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HARBINGER: RENEGADE #1
THANOS #1
CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE #2
BLACK HAMMER #5
REBORN #2
VAMPIRE HUNTER D: MESSAGE FROM MARS #1
Raiders of the Long Box: JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL vs. SUICIDE SQUAD!
Opinions Are Like @$$holes: WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO CREATIVITY?
HARBINGER: RENEGADE #1
Writer: Rafer RobertsArtists: Darick Robertson with Juan Jose Ryp and Raul Allen
Publisher: Valiant Entertainment
Reviewer: Masked Man
Dude, I'm getting the band back together! That's an apt description of the return of Valiant's Renegades. Last time we saw the Renegades they pulled an AVENGERS: THE AGE OF ULTRON ending (movie that is). The team broke up and released all the bad guys’ files on potential metahumans, or rather 'psiots', in the Valiant U. And if that doesn't sound like a good idea, you'd be right, as that decision is biting them in the @$$--although it's the poor potential psiots who are cashing the check.
The man behind the rather silly adventures of Archer and Armstrong in A&A: THE ADVENTURES OF ARCHER & ARMSTRONG, Rafer Roberts, is getting a more serious gig here with HARBINGER RENEGADE. Joining in, for his first Valiant appearance (I believe), is Darick Robertson, a man with a long history, best known for TRANSMETROPOLITAN and THE BOYS.
Right off the bat, as we get into the spoilers, Robert does a great job of getting us all up to speed on who Renegade is and what they did. Mainly they're a ragtag team of psiots who fought Toyo Harada, a global industrialist, powerful psiot, and would-be world broker. Putting an end to his plan, they also released all his Prof. X-like records on psiots. This has allowed the NSA to get into these people's lives and, perhaps worst, a group of screwed-up well-meaning kids calling themselves The Consortium getting into their lives as well. As potential psiots have to go through a dangerous activation process, The Consortium so far has done nothing but kill them--next time it will work, they swear. So Renegade hacker AX and flyer Zephyr (aka Faith) are trying to do something about protecting these people. Meanwhile, strongman Torque and non-powered Kris want nothing to do with putting the band back together. Floating around Saturn like the 'space baby', team leader Sting gets the message that the team needs him, and based on the flashbacks, I suspect Toyo will be causing trouble as well.
Overall, this is a really nice kick-off to the next chapter of RENEGADE. Roberts does a great job weaving in different characters and keeping all the personalities different and straight. For his part, Robertson does a good job, as always, illustrating the story. The intro tales illustrated by Juan Jose Ryp and Raul Allen all look good as well. Unlike some other smaller publishers, Valiant always seem to get good artists, although I don't understand the obsession Valiant seems to have with graphic violence. Every one of their issues always seems to have something 'gross' or 'wicked', depending upon your age. This issue gets you a scene from the movie SCANNERS.
As always, if you are tired of the big two, giving Valiant a try would be a smart move, and HARBINGER RENEGADE should be able to prove it to you. I am curious what the 'space baby' will do now.
THANOS #1
Writer: Jeff LemireArtist: Mike Deodato
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: Humphrey Lee
One of the most unenviable tasks I think a writer in the comic book industry could undertake is committing to writing a protagonist story about one of the medium’s most dedicated antagonists. Sometimes when they happen it’s just a miniseries that kind of gives you their mindset from an origin tale or what have you, and that works out okay. They humanize a character in a way that shows you the tragedy of their vileness or gives you a different perspective on their amoral ways. One of the best examples of this, I feel, was Ed Brubaker’s DOOM miniseries from about a decade ago that built up Victor Von Doom from his youth up to show how such a innocent child with a special mind could grow into such a despot with his own perspective on what that word means. And sometimes these villains have a unique and humanizing background and a code that makes them sustainable in an ongoing way, like Christopher Priest is currently exploring with DEATHSTROKE over at DC through his awful relationships and past with his children. And then other times you get some crazy bastards who decide they want to revolve their tale around a character who defines “supervillain” to the point where he once killed half the universe with a wave of his hand…
The Mad Titan Thanos is one of those villainous characters who seems to have gained fan favorite status simply by being the complete badass that he represents himself as being. He is easily one of the most vicious and ruthless characters in the history of comic books – shit, he’s standing over a pile of skulls just in the cover to this particular comic – and yet most comics fans fawn over the lined-chinned one because he’s always willing to go toe-to-toe with the strongest out there and has no doubt he will put them down. And that’s really the central conceit here that writer Jeff Lemire is playing with: that Thanos is just that big of a badass, and the universe should be fucking terrified that he has apparently decided everyone should know it again by going back to take back his seat of power, but (and here’s a spoiler warning for the end of the issue, if you didn’t already know) his mortality is also now in play.
Now, mainly this book is about Thanos being a mean motherfucker, as if that needs reiterated. About a quarter of the pages in this book are dedicated to gloriously detailed Mike Deodato pencils wading through uber tech-adorned foot soldiers like he’s the police with water and mace cannons and they were just so many peaceful protestors just trying to save their water source (too soon?). Basically, Thanos is woke AF and he wants the universe to know it again and in the most brutal of fashions, given how Lemire depicts the Mad Titan taking his throne back from head of the Black Order and former servant Corvus Glaive. It’s that kind of sheer presence and menace that you feel shouldn’t carry a figure to such popularity, but somehow it does. Whatever it is that makes a character like this a draw, Lemire and Deodato have a full grasp on it, with the added hook at the end to get you invested in the survival of a character that people should be hoping for an end to given how much havoc he has wreaked over the years.
Aside from the main focus on the big purple one’s quest to regain his seat of power and his new, non-romantic dalliance with death, Lemire and Deodato are bringing all the right players in and crafting the ultimate Thanos tale. They have already corralled in his brother Starfox and also his son Thane, who will each have their own stakes and roles to play in the coming, numbered days of the purple one. And, of course, that becomes interesting because that can make for a lot of wriggle room in just what tone this story ends up taking for the Mad Titan. Obviously, he’s not just going to sit back and let death come for him, much as he has longed for her in the past, but does this become a kind of personal, familial tale as Thanos fights his mortality, or is this a revenge saga of sorts as people who do have emotional ties to the would-be universal despot seek to put the final dagger in the violet scourge of all that is living? Either way, Lemire and Deodato have already cultivated a high level of interest and trust from me in seeing where this story will follow Marvel’s biggest menace. Just from a storytelling level, being able to give me an inkling of investment into Thanos’ potential demise beyond it being just desserts for a character that has done so much damage is a win. That there may be layers beyond that, whether it be in the family arena or just seeing how deep down the rabbit hole someone as ruthless as Thanos is willing to go to persevere, this comic, between the writing and art, has already got me on the hook for cheerleading a character we should be reviling, and that speaks volumes. The Marvel Universe should be terrified.
Humphrey Lee has been an avid comic book reader going on fifteen years now and a contributor to Ain't It Cool comics for quite a few as well. In fact, reading comics is about all he does in his free time and where all the money from his day job wages goes to - funding his comic book habit so he can talk about them to you, our loyal readers (lucky you). He's a bit of a social networking whore, so you can find him all over the Interwebs on sites like Twitter, The MySpaces, Facebookand a blog where he also mostly talks about comics with his free time because he hasn't the slightest semblance of a life. Sad but true, and he gladly encourages you to add, read, and comment as you will.
You can pick up this comic at TFAW by clicking this link!
CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE #2
Writers: Gerard Way & Jon RiveraArtist: Michael Avon Oeming
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man
I found the first issue of My Chemical Romance’s “Mr. Cybernetic Eye” intriguing, so I just had to check out the next issue (FYI, Gerard Way is the lead singer and songwriter for the band My Chemical Romance). While this issue seems to be playing ye olde evil corporation card, everything else is fairly interesting.
For some spoilers, this issue opens right up with how Cave got his cybernetic eye, for the first time anywhere! And it was not a pleasant experience. The next question to be answered is for the love of god, why?!? I hope Way will get to that sometime in this opening arc. After that the story kicks in, as Cave plans to steal the Mighty Mole (again) to find out what is happening to the underground society that his recently deceased wife is from. He runs into the CEO of EBX (the company that paid to make the Mighty Mole) and they get down to brass tacks about what is going on. It seems that the waaaay too 90s douchebag Borsten has a business agreement with Muldroog. Now something has seemingly gone wrong down in Muldroog (town) and he as well as Cave wants to know what's going on. Of course, they can't team up, as Borsten has learned Cave's wife was the Princess of Muldroog, therefore making Cave's daughter, Chloe, royalty too. Borsten wants to use Chloe to help get to the bottom of it all. Cave doesn't like Borsten's tone and sh!t hits the fan. Meanwhile, at Chloe's dorm room, Borsten's goons attempt to kidnap her. As she manages to escape them, we learn her boyfriend is pretty much a waste of space. Cave then steals the Mighty Mole and hooks up with his (now) good buddy Wild Dog (FYI, you can watch him on ARROW these days, and despite being good buddies, I believe this is the first time Wild Dog and Cave Carson ever appeared in a comic together, but I'm sure Wild Dog could join the Forgotten Heroes, too, if that still exists in this Post-Crisis, Post-New 52, Post-Rebirth world (is that a run on sentence yet?)). What follows is some decent action and some more beasts from below the Earth's surface. Yeah, I'll be coming back next month as well.
So as designed for this Young Animal imprint line, CCCE is weird, creepy, has a touch of youth culture to it (nowhere near as bad as some New 52 series, though), and some solid comic book action. As I often drone on and on about, this is all I want from a comic book! A solid action/adventure story, with some clever special sauce to keep it from being like every other action/adventure story. So while I won't say they are crushing it yet, Way and his partner in caves (ya get it!) Jon Rivera are doing a good job with this series.
Artwork-wise, I'm still digging Oeming’s work here. If Oeming has one flaw (IMHO), it's that sometimes his figures look like elaborate stick figures--just ungainly and not very 'prime time' looking. Unfortunately his CEO, Mr. Borsten, suffers from this in most of the issue. The rest of the issue looks great, though. The final action scene with the Mighty Mole, Cave, and Wild Dog is all really great.
Lastly, Tom Scioli has a weirdo, totally indie comic take on the DC heroes. It's cute enough, if you like the indie scene, and each issue has Who's Who pages of these new and updated takes on the characters in the Young Animals line. It's all really nice and makes me think DC needs to publish a new Who's Who--that is, once they figure out this somewhat new universe of theirs.
You can pick up this comic at TFAW by clicking this link!
BLACK HAMMER #5
Writer: Jeff LemireArtist: Dean Ormston
Published by: Dark Horse Comics
Reviewer: BottleImp
What do you do when you have a great story in mind involving the Justice League or the Avengers, but for legal reasons you aren’t able to use those characters? Why, you create your own thinly-veiled analogues of those copyrighted properties and have THEM act out your story! Jeff Lemire’s BLACK HAMMER is the latest of these pastiches/homages/intriguing twists on iconic comic book heroes. The question is: which end of the spectrum does the book fall into—the brilliant deconstructionist nature of works such as SQUADRON SUPREME or WATCHMEN…or pretty much everything else?
One aspect that set this book in a good direction from the get-go is that this isn’t a straight-up, one-for-one character swap with either of the aforementioned super-teams. There’s a Captain America doppelganger in Abraham Slam, a twist on Captain Marvel (or, as I guess we’re supposed to refer to him now, Shazam—damn you, Marvel Comics legal team!) with Golden Gail, a complementary crimson-colored version of the Martian Manhunter dubbed Barbalien, an enigmatic sorceress-type named Madame Dragonfly (not much has been revealed about her in this series so far, so I can’t tell if she’s more Zatana or Scarlet Witch), and the focus of this issue, Colonel Weird. Weird (an obvious nod to DC’s space-faring Adam Strange) encapsulates the entire genre of 1950s sci-fi comics, right down to his robot sidekick and domed space helmet, but his circumstances feel more at home with the trippy stories from the ‘60s and ‘70s, with a little dash of mid-‘80s Alan Moore thrown in for good measure.
Here’s the story thus far: after an as-of-yet-unrevealed crisis, Abraham Slam and his super-companions (minus the titular Black Hammer, who perished saving the rest, we are told) are somehow trapped in a simple country farming town in an alternate dimension to their own. Each is dealing with their circumstances in a different way, from Slam’s acceptance to Gail’s anger, while Weird is somehow fading in and out of this world through passing into something called “The Para-Zone.” While previous issues have merely used Weird as background…well, weirdness, it is in this issue that we see what the Para-Zone actually is, and get a clue as to why Weird seems so lost and out of touch with his friends AND his reality. There are echoes of Dr. Manhattan and his non-linear comprehension of time from WATCHMEN, with one major difference: Col. Weird, unlike John Osterman, does not have the ability to understand what he sees in the past, present, and future. Weird sees that there is some unknowable design at work, however, and that may have been enough to drive him mad.
Lemire is crafting an engaging mystery in BLACK HAMMER, but just as important is how he is carefully creating unique personalities for his cast of characters. Not one of them comes off as a lazy clone of the original inspiration; after the first few issues I had stopped thinking of them as ersatz A-listers and started thinking of the characters purely on their own attributes. Dean Ormston’s artwork also helps to distance the BLACK HAMMER heroes from their sources. The temptation when creating such a comic, I would think, is to render the artwork in a manner similar to the original source material. But Ormston’s style—a scratchy, stylized sensibility that echoes the work of Keith Giffen and Kevin O’Neill—pushes the book away from the standard superhero stereotypes and into a world that mixes aspects of horror and noir with the muscles-and-tights crowd. The artwork may not be for everyone, but I don’t think another style would serve it better--especially in this issue, where Ormston pulls out all the stops in his depiction of the freaky-deaky Para-Zone.
I don’t know if BLACK HAMMER will eventually be one to stand rank and file with SQUADRON SUPREME or WATCHMEN. What I do know right now, however, is that this is a great book for those of us who like a little mystery to go with our four-color fisticuffs. I’m sticking around to see what happens next.
You can pick up this comic at TFAW by clicking this link!
Painting signs, exhibiting in gallery shows, trying to keep his toddler from doing irreparable bodily harm to herself—once in a blue moon Stephen Andrade finds the time to emerge as the BottleImp, writing reviews for AICN’s comics and horror columns and talking horror flicks on AICN’s Cannibal Horrorcast. You can see his work at sandradeillustration.com!
REBORN #2
Writer: Mark MillarArtist: Greg Capullo
Publisher: Image Comics
Reviewer: Masked Man
Answering the age-old question “what happens when you die?”, Mark Millar brings you REBORN. Joining him for this six issue run is Greg Capullo, fresh off his famed BATMAN run.
Starting off with Capullo, this is a nice-looking book. It's much more focused than his BATMAN work, which makes sense, because Batman comics seem to really benefit from having a little tooth and scratch to their art. As I mentioned before, I'm not sure if it's the inker Jonathan Glapion, but there is a hint of J. Scott Campbell to the look of this series. Capullo certainly has a good flair for fantasy art, too. The two page spread of the tree mansion is pretty great.
Getting to the story, this is almost a set-up issue, even though it's a #2. The first issue, while having some good personal moments, was all shock and awe. This issue gets into the what the heck is going on, which a story like this needs. As always, Millar knows what he's doing, even if you might not always like what he's doing.
Okay, strap in: I'll try to explain this (here come the spoilers). So when you die, you get sent to a Fantasyland afterlife. Good people go to Adystria, a hodgepodge of building styles from all over the world, ancient and modern. Everyone here lives in peace and harmony. If you are a bad person you whined up in the Darklands, serving the devil-looking Lord Golgotha. This place looks like Mordor. When you wake up in these lands your body is at a random age, from baby to old person, and no one seems to know why. Since forever, the Darklands have been at war with Adystria, killing and kidnapping its people--for their blood, it seems. Now, for reasons currently unknown, the destined hero of Adystria has just arrived: a young woman named Bonnie (she was a granny before she died). She is met by her father, now a Conan-like warrior, and her dog, who is now the size of a lion. When she asks where her mother is, her dad says he doesn't know (but I'm sure we can all guess--except Bonnie, it seems). She also doesn't know where her husband is, but since we saw him last issue, we know he wasn't reborn in the Darklands. Still, he could be waiting for rescue there. As Lord Golgotha learns of Bonnie, he sends General Frost, an upright walking cat, to get her. Frost is actually her cat, who seemingly never got over being fixed. Lastly we meet Bonnie's best friend, Estelle, who was very religious, although not finding heaven and Jesus in the afterlife has pissed her off immensely. And even though she has become the very power fairy queen of this realm, she doesn't give a $h!t- about anything.
Overall I'm not terribly impressed with Millar's little world, but it's clever enough. As it is, I still have questions, like what happens when you die here? People are clearly getting killed, and people still grow old. So we still have a lot to learn about this world. If everything makes sense when it's all explained, I'll give it more points for that. But I've just read too many stories where the writer never really figured out their world. And if the story wasn't important enough for them to care and figure it out, why should I care? Hopefully this is not the case with REBORN, as the setting and characters are all fairly entertaining, even if I feel I can predict a lot of the plot from here. Toss in Capullo's nice artwork and REBORN is an entertaining book. I think just about anyone can find something interesting in these pages, unless you're even more jaded than me, and then God help you!
You can pick up this comic at TFAW by clicking this link!
VAMPIRE HUNTER D: MESSAGE FROM MARS #1
Created by: Hideyuki KikuchiAdapted: Brandon Easton
Artist: Michael Broussard
Publisher: Stranger Comics Reviewer: Masked Man
This is a five issue miniseries about one of the original b@d@$$es of anime, Vampire Hunter D. I'm an old school/lapsed anime fan. While I watched SPEED RACER and BATTLE OF THE PLANETS, I'm pretty much of the ROBOTECH generation. In those days before the internet and FUNimation, if you wanted to be an anime fan, you had to find yourself someone who was in a circuit. A circuit that started with a guy in Japan VHS taping everything he could and sending it all to his friends in America. These friends would then copy the tapes and give them to their friends, and repeat over and over again. One of the cooler anime movies to come out at this time (1985) was VAMPIRE HUNTER D (based on the successful manga). And it was pretty awesome. Dare I say, it was a forerunner to NINJA SCROLL (the next anime generation gets that). It was just a weirdo guy with a sword killing every sort of monster you can think of. Now in a rather convoluted marketing plan, Stranger Comics is working with like six other companies to make D comics and animation for the States and beyond, working with Hideyuki Kikuchi (D's creator) as this mini-series is an American adaptation of one of his stories.
Ok, quickly: who or what is a Vampire Hunter D? Well, in the future mankind has all but blown himself up (that was a mighty popular setting in the 80s), and like UNDERWORLD, Vampires have stepped up and claimed the world as their own, so the new ruling nobility class is vampires, with Vampire lords living in castles and lording over the remaining human population (not unlike the wizards in THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN). Humans fight back every so often with vampire hunters, but they are pretty much a joke to the real vampires. A little more of a threat is a dhampir, the half human, half vampire, but to a vampire lord, these guys are no threat. Enter D. D has a secret: his father (as it were) is none other than Dracula himself. So when you are talking pure blood there's none purer than D's, and he has the power to match. On top of that, he's been cursed with a demon embedded in his left hand, aptly enough called Left Hand. Left Hand has a talent for eating anything, including magic. So as long as D can put up his Joe Biden, to D's Obama, these guys can fu(( up anything under the midnight sun.
Now to the issue itself (aka spoilers): So before the fall of man, man branched out into the solar system. As people were busy colonizing Mars, boom: the fall of Man. During all this a woman, Cecile, with visions of the future (didn't see that coming, huh) falls in love with a married man on Mars. While she warns him not to go back to Earth because of her visions, he does anyway to see if his family survived. To her surprise, one day he comes back, although he and his new friends aren't really living anymore. The Mars colony is now another vampire fiefdom. That is all told through flashback, as now Vampire Hunter D has landed on Mars. The lesser vampire lords and monsters line up to take care of the pesky vampire hunter, but to their fatal surprise he is much more than their equal.
So anice tight story with tons of action, and thanks to Broussard, the action is awesome. How D takes care of the female vampire is especially awesome. Note: Never brag until you've won. Any passing fan of D will totally dig this, and monster/horror/action fans should enjoy this as well. While the Mars setting might be a little odd, VAMPIRE HUNTER D: MESSAGE FROM MARS looks like it's going to be one b@d@$$ time.
JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL VS. SUICIDE SQUAD
By Masked ManIn case you haven't been paying attention, DC has a huge JUSTICE LEAGUE/SUICIDE SQUAD event coming up. Hot off their box office hit/critical flop, the Squad is riding high and DC wants to milk it for all they can (Oh, the marketing department wanted me to remind you that Harley Quinn is in the Suicide Squad--you all know how much you love Harley Quinn), and why not. Well, 28 years ago the Justice League (International) bumped heads with the Suicide Squad first, so let's run to the Long Boxes and check it out!
The follow up to CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS was LEGENDS, which had two major spin-offs: THE JUSTICE LEAGUE (soon to be INTERNATIONAL and later AMERICA) and SUICIDE SQUAD. Both were Post-Crisis updates of original Silver Age concepts (both from the pages of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, interestingly enough). Right off the bat, fans were curious about what the Justice League would do when they found out about the Squad (Note: the Squad back then wasn't designed to fight the League. It was all about getting supervillains to do black ops jobs for the government in exchange for reduced sentences, and in case anything ever went wrong, the government had tons of deniability, as these were supervillains and not government agents). Well, it all started in SUICIDE SQUAD #10, which has the famous cover of Amanda Waller pinning Batman to a wall! You see, Batman caught wind of Belle Reve (super-villain jail)'s dirty little secret (Task Force X, a.k.a. Suicide Squad's HQ) and infiltrated the prison as an inmate. Thanks to Commissioner Gordon, the traditional Batsuit was waiting for him inside. Batman then ripped off their files (to expose them) and battled past the Squad members until he came face to face with the Wall. In a move that writer John Ostrander regrets, Batman had left his fingerprints in his jail cell (Duh-oh!), but Amanda promised to 'lose' the fingerprints if Batman handed over the files. Batman agrees, but promises her that this is far from over! Three months later, it's on like Donkey Kong!
Unlike the new crossover, which is 11 frickin’ issues(?!?), the original lasted only two issues: JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #13 and SUICIDE SQUAD #13 (both coming out in the same month). JUSTICE LEAGUE back-up penciler Steve Leialoha did a nice reversible cover for the two issues, showing the fight from each team’s perspective. Sadly, new superstar artist Kevin Maguire wasn't available for the crossover, and JUSTICE LEAGUE writer Keith Giffen stepped in to draw the JLI issue (unfortunately, in his very weird 80s style). The regular writer/artist team on SUICIDE SQUAD was on board, though: writer John Ostrander and penciler Luke McDonnell. Interestingly enough, before LEGENDS Luke was the artist on the JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA (drawing the final adventures of the so-called Justice League Detroit days). Overall, I gotta say the artwork was rather underwhelming for this crossover. The new crossover has much more marquee talent. Keith Giffen, who once had an awesome art style, developed a really ugly, crude and flat style in the 80s. Luke McDonnell, well, he hardly ever impressed. His figure work was always awkward and gangling. Mind you, when he finally got to ink his own work, like he did in DC's THE PHANTOM run, it was very cool and powerful (fyi--canceled too soon).
Getting into the plot, a botched Suicide Squad mission (they were almost always botched on some level) left American super-spy Nemesis stranded and imprisoned in Communist Russia. Batman, one of his friends, learns about his plight and wants the League to go in and rescue him. Meanwhile Rick Flag, field leader of the Squad, doesn’t like the idea of Nemesis sitting in a Russian jail either, so against orders he leads the Squad into Russia to rescue Nemesis. Amanda Waller then steps in. She uses the Squad’s alibi against them, as the government tells Russia a gang of supervillains is headed their way, so they should allow the Justice League (sanction by the United Nations these days) access to capture these villains. She then makes a deal with Justice League administrator Maxwell Lord to have the villain brought to her at Belle Reve. And with the impeccable timing of fiction, the League and the Squad end up in the prison at the same time...and fight!
What's the line-up? Well, the League has Batman, the Martian Manhunter, Captain Atom, Black Canary, Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Mr. Miracle, Guy Gardner (the bumped on the head Guy Gardner), and Rocket Red. The Squad has Rick Flag, Bronze Tiger, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, Javelin, Vixen, Nightshade and the Duchess (aka Lashina). As you can see from these line-ups, the League is about to kick the Squad's @$$ all over this prison! Unfortunately, the only real fight we get is between Batman and Rick Flagg, but it's a good one. These guys just really tear into each other. Batman can't stand anything Flagg is doing with the Squad. Flagg is upset that Batman can't see the good the Squad is doing (and he's upset with himself for working with these villains). In the end, trying not to give too much away, it doesn't end well for either Flagg or Batman.
Unfortunately, the story doesn't quite live up to the billing, as writers are always working an angle as opposed to just giving us some great rock 'em, sock 'em action. But it sure is worth a read! Maxwell Lord dealing with Amanda Waller is a treat, too. Before Geoff Johns turned Lord into a mustache-twirling villain, his relationship with Waller was always a highlight of any issue. Just two well-meaning, sneaky people trying to out-sneak each other.
The story was reprinted in JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL VOL.2 back in 2009, but of course if you got that you missed out on the fun house ads, featuring the not-too-well-received FLASH GORDON by Dan Jurgens and Doug Moench's update of THE WANDERERS (the one infamous for the dino sex), plus an ad for TSR's role-playing game update TOP SECRET/S.I.
Oddly enough, the League and the Squad never really tangled again. Batman and Amanda Waller would make peace and even work together in “The Phoenix Gambit”, and Superman and Aquaman would join Batman as they stick their nose into Squad business trying to find out what happened to their friend Ray Palmer in “The Mystery of the Atom”. So now you can get your popcorn and get ready for round two (starting next month), this time featuring Harley Quinn, I'm told.
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO CREATIVITY?
By Masked ManWhile there has always been a high degree of non-creativity in comics (comic books based on movies, based on actors, based on toys), they have also had really strong moments of creativity. First the Golden Age, of course. Everything was new and fresh--anything goes (have you seen FANTOMAH?!?). Next was the Silver Age. While half the trick was just bringing superheroes back, the other half was improving on the formula. Hard water fumes (seriously?!?) didn't give the Flash his powers anymore; it was chemicals and lightning, and his costume got a space-age update. Stan Lee then injected a ton or personality into the characters. It wasn't all just guy saves world, the end. Skipping the underground scene, the next big burst of creativity was in the 80s, mostly from DC as they were desperate to become the number one comic book company again (Marvel stripped them of that title in the 70s, and despite some ups and downs have never really let go). They kicked it off with THE NEW TEEN TITANS (which in a way was molded after Marvel's 'new' UNCANNY X-MEN five years earlier). They followed it up with THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, MAN OF STEEL, SWAMP THING, Elseworlds, the Vertigo line, WATCHMEN, etc. While Marvel remained king via the power of the UNCANNY X-MEN, the industry as a whole was just busting with ideas (even if it was failed ones like the New Universe).
It was during this period in a DC promo flyer, Direct Currents (Feb. 1985), that there was an interview with Julius Schwartz about what was happening with Superman in the upcoming year. He attacked the question from another angle saying, "...I'll tell you what won't happen. He will not change his uniform! He will not get married! He will not give up his secret identity! He will not die! Use your imagination from there." I believe Julius said that for two reasons (well three, everyone keeps asking him that crap): One, Superman is an iconic money maker for DC and they are not going to mess with success. Two, he knew doing any of that would mean they were all out of ideas for the characters. Of course, within ten years (after Schwartz stepped down) DC did all of that! Hell, now it's a playbook because they are all out of ideas. In the same vein, it was just a few years ago that Marvel's Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada said “Miles Morales Spider-Man will never meet Peter Parker Spider-Man, because that would mean we are all out of ideas.” Well not only did the Spider-Men meet, but now they live in the same reality and in the same city! Let's face it, as far as original ideas go, the comic book industry is done!
These days, what do companies do if they want to drum up sales or excite the reading population? They change the sex, race, or sexual orientation of a character--a trick originated back in 1971(!) with John Stewart becoming a Green Lantern, where it was way more impactful than today, as he was DC's first African-American superhero. That was thinking creatively, but now--heck, Marvel just announced a z-level character getting her own title, with the selling point that she's a Latino lesbian, using her first name as her superhero name: America (I guess she likes Italian map makers or something). No mention of her powers or her character--just her sex, race and sexual orientation. It's borderline desperate pandering (this is not to go into whether it's right or wrong to have non-white, non-male, non-heterosexual characters; that should be self-frickin’-evident).
The next so-called creative trick companies use is to rewrite the continuity. DC did this with the New 52 and now REBIRTH, and again, it's an old trick. Some 30 years ago DC first did this with CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, where it was original and creative because we had never seen anything like it! Now DC does it every five years or so because they are all out of ideas. REBIRTH is almost worse, because again instead of doing something creative they are just undoing changes, while not undoing changes (yeah, even I don't know what that means). Over at Marvel, they suffer from a milder form of this. Their form of 'creativity' isn't so much in changing the past, but in ignoring the past. Too often their writers claim it's too hard to come up with new stories, so they ignore previous tales that interfere with their current ideas, saying creativity shouldn't be hampered by continuity. Okay, but that level of creativity ranks up there with THE TRANFORMERS VS. G.I. JOE, not THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS.
And speaking of that, why is DC trying to find new ways to beat THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and THE WATCHMEN into the ground? Because they are all out of ideas. Did you hear they were even trying to do a follow-up to THE KILLING JOKE (both Moore and Bolland said no)? What's really funny is, DC is trying to figure out how to make money off ground-breaking stories from 30 years ago, not realizing they were hits because they were ground-breaking 30 frickin’ years ago! Back then it was “We need to do something crazy to get back on top.” Now it's “We need to do something safe to get back on top.” Uh , yeah…
The smaller companies are not much better. It seems like the bulk of their comics are based on toys and cartoons. It's a wonder they haven't started making comics about breakfast cereal mascots! Although the biggest exception would be Image. While you could argue the true originality of something like THE WALKING DEAD, the fact remains they don't have a single licensed IP in their line-up.
Now that I've ruffled everyone's feathers, let me go one step farther. The reason this is happening is laziness and fear. With nearly every business, you find what's successful and ride it into the ground. Once it's no longer successful, things have to change and change is very hard. It's even harder when the company and/or industry is 'dying'. Then any change you make could devastate the company, and more likely your career. So no one has the guts for change--that's the fear. The lazy is because it's far easier to copy the past success than try to create new ones. This is why we have 18 different Avengers titles. Heck, even Marvel's newest superhero team has a recycled name: CHAMPIONS.
Ok, enough bashing the companies, because they aren't the real problem, especially today. While they maybe timid and lazy, they aren't stupid. They crank out uncreative junk because we keep buying it. We support 18 different Avengers titles, we support pointless continuity changes, we support the killing and un-killing of characters over and over and over again! Why should DC do anything creatively risky with Superman when they know all they have to do is change his costume, kill him or get him married to increase sales? We've all created a symbiotic relationship between readers and publishers where we've trained each other to not make or buy any idea that hasn't been around for 50 years or more. Well, that's got to stop.
All right, what to do about this? One, stop supporting every tired old trick. Two, when companies actually make something creative and new, give it a try! I think DC’s “Young Animals” line is a good idea, as is Marvel's newest African-American hero (no, not frickin’ Iron Man/Heart--please), Mosaic. Here's the palatable part of the plan. You don't have to stop buying the thing you love. You love STAR WARS? Go ahead, keep buying it. But maybe you should stop buying everything with Star Wars printed on it. You don't have to buy every new crazy concept, either. But how about once a month? You might actually find something you like and get excited over something other than another frickin’ sidekick for Batman. If everyone does just this bare amount, we will be rewarding companies for creativity and punishing them for non-creativity.
Mind you, if you like having six DEADPOOL titles each month, a revolving door of superhero identities, the life and death superhero seesaw, plus continuity changing events every five years? Then forget I said anything.
Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
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