It has been announced over on Bleeding Cool that Eddie Berganza, former Executive Editor at DC Comics, has now been announced as a group editor, and specifically has taken over the editorial reins for all the Super Books. Here is the link to that brief piece as well as the key blurb: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/12/05/eddie-berganza-taks-the-superman-books-back/
One of the announcements made at DC yesterday was that Berganza would take over editing all the Superman books.
Now one thing that I have been asking for has been 'eye in the sky' editor for the super-books. Someone who will make sure that the tone and characterization for these characters remains consistent from book to book.
Just this month, I read Supergirl #14 and Superman #14, subsequent chapters in the same crossover, with such different voices and tones in the characters that they could have taken place in alternate universes. I have hoped that someone would tidy up the post- Morrison continuity, knowing that Action Comics would take place in the 'now' rather than 5 years in the past.
And so you would think that an announcement that one editor would be running the super-books would make me a happy comic reader and Super-fan.
So the question remains ... is Eddie Berganza the right guy for the job? Is he the person I want editing Supergirl?
Well he was listed as editor on Action Comics #775, one of my favorite Superman stories of all time, which upheld just who Superman should be even in the current comic market.
And he worked with Mike Johnson over on Superman/Batman. That run included some great Supergirl moments in the Super-bat storyline and another of my overall favrorites Superman/Batman #62, 'Sidekicked'.
But ....
He was editor for the first 19 issues of the last Supergirl book. Remember this series?
She fought every hero she could.
She went to save and then abandoned Kandor.
She went crazy and bled crystals.
She paraded around her father nude, she snuck into bars because she knew a tight shirt would get her in, she was angry that a disaster interrupted her rave dancing. She bent over in front of Captain Boomerang and made a 'looking at her 'S'' joke. She was programmed to kill Superman.
Oh yeah, and she actually did kill her classmates on Krypton, gunning them down with her father..
She was not heroic, mostly bitter, difficult to like, and self-absorbed.
THAT IS NOT SUPERGIRL!
Has there been a lower point in Supergirl stories than those? I look back at those issues and cringe.
Eddie Berganza was the editorial voice on those books.
Well, he is the editor on Superman.
In two issues he has had her fly at Superman and call him a liar; backtrack and consider Kon as an it, not a person, and contemplate killing Superboy; she has sarcastically called humans 'precious'; and she has become H'El's dupe.
The Supergirl in the issues Berganza has been editor on is vastly different than the one we have seen in her main book. She has done things opposite to what she did in her own book.
Is that who Berganza thinks Supergirl is? Is he going to want to bring back the bitchy Loeb/Kelly Kara, the one that fans abandoned?
And I haven't even mentioned what Superman is like in those books.
So one editor is a good idea for family-wide continuity.
But I suppose it needs to be the right editor.
I don't know right now if Eddie Berganza is the right editor.
I guess time will tell.
But suddenly I am worried about Supergirl.
10 comments:
I don't know, I got the impression that the Loeb/Turner Supergirl was the product of a singular vision or editorial directive, one that was unlikely to have been Berganza's. Perhaps he'll listen to the current writer's preferences for the presentation of Kara?
Perhaps it's time for an email interview with Berganza!
I suppose I should give him the benefit of the doubt.
And if he would do it, I would love to interview him.
This is TERRIBLE news. Berganza is an awful editor with no regard for characterization or continuity. Suddenly I'm considering dropping the Superman family altogether.
I read the Lobdell/Kelly issues from the TPB from my public library. I agree they were at best okay once in a great while but otherwise was usually a mix of boring, illogical and she was a unlikeable character. During that run with Berganza as editor on it.
I just hope they don't have Kara do a "I was playing H'el for a fool all along to find out his real plan" at the end of the story.
It would be such a cop out ending especially since there aren't any hints of it. So far.
At the end of Superman #14 H'el admits he is mentally messing with Kara's mind. The first clue was when the "gift" he gave her was to instantly learn and understand the English language.
I don't know about this Supergirl series being that good. After all J & G hasn't revealed just how long Kara has been on Earth, didn't tell us just how long she was with Siobhan, (a couple of days? a week?) Kara has so far has very little active intermingling with Earth humans and society even during her time with Siobhan and her brother she otherwise kept to herself.
When J & G usually showed Kara thoughts they focus on the immediate situation even when she is alone. She hasn't revealed any anecdotal thoughts about her likes and dislikes anecdotes about her family or friends, the life she expected to live on Krypton. Example did Kara ever loved and lost a pet on Krypton type of thoughts.
I really do want to like this new Supergirl series but it is just missing "It" to me.
I remember Berganza on Supergirl and that he got fired off the book in 2007 for saying incredibly stupid things. http://www.filmfodder.com/comics/archives/2007/01/berganzas_bizarre_plea_for_sup.shtml
I also remember that he was terrible editor who had no feel for continuity, shuffled writers every 4-6 issues, and drove sales of the super titles into a huge hole from 2000-2006.
that link: http://bit.ly/WLNBvh
Gail Simone SOS Gail Simone SOS Gail Simone SOS...
JLG
I just read the article that The League has linked too, and now I think I want to hit something. Berganza should be kept as far away from Supergirl as possible!
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