Occasional Thoughts

Thoughts. I do have them.


So Incredible Herc beats Grant Morrison's Batman in January sales?

How does that happen?

Shouldn't Batman written by Grant Morrison be at least in the top ten?

I mean...this is a book starring Hercules. Hercules not written by Grant Morrison.

Can a total investment in Morrison for Final Crisis pay off? Will it be the instant blockbuster a comic with the name "Grant Morrison" had been in the past?



So JMS is no longer exclusive with Marvel.

"There's also something to be said for cross-pollination, for embracing a variety of universes and creative opportunities."
--JMS

Huh.

How long until we see him at DC?

Better damn well finish The Twelve, first. Thor is ok, but maybe Marvel can get Brian Wood to write it.



So, first Ms. Marvel's Aaron Lopresti defects to Wonder Woman, and now Wonder Woman's Terry Dodson is doing an interconnecting Ms. Marvel/Captain Marvel cover?

Do the publishers plan this out beforehand?

"I'll see your Lopresti for a Dodson!"


Why shouldn't Brian Wood write Batman? Jason Aaron is writing Ghost Rider.

I argue that Brian Wood's Batman would generate more excitement than Grant Morrison's Batman.



Yes, DC, we get it -- Teen Titans is a brand you want to "push," your X-Men.

Teen Titans, Titans, Titans Year One, Tiny Titans, Amateur Titans Go Wild, Retired Titans Adventures...

So The Perry Bible Fellowship's Nicholas Gurwitch is "retiring" from his popular webcomic.

He should write Batman.

Or at least Retired Titans Adventures.

Occasional Reviews: Thor, Working-Class God

Thor #1-3: "Working Class God"

With Straczynski's "Thor" we might have our first Red State major superhero. But he is of the post-Katrina Red State -- disaffected, dejected, and mistrustful of Authority (i.e. G.W. & Tony Stark).

But first let's discuss the proper way to read the new "Thor" -- in chunks.

The first time I read issue #1, I pretty much wrote off the series as vacuous, self-indulgent pap.

It took Chris from Wild Pig Comics in New Jersey to convince me to give the title another chance -- and throwing in a free issue as part of the bargain.

So I waited to collect #1-3 and read it as a section of a graphic novel, rather than judge each issue separately. The effect was stunning.


Call me a "Marvel Zombie" or fangirl all you want -- call me naive.

But I really thought this book was a masterpiece.

Of course, part of the impressiveness is Olivier Coipel's art.

Holy God, this guy is talented.

Coipel's Thor is at once massive and possessing a delicacy of soul. And when his thunder god grips Iron Man by the neck, he captures the sheer terror of Tony Stark like no other artist has done in the several versions of the post-Civil War "Confrontation Scene."

Thor's sense of betrayal by Tony Stark and the U.S. government is key to understanding this new series; it is a sense of betrayal that echoes hauntingly through the rest of the book -- in flood-ravaged New Orleans, in the sleepy God-fearing town in Oklahoma that Donald Blake decides to settle in.


Thor is the living embodiment of the frustrated Mid-Westerner, the disenfranchised Southerner -- he appeals so much to fans exactly because Straczynski has remade the character as the champion of the working-class hero.

He is an Aryan god who has built his fortress in the middle of the Bible Belt, a fortress under scrutiny and possible danger by the government and populated by down-on-their luck lower-middle-class Red Staters, Red Staters who have woken up from the dream/nightmare of the last seven years to ask:

"...where were the heroes?"


As if by fate, my boyfriend changes the channel and I'm faced with G.W. & another presidential address.

"...tonight our moral & strategic imperatives won."

"...our strategy is working."

"...we kept the pressure on the terrorists."

He's bringing some of the troops home.

G.W. looks tired. Tony Stark is humiliated and forced to limp home with his offline armor.

And somewhere in Oklahoma is the New Kingdom...

"Asgard..."