Current Comics

Hal Jordan. Hands down.



Kal-L in Infinite Crisis.

Ironic in that both of those stories were engineered by the same person...

I'm not suggesting Kal-L should have been left to wander around the DCU (though that would have been preferrable to how he went out), just that the way he was dispensed with was "useless and gratuitous".

It's a respect issue for me. Here he is, the first and greatest superhero of all time, the character that started a genre and a worldwide cultural icon --- beaten to death by a Johnny-come-lately punk kid?!?

Wolfman gave him a classy exit, worthy of a legend. Johns brought him back to serve a story, then killed him off in what appears to me a gratuitous manner.

I don't read comics for gritty realism (there's enough of that in the real world); comics should be pure escapism. Fun. Perhaps the current state of "sophistication" is responsible for the new respect comics enjoy in the mainstream--- and don't get me wrong, there is some excellent work being done out there!--- but when we sacrifice fun for 'gritty realism', then it might be time for Superman to hang up his cape permenently.

Wasn't that what IC was about? The "wholesome" characters coming back to "fix" the dark and gritty characters? Maybe I'm not looking right but I don't see where it has "fixed" anything.
Don't forget we still have a Superby only he's locked away in a box. I recently read where it was supposed to be nightwing that died but they changed it at the last minute, so I think it was completly arbitrary who died as long as someone did to deliver that sales punch. Kal-l dying was a travesty. It wasn't even on earth. No one will know or remember his sacrifice. Instead of some punk pummeling him to death on some distant planet, he should have beaten Prime to within an inch of his life, stopping only to emphasize that he would; not become like them but instead respect the sanctity of all life! Kinda thing. Then Prime in one final burst of strength or something kills Kal-l, and says something stupid. That's when he transported away and they put him in a box to use as a plot device later and confuse future readers about why there is another superboy, or by that time, man, around. And since he was from the multiverse and was came about on Earth Prime becasue of the COIE, there's the possibility for several trades to AGAIN tell all those stories.
I think comics get too caught up on continuity. Just tell me a good story. If a character dies and he's back the next issue as long as it's interesting and entertaining I don't care. My wife and I saw a commercial for X3 coming out on DVD and she said, "I thought she drowned in the second one." refering obviously to Jean Grey. My answer was, "It's a comic book."

I'm Anti-Registration and now, at last, I get to say that I'm Pro-Spider-Man.

Except Stark is going to lock down his Iron Spider suit, and Peter is going to have to run around naked.

I KNOW YOU MILLAR!

Great stuff said on Superman-Kal-L.

I think that, since DC seemed to not try to hide the fact that there was multiple dimensions (all the Crisis stuff) that they should have at least given Kal-L some kind of good-bye at the end. I think during Infinite Crisis they could have made him a shining beacon, maybe a surprise to the current DCU, even if he had to be misguided by Luthor's plans.

But it seems like all of the heroes from off Earth New (Kal L, Luthor, Prime) changed for the worst for this story. Prime was no longer chipper and innocent, he was jealous and arrogant in a way. Luthor wasn't the last hero of Earth 3, he was a ends-justify-the-means kind of anti-hero. Kal L was in denial over the real problems.

Wizard says that John's JSA will have Powergirl being the legacy left behind for Kal L, so I guess we can see what they do with her on those terms.

Civil War, I'm on the fence about registration (it does make sense, if they allow their identities to not go public) but Stark has really been an a-hole against all his friends.

Ultimates in general is one of the hottest books out! I love it. Millar is greatness with a pen and freedom to write what he wants.

I guess my problem though is that the DCU at large, comics universe and how it fits in teh real world, our world, is that we based the entirety of DCU on the Superman logo. Don't ge tme wrong, I believe Superman is a worldwide icon, he is. To deny it would be pointless. But when I talk to people who don't even read comics, every other character tends to be devalued in the presence of Superman. There's nothing wrong with respect or favoring Superman, but me being a blooming writer, who loves a lot of the DC characters (1st tier, 2nd tier, and yes, even some of the z list) it's just annoying when all there is is Superman all over the place and everyone centers things on him.

Like I think I said above, h's DCU's icon. He's been a guest in so many comics that he may not usually be affliated with. Some writers coming into DC love to throw Superman into a story just to spike up their sales. Ideally I think this can help boost something, and be a positive thing, but in other ways it just makes people take less time to fidn something cool for their character(s).

Of course, I'm not saying this all of DCU and its writers. But I really feel that having two Supermen around would be, unintentionally, the Supermen stealing the spotlight.

It's what happened with Supergirl. I loved the big Superman family, but since I'm against useless death and rebirth cycles in comics, I didn't like when they brought Kara back in out of nowhere. Then DC did what they and Marvel usually do: to hype up a character they make them upstage/beat Superman (or Batman, or in Marvel they do it with Wolverine a lot). So Supergirl was all of a sudden so much more powerful than Supes (though this was later revealed to eb false since Kal lowers his strength for safety reasons). They had Supergirl beating the Titans and the JLA or however it happened. And to prove my point, I thought Legion of Super Heroes was doing good on its own stories, but now it's Sueprgirl and the LoSH and the story has been half centered on her, but not really going anywhere else.

Maybe I'm digressing, I don't know, but my point is that I think he was a great hero and should have been treated better and closer to his original nature. Maybe he could have stayed for a bit. I think Ijust feel against the idea of too many S's flying around because of the way writers use them in the DCU. I think if they used them properly and stopped making them Deus Ex Machinas for every story with a few problems, I'd be less inclined to argue against them.

You guys understand me or am I ranting too much?

And if we really had all of the Superman family, we'd have team mascots with Krypto, Streaky, and the horse and whoever else was part of the superman farm lol. By the way, how did Krypto get re-introduced to DC?

Well the original question is about Marvel's Civil War and I have been buying it. I haven't found it really that great, but it is much better then House of M. Miller is writing Tony all wrong, in my opinion. This man has never trusted the government and was actually fired by them at one point.

It wasn't until this last issue, though, that I started to wonder what exactly Mark was doing with this story. It may just be the liberal side of me, but I can't help but notice a huge amount of similarities between what Marvel's Government is doing, and some of the dangers that face this country with our own government. Of course, what do I know.