Comic Books: December 2005 Archives

Night Nurse has been popping up in Bendis' Daredevil run. She's back in Daredevil 80, which is quite excellent. If you're not that familar with early 70s Marvel Comics, you may not know that Night Nurse actually had her own comic series in 1972! It only lasted for 4 issues and it was targeted towards the female/romance audience. At the time, there were a lot of popular doctor shows on television like Marcus Welby M.D. and Medical Center. You have to give Marvel credit for trying to bring in the General Hospital crowd. Night Nurse was written by then Editor-In-Chief Roy Thomas' wife, Jean Thomas. The character's name was Linda Carter--no lie, and it was before the Wonder Woman TV series. She didn't treat superheroes and didn't live in New York City. I suppose things changed as she got older, including her hair color.

Bendis is really wrapping up a great story in Daredevil. Next issue is the conclusion and I can't see how it will end. Will the Avengers step in and somehow get Matt a pardon? Will S.H.I.E.L.D. try to recruit Matt again? Matt's life is about as destroyed as it was during Miller's Born Again arc. That's really something. Nuff said.

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After writing about his Doctor Strange work, I realized that Michael Golden doesn't have much of an Internet presence. He's an artist of great renown among industry veterans, but I suspect that today's fans don't much about him. He's worked so infrequently over the past 25 years; Golden doesn't have a website, nor does he attend conventions that often. Here's a little retrospective, with some suggestions for you to hunt in the back issue bins. I'll include a couple of pictures here, but I've got scans of nearly everything that I mention in the Michael Golden Gallery.

I first noticed Golden in Batman Family (issues #15-20, circa 1978). His fluid, cartoony art style was a breath of fresh air, along with his dynamic panel layout. He drew some Man-Bat stories, the one shown above guest stars the Demon and Morgaine Le Fey. Golden soon graduated to the main Batman feature and became one of my favorite Batman artists of the time, along with Marshall Rogers. In 1984, Golden returned to the character in Batman Special #1. "The Player on the Other Side" was one of the best Batman stories of the decade. Written by Mike Barr, it told the story of a villain called the Wrath. The Wrath had the inverse origin of Batman: his parents were criminals, killed by James Gordon as a young cop. The Wrath grows up to be a master criminal who seeks revenge on Gordon and the Gotham Police. The fight scene between Batman and the Wrath was pretty exciting, and about the only thing wrong with the story is that the Wrath died at the conclusion. DC should have kept him around as a new adversary for Batman. This story has been reprinted in the anthology "Batman in the Eighties".

Marvel helped make Michael Golden a big name when they gave him a new series called the Micronauts. Based on a toy line, writer Bill Mantlo weaved a mythology around the central characters that was reminiscent of the Star Wars films. A band of freedom fighters who opposed the darkly evil Baron Karza, the Micronauts escaped tyranny by flying into the Marvel Universe-where they happened to only be a few inches tall! In the hands of a lesser artist, this series probably wouldn't have taken off. Mantlo's fun script coupled with Golden's dynamic visuals made it a big hit for Marvel. Golden lasted for a total of thirteen issues before taking off for greener pastures.

Golden's assorted Marvel work are hard to find, but they are unique gems and worth the hunt. Marvel Fanfare was a series aimed at the direct market (comic shops), printed on slick paper, and the early forerunner of today's high tech comics. Michael Golden's artwork graced the first two issues with a story that featured Spider-Man and Angel (of the X-Men) venturing into the Savage Land. Chris Claremont was the writer, who again teamed with Golden in Avengers Annual #10. This featured the Avengers teaming up with Spider-Woman to fight the new Brotherhood of Evil-and it also introduced a new mutant woman called Rogue. Later, Golden tackled a less serious subject when he took on Howard the Duck in his new black and white magazine. Howard the Duck Magazine #5 had a story where Howard met Dracula. The nerdy nebbish Howard H. Howard from Tomb of Dracula also makes an appearance to help Howard resist Dracula's charms. Howard the Duck Magazine #6 features Howard returning to Duckworld along with Beverly. The artwork is black and white in both stories, but it is really great stuff, especially with Bob McLeod providing excellent ink and tone embellishment.

I had all but forgotten Michael Golden's greatest work until I read a comment to the Doctor Strange article. In 1986, Golden teamed with a writer named Doug Murray to produce The 'Nam. This series chronicled the life of a soldier in the Vietnam War. With no superheroes or fantasy at all, it was a very daring series for Marvel to publish. Golden worked on 'Nam 1-13 and his work had never been cleaner or more vivid. The stories are very realistic, since Murray was a Vietnam vet who wrote from his experience as well as his friends. Private Marks arrives in Vietnam and reports to his First Sergeant, who regards him suspiciously. Marks is too naïve to know that the Sergeant is expecting a bribe in return for a cushy job. Since he fails that test, Marks is sent to a unit involved in front line patrols. In issue #3, Marks and his buddies get a day off in Saigon, but it proves almost more dangerous than the patrols. My favorite story was in issue #7, where they present a story on a Viet Cong guide who switched sides to help the Americans. Murray presents the VC point of view, and while it may be too brief in twenty two pages, you have to give him kudos for trying to explain the motivations of North Vietnam.

As far as I know, Golden hasn't worked too much in the past ten years. He's done some covers at DC for series like Nightwing. He did a Spartan X 4-issue mini-series for Topps that was a black and white kung-fu story for the Jackie Chan crowd. This year he drew Birds of Prey 66 in a style that slightly morphed into Alex Toth for a tale about the first Black Canary. I just wish he could do a project that would really show off his skills and be collected to show future generations. In the meantime, we have these assorted gems and the Golden Gallery. Nuff said.

See also:
Michael Golden Gallery
Michael Golden Wikipedia Entry
Doug Murray Interview on the Nam

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One of my favorite Marvel characters has always been Dr. Strange. He was the coolest character back in the day, yet no one seems to have a good handle on him now. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko had an excellent run, and I loved the subsequent efforts of Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, Steve Englehart, Frank Brunner, Roger Stern, Marshall Rogers, and Paul Smith. I've put together the Dr. Strange Gallery, featuring my favorite covers from Doc's many adventures. In addition, I've come uploaded some scans of a Dr. Strange portfolio by Michael Golden. This was sold on a limited basis in the 80s and is long out of print. Golden drew a wonderful issue of Dr. Strange written by Roger Stern, issue 55, published in 1982. I suppose given Golden's low volume of output, we were lucky to have that one issue. I've put some other gems in here from Brunner, Rogers, Smith, and Colan. Nuff said.

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Robby Reed, from the excellent Dial B for Blog, posted his review and comments on Infinite Crisis #3. He does such a great job dissecting this issue and he's right on many points. Phil Jiminez does put too much detail into his artwork and it is hard to figure out what's happening in the action scenes. Who was that guy Aquaman killed? And there are so many guest appearances from various mini-series (Shadowpact, Rann-Thanagar, etc.) that don't really advance the main story. Good catch on that Jim Aparo Adventure Comics cover being used in an IC panel. Nuff said.

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Earlier this month I wrote about the greatness of She-Hulk, written by Dan Slott. This week She-Hulk 100 goes on sale, 100 pages of material for $3.99. Newsarama has an interview with Slott about the issue. There's a great double page spread by Mike Mayhew that depicts She-Hulk in various costumes (I love the 80s leg warmers) getting replaced through history by the Time Variance Authority. Slott is correct, that will make a great Windows desktop.

No doubt by now you have seen the cover to She Hulk 100. This is painted by Greg Horn, who mentions it here on his site.

As Horn says, this cover is really an homage to Jim Starlin's classic Iron Man 100 cover. Starlin drew this cover in 1977 for Shellhead's anniversary, and I thought it was the single best Iron Man drawing I had ever seen. The interior work by George Tuska was decent but it couldn't match Starlin's depiction. I wished for many years in vain that Starlin would one day write or draw Iron Man.

I hope that the interior of She Hulk 100 will mention that the cover was inspired by Jim Starlin. I've seen a lot of classic covers re-painted and no mention of the original source. Back in the 80s, I remember Walt Simonson getting pissed because Art Adams had taken a Kirby Thor drawing as his inspiration for an X-Men annual cover (with Storm in place of Thor). He made a good point in the trade magazines, that original artists need to be credited. Nuff said.

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Wow. I'm one of those people who hardly enjoy the mainstream X-Men titles nowadays. With the exception of Morrison and Whedon's runs, I think they are constantly or regurgitating old plotlines. Chris Claremont has a right to do it; he came up with those plotlines 20-30 years ago. Other people don't. When I heard about the new X-Factor series starting, I wasn't too excited.

But I just read the first issue and it's outstanding. This is the Peter David I love. Great writing, funny dialogue, and a wonderful premise. Instead of a bunch of mutants getting together to fight super-villains, these third-tier characters have banded together to form a detective agency. Madrox the Multiple Man is the leader, and David's got an interesting take on his powers. Each version has a slightly different personality profile, which may be competing with the Jamie Madrox Prime. To fund his new detective agency, Madrox goes on a hot TV game show. Other characters include Siryn (Banshee's daughter), Rahne, and Strong Guy, Marvel's most powerful lunkhead. I always thought Strong Guy reminded me of Megaton Man.

Ryan Sook's artwork is really suited to this story. Best origin/introduction that I've read in quite a while. I hope their first adventure is just as good. Nuff said.

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Infinite Crisis #3 came out yesterday and it was the first new comic that I read. I love the scene between Batman from our Earth and the Superman from Earth-1. Seems like the first time we've seen Bats cry in a while. Just like I told you, droogies, Batman was much cooler on Earth-2. I think the other players from that cave may be evil, but Superman I seems innocent so far. I also liked the Luthor vs. Luthor fight scene. Some of the surprising things that we saw on the last double-page spread made me research a few things from the original Crisis.

What was that thing in the cave? A rocket, embedded in the ground? An extended version of the old Legion clubhouse? Nope. It was one of the Monitor's vibrational tuning forks. He used these things to help merge various universes into one cohesive entity when the Anti-Monitor went on his universe-killing rampage. Somehow Alexander Luthor must have gotten a hold of one and started plugging heroes around the perimeter in order to power it up or something. And where did that carcass of the Anti-Monitor come from?

In Crisis #12, the heroes from all universes had their big showdown with the Anti-Monitor. First, they went to Qward, where the Anti-Monitor had fashioned this enormous body-armor that withstood a lot of punishment from the collective might of DC's finest. In the end, the body crashed down hard on Qward. The heroes thought they had won, but it turned out that the Anti-Monitor had just abandoned this husk and turned into a form made out of pure energy. In Infinite Crisis, somehow Alexander Luthor retrieved this carcass and has mounted it on the vibrational fork. To what end, we don't know. To revive the Anti-Monitor? To use it's residual energy to locate and revive Earth-1?

Here's another thing from the past Crisis that might be back. Ever since the end of the Rann-Thanagar War, we've been wondering what's up with that rift in space. In this issue, the heroes say that the rift is in the center of the universe. This might have been mentioned before, but it escaped me until now. Flashback to Crisis #10, where the Anti-Monitor stuck his hand through a similar rift in order to destroy the multiverses. This actually goes back even further, to an issue of Green Lantern, where Kronos observed a hand in this rift causing the birth of the DC Universes. Look at the way this rift is drawn/painted in Infinite Crisis 3 and compare it to the panel above...they look very similar to me, although IF3 has a more high-tech depiction.

Will a hand arise out of this rift? Will it collapse or expand the universe? It will be interesting to find out. Nuff said.

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Spoilers ahead for Spider-Man The Other Chapter 6-8. The toughest thing to do with ongoing comic book serials is build suspense around the titular character. We can't really ever expect Superman or Spider-Man to die; usually it's the supporting characters that can be placed in jeopardy. Spider-Man: The Other is designed to break that formula, but it also breaks all the conventions surrounding Peter Parker's origin. When J. Michael Straczynski first took over Amazing Spider-Man, he introduced the concept that Peter wasn't really a scientifically based hero, but that he had some connection to mythological Spider-Gods. I remember when we first heard about this on Warren Ellis' Delphi message board; Ellis thought this was hilarious. I never cared for this idea. As corny as it was, I liked the whole radioactive spider thing. Straczynski's reinvention smacked of Alan Moore's "The Anatomy Lesson" wherein Swamp Thing was recast as a plant elemental instead of a swamp monster. Why did I buy Moore's hypothesis more than JMS? Somehow it all fit reasonably into Swamp Thing's history, of which there were only 40-odd issues at the time, counting volumes 1 and 2. I can't quite put my finger on why Moore can do it and JMS cannot, except to say that I prefer Moore's writing and pacing.

Chapter 6-8 of The Other have been so awful that I think Marvel has finally Jumped the Shark with Spider-Man. Peter Parker, dying of some mysterious disease, gets into a fight with Morlun (another Spider-God mythological character). After taunting him for several issues, Morlun has a big showdown with Peter in Amazing Spider-Man 526, but this isn't any ordinary slugfest, it's a fight to the death. Morlun plucks Peter's eyeball from his skull in a Tarentino rip-off (from Kill Bill Vol. 2). And then Morlun proceeds to beat Peter over and over again with his bare hands, leaving him looking like road kill. Whoa! Is Rick Veitch suddenly drawing Marvel Comics? I can't believe this level of violence is in mainstream comics now. Peter is taken to a hospital, where we get some soap opera wailing from Mary Jane. Morlun reappears, attacks MJ. Peter rises up out of bed, morphs into a giant Spider-Thing and kills Morlun. Then he dies. No heartbeat, he's gone. How will they get out of this one? Even though I thought it was crap, I had to find out (which no doubt makes Marvel happy).

Marvel Knights 21 has the answer: Peter's dead but he's getting better! After another round of soap-opera wailing from Mary Jane, Aunt May, and the Avengers, we discover that something broke out of the room where Peter's corpse was stored. His body is ripped down the middle. Something burst out from inside and scurried away into New York City. Then we get a clumsy JMS lesson about a spider that can "die one time" and use his old body as a cocoon to rejuvenate. This is also reminiscent of how Swamp Thing first regenerated his own body in the Anatomy Lesson. Except this seems cheaper. By saying "one time only" they are making a promise that it will never happen again. Push the button, reset everything, nothing has really changed, except that Peter is a Spider-Thing, which is kinda yucky. I feel sorry for Mary Jane. Who wants to be married to a human spider? Maybe when they are lovemaking one night, Peter will accidentally poison her.

Why did I like the Anatomy Lesson better? Maybe it's because Moore's hypothesis fit perfectly into Swamp Thing's history without contradicting too much. Maybe it was because I had the sense this was permanent change and it would lead to more exciting events. With The Other, I'm having visions of Fonzie water-skiing now. Why is this crap selling so well? Is it the multiple cover frenzy? I honestly think the Clone saga with Ben Reilly was better. Nuff said.

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Here's a little nightcap on all these Legion business: Newsarama has an interview with Mark Waid about Supergirl entering the 31st century. Waid is promising not to make the book all about Supergirl, which might be hard the first few issues. As many problems as I have with the current Supergirl, I think this could be the shot in the arm that Legion needs right now. I like how Barry Kitson draws her on the cover to issue 16: sexy and powerful without making me feel like I'm looking at teenage porn. They're still not saying if this is Kara, Karen Starr, or some new incarnation. The solicits for Supergirl #7 say that both Kara and Power Girl will be entering Kandor as Nightwing and Flamebird! The rest of the DC solicits for March 2006 are very mysterious. Nuff said.

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Two Morrows published a very fine Modern Masters book on one of my favorite artists, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez. One of the great DC artists during the past 25 years, he hasn't worked on that many series, and not much is known about him until this book came out. Garcia Lopez has been doing various special projects for DC Comics, such as drawing the DC Style Guide for licensing and merchandizing. In the 80s he did some great work on Superman (in DC Comics Presents), a Deadman mini-series (that resolved plot threads from Neal Adams' original run), but his longest running regular series was Atari Force.

During the 80s, Atari was synonymous with video games. DC partnered with Atari (since they were both owned by Warners) to produce comics based on various Atari games. One was a graphic novel called Star Raiders (wonderfully drawn by Lopez), but Atari Force the regular color comic series still brings back fond memories. Written by Gerry Conway, it told the story of a group of descendants from earlier mini-comics distributed in Atari video game packages. The star was Dart, a female of mixed Indian-Japanese heritage who opens issue #1 with her lover, Blackjack. They are mercenaries, mixed up in a war with a former employer, bouncing out of one scrape to another. I love Lopez' design for Dart, and how he draws her in action throughout his run. Dart has a brother called Tempest (the name of my favorite Atari video game) who can transport himself between multiverses. You can almost say he "jaunts" like in Alfred Bester's Stars My Destination, but it's even more fluid as he can just send his fist through a wormhole. Tempest was clearly meant to be the star of Atari Force, but Dart overpowered him from the first issue.

Art-wise, I loved everything Lopez did on this series, from the character design to the worlds they visited. Story-wise, I always remembered Dart and her lover Blackjack. Conway plotted an initial twelve issue arc that took the couple on a wild journey. In one issue, Dart is forced to leave Blackjack in space (a scene that also reminded me of Bester's novel). Later, Blackjack returns only to turn on Dart violently. Re-reading the entire 20 issue run, I can say that only this arc is still worth re-reading. After Conway and Garcia Lopez left the series around issue 13, it quickly lost momentum. For you Atari or Lopez lovers, this may be worth scouring the back issue bins. It's highly doubtful that it will ever be reprinted or revived. Nuff said.

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The best of this week's comics is Ultimates V2 #9. Millar and Hitch really hit this one out of the park. The scenes with Hawkeye and Black Widow are great. And it looks like Thor really isn't that crazy. At the end of the issue, things are so bad that I don't even see how the Ultimates can turn things around. The rampant spread of various technologies (Hank Pym's size changing, Iron Man's tech armor, Super Soldier serum) have created this incredible army against the Ultimates. I'm betting that "Hulk will save day" before it's all over.

I'll be out of town for a few days and probably can't update this site. But I gotta say this is a must-have comic. Nuff said.

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The trailer for X3 debuted yesterday on Apple's site. I'm still very dubious about the prospects for the movie, given the director (Brett Ratner) and the loss of Brian Singer's screenwriting team. There are rumors that they will kill off Professor X and maybe Cyclops as well. I can why, given that Patrick Stewart probably gets the biggest salary and they need to cut costs if they make another sequel. Cyclops would be a mistake. The X-Men without Cyclops is like the Avengers without Captain America.

I do think the casting of Kelsey Grammar as the Beast is an inspired choice. The Beast is an intellectual underneath all the fur, appreciative of the finer arts and sciences. Grammar can do that kind of thing naturally after decades of Frasier. The makeup looks remarkably like the comic book version (before his head evolved into a lion). Nuff said.

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If you are like me, you might have dismissed She-Hulk prematurely. There were several factors that caused me to ignore the first 12-issue arc from 2004: the Greg Horn covers just seemed too cheesy; Dan Slott was a new writer that I suspected was another Quesada drinking buddy; Juan Bobillo's artwork on the inside depicted a far less superhero-ish She-Hulk than I was used to seeing. Now, after reading She-Hulk 1-12 from 2004 and the first two issues of the new She-Hulk series (that started in November 2005), I can tell you that She-Hulk is without a doubt one of Marvel's best series currently being published.

What makes She-Hulk stand out from the rest of today's superhero comics? It's not all about super-powered slugfests. Instead, it examines what happens when the battles are over and the results are decided in the court of law. Before Jennifer Walters became She-Hulk (through a blood transfusion with her cousin, Bruce Banner), she was an attorney. When this new series begins, Walters is still practicing law, but her green-skinned form is too much of a distraction for the court system. A partner from a prestigious law firm (Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg, & Holliway) offers She-Hulk a job precisely at the moment when everything in her life has turned sour. The catch is that she must work in her human form as Jennifer, not She-Hulk. This is a problem for her, because Jennifer much prefers being She-Hulk all the time.

Dan Slott cleverly examined She-Hulk's past and exploited a personality quirk that's always been present, from the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and her own series written by John Byrne. Byrne's She-Hulk graphic novel concluded with Reed Richards telling Jennifer that she would never be able to return to her human form again. That was no problem for Jennifer. In her human form, Jennifer was depicted as a lonely, plain, and scrawny young woman. As the She-Hulk, she looks like a sexy bodybuilder who has no trouble attracting men.

In the opening pages of Slott's first arc, we see that Reed Richards statement is no longer true. Jennifer wakes up, after a night of playful sex with a male model, to find that she is in her human form. Clearly embarrassed, and anxious that her lover will have a "I went home with She-Hulk but woke up to this" moment, Jennifer wills her transformation with a result that pops him off the bed (see above). Jennifer's relationships with men, and how she relates to them in both forms, is another theme running through the series. There are various psychological issues that Jennifer explores and things are never done gratuitously. Slott brings back John Jameson as a potential love interest for Jennifer, but what's even cuter is that she is unaware of another lawyer, Pug, who has a crush on her.

The better court room moments evoke memories of the better episodes from Ally McBeal. My favorite story involves Spider-Man. Jennifer's firm convinces Spider-Man that he can successfully sue Jonah Jameson for libel, in retaliation for all the stories the Daily Bugle has published. Spider-Man swings into court (he is identified through an Avengers retinal scan) and testifies, giving his version of various news articles. Pug asks Spidey why he thinks Jameson hates him so much. Spidey replies "The real reason Jonah hates me…is because I'm black." The reaction on Jonah's face is priceless. Another great legal moment is when Hercules is sued by the Constrictor for using excessive force when he was arrested.

That's not to say that She-Hulk doesn't involve action of any kind. There are a number of slugfests, one with the Champion of the Universe and another with She-Hulk's old nemesis, Titania. Even during these battles, the resolution occurs because Jennifer takes some action in her human form. Titania's origin is explored in more detail, and we learn that her background is very similar to Jennifer. When Doc Samson steps in to help fight Titania, he uses this key bit of psychological analysis: "You seem to have an unhealthy fixation on She-Hulk, Ms. MacPherran. Have you ever considered that this obsession of yours might be sexual?"

Each story is packed with lots of humor and references to various things in the Marvel Universe. Slott takes a few shots at comic book collecting and trade paperbacks (in the library of the law firm). The law firm employs a shapeshifter as a process server and an android as an assistant. Andy, as they call him, is formerly the Mad Thinker's awesome android, who lacks a mouth. He communicates by writing on a chalk board that he wears around his neck. He's my favorite supporting character in the whole series-I love what happens when the Mad Thinker shows up and tries to make Andy do his bidding.

The first two issues of the new She-Hulk series continue with the first twelve issues left off after a small gap in time. Jennifer has reached a point where it's becoming more difficult to become green-skinned, her love life is evolving, and her new legal case involves a jury of people who have already died-including Hawkeye! (I don't quite understand Hawkeye being dead as I thought he was back permanently after House of M #8, but who cares?) I can't wait for the third issue, which counts as She-Hulk 100 (after totaling up her various runs). Nuff said.

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I just love the new Sentry series, even though it's got me wondering where it's all going to conclude. John Romita Jr's art is just killer stuff--we've always wanted to see a Romita tackle Superman and now here it is, Marvel style. You've even got the Watchdog here playing fetch with a tree in outer space. I love how the Hulk is portrayed here: back to his innocent, child-like personality because of the Sentry's presence. They take a trip to the Negative Zone, where they encounter some weird characters and get more tidbits about the Sentry's problem with the Void. I wonder if Jenkins and Romita Jr could do this as a regular ongoing monthly? Nuff said.

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