Wow. 900 issues.
I have a few other anniversary issues of Action Comics. 800, 700, 600, 500 and 400. 300 is actually an amazing comic, but I've only ever read the story in reprints.
Its mostly true that Action has mostly been a monthly comic over the duration of its printing life, but it's not true that Action has run 900 issues over 900 months. There was a year or two in there where Action Comics was released as a weekly comic with a Superman lead feature and then back-ups featuring Green Lantern and other heroes. There have been stunts where Action wasn't released for a month or two, which I believe occurred during the Death of Superman event back in the early 1990's, and in the mid-00's, Action went hopelessly off production schedule for a while and just didn't come out for a few months around 2007.
Film. Comics. Sci-Fi. Superheroes. Pulp. Noir. History. Superman. 20th Century Archaeology.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Two Signal Watch Invitations: Green Lantern-a-thon and POTA-thon
Although not a frame of the new Superman movie has been shot, I have already promised myself that prior to the release of the movie, I will host a SUPER-MARATHON. At this marathon, we will watch the following:
Frankly, and this may surprise some, I own quite a bit of Superman media. I haven't run the numbers, but I figure if I added up all the cartoons, movies, live TV shows, etc... I've got on hand, we could go for about a straight month without pausing (not really, but we could last for a few days). So, you know, I'm trying to be merciful.
Anyway, I plan to watch all the stuff in the list, sleep, and then go see the new Superman.
Its Not Easy Getting Green
But prior to this, we have the Green Lantern movie coming up. And so I am considering a Green Lantern-mini-marathon
So, coming soon (once I clear this with Jamie), I will put out a schedule and the drill will be that you can come by and join me in the marathon if you're here in town, coming and going as you see fit.
APES FEST
I will also be looking into a possible Ape-a-Thon prior to the release of this year's Planet of the Apes sequel. I now have 10 hours of Apes movies on Blu-Ray, and its hard to see me NOT watching all of the Apes movies back-to-back in a 10 hour stretch of pure primate-madness.
But I am also considering a 2-part Apes-a-Thon.
Part 1: All five original Planet of the Apes movies and the cartoon, if I can secure it.
Part 2: APE FESTAPALOOZA: an appreciation of primates in movies
This is actually a preliminary list
If you want to participate in any part of the Marathons, let me know!
- The first installment of the Kirk Alyn-starring Superman serial
- The first episodes of the George Reeves Superman TV show - aka: The Adventures of Superman (also known as Superman and the Mole Men)
- An episode of the 80's Superman cartoon
- An episode of Lois and Clark
- The pilot movie for Superman: The Animated Series
- Superman: The Movie
- Superman II
- Superman III
- Superman IV (yes. Superman IV)
- Superman Returns
Frankly, and this may surprise some, I own quite a bit of Superman media. I haven't run the numbers, but I figure if I added up all the cartoons, movies, live TV shows, etc... I've got on hand, we could go for about a straight month without pausing (not really, but we could last for a few days). So, you know, I'm trying to be merciful.
Anyway, I plan to watch all the stuff in the list, sleep, and then go see the new Superman.
Its Not Easy Getting Green
But prior to this, we have the Green Lantern movie coming up. And so I am considering a Green Lantern-mini-marathon
- the Superman: The Animated Series Green Lantern episode introducing Green Lanterns and Sinestro
- an episode of Superfriends retelling the Green Lantern origin
- key Green Lantern-centric episodes of Justice League and Justice League Unlimited
- Green Lantern: First Flight from Warner Animation
- Green Lantern: Emerald Knights from Warner Animation
- I will also try to secure a copy of the little-seen Justice League live action pilot featuring a dopey Guy Gardner/ Kyle Rayner hybrid
So, coming soon (once I clear this with Jamie), I will put out a schedule and the drill will be that you can come by and join me in the marathon if you're here in town, coming and going as you see fit.
APES FEST
I will also be looking into a possible Ape-a-Thon prior to the release of this year's Planet of the Apes sequel. I now have 10 hours of Apes movies on Blu-Ray, and its hard to see me NOT watching all of the Apes movies back-to-back in a 10 hour stretch of pure primate-madness.
But I am also considering a 2-part Apes-a-Thon.
Part 1: All five original Planet of the Apes movies and the cartoon, if I can secure it.
Part 2: APE FESTAPALOOZA: an appreciation of primates in movies
This is actually a preliminary list
- Any Which Way But Loose
- King Kong (the original and/ or the 1970's version)
- Might Joe Young
- Gorillas in the Mist
- Greystoke: the Legend of Tarzan
If you want to participate in any part of the Marathons, let me know!
Monday, April 25, 2011
No Post Tuesday
Upside for me is that The Dug is here. Downside is that there's no post tonight. Tough noogies, kids.
I dunno. I feel bad for the lack of content. Here's Gloria Grahame.
 |
| The man you can blame who has kept me from blogging. |
Sunday, April 24, 2011
So, then I watched a bunch of stuff I'd already seen before
Saturday evening I had the unique and bizarre experience of watching the entirety of Birdemic with Jamie's parents. We thought they would just want to see the first ten minutes or so in order to understand what we were talking about, and then... we were watching the end of the movie. So, if you're keeping score, that's 3 viewings for Jamie and me, 4 for Doug and now one a piece for Jamie's folks.
James Nguyen owes us something.
We also watched the RiffTrax synched with Return of the Jedi, and given how many times I've seen Jedi, it was nice to see the movie under a bit of a new light.
This evening all five of us headed down to the Alamo Ritz to see a screening of the 1983 feature The Dark Crystal. I assume most of you raised properly on a diet of matinees in the 1980's have seen The Dark Crystal, a Jim Henson feature film that's just an exemplary fantasy flick that may not have even been state-of-the-art in 1983, but is so embedded in classic camera tricks, puppetry, practical effects, etc... that the film is just mindboggling to watch in this day and age. In short - what we'd now create in lush digital, generated by somebody sitting on their duff in a chair somewhere in an office park was actually physically created, with bellows or strings or hydraulics in order to make it work. And when you see that... well, my eyes can forgive the mistakes and flaws pretty when your eye isn't lying to you about the fact that these things are actually there.
I won't lie and say things like "Avatar is a sham! I'm a practical effects purist!" I'm not. Avatar is a sham for completely different reasons, but its a neat thrill ride. I just hate to think of the craftsmanship that's being lost in movie making as the answer is now, invariably, to make sets, non-human characters, etc... out of bits instead of, I guess foam or whatever they used to do for muppets.
And you have to also think: what level of detail are we currently missing as studios go for digital over practical? I mean - I was looking at the costumes and textures and layering on all these characters, and its hard to believe that anyone would think that was a good idea except for people actually cutting and sewing to make things to scale for a movie like this.
Anyhow, it was fun. I should really try to watch something this week I haven't seen before at least twice.
James Nguyen owes us something.
We also watched the RiffTrax synched with Return of the Jedi, and given how many times I've seen Jedi, it was nice to see the movie under a bit of a new light.
This evening all five of us headed down to the Alamo Ritz to see a screening of the 1983 feature The Dark Crystal. I assume most of you raised properly on a diet of matinees in the 1980's have seen The Dark Crystal, a Jim Henson feature film that's just an exemplary fantasy flick that may not have even been state-of-the-art in 1983, but is so embedded in classic camera tricks, puppetry, practical effects, etc... that the film is just mindboggling to watch in this day and age. In short - what we'd now create in lush digital, generated by somebody sitting on their duff in a chair somewhere in an office park was actually physically created, with bellows or strings or hydraulics in order to make it work. And when you see that... well, my eyes can forgive the mistakes and flaws pretty when your eye isn't lying to you about the fact that these things are actually there.
 |
| all of this was made as props and set dressing and muppet |
 |
| This scene is just ridiculous |
 |
| this just looks like a really awkward family photo |
Horus follows up on the question of "culling" and "surrendering" to the mass of possibilities in media
Some of you commented about my post the other day discussing strategies for dealing with the sheer volume of material out there, and what it means to be well-read in 2011. Or if that phrase has meaning anymore. And... thanks! Its an interesting discussion.
Horus popped up over on his site and carried on the conversation, so I think you should go over there and see what the man has to say.
Horus popped up over on his site and carried on the conversation, so I think you should go over there and see what the man has to say.
Star Wars Day at Austin Books and Comics
Today was a pretty cool day at Austin Books and Comics. Actor Richard LaParmentier was in town and came by Austin Books to do a signing. If you're wondering who Richard LaParmentier is, let me remind you:
He's the only guy you see in the the original trilogy talk smack to Vader, and, of course, things go poorly for him.
Once Mr. LaParmentier was on the bill for Saturday, it kind of became a thing, and Austin Books held a very special Star Wars Day! I couldn't believe the crowds, and I really couldn't believe the numbers of kids. Man, little boys and girls still really like Star Wars. And that's pretty cool.
I'm not the Star Wars fan I was until, well... Episode I was released. But I still like a good Storm Trooper, and I'll always have a warm spot in my heart for the original trilogy (and Princess Leia).
I realize looking at these pictures that I waited too long between haircuts, but this is me getting an autograph from the man himself.
I'm not going to scan it, but the picture I had him sign was his profile with the Death Star. He drew a neat little arrow and wrote "my office", pointing to one of the little blips of light on the Death Star. Very clever guy.
He's not looking at the lens in the picture because Jamie and The Doug both lifted cameras at the same time. So, stereoscopic pics, I guess.
Speaking of Jamie and Doug, they got to meet one of their favorite stars of the movies.
I ran into ObiWan while he was looking at some prestige art books. He was kind enough to have his pic taken, but I got to say... I think I have a foot on the Jedi Master.
What I also learned is that when Vader and the 501st show up, you don't take a page from General Motti's book and confront Vader about his policies and hokey religion.
Luckily, Vader did not choke me out.
Anyway, it was a really fun time! And it was great to see so many folks out enjoying the nice day and the fun ABC put together.
I didn't stick around for the signing by the comic writers for the Star Wars comic (not sure when that happened) and I didn't stick around when BioWare came by to recruit for QA personnel. But I think we had a grand time. Austin Books has been a great shop for years, but now its becoming also a hub of pop culture madness here in town. And its kind of great.
And, we wrapped it up this evening with a screening of Return of the Jedi with RiffTrax.
 |
| The fellow on the right, General Motti |
Once Mr. LaParmentier was on the bill for Saturday, it kind of became a thing, and Austin Books held a very special Star Wars Day! I couldn't believe the crowds, and I really couldn't believe the numbers of kids. Man, little boys and girls still really like Star Wars. And that's pretty cool.
I'm not the Star Wars fan I was until, well... Episode I was released. But I still like a good Storm Trooper, and I'll always have a warm spot in my heart for the original trilogy (and Princess Leia).
I realize looking at these pictures that I waited too long between haircuts, but this is me getting an autograph from the man himself.
He's not looking at the lens in the picture because Jamie and The Doug both lifted cameras at the same time. So, stereoscopic pics, I guess.
Speaking of Jamie and Doug, they got to meet one of their favorite stars of the movies.
 |
| Doug and R2 both keep flamethrowers in their torsos |
 |
| Ben Kenobi was really very cool and I think was having a good time |
 |
| right before they led me to the Squad-Speeder for booking |
 |
| late edit: Doug sends along further evidence of Imperial Injustice |
Luckily, Vader did not choke me out.
Anyway, it was a really fun time! And it was great to see so many folks out enjoying the nice day and the fun ABC put together.
I didn't stick around for the signing by the comic writers for the Star Wars comic (not sure when that happened) and I didn't stick around when BioWare came by to recruit for QA personnel. But I think we had a grand time. Austin Books has been a great shop for years, but now its becoming also a hub of pop culture madness here in town. And its kind of great.
And, we wrapped it up this evening with a screening of Return of the Jedi with RiffTrax.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Signal Watch Reads: Superman 710
Superman 710
Written by J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI and CHRIS ROBERSON
Art by EDDY BARROWS, TRAVEL FOREMAN and J.P. MAYER
Cover by JOHN CASSADAY; 1:10 Variant cover by ADAM HUGHES
It would be interesting to have been in the room during any number of calls between writer Chris Roberson and editors Matt Idleson and Wil Moss.
J. Michael Straczynski is beloved amongst sci-fi fans for his creation of Babylon 5 (a show I was oddly loyal to during my college years), and wrote the well-regarded film Changeling, which was directed by Clint Eastwood and has a considerable writing career in television and movies. He's also occasionally been a favorite writer in comics, and I was a fan of, oh.... the first half of his work on Amazing Spider-Man.
DC landing JMS was supposed to be a coup. The comic nerderati enthusiasm for the Geoff Johns reboot of Superman with Infinite Crisis had been squandered with the sprawling New Krypton storyline. JMS would arrive, tell some kick-ass Superman stories and all would be well. He had professed publicly to a great love for Superman and told (repeatedly) a story about stopping thieves himself thanks to Superman's inspiration. It was going to be a thing. And then the interviews started to hit...
JMS was planning to send Superman on a 1-year walking tour of the US where he would meet and greet with everyday people. I've already talked about this, and I don't think I need to rehash the details, but... it didn't go well for either JMS or for the readers. I could only be in so much denial about what a misfire the Grounded storyline felt like, even as I could see there was a nugget of a great idea in there.
Roberson, a writer who's star has been on a crazy meteoric rise the past two years, was somehow handed the book, and he's working alchemy, turning lead to gold. Honestly, I had only heard Roberson's name in conjunction with iZombie before I picked up his Superman title and read the first iZombie issue before trade-waiting it.
Again, I don't know what those conversations were like between Roberson and editorial, but he's doing something only a few writers do that I absolutely love, and which Geoff Johns does practically as an art-form. He's taking some of the flubs of the JMS-penned issues and mining them for story points, both including them in the narrative and assuring readers "no, DC did not go completely crazy".
From comments in interviews, it seems Roberson only ever got an outline from editorial as to what JMS planned to do before he basically quit both Superman and Wonder Woman mid-story. So that's a bit of context.
In this issue Superman wanders into Ogden, Utah where he saves a woman from beings truck by a car. Returning her "home", he's directed to an archaeological site, but the real story is the flashback sequence embedded in the issue. Talking to the archaeologist, Superman sees an "S" shield projected onto the clouds with ultraviolet, and flies off to see who is looking for him.
Fair warning: from here on out there are plenty of spoilers
For, really, the first time since Final Crisis, Superman gets to have a chance to speak with Bruce Wayne/ Batman (he had previously spoken with Dick Grayson in the Batman costume about 6 issues ago). The two recall a meeting that took place prior to either assuming their names and costumes, and its a bit of fan-wank, but... Several years ago a one-shot entitled Superman: The Odyssey was released. Mostly forgettable, the one shot did feature a brief meeting of a young Clark Kent and an unnamed Bruce Wayne on the steps of a temple.
Clearly, the same image stuck in Roberson's head that caught in mine, and it was fun to see Roberson take an opportunity to explore that meeting and place it directly into continuity. What follows is a tale of an early meeting of the World's Finest, and how it would presage their careers. The great thing is that, from a fan service perspective, Roberson also namedrops the first meeting "Superman" and "Batman" from Man of Steel, and a short story by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale in which a young Bruce Wayne is taken on a cross-country trip in the family limo by Alfred, and the tire pops in Smallville.
After a decade of writers coming to Superman with no terrific love for the character and seemingly just hop scotching across titles at DC, its stupendous to see a writer who knows his Superman AND can write around this background as a shared history rather than a tangle of continuity or just namechecking.
While the flashback sequence is great (I won't take anything away from 20-somethings Clark and Bruce taking on a force they don't understand yet as Vandal Savage), the climax really comes as Bruce talks to Clark, and says what we've all been thinking: you're not quite right because you've been grieving.
In the mind's eye of the public (both in the DCU and in our own), Superman does not grieve. But given the events of the Superman titles since the first Brainiac robot showed up a couple of years ago in the Superman books, Superman has a lot to grieve for, and might not even know how to do so. Unlike the original comics in which Superboy lost his parents at the age of 18 and Kandor never ceased to exist, or the movies in which there is no Kandor and Jonathan's death occurs around the age of 18, Superman in this continuity has lost his father and his civilization (and chance for belonging) in one fell swoop.
Its not a stunning revelation, but its also a new era at DC if Batman is allowed to have such a conversation with Superman without shouting at him to get it together. For once, you can see why Superman would bother to talk to Batman outside the context of JLA meetings.
But in having this conversation, Roberson also works some of that alchemy. And this is where I'd refer to how interesting those conversations must have been at the DC offices. Roberson IS a good writer, and he's worked wonders, but I'd love to know if it was him bringing ways to address the problems the readership had with the story or if it was the editors. Frankly, I hope it was Roberson, because the moment of "can we do this?" would have been some serious gold for those of us who like awkward moments.
One of the most derided scenes in early issues of Grounded featured Superman lecturing a man on the street about morality and that man's duty. It went over... poorly. Superman, when will written, wins hearts and minds mostly by example and action, not pedantic lecturing. Roberson's Batman actually refers to the scene and in a bit of metatextual apology to readers tells Superman he was behaving out of character, but we have to forgive him as he forgives himself.
It may be a bit forced or a bit clunky to read months and months later, and will most certainly read better one day in a collected edition where one hasn't pondered that sequence with months inbetween installments, but it does so much to rehabilitate a broken narrative, as so much of what Roberson has written has done.
Flat out, DC can't afford to kowtow to writers anymore if it isn't in service to their staple characters. They can be in the business of name writers, but they also have a longterm duty to first serve their licensed characters to make sure there's a wealth of information that people can enjoy in comics and which can be looked at for treatment in other media. Making these kinds of adjustments mid-story is a pleasure to read, even if it isn't as streamlined as it could be.
And if there was one last bit of gold I enjoyed - it was the suggestion to Superman that a SQUAD of Supermen might be a good thing, too, if Batman was willing to go worldwide.
So, yes, DC... I would read that. And I hope that's where you're going with this whole Doomsday thing.
Oh, right... the art.
I don't know if there's much new to add from previous statements about Barrow's art. I've been very pleased with recent issues, and I think the look is right for the most mainstream Superman book. The flashback sequences also looked pretty great, drawn by Travel Foreman and meant to ape the style of The Odyssey.
Written by J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI and CHRIS ROBERSON
Art by EDDY BARROWS, TRAVEL FOREMAN and J.P. MAYER
Cover by JOHN CASSADAY; 1:10 Variant cover by ADAM HUGHES
It would be interesting to have been in the room during any number of calls between writer Chris Roberson and editors Matt Idleson and Wil Moss.
J. Michael Straczynski is beloved amongst sci-fi fans for his creation of Babylon 5 (a show I was oddly loyal to during my college years), and wrote the well-regarded film Changeling, which was directed by Clint Eastwood and has a considerable writing career in television and movies. He's also occasionally been a favorite writer in comics, and I was a fan of, oh.... the first half of his work on Amazing Spider-Man.
DC landing JMS was supposed to be a coup. The comic nerderati enthusiasm for the Geoff Johns reboot of Superman with Infinite Crisis had been squandered with the sprawling New Krypton storyline. JMS would arrive, tell some kick-ass Superman stories and all would be well. He had professed publicly to a great love for Superman and told (repeatedly) a story about stopping thieves himself thanks to Superman's inspiration. It was going to be a thing. And then the interviews started to hit...
JMS was planning to send Superman on a 1-year walking tour of the US where he would meet and greet with everyday people. I've already talked about this, and I don't think I need to rehash the details, but... it didn't go well for either JMS or for the readers. I could only be in so much denial about what a misfire the Grounded storyline felt like, even as I could see there was a nugget of a great idea in there.
Roberson, a writer who's star has been on a crazy meteoric rise the past two years, was somehow handed the book, and he's working alchemy, turning lead to gold. Honestly, I had only heard Roberson's name in conjunction with iZombie before I picked up his Superman title and read the first iZombie issue before trade-waiting it.
Again, I don't know what those conversations were like between Roberson and editorial, but he's doing something only a few writers do that I absolutely love, and which Geoff Johns does practically as an art-form. He's taking some of the flubs of the JMS-penned issues and mining them for story points, both including them in the narrative and assuring readers "no, DC did not go completely crazy".
From comments in interviews, it seems Roberson only ever got an outline from editorial as to what JMS planned to do before he basically quit both Superman and Wonder Woman mid-story. So that's a bit of context.
In this issue Superman wanders into Ogden, Utah where he saves a woman from beings truck by a car. Returning her "home", he's directed to an archaeological site, but the real story is the flashback sequence embedded in the issue. Talking to the archaeologist, Superman sees an "S" shield projected onto the clouds with ultraviolet, and flies off to see who is looking for him.
Fair warning: from here on out there are plenty of spoilers
For, really, the first time since Final Crisis, Superman gets to have a chance to speak with Bruce Wayne/ Batman (he had previously spoken with Dick Grayson in the Batman costume about 6 issues ago). The two recall a meeting that took place prior to either assuming their names and costumes, and its a bit of fan-wank, but... Several years ago a one-shot entitled Superman: The Odyssey was released. Mostly forgettable, the one shot did feature a brief meeting of a young Clark Kent and an unnamed Bruce Wayne on the steps of a temple.
Clearly, the same image stuck in Roberson's head that caught in mine, and it was fun to see Roberson take an opportunity to explore that meeting and place it directly into continuity. What follows is a tale of an early meeting of the World's Finest, and how it would presage their careers. The great thing is that, from a fan service perspective, Roberson also namedrops the first meeting "Superman" and "Batman" from Man of Steel, and a short story by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale in which a young Bruce Wayne is taken on a cross-country trip in the family limo by Alfred, and the tire pops in Smallville.
After a decade of writers coming to Superman with no terrific love for the character and seemingly just hop scotching across titles at DC, its stupendous to see a writer who knows his Superman AND can write around this background as a shared history rather than a tangle of continuity or just namechecking.
While the flashback sequence is great (I won't take anything away from 20-somethings Clark and Bruce taking on a force they don't understand yet as Vandal Savage), the climax really comes as Bruce talks to Clark, and says what we've all been thinking: you're not quite right because you've been grieving.
In the mind's eye of the public (both in the DCU and in our own), Superman does not grieve. But given the events of the Superman titles since the first Brainiac robot showed up a couple of years ago in the Superman books, Superman has a lot to grieve for, and might not even know how to do so. Unlike the original comics in which Superboy lost his parents at the age of 18 and Kandor never ceased to exist, or the movies in which there is no Kandor and Jonathan's death occurs around the age of 18, Superman in this continuity has lost his father and his civilization (and chance for belonging) in one fell swoop.
Its not a stunning revelation, but its also a new era at DC if Batman is allowed to have such a conversation with Superman without shouting at him to get it together. For once, you can see why Superman would bother to talk to Batman outside the context of JLA meetings.
But in having this conversation, Roberson also works some of that alchemy. And this is where I'd refer to how interesting those conversations must have been at the DC offices. Roberson IS a good writer, and he's worked wonders, but I'd love to know if it was him bringing ways to address the problems the readership had with the story or if it was the editors. Frankly, I hope it was Roberson, because the moment of "can we do this?" would have been some serious gold for those of us who like awkward moments.
One of the most derided scenes in early issues of Grounded featured Superman lecturing a man on the street about morality and that man's duty. It went over... poorly. Superman, when will written, wins hearts and minds mostly by example and action, not pedantic lecturing. Roberson's Batman actually refers to the scene and in a bit of metatextual apology to readers tells Superman he was behaving out of character, but we have to forgive him as he forgives himself.
It may be a bit forced or a bit clunky to read months and months later, and will most certainly read better one day in a collected edition where one hasn't pondered that sequence with months inbetween installments, but it does so much to rehabilitate a broken narrative, as so much of what Roberson has written has done.
Flat out, DC can't afford to kowtow to writers anymore if it isn't in service to their staple characters. They can be in the business of name writers, but they also have a longterm duty to first serve their licensed characters to make sure there's a wealth of information that people can enjoy in comics and which can be looked at for treatment in other media. Making these kinds of adjustments mid-story is a pleasure to read, even if it isn't as streamlined as it could be.
And if there was one last bit of gold I enjoyed - it was the suggestion to Superman that a SQUAD of Supermen might be a good thing, too, if Batman was willing to go worldwide.
So, yes, DC... I would read that. And I hope that's where you're going with this whole Doomsday thing.
Oh, right... the art.
I don't know if there's much new to add from previous statements about Barrow's art. I've been very pleased with recent issues, and I think the look is right for the most mainstream Superman book. The flashback sequences also looked pretty great, drawn by Travel Foreman and meant to ape the style of The Odyssey.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Super Catch Up: Reign of Doomsday (so far)
With London, birthday parties, etc... I've fallen a little behind on my comics reading, and I promised myself I'd be talking a bit about Superman comics.
Starting over a month ago, DC decided to launch a half-baked event leading up to the release of Action Comics #900 (the comic is released next week). Its also a tribute or reminder of the last time DC sold a whole boat-ton of comics, which was 20 years ago with The Death of Superman storyline, from which came the Reign of the Supermen storyline.
Its no secret to longtime comics fans that when the company decides to suddenly overlay an "event" on a comic or a story within a comic that was not originally plotted to include the "event", things get messy. And, boy howdy...
Is this thing ever a mess.
Steel (One Shot)
Written by STEVE LYONS; Art by ED BENES; Cover by ALEX GARNER
The first comic to tie into this this thing was actually Steel #1, a one-shot which basically featured one of my favorite bits of the modern Superman-era, John Henry Irons (aka: Steel). Steel is just one of those great ideas that's only going to work if a writer stays on Superman long enough to figure out that Superman needs a supporting cast, and Steel probably fits the bill better than most for someone who can be pals with Superman both as a superhero and as a super-scientist.
In the context of this issue, Superman is off wandering America, and so when Doomsday shows up, Steel basically gets really, really beat up. The end.
Fans speculated that DC had killed Steel, and given the capricious ways of DC editorial, hey, maybe...
This issue was supposed to be setting us up for the Reign of Doomsday story, but somebody forgot to make sure this was going to synch up with anything else, and the next installments just sort of trickled out into books I'm not currently reading.
Outsiders #37
I didn't mind the set-up of Steel #1. It just felt like a prelude to bigger events, and sometimes comics does that. But here...
The co-plotting of the issue is attributed to Dan Didio and artist Phillip Tan. Script by Didio, DC's current Co-Publisher and a man who just loves a good mutilation in his comics.
I picked up Outsiders when the series relaunched, dealt with the changes as editorial floundered with the line-up around 2007, and then quit reading. I actually picked up the issue where it was revealed that Superman's sometimes-ally/ sometimes-enemy The Eradicator (I know... that name...) was joining the team, but, honestly, that was one of the worst comics I read that whole year. It was just a mess.
Well, in this issue Doomsday shows up out of nowhere in the middle of a completely ongoing Outsiders plot that's still seemingly concerned with the New Krypton storyline from the Superman books and which even the Superman books aren't really talking about anymore... and beats everyone up, especially The Eradicator.
We do learn that: Hey, Doomsday seems to have new powers. And, look, that Olympian fellow from Gail Simone's Wonder Woman run found a place in... Outsiders?
Outsiders seems to be the place DC gave Didio where he can keep talking about and insisting that things that happened under his stewardship at DC were neat ideas and shouldn't be forgotten. Rucka's Checkmate? Yes, absolutely a great book and its a shame DC has already forgotten how good it was. Its too bad Didio louses up the memory with a nonsense superhero brawl. Basically everything wrong with Wonder Woman that happened after OYL? It can be seen in the fact that Didio thinks anyone was that interested in The Olympian in Wonder Woman or hoped he'd show up again. The mix-n-match set of characters is just a telltale sign that Didio doesn't really get the actual DCU all that well, and he's not quite ready to admit defeat.
Mostly, though, the arrival of Doomsday in the title is meant to draw out The Eradicator, and once the two points are connected, its not too hard to say "oh, so Doomsday is going after all the characters from Reign of the Supermen".
Justice League of America #55
Written by JAMES ROBINSON; Art by BRETT BOOTH & NORM RAPMUND
And then Doomsday shows up in the middle of a bunch of stuff that must be happening in Justice League of America, but given that I haven't actually been reading this title for what must have been a year, I have no clue what's happening. Eclipso is running around, possibly on the moon, possibly not. There seems to have been an incident that made Alan Scott go bald, created a magic city, which I think is ALSO on the moon, but its really hard to say.
What I did follow is that Supergirl is wearing all black and being moody in space and Doomsday shows up out of nowhere picking a fight with she and Boodika of the Green Lantern titles.
This crosses into...
Superman/ Batman Annual #5
Written by JAMES ROBINSON; Art and cover by MIGUEL SEPULVEDA
At this point, we learn "oh, its not after Boodika, its after The Cyborg Superman who has been resting dormant inside her robotic body and-" Yeah. Look, that's fine. It at least gives Boodika a reason for showing up, even if the reason she appears is contrived to try to give Robinson an instant of being clever.
You see, Doomsday isn't really after Supegirl... the pattern is the same. He's after the Cyborg Superman. They fight. And just as Doomsday adapted to defeat The Eradicator and Steel, he also adapts to Cyborg Superman, which sounds kind of okay, but it really means Robot Doomsday, which just means... the fight ends.
I did get to see Robinson jettison the whole Dark Supergirl thing he was doing in JLA, and while that was satisfying to see him basically write Dark Supergirl to an end, it just felt like he decided "oh, I'm not going to keep doing this", and got a bit too literal with his explanation to the point where it just felt... silly.
If this is getting a little tedious to read this way, let me tell you....
The basic issue is that no matter what DC does with Doomsday, he's not very interesting. He has no motivation, and he only really works as a plotpoint. This was the design by the original creators back in 1992. Doomsday was a killing machine, and that was that. In the spirit of comics of the 1990's, that was pretty high concept. Various writers have tried to put their stamp on Doomsday and attempt to make him more interesting by, say, giving him the power of speech (now redacted), or thought (now seemingly redacted), or any of a number of items that would make him more interesting than, say, a really angry hunk of rock. But for some reason, we always wind up back at the angry hunk of rock.
Mostly, after the catastrophe of Countdown to Final Crisis and trying to wind stories into the ongoing narrative spine of the DCU, and watching that just utterly collapse, I figured DC was done with these sorts of "and now we pause for an issue while editorial mandates a brainless slugfest so you might pick up an otherwise unrelated comic" antics.
Curiously, Superboy seems to handle the narrative confusion the best of any of the series.
Superboy 6
Written by JEFF LEMIRE; Art by MARCO RUDY; Cover by EDDY BARROWS & J.P. MAYER
As Lemire has written the book so episodically, with each issue feeling contained to a specific time frame, Doomsday showing up seems less like an interruption and more of an unfortunate happenstance.
All that said, between all of these issues, nothing happened that couldn't have been represented in about four pages of issue #900 of Action Comics, and I'm forced to believe that we'll see exactly that in a recap.
The whole experience is a shame on so many levels. It burns through an issue of Superboy, it wastes a perfectly good opportunity for a Steel one-shot that could have demonstrated why Steel is exciting as a character, and it unnecessarily drove me, as a reader who doesn't care for the current JLA or Outsiders runs through a long slog with both books (especially the co-opted Superman/ Batman Annual. Those Annuals have been a lot of fun in previous years.).
There's no reason to think Action Comics #900 won't be a good read (more on Action's recent run another day), but if DC was casting a net to get Superman readers to check out JLA and Outsiders, this was a pretty cheesy way to do it, and, worse, they did nothing but convince me I've made the right decision ignoring both.
If they were looking to re-intro Steel, then... okay. Showing Steel getting creamed or dead wasn't a convincing argument for why I should keep up.
If they wanted to set a point in continuity where Superboy and Superman and Action synch up, okay... but you can do that in a little editorial bubble, not blowing through an issue of a brand new title.
Its all just more than a little disappointing.
Starting over a month ago, DC decided to launch a half-baked event leading up to the release of Action Comics #900 (the comic is released next week). Its also a tribute or reminder of the last time DC sold a whole boat-ton of comics, which was 20 years ago with The Death of Superman storyline, from which came the Reign of the Supermen storyline.
Its no secret to longtime comics fans that when the company decides to suddenly overlay an "event" on a comic or a story within a comic that was not originally plotted to include the "event", things get messy. And, boy howdy...
Is this thing ever a mess.
Steel (One Shot)
Written by STEVE LYONS; Art by ED BENES; Cover by ALEX GARNER
 |
| "I am Iron Man! Wait... that's wrong..." |
In the context of this issue, Superman is off wandering America, and so when Doomsday shows up, Steel basically gets really, really beat up. The end.
Fans speculated that DC had killed Steel, and given the capricious ways of DC editorial, hey, maybe...
This issue was supposed to be setting us up for the Reign of Doomsday story, but somebody forgot to make sure this was going to synch up with anything else, and the next installments just sort of trickled out into books I'm not currently reading.
Outsiders #37
 |
| GRRRAAGGHHH!!!!! |
I didn't mind the set-up of Steel #1. It just felt like a prelude to bigger events, and sometimes comics does that. But here...
The co-plotting of the issue is attributed to Dan Didio and artist Phillip Tan. Script by Didio, DC's current Co-Publisher and a man who just loves a good mutilation in his comics.
I picked up Outsiders when the series relaunched, dealt with the changes as editorial floundered with the line-up around 2007, and then quit reading. I actually picked up the issue where it was revealed that Superman's sometimes-ally/ sometimes-enemy The Eradicator (I know... that name...) was joining the team, but, honestly, that was one of the worst comics I read that whole year. It was just a mess.
Well, in this issue Doomsday shows up out of nowhere in the middle of a completely ongoing Outsiders plot that's still seemingly concerned with the New Krypton storyline from the Superman books and which even the Superman books aren't really talking about anymore... and beats everyone up, especially The Eradicator.
We do learn that: Hey, Doomsday seems to have new powers. And, look, that Olympian fellow from Gail Simone's Wonder Woman run found a place in... Outsiders?
Outsiders seems to be the place DC gave Didio where he can keep talking about and insisting that things that happened under his stewardship at DC were neat ideas and shouldn't be forgotten. Rucka's Checkmate? Yes, absolutely a great book and its a shame DC has already forgotten how good it was. Its too bad Didio louses up the memory with a nonsense superhero brawl. Basically everything wrong with Wonder Woman that happened after OYL? It can be seen in the fact that Didio thinks anyone was that interested in The Olympian in Wonder Woman or hoped he'd show up again. The mix-n-match set of characters is just a telltale sign that Didio doesn't really get the actual DCU all that well, and he's not quite ready to admit defeat.
Mostly, though, the arrival of Doomsday in the title is meant to draw out The Eradicator, and once the two points are connected, its not too hard to say "oh, so Doomsday is going after all the characters from Reign of the Supermen".
Justice League of America #55
Written by JAMES ROBINSON; Art by BRETT BOOTH & NORM RAPMUND
 |
| I don't think half of these characters appear in this issue |
And then Doomsday shows up in the middle of a bunch of stuff that must be happening in Justice League of America, but given that I haven't actually been reading this title for what must have been a year, I have no clue what's happening. Eclipso is running around, possibly on the moon, possibly not. There seems to have been an incident that made Alan Scott go bald, created a magic city, which I think is ALSO on the moon, but its really hard to say.
What I did follow is that Supergirl is wearing all black and being moody in space and Doomsday shows up out of nowhere picking a fight with she and Boodika of the Green Lantern titles.
This crosses into...
Superman/ Batman Annual #5
Written by JAMES ROBINSON; Art and cover by MIGUEL SEPULVEDA
 |
| it's a little hard to parse, no? |
You see, Doomsday isn't really after Supegirl... the pattern is the same. He's after the Cyborg Superman. They fight. And just as Doomsday adapted to defeat The Eradicator and Steel, he also adapts to Cyborg Superman, which sounds kind of okay, but it really means Robot Doomsday, which just means... the fight ends.
I did get to see Robinson jettison the whole Dark Supergirl thing he was doing in JLA, and while that was satisfying to see him basically write Dark Supergirl to an end, it just felt like he decided "oh, I'm not going to keep doing this", and got a bit too literal with his explanation to the point where it just felt... silly.
If this is getting a little tedious to read this way, let me tell you....
The basic issue is that no matter what DC does with Doomsday, he's not very interesting. He has no motivation, and he only really works as a plotpoint. This was the design by the original creators back in 1992. Doomsday was a killing machine, and that was that. In the spirit of comics of the 1990's, that was pretty high concept. Various writers have tried to put their stamp on Doomsday and attempt to make him more interesting by, say, giving him the power of speech (now redacted), or thought (now seemingly redacted), or any of a number of items that would make him more interesting than, say, a really angry hunk of rock. But for some reason, we always wind up back at the angry hunk of rock.
Mostly, after the catastrophe of Countdown to Final Crisis and trying to wind stories into the ongoing narrative spine of the DCU, and watching that just utterly collapse, I figured DC was done with these sorts of "and now we pause for an issue while editorial mandates a brainless slugfest so you might pick up an otherwise unrelated comic" antics.
Curiously, Superboy seems to handle the narrative confusion the best of any of the series.
Superboy 6
Written by JEFF LEMIRE; Art by MARCO RUDY; Cover by EDDY BARROWS & J.P. MAYER
 |
| I bet Doomsday's breath smells like peppermint Tic-Tacs |
As Lemire has written the book so episodically, with each issue feeling contained to a specific time frame, Doomsday showing up seems less like an interruption and more of an unfortunate happenstance.
All that said, between all of these issues, nothing happened that couldn't have been represented in about four pages of issue #900 of Action Comics, and I'm forced to believe that we'll see exactly that in a recap.
The whole experience is a shame on so many levels. It burns through an issue of Superboy, it wastes a perfectly good opportunity for a Steel one-shot that could have demonstrated why Steel is exciting as a character, and it unnecessarily drove me, as a reader who doesn't care for the current JLA or Outsiders runs through a long slog with both books (especially the co-opted Superman/ Batman Annual. Those Annuals have been a lot of fun in previous years.).
There's no reason to think Action Comics #900 won't be a good read (more on Action's recent run another day), but if DC was casting a net to get Superman readers to check out JLA and Outsiders, this was a pretty cheesy way to do it, and, worse, they did nothing but convince me I've made the right decision ignoring both.
If they were looking to re-intro Steel, then... okay. Showing Steel getting creamed or dead wasn't a convincing argument for why I should keep up.
If they wanted to set a point in continuity where Superboy and Superman and Action synch up, okay... but you can do that in a little editorial bubble, not blowing through an issue of a brand new title.
Its all just more than a little disappointing.
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