Justice Society of America (vol.3) #43 (2010)

Justice Society of America (vol.3) #43 (November, 2010)
"Emerald City, a Dark Things Epilogue"
Writer - James Robinson
Penciller - Jesus Merino
Inker - Jesse Delperdang
Colorist - Allen Passalaqua
Letterer - Rob Leigh
Associate Editor - Rachel Gluckstern
Editor - Mike Carlin
Cover Price: $2.99

Well folks, we finally did it... "The Dark Things" ends today!

... and we shall never speak of it again.  Okay okay, the next time we cover a book that is this mindbogglingly dull, I might mention it.

Worth noting, and I'm not sure why anyone would (I am my own best promoter), you could check out all eight-parts of "The Dark Things" at the Collected Editions page.

Let's put this bugger to bed.

--

We open with Alan Scott and Obsidian having a chat.  Alan tries to convince his boy that everything's going to be a-okay... by showing him what the Starheart has become.  What it's become is a sprawling magical mosaic megalopolis which will house all of the mystical, spiritual, and chaotic folks of the DC Universe on the dark side of the Moon.  The first of those folks that we meet are the "Fae"... who are overly pompous in their manner of speak.

Todd is incredulous that all of these disparate mystical races will be able to coexist... to which Alan informs him that they'll all have their own "areas" which will best suit their lifestyles and customs.  So yeah, not entirely different from the Mosaic world.  Curiously, Alan also mentions that Monolith is here.  I'd forgotten that this short-lived series/character was actually part of the DC Universe (and not just published by DC).  The rights to the character have since reverted back to creators Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, and I wanna say it's been reprinted in the years since.

Alan continues his tour, and reveals that he's basically the lynchpin of this Starheart construct.  It's left to him to hold it all together... and requires his full and complete focus.  Also that it will spread to accommodate every group that takes up residence. He refers to himself as the "Sentinel" of the Starheart, which I suppose is cute considering.

Todd then figures, if his Pop controls the Starheart... then maybe he can be "fixed".  If you recall, he had that weird "wanna be one with" moment with his sister earlier in the arc.  Well, he still feels that way... though, I'd imagine he'd prefer not to.  Alan tells him there's nothing he can do to "fix" that.  Todd and Jennie will just have to stay as far away from each other as possible... forever.

Todd's all "screw that noise"... and so, Alan shows him a few possible futures should "Jadesidian" re-merge.  They use really cute "dates" here "One year from now, on a Thursday", because it being "on a Thursday" is vital.  Yeesh.  Anyhoo, if they merge on that Thursday, the Fae of the Starheart civilization will go crazy... and a war will break out between the heroes and vampires or some crap.  I think this was just a way for Robinson to mention I, Vampire.  Remember this was pre-The New 52! so nobody gave that character a second thought.

If Todd and Jennie meet up in three weeks... all of those characters with Earth-powers will go mad, and destroy the planet.  Of those characters is Geo Force, Sandman, the (other) fake Terra, and... Daredevil in his motocross outfit.

If Obsidian and Jade merge in two years... they will try and kill Alan Scott.  They will fail, forcing Alan to murder his merged children.

Todd finally gets the point... and then Alan awkwardly changes the subject to awkwardly chat about Todd's boyfriend.

We wrap up the issue with a nonsensical reveal that the Justice Society is also hanging out in the Starheart City.  The end?  Okay.

--

You ever come to the conclusion that... outside of maybe one really good work, you don't really care for a particular writer?  This adventure through "The Dark Things" has been... ironically, illuminating for me.  I've had the opportunity to reflect on the works of James Robinson, and realize that... for the most part, it's just not for me.  Outside of Starman (vol.2) and the early JSA (for which he had a co-writer), I can't think of much from the man that I actually dug.

I feel like that's something that happens a lot in comics.  A writer has themselves one amazing critical (like reader-critical, not 10/10 shill factory-critical) success, they garner something of a cult of personality around them... and kinda just coast.  I'm having a Vision of something similar going down right now.  Was that too mean?  Probably.  That's what we in the blog business call "writing backwards from a punchline", and it works about 30% of the time.

Onto the issue... it, really wasn't all that bad.  It wasn't "great" and it most certainly wasn't a story that needed twenty-pages to be told... but it was probably the strongest "chapter" of this awful "event".

This was, of course, a book-length chat between a sorta-estranged father and son.  I guess that might make a good story, if only I could muster up the interest.  I wasn't kidding yesterday when I said I never needed to see Obsidian again.

As for his "need" to be merged with his sister.  Well... okay.  I suppose we're going to have to discuss this.  I want to include a panel here where I feel like we (as the collective "reader") are being nudged in the ribs by Robinson.

Ya see that?  This comes before several double-page spreads which will show just how terrible things might go should Jade and Obsidian re-merge... and we get a "ewwww, creepy" line from Alan Scott?!  So, is this serious... or not?  Is this Robinson just having a reader-aimed-chuckle due to the ridiculous nature of this "bond"... is he just telling us "I know this is gross, you guys... let's laugh at it".  Whatever the reason, it just doesn't work.

You can't expect us to take any of this seriously (or much less even give half a damn) if we open by playing up the "eww, creepiness" of the situation rather than the danger.  Isn't Alan trying to make Todd feel... I dunno, like less of a freak here?  What a rotten, useless, "omg, for the laughs" panel.  Suddenly The New-52! doesn't seem like it was all that bad an idea.

I can't for the life of me figure out why I didn't hate this the first time around.  All I can guess is that I just stopped reading it when it got boring... ya know, like any normal human would do.  I really need to practice at being a "normal human" again.

Overall... this event was bloated, bland and boring (a real BBB!).  The Brightest Day tie-in was tenuous at best, and I can't think of a single (non-art related) reason for you or I to spend another moment on it.  You really don't need this.

On that note though... I wanna letcha know that there is some good out there, including................

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Reign of the Super-Blogs:


Y'all remember #SuperBlogTeamUp, right?  That group of fine content creators who would come together on a semi-regular basis and share posts with a common theme.  Y'all True Believers might recall that we all "died" last Summer.

Well, we're still "dead"... but there is definitely something strange going on.  Who are these... four blogs?  They... they look like #SBTU members... heck, I've seen reports that they are #SBTU members.

Who can they be?  Are any of them the Real #SBTU Deal?  I guess we're going to have to visit their sites to find out! (Click the covers or links below)

Back in the Bronze Age

Bronze Age Babies

Chasing Amazing

I'm the Gun

And the good news continues, folks... in the time you were checking out the four above blogs, it seems as though the rest of us Super Bloggers... well, we might've found a pulse.

C'mon... nobody saw any bodies, you knew we weren't gonna be staying down forever.  And so...

Super-Blog Team Up returns in full-force the Summer!

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845

Superman (vol.3) #1 (2011)

Superman (vol.3) #1 (November, 2011)
"What Price Tomorrow?"
Writer/Breakdowns - George Perez
Penciller/Inker - Jesus Merino
Colorist - Brian Buccellato
Letterer - Carlos M. Mangual
Associate Editor - Will Moss
Editor - Matt Idelson
Cover Price: $2.99

I had this whole intro planned out... and mostly written, however by the time I got to my "point" it felt a rather out of place for the humble blog.  The quick of it is, I just learned that a fella I followed on YouTube for years has passed away... not anyone I knew personally, or had very many exchanges with... but still, it stinks.

I dunno... I'm not a talented enough writer to truly put my thoughts on this subject into words so I'll just end it here.  RIP Emer.

--

We open in Metropolis with a view of the iconic Daily Planet building.  A history lesson informs us as to what an institution the Planet has been to Metropolis for well over a century (almost two!)... which is the perfect time to, er... implode it?  Our focus shifts to the all-new Daily Planet building, which I'm guessing is actually the Galaxy Communications building... perhaps?  Whatever it is, it's way too overblown to be the home of just a humble newspaper... or maybe not, what do I know?

The implosion of the old building is being aired during a gala event taking place at the new one.  Here we meet new Planet owner Morgan Edge, who gets a new look, along with the core (or our core) Daily Planet staffers... well, minus a couple... neither Jimmy Olsen nor Clark Kent is nowhere to be seen.

That's because Clark's currently hovering above the ruins of the old Daily Planet building.  Oh, Clark Kent is still Superman in this The New-52! world... spoiler alert.  Jimmy's also there filming the wreckage alongside a young lady named Miko.  Miko tweets (erg) out that Superman was just seen... and we shift to the soon-to-open Metropolis Astrodome, where a pair of security guards are dutifully... watching the news.  On another one of their monitors they see an bit of flame, which vanishes just as soon as it appears.

We rejoin Superman in the air.  His super-hearing is picking up Morgan Edge's address at the gala... it's here we learn that W-GBS is getting some new call letters to commemorate it's acquisition of the Daily Planet... PGN, "Planet Global Network".  He flashes back to an argument he had with Lois about the merger.  Lois is adamant that it's the only way forward... after all, print is dying (this was during DC's first month of same-day digital comics), Clark feels that Galaxy is too scummy a company to be in bed with.  It's revealed that as part of the merger, Lois is getting a big executive promotion to Vice-President of New Media, which may have something to do with her stance.  We also learn that she had been both a news anchor and newspaper reporter to this point, and Clark would be her replacement going forward.

We get a brief aside to an alien blowing a horn, which comes with a footnote to check out Stormwatch #1... an early attempt at New-52! cohesiveness that we will ignore, before returning to the Astrodome where one of the security guards is investigating the odd vanishing flame.

Back with Superman... in the distance, he sees a news chopper and police helicopter converging, and figures it would behoove him to check it out.  What he discovers is a couple of masked geeks trying to steal a tanker truck.  One mentions that they thought Superman was "out of town", which we get the impression is a widely-held belief at this point.

Back at the gala we meet Ms. "Izzy" Izquierdo, the new publisher of the Daily Planet.  She assures Perry White that he's still the "final word", as she intends to be hands-off in her approach.  News of the tanker-theft hits the party, and Lois in her capacity of VP must act.  At the same time, Superman has swooped under the tanker and has carried it into the sky.

Back at the Astrodome... that flitting flame, goes boom!

We rejoin Jimmy, Miko, and a cameraman as they are hot on the trail of Superman and the tanker.  Superman's trying to reason with the clown-masked geeks... and threatens to just hurl the tanker into orbit.  He gives them until the count of three to disarm... however, by the time he reaches "two", the tanker... goes boom!

The Metropolitans watch in shock from the ground below.  All anyone can see via the televised news footage is a ball of flame.  Superman recovers from the blast, and sees his present threat... a fire creature?

Over the next several pages, we see Superman and the fire creature duking it out.  Lois calls to her news chopper, and tells them to fall back... much to the annoyance of Morgan Edge.  She isn't willing to risk any lives to get the story, buuuut... that's not the woman Edge hired.

Back on the street, Superman has fallen back to the old-Daily Planet ruins and fetches the old-Daily Planet globe, which he hurls at the baddie!  Wow, that's actually what happens on the cover!

In the distraction, Superman spears the fire fella into orbit... where, without oxygen it gets snuffed out with the quickness.  There is no humanoid form underneath the flame... it was a being composed entirely of a mystical fire.  Upon extinguishing, the fire below also goes out... leaving no evidence of having even burned in the first place!

We wrap up with the biggest gut-punch of the issue.  Clark heads down a hallway in an apartment building and buzzes a doorbell.  Behind the door is... Lois Lane!  They chat for a bit before being interrupted by Jonathan... Lois Lane's boyfriend!  Welp, that answers that.

--

Ehh...

This feels less like a Superman comic and more like an... Ultimate Superman comic.  Lemme 'splain... Now, being a dude who is almost completely hung up on continuity and lore, it may come as a surprise that I really... really enjoyed Ultimate Spider-Man when it first hit shelves.  It didn't matter to me that we were getting re-imaginings of many stories we'd already read... it didn't matter that it only took about three minutes to read an issue (but upwards of a year to finish a story)... it was just good writing and characterization with great art.  It also helped matters greatly that the "real" Spidey books (Amazing Spider-Man and Peter Parker: Spider-Man) were also still coming out every month.  With The New-52! and this "Ultimate Superman", there were no "real" Supes book coming out to lessen the sting... this was now the only Superman we were gonna get... and that sucked.

As a fella who was there (maaaaaaan), I remember anytime any annoyed/hurt DC Comics fan would express their annoyance or disappointment we would get the come-back (from pros, fans, and people who pretend to care about comics alike) of "Those old stories are right there on your shelf... nobody's taking them from you" which is not only condescending and dismissive... it totally misses the point.  Sure, those stories are there... but they no longer matter.  There are comics fans (like myself) who need these stories to matter.  We've spent so much time (and money) investing in these stories, and to be told (in so many words) that they never happened... really sucks.  Ya gotta remember, we were told at the onset of The New-52! that these versions were the "onlys"... the pre-Flashpoint stuff never occurred, not even on a parallel Earth... these were it.

As a first issue... it's not that great.  DC really rode the fence here, taking for granted that non-comics readers might not know who all the Daily Planet staffers are... or care about them.  This doesn't feel especially new-reader friendly to me... there's just too much relying on the past to truly move forward.  I know they were bound by this nebulous/ridiculous "five year timeline", but... I gotta say, if I were new to comics and snagged this... I doubt I'd have any interest in coming back for the next issue.  Even as a seasoned fan, the writing is kinda on the wall... it feels like we're eventually going to get a Lois and Clark relationship... and we'll go through the motions to get a 21st Century take on Superman's greatest hits (just like what happened for several Ultimate Spider-Man story arcs).  Of course, we'd soon learn that they just had zero idea what to do with Superman.

While I didn't enjoy this, there are some positives.  Up until the gut-punch ending, this could have very much been Superman (vol.1) #715.  We open with the all-new Daily Planet/Galaxy acquisition/merger, which... could've happened (again) in the pre-Flashpoint world.  Morgan Edge's race-shifting is what it is, but doesn't need to be addressed... hell, you can throw a "Junior" on the end of his name and everything'd be cool.  We learn that Superman has been "away", which... hell, could've been a reference to his Grounded walkabout.  This could have very easily been just "the next issue" until the ending.  To my mind, that's a plus.

Also, the art.  Jesus Merino is incredibly talented and mixes some great dynamic action with some nice-looking talking heads.  I'd say that the art is definitely the high point here.  That's not to say Perez' writing was poor... not at all, it's just not the story I wanted to read.  I don't think any writer would be able to make this a story I'd want to read... and I'd wager after this, I'll never read it again.

Overall... it's hard for me to give this a recommendation.  It's this story, and those like it that made me go from buying nearly every DC release... to picking up maybe 2-3 comics a month.  It may be worth it as a novelty... as it's interesting to see what kind of story (and what kind of Superman) DC thought would bring the new/lapsed readers flooding in (which they did... for a month or two).  This series had the misfortune of standing beside Action Comics Volume 2 (by Grant Morrison/Rags Morales) which was going to give us the new-est origin... much of which, it appears Perez wasn't privy to.  If you absolutely need to read a New-52! Superman book, Action Comics is probably the one you should pick up.

Boy, this was a babbly "review"!  Sorry 'bout that!

--

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556

The New 52: Futures End #0 (2014)

The New 52: Futures End #0 FCBD Special Edition (June, 2014)
Writers - Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens & Keith Giffen
Pencillers - Ethan Van Sciver, Patrick Zircher, Aaron Lopresti, Jurgens & Jesus Merino
Inkers - Art Thibert, Mark Irwin & Dan Green
Art Consultant - Keith Giffen
Colors - Hi-Fi
Letters - Carlos Mangual
Assistant Editor - Kyle Andrukiewicz
Editor - Joey Cavalieri
Group Editor - Matt Idelson
Cover Price: FREE

As I rapidly approach one solid year of daily blogging, I figured I may as well discuss one of the books that brought me back into the "Greater DC Universe" fold.  When this book was announced, it was rumored that it would ultimately lead to a return to the old (er, real) DCU.  I was down to my last few titles and was planning on dropping DC altogether, but I'll go into further depth after the usual spoilery synopsis.

--

We open in Central City, 35 years from whenever you read this.  An aged Flash is working alongside some of his Rogues... and he enters their compound with his quickness.  It is revealed that he is running from... Wonder Woman... at least it's something that resembles Wonder Woman.  It is made (relatively) clear that she has been assimilated by Brother Eye... and is looking to "spread the love".  She chops off Captain Cold's hands, and the Flash proceeds to pound her into the ground.

After regaining his bearings, the Flash finds himself stood before... Frankenstein.  He gives Flash the choice of joining Brother Eye, or... ya know, dying.  Flash tells Frank to eff-off, which leads to the big guy opening his vest... revealing Black Canary's head grafted to his chest.  Her sonic scream turns Barry (I think it's Barry) to dust.

We next get a look at many DC Universe locales in this sorta-kinda far-flung future... Brother-Eyed folks have, for most intents and purposes, taken over the Earth.  In Metropolis, we join Green Lantern John Stewart and Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes running through the sewers.  Outside we see several assimilated heroes, including Booster Gold.  Jaime is the first to fall.

John looks like he might be able to hold his own... but then, Superman shows up.  It's pretty much academic from there.

Next up, we join the oddball team of Grifter and Amethyst.  They have been tasked by Bruce Wayne to infiltrate the Brother Eye... Compound (?) and disconnect Firestorm, which would sever its link to the assimilated heroes via satellite uplink... or something.  They run afoul of Superman and the newly cybery-John Stewart... and get atomized pretty quick.

We shift to the man who gave them the task... Bruce Wayne, at Wayne Manor.  He is alongside Terry McGinnis, ya know... that other Batman... from the cartoon.  Anyhoo, Bruce is planning on going back in time to stop this dark future from happening.

Before he can, however, the Assimilated Batmen of All Nations infiltrate the Manor... and before we know it, it's a pretty bad time.  The Knight slices off Bruce's right arm before he can hop into the time-travel portal device.

Terry is able to better the Batmechs, and heads over to tend to Bruce.  He is given the time-travel watch thingie, and instructed to stop this Brother Eye present, by heading to the past... and so he does.  Next thing we know, Batman Beyond is standing in Times Square, five years from now!

--

Well... this was, interesting... right?  I remember really not knowing what to make of it... but felt as though it wasn't so ingrained in "New 52ness" that I could still get something out of it.  Like I mentioned in the preamble, in early 2014 I was down to about 4-5 DC books a month... and I was only really enjoying Justice League.  Batman was kind of hit or miss for me... though, definitely more hit than miss... but I still could've dropped it without losing much sleep over it.

With Futures End, there was that rumor... as slight as it might've been, that the weekly series was going to end with either the return of the Multiverse... or simply a return to the pre-Flashpoint DCU.  Well, that was enough for me.  Suddenly I was sorta-kinda back with DC... even picking up other titles I didn't normally read if I felt there was the slightest possibility that there'd be some "old" DC hinted at... which kinda paid off during that Superman: Doomed storyline...

Overall, this issue wasn't half bad.  Like I said... there wasn't that "New 52" feeling to it, title notwithstanding... it could have easily taken place in ANY DC Universe... hell, the "Brother-Eyed" Superman is cut off at the waist... for all I know, he could've been wearing the red trunks before he got assimilated... right?  I guess he's still got that horrendous collar though... ehh...

The art here is almost scarily consistent... I actually had to take a second look at the list of creators at the end... I thought there might have been two pencillers... but didn't expect for this to have been a jam-issue at all.  

We get ourselves a great opening mystery... in both the sorta-far flung and the near futures... with ramifications promising to change the outcome of one to affect the other... all told, not too shabby.  Perhaps a bit too dismembery for my tastes... but, whattayagonna do.  For a Free Comic Book Day issue, this was a great one.  Sure beats the hell out of the outdated reprints we're accustomed to from DC...

Of course, hindsight... that horrible thing... tells us how all of this works out... but, let's not worry about that for now.  I was hoping to be able to direct folks to grab the digital version of this issue... and I was sure DC would have it available seeing as though it was a FCBD book... but, damned if I can find it on readdcentertainment.com!  Not sure I can recommend actually paying for this issue... though the Futures End series, ending and (lack of?) fallout notwithstanding is some pretty decent comics.

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