Creature Comforts From Home V: Batman '66 #6

 

Nostalgia isn't for every one. My wife, Cathy, isn't very nostalgic. She doesn't like to dwell too much on the past. Dwelling and obsessing on the past is not a very healthy thing. But there are some things about the past that were pretty cool, and worth reliving.

 

Like the live action Batman television series that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1968.

 

It is hard to believe that 120 episodes, across three seasons and a feature length film were crammed in between '66 and '68. Even harder to believe that by the third season, the twice weekly cliffhanger concept had pretty much burnt out and Batgirl was introduced to bump up flagging ratings. Even harder to imagine that 48 years later, the live action series starring Adam West and Burt Ward against a Hollywood Who's Who of guest villains would still be popular! Fans are still debating the pros and cons of the series.    

 



 

Last July, DC Comics launched Batman '66 as a webcomic. Stories would appear as a webcomic through DC and Comixology. (It was just announced last week that Amazon would purchase Comixology.) The webcomics would be available for a mere $ .99. The stories would later be collected in print, and each issue would be available for $4.99. Now, the downside to webcomics, is the same downside to iTunes. The buyer doesn't actually own a physical copy of either the song, the album or the comic book. For ninety-nine cents you are actually buying access to either listen to the song or album; or read the comic book. There is currently a debate going on over what happens to a buyer's iTunes playlist when that buyer dies. Now this access may appeal to some people. It appeals to me on a level where my space isn't cluttered with long boxes full of printed comics. But at the same time, I enjoy reading a comic book the same way I enjoy reading a hardback or paperback novel. There is something about the feel of paper and the smell of old comic book newsprint that is enjoyable.

 

The Penguin Burgess Meredith in The Twilight Zone

So, as much as I would love to have a tablet filled with my favorite comic books - as if that were possible! - I have resigned myself that I need a space for my long boxes of comic books.

 

There are a few that are my go-to books to re-read. Starman, by James Robinson, Tony Harris and Wade Von Grawbadger; Ultimate Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley; and, my Batman collection. Now, you would think that as a Batman fan I would have boxes and boxes of Detective  and Batman Comics. Legends of The Dark Knight. The Shadow of the Bat. The Brave and the Bold. The World's Finest. Whatever "mainstream" title Batman has appeared in. I have a few of those. The collection of Batman comics I enjoy the most is the animated series tie-in. After Batman Returns, Fox Kids launched Batman: The Animated Series, in 1992. DC launched The Batman Adventures not long after. They kept the series going through a number of re-launches. When The WB launched The Batman, DC followed with The Batman Strikes. Then came Batman: The Brave and the Bold, both on Cartoon Network and from DC.

 

Batman '66 #6 featuring The Bookworm!

 

The latest gem in my Batman collection is Batman '66 written by Jeff Parker. There are stories written by Tom Peyer with a rotating art crew that involves Jonathan Case, Mike and Laura Allred, Ty Templeton, Craig Rousseau, Chris Sprouse, Reuben Procopio, Christopher Jones, Colleen Coover, Dave Johnson, Sandy Jarrell and Joe Quinones.

 

It is as if the television series had not been cancelled. Along with appearances by The Joker, The Penguin, The Riddler, and Catwoman - all staples of the series - there's the unique guest villains designed for the stars that played them. Egghead, King Tut, Zelda The Great and Olga Queen of the Cossacks. What is brilliant is that Batman '66 and Parker are doing some really creative things with the series; like, [spoiler alert] revealing the link between Jervis Tetch's The Mad Hatter and The Clock King. Batman '66 #8 is a unique time travel story involving King Tut, his goons and The Dynamic Duo all heading back to ancient Egypt. One of his goons is Waylon Jones. I'm sure we'll be seeing him again in another form very soon!

 

The issue that I brought along with on my trip to Kiev to bring home my daughter, Masha, is Batman '66 #6 featuring Roddy McDowell's The Bookworm. I like Roddy McDowell. He was awesome in his only appearance on the series in the role, and later in The Planet of the Apes series. He later returned to Batman, reading the novelization of the first Batman film in 1989; and later, on The Animated Series as The Mad Hatter.

 

The Bookworm, as described by Batman on the original series, is a frustrated writer. He is the ultimate fanboy. In the Batman '66 appearance, Bookworm is composing a scrapbook on Batman, in an effort to stay one step ahead of the Caped Crusader. Rather than stealing an over-sized check from the Gotham Chamber of Currency, he steals the over-sized checkbook! He also tries to steal a set of 19th Century matchbooks! He does manage to steal the Gotham City Police department manuals, so they are left unable to operate - (wait for it) by the book!

 

Batman '66 is written as a fun comedy, pretty much how the original series was played. The art is spot on. Although the likenesses are only through the feature film, with only Adam West, Burt Ward, Julie Newmar, Ceasar Romero, Frank Gorshin and Burgess Meredith licensing their likenesses. Yvonne Craig recently licensed her likeness for Batman '66 merchandise.

 

It is an enjoyable, fun read. Like the original series there's a gag on every page. Which makes Batman '66 a definite creature comfort from home.

 

But wait! There's more! This summer Batman meets an old associate. Kevin Smith of Clerks fame will be writing a Batman-Green Hornet crossover! Green Hornet was from the same production company as Batman, but only lasted on television one season.

 

 

 

           



Creature Comforts From Home IV: Teen Titans

@ Copyright 2014 DC Comics' New Teen Titans by George Perez

I was reading on Comic Book Resources the other day, a cover critique by Janelle Asselin, of the new Teen Titans #1 cover by Kenneth Rocafort. The critique exploded all over the internet and social media and broke down along gender lines. Threats were hurled at Janelle over the critique, and even incoming Teen Titans writer Will Pfeifer has shown support for both Asselin and Rocafort, while agreeing to disagree over the critique. What I found interesting in the critique is this-





Janelle Asselin, "Anatomy of a Bad Cover: Teen Titans #1" CBR

There is a growing number of females that either already are or are becoming comic book fans. This seems to be scaring guys that are comic book fans. Because instead of embracing it, guys that are comic book fans are saying, "Awww, no!" I would love it if my wife were as much of a comic book fan as I am. I am very thankful and appreciative though that she at least tolerates it.

It is interesting that there is a statistic to support that females are comic book fans; and, Teen Titans fans!

I am a comic book and science fiction fan. When I say science fiction, I don't necessarily mean Isaac Asimov, Tolkien, or CS Lewis. I grew up on Star Trek reruns. I'm a huge fan of the original Star Wars trilogy. I am not a real big fan of the prequel trilogy. The new J. J. Abrams Star Trek reboot, while thrilling and action packed, still owes a huge debt to the original series. I like Quantum Leap. There are a lot of time travel series; like, The Time Tunnel, Early Edition, Time Trax and Seven Days, but it was Quantum Leap that caught my attention. So much so that I followed the Innovation Comics comic book series and I tracked down all the paperback novels. It's the same for Doctor Who. My wife, Cathy stumbled across Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor reboot on Netflix and suggested I give it a try. She has no interest in watching it, she just thought I would like it. I was hooked... But I really have no interest in going back and watching the previous generations of The Doctor. I imagine that there are Star Trek fans that are like that. Fans of Next Generation, or DS9, or Voyager, or Enterprise, or this new Star Trek that have no desire to watch the original series.

It is interesting to find that Doctor Who, The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Star Trek, Quantum Leap and Teen Titans have fans that are both male and female.

The Silver Age: Teen Titans #1

 

Because I am a Batman fan, and that Robin was leading The Titans, and all the Titans were sidekicks, that's probably what caught my attention. I think I may heave heard or read about The X-Men, but there wasn't any thing about the X-Men that caught my attention until after I'd started reading The New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Perez. Reading their run, I started to get interested in seeing what had come before. The Bob Haney and Nick Cardy Teen Titans were kind of hokey and corny, but then, most Silver Age comics were. I started reading comics around the mid- to late-'70's. Comics were starting to change in the '70's. So much so that by 1980, when the Teen Titans were re-launched, it was a much different team. The New Teen Titans was a blockbuster book. It was as hot for DC as the X-Men were for Marvel.

 

Untold Tales of Spider-Man #21 guest-starring The Classic X-Men

I stuck with The Titans through the first five years of the book. Around 1985, Wolfman and Perez were doing double duty, producing the monthly Titans book and the landmark, sweeping, line-wide twelve-issue Crisis on Infinite Earths maxi-series. Wolfman stayed with the book for a good long while, but Perez moved on - to re-launch Wonder Woman, following Crisis, I think - and was followed by Tom Grummet and later Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.

 

The New Teen Titans teamed-up with The Uncanny X-Men to fight the Dark Phoenix and Darksied.

 

If there was one thing I would fault Wolfman and Perez for, it is allowing the Titans to age and mature. Dick Grayson matured beyond being a Boy or even a Teen Wonder. He became Nightwing, in homage to Superman's take on The Dark Knight. Wally West gave up being Kid Flash for a while; and later after his mentor Barry Allen's death during the Crisis, Wally replaced him as The Flash. Donna Troy, Wonder Girl, got married. She later became Troia; then a Darkstar. She and Wally both had complete stories and reached a point that was for them "The End". Aqualad became Tempest. Speedy became Arsenal; and later, Red Arrow.

 

Not too long ago, Amy Wolfram took them all back to a simpler time. When they were kid sidekicks, adventure was fun and grown-ups were a drag.

 

Teen Titans: Year One trade paperback

Teen Titans: Year One was such a fun read. Comic books should be fun. The art is amazing because each one of The Titans looks like a kid. Like they really are twelve of thirteen. They aren't buxom or ripped with muscle. That comes later. As an older teen or young adult. The Teen Titans here are awkward and gawky. Which is fun. I remember being awkward and gawky and totally inappropriate in middle school and early high school.

What I would like to see is a retro-Teen Titans. Instead of a new group of Titans, or a team made up of original Titans and Young Justice members, I'd like to see a group made up of classic sidekicks. This has been tried from time to time, but it never seems to catch on. I'd like to see Sandy, the Golden Boy, Captain Marvel, Jr., Kid Eternity and Merry, The Girl of 1,000 Gimmicks along with Robby Reed as Dial "H" For "Hero" and the updated version of Airwave. That would be cool to see.

I brought The Silver Age: Teen Titans #1 written by Marv Wolfman and penciled by Pat Oliffe; along with Untold Tales of Spider-Man #21 guest-starring The Uncanny X-Men written by Kurt Busiek and also penciled by Pat Oliffe; and Amy Wolfram's Teen Titans: Year One trade paperback collection, penciled by Karl Kerschl. (Kerschl also does The Abominable Charles Christopher webcomic. It's quite trippy. Give it a look.) These three books combine for a simpler time. When comics were fun.

On my trip to Kiev to bring my daughter home, these comics are some creature comforts from home.

Creature Comforts From Home III: Nick Landime

So, after getting hooked on books like Evilman Saves The World, Mr. Nightmare's Wonderful World, and Dark Cloud: The Game from Moonstone Books; and then, finding cool webcomics like You'll Have That, I discovered that both my hometown and the Twin Cities were creative hubs for artists.

Zach Miller, creator of Joe and Monkey, from my hometown!

DC Comics artists Pat Gleason, Doug Mahnke and Tom Nguyen, just a few of the Twin Cities residents.

Batman: Gotham Adventures, Justice League Adventures, Justice League Unlimited Adventures, The Batman Strikes!, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Young Justice and Dr. Blink, Superhero Shrink penciller Christopher Jones is a Twin City native. He also is part of the annual Fourth of July weekend CONvergence.

Anthony Anmph Hary, The Midnight Raider creator and self-publisher...you guessed it - Twin Cities native.

Star Trek artist Gordon Purcell...

Same with Bob Lipski, creator of Uptown Girl.

My buddy, Bill Halliar, got me interested in independent, creator-owned, self-published comics. There's a lot more hard work and creativity involved in publishing your own comic book. Bill introduced me to The Tick by Ben Edlund and Scud: The Disposable Assassin. I wasn't able to follow Scud, but I did enjoy The Tick.

It was in Rochester, through my friends Mark and Susan Lundberg, Michael Hutchison and Josh Lynsen that I got introduced to Shooting Star Comics. Michael Produced a few stories through Shooting Star; and then, launched Metro Med, a combination Chicago Hope/ER for super-heroes. It's a brilliant concept. He worked with artist Phil Meadows on that for awhile. There were a lot of great characters that were introduced in the Shooting Star Comics Anthologies. Scott McCulliar's Golden Hornet; Yankee Doodle; Aym Geronimo; Bedbug; and Erik Burnham's Nick Landime. He's been working on Ghostbusters at IDW; but, he created an interesting character named Nick Landime. Say the name all together, real fast to get the joke.

May, 2005, was when Burnham's Nick Landime Versus The World Crime League was released by Shooting Star Comics. What starts out as a simple misunderstanding involving a cable bill for the bar that Nick runs escalates quickly into hilarity. It's like that episode of the Flintstone's where Fred is recruited as a spy. It's a pretty basic theme: average Joe stumbles into some large plot and continues to stumble his way through, until he fumbles his way out, foiling the bad guys - mostly dim-witting them, rather than out-witting them. Burnham throws in a couple of cool cameos and makes the story very Bond-esque. It's so nice that he goes classic with the cameo rather than choosing another iteration.

This is side-splitting, milk-snorting out your nose funny. Naturally, I have three copies. Two of the three autographed by Erik.

Nick Landime Versus The World Crime League

Most guys I know dream of being a comic book creator. They have dreams of becoming the next Todd McFarlane, George Perez, Alex Ross or Jim Lee. Whoever is the hottest, rock star artist, that's who they want to be. If their dreams are more modest, they want to make a living off comics. I'd like to be a comic book writer. I don't know how realistic that dream is.

The reality is that it is not easy to self-publish. A lot of the creator-owned comics I brought on this trip published maybe one or two issues at most. But that first or second issue was worth it.

Nick Landime Versus The World Crime League is one of my creature comforts from home for a good laugh and an excellent Sean Connery and Donald Pleasance cameo.

Creature Comforts From Home II: You'll Have That

The Multiverse is cruel and unfair.


"You'll Have That" Finale, @ Copyright 2014 Wes Molebash
 

I'm not sure how I came across Wes Molebash's webcomic, You'll Have That, but I really enjoyed it and was sorry to see it come to an end. I'm not sure how to describe it. I read super hero comics, and this was a non-super hero webcomic. I guess I would compare it to Mad About You; Friends - focusing specifically on Monica and Chandler post-finale. It was a rare, unique webcomic that celebrated married life with a daily gag about today's nerd/geek males that read comic books, play video games and guitar; yet know nothing about real sports or car maintenance. I found a lot of common ground with Wes' Andy in You'll Have That. The only difference was geography. Both Wes and Andy are from Ohio. I grew up in Illinois and travelled a little for my career in radio. I grew up reading comic books and played rhythm guitar in a "garage band" that never went anywhere, but sure was fun to do! While I didn't dream about making my mark as a cartoonist like Wes' Andy, I still dream about making my mark as a comic book writer.

1985 Guitar Dave

The picture above is of me a couple years after high school, the summer of '85, when me and my buddies went into a recording studio and recorded seven songs for a demo tape. We had three major songs that we wrote and produced for the demo. A couple instrumentals. The guitar I am playing is home built. My buddy Derrick built it. The wires on the backside were exposed, so every now and again I would get a heckuva jolt in the gut. Ah, good times, good times...

Soul Mates

There was something else about You'll Have That that spoke to me. Just like Monica and Chandler on Friends, Andy and Katie really loved one another. It was funny to see a gag poking fun at either Andy or Katie, but it was fun and touching to see a strip where she saw him as a super-hero for killing a spider or walking her across the street and him picturing her as a vision of loveliness, enraptured and overwhelmed by her natural beauty.

Along for the ride, was Andy's best friend Steve; who was kind of like Selby in the early episodes of Mad About You. Selby apparently didn't test very well with the audience, so the character was dropped in favor of Paul's cousin Ira. What was unique about the strip, was Steve found a girl himself, and the strip added a dimension by focusing on "couplehood".

From start to finish, the strip maintained it's celebration of relationships, marriage, fidelity and faith.

You will find no end to webcomics that push the boundaries of taste, class, values and morals. What I have enjoyed is, no matter what strip Wes moved on to from You'll Have That, it was more grounded in Mayberry than in Jersey Shore. I felt good reading the strip. Reading You'll Have That was like reading a Love Is... newspaper comic strip.

The reason I feel that the Multiverse is cruel and unfair is that a guy like Wes Molebash - just like my friend Bill Halliar - should be creating regular monthly comic books. If Art Balthazar and Franco can create great comics, then so can Wes and Bill.

The reason I call my blog Earth-Dave, is that we all create our own personal universe. DC and Marvel have an infinite number of universes filled to bursting with innumerable characters. On Earth-Dave, You'll Have That never ended. Even though they are characters in a webcomic, Andy and Katie are still having happily married adventures full of wacky hijinks.

You'll Have That signed limited-edition comic!

I brought Volumes 1 and 2 and my signed, limited-edition You'll Have That comic book, with a very nice sketch included on our trip to Kiev to bring home our daughter, Masha, because on these trips, my wife, Cathy, and I have had a chance to spend some quality time together enjoying each other's company...And getting on each other's nerves. The two of us have an opportunity to re-connect and bond with one another as we are developing a bond with our kids - each one, one at a time. This is our third and probably final trip to Kiev - or anywhere - to adopt. From this point on we'll be spending quality time as a family of five, with a few moments for ourselves here and there.

That might make an interesting webcomic...

You'll Have That is one of my creature comforts from home that I've brought to enjoy re-reading for a good laugh.

Thanks, Wes!

Creature Comforts From Home I: Evilman

KIEV, UKRAINE - Wednesday, April 16th, 2014

My wife, Cathy, and I are in Kiev to bring home our daughter, Masha. We've been in Kiev a week and a half now. I should be home with our daughter by Memorial Day weekend. Most of what you are seeing in the news about Ukraine is happening south in Crimea, or east, along the Ukrainian-Russian border. There is still an Occupy movement going on in Kiev. There are still tents, shelters and barricades in Independence Square.

The Square is at the bottom of a hill. It is the heart and center of the city. There is an underground, two-level shopping mall; and below that, is the hub of the city's subway system, Maidan station. Maidan is one of the three Metro, or subway lines through the city. Maidan is the Blue line that runs north to southwest. There is another platform in the station for the east-west Red line. One stop south, there is a connection for the northwest-to-southeast Green line.

At the top of the hill there is Parliament and the Ukrainian government offices. There is a cathedral outside Parliament, on one side and on the other a longer diplomatic academy building. In the parking lot for all three of these, there is the another barricade. It is all very Les Miz.



  
We're here just to get through the process of adopting our third child, a daughter, Masha. A week and a half here, and we are waiting for our court date on our motion to adopt. Ten days after that we will get our court decree approving the motion and then the final days spent here will be getting her new birth certificate, passport, visa from the U.S. Embassy and final physical before we head back home. It is a long and involved process that means an extended stay here in Kiev. This is the third time we have adopted from Ukraine. My wife and I have been chronicling our story on Facebook at Cathy and Dave's Adoption Journey.

On our first trip, I had just picked up Geoff Johns and Jim Lee's first issue of The New 52 Justice League. I spent seven weeks re-reading that one issue, along with Alex Ross and Jim Krueger's twelve-issue opus, Justice. I brought the three softcover trade paperbacks. I was reading Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series, and enjoying it immensely.

On our second trip, Justice came along with again, along with six, seven or eight issues of Marvel's Avengers Assemble tie-in comic to the Disney XD animated series.

This third, and final trip, the stack is a little larger.

One of the books that I've brought along to re-read is on by a good friend of mine, Bill Halliar. Evilman Saves The World #1, published by Moonstone Books.

Sittin' in the...uh, liberry, reading...

I haven't read Deadpool, but I guess if you are fan of Marvel's Deadpool, Dark Horse's The Mask, Rob Schrab's Scud, The Disposable Assassin, Ben Edlund's The Tick and characters like that, then Evilman Saves The World is for you. Bill did both the story and the art for the book. In a nutshell, while eating breakfast, Evilman fends off an alien invasion with the help of his breakfast cereal. And, a small firearm. Free... inside his breakfast cereal. It is wacky and irreverent. Like The Simpsons comics, there is a gag in almost every panel. There is also a set-up and then a gag. So, it is almost twice the laughs in every panel.

The reason I brought this along is I needed a good laugh. Evilman delivers.

The first page has a bunch of good laughs. The paper Evilman is reading is called The Poop. Evilman is holding a coffee mug with the inscription "Caffeine is Life", while he is reading his morning paper. Called "The Poop". Did I mention already that the paper is called, "The Poop"? Evilman's breakfast cereal of choice is Yak Puffs, with a "FREE! Small Firearm Inside!" The front page banner headline of the paper - called "The Poop", y'know - reads "Macabre Moon-Monster Menace". I can only guess that is a nod to Mr. Nightmare's Wonderful World, another Moonstone Book, by Dave Ulanski. That's just the first page, and I'm hooked. But, that's just me.

Evilman Saves The World is good for a laugh. That's what I need. These trips have been stressful. It is not easy being a foreigner in a foreign country like Ukraine, in a city like Kiev. I have great respect for the people here. I just need a little creature comfort from home. Like a sinister pickle.

Seriously. Evilman looks like a pickle with arms and legs. It's hilarious!     

First Family Diversity

I read Joseph Philip Illidge's brilliant and insightful breakdown on the casting of Michael B. Jordan as The Human Torch, Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four film reboot. Apparently, the casting of a black actor to play a white character is creating quite the (wait for it) storm.

I have a couple of opinions about this.

I'm a new dad. I have two sons. They are from India by way of Ukraine. When my wife and I found out that our option to become parents became adoption, one of my best friends pulled me aside and told me not to limit my options. My friend told me not to be hung up on what my kid looked like. When you become a parent, your child is your child. No matter what. It's like any relationship really. You accept all the baggage that comes along with your partner and spouse. You accept your kids. You accept your parents. I love both my boys.

More importantly, I want them to see something of a reflection of themselves around them. Not all heroes look like Harry Potter; or James Bond; or Doctor Who.

Not every villain looks like Darth Vader and has the voice of James Earl Jones.

Idris Elba

Some of them look like actor Idris Elba. He's Heimdall in the Thor films. He was in The Losers, an adaptation of a DC comic book, Prometheus, Pacific Rim and Mandela, among other fine films.

How do you pronounce this guy's name?

Some of them look like Chiwetel Ejiofor, star of Serenity, Salt and Twelve Years A Slave.

Others look like Samuel L. Jackson, not to be confused EVER with Laurence Fishburne.

You don't ever want to confuse Nick Fury with Morpheus.

So, as a dad, I want my kids to see something of themselves in the entertainment they enjoy. Just like when I was a kid, I identified with Peter Parker.

Now, as a comic book fan, it is always cool to see what I enjoy in comic books show up on television or in movies. I know that reading a comic book is a different kind of experience from watching a television show or a movie. It is amazing to look back on the comic books I've enjoyed growing up as a kid, and seeing just how white they are. I'm embarrassed that one issue of Justice League of America pretty much hazes Black Lightning under the guise of recruiting him.

Until the Justice League animated series debuted on Cartoon Network with John Stewart as Green Lantern, the team was pretty much WASPy. But then, so was every other comic book team or character. minorities have always been subordinate.

What Illidge points out, is that Nick Fury was re-imagined as black, and based on Samuel L. Jackson in The Ultimates, and then Samuel L. Jackson played Nick Fury on film. Remember when David Hasselhoff played Nick Fury. No? No one does, so don't worry.

The Fantastic Four has been re-introduced to new fans a number of times. As Illidge again points out, when Ultimate Nick Fury was introduced as Samuel L. Jackson, Ultimate Fantastic Four introduced yet another white quartet. Fantastic Four was re-introduced previously as "Heroes Reborn"; and twelve months later as "Heroes Return". There have been several all-ages iterations of the team. None of them introduced any diversity to Marvel's First Family.

Why don't we do that here?

As a new dad and a comic book fan, here's what I would like to see:

Corbin Bleu, from Catch That Kid, Jump In and the High School Musical trilogy as the brilliant genius leader Reed Richards. I want my kids to see that intelligence and brains are color-blind. Any one can be the guy that comes in and saves the day with the right gadget he just MacGuyvered. Most of the people responsible for creating comic books were adult white males. So what did they create? "Mary Sues". They created reflections of themselves. The reality is they saw a white world so they created one in comics.

  
High School Musical trilogy alum Vanessa Hudgens as Reed's girlfriend, and future wife, Sue Storm. She's the glue that holds Reed, Ben and her brother Johnny together. Remember those adult white males that created comic books? Not only did they not see a racially diverse world, they didn't any diversity in gender. There are either characters like Wonder Woman or She-Hulk, or what Sue originally started out as: window dressing. In the early issues of Fantastic Four Sue actually pined for Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Over time she's been developed into more of a working mother, kind of reflective of the real world around her.

I would not cast Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm. Let me tell you why. I can't see the rash, impulsive member of the Fantastic Four as black. To me, that's stereotypical. Let's make the "hothead" black. Either he'll be like Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart or Chris Tucker - you get the point, right? Or, he'll be mature, straight forward and serious, which won't work either. I would go Victorious, Rags, and Spectacular actor Avan Jogia. Why? Because Sue and Johnny are siblings. Brother and sister. Kate Mara and Michael B. Jordan could work as brother and sister. Mixed race parents. Adoption. Whatever. Avan Jogia and Vanessa Hudgens make sense as family. The Fantastic Four is about family. I know from experience that you can build a family; you can blend a family. That's what the First Family is all about: family.

Ben Grimm is just as important a character as the rest of the Fantastic Four. I liked the chemistry between Chris Evans' Johnny and Michael Chiklis' Ben. I'm not sure a guy like Dave Batista would fit with such a young group, but I do think that Ben needs some bulk; some build. If not Batista, then another WWE figure. Or, some one that can bulk up and put on some guns as Ben, so The Thing isn't such a drastic transformation. I would think that if any thing, Ben Grimm should be white, and Jewish like he is in the comic books. Ben should be the "token" white guy.

James Robinson and Leonard Kirk relaunch Fantastic Four with a new #1 issue on Wednesday. Jack Kirby and Stan Lee originally launched the team with a #1 in November of 1961. A lot has changed in 53 years, and yet, not much. As both a dad and a comic book fan, I think it is time comics reflected some things, like diversity. I want my boys to see that they can become any thing they want. The only way they can see that is if they do see it.

Change can be a good thing.
        

   

All-New Invaders...?

I enjoy James Robinson's writing.  I just picked up the first two issues of All-New Invaders that he's written. I like The Invaders. Captain America and Bucky, The Human Torch and Toro and Namor, The Sub-Mariner. These five heroes fighting the Axis in World War II. After Batman and Spider-Man had introduced me to comic books, I started reading "history" through The Invaders and found I enjoyed World War II stories. That was the '70's. In the '80's, I followed Invaders writer Roy Thomas over to DC where he wrote All-Star Squadron, which was about every Golden-Age DC character together during World War II. In the '90's Robinson picked up where Thomas left off with his mini-series The Golden Age, Starman and Justice Society of America. Robinson built up so much on the foundation that Thomas laid.

I am cautious not to use the word "fan". As much as I would like to say that I am a "fan", I'm more likely to pause, take a deep breath and confess that I like both Robinson's and Thomas' writing. I once said I was a fan, when I was a boy in school and it was pointed out to me that I wasn't much of a fan because I didn't have the bed-sheets to prove it. I've always had a limit to my obsession, where others have gone the whole nine yards with either cos-play or a tattoo.    

I put James Robinson alongside New Teen Titans writer, Marv Wolfman; Kurt Busiek, known for Marvels, Astro City and Untold Tales of Spider-Man; Kingdom Come, The Flash and Fantastic Four writer Mark Waid; and, Paul Dini, who with Bruce Timm created the DC animated universe starting with Batman, then Superman and finally the Justice League. Dini then collaborated with artist Alex Ross to create a rich Bronze Age tribute through a number of stand-alone over-size graphic novels, Peace on Earth, War on Crime, Power of Hope, Spirit of Truth, JLA: Secret Origins and JLA: Liberty and Justice. I like reading these five writers. I put them together, and I would group them with Stephen King, Michael Crichton, Peter David - as a Star Trek novelist - Eoin Colfer, creator of Artemis Fowl; and Kinsey Millhone creator Sue Grafton.

When I say that there is a limit to my obsession, that means that there is a point where I draw a line. I like Marv Wolfman for his work on New Teen Titans. I'm not sure I would pick up anything else he's written. James Robinson has a unique voice as a writer when it comes to The Golden Age of comic books. But, I was never compelled to pick up his Superman or Action Comics. I read his Justice League: Cry For Justice and felt a little disappointed. When he took over from the late Dwayne McDuffie on the regular monthly Justice League, I wanted to like it. Unfortunately, it was a hybrid of the Justice League and Teen Titans; it was a Justice Titans. Dick Grayson had taken over as Batman; Diana Prince's younger sister Donna Troy was Wonder Woman; Mon-El was standing in for Superman along with Supergirl. I really wanted to like it. I still do.

That's the feeling I'm having after two issues of All-New Invaders. I want to like it. It's the characters I enjoy by the writer I enjoy. It just doesn't feel like a story I'd enjoy.

What Robinson has done is pretty similar to what he was doing on Earth-2 before he left DC. DC launched a reboot of it's entire comic book like branded The New 52. Robinson was re-imagining the Justice Society. As newer, younger characters. With no connection at all to World War II. Instead, the team came together in the wake and aftermath of a cosmic event involving Jack Kirby's New God's and Darkseid. Robinson left Earth-2 with issue #16, and now launches both All-New Invaders and Fantastic Four.

Here's what I'm thinking. Both teams have a Human Torch. Jim Hammond is the original Human Torch; Johnny Storm is the modern age version. I'm wondering if Robinson is planning an Invaders-Fantastic Four team-up crossover. I wouldn't be surprised. The first two issues of the new Invaders comic are cosmic in nature. An alien race called the Kree have come to Earth in search of something called God's Whisper. The Invaders dismantled it and hid the pieces to keep it from ever being used. They first encountered God's Whisper fighting Hela, during World War II.  It's a bit of a stretch, but that doesn't seem to fit the team. The most common Invaders stories have been against Axis despots. Like The Red Skull or Baron Blood. Now they are fighting aliens. That seems more within the Fantastic Four's wheelhouse. The Fantastic Four are more cosmic in nature.

I have to admit, I haven't read The Invaders since the '70's. The team was brought back not to long ago in an Avengers/Invaders team-up, and an Invaders Now! series.

I'm wondering why James Robinson is writing The Invaders like they are the Fantastic Four. Because, I'd like to see them fighting bad guys like the ones they faced before. Like The Red Skull, Baron Zemo, Von Strucker, or maybe Doctor Doom. They could be working with aliens. The Invaders are more soldiers. I have a hard time seeing soldiers fighting aliens.