Comic Book Resources

Random Reply! Ha, yes. Tucker Stone, like me and Michael Cera, suffers from “Permanent 16-year-old” syndrome.

Random Reply! Just to be on the safe side, you should use “hoser” at least once per sentence. And talk about curling.

Random Reply! My Avengers roster: Captain America, Thor, Vision, Black Panther, Monica Rambeau, Black Widow, and Fin Fang Foom.

My answer would probably be different if you asked me tomorrow.

Original Sins, Fear And Loathing, Haunted and Hard Time are all collections I’d have no problem handing over to someone to check out Constantine.
Maybe even Dark Places, as I reckon it would go down even better if you’d never read him before.

Setting Sun has some cool stories, the one about the guy in the room, and the one about the anti-christ in particular, but I don’t know that they are the greatest for someone with no knowledge of Constantine – he’s an enigma in all of them, and often a contradictory one between issues, without anything to tie it together (cut short as it was).

The first issue I read, #120, was pretty good. A big anniversary issue, and it was John, talking to the reader, taking you on a tour of London to meet his mates, and they all swapped stories and had laughs.
And any time John had his back turned, his mates would tell you to get the hell out of there, as John only causes pain and misery.

The drug addiction aspect of the Sentry was there from the beginning of Paul Jenkins’s conception of the character when the plot was a Vertigo revamp of Hourman. Since Hourman took those pills that gave him powers for an hour, Jenkins wanted to explore the idea of him being a superpower junkie

Was it really a Vertigo revamp of Hourman?
I’d assumed as he was playing on the different types of storytelling fads through the ages, so he gave him Super Soldier Steroids so that he could have an Alan Mooresque ‘heroin-addicted jazz critic’ phase.

Much like Matrix sequels do actually retroactively hurt the first film, I think what they’ve done with The Sentry hurts that first mini.

Is Sean Phillips the artist whose current output is your favorite, or is his body of work your favorite among comics artists? Or both?

He is very good, but has he ever really stretched his muscles beyond the washed-out, angular, noirish stuff he’s currently doing? Let’s see, Criminal, Sleeper, Gotham Central–everything I’ve read of his looks really good, but pretty similar.

My Avengers roster: ROM, Crystar, Hannibal King, the Ameridroid, John Kowalski, the Fabulous Frog-Man and Galactus.

Well, after listening to podcast number 2, I can follow up my response from last week in which I state that one of you sounded super nerdy.

It’s you.

Sorry, but you sound like the guy that runs the store across the street who looks exactly like Comic Book Guy, and that dude fucking sucks. I need my nerdy podcasts about nerdy comics on the internet to be more bass heavy.

That sounds insulting, but it’s not really supposed to. I mean, it’s not like your voice is similar to Conan O’brien’s “nerd” voice.

My Avengers Roster for today, subject to change tomorrow: Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Tigra, Spider-Man, Ms Marvel and She-Hulk.

Today I don’t feel like adding any Caps to the mix. Let Rogers rest for a while, and let Barnes have his high-octane spy adventures with Black Widow where he works best.

Spider-Man IS an Avenger, he has been invited numerous times and his presence in the team fills me with the glee of seeing an old friend finally “moving up to the majors”. People who say that Spidey isn’t a team player are apparently unaware of this little series that I grew up reading that was called “Marvel Team-Up”. Look it up, Spider-Man has teamed up with everybody who’s anybody in the Marvel Universe.

Hawkeye is necessary because we need at least one rebel, and Clint is the godfather of rebels in superhero team books (Johnny Storm isn’t a rebel, he’s an impulsive airhead, which isn’t the same thing).

Thor is the biggest provider of “OH SHIT YOU’RE GONNA GET IT NOW BAD GUY” moments in Avengers history, and therefore he is essential to the team. He’s the ultimate badass, the guy who makes villains crap their pants and run for the hills.

Tigra is there because after her unpleasant traumatic experience with the Hood she needs some time in the spotlight. Plus, hot tiger-skinned bikini babe! I will not apologize for my hormones.

Ms Marvel should be there because Marvel seems to be trying to establish her as their own “Wonder Woman”, their world’s premier superheroine, and so she has to be in the Avengers. She also brings a military mentality that I believe is an important recipe in superhero teams.

I want She-Hulk in there because a team that faces Avengers-level challenges needs more than one “tank” besides Thor. Plus, it improves gender balance – I hate teams that are too heavily tilted one way or the other. And a well-written She-Hulk would offer great banter with Spider-Man.

And finally – the Avengers needs a reliable provider of pseudoscientific “Deus Ex Machinas”, and since we won’t have a Captain America I feel we need one more member of the Avengers’ Triunvirate – and that’s why Iron Man is there. Hank Pym is the other alternative for “Deus Ex Machina” pseudoscience, but I really think the attempts to “redeem” Pym from something he did once during a mental breakdown that happened decades ago have gotten tiresome. “Scientist Supreme”, REALLY? In a world that includes Reed Richards, Hank Pym is “Scientist Supreme”? Really? Don’t get me wrong, I like Slott’s Avengers, but that’s a textbook example of “trying too hard”. Slott’s reasoning for why Richards isn’t “scientist supreme” didn’t convince me at all, and you know what? Richards doesn’t need such a lofty title to be universally considered the Best Scientist in their world, even though it would be totally hilarious to give it to Reed just to see Doom throw a temper tantrum.

And of course, in the part about Ms Marvel I meant: “She also brings a military mentality that I believe is an important ingredient in superhero teams.”

Also, just because I’m bored, my Avengers roster: Devil Dinosaur, Moon-Boy, Machine Man, Franklin Richards, Bucky, Thor, Skaar, Jessica Jones.

And am I the only person on Earth that seriously couldn’t care less about the race/gender/nationality of characters that make up superteams?

The Avengers team I’d love to write:

The Wasp (Chairwoman)
Doctor Pym
Hawkeye
Hercules
Black Widow
She Hulk
Luke Cage

No Mystic/Cosmic/Mutant mumbo jumbo. No absurd powers. Just Brains, Brawn and Skill. And Pym Particles.

Jan and Hank tend to stay at HQ to run the operation and do the science. Hawkeye leads the team in the field. The first year’s arc would be The Avengers invading Latveria to rescue Paladin (on Jan’s orders), causing a big battle with Doombots, an international incident, trouble with the US government, and tension between Hank and Jan, as she keeps Paladin on as an advisor for international intrigue and such. Luke wishes he could spend more time with his family, but he needs the health insurance. Natasha seems to have a secret agenda. And a love triangle develops between Hawkeye, She Hulk and Hercules.

Meanwhile, Victor Von Doom provides Egghead with the funds to exact his final revenge against the Pyms, and he sends an onslaught of Marvel’s more mercenary villains to attack the Avengers, before finally assaulting them in a Japanese-sized giant robot. Shaped like an egg.

Meanwhile…

She Hulk hospitalizes Hawkeye after a night of passion.
Hank starts secretly working on a new artificial intelligence called Ultran.
Hercules is really having too much fun and not taking things seriously, but he is getting a little miffed at being bossed and sassed by lesser beings.
Turns out Natasha is secretly spying on the Avengers and reporting to the Tan Sau, a secret, international organization dedicated to protecting humanity from super-powered beings. It is run by The Five: Shang Chi, Clive Reston, Batroc, Silver Sable and… Paladin!

I think it’s a bit embarrassing that both the Marvel and DC superhero universes are still much whiter and more predominantly male than the world its readers live in. Fiddling with superhero team rosters may disguise this basic problem but won’t solve it. You will end up with mostly-white mostly-male superteams so long as your stable of characters are somehow still mostly-white and mostly-male.

The only real solution is to give DC and Marvel’s creators strong financial incentives to create updated characters at both companies. For this to be viable, DC and Marvel need to be willing to aggressively market and develop new these properties intelligently instead of acting primarily as custodians of properties developed decades ago. If we ever get to this point, it’ll be because the two companies need more non-white, non-male characters to keep the movie and cartoon deals flowing.

“More content for your buck, people!”

Who are you to look down your nose at us and call refer to us as ‘people’?

Seriously. Of course we are people, but that is a condescending usage of words that makes it look as if you think you are superior to the rest of us.

Who are your Top 10 favorite Avengers?

Iron Man and Cap have to be on the list. Who else?

I agree with you, Lynxara. I hadn’t even noticed that my team was predominantly white (well, actually there’s one green and one tiger-striped in the 7 I picked, but they’re all caucasians). I suddenly don’t like that selection so much anymore. I do think that ethnic diversity is important, and should be incentived.

Adam K: I don’t know if you’re the only one who doesn’t care, but I do think that it’s important to have balanced rosters, to make the team more accessible and appealing to wider demographics. Non-caucasian kids should be able to have Avenger who they could identify with, too. The number of black Avengers is already pretty low, but it’s an absolutely generous number when compared to the number of asians, native americans and latinos who were Avengers. And it really shouldn’t be that way, IMO. Being appealing to more people is a GOOD thing.

To clarify: I’m not advocating quotas, I’m talking about increasing the ethnic/cultural diversity.

Random musing: My favorite scene not ever shown in comics (?): The donkey show!

“Non-caucasian kids should be able to have Avenger who they could identify with, too.”

Yeah, but I don’t necessarily identify with a character because they’re white just because I’m predominately white. And as far as superhero comics go, I hardly doubt race is the issue of who you can identify with, because no matter your race, I don’t know anybody that’s going to be able to easily identify with Black Panther.

You don’t, but little kids do this really consistently. If they’re shown a movie with a bunch of different-looking characters, they project themselves onto the one who they feel most looks like him or herself. In practical terms this tends to mean whoever has the same skin/hair color.

So odds are if you show a little black kid Captain America and Static, he will prefer Static. Other factors will come into play, of course, like what the kid finds cool or interesting about a character’s personality. The little black kid may really like Captain America, too– eventually. But at first blush, he will probably gravitate toward Static because he will see Static as a reflection of himself.

Now, sure, modern comics aren’t for little kids– but the characters are still marketed very heavily toward children in derivative media like movies, cartoons, toys, apparel, etc. Kids tend to end up wanting to buy merchandise of the character who looks or feels most identifiable. So it will eventually be a bit of a problem for the derivative works that Marvel’s universe is still pretty whitewashed.

(I won’t presume to say it’s a problem for the comics in absolute terms, since you can tell good stories about any combination of races or genders. I will say that so many of Marvel/DC’s heroes being “young adult white guy with short [color] hair” can make the art pretty hard to follow if you’re dealing with a mediocre penciler. It is also a problem that very few superhero artists can draw non-white persons with any level of proficiency at all.)

Avengers – Beast, Wonder Man, Yellowjacket, Vision, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, Hercules

And, yeah, I hear Eric Cartman’s voice too….

“If they’re shown a movie with a bunch of different-looking characters, they project themselves onto the one who they feel most looks like him or herself. In practical terms this tends to mean whoever has the same skin/hair color.”

But what if they all look the same? Do they project themselves onto the one that has the similar personality traits?

Marvel and DC’s comics may be whiter and maler than the population at large, but not more so than their fan base.

If you look at all white characters as a block, things seem pretty homogeneous, but Marvel in particular has a pretty diverse roster of White Folk; American, Canadian, British, Asgardian, Latverian, French, etc.

Yes, French! Batroc rules!

Avengers-Luke Cage,Iceman, Ms. Marvel, Dazzler, Spider Woman, Shang Chi, and Adam Warlock

“John Romita, Jr. on a new Avengers book sounds good to me in theory, but I’m not sure his art style will mesh well with Brian Michael Bendis’s writing. I find Romita works best with more action-focused writers, not one that prefers quiet dialogue-based scenes. I’m sure it will be good, but I’m just a little concerned about how nice a fit it will be.”

Romita Jr.’s first run on Uncanny with Claremont was plenty enough practice for him to handle Bendis’ style, I’m sure.

@Adam K: In the situation you describe, you get one of three basic reactions:

1) The child finds the characters totally unidentifiable and disengages, growing bored. (Trying to prevent this lead to the sometimes-comical “rainbow coalition” casts of late 80s/early 90s kidvid.) This is the most common reaction and can often explain why a kid just doesn’t get into something.

2) The child is still able to quickly latch onto one character as being most like him/her, based on some superficial trait besides race/gender. It can be a very broad, informed personality trait the child identifies with, like “toughest” or “smartest.” Even details of clothing can serve this function– a child may identify with a character who wears his/her favorite color. This is not uncommon but you tend to see it more with older kids– think the TMNT age bracket, where most kids pick their favorite turtle based on informed attributes.

3) The child cannot identify with the characters but does not disengage, perhaps finding aspects of the story itself engaging. Songs, animals, whatever the kid is into. In these cases the child will tend to end up liking whoever the story is portraying as likable, or perhaps whoever someone they watched the story with– like a parent or older sibling– found likable. This reaction is most common for kids who watch or read in a group setting and may persist as they age, with older kids more inclined to share reactions with peers than family members.

Who are you to look down your nose at us and call refer to us as ‘people’?

Seriously. Of course we are people, but that is a condescending usage of words that makes it look as if you think you are superior to the rest of us.

Are you for realsies?

Some of his thoughts weren’t complete thoughts, but were questions posed to the reader… you should get up in arms about that one next.

@Lynxara: I’ve got nothing against ethnic diversity, but I’m curious to know what research you’re citing. I’ve got an advanced degree in what is basically experimental psychology – though not social psychology like you’re describing. One thing I’ve learned is that it’s easy to draw overbroad generalizations from research that addresses rather narrow issues. So I wonder if the work you’re citing perhaps falls into that category. In any case, if you have specific research papers in mind, I’d appreciate knowing which ones.

Anecdotally, identifying with characters of another race or background certainly isn’t a universal problem. I’ve been a comics fan for a long time even though there aren’t a whole lotta Jews (see, I worked in a Led Zeppelin reference!) among superheroes. I have, in fact, identified with both Static and the Black Panther. I first met a high school friend of mine, who’s black, when I noticed him walking down the hall drawing intently in a notebook. Looking over his shoulder, I saw he was drawing himself as Spider-Man. No problem identifying there. (This friend went on to become a comic-book artist, though he’s not terribly well known and I won’t identify him because I don’t know if he’d want me to.)

“Identification” may be the wrong word in some cases. Sometimes we are attracted to characters not because they are “heroes who could be us” (e.g., Spider-Man) but because they represent the kinds of people we’d like to be. Aren’t these people heroes, after all? My identification with the Black Panther is more of this aspirational kind.

I’m inclined to think that the value of racial/ethnic diversity (and gender diversity, and religious diversity) in comics and elsewhere lies less in allowing minority or female readers to identify with characters – though that’s probably an issue for some readers – than in exposing dominant-culture or male readers to admirable characters who _aren’t_ like them, thereby breaking down prejudices they may not even be aware they have. I _am_ inclined to believe – though I could certainly be wrong – that female readers may identify more readily with female characters, perhaps because sex, unlike race, is a characteristic with real biological consequences.

Sean Phillips is probably one of my favoritest artists of all time, though there are some sizable gaps in his ouvre that I’ve yet to read. Oddly though, I’ve never been all that wild about most of the stories he’s illustrated.

Also: People, people who need people are the luckiest people of all.

People.

@Dan Felty: I first got into Sean Phillips’s art when he was drawing, of all things, Hellblazer. This was when Eddie Campbell was writing the book, and was actually what got me into Hellblazer. I don’t know what counts as “stretching his muscles,” but for Hellblazer Phillips was inking straight to the page, with no penciling underneath. This gave the art a fascinating spontaneous, somewhat sketch-like feel. Of course it looked like Phillips’s drawing – everyone has a style – but I think it was a good bit different from the more recent work you mention.

@O: I’m citing basic stuff my children’s and young adult literature courses went over when I was getting my teaching and library degrees. I suppose I could attempt to dig up any textbooks I still have, but I know I sold some of ‘em back. It’s a problem all teaching librarians in my state must go through, also I think all K-8 teachers and anyone expecting to teach English on a high school level. So I guess if you think what I’m saying here is full of shit, it’s because my state’s DOE is full of shit. (There are times when I wouldn’t disagree!)

Stuff about holding interest comes from material covering how to teach reading if you, as librarian, get stuck doing this. If you’re in K-5 you can expect it and it may be expected in some schools at older age ranges. So the courses went over, generally, how kids can get bored with things that you as an adult find interesting or might at first glance think were appropriate. When you teach reading, getting hold of material kids find interesting is important for combating ever-decreasing attention spans.

There’s also a big emphasis in those courses on how to properly order a wide range of materials for a school collection that will get a lot of kids of both genders reading at different ages. Ordering becomes a very sensitive issue if you have a very diverse student body (or, worse, a nearly-homogenous student body). Identification is something you need to think a lot about when maintaining collections in K-5 and, a little less, in middle school. Junior high and high school collections have their own challenges, identification isn’t the main one at that point.

I will emphasize that I’m speaking about mainly K-5 children here. At this age range they won’t know or care that Superman is metaphorically Jewish or an immigrant, children will look at him and basically see a white man. This age range is frequently not sensitive to issues involving Jewishness unless specifically instructed about them, because Jews don’t look any different than garden-variety white people. Once they are tweens or teens they’ll begin to pick up on this stuff and be more sophisticated readers, but children tend to react on a level adults would find superficial or perhaps even dream-logicy.

The way adults interact with characters is much more nuanced. Issues like identification are much less important, most adults will read a story about anything or anyone if they’re avid enough readers. Likewise, the way adults would say they “identify” with a character is not the way pre-teen readers will. What you discuss in the last paragraph is why diversity in comics is important to adults and for adult readers. I was thinking mainly of how problems with diversity in the comics bleed over into the versions of the characters intended for children, who at this point have totally different needs than the readership of the comics.

Your theory about gender in reading is interesting. What I was taught is that, generally, adult and teen female readers will happily identify with male characters, but male readers often have difficulty in identifying with female characters. This is usually used to frame a lesson about the importance of keeping boy-friendly materials in your high school collections, even though 2/3 of your traffic will probably be female. High school is where a lot of boys simply stop reading for pleasure, which can have pretty negative consequences down the road. Circulation studies indicate that keeping male-friendly material can help you hold onto them.

My intro to Connstantine, other than Sandman and Books of Magic, was The Gift by Carey and Manco. I picked it up on a whim when there was a trade sale at my LCS. I started reading it regularly a few months later when Jason Aaron did his two issues.

Let’s see…. The ideal Avengers team would have to have the Wasp as leader. Unfortunately, she is dead, at least she was the last time I heard. Comics being what they are, I’m sure she’ll be back soon. I really don’t like all these constant resurrections– it usually ruins all the meaning in the stories in which they died– but I’m only human and I will make an exception for Janet, and for Kitty Pryde. (And whoever is responsible for their deaths needs to have a firecracker shoved up the butt.) I guess it’s been clearly established by now that not every writer can handle Janet properly, so if the current author can’t quite get a handle on her character he should be fired immediately and replaced with someone decent.
She-Hulk– because every team has to have a strong guy, and Strong Guy is already on a team. Jan and Jen would both bring a sense of fun to the series and there would always be interesting dialogue. Also, the Avengers really need a good lawyer available at all times to straighten things out with the authorities, bystanders, property owners, &tc.
Captain Marvel– the REAL one– Monica Rambeau– Another character that not every writer can handle correctly, but when she’s used properly she is great. I’m not sure what her powers are at the moment; I know they changed with her 1989 one-shot, but I was thinking she got her light powers back at some point after that. However, in Marvel Divas she could carry passengers while flying, so I’m not sure what the deal is.
Ms Marvel– I guess, because she’s really popular in recent years, and she needs something to do now that her own series is ending.
The Scarlet Witch, returned to sanity, with her powers at about the strength they were in the ’70s and 80s– Because she’s been through way too much already, and she deserves her life back.
The Black Cat– Because the team always needs a non-powered athlete, and because she’s really cool.
Kitty Pryde, whom I’m told is already coming back, so I don’t have to feel guilty about asking for two resurrections– Because she’s smart, and cute, and perky, and fun, and quite possibly the greatest character ever. Also, don’t you think it’s time that they stop Jim Crowing all the mutants into their own seperate titles all the time?

There you go… The perfect Avengers team. Some may try to claim I’ve left out one important character-type, but I don’t think so. I’ve been hoping for a team like this one for decades.

Regarding something the Mutt said–
Is Egghead alive nowadays? When did that happen? His death was a perfect way to end the Fall of Hank Pym. Why would anyone want to cheapen that by bringing him back? It’s not as though he was an important villain whose death left a hole. Bringing him back just sounds so pointless. (Like bringing back Bucky.)

@Lynxara: I’m definitely not saying that what you’re saying is full of shit. I’m only, as I said, wondering about it.

Thanks for clarifying in more detail. You did say that you were talking mainly about young kids, but I wasn’t quite sure where the boundary between young and older lay. And your comments about male and female readers are enlightening – though I wonder what they mean with respect to the conversation about Wonder Woman over on Kelly’s post?

If you want to read/hear a lovely true story about librarians, race, and maybe male readers (and one that probably goes against some of what I said about identification), I highly recommend – to you and to anyone –
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113357239. It practically brought tears to my eyes.

@O: Hey, I’d be fine if you were saying I was full of shit! Maybe you’d know better somehow, I dunno. I’m enough of a skeptic that I’m fine when others express skepticism. Anyway, that link was great.

Yeah, there are really specific differences in how K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 tend to read .There are also big differences in those age blocks, but you only need to worry about those if your school only covers a narrow range (like, say, K-2).

The whiteness of superhero comics just does really strange things to the adaptations for kids in that context, since right now there’s such a gulf between what’s considered appropriate children’s media and the Marvel/DC output. I just saw a leaked design for the Young Justice cartoon and it appears the next animated version of Aqualad is going to be a black teenager.

This is probably because they needed a new young black character to broaden the team’s appeal and DC just didn’t have any. (Cyborg, a teen Black Lightning, and Static have already been animated.) What the hell kind of IP licensor in this day and age just runs out of black characters? Of course DC ended up buying Milestone at that rate.

I like Hellblazer: All His Engines by Mike Carey. But I haven’t read any other Hellblazer besides that.

ZEPPELIN RULES!

Random thoughts sometimes beget random replies. I’m smiling about the title “strangest comment ever.” Thanks. Hope you enjoyed your birthweek!

p.s. Have you been enjoying “The Great Ten”? I bought the first issue and intend to buy the rest but haven’t yet . My comic shop appears to be buying so few, they sell out. Also, I like the characters, but the art bugs me.

JRjr had one good run on Iron Man, one great run on X-Men, and another amazing run on Iron Man, all of which had plenty of dialogue-based scenes. i think he’ll do just fine on Avengers. hell, even his JMS Spidey work had tons of dialogue and i remember thinking how well he pulled that off. THAT’S RIGHT CHAD I’M CALLING YOU OUT!!! YOU NEED TO READ MORE ROMITA Jr.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mary, the current Egghead is not the original, it’s a robot.

My Avengers would be Hercules, Iceman, Angel, Black Widow and Ghost Rider

My Avengers roster:

Captain America: leader (I’ll take the Bucky version, if others will follow him)
Black Panther: scientist
Storm: raw power, deputy leader (I always thought she should be an Avenger at some point)
Jennifer Kale: magic (I don’t think Scarlet Witch is fixable, or all that interesting. Let’s go with another magician, and a Gerber character to boot)
Hulk: super-strength
Moondragon: telepathy
Mach-1: tech, and I don’t think Iron Man needs any more exposure.

Storm: raw power, deputy leader (I always thought she should be an Avenger at some point)

Me too, Mike Loughlin. She’s the one X-Person that would be great as an Avenger. Plus, I like the idea of Ororo and Black Panther at the same team.