Comics Are Gay

Reaffirming that comic book publishers have long abandoned any effort to appeal to families or kids, DC and Marvel Comics are now competing for the honor of being the most gay-friendly publisher.  Dan Didio announced Sunday that DC Comics will be changing the sexual orientation of an established character.  DC's senior VP of Publicity Courtney Simmons confirmed the story yesterday, "One of the major iconic DC characters will reveal that he is gay in a storyline in June."  So apparently it will be a male character to go along with their openly lesbian hero, Batwoman.  Not to be outdone, Marvel announced today that Northstar, who came out back in 1992, will marry his partner in Astonishing X-Men #51.

Well, I guess I'm supposed to be impressed by this cynical effort to get some cheap publicity, following on the heels of President Obama's "evolution" in support of gay marriage.  But I'd be far more impressed if these publishers put as much energy into the creativity and quality of their books as they do with trying to be cool or superficially relevant.  I wasn't aware the public was clamoring for more gay superheroes, so I'm glad Marvel and DC are taking steps to better represent that 1.4% of Americans who identify as gay and are no doubt as concerned about this issue as they are the economy, unemployment and the war in Afghanistan.

Despite its pretentiousness, this announcement does serve a somewhat useful purpose, which is to confirm once again just how Liberal the comics industry has become.  The last few years have seen repeated efforts to push characters and stories in an increasingly progressive direction, one more consistent with their worldview.  From the industry's worship of Barack Obama to taking shots at the Tea Party, from Superman renouncing his citizenship to filmmakers bending over backwards to avoid any patriotic overtures in the Captain America movie, many creators seem more interested in producing comics for each other and their circles of Liberal friends.

Does this matter?  Probably not.  I gave up on comics years ago, although DC piqued my interest in the last few years, particularly with it's relaunch, which turned out to be giant dud.  The problem for the industry is people like me who loved superhero comics growing up, will not encourage our kids to take up the hobby.  Who wants to expose their children to the dark, politicized, hyper-sexualized and exclusively adult nature of comics today.  Not even the most wholesome heroes are exempt.  Yes, I remember The Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, but that stuff was the exception, not the rule, as it is today.  With so many better options for entertainment, even superhero entertainment (Avengers cartoon?), why bother with comics?

Well, I guess the only thing left to do is speculate on which character will soon be dressing snazzier.  It's not clear how major of a character it will be.  Despite the hype, DC will probably anger some in the LGBT community by announcing some wallflower like the Atom or the Blue Beetle.  I know many people will automatically guess Aquaman, but he is married (to a woman) and bears little resemblance to the character we knew from Superfriends.  Some will say Robin, but that would open up too many questions about Batman, who is DC's hottest brand.  If it's not someone like Plastic Man (no jokes), then I'm gonna guess ...Green Arrow.  He's not one of the big five, nor is he an unknown.

Vote who you think our fabulous hero will be on the poll at the top right of this page.

Moebius (1938-2012)

French comic artist Jean Giraud, also known as Moebius, died yesterday at 73.  I give this guy credit for getting in early on the whole one-word name thing that made you instantly cool and pretentious.  I've only read one comic with his artwork, but it was a good one, a collaboration with Stan Lee on Silver Surfer: Parable, a two-issue limited series released in 1988.  It's arguably the best Silver Surfer story out there, not only because of Lee's faithful portrayal of the character, but the stunningly unique artwork provided by Moebius.  His Surfer was slighter and more nimble than previous incarnations, but complemented Lee's noble and graceful hero as no one had before. To the best of my knowledge, that was the first and only time he worked on a traditional superhero book. Too bad.  Most of his work is on science fiction and fantasy comics. From what I can tell, it's pretty cool, if not a little weird.  But hey, he's French.

Ralph McQuarrie (1929-2012)

The great concept artist Ralph McQuarrie, whose pioneering work created the look of Star Wars, passed away yesterday at the age of 82.  I can't think of any artist who has had bigger impact on pop culture.  The ideas may have come from George Lucas, but what we see on the screen came from the pen of McQuarrie.  Some of my favorite books to thumb through to this day are The Illustrated Star Wars Universe, and the three volumes of The Art of Star Wars, full of the worlds, machines, creatures and characters created by McQuarrie.

Without his designs, Star Wars may not have even been made.  When Lucas was struggling to sell his project to the studios, he used some of McQuarrie's early concept art to convince executives to green-light the film.   It's easy to see why.  His visuals have such scope, detail and imagination you really want to visit those worlds.  He won an Oscar for his design work in 1985, not for Star Wars (amazingly), but for Cocoon. He was also the conceptual artist for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial,  and the Battlestar Galactica TV series.

Comic Delusion

So the other day I watched Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics.  It's a solid documentary.  I learned some new things about DC's history and how the major comics and characters came to be.  It also includes some great interviews with a number of different creators and their perspectives on superhero comics.  Especially eye-opening was the strange personal life of Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston, and the S&M that was not so subtly displayed in the panels of the early Wonder Woman comics.

But what really stood out watching this documentary is the discussion over the direction of comics in the 1980s, focusing primarily on Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's Watchmen.  Mark Waid, a great writer and someone who I have tremendous respect for as a creator, begins the discussion like this: "In the 80s, there's a whole new Conservative grip to the nation.  Some of the younger comic book creators weren't to keen on that."

Apparently, to Liberals, having a Republican President represents a "Conservative grip" over the country.  As they begin discussing The Dark Knight Returns, Waid goes on to describe his interpretation of the story as though it was the objective and widely accepted view: "The whole climax of the book ends up being Superman and Batman literally trading blows, as Batman reigns upon him with Kryptonite gloves, and really in that moment, you're seeing the fire of Liberalism pound the crap out of the staid Conservative era of the 1980s."

Please.

Take that, you right-wing stooge!

I've read numerous reviews, interpretations and discussions of The Dark Knight Returns, and that has to be most idiotic, simplistic mischaracterization of I've ever heard.  Nowhere have I seen Miller's story described as an illustration of Liberal vs. Conservative worldviews. Most conspicuously, Miller himself has never characterized his book that way.  I don't know if DC was trying to cling to a particular narrative during this portion of the documentary, or if these were Waid's actual views, but he presses on with this theme as the discussion moves to Alan Moore:  "The whole concept of Watchmen is a reaction to Thatcher's England, that very Orwellian sense of government power, and sense of censorship, and sense of personal freedoms being curtailed."

Good grief.  You'd think we were behind the Iron Curtain during the 80s.  And when did Thatcher come to be viewed as such a tyrant?  I guess helping to win the Cold War and defeating communism doesn't count for much these days.

Alan Moore (self-proclaimed anarchist), speaking at the time, describes his views this way:  "It seems to me that anything these days which is slightly to the left of Ghengis Khan is immediately labeled as subversive.  If, in this current time, tolerance and sensitivity of any kind are labled loony left or subversive than I would be quite proud to be considered a subversive."  Wow. That's ballsy.  And profound.  To stand up to the fascist, authoritarian regimes of England and America during the dark, dystopian days of the 1980s took real courage.  All I can say is, if the left-wing delusions of these writers help them create good comics, more power to them.

One other segment of the documentary left me mystified.  While discussing the pathetic Death of Superman storyline, writer Louise Simonson actually moves herself to tears.  No, not tears of shame, but of genuine sadness and mourning.

Really?

How much we've lost

I came across this letter from Major Sullivan Ballou, written to his wife in 1861 before the Battle of Bull Run and though it worthy of sharing on Valentine' Day.  As someone who is often clumsy when expressing my love for my wife, I marvel at the literate nature of this man's devotion.  Listening to this beautiful letter, I am reminded that despite our advances in science, human rights and our standard of living, we have become a coarse and cynical culture.  How can one hear the eloquence and passion of this soldier's prose and not recognize how much we've lost?

Spidey Redux?

I hate Hollywood.  Every time I bitch and moan over the annual flood of sequels, remakes and adaptations, they suck me back in with one.  When I heard they were not only making a fourth Spiderman movie, but a reboot of the franchise after three (okay, two) very successful movies, I wondered, "what's the point?"  But after watching this trailer, I have to say, they've got me hooked.  Spiderman was my favorite comic book growing up, and although I liked the first two Spiderman movies with Tobey Maguire, I always thought they had a hint of Sam Raimi brand cheese.  That was part of their charm, but the films never quite looked or felt like the comic book.  This new film, with Andrew Garfield as a dead ringer for Peter Parker (with his homemade web shooters), looks like it may have a shot at being as good or better.  Ya think?  

Killing Superman

(Warning: some rough language)

This video has been making the rounds on the internet for the last week or so.  Max Landis, son of movie director John Landis, has made this short film apparently to rant about his dislike for Superman.  The young Landis focuses his drunken scorn for the Death (and Return) of Superman publicity stunt--er-uhh.. storyline from the early 1990s. The film's mocking, sarcastic tone wears thin pretty quickly, as does Landis's unconvincing Dean Martin act with an adult beverage and everything.

As a fan of Superman, I didn't find Landis's criticisms of the character particularly funny or original, but his lampooning of the Death of Superman crystallized the absurdity of the storyline, the pathetic lack of creativity of the writers and Editors at DC comics in the 90s.  I can remember thinking at the time, "Is this the best they can do?"  The whole thing was just so silly, uncompelling and uninspired, especially given this was the medium's flagship character, and how much DC was investing in the project.  It just reinforced everything I disliked about DC at the time:

• Lame characters, outside the top 10 or so.  Booster Gold?!  Was Aqualad not available?
• Lame stories (i.e. lame writers)
• Lame art

And it reminded me why Marvel Comics was so much better.  Which brings me to today.  DC comics made huge strides forward during the last decade, equaling, perhaps even surpassing Marvel in talent and creativity.  Last year, DC decided to reboot their entire comics line (The New 52!), apparently to re-invent and re-ignite their brand. Trouble is, if the first six months is any judge, DC has taken several steps backward. And if they keep this up, smartasses like Landis won't have to go back twenty years to find material.