Cancelled Comics Commentary
for 2009
January 2009
Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D
#35 vol. 4 (Marvel): With Warren Ellis at the helm of this
volume when it first began publication in early 2005 (at which time
it still had the adjective Invincible, but following the 28th issue,
it was changed), ugh, I'd rather be at the bottom of a deep well
than reading whatever he'd messed the pages of this once great book
up with. In any event, that this book was as much a victim/hostage
of the modern Marvel crossover plague is exactly what sinks it too.
Hence, no need to waste time on it.
Ultimate Fantastic Four #60
(Marvel): The third longest running of Marvel's alternate universe
titles, this appears to be the first to go in the wake of Marvel's
decision to relaunch the Ultimate universe line. But with Brian
Michael Bendis and Mark Millar as the co-writers, I'm sure it wasn't
such a big deal to begin with.
February
2009
The Flash #247
Vol. 2 (DC): Revived soon after the abortive run with Bart
Allen in the role of the Scarlet Speedster, and with Mark Waid
returning, this volume, alas, did not work out well, and there's
some good reasons why. I think giving Wally and Linda children so
soon may have actually served to the disadvantage of this book, just
like almost everything post-Identity Crisis, because it could not
obscure the pall that was spilled all over the shared universe. Waid
tried, but it was clearly to no avail.
Giving Wally a secret identity again may have also undermined this
book, as seen at the time Geoff Johns introduced that nondescript
second supervillain to bear the name Zoom. I guess even Johns
must've decided Hunter Zolomon didn't have much left to him, and
that's why, in the horrific miniseries called Rogues' Revenge, where
Wally seemed surprisingly absent, he reverted Zoom back to Zolomon,
and back to a wheelchair again. But the really angering problem with
said miniseries is that it sent out Inertia/Thaddeus Thawne, the
adversary of Impulse, in the worst way possible: Inertia was killed
by the Rogues in revenge for tricking them into killing Bart, but
not before he slew Josh Jackam, the young infant Johns featured when
he was first writing the book, whose own mother Julie was murdered
as part of a plan to strike at the Flash by slaying people he'd
saved by a cultist named Cicada (don't even get me started on how stupid that story all was!).
This is almost just like Johns to write such joyless tommyrot by
now. Besides the offensive story depicting an infant being
pointlessly slain, Johns has made further use of Inertia
embarrassing, just like Dr. Light in Identity Crisis, certainly for
as long as those elements remain.
Now to another reason why this volume was cancelled. Well, since
things weren't working now with Wally, due in no small part to their
poor editorial mandates on how to write things, and how the stench
of Identity Crisis hangs over this horribly, they decided to bring
Barry Allen back from death-limbo, and make him the star focus
again. And since they don't have anyone else available, Geoff Johns
is taking up the writing again. But lo and behold, he unsurprisingly
went by what has become a sad staple of his work in the past decade,
and that's cruelty: he de-facto retconned Barry's background so that
it would be little different from how most other superheroes are
depicted these days, by foisting the premise he'd used for the new
Zoom onto Barry. And while this was revealed to have been caused by
the first Prof. Zoom, Eobard Thawne, after he apparently took
time-travel steps to change Barry's history, it's still a retcon,
especially if it remains. And even if it doesn't, that's not going
to excuse how Johns has become so predictable with featuring
gratuitous cruelty tainting the edge of his work. Right, we're
supposed to overlook the unpleasant elements just because he
supposedly hasn't disrespected continuity and origins? Please. I'm
not fooled anymore. Why, as has been advertised already, Johns is
going to be depicting Barry dealing with murder mysteries a la CSI:
Miami. Given his track record, I know by now that it won't be good
news.
It's also appalling that Wally West, who earned his role
legitimately as opposed to younger-gen heroes like Kyle Rayner, who
didn't, is now being shafted for the sake of Barry. Chances are that
the series will begin to lose audience thanks to how Barry's return
is being done at Wally's expense, and instead of giving Wally the
roles Barry once had, and making Barry a supporting character like
Jay Garrick, which would've been a better idea, Barry is being made
the main focus again, and according to the new on this, the only main character focus of
2010. There was said to be a backup feature for Wally and a new
series for Bart Allen coming up, but it turned out to be
bait-and-switch news. The Flash has really been one of the biggest
victims post-Identity Crisis and in fact, post-2000.
March 2009
Legion of Super-Heroes #50
(DC): at one point, the title had been published as Supergirl and the Legion of
Super-Heroes, as they tried to do this with the Maiden of
Might taking the Boy of Steel's place in the futuristic super-team
as was seen in the Silver Age. But even then, it never got anywhere.
Noble Causes #40 (Image):
created by Jay Faerber, the focus of this series was a wealthy
family of superheroes but was more about their personal lives than
their battles with supercrooks. Towards the end in the 32nd issue,
it moved 5 years ahead when 3 of the family members were no longer
involved, and the second wife of chief protagonist Dudley Noble was
now married to him. Now there's one superhero concept that really
knew how to incorporate drama!
The New Warriors #20 vol. 3
(Marvel): another attempt at the team title first run during the
1990s, and since it was plagued by crossovers tie-ins, including The
Initiative, that's why this can be considered by far the least
successful take on the group. Even the presence of Jubilee, who'd
moved here from the X-Men, couldn't salvage it.
Street Fighter #12 vol. 2
(Devil's Due/Udon): another take on the video game franchise, done
in co-publishing with Canadian-based Udon, the highlights here were
any part featuring the game's darling Chun Li, as you can expect,
ditto her legendary rapid kicks.
Ultimate X-Men #100 Vol. 1
(Marvel): Well, there goes the second official entry in Marvel's
attempt to launch an alternate universe; the first one can be found
a few months down below. Until then, what can be said here?
Well, this was surely the most dishonestly marketed of all the
Ultimate books. One of the first storylines had this world's
Wolverine abandoning Cyclops in a deep valley, so that he could then
seduce teenaged Jean Grey for sex. I wonder what's more troubling,
that aforementioned idea, or some of the more violent moments taking
place, including Magneto's invasion of the White House, where he
pulls gold fillings out of the president's mouth? (Logically
speaking, is that even possible if gold isn't magnetic?)
As if that weren't bad enough, Mark Millar even had to make Colossus
homosexual, as though that were novel today. Why exactly couldn't
Colossus be Bulgarian or Armenian? See, when the writers
spectacularly fail to consider the possibilities of emphasizing a
character's nationality, which can make for some good posibilities,
and the editors especially don't allow it, you know that they're
really running bankrupt, and creativity is being supressed.
After awhile, Marvel didn't even try to pretend anymore that this
series was entry-level, and it just continued on as the would-be
adult entertainment it was really launched as, with even Brian
Bendis taking up the writing. Eventually, this series, like most of
the other Ultimate titles, lost audience, and certainly doesn't have
the following it used to, and so on this year, Marvel decided to
restart/reboot/relaunch, first by coughing up a kind of crossover
mini called Ultimatum which would end everything in a lot of
bloodletting. Just what the world needs.
April
2009
Birds of
Prey #127 (DC): This ends the adventure series that starred
the former Batgirl Barbara Gordon in a role vaguely similar to
Ironside, where she'd pose as Oracle on the internet and give
assignments to Black Canary who'd do the legwork (speaking of which,
some of the artists sure knew how to give Dinah Lance some great
legs!), and went on missions involving criminals who could work
overseas.
This first officially began with a handful of miniseries and
one-shot specials in 1996, and 3 years afterwards got an ongoing. I
might add that Chuck Dixon, who proposed the idea, went about this
the right way at the time, by testing the success of the miniseries
to see if that could prove this worthy of getting an ongoing series.
Dinah didn't know who Oracle was initially, only knowing her
vocally, and often wore a special pair of earrings for radio
communications. And she could sure kick butt here! Some of the
adversaries even included the Ravens, led by Cheshire, and the
relationship between Dinah and Oracle, the former who eventually was
let in on the secret of the latter, was handled pretty well in its
first 4 years.
When Gail Simone took over the writing 2003, however, while it may
have started out well, it soon dropped in quality, due in no small
part to the intrusion of Identity Crisis, and I'm going to make
clear that the mere mention of it in the fourth TPB collecting the
work of Simone was irritating. Aside from that, it was really
defeating when, come the 100th issue, they had to mark it with the
departure of Black Canary and replacement with Huntress. Now it's
fine with me if they want to add Huntress/Helena Bertinelli to the
cast of regulars, but considering how Black Canary reverted back to
mediocre characterization when Green Arrow/Black Canary was
launched, that's one of the reasons why I find the dropping of Dinah
from the cast here all the more defeating.
Interestingly enough, Simone's work on this book didn't generate
much sales any more than that of Dixon's, and when she left shortly
afterwards, the audience really lost interest, though the editors
clearly were abandoning any effort to make it a worthy book. And if
you consider that post-BOP, Oracle herself was not handled well in a
3-part miniseries intended to pit her against the Calculator, who
was also wasted as part of a pointless story connected with a most
disastrous one in Teen Titans, that's what makes the end of series a
real disappointment.
Blue Beetle #36 Vol. 6
(DC): Another of DC's multicultural/diversity idiocies down the
drain, deservedly. Jaime Reyes, the Blue Beetle who came after Ted
Kord, who was pointlessly yet disgustingly killed in Countdown to
Infinite Crisis by Max Lord, another victim of character
assassination, did not earn his position legitimately, any more than
Kyle Rayner or Ryan Choi. Worse, this book also featured additional
character assassination against Jean Loring, turned into a female
version of Eclipso during the Day of Vengeance miniseries. Why then
should I care?
It's a shame that Traci-13, first seen in Superman, had her
potential squandered in this book, but that's what DC's been doing
under Dan DiDio for a long time now.
New Exiles #18 (Marvel):
Chris Claremont tries to rejuice this concept, to no avail. He even
has Psylocke added to the cast, yet fails to make any really good
use out of her, any more than the other members of the cast. Marvel
even had the hilarious gall to say this series sold out, when it
sold barely 30,000 copies. Man, these fools running the store really
know how to beclown themselves.
Later on, this series too was cancelled, and what happens next? It
was relaunched yet again. But don't bet on it being - or getting -
any better. As for Claremont, he may be finally washed up as a
writer following this travesty, which is just another wheel spoke
connected to the hub of a franchise that's been way overused for far
too long.
On a site note, Psylocke could sure use some real justice as a
character, but she certainly hasn't gotten it in a miniseries that
came up in late 2009, which is a shame.
Nightwing #154
(DC): This was cancelled as part of DC's incredibly dumb shoving of
Bruce Wayne, the real Batman, into limbo as part of the needless
Batman RIP "event" (or, more precisely, publicity stunt). I'll get
to that soon.
After the New Titans ended in early 1996 (and it's already been
written about over
here), it was decided to give Dick Grayson his own solo book
where he'd become the resident crimefighter of Bludhaven, a city not
far from Gotham. In contrast to Batman's main residence, Bludhaven's
police force was riddled with corruption - and even crooked
officials working against each other - who didn't take kindly to
having the former Teen Wonder battle crime in their district. That's
why Nightwing often had to remain one step ahead of them whenever
dealing with the underworld there, because the police chief
certainly didn't welcome him.
There were at least a handful of recurring enemies who made
appearances there, including a pair of teenaged burglers known as
Double Dare, and, most notably, the modern day take on Blockbuster,
a villain originally seen during the Silver Age who was updated
later on as a gigantic mafia lord who specialized in killing his
enemies with a neck-breaking technique. This very gimmick of his was
even used upon a corrupt police agent in his employ named Dudley
Soames who actually survived, ending up with his head backwards upon
his shoulders and becoming known as Torque. I'll have to be honest,
but that idea was rather embarrassing. And the series did run the
gamut of being overly violent.
Even so, things were not made any better when Chuck Dixon, as the
writer who began this whole series, left and was replaced by Devin
Grayson (who, if you're not sure, is a woman), who made things worse
by killing off almost all the villains Dixon created specially for
this series courtesy of a villainess she came up with called
Tarantula. Aside from being characterized with a dreadful Latina
accent, what really sunk things was when Tarantula seemingly killed
off Blockbuster, and then, in one of the stupidest parts ever
written, it turns out that Tarantula de-facto rapes Nightwing when
they have a tryst on a rooftop. That's certainly what was argued on
the internet during 2004. If anything, it was basically a bad
fanfiction-ish story element that could be described as a Mary Sue -
the fanfic slang for when a writer theoretically writes him/herself
into the story, and yes, there are those cases in many fanfics where
it's truly tasteless.
Nightwing may have eventually defeated Tarantula and handed her over
to the cops, but it still doesn't excuse how he was depicted as a
wimp during the aforementioned nonsense, and subject to a ridiculous
story that didn't serve him well as a character at all.
To make matters worse, in 2005, when Infinite Crisis took place,
Bludhaven was largely wiped out, not unlike Coast City in 1994, at
the hands of Deathstroke (yep, he too has been subject of
considerable tarnishing). In other words, still things were made
bad. Nightwing then moved to New York City, where he and the Titans
had stationed themselves during Marv Wolfman's famous run in the
80s. And Wolfman himself actually came back to write at least one
story. But the damage was done and not fixed, so it was all for
naught. Finally, this series was cancelled as part of the Batman RIP
stunt, so that Dick could become the Batman, and would even be
teamed with Damien, the son Bruce and Talia al-Ghul once had who was
written back into continuity, but boy did they do a bad job! Damien
was characterized so annoyingly, like they actually want the
audience to dislike him on purpose, so that then they'll drop the
book and thus force the return of Bruce Wayne to be enacted more
quickly. Hey, much as I find DC's moves of late offensive, that
doesn't mean they have to make things that much worse. This has been
replaced with a series called Batman
and Robin, which is unrelated to Frank Miller's All-Star
miniseries(?), a concept that he gets editorial control over
himself. I can't say it's been anything big since it began, and
sales on the Bat-franchise do seem to have worn down. And even if
Bruce Wayne does come back, chances are not many in the audience
will care anymore.
Robin #185
(DC): The new Teen Wonder's solo book is another victim of Dan
DiDio's sabotage post-Identity Crisis, especially if we were to
consider that Tim Drake's father was killed off in IC. I'll try to
address that in a moment too.
Chuck Dixon was the writer who developed the new Teen Wonder into a
series of his own following at least 2 miniseries in 1992-3, and
even added his own creation of a vigilante, Stephanie "Spoiler"
Brown, into the mix as one of the co-stars. It worked very well when
he was writer for at least 7 years. Interesting thing about this was
how Tim got a costume with pants, because the bare-legged costume
worn by Dick Grayson years before (and possibly by his first
successor, Jason Todd) was seen as embarrassing by now. It's
understandable.
Unfortunately, after Dixon left following the 100th issue, that's
when things turned to disaster for this series too. One of the
problems is that Spoiler's characterization became truly awful, and
the worst part is that the editors were mostly likely hoping that
people would not care if she were killed off, as though it were
really her fault for how she, a fictional character, was
characterized. And Bill Willingham coming on board didn't help. He
wrote some stories with a very negative depiction of women, not the
least being the one where Spoiler was killed off in War Games. And
then Jack Drake, Tim's father, was killed off in Identity Crisis
itself. Chuck Dixon once told in an interview that when he was
writing Robin, the editors had been trying to get rid of Jack all
the time, because he was supposedly a crutch on the character. How
stupid, and good that Dixon managed to stand strong at the time. As
for Willingham, I am not interested in reading his books, and I'm
not going to give accolades to writers who do things solely to pick
up a paycheck. After the reaction on the Fabletown forum to the
story he wrote depicting Leslie Thompkins as allowing Spoiler to
die, Willingham responded quite rudely, and let me assure anyone who
was alienated by that ill-adivsed address he gave - your anger at
Willingham was completely understandable. Why, it only undermines
his credibility, and as a conservative myself, I'm going to make
clear that Willingham does not speak for me as far as his negative
depiction of women in the DC books he wrote circa 2004-2006 is
concerned. Thus, I failed to be impressed when I found him talking
about "superhero decadence" on Big Hollywood, and I think Andrew
Breitbart made a serious mistake choosing him as a contributor.
Honestly, I think Willingham's an embarrassment.
Following a campaign in favor of Spoiler, Stephanie Brown's fate was
reversed, but that of Jack still stands. Dixon was brought back to
write the reversal for Steph's situation. Unfortunately, he was then
fired when DiDio decided upon yet another crossover, the one called
"Batman RIP". That's why this series was terminated, to make way for
"Red Robin", where Tim goes in search of Bruce. But what's really
needed is a better EIC. With DiDio around, that won't be possible.
May
2009
Amazing Spider-Girl #30
(Marvel): the relaunch of the Spider-Girl series set in the future,
now sporting an adjective, but alas, not only did Quesada not
promote this series on a serious basis, by that time, his name alone
was enough to drive away every last potential customer with common
sense from their entire output. And that could explain why it sadly
failed.
Amazing Spider-Man: Extra #3
(Marvel): one of the shortest lived ongoing spinoffs ever, and after
what Joe Quesada did to the Spider-marriage 2 years earlier, it's no
wonder this tanked so quickly.
Captain Britain and MI-13 #15 (Marvel): If they could abuse
Captain America as badly as they did since the turn of the century,
it only figures Captain Britain would suffer the same. The UK's been
invaded by Skrulls, and Brian Braddock and Pete Wisdom's recruits
for a new team include a Muslim character named Faiza Hussein,
obviously and deliberately introduced for the sake of leftist
propaganda, British style or otherwise. Which has sadly been the
case for a long time since 9-11. But they never think to come up
with new characters who could be metaphors for anybody who'd lost
their relatives in jihadist terrorist attacks, or even victims of
Islamic honor murders. So they shouldn't be surprised if, in the
end, these PC-flooded titles are bound to fail as they have. The
most embarrassing moment in this series had to have been when the
Hussein character was given the Sword of Excalibur at one point to
become a new Captain Britain(!), even if it was set in an alternate
timeline. That too was obviously intended for shock value, no matter
how momentary it was, and if that's all they could think of doing,
then they should be working in another medium. This is one
politicized title that won't be missed.
June
2009
Ultimate Spider-Man #133 Vol. 1
(Marvel): And there goes the first official entry in Marvel's
alternate universe line, and interestingly enough, it appears this
was the last book to go before being relaunched.
When it first began, it may have seemed "revolutionary", but in this
day and age, that's faint praise. I do know that surely the most
puzzling thing here was that almost everyone and anyone knew Peter
Parker's secret identity as Spider-Man, and considering the type of
setting they came up with for it, we had to suspend a considerable
amount of disbelief that our web-slinging hero could still operate
effectively.
There were some other cop-outs too: Ultimate Gwen Stacy was offed
just like her regular counterpart in the 616 universe. So much for
the possibility of coming up with a different direction, where Gwen
could actually be developed as a character.
After awhile, this too lost momentum, and was subjected to the
onslaught of the Ultimatum miniseries that preceded the relaunch.
But even now, what's it got going for it, other than tedium?
July
2009
Moon Knight #30 vol. 3
(Marvel): the hero Marc Spector first debuted during the Bronze Age
in Werewolf by Night #32
in 1975, and was co-created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin. He was
the son of a rabbi whose family had fled Europe in the 1930s to
escape the Holocaust. Growing up, Spector drifted away from his
dad's morality and embraced materialism while taking up careers as a
boxer, US Marine, and then a CIA operative. While there, he met
William Cross, an agent who later turned bad and became the villain
Crossfire. But the real tragedy was when Marc's own brother Randall
joined the agency and turned criminal as well, and murdered Marc's
girlfriend after she found out. This led Marc to go on the rampage
against his brother, tracking him down and injuring him so badly
that Randall turned into even more of a psycho.
Marc quit the CIA and became a mercenary, and during this time,
while trying to help overthrow an autocracy in a fictionalized Latin
American country, reached the tomb of a moon god named Khonshu, whom
he believed had restored his life after being so near death while on
the run. He gained special powers that were most effective at
nighttime, and carried weapons like nunchuks, and together with
Marlene Alraune, the daughter of an archaeologist and Jean-Paul
duChamp, a friendly mercenary nicknamed Frenchie whom Marc had
worked with, they developed a superhero career for him.
It's an interesting premise that led to 2 prior series in the early
80s and early 90s. This third one, however, had the extreme
misfortune of being part of the Initiative crossover, and there was
some PC-madness involved too, so its demise could only be considered
a mercy.
August
2009
The Immortal Iron Fist #27
(Marvel): What could've been a golden opportunity to spotlight one
of the most famous martial artists in comicdom was turned into a
farce here when hero Daniel Rand gave up his inheritance in an
ultra-left-wing style story written by Ed Brubaker and Matt
Fraction, neither of whom should've been allowed anywhere near this
once cool vigilante character.
To bring up some history, Danny Rand's story began with his father,
Wendell Rand, once finding a secret mystical city called K'un Lun
(possibly located in a different dimension), where he once saved the
ruler's life and was honored there. He later returned to the USA
where he became a wealthy businessman, and years later, when Danny
was born, Wendell and his wife Heather Duncan took Danny on a trip
with Wendell's business partner Harold Meachum, to find the secret
city again, and Wendell was killed courtesy of Meachum, who allowed
him to fall to his death from the mountain they were climbing,
apparently because he coveted both Rand's business and wife, the
latter who shunned him as she and Danny continued their journey
towards K'un Lun without him.
Tragically, as detailed in Marvel
Premiere #15, where the whole story began, Heather was
bitten to death by wolves as they neared the city, which she allowed
to happen if that's what it took to save Danny's life, and even some
archers arriving from the city failed to reach her in time. They
took Danny to the current ruler of K'un Lun, who arranged for him to
become a disciple to one of their leading martial arts masters, and
went on to become one of the most formidable fighters, particularly
thanks to his attaining a form of superpower that his codename comes
from.
Danny later returned to the USA to seek vengeance upon Harold
Meachum, but after wading through the barrage of criminals standing
in his way to reach Meachum, he discovered that the man who'd caused
the death of his father was now confined to a wheelchair after
suffering from frostbite up in the mountains. Meachum was actually
flattered by Iron Fist's success in reaching his quarters, and
accepted his fate by inviting our hero to kill him, but Rand, now
feeling almost pitiful for this now pathetic shell of a man, decided
not to do so. Instead, it was a mysterious ninja assassin who put
Meachum to death, and thus Iron Fist was framed for a murder he
didn't commit, and Meachum's daughter Joy blamed Iron Fist for what
happened. Eventually Rand managed to clear his name and even to
reconcile with Joy, and began his career as Iron Fist, later teaming
up with Power Man in a series that first began in 1972, and both
heroes were joined together in 1978, continuing as partners until
1986. Both heroes are some of the best creations and had some of the
best stories from the Bronze Age, and it's a pity that later people
in charge of the Marvel franchise would take them downhill.
And that's pretty much where this new take on Roy Thomas and Gil
Kane's famous creation ended up, in a quagmire of pretentious
writing that was not helped by the leftist leanings Matt Fraction in
particular has a penchant for shoving into the scripts. What a
waste.
September
2009
The Amazing Spider-Man Family #8
(Marvel): just what "family" is there exactly, if Quesada was going
to destroy any foundation for it? This particular spinoff was
practically begging to fail.
Captain Britain and MI:13 #15
(Marvel): A pretty stultifying take on Brian Braddock, here being
depicted as leading a government-sponsored team of crimefighters,
and I thought he'd all but given up the role of Capt. Britain at one
point because unlike Captain America, Brian didn't want to work for
the government! Another problem was that this was the kind of book
that featured an Islamist as a cast member with the whole religion
being normalized (or, put another way, it was all a superficial
depiction, with no negative takes allowed), and the writer of the
series himself (Paul Cornell) was basically a British dhimmi who
seems to think Islam is more interesting than say, being of Armenian
descent.
That aside, another problem with the book was that it was almost
entirely tied in with the Secret Invasion crossover from that time,
and a lot of it focused on the Skrull interlope on the UK. So now,
besides series where political issues get hammered in, there's even
series these days whose very writing is largely based upon a
crossover, and beyond the politics do not have an independent view
of their own. No wonder this was such a botch.
October 2009
Nothing to declare, and who knows if there ever will be.
November
2009
Runaways #14 vol. 3
(Marvel): well, that's the third installment of this series wrapped
up. Even before it ended, there were crossovers with the X-Men,
which doesn't surprise me, and even with Young Avengers. But in the
end, the blush was off the rose, and the crossovers with Secret
Invasion and Civil War could pretty much explain why it fell flat on
its face too.
December
2009
Empty as can be.
Copyright Avi Green. All rights
reserved.