Category Archives: Comics
Good Guy Green Goblin: Why the Little Guy Matters in Comics
I don’t remember how or why I came to possess a copy of Green Goblin #1 in 1995, I only remember the joy I felt flipping through its pages. I can remember marveling at the artwork by Scott McDaniel, possibly the first time I ever actually appreciated comic book art. I can remember haphazardly scouring the comic book shops and supermarkets in Central New York searching for all the follow-up issues, before I ever even knew that comic books come out on Wednesdays. And I can remember waiting 10 years, well into adulthood, before I finally managed to track down the final issue online, and how reading it after all those years was like stepping back in time. The series was just as good as I remembered – if a little dated.
With the Green Goblin series in the mid-90s, Marvel Comics was trying desperately to reach out to both youth culture and longtime fans by mixing a semi-familiar brand name with a slacker protagonist. Green Goblin was a blatant cash-grab. It only lasted 13 issues.
But those 13 issues may be the very reason why I’m such a big comic book fan today. Green Goblin was my ‘gateway drug’. And Phil Urich is my hero.
He’s a funny guy
Some of you reading this have probably never even heard of Phil Urich. He’s no Peter Parker or Bruce Wayne, that’s for sure. But nevertheless, Phil Urich came along at just the right time to hook me into comic books. Green Goblin wasn’t the first comic I had ever read, but it was the first series I ever started collecting on my own. And when all 13 issues were over, I kept reading and I kept looking for more new comics. It was a fun little series with a lot of energy and some cool ideas.
After it was cancelled, one would reasonably expect never to see Phil Urich again. His story hadn’t sold, it was cancelled; shouldn’t that be the end of it?
Nope! Apparently not! And that’s why Phil Urich is such a fascinating character. Phil kept coming back. New writers like Brian K. Vaughn and Dan Slott came long with new ideas and new roles for Phil to play. And through their work, Phil Urich’s story continues to be told, even after all these years. And that’s one of the things I love about comics: through unexpected teamwork, through new writers and new ideas, even the little guys get their own stories. Phil will never be as popular as Spider-Man or Batman, but he’s got a story nonetheless.
Join me after the jump if you’d like to hear it.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 8/24/13
For the first time in a very long time, DC Comics owns the week! The New 52 comics have been in a downward spiral for me for a long time. But this week, they score a one-two punch of success. For awhile now, I’ve been worried that comics just don’t reach me anymore, that everything is just generic superhero filler, that nobody is trying anymore. But between Batman and Nightwing #23 and Wonder Woman #23, DC shows me twice in one week that somebody still cares. Characters still matter.
There are a lot of good comics this week. Superior Spider-Man puts Phil Urich front and center, so you know I’m happy about that. Avengers and Justice League Dark continue their respective crossovers, though neither one is particularly special. And by popular request, I decided to pick up the latest issue of Thunderbolts to give that another try. Not too shabby. But the week belongs to DC. Wonder Woman easily snatches up another Comic Book of the Week.
Did we know she could go Super Saiyan?
Though Batman and Nightwing (or as it should have been called, Batman and Alfred), isn’t far behind.
Comic Reviews: Avengers #18, Batman and Nightwing #23, Batwoman #23, Justice League Dark #23, Superior Spider-Man #16, Superman Unchained #3, Thunderbolts #14, and Wonder Woman #23.
No Joke: Justice League Moving to Canada
Please forgive the fact that I’m a nerd on the Internet ranting about comic books, but I have no idea what the heck DC Comics is doing anymore. According to the Toronto Star, DC is changing the Justice League of America into the Justice League of Canada next year. There is no logic in this place. This sounds like an unclever April Fool’s Day joke.
What the heck is going on at DC? Have they lost all sense of purpose? Have they all gone mad?
First of all, I’m not picking on Canada. By all means, Canada should have superheroes too, and I have long been a fan of Marvel’s Alpha Flight team. They’re awesome. It makes perfect sense for Canada to have superheroes. And second of all, I’m not incensed because of patriotic reasons that an American superhero team is fleeing to Canada either. That’s not my gripe.
I’m dumbfounded at how DC thinks this could ever possibly sell, and how it once again completely tarnishes the bigger picture of the DC Universe.
Alpha Flight never sells at Marvel. They try again and again to put out an ongoing Alpha Flight comic, but it doesn’t sell. So Canada is not a big drawing point for comic book readers. Beyond that, DC published a Justice League International series at the start of the New 52, and they cancelled that pretty quickly. So clearly the name ‘Justice League’ is not a big selling point either.
But my real complaint, the biggest reason why I think this is insane, is that it’s yet another piece of evidence that proves the head honchos at DC have no idea what they’re doing with the New 52, and they’re just going to throw anything they can at the wall to see if it sticks. That is no way to run a comic book company or to build a new universe of continuity.
When the New 52 launched, DC set up a new Justice League series starring all the big names, like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and more. And that series is fine. They need that flagship team. I’m fairly certain the comic is selling well.
Then last year, DC launched Justice League of America as a sister title. The idea behind Justice League of America was that forces inside the US government wanted their own team of superheroes in case the Justice League ever decided to turn evil. That’s a good enough reason as any, and provides the JLA a reason to exist alongside the traditional JL. But here is where everything starts to fall apart: Justice League of America hasn’t even reached 10 issues yet! They’re only at issue 6 or 7, and most of those issues have all been part of the build up to the big Trinity War crossover that’s taking place in the Justice League titles now.
So DC took the very popular, very well-known brand name ‘Justice League of America’ and used it as a throwaway stepping stone to get to their Trinity War event.
And now, next year, they’re apparently just going to drop ‘Justice League of America’ and turn it into Justice League of Canada. How!? Why? What purpose could that serve? Why would this team of superheroes move to Canada and put that in their name? I realize they probably won’t trust the American government anymore, but why Canada? Why not just disband? Why not join the regular Justice League, which doesn’t identify itself to one specific country? What could the possible context be for this story?
And why drag that popular brand name through the mud? (I’m not calling Canada ‘mud’). From now on, for however many years or decades the New 52 universe lasts, DC will always have to face the fact that the first version of the Justice League of America was some throwaway team that didn’t matter and was only a means to an end. That is now solidified as part of the history of the New 52 universe.
There doesn’t seem to be anybody at DC Comics putting any long term thought into the growth of their rebooted universe. And that is very depressing to me. They’re just coming up with whatever works for that specific moment in time, and a year later, they’ll come up with something else that they think/hope will work, regardless of what happened before or what might happen in the future.
I fear that in five years, everything is going to be a hideous mess of overstuffed continuity and conflicting stories.
Though now I definitely want to read about the Justice League of Australia…
Review: X-Factor #261
The penultimate issue of X-Factor is upon us, and rather than do anything for the larger story, writer Peter David just says goodbye to Monet and Darwin. He checks two more characters off his list, leaving us, next issue, with presumably his fond farewell to Jamie Madrox. I’m comfortable with that. I’m saving all my tears for that issue. Because I’ve never been a particularly big fan of Monet, and especially not Darwin, so this issue doesn’t hold any special meaning for me. It’s a nice little comic, and maybe if the series weren’t over it would hold a little more weight. But for now, it’s just a quick, done-in-one goodbye to two random characters. And sadly, I think artist Neil Edwards is getting a little rushed. Hopefully he saved his best work for the final issue.
X-Factor #261
X-Factor #261 is a quaint little comic that says goodbye to Monet and Darwin by hooking them up for no apparent reason. See ya later, kiddos!
Comic Rating: 6/10 – Pretty Good.
Darwin has always been an odd character in X-Factor. PAD deserves a lot of credit for doing anything with the character, but his attempts to turn Darwin into a real boy were never nearly as successful as what he did with Layla Miller. Those two characters actually have a lot in common. Both were created by hot shot writers to serve as plot devices in their big stories – Layla was created by Brian Michael Bendis to be the dues ex machina in House of M, and Darwin was created by Ed Brubaker to be pointless in Deadly Genesis. And both were pretty much abandoned by their hot shot creators almost immediately, left for other writers to play around with. That PAD grabbed them both for X-Factor says a lot about him and the series.
But whereas PAD had some amazing ideas in store for Layla Miller (“I know things”), he kind of just plugged Darwin into X-Factor with no real purpose. The guy randomly joined up alongside Longshot in a Secret Invasion crossover, and stuck around for a split second before taking off to parts unknown for more than a year. That PAD ever bothered to bring Darwin back in the lead up to Hell on Earth War was strange enough, but to say goodbye like this? It just doesn’t really jibe in any meaningful way. PAD could never make Darwin work, and he still doesn’t succeed in this issue. Darwin is as bland and boring as anyone can be.
Monet fairs a little better. PAD has always had fun with the character, and her personal journey over the course of the series has been rocky and dramatic. I kind of wish he’d come up with something better for her to do in the end, and it’s kind of a shame that she got saddled with Darwin for her finale. The two characters have zero chemistry together…though that’s probably entirely Darwin’s fault.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
The Potentially Sad Fate of Miles Morales
I love Miles Morales. I was as skeptical as the next guy when Marvel announced they were going to kill Ultimate Peter Parker and replace him with someone completely new, but Brian MIchael Bendis has done a fantastic job in building Miles from the ground up and creating a new, modern take on the classic Spider-Man mythos. The man beneath the mask may have changed, but Bendis seized upon the very essence of being Spider-Man and infused it into young Miles Morales. This is the timeless story of a young man forced to contend with power, responsibility and web fluid, and all of the drama that brings into his life.
So what the heck is going to happen to Miles when the Ultimate Universe gets eaten by Galactus!?
He’d make a good appetizer, for one thing
Marvel revealed in their November solicitations that the Ultimate Universe will be undergoing a Cataclysm, in which Galactus from the normal Marvel Universe crosses the interdimensional boundary and just starts wrecking stuff up. All of the heroes of the Ultimate Universe will band together to stop the World-Devourer, but it’s not looking good. Many on the web are speculating that this will be the end of the Ultimate Universe. It has long outlived its usefulness, and its best days are definitely behind it.
If this is indeed the case, that means the fates of Miles Morales and the very excellent Ultimate Comics: All-New Spider-Man are in doubt. Except for this little blurb in Cataclysm: The Ultimates Last Stand #2:
“Miles Morales is headed to the Marvel Universe”
A lot of people online are already speculating that this single line is definitive proof that Miles is going to permanently transition from the Ultimate Universe to the regular Marvel Universe. They seem convinced. But I am not.
I don’t think Miles will be going on a one-way trip. And I definitely don’t want him to permanently move to the regular Marvel Universe. It would destroy everything Bendis has built so far around the character. It would take away what I love most about Miles Morales and his heroic journey.
Join me after the jump for the full discussion.
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