"Look! Up in the Sky! (A sneak peek at John Byrne's plans for the Man of Steel) by S.J. Getman

Amazing Heroes #82 (November 1, 1985) featured a story on the breaking news that superstar Marvel artist John Byrne would be taking over a Superman title. Please note that copy-editing wasn't the magazine's strong suit, and try to overlook the typos, misspellings, etc...

Just when you thought nothing could shock you with regard to the ever-changing personnel on today's comic book titles, John Byrne has dropped what may be a historical bombshell...

Byrne, speaking at an open house given by the Comic Book Club of Ithaca, New York, surprised (if not flabbergasted) the attending fans when several of them overheard him make a passing remark to writer Roger Stern concerning the villain Terminus.

"Terminus would be the perfect Superman villain," Byrne said, "I kind of wish I'd known when I put him in The Fantastic Four that I'd be doing Superman"

"You're kidding..." Someone glancing over the table of Byrne's original art looked up. "When?"

"I've already started," Byrne replied. "You'll see it come out in July (of 1986)."

Byrne said he would inked by Dick Girodano. "When I told them I'd do the book, I said I wanted the best inker they had," he explained,"and that's their editor-in-chief." He said he thought long-time Superman artist Curt Swan would be moved over to Teen Titans, but his personal feeling was that "DC should give Curt a very comfortable pension for the rest of his life—after 30 years, he deserves it!"

When asked what issue of Superman Byrne's tenure would begin with, he replied "Number One... that's one of the things I asked for when DC and I discussed doing the book. I'm starting everything all over again... as far as I'm concerned, this is the only Superman."

Amazingly, the prolific Byrne will continue writing and drawing both his Marvel assignments, Incredible Hulk and Fantastic Four, while shouldering the considerable task of revamping Superman as well.

Fans of the day will recall Byrne's relationship with Marvel Comics (and most especially Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter) took a decided turn toward the hostile, and they abruptly parted company. Byrne instead drew Action Comics, Superman and two-mini-series for DC. In fact, Legends featured a humiliated one-off villain meant to mock Shooter.

Byrne continued answering questions about his ground floor revamp, revealing Clark Kent's anchorman job for Galaxy Television was history. He would instead work as a feature writer for the Daily Planet newspaper, rather than as a city reporter (explaining why he had an office and how he could cover the entire globe.)

With the mention of Lois Lane, Byrne was asked if he planned on reinstating the currently defunct romance between Lois Lane and Superman. Byrne responded with a firm no, and this prompted some of those attending to make comparisons between the new comic book series and either the Superman movies (especially the third) or the 1950s television series. Byrne, however, had a different comparison in mind.

"My Superman will be heavily influenced by the Fleischer cartoons," Byrne explained, referring to the animated cartoons produced in the 1940s by the Max Fleischer animation studio. "They did the definitive Superman, and I'm going to do gear my version to them. I'll also be coor­dinating this Superman with the ver­sion Frank Miller is doing in Bat­man... wich is also based on the cartoons... In keeping with this interpreta­tion, Superman's powers will be severely limited... almost a thousandfold. He will still be significantly faster than a speeding bullet, quite a bit more powerful than a loco­motive, and able to leap very considerably higher than tall buildings in a single bound. Don't get me wrong... he will still be the toughest guy around—as far as being able to kick ass and bust heads—but he won't be so damn omnipotent. He'll still be able to fly, but now he'll be getting knocked out of the sky once in a while... and no, he won't be able to travel in time..."

Rather than the separate six-issue mini-series Man of Steel that saw print, the initial plan was to open the Superman title with the bi-weekly origin tale (which helps explain the lackluster story and cover to Superman #1. "I want to say to people 'This is the legend of Superman... if you don't read it here, it didn't happen! "

'There will, for instance, be no Superboy... and certainly, no Super-baby! Clark Kent will begin his career as Superman while an adult." A fan asked if this wouldn't upset continui­ty with the Legion of Super-Heroes. The super group of the 30th century was reportedly inspired to organize by tales of Superman's exploits as a boy. Byrne said he had already taken that into account.

'The Legion was inspired by legends of a 'Superboy'. . . but one didn't really exist. As the centuries wore on, the legends afose, much in the same way Washington is sup­posed to have thrown a dollar across the Potomac." It was pointed out by an observer that this would tie in with Elliot S! Maggin's story for Superman #500 that recounted how Superman's life would give rise to countless myths in the future, and Byrne nodded his head. 'That's right... the Legion was inspired by a myth."

...except of course that the Legion had met that "myth," inducted him into their ranks, and had several decades worth of published adventures with him. A "pocket universe Superboy" was created to incredulously shoo that fact away, allowing hubris to run roughshod all over DC continuity. A fan asking after Krypto was told "May you forever burn in hell for that!" Others making reference to old stories where annoyances like people not recognizing Clark as Superman through devices were similarly dismissed.

"No, Clark Kent's glasses do not make people see him and Superman as two different people! DC printed that story and then never mentioned that fact again. That's my reply to anyone who complains that I'm messing with the character'... DC's been changing facts about the character for 50 years."

Byrne informed the crowd that Lex Luthor was being re-conceived from the ground up. "My Lex Luthor will not be the smartest man in the world—he'll be the richest. I really liked the way Gene Hackman played him in the movies... Since there will be no Superboy, Luthor doesn't hate Superman for causing him to lose his hair as a teenager. Luthor hates him because he's jealous. Before Superman came along, Luthor was number one in everything—the most powerful man in the world. Now, he's number two, and he doesn't like it." Byrne stated the intention, though I don't believe it was ever realized, that portions of humanity would have similar issues with the Man of Steel. "Everyone looks up to him, but he still makes them real nervous." Byrne had some issues with Crisis on Infinite Earths, and ultimately never really had to address the series, given the lengthy gap between its end and the start of his run.

A fan asked him what one character he'd want to write if he was ever given a free rein and he replied without hesitation:
"Superman. A lot of writers think he's old hat and don't want to touch him. As far as I'm concerned, however, it's a dream—this is the one book I've always wanted to do."

Irredeemable Volume 1 (July 2009)

In his afterward, Grant Morrison calls Mark Waid's Irredeemable Volume 1 "brilliant, hard-edged, progressive super-hero comics. There's no trace of nostalgia... it rides the zeitgeist..." The two page piece is full of such accolades.

I'd like to take this opportunity to note that Morrison also thinks his scripts physically manifest on the material plane, and he's taken an awful lot of drugs in his time.

Over a decade ago, Morrison offered similar praise for Waid's work on The Flash, seeing it as a harbinger for the end of the 1980s deconstructionist wave in comics and the beginning of a new era of optimism and revitalization. However, aside from his successful return of JLA to its Silver Age roots, comics have only become more bleak and cynical into the present. A generation of writers, mostly British, continued the trajectory of The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen to their natural descent into the abyss of Rick Veitch's King Hell Heroica. In short, the likes of Warren Ellis, Mark Millar, Garth Ennis and so on haven't really progressed the dystopic super-hero universe past the late '80s/early '90s, and just keep raping the corpses of Alan Moore's past glories. What Irredeemable represents is Mark Waid's ultimate defeat; his giving in to the same necrophilia previously hinted at in overrated titles like Kingdom Come. Bitter and likely seeing the inevitable demise of the printed comic book in his lifetime, Mark Waid has given in. If he'll never get to write Superman, he'll merge Gruenwald's Squadron Supreme with Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow and take it monthly at $3.99 a hit. That, my sad, tired reader, is the gist of Irredeemable.

The Plutonian is the man of tomorrow-- Earth's mightiest mortal-- the Übermensch of the whole universe-- and he's gone homicidal for reasons not fully known. You can tell he's bad because he loses his cape and wears more red, you see. Being that Waid is slavishly devoted to remaining a cunt hair's distance from Bronze Age DC continuity, it's made clear this is the Pre-Crisis Superman picking off the Satellite era Justice League of America, none of whom are remotely as powerful as he. This collective is carefully constructed exact recreations of every League member. They're now more ethnically diverse, and they have challenging-to-remember names from world myth, but that just makes you all the more inclined to assign them the identities of those they represent. For instance, I didn't immediately recall that Kaidan's power was to conjure ghosts from Japanese culture to do her bidding, but it was no sweat to realize the second issue was the pseudo-Zatanna spotlight. Of course, Zee is older, grimmer, and less fashionable than she once was, like the rest of the not-JLA, and exactly like the Giffen "5 Years Later" Legion of Super-Heroes stories of the early '90s. Asian-Zatanna locates East Indian Lois Lane, who tells the umpteenth variation on how pissed she was when she found out brown-haired Clark Kent and blond Superman had been jerking her chain for years, forever queering their relationship. The Krypto-- er, Plutonian got so upset he remembered Larry Niven's Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex, then forced Green Arrow to fuck Black Canary in a Lois wig while he watched impotently. It's a bold new world!

Just in case you begin to confuse this revolutionary, fresh skewering of classic super-heroes with that tired old Pat Mills/Kevin O'Neill Marshal Law, Waid roped in Peter Krause to draw this series. Well after John Byrne's 1986 revamp of Superman sent the seemingly tenured geriatric creative teams who'd sat on the Man of Steel's titles for decades to the unemployment line, Krause came along to remind everyone of the longstanding DC traditional of static, serviceable, bland art for four reliable years of The Power of Shazam! Krause has improved since that long lost last steady gig, now recalling contemporary Steve Lieber, but not to worry-- the scripts are bursting with flashbacks that allow Krause to slavishly recreate the look of the late Curt Swan. This is done in much the same fashion Alan Moore employed using Rick Veitch during his run on Supreme in the '90s. Waid even brings back analogues of Bronze Age b-list Superman foes like the Prankster, Terra Man and Parasite for a final hurrah. Brand new-- you're retro!

Am I being snide and excessively critical? Perhaps. I expect I'd be a lot more forgiving without Waid's foreword and Morrison's hype about exercising new muscles and breaking ground. Waid's one of the best writers in the business, and Irredeemable is a well presented page-turner. It's just that Waid's entire career is based on recalling fond memories of past stories by other men, and repackaging them for modern audiences. Even as he attempts to reinvent his image, Waid's just expertly traipsing down the road most traveled for the last twenty-plus years now. Irredeemable is good, disposable, Michael Crichton/Dan Brown type fare. It features covers by Planetary's John Cassaday, and tries its damndest to fill its interiors with work akin to Planetary's Warren Ellis. God help us, but it's nostalgia for Post Modern Comics from a guy who can proudly recite Clark Kent's Social Security Number in his middle age. Maybe Waid really is the harbinger of a new age-- an icy one.

A Frank Review of "District 9" (2009)

The Short Version? Slumdog Xenophile.
What Is It? Science Fiction.
Who Is In It? South Africans.
Should I See It? Yes.



A few decades past, a spaceship hovered over Johannesburg, South Africa until it was investigated by human forces via helicopter. Inside were found a malnourished slave race of aliens abandoned on our world. They were placed in "temporary" shelters on the ground, which became their squalid permanent shantytown home... until now. Tired of their poor living conditions and disregard for societal norms, the people of South African insisted their government relocate the aliens to a smaller and more remote housing area. Independent contractors were employed, and one racist bureaucrat would be the subject of a documentary on moving day-- until circumstances deviated from plan.

After plenty of good buzz, I caught District 9 on its opening weekend... six weeks ago. Why didn't I post a review until now? Ah, I've been busy, and I can't say as I felt all that strongly about the movie either way. Critics I respect like Devin Faraci at CHUD offered glowing words like "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you one of the best films of the first decade of the 21st century." Steven Lloyd Wilson at Pajiba said "One hopes that the implied and inevitable sequel can live up to the high bar set in District 9." I have to wonder if we saw the same film. Feraci also stated no less than Peter Jackson claimed "while many young directors make movies about the movies they've seen, Blomkamp has made a movie about his life." Besides not having much interest in Jackson past The Frighteners (you heard me right, precious) I have to call bullshit. If ever there was a movie from a director who has watched too many other people's movies and lived too little life, it's Neill Blomkamp with this feature.

I've never heard of Gregor Turley of Only Good Movies, but he does a damned fine job of listing the many flicks District 9 owes a royalty to. Alien Nation is the most obvious, but I can even see callbacks to E.T., never mind that Nation itself borrowed the extended xenophobia-as-racism metaphor from Planet of the Apes and a slew of moldy sci-fi tales. Cronenberg's The Fly is an enormous influence, and most of the first reel is devoted to Blair Witch Project phony documentary footage, until it gets in the way of the narrative and is dumped without warning. Virtually every story beat can be found lifted wholesale, with the best defense being that it's finessed in the manner of Tarantino. Because of this, Turley's bilious reaction, venting to the effect of "...having to endure another awful... movie like those schlockmeister Uwe Boll repeatedly churns out," is as misassigned as the previous accolades.

Let me tell you, some reservations aside, I enjoyed watching District 9 from beginning to end at the theater. It is a fun ride, and takes some chances, plus I always prefer my science fiction grounded in real world concerns. No, the problem comes in reflection, when I recall those reservations, and start tugging at the loose strings until the entire story begins to fray. The movie, despite a veneer of edge, is really a fairly safe crowd-pleaser. All the bad guys get their comeuppance, and the good guys work to find a better day. It is formula disguised as innovation, and whatever message it might have is decidedly mixed. You see, we have a human anti-hero whose selfish concerns motivate most of the action, and an alien protagonist who spends too much time reacting all too slowly. This alien is the only one portrayed with any dimension and intellect, and as a metaphor for black folk, he's "clean;" "neat;" one of the "good ones." The rest are all filthy thieves and lowlifes, unfit to keep company with one of "ours" (even if he is the 21st Century Watermelon Man.)

Setting aside the plot, the film is a technical marvel. The script works, the performances are pitch perfect, and the production design is absolutely convincing. I'm still amazed the aliens were entirely CGI, especially given the film's modest budget. For once, instead of rendering creatures in such intricate detail that your mind immediately recognizes they're fake, the computer artists crafted beings just realistic enough to be totally believable. The physics are incredible-- everything seems to have weight and occupy physical space. Instead of seeking bragging rights and validating outlandish expenditures, the CGI serves the story, and damned well better be served Oscars in the near future for the accomplishment.

So in summary, despite high falutin' projections, District 9 is neither paramount nor the nadir of anyone's science fiction filmgoing experience. It's just a solid first major effort from a director that wants to worm his way into our hearts and pocketbooks, with the aid of excellent effects work. I suppose Spielberg and Lucas should be proud.

riot Magazine, Volume #1, Issue #0 (1997)

riot was a very short-lived magazine that aimed to be a hipper version of Wizard in a format more closely resembling Comic Scene. I'm not actually certain any issues were ever released to the general public, as the only one I've ever seen was this special zero issue given free to retailers as an introduction to encourage sales. All under a fantastic Phil Jimenez JLA cover and summarized:

• Editorial Mission Statement (one page)
• Propaganda- News on the upcoming Marvel Heroes Return titles, the newly founded Awesome Entertainment, and Divine Right: The Adventures of Max Faraday.(two pages)
• twenty-first CENTURYBOY (four page Grant Morrison interview)
• Where the Wild Things Are (feature on JLA/WildC.A.T.S., two pages)
• POP STAR (Matthew Sweet interview, two pages)
• Hollywood Goes To Hell (Spawn movie feature, two pages)
• Two page ad for October's riot #1, a 128 page monthly with an extended Matthew Sweet interview, a look at Duran Duran, John Waters, John Woo, Buffy, X-Files, Wonder Woman: Amazonia, and all under a new (unseen) cover by Joe Madureira on his departure from Uncanny X-Men.
• Stargazing (a two page Neil Gaiman interview concerning Stardust.
• A two page look at the Hercules/Xena animated video.
• Tools of the Revolution (toy section spotlighting Spawn movie figures, Batman and Robin, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Toy Biz late Summer releases. The riot Hot Ten Action Figures took up an additional two pages.
• Max & Lily in "Junkie" (a one page gag strip on flea markets by Kris Dresden.)
• UK Music Report on Tellin' Stories, and reviews of the new Daft Punk, HAL (featuring Gillian Anderson,) and Mark Morrison.
• Four pages of comic reviews for Genesis #1 ("just not that great,") WildC.A.T.S #39 ("What else could you want?") Supreme #53 ("too much fun,") Wolverine #115 ("intense,") Red Rocket Seven #1 ("original,") Spawn #62 ("one of the greatest,") Spider-Man Unlimited #17 ("soap opera,") and Inferno #1 ("solid.")
• Under The Hot Lights: Alan Moore (interview where the writer bemoans the state of the industry, grim n' gritty, and everything else you'd expect. Two pages.)

riot really seemed enamored of paid sponsor Spawn, but then again, their only other ad was for DC's Genesis, so maybe there wasn't a conflict of interest after all. The most interesting portion was of course the Grant Morrison interview, where he discussed JLA and Invisibles.

Having proven itself worthy with its return to epic storylines and its acquisition of massive sales, JLA is the book to watch. But when finally cornered as to the secret of the series' success, Morrison only laughs. "The only reason sales dropped off in the past is that perhaps there wasn't a clear understanding of JLA's mythical underpinnings, which was what really gave the book its power. With JLA, you're dealing with concepts that are rooted in the mythologies of every single culture on Earth... When you look at each individual Justice Leaguer, whether it's Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, or even the Martian Manhunter, you can map them onto a different mythological character, and that's why they're so strong. That iconic power of the characters is what makes this book so successful. And with comics like the X-Men, you don't have that. You don't have characters so strong that they're almost gods... Superheroes are as powerful, as they are symbolic. They say so much, but even today, they have the potential to say so much more... Comics are incredibly sensitive barometers of social change. Just look at the way that Batman has reflected the culture over the years. This material has a psychological and a spiritual significance, whether we're embarrassed to admit it or not..."

"The Silver Age began when DC Comics editor Julie Schwartz and his little stable of writers revitalized the market with lively, science fiction-oriented heroes. Julie brought an adult point of view to mainstream comics, and what several of us have been talking about recently is that characters from that era, like the "Barry Allen' Flash and the "Hal Jordan' Green Lantern, were all 'grown-ups.' I read Gerard Jones' book, The Comics Book Heroes, and he pointed out that these were heroes who never fought amongst themselves; held interesting jobs; and had wives or girlfriends. They were just very together, unlike most heroes today. Even in their spare time, the Silver Age heroes just hung out reading books about science and tackling weird medicine."

"Looking at where comics are now, I also want to approach characters as adults... The last few years we've seen nothing but those tortured characters—the 'Dark Knight' Batman basically became a tortured adolescent—and what me and a few others like Mark (Millar) and Mark Waid (Flash, Kingdom Come) would like to do is bring heroes like Batman back as men. I'm talking about the Batman that I remember. The Denny O'Neil, seventies Batman with a big hairy chest, who was always kissing girls, and flying about in the Batplane all over the world..."

Though Morrison doesn't want to limit his audience to just kids—The Invisibles is definitely not a children's book—he does see the importance of bringing them back to comics. Of course, he also thinks that you'd have to be stupid not to. Working up cool ideas such as Justice League Junior—a hip and happening superhero team that would showcase younger DC characters such as Superboy, Mary Marvel and Impulse—he's setting out to attract the once prevalent, currently dwindling, younger audience, as well as attempting to safeguard the future of the industry he loves.

2005 Dreadstar & Company by Jim Starlin and Alan Weiss

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Here's an outstanding piece of the entire team! Oedi! Syzygy Darklock! Vanth! Willow! Skeevo! I love these guys, and Weiss is an awesome inker here!

1985 Vanth Dreadstar by Jim Starlin

Here's a swell pin-up of my favorite incarnation of Dreadstar, a pencil drawing by his creator at 8" x 10". The piece was colored by Steve Oliff in 1990.

90s Vanth Dreadstar and Syzygy Darklock Convention Sketch by Angel Medina

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