Happy Almost-weekend!

Several months ago, DC comics announced that it was reorganizing and becoming DC entertainment. When this announcement was made it was also announced that Paul Levitz, the long-time DC publisher and president would be stepping down from his position. In The months since Levitz’s announcement, speculation has been rampant about who would become the new head honcho at DC, with guesses ranging from well thought out (Dan Didio) to crazy (Joe Quesada), to just plain stupid (Batman). All the guessing ended yesterday when DC announced that they had created an executive team to lead DCE consisting of c0-publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio, chief creative officer Geoff Johns, executive vice president of sales, marketing and business development John Rood, and Patrick Caldon as the executive vice president of finance and administration.

While just about every comic-centric blog out there has given their commentary on this announcement, this is a pretty big deal so I would feel remiss if I didn’t throw my musings out to the world for consumption as well. I want to look at each of the five people announced in this new management team, and give my thoughts (good and bad) about the hires.

Jim Lee– Co-Publisher: Lee as Publisher makes perfect sense. He is well respected throughout the comic community by both peers and fans, and having started Image comics and Wildstorm, he obviously has a good deal of business savvy. When Marvel hired Joe Quesada as EIC almost a decade ago, he was able to bring top level talent to Marvel because he was an artist and other artists felt that they would be treated well with “One of their own” in charge. The same should be true of Lee. I expect to see a good deal of top level talent shifting towards DCE over the next few years. The only sad part about Lee getting elevated to publisher is that we will see even less of his work than before. We really weren’t seeing much work out of Lee already, and with his new duties, I think we might have seen the last of Jim Lee’s pencils for quite a while.

Dan DiDio– Co-Publisher: DiDio is another great fit for publisher from a creative standpoint. Under DiDio’s leadership the last few years, DC has become far more coherent, and more easily accessible for new readers. While DiDio’s decisions have been polarizing for fans (Identity and Infinite Crises were hated and loved in equal proportion) there is no doubt that he has a clear idea of where the DC universe is going. He also has longstanding relationships with the current DC talent pool, ensuring that DC will be able to keep most of the guys they already have. I have two concerns about Didio though: 1) I have no idea how he and Lee will mesh with one another. I hope that they can co-exist, but they have very different styles and very different backgrounds. 2) DiDio, as I already mentioned, has had a very polarizing effect on fans. His new position might affect readership in the short term for DC.

Geoff Johns– Chief Creative officer: This is the spot that I think fits Johns perfectly. Over the past four or five years, no one has demonstrated a better grasp on the DC universe as a whole than Johns. Under his hand, I think we will see DC become not only a more coherent place (something he and DiDio have been working towards for years), but also a universe with stories that translate readily to film. Johns admitted yesterday in an interview that he would responsible for getting DC characters into other media platforms, and given his background in film, this seems like something that he is ideally suited for.

John Rood– Executive vice president-sales, marketing and business development and Patrick Caldon– executive vice president-finance and administration: I lump these two together because what they are in charge of is more the nuts and bolts of publishing. I think it was a good idea for DC to bring in executives to handle this element of publishing and let the artists be artistic. Being that both of these guys are coming in from outside of comics, it should be interesting to see what they come up with.

All in all, this was a pretty big day for the comic book landscape, and I’m interested to see how this affects DC moving forward. Will this new executive team usher in an era where DC is the preeminent American comic book publisher, or will this team fall flat due to a “to many cooks in the kitchen” scenario? I have no idea, but I can’t wait to find out. Thanks for stopping in folks, have a great weekend, and if you happen to be in Long Beach tomorrow, drop me a line, Semantink will be representing at the Long Beach Comic Expo.

Greetings folks!

Over the past few weeks, the internet has been lousy with teaser images for new books spinning out of the latest event comics. The thing is, all of these new books are actually old books that are simply getting revamped. The Avengers line (all four books) are getting a face-lift after SIEGE. Aquaman will be returning (for the umpteenth time) at the conclusion of BLACKEST NIGHT. There is nothing wrong with a revamp, sometimes these things have to happen. As a matter of fact, I’m all in favor of revamping, so long as it’s good. Without revamps we never would have gotten Grant Morrison’s JLA, Bendis’ Daredevil, of Charlie Huston’s Moon Knight, so I love to hear about it when a tired comic is getting revamped.

However, there is a right way and a wrong way to revamp a book. If you are revamping a character that just couldn’t sell books, you need to bring in names. No one will care about a brand new, exciting direction for Rocket Racer is Steve from H.R. is writing it, but if Alan Moore is relaunching Rocket Racer, the book will be an instant sell out. If a book is feeling stale, you need to get new blood in there. Don’t bring back Chris Claremont to the X-men for a fresh voice, bring in someone new.

Our list today is a list of books and/or characters that I think could/should use a revamp, and who I would use to revamp them. I’m fairly certain none of these revamps will ever occur, but I would be greatly excited if they did. Enjoy!

AQUAMAN: The king of the relaunches, Aquaman has been revamped more than any other character in comics. Why? Because Aquaman, at his core, is a crappy character. There really isn’t a good angle to take on this poor man’s Namor, so that is why he gets a new series started (and canceled) every few years. For AM to succeed, you need top tier talent to go crazy on the Atlantean, so I say get Alan Moore to write and examine life under the sea from a whole new perspective. As an artist, you would need someone equally stunning, so I say bring in Jim Lee. Lee could make phone book reading look cool, so drawing dynamic underwater environments shouldn’t be too hard for him. If Jim Lee and Alan Moore can’t get Aquaman to be viable, then no one can.

DR. STRANGE: The Problem with Dr. Strange is that it’s hard to keep the stories grounded enough to have audiences care about the characters, and still fantastical enough to make us think magic is cool. It’s a fine line to walk, and one of the main reasons that the good doctor has had such a hard time keeping himself in a monthly book. If anyone could traverse different plains of reality while keeping characters interesting it’s Grant Morrison. From the artistic side, you would need someone with the chops to keep up with Morrison’s psychedelic scripts, and  J.H. Williams (who worked with Morrison previously on 7 SOLDIERS) would fit the bill nicely.

THE DARKNESS: When THE DARKNESS was first released, it was a great blend of horror, dark comedy, and that Top Cow style of art. In the years since it’s release the book has had it’s ups and downs, already relaunching twice, and never really going back to what made the book so great when it began. If you want to get the book back to it’s roots, you need a writer who can master dark comedy and horror, someone like, say, Stephen King? And to fit that Top Cow art style, how about David Finch, who grew up in the Top Cow stable?

JLA:  Like any team book, JLA needs a good spring cleaning every few years. Creative teams, characters, and attitudes all need to change to keep up with the times. The funny thing about JLA is that unlike other team books,  which will tweak rosters or change creators, the JLA will go from great to suck in about 10 issues and then  get a complete reboot about a year later. If DC wants to keep the book around for a while, they need a writer who a)understands the dynamics of a team and b) wont jump ship for something else after a year. Joe Casey would be my choice. Steve McNiven as the artist would keep fans coming back on a month to month basis, just to see the pretty pictures.

THE SENTRY: When Marvel first put out THE SENTRY mini-series, I was amazed. Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee created this Superman-like character who was so messed up he was Earth’s greatest hero, and it’s worst villain. In the decade since THE SENTRY was first released, nothing new or exciting has been  done with the character. The Sentry has stood on the edge of cool, but no one to date has made him a character I care about. I say let Neil Gaiman take a crack at exploring what makes The Sentry tick, and have Frank Quitely illustrate the bad boy. If those two were doing SENTRY book, the golden avenger would definitely be a character I’d pay attention to.

ALIENS: ALIEN comics have been around for a long time, but I can never bring myself to buy one. As a friend of mine said, all things alien have been action based ever since James Cameron’s ALIENS movie. I say take the book in a different direction, and make the aliens scary again. It shouldn’t be hard, I mean you have these acid-blooded killing machines running around hiding in the dark and killing people in space. Robert Kirkman has proven with THE WALKING DEAD that he can write a mean horror story and  no one uses heavy blacks like Jae Lee. I’m quivering already!

MORBIUS: Vampires continue to be a hot seller in pop culture, so it’s only fair that Marvel’s vampire, Morbius, gets a second chance at being cool. Steve Niles has been writing spectacular vampire fiction for years with the 30 DAYS OF NIGHT franchise so he gets the writing nod. On art, Mike Mignolia would be able to lend his Gothic sensibilities and show the world that a living vampire (yup that’s really Morbius’ tag line) could be cool.

SUICIDE SQUAD: When Josh Ostrander wrote the suicide squad, it was about the coolest book around. Second tier bad guys sent out by the government to wreck house, and if they died, well, they were second tier. The book was action packed and you never knew who would make it to the next issue. Since then no one has been  able to capture the greatness of the original series, with art that was too cartoony  or stories that just fell flat. Warren Ellis basically wrote the Marvel version of the squad when he was writing THUNDERBOLTS a few years ago, and his dark sense of humor would fit the book well.  John Cassaday draws everything well, and his work on ASTONISHING X-MEN and PLANETARY showed he can handle a team book.

THE BLACK WIDOW: With an upcoming appearance in IRON MAN 2 this summer, it’s time to make the Black Widow cool again. Brian K. Vaughn wrote bad-ass women for years on Y: THE LAST MAN and  Tim Sale would be a sure thing drawing the adventures of Marvel’s Russian femme fatale.

WILDCATS: Every few years, the Wildcats are cool. They were cool when Jim Lee Drew them, they were cool when Alan Moore wrote them, and recently they were supposed to be cool when Grant Morrison and Lee were supposed to team up on the book. Sadly that never happened, so the Cats have been floundering the past few years. THE WILDCATS is at its best when it is pushing the envelope and Mark Waid is a master of envelope pushing. Jim Cheung draws great action and great team books, both a must if WILDCATS is going to get back to it’s former glory.

THE HAND: Marvel’s favorite assassins, The Hand, used to be martial arts bad-asses. Then everyone and their mom started using them as punching bags for the Marvel U. These The Hand are basically a group of red-pajama-d masochists. With Daredevil taking over the ninja clan, this would be the time to make them cool again. The team of  Matt Fraction and David Aja was able to work wonders with Iron Fist a few years ago, so I would task them with making ninjas awesome again.

BATMAN’S ROGUES: There is nothing wrong with Batman’s rogues gallery. They have been, and always will be the greatest assortment of psychopaths in comics. The problem lately has been Batman. With Bruce Wayne dying and Dick Grayson taking up the mantle, all the focus has been on Bats, with his great villains getting no love. We need to show some respect and give the rogues a title of their own. I propose a comic set up like the show OZ, showing all of Batman’s baddies interacting within the asylum. Garth Ennis could make sure that the the comic never gets dull,  and Alex Maleev could lend his gritty art style to really set the stage for bad-assery.

NOVA: NOVA is actually a great book right now and is not in need of a revamp or relaunch. DnA are doing a great job with this book, so why is it on this list? Potential Greatness. Marvel has a chance to make The Nova Corps as great as DC’s Green Lanterns but it has to be done right. Just like DC has a GL solo book and a GL Corps book, Marvel must do the same with Nova. Put  Joss Whedon in charge of writing a diverse bunch of characters in the craziness of space and the book will sell. Add in Brian Hitch doing his wide-screen action thing, and you have a must read which sets the franchise up for long lasting success.

Well, that’s it for today folks. thanks for stopping in, and have a great weekend!

Happy Monday folks!

Welcome back to my look back on the decade that was in comics. if you missed yesterday’s blog covering 2000–2004, you can check it out here. The last part of the 2000s was a busy time in comics. Let’s look, shall we?

2005

All star team: Due to the success that Marvel had with their Ultimate line, DC comics responded with the DC All Star line. The idea behind the line was simple, pair the best talent in the business up, and let them have fun with DC’s most popular characters. It seemed like a recipe for success.

The line launched with two titles, ALL STAR SUPERMAN, and ALL STAR BATMAN (AND ROBIN THE BOY WONDER), with The NEW X-MEN team of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely on Superman, and seminal Bat-talent Frank Miller and Jim Lee on Batman. DC planned more All Star books (Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Green Lantern) to be launched shortly after the initial books began publication.

The results of the All Star line were a mixed bag. All Star Superman (I refuse to abbreviate it down to ASS) was well received by critics and fans alike. ALL STAR BATMAN, however did not go so well. The book was (and still is) constantly plagued by delays, and Frank Miller, once considered the seminal Batman writer, seemed to have have Bats go crazy, at one point having the caped crusader yell at Robin, “Because I’m the goddamn Batman!” The other planned All Star titles never got off the ground.

The idea behind the All Star line was a great one, but so far the execution has been spotty.

The power of Bendis compels you: One of the creators that Marvel began to rely on heavily in the latter half of the decade was Brian Michael Bendis. Bendis, who was a lauded indy creator for years before landing the writing gig on DAREDEVIL (where he was spectacular), took a hand in shaping the landscape of the Marvel universe in 2005.

Bendis took over THE AVENGERS only to disassemble them, leading to his first major Marvel event, HOUSE OF M. In HOUSE OF M, Bendis got rid of almost all of the mutants in the Marvel universe, drastically reshaping it. He stayed on THE AVENGERS, reassembling them after H.O.M. and turning the team into one of Marvel’s top selling books.

Some fans don’t like Bendis’ style of story-telling, but the man sells books. He continues to be one of the most influential creators at Marvel today.

Sign me up!: With the comic book industry rebounding well from the debacle that was the 1990s, the big two comic book companies tried desperately to hang on to their talent. As a result both companies both began offering exclusive contracts to creators.

2005 was a big year for DC and exclusive contracts. They locked up some of their emerging talent like Justiano and Bill Willingham, and stole the Kubert brothers, Andy and Adam, away from Marvel.

What’s wrong with stick figures?: In 2005, Randall Monroe, a former NASA contractor, began working on a web comic called xkcd. Why do I mention this? Because xkcd is currently the number one web comic out there. Not bad for a bunch of stick figures!

Sequential Titan: Will Eisner, the master of sequential art and creator of THE SPIRIT, A CONTRACT WITH GOD AND OTHER TENEMENT STORIES, and Comics and Sequential Art passed away in early 2005, and the industry lost a legend.

That’s a nice coat: With properties like Spider-man, Hellboy, and the X-men doing well on the big screen, Hollywood continued to mine funny books for inspiration.

Robert Rodriquez and Dimension films decided to take the Frank Miller noir, SIN CITY from page to screen and the results were impressive. The movie made $158 million dollars, almost 4 times what it cost to make. Rodriguez compiled an all-star cast and even got Quentin Tarentino to direct part of the film.

The film was a marvel to behold, and by far the purest comic to film translation that I had seen at the time, with some shots looking like they came directly out of the book. The use of color was sparing in the movie (just as it had been in the SIN CITY graphic novels) and used to great effect. The movie was filmed almost entirely in front of a green screen with backgrounds being added in afterward.

The success of this movie directly led to another Miller graphic novel, 300, being translated into film just a few years later.

2006

Never trust a ginger: In 1986, DC comics launched a company-wide cross over called CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, cleaning up a then-messy continuity and revamping and/or relaunching all of their major titles. Twenty years later, Dan Didio and DC decided it was time for another crisis.

INFINITE CRISIS was meant to again change the face of the DC universe. The story was penned by DC writing guru Geoff Johns, and drawn by Phil Jimenez, and was something DC fans were quite looking forward to. The lead-in to INFINITE CRISIS was very well constructed, with four mini-series each leading into the series proper.

While the story started strong, it soon lost momentum. Due to Jimenez having problems with his deadlines, DC turned to fill-in artists to keep the event coming out on time, which lead to a very uneven looking book. The story also lost focus toward the end, disappointing many fans.

While the book was not success DC hoped that it would be, it did have some positive ramifications for DC. Sales for INFINITE CRISIS were huge, and the aftermath of the series led to one of the greatest series of the last decade, 52.

That’s impossible!: Conventional wisdom tells us that comics take about a month to make. Over the years, books have tried with varied degrees of success to do a bi-weekly book, but to try and do a weekly book would be crazy, and impossible. At least that’s what everyone thought until 52.

52 took four of DC’s top writers and a rotating group of artists and produced a comic that came out  every week, on time, for a year. This was a feat unto itself, but add in the fact that the book was actually a great read, and you have a miracle.

Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, and Greg Rucka each took turns writing four intertwining stories about second tier characters and their reaction to the aftermath of INFINITE CRISIS. While the penciller in each issue changed, the layouts for all 52 issues were drawn by Keith Giffen, so the book never felt too uneven artistically. All 52 covers for the series were drawn by JG Jones.

Without 52, weekly books would still be considered impossible. Thanks to the success of the book, both Marvel and DC have continued to experiment with the weekly book format. It is a series that has changed the face of the industry (and it rocked).

Oh, it’s on: If DC has a big, crazy crisis, Marvel has to have a war. It was the case in 1986 with the original CRISIS (Marvel responded with SECRET WAR), and it was the same in 2006 when DC had a whole new crisis.

Marvel countered the DC event with CIVIL WAR, a company-wide crossover that pitted heroes against one another due to a proposed registration act for super-heroes. The story was written by Mark Millar with art by Steve McNiven.

In the story, Iron Man and the heroes that are Pro-registration begin working as government agents, and their primary targets are the heroes who decided not to register (as let by Captain America). Trust me the story is much better than I just described.

The book brought wholesale changes to the Marvel U, and directly contributed to the death of Captain America. Steve McNiven’s art was a thing of beauty, and any story with a clone Thor is bound to be pretty bad-ass. The story wasn’t perfect but it was fun.

A great idea: Uclick LLC, a company that sells digital entertainment (not like that, you pervs) for computers and mobile phones, began publishing comics for smart phones. They would be the first (though certainly not the last) company to provide comics for phones.

Because the world needed John Woo to make a comic: Richard Branson and Deepak Chopra started Virgin comics in 2006, for reasons no one quite knows. Virgin grabbed names from all over Hollywood, like John Woo and Nicholas Cage, to cultivate comic book ideas for them. I only mention this so I can show you the greatness of RAMAYAN 3352 A.D.

Cha-ching: Comics had another price jump in 2006, ending the year at $2.99. I remember this because it drastically reduced the number of books I was buying each week.

2007

Ouch: Captain America, fresh of a disheartening loss in CIVIL WAR, was shot dead early 2007, by his long-time nemesis, the Red Skull (sorta kinda, go read it, it was good).Though death is never terribly permanent in the comics, it was still a sad moment. Cap did stay dead for almost 3 years by the way.

The death of Cap was covered in mainstream media as well with ABC news actually reporting on the story.

Calling all comic book lovers: DC comics, seeing an emerging market for comics on the internet started Zuda comics in October of 2007. The idea behind the web-comic division was that creators could  create and submit their own 8 page comics, and the ten best comics every month would be given a contract to continue with 52 more pages of work.

Zuda had some early concerns arise about copyright and contract issues, but the DC subdivision continues to thrive. This was a spectacular idea on the part of DC to capitalize on a growing market and give newcomers a chance to shine.

You can find anything online: After several failed attempts, Marvel comics put 2,500 back issues of their catalog online for viewing, with new comics added every week. Unlike previous initiatives, this was set up as a subscription service to readers. This was the first time that comics became readily available for readers on a consistent basis.

There had to be a better way to do this: Ever since Joe Quesada had taken over Marvel, he complained about Spider-man’s marital status. You see, Spidey is married, but apparently, Joey Q thought the web-slinger worked better as a web-swinger. The only problem? Quesada didn’t want to kill Mary Jane (Spider-man’s wife), and didn’t want the pair to have a divorce. The solution that the editor-in-chief came up with was almost universally considered one of the stupidest things to ever occur in comics (and that’s saying something), ONE MORE DAY.

The universally panned story spun out of CIVIL WAR and involved Spider-man literally making a deal with the devil to save his always sick Aunt May from certain death. The result of the deal was that Spidey was never married to Mary Jane, undoing twenty years of continuity and pissing of Spider-man fans everywhere.

While Spider-man has been exceptional for the most part since the ONE MORE DAY, many fans still hold a grudge and refuse to read Spider-man books, feeling cheated. Quesada has done a lot of great things since taking over Marvel, this was not one of them.

2008

If ever there was a time for theater hopping: 2008 was a banner year for comic book movies. In one summer, fans were treated to Iron Man, The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk, and Hellboy II.

Iron man and The Dark Knight were both critical darlings and Hulk and Hellboy were both a ton of fun. TDK even garnered several Academy award nominations, with Heath Ledger winning posthumously for his role as the joker (god, he was good).

Best use of a tiger wearing a monocle: Even though their last cross-over had fallen a little flat, DC still had one more crisis up their sleeve, this time penned by Grant Morrison with art (at least initially) by JG Jones.

While the two previous crises had been overwhelming in terms of characters, FINAL CRISIS was overwhelming in scope. Morrison packed every idea that he could into FC and it was a bit too much, losing many readers along the way. The story also suffered from uneven art when Jones couldn’t meet deadlines and back up pencillers had to help out.

There were some very important things to come out of Final Crisis: First, Batman died. Yeah, you heard me, he died. Second, there was a fight between two man-tigers, and one of them had a monocle.

Alien love? Why you gotta say alien love?: With audiences given a year to get over CIVIL WAR, Marvel launched their next big event, SECRET INVASION, pitting the heroes of Earth against shape-changing aliens called Skrulls. The only problem? None of the heroes knew who was a Skrull and who wasn’t.

SECRET INVASION was written by Brian Michael Bendis, who had been planning the event for years, with art by Lienil Francis Yu

The premise of the cross-over was magnificent, but like so many events, it fizzled at the end. While the story did lead to more big changes for the Marvel Universe, it left many readers a little cold on event books.

Taken too early: Michael Turner, a great artist, and even better human being lost a long fight with cancer in 2008.

Style over substance: Radical comics “launched” in 2008. This gets a mention because they had a booth at the San Diego comic con in 2006, and thusly their launch date confuses me. Dirty dirty!

2009

Defiling the mechanical owl: One of Time Magazine’s 100 best novels, WATCHMEN made it to the big screen in 2009 after years of development hell. While the film was far from flawless, it was very entertaining, and was as close as anyone could have gotten to depicting the story in movie form. Kudos to Warner Bros. and director Zack Snyder for having the balls to go crazy on the project.

Fear the mouse: In mid-2009, it was announced that Disney bought Marvel to the tune of $4 billion dollars or so. While the purchase was held up in court until this past week, this could have huge ramifications for the comic book industry.

I’m here to look back, not forward, (that’s a whole different blog) so I wont go into what this could mean for comics, but the Disney/Marvel team-up is something for all comic book fans to keep an eye on in the next decade.

Anything you can do, I can do better: Shortly after Marvel and DC announced their deal, DC came forward with news of their own: The company was restructuring into DC Entertainment, bringing the comic book company closer to Warner Bros. proper.

Again, I don’t want to speculate too much, but this exciting news simply for the possibility of finally getting a FLASH film made.

Beam me up Scotty: Robert Kirkman, who had been a home run hitter for Image comics with titles like THE WALKING DEAD and INVINCIBLE, became the first new partner at Image since the seven members who founded the company in 1991, and perhaps just as importantly, the first writer to become a partner.

Not while you are driving: While Uclick began making comics available for smart phones a few years earlier, 2009 saw a huge increase in apps for comic book enjoyment.

Applications like Comixology, panelfly, and iverse have given readers plenty of choices for comics on the go, and Marvel even signed a distribution deal with several apps.

Guess who’s coming to dinner?: Announced at SDCC, the rights to Marvelman, the unicorn of comic book characters (unattainable, mythical, pretty) were obtained by Marvel. While details on the deal were hazy, the idea of Neil Gaiman, or even (gasp) Alan Moore returning to the character they wrote so long ago, got the geek in many salivating at the idea.

That’s more than a triple venti latte!: This past year saw the price of your average comic rise all the way up to $3.99. That’s pricey.

It has been quite a decade for comics, and it’s looking like the next ten years will be just as exciting. What will come of the Disney/ Marvel merger? Will comics become a predominantly digital medium? Will comic book stores survive? I can’t wait to see what happens as we move forward.

Thanks for joining me on my trip down memory lane, and prepare yourself for double the Mr. Wolff this week as he fills in for Sgt. Angle. Thanks for stopping in, see you tomorrow!