More NonSense: Best of 2017

Bill Gates considers The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui to be one of the his 5 favourite books of 2017.

The AV Club lists their best comics of 2017.

NPR lists the graphic novels they rank among 2017's great reads.

Paste has posted their the 25 Best Comic Books of 2017 and the 10 Best Kids Comics of 2017.

Tor lists the Top Spec-Fic Comics of 2017.

CBC lists the best Canadian comics and graphica of 2017.

Paste ranks every Disney-era Star Wars comic.

i09 has their 15 Best Comics of 2017.

In a ruling which will impact the convention circuit, a jury ruled in favour for Comic-Con International in their trademark dispute with Salt Lake City Comic Con. The argument was whether the phrase "comic con" was a generic term or fell within the SDCC trademark for "comic-con." SDCC however was only awarded $20,000 in damages, well below the $12 million being sought. Heidi MacDonald and Rob Salkowitz have noted that the jury ruled SLCC's infringement to be unintentional despite emails being presented where the SLCC organisers admitted that they were aware that they were infringing SDCC's trademark.

Michael Cavna posted a cartoon tribute to his late father.

Miles Wray on the fall from grace of Dilbert creator Scott Adams.

Joe George on the humanism of Watchmen.

Hillary Chute on the evolution of LGBTQ identity in comics.

Bret Lang reports on the corporate shake-up following the disappointing box office performance of Justice League. Of particular interest to comics is the vague description of DC's Geoff Johns being demoted to a more advisory role, and the tighter integration of DC into the Warner Brothers studio system.

Johns, who reports to DC president Diane Nelson, works in areas such as television (and has written various episodes for DC-inspired shows), publishing, and consumer products, in addition to his contributions to the films. Going forward, his work on the films may evolve, and could be more advisory in nature. 

These people also say that Emmerich is weighing the idea of further integrating DC’s film operations into the studio’s main movie arm. That would entail putting the divisions under the same roof rather than having DC remain in a separate building on the lot, sources say. Marvel, which is owned by Disney, does operate its comic book film division autonomously, but other studios, such as Fox and Sony, produce their superhero films under the studio’s banner.

The aforementioned Emmerich is Warner Bros. Picture Group President Toby Emmerich.

Image via Star Wars

Did anyone notice that a new Star Wars movie is out? I hear it's getting rave reviews.

[Spoiler Alert]

To no one's surprise, The Last Jedi is on the receiving end of some fan backlash, just as with The Force Awakens in 2015. And as with any piece of pop culture with a dedicated fanbase, fans have many opportunities to nitpick at any number of things, however minor: from the existence of new lifeforms, director Rian Johnson's sense of humour, the introduction of new Force abilities, the death of some fan favourite characters, to the dismissal of dearly-held fan theories. A certain portion of fandom is being empowered by Mark Hamill's early comments about the writing of the character he plays, Luke Skywalker.

Hamill's comments are indicative of their sentiments. If The Force Awakens was sometimes criticised for retreading familiar ideas, The Last Jedi noticeably questions most of them, especially the legacy of the Jedi order and the Skywalker family line. J.J. Abrams' film presented fans with a new "Chosen One" in the form of Rey, but Johnson's treatment of Rey roundly rejects the very concept. To those fans, changes like these represents some kind of betrayal of the franchise.

That's a tad overblown. Whatever one thinks of the answers given or if expectations were subverted, the film operates well within the confines of the Star Wars playbook while still finding even more ways to fit in more complex character arcs, deeper world-building, and a more inclusive cast.  Luke might start out a broken man full of self-loathing, but he regains his mojo to completely outclass his former apprentice Kylo Ren. The Jedi order is dead, but finds new life in a new generation represented by Rey. The Republic the Rebel Alliance fought so hard to establish in the original trilogy is in tatters, but the fight against facism goes on.

The Last Jedi is very a middle chapter kind of story. It's meant to ramp up the tension and create new complications. But with time, the more extreme reactions to it will fade, and the film will earn its place in the franchise.

And the scene of Luke drinking green milk out of the teat of an animal was the best.

[End Spoiler]

Sean T. Collins thinks these are The 50 Greatest Star Wars Moments.

Someone has to bring up the Star Wars Holiday Special, so we won't forget what a story that really steps out of the boundaries of "canon" looks like.

Nick Gillard talks about choreographing the three way lightsaber duel between Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace.

Enough with the irrational hatred for midi-chlorians.

Lauren Michele Jackson on how modern animation subverts the minstrel tradition.

More NonSense: Jack Kirby Centennial

Image via The Beat

Jack Kirby, the King of American comics, would have been 100 years old this August 28. The Jack Kirby Museum has a number of events celebrating his centennial.

Kyle Pinion recommends 10 must-read single issues from the King.

Jeet Heer on the King.

Walt Simonsson talks about the influence of Kirby.

Comic-Con International has made its Kirby's 100 tribute book available for download.

Marvel has a Kirby tribute page.

Heidi MacDonald has a few images of Kirby.

Kabuki Nagata of the Japan Times reports that digital manga sales might have overtaken its paper counterparts. That's a huge portent from the world's largest comic book market.

Thanks to smartphones, many people have changed how they read manga, with a myriad of e-comics just a few taps away on their handsets without the need to carry print versions. 

The rise of digital manga is also changing the landscape of the traditionally closed manga businesses as well. Seeing growth potential, many firms, not only existing publishing houses that dominated the era of paper comics but also tech and overseas players, have jumped into the market with manga apps. 

In the meantime, people in the industry say the paper market is likely to keep shrinking and its future remains uncertain. Some are seriously concerned about the fate of manga magazines, which have long served as mediums to introduce new titles, as their role is being taken over by smartphones.

Congratulations to the 2017 Hugo Award Winners.

Asher Elbein acknowledges the work of colorists and letterers.

Geoff Johns, Holy F*&!

Flash #22

Story: Joshua Williamson
Art: Howard Porter
Colors: Hi-Fi
Letters: Steve Wands
Cover: Jason Fabok, Brad Anderson

Flash (Barry Allen) created by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino.
Jay Garrick created by Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert.
Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.

The last instalments of “The Button” story arc felt like an exercise of running in place. Clues were teased and some moments were played out for their nostalgic value. But there was a dearth of actual revelations. The origins of the smiley face button are never discovered, and the powerful entity Reverse Flash refers to as “God” remains hidden. This last chapter doesn’t advance any of the main plot points. On the contrary, both Batman and Flash get to witness again the death of Eobard Thawne at the hands of his unseen God.

The comic’s primary attraction, as made clear from the cover, is in its teasing of a reunion with the original Flash Jay Garrick. As in the guy from the 1940s who used to live on Earth 2, not his New 52 counterpart. The character’s presence is of enormous symbolic importance. And his teammate Johnny Thunder has already put in an appearance. DC isn’t quite ready yet for the full restoration of the classic Golden Age milieu. So we only get a few pages of Barry and Jay interacting before the latter is pulled back into the chaotic timestream.

After four issues, Batman and Flash have little to show for their investigation. What they found out is pretty much what they already knew when DC Rebirth began. And they lost the button to Doctor Manhattan. Not that they know this yet, because DC is is still holding off on this revelation, even though this isn’t a surprise to anyone following their comics for the last several months. The reasons for the story’s lack of forward movement are revealed in its epilogue - essentially an advertisement for the upcoming event that will be the official coming out of the Watchmen characters, Doomsday Clock. And as if to show that things are finally getting serious, the panels revert back to the nine panel grid first used in Batman #21. Look out folks! It’s the battle of the Supermen.

Flash #21 & Batman #22

Flash #21
Story: Joshua Williamson
Art: Howard Porter
Colors: Hi-Fi
Letters: Steve Wands
Variant Covers: Jason Fabok, Brad Anderson, Mikel Janin

Flash (Barry Allen) created by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino.

At the end of the last installment, Barry Allen scurried over to the Batcave only to find a bloodied and unconscious Batman, and the burned corpse of Eobard Thawne, aka the Reverse Flash. This issue of The Flash opens with another superhero joining the time-displaced Saturn Girl in knowing that something is terribly amiss with the DC Universe. An aged Johnny Thunder screams his magic word to the heavens, only to wait in vain for his faithful Thunderbolt. He clearly remembers the existence of the Justice Society of America. Not that it helps when a bunch of orderlies show up to drag him back to his room at the retirement home. Johnny is just the first sign of the returning pre-New 52 Universe. This issue then keeps tapping into fandom’s nostalgia for DC's past.

To begin with, Barry admits to the convalescing Batman about experiencing visions of the Helmet of Mercury. But Johnny’s returning memories would indicate that Barry is actually foretelling the return of his predecessor Jay Garrick. And if that’s not enough, Barry later shows up at a cavernous Justice League storage room filled with artifacts that should not exist in the New 52. What could the Flash want from this outlandish and never before seen collection? Oh right.

The Cosmic Treadmill is a familiar Flash plot device, but has been virtually absent since the New 52 era began. So its reappearance means that some weird sh#@ is about to go down. Barry plans to use the treadmill to trace Thawne back to wherever he came from. He’s joined by the still injured Batman, because no one really talks him out of an investigation even when his health is on the line. Where do they end up? A most impossible place.

Batman #22
Story: Joshua Williamson, Tom King
Art: Jason Fabok
Colors: Brad Anderson
Letters: Deron Bennett
Variant Covers: Tim Sale, Brennan Wagner

Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.

According to Barry Allen, Flashpoint should not exist. Flashpoint isn’t an alternative reality, but a badly damaged DC Universe. Barry should know, since he was there when it was erased and then replaced by the New 52 timeline. Barry also sounds like every irate fan reading this comic. And that’s because he and Batman are somehow back at Flashpoint as if Barry never left. And they’re both facing this timeline's Batman, Thomas Wayne. Then they get to fight a bunch of Atlanteans and Amazons, because the issue needs some gratuitous violence to distract from dialogue that is basically a trio of superheroes arguing about their metafictional status. The big takeaway of their conversation is that only something immensely powerful could be messing with the DC Universe, since this mysterious entity can sustain an entire nonexistent timeline. At this point, I’ll be disappointed if no one less than Geoff Johns doesn’t show up at the end to explain his nefarious plan to control all reality by roofying Doctor Manhattan with the aid of Donald Trump.

Otherwise, this feels like an excuse to have Bruce Wayne meet his would-be father as an adult crimefighter. Batman has so far been pretty much a passenger on Barry's inter-dimensional chase. And it’s not as if Barry alone couldn’t have quickly mopped the floor with the bad guys while fixing his damaged treadmill. But at least fans get to witness just how awkward the imagined reunion would have been between these two emotionally stunted males who both like to cosplay as bats. The only weapon Thomas has left to fight the Atlantean and Amazon forces storming the gates is the gun that was used to kill his child. But fully-grown Bruce quickly swats it away. Did he forget just how severely injured he still is from fighting Thawne, or is Bruce just that much of a self-righteous prick? Still, Thomas gets the last word in when he tells his son that he doesn’t need to be Batman anymore.

Hey, the story arc is finally rushing to its conclusion. Where will the dynamic duo end up next? Will Bruce heed his father's sensible advice to raise a family? Maybe we'll finally get some real answers? Hah. Just kidding.

Action Comics #977 & Batman #21

Action Comics #977
Story: Dan Jurgens
Art: Ian Churchill
Colors: Hi-Fi
Letters: Rob Leigh
Covers: Andy Kubert, Gary Frank, Brad Anderson

Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

The “Superman Reborn” story arc had literally merged the two most recent variants of the titular character (the version who had existed since Crisis on Infinite Earths, and the newer New 52 version) into one, marking the first step towards another line-wide rewriting of the DC Universe. But what exactly does that mean for its already impenetrable continuity? And what is Superman’s personal history like this time? This issue of Actions Comics introduces yet another retelling of his origin story. And it’s a darn familiar one. How often can one re-arrange the same primary elements over and over again? Lone survivor of the doomed planet Krypton. Raised by the Kents on a farm in rural Kansas. Reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper. Possesses fabulous powers from absorbing the rays of the yellow Sun. If this comic is any indication, the comparatively rich history of the Post-Crisis era is returning in a big way. But with a few tweaks.

The comic opens with Clark working at the bullpen of the Daily Planet as if the the exposure of his secret identity and his untimely death had never taken place. The image is a fairly reassuring return to the status quo. His cubicle is cluttered with photographs indicating that Lois Lane is still his wife, and that their son Jonathan was born on this Earth and not during the weirdness that was Convergence. Everything is right with the world, except for the nagging feeling that something is seriously wrong. So Clark flies to the Fortress of Solitude to ask its computer to play back his entire life story, via the neat trick of immersive holographic simulation. That’s such a Star Trek thing to do.

Krypton again looks like a Silver-Age scientific utopia, blending various elements from all past incarnations, rather than a genetically engineered dystopian society that denies all emotion. Martha and Jonathan Kent find baby Kal-El and decide to pass him off as their own biological son, much like in John Byrne’s comic retelling The Man of Steel. Clark grows up with Lana Lang and Pete Ross. But in a concession to Smallville-inspired reboots, Lex Luthor is also a childhood acquaintance. And just as before, Clark reveals his powers to Lana, instead of hiding his abilities from anyone like some vagrant until he reaches Metropolis. Suck it Zach Snyder!

The retelling in itself is fairly pedestrian. It’s mostly a bullet list summary of the main plot points of Superman’s early life. And it wisely leaves plenty of room to add new details in the future. The significance of this comic is more in how it demonstrates that DC is carrying out their promise to clean out much of the New 52 history if it’s deemed unsuccessful. But who can they blame for this mess? Read on.

Batman #21
Story: Tom King
Art: Jason Fabok
Colors: Brad Anderson
Letters: Deron Bennett
Variant Covers: Tim Sale, Brennan Wagner, Mikel Jannin

Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.
Flash (Barry Allen) created by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino.

So, way back in DC Universe: Rebirth #1, Batman found the Comedian’s smiley-face button inside the Batcave. In this issue, he’s still puzzling over how this thing got into his secret lair. The stymied detective calls the Flash for assistance, since he suspects this is all related to the Speed Force. Batman's not wrong, given the reappearance of Kid Flash heralded the Rebirth. Unfortunately for him, all hell breaks loose when the Flashpoint version of Reverse Flash comes back from the dead and proceeds to kick the living crap out of him. It is a pretty brutal beatdown, as that iteration of Eobard Thawne was and is a huge dick. It also doesn’t help that he remembers that it was his timeline’s Batman who gave him the shaft.

The comic also does an amazing job trolling the work of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Thawne has a brief vision of someone he calls “God”, the person probably responsible for stealing ten years away from the DC Universe and heavily implied to be Doctor Manhattan. Artist Jason Fabok et al. further strengthen the connection to Watchmen by mimicking Gibbon's nine-panel grid in most of the comic's pages. He actually makes a good case for the technique by showing how it can stretch out time. Thawne’s assault on Batman lasts barely a minute. But it must be the longest minute in the Dark Knight’s career.

What else? The comic’s first appearance of Batman has him standing in front of the Batcave monitors while a hockey game is playing. This reads similar to Ozymandias’ own habit of having numerous monitors playing in the background while he keeps his own company. The bloodstained smiley face motif recurs throughout, from the markings at the center of the hockey pitch, to a poster in the background while a number of Arkham Asylum patients (including a time displaced Saturn Girl) watch the same game on television, to Thawne’s grinning visage being covered with Batman’s blood-soaked spit.

So... DC still won’t officially reveal the story's true universal threat, but keeps brazenly telegraphing the integration of the Watchmen characters into their cosmos while drawing out this not so compelling mystery. What’s not to love?

More NonSense: Hail Hydra!

A recent reminder of the disconnect between the comic book industry and the wider world is the firestorm over the revelation that the Captain America of the comics is now a Hydra agent in Captain America: Steve Rogers #1. Many veteran readers, including myself, were inclined to treat this as just another plot point that wouldn't actually change anything in the long run. But Marvel completely failed to anticipate how offensive this could be to those people still facing anti-semitism and other kinds of prejudice, or their newly acquired mainstream audience. Then there's the risk that these arguments might get conflated with traditional fan rage.

Sean T. Collins on the moral binary found in the Game of Thrones episode The Broken Man.

Ed Brubaker remembers when Alan Moore's Watchmen was treated as a victory for creators rights.

Ronald Wimberly on why publishers should pay artists for sample pages.  Seems obvious enough on the surface. But I forget that comic books are such a marginal part of the publishing business.

With Star Trek celebrating its 50th Anniversary, it's especially terrible to hear that actor Anton Yelchin has died from what sounds like a freak automobile accident.

Ben Judkins on Chinese martial arts as a vehicle of female empowerment, and how a young Captain America cosplayer was introduced to kickboxing.

DC Universe: Rebirth #1

Dave Gibbon's response to Watchmen's role in DC Rebirth and his thoughts on Batman V Superman (via Alexander Lu). 

Here were my initial thoughts on the announcement of  DC Universe: Rebirth #1:

Does Geoff Johns even hear the words he's spewing when justifying the use of Doctor Manhattan as the antagonist for DC Rebirth?

“It felt like there were things that had gone missing — not the characters but an overall feeling of hope and optimism... ” 

“If you’re going to have a conflict between optimism and pessimism, you need to have someone who represents a cynical view of life and also has the ability to affect this. I know it’s crazy but he felt like the right character to use.”

This is about as ethically and creatively challenged a statement as Johns can make - pinning on Watchmen the trend of dark and cynical comics while ignoring his own complicity in DC's creative output during the last two decades. I haven't forgotten his abuse of the characters from Crisis on Infinite Earths in the horrible Infinite Crisis. Not to mention the gorefest that was Flashpoint. And others could probably point to his time on JLA, JSA, or Blackest Night. So Johns is either being extremely cynical himself, or is demonstrating a staggering lack of self-awareness. Or he's misleading his readers for some reason.

Heidi MacDonald points out that there's a behind the scenes struggle between Johns and co-publisher Dan DiDio. DC Rebirth apparently represents Johns asserting more control over the entire lineup, as Johns has used the "Rebirth" tag on two previous stories which were written as course corrections to what he perceived as mishandlings of those properties. Both stories were characterized by their nostalgic approach. Hal Jordan and Barry Allen were brought back from limbo to reclaim the superhero mantles from their replacements. So it's not hard to read in his call for hope and optimism as code for a repudiation of the whole DC New 52 enterprise (and the DCYou initiative) in order to return to his cherished fundamentals.

This is the first time that Watchmen will play a central role in a mainstream crossover event. From a continuity standpoint, there's no real precedent for using Doctor Manhattan (or any of the other Watchmen characters) as the in-universe antagonist. So the only reasons for DC to make such a move are: (a) to keep pissing on the ashes of their relationship with Alan Moore by taking the final step of reducing his characters into just another mediocre corporate property (b) to grab headlines. For the last two decades, DC's stewards have been swinging back and forth between the two poles of being embarrassed by the company's own superhero properties, and celebrating their childlike appeal. The stakes for this infighting are a lot higher, now that Time-Warner is paying a lot more attention to what happens at their HQ. But coming after so many soft reboots, corporate reshufflings, and marketing gimmicks, this latest move feels like a tacit admission that the DC Universe is broken in such a way that it can't be fixed anymore with yet another editorially mandated change.

.......

Story: Geoff Johns
Art: Phil Jimenez, Ethan Van Sciver, Ivan Reis, Gary Frank, Alex Sinclair
Colors: Brad Anderson, Jason Wright, Joe Prado, Gabe Eltaeb, Hi-Fi
Inks: Matt Santorelli
Letters: Nick Napolitano

Having now gotten around to reading Rebirth. I'm struck by how much the comic is aimed at DC's core fanbase. There's an overwhelming sense of familiarity for anyone who's been following DC crossovers since 1985: the time travelling/dimension hopping shenanigans, a speedster delivering an ominous message, a mysterious antagonist with the power to threaten all of existence, the universal timeline needing to be fixed, yet again. And this is also marks Geoff Johns going back again to the well and returning a character from limbo, in this case Wally West. Not to mention that the artists employed here are among the most capable exponents of DC's house style within the last decade.

What is new is the unprecedented level of backtracking on display. The whole comic is basically a parade of ideas that were discarded by the New 52 relaunch five years ago, but whose absence is now being presented as symptoms of how things having gone very wrong since then. The whole spectacle doesn't feel so much an apology as Johns unleashing his venom on his colleagues for letting things get so out of hand. Change is being invoked for the sake of returning to some previous status quo (represented by a teenage Wally), and opposed by unseen forces (Doctor Manhattan). The ham-handed symbolism is only surpassed by the depressingly conservative* message designed to appease the preferences of entitled fans. Furthermore, this backward looking approach has the unfortunate effect of rendering every recent attempt to update, expand and diversify the DC lineup appear insincere in retrospect.

And Rebirth probably won't accomplish streamlining the DC Universe. Johns might believe that returning Wally to his long-abandoned Kid Flash role marks the return of hope and optimism. But this just seems to indulge his usual habit of engaging in intertextually dense storytelling meaningful only to the initiated.
___
*by that I mean that superhero comics are incredibly resistant to change/character growth, not their politics.

Resumption of Blogging

I've just completed a big move from Brisbane, which has left me little time to read or review. I did manage to catch the film adaptation of Watchmen before I left, and was planning to write about it. But I now don't have the energy, or the interest to clutter the internet with more commentary on the movie. I did react to the onscreen violence in much the same way that Jog did in his article:

There's no exchange of fists from the comics that can't be expanded into full-blown blocks ‘n throws combat. The Comedian doesn't just gas protesters from the eyes of the Owl Ship, he leaps into the fray and punches out the whole first line of protestors. If Gibbons draws lil' Rorschach biting a bully's cheek in one panel with speckles of blood on his face in the next, Snyder makes sure to close in on the flesh tugging and stretching and lavishly giving way to spilling grue. Even the generous splash of blood of that one guy getting his throat cut at the door to Rorschach's prison cell, one of the bigger bloody bits of the comics, is replaced by a major gore scene marked with a delighted close up of a buzz saw closing in on the man's arms, rending his skin and muscle to gristle...

Let's go back to that hard-rockin' fight scene with the Comedian. He takes what has to be a dozen or so direct hits to the face, flies through all sorts of objects, and we're specifically told he's not a superhuman - surely his face ought to be a lump of hamburger! But no, there's only a few trickles of blood, presumably because Gibbons only drew a few trickles of blood, which of course was because he and Moore were downplaying the entertainment value of the murder scene, i.e. exactly the opposite of what Snyder is doing, yet he keeps the trickle. That isn't the destruction of superheroes, that's Neal Adams' Batman in the ‘70s!

That is one reason why even when the film manages to be superficially faithful to the book, it actually undermines the original message in many little ways. It's doubtful that Watchmen will make cinematic history, but given the hyperbole that accompanies the graphic novel, it was inevitably going to disappoint many fans. This isn't an empty corporate property like Batman. The book itself is a singular achievement that can benefit from a frank reassessment.
*** I've just been going over my photographic film archives. I've been shooting in film twice as long as I've been shooting with digital. But there's no doubt that my digital output has recently surpassed my film output. Such is the convenience of digital photography. I haven't touched a traditional darkroom for more than seven years, and am unlikely to regularly use one from now on. All this has led to the realization that I need to digitize my film archives. I've been doing it on a piecemeal basis, but now I've got to get serious about it. But I need a better scanner than the one I have now. Just another thing to add to my wishlist.
*** Google is just as humourless as any large corporation. Or not.

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