But, you know, this Dark Reign thing?  It's kind of awesome.

If you told me a couple years ago I'd be really into a big superhero crossover engineered by Brian Talkypants Bendis I'd have laughed at you behind your back and probably written mean things about you as well.  I'm not a good man.  But you know what?  It kind of works!

Let's not get crazy . . .I'm not reading everything.  But I'm enjoying the hell out of the central premise . . .OK, hold on.  Every time I bring this up or see this story being discussed, the same point comes up.  The "How the hell does Normon Osborne get that much power and nobody's freaking out?" thing.  I get it, I do.  But:  a) if it is a flimsy start, oh well, the story it's produced is compelling, interesting, and fun; b) George W. Bush and Cheney got elected and then re-elected.  Michael Jackson went from hated joke to martyred hero.  Do not discount the power of media spin.  I buy him getting this position enough to enjoy what comes afterwards without worry, especially with the canny little photo-ops and interviews we've seen so far . . .Norman, a tear in his eye, talking about his days when he lost control, and how science and the American justice system have brought him to a place where he can make up for it.  It's not that far-fetched, especially in a world where dudes shoot lasers out their eyes.

Another complaint I remember from early on was "OH COME ON!  DR. DOOM AND NAMOR WOULD NEVER AGREE TO THIS!" or sometimes "DR. DOOM AND NAMOR AND EMMA WOULD NEVER AGREE TO THIS!"  This was normally said by the guys that sit around thinking about how awesome Dr. Doom is, which is a dumb thing to do I have to say.  Well recent story developments show that HEY GUYS WHAT THERE WAS A PLAN FOR THIS ALL ALONG.  The writers, and I know we're really not used to this, had an idea and new what was going to happen later.  Those annoyed by Eurotrash Namor (heart heart heart) will hopefully be won back by recent HOLY SHIT JESUS CHRIST Namor (heart heart hear as well).

Anyway, it's a simple but good premise.  "OK, the bad guys are in charge, the public is mostly behind them.  Now what?"  It's open enough to be adaptable to any comic or situation or even tone, but specific enough that it's not just, I dunno, "zombies are being mean."  The books I'm reading are the ones written or co-written by Bendis, who seems to be the main architect behind it.  The Dark X-Men stuff with Fraction is clearly a part of the long-term X-Men plan . . .more evidence of actual editorial planning.  And now New Avengers, Dark Avengers, and Secret Warriors almost serve as a thrice-a-month inter-relating saga, all of it pretty damn good (ugh except for that dang Deodato art).  Things continue to build to a head.  Norman's clearly getting closer and closer to the brink of totally losing it.  The Sentry's arc is actually going somewhere.  Marvel Boy, well you know something's going on there when he disappears after finding out what Norman's Avengers really are.

(Here's a digression.  I like that Bendis is very good about playing in the playground.  He's using a lot of stuff thrown out there by recent guys . . .Night Nurse, Sentry, the Hood, and he's using it interestingly.  I think I prefer this to the Geoff Johns style of using stuff from thirty years ago.  Seems more alive, if a shared universe really is this magical quilt then keep adding to the new pieces, don't just layer on the old.)

Is it dark?  (HAR) Well, yeah, sometimes.  But only in the "close of the second act" kind of way, where you know something awesome and redemptive is eventually going to put things right.

I dunno what good my words are anymore, but take it from someone who by all rights should probably hate this . . .it's pretty damn good.  I eagerly look forward to my Marvel books these days.  (This new FF is starting strong, too . . .not really related, just thought I'd say.)  New and Dark Avengers, Secret Warriors, Brubaker's Cap stuff, even unrelated stuff like this Immortal Weapons thing . . .there's a lot of good stuff out there, and I, for one, am happy about it.

58 Comments

• At September 24, 2009, Michael P. wrote:

  I dunno, Joe. To me, it just feels like a muddled attempt at commentary on the Bush administration, in much ...

• At September 24, 2009, Matt D wrote:

  Here's the thing. The execution is good across the line. Marvel's assembled some excellent, excellent writers. For a throw away ...

• At September 24, 2009, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  Dark Reign, like the Initiative before it, suffers from the problem that it only works in its core titles. When ...

• At September 24, 2009, T. wrote:

  But: a) if it is a flimsy start, oh well, the story it's produced is compelling, interesting, and fun; ...

• At September 24, 2009, Joe Rice wrote:

  Like I said, read the core titles. They're damn good. The interrelationships between them deepen and get more ...

• At September 24, 2009, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  Barack Obama never tried to kill someone dressed as a fairytale character... AT LEAST, THAT WE KNOW OF!!!!

  Seriously, comparing ...

• At September 24, 2009, Joe wrote:

  I completely agree with Mr. Rice. I think Marvel's product overall is pretty awesome even if not every issue is ...

• At September 24, 2009, Michael P. wrote:

  Even so, Marvel has said they'll continue the series past Dark Reign. Which, if I had that many dollar signs ...

• At September 24, 2009, Joe Rice wrote:

  Fair enough, Mike!

  Honestly, I can see some different ways Dark Avengers could work . . .either Norman gets a new ...

• At September 24, 2009, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  My completely non-earth-shattering predicted ending to Dark Reign: Iron Man will come back and work with a revived Captain America ...

• At September 24, 2009, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  " I was shocked by the way Michael Jackson was celebrated after his death. I didn't watch every hour of ...

• At September 24, 2009, Wesley Smith wrote:

  Brian "Talkypants" Bendis may be succeeding here, but he's been a driving force behind every event Marvel's done since Avengers ...

• At September 24, 2009, Joe Rice wrote:

  I'm sure there will be some punching stuff when Osborne gets taken out; but I don't see why that would ...

• At September 24, 2009, Wesley Smith wrote:

  Call me old-fashioned ("You're old-fashioned!"), but what's the point of a super-hero story if somebody doesn't get punched or blown ...

• At September 24, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Dark Reign actually got me to drop Marvel entirely, on the grounds that I don't enjoy it, it's in every ...

• At September 24, 2009, Derick wrote:

  Osborn being the villain in every book is kind of boring too...

• At September 24, 2009, Matt Bird wrote:

  Wouldn't this be more like if Claus Von Bulow shot and killed Osama Bin Laden on live TV and then ...

• At September 24, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  My bet is that whoever replaces Osborn will get Dark Avengers as his or her book (okay, let's be honest, ...

• At September 24, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  I haven't been buying very many Dark Reign books for the same reason I didn't buy many Civil War or ...

• At September 24, 2009, John Cage wrote:

  Re: Matt Bird -- Only if he was running some minor government agency for a time before killing Bin Laden.

  In ...

• At September 24, 2009, Panji Sudoyo wrote:

  Osborn got the Thunderbolts gig afforded to him by Tony Stark, back during the whole Civil War debacle (Y'know, for ...

• At September 24, 2009, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  I definitely agree with Joe about the main books, at least. I really like New and Dark Avengers, Secret Warriors, ...

• At September 24, 2009, Black Manta wrote:

  I wouldn't feel to bad about all the tie-ins if I could fine a reliable source to fill me in ...

• At September 25, 2009, jazzbo wrote:

  As much as I've disliked that all Marvel books have been tied into Civil War/Secret Invasion/Dark Reign for the past ...

• At September 25, 2009, Freeman wrote:

  Nice article. Its good to read a positive take from someone not taking their comics too seriously.

  I also find ...

• At September 25, 2009, Julian wrote:

  I'm picking up Dunlavey's MODOK story. That's it.

• At September 25, 2009, Joe Rice wrote:

  The point of a super-hero story, as with any other story, is to be a good story. That's it.

• At September 25, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Dark Reign = blllllaaaaaaaaahhhhh. Enough with Brian Michael Bendis, already. Enough with ridiculously overextended "events," enough with the endless array ...

• At September 25, 2009, K wrote:

  Nice article. Especially nice to actually see somebody being positive about something on the internet!

  As other people have already said, ...

• At September 25, 2009, Dan Bailey wrote:

  >>I've only heard one compelling argument for why Osborne doesn't work as the leader of this "dark reign" but it ...

• At September 25, 2009, Joe Rice wrote:

  Except he's not Lex Luthor. He's a rather-smart industrialist opportunist with horrible mental disorders. He works for the ...

• At September 25, 2009, Joe Rice wrote:

  I should also note that darker, more ambiguous tales work much better in the Marvel milieu than in DC. ...

• At September 25, 2009, T. wrote:

  More power to those who like Dark Reign, but the only argument I need -- that Osborne as the Lex ...

• At September 25, 2009, Dan Bailey wrote:

  >>Except he's not Lex Luthor.

  Well, see, that's part of the problem for me. I have NO IDEA who or ...

• At September 25, 2009, Reading Over Shoulders | Extremely Graphic wrote:

  [...] Comics Should Be Good sparked a lively discussion with this review of Dark Reign. [...]

• At September 25, 2009, Dan Bailey wrote:

  Hmmm. T. & I keep agreeing on all sorts of basic premises, even though if memory serves we're pretty much ...

• At September 25, 2009, T. wrote:

  Well we did disagree on whether the usage of "retard" was acceptable. :)

• At September 25, 2009, pmpknface wrote:

  I'm reading 'em all and they ARE good! The only thing I do disagree with is the premise - ...

• At September 25, 2009, Neal K wrote:

  I don't understand all the Dark Reign hate either, Joe. I happen to be reading all the "core" ...

• At September 25, 2009, Dan Bailey wrote:

  Who is this pmpknface person? Apparently (since he *choke* disagrees with me), he is NOT the same lovely & talented ...

• At September 25, 2009, Willy wrote:

  Heh, superhero comics? Pretty terrible all around. Everybody in the world agrees.

  Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to ...

• At September 25, 2009, Aaron Poehler wrote:

  I stopped after the first sentence: "Everyone knows that DC and Marvel superhero comics are pretty terrible these days." ...

• At September 25, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  To me, the biggest irony is that while it's Marvel that's calling itself "dark" these days, it's DC I don't ...

• At September 25, 2009, Joe Rice wrote:

  Wow, Aaron! You're awesome!

• At September 25, 2009, Dan Bailey wrote:

  Something tells me that Mr. Poehler is either unfamiliar with or dismissive toward Sturgeon's Law -- 90 percent of Everything ...

• At September 25, 2009, Les Fontenelle wrote:

  I agree that Dark Reign has been far better than expected. I'm not so surprised about Marvel's obvious longterm planning ...

• At September 25, 2009, Joe Rice wrote:

  And how many times have good guys been mind controlled and later forgiven? It's a whole different world of ...

• At September 25, 2009, Dan Bailey wrote:

  Hell, we've ALL "been mind-controlled & later forgiven."

  Haven't we?

• At September 25, 2009, Joe Rice wrote:

  Dude, dating would be so much easier and so much harder in the MU.

• At September 25, 2009, Brad Curran wrote:

  "I'm picking up Dunlavey's MODOK story. That's it."

  Good pick. If you buy only one DR related story, that's a pretty ...

• At September 25, 2009, Joe Rice wrote:

  I feel Bendis has really found his footing within the last year. And New Avengers has Stuart Immonen, who ...

• At September 25, 2009, jazzbo wrote:

  In regards to the believability of the storyline, everyone seems to be forgetting that the people of the Marvel U ...

• At September 25, 2009, T. wrote:

  If people believed in Quicksilver's redemption, why wouldn't they believe in Osborn's?

  First, Captain America vouched for them. Second, if ...

• At September 25, 2009, Les Fontenelle wrote:

  Quicksilver never personally killed the queen of an invading alien army in front of TV cameras - which was how ...

• At September 25, 2009, bongoes wrote:

  Honestly, if Dark Reign doesn't end with Osborn becoming Green Goblin again and being defeated by Spider-man alone then Dark ...

• At September 26, 2009, sgt pepper wrote:

  Joe, I wish you'd post more.

  Anyway, I don't agree that Marvel superhero comics are pretty terrible right now. They're ...

• At September 26, 2009, Joe Rice wrote:

  No, I agree, Sgt. My first line was not meant to be taken seriously.

• At September 26, 2009, Brian wrote:

  As concepts Civil War the mini and even Secret Invasion the mini, though both flawed, worked for me. I bought ...

Do we really need an extra thousand things to argue about? I'll stick with where to eat and whose parents are crazier. I don't need to yell about the relative merits of Joe Matt vs. Johnny Ryan.

I'd have saved my anti-Crisis-on-Infinite-Earths Piece

Seriously, I can't find that anywhere. It makes me sad. It was fucking brilliant.

I'd never have quit CSBG in the first place.

Can you imagine me with some sort of moderation ability? I would burn a swath through the comment fields like a case of mono through the popular kids in junior high. Lo, I would be feared indeed.

21 Comments

• At March 16, 2009, Adam Jones wrote:

  I'd not date other comic fans.

  Do we really need an extra thousand things to argue about? I'll stick with ...

• At March 16, 2009, Scavenger wrote:

  this? http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2006/12/12/crisis-made-a-hot-girl-ugly/

• At March 16, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Yeah, isn't that the piece?

  Good piece.

• At March 16, 2009, Joe Rice wrote:

  Huh. Well I'll be damned.

• At March 16, 2009, karl wrote:

  i like to date girls who dont know about comics but are open to them, so i can get them ...

• At March 16, 2009, Joe Rice wrote:

  Oh, dude! Not cool!

• At March 16, 2009, T. wrote:

  As long as we're making requests, can anyone find a piece that I was pretty sure was either on the ...

• At March 16, 2009, Scavenger wrote:

  for the record, Joe..it took me like 3 seconds to google that.:-)

• At March 16, 2009, T. wrote:

  Can you imagine me with some sort of moderation ability? I would burn a swath through the comment fields like ...

• At March 16, 2009, Dalarsco wrote:

  I've never seen a female poster act like an idiot. Therefore, unless you're gay I think it should be ...

• At March 16, 2009, karl wrote:

  dalarsco,

  you cant really judge people by the internet, guys or girls.... that said ive met both some cool and some ...

• At March 16, 2009, plok wrote:

  Something like: "Mark Waid's FF: World's Shittiest Comics Magazine", wasn't it?

  I couldn't find that one; wanted to ...

• At March 16, 2009, Brad Curran wrote:

  When I saw this in word press, I thought you were using Joe'd as a verb. Like you'd just Joe'd ...

• At March 16, 2009, Jones, one of the Jones boys wrote:

  Johnny Ryan, hands down.

• At March 16, 2009, T. wrote:

  I couldn’t find that one; wanted to link to it a few times. Sort of the post that made me ...

• At March 16, 2009, plok wrote:

  I'm sure it was CSBG.

• At March 16, 2009, Apodaca wrote:

  "I’ve never seen a female poster act like an idiot."

  Then you're either not looking hard enough, or blinded by nerd-lust. ...

• At March 16, 2009, Eliot Johnson wrote:

  Yeah I mean I like Joe Matt a lot, but Johnny Ryan.

• At March 16, 2009, ZZZ wrote:

  How can you be sure you've never seen a female poster act like an idiot? Isn't the general rule that ...

• At March 17, 2009, HotBabe69 wrote:

  That's not true!!

• At March 17, 2009, D. Eric wrote:

  Wouldn't that rule hold true for anything? I'd rather not date a football fan; I'd rather not date an ...

Alan Moore Talks Comics, Superheroes, is Interesting:  Wired.

The Colonel writes some pulp:  Here Comes a Regular  (sorry, that one's kind of self-serving)

12 Comments

• At February 25, 2009, David wrote:

  That Moore article is awesome. His analysis of the origin of super-heroes is simplistic (a fact he admits) since ...

• At February 25, 2009, Ian A. wrote:

  Michel Gondry on Green Hornet is...unexpected, to say the least.

  I really have no idea what to expect from that movie ...

• At February 25, 2009, Michael wrote:

  "Watchmen without the irony" is a pretty good distillation of the overall direction of Marvel & DC over the past ...

• At February 25, 2009, Scott MacIver wrote:

  A good interview from Moore, who in my experience is hit or miss. This one, he seemed to just rant ...

• At February 25, 2009, Anonymous wrote:

  David: How'd you get your hands on LoEG Vol 3 so soon? Or did you mean the Black Dossier?

• At February 25, 2009, David wrote:

  Sorry, meant Black Dossier - I've been calling it Vol 3 since it came out. Prob should stop that ...

• At February 25, 2009, Dean wrote:

  LOEG: Black Dossier was the first Alan Moore book that I've which was actually bad. Admittedly, i have not ...

• At February 25, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Dean: Have you read Lost Girls? I wouldn't say that was very good, either.

• At February 25, 2009, Dean wrote:

  I have not read "Lost Girls". We have a toddler and, while I am pretty liberal, having a porn ...

• At February 26, 2009, plok wrote:

  Dean, who do you mean by the "key collaborator"? DC Comics?

  Don't blame you for not liking Black Dossier. ...

• At February 26, 2009, Dean wrote:

  Dean, who do you mean by the “key collaborator”? DC Comics?

  Plok, I meant more the "DC Universe". The Charlton ...

• At February 26, 2009, plok wrote:

  Well, I think I'll agree with you in part, Dean -- Moore definitely profits by having some set of conventions ...

7 Comments

• At January 23, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Yeah, Mindless Ones is a great blog.

  Tearoom of Despair definitely has started out well!

• At January 23, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Holy flying monkey poo, that Tearoom of Despair is awesome.

• At January 23, 2009, David Uzumeri wrote:

  Thanks for the link to Tearoom of Despair, I hadn't been pointed there yet and it's quite great.

  And yeah, the ...

• At January 23, 2009, agent_torpor wrote:

  Mindless Ones have the greatest FC synopsii/review/criticism on the net. Bar fucking none.

• At January 23, 2009, Cass wrote:

  Amypoodle might be the best stylistic writer on the entire interwebs. The poodle turns many a phrase and turns them ...

• At January 23, 2009, joshschr wrote:

  Around the review of page 6, I skipped to the end of the Mindless Ones review. Most excellent.

• At January 24, 2009, Apodaca wrote:

  Mindless Ones is indeed great, but sometimes I get a little lost in their overseas slang.

I'm writing under a pseudonym because of the teaching career but you can tell which one's me pretty easily.  Who else is going to name-drop Dragon magazine?

Thanks and sorry Brian!

6 Comments

• At January 21, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  No problema, Joe. Looks like a good site.

  Good luck with it!

• At January 21, 2009, Dalarsco wrote:

  Excellent, I now have a new Blog to visit.

• At January 21, 2009, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  Not a topic of discussion I normally gravitate to, but I'll check it out. Good luck, Joe!

• At January 21, 2009, R wrote:

  I like how it's named after a song about alcoholism.

• At January 22, 2009, Matt Algren wrote:

  I hate you. Everything you like sucks. Your blogging sucks.

  There. That outta get the comments off on the normal Joe ...

• At January 22, 2009, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  You suck Joe Rice!

(Here's the article itself.)

9 Comments

• At January 8, 2009, uhhh wrote:

  Didn't you guys post this last year?

  It does go as far back as March 28, 2008 ...

  Great read, but i ...

• At January 8, 2009, Michael wrote:

  That is awesome, but the link is broken.

• At January 8, 2009, Luis Jaime wrote:

  Awesome indeed.

  Interestingly, the folds in were translated into Spanish (for Mad Mexico), and somehow they almost always made them work ...

• At January 8, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Link fixed!

• At January 8, 2009, DubipR wrote:

  Great link. Always good to see Al Jaffee in any spotlight.

• At January 8, 2009, stealthwise wrote:

  This is so awesome.

• At January 8, 2009, Thomas C (AKA Cap'n Yesterday) wrote:

  -struck speechless-

• At January 9, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  Wow! Didn't know he was still going! Whenever I think back to when I read MAD, there were ...

• At January 9, 2009, Dunc wrote:

  I would be so happy if I could buy a book of those.

  So, So happy.

  Thanks for the link!

5.  Funky Flashman.  First off, he was made by Jack Kirby, so that's got him some cred right there.  Secondly, he's a parody of Stan the Man after Stan totally screwed Jack over.  Thirdly, he wears a toupee on his head . . .AND ONE ON HIS FACE.  The beard is fake!  That's so awesome that I can't get over it.  But it's not nearly as awesome as that cravat.  Goddam, I love a good cravat.

4. Just look at that guy.  I want you to tell me right now that he won't stone laser your face off.  You can't tell me that because he obviously will.  His shirt's all ripped and he is hard.  Look at those eyes.  Are they a killer's eyes?  They are an awesome laserer's eyes I know that much.  You only wish you had the cajones to step to a man like Flash Gordon.  You don't.  NO ONE DOES.

3.  Except maybe for this dude here!  Awwww, yeah.  GI Joe's original laser trooper expert.  You always knew he was cool because he had red pads and a weapon that doesn't really make sense in any battlefield sense.  You know what I would give for slacks like that?  A few babies, that's what (any ethnicity).  I always liked Flash, and that makes him awesome.

2.  Almost as awesome as this man right here.  Look at him.  He's got a sweet sweater with his last initial on it.  The ladies love him.  And he gives that unbelievable tool Parker just what he deserves.  And please don't think I'm being sarcastic here.  Can you imagine having to deal with that whining ninny in high school?  I bet you can because you did.  That's because school's don't have proper alpha males like Flash Thompson anymore.  Sure, Steve Ditko played him as a bad guy, but that's because Ditko was a nerdy freak, too.  Flash Thompson is frickin cool.

And the greatest Flash of all time?

1.  This guy with his name misspelled.
Seriously, screw all those red and yellow fast crapfaces.  Barry's boring, Wally's a former Teen Titan and therefore a giant entitled Gen X/Boomer whiner.  And Jay is old and therefore probably a Republican.  And running really fast is dumb as a power, so they give them everything else in the world.

This post is fact.

Love,

Joe Rice

34 Comments

• At October 28, 2008, thespianphryne wrote:

  Rice, you such a nerd. NERD.

• At October 28, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  IT CANNOT BE DENIED

• At October 28, 2008, T. wrote:

  Actually Wally West is the one established in continuity as a Republican. (Seriously)

• At October 28, 2008, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  Dude what about that time ultimate Wasp showed ultimate Hulk her BOOBS!!!! that was the best flash lol

• At October 28, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  Guys with lasers > boobs. It's science, it'll tell you so.

• At October 28, 2008, TV's Grady wrote:

  FLASH!!! AHHHH-AHHHHH!!!

  KING OF THE IMPOSSIBLE!!!

• At October 28, 2008, DoctorDoom wrote:

  I like you. You're crazy.

• At October 28, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  You know who gets songs written about them by Queen?

  FRICKIN AWESOME PEOPLE that is who.

• At October 28, 2008, sononsj wrote:

  I love how the pic for #4 is too awesome to show up on my computer. No doubt it would ...

• At October 28, 2008, sononsj wrote:

  oh god the pic showed up

• At October 28, 2008, Clayton wrote:

  I see Jay Garrick as more of a Roosevelt Democrat myself. But even if he did register Republican once ...

• At October 28, 2008, T. wrote:

  Clayton, first two chairs of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities (1934-1937) were John W. McCormack and Samuel Dickstein, Democrats. ...

• At October 28, 2008, Thok wrote:

  Actually Wally West is the one established in continuity as a Republican.

  Wait, I thought Wally supported the mad bomber for ...

• At October 28, 2008, Grico wrote:

  Funky Flashman was a member of the Secret Society of Super-Villains so he wins in my book. The fact is ...

• At October 28, 2008, sononsj wrote:

  And now it's not showing up... way to be a dick picture #4.

• At October 28, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Tsk tsk, Joe, we have an image server, so we shouldn't hotlink to photos!

  I uploaded all the images to our ...

• At October 28, 2008, T. wrote:

  #5 shouldn't count. Technically he's not a Flash at all but a FlashMAN. Big difference.

• At October 29, 2008, St. Michael wrote:

  All the rest are just FlashBOYS.

• At October 29, 2008, doron wrote:

  I believe wally is a republican because Bary was a republican. ( I mean, cmon he is police)

• At October 29, 2008, Jeff R. wrote:

  Wally was a Republican bak in the 80s, which, thanks to the rolling ten-year window of comic book time, is ...

• At October 29, 2008, CBrown wrote:

  Pretty ballsy to not include any of the three Flashes on the Best Flash list. But what about REVERSE Flash?

• At October 29, 2008, Ariel S. wrote:

  "Cajones" in spanish means "drawers". I assume you meant "cojones" ;)

• At October 29, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  I like cabinets all right? Geez, get off my back!

• At October 29, 2008, Stephen wrote:

  No Flash Funk = FAIL.

• At October 29, 2008, T. wrote:

  Yes, Wally was explicitly labeled as Republican in-story by Mike Baron. I don't know if it was ever mentioned ...

• At October 29, 2008, Scavenger wrote:

  Oh yeah, some GI Joe Flash love! My first GI Joe figure! He kicked ass in Marvel's GI ...

• At October 29, 2008, jhota wrote:

  what about Grandmaster Flash?

• At October 29, 2008, Brad Curran wrote:

  Flash Funk and Grandmaster Funk; the team up that damn well ought to exist.

• At October 29, 2008, lauren wrote:

  I think Grandmaster Flash is cooler than s/flash and he had the furious five!

• At October 29, 2008, Ethan Shuster wrote:

  Incidentally, G.I. Joe's Flash went the way of Barry Allen (well, until recently, I guess) and died in an explosion ...

• At October 29, 2008, Ethan Shuster wrote:

  Oh, and bravo for this post having no Garrick, Allen or West! Just cuz, why not?

• At October 30, 2008, Jack Norris wrote:

  I find the G.I. Joe love completely impossible to relate to.

  REAL G.I. Joe is twice as tall and has ...

• At October 31, 2008, Michael Mayket wrote:

  Yeah! What Lauren said!

• At August 7, 2009, Speed Reading: Rebirth, Crimson Lightning, Turner Tribute and More « Speed Force wrote:

  [...] Comics Should Be Good has a list of the Top Five Flashes. I’m sure most Flash fans will find ...

"Consider us:  a whole civilization of supermen reduced to dust by a caprice of cosmology.  Then think how precious and how fragile all the little things you value are." (Grant Morrison by way of Jor-El, house of El.)

He's not simply talking about mere humans, the major joy of Superman's life.  Nor is he simply talking about the forgotten pleasures of mortal life--the smell of fresh-steamed rice, the glint in the eye of a successful flirt, beer in a backyard, an old familiar song.  He's talking about everything.  In the face of mortality and moving on from this life, all things are little, and yet all things are also so precious and fragile.

The comic doesn't lack for action.  You've got a power-crazed Luthor devastating Metropolis.  You've a cat-and-mouse game with the usual suspects in reversed position.  The Man of Tomorrow out-thinks he who thinks himself the greatest mind.  You've even got punches and blood.

Awesome as all this is, though, that's not the point of "Superman in Excelsis."  This is Superman as Jesus, though not in some predictable knee-jerk fashion.  This is mature, thought-out, and beautiful theology.  This is the God who came to Earth and felt every beauty, every pain, and saw how it was all connected.  The one who loved unto and beyond death.  Even when he fears it . . ."Father, not me!"  But Jor-El knows, as Kal-El does, in his heart.  "They will join you in the sun, Kal-El."  Mankind perfected, mankind reborn, inspired and brought along by the actions of he who lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died.

Even Luthor sees the beauty when he looks through the power of Superman.  He sees the heart-wrenching, unstoppable beauty.  The thin, delicate web that unites all.

It's just such a beautiful comic.  From the spiritual beauty of the idea to the artistic beauty of the execution to the thematic beauty of Superman in the sun to the aesthetic beauty of Lois in her last three panels to the nerdy beauty of that last page.  It's beauty, and I thank everyone involved for it.

14 Comments

• At September 18, 2008, Dean Trippe wrote:

  Since reading this issue, I feel stronger, as though the solar heart Superman built is pumping inside my own chest. ...

• At September 18, 2008, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  And here I was, thinking Morrison's writing had lost a lot of its humanity to storytelling exercises.

  What a wonderful ...

• At September 18, 2008, Rockin' Rich wrote:

  It was a wonderful series that I wished would never end.

  All that it lacked was a wink at the end.

• At September 18, 2008, Paperghost wrote:

  Everyone who worked on this comic deserves sexytime on demand for the rest of their lives.

• At September 19, 2008, Blackjak wrote:

  There have been very, very few Superman comics that I have been able to connect with...

  This, however, is utterly ...

• At September 19, 2008, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  "Now I wonder if we can get them to do WE4?"

  How can they? They never did do WE1 and ...

• At September 19, 2008, s1rude wrote:

  I can not wait to go back and re-read this as a complete story. 12 has consumed my thoughtspace ...

• At September 19, 2008, D. Peace wrote:

  I haven't read it yet, but I'm dying to see it.

  Although I've occasionally had mixed feelings about this series (could ...

• At September 19, 2008, D. Peace wrote:

  EDIT: That should have read "Superman story published in our lifetime" above.

• At September 19, 2008, stealthwise wrote:

  Phenomenal. For me, this has been a great year for entertainment, with A*S concluding alongside other faves like The ...

• At September 19, 2008, Lynxara wrote:

  Ah, that really was a beautiful conclusion to a beautiful story. Beautiful in a way peculiar to the character, genre, ...

• At September 19, 2008, Rohan Williams wrote:

  Yep, it was perfect. I was irrationally worried that Morrison would lose the plot at the end, but he and ...

• At September 21, 2008, Bob wrote:

  You're right Paperghost. Though something tells me Grant Morrison gets plenty of sexy time when ever he wants.

  I am ...

• At September 21, 2008, Apodaca wrote:

  Oh man, it was so good. The page of Superman building the sun's new heart was stunning.

Yours frustratedly,

Joe Rice

20 Comments

• At September 7, 2008, Elijah wrote:

  Well, I've got a high quality scan of Orion holding his Mother Box, but not Scott Free, I'm afraid.

• At September 7, 2008, Brad Curran wrote:

  Did you type Mother Box+Scott Free in to google? That might help!

  Seriously, though; it might be worth it for ...

• At September 7, 2008, Vichus Smith wrote:

  What about this?

  Mother Box

  Another one, but again it's obscured by Scott Free holding it

• At September 7, 2008, Jack Norris wrote:

  "A Cry for Help"

  And here I thought that was what all your posts were...

• At September 7, 2008, Mike Z wrote:

  Also tough to find - a shot of the "Mountain of Judgment" probably Kirby's best perversion of a war machine ...

• At September 7, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  I told you this was hard.

  (I kind of almost hope Curran can't find anything. I at least hope someone ...

• At September 8, 2008, Scott MacIver wrote:

  "without even factoring in the other awful things that you find when you type in “mother box” into a search ...

• At September 8, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  Vichus, those are the ones I could find . . .was hoping to get a better, more detailed one. ...

• At September 8, 2008, Vichus Smith wrote:

  Sorry, Mister Miracle says no mother box for you! I guess you'd have to just know where to look on ...

• At September 8, 2008, Blackjak wrote:

  Joe,

  Is there a possibility that Kirby never drew a Mother Box in any clear, recognisable form? I don't recall ...

• At September 8, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  Hmmm. Maybe another artist has drawn it? I feel like I've seen a good one somewhere . . ...

• At September 8, 2008, Greg Geren wrote:

  Scott's mother box was stitched into his costume as I recall one of the Steve Englehart / Marshall Rogers ...

• At September 8, 2008, Greg Geren wrote:

  This may be considered cheating: http://members.cox.net/ggeren/images/whos_who_mother_box.jpg

  But it is by Jack Kirby.

• At September 8, 2008, Greg Geren wrote:

  And here is the Marshall Rogers shot I was thinking of:

  http://members.cox.net/ggeren/images/MrMiracleMotherBoxMarshall.jpg

  Mainly to prove the point that I remembered it ...

• At September 8, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  This may be considered cheating: http://members.cox.net/ggeren/images/whos_who_mother_box.jpg

  But it is by Jack Kirby.

  Rather than cheating, that sounds like exactly what Joe was ...

• At September 9, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  YAYYYYY GREG! Claim your prize if you wish!

• At September 9, 2008, Greg Geren wrote:

  You're welcome. Recognition for service provided is thanks enough. I won't make you say nice things about George ...

• At September 9, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  The Giffen/Bierbaum 5YL run is absolutely one of my favorite comic runs of all time. The subtlety, humanity, and ...

• At September 9, 2008, Greg Geren wrote:

  Well done. We absolutely agree on something!

• At September 9, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  INTERNET HIGH FIVE!!!!

For one thing, I, like T., was pretty bothered by the utter dour seriousness of the material; not because I think superheroes can't withstand that sort of treatment, and not because I don't like serious material, but more because of the utter self-importance of it all.  "This isn't just some roller-coaster boom boom movie with Batman!"  (Yes, actually, it is.)  "This is about DEEPER THEMES!"  You can tell it's about deeper themes because the goddam script hits you over the head with it.  There are points of this film where the dialog makes me want to pee in my eyeballs.  Whenever a character starts one of the damn speeches about heroes and deserving and etc., hitting the goddam theme on the head . . .that's just bad text, not subtext.  The dialog was also cliche-ridden and silly (in a non-fun way) often, which could be excusable if the movie didn't demand to be taken so seriously.  On the good side, Ledger's Joker clearly had some great lines, especially when he didn't say much.

Speaking of dialog, Bale's annoying "Batman voice" gets even more ridiculous when he's using it to have a conversation beyond "I AM HITTING YOU!!!"  This is actually just a symptom of a larger problem of Batman in this film.  They took such pains to make this as realistic as possible that the few fantastical elements they kept look completely foolish.  You've got, basically, an action-packed Law and Order episode except there's this weird guy who talks like Super Dave Osborne walking around in a costume.  DONK DONK.  When you ground it THAT much and you've still got this sculpted, sci-fi outfit, it diminishes both the seriousness and the fantastical.

Batman is the least interesting character in the film by a good deal.  By the last torturous scenes I just didn't want to see him anymore.  Bale's Wayne is actually a far more interesting character than his Batman, who stands around, looks silly, and gets involved in vague, uninteresting fight scenes.  I like the point a friend made that Bale really gets that it isn't that Batman is the real person and Bruce Wayne is the mask.  There's the real Bruce Wayne who has two masks:  dumb playboy and Batman.  The real Bruce Wayne, even in this film, is pretty fascinating until he puts on the Batman mask.

And that costume . . .we get plenty of time, wasted celluloid, explaining EVERY SINGLE THING ABOUT IT.  Oh, it's made of that.  Oh, the joints work like this.  Oh, he can turn his head.  Oh, the things on his arm shoot out.  Etc., etc.  It gets explained to death in a failed attempt to make it not look like it's completely out of place in this real-world-based film.  We even get over-detailed bits about how he got the Hong Kong gangster out (a fun scene, not really necessary for the plot, especially at such length and doubly especially with the beyond-pointless ballet-boat stuff).  But the Joker?  The character we're actually fascinated to watch no matter what?

No explanation for anything.  How does he, for instance, get hundreds of barrels of oil and explosives onto municipal ferries?  Uh, no idea.  Unless he has magical powers, there's no way that could happen, especially in such a realistic movie world.  The same goes for wiring the hospital unseen, getting DNA of all his enemies . . .everything the Joker does is pretty awesome, and if this movie didn't want to be something other than a summer flicker, it would maybe have gotten away with just that.  But, no.  It wants to be serious.  So how the hell did any of that stuff happen?  The amount of pre-planning and work that any single part of his scheme would require . . .it completely falls apart if you think about it.

The film wants to have its cake and eat it, too.  It wants to be a fairly critic-proof boom boom explodey movie, but it also wants to be a critically-acclaimed deeper piece on 21st century life.  It's possible to do both; difficult, but possible.  I'd even posit that something like Iron Man, which keeps a sense of humor about itself and realizes it's an explodey film, makes more headway with making deeper points than the spoon-force-fed stuff in the Dark Knight.

It's not a terrible film.  Like I said, the performances are almost all, at the very least, very good.  But the screen-writing on this thing was just rife with bad choices.  This could have been a rollicking summer action flick or a morality tale grounded firmly in the real world; it could MAYBE have combined the two.  But the manner in which they tried to combine it made both the fantastical and the real seem silly and shallow.

126 Comments

• At August 12, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  “This isn’t just some roller-coaster boom boom movie with Batman!” (Yes, actually, it is.) “This is about DEEPER ...

• At August 12, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  Except it's so dour and self-important that it fails at being the roller-coaster.

• At August 12, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Except it’s so dour and self-important that it fails at being the roller-coaster.

  I dunno, seems to be a ride people ...

• At August 12, 2008, Ian wrote:

  How does he rig a hospital to explode? How does he arrange for two buildings to explode? How ...

• At August 12, 2008, Rohan Williams wrote:

  "No explanation for anything. How does he, for instance, get hundreds of barrels of oil and explosives onto municipal ...

• At August 12, 2008, Stephen wrote:

  I just attributed the insane lack of security to the fact that Gotham is so corrupt that Joker, sitting on ...

• At August 12, 2008, Alan Coil wrote:

  "For one thing, I, like T., ..."

  Not fair to the reader to reference someone with so little information.

• At August 12, 2008, Jack Norris wrote:

  I have nothing but respect for Joe's intelligence, but yet again my response to his argument is "true enough as ...

• At August 12, 2008, Mike wrote:

  The first Nolan Batman wasn't about a man resolved to be, or present himself as, a Superhero™ but about a ...

• At August 12, 2008, Eliot Johnson wrote:

  Oh, Joe, what a glutton for punishment you are.

  The entire movie is over-the-top. The sci-fi is over-the-top. The Batman voice ...

• At August 12, 2008, zuludelta wrote:

  Let me preface my comments by saying that I enjoyed "The Dark Knight." Along with "Iron Man," I think it's ...

• At August 12, 2008, Da Fug wrote:

  I must be the only person who doesn't have a problem with Bale's Batman voice. I agree it can ...

• At August 12, 2008, lilacsigil wrote:

  Yeah, the movie can't have it both ways - the Joker is a force of chaos with mentally ill followers, ...

• At August 12, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  I'm not here to argue, my post stands as it is. You agree or don't, no problem. ...

• At August 12, 2008, Dan wrote:

  Speaking as a huge fan of the movie, i really have to thank you. DK is a movie i've ...

• At August 12, 2008, Tyson wrote:

  "I mostly enjoyed it as I watched it, at some points quite a bit. And there are some very, ...

• At August 12, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  This seems to be a common theme in negative reviews of this movie - the reviewer initially enjoyed it, but ...

• At August 12, 2008, Djed wrote:

  Dark Knight failed for me as a superhero movie, mostly for taking itself too serious as you have pointed out ...

• At August 12, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Dark Knight failed for me as a superhero movie, mostly for taking itself too serious as you have pointed out ...

• At August 13, 2008, pjm wrote:

  Thought a lot of these comments were interesting ... as a Batman fan and someone who loved Batman Begins I ...

• At August 13, 2008, Mike wrote:

  Yeah, the movie can’t have it both ways - the Joker is a force of chaos with mentally ill followers, ...

• At August 13, 2008, Paperghost wrote:

  "And that costume . . .we get plenty of time, wasted celluloid, explaining EVERY SINGLE THING ABOUT IT. Oh, ...

• At August 13, 2008, Paperghost wrote:

  "I know he says the word “anarchy,” but does the Joker actually say the word “chaos?” Alan Moore points out ...

• At August 13, 2008, Carlos Futino wrote:

  @FunkyGreenJerusalem

  The Prestige "suffered in the writing department "? I couldn't disagree more. Actually, in my (not so) humble opinion it's ...

• At August 13, 2008, Bernard the Poet wrote:

  Joe Rice's main point seems to be that The Dark Knight is having its cinematic cake and eating it, being ...

• At August 13, 2008, Dave wrote:

  Nah, The Prestige was a pretty terrible script. It sacrificed almost all the characterization from Priest's original novel in ...

• At August 13, 2008, Nick Marino wrote:

  Joe - Great review. I have to say that I just about completely agree with everything you've said here.

• At August 13, 2008, TimGunn wrote:

  I agree with the review, except I think it was a terrible movie.

  Oh well, I'll go see the ...

• At August 13, 2008, CJ wrote:

  The prestige has one of those horrendous over sights, a key feature that kills the film for me, Like the ...

• At August 13, 2008, Paperghost wrote:

  "Like the squiddies in the matrix not having infrared vision."

  I promise not to send us hurtling off-topic, but I'm curious ...

• At August 13, 2008, Annoyed Grunt wrote:

  "Does anyone believe that a major television network would put him on live television, without first asking him who the ...

• At August 13, 2008, D. Eric Carpenter wrote:

  Anyone else remember Sidney Mellon?

  It seems every time I read one of Mr. Rice's reviews, I'm instantly transported back ...

• At August 13, 2008, Carlos Futino wrote:

  @Dave, The Prestige is based on a novel? I wasn't aware of that, thus I can't say how it compares ...

• At August 13, 2008, T. wrote:

  And yet (almost) ironically, Watchmen doesn’t look like it’s taking itself seriously enough.

  I'd argue the opposite, it looks like it's ...

• At August 13, 2008, Aito Steele wrote:

  My wife, a former ballerina, pointed out one of the major flaws in the movie that I haven't seen being ...

• At August 13, 2008, Paperghost wrote:

  "the ballet troupe is much too top heavy to actually dance ballet. Increasing bustlines have been the sad end of ...

• At August 13, 2008, Allen Berrebbi wrote:

  Finally some people who didn't think this was the greatest movie ever. The review was DEAD ON and perfectly explained ...

• At August 13, 2008, Jack Norris wrote:

  The only things lost in the adaptation of the Prestige to film are things that could only be done in ...

• At August 13, 2008, Apodaca wrote:

  I think Funky's dead-on right. The main problem is when anyone tries to think of The Dark Knight as "cinema". ...

• At August 13, 2008, Daly wrote:

  Hey, I don't know if there's a new writer on this blog- but after a few sentences of the cursing ...

• At August 13, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  There is a writer credit right below the title, Daly.

• At August 13, 2008, Daly wrote:

  Oh there it is.

• At August 13, 2008, Dave wrote:

  My problem is that the film version of The Prestige basically turns Borden into an completely unsympathetic character almost immediately ...

• At August 13, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  The Prestige “suffered in the writing department “? I couldn’t disagree more. Actually, in my (not so) humble opinion it’s ...

• At August 13, 2008, Bill Reed wrote:

  Yeah, but, I still thought the movie was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

• At August 13, 2008, Jack Norris wrote:

  The device comes directly from the book. Are we talking in absolute story terms (in case which your criticism should ...

• At August 13, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Never heard of the book, and it's irrelevant to the film.

  That’s kind of arrogant, isn’t it?

  Objectively it's not a well ...

• At August 13, 2008, Tyson wrote:

  Objectively it’s not a well written film.

  I haven't even seen that film, so I have no stake in this game. ...

• At August 13, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  Daly, sorry about the cuss words. I live in Brooklyn and kind of have a hard time not cussing. ...

• At August 13, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Because, I pretty much guarantee that, whatever you claim they are, there will be well-written screenplays that violate them.

  I think ...

• At August 13, 2008, pjm wrote:

  Why can't Batman be "cinema"? Why isn't it cinema? All film - all art - basically springs forth from ...

• At August 13, 2008, Tyson wrote:

  FunkyGreenJerusalem -

  Well, if you'd read my post you would see that I'm objecting to your use of the word ...

• At August 13, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  From the post where I mentioned 'objectively':

  The characters aren’t really characters, just plot points, it has an ending that breaks ...

• At August 14, 2008, Rohan Williams wrote:

  "Objectively it’s not a well written film."

  Bullshit.

• At August 14, 2008, Pól Rua wrote:

  Gotta say, I'm with Joe. There was a good film here, unfortunately, it's interrupted every ten minutes by some character ...

• At August 14, 2008, MaC wrote:

  I was expecting trash as far as the Joker and Two-Face were concerned. But they actually were really really ...

• At August 14, 2008, Bernard the Poet wrote:

  "Every piss-poor action sequence is edited and filmed in ways to make them barely intelligible"

  That's not unique to this film, ...

• At August 14, 2008, T. wrote:

  Don’t kill the mood. Just lean back and let Batman make you feel good.

  That's great advice....for Christopher Nolan. Really ...

• At August 14, 2008, bandini2828 wrote:

  This is a movie that, a few years from now, people are going to wonder what the fuss was about.

• At August 14, 2008, Brad Curran wrote:

  "There are points of this film where the dialog makes me want to pee in my eyeballs."

  Lines like this make ...

• At August 14, 2008, Jack Norris wrote:

  "The characters aren’t really characters, just plot points, it has an ending that breaks the rules of the universe it ...

• At August 14, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Bullshit.

  Thanks for weighing in...

  Those are all subjective criteria, even if I agreed that they all applied. Depends on what the ...

• At August 14, 2008, plok wrote:

  "Not really, a script with those problems is not a good script.

  It’s just flat out not."

  Prove it.

• At August 14, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Prove that a script with characters who are just plot points, with a twist that breaks the rules of the ...

• At August 14, 2008, plok wrote:

  Actually, never mind: you can't.

• At August 14, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Actually, never mind: you can’t.

  Well it depends, are you asking me to prove how The Prestige suffers from these, or ...

• At August 14, 2008, plok wrote:

  Sorry, missed the hop...

  Look, Funky, it doesn't matter if you think it proves itself. So what? You want ...

• At August 14, 2008, plok wrote:

  Missed it again!

  I was responding to this: “...a script with those problems is not a good script. It’s ...

• At August 14, 2008, plok wrote:

  But a script is not a movie. Not a finished comic book either. So what makes a good ...

• At August 14, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Find a good counter example and I'm willing to hear it.

• At August 14, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  But a script is not a movie.

  Never said it was.

  I think The Prestige is alright as a film, it's well ...

• At August 14, 2008, plok wrote:

  "Find a good counter example and I’m willing to hear it." No. My point is that if a ...

• At August 14, 2008, plok wrote:

  Of course this doesn't mean you shouldn't think the Nolan brothers write shitty scripts. It doesn't even mean they ...

• At August 14, 2008, plok wrote:

  Sorry, I may have come off a bit dickish here, but it's that "flat out" business. It just pushes ...

• At August 15, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  No. My point is that if a single counterexample could be found, it would prove your contention wrong. QED. But ...

• At August 15, 2008, plok wrote:

  "And I’d be right, but I’d get accused of trying to worm my way out of it."

  Right or not, you'd ...

• At August 15, 2008, edc wrote:

  joker has half of arkham's crazies working for him, he set shit up in advance, oil in ferries was someone ...

• At August 15, 2008, Jack Norris wrote:

  So basically, less than five percent of all the movies ever made have "good scripts" in terms of at least ...

• At August 16, 2008, Comics Should Be Good! » Random Comic Thoughts: Its a Saturday Night, I’m In My Sexual Prime! wrote:

  [...] at best on that front. It helps that this is a stand alone story and not a tie in ...

• At August 17, 2008, Stephanie wrote:

  @ Joe

  It’s not a terrible film. Like I said, the performances are almost all, at the very least, very ...

• At August 17, 2008, Blackjak wrote:

  Wow! There are a lot of failed angry writers on here...

  It was the perfect summer blockbuster. Its ...

• At August 17, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Right or not, you’d still have to prove it, for it to be proven. You couldn’t just say it, even ...

• At August 22, 2008, plok wrote:

  "Hey, you’re the one who wants to disprove me, and the best way to do that is to test what ...

• At August 22, 2008, plok wrote:

  Again, I'm not trying to be a dick -- but you just put some words in my mouth, there, Funky, ...

• At August 25, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Why don’t you test them yourself? If you said the sky was green, and I said “prove it”, would you ...

• At August 25, 2008, plok wrote:

  Oh, for the love of...

  "Any screenplay with characters who are just plot points, with a twist that breaks the rules ...

• At August 25, 2008, plok wrote:

  Oh, except just to say this:

  "Test my statement if you don’t believe it, because otherwise, I don’t really care."

  I have ...

• At August 25, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  A script that “hinders” instead of “helps” is not a good script, my my…why don’t you just go ahead and ...

• At August 25, 2008, plok wrote:

  I keep asking you...my God, can I have read this right, I keep fucking asking you to restate your thunderingly ...

• At August 25, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  is that the line you’re inviting me to swallow now?

  Yeah, it's the one I've stuck to since the get ...

• At August 26, 2008, plok wrote:

  REALLY. You've been sticking to the line that I've been asking you to restate yourself, from since BEFORE I ...

• At August 26, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  You’ve been sticking to the line that I’ve been asking you to restate yourself, from since BEFORE I joined in ...

• At August 26, 2008, plok wrote:

  Ho ho ho, it certainly is ridiculous! Allow me to quote from what you just said. Ready?

  Quote #1:

  ...

• At August 26, 2008, Tyson wrote:

  This went to a weird place.

  Plok - I questioned FunkyGreenJerusalem's use of the word "objective" before you did, so he ...

• At August 26, 2008, plok wrote:

  I'm not one bit pissed, Tyson. Not even a little. I was getting there, until I realized Funky ...

• At August 26, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Oh it is, it is…and the very most ridiculous part of it is that you totally did too claim that, ...

• At August 26, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  I don’t even particularly disagree with the standards you propose, although we might disagree on the application of them (I ...

• At August 26, 2008, plok wrote:

  I haven't put a single word in your mouth, actually. Although you've tried to put a truckload in mine.

  I ...

• At August 26, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  I haven’t put a single word in your mouth, actually. Although you’ve tried to put a truckload in mine.

  I consider ...

• At August 26, 2008, plok wrote:

  "So you can say you want me to restate"

  BWAH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...!

• At August 26, 2008, plok wrote:

  Oh, mercy. Come on, a joke's a joke, but this is too much. Never put words in my ...

• At August 26, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Seriously Plok, I have no idea what you are going on about.

  Not sure any others do either.

• At August 27, 2008, plok wrote:

  Oh, it's quite painfully apparent you have no idea, Funky, don't fret about that!

• At August 27, 2008, plok wrote:

  You really think that's what I've been doing, don't you? Asking you to restate and re-explain your position.

  When all ...

• At August 27, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Oh, mercy. Come on, a joke’s a joke, but this is too much. Never put words in my mouth. Right. ...

• At August 27, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  You really think that’s what I’ve been doing, don’t you? Asking you to restate and re-explain your position.

  It seems you ...

• At August 27, 2008, plok wrote:

  I showed the quote. It's "so you can say you want me to restate." It's absurd. You're ...

• At August 27, 2008, plok wrote:

  Or, you know, the hell with it, or something.

• At August 27, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Well, but there’s rude and rude — and what is it about all your distortion and ducking, that should merit ...

• At August 27, 2008, plok wrote:

  Okay, seriously, check this out:

  "The craziest thing is when you go on about how I want ...

• At August 27, 2008, plok wrote:

  Do you understand that Tyson didn't say anything about it?

• At August 27, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  In that passage you quote from me, I am saying you are provably DEAD WRONG about me asking you to ...

• At August 27, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Do you understand that Tyson didn’t say anything about it?

  If you re-read the comments from the top, from before you ...

• At August 27, 2008, plok wrote:

  Oh, stop your whining, you damned fool. Don't you even realize what it is that you've admitted? Are ...

• At August 27, 2008, Tyson wrote:

  Plok, it's been a while since I've been able to make any sense of your posts. Really. I ...

• At August 27, 2008, plok wrote:

  Beg to differ, Tyson.

• At August 27, 2008, plok wrote:

  And as I said before, I'm not angry.

• At August 27, 2008, Tyson wrote:

  Beg to differ, Tyson.

  Meaning you do think it's still fun to keep arguing after you've stressed out and your head ...

• At August 27, 2008, plok wrote:

  I'm afraid my recollection of events is somewhat different from yours, Tyson. But, maybe we can just agree to ...

• At August 27, 2008, plok wrote:

  I do think I'm done with bankrupt old Funky, though, since at this point I can't imagine him misquoting me ...

• At August 28, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Oh, stop your whining, you damned fool. Don’t you even realize what it is that you’ve admitted? Are you really ...

• At August 28, 2008, Tyson wrote:

  Funky -

  Okay, this is my final attempt. I don't care about the contents of your list of rules. ...

• At August 28, 2008, plok wrote:

  Must you bring me in on it with the "badgering by third party" thing, Tyson, I mean was there really ...

• At August 28, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  You were trying to lend some sort of authority to your post by saying “objectively” instead of saying “in my ...

• At August 28, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Golden and Silver age comics are full of examples of bad writing.

  There's a Superman comic where Jimmy goes to investigate ...

• At August 30, 2008, Tyson wrote:

  You’ve got to leave this BS about ‘art’ behind and look at it from a distance - of course there’s ...

And, yes, it is, isn't it?  Financially and artistically.  I guess it's not fair to compare most cartoonists to Jeff Smith, nor most comics' to his work.  But let's be honest here, Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam is pretty awful.  Now, before anyone says, "It's not meant for you, it's meant for kids," let me remind you that I encounter and interact with more children than pretty much any of you do.  It's part of my job to know them, know what they like, and understand them (as much as possible).  This comic isn't meant for any child I've ever met.  It's more meant for some mythical ideal child from some golden age; the child some parents want to believe they'll have, an innocent, spritely thing filled with sweetness and wonder.

The sort of kid a real kid would avoid like the plague.  This book is corny.  The designs are obvious and corny.  The jokes are lame, over-explained, and corny.  It's like someone sat down and decided to parody a poorly-made cartoon from 1998, and then forgot it was a parody.  And the page density!  It's practically unreadable!  Check out this sample page:

The terrible, obvious designs are everywhere.  And look at this page . . .I can barely read it, there's so much going on.  Do they really think 5 year olds can (as this couldn't possibly be aimed at any higher age)?  The big red 1 displays an over-played, over-extended joke (ah, she talks a lot, funny).  Then we get base, bad gag reactions and number 2 shows the joke BEING EXPLAINED.  And then there's number three . . .so, wait, adults never owned bikes?  Is that the "joke" there?  Number four, Robin Williams animatics would be less cheesy than that stuff.

It's a really terrible book.  It doesn't appeal to kids in the slightest.  It appeals to adults that wished this appeals to kids.  It's not hard to get kids to like something; you don't have to be Jeff Smith.  Just don't talk down to them and don't pretend they've got the mindset that you pretend you had at that age (and you didn't . . .you wouldn't have read this, you'd have read GI Joe or a Duck comic or mutants beating the crap out of each other).  I mean, look at the Marvel Adventures books.  Maybe they're not exactly for me all the time, but a kid picks them up and they look like any other comic, even if the story is more kid-friendly.  It doesn't look like the creators/company suspect the kid might be a bed-wetter.  Kids are not the same thing as infants.  By the time they can read, in this day and age, they've got a bit more sophistication than this.  I saw this was the work of one guy and I looked him up and then, all the sudden, it clicked for me.

This is the guy that did Herobear and the Kid.  Herobear and the Kid, one of the most unbearable, absolutely lamest comics supposedly aimed at children I've ever seen.  Herobear and the Kid, that bastion of utter cheese/schmaltz from a few years ago.  I checked out the trade when last at a comic shop and yes, it was as awful as I remembered.  So, in the spirit of Brian's month of top fives, here we go!

Top Five Reasons It's Correct to Hate Herobear and the Kid

1. It's a SHAMELESS, far-less-talented Calvin and Hobbes rip.
2. The art and story are so schmaltzy I had to have all my teeth replaced yesterday like Jaws from James Bond.
3. His grandfather is Santa Claus.
4. The line " . . .and, most wonderfully, he hugged me back."  There is no child on earth that would read that without feeling sick to their stomachs.
5. It's an excuse for grown men to wallow in false nostalgia and try to force this crap on kids, who'd truly rather read Dragonball or Archie or Spider-man or even Tiny Titans.

So, yeah, this is a disappointment, kind of on the same level (if in the opposite direction) as Winnick's recent take on the Marvel Family.  I can't give this comic to my students; they'd laugh in my face (at best) or hate me for talking down to them (probably not even at worst).

Don't talk down to the kids.  And don't pretend you were ever this simplistic either.

111 Comments

• At July 3, 2008, Jason wrote:

  All I can say is that I really enjoyed the book and that my 5 year-old asked me to read ...

• At July 3, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  Like I said, 5 is going to be the limit on that. I can see this working for a ...

• At July 3, 2008, todd young wrote:

  "I can’t give this comic to my students; they’d laugh in my face (at best) or hate me for talking ...

• At July 3, 2008, Jack Cheng wrote:

  I have to strenuously disagree. Yes, my kids are younger (3 and 5) but they loved it. (And yes, there ...

• At July 3, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  From a literacy-development standpoint, it's kind of a walking nightmare. The art is appealing to pre-literate and beginning-concepts ages, ...

• At July 3, 2008, Anonymous wrote:

  I disagree. I've been reading comics since I was 6, and I think I would've enjoyed this back then. I ...

• At July 3, 2008, Sijo wrote:

  I'm the anonymous poster above, I just forgot to sign my comment. Sorry! :P

• At July 3, 2008, Alex Cox wrote:

  "It’s another take on the Marvels who don’t seem to be doing especially well in any form they’ve taken over ...

• At July 3, 2008, Brian Mac wrote:

  Well, I've got a 7-year-old, and I think he'd probably like it. I've got him hooked on the Marvel ...

• At July 3, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  "He reads at a very advanced level, but doesn’t really comprehend at an advanced level, if you follow."

  TRUST ...

• At July 3, 2008, Alex Cox wrote:

  "And yes, there should be comics for 3-5 year olds."

  http://www.toon-books.com/

  http://www.scholastic.com/graphix/

  http://www.darkhorse.com/zones/kids/index.php

• At July 3, 2008, Alex Cox wrote:

  "Well, I’ve got a 7-year-old, and I think he’d probably like it. I’ve got him hooked on the Marvel Adventures ...

• At July 3, 2008, Matt Algren wrote:

  I think this page could have benefited from a bit of red pencil on the word balloons.

  At #2, that whole ...

• At July 3, 2008, Matt D wrote:

  It's really tricky having a 6 year old and explaining to him why he really shouldn't be looking at your ...

• At July 3, 2008, Biggles wrote:

  Well I agree from looking at the page you've scanned that the layout seems really dense but I'm a bit ...

• At July 3, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  There's not a lot of originality in the designs. They seem cribbed from generic 90s cartoons. The linework ...

• At July 3, 2008, Brian Mac wrote:

  Matt, I hear ya. "Well, yes, I know you've been reading X-Men: First Class, but trust me, Astonishing X-Men ...

• At July 3, 2008, Sleestak wrote:

  At least Hoppy should be showing up!

• At July 3, 2008, RJT wrote:

  You know what kids hate just as much as being told what to like? It's being told what not to ...

• At July 3, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  Here's the thing, Calvin and Hobbes (my kids love) and Bone (my kids love) don't look "babyish" the way this ...

• At July 3, 2008, Matt Algren wrote:

  I didn't see anything in the post about it being too cartoony or offensive or even childish. I do see ...

• At July 3, 2008, "O" the Humanatee! wrote:

  I share a lot of Joe's reactions to this book. Then again, I'm 49. I have no idea whether a ...

• At July 3, 2008, Conor E wrote:

  When I first read that page, I didn't think the bike thing had anything to do with him being 'too ...

• At July 3, 2008, RJT wrote:

  But he's not arguing solely that he doesn't like the book; he's making the claim that he knows what children ...

• At July 3, 2008, Shade wrote:

  Sorry Joe, I couldn't disagree with you more on that whole review, and I've disagreed with you on quite a ...

• At July 3, 2008, Mark Engblom wrote:

  Let me be the first to say I'm overjoyed I don't know any of the kids you "encounter and interact ...

• At July 3, 2008, Nessor Sille wrote:

  The thing I think the book fails the most at: There's no bite, no real power to any of ...

• At July 3, 2008, Matt Algren wrote:

  I just don't get it. You disagree on whether a comic book is good. Why do you immediately go to ...

• At July 3, 2008, Little John wrote:

  I completely disagree with this review. Especially since the snark levels are off the charts.

  I loved the book as ...

• At July 3, 2008, Shade wrote:

  Yeah, Algren is right... that crap is over the line. You read one review of a book and make those ...

• At July 3, 2008, Scott MacIver wrote:

  I remember very clearly being 10-11 and what comics I was reading, as this was the time I had gotten ...

• At July 3, 2008, Shade wrote:

  I don't think feels it's good to "talk down to kids"...people just differ on if this book does or not.

• At July 3, 2008, Sluggo wrote:

  I was baffled that you didn't like this, then I read the part where you said you hated Herobear and ...

• At July 3, 2008, Graeme Burk wrote:

  I completely disagree with this review. Especially since the snark levels are off the charts.

  I usually take "by Joe Rice" ...

• At July 3, 2008, DanLarkin wrote:

  "Let me be the first to say I’m overjoyed I don’t know any of the kids you “encounter and interact ...

• At July 3, 2008, RJT wrote:

  Well, the thing is, the solicitation never even mentions the Jeff Smith series; so to complain that this isn't a ...

• At July 3, 2008, Graeme Burk wrote:

  Just because they’ve been mishandled at DC, off and on since 1985, doesn’t mean that they haven’t had classic runs.

  I ...

• At July 3, 2008, Graeme Burk wrote:

  Well, the thing is, the solicitation never even mentions the Jeff Smith series; so to complain that this isn’t a ...

• At July 3, 2008, Graeme Burk wrote:

  Wait a minute! The solicitation you quote from refers to the mini-series!

  Thanks to a magical rift created when Captain Marvel ...

• At July 3, 2008, RJT wrote:

  Alright, perhaps the solicitation implies a connection to the Jeff Smith miniseries by mentioning events from that miniseries (although I ...

• At July 3, 2008, Bill Reed wrote:

  Well, at least the art's pretty.

• At July 3, 2008, Matt Algren wrote:

  What kind of Captain Marvel book do you want to see?

  A good one.

• At July 3, 2008, Greg Hatcher wrote:

  Anyway, I would like to see what Greg Hatcher’s students (for a truly unbiased, third-party analysis) make of it. I ...

• At July 3, 2008, Little John wrote:

  [i]"I usually take “by Joe Rice” to mean it’s going to be full of off-the-chart snark. I would suggest the ...

• At July 3, 2008, Alex Cox wrote:

  This is Joe Rice, I'm at Alex's house hanging out. I just wanted to say thanks to Dan, Shade, ...

• At July 3, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Alex posted yesterday, Joe posted today and people are getting pissy/rude to one of them for their posts - what ...

• At July 3, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  As to Joe's point, like Greg, I think he's pretty much right - kids old enough to read on their ...

• At July 3, 2008, brian lockhart wrote:

  I'm 33. I've steered far clear of any of the DC or Marvel books aimed at younger readers. But something ...

• At July 3, 2008, Lynxara wrote:

  I don't particularly disagree with Joe's review here-- this comic strikes me as the mediocre kind of stuff kids might ...

• At July 3, 2008, Rene wrote:

  Sometimes I feel odd, but since I only got into superheroes when I was a teenager, I just have no ...

• At July 3, 2008, Paul McEnery wrote:

  Oh, Lynxara, you are so a million miles off with that "authority" thing. Worse, you're going to make Joe bust ...

• At July 3, 2008, Lynxara wrote:

  1) Feel free to call me out if I'm mis-diagnosing the appeal to authority fallacy in Joe's piece, but it ...

• At July 3, 2008, Shade wrote:

  "It’s just a bloody xerox of someone else’s work, with buckets of sprinkles of nostalgic sentimentalizing big-fat-lying-to-yourself. Not just pandering ...

• At July 3, 2008, chuck-brick wrote:

  Wow, how 'bout another blog post where you rip on the Snuggle bear and the Tooth Fairy while you're at ...

• At July 3, 2008, Anonymous wrote:

  Hannibal Tabu liked it. Explains a lot actually.

• At July 3, 2008, chuck-brick wrote:

  "I don’t particularly disagree with Joe’s review here– this comic strikes me as the mediocre kind of stuff kids might ...

• At July 3, 2008, chuck-brick wrote:

  Hannibal Tabu also liked Blue Beetle, Noble Causes and Fables. So what's yer point?

• At July 3, 2008, Don_McFlunk wrote:

  I'm waiting for the next incisive review where he simply ravages three-part story arc in Jughead's Double Digest. Give ...

• At July 3, 2008, Don_McFlunk wrote:

  "Something about flagrant mediocrity in children’s entertainment has always bothered me"

  Then you need some new hobbies, and fast.

• At July 3, 2008, Lynxara wrote:

  Oldtimer? Fantastic. I'm 27. Which I guess is ancient by internet standards.

  Anyway, I like to think you can apply ...

• At July 3, 2008, sononsj wrote:

  Totally agree. I came in during the 90's and never liked the "for-kids" books. Something like Bone (which truly is ...

• At July 3, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  One thing I know I've tried to do is to give real reviews to books like Jughead, Scooby Doo, etc. ...

• At July 3, 2008, Apodaca wrote:

  Wow. People sure got ugly about a review of a comic book.

• At July 3, 2008, Apodaca wrote:

  I think this quote explains why people are reluctant to take Hannibal Tabu's word on the book:

  "Mary's motormouth know-it-all routine ...

• At July 3, 2008, Anun wrote:

  Well, I liked it and thought it was just fun. Then again, I liked Herobear and the Kid too, ...

• At July 3, 2008, edc wrote:

  its not for kids - it a friggen SHAZAM comic book.

  herobear is cool, this is pseudo nostalgia, like all star ...

• At July 3, 2008, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  its not for kids - it a friggen SHAZAM comic book.

  I DARE you to make less sense.

• At July 3, 2008, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  And you mean aside from the Jeff Smith run, which was easily one of the best comics of last year?

  Really?

  REALLY?

  I ...

• At July 3, 2008, Tungsten Man wrote:

  They should probably just look at the original Captain Marvel strips if they want some inspiration for a kid-friendly series. ...

• At July 3, 2008, GRANT! wrote:

  "Hannibal Tabu also liked Blue Beetle, Noble Causes and Fables. So what’s yer point?"

  Well for one his reviewing style is ...

• At July 3, 2008, SageShini wrote:

  The mistake in this article was making a big, sweeping statement about kids and how they would hate this. ...

• At July 3, 2008, Evan Waters wrote:

  Wow, what a patronizing comment there, Sageshini. Arguably there is a problem with Jones not wanting any kind of suspense ...

• At July 3, 2008, MattComics wrote:

  This book is not without it's charm but what strikes me is that this seems to be constructed almost like ...

• At July 3, 2008, red-Ricky wrote:

  Bah, who cares about what kids like! I liked this book 'cause it reminded me of my childhood, ...

• At July 4, 2008, Comics Should Be Good! » Friday at the Kids’ Table wrote:

  [...] this for a while anyway, but since Joe Rice clearly touched some kind of a nerve yesterday with his ...

• At July 4, 2008, tristan wrote:

  I think this whole matter has already been explored from all possible vantages.......

• At July 4, 2008, R wrote:

  Yeesh, looks like a pretty cynical attempt at getting a cartoon series made to me. On the plus side, Kunkel ...

• At July 4, 2008, Andrew Collins wrote:

  I'd like to see Scott McCloud take on a Captain Marvel story. His ZOT! character is pretty much Captain Marvel/Billy ...

• At July 4, 2008, John Smith wrote:

  "Let me be the first to say I’m overjoyed I don’t know any of the kids you “encounter and interact ...

• At July 4, 2008, Rene wrote:

  I would not be as harsh as SageShini, but I wonder why so many adults are so fascinated with a ...

• At July 4, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  McCloud or Stephens would have me waiting in line for a Cap comic! (Though I might prefer more Jetcat ...

• At July 4, 2008, Craig wrote:

  Waaaay back on Jack Cheng's response, about a "hypersexualized Enchantress in a Jim Lee type pose" in MA: Spidey last ...

• At July 4, 2008, Alex Cox wrote:

  You know what else was really good recently? The Dark horse INDIANA JONES all ages book.

  It was fun as hell, ...

• At July 4, 2008, Evan Waters wrote:

  I don't see how deliberately aiming something at young children is guaranteed not to attract them. It hasn't hurt any ...

• At July 4, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  On a more formalistic level- well, this is clever, funny, eventful, well-drawn, the very picture of a good comic. This, ...

• At July 4, 2008, John Cage wrote:

  Bogger? What the hell is a bogger?

  Personally as much as I like the art I think the page is far ...

• At July 4, 2008, Alex Cox wrote:

  "I don’t see how deliberately aiming something at young children is guaranteed not to attract them."

  I'm pretty sure that was ...

• At July 4, 2008, Rene wrote:

  I wonder if any parents that object to the Enchantress being in an all-ages book also cover their kids' eyes ...

• At July 4, 2008, Jason Lethcoe wrote:

  Well, as an old friend of Mike Kunkel's I decided to check out how his book was doing. When ...

• At July 4, 2008, Dan Bailey wrote:

  That's all very well, Jason L., but along the way you should've told Mike not to urinate in Joe Rice's ...

• At July 4, 2008, Michael Mayket wrote:

  I haven't read the book myself, but I make you this promise Joe... if you are correct and no children ...

• At July 4, 2008, red-Ricky wrote:

  Bogger? What the hell is a bogger?

  A bogger is a typo that occurs when a prepubescent kid sets your spell ...

• At July 5, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  I'm sure Mike's a nice guy and I wish him well. But reviewing a work of creation isn't the ...

• At July 5, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  Dude, I wondered what was up with my cornflakes tasting like that and my dog being so flat and dead! ...

• At July 5, 2008, Dan Bailey wrote:

  >>Bogger? What the hell is a bogger?

  >A bogger is a typo that occurs when a prepubescent kid sets your ...

• At July 5, 2008, Beta Ray Bill wrote:

  My little sister seemed to enjoy it as far as I could tell. So did I, as a matter of ...

• At July 5, 2008, wwk5d wrote:

  I'm not a fan of the art. Too many 'kewl' poses. There are lots of other books aimed at kids ...

• At July 5, 2008, edc wrote:

  "I DARE you to make less sense."

  there is not a kid on the planet today that would pick up a ...

• At July 5, 2008, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  It's just your bad luck, edc, that you'd choose this place--filled to the brim with evidence that proves you wrong-- ...

• At July 6, 2008, Aphaxad wrote:

  lol this is like watching a highway pile-up

• At July 6, 2008, Anonymous wrote:

  FUCK

• At July 6, 2008, edc wrote:

  so sean, you are saying that the hep cats of today are lining up to buy shazam,

  and that there are ...

• At July 6, 2008, Salamurai wrote:

  I really like Shazam as a character and a concept, so I tend to "check on" the various incarnations. I ...

• At July 7, 2008, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  so sean, you are saying that the hep cats of today are lining up to buy shazam,

  and that there are ...

• At July 7, 2008, Chris wrote:

  I agree with you, Joe, that the book isn't a big success. I wasn't a huge fan of HeroBear and ...

• At July 7, 2008, ZEITGEIST / Quick hits wrote:

  [...] David Hajdu on GTA Censorship Johnny Bacardi Looks For a Comic Industry I Hate Your Cartoon Comics Are ...

• At July 7, 2008, Eliot Johnson wrote:

  Ya know, I was really pumped about this book. Smith's stuff really pumped me up about the Marvels and being ...

• At July 8, 2008, edc wrote:

  no sean, the fact is you can't understand my argument.

  maybe it is too complex for you too understand, but at ...

• At August 6, 2008, Comics Should Be Good! » Box of Comics: July 2008 wrote:

  [...] had a big debacle about this some time back, and I don’t know why. There’s nothing here to get ...

• At January 8, 2009, Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources » Box of Comics: December 2008 wrote:

  [...] about half a year, but we’re only on #3 of this continually-delayed series which caused a bit of a ...

• At November 16, 2009, william wrote:

  look u jerk.i agree,the new capt.marvel(shazam0 stinks but the older ones(40s to early 70s were great.after 11 yrs in the ...

And there's good comics out there.  Really good comics.  You can read the painfully-funny Achewood almost any day.  Roast Beef pretty much makes up for all the other web comics nastocity by himself.  I hadn't been to the shop in a while so I had a big stack today.  But as I was eating dinner and having some drinks, I got to read 'Beto Hernandez, a ridiculously-fun Mighty Avengers drawn by Alex Maleev (I'm a sucker for "get the gang together" bits), Brian Wood's Viking beauty, and an Abe Sapien book.

Listen, if, at this point, you're down on "comics today" it's your own fault.  Stop reading such crap.  The good stuff isn't hard to find.

68 Comments

• At May 7, 2008, Conor E wrote:

  Did... did a comic book blogger have something positive to say about a crossover tie-in issue (Maleev's Avengers)?

  I smell a ...

• At May 7, 2008, T. wrote:

  This was short, but enjoyable. Thanks.

• At May 7, 2008, Craig wrote:

  If your store owner won't refund your 50 cents for DC 0, you shop at the wrong store.

  If you didn't ...

• At May 7, 2008, Matt wrote:

  I liked DC Universe 0 for what it was; a teaser issue. Nothing more. Much like you get ...

• At May 7, 2008, Conor E wrote:

  Craig: please explain how a crappy commercial makes the product advertised bad. I'd REALLY like to see an explanation that ...

• At May 7, 2008, MDV wrote:

  Alex Maleev? Really? I'm not a big fan of Human Xerox machines. Even Greg Land goes through ...

• At May 7, 2008, Michael wrote:

  While I reserve the right to call shitty comics shitty, you're right. There are plenty of good comics out there, ...

• At May 7, 2008, Apodaca wrote:

  Word to the Roast Beef praise.

• At May 7, 2008, Bill wrote:

  Hey, MDV, Maleev actually draws all those pictures! He may photoshop some of his backgrounds, though: I'm not sure.

• At May 7, 2008, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  Wow, Criag. That was a heckuva lot of wrong to fit into only four paragraphs.

• At May 7, 2008, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  Whoops. Says the guy who misspells "Craig".

• At May 7, 2008, Apodaca wrote:

  If you're the kind of customer who demands a refund on a 50-cent product from a comic shop, the problem ...

• At May 7, 2008, Sam wrote:

  Beto Hernandez and Achewood, praised in the same post? Joe Rice just made my favorite bloggers list.

• At May 8, 2008, J. R. Wick wrote:

  I still fail to see why there is so much hatred towards DCU #0. It was a teaser book, ...

• At May 8, 2008, Vic wrote:

  Comics are good? I never would have guessed!

• At May 8, 2008, alex cox wrote:

  ACHEWOOD totally rules. SECRET INVASION is just the right amount of loopy ridiculousness. DORORO is absolutely killer classic manga. The ...

• At May 8, 2008, alex cox wrote:

  Also, I just want to second that Joe is an idiotic brainless inbred Marvel Zombie.

  With sexy chest-hair.

• At May 8, 2008, Craig wrote:

  Wow. Quite a departure from Snark Free Corner, I guess.

  Conor E: I'm not saying that a bad commercial is indicative ...

• At May 8, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I used to think CSBG was a nice place for people to positively discuss comics, what with weekly themes like ...

• At May 8, 2008, alex cox wrote:

  "I used to think CSBG was a nice place for people to positively discuss comics"

  It's called "COMICS SHOULD BE GOOD".

  That ...

• At May 8, 2008, DanLarkin wrote:

  When I think "Marvel Zombie", the first thing that comes to mind is "Joe Rice."

• At May 8, 2008, Michael wrote:

  He's right about the inbreeding, though. I mean, the man is from Kentucky.

• At May 8, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  Yeah, I'm not sure what Craig's beef is here. I totally understand Alan Moore's beef, and quite agree with ...

• At May 8, 2008, Hans Keller wrote:

  I thought I was the only person left on the planet who remembered Dartman.

• At May 8, 2008, John Cage wrote:

  Anyone who's down on comics is reading the wrong books. I got a lot of fun books yesterday, and while ...

• At May 8, 2008, Bill Reed wrote:

  Joe Rice raped my childhood.

  (Well, somebody had to say it.)

• At May 8, 2008, Katherine F. wrote:

  I hate Achewood. I just had to say that, because everyone and their dog keeps saying how awesome Achewood is, ...

• At May 8, 2008, alex cox wrote:

  "and I want the other people who fail to see the humour in a cartoon cat vomiting blood to know ...

• At May 8, 2008, Katherine F. wrote:

  Alex Cox: Should I be insulted that you assume I don't know what I'm talking about? I read over a ...

• At May 8, 2008, alex cox wrote:

  I didn't assume anything about you.

  I just said what I think about ACHEWOOD, and pointed out that your description ...

• At May 8, 2008, Jack Norris wrote:

  Wait a sec, didn't Joe Rice quit posting for Vitally Important Reasons? Just like the vastly successful and prolific Listen ...

• At May 8, 2008, Apodaca wrote:

  I find "Cat and Girl" thoroughly generic. Punchlines that are obvious from the first panel, adolescent philosophy, and jokes that ...

• At May 8, 2008, alex cox wrote:

  "I would say that for someone who read over a hundred strips, if all you took away from it was ...

• At May 8, 2008, alex cox wrote:

  "It’s just that, both on those occasions when Joe has quit, or as with the founding of LTUWR, it seemed ...

• At May 8, 2008, Jones, one of the Jones boys wrote:

  Joe, didn't the NYPD tell you to stop throwing darts at the female populace?

• At May 8, 2008, Greg Burgas wrote:

  I love Alex. Here I am, not doing anything, and he has to take a shot at me. ...

• At May 8, 2008, alex cox wrote:

  You don't have to take it all personal, Greg.

  So I think you ruined the blog. So what?

  No need to get ...

• At May 8, 2008, Apodaca wrote:

  I guess that depends on how you define "not doing anything", Greg. Since Alex's issues are with your posts on ...

• At May 8, 2008, stealthwise wrote:

  Is it actually worth driving all the way back to the comic shop just to get a 50 cent refund ...

• At May 8, 2008, Craig wrote:

  [quote] Craig, I’m the fellow who does those bits, and even I can tell you, without any snark involved, that ...

• At May 8, 2008, Jack Norris wrote:

  "You just want the lameness to end, and sometimes that means swinging your arms and stomping your feet."

  Well, there's always ...

• At May 8, 2008, Apodaca wrote:

  "As for stealthwise, aren’t you going to drive back to the comic shop for next week’s books? Take the issue ...

• At May 8, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  Craig, I'd like to point out I talked specifically about a DC book as well. Northlanders, man. Not ...

• At May 8, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  And let it be known that I find AlanMoore kinda funny, at least so far.

• At May 8, 2008, alex cox wrote:

  "Since Alex’s issues are with your posts on the blog, you’ve been doing what bothers him for quite a while ...

• At May 8, 2008, Jack Norris wrote:

  Well, just the first time, then.

  Honestly, though, I was just trying to give you a light hard time about ...

• At May 8, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  Jack: No sweat, totally. Yeah, my first "quit" was really melodramatic. No way I can deny that ...

• At May 8, 2008, Greg Burgas wrote:

  Hey, that's fine, Alex. I know you don't come around here that often, but when you do, you never ...

• At May 8, 2008, alex cox wrote:

  Greg, I never "went off" on anyone (re-read my responses, please... i was barely even responding to her) and I ...

• At May 8, 2008, Craig wrote:

  "There are so many crappy [comics]. There are crappy ones made, at least in part, by people whose work ...

• At May 8, 2008, Greg Burgas wrote:

  Sorry, sir. I just equated you calling me "lame" with calling me "stupid." Plus, there's the whole "you ...

• At May 8, 2008, Craig wrote:

  I'm sorry, I did say I was done. Seriously, this time.

• At May 8, 2008, alex cox wrote:

  Well, to be fair, you did ruin the blog with your lameness.

• At May 8, 2008, alex cox wrote:

  That was a joke, for anyone keeping score at home.

  Greg, if you get overly defensive again, Joe Rice gets a ...

• At May 8, 2008, Greg Burgas wrote:

  I wouldn't want Joe to win, so I'll keep my cool.

  Come back tomorrow when I talk about how good Moon ...

• At May 8, 2008, Rene wrote:

  "Listen, if, at this point, you’re down on “comics today” it’s your own fault. Stop reading such crap. ...

• At May 9, 2008, Lynxara wrote:

  Most people I know who are "down on comics" are downloaders who never paid for the book to begin with, ...

• At May 9, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I’d love to join the “fuck yeah” brigade here, but Jesus, was an analogy that explicitly compared the value of ...

• At May 9, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  I'll admit that comment was stupid, sorry, Lynx. The only defense I can say is that I wasn't talking ...

• At May 9, 2008, alex cox wrote:

  "Jesus, if this is what passes for “smart fan” writing in comics,"

  I don't think anyone mistake Rice for a "smart ...

• At May 9, 2008, alex cox wrote:

  Re-reading the post, it seems pretty clear that Joe's analogy is about dating in general, and not really about ...

• At May 10, 2008, Rohan Williams wrote:

  I'm not the world's biggest Joe and Alex fan, but I can't see anything in that post that equates a ...

• At May 10, 2008, Lynxara wrote:

  It's a matter of language. He talks about fine objects (in terms of works of art), and then immediately mentions ...

• At May 10, 2008, Joe Rice wrote:

  I guess all three of those colleges left out how to accept an apology.

• At May 10, 2008, alex cox wrote:

  lynxara.

  What you are saying he wrote, he did not write. The implication is not there. We are not "choosing to ...

• At May 10, 2008, Jack Norris wrote:

  So, um...

  Hey!

  I had a dream last night where I saw a trailer for a Kamandi movie. It ...

• At May 10, 2008, Rohan Williams wrote:

  Who played Kamandi, Jack?

• At May 11, 2008, Jack Norris wrote:

  Some hot young star, but no name, just the knowledge that he was one, in that way that can happen ...

3 Comments

• At January 17, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Nice work, Leanna.

• At January 17, 2008, tad wrote:

  When does Leanna get to star in her own comic? Subscribe me now.

• At January 18, 2008, Mongoose wrote:

  "oh yeah (Wonder Woman Rocks) as I was saying (Wonder Woman Rocks) oh and also (Wonder Woman Rocks) so (Wonder ...

1 Comments

• At December 17, 2007, s1rude wrote:

  This needs to be a pull quote for promotion:

  "Well one less mouse."

5 Comments

• At November 27, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Very cool, Joe!

  And I fixed your link for you - the site looks good, Leanna!

• At November 27, 2007, Doodlebob wrote:

  Awesome!

• At November 27, 2007, Rohan Williams wrote:

  Good stuff, Joe and Leanna!

• At November 27, 2007, sgt pepper wrote:

  I was trying to decide whether I was a cursing nerd or a creepy perv when I settled on both.

• At November 27, 2007, Dupin wrote:

  this gotta be some of the most interesting and amazing ideas I have heard in a long time. It's just ...

Dear Gail Simone

I like Wonder Woman (the charecter) because she is very athletic, strong, and thoughtful, because she goes to different kinds of crimes and saves lives of children and Adults. She also expirents different kinds of pains. I also like her laso of truth also in this book I noticed the shield with a W on her back. The reason I like the laso of truth is because it has a kind of power to tell the truth not most super heroes have a superpower like that. The sheild also was a good Idea because just in case someone attacks her on the back they will not hurt her.

The story starts interesting because it starts when Hippolyta is asking the North, West, east, and South (prisoners) if they repend all of them did not agree by saying "Never." Until she came upon the south stall she asked "do you repend." "Never." answered the prisoner. Suddenly the prisoner called "Hippolyta" and gave her a crown entitled our queen the prisoner carved the crown using there teeth. The prisoner told Hippolyta to kill her dauter "No." Hippolyta yelled breaking the crown into pieces

Back with Wonder Woman Grodd sent a army of armed gorillas to claim the azure oceans they wanted to "sloter" Wonder Woman and that is like impossible there talking about WONDER WOMAN! Hello! Well Wonder Woman of corse injures them and finnally she gets to them. They all make promises. Later on Wonder Woman let all of them stay over her house. I looked like kayaus [ed. note: "chaos"] to me. The gorillas were everywhere it looked like a saturday night sleepover with a lot of caffine. All of a sudden Tom rings the doorbell. I guess the gorillas go to the kitchen or something.. So Wonder Woman opens the door and he goes past her and cuts her off GOSH HOW RUDE! he also says her apartment was boring because it must not be as dirty as his. Well they go on a mission and meet up with Captin Nazi Wonder Woman says he's gotten stronger and oh yes he looks stronger and of course she does Tom a favor and get in front of him. He hold her to a wall and on the next page it shows Nasis killing everything they can find. I hope Wonder Woman finds her way out of this one.

My Coments

At least Wonder Woman always finds a way out of everything. YAY Wonder Womans the best! I love Wonder Woman and Captin Marvil if you have my opinion I think there the best!

---

22 Comments

• At November 21, 2007, Nala wrote:

  I'd rather read reviews like this than most comics blogs! Thanks for posting this!

• At November 21, 2007, Rohan Williams wrote:

  Nice review, Leanna! It's good to see someone be so positive about their favourite characters!

• At November 21, 2007, Greg Hatcher wrote:

  Well done Leanna! Come back and do more of these for us! My students do reviews too but you have ...

• At November 21, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Lee says "thanks" and she's going to read the comments and report back later.

• At November 21, 2007, Greg Hatcher wrote:

  Also, Joe (or Brian) if you pull up the 'edit with HTML' function in WordPress for this, and insert width="525" ...

• At November 21, 2007, Jeff Albertson wrote:

  Leanna,

  Thanks for writing the review. Your enthusiasm shines through and it makes me want to read the comic book ...

• At November 21, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Lee says:

  thanks for giving E-mails OH YEAH! sorry for the raving mistakes but hopefully i'll get to write more reveiws ...

• At November 21, 2007, Mongoose wrote:

  This review made me smile. I think we should have reviews by Leanna on a regular basis! They could be ...

• At November 21, 2007, Starleafgirl wrote:

  Cool review. :) I agree about the laso of truth.

• At November 21, 2007, Paul wrote:

  Give Leanna Burgas's spot on the blog!

• At November 21, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Thanks a lot for posting that, Joe!

  Very nice review, Leanna. As soon as I read it, I made sure to ...

• At November 21, 2007, Chud wrote:

  This made my day. Thanks Leanna.

• At November 21, 2007, Gladiator X wrote:

  Awesome!

  If only us old farts could still look at the characters and books with the eyes of Leanna then maybe ...

• At November 21, 2007, acespot wrote:

  It's letters like this that really make you wish that DC still had a letters page, and not just all ...

• At November 21, 2007, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  Thanks for the breath of fresh air, Leanna. This is the first review I read in awhile where nobody was ...

• At November 21, 2007, stealthwise wrote:

  :D

• At November 21, 2007, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  ! sorry for the raving mistakes but hopefully i’ll get to write more reveiws and comment more

  Don't worry Leanna, your ...

• At November 22, 2007, Sean Whitmore wrote:

  Anyone else now want a Wonder Woman Capt. Marvel team up?

  Simone and Smith all the way!

  I've even got the perfect ...

• At November 22, 2007, yo go re wrote:

  better tell Leanna to trademark the name "Kayaus" before Rob Liefeld steals it out from under her for his revamped ...

• At November 22, 2007, Master Mahan wrote:

  More reviews need to come with sketches of eagle swords.

  Excellent review, Leanna. I hope you'll write for again.

• At November 23, 2007, gail wrote:

  I love this better than pun'kin pie.

  Just great.

  Gail

• At November 23, 2007, Don wrote:

  Ha! This is better than most professional "reviews" I read...very sweet and endearing!

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/11/21/leanna-t-reviews-wonder-woman/feed/ 22 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/05/10/so-yeah-this-isnt-working-really/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/05/10/so-yeah-this-isnt-working-really/#comments Thu, 10 May 2007 21:24:13 +0000 Joe Rice http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/05/10/so-yeah-this-isnt-working-really/ I'm sending this in a letter to Brian, too.

Lately I've been questioning why I'm writing the Media Reviews.  They've seemed even more pointless than usual.  I don't enjoy doing it.  I'm generally saying the same stuff month after month.  And if I was going to get someone to try a book, it's happened by now.  I'm treading water and not enjoying it.

I first left CSBG over editorial or creative differences or whatever and I think it's just more and more become a place that's very different from how I envisioned it.  And that's fine, it's got its own life and its own fans or readers.  I just don't think I, or the Media Review, really, belong here.  I gave it another shot and it just didn't work out; just like when you give your ex another shot.  There was a reason we broke up in the first place, and over time we've just become more and more like ourselves.

I was excited to take my writings to a larger audience, but, in the end, I don't think I work well with a larger audience.  Thank you to those of you that have expressed your fondness for my stuff, but most of you would probably read it elsewhere anyway.  Or you could read me at World of Awesome if you care to read about more than comics.

Anyway, Brian, I'll miss your idiosyncratic diction.  Greg B (elementary stylee), I'll miss being bewildered by your terrible, terrible taste.  Greg H, keep up the good work and the "teachers at CSBG" spirit alive.  Pol:  The Rocketeer is a terrible movie; it just is.  MarkAndrew, you get to be the token indie guy now, so try to be more of an asshole or something.  Or less, either way.  Bill, I eagerly await "favorite staples" month for the 365 Days.  And Dick Hyacinth, you don't post here, but thanks for clearing me up when I needed it.  And if I forgot an actual contributor (that little turd Seavey doesn't count still, right?) then I apologize.

To my readers, well, who am I kidding.  I never had any, anyway.  God Bless or go to hell, whichever suits your fancy.

---

40 Comments

• At May 10, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Fair enough, Joe.

  If it doesn't feel comfortable, I certainly wouldn't want you to keep doing it.

  The columns have been very ...

• At May 10, 2007, Greg Burgas wrote:

  You can still be bewildered by my terrible taste, sir! I hope you still come around to bash my ...

• At May 10, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Raaaaage rage rage rage rage.

• At May 10, 2007, Dick Hyacinth wrote:

  I didn't necessarily expect this, but I had noticed your review columns were less frequent and more perfunctory (I think ...

• At May 10, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  "I’ll just skip past the stuff about kung fu movies and food involving meat."

  That's a nice way of ...

• At May 10, 2007, Paul wrote:

  Coward!

• At May 10, 2007, Ye Olde Iowa wrote:

  Hey Joe, I always enjoyed the Media Reviews, but if you aren't happy with it, then I agree that you ...

• At May 10, 2007, MarkAndrew wrote:

  That sucks.

  At least keep posting pictures of your kids and Captain Marvel....

• At May 10, 2007, Anonymous wrote:

  I had a feeling this was coming. Sorry to see you go, Joe, but it sounds like you're doing it ...

• At May 10, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  That was me, posting anonymously.

  That "favorite staples" joke made me laugh, too, by the way. I enjoy reading what Bill ...

• At May 10, 2007, stealthwise wrote:

  That's too bad, Joe, though I understand why you're stopping.

  I think your column would have worked better in a monthly ...

• At May 10, 2007, Alan Coil wrote:

  I'll take a dose of 'go to hell' thank you.

• At May 10, 2007, Bill Reed wrote:

  Dammit, Joe, we need you. You're edgy and irreverent! You're like Fonzie before he went soft! The kids, they want ...

• At May 10, 2007, Matthew E wrote:

  Somewhere it's April 1st.

  He'll be back, one way or another. That's Predictive Rule #1 of the internet: when someone storms ...

• At May 10, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Hey, this is no huff. I've done the huff thing. It's ugly.

• At May 10, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  But Joe isn't storming off in a huff here, Matthew. He wasn't totally comfortable with the old blog, so he ...

• At May 10, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Dammit, Joe! My post makes less sense following yours!

• At May 10, 2007, Ian Astheimer wrote:

  I’ll just skip past the stuff about kung fu movies and food involving meat.

  And, I'll only read the stuff about ...

• At May 10, 2007, DanLarkin wrote:

  I always looked forward to the reviews Joe, and I'll miss reading them. But you've gotta do what you ...

• At May 10, 2007, Tom Russell wrote:

  :-(

• At May 10, 2007, km wrote:

  Joe, I can't comment on the larger issues involved here. But I do know that you've always treated me fairly ...

• At May 10, 2007, Dave wrote:

  Sorry to see you go. I enjoyed the Media Reviews for what they were, although it was becoming more ...

• At May 10, 2007, Greg Hatcher wrote:

  You'll be missed, though I completely understand the feeling... it's how I felt doing the magazine column for the last ...

• At May 10, 2007, Billy F wrote:

  Sad to see you go Joe.

• At May 11, 2007, Matthew wrote:

  I was sorry to see you go up until the crack about The Rocketeer. That's just cold, man.

  Seriously though, all ...

• At May 11, 2007, veghead wrote:

  Yeah, if you weren't enjoying it, then absolutely you should stop, because what's the point.

  But I enjoyed reading your columns.

  I'm ...

• At May 11, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  The long and the short of it is that I was dreading writing the reviews. I dunno why . ...

• At May 11, 2007, John Seavey wrote:

  Can't say I've agreed with everything you've said, but you've been a fun read, and a nice guy, and I ...

• At May 11, 2007, Denn wrote:

  It's about time.

• At May 11, 2007, Kevin wrote:

  I think finding something new to say about a monthly can be difficult every issue, and it may be much ...

• At May 11, 2007, mikesensei wrote:

  Joe, I've enjoyed your columns a lot. I am encouraged that you say this:

  "I’m not saying I’ll never have something ...

• At May 11, 2007, Matt Algren wrote:

  Quitter.

• At May 11, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  I really hope that Denn is totally serious, mainly because I think it's funny for someone to say 'good riddance' ...

• At May 11, 2007, Rohan Williams wrote:

  Especially when Denn- or whoever- never had to actually read Joe's stuff in the first place. It's not like he ...

• At May 11, 2007, Denn wrote:

  It was a joke.

  Wait...You guys don't have to pay to read this? What a rip!

  Good luck Joe on your ...

• At May 11, 2007, Rohan Williams wrote:

  Wow, sorry about that, Denn! I'll keep my righteous indignation zipped up next time.

• At May 11, 2007, Denn wrote:

  No problem man. Stay righteous though, you'll never know when you need it.

• At May 12, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  I am disappointed. I can't make fun of you if you were joking.

  Your intelligence confounds me!

• At May 12, 2007, Denn wrote:

  Now I feel bad for ruining the fun.

• At May 14, 2007, Pól Rua wrote:

  This just in: Joe Rice hates Autogyros.

  Hsssss...

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/05/10/so-yeah-this-isnt-working-really/feed/ 40 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/05/07/joe-rice-media-review-5707/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/05/07/joe-rice-media-review-5707/#comments Mon, 07 May 2007 20:41:43 +0000 Joe Rice http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/05/07/joe-rice-media-review-5707/ Got a stack here of at least a couple weeks' worth of comics.  Nothing from Free Comic Book Day . . .I was busy with mint juleps on that fine day.  I feel like I'm coming down with something so I'm slightly medicated and will likely be very brief.  Perhaps I can reduce my reviews to their simplest form . . .this will be an experiment.

Super F*ckers

• Pro:  Hilarious combination of real-life naturalism and silver-age Legion of Superheroes surrealism.
• Con:  Art likely not to everyone's taste.  Simple cartooning, but I like it.
• Joke:  Does Cronin find Super Dan's weiner creepy?

The Punisher Presents:  Barracuda

• Pro:  Beautiful European-style cartooning, funny story, bizarre characters.
• Con:  Ties in a bit too much to the Punisher; VERY potentially offensive.
• Joke:  If Roadblock was this cool I'd've liked him even more than Snake Eyes.

Lost Squad

• Pro:  Great high concept, fun execution
• Con:  Art fails the story from time to time.  Huge wait for this last issue.
• Joke:  I got nothin'.  This is good fun.

Midnighter

• Pro:  Neat idea for an issue.
• Con:  Neat ideas don't necessarily make great reading.
• Joke:  Those bad guys are still more interesting than Hydra.

The Punisher

• Pro:  Great, tight, pulp storytelling.  Clean, clear art.
• Con:  That people let the fact that Frank is not a good man stop them from reading such a good book.
• Joke:  But then again, they probably read PAD books and are being punished already.

Runaways

• Pro:  The kids are mostly in character.
• Con:  That art is goddam insulting after Alphona. 
• Joke:  Where do these artists come from, some rapidly deteriorating Paul Ryan clone factory?

Hellboy:  Darkness Calls

• Pro:  Hellboy:  Darkness Calls
• Con: . . .
• Joke:  Some variation of my old "humping the comic book because it's so good" standard.  YOU do some work.

Shazam!  The Monster Society of Evil

• Pro:  EVERYTHING.  Perfectly-paced storytelling; a Mary that's interesting instead of "tempted;" scary bad guys; creepy ongoing mysteries; Mr. Talky Tawny; Mr. Morris; beautiful art; accessible characters; the look on my kids' faces when I hand these out.
• Con:  The next issue may be out during our summer break!
• Joke:  Now they'll want to have to go to summer school!

Overall some great stuff in the past couple weeks.  Some absolute garbage, too, I'm sure, but that's easy enough to avoid.  NOW FOR MORE MEDICINES!!!! IN MY MOUTH I THINK!!!!

---

3 Comments

• At May 7, 2007, Bill Reed wrote:

  I love that you share the joy of Shazam! with your students. How did you manage that one? Paying out ...

• At May 8, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Thanks, Bill. I pay out of pocket, and the Ship gave me a gentle discount.

• At May 9, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  Does Cronin find Super Dan’s weiner creepy?

  He TOLD me he was impressed by it.

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/05/07/joe-rice-media-review-5707/feed/ 3 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/04/19/joe-rice-media-review-41907/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/04/19/joe-rice-media-review-41907/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2007 22:22:57 +0000 Joe Rice http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/04/19/joe-rice-media-review-41907/ For those three or four people still reading what I write here after I made fun of Harlan Ellison, welcome.  I hope at least one of you is female so you can repopulate the world that is my readership after this dreadful catastrophe.  I have always believed my readers are of good stock, so we shall soon breed a race of super nerds, able to ridicule and praise things on the internet with the power of 100 normal nerds.  Either that or we will kind of awkwardly look at each other and never make the first move.  WHICH SHALL IT BE, FOLKS?

OK, I've tried a couple times, but I can't really force my way through Army@Love.  That could very easily be my own problem.  I would love someone to, in the replies here, explain why this is a good book.  I feel like it's a very smart book, but the art's semi-sloppiness combined with the textual overload really makes it a tough sell for me.  I can't recommend it.  Some one else do it for me!

DMZ, on the other hand, seems to be covering slightly similar ground but in a much more appealing package.  A new storyarc starts this issue, with a wonderful Brian Wood cover.  Seems like this might be your classic Rashomon-style "multiple-view" story, as Matty interviews various folks involved in what seems to be the worst massacre in the war so far.  Guest artist Nathan Fox handles the flashback sequences.  I like his work a LOT.  It's got a wonderful Paul Pope influence, except with an even stronger cinematic manga streak than said comics sex god.  Jeremy Cox also does a great job with the colors, with the muted greys of the flashback occasionally punctuated with bright warm colors.  This is a great chance to try this book.

I was recently talking about how it's often harder to write about monthly superhero comics than less-frequent indie cousins.  What do you say about a book that's probably consistently bad or good and just one part of an ongoing story?  Well, I have the same problem with Love and Rockets.  It's great, yeah.  I really don't know what else to say about it.  Jaime's story about Frogmouth keeps going and develops interesting twists.  I'm still not sure what's going on in Julio's Day but it looks nice.  And Emanon was an awesome wordless short bit I really enjoyed.  One of comics' greatest ongoing treasures.  You have to heart it.

I really think I missed an issue of Ex Machina.  Did I?  I really think I did.  I don't have a clue as to what's going on.  What's this future guy doing?  Did the blackout start last issue?  I need to find the previous issue before I judge this, because I can't imagine it would suddenly get so confusing.

The Spirit continues to be a wonderfully-drawn entertainment.  With an incredibly creepy birdlove sequence.  Was Mr. Carrion like this in the old Eisner bits?  Yeek!  But in a good way.  By the end of the story, Carrion comes off pretty well, in spite of himself.  This was more of a spotlight for him than anything else.  And, of course, a neat, one-off story.  And it made me hungry for pork and beans.  God, pork is good.  Some funny bits and the art is drool-worthy, but it's not going to change your life.  It doesn't need to.

Well, as I said, my delight at the previous issue of Mighty Avengers dwelled largely in the interesting use of thought balloons.  Otherwise, it was just an above-average superhero comic.  This second issue falls more squarely in the latter category.  The balloons are played with a bit, as are Iron Man technical caption narration.  There are some funny little bits throughout the issue, but not enough to finish distracting me from Cho's ridiculous boobified artwork.  I'm not quite quitting the book; I'll give it another issue or two, but this isn't anywhere nearly as fun as New Avengers this time.  I can see how traditionalists might like it more, though.

Oh, and this week I read Garage Band, by Gipi.  I don't think I've seen a work in any medium that quite captures the manic, fraternal (not as in khaki shorts and Dave Matthews ballcaps) feel of being in a band when you're a teenager.  The book is paces kind of like an EP, in a way, with the chapters kind of feeling like songs.  There are touches of deep trouble in the boys' lives, but, like a good song, you are left with impressions you can extrapolate in your own way.  The art is loose and expressive, and the book itself is a light delight.  Well worth your time and money.

I also got The Last Sane Cowboy and Other Stories by Daniel Merlin Goodbrey.  And before I review it I should note that Merl is an old friend of mine I've known for some 11 years or so now.  I've never reviewed something by a friend before and I'm honestly a bit uncomfortable to do so.  If I give it a bad review, I'm a bad friend.  If I give it a good review, I might look like it's only because they are my friend.  But thankfully, Merl's work is beyond that stuff.  First off, his art isn't for me, really, but it's stiff posed nature is a part of the process.  It adds to the disquieting, unsettling dreamstate of the work.  And the stories themselves are wonderful streams of subconscious that wind their way through your brain and make you feel kind of funny.  And they ARE funny.  A lot of modern-day surrealists either try to hard to be funny and fail or just take themselves too seriously.  But Merl's got an easy way with it, and reading his work often feels like listening to a great story while heavily intoxicated with a good friend and a weird guy you both met at the bar.  Merlin gives you a reason to read AIT books now that Wood and Fraction are gone.  Do try it.

---

16 Comments

• At April 19, 2007, Michael wrote:

  Well, I'm a traditionalist, and I think Mighty Avengers blows. Although I'll cop to a lot of that being fanboy ...

• At April 19, 2007, Dan K wrote:

  I'm always shocked by how quickly each issue of the Spirit comes out after the last one. And then I ...

• At April 19, 2007, Tim Callahan wrote:

  I thought the newest DMZ was excellent as well, but I really think Army@Love is a superior work. I'll ...

• At April 19, 2007, MarkAndrew wrote:

  L & R. We're probably going to have to wait 'till it's finished to really grock Julio's day. ...

• At April 19, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  Rick Veitch is a major creator. He not only worked on Miracleman and Supreme, but the guy gave us “The ...

• At April 19, 2007, Grant wrote:

  Mighty Avengers was a disappointment. Issue 1 was great but yeah nothing really happened in this issue other then the ...

• At April 19, 2007, Tim Callahan wrote:

  Writers shouldn't coast, Apodaca, you're right. But if someone has produced great work in the past (great work that ...

• At April 19, 2007, km wrote:

  I hope at least one of you is female so you can repopulate the world that is my readership after ...

• At April 19, 2007, stealthwise wrote:

  PORK AND BEANS!

  I too am shocked by how on-time this book is, and I'm loving the hell out of it. ...

• At April 20, 2007, Yuri Rasovsky wrote:

  Anybody who makes fun of Harlan Ellison is a friend of mine.

• At April 20, 2007, Matt Brady wrote:

  Hey, I'm fine with any Harlan Ellison disdain. That guy's an asshole.

  Anyway, I'm totally with you on DMZ; Nathan ...

• At April 20, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Yeah, I think I missed that. Dang.

• At April 21, 2007, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Well, I’m a traditionalist, and I think Mighty Avengers blows. Although I’ll cop to a lot of that being fanboy ...

• At April 21, 2007, Alex wrote:

  DMZ was great... the colors on Fox'z pages were AMAZING.

  Like, breathtakingly subtle and beautiful.

• At April 22, 2007, Alan Coil wrote:

  Is every column going to take shots at Harlan Ellison from now on? Cuz, if so, it'll get awfully boring ...

• At April 22, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  That wasn't a shot at Harlan Ellison! It was a mention of a previous shot and the dreadful consequences ...

]]> http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/04/19/joe-rice-media-review-41907/feed/ 16 http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/04/13/do-the-right-thing/ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/04/13/do-the-right-thing/#comments Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:36:50 +0000 Joe Rice http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/04/13/do-the-right-thing/

Fantagraphics, the publisher of many of the greatest comics ever made, is being sued by a petty old sci-fi writer for using an interview even he admits they own and for listing his name on the cover of a book wherein the interview is contained. (In truth, because his widdle feewings were hurt at how they descwibed him).

How to support is here. Facts are here. Helping is as easy as buying really, really good comics. Might I suggest Mome, a great anthology? Or The Living and the Dead, a zombie epic? How about the Complete Peanuts? Love and Rockets collections? Beasts? Some Bill Ward pinups? Usagi Yojimbo? The genius of some Acme Novelty? The potty humor of some Angry Youth Comix? There is literally something for everyone. Go, do it. Help yourself, and help a great company.

85 Comments

• At April 13, 2007, Mark S. wrote:

  Where do I go to support Ellison?

• At April 13, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  www.jackass.com or www.tiredoldhackfans.org.

• At April 13, 2007, Omar Karindu wrote:

  Considering Ellison's and Groth's basic personalities, this seems like two vaguely misanthropic, strongly opinionated guys slandering each other. Ellison's ...

• At April 13, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Groth put no nasty claims in a book. He put Ellison's own words of interview.

• At April 13, 2007, johnny boy wrote:

  Harlan Ellison is a dick, he is not a hack.

• At April 13, 2007, Tenzil wrote:

  Ellison has gotten a reputation for being outspoken and opinionated etc. But basically he's just an asshole.

• At April 13, 2007, Michael wrote:

  I don't pretend to understand the law-talkin' stuff surrounding the case, but basic research shows that these guys have been ...

• At April 13, 2007, Michael wrote:

  This piece from the Seattle Weekly goes into a bit of depth on the history of the feud:

  http://www.seattleweekly.com/2007-03-28/news/from-hell-s-heart-i-litigate-at-thee.php

  I am a ...

• At April 13, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Winning an award doesn't make you an unhack. James Cameron won an award. Gladiator won an award.

• At April 13, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Look at it this way . . .maybe it's schoolyard stuff, but Ellison's trying to hurt Groth's (spectacular) company, and ...

• At April 13, 2007, Greg Hatcher wrote:

  Look at it this way . . .maybe it’s schoolyard stuff, but Ellison’s trying to hurt Groth’s (spectacular) company, and ...

• At April 13, 2007, Rebis wrote:

  Hey, let's not insult dicks and asses. They're perfectly delightful body parts.

• At April 13, 2007, Michael wrote:

  Well, I'd argue that neither James Cameron nor Ridley Scott are hacks. Also that the Grand Master Award isn't just ...

• At April 13, 2007, Michael wrote:

  Also, if only to satisfy my own morbid curiosity, I'd like to see a lawyer's chiming in on how likely ...

• At April 13, 2007, Allan Lappin wrote:

  >> (In truth, because his widdle feewings were hurt as how they descwibed him).

• At April 13, 2007, Patrick Hamilton wrote:

  Michael:

  Groth has already asked the CBLDF for assistance and been turned down.

• At April 13, 2007, sean wrote:

  I always think "hack" is just a lazy way of saying "I don't like this guy's art/writing/whatever." It's the ...

• At April 13, 2007, Michael Hoskin wrote:

  In the war of petty vs. petty, the only winning move is to not play.

• At April 13, 2007, Michael wrote:

  Patrick: Well, that answers that question, I guess.

  sean: I think "hack" has a real and important use in criticism, but ...

• At April 13, 2007, Matt Algren wrote:

  Just thought I'd mention that Linda Medley of Castle Waiting (published by Fantagraphics) has been running a benefit of sorts ...

• At April 13, 2007, Jeff Albertson wrote:

  Let's keep in mind that Harlan has registered his name as a trademark, and to keep a trademark, you have ...

• At April 13, 2007, Michael wrote:

  Rereading Omar's post, I feel compelled to make a correction. Ellison was actually complimenting Fleisher in that interview all those ...

• At April 13, 2007, John wrote:

  Wow. Joe Rice's post and comments here are horribly one-sided, rude, petty, and immature. I don't think I'll ...

• At April 13, 2007, Ryan Day wrote:

  Both Ellison and Fantagraphics have done some good, important work.

  Both have acted like asses regarding each other. Ellison might be ...

• At April 13, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Nothing I've read of Ellison raised him above "decent competent genre hacksman" to me. There's not necessarily anything wrong ...

• At April 13, 2007, stealthwise wrote:

  I like Fantagraphics.

  Um, if I buy one of their books through the LCS or chapters or something, does that help ...

• At April 13, 2007, Omar Karindu wrote:

  Joe, my understanding from reading Ellison's complaint is that at least part of Ellison's claim involves his contestation of Groth's ...

• At April 13, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Indirectly, yeah! Said shop then has to re-order book to keep it in stock, so that's more money for ...

• At April 13, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Omar: Yeah? I didn't get that, but it could be. Even if so, sounds pretty frivolous to ...

• At April 13, 2007, rjwhite wrote:

  This entire thread is going to get everyone sued.

• At April 13, 2007, Evan Waters wrote:

  Re #25: What, specifically, have you read of his? I'm not sure how one would call I HAVE NO MOUTH ...

• At April 13, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  It may have seemed unconventional then, but nothing has impressed me so far. Granted, I have an inborn distaste ...

• At April 13, 2007, plok wrote:

  Wow, you guys are kind of late with this, aren't you?

  On the TCJ message boards there's a lot of clarification ...

• At April 13, 2007, plok wrote:

  Sorry, no link! Don't have time to find it right now. Whoops.

• At April 13, 2007, Alan Coil wrote:

  Michael said: "In which case, I doubt his heirs (assuming he has any; he has no children, and with a ...

• At April 13, 2007, Alan Coil wrote:

  Joe Rice said: "Granted, I have an inborn distaste for sci-fi to begin with..."

  Comics are fantasy or science fiction, depending ...

• At April 13, 2007, Alan Coil wrote:

  plok said: "Wow, you guys are kind of late with this, aren’t you?"

  Yep. Several months late, and did no research, ...

• At April 13, 2007, Tom Galloway wrote:

  "with a grand total of five wives, the divvying of that estate is gonna be one hell of a clusterfuck"

  As ...

• At April 13, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  "Comics are fantasy or science fiction, depending on the character."

  No they aren't. Superhero comics maybe, but not comics.

• At April 13, 2007, stealthwise wrote:

  "No they aren’t. Superhero comics maybe, but not comics."

  Oh come on, Joe. What is Fun Home then? Lesbians are ...

• At April 13, 2007, stealthwise wrote:

  Btw, I ordered a volume of Mome and The Living and the Dead.

• At April 13, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Stealthwise: HA! And AWESOME!

  Tom: Hey, I already said I was a bad judge of his work. ...

• At April 13, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Oh, and I meant to say this to mike a while ago: Scott and Cameron may not be complete ...

• At April 13, 2007, plok wrote:

  Lesbians aren't magic. Their science is just so advanced, it looks like magic.

• At April 13, 2007, Ken wrote:

  Wow, what a woeful post and comments. I never imagined CSBG, absolutely one of the best comic-related websites, could be ...

• At April 13, 2007, johnny boy wrote:

  Joe Rice, whoever you are, bye!

• At April 13, 2007, Gil Jaysmith wrote:

  Yup, I think I can agree with that sentiment. Joe Rice, whoever you are, bye.

  Comics journalists should be good.

• At April 14, 2007, sleeper wrote:

  "I don’t pretend to understand the law-talkin’ stuff surrounding the case, but basic research shows that these guys have been ...

• At April 14, 2007, sleeper wrote:

  "...to borrow a keyword within Ellison’s 14-page complaint, which is actually worth reading if you’re going to post your opinion ...

• At April 14, 2007, plok wrote:

  No, you're mistaken. Joe said the facts can be gotten at the link, and they can. Full stop. ...

• At April 14, 2007, km wrote:

  [quote]None of that is at all impressive or meaningful to me. Sorry.[/quote]

  I can understand not being impressed by industry awards ...

• At April 14, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  I'm a journalist now? That's a huge surprise to me. I write reviews and opinions, not news stories. ...

• At April 14, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  And KM, I'm not saying I'm right and they're wrong. I'm saying I don't care. It's not my ...

• At April 14, 2007, Caleb wrote:

  "(In truth, because his widdle feewings were hurt at how they descwibed him)"

  I think I stopped caring about here. As ...

• At April 14, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Geez, sorry, Caleb. I'm not a debater, really. I thought just putting my opinion out there was dry ...

• At April 14, 2007, Ed Cunard wrote:

  You have rallied me, Joe. I will buy lots of Fantagraphics comics this weekend to make up for the imaginary ...

• At April 14, 2007, km wrote:

  I’m a journalist now? That’s a huge surprise to me. I write reviews and opinions, not news stories.

  Yeah, but you're ...

• At April 14, 2007, Richard Flair wrote:

  Wouldn't it be nice if you could write something on-line without a bunch of self-righteous nerd assholes getting up your ...

• At April 14, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  km: Interesting point. To me, I was then talking about degrees of objectivity in reviewing art, but I ...

• At April 14, 2007, Julio Dvulture wrote:

  As good as Fantagraphics maybe, it is endangered only by the stuborness and petiness of its owner. So I will ...

• At April 14, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Don't be as petty as Ellison and Groth, Julio.

• At April 14, 2007, Ryan Day wrote:

  I think the problem is that you're mixing up two points. The one you care about, obviously, is "Fantagraphics publishes ...

• At April 14, 2007, sleeper wrote:

  "Wouldn’t it be nice if you could write something on-line without a bunch of self-righteous nerd assholes getting up your ...

• At April 14, 2007, Dick Hyacinth wrote:

  These comments are exactly what I expected when I read your post, Joe. Well, I was expecting some unfounded ...

• At April 14, 2007, Ed Cunard wrote:

  "I don’t have anything against you or the blog, it just seems like a double-standard. Keep in mind when the ...

• At April 14, 2007, stealthwise wrote:

  "To make it clearest, this column is completely subjective opinion of mine!"

  The fact that you even had to say the ...

• At April 14, 2007, Alex wrote:

  "Keep in mind when the whole Ronee Bourgeois thing went down, you did call her out on lack of journalistic ...

• At April 14, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Wow. If anyone thought this (truly late) opinion piece about supporting a good company was an attempt at objective ...

• At April 14, 2007, Ryan Day wrote:

  Calling it an opinion piece doesn't mean people won't call you on it when you:

  - get facts incorrect (Ellison is ...

• At April 14, 2007, Brian Cronin wrote:

  It's quite absurd. If you want to hate Joe for being derisive to Ellison, then fine, whatever. And if you ...

• At April 14, 2007, Evan Waters wrote:

  Richard Flair's lumping in "Trekkies" with the people leaping to Ellison's defense is wonderfully amusing.

• At April 14, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  Yeah, some Trekkies are alright.

• At April 14, 2007, Matt Algren wrote:

  Fantagraphics is publishing an interview with Ellison, and are promoting the interview in a book. But Ellison doesn't like ...

• At April 14, 2007, Ryan Day wrote:

  That’s about the gist of it, right?

  Not entirely.

  Gary Groth also writes about the trial that led to the whole ...

• At April 15, 2007, plok wrote:

  BAH!

  I'm out of this.

• At April 15, 2007, Stanley wrote:

  Joe, you are entitled to your opinion without question, however, others are equally entitled to their opinion regarding yours. Anyway, ...

• At April 15, 2007, Joe Rice wrote:

  They don't have a banner without "first amendment."

• At April 15, 2007, Matt Algren wrote:

  ...and I am entitled to my opinion that people are acting like... well, like they got their widdle feewings hurt.

  Regarding ...

• At April 15, 2007, Alex wrote:

  "Anyway, please look up the First Amendment as it has nothing whatsoever to do with this lawsuit."

  Some folks seem to ...

• At April 15, 2007, markus wrote:

  exactly ALex. It's quite puzzling to read people again and again understanding "1st Amendment Issue" as "clear violation of their ...

• At April 16, 2007, Mantistotem wrote:

  I always smile when I see someone post something like: 'I'm not going to be a part of this'

  Just by ...

• At April 16, 2007, Ryan Day wrote:

  That’s not how morals work and it certainly isn’t how the law works.

  Except it is, kind of. If I understand ...

• At April 17, 2007, Apodaca wrote:

  Joe, you are entitled to your opinion without question, however, others are equally entitled to their opinion regarding yours.

  I didn't ...

• At April 18, 2007, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  "Nothing I’ve read of Ellison raised him above “decent competent genre hacksman” to me. There’s not necessarily anything wrong with ...

• At April 19, 2007, Kirk Boxleitner, a.k.a. K-Box wrote:

  Ellison and Groth have both made valuable (dare I say, even essential) contributions to certain media and genres, which would ...