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September 5, 2005
David K. writes: Just wanted you to know that COMICS 101 is one of the first things I've read since regaining power in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, after the power came back on. I may not have comics this week or next but just the sight of The Arrowmobile has made up for it.
Tipton: God bless you, David. We're all so far removed from the horrors of the Gulf Coast out here in California,
it almost doesn't even seem real, even though we know all too well that it is. All we can do is give as much as we can afford to the relief efforts, and hope for as speedy a recovery as possible.
The fact that my little dog-and-pony show could provide even a moment's relief is probably the best compliment I'll ever get.
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Robert W. writes: I was rereading your columns (which are always top notch, by the way, so please don't ever leave the internet) recently during a slow work day and came across your Dark Knight Returns piece. When I
originally read it I had
not yet read DKR, and I have to say that it was your
article in part that
inspired me to pick it up during one of my
spend-crazy forays at the local
comic book store.
At the end of your column, however, you have this to
say:
"And what about DARK KNIGHT 2, you ask? Trust me.
Don’t ask."
I don't agree. But give me second to give you some
background.
I'm 27 now, and stopped reading comics around the
age of 15 (this would be
1996 or '95, the age of "#1 covers" and "multi-X-title crossovers" that both
killed my bank account and coincided with my first
serious girlfriend...a
familiar story, no doubt). I recently got back in
the game and have been
boning up on what I missed during the last twelve
years. Not too much,
surprisingly, X-title wise, Spider-Man wise, or any
other Marvel title wise
as far as I'm concerned. They plot at a snail's
pace.
Did I mention I was a die hard Marvel guy? Never
bought one DC issue of
anything back then. Now, however, I'm noticing that
the quality of the DC
stuff is by and large greater than that of Marvel
(especially Vertigo) but
hey, you get older and your tastes change, right?
Which brings us full
circle to your column which has fleshed out that DC
knowledge that I never
had before. You're a living encyclopedia of this
stuff, and I love you for
it.
Thus, when you have a title like Dark Knight 2 (is it Strikes Again? I
think it is, but meh) that is replete with the 'what
ifs' and 'alternate
future' stuff that fanboys love, I find it hard to
believe you found nothing
redeeming in it. Admittedly, Superman is poorly
characterized, and the
whole Wonder Woman thing....No. Just no. I'll give
you that, but the rest
of the piece was a fun-filled romp thru characters I
am only just getting to
know and appreciate, and I felt like Miller wasn't
selling them short in any
way. It's a great work, all in all, and although it
doesn't merit a full
column by you, I hope you can at least retract your
statement upon further
consideration.
Or maybe I'm just a lost comic soul that needs guidance, and you can explain
why my appreciation for DK2 is misplaced.
Tipton: When DK2 came out, there was a lot of negative talk
about how bad it was, all of which I dismissed. I
liked Miller's more impressionistic, evolved style,
the characterizations were fun, I was digging it.
Until the last issue.
The out-of-nowhere revelation of Dick Grayson as the
villain of the piece, with no explanations of his
motivations or new powers, completely turned me off
the book. It really felt like Miller didn't know where
he was going and just tacked that ending on.
That's my two cents, anyway.
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James Z. writes: If I could trouble you for a bit more (I know I have
taken some of your
time in the past with the quiz), I was wondering
what you thought of my
statement in my last email - that I would like to
see Vic become
Rorschach. From what I gather by reading your articles, you seem to be of the "strong continuity" persuasion, in that you
like your characters
to stay more-or-less true to their original persona
and ethos.
With The Question, however, you have a character who
had probably less
than 100 pages of existence in his original form,
followed by a
relatively huge amount of exposition in a very
different kind of
persona. Meanwhile, one of comics' greats (Moore)
re-invents the
character under a different name, with an attitude
which is basically a
more extreme and intense version of the original.
This begs the (*groan*) question: Would Vic Sage be
a better Question
as the current DC character, a descendant of O'Neil
and Cowan's
excellent (though divergent from Ditko's original)
series - or would Vic
make a better Question as Rorschach; a character
that is effectively the
embodiment of Ditko's original character taken to
the extreme?
Hope you find that last paragraph easier to read
than I found it to
write.
Tipton: Nah, I wouldn't get on board with changing Question to
Rorschach. Does a dissservice to both characters.
Better to just devote that attention to making a
better Question series.
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Chris G. writes: Thanks for finally doing a column on Question. Thanks
to JLU he has become my favorite DC character ever.
He
should have his own on-going where he investigates
the
crap out of EVERYONE in the DCU, so not only does he
have enemies, the good guys would be after him too.
Anyway, thanks man. been down since day 1 with that
Daredevil column. In a world where continuity is
seemingly being re-written, you hold the answers to
the Question of readers everywhere. Rock on.
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Gavok writes: Actually, I do have a question about [the JLA spinoff series EXTREME JUSTICE] now that I
think of it. Towards the end, they were building up
a new Legion of Doom. It seemed like it was going
somewhere at first with its dark and mysterious
leader. But the members turned out to be Killer
Frost, two Madmen (who didn't seem to be very mad),
a Gorilla Grodd robot, a braindead Major Force,
Houngan and the leader. It's amazing when Killer
Frost is your team's least lame member.
So as I read it, I had some ideas of who the leader
could be. Maybe it was Monarch II, who after
revealing himself as the REAL Nathanial Adam and
having a slight setback to his master plan, WAS
NEVER HEARD FROM EVER AGAIN. Or maybe it was Oberon,
who was a member of Extreme Justice for about twenty
seconds. Or Dirk Davis, Booster Gold's former agent
who was retconned into being a Manhunter and then
retconned back to being a human before insisting
he'd have his revenge.
Instead it was Brainwave Jr.
Oh. Well, I guess that makes... Wait.
WHO IN THE BLUE HELL IS BRAINWAVE JUNIOR?!
I have no idea who he is, but I'm putting money on
him being the White King of Checkmate, Hush's real
identity and the next Hobgoblin. It makes about the
same amount of sense.
Tipton: Brainwave Jr. was the son of Golden Age JSA villain
Brain Wave, who tried to make up for his father's
crimes as a member of the super-team Infinity, Inc. He
later went insane from the pressure of his mental
powers, leading to the Legion of Doom appearance. He
more recently appeared in the pages of JSA.
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Ben S. writes: Another week, another wonderful column...
I was going to my local library and checking out
some great graphic novels and collected trades like,
A Contract With God, 30 Days of Night, Batgirl Year
One, League of Extroadinary Gentlemen Volumes 1 and
2, Marvel 1602, H-E-R-O (now that's a great Trade!),
and The Complete Hitchhickers Guide to The Galaxy.
Then while looking for more to read I ran into a
very old and endearing favorite, BLOOM COUNTY. Now
even before I got into Calvin and Hobbes, and even
Citizen Dog. There was Bloom County, and I know you
did such a great job with your POGO column (which by
the way, I'm making it my quest to find ANY
collection). I was wondering if you would ever touch
on the Bloom County collections, I mean I know some
of it, is way dated... but it still holds up today,
in case you wanted a diversion before the whole
Infinite Crisis, and "Batman remembers what the
Justice League did to him" comes crashing down on
you....
Tipton: I absolutely love Bloom County. Wickedly funny and
razor-sharp.
# # #
Brett T. writes: Loved the article on the question and have to wholeheartedly agree with your take on JLU. I have
been a huge fan of the timm cartoons as far back as
Tiny Toons and Batman. my favorite ponderable of
theirs is the Batman/Wonder Woman relationship. It
is genius she is the one woman Batman could truly be
happy with. The whole "she would be a target if
they were involved" thing is moot and Bruce could
publicly date Princess Dianna with out any one
making the connection. But the best part is that
Batman keeps people at arms length because he fears
they will leave him or die but Wonder Woman is as
close to immortal as it gets. I don't think the
producers and editors will ever let Batman find
happiness but it is nice to think it is possible.
As long as we have cartoons like these I can even
forgive George Cloony for putting on the suit.
Tipton: I didn't expect to like the Batman/Diana relationship
when it was first hinted at, but it's wound up
becoming one of my favorite aspects about the series.
# # #
Tom A. writes: I managed to pick up almost the full run of the O’Neil/Cowan Question
series for only $30 from
my local comics shop. I'm only missing three issues
or so, but they are
right at the end! Grrrr.
I liked the way Mr. O'Neil included the name of a
book that inspired each
of the stories. It was a way to delve deeper into
some of the issues and
concepts raised. A cool idea, if you ask me. As I
recall, The Art Of War
was mentioned in the first issue.
Tipton: Yeah, I'd forgotten about that. Looking forward to
re-reading those when I can get them this Christmas.
# # #
Silk writes: I'm reading over the september issue of Wizard, and
a certain feature caught
my eye. It was the two page spread going into detail
on the new(ish) Captain
America character, The Winter Soldier. Now, outside
of The New Avengers, I
don't follow Caps exploits, and this was the first
time I had read any real
information on the character, and, it turns out my
worst fears were
confirmed in The Winter Soldier's identity as
Bucky, Cap's old sidekick.
Now, call me crazy, but I'm noticing something of a
trend. Isn't the EXACT same thing happening to Batman right now? A long
believed dead sidekick
mysteriously returns from the dead and acts as some
kind of pain in the ass
anti-hero, seeking out his old mentors enemies and simply ending them. What
do you make of this new fashion, and of the treatment
of Jason Todd and
Bucky's respective memories?
Tipton: First off, I'm inclined to believe neither Brubaker or
Winick knew what the other was planning. I'm not
really all that hot on the Jason Todd return, as the
overall declining quality of the Bat-books (Leslie
Thompkins killed the Spoiler? Really? No, thanks.) has
me losing interest rapidly, and any real buzz around
it was blunted by the fact that Jeph Loeb did it first
in HUSH and elected to throw it away. Resusictating it
now doesn't have the same effect.
The Bucky business I was initially very much against,
but revelations in recent issues, that he apparently
has no memory of his former life, and that he's kept
in cryo-freeze by the Russians for years at a time,
until needed, explaining his relative youth, is
innovative and intriguing enough to keep me reading.
We'll have to wait and see, but so far I'm unimpressed
with the Jason return and guardedly interested in
Bucky's.
# # #
Jordan P. writes: Just to start - I am a huge fan of your Comics 101
columns. Your knowledge is truly amazing. I had just
read the convoluted history of Hawkman you explained a
year or so ago and just had one question.
In Kingdom Come (1996), Alex Ross depicted Hawkman as
(what appeared to me) actually part bird. His face
did not appear to have a mask, rather it was an actual
bird face, and he had talons at the end of his legs.
Was there any explanation for this in Hawkman's
history, or was this just a flourish by Ross? Thanks
very much for the reply!
Tipton: It was mostly just a rethink by Ross, with perhaps a
slight nod to the character of Northwind, the Golden
Age Hawkman's godson from the hidden land of Feithera,
a race of beaked bird-people. Northwind appeared in
INFINTY, INC. in the '80s.
Even that's stretching it, though. I'm more inclined
to think it was just Ross trying to reconceive the
original beaked HAWKMAN helmet into something a little
more organic and menacing.
Theron N. writes: It's gonna come down to Mig and Suzie, and Mig will win (which is what I predicted in the e-mail I sent you a couple of weeks ago). Which is great, because Suzie McNeil deserves to be a star in her own right. She's the best overall performer on the show. I'd hate to see her get tied down to "our band, INXS." Jordis is really good, too, but she still needs to get some experience under her belt. Suzie is there already...
Ryall: I still have a hard time with the fact that an avowed reality show hater like me let himself get sucked into this show so easily. But I am. So moving on from that sad fact, let me say that I grudgingly agree with you. "Grudgingly" because Mig is gonna win this thing, although he seems like a complete ringer. The one Aussie guy is also the most likely to win? Hmm. I still don't see the band picking a girl to front "our band INXS," but I do think we'll see more of Suzie. She's good, cute, and gives every indication that she's better than this show.
I used to think the same about Jordis, but her voice is really suited to singer-songwriter music, not INXS. And JD, who is really the most ready to be a frontman (he's got the swagger and asshole-ness down pat, but the last thing this band is going to do is pick another singer that gets all the attention they crave so badly), is probably headed back to the Elvis-impersonator circuit just because he doesn't quite get that he shouldn't be overbearing until he gets the gig.
Ty... finally they kicked that guy off. He was all wrong from the start, and his constant proclamations that he would bring "soul" to the band were a bit much, since his voice was so bland and soulless. More annoying was his statement this past week that he was voted off because America is racist and doesn't want one of "his people" in the band.
I have a confession to make--I... uh, actually voted this week. For the first time ever. Had the computer on during the show, like always, and just decided to give it a look (I wanted to see if I could vote for Brooke Burke to keep up with the ever-skimpier outfits). And I didn't vote for Ty not because I have any problem with a black man fronting the band, but because he wasn't good enough. I guess it's easier to blame America the Racist than to admit that you're just not good enough.
Can't believe I actually voted...
Theron responds: Don't feel bad, man. I'm a "real" musician and I've voted a few times. I've NEVER done that before.
And I don't get this stuff about Ty having soul, because he's pretty soulless. (Hey, guys, he doesn't have soul just because he's black.)
JD has a good voice, but his phrasing is for shit. It's like he doesn't know what to do with his voice. Plus, his stage presence bugs me and he's a complete asshole.
And I guess Marty's okay. Everyone seems to think he's amazing - personally, I don't see it.
Ryall: Hard to look at him singing and not see David Spade. His voice isn't anything great, either. Some songs, he's fine, but others, he's too Scott Stapp.
Man, I used to mock our former IDOL-lover Michael Dequina for making the same kinds of comments about those singers that I'm making about this one.
Suzie's it, man. Plus she's so nice and cute... But she deserves better than to front a washed-up "our band, INXS."
Ahhh, Brooke, Brooke, Brooke - I dig the tummy-baring tops and low-ride jeans, baby!
# # #
Paul S. writes: In your recommendations for Tuesday, you go on about a whole slew of reruns and worthless reality shows, yet you don't even mention the incredibly entertaining "Rescue Me", nor the VERY funny "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia".
Rescue Me is getting better and better, and is quickly becoming one of the best shows on TV, and Sunny is just one of funniest shows this side of Arrested Development.
Both these shows are far better than anything else you recommended - what gives?
Ryall: I always love e-mails that are immediately accusatory and put me on the defensive. "What gives?"? I could say that what "gives" is me, giving MY opinion each week. But more to the point, I could say that you've obviously missed numerous RESCUE ME mentions in the column over the past year, all of them positive. I talk the show up a lot, which is rare in a column where I spend 90% of my time making bad jokes at bad shows' expense. I spend ample time, too, in looking for new shows to mention each week and not just making every week a listing of "Chris's Greatest Hits." So that's what gives.
For the record, while the show's not as awful as FX's other new "comedy," STARVED, I don't think IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY is any great shakes, either.
Robert M. writes: I thought the show was pretty good, but I had one major logic problem with it that kept sticking in my craw. If the guy really believes that his brother was the victim of a conspiracy, wouldn't it have been more sensible to try to prove that from the outside? Rather than, say, getting himself sentenced to 5 years in prison, working out an elaborate plan to spring the two of them from prison, and...then what? How will becoming fugitives from justice help prove his innocence? And even if he accomplishes his objective somehow, he's still guilty of his crime and, if they catch him, still has to serve at least 2 1/2 years of his sentence until he's up for parole! I know he only has a month until his brother is executed, but if he's such a smart guy, he could have spent that month working his ass off to prove the conspiracy, etc. rather than basically screwing himself over. Is he going to learn some useful information in prison that will help their case? I don't see how. Maybe there's more to the plan than we already know, but at this point it just seems completely insane. Besides that though, it's a pretty good effort and I'm definitely interested enough to keep watching.
Ryall: All the leaps of logic in that show and the one point that made a bit of sense to me threw you off? If the guy is convinced that the government framed his brother for the murder and is hustling him toward his execution, trying to solve the murder from the outside would never do him any good. He'd find no help from the obviously compromised authorities, and since he only has a month until the guy's put to death, it was much faster to... tattoo the entire prison's blueprints on his body, get arrested, luckily get tossed in the same prison as his brother and then put his plan into effect. Not sure if losing a toe was part of his plan, though...
CHARMED, I'm Sure
Nathan H. writes: Just wanted to congratulate you on getting Peter David to write that excellent Spike comic. After all the talk on his website about the Whedonverse, I'm glad he finally put his money where his mouth is.
Ryall: Well, actually, it was our money and his mouth, but I know what ya mean. He did a nice job.
And since you asked (right?), yes, the second SPIKE one-shot will, in fact, be written by none other than our own COMICS 101 Professor, Scott Tipton. Look for it in January (or, since the first one sold out before it ever hit stores, pre-order it in the October issue of PREVIEWS).
You know, I was thinking, if you can't get the rights to Buffy, Maybe you could get the rights to a Charmed comic. If not by Peter David, then a Giffen/Demattels/Maguire version.(Similar to their Defenders in tone at least. don't expect to see the Hulk alongside Alyssa Milano.)
The only negative might be if the show doesn't last more than a year. I can't say I have much faith if they turn it into "The Kaley Cuoco hour" as has been predicted on Television Without Pity. Of course, I doubt they will ever top The Alyssa Milano mermaid but I think it might go a couple more years (Provided they can keep Alyssa interested enough to take a break from chasing pitchers long enough to shoot it.)
Ryall: Unfortunately, I think most people watch the show to SEE Alyssa Milano, and would be much less interested in a 4-color version of her.
By the way, I also hope they nail Sharon Osborne for having Iron Maiden egged like that. After all, it was their first concert tour in god knows how many years. And Bruce, unlike Ozzy probably still has his voice.
Ryall: He did, even through a face full of eggshells.
Flash! Uh-Oh!
"HTorres3MyfldKY" writes: I have seen where Universal Studios is releasing a 25th Anniversary Edition of Flash Gordon (1980). This is one of my favorite movies (call it crap if you will, but I like it!), and the soundtrack by Queen has one of the greatest battle themes ever produced! The problem is that this re-release is going on in England (or more accurately DVD Region 2). Is there going to be a release, even a stripped down version, here in the United States? If so, when will it be released? Thanks for listening.
Ryall: I've seen a lot of speculation about it coming out here as well, but found no official confirmation of this at all. It definitely seems long overdue so people can stop paying the high prices they're still charging for the older version.
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