Cancelled Comics Commentary for 1999
January 1999
Alpha Flight #20 Vol. 2 (Marvel): I remember the controversy
that Marvel caused for the sake of it back in 1992 - a very early
attempt of theirs at causing controversy - when they had the
awkwardly written Northstar/Jean-Paul Beubier, reveal in the first
volume of this series that he was a closet case to a much bigger
nutcase named Major Maple Leaf in one of the most wretched stories
ever, though the "closet emergence" was the least of the story's
problems (the real badness was how MML was shown attempting to kill
an infant because he was jealous it got all the attention, but not
his own homosexual son, who'd died of AIDS earlier, yet at the end,
MML suffered no legal consequence for attempting a murder, let alone
destroying public property and trespassing). Not surprisingly, the
just as politically correct mainstream media gave this all a whole
lot of gushing attention, but the audience wasn’t fooled. That very
ludicrous act of political correctness had the effect of losing the
book many readers who were rightfully insulted by Marvel’s attempt
to force such perversity down their throats. The book was cancelled
within the next year and a half.
Just a year or so before, DC did something similar with the Pied
Piper, the former villain who’d been a member of the Flash’s Rogues’
Gallery, but they did it so light-handedly and without “smacking the
readers over the face with it” (as a poster on the forums at the now
defunct Fandom website described the case with Northstar a few years
ago). Marvel, on the other hand, in their overreaching attempts to
be “bold” and “revolutionary”, just had to do it as
violence-laden as they did. Go figure.
Later, in 1997, they revived the book, but while they didn’t waste
their time with the kind of shock value that’s been bringing (and
dumbing) Marvel down for more than a decade now, it wasn’t much
better. Although some were resolved in the last issues, there were
still some mystery stories in this volume that remained unresolved
by the end, making it little more than a big tease, and it wasn’t
even worth the wait anyway. Who in the blazes was Man-Bot, and what
was his whole connection to Madison Jefferies, the original Box? No
answer. Or, how come Vindicator was still alive, and how did he
become de-aged by 15 years? Still no answer. And what’s Radius got
to do with Unus the Unstoppable and his daughter, Uniscione? Still
no results, I’m sorry.
Most maddening however, was the use of second-person narrative, the
kind of thing they often tell you to try not to use in writing
classes for creativity. Far as I’m concerned, this is best
forgotten.
Essential Vertigo: The Sandman #32 (DC/Vertigo): Several
famous but unfortunately very expensive reprints of – are you ready
for this? – the first 32 issues of the original Sandman were
reprinted in this series, but how can one expect the fans to pass up
anything new for this project when they cost the same price? DC
should’ve tried out a phone directory-like approach that Marvel was
using for their Essential archives at the time, in which at least 24
issues or so of golden oldies were cheaply reprinted in B&W
format for much less.
Heroes for Hire #19 (Marvel): This is
an idea that I found intriguing when it was done at the time: take a
bunch of street smart crime-fighters led by such cult favorites as
Luke Cage/Power Man and Danny Rand/Iron Fist, and you’ve got an
inner city version of the A-Team to deal with all sorts of crooks
running rampant around New York. You even had the Black Knight, the
Black Widow, the Hulk, the She-Hulk, the Golden Age Human Torch,
John Hammond, and even – wow! – Ant-Man! One unfortunate downside is
that the Black Cat, another street smart member of MCU’s
crime-fighting division, wasn’t in it, and could’ve been an ideal
choice.
John Ostrander certainly deserves credit for having fleshed out
these characters in ways not unlike how Roy Thomas was able to do
with the Vision in the Avengers during the Bronze Age, IIRC.
So while it’s a shame that it flunked the test with the audience, it
was a lot of fun…that is, until the one, the only, Wolverine of the
X-Men, tremendously overexposed character that he is, showed
up in the last issue, dated January 1999. Cop-out.
Other than that, as mentioned already, John Ostrander certainly
deserves credit for his stellar work in this book, and I hope that
maybe it can be tried out again someday, this time with Felicia
"Black Cat" Hardy included. She could be a cinch, trust me.
Incredible Hulk Vol. 1 #474
(Marvel): Another example of Marvel’s maddening notion of
relaunching their series in new volumes at number 1. When done, they
did it sans-adjective during the first year or so, but restored said
adjective later on. So until Fantastic Four got restored to its
original numbering, the only titles with big numbers were the two
flagship books of the X-Men! Oh well.
The Power of Shazam! #47 (DC): Jerry
Ordway certainly put a lot of heart into this more recent volume,
and while it was a noble effort, the question is, considering that
when the teenaged Billy Batson first became Captain Marvel in the
1940’s, it bore a pleasantly lighthearted tone back then, so does
this make him out of place in the saddeningly cynical 1990’s? I
really wish it weren’t so, but it would certainly seem as if he’s
become undeservingly anachronistic today. In fact, if you update him
into a more modern superhero, does he even remain Captain Marvel?
What a shame if the brighter qualities of the Big Red Cheese don't
click with audiences today like they used to back in the Golden Age.
At least since then, he’s become a regular member of the JSA,
the revival of the first team of crimefighters in the DCU, and he’s
also become the boyfriend of Courtney Whitmore, the all-new,
all-female Star-Spangled Kid, for whom the costume looks much better
on than on the original male Kid, Sylvester Pemberton Jr. Now,
they’ve done even better by giving it to a girl to wear. Hooray!
The Rampaging Hulk #6 (Marvel): A title that examined the
early adventures of the green goliath, all of which I’m sure we read
already in previous issues. In other words, nothing new here, and
the only other thing that can be said is that this is the next title
next to the main one featuring the jade giant to be cancelled that
month of January 1999.
(In fact, the title of Rampaging
had already been used before, in the late 1970's.)
Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #633 (Gladstone): Oh boy,
here’s one other thing that I’m certainly sad went down the drain,
because it's symbolic of the Disney corporation's decline as an
entertainment company.
From what I’ve heard, Disney doesn’t even sell comics in their theme
parks anymore. No kidding! That's hardly the best way to run a
business, and if they really don't want to make money on comics,
they shouldn't even bother publishing them, because it's pretty
obvious their modern executives have no respect for the art form.
February 1999
Chronos #11 (DC): When the title character first appeared in
the Silver Age, he was David Clinton, a crook with time-shifting
technologies at his disposal, who first started out as a notable Atom
villain, although the protagonist here, while he may have had
similar tricks of the trade, wasn’t the same one. Rather, he was
Gabriel Walker, another technologist and a protege of the original
Chronos, who used time travel for frivolous ends, but the difference
is that he showed some more moral centering to his character than
the first Chronos did. If anything, you could certainly say that
Walker was an anti-hero.
With the setup as seen here, you could say that there was an
interesting premise in how they were introducing a new character.
Unfortunately, this turned out to be a rather pedestrian adventure,
with the lead character wandering aimlessly from time period to time
period, and did almost practically nothing.
In short, there was probably some potential in the series, but if
so, then it was never realized.
On a side note, the first Chronos died in this series, after his
manipulations with the fabric of time over the years ended up badly
damaging his own personal timeline, and in the end, David Clinton
ended up getting vaporized out of existance. His funeral was held in
the 9th issue of this series. It's possible that this will be undone
in the future, but for now, there's no telling, given how adamant
DC's editorial can be with stuff like this.
March 1999
Flintstones & The Jetsons #21 (DC): I’m glad if people
didn’t take to this so warmly. Such cartoons as those from
Hanna-Barbera were pretty crummy if you ask me, not because of the
cheap animation technique they used during the 50's and 60’s, but
because of the low-intelligence level! Just call this one a
yabba-dabba-dud!
April 1999
Apparently, nothing got cancelled during that month, or at least not
announced as such. Which is a good thing, unless it’s something like
the post-2003 dreck we’re talking about.
May 1999
Lobo #64 (DC): I’m not sorry this book went. If it was meant
to be a satire, it was truly awful. But what really made this such a
megabomb was that Lobo not only met the Justice League, but
that Superman and just about everyone else acted out of character!
Seriously now, if the Man of Steel knew that Lobo’s first criminal
act was to terminate his own home planet (as was established at the
time Zero Hour was going to press), he would never have
rested until he’d been brought to justice. After all, isn’t that
what the Big Blue Boy Scout is all about? You can say that again!
It’s not Lobo’s lack of credibility as a character that bothers me,
but rather, that he destroyed Superman and company’s. Frankly, as
far as I’m concerned, he’s as poorly developed as Marvel’s own
Wolverine was badly scripted after Larry Hama left that book. He
originally began as a villain in the 1983-86 Omega Men series, and
then was later transformed into a supposed good guy, but they
obviously didn't think things over well. No wonder this series
finally crash landed.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #23 (Image): I know that Kevin
Eastman and Peter Laird’s TMNT was said to be the start of the
independent press in comics, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of
it, as some people at the time were mourning.
Of course not. Since then, not only has Peter David been writing a
new series for Dream Wave that began in 2003, but there’s still been
more than enough indies out there to fill a canyon (not that I
really care, since most of them are, in brutal honesty, banal).
Oh yes, its initial success back in the mid-80’s was courtesy of
kids, and as such, it was pretty wacky in its own way, even if it
ended up being an otherwise limited concept. But then, as
competition built up from FOX TV and Spielberg, so they drifted away
from it. It’s a shame that the movie, game, and TV industry are so
many miles ahead of the comics industry, but that’s the main problem
permeating the ability of comics to be truly successful nowadays.
June 1999
Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #12
(Marvel): Like Sandman and the mid-90’s take on the Spectre, this
was cancelled concurrently with its writer, that being Mark Waid in
this case, leaving it. It’s a reason for which even All-Flash
may have been cancelled too just a year before the regular series
was towards the end of the Golden Age. I can’t say I’m all that
happy about titles like these being cancelled for reasons like that,
as it furthers the idea that the book was only launched as a
showcase for the writers own talents, not in order to come up with a
series that could run for as long as possible and entertain plenty
of people everywhere, but, in fairness, maybe it is for the best
that it end on a great note rather than to stumble on the road if it
goes any further. For new writers, it’s best to learn the ropes of
writing with the smaller characters and then to move up and deal
with the big time folks like good ol’ Cap.
Cartoon Network Presents #24 (DC): I can’t say I’m happy
whenever a title aimed at the younger crowd falters, but what can
one expect when things are becoming so difficult to market to
children these days? Pity.
Resurrection Man #27 (DC): An
obligatory amnesiac-trying-to-research-his-mysterious-past plot, it
tried to gain some legs for awhile, but in the end, it stumbled.
Frankly, it’s something that’s already been done with Wolverine over
at Marvel, and which has ended up becoming something of a cliché by
now. After RM dealt with that though, things actually did start to
pick up. The lead, Mitch Shelley, was written as having a connection
to Vandal Savage in an eternal struggle between the two of them, and
then it really started to get some great plotting in order.
But it was too late. So just as they were going to start telling us
about the Secret Files of Forgotten Heroes, now it’s just ended up
becoming forgotten again! Darn it.
Vext #6 (DC): Keith Giffen is a great writer and artist with
a really quirky style, but this series about a pagan deity from the
Jejune Realm, alas, didn’t make it. I’m glad though that he manages
to keep going in the business, mainly since, in 2003, he and J. M.
DeMatties were able to team up to write and draw the fabulous
reunion of several great members of Justice League
International/Europe, in a memorable miniseries called Formerly
Known as the Justice League. And I’ll look forward to plenty
more of their works for as long as comics are around.
To be honest, I'm not entirely disappointed this series was a flop.
It was edited by Kevin Dooley, notorious in the day for the debacle
he caused with Green Lantern (and to some extent, Aquaman). If the
failure of this book serves as a punishment of sorts for him, he was
asking for it after all the trouble he caused that was completely
avoidable.
A funny thing about this book is that, even though all the
characters are ownership of DC, Giffen retained the rights to the
story and artwork.
July 1999
A-Next #12 (Marvel/MC2): Yeah, the
lighthearted approach to the material in this book was actually
pretty good (which reminds me that Larry Hama may have used an
almost similar approach back in the early 1990’s when he was writing
the regular Avengers), ditto that of some of the other books
in the MC2 line, but it was no go in sales. Since then, the only
survivor of this line has been Spider-Girl, and the rest went to the
scrapyard.
J2 #12 (Marvel/MC2): The “future son” of Cain Marko, better
known as Juggernaut the Unstoppable, like the above, ground to a
halt with the 12th issue.
August 1999
Nothing was announced as cancelled this month either. Phew! (Unless
of course…you get the idea.)
September 1999
Divine Right: Adventures of Max Faraday #12 (DC/Wildstorm):
You’ve heard this one before: Typical schlub comes upon a
“MacGuffin”, here referred to as the Creation Equation, and this
gets him caught in the middle of a heretofore unknown pair of
powerful opposing forces fighting each other. It’s been done already
in Jack Kirby’s The New Gods, except that there, the four
earthmen in possession of the Anti-Life Equation had more varied
personas and were more interesting than any of the characters here,
individually or combined.
One novelty here is that the ordinary schlub actually took
possession of the power, which had the unsurprising effect of
running the whole story into the ground. And, likewise, the series.
DV8 #32 (DC/Wildstorm): Q: What would happen if the
kids in Gen13 or the X-Men were trained by a
villian?
A: You’d get a whole bunch of throughly unlikable characters
whom nobody’s interested in reading about.
Besides, it’s been done before, with the Hellions in Marvel, who,
quite conincidentally, were featured in the X-world, but did not get
their own book (although given their lack of morale these days and
the introduction of throughly questionable series like the Brotherhood,
a series that’s NOT about Magneto’s bunch, FYI, I can’t help but
wonder if they would), even though that’s something that almost
every character/group in the X-books eventually ends up with a title
of their own.
At least at the time, Marvel had the sense to understand that this
wasn’t a good idea. Wildstorm and Image, on the other hand, didn’t.
So long to this loser, and may it be eternally forgotten.
Nova #7 vol. 3 (Marvel): Richard Rider's third solo series
(the second can be read about here),
and alas, the least successful take on him to date.
Oni Double Press #13 (Oni Press): Anthology books haven’t
done well for years now, one of the reasons why series like even DC’s
Showcase, The Brave and the Bold, and Marvel’s What If…?
ultimately went down. At least they finished it up well, with an
issue written by writer/animator Paul Dini.
Slingers #12 (Marvel): Cliches, cliches, and still more
cliches! And not very good ones at that. The worst of the lot in
this limp vehicle starring teenagers (what else?), was Ricochet.
What an incredible waste of trees! Mind you, none of this is saying
that I don’t want books with teens as the stars around, and there
are some very good ones out there too for that matter, but this one
really drained the fun out of the whole notion of such items. I am
SO GLAD it got the axe when it did.
October 1999
Anarky #8 (DC): To some, this character could’ve looked like
a breakout hit of some sort. To others, he was dullsville and
awfully smug. Hence, the series ended almost as quickly as it came.
Superman: Man of Tomorrow #15 (DC):
Like the Batman Chronicles, this quarterly title was also
originally created to fill in the “skip week” that occurs every 3
months when 5 Wednesdays are in one month. DC said that the reason
they cancelled it was because other projects like Tangent, New
Year’s Evil and Day of Judgement, among others, made
it superfluous. Well in that case, how come Batman Chronicles
stuck around for a bit longer? DC certainly has been doing their
darndest to capitalize on the Bat-books and far less on the
Super-books, and I suspect that that’s the actual reason why they
did so at the time.
I’ll say this though: If this had been an 80-page giant, something
that DC used to excel in during the yesteryear, then it would
certainly have been a loss. Other than that, it’s not much of one
(and even Batman Chronicles was eventually cancelled as well),
although with the cancellation of Superman: Man of Steel and
Superboy in 2002, and of Supergirl the year after, one
could wonder now if it was. Thank good then that they've been giving
some more attention since then to Supes in some miniseries, such as
Mark Waid's Birthright mini of recent, though I must say that the
way it's said to be structured is an odd one, if you ask me. (To
look like Marvel's Ultimate line somehow, as the editors were said
to have wanted it done? That's weird, and certainly not what I
would've asked for.)
November 1999
Cy-Gor #5 (Image): A boring book involving a half-ape,
half-machine. Move along folks, nothing to see, nothing to see.
December 1999
Batman:
Shadow of the Bat #94 (DC): I don’t think I ever read this
book, although I most certainly do read the one that replaced it, Batman:
Gotham Knights. I did hear though that it didn’t sport much of
a personality, whether or not it was a title focusing on Gotham’s
other crimefighters and vigilantes like GK is, so I guess that’s why
it was eventually cancelled, and replaced with GK, which has what
this title lacked, thanks in part to the stellar writing efforts of
talented writing pros like Scott Beatty. And considering that the
Dark Knight already has more than enough of his share of Bat-titles,
I figure we can always stand to see him lose a book, far more than
for Superman.
Fantastic Five #5 (Marvel/MC2): Cancelled at exactly the same
number that the title of the book contains, how about that. Mighty
quick, too. Can’t say I’m surprised either. Let’s take a look at the
reasons why.
The Thing with a mechanical arm? Euh! What may have worked for the Six
Million Dollar Man unfortunately does not extend to something
like this. Mainly because in the case of Col. Steve Austin in the
1970’s TV show, it’s likely that he would’ve had a rod of some sort
extending from his arm down through to his leg. Here, it’s just the
arm, and so anything the Thing lifted with it would be more than
likely to smash his body like an accordion. It also stacks against
what a character like the Thing is like – he’s much too earthy for
such prosthetics to look in place for him. But worst of all, it
looked truly stupid on him. (And why is it that whenever I see an
arm getting busted in stories like this, it appears to be the left
one in many cases? Can't they handle the right arm just as well?
Really.)
Franklin Richards can be a very tricky character to work with
age-wise, since sometimes he’s older and sometimes he’s younger, so
that too makes this a very iffy venture when it comes to him.
Last, but not least – are you ready for this? – was the howler of
casting Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic as Herbie the Robot!
Despite how hilarious it must’ve sounded when scripting it in the
first place, that godforsaken robot was something most people would
rather never have to see again. It was an older attempt to mimic, in
this case, an idea used in one of the Fantastic Four’s
earlier cartoons, but let’s be clear: some things just aren’t worth
doing in that manner, as even the X-Men movie has already proven,
they’re just best forgotten. As much of the MC2 line is, for that
matter.
The idea has already been mined before, in the Fantastic Four
Annual from 1998, and was done much better there too. As for
this MC2 attempt, it almost makes me wish they’d do a series based
on the Frightful Four, which, come to think of it, is exactly what
this series could pass for.
Wild Thing #5 (Marvel/MC2): Nope, Wolverine and Elektra’s
daughter didn’t fare any better than, say, Juggernaut’s son in J2.
In fact, it is unlikely that she’d be able to attend a public high
school or have any kind of a normal life at home in a regular
neighborhood, mostly because Elektra was an assassin, and the whole
family would most likely be on the lam from both hers and even
Wolverine’s own enemies, whether it be the Hand or Hydra or the
authorities. And if she did attend high school, it’s likely that
she’d be kidnapped/arrested/killed even before the second semester
began. (Note of the weird: Marvel at times seems to like spelling
the word “kidnapped” with just one P. Which means what, exactly?
That they like to make it sound like they’re grabbing someone by the
scruff of the neck? Ludicrous).
Copyright Avi Green. All rights
reserved.