I believe as I was talking to
pal Tom at the shop yesterday, I referred to the newest issue of Marvel's
Secret War as "a bunch of horse****" -- okay, granted, I'd been vaguely irritated for most of the day, and thus not in the best of moods, so maybe that description was a little over the top. But, really, it's only half comics, with the other half filled with dossier files or some damn thing, and a bunch of pin-ups in the back, including an unfinished Spider-Man sketch that apparently was left over from one of Marvel's 9/11 exploitation books. Feh, sez I.
As long as I'm piling on Marvel...are there any betting pools out there as to whether or not this newest Daredevil mini-series (
Daredevil: Redemption) will be the one that actually finishes? Or will it join
Daredevil: Father and
Daredevil: That Bullseye Mini No One Cares about Anymore in limbo?
Just so I'm not all anti-Marvel...the new
Essential Tomb of Dracula volume is out, reprinting a bunch of stories from Marvel's 70s horror mags. It's as good-looking as the previous three volumes, and the only downside is trying to find the time to read it. Let's hope Marvel gets around to an
Essential Man-Thing volume (though judging by advance word on
this movie, Marvel may be trying to forget they
ever published a comic by that name).
The new bull in the china shop for the comics industry is
DC Countdown, which I already
briefly talked about last week, since I cheated and read the preview copy we received. Like it or hate it, comic fans are buying it, and this new expanded DC Universe cross-continuity business (of which this title is an integral part) is helping to improve sales across the board on DC's titles, at least at our shop. I've even started buying
Teen Titans again, and I'm considering picking up the new, slightly more superhero-y
Batman, a series I haven't read regularly in probably about 15 years.
SPOILERS AHOYSpeaking of
Batman, it appears that the big mistake of not making you know who the villain of
Hush is being rectified in this "Red Hood" storyline, as the character everyone thinks the Red Hood really is, is revealed to be...the character everyone thinks he is. Whether it's yet another big fake-out remains to be seen.
THUS ENDETH THE SPOILERSAnother annoyance was the arrival of yet more
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith comics that we can't put out for sale until April 2nd...the first issue of the mini-series adaptation, plus the trade paperback of the whole shebang. Yes, I peeked at the end. Boy, is the trailer misleading. The art, by Mark Wheatley, sure is nice, though.
There are a lot more new faces on the
Comics Weblog Update-A-Tron 3000, and I need to get around to adding them soon...but one I
definitely need to add is
Jumbotron 6000. Good readin'!
God bless you, Corey Beckner. You are truly a prince among men.
So I
did remember correctly regarding the revamped Mr. Mind's acquisition of a little wearable translator:
By comparison, here is his "classic" appearance:
I did appreciate the apparent effort in making the newer Mr. Mind still look sorta "cute" and amusing, while addressing the modern audience's need for something a bit more "realistic" looking. Yes, I realize I'm talking about a "realistic"-looking telepathic alien worm. Quit staring at me like that.
To follow up on
this morning's post...I hadn't forgotten about Captain Marvel's appearances in
JSA, where
commenter Zack points out that he'd been having a romance, of sorts, with Stargirl. Well, actually, the much younger Billy Batson had been, but the much older looking Captain Marvel making eyes with the teenage Stargirl caught the attention of Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash, thus causing some minor (so to speak) problems. That was a really weird, but oddly logical, plot point to be addressed, I thought. It was sort of interesting to see it brought up, but we're probably better off now that Cap seems to be out of the
JSA book, putting that plotline to rest.
And Sivana popped up in
Outsiders (where Captain Marvel Jr. appears to be hanging his hat) a while back, apparently much more bloodthirsty than in any of his previous appearances. I don't read this book, so I can't really provide any kind of cogent commentary on it. In the brief glances I did have of the relevant issues, both characters seemed a little out of place (not that there's anything wrong with the title, I might add)...but then, seeing Captain Marvel Jr. in any context other than a Marvel Family-related story always throws me off. (
EDIT: Pal Dorian tells me that Captain Marvel Jr. was only in the book for that particular storyline...oops, thought he was a regular member, for some reason.)
Commenter Rob points out that great
DC Comics Presents annual featuring Cap and Superman vs. a super-powered Sivana, drawn by Gil Kane in his usual dynamic style. The script was by Joey Cavalieri...his dialogue never really worked for me in any of his comics work, unfortunately, but the real star of this show was Kane's action-packed artwork.
To
commenter Bill's
question, regarding which issue of
Alter Ego had the proposed Roy Thomas revamp of Captain Marvel that was even more horrifying than
this one...I'm afraid I don't know! I haven't dug through the vast Mikester Comic Archives to pull out my stack of
AEs to check. When I have a little more time, I'll be sure to do so! It's really worth seeking out just to see the bullet we dodged. (If it sounds like I'm being a little hard on Mr. Thomas...well, I don't mean to be. The vast majority of his work I'm perfectly fine with, and
this Captain Marvel story of his (and Gerry Conway's) is still one of my favorites...but I guess he can't hit a home run every time!)
Okay, tomorrow morning...no Shazam! talk, I promise.
Rereading
Power of Shazam, and following along with the comments sections for my
previous posts, has got me considering DC's previous publishing attempts with the Big Red Cheese.
Well, there's the Captain Marvel "tryout" in
Superman #276, featuring "Captain Thunder" - but I found
this great article about it and I don't really know what to add.
Then there was
the 1970s series...DC's highly anticipated
Shazam! title, notable for the amount of "speculation" and "investment" in the first issue which didn't pan out. In fact, it wasn't until relatively recently that the early issues of this series started getting pulled out of quarter boxes and given premium prices. One of the ironies here is that due to years of it being treated as an overprinted "junk" comic, I don't see many
Shazam! #1s in nice condition...thus making near mint copies worth a pretty good chunk of change!
As for the actual interiors...well, to have heard the artist most associated with Cap, C.C. Beck, tell it, the stories were entirely too childish and dumbed down, and Beck couldn't leave the book fast enough (allowing fellow former Fawcett artist Kurt Schaffenberger to take over). I didn't think the stories were
that bad...a little silly at times, and trying to squeeze '70s fashions into the book seemed a bit out of place:
...but overall it was a light, fun read. Even better, a good number of issues had back-up stories reprinting some of the classic Marvel Family stories from the '40s and '50s. If you can get your hands on any of the 100 Page Giants in this series (and there are quite a few of them), do so, as they're chock-full of classic Captain Marvel reprints.
Near the end of the run of this series, the "old-fashioned" aspect of the series made way for a grittier, more "realistic" art style, provided by Alan Weiss...though Billy was still drawn with the simpler Beck-ish facial features. This "realistic" version tried to turn Captain Marvel into your standard issue superhero with standard issue superhero problems (as evidenced by the above image from the cover of #34), but it didn't really gel, and the series was cancelled with #35.
E. Nelson Bridwell and Don Newton's run on the Captain Marvel character in late '70s/early '80s issues of
World's Finest was, in my opinion, probably the best melding of the old-style whimsical Fawcett stories and the more modern comic sensibilites. Newton had an appealling cartoonish style, and Bridwell wrote some fairly uncomplicated and enjoyable stories. After the series left
World's Finest, Newton's work on Captain Marvel would continue in new stories for the
Adventure Comics digest...that printing size is hard on eyes as aged as my own, but still worth seeking out. In fact, even though I know there's absolutely no chance of this happening ever, it'd be nice to see a reprinting of Newton's work on the character.
Outside of these series, Captain Marvel popped up here and there there. There was that
Superman vs. Shazam treasury edition (in which Captain Marvel refers to a mode of attack that eventually gets used in
Kingdom Come...noted, if I may toot my own horn, by yours truly in the
Kingdom Come annotations, under "page 16"). One of my favorites as a young Mikester was this
two part story in
DC Comics Presents, teaming Supes and the Captain against the meeting of the Misters, Mind and Mxyzptlk. He got involved in a
JLA/JSA crossover, he puts in an appearance in
All-Star Squadron, he cameoed in
Crisis...but he didn't really become a regular part of the DC Universe again until the
Legends mini-series, where he played a major part. That of course spun-off the Giffen-era
Justice League series, where the character was maybe played a little
too much as a goody-two-shoes...though in the context of the "sitcom" feel of this particular series, it worked well enough. It was certainly a darn sight better than the other spin-off from the
Legends:
this ghastly thing, which I mentioned yesterday.
And of course that brings us up to the
Power of Shazam! graphic novel by Jerry Ordway, which shares with the spin-off series of the same name the qualities of beautiful art and somewhat clunky dialogue. It's still a nicely done book, and I appreciate the conceits of 1) Billy's dad being named after C.C. Beck, and 2) that Billy's dad is also the spitting image of Captain Marvel.
Nowadays Captain Marvel is a more integral part of the DC Universe...he's teamed up with Superman several times (with another
highly-publicized teaming in the near future), he was a central part of the
Underworld crossover as well as the aforementioned
Kingdom Come, and he was one of the more touching elements in Frank Miller's much-maligned
Dark Knight Strikes Again. And, of course, there's the much-anticipated
Jeff Smith mini-series. Plus, don't forget his forthcoming appearance in the
Justice League Unlimited cartoon.
Okay, I think that's driven most of the Captain Marvel talk out of my system. Thanks for coming along...and thanks especially for the interesting discussions in my
comments sections. I particularly liked
commenter Cole's points regarding the place of Captain Marvel's wish fulfillment fantasy in regards to modern comic book fans.
So occasionally I dip into the vast Mikester Comic Archives and pull out a run of books to reread and, hopefully, re-enjoy...sometimes spurred on when I come across the same books while working at the shop and I think, "hey, these were pretty good, I should read them again."
One of the recent titles I poured through recently, as the scan might hint, was Walt Simonson's run on
Orion. Coming on the heels of the previous
Jack Kirby's Fourth World, presumably the powers that be at DC Comics thought a title focusing on one character rather than an all-encompassing
New Gods might catch on more than previous attempts with this particular batch of Jack Kirby's characters. Simonson is one of the few cartoonists to really "get" the Fourth World, and this title was filled with his usual fast-paced action and wackiness, on top of the inherent nuttiness of Kirby's creations.
Rereading
Orion makes me wish Simonson was given full reign on another monthly title again...I know he's working on the new
Elric series, but that's not quite the same. His work on
Thor really was the peak for that the title, and everything that's followed in that series has suffered by comparison. Simonson turned Thor into a frog for several issues, for God's sake,
and managed to make it work...that's talent to reckon with! (That frog storyline is even referenced in
Orion at one point.)
Next on the reread list is
Power of Shazam, which was a gorgeous-
looking book, with Peter Krause and Mike Manley on art chores at first, and Jerry Ordway (who painted the wonderful covers for the whole run) finishing up on the interiors at the end of the run. The late Curt Swan popped in for a guest-penciller appearance once or twice as well. Ordway also provided the scripts, which...well, seemed a little rough around the edges sometimes. The dialogue was a little wonky, and stories seemed to end when the book ran out of pages, rather than build to any kind of conclusion.
Despite my minor qualms, my memories of the book are that it was a fun and enjoyable title, walking that fine line between the whimsy of the original Captain Marvel stories of the '40s and '50s and the tastes of modern comic fans. Ordway even managed to work in
Hoppy the Marvel Bunny and come up with a new origin for
Mr. Tawky Tawny! Besides, any comic where you can send away for
a decoder card can't be all bad! One oddity from the series that I was reminded of last night, as I read the first couple of issues, was that the teacher from
Calvin & Hobbes, Mrs. Wormwood, is also Billy Batson's teacher...now there's an odd in-joke.
In other (old) news:
Here's
an old article I came across about superhero movies (it mentions the possibility of the forthcoming
Hellboy movie, for example). Of interest is a list of "best" and "worst" super-movies...
Swamp Thing is on the "Worst" list, naturally, and apparently some kind of typo put
Batman Returns on the "Best" list. Also of note is a sidebar regarding the troubled attempts at a
Fantastic Four movie.
Sunday, March 27, 2005
King Comics Presents #1 (199? - no copyright date) - cover by Dell Barras
Okay, I didn't have anything special planned for Easter, so instead you get a comic cover featuring syndicated radio deejay/former late night talk show host/
novelty song genius Rick Dees.
If you need actual Easter content, I direct you to
last year's post, in which we get a heartfelt Christian message from, um, the Mighty Thor. (It's the last post on the page, in case the link doesn't take you directly to it...someday I'll fix all the image attributes so everything will load correctly, soon as they invent the 8-day week.)
As long as I'm just screwing around for the holiday, here's
yet another "meme", this time the dreaded book meme stolen directly from
Alan David Doane. It's a huge ol' list, so I put it on a separate no-frills page. No need to thank me.
Another time-honored method of filling a weblog post is "wacky search terms" - I haven't done this in a while, and some of my esteemed weblogging colleagues have been chiming in with their own lists, so I thought I'd play the "me too, me too" card.
Before I get to that, I did want to note that, via my log files, I found someone on the
Superdickery message boards had discovered
my scan (under Feb. 3, 2004) from
Batman #200. For those of you who backtracked the hotlinked image from the message board to my site...hi! I promise you, that image was
not altered, as one or two of you wondered.
Anyway...search terms. Aside from the perennial searches for nekkid pics of that gal playing Lois on
Smallville, the occasional puzzling search for "mike sterling progressive ruin," and the usual searches for scanned pages from recent comics to download (just go buy the darn things, you cheapskates), here's what I've got:
chalk+full+of+origin - It's
chock-full!!!
dirty+comics - ...And how to clean them, I'm assuming.
swamp+thing+motorcycle - Okay,
Orange County Choppers, I have a job for you....
BATMAN+638+WHO+IS+RED+HOOD+JASON+TODD - Sounds like you've already pretty much decided.
superman+cheats+for+the+infamous+parasite - I'm sure there's a logical explanation, but, really, I have no idea.
sterling+looking+for+two+girls+kissing - Yeah, so?
wit+and+wisdom+of+cerebus - File under "world's shortest books." Oh, quiet, like I was going to pass up the cheap joke.
bionic+woman+fetish+strength - I'm going to guess that there's some kind of fan fiction along these lines, but I prefer to remain blissful in my ignorance.
glenn+scarpelli - Uh oh, I hope that wasn't Glenn Scarpelli looking for
this post.
howard+the+duck+mp3s - If you find any, let me know.
lois+lane+comic+drawn+in+the+nude - I suppose it's remotely possible Kurt Schaffenberger sat at his art table in the buff, but why would you want to know this?
gatlin+guns+BOOM+POW+BAM - So you're looking for guns and the sounds they make?
the+trash+heap+has+spoken+goth - You mean
the character from Fraggle Rock?
sergio+aragones+gay - I'm fairly certain he isn't.
Fred Hembeck isn't gay, either.
Swamp+Thing+controversy - The only controversy is why you all aren't reading
Swamp Thing!
cartoon+network+toons+naked+on+ebay - Uh, yeah, good luck with that.
when+did+comics+start+glossing+pages - Well, actually, that's not a bad question. I'll have to think about that.
Marvel Fanfare is the first one to come to mind, but I'm certain there were others prior.
Depressing+Clown+Comic+Book - Ladies and gentlemen -
Obnoxio the Clown.
Lois+and+Brian+slash+Gallery+Family+Guy - Wait a minute, isn't Brian the family's
dog? Oh, ick.
a+site+that+looks+a+lot+like+google+but+is+porky+the+pig - This one made my brain lock up for a couple of minutes.
nazi+daughter+girl+balloons - I'm hoping that they're searching for old pulp novels.
how+can+i+ruin+my+enemy's+day - Well, you can fill his website's access logs with really insane search terms.
List+of+things+I+love - Don't ask me...I don't even know you.
Bambi's+gender - See,
I'm not the only person who's been confused on this important issue!
Oh, and Happy Easter, to those of you who celebrate the holiday.
