The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1119: Supreme #14, June 1994

Union guest stars today, and does something that I've rarely seen a superhero do: he pretends to be beaten so that Supreme will fly away and leave him alone. And then he basically goes home and doesn't worry about where the mad demi-god with Thor's hammer is off to next.

Someone else's problem, I guess.

That aside, a pretty generic superhero vs. superhero(?) fight. There is an interesting subplot brewing with one of Grizlock's former henchmen, but my hopes that it plays out interestingly are not high. The series shifts directions so suddenly (remember back when Supreme was leader of Heavy Mettle?) that I'm never sure the things I like are going to get continued.

I should also note that between issues 12 and 13, issue number 25 was released. This happened across the Extreme titles, and possibly the Image titles more generally. Each writer jumped a year forward in their story and gave us a glimpse. I'm curious as to whether it was a matter of the writers knowing that far in advance what would be in that issue, or if they had an idea and then filled in the blanks to get there. Either one would be a very interesting way to build a narrative. Priest and Bright did something similar with Quantum & Woody, though sadly they never got the chance to tell the story that would have led to the future issue. I'll rail about the injustice of this series getting cancelled when I read it, though.

The cover of tomorrow's comic promises an interesting guest. I'm actually kind of looking forward to this one.

More to come...

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 774: Menace #1, November 1998

I wish, given that this is the kick off comic to my fortnight celebrating Black creators in comics, that I could say that this is an amazing piece of work, life-changing, paradigm-shifting.

I really, really wish I could.

But it's not. This comic is just bad.

As you see up above, the comic's written by Jada Pinkett Smith - I figured a bit of celebrity power might start things off auspiciously. What we basically get, though, is a retread of The Crow, with the main character a street thug who is gunned down and then given a chance to repent her wicked ways as Menace, the Dark Angel. Fraga's art is pretty run of the mill Awesome/Extreme/Maximum stuff, and though Smith's script has potential, it was edited by Rob Liefeld, whose sense of storytelling leaves something to be desired. Alas, this one issue represents Menace's sole appearance, and the only comic Smith has written to date.

What does make this comic stand out, though, is that it's one of very, very few I've been able to find in my collection written by a Woman of Colour. This is not to say it's the only one. There are numerous comics written by women in the collection, and I'm not privy to the appearances of most. Comics are a bit like 1970s rock music - no one knows what the creators of it look like. But for the next two weeks, Ms. Smith is the only female representation.

Hopefully tomorrow's comic will be a bit better. To be continued!