Tim, now that we’re pretty much 100% OYL, don’t you miss how much more simple things were a year ago?
I do, I do. I long for the days of one Nightwing, knowing who the Flash was (and it is not Barry, dammit. Stop saying what obviously is not true people), and Aquaman was called Orin and knew who he was. Now”¦anarchy.
Not Anarky
Anarchy.
Links
IP Music is on 11.
IP Movies gets two thumbs up.
IP Games has scenes that can cause seizures.
IP Figures is not a choking hazard.
IP TV is rated M for mature.
IP Sports has thoughts on the NFL Draft and baseball.
Moodspins has a voice all it’s own.
IP Culture has an amazing bouquet.
Our DC Forum is full of debate about Green Arrow and Checkmate!
Tim, anything to link this week?
For you Mathan, I’d be honored. Let’s kick religious style this week with Easter and Passover facts. Bone up on the religion that isn’t yours. Because, remember, most discrimination is not really based on hate, it is based on ignorance.
What I Read Last Week
The OMAC Project Special – I’ve got to admit that I enjoyed this book. I dug the responses from the various nations. I liked the set up for Checkmate. I like how this sprung from Infinite Crisis #6. This was a very good issue.
Gotta disagree there. For me, this was a very bland issue. If it had never existed, I’d be just fine with that. In fact, I would have preferred that.
Teen Titans #34 – Loved the use of Cyborg. Loved the drastic changes. Didn’t mind Kid Devil that much. I’m digging this title again.
I still don’t know enough about Diablo Chico, but otherwise you and I are on the same page here. Although I think there has been three quality issues in a row by this point (if you count the Annual). I still don’t buy Cyborg’s emotional scene after seeing the Superboy statue though.
Detective Comics #818 – It’s sad to see Harvey losing it again, but it’s great to see Jason Bard again. I really loved the back up story. James Robinson does great things with neglected characters.
You saw that as Harvey losing it? Huh, not me. I just thought it was musing out loud, sort of taking on the author/fan’s voice for a moment to ask, “Why Gotham?”
Outsiders #35 – I liked that there was more action and interaction this issue. I like that Thunder actually has personality OYL. I’m really interested in who the speedster is.
JSA #84 – I wish I was enjoying this book more than I am. I’m loving the art, but I don’t think that anyone has ever clamored for more Gentleman Ghost.
Aquaman #41 – I love the art, but the story is sinking fast. It’s like this book has leadfeet. I can’t see what’s keeping this book afloat. And I’m out of bad puns.
Infinite Crisis #6 – Great book. My favorite part; Mr. Terrific and Black Lightning. Second favorite part; seeing the Tangent Universe again.
That Mr. Terrific/Black Lightning scene was pretty great.
Planetary #25 – Nice fight scene. Intriguing explanation. It’s issues like this that make me glad that I’m reading this book by the issue as opposed to by the trade.
Y the Last Man #44 – I’ve never been more worried about Ampersand’s safety than now. But I suppose that his junk isn’t really necessary to save the world, but as a guy I wouldn’t wish that on a male of any species. And the human stuff was good too.
The Exterminators #4 – This book is like a cross between Six Feet Under (in that covers a career we don’t think about too often) and Nip/Tuck (in that it’s frighteningly graphic and joyfully pushes the gross-out factor). I really think that everyone should give this book a shot.
Ex Machina #19 – Tim, you completely summed up this issue. It’s without flaw. I did find the tension referenced between the Hasidim and NYPD to be oddly topical.
Hard Time #5 – Why is this book getting the axe? It’s such a great title. I almost wish DC had moved this book over to Vertigo, because it might have fared better over there. Still this was a great issue.
Ryan C. needs some guidance to mold his pull list into awesomeness.
I was curious as to what OYL titles you are getting. Since I too was trying to cut down my pull list some of the cancellations helped, but BOOM here comes Flash and JLA yet again. So far I am still getting Teen Titans, GL, and the Bat books (there are probably a couple more but I can’t remember them off the top of my head right now). I was just wondering as to your list since we seem to like the same stuff.
Thank goodness for Ryan, who gives us something nice and easy to start the column with.
For the sake of clarity I’m going to color code my titles so you’ll know which ones I’m really enjoying and which ones are hanging on tenuously.
Red is a book that I’m loving!!!
Blue is a book that pretty much on par with Pre OYL
Yellow is a book that I’m not digging as much as I’d like (and could, in theory, get dropped).
(Of course this is probably redundant, as I’m going to offer my thoughts on the book, but whatever.)
Detective Comics & Batman – They’ve both got James Robinson and ‘Tec has Leonard Kirk and Andy Clarke. The storyline is so much fun to read. Tim doesn’t enjoy it as much as I do (or rather critiques it harsher) but he still gives it a “thumbs up.”
Yup. As I’ve said, there is usually one thing “wrong” an issue that I then obsess over. Have no doubt though, so far, this is good stuff and well worth a look.
Catwoman – This is kind of a long story but here goes; Comics were late one week, so I got to talking to my shop owner. He told me how much he enjoyed Catwoman and that I should give it a shot. Tried as I might, I couldn’t come up with a reason not to get the book. I love the writer and the art team. Why wouldn’t I love them all on the same book. We’ll I do. This book is great.
JSA Classified – Know this is a book with rotating creative teams, but this book started out with a bang. Maybe it’s because it focuses on Vandal Savage and I love villain centric titles. Maybe it’s because it undoes some of the damage from the final arc on The Flash, but I loved the first OYL issue.
Teen Titans – I’d lost a lot of love for this book over the past 6 months (at least), but the first OYL issue blew me away. I don’t even care for Kid Devil and I loved this issue. It was perfect and restored my faith in the book.
I don’t know about “perfect” but this was a strong OYL showing. I think Teen Titans is back on track.
Green Lantern – I liked this book before OYL and it’s still good now. I wish John Stewart got more time in the spotlight but that’s a rant for another day. Most of all this book has shown me what people see in Ivan Reis.
Eh.
Nightwing – I was worried because Bruce Jones has disappointed me in the past but the first issue was very good. I like the twin Nightwings and I’m curious where it will lead.
Green Arrow – I’m digging the political tone the books taken. I enjoy the new art team. I’m curious where Judd Winick is going to take this whole thing.
Manhunter – This book was great before OYL and it’s equally solid now. It’s interesting how the passage of time has affected the characters and it shows how much I care about them that I’m salivating for the next issue.
I concur wholeheartedly. But I suppose that will strike no one as a surprise.
Firestorm – I dug this book before and I’m still enjoying it now. I like how much more secure Jason is now and his new outfit. The book is still fun.
Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes – Ok, so this is cheating as OYL doesn’t really affect the book, but I’m still reading it and I’m still enjoying it.
Outsiders – I like the new art team and I like the focus of the team. I am curious how long it will last and the first issue was kind of slow. All in all, the book is on par with it’s pre OYL incarnation.
Hawkgirl – I’m usually a fan of Howard Chaykin’s art, but his panel layout and visual storytelling doesn’t work with Walter Simonson’s writing in my opinion. I’m just not enjoyed this book as much as I used to. I just don’t seem to be as invested as I was before.
JSA – This book just seems bland. The storyline seems like it could be told for nearly any incarnation of the team. If there was one thing that I wasn’t eager to learn about the post OYL DCU, it’s the secret origin of the Gentleman Ghost. This just doesn’t seem “big” enough for my tastes.
Definitely not the right choice for a OYL launch. It seems like they are biding their time for something else, but that’s just my impression.
Aquaman – I’m digging the supporting cast, I’m just not digging the direction. I’m intrigued, but not enough to guarantee I’ll keep reading the book.
Just when you thought I could not be less interested in Aquaman, here comes this new direction. Bravo!
Blue Beetle – This one didn’t really fit with any other color, since it’s a brand new book. But I’m kind of liking it. I do feel that it suffers from being both a new #1 and a OYL book. I’m am looking forward to the second issue.
So yeah, I’m reading a few books and liking most of them. Any you read that I missed, Tim?
I have a few, but I’ll dispense with your color coding system if it’s all the same.
Superman/Action Comics– I’m not a Superman man (as I’ve said here before), but this is good. Most impressive about is that despite playing into my fears for OYL (it introduces a bold new status quo [Superman without powers!!!!] that is obviously not built to last, just to be new and bold coming out of the flip) and I’m still enjoying it. The storytelling is such that I just cannot be bothered by it. It’s the first time in a long time a Superman book not written by Grant Morrison has fully engaged me. Of course, it is only two issues in, but still.
Robin– The best OYL launch, in my most humble opinion. It brought me back to a title that I had basically given up on ever reading again. SO good.
Birds of Prey– This incredibly reliable title was weirdly flat coming out of the flip. It felt like all the wind had been sucked right out of its sales. I’m not ready to write off the book after one off issue though.
Matthew is undone by time travel conundrums
In the initial Superman/Batman storyline Kal-L (supes-2) shows up… but shouldn’t he still have been trapped in Heaven?
Well, the guy who’s showed up from time to time in Superman/Batman looked very much like this guy;
Who is “that guy”? He’s none other than the Superman who appeared in Kingdom Come a disturbing portrait of the future in the DCU. Thus the Superman with the graying hair from Superman/Batman is commonly called Kingdom Come Superman, but he’s really just a Superman from the future.
There is, however, a Kingdom Come Kal-L connection; in the Kingdom Come spin-off event The Kingdom featured bookend scenes featuring Kal-L and his “heaven.”
Tim, remember the good ol’ days of Superman/Batman?
No, I don’t. Mostly because for me, there never were any good ol’ days when it comes to that title. It constantly underwhelmed and disappointed me until I dumped it off my pull list. I think the only issue I wholeheartedly enjoyed was the Robin/Superboy manga robot thing between the first two arcs (I dropped after Supergirl).
It should have been a slam dunk for DC to get me to like the book. I’m already inclined to enjoy an S/B book as I love the Dark Knight/Last Son of Krypton dynamic and I liked the creative team. Instead, it is probably at the top of my “Most Disappointing Titles in the Past Five Years” list.
Matthew has found a flow in Superman/Batman. SHOCK!
Ditto that storyline and Luthor going crazy… wasn’t Alex still stuck in heaven?
Yeah, Luthor went crazy on his own. Superman and Batman were on his case trying to get him out of office. Luthor tried to take the offense and wound up going a bit off the deep end. Injecting that kryptonite concoction probably didn’t help his mental state much either.
Alex was still sulking in the other dimension. Lex just lost control. It’s been known to happen. He’s got all that power and it’s bound to affect him somehow.
Tim, how do you explain Lex losing it in Superman/Batman?
“I’m crazy. I’ve beaten Batman and Superman. But somehow, all that pales in comparison to kissing Amanda Waller.”
Poor writing?
Actually the official explanation is that Alex’s presence drove Lex mad. How the timeline then works”¦I have no idea. But that’s suppose to be the deal.
Matthew is like my mom. He loves to nitpick.
And what’s with Superboy being “responsible” for cracking heaven open… I thought IC showed Kal-L doing it…
Or did I1 just miss part of the mystery?
Yeah that’s sort of a gray area. Superboy is responsible for pounding on reality and shaking things up (Jason Todd’s reanimation, the current Legion of Super-Heroes title, among others.) He also did manage to break a wall into our reality so that he could run some errands for Alex Luthor.
However the wall was erected again, so that Kal-L could have his moment at the end of Infinite Crisis #1. It’s similar to how you’d let a younger relative (cousin, sibling) beat you at a game even though you know you could totally demolish them without breaking a sweat. That’s what Alex and Prime did for Kal-L, all the while thinking “great job Grandpa, welcome to a month ago.”
So Superboy is responsible for a lot of the crazy things that have happened in the DCU that didn’t make a lot of sense (Doom Patrol?) and he escaped the dimension before Kal-L broke out of it.
Tim, in a battle between Kal-L and Superboy Prime, who do you think is going to win?
Superboy Prime, I say without hesitation. He’s naturally stronger, crazier, way more bloodlusty (look, a new word), and he’s wearing Anti-Monito’s armor, which means he’s now”¦well”¦more powerful (maybe?). Kal-L has determination and all that so doubt he puts up one hell of a fight, but it’s a young man’s world ultimately and even Kal-L cannot fight the future.
George M. has an interesting campaign platform for 2008
I had an interesting observation the other day. If Superman gets his powers from the sun’s radiation and a hole in the ozone would allow for more radiation that means that the bigger the hole, the more powerful Superman is right? So when the environmentalists want to enact pollution laws and eventually, one would hope, fill the ozone, that would provide us with a weaker Superman, or at least a Superman that could not be as powerful as he could be. And if Superman isn’t as powerful as he could be, then the American way (as well as truth and justice) loses one of, if not it’s greatest, defenders. So the moral of the story is that Superman needs you to vote Republican in November, because a bigger hole in the ozone means a stronger Superman to defend your way of life.
Although if this holds true, is it really in Superman’s best interest to thwart Lex Luthor, wouldn’t he want more pollution from Lex Corp to erase the ozone thereby allowing Superman to be at his most powerful? Hell, perhaps Superman should cause some environmental disasters every once in a while to get an extra boost in power. Also, if it weren’t for environmental regulations, the ozone hole would have been very big in 1993 and Doomsday would have never killed him.
(I just want to note that George regularly blows my mind with his observations and theories. Fortunately they usually arrive at a point when I’m put my mind back together again.)
George, I completely buy your line of logic. Less ozone does mean a more powerful Superman. So why wouldn’t Superman want less ozone? Because he’s Superman.
He’d gladly lay down is life for you or Tim or even Tim’s pet goldfish (Umm”¦what fish?). He’s all about sacrifice and he wouldn’t want any of us to suffer just so that he could be more powerful. He loves Lois Lane and his parents, and every one of them would probably be harmed by a lack of an O-zone layer. Oh and he’s also selfless, and that’s why he would never damage the O-zone layer for personal gain.
But I will agree that Doomsday wouldn’t have beaten him had there been a larger hole in the O-zone layer.
Tim, what’s your take on all this talk of Superman, ozone and radiation?
Well, it is an interesting theory, but I’m thinking it is flawed. First, if Supes really needs more direct solar radiation, he can fly above the ozone layer. Or to somewhere where it is thinner. Either way, no need to actually erode the layer further.
In reference to your estimation that a thinner ozone equals a note dead Superman, I have bad news. Even a Superman juiced up on pure yellow sun radiation for 10 days cannot withstand the crushing blows of an editorially mandated sales stunt.
You have moxie though, I’ll give you that.
Soak1313 is the private dick who’s a sex machine to, roughly speaking, half the chicks.
Can I get a background on the “psychic” detective (can’t remember his name right now) that Batman hires in the newest issue of Detective Comics?
Bard
Who’s the Gotham private dick
That’s got a crush on that Oracle chick?
(Bard)
You’re damn right
Who is the man
That would risk his neck for the Bat Clan?
(Bard)
Can ya dig it?
Who’s the cat that walks with a limp
Uses a cane, but he’s not a pimp?
(Bard!)
You see this cat Bard is a bad mother-
(Shut your mouth)
But I’m talkin’ about Bard
(Then we can dig it)
He’s a complicated dude
But not if you ignore Pre Crisis issues!
I’m sorry, that was very self indulgent of me.
Anyway Jason Bard used to be a GCPD cop back in the day (he showed up in Batgirl: Year One where we learned how he got is limp.)
Anyway he and Babs had some chemistry. Bard appeared in the first three issues of Birds of Prey as well as later on in the series, where he pined for Babs. Bard also made a few appearances in Robin.
In the Pre Crisis DCU Bard and Babs got engaged.
I am looking forward to his appearance, as I absolutely loved his appearance in Batgirl: Year One.
Tim, did I go too far this time?
You could never go too far, you magnificent bastard.
Aaron uses profanity to cover up his ignorance.
Who the hell are Helena Bertenelli and Jason Rusch?
Aaron is of course referencing the comments that Alex Luthor made in Infinite Crisis.
Helena Bertenelli is none other than the current Huntress, while Jason Rusch is the current Firestorm. Oh and Aaron, you might be interested to know that Jason is also Black.
So Alex is saying that on the alleged Earth 8 Helena Bertenelli and Jason Rusch would have been heroes there, while Helena Wayne would have remained the Huntress on Earth 2 and Ronnie Raymond would have stayed Firestorm on Earth 1.
I really hope that makes sense.
“I can’t believe he doesn’t know who we are!” “Yeah, no…Wait”¦aren’t you supposed to be white?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be Batman’s daughter?” “Touche.”
Tim don’t you enjoy the topic of Earth 8?
Let’s say”¦sure.
IPTV’s own Kevin Wong also has an Earth 8 related query;
I should ask about my spiritual sisters since DC’s present day Asian heroes got slashed by about a third thanks to IC. Katana I figure is Earth 1, but where does Dr. Light belong, since her origin is intrinsically tied to Crisis?
Well Kevin, if I recall correctly I’m pretty sure that Doctor Light first appeared on Earth 1, right? So I’m guessing that she too would be an Earth 1er.
But good news is on the horizon; as witnessed in OMAC Project Special China is getting in on the super power game. There’s a promise of more to appear in the Checkmate monthly.
So cross your fingers Kevin and maybe one day you too can have a hero with an ethnic background similar to yours who plays second fiddled to a white character or possibly is even stuck in limbo!
Tim, is being “the man” all it’s cracked up to be?
As a WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant, if you didn’t know) I assure you we have just as many difficulties andâ€â€ahh, who am I kidding. IT’S AWESOME! I eat caviar everyday (and twice on Sundays), I judge others with impunity and scoff when anyone questions my ethical lapses, moral missteps, and repeated drug offenses, I golf all the time and get credit for it as a tax write off. I drive my gigantic SUV to black tie affairs while bitching about the cost of gas and somehow I miss the irony. And, oh yeah, you best believe I rock a “Support our Troops” magnetic thing on my car because, frankly, I’m too busy to really support them so this’ll have to do.
On the second Tuesday of every month, me and my WASP brothers get together and discuss how to oppress others by introducing anti-immigration legislation or making shows like Friends or Seinfeld almost entirely white despite being set in NYC.
Also, I get to live longer, have a better shot at a good education, and generally enjoy a higher standard of living.
Ooo, see how I got all serious there? Too much?
On the other hand, I can’t really dance.
Okay, actually, that’s a lie too. White people are incredible dancers. Like Michael Jackson at his peak, multiplied by two incredible. We just pretend not to be in mixed company because, hey, we’re so good at everything else.
There, I close on a joke. Now we can all ignore those truths I just spouted above and continue to ignore how we mistreat on our American brothers and sisters of differing races, creeds, religions, etc (and don’t even get me started on how we treat other countries).
Yay?
Oops”¦I just ruined that close on a joke thing, eh?
Aaron remembers Kon El when he was, oh, about this high.
Can you Cliffs Notes me a summary of how the Superboy “clone” who first appeared after the “Death of Superman” storyline went from leather jacketed, earring wearing tool, into the not-much-cooler jeans n’ black “S” t-shirt wearing guy and a member of the Kent family?
Man, Ben Morse must be rolling over in his grave hearing you bad mouth “the kid” that way.
His change in appearance was an attempt to modernize him as well as make him seem more his age. Writers were trying to make Superboy more typical teenager and less a cloned superhero.
Superboy had issues with his parents (Lex and Superman) and problems with responsibility, just like a typical kid. Given his personality shift and altered appearance was necessary to make the transition complete. Thus he started wearing his more basic costume.
As far as becoming a member of the Kent family, that was Clark’s doing. Knowing that Superboy was indeed his kinfolk, he had a vested interested in making sure the guy was doing well. Since Superboy needed some guidance and the Kent’s had experience with “gifted” youth, Clark set the things up and Connor Kent was created.
It took some adjusting on Connor’s end, but he actually grew quite comfortable with the Kents.
But it’s all moot now because he’s dead.
Tim, what’s your fondest memory of the Kon El era?
To be honest, I did not pay much attention to Superboy from the end of Reign of Supermen until this current Teen Titans title began. I did not much care for him at first. Part of it was that he violated the Reign of Supermen idea. The pitch was, “One of these four men might be Superman, returned.” The problem was, the Kid obviously wasn’t. Even if he was a legitimate Kryptonian clone, he still was not the real deal. (The same, I guess, would go for Steel, but I liked him from the start. Maybe I just have something for black men in armor. Is that weird?) The fact that he was written as insufferable at first hardly helped his cause.
But, as of late, I’ve come to really enjoy Connor. His insufferableness was tempered by maturity (and more well rounded writing), he developed a personality and sense of humor (no, barking “Don’t call me Superboy” and claiming to be Superman while wearing a leather jacket and looking 15 does not count as personality or a sense of humor), and gained some depth, layers, and pathos.
I don’t have a favorite moment, to be honest, because I really only know him from ensemble situations. So just count everything in the past three to four years. It was nice to have a character that changed, naturally, over time and was allowed to do that without stunts or quick backtracks. It was too bad to lose him just as he seemed to be growing into his most interesting, but even that moment was one of evolution and heretofore unforeseen personal fortitude and made sense in the context of his personal growth. In a way, even if he survived that encounter with Prime, we could not have called him Superboy anymore. I’m not sure what he would call him, but he definitely would have left boyhood behind.
Soak1313 is into Satanism like you would not believe
Can I get some info on Kid Devil that showed up in the OYL Teen Titans?
HELL NO!
Of course you can.
Oh, fine. Undermine me again. You know, this is why we don’t have nice things.
Edward Bloomberg worked for his aunt’s film company as a gopher. While working there he came in contact with and became infatuated with Daniel Cassidy, who was a stuntman for the company.
When Cassidy became fused in a “Blue Devil” suit after battling a demon, Bloomberg’s interest grew. While Cassidy reluctantly embarked on a career as Blue Devil, Bloomberg, an electronic wiz and savant of all things super-hero, designed a costume for himself that was similar to the one that Cassidy was stuck in. Then he attempted to become Blue Devil’s sidekick; Kid Devil.
Cassidy, the reluctant hero, wasn’t keen on having a kid sidekick, but Bloomberg proved himself unrelenting in his pursuit.
Through the years Kid Devil has maintained a low profile, most notably popping up in Young Justice #49-50 which featured nearly every teen hero in the DCU.
More recently he appeared in Teen Titans #30 getting blasted by some form of energy.
Given that before OYL he wore a suit and now he appears to be an actual demon, I’m guessing that a) the blast altered him dramatically and b) we’ll find out more in 52.
Tim, are you curious about the newest Teen Titan?
Sure I am. As mentioned above, I know you don’t really like him, but the jury is still out for me. I don’t have a sense of what he brings to the team or of his personality yet and I’d like to see that come together before I decide what I think about him.
Aaron is writing “Profiles of Formerly Living Cyborg Businessmen who Are Sometimes Manipulated by Machines and Other Times Good”
When last I left Max Lord, he was just a guy in a bad ’80s Donald Trump gimmick. Now, he’s a mind-manipulating, uh, manipulator with nose bleeds, a penchant for shooting Beetles and a neck that twists all the way around with a little Amazonian help. Umm, can a brutha get a summary of the last, oh, say…15 years here?
Dude, what did you read, like, one issue of Justice League? Y’see after Invasion! we found out that Max was a metahuman, and had the power to “push” people into doing what he wanted them do. Of course one of the side effects is that his nose bleeds every time he uses it.
He did have a tough time of thing, battling cancer, losing his body and becoming a cyborg, getting possessed by an entity from another dimension. At lot has gone on with guy. He’s gone from being associated with a criminal organization to forming the SuperBuddies (consisting of most of his old JLI crew.)
But pretty much everyone was caught off guard by Max’s turn in Countdown. Some people blasted it because of his previous connections with the super hero community and the fact that he no longer has a human body (which is why many scoffed the scene Wonder Woman).
Regardless of how the fans feel, Max Lord is dead. Just like Bloodwynd.
Unless they both pull a “Jason Todd” and escape death’s cruel grasp.
Tim, could you think of a good reason to bring Max Lord back?
Not really, no. Except to further complicate his continuity maybe and further inflame his vocal fanbase. That could be worthwhile.
Neil has done some research of his own, but realizes the superiority of this column telling him what to think.
At my LCS’s quarter bin, I pulled out a good chunk of Giffen’s first 18 issues of Justice League. Max seems to be really intent on getting the League together and it does seem to jive with what we recently learned about him. So here’s my question, looking back on Max Lord, was Countdown and the OMAC Project a natural progression of his character or did it seem that DC was just trying too hard to make Max a big bad?
Ok, it depends on where you stand. Let’s just look at the facts.
He formed the Justice League International while doing the biding of a super computer.
He destroyed said computer in an attempt to show he was a good guy.
He gained powers and manipulated people.
He was possessed by Dreamslayer who did bad things with his body.
While suffering from brain cancer, it’s revealed that Max is part of Arcana which has links to the Royal Flush Gang.
Max becomes Lord Havok in attempt to avoid dying from cancer.
Max takes over Arcana and an agent of his, Judgment, wipes out the other leaders in Arcana.
The next time we see Max, inexplicably he’s putting the Superbuddies together, despite having last appeared as a villain.
Max is a tough cookie to crack. He was sleazy to begin with, then we learned he was bad, but then he tried to be good. But then he was controlled by bad, but then he did bad things to stay alive, and then became totally bad. However the last time we saw him before Countdown he was back to his “good” JLI self.
I’m going to say that the Max that we saw in Countdown and OMAC was just the natural progression of the character. He was a crafty guy who was always scheming.
What irks me is how people will complain about Max’s portrayal in those books saying that Max didn’t have a human body anymore, yet can’t explain how Max went from running Arcana to founding the Superbuddies.
Max Lord is not the poster boy of continuity.
Tim, how do you feel about Max’s portrayal?
It is a great example of how, no matter how much we fans like to pretend, there is no single way to write a character who has been around for awhile.
As for your complaint about people getting upset with villainous Max, but not SuperBuddies Max, the reason is simple enough. As I’ve said before, as fans we want the continuity we want. Max hanging out with the former JLers and being a friend? That’s the favorite version of Max for most people. Thus the fact that he’s not a cyborg or evil in that book can be overlooked. Why rock the boat when you are getting what you want? However, Max goes bad and we don’t like it? It’s time to call the writer(s) on the carpet to justify the plot twist and how it fits in with all previous continuity.
It’s unfair, but it is the reality of the hobby. I know I do it. Sure, Lex Luthor was once a battlesuit wearing Supervillain so him doing the same now does follow continuity. However, I prefer him as a businessman with a grudge who is Machiavellian but not necessarily villainous. Thus, Superman/Batman is crap and Azzarello’s Man of Steel is great. Sure, they both pick and chose continuity to suit their own ends, but one sided with my favorite Lex and the other did not. So it is for many with Max Lord.
Sadly this column has come to its end. But never fear, next week will feature Booster Gold, Harvey Bullock, Harley Quinn and Doctor Double X?
Sweetness! Unless you are just teasing Double X again and not going to have him. In which case, BOOOO!
As usual you can email your questions to me or post them (and your column feedback) on Our Very Own Snazzy Thread!
But before I go, here’s my question to you; Now that we are in the OYL DCU, what’s your opinion of the OYL DCU?
“So who’s going to watch you die?”
