As mentioned elsewhere the real star was Animal Man, very low-key heroics combined with horror.
The other horror title Swamp Thing suffered a little from having to explain the exact status quo of Swampy. And also it features Batman and Superman. Ok, I know Swamp Thing has been away from mainstream comics for a couple of decades and so it pleases some of his fanbase to see him mixing with the big guns but for me I find their presence snaps me out. Scott Snyder is an excellent author though so no doubt we will go interesting places.
Action Comics is the latest rework of Superman. I thought he had been changed a lot in the 80s after the first major revamp.
This Supes though is dressed in jeans and shirt, living in the rough part of town and fighting a war against corporate corruption.
Yeah, the plot isn't complex but it's exciting. And Luthor is uber-cunning.
Men of War was surprisingly good, depicting a troop of humans in super powered conflicts. It is an interesting premise well-executed.
The first Batgirl issue struggles from having to explain (or at least acknowledge) the fact that Barbara has regained control of her legs.
Gren Arrow has had just as dramatic changes to his status quo. He is now seeinbgly Mark Zuckerberg but fighting crime in-between or during board meetings. This character always needs differentiating from Batman and as he has been on Smallville as a young man, it does make sense. That said even as a kid I enjoyed this book's political dimensions which are now absent.
Detective Comics gave us the first look at a Batnan title in this brave new world. It us a feast of unsubtle imagery. And that cliffhanger annoys me because we all know it isn't going to stick.
So all told, a mixed bag but there are some definite nuggets of awesomeness.
Showing posts with label Action Comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Action Comics. Show all posts
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Revamp : the late 80s Superman
So, those of us that care (and some that don't) know that in September DC is relaunching their universe.
Books by new creative teams (mostly) and a general desire to freshen things up.
Clearly it's too early to tell if it'll be any good. Whether we have Heroes Reborn (dire) or Ultimates (somewhat better but not flawless).
Though it's made me think back to the DC of the late 80s. In the UK, London Editions reprinted recent DC stories, often with articles explaining characters and storylines. It was through these that I first learnt of Crisis On Infinite Earths. Crisis (just in case you didn't know) was an epic story arc that allowed DC to tweak characters and their history in an effort to make the comic universe more accessible.
And few were more tweaked about with than Superman.
You know what? It excited me to know that I was reading about a fairly new Superman. (I did find myself looking down the nose at some pre-Crisis material as, for Supes, most of that stuff now hadn't happened.)
DC had entrusted John Byrne with reinventing the Man of Steel. And his version was very much of its time. Luthor was a corporate crook with underworld connections as opposed to a mad scientist. The sillier trappings like the Fortress of Solitude and Krypto the superdog were gone. And Supes was not all powerful. Also stripped back was a lot of the Kryptonianess. Supergirl no longer existed. Clark was on his own. And all the various different non-green colours of Kryptonite (and their different effects) were gone too.
Probably one of the strongest ideas was the doing away with Clark's time as Superboy (seriously, any crook with a brain would compare Smallville phonebooks of the Superboy era with those from Metropolis - yeah, it would take a while then but the rewards would pay dividends.)
Another strong idea was having Superman and Batman not get on. The grudging respect they showed made more sense given their vastly different attitudes and approaches.
But possibly the most crucial change was the overall grounding of Clark in his humanity. Ma and Pa Kent were now still alive, allowing us to see his human side. (Some of my favourite scenes were Clark hanging out back home.) Yes, this was a powerful being but he was relatable. See the issue of Man Of Steel when Clark comes home after his first heroic feat, saving a space-plane. He is overcome by the public reaction. "They all wanted a piece of me, Ma".
Byrne and fellow writer Marv Wolfman had modelled a fair bit on the Christopher Reeves films, to be sure. Though the paring back paid dividends. We were allowed to discover a hero who whilst morally strong could fail. And that could make for interesting reading.
The first issue of anything that I definitely remember having is Superman 9. It features the Joker attacking Metropolis. The Joker-smiles on his gassed victims scared my 8 year-old self but what really terrified me was the Joker's response when ultimately asked why he'd attacked another city. "Why ever not?"
That isn't the best part of that issue. The best part is a back-up story featuring Luthor appearing in a diner 900 miles from Metropolis. This is small-scale evil. He asks his waitress if she wants to give up her life, her husband and come with him for a month. She has ten minutes to decide.
There's no super-heroics at all. Just a moral dilemma and a great character-piece.
It's the characterisation that makes this era.
At the same time, over in Adventures of Superman, Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway created two of the more interesting recent additions to the supporting cast. Cat Grant (a bolshy single mother colleague of Clark's, who had designs on him) and Jose Delgado. Yeah, Jose's got a bit of a stereotypical name but his introductory storyline was great. Gang Wars focussed on turf wars between gangs and Superman's realisation that this was a problem that couldn't be punched into submission. Jose eventually becomes Gangbuster in an effort to help police his neighbourhood. Which led to another issue that I adored, Adventures of Superman 437. There are two narrators, on facing pages. Lois Lane and Luthor. Lois is discussing her date with Jose and how it is interrupted by a hired thug called Combattor. Luthor (who has funded said thug) tells his dinner-date of a hypothetical fight between Combattor and Superman and how neither are really the good guys. It's narratively daring (for a comic) and I remember being shocked that Combattor crippled Jose. It also made me hate Luthor even more.
To conclude, yes, this brave new world of 1986 had a few mis-steps in its first 2-3 years but it entertained the hell out of my kiddy self. And took risks when doing it.
Books by new creative teams (mostly) and a general desire to freshen things up.
Clearly it's too early to tell if it'll be any good. Whether we have Heroes Reborn (dire) or Ultimates (somewhat better but not flawless).
Though it's made me think back to the DC of the late 80s. In the UK, London Editions reprinted recent DC stories, often with articles explaining characters and storylines. It was through these that I first learnt of Crisis On Infinite Earths. Crisis (just in case you didn't know) was an epic story arc that allowed DC to tweak characters and their history in an effort to make the comic universe more accessible.
And few were more tweaked about with than Superman.
You know what? It excited me to know that I was reading about a fairly new Superman. (I did find myself looking down the nose at some pre-Crisis material as, for Supes, most of that stuff now hadn't happened.)
DC had entrusted John Byrne with reinventing the Man of Steel. And his version was very much of its time. Luthor was a corporate crook with underworld connections as opposed to a mad scientist. The sillier trappings like the Fortress of Solitude and Krypto the superdog were gone. And Supes was not all powerful. Also stripped back was a lot of the Kryptonianess. Supergirl no longer existed. Clark was on his own. And all the various different non-green colours of Kryptonite (and their different effects) were gone too.
Probably one of the strongest ideas was the doing away with Clark's time as Superboy (seriously, any crook with a brain would compare Smallville phonebooks of the Superboy era with those from Metropolis - yeah, it would take a while then but the rewards would pay dividends.)
Another strong idea was having Superman and Batman not get on. The grudging respect they showed made more sense given their vastly different attitudes and approaches.
But possibly the most crucial change was the overall grounding of Clark in his humanity. Ma and Pa Kent were now still alive, allowing us to see his human side. (Some of my favourite scenes were Clark hanging out back home.) Yes, this was a powerful being but he was relatable. See the issue of Man Of Steel when Clark comes home after his first heroic feat, saving a space-plane. He is overcome by the public reaction. "They all wanted a piece of me, Ma".
Byrne and fellow writer Marv Wolfman had modelled a fair bit on the Christopher Reeves films, to be sure. Though the paring back paid dividends. We were allowed to discover a hero who whilst morally strong could fail. And that could make for interesting reading.
The first issue of anything that I definitely remember having is Superman 9. It features the Joker attacking Metropolis. The Joker-smiles on his gassed victims scared my 8 year-old self but what really terrified me was the Joker's response when ultimately asked why he'd attacked another city. "Why ever not?"
That isn't the best part of that issue. The best part is a back-up story featuring Luthor appearing in a diner 900 miles from Metropolis. This is small-scale evil. He asks his waitress if she wants to give up her life, her husband and come with him for a month. She has ten minutes to decide.
There's no super-heroics at all. Just a moral dilemma and a great character-piece.
It's the characterisation that makes this era.
At the same time, over in Adventures of Superman, Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway created two of the more interesting recent additions to the supporting cast. Cat Grant (a bolshy single mother colleague of Clark's, who had designs on him) and Jose Delgado. Yeah, Jose's got a bit of a stereotypical name but his introductory storyline was great. Gang Wars focussed on turf wars between gangs and Superman's realisation that this was a problem that couldn't be punched into submission. Jose eventually becomes Gangbuster in an effort to help police his neighbourhood. Which led to another issue that I adored, Adventures of Superman 437. There are two narrators, on facing pages. Lois Lane and Luthor. Lois is discussing her date with Jose and how it is interrupted by a hired thug called Combattor. Luthor (who has funded said thug) tells his dinner-date of a hypothetical fight between Combattor and Superman and how neither are really the good guys. It's narratively daring (for a comic) and I remember being shocked that Combattor crippled Jose. It also made me hate Luthor even more.
To conclude, yes, this brave new world of 1986 had a few mis-steps in its first 2-3 years but it entertained the hell out of my kiddy self. And took risks when doing it.
Sunday, 1 May 2011
On media and Action Comics (but bear with me)
The caravan has recently returned from an excursion to the Mediterranean island nation of Malta.
There is nothing worse than someone gassing on about how they had a lovely time on their hols (but we did and you should try to go if you like sun, sea and churches but with a relaxed non-pushy attitude to tourists)
So to the point.
The main island of Malta is a small place. It takes 45 minutes to cross by car. The airport takes up a fair bit of it.
And the media there makes the country's size quite clear. Page 3 of Wednesday's Times of Malta (the national paper) had a piece on a postbox being damaged but the mail inside being ok. It also named and shamed an employee who had just been convicted for what seemed to be minor fraud against his employer.
Yeah, it's easy to point and laugh at such a parochial media.
But maybe this contributes in some small way to why the place is so safe. If you're a local and you get caught, not only will your friends and family know about it but so will the whole country.
That might seem a bit scary. A bit 1984.
It's symptomatic of being such a tiny country, I guess.
Though it also shows that the media can be a positive influence kind of.
I needed to remind myself of that when seeing the coverage of Action Comics 900.
DC decided to celebrate 900 issues of the comic that Superman first appeared in, which is a great achievement (even if they did slightly cheat by having it weekly for a while in the late 80s).
So in addition to their regular writer Paul Cornell (he who wrote the two stone-cold classic Dr Who stories Father's Day and Human Nature ), they brought in other writers for back-up stories including David S. Goyer (who wrote Nolan's Batman movies as well as the upcoming Superman movie).
Goyer's story appears to feature Supes renouncing his US citizenship saying that he is getting tired of being mistaken as an agent of American foreign policy.
Now, I haven't read this but nor have various other commentators who seem to have created a mini-storm. Here's potential Presidential candidate Mike Huckerbee being asked about it on Fox.
The Weekly Standard also jumped in. Admittedly their writer is clearly a comics fan (I disagree that the only thing interesting about Superman is that he's devoted to America though it's a theory) but as he acknowledges, the media is taking a back-up story far too seriously. There's a lot of angry comments on Comics Alliance's coverage.
DC have now made efforts to clarify that the character is still committed to America.
Which they kind of needed to, given the heat generated.
But it does make me wonder what DC were thinking. In the 90s they released Superman : Red Son, an imaginary story (aren't they all - to quote Alan Moore) in which his rocket landed in the USSR instead. Here in the UK, I remember reading articles implying that this would be the new status quo. (Which was never going to be the case).
So maybe DC should have thought that this would be a THING.
Ach well...
There is nothing worse than someone gassing on about how they had a lovely time on their hols (but we did and you should try to go if you like sun, sea and churches but with a relaxed non-pushy attitude to tourists)
So to the point.
The main island of Malta is a small place. It takes 45 minutes to cross by car. The airport takes up a fair bit of it.
And the media there makes the country's size quite clear. Page 3 of Wednesday's Times of Malta (the national paper) had a piece on a postbox being damaged but the mail inside being ok. It also named and shamed an employee who had just been convicted for what seemed to be minor fraud against his employer.
Yeah, it's easy to point and laugh at such a parochial media.
But maybe this contributes in some small way to why the place is so safe. If you're a local and you get caught, not only will your friends and family know about it but so will the whole country.
That might seem a bit scary. A bit 1984.
It's symptomatic of being such a tiny country, I guess.
Though it also shows that the media can be a positive influence kind of.
I needed to remind myself of that when seeing the coverage of Action Comics 900.
DC decided to celebrate 900 issues of the comic that Superman first appeared in, which is a great achievement (even if they did slightly cheat by having it weekly for a while in the late 80s).
So in addition to their regular writer Paul Cornell (he who wrote the two stone-cold classic Dr Who stories Father's Day and Human Nature ), they brought in other writers for back-up stories including David S. Goyer (who wrote Nolan's Batman movies as well as the upcoming Superman movie).
Goyer's story appears to feature Supes renouncing his US citizenship saying that he is getting tired of being mistaken as an agent of American foreign policy.
Now, I haven't read this but nor have various other commentators who seem to have created a mini-storm. Here's potential Presidential candidate Mike Huckerbee being asked about it on Fox.
The Weekly Standard also jumped in. Admittedly their writer is clearly a comics fan (I disagree that the only thing interesting about Superman is that he's devoted to America though it's a theory) but as he acknowledges, the media is taking a back-up story far too seriously. There's a lot of angry comments on Comics Alliance's coverage.
DC have now made efforts to clarify that the character is still committed to America.
Which they kind of needed to, given the heat generated.
But it does make me wonder what DC were thinking. In the 90s they released Superman : Red Son, an imaginary story (aren't they all - to quote Alan Moore) in which his rocket landed in the USSR instead. Here in the UK, I remember reading articles implying that this would be the new status quo. (Which was never going to be the case).
So maybe DC should have thought that this would be a THING.
Ach well...
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