Continuing our 70thcelebration of Superman and Batman (Robin, too) teaming up for the first time.
Pete Poplaski’s 1990 promo art of the Dynamic Duo and the Man of Steel makes me happy.
It appears informally modeled after World’s Finest Comics #2, the issue that changed titles from the original World’s Best Comics. (Which, as noted previously, was the successor to World’s Fair Comics. No worries, there’s never a quiz on this material, especially since I’d probably be the first one to mess it up.)
Of course, as we’ve posted previously, all of Pete’s gorgeous retro work makes me happy.
Remnants of a different era, indeed.
Poplaski’s great covers for the original DC strip reprints from Kitchen SinkSuperman and Batman finally get together in 1952… and Lois runs off with Robin. Thats wrong, for a lot of reasons.
Superman and Batman — along with Robin — first appeared together on the cover of the 2nd annual issue of World’s Fair Comics in 1940, issued to commemorate the 39/40 World Fair in New York City.
Shortly thereafter, that comic morphed into the ongoing World’s Finest Comic, and Superman and Batman appeared together on the covers all time.
But inside? Separate stories featuring DC’s most popular characters.
It wasn’t until 12 years later (1952) that The Caped Crusader and The Man of Steel actually met in one story. (More on that in our next post on Thursday.)
Meanwhile…
John Byrne creates an adventure that involves the aforementioned World’s Fair in his clever Generations series from 1999.
This is my favorite page from the series. It features all three heroes, plus Lois Lane, and sure enough, in that top inset panel, Lex Luthor as well.
Has there ever been another page this iconic in nature? All five characters in one small panel. And a gigantic splash of the four main ones. I missed acquiring this page once previously, but fortunately, I didn’t make the same mistake the second time around, albeit with a bit more pain in the wallet.
Much of “The Batman” is brilliant. It’s not necessarily my personal cup of Joe, but Matt Reeves has delivered an inventive and occasionally extraordinary film that incorporates elements of some great “contemporary” Batman comic book story lines and motifs. (Batman Year One, The Long Halloween, Cooke and Brubraker’s Catwoman, et al.)
It’s nice to see the world’s greatest detective actually detecting again.
The cast is superb. Robert Pattinson as Batman was excellent. I didn’t much care for his emo version of Bruce Wayne, but we hardly see him in the Bruce persona anyway. (He also wins for best bat-jawline). Zoe Kravitz and Paul Dano are also excellent, and Colin Farrell as the Robert DeNiro/Al Capone (Untouchables) version of the Penguin was good fun. He definitely has enthusiasms.
Jeffrey Wright as “Lt. Gordon” also great.
As for the story — I didn’t think it would be possible to incorporate Catwoman, Riddler and Penguin into one film without creating a bit of a mess; but the filmmakers made it work, and it worked pretty well.
And of course, developing the Riddler character as a serial killer is amazingly effective. Those real-life maniacs are always writing letters and taunting law enforcement so it was more than a logical character choice. Much of the first act of the film channels David Fincher’s Se7en and Zodiac. (Later on, it throws in elements of LA Confidential and Chinatown for good measure.)
As for the scarred side of the Two-Face coin?:
Upping the ante on Gotham as a modern Sodom and Gomorrah is wearying, even when done well. Why does anyone with more than 50 cents to their name live there? What the hell is the draw? It rains all the damn time, the nights last 16 hours or more, and it apparently has the most ineffective police force in urban history. It’s clearly the most dangerous and corrupt city in the USA, and it makes NYC in the 70s seem like a gleaming paradise. It’s becoming its own cliché.
(I’m beginning to think Ra’s al Ghul was right. Wipe Gotham off the map and start over.)
And riddle me this? Why are the non-“rouges gallery” villains always portrayed as one-dimensional cartoon characters? From Burton to Nolan to Reeves: The mobsters in these films are mostly not believable as mobsters. (Not to mention the cops, especially “senior management.” Also cartoons.)
And the bodies… just keep piling up… and up… and up. Maybe someone should call the state police. Or the FBI. Or… anyone.
As for the length of the film…
“I’m sorry I wrote you such a long letter. I didn’t have time to write you a short one.” – Blaise Pascal.
Seriously… it needed to be 20-30 minutes shorter. Do that and I think you not only have a terrific “superhero film”, but also a much more effective film, period. (No offense, it’s not the Godfather, which clocks in at about the same length.) And I would have watched the “extended” version on HBO a year from now anyway.
One final thought. A few film critics and fans have called this movie a “film noir.”
Nope.
Does it contain some of the tropes? Of course it does. So do a lot of films. (The whole dark and rainy thing again.) But, In actuality, you could argue the Batman’s arc in this film is the complete opposite of a film noir.
If it really was a noir, Batman would have completely fallen for Catwoman, done something really stupid because of his infatuation, and ended up floating face down in Wayne Manor’s swimming pool or dying in a hail of bullets.
Or, conversely, Bats would have done something “heroic” on Catwoman’s behalf that ultimately causes her to end up in a pool of her own blood.
And, spoiler alert (ok, I fibbed) they’re both alive at the end of the film.
“Bombshell, ” Spirt Vol. 2, #18 (Unpublished) DC Comics, December 2011
The Third and final part of our “Will Eisner Week” Spirit series features the noirish ending to this unpublished Spirit story “Bombshell” by Chip Kidd and Dave Bullock.
80 years of the Spirit, from his first newspaper appearance to the 80th celebration by Clover Press.
“Bombshell, ” Spirt Vol. 2, #18 (Unpublished) DC Comics, December 2011
Part two of our three-part “Will Eisner Week” series features the action heating up in the middle of the unpublished Spirit story “Bombshell” by Chip Kidd and Dave Bullock.
“Bombshell, ” Spirt Vol. 2, #18 (Unpublished) DC Comics, December 2011
The first week of March is “Will Eisner Week,” an annual event celebrating the life and works of one of the fathers of graphic storytelling.
And that means… it’s time for our own contribution to Will Eisner Week as well.
This year, we feature a terrific unpublished Spirit story by Chip Kidd and Dave Bullock featuring Bombshell. Unpublished… because DC cancelled its First Wave version of The Spirit before the story saw the light of day. (And shortly thereafter, the Spirit moved to Dynamite.)
Great storytelling along with beautiful wash tones by Bullock make this an especially unfortunate casualty of commercial considerations.
Part one of this great story appears today, part two on Thursday, and the conclusion on Saturday.
As for the dialogue?
Let your imagination soar.
I see a possible theme here — Bullock contributed this great Deadman story to DC’s Wednesday Comics in 2009.
Today we wrap up our month-long celebration of Spider-Man’s upcoming 60th anniversary.
Mike McKone brings his own take to Spidey rising from the grave — with Kraven’s daughter seeking revenge for what happened to dear departed dad. (It’s a bit more complicated than that, but you get the idea.) This Wizard story previews “The Gauntlet” and “Grim Hunt” which are also essentially sequels to Kraven’s Last Hunt.
Mike Zeck spoke about the original cover image in Back Issue #35, from 2009:
“If an issue has a scene with the title hero rising from his own grave, it’s like receiving the number-one gift on your Christmas list! Anyone spending even one second mulling over a cover idea for that issue would have been in the wrong business.”
McKone’s cover is a clever callback to Zeck’s original and iconic “crawl from the grave” scene 20 years earlier.
The Amazing Spider-Man: Soul Of The Hunter, August 1992
With and without the overlay that adds snow to the art.
Ah, the lure of the sequel/prequel/spin-off.
Kraven’s Last Hunt (1987), considered one of the greatest Spidey sagas of all time, saw a follow-up story appear as “Soul of the Hunter” five years later, reuniting the original creative team: JM DeMatteis, Mike Zeck and Bob McLeod.
This page is one of my favorites from the story and one of my favorite Spidey pieces that I own, period, because, thanks to some hallucinogenic help, you have Spider-Man in both traditional and black costume on one page.
Of course, if someone wants to offer me a reasonable fraction of what the very first page featuring a Zeck Spider-man in black costume recently sold for, well under that condition, I would probably part with it:
Mike Mayhew was this close to wrapping up the final touches on this classic Spider-Man image.
And then he changed his mind.
Mike and I have spoken about this a few times. He doesn’t specifically remember why he started over but, as you can see, it’s very close to the final cover. (He did recall some possible miscommunication over which aspects were going to be handled digitally vs. his actual original art. That was speculation more than fact, since those changes could have been fixed in this version.)
A potential not so fun fact for me:
When I purchased the art from a third party, it was presented to me as the actual published original, with alterations, finishes, colors and effects added digitally.
Er, no.
Fortunately, it’s still cool artwork, and, with the current insane pricing in the original art market, I’m likely about even.
The published piece along with the actual final original.
