Who's Batman?

So Ben Affleck has been named as the next Movie Batman in the 2015 Superman/Batman movie and the internet loses it's shit. Sigh. It's great that so many people care about a fictional character, but come on people let's give him the benefit of the doubt. So while I was reading all of the twitter hate, love, indifference, I began to think about all the other actors who played Batman. Each one had an upside and a downside. So I thought again. Hey maybe I should put my two cents in well because I can. Then my friend Gary suggested I also talk about the villains and secondary characters in the films as well. And I think I will but in a different Blog. For now I am going to put down my thoughts on all the Batman's in the Modern era, yes hearkening back to the TV show Batman. These are only the live action ones, since the animated one is the best representation of Batman, but it is animated and not live. So away we go. If you disagree, agree, or are indifferent let me kow in the comments section.

ADAM WEST: BATMAN 1960S TV SHOW: I grew up watching the reruns of Adam West as Batman, and as a kid I loved them. But now has a grownup and a bit more jaded it is exactly what it was trying to be. Campy fun for kids. This was not a serious take on Batman, it was a cleaned up family friendly version, which to be fair was what the comics were at the time. It was in the 70s when Batman started getting gritty. Adam West was fine as Batman. His upside is he loved playing the character, you could just tell. He is also an iconic figure for people my age and older. He was Batman, and it was fun. The villains were great, everyone appeared to be having fun, and that is where the downside is. This Batman was a goofball, someone who easily figured out things and took out the bad guys easily and escaped from the perilous deathtraps easily using his gadgets. He was not the dark knight. But again let me preface that was not Batman at the time. The thing that really bought out the camp was stuff like the Bat-Tusi, or walking up the side of the building and stopping to talk to people, and the old chums. But in the end he is a product of the times and Adam West adored playing Batman. And that is cool.

MICHAEL KEATON: BATMAN 1989, 1992 BATMAN, BATMAN RETURNS: When they announced that Michael Keaton was going to play Batman, I flipped out, but that was before the internet so I could not vent my frustrations. He was a comedic actor, what did he know about comics and playing Batman, we were going to get the campy Batman back. But then I started thinking. He was good in Clean and Sober, he could do Drama. Let's see what happens. I loved Tim Burton, and they had cast Jack Nicholson as the Joker which was pretty cool (at the time) so let's see what happens. What we got was a great beginning to the modern era of Comic Films. The Superman series had fallen into parody, so this was almost a new beginning. And Keaton was good. The film was darker then the campy tv series, and got a lot of stuff right. The music by Danny Elfman was spot on, and it was cool to see a comic book film which became a huge hit. Keaton's upside was that he had a great Batman voice, he looked cool in the outfit, and you could almost believe he was crazy enough to be a guy who dresses like a bat. He was not as good looking as Bruce Wayne is usually envisioned but he was good. The downside, He was a little small to play the role, did not have the physical build to be Batman who in the comics had worked for 10 years to refine every aspect of his life to fight crime, I didn't get that from Keaton. His Bruce Wayne was a little too much like Chris Reeve's Clark Kent being a little spacy and absentminded, But I get why they did it. To blow the scent off of the fact that this guy could be Batman. I liked the fact that he had some time to show off his brooding self in the films and that helped the cause as well. in retrospect I liked Keaton as Batman, and am happy to see that he is embracing superheroes again. He is in a film out next year about an actor who played a Superhero in some successful films but is now down and out and they are rebooting the character and he wants back in. Looks good.

VAL KILMER: BATMAN 1995 : BATMAN FOREVER: Val Kilmer is an interesting actor, he has lost it recently, but in the early 80s he was having fun acting in films like Real Genius and Top Secret! and even Top Gun and Willow some what, but when the 90s hit he was in a broody attitude taking roles in dark and conplex films and not showcasing his fun side. He was becoming like the anti-actor and that is why he could have been a great Batman. He had the broody angry look down, was still handsome, but in Batman Forever he just did not look like he was having fun. It could be that Joel Schumaucher reverted the series back to the campy side which was a major blow for the film series and the character. Just think what Kilmer could have done has the more broody angry Batman. The upside was he was broody and angry, he was handsome, he gave off the vibe that he was also pretty smart, but he just seemed like he was angry at taking on the role and was not exploring the depths that Batman has. And that was kind of the downside. He was a downer all the time, yes Batman usually is, but he does have his moments of humor and hapiness and none of it showed here. Plus he was acting in a terrible film directed by someone who really didn't get what audiences wanted to see in a Batman film, and reverted it back to the cheesy campy film. Val could've been a great Batman, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

GEORGE CLOONEY: BATMAN 1997: BATMAN & ROBIN: UG. Is all I have to say. One of the absolute wort films of all time, however it was only partially Clooney's fault. He was miscast, but his upside is that he tried really hard to be a good Batman, he did a good job with what he had, but he just wasn't Batman. He was handsome like Bruce Wayne is supposed to be, he had a bit too much humor, there was no sign of any real intensity or complexities that Batman has. But the movie was just a total trainwreck from start to finish. He was miscast and to be honest I really did not see him as Batman at all so even if he had another director and script, I'm not sure he could've pulled it off. But at least he gave 110% and tried his best to live up to the character and to that I have to give him credit.

CHRISTIAN BALE: BATMAN 2005, 2008, 2012: BATMAN BEGINS, THE DARK KNIGHT, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES: Bale was an excellent Batman. He had all the pieces, the intensity, the complexity, the slight humor, but it was in a very limited way. Nolan and Goyer had a specific story they wanted to tell. They had a beginning, a middle, and end. They were never going to deviate from this story and therein lies a bit of my problem with Bale. He only had eyes for this story. He did not want to anchor a bunch of one off films, he wanted to create a fully formed character and character arc, that in Dark Knight Rises comes to it's intended end. They did not want to dig any deeper, they had a story to tell and they told it. And that's fine but it's very limited. And that is my biggest issue with him. That and his Batman voice was terrible. I was not a big fan of the end of Batman's story and did not like the finality of it. But as it's own story it is pretty good. I would've liked to see Bale go up against some of Batman's other baddies, especially would've loved to see Nolan's Riddler, but alas that is that.

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY

Since around the beginning of the 21st century, retailers have been trying to figure out a way to boost sales, and also to get more people into their stores. One retailer, I can't remember who, came up with the idea of giving away free comics. He had noticed that the resurgance of comic book movies, which had just started getting going with XMEN was drawing people into their shop, so why not connect it with a comic book movie. If a comic book movie is coming out, let's make it the date after. They worked on selling the idea to the comic companies, and Diamond worked out how it would work. It took off like a dream and is now a yearly event on the 1st Saturday of May every year, regardless if a comic book movie is out or not. It has surpassed being attached to a movie and has grown into an all ages fun time at your local comic stores.

It's also a way to get laxed readers,or people who are interested in Super heroes to come into the Local Comic Store. For years they have had to live with the stigma that most people thought comic stores were places were nerds would debate who was stronger Superman or the Hulk, who was faster, who was smarter. And that they were all dank, dark, dirty stores that no one would be caught dead in. However people would soon learn that these stores are big, airy, well lit, and may have those conversations, but sometimes it's just shooting the breeze about anything, sports, other movies, tv shows, music. The people who run them are not the nerdy comic book guys, they are normal men and women who are married, or have kids, or are single also. And yes more women are getting into comic book stores, so it is not all men.

But it is also an opportunity to get younger kids excited about comic books, because let's face it. Nowadays with your smartphones and computer games, kids are no longer really interested in comic books. And that could be bad because now the stores are surviving on grownups like myself who are lifelong fans, but soon we may have to stop buying, or are going to stop buying for whatever reason, and they need younger generations to get excited about comics. So the Free Comic Book books that are available cover all ages and alot of comic companies. All the big names do at least one, sometimes 2, and they also try to catch things that are popular now.

This year, we have a Superman book, a Star Wars book, A Grimm book, A Walking Dead book, TMNT, Disney Faries, Smurfs, Sesame Street, Strawberry Shortcake, Spongebob, Simpsons, Archie, Pippi Longstocking just to name a few. Some have reprints of stories, some are special stories you can only get in this book, some like the DC and Marvel books are prequels to their big company wide crossovers, they also have independent books that maybe some fans of other types of stories besides pop culture can get into also. They even have a website where you can see all the books they are offering and also a locator of which stores are involved in FCBD. WWW.FreeComicBookDay.com

Stores go all out. They get popular writers and artists to come and sign books or do drawings, some have drawings for prizes, some have games, some have people dressed up as superheroes so you can get pictures with them. Some go all out and have crazy parties.

The way it's supposed to work varies with each store, but the one thing that covers all is that they cannot say you get this free comic book with purchase. NO. It is supposed to be away to get people enticed into the comic world. Each story varies, but they have to give them away for free, no exceptions. They can make a rule how they do it, I.E.you can only pick one, or as many as you want. Each store will let you know their rules. My store says we can take as many as we want. They also offer previous FCBD books for free also, so if you missed FCBD last year or the year before, you can still get the books from that year. That is just my store. Cards, Comics, and Collectibles in Reisterstown, MD. So on Saturday, go out to your local comic store. Get a free comic, meet the people who work their, browse the store, who knows you may find something you would like to buy. Have fun! Let me know if any of you go and get good stuff and or service. FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!!!

HAPPY 75TH BIRTHDAY SUPERMAN!!!

On April 18th, 1938 The very first issue of Action Comics came out. In it was a strange person in a red and blue uniform with a cape crashing a car. This strange beings name was Superman and no one had ever seen anything like it before. Created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel Superman began a new wave of superheroes and a new art form called comic books. Soon other characters started to appear like the mysterious Batman and the lovely Wonder Woman. Now 75 years later they are all still around and still very popular.

I know it says June on the cover but for some reasons comics to this day have a two month window but this comic did first come out on April 18th 1938.  To me Superman has never really been one of my favorite characters. It's not that I am against his Truth, Justice, and the American Way, I just never really found him interesting. Until 1986. Around that time I was starting to get into DC Comics. After years of being a Marvel Zombie, 1986 was when DC revamped their universe and I got my first real tastes of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman comics. I also started reading the Flash, and Justice League. And that in turn made me branch out into more DC books. In 1986 John Byrne was one of my most favorite writer Artists, and he was taking over Superman and revamping him and updating him to the future (1986). And it was amazing. After the initial Man of Steel mini-series. I started collecting Superman, Adventures of Superman, and Action Comics. Devoured them and loved them. Read them for a few years, then new creative teams came on and I was beginning to feel as if maybe I should stop, but their stories were just as good. Soon a fourth book Superman Man of Steel appeared and all four Superman comics, with different creative teams, soon started becoming one. After you read Superman you had to read Adventures of Superman because the story continued there, then you had to go to Man of Steel, then Action then back to Superman. It sounds annoying, but to have have four different creative teams so in-synch that you had to collect all 4 of them, more power to them. They were telling good stories and I was fine with buying them all. But soon I got to college and my money started drying up a little bit and I had to make cuts, so I soon stopped reading comics. I kept an eye on them, but I missed a lot of stories. Then when I got back into comics I started reading them again. But soon I started to drift away from Superman as I had to scale back, and for some reason I was not as excited about it as before.

I've always liked Superman in the movies. 2 really good movies in Superman and Superman 2, 1 ok film in Superman Returns, and 2 crappy films in Superman 3 and Superman 4. The cartoon was excellent. Done by the same creators as the successful Batman animated Series, they brought a great series in the Superman animated series. I also enjoyed Lois and Clark when it was on TV with Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher, though it was more romantic comedy then comic book show. Never got into Smallville though heard some good things about that. Something else I like is that Superman is one of the only heroes out there that has an iconic movie theme, created by the great John Williams.

The new 52 Superman though is really not doing it for me. I read the first issues and did not like where they were going. Making him more alien then human, and also kind of more like a douchebag. Dating Wonder Woman, his parents are dead. This is not my Superman, the one I read for so long. So I no longer have any interest in reading Superman. However being the comic guy I am, I did not want his 75th birthday to go by without my acknowledging it. He was really good to read for a long time. And the new Man of Steel movie may have some promise. For now I will wait and see. There is a new Superman title coming out in advance of the film called Superman Unchained and it has a great creative team in Scott Snyder who is tearing it up in Batman, and classic comic artist Jim Lee. So I may pick that one up just to see what Snyder will do with him. I also have a ton of Superman Action figures, but for some reason he really is not one of more favorite characters. But Superman is still an icon and I do have some good memories of reading some Superman stories, but there is just something about him...Oh well doesn't matter. Happy Birthday Superman! You started this all, and for that I salute you.

My History With Comics Part 3: Diamond in the Rough

By now I had seemingly just gotten the job I was born to do. Working for a Comic Book Distribution Center as a Customer Service Rep. Surrounded by comics, talking comics with other fans, helping spread the word about comics. Well here I am in 2013 not even a part of the Diamond Family anymore. How Come? What could go wrong? Heh, read and find out...

MY HISTORY WITH COMICS PART 3: DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH

It was 2002. March actually. My time at Rainforest Cafe was coming to close mainly due to the fact that my hours were getting cut since we were not making alot of money in the retail village. I had been in my apartment with my girlfriend (now wife) for about 7 months and it was getting hard to pay the rent due to my cut hours. I needed a more full time and dare I say grown up job. I had remembered that Diamond was in the area locally. I was living in Cockeysville at the time and about 5-10 minutes from my apartment was a giant Glass building facing 83, this was in Timonium and it was the home of Diamond. I had gone to their website and discovered a window for jobs. I clicked on it and read the description of the jobs they had available. Customer Service Rep seemed right up my alley since I had been spending most of my working life in retail environments, how different could it be? In fact it could be better since I was not seeing the customer face to face, we were talking over the phone. I sent a resume, especially high-lighting my work experience at Alternate Worlds and the Diamond Warehouse, because hey I had been a part of the family before. I got hired and gave my two weeks notice. My last day was exactly 3 years to the date that I was hired at Rainforest.

During my interview they let me know that the job I was applying for was on the West Coast team. That meant my hours had to reflect the best time for the customers out west since they were three hours different from us. So my shift was 11am-8pm.(8am-5pm West Coast time). This wasn't too bad since I did not have any kids at the time and Dawn was in the middle of getting her Masters so she would be doing lots of homework during the regular prime time hours we would be together. The pay was much better and I finally had regular hours, Monday-Friday with weekends off. (I still worked at the Radio station, but I gave that up about a year later). My customer base was going to be stores in LA, Sacramento, other smaller cities in California, some in Seattle, and the whole state of Alaska, which to me was just cool. I would be on the phone with people in Alaska!! Some perks were we got free comics that were comped to us from the Independent Publishers, we got a Marvel First Look pack which were Marvel books coming the next week, we had some DC comps, not a lot. We also had free swag giveaways of statues, magazines, action figures, books, cards, gaming pieces. It was heaven for a geek like me. We also could set up an account and order whatever we wanted from our catalog at a reduced employee pricing, so that was great as well. There was also the potential to go work Comic Conventions across the country which was great as well. And we got to chat with fellow comic geeks. It was bliss.

This is what I actually did as a Customer Service Rep. My customer base consisted of Comic book stores in the locations I gave above. My job was to take their calls and assist with missing items, damaged items, ordering items for them, suggesting items to them, helping locate boxes that were mis-shipped, changing orders before the Final Order Cutoff date, make sure they got their monthly orders in, stuff like that. Some of the people I talked to were very cool and very much like me. We would chat and joke about all kinds of things while on the phone. I also had customers who were straight to the point, did not want to chit chat just wanted to get their problems solved or stuff ordered. That was fine to. I had jerk accounts who complained about everything we did and about the job I would do for them. I had accounts that would absolutly freak out on me if I could not help or was not fast enough to help. I would also get new accounts all the time and had to help walk them through their first few months of business until they were set with what they were doing. I also took queue calls which basically were, if my accounts were not calling me and I did not need to call them, I was not allowed to just sit on my butt and do nothing, we had a queue of callers who either could not reach their rep, did not want to talk to their rep, or just wanted to get in and out quickly. So I took calls from other stores across the countries, sometimes even getting my accounts who either did not want to talk to me or could not get in touch with me. That was always fun and awkward. My day did not really get started until about 1pm or so since that was about the time the stores out west were just settling in.

As I started to make a name for myself, I started getting noticed by some of the higher ups. They liked my work ethic, my way with the customers, and my knowledge of the product. So after being there for about 6 months they wanted me to help train new customer service reps. Usually ones who were coming into my team. But occassionally I trained some other reps in other teams. And that made me feel good that I was noticed for that. I also helped Lou, a guy who had been their for a while hand out the comps and also assist in our product meetings we had every Tuesday. Basically we would have a two meetings where our the teams came up and looked at the product we were selling or was shipping that week so we could do a better job of trying to upsell our accounts on them, and also if the accounts did not remember a specific name but had a vague description we could help them find the right product. Eventually Lou left and I took over the product meetings and comps by myself. Which was great because it gave me a chance to get away from my cubicle and wander upstairs.

Customer Service was located in the basement of this big glass building. We had no windows and the floor was all cubicles and offices with flourescent lights. Diamond also controlled the 3rd and part of the 4th floor of this building as well. The 3rd floor was the meat of the operation, Steve Geppi the owner of Diamond had his office there. The Brand managers had there cubes and offices there. Most of the salesmen had their cubes and offices their. We also had the accountants, production crews were in there. The 4th floor was the Diamond Select Toys department, as well as some of the other Brand managers. It was also the floor that housed Steve Geppi's museum and collection. He has since moved that to a museum in DownTown Baltimore called the Gem museum. So to get the comps as well as the items for the product meeting I had to go upstairs and interact with the brand managers. I got to know most of them, some really well. So for awhile that was all I did at my job and it was fun. It was stressful, especially on Wednesday's which is when new comics come out and we have our biggest problems and our longest queues. Some customers would just unload on me for everything even though most of it was not my fault and it made for bad times. The stress seemed to start being more than the fun times. This store in most cases was the owners livelhood so I don't fault them for being overly crazy when bad things happened. But to blame me for all the problems was a problem I had to deal with, sometimes multiple times. So the stress was building.

But it wasn't all stressful. I was doing my thing. Chatting about things I truly loved and working with people who felt the same way. The freebies alone were great and I got a chance to geek out a number of times. Harlan Ellison a famous science-fiction writer had an account with us and I was his brand manager. So I chatted with him at least once a week. Kevin Smith the filmmaker owns 2 comic stores and he occassionally would get into the queue. I had the chance once to take an order direct from him for his store. I got to talk to Geoff Johns one of my favorite writers who frequented one of my better accounts. The owner whose name I forget put him on the phone with me one day that was cool. One day Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker himself came to our offices and we had a meeting with him. At one time the head honcho of Marvel whose name I cannnot remember (not Stan Lee) came and we had a meeting with him.  I got to go to the Long Beach California Comic-Con on the company dime and work for 4 days. I got to go to the Boston Comic Con on the company dime as well for 4 days. I started a tradition of giving birthday cards to the people in Customer service. We also has Christmas potluck meals with our team. Cliff one of my teammates who became the team leader and I use to order Chinese all the time for lunch. For me it was more of a snack, but still it was fun.  So those were fun times. But the stress started to build and get to me and before I knew it, it was overwhelming me and I needed a way out. That was when the job posting for Brand Manager came down and I decided to go for it.

Fostering my connections to members of the Brand Manager staff I was able to get an interview and was told that I was at the top of there list for the most part. So I was offered the position and I took it in an instant. But 9 months later I was in the same situation I had just escaped from. More to come...

The New 52 one year later

On August 31, 2011 DC Comics unvealed the beginning of their new universe which they called the New 52. They cancelled all their previous comics, some of which had been in the 600s and 700s to have 52 new series starting over with #1 and changing the status quo of the DC Universe forever. It reeked of despair from a comic company who was getting thrashed by rivals Marvel. And it worked (for the most part). Their sales numbers went up and eventually levelled off. They are still better than they were, but despite that there have been a number of situations come up in the last year which puts them at a disadvantage.

To celebrate the one year anniversary DC is releasing all #0 issues this month that will delve into the past of the characters. It will also introduce a few new comics as well. The reason, the original 52 do not exist as they did a year ago. A number of titles have been cancelled due to low sales. New comics have been introduced to keep the comics titles at 52, some of those are on the verge of getting cancelled and some comics that survived the first cut are not making it through this time. And more titles are being introduced to keep the 52 number alive.

The strife has been more on the creative side this time around. Creative teams leaving books after only doing 4-5 issues? Unheard of. Their biggest complaint was that the Editors were too hands on and were having the creative teams make changes that they deemed neccassary to fit the comics into the new continuity.  Another complaint was Superman. He had two series one was Action Comics which focused on Superman in his early years, the second was Superman which focused on his contemporary adventures. However there appeared to be no correlation between the two series. Big things that happened in the past in Action were not referenced in the present day. The two different writers appeared to be working in their own worlds where never the twain shall meet.

Not to pick on Rob Liefeld, though he deserves it, but he was the artist on Hawk and Dove one of the first titles to get cancelled. DC then decided to have him take over 3 books. Knocking a great writer in Kyle Higgins off of Deathstroke so Liefeld could write and draw it. had him co write Grifter, and write Hawkman and draw covers. Not 3 issues in Liefeld started calling out DC on their editorial control and left the company burning bridges with him in a twitter war with not only DC but a few other well respected writers still on the DC books. So now DC has to scramble to find replacements. It just seems a little out of control.

DC is still fighting with women about their lack of female characters, or the way the characters are hyper-sexualized. Also the fact that they do not have a lot of Female creators working on the books. But attendence figures are showing that more Women are going to Comic Cons and not just to dress up, but to buy things, to talk to creators about their favorite books, and more.

There are still some good books out there. Batman by Scott Snyder is still outstanding. The Green Lantern corps of books are doing well. The DC Dark books are doing well. Such as Justice League Dark, Animal Man, and Swamp Thing. There has been praise on Aquaman, All Star Western, and GI Combat, Earth 2,  50/50 on the new Wonder Woman, but disappointment on the flagship title Justice League. Some of it could be equated to just great writers working on the books, while mediocre writers are toiling on other books. Or it's just that the new versions of the characters are just not doing it for the regular reader. Whatever it is the New 52 seems to be in a state of disarray though there are some solid foundations in place and maybe in the second year they can start to stabalize a little and see what comes. We'll see.

My History with Comics part Two: Working the Business

Since this is my oral history of comics I am going to jump around all over the place. The last blog I ended with stopping collecting comics while in college. I will revisit that in a bit, because during my quick early history overview I skipped some parts which I will tell you about...NOW:

PART 2: WORKING THE BUSINESS

I am one of those people who really doesn't have a plan. I do not have a career path that I am dying to take. (Well I would like to be a writer but that takes time, practice, and talent). And I still have bills to help pay and other things, so I have had many jobs. Some I have stayed on for 4-5 years, some only 6 months to a year. One of the axioms you always hear is you should work with stuff you enjoy. So enjoying comics, I should be working in the comics industry in some form correct? BEEN THERE DONE THAT. I have had 4 jobs in the industry. None of which were actually creating comics for sale. I did create my own comics but they were for my own enjoyment and I think I still have them in my basement somewhere. But flashback to the mid 80s. I'm a young kid again. My first ever job was as a paperboy. I used to deliver the Evening Sun (before they dissolved it) and the Sunday Sunpapers. Did that for a couple of years. But I was not making  alot of money, so I decided to try a different job. Now in the early 80s Speciality comic shops just started to appear. These were stores that all they sold was Comic Books. In most cases these stores were the only places you could buy back issues of comics, or even experience some of these upstart Independent Publishers. There was a store up in Timonium/Cockeysville called Alternate Worlds which I would frequent sometimes. Well the old axiom work with what you like popped in my head and I asked the owners if they needed any weekend help. Surprisingly they said yes. And it was my first experience working retail. The fact that it was a Comic Book store was a plus. So I got to work at (for the time) my dream job. Spend all weekend with comics, talking comics. It was great. Then during the summer I would work during the week. Brillant. I did everything, run the cash register, re-stock, bag and board books, inventory, customer service. We would shoot the breeze about comics and I was surrounded by people who liked the same things I did. It was great. HOWEVER, the owners of the store were married and had a daughter about my age, maybe a little younger. She started working there also, and I noticed that my hours started getting decreased a little at a time. Then they just stopped scheduling me. To this day they never told me I was fired. So maybe technically I still work there. But I was never told by them that I was fired. I just assumed since they stopped scheduling me I didn't have a job. And maybe they told me I was no longer needed. I don't remember.

Fast forward to Summer 1993. The Orioles were hosting the All Star Game, Jurrasic Park was in Movie theaters, and I had just completed my Sophomore year of College. Now during the last few summers I had been working at the SuperFresh grocery store in Towson. (this was the job i got after Alternate Worlds). I had been there all toll about 3 years off and on. On weekends and after school I worked there. This summer though I wanted to try something different. My sister was on the verge of getting married and she had a summer job up at Hopkins where my mom worked. So they car-pooled together and I was able to have access to my sister's car. My mom I had discovered a job opening at the Diamond Comics Distribution Center in Baltimore City. Now Diamond is the only distributor of comics to the entire world. They distribute all comics to the multitudes of speciality stores out there. Since it is headquartered in Maryland, this warehouse was the first one they ever opened. They then expanded to Los Angeles and Memphis. They had one in Sparta as well for awhile. So I got an interview there as a warehouse worker. they knew I was a college kid and would be leaving near the end of August, but they hired me. And for almost two months I worked in this Distribution Center, distributing Comic Books. It was my first exposure to Warehouse work. Which coincidentally is what I do for a living now. So it was helping pack orders for stores, do inventory, and more. And it was fun. Kind of. Being around the comics I loved, being able to see the inventory we had and then being able to buy some of these comics direct from the warehouse was excellent. It was a hot summer and the warehouse was not air conditioned. The offices were however and I sometimes found myself taking orders from customers and pulling the orders for them. (This will come into play later). Every Friday after lunch we would do inventory of the warehouse. That was kind of fun. Tuesday nights I would work overnight to help pack up orders for delivery and pickup the next day. One of those days I drove past Camden Yards the day of the All Star game. One of those nights my sister's car broke down on me. I remember gettting hazed into the warehouse staff by getting duct taped to a plastic trashcan. There were also sometimes where my mother would have to drop me off and pick me up as well. I also helped load speciality store owners cars with their boxes of books, including my former employers at Alternate Worlds. We used to call Jurassic Park Jur-asshole Park. Fun stuff like that. However it was my only time working there since my sister moved away fo Virginia and my mother could no longer take me to work or pick me up. So I worked there only about 2 months still interesting though.

Coincidentally my never working at the warehouse again coincided with my no longer reading or collecting comics so it all worked out. So fast forward to I guess it was 1998, I graduated in 1995 and got a job where I lasted for about a week before I decided to quit. (I'll tell you about that sometime). I was still living at home paying bills, but I needed a job fast. I started working at a bagel shop and the hours were killer. 330am-1030am-12noon depending on how busy we were. I ended up there almost for two years. One plus to that job was that on Fridays it was slow so I was off at 1030am after working a full 7 hour day. So I had the rest of the day until 8pm when I needed to go to bed. So I decided to go to the movies. In Towson there was a movie theater in a building called Towson Commons. The Commons also housed at the time a brand new Borders Bookstore which was one of my favorite hangouts. They sold comic trade paperbacks there so I would also look at what I had been missing and read them a little at Borders. Then one day I discovered that a Comic Store has opened in the Commons. So since I was up there alot I started looking around. I didn't buy anything but would still browse what was going on. In the Spring of 1998 I got a job as a promotions assistant at WLIF 101.9 FM headquartered in the Commons. So I would be in the Commons alot. I still felt myself drawn to the store and would go in. One of those times I noticed a comic called Marvel vs. DC written by one of my favorite writers Peter David. So I of course bought it and was sucked back in. The store moved to Towson Town Center soon afterward. I walked by once and noticed that they were building a Rainforest Cafe right near it. Now the Radio job was only part time though  I worked more than usual there, but I still needed a full time. So I interviewed and got hired to work Rainforest Cafe full time in the Gift shop. Now I had money and a comic store right next door. I was happy, so i was buying more comics. Then they moved again to a storefront across from the Commons, which was still not to far away from me and i could still go to it.

Fast Forward to 2002. I was collecting again, and I was in a relationship with my future wife. We were also living together in an apartment out in Cockeysville. I was still not collecting alot because now I had rent to pay, electrical bills, food bills, car insurance, college loans, car payments. But I was still able to collect a little bit. Though not as much as I had before. Rainforest was doing ok but not great and my hours were getting cut drastically so I was losing money. I still worked for the radio station but still i had a lot more responsibilities. So i needed to find another job that paid more. Since I was near Timonium I remembered that Diamond Comics Headquarters was in Timonium. I went to their website and saw that they were looking for help. So I applied for the job and got an interview. The job was for Customer Service Rep. I nailed the interview, due i think mostly to my crazy comics knowledge. So I was now a Customer Service Rep at Diamond. My shift was 11-8pm since I was on the West Coast Team, which meant my customer base was on the west coast and since they are three hours different it was like working 8-5pm. By this time there were hundreds of speciality comics stores across the country and they needed customer services reps to help them with their ordering, any problems that arose with their shipments, calling in damages and shortages, basic Customer Service stuff. My account base was widespread. I had stores in Sacramento, Los Angeles, Seattle, Alaska, and other portions of California. Some were big stores, some were small, some were owned by a former Seattle Seahawk football player. And I also became the personal Customer Service rep for author Harlan Ellison who was friends with the owner of Diamond Steve Geppi, (he who owned Geppi's Comics World, and is also a minority owner in the Baltimore Orioles). I worked at Diamond for 4 years doing two different jobs. Both of which I will tell you about...NEXT TIME. To Be Continued...

My history with Comics part One: In the Beginning

One thing you need to know about me is how much I love my comic books. It is a deep seated love that harkens back to my childhood days. Throughout my life so far I have had numerous connections with the comic world. It's a part of my being. I never really thought about how much comics were a part of my life and then the slightest thing occurs and it flips a switch in my head and I come up with this concept. An oral history of my Comic Book life. Things that happened to me and that I have not thought about in a while started popping into my head. So I felt I should write something down, maybe more for my memory, but I hope you enjoy it. The first part is about what I can recall about the beginning of my love affair with comic books.

PART ONE: IN THE BEGINNING:

I don't quite remember the exact time I became a Comic Book Geek. The past is a blur with some memories stronger then others as the want is. I remember my dad collected nothing but Spider Man Comics and had quite a good amount of them. A lot were Marvel Tales which were reprints of earlier Spider man comics. The one thing I do know is the oldest one my dad has that is in good shape is 137. To put that in perspective Spider Man is still running and is getting close to issue 700. I think he also has issue 75 but he has three holes in it where he used to put his comics in Binders. I don't remember how but I just started reading comics. It very well could be I read his Spider man comics first then started getting my own with whatever allowance money I had. Back then there were no Comic Book Speciality Stores like there is now. Nowadays there are close to a Thousand probably in the world if not more. Back in the olden times when I started collecting, which believe it or not could be as early as 79 or 80, you could only purchase them in newstands. There used to be a ton of those that sold magazines, books, cards, candy, you name it. The one near me was called News Center. I would go there and pick up Spiderman and anything with Spiderman on it. I think because of that I was introduced to other characters and my obsession grew.

Since Spiderman was my first hero, I never really looked at any DC comics. To me Marvel was the best one since hey they print Spiderman. But then Man of Steel showed up. Back in 1986 DC was losing ground to Marvel because DC has been around longer and their continuity was more complex then Marvel's, so new fans probably did not want to pick up any DC books since they were a little behind in the characters histories. 1985 came and DC decided they wanted to start fresh, so they created Crisis on Infinite Earths which was a 12 issue maxi-series that changed the DC universe forever and made it more accessible. They also made some changes to their big three. Wonder Woman was rebooted by the multi talented and good writer Artist George Perez, Batman not only had the classic Dark Knight Returns comic written by Frank Miller, but he also wrote the classic Batman Year One story which rebooted Batman into a more serious character after years of being the butt of jokes with the campy tv series starring Adam West. Then there was Superman. John Byrne one of my favorite writer artists was tasked to reboot Superman, and in 1986 he did with his classic Man of Steel miniseries. Being a huge fan I bought them as well as Wonder Woman, Batman, and some other DC comics. Now I was both a Marvel and DC zombie.

My parents did not miss my comic book obsession so they fed me more. On a family trip to New York in 1985 I believe they took my sister and I to a guided tour of the Marvel Comics HQ and my God I was in heaven. My tour guide was Eliot Brown who acted goofy since I was 12 years old. Eliot was a fantastic artist whose speciality was machinery and buildings. He would show how the interior of say Avengers Mansion looked in detail, how some of the scientific weapons worked as well. Fully detailed realistic drawings. He never did draw a comic, he was an editor I believe who drew these pictures in the Official Marvel Universe Handbook, an encyclopedia comic that detailed the history of Marvel through its characters.

For my birthday one year my dad promised to take me to Chicago Comic-con which at the time was one of the biggest comic conventions out there. He was able to get us a room in the same hotel that the con was in and we drove out there and spent about a week out there I guess. My dad would go to the pool or sleep or read while I wandered around the convention and bought stuff and had many of the comic artists and writers sign my books. So somewhere in my massive collection I have a number of signed books by the creative teams, but for the life of me I could not tell you which ones they were. After I was done at the con we went into Chicago proper and went sightseeing, ate at some restaurants in town, and even went to a White Sox game. (The Cubs were on the road at that time.) It was a nice trip that I took with my dad.

I used to live near Towson, Maryland. There used to be a Holiday Inn in Towson that had what they called a Serendipity. Basically a monthly comics convention where for one day a group of dealers would get together in one of the ball rooms at the hotel and just sell comics. Now this was before the direct market comic store skyrocketed and there were only a few comic book stores around. So this was a way for stores in PA, MD, VA, DE, etc could reach out to some comic fans who may not have a comic store near them. I had 3, Alternate Worlds in Cockeysville (where I worked for a while but that is a different blog), Geppi's Comic World at Harborplace, and the best of bunch, the biggest, most amazing store Geppi's Comics World near Security Square Mall. ( I will get into the stores at another time). But I still enjoyed going to Serendipity every month and just hanging out with other comics geeks and getting interested in other comic books. At these events they also sometimes had comic artists there so I got to meet Tom Lyle who was a local guy who eventually worked on a few comic books, and Chris Sprouse who also still works in the biz.

My obsession continued through High School and College. In College there was a Comic store in the nearby mall that I was able to walk to, and also there was an old fashioned news stand that sold them as well. So I was set. But College was an awakening. I was working at the College Cafeteria, only getting paid once a month, had lots of bills to pay while at school so I had to cut somewhere. And comics is where it was at. So I stopped buying so many of them not only due to cost but time, I was busy in college and couldn't really read them too much as well. And maybe I also started thinking that I was turning into a grownup and I should stop reading them anyway. At the same time the industry was starting to struggle with the advent of the speculators and the sheer numbers of comics that came out a month, so thinks looked bleak for the comic industry as well. What better time to quit then during that time. So that was what I did. I quit my hobby that I had been doing for years. And didnt look back...for a few years...

TO BE CONTINUED

GREEN Lantern is not gay. Green LANTERN IS

The world of comic books is one of the oddest ones I have ever been associated with. You have the big 2 Marvel and DC, then the next level IMAGE, Dark Horse, IDW, and then a lot of smaller vendors as well. Working in the Comic Book Distribution field as well as being a brand manager for many of the vendors has given me a keen perspective on the industry. The one thing that always gets me is how the big 2 act toward each other. I know your whole reason for being is to make money and be the big dog, but when you work with freelancers who freely jump from vendor to vendor you begin to get a little overlap, and much like the film industry where a film is announced by one film company and a similar one is announced shortly after you have to scratch your head and wonder is there enough room for two Snow White movies, or two Comets bent on destroying the Earth movies, or two Mars movies, etc. And in most cases there isn't. You usually have one clear winner and one clear loser. With comics it's a little sketchy who wins or loses when competing ideas with similar ideas are introduced.

One of the worst offenders was way back when I was still working at Diamond with my friend Corey. We were on the same Customer Service team, (West Coast baby!) and our cubes shared a wall. We could talk to each other fairly easily. Anyway. DC decided to make a limited series called Identity Crisis where a villain starts killing the loved ones of super heroes. This villain somehow found out the secret identity of these heroes and was stalking their loved ones. A good idea that unfortunatley had a terrible ending. But I digress. Soon afterwards Marvel came up with an idea called Identity Disk. A limited series where a group of villains were tasked with finding a mythical Computer Disk with every heroes secret identity on it (huh?) and the villains could use it to hunt down the loved ones of heroes. So slightly different story ideas, but similar titles and ideas. Now when Corey and I read the first issue of Identity Disk we had to laugh. You could tell that after DC announced the project someone at Marvel said we need to get on this and hired a writer and told him what he needed to write and to get it done ASAP so they could compete directly with Identity Crisis. Because Identity Disk was basically the story of The movie The Usual Suspects but with 5 super-villains being hired by a mythical crime lord. Corey and I started to call it Identity Usual Suspects, and every issue just fostered that belief. DC won that round.

However DC is also known to do similar things as well. Case in point, Marvel has always had a gay character. A mutant by the name of Northstar. He came out a long time ago and there was a huge media blitz when it happened. But it never really turned into anything, until recently when Marvel announced that Northstar would be getting married. So you have the first Gay Marriage in comic history. So Marvel is doing a huge media blitz. So DC sees all the attention Marvel is getting and DC is trying to diversify their heroes, the big brains decide we need a gay character to. But we need to make an established character gay. To their credit they did introduce a new character who is gay a few months ago, and a few years ago introduced the first Lesbian superhero, but the fact that they needed to change an established characters sexuality raises eyebrows. Now I have no problem with making this character gay, but to me it seemed like they were reacting to the Marvel Gay marriage, since DC has a stable of some Lesbian, Gay, and Bi characters out there, but they are not really established characters. So once this news hit, they got a piece of the spotlight to. So much so that 98 Rock down here in Maryland mentioned it on their morning show. There are a few people who listen to the show and when they heard this they came right to me and told me what they heard. "Dylan, did you know that Green Lantern is gay?" Now being a comic geek I have paraded around work in my Green Lantern t-shirts so they knew I was fan. The only problem was they were thinking it was a different Green Lantern. So I had to put them right...

Back in the 1940s DC comics had a series of comics featuring Super Heroes. Green Lantern was one of those characters. However this Green Lantern was named Alan Scott, he was a rich radio man who one day found a green rock that he fashioned into a ring and soon learned he could control the energy that was emanating from it. It's only weakness was wood. He had a girlfriend who was always in trouble, and he was a part of a team called the Justice Society.  Fast forward to the 1960s, Marvel has asserted itself as an upstart young company but releasing very popular comics featuring characters by the name of Spider Man and the Hulk, and The Fantastic Four and the Avengers. DC seeing a surge in the superhero comics decide to dust off some of their old super heroes from the 40s and update them to the present day (which was the 1960s) so they dug into their vaults and created new iterations of Green Lantern and The Flash to name a few. This Green Lantern was Hal Jordan, a womanizing pilot who received a magical ring from a dying alien and became a member of an intergalactic police force. But Alan Scott and the Justice Society had not been forgotten. They started making reapperances in the 1960s comics as well, but from an alternate dimension called Earth 2. So the Green Lanterns teamed up, the Justice League teamed up with the Justice Society and all was good.

The 1980s was a banner year for comics and Marvel was still kicking DC's ass. So DC felt they needed to do something to compete, so they created the 12 issue mini series Crisis on Infinite Earths which basically wiped out 40 years of continuity so that the 1980s comic fans who may not have been buying the older DC comics since their continuity was so old could start fresh. This saw the combining of Earth 1 and Earth 2, so that the Justice Society and Alan Scott fought in WWII, but retired soon afterwards, then the present heroes started appearing and paying homage to them. But their were still fans of the old heroes so they created a Justice Society comic, where we followed the adventures of these older super heroes. Alan Scott was now married with two kids, both of whom had powers. His daughter Jade, and Son Obsidian, who happened to be gay. But then the 2000s rolled in and again Marvel was still beating DC, so last September DC revamped their entire line. The New 52. Which I have written about in previous blogs. When the new 52 was announced the Justice Society and Alan Scott were gone. Hal Jordan Green Lantern had taken the next step and became a live action movie with Ryan Reynolds. However some of the new 52 books floundered after the launch and 5 were cancelled after their 8th issue. So you needed some new blood. A book entitled Earth 2 was introduced and was going to follow the Justice Society back on their Earth 2, but instead of having them be WWII vets, they were going to be young, contemporary heroes on a different Earth. So to spice it up, DC, in response to what I think was the Northstar marriage made Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern gay.

Now with the movie version of Green Lanten, my co-workers believed that was who DC had turned Gay. That was not the case. And I had to give them this history lesson I gave you. To re-iterate I have no problem making him Gay, just as long as it is not a stunt to boost sales or compete with Marvel. I look forward to reading Earth 2 to see what they end up doing with the character.

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE FOR 15 HOURS

In a blog a few weeks back I lamented the fact that I was not going to be able to go to the Mighty Marvel Movie marathon, a marathon of 5 movies that leads to the midnight show of The Avengers. But fortune favored the lazy and I was able to get a ticket. So on a warm, humid Thursday, I took a vacation day from work and went to sit in an air conditioned movie theater for 15 hours to watch movies based on Marvel Comics that culminated in the midnight show of The Avengers.

Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. was the first of the modern era of Marvel movies to come out, and probably my third favorite. Downey was cast perfectly and we started to see the beginnings of a new era. The film directed by Jon Favreau was embraced and made a ton of money. Marvel had started on the right foot.

While Mark Ruffalo (pictured above) did not get the nod as the Hulk until the Avengers, Marvel released The Incredible Hulk the same year as Iron Man, and while it did not do as well as Iron Man, the movie starring Edward Norton was not bad. But what really saved it was the apperance at the end by Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark (AKA Iron Man). We were now getting an idea of what Marvel had planned. A tight continuity where stars from other movies could show up as their character in different films.

Then there was a break for a year, then Marvel came back with Iron Man 2. While not as good as the original Iron Man, fans were happy to see the return of Downey as well as Clark Gregg who played fan favorite SHIELD agent Coulson, and the introduction of The Black Widow (plyed by Scarlett Johanssen). Another potential member of the Avengers. Samuel L. Jackson continued his role as Nick Fury. As per all the other Marvel films, after the credits were over one scene came on that hinted at the next Marvel Movie, in this case we find Coulson finding Thor's hammer.

2011 would be a huge year for Marvel Movies. They would be releasing 2 movies featuring 1 character (Thor played by Chris Hemsworth and directed by Kenneth Braughn) who had made one live action apperance on a horrible Incredible Hulk Tv movie and 1 mention in Adventures in Babysitting. Then you had Captain America who had 1 horrible movie as well. These new Marvel movies were not going to have Iron Man, or the Hulk (whom people knew from a 70s tv series) to bring awareness. But you would have the knowledge that Marvel had released 3 pretty good movies. And sure enough Thor (which is my 2nd favorite film) made good money and introduced us to not one but 2 possible members of the Avengers. Thor and...

Hawkeye,(played by Jeremy Renner the new Bourne) who makes a brief cameo apperance in the film. Which to some critics felt was shoehorned into Thor to introduce a character they wanted to use in The Avengers. It also introduced us to Loki who would end up being one of the main bad guys in The Avengers. The post credit scene teased Captain America with the modern day arrival of the Cosmic Cube, or as they call it in the Marvel Movies, the Tesseract.

Chris Evans who was best known as playing another Marvel Character, the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies was cast as Captain America, in a movie that spends the majority of it's time in the 1940s. This film did great as well and lead to the post credit trailer for The Avengers.

There is only one way to describe the Avengers and it is as a Comic Book come to life on screen. While watching the five previous movies again yesterday in the movie theater I came to the realization that even though they have the look, and some of the beats of a comic book they are still movies. The Avengers was a comic book come to life on screen. it hit every comic book beat and should be looked at as the best way to make a true adaptation of a comic book into a movie. I will not spoil anything, or talk about anything for a bit, but I think I will be writing a review sometime next week. So take my advice. Go see The Avengers. If you have never seen any of the previous films, that's ok, The Avengers does an excellent job of introducing the characters.  Avengers Assemble!

DC New Universe: Is something not right in the DCNU?

I had decided today after that devastating loss to the Patriots to write a blog about the Ravens my favorite Football team, but I am still in a stunned silence and have a lot to say and I only have a short window due to the truly horrendous day I am having today. But I digress. I decided to follow up on a blog I had been working on since September. My thoughts on the new DC comics universe. However due to some financial issues the week I started working on that blog, I had to give up buying comics until our finances got into a better spot. Its a slow trek but we are getting there. By September 2012 we should be a little better off. But though I do not read comics anymore I am still interested in what is going on in the comic world. So I have been following it on line. What I have seen makes me start to think maybe I should not collect comics anymore. Especially DC comics.

As of this spring 6 books will be cancelled, 6 more will take it's place and within a span of 5 months there have been almost 9 creative team changes. That is absolutly insane. THe new DCU was supposed to be a place of consistency and a new life for comic books. Though the numbers seem to be better, it has failed to attract as many new readers as they were hoping. Their numbers are starting to settle down again. And two of the new comics are going to be about Earth 2 a scenario that was cleared out in the 80s with Crisis when DC decided to have 1 world and not multiple. But now the people who grew up with the alternate worlds are bringing them back. And I hate that idea as well.  But I can't do anything.

The books appear to be knockoffs of Marvel and Image in the 90s even going so far as to hire the same writers and artists from that dark era. A great example is Rob Liefeld. One of the worst artists of all time and an even slower writer. He got a gig drawing Hawk and Dove in the new DCU. But since that got cancelled which I can only attribute to the fact that NO ONE LIKES HIS ART. He gets not 1 new gig, not 2, but 3 new gigs. Writer artist of Deathstroke the Terminator, writer of Hawkman, and co writer of Grifter. How the hell does that happen???

The creative team mess started very early when John Rozum co-writer of Static Shock (another book cancelled) left the book due to creative differences after about 2 or 3 issues. Rozum is an excellent writer and appeared to bring some really interesting ideas, but DC had artist Scott McDaniel as co-writer and they liked his cliched ideas better.  Then George Perez said he would leave the Art and co-writing of Superman after 5 issues. He went on to get the art job on one of the new books, but still after 5 issues?? Then JT Krul said he was leaving Green Arrow, Dan Jurgens left the art as well and they hired Ann Nocenti who actually is an excellent writer and female to add some more female creators to the books which is still a sticking point with some people that they do not have more female or minority talents working on any of the books. Gail Simone said she was leaving Firestorm, Ron Marz leaving Voodoo, Paul Cornell leaving Stormwatch, Fabian Nicieza leaving Legion Lost, and Kyle Higgins off of Deathstroke. Why? Who knows? Creative differences, creative boredom, no freedom to write. New projects, who knows, but that is still a massive amount of turnover in the new universe which is still in its infancy.

The books that got cancelled: Hawk and Dove (Rob Liefeld, not well known characters), Static Shock (minority lead), Mr. Terrific (minority lead), Blackhawks (not superheroic), Men of War (ditto), OMAC (too weird, too Kirbyesqe). So two minority lead books, two books that dared to try something different in the DC Comics world, one hack artist, and one bizarre character no one has heard of, or liked the Kirbyesqe tribute.

I understand all new companies have growing pains, but this just goes to show you that something isn't right in the world of comics and who knows if they can get it back.

New Universe (for the time being) Part one

It's been a while but my idea machine has not stopped churning in my brain. I have a ton of posts I would love to write and I am going to try to get to all them through the last 4 months of 2011. Keeping in mind that we may not be here after October 21st. Rapture 2 anyone. Yeah I have a post on Rapture 1 in my head. Will have to wait. This is important. COMIC BOOKS!!!

August 31st 2011 is the beginning of the new DC Universe. DC who is perpetually the number 2 comic company in the world behind Marvel is trying to find a new way to be number 1. So back in May they announced huge changes to their entire line. They were going to wrap up all their storylines and wrap up the massive Flashpoint event by restarting the DC universe 52 # 1 issues spread over one month. August 31st-September 28th. They would be starting over from scratch. Meaning that one character you liked who was dead may very well be alive in the new DCNU (DC New Universe). One character you like who is still alive will be nowhere to be found, that marriage you enjoyed reading about. Yeah is probably over now. But hey new creators, new villains, updated characters. New costumes. New takes on old characters without 50 plus years of continuity. Some storylines you enjoyed, no longer exist. It was a crazy time. Then DC started to announce the new comics and the new creative teams. Some were brillant, some were WTF, and some did not change at all. Then we had the controversy of not enough female creators were involved in the new 52, and that women characters were being treated a little unfairly. Perfectly reasonable questions that the creators of the new DC universe started shooting down and insulting as if they were being personally insulted. The dust has finally settled and the first issue has been released. My take?   

MEH. Justice League # 1 was the first book out and it was just OK. Not the amazing OMG you have to see this book just a meh kind of book. But to be fair. This is not the book I am most looking forward to. But to be the first book to be introduced You kind of needed something a little bigger then the return of Jim Lee as an artist on a book written by Geoff Johns. The one thing I noticed about the creative teams was the sheer amount of old school 90s creators who were coming back to the DC comics. There was a reason in the early 90s comics went through a rough patch. Now these guys are back? I was hesitant. Still am. But there are some gems out there that I am dying to read and hopefully will make me feel better.

The one thing about this new reboot that is interesting is DC getting with the times with same day Digital release. Unfortunatly Digital is the future (another blog down the line) and to get new readers, younger readers who are plugged in you need  to do this. So in that respect it works. But a lot of the stuff I am seeing about this relaunch has me worried and I will try to write my way through it. I have two other blogs I plan on writing on this subject. Hence the part one on my title. Part two will be a through look at all 52 comics and which ones I am interested in and ones I will not touch with a 10 ft pole. Granted I will not have read all 52 but what I can gather from art I have seen, the creative team, and the stories being discussed I will give my opinions and maybe follow up when I get a chance to read them. Part three will be about my utter disdain for DC's apparent hatred of marriage and Females. So stay tuned. I am just getting warmed up.

Death in Comics Revisited

On the eve of Free Comic Book Day I am revisiting one of my previous blogs about death in comics. My last post was about a year ago and a lot has changed. DC did a storyline called Blackest Night where all the dead people in the DC universe were re-animated and they attacked friends and families to feed on their emotions. When the story was done {SPOILER WARNING} the above 12 super-heroes and super-villains were brought back to life. Why these 12 and not anymore is an on-going story that is occuring in the Brightest Day series which will last through the rest of the year. But I'm ok with this. The way writer brought them back was quite clever and the fact that it was only these 12 makes it an interesting story that is yet to be told why they lived. What I like also is that these 12 are all having trouble trying to get back to living after being dead for so long which is fairly realistic. According to DC this is also the beginning of Dead means dead, which means the heroes and villains that did not live probably will not be coming back soon, but who knows. However DC has decided to continue killing, case in point little Lian Harper. She is an 8 year old girl who is the daughter of the hero Speedy/Red Arrow/Arsenal/Roy Harper and the villain Cheshire. In a storyline that preceeded Blackest Night they destroyed Roy's home town of Star City and killed is daughter. Now he is going through hell because he also just got his arm tore off as well. So Death is still around and this time it is effecting non heroes. And I don't like this. Not only because it is an 8 year old girl, that is the main reason, but also Roy Harper is a second tier-third tier hero who is not that interesting. He was addicted to drugs in the 70s which lead to a great Green Lantern/Green Arrow story. Green Arrow is his former partner and mentor, and surrogate father. But when they made him have a kid with a known female assassin and villain that made the story interesting, also focusing on the travails of a single parent super hero which is very interesting to me. Now he is a non-entity, even without an arm. Comics tend to not like to have heroes have interesting things, single parent, or in the case of Spider man let's dissolve his marriage in a magic way so they never remember being married.(That I will save for another Blog)

On another note Captain America is now back in the land of the living and Batman will be starting his return in May. Oh and Jean Grey may be back for a third time. AWESOME!!! Sarcasm...

As we in America settle in to celebrate the birth of our nation, I would like to talk about death for a moment. But not in a downer type of way, more along the lines of a concern.

For years death has been fluid in soap operas and tv shows. It's used as a game changer and a way to create buzz. But we all know in alot of cases, Soap operas especially that death is never an end and soon enough the death will be undone and the character who was killed will be back shortly. But we have given it a free pass since it's entertainment. But now it is starting to permeate into comic books again.

In the old days of comics when a character died, they were dead. Examples are Bucky, Captain America's partner. Uncle Ben- Spiderman's uncle. Then death continued into the 70s and 80s. This time the victims are Jean Grey-Phoenix from the X-men, Barry Allen Flash, Supergirl, Robin 2- Jason Todd who was actually picked to die by a gimmick. You called an 800 number to see if you wanted him to live or die after an encounter with the Joker. They fans spoke and they wanted Todd dead. But then a funny thing happened. Phoenix came back to life.

In a strange story that took place about 3-4 years after her original death, Jean Grey was brought back to life and the stage was set for more returns. During the 90s comics became a hot property and many people were buying comics because they thought they would be valuable. So to keep up that apperance both Marvel and DC (the Big Two comic companies) threw everything they could into the stores and it was eaten up. A good example, The Death of Superman.

Superman had been around for 50 years and the comic creators decided they wanted to try something, so they killed him. What followed was media blitzes and huge sales. SO now it was cool to create these kinds of stories. Fans and non-fans went to comic stores and bought up everything they could in hopes they would be valuable. But roughly aboyut 6 months later, they brought back Superman in another huge media blitz that again made them a ton of money. So now it was cool to kill super heroes because it was guaranteed media blitzes and huge paydays. But soon the bottom fell out of the industry and it took some time to recover. Now it was a niche market. The speculators who were burned by this refused to get caught up in the media blitz again. Until Marvel decided to Kill Captain America.

It seems appropriate that the symbol of America was killed during a time of turmoil in the US. The recession was just starting to hit, an unpopular president was still in office, and things seemed to be getting worse for America. That was 2 years ago. It is also approriate that him imminent return begins the same week as Independence day, and America though still gripped in a recession is starting to have some hope with a new president in office. But again it turns Death into a joke, especially with who replaced Captain America. The aforementioned Bucky who apparently was not dead to begin with again! But the one difference this time around is that the story was actually good. It was not the writers decisison to turn it into a media blitz, Marvel did that on it's own, making a big deal about the death of Captain America and drawing the fans and non fans into the stores again. And now a few weeks earlier when it was announced Cap was returning the media blitz happened again.

This is just the most recent example. The fans of comics who read them are now inundated with the return of characters who were long thought dead. Supergirl, alive again, Barry Allen the Flash, alive again. Plus with less fanfare in the mainstream public, many other characters were killed only to return soon after. Wonder Woman was killed, she returned, Superboy (a different one not young Clark Kent) dead, now alive, Kid Flash, dead now alive again, Green Lantern Hal Jordan was killed only to return to life again. Norman Osborn, Harry Osborn over at Marvel, both dead now alive, and the list goes on. It is now a joke when they say such and so is going to die. Big deal he/she will be back before you know it.

Case in point Batman Bruce Wayne. He was recently "killed" in a big story in DC, and replaced by his first sidekick Dick Grayson who was the original Robin. The story is good, but we all know Batman will be back soon.

Finally the main reason for all this cyncism about Batman and Captain America. They both have movies coming up and you can bet the Comic Companies do not want these supposed dead characters to be dead when the films come out. How else will you be able to exploit them again?