Issue 46: Superhero Information Initiative
By Amdnarg Toh

What the Buck???

Ok… As if my opinion on this mattered to the “head shed” at Marvel… And as if my previous musings on the whole Captain America thing hadn’t already been made abundantly clear… LEAVE THIS GUY ALONE! HE’S DEAD!

The whole Marvel Civil War thing seemed to me to be a case of blatant political bullshit, but in spite of itself, having an overarching storyline provided a lot of room for some fairly significant development of both the minor and major characters. Of course, when you basically “out” over half of the worlds’ superheroes, you introduce a human element that makes the characters a bit more believable. And the assassination of Steve Rogers, Captain America, was the capstone to this whole shebang. Kill a major character, let the world mourn, have some random heroes carry the mantel of the fallen hero for a while… Boo freakin hoo! So all that’s left to fill the cookie cutter plotline that’s been used for oh, fifty years or so, is for the fallen hero to be resurrected.

So guess what?

Bucky Barnes was the sidekick to the Cap’n for a number of years during the WWII era. He was just an orphan kid (another tired sidekick theme) who hung around the Army base where his Dad was stationed. He accidentally walked in on Steve Rogers changing into his Captain America outfit, and vowed to keep his secret if the Captain would train him. So Bucky Barnes became one of the few Marvel teen sidekicks. However, as destiny would have it, he didn’t last long. During the same ill-fated mission that left the Captain in suspended animation, frozen in an iceberg, Bucky was supposedly killed, never to be brought back… Until it was convenient.

So we have the story of the Winter Soldier, who is really Bucky Barnes. After the accident that supposedly killed him, the Soviets found a body floating in the Arctic, missing an arm. They nursed him back to life, gave him a cybernetic arm, and reprogrammed his mind, occasionally reviving him from his semi-permanent suspended animation to go on missions of ultimate importance.

Eventually he meets up with Captain America, who eventually is able to restore Bucky’s memories, but before they can fully reconcile, Steve Rogers is shot and killed. Blaming Tony Stark (Iron Man) for Steve’s death, Bucky plans to kill him, but ends up just stealing the Captain’s shield, hoping to keep Mr. Stark from appointing someone else to replace Steve. It is finally revealed that before his death, Steve had secrety written Tony Stark, asking him to take care of Bucky. Bucky decides to take on the mantle of the red, white, and blue, and Stark decided to secretly support him, even though it would be illegal for him to do so since Bucky intends to keep his secret identity.

So now we’ve got a new Captain America.

But if you’re really going to kill off a major character, then do it. Make it final. Retconn him or her in 20 years, not in 6 months. Captain America’s “resurrection” is only slightly justified by the fact that it’s really Bucky under that shield and mask. But I guess it was destined to happen – many have worn the shield from the Punisher to Power Man, to the cadre of miscellaneous guys in the 50’s and 60’s. They could at least give him some long-forgotten vial of the Super Soldier serum to give him something other than a shield, gun, and a cybernetic arm. I’ll bet it doesn’t even shoot lasers!!! Sheesh!

Issue 44: Superhero Information Initiative
By Amdnarg Toh

Kingdom Come

I’m usually not a huge fan of mixing apocalyptic biblical metaphors with current events, or even fiction. I get enough of that watching overdressed, overweight, sweaty TV preachers with prophecy charts trying to convince me that Saddam Hussein is the antichrist, that there are 88 reasons why Jesus is going to come in 1988, and why the european union will somehow become the devil’s political pawn. But after recently reading the Kingdom Come story, I’m going to bend this particular rule just a bit.

We’re told the story through the eyes of a preacher, who comes to the aid of the Specter, and is assigned the task of viewing the events and passing judgement on the evil doers. The story is set some decades in the future, where the current generation of heroes have aged a bit, and the world is a considerably different place. Superman is in self-imposed exile. Green Lantern has established an outpost in space, and guards against an alien invasion that may never come. The Flash can no longer even move at normal speeds, and is in constant motion. Etc, etc. Most, if not all of the superheroes we know and love have “stepped back” from active duty for one reason or another.

But the beat goes on, or so the story goes. The vacancy left by these heroes is filled by a younger, more brazen group of super-powered beings, some of whom are hard to discern whether they are hero or villain. One super-dude in particular, Magog, becomes the catalyst for much of the conflict. We’re also told that Magog was the reason that Superman went into retirement, when, after killing several people that worked at the Daily Planet, including Lois Lane, the Joker was brought to trial. As he was being escorted into custody, the Joker was killed by Magog. Superman brought Magog in to be tried for murder, and found out that the public sided with Magog. Hopelessly depressed by the public’s loss of confidence in him, and by the death of Lois, Superman went into retreat at his fortress of solitude.

The point of crisis in this story comes as a group of semi-heroes, called the Justice Batallion, led by Magog, attempt to capture a villain known as the Parasite, and in the ensuing battle, Captain Atom is killed, his nuclear energy released on the surrounding Kansas countryside. The fallout kills many and leaves a significant portion of the Midwestern United States irradiated and unlivable. This event drives Superman to come out of retirement and confront the new heroes – his “second coming” of sorts.

Of course, these new heroes think that Superman is hopelessly outdated and clueless about the nature of reality. And a new conflict is birthed out of the ethical and moral cleansing that Superman begins to institute. Essentially anyone who refuses to submit to the “higher” morality that he presents is captured and imprisoned.

And in a nefarious sub plot, Lex Luthor has plans of his own to eliminate the heroes altogether, and give humanity “freedom” from the oppressive presence and rule of the meta-humans. The climactic battle – Armegeddon – comes as the villains escape the prison built for them, and are confronted by Superman. The United Nations are convinced to launch nuclear weapons sufficient to kill all of the metahumans, and as they are being launched, Lex Luthor initiates his plan, and releases Captain Marvel, who has been brainwashed by Luthor, and is sent to keep Superman from diverting the nuclear warheads from the battlefield. Captain Marvel almost defeats Superman, and at the final moments of their battle, is forced back into his human form, Billy Batson. With insufficient time to divert the warhead from the battlefield, Superman forces Billy to make the decision to either save the metahumans by allowing Superman to sacrifice himself, which would allow the metahumans to rampage without control, or to allow the metahumans to die in the explosion. Batson decides to become Captain Marvel and save both the metahumans and Superman by sacrificing himself. However, Captain Marvel was not fast enough, and was only able to contain part of the blast, and few of the metahumans survive.

In the aftermath, Superman flies to the UN building to confront the humans that launched the nuclear weapons. Not realizing that some of his friends survived the blast, he flies into a rampage, until the Specter shows him that he had become what the humans feared in the younger metahumans- a vigilante above the law. Dismayed at his own behavior, Superman vows to cease being a “god”, and will more fully participate in human affairs. He takes it upon himself to renovate the Kansas landscape, hitching himself up to a giant plow (swords to plowshares reference anyone?)

So… We’ve got an apocalyptic event of HUGE proportions, almost as big as The Day After, the 80’s TV movie. You’ve got Superman in a ponytail. Wonder Woman on some kick-ass battle armor. And sub plots involving most of my favorites DC heroes – all the makings of a shut-me-up comic burrito/enchilada combo. Me like!!!

And I can’t help but comment on the ending – a little too much “peace on earth goodwill to men” to suit me. Essentially the message we’re left with is that after the end battle, good will prevail and the earth won’t need heroes to curb evil anymore, and they will focus on bettering mankind through humanitarian deeds. Although I agree with this vision on a personal level, I say “Keep that crap out of my comics!!!” I mean- Lex Luthor as a nurse in Batman’s hospital? Come on… All it cost was the genocide of the majority of the metahumans, (read bad guys), on the planet. I’ll leave the political commentary for some other time.

Issue 44: Superhero Information Initiative
By The Rambler

A New Kind of Exploit: Genreism

As of late I have been caught up in many a debate, often resulting in blood and bruises, as well as some knife fighting, over the use of literary style in Comics. It seems that comics come in two flavors: Monthly Soap Operas, or a conglomerate of themes and ideas woven continually through development.

Some Genre Concepts to start us off:
The Archetypal Characters:

• Hero (whether anti, or noble) is the one who ends up being the holder of virtues
• Sub-heroes – aid in cultivating mentor/pupil virtues
• Villain – That which holds the anti-virtues of the hero
• Empathetic villain – that which is a good person who goes bad
• Engrained villain – that which is always opposed to the virtues of the hero

So now that we have the basic dichotomy spelled out, there are other plot devices used in order to hold the reader.

Icon – that which the reader identifies as the symbol of virtues/anti-virtues
These would include the X for X-men, the Shield of Superman, the Bolt of Flash, the WW of Wonder Woman, as well as mantras – Green Lantern, Spider Man, and so on.

Character – That which is under the mask, the person who develops the virtues into the icon.

Okay. Hopefully you like my definitions, if not, argue below.

As I see it there are two ways of writing a good comic story:

The Constant Character: (Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Iron Man, Wonder Woman, etc.) In these stories, there is one character who does not age, nor do the other plot characters around him. This character goes through an initial development into a hero, bringing out the virtues in which they believe. They then take up an icon and develop it into the symbol of virtues. In development, there is also a character who travels in the opposite direction, into the villain, doing much the same thing as the hero. Over time, other villains, tests, characters, and plot devices come along in order to challenge the hero’s virtues, to test the strength of the character’s will, and ultimately to test their loyalty. However, the development of the character has to keep up with the pace of changing times. Thus the change in the new Superman Returns film – Truth, Justice, and All That Stuff (not the American Way.) Thus, as anthropology shows a more conflicted and psychologically- understanding reader base, then the character’s psyche must be developed and tested.

And, just for fun, new powers are added and taken as needed just to be cool.

The Legacy: (Green Lantern, Flash, etc.) These stories are not as common as the Constant Character stories. But in these, the same character development happens, except that new people are introduced to take over the Iconic hero. The most familiar for me is the Flash. It first started when Flash comics were cancelled in the ’50’s, but picked up by the comic company soon to be known as DC in the ’60’s. This transition moved Jay Garrick, (the first developed hero), out of the hero role and into the influential role, (through meta-stories in comics.) Thus, Jay influenced Barry into the Flash role when Barry was struck, and Barry mentored Wally until Barry died in 1987, (a noble and teaching death that added to the legacy the idea of “sacrifice.”) Wally has then been the Flash, but tried to develop Bart, and now has two children to develop into the Icon.

Thus, the legacy is not a revamping of the character, but of the Icon itself, allowing multiple voices to speak into what the icon should look like. It involves the mortality of the hero, the ability for one character to develop, and another to take it a new direction. It gives lenses to understand the icon.

While I find that both of these styles are necessary, I’m much more a fan of the legacy. But much more, I’m just for a good Story – I want them to be literarily diverse and interesting, using a plethora of different devices.

Whew…

I need to find a younger Rambler to develop… or maybe I’ll just be ageless

January 8, 2008
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Issue 43: Superhero Information Initiative
By Amdnarg Toh

Comics in the Digital World

Marvel is doing a – pardon the pun – marvelous thing… They are going to start publishing their older comics online. See the CNN article.

This can’t be anything but good for everyone-the proverbial win-win. But really – it’s about time. The world wide intra webs have been around now for at least forty years or so since Big Al invented them in college. And a lot of folks had access to their favorite comics online anyway, just not in the most “legal” way, if you know what I mean.

It’s the age old problem – how to get readers to buy new stuff so the companies can pay the writers and artists to produce quality stories and product. If you don’t have readers to pay for product, your quality suffers, and then you lose readers, which causes quality to suffer even more as the dollars dwindle furiously.

Part of the problem with getting new kiddos (and I mean kiddos in the most liberal way) interested in comics is that most, if not all, of the more mainline comic book heroes have SIGNIFICANT back stories, many of which reach back to issues decades old. How accessible are twenty, thirty, or forty-year old comics to the newbie who simply wants to read such stories? Impossibly inaccessible I tell you. Even if you could find the one person who has all of the issues you want to read, it’s likely that they are one of those picky types who don’t really read their comics, but place them in hermetically-sealed containers for safekeeping. Perhaps that jazzes some folks, but it’s only depressing for the kid who can’t afford the $50-$100 eBay price for that back issue. Nevermind that the multi-dollar price for single NEW issues is probably out of the range of a lot of youngsters.

So… Now we have Marvel and DC finally coming around to the digital age. With their archives available digitally on the internet, my prediction is that they’ll see a huge influx of new readers. Not only those who are interested in the back stories of more popular characters/groups, but they will find interest in the less mainline groups and characters. One of the effects of the decline in comic book readership in the late 80’s and 90’s was that many of the less popular titles were dropped entirely because it was too costly to produce titles that didn’t sell in volume. Remember PowerMan and Iron Fist? Captain Carrot? If DC and Marvel follow the best of what the music industry has done, they will make considerably more titles available at a much reduced cost. Eventually, I can envision that paper copies will be only for dyed-in-the-wool collectors, and that all new publishing will be done digitally over the internet. Cheap comics for the masses = more sales = more money to introduce new titles and pay artists and writers better for their product.

Hopefully they won’t go the way of the music industry and try to hold onto a profit model that is based on control of the distribution medium. Once you go digital baby, you have to embrace all if stands for – liberation from tightly controlled distribution channels, more power given to the artists, etc…truth, justice, and the American way…

Issue 42: Superhero Information Initiative
By The Rambler

Booster Gold

DC Comics: Holding those Characters that defined the Modern Day American Hero, with the rules of holding up Truth, Justice and the American way. They have rules like “Never take a life,” and “Save everyone at all costs,” which throw the heroes into a moral struggle with justice and vengance. They are noble, and almost unreachable.

Almost…

No hero can just do it for the sake of doing right. Right? Well that’s what Booster Gold said. So for all you shining Capitalists out there who find that one should really just be out to make the money: here is the hero for you, The true defender of the American Way.

Michael Jon Carter was a football star in the 25th Century, but that wasn’t enough. He needed more money, so he bet on one of his own games in order to really get a cut. But, getting Caught, he was fired from football and became a security guard at a museum that had the old Hero Artifacts. Hijacking a security robot (Skeets), a ton of Historical data, A forcefield belt, flying ring, and wrist blasters, he illegally jumped back into the 1980’s. Oh yes, the era of the individual and money. So, using historical records, Booster would become the greatest hero and sell his name for endorsements.

He became a C-D list hero in the 90’s, only being revived in Infinite Crisis to stop Max Lord, and witnessing his best friend’s death (Ted Kord, Blue Beetle). However, reinstated in 52, Skeets’ historical files were beginning to become inaccurate. Booster was exposed as a fraud and then died in trying to truly be a hero. However, in a move by Rip Hunter, Booster survived and saved the multiverse from mister mind.

In the attempt to truly become a hero, to make a name for himself, to really be a part of the JLA, Booster was again abducted by Rip Hunter in order to stop the historical deaths of the JLA. Thus he became the Greatest Superhero Never Known.

So if you enjoyed Back to the Future, and most comic heroes, then Booster Gold is the right one for you. Driving the Time scientist Crazy, out to right history, and drunk driving a time sphere into Silver Age Flash and Kid Flash’s cosmic treadmill, are all apart of this great story.

Truly a Hero of the American way, the Capitalist who in the end is never known. Who learns what really doing the heroic thing is, but always being seen as a dunce of a hero.