Broken Frontier

Hello, everyone! Welcome to Guiding Lines! This is William Gatevackes. Let’s take a look at the comics arriving in stores tomorrow, June 14, 2006.

In a break from the usual Marvel or DC comic that gets the lead spot, I decided to give the honor to Slave Labor Graphics’ Gargoyles #1. The series is the last of four to come from SLG’s agreement with Disney, joining Haunted Mansion, Wonderland, and Tron.

For those of you who don’t know, Gargoyles was a cartoon that ran for two seasons (1994-1995 & 1995-1996) in daily syndication and one in ABC’s Saturday morning line-up (1996-1997). The series was distributed by Disney and developed quite a cult following during its short time on the air. Today, there are still a number of websites devoted to the show, so the fan following is still strong.

Slave Labor Graphics has made some interesting choices in what they adapted in its deal with Disney. Of all the properties Disney owns, the SLG picked ones that would appeal to all ages, young and old, and ones that haven’t been done before yet still hold a dedicated and devoted built-in fan base.

Fans of the Gargoyles will be glad to know that series creator Greg Weisman is writing the comic, and it will take place chronologically after the second season of the cartoon, the last one he worked on. Many of these fan sites say the quality of the show declined after Weisman left. For these people, this series might answer what would have happened if he stayed with the show.

I will admit, I was never a fan of the cartoon when it was on the air. But it is obvious many people were. If you are one of these legions of fans, then you’ll definitely want to check this series out.

Four #30 is the last issue of the series formerly known as Marvel Knights Four. The book was consistently selling in the neighborhood of 21,000 copies which, as the second Fantastic Four series set in the Marvel Universe proper, made it expendable. However, the story behind how it became the second Marvel Universe FF book is one shrouded in controversy.

According to an interview in Marvel Spotlight with the author, playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and then up-and-coming artist Steve McNiven were tapped to create a 12 –issue miniseries called FF: Working Class Heroes. The series would tell more grounded-in-reality Fantastic Four stories, setting it apart from the more epic stories Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo were doing on the mainstream FFtitle.

This more down-to-earth version of the Fantastic Four was what then Marvel President Bill Jemas wanted for the mainstream FF book, so wheels were set in motion to take Waid and Wieringo off of the book and replace them with Aguirre-Sacasa and McNiven. The miniseries would have been scrapped and the storyline used in the team’s first FF issues.

What Jemas neglected to consider was the strength of the dedication the fans of the Waid/Wieringo run on the title had. When the change was announced, a firestorm of controversy spread throughout the comic fandom community. Angry postings were made on comic-related message boards, letters were sent and the distain for the move was made known.

Let it never be said that Marvel doesn’t listen to its fans. As a result of the furor, Waid and Wieringo were kept on the flagship Fantastic Four title, where they finished their run a year later. The team of Aguirre-Sacasa and McNiven were then given a new ongoing to work on under the Marvel Knight’s imprint, which became Four.

At the time, Marvel Knights was a venue for stories featuring popular Marvel characters set outside of continuity. This means while the Fantastic Four were wealthy and space faring adventurers in the regular title, they could be bankrupt and looking for jobs amongst the normal people, which was the basis for Aguirre-Sacasa’s storyline, in Marvel Knights Four. 

Eventually, the continuity differences between the two brands were blurred and eventually both stories became canonical. The Marvel Knights line was revamped back to its original out-of-continuity beginnings, causing many titles, including Four, to enter the main Marvel imprint.

So, what was originally intended to be a 12-issue miniseries turned out to become a 30-issue regular series. I liked Four but I knew it wasn’t long for this world when it entered the mainstream Marvel imprint. Unlike Spider-Man, the X-Men and Wolverine, the Fantastic Four aren’t able to support two books set in the same reality.

Spinning out from the Green Lantern Corps: Recharge mini-series and featuring the same creative team of Dave Gibbons and Patrick Gleason, Green Lantern Corps #1 is a new ongoing series detailing an important part of the Green Lantern mythos.

The Green Lantern Corps are DC’s intergalactic police force, so if the regular Green Lantern series is like, say, the TV series Hunter or Columbo, this series would be like NYPD Blue or Hill Street Blues, more of an ensemble piece.

I look forward to the series as I liked the previous Green Lantern Corps mini series.. I believe the concept behind the Corps has limitless possibilities and should provide many good stories in the future.

Marvel Westerns: Two-Gun Kid is another in a line of recent experiments by Marvel of publishing stories set in different genres. But whereas the other two tests of this idea, one featuring Marvel’s 1950 monsters and another featuring romance, were confined to one month, this event will be spread out over several.

I think this is a good idea on Marvel’s part. When they were all released during the same month, fans of the genre in question that were on a budget might have to pick and choose which issue to get. With the experiment spread over the summer, if you like westerns you can read all the tie-ins. This gives the stories that much more exposure and the opportunity for each title to reach more fans.

With DC publishing two western comics, Jonah Hex and Vertigo’s Loveless, this is a story type that has an audience. Perhaps one of these books will garner enough of a response for Marvel to revisit it in the future.

Finally, we get to Ursa Minors #1, a bizarre new title from Slave Labor Graphics. The comic answers the question of what would happen if three 20-something slackers found three robotic bear suits that give the wearer super-strength, night vision and razor sharp claws. The answer? Fight ninjas, hippies, and robots.

This is why you have to love independent comics. Where else could a concept like this be listened to, let alone made into a comic? Let’s hope any success Slave Labor has with its aforementioned Disney license doesn’t make it hesitant to take chances on unique titles such as these.

Ursa Minors appears to be a goofy, tongue-in-cheek comic that substitutes humor in lieu of all the overwhelming seriousness found in most comics today. If you are feeling all “grim and gritty-ed” out, maybe it’s time to give this title a try.

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William Gatevackes is a writer living in Mamaroneck, NY with his wife Jennifer. He writes the periodic comic review at PopMatters. And he would love to own a bear suit like the one featured in Ursa Minors.