Putting the "Super" in Superman

While I loved the first two Superman movies from the 1970s/80s, as well as the Super Friends Saturday morning cartoon series and its spin-offs, as a kid, I was never that crazy about reading the Superman comic books.  Week after week in the 80s, I'd visit my local comic book store.  Superman comics, including Action Comics and DC Comics Presents, never entered the rotation, with the exception of the occasional issue that guest-starred another character I liked.  That was, until John Byrne came onboard in 1986.  At that point, I was already a huge fan of his work on the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Alpha Flight.  He made Superman interesting and more relatable for me.  That is to say, he gave him more human qualities, developed his personality, and gave him better storylines.  Meanwhile, George Perez was doing the same for Wonder Woman for me.  

Cut to 2008. I began reading Superman again and followed him up through his "Grounded" storyline until the long-running series ended with the events of Flashpoint.  Then DC Comics announced the New 52 and that Superman would feature George Perez and Nicola Scott.  I was intrigued.  I think they're both extremely talented.  Sadly, neither of them lasted on the title for very long, and Superman's storyline in the New 52 was obviously dictated from high above.  Still, I continued reading through many writer and artist changes, I guess out of some sort of weird obligation.  Then Geoff Johns finally took over the writing reigns with #32.  A-Ha!  Maybe now it will get better.  Along with him, he brought artist John Romita Jr.  I'm not sure what the craze is about his art.  The characters look so stiff and, many times, unlifelike.  Naturally, Johns didn't last long on the book; he's got way too many other obligations.  Then it was announced that Gene Luen Yang was coming onboard as writer with #41.  Who?  Never heard of him.  The Superman comics piled up while I read other series.  Then I finally sat down to read a few months' worth.  The writing was fantastic.  I had to flip back to see who it was.  Gene Luen Yang.  Wow.  Still never heard of him, but thought his writing was the best I've seen on this latest Superman series.  Now if only they'd bring back Nicola Scott on art chores.

On my drive home last night, I was listening to NPR.  (Yes, I know.  It makes me feel old, too.)  A segment came on about a Gene Yang.  It was talking about him being named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.  I thought, could this be the same Gene Yang?   When I got home, I Googled him to find out.  Sure enough, it was.  Wow.  Congratulations, and well-deserved.  I guess I'm not the only one impressed with his talent.  I hope Yang remains a permanent fixture in the DC Universe.  They need all the help they can get with the stale comics they've produced in the New 52 and beyond.  I hope they realize that it's not all about action, action, action and churning out boring, elongated stories just to later sell in graphic novel format.  Comics, too, can (and should) have character development (and aging).    

To Thrill A Mockingbird

West Coast Avengers #1
(limited series)

I've been a fan of Mockingbird since the days of the West Coast Avengers back in the 1980s, as that was one of my favorite series.  I also loved her as half of the Hawkeye/Mockingbird coupling.  

Hawkeye & Mockingbird #6

Cut to: 2010.  I was excited about the Hawkeye & Mockingbird series...only to be disappointed that they didn't reunite romantically and the series was canceled after only six issues.  

While I'm not crazy about the emphasis put on her involvement with S.H.I.E.L.D. in the past few years, I decided to pick up her latest comic, a one-shot, celebrating 50 Years of S.H.I.E.L.D.  As I started reading, I thought, "Who wrote this?" and "Why isn't this a regular series?"  It was unlike a lot of the action-packed and non-character-focused crap that I've read as of late.  Turns out, it's a new writer to comic books -- Chelsea Cain.  Ah, that explains it.  She hasn't been editorialized to death yet.  She's a published novelist and, because it was a one-shot issue, Marvel probably let her write whatever she wanted to.  And what she wrote was an excellent story of mystery, romance, and character development that left me wanting more.  It's a shame I can't slap down $4-$5 on a comic book and get the same quality time and time again. 

Mockingbird #1 (one-shot)

The back-up story introduced the Red Widow who has some connection to the Black Widow.  Meh.  After a lead-in like Cain's Mockingbird story, the Red Widow story by a YA novelist was doomed to fail.  I would have liked another story of Mockingbird. 

With Mockingbird becoming more and more known through ABC's Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series and Marvel wanting to increase the number of female-driven comics, I'd like to think it's only a matter of time before Mockingbird gets her own monthly series.  Let's just hope that Chelsea Cain writes it.

It's No Secret: the Latest Event Series is Lame

Back in the 80s, I read the Secret Wars limited series and freakin' loved it.  It was so exciting and so many exciting things came out of it:  Spider-Man got his black symbiote costume, The Thing stayed behind on Battleworld and got his own series, She-Hulk joined the Fantastic Four, etc.  Not only was the series unique and interesting, but Secret Wars action figures came out of it.  There were characters I had never had or seen before to play with!  Yes, they were pretty cheaply made with no points of articulation, but still it felt revolutionary.

A couple of years later came Secret Wars II, which was just plain farcical with the Beyonder in his white Miami Vice leisure suit. 

After the most recent shitty Marvel event series, AXIS, I was really looking forward to the new Secret Wars series.  I finally read Secret Wars #1 (2015) and all I have to say is, "Huh?"  What the fuck was that?  Seriously.  What the fuck was that?  I don't even know what the hell happened.  It felt like I was picked up and plopped down in the middle of something going on -- a battle of some sorts on Earth -- and I'm supposed to enjoy that and follow along?   Did I miss the introduction?  This was the first issue, correct?  

I guess I shouldn't be surprised.  It was written by Jonathan Hickman after all, who has previously turned me away from his storytelling on Fantastic Four and the Avengers.  There's no character development.  No character interaction.  No enjoyable/followable plot.  It's just battle after battle after pointless battle, like watching Man of Steel on repeat.  And while his comics always have more word balloons than most comics, they don't really say anything.  The dialogue doesn't feel real or seem to come naturally to the characters speaking it.  The characters are always telling what is happening, when the pages should naturally just "show" it without explanation and the extraneous wording. 

After reading the latest Secret Wars #1, I can only guess that the rest of the series will be equally boring and pointless, much like every Marvel event series that has recently preceded it.  Wake me when the Marvel Universe is over. 

Hawkeye Misses His Target...AGAIN.

What's up with Hawkeye #22?  

Issue #21 was finally released in April 2015, five months after #20.  And there were several lapses in the comics prior to that.  Now instead of releasing (forever delayed) #22, Marvel Comics goes ahead and releases an "All-New" Hawkeye series?  FAIL.  

Who hires these bozos?  You can't meet a deadline?  Writer?  Artist?  Editor?  Etc.?  Did Kevin Smith write this book?  Hello?  Anyone home? 

Tell ya what, Marvel, you can keep Hawkeye #22.  My collection ended with #21.  

With the Avengers movies riding a huge financial wave, you'd think they'd want to capitalize on one of the main characters by producing a consistent series.  By the way, it also helps that when you have a Hawkeye comic, that you include that superhero (the Clint Barton version) instead of focusing on the "other" (lame) Hawkeye (Kate Bishop).  And just why can't she get her own moniker anyway?  So, Marvel, you can keep All-New Hawkeye, too, because I'm not buying into it when you can't even include the main character in his own book.   

I've always loved Hawkeye and was a HUGE fan of him during the West Coast Avengers days, so I was excited when he was included in the silver screen version of the Avengers and got his own series.  Sadly, while Marvel Studios seems to know what to do with Hawkeye, it seems Marvel Comics doesn't.

An EYE for an EYE

In time for Convergence, Eye finally caught up with DC Comics' weekly series New 52: Futures End that ended with #48.  Sadly, Eye was underwhelmed.  The series ended with a whimper, not a bang. 

It felt like the series had some direction at the beginning but then the creators and/or execs decided to just say "fuck it" and move on to the Next Big Thing (i.e., Convergence.)   It didn't even offer much of a lead-in to Convergence.  Brainiac started to come collect cities...but then they defeated him?   And pretty quickly, too.  Eye was quite confused.

Eye think what the series was also missing was interesting characters.  Or maybe they just weren't used properly.  Included were Batman Beyond, Shazam as Superman, Amethyst, Frankenstein, Grifter, Mister Terrific, Tim Drake (retired), and a new female Firestorm.  Meh.  Eye think DC did a much better job of using secondary characters in their 2006 weekly series 52.  Eye was invested in the 52 characters, not so much in the New 52 Futures End ones.

Eye wasted about $150 and who knows how many hours of my time waiting for something exciting and big to happen, but it never did.  And the series didn't even matter in the course of things. 

Move along, folks, there's nothing to see here...