Comix Portal: DC Comics And Beyond
Comix Portal: DC Comics And Beyond Written by Wayne Hall on April 1, 2010 – 12:00 pm –
You know, comics can be a great place of refuge when the world doesn’t make much sense. So yet again I’m glad I read comics!
1. Blackest Night #8 of 8. This comic has been months in the making, and I think it was well worth the wait.
I have to start off, of course, by saying how great the team of Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis is yet again. It is magic when they work together, and this issue is just another exhibit supporting that notion. Wow!
Issue #6 of this comic made heads turn when Scarecrow became a Sinestro Corps member and Lex Luthor was made an Agent Orange. Bad guys chosen as Lanterns? That was a surprise. But I was also intrigued when the Flash, Wonder Woman and the Atom were given rings as well. I was honestly stunned at that. And I LOVE being surprised in a good way!
I hate to spoil big events, so I won’t reveal everything … but there are some things I simply have to talk about, so please wait until later to continue if you haven’t already read this issue.
The characters that come back to life are as interesting as those who do not. The list of those given another chance include Aquaman (wearing his original orange and green outfit), Martian Manhunter (also decked out in better threads), Hawkman and Hawkgirl (not Kendra, but Shiera!), Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch as Firestorm, Jade, Maxwell Lord, the Anti-Monitor, Osiris (from 52), Maxwell Lord, Captain Boomerang, and – interestingly enough–Professor Zoom.
But the one that I think was particularly great was the return of Hank Hall as Hawk. He deserves another chance after all the mess that happened regarding Monarch several years ago. You may remember–Monarch was originally supposed to be Captain Atom until premature word about this leaked onto the then-somewhat-new Internet message boards. So, to make the revelation of Monarch’s real identity a surprise, they switched it to Hawk. To me, it never made nearly as much sense as Captain Atom would have, but then DC tried to again make Captain Atom into Monarch recently, to make matters even worse. I think Johns is correct in how he’s handling this, yet again untangling odd DC continuity.
Several folks have already expressed disappointment that characters like Tempest, Damage, and Ralph and Sue Dibny did not return. I was particularly interested in the last pair since happily married couples are in short supply in comics. I still hold hope for all of those folks to return—this is still comics, after all. But I think the Dibny’s return would have been too soon after their 52 story. Let’s be patient. I trust Johns enough to know just how to proceed. Maybe they’ll come back during Brightest Day?
It’s a double-sized issue, and the double-page spreads (and four-page foldout) were great! The pacing, the art, the story—I thought it was a terrific finale!
The sad news is that I won’t be able to write any more Blackest Night updates. The good news is that I can’t wait for Brightest Day to be released so I can start writing those updates!
2. Amazing Spider-Man #627. I’m going to kill two stones with one bird here and actually talk about a Marvel comic as well as discussing something I don’t like, which some folks think I should do more often. So, here goes … .
I give up. No more issues of Amazing Spider-Man for me. Not even Mark Waid’s occasional writing on the title can keep me any longer.
You might recall just a couple of years back when Mephisto got his knickers in a twist and erased 20 or so years of continuity regarding Spider-Man. That lead to a 52-inspired, three-weeks-a-month Amazing Spider-Man. Spectacular Spider-Man, Peter Parker The Sensational Spider-Man as well the “adjective-missing” Spider-Man were all canceled because Amazing sold better than the rest, so three issues of that comic a month would mean higher income. Unfortunately, it has turned out that it doesn’t also mean better stories or reading.
At first, the word was that Amazing’s format would allow the best and brightest creators to work on the book. Sadly, instead we’ve had a lot of what I consider low-level artists that even good-to-great writers couldn’t make interesting. The only baddie I liked was Mr. Negative. The rest left me cold. And the soap-opera elements–who cares if Peter slept with his roommate? Sheesh.
And there is something else that continues to plague me—Spider-Man has become the character he was back in the 60s and 70s. The bad news is that our sensibilities have changed quite a lot since then. Peter’s angst just doesn’t feel as right to me any more, including and especially losing his job recently. Angst as opposed to real violence in the middle of New York City–nahhh! But Spidey was known for catching colds, running out of web fluid, and other human failings in the day, so I guess the folks working on the book are trying to update the character. But if you want to update this character with today’s standards, you have to go the way of Kick-Ass. Doing things like they were in the 60s–I don’t care for it today. It feels more than forced—more like crammed down our collective throats.
So, farewell Amazing Spider-Man! Maybe someday when you get back to being an interesting comic, I will return!
Also out this week of note are: from DC Comics, Adventure Comics #9, Justice League Of America #43, Justice Society Of America #37, and Outsiders #28; from IDW, Star Trek TNG Ghosts #5; from Dynamite!, Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet #2; and from Boom! Studios, Incorruptible #4 and Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? #10.
Be sure to tune in to this Sunday’s SciFiPulse Radio on blogtalkradio.com. I’ll be talking with host Ian Cullen about other things I read this week, including Grandville, RASL #7, and other fun stuff. You won’t want to miss it!
Tags: Amazing Spider-man, Blackest Night, Brightest Day, DC Comics, Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, Mark Waid, Marvel Comics
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