Wanted

For those that didn't see or research the commercials on the Superbowl and for those that saw the Superbowl and don't realize it, Wanted the comic is being made into a movie. The first commercial I know of for this movie was on during the superbowl. The comic isn't some great peice of work, but I enjoyed most of it.

I finished up The Long Halloween. I also enjoyed this one. Lots of movement in and out of characters. One thing that ate at me, was The Batman making leaps of logic without us seeing his logic. Or at least, leaps of logic I didn't see.

I also read the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser graphic novel put out by Dark Horse. I'm not impressed. Mignola's artwork is okay, but nothing special here. I've not read Hellboy, so I can't compare the two. The storyline leaves much to be desired. However, I think that's a problem with the source material being converted to graphic novel format. I've seen the problem crop up with other short stories and novels being converted into comic book format. Still, I can't recommend it.

My friends Nik Havert from Pickle Press and Jim from Of Masks and Men both questioned my thoughts on Identity Crisis. And on further thought, they were right - there are parts of that storyline that are bad. First off, the running around Superman and The Batman's back? WTF? Superman not carting Lois off to someplace remote where she'd be safe, or at least to the farm with his parents so he could watch over all of them at the same time?

It hit hard at first - which I liked - and then it lost steam over time. It also reduced supers to real people with real concerns. I tend to like that at times, too. The twist at the end was okay, but not great.

However, after letting the material sit, there are two big problems I have with the story. The first is that The Batman was brainwashed once in this storyline and it's hinted at that it's been done at least one time before. Yet, at the same time, there's hints that he knows what really happened and that he knows he was brainwashed to cover it up. Again, wtf?

Now the other item is why The Batman was brainwashed. It crosses every line of good standing and when I read the story the first time, I wondered why they showed the details. There's a rape scene in the story. I was taught long ago, and I forget by who, that there is never, ever a reason for a rape scene in any story. If you want to severely hurt a character, do something else. But rape? Completely unacceptable.

So, for now, even though I want to go back and reread Kingdom Come, I think I'm swearing off superhero team up comics for a bit.

Mind you, I just started reading Fable after several recommendations and that's kind of got an all-star line up. We'll see. I don't think I'll read all of them, but maybe one or two. I'm already tired of the gratuitous, totally unnecessary swearing. Passe'.