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Swinging in the Rain

2009-11-09T20:29:33Z

I use Google to have news items of interest show up in my RSS reader. Over the last few days I've seen blips in that filtered stream of information indicating that there is to be a musical - a Broadway musical production - based on Spider-Man. This weekend the staff of Pink Kryptonite received a press release about it. What blows my mind is that Bono and The Edge wrote the music. That... that sounds pretty awesome, actually.

From the press release:

Michael Cohl said, "Having started early on with SPIDER-MAN and now taking on the lead producing role is extremely exciting and a welcome challenge. Knowing the details and intricacies of this wildly ambitious project, I want to 'turn off the dark' on all the wild speculation about the show -- it's moving forward!"
SPIDER-MAN director Julie Taymor said, "With a team that includes Bono, Edge and Glen Berger, there was never a question in my mind that SPIDER-MAN would happen - it was just a matter of when. I am delighted that Michael Cohl is making this a reality."

After an exhaustive search that included a casting call tour spanning six cities and thousands of candidates, the producers and creative team have selected Reeve Carney to play the role of Peter Parker, The Amazing Spider-Man. Carney joins previously announced cast members Evan Rachel Wood as Mary Jane Watson, Peter Parker's girlfriend and Alan Cumming as Norman Osborn (aka Green Goblin).

OK, first, as others of our staff have said, Alan Cumming as Norman Osborn? Personally, I am a little thrilled by that because the man has more of the look I associate with the Green Goblin - waify and gangly and nimble - than the current comic book Osborn, who looks like the state wrestling champion's psychopathic dad.

AHR has used multiple exclamation points in her endorsement of this musical, as she is a huge fan of Julie Taymor. I am, too, though I didn't realize it until I researched her career: she's done everything from acting to directing to costume to set design and she's won Tonies, Emmies and Oscars. She directed Titus. I mean... dude.

That said, the press release made me think two things:

First, comics have long since been being brought over into TV and film, but the stage? As a musical? I just fawned over an episode of Batman: the Brave and the Bold for being a musical, I know, but I'm kind of surprised to see an entire musical about a known superhero. There's no reason for me to be surprised: it's not like it's the first musical about someone swinging around on stage (Peter Pan) or the first musical about a superhero (Dr. Horrible) or the first time a comic book has been adapted to another medium (oh, honey, please). Still, I found myself thinking it was a little out of left field to turn Spider-Man into a musical. With names like that, though, and with Peter Parker - who is possibly the most sympathetic male* superhero ever written - as the star character, I think surely it would be difficult for it not to be exciting.

Second, have you seen the little elfin studcakes they've got playing the title character? Let's just say I had a variety of autonomic responses to the press photo, presented to you here. As soon as I get done posting this I'm going to be writing the producers a heartfelt letter inquiring as to whether they have cast the part of Doctor Octopus or plan to use him, as I would be perfect for the role. I can guarantee that if they left me alone in a room with this guy I'd be all hands and aggressive tendencies.

At the very least, surely Broadway is the place for Spider-Man and the Green Goblin to kiss and make up at last. Or just, y'know, kiss.

---
* I actually think Promethea features the most sympathetic superhero ever written, but that's just me.

Review: Immortal Weapons 4

2009-11-07T04:00:00Z

The Immortal Weapons limited series is a pretty great idea; by detailing standalone biographies of the godly karate masters in Immortal Iron Fist, you're giving Immortal oblivious idiots like me a chance to get acquainted to Danny Rand's universe of chi and karate mistresses dressed as scantily as any other Mortal Kombat heroine. The series started well enough with its historical account of Fat Cobra, then lost its footing a bit with the Bride of 9 Spiders story, and Dog Brother #1 garnered a near-universal meh. Issue 4 of 5, Tiger's Beautiful Daughter, was released Wednesday. Does the issue bring honor to the series, or has the limited run taken one swift kick too many?

Like with Dog Brother before her, the reader gets a coming of age tale, not of a downtrod orphan but of a pall privileged princess with an inexplicable sense of bloodlust. Unfortunately, that's as much characterization as you can ask for; King Tiger's limited, vapid interactions would leave any girl with daddy issues, and Li Hua's fiancé is so quickly cast aside, it's nearly a spoiler just to point out that she has one, as there's nothing else to say about him. I wouldn't expect side characters in a one-shot to be particularly profound, but when there's hardly three faces in the narrative and they're all as paper thin as the faceless townspeople, Swierczynski is exhibiting authorial negligence.

But hey, the cover's pretty! How's the art inside? To be positive, Evans does a fair job of matching the quality of the prose, the attention isn't spent very much on depth. The artist specializes in unvaried facial shots, never bothering to pencil in any notable backgrounds. Should the scene call for a view of the populace, we get loose, indistinct figures. The brief fnal act of the issue sees a slight change with a full-on celebration of T&A. Oh Goody.

The art of the Immortal Iron Fist second feature suffers from other basics in form, making lumpy body masses from the two very distinct body types of Danny and Jada. Though this short feature is skimpy on the punches and kicks that built up the episodes before, it's the only place in the whole 40 pages where you'll find any heart.

A simple Oriental Amazon story with creativity nowhere to be found, Immortal Weapons 4 is another disappointing addition to an interesting thought which just lost steam. If the nondescript faces and writing are an attempt to mystify the character of Tiger's Beautiful Daughter, this effect simply fails. Prince of Orphans is set to close up the series, and with a more interesting focus, the team can still manage to pull out an interesting issue. Not to be superstitious (but questionably sexist), the two male-based issues far exceeded the quality of the feminine tales, leaving a fair level of potential for the finale.

Another not-so-great-addition, fortunately without enough weight to drag down the whole series. 2/5.

New Dr. Horrible Comic Reveals The Doc's Tortured Childhood

2009-11-06T18:55:20Z

Are any other members of the Whedon faithful a little concerned by the promise of a sequel to Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog? I see the mini-musical as a complete work of art, a "musical fable" if you will. It's a story with an outcome so final, so appropriate, so rooted in classic tragedy, I don't see how it could be expanded upon. Then again I would like more Bad Horse songs.

At any rate, stories that take place before the events of Sing-A-Long Blog are a-okay with me, which is why I'm super excited for Zack Whedon's Dr. Horrible comic book, a prequel to the musical due in stores November 18th as part of Dark Horse Comic's One-Shot Wonder line.

The younger Whedon brother has already penned one comic in the Horribleverse, an online exclusive that focused on Horrible's heroically conformist nemesis, Captain Hammer. The new comic, however, will be all about the Doc. There's a six-page exclusive preview up at MTV.com, which contains a flashback to his predictably unpleasant childhood. We're witness to the moment he switches allegiances in the eternal battle between heroic ubermench and evil outcasts. Eight is a heady age!

The book's art by Joelle Jones looks fantastic - Neil Patrick Harris is perhaps even more adorable in cartoon form. Check out some of her concept sketches for the series at her art blog.

Review: Dark Reign: Young Avengers

2009-11-06T15:00:00Z

Marvel graced us with another drizzle of Young Avengers content over the last few months and my local shop, knowing my preferences, snatched it all up for me. Because it's Young freakin' Avengers I read each as it arrived rather than saving them up for mass consumption when all was said and done.

On the one hand, I am grateful for anything featuring my favorite high school heroes and they unquestionably had some shining moments. On the other hand, I kind of wish it had been about them.

Read on for more Dark Reign: Young Avengers reactions!

As I say - and as I said of Dark Reign: The List - X-Men - I didn't really feel like this was about the Young Avengers team members. It's really about a different team that mirrors their abilities and is being perceived as the Young Avengers without the real team's blessing or involvement. I don't necessarily mind the introduction of new characters but these seemed to come from nowhere and steal the show. This is turning into a theme with me and these big crossover events, I know - it's not just my gripe about DR: TL - X-Men, it's also one half of the heart of my complaints about Blackest Night.

That said, the team isn't entirely without things to do in this story, and it's a fascinating development in the nature of the Young Avengers team that they would have to confront the question of adding new members to their roster. Having fairly organically formed the bonds they enjoy, it's a very interesting challenge for them to consciously consider whether and how to increase their number. It's also a classic narrative twist and a fun role reversal to put the Young Avengers in the position of being the established group having to deal with a bunch of messy upstarts - much as the Avengers had to deal with them.

However, it all seems kind of... random. I don't want to say contrived because, well, my disbelief is already pretty thoroughly suspended, but none of the new team were characters I had ever heard of and to be honest I had difficulty figuring out what they were about or why they would be doing the things they did. I love a good origins story and I love to watch the social dynamics of a new group forming but I never had a sense of what drew the new team together in the first place. Osborn's organization of the Dark Avengers is deliberate and explicable but how these kids got together and their copycat nature seemed like something one was expected to take for granted.

There was a lot to like about this series, though, even if it wasn't basically just page after page of Wiccan-on-Hulkling action (my personal highest hope for a future Young Avengers book). Most especially, several members of the new team aren't quite sure whether they want to be heroes or simply to be powerful, which is usually the path to villainy, and that is fun. Whereas with Young Avengers we see heroes still in development, this book features young people with powers in their most unspecialized state. Any one of them could grow up to be heroes or villains and some of them struggle openly and sympathetically with that question of purpose and intent. They know they will one day be thought of as good or evil and some are afraid of the implications of both. That's perfectly analogous to most young people in the real world, too, uncertain as they are whether they'll be forces for good or ill, creation or destruction, hope or cynicism, and bouncing between all of them from one day to another. That's the kind of metaphor for which comics were made.

Also, let's be honest: it's always fun to see someone take on their equal. The last issue in particular makes some great uses of counterpart characters producing the same line of dialogue, illustrating their mirror natures. It's a gimmick, but it's a gimmick that works.

Ultimately, too, this book involves the Young Avengers accomplishing something with real impact. That they manage to shake up the biggest of the baddies in the current Marvel metaplot and that they make a real difference in the overall struggle against H.A.M.M.E.R. is extremely gratifying. Even if most of the book feels like it's about the new kids trying to figure out who and what they are, the last issue rewards fans with the real Young Avengers doing their jobs and doing them well. Seriously, I got goosebumps when Patriot gave the classic cry of "Avengers assemble!" I loved it.

And was it just me, or was there a little shout-out to Obamaphiles when Patriot came back at Osborn with the iconic words, "Yes we can"? Tasty.

So, overall, not the best Young Avengers I've read, but it has its moments and a lot of its content is compelling. I recommend you flip through the trade when it makes its inevitable arrival a few months from now if you haven't read it already.

Review: Dark Reign: The List - X-Men

2009-11-05T14:09:27Z

Wow! Can a fella get more punctuation in that title?

Yes, I am behind on my Marvel comics. Some books I prefer to let accumulate and read all at once. I'm insufficiently patient to wait for the trade paperback and insufficiently impatient to read them immediately upon coming out. Matt Fraction's Uncanny X-Men is one such book and even though this is in theory a one-shot, it's clearly tied to the Uncanny X-Men story.

So what did I think? Honestly, I was kind of shruggy about it. To be honest, the whole Dark Reign storyline doesn't do much for me. I'm having trouble buying that Norman Osborn winds up in charge of, well, pretty much everything and since that's kind of the foundational plot point of the entire Dark Reign storyline, it hasn't sat well with me. My other complaint is that whenever I read a Dark Reign book - and I have not read all of them by any stretch - it doesn't seem to be about the characters it purports to feature. This is the main thing that bothered me about Dark Reign: Young Avengers, too, and I love me some Young Avengers, but I'm saving my thoughts on that book for tomorrow.

More thoughts on Dark Reign: The List - X-Men after the jump!

I didn't find the story itself particularly touching but I did appreciate that it involved personal connections instead of just piling heroes and villains on the same plate and hitting them with a hammer (no pun intended). I'm not familiar enough with Namor or his back-story to be especially effected. I also felt like the characters of Uncanny X-Men were being used more as a setting than anything else. I mean, yes, they're in it, and they do some neat stuff, but this is really about the loin Norman Osborn gets every time he thinks about waxing some classic face or another. It's always nice to see a Fastball Special, don't get me wrong, but this isn't a story about the X-Men and their name on the cover is what landed this in my bag at the local shop.

Things I liked, though, include that reaction shot when the team see the monster for the first time: Cyclops catching flies, the X-Men assembled behind Namor in a way that communicated action and surprise extremely well. It was easy to get that they had basically run up to the edge of the water and then skidded to a halt when they saw what was out there. The art assists the reader in creating the action of the story, which is exactly the sort of collaboration a good comic book creates. I also enjoyed Fraction's dialogue when writing Osborn and H.A.M.M.E.R., for all that I just bitched about the Osborn storyline in general. Anyone who's read Five Fists of Science and Casanova can tell that Fraction is most at home writing mouthy science villains with zany ideas. He gets to do a little of that here, and it's enjoyable.

At the same time, while the X-Men are across various books clearly a welcoming place for storylines about science villainy, it made me wish there were simply more Casanova I could read instead. It's not that it's bad, it's that it didn't connect with me to make me feel like anything big happened. Yes, yes, the last scene, but still: I'm hardly surprised when heroes and villains make threats against one another. It was a beautifully drawn scene but for me it lacked emotional impact.

Overall, I deemed this book to have decidedly average writing but very enjoyable art.

However, even if it were lousy, there would be one thing that made it worthwhile: the last few pages are completely unrelated to the storyline but utterly adorable. You see, they reprint Matt Fraction's very first Marvel comic and it is, I have to say, utterly adorable. It's classic Wolverine, no doubt about that, but it's also a little cute and has a couple of moments of near-queer that made me smile. I don't know exactly what I found so charming about that utterly unrelated work - it could just as easily be seen as filler - but it did utterly charm me.

Fun fact: one of my fraternity brothers (yes, really) went to high school with Matt Fraction and says that at the time he was just a nice, creative, quiet guy who drew all the time. It's always good to see a creator be successful without being an egomaniac. That prejudices me somewhat, in that I am willing to give something with Fraction's name on it a try when I wouldn't otherwise, but whenever I'm thinking about a Fraction comic it inevitably occurs to me, halfway through, Wow! And he was a nice guy in high school, too!

Hashtag Funnies

2009-11-04T03:00:00Z

Neill Cameron, of Bulldog Empire fame, has set himself up to an arduous but often funny task of a putting up a daily webcomic. Well, daily in the 'every weekday' sense of the word. But the twist? It relies on the internet titan Twitter, using one of the day's trending topics as its source material. Hence the title, Hashtag Funnies. Cameron often deviates from the context of the tweets but this allows for some creative flexibility that the exercise is probably meant to develop.

In another program intended to inspire you to get up and write (but sadly not hugely comics-related), let's not forget that November is National Novel Writing Month, otherwise known as NaNo WriMo. Though the graphic novel creation process might be too grueling for an amateur to complete within 30 days, Mr. Cameron's daily upload is a great example of how the internet, when applied correctly, can be a great productivity tool. Perhaps as we become increasingly interconnected, the dream of a NaGraNo WriMo as a writer/artist collaboration won't be too far fetched. Just sayin'.

Daken Is No Match For The Power Of Gay Coupledom

2009-11-02T18:15:52Z

Oh that Daken. One of the few male characters in comics to wield a pheromone power, the son of Wolverine has spent much of Dark Reign seducing and destroying all manner of victims, male and female.

Leave it to Hulkling (or Teddy, to his friends) to counter Daken's nigh-irresistible charms via the will to stray to true to his long term boyfriend, Wiccan, in last Wednesday's Dark Reign: Young Avengers #5. Okay, so maybe his resistance also has something to do with the fact that Teddy is a Scree-Krull hybrid and probably immune to all sorts of earthly bio-chemicals. Still; chalk one up for the power of love.

I have to say I'm a LITTLE bit curious as to what would have happened if Daken's sex pollen had actually worked on Teddy, particularly considering he was in his "hulked out" mode at the time. Daken may have not fully thought that one through.

The Crossover Of The Moment

2009-11-02T13:00:00Z

I've been reading Blackest Night. I'm not normally a Green Lantern fan, which may leave me slightly prejudiced, but I picked up Blackest Night #0 on Free Comics Day because, hey, why not? If DC couldn't sell me on the green guy with a free comic then they never could. I was intrigued. I liked the creepy. That's something that I've felt is sorely lacking in most persons-in-tights comics. They always seemed high in action and melodrama but low on creepy, something that usually draws me right in.

I've got to be honest, though. The ongoing mini-series isn't really doing it for me.

The impression I keep getting in these massive crossover events, when I pay any attention to them, is that they seem like a great excuse to shove all the second- and third-stringers from a given setting through a sieve and see who comes out in one piece. I never feel a strong urge to worry about the pillars of the narrative worlds in question - the Superman or Batman or Cyclops or whoever - because they're clearly there only to observe the massive stable-cleaning and get drawn in beautiful poses of noble grief after the fact. Even Final Crisis, a title my main fantasy squeeze Grant Morrison must surely have realized was ironic, suffered from this as much as any other crossover event; though it killed Batman, mostly I read it thinking, Who the hell are these people and why am I supposed to care about them?.

I keep having the same reaction as I read Blackest Night, only more so. Aqualad? The Elongated Man? I realize that these characters have been the focus of high melodrama in recent years, but I honestly cannot get it up to care very much. Ralph and Sue had the only happy marriage in comics history, then that got taken away from them and now their dignity, too? No thanks. The most egregious example of characters being put through the ringer on auto-pilot has to be Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Yes, yes, they got whacked. Actually, that's what they do. I find it difficult to be affected by the deaths of characters whose deal now is that they are continually dying and being resurrected.

I simply find it difficult to be that concerned about death and resurrection in a storyline that is explicitly predicated on the impermanence of death. I cannot take death seriously in a book about the return of the long-dead. I just cannot. It's right there in the premise. Every comics universe has at least a few resurrections and DC is no exception. That's cool, I have no problem with it overall. Soap operas are built using a tool box of basic plot twists, returns from the grave most definitely among them, and comics are usually soap operas with highly specific costuming requirements. So, OK, sometimes people are going to die and come back. I know that. Am I now supposed to be shocked by deaths of characters I consider minor at best, or resurrections of same? Maybe I didn't read typical comics when I was a kid but even I have figured out that happens all the time.

I don't mean to sound like a negative ninny, it's just... OK, take my current favorite counterexample, Grant Morrison's Batman and Robin. Batman is dead, long live the Batman, et cetera, but we all know Bruce Wayne is coming back. I know it, your family knows it, dogs know it. That's not the point of Batman and Robin, though. It's not a book about Batman dying and coming back, it's a book about what happens while he's gone. That's way more interesting to me, personally, because it's all about questions of identity and agency and the impression that can be made by a person even in their absence.

Blackest Night, however, mainly seems to be about entirely new, previously unknown forces marching onto the page, throwing people and grotesque caricatures of dead characters at one another, and marching back off. Yes, the dead say some mean things to the living when they're fighting and that's a little harsh, and yes there's been some good art. Still, so far, the way it's been little more than building up and up and up and up and up to some big final showdown is a little tired, a little tiring and not nearly as interesting to me as it would be if the dialogue consisted of more conversations and fewer one-liners. I know that when it's all said and done there are going to be beautiful panels depicting the funerals of the famous and I will ooh and ahh a little at seeing so many faces rubbing shoulders but that isn't enough to excuse what I consider to be a slightly ridiculous storyline for no reason other than that it is defeated by its own theme. News flash: the dead don't stay that way in comic books. We know. Thanks for that. Maybe if the storyline were about the Green Lanterns having to figure things out and bring everyone together I would care more, but the fact that a whole new corp just... waltzed into existence? Again, no thanks. If DC want to bury some of their most compelling characters in a landslide of references to the archives, OK, fine, but let them dig their own way out. At least leave them that much agency.

There are things I've really liked in this series. Well, OK, there will be. I like that a ton of canceled books will get one more issue in January. I like some of the art. I like the gothed out uniforms on the Black Lanterns. I like the original Black Lantern's origins story. The rest of it, though, seems like a lot of card-shuffling to me. It doesn't leave me wanting to know what happens next, it just leaves me wondering if I'll recognize anyone.

I'm a completist, though, so I went ahead and reserved all the books that will get me different colored power rings in a couple of months. Even a weak storyline becomes a winner when it's backed by just a little shwag, or at least it does when one is as easy as I apparently am.

Review: Batman And Robin #5

2009-10-30T12:00:00Z

A few years ago I read an essay by Grant Morrison called "Pop Magic!" In it he discusses, in part, a view of symbols - say, a branded logo - as sigils, representations of power that themselves have a measure of power. Morrison also describes identifying with an archetype and trying to take on the mantle of that archetype to work through a difficult situation. In the essay, one of the examples he provides is that of ensuring confidence on a first date by playing James Bond theme songs while dressing in a tuxedo and doing action poses in a mirror.

What on Earth does this have to do with Batman and Robin? What crazy theory about a comic do I have now?

Very simple: that sort of thinking makes Morrison the perfect person to tell a story of what happens when Robin has to dress up as Batman.

Read on for why Batman and Robin #5 is my favorite issue so far!

One of the paradoxes Morrison is slowly unpacking over the course of Batman and Robin is that Dick Grayson's search for an identity of his own, as Nightwing, has led him right back to the Batcave, not just to return as Robin but to take on the identity of Batman for himself. Happily, this has not been done through a lot of woe-is-me-ism, but Grayson is clearly conscious of the difficulty the cape presents: the cowl of Batman isn't merely a way to stay anonymous, it's an identity unto itself.

There have been some marvelously human moments, too, such as Grayson doubting his own performance after speaking to Commissioner Gordon, and a cop noticing that Batman's voice sounds different now. These little comments and asides reveal the seams on the suit: Batman is not the costume, he is the person inside and when that person changes, people notice.

This theme comes to fruition in classic Batman style in Batman and Robin #5. Batman's villains have always been variations on ways Bruce Wayne could have gone wrong: the Penguin and money, the Joker and his peculiar combination of madness, chaos and meticulous plans, Catwoman and vigilantism, the Scarecrow and fear, and on and on across the dozens of villains in the Batman pantheon. The current arc, featuring the rise of a "new" antagonist known as the Red Hood, is the first appearance on the scene of an unquestionably Batman-esque villain - ie, an opponent who is an example of one of Batman's potential missteps - who is also uniquely an example of how Dick Grayson could have taken a wrong turn.

Take it as read that the person under the hood in this particular incarnation of that villainous identity has a history that mirrors Grayson's own, as I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who might be a few weeks behind on their comics and who doesn't read every Batman-related title. Suffice to say, there is a compelling and tragic story there. Beyond that, though, this Red Hood is obsessed with one thing and one thing only: brand management. Repeatedly over the course of Batman and Robin #5 we see him explicitly aware of a perceived need to construct a specific brand through catch phrases and literal calling cards, perform that identity in attention-getting ways and then reinforce this new spin on an old name across those performances.

The Red Hood knows that he isn't the first person to wear that helmet and he's become more obsessed with wearing it in a specific style than he has with any sincere motivation. The Penguin is sincerely obsessed with money and power and ceaselessly pursues them. Harley Quinn is sincerely obsessed with the Joker (and Ivy - I am entirely in agreement with AHR on this point). The Red Hood, or at least this one, may have moments in which he seems to be sincere about what he calls "results," and he does demonstrate tactical success in his efforts, but the fact that his every decision is made in the context of what he believes Batman would or would not do reveals his real purpose: he's obsessed with the identity and role of Batman in Gotham and what it takes to be seen as rivaling, replacing or opposing that, not with his stated mission. I've read several reviews of this issue in which the writer hated #5 because they felt the Red Hood was insufficiently developed or too run-of-the-mill. I didn't have those difficulties with this issue, in part because I see the Red Hood as at least in part a parody of characters such as The Punisher and in part because this is an issue that knows Batman's villains are meant to be twisted reflections as much as anything else.

The Red Hood is an explicit study of what goes wrong when someone lets the symbol become the substance, when an obsession with assuming the mantle of an archetype leads to obliteration of the self. He is someone who calls down fire and can't feel it burning him. That tragic paradox is the very thing Grayson has to avoid. Rather than let himself and the lessons he has learned as Robin and as Nightwing be erased in service to the bat signal, Grayson must make the identity of Batman his own. As much as he needs to fill the gap left by Bruce Wayne he also needs to make the bat suit fit Dick Grayson. The most dangerous thing to Grayson isn't necessarily Batman's or Gotham's enemies; his greatest risk is that he'll become so obsessed with Batman that he'll forget those enemies even exist.

The Batman myth - and plenty of other comics, but I think especially the dark knight - has in the modern era always been about the question of whether the hero wears the mask or the mask wears the hero but this is the most explicitly I've seen it explored and I love it. Dick Grayson's own story has for decades been about his own attempt to escape from Batman's shadow and create a name and place for himself. Is the story of Grant Morrison's Batman and Robin that Grayson will find a way to let the very mask he sought to escape become the armor he molds to protect and promote the sense of self he's developed over the years? If so, kudos. That would be something genuinely unexpected.

I think part of why I find these aspects of this issue to be so compelling is that they're questions we've all had to ask ourselves. Who in the queer communities has not at some point in their lives had to question the performed role they present to the world and their own ability or inability to play that part? Dick Grayson is doing something that feels like the opposite of coming out but that's exactly what it keeps making me think about. I keep trying to describe the feelings that generates in me, but without success. I just keep thinking about friends I've known who could or could not face who and what they were and how each of them tackled that in their own way. Grayson's story, especially in issue #5, resonates with those people and their experiences somehow, more so than the simple allegory of most heroes with secret identities and dual lives.

In many of Morrison's other writings, comics or otherwise, he explores questions of the fluidity of identity and both the empowerment and dangers that can come from experimenting with who and what one is at a given time. With Batman and Robin #5 he seems to be telling stories of both the good and the bad that can result from that, in every case: Batman, Robin, the Red Hood and Scarlet are all people wearing new names, new faces, who find power and peril in them and who aren't yet quite sure what to do. He's talking to every teenager in the world with that story, every closet case, everyone who's just realized they were born the wrong sex, everyone who feels like their skin doesn't fit. That's powerful stuff, and what Batman may be better at demonstrating - and Morrison better at writing - than any other example in mainstream comics these days.

Let Me Re-Read It Alone A Few Times And Get Back To You

2009-10-29T12:00:00Z

Apparently two library employees - it seems to be unclear whether they were assistants or professional librarians - in Nicholasville, Kentucky have been fired for denying a child access to material the pair considered pornographic.

That material? Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Personally, I don't remember any porn in that book, which suggests three possibilities: my aged mind can no longer remember what I've read, there was a distinct lack of explicit sexual content or it wasn't very good. I'd guess that would do for ranking them in descending order by likelihood, too, come to think of it.

I do enjoy that The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Century: 1910 featured the shamelessly gender-twisting Orlando as a supporting character, and I expect that would probably be upsetting to the sort of person who thinks The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is more smut than art, but I just can't think of anything that qualifies as porn in the original comic.

Does that mean there's zero content which acknowledges sex or romance, though? Actually, there is one romantic relationship that develops over the course of the book but I recall it all happening more or less off-camera. No, I suspect the problem here is that comics non-readers have one concept of comics - say, Archie, which is not to say there is anything wrong with Archie - and then they look at a modern graphic novel and that concept either goes out the window or they decide that what they're holding is not a comic book.

Read on for why I think comics are special!

I have to think this sort of thing - which I realize is nothing new - will happen more and more as adults such as ourselves continue to enjoy works of serial art and they are included in shared repositories of culture such as public libraries. It's certainly a fascinating f'rinstance of social values in general, anyway. After all, every schismatic social issue of the day - and of all days in all eras, most likely - can be reduced to a conflict between those who want to expand the boundary of what is allowed in the public square and those who want to shrink that same boundary. I think I'm willing to defend the position that comics are, by nature of their place in entertainment and culture, especially good at triggering strong responses both in those who seek to experience the borders of expression and those who make it their personal mission to decide what is acceptable and what is not.

Comic books in particular touch something deep in the psyche. These are where many of us get some of our first education in narrative conventions, our first twist endings, our first tragic betrayals, our first unlikely triumphs, our first heroes, our first villains. Many comic books provide us with clear definitions of who is wrong and who is right: Lex Luthor is wrong and Superman is right. Even a hero as at home in shades of gray as Batman has countless more simplistic representations available for consumers who need less philosophy and more shark repellent. Because originally they were meant for children, some people project an expectation of innocence or at least simplicity onto comics as a whole.

(I grew up reading a comic in which the Klingons were still ciphers for communism, so I am at home with the presence of simple themes in some of my favorite books and I welcome the diversity of comics demanded by a diverse readership.)

To be honest, I think when someone who believes comics are never more complicated than Archie cracks open a copy of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, it should blow their mind or they're not paying attention. Is it porn? No, that's a ridiculous assertion, dismissible on its surface by anyone with even a passing familiarity with the work. No journalist with a grain of professionalism could so much as flip through a copy of League and accept that description of it. My point is that comics have grown as their readers and writers have grown and the breadth of experience and opinion that comics are now able to describe is larger than ever, as large as any other medium, and some people don't know that. I also think some people do know that and don't like it.

I will readily acknowledge the possibility that they're just busybodies. Maybe they would have done the same thing with a copy of Judy Blume's Forever or Allen Ginsberg's Howl. Maybe they've done the same thing a hundred other times to other kids, with other books, and this was the first one to complain. I can't help but wonder whether the fact it was a comic was a particular sticking point for them, though, and if so then it's just a matter of writing them off or helping them to understand. Which way to go is actually more up to them than anyone else.

So how do we help someone who seeks in good faith to understand where the lines are drawn between art and "adult" in modern media? I say we do what we've already proven ourselves to be so very good at doing: we educate them. I want someone to get them to read comics. I honestly don't get a kick out of the thought of anyone heckling a couple of unemployed library staff. I don't want to make their lives harder. I want someone who knows them to buy them a couple of books of Sandman or Top 10 or megawatt-hot Grant Morrison's Superman and then say to them, "OK, if you're really serious - if it's not just about deciding to appoint yourself watchers over others' choices - go read these and then come back and we'll talk."

Happily, and I confess somewhat surprisingly, people seem to be doing some positive things in comics' favor here and there. My Google News alerts the last few days have been rife with stories about public libraries getting grants from one organization or another to establish or expand their collections of graphic novels. Neat.

In the meantime, I note with some small amusement that Nicholasville is near Lexington and that the one time I tried to go to a gay bar in Lexington, many years ago, I found it closed. It's probably wrong of me to hold a grudge against a whole town like that, but it is what it is.

Librarians Won't Give Child 'Porn' Book - [WTVQ]

New Comic Wednesday - 10/28/09

2009-10-29T06:05:48Z

Here's some highlights from this weeks releases, check out the full list after the jump

Blackest Night #4

Summer's hottest event explodes in this critical issue! Hold on to your power rings, because the secrets behind the Blackest Night finally stand revealed! While Earth is evacuated, Hal Jordan embarks on a brave journey to the darkest depths to uncover the truth behind the Black Lanterns! You won't believe what he uncovers!

Invincible Presents: Atom Eve & Rex Splode #1

Picking up right where the first Atom Eve mini-series left off! See the secret origin of Rex Splode! See what shaped him into the man who tragically sacrificed himself in the Invincible War. Witness his first meeting with Atom Eve and learn their stunning secret!

Dark Reign: The List -- Wolverine

he power mad Norman Osborn wants control of the Weapon Plus program. The eternally-surly Wolverine wants to stop him. The artificially-evolved super-sentinel Fantomex wants to shoot everyone in the face and zip away in his kick-ass flying saucer. The Kree warrior Marvel Boy just wants the hell out. And the all-new Weapon XVI wants to bring the world to its knees. And you should want to read it. Plus: Jason Aaron's never-before-reprinted first Wolverine story, from Wolverine (first series) #175, and more!

Groo: The Hogs Of Horder #1

You probably think Groo the Wanderer is the most destructive force in his world. Not so! Even at his most inept, Groo cannot destroy a village faster than the Hogs of Horder. Theirs is an evil species that has existed forever, and that spreads death and annihilation to this day. They control your mind, they control your body, and worst of all, they control your money. So what happens when Groo comes nose to nose with them? Find out in this latest Groo mini-series from the same award-winning people who do every Groo mini-series: Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier, with the aid of Stan Sakai and Tom Luth!

PREVIEWSworld.com New Releases

Shipping This Week: 10/28/2009

Every Monday, PREVIEWSworld.com provides a list of comics, graphic novels and other pop-culture merchandise arriving this week to your local comic shop.

Please check with your retailer for availability, as not all new releases may be on sale in all areas at the same time.

PREVIEWS PUBLICATIONS

SEP090001 PREVIEWS #254 NOVEMBER 2009 PI

DARK HORSE COMICS

AUG090012 ABE SAPIEN ONE SHOT (OSW) $3.50
JUN090066 CREEPY BUTTON 4 PACK $5.99
JUN090069 CREEPY FAN CLUB LARGE BUTTON $5.99
AUG090030 GROO HOGS OF HORDER #1 (OF 4) $3.99
JUN090079 I HEART CREEPY BUTTON $5.99
JUN090038 POP WONDERLAND HC VOL 02 LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD $16.95
AUG090018 PREDATOR #3 (OF 4) $3.50
AUG090051 STAR WARS LEGACY #41 ROGUES END $2.99
APR090134 TARA MCPHERSON BUTTON PACK $5.99
JUL090123 TIM BURTON TOXIC BOY & STAIN PULL TAB JOURNAL $14.99

DC COMICS

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AUG090199 ASTRO CITY ASTRA SPECIAL #2 (OF 2) $3.99
AUG090117 BATMAN #692 $2.99
APR090306 BATMAN BLACK & WHITE STATUE ED MCGUINNESS $80.00
JUL090229 BATMAN MONSTERS TP $19.99
AUG090191 BATMAN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #10 $2.50
AUG090192 BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM #9 $2.50
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AUG090095 GREEN LANTERN #47 (BLACKEST NIGHT) $2.99
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IMAGE COMICS

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MARVEL COMICS

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JUL098223 X-MEN FOREVER #10 ZOMBIE VAR (PP #885) $3.99

What I'm Reading: The Web

2009-10-28T12:00:00Z

Last month saw the release of The Web #1, and I've got to say, between backstory-loaded, multiverse-spanning events, and the Batman mythos split between five or six ongoing titles, it's nice to see a fresh, independent face on the shelf. Well, not exactly new, as The Web proves to be a reboot of some old hero from the forgotten archives of Archie comics. But John Raymond's newest incarnation is seeped in a novelty that just might vie for a more long-term position in the DC continuity.

Angela Robinson is dutied with the writing, a change of pace from her queer-centric work on TV's The L Word, though she ably handles the transition; The first issue dismisses the simplistic origin story and dives headfirst into the action and crime drama. Truth is, even if you haven't read the character's negligible introductory Red Circle issue, there's not much to tell. John Raymond is a Bruce Wayne reimagined for the internet age, with his billionaire-backed vigilantism encouraged by the death of an altruistic family member. Citizens in peril can send their HELP! HELP! to summontheweb.com, to be processed by a supercomputer in Raymond's own batcave before he decides to set out for a night's fun. Robinson recognizes the gimmicky nature of this feature and instead opts for a more dynamic usage of The Web's defining power, using the magic of the internet to inform the police of a captured criminal via viral video.

In a single issue, there's drug-dealing, a love-triangle, and a crippled villainous mastermind. The succeeding Hangman story features an interesting balance, offering a grit that The Web refuses to tread upon in his dealings with the criminal underbelly. Unfortunately, the handful of pages serves mostly as exposition and the apparent hook makes a feeble arrival in the last three panels. It's difficult to gauge how interesting the story will become when developed.

Artwise, Roger Robinson provides adequate pencilwork, completely appropriate for both the laserbeam action sequences and whitewashed family meetings, but lacking the luster that would otherwise animate the emotionally engaging sequences.
Fortunately, the team responsible for Reign In Hell truly bring a face to The Hangman, filling their limited panels with a darkness reflexive of the subject matter and enshrouding him in a Spawn-like mysticism.

If the first issue is any indication of the action yet to come, Robinson's first foray into comics will be something to look forward to every month. The Web #2 is in stores today, be sure to hop on before the series' momentum really gets it rolling.

How Clark Kent Overcompensates With His Cape

2009-10-27T15:00:00Z

Noah Berlatsky, writer for the Chicago Reader and The Comics Journal, posted his seminar on homosexuality in comic book ideology on his blog, titled Comics In The Closet. Though he opens up with a kitschy cartoon involving a comics shop made of splooge, the dialog brings up some controversial talking points, questioning if a conflict in straight male identity would have subconsciously affected the writers who crafted some of our most beloved origin stories, and may leave you wondering if Peter Parker had an Oedipal complex. Whether you believe there were sexual subtexts to Batman and Robin's relationship, or if you think they were just friends, the posts offer a change in perspective that you'll definitely want to mull over. The NSFW transcript can be found here [Part 1] and here [Part 2].

Review: The Complete Dracula #3

2009-10-26T12:00:00Z

Dracula has been my favorite novel since I was 12, when I read my first copy while consulting an aging dictionary I'd borrowed from my grandmother. I've probably given it a dozen re-readings, feeling the itch to return to it every other winter or so since that time. It could easily be my "desert island" book.

When I saw on the shelf the first issue of The Complete Dracula from Dynamite Comics, I winced. The natural fanboy reflex to despise adaptations is strong in me. Then I saw "1 of 5" and was simply flabbergasted. How could anyone, child of Alan Moore or no, do justice to hundreds of pages of dense, personal narrative in five issues of a comic book?

I picked it up anyway and have been greedily reading and rereading each issue ever since. With the air turning cold and Halloween just days away, read on for my review of Leah Moore's, John Reppion's and Colton Worley's The Complete Dracula!

The reason I bought issue #1 was the art. I already knew I liked the words - there are some paragraphs I can quote from memory because I am a nerd - but I wanted to see if the creative team behind this adaptation could provide a visual accompaniment that meshed with the one I had built up over decades of familiarity with the text. Thrillingly, they have. In every phase of the story they have presented strong visuals that help tell the story in ways far more efficient and demanding than the text alone could do. The first page was all about the use of a recording medium, a typewriter; the second page was a huge, open, beautiful image - blue sky, green grass, a road that connects two places unknown to us - of a remote, wild part of the world. With those two pages I was sold.

Those are the two most essential elements of the story of Dracula: that the story is a concluded history, unchangeable by the reader and in fact physically separated from them by the barriers of a narrator and her technologies, and that it happens in places that are remote and removed from any external rescue. Even when the plot moves through London, it happens in the cells of an asylum, the moldering basement of an aged manse, the high walls of a locked cemetery. Issues #1 and #2 both create amazing visual spaces that glide easily between the huge, open, helpless hunts and the cramped, terrifying claustrophobias experienced by the characters at different times.

All the art, which is mostly done by Colton Worley, is digitally painted. He's stated in interviews that he sometimes starts from a sketch but that the finished page is entirely painted and done so without a physical canvas or pigments. The degree of effort and detail he's put into the pages, and the conscious design sense of each page - huge, full-page images with smaller overlays of more restricted scenes - are a big part of what make reading this such a special experience. This is Worley's first comic book and it shows in the best possible way. He doesn't try to draw freaks, he paints portraits. He humanizes the art and the subjects of that art in a way that I think is very necessary if the reader is to sympathize with the struggles of these late Victorians, characters who think themselves so modern that the supernatural isn't merely frightening, it's offensive.

The incredible art found in issues #1 and #2 are actually the source of my main beef with issue #3, as some factor or another caused other artists to be brought in on issue #3 and it shows. The art is still very nice but it doesn't hold up to the incredibly high bar set in issues one and two. The only exception would be the first images of a body laid out for viewing, which very effectively capture the ironic beauty of the dead, and the pages featuring the title character, whose presence on the page is appropriately and satisfyingly foreboding. Otherwise, I was left feeling like the art was... well, nice, I guess, but my socks were not knocked off. However, there are notes in the comic that Conley is back for issue #4, so I have high hopes (and, I have to admit, high expectations).

In terms of pacing the plot, I am impressed with the authors' ability to adapt and show restraint. They have managed to do a very good job of telling the story with minimal text. I know the novel sufficiently well that it's difficult for me to be an objective judge of it, however, because I can fill in any narrative gaps myself without noticing. Thus, I find it satisfying but for all I know everyone else is scratching their heads in confusion.

As to content, issue #3 deals with one of the most dramatic scenes in the novel: the death of the first vampire the protagonists are forced to destroy. In the novel this is the first time Stoker really takes the gloves off and talks about blood and injury and violence. It's the first time any of the supporting characters are forced to realize what they're dealing with and what will be demanded of them in future. The "camera" of the book, regardless of any beef I might have with the art itself, doesn't let us off the hook, either. Stoker shocked readers by focusing in on a moment of tragedy and horror rather than pulling back and leaving their imaginations to do the work and the creative team behind The Complete Dracula stuck to that same path to tremendous effect. The killing of that first vampire is a shocking scene, and it should be. It's very well done. It's so good, in fact, that it leaves me regretting even more that this issue's art wasn't quite up to the bar set by #1 and #2.

Overall, though, I have found this series extremely enjoyable and in no way offensive to the natural protective instincts of a Dracula fanboy. It's now on the list of things I try to make my friends read at random, putting it up there with Detective Comics and Muppet Robin Hood in my current pantheon of good reads. Highly recommended, especially if you're looking for a way to get good and scared for Saturday.

Review: Planetary #27

2009-10-23T12:00:00Z

It feels like... well, years, because it is, but it feels like forever since I picked up the first Planetary trade paperback, All Over the World and Other Stories, on a whim. I had read just enough Warren Ellis to be interested by name alone and the cover was sufficiently dynamic to make the book stand out on the shelf. I was instantly in love and added it to my bag at the comic book store just in time for its publishing schedule to implode.

Ten years later, the series is officially over. Lots of comics run all over their expected schedules but few get to have a definitive end and a sense of closure.

Read on for my thoughts on Planetary #27!

To be completely honest, I have something of a love/hate relationship with Warren Ellis. The first three or four things by him that I read all perfectly meshed with my own tremendously unpredictable, disorganized tastes: Transmetropolitan, The Authority, Planetary, even some of his work on Stormwatch. In the years since, I've encountered enough Ellis-authored works that grated rather than entertained to have stepped back from the fanboy brink. Now when I see a new Ellis work I wonder two things:

1) will it just be congealed snark and
2) will it be published often enough for me to keep up?

Three years ago, when Planetary #26 came out, I felt like I had all the closure I really needed or could fairly expect. When Jakita said she couldn't believe it was over, neither could I, but I closed that issue feeling like I'd gotten more or less everything I needed. So was Planetary #27 worth it?

Yes.

I'll try not to spoil the plot, but I will say this: it felt like Planetary at its best. The story of Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner and the smoking hot Drummer has always been a dark story about saving the world. It's about the risks a superhero must take and the crazy things its heroes would be willing to do in service to a world they love for its oddities, not despite them. Whereas many comics riff on those themes, few do it without descending into angst. Planetary is (almost?) never angsty, instead reading like a love letter to the bizarre. At its very best, Planetary is about the beautiful diversity of the strange we create and encounter and valuing the variety afforded society by its own pariah fringes. The team routinely look to bask in the thrill of the edge of experience. They're in it to save the world, and they take that mission seriously, but they are not afraid to enjoy the view along the way.

Planetary #27 revels in just those questions and characterizations. The crew have one last major plot thread dangling and they've come up with a potential solution that is both horribly dangerous and wonderfully audacious. True to their personalities, they discuss the dangers of it in terms of how their actions might affect the world, but it's impossible not to know how one potential side effect - the removal of some significant quantity of possible outcomes from the infinite web of probability that makes up the future - must be horrifying on a very personal scale to these people who live for the sole purpose of finding the obscure, improbable unknowns and blowing the dust off of them. It must occur to them that they are eliminating futures that include oddities they would have loved to discover and understand.

Happily, Ellis gives us a resolution that is both relevant to the remaining plot point and satisfying. When I was finished with it, I first felt that I could believe that even if I won't see any of them, the adventures of Planetary could conceivably go on, somewhere, sometime. Then it dawned on me that part of my positive reaction was that Ellis hadn't taken anything away. It's still Planetary and he still knows how to write them. Is issue #27 absolutely necessary? No, but it's good. It was satisfying. It was a little brush with a past obsession, a visit with a charming old flame.

The artwork is, of course, beautiful as ever, but of special note is the magnificent tri-part cover. If you fold out the front cover, and turn it over, the back cover, front cover and inside fold form one long and gorgeous cover sheet the size of a small poster that summarizes all the stories of Planetary in one beautifully detailed image. I actually said, aloud, "Wow..." when I realized that. My boyfriend, who has never read Planetary, looked over and asked to what I was reacting and I said, "Long story." I hadn't meant to be cute about it, but it's true. It took too long getting here, but #27 is well worth it.