I have no intention whatosever of defending WInick, because as mentioned I’m not sure I’ve read a single thing of his other than GA/BC, but I guess I look at that sort of stupidity from an editor’s standpoing. (I’ve mentioned elsewhere that I was trained as a book editor, worked for most of my adult life as a newspaper edtior & am now employed as an online editor.) In other words, if the ending is so gratuitiuosly, deus-ex-machine absurd, where was the editor?

Hell, if Winick can slip one by some braindead desk jockey stealing money from DC by pretending to edit comics while instead playing computer games all day, why shouldn’t he?

That book about that Swedish fellow

Young LARS

(hah!)

Would be so much better without color. I think the color distracts from the story. Stray Bullets is a great book in B&W.

I do see what you’re saying about ZORRO and you might be onto something. They might have held off on the “Year One” style origin story until later in the run. That’s very true.

As for Wolverine, I have to strongly disagree with you. Origins became necessary, but it’s not particularly good. When we didn’t know much about Wolverine, he was more interesting. We didn’t know the claws were part of him until Banshee found out, and he (and we) were stunned by the realization. We didn’t know he was such a killer until he started killing, and it shocked us. The Claremont/Miller mini-series is far better than Origins, and that simply added in a little of his backstory. As the years went by and more writers added their own little bits and pieces to his history, Origins became necessary, but that doesn’t change the fact that learning about him bit by bit was better.

That’s what I mean about Zorro. You could argue that everyone already knows his schtick, but I think this series would be better, especially early on, by having a full-blown Zorro adventure, where nobody (including the reader) knows what’s going on. It would heighten (in my opinion) the mystery. Maybe if this initial arc was shorter, giving us an introduction to how cool the adult Zorro is before going back and delving into his origin – something like that. As for knowing his “heart and mind and motivation” – well, he robs from the rich and gives to the poor. That’s all we need to know for a little bit, and when we’re fully invested in the present Zorro, then we can get the backstory.

But that’s just my opinion. I still like the book, because I like the writing and art and I’m patient, but I wonder if people who picked up the first issue said, “Where the hell is Zorro?” and then dropped it. Maybe they didn’t and everything I’ve written is moot!

ZORRO is a fantastic read. I love the old pulpy heroes and I think they represent a purer heroism than the mangled versions of the classics we’re seeing from the Big Two lately.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems that your greatest criticism of ZORRO is that by showing too much backstory, they’re robbing him of his mysterious essence? If you fully flesh out a character and give him a complete origin story, he’s missing the mystery but if you keep him and who he is and what he’s all about fully in the shadows, we’ll never learn his heart or mind or motivation. Isn’t the problem with these “dark mysterious” characters that they’re just images instead of fully realized characters? Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

Greg: “I don’t have a problem filling in his back story as the series progresses, but like Batman and especially Wolverine, Zorro works best when we don’t know who he is or how he came to be.”

Wha huh?? Since when is Batman’s origin story not wholly integral and completely necessary to his character? His origin was revealed in Nov. 1939, six months after his first appearance. Was the character better before we found out?

I know there’s a lot of controversy around Wolverine’s origin, but I think that’s the best Wolvie story ever told (not a lot of competition, but still). It humanized him, gave him a lot of heart and introduced us to his world, and it did so in a beautifully realized story. For my money, that trumps all the faux-suspense created by never telling the origin in the first place.

Because within two issues, there will be a brain-damagingly stupid ending to a comic (see Connor being shot by a cloud and “Oh no it’s aliens”) and because the characters seem more interested in laughing than in actually rescuing Ollie’s son.

If you can get around those issues, GA/BC is a fun comic. (Titans 2 on the other hand, doesn’t even have that.)
———
Would Morrison be helped by a scripter? And can we get DeMatteis to be said scripter?

I figure I should get around to reading this arc eventually, as I did enjoy the Dr. Topogrosso issue (#11?) when I read it in the store and I’ve heard nothing but good things about the ending of this arc, but at this point I’m just not feeling the fanatical love for the series that some people are.

As for the Siege Perilous . . . Who knows how it came to exist again. Donald Pierce destroyed it, but come on . . . He’s a wussy cyborg knock-off of Maxwell Lord and the Siege is a mystical item. My guess is that it simply got better.

As for Virgin, next time I have some spare money to spend I’m hoping to include the STRANDED back ishes on my next order from Lone Star or Mile High. I think the only title from them I’ve read was WALK-IN, which I’ve written elsewhere (unless it was here, in which case I apologize for repeating myself) started out very promisingly but then got a bit too loopy after midway through the run.

I am reading DOCK WALLOPER right now & liking it OK, though issues 2 & 3 (I think) haven’t done much to advance things beyond the first ish.

Best comic I read this week (& I bought an absurd amount — something like 20) was Marvel’s THE TWELVE. Highly recommended to everyone who isn’t already reading it.

Image’s SCREAMLAND continues to be awfully fun as well.

On the other end of the spectrum, I gave up reading the new LAST DEFENDERS about 2/3rds of the way through. Granted, I was sleepy (though, y’know, somehow a few minutes after that I managed to pick up my newly acquired DEMO trade & read it *all the way through*), & I’m sure I’ll go back & read the last 5 or however-many pages, but … that doesn’t bode well. I think it’s off the ol’ pull list.

The first GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY was a blast.

As was, to a slightly lesser extent, the new GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY. Having no history whatsoever with the guy’s comics, I forget … why are we supposed to hate Winick?

The only Virgin books I’ve checked out are The Stranded and The Megas, and I guess I agree with you about their being pitches for Hollywood, but I don’t think that really effects my enjoyment of them. What does is the generic, 2nd string 90s Image art that I’ve seen in most of their books. Slapping a director’s name or a TV network’s logo on a book isn’t going to cause me to pick-up or drop it, but the presence or lack of a good story that utilizes the specific toolkit of the comic book medium will.

Lastly…ahhh, Morrison’s Batman, how you vex the interwebs…This Jezebel Jet stuff better be going somewhere good, because otherwise it’s a really ham-handed way to have your own Silver St Cloud character. Compare her introduction, character and relationship with Bruce to Sasha’s. Anyway, am I the only one who read this issue as revealing that the Black Glove are an organization, not a person? Somebody help me if I’m way off-base. Whether they’re “the Black Glove” proper or not, I like the concept of this anti-League of Batmen, and I’m really intrigued by the discussion of Bruce’s mental state and curious how much of the Damien & Jezebel stuff is real. But…am I the only one who doesn’t care for Morrison’s take on the Joker? It’s so jarringly “grim & gritty”, especially in contrast to the general silver age love of this run (and I concede that that could be tGoAC’s point, but I still don’t like it). Anyway, like I said, vexing.

Yes, I’m quite bitter about Casanova. It’s bad enough that I didn’t read it because I love it so much, but I have to avoid, as I mentioned, any discussion of it too. DAMN IT!!!!!!

Yeah, Matt (and Dan), Young Liars seems to have divided people pretty evenly. I’m still on the fence about it, but I do like the energy Lapham is bringing to it. That’s going a long way toward glossing over some of the silly plot devices for me. We’ll see if that continues, though.

That issue was INSANE.

I had precisely the same response to YOUNG LIARS #1 (except that I did manage to force myself to read the entire thing), for what it’s worth. The fact that Lapham can write & draw while sleepwalking is rather impressive, I must admit.

I agree with you quite a bit about stuff, but I thought the first issue of Young Liars was anything but wonderful. Cardboard would be a better word in my mind. It’s the only comic in the last five or six years that I just couldn’t finish. I got halfway through and I was sick of it, and I like Stray Bullets fine.

*Not a jab at Cornell – I loved WISDOM – as Spitfire’s not a creation of his. The GENIUS Skrull Beatles are, though. As is Captain Midlands.

The Skrull Beatle Reunion is one of the most majestic and wondrous things about the ‘Wisdom’ mini-series.