Broken Frontier

Hello, this is William Gatevackes here, with another week of new releases for your perusal. But before we get into the new previews, please allow me to cover two One Year Later books that arrived last week.

Aquaman: The Sword of Atlantis #40 and Detective Comics #817 did not show up on the March 1st shipping list posted on Diamond Comics on February 20th. I rely on the website's shipping schedule as my source for each week's column, and by the time the list was updated to include Aquaman and Detective, the column had been posted on the site.

While these books did not appear originally on the shipping list, they were released. So I’d like to cover them now.

Aquaman: The Sword of Atlantis #40 offers a new version of the character, and a different direction for the title. The book takes on a "sword and sorcery" feel, and is written by the man who helped spearhead the genre’s resurgence with Dark Horse’s Conan book, Kurt Busiek.

Aquaman isn’t taken very seriously. He was always regarded as the most superfluous of the Super Friends, and the character has been parodied in such television shows as South Park and Entourage. But it wasn’t always this way.

Aquaman belongs with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Arrow as one of the only DC characters published continuously from Golden Age through to the present. The character ran as a backup story in Adventure Comics during the lean period between the Golden and Silver ages.

How Aquaman went from being a character respected enough to survive the temporary decline of superheroes during that period to being considered such damaged goods is anybody’s guess. But the result is that DC has struggled to write a version of the character that would appeal to comic book audiences.

For example, look at the attempts to make the character "interesting" that took place over the 39 issues of the current Aquaman title alone. The book started off as a Vertigo-esque adventure with Arthurian overtones. Then, with the sinking of part of San Diego, the comic became a more conventional superhero book. Aquaman turned into somewhat of a vigilante, patrolling "Sub Diego" and fighting crime like an underwater Batman. Right before the OYL break, Atlantis was reintroduced, and Aquaman was caught in the conflict between his old and new homes. 

Now, the comic is going down the "sword and sorcery" route. This is a logical avenue to go down considering the way Atlantis has been portrayed in DC continuity. Themes that exemplify the genre have appeared in other titles set in the mythical city, such as Arion and the Atlantis Chronicles. DC’s choice of Busiek and Butch Guice, two underrated but highly skilled comic veterans, is a smart move, because they are proven commodities in the market. Hopefully this new course, along with the new TV show in the works featuring Aquaman, will return a lot of respect to the character.

       

As of this writing, I have not received my copy of Detective Comics #817 yet. So I don’t know if the rumored replacement of Bruce Wayne under Batman’s cowl has actually taken place. Regardless, I hope that the character has lightened up a bit.

Batman is a dark character to begin with. His origin involves him watching his parents gunned down right before his eyes. It doesn’t get much darker than that. But most of the recent stories featuring the character have been relentlessly bleak and humorless.

The Batman character has become an overbearing, manipulative jerk. He drafts up contingency plans against his allies, his villains and his city, most of which blow up in his face. He is abrasive to anyone not in his inner circle, and way too demanding of those who are. Batman’s negativity and lack of humor has at times made any title he appears in a struggle to read.

I’m not suggesting DC go back to the campy version of Batman that appeared in the 1960’s. I’m not interested in a Batman fighting space aliens and chatting with Bat-Mite. But I think he could stand to lighten up a little. I have seen hints of this in his appearances in Infinite Crisis and Green Lantern. Hopefully, this trend will continue in his own books.

Now, let’s move on to the new OYL books. The only book that I am sure is coming out tomorrow is Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #23. After that, it gets a little shaky.

Trying not to get into "spoiler territory" here, let me just say that the last two issues of Firestorm set up a brand new status quo for the character. Firestorm had his powers redefined, gained a new mentor, and had his costume tweaked. Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #23, while not ignoring this new direction, shakes up the title once again. (Hint: It has to do with one of the partners that make up Firestorm.)

One might not like changing the status quo again before the most recent revamp actually had a chance to go into effect, but it’s not like writer Stuart Moore had much of a choice.  All things considered, I personally think he is approaching the One Year Later concept well. Moore’s take seems more realistic, more subtle and more consistent with the idea that we are now one year ahead than many other DC titles seem to be.

       

What about other OYL titles coming tomorrow? Well, the Previews catalog stated that Supergirl #7 is scheduled for tomorrow, the DC Comics website tells us another book, Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes #16, is on its way this week, and the previously mentioned Diamond shipping list has neither. What is a preview columnist to do?

Cover both of them to be safe, I guess. So if neither of these books arrives tomorrow, just clip and save this part of the column until they do.

Supergirl #7 is the first issue in new writer Greg Rucka’s run. The title was in need of a new creator after Jeph Loeb jumped ship to become exclusive to Marvel. Rucka is a good choice for the character, having shown his chops writing strong female characters with his run on Wonder Woman.

The plot, as listed in the solicits for the issue, details the adventures of Supergirl and Power Girl, who are operating in Kandor as Flamebird and Nightwing. It should be interesting to see how this plays out—the characters of Flamebird and Nightwing played a part in the Pre-1985 Crisis Superman history. Does this mean that Infinite Crisis is returning DC to the way it was before the Wolfman/Perez Crisis, or is this just a new take on those characters? We shall see.

DC has taken an "Etch-A-Sketch" approach to continuity when it comes to the Legion of Superheroes. Since the title takes place in the far flung future, any change to present day continuity would have a domino effect on its continuity. The post-1985 Crisis’ elimination of Superboy caused major turmoil for the Legion writers at the time, because he played such a focal point in its origin. This issue was addressed in many ways: using an alternate reality version of Superboy as inspiration, casting the similar character Valor in the role, or employing the current continuity of Superboy instead.

This is just one example of many changes that took place in the Legion universe. Each time an alteration was made, it caused confusion with the fans of the characters and made the concept all but unfathomable to new readers.

The latest incarnation of the team streamlines the concept while still playing to the history of the characters. Written by long-time fan Mark Waid, the book shows the Legion as a symbol of youthful rebellion, only with superpowers.

The best part of the title is how Waid plays with what the audience knows about previous versions of the Legion while making them new. Saturn Girl doesn’t know how to speak, because all she knows is telepathic communication. Colossal Boy is a hero who shrinks instead of one that grows tall (his attempts to get his teammates to refer to him as Micro Lad is one of the best running gags in the series). So I am really looking forward to how Waid reintroduces Supergirl into the mix. I am sure that it will be inventive, while still paying homage to her prior Legion appearances.

Marvel releases Thunderbolts #100 tomorrow, a month after New Thunderbolts #18. No, this isn’t the start of Marvel’s 6.8 Years Later event—it’s another example of Marvel renumbering a title to honor milestone issues.

Marvel renumbered the Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and Avengers when they all came upon their 500th issue. I encourage this trend, but I have to ask what Marvel’s qualification for this honor is.

The third issue of the most recent She-Hulk series was the 100th comic to feature the character, yet the title was not renumbered. Why does the Thunderbolts title get its numbering changed when She-Hulk didn’t? Does it have to do with sales? Does the prestige of the character dictate the change? The span of time between series for the She-Hulk as it compares to the Thunderbolts? Does it pertain to the number of series they both had? Or does it have to do with the fact that She-Hulk’s new series just started when it hit 100?

Regardless, Marvel should be more consistent with its renumbering policy. A hundred issues is a landmark for any title, and should be celebrated across the board in the same way. If one is renumbered, they all should be.

Phantom Jack: The Nowhere Man Agenda #1 is supposed to come out tomorrow. The publisher is Speakeasy Comics, which announced that it was closing its doors in a press release given last Monday. This just adds to the almost cursed nature of the property.

Phantom Jack was created as a limited series by Michael San Giacomo, as part of Marvel’s Epic experiment of 2003. San Giacomo detailed the process in a 26-part series which ran on Newsarama. He had completed the first issue when Marvel announced that, instead of publishing the whole series, the issue would be combined with all the other potential Epic first issues in one anthology. The success of the anthology would determine if more issues would be forthcoming.

San Giacomo pulled Phantom Jack from the anthology, and Image Comics stepped up to the plate to offer to publish the entire limited series. The series ran for 5 issues in 2004.

Phantom Jack: The Nowhere Man Agenda was to be a sequel to that book. One wonders if San Giacomo had any rumblings that what happened on Epic was happening again, since Epic pushed the first issue of Phantom Jack back four months, and Phantom Jack: The Nowhere Man Agenda #1 was originally solicited for January.

The press release from Speakeasy says that all the books that were scheduled to ship up to March will be published. This means that the entire Nowhere Man Agenda series should see the light of day. If for some reason it doesn’t, one hopes that another company will again step up to help San Giacomo out. But if the first issue is at your local comics store tomorrow, you should think about picking it up, if only to give a beleaguered creator, and his publisher, a break.

That’s it for this week. Come back again on the 14th as we cover the third week of One Year Later books, along with the start of Marvel’s Annihilation event. Until then, thanks for stopping by!

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William Gatevackes is married and lives in Mamaroneck, New York, with his lovely wife, Jennifer. In addition to Guiding Lines, he writes comic book reviews for PopMatters and would like you to know that the One Year Later version of himself is much better at writing this column.