The Hefner's CAVALCADE OF COMICS! News! Scans! Geekery! LJ-Cuts!

[thehefner]

First off, GIP, courtesy of the amaaazing disc_sophist




ITEM: WEDNESDAY COMICS STILL LOOKS FUCKING AMAZING






I, for one, am hugely looking forward to the adventures of HAWKMAN, BAKER and STRANGE ADVENTURES POPE. Joke shamelessly stolen from Rich Johnston.

Seriously, though, look at that line-up of creators. LOOK at it, comic fans, and tell me at least one of them doesn't get you tingly in places. Because if that doesn't do it, surely one of these must, or else you need to check your fun-o-meter:











I'm so nervous that this is going to flop, though. Response from fans has been a lot of concern about the oversized format and the price, capped off with this report from a recent convention:

At Saturday’s DC Nation panel, editors Ian Sattler and Brian Cunningham provided fans with a first-ever look at a printed copy of “Wednesday Comics.” The weekly, star-studded, 16-page comic produced on massive newsprint pages, was described as one of the most unusual, impressive, projects in DC’s recent history, a “Kramer’s Ergot” #7 with superheroes.

But DC Nation, or at least the cross section attending the panel, showed more interest in the tedium of DC continuity. Not a single question was asked about “Wednesday Comics.”

DAMN IT, FANDOM. DON'T RUIN THIS FOR US.





ITEM: I DON'T WANT THE HAL JORDAN HATERS TO BE RIGHT, BUT, UH, IS HE ACTUALLY BEING A DICK HERE OR WHAT?


Holla at my GL flist buddies--particularly nymphgalatea, kali921, and kagome654--What think you of James Robinson's depiction of Hal in these preview pages of JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE # 1?

I mean, I've been a bit unimpressed by Geoff Johns' take on Hal, so this suddenly proactive take on Hal is rather cool. But is it in character? It definitely seems to be more in keeping with the Hal that Parallax exploited, but that Hal wasn't really in character in the first place.

I guess what I'm trying to ask is, when you look at this page, do you think, "BADASS" or do you think, "Wow, what a dickhole"?







On one hand, hey, awesome, he's actually showing off leadership capabilities, and it's keeping with someone who has crazy huge amounts of willpower! On the other hand, even Scott Summers might think Hal should cool it down a little.

I look forward to seeing how this storyline pans out. Either way, I want smart-ass fun-loving wise-cracking Hal Jordan back. My ideal Hal is like the bastard child of John Crichton and James T. Kirk with liberal dashes of Bruce Campbell thrown in for good measure.




ITEM: ONE OF THE MOST INTRIGUING PAGES FROM A GOLDEN AGE COMIC EVER





Scan courtesy of doop over at nu-scans_daily.



... huh.

I can't even call crack on it, like Golden Age Wonder Woman, because damn, it actually seems damn well straightforward! So to speak.

And damn, Zatara is a sharp motherfucker. But then, he's the father of Zatanna, so he'd have to be. We need more dash and top hats in comics, says I.




FINAL ITEM: COMICS THAT MADE US CRY

The Robot 6 blog did a piece on "The 6 Comics That Made Us Cry," and folks have been responding with their favorites. For me, there have been several, but only one gets me choked up just thinking out it: the one-two punch of that issue of I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S NOT THE JUSTICE LEAGUE, when they find Ice in Hell.

First, when Guy Gardner, of all people, just keeps whispering, “Please come back, Tora. Please come back. Please come back.”

And second, at the end, when Bea and Guy hold each other, sobbing.

There was more genuine, heart-wrenching emotion in this silly comedic B-list superhero spin-off than in all of the INFINITE CRISIS titles going on at the same time. I’m getting misty just *thinking* about that issue.

What about you, folks? What comics have made you mist up or sob?

Comments

[angrylemur.livejournal.com]

Hal's 90's-tastic arms there aside, man that guy is a pretty serious space-fascist. "I am the law"? Really?

HAL: I am the law!
BLACK CANARY: Well I didn't vote for you.
HAL: You don't vote for the law!
BLACK CANARY: How'd you become the law, then?
HAL: The council of OA... [Angel chorus begins singing in background] gave me the Green Lantern ring, so that I would protect this sector with it's power. [Angel chorus ends] THAT is why I am the law!
SUPERMAN: Listen. Weird old guys sitting in towers distributing rings is no basis for a legal system. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical space ceremony.
HAL: Be quiet!
SUPERMAN: You can't expect to wield supreme power just 'cause some wrinkly old pervs threw a ring at you!
HAL: Shut up!
SUPERMAN: I mean, if I went 'round saying I was the law just because some collection of Oldie VonMouldies had lobbed a piece of jewelry at me, they'd put me away!
HAL: Shut up! Will you shut up?! [Grabs SUPERMAN and shakes him]
SUPERMAN: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system!
HAL: Shut up!
SUPERMAN: Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! HELP, HELP, I'M BEING REPRESSED!

...and so on.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

LOL

Actually, replace Superman with Ollie, and you could easily do a 'shopped scene from classic GL/GA comics. And it wouldn't sound too different from the actual O'Neill/Neil Adams stories!

EDIT: The more I read it, the more I laugh. It's the details that make it, like "I mean, if I went 'round saying I was the law just because some collection of Oldie VonMouldies had lobbed a piece of jewelry at me, they'd put me away!" Thank god I don't have photoshop, or I seriously would dig out my GL/GA collections and spend a couple hours cobbling together pages, ala MGK.

[angrylemur.livejournal.com]

I seriously sat here going, "what's a ridiculous yet undeniably ageist term I can use to describe the Oans?" for several minutes.

I'd be tempted to photoshop some comics myself if I wasn't trying to get a bunch of comics done for deadlines that are varying degrees of looming.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

But yeah, echoing the above, this seems more like a Katar (or Carter, based on that one JSA storyline where he chopped off a villain's arm and said, "Okay, I'm taking over the team. Try and stop me.") move than Hal's. I mean, the GLs are plenty fascist in nature anyway, but do they really have anything on the Thanagarians?

[angrylemur.livejournal.com]

The Thanagarians are like... the church and governments in Europe in the 1300's to 1800's - lots of colonization, cultural genocide, outright slavery, etc. The Green Lantern Corps is more like the governments of "world leader"-countries today - still plenty fascistic, still inherently racist and sexist and all that, but under a friendlier guise, facilitating oppression and genocide, in the name of "security".

Hal in that page definitely seems more like Carter, though. I'd hesistate to say Katar because it depends on if you're reading the silver age comics or the Osterman/Truman revamps of the 80's/early 90's, in which Katar was FROM a violent, fascist culture, but actively resistant to perpetuating that culture on Earth. Silver Age Katar Hol, though, was basically a total dick like that, yeah.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see a GLC story where they do explore those themes. People have touched on it in the past, but few have ever tried to really delve into the ramifications. It could be tricky, as it deals with alien cultures and species, but after years of people hinting at these themes, dancing around them without directly addressing them, I'd like to see someone try.

At least, I'd like to see it done with a more thoughtful hand than Denny O'Neill's, particularly through someone other than Oliver Queen. Who, of course, would never tolerate this kind of talk from Carter/Katar. Ollie yells at Hal out of love, whereas it seems he just outright hates Hawkman, and vice versa.

He sounds like Hawkman with a good dash of Judge Dredd to boot. Granted, I wouldn't be adverse to a panel of "GAZE INTO THE FIST OF HAL!!!!" but still...

...

... at the very least, I'm gonna spend a bit of time scouring over the GL/GA trades to find what panels could work for the 'shopped scene...