I must confess that I'm one of those comic book readers that doesn't stray too often from DC or Marvel. Why? Well, I'm already spending more money than I should on characters that I already know, love, and grew up with, so I don't see the point in exploring new universes with a whole new set of characters. Occasionally, I do stray, though. 
Recently, I picked up a couple of issues of Herogasm by Dynamite Comics, mostly because the idea seemed hilarious. It's about a getaway for superheroes where they engage in...well, carnal knowledge. Apparently it's a spin-off of a series called The Boys. Unfortunately, instead of being entertaining, Herogasm provided little more than the opportunity for its writer to write porn and its artist to draw a bunch of naked superheroes. And, like porn, there was no decent story.
On the other hand, I picked up some back issues of a series called Zero Killer
by Dark Horse Comics. Why? Because I discovered that it was dra
wn by the brilliant Matt Camp, whose work I loved in DC Comics' latest incarnation of Infinity, Inc.
His art ranks high in my book, along with two of my favorites, George Perez and Kevin Maguire. The faces of the characters he draws are very expressive. He's definitely concerned with detail. So, since Matt's currently not working on anything else DC- or Marvel-related, I decided to give Zero Killer a try, if only to gaze upon more of his beautiful artwork. I picked up issues 1-3 and read them back-to-back. Not only was I naturally impressed (again) by Matt Camp's art, but I was also absorbed into Arvid Nelson's post-nuclear story of a man named Zero. The story moves along quickly and the characters are each distinct. New York City is in ruins and flooded as a result from a 1973 worldwide nuclear war. Each of the major skyscrapers (Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, and, yes, the Twin Towers) houses a different gang. Arvid gives us pieces of the Zero's puzzle a little bit at a time, which make
s the story all that more intriguing. Ironically, issues 4 and 5 are finally coming out this fall after a two-year delay, so I'll get to enjoy those soon enough as well. Check out their website at http://www.zerokiller.com/.
My only wish is that DC Comics hire Matt Camp full-time so I can enjoy seeing him draw some of my favorite characters of all time.
Recently, DC Comics has been putting out a lot of number one issue comics, trying to reinvent themselves and bring back some old favorites, as well as introduce some new, but familiar, characters. With comics getting cancelled and reinstated all the time, starting from the beginning, it's a wonder that any comics ever make it to three-digit numbering.
In the past couple of months alone, I've started reading six "new" series: Adventure Comics, Batgirl, Batman and Robin, Gotham City Sirens, Red Robin, and Streets of Gotham. Unfortunately, although I love the characters, the comics haven't all wowed me. When I think of first issues, I think "spectacular!" This is the jumping off point, and it should be a story that really grabs hold of you and forces you to add the series to your monthly comic book order list because it's that good. The majority of these series hasn't done that, but I'm sticking with them because I love the characters.
I was most excited about the return of a Batgirl monthly series, and I was glad that it wasn't going to be about the most recent Batgirl in DC Comics history. That Batgirl, also named Cassandra (I guess someone really liked the name?), wore the mask over her entire face and never seemed to have that "flair" that Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl, did. She was more like a vigilante/assassin. There was much mystery over who the next Batgirl was going to be. Would Barbara Gordon regain the use of her legs and take up the mantle again? Would it be a new Batgirl under Barbara's tutelage? I'm sad to report that the mystery was solved immediately within the first few pages of issue one. So much for intrigue. I thought DC would draw out the mystery and excite us with further anticipation. Alas, no. We find out it's Stephanie Brown, aka the former Spoiler character from the cancelled Robin series. Yawn. She's like the teenage girl that everyone's annoyed by. Barbara is still in the comic, though, and I hope she maintains a prominent role since her Birds of Prey series was cancelled.
Adventure Comics features the return of one of my favorite DC characters: Superboy. Not Superman as a boy, but the clone made from both Superman's and Lex Luthor's DNA. When he was created back in the 1990s to help replace the void from Superman's death (due to his fight with Doomsday), I did not like him. He was an arrogant punk who wore sign-of-the-times apparel, a surfer's cut, and even sported an earring in one ear. Now, Conner Kent (aka Superboy again now that the licensing battle over the name trademark has been resolved) is a sexy, young adult who's trying to find his place in the world, much like Superman once did. His costume is a T-shirt and jeans. How cool is that? He's like the jock that everyone idolizes, but without the superior attitude. Deep down, he just wants to feel accepted and loved like everyone else. Of all the "restarts," this is definitely my favorite. I've missed Conner since he "died" a couple of years ago. Teen Titans hasn't been the same since his absence. I'm very curious what will happen with his previous budding relationship with Cassandra ("Cassie") Sandsmark (aka Wonder Girl) now that he's returned. After all, she did lose her virginity to him.
After reading the putrid "Batman: RIP" storyline and Final Crisis mini-series by Grant Morrison, I swore that I would never pick up another comic book written by Morrison. But...there I was picking up -- and enjoying -- the new Batman and Robin series. There's never actually been a "Batman and Robin" title, so this is definitely a milestone. The series features Dick Grayson (the first Robin) as the new Batman and, as Robin, Damian Wayne (Bruce Wayne's son with Talia, the daughter of Ra's al Ghul). The relationship between these two is comical, and that's what makes the series enjoyable. Damian is...a smart-ass prick. But Dick deals with it because he's Bruce's son and wants to show him the ropes. I think Morrison must have (finally) set down his joint and started writing something coherent because I've enjoyed the first couple of issues of this new series thus far. And the art by Frank Quitely is amazing. The level of detail harkens back to the days of Kevin Maguire on Justice League International in the 1980s. And, as an aside, I love the title logo for the series.
Catwoman was cancelled and they put her in the new Gotham City Sirens, adding Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn to the roster. I like all three characters, but Catwoman's own series had so much more depth. Thus far, Gotham City Sirens hasn't done much for me. We don't get to see the women as individuals outside of their costumes. Who hangs around together wearing their costumes all the time? Don't they ever have to be washed? And I'm not crazy about the title either. It screams "unsuccessful series" and "cancellation." I'll keep reading it, though, because I like to support female-lead series. They're so few and far between.
Speaking of poor title choices, what's worse than Gotham City Sirens? Streets of Gotham. It's about the people of Gotham who may from time-to-time interact with Batman. The only reason I'm buying this is because the back-up feature is Manhunter, written by the fantastic Marc Andreyko. DC also cancelled her own series and put her here in small vignettes with a $3.99 price tag. I think this will be the first of the new series to go, if only for the series' lackluster title.
Lastly, we get to Red Robin. No, not the restaurant chain that serves up awesome burgers and bottomless steak fries. Red Robin is the new identity of Tim Drake, the former Robin. I find it odd that he'd take on that name when Jason Todd, the former-former Robin, took on that name (and very similar costume) during the Countdown series. It's like Tim's just following in Jason's footsteps every step of the way. And Jason isn't someone you'd want to emulate. Anyway, I'm still waiting for something spectacular to happen with this series since Tim left the Teen Titans and the Robin identity for it. The series is very action-driven, but seems to lack a lot of story-driven quality and character development.
I remember reading about Emma Frost (aka the White Queen) and the Hellfire Club back in the 1980s when John Byrne was drawing The Uncanny X-Men. It was one of my favorite storylines, and she was one of my favorite villains because she was so outright evil. By day, she taught at a school (Massachusetts Academy) that rivaled Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. By night, she enjoyed torturing the X-Men. Returning to comics in 2008, I discovered that there had been some MAJOR changes made to Emma Frost's character over the years. She was no longer a villain. She could turn herself into diamond. She had joined the X-Men. She replaced Charles Xavier (aka Professor X) as the X-Men's telepath. She was in a relationship with Scott Summers (aka Cyclops). She had her own 18-issue comic book series. And, last but not least, she had become this giant sex symbol.
Intrigued by reading more about her alongside her fellow X-Men in recent issues of Uncanny X-Men, I picked up all 18 issues of her series, simply titled Emma Frost
. At first, I was a bit embarrassed buying the issues because I felt like I was buying 
porn. Every issue of the first half of the series consisted of a painted cover of Emma in some provocative pose. Ironically, the stories on the inside had nothing to do with the sexy portraits on the outside. In fact, they were about her as a young girl growing up, attending school and dealing with her wealthy family members. Something about that felt almost...pedophiliac. The covers were geared toward an older, horny, straight male audience. The interior stories were geared toward adolescent and teenage girls. I almost feel like that's where Marvel Comics went wrong. They could have used Emma Frost to try to attract a young female audience to comic books. Instead, the series attracted the horny boy/guy by its sexy covers and then disappointed them by providing a Hannah Montana/teenage angst storyline. For this reason alone, I think the comic book failed after 18 issues.
The first sex...er, six...issues of the series takes place when Emma is a young girl in school. She gets picked on at school, she has a crush on her sympathetic teacher, and she's beginning to discover (and be frightened of) her mental abilities. We also see her in her homelife as one of the children of an affluent Massachusetts family. Her siblings have their own definite (and intriguing) personalities, her father is very controlling, and her mother is blissfully ignorant because of her prescription meds. All of this was fascinating and I was disappointed to see it end after six issues.
The next six issues were about Emma breaking free from the control of her father and living on the streets. During this period, she meets a man and they try to extort money from her father by her pretending to be kidnapped and held for ransom.
The final six, Emma has taken all of her ransom money and enrolled herself in college. She meets a fellow telepath who poses as her best friend but then secretly wants to destroy her.
The series was all wonderfully written by Karl Bollers, and I would have loved to have seen him write about 100 issues of each of those three segments of her life, continuing on into her joining the Hellfire Club and apparently having "romantic" trysts with some of Marvel's prominent male superheroes like Iron Man and Namor. What I also especially loved about Bollers' storytelling was his use of supporting characters in Emma Frost. Her family members, teachers, schoolmates, friends, etc. all had their own definite, unique personalities and I wanted to know about them as much as I wanted to know about Emma. That's the sign of great writing.
I'm sad that Emma Frost was cancelled after 18 issues. However, I still believe that there is a market out there for her stories as Bollers told them, if the series was properly geared toward the right audience. Not every comic has to be about battles and good vs. evil. Emma Frost's brilliant first six issues demonstrated that (if not for the conflicting Penthouse covers). Sometimes the writer can transport the reader away into the world of their superhero characters with just their social interactions. It's sad that Marvel Comics dropped the ball on this one.
As mentioned previously, I've been reading The Amazing Spider-Man again. I must say that I'm impressed at the updates to the Spidey Villains. First, I got a peek at the new (and much more deadly) Vulture. Now, with ASM #600, I got to see the "new" Doctor Octopus. Doc Ock has been hit one too many times in the noggin over the years, causing him brain trauma and a terminal condition (which echoes of Natasha Richardson). With nothing to lose, he strikes out at the city (and our webslinging hero) with a deadly force and little robot octo-creatures that remind me of some sci-fi (syfy?) movie I've seen. I'm looking forward to seeing what other villains are updated in the next 600 issues.
p.s. ASM #600 also had a couple of beautifully written backstories. One was Aunt 
May Parker sitting beside her deceased husband's grave, asking his permission to remarry. Another, and the most emotional, was the story of Uncle Ben learning to be a father to a teenage Peter. Kudos on both of these short stories!
Recently, I picked up a couple of issues of Herogasm by Dynamite Comics, mostly because the idea seemed hilarious. It's about a getaway for superheroes where they engage in...well, carnal knowledge. Apparently it's a spin-off of a series called The Boys. Unfortunately, instead of being entertaining, Herogasm provided little more than the opportunity for its writer to write porn and its artist to draw a bunch of naked superheroes. And, like porn, there was no decent story.
wn by the brilliant Matt Camp, whose work I loved in DC Comics' latest incarnation of Infinity, Inc.
s the story all that more intriguing. Ironically, issues 4 and 5 are finally coming out this fall after a two-year delay, so I'll get to enjoy those soon enough as well. Check out their website at http://www.zerokiller.com/.
