EVENTspace

Dwayne McDuffie was recently fired from Justice League of America by DC, due to his candid observations on the behind the scenes processes of a modern comic book company. This shouldn't be a surprise, of course, for anyone who knows anything about corporate practices. Airing dirty laundry in public-no matter how polite and respectful you are in the process-is a sure fire way to get the pink slip handshake. Chances are, McDuffie knew this when he started, but either the need to vent was simply too great, or else he assumed that his comments would be lost in the shuffle, and he's taken his lumps like a man, admitting his mistake and looking towards the next project.
All well and good, of course, and, by the standards of the business, within the boundaries of fairness.
Of course, just because McDuffie was less than practical in making his observations doesn't mean those observations are lacking in weight. Let's take a look at those, shall we? Go read through them, I'll wait here.
...
Back? Good. Now, first, let me say that McDuffie displayed an amazing ability to adapt his plans for the greater good (as DC Editorial saw it), and that he should be commended for essentially rewriting his series from the ground up to accommodate other writers. It's a rare display of the kind of professionalism that keeps the comics industry afloat, especially in these EVENT driven times. However, the fact that he had to do that so many times in such a short span of time is quite telling, don't you think?
Here we had a flagship book handed over to a writer who, if not particularly flashy, could have created a solid foundation for future writers to build off of. Instead, he was confined to writing in what I like to call 'EVENTspace'...essentially the spaces between crossover issues. I'm surprised that recent issues of JLA have been as readable as they have, if McDuffie was jumping through the hoops he says he was. Re:

I do get frustrated, but it comes with the job. The nature of monthly comics has changed drastically over the past 20 years. JLA used to be THE place to go to see the big guns together, dealing with the gravest threats in the DCU. Now there are several big event crossovers a year, and those titles are where the huge stories happen. So I have to tell stories that feed into and come out of those events. I'd prefer if, as on Justice League Unlimited, I could tell stories that were at the center of the characters lives, but that was a very different circumstance. JLA the comic is part of a larger patchwork, and my mandate is to support the bigger story of the DCU.

I think we could do a much better job of making the comic feel more self-contained while still serving the needs of the DCU, and I'm working on ways to do that, but the truth of the matter is, every three or four months, I have to sort of drop everything and deal with a crossover or other event. In my next arc of 6 issues, there are three of these events (four if you count the Milestone guest shot). That makes JLA integral to the DCU, but it also makes us lurch around more than a bit.

Of course, McDuffie obviously recognizes the bare facts of his situation. But imagine if there hadn't been multiple crossovers to contend with...would the series have, perhaps, been served better to be a part of a loose, rather than a tight, continuity? It seems so.
I feel like ranting and rolling a bit. Want to jam?
EVENT books have become all the rage with the Big Two. Secret Final War of the Civil Crisis-itis, in a sense. Everything that happens has to be BIG and LOUD and the visual equivalent of one of Michael Bay's peyote-fueled wet dreams. And, because of the fan-driven demand for continuity, every single title offered by a company must, in some way, tie in to these explosions of senseless canon.
Hmm. Perhaps it's unfair to say it's fan-driven. Rather, say, fans-cum-writers-driven. Because, at the heart of it, it's perhaps the fault of those of us who've made good, rather than, say, the ever popular target of cold-hearted corporate assassins who still call comics 'funny books' and demand everything be 'grim'n'gritty' in order to facilitate sales. After all, they may seize on the moment to suck it dry, but they don't create the moment. They wouldn't know how, after all. It's up to those who know comics in and out to do that.
Some cling to continuity, forcing everything to fit, even when it would rather not, and if it doesn't, it gets discarded in an orgiastic blood bath composed of C and D listers in a splash page crowd shot. Superboy knocking off heads as he fights to restore the Silver Age, but only until the Justice society come out of retirement yet again to show those young whippersnappers how FDR did it.
Others discard both continuity and consistency, and go for broke, writing their glorious heretofore unseen fanfiction. Characters with established personalities become ciphers for political/social/creative whims in order to lend an element of 'real' to the definably 'unreal'. Captain America is out of touch because he doesn't have a Facebook account and Iron-Man is a Fascist because he has two. And Twitter. But the Red Hulk has a Tweetdeck and Dreamwidth so he beats them all.
Still others inflict halcyon ideals upon the rest of us, by attempting to twist the dial on the dashboard of Doc Brown's DeLorean, and take comics back to a simpler (i.e. when I read them) time. Comics used to be good you see, but that changed when I grew up. Spider-Man makes a deal with the Devil to bring back Hal Jordan, but not Aquaman, because Aquaman sucked when he was a kid, and that new one was most likely a Skrull. Also, Mockingbird? Totally alive.
And all of this occurs at a high-speed frequency that leaves the reader (and some writers) staggering under the sheer amount of four color noise being put out each month. Sound and fury, signifying nothing. Cool ideas look great rolling downhill, but too many of them and you have an unending avalanche that allows no time to rebuild between thundering crescendos.
To get back to the original point (there was a point? If you look hard enough I'm sure you'll find it), what's happening to superhero comics is akin to reactor reaching critical mass...more and more and MORE of everything, building towards the next big bang and then the next, which has to be bigger than the previous one and so on and so forth and, in the process, the whole framework is becoming shaky and ill-defined.
I wonder what will happen if it falls?
...
Maybe we'll get more comic books about vikings. Or atomic robots. Or gorillas in luchadore masks. I could dig that.

Instances of Reverteration

Awkward Question Time with The Thing

What Time is It?

Yes. Yes, it certainly is.

Sympathy for the Bendis

Interesting column by Steven Grant over at CBR on Wednesday, on the state of freelancing in regards to comic books. Since I'm a freelancer myself (though not for comics, sadly), I found myself nodding my head frequently. Particularly at this bit here:

'Comics freelancing is about craft, not art, and always has been.'

Now, he goes on to say that comics CAN be art, but they aren't always, and that creativity isn't as valued by the Big Two as is whatever voodoo science is used to keep the various franchises going on unsteady, zombie limbs. The zombie bit is mine, but you get the picture. Anyway, it got me thinking, as so many things often do, and then it got me hungry, as so many things often do, and then I had a sandwich, and now I'm back to tell you what I was thinking.
But first, a confession. I don't hate Brian Michael Bendis. Nor do I think he's the worst thing to hit comics since Umberto Eco had a short-lived run on Blue Beetle.* Here's why...
I've always thought of comic book writers as jugglers. Every ball in the air is a story plot, and, as a writer's run continues, he adds more and more balls/plots to the rotation in order to keep things lively. Sometimes he'll trade out a red ball for a blue one, or one with glitter for one with dinosaurs on it, but, in the end, it's all about keeping those balls in the air, and, eventually, passing them-without dropping one-to the next writer/juggler.
Now, you could argue that Bendis has dropped a few balls, but, frankly, he's good at catching other ones to replace them. Like him or not, he's a born-juggler.
Comics are literary perpetual motion machines, and its the writer's job to keep the plot moving. A good writer will keep the balls in the air long enough to get to the next writer, and he'll try and keep things interesting while he does it, but there's no guarantee you're going to get the best show of your life while he's on stage. Different performers juggle the same balls in different ways. All you get is a show. It's up to you how you take it.

*Note-may not have actually happened.

Beta-Ray Bill Week is Over, You Say?

Then I guess-

Right? Right, so let's-wait-what's-oh come on, it's a new week-

Damn it, Bill! I've got things to do. Things that don't involve hammer wielding space horses. I know I didn't get to talk about the Thor Corps or your time with the Star Masters. I'll do that next year, I swear...here, have your only television appearance by way of apology.

Ha! That shut him up. Don't ask me why they're Scottish either. I always imagine Bill sounding like William Marshall.

Saturday Smack-Down

Beta-Ray Bill Week rolls on, with a Saturday Smack-down of cosmic proportions, as Bill goes foot to geo-thermal fault in this tussle with EGO, THE LIVING PLANET!

(Click to embiggen)

Really, nothing more needs to be said, does it?

Friday Night Fights: Best of the Best!!

Friday Night Fights is taking two weeks off, but here at IT'S CLOBBERING TIME we don't stop the rocking just because you done come a-knocking! Thus, in honor of Beta-Ray Bill Week, we have a panel that sums up everything we love about our space-horse-with-an-attitude...

What the hell is this, indeed, Wrecker. What the hell is this indeed. From the recent Omega Flight series.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane...

So, in yesterday's post I mentioned that I'd be talking a bit about the whole Stormbreaker/Mjolnir thing in relation to what it means to the character of Beta-Ray Bill. As the above panel demonstrates, in taking up Mjolnir, Bill proved his worthiness to bear the weapon of the gods...something few other characters have managed. I can only think of four offhand-Erik Masterson, who became Thor for awhile, Captain America and the Thing in 616 canon, and Superman in the JLA/Avengers crossover-who've ever done it, though Jeph Loeb would like us to think "Rulk" somehow managed it.
But it's not the fact that Bill picked up Mjolnir that makes him interesting. It's that he did it effortlessly-both the Thing and Captain America struggled to even lift it, let alone use it, and Masterson was Thor for a bit, so he doesn't really count-and, as the above panel demonstrates, is perfectly willing to bear the physical and metaphorical weight of a weapon that can only be carried by the worthiest. In essence, Bill undergoes a challenge to his purity and character every time he picks up Stormbreaker, even as Thor does. But where Thor has been groomed from the get go to do it, Bill hasn't. So how does he do it? You can't fake out Mjolnir (well, you can, but only by robbing it of its essential power), and, by the same token, you can't fake out Stormbreaker (though the Skrulls gave it a good try).
Think about that. Now, think about the four characters I mentioned above, who've managed to use Mjolnir. Who had the easiest time of it? Hint, it's the one I didn't mention in the preceding paragraph.
Superman.
Why? Because he was the worthiest (which only stands to reason). Bear with me, I'm going somewhere interesting.
Now, consider this...Superman is the Last of the Kryptonians (for all intents and purposes). Bill is the Last of the Korbinites (again, for all intents and purposes). Both are aliens who are completely cut off from their native societies and who adopt their new society (Earth and Asgard) whole-heartedly, while yet feeling a longing for what they've lost. Both character also find something lacking in their native societies when they are later given the chance to rejoin them, prompting them to leave. Sif states in Bill's second appearance that he possesses an almost godlike resolve and certainty in his own cause, as does Superman.
Too, both Beta-Ray Bill and Superman are invariably the moral centers of whatever comic they appear in. Thor wavers...he has rages and doubts and all the baggage a good Stan Lee/Jack Kirby creation has. Bill though, does not. He's straight Silver Age do-gooder (how else do you explain him taking Mjolnir from Thor twice?), just like Superman. He has his hiccups (as when he gave up his powers to his people), but he never wavers. Bill always does what's right, for the right reasons at the right time.
What I'm getting at, I suppose, is that Bill is one of Marvel's several equivalents (cough*Sentry, Hyperion*cough) to Superman, and probably the closest in terms of character out of all of them. A stranger in a strange land, trying to do the right thing with the near infinite powers he's been blessed with.
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Also, they both wear red capes. Coincidence?

The Ballad of Beta-Ray Bill, Pt. 3

Damn, it's the middle of Beta-Ray Bill Week already, isn't it? Well, I still have plenty of material. Today, however, is for the last bits of Bill's bombastic origin, as recounted by Walt Simonson. when we last left Bill, he'd beaten Thor for a second time and was looking forward to claiming Mjolnir as his very own. Well, obviously that wasn't gonna happen...

(You know what this cover needs? Theme music by Stan Bush.)

Anyway, after Bill returns to Asgard, cradling Thor's unconscious form in a completely heterosexual, bromantic sort of fashion, Bill demands his reward. So, Odin, rather than actually give him the strongest weapon in the universe, decides to create the second strongest and pawn that off on our heroic galactic equine. Thus...Stormbreaker is born.

(Also, I promise to totally bang Sif sometime in the next ten issues.)

Joking aside, this is one of the truly memorable moments in Marvel history. Odin gives a speech on just what carrying Mjolnir-and now, Stormbreaker-means in terms of the bearer's character (something I'll discuss tomorrow), and it really puts Bill's character into context. And, even more amazingly, the character has yet to deviate from this, despite being written by individuals other than Simonson. The Beta-Ray Bill of these issues is nigh indistinguishable from the one running around now, personality-wise, which, when you consider the recent spate of inconsistent characterization at the Big Two, is nothing short of miraculous.
...
Of course, now that I've said that, he'll probably get killed during Dark Reign. Maybe we'll get lucky and Dan Abnett will stick him in Guardians of the Galaxy (hint, hint).
...
Moving on. The next issue sees Thor and Bill beating the funky monkey out of the demons that have been plaguing Bill's people, as well as a team-up of Lady Sif (who's been crushing on Bill something fierce the past two issues) and Bill's sentient battleship, Skuttlebutt. Which is really all kinds of awesome and, frankly, the issue is worth the price of admission for that reason alone (one's a war-goddess, one's a wise-cracking space-ship, together they fight CRIME!).

Bill returns the favor around ten issues later when the Cask of Winters is broken by Malekith the Dark Elf (long story) and Surtur is freed. Asgard goes to war, and Bill goes with them.


These issues are a spectacular example of how to work a crossover without being annoying about it, and I intend to do a post devoted to the Cask of Winters storyline later (after I finish re-reading it). Suffice to say, everybody turns up for this one, with the Fantastic Four and the Avengers doing the heavy-lifting guest-shot-wise. While Thor battles Surtur, Bill leads the battle against the demon's forces on Earth, as seen in that awesome cover above there.
Afterward, Bill shows up sporadically throughout Simonson's run, usually in the company of Sif. Notably, he's got a nice two-issue dust up with the Titanium Man not long after the 'Winters' storyline wrapped up.
Then, of course, there was the Thor Corps. But I'll talk about that, as well as a few other things, tomorrow.

The Ballad of Beta-Ray Bill, Pt. 2

You've got to admit, when Simonson starts work on a comic, he makes it his own pretty damn quick. And with The Mighty Thor, Simonson pretty much gave us the Thor everybody knows and loves these days.
...
Well, technically, he gave us two Thors, though, didn't he?

(If you two can't share, nobody gets the goddamn hammer!)

When last we left our horse-faced hero, he'd just picked up Thor's mallet and gotten himself an Asgardian-sized upgrade (and if you've seen Volstagg, you know how big those things can get) and become, well, for lack of a better term, Beta-Ray-Thor:

(Mr. Ed goes to a costume party as Jack Kirby's LSD flashback.)

Bill whomps on several Asgardian autograph hunters for a few panels until the bright folk of the Golden Realm realize that this, quite possibly, is not the best time to be getting all up the new guy's face. Odin is predictably put out that his son has apparently become the horse from Picasso's Guernica, and wants answers now, damn it! So, he gets them straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak, and rustles up Don Blake, who's been busy on Earth doing his Gregory House impression for Nick Fury.

Once everybody calms down long enough to figure out that Bill isn't the bad guy (because-well-hey-he picked up Thor's hammer, right? Right.), Odin, being the loving parent that he is, decides that Thor (his beloved son) and Bill (alien who almost killed his beloved son) will brawl for it all in one of the most hellish environments known to man.
...
That's right, they're gonna be duking it out in the comments section of the ISB!

(Wonder Twin powers...activate! Form of...HOLYCRAPLOOKITTHAT!)

Reader's Digest version: Bill wins. It's one of the single greatest on panel battles depicted in all of comicdom and if you don't own it, well, I can't describe it. Read it for yourself. anyway, Bill wins...again. But, in an act that simultaneously puts Bill into the top brackets of 'Heroes at Marvel Who are Actually Heroic', Bill pulls the following stunt:

(WHOO! THOR! WELCOME BACK! WH-oh godsdammit.)

So far our boy Bill is 2-0, in the pages of Thor's own comic no less. That's either some mighty fine writing or some mighty fine jobbing, but who care because, hey, 'space horse', am I right ladies and gentlemen? Right.
Next time...a flurry of Simonson awesomeness and, of course, STORMBREAKER! Until then:

BETA-RAY BILL.

DOES NOT LIKE TO BE TOUCHED BY YOUR TINY HANDS.

The Ballad of Beta-Ray Bill, Pt. 1

I figured, this being BETA-RAY BILL WEEK and all, I should just start at the beginning. Specifically, Bill's first appearance in The Mighty Thor, issue 337 by the incomparable Walt Simonson. Coincidentally, considering how Bill is one of Simonson's best known creations, this was also Simonson's first issue on the title. Talk about going for broke right out the barn door.

(Not exactly a subtle entrance. Someone's going to have to fix that before next issue, btw.)

Long story short. Nick Fury shanghais Donald Blake, Thor's alter-ego, and requests Thor's help on investigating an alien space craft that has entered orbit around Earth's Sun, where it is apparently refueling. Thor intercepts the ship as it sets in a course for Earth, and gets a warm welcome from a battery of energy weapons. Thor being, well, Thor, destroys the guns and rips on through the hull of the ship in a display of cunning not seen since one guy bashed another guy with a handy log. Once inside the vessel, Thor spots a crystalline chamber containing a large figure. Employing his deductive abilities to their fullest, Thor breaks that shit all up into pieces, because hey, why not right? No sooner does he do this, than this guy right here...

(It's good to see that somebody besides me remembers Rollerball...)

...jumps out to kick his butt three ways from last Sunday. Beta-Ray Bill. First, last and only line of defense for the alien Korbinites against an as yet unknown demonic threat. Bill, seeing the mess Thor has made of his stuff, decides (quite rightly) that the Thunder-God is probably a demon. And if there's one thing Bill likes it's beating the fool out of space-demons. Also, puppies.
Mostly the demon thing, though.
He and Thor tear through the alien space-craft in a knock down drag out brawl the likes of which caused a young Rob Liefield to wet himself in excitement, until, through a combination of luck and Bill being smart enough to realize that if a guy keeps exclaiming about how mighty the power of his hammer is, it's probably a good idea to get rid of said hammer, Mjolnir gets separated from Thor in the fight, Thor turns into plain old Don Blake, gets knocked out when the severely damaged space craft crashes on Earth, and-

(Ten points if you spot the He-Man reference.)

Bill, like any kid with a shiny new weapon of mystic destruction, begins playing around with his new toy, right up until he gets his keister kidnapped by none other than Odin, who has confused our alien friend for Thor, due to the fact he's dressed in the same snazzy duds, and despite the fact he looks like a skinned horse. Cue ominous music and/or laugh track.

Next issue, hijinks ensue! Until then, I leave you with this...

BETA-RAY BILL.

MASTER OF THE OBVIOUS.

Friday Night Fights: OPP!! FINAL ROUND!

Last round, boys and girls! One last panel of punishing, pummeling, pancreas-pasting PAIN! And for such a cataclysmic EVENT only one panel will do...

'Thing Meets Thing, And A Thousand-Thousand Paradoxes Collide!' How's that for hyperbole?

This ripple in reality courtesy of John Byrne and Joe Sinnot, and Marvel-Two-in-One issue 50...

Next Week On It's Clobberin' Time...

BETA RAY BILL WEEK.
Because I do like heroes other than the Thing.

Villains with Potential-The Foreigner

There's a rumor that he killed a god once. Not an important one, or even a dangerous one. But a god nonetheless.
No one knows his real name. No one, not even his ex-wife, has seen his real face. For all intents and purposes, the man known only as the Foreigner does not exist.
Imagine the trouble a man without a face, or a name, or a conscience, can get into. Then double it. That, in a nutshell, is the Foreigner.
Suave, dapper and ruthless, the Foreigner has completed every assignment, save those where it was more entertaining not to do so (Silver Sable, Spider-Man, the Kingpin, the Black Cat). He has an intelligence network second only to Doctor Doom's, and he knows every dirty secret that S.H.I.E.L.D and HYDRA want to stay hidden. He owns one of every weapon in the world, and few items that technically aren't from this world.
He can be anyone, anywhere, at any time. He knows who you are under that mask (though he'd never tell...that would be gauche, after all) and he knows what to use to drop you to your knees, whether it be an experimental rail gun, a weapon stolen from the armories of Asgard, or just a twist of his wrist.
He has trained some of the best killers in the world, including Sabretooth, and the Taskmaster (though he didn't teach them even half of what he knew) and he once ran an exclusive union for international assassins (though he eventually grew bored with it and allowed it to be destroyed). In all the ways of murder, the Foreigner is the best in the business.
The problem is, being the best for any period of time is boring. And the Foreigner has been the best for a long time. He wants a challenge. Something different. Something...interesting. So he begins to put together a list of names.
It's a list of the more important men and women in the world. The men and woman whose deaths would drop the world into chaos, genetic, religious, temporal or otherwise. Hitler is on the list, as is Gustavus Adolphus. Killraven. Harry Truman. Thundra. Kang. The Black Panther. Sif. The list has hundreds of names, people from the past, the present and the future. And then he sends out party invitations to everyone (good guys and bad guys both) who might have a stake in stopping him...
It's going to be the greatest game anyone has ever played.

Hey, Lookitthat...

Looks like I won last week's round of Friday Night Fights! So, to celebrate, I'm taking a buy week this week, and enjoying me a good cigar and a bottle of fine, dark ale. See you Monday, folks!