When A Comic Book Is *Not* A Comic Book
Who benefits when a Comic Book is not a Comic Book?
Normal people assume a comic book would be about an epic battle between good versus evil. Sometimes not even epic, it could even be a simple gag where the villain just wants to make life difficult for every superhero. Then you see a fanboy or fangirl with mountains of collected monthly issues of comics. Some even go to all the trouble of protecting their “investments”. People shake their heads and say, “all that for a comic book?”
Comicdom is a small world. A few hundred thousand a year circulation, indeed its a medium living on a small niche. But then again, porn is a small niche and we can probably say the same thing about a golf magazine or National Geographic. They all do remarkably well.
Then we read something like “Identity Crisis” and well, we never regret buying it--- or waiting months for it to conclude or the months in between searching franticly for “spoilers” on the 'Net.
Whats all this hoopla about?
Novelist Brad Meltzer, with Rags Morales on pencils, inker Michael Bair, colorist Alex Sinclair and Letterer Kenny Lopez have just concluded their DC Comics published “Identity Crisis”. This isn't the comic book of yesteryear. This isn't some old storyline being “retold” for “a new generation”. This is quite simply Earth-shattering, universe-redefining that takes comic book making to a whole new level. It has, (who can forget) time travel, costumed heroes and villains, mystery and murder, fallen heroes, and bright and stupid villains. But you know what? The best thing about “Identity Crisis” is, it gave these characters dimension we knew they had but simply turned off.
The tale woven by Meltzer and Co., starts with the Ralph Dibny and Lorainne Reily--- co-works of a different sort. They are quite simply the Elongated Man and Firebird, members of the Justice League reserves. They're on stake out. Firebird asks Ralph--- whose secret identity is well known to the world, how he met his mystery-novelist writing wife. Ralph while watching two white boys prepare to steal something in a huge big box that they're guarding, tells her some mushy story how Sue Dibny noticed him and not notice the Flash, or Superman's baby blues, or every other superhero. Mushy isn't it?
That happens right before everything goes the other way, a supervillan tries to take the box which contains Lex Luthor's battle armor and halfway across town, Sue Dibny, wife and pregnant is attacked and dies rather horrifyingly graphic.
Over the course of issues, we witness Ralph's grief and every other hero's--- Sue Dibny was an honorary member of the Justice League, even Lois Lane, Meltzer points out isn't even one. This hit the superhero community right where they're weak. Then we get to witness how they try to track down the killer, virtually proactive and busting every lead and engaging every enemy within their sights.
We also get to see how Superman worries over his parents; his wife Lois Lane also noticed that her husband was looking at their wedding pictures through X-Ray vision. We get to see Tim Drake, a.k.a., Batman's teenage detective protege Robin, spending time with his dad, Jack. But its not just the heroes we see, the villains too have family and Captain Boomerang rediscovers his son who was given up for adoption as a child and they reconnect; the former teaching the latter how to throw boomerangs. We see the human face of comic books.
As the heroes crackdown on villains searching for the killer, Firestorm--- a one man nuclear man is accidentally stabbed. There is no hope. As he flies off with his co-workers having powers of their own teary-eyed and helpless, he bids them to say good bye to his friends, loved ones and even his dad and blows up in the sky.
Then we visit once more Jack Drake (Robin's Dad) and Captain Boomerang as they kill each other, the latter answering a contact hit on the former posted by Sue's killer to the supervillain community's information broker, Calculator. Another boy wonder's dad dead and buried, with the World's Greatest Detective clueless, helpless and so is every hero on the planet.
Meltzer and Co,, took the elements of what makes a good comic book story--- heroes, villains, victims, time travel, mystery, murder and meshed it together but they all become “elements” of the story, pieces of the puzzle, they're not the focus of the story. They make it richer, more fun to read but the characters: they were living, breathing, and real. Meltzer brought the Justice League down and made them real and imperfect by introducing credible weaknesses--- they're human too with character flaws--- from Superman to Batman to members of the Justice League even to Barry Allen who is like a saint in the DC Universe for having given up his life to save the Universe in DC Comics' 80s reorganization of their comic book world. The pedestal is gone, they're simply humans with characters following Stan Lee's Spiderman, writ large and better.
Normally in the comic book world, reboots are when every character's origin is retold, recreated for today's generation. Publishers make a big fuzz, “We're going back to issue one!” Or their stories are retold in a new universe, an Ultimate or Elseworlds kind of thing. The plot can be familiarly different: some super-villain comes and wreaks havoc on this or that plane of existence and its up to the boys and girls in pretty colorful costumes to make the world a better place. “Identity Crisis” isn't a reboot, its an upgrade.
DC Comics just proved that these characters are timeless and that it doesn't take some cosmic anomaly to make the universe shatter-- or ante up. All it takes is classic human nature mixed with the superhuman. They proved that it doesn't take Kryptonite or some super-weakness to hurt a hero: just hit who they love. Meltzer and Co. made one hell of entertaining, timeless story. The beneficiaries of this brand of comic book making are those of us who read and love new tales about our beloved characters and live in a world where a comic book is not a comic book. Well, at least not what your grandparents have read and now, something everyone might want to pickup and simply enjoy for their beautiful art and wonderful stories we can relate to as well as escape in.
Normal people assume a comic book would be about an epic battle between good versus evil. Sometimes not even epic, it could even be a simple gag where the villain just wants to make life difficult for every superhero. Then you see a fanboy or fangirl with mountains of collected monthly issues of comics. Some even go to all the trouble of protecting their “investments”. People shake their heads and say, “all that for a comic book?”
Comicdom is a small world. A few hundred thousand a year circulation, indeed its a medium living on a small niche. But then again, porn is a small niche and we can probably say the same thing about a golf magazine or National Geographic. They all do remarkably well.
Then we read something like “Identity Crisis” and well, we never regret buying it--- or waiting months for it to conclude or the months in between searching franticly for “spoilers” on the 'Net.
Whats all this hoopla about?
Novelist Brad Meltzer, with Rags Morales on pencils, inker Michael Bair, colorist Alex Sinclair and Letterer Kenny Lopez have just concluded their DC Comics published “Identity Crisis”. This isn't the comic book of yesteryear. This isn't some old storyline being “retold” for “a new generation”. This is quite simply Earth-shattering, universe-redefining that takes comic book making to a whole new level. It has, (who can forget) time travel, costumed heroes and villains, mystery and murder, fallen heroes, and bright and stupid villains. But you know what? The best thing about “Identity Crisis” is, it gave these characters dimension we knew they had but simply turned off.
The tale woven by Meltzer and Co., starts with the Ralph Dibny and Lorainne Reily--- co-works of a different sort. They are quite simply the Elongated Man and Firebird, members of the Justice League reserves. They're on stake out. Firebird asks Ralph--- whose secret identity is well known to the world, how he met his mystery-novelist writing wife. Ralph while watching two white boys prepare to steal something in a huge big box that they're guarding, tells her some mushy story how Sue Dibny noticed him and not notice the Flash, or Superman's baby blues, or every other superhero. Mushy isn't it?
That happens right before everything goes the other way, a supervillan tries to take the box which contains Lex Luthor's battle armor and halfway across town, Sue Dibny, wife and pregnant is attacked and dies rather horrifyingly graphic.
Over the course of issues, we witness Ralph's grief and every other hero's--- Sue Dibny was an honorary member of the Justice League, even Lois Lane, Meltzer points out isn't even one. This hit the superhero community right where they're weak. Then we get to witness how they try to track down the killer, virtually proactive and busting every lead and engaging every enemy within their sights.
We also get to see how Superman worries over his parents; his wife Lois Lane also noticed that her husband was looking at their wedding pictures through X-Ray vision. We get to see Tim Drake, a.k.a., Batman's teenage detective protege Robin, spending time with his dad, Jack. But its not just the heroes we see, the villains too have family and Captain Boomerang rediscovers his son who was given up for adoption as a child and they reconnect; the former teaching the latter how to throw boomerangs. We see the human face of comic books.
As the heroes crackdown on villains searching for the killer, Firestorm--- a one man nuclear man is accidentally stabbed. There is no hope. As he flies off with his co-workers having powers of their own teary-eyed and helpless, he bids them to say good bye to his friends, loved ones and even his dad and blows up in the sky.
Then we visit once more Jack Drake (Robin's Dad) and Captain Boomerang as they kill each other, the latter answering a contact hit on the former posted by Sue's killer to the supervillain community's information broker, Calculator. Another boy wonder's dad dead and buried, with the World's Greatest Detective clueless, helpless and so is every hero on the planet.
Meltzer and Co,, took the elements of what makes a good comic book story--- heroes, villains, victims, time travel, mystery, murder and meshed it together but they all become “elements” of the story, pieces of the puzzle, they're not the focus of the story. They make it richer, more fun to read but the characters: they were living, breathing, and real. Meltzer brought the Justice League down and made them real and imperfect by introducing credible weaknesses--- they're human too with character flaws--- from Superman to Batman to members of the Justice League even to Barry Allen who is like a saint in the DC Universe for having given up his life to save the Universe in DC Comics' 80s reorganization of their comic book world. The pedestal is gone, they're simply humans with characters following Stan Lee's Spiderman, writ large and better.
Normally in the comic book world, reboots are when every character's origin is retold, recreated for today's generation. Publishers make a big fuzz, “We're going back to issue one!” Or their stories are retold in a new universe, an Ultimate or Elseworlds kind of thing. The plot can be familiarly different: some super-villain comes and wreaks havoc on this or that plane of existence and its up to the boys and girls in pretty colorful costumes to make the world a better place. “Identity Crisis” isn't a reboot, its an upgrade.
DC Comics just proved that these characters are timeless and that it doesn't take some cosmic anomaly to make the universe shatter-- or ante up. All it takes is classic human nature mixed with the superhuman. They proved that it doesn't take Kryptonite or some super-weakness to hurt a hero: just hit who they love. Meltzer and Co. made one hell of entertaining, timeless story. The beneficiaries of this brand of comic book making are those of us who read and love new tales about our beloved characters and live in a world where a comic book is not a comic book. Well, at least not what your grandparents have read and now, something everyone might want to pickup and simply enjoy for their beautiful art and wonderful stories we can relate to as well as escape in.
posted by Cocoy at
Monday, December 20, 2004
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