Black Lightning
Grumpy Old Fan | Death, diversity, “definitives”
Justice League of America #173
It’s taken me a couple of weeks to sort out my feelings about Ryan Choi’s death. It should go without saying that all of these feelings are negative. Ryan and his All-New Atom supporting cast were the core of a very fun comic book; and I thought Ryan made a good successor to Ray Palmer (who was missing in action for most of ANA’s run).
Accordingly, I started off angry at DC for its callous attitude towards the character, and honestly, I’m still a little angry. Regardless, that anger and frustration has developed into lingering disappointment. Specifically, I’m disappointed that DC continues to use death as a storytelling crutch. (John Seavey says it better here.)
However, I’m also disappointed in DC’s apparent unwillingness to let its superhero line develop naturally. There was nothing wrong with the Ryan Choi Atom. If anything, he was too superficially similar to Ray Palmer’s Atom: powers, costume, hometown, even occupation. Heck, they knew each other! I can see how this would make Ryan redundant once Ray decided to start superheroing full-time, but it’s not like Ryan didn’t have a day job. If you want to sideline someone like that, you let him go back to civilian life — you don’t kill him.
- May 27, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Talking Comics with Tim: Cully Hamner
Cully Hamner's The Question
Cully Hamner is an artist who never disappoints me. So I was immensely pleased that he and I were able to finalize this email interview in the chaos of the holiday season just in time for our one-year anniversary at Robot 6. We start the interview discussing his current collaboration with Greg Rucka on The Question co-feature in Detective Comics. From there, due to the film that is currently in production and the trade paperback collection that was released in mid-2009, we discussed his 2003/2004 Homage/Wildstorm collaboration with writer Warren Ellis, RED. There’s so many projects I could have discussed with Hamner, but I’m grateful he was willing to discuss RED to the degree he did. Hamner is clearly an artist who looks forward, not back–which makes me appreciate his indulging my RED interest in this discussion.
Tim O’Shea: How hard is it to convey emotion with the Question, the face is taken out of the dynamics, but you do still give a hint of her facial dynamics in certain scenes?
Cully Hamner: It’s a matter of considering that, even though you see no specific facial features, the planes of the face are still there and will react to light and shadow. It’s not a total blank, you know, Renee’s real face is under there, along with a range of expressions. So, when I look at it like that, it becomes a much simpler thing than you might think. So, what I do is just go ahead and draw an outline of the modeling on the face, and Dave McCaig (and before him Laura Martin) colors over that, and then drops my linework into a color. It’s not a full range of emotion like a detailed face would have, but I’ve been able to get across a few things well enough. Seems to work.
- January 2, 2010 @ 12:55 PM by Tim O'Shea
Talking Comics with Tim: Matt Wayne
The Brave and the Bold 24
Matt Wayne‘s latest work for DC comes out this week, The Brave and The Bold 24, featuring the “first meeting of Static and Black Lightning” (as detailed by DC here). Given that Wayne was a Milestone editor back in the mid-1990s, this marks a return to some old friends for the writer. In addition to discussing his comics work, we also discuss his career in animation in this email interview.
Tim O’Shea: You’re shifting Brave & Bold gears, as you wrap up a stint writing the DC Kids Brave and Bold, you will be writing the non-kids line The Brave and The Bold 24, where Black Lightning and Static team up for the first time. With two heroes with similar powers, did you enjoy getting to show their differences in this issue?
Matt Wayne: Sure, any team up’s going to have that aspect to it. For instance, my next episode (Menace of the Conqueror Caveman!) of the Batman: Brave and the Bold show [to be replayed this Thursday, June 18, according to IMDb {check those local listings}] will pair Batman and Booster Gold, and they’re both gadget guys. The differences between the two need to come out in the course of the action, or it’s not a good team-up. There isn’t much in life that’s more entertaining than putting two toddlers in a wading pool and watching them compare belly buttons. But if anything can top that, it’s hero team-ups done right!
- June 15, 2009 @ 12:00 PM by Tim O'Shea