Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Superman

DC New 52 Review: Supergirl #1

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While I love female superheroes – as evidenced by their ratings so far this month – I don’t always love the “-girl” versions of male heroes.

The practice of creating female (and teen) (and dog) versions of popular heroes is a decidedly DC habit, as Marvel never did anything of the sort with their core slate of heroes with the possible exception of She-Hulk. (Yes, you could argue more recent versions like X-23 and Rescue fill the same role, but they are separate characters with established stories – not Wolvergal and Iron Woman).

The problem with these matching woman heroes is they have to be altered with every reboot of their male counterparts. In fact, one of the major outcomes of Crisis on Infinite Earths was to remove Supergirl from continuity so Superman could truly be the last son of Krypton again.

The removal didn’t last for long. She came back as a peculiar amoeba-in-the-shape-of-a-girl courtesy of Lex Luthor, later merged with a mortal teenager, and was subsequently discarded in favor of a standoffish Kryptonian cousin – not to mention the massively popular Power Girl.

That puts us on version six of Supergirl with this debut issue. That’s a lot of girls to remember, but DC’s reboot says we can forget all the past iterations and focus on this new one.

Supergirl #1

Written by Michael Green & Mike Johnson, art by Mahmud Asrar & Dan Green.

Rating: 3 of 5 – Good

In a Line: “I know it’s a dream because there hasn’t been a blizzard on Krypton since I was barely old enough to walk.”

#140Review: Supergirl #1 has great art & provides the 1st super-strength bash of a fight this month, but skimps a bit on story

CK Says: Consider it.

Supergirl #1 is an act of delicious contrition – the first out of three dozen DC relaunch books that’s all of an origin story, an exhibition of powers, plus a knock-down, drag-out super-powered fight.

This book teases so many things that people may have wanted or even expected from a Superman relaunch. We get an opening shot of meteors descending over the midwest. We have an egg-like spaceship of Kryptonian origin. We even get a set of super-powered fisticuffs! We also get an unveiling of killer heat vision that evokes Cyclops’s lack of control over his powers.

Except, we know all of that about Clark, so what’s the fun of it? Rehashing the origins of established heroes feels rote and deliberately padded. Yet, Supergirl is a heroine who doesn’t haven a singular definition. With her, every new display of power evokes a nod of our head, “Yes, of course she can do that. Very interesting.”

Writers Michael Green and Mike Johnson do a good job of threading internal monologue through brisk, easy-to-follow action beats, playing Kara’s bewildered reactions true to someone who woke up on another planet. That only a little story elapses around the action is forgivable.

I enjoyed the art, as much for Asrar’s pencils as for the beautiful palette of colors from Dave McCaig. The pair of them seem to ramp up the Super iconography through the issue until it reaches a thrilling crescendo in the last panel. All the while, Asrar draws Supergirl as young and lithe – not an overly-muscled, overly- breasty babe. (It’s a pity he didn’t fix her awkward face on the cover, it’s nearly classic.)

McCaig’s coloring style on early pages evokes watercolor, with seemingly liquid-stained patches of light and dark. It helped to maintain the in-a-dream mood of Supergirl’s narration, which is shattered by the bright lights of the squad sent to collect her. As dawn breaks over the battlefield, McCaig shifts into a more standard set of superhero colors. It’s a genius transition that I didn’t entirely pick up on until my third read.

While I’m concerned they’ve boxed themselves in with an immediate introduction of Superman, all the positives neatly erase the slightness of the issue. If writers Green and Johnson can carry the philosophical bent of Kara’s narration as a stranger in a strange world into upcoming issues, Supergirl will be a welcome second-string Kryptonian title to Morrison’s Action Comics.

DC New 52 Review: Action Comics #1

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With DC Comics re-launching its entire slate of books this month, the most-anticipated title after a vaguely-disappointing Jim Lee drawn Justice League is doubtlessly Action Comics, written by Grant Morrison.

Morrison is a hyper-praised comic author who has written everything from indie fare to X-Men. His multi-year shake-up of Batman comics has been to the comic line what Nolan has been to the movie franchise. He’s also an insufferably self-obsessed egoist and drug addict, both as confessed in Supergods, his recent autobiographical look at comic history.

Suffice to say, I run as hot and cold on Morrison as a Katy Perry song. How does his reboot of the longest-running comic title in the world go? Let’s see…

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DC Comics Action Comics #1, released September 7, 2011

Action Comics #1

Written by Grant Morrison, art by Rags Morales & Rick Bryant

Rating: 4.5 of 5 – Remarkable

In a line: “Non-native strains WILL destroy entire ecologies, given the opportunity.”

140char Review: Action Comics #1: Superman spends a vigilante night in Metropolis; Morrison/Morales show more than tell & maybe make Supes interesting again

Plot & Script

Grant Morrison is superb at debut issues, and this is no exception. He presents a constantly moving half hour in the life of Superman that unfurls in near real-time thanks to the engrossing plot of the issue forcing you to linger on each dialog balloon to absorb all of the implications therein.

The constantly intercutting narrative is effective in keeping the anticipation of spending panel time with Superman high. Even though we see him on the first page (a wise move), we then spend several pages away from him, viewing his wake of destruction and the police’s abject dread in dealing with him.

Morrison writes Superman as well-spoken but cocky (“That ain’t Superman”). His powers are kept deliberately ambiguous, though it’s made clear that he cannot fly. As he exerts himself more his dialog gets more clipped – at points becoming an animalistic collection of sniffs and grunts.

Luthor is snide and has little regard for others, but he’s somehow still likeable – as he should be – and as-drawn a dead-ringer for our author.

Superman is portrayed as growing in power as he self-polices everyone from domestic abusers to mob bosses. Is it the right thing to do to turn Superman into a vigilante when we already have Batman? Or, is the only way to start a new decade (or more!) of Superman stories to begin with him as more of an alien than Clark Kent?

We get a handful of supporting characters, sketched in well-enough for the moment. General Lane is a patriot in bed with a snake (Luther). Olsen is a trusting mop-haired kid equally beholden to his new friend Clark and ice-blooded over-achiever Lois.

There is little to nitpick. A sequence with a high-speed train perhaps intercuts too much, warranting a second read. That’s nearly the only gripe, and it’s swept away by the parallelism of Superman catching two bullets on either side of the story – with differing amounts of success.

There isn’t a right answer – just good comic books. And this was one.

Artwork

I’ve never read an issue with Morales art before, but I’m pleased with him here. He can switch from static talking heads to kinetic action in a single panel. His t-shirt wearing, work-booted Superman is delightfully fresh and surprisingly iconic.

Morales effectively toys with Superman’s age throughout the issue. In his first shadow-faced confrontation with police, the heavy lines around his chin make him look middle-aged. A page later his face is gleeful and childlike as he leaps from a balcony, and a smug teen when facing down his would-be jailers.

Meanwhile, as Clark he is half Christpher Reeves, half Harry Potter. All the while, we see the same square-jaw.

It’s the supporting characters who sag. Jimmy and Lois look a bit askew, and background characters can be a bit ragged. Also, a few panels of ambiguous art don’t aid the already-complex train sequence.

CK Says: Buy it!

Action Comics #1 is a thrilling anchor to the clearly all-new continuity of Superman. Anyone hoping for an issue of a big, blue boy scout pushing planets out of their trajectories will be disappointed by this smaller scale exploration of the ambiguities of justice and of being human.

If that sounds like a boring issue, keep in mind that it still involves being faster than a speeding bullet and leaping tall buildings in a single bound. Oh, and a wrecking ball.

No one in the issue makes the case for Superman being human – Morrison is deliberate in having every character refer to him as an animal, alien, or even a thing. However, in our brief time with the bespeckled Clark we’re left to wonder – if it thinks like a man and cares like a man, how can it be an animal? Not for nothing, but Morrison’s book was subtitled “What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human.”

Is this issue a modern classic? Hard to say, but Superman scholar Morrison doesn’t waste a single word while Morales keeps the issue full of impact – it never feels decompressed to drag out the story.

crossovers

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It occurs to me that while Rabi is getting to be quite analogous to a independent film star when it comes to her relation to the so-called A-List of bloggers, i am still largely in my own self-contained little universe, the upshot of which being that not nearly all of Rabi’s readers read me but a vast majority of my readers read her. As my artificially constructed midterm break with Rabi enters day three of coverage on four separate personal sites along with a myriad of group blogs and comment chains these two sorts of readers are having two different sorts of reactions. Rabi’s readers are probably just gleaning extra context on their beloved Rabi-verse via my perspective on it, but for my readers this goes a little beyond context: it’s really an all-out crossover.

For those of you who aren’t huge comic book fans, crossovers are when members of the cast of one comic book (say… Superman) are featured in the plot of a second comic (perhaps… Wonder Woman) and then the story continues in their own. This can be a one-shot deal, or it can go on and on for months at a time. The thing about crossovers is that you can’t just read one half of them; either (a) you need both halves (and in some cases, more than four or five different “halves” for each month of crossing) to have any hope of understanding the storyline or (b) you are so obsessed with your favourite characters that you cannot help but buy the crossover titles regardless of your chances of understanding the plot as a whole.

It seems to me that regular readers of mine who dabble in being a fans of Rabi must be participating in some of the above behavior right now, because god knows i’d do the same thing if any of my favourite loggers were hanging out with their peers. When i mentioned it to Rabi she understood what i meant, and we agreed that she would be Superman if i could be Wonder Woman.

That just about says it all, doesn’t it?