On JESSICA JONES Trailer, Tom King’s BATMAN, and DCs SWAMP THING show!

Let us start in the middle Tom King’s BATMAN.

I listened to a recent podcast where they were bemoaning the news of Tom King stepping off the BATMAN comic. All kinds of speculation on him being removed, etc. That he was doing a brilliant run on Batman, etc, etc. And they couldn’t understand how DC could not see what a great, innovative job he was doing, and that DC execs must not like great stories, yada, yada.

This very minor and relatively harmless rant from this podcast I watched, illustrates perhaps a less wholesome issue with our culture in whole. This inability to see or look for, or acknowledge, viewpoints other than our own.

The truth is out there, to paraphrase a show I was never a fan of, beyond the odd ‘monster-of the week’ episode.

The truth is out there, but we have to look, and we have to do our homework.

It doesn’t have to be controversy when we get news we do not expect or agree with.

It doesn’t have to be DC executives are stupid.

It could be as simple, if Tom King was removed, as simple as the books were not moving in the numbers they liked, or meeting with across the board praise.

A simple look at reviews of Tom King’s BATMAN run, whether podcasts, or Youtube videos, or blogs or websites, when you extend the search beyond your circle, your chorus, you see a run, a body of work, that from the first trade on, was conflicted. And grew more uneven and conflicted, in terms of the writing, and the response to the writing with every trade/issue.

I think a lot of people make excuses for Tom King”s work when they do not love it. Like they refuse to admit they didn’t love it because of Tom King, so they blame the publisher, or the editor, etc.

A writer is a lot like a director, you get the praise when a product is great. You should also carry the blame when a product isn’t. A lot of people like to give King the former, and make excuses to keep him from the latter.

Stop making excuses or trying to blame Editorial if you do not like a Tom King story. You do not try to give them the praise if you love a Tom King story. So let’s not be hypocrites.

And I am not anti-Tom King, I am not one of these knuckle dragging anti social justice warrior, anti-woman, anti-diversity, psuedo neo nazi nuts. I judge the work, on the work, and wait to read it, before having an opinion on it.

Tom King can be a great writer.

https://amzn.to/2MAm9GC

His VISION series is one of the greatest things I have read in years. (And if you have not read it, I urge you to pick up the collected hardcover… it is that good.)

His OMEGA MEN very good.

https://amzn.to/2EZQGHG

His Batman, in pieces, standalone, I’m thinking specifically of ANNUAL 2, can be great. Annual 2 was great.

https://amzn.to/2MzJsk0

However, specifically to Batman, other than that standalone story,  his actual run on Batman, the first 4 or 5 trades, I found awful. I mean… awful. “I am suicide!”As his take-away on the character of Batman. Really???!!

The great flaw of Tom King’ s BATMAN (for me), was always Tom King’s take of the character. He keeps writing the same broken, suicidal, and ineffective character, over and over again. And while it worked for the Vision and Mr. Miracle, shoehorning that Hamlet type protagonist and calling him Batman or Kid Flash, does not work at all.

He keeps trying to tailor these heroes and archetypes to his ptsd framework, and it increasingly does not work. He needs to start writing to the character, than simply shoehorning them into his rigid story.

We get it,

Tom King brings a military background, and a CIA background, and an espionage background, and a background of those places where we all break under stress and pressure. And again telling that story with certain characters can work, however retelling that story with every character does not work.

There are more stories than that. And another reason we look to these heroes is because they are our aspirations writ large, they should not all be stand-ins for the places where we fall down, they should be the standards of how to standup. They should be our hopes writ large, not our insecurities. The VISION type stories should be the exception, not the rule.

I do not want to read a comic with a Superman dealing with PTSD. It starts to become one note writing, rather than great writing, to make all the heroes analogs for the common man, or the Hamlet in us.

So yeah, while I will not be picking up the individual issues regardless of who writes BATMAN, because paying more than $2.99 for a single Marvel or DC comic is insanity (Marvel and DC should both be ashamed of themselves for charging more than $2.99 for scant pages of comics. Now, smaller Independent publishers I cut them slack on pricing, because their page count and quality is usually higher. However Marvel and DC has the economies of scale to keep prices low. To not do so comes down to mismarketing, mismanagement, and short term greed, over long term sustainability and growth) , I will, if the word of mouth is good, check out the books when they hit the $1 bins of the secondary market or in collected edition at the libraries.

I look forward to a new take on Batman, and a new writer.

Okay… next topic…

***************************************************

JESSICA JONES Season III trailer. Here is the thing, I was not interested enough to watch the 2nd season of JESSICA JONES. And by all reviews I did not miss much. But I went into the the trailer for season III hoping it would be good. I have to tell you, I found it incredibly uninteresting.

I can only take so much of brooding, not quite likeable, characters so, just with the way the protagonist is played, with a listless, can’t be bothered attitude, the performance of Jessica Jones is typically the weakest part of the show JESSICA JONES.

So that said, you need charismatic, interesting people surrounding her to make the show worth while. You need a Luke Cage, you need a Purple Man. You need dynamism to counteract the plodding, disaffected, and starting to get annoying, performance of the protagonist.  And unfortunately the trailer for Season III offered none of that. Offered an Antagonist, absolutely as uninteresting as the protagonist. A battle of who could bore me more.

 

So yeah the trailer to Season III of JESSICA JONES, a hard fail. That is not going to make my watch list, based on that trailer.

*********************************

Finally, the news that the DC Swamp Thing show has been cancelled before the 1st season really starts.

It has come out the reason DC/Warner Brothers pulled the plug is largely because North Carolina, an increasingly politically suspect state (excuses to my North Carolina Friends, but you are starting to be run by the pointy hat crowd. And I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. You know you need to start cleaning your house, much the same way the Nation needs to clean its house) basically bailed on their promise to help finance the production of SWAMP THING in their state.

It is a great shame, because I have to tell you, I absolutely loved the full trailer to SWAMP THING.

They looked like they had all the elements for a wonderful , long form story, worthy of the kind of eerie, brilliant, haunting storytelling that creators Alan Moore, Bissette, Totleben, Wein, and Wrightson laid the ground work for.

Such a shame.

Maybe someone else will add the additional funds so we get to see this vision of Swamp Thing, eventually played out.

Well that’s it guys.

Just wanted to put my 2 cents in on those 3 topics. Take two seconds and support today’s recommended comics.

You know when I was saying I cut Independent comics a slack, because of their quality of content and packaging. ALTERNA COMICS and AHOY COMICS are two cases in point. There are a lot of great writers/artists in comics, arguably one of the best of them is Eric Powell. I absolutely am enamored with his GOON and his HILLBILLY and his SPOOK SHOW. And ALTERNA comics addreses all the issues with price gouging that we are getting from the big two, Marvel and DC, while giving us quality products. So you can preorder comics from both publishers and get them direct mailed to you.

https://www.mycomicshop.com/subscriptionservice

 

Use the links above get great books, support these publishers, and earn a few pennies for this blog. A win-win!

 

“Second star to the right and straight on ’til morning. ”

― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Where to buy NEW comic books right now, Sept 2018 Pre-orders! And What books to get! ALL THE REST EDITION!

This is the last day to preorder books that will be shipping in December at a discount.

Here are my suggestions for the books worth your time:

MARVEL COMICS

Nothing. I can recommend nothing from Marvel Comics. Marvel is GROSSLY overpriced.  Save your money and either pick up these issues for a $1 or $2 each in a few months, when they are no longer new, from the secondary market. Or wait till they get collected into trade paperbacks and read them from your local library for free. Or buy them used online for a fraction of what getting the individual issues would cost.  I grew up with Marvel Comics, and i think they still have some fantastic creators I would love to read on a monthly basis, Ta-Nehisi Coates CAPTAIN AMERICA , comes to mind. After much hate from the moronic bigoted internet crowd, the moronic antisjw nazis, it turns out Coates CAPTAIN AMERICA is shaping up to be great. The same with just about anything Al Ewing touches. Unfortunately these great creators are sabotaged by a unsupportable comic price, and horrible editorial and marketing decisions.

The movies quite frankly are a lot better, and a lot less disorganized, stupid, and at times ingrained bigoted than the comics. The comics play lip service to diversity, and it is great to see creators like Coates and Walker get a chance to start their vision, but inevitably Editorial steps in and ruins/aborts their process/ending. The comics back pedal from everything to try to pander to the racist anti-change and anti-diversity mob, who typically don’t even read the comics they complain about.

The movies so far under Feige’s reign have embraced diversity with no back pedaling or moronic denigration that makes up so much of what goes on in the comics when it comes to characters of color (‘Oh Well we can’t have the Black Nick Fury be his own man. Let’s explain him away as the son of a White Nick fury.’ What????? Yeah this is the stupidity and racist great ideas that is happening in Marvel Comics, by there non-writers of color and editorial department.)

So yeah, so far the movies are actually better by far than the comics. So stick with them for now. Or until they start following the stupidity of the current comic books.

DC COMICS

Unfortunately DC that was doing a good job of keeping their prices under $3 a comic, ever since hiring the trojan horse of Brian Bendis, they have adopted Marvel’s disastrous and customer offensive pricing policy. Of charging $4, $5, $6,and $7… for COMIC BOOKS!!!!

Absolutely immoral.

And I like Brian Michael Bendis as a creator, but I despise him as a shill for the company, and his arrogant frat boy attitude to companies milking the audience, and  his basic ‘ah they will pay the higher price. Lower prices do not sell.’ I’m ten years of proving Bendis is wrong. It is not diversity that is the cause of Marvel Comics’ inability to keep from bleeding readers, it is the bloody price of their books. Add to that the over abundance of ads, poor placement of ads, and atrocious paper quality and you have a company that is repeatedly slapping their customers in the face, then wondering why the customers are not sticking around.

DC will soon find they will have the same issue as Marvel Comics. They will keep the die hards for a while, the sheep who buy multiple issues and variants, and the speculators, but that is  a far cry from the millions of people a publishing arm of Times Warner should be reaching.

Besides their last $2.99 books, which word is they are going away soon… The only book over $3 that I get from DC, that I make an exception for, is Christopher Priest’s brilliant DEATHSTROKE. And that is going to change, as editorial has decided to reward the critical acclaim that series has received, by mixing it into their editorial marketing ploy, basically gutting Priest’s ability to tell unhindered stories with the character. Once Priest leaves, so do I.

So what is worth getting?

Here is my list for September Pre-orders:

Beyonders 4	On order	1	$2.59
Bitter Root Cvr D Williams 1	On order	1	$2.59
Cavewoman A Wizard A Sorceress And Meriem 1	On order	1	$2.59
Cemetery Beach 3	On order	1	$2.59
Cinema Purgatorio Vast Cvr 16	On order	1	$4.54
Dark Ark Cvr A Doe 11	On order	1	$2.59
Deathstroke (2016) Cvr B Var Ed 37	On order	1	$2.59
Dick Tracy Dead Or Alive Cvr B Tommaso 3	On order	1	$2.59
Feast Or Famine 1	On order	1	$0.98
Gideon Falls Cvr B Suayan 8	On order	1	$2.59
Hillbilly Red Eyed Witchery From Beyond 4	On order	1	$2.59
Infinite Dark 2	On order	1	$2.59
Infinity 8 7	On order	1	$2.59
Jook Joint 2	On order	1	$2.59
Leviathan Cvr B Guillory 4	On order	1	$2.59
Lightstep 1	On order	1	$2.59
Lodger 2	On order	1	$2.59
Magic Order Cvr A Coipel 6	On order	1	$2.59
Moth And Whisper 3	On order	1	$2.59
New World Cvr B Moore And Muller 5	On order	1	$2.59
No World Primer 2018	On order	1	$0.16
Oblivion Song 9	On order	1	$2.59
Outer Darkness 1	On order	1	$2.59
Proxima Centauri 6	On order	1	$2.59
Raid Cvr B Photo 4	On order	1	$2.59
Red Sonja Cvr A Caldwell 23	On order	1	$2.59
Rick And Morty Cvr A 44	On order	1	$2.59
Rick And Morty Presents Pickle Rick Cvr A 1	On order	1	$3.24
Shadowman Cvr C Veregge 9	On order	1	$2.59
Sideways 10	On order	1	$1.94
Silencer 11	On order	1	$1.94
Sink Cvr A Cormack 6	On order	1	$2.59
Skyward 8	On order	1	$2.59
Spawn Cvr B Mattina 292	On order	1	$1.94
Stellar 6	On order	1	$2.59
Terrifics 10	On order	1	$1.94
Unexpected 6	On order	1	$1.94
Walk Through Hell 6	On order	1	$2.59
Warning 1	On order	1	$2.59
Whispering Dark 2	On order	1	$2.59

Order yours here:

https://www.mycomicshop.com/subscriptionservice?AffID=200301P01

And tell them HT sent ya!!!!

🙂

 

 

The last word on Social Justice Warriors, the Anti-SJW movement, Nazis, and Comics!

Everything is political. Because we all have a point of view. And when things conform, or do not question our point of view, we tend to think of them as non-political. But everything is an expression of our values, from Mickey Mouse to Batman to Star Wars to Popeye. Everything has a moral perspective,  a concept of what is heroic, and what is villainous, based on where we were raised, and how we were raised, and sometimes.. if we are lucky, based on how we have grown.

You have a vocal faction these days, a minority, that wants to play the aggrieved party and the victim and label and attack others that they perceive as a challenge to their norms, they attack creators and they attack fans, and brand them with the label SJW.

This vocal faction using acronyms over the whole or correct word, the way traditionally oppressive, bigoted factions have done. SJW instead of Social Justice Warrior, PC instead of Respect, etc. It is the tactic of the Nazi, to use labels and intimidation to cloud reason. To call others what they are, closed minded, and intolerant. And on this web of lies and misdirection, hope to confuse the issue, and gain ground.

The issue is simple. Social Justice Warriors, as it relates to comics, is in the very origins of the super-hero. The fight for the under privileged against monied interests, and oppressive regimes. It is right there in the earliest issues of Superman, of Batman, of Captain America.

There were people back, in a 1940s America, who made death threats, and attacks against creators. People who attacked Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, for having Captain America, on the cover of Captain America #1, punch out Adolph Hitler, for effectively creating a Social Justice Warrior, and a social justice medium. The people railing against Social Justice Warriors and Comics back then in the early 1940s are the same ones railing against writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, and what they call SJW or Social Justice Warriors today, they are Nazis or they are ignorant.

Now if you are ignorant, that is not a crime as long as you don’t stay ignorant. We all wake up, if we are honest, everyday ignorant of something. And we all… if we are healthy, growing human beings… go to bed less ignorant than we started the day. We have read, we have talked, we have communed, we have learned,. we have grown, and we have thrown off at least one incorrect folly we held too. This is your chance to grow. If no one has pointed out to you the immorality of a rant against social justice warriors, in the social justice medium of comics… well I’m telling you.

Now when you go before God, you can’t say you didn’t know. 🙂

Now what you do with that determines, if you are just ignorant, a fool, or a Nazi. A fool and a Nazi are not going to change. An ignorant man however, if he be a man, will embrace opportunities to slough off the hates and misinformation of yesterday.

Will embrace places to grow,

Un-subscribe from those click-bait, hate mongering channels, posing under names completely contrary to what they are doing. Channels with names like We Love, and Diversity, but all they preach is hate.

A lot of you are subscribed to them out of habit.

Habit to give attention to lowest common denominator talk show type conflict and what passes for conversation. This Resident Trump did not win the popular vote, but he won more of the vote than he should have in a civilized country. Part of the reason is seen in Youtube, and across social media. We have become a nation that has traded talk show drama for dialog, and irrational rage and outrage, over reason.

That is a recipe for a falling down nation, a recipe for the end of days.

I say no.

I say no to lies.

I say no to misinformation.

I say no to collusion.

I say no to agents of chaos, seeking to subvert one of the few progressive mediums left…. comics. The majority of these fools do not even read the works or writers they complain about. You don’t like a writer or story, don’t read it. But to attack creators and mess with livelihoods because you don’t want anyone else to read the story… that is Nazism. And I won’t have it. Too many of those who paved the way for you even being here, sacrificed way too much, to let the hate they beat back… rise in the very hearts of their indolent children.

I say no.

I say it in what I subscribe to. I say it in what I buy. I say it in who I defend. And I say it in the face of a new American age of terror and witch-hunts.

This far, no further.

 

‘

 

To not want to be challenged by your reading is a prerogative and right, at times we want the comfort of a simple narrative. Or a comforting narrative. And there is nothing wrong with that. But do not confuse that comfort,  with it being a non-political narrative. Even the lack of overt political stance in a work, is in and of itself political. Because there is no greater force in times of massive change, no greater political force, than the quiet, silence of the masses.’

—From SILENCE OF THE MASSES