Cancelled Comics Commentary
for 2011
January
2011
The Authority #29 vol. 3
(Wildstorm/DC): I'm not sure if this was part of the hardcore reboot
of the Wildstorm line, but who cares? This third incarnation (or
maybe the fourth, if a 12-issue miniseries produced in 2005 called
Revolution counts) is decidedly just as wretched as the rest, and we
could honestly do without this series too. The second issue focused
on the team's landing on a clone of planet Earth far less developed
than the real one. It should've stayed there.
Unknown Soldier #25
(DC/Vertigo): this was a new take on the WW2 spy first created by
Robert Kanigher in Our Army at
War in 1966, a US agent who suffered disfigurement but was
still very adept at disguises. Here, it was a new character
operating in Africa set during the war in Uganda when Idi Amin was
reigning. And unfortunately but rather predictable by today's
standards, there was some kind of leftist bias bogging down this new
series too. So it'd be the umpteenth entry from these modern times
that was probably well on its way to failure deservedly.
February
2011
Gen 13 #39 Vol. 3
(Wildstorm/DC): Attempting to do a hardcore reboot of this series
once considered edgy did not work out well in the long term. But
even when it began, there was a problem: Gail Simone, who took up
the writing when it first started, did something rather ill-advised:
she insulted earlier costumes and stuff like that from the previous
volumes. Now maybe the older material wasn't so great, but that's
still no justification for making a mockery of what came before.
After Simone left, it pretty much fell into obscurity, and it's
cancellation was clearly a quiet affair.
As some may know by now, the Wildstorm universe is basically no
more, with most of its protagonists later forcibly shoved into the
DCU proper for a brief amount of time. And that only shows just how
little value the people in charge saw in the Wildstorm line as a
stand-alone world. Never mind that its creations were a mixed bag of
differing qualities, they certainly don't belong directly within the
DCU.
March
2011
As empty as a vacant lot.
April
2011
Jack of Fables #50 (DC/Vertigo): This was the first ongoing
spinoff of the flagship Fables series by Bill Willingham, and
because of his past pretensions public relations-wise, that's why I
find it hard to feel sorry it's gone. The main protagonist was Jack
from the fairy tale involving the legendary Beanstalk. That's right,
the one that led up to the cloud-based headquarters of a giant. But
even if it hadn't been for Willingham's shoddy treatment of the
Batbooks circa the time of War Games, I've thought to myself that
his Fables franchise...just wasn't my thing. So how can I really
care if this take on Jack and company's now gone?
She-Hulk #38 (Marvel): this
volume came to a close pretty quietly. But it's probably just as
well. By this point, Jennifer Walters had been treated so shabbily
by the Marvel higher-ups, that her solo series couldn't have worked
out at all. I think Peter David took up the writing during this run,
but he's gone downhill so badly since the turn of the century, I
won't be the least bit surprised if he doesn't provide much of
anything to be impressed by. And yes, this series too was a big
victim of crossovers like Civil War, which don't help matters one
bit.
May
2011
Batman Confidential #54 (DC): another series in the vein of
Legends of the Dark Knight and even Gotham Knights that could tell
stand-alone stories, something that's becoming increasingly
impossible under the people running DC these days. Unfortunately,
what was told in this series was surely even more padded out for
trades than past efforts were! In that case, its impending failure
was surely self-inflicted.
June
2011
The Outsiders #39 (DC): The
people in charge of DC today have never had any true respect for
this series or its central characters. After a while of restoring
some of the original team members like Metamorpho and Katana as the
leading cast, they destroyed this book further when Dan DiDio himself took over the
writing chores, and when he came on board, sales went down
the drain, as most retailers must've realized that almost nobody
would want to read a book scripted by the very man who engineered
much of what's wrong with DC's output today.
It's disturbing how someone so awful can even force his non-existent
writing "talents" on a book that was once pretty good, and should've
been retired long ago in 1995.
July
2011
The Flash #12 (DC): the
horrible Geoff Johns' so-called run on this book could've been
called a joke if it weren't for how unfunny his retcon of Barry
Allen's background was. As seen first in Flash: Rebirth, Eobard
Thawne/the Reverse-Flash came back from the dead, and Johns' idea of
how to set him up again as the archnemesis was to have Thawne change
Barry's history into the very sickening darkness that's taken up
much of superhero comics today. What happened? Thawne traveled back
in time to when Barry was a youngster, and framed his father Henry
for murdering his mother Nora in a story turn that was basically
just a rip-off of the premise Johns used for his other creation he
clearly tired of, Hunter Zolomon. He even wrote that Thawne set
their house on fire and knocked Barry down the stairs, among other
ideas that reek far too much of juvenile fanfiction.
It was chilling enough how Thawne murdered Iris West Allen back in
1979 at a costume party (this of course was changed when, as seen in
the series finale from 1985, her own parents in the future saved her
by transferring her mind/body/soul into a new one in the future).
Turning Thawne into more of a sadist than he was years before, under
the apparent assumption that this is what'll make him a real
"badass" and give Barry motivation does not guarantee any good
storytelling or make for anything entertaining. Nor will it give
Barry a real personality and motivation anyway, or guarantee that
anyone will consider him anything other than a cypher. If they
didn't think he had a personality before, there's no reason to
assume they would even now. And indeed, judging from overall sales,
not many cared, and when Johns broke up Barry and Iris' marriage
very shortly after this was published - which contradicts any true
fandom he supposedly has for Barry or even Iris - well, it's clear
that he didn't set out to give the book any serious character
development or relations. They say this is what they're doing but
they don't really mean it.
This was canceled in part due to the Flashpoint crossover, which
rebooted a lot of the DCU, and took Wally West and Linda Park with
it, by the way. That's another dishonest and insulting thing Johns
and company have been going about doing lately - supposedly setting
out to entertain (which the violence prevalent in much of Johns'
consecutive writing contradicts), but then throwing much of what
they've written out the window anyway as though it never even
mattered to begin with.
JSA All-Stars #18 (DC): not
really. This franchise lost its way long ago, and with the "New 52"
reboot, it's become a total disaster.
August
2011
Green Lantern #67 (DC): if
there's anything I can really think of that renders the return of
Hal Jordan to the spotlight a botch job for starters, it's the
connections this had to Identity Crisis. And there's more. This
includes some of the self-referential nostalgia that plagues Geoff
Johns' writing, and his overuse of elements that should've been put
to bed long ago, such as Carol Ferris being turned into Star
Sapphire yet again, all just for the sake of seeing her that way
again. This only had the effect of making me feel sorry for Carol,
that she'd be forced back into a brainwashed role that, after the
disaster that took place in Action Comics Weekly, would've been best
left forgotten.
Sinestro also came back at this time, and Johns had the blatant gall
to rewrite the story where he'd been wiped out by the Corps in 1988
to make it look as though that hadn't exactly been the case. As if
they couldn't have come up with another archnemesis, if Hal needed
one. I see no reason why Lord Malvolio couldn't fill the role left
by Sinestro.
Perhaps the silliest part of this volume was the introduction of a
"Rainbow Corps" that being Blue Lanterns, White Lanterns, Red
Lanterns, Black Lanterns, Yellow Lanterns, Orange Lanterns, etc.
UGH! It's enough to turn me off of Dunkin' Donuts. Such ideas are
merely style over substance, and add little to the mythos of Green
Lantern.
Then of course, there was the violence that took place in this
overrated shambles, particularly in the Blackest Night crossover,
and the idea that the Red Lanterns would vomit blood didn't help
matters. Nor did the addition of "daddy issues", a notable problem
in the screenplay for the disastrous movie released the year this
volume was canceled. If they're going to go so far as to make Hal
Jordan seem plagued by sad memories of his father's death in a plane
crash, then that only defeats the whole purpose of the story of a
guy who's supposed to be noted for his courage, as aerial pilots are
some of the bravest folks you can meet.
Overall, I'd say that the comeback of Hal Jordan, something I'd
really look forward to under the right circumstances, was tragically
a failure and embarrassment thanks to the people now in charge of DC
like Johns and DiDio, who can also be blamed for the failure of the
movie.
September
2011
Zero items available.
October
2011
Action Comics #904 Vol. 1
(DC): The longest running series in DC history was canceled and
relaunched all for the sake of Dan DiDio and company's attempt to
create another entry in their cottage industry of publicity stunts,
no thanks to Geoff Johns' alterations in the Flashpoint crossover,
which, in contrast to Crisis on Infinite Earths, was one of the most
contemptuous stories ever to litter the DC output.
Since then, Grant Morrison has been exploiting the spinoff Superman
series for turning the Man of Steel into a liberal tool, and this
main series has shedded Superman's red tights in favor of mere blue
ones, not to mention body armor; can you believe it? Basically the
franchise has become another victim of political correctness, to say
nothing of trendiness. Costume design changes alone do not make a
series entertaining.
Adventure Comics #529 (DC):
a revival of the anthology series that ran from 1938 to 1983, and
several issues in they restored the numbering of the older volume,
the downside was that it was helmed by Geoff Johns, the one and
only. One of the story segments run here focused on Superboy, but
with such a repellant writer as Johns in charge, this is not
something I'd want to waste time with. Better to try out the older
volume from better days, when much more respectable writers were in
charge.
Batgirl #24 vol. 2 (DC):
first, the good news: yes, they reversed the death of Stephanie
Brown and the villification of Leslie Thompkins, seen at the time of
the War Games crossover and a story in Detective Comics in 2005 called War Crimes, and
the latter was a most horrific story written by Bill Willingham, who
really let everyone down, particularly with the cynical response he
gave on the Fables forum at the time.
Now, the bad news: I think it was pointless to make Stephanie into
Batgirl in place of Cassandra Cain, who just quit the role at the
time Bruce Wayne got lost in Grant Morrison's time-travel nonsense.
If the idea was to placate fans of the teen heroine, I think it
would've been better done by just keeping her in the Spoiler role
and outfit, and not going out of their way to do what could've
amounted to a minor publicity stunt.
Dan DiDio's presence could explain well enough why this didn't get
much attention - he had
managed to alienate people that badly - but the worst part is that,
with the Flashpoint reboot, Stephanie may have been retconned out;
they had been doing their absolute worst to get rid of several
characters Chuck Dixon introduced in the past 2 decades, not the
least being Stephanie herself. And this time, who knows, they
might've succeeded, the best efforts of the Stephanie Brown fans
notwithstanding.
Batman #713 Vol. 1 (DC):
And there's another long-running volume that's been sent down the
drain of editorial mandates. Sigh.
Batman and Robin #26 (DC):
the latter part was not Tim Drake. Rather, it was Damien, the son
Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul once bore in the pre-Crisis era but
was dropped in 1986 for a time. Now, Grant Morrison brought him
back, though I have no idea why he would if he was going to depict
him even more annoyingly than even Jason Todd was post-Crisis.
Batman Incorporated #8
(DC): another relaunching. This title was hardly worth it, since it
was built upon the premise of Bruce Wayne informing the world that
he's keeping his alter ego well supplied, except that this is Batman
we're talking about, not Iron Man and Tony Stark.
Another problem with this book is that a British leftist named David
Hine, with the approval of the editors, came up with an Islamist as
one of the recruits, in France, no less, in what was basically an
insult to the French after all they went through over the years
culminating in the riots of 2005. Given that the writer's British
and how far down the PC-toilet that country is today, I guess that's
why we can't be too surprised that he wouldn't think of say, making
the recruit a boy or girl of Armenian descent. Whatever, the dirty
trick they pulled didn't help sales any, and aside from all that,
the whole notion that Batman would form a whole crimefighting
enterprise out of himself was just silly. If there's any spinoff I
sure wouldn't bother about if they're going to politicize it, this
would be it.
Birds of Prey #15 vol. 2
(DC): the relaunch was even less successful than the previous
volume. It featured the resurrected Hank Hall from the Hawk &
Dove duo, but even that was royally botched. The reteaming of Gail
Simone and Ed Benes did no favors this time either.
And "Brightest Day"? That was already proven false after Aquaman's
nemesis Black Manta went on a lethal rampage in the second issue of
the main series by that name.
With the reboot of this series, Babs has been largely written out,
as she's been reverted back to her walking status and her career as
Batgirl, with Gail Simone doing the writing there too. Some way to
keep a strong stance there on whether she actually stood behind what
this series was originally about. Now it's basically running on
fumes.
Booster Gold #47 vol. 2
(DC): If Dan DiDio and company thought they could placate fans of
Blue Beetle Ted Kord by featuring him in series like this, forget it
(and indeed, plenty did). Booster was a hero who came from a future
time, and debuted in 1986 when the DCU was first being reworked. His
first series didn't run that long, but he did enjoy quite a role in
the Justice League during late 80s-early 90s.
And it's too bad that this series, which pretty much sank into
obscurity by the end of its run, suffered from serious shackling of
editorial mandates. Hey, if they're going to grow it out of Identity
Crisis and Infinite Crisis in any way, then such a series is only
bound to tank.
Detective Comics #881 Vol. 1
(DC): The second longest running series in DC history was also ended
and relaunched, with one difference being that this wasn't exactly
rebooted the same way Superman was. But that still doesn't make it
worth reading, and with the shock tactics that have turned up in
this title of recent, that only enforces the decision I've made
almost ever since Identity Crisis not bother again for a long, long
time.
Green Arrow #15 (DC): and
so ends another volume of this series that featured Ollie all but
exiled from Star City's remnants after the abominable miniseries Cry
for Justice, by ways of the forced, obnoxious circumstances in the
previous one that even tied into Blackest Night. This has since been
rebooted, with GA now clean-shaven, but not well-handled at all.
Green Lantern Corps #63
(DC): A spinoff of Geoff Johns' own relaunch of the GL series, and
just as undeserving of an audience as his own. Like his own work
(the writing here was done mostly by Dave Gibbons), this too was
plagued with unpleasantness, and the aforementioned Red Lanterns may
have littered this book with their belching as well. Even the
relaunched-at-number-one series contains more than enough of that.
And that's one more reason why one need not bother.
Jonah Hex #70 vol. 2 (DC):
another take on the notable western series starring the horrendously
disfigured ex-Confederate soldier created by John Albano and Tony
deZuniga who worked as a bounty hunter after the Civil War. The hero
had first debuted in All Star
Western #10 in 1972 and acquired his own title 5 years
after. It ran for 8 years and during the Crisis on Infinite Earths
was replaced by a series simply called Hex where our hero was thrust into the future 21st
century, in a kind of Mad Max inspired scenario. That direction,
unfortunately, proved the series' undoing at the time, and it was
canceled altogether in 1987. While Jonah may have eventually
returned to his own timeline, to my knowledge, it was off-panel and
may never have been explained.
Later on in the mid-90s, there came a few miniseries for Jonah
published under the Vertigo imprint. But by the turn of the century,
DC were slowly beginning to abandon the imprint - at least for the
cast of characters who'd originally appeared in DC-labeled titles -
and that's why this volume was launched under the regular. Jimmy
Palmiotti and Justin Gray wrote this volume, which was meant to
detail more tales from Jonah's life in the old west.
However, one could figure it came out at a very inconvenient time,
as the movie based on the series from 2010 became such a disaster that even the
Hex series from 1985-87 looks like a masterpiece by comparison. It's
enough to wonder if that's part of what led to the discontinuation
of this series and shoehorning it back into a newer volume of All-Star
Western soon after. Megan Fox's character in the failed movie,
by the way, was loosely based on a character named Tallulah Black
who appeared in the Palmiotti/Gray series, which makes me wonder -
how much of the movie was based on any of their contributions?
Palmiotti told the comics press that a lot of the film's disastrous
screenplay drew from their run, and that could've been a mistake. In
fact, with storylines in the newer comics titled "Face full of
violence", the name of the first arc Palmiotti and Gray wrote for
their series, I'm not sure they were guaranteeing it much success in
the first place either.
Jonah Hex is a worthy western story, but as I've argued before, with
people like DiDio running the store, the full potential will not be
realized.
Justice League of America #60 vol.
2 (DC): When this was relaunched in 2006, what really
angered me then was that Brad Meltzer, the pretentious writer behind
Identity Crisis was assigned - or should we say, allowed - to helm this series.
And that's why the beginning 10 issues or so definitely aren't
something I'd want to waste money on. Interestingly enough, there
was one storyline featured that one could argue was like a
fanfiction Mary Sue injection - an affair between Roy Harper and
Hawkgirl, the former who was being called Red Arrow here.
But even after Meltzer left, this series did not improve. Dwayne
McDuffie, the late creator of the Milestone line of comics that he
made a mistake selling to DC in full, took over and if there was
anyone really suffering from editorial mandates making it impossible
for him to write something relatively enjoyable, it was him. He even
admitted this once on his own site, and it resulted in his being
fired by Dan DiDio. As of now, I can't recall who succeeded him as
writer, but it doesn't matter much; this long misused team book was
already well on its way downhill.
The real nail in the coffin for this volume of the Justice League
was when James Robinson penned the abominable Cry for Justice
miniseries that saw Roy Harper getting his arm gored off, and Lian
Harper, his daughter with Cheshire, being wiped out in an explosion
caused by Prometheus, an adversary of Green Arrow. Oh sure, Ollie
Queen did shoot down the supervillain at the end, but by that time,
the reader's intellect had already been insulted beyond belief. As
this storyline bled into the Justice League title, the main members
fell out with each other, with Black Canary and even second Flash
Barry Allen turning against GA. So in the end, they all split up and
several other minor superheroes took over, like Jesse Quick, Jade,
and a few members of the Titans like Nightwing and Donna Troy, who
was killed again towards the end of this volume. A total disaster
that makes any mediocre storytelling towards the end of the Justice
League in 1987 before the relaunch at that time look very decent by
comparison.
Alas, there's no chance DiDio and company will ever admit they
screwed the pooch big time with this series, which even now as it's
being rebooted doesn't look to be any better.
Justice Society of America #54
(DC): another once decent series that was run into the ground, and
was just running on fumes by the time this was launched. It featured
more predictably sensationalized bloodshed when Geoff Johns was
writing the beginning part, and didn't get any better past that.
Even after Bill Willingham took over the helm, it didn't improve (as
though that were really possible with the horrible people like DiDio
running the store), and his sleazy response to fans of Stephanie
Brown and Leslie Thompkins in 2005 after the horrific way he
villified the latter clearly didn't help his reputation. That
Willingham failed to actually apologize for his part in War Games
and Day of Vengeance clearly must've had an effect on people's
perceptions, and that's why sales were no more impressive than
before he'd come on board. Today, Willingham is mostly washed up in
superhero comics, and has gone back to working on his Fables series. I can't remember
the name of the writer who took over after him, but Obsidian,
already abused enough after being turned into a closet case just
like Northstar, ended up in some embarrassing storylines here too.
The JSA series has been basically canceled as part of the Flashpoint
reboot, and all that remains now is "Earth 2" with whatever cast
still appearing turned into younger - but not better - versions of
themselves for the sake of political correctness. Another once
mighty team has fallen.
Legion of Super-Heroes #16
(DC): Paul Levitz may have once made a name for himself as a leading
writer for the Legion during the 70s and 80s, but today he's lost it
in a really big way. He's turned to leftism and dhimmitude, and if
this didn't make big sales, well, Levitz was just one of many
sell-outs at DC who caused the drop in sales. This too was another
casualty of the forced reboot of DC's whole line, but given how weak
it all was, the cancellation of this volume is no loss.
Power Girl #27 (DC): The
former Earth 2 counterpart of Supergirl had potential, and it's too
bad it had to be tried out under the awful editorial still in charge
at this time.
Karen Starr, the name PG often went by in her civilian guise, first
debuted in 1976, the brainchild of Gerry Conway, as the Earth 2
counterpart for Supergirl, who in that alternate dimension would be
cousin to the Earth 2 Superman. She got her first big break as a
member of the Justice Society (in All
Star Comics #58), which was resuming their teamwork at the
time, a few years after the original Star-Spangled Kid, Sylvester
Pemberton, had been rescued from the ancient timeline he'd been
stuck in for a while, as seen in one of the Justice League of
America stories Len Wein wrote in the mid-70s. PG was written as a
humorous take on feminists during the time, and over the years,
she'd also become famous for her colossal bosom. If Supergirl of
Earth 1 had the longer mane of hair, PG had the bigger bosom.
As time went on, Karen would also make for a great comedic character
in the Justice League titles published during the late 80s-early
90s. One of the origins she got at this time was being a descendant
of the Atlantean sorceror Arion, who appeared in several backup
stories in the early 80s, a series that ran during 1982-85 and a
miniseries in 1992. I do think this was surely the best origin they
could give her post-Crisis, and is far better than Geoff Johns'
rewriting her as literally a survivor of Earth 2 in another
timeline. There was also a storyline published around 1994 where she
became pregnant, but in the end, the son she ended up bearing in
Zero Hour named Equinox ended up vanishing and hasn't been mentioned
since. It's probably just as well, given how horrible that crossover
was. In 2000, she again became part of the JSA in the series first
started by David Goyer and James Robinson, the latter who's gone
downhill since along with Geoff Johns, and I'll say in fairness that
she did have her moments there, so more's the pity she otherwise got
botched by the latter part of the decade.
And in the latter part of this series' run, Judd Winick, who'd taken
over the writing from Justin Gray and Jim Palmiotti, the writers
who'd first begun it, wrote some gallingly politicized trash, which
only has the effect of making me figure its cancellation couldn't
come soon enough. Karen Starr deserved much better than what she
ended up with towards this series' end. But honestly, I don't see
any improvement even now, not even when Paul Levitz, who came up
with her fellow Bronze Age JSA member Huntress, is doing the writing
on the reversion they've done in the forced reboot to Earth 2.
Red Robin #26 (DC): just
one result in the destruction of the teen hero whom Chuck Dixon once
made very enjoyable; one of the last products of the 1990s that
really worked out well.
Secret Six #36 (DC): this
is a series I certainly won't be sorry to see go, if only because it
cheaply sought to make a bunch of supercrooks the stars instead of
using the kind of minor, simpler characters who comprised the cast
when it first appeared at the tail end of the Silver Age, and later
when Martin Pasko was writing some stories featuring the bunch in
Action Comics Weekly in 1988-89, at which time it was a simple
espionage series that was suitably stand-alone.
Series where villains are the stars is something that's getting way
out of hand too.
Supergirl #67 vol. 4 (DC):
after all these years, I'm honestly beginning to wonder if bringing
Kara Zor-El back to the forefront instead of Linda Danvers was such
a good idea. Then again, if it weren't for an editor as bad as
DiDio, it might've worked. But this series and take on the original
Maiden of Might was one of the most embarrassing ever seen, and by
the time any direction was established, it was too late.
First problem was that they over-sexed the artwork, making it seem
as though they were more interested in emphasizing Supergirl's bare
midriff costume than serious characterization. Then, there was the
stories. Initially, the problem there was how some of the first
issues featured guest stars too often, including the Ousiders as
depicted at the time.
And then, there was the incredibly sloppy way Eddie Berganza,
eventually removed from the book, promoted a story featuring Power
Boy, apparently a male take on Power Girl who unfortunately turned
out to be crooked and a onetime lackey of Darkseid's who fell in
love with Supergirl but became so abusive and possessive that she
ended up having to fight him away. The story in itself could've had
some potential in making a message about abusive relationships, but
the way it was promoted most certainly didn't, and sabotaged even
that much.
After that point, we got an attempt to tell some background for Kara
in her new rendition, but even that was botched: why was it made to
look as though her father Zor-El was conducting ludicrous
experiments involving the injection of kryptonite crystals into
humanoid guinea pigs, and implied that Kara was involved in this
too? That too was something most utterly foul, and a modern classic
example of going miles out of one's way to make a character's
backstory dark all for the sake of it. Thank goodness it was dropped
soon after.
And another serious detractor was that they wouldn't even establish
a secret identity civilian guise for her, not at first anyway. There
was one issue that may have been written by Joe Kelly where it
looked as though they were going to do this, but it was immediately
abandoned, apparently because they couldn't seem to think of
anything better to do than make her look like an outcast. This was
also symbolic of how many superhero comics today lack supporting
casts and the writers/editors do virtually nothing to create them.
One other matter that may have been more trivial was the complaint
that Kara looked anorexic, but while some of the artwork may have
indeed tried to make her look that way deliberately, which just
shows how the people in charge have an apparent hatred for the
character they're working on, beyond that, I think that was the
least of the problems, and besides, there are plenty of artists who
can draw a lady looking sexy in the cartoony way without making it
look literally as though they're anorexic. A funny thing is that
there was one story published where they supposedly placated the
audience by drawing Kara looking more plausible, but the coverscan
for that issue was one of the more sexualized, and sabotaged
everything, undoubtably a deliberate move on the editors part.
The series did eventually find a form of improvement, but that's
still faint praise. Some of the characters who appeared here,
including the son of Capt. Boomerang seen in Identity Crisis, were
embarrassing. And by the time it seemed as though they were doing it
better, it was too late. And, the series did suffer from those awful
crossovers, here being connected to some weakly reintroduced
elements from the Silver/Bronze Age, like New Krypton, and War
Against Superman.
Superman #714 Vol. 1 (DC):
I think this was merged with the sans-adjective series that took
over for it between 1987-2006 (and is referenced in the 2006
files), and during that time was usually known and published
as Adventures of... But as seen during Dan DiDio's reign, it was
totally botched, and even now that it's been relaunched, it still
is.
Teen Titans #100 vol. 3
(DC): this did not deserve to reach a hundredth issue, and it's a
disgrace that it did. It was already pretentious enough when Geoff
Johns launched it in late 2003, having built itself out of the
premise used in Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day, that bottom of
the barrel miniseries in which there wasn't a real menace, only a
robotic clone of Superman that served to wipe out both Donna Troy
(and even after she was resurrected 2 years later, she was killed
again in the aforementioned Justice League volume seen above) and
Lilith Clay/Omen. And aside from that, the series itself was a
tedious excuse for self-referential nostalgia, including a visit by
Deathstroke, a brand new, youthful version of Brother Blood, and
perhaps the nadir being an appearance by a few members of the
Fearsome Five, yet the clash with them was so brief, it fell flat on
its face.
Johns' attempts at humor were very weak too. He put in this absurd
joke seen in the second trade paperback where the new Brother Blood
appeared, where Starfire, upon seeing the mostly mind-controlled
Beast Boy calling out that "Raven
belongs to Brother Blood!", commented that "Garfield [Logan] does seem to be
acting strange". To which Wonder Girl replied, "You mean the bird calls". To
which Kory responds, "That. And
he usually stares at my chest." (WG bumps Superboy's side
as though to signal she'd better not find him doing annoying things
like that, and the former Impulse give him a goofy look while
shrugging shoulders). But this joke bombed because Johns made Kory
sound like a bimbo with no intellect. Indeed, some of the
characterization seen here made her seem more like a vapid plastic
doll than the intelligent alien girl she came to be since her debut
in 1980, and if he thought he was being clever by writing in some
alien language dialect for her in a few scenes where she complained
to herself about Krypto making messes, I'm afraid it was just as
dreary as the rest.
Raven's return was also pretty limp, and spoiled the ending Marv
Wolfman gave her when he ended his run on The New Titans series in 1996 (spoken about here).
She too, alas, became another example of the weak self-referential
nostalgia that was largely a trademark of Johns' next to the
alienating violence and downright unpleasant storytelling that's
marked much of his writing career (he even had her sporting a tattoo
on her back at one point! How odd, since her character never seemed
that lacking in self-respect). And her resurrection ultimately
amounted to nothing but extra dismal writing at the hands of Judd
Winick later on.
Another embarrassing moment of course, was the story he wrote tying
into Identity Crisis where he brought Dr. Light in as a nemesis to
battle, all just to prove he was a formidable supercrook. To which I
would argue that it all depends on the how well the writer can
convey this, and in Johns' case, it was pathetic. His approach all
smells of a problem he's got of technically blabbering to everybody,
"hey look, it's the Teen Titans, and they are the greatest superhero
team around! C'mon, don't you think so? Huh?" That's what he's like,
so desperate to prove to everybody that whatever he touches and
turns from gold into straw is the greatest thing on earth. Ahem. We
can figure that out for ourselves without
his badgering us. Furthermore, after Brad Meltzer turned Light into
a rapist in the contrived, forced manner he did, there's plenty of
people out there who you can be sure would find his presence beyond
that point too embarrassing to care about.
Dr. Light has since been killed off in one of the crossovers DC
foisted upon the world in 2008, and it wouldn't be the least bit
surprising if DC's staff knew they had tarnished the character so
badly, getting rid of him was the best option they could think of.
Since 2005, the series became caught up in crossovers galore in its
own way, and after Johns left, that's when the series really fell
into what I'd call double-decay and destruction. One of the most
notorious moments was when a new take on Wendy and Marv Harris, the
two teen characters originally seen as the Wonder Twins in the Super Friends cartoon that was
produced between 1973-86, were mauled by a demonic version of Wonder
Dog, the mascot they had back in the day. Johns had introduced them
towards the end of his run as caretakers around the Titans Tower set
up near San Francisco, and never really made positive or inspiring
use out of them. And in this case, it was the succeeding writer,
Sean McKeever, who really went overboard with a story where Marv was
mauled to death while Wendy was seriously injured. The nadir was
when he put in an allusion to the Women in Refridgerators site,
basically meant as a tasteless insult. It makes little difference
even if Wendy survived the assault; the shock tactics were uncalled
for, and even if this was an editorially mandated story, it still
doesn't put McKeever in the clear. It also seemed pretty pointless
to reveal that Wendy and Marv were related to the Calculator, for
what reason I have no idea.
At one point Superboy was killed off. Because this particular name
was not used at the time (he was only referenced for a while as
Connor), it was assumed that legal battles with the Siegel/Shuster
estates prevented the official use even for the character. Whether
that was so, however, the real problem was how Wonder Girl kept
lamenting his loss in such a way as though she couldn't move on.
Superboy did come back, but even then, it was already too late to
care.
And then the series really went limping along with no real purpose
for being. Some new cast members were introduced, such as a young
cousin of Zatanna who bears the name of her father Zatara, Miss
Martian, an apparent fellow member of the Martian Manhunter's race,
Little Barda, a junior version of Mr. Miracle's well-trained wife,
and a few others whose names I've since forgotten. I guess one could
easily say that this volume of the Titans franchise really sank into
an obscurity it was asking for. It's since been rebooted with even
more embarrassing takes on the cast members (Superboy with a
tattoo?!? Good grief), plus other elements that really help drive
away potential readers, not the least being family audiences.
If there was ever a series that should be remembered as a truly
dreadful, tedious, disgusting and overrated item that only served to
tarnish a once proud legacy, this would be it.
Titans #38 (DC): and so too
the series starring the first Titans goes down the drain. Most of
them were shifted into the Justice League of America series after a
short while, and the series was taken over by guess who? Villains
like Deathstroke! Well actually, there was a time when he'd tried to
reform after what went down in the Judas Contract storyline from
1984, but political correctness and over-obsession with nostalgia
decreed that he be reverted to older status, not unlike the hack job
John Byrne did with the Sandman in Spider-Man's series back in the
late 90s. Under the writing of Judd Winick, this series began pretty
badly, spinning out of events that took place in DC's abortive DCU:
Decisions miniseries that was an absurd political pastiche. And it
also saw the presence of Jericho, whom Geoff Johns brought back in
Teen Titans for nothing more than pointless nostalgia with the most
bizarre part being that after all these years, Slade Wilson's son
Joe could suddenly talk! Even if he now existed as a disembodied
spirit of some sort, this idea was pretty lame. Especially when they
resurrected him completely later, and he would end up being put in
the grave again. He then turned up in this volume of Titans to cause
more trouble for them, and the story was just riddled with bad puns
and horrid writing by Winick.
And as mentioned before, they killed off Donna Troy later on towards
the end of the prior Justice League volume. Absolutely awful.
Wonder Woman #614 (DC): the
reason the numbering was rearranged as it was here following the
44th issue of this volume was because of yet another publicity and
sales stunt in motion. Yet it's nothing compared to the hack job
done with the Amazons after being relaunched: Brian Azzarello turned
them into savages even more chilling than anything seen in the
original Greek mythology tales. If that's how DC is going to treat
its properties, that's why it's better to give the volume that
followed this one a complete miss.
Zatanna #16 (DC): Wow, another superheroine - or
certainly close to that role - whose potential for an ongoing was
squandered big time by the horrid editors running the store. Zee
first appeared in 1964, the brainchild of Gardner Fox, who created
her magician father Zatara way back in Action Comics #1 in 1938; one of the best stories
to accompany the Man of Steel in his debut. She was looking for her
father, who'd gone MIA thanks to the trouble being caused by a rival
magician, and after a few appearances made between 1964-67 in
different books like Hawkman, Atom, Batman, Detective Comics with
Elongated Man and Justice League of America, she succeeded in
finding and rescuing him from the dire predicament he was in. She
would go on to make more appearances over the years as her
crimefighting career expanded while her father would all but retire
to the sidelines. It was Len Wein who really brought her to
prominence in short stories and the Justice League's pages, and
eventually, she joined the Leauge full time in the late 70s. She
also got a new blue costume at one point which would last well into
the end of the 80s.
During the 90s, she made appearances in Vertigo titles, including
Hellblazer with John Constantine, the sorcery specialist Alan Moore
introduced in Swamp Thing during 1985. And in the early part of the
21st century, there was even a special one-shot where she starred
prominently.
Unfortunately, this was the time when things started to go downhill
with Identity Crisis, where she was one of the victims of
demonization, and this solo book for her didn't salvage anything.
Though it's probably nothing compared to the "revelation" in
Catwoman that Zee altered her own mind too (see the 2008
files for more on that), just like with Dr. Light. Oh yes,
that too was another strike against plausibility.
November
2011
Haven't found anything, and too dispirited too really try.
December
2011
Uncanny X-Men #544 Vol. 1
(Marvel): This was put to an end as part of the erstwhile House of
Ideas' own publicity stunts, and it wouldn't surprise me if they got
the idea from DC's own rebootings. The difference, depending on how
you see it, is that they didn't reboot continuity like DC did with
90 percent of their own characters and series.
But splitting the team into 2 different factions that could war with
each other, that sure isn't helping.
Copyright Avi Green. All rights
reserved.