The List For 2-21-07

span style="font-style:italic;">Ion: Guardian of the Universe #11
52 #42
Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Space Between #2
Civil War #7
The Helmet of Fate: Black Alice
1602: Fantistick Four #3
1602: Fantistick Four #4

Notes:

There were problems last week. So there was nothing written here. Not that anyone cares, since I'm the only one who reads this page. Oh, well. Onward.

52 #42
Thank you, 52 team, for finally bringing back Ralph Dibney as a hero again. It was sublime to watch him win by using his brain again. And thank you for allowing Darick Robertson the opportunity to draw this chapter. He's one of only a few pencilers out there who always drew a stretching Ralph with lots of energy when he's stretching. There's only one penciler I would have preferred drawing this issue, but he died more than 10 years ago. Thanks, for this awesome issue.

The Helmet of Fate: Black Alice
So, what was this group of one shots for? The helmet really only played a major part in the first book and for these past three, it's just a hook to hang a story on. The helmet is pretty useless, isn't it? Well, maybe not to Detective Chimp, but it was to Ibis and Sargon and now Alice. At least next issue features Zauriel, hopefully that'll be cool.

Civil War #7
ARRRRRRRRGH!
But more on that later this week.

The List For 2-7-07

Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil #1
52 #40
Green Lantern #16
newuniversal #3
Ion: Guardian of the Universe #10

Notes:

Ion: Guardian of the Universe #10
Has anything in the way of a coherent story happened in this book since Kyle got off of Mogo? Yeah, I enjoyed the gladiator issue--it was fun--but I keep thinking that Kyle should stop thinking of his power as ring based, or at least based in his hands, and start using his whole body. This issue was interesting, what with bringing the Bleed to the DCU and having Captain Atom admit to mucking around in the Wildstorm Universe, but I was hoping for some real storytelling between the Tangent characters and Kyle, but that didn't happen, he just banished them back to the lantern. And the thing that really pissed me off is how Kyle just ran the lantern back to OA and handed it over to the Guardians without even wondering about the thing. What happened to his curiosity?

newuniversal #3
I guess this is for fans of the old New Universe because I'm just not interested in what's going on here. I bought this one hoping that Mr. Ellis would do something intriguing. He didn't. I'll probably buy the next issue and the one after that hoping the same thing. Please, please, live up to possible potential.

The List For 1-24-07

The Lost Books of Eve 1:1
52 #38
True Story Swear To God #3
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #14
Checkmate #10
Connor Hawke: Dragon's Blood #3
The Helmet of Fate: Ibis the Invincible
Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #26

Notes:

I thought it was going to be a really light week. I'm glad I was wrong.

The Helmet of Fate: Ibis the Invincible
That new costume has got to be one of the worst designs, ever. When I turned the page I kept staring at the thing hoping that I was just seeing it wrong, but in all my staring, it didn't change. I'm looking forward to this new Ibis showing up to be a hero and having someone ask him why he has that "S" on his chest if his name is Ibis. I liked the old costume. It was reminiscent of the early Sandman and Zatara.

Connor Hawke: Dragon's Blood #3
He should have gone for the redhead and let the creepy one get killed. And as for the end, what does that have to do with either the archery contest or the dragon? I know I'll be sticking this mini out, but I shouldn't keep asking myself why.

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #14
Gwen knows Peter's secret. Mary Jane knows Gwen knows, but Mary Jane doesn't know. And that frustrates Liz, who frustrates Flash, who teases Peter. This book is great and I plan on enjoying every issue until it's over, unless it becomes unbearable after Sean McKeever leave.

True Story Swear To God #3
A yapping dog, two (or four if you want to get nitpickish) bald heads, and a lost co-host make this one excellent comic.

The List For 01-17-07

Powers #22
Girls #21
Wonder Woman #3
Ultimate X-Men #78
Justice League of America #5
Squadron Supreme: Hyperion vs. Nighthawk #1
52 #37
Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Space Between #1
The Helmet of Fate: Detective Chimp
Ultimate Vision #2
Green Arrow #70
Phonogram #4
Ultimate Spider-Man #104
Castle Waiting #4
Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #48
Justice Society of America #2
All Star Superman #6
Jack of Fables #6

Notes:

It seems like everything came in the mail this week, which makes so much stuff out of date, but so much good stuff anyway.

Powers #22
I haven't read this one yet. While I was re-reading the series (and noticing some connections to Marvel's Civil War) I discovered that I'm missing #19. Yeah, it's been a couple of weeks, but I forgot to pick it up last time I was at the shop.

Squadron Supreme: Hyperion vs. Nighthawk #1
I don't understand what's going on here. Is this mini supposed to explain how Nighthawk joins the team? He is on the team in Ultimate Power, right? I wish the powers over at Marvel had just put this in under the regular title. Why do we need it to be a separate mini?

Green Arrow #70
Am I the only person who's enjoying this book? I like how Winick took advantage of the one year jump and really changed the status quo in Star City. I also like that in this book he has a real outlet in both Green Arrow and Ollie to vent left-wing rhetoric. It seems a good fit. I only wish the art didn't grate on me like it does.

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #48
*sigh* I like Aquaman, I really do, and I really want to like this title. I want it to be great. The problem is that the book isn't focusing on what I want to know about. I've given up on finding out the truth about Arthur/Orin, it doesn't really interest me now that I know he's the Dweller. What I want to know about is how the people of Poseidonis and Tritonis and all the other cities of Atlantis are dealing with the magic being stepped out of existence. And what's going on in Sub Diego? Is Lorena there defending the people?

Wonder Woman #3
I'm grabbing the first arc because I really want to like a Wonder Woman book. I want it to be good. I want it to be interesting. I want it full of great Greek mythology, not comicized mythology, Marvel has done enough of that, thank you. In the three issues here, I haven't seen any of that. I've seen a lot of whining, though. Maybe Nightwing can show up and he and Diana have a whine-a-thon.

Ultimate X-Men #78
Wow. So. Wait. What happened? Was it just me or did this issue seem like, except for the last couple of pages, a huge jumble of images that were thrown up in the air and picked out at random? The end was sort of a shocker, but since I actually read the solicits for a future issue, I knew what was going to happen. 'Course we all know it'll be undone because, as the regular universe titles have shown, you can't really have the X-Men with out the "X" man.

The List For 01-10-07

Civil War #6
Manhunter #27
52 #36
Runaways #23

Notes:
I didn't get my stuff in the mail on Friday or Saturday. I'm hoping it comes today, or at least by this Friday.

Runaways #23
I don't want to go all entitlement on this, but I wish that Joss Whedon would leave Runaways set in LA or some other city in the Marvel U. I like that they're the only super team around, it makes their work as superheroes and as people that much harder and more interesting. Also, it adds to there character that they can't just go out and wave down a hero on the street so they can learn a lesson by listening, rather than doing. Still, I'm going to be there reading the adventures of my favorite teen super team when the change happens. I just hope for a logical reason and not having Nico just say "We should move to New York because that's where all the other superheroes are and I bet we can learn a lot from them." If she does, I hope Molly hits her.

52 #36
So, I guess my hope of having Ray Terril being Supernova is gone. It must be the Atom, Ray Palmer. Although I'm sort of surprised that if it is Palmer he hasn't taken more interest in a kid using his technology. Ah, well, here's hoping Ralph Dibney isn't already dead and comes out of this book mostly intact and kicking ass in Opal City, since Infinite Crisis took out that city's main superhero.

Powers via Civil War

Way back in September, The Fortress of Soliloquy had this great post about how Marvel could have, and probably should have, set up Civil War to show reason for shifts in character personalities and the change in public opinion toward superheroes. He's absolutely right that to really show these changes things needed to be different. There needed to be something over time to show the major change in the public's opinion from cheering at television during the deadly antics of the X-Statix around the world to the loss of life caused by the New Warriors and that group of villains in Stamford. Maybe it did happen and I just missed it.

During the past eight months, I've had the nagging feeling that I've already read something that could have been the lead-up to Civil War, but just wasn't published by Marvel. Yes, people have compared the idea behind Civil War to Watchmen, but that's not where I found my lead-up. I found it in the first 37 issues of Powers.

Powers establishes a world where super humans have been around for at least as long as humanity. (For all I know, Bendis plans on revealing that there were super powered dinosaurs who have survived, hidden, for millions of years.) It was a world that loved its heroes. It cheered them. Lots of people wanted to have powers.

And slowly, everything changed.

Heroes started to get murdered. People associated with heroes started to get murdered. Heroes started going mad and killing people. And there was nothing that the police could do about it. Until it got so bad, so unbelievably violent that the only choice the people thought they had was to outlaw powers.

Specifics: Retro Girl was killed, shattering the illusion of invulnerability.
Kids pretending to be superheroes are killed, showing how dangerous wanting powers can be.
That whole Olympia debacle spreads from the shattering of illusions to a reason not to trust them.
Schizophrenic Boogie Girl goes on a rampage through the city and Walker tells the world that the government was behind everything.
And then comes the moment when the most powerful superhero in the world loses faith in the other heroes and in humanity and decided to take action by killing other heroes, killing the Pope, and pretty much destroying all of the West Bank.

Now that's the way to change a society from one that trust super-powered beings to one that doesn't. That, in my opinion, is how the lead-up to Civil War should have been done, could have been done. Of course, it takes time and planning, which would have been hard to do. (And delayed the series for a while so it never could have started just as Infinite Crisis ended and 52 started.)

Wasn't World War Hulk supposed to be the event of last year, but they delayed it to do the "Planet Hulk" and set up the company-wide cross over better? Wouldn't Civil War have made more sense if it had taken place after World War Hulk?

Who knows?

Who Will Win Marvel's Civil War?

I don't read much Marvel. When it comes to Civil War, I only get the main series. (Although I really wanted the one with Howard the Duck. My LCS only bought a few and they sold out that Wednesday. Ah, well.) So, all my opinions here are based on what I've read in those five issues, the stuff often found at Newsarama, and my view, ignorant though it may be, of the Marvel universe. So, here I go:

Let's face it, Captain America's side will win.

Why?

Let's start with the obvious:

He's Captain Fucking America.

He's Marvel's representation of the American ideal. He represents, or at least tries to represent, all that is good about the USA. He fights for freedom and justice. He supports honesty and strong morals. He believes in the ideals on which America is based. And he probably bakes a spectacular apple pie. In other words, Captain America is what we (or at least I) want the USA to stand for in the world.

If Captain America's team loses, then it'll be like Marvel telling us that the ideals of America have failed, too. Sure, he'll probably keep trying to fight, but Captain America a fugitive from the country that made him that he took his name from, and a long term terrorist against that country just can't work.

If his team loses, what are the story possibilities for all the characters who joined him? They all become outsiders hounded by the law? They all move to France to sip wine with the Thing and gripe about how America was better once upon a time? They all go underground and their books get cancelled? They all get arrested and "rehabilitated" by Iron Man? They move to Latveria and join Dr. Doom in his constant quest for revenge against that fool, Richards?

It seems to me that if Marvel has the pro-registration side win, half of their heroes will become criminals and that will make for a boring line of comics.

When Captain America wins, though, his group can go back to being superheroes sort of like before, and Iron Man's side can continue being government lackeys, or whatever you want to call them.

Just because, after Civil War ends, the government won't be drafting all the superhumans, doesn't mean that they'll close down the programs they created. Why would they? They already have a, probably, large number of people registered and trained, why would they want to let them out just because Congress decided to repeal the Superhuman Registration Act? That would be like dismantling the armed services just because there's no draft, stupid.

In the newest Wizard, Dan Slott talked about something called The Initiative and suggested that this is where the registered heroes, who wanted to stick with the government, will be. Once the new Thunderbolts break out of their collars, the government's going to need someone to track down all the murdering psychopaths they allowed Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic to use.

Having the anti-registration side win won't limit story possibilities like having the pro-registration side win.

If the anti side wins traditional superhero with secret identities stories can be told. Stories about the government training a next generation of super powered people can be told. There can be a book about a government task force of superhumans who police the activities of those who aren't registered. And the few mutants can die in peace.

newuniversal #1

by Warren Ellis and Salvador Larroca, according to the cover, for Marvel Comics

My first thought, after I finished reading newuniversal, was, "So, that's where the idea for Rising Stars came from." I don't know much about the original New Universe stuff, but I do know that it came out in the mid 80s, long before Rising Stars and I'm assuming that the flash from space was part of the original story. (I remember reading somewhere someone comparing this book to the TV show Heroes. Well, I've never seen Heroes, so I can't make that comparison. How accurate is that comparison?)

when I pick up a first issue, I always hope for something to happen. newuniversal sort of had something happen with the flash of light, but like so many number ones out there today there wasn't much beyond setup. (The ultimate example, in recent memory is the first issue of Justice League of America. Not much has actually happened in the first three issues (I don't have the fourth, yet). Hell, the team hasn't even been brought together, yet. But that has nothing to do with this issue.) The people who I assume are going to be the main characters are introduced.

There's the goth girl (Woman? She looks like she's in her mid to late twenties in the artwork. And maybe she's not really a goth and the coloring was off in that first picture. I don't know.) who lives in San Francisco who talks to, what looks like, Brother-Eye in her dreams. There's the guy from Oklahoma who, probably, put the newuniversal symbol in a field, and burned his girlfriend up. There's the cop that comes back from almost dead with the power to pull his penis into his body so the audience can't see it and won't be offended by it. And there are the scientists digging around in Latvia and discover a skeleton with the newuniversal symbol in its skull (which immediately made me think of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials books with the people who chiseled holes in their heads to gather more pixie dust, or whatever it was).

Salvador Larroca's line work is wonderful. I've always like the way he draws and it's interesting seeing how he inks his own work. The line doesn't look as crisp as it did the Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra or X-Men, but it's still nice. The coloring, though, doesn't work for me. I like, and I'm sure I'm in the minority here, the way his art looked with the flatter color that was used in those other comics mentioned. The digital painting (I assume Corel Painter is what's been used) is nice, but I think it would better serve the story if it was used to separate the moments of the woman's dream from the real world. How great would it be if her dreams were hyper real compared the real world? I think it would be wonderful, but I'm not in charge here and I don't work in the comic industry, what do I know?

Some mystery is set up: What was the flash or white event, which is what it's being called in the comic? Does the symbol that appeared on the woman's face create scanty magic armor or at least that tight black number in the real world? Should "Dueling Banjos" start playing in the jail scenes? How long before these people get together? And is Brother-Eye trying to create a new version of OMACs in this book?

I'm not sure if I'll be picking up the second issue because I wasn't excited at the end of the first issue. I like the art, I like Warren Ellis, and I trust that the story will get interesting, eventually, but I'm not sure if I want to wait for three or four issues before it does. I guess we'll see when the next issue comes out.