Bought/Thought for August 31, 2011 - So Long, Post-Crisis DC Universe Edition

[TheCorpulent1]

Kind of funny that I made the B/T and gave it its title, yet I didn't buy or read anything from DC this week.

I did buy Secret Avengers because, frankly, my week was so small that I kind of just wanted to pad it out a bit. I wasn't expecting much because Warren Ellis is historically awful with established characters in my experience, but this issue was surprisingly good. Like, better than good. Kind of awesome, even. I flipped through the issue and it seemed to confirm all my fears about Ellis f***ing the characters up, with Cap shooting what seemed to be a normal gun and then encouraging Hank to kill everyone in the underground city. But when I actually sat down and read it cover-to-cover, I found that all of that was couched in sensible contexts that made sense for all parties involved. The guns fire tranquilizer-tipped flechettes and Steve was consoling Hank for having to deal with what must seem eerily similar to some situations Steve must've encountered early in his WWII days. It's less a commander telling a soldier to brush it off as an experienced vet consoling his rookie brother-in-arms over a hard but necessary decision. The issue was even pretty funny, with Beast and Moon Knight's banter and the Black Widow's weird fetish for giant American cars. So help me, I think I may actually stick with Ellis' run. This is a weird feeling.

The Mighty Thor featured more angry grunting from Thor, but I forgive it because it also had ODIN F***ING HEADBUTTING THE S*** OUT OF GALACTUS! Some other stuff happened too, but it doesn't really matter. ODIN. HEADBUTTED. THE S***. OUT OF GALACTUS. If it weren't for so many other aspects of Fraction's Thor and Asgardians in general sucking so much, I would declare this series automatically awesome for that one scene alone.

So, with that scene in mind, Journey into Mystery obviously had less flash than The Mighty Thor, but it more than made up for that in substance. This was a Point One issue, so it was meant to introduce readers to Li'l Loki and his whole deal as the new star of this series. Given that, I am indescribably glad that they got Robert Rodi to write it. I love Kieron Gillen's work, don't get me wrong; but there's just something immensely satisfying and symmetrical knowing that the writer who pretty much defined the deliciously conflicted modern take on Loki in his Loki mini-series with Esad Ribic is now defining Li'l Loki for new readers here. He does so by showing Loki summoning a prophetic eldritch spirit who's apparently so dangerous that even Ikol, the crow who embodies the remnants of the previous Loki, is too scared to stick around and watch it go down. Loki summons the spirit to learn what the other major Asgardians think about him. He gets the usual grousing and disgust and fear, but the real lesson he learns from all of it is that all of those negative emotions now spill over onto Thor a bit, even from the likes of Sif and Odin, because Thor brought Loki back. Putting aside how incredibly stupid a plot point that was in Fraction's hands, it kind of plays well here because it sees Thor, the former golden boy, entering new territory in his relationship with various friends and family. Even more intriguing is Li'l Loki's refusal when the spirit offers to tell him what Thor thinks of him. Rodi is excellent--even, I'd venture to say, better than anyone else--at portraying the wildly complex and endlessly fascinating dynamic between Thor and Loki, and he stays true to form here, with Loki vowing that while he does want to understand Thor, he feels he must get there on his own terms. Then the spirit attacks Loki and attempts to eat his future as payment for his services, but Thor shows up and saves Loki, leading to another great Thor/Loki scene that's all the more interesting because of what Loki just revealed about his relationship with Thor to the spirit. Just great stuff all around. Even Pasqual Ferry's wacky takes on various Asgardians doesn't look quite so lame here; it's somehow elevated by association with Rodi's excellent script. Gillen's set the bar pretty high for this series in his issues but Rodi manages to keep up with his standard. Great issue that anyone who's been on the fence about this series should absolutely check out.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Like, seriously, in TMT, this f***ing happens:

Spoiler

 

[sandwraith]

OK...That is pretty badass.

Is it just me or has Galactus been jobbing quite a lot recently?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

More like the Asgardians are being restored to how they used to be, in this case. Odin could hang with Galactus back in the day. It wasn't until the '70s and '80s or so that the Asgardians got bumped way down the ladder in terms of relative power levels.

 

[El Bastardo]

That's ****ing beautiful. And look, I can barely muster any surprise that you hate Warren Ellis.

 

[runawayboulder]

The start to Mighty Thor reminds me of another book that had a few awesome moments in it (A SHIELD carrier getting destroyed, Watcher getting knocked out, ect) then it was all downhill from there.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Well, to be fair, it started somewhere around the middle of the hill to begin with. For every great moment, there are two or three little things that erode the comic's awesomeness. I'm really dreading this Tanarus dude's entrance because, however bad Fraction's Thor got, I could justify it in my head because he was still Thor, at least. Soon TMT won't even have that going for it.

That's ****ing beautiful. And look, I can barely muster any surprise that you hate Warren Ellis.

Only on established characters. I enjoy a bunch of his indie and creator-owned stuff.

 

[runawayboulder]

So, officially is Tanarus kicking Thor out of his own book? Seems like a waste of a launch then....

 

[Keyser Soze]

JUSTICE LEAGUE #1

Justice League #1 is a comic with a lot to carry on its shoulders. Most obviously, and what we’ve heard a lot about, is that this is the book that marks the dawn of a new era for DC Comics. This week, only two DC comics shipped: Flashpoint #5, the end of old DC, and Justice League #1, the beginning of new DC. With all of DC’s outreach to new and lapsed readers over the past few months of marketing, this is the comic DC are hoping to use to sell their universe. This is the first shot, the opening salvo, and this prestiguous position has resulted in making the comic one of the biggest successes of 2011 even before its release, with retailers ordering north of 200,000 copies of the book.

With this aspect of the anticipation of the new Justice League so grand in scope, it’s easy to forget the other, longer-brewing goal this must strive to meet. It has been many years since Justice League of America has been a comic that has enjoyed particularly noteworthy critical or commercial success, or been anywhere near the centre of the DCU. I remember Dwayne McDuffie being vocal in his complaints about the comic freewheeling from event tie-in to event tie-in with no chance to build any momentum or identity of its own, and how long has it been since his run on the title? It’s only got worse since then, with a hodgepodge roster of B-and-C-listers and legacy characters filling out the cast of a comic that has been shunted to the fringes of the DCU. Meanwhile, over at Marvel, The Avengers has long been a central lynchpin brand that has proven capable of generating impressive sales and sustaining multiple titles each month, and is going to be the basis of what is set to be one of the biggest films of 2012 and one of the biggest superhero movies ever. Their DC counterparts have sorely needed to play catch-up.

It seems like for years, the rumor has floated around that Geoff Johns and Jim Lee would be teaming up to put together a proper A-list roster with DC’s most iconic heavy hitters, and make the JLA a crown jewel in the DC lineup once more. And it made sense: DC’s biggest team should be written by its biggest writer and drawn by its biggest artist. Now, we’re finally getting that long-desired Johns/Lee JLA project, but it’s called Justice League, and it is the bedrock of a relaunched DCU. Can Justice League #1 possibly live up to all that crushing expectation?

Before I get to tackling that big question, I’ll start by saying this comic looks great. It’s been a long time since we saw a new comic from Jim Lee, but amidst all the complaints of his tardiness its easy to forget how nice his pages are when we do get them. Visually, DC’s co-publisher is the perfect choice to brand the new DCU in its first foot forward: presenting a world that’s clean, slick and stylish. But deserving just as much credit as Jim Lee is colorist Alex Sinclair. It’s the bright, crisp colors that really make each page pop. This is a world that is fearful and suspicious of its new protectors, and that is reflected in the color scheme, as the darker palette is almost invaded by bright, dazzling bursts of light whenever the superhumans are around: be it the glowing green of Green Lantern’s constructs, the blinding red of the Parademons’ feiry projections, or the red and blue blur that marks Superman’s entrance. Batman, meanwhile, seems to always find some shadow to sink into, a moody contrast to the dazzling palette of the rest of the book: a triumph for inker Scott Williams.

In terms of the writing, I had some problems. I cast my mind back to Grant Morrison’s first issue on Justice League of America. This too was a new #1, and this was also an attempt to bring DC’s biggest heroes back together after a period of lesser known heroes filling the roster. But with Morrison’s debut, we were instantly launched into a story epic and ambitious in scope, and concisely (re)introduced to every member of the roster (save for Aquaman, who would show up later) in a manner that efficiently established their respective powers and personalities. Coming into this new Justice League #1, this was one of the benchmarks I was set to compare the issue to. The other was some of Geoff Johns’ own famous “chapter ones”. The Sinestro Corps War Special. Infinite Crisis #1. Blackest Night #1. If there’s one thing Johns can do really well, it is start an event in a way that really lays out the stakes and scope of the story ahead, while also providing a tether of human drama with fine ensemble work. And, in my opinion, this is what Justice League needed to be presented as: an event.

We don’t really get that here. I don’t see this as a major spoiler, as I won’t go into specifics, but all that happens in the issue is that Batman and Green Lantern fight a Parademon, talk for a bit, then meet Superman. This amount of story would probably fill about 2 pages of an average issue of The Sixth Gun. I may be misremembering some of the marketing, but didn’t Dan Didio and co. make a big deal out of putting an end to decompression and writing for the trade, and instead providing comics that were full, satisfying experiences on an issue-by-issue basis? This is a classic case of decompressed storytelling, and new readers might be disappointed to pick up Justice League #1 only to discover that half the characters on that snazzy cover don’t even appear in this issue. As a typical comic, or even a regular launch of a new volume, the story is fine. But as the dawn of a new era, it fell short of my expectations.

Setting aside my expectations, however, I can appreciate that the thinking behind Johns’ plotting of this issue is actually pretty sound in its own right. Johns has said in recent interviews that a major priority for him in writing Justice League was to showcase the distinct personalities of each member, making their group dynamic and interactions a crucial part of the title rather than it simply being plot-driven. Bearing this in mind, perhaps it makes sense to play it slow and steady with how the characters are introduced over the course of this opening arc. And it’s also clever when you consider the order of chaacters introduced, as far as appealing to new readers: Batman and Green Lantern are the two characters who have currently ongoing film franchises (one admittedly enjoying more critical acclaim than the other), while Superman has a new movie due in a couple of years. So, start with the characters fans who have never picked up a DC comic might be most familiar with, and build from there.

With most of the issue devoted to just Batman and Green Lantern, we get plenty of time to get reacquainted with each of them. Johns gives us a wonderfully badass Batman, brooding and intimidating, but also with a droll, deadpan sense of humor. So many writers depict Batman as deadly serious, so it’s all the better in the depictions when you get flashes of sarcastic wit behind the straight face. Green Lantern, meanwhile, has his cocky demeanour heightened and brought to the fore, with his occasional habit of referring to himself in the third person garnering some chuckles. He’s going to be the hothead of the group, and while some people are complaining about Green Lantern being depicted as too arrogant and stupid, these are largely the same people who were complaining about Green Lantern being dull, stoic and faultless a couple of months ago, and I don’t see a problem with it. Also, it was a nice touch how some of the mythology of the Green Lantern Corps was worked into the dialogue, rather than taking it for granted people would know who Green Lantern is.

Superman has less panel time, but there’s some skillful work done at establishing him through how other characters perceive him before he first appears. It adds a layer of mystery and unpredictability to that most safe and familiar of characters. And though he’s not Cyborg yet, we do get an intriguing subplot involving Vic Stone. There’s been some complaints about Cyborg’s place in the Justice League being mainly just to tick the diversity box, that he isn’t a compelling enough character to justify the placement. Well, it would seem that this opening arc is going to play against the backdrop of something Johns has long been very skilled at: getting to the core of characters and really making us care about them.

So, under the weight of all that expectation, Justice League #1 might not quite match up. But if you cast aside that expectation, and take it just as a Justice League comic, Geoff Johns and Jim Lee give us a first issue that offers much to like. I think that a lot of people who picked this up will be back for issue #2.

 

[runawayboulder]

I peeked at it to see Jim's stuff after a long time and it looked stunning of course. Without reading it I noticed that Bats and GL were the only 2 there until Supes showed up at the end. What's the point of not having the entire roster appear in the 1st issue? It's not like they have to interact with each other but they all should be there. It was like thumbing through an Image book in the 90's. Not a good move off the bat if you ask me.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

So, officially is Tanarus kicking Thor out of his own book? Seems like a waste of a launch then....

Thor gets kitted out in space-age armor to fight the Serpent in Fear Itself, and they've mentioned the myth/prophecy about Thor defeating the Serpent, then taking nine steps before dying himself repeatedly. They've even got this promo pic floating around:

Note the number of footprints in the snow there.

 

[runawayboulder]

That's so weak. I swear Marvel hates Thor. They got bored from kicking around Spidey and moved onto Thor.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

They were good to him for a couple years. Big-name creators, lots of minis and promotion, the movie, he got to kick a lot of ass in fights. But everyone knows an event ain't an event unless someone important dies. And unfortunately, Thor's not smart enough to hedge his bets and ensure his immediate resurrection like his li'l bro.

I just hope he's back in under 2 years. I really don't want another 3-year gap where Thor's dead.

 

[kguillou]

Kind of funny that I made the B/T and gave it its title, yet I didn't buy or read anything from DC this week.

I did buy Secret Avengers because, frankly, my week was so small that I kind of just wanted to pad it out a bit. I wasn't expecting much because Warren Ellis is historically awful with established characters in my experience, but this issue was surprisingly good. Like, better than good. Kind of awesome, even. I flipped through the issue and it seemed to confirm all my fears about Ellis f***ing the characters up, with Cap shooting what seemed to be a normal gun and then encouraging Hank to kill everyone in the underground city. But when I actually sat down and read it cover-to-cover, I found that all of that was couched in sensible contexts that made sense for all parties involved. The guns fire tranquilizer-tipped flechettes and Steve was consoling Hank for having to deal with what must seem eerily similar to some situations Steve must've encountered early in his WWII days. It's less a commander telling a soldier to brush it off as an experienced vet consoling his rookie brother-in-arms over a hard but necessary decision. The issue was even pretty funny, with Beast and Moon Knight's banter and the Black Widow's weird fetish for giant American cars. So help me, I think I may actually stick with Ellis' run. This is a weird feeling.

The Mighty Thor featured more angry grunting from Thor, but I forgive it because it also had ODIN F***ING HEADBUTTING THE S*** OUT OF GALACTUS! Some other stuff happened too, but it doesn't really matter. ODIN. HEADBUTTED. THE S***. OUT OF GALACTUS. If it weren't for so many other aspects of Fraction's Thor and Asgardians in general sucking so much, I would declare this series automatically awesome for that one scene alone.

So, with that scene in mind, Journey into Mystery obviously had less flash than The Mighty Thor, but it more than made up for that in substance. This was a Point One issue, so it was meant to introduce readers to Li'l Loki and his whole deal as the new star of this series. Given that, I am indescribably glad that they got Robert Rodi to write it. I love Kieron Gillen's work, don't get me wrong; but there's just something immensely satisfying and symmetrical knowing that the writer who pretty much defined the deliciously conflicted modern take on Loki in his Loki mini-series with Esad Ribic is now defining Li'l Loki for new readers here. He does so by showing Loki summoning a prophetic eldritch spirit who's apparently so dangerous that even Ikol, the crow who embodies the remnants of the previous Loki, is too scared to stick around and watch it go down. Loki summons the spirit to learn what the other major Asgardians think about him. He gets the usual grousing and disgust and fear, but the real lesson he learns from all of it is that all of those negative emotions now spill over onto Thor a bit, even from the likes of Sif and Odin, because Thor brought Loki back. Putting aside how incredibly stupid a plot point that was in Fraction's hands, it kind of plays well here because it sees Thor, the former golden boy, entering new territory in his relationship with various friends and family. Even more intriguing is Li'l Loki's refusal when the spirit offers to tell him what Thor thinks of him. Rodi is excellent--even, I'd venture to say, better than anyone else--at portraying the wildly complex and endlessly fascinating dynamic between Thor and Loki, and he stays true to form here, with Loki vowing that while he does want to understand Thor, he feels he must get there on his own terms. Then the spirit attacks Loki and attempts to eat his future as payment for his services, but Thor shows up and saves Loki, leading to another great Thor/Loki scene that's all the more interesting because of what Loki just revealed about his relationship with Thor to the spirit. Just great stuff all around. Even Pasqual Ferry's wacky takes on various Asgardians doesn't look quite so lame here; it's somehow elevated by association with Rodi's excellent script. Gillen's set the bar pretty high for this series in his issues but Rodi manages to keep up with his standard. Great issue that anyone who's been on the fence about this series should absolutely check out.

Corp, as a thor fan, how is fraction's portrayal of him NOT bothering you?? I mean as a newly minted thor fan myself its buggin the **** out of me. Like seriously what is his problem in this book? Im hopin fraction has a reason for this nonsense but I doubt it.

 

[kytrigger]

They were good to him for a couple years. Big-name creators, lots of minis and promotion, the movie, he got to kick a lot of ass in fights. But everyone knows an event ain't an event unless someone important dies. And unfortunately, Thor's not smart enough to hedge his bets and ensure his immediate resurrection like his li'l bro.

I just hope he's back in under 2 years. I really don't want another 3-year gap where Thor's dead.

It'd be awesome if that image was in Fear Itself, then when all the heroes start to cry, Thor just gets up and is like "What? I'm not dead. My shoe was just untied *****es!"

*Note how I attempted to write Thor's speaking like I was Fraction.

 

[runawayboulder]

There needs to be a rule that a character can't be killed twice in a decade...it's cheapening.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

For real. Thor's barely been alive longer than he was dead at this point. 4 years for the former, 3 for the latter. I'm kind of worried about Steve again now.

Corp, as a thor fan, how is fraction's portrayal of him NOT bothering you?? I mean as a newly minted thor fan myself its buggin the **** out of me. Like seriously what is his problem in this book? Im hopin fraction has a reason for this nonsense but I doubt it.

Oh, it bothers me. I've talked about how uncharacteristic Thor's speech and overly *****ey actions are under Fraction. But it's been 5 issues of TMT, an arc of Thor, and 5 issues of Fear Itself at this point. I'm growing kind of desensitized to it. And, as you noted, I've been reading Thor for a long time now. Fraction's nowhere near as bad as the worst Thor has ever been.

Plus, this issue had Odin headbutting Galactus' face in, and however Fraction's been writing Thor, that is still undeniably awesome.

 

[runawayboulder]

Who do you think was the worst on Thor?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The worst would probably be the 400s with all that Godpack nonsense. Granted, I've only read bits and pieces of that period, but what I saw was pretty sad. The really, really early Lee/Kirby stuff, from before Lee had sorted out whether Thor was Blake in Thor's body or actually Thor and what exactly his list of powers was, is kind of crappy too. Sacrilege, I know, but objectively it's muddled and awkward and just not very good. Oh, and there's always Avengers appearances. A lot of Avengers writers could not seem to figure out how to write Thor effectively.

I'm pretty sure the later 300s and the 400s contain what most Thor fans would consider the bottom of the barrel, but I haven't actually gotten around to reading straight through those issues still. I stopped off on my "READ EVERY THOR COMIC EVARR!!!1" quest right before the Simonson run, since I'd already read his run before in trades. Told myself I'd take a little break, then plow through the Simonson run and move onto the later stuff, but I never did.

 

[kguillou]

Personally I cant wait to dig into Simonson's run. One of these days I'm gona muster up the balls and just buy that fat omnibus that just came out. Looking forward to it.

But seriously Fraction's pissing me off with this. I'll admit i keep buying because Coipel's art is just a joy to look at but man what in the hell is Fraction doing with these characters? When the relaunch was announced and Fraction said Thor and the Asgardians would be fighting Galactus, I was 110% onboard. How the hell can u go wrong with that? But with all the grunting and grimacing and yelling at Silver Surfer and such, its just.......ugh. Such a far cry from JMS' and Gillen's Thor.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

When TMT's mediocrity really starts to get you down, just take a deep breath, find your center, and remind yourself: there's always Journey into Mystery.

 

[Keyser Soze]

People have been ragging on DC for their hollow publicity stunts lately, but Marvel needs to get a harder time for outright saying, "We're going to kill a major character every 3 months to spike sales."

 

[DeGenerate10]

I've read all 5 of The Mighty Thor comics so far. I've had mixed reactions to it the whole time. Odin vs Galactus was pretty cool but I didnt realize Odin was a giant like Gal. I'm not sure if I'll continue reading this if they kill of Thor honestly. I mean the dude just had a hit movie. Give him a break

 

[squeekness]

Gambit: From the Vault one shot. They should have just left this IN the vault. My beloved Cajun had hardly any accent and they forgot about his red and black eyes. Don't these guys do any research before they write and color? The story was lame and the humor forced and unfunny. Why oh why do I buy these one shots when it seems like lately they all pretty much just suck?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I've read all 5 of The Mighty Thor comics so far. I've had mixed reactions to it the whole time. Odin vs Galactus was pretty cool but I didnt realize Odin was a giant like Gal. I'm not sure if I'll continue reading this if they kill of Thor honestly. I mean the dude just had a hit movie. Give him a break

Odin's not a giant, he's usually a couple inches shorter than Thor. But he's got all kinds of magic and cosmic power at his disposal, so growing to Galactus' size is child's play for him. Also, they mentioned in an earlier issue that although he and Galactus just looked like they were sitting there grimacing at each other, they were actually fighting in all kinds of ways across various planes that the less powerful Asgardians couldn't see.