Random Thoughts On... Superman's Identity Revealed Arc from the New 52

Well, it has come to this. When I started this month, this was the first thing on the docket. I thought I would’ve gotten it out of the way first, but reading 30-something issues from this era of comics is a bit much. Still, I had to finish this race here. Last time, I said that this story killed the New 52 Superman. Was I right to say that? Not sure because I don’t know what DC’s plans for this version of Superman were. Still, you never know. Also… I kinda liked bits of this. Yeah, it’s actually a shocker.

So, what am I talking about today? After the Convergence event, DC transitioned from New 52 to “DC You.” Basically, the idea was to just go off the wall with certain things. Tom King was doing Omega Men, Hal wasn’t Green Lantern… again,  someone finally decided to give Starfire some frakin’ clothes (yeah, I’m bitter about how they treated my girl), Martian Manhunter got his own book, and Batman turned into a robo-bunny. Geoff Johns started up “Darkseid War” as well. This was a weird era.

As for Superman, someone had the “interesting” idea to out Superman’s double life as Clark Kent to the world. From what I can tell, it was mostly done for shock value. A lot had been done to this version of Superman. His parents were dead, he lost his marriage with Lois, he was in jeans during his early days, he hooked up with Wonder Woman, he got turned into a Doomsday (I’ll touch on that some other time), and he got a “totally rad” power called the solar flare. So, they decide to have Lois Lane out him, and not only that, he loses his powers. That’s a lot for one character, man.

Trade Tales! - Hawkworld

Next up is a return to the DC Universe. This time, I’m looking at a character I’m not a big fan of: Hawkman. I don’t think he’s a lame character even though his mask is sometimes weird. All I know about the character is that he is pretty screwed up continuity-wise. And I thought Superman’s continuity  had issues!  I know that Carter Hall (or Katar Hol, whatever floats your boat) has gone through changes over the years. I even remember running across the confusion in Zero Hour, a crossover that was supposed to end the confusion. Spoilers… It apparently didn’t and this story here is kind of what started it.

A few months back, I was looking through some cheap trade paperbacks. I came across Hawkworld, a three-issue prestige miniseries written and drawn by Tim Truman. I had heard about the story, though I may had been confusing it with the series that spun out of it. Either way, the artwork looked nice, so I decided to pick it up. The miniseries was released in 1989, and it was supposed to be a total reboot of the character in the same way Man of Steel was to Superman. Truman, who has done a lot of work, wrote and penciled the mini. Inks were done by Enrique Alcatena and colors were done by Sam Parsons.

Tales from the $3.99 Bin! - Superman #39

Next up for the month is the Daily Planet’s photographer, James “Jimmy” Bartholomew Olsen. He’s been a supporting character for Superman for the longest time. While some say he showed up in Action Comics #6, he officially made his first appearance in the Superman radio show. Jimmy then made his way to the comics then disappeared for a bit. When Jack Larson played the character on the George Reeves’ Superman TV show, Jimmy was brought back to the comics and he even got his own book called Superman’s Pal: Jimmy Olsen. Yes, Jimmy had a book and that thing lasted for years. Even Jack Kirby wrote on it when he came to DC! Since then, Jimmy has been a constant supporting character in the books. Whether he’s a reporter, photographer, being “Peter Parkered”, a man of action, an annoyance, or a cool black dude, Jimmy’s been around.

Today, I thought I’d look at something from the New 52 era of DC. Yes, it wasn’t all that bad, guys. Don’t let the trunkless era scare you off like that! The “Big G” himself, Geoff Johns, returned to the Superman books for a small period during that time. He was accompanied by John Romita Jr., a Marvel legend, and Klaus Janson. I’d say it was a match made in heaven, but it wasn’t. Still, their arc. “Men of Tomorrow,” was fine and it ended with today’s issue, Superman #39. This was Johns’ last issue for on the book while the other two would continue on for a bit. So, what happens when Superman is powerless? Not much but that’s not bad.

Tales From the $4.99 (eh) Bin! - Action Comics Annual #1

Next up for the month is a villain who is in the D-list: the Kryptonite Man Even though the Kryptonite Man is a mostly unused villain, he still has something that can knock Superman down to his knees. To give you a hint, it’s all in his name. The name has been passed around to different folk, but the effect is still the same: they are embowed with green kryptonite radiation.  The Kryptonite Man first appeared in Superboy #83 (1960) and has sparsely appeared since then. I think there were 3 versions in the Post-Crisis era and one of them was a weird clone of Superman. Since I’ll be spending some time in that era this month, I think it’s time for something more recent.

The Kryptonite Man made a return during Grant Morrison’s run on Action Comics. This time, he was Clay Ramsey, the infamous wifebeater that Superman threw around in his early days. Ramsey was a part of Vyndtyvx’s (Lord Vinnie) for Morrison’s run. Today’s issue is the annual from that run that featured the villain. Sholly Fisch, the backup writer on Action Comics, wrote the whole issue. Cully Hamner handled the artwork. There is a backup “written” by Max Landis with artwork by Ryan Sook at the back about the Atomic Skull. I’m not talking about the backup here but I can say is that it was alright if a bit brief.

Action Comics Annual #1

Writer: Sholly  Fisch

Artist: Cully Hamner

Colors: Val Staples

Letters: Steve Wands

Editors: Wil Moss and Matt Idelson

Random Thoughts On... Scott Snyder's and Greg Capullo's Batman Run

For a while now, I’ve been going through most of my comics’ collection. I’ve mostly been doing it to weed out anything I don’t want anymore. So far, it’s only been a couple of things but not anything too big.  I’ve mostly been reading my not-so-complete collection of Post-Crisis Superman. I’ve collected stuff from the late 80’s to the late 90’s. When I get past 1999, that’s when it’ll get pretty spotty. Still, Post-Crisis Superman will make the cut. I’ve ran across some subpar issues, but it’s pretty good so far.

Anyway, one run I wanted to revisit was Scott Snyder’s and Greg Capullo’s run on Batman. At the time this series was coming out, folk were claiming it was the best series on shelves. The word of mouth got me on this one. While I was already a Batman fan, I only read a little involving the character. Most of my fandom came from the movies and animated series. Since the New 52 was starting up and I was starting to get comics regularly, I jumped in and stayed to the bitter end. Since Scott Snyder (not related to Zack Snyder) is revving up for a Batman-centered event called Dark Days: Metal, I thought it was finally time to read and talk about this run.

As I said above, Snyder’s and Capullo’s run was part of the DC’s New 52 initiative. Snyder already had some experience with Batman (the Dick Grayson variety)  since he was writing Detective Comics before this run. I didn’t know who Capullo was, though. All I knew was that he worked on Spawn and X-Force. Their run on Batman would last about 52 issues, the whole entirety of New 52 and “DC You”. There would also be a few special issues in there but I’m pretty much focusing on the main book.

Snyder was pretty much on the whole time with some writers coming in and helping out with back-ups and annuals. James Tynion IV, Gerry Dugan, Brian Azzerello, and a couple of others would help out at times. While Capullo had a couple of breaks here and there, he did a lot of his own work on the book. Other artists included folk like Andy Kubert, Jock, and, Jason Fabok, and Alex Maleev. The backups would also be handled by Rafael Albuquerque and others. Inkers would also vary here and there. Capullo’s main inkers were Johnathan Glapion and Danny Miki.

Random Thoughts On... Geoff Johns' Run on Justice League

For the last few months, I’ve been trying to go through my collection and see if some of it is worth keeping. One series that I think needed a full read-through was Geoff Johns' run on Justice League. I think I started on it back in the summer. It took me a while to finish it all since there were a couple of issues missing. Heck, I even re-read Forever Evil which is something I will talk about soon. Just recently, I finished it off with #50. I wonder why he cut his run short since he didn’t even make it to #52. Maybe he was working on making DC Rebirth #1 an awesome read which it was.

For those who don’t know, John’s run on Justice League basically kicked of DC’s “New 52” phase in August of 2011. The plan was to basically reboot the DC universe (again) and get the heroes looking fresh, new, hip, or something like that. When I heard that Johns was going to be on Justice League, I was more or less sold since he is one of my favorite modern writers. What made it even more interesting was that he would have Jim Lee doing the art. So, all was well in the land of DC, right? Well… sort of, but I’ll get to that later.

Johns would remain on the book until #50 which was released during May of 2016. I guess his departure kind of made the New 52 officially come to an end. Artists came and went with this book, though. Jim Lee was really only around for ten of the 12 issues in the first year. Afterwards, it became a bit of a hodgepodge of cool artists. We had guys like Gene Ha, Carlo’s D’Anna, Tony Daniel, Ivan Reis, Jesus Merino, Doug Mahnke, Francis Manapual, and Jason Fabok doing art chores. There was also a back-up strip in the early issues that showcased a revamped version of Shazam formerly known as Captain Marvel. Gary Frank handled the art duties to all of that. The inkers and colorists were a plenty for the series.

Hey, J'onn! What's... Oh. Crap.

Random Thoughts On... Grant Morrison's Action Comics Run

So, I’m at the end of another Superman Month. I’ve read/seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. When I mean ugly, I kind of mean “For Tomorrow” since that story just… let's just say I’m not a fan. I rather watch Steel again than read that. I thought I’d end the month on a bit of a high note by talking about Grant Morrison’s run on Action Comics.

Now looking on it in the Rebirth era of DC, Superman got the short of the stick with the New 52. I’m not saying that weren’t good stories (there were), but some of them weren’t the best. Luckily, it did start out well with Grant Morrison’s Action Comics. Unfortunately, I can’t comment on the Superman book that much. I know what came afterwards with Scott Lobdell was… okay? Maybe I’ll find out one day when I read more of what he did post “H’El On Earth.” I heard Greg Pak’s stuff was good and I even have his part of the recent “Truth” arc.

Morrison stayed with Action Comics from #1-#18 with a #0 thrown in for Zero Month. The artists varied throughout but the main one was Rags Morales. Others were Brad Walker, Gene Ha, Brent Anderson, Ben Oliver, Andy Kubert, Travel Foreman, and CAFU. Starting with Action Comics #4, there were also 8-page back-up stories and that lasted for Morrison’s run. Those were written by Sholly Fisch. He also did the annual for this series. The artists also varied with Brad Walker, Chris Sprouse, CAFU, and others contributing.

The idea, at first, was to show Superman at the beginning. As I’ve said before this month, it’s the thing to do with the character these days. What Morrison and Morales did was throw a lot of the Golden Age into Superman’s new beginning. He wasn’t the nice guy we’ve known for years. Well, he was nice to everyone else but criminals which is something I really liked. If you’ve read those old Golden Age comics, Superman was a rough guy. He even killed some criminals or he at least left some to die. This new Superman also had the same power set he had in the Golden Age, so he couldn’t fly yet. His parents were back to being dead and died when he was in high school.

Nothing to say here. Just Superman doing the impossible.

Tales From The $3.99 Bin! - Action Comics #14-#18

Next up in this final week of Superman Month, I thought I might as well finish off Grant Morrison's Action Comics run. I’ve more or less talked about every aspect of that run here except for #0 from Zero Month. Morrison’s run was pretty good and I will do another post about the run as a whole. The ones I'm talking about today are Action Comics #14-#18.

When we last left off, Clark Kent had died… kind of. Basically, Superman had to let “Clark Kent” die when an accident happened. Anyway, Superman tried on a new identity but he missed being Clark Kent. Mrs. Nyxly revealed herself to be from the 5^th Dimension and basically wished Clark Kent back to life. Yeah, it gets weird and it’s going to get much weirder. This is Grant Morrison, after all.

Grant Morrison handled all of the main stories while Sholly Fisch handled the back-ups. The artwork gets varied up a lot in this one. Rag Morales and Brad Walker handle the pencils for the main stories while Chris Sprouse handles the pencils for the backups.

Action Comics #14-#18

Writers: Grant Morrison and Sholly Fisch (back-ups)

Pencils: Rags Morales (main), Brad Walker (main), and Chris Sprouse (backups)

Inks: Mark Prospt and Andrew Hennessy (main); Karl Story (backups)

Colors: Brad Anderson (main); Jordie Bellaire (backup)

Letters: Steve Wands, Carlos M. Mangual, and Taylor Esposito

Editor: Matt Idelson and Wil Moss

Tales from the 50 Cent Bin! - Action Comics #9

Well, I’ve finally made it to the end. After this post, I’ll have a couple of more things to say about Superman. Since I’ve done two Grant Morrison stories this month, I might as well do another one. Today’s issue is Action Comics #9 and it actually features a completely different Superman… or at least different in that he’s got my skin tone. Not only is he black, he’s also the President of the United States. “Hmm… I wonder who he’s based off of,” I sarcastically say.

This isn’t the first time this Superman has made an appearance. The Superman of Earth-23 made his first appearance in the weird event known as Final Crisis. He’s actually made a bit of a comeback in another Morrison-penned book called Multiversity. In a lot of ways, this issue is kind of a prequel to that new book. Of course, Grant Morrison is the writer of the main story. Sholly Fisch handles the back-up. Gene Ha handles the art duties on the main story for this issue while Cully Hammer handles the back-up.

Action Comics #9
Writers: Grant Morrison (main) and Sholly Fisch (Back-up)
Artists: Gene Ha (main) and Cully Hammer (back-up)
Colorists: Art Lyon (main) and Dave McCaig (back-up)
Letters: Patrick Brosseau (main) and Carlos M. Mangual (back-up)
Assistant Editor: Will Moss
Editor: Matt Idelson

Tales From the 50 Cent Bin! - Superman #13

It’s time to come back to the present… or at least 2012 to look at what’s going on in the other Superman book. While Action Comics had Grant Morrison consistently putting out stuff, Superman was pretty inconsistent. George Perez and Jesus Merino did an arc and left. Dan Jurgens and Keith Giffen did an arc and left. It seemed like no one was staying on the book or most books with DC Comics for that matter. Then a man named Scott Lobdell came in. All I can say is that at least he stayed on for more than six issues!

While Superman #0 was his first issue, I’m looking at Superman #13 since that officially started his time on there. Lobdell was also writing Teen Titans, Red Hood and the Outlaws, and Superboy at this time. He had also worked on the X-Men books in the 1990s. The art is done by Kenneth Rocafort who was also on Red Hood and the Outlaws with Lobdell. Rocafort also did pencils for Action Comics before the New 52 and did a lot of stuff for the publisher, Top Cow.

Superman #13

Writer: Scott Lobdell

Artist: Kenneth Rockafort

Colors: Sunny Gho

Letters: Rob Leigh

Assistant Editor: Darren Shan

Editor: Eddie Berganza

Tales from the $2.99 Bin! - Batman Eternal #1-#4

Well, it’s back to the present for this post. One thing I can say about the Batman comics franchise is that there are a crapton of books out there. It seems like it's still growing especially with the whole “New 52” craze still going on. Is “New 52” even a thing now? Would it be “Old 52” or “Not-So-New 52?” It’s kind of confusing. On Batman’s side of things, you can’t go wrong with Scott Snyder’s Batman book. I’m not looking at that today, but I just needed to say that right now. It’s one of the books that has stayed consistently good throughout DC's “New 52” phase.

Today, I’ll be looking at the first four issues of Batman Eternal, a recent weekly series. It’s done in the same way as series like 52, Countdown to Final Crisis, and Trinity. It centers on Batman and his entire gallery of allies and villains. Like those series, you have a lot of folk on the book. Scott Snyder provides the overall story while others like James Tynion IV, Ray Fawkes, John Layman, and Tim Seeley provide the script or are consulting writers. The book also has rotating artists. The pencillers for these four issues are Jason Fabok and Dustin Nguyen.

Batman Eternal #1-#4
Story: Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV
Consulting Writers: John Layman, Ray Fawkes, and Tim Seeley
Pencils: Jason Fabok (#1-#3) and Dustin Nyugen (#4)
Inks: Jason Fabok (#1-#3) and Derek Fridolfs (#4)
Colors: Brad Anderson (#1-#3) and John Kalisz (#4)

Random Thoughts #23

Well, I'm at work (yeah during the day) and there is nothing going on for the moment....Yes!!!!! Anyway, I think it's time for a couple of Random Thoughts.

Who knew getting up would be so hard?
This week, I had to fill in for my daytime counterpart at work, so I'm back to days for this week. It's not a bad time. It's just weird because I usually work from 5pm-2am. This week, I'm working from 7:30am-4:30pm. That's a big change especially since I'm usually still sleep at 7:30am. I get up, my eyes are bloodshot, and my hair is everywhere. What makes it worse is that it's gotten really busy for us. Well, at least I got next week to look forward to. I'm on vacation, suckas!!!

Women
..."Lord, help me. Lord, help me." Yeah, I really got nothing to say except for that.

Upcoming plans
I really have nothing planned for April, so you could just title it "I just don't give a -- " Month or something. I do have a couple of things I'll talk about though, but I'll get to them eventually. For May, I got something planned and it involves the awesome crew of the USS Enterprise. That's right, It's Old-School Trek Month, and yes, that's a weird title. It's pretty much the crew from the original series, the first six movies, and the reboots. I got those and a couple of surprises setting up for that month.

For June, I have something planned that involves mixing a few things. Think The Twilight Zone and superheroes and you may get what I'm going for.

Action Comics ....WTC?
So, I just read the last issue fo Grant Morrision's Action Comics run. Wow, did this book take a 180 turn in weirdness! The first issue was pretty grounded. You had Clark in the t-shirt beating up gangsters and such. THis last issue basically had him going up against the Devil...okay, it was a 5-dimensional imp, but still. I did like it though. This weekend, I'm gonna have to read the whole run and see how all stacks up.

Okay, this made me laugh a little. Why?  Read the names.

Now the real WTC (or WTFC) has come just recently. Andy Diggle, the writer taking Morrison's place, has left the book. What's going on at DC? It seems like creators are leaving left and right and this has been going on for about the last year.


Well, that's all I got for now. Peace and God Bless. This is  "Smailliw Lleyr" signing out.

Random Thoughts #5

Well, it looks like I may be here a while in the GA room at MTSU. To know how that happened, read on.

Random Thoughts #4

Well, it looks like it's time for some random thoughts. I'm pretty much ready for work, and I'm bored as well.

Random Thoughts #3

Well, I'm at the house and not sleepy yet, so I thought I might as well type a little.