to a youngster at the LCS rail for several good minutes about the horrors variant covers are perpetrating on the industry – you’d think the things had sprung right off a Moreau operating table. “With all the great books out there people could find something better than a lousy Neal Adams Green Lantern cover to spend $50 on,” he concluded and then plopped about 15 “great” X-books on the counter.   

The mistake, I think, is in believing that variants are about comics. Oh, sure peripherally it is, but only that.   

Now I certainly don’t claim to know the motivation behind every variant cover purchase, but let’s generalize and say that most are sold to people who view the purchase as an investment of sorts. And this refers to those variants whose supply has been artificially limited or incentivized by the publisher, causing them to be sold above cover price. Comics that just happen to come in a variety of cover flavors without invoking a premium for any particular cover are part of another discussion.

You can argue the soundness of this type of investment all you like -- and believe me, making a case against variants as a long-term investment is pretty easy -- but every investment channel carries with it a certain amount of speculation, often fueled by emotion. Whether it’s the stock market, real estate, precious metals, stamps, coins, beanie babies or comic books, a certain segment of the investing populace is buying the wrong thing at the wrong price for the wrong reason. Unfortunately, dissuading someone from that $70 WOLVERINE variant doesn’t guarantee they’ll turn around and use that money for any other comics, let alone something new and deserving. Let’s say you convince Comic Variant Guy of your argument that variant covers are a lousy investment vehicle and a gross waste of his money. Maybe, maybe, he diverts some of those funds to GØDLAND or ROCKETO or insert-your-favorite-comic-that-isn’t-selling-what-you-think-it-should-sell-here, but these don’t really satisfy his need to throw money into the intersection of potential profit and nostalgic fondness. So what does he buy instead? I’m sure you can think of other ways for him to spend that money but you’re playing with fire when you start trying to mitigate this sort of thing and dealers run a real risk of alienating these buyers entirely. There’s always the Internet you know.

And the Internet, specifically Internet Robber Baron eBay (truth is I love eBay, so read that with the dollop of sarcasm intended), is fostering a lot of this activity. The impetus for many variant purchases is towards turning the issues for a quick eBay profit. I’ve studied this a little and while it’s a very narrow window, it’s definitely a profitable niche for those who can get their hands on variant cover books at below the variant ratio adjusted price. I am curious about the folks who finally end up with these books in their collection but I’m willing to let the market play out in odd cases like this as examples of irrational exuberance or maybe an exhibition of some folks dominant collector gene.

So who gets hurt? Near as I can tell the short straw goes to the small or start up comic shops who can’t possibly move the enough of the incentive books to justify the variants certain clients demand. And can’t really afford to lose those client’s to other shops or the Internet. To an extent I sympathize with that, largely because I’ve been on that side of the equation and I know that it ain’t fun watching your customers go to a competitor because you’re simply not big enough to get the product they want. But I’ve been on the power side of the aisle as well and know that better pricing and special deals is one among a number of advantages you have when you’re big – or at least bigger than the other guy. And there’s no crime in this, in fact it would be folly not to try and leverage the position as much as possible. Update to “legally possible” if your ethics weren’t molded by one of our fine business schools and you’re not a member of congress. In the end, it sucks to be small and new in business.

For the non-involved -- guys like me, and presumably most of you, who are as likely to pay a premium for a comic with a sketched cover as we are to pass on a free one -- I think the whole variant topic smacks too much of 1993. I get that, but I’m not really worried about it. I’d like to believe the industry learned something from that mess and won’t tread too far down that path again.         

~

GØDLAND is quickly becoming, for me, the best-book-not-enough-people-are-buying; I like it so much I even went to the trouble of checking the character map for the funky, slashed “Ø”. But the roughly 5K units per issue it moves is pathetic given the quality and heritage. I can’t help but think if it were flying under Marvel or DC’s banner it would move six or seven times that. I wonder if the overt Kirby homage is actually turning some people away? If I want to listen to Elvis, I’ll listen to Elvis. Not some guy in a wide lapelled jumpsuit and sunglasses on a Vegas stage, no matter how good his “thank you very much” sounds.

I keep expecting the sales numbers to start improving, but so far it's not happening. There's about 5,000 of you out there holding out on this book, and you know who you are.

If you haven’t tried GØDLAND with 3D glasses it’s probably because your kids weren’t watching Sharkboy & Lavagirl while you were trying to read the latest issue. Try it, it works marvelously – you’ll think they designed the book for that purpose.

~

Speaking of Joe Casey, his IRON MAN THE INEVITABLE is one of several Tony Stark/Iron Man perspectives I’ve tried to digest of late. It’s probably just me, but I can’t get a bead on what Marvel wants us to think about this character right now. I kind of like the over-confident, arrogant ass we’re starting to see in IRON MAN #7 but that doesn’t really jive with the Tony Stark in NEW AVENGERS or the Tony Stark in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN or Casey’s TONY STARK.

Maybe this is the effect of all these mini-series. Or it’s just me. In any event, I'm getting tired of being told what a heavy hitter Iron Man is by every other Marvel character and shown little to consistently back that up nor any cohesive editorial effort to at least make Stark interesting.

And maybe it's just the conspiracy buff in me, but I've had the impression of late that Marvel is making a supreme effort to keep Iron Man in front of the public as much as possible while they ramp up for a potential movie. I don’t think this character has the icon status they’d like for him to have but Marvel seems to think if they repeatedly tell us how important and powerful and, well, iconic, he is we’ll start to believe it.

~

Speaking of suits of armor, have you read ZOOM SUIT? A lot of effort was put into the trade dress and variant cover distribution – the cover of the one I bought was thicker than the walls of my first apartment. Animated shorts, web sites, Metal FX printing technology, staccato screening processes, contests, trading card sets, incentive variant covers - there’s all kinds of kitschy promotional efforts wrapped around this book. There’s been a lot written about the various marketing maneuvers, not so much about actual story in the book itself. The reason may be that the single most apt word for it is “unremarkable”.   

~

My April Comics By The Numbers column is posted over at PopCultureShock, covering March’s numbers. Go. Read. Now.

That Marcie kills me.

Randy and Chris over at 2 Guys Buying Comics have designated this First Comic Week. Great question, which I actually addressed some time back…

I see where SECRET SIX is planned for a six issue run while SHADOWPACT is to be an ongoing series. This seems backwards to me.

Speaking of backwards, is the new MAN-BAT series really necessary?

Judging by the Google hits my post speculating on a Brad Meltzer Justice League gets (25-30 a day), I’m speculating further that the debut is going to be a chart topper. 

Revival of the comic book in Turkey. As opposed to projects like WILDCATS, NEW UNIVERSE or HEROES REBORN which might best be called revival of comic books that were turkeys.

Been rushed around here lately (hella busy, as the young folk say), so how about some binary reviews on the recently read:

Lion, Tigers and Bears, vol. 2 #1: Yes

Archenemies #1: No

Albion #4: No. (Like alternating current, this book.)

Fantastic Four First Family #’s 1 & 2: Hell,Yes.

Amazing Spider-Man #530: No.

Desolation Jones #6: A very black-hearted Yes

Planetary #25: Yes

Moon Knight #1: Yes

Let’s see how this works. I’ve used FilmLoop to create a strip of all the comics I got this week. Can you figure out which one doesn’t belong?

Yep, the OPENING SHOT SKETCHBOOK for CIVIL WAR. I didn’t pick that one – those tricky comic shop guys must have slipped it in my bag.

I haven’t really looked at one of these in years; the last one I bought was number 10, back in 1980. Not much has changed. Well, okay, the production values are certainly better. And prices have gone up. But this is basically the same beast and there’s a certain comfort in that.

As far as I’m concerned the biggest change -- which I’m sure was implemented some time ago -- is the reliance on the 10 point Comic Book Guide Grading over the old standby Good-Fine-Mint system. The more basic system isn’t abandoned complete -- the letter associations appear right above the numbers on every page -- but the CGC numbers serve as a more permanent reminder of the industry’s collector/investor influence, one that hasn’t always been kind. (And any negative perceptions associated with the collector’s side of the industry are probably not helped by the fact that the company which dominates direct market distribution also publishes the guide.) The valuations associated with the various ratings have changed as well. In 1980 a Good comic was typically worth one-third of its Mint version. These days Good has been devalued to about 7.5-8% of the high end ratings for Near Mint versions. Apparently there is no way for a comic to ever be “Mint” in today’s market, which is kind of sad. 

While I find the price listings fascinating and actually enjoyed several articles (in both the old and new volumes) the advertisements are the most compelling. As you would expect, most of the ads in the 1980 book are pretty cheesy. Goofy drawings, text pounded out on the old Smith-Corona, or even hand-written, and promises of cash for comics were the order of the day in 1980. The ads are universally more professional in the current edition. Not surprising with a color, full page ad running $2500 and black and white $900 and many advertisers marketing across multiple pages - it seems only prudent they would spend at least a little on the actual ad production. (Which, thankfully, hasn’t completely eliminated the occasional oddball.) I was surprised at how many of the advertisers had no web page – just email addresses.

I didn’t give this much time, but I did find a couple of folks from the 1980 book still in the current one: Doug Sulipa, Lone Star Comic and Redbeard’s Book Den. I’m sure there were several others. Lone Star has a pretty good on-line site that I’ve bought from on more than one occasion.

Here’s Doug Sulipa’s ad from my 1980 book (click for larger image):

All the ads were printed on yellow paper back then. In some future post I’ll put up some of the ads – from both books. A geat deal of unintentional humor there.

Collector’s price guides are nothing unique; nearly every hobby has some published record establishing prices, laying out the ground rules and providing space for advertisers. But I wonder how many of the guides themselves actually turn in to collector’s pieces? According to my current book the 1979 and 1980 volumes I have are now worth as much as $140.

Lot’s of fun stuff in these guides, but for now I’ll leave you with the top ten books by dollar value from the 1980 and 2006 editions:

This was tougher than I thought it would be. I’m taking up the challenge put forth by Jake at Ye Olde Comick Booke Blogge. Fairly simple on the surface: I’m in charge of all of comicdom. Once I’m through hammering my fist on the desk and chewing out all the previous regimes for how badly they’ve mucked things up, I pink slip the lot of them and choose 15 comics to go forward. I can only choose 15 because of some sort of post-apocalyptic, paper shortage -- I’m choosing to blame that on Joe Quesada -- but I’ll be publishing bushels of crap on the web, count on it .

Action Comics
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Frank Quitely

Too easy. There has to be a Superman title and there has to be an ACTION COMICS. I’ll just rename ALL STAR SUPERMAN and off we go.

Detective Comics
Writer: Matt Wagner
Artist: Jim Lee

Like ACTION COMICS, there has to be a DETECTIVE COMICS and there has to be a Batman title. I’m tempted to put Frank Miller on this because I’m a money-grubbing capitalist and I know the books will sell, but Wagner is clearly better at Batman right now. So I’ll assign the art to Jim Lee to ensure I can afford my boat.

Amazing Spider-Man
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: John Romita Jr. 

I could go Peter David here as well, except I’d end up spending hours arguing politics, movies, etc. and we’d get no work done and I’d probably end up firing him or assigning him to a very special Don Rumsfield tribute book. So no Peter David. And yes, I’m going to be an SOB to work for. My current employees can attest to that. By the way, this is the only book Bendis gets and he gets his own, full-time editor.

Fantastic Four
Writer: Dan Slott
Artist: Andy Kubert and/or Adam Kubert

Slott’s a bit of a risk, but I like what he’s done on THE THING. If he gets too bwa-ha-ha then I’ll yank him, put him in charge of the MILLIE THE MODEL on-line letters page and give the book to Joe Casey. One of these Kubert guys did a pretty good job on the ULTIMATE FF title so they both get the nod here. As long as the pages get turned in on time I don’t care which actually does the work. When I stick my head out of the office and yell, “Kubert!” I expect them both to answer. And they can call me “Chief” – everyone is going to call me “Chief”.

JLA/JSA
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artist: George Perez

I almost gave Perez the FF book out of nostalgia but this is more to my liking. Think of this title as a sort of JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED for big kids – or maybe, not for little kids. The roster of the book will be very fluid -- any character from any universe is fair game -- but there can be no less than six used in any given storyline or issue. And lots and lots of cameos. You know, lounge shots from satellite headquarters showing Moon Knight playing chess with the Shining Knight (and I don’t mean playing with her chest – get your mind out of the gutter), Ares arm-wrestling Powergirl, or Green Arrow discussing gambling debts with Wonderman. Kurt Busiek will treat this just right and he’s free to mix in some of his ASTRO CITY characters.

The Avengers
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artist: Bryan Hitch

I was tempted to make a Marvel equivalent of JLA/JSA but I don’t think the Avengers lend themselves to that quite as well. So this will have a relatively tight line-up. Cap, Iron Man and Thor anchor the team, with Spidey (because he’ll have only one title under my reign and I think he works pretty well as comic relief and we're trying to sell books here), Ms. Marvel, She Hulk and maybe Hawkeye. I'm tempted to load this thing up with every heavy hitter in the Marvel Universe and let them take on some major villains but we'll keep it simple for now. When Busiek gets too busy I'll let Bendis write a two issue fill-in. The guy will probably blow up.

Brave and the Bold
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Rotating

A team-up book combining any two (and only two) characters from any comic universe. It’s your sandbox Grant, have at it. 

The Ultimates
Writer: Warren Ellis or Mike Millar
Artist: Steve McNiven

I’m skeptical about this one, but Millar and Ellis begged. My gut tells me this won’t be nearly as successful without a bunch of surrounding Ultimates titles to support the concept as a complete universe rather than a What If or Elseworlds offshoot. If the numbers drop too low I'll pull the plug and put a Teen Titans book in this slot.

Wonder Woman
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Pasqual Ferry

Not really sure if Simone’s a good fit here. I almost put her on JLA/JSA but decided to give her a female lead to work with. I kind of expect this to roll up some of the BIRDS OF PREY storyline as well, but that may be asking too much and you can be sure I’d hear from ladies about compressing all the distaff heroes under one roof.

Captain America
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Current artistic team, possibly rotating with new storylines

What do I look, stupid? If it ain’t broke…

Uncanny X-men
Writer: Fred Van Lente
Artist: John Cassaday

I can’t stand most of the X-books currently on the market, but they sell so I’m resisting the urge to scream “No More Mutants!” and scratch them all. Van Lente is a bit untested in these waters but I think he’ll bring just the right intellectual firepower to bear and I want UNCANNY X-MEN to be a smart book from now on.

Horror Anthology

I don’t like the title, but marketing and editorial are efforting a new one for me. This is the first of three anthologies we’ll put out to satisfy some of the non-mainstream superhero needs. I expect this to alternate between Eric Powell’s THE GOON and Robert Kirkman’s WALKING DEAD.

Warren Ellis Anthology
We’ll have one title that will bop across four story lines: FELL, PLANETARY and DESOLATION JONES, the fourth one to be named later, maybe NEXT WAVE or TRANSMETROPOLITAN or JACK CROSS. Okay, that last one was a joke. One of my first commands will be to have all existing issues of JACK CROSS pulped for use in lining the packages of the comics we ship. The titles will use the same artists who now work the books, alternating each month so that three new issues will come out per year. In the case of PLANETARY that’s one more than we typically see, so I’ll brook no complaints.

Guns
The final anthology series. Each month will alternate between one-shot westerns and ongoing war stories – specifically WWII since no one will get worked up over that. The war stories will be penned by Chuck Dixon and Garth Ennis and the westerns will be a rotating team. This a vanity title created and written just for me because I like war stories and westerns. I’m thinking of acquiring the comics book rights to The Guns Of  Navarone and Rio Bravo, just for this book. Remember, it’s my universe, you’re just buying comic books in it.

And finally, drumroll please…

The Everpresent Universe Changing Humongous Crossover Event Cash Cow Comic
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Cast of thousands

This book comes out immediately after my press conference during which I’ll malign the previous publishers and editorial teams as hacks who lacked vision, guts and true understanding of what comic fandom really wants, which, it turns out, is exactly what I want. You’ll love it, you’ll hate it, you’ll love to hate it. And you’ll buy every single stinking issue as well as the 13 variant covers and the occasional Secret Files or Universe Guide. In truth, this one’s for the comicblogosphere, got to give you guys something to write about. You’ll thank me later.

Marvel Comics
Nightmask
Script: Fred Van Lente
Art: Arnold Pander & Kris Justice

DP7
Script: C.B. Cebulski
Art: M.D. Bright & John Stanisci

Comic shop stream of thought:

“Hey, there’s a couple of those New Universe things I’ve read only briefly about and have no real connection to since I wasn’t reading comics when they first came out and really shouldn’t be buying anyway since I’m already holding 40 bucks worth of comics, but look, Fred Van Lente wrote the NIGHTMASK book and he writes ACTION PHILOSOPHERS -- which is very cool -- and ‘NIGHTMASK’ is a pretty cool name although, **gad** gnomes and does the whole thing take place in a dream? Not bad art really, reminds me of something – not sure what. This has potential…maybe it’s just Van Lente. That guy could make the phone book interesting.

“Displaced Paranormals? Sounds like a PC term for lost kids. They’re not lost, they’re a displaced pair of normals. I shouldn’t buy this one it doesn’t look nearly as interesting as NIGHTMASK. But what if they’re connected? What happens when Warren Ellis starts writing that NEW UNIVERSAL thing this summer and I’m left in the dark? Or left in the dork, as the wife says.

“Oy. Some kind of X-men/Outsiders thing. Jeez this art’s weak. Oh and look Indians and a shaman. Can’t have Indians without a shaman. So the sister is the bad guy - er, girl? Why? Hey, zombie Indians. When all else fails write in some zombies. Eric Powell could pull this off but here it’s just stupid. Should have put them on the cover. This is really bad, now I have to buy it.

“Okay, I’m buying them both. I’m such a soft touch. That’s why our refrigerator’s full of girl scout cookies. Even those Thin Mints which are just like Grasshopper’s but four times as expensive. Eating three of those is like the financial equivalent of eating a comic book. Now there’s an idea for a column, what foods are the cost of a comic? Man, I’m hungry…”

Marvel Comics
Script: Dan Slott
Art: Andrea DiVito

I really like this series, but the sales number have been less than impressive (it debuted at about 30K but issues 3 & 4 came it at 21K apiece) making me doubtful it will last past 10 issues. Slott’s humor is well used and I like how he’s turned this into a throwback title of sorts – lot’s of old style Marvel mayhem and some fun villains we haven’t seen in a while. Plenty of opportunities for clobberin’ time. It seems like there would be a place for this at the Marvel table and the fact that it’s an ongoing monthly gives me some hope. But since both Marvel and DC have given short shrift to titles that can’t consistently tread above the 25K mark, I’m not holding my breath. 

This issue probably didn’t help matters in either direction; anyone jumping on board with this issue because of the good things they might have heard could be disappointed. The focus is on Yancy Street -- long Ben’s anchor as well as a source of slapstick humor -- but the vibe was bit melancholy and at times preachy, and the humor just a forced. Despite the tone, Slott continues to show a nice feel for the Ben Grimm character (far better than what I’ve seen from JMS so far in the FF proper) and I think he’s nailed Ben’s reaction to sudden riches just right. Things pick up towards the end of the book and issue six looks to be back to the same sort of romp the first four were.

Andrea DeVito’s art is wonderful. This is the best Thing being drawn at Marvel, bar none. DeVito doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to depicting Benjy’s various moods and that’s no easy task. Lot’s a of little touches as well -- I loved the “4” on the bottom of Ben’s boots -- making for a really fun package that reminded me a lot of the early MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE and George Perez FANTASTIC FOUR days.

Here’s hoping Marvel sees fit to let THING build an audience. With all the new titles out there I suspect this one has been overlooked and that’s a shame. It’s not ground-breaking or earth-shattering, but it is fun and only mildly tangled with current Marvel continuity; and comics can certainly use a few of these titles.

Squadron Sinister and Squadron Supreme

In late 1969 Squadron Sinister made its first appearance in the pages of the AVENGERS. It was issue 69 to be exact and they turned up in the first of a three part story arc involving an obscure Avenger’s villain known as Kang the Conqueror (what ever happened to him?) and the Grandmaster. The Grandmaster created them by changing the personal histories of several Earth men (or in Hyperion's case, a subatomic man) so they would become Nighthawk, Hyperion, Whizzer and Dr. Spectrum - all thinly veiled analogs for certain high profile JLA’ers. Comic historians note this as the first recognizable instance of retconning.

As plotted by Roy Thomas, the Avengers would battle the Squadron Sinister on Kang’s behalf to save the Earth. The Avengers version of Earth, that is. Guess who wins? After this Squadron Sinister would split up and bop around the Marvel Universe trying to destroy the Earth, battle various Marvel heroes, pretend to be Wanda and Pietro’s father (wait, sorry, different Whizzer), battle the Defenders, join the Defenders, and, on occasion, die. (Issue number 71 of the AVENGERS also debuted the classic Invaders team of Captain America, Sub-mariner and the Human Torch. Not a bad few months work for Rascally Roy.)

In AVENGERS 85-86 (Feb/Mar 1971) the Squadron is back. But it’s a different Squadron as the Avengers (well, Quicksilver, Wanda, Vision and Goliath) have been transported to a parallel universe where the Squadron Supreme fights for good instead of evil. (Apparently the Grandmaster’s prior dealings with this Squadron, prompted him to try and recreate them in his earlier contest with Kang. I’m not surprised it didn’t work. We all know what happens when you try to copy a copy.)  This group includes a few new JLA analogs: Tom Thumb, American Eagle, Lady Lark and Hawkeye (no confusion since the Avenger’s Hawkeye is Goliath and Goliath is Yellowjacket). This time the Avengers -- along with the help of Nighthawk -- are trying to stop the launch of a solar rocket set to cause a supernova, consuming the Squadron’s Earth. The Squadron has been duped into launching the rocket by a character called Brain-Child. Once again the Avengers must battle the Squadron. Guess who wins?

Eventually the two teams work together to over come Brain-Child and the Avengers are retuned to their own dimension. Or are they? Cue Twilight Zone theme…

The Squadron Supreme would stay in their own universe until AVENGERS 141-144, 147-148 (1975-76).  This plot is somewhat convoluted, involving Patsy Walker, her ex-husband Buzz Baxter (both of Marvel humor comics fame), President Nelson Rockefeller and a really ugly green snake hat. Somehow the hat has created an evil mind-meld between the wearers in various universes. The hat has reportedly been worn by most of the CEO’s on the Avenger’s Earth (and several on ours judging by Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing, etc.). Cap has had a run-in with the hat and has traced it back to the Red Skull. He’s followed the Skull's men to Roxxon Oil and enlists the Avengers (he’s been on sabbatical and out of touch) to help him breach a top secret research facility where they run smack into a Squadron Supreme guard detail.

While the Squadron is pretty clear that they aren’t Sinister this time around, judging by these two covers, Marvel wasn't so sure:

Maybe this comment from the Whizzer threw them off:

“Sold out”??!! But…I thought they we’re like the Justice League. They can’t sell out. And that's more than one syllable. Wait, there’s more…

Why…why, they’re worse than sinister, they’re capitalists!

And then Cap takes the Whizzer out with his patented Boomerang Shield Maneuver. There’s also a very cool fight scene where the Vision proves he is, in fact, the baddest Avenger on the block. The whole thing is quite Airwolf, to borrow from a certain well-known comic blogger, currently celebrating his one year anniversary.  The Avengers escape back to their own universe, with the snake helmet, leaving the Squadron to deal with a mild crisis of conscience.

Before I forget, this stint gave us the Amphibian, saw American Eagle become Cap’n Hawk, updated Hawkeye’s name to Golden Archer and his appearance to a more Green Arrow-like countenance, and introduced “Rocket Central” the Squadron’s orbiting satellite headquarters and winner of the 1976 award for Worst Secret Headquarters Name. In issue 147 Hyperion also mentions his “arch-foe, Burbank” -- who becomes more important under the JMS Squadron -- and is clearly a Lex Luthor reference. (Lex Luthor, Emil Burbank – clearly taken from that evil early 20th century botanist, Luther Burbank.)

Also of note, issue #141 marked George Perez’s first appearance on the title.

Because any good story is worth retconning, in 1989, in the pages of AVENGERS WEST COAST ANNUAL #4 and WEB OF SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #5, Mark Gruenwald would write a sort of wrap-around story where he tied up a several loose ends and introduced Zatanna doppelganger, Arcanna, into the story. These are among the few Squadron books I don’t have, but you can read an account of them here.

Squadron Supreme and the Defenders

You probably know Gruenwald as the writer most frequently attached to the Squadron Supreme, thanks to a well-received 1985 SQUADRON SUPREME maxiseries. But before getting to that I have to mention The Squadron’s late 1982 appearance in THE DEFENDERS – issues 112-114 to be precise. The story, penned by J.M. DeMatteis, finds the Defenders magically transported to the Squadron’s Earth where they discover a dying Hyperion, their own Earth’s Nighthawk (who the Defenders thought dead) and a planet taken over by the Over-Mind via control of Kyle Richmond (The Squadron’s Nighthawk) who has left the SS and became President.

When Richmond invokes martial law and starts jailing innocents the Squadron resists but are quickly assimilated by the Over-Mind. (Notice a trend here?) Hyperion resists, but is forced underground, poisoned by concentrated Argonite (think Kryptonite) rays being pumped into the atmosphere. The Defenders help Hyperion back to health and then defeat the Over-Mind (with the aid of a supernatural creature called “Mindy” - seriously) and of course battle the Squadron in the process. In the end President Richmond turns out to be an alien doppelganger and the Nighthawk who thought he was from the Defenders’ Earth is actually from the Squadron’s.

I’m sure I speak for a lot of people when I say, “Waaaa?” And I don’t have issue 115 to see what exactly happened although my understanding is that the Squadron’s Nighthawk came back to the Defenders’ Earth and assumed that Earth’s Nighthawk mantle, and later died. But I couldn’t testify to that, at least without the aid of some Advil and a stiff Scotch.   

This is among the weakest of the various Squadron Supreme stories, but it does introduce a few new Squadroners: Arcanna Jones (despite Gruenwald’s previously mentioned update of the AVENGERS 141-145, 147-148 arc, this is her first official appearance – in this one she even uses Zatanna’s backward incantations), the Power Princess from Utopia Island, and Nuke, the er, Nuclear Man. As an interesting side note, the story arc which began in THE DEFENDERS #112 marked DeMatteis’ official, full-time take over of the scripting chores from none other than Gruenwald. There’s some evidence that Gruenwald set the table for this Squadron arc as well, as it actually kicked off in issue #109 when Daimon Hellstrom, Sub-Mariner, Dr. Strange and Bruce Banner are transported to the Squadron’s dimension.

Coming in Part II – Kicking off the modern Squadron era with the Gruenwald Limited Series, New World Order and Ultimate Squadron Supreme.

My latest Comics by the Numbers column -- reviewing February's Direct Market sales -- is up over at PopCultureShock. This was easily one of my top three PopCultureShock columns ever, so I have to insist you go there straight away and read.

Image Comics
Art: Ben Templesmith
Script: Frank Beddor & Lix Cavalier

This is really working for me and most of the credit has to go to Ben Templesmith. The premise -- with which you may be familiar -- is straightforward: Princess Alyss has disappeared from Wonderland and Hatter M has been dispatched to our sad, grimy little world to retrieve her. Hatter M, with his assortment of knives and a wonderfully lethal hat, is a single-minded protagonist of a sort that we’re very comfortable with in comics. We expect him to prevail but the fun is in the hurdles he has to clear to do so.

And the story, taken from Frank Beddor's The Looking Glass Wars novel, has just enough depth to make those hurdles interesting. Nothing is obvious or telegraphed (at least so far, we’re only two issues in) but even if it was you’d be too busy looking at Templesmith’s fantabulous art to care. It’s just that good.

I’m sure many of you read and enjoy FELL. That’s a nice collaboration piece but its format doesn’t really allow for the range shown here. The use of light, texture and iconography is perfectly suited to the theme and the relatively spare script. This is Templesmith’s show (as acknowledged by the positioning he’s given in the credits) and he’s well up to the task. It does carry a relatively steep $3.99 cover price, but if you're looking for something fun, interesting and engaging to look at, you’ll find this a solid addition to your pull list. (And if you’d like a sample, you can preview the first issue here.)