The Four Color Media Monitor

Here's a short article in the Melbourne Herald Sun in Australia about a manga/anime exhibition being held in the city.

Labels: Europe and Asia, exhibitions, manga and anime

The LeHigh Valley Express Times gushes over Mike Carey's imitation of the earlier X-Men "event" called Age of Apocalypse, here titled "Age of X", and when that's the only title they can think of giving it, something is wrong:

In the new X-Men event "Age of X" by writer Mike Carey, the X-Men never formed and mutant kind finds itself on the brink of extinction.

Without the X-Men for guidance, humanity gave in to its fear and hatred and now the mutant population around the world has been hunted down and killed.

The remaining few mutants have banded together in a last-ditch effort to survive a nonstop assault on Fortress X.

Created by Magneto, Fortress X is the last refuge for mutants.

For 1,000 days, the mutant army led by Cannonball defends themselves against an enemy that will not stop and will never surrender until the last mutant is killed.

"Age of X" owes a lot to "Age of Apocalypse." Both stories are a bleak alternative take on the X-Men.

And that's just the problem! Too often, what brought down the X-Men was the constant leaning towards a dark viewpoint. And just why does Magneto have to be the "savior" in these alternate timelines? If they have to use a villain, couldn't be one more along the lines of Baron Mordo?

When Days of Future Past first experimented with time travel, that was well done and enough. Tragically, they kept recycling it even without the time travel elements, and it became cliche. And now, it's just another sign of Marvel's artistic bankruptcy.

Labels: crossoverloading, marvel comics, msm propaganda, X-Men

The following panel was scanned from the Teen Titans trade called "Beast Boys & Girls", and comes from either issue #14 or #15 in 2004:
I don't think that inclusion of the p-word in the lower left box helps this book one bit. Nor would it pass muster in Power Pack. It only serves to make this book all the more unappealing in terms of dialogue. How anyone could think this series ever had any energy when it first began under his scripting I just don't know. It's just another sign of how this volume of Teen Titans is not for young children.

And that's an example of how Johns can write some pretty alienating, colorless dialogue when he wants to, just like how he can write up some pretty alienating acts of mayhem.

Labels: dc comics, dreadful writers, moonbat writers, Titans

In this review of Justice League of America #54, we discover how James Robinson continues to lose whatever credibility he once had as a writer, as he subjects Jade to a Phoenix-style abuse through Eclipso's influence:

Throughout Robinson's run we have seen Jade wielding black tinged energy, losing control at times, nearly killing villains.

The Phoenix story may have been famous when it was originally done back in 1979, but since then a considerable number of writers, including Chris Claremont himself, have done the premise to death and made it increasingly tasteless, even if they don't go as far what took place in Uncanny X-Men back in the day. If this is how they're going to treat Jenny-Lynn Hayden, then they're not coming up with any plausible character development or drama.

After reading this, I'm beginning to think that the whole premise of Eclipso was a disaster to begin with too.

Labels: dc comics, dreadful writers, Justice League of America, misogyny and racism

The comics and animation editor who created the Milestone line has died, following a failed operation. That's very sad.

What's really amazing following this, by the way, is that Dan DiDio has offered his condolences, which is pretty remarkable considering how badly he treated him a few years ago. I wonder if he might be willing to support returning the rights to McDuffie's properties to his estate?

Labels: dc comics

The Jawa Report tells that Bosch Fawstin's Infidel graphic novel is now available online for download at just $2.50 as a PDF, even on iPad software.

Update: also, here's an interview with Fawstin at Capitalism Magazine (via Superhero Babylon) where he gives some more good insight into the issues involved.

Labels: islam and jihad, politics, technology

On CBR's Robot 6 blog, they feature an unpublished illustration of FOX News host Beck that was drawn for a New York Times profiling by Daniel Clowes. And where they scrape the bottom of the barrel is when the writer says:

Clowes was commissioned to draw the portrait for a New York Times Magazine profile on Beck when it seemed he wouldn’t be willing to sit for a photograph, but apparently cooler heads prevailed and/or Beck found a break in his busy schedule of rooting for the massacre of unarmed Arab protesters, and an agreement with the dreaded liberal media behemoth was reached after all

It sounds like this item was written simply as a means for assault on Beck. Now that's really low, claiming without presenting any proper evidence that he supports Gaddafi, and I suppose this is more important to them than the sexual assault on Lara Logan by savages in Egypt? Sadly, it appears to be the case. It takes away considerably from whatever seriousness they claim to promote too.

It's disgusting stunts like this that make me lose respect for Comic Book Resources.

Labels: politics

The Nashua Telegraph does a little fawning job for Geoff Johns' tedious take on Barry Allen:

DC chief creative officer Geoff Johns can apparently do no wrong these days. He just finished re-imagining Green Lantern to critical and financial success, and now has turned his sights on the Fastest Man Alive, with promising results.

Yeah, and GL sure isn't selling much now; sales are well below 100,000 units. And if the same has occurred with the Flash (and indeed it has), I don't see how he can do no wrong today, or how he can be so promising either.

“The Flash: The Dastardly Death of the Rogues” ($19.99) collects the first seven issues of the Scarlet Speedster’s rebooted title, plus two stories from the “Flash Secret Files and Origins 2010” one-shot.

Not only do these stories lay the groundwork for the new series starring the resurrected Flash of 1956-84 (as a superhero forensics expert), not only do they tell you everything you need to know about the major characters, villains, background and milieu of the series, but they tell a whopper of a tale, as well.

Johns combines the innocent charm of ’60s Flash stories with the hard-nosed storytelling of today’s “CSI” franchises in a time-travel whirlwind using most of the Crimson Comet’s rogues gallery.

That’s a lot to pack in, but Johns does it effortlessly for a story offering revelation, mystery, thrills and charm. No wonder he’s CCO!

No wonder his work's declined in sales too! The late scheduling of the book didn't help matters either. I guess it's only fair that I note how these are mostly futuristic variants on the Rogues' appearing in the story, based on ones whom he overused drastically ever since he'd taken over the title, and that he's made this a variation on CSI's approach is exactly what I think is wrong with it. And if this topic on the Dixonverse forum tells anything, no, there are other people who aren't buying into this either. Besides, what does this take on the Scarlet Speedster have that couldn't be done with Wally West? Or rather, that couldn't if someone as pretentious as Johns was going to be in charge?

It'll be interesting to see how long this trade paperback remains in print: the compilations of Johns' earlier work, circa 2000-2005, have been out of print for a couple years, which suggests that long term, they weren't as popular as some might think (who knows how long the recent omnibus, costing at least $75, will last then). If the same result turns out for the latest material, I'd estimate it'll last on shelves for about 2 years or less.

Labels: dc comics, dreadful writers, Flash, Green Lantern, moonbat writers, msm propaganda

The AFP writes about India's first official comic-con in the country, opening in New Delhi, where their own industry is going through a renaissance.

Update: in a related note, Anant Pai, a pioneer of India's industry, has passed away on February 25.

Labels: conventions, Europe and Asia

The Jackson Herald Bulletin writes more news on David E. Kelley's new planned Wonder Woman TV series, and again, lets us know that early word on development doesn't sound promising. They also tell what may be the biggest problem engulfing Warner's approach to adapting the comics today, and even affects the source material:

Since the success of “Batman Begins,” studios and networks have clamored to “reinvent” comic book characters in a more realistic setting. Even the comics side of DC raced to demystify its characters, not so long ago creating the alter ego Diana Prince for Wonder Woman so she could disappear among the humans she’d sworn to protect. (’Cause a pair of glasses means no one’s going to suspect the 6-foot-plus black-haired beauty waltzing down the street is Wonder Woman.)

They may have done this even before Batman Begins, but let's remember that her alter ego of Diana Prince was already created in the pre-Crisis era; the problem is just that they're boomeranging back to it. They're right, however, that both the comics and the live action adaptations have been seriously hurt by all this overt concern with realism, which really isn't. And in the process, they've made their material less imaginative, and less enjoyable.

I don't even expect what they've got in store to have any plausible humor or comedy, another problem with their current approach. They've made things so bad, there's no room for any real laughter now.

Labels: dc comics, Wonder Woman

IGN Comics reports that there's a new miniseries debuting for Alpha Flight. Predictably, it won't be marketed on its own terms but as part of a crossover, and the neither the team nor its country will be given much respect either:

In light of Chaos War and in the midst of Fear Itself, Canada turns into a fascist regime and suddenly, the Alpha Flight team find themselves traitors to their country.

Wow, just what even the residents of the great white north need, that their country be insulted that badly by Marvel's stooges, with a variation on Civil War set north of the border. I fully expect the story's POV to be as biased as that of Civil War, and the miniseries to be unworthy of anyone's time.

Labels: crossoverloading, marvel comics

As told in this item on the Examiner site:

Senior Vice President of sales at Marvel Comics David Gabriel announced that Marvel is planning to kill a major character every quarter. He also added "this is not a joke."

Regardless, it's not funny, and it's not polite either. They can say what they like, but that only enforces the view that these are not being done for story value, but for shock and publicity's sake. It should also be enough to tell anyone that Marvel does not deserve our money if this is all they're going to do.

They have really scraped bottom this time.

Labels: crossoverloading, golden calf of death, marvel comics

This ICV2 sales chart shows that, while Fantastic Four #587 sold 115,000 copies, all other series sold below 73,000 copies in January. So many once majestic titles are now plummeting to dismal numbers thanks to the destruction the people in charge of the big two have caused, and again, it's going to be exceedingly harder for the big two to justify the sales results.

Labels: sales

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin tells that there's a program donating anime productions to the US Army troops abroad. It's probably better than Marvel and DC donating any of their products, with the way they've been going today.

Labels: manga and anime

The terrible politician who helped Obama craft his awful health care plan is going to tell all about it in a graphic novel (H/T: Hot Air Headlines):

The MIT economics whiz who crafted President Obama’s national health-care overhaul now plans to explain the complex and controversial plan to the masses — in one long comic book.

Jonathan Gruber, a nationally recognized health economist who devised the economic underpinnings of Obamacare (Gruber hates the term), said his three comic-loving kids encouraged him to use the hip format of the graphic novel — basically an expensive comic published in book form — to tell the story of the complicated plan to 300 million Americans.

Unlike most comic books, Gruber’s won’t have a superhero like Batman or Captain America or a villain like the Joker, he said.

But there is a villain writing this book, and it's Gruber himself. It's sad how the medium is being repeatedly exploited for stuff as bad as this, and even sadder that comics and graphic novels with conservative perspectives are marginalized. We could sure use a comic or graphic novel now to explain what's wrong with socialism and demagoguery, but sadly, the chances that they would ever be given a chance by the current industry is almost none.

Labels: politics

The Scotsman reports that at the Glasgow Film Festival, they're celebrating the growing power of comic book movies.

Trouble is, with all the increasing PC-madness affecting these films, that power could on the verge of losing steam. This year might be the one that answers that very question.

Labels: conventions

The Daily Beast reports that they got hold of the teleplay for TV producer David E. Kelley's planned Wonder Woman series, and here's the parts that startle me:

The Daily Beast has obtained a copy of Kelley’s draft of the Wonder Woman pilot script, dated December 16, 2010—and it’s laughably bizarre. In Kelley’s vision, Wonder Woman is presented as a weepy career woman-slash-superheroine with three identities (Wonder Woman; Diana Themyscira, the chairman of Themyscira Industries; and mousy assistant Diana Price) to juggle.

The pilot episode, which Kelley notes is designed to run “without commercial interruption,” revolves around Los Angeles-based mega-billionaire Diana—who collects planes and a multitude of transforming aircraft called “Ultimates” (no invisible plane in sight here)—as she attempts to take down an evil pharmaceutical company run by morally corrupt scientist Veronica Cale, who is mass-producing a human-growth hormone that is causing its users, mostly black inner city youth, to die. Along the way, she tackles criminals, a Senate subcommittee, and a broken heart, the latter courtesy of lost love Steve Trevor.

First, the idea of depicting WW in civilian guise as "weepy", does not sound like a particularly good idea for how to depict your leading lady (in the early 70s, this was considered what made the Supergirl series of the time misfire). It definitely wouldn't work with Clark Kent, but even Diana Prince wouldn't come off well if she were depicted as a pathetic wreck. If she's got three different IDs to maintain, that sounds rather awkward too, probably done all for the sake of being outlandish.

But aside from that, if there's one more thing I find dismaying here, it's their use of Greg Rucka's short lived business adversary, Veronica Cale, in what amounts to a plot depicting a white criminal exploiting minorities. This is an idea that's getting tiresome already. It didn't work with 2003's The Truth: Red, White and Black from Marvel, and I don't think it's going to impress here either. Also because, is it not possible for whites to be exploited for these kind of bizarre experiments too?

And what if that Senate subcommittee really does turn out to be a bunch of conservatives?

Managing to be both cloying and tragically un-hip, Kelley’s Wonder Woman script seems an about-face for this 70-year-old iconic character. Merchandise meetings and legal jargon jostle uncomfortably with superheroics, pajama parties with saving the world.

The result is a Wonder Woman who is more like Kelley’s Ally McBeal than the feminist superhero who stands side-by-side with her fellow DC icons Superman and Batman. This is a woman whose feelings are hurt by people commenting on her breast size, who is looking for love in all the wrong places, and who wants to have it all! (No sign of a unisex bathroom yet but other Kelley tropes seem liberally scattered throughout the script. Fortunately, there’s no dancing baby.) But the stilted dialogue and bizarre narrative conceits pale in comparison with some of the sacrilege being committed here.

And just what do they expect to gain by depicting anybody as rude by blabbering about her cup size? I'd think that would only make it flavorless, and drown all sex appeal. Add to this that, if they didn't come up with the idea of at least offering WW a variation on the Kapatelis mother/daughter duo as mentors and mentorees whom she could take under her wing, or even trying out a story in which she tries to help drug addicts overcome it - always worth trying in storytelling - then I think they really have gone for too much of the same, borrowing far too often from Kelley's older productions.

There's more at the link (the article is formatted in 2 pages), including descriptions of several parts in the script pages that leave me feeling frustrated already, and if this does go into production, I don't forsee it having much life.

Labels: dc comics, misogyny and racism, politics, Wonder Woman

It's here on Big Hollywood. Looking at it, I think that, if there's any puzzling question to be asked now, it's why isn't the star wearing the mask/cowl in the poster? I don't get it.

If there's anything else about the movie's plot that does amaze, it's the discovery that Bucky will appear in it. This is really surprising, considering that filmmakers of Batman like Christopher Nolan didn't want to use Robin. Well gee, if they really think those acrobatic shorts are embarrassing, why don't they just turn to the 1990s rendition, who wears a pair of trouser-style leggings? In any case, I just can't believe that they can't do a good enough portrayal of Robin that's far from needlessly campy, though it's nowhere near as galling as their attack on a fictional character instead of the scripting job.

Labels: Captain America

Leigh Scott writes on Big Hollywood of how Tinseltown has given the roles of comics heroes like Superman, Spider-Man, and even Batman to British born actors of recent. While this does have plenty to ponder in how, unlike other countries, American is more open to letting foreigners try their stuff on national treasures, it did make me think of something more in relation to the comics medium itself: why, whenever DC/Marvel hire a writer - if not an artist - from a foreign country, it almost always seems to be one from Britain? Why not writers from Australia and New Zealand, or even France, Portugal, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Serbia, Estonia, Romania, Ghana, Korea, Japan, or other non-English speaking countries? Do they not have the talent it takes to tackle a writing gig for an American comic book?

My guess is that it's because, unlike the UK's Mark Millar, Grant Morrison and Warren Ellis, a writer from some of these aforementioned countries wouldn't have the same bleak, downbeat approach they could, laced with hyperviolence. It's quite possible that some Australian based writers with potential could indeed wish to take a more optimistic approach than what the British ones do, and TPTB wouldn't allow it, discouraging them from ever seeking a comics writing gig with DC and Marvel.

And on top of all that, the truth is that foreign based writers from outside the American continent aren't being given a chance to tackle American comics, unlike American movies, where they could be. Which could also provide another clue to how the comics medium isn't very "diverse".

Going back to the subject of movies, it looks as though the upcoming Superman film may not have Lois Lane in it, similar to how the Spider-Man reboot won't have Mary Jane Watson.

Labels: Batman, Spider-Man, Superman

The blog of Gone and Forgotten writes up a list of several of the most terrible, bottom of the barrel deaths DC's featured in the past few years. Until now, it hadn't been clear to me, but the Three Dimwits - Winky, Blinky and Noddy - a variation on the Three Stooges seen back in the Golden Age in the Flash's adventures, were among the victims of the editorial mandate in the Cry for Justice miniseries. This is another example of old characters being brought back only to see them slaughtered.

Labels: dc comics, golden calf of death

In this National Post article, published a couple days before Johnny Storm's unjust "death" in the Fantastic Four, they began with the headline, "how cool is the death gonna be?" And the paragraph within that really leaves me with a bad aftertaste here is:

"Most of the readers, their attitude is, 'Whoever dies is going to come back years down the road,'" says Rob Spittall, co-owner of the Comic Book Shoppe in Ottawa. "For us as diehard comic fans, it's, 'How cool is the death gonna be?' as opposed to actually believing it's going to last.

If that guy really said that, I'm disgusted. Death is not something to celebrate or jump for joy about, and it makes little difference whether this involves a fictional story or not. If we start treating fictional death as a matter of celebration, how will we deal with death in real life? I think there's a very bad influence and example set in this article, and it gives diehard fans a bad name too.

"The major way death is used is to market a book," says Doug Mann, a professor of media studies with King's University College at the University of Western Ontario. "The only way you could prove it's not a cynical ploy is you kill them in a storyline where it's meaningful and then you keep them dead for at least 10 years."

In reply to this, I have to ask: why is anyone asking for deaths in comics at all, or even tolerating them? Why is nobody objecting to the overuse of death as any kind of a storytelling gimmick? Years ago, even during the Golden Age, it wasn't every superhero story where death of innocents, specifically, was emphasized. I figure that if you tried to market a direction for superhero comics today that was similar to The A-Team, where only a handful of innocents (and villains) ever went to the grave, it'd be rejected, as today's audience allegedly can't handle a story with a lighter approach.

If nobody stands up and says that this overabundance of stories emphasizing deaths - particularly ones that don't stem from natural causes - is just what's destroying superhero comics today, the failure to do so is exactly what'll finally bury them. Unfortunately, we can't expect the MSM to convey those opinions.

Labels: Fantastic Four, golden calf of death, marvel comics, msm propaganda