Murders at Rue Morgue by Bernie Wrightson

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Even Superheroes Sleep

My wife and I are parents. Both of us believe in the importance of reading so we have compiled a pretty nice library for our little bundle of joy. I believe in the importance of reading comics so I have been compiling the baby's first comic library.

Despite being a Marvel zombie, I have to admit, DC is winning when it comes to baby books. Marvel puts out is Superhero Squad version of MCU characters. These are stylized versions of the regular charters. These big headed heroes may be more kid friendly, but they feel like a gimmicky money grab. They are an added step before the normal heroes are introduced. Versions that will be grown out of and need to be replaced. DC, on the other hand, offers their full size versions right from the start.

This isn't to say that DC's board books don't have issues. They are great, but they make a few missteps. Take, Even Superheroes Sleep, a great nighttime read for your little tyke. Except the first pages of sleepytime super-folk is this,

Now you will go to sleep, or I will put you to sleep.

Now there is no original art in these books that I can tell. DC is just pulling from their catalog of art for these books. This is the best they could come up with for a children's book? You can't even see Bat's face! I mean really! They got a nice Denny O'Neil or Jim Aparo Batman for the cover. Then boom page one is Mike Mignola nightmare fuel!

It gets better as it goes on. DC includes a the trinity, Bats, Supes & Wonder Woman. The scan is pretty poor of WW, but I really like this page. Good robot fighting action.

Also included with their own page are Hawkman & Hawkgirl, Green Lantern, Flash, Supergirl, and Plastic Man. Plas, makes appearances in other books too. Kids no doubt like him, but he is not very prominent in the DCU. Maybe they'll bring back the Plastic-Man Comedy Adventure Show.

Maybe not

One other miscue is the lack of minorities in the book. I know folks love Hal, but John Stewart, no relation, will be the GL in the DCU movies, so why not drop him in there or Steel or Vibe or Black Lightning, or Katana or anyone. Ok Cyborg gets dropped in there on the big montage plash in the back.

What do you mean small?

This is just another missed opportunity though. "Super Heroes big and small.." should definitely featured the Atom and Apache Chief.

Ok I know I pointed out the failings a bit heavily, but I really like this book and the series of DC board books. We have 4 now and I want to get the Villians, Wonder Woman, & Busy Bodies books too. 

Deadpool Movie

I've never been a big Deadpool fan. I liked the tail end of the Deadpool vol. 1, which was written by the fabulous Gail Simone and with art by the incredible Udon. Unfortunately this series led to the weird Agent X series which kind of sucked. Strangely because it wasn't Deadpool. I also liked Deadpool as the comic relief portion of the Uncanny X-Force series by Rick Remender and some fantastic Esad Ribic covers.

What drove me away from Deadpool is the fandom. Mostly they seem to be immature goofs and jag offs. People who pretty much embody the worst aspects of comic book culture. That said I think Fox nailed Deadpool with the casting of Ryan Reynolds as the lead in their new movie.

This preview looks like it shows everything you want from a Deadpool big screen show. Including a very nice Colossus appearance. I would actually see this.

My only complaint is that it is another origin movie. I really don't think Deadpool needs it. I think it isn't necessary, but the studios can't make a comic movie without an origin in it.

Wasp Hate

What's with Marvel's Wasp hating?

I picked up the Free Comic Book Day All New All Different Avengers and was really saddened to come across this.

A one, two punch of Wasp disrespect. I mean, come on a founding member of the team who went on to be the second longest serving Avenger's Chair behind Captain America. I can't accept that Iron Man, even if it isn't Tony Stark in the armor, would not know who the Wasp is, let alone would completely write off her years of tenure with the team. I call bullshit.

My theory about the disappearance of the Wasp has more to do with the desire to use Hank Pym. Pym, Wasp's husband, famously struck her back in Avengers v1 213. Ever since he has been branded as a "wife-beater." Jim Shooter addressed what he intended by this scene, but that isn't how it was drawn so we're left with a wife slapping hero. 

Meanwhile we have a Marvel Movie property, Ant-Man coming out that features Hank Pym. How do you get rid of the wife-beating problem of one of your cinematic universe properties? 

Easy get rid of the wife.

That's one possible theory. Another theory is less fantastic, but more terrible. Writers are afraid of the Wasp. More than any other character she is a fully realized version of a powerful woman. She runs her own business. She has transformed from a part-time hero to a Chairwoman. She uses her body however she wants, having slept with a fair number of folks, and avoided any sort of "slut-shame" for it. 

 Spider-Woman is angsty. Black Widow is a killer, damaged by her relationships, Captain Marvel doesn't really seem to have it together. Scarlet Witch has the whole killed the mutants problem. Every other female Avengers has tons of issues, while the Wasp is who she is, and doesn't care what you think.

I honestly think today's comic writers are scared of the little ol' Wasp. Which is too bad, because she has good history, and makes for a great team member when written correctly. 

Secret Wars

Marvel is launching their big continuity shifting mega story Wednesday, so I pulled the original off the shelf to see how it holds up.

Secret Wars started as a way for Marvel to tie their comics in with an action figure line. It was fairly successful, but not great. I had a few of the figures, Wolverine, Iron Man, Kang, & Dr Doom, Falcon, Cap, and maybe Magneto and Spider-Man, 

That is actually a lot of figures, compared to other toys I played with, but the Secret Wars guys weren't very posable and were an odd size, slight larger than G.I. Joe guys. Also their accessories were odd. The lenticualr shields were kind of strange, only Cap has a shield, DUH!!! Wolverine's claws were clip on, and looked cooler on Firefly, until they inevitability were lost. Also I remember the paint coming off pretty easily. Ok I seem to have gotten of track. The point is Secret Wars the comic was a shoe-horned toy line tie-in.  

Jim Shooter wrote it and Mike Zeck did most the art. The story is a battle royal style rumble. A deus-ex type grabs a bunch of heroes and villians, and transports them to planet and tells them to duke it out and they'll rewarded in anyway they like. Of course they oblige. 

The fighting is pretty good. Shooter does, okay establishing the broader sides of the fight, but most of the individual characters don't get fleshed out. Some striking things about the series are the strength of the female characters. 

Two new female villians show up, Volcana & Titania. Titania is a strong woman, very strong actually, as strong as the Thing, and probably the strongest of the villians assembled. Stronger than Absorbing Man, and Wrecker at the time. 

I believe she is listed as a 70 ton lifter in the Official Handbook, Absorbing Man is up to 100, but that depends on what he's absorbed. Wrecker I believe maxs out at 40 tons, although during this time he might be down to 10 tons. Online Titania is listed as 100 tons, but given a strength level of 6. Absorbing Man is listed as 7, again dependant on his mode at the time. 

Volcana is one of the characters who gets some development, although most of it comes from her relationship with Molecule Man. What is nice is Volcana's power-set. Fire based is not unique for female characters, it is more aggressive and direct than most. Also worth noting is Volcana is a full-figured woman, no skinny legged lady here. 

A new Spider-Woman Julie Carpenter, appears too, but she never would pan out. I'm not even sure if she is powered or alive anymore. She would get some good character development later. A rather strange note, Carpenter is revealed to have a daughter she cares for very much, but during this series she seems to not care at all that her daughter is on an alien world and later leaves that world without her, and in the company of many super-villains.

On the same feminist front we get She-Hulk taking a lone revenge trip into the enemy fortress after Wasp is killed. Although she fails ultimately this is the type of bullish behavior you normally get from male bricks. Actually Hercules lone assault on the Masters of Evil in  Avengers 274 comes to mind. 

My favorite moment of the series comes courtesy of the Wasp. In pursuit of a Magneto Wasp finds herself captive. Magneto is in his typical hero/villain flux, so no death trap, or stasis cell for Wasp, instead he tries to talk it out. Wasp realizing Mags is more powerful, and needing to bide her time, sleeps with Magneto. 

The sex takes place between panels, but it's relatively clear, even to 10 yr old me. What is great about this moment is it shows a woman in command of herself sexually, and using all of her assets to defeat a foe. Like a cage fighter using kicks, grapples, punches and anything else available, Jan uses every trick she has to keep her enemy off-balance and eventually escape. Wasp uses her closeness to Mags to learn his plans and escape. 

I don't know if Secret Wars made any "this changes everything" proclamations, but they certainly did change a few things for a long period of time.

Secret Wars #8 intorduced Spider Man's black costume, which would later be revealed to be a symbiote, and later still would become Venom. This introduction has had enormous impact on the Marvel Universe.

The second most significant change to come out of the series is Colossus ends his relationship with Kitty Pryde. I'm not familiar with the X-books of the time, so this might have been inevitable, but the events on Battleworld shake Piotr Rasputin's faith in his love for Pryde enough for him to break off their relationship when he returns.

The last significant impact of the series is the Thing stays on Battleworld after the rest of the heroes and villians return to Earth. About a year's worth of Thing V.1 takes place on Battleworld. I had one issue of this series. The story revolved on Thing being captured by monster hunters. I thought the concept of a mish-mash world would offer a large variety of stories. The only review I've seen say the concept drags on a bit. IDK, I would buy the trade at a con.

On the downside, Secret Wars fails to deliver on its initial premise. The Beyonder's command to, "slay your enemies," is never really carried out. There is no death-match style fighting. In fact both sides seem a little lackadaisical in combat. 

The series would have been much better if those life and death stakes were made more pronounced. Having the heroes grapple with killing to succeed would have been very interesting. Making the villains more bloodthirsty would have been great, but showing their in-fighting, and inevitable backstabbing to eliminate each other would have been great storytelling. The one moment when Dr Doom kills Kang is great, and feels natural. Their later team up during Infinity Crusade is one of my favorite villain teams.

Overall the story has a good flow, there are normal superhero comic leaps, but nothing horribly off-base. Shooter did a good job plotting, and Zeck's art is clean and crisp and promotes good action. I love how the female characters are treated. You would be hard pressed to find female heroes and villains used as well in the Civil War Era. 

Secret Wars of course spawned Secret Wars II, but it also inspired a few other notable imitators. Most recently Boom! Studios Deathmatch, tells a Secret Wars style story and does it very well. 

I'm looking forward to picking up Battleworld, and hope thirty years from now it reads as well as Secret Wars does today.