Jeff and Matt BS About Comics: Blackest Night #1
Jul 15Blackest Night #1 is in stores today. Ever since its announcement in 2007, we’ve watched the build up across the two main Green Lantern titles (and perhaps every other book writer Geoff Johns has handled). Was it even possible to meet expectations when you’ve had so long to build anticipation for a zombie superhero epic?
Matt and I try to figure out the answer. I dug it (though I have some reservations). He didn’t. This is how it went down, and it’s safe to assume there are major SPOILERS below the picture:
Let's Help John Ostrander.
Jul 15During one of my “back in” periods of comics collecting between high school and 2005, I happened to pick up a #1 issue on a lark. It was Heroes for Hire #1, published in 1996, and it was by John Ostrander and Pasqual Ferry.
It was absolutely great. What I remember most about it was the great characters and humor, so rare in superhero comics even today. That’s directly attributable to Ostrander.
Chances are, if you think back on the comics you enjoy immensely or even love to little pieces, you’ll find something written by John Ostrander. Suicide Squad, Grimjack, The Kents, many Star Wars comics, The Spectre with artist Tom Mandrake (one of those runs that’s been on my “must-find” list for years now)…the list is long and admirable. He helped create Oracle and Amanda Waller in the DCU, two completely unique and compelling characters that remain active today, more than twenty years after their introduction.
As you may have read already, John Ostrander is in need of some financial help.
John recently under went a surgical procedure called Glaucoma Filtration Surgery (trabeculectomy). The surgery is a treatment when medications cannot lower eye pressure enough. Excess interior fluid in the eye or pressure erodes the optic nerve – that’s basically what glaucoma does. Over the past several decades, John had grown resistant or allergic to some of the meds he had been taking that have kept the pressure down. This site helps explain the procedure and this is a good general site about glaucoma itself.
As of now, the surgeries have been deemed a strong but tentative success for John. Unfortunately, like so many Americans, John’s rather expensive health insurance didn’t cover all the costs of saving his eyesight… not even near. The procedure was done in Boston and required two separate week-long trips to Boston, as well as repeated follow-up trips to track his progress and make adjustments.
John was aware that he could not afford the surgeries on his own; that’s when we, his friends and family in the comic book field, decided we had to do something to help. Too often in the comics world we find ourselves holding events after we’ve lost a creator who has given us so many years of joy. Now we have a chance to help one before its too late- after all it would be terribly hard for John to write dialog for pages he cannot see.
There’s a number of ways to help out Mr. Ostrander, all of them housed at the Comix4Sight website. A charity auction at the upcoming Wizard World Chicago show needs both donations and bidders. Or just click through to the site and donate via PayPal.
Hearing about beloved creators who face near-insurmountable financial hardships due to health issues is a too-frequent occurrence. We should all give whatever we can to help out Mr. Ostrander, and any other writer, artist, or other comics professional who finds themselves stuck in this tough spot. This is an industry that has grown rich on the contributions of freelancers who deserve our support and help when the companies that have become fat and bloated on their work refuse to act.
If you can spare them, toss a couple bucks in the direction of Comix4Sight. It’s a good cause for a great writer.
The Dead Shall Rise…Except Probably These Ones
Jul 13Despite my moves away from DC Comics over the past three years, I have remained a firm Green Lantern fan and, as such, am unreasonably excited about this week’s Blackest Night #1.
There’s been some hubbub over who exactly is going to get the black ring and come back all Romero-y, but I’m fairly certain that these dead notables will not, and that’s a shame, because there’s some great story potential in every single one of these Black Lantern Could’ve Beens. For instance:
1. David Knight – Between Superman and JLA: Cry For Justice, James Robinson’s stock is not at its highest among the DC faithful right now, but I would freak out over a Blackest Night: Starman one-shot featuring Black Lantern David Knight going after his brother Jack. Pallid zombie David in a black and white Starman costume would be a fitting counterpoint to Starman‘s “Talking With David” issues, in which a black and white Jack Knight has an annual conversation with his dead brother, who is the only thing that appears in color in each issue. Everybody buying those fancy Starman hardcovers would eat this up, and plenty of others besides who would love to see Jack show up to something other than a wedding or a funeral.
2. Alex DeWitt – I’m probably going to get some flack for this one, but hear me out. As the original Woman in a Refrigerator, I can’t help but think this would 1) be terrifying and 2) really mess with Kyle’s head, even more than the stuff that happened to him in the Sinestro Corps War did. And also, since Blackest Night also promises to be a metafictive tale about the permanence of death in comics, it makes a certain degree of sense.
I wouldn’t play it for a joke, either. Just picture it – a stainless steel fridge, Black Lantern insignia clawed into the door, with a clawed, ragged, ichorous hand curled around the edge of the door, black ring on its hand. You never see what’s inside, either. Maybe just a glimpse when it drags someone inside (followed, of course by noises that disturb even Guy Gardner, who has been busy up until this point making bad Indiana Jones “nuke the fridge” quips to Kyle).
3. The Red Bee – The Red Bee is a bit of a joke and gets a bad rap. But Black Lantern Red Bee (the Black Bee?) would probably attack people with zombie bees. If you map out things that I like about comics (Rann-Thanagar War = Hawkman and Adam Strange Vs. Space Zombies, as an example) then you can see how zombie bees hits the ‘fire’ button for me.
4. Power Boy – The post-Infinite Crisis Teen Titans roster was a great chance to inject some fun, kitschy new characters into the DCU. Most of them proved to vary from ill-advised to one-note, but none of them were as obnoxiously odious as Apokaliptian Supergirl-stalker Power Boy. The one good thing about the Titans East special was the murder of Power Boy, which left him with a hole through his chest analogous to the hole in his inspiration, Power Girl’s, costume. Bringing him back as a full-on ravening villain is a great excuse to kill him again.
5. Honor Jackson – Remember the ghostly hobo that sent a drug-addled Bruce Wayne on a vision quest in Batman RIP? There’s no better reminder that he still hasn’t received a case in the Batcave than another appearance.
Who would you pick to bring back from the DCU graveyard?
Stuff We Like This Week: July 10 Edition
Jul 10In an effort to combat our occasional…okay, okay, near-constant negativity, we give you a regular feature full of nothing but love — Stuff We Like This Week. Appearing every Friday, SWLTW will recap the things that have set our little nerdly hearts aflame within the past seven days.
(image kindly borrowed from Matthew Brady)
Stuff We Like This Week?
Jul 02In an effort to combat our occasional positivity, this week, we’re giving you a break from our regular feature full of nothing but love — Stuff We Like This Week. Appearing every Friday (but this one), SWLTW will recap the things that have set our little nerdly hearts aflame within the previous seven days.
I’ve gotta level with you, it’s tough coming up with something to not hate every week. Especially this week, with Matt gallivanting around the country like Gruenwald’s Captain America (without the bitchin’ color-changing Chevy van), Sarah and I swamped with work, and Chris perfecting his Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man cosplay outfit. So, give us a week to recharge our love batteries, and we’ll be back with glowing praise in 8 days’ time. Til then, enjoy the fireworks, watch a movie, play some video games and read some comics.
And if you still need something to get you in a good mood, I offer this:
