Wednesday, May 29, 2013

New Comic-book Night - 5/29/13

It's that time of the week again - and although it's the "5th Wednesday," which often is an extra week that doesn't ship one's typical pull list items, two items that are on my "potential pull list" came out this week.  By "potential pull list," I mean that I am doing what my comic-shop owner calls "sampling." I have not committed to these titles, but have adopted a wait-and-see attitude.  This means either (1) it is simply too early to tell whether the series is good enough to get into long term (this is always true before I've read at least 3 issues, but lasted for 12 full issues with Superman recently), or (2) the series had been too mediocre to be sure I will like it long-term (but is either good enough to keep going on a month-by-month basis, or else something else is compelling me to keep giving it a chance).  The two titles that fell into these categories were +DC Comics'  Justice League of America, which just came out with #4 this month, and thus was "too early to tell," and +Marvel Entertainment's Captain America, which I started collecting because Cap is my favorite Marvel character, but which has been too strange and just plain too poorly written for me to put it on the pull list yet.



Along with these titles, I grabbed another issue of the third Supergirl series -- this was the second of two "New Krypton" crossovers for this series.  These issues appear in the 4-volume TPB Superman: New Krypton, but I have no interest in that story arc, and am only getting the Supergirl issues for completeness.  It was cheaper to just buy the two S-girl issues than to try and get the TPBs, especially since my comic shop doesn't have them (so now I'd have to pay for shipping on top of the TPB cost).

I haven't read Supergirl yet, but I have read JLA and Cap, and I've made a final "pull list decision" about one of them.

Justice League of America #4 - This series has been decent for four months, but also is slightly worrisome because it has been slowly backsliding.  I rated the first issue a 9/10, issues 2-3 8/10, and I only give this one a 7/10.  The art has deteriorated slightly, and the story is becoming tiresome.  The ending, which is supposed to be a cliffhanger, is ridiculous, because it seemingly depicts the death of a major character. This would have perhaps been suspenseful or dramatic, if not for the niggling little detail that the character depicted as dying has a series of his or her own, which is still ongoing.  Obviously this character cannot actually be dead or dying. So why am I supposed to be in suspense about this? The only question I have is how the character can look this "dead" but not actually be.  Also, again in terms of the art, the action sequences are really lame. There is no sense of kineticism or motion in the action panels. They all look like the characters paused in mid-action to pose for the camera.  Also, people's bodies are in very strange, ungainly positions.  So, this comic is staying on the "potential pull list." It hasn't been good enough, long enough, for me to commit to it.

Captain America NOW! #7 - This Marvel NOW! run of Captain America is perhaps the most disappointing series I have ever read in my life.  Captain America is the greatest superhero in the Marvel Universe.  He is one of the greatest superheroes in any universe.  He has always been one of the "weakest" in terms of power level, but that has never stopped him.  And for many years I was a huge fan of his comic, when the late, great Mark Gruenwald was writing it.  This series, however, is nothing like that wonderful run. It is without a significant supporting cast.  The plot is convoluted and strange.  Captain America is brutal and violent, and acts more like Wolverine than like Steve Rogers   His "12 year old" adopted son looks and acts like he's seven.  And the kid is so annoying that threats to him do not affect me, because I would honestly kind of prefer if this kid just died. I'd like it even better if they just retconned this whole psychedelic plot that reads like writer Rick Remender has been smoking some pretty intense hallucinogens before sitting down at his word processor.  I won't even mention the vomit-inducing art of John Romita, Jr., who has been such a horrible penciller for so many decades I cannot understand how the man still gets hired.  I rate this issue 3/10, and that's being generous.

And so with that issue, I have given up on Captain America.  Sorry, Cap. I tried. I really did.  I thought I could stick with it through this story arc and see where Remender is going. I gave it seven issues. But there's no end in sight for this thing, and I am not going to keep giving Marvel Comics money for a story that is so bad I wouldn't line a cat's litter box with it.  Perhaps the most bewildering thing is all the people writing in to say how much they love it.  I can only shake my head.  I can't imagine anyone liking this garbage. But as for me, at least, I'm definitely done.

Monday, May 27, 2013

The Supergirl Homepage

Earlier this year, I began listening to the Kara Zor-El podcast, which is run by +Danny Saab and Andrew Pinkham.  I really enjoyed their podcasts.  They both love the Supergirl character, and had been doing reviews of her current book, which is part of DC's New 52.  After each podcast, I wrote them a long e-mail to follow-up with their on-air conversation.  I held forth on many of the issues I have discussed here on this blog, including the lack of respect DC Editorial has had for Supergirl ever since her death in 1985, and my disdain for the H'el on Earth crossover (which Danny and Andrew share).  And I reminded them of a few similarities between what has been going on now, and what has been done with Supergirl in the past (such as comparing the air-headed crush Matrix Supergirl had on Lex Luthor, to the similarly vacant-headed love the current Kara had toward H'el).

Danny and Andrew read these e-mails on their subsequent podcasts (which was fun) and discussed them. Apparently they liked what they read, because a couple of weeks ago, they made some changes to their website about Kara, and they asked me to be part of it, along with several of their other listeners.  They changed the Kara Zor-El home page to The Supergirl Homepage, so that they could collect in one place all things related to Supergirl (since, to be perfectly accurate, Matrix Supergirl has no place on a website devoted specifically to Kara Zor-El).  They asked me to be one of their contributing authors, and of course, loving Supergirl the way I do, I could not possibly have refused.

My role on the website will be as a reviewer for comic-books involving Supergirl.  They gave me a choice of which comics I wanted to work on, and I opted for The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl.  I will readily admit that the creative team that worked on this book is not my favorite (that distinction goes to Peter David, Gary Frank, and Cam Smith, who worked on the 1996 Matrix-based Supergirl series). However, this version of Supergirl (the original) is my favorite, and so I wanted to work on something related to her.  Therefore, beginning this Friday, I will be writing a weekly review article for the Supergirl Homepage about the 23 issues of The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl (one issue a week).

In addition to that, since I seem to be the only person on the new staff who has access to all of them, I will be reviewing the Supergirl mini-series from 1994, and also her two appearances in Showcase 95 (issues 1 and 2).  The very first of these reviews can be seen here, and I will be adding more as the week progresses.

In the mean time, I am joined by a team of very dedicated fans of Supergirl, including Danny Saab, Andrew Pinkham, Valerie Cotrill, and Stephen Vaughan.  Each of us has taken custody of a particular time period in the Girl of Steel's history, and reviews will be added almost daily to the website.  Soon it will be a vast repository of knowledge pertaining to the greatest super-heroine of all time.

Although this means I will be doing a lot more "review" writing, it will not have any impact on this blog site.  I will continue to post my thoughts on current and past comic-books here as always.   In between times, if you want to read some good articles about comic-books, and in particular if you're interested in learning more about Supergirl, swing by the Supergirl Homepage and check out what they've got going on over there.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

The importance of a supporting cast

 Most great works of fiction include a vibrant and memorable cast of characters who play a supporting role to the protagonist or the antagonist.  If you think back to the greatest novels and movies of all time, you will almost certainly find yourself thinking about some characters who were not the stars -- not the main characters -- but who nevertheless had an important role to play in the story.  In fact, some of the supporting characters end up being quite memorable.  Here are a few examples:

  • In the Star Wars movies, the two droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO, play an endearing and important supporting role in all six films.
  • The Harry Potter series includes a vast array of popular and lovable supporting characters, including the Weasley children (Fred, George, and Ginny), Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Professor McGonagall, Dobby, and perhaps most memorable of all, Professor Snape.
  • Supporting characters play pivotal roles in the Lord of the Rings, including Treebeard, who causes the destruction of Isengard and the downfall of Saruman, and Eowyn, who slays the Witch King of Angmar.

Supporting characters serve a number of roles in any story, but one of the most important is to hold a mirror, or perhaps I should say a magnifying glass, up to the main character.  By this, I mean that we learn a great deal about our main character through the interactions he or she has with the supporting cast. Often, we learn far more from these interactions than we do from the protagonist's conflict with the villain of the piece.  For example, we see Harry Potter's kindness exhibited in his treatment of Dobby (in contrast to how most other wizards treat house-elves).  Clearly, the supporting cast is of critical importance to most fictional stories, and good writers know this and make sure to provide good supporting characters.  

Historically, comic-book writers have known this and have taken great pains to flesh out and develop the supporting cast for each super-hero.  Indeed, many of these supporting characters have become as integral to the heroes as their powers are.  What would a Superman story be, for instance, without Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen?  And can anyone really imagine Batman without also thinking of his butler, Alfred?  And what Iron Man story would be complete without Pepper Potts?

That's why I've been so surprised, since returning to the comics world last December, at how many comic-book series have few, if any, supporting characters, and at how under-developed the supporting cast is, if it even exists at all.  For example, as good as Thor, God of Thunder is, we have seen eight issues now, and there are only three real characters in the story -- all of them Thor.  Captain America has been trapped in a dimension where he and his adoptive "son" are basically alone (for 12 years and 6 issues) against the entire world, leaving him with just the child as a supporting character.  And in 21 issues of Supergirl, there has not yet been one recurring supporting character.

The lack of a good supporting cast is, in my view, a critical flaw in these series.  Supporting characters add so much to a super-hero story that I can't believe writers would make the monumental error of leaving them out.  These characters add depth and soul to a story, and give extra dramatic weight to the decisions the hero has to make.  Supporting characters give the hero someone concrete, someone we know and love, to defend. We care about Lois Lane; we like her; and we want Superman to save her.  Superman's actions thus carry more weight than they would if he is just battling to save an abstraction ("the earth" or "Metropolis" or "innocent people").

Nowhere is the harm that can be done by lack of a good supporting cast more evident than in the current Supergirl series.  As I said above, it has been 21 issues (1-20 plus #0), or almost two years, and in all that time, the writers have not seen fit to include a single supporting character.  Oh, there have been guest stars, including the entire Justice League, Superboy, and the future Silver Banshee. But none of these characters can be considered part of Supergirl's supporting cast.  Instead, the Supergirl series has been all-Kara, all the time.

And as much as I love Kara, having the series be just about her has harmed it in a very serious way.  We have gotten far less insight into the character of Kara Zor-El than we would have if there were some supporting characters with whom she could interact.  We only see what Kara is like under pressure, in combat, trying to just stay alive against powerful enemies.  And although that can reveal some elements of character, the finer revelations of personality and disposition come in the quieter scenes. And the really important choices happen when people both the reader and the heroine care about are involved. So far, we have none of that in this new Supergirl series.

Contrast this dearth of supporting characters in the New 52 Supergirl with the supporting cast of the third Supergirl series, penned by Peter David in the 1990s.  

Peter David's Supergirl had an extremely strong supporting cast that included Linda/Supergirl's best friend, medical resident Maddie Hayes, Leesburg reporter Cutter Sharpe, Linda's boyfriend Dick Malverne, Linda's parents Fred and Sylvia Danvers, Wally the "God-boy," and horse-like hero Comet.  Except for Comet, all these characters appear in the very first few issues of David's Supergirl run, and they are seen frequently.  They interact with Supergirl and with each other, and serve multiple purposes in the story. 

First, the supporting cast adds some comic relief.  In particular, Cutter and Maddie engage in a frequently hilarious relationship that will leave the reader smiling. Second, they help Peter David raise the level of suspense, because they give him side stories to which he can cut, interrupting the main action of the book. Thus, he can get Supergirl into a suspenseful mini-cliffhanger within an issue, and then cut to Cutter and Maddie having a lovers' quarrel, making you want to turn the pages and see what happens back in the Supergirl storyline.  Third, they add weight to the choices Supergirl has to make.  It's not just "the people of Leesburg" who are endangered, but Linda/Supergirl's mother and father who are threatened.

Because David makes good use of supporting characters, he can also tell emotionally and intellectually deep stories.  For example, issue 23 tells the story of a white supremacist who is scheduled to speak at Leesburg University.  The minority students protest this speech, and try to get the university to shut it down.  Maddie Hayes, who is African American, is part of this group. On the other side are those who believe in freedom of speech no matter how hateful the words may be, and this side includes Maddie's boyfriend, Cutter, who as a reporter holds the First Amendment sacred.  Linda/Supergirl is friends with both of these characters, and ends up caught in the middle. The inclusion of supporting characters in the debate transforms Supergirl's choice from an academic question of free speech, into an emotionally charged dilemma where she has to choose between two of her best friends.  This story is compelling and powerful because of the involvement of the supporting characters. Without them, it would have had no teeth. 

This is one example of why supporting characters are critically important to any story, but there are many others that could be invoked from the comic-book series of the past.  Supporting characters make the story better; they make it more impactful; and they raise the emotional ante.  Without them, all those things are lost, and we end up with a comic-book that is just about super-fights.  And without the emotional jolt provided by including supporting characters, even the super-fights become rather empty.

I've been back to reading comics for six months now, and I've read a fair few since my return (I'd estimate over 200).  Throughout this time, I've felt that something is missing from today's comics.  I've been struggling to figure out exactly what.  I suspect a lot of things are to blame, but probably the biggest one is the lack of a solid supporting cast for many of the series on the market today.  They can still have good stories and can still be interesting, but the emotional impact will always be lower without a supporting cast.  And it also becomes harder to relate to a super-hero, if there aren't any normal people around him or her with whom we can identify.

Supergirl, in particular, has been struggling to find her way in this New 52.  Her character still has not really been established yet (except that we know she has a very hot temper and can fly into super-powered rages at pretty much the drop of a hat).  We know so little about her as a person -- as a human being.  We know far less about her in 21 issues than we knew about the Linda Danvers character in the first nine-issue story arc of Peter David's run.  And why?  I submit the main reason is that the New 52 Supergirl hasn't had any supporting characters with whom she can interact. So we only see her temper, because we only see the "action" -- the fight scenes.

This over-dependence on action is not making comic-books better. It's making them worse -- because it's hamstringing the writer's ability to provide depth and complexity to the stories, and it's removing the traditional primary source of emotion and humanity -- the supporting cast.  If DC and Marvel know what's good for them, they'll bring back supporting characters in a big way -- and ASAP.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

New Comic-book Night - 5/22/13

I had a rare slow week this week for New Comic-book Night.  I've hit a bit of a roadblock with the 4th series of Supergirl.  I have the series in trades through issue 33 (except for issues 20-22, which were never collected in a trade, and I therefore have individually), and the next trade, Who is Superwoman?, covers issues 34 and 37-42.  Issues 35 and 36 are not collected in a Supergirl trade, but are, rather, part of the Superman: New Krypton arc, and appear in the second trade paperback collecting those comics.  However, I honestly have no interest in the New Krypton trades -- I'm just trying to get all the Supergirl series stories.  So rather than bother with a bunch of trade paperbacks that really aren't about Supergirl, I decided to go ahead and buy issues 35 and 36 individually.  This week I picked up one of those, issue 35.  It was quite good. This is the second issue of the Sterling Gates run (I won't get to #34, the first issue of the Gates run, until I get my hands on the next trade, which my comic shop does not have in stock).  I enjoyed it. 9/10.



The other comic I got was the only new issue from my pull list to come out this week, Justice League #20. JL has been faltering, lately.  The Throne of Atlantis story arc had a very weak ending in issue 17, and issues 18 and 19 were just not up to the standard set by the earlier issues in the series.  This isn't to say they were bad, but in my database, I have the pre-17 issues all rated 9/10 or 10/10, and 17-19 are rated 7/10 or 8/10.  However, I thought #20 redeemed writer Geoff Johns a bit.  The action was good, but there were also some great moments of quiet drama, especially a great discussion between Batman and Superman about what happens if one of the JL members goes rogue.  This issue served as a lead-in to the Trinity War crossover that is coming next month (apparently), and we can sort of see at least some of what is going to happen, as they are starting to set up the obvious conflict between the JL and the JLA.  I gave this one a 9/10 also.

Finally on a personal note, the main reason NCN was so sparse this week is that I am trying to rein in the spending and especially the buying of anything that will need to be moved, as I prepare to close on my new home in early June and move in late June.  By July I should be back to normal, but for these next few weeks, I am trying to keep the amount of stuff I bring into my apartment to a minimum.

Friday, May 17, 2013

So they CAN still make comics like they used to...

The last time I seriously collected a comic-book put out by +Marvel Entertainment was way back in 1991, when they were still called "Marvel Comics."  I had slowly given up on my Marvel comics, and switched one by one to DC.  The last hold-out, in 1991, was Captain America.  After I stopped buying that title, for 22 years, I did not touch a Marvel comic-book.

Then, a few months ago, having loved the Avengers movie, and just gotten back into collecting comics, I tried Avengers Assemble. It was terrible, and after four issues I gave up.  A couple of weeks ago, having heard good things about some of the Marvel NOW! titles, and having gotten rather fed up with most of the sewage being passed off as "comic-books" by +DC Comics, I decided I would go ahead and try Marvel again.  I started with Captain America #1-6, about which I'm ambivalent. The story is odd, and the choice of having Cap age 12 years between issues 2 and 3 is going to be trouble in the long run.  I usually know after 6 issues whether I want to put a comic on my pull list or not, but I'm still reserving judgment on Captain America.  I'm leaning toward not putting it on, and it's going to have to get dramatically better by the end of this first story-line to prevent that.

I thought that might be the end of a very brief, probably misguided, attempt at re-acquainting myself with the Marvel Universe.  Two attempted series, one a dud, the other highly questionable. I decided to give Marvel one more try, this time with the Marvel NOW! version of Thor -- Thor, God of Thunder.  I'd heard good things about it from several people, and I've always liked Thor.  The comic shop had all 8 issues still out on the "current" shelves, so I didn't have to pay inflated "back issue" prices for it.  Picked it up on Wednesday, and started reading it... and could not stop. Within 24 hours I had devoured all 8 issues.  What a gem this title is.



By any metric of measurement, Thor, God of Thunder is sequential story-telling at its best.  The story-line is broad and sweeping, yet still delves deeply into character.  The dialogue rings true -- a difficult task with the normally stilted, old-fashioned speech patterns of Thor.  The art, although stylized, is exceptionally good and appropriate to the story-line -- moody, but with a surrealist quality to it.  The panels look almost like oil paintings rather than pencil-and-ink drawings.  As I say, just these characteristics alone would make Thor, God of Thunder a good read.



However, what struck me the most as I was reading these eight first issues of Thor, God of Thunder was just how much this sweeping, epic story-line reminds me of another great Thor story-line -- the one by Walt Simonson back in the 1980s.  Like Simonson before him, Aaron has delved deeply into the mythology of the Marvel Universe, creating new elements to it that feel like they have been there forever, while simultaneously drawing on older material that has been around since Marvel's inception.  Beyond this, the series has remained, at least for the first eight books, almost completely independent of the Marvel Universe (other than a brief cameo by Iron Man, you wouldn't even know this title shares that universe).  It can be read completely on its own.

One really important feature that reminds me of the old days, however, is not the story nor the art, but rather, the fact that this series (and apparently all Marvel titles) still has a letter column!  For regular readers of this blog, you know that I have complained vociferously about the lack of a lettercol in current DC titles.  Well, Marvel still prints letters in the back of their comics (well, e-mails... but it's the same thing), and they answer the letters as well.  How refreshing it's been to read those letters.  And how connected it makes me feel to the other comic-book fans -- much more so than the so-called "social media" do.  I'm not sure why that is, but it does.  In each issue there's a letter by someone like me, who hasn't been reading comics, or Marvel, for years (or maybe ever), and decided, for one reason or another, to pick up Thor, God of Thunder and give it a try.

What I love about the lettercols is that they allow writer Jason Aaron to respond directly to readers, and tell us what is on his mind.  He explains what he is thinking, hints at what he is planning.  And best of all, in issue 5, when a reader complained briefly about the Iron Man cameo and said he doesn't want a bunch of guest-stars and crossovers in this title, Aaron responded as follows:
That shared universe is one of the hallmarks of the House of Ideas. But I also want Thor to be a series you can continue to read and enjoy even if you're not following the overall thread of the Marvel U, though at the same time feeling big enough to be relevant to that universe as a whole. In other words, I wanna do big, epic Thor stories that anyone can enjoy.
This is what comics used to be like.  The shared universe was a backdrop, years ago, not an excuse to try and force people to buy every title in the line.

Another thing that seems readily apparent from both the way the story unfolds and the answers Aaron gives in the lettercol, is that, on Thor, God of Thunder, the writer is in control of the plot. Although I'm sure the editor has a say in the book's direction, there is no doubt who is in charge here.  Marvel seems willing to let Aaron, and presumably its other writers, do what they're supposed to -- write stories.

Between the sweeping, high-quality story, solid artwork, lettercols in every issue, and the writer's ability to control the story-line, I really felt, reading these eight first issues of Thor, God of Thunder, as if I'd gone back in time 25 years, to the days when comics were truly great, and high quality was the rule in both major comics companies, rather than the exception it's become today.  Since coming back to comics, with a few rare exceptions (Red Sonja, Batgirl), I had been wondering if they could even make comics like they used to.  Here, we have the answer... yes, they still can.  Thor, God of Thunder, is one such book.

Now, don't get me wrong.  The actual specific story is not like one would have read in the 1980s... it would have been far too violent and bloody, and the old Comics Code Authority would never have allowed it.  However, although the plot is modern and far more adult than the stories in those days, it is executed like they did back in the day -- executed the way the greats like Simonson, Perez, Wolfman, Mantlo, and Levitz used to do it all those years ago.



Kudos to the creative team.  Thor, God of Thunder is the first Marvel comic to officially make it onto my long-term pull list in 22 years.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

New Comic-book Night - 5/15/13

For this week's New Comic-book Night, I picked up 10 new issues... two of them are the latest installments on my pull list, Supergirl and Batgirl, and the other eight are for a new title for me -- Thor: God of Thunder.  I chose to try Thor for two reasons.  First, although issue 8 came out last week, my comic-book shop, which is quite good about such things, still had issues 1-7 in the "current" section, meaning I was able to get them all for cover price -- no "back issue markup."  Second, I have heard excellent things about this series from the people at the Comic-book Community.  I'm still wary of Marvel because of the mutants (I absolutely hate the mutant concept at this point), but Thor usually doesn't have much to do with mutants so I figured it was safe to try this series.



I have not read Supergirl or Batgirl yet, but I have read the first three issues of Thor.  So far, it is outstanding.  Esad Ribic's art is heavily stylized but quite good, and the moody inking and coloring definitely fits the story being told.  Jason Aaron's writing is quite strong.  He's doing something highly experimental here -- telling a story that takes place 1,000 years in the past, with a very young Thor; in the present with today's Thor; and 1,000+ years in the future with a very old Thor.  In each time period, Thor battles against a character called the "god butcher," who has been going around killing gods on many various worlds.  Flipping back and forth between three different eras separated by thousands of years could be a story-telling train-wreck, and most writers would probably not be able to pull it off. There's a very real risk of the story becoming incomprehensible to the reader. Aaron, however, has done magnificently in the first three issues.  The story is clean and easy to follow.  The mystery of the god butcher's motivations and actions is tantalizing. And Thor's single-minded determination to track this villain and protect all the other gods drives the story forward.

As I say, I have only read the first three issues (I am about to head off to read issue #4 right now, in fact). But if the series continues to be this solid through all eight issues, this series is going on my pull list the next time I stop by my comic-book shop.

Note, I can not say the same for Captain America, even six issues in... despite the fact that I like Cap better as a character, what's going on in his comic is just... too weird for me.  I am giving that one till the end of the first story arc (I'm guessing issue 8 or so) and if it doesn't get better, I'm done.  But Thor is looking like a keeper.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Is everything just a mini-series now?

In the last couple of years, practically every series in +DC Comics and +Marvel Entertainment has been rebooted.

In September of 2011, +DC Comics closed down every one of their ongoing series, and restarted them all on number one.  Fifty-two series in all were begun that month on "issue 1," prompting the company to name its line "the New 52." Since this "relaunch," 16 out of the 52 titles have been canceled -- six after just eight months, six earlier this spring, and four more have been announced for termination as of August.  That's 16 series, or 30% of the line, that lasted less than 24 total issues, and many less than 10. Because DC insists on publishing 52 concurrent titles, this means 16 new series replacing the old, or a total of 68 new series started in two years.

Meanwhile, Marvel has created its own version of a relaunch, with the Marvel NOW! line, which will consist of more than 30 titles by year's end, all starting over on "issue 1" (with the older series generally being canceled).  Although this is certainly not the entire Marvel line, as it was with DC, we can say that a huge chunk of the Marvel titles have been re-started as new series.

This is something of a new pattern for comic books.  Although reboots are nothing new for the industry, having entire company-wide relaunches on number 1, and cancellations of old, often standby series like Action Comics or Captain America -- reboots done for no other purpose than a re-number -- is definitely virgin soil for DC and Marvel.  In prior decades, companies prided themselves on having the longest-running series.  A series in the 100s or 200s or higher was a sign of success and good editorial management -- high numbers were evidence that the series had sold enough copies, consistently, for many years.  I remember the fanfare with which Action Comics hit #600, and Thor hit #400, and Captain America hit #300.  These comics had been around for decades, and had sold so well and consistently that they had never needed to be halted.

Thus, a series was something that, once begun, was intended to be published indefinitely, and companies did whatever they could to maintain their series line.  When a series started to falter, companies pulled out all the stops to try and keep it alive, because the fact that a title was being published at all meant that the publisher was committed to it.  To save a flagging title, new creative teams would be brought in. Old arch-enemies would be called upon to grace the pages. Former love-interests would make reappearances.

Sure, these gimmicks often failed, and the series was, perhaps, canceled anyway.  Many series made it no further than the New 52 titles have (like the New 52 Legion of Super-Heroes, set to be canceled this August, 1982-4s Daring New Adventures of Supergirl was canceled after 23 issues).  But, back in those days, you had the sense that the companies meant the series they started publishing to run indefinitely, just like Action Comics (which eventually reached past issue 900) was (at least until 2011, when it was canceled for the New 52 reboot).

But today, it seems like comic companies do not begin publishing a series with the intention of it lasting indefinitely.  Today, even high sales and high issue number counts, seem incapable of shielding a comic from cancellation.  Because "number 1" issues sell so well, every series is potentially on the chopping block every single month.  And most series have been canceled and rebooted so many times that they have many different volumes. A few examples:


  • The New 52 Supergirl is technically volume 6, if you count the 4-issue mini-series in 1993.
  • The New 52 LSH about to be canceled is volume 7, unless you count The Legion (which was about the LSH but under a slightly different title) in which case it's volume 8.  This troubled series has seen four separate issue 1 relaunches in 13 years, and the individual "volumes" have averaged 28 issues per series.
  • The new Marvel NOW! Captain America is volume 7, with each of volumes 2-6 averaging 28 issues running length (after volume 1 lasted 354 issues by itself).
  • After volume 1 lasted 127 issues from 1999 through 2009, Birds of Prey has been renumbered twice in the last four years, with volume 2 lasting just 15 issues, and volume 3 currently on issue 20.


The story is repeated for a host of titles.  Indeed, most comics, if they have retained their old titles are on at least volume 3 or 4 at this point, and many would be much higher than that if the companies did not (like Justice League) keep slightly changing the title name and calling it a "new" series.

When looking over all the different "volumes" of each series, and all the issue 1 relaunches, followed by cancellations, followed by re-relaunches, combined with the fact that hardly any series left in DC or Marvel's line will be higher than 30 by year's end, it seems to me like the concept of the series that is planned to be published indefinitely has gone the way of the dinosaur. The fans of a particular character need to prepare ourselves for a succession of short-lived series, rather than one long one.

Years ago, when a comic-book title was published with the intention of lasting a short while and then ending, they used to call it a "mini-series" (in DC) or a "limited series" (in Marvel). Mini-series stood as differentiated from regular series by this very fact -- that they were short-lived.  These days, with the rapid fire launch/cancel/relaunch sequence we've been witnessing, it seems like every series is expected to be short-lived.  Thus, every series on the market today can be viewed as a long mini-series, rather than a true, "permanent" series.  The only real difference is that we aren't told ahead of time that the series is of finite length, whereas with a limited series, they used to broadcast it ("issue 1 of 5").

What does this mean for the comic-book industry?  To be honest, I'm not really sure. I suspect it's not a good sign.  I'm sure the companies don't go into it with the plan to cancel these series right away. But I've got the definite sense that they lack commitment to these series, and that as soon as sales flag, they just quickly pull the plug.  It also feels a little like both companies are almost in what one could call panic mode -- that they are pulling any crazy idea for a title out of the hat, using any character they can think of, even ones who never had a series before, and trying to see if the book will sell.  If it does, fine, if not (like Threshold or Sword of Sorcery), pull the plug ASAP.

Whatever the long-term effects of this "musical series" pattern coming out of the comic companies, I'm sure of one thing as a reader and collector: we need to start viewing all series as mini-series. Even mainstays are not immune.  The days of the triple-digit issue number seem to be over.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

NCN - 5/8/13

For New Comic-book Night, I got two new issues and an older trade paperback.  The new issues are today's releases of Justice League of America #3 (which is 2 weeks behind schedule), and Katana #4 (which is a week ahead of schedule, after being 2 weeks behind schedule last month... go figure).  I also picked up the trade paperback Supergirl: Way of the World.  This TPB collects issues 28-33 of her fourth series, which means I'm now half done with it (there were 67 issues total).



I haven't read the Supergirl TPB yet (I have one more to finish before I get to it), but I did get to both JLA and Katana tonight, so I will review them briefly.

Justice League of America #3 - This was probably the best issue of JLA to date.  Last issue we had a cliffhanger where what appeared to be Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman of the Justice League (without the "A") were on the point of attacking the JLA.  In this issue, we discover these were robots, and the JLA handles them.  They can't find any other sign of the Secret Society of Super-Villains, who own the robots, and they still don't know what the SSSV is up to.  Therefore, because no one yet knows that Catwoman has reformed, they have her commit some pretend crimes and get thrown into Arkham Asylum to  attract the SSSV's interest.  This happens by the end of the book, and Catwoman is left tied to a chair in the SSSV base.

This story was interesting and suspenseful.  I thought Selina Kyle (Catwoman) was characterized fairly well (she is a hard character to write, and up to now only Devin Grayson in the late 90s had really done her justice). The business about Green Arrow still being rejected from the team and trying to get on it is extremely wearisome, however, especially since we already know that he is going to end up on this team. Why drag it out? It's rather pointless.  On the other hand I've already become a huge fan of Star Girl (not a character with whom I am very familiar) so far.  She's a great example of how one can do a teenage superhero without making her brooding, moody, and irresponsible.  Star Girl is a good girl, and is looked up to by just about everyone. Which I find refreshing for a change, with a teenage character. I hope they keep this up and don't ruin her.  Rating: 8/10.

Katana #4 - Katana's sword was broken by Killer Croc last issue.  This month, the souls "taken in" by the sword (with each kill) leak out and start interacting with the world.  The Creeper is freed and looks around for a body to possess.  Katana's husband chides her for not moving on after his death.  Other souls flee the area.  A dragon spirit leads Killer Croc somewhere.  Katana waits tables and looks for a substitute sword.  Her mentor tells her to find a great blacksmith in Japan and have him re-forge it.  And then Creeper shows up again and battles her, because he's afraid that if the sword is re-forged, it will trap him again.

This series has had an insane number of ups and downs for one that is only four issues long.  The first two issues were mediocre but passable. Issue 3 was exciting and definitely made me think I was going to add this series to my pull list.  Now issue 4 comes along and... wow... this is one of the worst comic-books I've ever read.  The art was indecipherable.  In many panels I had to look and look and I still could not figure out what is going on. The dialogue is equally confusing.  The story goes in four or five directions at once, none of which make any sense.  I normally like Ann Nocenti, and up until now the series was at least passable, but this issue was inexcusably bad.  The creative team has one issue to turn it around, or I'm done.

Not that I think it matters.  I keep track of my "pull list" on Comixology, and they tell you there how many pulls each title has.  Now, this isn't a statistical sample by any means, and we don't know how many people even use the service.  But when I see 2,000+ pulls for JLA this week and Earth-2 last week, and less than 400 pulls for Katana this week, that's really telling me something.  I would bet this series will not make it past issue 10 at this point.  And it certainly won't if the team keeps turning out raw sewage like they did this month.  Rating: 4/10. (And that's being generous.)

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Legion of Super-Heroes - Series 5

The Legion of Super-Heroes has been around for a long time.  First appearing in Action Comics and Adventure Comics, the team of teenage super-heroes from 1,000 years in the future made regular appearances alongside Superboy.  They had a very short-lived (four issue) series in the 1970s, which we will not count as a "series" because of its brevity. Eventually, the Legion found a permanent home in the Superboy comic, which was re-named Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, and then, eventually, simply Legion of Super-Heroes.  This series, which eventually went past issue 300, is known as the first series.

In the 1980s, +DC Comics decided to experiment with high-quality format, direct-sales titles, and the Legion was chosen for the experiment.  The series was re-numbered to issue 1 (without a reboot of continuity, since the tendency to do that had not begun yet in comics), and this was the second series.  Then, after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC moved the Legion timeline five years into the future, making all the Legionnaires adults instead of teens.  The series was re-started again on number one.  This was the third series.  Eventually, a companion title, called Legionnaires, was begun, following a younger team (the older team was revealed to be clones of these younger kids).  This is not considered a "fourth" series because it happened concurrently and the stories crossed between the two series.  Finally, the third series ended, and a new version of the team, in a book simply called The Legion, was published.  This was the fourth series.

Then, in 2004, +DC Comics rebooted the Legion yet again, as part of one universe-spanning crossover or another (I have no idea which -- they all blur together in my mind at this point), once again naming the series Legion of Super-Heroes.  Written by Mark Waid and drawn by Barry Kitson (for the first 2.5 years), this version of the Legion is now available in eight trade paperbacks that encompass the eight story arcs of the entire series -- you won't miss a single issue if you buy these as trades.  This series is distinguished by having two different names.  The first two, and last two, trade paperbacks are sold under the name Legion of Super-Heroes.  The third through sixth, however, are sold under the name Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes. In this article, I will review the full series.

Story arc 1: Legion of Super-Heroes - Teenage Revolution

In the 31st Century, the galaxy has known peace. War has ended, and computers help in every aspect of our lives.  People don't meet face to face anymore, instead staying home and interacting via holograms.  Food is delivered by replicators.  Everything is safe and secure.  To many, especially adults, this condition is seen as utopia.  But to the teenagers, it is viewed as stagnation.

As the story begins, thousands of young people have gathered outside of Legion headquarters, to simply be a part of the movement.  The core members of the team are, of course, young super-heroes like Brainiac 5, Sun Boy, Light Lass, Shadow Lass, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and all your favorites from the Legion's earlier runs.  The team battles rogue "macrobots" that the Science Police have been unable to stop, stops a rebellion on Lallor, and foils an attempted assassination of U.P. diplomats.  Meanwhile, Dream Girl has a vision of someone causing death and destruction.  Brainiac 5 begins trying to find out who he is, and what he is up to.



As the story continues, the U.P. passes legislation against the Legion, and the Science Police (S.P.s) try to capture them.  After a protracted fight, the U.P., unable to defeat the Legionnaires, agrees to a truce.  While this is happening, Lightning Lad takes a contingent to Rimworld 19, to defend them against an attack.  They end up battling a group with Legion-like powers called Terror Firma.  After fighting the Legion to a standstill, Terror Firma returns to a secret base, where their mysterious leader prepares them for the coming war.  Following this, Princess Projectra's world of Orando is destroyed by Terror Firma, throwing the U.P. into financial chaos.

As the story arc ends, the mystery man shows up to gloat before Brainiac 5.  He explains to Brainy that he is Praetor Lemnos, and his power is to delete evidence (and memory) of his existence from anyone and anything (people's minds, computer chips, etc).  He does what he wants and then erases evidence he was ever there, making it impossible for anyone to catch him.  He wants to end the time of peace, because he, like the teens, believes it leads to stagnation. However, unlike the Legion, he's willing to destroy worlds and slaughter billions to do it.  He leaves Brainiac at the end with no memory of the encounter, implying that he will have a free run of the galaxy in the future.

Story arc 2: Legion of Super-Heroes - Death of a Dream

The second story arc continues the struggle between Lemnos and the Legion (even though they don't quite know they are fighting him).  Brainiac managed to leave himself a message within some computer code that Lemnos didn't know to erase, enough to tell the Legion that Colu (Brainy's homeworld) is next on the list. Unfortunately, by the time they get to Colu, a virus has already damaged the high-level intellect of the population.  Light Lass uses her powers to trick Lemnos into appearing after Cham's sense of smell detects him, and now the Legion knows their enemy.



In the mean time, Cosmic Boy uses Brainy's absence to sneak into his lab and find out what the "twelfth level intellect" is up to. This leads to a massive rupture, with half the team siding with Cos, and half with Brainy.  The battle is aborted by word that Cosmic Boy's world is seceding from the U.P. and sealing itself off, and he has been summoned home. Cosmic Boy departs for home while Brainy leads the Legion to the planet Helegun. There they are attacked once more by Terror Firma and the fight goes badly. Seeing this on a monitor at the trans-station, Cosmic Boy returns to the Legion to help out.  In the end, Cos and Brainy decide to work together against Terror Firma and Lemnos.

As the Legion regroups, Lemnos orders a final attack. Bombs go off both outside and inside Legion H.Q.  The building is destroyed, and collapses, harming many and killing Dream Girl. Brainy refuses to accept her death, and traps her in a force field to prevent her soul from escaping her body, with the plan of eventually, somehow, bringing her back to life.  Meanwhile, Phantom Girl leads a strike team to Lemnos' base, where they prepare to attack his invasion army. Praetor Lemnos' forces are defeated, and Lemnos captured, thereby ending the threat of galactic war.

Story arc 3: Supergirl/Legion - Strange Visitor

The Legion of Super-Heroes, recently endorsed by Earthgov and the United Planets, has been alerted to a powerful missile-like object heading toward earth.  The entire Legion tries to stop it, but only succeeds in slowing it down.  Then, zooming in to save the day, Supergirl appears.  She smashes the missile, saving 31st-century Metropolis, and the Legionnaires, being big fans of the heroes in our time, immediately recognize her. Supergirl thinks she's dreaming the whole thing, and the Legionnaires are not entirely sure she's who she says she is.  But eventually she asks to become a member of the Legion, and they accept her.


Story arc 4: Supergirl/Legion - Adult education

Supergirl remains in the 31st century, working with the Legion while at the same time causing them concern, because she continues to believe that she is dreaming everything, including them.  As the Legion continues to face an increasing threat from a mysterious group that seems almost like a mirror version of themselves, several of the members finally take Supergirl to the re-enlarged city of Kandor, which is now on a planet with a red sun.  They finally convince her that the events around her are real, and not a dream, and the Kandorians attempt to keep her there permanently.  However, Cosmic Boy invites her back to the Legion, and she re-joins them.  Together with the Legion, she continues to battle against their counter-parts, who we learn are called "the Wanderers."  The leader turns out to be Lightning Lad's brother, Mekt (who in previous incarnations of LSH used to be called "Lightning Lord").  Meanwhile, Braniac 5 frees Mon-El from the Phantom Zone, which has all been part of Mekt's plan.  Mekt then reveals that the Dominators, an alien race who have threatened earth before (in the 20th century), are out to do so again, and he's trying to stop it.

Story arc 5: Supergirl/Legion - Dominator War

In the third of Supergirl's four story arcs with the Legion, all-out war breaks out between Earth and the Dominators.  Mekt Ranzz, leader of the Wanderers, claims that there is going to be an "A.I." attack in Tokyo, and Supergirl, Ultra Boy, and others are sent to investigate.  A giant robot emerges, which proves to be easily defeated. However, upon destruction, it spews out a massive cloud of nano-particles that contain an A.I. virus. In short order, the entire planet Earth has lost all A.I. and computer power, as the virus takes hold.  Other planets seal off the Earth, refusing to accept transmatter portals for fear of infection by the A.I. virus.  The Dominators invade earth, scattering the Legion and the Wanderers and taking control.  However, the captured Cosmic Boy and Triplicate Girl trick the Dominators into opening a transmatter portal to their homeworld just long enough for Supergirl, Mon-El, and Ultra Boy to fly there and start an attack.  The Legion defeats the Dominators on their world, and Mon-El uses a special device created by Brainy to suck the entire Dominator homeworld into the Phantom Zone (re-trapping himself in the process).  As the clean-up begins, Supergirl finally starts searching for a way to return to her own time. At the same time, Cosmic Boy is visited by people from 1,000 years in his future (the 41st century) who take him forward in time to help them.

Story arc 6: Supergirl/Legion - Quest for Cosmic Boy

Suprgirl's final story arc in the 31st century starts with a bang, as she is elected leader of the Legion and sends three teams in search of the missing Cosmic Boy.  Unfortunately, after about the first 10 pages, we hardly see her again until the end of the arc. It's fairly clear that Tony Bedard, the new writer, had no interest in retaining Supergirl as a major Legion character, and she's not the only Leggionaire to suffer from his neglect in this arc.  Many other important team members are nowhere to be seen in this arc, including Dream Boy, Triplicate Girl, Ultra Boy, Phantom Girl, Light Lass, Element Lad, Karate Kid, Cham, and Colossal Boy. Bedard clearly has favorites, such as Timber Wolf and Atom Girl, and focuses large hunks of the narrative on them.



Bedard also seems to have decided he didn't like Mark Waid's direction in the earlier arcs, and by the end, Brainy's machinations, rather than leading to the discovery of Cosmic Boy, lead to the undoing of almost every major plot consequence of Waid's preceding 30-issue run.  Supergirl is returned to her own time.  Cosmic Boy's name is cleared from the "destruction" of the Dominators.  Mekt Ranzz and the Wanderers are removed as Legion allies.  And the Legion, by befriending prosecutor Tenzil Kem (Matter-Eater Lad), end up on the "good side" of the U.P.  Whether Bedard did this because he disliked Waid's direction on the series, or was ordered to do so by editors who felt that way, the effect was the same. In one fell swoop Bedard erased Waid's entire run on Legion up to that point, and booted Supergirl out of top billing and off the team.  As an added bonus, he erased her memory of her entire time with the Legion, and did not bother to explain how she had gotten to the 31st Century in the first place.

As a Legion story arc, this is the worst of volume 5.  As a Supergirl story arc, it's not even worth buying.  Nothing will be explained to you about her presence in the 31st Century; her return home is abrupt, contrived, and clearly done just to get rid of her; and you hardly see Supergirl after the first issue.  The irony is that, after achieving his goal of wiping out as much of Waid's run as possible, Bedard was booted from the series himself.

Story arc 7: Legion of Super-Heroes - Enemy Rising

Jim Shooter, who wrote for the Legion decades ago, returns for two story arcs.  The story arc begins with Phantom Girl, Karate Kid, and Triplicate Girl battling space monsters at a mining outpost in the solar system's Oort cloud.  A second team is sent to Triton, where the same monsters soon attack. Meanwhile, back at Legion H.Q., Lightning Lad argues with politicians and deals with the fact that the Legion's budget has been frozen. Elsewhere, Projectra battles to regain her royalty status, which the U.P. has revoked because the planet over which she was a ruler no longer exists (from back in story arc 1), and Colossal Boy's team in Beijing tangles with and defeats some ruffians from the lower levels of the city.

Finally, the teams all return to Legion H.Q. There, they learn that despite all the alien attacks, only one specimen was captured -- all the rest have self-destructed.  And that one specimen is held by the S.P.s, who refuse to allow Brainy access. Meanwhile, Projectra leaves the court, where she is accosted by tourists, and loses it, attacking them.  Saturn Girl appears before too much damage is done, and manages to calm Projectra down and smooth things over.  While this happens, the Legion sends Invisible Kid into the examination room to spy on the autopsy of the alien, which wakes up and tries to kill everyone.  The Kid takes him down, but is then arrested for spying.  Before the Legion can figure out how to free him, Ultra Boy's world of Rimbor is attacked by the aliens.



On Rimbor, Ultra Boy's team battles the aliens, ultimately defeating them.  As they do this, on Earth, Brainiac and Lightning Lad are tricked by a U.P. official into sending more Legionnaires away, leaving the S.P.s an easy task of serving the Legion with warrants.  Things then go from bad to worse as the S.P.s on Rimbor attack the Legion and try to arrest them, the other team gets captured by pirates, and the Legionnaires at H.Q. are threatened with arrest.  Finally, however, a new Leggionaire named M'rissey solves most of the trouble by engaging a PR firm and lawyers to sue the U.P.  The S.P.s are forced to back off, giving the Legion back their independent status. As this happens, Invisible Kid saves the remaining Legionnaires from the pirates, and everyone transmatters home.

Story arc 8: Legion of Super-Heroes - Enemy Manifest

Jim Shooter remains as the writer of this, the final story arc of the fifth Legion series.  The arc begins with an alert from Earthgov.  A large planet has materialized in the solar system and its gravitational pull is threatening to destroy the orbits of many planets, including earth.  Brainiac 5 is dispatched to assist, along with the two gravity-powered Legionnaires, Light Lass and Star Boy.  Brainiac uses an amplifier to channel the powers of these two characters, and he traps the planet in a gravity well, thereby protecting the solar system.  From there, Earthgov tries to make diplomatic contact, while Brainy starts trying to figure out how to get through the planet's shield.



Meanwhile, the Legionnaires spend their time recovering from their previous missions, healing up, and interacting with each other.  Invisible Kid walks in on Saturn Girl and Ultra Boy about to have a fling.  Projectra and Phantom Girl read old earth comic-books.  And Brainiac 5 tries to find a way to have a more "meaningful" relationship with the spirit of Dream Girl that seemingly lives inside his unconscious mind.  Indeed, Projectra ends up using some Orandian survivors to attack Dream Girl's spirit, and partially succeeds, destroying her precognitive abilities.  Projectra's reason for doing so is that she plans to attack the Legion to get revenge om them for not protecting Orando, and she doesn't want Dream Girl to warn Brainiac.

As the story nears its climax, delegates from the intruder planet arrive, and point an energy capturing device at many items.  Brainiac scans what they are doing, and finally figures out that the alien enemies actually are virtual-space beings for whom the universe is their computer, and what we see in the universe is just their avatars (essentially reversing the normal situation where a human plays a computer game and the avatar is inside the computer).  This means the Legion will have to find some way to attack them in virtual space.  Unvortunately, the intruder delegates "download" the U.P. secretary of state (which kills her).  Meanwhile, the legion adds several members to its reserve roster, and Projectra is nowhere to be found.

In the end Brainiac 5 discovers a way to have a small team of Legionnaires enter the virtual space of the invaders.  Unprepared for an attack on their own soil, the battle goes badly for them. Then Brainy uses a lock-on to the Invisible Kid to gain control of the entire virtual world, and uses his control to delete the enemy invasion and save the universe.  At the end, he uses the aliens' "copying" device to make Dream Girl a new body, and uploads his memory of her back into it, which essentially resurrects her.  Here, the series ends.

Reflections on Legion series 5

The fifth Legion series, which lasted for about four years, spanning eight story arcs that lasted 50 issues, had three different authors, who set three different tones.

Waid/Kitson - The series began extremely well, with the first 30 issues being written by Mark Waid, drawn by Barry Kitson, and (by Waid's own admission) co-plotted by the two of them.  The characterization was strong, and given the size of the team, Waid and Kitson did a remarkable job of making everyone count.  Perhaps most significantly, these two creators realized that with a huge team, all action all the time would not work, because the characters needed time to develop. Thus, each character had some down time on stage. We see Phantom Girl romancing Karate Kid but being distracted by her own dimension. We see Triplicate Girl dating three male Legionnaires at once.  We watch Projectra go from a spoiled princess to a lost girl mourning her planet and her family. Throughout these first 30 issues, Waid and Kitson establish the humanity of the Legionnaires, while at the same time telling exciting, action-packed stories on a galactic scale.  The whole time I was reading the Waid/Kitson trades, I kept thinking to myself, "This is what the Legion should be."

Tony Bedard - The sixth story arc was written by Tony Bedard, and was the worst of all eight arcs.  Bedard only lasted 6 issues on this title, and it's really no surprise.  Rather than continue with Waid's brilliant stories, Bedard spent his entire 6-issue run doing his damnedest to erase everything Waid had developed. Additionally, he did hardly anything to develop the back-stories of the Legionnaires, with the exception of the Ranzz siblings, and even then, his main focus was Mekt, who is not even a Legion member. He made Supergirl the team leader and then promptly wrote her out of the entire arc, until the final "Epilogue" issue, in which he sent her back home and wiped her memory.  But perhaps Bedard's worst offense of all, was that he flat-out ignored half of the Legion for six issues. Nowhere in his entire arc do Colossal Boy, Phantom Girl, Karate Kid, or Triplicate Girl appear.  Ultra Boy is seen in one panel.  Princess Projectra is completely ignored.  Instead, we get page after page of Mekt Ranzz and Tenzil Kem, neither of whom is even in the Legion.

Jim Shooter - The final year or so of this series was written by Jim Shooter, who at least did a better job with characterization then Bedard, and used more of the characters than Bedard did.  Interestingly, the very first scene of Shooter's run focused on Karate Kid, Phantom Girl, and Triplicate Girl -- three characters who had been very noticeably ignored by Bedard for 6 months.  However, although Shooter used more of the Legionnaires in each story arc than Bedard used, he was not able to achieve the delicate balance of Waid/Kitson, who consistently managed to give an equal amount of spotlight to all 20 or so Legion members.  Like Bedard, Shooter did not bother to explore the back-story of the Legion characters, although unlike Bedard, he did delve deeply into the interpersonal relationships of at least some Legionnaires.  Shooter's also a good deal funnier than the other writers, at least in his first arc, and his levity can be quite enjoyable.  At the very least, it helps make the characters likable.  However, he fails to use the Legion to its full potential the way Waid and Kitson did.

And so, the fifth Legion series, which had such high sustained quality for over two years, fizzled out by the end. After reading the first couple of trades by Waid and Kitson, I found myself wondering why on earth this series would ever have been canceled -- it was so good.  But having gone through the last three story arcs, I can absolutely see why the plug was pulled, and the reins turned back over to Paul Levitz.  I haven't read either of the next two series, so I don't know how they are, but if Levtiz is anything like his old self, they can't help but be better than the mediocrity turned out by Shooter, or the absolute sewage produced by Tony Bedard.

And so, the fifth Legion series drew to a sad close, and DC had no choice but to re-launch this storied but often editorially challenged super-hero team yet again. And not for the last time.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

The new style of first-issue stories

Although I certainly haven't gone and counted, I would bet that if you did, you would find that more "#1" issues of comic-book series have been published during the last five years than, perhaps, in all of comics history combined.  For instance, in 2011, +DC Comics terminated almost their entire line of comics, and rebooted everything back to number 1 (the New 52).  Last fall, +Marvel Entertainment launched the "Marvel NOW!" initiative, which didn't reboot their universe but started a whole bunch of series (Captain America, Thor, etc.) back on issue 1.  In between, many series have been canceled and re-booted (such as the ending of the Amazing Spider-Man series, replaced with Superior Spider-Man, starting of course at issue 1).

Thanks to all these reboots, and to the ready availability of back-issues on +comiXology, I have therefore read an unbelievable quantity of "issue 1" series launches in the last six months, including first issues of Captain America, Avengers Assemble, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Superman, Action Comics, Detective Comics, Batman, Batgirl, Earth 2, Worlds' Finest, The Movement, Red Sonja, Pantha, Justice League, Katana, and Justlice League of America.  What I have noticed, compared to the "old days" (pre-2000), is a dramatic shift in the style, pacing, and content of a typical first-issue series launch.

How comics used to launch a series

Years ago, a first-issue series launch was used in a very specific way.  That first issue was seen as a way to introduce the character or the team to the readers, and to establish the basic rules of the series. Let's use the 1979 series Rom: Spaceknight as an example.

In issue #1 of Rom, Rom arrives on earth and for the first few pages, seems almost evil, even attacking and seemingly killing some humans.  By page 8, however, Rom uses his translator to talk with the human woman Brandy Clark, and explains his background and origin.  He is 200 years old. He hails from the planet Galador, a peace-loving place.  The Galadorians entered an uncharted area called the Dark Nebula, and were attacked by Dire Wraiths.  Galador's armada was destroyed and the wraiths moved in on them.  To save the planet, the flower of Galador's youth would be asked to sacrifice humanity, becoming cyborg warriors (Spaceknights). Rom was the first to volunteer.  The Spaceknights prevailed, and drove the wraiths back.  But the wraiths, in defeat, scattered to other worlds. As shape-shifters, they could blend in, as they have done on our world. Rom is here to track them down and send them to the plane of Limbo.  The army, led by some wraiths in disguise, attacks Rom, and he defeats them, dispatches the wraiths, and flies off.  Word of his presence spreads to other wraiths, who now have to decide what to do about it.



This first issue of Rom accomplished everything a classic series-launching number 1 issue used to do. It established the character. It set up the dramatic tensions (in this case, between Rom and the wraiths, and between Rom and the humans who think he is killing them, as well as between wraiths and humans, though humans don't know it).  It established one of the main supporting characters (Brandy Clark, who quickly became a love interest for Rom).  And it told the backstory in enough detail that the reader knew exactly what was going on, and could easily follow the relationships between the major "sides" in the story (Rom, Human, and Wraith).  The ending leaves one in suspense, as a wraith in the local area hears of Rom's arrival and shape-shifts into a bird, flying away to warn her fellow aliens.

Now let's look at what Rom #1 did not do, relative to what #1 launches are like today.  Rom #1 did not confuse the reader.   It didn't leave the reader wondering who the heck this alien was or why he was blasting people.  It didn't leave the reader wondering who the shape-shifting guys were, and whether they were good or bad.  It didn't defer important, foundational explanations about the key elements of the series until later issues.

How series are launched today

If Rom #1 had been written in today's series-launch style, it would have been very different.  For example, no background of Galador and the Spaceknights would have been provided -- this would have been left until the 13th issue, which would have been called Rom #0.  Instead, we'd see an alien who can't speak any English, walking around blasting what appear to be humans. We'd see other seeming-humans suddenly change shapes, or whip out ray-guns, and blast Rom, and him retaliate. But we wouldn't know yet if Rom was an evil murderous robot, or an angel of mercy.  We'd probably see Rom rescue Brandy Clark from something, but there would be some ambiguity -- was he really rescuing her or just trying to kill her?

By the end of 'Marvel Now!" Rom #1, the reader would probably have no idea if Rom was going to be good or bad, or, frankly, what the hell was going on at all.  And this confusion would be purposeful.  The hypothetical "Marvel Now!" Rom writer would deliberately string the reader out, probably waiting until several issues in to reveal what a Dire Wraith was, and perhaps refusing to give Rom a translator, the better to keep things confused and uncertain.

What I've described above is, of course, pure invention -- there is no modern re-telling of the Rom story. However, my description is typical of the first-issue launches of today. Whereas in the old days, the goal of a first issue was explanation and providing a solid foundational base, these days, the goal of a first issue appears to be obfuscation and confusion.  Although I can't say for certain, I believe the probable motivation for this is that the companies believe the confusion will increase sales.  Readers of the fictitious modern Rom #1 would buy the next issue, and the one after that, because they want an explanation -- who is Rom? Where did he come from? And why is he shooting humans with a ray gun?  These questions, which were answered in the 1979 series halfway through the first issue, would probably not be answered in a modern re-telling for at least the first year, maybe more.

A major driver behind this new style is the tendency, in much modern storytelling, not just comics, to start a tale in the middle, rather than the beginning.  In the original Action Comics #1 in 1938, we saw Superman's origin told in a linear fashion - he came to earth in a rocket, and his alien body made him super-strong, able to leap buildings, and so forth.  The tale began at the beginning and worked forward.  Compare with 2011's Action Comics #1 relaunch, which starts with Superman floating in mid-air, with his Super-symbol already on his chest, apparently (somewhat) known but not yet understood by Metropolis, holding a rich white-collar criminal out over a ledge to scare him into confessing his evils.  The back-story of Superman's arrival on earth is not told until much later (issue #5), and even that is incomplete (more pieces are told later on).



But it's not just the "start in the middle" style that leads to confusion, because many movies and novels start in the middle today, but still don't leave the reader confused.  After all, the original Star Wars starts in the middle of a story, but we are given clear explanations of everything that is going on by the end of the first act (indeed, a lot of the explanation happens in the opening sequence, when the scroll of words tells us who Darth Vader is, who Princess Leia is, and that the Empire is evil, setting up the entire story for us in very clear, unambiguous terms).  So in comic-book launch issues today, it's the combination of starting in the middle, and not bothering to explain anything for several issues, that leads to seemingly disjointed, and definitely confusing, stories.

Which way is better?

Clearly, the style of the first-issue launch of a series is dramatically different today from the way it was in 1979.  Which way is better?

There is no objective way to answer this question, because it's largely a matter of preference.  If you like being informed, and having the overall themes and rules of the series laid out for you right away, so that you know where you stand, then you will obviously prefer the classic way to launch a series.  If you prefer being left in the dark, and don't like to be told why things are happening too quickly (maybe because you like trying to guess or figure them out yourself), then you will obviously lean toward the modern style.

My preference is for the classical style (I know, you're shocked).  Here's why:  The classical style established everything up front, which made it a snap to decide if I was going to like a series or not.  I could easily tell, by the end of the real Rom #1 (the one actually published in 1979, which established all the major rules and players of the series), that I was going to like it.  I knew where I stood relative to the comic.  The classical first issue really set the stage for me.

The modern style doesn't do that. For example, I just read #1 of Gail Simone's new series The Movement.  I have no idea if I'm going to like the series or not based on just this one issue.  The sides and lines of dramatic conflict are murky at best.   The characters are hard to tell apart (some of this is the fault of the artist). I can't tell who the protagonists are, vs. the antagonists. I'm not even sure who the major characters are going to turn out to be.   After an issue, the only thing I can say about whether I'm going to like this series or not is, "We'll see."  Compare with Rom, which after just one issue, I was easily (and correctly, since I stuck with it for 65 issues of its 75-issue run) able to say, "Count me in!"

I've never really enjoyed being confused as a reader.  I don't have to know the answer to every question (I hate mysteries where the killer is revealed to the audience at the beginning, for instance).  But I do like to understand what is going on, and I don't enjoy when seemingly random events occur for no known reason.  Too long of a separation between the event and knowing the reason for that event destroys the reader's sense of cause and effect, leading to the impression that the writer is making things happen for arbitrary reasons (although many events do occur for arbitrary reasons too, and not coincidentally, in many of the same series that are the most obfuscatory).

From what I have seen, the obfuscatory method of confusing the reader and taking many issues to clear things up, does not seem to be working.  For example, the New 52 Superman, which started out with strong sales, had a very confusing first story arc that left the reader unsure of what was going on for six issues.  If we are right in guessing that the confusing nature of the story is purposeful, because the execs at DC think obfuscation will make readers keep coming back to find out what the heck is going on, then we should see strong sales from this arc.  But we don't. Instead, Superman's sales went into free-fall, plummeting from 118,000 copies sold for issue 1, to 70,000 for issue 6 (rounded off to the nearest thousand).  That's a 41% decline, and a loss of almost 50,000 fans in six months.  Thus, 50,000 people who started out reading Superman, did not stick around to find out the explanations for all the confusing events of the first issue.  Does that sound like a win for the "make it confusing" model?  Not to me.



As a second example, Action Comics, written by Grant Morrison, is a prime specimen of a story written for maximal obfuscation.   I stopped reading this series on issue #6, and by then, hardly anything had been cleared up or explained. Morrison adds more and more complications and threads, without explaining any of the old ones, and ends up with a disjointed and very confusing story.  Again we can look at sales figures and ask, was Steve the only one turned off by this? Did the sales ploy, if it is one, of suspending explanations until much later on, work?



Once again, the answer is a resounding "no."  Although I can't say when any story threads were explained or plot elements were resolved, I can say definitively that none had been by issue 6 (when I finally gave up).  Action Comics began as a top-seller, with 183,000 print copies purchased.  Over the first six months, when the vaunted Morrison's patented obfuscation was in top form, sales of Action Comics plummeted by 47% to under 97,000 copies.  By issue 7, which is the earliest the confusing elements could have been cleared up (since they had not been as of issue 6), the series had lost fully half of its original readership.  Now I ask you: does this sound like a marketing ploy that is working?  It seems to me that at a good half of comic readers don't like stories that remain confusing for months at a time, or else these sales numbers would be better.

Now, I have heard it argued that one must read the totality of Morrison's run on Action Comics, which lasted until issue 18, to really "get" it.  Only in toto, the Morrison-apologists assert, can the whole logic of the story he crafted be appreciated.  I have no desire to read any more of Morrison's sewage, but we can look at the numbers and see whether many other fans were willing to wait eighteen months to have the events in this series explained to them.  Once again, the answer is a resounding no.  By issue 10, Action Comics had fallen out of the top 10 (remember, it debuted in the top 3 and stayed there for the first few months after the reboot), having lost another 11,000 readers since issue 7, and by number 15, Action Comics fell out of the top 20, and never recovered for the rest of Morrison's run.  By the time he left, he had lost fully two-thirds of the readers who started out with him at the beginning of the series.  I find it hard to imagine how anyone could argue that this was a successful run. And since one of Morrison's core "strategies"  is to confuse the hell out of the reader, I conclude that a majority of comic-book readers don't like to be confused for long periods of time.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I love being surprised at appropriate times in stories, and I like having explanations revealed slowly to me.  But as the story is going along, I need to understand what the hell is happening.  For example, J.K. Rowling doesn't explain how Voldemort used Horcruxes to prevent death in the first Harry Potter book. But she provides enough (although vague) explanation of how Voldemort had used magic to "cheat death" that the book is entirely comprehensible and stands on its own.  You don't have to wait until book 6 to understand what happened in book 1.  Certainly, you will have a better appreciation for the book 1 events after reading the whole series.  Going back and re-reading the books leads to many "aha!" moments.  But while you are reading book 1 for the first time, you don't feel completely at sea with the story, the way one does in both Superman 1 and Action Comics 1 (and many, many others).

I've said before on this blog, and I will say again today, that I believe the comic-book writers of today need to go back and re-read some of the old classic series, like Rom.  And they don't need to just peruse them casually -- they need to study these books, and understand what made them work, and what made them great.  Like the Harry Potter series, Rom's first issue provided a good, simple, basic explanation for what was going on -- it gave the reader a baseline -- and then slowly, over the next 30 or 40 issues, more details about the explanation evolved.  That is how to write a good series -- not giving the reader absolutely no baseline and then filling in random details in a deliberately confusing way over the course of a year or more.

NCN - 5/1/13

Last night was New Comic-book night.  I stopped by the comic shop and picked up one new comic, and one trade paperback:



On the left is the Supergirl - Beyond Good and Evil trade paperback.  This reprints Supergirl vol. 5 issues 23-27.  With this trade, I now have the first 28 issues of that series (0-28) either in trade or individual comic form.  It will be a little while before I read it... I still have to read the TPB before this one (Identity), as well as issues 20-22, first.

The only new comic I got in the shop last night was issue 1 of Gail Simone's new DC project, The Movement.  I read this last night, and I have to say I was a little disappointed.  The story was OK, but not up to Gail's usual Batgirl standards.  The plot was very disjointed, and the story jumped all over the place. I'm not clear on who the main characters even are yet, or who the good guys and bad guys are.  It was all very murky and more than a little confusing.  In fact if they hadn't told me Gail wrote it, I'd have more readily guessed this was a product of the fevered mind of Grant Morrison.  It was nowhere near as disjointed as his stories, but it had a bit of that feel to it.

I'm hoping this is a temporary condition, and that after 2 or 3 more issues I will be able to see where Gail is going with this.  If so, then I will stick with it. If not, then I will not be adding it to my pull list.

The way The Movement is told, as a first-issue story, reminds me of many other issue 1 stories I have read since coming back to comics, and I am starting to see a pattern here.  I don't have time to write about it tonight, but I will make that pattern the subject of my next longer article.