Astro City: The Dark Age, Book Three #3

Years ago, someone killed Charles and Royal Williams’ parents. They finally know who he is — a high-ranking member of the criminal Pyramid organization. Royal used to be a spy within Pyramid, but a close call had him running for safety, so Charles has now infiltrated the organization on behalf of the high-tech espionage agency E.A.G.L.E. Pyramid is spying on most of the superteams in the country, including the Apollo 11, a bunch of former astronauts turned alien superheroes. But when Charles and Royal finally confront their parents’ killer, will a cosmic disaster prevent their revenge?

Verdict: Thumbs up. The stuff with Charles and Royal is fine, but the real fun this time is all about the Apollo 11. These guys are utterly freakish, like a cross between the Doom Patrol, Ultra the Multi-Alien, and a ’50s sci-fi comic — and I really want to read a whole lot more about Commander One, Encephalon, Nihil, Shrff, Strangeling, L.G.M., Ichthyos, Kahoutek, Aquarina, Arthro, and Gas Giant. This really does seem to be what Kurt Busiek does best with this series — introduce these once-off, throwaway characters that make you wish someone would put them in a nice long comic series all to themselves.

Secret Six #11

We start off with a short confrontation between the Six and the slavers — Deadshot wants to carry the body of the woman he shot, and the slavers want to treat her like baggage. Smyth, the slavers’ leader, defuses the confrontation and later explains his view of world history: all of mankind’s greatest accomplishments were created by slavery, he says, so he wants to see slavery re-implemented worldwide, but with a twist — slaves would be chosen by lottery, so there would be no injustice of enslaving the poor or minorities. And what are his slaves on the island building? The world’s largest prison, designed to hold ever prisoner in the entire world. Meanwhile, Artemis, a stand-in for Wonder Woman in the ’90s, has been captured and brought to the island as a metahuman slave — she and Jeanette seem to have a past history, but Jeanette decides to rescue her and the other Amazons held prisoner on the island, just because she doesn’t like slavery. And this leads directly to a fight within the Six itself — Jeanette, Bane, and Scandal on one side, because they don’t want to work for slavers, and Catman, Deadshot, and Ragdoll on the other, because they don’t want to break their lucrative contract.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Excellent characterization all around, from Deadshot’s insistence on respecting the woman he killed, to Smyth’s twisted logic behind his pro-slavery utopia, to Jeanette’s reasoning for rescuing Artemis, even down to Catman’s willingness to work for people he hates because he gave his word of honor that he’d do so. Artemis’ speech to her jailers was also especially cool. All in all, just a very fun and awesomely morality-obsessed comic, even if it’s focusing on a bunch of supervillains.

Young Allies 70th Anniversary Special #1

Just about all of Marvel’s special issues paying tribute to their WWII Golden Age characters and the company’s 70th birthday have been outstanding, but this one is probably the best yet. The main story, by writer Roger Stern and artist Paolo Rivera, focuses on Bucky Barnes, Captain America’s former sidekick and the new Captain Marvel, as he discovers that some of his friends from World War II are still alive. The Young Allies were a bunch of normal kids — a stereotypical Brooklyn tough kid, a smart, bespectacled kid, a chubby kid, and a black kid — who occasionally teamed up with Bucky and Toro, the Human Torch’s sidekick, to fight the Nazis. Anyway, Bucky finds the two surviving Young Allies — Pat “Knuckles” O’Toole, the tough kid, and Wash Jones, the black kid — in a veterans hospital. Knuckles is on his deathbed, and Wash is paying him a last visit. They’re both overjoyed to see Bucky again, still young after all those decades. There’s some reminiscing over their WWII adventures and about their post-war lives. And in the end, Knuckles dies, and a few months later, Wash follows him. They close out the last few pages of the comic with reprints of ads, text stories, and comic about “Terry Vance, the School Boy Sleuth.”

Verdict: Thumbs up. Numerous thumbs up, along with several pinkies and even a couple of big toes. This has got to be the best done-in-one comic I’ve seen in months. The action sequences are fine, but where this story really shines is the small, personal moments, with a trio of old vets sitting around a hospital talking about how their lives turned out, and seeing one of their number through to his final curtain. It’s a beautiful, emotional story, and I hope like heck it wins some awards.

Justice Society of America #28

The Spectre takes Power Girl, Atom Smasher, Damage, and Judomaster back into the past to save Green Lantern, Flash, Wildcat, Hourman, and Liberty Belle from the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Kung, a former Japanese assassin who died in the bomb blast, hopes to sacrifice the American heroes to return himself to life, but can anyone stop him and his army of Japanese spirits?

Verdict: I’m gonna thumbs-down it. The action sequences are fine, but this just felt too needlessly complicated, on several different levels.

Time to let the cat out of the bag — I have finally gotten a job. I’ll be working on websites for the University of North Texas in Denton. I start work on Monday, and the rest of this week is being devoted to getting me moved from Lubbock to Denton.

I guess the obvious question here is: What happens to “Hero Sandwich”? I have good news and more good news: I will be allowed to continue the blog right here at the current LubbockOnline address — no need to adjust your bookmarks. And I will continue writing about comics from a Lubbock viewpoint. I really doubt that Denton or the Metroplex will have a comics scene as vibrant or enthusiastic as Lubbock’s, even with the larger population. And the fact remains, I really want to see the Lubbock Sketch Club, Star Comics, and all the other comics creators, vendors, and hobbyists in Lubbock succeed. Sure, there will still be a ton of comics reviews and national comics news, but the Lubbock comics scene is something I enjoy getting to write about. Can I still do Lubbock justice from North Texas? I think I can… and I’m absolutely overjoyed that the A-J felt that “Hero Sandwich” was something worth keeping around. Many thanks, and much love and affection, go out to all of ’em.

Blogging may be a bit patchy over the next few days into next week — I’m hoping to have a few days’ worth of posts written and scheduled in advance for the rest of the week. However, I don’t yet know when I’ll get Internet service at the new apartment. I might be able to get it turned on right away, and it might take ’til sometime next week. If posts dry up, it just means I’m waiting for the Secret Denton Internet Consortium to turn on my intarwebz.

Denton is an interesting town — I lived here when I was going to college. It’s a wonderfully scenic area, but it’s also painfully, spectacularly hot. They have one of the most beautiful town squares and county courthouses in Texas, if not the entire country, and they have the largest used bookstore I’ve ever seen in my life. They have two different comics shops. And they still sell Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper in grocery stores, which the Lubbock stores told me was no longer being sold anywhere. I’m certainly looking forward to living and working in Denton…

…but yes, I’m also going to miss Lubbock a lot. I’ll miss Rob Mora and everyone else at Star Comics, I’ll miss Will Terrell, Robert Garza, and everyone else at the Sketch Club, I’ll miss Kenny and Derek and everyone at Awesome Books, and the guys quietly peddling roleplaying games at Mad Hatter’s place.

I’ll miss Lubbock’s mild weather. I’ll miss the musical and artistic community. I’ll miss the amazing sunsets. I’ll even miss the occasional “moral panics,” just for the ability to stand in the back of the crowd and gawp at the chaos.

More than anything, I’ll miss my grandmother, my brother, and my niece (okay, she’s a dog, but I’m part dog myself, so it still feels like we’re related). It’s been impossibly wonderful to live in the same city with them for the past eight years, and I’m already wondering how on earth I can possibly survive without getting my grandmother’s groceries or bothering my brother. I expect y’all to take good care of them so I can come visit them every time we have a long weekend.

To sum up: I’m going away, but I’m also not going anywhere. I’ll miss y’all, but we’ll still be able to see each other right here.

This is not a good-bye. And I’ll see you guys tomorrow.  🙂

My List o’ Awesome Links is getting increasingly long and unwieldy, so let’s trim it down a bit.

• A short list of phrases that originated in comic strips.
• Old Spider-Man is old…
• …and Young Captain America is not THAT blasted young!
• Dangit, is there some state law that whoever runs the Texas school board has to be a lunatic science-hating, education-hating hypocrite? Can’t they just pick someone who wants to keep kids educated, instead of going with yet another pathetic theocratic crackpot?
• Hope we’re not too far past Independence Day for me to point out this very cool art essay by Maira Kalman about Thomas Jefferson and Monticello.
• And finally, Dorian Wright finds a Golden Age comic with a black character who isn’t an insulting racist stereotype.

Hope that’ll keep y’all happily clicking away this morning — y’all have a happy Tuesday…

Batman and Robin #2

Dick Grayson is discouraged. He hasn’t been Batman long, the cops aren’t sure they trust him yet, Gotham PD just got attacked by a bunch of circus-freak ninjas, and someone used all the chaos to kill the Toad, the one link to the ominous Mr. Pyg. The new Robin, Damian al Ghul, Batman’s son, is out of control and runs off to try to get Mr. Pyg on his own.

Verdict: Thumbs up. I loved the circus freaks who attacked the Gotham cop shop — the brawling fat lady and the hyper-agile Siamese-triplets were particularly cool. But I thought the high point of the issue was, believe it or not, the conversation between Dick and Alfred. Alfred used to be an actor, and Dick used to be a circus performer, and they talk about dressing up as Batman as a show-stopping star performance. Just seemed like a really great moment for a couple of great characters, talking about parts of their lives that we always seem to forget existed. Nice issue, good fun, great art, great writing. Looking forward to more.

Detective Comics #854

I picked this one up because it got extremely good buzz, and I’m glad I got it. It’s the re-introduction of Batwoman, who got a high-profile entrance a few years ago in the “52” weekly series, then was mostly ignored when DC suddenly panicked about publishing a lesbian superhero. Anyway, Kate Kane is on the trail of the Church of Crime’s new leader and, in the process, meets up with Batman, who tells her to cut her long hair because it would be a liability in a close-quarters fight. Turns out the hair is a wig, and we get to meet Kate’s girlfriend — whoops, make that ex-girlfriend — and her dad, who assists her in the crimefighting biz. There’s a backup story in this one, focusing on Renee Montoya, the Question, as she tries to track down a kidnapped woman in L.A.

Verdict: Thumbs up. I like this Kate Kane a lot more than I did the closeted-socialite version of the character. This one is more of a tattooed punk-goth rocker, and it makes her about a thousand times cooler than before. Batwoman may actually be the new lead character in “Detective Comics,” which is fairly cool. The backup with Renee Montoya is pretty good, too. Wish the story were longer, but I guess that’s the point of backup stories, right?

This would be a great time for me to post something in-depth and profound about the greatness of America, the founding documents, the founders themselves, and the millions of people, civilians and military alike, who’ve helped make the country great. Unfortunately, I went and blew my fingers off with firecrackers, so we’ll just have to go with a bunch of comic book covers.

(Please use your fireworks safely and responsibly.)

Pfff, I’m too tired to come up with anything goofy to say today (and trust me, next week is going to be even more hectic), so let’s just go with: Happy Weekend! It’s time for FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!

Today, we’re pulling a panel from 1982’s Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew #1 by Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw! (The “!” is actually part of his name), as the entire Zoo Crew teams up to put the smackdown on Starro the Conqueror:

Our musical accompaniment for tonight: “Star” by the Roots. Not that close thematically, but it’s hard to find songs about beating up on giant starfish.

Green Lantern #42

Last issue, Larfleeze chopped off Hal Jordan’s hand to get himself a Blue Lantern ring — this issue, it’s revealed that it was all an illusion generated by the blue ring to get Agent Orange to leave Jordan alone. Fatality, now a Star Sapphire, puts the moves on John Stewart. Jordan briefly manages to grab Larfleeze’s lantern, turning him into an Orange Lantern for a few seconds (Yeah, looks like we’re gonna see Hal Jordan wearing every color of ring by the time this is all over.), then finally manages to get rid of the blue ring. At last the Guardians get Larfleeze to stand down by offering him something he really wants — the location of the fledgling Blue Lantern Corps. And finally, we get the official birth of the Black Lanterns.

Verdict: Thumbs up, I think. A few technical quibbles — I caught some errors with the word balloons — but not too bad. Larfleeze is a great deal funnier in this issue, as he becomes a poster child for fanboy entitlement. The bit with the Black Lantern at the end was pretty good, too.

Madame Xanadu #12

Nimue continues her magical investigation into a magical murder and attempts to warn a young socialite that her father’s life may also be in danger. She receives assistance from an unexpected source — Dian Belmont, girlfriend of Wesley Dodds, the Golden Age Sandman. Unfortunately, the nefarious Al Nar and his terrifying dog have already selected their next victim, and there may be no way to save him.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Al Nar is a great villain, so far. We also get some great historical adventure during the Spanish Inquisition, and I loved Nimue’s method of using magical origami to deal with a rude librarian.

Captain Britain and MI-13 #14

Last issue, Dracula killed everyone. This issue, he realized that it was just too blasted easy — he’d been trapped in the demon Plotka’s magical room of wishes that gives the illusion of the perfect life. So MI-13 is still alive, and the vampires haven’t achieved their victory yet. In fact, they’re way, way far off from victory, because the Brits now know Dracula’s plans, they’ve got ringers aboard the vampires’ ships, and Spitfire hasn’t actually been mentally dominated. British forces wreck the vampires’ ships and deal some heavy losses, but the vampires aren’t finished yet. Dracula still has Faiza Hussein’s father, and Dr. Doom has just given him Meggan, Captain Britain’s ex-wife, who now calls herself Gloriana.

Verdict: Thumbs up. Great action, great characterizations, a great resolution to last issue’s cliffhanger. Just one more issue of this series left, so hold on to yer hats.

JSA vs. Kobra #1

The international nihilistic terrorism organization Kobra makes a few first strikes against the Justice Society and against Checkmate, the international espionage outfit. Unhappy with Kobra’s continuing existence, the JSA decides to strike back, capturing and interrogating a number of Kobra agents. Kobra makes an attack on a church that draws out the Justice Society, but it may have all been a false-flag attack.

Verdict: Ehh, I dunno. Doesn’t seem that bad, but is this really something we need a miniseries for? I’ll reserve judgment for an issue or two.

Texas Tech Associate Humanities Librarian Rob Weiner is getting another high-profile scholarly article published…

Yes, Mary Jane, there is a Spider-Man.

At least, that’s what pop-culture guru and associate humanities librarian for Texas Tech University Libraries Rob Weiner set out to prove in an article published in the International Journal of Comic Art.

A note to comic buffs: don’t get too wrapped up searching the skyline for web-slinging do-gooders just yet.

However, there’s good news for anyone who’s ever picked up a Spidey comic or just worn one of his T-shirts: thanks to you, Spider-Man has found life outside of comic-book pages.

In much the same way that editor Francis Pharcellus Church proved the existence of Santa Claus in his famous 1897 New York Sun editorial, Weiner contends that Spider-Man and his costumed peers have entered mankind’s collective consciousness, filling a shared need for heroes.

“When I started reading graphic novels, I was struck by the fact that stories about Spider-Man or Batman and Superman could have as many plot twists and turns as any story by Shakespeare, Stephen King or Leo Tolstoy,”  he said. “I was struck by how good some of the writing was for these so-called ‘kiddie’ books, and that somehow these archetypical characters like Spider-Man were replacing Odysseus and Zeus as part of modern mythology.”

Snooping around mankind’s collective consciousness for humanity’s new archetypical heroes is a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it…

Rob gave a talk about this topic at the Lubbock Comic Book Expo back in May, so it’s great to hear that he was able to turn the talk into something that folks outside of Lubbock will get to read and enjoy.