Rage of the Red Absorbascon....!

I’ve been slowing let the new DCU sink into my bones before I sink my fangs back into it (um… except for the two posts where I already did). For the record, I support DC’s decision, I think they are doing the right thing in principle, and in practice most of their continuity have the whiff of commonsense about them. Some decisions are certainly not consistent with my tastes (Darkseid? Deathstroke? Eyeroll.) But that’s to be expected. No version of the DCU is going to be entirely to any one fan’s taste; if it were, it would probably only have one fan, which is not a good business model.

That said, it’s time to comment on some of things I’m not liking, spewing forth my carmine bile like Dex-Starr the Red Lantern Cat.

Mr. Terrific. Gainluca Gugliotta: put down your pencil… step away from it slowly and keep your hands in the air; you are under arrest for crimes against art. Usually I’m not fussy about art (at least I do not think of myself as being fussy), but the art in Mister Terrific is, frankly, unacceptable. No one should be drawn with a neck that looks like I could personally crush it in one of my tiny little hands. How much worse is it when that person is Karen Starr? At times many of characters have an odd, warped look, something like those caricatures that street artists draw; I had to double check to make sure that this work was paid for by DC and not the WPA. It was as if the artist had been possessed by the ghost of Gene Colan, then fell down drunk with inspiration and drew everything from the perspective of someone who can’t get up off the floor. I thought Mr Terrific was supposed to be hip, not FULL OF HIPS. HIPS EVERYWHERE. Giant hips. Thrusting at you, shattering the Fourth Wall. Great Shades of Elvis! Of all of the art styles I might have encouraged to be used for Mr Terrific, Pelvic Transquartomuralism was not on the list.

Static Shock. Hey, the new Spider-Man is black! And by that I do not mean Miles Morales in the Ultimate Universe. I actually mean DC’s Static, who is so annoying with his” juvenile patter while fighting in the Manhattan (and not Dakota) skyline” routine that I wanted to jump into the comic and expose myself to some dangerous chemicals or radioactive experiment, just so I could become a supervillain long enough to punch him in the face. This saddens me. I liked the cartoon show a lot; I really wanted to like this new Static and his book (particularly if DC is sacrificing Black Lightning from continuity just to give this kid breathing room). But honestly, I do not anticipate continuing to play money to subject myself to this comic. Although recent developments suggest I may wish to delay that decision.

Suicide Squad. DC, I call you cowards: that is NOT Amanda Waller. Part of the reason I loved Amanda Waller was precisely because she wasn’t an aerobics instructor wrapped in spandex. As I’ve said before: there are fat people in the real world. Many of them are accomplished, powerful, interesting, influential; just like “normal” people. Once upon a time, DC had a place for those people in its world, too. But fat people must now be condemned and cannot serve as positive role models, because, well, gosh, any decent person simply doesn’t get fat. So long, Etta Candy the Solid! Good bye, Amanda Waller the Hefty! If we permit you to exist, it’s only after a trip to the same Fat Farm Alfred Pennyworth got sent to, all those years ago.

Stormwatch. I was so curious how the Wildstorm Universe characters would be come across as integral parts of the DC universe, rather than being stuck in their other dimensional shtetl . And now I know: BADLY. Suddenly, they all seem… ridiculous. Most of them have absurdist hypostatic powers that are pretty much just like the magick-y style powers of Golden Age heroes that let them do whatever the heck the writer wanted them to do. When J’onn J’onnz is most normal, realistic character in your book, your book has a problem. Or perhaps I should just say, “I have a problem with your book”, which is trying so hard to have been written by Grant Morrison I can see the strain on every page. It will be a shame if comics only gay-male couple + the freakin' Martian Manhunter isn't enough to keep me interested in a comic. But a shame it may have to be... .

Batwoman. Okay, I have nothing bad to say about Batwoman. So what if I can barely follow her zany backstory, even though I read all her previous issues and should know her backstory already? Batwoman is just … beautiful. It is what comic book art should be: it is stylish, uses the medium fully, and does so in service of the story. And Batwoman herself? Pretty much the best character design ever. Long after DC’s new found obsession with kneepads, functionality, and collars is forgotten, Batwoman will still look exactly as she does now: Red and Black and Fabulous all over.

Super Set!

For those of you who don't already know, Wizkids is just a week or so away from coming out with its latest set of figures of Heroclix (the superhero table-top combat game), a set focused on Superman (see set checklist poster below)

Please take down that "Doors of Georgetown" poster on your dorm room wall
and replace it with this; thank you.

Because Superman's rogues gallery is interstellar-but-less-than-stellar, the set is naturally going to have a lot of figures I'll have zero interest in/never play/give away to someone. You know, figures of characters like Lobo, Manchester Black, Darkseid, Magog, Doomsday, and Imperiex. I mean, Imperiex... really.

DC, if you me to continue to take your villains seriously, please stop designing them like something that Rita Repulsa would send against the Power Rangers.

But many other figures will be welcome additions to my "Superman" box of Heroclix figures, including villains (like Silver Banshee, Live Wire, Lex Luthor with Hope and Mercy, the Phantom Zone villains, the Composite Superman and a Libra to pair up with my custom Human Flame against the Martian Marshmallow), a passel of Legionnaires (Brainiac 5, Sensor Girl, Starboy, Invisible Kid, Sun Boy, Earth Man, and sprockin' Matter-Eater Lad, of all people), and some lovable wacky supporting characters (depression-ridden suicide Element Woman, guilt-ridden genius Steel, professional victim the Human Target, crippled schizophrenic Gangbuster, and manipulative mind-controlling murderous despot Max Lord). Yet STILL no Jimmy Olsen; really, DC/Wizkids, what are you thinking...?!

In addition to all the Superman figures, there's also a new Aquaman, Flash, Wonder Woman, and a "The Bat-Man" in the Superman set; a very welcome surprise. I have been frustrated at times trying to compose JLA teams (I mean the REAL JLA, of course, not a haphazard hodgepodge of also-rans like Gongorilla, Green Flame, Aztek, and *urkgh* Geo-Force) because it seems as though there is always one of the Big Eight (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and Vibe) who's not been remade recently enough to have a dial that's on par with the others. Even though these new figures are "Flashpoint" alternative universe ones, they probably are not so bizarrely out of whack with the Earth-1 versions that I cannot treat them as such. And, although I haven't seen his dial, the Aquaman sculpt has "Ass-Kicker" written all over it.

Some of figures may not see much play in my Superman games (like Bruno Mannheim and Intergang Underboss minions) but may find use elsewhere. I'm not a fan of Intergang itself, but I like anything that can be re-purposed to beef up my Gotham mobs.

VERY interested in what I hear about the OP Kit (the prize support give to tournament venues for "Organized Play"), particularly the Special Objects (3D objects that are placed on the board and have an effect on gameplay). A rainbow of power batteries, (the 3D Special Objects in the last set) I can do without; but a rainbow of frickin' KRYPTONITE? Oh, we've been waiting ten years for THAT...



Green Kryptonite, sure, that's easy to imagine how those will work: some combination of canceling the powers or changing the combat stats of any figure with the "Kryptonian" keyword within a certain range. But it doesn't stop there; there will be Red Kryptonite, White Kryptonite, Jewel Kryptonite, Gold Kryptonite, and X-Kryptonite. That's simply insane! My mind is a-whirl trying to imagine how the effects of those types of Kryptonite will be represented in gameplay.

Gold K will be like Green K, but more serious with less range. I would think it would do no direct damage, but cancel out all powers, making Superman et al. more vulnerable to attack. Red Kryptonite, well, that's where the real fun would be. It should come with eleven different (primarily absurd) possible effects, determined by roll of the die, that last only one turn!

But those others? That's where my mind stumbles badly. White K; what the hey? The only sensible effect I can imagine is letting it damage Swamp Thing and the Floronic Man. Jewel K; I dunno.... maybe granting mind control to the Phantom Zone villains?And X-Kryptonite? Well, short of providing us with a secret Streaky clix we don't know about, I cannot imagine what the heck Wizkids is going to have X-Kryptonite do. And why on Earth-1 did they make three extremely obscure versions of Kryptonite but not make BLUE K, which could be used against the Bizarro figures? It's all surpassingly strange.

Apparently, a Superman Fast Forces is headed our way in December. A "Fast Forces" is a mini-set, usually containing some of the most universally recognizable characters from the previous set and its theme, but with variant dials; such self-contained mini-sets are designed to be more accessible to beginners to the game. That will be a nice addition I think, since the dials are more likely to be all-around versions of the character rather than ones whose dials are driven by particular storylines (like the All-Star Superman version of Lex Luthor, whose dial makes no sense if you don't know that story).

While I'm happy about some of the figures, I'm still overwhelmingly mystified by some of the omissions. No Prankster but a Queen of Fables? No Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, or Lois Lane, but a Seven Deadly Brothers? The one-off Composite Superman who was a poor man's Amazo rather than the classic god-like Composite Superman with all the powers of the Legion who was the first villain to hands-down with no debate utterly defeat the World's Finest with next to no effort? Another remake of Bizarro (there have been five versions already) when there's never been, say, the Atomic Skull or Atlas or Rampage?

THERE IS NO GOD

And I blame Glen Weldon for this. Somehow.

Green Arrow #1 Review

Oh, DC, with your New 52… how I hate you. Because you have ruined one of your most deeply established characters and in the process, you’ve done the unthinkable:

Made me like Green Arrow.

Oh, the mortification! It’s inescapable. Everyone where I go – on the subway, in line at the grocery, standing on the zip-line platform – people casually strike up conversation, as one would, by innocently asking, “So, what did you think of Green Arrow #1?” What can I say? I cannot lie (even though that’s clearly What Superman Would Do). I admit it: I liked Green Arrow #1. Further I liked Green Arrow himself in Green Arrow #1. Sigh. I suppose this is the end of an era.

As I’m sure you’ve already read elsewhere, this version of Green Arrow is basically the love-child of Steve Jobs and James Bond, which is a great combination. What you may not have heard (if you’ve not read the comic) is that he’s got two principal assistants in his secret lair who help him do his “Green Arrow stuff”. They are key, and I’ll tell you why. First, they are slightly annoying in their “intropositioning” and slightly cartoony in their roles as Ideological Symbols. I can’ remember their names – something suitably moderne and Gen X-y, like “Fazner” and “J’mongahela”. The days when characters were named “Bruce and Dick” or “Wendy and Marvin” are long over, I suppose. But, really, who would want assistants named “Wendy and Marvin”, anyway? Anyway, Fazner is the pacifistic weapons designer (“I don’t want to hurt anyone!”) and J’mongahela is a hard-ass computer whiz (“Can’t you just blow these crooks up and be done with it?”).

These characters are annoying naïve and extreme. And making them Ollie’s assistants is nothing short of brilliant… because they are the avatars of Ollie’s Annoying Past Personae. Fazner is Liberal/Naïve/Self-Righteous Ollie (1970s-80s) and J’mongahela is Murderous/Vicious/Impatient Ollie (1990s-2000s). By creating scapegoats for these past aspects of Ollie’s personality, DC is still giving us those viewpoints in Green Arrow, but positions Ollie as the person in the sensible middle ground (a ground he hasn’t occupied since the Silver Age).

[Okay, I looked up their names. J'mongahela is actually "Naomi", which is a comparatively normal name. Fazner, however, is actually "Jax", which is, somehow, even more ridiculous than Fazner.]

Allowing Ollie to appear reasonable and caring without being self-righteous is a milestone. DC has spent the last 40 years trying to make Green Arrow (originally just a Batman knock-off) different and distinct. That's wise. Unfortunately, in the process they made him thoroughly unlikable. That's not wise.

So Jax and Naomi, while annoying (how many times have I used that word in this post already?!), are a Necessary Annoyance, and I welcome them as means to a new, likable Ollie.

Speaking of necessary annoyances, let's talk about "Doppelganger", "Supercharge", and *snort* "Dynamix", the--well, I guess I have to call them 'villains'-- that Green Arrow fights in his first issue. Continuity may be gone, but tradition isn't, and this motley crew hews to one of DC's oldest and strongest traditions: That Green Arrow Villains are LAME.

In all fairness, they aren't really 'villains' (more like Crime Groupies, one of my Rungs of Villainy), and, to his credit, Green Arrow himself points this out. To their faces. If Green Arrow is going to fight lame villains, at least he's wise enough to know that and Golden Age-y enough to indulge in appropriate smack-talk toward them. And, frankly, the whole thing seems oddly realistic (I mean that in a comic book sense). Face it, not every bad guy who has, gets, or purchases superpowers is going have the intelligence or ambition to be a Real Villain. Some them will just be annoying punks. Annoying, again. And somebody has to deal with them; it's actually a pretty good niche for Green Arrow to occupy. History notwithstanding, Green Arrow's not really Justice League material, nor does he need to be. Let him shoot arrows at the small fish in the barrel! That can be no less of a contribution to daily society and no less entertaining then hitting Kanjar Ro in the face with a boxing glove arrow.

Still; these three yoboes are terrible. Doppelganger a pretty girl who can become really ugly and grow and extra head and extra pair of arms (and probably some extra strength); she wouldn't even make it into the Legion of Substitute Heroes if she worked hard at it for the next 1000 years. Supercharge has respectable powers, but he's basically a low-watt Electro without a costume. It's *snort* Dynamix, that really gets me though. First of all: Big Strong Scary Black Guy. Way to strike a blow for diversity, DC; and in Green Arrow, no less, the book about vigilantes beating the crap out of people that sensitive liberals are most likely to read. Second, he's named Dynamix, which (beyond being just a silly codename) is the name of my ex-boyfriend's aerobic music company. THEN they go out of their way to make him say he doesn't dance. What kind of person who doesn't dance names himself "Dynamix", for disco's sake? Ollie should have just hired Dazzler to kick this guy's ass.

So we have three losers, with bad codenames and no costumes or goals, whom Green Arrow captures in five minutes. Way to go, Ollie! Of course, it doesn't get truly priceless until the last-page reveal where they are broken out of prison by a larger farrago of ungainly crime groups including:

• The Tube-Top Twinz, because twins are hot,
  
• Frosty Looking Emma Frost Knockoff Lady,
  
• a poorly dialogued Vibe-manque named "Rush", undoubtedly with some superspeed power;
• Wolf-Boy (Jimmy? Is that you?!);
  
• Karate Kid (except actually Asian),
• Lady Who Looks Like Wonder Woman and Dresses Like Wonder Woman and Looks Like She's Going to Rip You In Half (whom I'll call "Sunder Woman");
  
• and the love-child of Beast, Wolverine, and Billy Barty.

Zowie; somebody send Mike W. Barr a royalty check! Honestly, one look at those badly dressed bohunks and I'm longing for the return of The Gang. Looks like Green Arrow's metier will be fighting the unwashed and undignified hordes of super-losers who litter the new DCU; and who better?

Honestly, though, this new Green Arrow deserves a better class of criminal. Should Ollie be fighting Despero single-handedly? No. But if DC wants us to take him seriously and give him respect, they can't keep throwing H Dial rejects at him ("You're no match for my fluoride arrow, King Kandy!"). Fix this, DC, and quickly. Because my need to laugh at Green Arrow can be satisfied through decades of back issues without buying new ones. Remember that any good jumping off point is also a good jumping off point.

One more thing: WHERE IS STAR CITY?! Why on Earth-1 has DC saddled Green Arrow with Seattle again? Especially since (as everyone from the 31st Century knows) Seattle will fall into the sea within the next ten years? Let Queen Industries be centered in Seattle, fine; but put Ollie, his "Q Core" (which remains almost completely unexplained, by the way), and Green Arrow back in Star City.

JLAOkay!

I've heard with interest and agreement many of your criticisms of the new Justice League #1: that the principals behave too poorly, that the story is badly decompressed, that the use of Darkseid betrays DC's professed fresh start, that it's too much like Marvel, etc.

I hear ya.

But, honestly, even with all that and worse, I will still continue to buy this comic every month just as long as I get to see...

SOMEONE BEATING THE CRAP OUT OF HAL JORDAN EVERY MONTH.

Cuz that's just something I can't get from Marvel, you know...?

1001 Ways to Defeat Green Arrow: #12:

1001 Ways to Defeat Green Arrow, #12:


Convince him to call Batman a fascist.

Then look out for flying limbs and body parts.

Justice League #1 Review

And now that I have a digital stack of new comics in my iPad, I can no longer delay my review of Justice League #1. In short… I liked it, and encourage you to read it.

There are so many panicked, pitchfork-wielding fanboys choking the streets lately , crying “The Continuity is falling, the Continuinty is falling!” To which I say, again… “eh”. The character I'm seeing are recognizable in a good way; that's all the "continuity" I really need

I open Justice League and I see Hal Jordan being an overconfident bozo and see Batman being, well… Batman. The two very different styles are highlighted and contrasted in the course of the story, resulting in yer basic “And Together They Fight Crime!” scenario.

You may not be a fan of Geoff Johns, in fact, you may be a Pantha Loyalist, and think he’s a bloodthirsty gore-hound who eats Rob Zombie films for breakfast (and possibly Rob Zombie himself). Be that as it may, ya gotta give him this: he’s no dummy. Of DC’s best known icons, the two with recent films under their utility belts and a steady and familiar characterization accompanied by surrounding elements are Green Lantern and Batman. So making them –the characters being ‘rebooted’ the least – the center of the first issue of Justice League is a smart move. Anyone who likes, or even knows, those characters will see something they are familiar with as the starting point for the New DCU.

The plot has some amusing naivety about it that almost reminded of those famous clue-sparked free associations sessions Adam West and Burt Ward used to have in the Batcave. “It happened at SEA! See? ‘C’ … for Catwoman!” If I were to discover a Mother Box in a Gotham sewer, my first thoughts would not be, “It’s alien! And so is that caped nut in Metropolis! LET’S GO, ROBIN—er, I mean, LANTERN!” But, hey, it’s young Bruce and Hal; they don’t have the perspective to say (as I did), “Kirby’s crackle! A frikkin’ Mother Box?! I, mean, STILL with the Fourth World crap? For THIS we REBOOTED…?!?!” Very little could please me less than DC’s unwillingness/inability to let sleeping Kirby Dots lie, but even I have to admit Darkseid makes a more appropriate threat for bringing together the Justice League than the Ersatzians, er, I mean, the Appellaxians.

It was interesting to see Batman and Green Lantern paired together with such dynamic contrast. Traditionally, that treatment has been reserved for Batman and Superman. In fact, the Superman/Batman comic did so with such relentless lack of subtlety that it nearly made me put my head and hand in a hydraulic press and beg Helene to throw the switch. Granted Superman and Batman do exemplify the Apollonian/Dionysian heroic disjunction rather neatly; but Batman and Green Lantern do so much more interestingly and amusingly.

Speaking of Superman… it’s good to see him back. I’m disappointed (but not really surprised) at all the fans-in-law (the pop culture hipsters who comment on comics even though they don’t actually read them) who are raising their eyebrows (with either approval, disapproval, or mere supercilious detachment) about Superman’s “new edgy” attitude (“Hey, kids! The new Superman’s a dick!”). Newsflash, hipsters: Superman’s always been a dick. As I’m sure you’ve read elsewhere, this “new edgy” Superman is, in essence, the character that actually debuted in the late 1930s, when people were poor and fed up with government’s inability or unwillingness to tackle the kinds of social justices brought on by untrammeled capitalism. Grant Morrison has decided to give us that Superman back and I agree with him 100%. Yeah… you heard me: Grant Morrison is 100% correct in this and I agree with him completely. The Golden Age Superman kicked butt and didn’t care what you, the police, or anyone else thought about it. He was, like every Golden Age hero, a smack-talking wise-ass vigilante.

Silver Age Superman (“Why is my face not on the quarter?”) was legendarily conceited, and the Bronze Age Superman was no slouch in the “sometimes it’s a drag to be infallible” department. Where DID all these youngsters get the idea that Superman was a “big blue Boy Scout”? Oh, of course…from Frank Miller and Richard Donner. “I never lie, Lois”; great Caesar’s ghost, Clark, you lie EVERY SINGLE FRICKKIN’ DAY. Your entire LIFE is a LIE. I’m fine with that, but Richard Donner kind of overlooked it. And since none of these youngsters have ever read a pre-Crisis in-continuity comic in their lives they bought this pabulum about Superman being super-nice. Yeah, tell that to the miniature rainbow Superman that he jealously sent to his death In Superman #125.

1001 Ways to Defeat Green Arrrow, #11:

STEAL THE ARROW CAR.



Or, better yet, hire some cheap hoods to do it for you.


P.S. you know they're cheap hoods because they say "haw" instead of "ha". Really; it's a comic book rule.

In which Hal encounters a New Concept!

JLA #1, Part I: MENE MENE TEKEL PARSIN

Last night, I read what will be -- already is, really -- heralded as the first comic of a new era in the history of DC Comics, a "New Universe", so to speak.

I'm going to save my opinion on the story's content for a "Part II" to this post. For now, I just want to talk about the experience of how I read it.

Because yesterday was a new era for DC not only with regard to content and continuity, but with regard to the medium itself: the new era of same-day digital release.

They say that porn is always the content that's on the cutting edge of communication technology, as far back as Gutenberg. In my case, however, it's always comics that push me to the next level of tech. For example, when I bought my first television. It was because Batman the Animated Series was about to air; before that, there just wasn't sufficient reason to own a TV. Heck, years ago I lived in an adorable, cozy English basement that I loved... which I eventually moved out of, in part, because there was not enough room for the frickin' longboxes.

In this case, DC's decision to go same-day digital pushed me over the edge of getting an iPad and "going digital" with comic purchases. So yesterday, I bought myself an iPad, set up Comixology, and bought some comics, JLA #1 included.

This is not a decision a former comic bookstore chain owner makes lightly. Stores that purvey entertainment "hard-copy" (e.g., video rental stores, bookstores, comic shops, computer game centers, record stores, video arcades, news stands) are, mildly put, not doing as well as they used to. The digitization of most forms of education/entertainment is a major coup for the accessibility of information of all types... but it's brick and mortar stores that are taking the blow. While many are making ingenious attempts at adaptation and leveraging of the new tech, the handwriting is on the wall. Or, perhaps, more accurately, on the screen of the touchpad. God has numbered the days of their reign and brought it to an end; it has been found wanting; its kingdom is divided and given to the Apps and the Netflix.

Steve Jobs -- the Uni-Friend!!

There are great downsides to this change. Naturally, there is the economic effect on multiple large industries. But there is a less calculable social effect as well, since these entertainment emporia have served as the "third places" in 20th century society that are so essential to the souls of our communities. Now we are left with the cinema -- which still offers itself as an "event" and a venue for outings -- and the cafe, where we all sit around consuming expensive stimulants while enjoying our digitized entertainment.

But the fact is that my wingman CobraMisfit and I only find ourselves near an LCS once a week...on a Tuesday night, when it's closed. The fact is that I've never been a comic book collector; I'm a comic book reader, and having stacks of longboxes is (and always has been) a HUGE pain in the patootie, and more of an impediment to reading back issues than an aid.

I suspect that most people don't want to have all those comics; they just don't want to throw them away. The same is true of books in general. One of the most common sights in an urban neighbor is the Sidewalk Box o' Books. You know, the cardboard box with the word "FREE" scrawled on the front, full of old textbooks, beach novels, and self-help guides.

Okay, just looking at those titles make me want to go shower. With a strigil.

I've been carting around several crates-worth of Classics textbooks since college simply because, well, you just don't throw away The Pre-Socratics. If you do, something bad will happen to you, like your atoms will turn into fire or you'll get shot by an Eleatic arrow (which may or may not ever reach you). Thank Jupiter one of my nieces is now at college for Classics, and I can dump this crap, er-- gift her these inestimably valuable repositories of our Greco-Roman heritage.

Oh, of course the Pre-Socratics have their own Dynastic Centerpiece Model.
They did everything first.

So I read my first digital comic last night. And I loved the experience.

It wasn't just an enjoyable experience; it was a transformative experience. The power of the art, of the artist's efforts to use illustration to tell the story hit me like a ton of bricks. As I've mentioned before, I've always been a writing-over-art kind of comic book fan. That doesn't mean I don't care about the art, I just don't think about it much.

This experience changed all that. I used what is called the "letterboxing" option, which presents the story as a panel-by-panel experience, rather than a page at a time. This brought the art CLOSE. And it is detailed. Even though I have four pages of original comic book art framed and on my living room wall, it's easy to forget that comics themselves are "shrunken"; the original art is much larger. Suddenly I was seeing the art as the artist actually created it. And it was engrossing; it felt much more 'sucked in' to the picture, rather than just it being a schematic of action held at arm's length.

And it was beautiful. Never have the colors seemed more vibrant nor the lines more clear. Yes, the JLA artist is a good one, but it was more than that. The paper page never looked like this to me.

And it was meaningful. By presenting the story panel by panel the letterboxing focused my attention on what was happening (preventing me from 'taking the page in all at a glance', which is what I've been unknowingly doing for decades). I have, in essence, been wolfing down my comics for years, rather than actually savoring them. It also made me see how the artist wants me to see the action unfold. Sometimes the letter boxing will start with only part of a panel, and then zoom out or move over to show the rest, resulting a more dynamic and layered viewing experience. It was much more cinematic, actually. More than anything it reminded me -- a good way -- of the 1960s Marvel cartoons. Now, those were very crudely animated, to be sure. But as it result, watching them was less like watching a cartoon and more like actually reading a comic book; and that's a good thing. Similarly, reading JLA #1 on my iPad with Comixology set to letterbox opened my eyes to how cleverly and engagingly still pictures were being used to convey on-going motion.

Have you notice how much more common it is (post-Matrix) movies nowadays to slow down or freeze the action? Cinematography has caught on to one of the intrinsic powers of the comic book medium: to highlight one moment in a continuing action. Manga cartoons do this all the time, slowing or stopping an action at its apex. The fact that Batman does a multiple somersault before crouching into a batarang throw is certainly cool; but the significant action is the batarang throw (particularly to the head of the crook it's aimed at). Comic book artists are deciding what the significant part of an on-going action is in every single panel...! Maybe I always knew that intellectually (thanks to Scott McCloud)... but now I can actually perceive it.

While the experience of reading this comic book through digital letterboxing was obviously powerful and positive for me, it's not without downsides. One of comics' most interesting and unique artist options was innovative panel shape, design, and layout (as exemplified by the work of, say, McCay, Cole, Adams, or Steranko). That kind of creativity is not rewarded or well captured by this kid of digital presentation. However, perhaps artists will start to compose their art specifically to take advantage of this new format, just as previous artists took advantage of the full page.

There's an even broader aspect to my digital experience than just reading the comic book. It was the purchasing. No matter what you do at a comic book brick-and-mortar, it's pretty clear which publishers are the big dogs; as a result the little publishers tend to get lost in the melee of capes and eye-beams. But my screen can offer each publisher to me equally. This egalitarianism makes it easier to wonder, "Hey, what does Devil's Due publish, anyway?" and give it a look-see. Digitization may be quite a boon to small publishers, I think.

And for me, as a comic book bully, I've suddenly realized: I AM NOW ARMED. I can load this thing up with scads of comics which are now with me at all times (at least when I'm carrying my iPad in my man-purse). That friend who you know would like a particular comic if you get him to read one? BOOM, there it is to hand to him. That guy who always says you exaggerate what an idiot Hal Jordan is? BOOM, there's the panel of Hal thinking he can take on Superman without Batman's help. That young fool reading "The Fountainhead" beside you on the bus? BOOM, there's the Ayn Rand issue of Action Philosophers that'll make him throw it out the window.

I really want a hat like that.
Just to have something to wear at the next
philosopher-themed costumed party at Joe Cerutti's house.

It appears I've "gone digital". And I don't think I'm going back.