Will Be Prosecuted: Graeme Looks A Couple of Steals | Wait, What?
Will Be Prosecuted: Graeme Looks A Couple of Steals | Wait, What?
While Jeff does comic reviews, I’m apparently doing graphic novel reviews this week because that’s how… I… roll…?
In the first of my (currently weekly, until you give more money to our Patreon campaign) review posts for the new Wait, What? site, I look at two graphic novels about shoplifting reading material. No, really.
What being a ‘superhero’ means continues to crop up in Futures End. It’s beginning to look like a longform meditation on the concept, what it means in the Nu52DCU and beyond. The fifth issue opens with Mr. Terrific acting like his definition of a superhero: announcing a new piece of technology. In this case, the uSphere: a floating globe that’s “your brain’s backup.” The announcement is a big media event with an over-the-top speech by Mr. Terrific that’s long on rhetorical flourishes and short on substance. “And that, my friends, is how to be a super-hero,” he says after, removing the sunglasses he was wearing during the announcement, a reversal of Clark Kent removing his glasses to assume the identity of Superman. For Mr. Terrific, being a superhero is being a successful technology magnate. We are living in the shadow of Wildcats Version 3.0 clearly.
If X-Men is analogous to ANYthing in reality, it is a metaphor for the entitlement to private gun ownership.
It’s pretty obvious that you could talk for hours about your favorite Jack Kirby creations. On the flip side, are there any Kirby creations that have just never really clicked with you?
Probably the Kirbyverse stuff he did for Topps in the 90s. It feels a lot like stuff he tossed off/didn’t really develop because, well, it’s exactly that.
Did you ever check out the KIRBY series Busiek, Herbert (and Ross kinda) did for Dynamite?
I picked up the first … 3 issues or so, but it was so slow-moving and thhat the main kid looked waaaay too much like Jay Baruschel kind of killed my interest in it. I mean, I like Marvels and Astro City and also Jack Kirby — and it felt a little too much like Marvels + Astro City + Jack Kirby at times — but there wasn’t enough there to keep me plunking down $4 a pop every month. I have a feeling it would read a lot better in chunks. Did it end up being good?
Yeah, I dug it, but I also liked the opening issues so maybe it just wasn’t right for you…? I’m sure there’s a trade out there by now, so you could probably check that out.
There were a bunch of spin-offs that, to be blunt, didn’t work for a variety of reasons, but the core book was pretty good.
