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A Strange Aeon posted:What sort of weird events would have occurred in an Ultimate DC universe? I'm sure this was all over comic blogs 15 years ago. That's essentially what Earth One is
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Mar 19, 2018 20:46
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Retro Futurist posted:That's essentially what Earth One is Even new Earth had that since the first years after Crisis were dominated by "Here's new version of old character with a modern twist!"
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Mar 19, 2018 21:56
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CapnAndy posted:Also does anyone remember that one blog post from somewhere where they tried to trace characters chronologically from Countdown into Amazons Attack and back and found out that they end up somehow showing up before they leave and being in two places at once? I remember the evocative phrase "The narrative spine of the DC universe has scoliosis" from it, which you'd think would be Google-able, but... nope.
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Mar 19, 2018 23:09
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A Strange Aeon posted:What sort of weird events would have occurred in an Ultimate DC universe? I'm sure this was all over comic blogs 15 years ago. DC: Oh man we'll tear off so many arms, it's gonna be so great.
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Mar 20, 2018 02:42
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Doctor Spaceman posted:I know some of the Downcounting posts at Funny Book Babylon go into the continuity issues with Holly Robinson and events shown in Amazon's Attack, Countdown and Catwoman. 
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Mar 20, 2018 03:15
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Edge & Christian posted:Yeah I definitely wrote a lot about that and really liked ragging on "THE NARRATIVE SPINE OF THE DC UNIVERSE" but I don't know if that was a specific line of mine. Also our old site is all messed up 
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Mar 20, 2018 06:12
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Here's an interim review of the rest of Countdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6VjPM5CeWs
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Mar 20, 2018 06:58
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Zeeman posted:Also, I think I've recovered from the boredom of Fear Itself, so deal me in, no dupes So I decided to roll myself in, and got #304: JLA/Avengers. Looks like my local library has a copy, so I'll be able to do this review without breaking the bank.
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Mar 21, 2018 17:55
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Zeeman posted:So I decided to roll myself in, and got #304: JLA/Avengers. Looks like my local library has a copy, so I'll be able to do this review without breaking the bank. It's shocking how much better that is than you'd expect, but I mean Busiek wrote it.
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Mar 21, 2018 18:11
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I just want a new printing of the trade for that more than anything but that's not going to happen.
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Mar 21, 2018 18:39
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Roth posted:I just want a new printing of the trade for that more than anything but that's not going to happen. The not-really-but-it-really-is Absolute edition is great as the second book contains the 95% complete pencils from Perez for the first issue of the JLA/Avengers crossover from the 1980's, a breakdown of what that crossover would have been and what happened to it, and annotations for all the things they stuffed into the actually published crossover.
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Mar 21, 2018 18:51
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Going back to the Millar chat from earlier, I’m reading The Ultimates 1&2 again and while parts would definitely be considered more problematic today (the way every female character is constantly referred to as sweetie or honey by everyone, use of the r-word, constantly equating femininity with weakness), it holds up surprisingly well. The politics are a little simplistic but still pretty decent considering (I’m still early on in 2 so maybe it gets worse I dunno). And of course Hitch’s art is incredible. Is it known how much Bendis or people aside from Millar had to do with the plotting?
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Mar 21, 2018 18:57
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Retro Futurist posted:It's shocking how much better that is than you'd expect, but I mean Busiek wrote it. I actually read it a while ago and remember enjoying it, but don't remember much about it
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Mar 21, 2018 19:29
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[quote="Jerusalem" post=""482176845"] Oh you lucky loving bastard:  You get 293: BATMAN AND ROBIN MUST DIE which is just loving excellent. [/quote] Indeed. Goddamn I love this run. I don’t know if I could say for sure that Morrison is my all time favourite writer, but he’s top 3 easily. I’ve also come around on Fraser Irving’s art; he’s not a good fit for everything, but in the right story he pulls of very cool stuff. This is kind of a tough story to write a review for though, it’s basically the third quarter of Morrison’s Batman run (plus Final Crisis) and makes less sense than usual devoid of that context, plus it’s a Morrison book so to fully appreciate it you need to read DC’s entire back catalogue, then do a handful of hallucinogenic stuff and converse with a 5th dimensional being. I’ll say this; it’s something different, and one of the best runs on a character in recent history, find a reading order (heres one) and get on it. Bowing out for now as I picked up a bunch of stuff at the marvel bogo sale
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Mar 24, 2018 05:20
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American Barbarian: A Review I saw a comic once that spoke of an injustice; three panels, the first two filled with mourners with candles at a gravesite. The first picture was captioned "Elvis Presley's Death Anniversary". The second, the same, except it was for Kurt Cobain. The last one was blank and said "Jack Kirby's Death Anniversary", save for a random person leaning into the frame and saying "Who?" It fits a general belief about "The King", in that he got screwed out of his place in comic book history, with the claim that Stan Lee took all the credit for Marvel's Silver Age Renaissance when he actually deserved about 40 percent of it at most being the most prominent. And there's some basis of that in fact, and I'd argue that it's being corrected now, with Kirby and others (like Larry Lieber) getting on screen credit in recent Marvel movies. But there's always two sides to a story. And in truth, I feel there's a small reason why Kirby got downplayed, ignored, or shoved aside. In the end, the man is black licorice. He wrote and drew with a bombastic creativity that few in comics have ever matched, but in doing so he often functioned on a wavelength that not everyone could get. Say what you will about Lee, but in the end he understood that if you go for what the casual majority likes, ie being the red licorice, you might end up in the spotlight by default. There are all sorts of further arguments that could be made here, but that's not important for this review. I mainly bring this up by saying that Jack Kirby can be an acquired taste that not everyone might like or 'get'. But the writer and artist of American Barbarian gets him, and a number of other genres, and he's managed a blend of exceptional quality. Not bad for a comic that, if you judge a book by its literal cover, looks like another indy book filled with bad inner art in black and white, with titles like Bimbos From Outer Space and stories that are even worse than titles like that suggest.  American Barbarian draws heavily from Kirby's style, but also draws influences from Conan, He-Man, the general toyetic concepts of 80's Saturday morning cartoons, and even a few dollops from Mad Magazine. I complained a lot in my previous reviews about how badly the stories tried to deconstruct the medium they were working in, just coming off with the impression that the writers were trying to say that they were adults and this was adult. American Barbarian just does this by presenting absurd things on their face and letting the work speak for it. Take the comic's villain, Two-Tank Omen, who is a cross between Darkseid and a gimmicky action figure who literally has tanks for feet.  Or that the hero, in a classic 'swear by blood' sequence, tries to cut the letters for 'revenge' onto his fingertips...and his meathead solution when he realizes he has more fingers then letters.  And as a further joke he never says the word 'revenge', he spells it out every time. But there's more to American Barbarian than biting the hands that gifted one paints and trying to inject some 'maturity' into the stuff we loved as kids (See: Any fanfiction about a cartoon where the characters curse/do other adult things, 95 percent of the time just making it clear they're falling into the same WE'RE ADULT trap that consumed the brony concept in record time). It's art is not just in full color, but well done, as this double page that I couldn't find in one piece shows as main character Meric (AMERICan Barbarian, of course) assaults a moving fortress base   And it does feel like an extended, if rather absurd world. Take this guy and his ridiculous yet fitting armor.  Or the Star Sword, which leaves a rainbow esque trail behind the blade as it moves, a concept that is both very cartoony and yet mildly epic, speaking of a new weapon concept in the vein of Excalibur and Mjolnir.  But I think the highest recommendation I can give a series like this is when the first real page has a concept that makes me go "drat, I wish I'd thought of that." That being the 'Tangle of Swords'.  So yeah. American Barbarian is an ode to the King, the barbarian concepts hardened by the likes of Howard, and the silly things we loved as kids, all well combined into a nice package. Best of all, it's technically a webcomic and free, though it exists in print if you want to support the author. You can read it here. Final rating: 8.5 out of 10. And you see why I asked for bad comics to start with; with good stuff all I can basically go is "I liked this, go read it, here's a few snippets because I don't wanna spoil all the good stuff for you." Cornwind Evil fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Mar 25, 2018 |
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Mar 25, 2018 05:09
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 Over two years into the series and Starman is established, both as a comic and within the actual comic-book universe as a character. Robinson's confidence has been rewarded, with a series that feels like it doesn't just exist in the DC Universe but has ALWAYS existed within the DC Universe. Partly this is helped by the mining of Golden Age comics characters and storylines, but the series never feels like nostalgia for its own sake - if anything it feels like a rehabilitation of many of those characters. Not because they were bad, but because - as I argued in previous write-ups - I felt DC was largely embarrassed by their past creations, and this series stakes a claim confidently (there is that word again) that no they weren't silly or embarrassing, and not only did they have worth but they continue to have worth. But this is not a flawless series, far from it. While it never quite falls into the depths of naval-gazing deconstruction of superhero tropes that later comic series have been guilty of, there is a strong sense of a comic that is trying to have it's cake and eat it too - the central character of Jack Knight isn't quite an author self-insert but it does graze the edge sometimes with lengthy diatribes about the state of the world (read: comic book industry) and revels in notion of superheroes viewed through a prism of "realism". When this works, it absolutely nails it, but when it doesn't it can take the reader (or at least myself) out of the story and remind me that I'm reading words put into the mouth of a fictional character by a writer who has somewhat of an axe to grind.  By this point in the series, there are some established norms that Robinson uses mostly to strong effect. One is the annual "Talking With David" issue, in which Jack's deceased brother David will speak with him in a dream and help impart some kind of message, warning or lesson. It helps to not only further Jack's own ongoing development as a superhero, but is a chance to in a way apologize/make up the fact that David was so unceremoniously disposed of in the first issue and kinda treated like a joke/after-thought for being so "naive" as to just blindly embrace the "silly" notion of being a brightly colored costumed superhero in the grim'n'gritty 90s era of DC Comics. But there is also a rather neat recurring element of the "Times Past" issues, in which - often using a framing device of The Shade's journal - we get to pop back in time and take a look at a different era/different characters and how their lives and adventures inform the present day of the comic. This provides back story for some characters, context for others, and using The Shade as the constant which exists through all of them is a nice touch that keeps them from feeling like standalone stories or filler. Across the run of comics I'm discussing in this write-up (roughly issue 27 through to 48) we cover the 40s, 50s, 70s and 1990s which also allows for some minor playing around with the tone to match perceptions of those eras. In the 40s issues there is a lot of war paranoia and the stories are pregnant with the imposing sense of something truly horrible occurring to gain the prosperity that followed (the Manhattan Project), but also a fun look at the societal norms of the time: women had their place but socialites had a freedom of a sort... but were still restricted in what was considered appropriate. The villain of one of those stories, which features Ted Knight's cousin The Phantom Lady, is a criminal and a murderer but also considered shocking and scandalous purely because she is a woman and thus upsetting the "natural" order. By comparison in the 50s we don't see Opal City as a dark and imposing place (even given it's "unnatural" vibrancy/air of optimism) mostly seen at night, but as a bright metropolis enjoying the post-war boom and America's status as arguably the mightiest superpower of the 20th Century. In that story, morality has its place even among the criminal fraternity, where a character called Jake "Bobo" Benetti goes to the Shade for help in preventing the planned assassination of Starman by several supervillains. He can't stand by and let a man be killed without warning him, but he's also not a "rat", so he desperately seeks an alternative that won't infringe on his moral code. The Shade will later learn that Ted Knight let his moral code guide him in this case as well, letting Benetti escape capture even if he would later catch him himself in the instigation of a different crime. In the 70s, the blue-skinned Mikaal Tomas who was Starman for a time is high on drugs and living for the nightlife. It's not just an excuse to revel in the hedonism of the era though, but an opportunity to tell some of Mikaal's backstory and reveal that his people were bred for war as an invasion force, and with the destruction of their people they have channeled their internal desire for war into addictive personalities. Mikaal was the vanguard of an invasion force but came to love Earth and betrayed his own people, and now the few that survive have come for him only to be killed one by one while his drug-fueled haze has seen him lose more and more of his memory. Meeting another member of his race whose addiction is sex, he learns his opponent has contracted a relatively minor STD that is lethal for their kind, so he has come to die in battle against Mikaal. Mikaal defeats him, of course, but in his desire to get clean in the aftermath of the fight and became a true hero, he is kidnapped and a large gap remains in his story between his capture and his purchase by the Incubus for the freakshow a decade later. In the 90s, Will Payton - another Starman - chases a pair of criminal lovers on a crime spree across Turk County outside of Opal City. The shades of Natural Born Killers are fairly obvious, and while the dialogue is a little forced and the story relies too much on EVERYTHING going exactly as the villains planned, it is an interesting look at Payton as a Starman who is largely forgotten or considered irrelevant. As he himself asks, why does nobody like him? On paper he's a great hero, but he feels out of place, even more of a relic than the original Starman - he came along at the wrong time and despite his best efforts, nobody seems to care.  All of this stuff is important, because it aids the worldbuilding, particularly the history. Yes the title is Starman, and yes Jack Knight is the central character whose adventures, thoughts, feelings, failures and triumphs etc are our primary interest. But he exists in a world that was there before him and will be there after him, and the things that happened and will happen will all impact on him. He doesn't exist in a vacuum, and reading Starman doesn't make me feel like I'm reading some self-contained story that just so happens to exist in the wider DC Universe. He feels part and parcel of the existing world... which is what makes it ironic that those few times that "mainstream" DC intrudes into the Starman series feels just like that: an intrusion. There are two storylines across this 20 issue run that are majorly impacted and I'd argue are derailed by the intrusion of the wider DC Universe. Despite the panel I posted earlier of Jack complaining about Batman, the issue where Batman comes to Opal City actually feels very natural and like something that naturally progressed out of the ongoing Starman narrative as planned out by Robinson. Yes he takes advantage of the situation to rail a bit about the grim'n'gritty humorless characters who take themselves too seriously, but overall it works well and even leads to a neat bit in the aftermath of the story where Batman admits he does have a favorite Woody Allen film after all. But where that felt natural, the other stories feel particularly forced. A storyline about a bomber who starts off trying to make money as an assassin for hire/blackmailer and then becomes murderous is completely derailed by a tie-in to the abominably awful Genesis crossover event (how that hasn't made the list of worst comic stories I don't know, it's John Byrne at his worst in a universe-altering event that achieves absolutely nothing) and the next issue of Starman largely just ignores it and doesn't even offer a token explanation for how Jack got his "powers" back. After that comes the godawful single issue I wrote about last time featuring the Mist, which I'll only mention now to bring up the shockingly awful reveal from a few issues earlier that the Mist raped Jack and got pregnant so she can raise his child to hate him as revenge for him killing her brother. I don't want to talk about that storyline at all anymore  Next comes a crossover storyline that ticks all the boxes of terrible crossover storylines: the misunderstanding, the fight, the team-up. A Golden Age superhero called Bulletman is accused of having been a Nazi sympathizer in newly unearthed newsreel footage, but his only alibi is Ted Knight but neither can talk about where they were that day because it pertains to a still classified wartime operation. Ted helps Bulletman go on the lamb and the two set off to try and clear his name, while Jack has to run interference on Captain Marvel who flies into town to apprehend Bulletman and demands Jack gives him up. The normally genre-savvy Jack just falls directly into fighting Captain Marvel for no reason beyond it being what happens in a comic usually, and even with the comic acknowledging Marvel is far beyond Jack's level and Marvel himself is pulling his punches, the fight feels completely implausible. Not that there are no redeeming features to it, the story does give us a chance to see that Jack has been tutored by Ted on varying uses of the Cosmic Rod that make it a far more effective tool and him a more competent hero, as well as demonstrating there has been a growing level of acceptance of Jack by Opal City. The part of the story where Opal City's police force pull their guns on Marvel for beating on "one of their own" in Jack is actually a strong moment, as is Marvel's bewildered,"But... I'm a hero?" reaction. But any strengths are undercut by the fact that the four issue storyline happens across BOTH series. So to actually get the full story you have to read Captain Marvel as well. I looked up a synopsis - Ted and Bulletman just hold a press conference and provide him his alibi without giving out any classified info.... they couldn't have just done that from the start? But outside of these intrusions, the overall narrative continues on well with past events and characters largely mattering. For those that don't, it does feel like they are probably going somewhere but just haven't been resolved yet: a subplot about The Black Pirate, a ghost seeking to clear his name of the murder of his own son, just seems to be meandering along mostly at the moment. Solomon Grundy gets a moment of heroic sacrifice that details a little bit more about his changes of personality on every resurrection, Bobo's release from jail and discovery of a new purpose in Opal as a crime-fighter is well handled, the O'Dares continue to get varying levels of development in their own little soap opera of a life etc. There are callbacks to previous characters/one-offs, such as Dr. Phosphorus escaping confinement and wanting revenge on Ted Knight for humiliating him, or the former Sandman Wesley Dodds and his wife Dian Belmont eagerly heading out of the United States in pursuit of adventure in "the East" because their adventure with Jack reinvigorated them. That also plays into the subplot of Jack trying to rebuild his business destroyed way back at the start of the series, as Dian gives him enough money to buy the store he has had his eye on. But then there's Sadie.  She's appeared a couple times in the first couple of years and it was immediately obvious she'd be a longer-term character. Their initial meetings saw them hate each other on sight, which made it painfully clear they'd probably end up being lovers, because while Robinson is a confident writer he's also very much guilty of falling into some pretty blatant tropes from time to time. Sadie is a problem because she stands in such sharp relief to how well built-up and arranged the other characters/subplots are. Unless I missed it in an annual or something, the two start dating "off-panel" and the reader is left playing catch-up. The first time we see them on a date, it's their third date, but their conversation about Sadie's hostile reaction to them is only being brought up for the first time between them now? Who exactly is she? What is her character? She largely seems defined by her relationship to others, and a conversation between the two about elitism feels pretty tone-deaf as Jack's reactions and responses should be setting off a ton of warning alarms but she instead seems to be charmed by. She complains that her ex was a smug douchebag who judged others by their knowledge of esoteric subjects, and when she discovers that Jack is largely the same and PROUD of the fact she complains about it... and he ignores her to thrill to the fact that she is aware of some obscure bit of trivia he was just bragging about. Mostly what irritates me though is that there was interesting potential to explore or at least disarm WHY she acts this way, but it gets ignored. Because we learn that she has a reason to want to be on Jack's good side and overlook his flaws, but it never gets bought up as a subject of discussion or even as something that potentially might be a concern. What is that reveal?  Yep, Jack brings the Shade up to speed on all these developments that... Wait, what? I honestly, genuinely think this is the first and only time this reveal is brought up in the series. But it was such a gigantic thing that I became convinced it couldn't be and I must have missed it, so I went back and looked through all the issues again and I still couldn't find it. Either I missed it twice, it happened in another book (an annual perhaps?) or... did this absolutely massive and drastic plot development not get revealed until this casual brunch with The Shade, where it is all laid out casually like something the reader was already fully aware of? Sadie gave a fake name and purposefully stalked Jack in order to convince him to go into space and find her brother who most people believe is deceased? Which in turn raises those other questions I mentioned before. Did she let his nasty qualities slide because she needed him for this purpose? Did she sleep with him in order to get what she wanted? Is she simply using him? None of those questions get asked. By anybody. Apparently she told him all this (off-panel) and he just went,"Okay, brb looking for spaceship"? His dad doesn't even question it, just putting Jack into contact with the JLA (in what feels like another forced cameo) who offer commiserations but aren't gonna hand over a spaceship to Jack based on nothing but Sadie's "feeling", especially since most of them saw Payton die fighting Eclipso. It stands out as a particularly weird flaw in the writing that is otherwise so well-handled and solidly constructed, and makes me ponder whether Robinson's strengths simply don't extend to (original) female characters. His Phantom Lady and Black Canary are okay even if the latter is defined by a brief affair she had with Ted Knight, but the Mist is awful and Sadie is a cipher. Though at least both are better than the slightly cringeworthy slavering over Jade as a sex symbol from earlier in the series. He wouldn't be the first writer to be tremendous at world building, tying plotlines together and establishing excellent male character relationships but then fall short when it came time to write females, but I do hope that there is more to Sadie than this and we see some kind of development over the last part of the series. Oh God please don't fridge her for "poignancy" or to make the Mist or somebody more of a villain  Because while he blows the start, everything that follows I really, really enjoy when it comes to setting up what comes next. "Stars My Destination" is a lengthy storyline which I'll cover in my next write-up, but I'll end here to endorse just how well Robinson sets the stage for it. Because once he's decided he's going into space, Jack actually sets about making sure that all is in place so he can. He isn't just going to leave Opal City and then come back (if he comes back) to a city in ruins or overrun by crime. So he goes and talks to Bobo to step up in his absence and look after the city. He makes sure his new business can continue to run since now he has to go so shortly after buying it, and in a nod to what I said above, it is Sadie who steps up to take that responsibility. The O'Dares make a point of being prepared for enhanced criminals who think they can take advantage or might be able to strike while Bobo is occupied by somebody else. Everything plays off established relationships and events - even the Shade finding Jack the rocket he needs plays off the slowly established rapport between the two, and the Shade's guarantee he will explain how he found the thing rings true thanks to the long established framing device of his journal and the Time's Past issues. Plus, of course, Jack isn't acting alone. The City has a history, and the people within know what they need to do to protect it. Once Jack leaves (accompanied by Mikaal, who in a nice touch is casually established as being gay without it being made a big deal of at all) we get to see these preparations pay dividends, but also see how Opal IS vulnerable without Starman in spite of all of them. The death of the Police Commissioner by powers which look suspiciously like those of the Shade is a nice plothook, as is the death of a scumbag informant who for once in his life makes a selfless action rather than look out for himself when he learns of a horrific danger coming. Sadie is confronted by the Black Pirate in Jack's shop, and everything basically seems set up for what is to come once Jack returns from outer space. But I have to say, even though I love how well Opal City is realized and like the grounding of the character.... there is something to Ted's proud proclamation to Sadie when she apologizes for being the one who made his son leave the planet and travel out into the stars: 
Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 07:57 on Mar 25, 2018 |
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Mar 25, 2018 06:41
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Cornwind Evil posted:American Barbarian: A Review This looks like the type of thing where I always just assumed the joke would quickly wear itself thin, but it appears it has a lot more legs to it than I expected. Looks pretty great. Retro Futurist posted:Bowing out for now as I picked up a bunch of stuff at the marvel bogo sale Just confirming that you're pulling out and won't be reviewing this, right?
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Mar 25, 2018 06:50
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Jerusalem posted:[...] You said you were skipping the annuals. The things you complained are missing are in the second annual.
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Mar 25, 2018 13:48
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Jerusalem posted:This looks like the type of thing where I always just assumed the joke would quickly wear itself thin, but it appears it has a lot more legs to it than I expected. Looks pretty great. I mean I can, seems kind of against the spirit of this to review things I chose though. Just want to burn through the stuff I bought and then get back into random picks.
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Mar 25, 2018 17:20
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Cornwind Evil posted:And it does feel like an extended, if rather absurd world. Take this guy and his ridiculous yet fitting armor.  (also your reviews are great, I came to read this thread after you or someone else linked them in another subforum)
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Mar 25, 2018 17:52
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U.T. Raptor posted:Don't doxx me If it's your first time in Every Story Ever Roulette...you have to read a comic.
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Mar 25, 2018 22:42
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Random Stranger posted:You said you were skipping the annuals. The things you complained are missing are in the second annual. God I hate annuals, they're either entirely skippable or include some gigantic major event/reveal you'll completely miss if you're only reading the actual issues of the series you want to read.
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Mar 25, 2018 22:46
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Jerusalem posted:God I hate annuals, they're either entirely skippable or include some gigantic major event/reveal you'll completely miss if you're only reading the actual issues of the series you want to read. Please tell me the annuals are included in the Starman omnibus volumes I've slowly been acquiring? I thought I checked before and they have everything, where the trades are really awful in what they omit.
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Mar 26, 2018 19:06
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A Strange Aeon posted:Please tell me the annuals are included in the Starman omnibus volumes I've slowly been acquiring? I thought I checked before and they have everything, where the trades are really awful in what they omit. They are.
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Mar 26, 2018 19:09
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I... I just lost the entire write-up I did for Stars My Destination  Why the gently caress did I write it in-browser and not a text document on my desktop, why am I giant goddamn idiot?
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Apr 3, 2018 13:27
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Okay, gonna try this again. Hope it doesn't meander too much, I was trying to remember the points I made in my original write-up before I lost it: Before continuing my read of Starman, I jumped back and bought the second annual and read it, since I was informed it included a lot of what I complained was missing from Sadie's story in the regular series. I hate annuals. Sadie in the regular series would require depth to be shallow, because there is so little of her you could be forgiven for not even remembering she was in it. So that she was the impetus for such a major shift in Jack's life feels completely unearned. Who is she? Where is the emotional punch of the reveal of her identity? It's all brought up after the fact by Jack discussing a FLASHBACK of a conversation with his father about the conversation he apparently had with Sadie. But the annual is the missing piece of the puzzle in more ways than one. Not just the narrative, but the character. Sadie in the annual has the depth missing from the regular series, she fits in and her relationship with Jack develops with the same strength the other relationships in the regular series has developed. So why the hell is it NOT in the regular series? I hate annuals. Either completely throwaway or including GIGANTIC turning points/revelations to a series as a whole, it always bugged me that comics used to do annuals as a matter of course. I'm so glad they are largely a thing of the past, especially for a series like Starman where the content of the annual feels like it was stripped out of the regular series to be a standalone, to the detriment of the ACTUAL series the annual is supposed to be secondary to. But forget that, let's talk about what the revelation of her identity kicked off: probably the best storyarc of Starman so far. An absolute blast and a thrill that ramps up the pace of the series, delves deep into some of DC's cosmic history, cements Jack Knight's place in the wider DC Universe in a way the dreadful Genesis event and Captain Marvel crossover failed, and yet never fails to keep the series grounded with the wider ramifications of his absence on his family, friends, enemies and Opal City as a while. Plus some loving awesome cliffhangers.  Jack and Mikaal's journey into space works for me because the prior 45+ issues had done such a good job of establishing Jack's character for me. Mikaal is more of a cipher, but that's almost the point of his character. So much of his own past he doesn't remember, and the trip into space actually triggers some flashbacks that kick off a subplot throughout the entire storyarc that sees him (and the reader) come to a greater understanding of himself. Without being grounded by the relative normalcy of Opal City (superheroes and demons and haunted posters aside), Robinson gets to have some fun and play around with DC's rather rich history. Mostly playing with "toys" that DC are largely indifferent to gives him some freedom to tell the stories he wants without being tied down by concerns over how it might affect other character's issues - Solomon Grundy, Jor-El, Adam Strange, The Legion of Superheroes, Space Ranger, Space Cabbie (!) and Ultra The Multi-Alien! All these and more feature as Jack and Mikaal soar across space and time attempting to find Will Payton. Gifted a motherbox by the Justice League by way of apology for not providing him with a spaceship, Jack's father has created a copy of his own brain patterns and loaded it into the Motherbox so "he" can accompany Jack and provide guidance and a familiar voice. It's cheating a little since it basically just puts Ted into the storyarc without risking him, but that does provide for some fun moments like when a space-exiled off-shoot of Solomon Grundy has Jack and Mikaal dead to rights and assumes Ted doesn't have the killer-instinct to stop him.  When Grundy defeated, they continue their journey and find themselves transported by a black gunk into the far flung future where the meet Starboy of the Legion of Superheroes. Mikaal's story continues to develop as he meets the Legion's Shadow Lass and discovers that not only are his people still alive in their billions, but that he will one day be considered their greatest champion. There is some hilarious stuff with Starboy constantly complaining about people giving away the secrets of various character's futures, only to run into Shade (from the present, not the future!) who completely shuts him down by revealing that Starboy himself is the one who convinced Shade to come to the future in the first place by telling him explicit details of his future! This also sets the stage for what will presumably be the next major storyarc coming up as Shade explains he has an enemy called Culp who successfully infected him back in what will be Jack's near future relatively speaking. Later in this storyarc we will start seeing rumblings of Shade apparently being framed for various crimes (or maybe actually legitimately commiting them?) and it's quite neat to see the possible resolution of that storyline played out before it even kicks off. That goes back once again to one of the things I truly enjoy about Starman, that Robinson obviously came in with an extremely detailed roadmap for the story he wanted to tell. A frequent habit of his is to familiarize the reader with the type of story he wants to tell, by doing the same basic concept in a smaller, self-contained storyline. At one point, Jack and Mikaal run into a spaceship captained by their most bitter and hated nemesis... who they have never met before. They defeat him and are left utterly flummoxed by just who the hell he was, and then many issues later they run into him for the first time and the context for his hatred is provided. As mentioned, Robinson seems to revel in getting to play with DC's toys. He takes Jack and Mikaal to Krypton in the past, when Superman's father Jor-El was a young man himself. They change nothing of Jor-El's story and make no winking nods to suggest Jack is in some way responsible for Superman coming to Earth. Instead they just enjoy playing around in the history for a little bit before moving on, giving the reader just a small glimpse of Jor-El and the similarities to his son-to-be. But if Krypton is a brief interlude, Rann and Adam Strange gets to play a major role in this storyarc, and is all the better for it.  Adam Strange is a character with great potential that has never really quite been realized, and Robinson tells a solid story with him here that will have implications going forward. Strange's story is a neat old fashioned sci-fi one, about an archeologist sucked up by a "Zeta Ray" an alien in a neighboring galaxy was trying to use as a communication tool. Finding himself on the alien planet, he has adventures and finds love and happiness there but also suffers the tragedy that he can never remain for too long. The Zeta Ray radiation that transports him to Rann always eventually wears off, at which point his body teleports back to its point of origin on Earth. Because of the distance between their worlds, Strange must calculate the exact time and location of where Zeta Ray beams fired several years earlier will eventually hit the earth so he can be present and return to Rann for another temporary stay. There is a bright and sunny feel to the first issue on Rann, a sense of optimism familiar to Opal City that makes Jack feel at home. Mikaal is in a panic though because his senses are telling him his old enemy he first sensed when they left our solar system is still out there. Strange's cold father-in-law Sardath attempts to organize an intergalactic league of planets to put their warring days behind them and build peace in the galaxy. Of course not everybody wants peace, and it turns out that Mikaal's enemy - Turran Kha - has been sent as an assassin by a planet called Throneworld to stop the deal from being made. They attack a gathering of dignitaries and in the melee Strange's daughter is taken hostage to allow Kha to escape, and Jack is seemingly killed saving her mother from death. Of course that's just a hook for the next issue and his body is reconstituted by Rann's advanced technology, which also gives Robinson an excuse to get ride of the bad tattoos that were part of Jack's initial character design but did not age well (he even noted to Bobo in an earlier issue he regretted not getting something more meaningful). But on top of that, it also provides an opportunity for the character of Sardath to shine both in the moment and in the future. Sardath is cold and calculating, but not without emotion and feelings. As part of a longer game plan for intergalactic relations, he seemingly breaks down in order to force the other dignitaries to join forces to take down Kha. Allegedly this is done following a "father-to-father" talk with Motherbox Ted, but Sardath is not easily manipulated, and later in the run we discover that he immediately saw Jack's "death" as the opportunity to create a back-up plan to those he already had in motion to overthrow Throneworld, the one planet holding out from his desired intergalactic league. Saving Jack's life more than once, then, was an act of self-interest even beyond the immediate value of saving his granddaughter. Again, it's a sign of depth of characterization and an ability to avoid mawkish melodrama or a love conquers all storyline. Sardath remains true to himself, accomplishes his goals, creates a better galaxy in the process... and leaves everybody around him feeling vaguely uneasy because he's still not a particularly nice person to be around. As they continue their journey, life continues in Opal and Robinson continues plotlines started before Jack's departure, because the world keeps turning even if the titular character of the series isn't around to see it. It's another example of the careful work Robinson has put into worldbuilding, and there is a lovely sense of things coming together. Shade's journal tells the story of the inventor of Jack's rocket and the adventure he and Scalphunter had protecting him (and failing), while various heroes continue to hold the line and protect the city in Jack's absence. A largely unknown character called Black Condor works in concert with the police; Dr. Phosporus from way back near the start of the series continues to bide his time to get revenge on Ted Knight; Sadie summons the Black Pirate and offers to help him clear his name in Jack's absence, feeling she owes Jack for this massive favor he is doing her; The Phantom Lady investigates the death of Jack's snitch and runs into Adam Strange, whose Zeta Ray radiation ran out while rescuing his daughter, so he did a deal with Jack to take a message to his father while Jack saved Strange's daughter; Ralph and Sue Dibny (perfect matches for Opal) are called to the city to help solve the mystery of a series of murders that bear all the hallmarks of The Shade's powers but which the Shade - in hiding - insists he did not commit... until he is seen attacking Bobo and laughing at the notion that he was ever not a villain.  All of the above happens effortlessly in a way that never feels rushed or too tightly packed in, even though it is clearly backburner material for the major adventures of Jack and Mikaal in space. It's also clearly setting the stage for the big storyarc to come, as this one wraps up the next one isn't going to wait around for them to begin. Robinson knows where he is going, he has been working on it for close to 60 issues by this point and knows how to pace his story. Nothing feels cluttered, nothing feels makeshift or last minute. When he isn't having to cater to wider DC editorial decisions like Genesis or a crossover with Captain Marvel, he's largely free to produce the story he wants to produce, and he sure as hell isn't making it up as he goes along. Also, the art has really, really improved. I loving love Dr. Phosporus inhaling and exhaling his cigarette across a couple of panels, but every page of that particular issue is filled with wonderful little framing choices and motion across panels that, like Robinson's writing, is so carefully laid out and constructed that it feels effortless and natural. The conclusion of Stars My Destination is arguably the weakest part of the entire arc. Not that it's bad, but the real gold was in the actual journey itself rather than the destination. Once they arrive at Throneworld they're promptly blown out of the sky (goodbye Motherbox Ted  ) and taken prisoner, tortured and prepared for execution. The particular cleverness of meeting their nemesis for THEIR first time is let down by a rather lazy prison-rape joke that only served to remind me that this was written back in the 90s and some things have, mercifully, changed for the better in the intervening decades. Hooking up with a small group of prisoners that include a former Green Lantern, they set off a riot and locate Will Payton at last, learning that the ruler of Throneworld believes him to be their former ruler Prince Gavyn returned from the dead in a human body and thus a threat to his own rule. There is some back and forth in their revolution as Payton struggles to accept the notion he may not be the man he thought he was, the former Green Lantern Medphyll turns out to be a traitor (a victim of at-the-time dead Hal Jordan's rampage to steal Lantern rings), and one of their number reveals they are an undercover agent for Sardath. Mikaal finally kills Turran Kha, Jack eventually defeats Medphyll and inadvertently triggers the invasion of Throneworld by the League of Planets, bringing Sardath's plan to its conclusion, while Throneworld's leader Rikane finds comfort in his defeat since it means Gavyn has truly returned and thus the planet will be in safe hands without him. That last bit is an odd attempt at complexity for a character previously written as a snarling monster, and if anything just brings into sharper relief how better written and developed the other characters have been with the benefit of more than 2-3 issues to play Rikane up as the ultimate bad guy at the end of a long character arc. Sardath arranges for Mikaal and Jack's return to Opal City (I honestly don't know enough about Zeta Ray's to know why they wouldn't return to Throneworld once the radiation wore off?) while Payton is initially prepared to go but then accepts that there is part of Gavyn inside him after all and agrees to remain with the Empress and pursue the ultimate truth of who he is. That might feel like a bit of a copout after all that effort to find him, but another Starman would be one too many in Opal City. It has long been established that there is only ever truly one there at a time. The important thing is that Jack now has a message to deliver to Sadie who will now know her brother is truly alive AND well, and he knows Jack will be there to look after her. Plus Stars My Destination has firmly planted Starman into the wider DC Universe in a way that Genesis and the Captain Marvel crossover completely failed to deliver. He's been to the future, he's been to the past, he's traveled to far planets and met long established characters and worked easily alongside them. He belongs, Starman is more than just a writer's pet character: he is truly a fixed and important part of the wider DC Universe. Which makes it all the more concerning that I know this series is soon to end. I strongly feel it will maintain its optimistic tone, but I've come to care about many of the characters and I don't know if all of them will make it. Grand Guignol is coming, and those earlier images all made it clear that there is something dark and corrupt and black hanging over the bright jewel of Opal City... but maybe that's okay too? Because in spite of seeing the wonders and joys of the infinite universe, Jack hasn't returned to a city drab and rundown by comparison. Opal City's hero is back, and if anything his journey into space and time has only served to enhance an important truth: 
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Apr 6, 2018 11:33
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Well this thread has basically died it seems, which is unfortunate. But I started Starman and I mean to finish it, especially since I'm basically at the end now with just this storyarc to write about and then the final few issues to wrap things up. Grand Guignol marks what would appear to be the final major storyarc of Starman, kicking off immediately after the Stars My Destination arc and the return of Jack Knight to Opal City. It certainly feels like a culmination, as essentially every subplot, character arc and relationship comes to a head and pulls all the seemingly disparate pieces of world-building into a single thread. In a similar vein to Stars My Destination, it also plays around cleverly with time and continuity to tell multiple stories without feeling fractured or unfocused. Everything gets time to breathe and all the characters get time to shine, in what remains to this day as a remarkable feat of writing even 20 years later. Plus, of course, I can't resist the wonderful realization of Opal City's name in Culp's scheming.  Grand Guignol also encapsulates not only everything good about the Starman series but ALSO everything it screwed up, got wrong, or never quite developed right. It is a layered, complex story that has been carefully and meticulously laid out in advance and delivers its beats with precision timing without sacrificing any emotional resonance. But the villains of the piece don't enjoy the same level of depth afforded to the central and supporting characters. There is also an unfortunate tendency to produce major turning points in the story that rely on knowledge of events that have never been mentioned in the actual main series, or only very briefly in passing. The Sadie stuff was bad enough but at least that appeared in a Starman annual. Extremely important and vital information necessary for the development and resolution of this arc occurs in two completely different comic series: an issue of DC Showcase and the Shade mini-series.  I legitimately believe this issue (#68) is the first time Neron's name is EVER mentioned in the Starman series. The basic story is simple enough, the complications come in its construction. Jack returns to Opal City delighted to see it has remained unchanged during its absence, and then goes visiting only to discover that things aren't quite as pristine as they seem on the surface. Through a meeting with Ralph Dibny he learns about the heroes who have been acting in his absence, and we discover that each in turn has been removed from the board or are under threat. Sadie herself has disappeared while aiding the Black Pirate, and every stop Jack makes to reconnect sees him find nothing until he is finally reunited with his father. Motivated by Ted, Jack prepares to head out into the city and make his presence felt... at which point a large part of it blows up. Everything falls apart at this point, and it's largely handled well. An aspect I particularly enjoy is that despite the timing of the explosion and the fact this series is called Starman, these events are almost entirely unrelated to him. This is a problem of the Shade, the story is set up to make it look like he has been the villain all along. Ted Knight ponders their considerable past and multiple instances of the Shade acting at odds to his usual behavior, with the intimation being that in spite of his intelligence and calm demeanor he is actually completely insane. So initially the idea should be that this is Jack's ultimate enemy finally being revealed as somebody he assumed was a friend, or at least an ally. The reveal that the Shade is as much a victim as anybody else has strength purely because we've seen how in control he has always been, though it is undercut somewhat by his brief appearance in Stars My Destination, which for him takes place AFTER this story. The Shade is the "hero" of this story, albeit an anti-hero. It is his nemesis that is causing all this trouble, and Jack's involvement is purely tangential, he is caught up in it all as part of Culp's efforts to completely destroy his old rival. Which is where stuff stops working.  It's Culp!  ....who the gently caress is Culp? Yes he is mentioned in Stars My Destination, and I assume he features in the Shade mini-series as well, but when he appears in this issue it is his first actual appearance and it is treated like a massive holy poo poo reveal. Similarly, one of Culp's chief henchmen is the last surviving member of the villainous Lombard family who have stalked and hunted Shade through the decades.... apparently? Because again aside from a brief journal entry where he discusses being betrayed by a lover, I don't think they're ever mentioned in the actual Starman series itself. What I found myself reading was the epic resolution to a different character's comicbook series, one that largely never existed, with the titular character of THIS series largely a supporting character. As mentioned higher up, I actually quite liked that little twist, particularly because Jack's established relationships are so heavily affected by what transpires. But the fact is undeniable that a lot of the story hinges on events/characters that a reader of the main series alone would have zero knowledge of. It's the strangest dichotomy in Robinson's writing, because he goes to such great lengths to lay everything out so carefully and bring it all together so smoothly... and then introduces these completely new elements to the story while also making them utterly vital to its resolution.The Black Pirate? An established character. Sadie? An established character (kinda). Ralph and Sue Dibny? Pre-existing but well-known characters, their involvement in Starman is written well and even with only these issues for context we get to know Ralph especially well. But all three were involved in the same investigation and how does that get resolved? By Holmes-ian super-sleuth Hamilton Drew of course! Who? Well he never existed before now, but in this storyline we learn he was one of those freed from the demon poster in an earlier story. Apparently he is Ralph Dibny's hero, a legendarily gifted detective and expert in the supernatural, which by a complete stroke of luck is exactly what they needed to solve the mystery and save the day. Why Robinson chose this method I do not know, especially as the NAME of Drew is dropped here and there at certain points but no further elaboration is given until he becomes personally involved in the story. There was plenty of time to establish his return, even on a cursory level, but what was held back as a triumphant ace up the sleeve feels more like a cheat. I'm talking poo poo because these sour notes detract from what is otherwise such an excellently put together storyarc. The pacing is spot on, the art and the "direction" and aesthetic is wonderful, the existing characters are so well written. But then these little moments or decisions throw everything off. Plus there are the villains. Culp of course, an interesting character but he comes from nowhere. The twist of one of the O'Dares actually being evil just falls flat since they use the O'Dare that never actually got much in the way of character anyway. The meathead muscle from the circus storyline is not a compelling returning villain. Ragman's return should be a big deal but he's just kind of there and it takes awhile before anybody actually notices what should be - by the accounts of the series - a huge deal. Imagine if Osama Bin Laden suddenly showed up in New York alive and well leading a bunch of armed fighters to take over the streets. That's not the kind of thing that you just let fall into the background. The Modines - contrived knock-offs (perhaps) of Natural Born Killers - show up for a return that nobody asked for. Plus, of course, the Mist has to be involved too. Though there at least Robinson either had gotten the message about how awful she was, or had always planned this in advance, as her treatment is fairly brutal both physically and psychologically.  Culp "infected" Shade long ago and thus has been present the entire time observing what Shade observes, which gives him immense insight into Jack and his many associates. He has planned everything carefully, with all the major storybeats of the prior 60+ issues ending up having been factored into his plans to destroy Shade in every sense of the word. Which makes it quite wonderful that what ruins his plans is from information he was not privy to. Jack has been in space, he has had adventures and made new friends, and one of those is present. Adam Strange falls completely outside of Culp's masterplan, allowing him to screw everything up and free the heroes. Culp still believes he can achieve his goals while they fight on the streets against his underlings, but now nothing is working with the clockwork precision he'd laid out. The rogue factors are increasing, with Bobo surviving his beating and breaking free of his bonds, Shade's little buddy Smudge who we never knew about coming to its master's rescue, and even Ragman realizing there is no benefit to being the henchman in another villain's plan and just getting out of dodge to go gently caress with some other superhero. Shade's escape enables him to restore his powers and reverse what Culp had done to him, taking all of his shadow powers from him as well. With no powers, and Hamilton Drew proving the Black Pirate's innocence which also ends the curse he'd laid on the city, everything falls apart for Culp in record time and he's left with only a common criminal's fallback of taking a hosta-  Culp is unceremoniously disposed of, and the series comes full circle with the return of the original Mist, the mysterious third villain who'd been reinvigorated by Neron. Thus Shade's villain is replaced by a Starman villain, but in this case not Jack Knight's nemesis, rather Ted's. Which again seems appropriate, despite Nash's obsession with him Jack has resisted the trappings of the usual typical superhero cliches like having an arch-villain (to the series detriment, I'd argue) and so it is his father's old rival who stands in for the typical antagonist role. Which makes what follows works so well. Because while Jack and the others have been fighting Culp, Ted Knight himself has been locked in a running battle with Doctor Phosphorus who has been seeking revenge for his earlier humiliation at the old man's hands. With his powers ramped up, simple exposure to Phosphorus has blasted Ted Knight with enough radiation to guarantee a swift death... which simply gives him the motivation he needs to keep fighting because now he has nothing to lose. Utterly demolishing Phosphorus in their rematch and convincing Ragman to clear out, Ted heads to the heart of the action and is given the chance to once again save the city AND his son in yet another showdown with his oldest enemy (outside of Shade). It is a sacrifice he gladly and willingly makes, putting him in stark contrast to the Mist who happily kills his own daughter when she objects to the idea he will kill his own grandson just because Jack is the father. But Ted doesn't stand in judgement of the Mist, who has poisoned himself and set a giant bomb to explode when he dies in order to destroy Opal (like Culp, he wants to destroy what his enemy loves most: the city). Ted Knight dies with dignity, the Mist is revealed to be pathetic even in his renewed vigor, and the city is saved.  That essentially wraps up the story. There is epilogue of course, and the passing of the old sets the stage for the new. Or as Ted says,"Leave the world to the young." Matt O'Dare dies in the hospital, a vision of his reincarnation confirmed by Jack who realizes he will become Starboy of the Legion of Superheroes, who he already knows will one day (soon?) replace him as Starman. A funeral/memorial service for Ted sees a number of heroes and important characters say wonderful and touching things about him, though Jack's own final words are wonderfully, appropriately inelegant. Will Payton, who lead the forces Adam Strange summoned to earth, meets with Sadie to say his own goodbyes, and learns that she is pregant. She has achieved everything she wanted, but the thought of bringing a child into the madness of Jack's life frightens her, and she leaves him rather than face that. Jack is literally left holding the baby, as he now has he and Nash's child to look after, which in turns leaves him wondering how he can continue like this. As the last major arc of the series, for any of the faults it - and the larger series - has, it succeeds in wrapping up almost every major storyline/character arc in an extremely satisfying way. Yes the villains are mostly bad, yes some stuff just comes up out of the blue or relies on knowledge of other series/comic releases, but for the most part I feel like all that is left now is to clean up the mess and wrap things up. There are 7 issues left to do that, and then Starman is done. Hopefully in a way I will find satisfying: as things stand, though, Robinson will REALLY have to gently caress up badly to not get it right. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 00:34 on Apr 12, 2018 |
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Apr 11, 2018 15:07
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For what it's worth, I'm really enjoying your Starman posts. Starman was one of my favorite comics back when it was "live", so I'm grateful you're reminding me of all the stuff I loved about it.
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Apr 11, 2018 15:29
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Hell yeah. You’ve convinced me to pick it back up. I’ve been using a failed logic board as an excuse to not read Avengers 200, but... I’ll swallow that bullet soon enough.
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Apr 11, 2018 15:36
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I also really appreciated the Starman writeup, and it may even have encouraged me to give the series another read. This time with those god damned Annuals which, thinking back, I don't think I ever read the first time around and might explain why I ended up being so confused by parts of it! This also reminded me how much I absolutely love Peter Snejbjerg's work. Might be time for another Books of Magic revisit soon, too...
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Apr 11, 2018 21:27
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Thanks, it is a very good series and I sometimes worry I'm being a little hard on it because I really do think it has gotten better and better as it has gone along. Hard to believe I've gone through 70+ issues so quickly. And yeah, I don't mention it too much but Peter Snejbjerg's art is great and fits the feel of the writing so well.
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Apr 12, 2018 00:42
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I have been sick (and also sick of Countdown) but I should have something up over the weekend.
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Apr 12, 2018 01:32
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Speaking of assignments, I finished reading V for Vendetta. Funnily enough, it’s pretty good, but given its reputation and importance to comics as a whole, there’s a lot I want to talk about and I’m still in the process of getting my thoughts together about it. I’ve also been dealing with work stuff and handing in my PhD thesis, so it’s been hard to find the time to really get into it in the amount of detail that I want to. It’s going to take me more time to get the review done. In the meantime… Bruce Wayne, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D #1 510/726 on Every Story Ever list Writer: Chuck Dixon Penciller: Cary Nord Inker: Mark Pennington Colourist: Steve Buccellato Letter: Richard Starkings Editor: James Felder I managed to track down a copy of my original assignment for a relatively good price, so I thought, what the hell, let’s see if it’s any good. --- Bruce Wayne, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D #1 comes from a strange point in comics history. Back in 1996, DC and Marvel had a crossover event - imaginatively called DC Versus Marvel – which pitted heroes from the two universes against each other, with readers voting on who should win. This wasn’t the first crossover between the companies (the first I am aware of is Superman vs The Amazing Spider-Man from 1976) but it was the most extensive one there has ever been. I haven’t read it myself, but from what I can gather, it’s not particularly well-regarded, mostly because when you write stories where the outcomes of fights are decided by a popularity contest, it gets in the way of writing stories that are actually good. Anyway, the main story of the event led to the personifications of the DC and Marvel universes being fused together, creating the Amalgam universe. This was followed with a bunch of single issues that combined DC and Marvel heroes, such as Iron Lantern, Lobo the Duck and this comic, Bruce Wayne, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, before a final story where the universes were separated again. These one-shot comics were ostensibly written as if they were comics from an imprint that always existed, as if they were the true versions of these heroes. You can probably tell just from that premise alone what the problem is with the Amalgam comics. DC Versus Marvel was a publicity stunt, designed to attract people based on the novelty of seeing heroes from different companies interact with each other, then on seeing twists on those same heroes. If you were on board for the Amalgam Comics, it was because you wanted to see a mashup of Superman/Captain America beating up a Lex Luthor/Red Skull fusion. That novelty was the only reason you wanted the comic. That doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be more than that. Conceptually at least, there is something there in merging characters with similar but distinct and well defined personalities, combining them and seeing how that reflects back on both of the original characters. For instance, having Superman directly fight for the USA rather than just protecting Metropolis opens up lots of interesting questions on how that would affect the core of the character and how he interacts with the world. I mean, that’s basically the premise for Watchmen, #5 on the Every Story Ever list for good reason. However, being a good story is completely secondary to the main point: syphoning money out of fans drawn to the premise. Getting a good story out of it is a bonus, nothing more. The question then is whether Bruce Wayne, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D manages to transcend that limitation and become an actually worthwhile story. Unfortunately, the answer is no. That’s not to say that it’s bad. Bruce Wayne, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D is best described as adequate. Completely and utterly adequate. The twist in this case is that Bruce Wayne is leading S.H.I.E.L.D against the forces of HYDRA, led by the Green Skull, the man who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents (who were both S.H.I.E.L.D agents in the Amalgam universe). It’s standard spy genre fare. Chuck Dixon does a decent job with the plot and particularly the dialogue, managing to strike the right balance between not taking itself too seriously but also not falling into farce and camp. Cary Nord also turns in some solid art. The action is always clear, characters have distinctive likenesses and there are some panels that I think are really good, especially with the inking and colouring by Mark Pennington and Steve Buccellato. It’s not perfect – for every panel I really like there’s one I really don’t, particularly its portrayal of women – but it’s acceptable. The comic also moves at a good pace, fits in a lot of action and despite suffering from the Amalgam Comics premise where the comics were all written as if they were ongoing stories– and thus finishes on a plot hook that would never be fulfilled - it builds to a reasonably satisfying conclusion. Indeed, if all you’re here for is the premise, I can see people coming away from this comic pretty happy. Aside from those I’ve mentioned so far, there are references to characters like Sgt Rock, Tony Stark, Oracle, Barbara Gordon, Bane, Nuke, Mr Freeze, Baron Zemo and more, and those were just the ones I caught. My personal favourite is Moonwing, a cross between Nightwing and Moon Knight - which I initially thought was the worst superhero name ever before realising the alternative was Night Knight, so fair play to Chuck Dixon with that one. I also think this is the first instance of Jason Todd being a villain in a Batman comic, about 7 years before that was used as a fakeout in Hush and 9 years before it was done for real in Under the Red Hood. I’m much more versed in DC than Marvel and even then, there was plenty of references for me. The comic very effectively taps into that dopamine hit people get from seeing something they recognise. If I was reading this back in 1996, I could see myself being taken in by it. The problem is that it is only that. It is a textbook example of an exploitative comic event tie-in. It’s a BuzzFeed article in comic form – 18 references that only true 90s kids will recognise. And here’s the thing: that didn’t need to be the case. The combination of Bruce Wayne and Nick Fury does have potential. That’s more can be said for the other Amalgam comics combinations, which are on the whole just insultingly obvious and lame, with only a few actually having potential. There definitely is something interesting in Bruce Wayne being an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. What happens when Batman gets control of a secret government organisation and uses it for his personal vendetta? What are the consequences of someone so single minded and brilliant having that much power? You could argue that Batman already has that level of resources, given that he’s surrounded by allies and his super power is being rich, but even in a situation like Batman Incorporated, he’s never had an organisation of this power behind him. It’s a good concept that could be explored in an interesting way. To be fair to the comic, it does try to. Unfortunately, it does it with such little insight that it might as well have not even bothered. All we get is Nick Fury - still in this comic despite Bruce Wayne basically taking his role as director of S.H.I.E.L.D - wondering how he can save Bruce’s soul from the cost his vengeance will enact. He then shrugs his shoulders and comes to the conclusion that he and Sgt Rock just need to let him do it and watch his back while he does, because he’s awesome and brilliant. Which is an answer, I suppose. Not a particularly satisfying one mind. But then again, that’s to be expected. This was not written as a character study of Bruce Wayne. It was written as a gimmick tie in to an event. It is not interested in asking those questions of Bruce Wayne or S.H.I.E.L.D. And let’s be honest, I’m being very unfair in expecting more from it than that. If you’re interested in the concept and want to read a genre spy story with a sprinkling of characters you recognise but meshed together with other characters you know, you could do worse than this comic. At the same time though, it’s number 510 on this list for a reason. You could do a lot better, with plenty of comics that are much easier to track down and much more worth your time. Ultimately, while Bruce Wayne, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. is an interesting novelty, it is absolutely not anything more than that.
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Apr 12, 2018 20:18
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I lapped up all the amalgam titles back in the 90s and pretty much instantly regretted it. It was essentially just the comic book reference version of:
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Apr 13, 2018 03:21
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What are like the top 5 crossover comics that are actually decent? I haven't read very many, but I recall really enjoying Batman vs the Punisher--it uses the Azrael Batman and has Joker and Jigsaw, if I recall. I liked the tone of it. Archie vs the Punisher was also pretty fun, though probably not really great.
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Apr 13, 2018 04:05
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A Strange Aeon posted:What are like the top 5 crossover comics that are actually decent?
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Apr 13, 2018 04:13
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A Strange Aeon posted:What are like the top 5 crossover comics that are actually decent? Elmer Fudd / Batman was one of the best things I read last year.
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Apr 13, 2018 04:14
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I think I have a complete set of the Amalgam comics in a box somewhere.
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Apr 13, 2018 04:17
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A Strange Aeon posted:What are like the top 5 crossover comics that are actually decent? For me, definitely Flaming Carrot and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Raphael loses his memory and ends up becoming the Flaming Carrot's sidekick for a couple issues. Decent being a low bar to clear, Batman/Grendel maybe for the Matt Wagner art? Superman/Madman for Mike Allred? The Batman/Judge Dredd crossovers were OK, but hardly the best Judge Dredd stories ever, and even though Simon Bisley painted the first one, the story felt really short.
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Apr 13, 2018 04:53
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Gotta agree with JLA/Avengers, it's really drat good. It also has an absolutely beautiful moment where Superman beats Thor in a fight and the rest of the Avengers basically stop what they're doing, go,"loving BULLSHIT!" and lay a gang beatdown on Superman 
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Apr 13, 2018 13:26
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