Review: Swamp Thing #50

Last week I reviewed Dark Crisis:The Deadly Green, a one shot tied to Dark Crisis On Infinite Earths and a definite homage to the classic Swamp Thing #50 from 1986. During the review I wondered if folks not familiar with the source material might not appreciate the issue as much as someone like me, someone who knows this book by heart. 

I love this issue. It came out at just the right time for me, in the middle of my teen years when comics were suddenly akin to literature and not juvenile nonsense. It seems almost silly to sing the praises of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing or the art stylings of Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, and Rick Veitch. But if you haven't read that run, you should. It is brilliant and stands up today.

With the homage fresh in my mind, I figured why not review Swamp Thing #50 here. It is one of my favorite issues of all time and why not shed some light on why I liked Deadly Green so much.

Sit back and prepare to be amazed. Everything about this book sings. It is hard to believe but the character of John Constantine was just a year old at this point. Some of the character aftermath of this issue stuck for years, even today. The art is utterly lush. 

On to the book.

Man of Steel Homage Panel

I know I read into this stuff too much. But when I read The Man of Steel #6, I was struck by the panel on the right. Here, a forlorn Clark sits slumped in Jon's room, contemplating how alone he is.

When I looked at that image, I couldn't help but remember the image on the left, the last panel of part one of Alan Moore's famous 'Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?' story. They are too similar in composition for coincidence.

But if this is an homage, it’s begging to be compared and contrasted. Because enough is different to make me wonder if writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Jason Fabok were intending on making look at the pictures and the reality they are expressing.

And that need to differentiate them starts with the simple decision to have one be Superman and one be Clark and having them face opposite directions. Now doubt they are similar, close enough for the second to evoke the first. But they are very, very different.

Supergirl Episode 13: For The Girl Who Has Everything

The thirteenth episode of Supergirl aired this week and was titled 'For the Girl Who Has Everything". Comic fans will know that title from Superman Annual #11, the famous Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons story where Superman falls victim of the Black Mercy and has visions of a life on Krypton. Advance pictures of the episode showed Kara with the Black Mercy flower so we knew we were getting a version of that tale.

But it could have been titled 'for the fans who want everything'. Because this was the best episode of the series by far. Before the show aired, Jeremy Jordan tweeted that this episode was going to be the finale of the season until a second half was picked up. And this felt like a season finale. There were great action sequences. There were a few surprises. There were truly emotional, heartfelt character scenes. And for me, those were the best moments.

Everybody shines in this episode which focuses of family, love, and loyalty. Melissa Benoist, as always, shows incredible range. From the happy girl back on Krypton, to the distraught one yanked from that fantasy, to channeling Hank Henshaw in some scenes, Benoist is a marvel. This is as much an Alex episode as it is a Kara one and Chyler Leigh also shines. Flipping from bad ass to desperate, Chyler Leigh really shines. But everyone has a moment at some point. This cast is so strong.

And so we have this mid-season finale.

Supergirl Show News From TCA 2016 - Vandervoort! Master Jailer! Alan Moore!

I haven't covered all the news and casting but when it comes as fast and furious as it did 2 days ago, I feel I need to comment. Especially because this news is so fantastic that I felt compelled to discuss it. At the Television Critics Association tour on Monday, the Supergirl show crew announced some bombshells. This Entertainment Weekly article does a good job of recapping them:
http://www.ew.com/article/2016/01/11/supergirl-laura-vandervoort-indigo-master-jailer

Settle in, there was a lot of news. And of course I have lots of things to say about so many of these. So some blurbs from the article will be followed by my usual banter.

Laura Vandervoort has been signed to star on the show starting in episode 15. She has been cast as Indigo. Indigo was a Titan who started out as an innocent robot but was then revealed to be Brainiac 8, sent back in time to kill Donna Troy. But here is the blurb describing her in the show.

Indigo is described by producers as a living, strong-willed supercomputer who was sentenced to Fort Rozz after turning against the people of Krypton. Now on Earth, Indigo will let nothing stand in her way.

“She’s badass,” executive producer Andrew Kreisberg says. “She’s going to look awesome. Definitely not going to look just like Laura. Being one aspect of the Brainiac program, she comes in through computers, so Winn is actively involved in that episode. She has a very interesting backstory. She was one of the Fort Rozz prisoners, but how she came to be and how she ended up on the prison, and what she’s been doing on Earth is part of the fun and the surprise of the episode.”

I am pretty pumped to have Vandervoort on the show, continuing the nice sense of legacy in the show. And bringing in a Brainiac derivative is great. Can't wait to see more. But let's be honest. We all know what we want.

We now have the chance to see all three actresses who have played Kara all together in one scene! This better happen!!

In other villain news, soap star Jeff Branson has been cast as the Master Jailer. In the comics, the Jailer was Carl 'Moosey' Draper, a brilliant scientist who grew up in Smallville, insanely jealous of Superboy and obsessed with Lana Lang. Here is the blurb from the article.

Jeff Branson will recur as the forceful and unrelenting jail guard on Fort Rozz who showed no mercy. Now on Earth, he is hellbent on catching all of the Fort Rozz escapees and brutally bringing them to justice.

One thing I like about this is that here he is one of the staff on Fort Rozz. I was wondering if there were any good guys on that prison. It'll be interesting to see if he has been hunting (and maybe executing) the Rozz escapees during all these years. Maybe be will play another ethical foil to Supergirl.

Lastly, in what I think is a brilliant move, the show will riff on the famous Alan Moore story 'For the Man Who Has Everything" in episode 13. In that story in Superman Annual #11 (a story everyone should read), Superman is given a vision of what Krypton would be like had it not exploded. It isn't all rosy. Kara has a bit part in the story, maybe something for me to highlight later. As for the Supergirl show:

“There was something about that particular story that, to me, was almost even more resonant for her,” Kreisberg said, noting that it’s a good guess that this will be the episode that features young Kal-El. “For Superman, when it happens to him, it’s his wish for something that he never had. But for her, she wants something back that was taken from her. It really is like her stepping into this fantasy of what life would’ve been like if she had never left Krypton and had grown up there, if her parents were still alive, if she had grown into the person and the life that she wanted to lead. Again, because it’s coming at a time where she’s feeling so low about her life on Earth, it becomes that much more potent… She’s actually getting back everything that was taken away from her and the only way out of it is to reject it. Imagine how horrible that’s going to be.”

Everything Kreisberg says makes perfect sense. She remembers Krypton. She would have an understanding of what life would be like. This is something she would truly want, unlike Kal who has no memories of the place. I can't wait to see this. Given how hard it was for Superman to reject the vision in the story, I am sure it is going to rip out Kara's heart. And this gives Melissa Benoist another juicy emotional scene for us to see.This also is a good explanation for the casting of a young Kal-El, news we heard about a while ago.

I don't know if they will do the 'Black Mercy' flower as the explanation for this dream. Could it be a telepath? Coma?

Lastly, we finally get confirmation that the Jane Doe in 'Blood Bonds' is BizarroGirl. Over on CBR, we get news of episode 12 called simply 'Bizarro'. Here is the article:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/kara-battles-a-bizarro-version-of-herself-in-supergirl-episode-12-synopsis

And the blurb:
"Bizarro" – Kara faces off against her mirrorimage when Bizarro (Hope Lauren), a twisted version of Supergirl, sets out to destroy her. Also, Kara grows closer with Cat’s son, Adam (Blake Jenner), on SUPERGIRL, Monday, Feb. 1 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

I don't know much about Hope Lauren but she certainly looks enough like Melissa Benoist to fool people from a distance. My guess is Max Lord unleashes her to besmirch Supergirl's character. I also bet that she starts out looking normal and slowly 'bizarro-fies' over the episode until she dies at the end. Let's see if I'm right.

Anyways, nothing not to love about any of this news. Laura Vandervoort!!!  

30th Anniversary: Crisis On Infinite Earths #5 Satellite Scene

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Crisis on Infinite Earths, I have been looking at the Supergirl specific issues, culminating in the classic Crisis on Infinite Earths #7.

Earlier this month, I reviewed Crisis on Infinite Earths #5 and showed how the creative team of Marv Wolfman, George Perez, and Jerry Ordway were really starting the stretch their legs on the book, bringing more and more characters from the DCU into the story.

And no scene captured that feeling more than the famous 'Monitor satellite scene' in the issue. There, on two pages, Perez stuffed in as many characters as he could, both the famous and the obscure, the popular and the forgotten. I can remember looking at these pages closely when the book first hit the shelves, trying to name everyone that I saw.

This scene certainly struck a chord to fans and creators alike because we saw it replayed elsewhere, albeit from different viewpoints. I thought, breaking briefly away from the Supergirl-centric approach to my Crisis coverage, I'd review those other versions of this gathering in a couple of Crisis cross-over issues and one late arrival.

Swamp Thing #46 was one of the more interesting Crisis cross-overs to hit the stand. This was smack in the middle of the run by the acclaimed, legendary team of Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, and John Totleben. Moore had made Swamp Thing into a true horror comic. This was the 'American Gothic' storyline, one which introduced the world to John Constantine. At this point, Swamp Thing didn't know exactly what was going on other than the world was becoming darker and a great metaphysical threat was approaching.

Moore had included the JLA as cameos in the 'Anatomy Lesson' arc and later in this book he would include other mainstream characters like Zatanna, Zatara, and Mento. He even has an arc where Swamp Thing fights Batman and later Lex Luthor. So Moore didn't shy away from dipping his toes in mainstream DC.

Here we open up with Swamp Thing just as he is brought to the Monitor's satellite. Constantine talks about the multiverse ending. We see him look into a globe similar to Morrison's Orrery of Worlds. And Constantine warns that there is more than just the physical worlds that people need to worry about.

It is great to see this scene from Swamp Thing's eyes. He feels out of place amongst the lunacy there. From Kamandi to Ambush Bug to the Creeper, it is Mardi Gras. It is a place of Gods and Monsters. Nice. Moore always had a turn of the phrase.

But I loved how Swamp Thing notices the reaction to Alex Luthor. Surprise and suspicion. I would react the same way. How do you trust a Luthor, even if he is from Earth 3?

Again, Swamp Thing at this point doesn't know exactly what part he is playing in this, just that Constantine has him blipping from place to place fighting monsters. They run into the Phantom Stranger who brings up the mysterious (at this point) Newcastle event.

There is a ton of foreshadowing here ... both in Swamp Thing's personal response to hearing the name Luthor to the Stranger saying he will see Constantine and Swamp Thing again. Nothing was wasted in these Moore issues. It remains a stellar read.

Finally we get a little information. Constantine and Swamp Thing will spearhead the defense of the spiritual planes while the super-heroes will defend the physical realm. I love Constantine's confidence that the physical world will survive. It is the other threat that is more dangerous.

Spoiler alert - Later in this issue we learn about the Brujeria, the Invunche, and the plan to bring back the Anti-God. All this comes to a close in Swamp Thing #50. Go out and buy these issues or trades!

We move from what I consider the best Crisis crossover, and certainly one of the more intelligent, to one of the sillier and forgettable crossovers, Infinity Inc. #22.

Now you have to remember that Earth 2, as it was, was going to disappear after the Crisis. The backbone of the All-Star Squadron and the history of Infinity Inc. was going to change dramatically. Roy Thomas was the writer of all the Earth 2 books and must have felt like he was playing continuity Jenga, removing a key piece somewhere and hoping nothing would fall.

Maybe because of this upheaval, Infinity Inc. got 8 Crisis cross-over issues - 7 monthly issues and an Annual! (Similarly, All-Star Squadron got 7 cross-over issues.)

Infinity Inc. #22, written by Roy Thomas with art by Mike Clark, Tony DeZuniga, and a young Tod McFarlane,  starts out smack dab in the middle of the Crisis on Infinite Earths #5 satellite scene.

The team, composed mostly of the children of the All-Star Squadron, meets up with their parents and spend a good portion of these early pages arguing with Helix, a super-villain team that spar with throughout the book.

One of the things that I like about these visits to this scene is we see the smaller picture. As Swamp Thing is just trying to absorb all he is seeing, these more seasoned super-heroes seem to take it all in stride.

So here we see Fury and Silver Scarab touch base with Wonder Woman and the Flash simply to compare notes.

I love Plastic Man and Elongated Man in these panels.

And look at Scarab waving to his parents.

Look closely though. There, in the shadows ...

Yep!

It's Supergirl! Standing between Deathbolt and Blok. And there is Braniac 5 too!

We get a bit of exposition here about what is happening in the Crisis. We have Alex Luthor again explain about the merging of worlds.

And, as in Swamp Thing, he is asking the gathered to trust him, to help him save the universe.

And then something of a left wing turn.

In 1999, 13 years after the Crisis, Marv Wolfman tapped the well one more time writing a one-shot issue of Legends of the DC Universe: Crisis on Infinite Earths #1. Art was by Paul Ryan. In this issue, the heroes journey to another world to try to stop the anti-matter wave from destroying everything.

One of the main characters in the story, as seen by the cover, is Supergirl. That's right, we get a whole issue of Kara Zor-El in the headband at a time when Linda Danvers was dealing with being an Earth Angel.

Seems a little odd ..

I am sure I will review this issue in it's entirety at some point.

But the last page of the book is another look at the satellite scene. This one is a bit more consistent with the original, from Harbinger to Pariah to Luthor and even Platinum and Mercury, the framework of the scene is the same.

There in the middle is Supergirl. She is hugging Superman. It is a bit chilling knowing what we know happens soon enough.

And so this closes my look at Crisis on Infinite Earths #5 and the famous satellite scene.

Back Issue #62

Knowing I had this week off from work and looking for some extra stuff to read, I broke tradition and downloaded a digital copy of Back Issue #62, a book I was unfortunately unable to find in the print version. As an amateur comic historian, I love Back Issue in general but this issue focusing on Superman in the Bronze Age is just a treasure trove for any Superman fan.

But for me, this was just about the perfect issue. I am in my early forties and I consider my formative years on comics to be the late 70s and early 80s. That's when I started to pick out favorite characters, be excited about the ancillary stuff like sneak previews and back-up features, and when I really became a Supergirl and Superman fan. So this issue struck the perfect mix of nostalgia as well as being unbelievably informative.

I mean just look at this table of contents!

There is so much here which I remember reading when these things first came out! Superman Family, World of Krypton, the Supermobile issues, the Superman Back-Up stories, the Alan Moore 'Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow', and even the Atomic Skull.

In particular, Superman Family and the World of Krypton and the Supermobile story with Amazo all have powerful memories for me.

Now there isn't any specific Supergirl piece in the issue, the Girl of Steel is generously sprinkled throughout the issue. The most salient articles for Supergirl fans is the first one in which the editorial switchover from Mort Weisinger to Julius Schwartz is covered and the Superman Family article.

There is a lot of small little blurbs about Supergirl in those articles.

This one I found interesting and reminds me I should reread those earliest Superman Family issues. In those stories, Elliot S! Maggin has Supergirl deciding to try to leave the super-hero business to help people 'person to person' as the guidance counselor at the New Athens Experimental School.

Despite that overt statement, super-heroics continue to follow Kara around and (if I recall) by the third issue of new Supergirl stories (in this book which alternated new stuff with reprints) Linda isn't bemoaning her life as Supergirl and diving into action as normal.

This picture crops up now and again and I would have loved to see this book. Can you imagine what it would have been like in the early 80s to have an all-woman superhero team. This is Birds of Prey before BoP was a twinkling in DC's eyes.

Supergirl writer Jack C. Harris wanted to create this team of Supergirl, Batgirl, Enchantress, and Vixen. What an interesting mix of characters! Someone should bring this idea back for a mini-series.

Anyways, I covered those Enchantress stories on this blog here and here.

But there is more.

The Superman Family article goes in depth about all the characters in the book, including the married Earth 2 Superman and Lois Lane. It was in these books that I first learned about Susie Tompkins, the telepathic niece now tormenting Superman in Grant Morrison's Action Comics.

Just a couple of more blurbs which grabbed me ... although again I will say this whole issue is great.

There is an article about the Earth 2 Superman and it covers the arrival of Power Girl.

In the original All-Star Squad books, Power Girl was fiercely independent and didn't want to be mentored. Too bad Gerry Conway couldn't explore that more. And ironic how now the Earth 2 Supergirl and Superman have a much more conventional relationship of mentor/protege than the Earth 1 versions nowadays.

Lastly, there is a very nice and in-depth review of the last pre-Crisis Superman, the famous Alan Moore 'Whatever Happened to ...' two-issue wrap-up. As it is pointed out here, I am amazed that this story was only 2 issues! Today it would be at least a 6 issue mini-series ... at least. I usually am anti-decompression. But man, I would have loved this story to be just a bit longer to explore a lot of the zaniness that happens here.

I love this story, a wonderful capstone to the Schwartz era and sort of clearing the deck for John Byrne. I cover the Supergirl bit of this story briefly here.

I haven't even commented on the Supermobile story or the back-up features! Amazing issues!

So definitely worth getting if you are a Superman and Superman family fan. Head to the TwoMorrows website to get your own copy!

Landry Walker Interview & Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow

You know what I can never get enough of? Supergirl Cosmic Adventures by writer Landry Walker and artist Eric Jones. It is hard to believe that the Eighth Grade mini-series came out 3 years ago. Despite that time lag and that this was a all ages mini-series, the series continues to get publicity. It makes me wonder why DC never gave the green light to a sequel.

The latest love lavished was in the War Rocket Ajax podcast over on Comics Alliance. Writer Landry Walker was interviewed by Chris Sims and talked for a fair amount about Cosmic Adventure before even getting to Danger Club. Here is the link to the interview, well well worth listening to if you were a fan of Cosmic: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/07/30/war-rocket-ajax-123-landry-walker-talks-danger-club-and-sup/

Walker shows up around 35 minutes in. On Alliance, there is this one blurb about how in Cosmic Adventures in the11th Grade we were going to get a reverse point of view of the Fortress scene in Alan Moore's Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? Here is that transcript:

WALKER: We were hoping to do Supergirl's Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, then 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade, and then after that is Crisis on Infinite Earths. So it's sad then.

SIMS: So you were building to her death?!

WALKER: It's in there! Read issue 6. We mention it, Lena actually says "the red skies are coming!" I don't think we were going to actually get to that, but one of the scenes I had planned for 11th Grade, you know the scene that takes place in Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, where Supergirl visits Superman after her death? We were going to redo that scene from Supergirl's perspective, because she was going to spend that 11th grade year in the 30th Century. I usually don't like to tell this stuff, but we're not going to get to do it, so...

I think I have gushed enough about Walker and Jones approach to Supergirl here. But I will reiterate that I loved that they acknowledged Supergirl's history in so many ways during Cosmic. To know that this scene was being planned and will never be seen just adds frustration. Why hasn't there been more?

Anyways, here is the scene Walker was going to recreate. This was the last pre-Byrne Superman story and Alan Moore was allowed to pull out all the stops. At this point, Superman has gone to the mattresses, using the Fortress of Solitude as a bunker, hunkering down with his friends while super-villains amass outside. While in the Fortress, the Legion shows up ... with Supergirl in tow. Remember in this continuity Supergirl has died in the Crisis.

Superman is, of course, shocked to see his cousin again. And this is a very young Kara, in her original blue skirt uniform, wondering if she has grown up to be pretty.

Stammering a bit, Superman leads Supergirl away from her memorial statue so she doesn't see her fate.

Superman chastises Brainiac 5 for bringing Kara. It is more than distressing; it is unnerving.

Brainy hints that there is more here than meets the eye. Superman equates it with the Legion paying their respects, one final visit.

Moore does a great job conveying Supergirl's youth and innocence, showing her immediately going to play with Krypto.

Of course, the rules of time travel (at that time in the DCU) is that two versions of the same person couldn't exist at the same time. So the young Supergirl wonders how it was that she was able to materialize. Of course, that is because there is no other Supergirl at this time; she has passed.

Look at how easily the master Curt Swan is able to convey Brainy's quiet grief. Wonderful.

Quickly Superman says that the current Supergirl is 'in the past', not a lie but not exactly the truth.

There is something about the first panel there with Supergirl's face completely hidden that is unnerving. It almost feels like we are too late to catch her, to stop her from her fate. She is beyond us and we are only seeing her from behind. I can't put it into words easily ... but somehow not being able to see Kara's face there made this scene that much sadder. Their message (and a hint of escape in the form of a statuette) given, the Legion leaves. Look at the blank faces and teary eyes on the Legionnaires.

This was such a fantastic story and this was such a wonderful scene for Supergirl fans, one last look at her. I can only imagine the magic that Walker and Jones would have done with this scene in a Cosmic book.

It is too bad DC simply can't hear the clamor for more.