CAPTAINS AMERICA

Many moons ago, when Syfy was known unapologetically as the Sci-Fi Channel, they would run what they dubbed the Mighty Marvel Movie Marathon every Thanksgiving (and some other holidays here and there). So while you watch the Spider-Man balloon go down Broadway on NBC, you could watch Spidey taking down bad guys over on basic cable.

The usual line-up included all three Incredible Hulk movies (spawned from the TV series starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno), the Doctor Strange movie, the three "feature-length" Spider-Man episodes (from the TV series starring Nicholas Hammond), and, what they'll be playing this Thursday in a mini-marathon harkening back to those old days, the three Captain America movies.

Many of you may know that Captain America: The First Avenger isn't the first foray into live-action for ol' Cap, but it's possible you may only be familiar with the 1990s attempt starring Matt Salinger. Yes, there were two other Cap movies (not counting the 1944 serial, which I'll get to later). Let's take a little look at the past of Cap on film in preparation for the marathon and the movie.

CAPTAIN AMERICA (1979)

Big pimpin', red, whte and blue style!

Steve Rogers, played by Reb Brown, was a modern day former Marine-turned-cartoonist whose father was a government agent in the 40s, dubbed "Captain America" for his patriotic attitude. After his father was murdered, Rogers drew a super hero based on the stories of him before being caught in a near-fatal accident. Dr. Simon Mills saved his life by administering FLAG (Full Latent Ability Gain), a "super-steroid" that brings Rogers to peak physical prowess. Given the costume he designed, Roger becomes Captain America with a tricked-out van and a motorcycle with a detachable windshield that serves as his shield (with transparent parts replacing the classic white). He picks up where his father left off and tries to live up to the example he set.

CAPTAIN AMERICA II: DEATH TOO SOON (1979)

Always wear a helmet!

Brown returns as Cap, with a costume closer to that of the comics. This time, Cap goes up against a revolutionary named General Miguel (Christopher Lee) who uncovers the secret of rapid aging. He threatens to hold Portland, Oregon, hostage until Cap stops him by accidentally causing the serum to burst onto Miguel.

CAPTAIN AMERICA (1990)

No mask is complete without rubber ears.

Matt Salinger is Steve Rogers, a boy with polio who volunteers to submit to Dr. Vaselli's (Carla Cassola) Super Soldier process, which the Italians used to created the Red Skull (Scott Paulin) out of an abducted young prodigy. After the process, Vaselli is killed leaving Cap the only one of his kind. Cap faces off against the Red Skull, but loses and is strapped to a missile aimed for the White House. Cap diverts the missile and ends up frozen until a team of archaeologists find him in the present day. After coming to grips with losing all that time, Cap teams up with the daughter of his 1940s sweetheart, Sharon (both played by Kim Gillingham), to stop the Skull's plans for world domination and rescue the President of the United States.

Intended for a theatrical release, the film underwent reshoots to add more stunts after a poor test screening. It was set to be released in 1990 to coincide with Cap's 50th anniversary, but it ended up shelved until it was released on video and cable in 1992.

CAPTAIN AMERICA (1944)

Captain America wields his mighty...gun?

Captain America was a 15-chapter serial by Republic. The series is noted for it's drastic changes of the character, including Cap being District Attorney Grant Gardner (Dick Purcell, who died shortly after filming from the strain) who carried a gun instead of a shield and had numerous costume alterations, and the elimination of the army background, Bucky, Nazis and the Super Soldier serum. The serials show Cap and his sidekick, secretary Gail Richards (Lorna Gray) try to stop museum curator gone bad The Scarab (Lionel Atwill) from obtaining two devices that could be used as super-weapons. Unlike other Republic serials, the villain was revealed from the onset, whereas they usually preferred to leave their identity a mystery until the final act.

THE AMAZING (?) SPIDER-MAN

The 1970s Spider-Man.

As most of us know, there's a new Spider-Man swinging to town next year.  Marvel Studios and Columbia Pictures have decided to reboot their 5-year old franchise with an all-new movie with an all-new cast and all-new touches. The biggest touch of all: the costume.  While Sam Raimi, director of the last three films, and company decided to keep as much of the traditional look as possible without making the suit seem silly on screen (such as in the 1970s American and Japanese interpretations), the crew behind The Amazing Spider-Man have decided to completely reinvent the character inside and out.












The Results? Well, see for yourself from these pictures from Entrainment Weekly:

Seen enough?  So have I.  Matt Murdock, the blind lawyer that becomes Daredevil for the uninitiated, could have designed a better costume...and he spent his debut swinging around in THIS:

So, let's compare.  Here's Sam Raimi's Spider-Man:

 And here's the Amazing Spider-Man:

Which do you think is better?

THE RETURN OF DALLAS

TNT, current owners of the former prime time soap opera Dallas, have optioned a new series of the show featuring the children of the original characters (essentially Dallas: The Next Generation). Originally starting as a mini-series in 1978, it ran for 13 seasons until its final episode in 1991. The show was about greedy oil baron JR Ewing (played by Larry Hagman of I Dream of Jeannie) and followed all the scandal and intrigue of his schemes and the people in his life closest to him. As a result, we received such memorable moments as the year-long mystery of who shot JR (which also led to the concept of ending seasons on a cliffhanger) and the infamous "dream season" (Bobby Ewing, played by Patrick Duffy, was killed in season 7 and brought back at the end of season 8 by saying the entire season was his wife's dream).

Now, the series is back 13 years later (the show is slated to premier in 2012) and is just the latest in a long line of resurrected franchises over the last few years.  It does pose an interesting question: does this trend signify that nothing new is good so they need to bring back all the old stuff, or that they are literally finally out of new and original ideas in Hollywood?  Share your thoughts on this!

JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS

The Holograms and the Misfits from the Jem board game.

Jem the doll.

About a month ago, The Hub, the children's networked owned by Hasbro toys, resurrected another toy-based property, Jem and the Holograms (1985-88).  Based on a doll line of the same name and designed to be one long commercial for them (just like G.I. Joe, Transformers, My Little Pony and He-Man at the Mattel camp), head writer Christy Marx took the task of fleshing out the characters and making them viable enough to sustain a half hour weekly program. 

Jerrica and Synergy.

The result was the story about a girl named Jerrica who inherits her father's music company, Starlight Music, and control of their live-in orphanage, Starlight House.  However, Starlight's now co-owner, Eric Raymond, has his own ambitions and complete cuts Jerrica out of Starlight in order to promote his new band, the Misfits, who go against everything Starlight stood for.  All seems hopeless until Jerrica receives special earrings that served as micro projectors for a computer her father made, Synergy: a hologram generating A.I. devised to put on the ultimate show.  Using it to disguise herself as Jem, Jerrica and her band the Holograms step up to battle Eric and the Misfits at every turn and save Starlight Music.

Since I didn't have the memory capacity I do now, the most I remembered from this show after having not seen it for over 20 years was the intro and the commercial bumpers.  Ordinarily, with some exceptions, seeing an 80s show after all this time usually makes me cringe.  Two prime examples are G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero and Transformers (now called Generation 1).  But this show actually held up in the sense it had me hooked from the first episode.  A few things that helped:

The Holograms and Misfit Pizazz.

-The animation: Despite how choppy or stiff the 80s toons tend to be in comparison to today's toons, the simple fact is they were all done in the style I like...which is to say comic book style.  Every cartoon from the decade starring real people looked like it jumped off the page of an old comic.  I will take that over anything new Cartoon Network puts out now.





-The characters: Marx did an excellent job taking a 2-dimensional gimmick and giving the characters depth, making them compelling and interesting.

-The music: The songs are done as little music video interludes that relate to a situation going on in the main plot, resulting in usually three per episode, plus a repeat or two if the overall episode ran short.  Despite the fact the songs are only a minute or so, they are wonderfully done.  They're good enough to make you wish there were full-length versions available somewhere. Not to mention Britta Philips, the singing voice of Jem, whose beautiful vocals brought many of them to life.

Rio and Jerrica.

However, the show is not without its flaws.  The episodes apart from the ones done by Marx do fall into 80s tropes of campiness and contrived situations. The perils the Misfits get the Holograms into sometimes border on downright felonious, making one wonder how they never saw any jail time.  Also, the only good male character (in season 1), Jem/Jerica's boyfriend Rio, only serves to be a sounding board of reassurance for Jem/Jerrica, leaving him without much of a personality all his own.



Along with the return of the show are talks about either a resurrection, a movie, or an all-new toy line.  With the success of the Transformers, and to a lesser extent G.I. Joe, franchise, the possibility doesn't seem so far-fetched., especially with Shout Factory announcing the new Jem DVD collection they're working on. Hopefully, any attempt to resurrect the franchise will fare much better than some other property's attempts in recent years.  But, in the meantime, check out the show on The Hub every weekday and Saturday and relive some childhood memories.  Or, maybe make some new ones for the kids in your life now.  Guaranteed this is better than anything they're currently watching now.

GOING GREEN

Last Friday, the Green Lantern movie hit theaters with a resounding thud. Everything from the story to the visual effects to the casting was downright lambasted across the board by both fans and critics alike. But, is the movie really THAT bad? I honestly didn't think so. I thought it was an entertaining summer movie and DVD-worthy. But, does that mean it was without its problems? Not at all.

Those who know me know I'm hyper critical when it comes to all things comics. With the industry in a slow decline since the 90s bust, we can't be anything but vigilant that our products are the absolute best (and affordable) possible. (Note: some spoilers may follow, so if you haven't seen it yet but want to, come back after you have).

The biggest problem with this production was the casting of Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan. Very few people besides his loyal fanbase thought this was a great idea. Reynolds is more suited for the wise-cracking Deadpool character he almost played in Wolverine: Origins and is slated to reprise (more closely to the comics) in the announced Deadpool movie. The simple fact is, he has very little range. And if he does have range, he refuses to explore it fully beyond the odd outing, like the Amityville Horror remake. As someone said to me the other day, they see Reynolds and automatically think Van Wilder, which is not exactly the perception you want going into a "serious" movie such as this.

But even despite the misgivings, Reynolds actually did a tolerable job with the role. There were some comedic moments ala the trailers, but they helped to lighten the mood in otherwise tense moments and were not inappropriately placed. Although he was still a goofball slacker as per his usual characters, this time it was in service to the story. Reynolds would probably have been better suited as one of the other Earth lanterns, either Kyle Rayner or in some ways Guy Gardner (who, incidentally, beat Jordan to live-action in 1997's failed TV pilot for Justice League of America).

Now, the story itself is where the most problems lie. Thanks to the fast-paced movie industry, movies are not allowed to go beyond the hour and a half mark without damn good reason, resulting in many scenes that should be given relevance either completely removed or cut down to virtually nothing. One such instance was the training sequence. After what was literally a five minute lesson with Corps trainer Kilowog (Michael Clarke-Duncan), Jordan was able to use his ring with pretty good efficiency mere scenes later, with the only hindrance being his inability to focus on more than one area at a time. The basic story was there and it started off fine, but there was so much crammed into it that nothing was fully allowed the chance for exploration or to breathe.

Characters also suffered from the cramming factor. As many who know even a little bit about the comics, or even watched Superfriends when they were younger, knows Sinestro eventually becomes a yellow ring-wielding villain. However, Sinestro didn't receive nearly enough screen time or scenes to establish what would lead to the shift from hero to villain, or why he and Jordan would become arch-enemies. It seemed most of the love for Sinestro in the movie came from the anticipation of what he would become, rather than anything immediately presented in the film.  Good for established fans, not so good for the average moviegoer off the street. That's truly a shame, because Mark Strong delivered a phenomenal performance with what little he had to work with.

Despite being heavily featured in promotional material, and even receiving their own prequel tie-ins from DC Comics, Kilowog and Tomar-Re (Geoffry Rush) were extremely underused characters. Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) and Parallax (Clancy Brown), the film's main villains, were both altered from the comics to fit the movie. Hammond became altered by exposure to Parallax's yellow energy rather than a meteor that hits Earth, and Parallax was a former Guardian who sought to harness and use the yellow power (more along the lines of the Guardian Krona in the current comics) rather than a purely evil entity. Seriously underplayed, though hinted at, was Hammond's obsession with Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), Jordan's boss and on again/off again girlfriend, which would have gone a long way towards solidifying his motivations for his evil acts. Parallax, on the other hand, received tremendous build-up only to fall far easier than he should have. Obviously DC hasn't learned the lesson about multiple-villain movies (see Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, and Spider-Man 3). Carol herself served as little more than a plot device or damsel in distress. Honorable mention goes to Jordan's family, who after having some prominence in the opening scenes disappeared entirely the rest of the film.

The CGI itself was what you'd expect from a mega-blockbuster movie. Although there were times when the integrated live-action/CGI shots (such as the suit) didn't work as well, and the green energy was a little too translucent for its own good, it was still a visually pleasing movie.

I think, what would have ultimately made this a better film, was if they took a couple of cues from 2009's direct-to-DVD movie Green Lantern: First Flight. The movie featured Jordan's training and first mission as a Lantern, but glossed over his origin story due to the producers feeling everyone was familiar enough with it. If you had taken the opening scenes from this film, and combined it with the story of that film, you would have ultimately had the best Green Lantern movie possible. Save the Earth-threatening danger for a sequel. If you're going to kick things off with a character's start, then you damn well better commit to that direction.

Bonus: Origin of the Green Lantern circa 1970s!

KEVIN KELLER OR VERONICA? (UPDATED)

Promotional cover art for Kevin Keller #1

Kevin's first appearance.

This month marks Kevin Keller's solo debut from Archie Comics. For those who have been under a rock the last year, Kevin Keller is Riverdale's first gay character, debuting in Veronica #202 as part of Archie's initiative to make their Archie line more relevant to today's readers. It was also the first issue Archie comics EVER had to do a second run of, which means they obviously did something right. And, of course, with all the positive press Kevin had received it was only a matter of time before Archie gave him his own book.

Or, did they?

This month saw the release of Kevin Keller #1, the first in a four-issue limited series starring, well, Kevin Keller. As a subscriber to all of Archie's titles, naturally I put in a subscription for this to keep me from having to chase down issues all over town (my shop doesn't have the best track record with getting indie and all-ages books). However, something bizarre happened when my copy arrived: I received two copies. Archie had a glitch with my subscriptions the past couple of months where they would double-ship a few of my books, so I didn't think much of it.

Then, as I sat down to read the book, I found the real reason: Kevin Keller is actually replacing Veronica for the next four issues.

Similar to how Marvel ran dual issue numbers on their rebooted books in the early 2000s, Kevin Keller #1 featured the number 207 in a lighter font next to its number, and the indicia reads Veronica #207. Understandably, this is a cost-saving move rather than launching and registering a new title for a new UPC. However, the fact it was marketed and offered as a separate book is a bit misleading to the consumers.

Whoopsie!

For starters, you'll have people like me who already have a Veronica subscription and subscribed to Kevin. On the other side, you may have people who have no interest in Kevin who are stuck getting him for four months of their subscriptions. This can prove either a good introduction for the character, or an irritation for the readers.

UPDATE: While the digest subscription ads remain the same, the regular issue ads now include a notation about Kevin being part of the Veronica subscriptions.

UNCANNY BITES THE DUST

Marvel's last consistently published book is about to come to an end.

Started in 1963 under simply X-Men, it became Uncanny with 1978's #114, and has been retroactively known as it since. Although it was technically cancelled with #66, the series ran reprints until #93, when the all-new X-Men took over in #94 from Giant-Size X-Men #1. The only time the book ceased publication was for the four months it became Astonishing X-Men for the Age of Apocalypse event. And that's what sets it apart from the rest of the Marvel line.

Spider-Man's books were reduced and rebooted once before combining into just one title under its original numbering. Captain America is currently on his 5th volume and about to go into a 6th. Fantastic Four had three volumes before becoming FF. Avengers had just begun its 4th volume after having been broken up into two titles for several years. Hulk had an initial 6-issue run before taking over Tales to Astonish, losing his Incredible adjective, then regaining it before returning to his original numbering.

As you can see, the realm of reboots is a confusing mess.


Hot on the heels of the latest X-Men event, Schism, the X-Men will be shaken up as never before as Cyclops and Wolverine go to war for leadership of the team. Writer equates it to the X-Men's version of Civil War.

On CBR, Tom Brevoort was quoted as saying:

"Uncanny' is the only book with an unbroken run...I would not assume that it's safe. Maybe that makes it a little less likely because it's the one title we've got that maintains continuity all the way back to the '60s. But again, in terms of publishing today in 2011, 2012, 2013 -- the need of right now is probably going to outweigh the need of 'it's nice that we have this thing that goes back to the '60s.' If there's a benefit to there being an 'Uncanny X-Men' #1 because we're building something in a substantial way and we want to give people that entry point, maybe we'd hesitate a fraction of a second longer, but I think it'd be only a fraction."

 More than likely, an Uncanny #1 will be on the way shortly after the original book ends. The current mentality is that people are put off by large run numbers and feel a #1 is a good place to jump onto a book. However, in truth, what attracts new readers is good stories within the pages first and foremost. Publishers are so concerned about the packaging that they forget the actual product.

So, where does this leave X-Men? Find out in October.

CRISIS OF INFINITE REBOOTS

One of my opening posts in this blog was heralding the achievement of reaching 900 consecutive issues of Action Comics, with the 900^th of Detective Comics on the way.

Then, DC decides to throw a monkey wrench in all that.

Apparently, DC is once again rebooting all their titles complete with tweaked continuities, and this time they’re leaving a Crisis out of it. Hot on the heels of their latest event, Flashpoint, in which Flash is mysteriously sent to another dimension, DC announced that the day the last issue of the event comes out is the day they begin their new runs, starting with Justice League #1. After that primer, 51 more titles (52 total, the number of universes DC has) will follow starting the following week with all-new #1s.

Here’s DC’s official blog post on the launch:

If you know us, you know we both hate secrets. In fact, you might’ve seen one (or both) of us have a grin or two on a convention panel recently. Why? Because it’s hard to keep a secret as big as the news we shared yesterday.

DC Comics will be making history this September. We’ll be renumbering the entire DC Universe line of comic books with 52 first issues. We’re publishing innovative storylines featuring our most iconic characters helmed by some of the most creative minds within the industry.

Not only will this initiative be compelling for existing readers, it’ll give new readers a precise entry point into our titles. And on top of that, all of these titles will be released digital day-and-date across the board.

Yesterday was just the beginning. After all, we don’t want to spoil the many surprises we have up our sleeves. It’s so important to us to make sure you maintain those feelings of excitement and unexpectedness when you pick up a new issue of our books.

We’re energized and looking forward to have you come on this journey with us as we make history this September.

–Jim Lee & Dan DiDio, DC Comics Co-Publishers

So far the exact changes are being kept under wraps, and the titles themselves were slowly being leaked through the DC PR machine. The initial books were Justice League Dark, Nightwing (yes, Dick Grayson is being demoted), Birds of Prey (which relaunched barely a year ago), Batwing (one of the new Batmen recruited for Batman Inc.), Batman, Batman and Robin, Batman: The Dark Knight and Detective Comics (all now starring Bruce Wayne and his son Damien as Robin), the much-anticipated Batwoman that has been constantly delayed, and several others. The one bound to be the most controversial is Batgirl, which looks like it has Barbara Gordon returning to the role since she became Oracle after being paralyzed in 1988’s The Killing Joke.

The goal, DC says, is to put stories first and make books accessible to new readers, which will be helped by their new day-and-date publishing (releasing an online downloadable version the same day as the print version, instead of one before the other). So, it looks like they took a page from the Marvel book to risk alienating their existing fanbase for the sake of the possibility of a new one.

I am not a fan of reboots. Reboots or retcons. I deem them unnecessary and lazy, unless you’re bringing back a cancelled title after a period of time. #1s don’t have the same allure they did back in the 90s. Hell, even then, the allure was the anticipation that every #1 was an instant-classic and thus a good investment. Plus, I don’t buy into the whole starting over for accessibility argument. When I started reading comics, the books I read were 30 years into their current storylines. I managed to catch up just fine.

What disheartens me, besides the return to horrid 90s-style costume designs, is the unknown fate of several of my current favorite characters. If Barbara is Batgirl again, what happens to Stephanie Brown? Despite the crappy name and costume, where does Tim Drake’s Red Robin fit into all this? Gotham City Sirens was a guilty pleasure every month, playing on the friendship of three villainesses begun back in the Batman cartoon. On the plus side, I am looking forward to the new Justice League International after the teaser we got in Generation Lost and Blue Beetle back in his own book.

The rundown so far (from Bleeding Cool.com):

1. Justice League #1 by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee (read more)

2. Justice League International #1 by Dan Jurgens and Aaron Lopresti
3. Teen Titans #1 by  Scott Lobdell, Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund (read more)
4. Suicide Squad #1 by Adam Glass and Marco Rudy (read more)
5. Action Comics #1 by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales (read more)
6. Superman #1 by George Pérez and Jesus Merino (read more)
7. Superboy #1 by Scott Lobdell and R.B. Silva and Rob Lean (read more)
8. Supergirl #1 by Michael Green, Mike Johnson and Mahmud A. Asrar (read more)
9. Batman #1 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. (read more)
10. Detective Comics #1 by Tony Daniel (read more)
11. Batman: The Dark Knight #1 by David Finch (read more)
12. Batgirl #1 by Gail Simone, Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes. (read more)
13. Batwoman #1 by J.H. Williams III, Haden Blackman and Amy Reeder (read more)
14. Catwoman #1 by Judd Winick and Guillem March (read more)
15. Red Hood And The Outlaws #1 by Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort (read more)
16. Batwing #1 by Judd Winick and Ben Oliver (read more)
17. Nightwing #1 by Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows (read more)
18. Batman And Robin #1 by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason (read more)
19. Birds Of Prey #1 by Duane Swierczynski and Jesus Saiz (read more)
20. Green Lantern #1 by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy (read more)
21. Green Lantern Corps #1 by Peter J. Tomasi, Fernando Pasarin and Scott Hanna (read more)
22. Green Lanterns: New Guardians #1 by Tony Bedard, Tyler Kirkham and Batt (read more)
23. Red Lanterns #1 by Peter Milligan, Ed Benes and Rob Hunter. (read more)
24. Aquaman #1 by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis (read more)
25. Wonder Woman #1 by Brian Azzarello #1 and Cliff Chiang (read more)
26. Flash #1 by Brian Buccellato and Francis Manapul (read more)
27. Green Arrow #1 by JT Krul and Dan Jurgens (read more)
28. DC Universe Presents #1 by Paul Jenkins and Bernard Chang (read more)
29. Savage Hawkman #1 by Tony Daniel and Philip Tan (read more)
30. Blue Beetle #1 by Tony Bedard and Ig Guara (read more)
31. Fury Of Firestorm #1 by Gail Simone, Ethan Van Sciver and Yildiray Cinar. (read more)
32. Mr Terrific #1 by Eric Wallace and Roger Robinson (read more)
33. Captain Atom #1 by JT Krul and Freddie Williams II (read more)
34. OMAC #1 by Dan DiDio, Keith Giffen and Scott Koblish (read more)
35. Static Shock #1 by Felicia Henderson, John Rozum, Scott McDaniel and Jonathan Glapion. (read more)
36. Hawk And Dove #1 by Sterling Gates and Rob Liefeld (read more)
37. Deathstroke #1 by Kyle Higgins, Joe Bennett and Art Thibert (read more)
38. Legion of Superheroes by Paul Levitz and Francis Portela (read more)
39. Legion Lost #1 by Fabian Nicieza and Pete Woods (read more)
40. Grifter #1 by Nathan Edmondson, CAFU and BIT (read more)
41. Voodoo #1 by Ron Marz and Sami Basri. (read more)
42. Stormwatch #1 by Paul Cornell and Miguel Sepulveda (read more)
43. Animal Man #1 by Jeff Lemire, Travel Foreman and Dan Green (read more)
44. Swamp Thing #1 by Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette (read more)
45. Justice League Dark #1 by Peter Milligan and Mikel Janin (read more)
46. Demon Knights #1 by Paul Cornell, Diogenes Neves and Oclair Albert (read more)
47. Frankenstein: Agent Of SHADE #1 by Jeff Lemire and Alberto Ponticelli (read more)
48. Resurrection Man #1 by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Fernando Dagnino (read more)
49. I, Vampire #1 by Josh Fialkov and Andrea Sorrentino (read more)
50. Blackhawks #1 by Mike Costa and Ken Lashley (read more)
51. Sgt Rock And The Men Of War #1 by Ivan Brandon and Tom Derenick (read more)
52. All-Star Western #1 by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Grey and Meridat. (Vigilante by Darwyn Cooke in the back?) (read more)

Details for each book can be found here.

It should be noted that there are several books missing from this list, including the just recently started Batman Beyond, which reportedly IS continuing despite all this. How much truth there is n that, well, we need to wait and see.

SMALLVILLE FINALE

After 10 years, the world says goodbye to Smallville, the reimagining of Superman’s early years before he became the Man of Steel. 

Created by Alfred Gough and Miles Miller, the show started out as a teen drama (which the CW, formerly the WB was most known for) with superpowers. The primary focus was the budding romance between Clark Kent (Tom Welling) and Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk), with the occasional freak of the week, an ordinary Smallville citizen transformed by Kryptonite left over from the meteor shower that ushered Clark to Earth, thrown in. Gough and Miller had one domineering stance: no tights, no flights. They felt that any Superman action would herald the end of the show. So, they gave Clark the fear of heights to keep him grounded, and it would be 10 years later that the suit would even make it onto the show (more on that later). Although, it should be noted there have been several times when Clark has flown, but usually under evil influence. And his cousin Kara (Laura Vandervoort) flew in all her subsequent appearances.

The formula obviously worked, and the show chugged along. Eventually, the freak of the week storylines were dropped in favor of introducing new interpretations of DC villains and characters, and focusing on Lex Luthor’s slow ascent to evil (until Michael Rosenbaum left the show after the 7^th season). But, gradually, the show became stagnant in its direction. The storylines took a constant one step forward, three steps back approach between episodes. There was always the constant push to keep Clark as Clark, and thus any development towards Superman was always rendered meaningless.

Gough and Miller departed the show after season 7, and Todd Slavkin, Darren Swimmer, Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson took the reigns (however the two former would depart for Melrose Place after one season). With that change came a tonal shift for the show. Greater emphasis was placed on Clark’s progression into Superman. Characters such as Doomsday, Zatanna, the Justice Society of America, the Legion of Superheroes and more began making their debut. Checkmate was introduced as an antagonist, and eventually Chloe Sullivan (Alison Mack) would take them over. Although, not to completely change things, there was still the romantic back and forth between Clark and Lois Lane (Erica Durance).

And that brings us to the final episode. There are spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen the episode yet, you may want to come back to this when you have.

Although there were some satisfying moments, overall the episode was extremely disappointing. For starters, too much time was devoted to Clark trying to convince Lois to marry him, her having decided the episode before after having his powers for a day she would be a hindrance to his heroics. The payoff to Oliver Queen being possessed by the darkness was minimal, culminating in his being convinced to switch out Clark’s ring with a gold Kryptonite one (which would turn Clark human forever). But, a little pep talk after and Oliver breaks free of the hold. Oliver gets his payback later by easily taking out Darkseid’s minions; a feat which was never explained since Orion’s bow, the only true weapon against the darkness, was destroyed by Granny Goodness (Christine Willes) last episode.

  

The second-most heralded event was the return of Lex Luthor to the show, and not just the body double or child-aged clone that have been on since Rosenbaum’s departure. Unfortunately, his use was minimal (due to Rosenbaum’s availability) beyond his return and a brief conversation with Clark where he promises to make his life hell. That is, until he’s mind-wiped by the end of the episode. Souders and Peterson have claimed in interviews that if Rosenbaum’s return was guaranteed sooner they would have peppered more hints to his return throughout the season. However, I thought there was sufficient build-up for that over the last three years, with all the clones and secret projects, and eventually the rapidly-aging character of Alexander.

The overreaching Darkseid story was far less developed. The subplot seemed to only exist within half the episodes of the season, culminating seemingly out of nowhere into the final confrontation of the episode. That confrontation, though, was culminated in Darkseid possessing the resurrected Lionel Luthor (John Glover). That fight was extremely brief, dominated mostly by a 5 minute flashback sequence of Clark’s rescues from the entire series, before Clark finally gained the ability to fly and destroyed Lionel’s body effortlessly. The true Darkseid does make an equally-brief appearance before that, though, in some of the worst CGI to grace the series.

Now, finally, we come to the big enchilada: the suit. The producers procured the Superman Returns suit (why they needed to acquire the suit, especially that of all of them, instead of having one made I still don’t know) to use in the finale. It made its appearance in the Fortress of Solitude until it was finally given to Clark by the “ghost” of Jonathan Kent (John Schneider). But, fans are ultimately cheated out of the moment they were waiting for as Clark is never shown in the suit beyond far CGI-shots and his head with a CGI cape waving in the background. Even his ultimate saving of the planet isn’t shown beyond a, wait for it, red/blue blur and then suddenly all is well. The only time we see Superman at all is within a Smallville comic Chloe reads to her son in the bordering future sequences of the episode. And the only time we see Clark in at least the shirt is at the end when he does the classic shirt-rip.

And that basically sums up the finale. Forced drama (the wedding), wasted characters (did we really need Jonathan as present as he was?), non-fights, and not even the big payoff everyone has been waiting for. Not to mention the absolutely cheapest CGI in the series. While it’s understandable on a TV budget it’s hard to do a big epic, the fact is there have been times when Smallville had reached epic lengths in both action and effects, negating that kind of excuse. And then there are the Smallville-shippers who defend the moves by saying it’s a show about Clark Kent, and NOT Superman. Again, when the goal is to get TO Superman, when that moment arrives it should be brought front and center.

But, ultimately, whatever the reasons they did what they did, it’s hard not to get a bit of a chill when John Williams’ theme is used correctly, and that much they at least got right.

So, how to fix this travesty?

-Cut down the wedding drama SIGNIFICANTLY.                                                           

-Get the Justice League involved. By far the best episode of the series was when they first teamed-up, and they haven’t since (either Clark has one-on-one or there have been body doubles, like for Hawkman’s funeral).

-Make the threats actual threats. You spend so much time building up your bad guys only to have them punked out in two second fights?

-Un-convolute Lex’s return. You had Alexander already aging rapidly. Just have him become Lex, forget the whole Darkseid/Lionel/Tess angle.

-Mind-wipes are never a good idea. You completely destroy years of character development just to remove an inconvenient truth? Too easy.

-If your endgame is Superman, SHOW SUPERMAN! And above all, don’t acknowledge the travesty that was Returns. If you absolutely had to get a pre-made suit, at least get the Dean Cain one from Lois & Clark.