Supergirl!

She doesn't need to turn around and see that fire. She knows it's there.

I know it's been a while since I wrote on this blog and I have many other topics I want to cover. Right now though, I just watched the Supergirl pilot today (a day or two late) and I just feel the need to talk about it.

Normally I would go into some brief, meandering tale about how I have always liked Supergirl, blah blah, blah. That would be a lie, so we'll skip all that and jump right in.

I really liked this pilot and that surprises me. It was a lot of fun. First off, all the DC movies are edging towards super dark, so it's refreshing to have another show (like the Flash) that is more upbeat with heroes that EMBRACE their powers. Imagine that. How uncommon it's become for a super hero show to be about a super hero that likes what they do.

Melissa Benoist is just so damn likeable as Supergirl/Kara Danvers. A super hero show only goes as far as it's leading character. Like the Flash, this show has that in spades. You want to root for her. You want to see her triumph. That's the marking of a good character.

All of the side characters were fun too, especially Jimmy Olsen. Those two have a palpable chemistry. I have to admit I never watched a show with Calissa Flockhart, so it will take some getting used to. She plays a good ice queen, but I hope she doesn't dominate the show.

What I also appreciate is this show did not waste time introducing us to Supergirl. Most shows make you wait most of the episode and try to fill in with an origin story. They accomplished this before the first commercial break. By the time you get halfway through the episode, she has her own exhilarating airplane rescue. A nice homage to just about every Superman movie.

They also provide a means to give Supergirl super powered villains to fight this season. The last thing I want is to see her wasting her time on bank robbers all the time.

Even though I really enjoyed this show, I wouldn't be a comic book nerd without having a few issues. (See what I did there?) Surprisingly, they have nothing to do with the accuracy of the source material. I'm way past caring about the minutia of the comic book origins. I look at this from a purely television show standpoint.

So the problem with super hero shows like this is that a lot of the special effects can look really cheap. I understand it's on a TV show budget, so they do the best they can. I'm still allowed to complain about bad special effects and there was some here. A lot of the budget went to that airplane rescue and I'm okay with that. That just left some of the fight scenes not looking so good.

My other tiny gripe with this show is this. What is it with all the DC TV shows (sans Gotham) having their super hero surrounded by a team of helpers. First Team Arrow, then Team Flash and now there will be a Team Supergirl. Seriously, it's as if the heroes are too incompetent to do anything themselves without some outside help whispering cheat codes into their ears. It's a trope that is starting to grate on my nerves. I feel like it makes your super heroes appear to be weak. Sure she's learning her powers, but she's SUPERGIRL. Like she couldn't figure out what to do. Also, she spent some of her childhood on Krypton. You would think that kind of knowledge would play in at some point.

Being a Marvel guy, this pains me to say this, but DC owns the TV show fight. They have Green Arrow, Flash and now Supergirl. Yes, I'm completely ignoring Gotham.

It's almost unfair to include the Netflix shows because those have a different budget and don't have to adhere to TV standards and practices. These shows are what I wish Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. would be.

If you were on the fence about Supergirl, I suggest you give it a shot. You might actually like it.

New Black Panther, Power Man & Iron Fist Books forthcoming!

I know this is on the heels of me complaining about how expensive books are getting. I'm kind of a hypocrite okay? But there have been announcements that not only is there a new Black Panther comic coming, but a new Power Man and Iron Fist book as well?! It's like Marvel is writing to ME.

I will give them credit because they have talked about trying to be more diverse with their creators. They are walking the walk.

Let's turn this back to me, so I can gush about how excited I am about my three of my top five favorite marvel characters, as detailed in my previous post.

I'll start with the top, Black Panther. With his appearance in the upcoming Captain America: Civil War movie and his upcoming solo movie, I knew it was only a matter of time before Black Panther would grace us with is own solo title. That is just the way Marvel works these days. Synergy between the comics and movies, sometimes to an annoying effect. Here it was an inevitability that I am happy that has come to pass.

What makes this story even more amazing is who they got to write the book. I don't want to go off on too much of a tangent here, but for me growing up, it's always tough to read a book about a black character that is written by a white writer. In the seventies, these books were filled with a whole lot of jive talk that really didn't reflect the characters. Just because you heard it in a movie or know one person that talks like that, does not mean we all talk like that. Comics are read by many people, some of them young, and this just reinforces negative stereotypes. It's why I had such a hard time coming to grips with Luke Cage in the nineties. All I could think is that we all don't speak like that. The dialogue comes off as cartoonish and hollow.

Anyways, sorry, it is just a pet peeve of mine. This recent iteration is written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a journalist at the Atlantic. You can read this write up on him and this particular story here. It feels me with hope that someone who has a genuine passion for this project will be writing this tale. However, I will hold judgement until an actual issue has come out. It could be terrible for all I know. Right now, he's saying all the right things and I couldn't be more excited.

Then there's the recent announcement that there will be a new Power Man and Iron Fist book. Now the seventies/eighties iteration of these characters speak to the kind of problem I spoke about earlier with how they were written. However, there was always something that interested me about the buddy cop paring of a black guy from the streets of Harlem with a rich white guy raised in a mystical Chinese city. Maybe I just love the pairing of contrasting characters.

This is another title also has diversity in it's creators. Both David F. Walker and Sanford Greene are African-American. Like Black Panther, this book was probably created because there are Netflix shows coming. SYNERGY.

Don't let my cynicism fool you, I'm very excited about this book as well. I run hot and cold with Sanford Greene's art, but he's clearly a fan and is looking forward to work on this book. I'm glad that Marvel is making strides with diversity. Pair this up with the continuing Ms. Marvel book (written by G. Willow Wilson), the "Totally Awesome Hulk" book written by Greg Pak and you can see at least Marvel is trying to make inroads to following up on their promise.

Sorry if I got on my soapbox a little bit, but I just wanted to share some of the passion I have for books like this. I realize there are many books out there from smaller publishers, but I like what I like. I mean, I did say these were some of my favorite characters after all.

Rising Price of Comic Books - Rant imminent

There's a lot of other great news in the comic book industry that I want to touch on. Before I do that, I think it's time for me to have a little rant.

I hate to sound like such an old man, but I was buying comics when they were about $1.00 to $1.50 per an issue. Then for a few years in the early 2000s, they stayed around $2.99. The past few years, $3.99 has been the norm and lately there have been issues that have snuck up to $4.99, $5.99 and $7.99. It feels like the industry is starting to settle on $4.99 per a book.

I know this is such a first world problem, but hear me out. A hobby that I love is becoming more and more expensive. I will admit I've been insulated from this somewhat because I get a big discount from my local comic book store. This is because I'm a subscriber and pick up a lot of books per month. So for the past few years, I've enjoyed a nice discount.

In a previous post, I mentioned how I have cut back my DC comic buying to the bone. I've supplemented that with more independent titles, but overall I'm cutting back on my books. With these price raises, that will go down even more.

The lower prices allowed me to be more adventurous with my sampling. Now, I simply won't take a chance on a borderline book.

The sad thing is, this is an industry that is full of fans that will continue to pay these prices (myself included) and therein lies the problem. There will never be a backlash big enough to curb some of this price gouging.

You might say, "Kevin, why don't you just not buy the books then". Yeah, but that's not the point. Let's not bring LOGIC into this discussion, okay?

At the end of the day, my problem is a value proposition. My extra dollars aren't buying comics printed on better paper. The covers aren't made of card stock. It's not like I'm getting that much more story in my books. Modern day comics take about five minutes to read on average as it is. Instead, I get more ads.

So yes, I will be buying less in the future, but it shouldn't have to be this way. It's this reason that I always look forward to comic book conventions (mostly Heroes Con) because that give me a chance to pick up books at reduced prices.

Whew. My little rant is over. See? That wasn't so bad was it? It was? Yeah, well, I'm rubber and you're glue. What you say bounces off of me and sticks back to YOU.

Winds of Change in my Comic Reading

As I sat there at my desk, filling out a new subscription for my local comic book shop, I couldn't help but notice a trend. It's something that had been going on for months, but visually seeing this on my sheet really struck home the point to me. It's a trend I really don't see going away soon. Have I teased everyone long enough? I like the attention really, so I will make you wait for one more sentence.

Okay, here goes. I'm barely buying any comic books from DC. When the "New 52" event started over four years ago that effectively rebooted the DC Universe, I was all in. I will admit that like most die-hard comic book fans, I complained these impending changes. Since I've been a fringe DC fan at best, I realized this was the best thing for me. It gave me a chance to start fresh. Through a deal at another comic store (not my home base), I got all the number one issues. This helped me decide what I liked and what I didn't like. I reviewed this on my old site. For fun, I think I will resurrect that article if I can find it. Anyways, I stuck with about half the books.

Fast forward to now and I can reveal that I only put THREE DC comic books on my list. This is a far cry from where I was years ago. Over the past year and a half, I've slowly started dropping books as constant creator changes and stagnant storylines pushed me away. Stalwarts such as Flash, Green Lantern, Batgirl, Aquaman (!) and Wonder Woman fell by the wayside. Surprise darlings such as Swamp Thing and Animal Man just ended. Even Fables ended after a ten plus year run.

My list is so diluted that only Batman, Justice League and Starfire (only four issues old) remain. The reason I keep these books? The creative teams. Scott Snyder is still telling an interesting Batman story and Geoff Johns is writing a Justice League comic devoid of current continuity.

On the flip side, creative teams are the reason I left the other books. I could give you specific reasons for why I dropped all the other books, but I won't bore you with the details for each one. I will say it was a combination of inconsistent art and writers coming up with storylines that were just boring. I'll use Green Lantern as one example.

Ever since Geoff Johns left the book after his ten plus year run, I expected the worst from the book. He was the only thing keeping me around, but I still tried to give it a chance. However, I can only take so much of the Green Lantern Corps fighting even more escalating threats involving the various corps of Yellow Lanterns, Red Lanterns, etc. Hal Jordan had become so unlikeable that the thought of him being in charge of the Lantern Corps turned me completely off the book.

The most egregious example is what happened to Wonder Woman. For about thirty five issues, an intricate tale of re-imagined Greek mythology unfolded around the most powerful female comic book character in comics. It culminated in a woman that was raised as a warrior, who practiced peace ended up becoming the God of War. This is an idea that was rife with good story possibilities. Instead, the moment Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang left, that all changed. David and Meredith Finch (with DC's blessing), took over by returning Wonder Woman to her super hero roots. That meant we had to hear all about her relationship with Superman and fighting normal comic book villains. It took me all of one issue to decide this book was not for me.

To further my point, there were a couple of big time events that I found did not interest me. Even though I am suffering event fatigue, the past two big comic book events (Convergence and Forever Evil) failed to capture me. That's when I knew they had started to lose me. It's almost as if after four years, they've run out of ideas.

DC has a lot of recognizable heroes such as Batman, Superman (noticed I haven't said anything about him until now?), Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman. Unfortunately, the stories they are telling are boring. I don't want them to go back to pre-New 52 versions of the characters. A lot of my favorite writers have moved on to other projects in other companies. I have realized that my flirtation with DC for the past few years was apparently a phase.

I will give them credit, they are trying to come up with new titles to entice the readers. It's just that siren song is not going to work with me any more. There's a slew of Marvel comics and a lot of independent books that can easily fill that void for me.