Monthly Archives: April 2011

Superman Renounced His American Citizenship

2011/04/30
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. . . And I don’t care.

This has generated a lot of controversy, but really, is it that important? Maybe this is just me being cynical, but it seems clearly designed to be a way to get attention. If it were a TV show, I’d call it a blatant ratings stunt. It’s the 900th issue of Action Comics and they needed some way to generate attention. They’d already killed Superman off before, so they wouldn’t be able to get actual news coverage for that again.

The logical way to get attention was to have Superman do something flagrantly political. And it worked. News organizations have reported on it, including Reuters, The Associated Press and NPR. Comments sections have burst into flames with people arguing over the decision.

For the record, to renounce American citizenship a person must:

“appear in person before a U.S. consular or diplomatic officer in a foreign country (normally at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate); and sign an oath of renunciation.” (Source)

I’m pretty sure that the United Nations does not count as a U.S. Embassy or Consultate. Not only that, but there is paperwork involved (and a $450 fee), so simply saying “I renounce my citizenship” would do absolutely nothing. And I guarantee that Superman isn’t about to reveal his identity in order to do the necessary paperwork. Oh, and renouncing United States citizenship isn’t something a person can just take back. It is irrevocable, and lasts for the rest of the person’s life.

If Superman did go through the hassle of renouncing citizenship, he would no longer have the right to vote, or the right to live in or freely travel in the United States. Admittedly, the government would have a hard time actually enforcing this, but it will effectively make Superman an outlaw. Which is incredibly stupid and ill-conceived. There is a reason that Superman is known as a Boy Scout, and it isn’t because he enjoys flagrantly breaking the law.

For anyone that this comic offended: really, there’s no reason to be upset.

This is a meaningless gesture done to help generate sales for the 900th issue of Adventure Comics. It’s worth noting that the United States in the DCU bears only a passing resemblance to reality. In the DCU, there are many government organizations and groups that do not have a real world equivalent (the D.E.O., Checkmate, the Suicide Squad, etc.). A supervillain was elected president.

Regardless of whether he’s an American citizen, Superman will remain a champion of truth, justice and freedom.

My Favorite Comic Book Characters

2011/04/28
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I have a very long list of characters I love, and asking me to choose a single favorite character would be an impossible task. Here are twenty of my favorite comic book characters (in no particular order). All but the first three are DC characters.

  1. Hercules
  2. Deadpool
  3. Nightcrawler
  4. Blue Devil
  5. Brainwave Jr.
  6. Mister Bones / Director Bones
  7. Sand
  8. Martian Manhunter
  9. Damage
  10. The Flash (Jay Garrick)
  11. Joan Garrick
  12. Impulse (I’m not much for Bart as Kid Flash)
  13. Eddie Deacon (bartender at the Oblivion Bar)
  14. Liberty Belle / Jesse Quick (Jessie Chambers)
  15. Plastic Man
  16. Offspring (Luke Ernie McDunnagh)
  17. Vigilante (Greg Saunders)
  18. Shining Knight (Justin Arthur)
  19. Red Tornado
  20. The Creeper

Young Justice- Next Episode in June

2011/04/27
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Young Justice‘s premiere was on November 26th. The next episode (episode 10) isn’t going to be shown until June 3rd. They’re averaging less than 2 episodes a month. Wow . . . that’s almost as bad as how slowly I’m reviewing them.

Oh well. At least I’m going to have plenty of time to catch up.

Episode 5 review coming tomorrow or Friday. I’ll also be adding some screenshots to my previous reviews over the next week or so.

Links to previous reviews:

Marvel Comics- Killing the Characters You Love to Increase Sales!

2011/04/26
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I’m a DC Comics fan. I like Marvel, but I tend to prefer Marvel’s movies and TV shows rather than their comics. So, I’m over a month late to the announcement that Marvel intends to kill off a character every quarter.

Apparently, every comics blogger and comics forum have talked about this.

The problem is this: people who hated the characters probably weren’t reading the book, so they don’t care. The people who do like the characters are going to be ticked that their favorite character was killed off. 

Since these deaths are presumably editorially mandated, chances are that the stories surrounding them are going to be pretty lousy. If a writer decides to kill off a character for story purposes, that’s fine with me. I will complain if it was poorly done, but I can understand it. However, having the character killed off because the editor thought it would boost sales is a bad idea. The job of editors is to edit, not to write. Whenever you start getting editors meddling, you get comics like One More Day, Cry for Justice and Countdown. Those are not examples you want to follow.

Finding Comics at the Library

2011/04/24
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The first graphic novels I read were ones I got at my local library or through interlibrary loan. They were free to check out, so I figured I would give them a chance. I already enjoyed several superhero television programs, so it seemed like a natural thing to do. Needless to say – given that I have a comics blog – I got hooked.

Libraries are an excellent place to look for graphic novels to read. If you’re very lucky, your local library will have graphic novels set aside in their own section, but most don’t. The graphic novels will be shelved with everything else and you might not realize they even exist unless you look for them. Here are the two different places you might find graphic novels at your local library.

741.5: This is the Dewey Decimal classification for graphic novels. Dewey Decimal is the system used mostly at public libraries. I’ve noticed that libraries often aren’t very good at figuring out which graphic novels are kids books and which are adult books, so check both when browsing.

PN6725 - PN6778: This is the Library of Congress classification for graphic novels. You’ll see Library of Congress used mostly at college and university libraries, although some public libraries use it as well. Believe it or not, many universities do have a graphic novel section, although the section if often small. The Library of Congress system is much more precise than Dewey Decimal, which is why graphic novels are located in a range of values (starting at PN6725 and ending at PN6778) rather than a single one.

There are exceptions to the above classifications, but for the most part, graphic novels will be located in one of these places. Which one depends on the individual library. (Manga is included in the graphic novel sections as well.)

Captain Planet- Season One

2011/04/23
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Yesterday was Earth Day, and what better way to celebrate Earth Day than to showcase the most well-known eco-hero ever: Captain Planet. Captain Planet fought for including preachy environmentalism in children’s programming, and surprisingly managed to last 113 episodes. He fought bad guys who were so over the top that the Joker would tell them to tone it down. At least, he would have if the bad guys weren’t as hilariously ineffectual as Captain Planet himself. (He wasn’t allowed to punch the bad guys because fighting is wrong.)

They’ve actually released the first season on DVD on the 19th. The show was cheesy, preachy and had really lousy production values, but it still managed to get some fans. Some were fans of the characters and others were fans of the message. However, the lack of quality means that whatever message that was there often got lost amidst bad writing. (And I’m not even going into the lack of research, or the fact that a Jewish actor was cast to voice a character who was part rat.)

Personally, I think the show was extremely lousy, but in a hilarious way. It’s extremely easy to make fun of. In fact, I’d highly recommend watching it with friends purely for riffing purposes.

There have also been rumors about a Captain Planet movie for some time. Wikipedia even mentions that a live action movie is planned for release in late 2012. Don’t hold your breath, though. Other sites report that this is a hoax.

From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain

2011/04/22
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It’s rare to find novels about superheroes, aside from graphic novels. Sure, there are novelizations of many superhero movies, but few standalone novels. This makes From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain unusual, although whether this is a good or bad thing is debatable.

It’s set in it’s only fictional universe, and the point-of-view character is a therapist named Dr. Brain that has been hired to help this world’s Justice League equivalent (the Fantastic Order of Justice) with several of its members, who are extremely dysfunctional. The book is written like it’s a self-help book, with Dr. Brain interjecting her evaluation and advice throughout the book.

It is superficially like Watchmen, in that it deconstructs superheroes and shows their many problems, but the story is not as compelling. There are frequent times where the story grinds to a halt to drop in exposition, and many of the characters are difficult to like. I’ve read that it’s meant to be a satire, but the satire doesn’t seem to hold up very well under close examination.

The author, Minister Faust, has also written a book called The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad. (I can’t decide if that title is awful or hilarious.)

I haven’t finished the book yet, and I may decide to do a more in-depth review of it once I finish. From what I’ve read so far, the book is not great, but not bad either. It comes across as rather average.  If you run across the book at the library or bookstore, it might be worth checking out.

UPDATE: See my full review here.

Unpopular Comics Opinions

2011/04/21
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A few unpopular opinions I have about comics.

  1. I’m not a fan of Grant Morrison. I don’t hate his work, but to me, he’s very hit and miss. When he’s good, he’s great. But when he’s bad, he’s incomprehensible. He also can be a bit preachy. This made Animal Man, which was otherwise a brilliant comic, irritating to read at points.
  2. I like the Golden Age Seven Soldiers of Victory better than Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers.
  3. I don’t like the Wonder Woman animated movie.
  4. I don’t like Manhunter. Even though the book seemed to be well-written, I could never make myself like Kate Spencer as a character. I did like the Director Bones cameos, though. (He was the main reason I kept reading.)
  5. Eddie Deacon – the bartender from Shadowpact - is one of my favorite characters. Most comics’ fans have probably never heard of him.
  6. I think Vic Sage was a better Question than Renee Montoya. Renee was much cooler as one of Gotham’s few cops that wasn’t corrupt. It felt wrong for her to become a vigilante, just like it would have felt wrong if Commissioner Gordon suddenly decided to start wearing spandex and become Cop-Man.

Art Gaffe- Mr. Bones

2011/04/20
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Mr. Bones is one of my favorite characters. The only reason I read Manhunter was for the cameos by Mr. Bones, even though I disliked the way he was handled at times.

In addition to having superstrength and having his entire body invisible (except for his skeleton), Mr. Bones has a “cyanide touch.” Needless to say having a poison touch means that he’s constantly wearing gloves and covering up to prevent people from making physical contact with him. In fact, this is what happened when he was forced to touch Skyman bare handed:

Mr. Bones and Skyman 

 Skyman’s dead in case you can’t tell. In Manhunter, Mr. Bones was seen getting a massage by a woman with thick gloves up to her elbows. But in Birds of Prey, the artist screwed up. Big time.

Mr. Bones getting a manicure



That woman should be dead. (Also, his left leg should be a prosthetic.)

Public Domain Superman Cartoons

2011/04/19
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In the 1940s, Superman cartoons were created by Fleischer Studios and Famous Studios. They are in the public domain, so they are free to download and watch (although DVD releases have been made). Links to all the episodes are on Wikipedia.

Since the episodes were released in the 1940s, the cartoons are racially insensitive, to put it mildly. This doesn’t factor into most of the episodes, but the episode “Japoteurs” has a very negative portrayal of the Japanese. Keep in mind that the episode was released less than a year after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and you can understand the reasoning behind the portrayal (even if it’s obviously racist when you watch it today).

I would recommend watching them if you get the chance. In spite of their flaws, the animation quality is surprisingly good and it’s one of the first superhero cartoons. Besides, the price is right.