Green Lantern #35

Well, finally! It’s the end of the storyarc we thought would never end! “Secret Origin” finally wraps up!

Hal Jordan and Sinestro — at this time in the past, he was a Green Lantern in good standing — get dragged back to Oa to answer to the Guardians, who are angry at them for violating one of their rules, that Green Lanterns are not to work together or fraternize outside of Oa. Jordan accuses them of being afraid of the GLs, and Sinestro tells them that it’s wrong to force the GLs to operate in isolation from each other. The Guardians are angry, but they let both of them continue as Green Lanterns. Sinestro returns the demon Atrocitus to the planet Ysmault, where the diabolical Qull predicts that Sinestro’s home planet will be lost to chaos unless Sinestro forces order upon it. Jordan starts a new job at Ferris Aircraft, William Hand continues his very unhealthy infatuation with death, and Hector Hammond continues to mutate.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Partly because I liked Hal’s confrontation with the Guardians, but mostly because I was glad that this way, way too long storyarc is finally finished.

Green Lantern Corps #29

Lots of stuff going on here — Guy Garder and his girlfriend Ice argue because Guy wants Ice to move in with him, but she’s reluctant to become a permanent resident of Oa, because she feels she’s needed more on Earth. Kyle Rayner and a slew of other Green Lanterns are tracking a Sinestro Corps villain called Kryb who kidnaps the infant children of Green Lanterns. And we see the birth of a new member of the Star Sapphires — i.e., the new Violet Lantern Corps — when Mongul kills an alien, causing his mate to be recruited by a Star Sapphire ring that claims she’s capable of showing great love.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Kinda cool the way love ends up being the overarching theme of this issue — the Star Sapphires are powered by love, Guy and Ice’s relationship, the Lanterns’ search for the villain threatening their loved ones.

Action Comics #870

I’m a sucker for these big events, and I know I shouldn’t be. Brainiac has miniaturized Metropolis and is all set to destroy the Earth. Superman bashes Brainiac’s face in, Supergirl stops a missile from making the sun go nova, Brainiac shoots a missile that destroys the Kent family’s farm, and Pa Kent has a fatal heart attack.

Verdict: Thumbs down. Useless and stupid. All this effort to kill Pa Kent? Just to make the comics match up with a movie made 30 years ago? Just to make Superman angsty and mopey? Thanks, but no thanks.

Madame Xanadu #3

Centuries after losing her magical abilities and being cast out of Camelot, Nimue is knocking around China as Kublai Khan’s soothsayer. She has to drink noxious potions to maintain her youth and immortality, and she’s in the process of inventing the Tarot deck to help her see the future. She runs into the Phantom Stranger again while he’s escorting Marco Polo into the country, and she has the Khan take him into custody. But the Stranger clues her in on a plot to discredit the Polos by framing them for the murder of the Khan’s favorite consort. Can Nimue save her in time?

Verdict: Thumbs up. I’m really enjoying Matt Wagner’s writing on this one. From Camelot to ancient China? Very cool. Lots of really neat details help bring the point across that 13th century China was a vastly strange place to Westerners. Nimue’s continuing development is very interesting, and the Stranger is still a fascinating enigma. And Amy Reeder Hadley’s artwork is just gorgeous. Excellent work all around.

Dagnabit, Bahlactus has gone and called for a one-week break in Friday Night Fights. So that means no fisticuffs and face-wounding for you today. Instead, we have to go with some non-fight-related activities. Don’t complain — all those who complain, burn at the touch of… never mind, that sentence just can’t end well. Instead, we’ll just dive into our nonviolent activities for the evening.

Ugh. That’s… That’s a comic cover with photos of plastic dolls. And they’ve gone shopping. That’s gotta be the worst, most horrible thing I’ve ever posted here.

Regular Friday Night Fights will resume next Friday. Let’s hope we can all survive the Scourge of Evil Plastic Barbie ’til then…

I told myself I’d save my money and ignore these two, but in the end, my love of politics had me dropping a little extra coin to check these out.

Presidential Material: Barack Obama

What’s it about? It’s a biography of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama!

Presidential Material: John McCain

What’s it about? It’s a biography of Republican presidential candidate John McCain!

Verdicts: To my surprise, thumbs up. I’d really expected a couple of drawn-out biographies, with a little slapdash art, to sell for some quick speculator cash. But I was pleasantly surprised by both of these. The art isn’t perfect, but it’s just fine here — a bit of the traditional comic-book look ends up serving this material well. The biographies are far more complete than I was anticipating. These aren’t just ripped off of Wikipedia — they’re as complete as you’re going to find in a coupla 22-page comics, and they actually list their research sources in the back — magazines, newspapers, the candidates’ official Senate biographies, the books they’ve written, even a few less-than-friendly sources. These are pretty warts-and-all bios, too — Obama’s drug use, connections to Jeremiah Wright, and campaign missteps are included, as are McCain’s party-animal days in the Navy, his controversial divorce and re-marriage, and the Keating Five scandal.

They’re definitely not complete biographies, but the creators do as good a job as they can in a very limited amount of space. These are both extremely text-heavy comics — it’s gonna take you a while to read ’em cover-to-cover. But I’m pleased that IDW took these comics seriously enough to do a good job on them.

And on a related note, yesterday, Samuel said in comments: “I’ll bake you some cookies if you can find a comic with Sarah Palin on it. You betcha!” Well, people, I’ll do anything for cookies!

Probably not exactly what Samuel was looking for, as I suspect he’s a Palin fan, but that’s the cover of Tales from the Crypt #8, a revival of the classic EC Comics franchise published by a company called Papercutz. Palin is saying “Didn’t we get rid of you guys in the ’50s?” as she menaces the Crypt-Keeper, the Vault-Keeper, and the Old Witch with a hockey stick. That’s a reference (A) to Palin’s reported interests in banning library books in Wasilla, Alaska during her tenure as mayor (No books were actually banned, but a librarian briefly lost her job until local supporters pressured the local government to re-hire her), and (B) to the anti-comics Senate hearings in the ’50s that ran EC out of business. Inside the comic is an anti-censorship editorial by Cathy Gaines Mifsud, daughter of legendary EC publisher William Gaines, that stops just barely short of endorsing Anybody-But-Sarah-Palin.

This is an issue I haven’t read yet — I don’t even know if it’s been released yet, or if I’ll be able to find it. I reviewed the first issue of this series last year and was not at all impressed, so I may not pick it up at all.

So there ya go, Samuel — like I said, it’s probably not the pro-Palin cover you were hoping for, but I’ll be happy to take those cookies now. Mmm-mmmm, delicious chocolate chunk cookies, so yummy and — hey! What’s this? These are full of black widow spiders, blowfish spines, and cyanide capsules, not chocolate chunks! Samuel, I oughtta…

(KLUNK)

Even for an election year, there is a lot of wild comics-related political news out there.

For example, there’s this new organization called “Comics Industry for Obama” — to the best of my knowledge, the first time a bunch of comics creators have gotten together specifically to support a single candidate. Eric Powell, creator of “The Goon” is a member, as is Mike Mignola, creator of “Hellboy.” More than likely, Erik Larsen, creator of “The Savage Dragon” has signed on with ’em, too. Buncha others — Mike Allred, Jimmy Palmiotti, Denys Cowan, Steve Niles, Cully Hammer, Rick Remender, Sarah Grace McCandless, Jennifer Grunwald, Andy Diggle, probably a bunch more whose names I just don’t recognize.

And with this group out there in the public eye, it probably won’t be long before we see a “Comics Industry for McCain” group — or maybe more likely, considering their actual popularity levels, “Comics Industry for Palin.” Eric Powell, for one, seems to feel like that’s A-OK.

I spoke about this with a fellow comic creator who signed up. We both acknowledged the fact that we could face a backlash from some readers for being associated with this. We were both of the opinion, “Oh, Well.” It’s time to grow a pair, people. I love my readers and if your views don’t mesh with mine, fine. If you don’t like Obama, work for McCain’s campaign. That’s your right. Just like it’s my right to support the candidate of my choice. That’s what the process is all about. Why does it have to be about getting pissed off and hating a guy because he has a different point of view?

It is kinda weird, isn’t it? There are folks out there who’ll actually quit reading Mignola’s “Hellboy” comics because his choice of candidate doesn’t match up with theirs. Did “Hellboy” and “B.P.R.D.” somehow stop being awesome? Did “The Goon” stop being the most hilariously violent comic out there? Of course not — but there are really people out there willing to stop reading Mignola’s, Powell’s, and Larsen’s comics in an attempt to punish them for having opinions that don’t mesh with their own. And of course, there may be liberals out there who won’t read old “Spider-Man” comics because Steve Ditko is conservative, or “Fables” because Bill Willingham is a Republican. It’s almost Stalinist — those who oppose the cult of personality must be cast out and erased…

I certainly recognize that there are legitimate reasons why someone might want to boycott an artist’s work, but boycotting someone because they want to exercise the right to vote seems a bit much…

Why does Superman hate America?!

(Image courtesy of the always mind-blowing Chris Sims)

Top 10: Season Two #1

One of Alan Moore’s most purely enjoyable comics was the original “Top 10” which focused on police officers who had to keep the peace in a city where everyone had superpowers. Part police procedural, part superhero action-comedy, the series followed the superpowered cops of Neopolis as they dealt with alien serial killers, a corrupt police commissioner, murders of Norse gods, and an infestation of UltraMice. It’s still one of my favorite comics series of all time. There was a spinoff (“Smax,” which was awesome), a prequel (“The Forty-Niners,” which was awesome), and a sequel (“Beyond the Farthest Precinct,” which suuuucked).

This new sequel wisely pretends “Beyond the Farthest Precinct” never happened. Alan Moore isn’t on board this time, but writing chores have been taken over by former “Top 10” layout artist Zander Cannon, with penciller Gene Ha still handling the artwork.

In this first issue, a new officer named Slipstream Phoenix arrives at the precinct office — only a few vague hints about his powers, he has weird pseudo-Egyptian markings around his eyes, and he wears an actual police uniform instead of a superhero costume. Anyway, it’s soon revealed that he’s not just a new officer — he’s an open spy for the new transdimensional police commissioner, who is obsessed with enforcing normalcy and has announced that all officers are only allowed to use standard-issue police equipment, firearms, and uniforms.

Meanwhile, some mysterious serial killer has just dumped a dozen dead girls into the fountain in front of the police headquarters, Irma Wornow is still mourning the death of her old partner Sung Li, and Lt. Colby finds out that (A) she’s pregnant and (B) her husband likes to dress up in skimpy superheroine costumes. In addition, it looks like we’ll finally get some focus on Jenny McCambridge, who’s previously been just a background character.

Verdict: Thumbs up. The fear was that, without Alan Moore writing, the story would fall flat — something that certainly happened with “Beyond the Farthest Precinct,” which really was just spectacularly awful. But this one isn’t bad at all. I think it helps that Cannon and Ha were both involved with the original series — replicating the artwork is a nice touch, and maybe they were able to absorb some of Moore’s magical storytelling abilities through osmosis.

As far as the commissioner’s new rules for the officers — sounds like it’ll be a great opportunity for some fun stories. It’s gonna be hard for Duane Bodine and Irma Wornow, with their 12-shooter pistols and atomic power armor, but on the other hand, wow, those new uniforms really do look pretty good. Officer Pete Cheney always looked ridiculous in his own costume, but the picture of him on the cover — other than his goofy antennae, he looks almost normal.

Slipstream Phoenix looks like he’ll be fun — simultaneously idealistic and really, really untrustworthy. I’m also liking the idea of giving Officer McCambridge a more active role in the story. If there’s a downside to this issue, it’s that there are a lot fewer visual in-jokes here — very few superpowered Charlie Browns or William Shakespeares or sly comic book references. It may be that those will pick up as the series goes on, and it could be that those were part of what Moore brought to the original series.

I’ve got my fingers crossed for this one — let’s hope it stays fun to read.

DC Universe: Decisions #2

DC’s superheroes are still trying to track down the telepath who’s mind-controlling people into trying to kill the four presidential candidates, and Green Arrow’s endorsement of one of the Democratic candidates has thrown a spanner into the works. Not long afterwards, things get worse when Guy Gardner endorses one of the Republican candidates, and after that, the floodgates are opened, as just about every superhero starts endorsing their favorite candidates — Vixen, Power Girl, Wildcat, Hawkman, and Plastic Man lean Republican (though Plas is mainly exercising his libido in endorsing the lone female candidate), while Dr. Light, Beast Boy, and Firestorm favor the Democrats. There are still more attempts on the candidates’ lives, and there’s one more surprise endorsement, as Bruce Wayne announces his support for one of the Democrats.

Verdict: A little from Column A and a little from Column B. On one hand, I’m enjoying the story, with everyone trying to track down the would-be assassin. Character interactions seem pretty good — the fight between Green Arrow and Green Lantern is familiar, but it hits all the right notes. And the art for this issue is provided by Howard Porter, one of my fave DC artists ever since he drew Grant Morrison’s “JLA” series. (And speaking of Porter, here’s a really interesting interview about why his work has been so hard to find lately.)

So what are my quibbles about this issue? Well, the entire point of the story is supposed to be about politics, and just about everyone has really shallow reasons for supporting their candidates. Plastic Man likes one of the Republican candidates ’cause he’s a horndog. Beast Boy cites a candidate’s “gravitas” while Wildcat praises another’s toughness. In most cases, all they’re talking about is the candidate’s image — which is, of course, how a lot of folks really do pick their preferred candidate — picking the guy with the best slogan, who looks best on TV, who has the best public relations flacks.

But most of these characters aren’t saying they support a candidate because they agree with their political platform. No one says, “I’m pro-choice, so I support Candidate X” or “I dislike gun control, so I support Candidate Z.” People care about politics because they care about issues, and most of the superheroes don’t appear to care about any issues at all. The closest we get are Hawkman, who prefers his candidate because he has a military background, and Firestorm, who favors one candidate who has experience in international matters.

And one more thing that particularly irritated me — Power Girl’s reasoning for supporting her candidate is “He’ll keep us safe.” That’s a perfectly legitimate reason for someone to support a candidate, but it just doesn’t make sense coming from Power Girl. She doesn’t need a presidential candidate to keep her safe — she’s superstrong and bulletproof, so depicting her as someone who’s been suckered by the “Candidate X will keep you safe” routine is just crazy.

Heck, in Comic Book Land, who keeps you safe? It ain’t a strong military that repels alien invasions, it’s superheroes like Power Girl. Someone launches a nuke at New York? Power Girl’s up there swatting it down. It’s a minor point, sure, but it’s another piece of poor characterization that shows that the writers weren’t really thinking that hard about the sound bites they had the characters spouting.

I reckon I’ll keep reading this series, because I am enjoying the story, but the political content is, so far, just plain dorky. I hope the next two issues improve some in that regard, but I suspect they’ll remain fairly embarrassingly poor…

Manhunter #35

First, that’s an awesome cover. “Bring it.” Pretty much sums up everything there is to know about Kate Spencer.

Anyway, Kate just up and waltzes into Vessetech, the evil megacorp that’s serial-killing women in Mexico and manufacturing metahumans. She’s got the Birds of Prey as backup, but she ends up taking on most of the bad guys solo. Meanwhile, Kate’s son Ramsey is coming to grips with his new superpowers, and DEO agent Cameron Chase has a surprise announcement.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Quite a lot of excellent face-punching going on here. I still think the art is a bit weird, but it’s at least not too distracting most of the time. Also, Cameron Chase should appear in more comics, especially if she kicks people in the face.

March on Ultimatum Saga

This is mostly a textual comic, recounting the more-or-less full history of Marvel’s Ultimate universe, with updated and re-imagined versions of Marvel’s characters, leading to the run-up to their big “Ultimatum” crossover.

Verdict: Thumbs up. It’s free, and it’d have to be pretty awful to make “free” look like a bad thing. At any rate, it’s not bad at all, and it’s a great way to catch up on all the stuff that’s been happening with Ultimate Marvel.

Snagged the first two issues of the new “Runaways” series last week, so let’s give ’em a quick read-through.

Runaways #1

The first issue of this latest volume of Marvel’s teen hero series starts out with the team returning to Earth, pursued by a band of vengeful aliens. The kids hole up in one of their families’ old safehouses, where they get attacked by a bunch of genetically-engineered guard-monsters. After that, they all go to the mall (Klara, a time-displaced plant controller from 1907, has some funny reactions to mass consumerism culture), and Chase tries to get a job at a radio station employing an evil super-powered shock-jock.

Runaways #2

Those vengeful aliens come a-callin’. Nico teleports them around the planet, and they capture and interrogate one of them, who reveals that they blame Karolina for the destruction of their — and her own — homeworld. The relationship between Karolina and Xavin, her Skrull girlfriend, is left strained by their revelations.

Verdict: I think I’m gonna have to give these thumbs down. I don’t mind the characters at all, and the story seems okay, but with a first issue, they need to make this as accessible as they can to new readers, and they didn’t do that at all. I couldn’t figure out who most of the characters were, what their powers were, what their backstories were. I’ve tried to get on-board this comic before, but it seems like the kind of book that, if you aren’t reading from the very beginning, you’ll never understand what the heck is going on. Maybe a few hours of digging around on Wikipedia can help me figure out what’s supposed to be happening here.

Having said all that, Molly Hayes, the superstrong 12-year-old with the bizarre hats, is awesome and funny and cool. I’d gladly read an all-Molly series, or even one co-starring the team’s dinosaur pet, Old Lace.