Comic Books: May 2009 Archives

The Last Days of Animal Man #1 (which went on sale this week) was a big event in my eyes.  One of favorite writers of the bronze age, Gerry Conway, has finally returned to comics!  Conway's work on Amazing Spider-Man delivered some key moments in Peter Parker's life that resonated long after he left: the death of Gwen Stacy, the introduction of the Punisher, Spider-Man's clone, and a scene at the end of ASM #122 which revealed Mary Jane was more than just a party girl.  Conway's resume is long and accomplished--he wrote the first few issues of Werewolf by Night, wrote Fantastic Four for two years, and later at DC Comics created Firestorm.

The world of comics lost Conway to the world of Hollywood, where's he written for both movies and TV shows (most recently, Law and Order Criminal Intent).  He's taken a break and someone at DC Comics had the good sense to engage Conway on Animal Man.

Last Days is set in the near distant future.  Buddy Baker still lives in San Diego with his wife Ellen, but he's kids have grown up.  Buddy makes his living as a Hollywood stuntman, but as Animal Man, is having problems when connecting to the "morphogenetic field" that gives him his powers.  Conway's description of how Buddy taps into the power an animal is poetic:  Imagine a thousand voices singing.  Now pick out one voice, one single voice.  Listen to it.  Let the power of that voice fill you, let it become you.

The first issue throws the wrench into Animal Man's life when those voices are become harder for Buddy to hear.  His powers are cutting in and out as he's facing a villain called Bloodrage.  This appears to be a story about what happens to a hero approaching his golden years.  It's a good first act and I enjoyed this issue immensely.  I suspect some people will be gunning for Conway as they inevitably compare this to Grant Morrison's classic run.  It's clear that Conway has read all of the key Animal Man stories, because he references Morrison's series as well as Buddy's adventures in 52.

Chris Batista does a very nice job on the artwork.  He tells the story very clearly in a way that reminds me of Steve Dillon.  There's something about the way he draws Animal Man that really reminds me of Bolland's style--perhaps Batista has followed Bolland's design for the costume and those zany goggles.

The upcoming issues of this mini-series are very promising from the advance covers by Brian Bolland.  Issue #3 will feature appearances by the other DC heroes as Buddy seeks them out for help.

It's the cover to Last Days #4 that is really exciting.  If you read DC's 52 limited series, you'll recall that Buddy was marooned in space for a year, along with Adam Strange and Starfire.  There were moments when Buddy was obviously aroused by Starfire--how could you not have a reaction when a golden goddess is bathing naked in a pool!  Things were subtly implied, but never shown in detail.  In the more recent Countdown to Adventure mini-series, Starfire visited Buddy and Ellen, where there was even more sexual tension in the air.  The teasers for Last Days indicate that there was some infidelity going on and it's finally revealed.

Whenever a classic comics creator returns to the fold, I'm always a bit excited and fearful at the same time.  Conway appears to be back in style, and I hope DC or Marvel will sign him up for more stories.  Nuff said.

Link:  Gerry Conway's blog, Things I'd Wish I'd Thought of Sooner.

After reading Y The Last Man, the only disappointment I had was that the story had come to an end--a very great ending--but leaving me feeling hungry for more graphic novels that were equally compelling.  I sought another Brian K Vaughan series that I avoided for years, Ex Machina.  I've devoured all the issues published up until now, Ex Machina #1-42 and the four Ex Machina specials.

My wife asked me the other day what I was reading.  She's not a reader of graphic fiction, so I summed up the series in a nutshell: It's about a superhero who becomes the mayor of New York City.

I couldn't quite grok the whole Ex Machina experience when I picked up the first issue back in 2004.  I suppose I just wasn't ready to experience it, much like Y The Last Man.  The opening chapter introduces us to Mayor Mitchell Hundred; he's sitting in a room, looking defeated and depleted, telling us the story of his first four years in office as Mayor.  Ex Machina relies heavily on flashbacks to tell the story and build suspense, much like the series LOST (where Vaughan is now a staff writer).  The present is rooted in Hundred's experience as the Mayor of New York City, where he deals with situations ranging from an outrageous painting in the Museum of Modern Art, to gay marriage and marijuana laws.  If you liked the TV series The West Wing or The WIre, you'll enjoy these storylines.  If you're into constant superhero action, you won't.  I think this was my biggest hurdle reading the first issue and deciding not to continue back in 2004.  Once I read the first six issues and got into the groove, I couldn't get enough of the political action.

From the flashbacks in the opening chapter, we learn that Hundred--a civil engineer--encounters an alien device that explodes in his face.  Alien machinery is embedded in Hundred's skull that allows him to listen and talk to any man-made machine: guns, cars, elevators, electric power grids, computers, etc.  He has strange dreams which allow him to build devices like a jet pack, armor, and weapons.  Hundred is aided by his friends, Bradbury and Kremlin, into become New York City's first superhero: The Great Machine.  This is set in a world like ours, where there are no super-humans.  Hundred is a very human hero, bumbling his way through a number of adventures.  Most of his battles are loaded with humorous moments.  Much like Spider-Man, Hundred is hunted by the police for his vigilante activities.  As the Great Machine, Hundred fights regular criminals, but eventually gets a super-powered opposite number: Pherson, who can talk to animal.

I think when I first heard of Ex Machina, I thought, ok, he's the Mayor, will he put on the suit and fight crime after passing legislation?  The answer is no, at least, up until issue 42, Hundred's super-hero adventures are told in past flashbacks.  Hundred uses his powers in the present to solve various problems, but has renounced his super-hero identity.  This is a problem for his former ally Kremlin, who believes Hundred is wasting his time in politics.

While I've raved about the story here, the artwork by Tony Harris is superb.  Harris is both perfectly suited for the action scenes and the political drama.  He excels at portraying realistic people, with slightly pudgy bodies and awkward or funny facial expressions.  I amazed that Harris has drawn all 42 issues!  The specials feature artwork by Chris Sprouse and John Paul Leon, who also deliver quality work.

Ex Machina has eight more issues to go before it concludes in issue #50.  There's a huge mystery waiting to be solved--the origin of the alien device that gave Hundred his abilities.  There are whispers of alternate dimensions (including one where Ronald Reagan Jr is President) and doppelgangers.  I can't wait to read the remaining issues.  Ex Machina has shot up to the top of my reading list. 

After enjoying both Runaways and Y The Last Man, Vaughan has become my favorite writer working in comics today.  Nuff said.

DC Comics Final Night mini-series was published in 1996--which killed off Hal Jordan (as Parallax) in the concluding chapter.  As we all know, Hal Jordan never left the DC Universe, he was always around as the Spectre until Green Lantern: Rebirth.  As a memorial tribute to the hero they maligned, DC published a special "Green Lantern Gallery", loaded with pin-ups of the Silver Age Green Lantern.  This cover jam was a real treat, featuring three generations of Green Lanterns, drawn by the artists who created them!  Gil Kane on Hal Jordan, Marty Nodell on Alan Scott, and Daryl Banks on Kyle Rayner.  All of them topped off with inks by the great Kevin Nowlan.  What a cover, whoever owns this one is very lucky!  Nuff said.

This cover was for the special "Silver Age" mini-event in 2000.  I saved this image of the cover, sans the logo and captions, from one of the DC solicitations.  Kevin Nowlan inked this cover and many other jobs that Kane worked on during this period.  I really like the color scheme in this version--Sinestro in a blue haze raining down trouble on Hal Jordan, which the green circles focus your attention on.

Apparently someone at DC Comics did not like that color scheme.  Here's the actual published cover.  Perhaps the editorial change was to restore Sinestro's purplish skin color as it appears in the interiors.  However, they made a mistake with this new color scheme--Sinestro's ring is emitting green energy, not yellow!  Nuff said.

Gil Kane returned to the Green Lantern character in the 1980s.  Here are a few of my favorite covers from this period.  There's a subtle theme here:

Green Lantern #166 features Hal Jordan in the foreground, with a green energy construct in the background that resembles himself!  Self-love is the greatest love of all.  The construct must have been drawn on a separate plate/overlay to achieve that color effect.

Green Lantern #171 is another iconic pose with Hal Jordan's face in the background.  This time the background is an orange-red color.

Green Lantern #177 works the best, as Hal Jordan recharges in an all green background.

It's interesting to me that Gil Kane had such a long history with Green Lantern.  He co-created the created in 1959, drew him exclusively for the first 10 years, and later returned for covers and specials in the 1980s and 90s.  Nuff said.

We're doing a Gil Kane cover retrospective on Giant-Size Marvel, but here on Photon Torpedoes, we like to concentrate on DC material.  Here are 4 silver age Green Lantern covers from 1968-1970 that made an impression on me as a kid.

By the time I had seen Green Lantern #61 advertised, I had already learned about Earth-2 and the Golden Age Green Lantern from Justice League reprints.  This image of Hal Jordan castigating blame on Alan Scott reminded me of a wrathful God.  I wanted to buy any book that had one of the Earth-2 Justice Society heroes in it.

The cover to Green Lantern #70 confused me--I mistakenly thought the guy standing over GL was Elongated Man.  That really looks like Ralph Dibny, doesn't it?  My nose twitched and I bought the comic only to be disappointed.  But I still love the people gathered around GL in a kind of existential despair.

Green Lantern #73 was unique at the time because of the purplish color scheme, leaving no doubt that this story featured the return of Star Sapphire.  Hal Jordan looks very afraid on this cover, doesn't he?  Maybe he had more than just a weakness to the color yellow.  This was the first of a two-part story.

Green Lantern #74 featured the conclusion, with Sinestro joining Sapphire to beat down Hal Jordan.  The sight of a depleted GL with his friend Tom Kalmaku urging him to recharge before his arch enemy advances--made this another must-have book.  These were the last few GL comics drawn by Kane until Neal Adams took over in issue 76.  Kane would later return to the character in the 1980s.

Whenever I see these Gil Kane Green Lantern comics, I always think of Donovan's 1966 song, Sunshine Superman.  It was played frequently during the summer of 1969 when I briefly lived in Los Angeles.  I thought Superman and Green Lantern were two of the finest heroes on Earth, to be immortalized in a song!  You can view my new Gil Kane gallery on Flickr. Nuff said.

There just hasn't been enough cheesecake around here lately.  And not nearly enough Power Girl!  Here's Adam Hughes' variant cover to PG #1:

I always like AH's covers.  This one really tickled me.  I liked the riff on Superman ripping open his shirt, and the expression on the men in the background is funny.  Any idea why it's so unusual other than PG's famous assets?

It's the word balloon on the cover!  I really think more comics need to mix it up and use them.  Nuff said.

I'm doing a Super-Sized tribute to Marvel's greatest Kung Fu heroes on Giant-Size Marvel.  Featuring Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, White Tiger and Deadly Hands of Kung Fu.  Toss in a little Man-Thing and Crazy, you've got a Marvel salad.  Nuff said.

Sometimes I'm really late to the party.  I read about Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra's Vertigo series for years but never read it as a monthly comic.  I think I picked up issue 11 at a comic shop, thought it was cute, and placed it back on the rack.  I was mystified by all the articles in Entertainment Weekly and other magazines.

I just read the entire run of Y: The Last Man , issue 1-60, in the span of a week.  This is clearly one of the finest stories ever told in graphic form.  Yorick Brown is the last man on Earth due to a mysterious event that wipes out all males at the exact same moment.  Planes crash, cars on the highway collide, power plants explode--all at the same time.  Women band together to recover society.  Some of them fortify the existing American government, others cut off their left breast to become a tribe of Amazons.  Many of them want to capture or kill Yorick and his pet (male) monkey, Ampersand.  Yorick is protected by Agent 355 (a kick ass secret agent of an underground spy ring) and accompanied by Dr. Allison Mann, a scientist who tried to produce the first ever human clone in her own womb.

I wasn't disappointed by a single issue in this entire saga.  The trio embark on a quest that leads them to travel across America and the around the world, searching for the secret to Yorick's survival, the origin of the virus that wiped out mankind, and Yorick's beautiful girlfriend Beth, who was stranded in Australia when the disaster happened.  Yorick isn't an action hero--he's the damsel in distress that usually needs to be rescued by 355.  But even in his darkest moments, Yorick is constantly making pop culture jokes.  He has a big heart, as Dr. Mann once tells him.  Rather than doing the obvious thing by banging every woman in the world, Yorick acts with restraint, saving himself (mostly) for Beth.

I think what makes this series unforgettable is that the women take center stage in this drama, plus it has a great third act.  The conclusion is utterly heartbreaking.  One of the greatest reading experiences that I've ever had.  Now I've got to read Ex Machina.  Nuff said.

Like many of you, I saw JJ Abrams Star Trek reboot.  It was pretty thrilling, enjoyable despite many plot holes, and I thought they accomplished the impossible task of finding the right actors to play Kirk, Spock, and Bones.  I liked all of them, especially Simon Pegg as Scotty.

The photography was stunning, as well as Michael Giacchino's Star Trek Soundtrack .  I can't recommend the soundtrack highly enough--it's original but evokes tones of the classic Star Trek score at the same time.

I ran across this today in the special JJ Abrams edited issue of Wired, Paul Pope's Star Trek story:

The story and illustrations by Pope are a thing of beauty.  It's an interlude, narrated by Spock, during the time he spends marooned on that ice planet.  You can read the story online at Wired.com.  Nuff said.

Blackest Night #0 was released today for Free Comic Book Day.  It's a decent story with above average art by Ivan Reis.  Mostly it's a way for Geoff Johns to introduce new readers to the recent events of the DC Universe.  He reminds people that recently Batman has "died", although we all know he's just stuck in the past.  But Aquaman, Elongated Man, and Martian Manhunter have all perished over the past few years, as well as the original Firestorm, Ronnie Raymond.  (The Aquaman reference is telling you to completely forget about that panel in Final Crisis #7.)  Johns is setting it up so that these characters will be revived as Black Lanterns.  Along with, we assume, the original Earth-1 Superman!

It's strange to see both Barry Allen and Hal Jordan discuss their deaths in this issue.  Hal says to Barry, "I died a sinner.  You died a saint".  Yet, here they are, back from the dead! 

And they are not the only DC heroes to journey back.  Oliver Queen came back to life as Green Arrow when Kevin Smith re-launched that title years ago.  In the 80s-90s, we pretty much had a generational shift as Hal, Barry, and Oliver died and turned over their mantles to Kyle Rayner, Wally West, and Connor Hawke.  That was exciting and a bit revolutionary at that time--something that differentiated DC Comics from Marvel.  Certain creators really loved the new generation.  Grant Morrison mentioned that he loved writing Kyle Rayner as he was more fallible than Hal Jordan.  Mark Waid proved that Wally West could be even more interesting that Barry Allen.

Now all of that has been undone.  And with it, the concept of death.  No character can completely die now in the DC Universe.  Just look at Legion of Three Worlds #4.  Kid Flash has returned, which is OK in my book, as everything was kind of telegraphed way in advance.  But now they've also brought back Connor Kent (Superboy), which just completely negates his big sacrifice at the conclusion of Infinite Crisis.

Oh well, let's bring back everybody!  I'm guessing that Johns will revive at least one dead member of the DC Universe permanently by the conclusion of Blackest Night.  I'll wager that either Aquaman and/or Martian Manhunter will cross back over into the land of the living.  Nuff said.