Christmas with the Super-Heroes #1

I own a handful of special one-shot holiday comics put out by DC Comics and Marvel Comics so be on the lookout up until Christmas because I’m going to try to give a few of them a read through and post my thoughts on them.

This particular post is TWO YEARS in the making! 2009 is when I saved my first draft of this post to WordPress. For TWO YEARS all I had in this post was the cover art. Now, here in December 2011, I’m finally going to publish this. This post involves three of my favorite things: comic books, the 1980s and Christmas. So read on for my recap of…

Christmas With the Super-Heroes #1 (1988, DC Comics)

I was a HUGE fan of this comic when I was a kid. I never owned it but a friend of my did. I was obsessed with his comic book collection (along with his near complete collection of G.I. Joe) but all I can remember is this comic, Captain Carrot and a bunch of random Star Comics (Marvel Comics’ imprint for kiddie comics).

Despite being labeled “Christmas With the Super-Heroes 1988″ on the inside cover, this is actually a collection of six-tales ranging from 1968-1984. Would’ve been nice to have gotten at least ONE original story but whatever.

The cover of this comic is one of my favorite covers of all time. Nice clean white background,  great John Byrne art featuring some of the DC’s most popular properties at the time and a Christmas tree. How can you go wrong? The art wraps around to the back cover where you see a fireplace with the heroes’ boots hung on the mantle instead of stockings. Nice touch.

First up is a Batman story called “Wanted: Santa Claus — Dead or Alive!” taken from DC Special Series #21 (1979). It’s a short 10-page story to kick things off and centers around a reformed criminal turned department store Santa who is being forced by a gang of his old pals to help them rob the place. Batman is on the case but the criminals have seemingly made their escape until the Christmas star from a nativity scene ends up shining down and clues Batman in on where the criminals are hiding.

Next we have the Justice League starring in “The Man Who Murdered Santa Claus!” taken from Justice League of America #110 (March-April 1974). Yes, nothing says “MERRY CHRISTMAS” like a murdered Santy Claus. This is a full tale and features The Key as the starring villain and featuring giant-size absorbing Christmas ornaments and life-size toy soldiers. Good ’70s JLA action from their original classic Satellite era.

From Teen Titans #13 (Jan-Feb. 1968) we have “The TT’s Swingin’ Christmas Carol!” Really? Swingin’ Christmas? Oh well, it was the late ’60s after all. Another full length story but it’s been divided into three parts, which wasn’t out of the ordinary in those days. This is a “happening” take on A Christmas Carol but I’m not feeling the the artwork of Nick Cardy. Cardy’s pencils look like something that belongs in a MAD magazine (though I won’t complain about the busty Wonder Girl decked out in a skimpy Santa robe & boots).

The next feature is the Legion of Super-Heroes story “Star Light, Star Bright… Farther Star I See Tonight” from also DC Special Series #21 (1979). How’s this for an all-star creative team: Paul Levitz, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez & Dick Giordano. Simple tale that takes place on Christmas Eve has Superboy taking a few on-duty Legionnaires in quest for the Star of Bethlehem. What they end up finding is a planet about to enter an ice age and they help save the three alien races living on it from extinction.

Time for a Superman tale with “‘Twas the Fright Before Christmas!” from DC Special Series #67 (March 1984). Good art by Curt Swan. It’s Superman & Santa vs. The Toyman! Pretty neat seeing Santa’s toys battle the Toyman’s.

Finally, a short tale called “The Silent Night of the Batman” from Batman #217 (Feb. 1970). This “silent” theme has been done a number of times over the years but this one actually feature some dialog (and even some singing). Batman hangs out with the Commissioner Gordon and the rest of the GCPD on Christmas Eve, cynically waiting for criminal activity to be reported because he states crimes does not take off on holidays. As this is going on, we’re shown scenes of crimes about to take place all over the city but the image of Batman appears and the criminals have a change of heart, if only for that one night.

Final Thoughts:

Christmas With the Super-Heroes is a fun anthology looking back at some of DC’s holiday moments over the years. It’s worth picking up if you can happen to find it in the back issue section at your local comic shop or can find it online for cheap.

For more DCU Christmas stories, you can buy the DC Universe Christmas trade paperback from Amazon.com. It was released in 2000 and features some of the stories from this comic book.

Superhero Movie Round-Up!

I know I’m late on talking about most of these movies but give me a break, I’m on Netflix and they seem to be getting movies from the major studios later and later.

Thor
(2011, Paramount Pictures)

Even though it was the first major superhero movie of the year and had a lot of promotion behind it, it seems like there wasn’t a lot of real buzz for this movie but then again superhero movies seem to have finally lost their charm with the public after peaking with the crazy success of The Dark Knight. Looks like anywhere from $115-200 million is about what a superhero movie is going to make these days whereas a few years ago the X-Men, Spider-Man, Iron Man and Batman franchises were pulling in $300+ million easily.

You can also say that Thor is in the same category as Iron Man (that of being a B-list superhero) so that probably had something to do with it not being a runaway success as well when the character is pretty straight-forward and humorless and there’s no charismatic actor to carry the movie.

Still, I thought it was fun. I was never impressed by the previews & trailers so that’s maybe why I seemed to enjoy the movie more than most because I was expecting a glorified SyFy Original movie. My biggest gripe is the pacing, I thought it moved too slow and it took Thor too long to finally get his hammer back. Other than that, I’m looking forward to a Thor 2 but it seems for now the Avengers movie can be counted the first sequel because Loki figures prominently into that film.

Amazon.com

X-Men: First Class
(2011, 20th Century Fox)

I’ve never been a big fan of the X-franchise of movies. In fact, the ones that I liked most are X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the universally-hated X-Men: The Last Stand. So, despite enjoying the last two X-movies, I still really wasn’t interested in seeing First Class. It was only after reading some really positive reviews that I decided to add the movie to my Netflix queue.

I guess First Class is sort of a soft reboot/prequel for the series and the first entry of a new trilogy. Truthfully, I don’t remember the first X-Men trilogy all that well but it seems like this movie has brought in elements from those original films while discarding other things. I tried not to think too hard about it and just enjoy the movie and I did.

The slow turn for Magneto to finally decide he had a better way of doing things than Xavier was well-played and Kevin Bacon always plays a great villain (going all the way back to White Water Summer). The movie was well done all the way around and the ending had me excited for a confrontation between the X-Men and Magneto’s group in the sequel.

One of the best superhero movies out there and the best X-movie yet.

Amazon.com

Captain America: The First Avenger
(2011, Paramount Pictures)

Definitely NOT “the best superhero movie ever” as stated by some idiot critic on the cover of the DVD. Not even close and the subtitle is absolutely pointless.

You wanna see some cheesy CGI? It’s right here. The whole movie has a cheesy B-movie feel to it. It could’ve been a really cool gritty and realistic WWII-era movie that just happened to feature a super-solider but they didn’t go that route. Instead the movie features all sorts of hi-tech gadgetry created by the Red Skull and his goons at HYDRA (a branch of the Nazi party).

The movie was okay, I’d give it a 6/10 but the final moments are what really ruined it for me. The final confrontation with the Red Skull was just so rushed it didn’t even feel like the final confrontation. It felt like Act II and after it was over I realized that was it and I was pretty disappointed. That’s really the movie’s false finish though as it goes on to show Captain America waking up in the modern world and even that felt pretty rushed. I didn’t feel like there was any real ending. The movie just stops.

Hey, all in the name of pushing that Avengers movie, right? Like I said, the movie is okay but it’s easily the worst of the superhero movies that came out this year. On the bright side, it’s the best Captain America movie!

Amazon.com

Green Lantern
(2011, Warner Bros.)

Okay, this one I was pretty excited for. I’m a big fan of both DC Comics and Ryan Reynolds (I still say they should’ve saved him for a Flash movie) so I was ready for this one. Unfortunately, it seems like any DC movie that isn’t a Batman movie is doomed to collapse under it’s own big-budget weight.

There are a number of issues I have with this movie:

- The cheesy CGI. It wasn’t as bad as Captain America but for a movie that used it heavily, they should’ve known/done better.

- The plot holes. Why did Hal need “permission” from the Guardians to fight for Earth’s survival when it is a part of the sector he’s supposed to be patrolling and defending? Why didn’t any of the other Lanterns join in and help the new guy (Hal)? Were they all that scared of Parallax (who was beaten pretty easily, I think)? What a horrible and cowardly group of space police.

- The villains. Parallax was a fine choice but for such a cosmic threat, he was taken out pretty easily by a rookie Lantern and it was a wasted opportunity to not show the rest of the Corps doing battle with him. And Hector Hammond? Please. I don’t even want to see that guy in the comic.

Complaints aside, Reynolds does a good job with what he’s given and if you turn your brain off, it’s a fun popcorn movie. It’s just too bad the movie didn’t perform all that well because it looks like there probably won’t be a sequel. That’s a shame because I think the sequel could easily be better than this movie and I really wanted to see a battle between the Green Lantern Corps and the Sinestro Corps.

Amazon.com

Batman: Year One
(2011, Warner Home Video)

Another DC movie I was looking forward to because DC has something like a 96% success rate with me when it comes to their cartoons and animated movies (Superman: The Animated Series and The Batman have been the only real misfires with me thus far).

This animated movie adapts the Frank Miller story “Batman: Year One” that ran in Batman #404-407 in 1987. Despite having owned those issues for a number of years, I’ve never gotten around to reading them (I have TONS of unread comics from the ’80s) so I’m not sure how this compares to the comics but I thought this was an interesting looking back at when Batman and Commissioner Jim Gordon (just a lieutenant in this story) were just starting out in Gotham City. It’s really Gordon’s story just as much, if not more than, as Batman’s.

Good coming of age story for both characters and I liked that it seemingly takes place during the 1980′s, which was when the original story was published.

As standard with the popular line of DC Universe Original Animated Movies, there is a short “DC Showcase” film attached as a bonus feature and this one stars Catwoman and runs about 15 minutes. Written by Paul Dini (one of the greatest Batman writers of all-time), it takes place in a modern setting and has no connection to Batman: Year One (I don’t think, the animation style is the same) though it is equally just as good.

Amazon.com

Young Justice: Season One, Volume One
(2011, Warner Home Video)

I don’t get the chance to watch Cartoon Network’s Friday night action-adventure cartoon line-up much. Not because I have a life but simply because I often forget about the shows and also because CN seems to have an incredibly hard time keeping their superhero cartoons on at a consistent day & time. I decided to give up on trying to watch Young Justice as it aired and wait for the DVD releases.

Focused on the young heroes of the DC Universe, the show is not entirely Teen Titans but not entirely Young Justice (a comic book series which ran from 1998-2003, itself a modern take on the Teen Titans) either. The show is influenced by both.

While I mourned the loss of Justice League Unlimited greatly and this not a continuation of that same animated universe, I think YJ does a very good job of keeping that same kind of feel and great storytelling that JLU was known for.

The show has been renewed for a second season and despite there already being a Season 1 Vol. 2, the series is actually still in the middle of Season 1 thanks to CN’s screwy scheduling of the series (the 3rd and final volume will arrive in Feb. 2012).

It’s just too frustrating to try to keep up with these shows as they air. The series’ “pilot” debuted in November 2010, then the series itself didn’t start until January 2011 and aired until March, took a long break then new episodes (still in Season 1, mind you) started up in September. What’s the point? Is it a production issue? Why not just wait until the majority of the season is ready to go? Cartoon Network does this ALL THE TIME and I hate it. It’s like CN constantly is trying to get these shows to fail by not being able to find/keep an audience.

Hatred for Cartoon Network aside, this is a good show so catch while CN lets you.

Amazon.com

The Tomb of Dracula Vol. 1 – Review

The Tomb of Dracula: Volume 1 (2010, Marvel Comics)
Originally Published: April 1972-Sept 1973

I saw this at the local Books-A-Million this past August and it was marked down to $9.99 (from $24.99!) as a part of some ‘end of summer’ graphic novel sale they were having. I know there a few Marvel Essential collections of Tomb of Dracula but I figured for $9.99 it was good enough to check out the first 12 issues of the series in full cover rather than having to flip through newspaper-quality black & white pages of the Essential Tomb of Dracula editions. I didn’t want to read a Dracula comic book in August though so I waited impatiently until October when I knew the time was right!

It’s a pretty good read that feels like a Hammer film often at times (one of the characters even mentions the British horror movie studio). What I really like about this book is how there is one large story arc, that of Frank Drake (a descendant of Dracula) and Rachel Van Helsing (great grand-daughter of Abraham Van Helsing) trying to destroy Dracula, while the issues feature self-contained stories that involve Dracula trying to raise the dead, a weird furry swamp monster stalking the Moors, Dracula bringing a female vampire frienemy back to life, an aging model wanting to be turned into a vampire to remain young, a travel through time & place thanks to some dark magic mirrors, voodoo dolls, etc. The series, at least in these first 12 issues, plays out much like you’d expect a television drama to: supporting characters come and go, potentially major characters are introduced only to be killed off, issues focus on some characters more than others, etc. I’m not familiar with Marvel’s Dracula lore at all so there’s been some nice twists & turns as I’ve been reading this.

The Tomb of Dracula series is also famous for introducing Blade: The Vampire-Slayer. Despite being a C-list character in the Marvel Universe, Blade would later go on to have his three movies and one failed TV series to his name in the late ’90s/early ’00s. It’s really the Blade movies that helped propel Marvel in Hollywood. It’s interesting to Blade here in a gaudy ’70s outfit (Is he color blind?) complete with an afro rather than in the grittier black leather we are most used to seeing him in these days.

A couple of different writers worked on these first twelve issues: Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, Gardner Fox and Marv Wolfman. They all do decent jobs although I think the series improved when Wolfman took over starting with issue seven. Gene Colan illustrates all of these issues and while he would never make my list of favorite artists I think his style works well considering the material.

This was my introduction to Marvel’s take on Dracula and I enjoyed it a lot. Now it’s time to go all in a pick up the Essential volumes…

Buy ‘Tomb of Dracula – Volume 1′ on Amazon.com

Let’s talk about DC’s ‘New 52′ Reboot

Yes, it’s a reboot, shut up.

I’ve kinda/sorta/maybe been following the whole DCnU (what a stupid, annoying term) thing since it was announced back in May and I have a few more things to say about it before it is officially launched, for better or worse, this coming Tuesday. I had a few thoughts on the matter back in June but hey just consider this post a reboot of that one.

As I understand it, the whole idea of this is not only to re-energize DC Comics but also the entire comics industry, which has been slowly dying off for years thanks to a variety of reasons: gimmicks/stunts, event overload, constant relaunches/renumberings/reboots (just like this one!), aging fan-base, etc. DiDio, Lee & Johns (attorneys-at-law) want to modernize the company by making their characters more accessible and giving them a fairly clean continuity slate and shiny new #1s while going line-wide day-and-date with digital comics.

By all accounts, maybe this revamp’ll work as it’s being reported that Geoff Johns & Jim Lee’s Justice League title already has 200k orders in place, already securing its place as the best-selling issue of the year. A number of other DC titles are apparently sitting north of 100k copies ordered, so good for DC.

Truthfully though, DC hasn’t exactly been the brightest crayon in the box for a long, long time. I love their characters more than any others but they’ve made some really bone-headed calls in the last decade. Who knows though? If Levitz & DiDio were still the powers-that-be, I doubt this ‘New 52′ would’ve come about. Maybe now that Johns & Lee have some power perhaps some real (good) change will happen in this company and they won’t drop the ball when it comes to promoting the titles, shipping on time, writing stories that make sense and utilizing characters/creators properly.

Obviously, some of the books being launched next month are cannon fodder and I can’t imagine titles like Demon Knights, Hawk & Dove, Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E., Grifter, Blackhawks, O.M.A.C., Legion Lost or I, Vampire sticking around long term. Does anyone honestly expect these titles to perform better than books like Power Girl, R.E.B.E.L.S., Booster Gold, Red Robin, Zatanna or Azrael? Considering the characters, I’m sure there’s going to be a decent amount of interest in these books the first two or three months but you’re basically swapping out x number of C-level books for x number of C-level books. And why 52 new titles? Why is that the magic number? And why are there still so many freaking Bat-titles? It really is a case of throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. It still looks like the hodge-podge of waste that DC & Marvel shovel out every month.

I’m not sure if DC is just being lazy or if they naively believe these low-tier books can succeed. I hope I’m wrong. I hope these books provide great art & great stories and they rocket to the top of the sales list and maybe we’ll get a whole stable of I, Vampire titles that can rival the Bat-Family… I just don’t think it’ll happen because I don’t see a demand for much of these characters nor do I see how many of these books are supposed to appeal to younger fans and bring them in. I mean, that IS why they’re doing this right? DC is trying to build up a younger fan-base so they can actually still be in business 20 years from now, right? So why are they rehashing old properties? Why not try something TRULY brand new so that an 11 or 12 year old can feel like “hey, this is MY generation’s superhero”. There’s a high number of niche titles that will only appeal to the same old fan-base even that fan-base isn’t going to support the titles for very long.

As someone who mostly got out of comics almost 3 years ago (after having been pulled back in by Identity Crisis in 2004), I will admit that while I’m not sure DC can accomplish their goals, I am excited about a few of these titles and I wholeheartedly agree with them going day-and-date digital. The industry has dragged its feet against this for too long. I’m not a numbers go so whether this actually hurts or kills off brick & mortar shops, I don’t know. I don’t imagine it would have much affect though. Most comic geeks are pretty hardcore and would still rather spend their $2.99 or $3.99 on a physical copy all in the name of collecting. It’s a hard habit to break so I don’t see much cause for worry in that regard.

Now, for myself, who is a bit more casual when it comes to comics and hasn’t bought a comic in years (other than a few trades), I am very intrigued by the idea of digital comics since this relaunch has been announced. I have very little interest in going into a comic book shop other than for the occasional nostalgic urge to just look around. I just don’t care to have a shop pull and obligate me to $50-100 of comics every week and I honestly don’t want to add any more “stuff” to my home. I have enough “stuff”. I have enough old comics that I should probably throw out, I don’t need any new comics cluttering up matters further so the idea of throwing down $2.99 whenever I feel like it (I’m assuming titles will be available to purchase for a long time after their release date) for a digital comic is neat. Granted, this isn’t a new idea, but the fact that DC is going line-wide makes digital comics look like a much more interesting & powerful option these days.

I don’t necessarily think this big push for digital comics is going to “save” the industry though. I think it’s too little too late for that. As I briefly touched upon above, despite what DC says, they aren’t actually doing much to appeal to a wider base. Yes, the first week of the announcement got them some newspaper press but all they are really doing is making big waves in a slowly, evaporating pond. The industry has cannibalized itself (also for reasons mentioned above). The downfall of the industry can be blamed upon the industry itself. DC spent the last decade appealing to and catering to specifically it’s aging fan-base and now they’ve decided it’s time to get kids and teenagers reading? Like I said, too little too late.

$2.99/$3.99 for a comic isn’t that great of a deal, to be honest. You can spend $50/60 on a video game and that game can last you for the better part of a year or more if you’re a big multiplayer gamer. You can buy a magazine for $5-10 and that may last you a few days or a week (even longer, if you’re like me). A $3 or $4 comic provides 10-15 minutes of entertainment and then you’re done. You either throw it away or throw it in a box and let it take up space. Something like that just can’t compete with all the technology and entertainment out there now. I don’t think comics will ever truly go away but the pie will continue to shrink to the point where basically comics exist as a feeder system for licensed properties such as movies, cartoons, video games, clothing, etc. and even then it seems like those glory days are going away.

I’m not really trying to be negative, I’m being a realist. I’m not upset with DC over this idea, I just don’t think it’s going to do much good. I think too much damage has been done and DC has dropped the ball so many times before I don’t see much reason to believe they won’t do it again here. I hope all goes well though and it will be great if it does and I applaud them for at least trying SOMETHING.

But heck, as I said, I’m at least interested in picking up comics again so after 3 years of inactivity, I’m going to give a few of these books a try in the digital realm. So if it’s working on me, maybe it’s working on tons of others as well.

Here’s the full rundown of titles: http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/the-new-52/

Justice League, Justice League International, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Green Arrow and I, Vampire I will almost certainly check out while I think I’ll wait to hear feedback on the rest of the Super/GL/Bat-books. There are a number of other titles I’m on the fence about listed under the ‘Justice League’ and ‘The Edge’ headings so I’ll wait for feedback on those as well.

A few thoughts on DC Comics’ latest changes

So there’s some pretty big news going around in the comic book industry right now. DC Comics is updating their entire universe in terms of their characters’ appearances and histories, will re-launch their entire line of comic books with 52 new #1 issues and will also be releasing all of their comics digitally the same date they hit the shelves at retailers.

I very rarely read comics (maybe 2 or 3 every couple of months) and I certainly haven’t bought one in about two years or so but I still have love for them and especially for the DC characters. So, I felt like throwing my own opinion in though it’s probably a bit outdated and not as well-informed as others.

Here is what I posted on someone’s Facebook page in response to all of this:

I just don’t see it working. I love the DC characters but DC as a company has been such a mess for years. They don’t know how to promote or use their creative talent (the Kuberts and JMS immediately spring to mind), characters or concepts (return of the Multi-verse, Red Circle anyone?) or books (Countdown was their biggest mess in recent years and then there’s needless spinoffs like JSA All-Stars that actually hurt more than help). They always talk a big game but rarely can follow up with action. If they can’t properly handle isolated incidents, how are they going to re-launch the entire line at once?

The line-wide “day and date” digital stuff is something that Marvel & DC were gonna have to try at some point anyway. I know it may hurt brick & mortar and retailers are up in arms over it, but it’s 2011 and this is just the way things are. It’s not like DC *wants* to harm retailers but they need to do everything they can and pursue every avenue in an effort to maximize their profits. The evolution is necessary.

As for the redesigning of characters, I’m okay with that but it was either CBR or Newsarama that brought up the good point that if Lee is designing the majority of them… that’s a pretty homogenized looking DCU when you leave it in the hands of just one artist (and one writer if Johns is having input, and I’m sure he is).

I’m just so over them constantly revamping, retooling, rebooting, relaunching and renumbering all of their books & characters. It frustrates long time readers and I don’t see how it brings in new readers because they’re immediately lost in all of the past histories and volumes that DC themselves constantly references in their own books. DC has spent the last 10 years living in the past, catering to silver age/bronze age fans and now they want to jump to the future all at once?

The #1 stuff is a complete gimmick that will get them 1 month of decent sales before the majority of these books go back to their usual 15k-30k sales. #1s don’t really pay off in the long run anymore, I don’t see why Marvel & DC can’t realize that. Who cares about a new Birds of Prey #1 or new Red Robin #1?