A Collection of Random Thoughts, Vol 16

In today's installment of A Collection of Random Thoughts, I'll be talking about the recent Batman: Reborn relaunch, another discussion on Marvel's price hikes, New vs. Classic Avengers and Superman's recent retcons, his origin and what makes the character work for me. Hit the jump to see what I have to say.

Starting Over With Batman: Reborn

It occurs to me that if DC really wanted to move the Batman concept forward, they have a pretty good set up to do so with the Batman: Reborn titles. They have a strong and logical replacement for Bruce Wayne in Dick Grayson and a new Robin in Damian Wayne, who seems to have caught on well enough from what I've seen.

Tim Drake, as Red Robin, can arguably take the place of Nightwing in both the publishing line up as well as a similar position in the Batman "family" as the kind of outsider that is still part of it all.  Depending on the direction Batgirl takes, it could replace Robin as the teen-centric Bat book while Gotham City Sirens is the villain-centric book replacing Catwoman.

Of note, there is not a Birds of Prey-like book, but Batwoman's starring role in Detective Comics is more of a new book than really replacing a pre-Battle for The Cowl book, and you could possibly consider Streets of Gotham as a replacement for Gotham Central.

All in all, if DC actually wanted to move the Batman concept forward, which they obviously don't from a marketing and licensing standpoint, but, if they did, they would be in a pretty good position to do so with Batman: Reborn.

Brevoort On The Classic Avengers

In a surprising move, Marvel editor Tom Brevoort has announced there are no plans to return to a classic Avengers line up anytime soon, which pleases me to no end. I know that classic Avengers fans tend to be pretty die hard in their conviction, but, as someone who never bothered with the Avengers franchise until New Avengers launched, it's nice to see that Marvel's first impulse isn't to return to an old status quo even though that is bound to happen at some point in the future.

That's It! I Give Up!

After looking over the prices for the latest trade collections from Marvel in their December solicits, I have decided it is too much of hassle to buy comics from them.

As everyone is well aware, $4 is slowly becoming the average price for a single issue from Marvel nowadays and the prices of their trades has been slowly creeping up as well, to the point where I have to "do the math" to see if I'm getting a good enough price to page count ratio and, when it comes down to that, it's honestly just not worth the effort.

Of course, there are still some Marvel comics I am interested in. Incredible Hercules remains the best comic they put out and Jeff Parker's works still remain a good value as do many of their recent oversized hardcovers, but, to me, the rest of the stuff really isn't worth bothering with since I can get other trades of equal quality from publishers like Dark Horse or DC at a more affordable price.

Brainiac vs. Superman and The Legion of Super-Heroes

As I've mentioned before, to me, Geoff Johns's work on some comics seems to be a mix between an actual story and a fix for one continuity "problem" or another. A good example of this is his work on Action Comics with Gary Frank.

The first arc, Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes, reestablished the original Legion and Superboy as part of Superman's history while the second arc, Brainiac, reworked the history of both the titular character and the Bottled City of Kandor.

Both of these arcs are pretty decent stories in and of themselves and you wouldn't notice the retcons unless you were already aware of the various continuities Johns is dealing with and, even with the obvious retcons, like with Brainiac, it doesn't get in the way of the story. Basically, they are part of a story that isn't dependent on the retcon for it's existence.

This is one of my main problems with Superman: Secret Origins - it's whole existence seems to be for justifying the inclusion the of Superboy and the Legion into Superman's origin. The Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes arc in Action Comics did a perfectly fine job of putting the Legion back into Superman's history, so I don't see why you need a six issue miniseries to cement that "in continuity".

Of course, there could be more to Secret Origins than that, but, given Johns work on Green Lantern: Secret Origins, which just added one or two minor Blackest Night retcons and did nothing else really, it is always a possibility.  The changes that Johns made in Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes are obvious and I don't see why there is a need to further expand on them. I guess because it's part of Superman's origin, but, even then, I still don't think it's something that is needed.

Of course, there is going to be more to the series than that, but how much of that demands another miniseries about Superman's origin? Which brings me to my next point...

Does Superman Actually Need A Secret Origin?

The answer is a definite no, he doesn't. In fact, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely did the perfect Superman origin in three pages and five panels in All Star Superman #1. Of course, that is a very short "story" and lacking in detail, but that's the point - Superman doesn't need a detailed origin.  He's beyond it as a character. Everyone who would care to know already knows what Superman's origin is. Just like with Batman and Spider-Man. These characters don't need a detailed origin about how they became heroes. They just don't. Any such retelling of their origins, in my mind, is just going to be about continuity "fixes" and nothing more. These characters are beyond detailed origin stories or retellings, they are that ubiquitous.

Ultraman's Conversion

Final Crisis: Superman Beyond is probably one of my favorite Superman stories. In it, Superman meets various versions of himself from across the Multiverse in order to save it from destruction. One of those Supermen is Ultraman, Superman's Antimatter Earth counterpart, who Morrison characterizes as a vain, selfish man motivated by nothing but his unending greed. Eventually, Mandrakk appears at the end of the first issue and the second opens with this scene.

(click for larger image)

That is definitely one of my top five scenes from the whole Final Crisis event for one main reason - it does a really good job of selling the threat of Mandrakk. Here you have a man who thought of nothing but himself finding a higher purpose in a god whose entire existence is devoted to destroying all of reality. You can't really do much better than that, but the next scene is perhaps one of my all time favorites.

That is why Superman is awesome. Here he is, with reality itself collapsing all around him, and he just stands there, with a smile on his face, and says, "Sounds like a challenge to, Ultraman.", because, really, it's all just a challenge to Superman. This is a man who can shatter planets with his bare hands, is one of the most intelligent and enlightened beings in the universe and there is never any doubt that he is going to win. That is why Superman is awesome, because he can do anything. That is why I've always found it so hard to get into the Superman comics because, when compared to the events of Superman Beyond, they all seem so mundane. It's kind of sad that a character with such potential is often limited by poor stories.

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