Emil Hamilton is ruined, all right (Spoilers for old Superman book)

Spoilers, I guess, if anyone cares.

As I buy old trade paperbacks from Scott Beatty, it has allowed me to catch up on some comic books I wasn’t buying even when I bought comic books. (I haven’t been to a comic shop since Blackest Night ended.)

So, I read this TPB that was all about Ruin, a new villain who had lots of insight into Superman’s personal life. It is heavily implied (too much, really) that it is Pete Ross, but the ID was not revealed in that book. Ruin is at one point captured, but he kills all of the policemen in the paddywagon with him (gorily so; there’s blood everywhere) and escapes.

The story is, sorry to say, not all that good. I don’t want to buy another book just to see who it is, so I look up “Ruin” on Wikipedia.

It’s Professor Emil Hamilton. Now, this is a guy who held a handgun on a young “strumpet” in order to compel Superman to do his bidding in only his second appearance, but he was stressed from Lex Luthor stealing his work and I always had the impression he wouldn’t really commit murder. He did his time in prison and had been a friend and asset to Superman ever since.

Then he started believing that Superman was a drain on the sun and would bring about the death of humanity in only 4.5 billion years instead of 5 billion. That’s why he suddenly turned into a mass murderer.

If he’d turned against Superman because he thought it would reunite him with Ray Palmer, I’d have said he had a better motivation.

To go from kindly absent-minded scientist to a man willing to rip apart police officers with his bare hands just doesn’t seem that believable. And I think they only did that because he was a traitor in the Justice League animated series, where his actions made total sense.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

THE AVENGERS trailer! 1950s style!

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Biggest educational time-waster ever

TV Tropes.  You get linked there to learn about a literary trope in television, movies, comic books, etc.  For instance, I’m writing about a female barbarian character, and in researching costuming I ended up reading about Chain Mail Bikinis.  This leads to what the Most Common Superpower is, and how this often involves a Victoria’s Secret Compartment hidden in a Cleavage Window, leading to Power Girl’s catchphrase, “My Eyes Are Up Here“.  And then you just start reading about super-heroines with Boobs of Steel.  And on every page, there are dozens of examples.  And… oh my gosh, it’s 4:00 AM and I haven’t written anything!

Apparently, I’m not the only person who finds TVTropes more addicting than… well, I guess “crack” but I wouldn’t be able to say from experience. I can say it’s AS addicting as Cracked.

P.S.  While composing this article, I ended up surfing the site for three hours before remembering to hit “Publish”.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Awesome preview movie for DCU MMORPG

Oh yeah. I’m posting it. I can be a lemming if I try.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

I used to love comic books. Then Batman peed his pants.

Topless Robot’s blog gives the details:  Batman Peed His Pants.  (Language warning for the blog’s content.)

Kevin Smith takes one of the most awesome scenes in Frank Miller’s “Batman: Year One” and has Batman recap it.  For the effect, Batman wired up some explosives.  One of them went off too hot and it caused Batman to pee his pants.

Now…if Batman was having an out-of-his-weight-class battle with Killer Croc or Bane, and the rascal punched Batman so hard in the gut that he lost bladder control… I might quibble that that is a little TMI for a Batman comic, but it also conveys the dirty tactics of the opponent or how tooth-and-nail the fight is getting.   If Batman was on stakeout for hours, perched on top of a gargoyle, and in his thought balloons he said that he needed a bathroom break, I’d be surprised that DC permitted such a reference, even though it shows his human vulnerability.  (After all, Superman processes 100% of what he eats, which means he doesn’t need to use the bathroom.) But recounting years later how he had an accident in his costume during one of his great set pieces?  Appalling.  Adam West is rolling in his grave.

But, what do you expect from Kevin Smith?  Sadly, his name has enough cache to generate sales even though his comic book writing is fanzine-level at best.

Over on Chuck Dixon’s message board, contributor DesScorp made this point:

Honestly, how far are we from someone on JLA monitor duty rubbing one out to pass the time? Or being caught watching porn by his relief? We’ve already had Speedy and Hawkgirl with after-sex scenes. How long until everyone realizes that these are no longer mythic heroes as much as they’re instruments of writers and artists self-fantasies? It’s like the very horniest fanboys have been handed the reigns at the major companies, and they think a scat joke would be just awesome in print.

It seems like Garth Ennis is the chief editor at DC a little more every day.

Frankly, there isn’t far to go on that front.  A similar scene has already played out.

Not just that Red Arrow and Hawkgirl were having sex, but Red Tornado (at the time inhabiting the satellite’s computer) was watching them.  When he told this to Kathy Sutton, his common-law wife, she said, “All these monitors up here and you don’t get porn?”

In the JLA comic book, this happened!

There’s been something I have wanted to say all year, and I’ve been holding back:

Comic books were better under the Comics Code Authority.

Censorship can chafe, I know.  But I now honestly believe it made people better writers because they had to find a way around sleazy shocks and low humor.

It’s dumb when you can’t show a dead body in a war comic; but drop the CCA and suddenly Gorilla Grodd is eating the severed limbs of superheroes while laying around on their piles of corpses, Black Adam shoves a gold mask through Psycho Pirate’s skull, Black Mask makes Catwoman’s sister swallow her husband’s gouged-out eyeball, entire families with little children are getting high-speed shredded in JSA, and Green Lantern Corps members get showered in a rain of hundreds of eyeballs from their dead relatives.  Restrictions on the portrayal of sex under the CCA may have made it difficult to even show Green Arrow and Black Canary having a physical relationship out of wedlock (as recently as 1986, they showed Black Canary sleeping on Ollie’s couch), but say good-bye to the CCA, and now under-aged superheroes are having sex in Pa Kent’s barn, Sue Dibny’s getting abused so graphically that it makes the attempted rape in Watchmen look quaint, and Superman comics (SUPERMAN COMICS!) now have a Kryptonian villain who has brutal sex with Earth women until they’re dead from the hours of punishment.  Red Tornado watching a couple have sex because he doesn’t have access to a porn channel is one of the tamer examples.

Maybe comics were never just for kids, but now they are not for kids.  If I saw a kid in a comic book store asking for a Superman comic, I’d have to alert his parents that they need to read it first to see if there are any women getting ripped apart in Preus’ bedroom.  I can’t tell you how sad that makes me feel.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Batman 3 and Superman reboot news

Batman 3 to Begin Filming in March 2011?.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

My toys! MINE!

This week, a three-year-old named Grayson stopped by our house. He came into our home office and spotted all my comic book merchandise from DC Direct and others atop the book shelves.

He said, “Can I play with those?” and pointed to all of my MIB stuff (Mr. Miracle and Big Barda, three different Elongated Men, the Metal Men figures, Sam the Eagle, Ernie Pyle’s G.I. Joe figure, a Talking Presidents Donald Rumsfeld, etc.).

And I felt really sad to be a forty year old man with a bunch of toys I won’t let out of their boxes.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Iron Baby

YouTube – IRON BABY.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

comic book super-heroes tv themes

This was rescued from the ancient vintage ComicBookResources’ Apr 20, 1999 TV Themes website. Incredibly a lot of the sound-files are now on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine servers and are not just dead links so they are available for download. Read the rest of this entry »

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

What are the concepts that don’t “work right” in a unified DCU?

I’ve come to the conclusion that as much as I like seeing the Shazam characters in the DCU, they really need to be their own universe. Captain Marvel needs to be in a world where Superman doesn’t exist, 11-year-olds have broadcasting careers and talking animals being a part of your circle are unquestioned. Where Mr. Mind is a cartoony worm whose significance is that he is a diabolical mastermind who looks ridiculous… instead of this mental parasite as he is in the DCU. More to the point, Billy Batson needs to be eternally the same age, and he simply does not work anywhere on the DCU timeline. Remember, the current Robin was *conceived* after 1986′s “Legends”, so Billy Batson should be 20 or older by now!

Stanley and his Monster, The Inferior Five, Angel and the Ape… they don’t really gibe with the rest of the DCU. The I5′s parents are carbon copies of the JSA, so somehow that superteam has to fit into DCU history. And I don’t really want Stanley forced to consume blood as part of his grandfather’s Satanic cult, or the Monster having a dark side that he doesn’t show Stanley. (Oddly enough, Phil Foglio was able to make his “Stanley” book totally gibe with “Sandman” without compromising the funny!)

The World War II books are OK, I guess. There’s just something odd about their happening in a world where, Spear of Destiny excuse be darned, the JSA should be able to tilt WWII’s balance of power.

What do you think? What are the concepts that should really be outside of the DCU’s one universe?

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Podcast #5 is up…and it’s still 2009!

I promised Erik Burnham that I would have all of our older recordings published before the end of 2009… and I have 1/2 hour left to make that promise KEPT. This one’s less than 10 minutes long. Just a brief recording that wasn’t worth throwing out, despite some audio problems, because I relate to Erik an old TV Special that I enjoyed.

I don’t even have any Amazon links for this one, because sadly enough, it was never released on video.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

The 15 Worst Comics of the Decade

The 15 Worst Comics of the Decade – ComicsAlliance.com.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Iron Man 2 Trailer!!!!

Awesome!

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

the Darker Seid of Life

By all means we at Monitor Duty should have written dozens of histories and recaps and essays about DC Comics’ vile Kirby demon, the evil New God Darkseid.  By now there should be hundreds of references and odes of love.  If kicked we might see it happen in the future, but I do not care to do that now.

Recently when I should have been working I googled for Grant Morrison interviews about Darkseid.  To tell you the truth I do not think that Mr. Morrison has anything profound  or unusual to say about the character but I like the way he puts together words and descriptions.   He puts together ideas that are not necessarily new or great in ways that are interesting and entertaining.  Honestly that is a good thing.  It does not matter whether the ideas are his or not.  His 52 co-writers claim that his virtue is not his creativity but his fearlessness.  He will go where his fellows will not and that seems like a strength to me (and a burden to editors and marketing staff).

Grant Morrison successfully delivers upon the marketing and communication of old ideas mixed together in way that editors would not let less experienced writers attempt.  That is the only reason I bother looking for his interviews.  I like his words; Ienjoy good poetry.  I do not care to give him credit for new meanings or new ideas.

Here is a quick Darkseid link dump.  It might be nice if, in the future, Monitor Duty has the greatest and most authoritative Darkseid link directory.  Let us leave that for the future.

• Marc Singer, who is not the Beastmaster, writes a defense of Darkseid against the Howling Curmudgeon, in that he declares why the character is a good one, but insists the biggest injury upon the character is its overuse.  They agree on the character’s three best stories but alos there are moe good stories with the character.  The most profound note is that the character is used best in stories where he seems to die a permanent death.  I think that the character is not made better by having no inner conflict, but to have the character have an inner conflict is to write him out of character.  Most good characters have inner struggles; to an extent it easier to see the super-villain in this case as a plot device.  In this light most villains are plot devices more than characters.  I can think of exceptions like Lex Luthor (depending on the writer, of course) and Doctor Doom, both of whom are self-realized as Darkseid is.  Yet Luthor (again depending on the writer) has a character arc involving his own jealousy, need for attention, his place in the world, and possibly friendship with Superman.  Doom struggles with vanity above all.  Darkseid has not issues.  He merely is.  He will never grow and he will never learn.  He will simply act, conquer, enslave, and at the end of the story arc in question he will die.  Occasionally he gets trapped in the Source Wall or something.
• A lot of this comes from a September calling for Darkseid essays.  Who has the time?  The point is that Darkseid “is a person” and I cannot say it is wrong because I sadly have read less Kirby New Gods material than I should, due to cost constraints.  As it is, what I declared in the point above is that recently Darkseid is a more a plot device, an abstract menace (as Galactus has almost always been) because while he may have been a person with a personality most writers simply treat him as an abstract personification of a dark ethos.
• The best response is this: by Keith Giffen in his Ambush Bug mini-series.
• Andrew Hickey insists that Darkseid’s desire to seize control of all life, the universe, and the entirety of creation and existence is borne out of fear of death.  Mr. Miracle is the logical counterpoint and the arch-enemy of Darkseid because as an escapological archetype he is positioned outside of the constraints of control.  Yet Scott Free himself is still not a direct and successful contrast because Darkseid name him and set his purpose.  That is Mr. Hickey’s point anyway and I am not certain I buy into it.  This plays all into ideas of “degrees of freedom” but as a Liberal Democrat (in the UK political sense) Mr Hickey’s views about what is acceptable as a definition or execution, application of freedom is suspect.
• The first Darkseid story I ever read was not the entire story but the final chapter of a JLA/JSA team-up story.  As was the the fashion at the time the occasional/formal meeting between the League and the Society finds it self linked to a third super-team, in this instance the New Gods.  I remember Justice League of American #184 (and here is the cover) because the New Gods were not only definitely super-heroes in this incarnation (and there is nothing wrong with that) but Darkseid has a personality, he is a villain with motivations and relationships.  In point of fact the bulk of the story is about relationships as well as a rise to power.  Upon his return from his most recent death in the New Gods strip from Adventure Comics, Darkseid punishes the Injustice Society for accosting his son Orion, clearly with a view of propreitry and seeing Orion as a creature, a prince, someone whose fate is more tied to Darkseid’s whim than mere encounters with bad guys.  Orion’s group consists of a Leaguer and a Society member.  All the split-groups  (I love how they follow the Gardner Fox tradition) consist of such a configuration.  For isntance Batman’s group has Mr. Miracle and the Huntress because both are versions of him in the different worlds of the different teams.  At this point each team resides in a different dimension of the DC Comics storytelling.   Because Darkseid has his relationship with the New Gods he seeks to teleport Apokolips to the spot where Earth-2 resides, destroying Earth-2 and thus landing his domain inside a universe where there would be no heroes, and no heroic New Gods.
• OAFE assesses/contrasts two Darkseid action figures making his size and sculpt major emphasis.  The Mattel version, which is the one really looked at, comes with a Mother Box as his accessory, and despite being smaller than the DC Direct Darkseid figure, is apparently just better.  Of course there is a brief history asserting that Darkseid only recently became a Superman villain despite that his first appearance was in a Superman comic.  He also discusses Grant Morrison’s formulation of the Anti-Life Equation.

I think there is something to be said that properly written the villain is a character but this applies to every character.  It is also important to note that the ending of the story as well as how often the character appears has serious impact for story quality.

(1 votes, average: 1.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...

A Mystery Solved!

One of the distinct pleasures of comics geekdom is finding a story, long since forgotten, that sheds light on some trivial mystery. I grappled with such a mystery over three years ago when I asked if anyone knew if Tubby Tompkins’s first name was, indeed, Tubby, or if it was just some sort of nickname.

Reading the eighteenth volume of Dark Horse’s Little Lulu reprint series, which collects issues 82 through 87, I came across the answer.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Superman and Batman team-up really worth it?

UPDATED: Coding corrected.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Sgt. Rock movie? Yeah, right.

Oh look, Akiva Goldsman is a producer. And it’s moved from World War II to the future. Next thing you know, he won’t be American…because that would be “jingoistic”.

Relax. This will not get made.

Look, they missed their chance to do it right by casting Bruce Willis in the 1980s. Stallone and Schwarzenegger? Nope, that didn’t happen.  And this current generation of pretty boy actors is very short on the kind of men who could pull this off.   Unless we’re going to cast Gerard Butler or Robert Downey Jr. in every comic book adaptation, I doubt they’d be able to get past the casting stage.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special

I’ve always meant to see this. As we enter the holiday season, it’s time to relax with the Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special. NSFW, contains language, etc. … though it’s nowhere near as explicit as the real comic.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Bill Willingham: I’ve Seen the Future and It Is…Safe?

Bill Willingham has a twist on the whole idea of why we live in the future yet there are no flying cars.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Batman Movies, Part 3

Tune in for our third and final Batman podcast, sponsored by TooManyLongboxes.com. No, we’re not doing the podcast quarterly! We now have better equipment and will turn them around much faster. Here is the last of the three Batman podcasts that I recorded in January with Erik Burnham.  The sound is improved, but after this one they should all sound as good as my introduction to this third installment.

 

 Monitor Duty Podcast 3 -- Batman movies part 3: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Batman Begins
The Dark Knight
What’s Next?

In case you missed them:

Batman movies podcast Part 1
Batman movies podcast Part 2

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...