DC - Please Continue Publishing Secret Six In Some Format

Hello, everyone. Yes, I know it's been quite some time since I blogged about Comics but life's been a bit crazy, to put it mildly. In any case, I hope you can all forgive me and go take a look at this petition I just created:

http://www.petitiononline.com/47748668/petition.html

I outline just how and why I think Secret Six has been an important, wonderful read - one of DC's best books on the stands. Please sign this petition and keep a great book alive.

Thanks in advance to those who sign!

For Crying Out Loud

Maybe some of you already know that comic book writer Gail Simone has a forum where she and her fans chat about things. She's a very funny, forthright author who loves to interact with her fans online. So, when somebody posted this page from the new, poorly-received Cry For Justice mini-series from James Robinson, she naturally had something to say about it.



"I could see Lady Blackhawk, actually. Two pilots having some sexy fun, okay, I get that.

But I hate to see Huntress get branded as a slut again. The whole point of the Josh story was for her to realize she deserved better.

And I can't see them doing a threesome, that affects their friendship, and the Birds were ALREADY one of the very few books about female friendship which is so fucking rare in comics it might as well be moonbeans captured in mason jars. Not that friends can't have sex, but once again, this is all about the man, and "Well played, sir" is just, ugh.

I love James Robinson. But I really feel like most writers of mainstream comics get the sex thing all wrong over and over. It's all wink wink nudge nudge and women as trophies and thumbs up and it seems so weird and off-character to me.

But I haven't read it in context and I'm just the dumb girl anyway.

But James Robinson is a great writer, he's never written anything I didn't enjoy in comics and I still think Silver Age is an underrated classic. Maybe I'm reading it wrong. But it does feel weird that people can read bop and still come away with the impression that THAT Huntress and THAT Lady Blackhawk would get drunk and be someone's sad Penthouse fantasy.

It just shows again that Bop was an important book for a lot of reasons and its absence is keenly felt in the portrayal of female characters in the DCU. Not my bop specifically, just the book overall."

She comments further on why this page is more than a little sexist and disappointing in the link, if you dig through the comments. I could say a few choice things myself but I'm trying to keep my blood pressure down lately.

. . . oh, what the hell. I'll say them anyways.

First off, I decided against collecting this series since I read the agonizingly boring and annoyingly self-righteous 5-page preview shoehorned into the back of my fun, entertaining issue of Power Girl. Yes, Hal, let's do lecture Wonder Woman about justice. You know, the woman who unflinchingly killed Max Lord and got whined at for two years about it? And hey, while, we're on the subject of smacking down villains, remember Parallax? I sure wish somebody had taken that power-hungry murdering maniac down permanently right about now.

You know, I really wish I could like Green Arrow and Hal Jordan. I like Black Canary, I like Guy Gardner, I like Kyle Rayner, hell, I like Arsenal and Kilowog. I know a lot of great fans that I respect who love Hal Jordan to death, so I keep trying to see what's so awesome about him and, to a lesser degree, Green Arrow. Still, I just can't get into these two characters because half the time I read about them, they're being portrayed as, well . . . how to put this politely? Asshats.

When Hal Jordan's quoting John McCain about bravery and Green Arrow's electrocuting his wife to end an argument, I just can't find much to like about either one of them. And "hey, ain't we studly manly men?" banter like this isn't helping my general disdain for their characters much.

Anyways, I know I'm probably being unfair to both characters by judging them only by the recent stuff I've read but, hey, you know what? Fuck it. If the Powers That Be at DC want to portray two of their most iconic heroes as self-righteous frat boys, then that's clearly how I'm supposed to approach the characters. And I really, really don't like frat boys.

Ahem. Anyways, since I try to be more of a "light a candle" than "curse the darkness" kind of guy, let me recommend some good comics with female protagonists in lieu of Snivel For Peace, Whine for Justice.*



Echo is about a woman on the run with powers given to her by accident via the death of another woman, a fighter pilot in an experimental flight bodysuit. Julie, the protagonist, is being tracked by another woman who is more than just a femme fatale. Julie has to try and reconcile the memories of the fighter pilot whose dangerous experimental flight suit has now become partially bonded to her, all the while avoiding the government, a deadly lunatic and more. Echo is one helluva read, a complex, interesting and smart sci-fi thriller.



The Sword is, to quote the creators website, "a modern-day fantasy series that follows Dara Brighton, a young woman whose life is destroyed by three powerful strangers. Her journey begins when she discovers a unique sword." I've been tradewaiting on this one due to poor finances and haven't yet gotten the new trade but this series has been consistently interesting, suspenseful and surprising. If you don't mind gore (the titular sword sure ain't used for slicing yams), it's a really great read.



And speaking of female sexuality in comics, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the smart, funny and frankly adult Empowered. While James Robinson turns two established heroines into a tasteless threesome punchline, Adam Warren writes about mature, adult superheroines whose sex lives are yes, funny, but also hot, heartfelt and occasionally awkward - i.e., "real". Hell, there's more honest, heartbreaking interaction between lesbian superheroes in volume five of Empowered than in all of Greg Rucka's Detective Comics thus far - and that's saying something, given how much I'm loving Rucka's run on Detective Comics**. It's both funny and kind of sad that Empowered, the series that is supposedly "exploitative" enough to get slapped in shrink wrap and labeled with a "Mature Readers" sticker, treats it's female characters with more respect than a book that says "Justice League" on the cover.

Anyways, feel free to share your thoughts on the above page and Simone's response, 'natch but . . . you know what? I'd like this to be a positive post. Feel free to kvetch with me but I'd rather you go ahead and tell me what comic books you're really enjoying lately in the comments. I'm always looking for comic books that make me happy rather than make that tiny vein in my neck twitch.


*Bonus Points to all of you who know what I'm referencing with that joke.

**Oh, and Detective Comics is kicking all sorts of ass and looking amazing, but I'm sure you knew that already.

A list of comic books I have recently enjoyed.

I feel like I've already documented my love of anything written by Warren Ellis, Adam Warren or Gail Simone. So, to shake it up a bit, I'd like to mention a few other comics I've been really digging as of late.

1. Agents of ATLAS.

Finally started reading it thanks to everyone's recommendations and man, is it ever crazy comic book fun. I haven't seen a team this gleefully eclectic, original and well-written since Runaways first came out.

2. Incognito

Noir meets supervillainy with a well-written back-up feature about a pulp icon in each action-packed book. Woof. I feel like I need a cigarette after every issue.

3. Captain Britain and MI-13

Paul Cornell made me like Meggan, for crissakes. MEGGAN. Or as I should now call her, Gloriana. I haven't been this surprised since Warren Ellis made me enjoy reading about Kitty Pryde. Damn shame this book's getting the axe, even if some folks weren't entirely surprised by the news. Find the trades if you can, you won't be disappointed.

4. Incredible Hercules

The Marvel superhero afterlife as a casino. A diner where the gods meet to have discussions. Really, it's the little touches like this and consistent humor that make this book a must-read month after month. As soon as I have the cash, I am so picking up the trades.

5. Thor

Pretty much what I said for Incredible Hercules, only more low-key. A solid read. I'm gonna be a bit bummed to see JMS' run end.

5. JSA Vs. Kobra: Engines of Faith

I don't usually read the JSA (I'm not enough of a DCU fanatic to even know who half of this superpowered Brady Bunch are) but I'm reading this with glee. On the face of it, a story about an atheist versus a group of religious fanatics might sound a little too on-the-nose. It's not. This well-plotted, interesting and suspenseful mini-series is yet another reason why Eric Trautmann deserves his own ongoing series (and why they should never have kicked him and Greg Rucka off of Checkmate). Plus, it finally gives us an update on the fate of Sasha Boudreaux after Final Crisis: Resist. *sniff*

6. Power Girl

Amanda Conner's art, you guys. She could illustrate the phone book and I'd buy it and be amused. The story's okay so far, I suppose. There's a money/ape villain, which always charms me. Needs more of Karen's Cat hurting people, tho'. I've loved that filthy, angry cat since the Giffen era of the JLA/JLE - which is another great series coincidentally out in trade. Severely worth your time, folks. Take Greg Rucka's word for it if you don't believe me.

Few even think to ask The Question

So, if you purchased the amazingly drawn and sharply written Detective Comics #854 - a.k.a. my second favorite book to come out last week* - you may have been too stunned by J. H. Williams III's stellar art and Greg Rucka's crisp storytelling to notice the equally engaging back-up feature, in which Renee Montoya returns as The Question. About a billion people have already talked about how great the first feature focusing on Batwoman is, so I'll try to focus on The Question instead. The two tales stand out in contrast to each other in several ways but neither seems greater than the other, in my opinion. It's a testament to Greg Rucka's talent that reading both tales by him is like getting an apple with your orange and making delicious fruit salad.**



Drawn in a hard-edged, realistic style by the deeply talented Cully Hamner, Rucka's second story is a very Equalizer-esque street-level tale of The Question trying to find a young man's missing sister whose current status is implied to be deeply, deeply vile. The more "real-world", noir tale of Montoya hunting down human traffickers stands out in contrast to the highly stylized, extremely "Gotham City"-esque story of Batwoman versus Alice, the colorful new Lewis Carroll-loving head of the Church of Crime.*** This isn't to say The Question back-up lacks fun or whimsy. There's still humor there, just more subdued (a Monty Python joke, no less, for us nerds in the audience - which is all of us because, c'mon, you're reading a blog about comic books).

Oh, and The Question totally teaches a vicious guard dog about personal boundaries with her knuckles, so there's that - assuming you like things that are totally bad-ass, that is.


And before I forget, let's talk about two people who deserve massive props but may get lost in the shuffle of everyone discussing Rucka and Williams III - Dave Stewart and Laura Martin, the colorists for the Batwoman and Question portions respectively. I have to take a moment to lavish obscene amounts of praise on both of these talented colorists for making their stories shine like diamonds. Dave Stewart, whom I first noticed on Joss Whedon's Fray series, is nothing short of a revelation on Batwoman. Let's face it, without the blood-red hair, chalk-white skin and every other stand-out color rendered in loving detail, I don't think the entire book would work nearly as well as it does. As for Laura Martin, well, I've been a fan of Laura Martin's brilliant shading and subdued work since reading Warren Ellis' "occasionally so gorgeous it makes your jaw drop" series Planetary. As a result, it comes as no shock that she makes Rucka's Question series a perfectly lit somber noir piece with primary shades of blue, brown and orange. I love being able to look at one panel and know exactly what time of day or night it is. She's just that good.

One last thing - a very clever hook of The Question back-up series is that, rather than patrol rooftops, she's put up a website all over cities as graffiti and responds in person to the most vital questions she receives from random, desperate people. Her website is cleverly called Ask The Question - and as if you couldn't tell from the html formatting color, it is now a "real" site.



Go ahead and ask The Question a question - I know I did.****


*The award for "My Favorite Book From Last Week" has to go to Adam Warren's brilliant, heartbreaking and tender Empowered, Vol. 5. Yes, the GN that comes in shrinkwrap with the "Mature Readers" label. FYI, doubters, there's just as many lesbians in the book as Detective Comics #854 but roughly ten times more heartbreak, comedy and pathos. Believe me, I've got a loooooooooong blogpost brewing about Empowered Vol, 5 coming up.

**Please understand that I am not making some lame reference to both of them being lesbians with the "fruit salad" line. I think we've all had more than enough terrible, cheesy and generally shoehorned comic book references/"jokes" about their sexuality. I just like fruit salad. And metaphors.

**And also, props must be given to Rucka for having the huevos to create another Lewis Carroll-themed villain in a town that has The Mad Hatter in it. I'm interested in finding out what makes Alice stand out in contrast to the mind-controlling doctor, other than only speaking in lines from Through The Looking Glass and not being a creepy pedophile (presumably).

***No, I won't tell you my question. Much like letters to Santa, I do not reveal my conversations with fictional people for fear they won't come true. :P And gracias to The Nerdy Bird for hipping me to the site's existence.

Eat Your Vegetables and Brains

Over at BeaucoupKevin, the good Mr. Church has pointed out a bevy of free, easy-to-read Zombie comics by a variety of great creators, starting with a particularly amusing tale of a multiple choice quiz.



And yes, the above is real - DC created a healthy cookbook for kids and you can now read a few precious pages of it here. There's so much I want to say but I'll just go with this - that Jimmy Olsen looking at the 3-D salad? Kinda freaks my head out.

My Favorite Martian

I really should be crashing, considering the day I've had and the four hours of sleep I'm coasting on. Instead, I will briefly discuss the Martian Manhunter.



There's rumors good old J'onn J'onzz from Mars is gonna buy the farm in Final Crisis. This would make The LookOut a sad panda.

Many people don't seem to "get" the Martian Manhunter. They compare him negatively to Superman or cite his lack of a supporting cast of characters. But the thing is, he's a cornerstone of the Justice League. Every single one of these great heroes are his family and his supporting cast. Just look at the classic Giffen-era JLI years. Without J'onn as a straight man, it all falls apart. And as far as Superman goes, well . . .

Okay, here's the reason Martian Manhunter isn't terribly popular. He owns Superman and Batman in terms of grief and loss. He is, to be frank, depressing as all hell. Perversely, that's why I love him so much.

Superman's world died . . . and what does he get? Loving human parents to raise him from the word go, a rocketship, a Fortress of Solitude, a gaggle of Superpets, a Cousin and the body of a Greek God.

Batman's parents died . . . and what does he get? A mansion, a faithful butler, a Batcave and a vast fortune. And both of our orphaned boys get the chance to put grief behind them as they grow.

Martian Manhunter's entire world and family died - wife, two kids, all of it - . . . and what does he get as an adult? A dead scientist's apartment on an alien world he doesn't understand.

That's all.

That's it.

No guide, no grief counseling, no gifts. Just a dead scientist's legacy of him being marooned and outcast from his entire world.


(Okay, maybe he also finds out there's really kick-ass cookies on this new world but that comes later.)

The Martian Manhunter is the flipside to Superman and Batman. Supes is the hope and joy the Justice League stands for and Batman's the justice but they both are essentially kids living up to their parent's expectations or their childhood dreams. J'onn is an adult who's suffered through hideous tragedy, more isolated and alone than "Mr. Fortress of Solitude" could ever dream of being. A creature who keeps on helping people anyways, not out of guilt or a vow to his dead family, but out of hope for the human race. J'onn J'onzz can see inside people and he still believes in humanity. And this is after years spent as a cop and private detective in his spare time. That's pretty amazing to me, frankly.

The Martian Manhunter is also the eternal outsider. The Other. Before Justice League Detroit and the social outcry of Denny O'Neil, the Martian Manhunter always stood out as the one member of the League that wasn't some whitebread homogeneous hero. For a Hispanic kid growing up, it felt good to know that there was at least one JLA'er who got looked at a little funny because of the color of his skin and different facial features, even if he could shapeshift them away.


(It also didn't hurt that the dude was actually based out of my hometown - that is, when he wasn't hanging out in the JLA or Australia.
All the Marvel characters in Colorado were either kinda lame or supervillains, a prison full of supervillains or a freakin' superteam of mostly Supervillains.
. . . Jesus Christ! Thanks a lot, Marvel.)

I think the degree to which you enjoy the Martian Manhunter depends a lot on how much you identify with the outcast, the brooder, the odd man out. If you're a vanilla sort of person or a pistachio ripple fan. For me, he's the one character that makes any good Justice League story into a great one because he's the sort of genre glue that makes the team feel right to me. Like a family, goofy as that may sound. Even without the Giffen-era atmosphere, I always pictured J'onn as being the one the other Leaguers killed time with and who knew everybody intimately.



Ah, well. I suppose I'm just rambling at this point. What I'm trying to say is, I dig the Martian Manhunter and I really, really hope they don't burn him to death.



And if they do kill off J'onn J'onzz, all I have to say is this . . .

Marvel better create a good goddamn Superhero in Denver already. Christ! What the hell did Colorado ever do to you, Marvel Comics? I mean, really?!?

SuperFriends Will Be There For You

From the always delightful BeaucoupKevin(dot)com, I hereby present Super Friends -


The most disturbing/amusing part of this for me is how well Robin synches up to Jennifer Aniston.

Laugh, my friends! Laugh so you won't remember the heartbreaking parts of the Y: The Last Man finale and start tearing up all over again.

Shoot, I just remembered again. *sniff*


*quickly clicks Happy Super Friends Button*

It's an Ambush!

You all can keep your One More Day, your Messiah Complex, your Sinestro Wars, your World War Hulk . . . 'cause I just got word that a certain bug's coming back. An AMBUSH BUG.


From the Newsarama Interview:

Newsarama: From your seat, how did this project get rolling? Was this something you pushed for?

Keith Giffen: No! No! It wasn't even my idea to put Ambush Bug in 52 - that was the big four. I pretty much figured the character had run its course. And with comic books being taken so seriously... I mean, look at this fervor over Spider-Man's marriage being dissolved by internal decree. Comics are taking themselves so seriously; I just figured the Bug had a nice little nostalgic twang to it.

And out of the blue -- and I really mean out of the blue; I was not expecting this -- Dan DiDio and Jann Jones called me up and said, "You want to do Ambush Bug? Six issues?" And I was like, "You're really asking?" [laughs] And they said, "Yeah!"

Apparently, they kind of agree with me.

NRAMA: Agree with you?

KG: Yeah. They brought it up that comics are taking themselves way too seriously, and it's time to thrash them around a bit and remind people why comic books are supposed to be fun.





NRAMA: What do you hope this brings to the DC product mix?

JJ: Simply, the return of Ambush Bug.

NRAMA: But is this series going to be in DC continuity?

JJ: This six issue series will take us from Identity Crisis all the way to Final Crisis. We will see how the presence of Ambush Bug has affected the DCU in ways you could never imagine. ...
...
Keith Giffen: [laughs] But basically, the premise of the six issues is that we're going to try to zero in on each of the six DC events. We'll start with Identity Crisis, then working our way through Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Infinite Crisis, 52, Countdown to Final Crisis, and Final Crisis.

In case I have not made them abundantly clear, my feelings on this news can be summed up via this photograph:

Things I'm Buying This Week

Booster Gold #6 - Meet the Beetles begins here, apparently.

Checkmate #22 - Love, love, love this series. Greg Rucka roxxors my soxxors. He's even started a secret blog for this series, to the delight of us superhero spy nerds everywhere. I still miss Queen & Country but this eases the pain greatly.


Marvel Comics Presents #5 - I have a fondness for the old series and I've liked this new version quite a bit. The Hellcat and police detective stories have been very good, even if the others haven't really made me jump up and down with glee. In any case, I wholeheartedly encourage any series that gives more of a chance for new writers and artists to really get creative and put out 8-page shorts.

New Warriors #8 - I'm liking this series more than I ever planned or wanted to. It's just damned interesting to see the Initiative being fought with guerrilla style PR tactics. Plus, Jubilee gets to be the 2nd-in-command of something, which is awesome. Not as awesome as Team Jubilee would be but hey, I like Night Thrasher, so I'm okay with that.

Fell #9 - I've been waiting for this one. Fell's my favorite Ellis comic currently on the shelves and it's cheap too! Try a copy today, whydonchya?

Angel: After The Fall #3 - I'm not as into the art on this "Angel Season 6" comic as I am into the art on "Buffy Season 8" but Brian Lynch & Joss Whedon are clearly having fun. I'm liking it a lot but I'm not loving it. The 'in media res' nature of the storytelling isn't helping me very much when it comes to getting fully into the story. Maybe it's because Buffy didn't end on such a huge honkin' cliffhanger? I dunno.

Insomnia sometimes nets beautiful results

If you hunt around the music site of one Kelly Fenton, you'll find incredibly wonderful jazz pieces . . . based around recent DC Comic books (and other great stuff besides, including a kick-ass version of Blue Skies).

I'm especially fond of Infinite Crisis and Villains United I & II.