The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1332: Superman (2018) #4, December 2018

I actually don't have much to say about today's comic. There's a nice little interaction between Clark and Jax-Ur, but aside from that it's pretty much all battle and action. The solution to the Earth's presence in the Phantom Zone is very cool, and the ramifications of what it leaves behind will undoubtedly unfold next issue..

...but we won't be here to see it. Tomorrow's issue of Supergirl officially gets me up to date with the Super-titles, so I'll be moving on to something else.

I will say this of the new Superman series - I'm not a huge fan. I'm willing to see what he does with the next story arc, but Action is by far the superior of the two.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1331: Action Comics #1003, November 2018

I feel like, as Man of Steel ended, Action Comics and the new Superman series acted like two choices in a Choose Your Own Adventure book. One follows Clark into Metropolis, one follows Superman into space. And, of course, that's exactly how they're supposed to function. But I will admit to finding reading the two at the same time to be a bit off-putting. I guess it's the continuity cop in me that just wants to know how these two stories can be happening consecutively. A small hint, just a gesture, to how these two stories fit together, would be lovely. Hopefully we'll get one soon.

Is anyone surprised that Mr. Bendis can write Batman? The scenes with Batman in this issue steal the story - he's grumpy and funny all at the same time. In fact, Bendis's Batman seems to be a bit more relaxed, even joking with people he's usually too eager to scare. He reminds me a bit of Dick Grayson's Batman, who I loved dearly.

Spoiler alert, but next issue we might actually get some answers about where Lois and Jon have been, and why Ms. Lane has been hiding in Metropolis.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1329: Superman (2018) #3, November 2018

I like a good, extended storyline every bit as much as the next person.

But Earth has been in the Phantom Zone for 2 issues and one page, and it's starting to feel less urgent. More and more in this issue we hear about the ramifications of the Earth being in the Phantom Zone, but we're not seeing much of it. I guess that's one thing that you have to be careful with in these sorts of situations. Yes, the Earth in the Phantom Zone is a great idea, but you're not really going to do anything with any lasting ramifications for the planet because that fundamentally alters the landscape of the shared universe.

Now, it can be done. In the 80s, Marvel's New Universe needed a makeover, so the powers that be decided to destroy Pittsburgh, and have the various series react to this event. It worked rather well, though it did turn the New Universe from the world outside our doors to another superhero universe. In the end, shades of Top Ten, New York is populated almost solely by superpowered individuals.

So DC could do it, could allow some massive change to the planet. What if an entire state was lain waste - it might not change things fundamentally, but it would offer a lasting ramification of a story like this one. And that opens up all stories to be high stakes of some sort. Mr. Bendis is a smart writer, so I imagine that there will be some ramifications to this story. I hope there will be. Because if the Earth comes out unscathed, then what was the point of any of this?

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1328: Action Comics #1002, October 2018

Once more, it's the little moments that truly make this story. A Superman story is a Superman story - in this I mean that something outrageously ridiculous has to be happening, even if it's simply the idea of Superman himself. If you are telling a story about Superman, it involves the kind of narrative that grows around a character like Superman. And that's a good thing, even when poorly done. Remembering the scope of Superman's story is a very important aspect of the myth. What makes these particular stories stand out is the moments that aren't Superman stories, in a lot of ways. Well, in today's issue, that's the case. As Clark goes undercover to find out about a dead drug dealer, the little moment of humanity and grief he shares with the patrons of a dive bar, in the midst of a tale of superhumanity, is an all-important linking feature. Myths like this one rely on us being able to see not only our better selves in the main character, but to see the parts of ourselves that are already "super" to begin with - our empathy and sympathy, our ability and desire to help. If we share this quality with Superman (or any other mythic carpent...I mean, figure), then we can embody something of what he is and represents.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1326: Superman (2018) #2, October 2018

The Earth, it seems, is a magnet for cosmic troubles. Although Superman is aghast at the idea that the Earth is in the Phantom Zone, this is a planet that, off the top of my head I can think of at least two times (JLA: Heaven's Ladder, Superman: The Earth Stealers) it's been stolen and Superman has had to figure things out.

Of course, this is one of the first times we see the effect on the actual planet of it's having been removed from the Sun's orbit. We forget just how much of our life is dependent on the various ways we move, as a planet, through space. The humans in the Justice League start to falter, feeling the effects of a Sun-less existence.

And then, of course, Rogol Zaar comes back. Seriously, Superman cannot catch a break sometimes.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1325: Action Comics #1001, September 2018

For me, this comic is all about the first scene, in which two armed gunmen are stopped by Superman. One of them simply accepts the fact that they've been busted, and that considering who has done the busting, there's no point in running. The other one loses his shit completely, and can't put a coherent sentence or thought together while Superman is taking him down.

It's a lovely scene, and is a great vehicle to see just how Superman deals with the low-level criminals he encounters.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1324: Superman (2018) #1, September 2018

There's a couple of really nice moments in this issue, but it also very much reads like a Bendis story, in that it's only the first chapter and not a whole heck of a lot happens.

Those nice moments are nice, though.

The new Fortress, after Rogol Zaar's destruction of the Arctic-based one, is located in the Bermuda Triangle, a cool spot, and I'm hoping this means that Mr. Bendis will take advantage of the Triangle's strange reputation to give us a cool, weird adventure every now and again. I'm thinking of a dash of House of Leaves in Superman's house might be a very cool thing.

There's also a nice moment between Clark and J'onn, acknowledging this new information that Clark's refugee status, like J'onn's, is a product of war, rather than human error as was previously assumed. And why has no one brought up the fact that Rogol Zaar knew Jor-El? Was it just the readers who heard that? J'onn also proposes an idea to Superman: that he take a much more focussed leadership role for the planet, act as a guide and advisor as humanity makes its way out into the stars. Clark, of course, balks at the idea, but he's got to give it some weight, coming as it does from J'onn.

A nice start to the regular series. We'll pop back over to Action tomorrow and follow the Earth-bound story, leaving this Superman, who, I still think, is a bit in the future from tomorrow's, floating with the Earth in a place that neither of them want to be.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1323: Man of Steel (2018) #6, September 2018

And so the new paradigm is established. SPOILERS ahead - you've been warned.


Jon and Lois lost somewhere in space with Jor-El. (Who, BTW, is alive somehow? Damn, you go away from a universe for a few years, and suddenly Superman is a family drama? I got some catching up to do!). Kara is off into space to find answers about Rogol Zaar, who she's just handily banished to the Phantom Zone. She's done with him, but Clark wants to know more.

Oh, and a young man tells new fire chief Melody Moore that Superman is the one starting the fires all over Metropolis.

Mr. Bendis is going to tell us all of these stories, I'm sure, through the pages of Superman and Action Comics. Wisely, he's going to give us the big, cosmic, over-the-top-ridiculous superhero action in Superman, and the more grounded, Clark as reporter/superhero angle in Action. I'm delighted to find out that he's on both for the foreseeable future. I may even start picking up Kara's outer space adventures. We'll see.

It's definitely a different DC universe than the one I last read. Though I've been keeping up on the Young Animal titles, they exist, as they must, in a world all their own, only ever letting the less-unhinged heroes in occasionally. The last time I read proper DCU was probably the end of Jeff Lemire's excellent Animal Man.

We'll bounce back and forth between the titles for now, acknowledging of course that they must somehow not be taking place at the same time. I'm getting the suspicion that Action's events precede Superman's, but I'm not 100% certain yet. Let's just enjoy the stories for now.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1322: Man of Steel (2018) #5, August 2018

If you're a fan, or have even a remote knowledge of Superman's history, his tattered cape and the claw in the bottom right corner should give away exactly what this cover is commemorating:

The content of today's issue is a huge dust-up in Metropolis, much like the legendary Doomsday battle. Unlike that battle, Clark manages to get Rogol Zaar out of the city, hopefully avoiding the kind of disaster porn that engulfs Metropolis at the end of the film Man of Steel.

The end of today's issue offers a nice parallel to the end of All-Star Superman. Where Kal ends up as an engine of life for the Sun at the end of ASS, Rogol Zaar, an engine of death, is discovered at the center of the Earth, a similarly fiery locale, but with a decidedly different purpose. I guess we'll find out tomorrow if the Earth survives. And as a fan of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I know that the survival of the planet is not always a guarantee, and is sometimes a necessary narrative device.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1321: Man of Steel (2018) #4, August 2018

Though the removal of, and search for, his missing family appears to be part of Mr. Bendis's ongoing storyline, Jon and Lois still play a major role in the series, if only by their absence. The two have maybe 2-3 pages in each issue, and these are showing a single moment that we're slowly coming to understand is the moment that establishes the new paradigm.

But I want to spend the brief time I'm going to spend today on the cover. As I noted a few days ago, each cover is giving us a significant moment from Supeman's life. I think here it's that moment of revelation, the moment that the love between these two characters is finally able to achieve what it had been moving toward for about 50 years when this revelation happened. However, it's actually Lois's outfit I want to think about. To me, this is 100% reminiscent of the outfit she most often is seen in in the Superman Adventures television series. Not only are we getting narrative history, but publication/dissemination history as well.

I can only hope that this new start lasts for a while. I was actually a big fan of the much-maligned "Grounded" storyline from Straczynski and Cassaday, so I'm never hopeful when a Superman story resonates with me. Though perhaps today I'll err on the side of optimism.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1320: Man of Steel (2018) #3, August 2018

As I noted yesterday, each cove is showing a different important moment from Superman's tale. There's a couple of really interesting things happening on the cover. For a long while, and definitely since the first Christopher Reeve, there's been questions about what Kal's pod looked like. This one is an interesting mix of the motion picture version and the original Action Comics version, and that's actually a nice way of thinking about the way that stories, especially mythic ones, evolve. Aspects are folded into the "canonical" understanding.

Of course, there's also that sneering face above Krypton, which incorporates the new paradigm that the series is establishing into the canonical tale. Rogol Zaar's role in Krypton's destruction adds a new layer to the origin story, and uses that new addition to propel the story, continuously, forward.

This issue also uses the narrative to reset things - Kandor, the last remnant of Kryptonian culture, is found destroyed. I've always thought that there really were too many Kryptonians in the DCU. I get that some may have escaped, but the whole point of Superman was always that he was alone - the addition of Supegirl assuages that slightly, but not enough to reduce it's impact. But when we've got whole dimensions full of criminals, and at least 2 cities that escaped (Kandor and Argo), and ol' Supes starts feeling much less special. And with Supergirl, in the current continuity, leaving Earth to find answers about Rogol Zaar, Clark's uniqueness is re-established in the new paradigm.

One last thing. At one point, Superman brings Batman to Metropolis to investigate a series of fires. At one point, Superman races away, and Batman explains that if the most polite person in the universe has to leave without saying goodbye, there's probably a good reason. It's a nice moment of understanding about the relationship that the two heroes have.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1319: Man of Steel (2018) #2, July 2018

I'll fill you in on this one tomorrow. I'm having some thoughts about the difference between this Man of Steel series and the John Byrne one from the 80s. What exactly is being reset in both of them?

(Apologies. Thanksgiving is busy.)

When John Byrne wrote and drew the first Man of Steel series, he was re-introducing Superman into the DCU. That's not quite what Bendis is doing, though the series is doing so tangentially. Each cover depicts a significant moment in Clark's life, so in an iconic, somewhat reminiscent of the first page of All-Star Superman, manner, we're getting a recap of his life.

But the series itself isn't introducing a character. It's introducing a paradigm. Here's the status quo for Superman for the foreseeable future. And it's a pretty significant shift. The family life of the Kent-Lanes is ejected (not rejected), offering us a Superman who is missing the most human part of himself. How will this begin to play out in the series, and the subsequent ones?

We're getting a nice look at Supergirl, who is far more Krytonian than Clark, and I'm curious to see if we'll see a bit more of Kal, rather than Clark, as things progress.

Okay, now to update the next few days. More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1318: Man of Steel (2018) #1, July 2018

As far as I can tell, this first issue of the new Man of Steel is asking some questions of its audience. It wants us to consider whether we are more Rogol Zaar, the Circle, or, potentially, the Kryptonians. There are two "groups" represented in the story that we are definitely not: the ordinary humans, and Superman. One is pretty much a background feature of the story, and it's really the mythic figures we're more interested in identifying ourselves with in superhero narratives. And we're definitely not Superman, because he's what we want to be, but perhaps can't.

I did get some of the expected great dialogue in today's issue. Mr. Bendis really is very good at that. And the story's nicely structured to offer just enough to intrigue, but not enough that we aren't still guessing the whole way through. Where are Jon and Lois? What did Rogol Zaar have to do with Krypton's destruction? And what does that have to do with Kal's father?

All good questions, and I will admit that it was hard to only read the one issue today, when I've got the whole series sitting up on the coffee table.

But I think, as I read through this time, I'm going to keep that first question in mind - who are we in this story? There's good rationales for all three.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1317: Action Comics #1000, June 2018

I've fallen a bit behind on my current comics, so I though that in order to catch up on the new Brian Bendis Superman stories, I'd read them for the project. We'll start here, with Action Comics #1000, and see where he takes us.

What more can I say about Superman, though? There is actually something I have to try to work out. It's my understanding that Frank Miller is going to be writing a Superman series in the near future. I can't wrap my head around the idea of a right-wing nut job like Miller breathing life into Superman. Miller's politics seem antithetical to everything I believe about the Man of Steel. But that's the thing, isn't it? Superman's not real - he's a fictional character that can come to be representative of anything. This means he can come to be representative of things that I might not agree with. Not that I think you can push the character too far, unless you want a repeat of the original run of Supreme. There is always something of the socialist in Superman, right from the beginning. But if Superman is indeed for everyone, then he has to be for right- and left-leaning readers. Perhaps Miller's take will satisfy that other demographic.

As far as Mr. Bendis' work on the Big Blue, it's hard to say, thus far. He provides us with a nice little in media res prologue, and drops the bomb that Krypton's destruction may not have been what it seemed. Intriguing, but it's the handling of the characters that I'm more excited to see from Mr. Bendis. His gift for dialogue is virtually unparalleled in contemporary comics.

So, more Superman to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 319: Age of Ultron #10, August 2013

Bendis does something quite lovely here in returning the tale right back to where it began in Avengers 16.1. After the insanity of the previous 10+ issues, it's nice to see Ultron get what's coming to him. What's interesting, though, is that we experience this cathartic moment, this, and I won't be shy about it, vengeful moment, for something that Ultron has not yet, nor ever will do.

It's a very interesting facet of fiction, and particularly of time travel fiction, that our linear perspective of the narrative is not the same perspective of the characters that we've read the linear narrative about. Ultron perpetuates one of the most brutal genocides the Marvel U has ever seen, and we, you and I, witness it first hand, follow the adventurers through their attempts to fix this, only to wind up back at the start, before all these events, which is also the end.

Now, that said, the original iteration of 16.1 does not feature the defeat of Ultron, so we're left with the notion that there was an "original" timeline that was rewritten - in many ways this mirrors the set-up of DCs crisis-rewritten universes. There's always some holdover, someone or thing that remember the previous continuity, serving the function of keeping all those old stories in continuity, but also of acknowledging the long-time reader's emotional investment in those stories.

All this is to say that Ultron gets his ass handed to him, which he deserves, and everyone gets to live. I'm curious as to whether or not anyone's ever dealt with Wolverine and the Invisible Woman having lived through and remembered all of the events of AoU. You'd think that those two, at least, would be suffering some serious PTSD. But, as with many shattering events in superhero universes, they likely let it slide from their shoulders and their minds, and get on with their lives. Their abilities to cope with trauma are also super, it appears.

I know I said this was the end of the AoU, but there's actually an epilogue comic, written by none other than Mark Waid, and I happened to find it today while I was out comic hunting. So we'll actually finish up Age of Ultron tomorrow, and then get on to some quarter bin treasures. See you then.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 318: Age of Ultron #9, August 2013

There are two moments that really stand out for me in this comic. The first is the opening splash page depicting the result of two Starkguard helicarriers crashing into New York City:

That there is some rampant destruction.

The second is Wolverines'(s) decision to kill himself.

That third panel there, where a Logan who's experienced two different ends of his world stares at the sun (rising or setting), and, without movement or voice, makes peace with the fact of his death. I'm fairly outspoken about my opinion that Wolverine is one of the most over-used characters in the Marvel U, but this is a moment where he is utilized brilliantly, and the character shines through the grimness of the story. Wolverine very rarely considers himself heroic. I think that he is here.

I don't want to say anything more today. These two sequences are amazing, and there's that whole pictures:words ratio thing. We'll finish up the Age of Ultron tomorrow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 315: Age of Ultron #8, July 2013

Before I get to today's comic, I just wanted to mention another one I read while having breakfast. I picked up a box of comics at a flea market this weekend (which I'll write up a post about shortly), and it had a relatively large run of Marvel Two-In-One in it. Issue #86 was utterly great. The team-up is the ubiquitous Thing and Cain Marko, aka The Sandman. The two are usually at each others throats, but this time they sit at a bar and have a beer while Marko tells the Thing his life story. I can't help but wonder if this is the comic where the Sandman turns things around and becomes a good guy, though I feel like I've seen him taking on Spider-Man much later than the 1982 cover date on the comic.

Anyway, that's a much more pleasant situation than Wolverine and the Invisible Woman find themselves in in AoU. Much of this issue is devoted to the interrogation of these two, to see if they're clones sent to infiltrate Tony Stark's security force on behalf of Morgana Le Fey. You had to know that things wouldn't be even remotely okay once Hank Pym was killed. An interesting moment occurs when Stark has accessed their memories of the previous timeline, and he notes that it will take him his entire life to sort it all out. His primary concern is not the apocalypse of Ultron that he sees, but the fact that Wolverine and Sue have gone back and "broken" the timeline.

Emma Frost points out to him that they're all alive, instead of being dead, which one really ought to see as a bonus, but that futurist in Tony Stark is more than likely looking ahead to try and figure out exactly what ramifications this reset of the timeline will have.

What's interesting is that it's not the first time Le Fey has been involved in this kind of reset. The opening of the Busiek/Perez Avengers run puts her in command of the world, or much of it, as well. In fact, off the top of my head, aside from Ultron and Apocalypse (well, and Doom in Secret Wars, I guess), I can't think of too many other super villains whose plans for world domination have actually succeeded, if only for a little while. One wonders why she isn't considered in the ranks of those same villains more often, though perhaps its the relative importance we, as a culture, place on the scientific rather than the irrational. The other three use technology, though vastly advanced, to cement their place at the top. Le Fey uses magic, and we just don't cleave to that kind of thinking much anymore.

Alright. The next couple of days will look into the world of the Stark/Le Fey war. I'm curious to get a broader (even a slightly broader) look at this timeline. See you tomorrow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 313: Age of Ultron #7, July 2013

Okay, sorry, but it's going to be a short one today,  regardless of the fact that there's some interestingly complex time travel stuff going on here. I'll deal with it a bit more tomorrow perhaps.

Wolverine and the Invisible Woman return to the present, only to find it substantially changed. Inevitably, they get into a fight with their former teammates who don't know who they are.

Shenanigans ensue?

More tomorrow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 312: Age of Ultron #6, June 2013

One team in the future, trying to defeat Ultron. One team in the past, trying to kill Hank Pym.

What I'm finding quite interesting is that the plans of the two greatest tactical minds in the Marvel U (being Captain America and Nick Fury) are complete failures that end up getting some beloved heroes killed.

And if you've ever had an inkling to see Captain America beheaded, this is your comic.

I think that the fact that it's Wolverine's plan that ultimately has the most success (though we'll have to see how that all goes in the next issue) really says something about our superheroes. It's the same conundrum I was faced with when I watched Man of Steel. There's something in the zeitgeist these days that wants to bring our heroes, our gods, down to our own level, which somehow always comes around to killing. It's sad to me to see our heroes reduced to our level - having fictions in which the characters were opposed to killing was really one of the things that brought me into comics in the first place, to have something that somehow escapes the savagery of our bloodlust.

I don't think this murderousness of our superheroes is a long-term problem. We just live in a time when it seems the only way out of lots of our real world problems is the taking of lives. I look forward to a time when our superheroes return to showing us why that's not the final solution.

More tomorrow. It'll probably be pretty dark.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 311: Age of Ultron #5, June 2013

Happy New Year!

So, the conundrum is do we accept that time unfolds as it should, and move forward, or, given the requisite technology, do we decide that time can, and should, be re-written?

One of the things that comics, and Marvel comics particularly, do quite well is to dwell on the question of how much responsibility should come with great power. And by power, one might well mean Hulk-like strength, or simply a genius intellect. Does one have a responsibility to use these gifts in the service of humanity? Does one have a responsibility to make decisions based on factors that these gifts make apparent? That second one is where I've found Marvel comics of late have dwelt. Hickman's entire run on New Avengers was this question wrapped up in spandex. This issue of Age of Ultron also asks this question, couched in the question I opened the post with - while Nick Fury takes the heroes into the future to confront Ultron, Wolverine asks the question of whether or not it might make more sense to just re-write time, given that they have the tools to do so.

The trouble with asking this question is that it leads to the larger moral questions that might crop up in such a situation in the real world: if we can do this, shouldn't we go and kill Hitler and save millions of lives? Of course, then come the ramifications - what would the world look like without the Second World War having happened? Are we willing to give up what we have now, risk our very existences, to stop a madman from attempting genocide just shy of a century ago?

It's an impossible question. Which is why we have superhero comics, to ask these very things.