The Marvel 52, Part One: Marvel Pulp

I've kept pretty quiet about DC's whole New 52 deal up to now. For better or worse, I don't form opinions quickly, so I gave DC some time to get all their announcements out and respond to the first couple of waves of concerns. I will say that my initial reaction was positive though. I haven't followed DC comics for a couple of years now, so it doesn't affect me personally that they're cancelling everything and starting over. If anything, some of their new series sound really interesting. Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang on Wonder Woman, for instance. Barbara Gordon as Batgirl again, as another example.

My main criticism is that DC seems to be hoping to eat its cake and have it too in regards to balancing current fans with potential, new readers. The New 52's been promoted as an "all-in" approach to reinvigorating the line, while at the same time refusing to call itself a reboot and insisting that fan-favorite stories (an extremely loosely defined category) still count. That's not very "all-in" at all and I suspect that their wishy-washiness will cost them some of those potential, new readers they're wanting.

I don't expect that they'll lose many readers though. As much complaining as fans have been doing, they're still fans. They've stuck with DC through Countdown to Final Crisis; I expect that they'll stick around through this. And it's not like Marvel's got anything especially exciting going on to compete. Yeah, yeah, Marvel still routinely beats DC in sales; all I'm saying is that I don't expect current DC readers to suddenly start switching to Marvel as a result of the "non"-reboot. Whatever you think of DCnU, it's certainly interesting. Marvel, on the other hand, continues to publish the same kind of crossover stuff they've been doing for the last five years. I'm not saying that none of it's good, 'cause some of it really is, but seriously...their section of Previews the last couple of months hasn't been nearly as exciting and expectant as DC's.

I wish I'd thought of this myself, but it was Comics Should Be Good (Robot 6's sister blog at CBR) that came up with the idea of developing your own Marvel 52. I like DC's idea of creating smaller imprints within the DCU (JLA, Batman, Superman, Dark, Edge, etc.). so I used that for my Marvel list too. Not that DC came up with it. Marvel's done the same thing before with Marvel Knights, Tsunami, Marvel MAX, and whatnot. I even used some of those in my list.

Because this could get long, I'm going to divide this up into a series of five posts going into September when DC launches their stuff. That'll give me some room to talk about why I picked the concepts I did as well as the creators I'd love to see work on them. We'll start with a category I call...

Marvel Pulp



The idea behind this "imprint" is to focus on some of the great, not-quite-superhero concepts that Marvel's had over the years: Westerns, jungle adventures, period heroes, spies, and space opera. We'll do this in countdown format, so:

52. Gamora by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Sam Hiti

Gamora's got a lot of history in Marvel's cosmic comics, but the focus on this would be her traveling the universe as an intergalactic bounty hunter. Gamora's extremely hard to kill and has a wicked sense of humor. Kelly Sue DeConnick (Osborn, Supergirl) can deliver the goods on funny (and excitement) while Sam Hiti (Tiempos Finales, Death-Day) knows everything about drawing beautiful women and exotic, alien landscapes.

51. Guardians of the Galaxy by Roger Langridge and Shaun Tan

As fun as a Gamora solo-title would be, we also need a book that can capture the rest of Marvel's cosmic characters like Silver Surfer, Thanos, and Rocket Raccoon. Roger Langridge (Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Snarked!) has the imagination to make that incredible, while Shaun Tan (The Arrival, Tales from Outer Suburbia) has the ability to mix the real and the odd in a unique, believable way. He's not known for action sequences, so I'd be interested to see how he tackled that, but I can already imagine his depiction of the arrival of Galactus and it's mind-blowing.

50. Sabra by Carla Jablonsky and Laurenn McCubbin

Sabra isn't a well-known character, but I've been fascinated by her since I first saw her in The Incredible Hulk #256. Maybe because she took her Israeli heritage so seriously, yet didn't seem to have been created specifically to fill a slot as Israel's Superhero for Contest of Champions or something. She eventually became just another of the many, international mutants running around the X-Men's corner of the Marvel Universe, but I've always thought she was better than that. I'd love to see her in a series that focused on the issues of the Middle East in a thoughtful, objective way. Not that Sabra herself should be objective about them, but that the series could explore the region and its history in a way that educates as well as entertains. Carla Jablonsky's done something similar with Nazi-occupied France in her Resistance series, so I picked her to write.  Laurenn McCubbin has a great, realistic style that would complement that kind of story beautifully.

49. Black Widow by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Amanda Conner



I don't know if this was the right thing to do, but though I picked 52 visual artists for my list, I only picked 26 writers and gave them each two books. That was partly because most writers can handle multiple books in a month, but it was also partly to make list-making easier on myself. I'm sure I'll regret it later when I realize I've forgotten one of my favorite writers.

At any rate, this is the second book I'd give Kelly Sue. I promise that I didn't purposely match up women creators with women characters, but it worked out that way in Kelly Sue's case. I'd love to see her write Black Widow. As for Amanda Conner: I love seeing anything she draws, but one look at her variant cover from Secret Avengers #6 above and you'll get why I want her on a Black Widow comic so badly.

48. Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD by James Turner and Luc Jacamon

If you've read James Turner's Rex Libris or Warlord of IO, you know how insanely, awesomely inventive he is. Just the guy to put the "super" back into super spy. And Luc Jacamon (The Killer) knows all about drawing deadly people in diverse settings, both urban and exotic.

47. Mystery Men by Susan Kim and Guy Davis

I really hate not to have David Liss and Patrick Zircher continue the concept they started, but one of the criteria I wanted for my list was to have as many women as possible on it. So I'm giving this '30s-set heroic pulp series to Susan Kim, who did such a great job with her adventurous City of Spies set in a similar time period. And I'm aching to see Guy Davis do some more stuff like he did on Sandman Mystery Theatre.

46. Tigra by Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, and Kerry Callen



The inspiration for this book is two-fold. First, I wanted a jungle comic and Tigra would work great in that setting. She wouldn't have to stay only in that setting, but it would be a great homebase for her.The second inspiration was this description by Kerry Callen of what he wanted in a Tigra series: "a fun-loving character whose cat-like curiosity gets her into interesting predicaments." Pak and Van Lente would be perfect for that and one look at Callen's blog and you know he's the only guy for the visual part of the job.

45. The Savage Land by Joshua Fialkov and Jeremy Bastian

It's another jungle comic, but this one's different from Tigra. Her comic would be much more versatile with lots of guest-stars from other Marvel characters. The Savage Land of course would be set exclusively in the prehistoric world beneath Antarctica. At first I thought I'd call it Ka-Zar and Shanna (the first of several two-character comics you'll see in my Marvel 52), but then I remembered the temptation to take those two out of the Savage Land to interact with the rest of the Marvel Universe. Renaming it The Savage Land (which is a much cooler title anyway) removes that temptation.There's a whole world to explore there and as long as I'm fantasizing about my dream comics (as opposed to worrying about sales), I want to keep these characters out of the rest of the Marvel Universe. I don't care if other Marvel characters stop by for a visit, but I want the setting to stay consistent.

Josh Fialkov (Elk's Run, Tumor) does really well with setting and small casts of characters, so I pick him to write. Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl) draws lavishly and I'd love to see the creatures and landscapes he could fill the Savage Land with.

44. The Rangers by Alan Moore and J Bone

Based on another group of characters I once read about in The Incredible Hulk (#265 this time). The Rangers were a goofy team created by Bill Mantlo, but I liked their modern-Western concept and the sheer zaniness of it would be a great playground for Alan Moore. The team included Firebird (probably the most famous character to come out of the team) as well as modern versions of Red Wolf and the original Ghost Rider (renamed Phantom Rider to avoid confusion) and a couple of very Mantlo characters: Shooting Star (her gun shoots stars!) and Texas Twister (tornado powers). In keeping with making the series fun and versatile, J Bone can draw absolutely anything and make it look wonderful.

43. Gunslingers by John Ostrander and Leonardo Manco



Counterpoint to The Rangers, this would be a real Western set in the late 1800s. Really it's just a continuation of Ostrander and Manco's two mini-series, Blaze of Glory and Apache Skies in which they updated Marvel's classic, Western heroes for modern fans of Westerns.

Coming Monday: Midnight Sons!

Art Show: Cat Women

Skorpion



By Rick Burchett. [From the graphic novel he's working on with writer Christopher Mills]

Fanciful Submarines



By Andrew George Brown. [Lots more at Etsy by way of Wondermark]

From the Depths



By Matt Wiegle. [Seriously, if you're not reading his and Sean T Collins Destructor webcomic - from which this is a page - you're missing out.]

Aquaman: King of the Seas



By Braden D Lamb.

A Naiad



By John William Waterhouse. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Princess Pantha



By Alex Schomburg. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Ka-Zar, Shanna, and Zabu



By Brent Anderson. [Giant-Size Marvel]

Jungle Girl



By Red LYUBA. [More here]

Tigra



By Jason Barton.

And Now the News: I refuse to be beaten by a villain named after a pastry (or, the 2000th post)

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the 2000th time I've updated this blog. I wouldn't know how to celebrate that if I wanted to, but I figured it needed at least acknowledging.

Hunter's Fortune preview



CBR's got a preview of Boom!'s treasure-hunter comic Hunter's Fortune. There's not much action in the preview, but Caleb Monroe writes some nice dialogue and the art's really sweet. I was hoping this would be good and sure enough, it looks like it will be.

Kerry Callen's Tigra



I've said before that Kerry Callen ought to be writing a Tigra comic. Now he's given us a taste of what that might be like. (Maybe not an accurate taste - he wrote it as a She-Hulk parody for Marvel's humor comic What the--? - but a fun taste nevertheless.)

Midnight, Mass: The TV Series



I think I've also mentioned before that John Rozum is like the king of supernatural adventure comics, right? Part of my evidence for that being his couple of excellent, though poorly-treated-by-Vertigo Midnight, Mass mini-series. So, can you imagine how excited I am about the announcement of a Midnight, Mass TV show? I don't think you can. I'm still trying to get my head around the concept of that much giddiness myself.

Everything you need to know about Love and Rockets



The Hernandez Bros.' Love and Rockets is one of those series that everyone says is a fantastic Must Read, but that I've never figured out how to get into. For years, the un-numbered, collected volumes prevented me from knowing where to begin.

No excuses anymore. Chris Mautner has started a new Robot 6 column called Comics College that's intended to "(examine) the body of work of a particular cartoonist or cartoonists of note in the hopes of giving newcomers and the generally uninitiated an entry point." As Chris continues, "There are a number of notable creators who have had lengthy careers in comics and figuring out where to start when reading their ouevre can be tricky." That's so true, and what's especially cool is that he started with the series that's been most tricky for me personally. And I didn't even have to ask.

Thanks, Chris! I can't wait for future installments.

Quotes of Last Week: Bad-Luck Slut

Totally forgot the Quotes of the Week on Saturday. Oops!



I've always wanted Tigra to be a fun-loving character whose cat-like curiosity gets her into interesting predicaments (including fighting monsters). I'm not sure what Marvel's take on her is. Bad-luck slut, maybe? I haven't truly kept up with what's happening with her lately. I suspect I don't want to know.
--Kerry Callen, perfectly illustrating why he should be writing and drawing a Tigra comic.

It's bad enough that Americans have to wait a few weeks or months to watch Doctor Who episodes on BBC America after they've aired in the United Kingdom on BBC One...
--SCI FI Wire, not seeing the irony in that that's exactly how it used to be when Doctor Who was on their damn channel.

It's good to encourage physical activity, but NOT if the purpose of encouraging it is to try to make people thinner. Then it's counter-productive. People will be healthier if they're more active and don't smoke and if they avoid eating disordered behavior (like dieting in particular) ... The idea that people pursue thinness primarily for health reasons is laughable.
--Paul Campos, the author of The Obesity Myth, on the difference between fitness and thinness. As a fat dude, I found the whole interview absolutely fascinating. (Incidentally, I've been getting this message from other health professionals as well. Physical activity as its own reward is a lesson I'm finally starting to internalize.)

No thank you, Ridley. Why don't you just go ahead and work on a prequel to your Monopoly film instead. Tell us how Uncle Moneybags met the dog and thimble.
--Topless Robot, on why the proposed prequel to Alien is actually a pretty horrible idea.

The Lady Liberators vs. Red Hulk

I got a little behind on my comics reading, so I've just now caught up with what's going on in Jeph Loeb's Hulk. I have reservations about it, but I'm enjoying it in general. I'd much rather read something by Jeff Parker, Greg Pak, or Fred Van Lente, but between the silly, trying-too-hard wackiness of Loeb and all the talking and off-panel fighting that Bendis and Millar crank out, I'll take Loeb without even having to think about it. It's obvious that he's having a blast writing this stuff and it's infectious enough that I'm enjoying it too.

What I just read was Hulk #s 7-9. I think it's very cool that they're splitting up each issue between the Green Hulk and the Red Hulk (I refuse to refer to him by the stupid codename they give him in the comic; one of those reservations I was talking about). It took some getting used to, but if that's what it takes to get a monthly (or so) dose of Art Adams and Frank Cho interior art, I've got zero complaints. These guys are fantastic artists, but notoriously slow. Letting each of them draw half a comic a month was a genius move. Someone deserves a raise for that.



I'm going to focus mostly on the Red Hulk story here because that's the one that features She-Hulk and she's the reason I'm writing this post. But the Green Hulk story deserves mentioning if for no other reason than Art Adams is drawing it and holy crap it's good to see that. Again, Loeb wants so badly to be awesome that he throws all kinds of things into the story (like Joe Fixit, mutated Wendigos, Moon Knight, etc.), but he does so mostly without any credible reason. That's where he falls short of the Parkers, Paks, and Van Lentes. Those guys bring the awesome, but their stories still make sense at the same time.

But, back to the Red Hulk. In issues 1-6 of the series, S.H.I.E.L.D. was trying to bring down the Red Hulk and threw everyone they could think of against him, including Thor and She-Hulk. The Red Hulk's tough though and was able to beat them all. Difference between Thor and She-Hulk is that Thor was able to shrug off the defeat and go about his day as long as Red Hulk was ultimately defeated (which he was, temporarily, by Green Hulk). She-Hulk, on the other hand, let her smack-down eat at her, so when Red Hulk went missing again, she volunteered to go after him and deliver some payback.

Thing is, she knew from experience that she couldn't deliver it by herself, so she pulled out her Rolodex and started calling every other female superhero she knew. This is where it starts to get good. Or at least interesting. No, that's not fair; it's good. Wait and see.



A lot of the girls were busy with other things, so She-Hulk ends up with just Thundra and Valkyrie. Not too shabby, but not exactly an army either. Calling themselves the Lady Liberators (after an old Marvel team that Valkyrie sort-of-but-not-really used to belong to), they catch up to Red Hulk at Mount Rushmore and fight him.

There's some silly stuff like our supposing to think that She-Hulk's in danger because Red Hulk wraps a chain around her neck and dangles her over a cliff. Please. If She-Hulk's neck-muscles can't deal with hanging... Fortunately, Valkyrie and Thundra put a stop to it before we have to think about it too hard.

Then Valkyrie has her winged horse rescue She-Hulk from the drop and She-Hulk calls it the wrong name.



(I know, nice gratuitous crotch shot. Sigh.)

Anyway, I'm not up on current Valkyrie continuity, so maybe she's got a new horse, but her mount used to be named Aragorn. Maybe that's not as cool as it once was now that everyone knows where Marvel stole the name from (possibly why Sauron doesn't menace the X-Men much anymore either?). I choose to believe that She-Hulk either didn't know the horse's real name or forgot it in her panic over falling. Where's my No-Prize? Or am I just behind and the horse really is called Pegasus now?

There's some more fighting and Red Hulk looks like he's about to win, but at the end of issue #8 the cavalry arrives in the form of most of the women She-Hulk initially called to help her out. They've cleared their schedules and are here to - as She-Hulk says - "spank some red ass."



I'll try not to spoil anything more except to say that we're reminded that a) Red Hulk is actually a pretty smart guy and b) one of the Lady Liberators has a background as a villain. I'll probably say more about that second one when I talk later about what's going on in She-Hulk. But for now I just want to point out a couple of things about She-Hulk and what this story says about women super-heroes (and women) in general.

First, She-Hulk does a lot of whining in this story. She complains way past the point of annoyance about how infuriating it was to get beat up by Red Hulk. Seriously, I just wanted her to stop. Getting Valkyrie and Thundra to join her was all so she could pay Red Hulk back for defeating her. Except, how much payback is it when you have to call in help to deliver it? How is that satisfying on a personal level? Stay with me here, because there's an answer and - I'm pleased to say - Loeb is the one who supplies it.

She-Hulk has a voiceover at the beginning of issue #9's installment that lets us know that this isn't a matter of personal pride for her. It's a gender issue.




As someone who likes reading about women heroes, I hadn't really questioned why all the people She-Hulk called were female. I figured it was just about Loeb's having a cool idea and running with it as usual. But this time there's a real reason. Red Hulk isn't just an evil strongman; he's a misogynistic pig. Loeb goes out of his way to show that over and over again. Of course he's infuriating to She-Hulk. Of course she's pissed off that she can't physically make him stop. Of course she's going to call in her badass girlfriends to teach this scumbag a lesson.

I'm starting to like Red Hulk now. I didn't at first. I thought he was another of Loeb's crazy, half-formed ideas and I was ready to move past his story. But the longer he stays around, and the more infuriating he gets, and the more it becomes clear that he's really not going to go down easily; the more I absolutely hate him. And I've realized that I love hating him.



I'm not going to insult women by saying that a male writer has taught me to finally see the world through women's eyes, but I will say that I get now - in a tiny, tiny way, but in a way I never thought much about before nonetheless - why a lot of women I know are so frustrated by the imbalance of power between the genders. These characters (fictional and scantily clad as they are) are strong characters, physically and - for most of them anyway - in other ways as well. It's maddening that they can't seem to get the upper hand on this guy who hates them because they're women (or at best, only sees worth in them as objects for his sexual gratification).

I feel like I need to apologize for giving this much credit to a super-hero story, but screw it. It made me see something in a way I hadn't before and - for all its flaws - that's pretty cool. I'm not going to take that away from it.