Prime Panels

Thanks to everyone who's like one or more of my posts on this Tumblr blog thing. I haven't posted anything in a very long time because I have a full-time, out-of-the-house job right now, so I don't spend nearly as much time on the computer. I also haven't been reading many comics recently for mostly the same reason.

Black Adam, Talia al Ghul, and Lex Luthor all want Superman to use his incredible power to wipe out those who have been infected by the corrupted Anti-Life Equation and are overrunning the earth, but Superman thinks there's still hope for them.

Interestingly, I don't recall this point coming up in the main DCeased mini-series, but it's a recurring theme in these tie-ins. And if I hadn't read the sequel, DCeased: Dead Planet, I would think that Superman is being super-naïve. I mean, even though the Anti-Life hordes aren't literally walking corpses like in Night of the Living Dead, they sure seem like they might as well be. They're out of their minds, unable to be rehabilitated or reasoned with - just crazed killing machines. Why not take them out before they multiply and do more damage? But Superman always holds out hope.

But author Tom Taylor couldn't leave it at that, even though I kind of wanted him to. I guess it works out for some people in the end, though.

Synopsis:

An Elseworlds story where Thomas and Martha Wayne take baby Kal-El in, having no son of their own. After they're murdered, Kal-El (now named Bruce) vows to wage war on the crime of Gotham. And he has super powers.

My Thoughts:

The premise, "What if Superman had become Batman?" sounds like a story in which I would be fairly interested, but the particular iteration of the concept didn't really connect with me.

The art is good, and the full-body-and-face Batman outfit that Kal-El wears is pretty cool. But I didn't like how traditional Superman characters were pigeonholed into the story. Lois Lane shows up in Gotham so that she can be Batman's love interest, and a fat Lex Luthor is the main villain. I would've rather seen a super-Batman taking on traditional Batman villains and falling for traditional Batman love interests (Catwoman, Vicky Vale, etc.). If the premise of a story is, "Character A lives the life of Character B," I'd prefer to see Character A in Character B's world, not have Character B's world automatically adjust to be more like Character A's. I want to see how the character behaves in a different element.

Now, one may say that most of Batman's villains would be easy pickings for Superman, so it wouldn't be interesting to see him face them. Sure, maybe if someone with Superman's powers caught the Joker off-guard in the first meeting, he'd probably handle him easily. But if a genius with means like Lex Luthor can be a challenge for Superman, I think someone like the Riddler, Ra's al Ghul, or even Hugo Strange could be presented as a problem for him.

This is the Red Cloud, in the midst of a prolonged temper tantrum, about to kill Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. Of course Superman shows up, but this time, he's got the clone Superboy known as Conner Kent (in his classic 90's outfit) along with his own son, Jon, who is also Superboy. And they're going to use heat vision, apparently, though that wouldn't be very effective against a villain who can turn into a noxious mist.

It's been a while since I read it, but I remember being pretty disappointed with this final chapter to Brian Michael Bendis' run on Action Comics. I felt like it was building up to a payoff that never really came. There was never a real showdown between any of the heroes (Superman, Lois, Perry White, etc.) and the leader of the Invisible Mafia. Nothing was really wrapped up with Leviathan, either. I guess the whole Event Leviathan series was just to establish the new clandestine group now existed, not to have an epic battle between them and the superheroes.

The final battle with Red Cloud was also not what I'd expected. I wasn't really a fan of the character in the first place (nor did I particularly care for any new character Bendis introduced), so her mere presence was more annoying than anything. I wanted to see her get a whoopin', and the heroes did handle her, but I felt like she got away with too much in the end. She really beat herself by just being angry and not thinking clearly. I wanted Superman to beat her cleanly and obviously.

I will say that I had much better impressions of Bendis' run on Superman and the finale of that series of stories. I'd recommend that one over this one easily.

It's never translated into animated adaptations, but Starfire's hair in the comics is usually depicted as trailing off like flame or energy into the distance, at least when she's flying. I'm not sure if that means her hair is actually made of flame or energy, if it can transform into flame or energy, or it was always just an artistic flourish to show her speed while in motion.

In this picture, Starfire is in the dystopian world of Dark Nights: Death Metal, which she and Cyborg dropped into the middle of after the events of Justice League Odyssey. Suddenly, she was doing her best cosplay of the X-Men's Storm circa 1983, except her hair definitely seemed to be actual fire.

I just have some questions. How does that feel on her head? What powers it? What is it burning? How many carbs does she need to eat a day to sustain it? And how did she cut it into the mohawk shape? I mean, I know she walked through a portal and was suddenly in a different version of her body (long story), so she didn't actually cut her hair. But if she had been on earth while the events of Death Metal were happening, then she would have likely changed her style herself or had it done to her by someone, or so I presume.

I just want to know what she used to cut the rest of her fire hair off. Super scissors that had been stored in the freezer? Or did she just put water on the parts of her head where she didn't want hair, putting out the fire and not lighting it up again?

Death is the end of life, so if there is death, there must be life. Likewise, evil is the absence of good or the breaking of a law or rule, so if there is such a thing as evil, then there must be such a thing as good. There must be a rule to break.

If good and evil are just matters of opinion, then no one has any right to tell anyone else what not to do. No law, no punishment. But everyone (with the possible exception of psychopaths) innately knows that there is something wrong with, say, murdering children.

So if there's a law, there must be a lawgiver, an authority. The trick is unlocking who that is.

The Bible is the key. It tells us who the Lawgiver is, what His Law is, and how we've all broken it time and time again and are deserving of punishment. But it also tells us that the Lawgiver is merciful and has paid our debt by taking the punishment on Himself so that we can be right with Him and escape eternal death.

But a gift is only worth anything if it's accepted.

No review today. I just totally forgot. Got a lot going on. So here's a picture of Batman.

jAnother cool pin-up of Batman and his supporting cast. This one includes some villains.

If you draw a straight line from the top to the bottom that goes between Grifter and Huntress, then everyone on your right is a good guy, more or less, except for Scarecrow. On your left, Grifter and Ghost-Maker (the guy in white and black) are sort of in between good and bad. Ghost-Maker wants to clean up crime in Gotham, but he's a sociopath who doesn't mind killing the bad guys. As for Grifter, I don't really know what his deal is in this universe. I guess he's a mercenary whom Batman doesn't like.

The girl in front of the Joker is Punchline, a replacement for Harley Quinn now that the latter joined the hero side. I don't remember who that guy between Joker and Red Hood is. It's been a long time since I read this book. He looks like Ghost-Maker without his mask, but I don't know why he'd appear twice in the same picture.

Anyway, I think it's cool.

Synopsis:

A grumpy Batman pursues Bob Cratchit, a reluctant runner for the Joker who just wants to provide for his ill son. But then his life kind of turns into A Christmas Carol, except with friends and an enemy replacing the ghosts.

My Thoughts:

Well, this was kind of weird, but not bad. Lee Bremjo's art is really cool and realistic. He usually seems to draw for authors I don't care to read (like Brian Azzarello), but he does his own writing on this one.

So what we have is Batman as a version of Ebenezer Scrooge, which wasn't what I was necessarily expecting going in. He's not really anti-Christmas, just skeptical about showing any leniency for someone working for the Joker.

And he doesn't get visited by any ghosts that change his mind. Instead, he has a very brief vision of Jason Todd (still dead in this story) in place of Jacob Marley without any dialogue. Then, as the story progresses, he runs into Catwoman, who reminds him of the past; Superman, who shows him some present-day things that he hadn't noticed from the ground; and finally the Joker himself, who buries him alive, leading to a vision of a depressing future where he dies alone.

Since it's based on a well-known story from the 19th Century, I don't think it's much of a spoiler to say that it all has a happy ending.

The thing I didn't like about it was all the narration. That seems to be a regular thing with books that Bremjo draws, actually. I skipped a lot and just focused on the dialogue. I just hate it when comics are too wordy. If I wanted to read a lot of descriptions, I'd get a book. The narrator's voice is also kind of annoying, like a guy at a bar telling some tall tale while drinking. There was a time that that sort of narration seemed clever to me, but that's long passed.

The story itself was moderately interesting to me. I love A Christmas Carol, but I don't feel like I need different interpretations of it. I really like it when it's presented in its original time and place.

This makes so much sense that it's actually mind-boggling to believe that Jimmy wouldn't know that Clark Kent was Superman. But in the mainstream DCU, he's been blind to it for the longest time. So it looks like the Jimmy Olsen of the DCeased universe is smarter than his mainstream counterpart…and most other counterparts, actually.

And don't get me started on Perry White or Jim Gordon…

That's what kids do.

Synopsis:

Young Vera is a Russian immigrant to the U.S. who has trouble fitting in with the local suburban kids. When her mother can't afford to send her to the same summer camp as her classmates, she and her little brother go to a Russian summer camp. Unfortunately for Vera, she isn't quite Russian enough to fit in with the Russian kids, either.

My Thoughts:

I really liked Vera Brosgol's Anya's Ghost when I read it a long time ago, so I had to check this out when I saw it at the library. It didn't disappoint. It wasn't at all supernatural like that book, but that's mainly because it's a mostly true story. But the art and writing style are similar (from my recollection). I think Be Prepared is longer and more wordy, but it still seems accessible to elementary school kids.

I think if you like stories about kids trying hard to fit in, and then when they finally seem to get what they want, the see that it's not all it's cracked up to be, then you'll probably like this story.

I liked the art. I wouldn't like it for superhero stories, horror stories, or action stories, but it's great for kids' stories, whether fantastical or realistic.

I felt bad for Vera, and I was unhappy with the "cool girls" who either mocked her, shunned her, or only liked her when she gave them things. I wished she could have had peace with Christ and found some non-judgmental friends in church or something. The Russian camp had them singing Russian Orthodox songs and doing their mass (or whatever they call it), so there was some religion in her life, but it seemed very impersonal.

I dunno, man. This is heady stuff, and I've never been good at understanding anything above basic philosophy. Even R.C. Sproul goes over my head a lot, and he was a pretty down-to-earth talker.

If I'm going to be like Rene Descartes and start with zero presuppositions about anything, I might come to the conclusion that I have to exist because, if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to doubt that I exist. But I don't get the jump to assuming there's a God or gods from there. I think you need to get into science and/or morality to show evidence for God (the Kalam Cosmological Argument, the argument from morality, etc.), but I don't know how to get there from Descartes' starting point.

Maybe you're the only thing that exists, you know? Maybe everything and everyone else is part of your imagination. Maybe you're eternal and all alone imagining that you're mortal and part of a populace. I don't know how to disprove that. But I also don't waste time thinking about it. If it's true, then nothing matters. There's no authority to determine what's good and bad, so there is no moral law and no sin.

If it's not true, however, and the world is as it appears to be, then a lot matters. The world I see and experience is real, and it's so intricately designed that it must've been created. And if it was created, then there is a deity of some sort. So I have to examine the evidences for that deity. When I do, I find that the God of the Bible is the most logical conclusion.

To the person who requested (months ago) that I read this graphic novel and give my thoughts on this scene, I hope that's satisfactory.

Obviously, the writer meant for the Joker to be referring to Donald Trump here, but this could just as easily apply to Joe Biden or Barack Obama if you're really paying attention. Don't @ me.

Synopsis:

Aged actor Bela Lugosi relives his life through flashbacks from rehab while also seemingly facing literal ghosts of his past.

My Thoughts:

Sometimes I like to read comics that aren't about superheroes. Not often, but occasionally. I think this is a good one in that category.

I've been a fan of Bela Lugosi for a while. His Dracula is legendary even though it's very dissimilar to the one in the source material. I'm also a fan of the Ed Wood film where Lugosi is portrayed by Martin Landau. I always assumed that the sad state of Lugosi's life that was presented in that film was related to him just being typecast because of his accent. Turns out there was a bit more to it than that, at least if this graphic novel is to be believed.

The story of Lugosi's life is framed here by scenes of the actor going through rehab later in his life. It starts with him entering the facility, then switches between flashbacks that cover the length of his life and career, and episodes of him interacting with nurses, friends, and hallucinations of those whom he felt wronged him (like Boris Karloff).

It starts with a young Lugosi (before he changed his name to that) pursuing acting against his father's wishes. Then it follows him getting married for the first time, then fleeing the country and joining acting troupes in Austria and eventually the U.S. He gets the motivation to learn English when a Hollywood type tells him he'd like to cast him in a stage play. He plays Dracula on stage and gets brought in to play the vampire in the Universal film that would go on to make him a household name.

He gets married a few more times and wastes a lot of money on luxuries, develops a rivalry with Boris Karloff that eventually leads to the latter refusing to play Frankenstein's monster again, and gets addicted to drugs, which is what leads him to rehab. Finally, he meets Ed Wood and appears in a few more films in his latter days, getting to do what he loved most after it seemed he would never act again.

It's a sad story, for sure, though the tragedies are almost all due to Lugosi's own stubbornness. He was a terrible husband and very foolish with his money. He also seemed to think too much of himself and his acting abilities, though there did definitely appear to be times when he was undervalued, as well. It's a difficult dichotomy to nail down in my mind.

(And who knows how his life would've turned out if he hadn't gotten in bed with the Communists in Hungary? Once the Soviet government was overthrown, Lugosi was a marked man, which is why he fled in the first place.)

He's not wrong. At least, not in regards to the Marvel Universe.

In the DC Universe, as Harley Quinn said in a panel I posted previously, it's the most trustworthy people who tend to wear the costumes (Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Nightwing, …maybe not Batman).

Well, hell is hell because sin needs to be punished. Otherwise, there is no true justice. But, yeah, it never gets better. Anyone who thinks that hell will be more fun than heaven is delusional.

BTW, Scott Free isn't literally in hell here, he's on a battlefield on Apokolips.