WC #1 - Superman

Wednesday Comics #1 (Superman)

Writer - John Arcudi

Art - Lee Bermejo

Colors - Barbara Ciardo

Letters - Ken Lopez

Edits - Mark Chiarello

Well, stop me if you heard this one before... we've got us a Superman strip!

Folks who have been following this humble blog for awhile will likely recall the absolute (sarcasm) joy (/sarcasm) I had going through the "Superman Strips" during our Action Comics Daily coverage back in 2019!

Woof, those were pretty rough.

Let's see if Wednesday Comics manages to crack the code on making a Super-strip into something readable!

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We open in Metropolis with Superman being punched all the way across the city by the latest generic hulking monster he's got to fight!  He lunges back toward the villain and proceeds to pummel it a whole bunch... actually shattering it's weird helmet, and revealing his wildly unpleasant three-eyed mug!

As he continues punching the baddie... a couple of goofballs wander up to cheer him on.  Uh-oh... a Superman strip with some goobers who seem to worship him?  This doesn't exactly bode well for us, do it?

Superman shouts at the lookeyloos to back the eff up... and the monster takes this opportunity to ask the Man of Steel a strange question indeed.  It addresses him as a Kryptonian, and suggests that he doesn't truly belong here.

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Well, first things first... the art here was amazing.  Truly a joy to behold... especially at this blown up newspaper size.  It's funny how the comics industry has gone to the slicker (more expensive) paper... and we always seem to hear that it's to the benefit of the art.  I think the fabulous work we're seeing here (and throughout Wednesday Comics) is a testament to just how nice art can look on regular old newsprint!  So, howsabout we go back to the cheap stuff, and maybe knock a buck or two off the cover prices?

No?

Anyway... let's talk story, of which, we don't get much.  It's Superman fighting a great big hulking monster... otherwise known as "Tuesday in Metropolis".  Nothing we haven't seen before... and nothing we won't see again (probably each and every week in the Super-books)!

I am kind of interested in the Super-fans who rushed in as our hero was beating the crud out of the beast.  Even though I was certainly no fan of the "Church of Superman" serial that ran through Action Comics Weekly... I will admit, if this is a callback to it, it'll get a decent pop out of me!

Other than that... not a whole heckuva lot to say.  I'm looking forward to seeing where this is headed... which is more than I could ever say for those old ACW strips!

Doom Patrol (vol.3) #1 (2001)

Doom Patrol (vol.3) #1 (December, 2001)
Writer - John Arcudi
Artist - Tan Eng Huat
Letterer - Bob Lappan
Colorist - Dave Stewart
Assistant Editor - Harvey Richards
Editor - Andy Helfer
Cover Price: $2.50

Since I'm in a Doom Patrol kinda mood, today we're going to discuss that other volume of DP... not the Morrison one that everyone loves, nor the Byrne one that everyone... well, doesn't.  We're gonna talk about one in between... no no no, not the Rachel Pollack Vertigo run... the other one!  Yeah, that turn of the century pseudo-manga-lookin' one by John Arcudi!  It's been awhile... hell, about 15 years... since I've read this.  Let's see how this baby aged!

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We open on a foursome of young heroes as they attempt to rescue a crew of a sinking ship as it plunges into the freezing water.  They are led by a fella with a southern sounding accent.  One member is a girl with short blonde hair who can create heat in things around her.  Another is a girl with long dark hair who... well, controls ribbons that come out of her body (?).  The non-southern guy on the team appears as though he can manifest a (rather slippery) force field around his body.

Nothing seems to be going right for our gang.  The crewmates they were intending to save all perish in their bungled attempt.  The "heat-making girl" actually winds up cooking the lot of 'em when she makes the water too hot.  Good thing for all involved, this was only a Virtual Reality simulation.  The southern-soundin' field leader slumps down in the snow and smokes a cigarette after berating his team for their massive failure.

We shift scenes to a familiar face.  It's Cliff Steele, Robotman!  He's turning a wheel... but it's not a steering wheel like he used when he was a famous race car driver... instead he now works for... I wanna say, an oil refinery.  His robotic stature allows him to work in the sweltering Arizona-esque temperatures of the tank valve area.  Also, of particular... disturbing... note, Cliff appears to have a full set of teeth behind his steam shovel jaw.

We now meet multi-billionaire Thayer Jost.  He is the sponsor... owner... moneyman for the team of youngsters from the open.  They are called Jostice Inc., and... well, they kinda suck.  So much so, that Jost demands they be yanked off the cover of Newstime Magazine.  They're jost... er just not ready to debut yet.  Jost feels they need something, but he's not quite sure what.

We rejoin Cliff as he returns to his apartment after work.  Here we learn that he appears to be having a tough time paying his rent.  Man, don't they pay him at the plant?  Well, yeah... but more on that in a bit.  He heads out for a walk, and no sooner than commenting on how icy and slick the roads are... he finds himself saving the neighborhood from a car veering out of control due to those conditions.  Looks like Guy Fieri here doesn't know how to drive in the winter.

A crowd assembles and the press get involved.  It isn't long before the media pronounces that a former Doom Patrol member is playing hero once more.  This news story catches the eye of our Mr. Jost.

The next day at work Cliff is told he has a "guest".  He reports to the plant's mess hall and meets a moderately excited Thayer Jost.  For all the Doom Patrol newbies, we get a quick (four-panel) run down of Cliff (and the team's) origin.

Jost is not just here to chat about Cliff's past... he's got an offer for his future.  He offers him a large increase in pay to help mentor his prospective super-team.  Cliff hems and haws a bit... and Jost drops a bombshell.  He knows that Cliff, while being paid rather well by the plant, is having trouble making rent.  It is implied... actually, it's flat out said that Cliff is spending his salary on a "project", but does not elaborate.

Later, at Jost HQ, Jostice Inc. is introduced to their new Task Force Commander, Cliff Steele.  It is here that we get a proper introduction to the foursome.  Meet Fever, Kid Slick, Freak, and Fast Forward.

Fast Forward seems rather reluctant to accept Cliff as part of the team.  Jost insists he is only there in an advisory capacity... though by Robotman's reaction we can tell he was promised far more.  Jost introduces Cliff to their Virtual Reality simulation center.  Think "Danger Room" without the cool name.  I gotta say, Cliff's mouthful of teeth is really creeping me out here.

Hurrrrrr....

Cliff takes roll, and learns what his new team is capable of.  The only one being a jerk is Fast Forward... He mouths off to Cliff one time too many, and is asked to take a look 30 seconds into the future (which is his power).  He must've seen that Robotman is gonna knock his block off if he doesn't change his tone, because his demeanor immediately changes.  This is a very funny use of his powers.

The next couple of pages show Cliff doing the coaching thang.  He shows Fever that she can heat water without touching it... Kid Slick is given concentration techniques to ensure he doesn't slip when he's sliding... Fast Forward gets pounded into the ground, ya know... to help his hand-to-hand combat acumen... and Freak, well... does her freaky thing.

 

We wrap up with Jost and Cliff sitting across the table from one another.  Turns out what Jost wanted all along was the Doom Patrol license and trademark... which I suppose, as the last living (as far as we know) member, Cliff has power of attorney over.  Cliff signs on the dotted line for an undisclosed (yet massive) amount of money.  Ladies and Gentlemen... meet, your new Doom Patrol.

--

There's definitely something "turn of the century" about this... which, is probably because that's when it was released.  I mean, duh, right?  When this came out I was 21 years old, and although I had a better paying job than I had any right to have, I feel I was still something of a slacker.  A throwback from the 1990's... I'm sure I wore a flannel shirt tied around my waist a time or two... and I can say that with absolute certainty... because, ahem... I still do.  I have an excuse though... seriously.  Here in Arizona it can go from really cold first thing in the morning to really hot in the mid-morning.  So there ya go!  Anyhoo, where was I?

Oh yeah... this feels like it kind of evokes that "slacker" type of mood that was in the comics ether around now.  The characters were moody young people... they looked kinda grunged-out... like, if I didn't know better, I could see this being a fill-in for Gen13 rather than the Doom Patrol... you follow?  This doesn't feel like a DC book.  It feels like an Image book from the era when they were just trying to find their footing post-speculator bust.

Much of that has to do with the art, for sure.  But the writing also doesn't feel DC... at least to me.  Let's not get it twisted... that's not a bad thing.  It's just a thing that is.  It seemed (at least to me) that one of the big trends in funnybooks around the time was for superheroes to "go corporate" and this is another case of that.  I remember really digging this when it came out, and I found myself rather enjoying revisiting it today.  It's certainly not the best Doom Patrol... hell, I'm sure folks would argue it's not the Doom Patrol at all.  What it is, is a fairly interesting introductory chapter.  We meet the gang, and get a pretty good impression what the tone of the volume will be (at least at the start).

Back when this was released, I remember there being a bit of controversy over Tan Eng Huat's art.  Folks seemed to either love it or hate it... with very little in between.  I lean more toward "loving" it... though, I clearly do not like that Tan draws Cliff as having teeth.  I don't recall if he's ever had teeth before (or after) this... but if so, they were not nearly as noticeable as they were here.  They made his face look quite "off", and I did not dig the decision to include them.

Overall... this is a difficult one for me to give a solid recommendation for.  If you're a fan of the Morrison run, or the current Gerard Way Young Animal run... this is tonally and aesthetically very different.  Don't get me wrong, it's good... quite good, in fact.  It's just very different from what a Doom Patrol fan may be expecting to see... in a Doom Patrol comic.

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(Not the) Letters Page:

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Interesting Ads:

Major Bummer #1 (1997)

Major Bummer #1 (August, 1997)
"What the Hell...?!"
Writer - John Arcudi
Penciller - Doug Mahnke
Inker - Tom Nguyen
Colorist - Carla Feeny
Letterer - Willie Schubert
Editor - Peter Tomasi
Cover Price: $2.50

I know we more cultured comic book enthusiasts generally roll our eyes in highfalutin disinterest when the subject of Wizard magazine comes up, but for a time (pre-widespread Internet, natch) it really was the place to get most of your comics news.  Wizard, for me was the thing I'd grab if somehow at the end of the month I still had a five-dollar bill burning a hole in my pocket.  It was something of a luxury purchase, and perhaps because of that poor young impressionable comics enthusiasts put a bit more stock into Wizard's recommendations than they otherwise would.

Sometimes their suggestions would be a bust, as illustrated by the ubiquity of early nineties Image Comics currently clogging quarter-bins nationwide... other times, their recommendations would be great.  Wizard was the first place I'd ever seen mention of Strikeforce: Morituri, and Quantum & Woody, after all.  Those two series remain favorites of mine to this day.

Another book they had given a bit of a push to was the one I want to discuss today... Major Bummer.  In 1997, I was 17 years old... a book about a slacker superhero should be right up my alley.   Is it worth your time?  Let's find out.

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Louis Martin is a slacker.  That's really all we know about him from the get-go, he also likes video games.  He receives a mysterious package which, upon opening transforms him into a musclebound technologically-gifted would-be superhero.  Interestingly, this is all unknown to Lou for much of this opening issue.

The next morning, he finds that he has woken up late for work at Kathie's Video Repair.  We are introduced to a ramshackle street gang who is bent on procuring Corn Nuts from the local convenience store, I'm assuming there will be more on that (and them) later on.

While repairing a VCR unit, Lou gets lost in thought.  Before he knows it, he has re-purposed the VCR into a ray gun.  His boss, Mr. Kathie arrives and fires him for his excessive tardiness.  Upon seeing what Lou has become, Kathie freaks out and runs out of the shop.  Slump-shouldered, Lou leaves... ray gun in tow.  While walking down the sidewalk, Lou catches a glimpse of his reflection and sees what he has become.  He's determined to figure it all out... after he grabs a bite to eat.

We meet another odd gang, who decides to trade in a half-million dollar heist at a bank for an $83 robbery at the convenience store.  They decide to rob the very convenience store where Lou is attempting to write a check in exchange for a pile of snack cakes.

Lou thwarts the robbery, although the store is destroyed in the fracas.  He tries to parlay saving the clerk's life into some free goodies, and is turned down.

When Lou gets home he is surprised to find four curiously dressed individuals hanging out in front of his building.

They tell him they are a team of super-powered heroes, who were all drawn to his home.  They claim that he is to be their leader.  Lou wants none of it, and tells them to split.  He enters his apartment and is greeted by...

.. and we are [to be continued...]

--

Now, at release I bought issue #1, which remains the only one in my possession.  I have to figure that it must not have made that big of an impression on me.  It's strange, as this feels as though it would have been exactly the kind of book I would have been in the market for back then.  It was offbeat, and different from anything else I'd seen at the time.  I'm not sure how a 17 year-old me would have lost track of this one.

Upon reading it now... It's pretty good and it looks nice, however, I still have no interest in seeing how it plays out.  I really don't want to say that I'm too old for this type of story, perhaps it just takes me back to a time in my life that I've outgrown (yeah, odd for a dude in his mid-thirties who still reads comics everyday to say...).  I can't think of anything outright bad to say about this book, just that I'm really not interested in it.

I'm absolutely sure there's an audience for it, and they will think it's great.  It's quite well-written, and the art is wonderful.  A bit of a product of its time, perhaps... but, still certainly to be enjoyed.

This came from what I consider to be an odd time at DC Comics.  It felt like a very experimental time, where DC was producing creator-owned books (such as this) which could be folded into DC canon (like say, Young Heroes in Love).  I may be mis-remembering my dates here, but it felt as though there were a lot of new more experimental #1's around this time.  Titles like Chronos, Chase, Resurrection Man and Scare Tactics feel as though they are part of this vintage.  Very strange and interesting era for DC.

This is one title that I have not come across "in the wild".  I can honestly say I've never seen it in the bins.  If you were interested in checking it out, it isn't terribly expensive at Mile High Comics.  If you want the entire 15-issue story collected, The Complete Major Bummer Super Slacktacular was released as a trade in 2011, from Dark Horse Comics.  Instocktrades currently has it (at 42% off cover price to boot).  It is also available digitally.

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Interesting Ads (Batman & Robin Edition):

It's hard to remember a time when it seemed like every movie had its own trading card set.
(unless of course, they still do that... I dunno)
These appear to be those horrendous odd-sized cards to boot.
My mother once accidentally bought me a package of card-binder pages in that size.
It's difficult to let such trauma go.

 

Batman Forever was my last Bat-movie...
I regret nothing.

Just a tad bit on the nose there, no?