Done with DC

Its Wednesday, June 1, 2011, and this is The Side. It really sucks when you realize that something you've really enjoyed for over a decade has jumped the shark.

COMIX!!

I've been a solid DC reader since 1996. I've read a lot of their titles. I've been cautiously optimistic about the company and the direction its taken over the years. Sure there's been plenty of missteps and stupid moves, but I've always felt overall that they were a solid company and despite the missteps they would come through. lately there's been rumors of renumbering all their titles back to #1. I called it an aggressively stupid idea. I figured with a recent letter writing campaign that got WONDER WOMAN back up to its proper numbering that we had taken a step to move past the constant relaunching to titles.

Guess I was wrong.

I actually had a bit of hope when they said there was going to be an announcement coming from Geoff Johns, DC's creative director, and Jim Lee, DC's co-editor-in-chief. But the announcement was that they're going to be doing JUSTICE LEAGUE?

This is one of those times in which I'm trying very hard not to just type the word "fuckers" about a thousand times. I've just lost what faith I had in DC. So when they do their relaunch I won't be onboard. I just can't support something this dumb coming off of this stupid FLASHPOINT event. Honestly, I feel a bit betrayed by a company I put such an investment of time and interest in. I'm typing this wearing my favorite t-shirt. Its a Wal-Mart shirt with the Silver Age Justice League on it, and I feel like a fucking tool wearing it.

So where does that leave me? I'm getting away from DC. Marvel's got nothing that I'm interested in. I still get HELLBOY and few odds and ends from other companies. So I guess I'll be exploring a bit more of the stuff from Dark Horse and other companies.

I feel like its 1996 all over. That's when I dumped Marvel entirely due to their going exclusive with Diamond. I'm dropping the vast majority of my reading list. But now there's a lot more webcomics so I may very well just read more of those.

I'm going to miss superheroes.

MUSIC!!!

Four guys who don't need electricity to make awesome music.



That's it for me today. I'm going to go and try to deal with the fact I'm going to be one of those guys who only reads independent comics. I promise not to be as pretentious as most of those tools.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

Warning!!!!!! Below, there be spoilers! They'll swallow ye whole, they will!



Let's answer the big question right now: is it any good? Sure, it's alright. The story is alright. The animation is really solid. There were plenty of nice little touches here and there to keep me engaged. Still, I wasn't as fully engaged as I would have liked to have been, and I know exactly who to blame for this: Grant Morrison.

Of course he didn't do it intentionally, but after reading his work, JLA: EARTH 2, I came to the table with preconceived notions. This is completely unfair of me, especially to Dwayne McDuffie. I'm going to say for the record that I like McDuffie's work and his writing on this project was very good. He put in some things that I really got a kick out of, mainly appearances by Aquaman and Firestorm. In fact the only thing that I really didn't like was the romance between Rose Wilson and J'onn J'onzz. So what's by problem?



Morrison teamed up with Frank Quitely to create JLA: EARTH 2. This book is well worth picking up and features some of Quitely's best artwork. The story involves Lex Luthor from the anti-matter universe coming to the matter universe to ask for help from the Justice league to help defeat their anti-matter counterparts, The Crime Syndicate. This is the same premise as the the movie, minus the matter/anti-matter bit. It's simply and alternate universe or parallel dimension.

That's fine, no trouble there. In fact since the publication of EARTH 2, DC has reintroduced the concept of a "multiverse" (multiple versions of the same universe which are separated but linked) back into current continuity. The multiverse concept was dropped during CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS which saw the demise of the Crime Syndicate due to their world being one of the first to be destroyed.

I'm pretty sure my problem revolves around Owlman, the alternate version of Batman. In the comic he was evil, no, check that, eeeeeeeeevil. He took great delight in the murder and mayhem he caused in his crusade to destroy his father. The Owlman in the movie was a nihilist who saw free will as being none existent and choice to be meaningless. A character being depicted as different between one medium and another is nothing new, and not really something I really quibble over unless it's a complete departure. However, this motivation of character is key to both stories.

In EARTH 2, Owlman finds himself in the positive matter world and makes a crucial discovery. In that world his father is dead and because of that he has nothing to strive for. Owlman's motivation is revenge against his father for what he perceives is his father's failure to protect his mother and brother. So, with his father's counterpart gone he has nothing to strive for. He can't win. As it turns out the entire Crime Syndicate can't win in the positive matter universe and inversely the Justice league's efforts in the anti-matter universe were doomed to failure. The story had a nice yin and yang type balance to it.

In CRISIS ON TWO EARTHS, McDuffie borrows a bit from other DC material, mainly COUNTDOWN and 52. The concept of an "Earth Prime" as a linchpin world in the multiverse is used. We also get to see a heroic version of The Joker, called The Jester, which seems very much like The Jokester who was one of the few good things about COUNTDOWN. These are not bad things, but I think that's why I couldn't really get into it. Owlman's goal is to destroy Earth prime and by extension the multiverse. The motivations just did not grab me as much as Morrison's Owlman.

Batman and Owlman are indeed polar opposites in this movie. It's not so much good versus evil so much as Batman representing survival and perseverance and Owlman wanting to commit suicide and take everything with him.

Also this movie doesn't make me think as much as the book did. Its easy enough to imagine all the good guys being bad guys and vice versa. However, imagining a world where evil and good as concepts are reversed takes a lot more intellectual candlepower.

Bottom line: rent it, or buy it if you did good action and the Justice League. Skip the two-disk pack as disk two only contains a couple of rather lackluster JUSTICE LEAGUE episodes and a documentary about DC comics and how Dan DiDio perceived the September 11th attacks changing what people wanted in comics, and everyone musing about everything I don't care about in the DCU. Get the cheaper version and enjoy.

Next in line?

During my weekend shredding of FLASH: REBIRTH Kristie asked me how this mess could be redeemed. It got my brain clicking, especially since I'd been writing about character progression and the passing of torches. With all of the old Silver Age heroes being brought back to the DCU, perhaps is time for the Justice League to go the route of the Justice Society and move aside for the next generation to become the premier heroes of the DCU.

I'm looking hard at the current Titans line-up. They're multiple characters on that roster that have been former League members. The potential there is great, but unfortunately all I'm seeing from the group is them dealing with the same threats they did twenty plus years ago.

Way back in the Wolfman/Perez days the New Teen Titans were seen as the characters that would be the big heroes of the next generation. They were to be the future Justice League. I'm thinking the time may be fast approaching when this thought becomes a fact in comics.