Dc-Comics

This week instead of an episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ABC aired a special about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe was basically a documentary discussing the process that Marvel Studios went through to create their series of interconnected movies and at the end gave a few teases for upcoming projects. My friends and I, and according to the website Television by the Numbers more than four million other people all tuned in to watch. Four million viewers isn’t going to win any time slots but it was still good enough to give ABC third place for the hour and drew significantly more viewers than the rerun of S.H.I.E.L.D. they aired on February 20th. More interesting to me was the fact that ABC was willing to air it at all. They have enough faith in the popularity of comic book entertainment that they were willing to air a documentary primarily about movies that people have already seen during primetime. If that isn’t a sign that we are living in a new golden age for comic fans I don’t know what is. However, unlike the Golden Age of Comic Books this new golden age is on the big and small screen. In honor of this new era of superhero entertainment I thought I’d take a look at the current and upcoming live action superhero movies and tv shows from both Marvel and DC.

My family celebrates Christmas, so for the last couple of weeks, we’ve been big into the holiday shopping mindset. Items on Christmas wish lists range from small to large, from new socks (thanks for being easy to shop for, Grandma) to new Xbox One games (thanks for being impossible to shop for, nephews). The one thing that caught my eye was on my youngest cousin’s list: he wants Batman pajamas.

It’s been a while since the last one, so I figured this week I’d do another comics time capsule. This time, I’m going to look back to the mid-80s with volume 2 of The New Teen Titans – specifically, the Brother Blood story told primarily between issues #26-31 (December 1986 – May 1987). This is a great story in a comics run that was, all told, superb. I don’t love every last thing about the run – I’ve never been a Danny Chase fan, and the sexist way that Changeling speaks sometimes grosses me out – but for the most part, the stories and characters are all wonderfully crafted and explored brilliantly. This story holds a special place in my heart because it’s the only big post-Crisis story that features Jason Todd as Robin, and though I don’t like to play favorites when it comes to Bat kids, I sometimes can’t help it. (This is definitely one of those times.)

I’ll be honest: I went into Damian: Son of Batman with more than a little trepidation. There are a few reasons for this. The first – and most obvious – is that Damian is no longer with us, and since he was killed off in Batman Incorporated earlier this year, my affection for the character has only grown. It’s not that I’ve come to distrust DC’s handling of characters that aren’t the Trinity, but… okay, no, that’s exactly it. I went into the book wary of what DC was going to try to pull. The second reason is that the book is both written and drawn by Andy Kubert. Doing double-duty as writer and penciller means that the book is entirely Kubert’s vision, but the sword is double-edged; he has to handle a lot with this book, and I worried going in that it would be too much to tackle. Even knowing Kubert’s history with the character – he was the artist working with Grant Morrison when Damian was created – I worried that something would fall through the cracks. The third reason that I was nervous is that this story doesn’t happen in canon. It’s essentially an Elseworld, a DC-sponsored alternate universe that takes place in a world in which Damian didn’t die. That means that the rules are a lot more lax, and Kubert would be allowed a lot more leeway with what he could and couldn’t do in the story. Add to that the fact that Kubert revealed over the summer that he’s been planning this series for years – and thus, that it’s not something that grew organically out of the character’s story as we now know it – and I was understandably apprehensive about the book. As it turns out, my fears were justified.

Here’s something you probably don’t know about me: I’m blind. I’m not completely without sight; with glasses and magnification, I see well enough to read and write. I get almost all of my comics digitally for this reason. Computers are wonderful things that let me enlarge the comics until I can see the illustrations and read the text; without digital comics, I’d be hunched over each issue with a magnifying glass and a headache. As I’ve said in previous articles, comics are a form of escapism for a lot of people, myself included. They’re a look into a world where people with incredible power work for and protect normal citizens, where justice is something that happens whether it’s through the legal system or not, and where, no matter what happens to our heroes, they almost always get better. It’s something that I struggle with reading or seeing in a lot of different mediums; while it’s great to encounter characters that I love recovering from things that I haven’t been able to beat, it’s also frustrating, because I’d like to see situations like my own handled with a touch of realism, too.

I’m just going to jump out in front of this and call it a rant. It’s inspired by Kari’s entry last week: So What’s With Batwoman?: Why This Is Important . I’d passively read about the Batwoman controversy and shook my head. Batwoman was the subject of a few early articles here at Comic POW! ( Dan’s 2012 DC Runner Up, vs Wolverine and the X-Men, and vs SHIELD) and we’ve always praised the art and the storytelling that set it apart from the rest of the Bat Family. However, being apart from the Bat Family was a double-edged sword. When financial constraints hit, Batwoman hit the chomping block for me. I always intended to collect it as an omnibus trade but I didn’t bother supporting it monthly since it didn’t fit in with the other comics I was reading. Since I didn’t read it monthly, I only followed the departure of JH Williams III from the periphery. At first I thought it was an anti-gay stance which I thought was weird after the whole Alan Scott thing. But when Kari brought word that it was an anti-marriage stance coming from Dan Didio himself, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. ...

This week I came across the following quote from a Paul Pope article: Asked by Yang if he had tried to do an all-ages book with a franchise character, Pope said he did test the waters, only to be knocked back. “Batman did pretty well, so I sat down with the head of DC Comics. I really wanted to do ‘Kamandi [The Last Boy on Earth]’, this Jack Kirby character. I had this great pitch… and he said ‘You think this is gonna be for kids? Stop, stop. We don’t publish comics for kids. We publish comics for 45-year olds. If you want to do comics for kids, you can do ‘Scooby-Doo.’ And I thought, ‘I guess we just broke up.’” ...

Earlier this week, Eric took a look at how Bruce Wayne interacts with his sons and with Barbara Gordon. Today I’m going to do a similar thing, but instead of focusing on Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian, I’m going to take a look at the other two ladies of the main continuity Bat family – namely, Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown. Since neither woman has yet made an appearance in the New 52, this article will focus on the pre-reboot continuity. ...

It’s really interesting to think about how quickly the world changes around us. Whether we’re talking about popular culture, politics, or technology, things are constantly moving. The media produced during any given time period tends to reflect this; things produced today have up-to-date smartphones, fashion, and cars, and current sentiments are reflected in the story lines. This isn’t a new phenomenon, so when we look at media produced twenty years ago, we get a snapshot of those same things from that time period. Comics are especially good at this, because they’re consistently released on a monthly basis. They evolve as they continue, showing us a constant stream of snapshots. ...

Last week I took a look at four superhero characters – Batman, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, and Starfire – and what made them decide to put on their costumes and fight the good fight. If you haven’t read that one yet, I’d suggest checking it out before you read this week’s installment. It will give you some context for where I’m starting with this article. My last article noted that a lot of popular superhero characters, including all four that we took an in-depth look at, had incredibly traumatic experiences that directly lead to them becoming heroes. According to the World English Dictionary, a superhero is “any of various comic-strip characters with superhuman abilities or magical powers, wearing a distinctive costume, and fighting against evil.” We can break it down even more: a superhero is someone who has skills that Joe Smith on the street doesn’t have, and who disguises his or her identity in order to fight crime with the help of those skills. Nowhere in that definition does it say that a superhero has to have a tragic back-story, but it happens more often than not. Given a little thought, the reason becomes clear. ...