Comic Book Resources

A copse of obscurity

Grumpy Old Fan

At the height of DC’s big-event mania, it was almost a running gag that a forgotten DC character (most likely an obscure Teen Titan) would be decapitated, dismembered, or otherwise used as cannon fodder for the likes of Superboy-Prime or Black Adam.

Therefore, now that the dark period is apparently coming to a close, I thought it would be nice to look at some dust-gathering DC folk who might benefit from the occasional guest appearance. Take last week’s Justice League #41, for instance. A flashback featured the 18th-century characters Tomahawk and Miss Liberty, who found an otherworldly artifact examined in the present day by scientist Darwin Jones. Later in the issue, Troia finds Batman and Robin taking out the Yellow Wasp (who both she and I initially misidentified as Killer Moth).

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Power, sharing: the JLA at fifty

Grumpy Old Fan

The Justice League of America turned fifty about a month ago, and somehow in the midst of our New Year’s revelry I missed it.

As many of you know, I am a child of the Satellite Era, and specifically of the mid-to-late ‘70s, when virtually every issue was pencilled by Dick Dillin and inked by Frank McLaughlin. I first got into the League in earnest during Steve Englehart’s short tenure as writer, and stayed for a good bit of Gerry Conway’s several-year run as regular writer. There is a certain sameness to the Conway/Dillin/McLaughlin issues, as if all their fantastic settings and sequences are just part of an average JLA workday. That’s comforting, but also a bit confining, and one can certainly argue that after Dillin died and his successor George Pérez left, Conway should have turned over the writing reins to someone else. Still, if I were doing a “fifty stories for fifty years” post, like I did for Batman’s 70th last spring, I think he would be reasonably represented.

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Showers and flowers: DC Entertainment comic-book solicitations for April 2010

Grumpy Old Fan

It’s hard to describe the attitude I bring to each new batch of DC solicitations. Naturally, I use them to figure a comics budget for the particular month; but beyond that I do try to see what interests me, what I might want to try, and (in rare cases) what might make me drop a title. At their core the solicits are advertisements, so I react to them on that surface level.

Being a nitpicky snot, though, I also find myself taking a more cynical look at the solicits -- like, they’re just ads, not part of the creative experience; so their puffery can be picked apart mercilessly. I try not to be too harsh, though, because they are just ads, and not to be taken that seriously.

Therefore, a sentence like

The effects that the already classic Blackest Night will have on the DC Universe will be felt for years to come and this issue not only sets the stage for the new ongoing biweekly DC Universe book Brightest Day, but also the next exciting era of the DC Universe!

can’t really fit into a larger context, even though it alludes to one. That sentence is designed to sell Brightest Day #0, and beyond that it’s non-binding. After all, if current conventional wisdom is remotely accurate, the “effects [to be] felt for years to come” will only be noticeable to those of us who’ve been following DC for the past five years; and likewise the “next exciting era of the DC Universe” may well refer to the kind of benign square-one setup which any new reader would reasonably expect. It’s like a monster-truck-rally announcer flacking for a dog show: “Puppies! PUPPIES!! PUPPIES!!!”

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Picnic time for teddy bears

Grumpy Old Fan

I lived at home for a few years during college and law school, and soon fell into the habit of watching new Star Trek episodes (various series) with my parents. Every so often, at a particularly cliffhanging commercial break, my mom would turn to me and ask, perfectly serious, what was going to happen next. Of course I didn’t know, and eventually I said something like “oh, this is the one where they beam down to the Cuddly Teddy Bear Planet for tea and scones.” Soon the phrase “teddy bears” became shorthand for “invasion,” “warp core breach,” “musical number,” etc. Indeed, when Voyager’s crew was marooned on a primordial world at the end of the second season, I noted the nasty-looking lizards prowling around and said “look, Mom -- there are the teddy bears!”

Accordingly, it is not in my nature to be optimistic about such things; and so I am experiencing a bit of cognitive dissonance with all this Brightest Day news coming out of DC. It's like the publisher has traded so heavily in grim ‘n’ gritty that scrubbing it away will involve a year-long biweekly miniseries which (of course) ties into some of the publisher's most recognizable titles.  Apparently happiness has gotten so far from the DC norm that it's become a brand.

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Ten from the old year, ten for the new: 2009-10 edition

Grumpy Old Fan

We've certainly done our share of review-preview posts over the past several days, but I still have this last bit of business to address. This is the third year I've done a ten-and-ten list, so why stop now?

(Click here for last year's post.)

Onward!
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The Grumpy Color: Carla and Tom bury 2009 (part 2)

Over the course of New Year's weekend, by way of dissecting the past year in DC and Marvel superhero comics, Robot 6 columnists Tom Bondurant and Carla Hoffman traded e-mail messages. This is part 2 of the result. Part 1 is here.

Batman and Robin #1

Carla: So, after Infinite Crisis, DC was like “Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman leave!” and then proceeded to skip the time that they had left, probably because it would be boring not to see their star characters not in their books. 2009 only had Wonder Woman keep her post as Bruce Wayne and Superman have sort of ditched their titles. How’s that workin’ out for you? Excited to see "Bruce Wayne Reborn?" Think Superman even needs to be accessible to the new reader anymore?

Tom: We’ve talked before about the Dick Grayson Batman, and on the whole I’ve liked both the idea and the execution, but it is a weird balancing act. It can’t be too different, or it’ll be the ‘90s and Jean-Paul all over again -- but it can’t be too much the same, because then what’s the point? Obviously Morrison has pulled it off most effectively in Batman And Robin, but I liked the Winick/Bagley issues of Batman too. I’m eager to see how Dick/Batman fits into the new Justice League.

As for the Superman books, they also remind me of the ‘90s, and particularly the days of the “weekly” Superman comics where the supporting cast was so huge that Superman was practically an afterthought. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, because I do think Superman can be unnecessarily complicated. I mean, to me the basic Superman image is Clark ripping open his dress shirt and muttering “this looks like a job for Superman!” If Nightwing and Flamebird and Mon-El had been able to capture some of that over the past year, I think the books would have been better-received. Instead there’s this whole “the world hates the S-shield” plot wrapped around a pretty familiar government conspiracy. Parts of it have been good, but sometimes I hope it satisfies everyone’s need for big convoluted storylines. [CH: Good call!] And I am looking forward to the "Batman Vs. History" miniseries, because how can you not want to see Grant Morrison writing Pirate Batman?

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The Grumpy Color: Tom and Carla bury 2009, Part 1

Blackest Night #6

Over the course of New Year's weekend, by way of dissecting the past year in DC and Marvel superhero comics, Robot 6 columnists Tom Bondurant and Carla Hoffman traded e-mail messages. This was the result.

Yeah, that's right, e-mail. Why do things the easy way?

Tom: Okay, Carla -- it’s the end of 2009, Blackest Night is in the home stretch, Siege is ready to start, and it’s our job to make sense of the past year.

First question: should Marvel be worried about the “Blackest Night surge” of the past two months?

Carla: Direct answer: no.

Longer, more thoughtful answer: Heck no.

“Okay, take this seriously Carla” answer: Last year, at this time, Marvel was hip deep in Secret Invasion tie-ins. The fact that DC has learned that slapping a banner on your books sells more copies is just proof we’re finally down to business. Whether that business is being bought by a multi-billion dollar entertainment corporation or learning that telling fans that one book is going to have catastrophic consequences throughout the entire universe catapults that book to superstar status, it all comes down to promoting the industry. Marvel’s been heralding big tent events for the past how many years with banner books and aftermath tie-ins, so for DC, it looks like they finally got the formula right.

TB: Well, DC has been doing “bannered books” since Crisis On Infinite Earths, but yeah -- it seems like Blackest Night has hit some kind of fan sweet spot. Generally, though, I think that comes from a relatively simple premise plus the “power of Geoff Johns.” It seems to be enough, because previous DC crossovers sure haven’t had the coattails BN has.

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The Love Song Of The Every-Wednesday Reader

Grumpy Old Fan

Let us go then, you and I,
For the sixth issue of Blackest Night is nigh
And we’ve been about as patient as we’re able;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
We muttering entreats
Of fantasies depicted in panels
And lurid stories they are wont to tell:
Never mind the sometimes tedious arguments
Or mercenary intent;
Which leads us to an overwhelming question ...
Oh, not “don’t ask -- just buy it!”
More like “it is here, so why not?”

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Night's end: DC Entertainment comic-book solicitations for March 2010

Grumpy Old Fan

I go into the March DC solicitations a little sadder, not because my self-esteem is tied to Roy Harper’s, but because I actually think I’m going to miss seeing what’s next every month for Blackest Night. It has been such an over-the-top series, in both good and bad ways, that this batch of solicits feels more hollow without a nominal amount of miniseries and other tie-ins.

Nevertheless, in the wake of the big Green Lantern-centered event are a handful of smaller character-centric storylines, with March showcasing Brainiac’s return and a whole new set of woes for Team Arrow.

All that plus the usual comings, goings, and collections, so let’s get right to it!
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So you grab a piece of something that you think is gonna last

Grumpy Old Fan

Into DC and Marvel’s ongoing game of compare-and-contrast comes the just-announced Legacies miniseries, ten issues starting in May 2010 which will guide the reader from the Depression to the mid-21st Century. It’s the history of the DC Universe -- not to be confused with another upcoming DC project -- as seen through the eyes of a normal family.

In other words, it’s DC’s version of Marvels.

This is not necessarily a bad thing.

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"Earth" tones

Grumpy Old Fan

DC’s upcoming series of “Earth One” original graphic novels has garnered a good bit of commentary, much of it tepid to negative.

Brian Hibbs says it doesn’t make the best economic sense.  Chris Butcher explains the various hurdles to successfully cracking the bookstore market.  Living Between Wednesdays notes that the current Superman: Secret Origin miniseries hasn’t even finished.

Because DC is prone to revamps and relaunches, “Earth One’s” format is the story (see also Wednesday Comics). Not only does “Earth One” present A-list characters in something other than 22- page installments, it seems geared more directly towards bookstores than towards the Direct Market. I dinged DC for not distributing WC more widely, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here.

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Meanwhile, 25 years later...

Grumpy Old Fan

As longtime readers know, I often preach the virtues of “diversity,” whether in genre, style, or approach. Well, now it can be told -- apparently I have been channeling a “Meanwhile” editorial written by Dick Giordano (then DC’s Executive Editor) more than 25 years ago.

The editorial appeared in comic books cover-dated October 1984, which meant it was actually published around July of that year (August for books bought on the newsstand). Obviously the comic-book marketplace was vastly different then, with both DC and Marvel not yet fully invested either in the direct-sales market or in formats other than 32-page singles. Nevertheless, I thought Giordano’s points were sufficiently provocative to revisit.

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If by "river" you mean "vibrational barrier" and by "woods" you mean "transmatter chamber," then yes

Grumpy Old Fan

Despite the fact that most of them were published in summer, Thanksgiving is always a good time to reminisce about the annual meetings of the Justice League and Justice Society. Back in the day, these meetings were special because, by definition, they were built around the idea of an "alternate" DC history. Readers could compare and contrast two demonstrably different versions of the Flash, Green Lantern, and Atom; and even get a glimpse at what Superman, Batman and/or Robin, and Wonder Woman would look like decades down the road. In the 1970s, when the Justice Society gained a younger generation, characters like Power Girl and the Huntress played well off their Earth-1 "relatives." This reinforced further the notion that the two teams were branches of the same family tree. Such sentiment is certainly Thanksgiving-y, regardless of the season; and the fact that these stories were annual traditions didn't hurt either. Still, just as the fourth Thursday afternoon in November can easily find one doped up on poultry and zoned out on football, sometimes simply being with family isn't enough.

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Be mine, Star Sapphire: DC Entertainment Comic-Book Solicitations for February 2010

Grumpy Old Fan

February finds DC's superhero books gearing up for various endgames. The month begins with the end of the World Of New Krypton miniseries and ends with the final issue of Cry For Justice. Blackest Night and Superman: Secret Origin present their penultimate issues, Titans reaches a stopping point, and the revamped Batman line closes out its third quarter. Given the publisher's track record, I suppose that means a month or two of relative calm before the next round of character-specific events starts. (The 700th issues of Superman and Batman are right around the corner, relatively speaking.)

But that's still in the future, and just like a box of chocolates or a big pile of valentines, there's a lot right here....
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Hey kids, comics: a Grumpy Old Primer

Grumpy Old Fan

I am always glad to talk comics with Carla Hoffman, especially when she makes me think hard -- and that's the case today.

In her capacity as a retailer, Carla has been wondering about the relative accessibility of any given DC title, preferably in single-issue form (to accommodate those who, reasonably enough, might not want to start with paperbacks).

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