Tagged: Green Lantern

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Review: Final Crisis #1, by Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones

finalcrisis-1-7954193 Before we even get started here: SPOILER WARNING!

(So don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

DC’s tentpole summer event, Final Crisis, is finally here, and it couldn’t be more of an antithesis to Marvel’s Secret Invasion. While the latter has been a wall-to-wall action blowout, Final Crisis has kicked off with a rambling, contemplative first issue.

Of course, you know the score with Grant Morrison at the helm, and he’s predictably vague and cutesy. And the very first pages fit right into expectations, with a meeting between Anthro and Metron at the dawn of man that alludes to great depth, if not actually providing it.

From there, the book bounces maddeningly from spot to spot, never settling enough to develop a rhthym, or give a firm footing to readers.

There’s Turpin and the Question looking over Orion’s dead remains. There are the Green Lanterns talking in binary (“1011” signals a god’s death). There are heroes and villains fighting over Metron’s chair. There are the villains uniting for the umpteenth time. And…

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Science Friction, by Dennis O’Neil

The following will be about a column I didn’t write and it’s Vinnie Bartilucci’s fault. But that’s okay. I forgive him.

What Mr. Batilucci did was beat me to recommending Physics of the Impossible, by Michio Kaku. This Mr. B. did in a comment on last week’s column which, some may remember, described how awkward I felt being a published science fiction writer who was abysmally ignorant of science and how one of my earliest attempts at remedy of this ignorance was reading One…Two…Three…Infinity, by George Gamow.

My plan was to save recommending Dr. Kaku’s much more recent book – it’s on current best-seller lists, in fact – for this week.

Said recommendation would have come at the end of a blather that would have mentioned yet another elderly book, The Two Cultures, by a remarkable man who was both a scientist and novelist named C.P. Snow. According to the endlessly useful Wikipedia, “its thesis was that the breakdown of communication between the “two cultures” of modern society – the sciences and the humanities – was a major hindrance to solving the world’s problems.” I encountered Mr. Snow’s slim volume in college, probably when I should have been reading something some teacher had assigned, and it must have impressed me. (I mean, here we are, all these years later, and I still remember it.) The unwritten column would have culminated in the reiteration of something I mentioned some months ago, advice from my first comic book boss, Stan Lee. Stan said, in effect, that it’s a waste of space to “explain” comic book “science” because readers will accept what we tell them.

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Happy Birthday: Carmine Infantino

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Flash Fact: Born in 1925 in Brooklyn, New York, Carmine Infantino might have been expected to go into music—his father was a musician, though he also worked as a plumber—but turned to art instead. While still in high school Infantino started working for Harry Chesler’s comic-book packager. Next he became an art assistant at Quality Comics. His first actual drawing job came at Timely Comics in 1942, where Infantino inked "Jack Frost" in USA Comics #3. After finishing high school Infantino continued to work for several places before finally landing a staff job at DC as the regular artist on the Golden Age Flash, Black Canary, Green Lantern, and the Justice Society of America.

He is probably best known for his work creating the second Flash, Barry Allen, and his distinctive red uniform. In 1967 Infantino became an art director at DC, and was promoted to editorial director a short while later. In 1971 he became publisher, but eventually left that position to go back to drawing on a freelance basis. He retired in 2005, though he still appears at comic book conventions. Infantino has won a National Cartoonists Society award and twelve Alley Awards, including a special Alley in 1969 for being the artist who “exemplifies the spirit of innovation and inventiveness in the field of comic art.”

Comic Book Cameo: Green Lantern on ‘Bones’

In the season finale episode of Bones, "The Pain in the Heart," an upset Doctor Brennan burst into her FBI partner’s bathroom and made a startling discovery. Special Agent Seeley Booth likes to relax in a hot tub with a beer helmet and comic book. In this case, Green Lantern. Booth is played by David Boreanaz, who previously played the brooding vampire Angel in Joss Whedon’s celebrated TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and his solo spin-off series, Angel.

Macho tough guy, and ex-Marine Corps sniper, who would’ve guessed Booth is a closet geek. But there you have it:

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Of course, that wasn’t just any comic book he was reading, either. It was Green Lantern #33, a Silver Age comic of Hal Jordan fighting Doctor Light. The issue featured a Gil Kane cover and a story titled "Wizard of the Light-Wave Weapons."

Booth explained the hat by saying, "Cold beer plus hot tub equals warm beer." But no defense was offered for the comic — or for the unreported crime of exposing that old comic to steam. That’s a definite no-no.

The Squires of Science, by Dennis O’Neil

We were the Squires of Science, my friend Mike and I were. He went to public school and I was a sixth- or seventh grader at St. Louise de Marillac, but that didn’t keep us from palling around together, watching Tom Corbett, Space Cadet on his family’s television set and doing chemistry set experiments in his basement. Actually, I don’t remember doing many experiments – we squires weren’t really much into real science – but Mike, who was good with tools, made us a plaque and, well…we believed in science. Maybe not as much as I believed in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but still a lot.

I was also reading a lot of science fiction, thanks to the public library, and I guess Mike was, too.

Adolescence disintegrated the Squires of Science. I was off to a Catholic military school – and yes, you may snicker – and Mike went…I don’t know – probably to Beaumont High, which we Catholic kids thought was kind of wicked, in some ill-defined way.

About then, I began to realize, dimly, that science involved mathematics. I had never been really good at arithmetic, which caused me a lot of grief at old St. Louise, and I seemed to be getting worse as I grew older. Then I flunked freshman algebra. Had to go to summer school. It wasn’t exactly a disgrace, but it wasn’t exactly not a disgrace, either.

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Paladin

The Real Hero, by Dennis O’Neil

Deju vu all over again? Why, sure.

About 19 years ago, I was being pulled into the summer movie/blockbuster season anticipating two of the myriad entertainments soon to be playing at a theater near me. One was Tim Burton’s second Batman flick, with Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman and Danny Devito as a particularly nasty Penguin. Oh, and Michael Keaton in his final appearance as the Caped Crusader. (Back then, although he was not a barrel of laughs, he may have been just an eensy-bitsy too cheerful to qualify as a Dark Knight.) Batman was soaking up most of my professional life – I was editing the comic books – and I was writing a comics version of the screenplay, and so I had a distant, tenuous but real interest in the movie. And anyone who’s ever been involved with a Major Motion Picture knows that there is an excitement to such projects that ripples outward to touch even us at their distant edges. (Which may be why working in movies seems to be, for many, so addictive.) In sum: yeah, I was awaiting the Batman flick with more than idle curiosity.

But what I was really waiting for was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Batman was my job; Indy was my hero. I may have been associating him with an earlier hero, Mr. Paladin, who was the central character in a once-popular, 30-minute TV western called Have Gun, Will Travel. What No-First-Name Paladin and Indiana Jones had in common, besides impressive looks and charisma, and the ability to look good riding a horse, a powerful sense of right and wrong, and great prowess in combat with either fists or weapons, was this: They were smart. More – they were readers! And more – they were even intellectuals!

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The Weekly Haul: Reviews for May 1, 2008

War is the topic du jour in comics this week, with battles breaking out or warming up in darn near every issue. But instead of mindless battling, most of this week’s comics gave a deeper look into the costs and reality of violence. A reflection of our times, perhaps?

dcuzero-cv1-r5-8204369Book of the Week: DC Universe #0 — A very good issue, though not on par with Countdown to Infinite Crisis, which was a more lucid preamble to a big event. But that’s to be expected with Grant Morrison, who sets up Final Crisis with a series of vignettes that introduce the personal hell in store for many heroes.

The narration — leading to a very well done reveal that I won’t spoil — is appropriately vague and ominous, letting us know that storm clouds are brewing (though without falling into such cliché). The issue appropriately establishes the seriousness of the war on the horizon, though the elements of that war remain opaque.

While DC still has a lot to make up for after the painful Countdown, this issue goes a long way toward that end, not so much picking up from Countdown #1 as hitting "reset" on it.

The best scene is that with Batman and Joker, a meeting that starts out almost exactly like all of their interactions at Arkham, then twists in a new, foreboding direction. The layouts, which are extremely creative if not consistent, offer another highlight.

In the long run, though, this issue is only as good as the event that follows it.

Runners Up:

Elephantmen: War Toys #3 — In what could be just an excuse to draw some cool human-animal hybrids fighting with big guns, this series has offered a very solemn look at war. The Elephantmen are next-gen Hessians in a war between humans, and their animal instincts lead to atrocities.

It’s a gruesome reflection on how people wage war, that in battle humans become as ferocious and bloodthirsty as animals. A female guerilla soldier opposing the Elephantmen, Yvette, serves as the point of reason in this tragedy, her life in exchange for the animals gaining some humanity.

New Avengers #40 — The latest Skrullapalooza prequel that actually came out after Secret Invasion #1is a very worthwhile read, and manages to overcome its tardiness. In Mighty Avengers #12 and now this, Brian Michael Bendis has illuminated some of the anciliary issues to the big war between Skrulls and Earth, with this issue focusing on the Skrulls.

Giving motivation to villains is key to making a great comics event, and the plight of the Skrulls becomes very relatable, as does their turn toward religious extremism and their hatred of earth’s heroes. He loves you indeed.

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Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe: Super or Silly?

  • News
  • April 29, 2008

It’s been over a week since Midway announced that the rumored Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe game was in fact real. The reaction from both comic and gaming communities has been a collective, "Huh?"

At first it seems like an odd couple, but it isn’t without precedent. In the past, Capcom combined their 2D Marvel fighting games with their Street Fighter franchise to create X-Men vs. Street Fighter, the first of many successful Marvel vs. Capcom games. Look at it this way: people know Mortal Kombat and they also know the Justice League. So, from a sales point of view, this looks like a mainstream winner.

But from a fanboy perspective, does this work? Sure, we hear the cries of "Superman would just rip the head off of Sub-Zero," but it just might be more interesting than you think. If this Superman is reigned in to a reasonable level, he could be a boss-level character — but not invincible. Think less Silver Age or post-Infinite Crisis and more Superman: The Animated Series or John Byrne’s Man of Steel. And remember, Superman’s as vulnerable to magic as anyone else, so the Mortal Kombat warriors’ special abilities could be a hassle for Mr. Faster Than A Speeding Bullet. And when you think about it like that, Sub-Zero’s freezing power doesn’t seem so, well… powerless.


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Joe Staton Honored With Exhibit

  • News
  • April 13, 2008

joe3dicktracy-7749746Legendary comics ace Joe Staton will be honored with an art exhibit at at the Storefront Artist Project in Pittsfield, Massachusetts from August 2nd through the 31st.

Best known for his work on (please hold your applause until the end) Batman, E-Man, Femme Noir, Green Lantern, Guy Gardner, The Huntress, Jonny Quest, The Justice Society of America, Michael Mauser, Munden’s Bar, Power Girl, Rugrats, Scooby Doo, Superman, the Wild Thornberrys and about twelve thousand other creations, Joe’s most recent effort is the “new-look” Jughead four-parter that debuted in Jughead’s Double Digest #139 last week.

Joe’s online collaboration with writer Christopher Mills, Femme Noir, will be debuting as a pamphlet-form mini-series in June.

A long-time supporter of Manhattan’s Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, The Art of Joe Staton is being produced by the Storefront Artist Project in cooperation with the Museum. A series of related free workshops and programs is also part of the deal.

In association with the exhibit, Joe will also be conducting a free day-long workshop on August 3 which includes a drawing demonstration, sketch-a-thon, and discussion. For more information contact the Storefront Artist Project at 413-442-7201 or go to their website.

It’s very, very hard to imagine a guy who deserves this more than Joe Staton. Congratulations, ol’ timer!

 

 

 

The Weekly Haul: Reviews for the Week of April 10

  • News
  • April 11, 2008

A good range of comics this week in style, but there wasn’t too much substance, and a surprising dearth of Skrulls, what with Skrullapalooza going on (Thanks for that one, Brian!) Still, some interesting books, so let’s discuss.

lk-3-jp-5100892Book of the Week: Locke & Key #3 — In Hollywood, this century so far has been dominated by horror films, an endless line of creepy or violent flicks that closely imitate either The Ring or Saw. It would be easy to look at a project like Locke & Key, which is published by horror house IDW and written by Stephen King’s son, and think it’s just another creative property hopping on the horror bandwagon.

Writer Joe Hill is crafting a very distinctive story, though, and one that’s made strong by the characters. In each issue so far, Hill has mostly featured one of the three children whose father was murdered by a teenage psychopath. This issue it’s the daughter, Kinsey, and the bulk of the story is a completely convincing look at how she struggles to fit in as “the girl whose dad got killed.”

The little side moments then are used to further develop the supernatural mystery of the family’s home – Keyhouse – and to bring the villain back into the picture, as the murderous and insane Lesser makes his bloody escape from lockup. No surprise then that the series has already been optioned for a movie.

Runners Up:

Nova #12 — This series is lightyears ahead of every other outerspace series right now, and every issue can be counted on for epic battle, a thoughtful plot and some cool interstellar weirdness. This time it’s Richard finally besting the Phalanx infection, only to end up in a too-big fight with a Technarc (a giant alien robot from Warlock’s family tree).

A special credit goes to the art team of Paul Letterier and Rick Magyar, who manage to make the robot aliens believable and expressive, no easy task. Now, if only the conclusion to this story was actually in this series, not Annihilation: Conquest.

Batman: Death Mask #1 — I have something of a painful secret to admit. I don’t read manga. I just can’t get into it, no matter what I try. I really hate to admit then that it took a manga version of Batman to hook me. But aside from some introductory pages that rehash Batman’s history (I’m assuming for readers who like manga and not Batman), Yoshinori Natsume’s American comics debut is a strong one.

The questions raised of Batman’s true identity (whether he’s Bruce Wayne or Batman) are nothing new, but the deeper story of Batman’s history in Japan and the mask-wearing, face-cutting-off villain are set up quite well in this first issue. (more…)

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