I was just filing Jonathan Lethem's re-imagining of Omega the Unknown. I just picked up a hardcover collection of it at my local Chapters for 8 bucks. It pays homage to Steve Gerber's bizarre little 70s project, one of the great mysteries of superhero comics. Gerber fell out with Marvel well before the original series ended, and he, to his dying day, never (at least to my knowledge) revealed how the story was supposed to end. I think Marvel had someone finish it up in Defenders some time later, but Gerber (and co-writer Mary Skrenes) never revealed what was meant to happen.
At this point, I think whatever we've imagined is going to be better that what was. But then again, it was Gerber, and he's never disappointing.
Showing posts with label Omega. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Omega. Show all posts
Oct 1, 2009
A very brief, but very urgent recommendation...
If anything good has come out of the extended mess that is the Marvel Comics crossovers of the last 5 to 6 years, that entangled mesh of Avengers Disassembled, House of M, Civil War, Secret Invasion, World War Hulk, Dark Reign and countless other lesser stories in countless other titles, if we can pull from this morass (which, to be fair, has included some decent stories, but far, far too many tie-ins and crossovers) a lump of coal that has turned into a diamond under the enormous pressure of the mountain of stories, it is "Secret Warriors." You know all those things that you always loved about James Bond that were in the older movies, and to a certain extent the newer movies, but were never all in the same movie at the same time? Do you know what I'm talking about? 'Cause "Secret Warriors," the latest venue for that Bond of Bonds, Nick Fury, has all of it, and super powers. And it sparkles with every issue.
Johnathan Hickman, who writes (along with the ubiquitous Bendis for the first 6 issues) has made it onto that list of writers I will keep my hungry-for-more eyes on.
To sum, "Secret Warriors" has my seal of desperate approval. Here's what you need to know:
During the "Secret Invasion," Fury assembles a group of what he calls "caterpillars," superhumans that no one on earth knew about but him. Then he fashions them into a unit to pull the heroes collective asses out of the fire during the Skrull invasion. That's all you need. Go find issue #1.
Johnathan Hickman, who writes (along with the ubiquitous Bendis for the first 6 issues) has made it onto that list of writers I will keep my hungry-for-more eyes on.
To sum, "Secret Warriors" has my seal of desperate approval. Here's what you need to know:
During the "Secret Invasion," Fury assembles a group of what he calls "caterpillars," superhumans that no one on earth knew about but him. Then he fashions them into a unit to pull the heroes collective asses out of the fire during the Skrull invasion. That's all you need. Go find issue #1.
Feb 22, 2008
Rest in Peace, Steve Gerber
(Originally written Feb. 17, 2008)
I came to Steve Gerber's writing through a Vegas showgirl and her dancing ostrich. I kid you not. The story "Piss on Earth" in the vertigo Winter's Edge anthology introduced me to Nevada the dancer and her ostrich, and when the series came out, I picked it up, and found out that the genesis of the series had come in an issue of the late 70's comic "Howard the Duck".
Wasn't that that crappy movie from the 80's, you may ask, and yes, yes it was. It was a crappy movie. But, intrigued as I was, I searched out the 16th issue of Howard the Duck, one in which Mr. Gerber ruminates on the creative process and his cross-country move. It was, in a word, revelatory.
Now, I'd been reading the "big names" for a few years. There was little that Grant Morrison, Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman wrote that I didn't voraciously devour. I prided myself on being a literary comic fan, not doting on artists, but on writers (though I've since revised that pompous practice). I was stunned to have found this wonderful dissertation and never have heard of the writer. Dutifully, I tracked down every issue of Howard with his name in the writer's credit (even the terribly expensive 1st appearance of KISS in a comic book), and read them. And it was brilliant. A vibrant and witty slice of the 1970's in the USA. A satire of the ideas and ideals sweeping through the nation in the wake of the hippy generation, a more cynical, yet every bit as optimistic, lens through which to read the culture. It was wonderful.
Unlike those other names I talked about earlier, I did not immediately go out and find all of Mr. Gerber's works right away and read them. But when I did come across one, it was always picked up and read and enjoyed. More recently, on and excursion into the 1970's Marvel output, I focussed on his work, his Defenders, Man-Thing, Tales of the Zombie, in the excellent Marvel Essentials series, and again I was blown away by his work.
Just yesterday (Saturday), I was in a comic store, rummaging through their $2 bins for copies of "Superman presents The Phantom Zone" and "Omega the Unknown", I found the two issues of "Creatures on the Loose" that he scripted, and the first installment of the Shanna the She-Devil story that was serialized in Marvel Fanfare. I came home, entered them into my database and read them. Then, while surfing the net last night, I found out that he had died a week earlier.
I won't go all weepy, and say it was like losing a friend or anything, because it wasn't. I only knew him through his words, and most of them things he wrote 30 years ago. But for talent, passionate talent, like that to be lost to us is terrible. It is useless to sit and wonder what he might have produced with another 10 years, but I do it anyway. I'm glad that I still have so much of his work to find and to read, but the sad bit is that when I have tracked it all down (and I'm a little obsessive, so I will), that'll be it.
I pulled out my Howard the Duck collection today. I think it's time to read them again, and pay my own little tribute to a guy who wrote comics like no one else did before, or has since. Thank you, Mr. Gerber. Your presence will be missed.
L.A. Times obituary
N.Y. Times obituary
Mark Evanier's remembrance
Steve Gerber's Blog
I came to Steve Gerber's writing through a Vegas showgirl and her dancing ostrich. I kid you not. The story "Piss on Earth" in the vertigo Winter's Edge anthology introduced me to Nevada the dancer and her ostrich, and when the series came out, I picked it up, and found out that the genesis of the series had come in an issue of the late 70's comic "Howard the Duck".
Wasn't that that crappy movie from the 80's, you may ask, and yes, yes it was. It was a crappy movie. But, intrigued as I was, I searched out the 16th issue of Howard the Duck, one in which Mr. Gerber ruminates on the creative process and his cross-country move. It was, in a word, revelatory.
Now, I'd been reading the "big names" for a few years. There was little that Grant Morrison, Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman wrote that I didn't voraciously devour. I prided myself on being a literary comic fan, not doting on artists, but on writers (though I've since revised that pompous practice). I was stunned to have found this wonderful dissertation and never have heard of the writer. Dutifully, I tracked down every issue of Howard with his name in the writer's credit (even the terribly expensive 1st appearance of KISS in a comic book), and read them. And it was brilliant. A vibrant and witty slice of the 1970's in the USA. A satire of the ideas and ideals sweeping through the nation in the wake of the hippy generation, a more cynical, yet every bit as optimistic, lens through which to read the culture. It was wonderful.
Unlike those other names I talked about earlier, I did not immediately go out and find all of Mr. Gerber's works right away and read them. But when I did come across one, it was always picked up and read and enjoyed. More recently, on and excursion into the 1970's Marvel output, I focussed on his work, his Defenders, Man-Thing, Tales of the Zombie, in the excellent Marvel Essentials series, and again I was blown away by his work.
Just yesterday (Saturday), I was in a comic store, rummaging through their $2 bins for copies of "Superman presents The Phantom Zone" and "Omega the Unknown", I found the two issues of "Creatures on the Loose" that he scripted, and the first installment of the Shanna the She-Devil story that was serialized in Marvel Fanfare. I came home, entered them into my database and read them. Then, while surfing the net last night, I found out that he had died a week earlier.
I won't go all weepy, and say it was like losing a friend or anything, because it wasn't. I only knew him through his words, and most of them things he wrote 30 years ago. But for talent, passionate talent, like that to be lost to us is terrible. It is useless to sit and wonder what he might have produced with another 10 years, but I do it anyway. I'm glad that I still have so much of his work to find and to read, but the sad bit is that when I have tracked it all down (and I'm a little obsessive, so I will), that'll be it.
I pulled out my Howard the Duck collection today. I think it's time to read them again, and pay my own little tribute to a guy who wrote comics like no one else did before, or has since. Thank you, Mr. Gerber. Your presence will be missed.
L.A. Times obituary
N.Y. Times obituary
Mark Evanier's remembrance
Steve Gerber's Blog
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