In addition to being really into comics, I’m also really into history. I like to know where things came from and how they were made. This fact about myself has resulted in my reading of quite a few comics from the Golden and Silver Ages. Nearly all were reprints, but comics of those ages none the less. Although some of the comics then may not offer us the kinds of lessons in diversity and inclusion I’m normally advocating for, they actually do give us a valuable lesson in diversity that is lacking in mainstream comics today.
The norm for decades in comics was an anthology format. Marvel Mystery, Adventure, Action, Detective, Showcase, Journey Into Mystery, Police, Crime Does Not Pay, Eerie, Creepy, My Greatest Adventure, all of these and more would offer us up multiple stories featuring different characters in each. The first issue of Marvel Comics featured the Human Torch, the Angel (not that Angel), Sub-Mariner (yes, that Sub-Mariner), Masked Raider, a short story titled “Burning Rubber” and Ka-Zar. Yes, it wasn’t the standard 20-22 pages we see in most comics, it was 64 pages. The point being that you could have a single issue with many characters and stories. One title being the feature, with the highest page count, and the other stories being back ups.
As the years went by, anthology style comics at the big two were either getting canned, or morphing into books about one hero or team. My Greatest Adventure turned into Doom Patrol, Action into another Superman comic, Detective another Batman comic, Journey Into Mystery a Thor comic, and so forth. DC in particular tried to carry on with that tradition longer, having books like Legion of Superheroes have a feature story with a large portion of the team followed by a shorter back up with only one or two members to help us all get to know them better. Eventually, these efforts more or less faded away. Occasionally, like in Action Comics, Detective Comics or Justice League they’d have some sort of back up, but it was just furthering the feature story and not really it’s own thing.
DC did try bringing back more anthologies with Adventures of Superman, Legends of the Dark Knight, Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman, but all of those only featured the character in the title. Though those weren’t a bad idea, I do think it misses a key point of the older anthologies; to help introduce new characters to a market that might otherwise not pick up a book featuring one of those characters.
Both Marvel and DC have hundreds of characters at their disposal. The market only allows a certain amount of comics hitting the shelves at once while still being able to sell X amount of them all. Maybe instead of testing out different solo titles, they could try more anthology style comics.
Wouldn’t it be great is characters like Batman got more people reading Batwing and Batwoman because they were in the same book? What if you alternated who had the feature story, so maybe Batwoman would be the feature for a few months, but that Batman story in there helped keep enough readers on the title who otherwise wouldn’t be and kept the title afloat? What if we used a format like that to expose readers who otherwise wouldn’t go out of their way to read a comic with racial or religious minority characters, or LGBTQ characters in it?
DC editors recently decided they needed to stop “batgirling” and get back to “meat and potatoes.” That kind of talk usually ends up meaning going back to a less diverse time in comics. I get worried when I see Marvel or DC seemingly spread themselves too thin in certain areas. For example, as I mentioned last week, DC now has Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy, three white bisexual women as leads in their own solo titles. That won’t last forever. Maybe when that starts to change, a Gotham City Sirens book featuring all of them would be easier to maintain.
I think if comics are going to be serious about diversity, they have to do more than just cater to the readers of the different communities. Preaching to the choir is one thing, and it is important, but it’s not everything. We need to get more people outside of those communities to be exposed to them, and understand them better. It’s an important and necessary component in making comics a more diverse place and assuring that it won’t just end up being a fad.
Besides, this feeds into nostalgia, and what comic book reader in their right mind doesn’t love that?
Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman): Let me be brave. Let me be brave. ⢠âFace the Ravenâ ⢠Episode 10, Series 9 ⢠Doctor Who
Well, that was⦠uh⦠ummâ¦
Kinda flat.
Itâs because it was all over the Internet, including an interview with Doctor Who show runner Stephen Moffat, that Jenna Coleman, a.k.a. Clara Oswald, a.k.a. The Impossible Girl, was leaving the series and that her exit would be horrible, dramatic, terrifying, and final â or words to that effect, anyway.
And it really wasnât.
I donât blame Peter Capaldi or Jenna Coleman for this; both of them turned in their usual brilliant performances. I donât even blame Stephen Moffat all that much; he has to answer to the higher-up-the food-chain suits.
Those are the ones I blame â the suits who are obviously so frightened that Doctor Who will lose its âworldwide phenomenonâ (as the New York Times called it around the time of the 50th anniversary) status and return to where it belongs â the little show that could, the ½ century-old cult that, like a Time Lord, regenerates itself every so often to become an obsession with a new generation of fans.
Seriously, guys, your obsession with keeping the media spotlight on Doctor Who since the 50th anniversary and The Day of The Doctor has become so relentless that Iâm expecting any moment to see an announcement from you that Peter Capaldi wiped his ass after taking a shit.
Even though police procedurals are all the rage on TV right now, IâÂÂve always preferred detective shows and Film Noir movies. This week, letâÂÂs take a walk down some mean streets as I tell you about an outstanding Film Noir thriller. YouâÂÂll have to listen closely, as thereâÂÂs no film at all.
Broadway Is My Beat is a crime drama from the Golden Age of Radio. Originally broadcast in the late 40âÂÂs and early 50âÂÂs, this show follows the homicide caseload of Lt. Danny Clover, a cop assigned to the âÂÂBroadway Precinctâ of New York City.
Each week Lt. Clover must solve a murder. And itâÂÂs all done Ellery Queen/âÂÂfair playâ style, so the listener can figure out whodunit as well. These stories are pretty clever. ItâÂÂs always a race for the listener to keep up with the police lieutenant and discover what really happened before itâÂÂs revealed.
The writers played fast and loose with the geographical boundaries of the precinct, so Broadway Is My Beat also becomes a travel log of a New York City thatâÂÂs long gone. Any given episode might take you to Times SquareâÂÂs Dance Halls, or to a seedy apartment building or to an ethnic neighborhood that simply no longer exists.
And as an audio drama, youâÂÂll have to use your imagination for everything. I always tend to conjure up long dark shadows for most scenes and pretend itâÂÂs filmed in black and white. Of course, if IâÂÂve recently read an Ed Brubaker comic, I tend to imagine Sean Phillipsâ art (below). But if you envision Steranko, in full Chandler-mode, you canâÂÂt go wrong either.
These adventures offer a fascinating mix of purple prose and hard-boiled dialogue. Lt. Clover typically offers over-the-top narration for the reader, often speaking directly to youâ But when the characters talk, itâÂÂs a time capsule of New York, with loads of sass and moxie.
HereâÂÂs a great example of pulpy-but-poetic opening narration. This from a 1952 episode called The Eve Hunter Murder Case, written by Morton S. Fine:
The pallor of the long day ebbs finally from Broadway,
What had been sallow and gray is a sudden scarlet.
Where drabness was, where surfaces were drained of color,
ThereâÂÂs a glitter thatâÂÂs now silvery â darted through with splinters of neon light.
And at this edge of twilight the shock gathers ⦠waits for the revelers.
The sighing wind draws them into it one by one,
From the long corridors, from hall bedrooms, from the embrace of solitude.
They drift, they run, they whirl to the dancing of the wind
And shock waits..and shock comes!
The talent on this production is top notch. The best episodes of Broadway Is My Beat were directed by one of the most talented guys in the radio industry: Elliot Lewis. He was an important producer and a visionary with some of the later shows he created. He was also a very gifted comedian, appearing as guitar player Frankie Remley in the long-running Phil Harris â Alice Faye Show.
Larry Thor played the lead with an urgent, world-weary staccato for most of the showâÂÂs run. In fact, in so many episodes you can hear his impatience and frustration from constantly wading through deathâÂÂs aftermath. Quite often, the police characters in the series will have to pause and apologize because theyâÂÂve just been too short or too rude to one another.
When the show hit its stride, Alexander Courage was in charge of the music. You probably remember him for his best-known work: the Star Trek Theme.
You can find episodes of Broadway Is My Beat at Radio Spirits, one of the premiere companies selling old time radio shows. You can also discover many episodes on the web, and Radio Archives has a great online collection.
WeâÂÂll end this weekâÂÂs column the way Lt. Danny Clover ended each episode:
Broadway is my beat, from Times Square to Columbus Circle, the gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world. ÃÂ
I know I know I havenât written to you in years and this is reaching you a dozen days after your birthday Nov. 10th. Thatâs not really that bad if you consider youâre been gone 35 years and change. Before you get all bent out of shape youâre not doing so well in the- keep in contract with your brother department either.
Even when you were alive you werenât much of a letter writer, but you have not visited me in my dreams in well over a year. In fact the last time I talked to you in a dream was the day Jean died. Iâd like to think you have been busy catching up with our 26-year-old mother. You remember the day she came home on her 26th birthday and declared loudly so the entire neighborhood heard, âSharon, Michael, this is my last birthday! From now on Iâm always 26 years old.â
She meant that too.
For the rest of her life each and every birthday card I gave her had to say âhappy 26th birthday!â She picked the right age because her 26th birthday was magical. Robert actually showed up and showed up sober! He was taking us to Palisades Amusement Park and everyone including mommy was excited. Oh, tell mommy sheâs been lax in the visiting her only grandson department also. Itâs something how we call our grandmother Lenard, âmommyâ our mother âJeanâ our great-grandmother Sophie âgrandma,â our step father Robert, Robert and each other, âHigh Yellaâ and âDark Side.â
Dark Side, my name for you was so cool even you said it was. You asked me a zillion times where I got the name from and I never told you. still the longest secret kept beating yours by about 34 years 11 months, three weeks and 23 hours. I loved that-who can keep a secret longer- game Jean invented. Ya know, I should just tell you where that name came fromâ¦but I wonât and you know why.
I have not forgotten that long ass car ride on Jeanâs birthday where everybody was so excited but nobody found the time to tell me why. You did find the time and the ideal way to torture me. Â I really thought you were serious when you whispered âTheyâve taking you to New Jersey to leave you there.â
âThatâs not true!â
âOh yes it is. What other reason would we be going to a park in New Jersey at night?â
You knew I had no concept of any other kind of âparkâ besides the park I played in and never ever would I be allowed there at night. You got me good that night because I absolutely stopped reading (more like stopped looking at the pictures) the Long Ranger Big Little Book I loved so much. I pleaded with you to convince everyone to keep me.
âWhat are you telling that boy?â Mommy snapped at you. Then I thought⦠wait a secondâ¦mommy loved me! Every morning she would make my cereal (sometimes with water when there was no money so no milk) and sheâd tell me how much she loved me at dinnertime. Some times no one would eat dinner but us, which we both found curious. That is until you figured out why it was OK if we didnât âclean our plates.â It was because Jean would finish what we left.
âSharon said you all were going to leave me, thatâs why weâre going to New Jersey and a park at night!!â
âSharon Davis!!â Jean yelled at you âWhy you go and tell that boy that?â I was feeling pretty darn good and about to get all up in your face then Jean said, âWeâre not leaving him in the park, weâre dumping him out on the highway. That way we donât have to stop. Michael, remember, tuck and roll, tuck and roll.â
For a very very, very long moment I was scared shitless. Then I started to cry like Iâd never cried beforeâ¦then everyone started laughing. Which made me cry even harder. Funny Dark Side, real freakin funny.
Ha. Really funny, ha.
I remember how you kept telling me, âWeâre here! Highyella, look!â I didnât budge I was determined not to get out of the car despite everyone saying they were sorry. Nope, I didnât need to see some park after dark I had a real good mad on and I was going to keep it and yeah, I know the story so well because you and Jean took turns telling it for years.
Then Robert opened the back door and the lights of the Ferris wheel hit meâ¦
Wasnât that a magical night?
It was the most perfect night ever. We were all together, Robert and Jean were getting along and Palisades Amusement Park was beyond anything weâd ever imagined because we had no concept (I didnât) such a place existed
It was a dream comes true but the better dream was Jean, Robert, mommy, you, and me a family just like the Brady Bunchâ¦and just like the Brady Bunch our âfamilyâ was cancelled.
I donât think as a child I ever saw Robert sober again did you? That was the year we moved from mommyâs house to the projects in Rockaway and that was the Christmas Eve when Robert, drunk out of his mind opened Jeanâs skull with the die cast metal Tonka truck he brought me for Christmas. How on earth could you witness that at 10 years old and function Sharon? You did and you saved her. You called 911 and she survived. It all came back to me sis, 30 years later.
You were already gone but every single detail came back to me. I called Jean–she confirmed I had repressed the memory. Once she confirmed it I never saw Robert again. The man I idolized I cut out of my life because of what he did 30 years prior.
He died 10 years later never knowing why.
Cold right? I Know. Terribly cold and a terrible thing to do to someone. He had changed and I didnât care. I was full of such anger I just couldnât trust myself to even speak to him. Iâm haunted by thatâ¦or is that you?
Yeah, I still got jokes. But funny as I am, Jean was by far funnier. I actually called her once to help me write a scene for a show I was on. Oh yeah, your brother is a HUGE writer, producer, artist, governor of New York and Iâm married to Susan Day. Yep, I married Laurie Partridge my boy hood crush.
What?
Guess what?
Chicken Butt!
Milestone is back and Static Shock is going to be a live action television show! Your little brother is in charge of everything! You live on as Sharon Hawkins! As does our mother as Jean Hawkins and yep Robertâs there also!
Except, wellâ¦about the writer, producer, artist thingâ¦I am all of those things and I make a good living but Iâm not huge by any means. Iâm also not governor of New York and Iâm not married to Susan Day.
Milestone is back and Static Shock is going to be a live action television show but Iâm not running the show. Iâm not even on the show.
They didnât want me and get this, I asked.
They didnât want me on the show I created the universe for they didnât want me at Milestone although no has worked harder than me to keep Milestone current and always in the thoughts of fans:
Yeah, I know thatâs a lot of stuff but its not all Iâve written or done to keep Milestone in the public eye. Yeah sis, it floored me when I was omitted. Not a word, not a call, nothing.
But your little brother is doing OK.
The Gordon Parks Academy houses The Michael Davis Auditorium, my mentor program has been recognized on such a level Iâm asked to speak all over the world. Iâve given keynote addresses at the places you would not believe! Iâll just name one, the FBI.
Yep, that FBI.
Imagine me in front of a crowd of mostly white cops without my hands being up. OH and you know I talked about that which was not to be named. You KNOW I named it. I wonât do it here as your little brother has learned not to rock the boat
Some think it takes courage to stand in front of an institution and bring to light the hypocrisy of its leader who reportedly sort out Gay Americans to discredit while he and his boyfriend vacationed on Dick Island.
What?
The FBI gig was cool but this was cooler, Rosamond Bernier called me her inspiration and did so with a full page in the Playbill of her Lincoln Center school age lectures. Before she started lecturing to kids and teens she sort me out to see how your badass brother did it. Sheâs only the most important art historian ever, no big deal.
Thatâs just some little old stuff I do to give back. Iâm also the only person in comics with distribution into the schools with The Action files from Simon & Schuster & Person Learning and the Black Church with the Guardian Line from Urban Ministries and Sharon guess what?
Thereâs more and nope no joke is coming. Well, the following clip has some jokes but its no joking matter. I curated a show at the Geppi Entertainment Museum called, Milestones: <a href=”
Americans In Comics Pop Culture & Beyond. In the 20 plus year history of the esteemed museum, Milestones has been recognized as the most successful exhibit ever mounted. The funny thing is although it appears to be an exhibit of Milestone Media its not. Nope.
Missy Geppi the museumâs President originally contacted me to put together a retrospective of graduates from my Bad Boy Studio mentor program. Bad Boys: African Americans In Comics Pop Culture & Beyond was the original name of the show. I changed the name and focus when I was to be a part Milestone 2.0 and had the idea to announce there.
We didnât and there were a few other places we were going to announce all I arranged and paid for. We didnât announce at any of those places. Somewhere and somehow âweâ became a âthemâ then a âthey.â
They announced in Jan. I became a trivia question.
Our cousinâs Regina and Desiree are trying to be slick. They donât think I notice how they conveniently hit me up on Facebook right after I say some sad shit. Thatâs their way of looking out for me.
Doris their mom our Aunt was Jeanâs maid of honor when she married Robert. Doris reached out to me a few times to try and get me to talk to Robert. Iâd tell her I would, I didnât. Robert tried to see me often all I could think of was Jean lying on the floor blood pouring from her head and just could not.
Jean had the presence of mind to tell Robert to leave before the cops came. I made up my mind telling him to leave was not to save him from jail. In my mind she wanted him gone before he realized what trouble he could be in and killed us all. I kept that thought more than any other.
He wouldnât have. I know that now. He was just a sad beaten man who made bad choice after bad choice. Jean forgave him and told me I needed to also, I couldnât. Someone, I think Doris, gave him my number and he left me this last message; âSon. Iâm dying. Please come see me.â
Nope. True to his word (for once I thought) in less than a week he was dead. Jean called to tell me and once again suggested I forgive him.
No.
Never.
Fuck Robert Lawrence.
Those were the choice words I used when writing about that day in my journal. Rereading them before writing this letter dropped me to my knees and finally after 20 years I cried for Robert Lawrence and yeah sis Iâm crying for him now.
When I think of Robert the image of the monster that almost killed our mother has been replaced with a moment from when he was the most important man in my world. Thatâs the day he remembered to buy me Spiderman number 100 and ask me why Spiderman had 6 arms.
That began the best comic book conversation Iâve ever had.
With the authority of a foreign policy expert asked to comment on developments in middle east in front of the U.N. I brought my father up to speed on Peter Parker, Spider-Man and those six arms.
Then together we read that double issue. Kinda like when you and I played together that one Christmas Eve when I let you convince me to let my GI Joe marry your Barbie.
Yuck!
Fun fact-I now collect Barbie. How did I go from hating them to a collection worthy of more than as few interviews? You. I wanted one to remind me of you and I found every time I buy one, for the briefest of seconds youâre with me.
Except youâre not. Yes, youâre in my dreams and memory but I wanted more. That more came when I wrote the Static creative bible used our life as the inspiration. I was not alone when Static was created. Far from it, Dwayne McDuffie, Jim Owlsey (a.k.a. Christopher Priest) Denys Cowan and Derek Dingle were right there.
I was certainly alone when Dwayne told me to write the Static bible aka the Static Universe. For over 20 years nobody from Milestone disputed that-in fact they co-signed.
Now I was just âone of five guys in the room.â
Funny, how it just so happens Staticâs life events and family is a carbon copy of ours right down to the names. Clearly thatâs an amazing coincidence.
Sharon, I wanted Jean to see you live on she had such a hard life she needed some joy so no matter the current spin your little brother created the Static Universe and co-created the most successful black superhero ever created by black people, and I can prove it.
Our mother, Jean, and you saved me. Man, I should have been dead so many times but you saved me.
I couldnât save you.
I couldnât save Jean.
I didnât even try to save Robert.
Iâm sorry.
I will save your legacy-the world will know where the inspiration and swagger of Static comes from. It comes from, Sharon Davis, Jean Harlow Davis, Robert Lawrence, Sharonâs little bratty brother and Reginaâs cousin.
Happy Belated Birthday Sharon
Your brother,
High Yella
P.S. OK I was late getting this to you so Iâll tell you where âDark Sideâ comes from. Jack Kirby created a villain called Darkseid I got it from there. I could have said nothing giving you the impression it was all me but that simply would not be right to do to anybody but family??
Unforgiveable.
Writerâs note: This was to run November 10th my sister Sharonâs birthday.
I had every intention that it would, even going so far as to ask Mike Gold if I could get it to him on the day it was to post, something my editor and friend for almost 28 years would prefer not. I had written and rewritten several versions of this and was sitting on the one that I was sure I was to send Mike in one hour, give or take 167.
I re-read the piece and realized I was making a rather large mistake so once again I had to re-write it. Â My mother didnât raise any fools as such I neither watch FOX nor will I announce the coming rapture to non-believers.
My mother once told me that an odd pleasure she had in growing older was that she could go back to favorite books, particularly mysteries, and enjoy them all over again because she didnât remember the ending. She knew she liked it but she could discover it anew.
Thatâs happening a bit to me these days. Iâve recently started re-reading Rex Stoutâs mysteries featuring Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin (not to be confused with the late, great comics writer and editor with the same name, although that would have been an interesting pairing as well). I read quite a few of them a few decades back but not all of them; that would be a monumental task since Stout wrote 33 novels and about 40 novellas about Wolfe and Goodwin.
Rex Stout (December 1, 1886 â October 27, 1975) was born of Quaker parents in Indiana and was raised in Kansas. He served as a yeoman on Theodore Rooseveltâs presidential yacht. In 1916, he created a school banking system that paid him royalties and made quite a bit of money. He described himself in 1942 as a “pro-Labor, pro-New Deal, pro-Roosevelt left liberal”. A man after my own heart. He was denounced as a Communist during the McCarthy Era but denied it. He told House Committee on Un-American Activities chairman Martin Dies, “I hate Communists as much as you do, Martin, but there’s one difference between us. I know what a Communist is, and you don’t.” J. Edgar Hoover was not a fan and Stout wasnât a fan of his or of the FBI and that figures prominently in Stoutâs very famous Nero Wolfe mystery. The Doorbell Rang.
The Nero Wolfe stories are an ingenious pairing of a cerebral detective (Wolfe) and hard-boiled detective (Archie). I love narrative alloys like this; my GrimJack stories are a combination of hard-boiled detective and sword-and-sorcery. Suicide Squad melds The Dirty Dozen, Â Mission: Impossible, and The Secret Society of Super-Villains.
Wolfe is fat. He is more than stout, he is obese. Heâs been described as weighing a seventh of a ton, fluctuating between 310 and 390 lbs. He lives in a beautiful brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City that he owns; Archie lives there as well, having his own room. Wolfe takes on detective work only as a source of income to indulge his passions, which includes orchids, fine food, and beer. He keeps to a very strict daily schedule and does not even allow the investigations to meddle with it. He is brilliant, fastidious, idiosyncratic, arrogant, demanding, and filled with wonderful character tics.
Archie is Wolfeâs âlegmanâ. He does the physical stuff, tracking down things and witnesses, bringing suspects to the office for Wolfe to question, acting as secretary as needed. Heâs also a wise-guy, quick with a quip and good with his fists. One of his jobs is to needle Wolfe, keep him on the job, make him relatively human, and just be a pain in Wolfeâs sizable ass. Heâs also the narrator of the stories; we know what we know through Archie and Wolfe sometimes deliberately doesnât tell him everything, often just to annoy him.
The stories also have a stable of supporting characters, each with their own well defined personality tics and traits. One of the real pleasures of the series is the interaction between Wolfe and Archie; Stout tells a good story and can plot with the best of them but itâs the interplay between the two leads that drives the series. Like any serial fiction, including comics, itâs how you play the expected tropes that keeps the series fresh. Stout does endless and inventive variations of the expected notes; it feels a little like jazz to me. Thatâs a lesson I need to keep learning; how to take what is expected and make it surprising, fresh, and entertaining.
I donât know if Iâll go through all of the Nero Wolfe cannon this time; I doubt it. Thereâs just too many other things to read. However, whatâs nice is that I know I will enjoy what Iâm reading. I did the last time even if I donât exactly remember why. Such are the blessings of aging.
Justice League Unlimited was recently collected into a single Blu-Ray disc and, while I happen to own its on DVD – as well as literally everything else Bruce Timm and his menagerie created – it still stirred up a sense of unbreakable joy and nostalgia in me.
I use the term nostalgia in spite of the show itself being broadcast during my early to mid-twenties, mind you. I use it because we all know that nostalgia indicates that sentimental longing for a better time. And while we’re living in a veritable gilded age in terms of comics-to-TV live action adaptations, the animated realm is devoid of any direct counterpart to serious pulp storytelling. Sure Teen Titans Go! is on, and a handful of Marvel properties as well. But none of them hold a candle to Justice League. The absolute best episode of Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes – now over five years old – couldn’t shine the boot of the worst episode of any of Timm’s League.
I dare you to disagree.
What made the show so amazing, amongst countless reasons, would be its scope. With an unrivaled cast that built from the solid foundation of the holy trinity of DC (Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, in that order), and then peppered in perfectly distilled amalgams of dozens upon dozens of characters, they truly communicated to the world at large what the DCU encompassed.
No other cartoon has come close to the depth of the presented roster of heroes and villains. Beyond the bench though – and trust me, we’re gonna hit on that in another column soon – the actual storylines we got to follow held sway as mature tales that balanced wide-eyed action with well-focused moral debates.
Take perhaps the Cadmus arc, wherein Superman ultimately learned the potent lesson that he may have adopted Earth as his home, but his home wouldn’t turn a blind eye to the sins of his past. This was, of course, a nuanced and layered issue. The secret projects erected in the name of self-defense came only after Supes had inadvertently become the pawn of Darkseid. While we comicsphiles might have given the Big Blue Boy Scout a pass for succumbing to the plot-of-the-week, we couldn’t have expected all people would share in our leniency.
To see episode after episode building the case for the world being all but backed into war with the heroes that swear to protect it… in the name of being proactive? Well, ain’t no episode of Pokemon that’s coming anywhere near that neighborhood. From the birth of Galatea (Power Girl, by way of cloning Supergirl), through to the tet-a-tet between Batman and Amanda Waller, Justice League Unlimited proved that cartoons could be more than a series of punches and CGI set-pieces. They could be compelling prose that live action movies and TV shows are still too afraid to touch. It helps when the networks just think cartoons are for kids, eh?
And what of the merging of Brainiac and Lex Luthor! What was first presented as a delightful nod to the villain tag teams of our pulp and paper (or perhaps the stop-motion, animatronic, special effect laden action films of Generation X), soon grew into an apologue on addiction. Beyond an excuse to let Flash say the words “Speed Force” without so much as a quip, the arc cemented Lex Luthor as somehow a more complex beast than our beloved Batman. Here was a man, self-made as the Dark Knight, given his ultimate prize; infinite knowledge and power. And when it was ripped away from him? We were given a long-running serialized epic as Lex chased what could only be described as the ultimate high. In the end, Luthor even saved humanity by offering Darkseid the Anti-Life Equation (oh, you didn’t know? Halliburton invented that). Simply brilliant.
So, yes, I long for the days where a Saturday morning cartoon could strike to tell the most complex stories in the lexicon of comic lore. While the world of today has Gotham, The Flash, Supergirl,Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter,Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Arrow, Teen Titans Go!, and Walking Dead…
my heart belongs to Bruce Timm’s Justice League. Because that, my friends, is how cartoons were meant to be made.
It’s a weekend made to binge! MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE has dropped from Amazon Prime video, and if you don’t know what all the buzz is about, we have stars Alexa Davalos and Luke Kleintank plus visionary show runner Frank Spotnitz to fill you in. Plus with a title like ADAM RUINS EVERYTHING, Adam Conover is making a lot of noise on his Tru TV series.
Next week is Thanksgiving, and so Iâm trying to remind myself that I have many reasons to be thankful. <a href=”
, of course, I am grateful for my family and my friends (human and otherwise) who make my life so entertaining.
But you didnât come here to read about how fabulous my life is. You want to read about comics. And so, I present to you, Constant Reader, those things about comics for which I am most grateful.
Image Comics. Back in the 1990s, I agreed with the founding principles of Image (creator ownership and control) but didnât really like what they published, which to me looked like a lot of scratchy drawings of women with gigantic tits and tiny little ankles. Now, however, I find myself buying a few Image titles every week. Was I wrong in my original impression? Maybe. Are they publishing a more diverse list now? Definitely. In any case, they provide me with more joy.
Boom! Studios. I confess that I originally mostly picked up the Boom! titles when Mark Waid worked there, because I strive to be loyal. He is no longer editing their books, but they publish a lot of things I like. I told you how much I like Americatown. I started Last Sons of America and that looks promising, too. They publish lots of cool stuff, including Last Sons of America, Adventure Time, Lumberjanes, and Mouse Guard. You could do worse.
Forbidden Planet. I am fortunate enough to live in a place where there are many different comic book stores near my home, and a high percentage of them are excellent. However, for more than three decades, Forbidden Planet has been the one I go to most often. A lot of that is location (they are near the subway station that goes where I need to go on Wednesdays), but I also like the vibe. When I go, Iâm greeted by name. The folks at the check-out know I want a paper bag, not plastic. They recommend books they think Iâll like. Some people have a favorite bar where everybody knows their names. I have Forbidden Planet. I hope you have a local comic shop that makes you feel just as special.
Kids. Every day, there are opportunities to turn kids on to the fun of comic books. After I get my stack on Wednesdays, I go to the hospital where I volunteer on the pediatric floor. Iâm there to teach knitting, but there are some kids who donât want to knit. If I have a Simpsons comic or another age-appropriate title with single-issue story, Iâll often give it away. Every child, even those without hair or with a port in his chest, lights up in beauty with a glorious smile at the sight of a new comic.
The revenge of the nerds. Sometimes I wonder if comics are really mainstream now, or if I simply live a life in which that can pass for truth. But, really, there is at least one television show based on a comic book on prime time just about every day. âSuperheroâ is now a movie genre, one taken (mostly) seriously by respected film critics. The New York Times Book Review publishes best-seller lists for graphic novels in hardcover, paperback and manga formats. Comics are now so respectable that parents try to make their kids read them.
Comics! Letâs not forget how great they are. Even when Iâm irked by some current controversy and what it means about our sociopolitical climate, I still love the feeling of sitting down to a fresh stack of comics, with my cat purring next to me on the armrest.
And, as always, Iâm thankful for you and your indulgent attention. Happy holidays, folks.
Wait, who are we kidding…this is Maddy and this is my review. Anya hasn’t even finished the first Percy Jackson book yet (but if you would like to talk about BuzzFeed & Scream Queens, she’s your girl).
The first book in the Magnus Chase series has Mr. Riordan taking on Norse Mythology as we follow a 16 year old homeless Boston boy on an adventure after finding out his dad is the god Frey. This is a spoiler-free review, so instead of spilling the plot details, I compare this Loki to Tom Hiddleston’s version in the MCU and I tell you about what this Thor likes to binge watch.
…and when I’m mayor I’m gonna build a big high wall all around the city to keep the bad criminals out and what’s more I’m gonna make the bad criminals pay for it. • Excerpt from Oliver Queen’s stump speech.
Well… not really. I haven’t heard Ollie’s speech yet (and perish forbid that I’d use this as an opportunity to lampoon a real office-seeker) and as far as I know, Ollie hasn’t perpetrated any campaign oratory yet, but it’s only a matter of time, right? Because he is running for public office. Wants to be mayor of the town. Hmph!
The venue where this is happening is a television show titled Arrow and this season it’s been edging closer to its comic book progenitor. The lead character is now calling himself Green Arrow just as his comics iteration has been doing since his introduction in More Fun Comics #73 (1941). These Wednesday evenings, when the show airs, he has taken to wearing a mask, just like his comics counterpart. How this affects the concept of his having a secret identity, I don’t know – didn’t a lot of citizens get looks at his maskless self in earlier seasons? Maybe not. It’s possible – dare we say “likely?” – that I missed a plot point or two.
Finally – and this may be news even to you comics folk – the comics GA also ran for mayor. If memory serves – and won’t that be the day! – the story appeared in the 70s and was almost certainly written by Elliot S! Maggin. (He likes the “S” followed by an exclaimer, and what the heck, it’s his name). Elliot was, and probably still is, a follower of politics who twice went to far as to be a Democratic candidate.
Now, we’re not in the draconian rules business here, so you won’t catch me decreeing that superheroes should never seek public office. Because I don’t absolutely know that to be true and if I did make such a pronouncement some wretch might come along and prove me wrong.
But it seems to me that superheroes and politicians occupy different, and maybe irreconcilable, domains. Politicians are, almost by definition, men and women of the people who work within the system and deal mostly with human-scaled problems. Superheroes, again by definition, are not of the people; they are differently abled and what’s superhuman about them causes them to attack problems beyond the capabilities of our uniformed public servants. Look at the early Superman stories: as his powers grew, so did his foes. It makes no dramatic sense for a chap who, at his mightiest, wrangles planets to chase jaywalkers.
So conflating superheroics and politics seems to be cognitively dissonant – two ideas occupying the same cerebral turf and bumping into each other. And that might be compromising the superhero essence more than is desirable.
Or it might not.
Maybe Elliot Maggin could clarify this for me. I wish I hadn’t misplaced his phone number.
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In addition to being really into comics, I’m also really into history. I like to know where things came from and how they were made. This fact about myself has resulted in my reading of quite a few comics from the Golden and Silver Ages. Nearly all were reprints, but comics of those ages none the less. Although some of the comics then may not offer us the kinds of lessons in diversity and inclusion I’m normally advocating for, they actually do give us a valuable lesson in diversity that is lacking in mainstream comics today.
As the years went by, anthology style comics at the big two were either getting canned, or morphing into books about one hero or team. My Greatest Adventure turned into Doom Patrol, Action into another Superman comic, Detective another Batman comic, Journey Into Mystery a Thor comic, and so forth. DC in particular tried to carry on with that tradition longer, having books like Legion of Superheroes have a feature story with a large portion of the team followed by a shorter back up with only one or two members to help us all get to know them better. Eventually, these efforts more or less faded away. Occasionally, like in Action Comics, Detective Comics or Justice League they’d have some sort of back up, but it was just furthering the feature story and not really it’s own thing.
DC did try bringing back more anthologies with Adventures of Superman, Legends of the Dark Knight, Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman, but all of those only featured the character in the title. Though those weren’t a bad idea, I do think it misses a key point of the older anthologies; to help introduce new characters to a market that might otherwise not pick up a book featuring one of those characters.
