Mike Sterling's Progressive RuinAlone, unmourned, and unloved since 1969

A particularly lazy post.

§ August 2nd, 2011 § Filed under question time § 8 Comments

So I asked on the Twitter late last night for a couple of topics that I could write about today in brief, and this is what I was given:

From Celamowari:

…Did you like any of DC’s RetroActive books?

It seems that I’m liking them more in concept than I do in actual execution. And that might just be me. I’ve been told the 1970s-style Flash one-shot has some clever stuff in it. But it’s been a real…”you can’t go home again” kind of thing, I guess. I did pick up the 1970s-style Superman book, but I’ve only read about a third of it so far and haven’t gone back to it. I just might not be in the mood for it or something…it’s hard to say.

I am looking forward to the Justice League retro special illustrated by Kevin Maguire.

Nscottg supplied a few topics here:

“the Absence of Wally West”

Actually, as far as I’m concerned there’s an absence of the Flash, period, since I gave up on the Flash books a while back. I stuck through Flash: Rebirth, but the relaunched series with Barry Allen under the cowl just felt like a step backwards. And it didn’t help that the new series was just kinda bland.

As for the larger implications of the absence of former Kid Flash/former regular Flash Wally West…just one of those casualties, I suppose, of DC’s attempt to revitalize a moribund property critically damaged by too many restarts and retoolings in too short a time. Bringing back Barry seemed like a last resort, since Wally’s sales didn’t seem like they’d be going back up any time soon, and since Flash sales are up (or rather, were up, since they’re relaunched the series again as part of DC’s September Flood and who knows how it’ll do after that) I’m guessing Wally’s either out of the picture or reduced to a supporting role for the time being.

“something random about G’nort”

I liked Bad-Ass G’nort in that Howard Chaykin Guy Gardner mini. But I don’t think we’ll ever see G’nort as a regular player in the Green Lantern books. Unless he’s a Blue Lantern now…the “hope” thing would really fit him.

what Marvel Characters would make awesome Black Lanterns

Uncle Ben, natch. Imagine the head games a Black Lantern Uncle Ben would pull on Spider-Man.

Also, Black Lantern H.E.R.B.I.E. Yeah, I know he’s a robot. Still want to see it.

Comic miniseries that refuse to die (see: Secret Six, Suicide Squad, Agents of Atlas, etc, etc)

I know it’s a way to artificially bump sales with a new #1 every year, but it gets to be kind of a drag to follow, you know? If they’re going to do a series, just do a series, instead of giving readers nice jumping-off points after six months and hoping they’ll come back with the next series.

On the other hand, it is nice that the mini-series format gives certain sales-challenged but critically-acclaimed properties like Agents of Atlas multiple chances to find a more extensive audience. Not that it did, but at least they tried.

And then there’s the mini-series that should probably be given a rest. The first Marvel Zombies mini? Like printing money. The recent Marvel Zombies Supreme mini? Like printing Shadowhawk. Time to let that property sit on a shelf for a while, guys.

Marvel’s ratio of female creators?

Well, I didn’t check every book Marvel is currently publishing, but it looks like there’s at least two comics coming out this week with female writers (X-23 by Marjorie Liu, Mystic by G. Willow Wilson). So there’s two!