Wednesday Comics Concludes / More Stuff

Wednesday Comics

With last week's issue of Wednesday Comics, DC's adventure concluded. My favorite turned out to be Supergirl, as I suspected from the beginning. Easy reading, superb art and characterizations, a nice, simple story that worked perfectly in this format, and a very amusing ending, all worked together to make the best of all the features included in the series.

Also excellent: Metamorpho (hilarious sub-dialogue from Java), and the Green Lantern feature. Both were stylish and fun.

Honorable Mention: Batman, Kamandi, Metal Men, Teen Titans, Strange Adventures, Hawkman, Sgt. Rock. Each of these had some great moments, and were all well crafted and great quality.

Superman, Deadman and Catwoman/The Demon were just a'ight for me. They were all nicely drawn, but the story was weak in each. The ending of the Catwoman story was kind of nice, though.

What didn't work for me: Wonder Woman. It just never gelled. The artwork was nice, what you could see of it - but so much of it was obscured by the sketchy technique (usually something I love, because you can see the loose framework of the drawing beneath), weird color scheme, and the incredible amount of dialogue. I could never tell which "panel" was supposed to be next - it just didn't flow at all.

So ends DC's latest foray into weekly serial comics. I felt this outing was superior to Trinity and to DC Countdown. I think the Powers That Be at DC are really enamoured of this weekly idea, and since the success of 52 have continued to try to recapture that lightning in a bottle. Wednesday Comics came closer to doing that than either of the latter two efforts. Will they do it again? My vote for now: no. Let it rest here with a modicum of success. Concentrate on finishing up Blackest Night. Think about doing something new over the summer if you must. What do you think? Does DC need a weekly serial?

Superman: Secret Origin

Ho hum, yet another retelling of the origin story of Superman, which everyone already knows, right? Well... everyone already knows the basics. But this series is different - and worth your time and money.

First off, it's no ordinary retelling. It's Geoff Johns doing the telling. Johns is arguably the best writer working in comics today (standing alongside him are Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, Mark Millar, and a few notable others). Although the others are also great, Johns' vision is perhaps clearer than anyone else's. He has a keen sense of where he is going. His stories begin to pull together almost immediately - you always have a sense of forward motion, that you're being propelled toward new information, new adventure, somewhere that is an actual destination, as opposed to spinning in circles while the writer figures out how to wrap things up. His payoffs are huge - he may make you wait, tantalize and tease, frustrate hell out of you along the way, but in the end, you almost always end up satisfied, saying, "That was good."

Second, it's Gary Frank doing the art. His work is interesting for its realism and oddness (a strange combination, to be sure, but it's true). The pencils have a quirky look, a definite style. The people have true features - he's not just drawing the same generic features on everyone and changing hair styles slightly, or dressing them differently - he's actually drawing people you might recognize if you saw them on the street.

The story contains elements of a lot of different origin stories: the original rocket ship falling to earth, Jonathan and Martha Kent, Lana Lang, Pete Ross, and Lex Luthor from the comics; the images of Jor-El and Lara, the crystals, the look of the young Clark Kent from the Donner Superman movies and the John Byrne Man of Steel series; the development of his powers slowly, also from the Byrne series, and from Smallville; the design of his outfit from the wonderful Superman Birthright. Johns adds some twists of his own: Clark's dismay and apprehension at the development of his powers, using the crystals from the rocket ship as lenses for Clark's glasses because of their useful properties.

It's a great approach - touching on almost all of the backstories available is great, because it makes them all feel as right as this does. Seriously, this could end up being considered the definitive origin story of Superman. There's plenty of fun for the old school fan, and because of the wonderful character development and nice backfilling of info for the newbie, I think it will be quite popular for years to come.

I highly recommend this series for its stylish retelling of the Superman origin - it's a great read, even if you think you know what happened, already!