Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by retailer Steve Bennett of Mary Alice Wilson's Dark Star Comics in
It's been a pretty busy week up here up at the lodge*, and with Free Comic Book Day still to come. As is our custom Wednesday the staff stopped processing the new comics so we could read Infinite Crisis #7 and Civil War #1. Then later we watched (several times) the trailer for Superman Returns via the Internet; that's a full working day let me tell you.
Infinite Crisis was an OK conclusion to a series I was afraid would turn into a super-heroic shaggy dog story; still, it's clear that it was mostly just long ad for 52 where all the actually interesting changes to the DC Universe will take place. Bringing us to the obvious; since their entire year hinges on the success of the series, why didn't DC think to offer retailers a 52 #0 for FCBD?
But in spite of myself I liked Civil War #1, much more than thought possible. Oh, I still find the premise kind of shaky (the obvious answer to the dilemma would be for Tony Stark to turn The Avengers into a Halliburton-like Non-Governmental Organization contracted by the
I know in previous columns I addressed the issues of murderous super-villains but it's worth reporting that as I once theorized, The Hulk has retroactively been turned into a mass murderer. In New Avengers Illuminati #1 it's established that 'this time' (meaning his most recent tantrum in
It seems like today's writers give super-heroes two options: be murderous sociopaths or impotent nice guys. I'd like to suggest there's an intermediary step they seem to have missed, heroes could get tough. DC recently killed The Ventriloquist in Detective Comics, but he's a classic example of a repeat offender who would have been stopped without the use of deadly force. All you have to do is break every finger in his right hand while he watches his dummy Scarface being fed to a wood chipper.
apparently gotten breast implants in
her year off, getting a tattoo.
I'm likely to be labeled as some kind of prude, one unable get over his crush on the Silver Age Linda Lee Supergirl, but I find this portrayal to be both appalling and unbelievably sexist (can you imagine Superman ever being portrayed this way?). At the very least DC should try to remember than because of the Justice League Unlimited animated series (and their own comic books) there are kids who actually look up to the character who deserve better than to see her treated this way. Like, maybe a Supergirl series that might actually appeal to girls.
Finally, I fully expect Dark Star to have its best Free Comic Book Day ever tomorrow. I don't have much in the way in tips on how you can have a better FCBD -- but I can tell you Dark Star will be having sales, coupons, snacks and showings of the Superman Returns trailer (I really enjoyed it but from everything I've read I've the sneaking suspicion they've made a $180 million dollar movie about a guy's mid-life crisis). The only advice I have is to remember, talk up the product. This is the one day out of the year when you have the best chance to make contact with the outside world; now's not the time to be shy.
*It's a reference to The Red Green Show, a Canadian comedy series that's shown on select PBS stations. With skits, bad jokes, cartoons and a total absence of women, it's basically a 50/60's style kids TV show - for middle aged men.
