Fluit Notes

A Matter of Timing

Marvel Comics recently announced the cancellation of one of my favorite new titles: SWORD.  I’m not angry about it.  I saw the sales numbers and knew it wasn’t long for this world.  But it’s still a little disappointing. 

              There are a number of reasons why SWORD didn’t garner a larger audience.  For example, it didn’t have a high profile creative team.  It didn’t spin out of a major crossover.  And it’s not part of a hot property (the X-Men aren’t as strong right now as Green Lantern or the Avengers).  Yet I think that one of the underestimated reasons for its failure is timing.

              SWORD’s biggest star is Beast, former Avenger and X-Man.  It paired him with Agent Abigail Brand, introduced by Joss Whedon in the pages of Astonishing X-Men.  And it included a number of aliens as co-stars, including Lockheed the Dragon. 

              Over the past year or two, X-Men fans have watched as Beast became increasingly frustrated with his fellow X-Men.  He went on his own personal journey to find a cure for the sudden decrease in the mutant population.  He confronted Cyclops and Emma Frost concerning some of the choices they were making as leaders.  He increasingly withdrew from active participation and threatened to leave on several occasions.  It was pretty clear that Beast was going to quit.  It wasn’t a matter of if, it was a matter of when.

              And that brings us to the matter of timing.  Beast finally quit the X-Men in issue #519, which reached stores on Dec. 23, 2009.  Unfortunately, Beast’s debut in SWORD #1 arrived in comic book shops in November.  Even the second issue of SWORD was out before Beast officially quit his other team. 

              That means that X-fans ignored SWORD as just another X-Men spin-off.  But if the timing was different, SWORD could have been promoted as Beast’s new team title.  It would be like Batman and the Outsiders or Hawkeye and the West Coast Avengers.  It wouldn’t be a guarantee of success.  But it would have increased the possibility of success. 

              Imagine this scenario: Beast finally quits the X-Men as he’s been threatening to do for nearly two years.  He walks out at the end of issue #519.  On the next page, the reader sees an ad for SWORD.  “Follow Beast into his new title, SWORD, coming this March from Marvel Comics.  Spinning out of the pages of Astonishing X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, Abigail Brand, Beast and the agents of SWORD defend Earth from alien threats and galactic danger.” 

              I think that more fans would have been inclined to pre-order issues of SWORD in that scenario.  It still might not have succeeded.  They may not have liked its quirky tone or its odd guest-stars.  I found it intriguing but I understand that it might not have been for everyone.  However, the audience would have at least been there to give SWORD a chance.  It would have stood or fallen on its own feet, instead of being almost immediately destined for cancellation. 

I knew that SWORD was already in sales trouble when I read Uncanny X-Men #519.  That’s when I realized that SWORD had simply debuted too soon.  It would have had a much better chance of surviving had it come out in March.  It was a matter of timing.  Marvel’s rush to publish SWORD may have doomed it to failure.

This isn’t the only example.  Marvel has done a good job of debuting some other titles, such as giving Madrox and Pete Wisdom mini-series that served as introductions for X-Factor and Captain Britain and MI:13 (it was a good move, even though it didn’t work in the latter example).  But in other cases, they’ve simply brought out books too quickly.  That was one of the factors in the quick cancellation of Jeff Parker’s Exiles as well.  It’s too bad.  These were good books that I would have loved to keep reading.  And with a little better timing, I might have been able to.

 

 

No Welcome for New Members?

About a month ago, I read Comics Buyer’s Guide #1662.  The issue arrived in the mail sporting a Justice League of America cover which featured the new line-up introduced by James Robinson and Mark Bagley.  Though I’ve lost interest in the JLA over the past couple of years- shortly after Brad Meltzer left the title for readers interested in those kinds of details- I was still looking forward to reading about the new line-up, the new creative team and the new plans for the title. 

To my pleasure, both Captain Comics and Mr. Silver Age had contributed articles on the subject.  Captain Comics introduced the new members of the team while Mr. Silver Age surveyed Justice League line-up changes of years past.  The juxtaposition should have been interesting- even comforting- but instead, it caught me off-guard.  Captain Comics rightly spent time introducing the new members of the JLA to readers who may not be familiar with them or may not be aware of their current status quo.  Yet, he seemed almost defensive as if he had to justify the inclusion of any new member in such an austere group of heroes.  Meanwhile, Mr. Silver Age was light-hearted, poking good-natured fun at the clichéd method of introduction in which the newest member was instrumental in resolving their first case and gently mocking the rules of membership that resulted in a lag between the initiation of Hawkman and Hawkwoman. 

It struck me that the addition of new members in the past was welcomed and even considered an occasion for joy but the addition of new members today is met by skepticism.  That’s not true of every fan.  Yet it does seem to be generally true of the older fans who make up the readership of CBG (and the membership of this site?). 

What happened?  Why is there no welcome mat for new members?

I’m aware of some of the fan objections.  “They’re too new.  They were forced on us quickly instead of being introduced over time.  They’re the writer’s pets.  They’re the replacement heroes instead of the real ones.”  But I don’t think those objections hold water.

Firestar was rejected by some fans as a rookie who hadn’t earned her way onto the Avengers when she was added to the team in 1998.  Yet she had already been in comics for 12 years (and cartoons before that), which is more than Atom, Hawkman and Red Tornado had combined before their individual entrances to the Justice League.  Plus, Firestar had been a long-standing member of another team when she was introduced as a new member of the Avengers.  The newest members of the JLA have been around even longer than that.  As Captain Comics noted in his article, Congorilla was introduced in 1959 and has roots going all the way back to 1940. 

Another Avenger, Triathlon, was rejected as a writer’s pet who was shoe-horned onto the team too quickly.  Yet writer Kurt Busiek did exactly what fans suggest should be done.  He gave Triathlon a slow roll-out, waiting 19 issues to make him a member of the team, from his introduction in #8 to the big roster shuffle in #27.  That’s a slower roll-out than was given to Kitty Pryde, who was made a member of the team 9 issues after her introduction.   

Every single member of the new JLA has a long and storied history (which Captain Comics so kindly pointed out).  They have roots going back to the Golden Age (the Guardian) or the Silver Age (M’onel).  They’re served with distinction on other teams (Cyborg and Starfire) or even on earlier incarnations of the JLA (Dr. Light).  They’ve even starred in their own series (Dick Grayson had over 100 issues of Nightwing in the past and Batman & Robin in the present).  They have the credentials to serve. 

Yet that should be beside the point.  Defending the credentials of the new members legitimizes the conceit that new members have to prove themselves in order to be able to join. 

These new Justice Leaguers have better credentials than many past members had when they joined the team in the first place.  Ray Palmer had been the Atom for less than a year when he joined the JLA.  Hawkman had his own title for all of six issues when he became a member.  Hal Jordan had been a replacement hero for six months when he became one of the JLA’s founding members. 

It wasn’t about the credentials.  At least, not those established outside of the title in question.  As Mr. Silver Age reminded us, the new members proved their worth to the team by solving the mission.  That happened in the story. 

The new members were added to the team because they brought something new or something interesting.  If today’s new members star in interesting stories then that’s how they will prove their worth.  They will be as welcomed as the stars of other celebrated tenures like Zatanna and Black Canary, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold.  

Isn’t that what we hope for?  As fans, we want new and interesting stories.  Instead of skeptically sneering at the arrival of new members or the introduction of a new line-up, we should be rolling out the welcome mat wishing them success.  It might not work.  Other past tenures have failed to excite  our imagination and that could be the fate of this group as well.  But it’s not what we want.  It’s not what we hope for. 

So I say “welcome” to new members, whether I’m reading the title or not.  I’m glad that Echo became an Avenger and Static a Titan.  I say welcome to M’onel and Starfire and even Congorilla.  I hope you can breathe new life into the Justice League of America.  You’ve paid plenty of dues to get here.  All I ask is that you do something entertaining now that you’ve arrived.  

Trade Paperback Observations: Shaman Warrior

Shaman Warrior

by Park Joong-Ki

 

I have a mild interest in manga.  I’ll read it from time and time, and not just “Lone Wolf and Cub” though that’s the only series that I’ve followed extensively.  But I’m not devoted to it.  I don’t find it to be some panacea for the deficits of North American comics.  Sure, there’s a wide range of genres.  But that’s true as well of North American comics for those who are willing to look.  There’s also a range of quality: there’s good manga and great manga; there’s bad manga and awful manga. 

 

Shaman Warrior doesn’t fit any of those categories.  First of all, it’s technically not even manga.  Its official term is ‘manwha’ because it comes from Korea instead of Japan (though the difference in sensibilities is about as minimal as the difference between American and Canadian comics).  Secondly, it’s neither awful nor great.  It’s mediocre.  It’s got the potential to be really good.  But it doesn’t quite get there. 

 

Honestly, I’d love to have been the editor on this book.  I realize that sounds a little egotistical, claiming that I know what’s better for Shaman Warrior than its creator and its original editor.  Yet I couldn’t help thinking, “I wish this book had done this differently or this instead; it would have been so much more interesting.” 

 

The first problem is the pace.  Shaman Warrior is supposed to be an action book (as if you couldn’t tell by the title) yet it moves at a glacial speed, especially in the action scenes.  Comic book fans complained about the decompressed story-telling of U.S. comics but Shaman Warrior puts most of those to shame.  It took ten pages just to set up the opening scene: shaman and bodyguard walk into dusty outpost, give money to beggar, sit down in bar, overhear local ruffians picking on somebody weaker than them, verbal confrontation between bodyguard and local ruffian, local ruffian taunts shaman, then bodyguard starts the initial action sequence.  That’s right, it took ten pages to set up a bar fight. 

 

Unfortunately, the fight scene itself moves even slower.  The whole fight lasts 80 pages.  Literally.  It doesn’t all take place in the bar.  The shaman’s bodyguard beats up the local ruffian.  Then they’re ambushed outside by a whole bunch of local ruffians.  Then, the leader of the local ruffians jumps in.  In a way, it’s more like two fight scenes back to back, one with the gang of ruffians and a second with the leader.  Yet it’s still 80 pages from the first punch to the quiet aftermath.

 

The second problem is that we have no vested interest in the characters who are a part of the fight.  Sure, there are great panels of muscles flexing and swords flashing.  But why should we care about who wins and who loses when the only thing the hero has done is give a couple of coins to a local beggar and the only thing the villain has done is be aggressively rude to his waiter?  There’s a conflict there, but not one to sustain our interest for 80 pages.  A fight needs to be about something.  That’s why Kazuo Koike and Gojima save their big 100 page fight scenes in Lone Wolf and Cub until we’re 20 volunes in and already emotionally vested in the characters.  That’s why Peter Jackson shows the women and children cowering behind the battle lines in The Lord of the Rings and has characters make comments like “I’m fighting for the Shire.”  There’s a reason for the character to fight and there’s a reason for us to care who wins. 

 

Park Joong-Ki doesn’t give us a reason to care until after the fight is over.  That’s when he gives us a flashback showing us the relationship between the shaman and the warrior.  That’s when we see the shaman receive orders from the general.  That’s when the shaman makes the bodyguard promise to watch over his child if he should die while on the mission.  Unfortunately, Joong-Ki doesn’t give us those character motivations until we’re already over 100 pages into the book.

 

Shaman Warrior would have been a lot stronger if the fight scenes were shortened (I’d cut them in half, 20 pages for each phase of the fight and 40 pages overall is enough) and if the character motivation scenes were intercut with the fight scenes.  Naturally, you don’t want to open with 20 pages of exposition anymore than with 80 pages of a single fight scene.  Yet by cutting back and forth between the present-day fight and the earlier character scenes, the author could have given us the action we crave at the same time as he gave us a reason to care. Knowing that the shaman is on a mission for the general would add tension to the fight with the local ruffians: they’re getting in the way of something with military and possibly national significance.  That way we would know that the shaman and his bodyguard have to win. 

 

I had another problem with Shaman Warrior though this particular observation may be more about me than it is about the book.  It might even have something to do with my own cultural inheritance.  A Korean might not have had the same confusion.  The issue is that the gender of the shaman isn’t clear at first.  The shaman is hooded, shadows cover the face.  When the hood is removed, the shaman has long hair and fine features.  The main villain- who turns out to be a rival shaman- also has long hair, fine features and large round earrings.  As a North American, those characteristics strike me as feminine.   I thought the shaman and the rival were both women, though I was never entirely sure. 

 

I actually liked that possibility.  I mentally toyed with the idea that this was a world in which only women could have the powers of a shaman- kind of like Red Star where the men are soldiers and the women are sorcerers.  It would have been an interesting premise for a sword and sorcery comic.  And it would have given an added dimension to the relationship between the shaman and the bodyguard.  There could have been an unrequited love simmering beneath a soldier’s devotion. 

 

Unfortunately, Park Joong-Ki didn’t take that path.  The scene with the shaman’s child struck me as especially feminine with long hair pulled back into a pony tail and shirt half open.  But in the next scene, the rival shaman specifically refers to the hero of the story as “he.”  That removed any doubt and confusion, not but my interest.  As I mentioned earlier, I couldn’t help but think the story would have been more interesting the other way. 

 

However, the problem is more significant.  After being let down in my momentary hope and expectation, I realized that Shaman Warrior doesn’t include any women at all.  It’s not just that the shaman and his rival are both men.  There are no women.  The baby’s mother is never shown or even mentioned.  This is kind of odd, considering that the baby is a newborn who doesn’t even have a name yet.  The shaman discusses naming the baby and his plans for how to raise the baby, but doesn’t bother to mention why the mother is out of the picture.  That kind of information could add to the character’s depth and motivation. 

 

Perhaps I’m not being fair, judging Shaman Warrior based on what it could have been instead of what it was.  It’s not a habit I want to encourage.  But that’s Shaman Warrior.  It scratches the surface of something interesting but is so caught up in 40 page fight scenes (there are more of them later in the book) that it never does anything with them.  I haven’t even covered every incident of missed potential.  Why does the beggar later try to kill the shaman?  Was he some kind of spy?  What’s the significance of the shaman having the eyes of a tiger or a wolf?  How does that relate to his powers?  I started skimming through the fight scenes, wishing for them to be over in the hopes of finding characterization, motivation and answers. 

 

Shaman Warrior isn’t an awful book.  It’s beautiful and it has great potential.  But it left me wanting more than it delivered, instead of wanting to read the next volume.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trade Paperback Observations: Flash and Young X-Men

The Flash: Wonderland

by Geoff Johns, Angel Unzueta and Doug Hazlewood

 

Geoff Johns was made the regular writer on Flash in the year 2000, at the same time that deconstructed story-telling and “writing for the trade” were making their entre into comic books.  New writers were expected to open their tenure with a trade-friendly six-issue arc.  The advantage was that it resulted in an easily packaged and promoted trade for a second revenue stream.  The disadvantage was that not every story merited a six issue extravaganza and many stories were unnecessarily padded in order to achieve the extra length. 

 

With his opening arc on The Flash, Wonderland, Geoff Johns demonstrated how to simultaneously write for the serialized single issues and for the six-issue trade.  Wonderland may be labeled and promoted as a six-issue story, but it’s really three two issue stories that combine into one larger story.  The arc begins with a single issue in which Wally West, the Flash, finds himself in an alternate world where the Speed Force doesn’t exist.  At the end of that first issue, Wally discovers that Captain Cold is trapped in this parallel world with him.  The second issue then focuses on the interaction between Captain Cold and the Flash as they alternately work with and against each other.  That’s the first act of the story, evenly divided into two issues. 

 

The next act takes place in issues three and four, which bring the Mirror Master and Plunder into the story.  Plunder is trying to kill Wally West.  The Mirror Master is responsible for bringing them to this alternate world.  There are a number of twists and turns which lead to Plunder trying to kill the Rogues as well as the Flash and which result in the Flash working with the Rogues in order to get back to their own world.  At the end of issue four, they do get back only to discover that Wally’s hometown of Keystone City has been abducted. 

 

The final act takes place in issues five and six as Wally goes to yet another parallel world where Brother Grimm has taken Keystone City.  The residents have been transformed as well, believing that they belong in this Wonderland.  Even Wally’s wife Linda is prone to yelling “Off with his head!”  Not to spoil the ending but Wally saves the day, restores Linda to her right mind and Keystone City to its right place. 

 

Wonderland technically takes place over six issues, telling one grand story.  But it’s easily broken up into smaller acts. These separate acts dovetail into one another but they can also be viewed as individual stories in a continuing series.  With Wonderland, Geoff Johns showed that “writing for the trade” didn’t have to be a hindrance or an excuse for a slow story.  It’s not as big a deal now, as deconstructed story-telling has faded.  But it was still interesting to see how one writer turned a potential limitation into a very effective and fast-paced story.

 

 

Young X-Men: Book of Revelations

by Marc Guggenheim, Yanick Paquette, Ben Oliver and Rafael Sandoval

 

The second Young X-Men trade exposed several problems.  It highlighted a problem within the general world of the X-Men, another with the opening premise of this particular series and a third with comic-book writing in general.  That’s a lot of bad stuff for a trade that was merely mediocre.  On its own, Young X-Men was occasionally but not consistently entertaining.  Yet I couldn’t keep myself from noticing and thinking about these larger issues. 

 

The first problem is the editorially mandated decision of “No more mutants.”  After the House of M story, the Marvel world’s mutant population was reduced from thousands to about 300.  198 of these mutants were known and catalogued.  The decision was celebrated at the time by some of the older fans who remembered the days when mutants numbered in the dozens.  I was highly skeptical.  I saw it as a confining factor on future writers if it was enforced.  They would, in essence, be unable to introduce new characters.

 

Marc Guggenheim pretty much ignored the “no more mutants” mandate.  In his first twelve issues, he introduced three new mutants: the tattoo artist, Graymalkin and the new Cipher.  That kind of undoes the whole idea behind “no more mutants” in the first place.  Guggenheim paid lip service to the new status quo, by having one character question the discovery of the new mutants but it only served to highlight the discrepancy rather than answer the question.  I also found myself being extra critical of the new mutant characters.  Other characters had lost their powers as part of the “no more mutants” mandate.  And these characters were taking up a supposedly limited slot so I felt that they needed to be really great characters to deserve such a scarce position. 

 

The second problem is with Young X-Men itself.  In the first arc, the team was put back together by Donald Pierce posing as Cyclops.  Of course, the characters and the readers didn’t know that at the time.  The characters thought they were being recruited by Cyclops himself.  And the readers were under the same impression as well, though Cyclops was written so badly that many of us speculated he was a Skrull.  By this second arc, the Young X-Men have learned that they were duped by Donald Pierce and are being brought back into the fold by the real Cyclops.  But that opening premise was so off-putting that many fans abandoned the series before it got to this point. 

 

I have to give credit to Paul O’Brien.  He suggested that Young X-Men should have been delayed by six months so that it could debut after the X-Men had re-established themselves instead of trying to shoehorn their new origin into a period when the X-Men had temporarily disbanded. 

 

I also have to give a demerit to Marc Guggenheim.  The idea of a fake Cyclops putting the new team together could have worked but Guggenheim needed to trust the reader.  By not telling the reader that Cyclops was really Donald Pierce, most readers simply assumed that Guggenheim didn’t know how to write Cyclops.  Since a few of the young X-Men were acting out of character as well, this seemed like a reasonable assumption.  If Guggenheim had given the readers a clue that this wasn’t really Cyclops, other than by having him act out of character, the readers would have been intrigued.  They would have been hooked into reading more, instead of being put off and put out.  By this second arc, Guggenheim shows that he had a better handle on the characters than we would have thought (for example, Blindfold knew it wasn’t Cyclops but went along with it because she knew good would come of it anyway).  However, by not trusting the readers, he created a situation where the readers didn’t trust him. 

 

Finally, the third problem exposed by Young X-Men is the whole deconstructed story-telling/writing for the trade issue I discussed in the Flash entry.  Young X-Men clearly shows the downside of this approach.  Guggenheim’s first arc wasn’t very good.  But this one bad story was stretched out to six issues, giving readers lots of opportunities to abandon the title.  Plus, by that point, any reader who has given up on the title is highly unlikely to come back. 

 

In this second arc, Guggenheim has a character remind us that the original New Mutants started out under similar circumstances.  One character worked for Donald Pierce before realizing the error of his ways and being added to the team.  The key difference, however, is that in New Mutants that happened at the end of the first issue (admittedly, the extra-long New Mutants graphic novel) and not at the end of the sixth issue.  The earlier revelation and the quicker pace gave the audience a reason to stick around.  The deconstructed pace of the first Young X-Men arc had the opposite effect. 

 

New Year Wishes

1. A year-long Wonder Woman epic by Jim Lee  

 

It worked for Batman and Superman.  Lee contributed to a Batman modern classic with “Hush.”  His Superman story (“For Tomorrow”) was also something worthwhile, even if it didn’t quite measure up to “Hush.”  It’s time to give Wonder Woman the same star treatment.  His work on other titles (including the Just Imagine Stan Lee creating Wonder Woman one-shot) shows that he would be a great fit.  Apologies to Gail Simone who has turned in occasionally interesting work on Wonder Woman for the past couple years.

 

2. A DC team title worth reading

 

I have several longboxes full of DC superhero teams.  Justice League of America.  The New Teen Titans.  Legion of Super-Heroes.  JSA.  Right now, they’re relics of the past.  Crossover complications, bad story-telling choices and just plain old mediocrity have knocked the DC team titles off of my pull list.  But these are characters that I care about.  And I’d like to care about them again.  So here’s hoping for a resurgence, a renaissance on the DC team titles.

 

3. More Jay Faerber

 

For the past couple of years, Jay Faerber has been one of my favorite comic book writers.  But, right now, I’m not getting a regular Faerber fix.  Noble Causes has concluded.  Dynamo 5 is on hiatus while they switch to a new regular penciler.  And the Pilot Season title Urban Myths has yet to appear again, despite assurances from Top Cow that they had plans for the concept.  I mostly want Dynamo 5 back and at its best or Urban Myths, but I’ll take a new addition to the Faerber-verse as well.

 

4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine

 

Buffy’s Season Eight is winding up with issue 40.  Joss Whedon’s experiment- continuing a television series as a comic book- has been so excellent that I want more.  A lot more.  I realize this wish is pretty close to happening but I’m spending an official wish on it anyway.  I also realize it’s probably more of a wish for 2011, as season eight will last into the fall.  While I’m at it, I wish for great things from Bill Willingham’s tenure on the Angel comic, more Spike mini-series, a Faith spin-off, a Dr. Horrible sequel (which I understand to be in the planning stages) and Fox to change their minds and renew Dollhouse anyway. 

 

5. A new New X-Men/Young X-Men comic

 

It may be too soon.  The poorly received Marc Guggenheim comic was canceled just this past year.  But, as great as it’s been to see these characters in supporting roles in the main X-book, I’d love to see them in their own title again.  Pixie.  Anole.  Armor.  Blindfold.  Rockslide.  Gentle.  These are cool characters and great additions to the X-mythos and they deserve their own spotlight, not the side of the stage in someone else’s show.

 

6. The end of Norman Osborn as the central figure in the Marvel Universe

 

I am so sick of this story.  I’ve done my best to avoid it, but it keeps bleeding over into other titles that I follow and otherwise enjoy, like Uncanny X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man and Mighty Avengers.  I just want it to go away.  Preferably, with precious few Siege crossovers in the titles on my pull list.

 

7. A new kids book for A, my 8-year old daughter

 

She was a huge fan of Marvel’s Power Pack series of mini-series.  Honestly, so was I.  But Marvel decided that they had run out of stories for the family, after teaming them up with the X-Men, the Fantastic Four (twice), the Avengers, the Hulk and Iron Man, plus a showdown with the Skrulls and a Year One origin story.  Now, with Power Pack gone, we’re struggling to find a new title for her.  The new X-Babies mini-series shows promise, but it’s not as good as Power Pack had been.  Come on, Marvel (or DC), give me something I can enjoy handing to my daughter.

 

8. Comebacks from the titles I listed in my “comics that should make a comeback” series of articles

 

That would be Generation X, Martian Manhunter and Star Wars: Empire/Rebellion for those who missed the articles in question.