The cover of Catwoman #0 has already been discussed to death due to the fact that it makes Rob Liefeld look like he has a PhD in anatomy by comparison.
The artist for this cover is Guillem March. He was also the artist for the Green Lantern and the New Guardians #0 cover, which made Kyle Rayner look like a triple amputee.
But is all of his artwork that bad? Let’s take a look at some of his recent work for DC and find out.
When it comes to DVD releases of shows, two of my biggest pet peeves are:
Captain Planet’s Season One release manages to do both. The DVD case is a thin little paper/cardboard case which is easily crushed, even during ordinary use. The DVDs just slip in the case with no protection, meaning it is very easy to scratch the discs just by taking them in and out of the case. I fail to see how recycled paper that doesn’t really protect the DVDs is superior to recycled plastic that would protect the DVDs.
And when it comes to the episode order … Well, I think that the fact that an educational show can’t manage to properly put the numbers 1 through 26 in order speaks for itself. (I refuse to blame this screw up on Shout! Factory, since I own other DVD collections from them, and all of them managed to keep the episodes in their proper order.)
Here is the order of the episodes on the discs:
Don’t be too impressed by those last four episodes being in order. Episodes 22/23 and episodes 24/25 are two-parters.
Kyle Rayner from the cover of Green Lantern New Guardians #0. Just call him Torso Boy.
In fairness, I did alter the picture slightly. I removed the background … and the leg that was emerging FROM THE MIDDLE OF KYLE’S CHEST. I wish I was kidding.
I’m guessing the other leg was lost in a tragic art mishap, along with his left arm.
Between this and the Catwoman #0 cover, it’s obvious that Guillem March is in desperate need of some remedial anatomy classes.
When Robinson says that Jay Garrick is the same character in Earth-2 as he was before the reboot, I scratch my head. Jay Garrick before the reboot was a father figure to the speedsters, a man who had been happily married for decades. He was kind, polite, compassionate. He had excelled in college, and his scientific background gave him a unique place among the speedsters. He gained his powers through a scientific accident that was later retconned as a manifestation of the Speed Force.
After the reboot, Jay Garrick is a man who barely graduated college and whose girlfriend broke up with him because she thought he was a loser. (Why she dated him in the first place is probably best left unexplored, because it does not say good things about her.) From the looks of the issue, he will gain his powers from the god Mercury.
The two are extremely different, but are they really the same character?
Well, it all depends on what your definition of character is.
They are both named Jay Garrick. They’re both a superhero called the Flash. And according to Robinson, Jay will be an “everyman” hero, which more or less matched his previous characterization as a down to earth kind of guy. By some definitions, this makes them the same character.
But when I look at a character, I see the essence of their character as something that is shaped by their relationships and life experience. The Batman from the Adam West Batman series and the one from All-Star Batman and Robin are radically different. They are still Batman, but they are not the same Batman. I call this being different characters. Most writers would probably call this being different interpretations.
So perhaps what I should be saying is this: Jay Garrick is not the same person as before the reboot.
I know that a lot of comics fans tend to follow their favorite writers, but I’ve never done that. I’ve always followed my favorite characters. I picked up Manhunter because of Director Bones. I read Shadowpact because of Blue Devil. I read JLA because of Martian Manhunter. I read The Flash because of Jay Garrick.
With the exception of the Bat-family and the Green Lantern books, most of the characters in the reboot are radically changed, not necessarily in personality but in life experience.
The decades long history of DC was never frustrating for me, even as a new reader. My attitude towards this world of comics was basically this:
Just replace “what’s this” with “who’s this.”
I was entranced. There were so many characters. So much history to explore. The more I looked at the histories and backstories, the more characters I found to like. The experiences that shaped the characters through the years made them come alive for me. I was fascinated by the history of the DC universe, and every time I discovered a new character I liked, it encouraged me to dig deeper into the history of the DC universe.
I’ve read and enjoyed comics from the Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age and Modern Age. I fell in love with the DC universe, its characters and the vast history they had accumulated.
But eliminate this history, and it changes the characters. I would not be the same person I am today if I had different parents, or if I had grown up in a different time period. And these characters are not the same people they used to be. And since those people are the ones that attracted me to DC in the first place, I don’t have much desire to read books from the DCnU.
Are these changes a bad thing? No. Not necessarily. Just because a character has changed doesn’t mean they’re a bad character now. But it can still be a big letdown for the fans who liked the characters before.
Super Friends is a show that is the cultural standard for cheesy superhero stories. Even many people who have never seen the show know this. Some people love it because they think it’s so bad, it’s entertaining. Others wish it had never existed because of its effect on how non-comics fans view superheroes. Whatever your opinion on the show, it definitely made an impact.
Super Friends changed its name six times during its run, which can make figuring out the order of the seasons a bit annoying. It ran for 10 seasons with 109 episodes in total. Of that, 7 seasons have been released on DVD. The name changing is reflected in the DVD releases, which makes it confusing to figure out what order they go in.
Below is a list of the seasons of Super Friends, the names of the seasons, and the DVD releases that go with them.
A strange thought occurred to me today. Batman may just be the oldest superhero around after the DC reboot. Or at least one of the oldest.
Think about it: almost everyone else has had their continuity completely reset. Roy Harper is too young to have a daughter. Amanda Waller went from a tough old grandma to looking like she’s in her 20s . The cool old guys of the Justice Society are now in their twenties.
But Batman is not younger. Or at least not much younger. His continuity has been left relatively untouched.
Give Bruce Wayne time to finish school, go around the world training in all kinds of skills and become an established CEO, and I’d wager he was mid to late 20s when he became Batman.
With Damian still around, that means that Bruce Wayne has been operating as Batman for more than 11 years. (Damian is 10 + 9 months pregnancy.) Now take into account that Batman had to have a chance to be an established superhero, meet Talia and get around to conceiving Damian, and you can probably tack on a few more years to that age.
So Batman is late 30s at the very youngest. More likely in his 40s, since you have to account for the time he spent raising and training all the Robins.
Since I’ve always pictured Batman as a guy in his mid-40s, this fits my mental image quite nicely. (If DC was hoping that readers would imagine Batman as younger, they screwed themselves over by keeping the Bat-family continuity more or less intact.)
I’m not sure what I think of Batman being the oldest guy in the superhero clubhouse, but I’m not going to complain. We lost a lot of age diversity with this reboot, and it’s nice to know at least one superhero 40 or older survived.
Well, it’s been announced that Alan Scott is gay in the DCnU. I have three problems with this. Their names are Obsidian, Jade and Molly. They are Alan’s son, daughter and wife respectively. Yes, add Alan to the list of married characters whose marriages are gone thanks to the reboot.
Also, add Obsidian to the list of minority characters who never existed thanks to the reboot. And Jade and Molly to the list of women. One of the problems with rebooting DC is that many of DC’s women and minority characters are legacy characters. Some of them have been included anyway by removing their predecessors – see Mr. Terrific and Blue Beetle – but many just ceased to exist.
Robinson mentions that he plans on swapping the genders of some of the JSA characters (and possibly some races as well). The thing is, this really isn’t necessary. In spite of the reputation that the JSA has of being a white male team, it’s had plenty of members that were women, minorities or both.
So before Robinson starts gender and race-swapping, here’s some suggestions for characters he could include:
Another possibility is to include some Infinity, Inc. members since Infinity, Inc. was formed by the legacies of the JSA.
