30 Day Comic Book Challenge: Day 08 - Best series being published

Day 08 - Best series being published right now.

Amazing Spider-Man

After "One More Day" and "Brand New Day" and all that crap, I was the last person on the planet who wanted to promote this book. However, being a true fan, I stuck with it. Granted, I still despise the way it got here but this book is consistently what it is supposed to be: fun.

My decision was a battle over Spidey and "Captain America" because this volume has been awesome way back from #1. Just too many Cap-themed things going on these days, bad timing maybe.

Though sometimes "Amazing" seems to be steering down a darker path, there are always fun moments and issues to remind you why you picked up Spidey in the first place. The recent "Avengers Academy" story was a filler but fun with a definite "Warner Bros. cartoon ending" that you have to take in stride.

I'm very glad Peter finally has a GOOD job after all these years of proving his genius. I say he's more than earned it. The only flaw is all the Spidey-Suits! I could put up with all the silly action figures that make no sense but now he's actually MAKING these suits in the books? Oh, brother.

I really enjoy a book that is consistent (Spidey, Cap, Green Lantern) as opposed to books that are serious or funny depending who writes them that month (Fantastic Four, Batman & Robin) and Spidey has been great for a long time. However, if "Thor" and "Captain America" movies are any indication, Marvel is going to flood the market with Spidey titles next year.

- Jeff

I did it...no more monthly comics!

I just made a change to my comic book subscription that changes everything I've known for the last 17 years...I no longer collect single issues!

The changes at DC, though won't be as big as many people seem to fear, has been a catalyst for thousands across the continent to cancel DC altogether and/or monthly issues and go to trades. I've been going back and forth for a long time and I just decided to make the change once and for all.

Here is my new subscription list at Hourglass Comics in Port Moody, after much arguing with myself (literally, this took months to finalize)

- Amazing Spider-Man
- Invincible Iron Man (so long as Fraction sticks around)
- Captain America (so long as Brubaker sticks around)
- Green Lantern
- Green Lantern Corps
- Walking Dead


Not knowing just what DC is up to means I'm not going to commit to any of their titles aside from Geoff John's GL (and it's brother from another mother "GL Corps").

I was debating over getting any Avengers but the titles change, come & go so much that I don't know if it'll be worth it. Who knows how long "Academy" will stick around (at least with the same title) and the core books have been horrible since the new #1's came out (did JRJr draw the first dozen issues with his pen in his mouth or what?) with ridiculously huge storylines that are bigger than the summer crossovers and played like minor events.

I was getting Secret Avengers and really want to support it but with Steve Rogers getting back into the cap suit in a few months, who knows where that book is going and if it'll even stick around.

The first comic I ever subscribed to was "Spectacular Spider-Man" way back when Sal Buscema was drawing it (if you know what Cosmic Spider-Man means, you're as old as I am!) and now my single issue days are over. I enjoyed them all. Until the mandatory 5-issue stories became the norm and super event crossovers made following stories impossible unless you had an extra $500 kicking around every month, which I don't.

- Jeff

PS - just finding that old issue of Spidey's "Captain Universe" days made me extremely nostalgic, this was one of my first comics after subscribing!

30 Day Comic Book Challenge - Favourite Comic Couple

I'll take the literal term for 'comic couple' and go with Booster Gold and Blue Beetle!

I admit I never read "Justice League International" back in it's hey-day but I did get to know these two through modern books where they guest-starred. From starting their "Blue and Gold" delivery services (getting in Green Lantern's way) and one of my favourite comics ever, "Martian Manhunter #24". In this silly issue, J'onn's oreo addiction is pushed to it's limits when Booster and Beetle hide his stash. The ensuing rage that consumes J'onn as he chases them through the city shape-shifted as a giant "Hulk" was great fun (highlighted by them passing by Max in a very important JLI-related investors meeting).

Booster and Blue Beetle were just coming into their own and growing up right around the time "The Omac Project" started and they were really growing on me. Unfortunately, it was all a trap to make me like them so Max could shoot Blue Beetle in the head. I wasn't shocked that it was him that died (considering you could see his dead body on the cover to Infinite Crisis) but that they downright blew his brains out! Not some 'death ray', or scattering his atoms across the cosmos or some crazy "off-panel" death where they could easily bring him back someday...a bullet to the head (with brains flying everywhere) pretty much ruled that out. Booster (our time-travelling hero) did go back to the instant before Ted's death to save him but ended up blowing that big time.

Though I'm not a huge fan of Jaime as the new Blue Beetle (though I did enjoy his series before cancellation), I've happily followed Booster's series from the start. It's a great little side series (that ends up playing a huge role in the DCU).

- Jeff

Jeff's Review: Green Lantern

I love that they're making so many comic-based movies...it really really really makes me appreciate the books soo much more. For the last 6 years or so, the Green Lantern book has gone from fledgling staple to an absolute must-read for the majority of comic book readers. Love him or hate him, Geoff Johns has re-created a mythos that was already totally cool and turned it on it's ass, making it fuck itself until impregnated with the seed of creation and then exploded at birth all over our faces. That may sound harsh but that's exactly what happened. The Green Lantern Corps feels like the real deal and Hal Jordan is finally an interesting character, surrounded by even more interesting characters. This took years to accomplish and took place over a wide variety of stories through two books, "Green Lantern" and "Green Lantern Corps". Many were giant crossover 'event' books, yes, but through it all, you learned a lot about various characters and their drive to succeed as Lanterns and Hal's cartoonish villains were updated to fit the 21st century.

The Green Lantern movie I just saw had four screenwriters. Think about that when you watch the film. It took four people to write, and agree upon, a finalized script that took decades of careful storytelling and throw it out the window.

This movie is an origin story, sure. It opens with a voiceover that explains the history and role of the Guardians in about 30 seconds...I feel like the same could have been done with Hal's origin. "One day, an Earth-man was gifted one of these rings, this is his story.." and get right into the action. What we got instead was an hour and a half of cocky jet pilot Hal Jordan suddenly deciding he's not cocky at all, he's a little pansy man who's scared of responsibility. The entire film deals with his inability to overcome fear of becoming a 'space cop' and not living up to the role left behind by Abin Sur (his predecessor). In the comics, when offered the ring, Hal's first words are pretty much "Hell yes" and we're off to the races. The book origin is more about proving to his fellow Lanters that he deserves the ring and he shows it in classic Hal Jordan style. Watching a movie about a Hal Jordan that doubts himself (after proving he doesn't doubt himself at all earlier in the movie) makes this movie a little painful to watch. It contradicts itself with that plot thread.

Also, this is the story about how one person protects an entire sector of outer space. How about he is forced into a war on another planet and sees firsthand how difficult this job is really going to be? What a wasted opportunity simply having the lazy plotline of him just thinking he can't do it right.

Parallax is a recent addition to Hal's enemies, having been possessed by him for years in the books, Hal and the Corps' history has only now been laced with a history with the villain (in the movie, he is a disgruntled Guardian, not the actual entity of fear as in the books). The movie absolutely didn't need to have Hal face off against his greatest enemy in the history of the comics right off the bat, especially since I heard they had a trilogy in mind. Parallax would have been a great villain to lead up to and end on.

Other nitpicks:
- Carol Ferris' pilot handle is "Sapphire". If you read the books, you know why that's a stupid throwaway.
- Upon failing to save a life in one of his first battles, Hal is quite upset for two seconds. In the next scene, he and other character related to this person have completely moved on.
- Oa/Earth-hopping, it seems a Green Lantern can be on Oa at a moment's notice and address the Guardians directly without an appointment. In the books, they're pretty busy and don't have time for conversation.
- Hal's constructs. Creating something from your mind into a solid form can't be easy, yet Hal does it almost instantly with (how ironic) computer-imaging precision! The constructs he first creates here should be weaker and certainly less detailed.

I can see why people will be (not could be, WILL be) disappointed in this movie. It doesn't have anywhere near enough action (or cool graphics) based on the material it draws from. It also fails to successfully make me want to see more (though it tries to set me up for it, see 'spoilers' down below). Though it was GREAT to see a Green Lantern movie made and it wasn't as horrific as I'm painting it, they really screwed the pooch on this one. The editing was awkward and some of the effects were what I would call "Smallville-level" (Hal often flies away off-screen with a 'whoosh' sound....like, really?).

- *SPOILER ALERT* Hector Hammond doesn't survive the film, which is sad, considering he's a great psychological presence in the books.
- *SPOILER ALERT* Sinestro spends the film understandably upset that his friend Abin Sur has not only been killed but replaced by a human. He has a chip on his shoulder but soon comes to respect Hal's choices and see him as a fellow Lantern. With that, the film ends...but we are then treated to a post-credits easter egg! It's a shot of Sinestro stealing the Guardian's only existing yellow power ring and putting it on. His suit changes to yellow and his eyes glow with power. WTF?? Based on his actions and dialogue in the movie, this is completely out of character. By the end of the movie, Sinestro is still a good guy and then with absolutely no motivation at all, he becomes evil Sinestro? Why?! The ONLY way they can save this HUGE mistake is to start the next film with Sinestro still a Lantern and that exact post-credit footage is shown again later in the movie when he officially turns on the Guardians (so what I just saw was a preview of the next film, not actual footage laced with the movie I just saw).
- *SPOILER ALERT* Hal finish Parallax off with a giant fist punch to the face. I wish I was making that up.

- Jeff

Day 06 - Most annoying character - Damien Wayne

Day 06 - Most annoying character:

Damien Wayne

Calm down all you Damien lovers, I don't necessarily hate him as a character, what I hate is that he is officially ten years old.

It's easy to write the regular characters in comic books because it's passable to say they are perpetually in their 30's (a recent issue of Iron Man places Tony Stark at 35 years old exactly). Then you have the second generation in Nightwing and the other kid heroes of the DCU (to a lesser extent, Spider-Man, who was only 16 when he got his powers). Dick Grayson is the "20-something wonder" who passed his mantle to other Robin's, including the no-longer-Robin-for-some-reason Tim Drake. The stories in "Red Robin" have to have Tim at 18 or 19 (since he's making out with adults), meaning he's aged about three years since around 1991.

The reason I find Damien Wayne as the most annoying character is that he really dates everyone else. As Batman's son, that means Bruce nailed Talia 11 years ago so starting now, he's been Batman for 11 years already. So how do we explain the next decade or two of stories? Batman should easily be pushing 40+ by then.

Comic-to-reality time is a tricky thing that you can ignore easily as long as your characters are 16 years old and older. Here's an easy formula: If a monthly comic story takes 12 issues to tell but takes place over a few days or a week, that means that I age one year and Batman ages a week. That could easily mean that in 20 of my years, he's only aged roughly 6 months. Easy cheesy. However, Tim Drake has aged a few years and so has Dick Grayson and now they have to keep Damien Wayne as a 10 year old for at least a decade, possibly two. These aren't The Simpsons we're talking about, it's much harder to do considering Dick had debated becoming a police officer, then he went through training, then he was an officer and now he's since quit. That's at least a year gone right there which would have to carry Damien along (if he were around at the time) to age 11.

They really should have not added a 10 year old boy to the roster to justify the continuity nerds like me. I can easily work around stories with the formula above but Damien just throws a big monkey wrency into the works.

So kill him off! Call now! You did it to Jason Todd and Joker hasn't killed a major character for a long time!

- Jeff

30 Day Comic Book Challenge - Day 05 - Comic character you feel you are most like

Day 05 - Comic character you feel you are most like

The Flash

Ok, let's get the premature ejaculation jokes out of the way now. Yes, good old "One Pump Penner" is just like "The Fastest Man Alive" and is in and out "in a flash"! However, on top of that same issue, Flash is often noted to have to slow down his thinking just to be able to have a simple conversation with someone. I've always had a similar issue with concentration that is my own fault for having an interest in a too-wide variety of subjects (and maybe I have a severe mental issue I'd rather just ignore than deal with).

Mark Waid always wrote Wally West in a way where he always had somewhere else to be and was always frustrated knowing he could be there within seconds but had to deal with social conventions first (depending on the severity of the issue, of course, Superman wouldn't say "You didn't say goodbye earlier" if Wally had raced off to save a continent).

The same issue is said over at Marvel for Quicksilver but he's such a dick all the time I'd hate to compare myself to him. I would look further into it but I have other things to do and just typing this damn sentence is taking forever!

I know a number of other writers and artists with a similar problem, one little distraction or a person walking by you in the mall can trigger a story in your head and you wake up seconds later wondering how you got 20 feet further from where you were. It's not that I'm not listening to you when you talk, it's just that my brain has quickly popped over to an alternate dimension to watch something play out. If you leave me alone, I might remember to jot it down and work it into something later but odds are good I'm in the middle of 'social convention' and will forget the passing thought (no matter how world-changing it may have been) so I can finish strapping my daughter in the car so I can go pick up milk.

- Jeff

30 Day Comic Book Challenge: Day 04 - Your guilty pleasure comic or character.

The Riddler!

Yeah, you heard me, The Riddler! I've always loved brain-teasers and I've always loved puns...so do the math!

Though I was never really fond of Frank Gorshin's ridiculousness from the camp tv show and I absolutely hated Jim Carrey's version, I've always loved stories featuring this OCD clue-leaver. He was a nice change every now and again when I grew tired of Batman punching his way out of his problems. Batman would always have to slow down and think while the Riddler was off committing his crimes having created a clever diversion.

He spent years in obsurity in the late 80's and 90's, writers just didn't know what to do with him as comics turned darker. In one famous story, "Dark Knight, Dark City", he is possessed by a demon and carries out his riddles as a gauntlet for Batman to run to unknowingly carry out ritualistic activities to release the demon from imprisonment. The story had a big impact, though he spent most of the time bloodthirsty and out of character somewhat, people liked him better this way and wonder if he hasn't been possessed all along since.

Riddler also discovered Batman's secret identity a few years ago and used it against him to enable a new villain, "Hush" (Bruce's childhood friend/rival), to spend a year messing with his mind and beating the crap out of him. The year-long storyline was a bit much, Batman running through every well known villain in his books just so Jim Lee could draw them and they could make action figures out of it. At the end of it all, Batman and Riddler have a chat and Bats basically lets him off the hook, knowing he won't tell anyone his identity because it's no fun TELLING people the answer to one of the world's greatest riddles. Riddler gives a "D'oh, he's got me there" face and that was the end of it until, surprise surprise, Riddler got amnesia in a later storyline.

One of my favourite little stories was from the comic version of the animated series where The Riddler decided to go straight (for the billionth time) and was trying to help Batman solve some crimes. However, it turned out that Riddler himself was committing the crimes and leaving clues at every incident...UNKNOWINGLY! Turns out he's a pathological clue-leaver whether he's trying to or not. I guess Twitter would be his worst enemy, "Who's going to the latex store to commit a "rubbery"? Me! Hee Hee Hee!".

- Jeff

Day 03 - A comic that is underrated.

Day 03 - A comic that is underrated.

Avengers: The Initiative. But let me explain.

This is a tough one for me to answer because I'm very mainstream (I rarely go outside Marvel and DC's top books) so my reference points aren't obscure for the most part. This is a book that I thought everyone was getting, as I was loving it, that nobody I knew seemed to be reading.

"Avengers: the Initiative" was a new series that came straight out of Marvel's "Civil War" storyline. As being a superhero became a paid government job, that meant there needed to be a training facility to go along with the "Avengers Initiative" (one super-team in every U.S. state). The book focused highly on a core dozen recruits as well as putting the spotlight on B-list characters like "Taskmaster" and making them not only relevant but kind of kickass.

This book has long been cancelled (due only to storylines moving on) and a lot of people who now read "Avengers Academy" (it's direct off-shoot series) were either avid readers of "Initiative" or were the people who didn't get it and heard it was good so they jumped on board when "Academy" came along.

"Avengers: Initiative" followed the story of a traning ground for teenage heroes just learning about their powers. Their drill sergeant was "Taskmaster", an on-again-off-again villain of, yep, The Avengers. He has the ability to mimic any physical move he sees, be that playing the piano or the perfect roundhouse kick. He also has a skull for a face (even though it's just a mask, it looks cool).

This series was a great read for the mix of little personal stories of the characters dealing with their abilities and being thrown into battle too soon, while the backdrop stories of the goings-on and lead-up to the "Secret Invasion" story was the best place to follow the entire Marvel Universe. Also, Tigra slept with the Skrull Hank Pym, tee hee!

- Jeff

30 Day Comic Book Challenge Day 02 - Your favourite character

Day 02 - Your favourite character.

Predictable but my answer is "Spider-Man".

I weighed a number of runner-ups and many 10th rate characters who I really like but don't love. I realized that a lot of characters I've really liked in the past have only been good when handled by certain writers or how they reacted to certain story elements: "The Spectre" during the Ostrander/Mandrake series, "Daredevil" under Bendis or Maleev and "Yorick" from "Y the Last Man" are all great characters that held my interest but never quite sparked me the way Spidey does.

If you read yesterday's challenge, you saw that my first comic ever was Amazing Spider-Man #207, so maybe that plays a role in my almost cliche choice of Spider-Man as my favourite character. And if you've heard me rant and rave about the awful mistakes made with Peter revealing his identity, only to have that plot twist washed away after the horrid "One More Day" storyline ending with a worldwide 'memory wipe' in "Moment in Time"(just know that it happened and don't ask me for details or I might smash something).

Despite these horrible tales (Clone Saga, anyone?) Spider-Man remains the classic "everyman" in comics. Where Green Lantern might say something like "I've only got once chance at this!..." and then he succeeds, ol' Spidey will also say "I've only got one chance at this!..." and then his webline snaps and he's fucked. And his webline snapped because he didn't have time to make a stronger batch this time around or was too busy saving an orphan to remember the Vulture has razors on his wings to cut the weblin with.

Spider-Man's sense of responsibility is also something everyone can relate to, be it your job, your family or your own personal goals. His every action is dictated by his first mistake in the costume that cost his Uncle Ben his life and from there on, there is no need to justify why he leaps out the window to help whoever's screaming in the street (even if he's watching the Stanley Cup finals!). No other character seems to have that drive or guilty conscience and Spider-Man doesn't ram his ideals down Wolverine's throat as opposed to simply pushing him out of the way so he can save the day without killing the henchmen.

After the recent "Big Time" storyline, I'm actually damn happy to see Peter Parker get a well-paying job. It only makes sense with him being on par with Tony Stark, Otto Octavius and even Reed Richards when it comes to scientific intelligence! Peter is now a key researcher at Horizon Labs making over $100,000 a year (I'm assuming from his "Look at all those zeroes" comment with his first paycheck). He owns his own condo and has plenty of cash to make all kinds of new web fluids, as well as justifying all those crazy-ass Spider-Man action figures out there with him actually owning multiple Spidey-Suits! Maybe he'll even make a new Spider-Mobile.

Spider-Man will always be relatable to everyone. He's perpetually in his early 20's (as we all see ourselves, don't we?) and blames himself for all his mistakes (don't we all) and never seems to get a break....until recently....

Spider-Man is a member of The Avengers and has replaced the deceased Human Torch on the Fantastic Four (now called the "Future Foundation"). He's fighting side-by-side with heroes and saving the planet every other day so it's hard for anyone to call him a "menace" anymore. I do think he's paid his dues and having him be a down-on-his-luck loser isn't necessary anymore. With The Big Bang Theory burning up the ratings, it's pretty obvious that 'geek is chic' isn't just a trend, it's a kickass new reality and Spider-Man fits in just fine.

- Jeff

30 Day Comic Book Challenge: Day 1 - Your 1st Comic Book

Day 01 - Your first comic book.

IT'S A TIE: Amazing Spider-Man #207 & Crisis on Infinite Earths #12

The first two comic books I ever bought vary greatly on their scale of importance. Amazing Spider-Man #207 is practically a 'filler' issue where Spidey fights an angry stage magician named Mesmero while Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 was obliterating and re-writing the very fabric of the DC Universe after almost 50 years of history and literally involved every character to ever appear in a DC published comic book!

Despite their obvious differences, and also due to them, I loved each one to death.

Amazing Spider-Man #207...was just a simple story of Peter Parker screwing up his love life while trying to do the right thing. The climax of the story was a theatre filled with gasoline, hypnotized victims on the stage while Spider-Man was forced to juggle flammable juggling balls while balancing on stilts (if he dropped the balls, it would ignite the gas and kill everyone except Mesmero who was wearing an inflammable suit). Spidey's simple solution? Throw the balls UP and smash them on the ceiling, jump off the stilts and punch the bad guy in the face. Done and done. I still have this issue and will never part with it and, officially, I do count this as my 'first comic' if only in respect that I no longer have my copy of...

Crisis on Infinite Earths #12!...how do I explain this book to a non-comic reader? It was the final issue of a 12-part story that literally took the entire DC Universe line of heroes, villains, alternate timelines, mirrored Earths, reverse dimensions, dopplegangers, origins, continuity...you name it!...it took them and basically started from scratch. But not SO from scratch that it was "Day One", so to speak. Batman, Superman and all them had still been around for, say, 5 years doing their thing but the history of what "actually" happened in that time was relatively different. They kept much of the same plot details with the main characters (Krypton, the Wayne's deaths, etc) but took multiple characters who lived all those decades in alternate Earths and put everyone on the same timeline.

Make sense? No? Try being a comic book fan!

Imagine if you took the original Star Wars Trilogy (aka - "Star Wars" to most people) and completely re-did the whole thing. Let's say Luke and Leia met just as they did but it never turns out that they're related at all and there's a totally different history for Leia. Now let's say Alderaan had PLENTY of weapons and instead of simply being blown up, there was a huge space fight (where it likely got blown up afterwards anyway).
Basically, "Crisis" took the idea of "What If..." and made it "This is How it is Now..."

Anyway, this was a HUGE book at the time and it was probably the worst possible choice I could have made at the age of 12 to jump head first into the biggest story to EVER hit comic books in their entire history. But it included everyone (even multiples of many!) and the heroes were dying left right and center and the ones who weren't dying were shitting their pants they were so scared! I had never seen anything like it. The Anti-Monitor became my bogey-man, the scariest villain ever, he wiped out entire universes! The next time I saw him was in an issue of The Flash about a DECADE later, he was a surprise on the last page and I literally yelled "Holy shit! The Anti-Monitor!".

The difference between these two books really put comics into perspective for me right off the bat and I'm very glad I had them both to view as guidelines. I understood immediately if I wanted a simple story that there were plenty of options and if I wanted something universe-spanning to blow my mind that there was that, too!

- Jeff