Brightest Day #2 & #3

Spoiler Level: Low

I really am interested in exploring the mystery behind why these characters have been resurrected, and I love the bits with the White Lantern ring and Deadman. But now that the series has settled down into its regular format, I realize that I've been tricked into reading an anthology book for characters who can't carry their own books.

Which isn't bad, per se. I'm enjoying all the stories. I simply realized that the real reason all these characters were resurrected was so that they could all be put in the same book with a Green Lantern wrapping on it, thus giving DC hope that Green Lantern readers like me and readers who are into the big events like Darkest Night will be sucked in. It worked for me; I'm certainly not a fan of a single character in this series, but I am enjoying it and intend to keep reading it. I like anthology books, and I like weekly comics, so this being a bi-weekly semi-anthology satisfies both those interests for me. I'll stick with it.

But I wonder how many other people will. These are characters who are usually lucky if they see issue 50. Rich says this is an ongoing book, so being bi-weekly they'll get in 26 issues a year, but if enough people end up going "Hey wait a minute, this isn't really a Green Lantern book or an Event, why am I reading this?" then they may find themselves without a book again by issue 50.

The other thing it has going for it is that Geoff Johns is both a good writer and a hot writer, so his name may be enough to keep it selling, and he may have bigger things planned that will keep people interested. And as long as the people who were buying Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Hawkman and Firestorm in their own books were different people, and they're all buying it now to follow their individual favorite, then it might add up to enough sales to keep it afloat.

But still, this was very sneaky of you, DC. ;)

Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds

Okay, now Rich, I know you haven't had a lot of time to read lately. And Jonathan, I know you read comics but I haven't seen you post a comics blog in a long time and I don't remember if you're reading this one.

So if you guys haven't finished this mini-series, just stop reading this post now. If you have...

Okay, let me see if I have this straight... the Legion I've been reading, the most recent one that started with Mark Waid and ended with Jim Shooter, is actually the Legion of Earth-Prime, right? Which is our Earth. So that's why they always had all the real comic books in the early issues.

The previous take on the Legion (post-Zero Hour?) turns out to be from Earth-247, which Superboy-Prime destroyed. (I'm also pretty hazy on the whole Earth-247 thing. When and where did that one come from?)

And the original (pre-Zero Hour?) Legion is in fact the true Legion of New Earth, and will be the Legion that's co-starring in Adventure Comics. (Which, incidentally, makes it seem that Geoff Johns is on a quest to totally restore the pre-Crisis DCU... bringing back Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, the original Legion...)

Have I got it right?

Oh Boy! Toys!

I don't feel like reviewing TV shows this week.

I found some cool toys on Monday. I found a Spider-Man from Hasbro's new Marvel Universe line, and an X-Men Origins: Wolverine "Comic Series" figure of Wolvie as he looked back when I read the X-Men. Now normally I'd pass on Marvel super hero action figures, but these are in my favorite scale - 3 3/4."


Spidey takes out his frustrations on one of those pesky Jawas.

I was already thrilled about Mattel's DC Infinite Heroes action figures. My favorite scale, and doing characters like Black Adam, Adam Strange and Guy Gardner right off the bat! I became a little less thrilled at the generic sculpting and poor articulation, but they were two bucks cheaper than my Star Wars figures so I was willing to accept the trade off. But now, I can't find anything after the first wave, even though they've been all over the internet for months. Not very encouraging for me to build the entire DCU.

So the idea of being able to build the entire MU to go along with it is a little bittersweet now, because I suspect I'll never get to complete my Justice League to stand toe-to-toe with my Avengers. I even considered not buying them after all... until I found one.

A Stormtrooper is distracted from his duties by Starfire's boobies.

These figures are nice. Hasbro's been doing a great job with the Star Wars figures over the last few years, and Steve tells me they've been doing just as good with the GI Joe figures. Well, they've applied it all to the Marvel Universe line. Fantastic detailing, individualized sculpting (no cheap-out sculpting here, unlike the DCU line) and tons of articulation.

Wolverine's got his quarters down and Green Lantern Hal Jordan waits
for Grand Admiral Thrawn to stop hogging the Pac-Man machine.

So I'm hooked. I really hope I'll still be able to build the DCU with it, but even if I don't, I'm such a sucker for the 3 3/4" scale and they've done such a good job with these figures that I can't bring myself to pass them up.

Final Crisis vs. Secret Invasion

I'm not planning on talking about comics much, but in the process of working down my comic backlog, I've just finished reading both DC's Final Crisis and Marvel's Secret Invasion, so I feel compelled to compare the two.

Now, to get my bias out right away, I am a much bigger DC fan than Marvel fan. I loved Marvel Comics when I was a teenager (way back when they decided to expand their popular X-Men comic with a new spin-off called The New Mutants, to give you a timeframe). But one by one I lost interest in my Marvel titles, and when I did get drawn back into super hero comics years later it was with the Death of Superman storyline, and I found I really enjoyed the new DC Universe. I still read Marvel books, but ever since then Marvel's been firmly in second place.

So I guess it's going to be pretty obvious that for me, the run-away winner in the battle between 2008's Mega-Crossovers is... Marvel's SECRET INVASION!

I found DC's Final Crisis to be a confusing mess. The first issue and a half felt like completely unconnected scenes, and I couldn't figure out what it was trying to tell me. And what the heck was up with killing the Martian Manhunter in one panel?!? Rich tells me that Grant Morrison was going for something different, showing that these bad guys were so nasty they could kill a major hero like Martian Manhunter like he was a redshirt. Sorry, but that wasn't what I got out of it. I'm all for new and innovative ways of storytelling, and I'm certainly willing to think and try to piece things together, but I guess this one was just beyond me. Maybe I'm just not intellectual enough. (Oh, look! Knight Rider's on!)

The story started to coalesce by the end of issue 2, but I still felt it was moving slowly. Issues 3 and 4 were more coherant, but not exactly exciting me, and I usually enjoy the New Gods. Issues 5 and 6, when the Anti-Life equation is unleashed, I really enjoyed, but even then I felt like I was missing important parts. (Wait a minute, who's under their control and who isn't? Is that the real Wonder Woman?) And Batman went out in style. Then came issue 7, and I was again left thinking, WTF? And the spin-offs that I've read (Rage of the Red Lanterns, Superman Beyond 3D and Legion of Three Worlds) don't seem to connect with the whole New Gods and building of the Fifth World at all-- the only connection seems to be in the Final Crisis brand name. So overall, I didn't really enjoy it.

Secret Invasion, on the other hand, I loved from beginning to end. It was a fast moving story that felt strongly connected and coherant, and presented a crisis (pardon the word) that shook the entire Marvel Universe. I felt like I was getting the core story in the main comic, without missing a thing, but then I'd see how it affected the entire world in any other Marvel comics I read (particularly She-Hulk). Anytime I felt there were characters I didn't really know, I felt I was given enough backstory in context that I didn't feel lost. Brian Michael Bendis is known for his slow pacing, and I think that the conversation between Jarvis and SHIELD on the deck of the helicarrier didn't need to take three issues, but other than that I felt like I was getting a story. A big-ass story, at that.

As for impact... Final Crisis killed Batman and Martian Manhunter. Secret Invasion killed the Wasp and a bunch of low-tier heroes, most of which I've never heard of anyway. Now I expect all of those main characters to come back (I give Batman 12-18 months, the Wasp 3-5 years, and Martian Manhunter 5-10 years) but it's still a pretty big deal. On the whole, though, even though he got a good death scene, I feel Batman deserves to go out on a better story.

Oh yeah, and we got Barry Allen back. Well, I suppose that will make the old school Flash fans happy. Personally I never really got into the Flash, so all it is to me is another reversal. See above predictions. ;)

I still buy three times as many DC books than Marvel books, and I don't expect that to change any time soon. Still... you know what Marvel's been saying: Embrace Change...

Smallville - "Bulletproof"

Pros:

• I was so excited about last week's episode with the Legion, I forgot to say how happy I was that Chloe's memory has been restored. Thank you, Smallville. All is forgiven.

• Dan Turpin! Hurray!

• Another step closer to the founding of the Justice League.

• Was there a sexual tension between Tess & Lana, or was I just reading into it? ...Oh, I was? Damn. That would have been hot.

Cons:

• Oh no, Clark's not making googley-eyes and smoochy-face with Lana again?!? AGAIN?!?! F'r cryin' out loud! Let it go!!!

Watchmen - by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Well, damn. Now I see what all the fuss is about.

Being a comic book fan (especially of my age group) and not having read Watchmen is like being a movie buff who has never seen Citizen Kane. Yet there I was. At the time that Watchmen first came out, I was more concerned with Comico's Robotech comics (and probably this other cool new title that Comico had just started called Grendel).

After the years passed it became one of those things I've always meant to get around to based on it's reputation, but never have. Like Citizen Kane.

Then I saw the trailer for the upcoming Watchmen movie, and I knew I had to see this movie... but there was no way I was going to go see an adaptation without having read the original first. So Rich kindly came to my rescue and loaned me his copy.

And wow, was I hooked into it. I've been reading it every chance I could over the last three days, and I finished it up this morning.

Which is saying a lot, in and of itself, because not all of the books that were revolutionary for the time hold up. I also never read The Dark Night Returns at the time, so I started reading it when Dark Night Strikes Again was announced. I hate to admit this, but I had trouble getting into it. I had to remind myself that this was the first time Batman was being handled this gritty. By 2001, those kinds of stories had become routine in general. So I was partially prepared to not be as impressed with Watchmen as I would have been in 1985....yet I was.

It's also saying a lot considering the story is firmly entrenched in 1985. I remember 1985 well. It was the year that Robotech debuted, the year I moved from the Pittsburgh suburbs to the Philadelphia suburbs... I also remember wondering which strike zone I had moved into. (We all knew at the time that if/when nuclear war did happen, then if you were in Zone 1 you were dead instantly, if you were in Zone 2 you died slowly from radiation, and if you were in Zone 3 you lived and wished you had been in Zone 1.) I also remember my Spanish teacher going on about the Red Threat in class, and watching Threads, not to mention The Day After in 1983. But that gives you a good idea about what the world was like in 1985. The attitudes aren't fiction, they aren't an embellishment, they're how the world really was at the time. I remember the Beirut embassy being bombed and just walking by myself around town, wondering if there was any point in figuring out what I would be when I grew up because I wasn't confident that the world would still be there that long.

This book captures all that, and it's made stronger in that we're reading about a parallel 1985 where the world was changed by having Super Heroes-- not just how Super Heroes fit into the "real world" of 1985. I think that makes the story work no matter when you read it.

The characters feel real. The story of "What happens when real people become super heroes?" has been done a lot since too, but as long as your characters are people you can relate to, it never gets old. And I found all of them intriguing, especially since really one one of them had super powers.

So I went back to the movie trailer with a new eye, and now I'm even more excited than ever to see it.

I guess I should get around to seeing Citizen Kane now...