Nov
20
2008
It’s amazing to me that a character could become so confusing to readers and creators alike that his name was considered unusable, even on a new character, but this was the case with DC Comics’ Hawkman. Introduced in 1940 in Flash Comics #1, the Golden Age version of the character (American archaeologist Carter Hall) had been a mainstay of the Justice Society of America, and the Silver Age version (alien police officer Katar Hol) had been a member of the Justic League of America. However, while DC managed to cope with having both Golden and Silver Age versions of the Flash and Green Lantern, after 1986’s Crisis on Infinite Earths, there seemed to be a problem with having two versions of Hawkman, and revisions and retcons kept being made to his origins, trying to streamline the character, but actually just making him horribly complicated.
You don’t believe me? Then try this: there was a human Hawkman, but then there was an alien one, and then the human one never existed but the alien one hadn’t arrived yet, so the one who showed up in the meantime claiming to be the original one’s son was another alien, and then they all merged to become a god. Saying that all his appearances between Crisis and the Hawkworld mini-series were actually those of an impostor was a particular gem; but the “hawk-god” thing in the absolutely dreadful Zero Hour was the nadir of character reworkings from DC.
It wasn’t until Geoff Johns’ run on JSA that Hawkman got straightened out, and in the best possible way: rather than trying to explain every appearance of the character in detail, with dates and times, Geoff Johns just brings him back and has him go into action. There is a small amount of dialog about him being a perpetual reincarnate, and having all the memories of every Hawkman ever, implying that all the previous Hawkmen were previous incarnations of the current one, and then they just get on with the story. This is the most essential thing for any retcon or revamp: if the story gets bogged down in explaining what actually happened on this or that page of this or that issue, instead of telling a new story that delivers a viable character, then the retcon has failed because it doesn’t engage. This is why none of the previous Hawkman retcons worked - they were too concerned with the details, not the story.
Nov
17
2008
A retcon is a change to the continuity of a story that goes into effect retroactively - not only does the change in the status quo affect the story from then on, but it also establishes that things have always been this way, and any older stories that contradict this reality should be ignored or adapted to fit. It is a practice that DC and Marvel engage in regularly, much to the irritation of plot- and continuity-obsessed readers. However, it is not only the Big Two who change established continuity: it can happen in long-running independent entirely creator-owned series like Terry Moore’s Strangers in Paradise.
If you are unfamiliar with the series, which ended in 2007, at its heart, it is the story of a group of people and how true love, truth and lies, and lust and obsession affect their lives. Initially, the focus is on the love between three characters: Francine, Katchoo, and David. However, as the series progressed and more characters gained voices and importance, the story developed to accommodate them. It is a good comic with many powerful and emotional moments, and with some excellent fully realized characters, and there are parts where the story, art and dialog shine. It has its weaknesses: the mafia-style Big Six organization’s story requires a lot of suspension of disbelief and distracts from the starker and more interesting reality of the main story; and the series arguably goes on for too long, leaving it sagging in the middle. That said, I still highly recommend it, especially the first few volumes, and especially to first-time comic readers.
However, despite being the vision of one writer, there is one glaring inconsistency that makes it difficult to read through the whole series and completely get lost in the world he created.
(The rest of this post contains plot spoilers for Strangers in Paradise.) Continue Reading »
Nov
06
2008
Animal Man, aka Buddy Baker, may be one of DC’s most underused characters. He had his own brilliant series, launched in 1988 and running through to the mid-90s, but since then, he’s only been a rare guest star: he had a supposedly major role that amounted to very little in 52 and a big part in Countdown to Adventure, and basically a cameo in a recent issue of Justice League of America. It really is a shame, as he is probably one of their best characters, and he and his supporting cast deserve better, as in a-book-of-their-own better.
Here are my six reasons why Animal Man is a great character, and probably one of DC’s best.
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Oct
14
2008
As I mentioned on Sunday, I finally found Birds of Prey issue 42, one of he few issues of the series I was missing and actively hunting for. A prequel to the series, it is set after Barbara Gordon’s time with the Suicide Squad, but before the first time she contacted Black Canary, and it deals with events that have been referenced but never explained in other issues of the series. The readers know that Power Girl had gone on a mission, and things had ended so badly that she had sworn never to do any more work for Oracle. Even much later, in issue 100, when Power Girl receives an invitation to join the expanded roster of Oracle’s team, she simply says “When Hell freezes over,” and dumps the invitation. I was always curious as to the details of this mission gone wrong, imagining all sorts of scenarios, and now I´ve finally had a chance to read the story.
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Oct
03
2008
Some characters are created to die. Their creators never intend them to live on past a certain point in the story: once they serve their dramatic purpose, they exit the stage, generally never to return. In the first two posts in this series, I dealt with characters dying to provide motivation to the hero, but there are of course other reasons for characters to die soon after being introduced, other roles for those who are about to die to play.
The rest of this post contains spoilers for the Phalanx Covenant: Generation Next storyline running through Uncanny X-Men #316 and 317, and X-Men #36 and 37.
Continue Reading »
Sep
27
2008
The deaths of Spider-man’s Uncle Ben and Batman’s parents are crucial to the characters’ origins. In Spider-man’s case, losing Uncle Ben because of his own mistake teaches him the lesson of responsibility that will shape the rest of his heroic career: he already had the power and the costume, but did not have direction. In Batman’s case, losing his parents is a tragedy that convinces him that his city needs a protector; the costume and training come later than the direction. These are two classic super-hero origins that involve death as a motivation, and it was only to be expected that other writers would reuse the classic concept.
However, it is difficult to match the emotional impact of the Spider-man origin and the inherent tragedy of Bruce Wayne losing both parents so young, especially when writers ignore the essence of these plot ideas. The deaths illustrate something the hero doesn’t know. Furthermore, when mishandled, deaths during character origins can weaken the whole story, making it seem like a cheap shock for shock’s sake.
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Sep
24
2008
After 20 excellent issues, series creator Peter B. Gillis left Strikeforce: Morituri, to be replaced by James D. Hudnall, who would see the story of the Morituri to its conclusion. Brent Anderson also departed, and after a couple of fill-in artists (Huw Thomas and John Calimee), Mark Bagley, now best known for his long run on Ultimate Spider-Man, took over as the regular artist. With the new creative team came a change in the status quo and the style, and by its cancellation in mid-1989, it had become a very different book.
The rest of this review contains some spoilers.
Continue Reading »
Sep
19
2008
Avenging the loss of a loved one to crime is a common initial motivation for heroes in comic books. Batman was motivated by the death of his parents, who were gunned down in front of him by a mugger. The hero vowed to clean up the streets of Gotham so no other child ever had to lose his parents to crime in this way. Spider-man was motivated by the death of his Uncle Ben, who had raised him. Ben was killed by a robber who Spider-man had let escape earlier that evening. When he realized what had happened because of his inaction, he vowed to never shirk his responsibilities again. Continue Reading »
Sep
18
2008
I don’t like meaningless deaths in mainstream super-hero comic books. When characters die as cannon fodder or for shock value, or because the writer never liked them, it pulls me out of the story, weakening rather than strengthening the impact. I’m not suggesting that super-hero books should avoid death: there have been some superb stories over the years that involve heroes valliantly sacrificing themselves or villains receiving bitter punishment for their monstrous crimes, and there have been moments of great pathos in the deaths of supporting characters. I believe the death of a character should be integral to the storyline, an emotional moment that gives the reader pause, not a cheap shot to show that the writer is serious.
It particularly irritates me when the character is a minor one that was had received a lot of development at the hands of one writer, only to be unceremoniously bumped off by another. If the writer really felt the need to kill off a character, why not create their own one-off character to die? Why take someone else’s work and end it?
I realize of course that there is always the chance of resurrection if the character is popular enough, but that’s beside the point: the moment of death should still be something significant for the story to ring true. Perhaps one of the reasons why so many otherwise good writers resort to cheap deaths is because death in comics has been cheapened by the frequent resurrections.
I’ve been feeling like character death has become more frequent over the past few years, so I thought I’d take the time to go back and see if that’s true or not. Were shock killings and cheap death scenes always part of comic books, or is it a more recent phenomenon? Are the current writers and editors really more bloodthirsty, and the current readers more blasé about characters being unceremoniously killed off? Am I over-reacting? Over the next few Thursdays, I aim to find out. Also, I’ll be looking at characters that were created to die in the next few Friday posts. I’d like to hear from you about your opinions on character death, resurrection and shock tactics too.
Sep
17
2008
It must be seeing all the Secret Invasion books on the shelves that has me going through my back issue collection reading all the super-heroes-fight-alien-invaders comics, like DC’s Invasion! and Marvel’s Kree-Shiar War. Happily, that gave me an excuse to re-read Peter B. Gillis and Brent Anderson’s Strikeforce: Morituri, an excellent super-hero comic and a good science-fiction story.
Strikeforce: Morituri is more than just a super-hero book, more than just an alien invasion book. It is an analysis of what it means to be a hero and a patriot, and a story about what drives people to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. A number of things make it a book worth hunting down: Brent Anderson and Scott Williams’ excellent and expressive artwork, the rich cast of characters, the originality of the concept, and the intelligence of the writing. Continue Reading »
