Comic Books: March 2006 Archives

New Avengers Illuminati has us loving to hate Brian Michael Bendis all over again. Actually, I think we should hate JMS and Mark Millar, who probably blackmailed Bendis into including their stupid plot points into this special. The scene that I object to is the one above, where Tony Stark tells the other leaders that they should kowtow to the U.S. government's superhero registration act. Never mind that this really makes no sense to everyone assembled. Reed Richards has no secret identity as Mr. Fantastic. Dr. Strange doesn't wear a mask. Namor and Black Bolt not only are public figures, they are rulers of their own countries, so why would they give a fuck? But I just can't see Tony Stark telling them they have to "roll over" (in Namor's words) to the government. It's completely out of character.

Tony Stark is the dude that went after the government in a big way during the first Armor Wars. He discovered that his technology had been stolen and was being used in armor by various individuals and groups. Three of them worked for the government: the Mandroids (S.H.I.E.L.D.), the Guardsmen, and Stingray. In the scene above, Stark pulls the wool over Nick Fury's eyes long enough to hack into S.H.I.E.L.Ds database to get the lowdown on the Mandroids. Stark's very origin is counter-culture in a way: born out of the Vietnam war, vowing never to allow his technology to be used by a government to kill people.

This is a paradigm shift in the way that Marvel's current crop of writers see this character. I have a feeling they must equate it with big business. Sheesh.

There is one thing I loved about this Illuminati special: Namor. He's wearing my favorite costume that just makes him look regal, and he's so full of piss and vinegar. It makes me year to see a Namor comic written by Bendis. How weird would that be? Nuff said.

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Imagine being a kid in the 1970s, a Marvel zombie who sent $2.50 to a P.O. Box in New York City months earlier, going to his mailbox and finding a large envelope that you see here. The Hulk's green smiling head plastered all over, with your name and address inside his mouth. It was the membership kit for F.O.O.M. (Friends Of Old Marvel), Marvel's fan organization. Marvel had tried a fan club before in the 1960s, called MarvelMania, but it failed because it was run outside of the company. F.O.O.M. was orchestrated inside the company by Jim Steranko (at least for the first four issues), the incredible writer-artist who worked on S.H.I.E.L.D. and Captain America. Steranko's imprint made FOOM special. Besides the envelope, there was an incredible poster (depicting Black Bolt, Angel, Captain America, Hulk, Silver Surfer, etc.) by the master, some stickers, and the first issue of the magazine. On the front cover, Stan Lee spouted faux-Shakespearean gibberish about what a great guy I was, just to spend $2.50 on FOOM: "Here in the hallowed circle thou art truly amongst thy peers-thou art truly welcome-thou art truly safe and secure within the fabled, far-flung Fellowship of Foom!"

FOOM, the magazine, was published quarterly, and lasted for nearly four years. Steranko's formula was to creator bios, profile pieces, games\puzzles, and previews of upcoming Marvel Comics. In 1975, they conducted some fan awards. This was before the Internet, before Wizard, before any widely available source of comics news. I've put together a collection of images from my favorite issues of FOOM in Gallery Photon. Besides the Steranko covers, you will see a John Romita Captain America and Bucky cover, a Jim Starlin cover with his favorite cosmic characters, a King Kirby cover, and some amusing jokes like the Incredible Hunk and the Mistress of Kung Fu. If you remember FOOM, give me a holler. Nuff said.

Gallery Photon: FOOM Album

The best DC story last week was JSA Classified #10, by Stuart Moore. It charts the return of Vandal Savage to Earth. In the last issue of the Flash, Savage got a comet ride out of the solar system. Now he returns to Earth OYL. Apparently it wasn't much of a vacation, as he visited the Thanagarians, the Dominators, and maybe even the Khunds. As Savage tries to get his life back together, we see flashbacks of his past throughout different eras in history. This is really cool. Vandal Savage has been one of DC's longest running villains as he's been around since the Golden Age of comics. He's been underused over the past decade or so and this story is a way to remind us of why Savage is a great villain. As he returns to various secret hideouts (which he uses to story organs and body parts from his descendants) Savage discovers that they have been trashed by a mysterious enemy. One sanctuary has working diagnostic equipment, which tells Savage that he only has 11 days to live with various diseases eating away at him. He decides to attempt one last act of revenge against Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern. It will be worth reading this to see if it plays into Scott's role in Checkmate.

I like Paul Gulacy's artwork on this story. We've rarely seen him do out and out superhero work, except for Batman, and his style is perfect for Vandal Savage's villainy. I think his Alan Scott interpretation will be pretty cool as well. I am pretty shocked that some fanboy reviewers are really anti-Gulacy. I guess they just didn't grow up reading the greatness of Master of Kung Fu.

I think Stuart Moore is a writer to watch. In a year or two, he could be the Next Big Thing. Nuff said.

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Birds of Prey has always been a witty, adventurous book since Gail Simone took over the writing. OYL gives her a chance to do something interesting by swapping Black Canary for Lady Shiva, who now calls herself the Jade Canary. I told you that Shiva wasn't really dead at the end of Batgirl, remember? Shiva's pretty funny in her OYL debut, taking on Killer Croc with one arm, because Croc's got a busted wing. She takes the Ventriloquist's dummy and throws him over the side of a building-something I always thought Batman should do. The Birds are still fighting the Secret Society, so that organization is still around. Meanwhile, Black Canary is in a secret training camp in Asia, presumably to become a supreme martial arts badass like Lady Shiva. She's handcuffed, blindfolded, and gets her ass kicked by a dozen Bruce Lee types. Shades of Kill Bill! Wouldn't it have been better to have all that training during the missing year? I think Simone missed a beat. What if Shiva was the hero in BoP and Canary was the assassin they had to take down?

Then there's the third BOP member, who appears in a ghostly form, and her identity will be revealed next issue-NOT! Fan boarders have already guessed that this character is Gypsy, from the Justice League Detroit days. Never in a million years did I dream that this character would make a cameo on TV (Justice League Unlimited) and later be revived in an ongoing series. That old saying about "there are no bad characters" is probably true. Nuff said.

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DC Comics' One Year Later event still has me seriously under whelmed. I guess the whole point for the big three characters (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman) is to return to their classic roots. Which is something I've desired, particularly in Bruce Wayne's case, but the hype surrounding OYL promised even bigger changes, leading to my disappointment. I think I may be in the minority, as one review of James Robinson's Batman story in Detective called it "…the best Batman story I've ever read." I take that to mean that the reviewer never read a Batman comic where Bruce Wayne wasn't an asshole. Robinson's written a decent story, but it's just a reset to a kindler, gentler Batman. Batman #651 shows us that he gets along very well with Tim Drake (Robin), who helps take down Poison Ivy. It's a nice step in the right direction, but in my mind, Batman will be fully revived when Bruce Wayne gets a few pages every once in a while to run Wayne Enterprises, talk with Alfred, and bang some supermodels.

Nightwing 118 seems to have taken the biggest hit in quality OYL. The stories that Devin Grayson had been writing previously had a pretty decent plot and interesting characters. Bruce Jones' first issue lets us know that someone has been pretending to be Nightwing during Dick Grayson's absence. We all know this is Jason (although as Ain't It Cool noted, Jones never once declares him the impostor but the next issue blurb does) because he's using a knife to carve up child molesters. Dick has decided to take up residence in New York City (goodbye Bludhaven) and is fucking the Scarlet Witch (or the DCU equivalent). I think we should applaud Bruce Jones for not wiping out Nightwing's history and reinventing the character from scratch. I should give it more time, but to go from the Grayson-Hester stories to this is a jarring change. If Jones is gonna play the Nightwing-killed-somebody card here, and there's a comment in Robin that makes me think he might, then you've got two series with heroes falsely accused of murder.

Robin 148 uses the OYL event to spin Tim off in a strong new storyline written by newcomer Adam Beechen. In the opening pages, Tim is beaten by a foe who moves so fast that their identity remains hidden. After lashing out with some R-shaped throwing stars, he discovers that his target was Batgirl, and she's dead on the floor. While it is Cassandra Cain's costume, it's not her body-the girl in the suit is Lynx. Naturally the police go after Robin in a big way. This sets up a mystery for Tim to figure out: what happened to Cassandra Cain, and why is someone trying to frame him for murder? As we saw in the last issue of Batgirl, Cassandra appears to have given up her Bat-related identity after snapping her mother's (Lady Shiva) neck. It looks like Cassandra is shadowing Tim in this issue. Is she a villain? If so, Tim's in big trouble, because Batman plainly states that Tim would have no hope against Cassandra in physical combat.

There are some interesting hints to Bruce Wayne's whereabouts during the missing year. Apparently Bruce, Dick, and Tim have been globe-trotting, as he mentions Budapest. There's been some family bonding as the trio has learned to trust each other more completely than in the past, thus leading to the de-asshole-cation of Batman. I can't wait to see what Morrison and Dini are gonna do with the Batman that Robinson is giving them. Nuff said.

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There's a certain amount of speculation that Conner Kent is going to die during the last two chapters of Infinite Crisis. Judging from Teen Titans 33 and TT Annual 1, all signs do point to Conner's departure. Death Sign #1: In the Annual, Conner gets a visit from Big Daddy Luthor while he's in the regeneration tank. Luthor's obviously feeling pretty foolish, having been spanked by Alexander Luthor in front of the freakin world. There's a lengthy explanation of how Luthor had a hand in Conner's design and development. I wouldn't put it past Luthor to use Superboy as a weapon against his doppleganger. Death Sign #2: Also in the Annual, Conner and Cassie (Wonder Chick) have sex back at the Kent's farm in Smallville. DC really makes no bones about it in this sequence where they strip off their clothes. In the morning, Cassie wakes up wearing Conner's shirt. It's about as exciting as cold oatmeal. For some reason I can't think of anything but Dawson's Creek the way it's portrayed. The kids do look happy, but you really can't be happy like that for too long without a dramatic consequence. Death Sign #3: In TT #33, Conner teams up with Dick Grayson and travels to the North Pole in order to assault Alexander Luthor's giant tuning fork. Conner's feeling pretty low since Superboy-Prime almost killed him, and he's certainly feeling inferior next to Dick. My prediction is that Conner will go out like Supergirl in the original Crisis--dying to save the Earth.

There's another reason why I think Conner may get killed: he just isn't a classic character. DC has done a lot of work trying to restore Batman, Superman, Supergirl, etc., to classic form. Conner's one of those 90s inventions--he was conceived when "things went wrong" during the time that Superman died. One DC message board poster thinks that Teen Titans 36 has the clue: Cassie's wearing ripped jeans...his theory is that they are Conner's jeans. Or maybe Cassie just started shopping at Ambercrombie & Fitch! Place your bets now, droogies, just remember, Conner's not in any new DC solicitations that I've seen! Nuff said.

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Thought we were all done with reverbs, eh? So did I, until I read Infinite Crisis Secret Files. Despite my problems with the mini-series, this one shot is actually very compelling. It's my pick of the week and it's written by Marv Wolfman, who looks at life in the limbo-realm with Superman I, Alexander Luthor, and Superboy-Prime. Each character gets a chapter, and Wolfman uses a first-person viewpoint to make us sympathize with each one. I like this special for the rich characterization, something that is missing from the main Infinite Crisis series. However, something I am not sure that I do like, is how they use the device of Superboy having temper tantrums. Everytime the boy of steel pounds on the wall--I think he really just needs to get laid, because there are no teenage chicks in limbo--it screws up reality in the DC Universe. It's not just limited to Jason Todd. Here's an excerpt of Judd Winick's script from Batman Annual #25:

...with each fit rage, his fist colliding with the wall of his proverbial cell...he sent a ripple across time that would alter events. The strange truth of this anomaly, this wave that set so many bits of time on a different path did not change history...but set it right.

Infinite Crisis Special Pounding Page 1: Superboy causes the Legion of Superheroes to be reset to the new Mark Waid and Barry Kitson version. In Wizard 174, Waid says that "...issue #1 of the new series was, in fact, our first glimpse into the post-Infinite Crisis DCU." Clockwise from the Kitson-Brainiac picture, we see three different versions of Superman's rocket from Krypton. First one looks like Golden\Silver Age, second one is clearly the Byrne version, third one is Superman: Birthright? Next we see Batman holding a dead Jason Todd, then Jason alive in Hush mode. After Power Girl, we have three versions of the Doom Patrol: Byrne's version, Grant Morrison's version with Rebus, and the classic Silver Age DP. In Wizard, Johns says that none of the previous DPs have been erased--Superboy simply caused Rita Farr to survive the explosion. The DP should remember everything that's every happened to them. What about the Chief going bad and losing his head?

Infinite Crisis Special Pounding Page 2: The many modes of Wonder Girl, the most fucked up character in DC's history. We see little Wonder Babe (too young), Wonder Girl in Nick Cardy's wonderful red-stars costume (now we're talking), Perez's Troia costume, Donna's Darkstars uniform, then her outer-space uniform when came back to Earth (you can see they had to redesign for a cleavage split in the middle). Then it's Hawkman's turn--the second most ravaged DC character. Two versions of Metal Men--I have a theory about this. In one, Doc Magnus is human--I think the colorist fucked up and made his skin silver instead of pink. In the other picture, Magnus is Veridium, the robot form he assumed during the horrible limited series written by Mike Carlin (where the Metal Men were discovered to have been human). If that story is retconned, I'll be happy.

Infinite Crisis Special Pounding Page 3: If I interpret this correctly, then the reason that Hal Jordan became a drunk in Emerald Dawn is because of Superboy. Not only that, but that awful Hex series, where Jonah time-travelled to that future Mad Max version of Earth, is a result of Superboy as well! Or maybe I should I see it like Hex is no longer in the future, Jordan is no longer a drunk, because Superboy rectified it. The Challengers of the Unknown are next in line, and this is where my DCU knowledge ends. Who is the family in the middle? What's that scene with Batman and Dick referring to? And on the left, isn't that Gog on the bottom, but who are the two guys on top of him? Please help identify them if you can.

There you go, everything you ever hated about the DC Universe since the Crisis was either caused by Superboy, or rectified by him. I'd like to have this power. Pound the wall a few times, bam, Neal Adams finished the entire Kree-Skrull War in the Avengers. Bam, Jack Kirby did New Gods at Marvel and got partial ownership of his artwork and characters. Bam, Alan Moore retained the rights to Watchmen and did his prequel called the Minutemen. Bam, Pamela Anderson and Carmen Electra make the R-rated sequel to Bound. Oops...better quit now while I'm almost ahead. Nuff said.

See also:
Infinite Crisis: Reverberations of Earths Past 4
Infinite Crisis: Reverberations of Earths Past 3
Infinite Crisis: Reverberations of Earths Past 2
Infinite Crisis: Reverberations of Earths Past 1

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V For Vendetta opens tomorrow in the United States, on St. Patrick's Day of all days! As a result, there have been a lot of Alan Moore interviews appearing all over the place. The one on top is a documentary, probably the one made by the BBC, featuring Moore talking about Watchmen, V, From Hell, LEXG, etc. It's quite interesting to watch and it's nine minutes long. Thanks to Rich Johnston for posting the link on his CBR column All the Rage. Update: Rich reminded me about his extensive article on the Moore/V situation that he wrote in 2005. It's a very fine article and explores Moore's objections to the film industry:

...Moore added to this sentiment, telling me "after the films came out, I began to feel increasingly uneasy, I have a dwindling respect for cinema as it is currently expressed."

Johnston's 2005 article did cover Alan Moore's beef with the film adaptation of V For Vendetta. The Beat's interview covers a lot of the same territory. In Part I, Moore discusses why he was upset when he read the screenplay:

"...This was one of the things I objected to in the recent film, where it seems to be, from the script that I read, sort of recasting it as current American neo-conservatism vs. current American liberalism. There wasn't a mention of anarchy as far as I could see. The fascism had been completely defanged. I mean, I think that any references to racial purity had been excised, whereas actually, fascists are quite big on racial purity."

In Part 2, Moore talks about why he's severed all ties with DC and tried to have his name removed from various books that he's worked on:

"...we were assured, if you come up with characters of your own, you'll be able to own them under this new different deal that forward progressive DC comics is doing now, and I believed this....As Neil Gaiman pointed out to them later when he was saying, look it's a horrible situation you're in with Alan. You know as well as he did that back when he signed that contract, nobody could have predicted that these books would remain in print for that long. "

I don't really plan on seeing V in the movie theaters, as much as I love this cheesecake pic of Natalie, although I'll certainly watch it on DVD. V for Vendetta totally knocked me out when I first read it in Warrior Magazine. I hadn't seen anything like that before in comics form--well, I hadn't read anything written like Alan Moore could envision--but it was the most different because it was not a superhero story. When Warrior stopped publishing, I was overjoyed that DC was going to publish the series and we'd get the conclusion to the story. When I was younger, I used to think that films were superior to comics or books. Now I don't. Comics can be superior to films in many ways and I doubt any film could give me the same experience I had reading Watchemen, League, or V. Nuff said.

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My pick of the week is American Virgin, the first Vertigo comic that I've read in years. Virgin is written by Steven T. Seagal and drawn by Becky Cloonan (Demo). The titular character is a young college kid named Adam Chamberlin, a devout fellow who has pledged to God never to have sex (or jerk off for that matter) until he's married to his high school sweetheart. He travels to various forums where he gets kids to make the same pledge to God. Because Adam is so sincere in his beliefs, he's extremely good at convincing people to keep their pants zipped. His parents run a Christian TV program and think that Adam's going to be the next Billy Graham. His sister, brother, and cousins are far away from being perfect role models. Adam tries to get his kid brother to make a speech to a Christian mob, but finds him getting stoned instead.

I have to admit I'm skeptical over the long term nature of this series. It seems inevitable that Adam would lose his virginity soon, and then what happens to the title? He doesn't in this issue, although Adam comes very close when he encounters a stripper. This is an interesting comic on many levels. One, there is no horror/supernatural angle to this Vertigo title. Two, it's about sex, and how the main character resists it. Three, it's got the strong Christianity angle, but Seagal doesn't go balls out in attacking religion. It's a great first issue and holds a lot of promise. I'll be interested to see where it goes from here. Nuff said.

External Links:
Steven Seagal on American Virgin at CBR

Now this is a One Year Later title that I fully endorse. I wasn't crazy about the new Firestorm when it launched two years ago. I always liked Ronnie Raymond and the adventures in Firestorm Volume 1 were pretty superhero stories by Gerry Conway--and John Ostrander kicked it up a notch before it ended. Volume 2 has a college kid called Jason Rusch who inherited the Firestorm matrix after the events of Identity Crisis. Stuart Moore has taken over the writing reigns and made Rusch's character and his predicament much more interesting by exploring the nature of the Firestorm matrix. It was going to be a worthy title for any DC fan's pull list regardless of OYL. In Firestorm 22, after a battle during Infinite Crisis left Jason mortally wounded, he encountered Martin Stein. For you Firestorm newbies, Stein was one-half of the classic Firestorm character. Firestorm is a matrix that combines two personalities in one form; one person is dominant and controls Firestorm, the other one gives advice. Stein, a scientist, was the best person to give advice to a kid with nuclear powers. After the conclusion of the first Firestorm series, Stein became an ethereal being and went off to explore outer space. Moore was very smart to bring him back and help Jason recreate the Firestorm matrix from scratch. It ties the series back to the first Firestorm, while paving the way to new adventures for Jason. In issue 22's story, "Building a Better Firestorm", Stein re-engineered the Firestorm matrix to allow Jason to have better control, while shutting down some powers that were just too unstable.

I was really looking forward to seeing Jason work with Stein. However, with Infinite Crisis, now all of that has occurred during the missing year. Something has happened to Stein-his whereabouts are unknown. Jason has merged with Lorraine Reilly-Firehawk-to figure out what happened to his mentor. But it's more than just a voluntary merge. Jason and Lorraine can't be physically separated for more than a mile. What happens after that distance, we'll find out next issue. But imagine the implications: if Jason goes on a date, Lorraine has to be in the same area. Lorraine, as a Senator, must keep Jason around Congress if she's working. Neither of them really likes it! Moore's really made this into an interesting superhero book. I applaud him for steering the book through the minefield of Infinite Crisis and making it even better. Check it out. Nuff said.

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It seems like I've been haranguing the Spider-Man titles longer than Arianna Huffington's been ragging on George Bush. I think it's well deserved. Heck, even Mike Wieringo flubbed Spidey's new spikes on Fanboy Radio the other week. If I were Peter David, I'd be a madman by now. He gets a plum Spider-Man assignment-launching a brand new title-but his first four issues are smack dab in The Other crossover. But David's made of sterner stuff than me. He's waited patiently, and the result is this great one-issue story called "Web Log". I think it's really one of the best Spider-Man stories that he's ever done, and it ranks up there with "The Kid Who Collected Spider-Man".

It's told from the point of view of Vanna, a girl who vents her frustrations on a blog that no one reads. (Ouch! That's really hitting close to home.) Vanna attended the same high school as Peter Parker and has a number of accidental encounters with Spider-Man throughout the years. There's a great little flashback to the Looter, from that classic story by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Vanna is convinced that Spider-Man is stalking her, and takes steps to protect herself. You'll be surprised how this story ends, but it makes me think that Peter David has long-term plans. Weiringo's artwork is always beautiful and he's perfectly suited to this story. Pick up Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #5 if you want to read a classic Spidey story. This is how it should be done, Marvel. Nuff said.

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Infinite Crisis #5. Sigh. How could a mini-series so promising become something so half-assed? I didn't write about it immediately because my list of complaints were a mile long. Fortunately, Evil Robby over at Dial B For Blog has written a review of Infinite Crisis #5 that graphically captures my sentiments, from the stupid Superman vs Superman fight to the pointless church scene at the beginning. Why are Kyle Rayner and the Shadowpact present at the church? Evil Robby says:

Could this have anything to do with the fact that another GL -- Kyle Rayner -- and Shadowpact are getting their own new comic books when "Crisis" ends? Could it also have anything to do with the fact that this "Crisis" series often reads like a marketing tool rather than a comic book? Yes to both.

If the DC Universe is just returned to the status quo, where they've got one Earth and the classic characters, that's not enough of a change. It's just a pointless waste of time. DC will have alienated long-time readers instead of retaining them. I'm not saying that DC has to bow down to fans wishes. Caving into fan pressure won't make for a good story. But so far, as Evil Robby pointed out, Infinite Crisis just seems like a launching pad for new series. Many thanks to Robby for pointing out that Superboy is wearing Anti-Monitor shoulder pads--a Bob Mackie original design!

Marvel's in the mood to alienate readers as well as DC. Fantastic Four 535 featured a really cool story with the Hulk fighting the Thing for the umpteenth time. It was cool because of Mike McKone's wonderful artwork--he draws the Thing the way that John Byrne did. At the end of the story, we see that it was Ben Grimm who planted the seed in Reed Richards' mind to exile the Hulk on an alien planet. That event kicked off the 14-part "Planet Hulk" storyline, which just seems like a clone of Superman's Warworld adventures. You know the Hulk's going to return to Earth more pissed off than ever, right? Reed's betrayal of Bruce Banner just flies against 40 years of continuity.

Sigh. Maybe it's time to stop reading new comics and just focus on the oldies. Nuff said.

External Link:
Dial B For Blog review of Infinite Crisis #5

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There have been a few special occasions in DC's history when I've looked forward to seeing a revision of the entire line of monthly comics. One is the initial aftermath to the first Crisis in 1986, which took about a year to play out. The second was Zero Hour, a mini-series that wasn't so great, but all the Zero-numbered issues of DC comics were pretty well done and gave the heroes a pretty good boost. The third was DC One Million, where the Million-numbered issues were very good, mostly because Grant Morrison had a hand in plotting all of them. Now we have One Year Later, which promised to relaunch the DC universe with sweeping changes. But so far I'm unimpressed. Week one of One Year Later has arrived like a wet blanket.

Detective Comics 817: Jim Gordon is back as Commissioner, Bullock is back as a Detective, and Harvey Dent is a good guy patrolling the streets in Batman's absence. Gordon lights up the Bat-Signal; Batman and Robin respond. There's no evidence to deny that it's still Bruce Wayne behind the mask. Basically, we just get the picture that Gotham City's been returned to the status quo.

JSA 83: The Justice Society gets together after a year apart. They still appear to be on the same Earth as Batman and the Spectre. No surprises.

Outsiders 34: The first half of the book is this really boring lesson on African kid gangs. The Outsiders break their cover to stop them. Nightwing is the leader and appears to be Dick Grayson. However, Captain Boomerang has now joined the team-this is the kind of shocker I wanted. All the Outsiders were presumed to be dead during the missing year.

Batman Annual 25 takes place years earlier instead of later. It lays out how Jason Todd returned to life after getting beaten to death by the Joker. The means was a pretty cheap after-effect from Superboy punching on the walls during his imprisonment prior to Infinite Crisis #1. Alternate realities flashed back and forth for a time; in one of them, Jason Todd survived. He wakes up buried in the coffin (we all love Kill Bill, don't we?) and gets some surprising help from Talia and Ra's Al Ghul. Despite the cheap device, I thought this was a decent story. I understand Jason's motivation for hating Bruce Wayne-why doesn't he kill the Joker?

So far, I am disappointed with One Year Later. It's too early to condemn the whole thing as a failure. Maybe subsequent titles will make use of this time gap to shake up their heroes. Nuff said.

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Last call for the Infinite Crisis reverbs. Superman is the only featured hero…

Adventures of Superman 649 wraps up the alternate history of Earth-1 Superman taking over for our version. The story didn't finish as well as it had started. In the end, it's all pretty meaningless, as you know they will come to their senses. In this double page spread, Superman-I fights Superman II, as do their dopplegangers: Superman-Red, Superman-Blue (lightning style) are the second pair, and Kingdom Come-Superman vs Superman are the fourth pair. Where did that Tiger version come from?

Infinite Crisis #5 has a good riff as Superman-I figures out that Alexander Luthor is a bad guy after all! On the right side, it looks like Kal from Dave Gibbons and Garcia-Lopez' Elseworlds tale; classic Superman-Red and Superman-Blue; Millar's Superman from Red Son. I can't recognize any figure on the left. Any guesses? Nuff said.

See also:
Infinite Crisis: Reverberations of Earths Past 1
Infinite Crisis: Reverberations of Earths Past 2
Infinite Crisis: Reverberations of Earths Past 3

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This was a big week for comics: Infinite Crisis #5, Batman Annual #25, and a bunch of DC 1-Year Later titles. Even though I'm clearly biased in DC's favor, Marvel trumped them all this week with Ultimates Vol. 2 #10. The bad guys have taken over not only New York City, but many key cities within the United States. It is clearly a reaction against the Ultimates storming into the Middle East at the beginning of this series. There's a Muslim version of Captain America, a Russian version of Thor, and opposite numbers for Hulk, Ant-Man, Iron Man, and Quicksilver. We're still unclear as to Loki's true role. One thing I can't figure out: why are all the bad guys meeting in the Louvre? The French aren't that crazy to sanction terrorists in their own city, but what the heck, Millar loves to pick on them.

Hawkeye makes his way out of a nearly impossible situation. It happens so fast, I was bewildered. Then when I read the explanation and saw what happened afterward--this version of Hawkeye is freakin' cool! I love the Avengers version--Clint Barton was always a cool customer, but this one's more on par with Bullseye. I never thought about that before--what if Bullseye joined a team and fought the good fight? Genius idea.

I'm betting that the Hulk returns before all of this is over to stomp the Abomination's ass. And I will also bet that Donald Trump would love to have Tony Stark's pre-nuptial agreement. Nuff said.

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I am halfway through The Titans Companion, a book published in December 2005 by TwoMorrows Publishing. Written by Glen Cadigan, this is a delight for hardcore Teen Titans fans who want to get the inside scoop on the Titans from their initial conception in the 1960s to the present day. Like their previous effort, The Legion Companion, this volume offers articles, interviews, and an amazing array of artwork by Perez, Cardy, Garcia-Lopez, etc. It starts off, not with the Titans, but with a history of each of the teen sidekicks. I knew Robin, Kid Flash, and Speedy very well, but I was always unclear about Aqualad and Wonder Girl's origin. Aqualad is not Aquaman's son-he's an Atlantean who was initially afraid of fish! Wonder Girl was initially a flashback to Wonder Woman's childhood, until Robert Kanigher retconned her adventures into a computer simulation. It was Marv Wolfman who actually devised the origin where Donna Troy was rescued from a burning building by Wonder Woman. The idea for the Teen Titans was first suggested by a letter in Brave and Bold #30. The editor, George Kashdan, agreed and assigned Bob Haney the job of scripting their first adventure in Brave and Bold #54.

As a kid, I was crazy about Robin; I wanted any comic with him on the cover. That extended to the Teen Titans as well. I thought it was a terrific concept to have Kid Flash, Speedy, Robin, Wonder Girl, and Aqualad in one book. The early adventures were really hokey, with villains like the Mad Mod and Ding-Dong Daddy Dowd. The book covers Bob Haney's involvement in the initial series, which is a real treasure, because Haney is an elusive character in comic book history. Haney was understandably bitter when Dick Giordiano became the editor and replaced him with Steve Skates.

Throughout these early years, Nick Cardy's artwork is just astonishing. I think the costume he designed for Wonder Girl is a classic. Even though Perez and Jimenez came up with some good inventions, the Cardy red-stars will always be my favorite. There's a very good interview with Cardy where he talks about Wonder Girl's new costume. Cardy's drawings of Wonder Girl are peppered throughout the book. I don't think any heroine has ever been depicted so cute and sexy.

I remember being shocked by Titans 25, a really shocking change occurred when the kids failed to stop the assassination of a scientist who won the Nobel Peace Prize. Writer Steve Skates and Editor Dick Giodiano talk about this phase in the Companion. It seems incredible that Kid Flash couldn't stop it all by himself, but it happens. On his deathbed, the scientist says to the group: "Your powers and capacities for violence…carry awful responsibilities. You're like…living atom bombs, but you're still only kids." The Justice League threatens to shut the kids club down for good. Luckily for the Titans, it's Lilith's first appearance, dancing in a go-go bar cage and rattling the boys into a sexual frenzy. She introduces the Titans to a mysterious man called Mr. Jupiter who convinces the heroes to give up their costumes and go undercover. Two new heroes, Mal and Lilith joined, and shared a brief kiss-daring, for the 1960s, because he was black and she was white.

The bulk of the interviews involve Marv Wolfman and George Perez in their co-creation of the New Teen Titans. It's one of the most revealing behind-the-scenes interviews on any comic book creation. Wolfman talks about how he took his time designing the team, concentrating not on powers, but on their personalities and relationships. By having a cyborg, a demon empath, an Amazon, an interstellar princess, and members of other DC classic teams, Wolfman would set himself up to tell almost any type of story. Both men are brutally honest. Wolfman regrets what happened to the Omega Men after they got their own series. Perez initially took the Titans job as a favor to Marv and as a way to get the Justice League assignment he desperately craved. When the Titans became a hit, Perez gave up his other assignments in order to improve as an artist and give the fans more. So many classic storylines were planned in advance: Blackfire, Vigilante, Terminator, Terra, and Jericho. Wolfman proved that he was as adept at superhero stories as he was at Tomb of Dracula. The Terra storyline that climaxed in The Judas Contract has to be one of the best superhero stories ever told. Who could forget Tales of the Teen Titans 44 that featured the first appearances of both Nightwing and Jericho? Wolfman and Perez grew the Titans from teenagers to adults. Dick Grayson became not only Nightwing, but one of the most strategic leaders of any superteam.

No subject is spared in Titans Companion. Titans West is covered in an interview with Bob Rozakis. Neal Adams discusses the three issues he worked on. Chris Claremont talks about the X-Men/Titans team-up. Kevin Maguire and Phil Jimenez are interviewed about the spin-off series, Team Titans! The first three issues of Team Titans had some of the best Maguire art that I've ever seen.

The Titans Companion rocks. If you're a Titans fan, get it now. Nuff said.

External Link:
Marv Wolfman Interview on Word Balloon (covers Titans and Crisis)

Technorati : DC Comics, Teen Titans
Del.icio.us : DC Comics, Teen Titans
Ice Rocket : DC Comics, Teen Titans