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COMIC REPORT
Mar. 25th, 2008 03:04 pmI love Silver Age Lex Luthor. Sometimes I really don't know if I prefer corporate businessman Lex Luthor or mad scientist Lex Luthor, but I've often seen both version stay faithful to the spirit of the character, which is the more important thing.
Lex is just such an awesome villain, and it's a shame that--like the Joker--there are so many writers who fuck him up or lame-ify him because they just don't get the character.
Okay. Who here has read SLEEPER, by Brubaker and Sean Phillips? Because SLEEPER is fucking excellent, like a great HBO series brought to comics. It was seriously hyped up both by the likes of Brian K. Vaughan and Warren Ellis as well as my colleagues at Big Planet, and it still surpassed expectations (of which I had few, for some reason). Can't wait to lend SLEEPER to Danny and Kevin.
Here, have some examples of SLEEPER's awesomeness: the fucked-up-ed-ness that is Miss Misery and and the secret origin of... FagHag?
I am now very sad that I'm not still working at the comic shop so I can't tell people to read SLEEPER instead of overblown similar shit like WANTED.*
On the other hand, I'm still more happy to be out of the store. Because really, it was turning me into a comic grouch, and I don't want to be a comic grouch. Honestly, I don't. Much of my grouchiness came from the overwhelming popularity of certain things that I--for one reason or another--strongly did not enjoy, and it became harder and harder to reconcile objectivity when faced with the rabidness of fans. This is not healthy for anybody.
I'm working on it. I love my comics, but I think we need some time apart.
And there are some frustrations that are stronger than others, like Mark Millar's continued popularity or how THE BOYS continues to be a top-seller. But even these, I could dismiss and get over, one way or another. More so than certain other comics. In fact, I've started to think of my frustrations with modern comics in terms of a three-headed Cerberus: SCOTT PILGRIM, Joss Whedon, and Jeph Loeb.
I've already ranted about SCOTT PILGRIM. Generally considered by many, with little-to-no irony, as the greatest comic of the 21st Century, and one of the greatest comics ever. And the appeal is totally lost on me, no matter how many times I reread the books. And now, with SHAUN/HOT FUZZ director Edgar Wright hemling the SCOTT PILGRIM movie with Michael Cera, the rabid hype of fans is going to be inescapable.**
And I've also already ranted about Joss Whedon, whose work I respect and admire, and I do see his genuine excellence, but it's a style I personally abhor.
( And then there's Jeph Loeb. Especially for his work on THE LONG HALLOWEEN. Rant ahoy. )
Oh hell, enough ranting and bitchery. Let's go back to happy things!
Did you know that Daredevil almost had his own 80's cartoon series? With a canine sidekick? A super-seeing eye dog? Named Lightning, the Super-Dog?
That picture fills me with such endless happy.
*Which is now coming out as an even-crappier-looking film. The only thing the comic had going for it was it's premise, and you throw all that out for a shitty MATRIX rip-off five years after MATRIX rip-offs were actually fashionable? Lame.
**On the other hand, with Wright doing the SCOTT PILGRIM movie, maybe I'll finally understand the appeal once I see it in movie form rather than comic.
***Although I do think Tim Sale's Batman and Catwoman are both grotesquely ripped, and I do kinda run hot and cold on his HUGE-PERMA-FUCKING-GRIN Joker, which only serves the heighten Loeb's take on the Batman characters, turning them into flat, quote-spouting, one-note caricatures of themselves.
Lex is just such an awesome villain, and it's a shame that--like the Joker--there are so many writers who fuck him up or lame-ify him because they just don't get the character.
Okay. Who here has read SLEEPER, by Brubaker and Sean Phillips? Because SLEEPER is fucking excellent, like a great HBO series brought to comics. It was seriously hyped up both by the likes of Brian K. Vaughan and Warren Ellis as well as my colleagues at Big Planet, and it still surpassed expectations (of which I had few, for some reason). Can't wait to lend SLEEPER to Danny and Kevin.
Here, have some examples of SLEEPER's awesomeness: the fucked-up-ed-ness that is Miss Misery and and the secret origin of... FagHag?
I am now very sad that I'm not still working at the comic shop so I can't tell people to read SLEEPER instead of overblown similar shit like WANTED.*
On the other hand, I'm still more happy to be out of the store. Because really, it was turning me into a comic grouch, and I don't want to be a comic grouch. Honestly, I don't. Much of my grouchiness came from the overwhelming popularity of certain things that I--for one reason or another--strongly did not enjoy, and it became harder and harder to reconcile objectivity when faced with the rabidness of fans. This is not healthy for anybody.
I'm working on it. I love my comics, but I think we need some time apart.
And there are some frustrations that are stronger than others, like Mark Millar's continued popularity or how THE BOYS continues to be a top-seller. But even these, I could dismiss and get over, one way or another. More so than certain other comics. In fact, I've started to think of my frustrations with modern comics in terms of a three-headed Cerberus: SCOTT PILGRIM, Joss Whedon, and Jeph Loeb.
I've already ranted about SCOTT PILGRIM. Generally considered by many, with little-to-no irony, as the greatest comic of the 21st Century, and one of the greatest comics ever. And the appeal is totally lost on me, no matter how many times I reread the books. And now, with SHAUN/HOT FUZZ director Edgar Wright hemling the SCOTT PILGRIM movie with Michael Cera, the rabid hype of fans is going to be inescapable.**
And I've also already ranted about Joss Whedon, whose work I respect and admire, and I do see his genuine excellence, but it's a style I personally abhor.
( And then there's Jeph Loeb. Especially for his work on THE LONG HALLOWEEN. Rant ahoy. )
Oh hell, enough ranting and bitchery. Let's go back to happy things!
Did you know that Daredevil almost had his own 80's cartoon series? With a canine sidekick? A super-seeing eye dog? Named Lightning, the Super-Dog?
That picture fills me with such endless happy.
*Which is now coming out as an even-crappier-looking film. The only thing the comic had going for it was it's premise, and you throw all that out for a shitty MATRIX rip-off five years after MATRIX rip-offs were actually fashionable? Lame.
**On the other hand, with Wright doing the SCOTT PILGRIM movie, maybe I'll finally understand the appeal once I see it in movie form rather than comic.
***Although I do think Tim Sale's Batman and Catwoman are both grotesquely ripped, and I do kinda run hot and cold on his HUGE-PERMA-FUCKING-GRIN Joker, which only serves the heighten Loeb's take on the Batman characters, turning them into flat, quote-spouting, one-note caricatures of themselves.
