Green Lantern vol. 2 #151

First off, I must acknowledge a significant omission from last week’s Before Watchmen post. I had forgotten about the agreement under which the rights to Watchmen would revert to its creators if the collected edition were out of print for over one year. Accordingly, I characterized Watchmen as work-for-hire. Because DC has never let Watchmen go out of print, as a practical matter I would argue that it’s been treated like a work-for-hire project. Nevertheless, the existence of that agreement adds another layer to the book’s history, and especially to Moore’s relationship with DC. While I don’t think it changes much of what I said, I still regret the omission.

Now then….

I have mentioned previously my odd relationship with Amazing Spider-Man. I have been reading it in single issues for a while now, and as a serialized superhero comic I like it pretty well. I will probably stop reading the singles at some point, most likely after Dan Slott leaves, because I don’t feel any particular need to follow it regularly (like I do with many DC titles).

However, I am pretty dedicated to catching up on the earlier issues through Marvel Masterworks. This is an expensive way to go, I know, but the Lee/Ditko and Lee/Romita stuff was worth it, and I have always been curious about how the title made its way through the tumultuous late ‘60s and early ‘70s. I’m up to Volume 13 now — haven’t read it yet, but things aren’t looking good for Gwen — and therefore just about to start the next big phase of Spidey’s development. I anticipate adding at least another couple of Masterworks to my bookshelves.

Indeed, I could supplement the Masterworks with various Essential collections of Marvel Team-Up and Peter Parker, which would go a long way towards scratching my ‘70s Marvel itches; but I have a feeling that at some point I will stop getting any more “classic Spider-Man” collections. Whether that point is in the ‘70s or ‘80s, or even in the ‘90s, post-Michelinie/McFarlane, I don’t know; but it’s out there.*

Conversely, last summer I reached the dubious milestone of having read just about every Green Lantern story since the Silver Age. I have an unbroken run of Green Lantern single issues from the 1976 relaunch forward, with Archives, Showcase Presents, and the Green Lantern/Green Arrow reprints taking care of the rest. Back in April 2010 I tried to point out the highlights, and thinking about the series today I realized there are just some stretches which don’t necessarily need collecting.

* * *

We’ll come back to Green Lantern specifically in a bit, but let’s first talk more generally about some of the collections coming in the fall. While I don’t like to encourage DC to market specifically to my demographic — fortyish fans who’ve been reading consistently for thirty-odd years — that list was pretty satisfying. Some eighteen months ago (although it doesn’t seem that long), I talked about a few arcs and/or series I’d like to see collected, maybe, someday; and darned if the new list doesn’t include a few.

In fact, eighteen months ago I was reconciled to enjoying Secret Society of Super-Villains only in single-issue form, and now I’m happy to have a more durable hardcover of the short-lived series’ first half. Similarly, Chase and Firestorm were both on the August 2010 list, and both are now represented by paperbacks. (Firestorm hasn’t yet gotten the complete-series Showcase Presents treatment I envisioned, but it is nice to have the first series and those Flash backups in one place.) Thanks to a revived reprint program, I’ve been catching up on Hitman through its paperbacks, and I’m eager to read what used to be the last Barry Allen story in Showcase Presents The Trial of the Flash.

Furthermore, DC now promises a few more items on my wish list:

– the “Twelve Trials Of Wonder Woman” (which got the Amazing Amazon back in the Justice League following her de-powered Mod phase);

– All Star Squadron (in Showcase Presents form);

– Amethyst, Princess Of Gemworld (also Showcase Presents); and

– Green Lantern: Sector 2814 Volume 1, reprinting the Len Wein/Dave Gibbons stories in which Hal Jordan quit the Corps and John Stewart became a full-time GL. I’m hoping that the follow-up I suggested — Steve Englehart and Joe Staton’s epic tale of Hal’s return, John’s ascendancy, and Guy Gardner’s revival — sees print in a Volume 2.

There’s also Legends of the Dark Knight: Alan Davis, reprinting the artist’s too-brief run with Mike Barr (and quintessential inker Paul Neary) on Detective Comics or the Adventures of Superman: Gil Kane hardcover, which looks like the start of a similar series for classic Superman artists.

Naturally, some outstanding requests remain: Blackhawk by Martin Pasko and Rick Burchett; Steve Englehart’s Justice League of America work (and, for that matter, his and Marshall Rogers’ Mister Miracle); Jason Todd’s early-‘80s introduction from the Gerry Conway/Don Newton/Gene Colan days on Batman and ’Tec; and, as always, ’Mazing Man and the Tom Peyer/Rags Morales Hourman. So yes, here I start off saying please, DC, don’t listen to me, and 400-odd words in, I’m back to making demands.

Again, I am excited for the Wein/Gibbons and Englehart/Staton GLs to be collected because I like those stories, and I’d be happy to have them in a more durable form. However, at some point I feel compelled to ask whether every GL issue is collection-worthy. As far as current comics go, it seems like the vast majority of DC’s output for the past few years has been collected, even if certain titles are no longer in print. Moreover, many of these collections come out almost reflexively, regardless of fan reaction to the original issues. Here I am thinking of things like Bruce Jones’ widely-panned run on Nightwing, Superman: Godfall, Countdown: Arena, and … well, a lot of the Countdown-related stuff was pretty sketchy.

Now, from what I have learned of the comics business, there is no guarantee that anything will be collected. Specifically, I doubt that when Scott McDaniel agreed to draw Countdown: Arena, he knew for sure he could count on at least a trickle of income from paperback royalties. With an ongoing series, especially a decent-selling title like Nightwing, you start to expect collections, because DC knows it can make money selling Nightwing both in singles and in trades.

Problem is, though, what do you do with the runs which just don’t work? Presumably, those who wait for the trade can apply a certain degree of hindsight. In terms of Nightwing writers, folks liked Chuck Dixon, Devin Grayson maybe not so much, Bruce Jones not really at all, and Marv Wolfman and Peter Tomasi probably a little better. Still, was the Bruce Jones stuff really so bad that the Nightwing completist can feel comfortable ignoring it entirely?

Back to Green Lantern now, and specifically to the early ‘80s. In various forms, DC has reprinted all of the Silver Age GL from 1959 through the mid-‘70s. Green Lantern has been fortunate to have relatively-low writer turnover (albeit with a few short-timers) since 1959.** All of John Broome’s issues, and a good chunk of Denny O’Neil’s, have now been collected. It would probably take another couple of Showcase Presents to finish out O’Neil’s run, taking readers into the early ‘80s for a short stint under Marv Wolfman. Not only did Wolfman write one of my favorite GL three-parters (1980′s “Doctor Polaris Conquers the Universe,” issues #133-35), he and artist Joe Staton introduced the Omega Men and set up what was at the time a daring conflict between Hal Jordan’s Earthbound life and his sector-spanning responsibilities. Starting in issue #151, the Guardians exiled Hal into space for a year (comic-book time). The new regular creative team of Len Wein and Dave Gibbons brought him back in January 1984′s issue #172, which as you might have noticed is due to be reprinted in the upcoming Sector 2814 book.

All that is context for my assertion that the “exile” issues really aren’t that great. Because Mike Barr and Keith Pollard were the regular creative team, by and large the stories aren’t terrible; but they don’t take full advantage of the anywhere-but-Earth edict. In the aggregate they’re pretty generic, although I guess they make the point that Hal’s better off when he can go home regularly. From our perspective, perhaps the greater sin is that these stories in and of themselves aren’t critical to understanding the larger Green Lantern mythology. Obviously Denny O’Neil’s run stands as a contrast to John Broome’s work. Later on, Steve Englehart pulled Guy Gardner out of the coma O’Neil put him in, and Gerard Jones ran with the three-GL format Englehart created. Still, despite Barr’s place between Wolfman and Wein, I’d argue it’s sufficient merely to note that Hal was gone for a year, without having to know exactly what he was doing.

Accordingly, nothing especially fuels our need to have those issues collected; but does that mean they should just fade away? Here in the digital age, we can say no! with some confidence.

* * *

Of course, I was planning this post for last week, before Before Watchmen intervened. Since then I’ve been trying to consider my comics-reading habits more carefully. I buy a lot of collections, and honestly sometimes I am more excited about them than I am the monthly issues. (This is especially true for the Marvel collections, since I buy comparatively few Marvel books.) However, I am also mindful of the sausage-making which produced the original comics. I am sure that much of my shelves are populated with the work of creators compensated unfairly, if at all, for their efforts’ continued exposure.

In this respect, Tom Brevoort’s recent assertions — “[t]here’s really not much that goes on in the world of comics that the readers really need to be aware of [and besides] we got along for decades without this level of faux-transparency” — lend the economics of corporate superhero comics an even more ominous cast.

Make no mistake, I am probably a tremendous hypocrite when it comes to balancing social concerns with marketplace realities. I use (and no doubt rely upon) any number of products whose production depends on unsavory or outright deplorable conditions. Those choices boil down to convenience: I do these things because they work for me, even if they don’t reflect my ideal worldview.

That’s especially true when it comes to superhero comics. Although I hate how DC and Marvel have treated any number of creators, chief among them Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and Jack Kirby, I still buy Action Comics and Superman and Fantastic Four, and I’ll still see the Avengers movie. I simply can’t give up following these characters, because I learned to love them before I learned the rest. No doubt that makes me a hypocrite, but being hypocritical only undermines me as an advocate. It doesn’t mean I can’t argue for better conditions.

In fact, I’d argue more precisely if I knew just what the conditions were. As Mr. Brevoort said, we comics fans operate under “this level of faux-transparency,” piecing together behind-the-scenes pictures from what peeks through: the John Rozum/Scott McDaniel back-and-forth over Static Shock, Alan Moore’s description of the Watchmen contract, Dwayne McDuffie’s Justice League frustrations, etc. With regard to reprint collections, a retailer friend tells me that the amount of royalty payments depends on the nature of the reprint. Basically, if I understand correctly, black-and-white reprints pay less than color; so a Showcase Presents might be held up if one of the creators involved wants to hold out for a color version.

However, as DC gets more comfortable with the digital realm, that distinction goes away. In fact, since DC’s digital-storage costs are presumably much different from its printing costs, I imagine there is more room for all parties to work out mutually-acceptable financial arrangements. With fan outcry currently inflamed over Before Watchmen and various other lingering incidents, now strikes me as a particularly opportune time for real transparency.  Let us know how much of every reprint dollar goes to royalties, printing costs (or digital storage), marketing, etc.  That way, we can make informed decisions about where to spend our own dollars.

We fans will always want reprints. The comics marketplace gives us a tantalizing range of options. With digital sales, those options can expand exponentially. Before too long, it will be possible — if it isn’t already — for anyone with an e-reader to access any story DC has ever published, whether it’s Detective #27, Showcase #4, or the Barr/Pollard Green Lanterns. Therefore, those stories have a shelf life their original creators might not ever have imagined; and those creators (or their estates) deserve some share of the revenues those stories might generate, whether in print or electronically.

This is all probably a pipe dream, but it’s what’s fair, and it will go a long way towards making sure fans like me continue to buy DC’s reprints.

++++++++++++++++++++

* [Smart money’s probably on the Clone Saga.]

** [Let’s see how good the ol’ memory is: John Broome, Denny O’Neil, Marv Wolfman, Mike Barr, Len Wein, Steve Englehart, Jim Owsley (in Action Comics Weekly), Peter David (ACW), Priest (ACW), Gerard Jones, Ron Marz, Judd Winick, Ben Raab (forgot his last name), Marz again, and Geoff Johns.]

DC Comics’ new logo was officially unveiled this morning, followed by the release of mockups showing how the “peel” design would appear on digital devices, collected editions and single issues. However, a closer look at the latter reveals a comics conundrum: a New 52 cover for Batman, with the current creative team of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, is labeled as Issue 708, while George Perez’s Superman #1 cover is numbered somewhere between #700 and #709 (it’s partially obscured, making it difficult to tell). Here’s the thing — despite the New 52 covers, both of those issues were published before the New 52 was announced in July 2011.

Batman #708 was printed in March 2011 during David Hine and Guillem March’s run on the book. Any issue of Superman that begins with “#70_” would had to have been somewhere between June 2010 and March 2011, spanning J. Michael Straczynski and Chris Roberson’s runs. Assuming these are the numberings from March 2011, that would mean the final two issues should be Green Lantern #64 and Wonder Woman #609. Could this be a sign of the New 52 numbering being a last-minute change for DC? Or maybe DC wasn’t letting the outside firm in on its relaunch plans, which could indicate this logo has been in development since well before March.

Then again, it could just be a coincidence, but it is an odd oversight to present a new logo with numberings from issues that hit stores 10 months ago.

Whatever the case, it brings us to the question why the company didn’t roll out its new brand identity in late August, when it relaunched its entire line, or even last month, when it published a mammoth hardcover collecting all 52 first issues – one that now rests on shelves sporting the nearly seven-year-old “swoosh.”

DC’s “peel” logo will make its comics debut in March, when most of the covers presumably will bear the number 7.

Justice League #4

Publishing | John Jackson Miller takes apart the December sales numbers and finds that while comics were up for the month, graphic novel sales fell just enough to prevent the direct market from having its first up year since 2008. In fact, trades are down 16 percent from December 2010, and Miller spends some time discussing why that might be — and why next year might be different. [The Comichron]

Publishing | Houghton Mifflin has high hopes for Are You My Mother?, the new graphic novel from Fun Home author Alison Bechdel: The publisher plans a first printing of 100,000 copies. [Publishers Weekly]

Retailing | Diamond’s Retailer Summit will be held the two days before the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, with attendees receiving free admission to the April 13-15 convention. [ICv2]

Saga #1

Creators | Brian K. Vaughan speaks briefly about Saga, his March-debuting collaboration with Fiona Staples that promises “a nice mixture of some bounty hunters, monsters and all sorts of lovely threats.” [USA Today]

Creators | Joe Keatinge (Hell Yeah, Glory) writes about the immutability of Big Two superhero comics and the freedom that independent publishers like Image have to throw dramatic twists into their stories—and make them stick. [Image Comics blog]

Digital | Letterer Todd Klein reads Green Lantern #1 on his iPhone and finds the experience different, but enjoyable. [Todd's Blog]

Graphicly

Digital | HTML5 is in, Windows 7 phones are out: Micah Laaker reviews the past year for digital distribution service Graphicly and hints a bit at what the future may bring. [Graphicly Blog]

Digital | Which platform will survive? Matt Alexander speculates that as tablets get better and cheaper, dedicated e-readers will become a thing of the past. Ironic, no? [The Loop]

Cosplay | Hana, a Muslim anime blogger, discusses the complications of finding characters to cosplay while observing the rules of modest dress: “Clearly, some of you might be wondering what all the fuss was about, and I’m not saying that all Muslim hijab-wearing females are anything as habitually neurotic as I am. However, think of it more as an illustration of how my faith is the filter through which I experience the fandom and everything else. For me, it’s an entire lifestyle that affects everything I do, rather than just being a set of beliefs.” [Beneath the Tangles]

Red underwear makes a comeback in 2965

Before we jump into 2012, I have one last bit of business to take care of: toting up my 2011 predictions, and offering a set for the new year.

2011

1. The Green Lantern movie. Last year I predicted that GL would be “more lucrative than Captain America, not as much as Thor.  It ended up making $116 million domestically ($219 million worldwide), well behind Cap’s $176 million ($368M globally) and Thor’s $181 million ($449M globally). Also, it wasn’t as good. I liked it well enough (and from what I hear I may like the Blu-Ray version more), but apparently I was in the minority.

2. Superman and Wonder Woman after JMS. I just had questions for this entry: will Roberson and Barrows stay on Superman? (No.) Will Diana keep the jacket and pants? (No jacket, pants optional.) Finally, I asked “[w]ill sales improve once ‘Grounded’ ends?” Guess that depends on how you define “ends,” because “Grounded” closed out that Superman series; and the next issue of Superman was a New-52 No. 1 which sold almost 100,000 more copies than its predecessor. We may never know what might have happened to Superman without the New 52, but probably not that.

3. Batman: Earth One. I was looking forward to the next “Earth One” release in 2011, and I’m still looking.  [Edited to add:  Of course, DC picked this morning, well after I'd finished this post, to preview both Batman:  Earth One and Superman:  Earth One Volume 2.]

4. All Star Batman/Multiversity/Teen Titans: Games. Last year I had hoped to see all three of these long-delayed projects finally published. However, only Games, started in the late ‘80s and finished over 25 years later, made it across the finish line. Of the remaining two, I suppose we’re most likely to see Multiversity, although its Earth-4 installment may have to compete with an actual Watchmen follow-up.

5. The United Colors of Batman. I was “curious to see what [Batman Incorporated] look[ed] like at the end of 2011,” and now I know: a gigundo $7.99 special issue, a brief appearance from the Batman of Moscow in Batman and Robin, and the ongoing Batwing series. That’s actually not bad for a concept which grew out of Grant Morrison’s conceit that “every Batman story counts,” considering that all those Batman stories must now fit into an arbitrary-seeming five-year history.

6. End of the Archives? Last year I thought the Archives line was being phased out in favor of the hardcover Omnibii, paperback Chronicles, and black-and-white Showcase Presents reprints. Not so fast, my friend — there are more on the way.

7. Reprint floodgates. Were the Sugar & Spike Archives and the Flex Mentallo hardcover (coming in February) really “the first crack in the dam holding back collections of Suicide Squad, Captain Carrot, Secret Society of Super-Villains, and Jonah Hex?” Hmm — kind of. Suicide Squad got one paperback (although the second is at least in limbo) and Secret Society got a Volume 1 hardcover (with Vol. 2 coming in the spring), but still no Captain Carrot or Jonah Hex Volume 2. Still, among semi-obscure ‘70s and ‘80s fare, there was that Firestorm paperback; and collections of I … Vampire! and Night Force are apparently on the way. Good news for the 300 of us on the Internet who care about such things.

8. The changing shape of Events. Last January I thought Flashpoint and the Wonder Woman storyline “Odyssey” contained the seeds of a stealth crossover, and they’d eventually intersect in some kind of big-event way. That didn’t really happen, at least not how I pictured it.

9. The spirit of ‘86. Last year I wanted to see “a behind-the-scenes look at what went into that seminal year,” especially focusing on the revamps of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman supposedly called the “Metropolis Line.” That didn’t happen either, but we did get a whole slew of revamps.

10. DC on TV. I thought things looked good for “Human Target,” “Wonder Woman,” and the proposed “Raven” series. 0-for-3.

* * *

So, for 2012:

1. The Dark Knight Rises. Can it make a skillion dollars? Will it have Robin? Will it have subtitles?

2. The New 52, one year later. The more I think about it, the more I believe the New-52 books will each get at least twelve issues, regardless of sales. If any books are cancelled (and you have to think some of them will be), it’ll be in such a way that DC can claim they “told their stories,” not that readers grew tired of them.

3. The Next 52 (or however many). This is where I mention the promised-but-not-solicited Justice Society series and its Earth-2 setting. More to the point, here DC has a chance to expand the scope of its main line beyond that which made the New 52 a little too familiar. I got into this a little a few weeks back, but that was based on conventional wisdom and a little tea-leaf reading. Maybe a little more originality will work into the next batch of books.

4. Pandora’s playlist. Part of the reason I think the initial New-52 books will all get their twelve issues is this notion that they’re all building to some line-wide event involving the Hooded Woman from the No. 1 issues. DC says to call her Pandora, and she dresses like the Phantom Stranger’s aunt. From her I’m expecting some insight on the fate of the pre-relaunch timeline. Not that I care, of course.

5. More Watchmen. Really, what more is there to say? If the prequel rumors turn out to be true, whatever merits the stories themselves may have will surely be outweighed by the project’s inherent irrelevance. Also, the phrase “naked cash grab” won’t stop popping into my head. Still, there’s time for DC to repurpose the art which has been leaked thus far, and claim it’s all part of some commemorative portfolio. A big part of Watchmen deals with the nature of superhero comics themselves, so naturally it continually risks further exploitation. For characters reworked from their Charlton beginnings, so that DC could subsequently put out Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, The Question, et al., this is somehow ironic, sad, and inevitable, all at once.

6. More multimedia expansion. For various reasons, I haven’t owned a videogame system since my faithful Super Nintendo (almost twenty years ago — yikes!), and haven’t played a game-system kind of game regularly since X-Wing Alliance. Nevertheless, last year I heard nothing but accolades for Batman: Arkham City, which followed the similarly-praised Batman: Arkham Asylum, and which helped cement the Dark Knight’s insertion into another non-comics entertainment area. Although the DC Universe Online game doesn’t seem to have captured the gaming world’s collective heart, it’s still out there too, now free to play. Even if DCUO fades away, surely more Arkham-style games are in development. As for TV, “Batman: The Brave and the Bold” ended its Cartoon Network run, but “Young Justice” and “Green Lantern” will anchor CN’s DC Nation block of … well, a whole lot of different things, perhaps enough to warrant another new show just through the law of averages. Oh, and there have been announcements about new live-action TV series featuring Deadman and The Spectre. I got burned last year on DC’s TV prospects, so I’m not predicting anything about them. One thing’s for sure, though — DC is trying its darnedest to establish footholds in non-comics venues, even if that doesn’t translate into more comics sales.

7. Man of Steel and Green Lantern 2. Carla and I talked about these over the weekend, but I think we’ll learn a lot about the prospects of each by the end of 2012. Specifically, we should know more about whether either of those can replace the Batman (and/or Harry Potter) series as Warner Brothers’ go-to movie franchises. Now, this isn’t quite fair, because there will be another set of Batman movies after Christian Bale takes off his cape. Still, 2013′s Man of Steel is yet another chance for Warners to prove that Superman can be successful without either Christopher Reeve or the particular charms of “Smallville.” From what I have seen, I am hopeful but not optimistic. In fact, if the animated GL series does well enough, it could boost the chances of a live-action sequel, and it’s easier to replace a Green Lantern than it is a Superman.

8. Market share. December’s sales numbers show Marvel reclaiming the largest share of the Direct Market, after four months of coming in second to DC’s superhero titles. This doesn’t shock me, because Marvel just publishes more titles than DC does, and as the initial enthusiasm for the New-52 fades, the numbers tend not to be in DC’s favor. Still, now that DC has had a taste of the top spot, I wonder whether the publisher will start chasing it. Maybe it has started already.

9. Digital effects. Barring some unforeseen collapse, 2012 should provide a year’s worth of insight into DC’s day-and-date digital sales. Whether DC decides to share that with the public at large is another matter. If nothing else, though, digital sales help enforce a stricter shipping schedule for the print books. That could mean more changes in creative teams, whether temporary or permanent, but it could also help foster some every-Wednesday comics-shop habits in those coveted new readers. Of course, digital comics don’t need to conform to standard pamphlet lengths, and if DC decides to offer more digital-only (or at least digital-first) stories, it might open up new avenues for both readers and creators.

And that brings us to …

10. A return to storytelling. I have complained to various degrees about the problems the New-52 relaunch created for us longtime fans. I have also tried hard to be understanding, and to embrace the spirit of freedom and creativity a relaunch encourages. Accordingly, to the extent the New-52 books haven’t themselves embraced that spirit, I’ve been disappointed. If you have the chance to do what you want, you probably need to justify why you do the same old things. Here’s hoping that in 2012, the superhero line uses its still-new freedom wisely, as books like Animal Man, Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing, and Batwoman have, and that it cultivates an atmosphere of experimentation. If the DC of 2012 is built on solid fundamentals and good comics, that’ll be the best news I get all year.

Green Lantern vol. 3 #19

Last week’s post discussed a couple of interrelated topics which I thought deserved a little more attention. One comes out of the idea that there can be a “Superman done right,” and the other deals with the development of a concept over time. Both of these are central to any fan of modern corporately-owned superhero comics, and in fact they inform much of our debates. However, they raise some thorny questions.

First off, the notion of “[character] done right” necessarily implies that the character can be “done wrong.” This is nothing new. Many fans might even say that the “wrong” examples far outnumber the “right” ones. For me, though, the problem comes when the “right” examples vary from the original conception of the character.

We can find examples of this in the various Green Lanterns. Writer John Broome, artist Gil Kane, and editor Julius Schwartz revitalized GL by making him an honest, fearless test pilot; but after a decade of straightforward adventures, Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams turned that on its ear. O’Neil and Adams also created Hal’s new deputy, John Stewart, a passionate architect dedicated to social justice. Nevertheless, for his role on the “Justice League” animated series, John became a hard-edged ex-Marine. This portrayal found its way into the comics, where it superseded John’s original (and somewhat lower-key) background.

Hal’s first backup, Guy Gardner, may have gotten the biggest makeover. Created by Broome and Kane for 1968′s Green Lantern #59, Guy was the one-off star of a story which revealed that he could easily have been top dog in Sector 2814. As you probably know, O’Neil and Adams introduced John after putting Guy out of commission a few pages earlier. Several years later, after a brief stint with a power ring, Guy was left comatose, until writer Steve Englehart and artist Joe Staton revived him in time for Crisis On Infinite Earths. That cataclysm gave Englehart and Staton the opening to make Guy something of a renegade — not quite as bad as Sinestro, but not the most friendly to Hal, John, or their peers. Furthermore, once Guy joined the Justice League, writers Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis amped up his boorish qualities. Today, all of that has been swirled around and blended into a fairly nuanced personality, but it’s hard to say whether any of it goes back specifically to the brief glimpse readers got in 1968.

Indeed, all three Lanterns trace their roots back to the Golden Age’s Alan Scott, created by Bill Finger and Martin Nodell. Alan literally looks nothing like his descendants: blond with a red, green, and purple costume and a magic ring and battery which didn’t come from the planet Oa. (Well, not directly, and not at first.) So do we judge how faithful Hal, John, and Guy are to Alan? Can we?

It depends on how we view the character of “Green Lantern,” and it brings me to the second prong of today’s post. Although none of us superhero fans are getting any younger, I suspect there are few of us who remember Alan as the only GL. Heck, I wonder how many of us remember a time before Guy or John. It’s not a stretch to suppose that the vast majority of superhero-comics readers see “Green Lantern” as one of DC’s legacies, albeit one which allows (if not encourages) multiple Lanterns to coexist. Put another way, “Green Lantern” isn’t a single character, it’s an idea — hero with magic ring — which runs through decades’ worth of stories and several individual characters. Accordingly, we judge how faithful those characters are to the abstract idea, not necessarily the creators’ intent. Again, we do this in large part because that’s what we know. That’s all we have known. We can try to put ourselves in the place of a reader from the ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s, whenever, but by and large that’s not our true perspective.

I was reminded of this over the weekend when talking about Star Wars, and specifically how to introduce various younger family members to the Galaxy Far, Far Away. To me, it came down to a couple of factors: the “padawan’s” age, and whether she was interested in the films as one coherent story. Basically, I figured that if a kid didn’t know about a certain big spoiler, she might as well start with Episode I and go all the way through to VI. However, I know that won’t apply in most cases; so generally, I’d start with the 1977 original (as amended, unless one doesn’t mind VHS) before going back to The Phantom Menace. Sure, you have to watch Episode IV twice, but what’s wrong with that?

The larger point, though, is that Star Wars has developed from a single game-changing blockbuster to a familiar, almost constant presence in pop culture. Like many of you, I can remember a world without Star Wars, and therefore I can remember what it was like in the beginning. When I was 8, the only way to see Star Wars was in the theater, and we had to wait a year (uphill, both ways, in the snow) for the first toys. By contrast, today’s adolescents can watch the movies (or the “Clone Wars” cartoons) on the DVD players in their parents’ cars while on their way to Target for the latest action figures and weaponry.

Wow, that sure sounds like Grandpa Simpson, huh? (Speaking of constant presences in pop culture….) I can flip it around just as easily, because those Green Lantern Archives and Showcase Presents are full of stories from before I was born. Fandom has a certain “unearned” quality which is almost unavoidable in such cases, for the simple fact that these longstanding works have become ubiquitous. It was a big deal in 1991 when Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire and Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy’s Dark Empire came out, because Return of the Jedi was eight years in the past and Marvel’s SW comic had been gone for five. Still, what does it matter in the greater scheme of things if Zahn’s novel or the Dark Horse comic were a new fan’s first glimpse at the GFFA? What if today’s fans got hooked first by Phantom Menace or this season’s “Clone Wars?” Without new converts, fandom dies, and the best the old-timers can hope for is that the newbies at least appreciate their roots.

Even so, sometimes those roots are hopelessly tangled. We can’t ignore the shoddy treatment many creators have endured after being cut out of their characters’ successes — but at the same time, we tend only to know these characters in their current forms, in some cases far removed from their first appearances. As a kid, I recognized Superman as drawn by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson, and Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s stories were artifacts of the distant past. Today, I buy Superman comics because of my enduring affection for the character, although that affection comes from having discovered a version of him decades in the making. Regardless, I remain grateful to Siegel and Shuster for their creation, and I want their legacies treated properly.

Thus, I am still trying to work out how to balance my fannish desires with those moral imperatives. Some things, like the Siegel and Shuster estates’ legal rights, aren’t for me to determine. I can control my comics-buying habits, but for various reasons (including this column) I don’t see me boycotting DC anytime soon. Instead, I try to give credit where it’s due while never losing sight of my pastimes’ beginnings. Whether I was there at the start or came in late, I’m one of their historians, and that’s what comes with the job.

Thanks to the ever-resourceful Mike Sterling for the find, you don’t have to burrow through Previews to see DC’s finest the way Superman can see them with his x-ray vision. The vision of a green-tinted skull with the superhero domino mask is frightening in itself.

I, for one, fully endorse this trend and hope the line is successful enough to we can see more shirts in the line. Who wouldn’t want to see how Plastic Man’s skeleton looks when it bends?

You can find images of each shirt after the jump.

*****

Justice League America #61

Don’t ask me how I remember this, but it was just about twenty years ago that the first previews of Dan Jurgens’ Justice League began appearing. After five years, the “bwah-ha-ha” era was winding down, and Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis were leaving Justice League America. Giffen was also stepping away from plots and breakdowns for Justice League Europe, with JLE’s scripter Gerard Jones taking over as the book’s only writer; and Brian Augustyn replaced Andy Helfer as both books’ editor.

With a number of the New 52 titles changing creative teams before they’re even a year old, it’s too early to start talking about any long-lived, let alone definitive, runs on a particular book. Still, DC clearly hopes these books will be around for a while, even without the folks who launched ‘em. It got me thinking about past changes of the guard, and how they have followed some well-established interpretations.

* * *

Let’s begin with the Jurgens League, which was a big part of a wider effort to establish the Justice League as a mini-franchise. In the spring of 1992, the League family included JLA and JLE, as well as the oversized anthology Justice League Quarterly. “Breakdowns,” an epic crossover between the two monthly books, left the two teams pretty much disbanded, only to reunite (with some newer, higher-profile members) in the one-shot Justice League Spectacular. Although the overall effect made JLA and JLE less wacky, the changes also tried to give the books more of a high-adventure feel, deliberately trying to evoke the Silver Age team. The covers of JLA #61 and JLE #37 each paid homage to early Justice League of America moments, with JLA’s copying Justice League of America #1 and JLE’s parodying the original team’s origin (from JLofA #9).

Justice League Europe #37

In hindsight, it was part of a cycle which should be familiar to longtime Justice League fans. As a response to the “Detroit League’s” lineup of lesser-knowns, Giffen, DeMatteis, and penciller Kevin Maguire had built Justice League International around veterans from the original team (Batman, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter), familiar characters with no previous League affiliation (Mr. Miracle, Dr. Fate, Captain Marvel), and those newer to the spotlight (Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Captain Atom, Guy Gardner, Dr. Light). For years the JLI was successful without the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, or Hal Jordan, mostly because it poked fun at the kind of omnipotent super-team to which they would belong. However, when Jurgens and Jones (and JLE’s new artist Ron Randall) took over, the two Leagues expanded to accommodate exactly those characters. Superman joined Beetle, Booster, Guy, Fire, and Ice in Justice League America, while Power Girl, Flash, Crimson Fox, and Elongated Man welcomed Hal, Aquaman, (eventually) Wonder Woman, and (for the first arc) Batman into Justice League Europe.

Strange as it may sound, this was a big deal at the time. After a few years of post-Crisis On Infinite Earths creative renovations, DC was starting to rediscover the Silver Age. Jurgens’ first villain was Xotar the Weapons Master, not seen since 1960′s Brave and the Bold #29, and his last big storyline involved Doctor Destiny and a twisted version of the Satellite League. Intervening was 1992′s “Death Of Superman” storyline, and since Superman was part of the League, Doomsday got to sideline Booster and put Beetle in a coma. There’s some metatextual hay to be made out of a Silver Age pastiche featuring self-referential post-Crisis characters being decimated by an early-‘90s stunt-plot built around killing one of the world’s most recognizable pop-culture figures, but in the end it was just a big mess. Jurgens’ JLA ended up with Wonder Woman, Guy Gardner, Maxima, the Ray, Black Condor, Agent Liberty, and Bloodwynd, and Jurgens left soon thereafter. When the JL books were reshuffled a year or so later, Gerard Jones was the new writer, and the cycle began anew.

Teen Titans vol. 2 #1

As it happened, Jurgens also ended up taking over the Teen Titans from longtime writer Marv Wolfman. Of course, Wolfman’s association with the Titans went back to the late ‘60s, but he’d really made his mark in 1980, in collaboration with artist George Pérez. Wolfman stayed on New (Teen) Titans for some fifteen years, and by the time Nightwing put the book to bed with issue #130, there didn’t seem to be much more to do with those characters. Accordingly, Jurgens started fresh in Teen Titans #1 (October 1996), with a group of super-powered youngsters sharing a common origin. Leading the group was the Atom, stuck in the body of a 16-year-old following a temporal accident, and helping to mentor them was Mr. Jupiter, a figure from one of the original Titans’ other relaunches. Jurgens’ Titans lasted two years, although issue #12 featured the originals in the start of a four-part storyline and Captain Marvel Jr. joined around issue #17. The book ended with issue #24, but the original Titans reunited in 1998′s JLA/Titans miniseries, and one of Jurgens’ characters (Argent) joined the subsequent Titans title. Argent even appeared in the seminal JLA storyline “Rock Of Ages,” albeit as one of the last superheroes standing after Darkseid’s global conquest. With the Titans’ New-52 history uncertain, who knows when they might pop up; but for the most part, they made it through the past few crossovers relatively unscathed. However, DC hasn’t tried a completely-new Titans book since then (not counting the recent all-villains Titans, that is), and I would say the feature is subject to the same ebb and flow of big-name characters as Justice League is.

Speaking of ex-Titans, The Flash vol. 2 was lucky enough to have only a handful of writers during its twenty-year run. Mark Waid spent some six-and-a-half years writing (or co-writing with Brian Augustyn) Wally West’s adventures, most notably letting Wally come to grips with his place in the Flash legacy. Waid also gave Wally a distinctive, matter-of-fact voice appropriate to a character who’d spent most of his life with super-speed. Accordingly, when Geoff Johns took over Flash, he inherited a well-adjusted protagonist and didn’t try to fix what wasn’t broken. Instead, Johns focused on Wally’s surroundings: breathing life into the blue-collar, hockey-loving Keystone City; offering new perspectives via detectives Chyre and Morillo; and famously focusing on the Flash’s Rogues’ Gallery. Johns stayed on Flash for five years, effectively wrapping it up in time for an Infinite Crisis-related relaunch.

So, can we draw some conclusions from these three disparate examples? I doubt there are any hard-and-fast rules, but I do have some observations. First, despite writing and drawing both, Dan Jurgens was asked to do two different things on Justice League America and Teen Titans. Essentially, JLA picked up where Giffen and DeMatteis left it, except that a) Jurgens tried to fold it into the Superman titles and b) Jurgens wasn’t nearly as funny. (His recent Booster Gold work was a lot better by comparison.) Conversely, Teen Titans was supposed to be something new (if grounded in the familiar DC universe) and turned into something pretty familiar when the new stuff failed to catch on. By contrast, the new stuff in Johns’ Flash was mostly new perspectives on familiar elements, like Keystone City and the Rogues.

We tend to forget it because Gail Simone was associated with the characters for so long, but Chuck Dixon was the original Birds Of Prey writer, guiding Black Canary and Oracle through various one-shots and miniseries before writing the first forty-six issues of the original ongoing series. (Terry Moore and Gilbert Hernandez each wrote a few issues in between Dixon and Simone.) Dixon’s BOP was a distaff version of his other DC work, which at the time included Nightwing, Robin, and Green Arrow. It was hard-nosed, no-nonsense storytelling; and although there were some relationship issues, the series was more action-oriented. Today, naturally, we remember Simone’s BOP for its characters: Babs, Dinah, Helena, Zinda, Charlie, et al. Again, like Johns, Simone took what Dixon left and gave it her own perspective. (I try not to sound like Paula Abdul, but there it is.) Simone ended up writing more issues of Birds Of Prey than Dixon did, and now she surely comes to mind more readily than he does. Still, the fundamentals of the feature didn’t change all that much.

Doctor Fate #25

Of course, other titles underwent more radical changes. When J.M. DeMatteis and Shawn McManus left Dr. Fate after two years, writer William Messner-Loebs and artists Vince Giaranno and Peter Gross changed casts almost completely. Stay with me, because this can get complicated: Dr. Fate was originally Kent Nelson, bearer of a mystic helmet which housed Nabu, an omnipotent Lord of Order. By the time DeMatteis and McManus launched their series, Nelson had died and Nabu was inhabiting his body, and Fate was a guy named Eric Strauss (magically aged to adulthood) and occasionally also Eric’s stepmother Linda. However, thanks to a series of events much too complicated to be summarized, the protagonists for Moore and Gross’s run were Inza Nelson (Kent’s wife) and Kent himself, back from limbo (or someplace effectively similar), with Kent’s original body now the home to a Lord of Chaos named Shat-Ru. Thus, different faces on comparable roles. Both DeMatteis and Messner-Loebs used Dr. Fate to explore broad philosophical questions, although each writer went in a different direction. Where DeMatteis was more concerned with larger issues of creation, destruction, and significance, Messner-Loebs had Inza transform her neighborhood for the better, literally removing evil impulses from her neighbors and behaving like a benevolent deity. It was an engaging run, although it only lasted a little over a year before the book was cancelled.

J.M. DeMatteis got another crack at a nigh-omnipotent superhero when he wrote Hal Jordan as The Spectre. Previous writer John Ostrander cast the Spectre as the embodiment of God’s wrath, but DeMatteis gave him a mission of redemption. DeMatteis’ Spectre series (drawn first by Ryan Sook and then by Norm Breyfogle) lasted a little over two years, and with Hal’s subsequent return as Green Lantern, may end up merely as a forgotten footnote to his backstory.

And speaking of footnotes, I felt compelled to hunt down every issue of Who’s Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes just to understand the references in early issues of the “Five-Years Later” version. Following Paul Levitz’s departure, writers Tom and Mary Bierbaum and artist/plotter Keith Giffen relaunched Legion of Super-Heroes in the fall of 1989, but set it in a universe five years removed from the glittering utopia Legion readers had come to love. (Not being a regular Legion reader, I thought this would be a good jumping-on point, but I ended up jumping into a fast-moving stream without a float.) Ironically, while this version of the Legion was grounded firmly in existing continuity, a big chunk of that continuity had been rewritten to accommodate post-Crisis changes to Superman. Even so, the 5YL Legion survived for five years (appropriately enough), until Zero Hour provided the opportunity for a more complete housecleaning.

Firestorm #56, John Ostrander's first issue

Finally, there’s Firestorm, co-created by Gerry Conway in the mid-‘70s and guided largely by Conway for the next ten years. Firestorm, the fusion of student Ronnie Raymond and scientist Martin Stein, first had his own book, which lasted five issues before being cancelled. Because Conway also wrote Justice League of America, he soon brought Firestorm into the League and wrote the character’s contemporaneous backup series in Flash. Not surprisingly, when the ongoing Fury Of Firestorm debuted in 1982, Conway wrote its first fifty-three issues. Essentially, Firestorm was Conway’s baby until John Ostrander came along — and one of the first things Ostrander did was give Martin Stein cancer. That kicked off a whole slew of twists and turns and brought in a raft of new characters. It took both Ronnie and the Professor out of the picture for long stretches, leaving behind an affectless Firestorm who struggled to find his proper function. In fact, the Ostrander run delved deep into the mechanics of the character, laying the groundwork for how he’s perceived today. Ostrander’s Firestorm (drawn by Joe Brozowski, then Tom Grindberg, then Tom Mandrake) was a sweeping saga of hope, survival, and ultimately, transcendence, which took the character from relatively-mundane superheroics to Swamp Thing-style levels of cosmic responsibility. Firestorm was cancelled with issue #100, so Ostrander was on the book a little less than four years, but that was more than enough time to alter the character irrevocably. (It also made the character somewhat unrecognizable, but subsequent appearances got around that.) The Jason Rusch Firestorm revamp built on many of these ideas, and the current Fury Of Firestorms seems to be playing with them as well.

* * *

Naturally, all of these examples would be more appropriate if we were still playing by all the old rules. (It feels more than a little strange to talk about “the old days” and mean “August,” but that’s about where the New-52 has left us.) There aren’t too many New-52 books with long-established creative teams. Geoff Johns has been writing Green Lantern for about seven years now, Paul Levitz has been back with the Legion for a while, and despite the book’s considerable hiatus I guess you could say there’s only been one set of writers on Resurrection Man. For all intents and purposes, we’re probably in the post-Grant Morrison era of Bat-books as well.

Otherwise, though, I don’t feel comfortable pointing to any given New-52 book and predicting a lengthy tenure for its current creative team. That said, I don’t think any of the Bat-writers are going anywhere, Morrison probably has a good bit to say about Superman in Action Comics, and Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire seem settled-in for the long haul on Swamp Thing and Animal Man. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the New-52 titles got a good couple of years out of their current creative teams — but I wouldn’t be surprised either if the superhero line looked significantly different two years from now. Maybe it’s because we’re only on the first week of Month 4, but the whole thing has a weird sense of impermanence, like it’s just a more normal version of Flashpoint’s altered reality.

Maybe that’s by design: for good or ill, these folks are telling the stories they want to tell, and when they’re done, they’re done — whether that takes six months, one year, or five years. That’s not a bad way to go. It’s basically what happened with Sandman, Hitman, and Starman, each of which is remembered for its singular vision.

However, not every book has that luxury. I wouldn’t want to be the writer following Geoff Johns on Green Lantern. I suppose the examples above are meant for that person, and I guess one of the big takeaways has to do with a book’s fundamentals. If those fundamentals are maintained, and you can offer readers some new insights into familiar elements, you’re probably set for a decent run. That sounds pretty basic, but these days, there’s more freedom to redefine those fundamentals and/or play with readers’ expectations — and that’s assuming the reader has some expectations. In that respect, Dan Jurgens had it easy on JLA: just add Superman to Giffen and DeMatteis’ comedic cast, and let the reactions write themselves.

Today, though, DC is presenting the New 52 largely on its own merits. Readers may have expectations about Justice League, Superman, or Batman, but they’re not necessarily comparing Duane Swierczynski’s work on Birds Of Prey to Gail Simone’s. Indeed, the New-52 isn’t old enough to encourage such comparisons. Rather, if I’m being charitable, the superhero line is still finding itself in these early months, and DC is figuring out what kinds of readers its New-52 books are attracting. We’ll see in a few years whether they’ve settled down with particular creative teams, and then we can apply these examples more accurately.

As someone who spent a significant portion of his childhood in superhero Underoos, I can appreciate the sentiment behind these new DC Comics-branded boxerbriefs from Diesel and Warner Bros. — even if I can’t envision myself, as an adult (lacking the body of an underwear model), wearing them. Or, y’know, shelling out $34 for the pleasure.

However, if you’re itching to sport the logos of Batman, Green Lantern, The Flash and The Joker above your cotton- and elastane-clad buttcheeks — or to see someone else do the same — then these are for you.

There’s probably a “stocking stuffer” joke to be made — also, “The Fastest Man Alive” — but I’ll do my best to resist. Alas, the folks at Diesel apparently don’t have that level of restraint, as the (let’s hope intentionally) hilarious promo video for the underwear drops the phrases “heroes will rise” and “show ‘em what you’ve got.” You can check it out below.

(via DC Women Kicking Ass)

Green Lantern #3

Hey kids, it’s time once again for What Are You Reading?, a weekly look into the reading habits of your Robot 6 bloggers. This week our special guest is Rik Offenberger, comics journalist and public relations coordinator for Archie Comics.

To see what Rik and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.

*****

Brigid Alverson

This week’s reading included two totally different comics about young men haunted by their father’s work-related deaths, which is an odd coincidence because they are otherwise totally different stories.

Spontaneous

I had been reading the single issues of Joe Harris and Brett Weldele’s Spontaneous, but I sort of dropped off in the middle, so this weekend I went back and read all five issues, the entire story arc. It’s a great supernatural thriller about a young man and a slightly wacky investigative reporter tracking down the cause of multiple cases of spontaneous human combustion in a small town. The young man, Melvin, is driven by the memory of his own father exploding into flames before his eyes. The story stretches credibility a bit in places but also includes some good twists, and the pacing is perfect. I am also a huge fan of Weldele’s atmospheric, watercolor-styled art, which is perfect for a story like this. (You can read the whole first issue at Robot 6.)

Saturn Apartments is a sci-fi manga about a window washer in a huge ring-shaped apartment colony that circles the earth like the rings of Saturn. It’s located in the stratosphere, 35,000 feet up, so it’s not in outer space–the earth is right there, but no one lives there any more. Mitsu is the son of a window washer who disappeared while working on the lower side (the earth side), and when he starts at the same job, he wonders if his father wasn’t just trying to get to home to earth–but his first gig is in the exact same spot where his father disappeared, and that first-hand encounter changes his thinking. Saturn Apartments is your basic workplace manga in a sci-fi setting, and the entertainment in this book comes both from the technology and the personalities, especially the customers who’s windows Mitsu cleans. The ring-shaped complex is literally stratified: Wealthier people live in the upper levels, with access to natural light, while the lower class lives at the bottom of the ring in crowded, dark streets. The lack of natural light weakens their immune systems and makes them sickly. Creator Hisae Iwaoka uses this as a structural element in the story but doesn’t get too heavy-handed with it.

Tim O’Shea

Batman: The Brave & The Bold #13

Batman: The Brave & The Bold #13: Once Grant Morrison has praised someone’s writing and picked them to write a Steel back-up for his ongoing Action title, one would think it would be a good time to notice the creator. I’d already been enjoying writer Sholly Fisch’s run to date, but this month’s Calling All Robins may be the writer’s best issue to date. His ability to capture the voices of the various Robins, through the myriad incarnation (plus one Nightwing) of the character is uncanny. Rich Burchett’s prowess at capturing the characters’ look (no easy fit) is the icing on the cake.

Batman & Robin #3: Not sure which I like more in this series; Bruce Wayne as father figure, or Alfred as the grandpa (with espionage savvy). One thing that threw me with Peter Tomasi’s writing in this issue, I think he may have had Daddy Batman use Child (Assassin) Robin as bait in a trap. An odd thing for a father to do to a son, even when it’s Batman.

Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos Essentials Volume 1: I don’t know if it was intentional on the part of Marvel to release this Essentials volume on the same week of Veterans Day, but if not that’s one great coincidence. As much as everyone enjoys Jack Kirby’s art in some of this issues #1-23 collection (plus one annual), I really gained a newfound appreciation for Dick Ayers on this project. One funny quirk, the fact that Stan Lee named a story named “An Eye for An Eye” (issue #19) in which the then two-eyed Nick Fury…does not lose his eye.

Frankenstein

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #3: I would strongly recommend this book were it not for Jeff Lemire’s annoying narration crutch of S.H.A.D.E.NET (the computer program that runs operations and is seemingly technologically omnipotent or something). The monsters in this issue drawn by Alberto Ponticelli are a reason to check out the book, though. And I hope one day that they can get Arthur Adams (is he Marvel exclusive?) to draw a guest arc.

Black Panther #525: I normally would be overjoyed to have Shawn Martinbrough on art (working with David Liss’ strong script). And while I was quite happy to see him on this assignment, it seems like his art was too rushed in certain points. In fact toward the end of the story, a villain is introduced and I had to re-read the pages, as it appeared a page of the story was missing. But honestly as much as I am displeased by the quality of Martinbrough’s art, on his worst day, the artist outperforms 85 percent of current mainstream artists. And his noir approach is picture perfect, in a general sense, for this series.

Battle Scars #1: As little interest as I had for the Fear Itself event, I was pleasantly surprised by the basic premise of this limited series (Military veteran who is sought after by villains and protected by heroes). But I wonder how much we will see of series like this, given that editor Alejandro Arbona was recently let go by Marvel. Time will tell.

Rik Offenberger

Jughead Double Digest #175

Jughead Double Digest #175: Jughead is always good for a laugh, and this issue is no exception. Jughead is featured as his super hero alter ego Captain Hero. Which is the best name a comedy hero ever came up with. He is join in his super hero adventure by Big Ethel, who has been looking for any way to team up with Jughead since before I was born. Its both fun and funny, it’s everything you want from a comic book. Pal’s and Paws is the following story and I don’t know what Hotdog is such a good foil for Jughead. It’s hard to do animal stories in comics but Hotdog has always been able to bridge the gap between funny animal stories and strait comedy stories. The double digest is the greatest value in comics with more comic pages per dollar then any other format. The balance of the digest is filled with Jughead tales spanning the generations. If you are a new fan then all the stories are new to you, but if you are a long time fan you get to re-experience your childhood love of Jughead as the classic tales cover every decade.

Mega Man #7: Mega Man is a video game-inspired comic that is so good you don’t have to have played the game to enjoy it. However if you are a gamer, Mega Man follows the game closely and adds depth and enjoyment to the game you already love. In this issue Mega Man searches for his kidnapped sister. Clues to clear Dr. Light’s name is coming up empty. Dr. Wily is still at large. Maybe Mega Man can save the day with the help of the six Robot Masters, or are the robots wandering right into Dr. Wily’s latest trap? It’s the mixture of both fun and excitement that Ian Flynn delvers better then anyone else.

Green Lantern #3: Green Lantern was never one of my favorite characters, but it is one of the best comics on the rack. Geoff Johns’ have overcome my concerns about a character who only had to think about what he wanted and his ring would do it for him. Hal Jordan has been put through his paces from one set of personal torture to another. Currently he has been stripped of his ring and finds his non-super life is a total mess. His greatest nemesis, Sinestro has offered Hal his powers back and Hal has to answer to Sinestro. However it’s not entirely clear that Hal will survive the experience. To make matters worse, the Guardians of the Universe, who give Green Lantern’s their powers, are now considering pulling the plug on the entire corps and starting over.

Huntress

Huntress #2: I have been a Huntress fan since she first appeared in DC Super Stars. She started as the daughter of Batman and Catwoman, and after the first Crisis she became Helena Bertinelli, a girl whose family was killed by mafia rivals. She has always been a character who could stand up to Batman without flinching. In the current story, Huntress creator Paul Levitz tells a compelling story of Helena Bertinelli’s trip to Naples, where she ends up fighting the mafia to save young girls from a prostitution ring. It’s a full blown, hard core kick ass adventure that should please any comic readers and on top of it all, Marcus To’s art is outstanding.

FemForce #157: FemForce is the first all female team book. Bill Black and team have been building a small but very loyal fan base since 1984. I started reading FemForce with FemForce Special #1. This issue focused on the storyline involving Synn’s loss of control of her powers. The whole FemForce team have repaired to a high-tech government paranormal facility, The Colorado Project, where they hope to preform an experimental medical procedure to restore Synn’s balance. Stardust and Nightveil argue as to whether science or magic is the best cure to Synn’s ills. This issue also introduces N.E.D.O.R. Agents. Set in 1965, the strip answers the question, what if the Standard /Nedor heroes had been revived in 1960s, like the DC and Marvel/Timely heroes were? The store features Fighting Yank, Pyroman, Black Terror, The Commando Cubs, and other actual Golden age heroes, and introduces second-generation heroines Pyrogirl, Candi Future and Fighting Yank, jr. Plus Dinosaur Girl faces an Asian giantess who seems to be the first in an endless wave of new female Axis menaces.

Magneto Not A Hero #1

Magneto Not A Hero #1: Erik Lasher is the best villain in any comic. In that he is so complex that he can be written as both hero and villain. He is the Malcolm X to Professor X’s Martin Luther King. He wants Mutant equality now by any means necessary. He is also a holocaust survivor, who really believes “Never Again.” In this four part story a video surfaces of Magneto murdering members of an anti-mutant group. It’s not clear if the tape is real or a fake. But Erik must answer to the Avengers for the contents of the tape as well as deal with the reaction from within his mutant community. The thing that makes Magneto fun is playing the line between being a mutant rights activist and being a mutant terrorist. Skottie Young does a great job focusing on Magneto and how others deal with him.

Uncanny X-Force #17: In Uncanny X-Force, Rick Remender goes into familiar waters as we are in part 7 of the 8 part Dark Angel Saga. The Saga actually began in June 1986 when Apocalypse first appeared and started a storyline that led to the end of the Angel and the birth of Dark Angel. One of my favorite lines in the book is Warren saying “X-Men don’t kill” especially since Dark Angel does kill and the entire Uncanny X-Force cast are the X-Men who kill. You could even go as far to say they are child killers. The events in Uncanny haven’t matched up with Schism yet. If you are a long -ime X-Men fan there are lots of little payoffs with fond memories of Age of Apocalypse. Even playing up the Phoenix and Weapon X relationship. While I find this all to be great fun and well thought out, I don’t know if it is even accessible to new fans. I hope it is, because this is all the wild violence that made Wolverine a super star in the early days of Uncanny X-Men and now he is leader of a team of like minded mutants.

Closing time at Wayne Manor: 1969's Batman #217

Last week I asked why the Silver Age is so pervasive in DC lore. Even though that’s something of a rhetorical question, I felt like it was left largely unanswered. The short answer is that the Silver Age represents the modern DC Universe’s origin story, so you’re never going to get rid of it entirely, regardless of reboots, relaunches, and/or legacy characters. However, in terms of style and tone, things are naturally more complicated.

It’s hard for me to talk about the Silver Age without relating it to the subsequent Bronze Age, mostly because I grew up with the comics of the mid-1970s. I see the Silver Age as an era of wild ideas, told in standalone stories which were light on consequences, whereas the Bronze took those stories and ideas and extrapolated a more “realistic” status quo from them. This is not to say that the Bronze Age was some vast improvement, since realism in superhero comics is a tricky prospect at best.

However, to me that point of compartmentalization, at which a previous creative team’s run goes from an ongoing concern to a finished body of work, is highly significant. That’s when the rules governing a feature are established (or amended), and therefore that’s when the people in charge of that feature decide how (and how much) it can grow. The same applies in the aggregate to the universe those features share.

* * *

For the sake of discussion, let’s say the Silver Age started in 1956 with its version of the Flash, and ended in 1969, following such developments as the Doom Patrol’s deaths (1968) and a Robin-less Batman’s move out of Wayne Manor (Batman #217). We might also make a strong case for the end coming with Green Lantern #75 (March 1970), the last issue before Neal Adams joined Denny O’Neil for the landmark #76.

This lets us classify the Silver Age generally in terms of the aforementioned wild, standalone, consequence-free stories. Any changes or continuing subplots were short-lived and/or insignificant: Alfred’s “death,” Hal Jordan’s job-hopping, weddings in Flash and Doom Patrol, etc. By contrast, the characters “grew up” (sometimes literally) during the Bronze Age. The other Teen Titans graduated from high school, if not their original codenames. Clark Kent moved to broadcast journalism. Barry Allen grew out his crewcut, and both he and Jimmy Olsen gave up their bowties. And, of course, Green Lantern and Green Arrow questioned the very purpose of their superhero careers as they journeyed across America.

Here’s where it starts to get tricky. In a practical sense, you don’t get to the Bronze Age without going through the Silver. The great Green Arrow soliloquy from GL #76, which basically asks “what are we doing chasing bad guys when the real world is falling apart around us,” loses much of its impact if the reader isn’t at least aware that these guys have had long, colorful, and (allegedly) frivolous adventures. The specifics of those adventures are less relevant than their mere existence, because cumulatively those stories have established a certain familiar style — if not an outright formula — which in the Bronze Age can then be manipulated. It’s enough to note that the Flash was once turned into a puppet, or had a giant head, because those can serve later as nostalgic and/or ironic callbacks.

Accordingly, back in the day, I wasn’t overly invested in the specifics of the Silver Age. (Note: I didn’t read much of the Legion of Super-Heroes, which might have made a difference.) For a while Justice League of America had a two-page feature called “100 Issues Ago,” which was just what it sounds like. Along with the tabloid-sized reprints, it was my introduction to the Gardner Fox/Mike Sekowsky days, and I have to say, those stories seemed kind of weird to my grade-school eyes. In JLA #44 (May 1966), a villain called the Unimaginable (who had been trying to join the League, and was spurned) caused a handful of Leaguers to double in size, with further tragedy surely to follow. I don’t remember the exact plot, but the picture of an oversized Batman and Green Lantern freaked-out in tattered uniforms remains striking, and a little disturbing. Likewise, “Deadly Dreams Of Doctor Destiny!” (JLA #34, March 1965) features Wonder Woman forced to fight crime under an expressionless porcelain mask (alongside teammates saddled with similarly-debilitating gear); and while its plot has stuck with me more, the images are indelible. Maybe it was just Sekowsky — who, incidentally, drew Hawkman’s mask with these huge, dead, ever-staring eyes — but it was a far cry from the more naturalistic style of his successor Dick Dillin, who pencilled JLA from the late ‘60s until his death in 1980.

So to me the Silver Age was just different. Other creative changes, especially on the artistic side, reinforced these differences. Carmine Infantino was long gone, and Irv Novick was the regular penciller, by the time I started reading The Flash; and Mike Grell had a lot more in common with Neal Adams than with Gil Kane on Green Lantern. Although the difference isn’t really style over substance, the Silver Age’s distinctive style appears to be more enduring than its specifics.  To a degree this is understandable, if one’s goal is to make sense of DC’s output during the period. We think of the Silver Age — not unreasonably — as dominated by Infantino, Fox, Sekowsky, Kane, Julius Schwartz, and John Broome. However, the Mort Weisinger-edited Superman titles were also going strong, as were (for a few years, at least) Jack Schiff’s Batman line, still in its sci-fi period. Trying to harmonize all those disparate influences, let alone shape them into a cohesive, functional shared universe, is more of an aspiration than a plan. (Not that there aren’t some impressive timelines out there.)

Naturally, not every Silver Age story could survive the transition into Bronze Age realism, so DC’s fictional history tends to get lost in misty watercolored memories the farther back you go. There’s no DC equivalent of Fantastic Four #1 to mark clearly where everything kicked off, leaving us only with discrete scenes — an exploding planet, a botched robbery, a queen’s answered prayer — to stitch together into an impression of the DCU’s early days. Compare the treatment of the Golden Age stories in the context of Earth-2, where the original Action Comics #1, Detective Comics #27, etc., could be inserted with minimal fuss into that universe’s timeline. Such fidelity makes that Earth separate and distinct enough that today, we can take it or leave it, like a box of old photos stored in the attic.

However — and here I will indulge in yet another erudite metaphor — the Silver Age has long since left its narrative form behind, transcending it to become a state of mind. Talking about Identity Crisis and his Justice League stint, Brad Meltzer said that

One of the clear goals of Identity Crisis was to pull all those Silver Age stories back into continuity, and to acknowledge the glorious past. That doesn’t mean every story has to come in with the (way overused term) “grim and gritty.” But we also shouldn’t let them all be brushed aside either.

In fact, Identity Crisis centered largely around a JLA three-parter from the Bronze Age late-‘70s (#s 166-68, May-July 1979), and featured a beloved supporting character introduced during the Silver Age, and murdered by another Silver Age stalwart. Without getting deeper into a Meltzer/IC critique, it’s enough to note that reinforcing the canonical nature of those old stories is, on one level, “acknowledging the glorious past.” Yes, Jimmy Olsen was turned into all manner of creatures; yes, there was a Bat-Hound. In that sense, the Silver Age was a clear influence on DC’s superhero line for some fifty-five years. I’m not sure how much of those references will crop up in the New 52, but I doubt they will ever go away completely.

Regardless, Identity Crisis was not a Silver Age story. Neither was “Snapper” Carr’s return as a reluctant villain in JLA vol. 1 #s 149-50 (December 1977-January 1978), nor the brief reintroduction of Guy Gardner (soon to fall into a coma) in mid-‘70s issues of Green Lantern, nor the search for the Doom Patrol’s killers in New Teen Titans #s 13-15. We may want to reclaim the anything-goes spirit of the Silver Age — and in the ‘90s, Gerard Jones, Pat Broderick, and Mark Bright’s Green Lantern, Mark Waid and company’s Flash, and Grant Morrison and Howard Porter’s JLA came very close — but it takes more than a fondness for Easter eggs and an earnest devotion to continuity.

As someone who discovered DC’s superheroes well into their new-for-the-‘70s forms, I remain eager to see what they were like before all that. Certainly DC is happy to sell all manner of reprints to fans like me, and just this week I got an unexpected thrill re-reading the first comic-book pairing of Superman and Batman in World’s Finest Archives vol. 1. I’ll always appreciate Easter eggs and continuity references, although I understand how they might alienate new readers.

Still, if a new reader can get past that alienation, or can find a story which avoids the issue entirely, a shared universe with a rich history can be a fertile field of exploration. This is part of why I’ve been glad to see the “Retro-Active” specials and the Games graphic novel, and part of why I lobbied for a classically-minded Challengers of the Unknown revival last week. Getting in on the ground floor is exciting enough, but getting into something so big it’ll constantly seem new can be even more rewarding. The fact that the Silver Age has become this idealized state of mind, and not just a collection of wacky stories, only adds to its appeal.

That’s why, regardless of its relevance to the New 52, I think the Silver Age will endure. Not only was it too important to DC’s superhero line for too long, it has morphed into a general spirit of optimistic experimentation which, these days, can be a nice contrast. If current sales are any indication, DC can get along pretty well without those old references and retro-style plots — but I think that sooner or later, it will choose not to.

As I continue to wait patiently for word that I can put a Snoopy license plate on my car out here in California, Andy Khouri at ComicsAlliance brings word that Australians in the state of Victoria will soon be able to sport DC Comics heroes on theirs.

The character plates include Superman, Supergirl, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and Green Lantern, and for all but the Flash, you can choose a plate that either features the hero or their associated logo. Or, in the case of Supergirl, a pink license plate. As Khouri points out, the plates will sport images taken directly from the DC Comics Style Guide circa 1982, drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Dick Giordano, rather than the recently redesigned “New 52″ versions of the characters. They’ll become available on Nov. 30, along with several Looney Tunes plates.

Check out the plate after the jump, and for more information, visit the Vic Road Custom Plates website.

*****

Point One

Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy at our local comic shop based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on a “Splurge” item.

Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList, and tell us what you’re getting in our comments field.

Chris Arrant

If I had $15, I’d first get the third issue of my favorite New 52 title, Batwoman #3 (DC, $2.99). Seriously, J.H. Williams III is hitting a home run on every outing here when it comes to my tastes. Although the writing isn’t up to the level of Greg Rucka’s time on the book, it’s close and only bound to get better. Next up I’d get Point One #1 (Marvel, $5.99). I think this format–an extra-size preview book for what’s coming next–is an interesting experiment, and I’m intrigued most by the Nova story, but also interested to see what the others do. Third would be Uncanny X-Force #17 (Marvel, $3.99), to get the one-two punch of Rick Remender and Jerome Opena. Iceman as a bad guy? I dig this.

If I had $30, I’d get Wolverine #18 (Marvel, $3.99) because I love Jason Aaron and Ron Garney teaming up, and seeing them bring in Fat Cobra from Immortal Iron Fist is oddly perfect for the book. Next up would be my comics weak-spot, Top Cow’s Pilot Season book–Pilot Season: Anonymous #1 (Image/Top Cow, $3.99). After that I’d pick up Fear Itself #7.2 (Marvel, $3.99) despite the fact I wish Coipel was drawing this. Lastly would be Kirby Genesis: Silver Star #1 (Dynamite, $3.99) because I love this lesser-known Kirby creation and the artist on this, succinctly named Johnny D., looks worth watching.

If I had the time (and money) to splurge, I’d get the Simon & Kirby Library: Crime hardcover (Titan, $49.95). Lately I’ve had a keen interest on Jack Kirby’s lesser-known work during the 1950s and this seems to fill in a lot of the gaps for me. I’m excited to hold this in my hands and see what surprises it has in store for me.

Graeme McMillan

Silver Star

If I had $15 this week, I’d throw a bunch of it Marvel’s way, with the first issue of Battle Scars ($2.99) and the massive Point One ($5.99) filling up the majority of my budget quite nicely. Well done, House of Ideas. I’d also grab Dynamite’s Kirby Genesis: Silver Star #1 ($3.99), the first (of many, apparently) spin-offs from the enjoyable Busiek/Ross/Herbert series.

If I had $30, then I’d redress the balance a little by grabbing the third issues of some DC books: Demon Knights, Legion Lost, Green Lantern and Batwoman (All $2.99) would make my cut this week, with IDW’s Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #2 ($3.99) rounding out the haul.

For splurging, there’s really only one choice from my nostalgia’s point of view: Marvel’s Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus Vol. 1 oversized hardcover ($125) is kind of a must-have, what with it being my third-favorite FF run ever (Behind Lee/Kirby and Simonson). If only they’d offered it for $44.44 …

Chris Mautner

Princess Knight

If I had $15: No question, the first volume of Osamu Tezuka’s Princess Knight would be the first and only must-buy item on my list. This is one of those “Man, they’re never going to translate this series, are they?” books and I’m kind of awestruck that Vertical is taking a chance on it, even given the fact that they’ve become the Tezuka publisher of choice these days. It’s not that it’s such a controversial book as that it’s early Tezuka, which is sunnier, sweeter and less bizarre than the late period stuff they’ve been printing lately. At any rate, I’m excited to get this.

If I had $30: I’d find an extra $5 and pick up a copy of De Profundis by James Jarvis, an intriguing enigmatic comic about a pointy-nosed artist that wanders through an abandoned city before encountering a mysterious priest who gives him a commission job. I flipped through this at SPX, and while I didn’t have the extra cash to pick it up then, it did look like a worthwhile purchase.

Splurge: Again, an easy choice for me — the second volume of Jacques Tardi’s Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec from Fantagraphics. I’m on a big Tardi kick right now, having just recently read the first Adele collection, and am eager to experience more.

Michael May

Frankenstein

If I had $15, I’d spend most of it on my usual series: Demon Knights #3 ($2.99), Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE #3 ($2.99), and X-Men Legacy #258 ($2.99). I was lukewarm about the first issue of Huntress, but I liked it enough to check out the second one ($2.99). And though I’m not familiar with PC and Kristin Cast’s Harry Potter/Twilight mash-up House of Night, I like the art previews I’ve seen from Dark Horse’s adaptation ($1) and certainly wouldn’t mind paying a buck to learn more.

If I had $30, I’d add Reed Gunther, Volume 1 ($14.99) to read about my favorite bear-riding cowboy.

There are a few splurge items that caught my interest this week, but near the top of the list are The Zombies That Ate the World, Volume 1: Bring Me Back My Head! ($24.95) for the Guy Davis art and The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, Volume 2 ($24.99). If I had to pick one thing though, I’d get the Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus, Volume 1 ($125.00) because I’ve been wanting to read those stories for decades.

A Flash family reunion

Three recent bits of DC news are running together in my mind. Cumulatively they may amount to nothing — housekeeping details and/or fallout from the New-52 relaunch — but individually they seem significant, because they may well speak to the proverbial “reset button” which DC claims does not exist. Put simply, I think that reset button exists, I think it affects all of the New-52 books, and I expect it to be revealed within the next year or two. Whether it gets pushed, and/or how much resetting occurs, is another matter.

While it may be overprotective to put a SPOILER WARNING so early in the post, I realize some of you may want to discover these things as they are actually published.

I don’t blame you — I was trying to avoid the Wonder Woman thing, but that’s what I get for reading convention coverage. (And yes, I have seen the recent news about a certain Flash character.)

Anyway, SPOILERS for potential DC milestones big and small….

4

3

2

1

Let us now consider

– the deletion of the “Crisis” events from DC history;

– the rumored fate of Krypto; and

– the advice to “keep reading” for the fate of Wally West.

We can think of these items as, respectively, a) events which didn’t happen, b) circumstances which ensure particular events won’t happen, and c) events which might still happen.

* * *

DIDN’T HAPPEN

The “Crisis” events were watersheds in DC history. For our purposes they started with 1985′s Crisis On Infinite Earths, although COIE drew its inspiration from the annual Justice League/Justice Society team-ups, most of which had “Crisis” in their titles. In fact, the follow-up to COIE was originally going to be titled Crisis Of The Soul (and perhaps Crisis On Captive Earth, a title I remember seeing in various 1986 editorials), but it became Legends, and except for 1994′s Zero Hour, subtitled Crisis In Time, subsequent DC events stayed away from the C-word. However, 2004′s Identity Crisis started a new “Crisis Cycle” — not to mention a constant “crossover churn” — which included 2005-06′s Infinite Crisis, and which lasted officially through the end of 2008-09′s Final Crisis. (I say “officially” because 2009-10′s Blackest Night wrapped up a handful of Crisis-Cycle subplots, including the deaths of Aquaman, Ronnie Raymond, Max Lord, and the Martian Manhunter. Nevertheless, there weren’t supposed to be any more “Crisis” events after, duh, Final Crisis.)

Anyway, on a macro level the whole thing eats itself. Barry “Flash” Allen, the avatar of the Silver Age, dies in COIE, and his name and costume are taken up by his protege, the former Kid Flash Wally West. Wally appears in Legends and practically every other DC event for the next twenty years, and his “death” is teased too, first in Zero Hour and later in Infinite Crisis. However, Wally is still the Flash as of Final Crisis, which brings Barry back to life. Two years later, in Flashpoint, Barry (for lack of a better term) destroys the familiar timeline,* remaking it into the current New-52 under the supervision of a mysterious hooded figure. In short, Barry’s death in COIE set up some twenty-odd years of cosmic rumbling, and shortly after he returned, he helped restart and/or reorder all of history, twice — and by the way, in so doing he may have erased totally the events which both killed him and brought him back. This is the superhero equivalent of the magician tying two ropes together and removing the knot, so that only one uncut rope remains. It’s a neat trick for streamlining continuity, but in this case there are a number of people who had either gotten used to having the knot, and might actually have preferred the knot to stay in place.

Accordingly, Dan DiDio tried to clarify:

With so many characters and histories restarting, major events like Crisis are harder to place when they work for some and not for others. (that was one of the problems coming out of the original Crisis). While we are starting [approximately] five years into our heroes’ lives, we are focused on the characters present and future, and past histories will be revealed as the stories dictate. Yes, there have been “crisis” in our characters lives, but they aren’t exactly the Crisis you read before, they can’t be.

This gives Barry/Flash some options. If COIE never happened, then odds are good he never died (which is good, because if Final Crisis never happened either, it removes one way to bring him back). Even if he had died in the New-52 timeline — and it seems like DC has said he hadn’t, but bear with me — obviously he’s back, so it’s a non-issue. The most likely scenario is that Barry never died and COIE as we know it never happened, so that takes care of one continuity knot. DC can use the Anti-Monitor in the New-52 context without having to explain how he’s around and nobody remembers Barry being dead.

Slightly tricker to finesse are Hal Jordan’s other careers. In 1994 Hal, as the evil Parallax, destroyed the Green Lantern Corps. In 1996 Hal/Parallax sacrificed his life to restart the Sun. In 1999 a Parallax-free Hal (still dead) became the human host of the Spectre, and in 2004 a series of fortuitous events resulted in Hal being brought back to life and reinstated into the also-revived Green Lantern Corps. Considering the restatement of Kyle Rayner’s origin in GL: New Guardians #1, the initial Parallax stuff probably still happened, and Hal may have subsequently sacrificed himself as he did in 1996′s Final Night. However, I’ll bet his Spectre career is no longer part of his permanent record. Heck, the Spectre itself may now be part of the new Earth-2.

You get the idea — like it or not, DC continuity is so interrelated that the effects on even a few characters ripple into the larger superhero line. We readers must now accept the fact that this is, for all intents and purposes, a complete reboot. Not that it’s necessarily bad, but it’s something DC might just as well embrace.

WON’T HAPPEN NOW

That brings me to the rumor that Krypto the Superdog no longer exists in his friendly, white-furred, red-caped incarnation. Instead, I take it we’ll only see Krypto on pre-disaster Krypton, since the rumor holds that Krypto didn’t made it to Earth alive. I found this announcement particularly disturbing, because it tells me that DC is willing to close off certain storytelling avenues entirely, even if — or perhaps especially if — they are as frivolous as a super-powered dog.

Now, I am not going to go off on another “DC hates fun” rant, mostly because I remember the 1986 edict that Superman was the last Kryptonian, period, with no loopholes for gender or species. While it took fifteen years for the proper Krypto to come back (a supporting character had a non-powered puppy with that name in the meantime) and another few years after that for Kara Zor-El to land on Earth (again), DC only waited two years to unveil a new Supergirl, whose 1996 ongoing series lasted a very respectable 81 issues.

Still, the Krypto-is-dead-already type of news is yet another sign that DC is Very Serious about some things, if only for the time being. If the high sheriffs think a Dex-Starr/Krypto throwdown may be at all marketable, the Dog of Steel will be back quicker than Hoppy the Marvel Bunny on a date. It may not even require that pretext. I cannot imagine a DC which refuses absolutely to give its main-line Superman his favorite pet.

COULD STILL HAPPEN

See, as much as it protests that its superhero comics have put away childish things, DC is even more reluctant to let those things simply pass into memory. The current Shade miniseries, which appears to take place in pre-September continuity, is just one example. Its parent series, Starman, relied heavily on a DC Universe where legacy heroes were as common as Kennedys and Bushes in government. As such, it was pretty deeply rooted in decades of DC lore, adapting and updating those old stories for its own explorations. With the New 52′s emphasis on the here and now, DC can say it doesn’t publish series like Starman anymore — except that it clearly thinks there’s an audience for a follow-up like The Shade.

Ironically, what makes me think Wally West will be coming back as the Flash is the fact that DC seems to have written him (as the Flash) out of the New 52. If Barry hasn’t died, there’s no opportunity for Wally to succeed him. In fact, if Barry’s not dating Wally’s aunt Iris, it’s much less likely that Wally has become Kid Flash in the first place. That said, it’s entirely possible that a more mischievous Wally West could have snuck into Barry’s lab on a particularly stormy night and been drenched in lightning-charged chemicals just as Barry was, and is now running around in a homemade costume as the Kid Flash of Teen Titans — but again, that version of Wally won’t be the Flash anytime soon.

And if DC brings (or has brought) back Wally in the New 52, it’s only a matter of time before Wally becomes the Flash. History argues too strongly for it to be otherwise. DC could have rolled back its Batman timeline so that Dick Grayson was once again the only Robin, but too many people know (and like) Dick as Nightwing. Furthermore, too many people like Tim Drake and Damian Wayne to remove them from the picture. Granted, during the year or so that Barry and Wally shared the name and costume, they might have seemed somewhat redundant in a way that Nightwing, Red Robin, and Robin would not. Still, for twenty-five years Wally West was The Flash, the Fastest Man Alive, and Barry Allen was just part of his backstory. I understand perfectly why DC would want to focus more on Barry in the New 52, but Wally is as emblematic of that post-Crisis era as Barry was of the Silver Age.

Accordingly, if and when DC reveals that reset button — perhaps in conjunction with revelations about the red-hooded woman — I suspect Wally/Flash will resurface, as the harbinger of a resurgent pre-relaunch DC Universe. Maybe this will happen next summer, when the New 52 is about a year old; maybe it’ll wait until 2013 and the 75th anniversary of Superman. Whenever it happens, I think it’ll be an excuse not really to roll back the New-52 changes, but to bring back some of the more successful characters and concepts which, for whatever reason, don’t fit any longer into the New-52 timeline. The Justice Society is getting its own Earth-2 again, so why shouldn’t the pre-September DC Universe have an Earth of its own? (Earth-August?) Each would be a more retro-styled alternative to the New-52 titles, allowing DC to examine its characters at different points in their careers, and probably having made different choices. After all, Dan DiDio did tell Facebook that the New 52 was about “infinite possibilities.”

* * *

To be clear, I am not ready to roll back the New 52 when it’s not even two months old. However, I do think that certain factors make conditions favorable for a reintroduction of the pre-September status quo. Using Earth-2 for the upcoming Justice Society relaunch sets a clear precedent for similar treatment of the pre-September timeline. Additionally, the fact that DC has apparently erased the original Teen Titans team — and with it some significant members of that team’s generation — strikes me as too radical a change to go unaddressed. Reworking Earth-August as a place where that generation came into its own would not only distinguish it pretty clearly, but a “successor Earth” would be a nice complement to Earth-2′s “predecessors.”

Besides, it would be another way to exploit DC’s massive reprint library. Will new or returning readers be so enamored of, say, Red Hood and the Outlaws’ Starfire that they spring for the New Teen Titans Omnibus? The reverse seems more likely. Reprinting Geoff Johns’ work on Wally West’s Flash arguably draws as much from Johns’ fans as it does Flash fans; but again, promoting Wally’s Flash doesn’t exactly cater to Barry’s current readers. While there’s room for both, DC can’t help reminding readers of the “out-of-date” stuff, because that’s basically all DC can reprint.

Accordingly, I expect Wally to resurface alongside the red-hooded woman, letting longtime readers know that Barry didn’t really destroy the old timeline. Maybe the split-in-three timeline wasn’t DC/Vertigo/WildStorm, but Earth-August/Earth-2/New-52. (Unlikely, perhaps, but the Hooded Woman’s mumbo-jumbo wasn’t exactly airtight either.) Whatever the cosmological justification, I believe that if there’s any opportunity for the New 52’s success to promote the old regime, DC will take it. Wally/Flash and Krypto may be superfluous in the New 52, but so were the retired Golden Age characters before “Flash of Two Worlds.”

Clearly, in the long term, setting up two alternate universes alongside the main New-52 Earth is begging for trouble, of the kind only another Crisis-style event could resolve. Still, I suspect that if it means DC will still be publishing superhero comics 25 years from now, it would take that kind of trouble — and when that time comes, DC might just have learned how to manage its latest multiverse.

Now, when the New 52 relaunch was announced, I said I “[didn’t] want the DC of 2012 to look like the DC of 2010.” Furthermore, I predicted that “[i]f this all turns out to be a … ‘Heroes Reborn’-style digression, and some future Big Event restores what Flashpoint changed, the New 52 will be seen as a crushing failure.”

Since then I’ve praised the Retro-Active ‘70s Superman special as a tribute to a period worth revisiting, I’ve gushed over a continuity-intensive New Titans graphic novel which evokes a similarly bygone age, and here I’ve outlined a strategy for reintroducing the pre-September status quo. Because these positions are not exactly consistent with a wholehearted embrace of the New 52, readers might well think I’d be happier if DC just went back to the ‘70s, the late ‘80s, or even this past spring.

It won’t, though; and it shouldn’t (at least not in big doses). Still, it’s frustrating to see the publisher limiting itself, whether arbitrarily or by design. By cutting a number of well-liked characters and concepts out of the relaunch, DC is practically daring readers to demand their return. Odds are that’ll happen, even as the New 52 moves forward.

++++++++++++

* [Personally, I am still not convinced that Barry himself was the butterfly whose desire to prevent his mom’s death caused the wide-ranging changes in either the Flashpoint or New-52 timelines. To me this is a discrepancy which should be answered in a future Big Event.]

Avengers Assemble

Saturday at the New York Comic Con brought news for the Avengers, Superman, Legendary Comics and … Disney’s Prep & Landing? Here’s a round-up of announcements from the show today.

• With a big, blockbuster Avengers movie scheduled for next May, Marvel announced a new ongoing series, Avengers Assemble, by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mark Bagley. The book will launch next March and will feature most of the Avengers featured in the movie — Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye and the Hulk. The first arc will feature the villainous group the Zodiac.

• Speaking of that big, blockbuster Avengers movie, fans were treated to new footage from it featuring Bruce Banner and the Black Widow. Tom Hiddleston spoke to CBR about his work on the film.

• Marvel also announced that writer Rick Remender and artist Gabriel Hardman will take over Secret Avengers with issue #21.1, adding new members and pitting them against a new Masters of Evil.

• At the Cup O’ Joe panel today, Marvel also announced a Disney/Marvel crossover — Prep & Landing: Mansion: Impossible. It features the elves from the Disney television special who prepare homes for the arrival of Santa Claus every Christmas eve — only this time they’re trying to break into Avengers Mansion to get it ready for Santa. Written by director Kevin Deters and drawn by story artist Joe Mateo, the story will run in the back of the Marvel Adventures books as well as Avengers #19 in November.

• Marvel CCO Joe Quesada also announced that Marvel will publish a comic based on the Showtime television show Dexter. Novelist Jeff Lindsay will bring the popular character to comics with an all-new ongoing series with new stories set in the world of the Dexter novels

• During their All Access: Superman panel, DC Comics plans to release a second Superman: Earth One graphic novel next fall, by writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Shane Davis. They showed off the book’s cover, and Davis revealed the Parasite will appear in it.

• It was confirmed that Keith Giffen and Dan Jurgens will take over Superman from George Perez beginning with issue #7.

• DC’s CCO Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank have been tapped for “The Curse of Shazam,” a back-up story that will appear in Justice League starting with issue #5.

• Fans were treated to the first episode of Warner Bros. upcoming Green Lantern animated series. The first scene is available to view online.

• Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi will bring back Sabretooth, the character they decapitated some years back.

• Harold Parrineau will voice Blade in the upcoming Blade Anime from Marvel.

• Top Cow announced that David Hine will take over as writer of The Darkness, and a second volume of his comic with Shaky Kane, Bulletproof Coffin, is in the works.

Dragon Age

• Dark Horse Comics, who already have the license for Bioware’s Mass Effect video game, will publish digital comics based on the video game series Dragon Age. The comics will feature characters from the first and second game — Isabela, Alistair and Varric. (As a huge Dragon Age fan, I can’t help but wonder, which Alistair will appear in the comics? I have three different saved games on my Playstation 3 — one where Alistair became king, one where he became a drunk and one where the new queen of Ferelden had him killed. It’s likely not the third Alistair).

• Famed creator Mike Kaluta is working on a “big, meaty graphic novel” based on the John Milton poem Paradise Lost. Legendary Comics will publish it.

• Legendary will also publish a collection of Paul Pope’s The One Trick Rip-Off, an early work first published by Dark Horse.

• Viz Media will replace its Shonen Jump magazine with a weekly digital magazine called Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha.

• Steve Jackson Game will introduce a card game based on Image’s Skullkickers.

• Lucasfilm debuted a poster for the upcoming film Red Tails, drawn by Joe Kubert.

• And finally, ABC showed a sneak preview of their hey-isn’t-that-kinda-like-Fables TV show Once Upon a Time. A fan asked about the similarities between Once Upon a Time, Fables and NBC’s Grimm. “I haven’t seen what the movies are doing and I haven’t read those scripts,” said creator Edward Kitsis. “For us, this is our interpretation of this world. Fairy tales have become a genre the way science fiction is a genre, and I am always up for watching someone in a spaceship heading somewhere on a mission, and this is our version of that.”

Aquaman #1 -- overcompensating, perhaps?

So here we are, the last week of the New 52 rollout, and I must say it’s been a fascinating — sometimes exhausting — ride. It’ll be good to get back to more normal posting next week, but I have enjoyed these marathon stream-of-consciousness reviews. Although DC has said over and over that these books are all part of the same revised universe, there are so many different styles and approaches on display (The early ‘90s! The mid- to late ‘90s!) that the line seems a lot more heterogeneous than it did five weeks ago.

Moreover, the realization that these books are the new status quo is only now starting to sink in. Overall it’s a good feeling, but bittersweet too. After all, I had 25 years to get used to the last line-wide revampings.

SPOILERS FOLLOW, as always.

3

2

1

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To start off, let’s go back just five years. As part of 2006′s “One Year Later” relaunch, the Powers That Be at DC decided that the problem with Hawkman was, well, Hawkman — so they renamed the book Hawkgirl, Walt Simonson wrote it, and Howard Chaykin drew it. Now, on paper that looks like a pretty formidable team. It was enough to get me to try Hawkgirl, and I hadn’t had much interest in any Hawkman title regardless of who’d worked on it. Accordingly, Tony Daniel (writer) and Philip Tan (artist) can take some comfort in knowing that, while The Savage Hawkman #1 really didn’t work for me, the difficulty level has been set pretty high. TSH starts off with Carter Hall shooting (?) and then burning his Hawkman gear — we know not why — but it turns all Venom on him, merging with him somehow so it can pop out again when an extraterrestrial bad guy named Morphicius threatens Carter’s scientist colleagues. In a way, I guess it’s good that this issue ignores just about all of Hawkman’s convoluted continuity, but that deprives Carter of any meaningful motivation which might endear him to a new reader. (Beyond “I don’t like Hawkman either,” that is.) Tan’s work is fine, sporting more of a watercolor style than he’s had previously. His Hawkman redesign is decent, if a bit on the pointy side. In addition to the thin plot, Daniel’s dialogue tends toward being labored. Carter tries to work “death and taxes” into a world-weary quip, and later on a character who should be excited says, flatly, “I am giddy.” That makes one of us.

Blackhawks #1 (written by Mike Costa, layouts by Graham Nolan, finishes by Ken Lashley) begins with a jumbled hostage-rescue sequence, made more confusing by some odd layouts and the use of counterintuitive nicknames. For example, one of the team is listed as “Lady Blackhawk,” but the woman we follow for most of the issue is “Kunoichi.” Things settle down a little after the mission, when a garden-variety bureaucrat from the United Nations arrives at headquarters to a) help explain the book’s premise and b) deliver some bad news. (By the way, between the Blackhawks and Justice League International, the New-52 UN seems to be covering its bets on unconventional teams.) There’s also some bad news for one Blackhawk in particular, and that provides the issue’s cliffhanger. Overall I thought this was a fairly superficial first issue. It tries hard to introduce a handful of major characters and a couple of relationships, it gives some backstory on the first arc’s villain, and it leaves a couple of plot threads dangling. Although it’s put together well for the most part, there’s not much in the way of depth or nuance to any of these characters, and there’s certainly nothing like the ad hoc, multinational-mercenary angle which helped make the original Blackhawks unique. That said, I thought it was good enough to warrant a second issue, in hopes that the players are fleshed out more.

Similarly, Justice League Dark #1 (written by Peter Milligan, drawn by Mikel Janin) is all setup, building a mystery* around a small army of identical blonde women. Many of them appear suddenly in the middle of a busy street, and the resulting two-page spread of carnage made me wonder if this is just another DC comic insensitive to violence against women. Seriously, I found it pretty disturbing, which I suppose is part of the point (but still…). In fact, the issue does a good job setting an ominous mood and showing that the regular Justice League is helpless against an implacable magic force. As for the JLD’s ostensible members, Milligan — who uses an omniscient narrator, to good effect — does best with the vignette introducing Shade, the Changing Man. John Constantine and Deadman pretty much have cameos, and while Zatanna and Madame Xanadu carry more of the plot (and a lot of the exposition), Milligan apparently thinks his readers are already familiar enough with them — and, for that matter, with the Enchantress. I’m not familiar with Mikel Janin’s work, but stylistically it reminded me of a cross between Nicola Scott and cover artist Ryan Sook: clean and detail-oriented, even if some of his characters share the same face. I liked it well enough, and I’ll be back next month.

It was hard not to let Twilight-related prejudices slip into my reading of I, Vampire #1 (written by Joshua Hale Fialkov, drawn by Andrea Sorrentino), but for the first few pages I couldn’t tell whether our hero Andrew was wearing a shirt, and I am tempted to say that pretty well sums it up. Actually, though, IV reads more like the first bookend in one of the old-style summer-Annual crossovers DC and Marvel did in the ‘90s, only this one would follow Andrew and his evil ex-(?) girlfriend Mary around the superhero line as Mary’s vampiric war on humanity escalated. If that’s IV’s premise … well, it’s not Twilight, but it’s not quite the tragic tale of doomed love that Fialkov and Sorrentino also try to establish here. I’m on the fence about this one. The art is fine, appropriately muddy (thanks to colorist Marcelo Maiolo) and heavy with blacks, and like JL Dark, the mood is somber with a slow burn to apocalyptic. I wouldn’t mind seeing a superheroes-vs.-vampires epic, either (even if it didn’t remind me of 1993′s Bloodlines event). I’m just not that invested in Andrew and Mary at this point.

Considering that much of Voodoo #1 (written by Ron Marz, drawn by Sami Basri) takes place in a strip club, with most of its female characters appearing in various states of undress and/or in overtly sexual poses, I wonder if DC scheduled it to come out the week after Catwoman and Red Hood so it would look thoughtful and tame by comparison. What there is of a plot feels like an excuse to linger over the Voodoo club’s array of exotic dancers, and the characters generally are drawn from Central Casting. Naturally, the issue ends on a cliffhanger (a familiar horror-movie one, in fact), but since we don’t know a whole lot about the main characters, it’s hardly clear what the ending means. I did like Basri’s art — I’ve been reading Power Girl paperbacks, and this makes me more eager to pick up his issues — but he doesn’t get to do much beyond (purposefully detached, I suppose) T & A. Honestly, DC, at this point I am flat-out bored with these attempts at exploitation, and I won’t be back for #2.

All Star Western #1 (drawn by Moritat) is written by longtime Jonah Hex chroniclers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, so Hex is front and center in this issue; but primarily as partner to Dr. Amadeus Arkham, himself cast as a Holmesian consulting detective. Indeed, because their case begins with a murder and a foreign word scrawled in blood, it initially recalls “A Study In Scarlet.” The comparison probably ends there, although I did like how Arkham has Watson’s role of narrator, introducing the reader to Hex’s borderline-amoral perspective. I thought this was a strong first issue, even if its Gotham City setting seemed a bit gratuitous at times. Moritat’s work is intricate and expressive, and colorist Gabriel Bautista gives it depth and texture. The book looks great, on par at least with Cliff Chiang’s Wonder Woman art. From what I understand of Gray and Palmiotti’s Jonah Hex series, they tended to go to the dead-prostitute well fairly often, and sadly this is no exception. Still, they keep things moving, using the murders to explore the relationship between the march of progress and the desire to hold onto power. Definitely on board for this one.

Even with George Pérez writing and providing layouts, Superman #1 (finished by Jesús Merino) was going to have a hard time competing with the new Action #1. If Action evokes the late ‘30s, Superman goes straight for the Bronze Age, framing a fairly standalone story with a change in ownership at the Daily Planet. Pérez’s primer on who’s currently who in Metropolis establishes Lois Lane as one of the last honest journalists, producing TV coverage for Galaxy Broadcasting while still reporting for the Planet. Clark Kent is still a crusading reporter, but now he’s working for the Planet and having frank philosophical discussions with Lois. Superman has a shaky relationship with the Metropolis police (and a hazy one with the public) and Jimmy Olsen keeps getting into trouble. This time, Supes has to save Jimmy from an alien fire-creature bent on turning Metropolis into a city-sized torch. It’s a decent start, and it’s enough to keep me coming back, but it does have some rough edges. Pérez’s dialogue can be clunky, and I presume the fire-creature is connected to the hornblower from Stormwatch #1, but that’s not made explicit here. Merino’s work sometimes doesn’t blend that well with Pérez’s layouts, and his characters’ faces tend to look scruffed-up. However, I’m content to see this as a spiritual sibling to Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway’s Adventures Of Superman from the ‘86 relaunch — a straightforward superhero soap which is more familiar than it is groundbreaking.

I didn’t like David Finch’s first first issue of Batman: The Dark Knight, and while the second Dark Knight #1 in a year (co-plotted and scripted by Paul Jenkins, co-plotted and pencilled by Finch, inked by Richard Friend) is an improvement, it seems to exist primarily to give DC a Batman title for each of the four regular ship weeks. I mean, there’s another Arkham breakout, there’s Bruce Wayne talking about Gotham’s future, there’s a mention of Batman, Inc., there’s a new girlfriend-in-waiting — all things which remind me of Bat-books I have enjoyed more. It doesn’t help that the yes-we-can! speech Bruce Wayne gives to a presumably-forgiving audience starts out as overwrought Bat-narration about fear, parents, and cannibals (with one of the big applause lines apparently “I’m not cut out to be the parent of a cannibal”…?). Later, we’re told that the Arkham breakout involves 300 inmates and may already have cost 65 policemen’s lives, but for some reason Batman is keyed specifically on Two-Face. While it doesn’t go over as poorly as the new Detective Comics, it’s not as appealing as either Batman and Robin or last week’s Batman, and I can live without it.

The bulk of Aquaman #1 (written by Geoff Johns, pencilled by Ivan Reis, inked by Joe Prado) is aimed squarely at a strawman which holds that Aquaman is the lamest of DC’s main characters. Accordingly, the issue opens and closes with a menace-from-the-depths which presumably only Aquaman can defeat, while in between are scenes of our hero foiling a landlocked getaway, trying to order fish at a favorite childhood restaurant, and reaffirming his mission to the surface world alongside a devoted Mera. Along the way the public marvels at how wrong it’s been. Johns may have figured he didn’t have much choice but to hang a lantern on Aquaman’s perceived inferiority, but the end result is awfully transparent, almost desperate. Although there is “showing,” the “telling” which goes with it actually undercuts it. Too bad, because otherwise it’s a fine first issue, explaining the Sea King’s powers, origin, and heritage fairly economically, and setting up the aforementioned deep-sea threat. Reis and Prado are reliably good, as usual. I’ll be back for issue #2, but I’ll be hoping the self-consciousness is out of Johns’ system.

The plot of The Fury Of Firestorm, The Nuclear Men #1 (written by Ethan van Sciver and Gail Simone, drwan by Yildray Cinar) rests on a giant leap of logic; and no, it’s not the “God particle” underlying Firestorm’s powers. Instead, it involves a decision made prior to the issue’s start by a character who currently isn’t around to explain himself. I’m sure we’ll get more insight as the series unfolds, but for now it seems like a threshold question: if you’re willing to accept that plot point, the rest of the issue should be no problem. See, there are these mercenaries (one of whom, amusingly enough, shares a name with a longtime Firestorm antagonist) brutalizing their way through the lives of innocent people, looking for magnetic bottles which turn out to be Very Important. On a collision course with this group are star quarterback Ronnie Raymond and ace high-school-newspaper reporter Jason Rusch, each struggling with their prejudices about the other. It sounds like I am being overly sarcastic about the issue, but in fact I liked it a lot. Broad as their characterizations may be, Ronnie and Jason have the makings of a good dynamic — in fact, arguably a better one than the pre-relaunch Brightest Day had to work with** — but they need to get past the rough edges and develop some nuance. As for the art, Cinar’s work is quite good, at times reminiscent of George Pérez and (her again!) Nicola Scott. Having been a Firestorm fan since the Flash backups, it sounds a little hollow to say I’m sticking with it, but I’m glad to say I am.

It’s not that it’s hard to reconcile the frenetic Teen Titans #1 (written by Scott Lobdell, pencilled by Brett Booth, inked by Norm Rapmund) with Lobdell’s more meditative Superboy #1. It’s just that Teen Titans moves so quickly, and tries so very hard to be cool, that having the two books dovetail makes this one harder to ignore. The Titans introduced here include Kid Flash (probably Bart Allen, although Wally West wouldn’t be out of the question), with a handmade costume and more brains than smarts; Red Robin (Tim Drake), recast as something of a cyber-activist; and the Dianna Agron lookalike Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark), subject to what is either jarring mood swings or capricious dialogue. It may well be that I am too old for this book’s retro-‘90s style, and in a funny way I’d be okay with that. For now, though, there’s nothing beyond the Superboy connection to entice me back.

I’m not clear on why Green Lantern: New Guardians #1 (written by Tony Bedard, pencilled by Tyler Kirkham, inked by Batt) felt the need to spend its first seven pages — about a third of the issue, mind you — on Kyle Rayner’s origin, because it doesn’t appear to have a lot to do with the balance of the plot. In fact, said plot involves various other Lantern Corpsmen (including one from the Sinestros, one from the Star Sapphires, and a Red Lantern) losing their rings to Kyle. Maybe Kyle’s experience, despite its unique circumstances, is meant to be illustrative? For someone who was already reading the GL books, and (perhaps more importantly) was emotionally invested in either Kyle or the other Lantern Corps, this plot might be intriguing. As a first issue designed to attract new readers, though, it’s just sketchy, and probably confusing. I liked this creative team well enough when they were on the pre-relaunch GL Corps, but they haven’t sold me on this series.

Finally — finally! — there’s The Flash #1 (written by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato, drawn by Manapul), a nifty reintroduction to the guy who made all of this possible. Some of the dialogue is a little awkward, including in the opening sequence, but the real attraction is Manapul and Buccellato’s art. Manapul’s style is very light, almost as if it were reproduced directly from his pencils, so Buccellato’s colors help shape and define it, separating Barry/Flash from his backgrounds and helping him race across the pages. Manapul’s layouts are equally expressive, incorporating panel-sized sound effects (as well as the Flash masthead itself), using inset panels to break down the super-speed action or to illustrate a character’s jumbled thoughts, and keeping the plot moving ever forward. This issue never really stops, even when a character is simply standing and thinking. Now that Flashpoint is over, it’s not weighed down by artificially-imposed angst or Speed Force mumbo-jumbo. It’s a simple, straightforward, and effective superhero comic about the Fastest Man Alive, and I look forward to issue #2.

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Recommended: All Star Western, Aquaman, The Flash, The Fury Of Firestorm, Justice League Dark

Could get better: Blackhawks, I, Vampire

Could go either way: Green Lantern: New Guardians, Teen Titans

Sticking with regardless: Superman

No thanks: Batman: The Dark Knight, The Savage Hawkman, Voodoo

* * *

Next week: December solicitations, and probably a bit of September wrap-up.

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* [That one’s for the Sarah McLachlan fans....]

** [I do miss the dueling-experience aspect of Ronnie and Jason’s pre-relaunch relationship, and especially their mutual affection for Professor Martin Stein, who of course was a big part of the original Firestorm. I was looking forward to each being a backseat-driver for the other, since Jason had the more recent experience -- not to mention helping to “rebuild” Firestorm with Stein’s help -- but Ronnie would naturally assume a senior-leadership role. Moot now, I guess.]

Lime Green Lantern

The Foogos site is a wonderful amalgamation of food and pop culture logos, with comics icons and sports teams sharing the menu in equal amounts for a well-balanced diet. In addition to the Green Lantern limes and Hellboy chili you see here, the unnamed artist who runs the site also has Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pizza, Skeletor pudding, Avengers applesauce, and much more. Just make sure you’ve eaten before you visit. It’s embarrassing to be caught licking the screen. I imagine.

Hellboy chili

Animal Man #1

Welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading? Today our special guest is Kevin Colden, whose comic work includes Fishtown, I Rule the Night, Vertigo’s Strange Adventures and Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper, among others. He’s also the drummer for the band Heads Up Display.

To see what Kevin and the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, click below …

*****

Michael May

Justice League #1

I spent most of my week getting caught up on the New 52. I liked some of Justice League #1, but have many of the same problems others did. I’m primarily interested in Justice League to see what kind of relationships the heroes have with each other in this new version. That’s what I like most about team books anyway, and I did enjoy Green Lantern’s feeling like Batman needed to prove himself and how Batman reacted to that. It was a new take that couldn’t have been done without the reboot. But stretching that out to an entire issue was disappointing and I may wait until Wonder Woman shows up in the series before I buy another issue. I’m very curious to see how Johns’ version compares to the way Azzarello’s going to write her.

Action Comics #1 was a nice surprise though. I love, Love, LOVE the less-powered Superman. I’ve been watching the Fleischer Superman cartoons lately and this reminded me a lot of those. Superman’s incredibly tough and strong, but not invincible and I sincerely hope he stays that way. Even though it reminded me a lot of Batman: Year One and Spider-Man 2, I also liked the Superman vs. the cops scene with the people coming to Superman’s defense. I don’t care that it’s not the first time I’ve ever seen that kind of thing, it’s the first time I’ve seen it with Superman and it was awesome. Lois reminds me of Fleischer’s Lois too: badass and capable, but not immune to getting in over her head and needing some help. There’s so much storytelling potential there that doesn’t have to have her be as goofy and helpless as her Silver Age version. I bought the issue out of curiosity, but I’m very much looking forward to more like it.

Batgirl

Batgirl #1 was another disappointment though. I typically love Gail Simone’s work so much, but I wanted a light-hearted superheroine (like the one on the cover) and didn’t care at all for Batgirl’s dealing with the Post Traumatic Stress of being shot by the Joker. I’m not saying it’s a bad story, it’s just very heavy and not what I’m looking for. I won’t buy the second issue, but may come back to it in the collected version if the buzz is good.

Static Shock #1 – My hopes that this will include more Milestone characters than just Static are encouraged by Hardware’s playing a major role in Virgil Hawkins’ story. I’m hoping for more like that (Blood Syndicate please!), but in the meantime, this was a lot of fun with some great, new villains and I can’t wait for the next issue.

Demon Knights was always going to be a hard sell for me because I’m not a big Demon fan, nor do I generally care for the way Marvel and DC have portrayed medieval times. But Diogenes Neves has some nice designs and halfway through the issue Paul Cornell threw in a romantic triangle that hooked me but good. Then he netted me and put me in the boat with the last page. I not making any long-term commitments, but there are some great elements here and I’m excited to see where it goes.

Brigid Alverson

MetaMaus

I got an advance copy of MetaMaus this week, and when I sat down and started flipping through it I couldn’t put it down. It’s basically a book about Art Spiegelman’s Maus, and the heart of it is a lengthy interview with Spiegelman himself in which he talks about the thought process that went into the book, how the making of Maus affected his relationship with his father and the origins of many of the images in the graphic novel. The book is crammed with visuals, including photos from Spiegelman’s bar mitzvah album and pictures from books about the Holocaust that once belonged to his mother. The result is fascinating, at least for a Spiegelman fan like me. The book comes with a disc that includes Maus in its entirety as well as recordings of Spiegelman’s father. I haven’t cracked that yet, but I know it will add a whole new dimension to the experience.

On a much, much lighter note, I worked my way through the first year of the Life With Archie magazine, with its dual Archie-marries-Veronica and Archie-marries-Betty storylines, this week. I have been picking these up and putting them down all year, but sitting down and reading them all at once makes the stories come into sharper focus. It’s interesting that some events occur in both storylines, while other outcomes are totally different—for instance, Moose becomes mayor of Riverdale in one story and janitor of Riverdale High in another, for reasons that have nothing to do with Archie’s choice of a spouse. Although the multiplicity of characters and subplots makes it a bit confusing to read both at once, it’s hard to put the stories down, as writer Paul Kupperberg keeps the plot twists coming thick and fast. It’s good melodrama, and because the characters are all familiar faces, it’s fun to see what directions they evolve into from their teenage selves.

Tim O’Shea

Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E.

Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1: When I picked up this week’s comics from the local store, my pal Dugan admitted that this comic reminded him somewhat of Hellboy. After I read it, I had to agree with him to a certain extent. Oddly enough, it also reminded me of another Dark Horse property, The Umbrella Academy. One major thing that annoyed me about Jeff Lemire’s writing (as much as I typically enjoy it) was this issue seemed really too text-intensive–and I hope the S.H.A.D.E.NET narrative. (If I never see another writer use narrative elements like “Data incoming…97% downloaded” I will be happy). But the first issue, despite its hiccups, introduced enough interesting characters (I bailed on Flashpoint after the first issue) to me to want to return for issue #2.

Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #523: This series is at its strongest when writer David Liss is teamed with artist Francesco Francavilla (as with this issue), Since this series began (with the departure of lead character) a major focal point of the series has been the importance of Hell’s Kitchen. T’Challa/Black Panther’s efforts to help Hell’s Kitchen continues to pay off in the neighborhood’s darkest hours. In terms of the supporting cast, I love love love Sofija.

Daredevil #3: I would not be surprised if Marvel is pitching Mark Waid’s Daredevil run as a TV series at some point. The surprise twist involving Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson’s law firm in this latest issue was really what triggered my theory. While the book is called Daredevil, Waid has devoted a good amount of time to showing Murdoch attempting to rebuild his life and career, which has entertained me to date. This was my favorite read of the week.

Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors #5: I feel for independent creators trying to garner attention for their respective series in a month like this, where the new DCU 52 dominates the news and review cycle. If you have not checked out Mark Andrew Smith and Armand Villavert’s Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors, you are genuinely missing out on a quirky series. In this issue, all the kids get a hold of the comics that the Nefarious Kid has been reading. (The two-page sample of those comics that Villavert offers early in this issue is executed with such great homage-level attention, it actually reminded me of some of the scenes from Jim Rugg’s Afrodisiac). The story really kicks into high gear in this installment and I really love where the creators leave things at the end of this installment (always leave folks wanting more, of course [which surprisingly some creators fail to do]).

Chris Mautner

Prison Pit 3

Prison Pit 3 — I had the opportunity to do a Q&A panel with Johnny Ryan at SPX last weekend. One of the more interesting parts of discussion was when Ryan said how each volume of Prison Pit had to have a different vibe or theme so that the different books didn’t feel interchangable. That’s certainly true in volume three, as we see the inclusion of a new character, who, while just as violent and vicious as CF, is completely different in attitude and demeanor. Plus, he has one of the most amazing (and utterly grotesque) resurrection scenes I’ve ever seen. There’s also a neat little bit toward the end where it seems like Ryan is heavily drawing upon the Fort Thunder crowd, particularly Mat Brinkman. All in all, it’s another excellent volume.

Prince Valiant Vol. 4 — This volume covers the most of the WWII years, 1943-44, when the paper shortage was at its highest. As Brian Kane notes in the introduction, this meant creator Hal Foster had to format the strip so parts could be cut for papers that had been forced to shrink their page count. He did this by adding a bottom strip, The Medieval Castle, which, while certainly informative and amusing, wasn’t necessarily as good as pure, unadulterated Valiant, especially since this new situation meant that Foster was unable to do the big, impressive vistas that had quickly become the strip’s trademark. Still, while no doubt hampered by this new situation, it did nothing to harm his storytelling skills, and Valiant remains a hugely enjoyable action strip, as Valiant battles a variety of ne’r do wells on a quest to find his true love, Aleta.

Mome Vol. 22 — I’ve talked at length before about how good the Mome anthology has been, and while I’m sad to see it come to a close, it’s nice to see it end on such a high note. Seriously, this is the best volume of Mome yet, with standout contributions by Chuck Forsman, Eleanor Davis, Laura Park, Dash Shaw, Jesse Moynihan and Sara Edward-Corbett. But really, there’s not a bad story in this entire book. It might seem weird recommending the last book of a series, but if you gotta only read one of these things, this would be the one.

Kevin Colden

Besides obsessively lurking on my Twitter feed and the typical mind-sucking websites like Damn You Autocorrect my, um… INTELLECTUAL reading time has been chock full of good stuff.

I suppose the elephant in the room would be the DC New 52 books – of which I’ve read about half so far (maybe 13 of the 27 to date). The overall concept of the reboot is solid, though some of the books have nailed it better than others. Animal Man in particular is one of the best new books I’ve read in a long time. I’ve always thought that Jeff Lemire was an interesting, unorthodox choice to write DCU books, and he and Travel Foreman have crafted an eerie, tonal work that recalls Moore and Totleben’s Swamp Thing – and it lives up to its pedigree. I got really excited for this title when I saw a preview of Foreman and inker Dan Green’s artwork for this book – creepy, angular and distorted, with a tasty late-80′s vibe – and it delivers. Colorist Lovern Kindzierski complements their work by smartly keeping it subtle, not eating the ink with rendering and doing some sweet limited-palette work as well. This one is on my regular list now and forever.

Bakuman

Keeping my comic selection broad and stroking my passion for well-crafted manga, a few months back DC Digital super editor and newly-installed Angeleno Kwanza Johnson recommended I read Bakuman by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. Or maybe he strong-armed me into reading it. I don’t remember. Either way, I loved the creators’ previous work Death Note (which I also highly recommend; I read the first five volumes -about 1000 pages – in one sitting), so I figured this one was a good bet. Bakuman is about two high school-age kids making comics. Yeah. It’s about writing and drawing – possibly the least interesting and least active things in the universe – yet somehow the creators infuse the story with drama, tension and suspense. Besides some inexplicably bizarre behavior by two characters that requires Herculean suspension of disbelief, it’s thoroughly enjoyable and the art is stellar. Interestingly, Viz released volume 4 as a digital day-and-date experiment, and then promptly abandoned that plan with volume 5. Boo.

On my bookshelf, you will find many, many a finely bound graphic novel. You will also find my only two other reading passions – mountain-climbing memoirs and music biographies. I kid you not. I love reading about climbing because I will never be able to do it myself. I like to read about being a touring musician, because I will likewise never be able to do it myself. My current musical selection is See A Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody by Bob Mould. It’s a great companion piece to Andrew Earles 2010 Husker Du biography (for which Mould declined to be interviewed, in anticipation of his own book), detailing Mould’s view of the band’s acrimonious history, and moving further into his time with Sugar, his solo career and his life as a gay man. It’s a fascinating, unflinching, sometimes brutal portrait of a self-made artist, and it’s one of the best and most inspiring I’ve read.

Those selections, by the way – all purchased and read digitally. The revolution is here, and it will not be televised. It will be downloaded.

Willworld

Which is not to say I’m all ones and zeroes here – quite the opposite. I’m a biblio-junkie with a bad habit. Two weeks ago, I read WE3 by Morrison and Quitely, Green Lantern Willworld by DeMatteis and the late, great Seth Fisher (buy all of his work – ALL OF IT), and when my wife is done with it, our pal Mike Dawson’s Troop 142 is in the pile. Last weekend, I was at Small Press Expo and went on such an insane buying binge that I’m not even sure what I bought. I know I had Jennifer Hayden sign a copy of her new book Underwire, and I picked up Eddie Campbell’s Alec (both from Top Shelf), got a few Roger Langridge’s books, and went on a blind spree at Fantagraphics with Four Color Fear, an Alex Toth collection, some books by Jordan Crane and an impulsively bought Jacques Tardi book because CBLDF’s Alex Cox told me I needed it. That’s the first bag of three.

What am I reading? Everything, apparently.

Frankenstein, Agent Of SHADE #1

This week, I count at least five New-52 books picking up pretty much where they left off. Chief among these are Green Lantern and Red Lanterns; followed by Batwoman, which was supposed to come out months ago. Batman and Robin keeps its previously-announced regular creative team, and Legion Lost spins out of the pre-existing Legion of Super-Heroes. Overall I thought this week was pretty strong, but there were a few clunkers, including at least one book which really disappointed.

Just think — after this week, we’re more than halfway done…!

SPOILERS FOLLOW, but not too many.

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In the better-late-than-never department, once I realized I could download Batwing #1 without having to make a special trip to the comics shop — and once I figured the extra $2.99 for the download was basically gas money — I did in fact read the issue online. That’s right, online, with my old wooden eyes. What’s more, I liked it: issue #1 (written by Judd Winick, drawn by Ben Oliver) lays out the real and reasonable differences between David Zavimbe and his American patron, establishing the “Batman of Africa” not just as part of Batman, Incorporated, but of this part of the world’s own superheroic tradition. True, if “superheroes” as DC-Earth understands them are only five years old, maybe it’s not quite the Justice Society. Still, like the Batwoman stories in Detective Comics, this book balances effectively between standing on its own and trading on the larger Bat-mystique.

I hope the theme of Green Lantern’s latest arc (written by Geoff Johns, pencilled by Doug Mahnke, inked by Christian Alamy) can be summed up by the statement “your life doesn’t have to be about a job.” It’s not a bad way to approach being a Green Lantern, and it could prove insightful into both Sinestro (as a returning GL) and Hal Jordan (as an ex-GL, once again). That it’s uttered by Carol Ferris, who for decades anchored Hal to Earth (and, by implication, away from every other planet in Sector 2814), may also pay off in a re-examination of their relationship. On its own, this is an efficient (re)introduction to the Johns/Mahnke GL, and while it may not be the most new-reader-friendly, I like where it’s going.

Sticking with the power of concentrated emotions, Red Lanterns #1 (written by Peter Milligan, pencilled by Ed Benes, inked by Rob Hunter) starts off with an almost-absurd sequence featuring sadistic extraterrestrials and a certain fan-favorite RL. If Green Lantern argues there’s more to life than one’s job, Red Lanterns similarly explores the ennui which accompanies too much of the same job. Of course, it does so with over-the-top violence, improbable female choreography — seriously, Benes is probably making excuses for butt-shots at this point, just to see how the Internet reacts — and a certain amount of pathos which borders on emotional manipulation. I liked it more than I thought, but I expected it to be more baldly operatic than it was. Still, any comic which casts Atrocitus as a manager frustrated with himself and his employees has got me for at least a few issues.

In fact, Batman And Robin #1 (written by Peter J. Tomasi, pencilled by Patrick Gleason, inked by Mick Gray) seems more interested in the satirical value of ultra-violence, here personified by Damian “Robin” Wayne. B&R’s big change finds Bruce and his son visiting the site where Thomas and Martha Wayne were murdered, one last time, so that Bruce can move on before Crime Alley is finally turned into something other than a grim reminder. There’s more than a little metatext in the Dynamic Duo’s dialogue: as Batman describes the familiar slow rain of pearls, Robin interrupts impatiently — like many readers, he’s heard it all before. Meanwhile, there’s a new villain out to get Batman, Incorporated operatives, and Batman and Robin must stop a trio of outclassed spies from stealing Gotham University’s radioactive widgets. Tomasi’s dialogue tends to be overwritten, but not so much here; and Gleason and Gray continue to do good work.

“Continued good work” is something of an understatement when it comes to Batwoman #1 (written by J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman, drawn by Williams), a book which largely lives up to lofty expectations. Williams’ art is lush and expressive, educating the reader on the character’s history through mural-style streams of expository panels. While Greg Rucka’s distinctive, no-nonsense patter is noticeably absent, Williams’ and Blackman’s dialogue makes up for it with a new dynamic: Kate pushing away her dad and putting her once-and-future sidekick (Bette “Flamebird” Kane) through more intense training. It’s a lot to take in, and Williams’ layouts especially reward multiple readings, but new readers should seek out the Batwoman: Elegy collection just on general principles. For the rest of us, who’d been waiting since the spring, Batwoman #1 is well worth it.

I was prepared to like Frankenstein: Agent Of SHADE #1 just on the basis of Jeff Lemire’s Flashpoint-facilitated miniseries. However, when I saw it would be drawn by Alberto Ponticelli, who’d done such earthy, dynamic work on the most recent Unknown Soldier series, it only increased my anticipation. Considering that Unknown Soldier was an all-too-realistic look at the horrors of violence in Africa, it’s crass to say it this way — but Ponticelli brings the same sort of energy to secret headquarters and invading monsters. Although Frankenstein (yes, I know he’s properly “the Monster,” but he’s long since taken his creator’s name) and the Creature Commandos return from the miniseries, Lemire’s script introduces their boss, Father Time, and disapproving scientist Ray Palmer (whose Atom adventures Lemire wrote, pre-relaunch). It feels a lot like Hellboy, but that’s not necessarily bad; and this uncomplicated issue is endearing on its own merits.

The week’s other monsters-as-superheroes book is Demon Knights #1 (written by Paul Cornell, pencilled by Diógenes Neves, inked by Oclair Albert), which also refuses to take itself too seriously. Since last week’s Stormwatch #1 connected itself to this super-team of centuries past, it’s tempting to call this “Justice League Medieval,” but truthfully, it’s a decent tale about the few survivors of Camelot’s fall. We’re introduced initially to Etrigan the Demon, his unwilling host Jason Blood, and Madame Xanadu. By the last page we’ve seen them brought together with the loutish immortal Vandal Savage and the self-styled “Shining Knight,” Sir Ystin, to fight the forces of the wizard Mordru and “the Queen,” who I take to be Morgan Le Fay. All are quite familiar to longtime DC readers, but each has been tweaked at least slightly, so us oldsters will probably have to get acquainted all over again. Etrigan seems particularly unlike his conventional rhyming self, and is a little more chummy to boot, but (without looking at the hardcover on the other bookshelf) this doesn’t exactly fly in the face of Jack Kirby’s original stories. Cornell’s script is more accessible here than Stormwatch’s was; and while I know I’ve seen Neves’ and Albert’s stuff before, I don’t remember it being this crisp. Like Frankenstein, this is a relatively straightforward first issue which has me ready for more.

That brings us to the HardCore! XXTreeme! run of books, and we begin with Deathstroke #1 (written by Kyle Higgins, pencilled by Joe Bennett, inked by Art Thibert). I was not looking forward to reading this, mostly because the character seems pretty far removed from his ‘80s and early-‘90s heyday, and besides the book looked like it would be long on attitude and violence and short on anything appealing. Reading the issue, though, I think that’s only half right. There is a lot of attitude, much of it from Deathstroke but a good bit of it from the cool-kid team of teenaged wannabes with whom he’s paired. It’s their job to be obnoxious, so Deathstroke looks cool by comparison. As for the violence, it’s there right from the decapitations on pages 2 and 3. The story’s self-contained, with a grim twist at the end and a dangling plot thread intended to entice the reader to come back. Although I am curious about the latter, the former didn’t work for me. Like the last page of last week’s Detective Comics, I understand it’s intended to make a point about the character. However, the point it made told me this book is not for me. Deathstroke #1 is not a poorly-constructed issue — Bennett and Thibert are fine storytellers, and Higgins’ script does what it needs to — but I wasn’t sold on this anti-hero.

Neither was I too fond of Suicide Squad #1 (written by Adam Glass, pencilled by Federico Dallocchio, inked by Ransom Getty), whose climactic twist is nothing new. Essentially it introduces the new-and-improved versions of Deadshot, King Shark, Harley Quinn, El Diablo (a somewhat pleasant surprise, I’ll admit), Savant, and Black Spider. However, none of them have particularly redeeming qualities, and since we see them either being tortured, or doing unsavory things in flashbacks, there’s not much pleasant about the book. Just as Deathstroke was originally a villain with understandable, relatable motives, so the ‘80s Squad was run by people who wanted to do right, albeit with hardened supercriminals. This isn’t that. It’s like someone decided the best thing about Secret Six was the gore and the anything-goes amorality, and got rid of everything else.

There’s gore in Grifter #1 too (written by Nathan Edmonson, pencilled by Cafu, inked by Jason Gorder) — an injury-to-the-eye, as the price guides say, right in the first sequence — but at least the main character is reluctant about it. That kind of surprised me, since I am pretty much only familiar with Grifter through his appearance in 1997′s JLA/WildCATS crossover, and he didn’t seem like the “oh God I just killed someone” type there. This issue feels like the first part of an origin story, although when Cole Cash (ha ha, I get it) puts on the mask at the end, it doesn’t look homemade. (I guess he picked it up in that costume shop earlier.) Anyway, the issue has our pal Cole apparently murdering random innocents, although we know (because he knows) that they’re really killer extraterrestrials who tried to assimilate him too. That’s all fine — Edmonson, Cafu, and Gorder do a good job with that part of it. However, the part at the end, where it’s revealed that Cole’s brother is the military guy assigned to bring him in, is where the book’s credibility got stretched a little too far. Yes, I know I am accepting killer body-snatching extraterrestrials, and not brotherly feuds, but the latter was just too coincidental. Still, a minor complaint, and I’ll be back next issue.

The last group of books is more traditional superheroes, starting with the all-new-all-over-again Superboy #1 (written by Scott Lobdell, pencilled by R.B. Silva, inked by Rob Lean). Fans have complained that this is not the same old wisecracking, hunky Kon-El/Conner Kent they came to love, and he isn’t. However, while this Superboy is a pretty standard “detached observer of human behavior,” he’s got a nice self-aware relationship with his surroundings. As part of those surroundings, Superboy revamps two very familiar characters (one from the, shall we say, greater DC family) as the ostensible Boy of Steel’s handlers. Silva’s work is as good as it was on the “Jimmy Olsen” backups in Action Comics, and Lean finishes it well. Although that by itself makes a strong case for sticking with this book, I was very pleasantly surprised that Lobdell’s approach grounded Superboy’s character so well. I didn’t expect to look forward to Superboy #2, but there you go.

It pains me to say that Mister Terrific #1 (written by Eric Wallace, pencilled by Gianluca Gugliotta, inked by Wayne Faucher) tries too hard, but boy does it ever. Page 3 contains the phrase “stepped up their mercenary efforts to weaponize the world,” and it doesn’t get much better from there. This is a book which, yes, tries very hard to be full of nifty ideas and heroically tragic people, but it ends up feeling forced. Plus Mister Terrific is kind of an egotistical jerk, and not even the twist I saw coming midway through the book makes up for that.

Happily, Resurrection Man #1 (written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, drawn by Fernando Dagnino) delivers a tight standalone pilot-episode story. Mitch Shelly gains a new superpower (and reason for using it) every time he dies, which apparently happens pretty frequently. This time it’s magnetism, combined with a cross-country plane trip. Mitch thwarts the villain du jour, but at the cost of you-know-what, and by the time he’s revived, we see a few different agencies — human and otherwise — out to get him. Like I said, pretty tight, and a good introduction to another character I barely got to know the first time.

Finally, we have Legion Lost #1 (written by Fabian Nicieza, drawn by Pete Woods), a title which seems oddly scheduled, since you’d think DC would publish the main Legion book first. I’m a lot more familiar with the Legion than I am with, say, Grifter or Mitch Shelly, but this book dropped me into a fast-moving stream of plot and characters and didn’t let up much. Basically a team of Legionnaires from the 31st Century travel through time chasing a guy who blames all of humanity — fairly or not, we don’t know yet — for the catastrophes in his life, and who’s brought some dread future disease back to our present. Beyond the Legion’s specific appeal, there’s not much to distinguish this title from any other super-team book. Indeed, its premise has been tried a couple of times before, both by sending half the team across the universe and by sending a different set back to our era, and both times it depended on a certain contrast with the regular Legion setup. Thus, without knowing just what the regular Legion setup is, readers themselves might feel a bit lost, as it were. Still, Nicieza and Woods do a good job creating tension with the general ticking-clock setup, and if this were, say, Legion of Super-Heroes #564, I’d feel better about it. Accordingly, Legion Lost suffers primarily because it’s a number-1 issue, and it does nothing to get around the Legion’s stigma of impenetrability (whether or not said stigma is deserved). In other words, as nice-looking as it is, this is a Legion book which is about as accessible as the average person expects a Legion book to be.

Next week: Legion of Super-Heroes (cough), plus Batman, Birds of Prey, Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Catwoman, DC Universe Presents, Green Lantern Corps, Legion of Super-Heroes, Nightwing, Red Hood and the Outlaws, Supergirl, and Wonder Woman!

The flaw in question is a little green teardrop above Sinestro’s ear (you can see it in the image on the right). DC asks retailers to report the flawed copies to Diamond Comic Distributors by Monday. Replacement copies will arrive on Oct. 12, the same day as Green Lantern #2.

Naturally, a flawed copy has already made its way onto eBay, where the starting bid is $9.99. However, what DC labels “a printing error,” the seller characterizes as a sly maneuver by the publisher: “I’VE PLACED THE TEARDROP MISPRINT COVER IN ONE PHOTO AND REGULAR COVER ON THE OTHER PHOTO. ITS REALLY OBVIOUS. I’LL LET YOU BE THE JUDGE, CALL IT WHATEVER YOU LIKE. I think it was intentional especially with a launch of this magnitude.”

What DC would get out of it, I don’t know. But far be it for me to question a shrewd owner of an “unread, NM, dripping wet off the presses” copy of the “Teardrop Misprint Variant.”

RETAILER ADVISORY: PRINTING ERROR ON SOME COPIES OF GREEN LANTERN #1

DC Comics has received reports of a printing error on the front cover of some copies of GREEN LANTERN #1 (JUL110218). The flaw is an irregular green loop that appears above Sinestro’s ear.

Please check all of your copies for the flaw and report any flawed copies as damages to Diamond by Monday, September 19. DC is working to pull copies printed for other markets to replace the damaged copies, but we need to know the size of the problem and we need to audit our existing inventories to avoid sending out additional flawed copies.

Replacement copies will be scheduled to arrive in stores October 12, the same day issue #2 is scheduled to arrive in stores.