I recently just got INFINITE CRISIS #7, and I must say, overall I was pleased - it was like the last three pages of a really good story...for nearly an entire issue.
AS I HAVE ACTUALLY
READ THE ISSUE, I thus am entitled to an opinion on it. (take note, Nightwing and Super Monkey!)
High points of the issue:
Usually when they have crowd scenes of Green Lanterns, they usually call on the same two or three guys over and over. Tomar-Re must be the Paris Hilton of Green Lanterns: always showing up when there's a party. But at least in this splash page, there are tons of great GLs that don't usually make the scene: for instance, there was the moustachioed lemon-skinned Green Lantern from the alien world that was perpetually in the Middle Ages. Amazing how knowledgeable Geoff Johns is about the Lantern Corps - is the sludge-yeast creature the Mike W. Barr creation Eddore?
When Wonder Woman's invisible jet showed up ever so subtly - it was there all along - it showed just how downright cool an invisible jet can be.
Is that the Chinese staff used by the Green Lantern from that Elseworlds that washed up on that beach? What an idea - incorporating it into the mainstream DCU!
Well, the arc covering the characters of Wonder Woman and Batman are over: Wonder Woman has learned the err of her ways, and Batman's characterization is fundamentally altered away from his 1990s "hunchback" grotesquery: he has admitted he is able to have allies and refuses to go at things alone anymore. And was that a smile I saw him crack at the end there?
Speaking of another character whose arc appears to have been greatly advanced by this story, we come to Bart Allen. Previously, I denounced him as an irritating snot when he first appeared; thanks to Geoff Johns, he gained intelligence and maturity. Now he looks like an honestly worthy heir to the Flash. I wouldn't count Wally out right away, thoughl considering the nature of Wally's disappearance, we will almost assuredly see him again.
A few complaints:
Has Amazo suddenly become the biggest paper tiger in the entire DC Universe? He was vanquished to scrap metal in a PANEL. Granted, this series has a brisk pace, nonetheless, in Alan Davis's THE NAIL, Amazo was beat in a page and a half. In "Rock of Ages," Amazo was taken down by computer viruses before the fight even began. Amazo, potentially one of the most terrifying villains in the DC Universe, has been reduced to a wimp! This is no single writer's fault, but Amazo needs desperately the Catman treatment, stat. Are you listening, Gail Simone?
I've been wondering how Superman would lose his powers. Surely there is a better explanation than just "he flew through a Kryptonite cloud." HINT: Fly AROUND the Kryptonite cloud.
Can I convince you to head over to Heroic Publishing and try Flare out?
Issue 33 had a supervillian shark, squidoids, invading space-gorrilia, and dinosuars in the main feature. and the back up stoy with Sparkplug was well written too.
Remember that post I made a while back about how aggrivating it is that there seems to be nearly the same superhero universe over and over, without any innovation - always with World War II as the flashpoint and point of origination, tiresome legacy characters, and so forth? FLARE is "Exhibit A." The Silver Age wasn't great because it was based on dinosaurs and giant apes - it was based on innovation, it was based on tight plotting. A nostalgic trotting out of World War II heroines, dinosaurs and giant apes does not a good comic make.
Someone somewhere else compared FLARE to the brilliant MONKEYMAN AND O'BRIEN. This is a bit like comparing Fabian to Elvis. Not the least of which because MONKEYMAN had the hilariously appropriately named genius Art Adams behind it. Not the least because MONKEYMAN was something never seen before: a heroic adventure series with superheroic and b-movie elements whose closest cousin was the horror detective series HELLBOY. FLARE on the other hand, is yet another SUPREME or ALL-STAR SUPERMAN, except it doesn't have a genius like Alan Moore or Grant Morrison and lacks the sense of humor these works have, which means it essentially just rehashes cliches (see also: the Mark Waid FLASH). Whether it is Silver Age cliches like space gorillas or modern age cliches like gritty spy plots, a cliche is a cliche.
This is why low budget horror movies about killer urinals that are IN ON THEIR OWN JOKE will never truly be as charming or as creative as something unaware of itself like THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN and THE TERROR OF TINY TOWN (an all midget musical western) they they are desperately trying to resemble and simultaneously parody in an ironic way.
The only recent thing I've read lately that even remotely captures the spirit of the Silver Age is our own Al Schroeder III's MINDMISTRESS web comic. Not because Al brings out Dinosaurs, but because he creates legitimately new ideas drawn from his wide knowledge. In the words of Basho, it doesn't try to duplicate the Masters - it merely seeks what they sought. (Though the Unicorn Jelly crossover was one I could take or leave - what next, Mind Mistress meets Michael Jackson, while we're doing crossovers with repulsive people?)
I know this won't be the popular opinion but I agree with most of the changes to Alexander & SBP. Both of them were trapped for years in a pocket dimension for years cut off from the contact of otheres. Yes, Superman 2 & Lois Kent were also there but the age gap was too big. Instead of a closed off prison the foursome should've travelled the universe or at least different dimensions. Alexander & Prime would've had experiences and been allowed to grow up.
Very well put.
It was sort of like how the Englehart Deadshot wildly differed in characterization from the Finger Deadshot - the reason his characterization was radically altered was because an extensive amount of time occurred in the interim that transformed their personality and modus operandi - this was seen in the Wolfman-penned INFINITE CRISIS SECRET FILES.
And I've said it before and I'll say it again: I absolutely don't grasp the sudden sense of loss with Superboy Prime. He was a character created for CRISIS that didn't survive the CRISIS - a "wedding dress" character just like the Anti-Monitor that was put on and discarded. Emphasizing his importance is really rewriting history, and there's no point in getting all worked up about him now. The fact the writers were able to get mileage out of him as a fairly chilling and effective villain is a very interesting creative choice, and indeed, logical considering what took place in the Paradise Dimension.
Actually, Superboy-Prime works better as a villain than as a hero in some ways. For one thing, his overwhelming power level makes him a truly terrifying adversary. The guy took on at least a few hundred Green Lanterns and two Supermen and killed six Lanterns at once. "You don't know cold. Cold is being the only survivor of an earth eliminated from history." Suddenly, the events of the original CRISIS are used to give his backstory a degree of poignancy. The purpose of backstory in villains is to explain why they're so twisted and antisocial, and this certainly qualifies.
It's obvious that the entire thing was concocted as not only this years cheap sales gimmick but also as a lightly veiled expression of hate and disgust to any and all who have expressed a desire to move away from this neverending grimschlock.
Did you even read the miniseries at all?
Far be it for Yours Truly to interrupt someone pissing and moaning, but this criticism is totally off the wall. It's a bit like calling Kareem Abdul Jabaar "a very short man."
A miniseries that featured STANLEY AND HIS MONSTER in a guest-star role, which has the Middle Ages yellow Green Lantern prominent in a crowd shot, which had an appearance by a lightning monster from a 1950s issue of TOMMY TOMORROW...well, it may be many things, but it certainly is not reflecting a passive-aggressive distaste for fans of DC history.
The series killed off the Matrix Supergirl and the dark, cheesy new Batgirl that doesn't talk. They got rid of the new Batgirl,
even though her book was selling. The editorial vision is "New Silver Age." They're creating a new Justice League that is going to be reminiscent of the Englehart sattelite era. In a million ways, INFINITE CRISIS is supposed to be a cohesive new DC of a kind we ought to find familiar.
To quote Russell Crowe: "Are you not entertained?"
This thing had STANLEY AND HIS MONSTER for the love of Moke. This book is aimed at us - fans who believe history should be used to influence present characterizations. But all everyone seems to be doing is whining and nitpicking about a character we didn't care about two years ago, but now we pretend to, now that he's getting some use for a change.
THIS is why writers don't do things like bring back Hal Jordan very often - because there's just no pleasing you people.
And say what you like about Iron Age fans, at least they READ the books. I haven't read a single comment on this thread in all - jeez, what is it now, seven pages? Not a single comment that would give the slightest indication anyone apart from myself actually read the series they're criticising. Now, why is this important?
Remember the balls-to-the-wall reaction that fans gave when they heard Spock was going to die? Why isn't there any lingering bitterness to this day about the Death of Spock? The reason is the overwhelming reaction was "oh, well I didn't know you were going to do it like THAT."
I am not saying that Spock's death in Wrath of Khan and INFINITE CRISIS are equivalent at least in all ways. I am, however, saying that the reason that criticism of Wrath of Khan and the Death of Spock fizzled into nothingness was because PEOPLE WENT TO SEE THE MOVIE.
I for one, was deeply concerned when some loudmouth blabbed to me about the death of the Freedom Fighters. Someone even listed the death of Phantom Lady as looking very mysoginistic, and I agreed with their reasoning - forgetting for the moment that if you haven't read something it looks however you think it looks. However, after actually reading the death of the Freedom Fighters, I was actually moved. Johns has an amazing ability to get me to like a character and then kill them. Uncle Sam never felt more dramatic or dynamic than he did in the caption boxes by Geoff Johns that described him as someone that wrestled Paul Bunyan and taught Johnny Appleseed how to plant.
Many people said about Spock's death, "oh, I didn't know they were going to do it THAT way." And that was my reaction to the Freedom Fighters: "I didn't know they were going to do it that way."