Assorted relatively brief thoughts
I know what my next big post is going to be on but I want to finish rewatching the subject first, and I've had a bunch of smaller thoughts and reactions and bulletins building up over the last month so here those are.
An exclusive announcement of sorts for those following me here! My next big planned piece for CBH is on the history of the (A-lister model of) the Justice League over the decades, and how the story templates applied to the book have never really resulted in something quite as good as you want the idea to be even at its most dizzying heights. I had planned at one point on doing a newsletter wholly on underrated recs from my reading, but, uhh, there aren't actually a ton of those. Here are a few worth checking out you might've missed though:
The Brave and the Bold #29: Early JLA stories grow repetitive as heck if you're reading a bunch in a row rather than once a month as intended, but their second ever appearance is easily the highlight of the batch for my money, a dense and incredibly clever read with neat high concepts by the fistful.
JLA: Heaven's Ladder/JLA: Divided We Fall: Mark Waid's two big Justice League stories with Bryan Hitch (though the latter's first issue is drawn by future Injustice artist and further-future Comicsgate chump Mike S. Miller) are generally forgotten as far as Waid's work goes in favor of the magnitude of Tower of Babel's impact, but they're about as close as anyone ever came to really capturing that nebulous idea of 'can that Morrison magic be recaptured while also still being a distinctly post-Authority take on this concept'.
JLA: Welcome To The Working Week: I must grudgingly admit that Patton Oswalt is as it turns out one of the best Justice League writers period on the strength of his work here with Patrick Gleason. One of the very few times 'they're like gods!' and 'they're just a buncha wacky superfolks hangin' out!' have remotely been squared.
JLA: The Hypothetical Woman: Anyone who cares has probably read the Morrison/McGuiness issues and I can't in good conscience recommend the Ellis/Guice trade anymore (though I did reread that for the article and will likely discuss it), but most folks probably don't remember that Gail Simone and the GOAT José Luis García-López had an arc on JLA Classified. Not a major hidden gem in the same way I'd call her Action Comics run, but still a very solid arc I imagine lots of folks who haven't read it would thoroughly enjoy.
Dwayne McDuffie's JLA tenure: Fucked six ways from Sunday artistically and editorially, but McDuffie's heroic effort at mustering something of worth from the status quo left behind by Brad Meltzer is the best iteration we've ever seen by miles on the platonic ideal for the team a lot of folks have of 'yeah they go on adventures, but really you're here for the soap'.
Justice League by Christopher Priest: Filler run though it may be, Priest and primarily Pete Woods were easily the peak of the 'traditional' formula for the team as a batch of experienced problem-solvers up against the wall, and offered the most impressive work craftwise the title has ever received.
Another thought that I considered giving a full post but didn't really merit the space: I've been thinking lately about the fundamental inexactness and pitfalls of analogies, asked-for or otherwise, in genre storytelling. Stretch a comparison onto a broad enough scale things are going to fall apart, or at the very least there's going to be something in there that rubs someone the wrong way. X-Men's classic central metaphor has never held up to much scrutiny for me. There have been plenty of defenses of Batman that have always hit my ears to some degree as 'it's the genre, go with it and stop asking questions'. Even the novel Calculating God casually noting to put over its premise that there is no such thing as a multiverse bugged me, because here I am in a universe not the one depicted in that book reading it.
Suddenly, a potent comparison came to me in the form of the longtime final published issue of Alan Moore's Supreme: New Jack City!, accompanied by Roarin' Rick Veitch and acting as a tribute to the recently deceased Jack Kirby. Showing the Ivory Icon stumbling into the now-unlimited imaginative sprawl of a mysterious departed 'King', it's a gorgeous testament but one I've struggled with the logistics of. In this metaphor, given an unlimited canvas and time in which to paint upon it, Kirby only reiterates variations on his existing ideas - rather than a paean to the limitless frontiers of imagination, this would seem to draw a sobering line under their absolute limits. Except...it's gotta all look like stuff Kirby's already done so that you get what's going on. The logistics have to give way to the expression of the core notion. Without throwing all consideration to the winds, sometimes you do in fact have to go with it and stop asking questions.
Not one, but two exciting Superman announcements this week between Space Age and of all things a Dark Crisis tie-in! Mark Russell's schtick is wearing decidedly thin and he only last year horribly whiffed it with the near-identical premise of Fantastic Four: Life Story, but I'd still call his output on balance positive and he's done good work with Superman in particular so I'm holding out hope; regardless, Mike Allred on 240 pages of prestige era-spanning Superman comics is a monumental event unto itself. And King and Burnham doing a big goofy-yet-somber Clark-and-Jon oneshot? Beautiful.
For those either with a paid subscription to Xanaduum or following me on Twitter, you've probably seen to your shock and mine that Grant Morrison mentioned reading and enjoying my work, as well as Sean Dillon's. Along with naturally wondering what of mine they've read (I hope they at least saw the art commemorating their Superman work I had commissioned from Max Kay; hell, for all I know they go back to my dim-and-distant Sequart days), this leads to a hard decision: I think I'm shuttering my plans to bring back my All-Star Superman annotations, at least for a good long while. I just don't think shortly after they go "I like your Superman writing!" returning to a huge series on "HERE'S WHY NO ONE APPRECIATES GRANT MORRISON'S SUPERMAN ENOUGH" would be a good look; obsequious, regardless of the intent. Plus they're annotating their own stuff now, and I can't exactly match that. Maybe someday, but not anytime soon. However it works out, I'm of course profoundly flattered and grateful my favorite writer has been getting something out of my own work, and also extremely frustrated because now I have to try harder.
I caught Everything Everywhere All At Once, and far beyond 'wacky multiverse thing!' is one of the most touching and visually bold movies I've ever seen, one I'd recommend to any and all. You all know The Batman scratched some itches I didn't even know I had, but I'd be shocked if I walked away in December not thinking of this as the best movie I watched in 2022.
Yes of course Kingdom Hearts IV, but I don't know how much overlap the bit of my Tumblr following that cares about that has with those who follow this newsletter, so I'll bring it back from the dead once more to post my thoughts there.
That's that for now - hoping my next one'll be sooner rather than later.
-- David Mann, 4/11/2022