Revivals in name only
A few months ago, I read some news that DC is going to launch a new series of Infinity Inc (there's a bit about it over here) that's got little to nothing to do with the original Justice Society spinoff, but instead stars some minor characters who never really appealed to me to begin with. And that sums up a problem with some recent items they've done: they've got little to nothing to do with the original series.
The first example could be their recent miniseries of the Secret Six. When the strikeforce by that name first appeared in 1968, in a brief series written by E. Nelson Bridwell, they were a bunch of covert spy-like operatives led by a leader whose codename was Mockingbird. And while they may have been set in the DCU, they skirted around a lot of the sci-fi elements you'd find in other series, and were more stand-alone and independent as a concept. The concept was revived in Action Comics Weekly in 1988, with a new team introduced that was initally led by one of the older members, and while I'm on the fence about how Martin Pasko, whose work was either good or bad IMO, killed off some of the older members in the second part of the story there, it still remained true to what the original Bridwell-penned suspense story was about, which was far from involving superheroes.
Last year, we got a miniseries written by Gail Simone with the same title that had nothing to do with the original Bridwell creations, and the late leader Mockingbird's son, who was suggested as being heir to his father's job, was ignored too (instead, Lex Luthor is Mockingbird here!). Instead, we got a miniseries starring a couple of mercenary supervillains like Deadshot and Cheshire. And just like how there could be a case out there of a book that's too close to things involving superheroics, this, now that I think of it, suffers from a case of being too close to supervillainy.
Similarly, I think that the problem with the new Infinity Inc, which is being written by Peter Milligan, is that it seems to star a couple of characters who aren't just second-rate, but who otherwise have nothing to do with the original team. Just because the JSA is where so many characters who're connected with the classic team from the Golden Age appear now doesn't mean that they couldn't do something similar to when Marvel launched West Coast Avengers in the mid-80s, and feature a team that worked in California, to the regular team's being based in New York. The new series being launched really doesn't interest me, as it's in name only and not a true revival of Roy Thomas' series from the mid-80s.
Then, there's another new item coming up called "Challengers from Beyond", which is supposed to star Donna Troy, Kyle Rayner and Jason Todd, as they explore all these new multi-earths and dimensions introduced in 52 (via Bags and Boards). As you can probably guess, this is obviously meant as a variation on Challengers of the Unknown, but the original astronauts are nowhere in sight. And this is a clearer example of when a series becomes too closely identified with superheroics. Honestly, if it doesn't have anything to do with the original material, and if the original stuff is ignored, then I really don't see what's the use here.
So are any of these revivals of older stuff worth it if they're in name only? Frankly, I can't say that they are.
The first example could be their recent miniseries of the Secret Six. When the strikeforce by that name first appeared in 1968, in a brief series written by E. Nelson Bridwell, they were a bunch of covert spy-like operatives led by a leader whose codename was Mockingbird. And while they may have been set in the DCU, they skirted around a lot of the sci-fi elements you'd find in other series, and were more stand-alone and independent as a concept. The concept was revived in Action Comics Weekly in 1988, with a new team introduced that was initally led by one of the older members, and while I'm on the fence about how Martin Pasko, whose work was either good or bad IMO, killed off some of the older members in the second part of the story there, it still remained true to what the original Bridwell-penned suspense story was about, which was far from involving superheroes.
Last year, we got a miniseries written by Gail Simone with the same title that had nothing to do with the original Bridwell creations, and the late leader Mockingbird's son, who was suggested as being heir to his father's job, was ignored too (instead, Lex Luthor is Mockingbird here!). Instead, we got a miniseries starring a couple of mercenary supervillains like Deadshot and Cheshire. And just like how there could be a case out there of a book that's too close to things involving superheroics, this, now that I think of it, suffers from a case of being too close to supervillainy.
Similarly, I think that the problem with the new Infinity Inc, which is being written by Peter Milligan, is that it seems to star a couple of characters who aren't just second-rate, but who otherwise have nothing to do with the original team. Just because the JSA is where so many characters who're connected with the classic team from the Golden Age appear now doesn't mean that they couldn't do something similar to when Marvel launched West Coast Avengers in the mid-80s, and feature a team that worked in California, to the regular team's being based in New York. The new series being launched really doesn't interest me, as it's in name only and not a true revival of Roy Thomas' series from the mid-80s.
Then, there's another new item coming up called "Challengers from Beyond", which is supposed to star Donna Troy, Kyle Rayner and Jason Todd, as they explore all these new multi-earths and dimensions introduced in 52 (via Bags and Boards). As you can probably guess, this is obviously meant as a variation on Challengers of the Unknown, but the original astronauts are nowhere in sight. And this is a clearer example of when a series becomes too closely identified with superheroics. Honestly, if it doesn't have anything to do with the original material, and if the original stuff is ignored, then I really don't see what's the use here.
So are any of these revivals of older stuff worth it if they're in name only? Frankly, I can't say that they are.
Labels: dc comics
