News from around yesterday:
§ DC announced LEGACIES, a 10-issue trip through the Five Ages of DC written by Len Wein with art by a rotating cast, including various Kuberts.
DiDio explained that while the series would touch upon all the marquee superheroes expected in a universe-spanning DC event, the crux of the story will have a very personal, ground-level feel. “We’re seeing the Flashes change. We see the Green Lanterns change. And we see how the world evolves around them by seeing it through the point of view of two characters and how their lives change and how their families’ lives change in watching the DC Universe grow. It has a bit of a ‘Marvels’ feel, which I still think is a wonderful book, and I think it’s wonderful to tell the history of the DC Universe in this manner. We tell stories, and it makes more sense to tell this info in a story than in text.”
Yet, despite that last sentence, it was also announced that DC is finally updating THE HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE and WHO’S WHO IN THE DC UNIVERSE, the latter in 15 issues. The last WHO’S WHO came out in 1993, and there have been subtle changes to the DCU since then, so a new look might be warranted.
§ Geoff Johns is writing the FLASH like it was CSI.
§ Valerie D’Orazio is writing PUNISHER MAX
§ Matt Fraction is writing THOR, probably.
§ Now that’s more like it! At TCJ.com, Kent Worcester delivers just the kind of slapdown we need TCJ for.
§ The excellent IDW editor Mariah Huehner is interviewed in Buffyfest on the occasion of the Angel comic:
§ We had no idea that R. Sikoryak’s excellent MASTERPIECE COMICS was in its third printing! Way to go!
§ The Village Voice lists 2009’s Best Comics and Graphic Novels— it includes both Vertigo’s new hit, THE UNWRITTEN, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, and Al Columbia’s barely definable PIM AND FRANCIE, showing that someone thought about their picks. Finally, a list with some range.
“Geoff Johns is writing the FLASH like it was CSI.”
*THAT* is superhero decadence. Not to sound like John Byrne, but why not write the Flash like it was the Flash comic?
Because that’s been done about 6 billion times in the last 50+ years? I like that someone is finally going to put more focus on the police scientist aspect of Barry Allen.
I also want to see Clark Kent investigating stories, Matt Murdock trying cases in court, Bruce Wayne fighting evil corporations in the conference room, etc. etc. Focusing on civilian identities of superhero characters enriches the experience and avoids every story feeling like just another tights-and-muscles punch-up tale.
probably because since 1955 almost every possible Flash plot has been done and re-done so many times that it bores the average 35 year old comic reader still reading them.
IMO, Baker (Village Voice) wasn’t restrictive enough. Including a translation of a 1969 publication, a collection of political cartoons, and a book about a cartoonist turned the list into a collection of publications he was impressed by, not a survey of the field. That might be the case with any individual’s list, though.
SRS
If CSI included a guy in a red and yellow costume who ran around at the speed of light it wouldn’t be significantly less like real police work.
“Now that’s more like it! At TCJ.com, Kent Worcester delivers just the kind of slapdown we need TCJ for”
Oh yes, sure, that’s what the world needs – more pompous, pretentious, elitist commentary, complete with schoolyard name calling.
I clicked on the link expecting some insightful criticism, and all I got was the bottom level of message-board tongue-lashing that can be found anywhere on the web albeit elevated by snobbish references. Very disappointed to see a veteran journalist praise a character attack on a well-respected syndicated columnist whose lifelong passion for comic books is fairly known. Calling somebody a “nitwit”? The Beat has sunk to a new low in giving this childish behavior any form of respect. I realize that Gary Groth used to sign your checks (and mine as well, in fact, two decades ago), but I’m sure you could’ve found better ways to promote your old digs. Unless, of course, that article symbolizes the intellectual peak of the freshly reborn TCJ.
“The last WHO’S WHO came out in 1993, and there have been subtle changes to the DCU since then, so a new look might be warranted.”
It’s too bad they didn’t publish a “Who’s Who” in 1980; they could just reprint that.
Writing FLASH like CSI is a great idea … if it were still 2000.
I love the Flash, but there have been almost as many CSI stories than Flash stories. Seriously. Flash (vol. 1) ran 350 issues. Flash (vol. 2) ran 237 issues. That is 587 stories, roughly.
CSI has 517 episodes between its three incarnations and all of them have been told in the last decade. Hardly the freshest take on things …
But CSI has taught us that there is no crime that forensic science cannot solve in forty-five minutes and a low-cut top.
Tights and a microsecond is only the next logical step.
And to be fair, David Caruso has basically been playing Batman for the last seven years, anyway.
//oo/\
‘Finally, a list with some range.’
earlier you were upset about the inclusion of manga from a best of list.
My response to Captain Comics’ valiant defenders can be found here: http://www.tcj.com/?p=1329.
All that link goes to from here is a page saying “Apache is working on your cPanel® and WHM™ Server.”
If you’re referring to Kent Worcester’s TCJ link, it works just fine on a PC running Firefox.
SRS
As I am one of the aforementioned valiant defenders of Captain Comics, I suppose I should thank Mr. Worcester for deciding not to, how did he put it, “unleash my inner polemicist, and use my Journal affiliation to rip and tear my way across the web”. My gratitude, sir, for such a kind benevolence, as I had been quivering in my boots, awaiting such a fate, which I had feared was inevitable. Your flowing kindness, and obvious intellectual superiority to the the great unwashed, especially a troglodyte such as myself, really speaks to your character. You complete us.
Huh?