Tag: Comics

Hellboy: Pancakes by Mike Mignola

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Hellboy: Pancakes by Mike Mignola. Has to be one of the greatest 2 page comic stories ever made.

Pamcakes.

“He has eaten the pancake.” I will not lie, I intoned that when my eldest first ate pancakes. I knew he had veered from a dark path at that moment.

Aside from the monkey with the gun, this is the greatest Hellboy thing ever.

Bonus: it’s also super good for teaching three-act structure, ‘cause it’s a complete, traditionally structured story that fits on a single slide.

This story is pure joy, and it’s a teaching tool? I love Hellboy so much.

My son had his first pancake just this weekend. My wife and I looked at each other trying to decide which of us would quote the line. Seeing the comic referenced now = perfect timing.

Most of the complaints I saw were from people who were fully aware of Starfire’s history

Maybe we were reading different discussions, but most of the complaints I saw were from people who were fully aware of Starfire’s history, but did not like the switch from “defined character who is also hot and has sex” to “flying sexbot who might get some characterization sometime in the future, but has mainly been introduced as being hot and having sex.” That includes the original article that touched this all off.

And yes, everyone knows it’s a relaunch/reboot. That explains the presence of changes. It does not justify bad ones.

On Reddit

Final Crisis,for all the flack it gets for being impenetrable, is really self-contained.

Final Crisis,for all the flack it gets for being impenetrable, is really self-contained. Basically, get the trade or hardcover of Final Crisis, and you’re set. Revelations is a related story that takes place during FC, while Legion of Three Worlds and Rogues’ Revenge are mostly-unrelated stories that take place during FC.

I wouldn’t even say that was the point of Flashpoint.

I wouldn’t even say that was the point of Flashpoint. The point seems to have been to tell an alternate universe story centered on the Flash.

It’s pretty clear from interviews that Flashpoint was planned before they decided to do a reboot – it was a big Flash story that became a big DCU event that would have led to the universe returning more-or-less to normal (no doubt with a few changes and some of the new Flashpoint characters retconned into history), but then DC decided to use it as the springboard for the reboot.

As near as I can tell, the only way that Flashpoint #5 transitions into the new 52 is that double-page spread. The final scene would have worked just fine in the old DCU if Kubert had drawn them in the old costumes.

On Reddit

Odd realization: A year from now, I might not be buying any DC Comics.

Odd realization: A year from now, I might not be buying any DC Comics.  They’ve spent the last 5 years trying to kill my interest in The Flash, and they’re dangerously close to finishing the job.  And all the other “New 52” DC books that look interesting to me (none of them in the mainstream superhero categories, mind you) are on the conventional-wisdom “won’t last six months” list.

I think part of it is that DC periodically buys other comic companies

I think part of it is that DC periodically buys other comic companies or their characters and wants to integrate them into their main line. Fawcett, Charlton, WildStorm, Milestone, etc.

Another part is that most of DC’s big characters go back, in some form, to the late 1930s or early 1940s. Marvel as we know it today essentially started in the Silver Age with Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Hulk, etc. The biggest Golden-Age character for Marvel is Captain America, who was frozen in ice until the Silver Age. So effectively, Marvel has fewer years of stories to keep in continuity.

On Reddit

I wouldn’t say I’m considering getting a tablet for the DC relaunch

I wouldn’t say I’m considering getting a tablet for the DC relaunch, but I have added it to my list of other reasons I’m considering a tablet.

As much as I like print comics, I have to admit that I don’t re-read most of them, and I have a lot of long boxes. The idea of buying digital monthlies and then printed collections of the books I want to reread has a strong appeal.

DC only seems to have room for three main Flashes at a time

DC only seems to have room for three main Flashes at a time: Past, present and future. Sometimes that shakes out as Jay, Barry and Wally, sometimes as Jay, Wally and Bart, and most recently as Jay, Barry and Bart. They’ve got four major Flash characters to work from, and they want Barry in the “present” role…and now that they have a chance to rewrite history, they can get rid of the “extra” character.

That suggests two likely possibilities:
1. They erase Barry Allen’s grandson and reset his nephew to being Kid Flash.
2. They erase Barry Allen’s nephew and keep his grandson as Kid Flash.

We’ve basically gotten ONE Flash story that’s *just a Flash story* out of each run since 2005

I feel like I’m Charlie Brown, DC is Lucy, and the promise of a Flash series that actually gets off the ground and *goes* somewhere is the football.

We’ve basically gotten ONE Flash story that’s *just a Flash story* out of each run since 2005. Everything else has either been setup, wrap-up, or a side story for an outside event.

That two-parter with Bart vs. Mota. Tom Peyer’s “Fast Money.” Maybe Geoff Johns’ “The Dastardly Death of the Rogues.”

Long-form writing only works if you follow through on it. I love reading novels, but I’d much rather read 20 short stories than 10 first chapters and 10 last chapters.

So yes, a legacy character *can* be done in a movie.

Easier, yes…but not necessary. Anyone remember a Zorro film from about 10 years back with Anthony Hopkins as retired Zorro and Antonio Banderas as new Zorro? It did well enough they made a sequel.

Other characters have legacy built into the concept, like the Phantom (maybe not the best example, because the movie tanked).

Maybe a better example: a big part of the first Pirates of the Caribbean film hinged on Will Turner following through on his father’s legacy, but Bootstrap Bill didn’t appear at all until they did the sequels.

Or, heck, Harry Potter – it’s all about this boy growing up and living up to the legacy of his parents and their generation who fought in a war. Harry’s parents are absolutely critical to his story, but they’ve been dead for 10 years when the first movie gets going.

So yes, a legacy character *can* be done in a movie. It may be *easier* to tell a story about the first guy, but it’s not *necessary.*

Barry’s been back for THREE YEARS

Barry’s been back for THREE YEARS. He’s been the focus of a Rebirth miniseries, had a major part in last year’s Big Event(tm), and had his own ongoing book, plus guest spots all over the DCU.

And here we have a gigantic, sprawling Flash-centric event (the first ever, I might add) with 5 oversized issues telling the main story, plus 16 miniseries and at least 4 one-shots telling side stories.

And DC is saying that nowhere in all of that could they find room for the guy who was The Flash for more than two decades? And you’re saying this is perfectly okay?

I don’t like to use the phrase “slap in the face” — it’s really overused IMO — but I think it applies here.

I never bagged and boarded them to preserve resale value.

Yes. I never bagged and boarded them to preserve resale value. I bag and board them to keep them from getting creased, bent or torn for the next time I read them. The comics that are in good condition stay in good condition, but it’s almost more important for the old ones that are falling apart – it keeps them from getting worse when I look through the boxes and pull things out.

I think it depends on what you consider to be a multiverse.

I think it depends on what you consider to be a multiverse. Does it only refer to a rigid structure like the modern 52-universe DC multiverse, or does it include more fluid concepts like Hypertime or Michael Moorcock’s body of work?

I think as fans we tend to overanalyze and categorize things, and the industry is essentially run by fans these days. So there are people out there for whom it matters that Young Justice takes place on “Earth-16” and not simply in the Young Justice continuity. And fans overwhelmingly rejected Hypertime, which was designed not to impose a structure on the DC Multiverse but to describe how it actually works.

I do think there’s value in, as you say, being able to open the door between worlds. One of the oldest tropes of the super-hero story is the crossover. Whether it’s Superman and Batman teaming up, or two versions of the Flash, or Batman and Captain America, it’s a trope with tons of story potential.

If you have a chance, I’d recommend the trade paperback “Planetary: Crossing Worlds” by Warren Ellis. It includes a Batman story in which the team ends up jumping through the multiverse, meeting different variations on Batman (including both the Adam West and Frank Miller versions).

Reply to “DAE think that the multiverse explanation of variations on the same story unnecessary?” On Reddit

Least Favorite Retcon

Barry Allen being the source of the Speed Force.

It just feels like a cheap gimmick to make him more important than all the other Flashes, not just for now (like Wally discovering new ways to use the Speed Force or Bart absorbing it), but forever. No one can ever be better than him, no one can ever surpass him, no one can really succeed him without being second-rate, because hey, being a Flash is all about Barry Allen!

It’s like two kids trying to one-up each other in a bidding war, and one pulls out, “well, I bid infinity!” When it’s a kid, you laugh at that sort of thing. When it’s the Chief Creative Officer of the company, it’s canon.

On Reddit