A week or so ago it was announced that come Fall, all DC Comics' titles would start over with a new issue number one. Their characters would be revamped, younger, and all have horrible, hackneyed, piece of shit Jim Lee redesigns (I'll get to you later, Jim).
Reboots and Retcons and Renumbering are certainly not a thing of the past in Comicdom. Redesigns and tweaks to costumes aren't, either. But here's my problem with this idea of starting with a clean slate: it brings up too many questions, it almost never sticks, and it pisses off faithful readers like myself.
I know that they want to keep their comics more modern, fresh, new, exciting. But doing away with several decades of continuity is not the way to go about it, and neither is alienating long-time fans. Didn't the folks at DC learn from Marvel's "One More Day/Brand New Day" mistake? Recently, Marvel had Spider-man make a deal with the devil (no, really. And yet it's Grant Morrison who gets all this shit for having Batman lost in time) to have reality altered so his secret identity, which was made public, be a secret again.
What this meant was that thirty-odd years of Spidey being married to Mary Jane were gone. Poof. Kaput. It pissed off a lot of people, myself included. People who had been reading for years were forced to ask, "what have I been reading for? You just told me all these stories basically didn't happen or matter because you (the editors) wanted it changed, on a whim."
Now, I know that comics are all imaginary shit and that none of it really happens. But when reading a story, watching a television show, etc., isn't it a huge cock-slap in the face to have the people in charge of whatever fantasy you follow say "that stuff, there? It didn't happen. We're pretending it was all a dream or something." It's the comic book equivalent of Patrick Duffy getting out of the shower on Dallas to discover it was all a dream. It smacks of contempt for your audience and a lack of talent from your writers: You've written yourself into a hole, so you conveniently undo all the events leading up to it to get yourself out. It's absolute horseshit.
And DC Comics is doing this with an entire universe of history, apparently. So characters new and old get discarded. Actually, looking at the solicitations for the 'new' titles, there's a few glaring (and infuriating) omissions and changes:
-Dick Grayson Is Nightwing Again.
Really? Really? I was praising DC for making Dick Batman in my second post here On the Fringe. I said many positive things, like how Dick was more fun as Bats, how he deserved it, how it was a fitting progression of the character and how it was a very bold move to keep Dick as Gotham's Batman even after Bruce returned from the past. Alas, I figured it wouldn't be permanent, but why now? Why is this a good idea when Grant Morrison hasn't even finished his Batman, Inc. epic? And why in sweet fuck is he wearing Chris O'Donnell's outfit from Batman and Robin?!
-Barbara Gordon Is Batgirl Again.
Why? The Joker shooting and crippling Barbara Gordon in The Killing Joke was one of the only lasting changes ever made in comics. Her second identity as Oracle was a stroke of genius, I thought. She grew up and became a huge part of Bruce Wayne's war on crime, led the Birds of Prey, and even had a tenure on the Justice League. Why demote her? Especially when you have not only Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown as Batgirl-type characters, but Kate Kane as Batwoman? Fuuuuck!
-Superman Is the First Superhero and the Justice Society of America Is Being 'Given a Rest.'
Superman being written by Grant Morrison, okay. Superman being given a 'new' costume that looks like armor, very bad. He's invulnerable. That means "bullets bounce off him even in his birthday suit." Armor is redundant and just plain idiotic. But once you get over the 'edgy' design aesthetic, you start to wonder: where does this leave the JSA? Well, it's official now: of the fifty-two titles DC has released solicitations for, JSA is not among them in any way, shape, or form. So these characters that have been around since World War Two, that have endured massive changes all in their own right, are going to (at least temporarily) cease to exist. So characters like the Golden Age Flash and Green Lantern, who have been featured prominently only recently on Smallville and Batman: The Brave and the Bold, who are now perhaps a tad familiar with people who don't read comics, i.e. the casual fans and these mythical "new readers" DC purportedly wants to draw in, don't exist? Have you fuckers thought this through at all? Was this truly just a whim on your golden boy Geoff Johns' part?
-Jim Lee Has Redesigned Many, If Not All, of the New Costumes.
Let me break this down for you. Jim Lee was a popular artist in the 90's, who, along with many other artists at the time who worked for the big two, started their own company called Image. It had creator-owned characters conceptualized and drawn by artists; some were very successful, like Todd McFarlane's Spawn, while others, like Lee's WildC.A.T.S. had their peak in the 90's and floundered ever since (going through many retcons and reboots and revamps throughout their history). Even Spawn, probably Image's most successful title, has faded from prevalence since its inception (a terrible movie adaptation probably didn't help).
So what's my point, then? Jim Lee's artwork, while solid and consistent, is dated. VERY DATED. When he left Marvel to co-found Image, he was at the top of his game. He was on the forefront of the "Everybody should draw characters with a Manga/Anime flavor" movement that came in the late 90's and early 2000's. Back then, had he been redesigning costumes and put in a position of power at Marvel or DC, it might have been a very good fit. Oh wait! He was in a position of power at Marvel back then. Remember Heroes Reborn?
Marvel rebooted Captain America and Iron Man with Jim Lee and Rob Liefield. It didn't last very long. I can't say that I've read much of it, but the geek community's consensus at the time (more with Liefield's work than Lee's) was that they wanted the Cap and Stark they knew and loved back. And I think this is where we'll see DC going sooner than later.
When Lee left Marvel, he might have been at the top of his game, but forming a company with fellow creators, being in charge of his own sandbox and getting all the media attention that Image initially garnered probably made him complacent as shit. And that complacency has not let him grow as an artist one single bit. Disagree? Look at some of his work from the start of WildC.A.T.S. now look at the promo pic for the new Justice League. Yeah, there's some progression there, mostly in his proportion and anatomy. But that 'C.A.T.S drawing is at least fifteen years old, by my estimation. His style is certainly more refined, I suppose, but for a guy whose sole job is drawing comics and superheroes, don't you think it looks like the same old shit?
Plus, Jim Lee was the Korn of comic books. Remember when Korn came out and then Nu Metal followed? That half-whiny, half-hard stuff that everybody tried so hard to be while it was popular? It created so many imitators to Korn's style that the originators seemed just as watered-down as the imitators and Korn itself almost got lost in the shuffle. That's exactly what happened with Lee. He was popular, so everyone tried to draw more like him. That era has passed, thankfully, but I fear his imitators may be sharpening their pencils again (some of them, like Brett Booth, already have a job with the relaunch at DC. And Booth's Teen Titans designs are the worst of the bunch).
Conclusion
I won't be following DC's titles as closely as I have these past few years. I was already getting burnt out on giant crossovers (Blackest Night, Final Crisis) and the continuous poor treatment characters like Wally West received in favor of their Silver Age predecessors. But Dick being demoted to Nightwing, Tim Drake possibly having no connection to Batman, and now Power Girl and the Justice Society fading into creative limbo were the final straws for me. The day after these announcements were made, I finished the third volume of Batman and Robin, and as much as I enjoyed it, knowing Dick would no longer wear the cowl soon made me sad. They've successfully built up a lot of mythology that got me back into comics over the last few years, and to discard it completely, let alone cherry-picking what elements they want to keep and what they want to ignore, has soured me on whatever awaits. I've tried to keep an open mind and rationalize that these changes likely won't stick, but anger rules my reasoning. I'll vote with my dollar, DC. I just hope others are doing the same so we can get Geoff Johns, Dan DiDio and Jim Lee the fuck out of the big offices.
-Swift
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Forsooth and Have At Thee! This Doth Be a THOR Review!
Verily, thine producers of Marvel Comics' Gargantuan-Screened adventures set before themselves a most lofty task. By wanting all fair heroes to co-exist, yon producer-folk have been building to an ambitious visual and auditory feast for the young, old and nerd alike. (Okay, I'm tired of trying to write this way already.)
Thor was released on May 6th, and I've already seen it twice. It fucking rocks.
With the first and second Iron Man flicks (and The Incredible Hulk, to a lesser extent), Marvel Films has laid groundwork for what would have been, probably even ten years ago, an impossible feat: The Avengers. I mean, they've bandied around a Justice League movie before and even made a horrible TV version, but to get a bunch of Big-Name superheroes in one movie, let alone have them be the same versions of the characters played by the same actors in their own eponymous movies?
Madness, I say.
But in a day and age when you can sign little kids up for eight Harry Potter films and Hollywood is more out of ideas than ever, this is actually going to happen. They've already started filming. I won't geek out (yet) about Buffy/Angel/Firefly/Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog mastermind Joss Whedon helming it. But I will say Thor is the first of the four Avenger movies to make me really, really, reaaaaallly trying not to wet my geek drawers in excitement.
I'll try to stay away from the plot-summarizing. The cast, mostly unknowns (Renee Russo and Anthony Hopkins and a completely unrecognizeable Ray Stevenson turn up) take something that could easily come off as cheesy or being out of a kid's show and make it into geek Shakespeare. The production values show from the costumes to the FX, and the plot is not what I expected yet somehow predictable... but not in a way that feels like they're beating you over the head with 'plot twists' like most blockbuster films these days. It's almost like a fairy tale where a third of it happens to take place in the same universe that Robert Downey, Jr.'s Tony Stark, Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson and Samuel L. Jackson's Muthafuckin Nick Fury live in.
It's an enjoyable and satisfying ride. We're just starting to see the payoff of two Iron Man movies and Hulk; they're slowly but neatly pulling all these characters together, name-dropping and throwing in little easter eggs (some that work better than others; I won't say that a cameo halfway through the film was 'forced' as others have, but it wasn't necessary), and by the time the credits rolled, even before I sat through a terrible new Foo Fighters song for the 'secret' end scene, I couldn't wait for Captain America or The First Avenger or whatever the fuck they're calling it. All I know is that I'm more excited than I ever thought I'd be to see a guy wearing the American Flag as a costume in a movie.
Kirk's dad from the new Star Trek is Thor, and he's damn good. I would say this movie is probably gonna make this dude's career like Superman made Chris Reeves'. And Loki? Loki is where I really get excited for The Avengers. Yeah, Sam Jackson and Downey speaking Whedon is a pretty exciting prospect, but have you ever watched Buffy or Angel or read his run on the X-men comics? Joss writes great dialogue overall, but he loves him some villain monologuing and posturing. This guy as Loki is going to chew up scenery on a level not seen since Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs.
And speaking of Sir Hopkins, his restrained performance as Odin is note-perfect. Calm, fatherly and reserved at turns, but loud and bellowing when he needs to be. Natalie Portman turns in a great performance as Jane, Thor's love interest, dialing up all her girl-next-door charm to the point that you really believe she's a pretty nerd girl who's awestruck by the chivalrous Thor kissing her hand. The Warriors Three are cool, the chick playing Sif was good as well (although I must question how sensible her shoes are for fighting. Heels? Even the new Wonder Woman wears flights, guys.), and the human characters in the cast hit all the right notes.
And by "right notes" I should say, did we really need Kat Dennings as the comic relief? I get it. She's the almost-fugly I'm-so-snarky-I'm-cute broad in movies these days, and I want to like her, but at the same time I wanted Natalie Portman to stove her face in. It's a very minor complaint, but once the newness of the film wears off, I'm willing to bet that her dialogue is going to have many of us dorks rolling our eyes.
And that's about the only complaint I can come up with without ruining any details (and even those are minor). This has my hopes set very high for Cap's movie. And on a DC fan note, I really hope Green Lantern can stack up to this. I know they'll probably be very different films outside of being Comic movies, but if GL isn't up to par, DC and WB need to get their poop in a group real fuckin' quick. It was seriously that good. Even the girlfriend, who had not even a cursory knowledge of Thor or his character, enjoyed it quite a bit.
So fly thine ass like Mighty Thor wielding Mjolnir in a missile-like trajectory to thy nearest multiplex! 'Tis a fine moving picture, and leaveth this dork wanting more of the Thunder God's adventures!
Thor was released on May 6th, and I've already seen it twice. It fucking rocks.
With the first and second Iron Man flicks (and The Incredible Hulk, to a lesser extent), Marvel Films has laid groundwork for what would have been, probably even ten years ago, an impossible feat: The Avengers. I mean, they've bandied around a Justice League movie before and even made a horrible TV version, but to get a bunch of Big-Name superheroes in one movie, let alone have them be the same versions of the characters played by the same actors in their own eponymous movies?
Madness, I say.
But in a day and age when you can sign little kids up for eight Harry Potter films and Hollywood is more out of ideas than ever, this is actually going to happen. They've already started filming. I won't geek out (yet) about Buffy/Angel/Firefly/Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog mastermind Joss Whedon helming it. But I will say Thor is the first of the four Avenger movies to make me really, really, reaaaaallly trying not to wet my geek drawers in excitement.
I'll try to stay away from the plot-summarizing. The cast, mostly unknowns (Renee Russo and Anthony Hopkins and a completely unrecognizeable Ray Stevenson turn up) take something that could easily come off as cheesy or being out of a kid's show and make it into geek Shakespeare. The production values show from the costumes to the FX, and the plot is not what I expected yet somehow predictable... but not in a way that feels like they're beating you over the head with 'plot twists' like most blockbuster films these days. It's almost like a fairy tale where a third of it happens to take place in the same universe that Robert Downey, Jr.'s Tony Stark, Clark Gregg's Agent Coulson and Samuel L. Jackson's Muthafuckin Nick Fury live in.
It's an enjoyable and satisfying ride. We're just starting to see the payoff of two Iron Man movies and Hulk; they're slowly but neatly pulling all these characters together, name-dropping and throwing in little easter eggs (some that work better than others; I won't say that a cameo halfway through the film was 'forced' as others have, but it wasn't necessary), and by the time the credits rolled, even before I sat through a terrible new Foo Fighters song for the 'secret' end scene, I couldn't wait for Captain America or The First Avenger or whatever the fuck they're calling it. All I know is that I'm more excited than I ever thought I'd be to see a guy wearing the American Flag as a costume in a movie.
Kirk's dad from the new Star Trek is Thor, and he's damn good. I would say this movie is probably gonna make this dude's career like Superman made Chris Reeves'. And Loki? Loki is where I really get excited for The Avengers. Yeah, Sam Jackson and Downey speaking Whedon is a pretty exciting prospect, but have you ever watched Buffy or Angel or read his run on the X-men comics? Joss writes great dialogue overall, but he loves him some villain monologuing and posturing. This guy as Loki is going to chew up scenery on a level not seen since Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs.
And speaking of Sir Hopkins, his restrained performance as Odin is note-perfect. Calm, fatherly and reserved at turns, but loud and bellowing when he needs to be. Natalie Portman turns in a great performance as Jane, Thor's love interest, dialing up all her girl-next-door charm to the point that you really believe she's a pretty nerd girl who's awestruck by the chivalrous Thor kissing her hand. The Warriors Three are cool, the chick playing Sif was good as well (although I must question how sensible her shoes are for fighting. Heels? Even the new Wonder Woman wears flights, guys.), and the human characters in the cast hit all the right notes.
And by "right notes" I should say, did we really need Kat Dennings as the comic relief? I get it. She's the almost-fugly I'm-so-snarky-I'm-cute broad in movies these days, and I want to like her, but at the same time I wanted Natalie Portman to stove her face in. It's a very minor complaint, but once the newness of the film wears off, I'm willing to bet that her dialogue is going to have many of us dorks rolling our eyes.
And that's about the only complaint I can come up with without ruining any details (and even those are minor). This has my hopes set very high for Cap's movie. And on a DC fan note, I really hope Green Lantern can stack up to this. I know they'll probably be very different films outside of being Comic movies, but if GL isn't up to par, DC and WB need to get their poop in a group real fuckin' quick. It was seriously that good. Even the girlfriend, who had not even a cursory knowledge of Thor or his character, enjoyed it quite a bit.
So fly thine ass like Mighty Thor wielding Mjolnir in a missile-like trajectory to thy nearest multiplex! 'Tis a fine moving picture, and leaveth this dork wanting more of the Thunder God's adventures!
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Random Ramblings
Been awhile since I've had anything to talk about. I've been busy enjoying life with my girlfriend (and her trip of a 5-year-old) as well as drawin' shit. I've gone back to drawing superheroes a lot, for some reason, using mostly ball point pens.
Why pens? Why superheroes? No idea, really. To answer the pen question, I think it has something to do with how permanent pen is; I might start a drawing that has anatomy, proportion or perspective mistakes, but I have to live with it in pen and learn from my mistakes, in a way. Pen is also easier to layer and make darker without getting it all over your hand and the rest of the piece like you do with pencil.
Anyways... part of the drawing thing is that I want to do something incredibly geeky leading up to a certain Emerald Superhero's movie release, a countdown to be posted here. So there's that. The other part is that I have a weird divide in my talents: if I'm in drawing mode, I'm not in writing mode. I've tried; I had two unfinished articles from the past couple months that just didn't click. It's a bitch. But I should be checking in over the weekend with a Thor review, so look for that.
Until then, smoke 'em if ya got 'em and Enjoy the Ride.
-Swift
Why pens? Why superheroes? No idea, really. To answer the pen question, I think it has something to do with how permanent pen is; I might start a drawing that has anatomy, proportion or perspective mistakes, but I have to live with it in pen and learn from my mistakes, in a way. Pen is also easier to layer and make darker without getting it all over your hand and the rest of the piece like you do with pencil.
Anyways... part of the drawing thing is that I want to do something incredibly geeky leading up to a certain Emerald Superhero's movie release, a countdown to be posted here. So there's that. The other part is that I have a weird divide in my talents: if I'm in drawing mode, I'm not in writing mode. I've tried; I had two unfinished articles from the past couple months that just didn't click. It's a bitch. But I should be checking in over the weekend with a Thor review, so look for that.
Until then, smoke 'em if ya got 'em and Enjoy the Ride.
-Swift
Monday, April 4, 2011
RAAAAAGE!!!
Much, much, more to come in the following weeks and months from the left half of my noggin. Enjoy!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
"Purity Of The Sport?" Don't Make Me Laugh
With an NFL lockout and shenanigans regarding collective bargaining in Wisconsin and Ohio, it got me thinking about how fucked up it is that we pay people millions of dollars to play a game (and yet they still want MORE) while our public workers have to fight tooth and nail to keep what little they have.
I won't go into the injustice of it all, but I will mock sports in general for having all these issues with how much to pay their players and the frequent steroid scandals that come up while they preach on and on about upholding the purity of the game.
Purity of the sport, purity of the game, keeping thinks on an even keel-- that all went out the window a long time ago when sports teams began getting players according to the highest bidder. It's laughable that they always talk about this fair play nonsense when it comes to steroids and performance enhancement when we all know the teams that have the most are going to pay the best players the most money. How is that fair?
I find sports inane in general. I don't care to watch glorified frat boys get paid to play a fucking game, the result of which has absolutely no bearing on my life. If you're into sports, good for you. But you have to admit how silly it all is, when you boil it down: grown men, whose sole occupation is to play a fucking game.
These people get paid obscene amounts of money to entertain us, and yet they keep them from 'enhancing' their performance through steroid bans and pussify their own sports with rule changes that protect their investments (read: players). Really? The only thing that holds my interest during an NFL game is the possibility that some big cocksucker might lay out a running back and fold him up like a goddamn accordion! Fuck these people!
Let quarterbacks get drilled right after they call hike. Let 'em take a fuckin' chance and actually earn their money! Let these guys take steroids and shrivel their balls into raisins. I don't fucking care about any of these assholes who skated through their education just because they could throw a ball, and neither should you.
I'd be into sports if they focused more on the violent, physically-debilitating injuries that can result from engaging in their all-important game. If I was guaranteed that at least once a season I'd get to see some douche have his leg broken in two or three places because he couldn't get away from Mongo fast enough, I'd be a sports fan for sure. I'd tune in as much as possible and watch Sportscenter just to see the instant replay again and again.
I'll take it a step further in advocating steroid use and just about any other substances they wanna pump themselves full of: I want more enhancements allowed. I want some of that crazy prosthetic technology put to the test and ramped up to almost lethal levels: I'm talking about a pitcher throwing a 200 MPH ball with his newly-minted cybernetic arm and the giant batter with his spine and arms replaced hitting back so hard it breaks the sound barrier!
You wanna talk about protecting your investment? Let these corporate criminal pricks who own all the teams and players find a way to write off these unnecessary surgical procedures like you would new floors on your house. Sounds silly, doesn't it? But the reality is that our society right now is not far from this type of thinking. It's kind of sad to think about how the team owners already consider human beings as assets to their business.
So let these idiots enhance away, I say. Fair play in the real world is on short supply, so why not in sport? Just stop kidding yourselves, team owners. We know you're dishonest and lacking in morals; we won't think less of you for admitting it publicly, I promise. Just get back to me on my proposal, wouldja? You'd be in on the ground floor of all that Ghost In the Shell and Blade Runner science and at the same time gain a sports fan the first time somebody shatters their collarbone because they went for the low tackle on a player whose legs were replaced with titanium hyperspeed appendages.
All right, enough for now. Hope to update with some stuff (and pictures!) of the trip to Pittsburgh. Later, kids!
-Swift
I won't go into the injustice of it all, but I will mock sports in general for having all these issues with how much to pay their players and the frequent steroid scandals that come up while they preach on and on about upholding the purity of the game.
Purity of the sport, purity of the game, keeping thinks on an even keel-- that all went out the window a long time ago when sports teams began getting players according to the highest bidder. It's laughable that they always talk about this fair play nonsense when it comes to steroids and performance enhancement when we all know the teams that have the most are going to pay the best players the most money. How is that fair?
I find sports inane in general. I don't care to watch glorified frat boys get paid to play a fucking game, the result of which has absolutely no bearing on my life. If you're into sports, good for you. But you have to admit how silly it all is, when you boil it down: grown men, whose sole occupation is to play a fucking game.
These people get paid obscene amounts of money to entertain us, and yet they keep them from 'enhancing' their performance through steroid bans and pussify their own sports with rule changes that protect their investments (read: players). Really? The only thing that holds my interest during an NFL game is the possibility that some big cocksucker might lay out a running back and fold him up like a goddamn accordion! Fuck these people!
Let quarterbacks get drilled right after they call hike. Let 'em take a fuckin' chance and actually earn their money! Let these guys take steroids and shrivel their balls into raisins. I don't fucking care about any of these assholes who skated through their education just because they could throw a ball, and neither should you.
I'd be into sports if they focused more on the violent, physically-debilitating injuries that can result from engaging in their all-important game. If I was guaranteed that at least once a season I'd get to see some douche have his leg broken in two or three places because he couldn't get away from Mongo fast enough, I'd be a sports fan for sure. I'd tune in as much as possible and watch Sportscenter just to see the instant replay again and again.
I'll take it a step further in advocating steroid use and just about any other substances they wanna pump themselves full of: I want more enhancements allowed. I want some of that crazy prosthetic technology put to the test and ramped up to almost lethal levels: I'm talking about a pitcher throwing a 200 MPH ball with his newly-minted cybernetic arm and the giant batter with his spine and arms replaced hitting back so hard it breaks the sound barrier!
You wanna talk about protecting your investment? Let these corporate criminal pricks who own all the teams and players find a way to write off these unnecessary surgical procedures like you would new floors on your house. Sounds silly, doesn't it? But the reality is that our society right now is not far from this type of thinking. It's kind of sad to think about how the team owners already consider human beings as assets to their business.
So let these idiots enhance away, I say. Fair play in the real world is on short supply, so why not in sport? Just stop kidding yourselves, team owners. We know you're dishonest and lacking in morals; we won't think less of you for admitting it publicly, I promise. Just get back to me on my proposal, wouldja? You'd be in on the ground floor of all that Ghost In the Shell and Blade Runner science and at the same time gain a sports fan the first time somebody shatters their collarbone because they went for the low tackle on a player whose legs were replaced with titanium hyperspeed appendages.
All right, enough for now. Hope to update with some stuff (and pictures!) of the trip to Pittsburgh. Later, kids!
-Swift
Monday, March 7, 2011
Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #1-6 Review, or This Is Why I Don't Buy Comics Every Month Anymore
After the events of Blackest Night, they announced a third monthly Green Lantern book (on top of the eponymous title and Green Lantern Corps). To say the least, I was a little apprehensive. I was less apprehensive, however, to learn it would star the Green Lantern Corps' resident shit-kicker, Guy Gardner.
Bear with me for a short history lesson...
Guy has had a rough time in his history as a published character, not all of which I'm privy to. I'm pretty sure the first time I remember Guy being in a story was The Death of Superman arc, and that made a pretty big impression on me.
I'm jumping the gun, though. A lil' history first: Guy was originally supposed to be, well, the guy. He was incapacitated or something when the Green Lantern ring was scanning earth for Abin Sur's replacement. Or was he closer? Knowing comics, either one could be correct. Anyway, if Hal Jordan hadn't been where he was at the time the ring went looking for a being who had the power to overcome great fear, Guy would've gotten the ring. So originally, he was a rival to Hal, and after many years of being a dick about not being the guy, Gardner was made a Green Lantern and subsequently (and famously) punched out by Batman, left powerless when the Corps went tits-up, and stole Sinestro's yellow ring, which is where I came in.
Before Sinestro had his own Corps, he was just one dude with a yellow ring that worked the same as a Green Lantern ring. So Guy steals it and ends up being part of the Justice League when Doomsday rampaged through on his way to 'kill' Superman. At one point, Guy is blinded, and when asked how effective he can be in battle, says something to the effect of "Just point my ring at that thing."
Guy may be an asshole and a cocky prick to his teammates in the League, but that one act of blind determination, to me, was a defining moment. I realized he could be an interesting, kickass character despite the fact that he was more than a bit of a douche.
He went through some ups and downs, gaining alien powers after losing the yellow ring and opening a bar called Warriors (the less said about his time as "Warrior" the better. It was a product of the "extreme" nineties).
So I was happy that when they brought back Hal they returned Guy to the fold as a lantern. He was still a prick, but they made him a more serious character who kicked a lot of ass (even gaining a red ring during Blackest Night which allowed him to kill the Black Lanterns in droves). He pissed off Salaak, the Guardians' go-to lantern, built a new bar on Oa, and became like a brother to Kyle Rayner, his lantern partner. Gardner was the 'dirty job' man in the Corps, being assigned to cases that other lanterns couldn't hack. He left behind his joke character status and became a layered, believable character.
So, the series. Guy ends up on a secretive mission to explore the "Unknown Sectors" of the universe, even getting the Guardians' blessing to do so(suspicious, since the Guardians rarely listen to anyone). He gets help in the form of Kilowog and Arisia, both veteran lanterns. Over the course of the issues I picked up, it becomes clear that someone is draining all the colored lantern corps' power and that Guy made a pact with Atrocitus (the leader of the Red Lanterns) and Ganthet (former Guardian turned Green Lantern) to find out where the drain is coming from.
Guy becomes a sort of a renegade cop character as the story progresses, and his fellow lanterns don't approve. He's still having some side effects from his time as a Red Lantern, barely able to control his rage at points and coughing up napalm blood on a regular basis. He's even stopped by Bleez, one of the Red Lanterns, from having his body purged of the red influence, because he'll allegedly need that power to combat whatever threat is coming.
It turns out Sodam Yat, Daxamite Green Lantern (think Superman with a power ring. The Daxamites are 'cousins' to the Kryptonians) and former host of the Green Will entity, Ion, thought dead when he entered Daxam's sun to turn it yellow and give his people superpowers to ward off an invasion from Mongul Jr., has crashed back to his home planet and has a bit of a cult following him, praising him as Daxam's savior. He might be the source of the power drain, and he's also being mind-controlled by some dude named Zardor.
Zardor's got three eyes and a flaming sword and tends to puke up snakes that eat telepaths' eyes. Pretty cool, no? He's been kidnapping and enslaving telepaths to boost his own power and control rookie Green Lanterns into thinking our merry band are members of the Sinestro Corps.
The heroes find Zardor and get their butts handed to them long enough for Sodam to show up and leave a cliffhanger. This is my problem with monthly comics. They're paced so methodically that month to month it seems like nothing's really going on. That sounds like I didn't care for the series, but that couldn't be farther from the truth; I'm merely lamenting the fact that had I not found these at Carol and John's on the West Side while they were having a back issue sale, I'd be watching the story unfold at a snail's pace. These stories are designed for the collected editions, and here's my other problem: it left me on a cliffhanger with the promise that the seventh issue would lead into their next crossover, War of the Green Lanterns. I know they're trying to have a summer event to tie into the movie's release, but when are the lanterns gonna get a fuckin' break?
So, pacing issues aside, did I enjoy it? Hell yes. Guy has come a very long way from being a joke character to probably my favorite ringslinger at the moment. Peter Tomasi has a great grasp on writing the character, having done so well with him previously in Green Lantern Corps. He writes Kilowog and Arisia's disdain of Guy's methods with weight and seriousness (Kilowog's speech about how the Corps once stood for something and how the universe is a darker place was particularly effective), and even makes Bleez more than a one-dimensional, mono-syllabic character controlled by her rage.
The art is phenomenal. Fernando Pasarin has clean layouts and exaggerates his characters just enough, even keeping some of the more alien characters grounded in a semblance of reality not seen often enough these days in comics. Keep him penciling the series, please.
I probably won't pick up any more of the series until the collections start hitting, but I recommend it. With all things Green coming out of DC and WB's media machine in preparation for the Green Lantern movie this summer, I'm happy to see that they've yet to stretch the GL brand thin. So light 'em up, kids. Much more than Thor and Captain America, I'm looking forward to Green Lantern hitting theatres. I think it's going to take quite a few people by surprise with its scope, vast mythos and science-fictiony goodness.
-Swift
Bear with me for a short history lesson...
Guy has had a rough time in his history as a published character, not all of which I'm privy to. I'm pretty sure the first time I remember Guy being in a story was The Death of Superman arc, and that made a pretty big impression on me.
I'm jumping the gun, though. A lil' history first: Guy was originally supposed to be, well, the guy. He was incapacitated or something when the Green Lantern ring was scanning earth for Abin Sur's replacement. Or was he closer? Knowing comics, either one could be correct. Anyway, if Hal Jordan hadn't been where he was at the time the ring went looking for a being who had the power to overcome great fear, Guy would've gotten the ring. So originally, he was a rival to Hal, and after many years of being a dick about not being the guy, Gardner was made a Green Lantern and subsequently (and famously) punched out by Batman, left powerless when the Corps went tits-up, and stole Sinestro's yellow ring, which is where I came in.
Before Sinestro had his own Corps, he was just one dude with a yellow ring that worked the same as a Green Lantern ring. So Guy steals it and ends up being part of the Justice League when Doomsday rampaged through on his way to 'kill' Superman. At one point, Guy is blinded, and when asked how effective he can be in battle, says something to the effect of "Just point my ring at that thing."
Guy may be an asshole and a cocky prick to his teammates in the League, but that one act of blind determination, to me, was a defining moment. I realized he could be an interesting, kickass character despite the fact that he was more than a bit of a douche.
He went through some ups and downs, gaining alien powers after losing the yellow ring and opening a bar called Warriors (the less said about his time as "Warrior" the better. It was a product of the "extreme" nineties).
So I was happy that when they brought back Hal they returned Guy to the fold as a lantern. He was still a prick, but they made him a more serious character who kicked a lot of ass (even gaining a red ring during Blackest Night which allowed him to kill the Black Lanterns in droves). He pissed off Salaak, the Guardians' go-to lantern, built a new bar on Oa, and became like a brother to Kyle Rayner, his lantern partner. Gardner was the 'dirty job' man in the Corps, being assigned to cases that other lanterns couldn't hack. He left behind his joke character status and became a layered, believable character.
So, the series. Guy ends up on a secretive mission to explore the "Unknown Sectors" of the universe, even getting the Guardians' blessing to do so(suspicious, since the Guardians rarely listen to anyone). He gets help in the form of Kilowog and Arisia, both veteran lanterns. Over the course of the issues I picked up, it becomes clear that someone is draining all the colored lantern corps' power and that Guy made a pact with Atrocitus (the leader of the Red Lanterns) and Ganthet (former Guardian turned Green Lantern) to find out where the drain is coming from.
Guy becomes a sort of a renegade cop character as the story progresses, and his fellow lanterns don't approve. He's still having some side effects from his time as a Red Lantern, barely able to control his rage at points and coughing up napalm blood on a regular basis. He's even stopped by Bleez, one of the Red Lanterns, from having his body purged of the red influence, because he'll allegedly need that power to combat whatever threat is coming.
It turns out Sodam Yat, Daxamite Green Lantern (think Superman with a power ring. The Daxamites are 'cousins' to the Kryptonians) and former host of the Green Will entity, Ion, thought dead when he entered Daxam's sun to turn it yellow and give his people superpowers to ward off an invasion from Mongul Jr., has crashed back to his home planet and has a bit of a cult following him, praising him as Daxam's savior. He might be the source of the power drain, and he's also being mind-controlled by some dude named Zardor.
Zardor's got three eyes and a flaming sword and tends to puke up snakes that eat telepaths' eyes. Pretty cool, no? He's been kidnapping and enslaving telepaths to boost his own power and control rookie Green Lanterns into thinking our merry band are members of the Sinestro Corps.
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The heroes find Zardor and get their butts handed to them long enough for Sodam to show up and leave a cliffhanger. This is my problem with monthly comics. They're paced so methodically that month to month it seems like nothing's really going on. That sounds like I didn't care for the series, but that couldn't be farther from the truth; I'm merely lamenting the fact that had I not found these at Carol and John's on the West Side while they were having a back issue sale, I'd be watching the story unfold at a snail's pace. These stories are designed for the collected editions, and here's my other problem: it left me on a cliffhanger with the promise that the seventh issue would lead into their next crossover, War of the Green Lanterns. I know they're trying to have a summer event to tie into the movie's release, but when are the lanterns gonna get a fuckin' break?
So, pacing issues aside, did I enjoy it? Hell yes. Guy has come a very long way from being a joke character to probably my favorite ringslinger at the moment. Peter Tomasi has a great grasp on writing the character, having done so well with him previously in Green Lantern Corps. He writes Kilowog and Arisia's disdain of Guy's methods with weight and seriousness (Kilowog's speech about how the Corps once stood for something and how the universe is a darker place was particularly effective), and even makes Bleez more than a one-dimensional, mono-syllabic character controlled by her rage.
The art is phenomenal. Fernando Pasarin has clean layouts and exaggerates his characters just enough, even keeping some of the more alien characters grounded in a semblance of reality not seen often enough these days in comics. Keep him penciling the series, please.
I probably won't pick up any more of the series until the collections start hitting, but I recommend it. With all things Green coming out of DC and WB's media machine in preparation for the Green Lantern movie this summer, I'm happy to see that they've yet to stretch the GL brand thin. So light 'em up, kids. Much more than Thor and Captain America, I'm looking forward to Green Lantern hitting theatres. I think it's going to take quite a few people by surprise with its scope, vast mythos and science-fictiony goodness.
-Swift
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Anarchy In The US
So. Ohio Senate Bill 5 is on its way into becoming law. It's going to fuck over a great many people here in Ohio, and if other states follow suit, the agenda that our owners have against the middle class could conceivably succeed.
I won't get into why this is bullshit and how unfair it is. But I will say I'm having a hard time feeling bad.
Many of the unions who now stand to lose their collective bargaining rights were the ones who got him elected in the first place. Unions are political machines. They mobilize their members into voting one way or another, within their own organizations, of course, but if you belong to a union, let me ask: when was the last time a big election came along and you weren't inundated with flyers in the mail, phone calls or both? It's like that South Park episode: they don't care if you vote; they just care that you vote for who and what they want you to vote for.
So I'm having trouble not being indifferent to our plight. It almost seems as though our chickens have come home to roost. Or maybe I should say your chickens?
I don't vote. I've never believed my vote makes any sort of difference at a city, state, or federal level, and even if I thought it could, I prefer not to participate in corruption. The system is broken, and voting isn't going to fix it. Voting is contributing to the problem by electing officials who don't give a fuck about the average guy or gal. You're encouraging the bastards.
So what would be better?
I wish I knew an answer. I truly wish it wasn't like this, but think about it. Roughly half of congress are millionaires. They don't care about their constituents, which is why these pricks continue their agenda against the middle class by making all of us poorer. That's not the way it should be.
You know what gives me comfort? Entropy.
These rich fucks getting richer while they screw us over? Their chickens are comin' home, eventually. They're running the economy into the ground, and when the economy collapses, all their millions will mean nothing. And yeah, for those of us former middle class people, socioeconomic collapse will suck very bad, but I'll be holding onto that thought if I'm unfortunate enough to live through it. They'll be boned, too. See? I'm a closet optimist.
All right, enough for now. I think I need to have a geeky topic next to cleanse all our pallets of this gloom and doom and social commentary horseshit. Til next time, kids.
-Swift
I won't get into why this is bullshit and how unfair it is. But I will say I'm having a hard time feeling bad.
Many of the unions who now stand to lose their collective bargaining rights were the ones who got him elected in the first place. Unions are political machines. They mobilize their members into voting one way or another, within their own organizations, of course, but if you belong to a union, let me ask: when was the last time a big election came along and you weren't inundated with flyers in the mail, phone calls or both? It's like that South Park episode: they don't care if you vote; they just care that you vote for who and what they want you to vote for.
So I'm having trouble not being indifferent to our plight. It almost seems as though our chickens have come home to roost. Or maybe I should say your chickens?
I don't vote. I've never believed my vote makes any sort of difference at a city, state, or federal level, and even if I thought it could, I prefer not to participate in corruption. The system is broken, and voting isn't going to fix it. Voting is contributing to the problem by electing officials who don't give a fuck about the average guy or gal. You're encouraging the bastards.
So what would be better?
I wish I knew an answer. I truly wish it wasn't like this, but think about it. Roughly half of congress are millionaires. They don't care about their constituents, which is why these pricks continue their agenda against the middle class by making all of us poorer. That's not the way it should be.
You know what gives me comfort? Entropy.
These rich fucks getting richer while they screw us over? Their chickens are comin' home, eventually. They're running the economy into the ground, and when the economy collapses, all their millions will mean nothing. And yeah, for those of us former middle class people, socioeconomic collapse will suck very bad, but I'll be holding onto that thought if I'm unfortunate enough to live through it. They'll be boned, too. See? I'm a closet optimist.
All right, enough for now. I think I need to have a geeky topic next to cleanse all our pallets of this gloom and doom and social commentary horseshit. Til next time, kids.
-Swift
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