Last of the Famous International Fanboys

Before Watchmen: My Tuppence Worth

2012-02-01T17:16:00.000Z

Today DC Comics announced their new series of Watchmen prequels, Before Watchmen. It's hard to get too excited about them. Watchmen is a perfectly complete story in it's own right. Everything that needs to be said about those characters and that world is said in the original story. Anything else would be fan-wank. Creatively speaking I don't believe there's a need for these prequels but that doesn't mean I'm against them.

These prequels will give DC Comics some mainstream press coverage and (who knows) maybe some curious noses through the doors of comic shops, which is good for everybody. Also, while Alan Moore is against the prequels, the other half of the original creative team, Dave Gibbons doesn't mind, and his opinion counts too. And DC haven't done this half arsed, they've put one hell of a good creative team on board. As I said, it's hard to get too excited about all this but I'm a little tempted by Darwyn Cooke's Minutemen. It'll be fan-wank, but fan-wank can still be entertaining. It's just a shame that DC aren't getting mainstream press coverage and new fans from something as new and original as Watchmen was all those years ago.

I'll leave you with what immediately popped into my head the minute I saw Andy and Joe Kubert's image from their Nite Owl mini-series.

Is the Nu52 Superman Costume Any Good?

2012-01-31T16:22:00.000Z

There's been a lot of controversy (i.e. moaning) on the internet about the new Superman costume featured in the recent DC Comics relaunch. Red knickers are out and armour and v-neck collars are in! While I was a bit unsure at first I must say that with each new appearance of the costume I'm liking it more and more. I thought I'd pop up a quick post in which I shared some of my favourite images featuring the new costume so far. The first four images are by the costume's designer Jim Lee. For a while I thought that perhaps the problem with the new design was that only Lee could make it work and liking the costume depended on liking Lee's particular style. This fear was mostly based on the work of George Perez and Jesus Merino over on the Superman title. Perez is one of my favourite artists but neither he nor Merino could seem to draw the new costume without making it seem clunky and awkward. Since then however I've seen a number of other artists interpret the costume and I'm feeling more confident that this design can be just as iconic as the previous one. The main reason I've chosen these images as my favourite is that I feel that these images depict SUPERMAN, as opposed to Superman in a different costume.

What do you think?

Jim Lee

Greg Capullo

Ivan Reis

Yanick Paquette

Andy Kubert

Mahmud Asrar

Comic Fans! Stop Being Dicks!

2012-01-14T17:02:00.000Z

Your bitching makes Spidey sad.

Dan Slott is the current writer of Amazing Spider-Man. Over his career Mr Slott has proven himself an immensely talented and entertaining writer with such critically acclaimed work as his run on She-Hulk, his Spider-Man/Human Torch mini series and the Batman mini-series Arkham Asylum: Living Hell. Personally I think he's one of the best writers Spider-Man has ever had and I believe that he's returned a sense of fun to the character that has been missing for a long time.

A couple of days ago somebody posted the following statement on Twitter:

I wish@danslott would die in a car accident so I could start reading spider-man again

That's right! Not only did this complete ball-bag publicly wish for a comic creator's death but he ensured Mr Slott would see this bile by tagging him in the tweet! What a cock! Even if you disagree with everything I say about Mr Slott in my opening paragraph, surely no one deserves to receive such a hateful tweet just for writing a comic book? Well according to what seems like a large portion of comic fans on the internet, he does. This is just one (albeit extreme) example of an attitude that is far too prevalent among online comic fans. An unpleasant us-and-them attitude and a huge sense of entitlement that seems to be held by a large and vocal percentage of fans. These fans actually seem to believe that comic creators are part of a network of money hungry con-artists who are out to deliberately swindle "true fans". They believe that comic creators are motivated not only by a love of money but by feelings of personal spite towards the fans and a contempt for the characters that feature in the comics. They believe that the creation of a comic that they don't care for justifies the posting of personal criticism in public forums that is, at best, sneering, mean-spirited and unfair, and at worst, vile, offensive and upsetting.

These fans are not fans at all, they are bell-ends!

It seems to me that far too many commentators on the internet can't express an opinion about a creator's work without accusing them of ruining the character, and comics in general, forever. A bad comic can't just be a bad comic, it's always "the final nail in the coffin" for Spider-Man/Superman/Archie/DC/Marvel etc etc. A particular editorial direction for one character can signal the death knell for the entire medium!

According to these commentators there are three main motivating factors for these contentious decisions. The first is money. Because of course, if you want to become filthy rich, the life of a comic creator is the obvious direction to take! The other motivation is a hatred of the characters. You can just imagine a creator working for years at art school, slaving away at a nine-to-five job and drawing at night, sending their work off and receiving rejection after rejection, just so one day they can show that snooty Blue Beetle who's boss! The third motivational factor is the fact that these creators just don't like YOU! That's right, YOU! Not fans, not comics bloggers, just YOU personally. They are out to get YOU!

You might think I'm exaggerating but just Google-search subjects such as "DC Comics Nu52" or "Spider-Man: One More Day" and it won't be long before you find a blog or a message board just chock-full of people expressing variations of the opinions I described above. I can think of at least one comics blogger in particular who honestly seems to believe that former Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada holds a personal dislike of older fans and that he gained some sort of perverse pleasure from the online outrage generated from his controversial decision to eradicate Spider-Man's marriage to Mary Jane.

I'm no expert but it seems to me that if someone wants to be a writer or an artist then there are far more lucrative careers to pursue, say for example, in film, TV, journalism or advertising. The very fact that someone has gone to the effort to pursue a career specifically in comics would seem to imply to me that this person possesses a love for the medium at least, if not a love for the characters and the mythology that they're working with. Why then, would money be their sole motive? Why would spite be their motive?! Most comic creators are unlikely to be contemptuous of fans because chances are, they're fans themselves!

There is one simple fact that a lot of comic fans need to wrap their heads around; you can't please everybody! If a comic creator has killed someone off or rebooted some aspect of a character, then chances are they weren't trying to piss YOU off, they were just trying to tell the best story that they possibly could. Naturally, not everyone is going to agree with their decision, but just because you and your internet pals don't like it, doesn't mean that there's not a lot of people out there enjoying the hell out of it. Sometimes these creators are going to make a decision that proves universally unpopular. Sometimes it can be said with hindsight that the wrong decision was made. But these people have worked hard to get into the position where they can make these decisions, not you! It's their call to make, not yours!

I know that the behaviour I've described isn't exclusive to comic fans. There are a lot of very unpleasant people on the internet and they're fans of all kinds of things, from music to toys. I'm also not saying that comic creators are untouchable and shouldn't be criticised, but let's criticise the work and not the person. Let's keep a sense of perspective and bear in mind that our taste in comics might not be shared by every fan. Comic creators aren't some aloof elite tossing out comics from on high while they siphon up your money. They're talented men and women that work hard. There's a good chance that they love comics just as much as you do and there's a good chance that they might read whatever snarky shit you've decided to post about them, especially if you tag them on Twitter!

All I'm saying is, let's not be pricks about it.

Movie Spider-Man Vs. Comic Book Spider-Man

2012-01-05T22:00:00.004Z

When I first saw Spider-Man (2002) in the cinema I'm not ashamed to say that I wept! Okay, maybe I'm a little ashamed but you have to understand what it meant at the time. The Spider-Man movie had been in development hell for years and despite the success of previous Marvel movies such as Blade and X-Men, there was still every chance that things could go horribly wrong. James Cameron had been linked to the Spidey movie for years, and every now and again we'd hear dreadful rumours about some horrible deviation from the source material such as an evil businessman Electro or a Dock Ock played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Even though Sam Raimi was now directing, the fear of some horrible Hollywood bastardisation remained.

So imagine my relief when we got a fun, exciting movie that seemed to bend over backwards to stay true to the source material. Behind the green armour, Norman Osborn was just as twisted as his comic counterpart, Aunt May and Uncle Ben were straight off the comic page, Spidey's stunts and poses were spot on and J.K. Simmons was born to play J. Jonah Jameson. But best of all, Peter Parker was a nerd! One of my biggest fears was that whoever played Pete would just be some Hollywood pretty boy who always got the girl. Tobey Maguire played Pete as a quintessential nerd. Shy, geeky and awkward. Perfect.

Or so it seemed at the time.

Since then we've been lucky enough to have several spot on interpretations of our heroes. As well as the amazing work of director Christopher Nolan and actors Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman and Michael Caine in bringing the Batman universe to life we've also been blessed with the recent cinematic output from Marvel. Among their many recent accomplishments Marvel have given us Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark, perhaps the most perfect, loyal and satisfying movie interpretation of a comic character ever. In light of all of these great films, not to mention all of this perfect casting, Spider-Man begins to look a little less great in comparison. More specifically, Tobey Maguire's interpretation of Peter Parker starts to look not quite as spot on as it first seemed.

Not to put too fine a point on it, Maguire's Spider-Man is too wet! Sure, Pete's a nerd, but there's an anger in the Peter Parker of the comic that Maguire never quite captures, especially in the early Stan Lee/Steve Ditko stuff. If you read those early Spidey stories there's frustration constantly bubbling under the surface of Peter Parker. It can still be found in Spidey comics today, but it's particularly prevalent in those early issues. Pete is constantly depicted as being flushed with anger at Flash Thompson, or Jonah Jameson. Not just annoyance but genuine rage. Occasionally Pete would even lose his cool completely and snap back at Flash or Jonah. On those occasions he could be quite scathing. This Peter Parker was cleverer than most and he knew it.

Compare the Peter Parker in the scenes above with Maguire's Pete. Maguire's Pete is nice to a fault. You could never imagine him fantasising about Flash Thompson "losing a mouthful of teeth". His Pete would probably hold back even if he didn't have Spidey powers to worry about. He has moments of frustration, and even righteous fury, but he never conveys the ugly, sweaty anger that comic Spidey has bubbling beneath the surface. Comic Pete has to struggle to hold back his anger, whereas it seems to come naturally to sweet, good natured Maguire-Pete. It's this struggle that makes comic Pete a better character than Maguire-Pete; doing the right thing doesn't come as easy to comic Pete, but he still does it! Indeed, Maguire's so ill-suited to showing the uglier side of Pete, that when he finally does have to tap into these qualities in Spider-Man 3, we get a ridiculous, sulky, dancing, emo version of Pete.

Having said that, I still really like Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, but it's hard to deny that aspects of them suffer in comparison to more recent super-hero films. It is worth remembering however that these two films get a lot of things right, and the fact that Pete is played as a nerd at all, even if it is the wrong kind of nerd, is still pretty awesome. Spider-Man, along with X-Men probably played a large part in showing Hollywood that you can stay close to the source material and still have a successful super-hero film. So even though it doesn't tick as many of the boxes as Iron Man or Captain America, Spider-Man probably made it much easier for those films to be as great as they are.

I just hope that Andrew Garfield, who will play Peter Parker in the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man, remembers that Peter Parker isn't just a nerd.

He's an angry nerd!

The Dark Knight Rises: Some Plot Speculation (POSSIBLE SPOILERS)

2012-01-03T02:48:00.000Z

THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE DARK KNIGHT RISES! ALTERNATIVELY IT MAY CONTAIN ABSURD FANBOY SPECULATION! EITHER WAY YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

This year will see the release of Christopher Nolan's final instalment in his Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. The internet is rife with speculation as to how Nolan's Dark Knight saga will end, and this blog is no different. I have a theory as to how the trilogy will end. It may turn out to be a load of cobblers but I think there's a good chance I could be on to something.

First let's take a look at what we know:

One of the villains will be Bane (played by Tom Hardy), the other will be Selina Kyle (played by Anne Hathaway) otherwise known as Catwoman.
Bane is famous for breaking Batman in the comic, and it seems likely that he may do the same on screen.
The film is set eight years after The Dark Knight, which itself was set a year after Batman Begins.
Nolan has said that in The Dark Knight Rises we'll see "an older Bruce Wayne; he's not in a great state."
Liam Neeson may return as Ra's Al Ghul. We'll also see Josh Pence play a younger Ra's in flashback scenes. I would imagine, given the 'realistic' tone of Nolan's Bat-films so far, that Neeson will also appear in flashbacks rather than as a resurrected Al Ghul.
Ra's Al Ghul's daughter, Talia Al Ghul will appear. The character will appear as a young girl with a shaved head and there is speculation that Marion Cottilard will play an older, present day Talia, despite her character being named Miranda Tate. Cottilard herself has denied these rumours and stated that Miranda Tate is a brand new character, but she could be fibbing.
Like Catwoman, Talia is one of the great loves of Batman's life as well as being one of his adversaries. In the comic she is the mother of his son Damian Wayne, the latest Robin.

So, with all this in mind, here is my theory on what will happen in The Dark Knight Rises.

Nolan will surprise everyone and reveal that Selina "Catwoman" Kyle is just a cover identity for Talia! This 'two-characters-in-one' trick isn't new to Nolan. At the end of Batman Begins it is revealed that Henri Ducard (an established character in the comic) is actually a cover identity for Ra's Al Ghul (Liam Neeson). 'Selina' and Bruce will of course become lovers at some point in the film.
Whether Talia is played by Hathaway, Cottilard, or someone else, she will give birth to Bruce's son, possibly named Damian.
Batman will eventually defeat Bane (and possibly Talia/Catwoman) but will be left with a broken body and will no longer be able to continue his career as Batman.
The film will end with Bruce retiring in order to raise his son, possibly to train him to continue as Batman, but most likely to give him the normal life that he himself was denied.

Hathaway: Is she playing two villains?

I may be way off here but I think the facts fit my theory rather neatly. Also, in Batman Begins Bruce's father, Thomas Wayne (Linus Roache) features prominently in several flashbacks, and Bruce living up to his father's memory is a prominent theme. If Bruce gained a son in the final film it would make a nice thematic bookend for the trilogy.

Damian Wayne: Son of The Bat!

So, what do you think? Have I cracked it, or am I talking out of my backside? Either way, there's one thing about the film of which we can be fairly certain. This film is going to be awesome!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T21:27:00.000Z

Hope you all have a great Christmas and a happy New Year!

Love from Paul. xxxxxx

Top Ten Alternate Versions of Reed Richards That Aren't in the Council of Reeds

2011-12-12T21:02:00.000Z

One of my all time favourite comic book characters has to be Reed "Mister Fantastic" Richards of Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four. He's a born leader, a super-genius and the Marvel Universe's ultimate father figure. But these factors are only part of what makes him so appealing to me. Reed's a much more interesting character than he first seems. You see, in the fifty years since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four it's been pretty well established that Reed is just one bad day away from going completely batshit insane. Seriously, this guy is the cleverest person on the planet and he's just one hissy fit away from deciding that everyone on Earth doesn't really know what they're doing and he'd be better off just taking over. There is of course one thing that keeps Reed grounded and stops him from crushing us all like the intellectual cockroaches we are. His family. The rest of the FF. Whenever Reed starts losing it, his wife, his brother-in-law, his best friend, his two children and sometimes even his deadbeat, time-travelling dad all manage to keep him on the straight and narrow.

But what if Reed lost his family?

This is why Alternate Universe versions of Reed Richards are so much fun! Like most alternate versions of popular characters they offer us a glimpse of such scenarios as; what Reed would be like if he had different powers, or no powers, or if Spidey joined his team! But many of these multiversal doppelgängers also offer us a glimpse of what Reed would be like if he lost everything that linked his mighty brain to humanity and went completely barking mad. It's fascinating stuff, and it's a concept that's been used most recently by current Fantastic Four writer Jonathan Hickman. Hickman has introduced us to the Council of Reeds, a gathering of different versions of Reed from countless alternate universes, all united towards a single goal; solving everything! Unlike the regular Marvel Universe Reed, each member of the Council has turned his back on his family in order to totally focus on this goal. As you can imagine this has left them slightly less in touch with humanity than regular Reed.

The Council has a huge variety of alternate Reeds. Their membership includes Human Torch Reed, Silver Surfer Reed, Swordsman Reed, Rock Head Reed, Muscle Reed, Fat Reed, Arc-Reactor-In-His-Chest Reed, and..er..Reed with Goggles. But there are still many other Alternate Reeds that are conspicuous by their absence from the Council. The following list is devoted to them.

(Note: The regular Marvel Universe is usually referred to as Universe 616. If I mention Reed 616 I'm talking about the Reed Richards of the regular Marvel Universe. This is a handy little device that Marvel writers presumably came up with to stop their heads from exploding when discussing alternate versions of their characters.)

10. Ultimate Reed Richards

The Reed of Marvel's Ultimate Universe is pretty similar to Reed 616 except for three major differences. For starters, Ultimate Reed is a much younger version of the character, he's in his late teens rather than middle age. Secondly, Reed 616's father is Nathaniel Richards, an absentee dad who nevertheless nurtured Reed's keen scientific mind during the brief time he spent with his son. On the other hand Ultimate Reed's father is Gary Richards, a brutish oaf who favours athletics over more academic pursuits and has no time for his genius son. And the third, and most important difference between 616 Reed and Ultimate Reed? Ultimate Sue Storm gave Reed the elbow!

You can see where this is going right?

To cut a long story short, in Ultimate Doom #4 (2011) Ultimate Reed went crrraaazyyyy, killed a bunch of people, beat up Sue and teamed up with some aliens to do evil stuff. When he eventually clashed with his former team mates he was even given some Doctor Doom style scars courtesy of the Human Torch.

And you think your ex is a nutbar! He was last seen escaping from the Negative Zone and promising to "solve everything", just like the Council! 616 Reed has made a similar promise but Ultimate Reed's solution probably involves something evil, like torturing kittens.

9. Zombie Reed Richards

Long before he went evil Ultimate Reed built a device for communicating with parallel universes. He made contact with what appeared to be the 616 Reed, who showed Ultimate Reed his wife, his children and his cool grey sideburns. Ultimate Reed hopped onto the first cross-dimensional teleporter over to his doppelgänger's universe, only to find one of the best final page cliffhanger/reveals ever!

Holy Shit! Zombies!

Even more disturbing than that is the way the Zombie FF were first infected. In Marvel Zombies: Dead Days (2007) we once again witness an alternate Reed going barmy, this time as a result of the death of his children at the hands of Zombie She Hulk. Reed decides that the Zombie virus is actually the next step in evolution. He deliberately infects his team-mates and then encourages them to infect him, all the while wearing a look of orgasmic glee on his face.

8. The Brute

The Brute is the Reed Richards of the High Evolutionary's Counter-Earth. Like 616 Reed he was hit by cosmic rays. Unlike 616 Reed he was granted the ability to turn into a big purple monster while his version of Sue was knocked into a coma. In Fantastic Four #177 (1976) he managed to find his way to Earth 616 and join the Frightful Four! In the ensuing battle 616 Reed gets thrown into the Negative Zone and replaced by the Brute. It wasn't long before the FF figured him out for an imposter. After all, the Brute is a much more masculine specimen than 616 Reed. Just look at him here, bare chested and smoking a pipe...

Maybe the Council didn't invite him to join because they were intimidated by his manliness?

7. Unstable Molecules-less Reed Richards

As all Marvel fans know, Reed's costume stretches with him because it's made from Unstable Molecules! It's the same reason Johnny Storm doesn't set his pants on fire. But have you ever wondered what would have happened if Reed hadn't invented Unstable Molecules? No, me neither. Nevertheless, What If #34 (1982) provided us with an answer.

This particular issue of What If is actually a lot of fun, and also gives us our next alternate Reed...

6. Long Banana Reed Richards

Fred Hembeck asks the question "What if the Fantastic Four were bananas?" 'Nuff said.

5. The Thing

On Earth A the cosmic rays granted Ben Grimm stretchy and flame powers while Reed was left with the familiar orange, rocky form of the Thing! While not actually evil this Reed doesn't seem like he's far off. Take for example this scene from She Hulk #21...

"Yeah, let's make this quick Reed, 'cos let's face it I'm probably going to try and clobber you over the head and steal your life!"

Personally I don't know what he's moaning about. Apparently he lives in a castle and builds robots all day. Sounds like a good life to me.

4. 1602 Reed Richards

Neil Gaiman's brilliant 1602 (2003) asks; what would the Marvel Universe be like if all its characters were around in the year 1602? Among the many heroes found in its pages is Sir Richard Reed, leader of the Four of the Fantastick. Like his 616 counterpart he is a stretchy super genius. In fact Sir Reed may be even cleverer considering he's actually figured out that he and his friends are part of a story and are slaves to its narrative!

3. Dark Raider

In Fantastic Four #392 (1994) the identity of the mysterious villain known only as the Dark Raider is revealed. It is of course, another Reed Richards. This Reed is from a universe where the FF failed in their first battle to stop Galactus from eating the Earth. The 616 version of this event was wrapped up when the Watcher sent Johnny Storm to fetch the Ultimate Nullifier from Galactus' spaceship. In the Raider's Universe the Watcher sent Reed instead. Reed, being the curious sort, spent too long buggering about with all the gadgets on the spaceship and by the time he got back Galactus had finished his meal, paid the cheque and presumably moved on to a cosmic nightclub. As in so many other Universes, the loss of his family drove Reed 'round the twist, and he decided that the only logical next step was to roam the multiverse slaughtering other versions of himself.

Of course, the Dark Raider's biggest crime was the murder of Cravat Wearing Explorer Reed, who would have no doubt added some much needed style and panache to the Council.

2. Big Brain

In What If #6 (1977) we see what would have happened if the Fantastic Four gained different powers. In this Universe the cosmic rays granted them powers that more accurately reflected their personalities. Ben gained wings, since he was a pilot, Johhny, the car enthusiast, gained a metal body and Sue gained stretchy powers because she..er..likes doing yoga? Reed definitely drew the short straw. Since he's a brainy bugger he turned into a giant brain!

I guess we should be thankful that Reed wasn't a prolific lover or a compulsive masturbater. That wouldn't have been pretty!

At the end of the story Reed ends up switching bodies with Doctor Doom. After existing only as a disembodied spongy mass, facial disfigurement must seem like a doddle.

Finally, we come to our final entry in our Top Ten Alternate Versions of Reed Richards That Aren't in the Council of Reeds! This next Reed is possibly the greatest Reed Richards of all time, and yet bafflingly he's only ever made one appearance, in Amazing Spider-Man Family #4 (2009). Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you....

1. Weed Wiskers, Mr Furtastic

Weed Wiskers, Mister Furtastic

The leader of the Fantastic Fur and friend of Peter Porker, the Amazing Spider-Ham! Maybe if the Council of Reeds had counted this guy amongst their members they would have had more luck "solving everything"! HE'S SOOOO CUTE!

So there we have it! Ten alternate versions of Reed Richards that show us what might have been. Some of them are goofy, some of them are creepy, some of them are pure evil. All of them are fascinating. As for good ol' 616 Reed, we can rest safe in the knowledge that there's no chance of him doing anything as crazy and out of character as any of these guys, right?

Oh yeah, that. Thanks a lot Straczynski!

How I Learned to Love The Amazing Spider-Man

2011-11-28T00:18:00.001Z

I've recently completed my collection of all ten volumes of Essential Amazing Spider-Man and as a result I'm in the process of reading two decades of Amazing Spider-Man back to back. I'm currently immersed in the Stan Lee/John Romita era (1966-1971) and it's really reminding me of why I fell in love with the character as a child. Although I'm an '80s child, this era was what got me into Spider-Man!

School and church summer fetes were one of the major factors in me becoming a Spider-Man fan as a child. These fetes would be an annual highlight for me because I could virtually guarantee that there would be at least one old '70s Spider-Man hard-cover annual on sale that reprinted some classic Spidey stories. One of these annuals stands out in my brain as particularly memorable. It featured a reprint of Amazing Spider-Man # 48-49 (1967) in which Adrian Toomes apparently dies and another criminal named Blackie Drago steals his wings to become the new Vulture. I remember being disappointed years later when I found out that Blackie had made one more appearance and then disappeared forever. My dad also owned a battered issue from the Lee/Romita era that I read over and over again until the cover fell off. Amazing Spider-Man #82 (1970), which featured Spider-Man appearing on a chat show to earn some money, before being beaten up by Electro.

It's become a bit of a cliche to talk about how Spidey stands out from other heroes because of his 'real world' problems, but like most cliches, it's true! In the aforementioned Vulture story Spidey gets his arse kicked because he's got a cold! As a child I'd never seen a super-hero fall ill before. And he wasn't suffering from some alien super virus, he was suffering from a common cold. As for the Electro story, well, not only was Spidey pimping himself out to a TV station to get some extra cash, but at one point in the story he has to put a bag on his head to go and clean his costume in a laundrette. The issue ends with Spidey collapsing in an exhausted heap on his bed. Nursing his burnt hands he says to himself "If this is a victory... I'd hate to be defeated." Even as a kid I realised this was miles away from Superman or Batman, but I didn't realise quite how different it was. I remember asking my dad if he had the next issue, where I assumed Spidey would pick himself up, solve his problems and win a decisive victory over Electro. I didn't realise that there was no second part to this story, this was Peter Parker's life! Even when he won he didn't really win.

It's a real treat to re-read these issues, and others from the same era, in the Essential volumes. One thing that strikes me as I re-read them is that, despite the odd reference to Woody Allen or the Vietnam War, these stories are timeless. After all, money woes, girl trouble, crazy costumes and extreme guilt never go out of fashion. You could give these comics to kids now and I honestly think that they'd like them just as much as kids in the '60s did, and certainly just as much as I did in the '80s. Even the weird 'groovy' slang that Stan put in the mouths of all of his teenage characters doesn't really distract that much. As a child I just assumed that was how teenagers talked.

Of course, these comics weren't the only things that got me into Spider-Man as a child. There were also the wonderful cartoons! I'll have to be honest, it wasn't so much the characterisation and identifiable problems that made me love Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, it was more the fact that their living room folded out into top secret super-hero base at the pull of a hidden lever. Imagine if my living room did that and my parents didn't know! How cool would that be!? There was also that brilliant theme tune.....

DCNu Superman and the Legacy of Christopher Reeve

2011-10-23T16:20:00.000+01:00

One of the main criticisms of DC Comic's recent revamped Superman, as seen in the pages of Grant Morrison's Action Comics, George Perez' Superman and Geoff Johns Justice League is that his cockiness and arrogance is out of character and that Superman should be more humble. Fans of the reboot have hit back with the argument that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's Superman, as seen in early issues of Action Comics from the 1930s, was a particularly cocky fellow, and that DC has returned the character to his roots. I would agree with this, but I would go a step further and argue that a humble Superman is a relatively recent interpretation of the character and up until the '80s Superman had always been a somewhat cocky and arrogant character.

Whether he was forcing foreign nations to stop warring with each other or threatening to kill individuals if they didn't stop gambling, the Superman of the 1930s and 1940s was always arrogantly imposing his will on others. He was followed by the Superman of the 1950s and 1960s, who was the very definition of arrogance, with his super-powered pranks on Lois and Jimmy and his anti-evil rays. But these characterisations can easily be dismissed as typical of the un-sophisticated comic book story-telling of the era. What about 1970s Superman?

There was a big streak of arrogance running through Superman during the 1970s and the early part of the '80s. In Superman #233 (1971) Denny O' Neil rendered all Kryptonite ineffective and Superman couldn't have been happier! It was left to Clark's boss Morgan Edge to ponder the ramifications of a completely indestructible super-being, 'cos Superman was too busy showing off. It later took the presence of a power leeching sand duplicate from another dimension to take Superman down a peg or two. In Superman #247 (1972) Superman has to be taken down another peg by the Guardians, who show Superman that he may be interfering with human history just by existing. In DC Comics Presents #27-29 (1980) Superman arrogantly steals a macguffin from the Martian Manhunter by force and then attempts to cross into the afterlife to rescue Supergirl. As a result he has to be taught a lesson in humility by the Spectre.

In all these instances (and more) Superman learns humility, but it is usually a lesson that comes from some outside force, not some innate humility on Superman's part. So what happened to change things?

Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve happened!

Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve have probably influenced the characterisation of Superman more than anyone else in the past three decades. In Donner's 1978 movie, Superman, Reeve portrays Superman as a very humble character, almost shy character. It really works. The humility that Reeve brings to the role is a big part of what makes his Superman such a likeable character. Also, Reeve has to deliver some lines that even in the context of the film could have appeared corny. For example, when Superman tells Lois that he's here to fight for truth, justice and the American Way, she laughs at him. But Reeve delivers the lines with such humble sincerity that it's Lois' cynicism that seems daft.

Reeve gave such a definitive performance that it wasn't long before his influence permeated the comics portrayal of the Man of Steel. This became particularly prevalent when John Byrne revamped the character in 1986. After 1986, Superman was always considering the limits of his power and his right to impose it on others. In one late eighties story, after being forced to kill, Superman decides off his own back that he's too much of a menace to remain on Earth and exiles himself in space!

We got a lot of interesting stories out of this new humble Superman but in the past few years this portrayal had grown a bit stale. Everyone seemed to be trying to take Superman down a peg, and Superman seldom did much to stick up for himself. In Infinite Crisis (2005) we see a Superman almost crippled with doubt. In that story Geoff Johns had Batman famously put Superman down with the line "The last time you inspired anyone you were dead." Wonder Woman meanwhile was busy accusing Superman of being a naive idealist in response to his criticism of her actions in killing Max Lord. As it happens Greg Rucka wrote the perfect resolution to Superman's doubt in the pages of Adventures of Superman, but if you had just read Infinite Crisis you would have just seen Superman self-doubting, with very little resolution.

J. Michael Staczynski's recent storyline in Superman, 'Grounded', had the Man of Steel so shaken with self-doubt that he embarked on a walking trip across America to reconnect with the common man. To my mind one of the major flaws in JMS' tale was the fact that self-doubt-Superman was a concept that had been so done to death by the time 'Grounded' began. (There were of course other flaws in the story.) It was definitely time for a change.

Thankfully, with the recent revamp, a change is exactly what we have! The Superman we've been seeing recently, particularly in the pages of Action Comics doesn't spend any time worrying over the right thing to do, he does what he feels in his heart is right. It really is a breath of fresh air to see a Superman that is so full of confidence and, yes, arrogance too! And I'm looking forward to seeing this Superman getting taken down a peg or two! Because if this Superman gets abused by Batman, criticised by Wonder Woman or so shaken that he decides to walk around America, it will be a novelty.

Because this Superman is a cocky arrogant git, and quite right too!

My Thoughts on DC Comics' New 52

2011-10-04T23:26:00.000+01:00

If Blogger's stats are anything to go by, this blog is viewed daily by a wide and varied bunch of readers and most of you were brought here by Googling 'Supergirl porn'. Given your interest in naked drawings of a fictional teenage alien I'm going to skip the preamble, assume you're familiar with DC Comics' New 52 and plough straight ahead with my thoughts on the New 52.

Action Comics: Superman has gone back to his roots, for the first time!

"Back to his roots" is a phrase that's been bandied around a lot where Batman is concerned. Over the years many talented people have set out to return Batman to the basic core concept seen in his very first appearance in Detective Comics #27 (1939), a dark and brooding creature of the night. Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams did it in the Seventies and then in the Eighties Frank Miller did it again. The Eighties also saw Tim Burton return the Batman of the big screen to his dark roots, and after Joel Schumacher undid all his good work in the Nineties with Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, it fell to Christopher Nolan to pay the most recent visit to those roots with Batman Begins and Dark Knight. Returning to Batman's roots is an idea that has been tried so often, with such consistently good results, it amazes me that it's only now that someone has thought to try the same thing with Superman.

Action Comics #14 (1939) & Action Comics #1 (2011)

And that's exactly what Action Comics #1 is, a return to Superman's roots. Previously when writers have tried to present Superman to a new audience, for example John Byrne's Man of Steel, Geoff Johns' Secret Origin or Bryan Singer's Superman Returns, they generally seemed to have used Richard Donner's 1978 Superman movie as a template. Grant Morrison has previously presented us with his take on the quintessential Superman story, All Star Superman and he mostly uses the Silver Age of comics for his inspiration. With Action Comics #1 however, Morrison gives us a Superman that draws heavily on the "Champion of the Oppressed" originally conceived by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and shown in Superman's first appearance in the first Action Comics #1 (1938). Seeing this take on Superman presented in a modern setting, I feel like comics readers must have felt in the early seventies while reading an O' Neil/Adams Batman story. It really is a breath of fresh air, and exactly what Superman needed. For this reason, and many others, Action Comics #1 is my favourite of the New 52.

Aquaman: Great stuff but we've seen it before.

Aquaman #1 is a perfect first issue. Writer Geoff Johns tells us what we need to know about the character but hints at more information further down the line. He shows us exactly what the character can do in an interesting way and introduces us to brand new scary-looking villains. The art by Ivan Reis is beautiful stuff, this is the best Aquaman has looked in years.

Aquaman has been the butt of many jokes over the years and Johns chooses to confront and counter practically every jibe in this issue, often in a humorous and witty fashion. While I have to agree that this approach has worked, I do wonder why many reviewers are talking like Johns is the first writer to have used it. In Aquaman #63 (2000) writer Dan Jurgens has Aquaman encounter a smart-arsed chat show host who goes through the usual repertoire of "talking-to-fish" jokes until Aquaman changes the man's tune by punching through the floor of the TV studio to stop a bomb from exploding. Further back in Aquaman #3 (1994) Peter David has Aquaman confronting Superboy's jibes by walloping him with a giant tidal wave!

Aquaman #1 was fantastic, but there's a lot of fantastic Aquaman stories out there, people just haven't heard of them!

Superman: George Perez, you get back here this instant!

Superman #1 was by no means the best of the New 52. It's biggest flaw was a completely needless narration that came in the form of an article Clark Kent had written about the issue's events. These captions explained stuff that we could plainly see happening already and served only to clutter up the panels and distract from the art. Also, Superman fought a fire monster. I always think that if Superman is going to fight a random monster then it should be a beast with a bit of imagination and fun to it. Something like Titano the Super-Ape, Solaris the Tyrant Sun or even Kryptococcus the Omni-Germ. Anything is better than Big Generic Fire Guy.

Having said that, on the whole I really enjoyed the issue, mainly for the focus on the supporting characters, something that's been sorely lacking for years in the Super-books. Lois Lane in particular has a great moment where she shows her boss Morgan Edge why she's one of the best journalists in the business. The characterisation of Clark Kent is consistent with Action Comics #1; he's portrayed here as an idealist with an angry sense of justice. Despite it's flaws this is a book that I would be happy to get month after month.

Unfortunately DC has revealed that writer/artist George Perez will be leaving after issue 7! He'll be replaced by Keith Giffen and Dan Jurgens, both of whom are very good, but there's no indication of how long they'll stay. I'm really disappointed by this news. I really like Giffen and Jurgens but these new titles need consistency. DC need to find someone who's going to stick with this title for the long haul. For years the quality of Superman stories has fluctuated up and down, from the great (Superman and the Legion of the Super-Heroes) to the mediocre (most of New Krypton) to the just plain daft (J. Michael Straczynski's Grounded). The Super-books desperately need consistency! Hopefully Morrison will stay on Action Comics for a good long while.

Legion of Super-Heroes: Did no one tell Paul Levitz about the New 52?

As a Legion fan who's been following the past year's worth of Legion stories, I just about understood what was going on in Legion of Super-Heroes #1 and I enjoyed the issue, although it didn't blow me away. But that's not a good thing! I should have been blown away! This is the New 52! When Paul Levitz last wrote a first issue of Legion he blew up Titan and gave a Green Lantern ring to a baddie! That's the kind of the thing that needed to happen here. Instead we got an average issue that felt like issue #17 rather than issue #1. A friend of mine, who's a DC fan but not a Legion fan read it and said it was "impenetrable". Levitz has made no effort to tell new readers who these characters are and why we should care about them. I'm not saying Levitz should have ignored everything he's been doing for the last year, or indeed spent the whole issue catching everyone up. But, considering the whole point of the New 52 is to pull in new readers, you'd think Levitz would have at least indicated at some point that he was aware that this issue was supposed to be a jumping on point.

The new Legion spin-off, Legion Lost was even worse. This a comic about a group of Legionnaires who are trapped in the present day. A completely new staus quo, familiar to us but alien to them! What a perfect way to present these characters to a new audience! Sadly, writer Fabian Nicieza spends too much of the issue showing us a generic monster on the rampage and not enough telling us who the heroes are. A wasted opportunity!

Both Legion comics had okay stories. I'm not dropping them yet. For a Legion fan like me they were good enough. But this is the New 52, and 'good enough' just isn't good enough!

The Flash: Who needs Wally West?

Over the past two decades Wally West, The Flash has built up quite a loyal and dedicated following, thanks mostly to two long and celebrated runs by writers Mark Waid and Geoff Johns respectively. These two runs were superb, establishing Wally West has a fully rounded character and a worthy successor to his predecessor, Barry Allen. In light of this, DC's decisions to make a resurrected Barry the focus of their Flash title and to seemingly erase Wally from existence, seem absurd. Why alienate a fan base that it took twenty years to build?

But, I would argue that Flash #1 demonstrates exactly why DC have made the right decision. The process of making Wally a likeable and worthy successor to Barry depended upon a lot of harking back to the good ol' days of Barry. Wally was constantly comparing and contrasting himself with Barry, it was part of his journey, part of his character development and part of why the Waid and Johns years were so good. It also meant that nostalgia was always a big part of The Flash.

Not so these days! Flash #1 was fast paced, fun and forward looking. We knew everything we needed to know about the character within a few panels and then we were off, straight into the story with a new tone and direction. In fact The Flash hasn't felt this fresh and new since 1987, when Mike Baron wrote Wally West's first faltering steps in the role of the Flash. Those early Wally stories really felt different in style and tone to every Flash comic that came before it, and so does this new Flash #1. How's that for irony!?

Red Hood and the Outlaws and Catwoman: The Big, Pervy Elephants in the Room!

I couldn't let this list end without mentioning two of DC Comics' biggest missteps from last month, Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 and Catwoman #1. These issues and their many, many flaws have been discussed a lot all over the internet already so there's no point in me chipping in my tuppence worth too. I will however direct you to two articles, one by ComicsAlliance's Laura Hudson and the other by comics legend Jim Shooter. They sum up my feelings on these issues quite nicely.

So was this big, huge, much publicized relaunch a success?

I purchased eleven comics out of fifty two.

Action Comics
Aquaman
Batman
Green Lantern
Justice League
Legion Lost
Legion of Superheroes
Supergirl
Superman
The Flash
Swamp Thing

I enjoyed them all (although some were better than others) and I'm coming back for issue #2 of all them with the exception of Swamp Thing. I told a friend who didn't get comics regularly about the New 52, and he checked out a few, including Justice League, Batman, Detective Comics, Action Comics and The Flash. I'm pleased to say he's going to be checking out plenty of issue #2s! Also, my girlfriend, who also doesn't read comics regularly, picked up Wonder Woman and enjoyed it!

So, from my own point of view at least, the New 52 was a success, and frankly that's good enough for me!

DC Comics' New 52: Paul Predicts!

2011-10-01T03:06:00.000+01:00

During this past month DC Comics has released 52 all new No. 1s that revamped most of their super-hero line. Upon first hearing about the relaunch back in June I made six predictions about how I thought the DC Universe would look come October. Let's take them one by one and see how accurate I was.

1. Superman will no longer be married to Lois Lane, she probably won't know his secret identity.

This was a no-brainer. DC almost wriggled out of the Super-marriage way back in 2000 when Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, Mark Millar and Tom Peyer were set to to relaunch the character for a new millennium. As it turned out DC went in a different direction and Superman remained in a state of wedded bliss, but it was only a matter of time before DC found a way to pull the plug on the marriage. After all, Marvel Comics wiped out Spider-Man's marriage in 2007. The story that accomplished this remains controversial (to say the least) but single Spidey is currently enjoying a creative Golden Age in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man under the reins of writer Dan Slott.

2. Bruce Wayne will be the only Batman again, no more Batman Inc.

The continuities of characters such as Superman, Firestorm and the Teen Titans have been completely rebooted from the ground floor up. However the history of Batman (and his top-selling comics) has remained unchanged. Batman's recently formed hero-franchise is still an integral part of the Bat-mythos. In fact one of Batman's worldwide army of Batmen, Africa's Batwing, got his own series as part of the new 52 and a new Batman Incorporated series begins in 2012.

3. Dick Grayson will no longer be Batman, he may even be Robin again.

While Dick Grayson is indeed no longer Batman he is definitely not Robin either. He has returned to his role as Nightwing and is very much an adult and not a Boy Wonder.

4. Wally West will be Kid Flash again.

As of Flash #1 Barry Allen is the one and only Flash and Bart Allen seems to be the only Kid Flash operating in Teen Titans #1. Also, in the new DC continuity Barry's only been active as the Flash for five years, leaving little time for Wally to have grown from a sidekick into an adult hero. Does Wally West even exist in the new DC Universe?

5. The Justice Society of America will be back on Earth Two.

James Robinson and Nicola Scott will soon be bringing us a new Justice Society of America series set on Earth 2! I for one welcome the decision to return the JSA to their original home, occupying the same space as the regular DC Earth but vibrating at a different frequency. I'm a massive fan of Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash, and I think he deserves to be his Earth's premier Speedster. Also, when we last saw Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern, he was inexplicably dressed as (and I'm not making this up) a GIANT LANTERN! Hopefully the reboot has scrubbed this hideous costume out of continuity forever. I mean, seriously, he even had a giant handle!

6. Characters like Kyle Rayner, Conner Hawke, Bart Allen and Damien Wayne will exist on a parallel Earth where the original heroes have retired. On this Earth Wally will be The Flash and Dick will be Batman.

Like the Bat-titles, the Green Lantern books have been selling really well. As a result GL continuity remains the same and Kyle is still part of the regular DCU and hasn't been shifted to a parallel Earth. Neither has Damien Wayne (he's starring regularly in Batman and Robin) or Bart Allen (he can be found each month in Teen Titans).

But what about Conner Hawke?

For the past couple of years Grant Morrison has been promising a series called Multiversity. Morrison has said that this series will explore the 52 parallel Earths of the DC Multiverse. Morrison also stated that one of these Earths will feature "all of the nineties characters because I really miss those guys, like Connor Hawke....There’s a whole younger generation of heroes – kind of media brats almost." This was from an interview that Morrison gave a couple of years ago and a lot has changed since then. But if Multiversity is still on it's way, could Media-Brat Earth be the new home for both Conner and Wally? We'll have to wait and see.

Imagine this though. What if DC were to bring out a remake of the story from Flash #123 (1961) 'Flash of Two Worlds'? This classic tale featured Barry Allen's first trip into a parallel world and established that the Justice Society of America dwelt on Earth 2. The concept of a DC Multiverse was born with this story. Just imagine a modern remake where Barry crosses through the dimensional barrier for the first time and meets another Flash, except, instead of Jay Garrick, the other Flash is Wally West! The Flash could once again kick off the DC Multiverse, but with a new twist.

If you hate this idea, don't worry. If this blog post proves anything it's that I'm crap at predicting comic book storylines.

Legion of Super-Heroes: A Brief Guide for New Readers

2011-09-19T01:50:00.000+01:00

Last week saw the release of Legion Lost #1, a comic featuring members of the Legion of Superheroes trapped in the present. This week sees the release of the first issue of the Legion's main title, Legion of Super-Heroes #1. These should be the perfect jumping on point for anyone who wants to check out the Legion for the first time. I can't help but feel however that new readers might have felt a little overwhelmed by all the strangely named characters featured in Legion Lost #1. With that in mind I thought I'd write a post answering a few frequently asked Legion questions. The Legion's vast history can seem daunting and so this post is designed to bring any new readers up to speed with the Legion in the most succinct manner possible, more succinct even than Wikipedia. I'm by no means an expert and there are many people on the 'Net who are much better versed in Legion Lore than I am. Check out the Legion Omni-Con blog for one such expert. Hopefully though the fact that I'm still discovering so many aspects of the Legion's rich history will help me just to focus on the bare essentials.

1) Who are the Legion?

Basically they're like the X-Men but better, in the future, with spaceships.

Inspired by legends of Superman, several super-powered teenagers in the 31st Century joined together to form a great, big super-team. Some of them gained their super-powers by accident, others are aliens whose powers are a natural attribute of their race. They all defend Earth and the rest of the United Planets (it's a bit like Star Trek) from evil. All members are given a ring that enables them to fly (even the ones who can fly already) and some of the younger members have to train in the Legion Academy before they can join.

2) Weren't there several continuity reboots?

Yes, but pretty much everything from 1958 to 1989 happened with a few minor revisions. Everything else happened on parallel Earths.

Keith Giffen & Al Gorden

In 1989 the series jumped forward in time five years. In 1994 it was rebooted and everything started from scratch. In 2004 the exact same thing happened again and the stories were once more started from scratch! In 2007, believe it or not DC Comics went back to the original continuity!

3) Is there an official timeline that sums it all up?

Yes! This year Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #1 featured a board game that doubled as a timeline.

Art by Brian Douglas Ahern

While it's obviously tongue-in-cheek it does actually tell you everything you need to know about the Legion in a succinct and fun way.

4) Who are the members?

There's loads of them!!!!!

Here are a few of the most prominent members.

Lightning Lad (Garth Ranzz) A hotheaded character from the planet Winath where everyone has a twin. He gained electric powers when he, his twin sister Ayla and his evil, twinless older brother Mekt were struck by a Lightning Monster from the planet Korbal! His sister later became Lightning Lass and his brother became the villainous Lightning Lord.

Saturn Girl (Imra Ardeen) Saturn Girl actually comes from Saturn's moon, Titan, home of a whole race of telepaths. She's the wife of Lightning Lad and together they have two infant, twin sons, Graym and Garridan. Saturn Girl is a bit like the X-Men's Jean Grey but she doesn't die as much.

Cosmic Boy (Rokk Krinn) A natural leader type who has magnetic powers. Everyone from his home planet of Braal has the same powers but he's really good at using them. He founded the Legion, along with Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl.

Brainiac 5 (Querl Dox) As his name would suggest Brainy is descended from the Superman villain Brainiac. He's the team's resident inventor/scientist and he designed and built most of their gadgets. He acts like an arsehole to everyone, but he loves the Legion really.

Mon-El (Lar Gand) A resident of the planet Daxam, Mon-El has all of Superman's powers. He is however, the unluckiest guy in the Universe! After an encounter with a young Superman in the present day he was accidentally poisoned by lead (which is fatal to Daxamites) and placed in the Phantom Zone to stop him from dying. He remained stuck in the Zone for 1000 years until he was rescued and cured by the Legion. He's just been dumped by his long-time girlfriend, our next Legionnaire....

Shadow Lass (Tasmia Mallor) Shady comes from the planet Talok VIII where she inherited the powers of her ancestors, a long line of shadow champions with the power to spread and control darkness. She is currently mourning the death of Earth Man, a former villain for whom she left Mon-El.

Chameleon Boy (Reep Daggle) Reep is from Durla, a planet of shape-shifters. Thanks to his crafty powers, Reep is leader of the Legion Espionage Squad. He is the son of R.J. Brande, the Legion's financier and a Durlan trapped in human form.

Ultra Boy (Jo Nah) Jo has most of Superman's powers but he can only use them one at a time. He gained these powers after being eaten by a space whale (Best. Origin. Ever.) He comes from the planet Rimbor and is something of a working class tough guy.

Superman & Supergirl Thanks to time travel the team's two biggest historic inspirations are also members, although how they fit into Legion continuity after their recent reboots is anyone's guess. In my opinion it's enough for us to know that Superman and Supergirl are members and then leave it at that. In the past the writers have tied themselves in knots trying to reconcile Super-continuity with Legion continuity. I honestly think they're better off leaving us to fill in the blanks ourselves.

5) Who are Legion Lost? (CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR LEGION LOST #1)

A group of Legionnaires are currently trapped in the present day after attempting unsuccessfully to retrieve a super-villain who had escaped from the 31st Century carrying a mysterious virus. Gates and Chameleon Girl seem to have been killed in issue 1. Here's who's left.

Timber Wolf (Brin Londo) Brin is from the planet Zoon and gained his powers after being experimented on by his mad scientist father. He is like Wolverine but better! That's right, you heard me!

Tyroc (Troy Stewart) Tyroc has sonic powers. His origin is frankly embarrassing and is summed up nicely in this brilliant cartoon strip from ComicsCritics.com. Judging by the first issue of Legion Lost Tyroc is currently developing into a pretty good team leader.

Wildfire (Drake Burroughs) Wildfire is a normal human from Earth transformed into a ball of energy by a lab accident. He has to wear his special costume to maintain humanoid form and stop himself from dispersing. He's a bit of a loudmouth who can rub his teammates up the wrong way (a bit like Green arrow or Hawkeye) and he has a complicated romantic relationship with our next member....

Dawnstar is from a planet called Starhaven, home to a race of super-powered people descended from Earth's Native Americans. She has wings, can fly at light speed through space and can track down anything.

Tellus (Ganglios) A native of the planet Hykraius, Tellus is telepathic and telekinetic like all his race. So basically he's also a bit like Jean Grey, except he's a giant fish (and therefore better than her).

6) What Legion stories could I check out to get me started?

Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. This story tells you everything you need to know about the Legion without bogging you down with continuity. It's just a really fun story that gives quite a few of the Legionnaires a chance to shine and showcase their personalities. Even if you never see yourself becoming a Legion fan, if you love super-hero comics you'll love this story, trust me!

Showcase Presents: The Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 1-4 Four thick, affordable black and white books containing the Legion's classic Silver Age stories in all their wonderful, lovably daft glory! Loads of fun!

The Great Darkness Saga by Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen. Probably the most famous Legion story, it features the team going up against the biggest, baddest DC Comics villain, Darkseid! At one point Darkseid gets an entire planet full of people to carve their home-world into the shape of his face. He is one evil dude!

Eye for an Eye by Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen. The Legion are attacked by the Legion of Super-Villains, who have all taken a blood oath to kill one hero each! This story contains some great moments between Lightning Lord and his sister, Lightning Lass and also features Karate Kid's final showdown with the evil Nemesis Kid. Like The Great Darkness saga it can initially be a bit confusing with all the different characters running around but both stories are so good that your patience will be thoroughly rewarded.

The Choice & Consequences collect some of Paul Levitz' recent run on the title. These two volumes feature the Legion having to let former villain Earth-Man join and Mon-El being chosen as the 31st Century's only Green Lantern. Very enjoyable stuff.

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Hopefully this blog post has been useful to anyone interested in checking out the Legion for the first time. If it has, feel free to leave me a comment and let me know. If it hasn't, then write a comment anyway, leave me some abuse, it's all welcome. After you've done that why not follow this link to another of my Legion based blog posts, where I explain how I became a Legion fan in the first place.

How Wonder Woman Should Have Been Rebooted

2011-09-15T00:41:00.000+01:00

Cliff Chiang

Next week, on the 21st of September Wonder Woman #1 will be released. Brian Azzarello will become the latest in a long line of talented writers to attempt to reinvent Wonder Woman and make her accessible to a wider audience. Over the years many gifted writers, including Robert Kanigher, Denny O' Neil, George Perez, Len Wein, William Messner-Loebs, Greg Rucka, Allan Heinberg and Gail Simone have all presented us with their vision of Wonder Woman, and each writer has had their own unique take on her. Azzarello apparently intends the book to be a horror thriller! Sadly these many different interpretations often seem less a result of the versatility of the character and more due to the difficulty writers seem to have in pinning down the true core of Wonder Woman. She's simultaneously a feminist icon and fetishistic fantasy, a fierce warrior and an ambassador for peace, a noble and serious figure who fights giant eggs with invisible jets, a global hero dressed in the Stars and Stripes. She's a walking bundle of contradictions and this makes her both fascinating and alienating to the average reader. No doubt about it, she's a bloody difficult character.

Many have argued that the character is riddled with unavoidable flaws and a list of some of these perceived flaws can be found here on Topless Robot. Likewise a strong case can be made for the many strengths inherent in Wonder Woman. For example a rebuttal to the Topless Robot article can be found here on The New Wonder Woman.

With an arrogance that can only be displayed by comic fans, fellow blogger and best pal Gareth Madeley and I have decided that we know better than seventy years worth of DC Comics writers! We have decided we can fix Wonder Woman once and for all. We now present to you our take on the character, the definitive take on the Amazing Amazon!

BEHOLD THE TIMELINE OF THE NEW WONDER WOMAN.....

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The Past - Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, prays to the Greek gods for a daughter. She creates a baby out of clay and the child is granted life by the gods! Princess Diana grows to womanhood on Paradise Island. She has been granted amazing powers by the gods however these powers have yet to develop. These magical gifts must be earned!

1941 - Steve Trevor crash lands his plane on Paradise Island. He tells the Amazons that he is a pilot in the U.S Airforce and explains that his country is currently battling the Axis threat . The Amazons recognise the potential threat and great evil of Hitler and agree to send an Amazon to man's world with Trevor to aid the Allies in their War. A contest is held to determine who will accompany Trevor. Diana is forbidden by her mother to take part but she dons a mask and does so anyway. Of course, she wins. It is important to remember that at this point Diana has no special powers and therefore has no particular advantage over her fellow Amazons. She wins by skill, courage and determination. Hippolyta is angry and rashly tells Diana that she may accompany Trevor, but is banished from the Island for all time. Hippolyta swiftly regrets her hasty words but the damage is done and Diana is gone.

World War Two - Diana is taken to the U.S. Government by Trevor. She is given a costume with the colours of the flag to better serve as a propaganda tool. The government agents who design Diana's classic bathing suit uniform are leering perverts who intend to make her a figure of titillation, but Diana wears the costume anyway and on her it becomes a symbol of empowerment and nobility. While her existence is never officially acknowledged by the U.S, Diana becomes a legend of the War. To the people of the Allied countries she is a character from propaganda posters, comic books and movie serials. To the enemy soldiers she becomes a myth of the battlefield. Wounded, rambling, shell shocked Nazis describe a fearsome female warrior racing towards them on horseback, leading American soldiers up the beach, deflecting machine gun bullets with her bracelets and cutting down their fellow soldiers with her sword. Diana is particularly active in the Mediterranean theatre of War, that is after all her part of the world.

The End of The War - Throughout the War, Trevor is by Diana's side. This version of Steve Trevor is a much more thoughtful, intelligent and serious man than we've seen in the past. Diana and Steve fall in love and begin to make plans for after the War. Then, tragedy strikes! Trevor is killed in one of the final battles of the War. Shortly afterwards the bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. Diana sees the death and suffering of the innocent women and children of Hiroshima and the War ceases to be black and white for her. Shades of grey enter her view of man's world for the first time and she is disillusioned. She leaves the United States. Her costume, invisible jet, magic lasso, purple ray gun and various weapons and gadgets are consigned to Area 51. Diana does not know that Hippolyta regrets her decision and so she proceeds to roam the Earth.

1950s-1960s (The Lost Years) - Diana cuts through the 20th Century like a knife through hot butter, leaving her mark everywhere. Along the way she finds friends, enemies and lovers, many of whom will later come back into her life at inopportune times. She steers clear of the United States but keeps meeting and getting involved with various family members and descendants of Steve Trevor, almost as if her fate and the fate of Trevor's lineage had been linked by the gods! As the years pass Diana notices she is becoming stronger, faster and more resistant to injury. She does not age.

Late 1960s-1970s - Diana returns to the States with her new-found companion and mentor, I Ching. She opens a fashion boutique and has many groovy, Kung-Fu based adventures. Eventually I Ching dies of old age and Diana is once again alone.

1980s-1990s - Diana's fashion boutique has grown into a vast business empire. Diana is still combating evil, but this time as a corporate raider, taking over and gutting corrupt businesses and using their resources for good. She opens a string of women's shelters. During the '90s she feels her latest role as business leader has left her out of touch with the rest of the world and she feels more alone than she ever has before. She leaves her company in what she believes are safe hands and resumes her wandering. Years later she will find that her company has fallen into the hands of the ruthless and evil Veronica Cale! Diana's long life leaves a lot of room for villains to be faces from her past seeking vengeance. It also leaves room for Donna Troy. Is Donna a young girl that Diana rescued and adopted during the nineties? Is she a girl created by Hippolyta to replace Diana? Either way, there's plenty of room for her to be slotted easily into continuity.

NOW! - By the time we reach the modern day Diana has gradually become so powerful that she is now invulnerable, she can fly and she has super speed and strength. Diana meets the latest of Steve Trevor's descendants (Steve Howard perhaps?). Howard and his female friend (Etta Candy? Cassie Sandsmark? Vanessa Kapatelis?) become Diana's firm friends. They are like Xander and Willow to her Buffy. There might even be a potential for some sort of Buffy-esque love triangle here. Her new friends help her to set up a new secret identity as Diana Prince. Although this is a name she has used occasionally throughout her life (particularly during her boutique/business days) this is the first time the name has been anything more than something to sign on documents. Diana is now trying to discover who is Diana Prince? Through her new friends Diana rediscovers her humanity and with their help and encouragement she finds a new role for herself in the modern world. A SUPER-HERO! Before she can do this of course Diana and her friends must break into Area 51 to get her stuff! She makes a new costume (the silver lined reboot costume), and eventually joins the Justice League as WONDER WOMAN!

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So there we have it. Our take on Wonder Woman. What do you think? A work of genius that DC Comics simply must make happen or the usual wrong-headed ravings of deluded fanboys? Drop us a comment and let us know!

Action Comics #1: My Review (SPOILERS)

2011-09-07T13:43:00.000+01:00

WARNING: This post contains spoilers and half baked opinions on Action Comics #1 (2011)

I usually refrain from writing reviews of new comics on this blog but I couldn't resist dashing out a few of my initial thoughts on Grant Morrison and Rag Morales' Action Comics #1. It is after all the biggest Superman reboot since 1986 and the first 'Number One' issue of Action Comics since 1938.

My initial reaction to Action Comics #1 was 'Why have they turned Superman into Spider-Man?' There are plenty of familiar Spidey themes to be found here. A misunderstood young super-hero is hounded by the police until he finds refuge by swiftly changing out of his home made costume on the rooftop of his cheap, rented apartment. Sound familiar? The other major influence on this issue is of course the original Action Comics #1. Just like his Golden Age counterpart this Superman is a hot headed crusader for social justice who likes nothing more than to throw wife beaters through windows and dangle corrupt rich guys from rooftops.

What we seem to have here then is a Golden Age Superman informed by the Marvel Age of comics, specifically Spider-Man. But the Morrison and Morales' Superman is more than that. Strip away the superficial resemblances to Peter Parker and we still have Superman at his core. Parker is very much a hero motivated by guilt and the feeling that he can help so he should help. This Superman however is a man who's motivated by outrage at the injustice he sees and is blessed with the ability to actually do something about it. This isn't a hero who thinks "With great power must come great responsibility" this is a hero who thinks "With great power comes a chance to stick up for the little guy." Morrison and Morales convey Superman's joy at being able to help with every panel. And that's what Superman is, a friend who wants to help. Action Comics #1 is an interpretation of this core truth that is very different from recent interpretations of the character but that core truth is still there.

Action Comics #1 manages to be just as fast paced as last week's Justice League #1 but is much more successful than that comic because it manages to cram so much into one issue while never sacrificing its momentum. Other highlights of the issue include a Clark Kent who is just as much of a crusader for justice while in reporter mode as he is in hero mode, and a Jimmy Olsen who is more of a peer to Clark than a kid sidekick. Lex Luthor is fantastic. Once again Luthor sees himself as the only man who can save the Earth from this alien invader. Luthor sees Superman as an foreign threat to Earth's delicate natural balance and is just as ruthless and manipulative as he's always been.

While Action Comics #1 may seem like a radical departure then, it's still recognisably Superman. Luthor is still an evil genius who's the hero in his own head and Superman is still a friend who wants to help. And Lois is still the one who named Superman! Fresh, new and exciting but not so different at it's heart. Check it out!

UPDATE: (MORE SPOILERS) Look out for the blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to the Legion of Super-Heroes! I missed it on my first and second reading and then saw it pointed out on a message board. Looks like DCNu Clark still knows the Legion. Whether Grant Morrison or Legion writer Paul Levitz will expand on this hint remains to be seen.

Justice League #1, it could have been worse!

2011-09-02T15:54:00.001+01:00

I absolutely loved Geoff Johns and Jim Lee's Justice League #1. I love that it was fast paced and that Johns focused on the interactions of two of DC's most currently prominent heroes to establish the status quo, rather than rely on lengthy exposition. And Jim Lee's art was superb, some of his best work ever. However a common criticism of the issue has been it's dialogue. Many of my comic loving pals have found lines such as "How else are we going to get there? Talk in a deep voice" and "I don't handle easy" somewhat laughable. All I can say is, it could have been worse.......

Now check out what one fan thinks Superman should have said.

Why I love John Byrne's Superman: Man of Steel

2011-08-31T13:38:00.001+01:00

Next week sees the release of Action Comics #1 by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales. Action Comics #1 is the start of a complete reboot of the Superman mythos. DC Comics aim to present a fresh new take on Superman in order to bring in a new generation of fans. Will it work? Who knows? All I can say is that it's worked before, and I'm living proof. As a child I grew up reading reprints of old Silver and Bronze Age Superman stories, as well as my dad's old DC Comics from when he was a child. I always enjoyed reading about Superman but never really connected with the character in the same way I did with Batman or Spider-Man. That is until I read John Byrne's Man of Steel.

Man of Steel (1986) was a six part mini-series that had exactly the same purpose as next week's Action Comics #1; to reboot Superman and pull in new readers. I first read Man of Steel when I was eleven years old and it blew me away. Everything about the character that I had previously found dull and predictable seemed to have changed. Let's take a look at some of those changes.

Check out this panel from Flash #203 (1971).

Art by Irv Norick and Murphy Anderson

Let's face it, Superman's acting like a complete knob-head here. Flash would have been well within his rights to give Superman the finger and leave the miserable git to do monitor duty by himself. Unfortunately this scene wasn't an isolated incident. To me, Superman always seemed to be banging on about how awesome Krypton was and as a child from good ol' Planet Earth I couldn't help but feel somewhat slighted by this. After all, Superman had spent most of his life on Earth, his adopted parents raised him here, his job and his friends were here, all his stuff was here. Would he really be pining after Krypton so much that he'd be prepared to get all up in Flash's face just for pointing out how pretty the Earth looked?

Byrne decided not to depict Superman as a lonely alien, longing for a dead world and instead decided to put the emphasis on the human side of a character who had been raised on Earth. In Man of Steel, what Clark Kent had gained from his upbringing by the Kents was a much more important part of what made him Superman than his Kryptonian heritage. Indeed, unlike with previous versions of the character, Ma and Pa Kent were still alive and still an active influence in Superman's life. Superman was now an Earthman first and a Kryptonian second. As Superman himself put it in Man of Steel #6 "It was Krypton that made me Superman, but it is the Earth that makes me Human!"

Byrne's motivation in depicting Superman in this way came from his own experience as an immigrant. As Byrne put it in his typically blunt (and offensive) manner;

I was born in England, and I am proud of my English heritage (I was also quite a lot older than Kal-El when I left “home,” so my connections would be stronger) but I grew up in Canada and I have lived for the last 25 years in the US, and I don’t ever, ever, feel like a “displaced Englishman.”
Clark would be proud, too, of his Kryptonian heritage, but later portrayals of him have tried to shoehorn in too much of the pychobabble of adopted children longing for and seeking out their biological parents. Excuse my French, but to me, they fall under the heading of “ungrateful little shits.”
Clark grew up as human, thinks as a human, reacts as a human. He lives and loves as a human. And that is what really defines him.

I certainly do not agree with Byrne's assertion that adopted children who seek out their biological parents are "ungrateful little shits" but I can't argue that at the age of eleven the depiction of Superman as a lonely alien put me off the character a great deal. Byrne's more 'human' version was a breath of fresh air to me and was one of the many factors that drew me into Man of Steel.

A more human Superman didn't just mean a Superman that didn't bang on about Krypton quite as much. Byrne figured that, since Superman didn't wear a mask, no one would even consider that he had a secret identity. Now that Clark Kent was free of the need to hide his true self behind a bumbling facade he became an outgoing, confident individual who proudly displayed his high school football trophies in his apartment. Clark became the 'real' persona and Superman became the facade.

To emphasize the importance of Earth in Clark's development, Byrne also gave us a very different take on the Planet Krypton. Byrne took the idea of Krypton as a scientific Utopia to the extreme and portrayed the planet as a cold, sterile place, where physical contact was banned, robots did all the dirty work and nobody had any eyebrows. Jor-El was portrayed as the only man on Krypton who realised the importance of the humanity that his society had sacrificed for comfort and a longer life. For the first time ever Earth started to look pretty damn good next to Krypton.

"Face it Lara, Krypton sucks!"

Man of Steel is packed with many other such changes to the Superman mythos. For example, Lex Luthor is a corrupt businessman who sees himself as the most powerful man in Metropolis. When Superman comes along Luthor is knocked off the top spot and he doesn't take it very well. By the time Man of Steel came out Luthor had become a credible physical threat to Superman. He was physically in peak condition and usually clad in huge, green battle armour. Byrne decided that it wasn't necessary for Luthor to be able to engage Superman physically. Luthor could be Superman's arch-nemesis merely by being everything that Superman wasn't. Petty, greedy, spiteful, ruthless, cunning and completely evil. Byrne drew Luthor as a physically powerful man who had began to feel the effects of age. This made Luthor's hatred of Superman all the more understandable. Luthor was strong and powerful but he was gradually losing it all as he got older, his hair loss a physical manifestation of this process. And now he was confronted by Superman, a man more powerful than he would ever be, a man who would never lose that power unless Luthor took it from him. All this is apparent just in the way Byrne draws Luthor. Sadly many of the artists who followed Byrne (even the great Jerry Ordway) never seemed to grasp this and often drew Luthor as a fat slob.

Byrne's problems with women have been well documented. There's an undeniable streak of misogyny that runs through much of his work. Many of his female characters are victims, or thinly veiled sexual fantasies or at the very least, completely disagreeable mega-bitches. Women don't come out of Man of Steel very well at all. Lara disapproves of her husband's decision to send Kal-El to Earth and swoons at the sight of a shirtless Earthman like the wealthy dowager in The Simpsons who's always exclaiming "Well I never!" Batman and Superman fight Magpie, a psychotic kleptomaniac with a weakness for shiny things. Lana Lang is re-imagined as a creepy stalker who has nothing better to do than follow Superman around for ten years. While Lois Lane does comes across as passionate, independent and honest she also comes across as completely irrational, petty and mean, particularly when dealing with Clark Kent. The difference is however, that this depiction of Lois works! Lois Lane isn't meant to be some perfect example of womanhood. Lois is meant to be human. She is a decent but flawed individual, as guilty of human failings as we all are. This is one of the things that makes Superman's love for her so wonderful. He loves Lois like he loves the human race, warts and all.

Byrne changed many other things about the Superman mythos. He made Bizarro more of a mindless monster and he made Batman and Superman's relationship much less cosy and much more antagonistic. These changes drew in my eleven year old self and began a life long love affair with the character. But over the years I've come to realise two very important things about Man of Steel and Superman;

1) I now find many of the things I initially found boring about the character really, really cool!

For example these days I have a much better understanding of the interpretation of Superman as a lonely alien. In Wales we use the word 'hiraeth', a word that is uniquely Welsh and has no direct English translation. It roughly translates as a feeling of nostalgic homesickness tinged with loss and longing. I now believe that the depiction of Superman as a man who feels deep 'hiraeth' for his lost world is not only a valid interpretation but also an extremely interesting and compelling one. If the freshness of the more 'human' Superman in Man of Steel hadn't grabbed my attention, then maybe I wouldn't have come to understand and love the many other versions of the character. Byrne broke down that initial barrier and drew me into the character long enough to appreciate Superman's many other incarnations.

2) Byrne's 'changes' weren't really changes at all!

Pa Kent's death, pre-Byrne

I realise now that Byrne didn't really change anything, he just looked at aspects of the character that were already there from a different angle! Superman's human side had always been an important factor. One of the oldest, most classic and iconic Superman images is that of Clark standing by Pa Kent's deathbed as his father reminds him never to forget the lessons he had learnt from his upbringing. Superman's human side was there all along, Byrne just brought it to the forefront. And look at Lois! Lois Lane was giving Clark a hard time right from the start, back in the days of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Byrne just brought Lois back to her roots, changing her back from the ditzy, marriage obsessed airhead that she had become in the intervening years. Also, take a look at Krypton. Krypton may be cold and sterile but it's still scientifically advanced, and Jor-El is still a visionary.

I realise today that this is what makes Man of Steel so special. Byrne wrote and drew a story that managed to seem fresh and new to an eleven year old boy, but he did it without throwing the super-baby out with the bath water. Byrne's Superman is still recognisably Superman, everything that makes him Superman is still there, just turned on its head or seen from a different angle.

So even though a more relatable and human character sucked me into the wonderful world of Superman comics, do I think that Superman has to always be like this to succeed? Do I think that this the approach Grant Morrison should be taking next week? The answer is NO! Byrne didn't give us the ideal, definitive Superman, he just made us look at Superman differently. He drew me in by emphasizing aspects of the character that had not been emphasized before, but had always been there. Once I was in I was hooked, and the wider world of Superman and his many incarnations was mine to discover and rediscover. This is what Morrison needs to do with Action Comics #1. It's a feat worthy of Superman himself. Can he do it? I hope so.

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This article is part of a "blog crossover" with Duy Tano's Comics Cube. I've told you why I love Man of Steel, now head on over to The Cube and check out why Duy can't stand it!

Why I think Barry Allen is Awesome

2011-08-15T23:41:00.001+01:00

In 1985 DC Comics killed off Barry Allen, otherwise known as The Flash, Fastest Man Alive. It wasn't long before his sidekick, Wally West took over his deceased uncle's heroic mantle. Over the course of over two decades Mike Baron, William Messner-Loebs, Mark Waid, Geoff Johns and many other talented writers took Wally on a journey that gradually transformed him from an arrogant, slightly selfish young womanizer to a hero, a family man and a worthy successor to the Flash legacy. Now all of a sudden Barry is back from the dead and is once again the main Flash of the DC Universe. Meanwhile Wally has been benched and DC have confirmed there are "no plans for Wally West in the new Flash series.” As a result a lot of fans are pissed off. This is a perfectly understandable reaction. For a whole generation of Flash-fans Wally was their Flash. Some of these fans weren't even alive when Barry was the Flash and now he's back and the hero that they've followed for so long has been sidelined. I was born four years before Barry's death and so I'm part of 'Generation Wally'. Despite this I'm more than happy to see Barry's return and while I miss Wally I'm not that bothered about seeing him take a back seat for a while.

I've written before on this blog about why I feel the time is right for Barry to take over from Wally as DC's main Flash. Check it out, comment on it, Tweet it, share it with your friends! During the course of that post I discuss at great length the reasons behind my love of Wally as a character but I never really explain my love for Barry. Many fans have accused Barry of being a boring, dated character, undeserving of the prominence that DC has now thrust upon him. Personally I believe that he's just as good as Wally, and just as worthy of being the the most prominent Flash in the DC Universe. My love of Barry Allen can be traced back to just one comic, the first Flash comic I ever read. Flash Vol. 1 #206 (1971) a comic that contains a story called '24 Hours of Immortality'!

In '24 Hours of Immortality' two ordinary people are rescued from death by two super advanced aliens who offer them an extra 24 hours of life in order to tie up their loose ends. For that 24 hours they are completely indestructible! High Five Comic has summed up the story pretty accurately and hilariously. That particular blogger describes the story as "completely fucking absurd" and it's difficult to argue with that assessment. '24 Hours of Immortality' is goofy, even for a classic Flash story, but it's also immensely enjoyable and it has two things going for it that transformed the young me into a lifelong Flash fan.

Firstly, I love the cover. This issue has one of the most striking covers I've ever seen, but then what do you expect? It's a Neal Adams cover! It would have been so easy for Adams to draw the indestructible lady landing gracefully on her feet but instead he has her smashing into the ground CHIN FIRST! This cover is so striking that I remember actually being scared of it as a child, but it definitely made me want to read the story inside.

The second brilliant thing about this comic is the story's ending. The two people who were granted the aforementioned 24 hours of immortality are resigned to their fate and ready to offer themselves up to the aliens once their day has ended. Flash on the other hand isn't giving up without a fight. He tells the aliens that they'll have to kill him first, and they do indeed try to do just that. Flash uses his speed to counter everything they throw at him and eventually they acknowledge that the human race isn't quite as crappy as they first thought and promptly bugger off. Reading the story today it's apparent that Flash uses his usual tricks (vibrating his molecules etc) to outwit some pretty unnecessarily convoluted death traps. But when I first read the story as a child I saw a hero who hadn't just whizzed up and tried to punch the baddie in the face. The Flash hadn't just beaten the villains, he had impressed them with his courage and his brains! Obviously I wouldn't have expressed this at the time, I just thought Flash was cool, I didn't consider why I thought this. But it was definitely Barry's cleverness that left an impression on little Paul, combined of course with the amazing Adams cover. As I grew up I sought out more and more of Barry's adventures and I realized that that the two things that initially drew me to Barry, cleverness and cool covers, are what The Flash is all about!

Art by Irv Norick and Murphy Anderson

This then, is why I love Barry Allen just as much as I love Wally West, and why I'm happy to see him back as The Flash. I grant you, it's not the best reason in the world. '24 Hours of Immortality' isn't the best Flash story in the world, it's not even the best Barry story in the world. But it was my first. And I read it so much that the cover fell off. And it introduced me to a character who remains, not only the Fastest Man Alive, but one of the greatest super-heroes of all time.

Alan Moore vs. Grant Morrison

2011-07-23T19:08:00.004+01:00

If I had to name two of my all time favourite comics writers it would have to be Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. Their work is always overflowing with imagination, with more ideas thrown at one page than most writers have in a lifetime. In fact, if we're talking about the ability to cram as many ideas as possible into one comic, then I would argue that the only two creators to match, if not surpass them have been Stan Lee and Jack Kirby with their original Fantastic Four run.

Despite their obvious greatness however, it seems likely that they do not care for each other. Grant Morrison has been very open about his opinions of Moore over the years, and you can find a few examples over on Duy Tano's Comics Cube in his article 'Grant Morrison Is Wrong about Alan Moore'. Moore on the other hand has never, to my knowledge, singled out Morrison for criticism, but I can't be the only one who's wondered if there's a bit of Grant Morrison in the Supreme supporting character, Billy Friday, a Jimmy Olsen analog who's depicted as a trendy, grim 'n' gritty British writer. Of course, knowing Moore and his sense of humour, Friday is probably meant to be a parody of Moore himself as much as he is a parody of Morrison.

Despite their differences, Moore and Morrison also have a lot in common. Moore is a ceremonial magician who worships the snake god, Glycon. Morrison claims to have created "holographic voodoo effects" with his writing, specifically with his work on The Invisibles. There's only one obvious way for them to settle their differences isn't there?

WIZARDS' DUEL!!!

Dumble-Moore vs. Volde-Morrison

Jim Shooter and the DC/Marvel Crossovers

2011-07-21T21:52:00.015+01:00

Over on his excellent blog comics legend Jim Shooter is discussing the DC/Marvel crossover stories and why the first JLA/Avengers crossover never happened.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

In Part Four Jim Shooter refers to Dick Giordano's rebuttal of Shooter's Marvel Age column regarding the crossover and its failure to happen. For curiosity's sake, here is Giordano's rebuttal, as found in Flash #341 (1985).

I am so far unable to find Part 2 but it'll be in a DC Comic dated January 1985. If anyone finds Part 2 then let us know.

UPDATE: Success! Lee K. Seitz has found not only Jim Shooter's column from Marvel Age #19 but also Part 2 of Dick Giordano's article. Check them out here. Considering we're discussing company crossovers I think it's very appropriate that these articles are being presented by a blog crossover. Many, many thanks Lee K. Seitz!

UPDATE 2: Jim Shooter links to a blog with an overview of everything concerning the failed crossover that's public knowledge, including some of George Perez's awesome pencils. As it's such a fascinating read I thought I'd link to it too. http://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/2011/06/1983-jlaavengers-crossover-also-known.html

UPDATE 3: Many thanks to Nevermore, who informed me that Giordano's article is reproduced in the JLA/Avengers (2004) Hardcover Collection's Compedium. So this column wasn't the great find I thought it was but it was a pretty exciting feeling reading Jim Shooter's reference to Giordano's rebuttal and thinking "Hold on, I've got that!!!"

On a related note I thoroughly recommend Kurt Busiek and George Perez's 2004 JLA/ Avengers. I don't know if it would live up to Mr Shooter's strict requirements but I can say that it's a lot of fun and contains Superman wielding Thor's hammer and Cap's shield, Kyle Rayner charging his ring on the Cosmic Cube, Hawkeye stealing Black Canary from Green Arrow and many more such cool, fanboy-wish-come-true moments. Check it out!

How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Superman Relaunch

2011-07-18T21:59:00.005+01:00

Allow me to introduce you to some interesting fellows;

1) Golden Age Superman

Golden Age Superman is a crusader for social justice who thinks nothing of defenestrating wife beaters or dangling corrupt politicians by their ankle while running across telephone wires. He can jump really high and is pretty damn tough compared to your average guy. He poses as Clark Kent, reporter for the Daily Star. He's a hero.

2) Silver Age Superman

Silver Age Superman is an avuncular chap who spends most of his days maintaining his web of lies by performing elaborate pranks on his friends and colleagues. Despite possessing the ability to move planets and travel in time he mostly just catches bank robbers. He occasionally gets transformed into a lion, or an ant, or a baby, or a fat guy. He poses as Clark Kent, reporter for the Daily Planet. He's a hero.

3) Bronze Age Superman

Bronze Age Superman has awesome sideburns. He often displays a confidence that borders on arrogance, but will sometimes ponder whether he is doing the right thing, usually when manipulated into doing so by self-righteous aliens. He is the most powerful thing in the universe, except for a short period when his power was sapped by a walking cat litter tray that had taken his form. He poses as Clark Kent, TV News Anchorman for Galaxy Communications. He's a hero.

4) Post Crisis Superman

Post Crisis Superman is a former high school football star whose cape gets ripped to shreds so often that one wonders why he bothers wearing it. Despite being a very easy-going, likable fellow he gets beaten up an awful lot. He doesn't really care much about his Kryptonian heritage as it was a boring place full of people with no eyebrows. Before his marriage he often had sex while under the influence of mind control. He is Clark Kent, reporter for the Daily Planet and he poses as a guy in blue tights. He's a hero.

5) NuDC Superman

NuDC Superman is a stylish fellow who alternates between a casual 'jeans and t-shirt' look and a more formal 'suit of a thousand seams' look. He is a bachelor who lives alone. When he's not fighting for the weak against bullies of all kinds he spends his days being brash and brooding. He poses as Clark Kent, reporter for the Daily Planet. He's a hero.

Some of you just might have spotted what I'm getting at here.

DC's decision to revamp Superman and relaunch Action Comics and Superman has been met with a lot of online hostility. Various online commentators are already dismissing this new Superman as a travesty of Clone-Saga like proportions. A common complaint around the various threads seems to be that this new Superman is destined for failure because DC have fundamentally misunderstood their flagship character. I have to disagree. It's certainly possible that NuDC Superman will fail to catch on and sales will continue to plummet. But at this stage it's equally possible that NuDC Superman will be a success and set the tone for the next two decades worth of stories, in much the same way as John Byrne's controversial revamp did in 1986 (the aforementioned Post Crisis Superman).

Like Byrne's revamp, NuDC Superman is just another interpretation of the character, as equally valid as the rest. And I'm not just talking about those listed above. There's also Birthright Superman, Secret Origin Superman, George Reeves Superman, Christopher Reeve Superman, Fleischer Brothers Superman, Ruby Spears Superman, Lois and Clark Superman, Smallville Superman, All Star Superman, Dark Knight Returns Superman, Earth One Superman, JLU Superman, Super Friends Superman, etc, etc, etc.

As we saw at the start of this post, all of these interpretations have their differences and some of these differences are quite dramatic. But at the core of each version is the same man. A man from a dead world who possesses incredible powers and wants to help. They can stick him in jeans, they can stick him in battle-armour or they can stick him in a red and blue speedo, that simple truth at the core of the character has never changed and it never will change. Of course, no one's saying you have to like every single interpretation. I, for example, don't care for Smallville or Lois and Clark. But just because you don't like a particular incarnation doesn't make that incarnation any less valid.

There is the question of whether Superman needs another revamp. Since 2003 and Mark Waid's Superman: Birthright DC Comics have been trying to revamp Superman but nothing they've tried has seemed to stick. But just because these changes haven't worked doesn't mean that DC were wrong to try. Obviously mistakes were made, for example Birthright (a brand new Superman origin and a very good story) just sneaked out unannounced with barely any publicity leaving old fans unsure of what to make of it and any potential new fans oblivious. But the idea of a revamp wasn't necessarily a bad idea. What do I have to back up that statement? I have myself.

When I was a kid I was a massive Batman fan and could take or leave Superman. That was until I read John Byrne's 1986 Superman revamp, Man of Steel. Man of Steel was an interpretation of the character that I'd never seen before. Once this fresh take on the character had got me interested I gradually discovered all his other wonderful incarnations. And I'm still discovering new ones today, all thanks to that one story that made me look at Superman in a different way.

So NuDC Superman won't necessarily be a disaster! If DC can grab people's attention by showing them something different about Superman then those people may well go on to discover all the other wonderful incarnations of the character. And eventually they might also discover that all of these different versions aren't so different after all.

Legion of Super-Heroes vs. X-Men

2011-07-18T01:02:00.000+01:00

Lately I've been rediscovering the X-Men, mostly through my hardback collection of Grant Morrison's New X-Men run but also through a battered copy of the highly enjoyable X-Men: Fatal Attractions that I managed to pick up for two quid! Reminding myself of why I used to enjoy the X-Men so much years ago has also reminded me of how much I would absolutely love to see a Legion of Super-Heroes/X-Men crossover. Sadly both Marvel and DC currently seem to have no interest in any more inter-company shenanigans. Once upon a time however a Legion/X-Men crossover was tantalisingly close! According to legendary Legion/X-Men artist Dave Cockrum;

"But there also originally was going to be a Legion/X-Men crossover, and I was to draw it. Then they decided ‘No, we'll make it a Teen Titans/X-Men crossover,’ and that's the one that Walt Simonson drew. They figured that the Teen Titans were more commercial."

Despite being owned by two different companies and being separated by several centuries, the Legion and the X-Men have a lot in common. Indeed, Nightcrawler was almost a Legion character! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that one day we'll see these two super-teams united in battle! Until then I'll console myself with my own Photoshop visions of what could have been.

The X-Men bits are of course from Uncanny X-Men #136 (1980) by John Byrne, Terry Austin and Jim Novak. Sun Boy is from Legion of Super-Heroes #296 (1983) by Keith Giffen and Larry Mahlstedt. Sensor Girl is from Legion of Super-Heroes #349 (1987) by Curt Swan and Dan Bulanadi. Timber Wolf is from Who's Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes #6 (1988) and is by Mike Zeck. Cosmic Boy is from Cosmic Boy #2 (1987) and is by Steve Lightle.

The Guardian exposes scandal at the Daily Planet!

2011-07-09T21:17:00.005+01:00

The Guardian has done a great job exposing the corrupt practices of the scummier side of British journalism. As a result of their investigations the News of the World has closed. But why should they stop there? There's plenty of corruption going on in newspapers all over the world, for example a certain great, metropolitan newspaper over in the States.....

San Diego Comic Con 2011, DC Original Characters Protest Walk: WHAT A SHOWER OF GITS!

2011-07-01T01:54:00.001+01:00

In 1965 thousands of Americans marched from Selma to Montgomery in a bid to outlaw racial discrimination and gain voting rights for African Americans. In 2011 at the San Diego Comic Con a bunch of joyless bastards will be protesting the September relaunch of DC Comics' super-hero line. I realise this relaunch isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea but to actually protest against it at the SDCC is ludicrous. The protest will accomplish very little except expose genuine fans who are there to celebrate their love of this wonderful medium to grumbling and negativity that they could probably do without, having paid so much to attend this event. The protest will also potentially gain more publicity for the relaunch that these people claim to hate so much. Over on BleedingCool.com, Rich Johnston has argued that the publicity garnered from a protest of this nature could be very beneficial for DC Comics. He even argues that there's a danger that not enough people will attend the protest and so is organising a counter-protest in order to drum up even more publicity. This makes infinitely more sense to me than the motives of the original protesters.

I don't expect everyone to embrace this relaunch with open arms, but there are a number of other, more sensible alternatives to making a twat of yourself at a large, public event. Write to DC, complain on your blog, debate on the message boards or (here's a radical notion) give the comics a chance and if you don't like them, DON'T BUY THEM! Spend your money on something that does still give you pleasure! When you think of all the worthy causes that public protest has been used for over the years, civil rights, peace, freedom, doesn't protesting against the absence of Superman's red knickers trivialise it all just a little bit? I'm not saying that these people shouldn't do their little protest walk, I'm just saying they're all wankers.

The new costumes, as drawn by Jim Lee.

Paul's Pick of the DC Comics Relaunch

2011-06-11T01:54:00.001+01:00

All of the 52 new DC titles launching in September have been announced! A complete list of them can be found here. Like every fan with an internet connection, I have an opinion about the list and I'm compelled to share it, even though no one asked me! There are many on the list that look perfectly good but I just haven't got the money to check them out, or they're just not characters I click with. What's left can be divided into four categories;

What the Hell? What are they thinking?!
Looks good, I'll get the trade if I hear good things.
I'm gonna get the first couple of issues and may keep on getting it if it's good.
This is on the Pull List without a doubt!

Let's get the moaning out of the way first.

1. What the Hell? What are they thinking?!

Hawk And Dove #1 by Sterling Gates and Rob Liefeld

"I can't be arsed to draw anything in the background, I'll just draw their faces again. That'll do."

Based on his Supergirl run Sterling Gates is a fantastic writer and Hawk and Dove are interesting enough characters. I probably would have checked this out if it wasn't for one thing. Rob Liefeld's art. I remain absolutely baffled as to why people like Liefeld's work. He seems to have no clue how to draw basic human anatomy and to be honest he's not that great at drawing anything else. To be fair he does seem to know this and usually keeps the backgrounds of his panels to a bare minimum. It's not even as if he's a particularly imaginative artist. Just check out his recent web-comic, Zombie Jesus. Biblical zombies should be an opportunity for an artist to have a field day drawing undead rabbis, Pharisees, Roman soldiers etc. Surely part of the appeal of zombie movies and comics is that tragic glimpse we get of the zombies former lives? Liefeld chooses to draw them as vague,muddy looking things that don't even look like zombies due to their trademark Liefeld biceps and pecs. Those zombies have been working out.

Suffice to say, Liefeld's presence has made this series one for me to avoid.

Teen Titans #1 by Scott Lobdell, Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund

Apparently that thing on Superboy's back is supposed to be a sign left by Kid Flash. Er..ok?

It's the art once again that's putting me off this title. I'm not a massive fan of Brett Booth's style but it's the costume designs that are spoiling this for me more than anything else. Kid Flash and Red Robin's costumes look messy and jumbled and Superboy looks like a random street punk in a bad '90s film. In fact the whole thing looks dated and none of the characters look the least bit iconic. They look less like the Titans and more like a '90s Image Comic featuring characters ripped off from the Titans.

On the other hand writer Scott Lobdell has a proven track record with teen super-teams. I remember his run on Generation X being very enjoyable, so maybe this title will work. I hope so.

2. Looks good, I'll get the trade if I hear good things.

Swamp Thing #1 by Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette

Scott Snyder has done an absolutely amazing job with his recent run on Detective Comics and I've heard nothing but good things about his American Vampire series. Yanick Paquette's recent work on Batman Inc has been equally amazing, so I'm sure this series will work. Unfortunately I share the opinion of my fellow blogger Duy Tano on the character of Swamp Thing. On his blog, The Comics Cube, he wrote,

Alan Moore's SWAMP THING is one of my favorite comics of all time, and it had such a beautiful ending that I can't take any Swamp Thing story that comes after it seriously. I'm even a big fan of Rick Veitch and I still can't read his run. I just can't bring myself to do it.

That pretty much sums it up for me too. If I hear really great things about this series I might check out the trade but I just can't put it on the Pull List.

3. I'm gonna get the first couple of issues and may keep on getting it if it's good.

Fury Of Firestorm #1 by Gail Simone, Ethan Van Sciver and Yildiray Cinar

I like Gail Simone's writing and, based on his work on Legion of Superheroes Yildiray Cinar is a good artist. I've never experienced Ethan Van Sciver's writing before but with Simone alongside him I'm sure it'll be fine. Having said that I've never read much of Firestorm's solo adventures before, my experience of him has mostly been through appearances in Justice League comics. I'm not sure my interest in the character is enough to keep me regularly following his title. There are however, two main reasons why I'm considering getting Fury of Firestorm. Firstly, Firestorm's story thread in Brightest Day was among my favourite parts of the series. Secondly, I love the new staus quo of high school nerd Jason Rusch merging with high school jock Ronnie Raymond to form Firestorm. I loved the dynamic between the two in Brightest Day and I think the idea of a nerd and a jock combining to make a super-hero is a simple but clever hook that could make this book a lot of fun. I'm definitely checking out the first issue.

Flash #1 by Brian Buccellato and Francis Manapul

I really, really want to get this series as I'm a massive Flash fan and have been since I was a kid. I love both Barry Allen and Wally West equally, so it doesn't matter to me who's the star of the book. It's the writers I'm unsure of. While I love Manapul's art I've never read any of his or Buccellato's writing before. Normally I wouldn't be so nervous but the memory of 2006's dreadful Flash relaunch by writers Danny Wilson and Paul De Meo is still fresh in my mind. These were two TV writer/producers who were new to comics and their run on Flash: The Fastest Man Alive was tedious, predictable and showed a complete lack of understanding of the character they were writing. It's totally unfair of me to pre-judge Buccellato and Manapul based on a previous Flash-related disappointment involving two writers whose work I was unfamiliar with. But I can't help it, I love the Flash and I'm nervous. I'm still going to give the series a chance however and hopefully it will remain a permanent fixture on my Pull List.

4. This is on the Pull List without a doubt!

Green Lantern #1 by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy

Johns and Mahnke are sticking with the title and so am I. While the title seemed to drag a little bit after Blackest Night, it's picked up again with the latest storyline, War of The Green Lanterns and even during its slight post-Blackest Night dip it was still one of my favourite regulars. I currently get Green Lantern regularly and for cash flow reasons I only dip into the other Lantern titles during crossovers. As long as Johns and Mahnke are staying I see no reason to change that routine.

Aquaman #1 by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis

I love Geoff Johns' writing, I love Ivan Reis' art and I looooooovee Aquaman! This is a no-brainer. I am getting this! 'Nuff said!

Justice League #1 by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee

Okay, the Jim Lee costume re-designs are a bit '90s to say the least, all seams and chin guards. At least there's hardly any pouches. But I've been waiting for Geoff Johns to write an ongoing Justice League book for years and I'll be damned if a bunch of v-neck collars are going to stop me from finally reading it!

Batman And Robin #1 by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason

I quite like Peter Tomasi's writing and I really like Patrick Gleason's art. I liked his work on Aquaman years ago and his work seems to have grown tighter and more detailed since then. But the main reason I'll be getting this book is Damien"Robin" Wayne. He's the cocky little psychopath with the heart of gold and I love him. His relationship with Dick Grayson is one of the main reasons Batman and Robin has been so good up until now and I can't wait to see how he gets on with Bruce Wayne as Batman.

Batman #1 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo

Snyder on Batman? That's all I need to know. His handling of Dick Grayson and Jim Gordon in Detective Comics has been absolutely fascinating. We've seen Dick struggling to wrap his head around Gotham City's craziness and Gordon dealing with a psychopathic son who may or may not be a murderer. I can't wait to see what he does with Bruce Wayne.

Legion Lost #1 by Fabian Nicieza and Pete Woods/ Legion of Superheroes by Paul Levitz and Francis Portela

I've been really enjoying what Levitz has been doing with the Legion for the past year and I'm relieved to see it's not getting thrown out of the window with another unnecessary reboot. The idea of a group of Legionnaires trapped in the present sounds like loads of fun and I'm really glad Pete Woods is involved as I loved his recent Action Comics work. My only concern is that any changes that may be made to Superman will mean that Levitz will once again have to fiddle with the Legion's origins in order to remove Superboy. And the last thing the Legion needs is any more origin fiddling.

Superman #1 by George Pérez and Jesus Merino
Action Comics #1 by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales

While I'm slightly disappointed that Perez isn't drawing as well as writing Superman it's a very small complaint as Jesus Merino is a perfectly good Superman artist and everything else regarding the relaunching of these two titles is perfect. Perez has already had experience of revamping one of DC's major characters with his work on Wonder Woman in the '80s and Grant Morrison has already written one of the greatest Superman stories ever, All Star Superman. Morrison has already proven that he has a lot of love and respect for Superman but more importantly he has proven time and time again that he is a writer who is overflowing with imagination, and that is one thing that has been missing from the Superman titles for a good long while.

Yes, it's a shame that Action Comics has been re-set to issue one after all these years and yes, the new costume looks dodgy, and yes, if Superman's origin is tweaked again that'll be his third origin reboot in under ten years (fourth if you count Earth One). But if what Morrison has planned is even half as good as All Star Superman or his Batman run, then it'll all be worth it.

So there we have it. At the moment my Pull List from September onwards will include,

Justice League
Batman and Robin
Batman
Green Lantern
Aquaman
Superman
Action Comics
Legion of Superheroes
Legion Lost
Flash (hopefully)
Fury of Firestorm (maybe)

They'll be joined by my regular Marvel titles, FF, Invincible Iron Man and Amazing Spider-Man, and next year I'll add Grant Morrison's relaunched Batman Inc.

What do you think? Am I leaving out something that could be really good? Have I included something that could be really bad? What will your September Pull List look like? Let me know.

George Perez on Superman!

2011-06-06T20:34:00.004+01:00

Today BleedingCool.com ran a story that states "according to good comic book industry sources, (George) Pérez is scheduled to write and draw the new Superman #1".

Let's just take a minute to reflect on why that is the most awesome thing ever....

And we've barely scraped the surface of how awesome Perez is at drawing Superman. As for his writing, well I'm not a big Wonder Woman fan but his '80s relaunch of the character is probably my favourite interpretation of her to date. In the same decade he also co-plotted and drew a little thing called New Teen Titans!

Suffice to say, I'm not going to relax until DC officially confirm this. This could be brilliant!

UPDATE: DC Comics have just confirmed that while Perez will be writing Superman #1 and drawing the covers, Jesus Merino will actually be on art duties. It's a shame but I guess Perez would never have hit the deadlines with the level of detail he puts into his work. That's not a complaint mind you, it's one of the reasons I love Perez' stuff. Also, Merino's art isn't exactly hard on the eye so I'm still a happy bunny.

It's cool, Merino draws a really good Superman!

DC Comics Relaunch: My tuppence worth

2011-06-05T00:11:00.000+01:00

On the day the news broke about DC Comics' massive relaunch I managed to toss out a quick reaction on the blog, but I hadn't really had time to fully digest the information and decide exactly how I felt about the the fifty two brand spanking new first issues heading our way in September. So now that a few days have passed, how do I, DC Comics nut that I am, feel about the various rebootings, retweekings and relaunchings in store for Superman and his pals? Well, it's still difficult to say. It feels like there's an ongoing battle between optimism and pessimism going on in my brain. I've decided that rather than try and put this into words I'm going to visually represent it in the form of the ultimate battle between good and evil! Optimus Prime Vs. Megatron!!!!

The original battle is from Transformers: The Movie Adaptation #1 (1986) with art by Don Perlin, Ian Akin and Brian Garvey. The font is Deeko Comic Regular and is by d-ko and is found here.

Paul's Predictions for a Post-Flashpoint Universe

2011-06-01T00:15:00.005+01:00

Here's how USA Today covered DC Comics' announcement regarding the changes to the DC Universe after Flashpoint.

DC Comics has a new strategy to be No. 1 in comic books: all-new No. 1s. Starting this summer, the publisher will re-number its entire DC Universe of titles, revamping characters such as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and others from its 76-year history for a more modern and diverse 21st century.
The first book to be released under this new era: Justice League No. 1, out Aug. 31, a series by writer Geoff Johns and artist Jim Lee that reunites the famous lineup of Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman and Aquaman.
Johns promises a focus on the interpersonal relationships within DC's trademark superteam. "What's the human aspect behind all these costumes?" he says. "That's what I wanted to explore."
In September, another 51 first issues will debut, introducing stories that are grounded in each character's specific legend but also reflect today's real-world themes and events. Lee spearheaded the costumes' redesign to make characters more identifiable and accessible to comic fans new and old.
"We really want to inject new life in our characters and line," says Dan DiDio, co-publisher of DC with Lee. "This was a chance to start, not at the beginning, but at a point where our characters are younger and the stories are being told for today's audience."

It's hard not to be cynical about all this. DC tried a softer reboot a few years ago after Infinite Crisis with their One Year Later scheme. Sadly the momentum of One Year Later was ruined by delays and inconsistent creative teams. Also, rebooting long running, popular titles to #1 has met with disastrous results in the past. Remember Spider-Man:Chapter One?

Marvel no longer speak of it for some reason.

But it makes sense for DC Comics to try and do something to get them into the mainstream press when all eyes are on the new Green Lantern film, they'd be silly not to. Who knows, it may actually get some new readers. I reckon it's pointless complaining about all this until we've seen the creative talent behind the new titles. That's when I'll be getting excited/worried (delete as appropriate).

What will this mean for the characters? Based on what Didio said about "a point where our characters are younger" I reckon we can make a few guesses as to what changes might be made.

Superman will no longer be married to Lois Lane, and she probably won't know his secret identity.
Bruce Wayne will be the only Batman again, no more Batman Inc.
Dick Grayson will no longer be Batman, he may even be Robin again.
Wally West will be Kid Flash again.
The Justice Society of America will be back on Earth Two.
Characters like Kyle Rayner, Conner Hawke, Bart Allen and Damien Wayne will exist on a parallel Earth where the original heroes have retired. On this Earth Wally will be The Flash and Dick will be Batman.

Of course all this is still unfolding even as I write. By the time I wake up tomorrow I might be proven wrong. But I don't really mind what changes they make. Just please, please, please give us some good creative talent who'll stick with the book longer than a few issues!!!

Paul Does Comedy

2011-05-24T23:10:00.000+01:00

For the past couple of months I've been giving stand up comedy a go. I've found it very challenging to say the least. Downright terrifying actually. But it's also been a lot of fun and each gig has been a learning and rewarding experience. I figured I'd pop my latest gig on the blog, since quite a lot of the jokes are Superman related.

This is my fifth gig and needless to say I'm not there yet. This performance contains a lot of cringe worthy moments and I watched a lot of it back through my fingers. But I do get one or two strong(ish) laughs and I feel I've come a long way in five gigs. Of course the only way I'm going to get better is by doing more of it so hopefully I'll find some more unfortunate audiences to indulge me as I continue to learn the ropes.

The opening gag is an ad-libbed reference to the previous comedian's routine, which is why it doesn't make much sense out of context. Look out for those afore-mentioned cringe worthy moments, and there's swear words and knob gags so it's NSFW.

Green Lantern: The 1960's Movie

2011-05-23T20:14:00.001+01:00

Ever wondered what Jack Palance would look like as the Punisher? Or who would star in 1950s production of the X-Men? Then check out Sean Hartter's Alternate Universe Movie Posters! Great fun!

I've been inspired by his good work (and by the upcoming Green Lantern movie) to try and create a '60s movie poster of my own. And yes, I know Gil Kane used Paul Newman as the model for Hal, but I happened to come across a picture of Warren Beatty that just seemed perfect.

Brightest Day: My Tuppence Worth

2011-05-09T14:18:00.005+01:00

WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BRIGHTEST DAY!

Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi's year long maxi-series, Brightest Day has come to a finish. In April 2010 we were presented with twelve characters brought back from the dead. Each had been given a destiny to fulfil by a mysterious White Lantern. The series went on to focus mainly on the adventures of Aquaman, Firestorm, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Hawkgirl and Deadman as they struggled to fulfil these destinies. Was it any good? When viewed as separate story arcs that reintroduce the characters to us and set up a new status quo for each of them, Brightest Day does pretty well. On the other hand, when viewed as a coherent story in its own right, the series fails.

While the arcs of Martian Manhunter and the Hawks were entertaining enough they didn't bring us anything new. By the end of the series, Martian Manhunter is still a survivor of a dead planet who has made Earth his new home and the Hawks are still doomed lovers. It's particularly disappointing that there were no new insights on Hawkgirl. Like Hawkman, Shiera "Hawkgirl" Hall's personality has mostly remained indistinguishable from that of her Thanagarian counterpart, Shayera "Hawkwoman" Hol. That was until Johns reincarnated her in the body of Kendra Saunders, a girl with no memory of or interest in the eternal love that she and Hawkman share. By the start of Brightest Day, Kendra was Shiera once again and Johns and Tomasi had a golden opportunity to tell us who Shiera really is. Shiera's adventures battling her mother on Hawkworld are fun, and the issue where her and Hawkman get their final chance at happiness cruelly snatched away carries a real emotional punch. But Shiera's personality, that of a passionate warrior with a calming influence on Hawkman, is once again indistinguishable from Shayera. And of course, after all that, she was turned into a fart in the final issue!

As far as I'm concerned, the two stars of the series were Aquaman and Firestorm. Firestorm was probably the character about whom I knew least but Brightest Day served as an excellent introduction to him. Originally Firestorm was high school jock Ronnie Raymond and nuclear physicist Martin Stein fused together into one nuclear powered hero. By Brightest Day, Ronnie is fused with his successor, high school nerd Jason Rusch and initially they both have good reason to hate each other's guts. It's a great dynamic, the jock and the nerd, forced to share a body. Unfortunately their relationship doesn't quite get the opportunity to blossom into the fully fledged nuclear bromance that it promises, but they do fight two brilliant baddies along the way (Black Lantern Firestorm and the Anti-Monitor) and ultimately are brought together by the death of Martin Stein. It's clear that Stein's bucket is going to be kicked right from the start. Despite this the death still carries emotional weight as the writers do a good enough job at establishing Stein's relationship with the boys, particularly Ronnie.

Aquaman's story was easily the most successful. Aquaman is introduced to a new Aqualad, who happens to be the son of Black Manta, the killer of Aquaman's son! It's such a great idea, Manta took Aquaman's son and so Aquaman takes Manta's son under his wing, it fits so well. Another great twist in the tale was the revelation that Mera, Aquaman's other-dimensional wife, was originally sent to kill him! This one revelation was enough in itself to make Mera more interesting than she's been in decades, but she's also shown making excellent use of her powers. At one point she's shown holding back the entire ocean with her mind, reminding us that she's possibly even more powerful than her husband. Brightest Day also gives us some of the coolest Aquaman moments since Peter David's legendary run on the character. In the very first issue we're shown proof of what us Aqua-fans have claimed for years, Aquaman is officially bullet-proof! Towards the end of the series we're given one of the best cliffhangers of the series as Aquaman, who was recently given a brand new left hand as part of his resurrection, loses his right hand to Black Manta's blade! Imagine how you'd feel if you regained your left hand and then lost your right hand. Artist Ivan Reis brilliantly conveys this unprecedented feeling of disappointment and pain on Aquaman's face. I've never seen a super-hero look so gutted!

Which brings us to Deadman's tale and the overall arc that links these heroes together. Deadman is now Alive-Man and is being directed by the White Lantern to re-discover the joys of life. I've seen this arc described elsewhere as pointless, since it's obvious that Deadman will return to his deceased state by the end of the series. As far as I'm concerned his inevitable demise makes Deadman's journey all the more poignant, since reuniting with his relatives, falling in love with Dove and re-discovering the pleasure of a cheeseburger gives Deadman something to lose when he re-pops his clogs. Unfortunately Deadman's story is intertwined with the overall arc of the White Lantern and it's purpose, and it's here that Brightest Day fails.

The Champion that the White Lantern had Deadman looking for throughout the whole series is Alec Holland. Alec Holland is Swamp Thing, sort of. Way back in 1983 Alan Moore became the new writer of Saga of Swamp Thing. Up until Moore got hold of him, Swamp Thing was scientist Alec Holland, mutated in a fiery explosion into a swamp monster by a bio-restorative formula. In issue #21 Moore established that Swamp Thing was in fact a sentient plant creature who thought he was Alec Holland, the real Holland having died in the explosion. As you can imagine, this revelation came as something of a blow to Swamp Thing and made for some fascinating stories as he reconciled with the fact that he was never a man and uncovered who and what he really was. Initially Swamp Thing was part of the DC Universe but gradually his adventures became completely removed from those of Superman and his Justice League chums. Brightest Day is Swamp Thing's grand return to the DC Universe. Swamp Thing has been taken over by big baddie Nekron and is on a rampage. The White Lantern resurrects Alec Holland and transforms him into a new Swamp Thing, one who actually was once a man, and sends him off to battle Evil Swamp Thing.

It just doesn't work for so many reasons. If you're unfamiliar with Alan Moore's Swamp Thing work then you're left feeling unsure why exactly you should give a monkeys that this green guy has just turned up. If you are familiar with Alan Moore's Swamp Thing (like me) then you're left scratching your head in bewilderment as to why DC are flushing everything Moore brought to the character down the toilet. Not only that but they're also flushing everything that original creators Len Wein and Berni Wrightson brought to the character! Originally a big part of what made Swamp Thing interesting was the horror and tragedy of an ordinary man disfigured and transformed into a misunderstood monster. We could all understand and identify with Swamp Thing as he searched for a way to transform back into a man and get revenge on those who caused his fate. Moore took this to the next level, and while 'What if you found out you weren't really you?' is more of an existential question than 'What if you turned into a monster?' it's still a situation that we can imagine ourselves in and we can understand the horror and the tragedy of it. In Brightest Day Holland accepts his new position as muck-monster and Earth elemental straight away and immediately sets off throttling corporate bigwigs. There's no insight into how he feels about it, therefore no horror, no tragedy and no reason why we should care about the character any more. They may go into all this in a future Swamp Thing series or even in the upcoming Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing, but based on what we've seen of the character in Brightest Day, why should we bother checking it out?

The worst thing about the revelation of Swamp Thing as Earth's champion is that, in the context of Brightest Day as a story in its own right, he comes out of nowhere. Imagine if in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Gandalf turned up at the end to defeat Voldemort. Sure, The Lord of the Rings is brilliant, and it's cool to see Gandalf in anything, and if anyone can defeat Voldemort it's Gandalf, but that doesn't mean that his appearance is good for the story or that it makes a blind bit of sense.

Found on http://www.collegedweeb.com/2008/09/nerd-battle-1-gandolf-vs-voldemort/

My fellow comics bloggers Jason Todd and X-Man have argued that Brightest Day was a complete failure. While their criticisms of the series are very entertaining, I would argue that Brightest Day at least partially succeeds. It successfully re-introduces Aquaman and Firestorm back into the DC Universe by telling an entertaining story about them that gives us a clear idea of who they are, introduces us to new aspects of their personalities and leaves us with enough dangling plot threads to carry into a new series. It fails to bring us much that's new about the Hawks, Martian Manhunter and Deadman, but it does at least give us entertaining stories about them. When viewed as a complete story in its own right however, I have to agree with Jason Todd and X-Man, it fails. Everything is wrapped up with the involvement of Swamp Thing, a character that previously had nothing to do with the story. This buggers up the story and it buggers up Swamp Thing, and that's a damn shame.

Moaning about Action Comics #900

2011-04-29T04:36:00.000+01:00

Action Comics #900 was out this week. I generally like to stay as positive as I can about the comics I buy, but this issue really, really bugged me. This is of course the issue where Superman decides to revoke his American citizenship, stating that "Truth, Justice and the American Way" isn't enough any more. As you can imagine, this story has caused quite a bit of controversy, but for me it's not the most controversial part of the issue. There was another part of the issue that annoyed me far more than an unpatriotic Superman.

David S. Goyer's The Incident is an interesting story that's undermined by it's daft conclusion. The story depicts Superman flying to Iran to get involved in the riots in Tehran. While there he protects those behind the uprisings from the Iranian government’s army through an act of non-violent protest. He is then chastised by a US government official for causing an international incident for America. This then leads to Superman's decision to renounce his citizenship. The U.S government guy quite rightly points out that Superman presence didn't make a blind bit of difference to the people of Iran. Superman concedes that on a "macro scale" he didn't seem to have been much help, but he had witnessed a protester giving a soldier a rose, which the soldier accepted.

Rather than a touching scene demonstrating Superman's ability to inspire people, this seemed to me more like something you might see in a cheesy, cliché ridden film about civil unrest and hippie culture in '60s America. As for Superman renouncing his citizenship, I don't think it's really that big a deal. This was a one off back up strip that will probably never be mentioned again, and it seemed like a story Goyer wanted to tell rather than something that's come from the top. At the same time, I do wonder if this story really needed to be told. I felt the same as I did when Frank Langella's Perry White asked if Superman was still fighting for "Truth, Justice..all that stuff" in Superman Returns. Why be embarrassed of the "American Way"? People are intelligent enough to separate the ideals on which a country is founded from the actions of any particular government. Also, Superman is famously an American icon, us non-Americans won't get offended if he occasionally mentions that he quite likes the country in which he was raised.

This story however, wasn't my major problem with Action Comics #900. I've just sent DC Comics an email regarding the issue, particularly the conclusion to Paul Cornell's Lex Luthor tale, The Black Ring. I present to you now a copy of the email, so that you all may witness my impotent fanboy rage!

Dear DC,

I must confess I'm absolutely baffled as to your thinking regarding Action Comics #900 and the finale to The Black Ring.

The Black Ring has been such a fantastic story, and until #900 it was shaping up to be the ultimate Lex Luthor story. Paul Cornell was able to give us such a clear picture of Luthor's motives and personality that I really found myself rooting for Lex. Not only that but the story was fun too! Mr Mind vs. Cowboy Lex! Gorilla Grodd with a giant spoon! Gun-toting, robot Lois! The Black Ring was a hoot!

And then you guys made the utterly bizarre decision to tie the finale into a Doomsday story that hasn't even finished yet! This is the grand finale of the best Lex Luthor story ever and it's clumped together with the midway point of a mediocre Doomsday story! Why?! It completely robbed the finale of its momentum and power. Lex Luthor has the power of a god, he's got Superman in his clutches and we have to keep switching back to Steel, Eradicator and the rest running through some corridors!

Sorry to be so negative but it just seems to me that you've shot yourself in the foot here. You had the final part of an epic story that could have gone down in history as one of the greats and you deliberately sabotaged it by crowbarring in a completely unrelated story.

What a shame.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Cornish

Elisabeth Sladen

2011-04-20T00:03:00.001+01:00

I've just heard the terribly sad news about the death of Elisabeth Sladen. She played the definitive Doctor Who companion, Sarah Jane Smith both in classic and new Doctor Who and in her own spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures. Usually when a famous person whom I admire passes away I do what, I think it's fair to say, a lot of people do in these situations. I spend a minute reflecting on what a shame it all is before updating my Facebook status with an RIP (mostly to demonstrate to my cultural awareness to my followers) and then indulging in some tasteless gallows humour in order to prevent myself from dwelling on my own mortality.

But this time it's different. When I read of her death I literally caught my breath and reacted with shock, disbelief and genuine sadness. The fact that her passing could have this much of an effect on a complete stranger is a testament to the warmth and charisma she brought to the role of Sarah Jane Smith. There's a lot of other complete strangers all over the world feeling exactly the same as me and of course, a lot of people who knew her and loved her feeling a lot sadder still. I know it's a bit of a corny thing to say, but through her work she touched a lot of people's lives in a really positive way and that's pretty amazing. So this is a genuine, honest and heartfelt...

R.I.P. Elisabeth Sladen

Superman: Chris Roberson's Grounded - My Tuppence Worth

2011-04-16T22:07:00.004+01:00

Last year J. Michael Straczynski began his controversial Grounded storyline in the pages of Superman. I say controversial, what I really mean is that no bugger liked it! JMS left halfway through the story and the unenviable task of completing the story was given to iZombie writer Chris Roberson. And he's doing a bloody great job!

JMS has Superman lecture some poor sod in issue #701

To be fair I don't think JMS' issues are as bad as they've been made out to be. There were some cool moments and I still believe JMS' initial idea of Superman walking across the U.S.A to reconnect with humanity was an interesting one. However ultimately his issues had a self righteous and didactic tone that seemed to alienate just about everyone who read them. Chris Roberson's issues on the other hand couldn't be more different. Roberson is sticking only very loosely to JMS' original concept. Superman is still walking across America, however rather than have him reconnect with ordinary people, Roberson is taking this opportunity to reconnect Superman with his super-hero buddies. The result has been a bunch of issues that are low on big action and plot advancement but full of some wonderful character interaction and a lot of fun.

Just like JMS, Roberson has continued to show Superman behaving out of character. For example in #707, Roberson's first issue, Superman forbids Lois from exposing a polluting power plant in order to ensure the financial stability of a small community. Under JMS' pen, Superman's weird behaviour seemed to be the result of a writer bludgeoning the reader over the head with preachiness. Under Roberson however we've had quite a few hints as to the reasons for Superman's behaviour, with the possibilities ranging from magical influence to simply the trauma of having recently witnessed the destruction of New Krypton.

But that's not the fun part. Roberson has also had Superman meet up with the new Wonder Woman, the Flash and Batman, and each of these heroes have consoled Superman in their own unique and touching manner. Wonder Woman reminded Superman what an inspiration he is to other heroes while Flash helped Superman move towards regaining some of his moral certainty. Batman helped Superman to acknowledge that he's grieving and offered him a helping hand during this difficult time. As Superman has been reminded who he is and what he means to the world, so have we.

Superman#710 by Eddy Barrows

Judging by the warmth that comes from these lovely character moments I wouldn't be surprised if Roberson is enjoying the opportunity to explore these characters and their connection to Superman. He also seems to be enjoying the opportunity to reference old plot points, characters and story lines. In the past four issues we've had references to stories as diverse as Grant Morrison's DC: One Million and Chuck Dixon's Superman: The Odyssey. We've also seen references to Iron Munro, a character from Young All-Stars who, like Superman owes much of his existence to Phillip Wylie's 1930 novel Gladiator. We've had a cameo from a brand new Super-Chief and even seen Lex Luthor's "terrible" theft of forty cakes from DC's 1978 Super-Dictionary made canon! It's certainly possible to argue that all these references are self indulgent, but I would argue that it's possible to justify every single one of them as part of the process of reminding Superman, and us, of what he stands for. For example, the appearance of Grant Morrison's Super-Squad is not just a tip of the hat to DC: One Million, but also serves as a demonstration to a Superman plagued with doubt of his importance and potential.

Luthor stealing cakes in Superman #709 and the Super-Dictionary.

These references also serve to demonstrate how much fun Roberson is having playing in the Super-toybox and how much love he clearly has for Superman comics. And this, I think is the key difference between his approach and the approach of JMS. JMS is obviously a man who is very passionate about Superman as an icon and an ideal and an inspiration. Check out this article by him to see what I mean. But Roberson has demonstrated with only four issues that he doesn't just love the idea of Superman, he loves the comics. He loves the whole package, not just the icon but the continuity, the quirkiness, the contradictions and the characters from over seventy years of stories. His fanboy love is dripping off every page and it's presented in such a joyful, celebratory, unapologetic manner that it's impossible to view it as self-indulgent, and very easy to get swept up in it. Just check out #709 for a perfect example of what I mean. Flash has a Kryptonian headband stuck on his head that's driving him insane with it's constant barrage of Kryptonian history. Flash manages to attract Superman's attention and gain his help by dressing everyone up, including Superman, in ancient Kryptonian clothes at super-speed. It's the kind of goofy yet fun scenario you might expect from an old issue of DC Comics Presents or even a really old 1960s issue of Superman. And yet Roberson uses this slightly absurd scenario as a springboard for a touching heart to heart between Flash and Superman on the subject of morality.

Superman#709 by Eddy Barrows

JMS set out to bring Superman back to his roots by reconnecting him with the people of America. In this sense Roberson's run has so far been a failure. Since Roberson began his run the people of America have barely featured at all. However Roberson has succeeded in so many other ways. He's reconnected Superman with his fellow heroes but most importantly he's reconnected Superman with the reader by tearing down the barrier of smug didactism erected by JMS and making Superman fun again! I can only hope that Roberson is allowed to stay on the title and we get a chance to see what happens when neither Superman or Roberson are Grounded and both can demonstrate their full potential.

(Follow this link for my complete take on JMS' Grounded.)

Geoff Johns is writing Aquaman!!!!!!

2011-03-28T01:42:00.003+01:00

Could this become a reality?

This weekend at Megacon, Geoff Johns made an announcement that has had me grinning like a loon for a whole day. As the man himself put it via Twitter:

"Announced at Megacon: After BRIGHTEST DAY I'll be moving over to a new book - AQUAMAN #1 coming later this year!! :)"

Absolutely thrilling news! Not only is Johns a big enough name to attract loads and loads of new readers to the character, but he also happens to be one of the best writers of superhero comics in the business. At his best he has an uncanny ability to distil a character down to it's basic concept without jettisoning any of the character's back-story. He manages to remind us what's always been cool about a character while simultaneously giving us a fresh take. He's done this for the Justice Society, the Flash and his Rogues, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Booster Gold, Superman and most famously, and successfully, for Green Lantern. Now he's going to be doing it for the King of the Sea and I can't wait!

I've got complete faith in Johns and I'm going to be on board with whatever he decides to do with the character, but I can't help but have a few hopes and wishes for the series. Like any good fanboy would do, I've listed them.

1) A good artist

Well obviously. Ivan Reis has drawn a fantastic Aquaman in the pages of Brightest Day and judging from his work on Flash I could imagine Francis Manapul drawing a beautiful underwater world. Patrick Gleason did a great job when he drew for the last Aquaman series and if his work on Green Lantern Corps and Batman and Robin is anything to go by then his style has developed and improved since then.

Patrick Gleason's cover for Aquaman #33 (2005)

The most important thing is to get a reliable artist, which brings me to my second point....

2) Please, please, please no delays!

The worst thing that could happen to this book would be for it to get loads of hype surrounding the first issue and then lose that momentum because of a massive gap between issues. It wouldn't be the first time a great Geoff Johns story has been derailed by delays. Johns' latest Flash series has suffered this fate, as did the mini-series preceding it, Flash: Rebirth. A few years ago Johns co-wrote Superman: Last Son in the pages of Action Comics with Superman director Richard Donner. It's a fantastic story that's particularly notable for some great Lex Luthor moments, but at the time it had the wind completely taken out of it's sails by huge gaps between issues. I've no idea what goes on behind the scenes, I don't know if it was the artists' fault or the editors' fault or even Johns himself, but I really hope it doesn't happen to Aquaman.

3) Let's remember Peter David

Peter David's work on Aquaman during the '90s really stands out for me as some of the best work that's ever been done on the character. It's a crime that his origin story, The Atlantis Chronicles has never been collected into one volume. I've previously listed all the reasons I love David's run here. If you follow the link you may notice that Peter David himself has commented on the blog post! That was definitely a thrill for me.

Johns has indicated in the pages of Brightest Day that he's discarded the revised version of Aquaman's origin that David used during his run, in favour of the classic Silver Age origin in which Aquaman is the son of a human father rather than an Atlantean Wizard. That's fine by me. I have no problem with Johns presenting us with a version of the character with closer ties to the surface world. It makes perfect sense; why would he bother joining the Justice League if he didn't have a stake in what was occurring on land? But let's not completely discard all the important character development that occurred during David's run. David took the character on a journey from an angry, lost soul to a strong and decisive leader. I'm not saying Johns shouldn't bother with any character development but he should definitely bear in mind that the old 'superhero wracked with doubt to mighty King of Atlantis' transition has been done before, and been done very well too.

Also, David developed Aquaman's powers in a really interesting direction. Just as Swamp Thing is connected to all of Earth's plant life and Animal Man to all of it's animals, Aquaman could connect to all of Earth's sea life regardless of where he was by reaching out with his mind through "the Clear". This idea was ignored by every single subsequent writer, so it would be great if Johns could acknowledge it in some way.

Jim Calafiore depicts The Clear in Aquaman #36 (1997)

4) Aquaman should not be a miserable, preachy douche-bag!

Aquaman sometimes gets written as a self-righteous, hot tempered git who'll declare war on the human race if he loses his keys. That's not Aquaman, that's Prince Namor, Marvel's Sub-Mariner. Sure, Aquaman can be grumpy and he'll invade your country if you really, really piss him off, but despite all the tragedy he's endured, at heart he's a compassionate family man with a sense of humour. Let's skip all the tedious, lazy depictions of Aquaman lecturing Superman about pollution. We've seen it a million times before and it was boring the first time.

Doug Mahnke draws Aquaman on his high horse in Superman: Man of Steel #103 (2000)

5) Let's get a new take on an underwater world!

Type "International Space Station" into YouTube and you'll find numerous clips of astronauts eating, sleeping and living their everyday lives in an environment where their feet never touch the ground and there's no such thing as up or down. The inhabitants of Aquaman's Atlantis have supposedly been living in such an environment for centuries and yet how many Aquaman comics have there been featuring such things as beds, tables, chairs and stairs? There have been many exceptionally talented artists drawing life in Atlantis over the years. Ramona Fradon, Jim Aparo, Steve Epting, Alex Ross and Jackson Guice are among my favourites. And yet not one of them (at least to my knowledge) has given us a genuinely original and imaginative view of life in an underwater city. Most of the times a few bubbles and passing fish are the only indication that we're not on dry land. There should be stuff on the ceiling! There should be doors and windows in random places. The beds shouldn't look like beds, they should look like weird cocoons that are attached to the walls. It should all look like nothing we've ever seen before. We certainly shouldn't be getting scenes like the one featured in Aquaman #63 (2000) where the otherwise brilliant Steve Epting draws a bizarre underwater birthing pool?!?!

Aquaman is one of my all time favourite characters and I really, really want this series to work. But to be honest things haven't looked this good for Aquaman since the days of Peter David and I'm positive Johns can make a success of this without any nagging from geeks like me. In the pages of Blackest Night and Brightest Day, Geoff Johns has already made Aquaman's wife Mera more interesting than she's ever been and the new Aqualad introduced in Brightest Day is shaping up to be a great character. And let's not forget that in Brightest Day #1 Geoff Johns, Peter Tomasi and artist Ivan Reis have already confirmed one important aspect of Aquaman once and for all....

Superman: J. Michael Straczynski's Grounded - My Tuppence Worth

2011-02-19T22:08:00.004Z

Anyone casting a cursory glance over this blog may have noticed I'm a bit of a fan of a certain Man of Steel. I'm also a fan of the work of J. Michael Straczynski, largely due to his long run on Amazing Spider-Man. While there are a few dodgy bits to say the least I would argue that JMS' Spidey run rescued the character from a quagmire of '90s mediocrity and really moved the character forward, at least for awhile. You can imagine then, how excited I was to learn that JMS was a massive Superman fan and was taking over writing duties on the main Superman title. I enjoyed the massive New Krypton storyline that preceded JMS but it's fair to say that storyline sagged in the middle and went on just a little bit too long. I was ready for something different from Superman, something that would push the character forward while simultaneously reminding me of why I loved the character in the first place. With Grounded JMS seemed to be promising just that.

But it wasn't to be.

JMS promised to take Superman "back to his roots. Bring him back to the soil that nourished him, literally and figuratively. 'Pin him to the Earth,'....Let him set out on a journey across America, on foot, so that we can see ourselves in his eyes and he can see himself in ours, and gain a better understanding on both sides as to who we are, who he is, and where we’re going." Grounded was to be a story about Superman walking across the U.S.A, a different State for every issue. Along the way he would attempt to reconnect with the ordinary people of the Earth that he felt he had neglected while fighting cosmic battles above their heads. I thought it sounded like an interesting idea and was eager to see what JMS made of it. I was however, in a minority. The internet was awash with fans dismissing the story as a failure before one page of it had even seen print. And unfortunately JMS just went ahead and proved the buggers right!

The internet is full of bloggers offering their tuppence worth on why Grounded just hasn't worked. The most interesting article I've read on the subject was by Comics Alliance's Jason Michelitch who named the storyline the worst comic of 2010. While I don't feel it's the worst comic of 2010 (Justice League: Rise of Arsenal has to take that crown) it's hard not to agree with Michelitch's main point of contention with the story. From the very beginning of the story JMS is on the defensive. Practically every word out of Superman's mouth is an attempt by JMS to justify this storyline. In Michelitch's words the story "has a very clear message: Anyone who criticizes this comic is stupid and shallow and should shut the hell up." If JMS had shut the hell up and allowed the story to be judged on it's own merits he could have got away with it, but instead he chose to lecture his readers with pretentious speeches about Henry Thoreau. How can Superman reconnect with the common man if he's coming across as smug and preachy?

The worst scene in the story so far has to be the bit in issue #701 where Superman flies a big fat reporter (who's blatantly meant to represent JMS' internet critics) into the sky for daring to ask why Superman wants to walk across America in the first place. This scene was pure self indulgence. If JMS is so bothered about what nerds say about him on the internet then I would much prefer him to take the Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back route and track down each negative blogger and beat the crap out of them on their doorstep. At least that way he'd get it out of his system and I wouldn't have to read such bitchy, pointless rubbish in my comics!

There's another problem with Grounded that isn't really JMS' fault. The whole Superman-wracked-with-doubt thing has already been done fairly recently, indeed it was a prominent theme in 2005/2006's Infinte Crisis. We really didn't need to see this theme readdressed a mere four years later, even if JMS is addressing it in a different way. In my opinion Greg Rucka wrote the last word on the 'troubled with doubt Superman' just before Infinite Crisis with the brilliant and under-rated Ruin Revealed storyline. Rucka poses Superman an impossible question; what if you had no choice but to kill a villain in order to save lives? Without spoiling too much, Rucka's solution is simple. Other heroes may have to face this choice but Superman will always find another way because, quite simply, he is Superman. After seeing Rucka have Superman lay many of his doubts to rest in such an entertaining way I'm finding it difficult to see the character once more questioning his role.

Adventures of Superman #647 art by Renato Guedes

It's not all bad news though. There are two things that have stopped this comic being the worst of 2010, at least as far as I'm concerned. The first is Eddy Barrows artwork. While Superman is busy being a preachy knobhead the only thing that stops me from attempting to reach into the page and give him a slap is Barrows' art. Barrows has been expressing Superman's doubt as a sort of subtle, quiet sadness which really imbues the character with dignity. Under Barrows' pen, JMS' preachy dialogue almost works. Almost.

Grounded's second saving grace has been issue #705. JMS shows us a young boy eagerly awaiting Superman's passage through his town as he hopes Superman will save him from his abusive father. Superman has been psychically attacked by an unknown foe during a dream and the injuries he sustained have physically manifested themselves in the form of a black eye which Lois has covered with make-up. When Superman eventually passes the boy's house the boy is locked in the basement and Superman almost misses his cries for help. Of course he hears them just in time and rescues the boy. When the boy notices Superman's concealed shiner he asks "Does your Dad beat you too?"

The whole issue is so well written that despite knowing that Superman was inevitably going to rescue the boy I was on the edge of my seat as he passed the house. When the boy asked Superman his question my heart broke and I couldn't wait to see Daddy getting a well deserved kicking. Granted, it's a bit of a simplistic view of a very serious issue (a charge that can be levelled at most of the issues that JMS addresses during Grounded) but JMS played my emotions so well that I'll forgive him this time.

Of course despite this, the biggest problem with Grounded is that JMS has buggered off halfway through and left some other poor sod to cobble together the rest of the story from his notes! To be fair JMS has left to concentrate on the second instalment of the far more satisfying Superman: Earth One, so at least he's concentrating on a Superman story that is working. And Chris Roberson seems to be doing a pretty good job as JMS' replacement so far. With Roberson at the wheel, JMS' preaching and defensiveness are no longer a factor and the story has been the better for it.

So as a return to Superman's roots and an attempt to connect Superman with the common man once more, Grounded has failed. But with J. Michael Straczynski's ego now taken out of the equation, we may at least get an enjoyable story out of it.

(Follow this link for my take on Roberson's Grounded.)

The crappy, crappy Fantastic Four Movies

2011-02-07T01:07:00.001Z

Recently Marvel Comics have killed off the Human Torch. Many have seen this as just another cheap, lazy stunt to stir up a bit of attention. I have to say, if that's the case, it's worked on me! I've found myself wishing not for the first time that I'd been collecting Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting's Fantastic Four run. I've heard great things about it and the issue where the Torch kicked the bucket sounds amazing. But all this attention directed towards the FF has set me off once again thinking about two of the biggest disappointments I've ever encountered in all my years as a comics fan.

I can safely say that Tim Story's Fantastic Four movies are two of my greatest disappointments as a comics fan. I've only ever seen the first film once but I own the second on DVD and will occasionally watch it just to torment and frustrate myself. They're not just bad films, they're bad films with flickers of unrealised potential. This makes them worse than bad, because you know that they could conceivably have been half decent films if certain avenues had been explored in more depth. The biggest thing lacking from these two films is imagination and for a film based on work produced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby at their creative peak, that's just an unforgivable sin.

The first film is easily the worst of the pair. For a start they don't actually do any super-heroing! The FF's first major escapade involves stopping the Thing from having a tantrum on a bridge, their second escapade involves a battle against Doctor Doom. In both cases they're just cleaning up their own mess! As for Doctor Doom, he's just a joke. If Julian McMahon wanted plenty of face time on screen, then he shouldn't have gone for the part of the dude famous for wearing a metal mask AT ALL TIMES! But even a maskless Dr. Doom would have been forgiveable if the character's personality had even remotely resembled the arrogant, regal, short tempered, dignified, complex nutjob that we've grown to love in the comics. I don't know who this slimy guy with the weird eyebrows was but he was not Victor Von Doom.

Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis are spot on as the Torch and the Thing. Chiklis seems as if he's stepped right out of the comic page and Evans makes a cocky, annoying little git seem very likeable and funny through sheer natural charisma. The fact that they're so good makes the rest of the crappiness around them seem all the more frustrating. Ioan Gruffudd and Jessica Alba are worse than McMahon. McMahon gives an awful, hammy performance but at least he's trying. Gruffudd and Alba are just bland and dull.

The second film is a little better. The Silver Surfer is spot on and scenes like the Torch/Surfer chase or the London Eye rescue are genuinely exciting and fun to watch. Evans and Chiklis are even better in this film and the scene where they trade powers is hilarious. Gruffudd and Alba however, are still like two charisma vacuums. There's an awful bit where Mr Fantastic has a bit of dialogue that's been nicked straight from Warren Ellis' Ultimate Extinction. Coming from Ellis' Reed Richards It's a great little speech but Gruffudd makes it sound like the corniest thing you've ever heard.

Ultimate Extinction #2, Reed Richard's speech, art by Brandon Peterson

Oh, and Galactus is a cloud. 'Nuff said.

I could forgive all of these flaws if either film had shown just one speck of the imagination of Lee and Kirby's original work. In the original comics, if a story began in Reed Richards' lab then you wouldn't just see a couple of test tubes, you'd have something like this going on....

Fantastic Four #56

This would be nothing to do with the story, it was just another normal day for the FF.

If Doctor Doom was strolling through his lab you wouldn't get your bog standard array of death rays and evil machines, you'd get this....

Fantastic Four #57

This kind of awesomeness was the stuff going on in the background of Lee and Kirby's FF. In the main stories we had Galactus (a giant being from before the Big Bang who ate planets), the Black Panther (ruler of the scientifically advanced African nation of Wakanda, whose people hold the secret of Vibranium, the metal that absorbs kinetic energy), the Inhumans (genetically enhanced superhumans whose leader, Black Bolt can cause untold destruction with a whisper), not to mention the Watcher, Prester John, the Red Ghost and his Super Apes, the Kree, Blastaar etc etc. There was creativity overflowing from each issue. To make an uninspired, bland, run of the mill, bog standard Hollywood super-hero romp from all this genius is nothing short of a travesty!

So if a new Fantastic Four film is made I sincerely hope they put some serious thought into it. It should be like nothing we've ever seen on the big screen before. I'd be quite happy if Chiklis and Evans stayed, but Gruffudd, Alba and McMahon must go! In fact I think I know of one actor who would be an absolutely perfect Mr Fantastic.....

Jon Hamm as Reed Richards

The Letters Page Returns!

2011-01-20T04:24:00.000Z

DC Comics are bringing back their Letters Page! Great news as far as I'm concerned. I've always seen the Letters Page as a sort of fanboy time capsule at the back of every comic, freezing the views, gripes and speculation of fans for future generations to peruse. Maybe it's just me, but there's something fascinating about reading letters from '90s fans vowing never to read another Batman comic until Azrael is out of the Bat-costume, or '70s fans complaining because Hawkgirl isn't a member of the Justice League. These were the message boards of long ago and they'll never be deleted!

Also, if you're really lucky, you'll find an old issue with a letter from a fan who will later go on to become a comics professional. Geoff Johns famously wrote into the '90s Superboy series suggesting that Kon-El should be a clone of Lex Luthor and Superman. He would go on to make this happen a decade later in the pages of Teen Titans. Recently I stumbled across a letter in the back of DC Comics Presents #40 from a young fan who would go on to make his mark in the industry.

Who knows, maybe it was the Air-Wave back up story in that very issue that inspired Todd McFarlane's most famous creation?

Probably not though.

But I have another reason for celebrating the return of the Letters Page to DC Comics. As a child I always wanted to get my letter published in a DC Comic. Sadly I never got a single letter published and my nine year old self's complaints about the decision to change Robin's costume went unshared with the rest of the world. Now I have a second chance! I've already written to Supergirl and I plan on bothering the DC Offices with more of my half-baked opinions. Maybe someday soon I will join the ranks of Geoff Johns and Todd McFarlane and get my letter printed in a DC Comic!

Top Ten Best Comic Books of 2000-2009

2011-01-08T18:39:00.009Z

I recently decided that, since 2010 was over, it would be a great time to compile a list of my favourite comics of the past decade. I was about halfway through the list when I realised that technically the decade spanned from 2000 to 2009 and so last year would have been a much better time to present such a list. Oh well, here it is anyway.

Before you proceed please take into account that while I love the entire medium of comics, superheroes are my favourite genre. Within that genre DC and Marvel are my companies of choice. In short, I'm what's wrong with comics today.

One thing that cheered me up while compiling the list was how much I had to choose from. 2000-2009 had it's stinkers that's for sure, but even within the sphere of mainstream, DC/Marvel superhero stuff there's plenty of fantastic work. Comics that narrowly avoided making the list included Ultimates Vol: 1-2, Grant Morrison's New X-Men, Ultimate Spider-Man, Dan Jurgens' Aquaman, Civil War, New Avengers, DC: New Frontier, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis and Kick-Ass As good as they all were however, they didn't make the final cut. So without further ado let's check out my own personal Top Ten favourite comics of 2000-2009!

10) Mark Waid's Fantastic Four, 2002-2005

The FF are at their best when they're venturing forth into unexplored territory, purely for the thrill of discovery and being the first. After all, the whole reason they gained their powers was because of their rush to ''beat the commies'' into space. During Mark Waid's run the FF were re-established as 'Imaginauts', adventurers and explorers of the unknown. Over the course of his time on the book, Waid had the team battling mathematics, swapping powers, taking over Latveria and rescuing their loved ones from the afterlife. That last one was my favourite aspect of the run, the idea that for the FF the afterlife is just another unexplored frontier. Another highlight was the reinvention of Doctor Doom from a technology based hero to a leather clad sorcerer and Reed Richards' fear as he realised he was out of his depth against the forces of magic. Along with the late, great artist Mike Wieringo, Waid created not only some of the best Fantastic Four stories ever but also some of the most enjoyable comics ever made.

Best Moment: The FF meet God, and he's Jack Kirby!

Where to read it all:

Fantastic Four, Vol. 1: Imaginauts
Fantastic Four, Vol. 2: Unthinkable
Fantastic Four, Vol. 3: Authoritative Action
Fantastic Four, Vol. 4: Hereafter
Fantastic Four, Vol. 5: Disassembled
Fantastic Four, Vol. 6: Rising Storm

9) Dan Slott's She-Hulk, 2004-2007

When Stan Lee created Jennifer Walters A.K.A She-Hulk in 1980 she wasn't exactly the greatest character in the Marvel Universe. There's nothing wrong with those early stories, but there's nothing great about them either. She-Hulk is portrayed as a bit more intelligent than her male counterpart but is otherwise the same tragic, savage, hunted figure. A few years later John Byrne got hold of the character, first as a member of the Fantastic Four and then in her own solo series. Byrne had She-Hulk break the Fourth Wall and talk to the reader. Personally I found that this approach came across as a bit smug and irritating. Also, John Byrne being John Byrne, he ensured that She-Hulk was tied up or stripped down to her undies at every given opportunity. One issue saw the character skipping naked for the first couple of pages while the 1985 She-Hulk graphic novel sees Byrne's lecherousness practically dripping off every page. Frankly it's a bit embarrasing. But to Byrne's credit he did establish one important aspect of the character that distinguished her from her cousin and probably ensured the character's appeal and sustainability. She likes being She-Hulk. It's not a curse for her it's a gift.

This was the She-Hulk that Dan Slott inherited in 2004 and he worked absolute wonders with the character. Slott made her a sort of Marvel Universe version of Ally McBeal. She-Hulk worked at a law firm and had a cast of kooky supporting characters, love interests and rivals. Except She-Hulk's law firm defended super-heroes and super-villains and formed legal defenses based on issues of Marvel Comics. In She-Hulk Slott took advantage of some of the absurdities of life in the Marvel Universe and gave us such great concepts as a ghost taking the stand as a witness to his own murder, an unbiased jury gathered from the recent past, Hercules getting sued for excessive force by the Constrictor and Peter Parker getting sued for libel by his own webbed alter-ego. At one point She-Hulk gets promoted to the role of circuit judge for a sector of space that still uses a form of trial by combat as their legislative principle. But there's more to She-Hulk than soap opera and sci-fi. Slott takes the idea established by Byrne that Jennifer Walters prefers being She-Hulk and expands on it, exploring Jennifer's insecurities and hidden depths and asking why exactly a woman would want to hide behind a glamorous, green persona.

Best Moment: She-Hulk is put on trial by the the Time Variance Authority with her existence at stake.

Where to read it all:

She-Hulk, Vol 1: Single Green Female
She-Hulk, Vol 2: Superhuman Law
She-Hulk, Vol 3: Time Trials
She-Hulk, Vol 4: Laws of Attraction
She-Hulk, Vol 5: Planet Without a Hulk

8) J. Michael Straczynski's Amazing Spider-Man, 2001-2007

Many people's recollections of Straczynski's run on Amazing Spider-Man are dominated by two stories, Sins Past and One More Day. Both stories have their problems to say the least but it's a shame to let them detract from six and a half years that had some great Spidey tales. Right from the start JMS showed us he was taking the character to interesting places by introducing Spidey to Ezekiel, a millionaire with spider powers who suggested that the roots of their powers were mystical rather than scientific. True to his nature, Spidey rejected the mystical explanation but seeing him out of his comfort zone amongst all the magical mumbo-jumbo was fun. Ezekiel was a fantastic character. He gave us a glimpse of what a man with spider powers might do without Peter Parker's drive or morals. Bugger all! He meant to use them for good but put it off so much that in the end it was too late. Ezekiel reminded us just what makes Peter Parker so special and for me this was the best thing about JMS' run.

There are other highlights too. Pete and MJ's relationship is written very well and the issue were Pete travels to Hollywood to win her back is great. JMS also gives us the best version of Aunt May ever depicted since she first appeared. May finds out Peter's secret early on in the run and while she is hurt and angry that Peter has lied to her all these years she's still determined to support her nephew in any way she can. In one issue she's shown writing letters of complaint to every newspaper giving negative coverage of Spider-Man.

Sure, it all started running out of steam a bit towards the end. I've haven't got much of a problem with the idea of Norman Osborn having seduced Gwen Stacy but did we really have to see Norm's leering, sweaty sex face? Also, while I quite like One More Day and don't believe it's the travesty it's generally depicted to be, it's still a very flawed story. The Other would have been a much better story if they'd stuck with one writer/artist team instead of dividing it over all the Spidey books. But looking at the run as a whole there's so many good bits that I find it easy to forgive its dodgier aspects.

Best Moment: In JMS' first story Peter Parker defeats mysterious, mystical super-baddie Morlun by PUNCHING HIM IN THE FACE WITH SCIENCE!

Where to read it all:

Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 1: Coming Home
Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 2: Revelations
Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 3: Until The Stars Turn Cold
Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 4: The Life & Death of Spiders
Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 5: Unintended Consequences
Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 6: Happy Birthday
Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 7: The Book of Ezekiel
Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 8: Sins Past
Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 9: Skin Deep
Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 10: New Avengers
Spider-Man: The Other
Civil War: The Road To Civil War
Civil War: Amazing Spider-Man
Amazing Spider-Man: Back in Black
Amazing Spider-Man: One More Day:

7) 52, 2006-2007

In 2006 DC Comics did something that has never, to my knowledge, been done with mainstream American comics before. They let their best writers, Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, Mark Waid and Greg Rucka loose on a 52 part weekly maxi-series that would chronicle a year in the life of the DC Universe. Each issue detailed an actual week chronicling the events that took place during the missing year after the end of Infinite Crisis. For a whole year we got the best DC had to offer giving us a glimpse of the lesser seen parts of the DC Universe. We saw Black Adam getting shown a brief glimpse of redemption and happiness before having it cruelly snatched away. We saw Will Magnus getting forced to work for Egg-Fu on an island full of mad scientists. We saw Steel coping with new powers as he took on Lex Luthor in a world without Superman. We saw Animal Man, Adam Strange and Starfire trekking across the Universe on a long journey back to Earth. Best of all we saw Booster Gold seemingly living down to expectations before finally fulfilling his potential and saving everyone from a giant, cosmic butterfly. At the end of it all we were left with a new multiverse brimming with glorious story potential. In short, we saw one year of pure awesome.

The most amusing thing about 52 was the fact that DC Comics obviously intended for the series to connect the dots between the end of Infinite Crisis and the new status quo established in each DC titles' One Year Later issues. During this missing year many things were supposed to have occured. For example, Commissioner Gordon got his job back, Aquaman got turned into squid-thing and the Teen Titans got a bunch of new members. However Morrison, Johns, Rucka and Waid clearly weren't interested in having their creativity directed down these paths and pretty much ignored One Year Later and did their own thing. And quite right too, 52 was better for it. As a result a mini series called World War Three was tacked on towards the end that explained all the changes ignored by 52 in one go. Anyone reading 52 purely for explanations of the new status quo might as well just have waited for World War Three. Anyone reading 52 for an original, epic and extremely fun story were richly rewarded.

Best Moment: Will Magnus escaping from Oolong Island and taking on Egg-Fu armed with mini Metal Men.

Where to read it all:

52, Volumes 1-4
DC: World War Three

6) Geoff Johns' The Flash, 2000-2005

When Mark Waid stopped writing The Flash I was gutted. Waid had spent the '90s taking Wally West from a selfish former sidekick stuck in the shadow of his late mentor to a hero in his own right who both continued and surpassed the legacy of the previous Flash. As far as I was concerned no one could write Wally as well as Waid. And who the hell was this Geoff Johns guy anyway? My biggest concern was that Waid had taken Wally on such a perfect journey of growth and maturity that there was very little else to be said about the character. And in a way I was right, because Johns, perhaps realising that Waid had spent a lot of time in Wally's head, decided to concentrate on fleshing out Flash's enemies, the much maligned Rogues. Under Johns Captain Cold, Mirror Master and the rest went from B-list villains to a compelling, tragic bunch of baddies, with intriguing back stories and a complex set of ethics that made them unique among villains. Johns didn't just rely on established Rouges however, he also created his own. The best of these was Wally's very own Reverse-Flash, Zoom. Now Wally's predecessor, Barry Allen, has returned from the dead. It's a shame Wally's taken a back seat, but as I've said before, I feel it's Barry's time again. And this time I couldn't be happier that Johns is writing it.

Best Moment: Supporting cast member and ally of The Flash, Hunter Zolomon, (present since the start of Johns' run) goes all evil and becomes Zoom.

Where to read it all:

The Flash, Wonderland
The Flash, Blood Will Run
The Flash, Rogues
The Flash, Crossfire
The Flash, Blitz
The Flash, Ignition
The Flash, The Secret of Barry Allen
The Flash, Rogue War

5) Geoff Johns' Green Lantern, 2004-ongoing

DC Comics had spent ten years trying to convince us that Hal Jordan, Green Lantern, was a murdering nutjob and we just weren't buying it. Not only was Hal responsible for the destruction of the Green Lantern Corps but in Zero Hour he'd tried to rewrite the Universe, and by now he was dead and bonded to the The Spectre, dishing out God's wrath to everyone. To say he'd come a bit far from his roots was an understatement. Don't get me wrong, there were some great stories during this period and Hal's replacement, Kyle Rayner, was a great character. But this just wasn't Hal. Redeeming Hal and returning him to his role as Green Lantern seemed an impossible task but with Green Lantern: Rebirth, Geoff Johns made it seem easy.

Rebirth was just the start. Pretty soon Johns surprised everybody with The Sinestro Corps War, a crossover between Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps that saw the formation of an evil yellow ringed Corps based around fear rather than will power. It also saw the return of Parallax, the Anti-Monitor and Superboy-Prime and introduced concepts and plot threads that would enrich the mythology of the entire DC Universe, resulting in last year's highly enjoyable Blackest Night.

So not only did Johns bring Hal back in a credible and enjoyable way but he returned the mythology of the Green Lantern Corps to prominence in the DC Universe while expanding upon it. He made Green Lantern into one of DC's top franchises, leading to this year's Green Lantern movie (which looks awsome). Best of all, rather than kill off or retire Kyle Rayner or either of Earth's other GLs, John Stewart and Guy Gardner, he made them and Hal into a sort of a sci-fi version of the Four Musketeers. It just goes to show that there's nothing terrible a comic company can do to a character that can't be undone by a good writer.

Best Moment: The Sinestro Corps War was almost gonna be my pick for best moment, but nothing beats the bit in Green Lantern: Rebirth where Hal returns from the dead with "no more fear. But plenty of damn will!"

Where to read it all:

Green Lantern, Rebirth
Green Lantern, No Fear
Green Lantern, Revenge of the Green Lanterns
Green Lantern, Wanted Hal Jordan
Green Lantern, The Sinestro Corps War Vol. 1
Green Lantern, The Sinestro Corps War Vol. 2
Green Lantern, Secret Origin
Green Lantern, Rage of the Red Lanterns
Green Lantern, Agent Orange
Blackest Night, Green Lantern
Blackest Night

4) Grant Morrison's Batman, 2006-ongoing

When Grant Morrison began his run on Batman he stated that he wanted to return the character to his '70s status of "hairy chested love god". That was the least of what Morrison acheived. Morrison has breathed new life into the Bat-Books. Since 2006 he has completely rearranged the status quo, introduced new characters, created new ways of looking at old characters, merged over seventy years of continuity into one long narrative and yet still managed to keep everything recognisable and iconic.

Morrison set the tone of his run right from the start with a story that featured Ninja Man-Bats and introduced Damien Wayne, the son of Batman. Damien is a ten year old who has been raised by assassins. He is initially arrogant and petulant and has no qualms about chopping off a head or two in order to try and impress his dad. Over the past few years it's been a joy to see Damien mature from an arrogant little psycho into a Boy Wonder who, while still arrogant, is eager to respect and live up to his father's legacy. His relathionship with his new mentor Dick Grayson, is particularly touching. Damien has become Robin to Dick's Batman and while Damien is forver critical of Grayson, he has obvious respect and affection for his older brother. This is in stark contrast to Damien's relationship with his other brother Tim Drake, with whom he has a bitter, and amusing rivalry.

As well as creating Damien, Morrison has brought Dick Grayson into the role of Batman, cleverly emphasising his circus roots and showmanship in order to distinguish him from Bruce Wayne's Batman. Morrison has also continued his reinvention of the Joker, a process that began in 1989 with Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. Under Morrison, the Joker posseses a form of super-sanity that leaves him constantly reinventing his personality. One day he may be a mischievous clown the next he could be a cold hearted killer. But it is Bruce Wayne who is the star of Morrison's run. Morrison's Wayne describes himself as "alpha-male plus", he is a man who has pushed himself to the very pinnacle of human perfection. He is a man so prepared that he programmed a back-up personality into his own brain as a defence against psychological attacks. Morrison has taken Wayne on a journey that has seen him take on new villain Dr. Hurt, The Joker, Darkseid and history itself.

The best thing about Morrison's run is that each individual issue contains enough cool moments to satisfy on the first read, but truly understanding the plot requires multiple readings, meaning you get your money's worth with each story.

Best Moment: It's almost impossible to pick one but I'm going to go with Batman: RIP, the story where Bruce Wayne survives being driven insane and buried alive in order to bring down Dr Hurt and his organisation, the Black Glove.

Where to read it all:

Batman, Batman and Son
Batman, The Black Glove
Batman, RIP
Final Crisis
Batman and Robin, Batman Reborn
Batman and Robin, Batman vs. Robin
Batman and Robin, The Return of Batman
Batman, The Return of Bruce Wayne

3) Superman and the Legion of Superheroes, 2007-2008

Geoff Johns and Gary Frank have produced some of the best Superman stories of the past decade. This is one of them. Superman goes back to the 31st Century to reunite his old teenage gang, the Legion of Superheroes, and battle super-powered, alien-hating human supremacists. Since the early '90s the Legion have been through reboot after reboot. This story ignores the reboots and draws on decades of continuity to return the Legion to their roots. Despite this it stands alone as a brilliant story in its own right. The getting-the-band-back-together plot and the array of colourful characters would make this the perfect basis for the next Superman movie, but let's face it, that's not gonna happen.

Johns tells you everything you need to know about the Legion and everything you need to know about each Legionnaire through their dialogue and actions rather than relying on monologues and flashbacks. You're in no doubt about each character's personality or role in the team within a few panels of meeting them. Read this story and I guarantee you will love the Legion of Superheroes! The best thing about the tale however, is that Superman is without his powers for most of it but you hardly notice because he's so damn hard.

Best Moment: This story is littered with moments so cool that I literally punched the air with joy while reading them. If I had to pick one it would be when a powerless Superman pushes the main baddy, Earth Man through the window of a space station in order to battle him while plummeting through the atmosphere. Balls of Steel.

2) Superman: Red Son, 2003

This is the story of what would have happened if Superman's rocket landed in Soviet Russia and Superman became "the Champion of the common worker who fights a never-ending battle for Stalin, socialism, and the international expansion of the Warsaw Pact." It's written by Mark Millar, a brilliant writer who has written depressingly little in the way of Superman stories considering he obviously loves and understands the character so much. Superman has always walked a fine line between helpful super-powered pal and scary alien invader, hell-bent on imposing his will on the world. In Red Son, he crosses that line. Despite this Superman is never depicted as an evil power mad Commie. Throughout the whole book he's driven by the same desire to help and make the world a better place that drives the regular Superman. This story shows us what would happen if Superman, removed of the American value for individual freedom, took that desire to it's extreme. This is also one of the best Lex Luthor stories ever. Luthor is the Western world's only hope but, like regular Luthor, he is driven by the same petty obsession to rid the world of the one man who could be perceived as superior to him. It also features Russian Batman in an adorable little Bat-eared deer-stalker hat.

Best Moment: Luthor shows Superman who's boss with just a sentence written on a scrap of paper.

1) All Star Superman, 2005-2008

This is it. The best comicbook story of the last decade and the ultimate Superman story. It's written by Grant Morrison and it features everything that's good about Superman, and I mean EVERYTHING! Clark, Lois, Jimmy, Perry, Krypto, Luthor, Ma & Pa Kent, The Daily Planet, the Fortress of Solitude, Krypton, Metropolis, every aspect of the Superman myth is taken to it's next logical extreme and injected with an extra dose of Grant Morrison awesomeness.

One of the most successful ways to depict Superman has always been as a sort of 20th/21st Century legend, Western Civilisation's very own equivalent to the Norse or Greek Myths. Richard Donner did it with his Superman movie, and now Morrison has done it with All Star Superman. The tale begins with Superman realising he's dying. He then has to go forth and perform a list of legendary super-feats before he pops his clogs. Along the way he reveals his secret identity to Lois (who refuses to believe him), meets future members of the Superman dynasty, escapes from Bizarro World with the help of Zibarro the Bizarro Bizarro, helps the coolest version of Jimmy Olsen since the days of Kirby and of course, fights Lex Luthor.

Luthor is absolutely perfect, a super genius utterly consumed by hate, just as he should be. In many ways Luthor has always represented Superman's greatest failiure. Superman's mission is to inspire good in the people of the world, and yet it has always seemed he's inspired nothing but hatred and evil in Luthor. Morrison addresses this in a very original way, through the character of Leo Quintum. Quintum represents everything Luthor could be and, according to some interpretations, may actually be a redeemed future version of Luthor. There's very little else I can say about All Star Superman except of course READ IT!

Best Moment: There's an unforgettable moment on every page. If I had to choose the best one, it's a toss up between Superman's final super-feat and the moment Luthor reveals he shares his prison cell with an ape in a Superman costume called Leopold.

Where to read it all:

All Star Superman, Volume 1
All Star Superman, Volume 2

or if you fancy splashing out,

Absolute All Star Superman

So, there it is? What do you think? Am I crazy? Any of your own favourites left out? Let me know.

Really Rob Liefeld? You really wanna go there?

2011-01-04T22:22:00.001Z

I'm usually against slagging off comics professionals on the internet. Firstly there's far too much undeserved negativity and bile directed towards these people and they don't need me adding to it. Secondly the worst comic writer/artist out there is at least a thousand times more talented than me. Not only that but everyone of them has actually got up off their arses and worked their way into the industry, which is no mean feat. While I'm entitled to express my opinion on their creative output they all still deserve my respect.

But then I see stuff like this on Rob Liefeld's Twitter feed....

Hey if you are @BizarroStanLee does that mean you're the talented version of Stan??

Hopefully the Ghost of Jack Kirby will show up today and kick Stan's sorry ass as he gets his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Really? Really? Rob Liefeld really wants to publicly have a go at Stan Lee!? Really?!

Just to remind you all, Stan Lee is the guy who co-created most of the Marvel Universe and, along with other legends such as Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby, changed the face of mainstream superhero comics for all time. Rob Liefeld is the guy who helped set the brief '90s trend for over-muscled, multi-pouched superheroes with big guns. He famously can't draw feet. He drew this...

So just so we're all clear, the man who helped create this...

is being criticised by the man who did this...

That's this....

...versus this...

I'm being unfair. Rob Liefeld has had a massive impact on the comics industry. He's a self-taught artist who worked his way up to the top of his field. He co-founded Image Comics. He co-created Deadpool. He's done more with his life than I ever will to say the least.

But he can't draw feet. And Stan Lee is STAN LEE!

This isn't the first time Liefeld has had a go at someone by whom he's ridiculously outclassed. In the past he's thrown stones out of his glass house in the direction of Alan Moore. Check it out here. Fellow blogger Duy Tano has published a highly amusing rebuttal to this interview on his Comics Cube.

I feel guilty taking these cheap shots at Liefeld. Like I said, there's enough bile on the internet directed towards comic pros. But really? Rob Liefeld? Taking shots at Stan Lee? Really? Stan Lee?

Really?

Doctor Who Vs. Batman

2011-01-01T16:54:00.005Z

This film will never happen (least of all because one of its stars is sadly no longer with us) but I think I can safely say it would be the greatest movie of all time!

Alan Moore's Miracleman - I want it!!!

2010-12-30T22:07:00.004Z

Recently I was fortunate enough to be lent a disc containing the entire '80s run of Alan Moore's Miracleman. I don't usually like to read pirated digital copies. After all, no matter how much you dress it up, it's stealing. But for years the rights to this character have been famously wrapped up in a gigantic legal mess involving Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane. The original comics and trade paperbacks are out of print and incredibly rare and valuable. I had to grab the chance to read it. I hope you'll forgive me.

Art by Garry Leach

Miracleman was originally Marvelman, a 1950s British knock-off of Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel's comics had been cancelled in the States but the British reprints were selling really well. As a result a writer/artist named Mick Anglo was hired to create a character who was close enough to Captain Marvel to retain his readership in Britain. Cap became Marvelman, Captain Marvel Jr. became Young Marvelman and Mary Marvel became Kid Marvelman. Their adventures continued until 1963, but in 1981 Alan Moore brought them back. It wasn't long before Marvel Comics objected to the rather familiar sounding name, and so Marvelman became Miracleman and the rest is history.

The series is truly ground-breaking. Before Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Dark Knight Returns and Squadron Supreme were to deconstruct the superhero myth, Moore had done it first with Miracleman. As with Watchmen, Moore places a superhero with god-like powers in a 'real world' context and over the course of 16 issues, follows that scenario to a logical, and terrifying, conclusion. And it's brilliant. Really, really brilliant. The series has been hyped so much over the years and it's themes duplicated and expanded upon so much that you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's lost it's impact. Not a chance. It really is one of the most powerful and affecting series I've ever read. I hate reading comics on a computer screen but I could not tear my eyes away from the screen. I read it a few days ago and scenes and dialogue from the series are still clinging to me. I'm not going to go into detail on any of these scenes, partly because they've been discussed in so many other places on the internet but mainly because if you haven't read it you deserve the chance to go in as fresh as possible. All I'll say is, issue #15 is the most expensive individual issue of the series on Ebay and is probably the most discussed issue of the series too. This is not without good reason. It's probably one of the most disturbing, affecting and powerful comics I've ever read.

After #16 Neil Gaiman took over until issue #24 when the series was cancelled half way through his story arc. Gaiman's issues are a very interesting read. There's plenty of evidence of the amazing imagination that made Sandman so great and they're undoubtedly very well written stories. But they're ultimately a bit pointless. Moore gave the series such a definite ending with issue #16 that there's nothing else to really say and Gaiman's just sort of playing around in Moore's sandbox, albeit in an intriguing way.

Marvel Comics have recently won the rights to the character and have been reprinting the old Mick Anglo strips. As for the status of the Moore/Gaiman stuff, I have no idea. All I know is, the second this series is reprinted in a new form that won't require hours of Ebay hunting and hundreds of pounds of my much needed cash, then I'll be there to buy it. And I urge you to buy it as soon as it's possible to do so. It really is as good as you've heard!

A Fantastic Four Christmas

2010-12-29T18:21:00.005Z

I've had a great Christmas involving much comic book goodness. I've received all eight volumes of Essential Fantastic Four from various loved ones and I'm currently engaged in the extremely enjoyable task of reading almost twenty years of Fantastic Four comics back to back. So far I've been struck by how much of an arsehole Ben Grimm is in these early stories. He's generally portrayed as a loveable grouch these days but in those early Stan Lee/Jack Kirby tales the rest of the FF are treading around on eggshells for fear of setting him off on a super-powered temper tantrum. It's also amusing to see how much Stan and Jack seemed to enjoy putting Grimm through the emotional wringer. Every issue Grimm will randomly regain human form, only to turn back to the Thing after a few seconds, much to his crushing disappointment. Lee and Kirby really were little stinkers!

Fantastic Four #8 by Jack Kirby

Still, it's all great stuff, and it's really got me interested in all things FF related. I've been debating whether to get the ongoing for a while since I've been hearing great things about Jonathan Hickman's writing. I'm already a fan of Steve Epting, thanks to his brilliant and much underrated Aquaman run with Dan Jurgens. I've been a bit put off by this 3 storyline they're currently engaged in, which is supposedly going to involve the death of a Fantastic Four member. To be fair, the story may be brilliant for all I know, but FF members have been 'dead' before and it seems to me this story just means a character I really like will be absent for a while until they eventually get resurrected. Having said that both Batman and Captain America's recent 'deaths' resulted in some really interesting stories so I may be wrong. I think I'll end up waiting it out and maybe get the trades. After all, it's not as if I'm short of FF stories to read at the moment.

On a bit of a side note, while Googling for Fantastic Four stuff recently I came across the cover of Fantastic Four #375 (1993).

This cover embodies everything that was ridiculous about '90s superhero comics, to the point where I wonder if it was a deliberate parody on Marvel's part. Sadly I don't think it was. Note the presence of absurdly large guns, a skimpy uniform for the Invisible Woman, pointless jackets with multiple Rob Liefeld style pouches (even for the Human Torch ?!?!) and a hideous hologram foil background. Note also the hilarious "This is not your parents' comic magazine" tagline, which makes Marvel come across like an embarrassing Dad trying to look 'hip' in front of his kid's friends. I was going to let Thing's weird helmet pass, because believe it or not it was actually part of his original costume from Fantastic Four #3. But it was abandoned in that very issue and he's only wearing it here 'cos Wolverine slashed his face up. Why does the Thing care that his face is scarred, it's not as if he was winning beauty contests before Wolverine injured him?

Fantastic Four #3 by Jack Kirby

On the other hand, I own Nobody Gets Out Alive a trade paperback of a story from Fantastic Four #387-392 which occurs not long after the above cover saw print. It's actually one of my favourite FF stories. It includes a team in disarray having to battle a mysterious opponent who's travelling through alternate dimensions murdering different versions of Reed Richards. It's really entertaining stuff, it features an alternate take on the FF's first battle with Galactus, the hatching of Johnny Storm's Skrull egg and a character called Raphael Suarez who gains the power of the 'Lazerfist' and then is never, ever mentioned again. It's also worth mentioning that the artist on Nobody Gets Out Alive and FF #375 is Paul Ryan, who's really good and not your typical '90s artist at all.

So, despite the cover, FF #375 might not be that bad for all I know, but it's still an amusing example of '90s comic book excess, and almost certainly not a patch on the wonderful Lee and Kirby stuff that I'm currently having the pleasure of immersing myself in.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T10:23:00.000Z

Thanks for reading my blog this year. Hope you're all having a fantastic Christmas!

Last of the Famous International Fanboys

Before Watchmen: My Tuppence Worth

Is the Nu52 Superman Costume Any Good?

Comic Fans! Stop Being Dicks!

Movie Spider-Man Vs. Comic Book Spider-Man

The Dark Knight Rises: Some Plot Speculation (POSSIBLE SPOILERS)

Merry Christmas!

Top Ten Alternate Versions of Reed Richards That Aren't in the Council of Reeds

How I Learned to Love The Amazing Spider-Man

DCNu Superman and the Legacy of Christopher Reeve

My Thoughts on DC Comics' New 52

DC Comics' New 52: Paul Predicts!

Legion of Super-Heroes: A Brief Guide for New Readers

How Wonder Woman Should Have Been Rebooted

Action Comics #1: My Review (SPOILERS)

Justice League #1, it could have been worse!

Why I love John Byrne's Superman: Man of Steel

Why I think Barry Allen is Awesome

Alan Moore vs. Grant Morrison

Jim Shooter and the DC/Marvel Crossovers

How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Superman Relaunch

Legion of Super-Heroes vs. X-Men

The Guardian exposes scandal at the Daily Planet!

San Diego Comic Con 2011, DC Original Characters Protest Walk: WHAT A SHOWER OF GITS!

Top Ten Best Superman Stories Ever!

Paul's Pick of the DC Comics Relaunch

George Perez on Superman!

DC Comics Relaunch: My tuppence worth

Paul's Predictions for a Post-Flashpoint Universe

Paul Does Comedy

Green Lantern: The 1960's Movie

Brightest Day: My Tuppence Worth

Moaning about Action Comics #900

Elisabeth Sladen

Superman: Chris Roberson's Grounded - My Tuppence Worth

Geoff Johns is writing Aquaman!!!!!!

Superman: J. Michael Straczynski's Grounded - My Tuppence Worth

The crappy, crappy Fantastic Four Movies

The Letters Page Returns!

Top Ten Best Comic Books of 2000-2009

Really Rob Liefeld? You really wanna go there?

Doctor Who Vs. Batman

Alan Moore's Miracleman - I want it!!!

A Fantastic Four Christmas

Merry Christmas!