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Recent Comics News
There will be spoilers for Final Crisis and Legion of Three Worlds...
So, Final Crisis ended last week, and once again I chose to let someone else read it and summarize it on the Net. And once again, I felt justified in not touching it with a ten foot pole. And then I read a couple of interview with Grant Morrison, and it became clear that he really did exactly what he wanted to do, and what he wanted to do was tell the most deconstructed, meta super-hero story possible. I'm not sure what's odder, that he really sees a need for this, or that DC let him do this, didn't exert any editorial control, and made this their Big Event for 2008. I suppose that DC gets some credit for thinking outside the box. But let's hope that next time they remember the box is labeled "Super-Hero Comics" and not "Jacques Derrida."
As for repercussions from Final Crisis, it looks like there will be just one, and it involves Batman. Who, to the surprise of no one, isn't really dead. He is - I kid you not - alive and in the Stone Age. Which is par for the course, but still leave me wondering just what all that build-up for Batman RIP and "the final fate of Batman" was about. It's obviously a matter of time till he get rescued and comes back to Gotham and takes back the cowl. That doesn't mean that there won't be some interesting storytelling in "Battle for the Cowl." Or that DC will rush to bring Batman back. But in the end, I think I'd be a lot happier if they had called it something other than "Batman RIP" and if they hadn't teased a death that didn't happen.
Anyway, you would think I'm in a negative mood. That ended yesterday, with the very late release of the third issue of Legion of Three Worlds. It's still a fairly straightforward heroes vs. villains story with a strong script by Geoff Johns and awesome George Perez art. Nothing we haven't seen before aside from having three different versions of the Legion interacting, but worth the time.
Only then Johns kicks things up a gear. After a clever retcon to explain how XS (not to mention Bart Allen) is Barry Allen's grandchild when she's from the wrong Legion timeline, we watch Brainaic 5's plan to make life for Superboy-Prime more difficult. A plan that involves reaching into the Speed Force. And finding one of the two teen heroes who took on Prime and won...
Bart Allen.
Yup. Bart, whose jump to adulthood and being the Flash was a total flop and left him dead way too soon, is back. And a teen again. And in his Kid Flash costume.
And I am ecstatic. Some comic book deaths need to be undone. Some deaths are meaningless and painful and leave fans hoping that the illogic of how heroes come back is invoked. This was one of those deaths. I don't know what Johns has in mind for Bart, but I am hopeful he is back to stay and can pick up from where he left off before Infinite Crisis.
Oh, and there are hints in this same comic that Brainaic 5 also has some ideas about how to make a new Kon-El (aka Superboy).
Yes, all the deaths and resurrections get silly as well as a bit dull and a little wearying. But sometimes, we get moments when the forces of darkness are rolled back and soemthing really good and really cool happened. Sometimes, we get back Bart. Or maybe Kon-El.
So, Final Crisis ended last week, and once again I chose to let someone else read it and summarize it on the Net. And once again, I felt justified in not touching it with a ten foot pole. And then I read a couple of interview with Grant Morrison, and it became clear that he really did exactly what he wanted to do, and what he wanted to do was tell the most deconstructed, meta super-hero story possible. I'm not sure what's odder, that he really sees a need for this, or that DC let him do this, didn't exert any editorial control, and made this their Big Event for 2008. I suppose that DC gets some credit for thinking outside the box. But let's hope that next time they remember the box is labeled "Super-Hero Comics" and not "Jacques Derrida."
As for repercussions from Final Crisis, it looks like there will be just one, and it involves Batman. Who, to the surprise of no one, isn't really dead. He is - I kid you not - alive and in the Stone Age. Which is par for the course, but still leave me wondering just what all that build-up for Batman RIP and "the final fate of Batman" was about. It's obviously a matter of time till he get rescued and comes back to Gotham and takes back the cowl. That doesn't mean that there won't be some interesting storytelling in "Battle for the Cowl." Or that DC will rush to bring Batman back. But in the end, I think I'd be a lot happier if they had called it something other than "Batman RIP" and if they hadn't teased a death that didn't happen.
Anyway, you would think I'm in a negative mood. That ended yesterday, with the very late release of the third issue of Legion of Three Worlds. It's still a fairly straightforward heroes vs. villains story with a strong script by Geoff Johns and awesome George Perez art. Nothing we haven't seen before aside from having three different versions of the Legion interacting, but worth the time.
Only then Johns kicks things up a gear. After a clever retcon to explain how XS (not to mention Bart Allen) is Barry Allen's grandchild when she's from the wrong Legion timeline, we watch Brainaic 5's plan to make life for Superboy-Prime more difficult. A plan that involves reaching into the Speed Force. And finding one of the two teen heroes who took on Prime and won...
Bart Allen.
Yup. Bart, whose jump to adulthood and being the Flash was a total flop and left him dead way too soon, is back. And a teen again. And in his Kid Flash costume.
And I am ecstatic. Some comic book deaths need to be undone. Some deaths are meaningless and painful and leave fans hoping that the illogic of how heroes come back is invoked. This was one of those deaths. I don't know what Johns has in mind for Bart, but I am hopeful he is back to stay and can pick up from where he left off before Infinite Crisis.
Oh, and there are hints in this same comic that Brainaic 5 also has some ideas about how to make a new Kon-El (aka Superboy).
Yes, all the deaths and resurrections get silly as well as a bit dull and a little wearying. But sometimes, we get moments when the forces of darkness are rolled back and soemthing really good and really cool happened. Sometimes, we get back Bart. Or maybe Kon-El.
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And when Morrison is good, he's great (Animal Man, All-Star Superman). Sadly, with Final Crisis, this doesn't seem to have been the case.
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Happy, happy, happy.
no subject
Oh, dammit. Comics, I cannot quit you.