the thing is, brubaker broke one of only two comic truths in the world. uncle ben stays dead and so does bucky

but he brought bucky back in such a way that it was believable and not just a, oh he brought him back just for sales

claremont is very very good at developing characters, and while good at action, its his development that i think he is top notch at.

the hellfire club run on uncanny xmen shows this to perfection

jason todd too. not brubaker, but brought back recently. i didn't read it, but it seemed like a dumb story, though i can't remember what about it seemed dumb anymore.

the whole jason todd thing i dont mind, it was fans who voted that one cause they didnt want dick grayson to get replaced

as long as it works towards the story and he/she isnt brought back to cause a story, im generally ok with it, i mean jean grey has been killed and brought back how many times now?

for example, josh whedon bringing back colossus worked towards the story, and colossus coming back wasnt the story.

never mind how whedon and cassiday totally mind fucked the internet with that particular shocker

I actually really liked the whole return of Jason Todd storyline. Turning him into the anti-Batman was a great idea. But...

The explanation of why he's back was ludicrous, even for comic books. They're expecting me to accept that an alternate version of Superman, who so hard, he punched a whole in reality itself. Which somehow magically brought Jason Todd back to life. LOL WUT??!?!? My wife asked me at the time "Why is he back again?" The only response I could give was, "Don't ask. He just is, ok!"

I know it's not the easiest thing to bring back a long dead character and make it seem believable, but come on!!

You gotta admit Super Boy Prime is pretty cool though.

seriously, such a douche and thats what makes me love the character. how he goes on a rips people in half or burns them and says, look what you made me do.

You bet! If you think about it a crazy Superman is a pretty scary concept.

lol. i didn't know that was the explanation. sounds incredibly stupid.

it is, until you look at the "big picture" of how and why. ill do my best, though if one of the other guys can explain better, so be it, im not huge on dc history.

see, DC really fucked up long ago. they had superman named Kal-el and one named Kal-L. this was the begining of a very convoluted history not only for superman, but other characters, wonder woman, batman, the flash(es) and the formation of groups such as the Justice Society of America and the Justice League of America. this was explained away as the multiverse. many many many different earths existed but they all were on a different vibrational plane. Kal-L was deemed superman of earth 2 while Kal-el was just superman, even though L came before El.

in the early 80s DC finally came up with a way to rectify everything into one. inifinate crisis was produced to condense all of the dc history into one reality. some characters ceased to exist and others who were of earth 2 (as well as earth-s, earth-15 etc...) were brought into the fold, such as power girl (woman) the marvel family and others like the huntress who was bruce wayne and selina kyles (catwoman) who was from earth 2.

the anti-monitor was the big bad that all the earths united against to battle, as he threatend to crush all the worlds at once to satisfy its hunger (think marvels galactus, only bigger and badder). so in the end, all the earths were condensed down to earth 1 with all of history being rewritten and characters forgetting what happened before. this is the point to remember about superboy prime.

so from there on out, things were hunky dorey, but then things started happening here and there that noone could explain but sorta shrugged their shoulders at it none the less. the heros started acting less like heros.....batman was mind wiped to keep the JLA from falling apart, as well as dr light and other villians were mind wiped to prevent the secret identies of superman, flash etc from being revealed. this is first touched upon in identity crisis where its learned the league mindwiped dr light after he brutally raped sue dinby, the elongated mans wife and two of the leaguers whos identity was never hidden (think fantasic four) years ago.

dr light had promised to get her again and the leaguers that showed up went batshit crazy on him, but he was insane at that moment and nothing could stop him. zatana the leagues wizard, fooled around and mindwiped his memories of the league secret identities, but also nudged his brain so that he would be incompetent.

bruce happens upon this and realises its a line the league should never cross (that being making someone incompetent and moron like, erasing memories is one thing, this is another) the league takes a vote and its split down the middle who thinks they should erase batmans memories and who doesnt. the flash (barry allen) breaks the tie and believes for the league to survive, bruce must not remember.


flash forward and wonder woman must murder a man, maxwell lord, in order to prevent superman from killing batman. supes was under magical mindcontrol or something and the only way to stop him was to kill maxwell. all well and good except it was televised through the world by Brother Eye, which was a satalite system that batman built to monitor the superhumans to make sure the never mind wiped anyone again.

so no bruce and clark are at odds with wonderwoman over what she did, because heros dont kill. now steps in superboy prime and superman of earth two, as well as earth twos lex luthor (a hero, unlike the lex we all know, and lois lane)

all are mad that this earths heroes have acted this way and want their earth to be brought back cause it was so pure and everyone was good etc... at the time of the inifinate crisis, lex created a little pocket dimension where they all watched this earth. on those times that something happened that noone could explain, it was because superman Kal-L and superboy prime, punched their way through the vortex that caused ripples in the time stream that allowed them to make changes

superboy prime takes it the hardest and just goes bannanas and fights his counter part declaring this earths superboy doesnt deserve that name. this leads to pure chaos, as the young lex uses a machine powered by the anomalies of the heros who escaped the original crisis to create or bring back their ideal perfect earth.

in the end, earth 2s lois and superman pass on after defeating superboy prime and he is held prisoner by the guardians of the universe (the bosses of the green lantern corp)


ok, so that wasnt brief

well I bet that seemed like a good idea at the time.

i'd known most of the history of Crisis and the brainwashing, but I didn't know most of the more recent stuff. but yeah, comic continuity and complete clusterfucks are basically synonyms. although Batman often had managed to stay out of it post-crisis (questions of LOTDK's status [whether these stories exist in the early years or are just legends] and age aside). I guess Years Two and Three were sort of messy storylines too, but Zero Hour fixed that didn't it?

I guess there's always the issue of multiple comics running featuring the same character and where they fit (especially a story like Hush that spans over a long period, and runs opposite shorter storylines in Detective for example).

between identity and infinite crisis's they are incredible reads as well as the art is top notch. there is alot going on between them but not nearly as convoluted as i explained it to be

the best first page of all time?

Got Old Man Logan for Christmas.

ill be buying this soon. i really want to wait for blackest night to come out in trade also.

i bought dark avengers/xmen utopia and was very happy with it.

i remember in secret wars (from the 80s) when the heros were looking for a leader and everyone from thor to mr fantastic to professor x said they would follow captain america in to hell itself. i think cyclops is slowly coming into that fold with dark avengers/xmen utopia, messiah complex and house of M.

Utopia wasn't bad. I read that as it came out.

i need to see if my local comic shop is having any post-xmas sales... need to call over there i guess. i'd like to pick up some Criminal sometime soon. Not sure what else interests me at the moment, aside from Batman back issues.

i like the hardcover since it has it in order of it happening, and its easier to piece things together


i also plan on picking up green lantern first flight soon. so far i have GL, secret origins, rebirth, both volumes of the corps wars, revenge of the red lantern, revenge of the orange lantern, Hal Jordan wanted. GL Corps lost lanterns.

i was never drawn to GL as a kid, but with the artists team of ivan and ethan, along with johns writtings, i am as impressed as i was of the byrne/claremont run on xmen in the 80s

Look at my avatar. I the Phantom!

Anyone read Superman: Red Son? I've got $15 at Borders and I'm wondering if it's worth picking up.