Weekly Comic Book Discussion 5/18/2006

Cafe Society
1

Here 'tis. We get the 2nd week of 52, and I’m fairly pleased. Manhunter #22 continues to interest - but #25 is the announced end of the series. Majestic #17 - ends very nicely, neatly… but I’m unhappy about it anyway. Shadowpact #1 - It’s impossible to fit into continuity - Yay! Other than that, seems okay. I think Willingham is just an idiot when it comes to continuity.

Robin #150 - Holy Personality Changes, Batman!

All-Star Batman and Robin - I don’t think I can drop this title. It’s just so wrong, I have to keep it up. It’s like a train wreck. You can’t look away. Superman, apparently, can’t fly.

Superman/Batman - The Chaos all comes down here, we get a little glimpse of the New Gods, probably the last appearance of some of these characters, and, God bless Jeph Loeb, my favorite 5th dimensional imp.

PS238, Bite Club, and Bomb Queen round out the lot.

2

Not a great week for me. Two good picks, but even they were mostly setup.

Aquaman: SoA #42: Okay, classic “kiss, then fade to black”. But I have to wonder… How? Solid, but setup.

52 Week 2: Loved the stuff with the mad scientists, and it appears that in two weeks Cassie has moved through “Denial” and “Anger” into “Found a Web Cult”. Impressive. I found the first bit of history interesting in that it’s about stuff that doesn’t exist anymore.

Superman/Batman #25: Well… That certainly ended. I think I need to read all of this arc at once to appreciate it.

**Shadowpact #1:**There’s some red flags here:

  1. The continuity is just awful. Normally, I really don’t care about these things at all, but this was paticularly egregious.
  2. Skipping OYL by putting your characters in a time warp for a year is cheating. I’m looking at you, Blue Beetle.
  3. Did I miss something, or did the group never actually decide to transition from an ad hoc solution to the Spectre problem to an ongoing adventuring concern.
  4. The costume redesigns are bad. Enchantress’ old costume was charming in a “bad girl response to Zatanna” kind of way, who doesn’t love an ape in a deerstalker cap and snarky t-shirts, and I don’t know what he’s trying to do with Nightshade.
    But the character interactions were good, and hey, Hellboy reference, so I’ll give it another shot.
3

All-Star Batman - just as I start to worry I’ve run out of things to mock about this book…

‘I touched my mother’s breast…’

Even ‘Superman’s an idiot! Woowoowoo!’ is so passe for Miller it barely got more than a roll eyes from me. But that…that got me.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if ‘It bled on me.’ was in the same caption, but it wasn’t. (And even if it was, it would have been incredibly mockable, but more for the purpleness of the prose, not the…disturbing implications.)

4

I really object to Enchantress’s costume change. She needs the hat back, dammit. :wink:

And Nightshade’s costume hasn’t looked right since she lost her Ditko skirt and bug-eyes costume.
A friend of mine at my local comics shop made a really good point regarding Civil War. “Why is there all this fuss about super-heroes registering? SHIELD knows who everyone (Spider-Man included) is and they know where to find them. So…really, what’s the point of everyone getting all hysterical about revealing their IDs when they are already compromised?”

(I can’t cite the issue, but I recall that SHIELD knows Peter Parker as well)

5

What about Blue Devil? He looks totally diffirent! Horns, eyes…all changed from the Day Of Vengeance look!

And I meant to ask: Why revive Black Goliath for Civil War? Hasn’t he been gone since the 70’s/80’s?

6

Yeah, that bugs me as well, but I love the concept of Civil War. However Secret War does show that Nick Fury, at least, knows who everyone is. SHIELD in the Ultimate universe knows almost everyone’s ID. I don’t think 616 SHIELD did until after Ultimate did.

7

Just because SHIELD knows doesn’t mean that SHIELD shares what it knows or even that it knows. If I were in charge, I certainly wouldn’t want to tell all the costumed crazies on both sides of the law, “Ha ha, we know your secret identity”. Wouldn’t be too many helicarriers left after that.

8

Shadowpact #1: Hmmm. Not terrible, but not good either. I’ll give it another shot if just for the Hellboy reference. I kinda like the dark Mary Marvel thing Nightshade has going on, but the other re-designs suck.

Maybe I’m being dense, but what’s the big continuity gaff?

52 #2: Twitchy nose. Awesome. The history section didn’t really do it for me, though.

9

*Conan * #28. “Storyteller” (Busiek’s farewell issue, sort of) left me in tears.

10

I think I know what the continuity problem in Shadowpact is, but if I’m wrong please explain why.

Superman shouldn’t be powered there, should he? Evidently some time, at least a few weeks, have passed since Day of Vengeance, which would mean the events of Infinite Crisis are over and Superman ought to be de-powered.

I liked Green Arrow this week.

Ha! Deathstroke in a giant glue trap, and under arrest!

11

I’m afraid it’s worse than that cbawlmer. Besides what you mentioned: If Blue Devil’s been MIA in Riverrock for the missing year, then who is Kid Devil calling every five minutes in Teen Titans?

12

Oh, I forgot about that. I’m not as familiar with those characters so I’m not tuned in to their situation very closely, but I remember that now.

13

That hardly counts as a continuity glitch let alone an outright error, given that from Teen Titans 35, we know two things:

1) Eddie hasn’t been a Teen Titan for long. If Rose’s ‘two minutes’ is literal, issue 35 is his first time out. If not, he’s still not been there very long - likely a couple days to a week or so. And just because stories are being published at the same time doesn’t mean they’re taking place at the same time. Blue Devil’s not alone in this - Robin, Nightwing, Supergirl - they all appear in multiple titles at the same time, which all clearly take place at vastly different points. 2) There’s something Eddie feels the need to tell Rose about the phonecalls - are they really from Blue Devil?

My only real complaints are art-related:

The unneccessary redesigns of Enchantress, Devil and Chimpy (Enchantress and Devil don’t look bad, but didn’t need to be changed…what the hell the Chimp is wearing, however…) - Nightshade’s new kit is good, though. Both cute and more evocative of magic. In fact, it’s the first actively good costume she’s had, IMO.

The art ranges from beautiful - see when Bagman is attacking that little girl - to oddly shapeless - see Blue Devil when he and Ragman are fighting the monster when Phantom Stranger go after them - to ‘80s Indie Comic’ - see Nightmaster and Enchantress’s faces when Stranger goes to get them - which isn’t a complaint, or a compliment, it just looks odd in relation to the other art. It never gets ugly, though, so that’s good, and it kind of makes sense for Ragman to be as shapeless as he is. So it’s not that bad. The Superman stuff is a very minor glitch

52 - Question is creepy. That is all. Booster’s beginning to annoy me - how much of an IQ does it take to think ‘hey, Skeets keeps getting history wrong, maybe we’ve been changing it enough to mess him up’? I wonder what the inverted S-shield means for Sue.

Marvel New Mangaverse 5 - a disappointing ending, with random personality changes. But…not too terrible, all told.

14

With regard to Shadowpact continuity.

Tengu has the right of it - Kid Devil’s not a major issue. The problem is this : the story either takes place before Infinite Crisis (and after Day of Vengeance), or after. Simple enough, right? If it takes place after, Superman can’t be there. If it takes places before, then the Shadowpact’s appearance in in Infinite Crisis (and didn’t they show up in 52? I’ll have to check) become impossible.

Love Willingham’s work on Fables, but he can’t seem to coordinate with overall universe continuity to save his life. Similar problems on Robin during the big event.

15

Candid, why can’t Shadowpact take place “One Year Later”? Doesn’t that solve all the problems mentioned in your spoiler box?

16

So, in essence, when they emerge from the bubble in two or three issues, they’ll be a year ahead of the rest of the DCU, which leaped a year ahead itself?

I don’t see that happening. Secondly, the setup occurs when magic’s still in its transitional phase - seems to have settled by OYL. (Based on Alan Scott and the T-Bolt in JSA).

And if it were the case, THEN Kid Devil would become a major problem.

17

Candid Gamera:

Silly me, I should have realized that.

I just checked out Bill Willingham’s web site, and here’s what he had to say about the subject:

18

It’s interesting. Does he also explain the Robin difficulty?

19

Superboy must be punching the inside of the Green Lantern prison.

20

In ten years or so, they’re really going to regret that little detail of IC, aren’t they? :wink:

I say it’s Wally. … Kicking the inside of the Speed Force.

Or Colonel Mustard at the Big Bang with the Cosmic Candlestick.