Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett talks about the Superman: Earth One phenomenon and gives a code to Thor: The Mighty Avenger.

Superman: Earth One (a.k.a. "Superman Hoodie") is a classic example of unexpected consequences.  Personally I thought doing a self contained, easily accessible Superman comic intended for new readers in a different format was a good idea, especially if it was intended for the youth market that tends to think of Superman as being old hat (when they think about him at all).  But I naturally assumed it was going to be one of those quiet side projects, operating under the radar and slowly building momentum as more volumes were released, I certainly never thought it would be the top selling graphic novel in shops in October with a second printing in the works before the first even shipped.  In short it was a hit, a very palpable hit.

If nothing else it also goes to show you that a strongly worded press release, especially one that promises dramatic changes to a classic pop culture character, can still deliver big results, especially if it drops on a slow news day.  The New York Post got the ball rolling with a piece calling  Superman's Earth One look "more like Robert Pattinson  from the Twilight movies than Christopher Reeve from the Superman films," but Dan Didio upped the ante by calling this version "moody and sexy" (two things not ordinarily associated with Superman).  Online pundits lined up to describe him as being "brooding", "lanky", "emo" and "hipster" and Katie Couric thought enough of the character's makeover to give her negative opinion of it on the evening CBS News.

You might not believe me but when it was announced J. Michael Staczynski was going to leave his monthly Superman and Wonder Woman assignments to start work on a sequel to Superman: Earth One I wasn't a bit surprised.  I'm not saying I saw it coming, but I also wasn't surprised; what with all the free publicity and high sales on a $19.99 hardcover having JMS do this over a pair of monthly titles seems to be a much better allocation of valuable resources.

Of course a lot of people found distressing Staczynski's statement that he sees "the market moving away from ongoing monthly comics," which strikes me as a simple declaration of facts, not anything controversial.  And you can hardly blame him for wanting to write for a format where he'd actually be allowed to (quoting him once again) "tell cohesive stories with a beginning, middle and end," something increasingly difficult to do in the world of monthly comics.  Not when publishers continue to ignore the cold equations of ever shrinking circulation numbers and desperately cling to the belief "the kids" don't have the attention span for actual stories; they want some kind of huge, hoking "event" (prefably involving the undead) told in piecemeal fragments.   

And I can't really say I'm disappointed that JMS is leaving the monthlies in the middle of the ongoing storylines he's set up; for one thing now he won't be asked to try and shoehorn in the upcoming "The Reign of Doomsday" event into it.  His replacements, Chris Roberson on Superman and Phil Hester on Wonder Woman, will be working from Staczynski's notes, which would be great but thanks to all the delays I had already given up on "Grounded" and to be absolutely honest I'm not sure I ever really got what JMS wanted to do with with Wonder Woman.

But, ultimately, I've got to think that anything that gets people talking about (and better yet, actually reading) Superman is good -- even if the Superman they're talking about is for the most part unrecognizable.

Thor: The Mighty Avenger has been cancelled; the final issue, #8, is shipping in January which also doesn't surprise me as it was my favorite ongoing  superhero title and history has shown that means it had to die.  I certainly hope it will be widely reprinted in various formats once we're a little closer to the release of the Thor movie because you couldn't ask for a better vehicle to introduce the character to a larger mainstream audience. Writer Roger Langridge has proven himself remarkably gifted at rendering modern versions of the superhero tropes of my childhood as well as a version of Thor that's closer to the Norse Myths.  Issue #5 not only featured a guest appearance by Namor (who remained perfectly in character in spite of the fact that at no time did he act like a pretentious jerk) but also Thor's goat-drawn chariot (you have to be a real mythology nerd to get just how cool this is).  I am under no delusion that there is any chance of "saving" the title at this time but #6 ships next week and features Fing Fang Foom; do yourselves a favor and read it.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely  those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.