RIP Gene Colan

Gene Colan defined Marvel horror for me.

I had picked up a few Tomb of Dracula books, but mostly only when it had Werewolf by Night or Frankenstein appearance.  My Universal Monsters love made me do that even though Marvel's versions were significantly different, but it was only a peripheral interest.

That was until the crossover with Dr Strange.  It was during that story arc that I realized just how much I enjoyed Gene Colan's work.

Dr Strange and Dracula fight over who has the best cape.

I never thought about his work on the earlier Dr Strange series.  My eight year old brain didn't need much other than cool four color adventure and the former Strange Tales title certainly delivered that.  However, as I got older and my ability to delve deeper into just what was on the immediate page in front of me, I realized just how much Gene delivered on those books.

The tone and impact of Dr Strange owed much to Gene.  His visual look was as important to Strange as Steve Ditko's and possibly more so. The crossover between Tomb of Dracula #44 and Dr Strange #14 only cemented my enjoyment of Gene's work. His sense of style and dynamic action made me seek out the older books to read. It was then I realized that his work defined how I judged other's work on both Dracula and Dr Strange.

Gene Colan was a true and fabulous talent who defined Marvel Horror.  I'll never look at any Dr Strange or Dracula comic work without thinking of him fondly.

1st DCnU title is...

JUSTICE LEAGUE #1
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
1:25 Variant cover by DAVID FINCH

RETROSOLICITED • On sale AUGUST 31 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US RATED T • Combo pack edition: $4.99 US

Comics superstars Geoff Johns and Jim Lee make history! In a universe where super heroes are strange and new, Batman has discovered a dark evil that requires him to unite the World Greatest Heroes!

This spectacular debut issue is also offered as a special combo pack edition, polybagged with a redemption code for a digital download of the issue.

Mike's Comments:

Since this is the only DC book other than Flashpoint shipping on August 31st, the launching point for the new approach DCU, this is probably the best book to pick up to get a feel with what DC wants to do editorially with the line of books. 

The first story arc is set in the past of the DCU, the very first gathering of DC's premier team book is going to get Geoff Johns “Secret Origins” make over and if he does that type of job he has done in the past we're in for a good show, plus Jim Lee art makes this pretty much a must read if you are at all interested in the relaunch. 

As I said before, this is the title that is going to give us what the editorial direction for DC and I expect that it'll be a fairly strong launch book.  If you're budgeting your purchases for the new DCU then this is the book that you pick up and start forming your opinions over whether you want to continue picking up books.

V collars for everyone, except Cyborg and Batman, the God-damned Batman doesn't do V collars.

The team shot for the cover looks good, but I'm worried about the inclusion of Cyborg as a founding  memeber of Justice League.  Stalwart mainstays like Hawkman and Martian Manhunter don't appear to be included, but as this is only the cover and not content it might be jumping the gun.

I'm not sold on Johns insistence to make Cyborg a major player in the DCU and if he does so at the expense of two members of DC's Big Seven then I think it'll be a misstep.  I understand that Hawkman is problematic because of his overtly convoluted origin (which presumably they'll fix in the soft reboot), plus   he wasn't a founding member, but his inclusion in a revitalized Justice League is paramount to a revitalized franchise.

We'll talk more about the Martian Manhunter in a later entry when we talk about Stormwatch.

The meat of the DCU relaunch is selling comics to a new consumer base.  It's the real reason for the relaunches at the first issue of all the books and the combo pack for the first title in the relaunch is a great idea for initiating people into DC's digital content initiative.  

I'm not one of those retailers that is all panicky about digital comics.  Are we going to lose some  customers?  Well sure, but the hope of gaining some of those that only read digital product coming into the stores is more than enough to appease any misgivings.  The average comic-shop can deliver a community that simple downloads cannot, plus I honestly believe that a clean shop and courteous, knowledgeable staff can attract and keep new generation of comic readers if DC delivers great content that makes the new readership curious to the genre.

I'm far more confident in the efforts of a publisher that realizes that tablets are a new source of readers and actively goes after them then one that continues to cater to a diminishing client base.  As a publisher, it is DC's responsibility to do so and my job as a comics retailer is to try and do my best to sell in that environment.

On a scale of 1 to 5 DC Bullets Justice League is 5 DC Bullets, pretty much a must read. 

More thoughts on Green Lantern.

After a couple of days reflection, it occurs to me that there are some additional things about the movie that are interesting.

I think that Parallax's appearance in the movie is directly related to the visual look of the Sun-Eater.  Visual images parallel certain scenes in Final Night and I'm wondering if the intent was for future movies to do something similar to the Final Night story arc and have Parallax influencing Hal and destroying the Sun.

Parallax can't let Galactus get all the super-hero movie villain cloud action.

Ultimately, Hal sacrifices himself to re-ignite the Sun and leaving the door open to other Earth Green Lanterns to take up the mantle.

I get to be the Big Bad of a company event book no-one ever reads.

Just a weird speculation.

Tomorrow I'll be writing about the first week of DCnU books.

It's not easy being green.

So, the Green Lantern movie...

I found the movie to be a mess of disjointed, poorly edited scenes that somehow was enjoyable despite itself.

Green Lantern had the right feel, but fell short with inconsistent jumps in the plot that needed a little bit of fleshing out. Examples being how Hal knew that he needed to confront Hector in the government lab, the reasoning behind Hal running back to Oa to confront the Guardians on the plan to use fear as a weapon against Parallax and the motive behind the scene after the end title sequence.

You can get away with a couple of those moments in a film, that it is over and folks are at home getting a beer from the fridge they kind of go, "Hey, whataminute... Why did that happen?" Unfortunately for GL, this movie had far more of those than it had of "Holy crap, that's so cool!"

The cast does a very good job even with some very awkward exposition. Particularly Peter Sarsgaard, who pretty much plays Hector as the twisted parallel of Hal's life and father issues supremely well. Also, despite his lack of screen time, Mark Strong as Sinestro has a huge screen presence. In fact, for me, after Ryan Reynolds performance, Mark left the me with the most desire to see more of what he could do with the role.

Overall, Green Lantern seems much like Marvel's earlier effort, Daredevil. Some misfires and oddly structured scenes make for a somewhat confusing effort, but it's heart is in the right place and it really feels like the source material.