Comics: Stormwatch, issues #7-12

Four months ago, I did a brief write up on the first six issues of the new Stormwatch series launched in the wake of the DC New 52 initiative. Those issues were written by Paul Cornell, the guy behind Knight and Squire, the Batman and Robin arc Sum of Her Parts, the run of Action Comics which features Lex Luthor as a protagonist while he fucks a robot Lois (aka, Superman: The Black Ring), all of which were awesome.

But if Cornell smoothed the felt, racked the balls, then broke and sunk half the solids, the subsequent work has been largely continued with pogo sticks used as pool cues and half the balls hermaphroditically swapping their color patterns. By the time #12 slides across the line in preparation for #0[1], the score is 15 to X with each camouflage ball counting for half a parsec, depending on its quantum state.

It's not that I have no idea what's going on; it's that the book doesn't know and isn't paying attention.

Penny Reviews: 2011, Part I

I got a lot of comics in 2011 (while reviewing them for this blog, I made the mistake of estimating their cost and lost three hours to a haze of fiscal shame), and as people often do at the end of a year, I've taken a moment (actual value of moment is three days) to reflect on my purchases and share the resulting insights with you, the unwary reader.

Planetary Vol 4 by Warren Ellis

Fucking. Awesome.

#1 Best

Playing Favorites excerpts, pt 34

Every Tuesday I post excerpts from best selling at not selling super blog, Playing Favorites.   

Luthor thinks he’s doing humanity a favor--like a sloppier Adrian Veidt--but in reality he’s in it for himself. In fact, he pictures himself as a leader of humanity--asserting his ownership of it--but how much does he ever even get out of the US? I’d be interested in comparing Lex and Clark Kent (the conservative business man versus liberal reporter angle is obvious and I’m skipping it); world-owning homebody versus world-traveling learner. 

Batman’s motivation is more difficult to pin down. Yes, he’s fighting crime. Yes, his parents were killed in front of him. Yes, he would like a world where no child will ever have to watch his parents die in front of him. However, I’m not sure what Batman’s end goal is. I’m sure he has one; he’s The Goddamn Batman. He’s not The Punisher; venturing out into the night simply to act out against the evils that men do, content to know that he will not eliminate crime or improve the world, only that he has punished wrongdoing, and punished it again and will go on punishing it until there is no longer a Punisher. Then…nothing.  

Playing Favorites excerpts, pt 33

Every Tuesday I post excerpts from best selling at not selling super blog, Playing Favorites.
 

So I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention mad scientist Lex versus evil corporate Lex versus Smallville Lex who’s basically the current canon Lex now somehow. I think that it’s an interesting thing; I don’t think I’ve ever seen a definitive Lex Luthor. I’ve seen fun Lex Luthors and I’ve seen Lex Luthors who are good combinations of previous Luthors, but I’ve never seen the one that is the Lex Luthor you’ve been reading about in pieces finally assembled into an elemental representation of pure, uncut, Columbian Lex Luthor. Every interpretation of him I’ve seen has been adulterated just a bit. “Kingdom Come,” “Final Crisis,” nineties hirsute clone Lex…even “Action Comics” Lex comes across as overconfident, human, egotistical, obsessed with Superman, ruthless, and manipulative, but I think one reason there are so many Lexes floating around is because while being ‘the ordinary guy who’s a Superman villain’ is a compelling plot, the character hasn’t yet found its full voice.

Lex also invites similarities to Batman, which makes sense because while it took a while for Lex to distinguish himself from the masses to become the Superman villain, Superman is the elemental hero. While his mental characteristics are purported to be as prodigious as his physical characteristics, for the most part, Superman is generally physically superhuman, and as the basis of superheroes, (and righteous violence, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah) most other heroes are built in that mold. I won’t say Batman subverts the mold of standard superheroes or anything because he’s just a hair younger than Superman, but I will say that as a human who one day found himself in a world where struggling against titans was ordinary, he had to become more than a man in a bat suit. Both Batman and Luthor struggle against creatures who could crush them with a single blow, but Luthor attacks the kindest of their lot while Batman must stop the most ruthless. Both work with a keen intellect, but Batman is a tactical thinker, and almost always improvising. Luthor is a strategic thinker and usually working offense versus one target. The offense versus defense is the easiest difference between them. Luthor hates something and wants to destroy it. Collateral damage happens and he’s not too concerned about it. Some of his plans even involve hurting people who aren’t Superman just to get to Superman. He’s ruthless whereas Batman is relentless. If anyone pays for Batman’s war on crime, it’s Batman. He never asks anyone to pay for his mistakes, he goes out of his way to protect innocents, and when he fails to accomplish either of those things, the bat-despair is palpable.

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Playing Favorites excerpts, pt 32: The More I Wrote, the More I Loved Lex Luthor

 Every Tuesday I post excerpts from best selling at not selling super blog, Playing Favorites.

Luthor, Luthor from “All-Star Superman” that is, really does things just to spite Superman. That Superman would have Lex use his intellect for good is enough for Lex to take that off of the table. Now while Lex does gain (and revel in having) kryptonian powers, I’ve never been a fan of the school that he wants to be Superman. It’s an interesting thought, though it reduces Lex’s defiance to pettiness. I like the interpretation that’s just below the surface in “All-Star Superman” that Lex is science and secular thought and Superman is religion and faith. Lex deals with the facts, and people forget just how reasonable selfishness and crime and murder are and why heroes aren’t those things and villains are (Not that heroes aren’t sometimes. There’s a time and place for selfish, murdering, criminal heroes. That time was the nineties).

Playing Favorites excerpts, pt 31

Every Tuesday I post excerpts from best selling at not selling super blog, Playing Favorites.

However, if Batman is merely good at surrounding himself with morally non-challenging figures, Doctor Doom must have a post-graduate degree in it. Even getting beaten by That Accursed Richards over and over again hasn’t taught him to respect Reed. Getting captured and dethroned by The Avengers wasn’t enough for him to show Osborne any respect when Osborne was offering to release him. He and Namor famously toast one another only to stick knives in each others' backs. Look, I’m not saying that Doctor Doom is dumb; he is obviously gifted in the areas of science and magic, but ‘learning that some people will kick your ass unless you step up your game‘ is apparently the great balancing element of his intellect. Perhaps even overbalancing. Doctor Doom is both incapable and unwilling to hear the voices of failure which surround him. Don’t get me wrong; against anyone who doesn’t have their own comic, Doctor Doom will destroy you like the flotsam you are, but once you get an important character, there will be some technobabble, Doom will get overconfident, and then he will find himself in over his head and be defeated.

Penny Reviews: The Disappoint

A side feature that I update whenever possible, Penny Reviews tells you all about a comic in 100 words or less.

Invincible Iron Man #33 - I'm not up to speed on the current Iron Man arc, but organic recaps made that a non-issue. The story centers around physical conflict, but was more than punching something until it was broken. It balances a glut of distinct, unlikable villains with Tony and his supporting cast. Yea: The natural supervillain reveal. Nay: Supervillain team up teaser. If C is what average superhero book should be, Invincible Iron Man #33 was a C. However, Good Morning Tony, the feature story at the back, was a solid B (maybe B+) and my real reason for picking up this month’s issue.

Thor, the Mighty Avenger #8 - Thor's recap isn't that smooth, but you get the point: a magic god of ancient lore is pitted against computers and government in an excellent contrast that nudges the main plot forward. His team-up this week is--who cares? It's the characterization and art that make Thor: The Mighty Avenger fun to read. Thor manages to juggle haughtiness and innocence expertly in a beautiful book. There's even a classic pre-team-up fight, but no one mentions what a cliche it is, subverting the subversion of the cliche, which in-and-of-itself has become a cliche. Overall, looking forward to next month's issue.

...aw.

Action Comics: Lex Luthor # 896 - Just pointless. Fans of the Luthor-as-protagonist Action Comics will probably like the villains-as-protagonist concept of Sinister Six, but I hate crossovers and can’t get Sinister Six, so it's aggressively pointless. It even features the one line motivation of "makes as much sense as anything we do," which is just so. weak. It’s loud, thoughtless filler that keeps the Mr. Mind/Loisbot subplot slowly boiling in the background so you don't notice it. Loisbot dies, but she'll be back because she's part of the main plot. Maybe they're actually writing a book that people who are and aren't paying attention will enjoy.

One Comics Thing Right Quick

You know the run on Action Comics where Lex Luthor is the main character and he's trying to find and collect residual energy from the black rings because...power and he has a robot Lois and he goes toe-to-toe with a new supervillain every week and he even sorta died in one issue and he's always being generally awesome and I love it?

Well, he fucks the robot.

95% sure.