Superman Through the Ages! Forum

Superman Comic Books! => Infinite Crossover! => Topic started by: TELLE on February 17, 2006, 12:55:38 PM



Title: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: TELLE on February 17, 2006, 12:55:38 PM
Just becoming aware of the comics writing career of Alan Brennert who many people say wrote some of the best Earth-2 stories.  He is a sci-fi writer and Hollywood screenwriter who did some work for DC and Marvel in the 70s and 80s, after a career as a letter-hack/fanzine contributor I believe.  He also wrote for the Wonder Woman TV show.

I wonder, is anyone here familiar with his Earth-2 stories?  He wrote a Batman story, Black Canary secret origin, JSA in the 50s, etc.  Any opinions?

http://www.panix.com/~bala/brennert.htm


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: Kurt Busiek on February 17, 2006, 04:15:00 PM
Quote from: "TELLE"
Just becoming aware of the comics writing career of Alan Brennert who many people say wrote some of the best Earth-2 stories.  He is a sci-fi writer and Hollywood screenwriter who did some work for DC and Marvel in the 70s and 80s, after a career as a letter-hack/fanzine contributor I believe.  He also wrote for the Wonder Woman TV show.

I wonder, is anyone here familiar with his Earth-2 stories?  He wrote a Batman story, Black Canary secret origin, JSA in the 50s, etc.  Any opinions?

http://www.panix.com/~bala/brennert.htm


Alan's one of the best ever -- there are literally no comics written by him that aren't worth reading, and almost all of them are great.  [There's a Seventies WONDER WOMAN two-parter by Marty Pasko that he contributed some ideas to, and it's nothing much, but anything he's solo writer on ranges from solid, admirable craft to "Oh, man that's great!"

He also wrote a lot of very good TV, including some of the best of L.A. LAW.  And his novels are all winners too -- KINDRED SPIRITS and TIME AND CHANCE are Twilight-Zone-y fantasies (one is love story between ghosts, the other is about a guy who's always widhed he made a different choice in life, and he gets to switch places with the "him" that made the other choice), and MOLOKA'I, his latest, is a shatteringly-good novel about live, love, hope and humanity over sixty-plus years of a Hawaiian leper colony.  No, honest.

Plus, he's a real nice guy.  And not only is he one of the world's top Earth-2 fans and one of the world's top Earth-2 writers, he shops at a terrific comics store called Earth-2.  He had nothing to do with naming it, though.

kdb


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: Klar Ken T5477 on February 17, 2006, 05:16:17 PM
So he knows Jay Garrick well, eh? :wink:


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: Kurt Busiek on February 17, 2006, 06:43:24 PM
Quote from: "Klar Ken T5477"
So he knows Jay Garrick well, eh? :wink:


He wishes he knew how to quit Jay Garrick.

kdb


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: TELLE on February 17, 2006, 09:19:41 PM
Thanks KDB.  I get the feeling I may have read one or two of his storues as a kid, but not consciously as a fan-adult (or pseudo-adult).  I will seek them out.

I would love to eventually create a virtual "best-of" Earth-2 list made up of stand-alone stories or two-parters/annuals.


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: Klar Ken T5477 on February 17, 2006, 09:39:12 PM
Quote from: "Kurt Busiek"
Quote from: "Klar Ken T5477"
So he knows Jay Garrick well, eh? :wink:


He wishes he knew how to quit Jay Garrick.

kdb

Kurt, he probably should check with Gardner Fox on how to do THAT!


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: JulianPerez on February 18, 2006, 04:23:40 AM
Oh, man, Alan Brennert was amazing! If he decided to say and write comics, we'd all be saying about Alan Moore, "hey, Alan who?"

You may recall a list I made of the greatest comics ever that I wrote a while back; one of them in the top five were the Batman stories by Alan Brennert. The Siege Perilous of the Greatest Batman Story Ever belongs to Steve Englehart, the Once and Future King. However, if anybody could rival Stainless Steve in writing Batman, it would be 'Astounding Al' Brennert.

His Batman of Earth-2 story that has him fall in love with the Catwoman was absolutely astonishing, "The Autobiography of Bruce Wayne." I can't think of a single detail to expand out; perhaps it was the tenderness of Catwoman discovering the scars on Batman's back, or Catwoman's proclamation that "solving fancy puzzles and throwing punches won't help you here!" All little details, but it added up to a guy that understood Batman's personality; for example, Brennert had Earth-2 Batman's greatest fear be being left alone.

If you can, pick up THE GREATEST BATMAN STORIES EVER TOLD trade paperback - no, not the current one; it is mostly made up of tales told by Chuck Dixon or someone like that, which if you ask me makes a complete monkey out of the title.

I'm talking about the *FIRST* GBSET, which had both of Alan Brennert's Batman stories, "To Kill a Legend" and "The Autobiography of Bruce Wayne." You can probably pick it up for under $10 on ebay or Amazon.


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: dto on February 18, 2006, 06:20:35 AM
"To Kill a Legend" (Detective Comics #500) is a classic tale where Batman has a chance to prevent the Wayne murders on another Earth -- but what will happen to the young Bruce Wayne?  Would saving his parents mean that a future Batman will never take up his crusade against crime?  I found the Phantom Stranger's twenty-year cycle particularly interesting -- does that mean in some alternate Earth the Waynes were gunned down last year while leaving the Multiplex showing the Antonio Banderas movie "The Legend of Zorro"?  Hmm...

Continuing this "Twilight Zone" atmosphere is "Interlude on Earth-Two" (The Brave and the Bold #182), definitely one of my favorite Multiverse crossover stories.  Having the Earth-1 Batman meet the Earth-2 Robin and Batwoman shortly after the deaths of both the Earth-2 Batman and the Earth-1 Batwoman underscored the inherent "creepiness" of knowing that one had dopplegangers on different Earths -- and some were already dead.   :shock:   Even Batman was visibly unnerved by this reminder of his own mortality.  

Among all the Earth-1/Earth-2 crossovers, I think only Brennert seriously examined this aspect of meeting alternate "selves".  In contrast, Kal-L and Kal-El were absolutely chummy in their meetings, and I believe the two Wonder Women briefly met just one time prior to the Crisis.

I also enjoyed "The Autobiography of Bruce Wayne" (The Brave and the Bold #197), but the one Alan Brennert tale that still chokes me up is "Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot" (Christmas with the Super-Heroes #2).  I was still in Post-Crisis mourning at the time, and it truly hit me hard.  So far the "return" of Kara Zor-El hasn't changed my emotional reaction every time I read this story, and reflect on the closing dedication.

http://superman.nu/tales3/deadman-xmas/

(Sigh...)   :cry:


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: JulianPerez on February 18, 2006, 01:09:47 PM
Quote from: "dto"
Alan Brennert tale that still chokes me up is "Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot" (Christmas with the Super-Heroes #2). I was still in Post-Crisis mourning at the time, and it truly hit me hard. So far the "return" of Kara Zor-El hasn't changed my emotional reaction every time I read this story, and reflect on the closing dedication.


Aw, man, how could I forget about this wonderful, suckerpunch worthy story? Greatest holiday story ever. Reminds me of that Hanukkah story with Doc Sampson telling the story of the first Hanukkah, and gradually on the kids' prompting, it starts to involve the Avengers and the Leader...

It occurs to me that Deadman has not gotten a lot of use in recent DC times. Didn't he have his own title as a part of the DC Explosion in 1970-whenever-it-was?


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: Kurt Busiek on February 19, 2006, 09:43:35 AM
Quote from: "dto"
the one Alan Brennert tale that still chokes me up is "Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot" (Christmas with the Super-Heroes #2).


The story that got Mark Waid fired!

Nobody's mentioned the first story to put Brennert on my radar -- "Time, See What's Become of Me," the Batman/Hawk & Dove team-up.  It may have been his first full work in comics, but it was a strong and character-focused as everything that came after.

It was a bit controversial, since it posited that H&D had grown up since the late Sixties/early Seventies, while their contemporaries in other books clearly hadn't, but it was a terrific story that was worth telling whether it fit continuity or not.

kdb


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: Klar Ken T5477 on February 19, 2006, 10:29:32 AM
That story got Mark Waid fired??? Why because he used Kara Zor-El post crisis? A story that is STILL discussed and remembered some 20 years later? Aye caramba! :shock:


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: Kurt Busiek on February 19, 2006, 10:55:15 AM
Quote from: "Klar Ken T5477"
That story got Mark Waid fired??? Why because he used Kara Zor-El post crisis? A story that is STILL discussed and remembered some 20 years later? Aye caramba! :shock:


Even better: Mark got fired for using Kara post-Crisis without permission -- in a story that the Editor In Chief of DC Comics drew.

On the other hands, being booted out into a freelance career worked out pretty well for Mark, all told.

kdb


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: dto on February 19, 2006, 12:14:01 PM
Thanks, Mr. Busiek.  I've heard rumors about someone getting the boot over "Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot?", but never any authorative confirmation.  In fact I somewhat dismissed the firing story since it seemed inexplicable to me HOW "Auld Acquaintance" could slip by into print if DC was THAT opposed to ever seeing "Kara" again, ESPECIALLY with that ending dedication:

"With respect and admiration for the works of OTTO BINDER and JIM MOONEY.  We still remember."

(Arrgh... there's that old lump in the throat again.)   :(

Seems pretty obvious to me exactly WHO this "Kara" was.  Was there a deliberate conspiracy to sneak this story past DC's "Powers That Be", or a more innocent "We'll see if they approve it..." scenario?

Reminds me of how suprised I was seeing Tim Sale's "Solo #1" featuring a story by Diana Shultz that not only involved the Pre-Crisis Supergirl, but actually wrapped up the dangling plotline from her abruptly-cancelled last solo series in 1984!  At that time Solo #1 was released DC was not only still insisting that the Pre-Crisis Kara Zor-El "never existed" (despite her appearance in Peter David's final "Supergirl" arc), but they were just cranking up the promotional campaign for the "NEW" Kara Zor-El's grand debut.  

With this in mind, I thought it was counter-intuitive for DC to resurrect the original Supergirl and refer to a twenty-year-old incident only dedicated Kara fans would recall.  (The unexpected return of Linda's old boyfriend Dick Malverne -- she was literally still reeling in mid-kiss when DC yanked the plug.)  When I asked Tim Sale about this, he admitted that he and Diana Shultz wasn't sure if DC would approve "Young Love", but apparently the Solo series was sufficiently removed from mainstream DC continuity to run such a story.  

I'm wondering if "Christmas with the Super-Heroes #2" was originally viewed as such by DC's upper echelons, and it was only after "Auld Acquaintance" that DC decreed that "Kara" was TOO "out of continuity" to ever appear in ANY DC title, firing Waid to drive that point home.

Good to know Mark Waid seems to have weathered this incident rather well.  While some may criticize his "The Kingdom", I particularly loved the "Planet Krypton" issue with so many familar "hypertime ghosts", including a couple Supergirl incarnations.


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: Great Rao on February 19, 2006, 12:46:02 PM
Here's what I'd like to know:

Is the person who was responsible for editor Mark Waid being fired over a published story the same person who was responsible for editor Elliot Maggin being fired over a published story, and was that the same guy who nixed the Superman 2000 proposal after the wheels had been approved and put in motion?

I just hope he isn't calling the shots anymore.

:s:


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: Klar Ken T5477 on February 19, 2006, 01:06:49 PM
Wait - if the DC editor in chief actually drew the Xmas Kara story........ DICK GIORDANO???!!!

http://superman.nu/tales3/deadman-xmas/

By the moons of Rimbor!!!! :shock:

Doubt Dick was reposnible for the other things, Rao. He's been enjoing his retirement in Florida for some time now.

But stilll.... GAAK~


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: Great Rao on February 19, 2006, 01:18:43 PM
Quote from: "Klar Ken T5477"
Doubt Dick was reposnible for the other things, Rao. He's been enjoing his retirement in Florida for some time now.

That's not quite who I was thinking of...

http://superman.nu/a/History/carlin.jpg

:s:


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: Klar Ken T5477 on February 19, 2006, 01:34:22 PM
Oh that guy - the not-so-Great Carlini.  I shut the dvd off when I saw his mug in the doc on S1 AOS. I think Carlin just handled the Super-titles but may be mistaken. I have no idea who was responsible for overseeing the DC line of Super-tartars back then.

Our pal Kurt B. did say that the ye olde DC ed in Chief drew it so that's definitely DG on the Xmas Kara story.


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: Kurt Busiek on February 19, 2006, 01:39:34 PM
Quote from: "dto"
Was there a deliberate conspiracy to sneak this story past DC's "Powers That Be", or a more innocent "We'll see if they approve it..." scenario?


The editor in chief drew the story.  Hard to imagine a deliberate conspiracy that involves that.

kdb


Title: Re: Alan Brennert: Comics Writer
Post by: Kurt Busiek on February 19, 2006, 01:40:24 PM
Quote from: "Great Rao"
Here's what I'd like to know:


No idea.

kdb