Comic Coverage

Simply the Best: Bring on the Bad Guys!

In the age before elaborately painted comic book covers (and interiors, for that matter), seeing "realistically" rendered versions of your favorite comic book characters was an incredibly rare treat. In fact, due to the no-frills budgets of the average comic book, the only place you were likely to see the magic of multiple light sources was on the covers of more expensive magazines and paperback books.

Some of the most fondly remembered of these painted covers were Marvel's series of origin reprints, published by Fireside Books (click on the covers for a larger view). Origins of Marvel Comics (1974) featured the first stories of Marvel's biggest stars paired with one of their modern adventures, along with Stan Lee's reflections. It's sequel, Son of Origins (1975) stuck to the same format as it explored the beginnings of Marvel's second-tier heroes, while The Superhero Women (1977) focused on...well, you can probably figure it out. 

However, as great as these covers are (all illustrated by jazzy John Romita Sr), my absolute favorite remains the third volume of the origin series: 

BRING ON THE BAD GUYS (1976)

It's title obviously the inspiration for my looks at lousy comic book supervillains, this cover celebrated all that was good about being bad in the Marvel Universe. Looking like the poster of a movie I'd likely never see (at least until relatively recently), Bring On The Bad Guys reminded me why I loved these villains (and their heroic opponents) so much. Yeah, the "by Stan Lee" tag is poorly placed, but that minor nitpick is more Fireside's doing than Romita's...and easily overlooked when surrounded by such slick, cinematic artwork.

Of course, something this good doesn't always jump right out of the pencil and onto the page. Click on the image to the left to check out Romita's initial sketch for the cover. Still cool, of course, but obviously a bit too "Doom-centered" to show off the other evildoers effectively. For more interesting "behind the scenes" stuff from Romita's spectacular career, be sure to add John Romita, And All That Jazz! to your Christmas list. I can't recommend it high enough.

Humble Beginnings: A Deeper Shade of Gray

So...Bruce Banner.  Transforms into an impossibly muscled-up green guy named the Hulk when he's enraged, right? Well, if we're talking about his debut in The Incredible Hulk #1 (1962)....no.

Sporting grey skin instead of the familiar green, and not much bigger than a pro wrestler, the Hulk's first appearance also featured a decidedly different trigger for Bruce Banner's transformation. Instead of intense stress or rage, creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby took another page from the horror movie playbook and used dusk and dawn to bring about the metamorphosis.

As it turned out, the Hulk's grey skin color was problematic for both colorist Stan Goldberg and the printer, so by issue #2 his trademark green skin was here to stay. It also didn't take long for the sun-based transformations to give way to the rage and stress-fueled hulk-outs. 

In the years following the gray-to-green switch, reprints of issue #1 re-colored the Hulk's skin green...seemingly erasing the original gray model from comic book history.  That is, until creator John Byrne reaffirmed in issue #318 (1986) that the Hulk was indeed gray at the very beginning, which lead to an extended run of issues by Peter David that featured a cunning Gray-skinned Goliath calling himself "Joe Fixit". Proof positive that even somewhat out-of-focus "humble beginnings" can be used to create clever new directions for familiar characters.

Worst Cover Ever: Through the (Fun House) Looking Glass

When you view a stubby, distorted human body in a fun house mirror, it's entertaining. 

Seeing stubby, distorted bodies on a comic book cover? 

Not so entertaining. 

To be sure, distorted human proportions are a cornerstone of superhero comics, but it's usually done on the side of stretching those proportions larger than their average size...not compacting them! The culprit behind this "unheroic distortion" is, of course, poor drawing...which you'd think would be kept far away from a comic book's cover, right? After all, the cover is the most important part of a comic book since it attracts the eye, and sets the stage for the story inside....so you'd want to have your top people drawing them, right? 

Well, as my continuing Worst Cover Ever feature has proven, the top people weren't always available...so the important cover chores would fall to mediocre artists farther down the creative totem pole. Long-time Marvel staffer Al Milgrom was one of these low-wattage wonders who was inexplicably assigned a ton of early 80's Marvel covers...many of which approached "fun house mirror" levels of distorted drawing. 

One of Milgrom's anti-masterpieces was the cover of Marvel Team-Up #105 (1981), featuring three stubby characters that vaguely resembled Power Man, Iron Fist, and the Hulk.

 

Some questions come to mind:

The face of rage....

or a lower lip stuffed with chewing tobacco?

Is the Hulk's arm bursting out of Luke Cage's sleeve, or is Hulk's arm somehow phasing through the solid matter of Luke's arm since they both appear to be occupying the same space? Has the squeeze of the Hulk's hand compacted Luke's torso to only half its normally heroic size?

Iron Fist or the stubby leader of Munchkinland's Lollipop Guild? 

A forearm...or a turkey drumstick? Is the girl being held within Hulk's hand or in the crook of his arm?

Who are the only normally proportioned people on the cover?  Why, the hillbillies in the background, of course!

Was this blurb really necessary? Without it, the three main figures could have been drawn much larger and in proportion...and not awkwardly crammed into the space below such a non-essential (and nonsensical) message.

Need more proof that Al probably wasn't cut out for cover work? Then click here for more Milgrom Magic.

Gold Nuggets: A Captain Marvel Christmas Carol

The Obscure Adventures of Comics' Greatest Generation!

One of my absolute favorite stories (especially this time of the year) is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
The story's powerful messages of redemption and social responsibility are timeless and transcend its original Victorian England setting...which is why I enjoy its adaptations into so many different media, time periods, and social settings.

One of the many media forms to adapt Dicken's classic morality tale is, of course, comic books...such as the (somewhat looser) adaptation found in Captain Marvel Adventures #42 (1945). 

"The Plot Against Christmas" opens with young radio journalist Billy Batson being sent to cover a special Christmas surprise at the Smith Toy Company. Billy learned that Happy and Jolly Smith were planning to give a sleigh full of free toys to the children of a local orphanage. Sounds great, right?  Well, not according to their older brother (and president of the company) Gouge Smith. Yes, that's "gouge" as in "chisel" or "swindle". Like any Scrooge stand-in would do, Gouge pulled the plug on the good-hearted plan....

An orphan himself, Billy Batson vowed to set things right as Captain Marvel!

(click on the panels for a larger view)

Fulfilling the role of Scrooge's ghostly guides, Cap flew Gouge to a local
 family's home to witness the simple joys of the Christmas season...

 

Undeterred, Cap took the anti-Christmas curmudgeon to 
visit a noble home of civic responsibility and sacrifice...

Finally, Cap brought greedy Gouge to the very orphanage
 the old man had turned his back on earlier that day...

Upon awakening, those troubled dreams (resulting from Cap's heart-tugging tour) inspired Gouge to not only change his ways and help the orphans...but to also dress up as Santa Claus and get stuffed down a chimney while doing it! Now that's a turnaround!

Like all the closing scenes of countless Christmas Carol adaptations, a spirit of giving and fellowship enveloped Gouge and his new-found friends...ending in a toast that echoed Tiny Tim's immortal "God bless us...every one!"

Dreaming of a White Christmas (Win a DVD!)

As the snow continues to fall in my neck of the woods, I dreamed up a little White Christmas contest for those of you who (like me) marinade in comic book trivia. Much like my previous color-themed contests (and my most recent skull-themed contest), I've tracked down a bunch of comic book characters that share something in common, this time having names that all feature the word "white".

Some are easy, but most are incredibly obscure...so the first person to name all eighteen of them, or guess the most names by noon on Friday, December 12th will not only be a trivia master beyond compare...but also the winner of my favorite holiday movie: A Christmas Story!  That's right, identify the most white-themed characters in the gallery below and a brand new DVD of this 1983 classic will be winging its way to you before Christmas! 

A few ground rules: Anyone is welcome to play...even those of you who've won a previous contest. I'll be turning off the comments for this post, since I don't want anyone "borrowing" the answers of others to complete their own lists. Oh, and only cheaters use Google and Wikipedia...so let your conscience be your guide.

Once you've completed your list, click here to email it to me.  The winner will be announced Friday afternoon, so get to work...like young Ralphie Parker feverishly solving Little Orphan Annie's secret code!

Bizarro's Toybox: Oh, What Fun it is to Ride...

When it comes to children and their toys, adults should always resist applying too much grown-up logic to their innocent flights of fancy. After all, who's to say any toy is beyond the power of their imagination to thrill and entertain?

That said, I've come across some superhero vehicles that are so goofy and nonsensical that even a logic-challenged child would question their baffling existence and consign them to the dark, topsy-turvy recesses of Bizarro's Toybox!

For example, would Aquaman...water-breathing King of the Seven Seas and swimmer beyond compare really need an Aqua Sub to get around underwater?

How does a permanently enraged, 1,000 lb. gamma-irradiated giant with the intellect of a child get around?  Why, by flying around in his own customized helicopter, that's how! The Hulk's sausage-sized fingers should have no problem working the copter's delicate instrument panel, or using that collection of tiny yellow tools!

 

Would the Flash...whose super-speed running can propel him around the planet several times a second...or even through the time barrier...really have a need for a motorcyle (albeit a really cool-looking one)?

Now let's talk Captain America...a hero who's actually been known to ride a motorcycle...wouldn't he be a logical character to get his own motorcycle toy? Not so fast (literally, in this case).  As it turned out, somebody at Marx toys (lousy Commies!) stuck Cap with a put-putting Euro-weenie scooter...and a yellow one at that! Where's he going...to a coffee shop? 

In France?

Following Cap's lead, Superman got his own yellow motorcycle, but with a dreadfully anti-feminist twist! See, instead of getting her own motorcycle, Wonder Woman was consigned to a mere sidecar...and to add insult to injury, a really bad orange dye job (conspicuously not matching the raven-haired images of Wonder Woman adorning the sidecar)!

The Man of Steel was also associated with another goofy superhero toy...which was quite possibly the most insane superhero vehicle ever created!  

Looking a bit like a Star Wars Scout Walker/La-Z-Boy recliner hybrid (with a flip-down beauty parlor hair dryer), the Justice Jogger was billed as an "overland villain chaser" with "power stepping action". It's unknown what the Justice Jogger actually did to apprehend said villains once it caught up to them...or for that matter why an invulnerable, super-strong man who could fly, run at super speed, and shoot heat rays needed such a preposterous contraption to apprehend bad guys.

By the way, one more day to send in your entry for my White Christmas contest!  Send in your guesses...and you might win a DVD of A Christmas Story!

White Christmas contest: Extended!

Re: My White Christmas DVD contest

It's a first!  My first contest where not a single person has submitted an entry! 

Either (A) Nobody wants (or everybody already has) a DVD of A Christmas Story or (B) the characters I've asked you to name are just too obscure.

So...since I really want someone to win the prize, how about this: I'll extend the contest six hours from noon on Friday to 6:00 p.m....and go ahead and use Google, Wiki, or whatever internet fount of knowledge you wish to obtain the answers from.  First one to answer all of them (or get the most by 6:00 p.m.) wins the DVD (which I'll announce later that evening...along with the answers).

We've Got a White Christmas Winner!

Wow! Look what a little begging can do!  

After yesterday's plea for White Christmas contest entries, a veritable tidal wave of emails poured in throughout the day!  Thanks to everyone who took a shot at guessing the names, even if you only knew two or three of 'em.

But, like all contests, only one person can win...and the winner of my White Christmas DVD contest is Rick Phillips. Mr. Phillips guessed a very impressive 14 out of 18 characters, many of which were insanely obscure. Congratulations, Rick...your Christmas Story DVD is on its way to your mailbox!

So...who the heck were all of those white-themed comic book characters anyway?  Let's go down the list:

1. White Feather, member of DC's superhero parody The Inferior Five.

2. White Lightning, flirtatious foe of DC's boy-speedster Impulse.

3. White Martians, a warlike race of Martians opposed by the peaceful race of Green Martians, of whom J'onn J'onzz was the last survivor.

4. White Dwarf, a Teen Titans foe who had the powers of directed gravity, density, and the ability to absorb explosions.

5. White Tiger I (Hector Ayala), vigilante hero.

6. White Rabbit, a minor gadget-touting Spider-Man villain.

7. White Dragon, a white supremacist villain of Hawkman III.

8. Perry White, editor of The Daily Planet.

9. White Light, an Iceman enemy who possessed hypnotic powers.

10. White Tiger II, evolved from a white Bengal tigress into a woman by the High Evolutionary, this "were-tiger" later became a Heroes for Hire operative.

11. White Lotus, a martial artist with an ability to generate force fields, member of the short-lived team Supermen of America.

12. Whiteface, psychotic clown villain of the Squadron Supreme's Nighthawk.

13. White Rabbit, a Metropolis arms dealer and minor Superman villain.

14. White Tiger III (Kasper Cole), a police officer who gained powers similar to the Black Panther through the use of a synthetic drug.

15. White Witch, a 30th century sorceress and member of the Legion of Superheroes.

16. White Queen, the alias of mutant Emma Frost when she was a member of the villainous Hellfire Club.

17. Whiteout, a supervillain able to generate a selectively blinding flash of light and a member of the Savage Land Mutates.

18. White Tiger IV (Angela Del Toro), a niece of the first White Tiger who took up his heroic mantle.

And there you have it.  Hope you had fun, despite me raising the bar a little higher this time around. Stay tuned for more contests and games in the coming weeks and months! 

The Highlight Reel: Fire vs. Ice!

For as long as I can remember, I've been fascinated by the meeting of opposites.  

Though that fascination certainly includes clashes between superheroes and their evil opposite numbers, it extends beyond that to the forces of nature itself. Maybe it's because I live in a northern climate, where the dramatic change of seasons seems very much like a battle between extremes of heat and cold, wind and calm, sunlight and darkness...well, you get the picture. Whatever the reason, I'm instantly intrigued by any fictional portrayal of opposing elemental power.

With that criteria in mind, it should come as no surprise that one of my favorite Christmas specials was (and is) The Year Without a Santa Claus...though not so much for the story itself, but rather for the appearances of sibling rivals Snow Miser and Heat Miser!

As most of you will recall, this 1974 Rankin & Bass classic featured Mother Nature's combative "temperature twins" as part of an elaborate plot by Mrs. Santa to restore her husband's flagging confidence. Though relatively brief, the musical numbers starring the Snow and Heat Miser completely stole the show through their clever character designs, lyrics, and elaborate sets (including their diminutive look-alike "lackies"). For those of you who've never seen these wonderful show-stoppers (or fellow oldsters looking for a walk down memory lane), here they are:

However, as memorable as the Snow Miser-Heat Miser rivalry remains, another fire and ice clash earlier that same year made an even bigger impact on this newly-minted eight year-old comic book fan.

Although Marvel Team-Up was essentially a Spider-Man title, fellow hotshot The Human Torch "guest hosted" in a number of issues...one of which was the memorable Marvel Team-Up #23. As you can see from the dynamic cover (click for a larger view), the Torch was bringing the heat against his chilly counterpart the Iceman, a teenage member of the original X-Men.

As these intramural Marvel conflicts usually went, a misunderstanding lead to a full-fledged battle, as gloriously choreographed by artist Gil Kane...

Dear Editor: Dave Wants ZOMBIES

My look at Marvel Team-Up #23 the other day yielded another interesting item from that issue's letters page. Apparently, Dave Lofvers of Rochester, New York was pining for Spider-Man to team up with a rather controversial character...

 

Get that? Not only did Dave request a forbidden zombie and nudity in Marvel comic books, but he wanted the entire Comics Code abolished as well!  

So, what was the response? Well, unlike Marvel's typically flip and humorous replies to letter writers, the response of the editor (most likely Roy Thomas) was surprisingly thoughtful and candid...

Pretty astonishing stuff.  Granted, in his official capacity at Marvel Comics, the editor had to publicly support the Comics Code Authority and its standards, but at the same time it's refreshing to see someone openly challenge the knee-jerk assumption that sex and violence equals an "adult" reading experience. The response continued...

More stunning stuff here. See, in all my years of collecting comics, it's been the accepted orthodoxy that everything about the Comics Code was toxic and repressive, and that the comics of the early 50's were exempt from moral scrutiny and social responsibility.  Yet the editor acknowledges the excess and irresponsibility that lead to the Code's creation...a view I've long shared.  I'm no apologist for the extreme charges of Dr. Wertham, nor am I willing to defend every aspect of the Comics Code policies (some of which were pretty silly), but I have to say: I just don't buy the propaganda....so it's gratifying to see that people in high places were willing to break from the crowd. In the case of this editor, it was an attempt to separate sensational violence and nudity from a more elevated form of maturity...a truly adult way to tell a story.

You see, the inclusion of the Comics Code seal in my blog's header isn't an ironic statement, but actually a shorthand way to show visitors where my head and heart are at. To me, the code seal on the comic books I grew up with wasn't a symbol of persecution and First Amendment shredding, but a sign that adults were looking out for me who had an expectation that creators would find ways to entertain without resorting to easy, sleazy thrills. Same thing holds here at Comic Coverage.

So, since the Comics Code Seal isn't seen as the sign of the Anti-Christ here, fellow fans of code-era comics can visit my Secret Identity shop, pick up some Comics Code stuff (like the shirt to the left), and proudly show your support for a vanished era of comics.

Or hey, buy one and ironically wear one even if you oppose the code.  I'm not picky. Just be sure to order one in time for Christmas!

The Perfection Checklist

My checklist for the perfect Superman comic book:

1. A cover by Jose Garcia Lopez.

2. Interior art by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson.

3. A team-up with Santa Claus.

From DC Comics Presents #67 (1983)

Dr. Doom's SCARY SANTA Gallery: The SEQUEL!

••• PART TWO •••

"Greetings, ignorant curs! I am Victor Von Doom, the greatest enemy of both the Fantastic Four and the insipid holiday known as Christmas!  As I revealed last year, I have been undermining Christmas for years through 'Operation Santa Scare', a secret campaign to frighten children with my army of sinister Santa agents planted in department stores across the United States. The sheer terror generated by these Bearded Beazlebubs has made a normally joyful time into an unholy trauma for countless mewling brats...their tear-stained screams serving as sweet music to my ears!"

"This year, I shall reveal ten more of my most prized "Sinister Santas"...some of whom may be plying their anti-Christmas craft at a shopping mall near you!"

1. "Agent F-77's dingy yellow beard can't hide the malevolence behind those shifty, calculating eyes. Why, even the cartoon character on the boy's shirt is scared witless!"

2. "Not even the wails of a screaming infant can wake the creepy, narcoleptic Agent Z-ZZ...bundled snugly inside his beard and hat while dreaming evil dreams."

 

3. "Don't let the smile of Agent Q-32 fool you...those angry eyebrows and the claw-like death grip on the hysterical child reveal his inner moral rot!"

4. "Feel your willpower slip away under the blank, hypnotic gaze of Agent X-1000, a fully robotic operative capable of terrorizing three children at once!"

 

5. "One of my greatest agents, C-33 boldly displays his anger and contempt for all that is good and decent."

6. "Can you feel the waves of evil (and menthol) wafting from Agent D-53?"

7. "Though not a truly living agent, the cyclopean stare of my miniature Santa Drone accomplishes the same goal: Total and utter hysteria!"

8. "Look how youthful innocence is eclipsed by the slovenly, highly-intoxicated evil of Agent Y-45!"

9. "Agent T-63, a hatless madman, triggers instant fear with hair resembling SNL character Rosanne Rosannadanna and smelling like a filthy Texaco bathroom!"

10. "Ah, Agent B-00...my pride and joy!  This eerie emissary of evil gives even me, DR. DOOM, a shiver of fright...as his cold, dead eyes and grave-pale skin consume all innocence, happiness, and light within a five mile radius. Exquisite."

"Now that I have crippled you with fear and despair, I take my leave.  I shall spend every moment between now and thrice-cursed Christmas monitoring the misery spawned by my Sinister Santas! Slowly, but surely, I shall bring an end to this fetid holiday of rank hypocrisy...one screaming baby at a time!"

"WhooHa Ha HAAAH!"

Thirty Years? ALREADY?

As a little tyke, my birthday was celebrated in the usual way: cake, party games, presents, little pals, etc. However, as I grew older, my parents would pop for a movie for me and a few friends. Kinda modest by today's ever-escalating entertainment standards for kid birthdays, but as a budding movie fan...I loved every minute of it.

As the last of those fondly-remembered "movie birthdays", I celebrated my 13th birthday by seeing a movie that had opened only six days earlier on December 15th, 1978. Superman: The Movie, as you might imagine, completely blew the minds of my friends and I. From the opening "comic book scene" to the closing scene's "smiling fly-by", we were transfixed by the movie's epic scale and surprisingly "serious" take on the character. Remember, my generation marinated on campy, low-wattage superhero movies and TV shows...so the big budget majesty of Superman was the first time we realized that the world of fantasy really could "come true" if there was enough money, talent, and willpower behind it.  No, we didn't quite "Believe a Man Can Fly" (as the movie poster proclaimed), but we did walk away believing that more of this kind of wide-eyed spectacle was in our future.

Now, thirty years later, comic book movies are better than ever...with the promise of even better stuff to come.  But for me, that singular moment when fantasy blurred into reality (or a sort of pseudo-reality) was that 13th birthday exactly three decades ago. Yeah, Star Wars had blown my mind in another way a year and a half earlier, but with its lightsabers and planet-obliterating Death Stars, it didn't have nearly the "feel of the real" (or, in fancy-speak, "verisimilitude") that Superman did. 

So, to everyone associated with Superman: The Movie...especially director Richard Donner, the brilliant composer John Williams, and the late, great (and fondly remembered) Christopher Reeve, thank you for that special afternoon thirty years ago and all the inspiration the movie's provided ever since.

Bethlehem or Bust!

Of all the superhero Christmas covers I've come across (some of which can be seen here and here), the DC Super-Star Holiday Special (a.k.a. DC Special Series #21, 1980) stands apart as one of the most surreal. While the other covers focus on predictable secular imagery (stockings, presents, Santa Claus, etc), this one depicts a disparate band of DC characters following a blazing star to, presumably, the ancient city of Bethlehem...in other words, indisputably religious territory!

Illustrated by Garcia Lopez, the unusual traveling companions included (from top to bottom) four teen heroes from the 30th century, Superboy from the 20th, deformed western anti-hero Jonah Hex, an anonymous witch, horror mag hosts Cain and Abel (seated on the camel), WWII hero Sgt. Rock, and an uncharacteristically cheery Batman beckoning us to join them on their spiritual pilgrimage!

Though I don't actually own this issue (yet!), I'm reasonably sure the stories inside don't depict the Merry Band arriving in Bethlehem to visit the newly-born Christ Child.  However...I couldn't resist visualizing what that incredibly bizarre Nativity scene might have looked like if they did!

(click on the Nativity scene for a more glorious view)

I should note that the three tiny Legionnaires in the foreground are part of DC's line of "Pocket Super Heroes", all of which feature the original uniforms of Lightning Lad, Phantom Girl, and Saturn Girl (unlike the groovier mid-70's versions depicted on the cover). Wildfire (behind Batman) was actually a custom figure someone made (man, that guy was hard to find), while Cain and Abel were actually taken from a set of DC Direct bookends. The others were all "official" action figures from DC Direct (except for the witch...I didn't bother looking for the witch).

So there you have it.  A Nativity scene like no other....and a ticket straight to Hell for Yours Truly!

Merry Christmas from Comic Coverage!

I'll be spending the next several days taking "a long winter's nap", but before I take my mini-breather, a Christmas greeting from my favorite web-slinger. After defeating the Manhattan rampage of Stegron and his pack of reanimated dinosaurs, the epilogue* of the tale finds a window-peeping Spider-Man delivering a gift to the beleaguered family of Curt Connors (who'd just transformed back from his villainous identity of The Lizard)...then pulling a "Tiny Tim" in a rare moment of non-angst!

(click on the page for a larger view)

 

* Outside of comics and Quinn Martin TV detective shows, 

was the term "epilogue" used anywhere else? Ever?

Dear Editor: Gimme Five (--or is it Four?)

Of all the missives appearing on the old comic book letter pages, some of the most common were from eagle-eyed fans who'd proudly spotted some kind of visual gaffe. In most cases, the error would be acknowledged by the editor, who would sometimes even send the fan something special (such as original artwork or Marvel's legendary "No Prize"). 

However, sometimes the error-spotting fan would be the one in error....but never quite as spectacularly as Michael Santagato, whose letter was printed in Marvel Two-In-One #27 (1977)...

Uhhh...yeah.  Let's have the Marvel Two-In-One editor take it from here...

Got that, Michael? NEVER!!!

Oh, I did a little research and tracked down that Reed Richards picture the editor was referring to. You've heard of Cool Hand Luke, right? Well, from the splash page of Fantastic Four #152 (1974), I present Three-Hand Reed! 

As a slam-dunk candidate for a fan "error letter", I jumped ahead four months to Fantastic Four #156 and, sure enough, Joe Tucciarone came through with a pun-encrusted note fishing for a No-Prize...

Not missing a beat, the Marvel editor fought pun with pun in his response...

 

Good enough for me!

2008: The Good & The Bad

 

Here in the closing days of 2008, I thought I'd take a rare jump onto the bandwagon and offer my own take on the best...and worst...the world of comics (and comics-related media) had to offer over the past year.

With the optimism the holiday season brings, let's 

begin with the Good Stuff (in no particular order):

1.  The Iron-Man movie: Although I was cautiously optimistic toward Marvel Studios' freshman effort, I had no idea just how wildly successful Iron-Man would turn out to be, both creatively and financially. Marvel proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that fidelity to the source material (as well as clever, carefully-seeded connections to future Marvel movies) is a winning strategy...and an approach the perpetually flat-footed Warner Bros. studios are quickly trying to adapt to their inert (non-Batman) superhero franchises. Check out my review of the movie for more specifics, but to sum it up: Iron-Man was a finely-tuned collaboration between a director who "gets it", top-notch actors (especially Robert Downey Jr.), eye-popping special effects, and a very smart marketing campaign. In other words, it's the new standard against which all Marvel movies will be measured (sorry, Spider-Man 2...you've been replaced)!

2. Writer Geoff Johns: As one of the most prolific, enthusiastic, and professional writers in the business (if not the most), Geoff Johns has become a sort of defacto "quarterback" of DC Comics as his ideas and ambitious storylines propel the publisher into exciting new directions. Like any popular creator, Johns has his vocal critics...many of whom claim he's systematically reinstating DC's "Silver Age" of the 1950's and 60's, but fans of his (like me) don't see rote revival but rather carefully considered re-imaginings combined with compelling new ideas.

Yeah, I can agree with some of the criticism leveled toward his occasional use of visceral, violent imagery...but the key word is "occasional".  Experience seems to have given Johns a bit more wisdom regarding where and when to use such imagery, but it's still a characteristic that dogs his work...and, frankly, a bit of a "crutch" he could easily drop altogether in my opinion. His work is strong enough without having to resort to the cheap shocks. 

However, that's the only qualification I have in endorsing Johns' writing. In fact, considering so many of my monthly comic books are either written by Johns (Green Lantern, JSA, Action Comics, Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds), are collaborations with Johns (Superman, Green Lantern Corps), or his upcoming titles (Flash: Rebirth, a Legion of Superheroes revival in Adventure Comics), it's obvious the positive, entertaining aspects of his writing far outweigh the occasional turn-off of excessive violence. As with the past couple of years, Johns remains the writer to watch.

3. Superman's 70th Anniversary: Back in June, I tried something I'd never done here at Comic Coverage before or since, and that was 30 consecutive days devoted to a single topic: 70 years of Superman. The character has always been a favorite of mine, but my enthusiasm for the month-long commemoration was certainly fueled by the ongoing quality of DC's line of Superman books. Following several years of colossally bad stewardship of the character, DC finally hired an editor and a stable of creators who reinvigorated the character and his world...once again making the Superman titles the first books I read on a weekly basis. Finally...it really IS a great time to be a Superman fan.

4. The Incredible Hulk movie: Hitting two for two, Marvel Studio's second film was also great fun...and certainly more entertaining than Ang Lee's dull-as-dishwater 2003 version. Equal parts a comic book adaptation and a nod to the 1970's TV series, this version had many more of the elements I'm looking for in a Hulk movie...namely huge amounts of noisy smashing sprinkled with a bit of angsty emoting (which the 2003 movie got exactly backwards). Where the franchise goes from here is anyone's guess, but it's great to see an old favorite brought to the screen in such style and wall-shaking volume.

5. The Reprint Tsunami: In addition to the usual trade paperback collections of recent stories, there seems to have been a virtual explosion of affordable volumes reprinting the great (and, yes, not-so-great) comic books of decades past. Whether it's the pricier hardcover color volumes or the dirt cheap black-and-white "phonebooks", comic book history has never been more accessible to old and new fans alike. Dark Horse has recently jumped into the ring with their reprints of Gold Key titles like Magnus Robot Fighter and Doctor Solar, and other defunct publishers like ACG (who published cult favorite Herbie the Fat Fury). As a steady stream of consumers and public libraries snap up these books, more people than ever have easy access to several decades worth of outstanding entertainment.

With those five highlights duly noted, let's make the inevitable 

turn to 2008's comic-related lowlights...a.k.a. "The Bad".

1. The Dark Knight movie: I said it then, and I'll say it again: I don't get it.  I simply don't get the hysterical enthusiasm for The Dark Knight which, outside of a single brilliant performance by Heath Ledger, was a dreary, incoherent mess. Most disappointing was the inert performance of Christian Bale as a blank-faced Bruce Wayne and laughably robo-armored, monster-voiced Batman. Depressing, non-sensical crap.

2. Writer Grant Morrison: Though just as prolific and high-profile as fellow DC writer Geoff Johns, Morrison's stock really took a tumble during 2008, at least from my point of view. To be sure, when Morrison is "on", his ambitious high-concept epics are a thing to behold (like his JLA, Seven Soldiers, and All-Star Superman stuff)....but man, when he's phoning it in, it's a lazy, non-linear stagger through fever-dream journals and meta-textual abstractions. Which leads me to...

3. Final Crisis: Yaawwwnnn. As the supposed be-all end-all of DC's Crisis-themed projects, the still-incomplete Final Crisis has become the poster child for poorly conceived and executed event comics.  Plagued by art delays and a dull, meandering storyline, Final Crisis is little more than Morrison's arcane meditations on word power, cosmic symbology, and...oh yeah...his refurbished version of the New Gods, Jack Kirby's campy-cosmic space opera that's never been a good fit with the DC Universe. Sure...we got the return of Barry Allen out of it, but even that's been handled in such an obtuse way, I wish it had happened somewhere else (like in The Flash or even Legion of Three Worlds). All in all, a crashing disappointment...with little hope the two remaining issues will somehow make sense of it all.

4. Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's Fantastic Four: The much-ballyhooed takeover of The Fantastic Four by golden boys Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch was probably the biggest creative belly flop of 2008. Unceremoniously kicking the critically-acclaimed team of Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier to the curb, the King of Self-Promotion and his pal "Hitchy" spectacularly missed the target with Marvel's First Family, growing more pathetic with the long delays that inevitably accompany the self-styled rock star creators. Now that his narcissism and relentless self-promotion seems more at home in Hollywood, is it fair to say that Mark Millar's time in comics has passed? Sure, he's been threatening to overhaul the Superman character for at least a decade...and is equally determined to write a trilogy of Superman movies...but as the hot air from so many of his over-hyped projects continues to dissipate...does anyone really care? 

5. $3.99 cover prices: Comic book fans are good at threatening to cut back on comics (or drop them altogether) following a cover price increase, but now that Marvel (and shortly DC) has surpassed the $3.99 barrier, I suspect many of us will finally follow through on those threats. Just as we found out what the breaking point was for a gallon of gasoline earlier this year (also about $4.00), four bucks for a lousy 22 pages of story seems to be another "clarifying moment" for comic book consumers. I know I'll be cutting back in 2009, although it'll be more out of protest than actual financial strain. We need to see more diverse, innovative formatting in comics...not another bump in cover price.