Kyle Rayner for the Justice League

I’m not saying anything revolutionary or controversial when I say I think Kyle Rayner belongs on the Justice League. I’m well aware of this, but just for kicks, let me state the case anyhow.

In the recent past, I’ve stumped for Wally West to be a fixture on the Justice League not only because he’s my favorite DC character, but also because he has tenure there, has proven value as a member of an ensemble cast, and quite frankly, because nothing else is being done with him and he’s too good to go to waste. Kyle and Wally have been kindred spirits since the former was introduced, sharing the whole successor to Silver Age icons deal as well as a certain demeanor that appealed to my generation, so in a perfect world I can’t see why both shouldn’t be sitting pretty on the Watchtower, but let’s deal with the guy I haven’t talked as much about this time around.

There are four Earth-based Green Lanterns at the moment, and three books in their franchise, leaving one guy the natural odd man out.

My personal least favorite GL, Hal Jordan, has the good fortune of being written by Geoff Johns, who has the uncanny ability to craft gold around even the most unlikable of leads—though I’m well aware plenty of people like Hal—and he’s also got Ryan Reynolds playing him in a movie this summer, so he’s sitting pretty in the catbird seat as star of the lead Green Lantern title. While Hal was a Justice League stalwart for many years, most of his generation has cycled out at this point, and the last thing anybody needs is the current face of the franchise looking like an elder statesman, so him doing his own thing is for the best right now.

Guy Gardner was an awesome and essential part of Justice League International and I’ve always been curious to see how he’d function in a more traditional League line-up, but frankly his personality may be a bit too big for the average team setting. He deserves his own book and is nicely carrying Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors right now; if Justice League: Generation Lost gains a well-deserved ongoing birth of some sort, Guy would certainly be an in demand guest star or late addition there.

Ostensibly, Kyle Rayner and John Stewart share the lead of Green Lantern Corps, with Ganthet and others thrown in for good measure. Of late, however, there seems to have been a resurgence among writers as far as a desire to flesh out Stewart’s character—I’m all for this. There is a lot to explore when it comes to John Stewart. The military man who is socially enlightened, the lost loves, the guilt of letting a planet die, that time he was a Darkstar, that time he was crippled—all fertile ground perfect for a book like GLC where he can share the spotlight with a few lesser players but not get lost in the shuffle of an A-list team.

That leaves us with Kyle, who’s way too solid on his own to be John or Guy’s sidekick, but also unlikely to regain top billing from Hal anytime soon.

So put him in the Justice League.

Grant Morrison got a lot of good years out of Kyle being the rookie Leaguer trying to live up to the shadow left by Hal Jordan. With the nearly fully cycle rotation of the League now being filled with newbies and claimants to legacies like Supergirl, Starman, Dick Grayson as Batman and so on, the once neophyte Green Lantern would have a new role as the young veteran who has been where these guys are. As the more iconic figures return—because you know inevitably they will—Kyle becomes a bridge between generations much in the same way Wally was for him when he started out.

Kyle has always been a wish fulfillment character in my opinion more so than anybody else in the Green Lantern franchise. Getting handed a magic ring is basically a modern day take on the Aladdin fable and one that’s perhaps easier to buy into as a fan because you don’t have to be born with superhuman abilities or be on a mad vengeance quest because your loved ones died; as implausible as Green Lantern’s origin is, strangely enough it’s one we can picture happening to us because it doesn’t rely upon predetermined conditions or personal tragedy, you just have to be in the right place at the right time. Despite that, Hal Jordan and even Guy Gardner or John Stewart were still somewhat removed from the average dude since they were selected based on their unflappable resistance to fear; Kyle Rayner became a Lantern literally because there was nobody else and Ganthet happened upon him in an alley (I know there have been debates and retcons about this, but I choose to keep reading it as it was originally written based on my own preference). That Kyle turned out to be a good guy and a great hero without being inherently built for it like Hal made him infinitely more relatable—at least for me—because here was proof that given the right opportunity, anybody can prove to be a champion.

Taking all that into consideration makes Kyle Rayner even cooler as a member of the Justice League. With Hal in there, it’s just another square-jawed alpha male joining the herd; Guy is the malcontent; John is a bit of a cipher; Kyle is us blessed with a chance to be great and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with guys like Superman not because he was destined to, but because he earned it.

Kyle’s an insecure, sensitive artist and also a romantic, all stuff that plays great in a team environment; heck he’s already dating another in a line of hot alien chicks at the moment, but two of his former ladies are on the current League and he’s just the kind of character who seems to have instant chemistry with everybody around him. He’s great as the best buddy, as the workplace crush, as the “little brother” and so on.

For these and many other reasons, Kyle Rayner deserves to be and would be a great fit in the Justice League. Would I love him and Wally West to have their own solo books? I suppose I would, but for some reason, right now I’d like them both in the JLA more. I like the idea of the League being a showcase for those “lost” characters too old to be Teen Titans but who can’t be the alpha members of their fraternities because of the legacy nature of the DC Universe. I dig the League being a hipper group of characters who were once sidekicks or big in the 90’s all grown up like Dick Grayson, Wally West, Kyle Rayner, Donna Troy and maybe even Connor Hawke.

My buddy Sean T. Collins talks about the need for the Justice League to be filled with icons, and I agree with him, but I think if the characters are named Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc. anyways, it’s not so much important who’s under the masks. Let Hal Jordan and Barry Allen get the exposure they need from their own books and let the guys who carried the ball shine as cornerstones of the team they’re too busy for right now. A lot of people prefer the Big Seven League because it feels important, but there’s the pitfall of the characters not being able to develop outside of their own titles, but here’s a great opportunity to have your cake and eat it too.

So there’s my pitch: Put Kyle Rayner back in the Justice League. Oh, and while you’re at it, Wally West too, please.

Underrated/Overlooked: World War Hulk: X-Men

Sometimes comics can be poetry; they can be works of art; they can be an allegory to a far greater statement used to illustrate the thoughts of their creators in a unique and beautiful medium.

But other times it’s just fun when people in colorful costumes punch each other and talk smack with lots of double page spreads.

However, to say just about any comic book story is just about the punching is a disservice to that story, as there’s generally—not always—something going on at a deeper level even when the surface is a popcorn movie. In my mind though, there’s certainly nothing wrong when the first level of fun is what sticks with you and you perhaps lose the sublevel context unless you’re re-reading; a well-executed fun comic is every bit as impressive as any other sort of achievement from where I sit.

Greg Pak and John Romita Jr.’s World War Hulk is the type of story I remember fondly as a fun comic with lots of punching. Pak had just told a year-long epic weaving science fiction with commentary on The Hulk’s inner identity and sense of self and managed to climax all that character work in a blockbuster that both showcased Romita’s proficiency for drawing the big fights as well as the emotional payoff for the build.

Within the larger event was the three-issue World War Hulk: X-Men limited series by Christos Gage and Andre Di Vito. Now just as the main event worked in pathos with the action, so too did this side story, with moral dilemmas playing a major role and the quiet moments of characterization standing out, but at the end of the day, I know my friend Christos Gage, and I believe he set out to tell the coolest “action figures come to life” romp he could with The Hulk fighting the X-Men—and he succeeded.

The gist of World War Hulk is that the Illuminati rocketed Hulk into space with the intention of sending him to a quiet planet where he would be happy and left alone, but instead he ended up on the war-town world of Sakaar; nonetheless, Hulk flourished on Sakaar, overthrowing a dictator, making friends and falling in love, but then a bomb he thinks the Illuminati placed on his ship detonated, killing most of the populace—including his new wife and their unborn child—so he heads back to Earth with what remains of his army and declares war on the dudes who sent him into space to begin with.

The gist of World War Hulk: X-Men is that Professor X wasn’t at the Illuminati meeting where they made the whole “send Hulk into space” call, but Hulk wants to find out how he would have voted had he been there, and he’ll beat the crap out of every X-Man to get his answer straight from the source and then decide his response.

The first issue has Hulk crashing the X-Mansion where Professor X and Beast are hanging out with the New X-Men while the adults are all off on a mission. One of many cool/smart moves Gage does with this series is structures the whole thing like a boxing/wrestling card with the undercard stuff gradually building excitement to the main event. In this case, the opening bout is the inexperienced and outclassed New X-Men going up against the strongest force in the Marvel Universe and getting their plucky butts kicked, but not before dishing out some decent shots like X-23 kicking Hulk in the eye with one of her toe blades. It also gives Xavier a chance to agonize over yet another mistake coming back to haunt him—this came right on the heels of the double reveal that he created Danger and concealed the existence of Vulcan and the rest of the second class of X-Men—and his most innocent students suffering as a result.

By the end of issue one, the first cavalry arrives in the form of the Astonishing X-Men cast: Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, Emma Frost and Kitty Pryde. At this point, Xavier is ready to surrender, lest more of his protégés suffer, but Cyclops and Emma, showing signs of their growing independence from the Professor, tell him that’s not happening—they’re pissed at him for lots of stuff, but only they get to punish him for it—and we’re set for the next round.

This would be a good time to mention how perfect Andrea Di Vito’s art is for this story. His figures are smooth and exaggerated in the right way for super hero comics, even more so super hero comics with lots of fighting with fists flying, claws popping and energy blasts of every shape, size and color being tossed around. As he showed in Annihilation, Di Vito knows how to choreograph the visual aspect of a massive battle beautifully and also how to bring a large cast to life, two musts for this series. Di Vito’s art perfectly walks that line of intensity and fun with some brutality mixed in for effect, and it’s exactly what Gage’s script calls for here.

So with the second issue we get into the big ticket battles in earnest, as Hulk has some actual competition, and said competition continues to expand as the smashing continues and more X-Men—including Nightcrawler, Warpath, Darwin and Hepzibah—along with X-Factor get conscripted into service. You’ve got to love—or at least I do—how Gage doesn’t just go for the easy route of fan service taking all the toys out of the toy box and then putting all the work on Di Vito to just make an eternally neat premise come to life; he actually thinks out the fights and comes up with some genuinely clever twists. I dig how he solves the issue of Darwin, the mutant who evolves to face any threat, by having his power determine the best way to protect him is teleport him to Connecticut, thus taking him out of the fight.

Given their history, Wolverine and Hulk obviously get some significant screen time, although I’m once again impressed on how this creative team is able to push quality over quantity and not let this battle take away from any other in terms of real estate. Di Vito proves up to the task of depicting the requisite grisliness of Logan slicing up his most unbeatable foe and two guys with mega healing factors going to town, but my main kudos goes to another thinking man’s twist by Gage as to the resolution of the fracas—and I am of course going to spoil it here—as he has Hulk rattle Wolverine around by the head, reasoning that even though he can heal real quick from physical wounds, the brain damage caused by squishy gray matter inside an Adamantium skull is a lot tougher to bounce back from.

Another deserving character who gets a nice spotlight here is Colossus, the X-Men’s resident strong man and the Marvel Universe power broker who generally gets left out of the discussion when folks debate their Hulk vs Thor vs Thing battles. Peter Rasputin has a nice showing that focuses on how even though he’s no match for The Hulk—or probably any of those guys—from a pure power perspective, his heart and how much he cares about his friends keeps him in the game; it doesn’t stop him from getting brutally dispatched and having his metal arms broken backwards, but it keeps him in the game for a bit.

On that score, World War Hulk: X-Men is in a lot of ways about Christos Gage giving every X-Man across the board of power and popularity their turn to shine even if it’s in the smallest way, and it’s neat to see that kind of instant credibility a character can receive by lasting even a couple panels with The Hulk—and indeed Gage makes sure to impress upon us that is a big deal.

The Hong Kong action movie style you’d see in a Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan flick where the bad guys attack one at a time to give the star a chance to show off their moves is what Gage employs here with the X-Men as the henchmen, but in this case he manages to use the fight tableaus to give both combatants cool moments. Warpath gets to do a little slicing and dicing with his Vibranium knives before getting swatted away. Monet actually stands toe-to-toe for a bit. Strong Guy nearly gets the job done before being undone by the inherent limitations of his own power. Hepzibah uses the Blackbird as a lawn dirt. And Jamie Madrox gets to hold his own in a verbal spar with Emma Frost.

Nobody gets to shine like The Juggernaut though.

If you know Christos Gage or have ever read an interview with him, you know that he has his particular passion characters, among them Union Jack, Devil Dinosaur, Red Ronin and in particular The Juggernaut. He’s a pro, but he’s also a fanboy, and he’s a dude who loves seeing Juggernaut being big, bad, and crushing everything in his unstoppable path. By the time World War Hulk rolled around, Juggernaut had spent a couple of years at diminished power levels and on the side of angels; when he got his turn at bat, Gage decided to take a swing at bringing back the character he loved but without having to disrespect any work that had come before in the process.

In the second issue of World War Hulk: X-Men, Cain Marko makes a plea to his patron, Cyttorak, to amp his powers back up, ostensibly so he can rescue his half-brother, Professor X, from The Hulk, but ends up getting dropped into the action still at half-strength then stomped. Cyttorak wants his avatar back to being vicious, and realizing on some level that’s what he wants as well, Cain agrees to go back to being a badass, armoring back up and giving The Hulk a real run for his money. Gage scripts the Hulk-Juggernaut smackdown with glee while Di Vito brings his amped up A-game to bear on the comic book equivalent of slamming two locomotives together over and over. It’s a great fight, but perhaps more importantly it allowed Gage to add some edge back to Juggernaut without overwriting his years as a decent dude, placing some acknowledged internal struggle between the character’s desire to better and deeply held love for mayhem.

Without completely spoiling the ending—even with all I’ve already given away, you should still absolutely check this out for the stuff I haven’t plus the great art—the ultimate resolution comes from a fairly unlikely source and in a way that leaves the story without any real winners, a parallel to the larger story of World War Hulk.

Fitting the X-Men into larger events has been a tricky proposition since the days of Secret Wars, as they’re so vast and such an overwhelming presence that bringing them in without making the story all about them can be tough. Their co-star billing alongside the Avengers in House of M pretty much shoved everybody else out of the picture, while I can’t picture the main threads of Infinity Gauntlet, Civil War, Secret Invasion and so on holding up as solidly with a few dozen mutants crowding the picture. Off-to-the side stories that have value and make the X-Men part of the bigger happenings are always welcome and that’s what Gage and Di Vito give us here.

They also created a story I remembered as fun and then came to see as darn clever upon reflection, so well done all around.

Rasslin' Ramblings: Thank You Edge

There is of course no bigger news in wrestling this week than the retirement of Edge, aka Adam Copeland, at age 37 due to complications from a broken neck suffered nearly nine years ago. An 11-time World champion, Edge notched up a grand total of 31 championships during his 13 years in WWE, more than anybody else in his history, also winning a King of the Ring, a Money in the Bank Ladder match and a Royal Rumble along the way. In short, he’s arguably the most decorated wrestler of all-time, so he certainly leaves the sport not only as the reigning World champion, but also as a guy with really nothing left to prove and a sure bet for the Hall of Fame.

Edge also suffered no shortage of major injuries over his relatively short career, including the aforementioned neck trauma, two torn pectorals, multiple knee problems and most recently a nearly-career ending torn Achilles tendon that he incredibly managed to come back from. He’s spoken in multiple interviews about a desire to hang up his boots before his 40th birthday and has invested his earnings wisely enough to be able to do so. When you couple that desire with all he has already accomplished and the accumulated wear and tear he has put on his body, really Edge’s retirement is more a cause for celebrating a man who gave so much to the business and the fans and managed to somewhat miraculously get out on top with his health intact.

On a personal level, I got to interview Edge/Adam (my first question was what to call him, which he genuinely chuckled at as apparently nobody ever asks him that and he appreciated the gesture) over the phone during my first month at Marvel.com for one of our very first Fightin’ Fanboy pieces (I can’t say he was the first Fightin’ Fanboy as I believe Ryan Penagos had done something with Christopher Daniels before I got there and Arune Singh may also have already talked to Alex Shelley at that point). It remains one of my absolute favorite interviews I have ever conducted of the probably hundreds I have had the pleasure of doing over the past seven years. We probably talked for about an hour and a half despite the allotted time being far shorter than that about wrestling, comics (Edge is a huge geek, and has legitimate credibility as far as knowing his trivia) and other stuff; I genuinely felt like I was just chatting with a buddy as opposed to interviewing a celebrity. He was funny and friendly as well as very courteous and I felt great coming out of the call; without going too over the top, it really helped set a positive tone for my start at Marvel and certainly gave me a shot in the arm as an interviewer that I’ve always been a guy who gets nervous doing stuff over the phone.

Actually though, my first interaction with Edge proceeded that one by almost a decade and I had practically forgotten about it until just this week. When I attended WrestleMania XIV live in Boston, during one of the matches, two big guys with long hair came out and started watching the show from the aisle entrance right next to our seats; one was The Jackyl (who was an absolute jerk to a bunch of kids who asked for his autograph, refusing and then yelling at them to watch the match) and the other guy I sort of recognized from a WWF Magazine piece on the developmental system, but couldn’t quite place. Needless to say, in the next few weeks as promos began airing on Monday Night Raw, I realized I had watched part of WrestleMania sitting next to Edge.

Edge will certainly be missed as a performer, but like I said, it’s certainly far more important he retains his health and gets out go out so strong (WWE put a tremendous career retrospective video package together that Dave Lagana talked about over at his blog).

As my little tribute, here are my five favorite—not “my favorite,” not necessarily “the best”—Edge matches in chronological order.

TLC II: The Dudley Boyz vs Edge & Christian vs The Hardy Boyz (WrestleMania XVII)
I have a personal fondness for the three way Ladder match from WrestleMania XVI over either of the TLC matches, truth be told, as I watched it with my high school buddies and it was so blow away innovative, but from an Edge-centric perspective, this was the best of the trilogy. He and Christian were at the height of their run as a dominant heel tag team, really getting to infuse their characters into the story here, and of course he hit the mid-air spear on Jeff Hardy that still makes highlight reels today.

Hulk Hogan & Edge vs Billy Gunn & Chuck Palumbo (SmackDown, 2002)
Not the best match from a pure wrestling standpoint, but the energy in this one elevated it tremendously and as viewing experience it holds up to this day (I just re-watched it recently on the Decade of Decadence DVD). You can see in Edge’s every smile and action how much teaming with his childhood idol to win the World Tag Team titles meant to him and you see the passion in great little spots like the stereo leg drops; great post-match celebration of course, also.

Edge vs Eddie Guerrero (SummerSlam 2002)
For my money Edge’s best match from his initial babyface singles run during 2001-2004. These two had awesome chemistry in the ring and could tell a great story on so many levels; they could tie it up on the mat, take to the air or brawl and there was never a lull or down moment. Eddie Guerrero could have a good match with just about anybody, but you could tell when his opponents rose to his level rather than needing to be led, with great results, and that’s what happened here.

Edge, Mick Foley & Lita vs Terry Funk, Tommy Dreamer & Beulah McGillicutty (One Night Stand 2006)
No image for me better epitomizes Edge’s peerless run as a sleaze ball heel than his spear and subsequent lewd, utterly offensive cover of Beulah McGillicutty, the beloved poster girl of ECW out of retirement for one night only. Edge showed in his WrestleMania XXII match with Mick Foley that he could work the hardcore style with fearlessness, but I’ve got a personal soft spot for this match with its train wreck pacing and that great finish; Edge came out looking like the ultimate villain and a true star.

Edge vs The Undertaker (WrestleMania XXIV)
The biggest match of Edge’s career as he got to main event at the biggest show of the year against arguably the biggest star in the company, The Undertaker. That’s a lot of pressure to put on anybody, but you wouldn’t have known from watching as this was a great one that absolutely deserved to close WrestleMania. Excitement bell-to-bell and I honestly feel Edge played a major role in kicking off Undertaker’s incredible in-ring resurgence over the past few years, which perhaps more than any of those 31 championships is certainly something to hang his hat on.

Paragraph Movie Reviews: Scream 4

If you don't have plans to see this movie, you can check the spoilers here and then come back.

Whereas Scream 2 and 3 were increasingly tired retreads of the type of movies the franchise was intended to be a commentary on, Scream 4 gets back to being smart, original and having something to say while also entertaining and scaring just like the initial installment. It's not the perfect movie by any means, but it's entertaining, satisfying, clever and, as noted, actually has a message or two on stuff beyond the usual horror fare like the nature of fame in 2011 society. The returning cast was what it needed to be: Neve Campbell remains fairly uncharismatic but knows how to play this part and anchor the film, Courteney Cox has still got it when it comes to being a firecracker, and David Arquette turns on his dopey anti-charm for the one role it really works in. Not every member of the younger cast stood out, but Emma Roberts certainly showed she's ready to be a big star who can come at a part from multiple angles while Hayden Panettiere demonstrated a nice contrast of confidence and experience played against the other newbies, reminding why she became a big deal so young to begin with. The movie is also blessed with a potpourri of excellent cameos and minor players, with Anthony Anderson, Adam Brody and especially Alison Brie in particular making the most of their screen time. But cast aside, the writing is strong in that it's witty, it moves fast and it keeps you guessing; the mystery is a nicely set-up one and best of all nothing about this thing ever seemed to take itself too seriously, which made it fun above being brilliant or even scary, and that's what I was looking for. The neat meta-commentary aspect that made the first Scream unique and withered out in the second two was also back in full force, fueled by all the advances in technology over the past decade (Wes Craven may have gotten a little too excited to get to use cell phones as a plot point, but I'll forgive him). I do have to deduct some points for two things in particular, one minor thing and one fairly major one, the minor being just a quibble that Gale's arc was supposed to be about her having trouble to adjusting to small town life away from the spotlight, but with the timeline of her and Dewey having been married and living in Woodsboro for a decade, that didn't jive for me. Without spoiling anything, I will agree with other reviews I have read that they definitely did wimp out on the ending and I don't think the final 15 minutes really did anybody any favors, but this is one definitely worth seeing and judging for yourself.

Sayonara, Smallville: "Scion"

Incredible but true: This year, The CW's "Smallville" embarks on its tenth and final season, making it not just the longest-running Superman TV show ever but the longest-running comic book TV show ever produced. Bananas, right?

We've been off as it's been off, but to celebrate its final year, we're teaming up our collective powers of dumb DCU trivia, long experience watching and writing about the show and general obsession with serial TV to bring you "Sayonara, Smallville" – a semi-regular feature where we'll review the most notable episodes of the season whenever we can. Everyone is invited to play along.


Kiel: So shall we dive in on this bad boy? Has it been months since you watched this episode?

Ben: Kiel, it's been a long time. Seasons have changed. Empires have risen and fallen. A black man is in the White House, Kiel!

Kiel: Dogs and cats, living together!

Ben: I watched this episode when it originally aired and have given it nary a thought since, so I will count on you as my guide and probably do more reacting than acting. I am in your capable, skilled and reassuring hands, sir.

Kiel: Thank God I watched it last night! OK, well...this is the story of the clone we've known as Alexander becoming Conner Kent AKA Superboy. And in a way, I felt the methods through which they introduced this idea are about as indicative of current "Smallville" as it gets. That is to say, this episode found purchase to incorporate every conceivable tone they could into one episode. We had melodrama with Clark talking about growing up a misfit. We had comedy with Conner getting all sexy hot for Lois and buring off heat vision. We had that joke turn into a weird freaky plot point as Conner got Red Kryptonited up and became a creepy obsessive Lois lover. We got legit chills and Lionel did some horrific stuff. In short: we got everything,

Ben: I'm happy to report that as you type, the memories are flooding back

Kiel: Good!

Ben: Well, to a degree. I'm remembering stuff like Tess neglecting to mention she tried to MURDER Conner before dropping him off with Clark for male bonding, Lionel thinking a vial of dust bunnies was his son, that lab tech being covered in blood for no reason...Good times.


I miss Smallville for lab techs randomly covered in blood and Tess' wacky 180s, Kiel! But yeah, it was certainly an episode that jumped around quite a bit in finding its theme and setting. It was a step away from the goofball comedy of the Amos Fortune ep or the action epic Deathstroke stuff.

Kiel: And the weird thing was...I kind of liked it that way. I've got to say that I enjoyed this more than Amos Fortune, and while I may not have dug it as much as the most bad ass Bryan Q Miller episodes, I didn't find myself thrown off by super-serious groaner scenes. I mean, if the #1 thing I want from a "Smallville" episode at this point is to drive the bigger season plot forward while reveling in the over-the-top comic booky nature of the world, I got that here in spades.

Ben: True.

Kiel: Although I think that by the end of this, I realized that maybe there are less plot threads running through this final season than we've previously given credit for. Ultimately, everything that's happened over the past few months has been about one thing: making Clark ready to be Superman. Sure, that takes on some variations from learning to be a leader in the field to learning to share stuff with Lois or whatever, but all-in-all every episode has circled back around to that idea without moving it forward all that much. But aside from that, I think there's a more important issue at stake for our discussion....was this REALLY Superboy in this episode, Ben?


Ben: That is a loaded question, my friend. By that do you mean do I believe this character is in fact somebody else or are you asking if I was satisfied with the translation of one of my known favorite characters to the medium of television/whatever "Smallville" is?

Kiel: The latter...you're the Superboy expert. Did this live up to the character you care about in any real way?

Ben: I will give you the long, rambling answer that I know you want.

Kiel: Hooray!

Ben: This was an accurate representation of Superboy as DC and the creators shepherding him of late see him. It was consistent with how he has been written since around the start of last decade and certainly how he acts on the "Young Justice" cartoon. In the current comics he has become kind of the "road not taken" Clark Kent. He's pretty darn close to young Clark but with a modern emo edge that speaks more to the era he's being written in than anything deep down within the character. "Smallville" put a little more separation in by really playing up the half Lex part of his persona and showing the internal struggle. He was Clark with less restraint/Lex with more conscience. I thought it was actually a pretty novel approach and divorcing myself from my fandom I did enjoy it on that level.

Did it, as you say, live up to my desire to see Superboy on the small screen come to life and speaking his lines? Not so much, but mostly because Superboy hasn't been the Superboy I really like in some time. The Superboy who I list among my favorites is the Karl Kesel/Tom Grummett (and later Peter David/Todd Nauck) kid who was decidedly not Clark Kent and had a personality very much his own. The dude who was fun-loving, girl crazy (not in the way the Smallville version was) and naive because he loved life, not because he was a farmboy. This was obviously not that Superboy, but I wasn't expecting it to be any more than I was expecting him to have leather jackets and belts on his thigh (though that would have been awesome).


Kiel: We did get a leather jacket! But, of course, it was the typical "this person is now evil because of Red K" leather jacket, so it didn't quite count.

Ben: It didn't have a yellow S-shield on the back, doesn't count. Did I care about him in any real way? Sure, but I'd credit that to the Smallville crew giving him a decent little arc and the kid with the hat from "High School Musical" turning in a nice if sometimes uneven performance. So it was cool to see a well-done character on Smallville, but despite the fact that he was named Conner Kent, I never felt like I was watching the Superboy for whom I have such affection on TV. But then again, I haven't see that Superboy in years, so it wasn't a shocker.

I'm not the guy who should be deciding whether the current Superboy is better than the old one--I can certainly see the value of a young Clark Kent who kids of this generation can relate to beyond the one on Smallville--but from a personal standpoint, obviously I miss the more unique one, and this was just another nail in his coffin. So endeth the rant.

Kiel: No, I agree with you. Even though I greatly enjoyed Geoff and Francis Manapul's Adventure Comics run, I've not enjoyed Superboy in a big big way since the Joe Kelley run.

Ben: Adventure Comics was another example of something Geoff does very well, and that's that he can craft a great comic that you'll love for the world and the adventure even if you don't lime or have reservations about the main character. But even though his Conner was pretty far removed from the original, through Teen Titans and Adventure I did still mostly feel like he got the heart of the character right, and that went a long way.

Kiel: But even just assuming that Superboy is the version that appears in today's comics with the black t-shirt, I thought this really felt like its own thing. It's funny how so much of the modern conception of Superboy comes from his interaction with other cast members in the DCU. Take Tim Drake and full grown Superman out of the picture, and it's hard to define what he's all about. So I guess this take is as legit as any, all things considered.

Ben: Yeah, I did feel that while closer to the current Superboy than the 90's version obviously, Smallville Conner (or CONR or whatever) was his own man. Like I said, there was way more Lex in him than has ever been in the comics version. And that worked because in the world of Smallville, as much as they've endeavored to paint him as the ultimate villain in recent years, Lex was a good dude the first few seasons and remained somewhat shades of grey a long time. Smallville Clark isn't near as perfect as comics Superman either.

Kiel: Yeah, you're right about that. It's funny how this show has made all the core Superman cast a little more human overall.


Ben: So a melding of these two middle of the road characters on their way towards their respective destinies in the unstable form of a teenager was a win at least on the surface for me. I think Lois is the most consistent to the comics version, but I also think that may be because she missed the first couple seasons. We bag on those early days sometimes (I do at least), but that's where they did a lot of differentiating the characters to build their world. It's been more recently where they've skewed closer to comics continuity. As we've noted before, the audience shifted from soap fans to comics fans, so it makes sense that way. But Lex with a noble heart, imperfect Clark, and even Lois being a little softer are all really holdovers from when they were first introduced, I think.

Kiel: Sure, but I think that may be as much from TV pacing and format as it is from this show's specific take. Put any character in a weekly show, and you'll spend more time trying to flesh out their little quirks than you will trying to nail the perfect iconic version of that idea.

Ben: That's true. The nature of television has demanded more well-rounded takes. Yes world, I just said Smallville has given us well-rounded characters. It's almost gone, let me celebrate it.


Kiel: Well, speaking of getting into the nitty gritty of characters, the other major point I think to unpack from this episode is the fact that they really went there with Lionel being from another reality – the B-plot of this episode involved Lois and Tess breaking in to LuthorCorp to prove that Lionel was not "our reality's" Lionel so Tess could take the company back – which we weren't expecting at first. Thoughts?

Ben: Well, it was a helpful Maguffin to get Lionel out of the picture as far as taking his resources away and putting him in a state of desperation where he first had to up the pressure on trying to gain control of Conner and then ended up where he was at the end of the episode. So it worked as a plot motivator. The idea that he regained control of his company at all following a very public death and we never saw the mechanics was a pretty bright red flag to pay no mind to the man behind the curtain in regards to that whole storyline. Writing it off in equally ludicrous fashion feels appropriate.

Kiel: Sure. And I still feel like this is just another piece of wheel-spinning because the writers weren't sure if they'd get Rosenbaum back for sure, but now that they know he's coming for sure, they can kind of clear the decks for him to show up in any way they want.

Ben: Right right. I know we talk about it every episode, but it is always interesting and worthwhile to me to speculate where we at least think changes were made and when in regards to getting Rosenbaum back. I'm sure a lot of plans for Lionel's character including his takeover/loss of LutherCorp were motivated by waiting for Rosenbaum to sign on the dotted line. Can we talk Tess for a moment?

Kiel: YES! I liked her in this, and I've come to like her overall.


Ben: Now that we've seen what Cassidy Freeman can do when given good material to work with, I've come to enjoy her more in general, but that said, few pieces of writing this season have been wackier and less consistent than her all-over-the-place relationship with Alexander/Conner. The fact that she tried to poison him, never mentioned it to anybody, then was right back to being his protector here made me laugh a bit. Cassidy Freeman has gotten much better at recognizing when the writers are giving her madness like that and playing it with the subtle smirk and eyeroll that Justin Hartley has perfect over the years, but it's still worth a chuckle.

Kiel: Sure. It's funny because they've decided on her direction overall, but from episode to episode, there are these WILD swings in her motivation or actions that everyone on set must know how ridic this stuff is playing.

Ben: They must.

Kiel: But I think they've finally got to the point with her – and with the whole core cast really – where they're in the place I'd like them to be as a viewer, which is everyone is in a stable position to move into a big ass final battle. Now, whether they actually get to that kind of a story is beyond me.

Ben: That's the million dollar question. Real talk: Do you think the people making Smallville write with the knowledge that their audience has just come to accept that not a lot of their character and motivation logic will make sense so long as they keep things camp and entertaining? How self-aware do you think they are? I feel like we've spoken to enough folks who work on the show that they're generally bright and I'd wager they know they have a product that can certainly be good, but more often is fun.


Kiel: Here's what I think: There's so much attention in the press to the kind of very specific fan service: what version of Superboy are they doing? Is the Legion working in? What crazy comic villains and references can they throw into the dialogue? And I get it, fan blogs eat that up, and even big sites like TV Guide play up those angles in their reports on this stuff. BUT...Ultimately, most of the people watching this show aren't watching it for that. They're watching it because it's a fun superhero show, and they like that Clark and Lois make out. It truly is a guilty pleasure type thing in the same way that "Supernatural" or "The Vampire Diaries" are. And I think the creators are pretty aware that if they don't hit those big fun action and romance beats, they'll really be sunk. So even though the hardcore amongst us notice weird little jumps of logic, they KNOW they don't have to worry about fixing those flaws so long as they have goofy business for Lois to do along with a few genuine fanboy Easter Eggs. It's a really winning formula, really. I think you could almost say Marvel did the same thing with the "Iron Man" movies if you squint when you look at it.

Ben: I more or less agree with your assessment. We've gone pretty broad in our discussion tonight, which makes sense since we're coming back from a hiatus, but were there any other more specific story points you wanted to hit? I think we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about Conner's scenes with both Clark and Lois and the relationships therein.

Kiel: I thought it was really weird how Conner fell for Lois, and I'm not 100% sure what we were supposed to get out of those interactions. Were we supposed to see her true love for the real Clark or something? It just kind of skeeved me out.

Ben: Yeah, it was all very uncomfortable. Maybe we were seeing the Clark part of Conner falling for Lois because he has it in his DNA to love here but then the Lex approach to treating women as property and buying their affection? Just another example of the dichotomy? When he was Clark's protege in the barn, it was puppy love, but when he was under the influence of Lionel and the ring, headed toward Lex town, it became unbalanced. Clark can love, Lex cannot.

Kiel: I get that. It made sense for Conner way more than it did for Lois is I guess what threw me. I wasn't sure where Lois and Clark were supposed to be by episode's end.

Ben: I didn't really think there was a larger commentary on the Clark/Lois relationship in this one. I think she was just trying to survive yet another insane situation. I don't think she really saw any of Clark in Conner, particularly when he was nuts, or anything like that. She was more there to be the object of his coming unhinged and also the one who really hammered home the point that he had some Luthor in him that he needed to work out. But none of that made the scenes with him throwing her into walls and whatnot any less skeevy.

Kiel: Although I LIKE the action in this ep from a choreography and setting standpoint. The burnt out mansion was a GREAT locale.

Ben: I didn't actually realize it was the burnt out mansion until a ways in. I thought it was the shithole Conner shot Martha from back when he wasd Alexander for awhile.

Kiel: Oh yeah! But no...the very first scene there started with a shot through the broken stained glass window of Lex's office.


Ben: Right, I figured it out later, just wasn't paying attention at first. It was a nice touch. Coming full circle, my favorite parts of this episode had to do with what you talked about as far as the bigger journey of Clark becoming Superman, and the piece we saw most this episode was him growing up a little and almost assuming the role his father took with him but with Conner. It was important because one of the things I think has been holding Smallville Clark back from being Superman has been that selfless broad heroism aside, in his personal relationships he does tend to make it about him in an immature way a lot, and he did here to start, but overcame that and recognized he had a responsibility to Conner. I really liked the scenes where he confided to Conner he had powers too and where he was tutoring him. Corny in the right way. And the ending to their part of the episode with Conner getting the Kent name and putting on the t-shirt was nice.

Kiel: Yeah, that scene worked for me more than I thought it would when I initially heard about the character showing up. But I think from here on out, I'm going to be exceedingly hard on the episodes we have left.

Ben: Sure. Just like Clark has a responsibility, so too do we.


Kiel: I really want them to kick it up a notch with this last run. That Darkseid moment at the end of this ep was SO bad ass. I just want that momentum to role as they go along. Fingers crossed!

Ben: That was a great moment. They haven't dropped the ball visually on Darkseid in his brief cameos so far, which gives me hope that they recognize how important it is that he looks awesome. I dig the idea of Lionel as a broken man being the guy he finally chooses to appear to as well. I'm getting pretty psyched about the idea that it will be Clark & Lex vs Darkseid with Lionel & Ollie in the finale. I hope they go that route.

Kiel: Yeah, great potential here...but before then: Booster Gold for some reason!!!

Ben: Well this week we're headed back to the Mirror World for more Ultraman, though I don't believe BQM is writing (I could be wrong)

Kiel: Oh, I didn't know that! Could be fun still.


Ben: My final thought is a question for you, sir. You know how Conner blew up the Kryptonite rock with his heat vision?


Kiel: Yes...My immediate thought there was that he'd poison Clark forever.

Ben: Was he able to fight through the pain and do that because he's only half Kryptonian, or has Clark just really never thought of that? Oh sure, there's that.

Kiel: HA!

Ben: Clark Kent: Getting there, but still a ways to go.

Kiel: I'm going to go with a combo of half-Kryptonian and being a good eight feet away from the rock.

Ben: Whatever helps you sleep at night.

Kiel: But really, it's one of those classic "U-Decides."

Thunderbolts is not Suicide Squad (and vice versa)

I read From The Marvel Vault: Thunderbolts last week, a neat little one-shot presenting a lost tale of Nomad written by Fabian Nicieza from the time he was the regular writer on Thunderbolts and pulled recently from Tom Brevoort’s drawer to see publication for the first time. The main story was good, but it was a quick missive from Thunderbolts co-creator and original writer Kurt Busiek on the letters page thanking the fans for their years of support that grabbed my attention.

Like the proud parent he deserves to be recognized as, Busiek pointed out that Thunderbolts has been going strong nearly 15 years now over the course of 150+ issues and with only one brief break in regular publication of an ongoing series. Considering the book began in 1997, hardly fertile breeding ground for long-running comic book success stories, that’s quite an achievement. Thunderbolts is among the most enduring mainstream creations of the 90’s—I’d rank it above Superboy, at least on par with Kyle Rayner, maybe a notch below Deadpool—a fact even more impressive given the unique niche it has staked out.

For those who don’t know, the original premise of Thunderbolts was that the Avengers and Fantastic Four had seemingly been killed during the Onslaught event, so a new team of heroes rose up, only to be revealed—to the reader at least—in one of the most shocking last pages of a first issue ever—as the Masters of Evil in disguise, pretending to be good guys with the promise by Baron Zemo of some future scheme in mind.

I’ve said it before, but books starring bad guys are generally a hard sell, and they were even in the 90’s. Quick character-building villain-centric minis are great, but sustaining an ongoing with a protagonist who’s a nasty person the audience can’t sympathize with, no matter how cool they think he/she/they are in the abstract, is usually a recipe for early cancellation or unfortunate watering down of the character core (Venom and Deathstroke in the 90’s being the prime example of the latter).

Thunderbolts has managed to last as long as it has in no small part because though it started out as a book about lying villains, it grew organically into the story of people who had made mistakes trying to do better, as the bulk of the team turned on Zemo, having gotten a taste of being heroes and wanting to go for the real deal. It wasn’t another case of psychotic Eddie Brock or mercenary Slade Wilson suddenly getting a conscience for sales’ sake, it was genuine and not always surefire attempts at redemption from well-chosen small time villains off the B-list or lower who were never mass murderers to begin with and were believably cast in their role. Everybody loves an underdog story, and in many that’s what Thunderbolts has been for the past 15 years.

Obviously when you’re thinking about “villain books” that have done well, another that immediately springs to mind is the fondly remembered Suicide Squad, a series I’ve made clear is one of my all-time personal favorites. In the grand scheme of things, the prime Suicide Squad ongoing lasted a little over five years and shy of 70 issues, but if you look back at the mark it left on fans and creators and how influential it has been in the intervening period, you can see that its success was measured by something beyond longevity.

Suicide Squad did not take the Thunderbolts approach in conquering the issue of a cast you didn’t necessarily want to cheer or sympathize with, as Deadshot and Captain Boomerang certainly never really seemed to be seeking any sort of legitimate redemption and even though Amanda Waller was ostensibly the Professor X of the Squad, no question she was—and remains—a total “rhymes with witch” (as well as one of the most unique and awesome characters around). Instead, the circumvention route of Suicide Squad was to make no apologies for how reprehensible much of the featured players were and also give you a rotating handful of identification figures who would inevitably get driven out by how awful these people were (Nightshade, Nemesis, Vixen), go over the edge from being surrounded by madness (Rick Flag) or do their best to grin and bear it while recognizing they couldn’t do much to change things (the stalwart Bronze Tiger). Of course you also had the gimmick that any character could go at any time—hence the name—and the reliably strong writing of John Ostrander, who oversaw things from beginning to bitter end.

Given that Thunderbolts and Suicide Squad are perhaps the two most prominent villain/pseudo-villain-centric series in comics history in terms of length and esteem, it’s not a shocker that they will draw the occasional comparisons. If Marvel and DC did another Amalgam event tomorrow, it’s a safe bet we’d see the Thunder Squad or Suicide Bolts led by Baron Waller. It makes sense, yet despite the fact that there are surface similarities—two teams of super criminals fighting on the side of good under some duress with a lot of interpersonal drama—really once you scratch that, the two concepts couldn’t be more different, and as a fan of both, I’m certainly happy for that because both work well.

At its core, Suicide Squad is a cynical book. It’s brilliant, but in the same way shows like The Sopranos or The Wire are (or so I am told, having never regularly watched either—don’t hit me!). It has many messages, but a pretty central one is that playing by the rules doesn’t always get the job done and sometimes criminals and killers can succeed where heroes would fail because they’re willing to go dark places.

By contrast, despite the fact it originally starred a group flat out called the Masters of Evil and has traveled to some pretty dire instances itself over the past decade and a half, Thunderbolts always has been and likely always be optimistic underneath it all. Its message is that even though not everybody can change for the better, enough can—and want to—that redemption is a concept worth believing in.

Even when it appeared Thunderbolts was becoming outwardly more like Suicide Squad, there was something about that redemptive theme buried at the core that I swear pulled the book back. Warren Ellis had a great run that indeed centered on more dangerous figures like Norman Osborn and Bullseye being put to work by the government and doing some truly heinous stuff, but look even there how many times unlikely heroism took center stage, be it Jack Flag overcoming the odds, American Eagle standing his ground, or Songbird fighting the system from within. I swear Busiek wove something into the DNA of Thunderbolts that even when you set out to tell the most deranged stories possible, a trickle of that inspirational underdog tale is going to sneak in and work its magic.

It’s really tough to make a villain book work in comics, but both Thunderbolts and Suicide Squad found their own path, and given how much I dig them both, I can’t wait until somebody shows me a third way.

Art Attack: July 2011's Coolest Covers

-Dale Eaglesham draws a great Puck, but the real beauty of that Alpha Flight cover is the upside down maple leaf as the light through a window (that sentence was heartfelt, but still somehow hilarious to me as I read it back).

-My man Paolo Rivera snags cover artist of the month honors this go around by showing his versatility with two completely contrasting pieces that both incorporate clever side bits. His Amazing Spider-Man cover is in his lush painted style with a playful take on the title placement while his Daredevil employs the more traditional drawn style he'll be using on that series but with the clever little touch of DD taunting us by using his own billy club as a blindfold--love it.

-If there's one thing I've learned compiling these each month, it's that Batman seems to just bring out the best in artists. Whether it's Chris Burnham having him kick English schoolgirls in the face or that striking David Finch traditional pose, the character consistently shines through. And look at Red Hood's head exploding on Guillem March's Batman and Robin!

-Speaking of characters bringing it this month, digging Neal Adams' classic take on Captain America as well as Olivier Coipel's gritty version, as well as Marcos Martin's mischievous Daredevil (have I mentioned that book is going to be amazing?).

-Fantastic Four #1 almost always makes for a great homage, but using Frankenstein and Howard the Duck? Thank you Michael Kaluta.

-Black Bolt has one of the best costume designs ever, Mark Bagley knows how to create beautiful pin-ups--'Nuff Said.

-Did you really think there wouldn't be at least one Dave Johnson cover here?

-Kevin Nowlan's Flashpoint: The Outsider cover is just so weird I can't help but like it.

-I believe the minimalist approach Salva Epsin took on Generation Hope will really pop on the stands.

-Thank you Tony Moore for keeping the streak of rad Venom covers alive.

ALPHA FLIGHT #2 by Dale EagleshamAMAZING SPIDER-MAN #665 by Paolo RiveraAMERICAN VAMPIRE #17 by Rafael AlbuquerqueBATMAN AND ROBIN #25 by Guillem MarchBATMAN BEYOND #7 by Dustin NguyenBATMAN INCORPORATED #9 by Chris BurnhamBATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT #4 by David FinchCAPTAIN AMERICA #1 by Neal AdamsCAPTAIN AMERICA #1 by Olivier CoipelDAREDEVIL #1 by Marcos MartinDAREDEVIL #1 by Paolo RiveraDARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER - THE BATTLE OF TULL #1 by Michael LarkFEAR ITSELF: DEADPOOL #2 by Ryan StegmanFEAR ITSELF: FEARSOME FOUR #2 by Michael KalutaFF #6 by Mark BagleyFLASHPOINT: BATMAN - KNIGHT OF VENGEANCE #2 by Dave JonhsonFLASHPOINT: DEADMAN AND THE FLYING GRAYSONS #2 by Cliff ChiangFLASHPOINT: THE OUTSIDER #2 by Kevin NowlanGENERATION HOPE #9 by Salva EspinHELLBLAZER #281 by Simon BisleyINVINCIBLE IRON MAN #506 by Salvador LarrocaRED SKULL #1 by David AjaUNCANNY X-FORCE #12 by Esad RibicUNCANNY X-FORCE: FEAR ITSELF #1 by Simone BianchiVENOM #5 by Tony Moore