Well, last night we had another new episode of Justice League Unlimited, featuring…Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern. Rats. I was looking forward to seeing new characters, but I guess we have to wait ’til next week. According to the episode guide on the Cartoon Network site, we were supposed to get episode #3 last night, but instead it was episode #5 that was shown. Ah, well. At least we got to see Baby Demon…cute to the point of being appalling.
Speaking of the Demon, it appears that John Byrne’s new title for DC Comics is Blood of the Demon, discussed in detail here (and also mentioned at Franklin’s Findings and Highway 62). The discussion that follows (which, like most Newsarama discussions, should have a sign posted at the start that reads “Abandon hope, all ye” etc. etc.) quickly descends into, as Franklin notes, a battle between the Byrne lovers and the people with slightly more realistic expectations (i.e. “Byrne haters”).
I also noticed a lot of talk about the decision to do away with the Demon’s rhyming dialogue. That should come as no surprise to anyone who’s read Byrne’s take on the Demon in recent years, as Byrne would do whatever he can to get around writing it, probably because 1) that’s not how the Demon’s creator, Jack Kirby, would have done it, and 2) because rhyming dialogue is a pain in the butt to write. For this series, since Will Pfeifer is on dialogue chores, it wouldn’t be Byrne’s problem, but given the “back to basics” take on the character, the rhyming dialogue was probably the first thing to go.
And, you know, that’s fine. Alan Moore (who introduced this particular variation on the Demon during his run on Swamp Thing) and Matt Wagner did the dialogue the best, though Alan Grant should get some kind of award just for doing it for so darn long on the previous Demon monthly series. But, after so many years, I think I’m kind of burnt out on the rhyming-Demon thing. And Byrne seems to be at his best when playing with Kirby’s toys anyway, so I’m willing to give this Blood of the Demon series a shot.
In other news:
Precocious Curmudgeon takes on Identity Crisis criticism. Hey, it made me laugh.
Pal Dorian goes through some search terms used to find his site. (“Mallard Fillmore subtext?”)
