Review: Adventures Of Superman #14

Adventures of Superman #14 came out last week and was a mixed bag. There are two stories in the issue, one that made me wince, one that made me laugh. This book is on its way out, a canceled digital first book, which usually was my source for classic Superman interpretations. So in many ways I am sad to see it go.

But maybe I can feel better about seeing this book go if it means that DC won't let creators like Max Landis tell his Superman story. Because Max Landis should, at least in my mind, be banned from touching DC characters and especially Superman! After all, Landis made a big splash by telling people that they don't care about Superman and shouldn't care about Superman. He made it a point to demean many many creators when he disparaged the whole Death/Funeral of a Friend/Return of Superman arc. And he did it in such a smug way, something that someone who made a mediocre movie about super-powered teens shouldn't have the right to do.

Anyways, preconceived notions are hard to remove. So I am sure I went into this issue with a jaundiced eye. I mean, if Landis doesn't think I should care about Superman why would I ever care about his Superman story?

After that bitter pill, at least I had the fun and irreverant Sugar and Spike team-up by Fabian Nicieza and Phil Hester to soothe.

Landis' story has The Joker on the roof of the Daily Planet, holding a detonation device, claiming that bombs of joker-venom gas are around the city. Superman arrives and the two settle into a philosophical debate about their realities. The Joker calls Superman boring and vague. Superman calls the Joker boring and a ruse, a shroud that writers can fling over any character archetype and have it be deemed interesting.

It is clear that Landis dislikes these characters. I have to assume that how the characters describe each other is how Landis views them. In essence, he is insulting prior creators' work.

Now the story isn't a complete failure. Jock's art is solid. And this page where Landis shows the many faces the Joker has worn is a nice walk through history - from Finger to Romero to Novick to Bolland to Nicholson to Timm to Capullo to Ledger - these are all the versions of the Joker. From killer to camp, from victim to cartoon to killer, the Joker has evolved.

Isn't character evolution a good thing? 

And if the Joker is everything and nothing, Superman is something - boring, bland, vague.

The Joker doesn't care. Landis doesn't care.

Funny though ... I care. I am a fan of Superman. So why would DC let someone who doesn't understand the character write a story.

Hell, why would Warners let someone who doesn't understand the character write the screenplay?? Or direct the movie?? But I digress.

Because it isn't over. Landis has to be edgy. So why not let Superman threaten to kill the Joker.

And then have him say the metatextual insult that anyone could write, play, or be the Joker.

Ooooh ... Landis is fighting the establishment. Mocking and deconstructing two of DC's most well-known characters!!

Ooooohhh ... rebellious!

In the end, Superman grabs the bombs and the Joker.

But then there is this ending. Let's add some more nonsense to this story.

It turns out that somehow Batman could have stopped the Joker from heading to Metropolis. But he didn't!! He wanted to see how Superman would react. Because that is what Batman would do.

And Superman says another Joker visit will end in death. Oooohhh ... glowing red eyes! So violent!

That's right! Batman let the murderous sociopath head to a huge city ... as a test. Good thing the Joker simply didn't detonate the bombs.

Here is a plea to DC ... lose Max Landis' contact information. Stop prostituting yourself. Whatever money he brings in isn't worth the way he treats the characters or the back-door insults to your company.

I rolled my eyes so many times reading the Landis story that my vision was blurry for a bit.

When things normalized, I read the next story. And suddenly Superman was fun again.

Somehow Clark gets roped into babysitting Sugar and Spike. And these kids are a handful. There was a sort of Mort Meskin Jonny Quick feel to this page with the multiple images of Spike flying around the room. And the fact that Superman is the still figure shows the terror of this toddler!

Sugar and Spike's fathers are STAR Labs employees. And while working late, their dimension-breaking device is stolen by the Atomic Skull. Clark has no option but to bring the tots along for an adventure.

Superman briefly gets shunted to another dimension leaving Sugar and Spike at the mercy of the Skull. Or is it the other way around.

Spike turns the tables, bringing Superman back and jumbling the Skull in and out of reality.

That's right, toddlers can make both the hero's life and the villain's life miserable.

With the Skull caught, Supes brings the kids home and tucks them into bed.

It is a cute story and just what I needed after Landis' poison.

So a hit and a miss in this issue of Adventures of Superman. They can't all be perfect.

Overall grade: D+ (F for Landis/Jock, B for Nicieza/Hester)

Supergirl Bits Of News

Just a couple of news stories which tangentially touch upon Supergirl which I thought were worth briefly reviewing.

I was very happy to see that DC Entertainment bought the pages of Al Plastino's 'Superman's Mission for President Kennedy' and donated them to the JFK museum. Here is the official press release:
http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2013/12/16/al-plastino-art-acquired-and-to-be-donated-by-dc-entertainment-to-john-f-kennedy

I talked about Plastino last month and how saddened he was to discover the pages were in the hand of a private collector. I am glad his wish of having them housed in the museum has happened.

Long time super-editor Wil Moss, who edited Supergirl during the Sterling Gates era and beyond has left DC to head to Marvel. Here is a link to Bleeding Cool:
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/12/16/and-finally-wil-moss-makes-it-official-with-his-twitter-header/

Much of the last couple of years has been fans grousing over DC comics suffering from editorial control, not allowing creators to achieve their stories and last minute plot rewrites happening. I am sad to see Moss, who helmed some great books, moving away from DC.

Over on Twitter, Sterling Gates applauded Moss and I echo it.

I miss those times on Supergirl.

Finally, Bleeding Cool announced some of the upcoming creators on the Adventures of Superman book. Here is the link: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/12/17/ron-marz-fabian-nicieza-b-clay-moore-jock-jump-in-on-adventures-of-superman/

Now there are some names I am happy to see there. Ron Marz. Fabian Nicieza, Jock. Love those creators.

But Max Landis!

DC shouldn't let him within a sniff of their characters. Now I ranted about Landis before when reviewing his story in Action Comics Annual #1. Maybe I ranted too much on rereading. I didn't hide my thoughts about Landis at all. But the bottom line is someone who has made a name for himself by insulting Superman shouldn't be allowed to write him.

Maybe I'll skip that issue.

Review: Action Comics Annual #1 Back-Up Feature

Like many people, I watched Max Landis' scathing fan film about the Death of Superman and the Reign of the Supermen. It's easy enough to find on YouTube but I won't grace it with a link here.

You know what ... I hated it.

I hated it because it was a completely negative look at the story line. It reduced some characters to 2 dimensional caricatures, focusing only on one aspect of their personalities and then portraying that one aspect in the most ludicrous way possible. It up-played the sillier parts of the plot and completely ignored any of the better beats that were happening through those issues. It was simply blistering ... making fun of the entire work, belittling the works of many many comic creators. Belittling the character of Superman ... and belittling his fans, telling us we don't care about him even if we think we do ... as if Max Landis knows me better than I know myself. It was 100% over-the-top bombastic negativity. And something that one-sided is hard to take seriously.

Okay ... whatever ... people write over the top reviews on the internet all the time. Basically 50% of the reviews are like that.

But what bothered me even more than that was the ultra-slick packaging of the thing. The cool red shirt and the very loose tie, the open bottle of Johnny Walker red, the unkempt but perfectly coifed hairdo. It was as if Landis needed to show us just how 'cool' he was before firing the napalm. He needed to prop himself up as being the 'new' upstart ... 'look at how cool I am as I sloppily poor my whiskey, as I rage against the new comic world, and as I show you how you aren't thinking right.' I can only imagine how much time was put into 'the look of the thing'. I can picture someone saying 'you know what would make you look reaallllyyy cool ... Johnny Walker.'  When you have to work that hard to try to convince me that you are cool ... you probably aren't. At the very least it made me think he wasn't.

Now, I am not saying that some of what he says isn't true. Doomsday going to Metropolis because he saw a wrestling commercial is idiotic. In fact the whole Death of Superman story, the arrival of Doomsday, that is pretty bad. But that is just the beginning, it just gets us to Superman's death. And yes, some of the Cyborg's motivations are pretty thin. But there is more to that long arc than that.

To dismiss the story as a whole ... the powerful Funeral for a Friend which showed just what Superman meant to the DCU, the maturation of Matrix Supergirl and even Superboy over Reign of the Supermen, the inspiration of Steel (a normal human who elevates because of Superman),and  to ignore the return of Superman and how while powerless he still jumped into the fray to save the world ... well that's wrong.

I just find it hard to believe that Landis read all those comics and didn't find one redeeming part to that entire arc. But a measured review probably wouldn't get you a zillion hits on YouTube and facetime on the big comic websites.

Sigh.

It is easier to destroy than it is to create.

It is easier to write an acidic review, something which simply makes fun of the efforts of other creators than it is to look critically at the work.

It is easier to pander to the lowest common denominator, people who live for the bile of the internet, than it is to write a balanced review.

What does Dan Jurgens think of this review? Louise Simonson? Jackson Guice? Tom Grummett?

And what does DC think about this film? This film that urinated on the hard work of many of the biggest creators in the 90s, maybe their biggest story arc in the 90s.

DC must have loved it because they hired him to write the back-up feature to Action Comics Annual #1. Way to defend your prior works DC! Of course, DC hiring Max Landis to do a story gets them some publicity too. So everyone wallows a bit in the mud here.

Anyways, this is a too long intro to my review of Landis' story. But it serves a personal purpose. I was originally going to write a blistering, scathing, aludicrously negative review of the story, focusing on what doesn't work and ignoring what does. I was going to fire back with whatever puny power this blog brings. And I was going to drink in the smugness of my own coolness.

And then I thought why waste energy like that.

"Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."

And so instead will bring you this even critique of Landis' story.

The story is titled "Anchiale" and serves as the new 52 origin of the Atomic Skull.

The art is absolutely beautifully rendered and colored by Ryan Sook, one of my favorite artists. If anything, it is the coloring of this story that works well.

But the story has no words. Instead, the reader must piece things together from the images. For me, it robs comics of its vitality. It is the co-mingling of words and pictures that makes comics the medium it is.

The story starts with an unnamed scientist in a submarine which has a meltdown of some sort, bathing him in violet energy.

Now this is where the lack of words hurt the most. Because It took me a while to realize that this was indeed a submarine and not a lab of some sort. Sure, the second page has this guy in deep waters, but for all I know this was a building built on the coast or a station in the ocean like one of those offshore drilling sites. So a well placed 'captain the engine room is flooding' or 'we need to surface!' would have at least given me a clue about where this was all taking place. 

See how that works ... measured criticism. Not lampooning.

This guy ends up washing up on the shore of a remote island.

In some ways I thought this was a great page. There is some fatigue here as he collapses on the beach. And we are privy to his inner thoughts. It is as though his life has flashed before his eyes. And the majority of it is in cool muted blues. As a result, the red parts ... the dance club sign and the blood on this women ... stand out as obtrusive and concerning. It is clear this guy was her husband and that something tragic happened.

For me, I think a single word, him uttering this woman's name, would have been powerful.

As time on the island passes, he develops the ability to emit purple bolts of presumably radioactive energy but as a sort of breath weapon.

And as his use of this energy increases, he becomes more monstrous, eventually peeling off his face -becoming the Atomic Skull.

So this was the low point of the story for me. A radioactive breath weapon? For the Atomic Skull?? Doesn't that seem a bit idiotic ... almost Godzilla like? How will he open his mouth if he has no muscles to control his mandible? Wouldn't it just always leak a little from the spaces in the skull? Maybe the radiation comes from his lungs? Or his pharynx?

But a breath weapon?

I guess I have to roll with it.

What I did like was that just as the purple energy becomes more prominent, eventually consuming the island, consuming his body, so has it consumed his thoughts. Gone are those tranquil muted blues. Instead, his memories are all purple and red, aflame with anger and power. And here we can see that this man argued with his wife, found her out on the town, murdered her, and then 'escaped' by heading on this sub.

With this much anger still in him, with this energy consuming him, with the isolation of the island, it is no wonder he becomes a villain.

Still ... I read comics for a story ... not story boards. Even if it was that one word, his wife's name on the blue beach, it would have been better, maybe even have had some powerful irony once we learn of her ending here.

The art is beautiful. The coloring as the story progresses mirrors the tone. And the origin told in fevered glimpses is interesting. But in the end this is a wordless origin about a guy mutated by radiation.

And as the backup story in a book whose main story is about a guy mutated by radiation, it seemed redundant.

Overall grade: C+