The Neverending Crisis

 

Allow me to begin this entry to explain my absence to those who want to know where I was for the last ten weeks. I survived a plane crash in Tasmania where I lived with a family of platypuses. They taught me their language and how to comb the riverbed for invertebrates and lived like a monotreme for weeks until a pair of Slovakian tourists found me. After a brief altercation where I tried to smite the husband with my nonexistent spur we quickly made up and they took me back civilization so here I am. Yeah, that was a bold-faced lie but it is a more interesting account than the truth. Anyway, let us get to the main topic of this entry.

I make my disdain for the New 52 no secret. It was a horribly rushed and horribly executed reboot for several reasons but my biggest problem is that the powers that be left the Batman and Green Lantern franchise (relatively) untouched, which opened some gaping plot holes. That is not to say I found some parts enjoyable: Earth 2 by James Robinson and Nikola Scott grabbed my interest because of my appreciation all things related to the multiverse and I genuinely like these new takes on golden age stalwarts like Jay Garrick. Wally West fans may eviscerate me for saying this but The Flash is much more enjoyable than it has been since Infinite Crisis ended seven years ago. However, I believe that the reboot was a complete waste because if the sales figuresfor March 2013 are any indication, DC is back to where they started in July 2011. Only five of the twenty top selling books are DC titles and all them are either a) written by Geoff Johns or b) part of the Batman franchise. If the intent of the New 52 was to generate long-term interest in their non-Batman titles, then it was a spectacular failure complete with awe-inspiring fireball. Not only did the New 52 fail to attract a new audience, it alienated many longtime readers of their books.

I came across an interesting topic on Comic Bloc Forums where a member asked, “What if DC undidall the reboots and returned to the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths [multi]verse?”

“Let's call a duck a duck. DC has pi$$ed off a whole lot of readers over the years, and their endless reboots and retcons have chased away longtime readers... myself included. My pull has gone from over 30 books a month (almost 100% DC) up until post-Flashpoint, and I am now reading quite a few Marvel books again after a loooooooong absence. For me, that spells things out plainly.

 
So, let's undo all the "fixes" they have attempted over the years. Put someone with some idea of how fans' brains operate in charge and have them helm the project. Make it a grand event. I would like to suggest creating a single title for just that purpose. If DC chooses to let fans in on the significance of the book or not, leave it up to them. They could just tease with something along the lines of "Read this series! It will have long lasting and grand implications in the end." You get where I'm going.

 
Also, so as not to cheese off readers post 1985, make it a universe/time-spanning epic. Pick out the characters that are proven winners/have a significant fan base. Get Booster Gold and Rip Hunter to gather up Batwoman, Blue Beetle (Jaime), Barry Allen, Bart Allen from pre-Flashpoint, Donna Troy, and whomever else is worth carrying over to the pre-COIE Universe, and have them journey to put things right. This way the readers can have their cake and eat it, too. We've got the multiverse back, we can bring in newer, fan loved characters, and spin the rest off on another Earth in the Multiverse.

I vote "Yes!"”

My answer an empathic, “NO!” No, no, no, NO! Bringing the old Pre-Crisis continuity is an incredibly terrible idea for several reasons, the biggest on being that twenty-seven year passed since that Crisis ended. The world has seen five American presidents during that time (Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr., and Obama) and so much has changed culturally since then. I doubt that DC could or even wants to convince Roy Thomas to pick up where he left off on All-Star Squadron and Infinite Inc. or bring Gerry Conway back on Fury of Firestorm. Then there is the fact that DC attracted a substantial fanbase during the post-Crisis era and that would be a great betrayal to them and the removal of Donna Troy and the aforementioned Wally West is still a sore spot for them. No, I do not believe that returning to the pre-Crisis multiverse is a wise idea, neither is bringing back the post-Crisis universe, and hell, I do not event want the pre-Flashpoint universe to return. I simply want a blank slate and bring every character back to basics without any of the continuity baggage DC wants to bring with every reboot.

Imagine the DC universe as an old house with many good memories but the air tastes a little stale after fifty years, the stairs creak whenever you walk on them, and the plumbing and wiring need a little work. Crisis on Infinite Earths comes around and tears down the walls and removes the furniture. The “builders” remove a few support columns (Wonder Woman’s membership in the Justice League, the existence of Superboy as Superman when he was a boy) and leave the plumbing and wiring untouched. They bring in some new furniture and repaint the walls but problems begin to arise. The house is structurally unsound, the plumbing is starting to leak, and the electricity periodically shorts out. Zero Hour and Infinite Crisis attempt address these problems by plugging the leaks with duct tape and hastily solder the wiring. The builders bring back some of the old furniture out of a misplaced sense of nostalgia and assume everything will be fine. Years later, the pipes begin to break and a week does not go by without a fuse getting blown. The builder’s answer is to knock down all but two of the other supports (Batman and Green Lantern) and replace the superficial damage, which leaves us with a wreck of house that is one summer breeze from total collapse. Sometimes the sensible thing to do is to demolish the house and rebuild from the still-intact foundation.

We fans are an anal-retentive bunch that giggle when a writer references an obscure story and weaves into their narrative. We love the smallest mote of continuity because it is somewhat similar to be in on a joke that only a small circle of people know. Unfortunately, the downside to that is that it creates baggage that weighs down a fictional universe and its characters. I recall that Crisis on Infinite Earths writer, Marv Wolfman, intended for the event to end with a blank slate for ALL the characters from an issue of Wizard magazine back in 2005-6. Greg Weisman who helmed Gargoyles and Young Justice explained why this would not work:

“I was working on staff at DC Comics during the publication of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. In fact, during my very first editorial meeting, I raised the question as to why we weren't starting ALL our books over (with the numerical exceptions of Detective and Action Comics) with issue #1. I remember very clearly a collective groan rising up from the conference room table. (They had dealt with this question for months before my arrival.) On the one hand, they wanted Crisis to be a real sea-change, a true reboot (before we knew that term). On the other hand, if you truly reboot Batman, then Robin doesn't exist yet. No Robin, no other sidekicks either. So no Teen Titans. And at the time, the New Teen Titans was the company's best selling book. So the end result was that some things got rebooted and some did not.  This was complicated by the fact that certain creators came late to the party, and certain characters got reboots too long AFTER Crisis.”

There was a financial dimension to it as noted by the Teen Titan mention but I also believe that a fair amount of writers and editors simply did not want to drop the storylines in their respective titles and so they brought their baggage into the allegedly simplified DC Universe. Hence some of the seminal stories of the Silver Age like “Flash of Two Worlds” still “happened” but not in the way they were written. Similarly, Wonder Woman debuted well after the Justice League in the new continuity so Black Canary took her place as founding member so you those of Justice League of America issues where Wonder Woman demonstrated her superhuman strength or used her lasso? Surprise! That was Black Canary. Then we get to the problem of Donna Troy (AKA Wonder Girl), which evolved into a constant headache for the company because of inconsistent writing and that was only the tip of the iceberg that sank DC’s Titanic.

My feelings mirror Mr. Weisman’s when he says, “So, personally, my feeling on reboots in general is that you either do them or you don't. You've got to be thorough and ruthless about it, or don't bother, because otherwise - long term - you're creating more problems than you're solving.”  We fans have grown so attached to our continuity baggage that it becomes heresy to even suggest letting it go. Reboots are an “all or nothing” enterprise and we occasionally need to discard continuity to create a clear narrative. Young Justice was not an excellent program because of the background history detailed in the series’ bible, it was an excellent program because of Mr. Weisman and his staff’s use of motifs and characterization to create an engaging story. DC’s single-minded focus on continuity and attracting new readers proved too shortsighted plus the overbearing editorial direction has only made the New 52 more of an unsightly mess.

We as fans need to overcome this “separation anxiety” that keeps us chained to continuity and limits our thinking. While I do not care for the emotional and creative baggage that comes with continuity, I believe it is far better to distill it into themes that talented writers can approach from a different perspective. Most people could say that the Silver/Bronze Age Superman was stagnant by the early 1980s but Alan Moore proved that he still had some gas in the tank with “For The Man That Has Everything” and gave him a stunning sendoff with “What Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” Grant Morrison managed to distill the Man of Steel to his core mythology in All-Star Superman and did not need to adhere to continuity to make it one of my absolute favorite Superman stories all time and I only need to look at the oft-referenced page featuring the suicidal girl as an example.

Superman is supposed represent an ideal. He does not look down on humanity but aspires to lift us up and represent the best in us. He genuinely cares for everyone and image of him comforting the girl shows us that be believes that no individual life is insignificant. Yes, as banal as it sounds, Superman is supposed to represent idealism and bringing back the pre-Crisis continuity will add nothing to it and alienate even more readers. DC ultimately needs to demolish the shaky house that is the New 52 and rebuild from the foundation of themes that made its characters great in the first place, hire the talent necessary, and actually let them do their job. But do they have the courage and the will to make such an endeavor work? Recent events leave me with little optimism.

Platypus Reviews: A Legion Lost Retrospective

Today saw the last issue of Legion Lost, another New 52 launch title, hit comic book shops and the cancellation leaves me with conflicted feelings towards the title. On one hand, it was nice to have a second Legion of Super-Heroes title for the first time in twelve years, but the title was scarcely above average at best and mediocre most months. Not that there was anything with the concept: a team of legionnaires chase an anti-human terrorist who wants to change the past by mutating the humans of our era, but everything goes to hell when their arrival ends with two legionnaires dead and their advance technology inert. A concept that shares similarities with James Cameron’s the Terminator and the deaths of the two legionnaires ramped up the stakes. So where did the title go wrong?

I am afraid that the title was doomed from the beginning and I am, quite frankly, surprised that Legion Lost was not a victim of the first and second New 52 cullings. The Legion of Super-Heroes, similar the New Teen Titans, was a niche title since the seventies after the apex of the team’s popular Adventure Comics run in the sixties. Legion fans have an eye for minutia for continuity and obscure characters who made a single appearance like Legion rejects and the like. If you never had picked up a Legion title before the New 52, chances are that you would find the first issue confusing and chaotic. If you had no idea of who Dawnstar, Wildfire, Timber Wolf, or especially Chameleon Girl and Gates were you had no reason to even care that a time travel accident left them stranded in the 21^st century. Writer Fabian Nicieza did not give much of an introduction to these characters nor did he establish their personalities to make an uninitiated audience care.

Things did get better over the next five issues when things calmed down enough to show tensions between the time-lost legionnaires. Especially team leader Tyroc who had to deal with the always hotheaded and belligerent Wildfire or Timber Wolf who (appropriates) broke off from the crew to hunt for their target. Likewise with Dawnstar who seemed emotionally distant from her teammates, which led to a rift between her and longtime love interest, Wildfire that I always found forced because Geoff Johns pulled on this plot thread in Legion of Three Worlds. Combine that with the fact that they were persona non grata in the 21^st century, survival became a concern, especially when unidentified metahumans tended to attract unwanted attention from the US government and the secretive team of metahuman operatives Stormwatch.  However, two events sent the title sliding into mediocrity: the departure of Fabian Nicieza and “the Culling” crossover with the Teen Titans. Not that to knock on Tom DeFalco’s skills as a writer but “the Culling” was a needless diversion from the main storyline and some of the names he used (like “Psy-Kill” and the “Meta-American”) sounded like a villain from an early 90s Image comic penned by Rob Liefeld. So the conclusion to the first arc ended on a whimper rather than with any meaningful resolution, so the title dithered on to its final issue.

Not that there were not any interesting plot developments. I found the Echo division of the Science Police (the 31^st century version of the FBI, or the Mounties if you are Canadian like me), who monitored the timeline and sent denizens of the future to past eras as part of a Witness Relocation Program intriguing. Even the revelation that Chameleon Girl was an SP spy was a clever touch considering that the character infiltrated the Legion back in the eighties during Levitz’s acclaimed run on the title. Even, her superior, Captain Nathaniel Adym (any relation?) had a sinister presence as her superior who ordered her to make sure the stranded legionnaires fulfilled their destiny. And then a space barbarian and his talking dragon show up to threaten Earth for no reason other than he just can.

Seriously, an evil, celestial version of He-Man and Battlecat are the final villains the stranded legionnaires face in their own title. To quote a certain contributor to That Guy With the Glasses, “I could not make this shit up if I tried.”

To sum up the plot that the last issues in as few words at possible: the ersatz He-Man sets up a force field and builds a machine. Captain Atom—I mean, Adym decides to blow up ersatz He-Man with a singularity bomb that will destroy half of North America to “save quintillions.” The Ravagers, Superboy, and even Harvest from “the Culling” join the fray. Then Gates teleports ersatz He-Man, his space dragon, and the bomb into the nearest black hole to eliminate the threat; all the legionnaires are alive at the end and there was much rejoicing!

Except when telepathic goldfish, Tellus, reveals that ersatz He-Man’s intended “to communicate” to an unrevealed presence with his machine and not to destroy the Earth as they first thought. So the stranded legionnaires will be waiting for whoever was at the end of ersatz He-Man’s call and the final issue ends with, “Never the end!”

I know I am glossing over more that a few details, but does it really matter at this point? I cannot help but feel that these sixteen issues were a waste of my time because despite the compelling story elements Nicieza and DeFalco offered me as a reader, the bad far outweighed the good and DC could not bother to give us long-suffering readers any resolution other than the promise that these Legionnaires may make an appearance in a future issue of Teen Titans or The Ravagers? I would rather have had DeFalco take them back to the 31^st century where they would receive the attention they deserve than have them sit around and wait for Harvest or whoever to show up. In the end it feels like a waste. A waste of my money, a waste of my time, and a waste of my patience with DC after the New 52 nearly burned up the last of my good will.

But at least The Flash has been a compelling read and a visual treat, but please do not tell any Wally West fans that I said that.

Platypus Reviews: Green Lantern #15

 

I expressed my cautious optimism for the new Green Lantern, Simon Baz, when I reviewed Green Lantern #0 three months ago and I can now assuredly say that his arc has gone off the rails. Structurally, Green Lantern #0 had a much tighter focus but Green Lantern #15 is cluster-bombed and offensive wreck of comic book. Allow me to make this clear, I like Simon Baz. I like that he is trying to capture the terrorist that planted the bomb in the van he stole, even when a fugitive on the run from both the federal authorities and the Justice League. However, one revelation irreversibly soured me on this arc. The terrorist that “set” Simon up? He is a white male and presumably a survivalist or part of a militia judging by the arsenal in said terrorist’s basement and the “an American hero” comment he makes in the issue is equally frustrating.

Before anyone accuses my statements as racist, that is not my intent. My issue with this comic book is that it reinforces “us vs. them” mentality I see in today’s race relations. European males maintained a political and cultural hegemony for centuries, I get it; I know that there are more than enough homegrown terrorists in Middle America as evidenced by Adam Lanza’s killing spree in the recent Newtown tragedy. Geoff Johns scraped the bottom of the bottom of the barrel when he used the “angry racist white man” stereotype in Green Lantern #15 and it shows. Personally, I was hoping that the terrorist(s) in this issue were Muslim Arabs. Not because I believe all Muslims and Arabs are terrorists but because I believe that Johns wasted an opportunity to rise above petty politics and show Simon Baz as the hero he can be.

Martin Luther King Jr. said nearly a half century ago, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” My main issue with the “us vs. them” mentality is that it leaves no room for the subtle grays in between. There is good and bad in every human regardless of race, ethnicity, or creed and it is through our decisions where reveal the true content of our character. While Simon Baz is a car thief, he also cares deeply for his family, feels a deep sense of responsibility over his mistakes, and places the safety of others over his own needs. Had the terrorists he was searching for been Arab-American, I believe that his better traits would have shone through his skin color and he would have risen above the negative stereotypes associated with his community. However, Johns chose the intellectually lazy route that I see has grown prevalent in mainstream American culture. Just like one cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong, one cannot valorize a minority by demonizing the majority. I find it unproductive in any meaningful dialogue.

The lack of focus in Green Lantern #15 only exacerbates the problems I see in this issue. In addition to the Simon Baz arc, there is also the Hal Jordan/Sinestro subplot and the subplot involving the Guardians of the Universe and the First Lantern, which do not receive much attention because only so much plot can fit in twenty-two pages. With the supposedly cosmic scope of Green Lantern and the Guardians’ scheme to extinguish free will in the universe, Simon Baz’s storyline feels forced and extraneous to the Rise of the Third Army “event.” That is also my biggest problem with Green Lantern and its sister titles, everything feels like a build-up to the next intra-line event. In the span of five years there was Sinestro Corps, Blackest Night, Brightest Day, War of the Green Lanterns, and now Rise of the Third Army, which feels like the build-up for the next big crossover. Personally, I have had enough of this nonsense, Green Lantern is not enjoyable as it was earlier in Geoff Johns’ run and it has gotten formulaic to the point of repetition, the race/ethnic relations undertones make it insulting.

In some ways, I believe the drop in quality is endemic to what I see in the New 52 (and the Marvel Now initiative to a lesser degree.) Despite, the repeated claims that this reboot is a “fresh” new start to the DC Universe, most of it is stale as week-old bread and buildup to Trinity War feels like the same intra-company crossover, but that is another rant for another day.

Platypus Reviews: Green Lantern #0

I picked up a copy of Green Lantern #0 this afternoon so I would at least give my impressions of it to see if the backlash I mentioned in my previous post is warranted. To put it in simple terms: it is, to a degree. There are parts of Simon Baz’s character that I like; he possesses a degree in automotive engineering and was involved in a street racing accident that killed his brother-in-law so he took auto theft to give the proceeds to his widowed sister and nephew. There are some parallels to Hal Jordan from Emerald Dawn where Hal drove while intoxicated and critically injured a friend in an automobile accident. There is much to work with Simon’s character here, he is a young man that made a deadly mistake and is trying to atone for it as a Robin Hood-like character, though not in the Green Arrow vein. Simon unwittingly jacks a van that contains a bomb and drives it into an abandoned factory to save innocent lives…

…and that is when Geoff Johns drops the anvil on my head.

For those who have never visited TV Tropes, the “anvil” I refer to is shorthand for anvilicious, which the site defines as:

“A portmanteau of anvil and delicious, anvilicious describes a writer's and/or director's use of an artistic element, be it line of dialogue, visual motif, or plot point, to so obviously or unsubtly convey a particular message that they may as well etch it onto an anvil and drop it on your head.”

The frequent references to 9-11, the backlash against Arab-Americans, the harassment, and the increased airport security was heavy-handed enough, but Simon’s “vacation” to Guantanamo Bay is what had a flock of canaries circling around my head for the bus ride home. Then came the interrogation where Simon protests that he was, “A car thief, not a terrorist” and the "advanced interrogation techniques", which struck me as pedantic and condescending to the reader. To be honest, I expected better from Geoff Johns. This issue would be much better if he focused on Simon’s positive qualities and had not used him a rhetorical device to lecture us on how the United States government is so bigoted towards Muslims. If you are a new reader, I suggest avoiding this issue. If you are a collector, I would say pick it up if you are following Rise of the Third Army.

And thus the Magical Platypus commanded, "Thou shalt not drop anvils on thine neighbors head. For it is often painful and sometimes a poor literary device." (Rule #42)

Playpus Thoughts: Simon Baz, the Arab-American Green Lantern

It looks like we have a new Green Lantern, and guess what, he is Arab-American. Granted, this is not actually news since some vigilant comic book fans spotted the tattoo with the Arabic lettering on Simon Baz’s forearm shortly after DC Comic released the solicit to this week's Green Lantern #0 months ago. The DC media machine is ramping up the publicity for the character via an interview with Green Lantern writer, Geoff Johns. What caught my attention is how Jeff Kaurob of the Associated Press wrote that Arab-Americans fell, “under intense suspicion and ostracism in the days, months and years following the [9-11] attacks.” This caught the attention of noted counter-jihadist, Robert Spencer, who criticized the press release and Geoff Johns for, “wittingly or unwittingly . . . abetting that victimhood mythology, and its sinister goal.”

While I do believe that certain interest groups abuse the term “Islamophobia” to suppress legitimate criticism of Islam, my concern with Simon Baz is that DC is not treating him like a viable character. For one, hate crimes against Muslims are not as prevalent as the article suggests. Muslims only accounted for only 13.2% of reported hate crimes in the United States in 2010, according to the FBI. Compare that to Jewish-Americans, who comprise 65.4% of reported hate crimes the same year. So I agree with Mr. Spencer that this is pandering.

However, since there are hate crimes against Arab-Americans (albeit much fewer that DC Comics or the Associated Press wants us to believe), I can accept that Simon and his family have faced suspicion and ostracism. What I do not want DC to do is tell me why Simon Baz is an interesting character, I want them to show me in the comic and issuing press releases that spoil the issue is not the way to do it. This is a problem endemic to the industry; comic book sales are falling across the boards and publicity stunts like Jeff Kaurob’s article, and the New 52 in general, only bump up sales in the short term, which implies desperation, especially after the failure of the Green Lantern film last year. Marvel pulled similar stunts with the deaths of Captain America and the Human Torch as well as President Barack Obama’s appearance in Amazing Spider-Man. I am simply tired of these press releases and want to enjoy the story on its own merits.

So there is my problem with this article: it is not the fact that Simon Baz is a Muslim or Arab, it is that they feel that they need to beg the public for attention just to get a momentary sales spike. Personally, I think Simon Baz may be an intriguing character in that he wears the tattoo, which is haram in Islam, so he is not a devout Muslim as Johns admits,

"He's not a perfect character. He's obviously made some mistakes in his life, but that makes him more compelling and relatable," he [Geoff Johns] said. "Hopefully (it's) a compelling character regardless of culture or ethnic background. ... But I think it's great to have an Arab-American superhero. This was opportunity and a chance to really go for it."

I am invested enough in Green Lantern to pick up the title through Rise of the Third Army but am I am simply tired of DC’s fickleness. Simon Baz had potential but DC Comics squandered it through its histrionics and pandering.