Nov
08
2008
Legion of Super-Heroes went through a period of great controversy in the early 90s, and no issue was more controversial than#31, the issue in which a long-standing fan question about Element Lad’s sexuality was answered, and another character, Shvaughn Erin, was changed in a very significant way. Dealing as it did with gender identity and sexuality, the revelations of this issue were considered shocking by many, even though, at least according to Al Gordon, not as shocking as they could have been. Some people hated the issue, even citing it as the reason they dropped the title, but for me, LSH #31 had a very beautiful message about love and life.
The story is part of the “Five Years Later…” storyline, which ran through the first 61 issues of the 1989 relaunch of Legion of Super-Heroes, and included a lot of changes that long-time fans did not like. The team had disbanded in the wake of intergalactic economic collapse, and the universe was a darker place, with war, crime and strife abundant. 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
16
2008
There was a three-week break between shipments to my local comic book store this time around, so there was a lot to look through. By the way, have you any idea how difficult it is to avoid spoilers when you get your comics later than people in the US? If there’s a comic or storyline coming up that I don’t want to know anything about, I have to stay away from so many web sites, particularly if it’s a big book. We have the same problem over here with movies. I saw The Dark Knight at its German premiere… a good five weeks after most of my friends in the US had seen it.
Anyway, as always, I spotted quite a few interesting books in the large shipment that had come in, Continue Reading »
Oct
02
2008
Here are my picks for the seven best issues or arcs of Geoff Johns’ run on The Flash. These stories are the perfect Flash stories, making best use of his speed, his heroic character, and his supporting cast. Most are from the period when Scott Kolins and Doug Hazelwood were doing the art (#170-200, with some exceptions), illustrating the fastest man alive with a flair that’s been missing in recent issues. The issues after #207 are still strong stories, but many are too strongly tied to the Identity Crisis event to recommend to a first-time reader. These are my favorite Flash stories; what are yours?
7. #220-225: “Rogue War” (art and covers by Howard Porter and Livesay) B
An action-packed story with great cliffhangers and dialog, this sees the two factions of the Flash’s Rogues Gallery clash with the city and the Flash trapped in the middle. The story references Identity Crisis without being too caught up in its events, so it won’t prove confusing to readers unfamiliar with that limited series, but it is not ideal for readers new to The Flash, as it references many earlier arcs. Geoff Johns bows out at the end of this story, so it wraps up many plot lines, and gives a lot of the characters the resolutions they deserve. The only flaw is the elements of time travel, which are slightly confusing and weaken the emotional impact of one part of the story. Continue Reading »
Sep
22
2008
Larry Marder’s Tales of the Beanworld is one of my all-time favorite comic books. Defying convention and classification, this appropriately self-titled “most peculiar comic book experience” ran for 21 issues, each one sown with clues revealing a little more of a world like no other. I was thrilled to hear that the series is coming back with the Beanworld Holiday Special this December, and I’m hoping this will be the first of many new Beanworld books.
On the surface, Tales of the Beanworld is about a tribe of creatures called Beans, who try to live in harmony with their small world, which they do not realize is a damaged, fragile place. Each Bean has a role to play in the tribe, either as a hunter-gatherer or as a thinker or artist, and their way of life is simple, but not without danger. The Beanworld is also inhabited by the Hoi-Polloi, with whom the Beans have an adversarial relationship, although both sides recognize that they need each other to survive. Furthermore, the Beanworld is part of the Big•Big•Picture, in other words, the Universe or Multiverse, and for the first time in the Beans’ memories, creatures from other worlds are encroaching on theirs.
At a deeper level, this book is whatever you bring to it: an ecological fantasy, an anthropological study of tribal structure, a creation mythology, a political commentary, or the beginnings of an epic cycle. You could even argue that it is a gentler kind of super-hero comic. Continue Reading »
