Comic Book Resources

If anyone has the book of 52 covers, they’ll notice Most Excellent Superbat & co were on an unused cover idea - so looks like they’re a reject from 52 being slotted into Final Crisis instead. Then again, sloppy seconds from 52 beat fantastic firsts from Countdown so I’m still hopeful.

Sort of.

"...vivid and garish combination of Superman and Batman motifs" = a lot of Yen
"...pure style as worn for the catwalk" = still more Yen
"Cheekbones like Johnny Depp" = priceless

I like the idea of foreign countries "bootlegging" American superheroes.

I hope he got his powers by being the only person to win the "Become SexySuperSuperHero Warrior!" game show.

Throw away characters?

DC created 10 Chinese characters a couple years ago, and pretty much haven't used them since.

The Great Ten showed up three times in 52, once in Green Lantern, and at least once in Checkmate. Five appearances in two years is a pretty strong record for any character without a 'home' book...

Besides the general appearances in CHECKMATE (and in crossovers with OUTSIDERS), August General in Iron has been a main character in the last year as the new Bishop to the Black King. Also, add NIGHTWING to the list, as Mother of Champions is featured in the current story arc.

While the idea of foreign countries bootlegging American superheroes is interesting, Japan is a very inappropriate venue for it.

Japan's strong sense of cultural identity meant that even in the postwar era, they were far more interested in developing a homegrown superhero tradition. Most Excellent Superbat is not only linguistically implausible, but very unlikely as an idea any Japanese person would have. (He's fun in his own right as a Silver Agey idea, of course.)

A simple study of the extant Japanese superhero tradition (usually represented by television programs like Gatchaman, Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and independent works like GARO) would have come up with something more organic and far more representative of the national spirit, which seems to be one of Morrison's goals. Instead, this is a cute concept, but it doesn't feel Japanese at all. I could buy it coming from Malaysia, Singapore, or even the Phillippines first.

More problematic, the garbled use of English is not only inauthentic but generally something that I've been told Japanese may find offensive when coming from Occidental sources.

The names do have more of a "Jap-lish" feel to them than sounding like Japanese translated to English...

Okay I kind of want a Superbat spinoff now.

Well, funny thing: most Japanese superhero names are based on English words or a combination of English and Japanese words. The problem here is just the cadence. I can't think fo a single Japanese superhero who has anything like "Most Excellent" preceeding his name; epithets tend to be more bluntly descriptive, like "Space Sheriff" or "Robot Detective". Likewise, since Japanese nouns are collective, superteams tend to have unifying names like "Gingaman" or "Justiriser", rather than American-style bluntly descriptive names like the Justice League.

I can think of some ways DC might salvage this into something that "felt" better. If Morrison made sure the characters referred to themselves as something like Chou Shounentai and Ichiban Superbat, with kanji use as appropriate, that would feel a bit more authentic. It would be cute to have Batman or someone try to translate the team name and end up with very literal stuff like "Super Young Team" or "Most Excellent" Superbat in English. I imagine, like anime fans, everyone would just end up using the Japanese version of the name because it sounded better!

"A simple study of the extant Japanese superhero tradition (usually represented by television programs like "Gatchaman, Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and independent works like GARO) would have come up with something more organic and far more representative of the national spirit, which seems to be one of Morrison’s goals. Instead, this is a cute concept, but it doesn’t feel Japanese at all. I could buy it coming from Malaysia, Singapore, or even the Phillippines first."

He's looking at from a youth culture perspective versus a national spirit perspective. There's quite a bit of Western influence in pop music and fashion. I think of Superbat as the superhero equivalent to a japanese indie rock band. Like Cornelius, Boris or the Pizzicato Five. It's american culture seen through a japanese perspective.

You know,

I was kind of disappointed by what I saw in DC’s Final Crisis sketchbook. For starters, I was expecting a brand new Fifth-World; not the same old Fourth World but new "ultimate/kingdom come/tangent" costumes.

I mean, I thought that the old gods were supposed to die or get chained to the great wall... so reincarnation kind of negates that; plus it makes the whole Death of the New Gods seem irrelevant and stupid.
In retrospect it looks like the New Gods were afraid of a Make-Over!

Anyways...

The introduction of the Power Rangers into the DC Universe seems kind of weird. It seemed, at least to me, that people have been complaining about the japanization of the Teen Titans for a while now. So it's going to be odd, seeing a bunch of "Justice League Gatchaman/men" get the upper hand when the real Batman, Martian Manhunter & Flash are getting their asses handed out to them.

Oh well, if someone can pull it off, it's Morrison; but he can run "cold" too. (A couple of his last JLA arcs weren't that good, IMHO.)

If it's by Grant Morrison, it's not racist!

"So it’s going to be odd, seeing a bunch of “Justice League Gatchaman/men” get the upper hand when the real Batman, Martian Manhunter & Flash are getting their asses handed out to them."

I haven't read the sketchbook but how do you know how that will play out? They could end up just being cannon fodder.

I think it's important to note that there are two teams. Big Science Action and Super Young Team. Big Science Action seem to be real heroes whereas Super Young Team is just a bunch of kids trying to be the next hot thing.
Big Science Action have guys based on Ultraman, Astro Boy, Akira, Gigantor and one I don't know.
Super Young Team have guys who copy American superheroes namely the JLA. SuperBat, Atomic Lantern(GL), Lolita Canary, Lightning Flash(Flash) and Aquazon(Aquaman and Wonder Woman).

Morrison mentions that teams like the Super Young Team have rock-star status whereas the real heroes go unnoticed. Reminds me of Luthor's Infinity, Inc in 52.

"I think it’s important to note that there are two teams. Big Science Action and Super Young Team. Big Science Action seem to be real heroes whereas Super Young Team is just a bunch of kids trying to be the next hot thing.
Big Science Action have guys based on Ultraman, Astro Boy, Akira, Gigantor and one I don’t know.
Super Young Team have guys who copy American superheroes namely the JLA. SuperBat, Atomic Lantern(GL), Lolita Canary, Lightning Flash(Flash) and Aquazon(Aquaman and Wonder Woman).

Morrison mentions that teams like the Super Young Team have rock-star status whereas the real heroes go unnoticed. Reminds me of Luthor’s Infinity, Inc in 52."

The more I hear about this book the more I love it.

I haven’t read the sketchbook but how do you know how that will play out? They could end up just being cannon fodder.

I 100% agree with you. And Grant has earned the benefit of the doubt 10x-over.

But it's just that my knee jerk reaction was that of seeing a photo of a "blind date" ...I didn't find her/them "cute"; so all that it's left is for me is to hope that she/they have a "great personality".

"But it’s just that my knee jerk reaction was that of seeing a photo of a “blind date” …I didn’t find her/them “cute”; so all that it’s left is for me is to hope that she/they have a “great personality”."

You didn't find The Most Excellent SuperBat cute? Even with his "Johnny Depp" cheekbones and stylish haircut?

Again, it works, just not as a Japanese character. It's like he's taken the Western perception of japanimation and focused on all the cliches only. Kind of like a parody. The whole catwalk element doesn't ring true either.

From some of the notes he's used, I expect this character to be ass-raped at worst. At best, cannon fodder?

Maybe I'm just horribly insensitive, but I don't see the names as being THAT far removed from things like Super God Masterforce, 100 Beast Squadron Gaoranger, or Mach GoGoGo.

From my own 20 years experience in anime fandom, including 10 years as staff and sometimes department head at anime cons, I've seen plenty of occasions in obscure anime or manga where the creator chose some oddball English word for inclusion in a title, because they liked how it sounded, more than a true understanding of the word's meaning.

For all we know, Superbat might have been an otaku (in the derogatory sense) of 1980s American teen films, and chose the "most Excellent" part because his favorite films were of Bill & Ted....

You didn’t find The Most Excellent SuperBat cute? Even with his “Johnny Depp” cheekbones and stylish haircut?

Of course NOT! He reminds me too much of Rain!
And I voted for Stephen Colbert!!!

Yeah, but I just don't see an Otaku based on American characters or people. It might make more sense if they were maybe Japanese-American, or were maybe based on the Japanese Dr. Light. Of course, there aren't many Japanese characters to begin with. Just seems a case of Morrison trying too hard, IMHO.

Man I hope he joins the Justice League instead of ending up as cannon fodder. He sounds awesome and most importantly, fresh.

Hmm.. haven't we HAD this idea like a million times before?

DC characters have such a low life expectancy these days (several ones introduced in 52, including Isis, were just meant to die from the start!) that, cool as I find these characters, I'm not buying Final Crisis for them. At least the Great 10 had a role to play in the DC Universe... the Super Teens sound like they're meant to show up, preen, then die.

"Trying too hard"? What could you even mean by that?

Most Excellent Superbat was, by far, the coolest part of the sketchbook. The way he's repurposed parts of Superman and Batman's uniforms is brilliant.