Wednesday, January 10, 2007
This Month In Supermen
The other day I had to ask myself, why is all these Supermen? I went from no Supermans ever (save for ones in which he dies) to FOUR regularly publishized Supermens. I read the classics / old standbys (ACTION COMICS, SUPERMAN), the new continuity filler / retcon hospital SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL, and of course the ultimate current hot-shit amazo brillianceness of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's ALL-STAR SUPERMAN. I read them all and I am confounded by it. I never liked a Superman, ever, until this year. I liked the movie Superman, I guess, back when I was but a lad, but the comics and the character hisself always turned me off. Now though I'm turned all the way on Superman, and need the wonderment on a semi-weekly basis.
Anyhow, much Supermanity has occurred of late, and here are some thoughts on some things.
1. ALL-STAR SUPERMAN.
Holy Jesus SHITS this is why comics existed. Grant Morrison is perhaps the finest writer of superhero comics EVER, and his artistic companion "Frank Quitely" is up there with Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale as modern masters of the form. The form of comic book art, fool! The eternal knock against Quitely has been his complete timelinessless; monthly books become biennial with this man. DC's addressed this issue by making ASS semi-sorta-bi-monthly; with six issues in 14 months, I guess it's more like deca-weekly, or something. Anyhow, number six came out last week, and it's another almost perfect 22-page encapsulation of all that is right and beautiful about comic books. Field of Dreams becomes only more poignant to this man's mind when you replace baseball and Shoeless Joe with the Chronovore and the Unknown Superman. Also the scenes with Krypto the Superdog made me infinitely happy. All-Star Superman is hands-down the finest comic currently published by Marvel or DC, and it will be a sad day when the twelfth and final issue finally comes out in 2009.
2. SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL
The two best Supes books today aren't the flagship titles, but the out-of-continuity ASS and the hole-filler Superman Confidential. Kinda like the JLA / JSA titles of the same name, Supes Confidential looks at important events in Superman's past that never actually appeared in his other titles. Like this, the book's first storyling, is going back and showing how Superman first encountered / became aware of kryptonite. Basically it's a series of retcons, but thus far what a series it's been. Many were skeptical when Darwyn Cooke, the best comic book artist active today, was announced as the writer, as that'd be kinda like hiring Danger Mouse to write your lyrics but not produce your song. Tim Sale, who does all the art for the semi-not-quite-shitty show HEROES, is certainly no slouch, though, and probably draws the second-best Lois Lane after Cooke, anyway, so all is well. Their arc runs the first six issues of the book, and the halfway point was reached this past week. Superman Confidential #3 isn't revelatory like, well, every issue of ASS, but it is another fine installment in this interesting (and very well-drawn) story. The scene where Lois tells Supes that it could never work between them is a rare not-even-remotely-cringworthy bit of comic-book relationship melodrama, so kudos to Cooke. He does almost as good a job writing Lois as he does drawing her.
3. SUPERMAN
This is by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco. Busiek did a fantastic job with the Up, Up, and Away storyline earlier this year, and his stop-gap threefer Auctioneer storyline in Action was some good, old-school fun. I haven't been enjoying Superman lately as much as either of those, and this issue didn't reverse that course. It's not bad, really, just a competent comic with solid art and a slightly interesting story that feels only a little lived in. Basically some timetravelling guy pops in from some future-past post-apocalyptic renaissance-era Venetian looking town, and tells Supes of the Earth's frighten future. He says some amazingly powerful villain named Khyber will kill Superman and spoil the planet, and that the few humans who survive will struggle through a new ice age in a cave-ridden community overseen by Luthor and Lois Lane. This most recent issue (#640, maybe?) consists almost completely of journal entries from this potential future Lois. It's a grim lot, for real, and at the end future-past fella caps it all off by telling Supes that it might be best if he doesn't try to stop this Khyber fella, 'cuz every time you stave off one swing of destiny the eventual fall will become even worse and harder to come back from, or something like that. Those last couple of pages were a surprise, and a nice springboard into whatever comes next, but nothing in this book is that exceptional, especially in comparison to ASS and Confidential.
4. ACTION COMICS
I actually just dropped this. As I said, Busiek's work on this title over the summer and fall was great. Geoff Johns and Richard Donner took it over in November, though, and it quickly went downhill. Their first issue was amazingly boring, with some lackluster art from (I believe) one of them Kuberts. Basically there's this boy on Earth who might be from Krypton, and Superman's trying to keep the government from turning him into a weapon. They've done a TON of these "omg another kyrptonian wtf!" stories over the years, and almost all of them end with the new Kryptonian being a hoax or dying or leaving forever, or something like that. I'm sure this'll be the same. The second issue was a step up, as it was revealed the boy might be the son of Zod, but still not good enough to keep me dropping three bucks a month on it. So yes, sorry, Mr. Johns, even though you're friends with the awesome Alenders, there's no room in my budget for your work.
The other day I had to ask myself, why is all these Supermen? I went from no Supermans ever (save for ones in which he dies) to FOUR regularly publishized Supermens. I read the classics / old standbys (ACTION COMICS, SUPERMAN), the new continuity filler / retcon hospital SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL, and of course the ultimate current hot-shit amazo brillianceness of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's ALL-STAR SUPERMAN. I read them all and I am confounded by it. I never liked a Superman, ever, until this year. I liked the movie Superman, I guess, back when I was but a lad, but the comics and the character hisself always turned me off. Now though I'm turned all the way on Superman, and need the wonderment on a semi-weekly basis.
Anyhow, much Supermanity has occurred of late, and here are some thoughts on some things.
1. ALL-STAR SUPERMAN.
Holy Jesus SHITS this is why comics existed. Grant Morrison is perhaps the finest writer of superhero comics EVER, and his artistic companion "Frank Quitely" is up there with Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale as modern masters of the form. The form of comic book art, fool! The eternal knock against Quitely has been his complete timelinessless; monthly books become biennial with this man. DC's addressed this issue by making ASS semi-sorta-bi-monthly; with six issues in 14 months, I guess it's more like deca-weekly, or something. Anyhow, number six came out last week, and it's another almost perfect 22-page encapsulation of all that is right and beautiful about comic books. Field of Dreams becomes only more poignant to this man's mind when you replace baseball and Shoeless Joe with the Chronovore and the Unknown Superman. Also the scenes with Krypto the Superdog made me infinitely happy. All-Star Superman is hands-down the finest comic currently published by Marvel or DC, and it will be a sad day when the twelfth and final issue finally comes out in 2009.
2. SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL
The two best Supes books today aren't the flagship titles, but the out-of-continuity ASS and the hole-filler Superman Confidential. Kinda like the JLA / JSA titles of the same name, Supes Confidential looks at important events in Superman's past that never actually appeared in his other titles. Like this, the book's first storyling, is going back and showing how Superman first encountered / became aware of kryptonite. Basically it's a series of retcons, but thus far what a series it's been. Many were skeptical when Darwyn Cooke, the best comic book artist active today, was announced as the writer, as that'd be kinda like hiring Danger Mouse to write your lyrics but not produce your song. Tim Sale, who does all the art for the semi-not-quite-shitty show HEROES, is certainly no slouch, though, and probably draws the second-best Lois Lane after Cooke, anyway, so all is well. Their arc runs the first six issues of the book, and the halfway point was reached this past week. Superman Confidential #3 isn't revelatory like, well, every issue of ASS, but it is another fine installment in this interesting (and very well-drawn) story. The scene where Lois tells Supes that it could never work between them is a rare not-even-remotely-cringworthy bit of comic-book relationship melodrama, so kudos to Cooke. He does almost as good a job writing Lois as he does drawing her.
3. SUPERMAN
This is by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco. Busiek did a fantastic job with the Up, Up, and Away storyline earlier this year, and his stop-gap threefer Auctioneer storyline in Action was some good, old-school fun. I haven't been enjoying Superman lately as much as either of those, and this issue didn't reverse that course. It's not bad, really, just a competent comic with solid art and a slightly interesting story that feels only a little lived in. Basically some timetravelling guy pops in from some future-past post-apocalyptic renaissance-era Venetian looking town, and tells Supes of the Earth's frighten future. He says some amazingly powerful villain named Khyber will kill Superman and spoil the planet, and that the few humans who survive will struggle through a new ice age in a cave-ridden community overseen by Luthor and Lois Lane. This most recent issue (#640, maybe?) consists almost completely of journal entries from this potential future Lois. It's a grim lot, for real, and at the end future-past fella caps it all off by telling Supes that it might be best if he doesn't try to stop this Khyber fella, 'cuz every time you stave off one swing of destiny the eventual fall will become even worse and harder to come back from, or something like that. Those last couple of pages were a surprise, and a nice springboard into whatever comes next, but nothing in this book is that exceptional, especially in comparison to ASS and Confidential.
4. ACTION COMICS
I actually just dropped this. As I said, Busiek's work on this title over the summer and fall was great. Geoff Johns and Richard Donner took it over in November, though, and it quickly went downhill. Their first issue was amazingly boring, with some lackluster art from (I believe) one of them Kuberts. Basically there's this boy on Earth who might be from Krypton, and Superman's trying to keep the government from turning him into a weapon. They've done a TON of these "omg another kyrptonian wtf!" stories over the years, and almost all of them end with the new Kryptonian being a hoax or dying or leaving forever, or something like that. I'm sure this'll be the same. The second issue was a step up, as it was revealed the boy might be the son of Zod, but still not good enough to keep me dropping three bucks a month on it. So yes, sorry, Mr. Johns, even though you're friends with the awesome Alenders, there's no room in my budget for your work.
