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To follow up on yesterday: I ended up not getting Justice League International…just seemed a little too…generic-y superhero, you know? I also picked up Omac, after giving it a look-through or two, and hearing a good word or two about it from comrade-in-funnybook-arms Chris Sims. It’s Keith Giffen doing a totally-nuts Kirby riff, and if you’re gonna do a book like Omac, Kirby it up as much as possible, I say.
And Swamp Thing…my mystical eye of Aga-Mike-o has peered across the nerdinet and has witnessed the pleasingly positive response most people have had to this new debut issue. Like I said yesterday, it continues the “Alec Holland evading his Swamp Thing destiny” storyline from the mini-series, and I’m assuming Scott Snyder will eventually provide the explanation for the sudden reseparation of Alec from Swampy, when the rejoining of the two was such a big deal at the end of Brightest Day. But, also like I noted, where the Search for Swamp Thing mini-series seemed awkward and forced, this new issue is more along the lines of what I want from a Swamp Thing comic…creepier and more introspective.
There’s also a bit of business introducing Swamp Thing’s next adversary, which features a certainly intentional reference to one of the more disturbing visuals from the Moore/Bissette/Totleben era. I don’t know that it’s supposed to be the same thing from the Moore run, but…well, I realize I’m being vague here, in an attempt to avoid spoilers. But you’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it.
One more thing, and this could be a SPOILER, I guess: this comic features, I believe, the second in-story appearance of Superman in his new costume that we’ve seen since the beginning of the relaunch. And while Yanick Paquette does a remarkable job illustrating this issue, there’s only so much one can do with that new Superman costume. It just plain looks awkward. Even the dude who designed the thing couldn’t make it work in the one panel he had to sell us on it in Justice League #1.
I like to think that I’m not simply being a typical reactionary comics fan, hating something because it’s different from what I’m used to. I mean, it’s…I’m not even sure how to articulate it. I think it’s a level of…pretension, perhaps, that seems uncharacteristic of what we think of when we consider the character of Superman. I think it’s that collar. It sort of gives him, like…airs of royalty, maybe? A “hey, this is my important uniform, I outrank you” kind of thing? And the action figure space-boots he suddenly has? It’s like Superman is slowly turning into the kind of superhero Old Superman opposed in Kingdom Come, with the overwrought, overdesigned ’90s tech-fest look.
Yes, maybe the red underwear over the blue tights was kind of goofy. Actually, there’s no “kind of” about it…it is goofy. And as someone reminded me on the Twitter not long ago, Superman’s costume is essentially just an old-timey circus strongman outfit. And…I’m okay with that. “Simple” works for Superman. So does “goofy” — it’s a little more humanizing, helping to bring a fantastic (in the original sense) character like Superman down to earth. (Compare also with the work jeans and boots costume in the new Action.)
Granted, that George Perez cover makes it look okay, but then, that’s George Perez. He makes purt’near everything look okay. But I’ll have to see what he does with it inside the book. Maybe once I get the in-story explanation for it (if there is one), I’ll be a little more accepting.
I mean, sure, if DC sticks with this costume, I’ll get used to it. But it’s really no improvement, especially if no one can draw it in an appealing fashion. It’s just change for change’s sake, and just one more shout of “hey, look, we’re different now!” among DC’s cacophony of similar cries.
So, in conclusion, I liked the new Swamp Thing comic. And let us put an end to the DC posts on this site…at least ’til next week.
While the “me am Superbaby!” talk is a little annoying, granted:
…that seems like something of an…extreme response.
BONUS: by using this particular standard:
…count the number of civilized men at the San Diego Comic Con. I suspect there will be an equal number of headbands and neckties.
Now, if I were Bully, I’d probably have dozens of examples ready to go, but alas, I am no stuffed bull, and thus only have the two immediately available. But I do so love the occasional chart, diagram, or other collection of evidence used when someone is trying to puzzle out some secret identity or other:
I also liked when the handlettered text is thoughtfully arranged so that none of it would be obscured when someone placed their thumb over the page.
And then there’s this cover detail from one of the earliest Superboy stories I ever remember reading (in a ’70s reprint):
I hope those aren’t a pair of Clark’s glasses made using the glass from his Kryptonian rocket ship that brought him to Earth as a baby. The material for those are in limited supply, and you’d figure Clark would keep better tabs on them.
I wonder if there’s something like this in a Green Arrow comic, with pictures of Oliver Queen and Green Arrow side by side with the notation “Queen’s beard and Arrow’s beard – CONNECTION?”
images from Superboy #93 (December 1961) by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye, and Batman #134 (September 1960) by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff
…who would interpret a direct look and the baring of teeth as signs of aggression:
from Superboy #109 (December 1963) by Jerry Siegel & George Papp
Hey, it
could be alien gorillas. This
is 1960s DC Comics, after all, and you know how they loved their gorillas.
“No! Not Ma’s pie!
Not her piiiiiiiie!”
image from Superboy #168 (September 1970) by Arnold Drake, Al Plastino & Mike Esposito
I’ve
talked about this before, where Frank Robbins (or the editor, I haven’t any idea) seemed determined to have Superboy stories be set in the 1930s, like in the story discussed at that link where Bonnie and Clyde menace Smallville. Or in the story I just found here, in issue #168 (September 1970) where Superboy must match wits with Nazi saboteurs in his hometown.
Assuming, as I did in the previous post, that Superboy stories take place when Clark is in his mid-teens, and that Superman stories always take place “now” (in this case, 1970), this would make Superman in his late 40s/early 50s at the very least. Which would be okay, I suppose, but seemingly contradictory to Superman’s usual portrayal as a somewhat younger man. (Not that being in one’s 40s is old, said the 42-year-old.)
“Oh no, some Superman comics may have odd continuity issues!” What a shock, I know. But I haven’t read a whole lot of the Superboy comics from this particular period of the very late ’60s/early ’70s…was this particular timeline unique to Robbins, or were other writers placing Superboy in the 1930s as well?
(You know, if DC is set on this whole “Superman is the first superhero” continuity reset that’s supposedly coming with the September relaunches, maybe they can go back to the Robbins timeline, with his teen years in the 1930s. With a 90-year-old Superman, who still looks like he’s in his 30s thanks to his alien physiology and super powers, you can still have the JSA active during WWII, and Captain Comet in the 1950s, and whatever else, and Superman would still be first. See, a perfect solution, and everyone’s happy!)
image from Superboy #168 (September 1970) by Frank Robbins, Bob Brown and Murphy Anderson)
Just so happened that we had one just hangin’ around in the shop, here. Let’s take a look, shall we?
“I really wish they wouldn’t hold the cue cards so high.”
Superman’s greatest adventure? I believe there is really only one contender for that title.
Also, I suddenly have the urge to
WATCH SUPERMAN ON T.V., for some odd reason.
Seriously, you can’t just drop something like a “super-intelligent but war-like race of mutant ants” into a story and never mention them ever again:
Superboy apparently isn’t big on arranging his exhibits in any kind of sensible thematic fashion:
This may be the most threatening thing Superboy has ever said to anyone:
images from Superboy #109 (December 1963) by Jerry Siegel & George Papp
Two things that struck me while reading the latest Complete Peanuts volume:
1. This book is reprinting from the years 1979-1980, which is also about the same time I was reading just about every Peanuts strip reprint book I could lay my hands on at the time. So, I was reading a whole lot of strips from before 1979, but not a whole lot of contemporary ones which hadn’t yet made it into the reprint books at the time. As a result…nearly this entire book feels “new” to me, since I recognize almost none of the strips. I suppose I may have caught a few in the paper, but I wouldn’t recall those as well as the strips I’ve seen in the various Peanuts collections that I would read over and over again.
Yes, that means I didn’t really read any of the reprint collections from the early 1980s onward. I wouldn’t get back into seeking out Peanuts books ’til the late 1990s, reprinting those last few years of the strip.
2. There’s a sequence of strips in this book where the gang attends what appears to be some kind of religious cult summer camp. I may be reading a bit into this, but clearly something has gone horribly wrong when this kind of injustice is perpetrated upon innocent youth:
Those
monsters.
Anyway, Peppermint Patty gets a bit freaked out by one of the guest speakers going on about “the last days” and the end of the world. Not a storyline I really expected in my Peanuts book, but yet another example of Charles Schulz’s continuing topicality…though in this case, the regular arising of doomsayers is nothing new and was bound to cycle through again. SPOILER ALERT: Peppermint Patty gathers evidence and uses skeptical, critical thinking to resolve her particular issue here.
• • •
I’m kind of all “new DC”-ed out at the moment, so I’m breaking from the commentary…even though as I write this, we’re only hours away from the official announcement of what the hell’s going on with the Superman family of books. The pics already leaked…via DC putting them in their blog’s image directory and people finding them…so we’ve all already seen them by now, I’m sure. And that pic with Superman’s new costume…that only goes to show George Perez can make
anything look great. Anyway, those of you reading this Friday morning or later can hie yourself hither to the
DC Comics weblog and check ‘em out yourself.
About the titles announced Thursday…I guess we can blame that movie for the more striking and recognizable Jonah Hex title for going away, to be replaced by the Hex-starring and more blandly-titled All-Star Western. And I’m not sure why a new series starring the grandson of Sgt. Rock amuses me, but it does.
BUT I’M NOT TALKING ABOUT NEW DCS AT THE MOMENT so shutting up now.
So hey, the final cover by Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes for Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search for Swamp Thing #1 has been revealed with the previously blacked-out figures now not blacked-out, and they are revealed to be…
…John Constantine and Zatanna! Well, I can see why they blacked out Constantine, since he was the big surprise reveal at the end of
Brightest Day #24 (er…SPOILER), but not so sure why Zatanna was kept under wraps. Ah, well, I’m sure they had their reasons.
And in DC’s ongoing quest to part me from my money by forcing me…yes, forcing, at gunpoint…to buy two copies of the same damned thing, here’s the limited retailer incentive variant cover by J.G. Jones for said #1:
Well…okay, that’s pretty good. Kinda prefer this one to the regular cover. But it doesn’t matter because I’m getting both, regardless.
That first cover is fairly amusing, though, with dour ol’ Batman, Superman and Zatanna pulling their best sourpuss faces, with John lightin’ up a smoke right there in front of them. Just the idea of Constantine pulling his irreverent “I’m gonna jerk you guys around and you won’t even realize it” routine on DC’s superfellas (and gals) sounds like fun. Let’s hope it is.
This put me in the mind of other times Constantine kinda sorta met Superman and Batman…he’s met Zatanna plenty of times, of course, since she’s a bit easier to fit into Constantine’s milieu. But to squeeze Batman and Superman together with our favorite Hellblazer, one must look back to the mid-1980s and Crisis on Infinite Earths:
That’s from
Swamp Thing #46 (March 1986), and I think this is the only time Batman, Superman and Constantine appear together in the same image ’til that cover up above. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong.
Of course, they’re not really interacting there at all. They just happen to be in the same room during that scene shown in Crisis on Infinite Earths #5, where several dozen characters are gathered together on the Monitor’s satellite. (Constantine doesn’t seem to actually be in that two-page group shot in Crisis #5, though Swamp Thing is. NOTE: I’m also bad at “Where’s Waldo,” so don’t take my word for it.) However, a couple of issues earlier, Constantine and former Doom Patrol associate Mento (whom Constantine is manipulating toward his own ends) run into a familiar Caped Crusader during the early stages of the Crisis:
I don’t know why I find this funny, but after Batman makes his “well, nice to meet you, but I gots things to do, kids” parting remarks, there’s this great panel of Batman running away:
That shot of Batman putting on his “I’m thinking really hard” face is a good one, too.
UNRELATED except for the fact that this is from one of the Swamp Thing comics I was scanning pics from: in #46 we see all the heroes (plus Swampy and John) called together by Alexander Luthor, the son of the Earth-3 Luthor (and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, ask someone old to explain it to you), and Swamp Thing has this reaction to hearing the name:
Now, I don’t know if this is one of these things I’ve noticed before but it’s been so long since I’ve reread these I’ve forgotten, or that I just picked up on it now, but Swampy’s “premonition” is apparently of his seeming “death” a few months later in #53, in which Lex Luthor (of Earth One, or Post-Crisis Earth, or whatever you want to call it) was involved.
Or possibly the premonition was foreshadowing that, 20 years later in the Infinite Crisis crossover event series, Alexander Luthor would turn into a complete asshole. …Hey, given Alan Moore’s dabbling in the magical realms, I wouldn’t put it past him foreseeing this.
panels from Swamp Thing #44 (January 1986) by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, Ron Randall and John Totleben; and Swamp Thing #46 (March 1986) by Moore, Bissette and Totleben
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