What Cool Books Do You Recommend?

I was introduced to Saga by a co-worker – it’s a fantastic book!

Saga is by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples; of course, you should know Brian by a number of series, notably Ex-Machina and The Hood.

Another book I was informed of is called Chew – funnily enough, I went to school with a Tony Chu, the protagonist of the series. I can’t be sure if this isn’t about the Tony Chu I knew. It’s pretty inconclusive from reading the book – it could be Tony, or it may no relation whatsoever. I gotta keep on reading.

This posting isn’t finished by a long shot…but it’s drinky time.

Comics and Other Media

It’s been a while since I have been able to enjoy life like a normal person. Suffice it to say, it’s been nearly three years, and I’m still not yet recovered.

You may notice that I’ve updated my Gravatar – that is a picture of my sweet li’l grrl, Becca. She isn’t with me, but I love her and miss her dearly.

She has her own li’l comics collection.

I caught The Flash on CW and Agent Carter – and I was glad to have done so!

I was with The Flash from the beginning, but I’ve missed a couple of episodes – this episode introduced Firestorm, the Nuclear Man. Of course, his origin is slightly altered, so the emblem from his costume is incorporated into the device that ultimately saves his life and Central City.

Agent Carter is a fantastic show – Hayley Atwell is awesome and fierce – not to mention beautiful. I will make the effort to catch the last episodes, and I will catch up this weekend if possible.

A quick word regarding the Marvel Universe (MU) versus the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) – what we get are reimagined characters and concepts…to wit:

Roger Dooley

In the MCU, Dooley is a fairly principled character who reached his rank by dint of hard work and dedication; however, in the MU, ol’ Rog likes to see titties as much as possible, and forced Jennifer Walters, the Sensational She-Hulk to strip, not once, but twice. Dooley is the fellow threatening Wyatt Wingfoot in the scene from Marvel Graphic Novel #18 by John Byrne, Kim deMulder, Petra Scotese and Janice Chiang.

While DC excelled in the concept of Elseworlds (a refining of the What-If concept imagined by Roy Thomas), Marvel cemented it in the advent of the Ultimate Universe, conceived by Joe Quesada and the late Bill Jemas. Many of those UU concepts have been adapted for use in both the MU and the MCU – paramount in that is the Samuel Jackson-themed Nick Fury character. Mark Millar struck gold with this idea; it may have proved his entry into the world of movies. The Secret Service (renamed Kingsmen) looks to be interesting. I wonder how true it is to the book by Millar and Dave Gibbons.

I’d like to see Supercrooks adapted to a television series. The smart money would be to make the pilot episode a number of vignettes of the actual theft, interspersed with intros of the thieves. Then flashback to the Bastard’s crime career, eventually coming to the present day and the theft of his life savings.

Oh…you didn’t read Supercrooks yet? Whaddaya want from me?

On the subject of Millar, I’d like to talk briefly on The Authority #28, the book that broke the Morrison/Millar pairing in two, never to be together again.

I have the trade paperback of that arc, which includes Tom Peyer and Dustin Nguyen’s New World Order, commissioned due to Frank Quitely’s being wooed away to drawing Morrison’s New X-Men. Quitely was replaced by Art Adams, who drew two incredible issues before the art nannies of DC pissed him off and he quit before completing the last issue, which was done by Gary Erskine. Gary attempted to emulate a faux-Adams style, while I though failed in comparison to his original style of art, which was rich with detail…but I digress.

I seemed to have an incredible attraction to #28, more so than to the other chapters, and before I had an idea in regards to the authorship of the book in question, I could never quite put my finger on it.

Reading Brian Cronin’s Comic Book Legends Revealed, that information came to light, and things began to make sense.

In this case, the student has not yet surpassed the master. I’m not counting success in getting movies adapted as progress; as well as Zack Snyder adapted Watchmen to the screen, changing the ending only made to segue into an easy sequel, as removing the exploding squid nullified the motivations of nearly all of the characters in the movie.

Think about it:

What drove Edward Morgan Blake crazy? There never was an exploding squid.

Adrian Veidt was able to set up intrinsic field generators in the short time Jon Osterman was away from Earth? Implausible.

Night Owl’s (Hollis Mason) death was rendered absolutely wasted by the fact that there would not be any sort of karmic retribution – none of the KT-28 heads died at the Pale Horse Concert.

None of the bit characters that Alan Moore used to flesh out the neo-Charlton characters had any true reason to be in the movie – the Bernards don’t die in each others arms; the Big Figure is just comedy relief; Adrian’s staff don’t need to be killed because the “master plan” involves simply blaming Jon.

I think Alan hates each and every movie adaptation made from his stories; and honestly, his books weren’t designed to be adapted as movies. Every time I read Watchmen, invariably, something new will jump out at me from some previously read panel.

That’s NEVER going to happen from re-watching the movie.

This is much the same experience from re-reading The Authority #28.

As one commenter indicated, “Religimon” should have been a hint that I was reading something other than a Mark Millar jam.

Here’s an example of the censorship that drove Art from the book (no pun intended):

There’s also the infamous scene where the Midnighter, not dead from Three-Willie Seth’s attack, pops a bolt through the head of faux-Apollo Teuton, right before he rapes Apollo. The scene was changed to only display the bolt impacting the skin in the front of Teuton’s skull (a funny callback to Elektra’s sais completely running through human bodies, but never the backs of clothing). Apparently, that was just too bloody much. Of course, Millar’s first arc detailed yet another rape upon the person of Apollo by the Commander, a Captain America analogue (John Walker mixed with Neil Patrick Harris), which concluded with the Midnighter taking a jackhammer to the sphincter of the Commander, as well as using one of the Commander’s teammate’s own mace as a butt plug.

Yes…you read that right – go and read The Authority #16.

Gerry Duggan is doing yeoman service writing the Hulk. Mark Waid left him with an interesting cliffhanger, and he did wonders with it. Doc Green is the perfect progression for the big green guy, though you and I all know that it can’t last. Will it parallel Flowers for Algernon in some fashion? Bruce Banner came as close to death as one could come.

Will Doc Green ever yearn for Betty Ross?

Will Leucenstern be seen again?

Will Rick borrow Miss Thing’s exo-suit?

And…what’s Project Green? It’s obviously some sort of fail-safe for the formerly gamma-powered, but in what fashion?

We are only 10 books away from seeing the third chapter of The Silver Age. The “Silver Age” of what, you say?

MIRACLEMAN.

“Nemesis” came out, and it looks to me that the redone lettering takes away somewhat from the menace of the issue. Not appreciably, but I do have the original issues, and I searched long and wide to complete that collection.

I still can’t quite fathom that this is happening.

I actually wrote an email to “The Original Writer” regarding the cliffhanger in #24.

I didn’t get an answer – maybe that was for the best.

So…of all of the Marvel movies yet released, I haven’t yet seen Thor: The Dark World and Guardians of the Galaxy. I won’t count Ant-Man…too new.

Let me end this for now with a notification to find a copy of Hell Comes To Frogtown – starring “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. Leave the brains in another room and just enjoy.

What’s The REAL Story Behind PPTSS #40?

This post is dedicated to Ben Herman – we were issues apart from being twins (having first purchased almost the same issue of Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man).

He first purchased PPTSS #32; I purchased PPTSS #34 (you can see the excitement at Brian Cronin’s awesome corner of Comics Should Be Good at CBR). Amazingly, both books were the bookends of a three-part story on the Lizard, one of Spidey’s earliest foes, and one of my favorites.

SPOILER ALERT:

 I could only find a partial cover – sorry, Ben :|

So…as you can see by the covers, a new character had been added during the arc. Dr. Curt Connors was performing yet another experiment to see if he could grow back his missing arm, and was testing some theories upon an iguana, when he accidentally stumbled into the path of his enervator, imparting some of his Lizard persona to the reptile. The iguana became…

…the IGUANA!

Here was a creature with the same powers as the Lizard, but without any of his humanity, which often worked to stop his predations. After a number of battles, Spidey realized that he needed to siphon the Lizard persona from the Iguana. He disassembled Connors’ enervator and constructed a portable unit that fit on his back. But, like Reed Richards, back on the fateful rocket ride that turned him and his cohorts into the Fantastic Four, he neglected to ensure that there was proper shielding.

He used the enervator on the two reptile-men, and achieved his projected result.

Now, let’s fast-forward to PPTSS #39, drawn by John Romita, Jr. and Jim Mooney:

Chip Martin, the sone of Senator Robert Martin, looses control after Morbius’ attack on Spider-Man last issue, and becomes the Schizoid Man. He unleashes an onslaught of insanity against the campus, until Spider-Man intervenes…painfully.

Spidey beats the Schizoid Man like a red-headed stepchild, and is admonished for his attack. Uncharacteristically, he storms away to a rooftop, where a startling transformation takes place…he turns into the Spider-Lizard!!!

PPTSS #40 is drawn by Frank Springer (the penciler of Dazzler, and Jim Mooney’s inker here on PPTSS) and Ricardo Villamonte.

My question is…was this a hastily created fill-in? If so, what was the original plot, and why was it scrapped? Like PPTSS #34, I got this issue long before #39, so I wasn’t aware that I was missing some vintage JRjr magic.

Will I ever get to the bottom of this mystery?!?

If anyone has an idea about this, let’s get chatty.

Counter-Earth – The Newest Marvel Imprint?

I came upon this idea while reading Steve Englehart‘s fantastic Lost In Space-Time epic, and taking in account the many changes to Marvel Comics during the 80’s, especially during Jim Shooter’s tenure.

If, before the many changes to Marvel characters took place, one could simply inquire, to any neophyte comics enthusiast, or even one not versed at all, very basic questions about said characters, and the standard answers would apply:

“Spider-Man? Red and blue costume“;
“The Hulk? Green and dumb“;
“The Fantastic Four? Big rock guy; stretchy guy; flaming guy; invisible chick“;
“Captain America? Steve Rogers, super-soldier“…and the like.

A lot of that changed with the advent of the Beyonder.

Without his introduction to the 616 Marvel Universe, we would not have had:

Spider-Man’s black uniform, which became the Venom symbiote;

James Rhodes may have enjoyed a further tenure as Iron Man (he also partook of materials in the chamber that housed the symbiote that eventually compromised the Iron Man armor);

She-Hulk joining the FF when Ben Grimm stayed on the Beyonder’s patchwork planet, due to him shaking off the mental barrier Franklin noticed in FF #245 that stopped him from changing back to his human form (meaning that he never would have left Alicia Masters long enough for her to gravitate to Johnny Storm, which would have been interesting if she still had been exchanged for Lyja the Skrull);

Bruce Banner losing the battle of ascendancy in his control of his alter-ego’s form, and eventually returning to the savage Hulk for some time;

The New Mutants would have never been removed from existence;

Rachel Summers would have not as of yet encountered the M’Kraan Crystal;

Algrim the Dark Elf would have never been turned into Kurse, and Weezie never would’ve gotten hurt;

The only Doctor Doom in existence would have been Kristoff Venard, implanted with Doom’s memories (The Norm McArthur Doom was still present, but seemed to lack the steadfastness of Kristoff, as evidenced in FF Annual #20)…and so on and so on.

Counter-Earth was created by Herbert Edgar Wyndham, the High Evolutionary.

At some point, the planet went missing!

If you’ll recall, Counter-Earth was eventually placed by the Beyonders into a museum.

In that case, this would be an Earth that was NOT visited by the Beyonder. It stands to reason that, when the High Evolutionary created Counter-Earth, that many of the denizens were common to our Earth, along with his New Men. After all, he was familiar with Peter Parker, as Professor Miles Warren was once his assistant.

I would guess that some analogues to our heroes would exist on Counter-Earth, though Heroes Reborn may have touched upon this (the Counter-Earth present here may have been an amalgam of the existing Counter-Earth and Franklin Richards‘  imaginings). However, I believe that the implications haven’t truly been realized.

Anyone want to discuss this further?

Action Comics #18 – Grant Morrison’s Swan Song

Well, here it is – the last issue of Action Comics penned by the fantastic Grant Morrison.

It was stated that Grant had signed on for six issues of the book – we ended up with three times that number – with extra sized issues at the end, to boot!

Let’s go page by page, and see what this last bit of magic entails:

First, the covers – nice pieces of work by Rags and by Paolo Rivera.

Page one – Brad Anderson really gives us a planet Earth that seems to be suspended in the heavens. Then we get an inset of Metropolis, followed by a shot of a giant Luthor battle suit attacking Super Doomsday – Lex still has a sweet spot for Kal El, as he demands that no one gets to kill Superman but him.

Page two – oops. That plan didn’t work out too well, did it, Lex?

Page three – Krypto is still chained by kryptonite, and SD finds the battlesuit is empty. What?!? Luthor’s still in his cell, controlling the suit via Lex-telepathy circuits (you know he calls them that).

Pages four and five are a double-page spread featuring the book’s title – Superman’s Last Stand – all of the creators’ names are reversed. Vyndktvx sics the Superman Revenge Squad on Clark.

Grant – I’d love a run-down of this current SRS – I know Drekken, Susie, Nimrod and Dr. Xa-Du, but I’m unsure of the rest.

Page six – Supes is having a super-hallucination, courtesy of the SRS-Red chick. He now has a lion’s head and paws, and sees Vyndktvx everywhere, including seven shadow demons.

Page seven is spent taunting Superman, but also gives Superman the genesis of an idea to beat the devil.

Page eight brings us back to the hospital room where Mxyzptlk lays dying, surrounded by Jimmy, Lois and the three core members of the Legion of Super Heroes. I mentioned once before that I don’t feel much for the LoSH, but when Grant writes them, it seems to work out. But who’s that approaching?

We are introduced to Ferlin Nyxly on page nine, who comes in raging about his parenting. Boy, is he in for a rude awakening.

Page ten – the magic trick begins to reveal itself.

Page eleven hits you right in the face – like a custard pie. Wow.

Page twelve is one I’m going to read over and over…there’s some hidden gems in there that I haven’t gotten yet.

Susie isn’t part of the SRS attack on page thirteen – she’s standing aside, when Adam Blake returns. Only Adam isn’t alone…

…because on page fourteen, we are greeted with the return of The Wanderers! I had that first issue – Dave Hoover art, of course. What concept can’t Grant make cool?

Page fifteen sees Krypto released and healed from his poisoning – and what a testament to the love of a dog for his best friend – “he’ll grow a new one”. The Wanderers begin dispatching the SRS easily.

Blake dispatches Dr. Xa-Du on page sixteen. The SRS-Red chick is beheaded, while Drekken switches sides and joins the Wanderers. Now begins the work to defeat Vyndktvx.

Page seventeen brings us our last look at Ferlin, and we get to see Vyndktvx starting to feel the desperation – he pleads for his minions to deliver, despite his failure to deliver on his end of the deal. He thinks he has Clark on the ropes – but this is Superman we’re talking about.

Page eighteen shows that even magic has to follow rules, and there is one basic rule – for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Vyndktvx’s actions creates Superman’s reaction. It’s just that simple. Vyndktvx erred by connecting Superman to every living mind on Earth…

…and Clark’s will is anchored and strengthened on page nineteen by The Wanderers. Fifth-dimension character stories have been done before, and they mostly seemed to entail the ease at which 5-D beings can traverse our dimension, but here, Grant examines that, and to interfere in the life of a 3-D being entails being mired in everything a 3-D being experiences, and to a 5-D being, it’s akin to walking into a spider’s web, or flypaper, as mentioned by Blake.

Page twenty – Clark works his magic trick on Vyndktvx. Now for some of the fun stuff I saw in this issue – thank you, Rags, for the revelation. If you didn’t see it, I won’t spoil it.

Page twenty-one shows that Clark’s still got it. Of course, Vyndktvx is a sore loser, isn’t he? He sets his SD shell to blow up…

…leaving Clark to pull that trick we first saw in Amazing Spider-Man #33, where Peter lifts that amazing weight and frees himself to save Aunt May – what we see on page twenty-two is what we should have seen at the end of Superman Returns.

Page twenty-three – Vyndktvx is still nursing that hand from AC #14 – ouchie! What’s worse, his SD bomb is going, going…gone.

Pages twenty-four and twenty-five are the end and the beginning of the fairy tale.

We are presented with the beginning of the end of Krypton on page twenty-six.

Here’s where I once again praise the genius of Grant Morrison. On page twenty-seven, we see Superman Red and Superman Blue. Without making it screamingly obvious, he has Brad Walker illustrate the emotion of Superman Red, while showing the cold logic of Superman Blue. And yet, the two mirror each other in every other way. Excellent stuff. This panel alone is why I read comics. of course, Grant isn’t satisfied with just that – Miss Nyxly is alive! But is Superman?

Page twenty-eight show the lasting impression Superman has on everyone.

Page twenty-nine has Susie back with Aunt Lois, and Superman’s best pal is also Clark Kent’s best pal. Talk about wishing on a falling star.

Page thirty – “You should see the other guy.”

Well, we won’t, for at least ninety days, right, Grant?

I’m gonna miss you, brother. Up, up and away!

A Comment Posted To The Man Who Killed Spider-Man

http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-01-09/art/the-man-who-killed-spider-man/3/

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can…

No, I won’t torture you with that, but I will regale you with my history. I believe my first actual comic ever was Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #34, with the Lizard and his creation, the Iguana.

I grew up a science geek, just like Pete…well, not exactly like Pete. I was already very tall and made lots of friends by my formative years. I wasn’t really shy around girls; in fact, I managed to make friends with the most beautiful girls in school since sixth grade on. Yes – I mean all of you, my dear women friends.

I got an aeronautics kit for Christmas one year – and what a fantastic year that was! The next year, I got a scientific kit, and I may still have the microscope from said kit – no slides, however.

Still, with my scientific acumen, I could imagine being the wall-crawling hero, wisecracks and all. One of the highlights of my life was being invited to the Marvel Comics offices (when they were still located at 287 Park Avenue South) to participate in a round table to discuss the future of comic books – and I got to take a picture with Spider-Man! I still have it, along with my over 15,000 comic collection, which, unfortunately, is languishing in a storage unit in Naples, Florida as we speak. At this point, I’d be interested in either establishing a comic book museum or donating them to a library – if anyone has any ideas along these lines, please write to me at masterkhan69@hotmail.com and let’s see what develops. I do wish to hold on to a couple of books; namely, my copy of Amazing Spider-Man 252 autographed by Stan “The Man” Lee, along with X-Men vs. Micronauts #1, autographed by the great Bill Mantlo, who I just ran into at Jugger Grimrod’s shop back in the 80’s.

As you can see, I’m a real comics buff. There’s something unique to the comics art form that you cannot get anywhere else – in sequential art, you get to control the media. You can study the panel for as long as you like. To use the example of Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons turned a murder mystery into one of the richest examples of what could b done with a blank piece of paper – and gave us something in which each subsequent reading unpeels yet another layer of the onion that is the story of Edward Morgan Blake, who has been murdered before you have opened the cover of the book. Or try out The Coyote Gospel, featuring Buddy Baker, also known as Animal Man, written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Charles “Chas” Truog and Doug Hazlewood – if you are a fan of the Warner Brothers family of cartoons, as I am, you’ll delight in the nuances of this story. If you want to start easy, pick up a Sandman trade paperback by Neil Gaiman. If you’ve ever pondered how a utopia forced upon its citizens would work out, look no further than Squadron Supreme, written by the dearly departed Mark Gruenwald, illustrated by Bob Hall, Paul Ryan and the also departed John Buscema, aided by a host of inkers, colorists, letterers and assistants.

I’ve met so many creators – I even had the pleasure of having Walt and Weezie as the special guests at the Science Fiction Club (thanks for the Thor/Beta Ray Bill drawing, Uncle Walt!), and I have a number of books in my collection signed by said creators. I would love to get at a couple of key books – the rest can be up for grabs. Write to me at the above listed address – let’s see what we can do.

Now, I mentioned what many people know as the cream of the crop of the comic book art form, but Spider-Man is an icon. Spider-Man is a voice. Spider-Man could be YOU. Spider-Man could be ME.

That’s what Dan Slott maybe sees in Spider-Man. That’s why he’s having the time of his life chronicling the adventures of Peter Parker…even though he’s not quite Peter Parker right now, right? After all, it’s what’s this article is about.

But Dan has a point – Peter Parker is a scientist; and yet, besides the mostly minor inventions used to tackle separate cases, before joining Horizon Labs, Peter had missed his calling.

Here is why Stan and Steve (Ditko) are great – after 50 years in existence, the formerly Amazing (and now Superior) Spider-Man still has room for growth.

So…to Dan Slott – I hope that the morning you wake up dreading to have to write Spider-Man is indeed far off. Let me say it now – if I run into you at a convention, I’ll owe you a hearty handshake and hope to have some good conversation to offer. Ask Peter David – he got me to caress James Fry’s dreads, and we’re all still pals.

Right, guys?

Grant Morrison’s Still Got It – My Review Of Action Comics 00-12

Final Crisis came and went…and I couldn’t really tell you what the bloody thing was all about, besides cementing the utter bad-assedness of Bruce Wayne once again. Do you all remember Rock Of Ages? Batman survives a meeting with Desaad, beats him and masquerades as Desaad under the very nose of Darkseid, and ultimately sets the stage for his defeat.

I didn’t think he could top that.

Not that he was slacking; after all, he was instrumental in the defeat of the White Martians upon the regrouping of the big guns after the Detroit JLA era. Mark Waid was so enamored of the Batman that he had multiple storylines dedicated to Bruce’s complete owning of the aforementioned aliens; first, he had hypnotized one to become him in order to move behind the scenes, unbeknownst to his team; later, he nearly took them out singlehandedly again when they devised a way to change Earth’s atmosphere.

So, to recap: Bruce Wayne can pretty much whip your fanny.

When Bruce Wayne was struck by Darkseid’s Omega Beams…well, come on – that’s it, right?

Whachoo talkin’ ’bout, Willis?

Now, maybe Grant had gone total obscura on us, with the Batman, R.I.P. storyline, but where else would you see the Black Glove and Bat-Mite in the same book? Regardless, I think a lot of brain cells were fried in the regaling of these storylines.

But remember…this is Batman we’re talking about – he’s supposed to be unfathomable!

Now, let’s go on to another tack.

Grant and Frank Quitely gave us All-Star Superman.

WOW.

What a sweet book. I mean, I have to be honest here…I thought Superman soaked cork before the reboot (and no, this is before I read Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?). He was just too powerful. Moving planets? Traveling back and forth in time at a whim? I felt sorry for the bank robbers. Now, once Crisis On Infinite Earths and the reboot by John Byrne and Marv Wolfman came about, the character of Clark Kent made more sense, though not everything was golden initially. It took Roger Stern, Jerry Ordway and their associated illustrators to fully flesh out the newly-revised Man Of Steel.

When Superman was killed by Doomsday, I was out there on Herald Square, doling out the books like crack to dope fiends. Adventures Of Superman #500 was a different story. Great story, but too much of the same gimmick. I have to mention this as I segue into the new series by Grant for the New 52.

52 was an excellent series by DC. It was the first big weekly series ever done, and the amazing thing was that it kept to that 52-week schedule, yet kept up its quality (well, that’s if you give all of the artists mostly equal footing – but considering the enormity of it all, I was impressed) and told a great story of the disappearance of the Big Three and the emergence of the complement of DC’s heroes to fill that void. We got to see a re-imagining of Infinity Inc., the rise and fall of Black Adam, the coherence of DC’s villain base into a palpable threat, and the purpose of Booster Gold, as well as a coda to Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle. Not to mention, Infinite Crisis

Right after that, we got…Countdown.

I have the first issue signed by Paul Dini…I don’t have any others. It felt too much like it was riding the coattails of 52…but I was wrong.

Countdown tore off the label from the coat and tried to make itself from the ingredients, without realizing that it’s not the parts themselves that make the whole - it’s the sum of the parts. That’s what 52 was.

It’s what Countdown wasn’t.

DC has just re-imagined the DC Universe, along with the inclusion of the Vertigo characters and the Wildstorm Universe, into the New 52. This required Superman to be re-imagiined – and who better than All-Star Superman’s Grant Morrison?

Grant chose Rags Morales, formerly of the fantastic Identity Crisis, as his artist of choice. Remembering his renderings of Superman and Clark Kent in those books, it’s no real surprise why. Rags has an ease with conveying emotion in his art. It was apparent all through Identity Crisis, and it’s apparent throughout this series. Assisting on the art is Gene Ha, whose first work I saw in the excellent Night Man series put out by Malibu/Ultraverse (we were also privy to Kyle Hotz’s first work in that series, as well). Andy Kubert also stepped in for two issues, and we also got some pages from Brad Walker and Ben Oliver.

I have to mention here that I have never cared for the Legion Of Super Heroes.

After saying that, why is it that I find that Alan Moore and Grant Morrison can actually get me to care about these characters to some degree?

It’s kind of like Adam Strange – never had an interest in the character, but after reading Swamp Thing #s 57 and 58, I was compelled by his story…and the funny thing is, half of the issues aren’t even in English!

Have I talked at all about the New 52 Superman?

He’s younger.

He knows about his rocketship.

He has an indestructible cape, now joined with his indestructible bodysuit.

He’s no longer married to Lois Lane.

John Corben once had a relationship with Lois; now, he is joined with a battlesuit composed of…Metal-Zero. He also no longer has a heart.

Braniac is the internet of other worlds.

He’s stronger than a dinosaur’s hide.

He had a new identity as Johnny Clark, the hero firefighter.

Clark’s landlord is from the 5th dimension.

Actually, I am very excited by this, and by the impish figure assembling his Anti-Kryptonian Army. Do you recall Crisis Times Five, in the pages of JLA, guest-starring the JSA? We got the last storyline of Triumph, along with a helping hand by Captain Marvel and a revelation that the Thunderbolt under the control of the various Johnny Thunders is…a genie.

How cool was that?

Grant Morrison has really chowed down on some good shrooms, because he really gets the idea of the higher dimensions. I still need to find my copy of The Ambidextrous Universe by Martin Gardner before he finishes his next storyline. I understand that his last issue is #16.

Maybe they can get Neil Gaiman to sign on?