Truth and its aftermath: Introducing the Bradleys
Tonight I shall be discussing a topic that is near to the heart of legions white Captain America fanboys everywhere. Namely the 'Truth" miniseries and its introduction into the Marvel universe of the Bradleys, the black Captain America family.
Now, this whole story begins with the cover you see above and Marvel's sudden announcement a few years ago that they were adding a new chapter to Cap's backstory. The idea was that the American government chose to test the super soldier serum that created him on a bunch of black soldiers and ended up with one black supersoldier who also wore the costume.
Predictably the wails of outrage from fanboys could be heard all across the internet. People objected to the series on pretty much any grounds they could come up with. The book was called a stab at political correctness and proof of Marvel's idiot leadership, and that was when people were being nice. As it is a lot of people like to treat it as not being in continuity. For reasons I shall get to later, they can't do that anymore. That makes me happy.
Anyway, the series ended up being about Isaiah Bradley, the only survivor from a group of black soldiers who were guinea pigs for the serum. Its a series I defended strongly online and wanted very much to like. In the end I came away with mixed feelings. There are spots where the writing is nothing short of brilliant but then there are also large patches where I found it uneven and badly paced. And then there's the art. Now I'm a big fan of Kyle Baker's work and I think his 'Nat Turner' series has a good chance of being one of those books you give to your comic hating friends to show what the medium is capable of. That said, for a large chunk of this series he dropped the ball in a huge way. The art and coloring rarely fit with what was actually happening. He ended up making a whole lot of serious, well written moments look cartoonish. That said, he also gave us this scene which was one of the most moving in the entire book.
Still, for all my issues with the series, it was a good story and it gave us Isaiah, who then begat the next person on our list, Josiah X
And now we come to Josiah X a.k.a. Justice. In case the name and the headgear had you wondering, yes he's Muslim. A black Muslim in the Captain America suit and carrying the shield. Josiah was the brainchild of Christopher Priest, the mind behind the best Black Panther stories ever written, among other things. Unsurprisingly The Crew, the book he was introduced in, barely made it to 7 issues before the weight of being a predominantly black team book written by Priest.
The idea behind Josiah was that the serum left Isaiah sterile and with the mental capacity of a child. However the military was able to collect genetic material from him before he went sterile and an egg from his wife. They used those to create an embryo which was implanted in a surrogate mother, creating Josiah. Unfortunately for them she had an attack of conscience and took him to his mother who hid the baby on a train in order to keep him safe. From there he grew up in an orphanage, ran away to fight in Vietnam, joined the Black Panthers, found his family, then worked as a mercenary before finding Islam and opening up a mission in one of the worst parts of New York. One of the things The Crew was supposed to explore was him becoming a hero, wearing the suit and becoming comfortable carrying his father's shield. Sadly we never got there and it was questionable for a while whether anything from the Crew was going to remain in continuity. Again that is now resolved because of this kid
Elijah Bradley, a.k.a Patriot of the Young Avengers. Isaiah's grandson by way of his daughter. This, of course, is disclosed in classic angry black man fashion. Initially we are led to believe that he received a blood transfusion from his grandfather which gave him his powers. Later though we find out that he's been using MGH, a drug in the marvel universe that gives normal people powers for a limited time. Young Avengers has therefore given him two stereotypes. He's the angry black man who uses drugs. I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Generally I like the writing on that book, but I am very wary about how he's being treated.
At the same time, by using him, and having him mention Josiah they've pretty much cemented all of the Bradleys in Marvel continuity probably much to the chagrin of certain fanboys who were hoping the entire thing would be disregarded and could quietly slip out of continuity.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Monday, January 23, 2006
The Greatest Cartoon Ever: The Beginning Of My Comic Addiction
Now a lot of people will disagree with me very strongly. That's okay. I know the truth, and that is the only opinion on this subject that really matters to me. The Simpsons is the original favorite. Family Guy is funny as all hell. Batman The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited are going to be called the best superhero cartoons ever. My favorite may not be on many people's lists. Well, that should change. What is it you ask? Well this is the part I love: X-Men: The Animated Series.
I watched the first episode after having only heard of them through my neighbor. He was a casual reader, and his small collection had me interested enough to watch this TV show he told me about. The first show premiered and I was stunned. I can still remember watching Rogue fly for the first time, Wolverine popping his claws, Morph dead, Beast taken out of the equation entirely for a long while, and the Sentinels chasing Jubilee. It was some of the coolest shit I have ever seen on television. Every week I could not miss this show. Comic books became a regular of mine, but I was pretty young, so my money and collection were limited. I started with the first five issues of X-Men and a few issues of Uncanny from the local comic book store. I still have the original copies of them all, and have read each of the issues dozens of times. The stories were better than the show. I have heard people say the show ruined a lot of what the X-Men stood for and ruined a lot of old stories by trying to retell them. Sure the retold animated shows were corny and didn't quite fit the mold of the originals, mainly because the characters were different, but I saw it as retelling them for the new audience to get involved. My first time hearing about Phoenix, Shi'ar, the Morlocks, Sabretooth, X-Factor, Cable, etc were all from the show. This got me interested to go and pick up the comic books, something that has come and gone many times. But I got back into for good with Grant's New X-Men. And boy did it ever start something.
Now my collection is probably not as impressive as you may think, but in some form or another, I own or have read all of the big stories, and am still learning things that I didn't really know much about, if only small plotlines. I am not completely on the jocks of these superheroes, as I recognize the low points very much so (Maggott? Jubilee? X-Babies? Bringing back dead characters... All for example...). Stan Lee is a genius for what he has done with Marvel. He created them. Chris owned them. Grant, Joss, and company are perfecting them. And the art has had some of the most impressive in the business: Alan Davis, Adam Kubert, Joe Madureira, Chris Bachelo, John Cassaday, Jim Lee, Frank Quitley, Salvodor Larocca, and many, many others have come along the long ride to lend their talents and visions of these mutants. And the X-Men was just a stepping stone to all else in the comic world to me: Batman (which was the first exposure I got thanks to the movies), Justice League, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Superman, Avengers, the Ulimate Marvel line, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Watchmen, Hulk, among others. What an inventive culture we have here.
In, conclusion, I hope that you have a story like this to tell or something like this in the back of your mind to look back and remember how great it was to discover and read your favorite comics. And I will forever stand by X-Men: The Animated Series as the greatest cartoon to ever grace a television, for it started a love for the greatest superheroes the world has ever seen.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
A PSA FOR ALL THOSE EITHER NEW TO COMICS FROM HIP HOP OR NEW TO HIP HOP FROM COMICS...
-THIS IS NOT RICK RUBIN
AND THIS IS NOT ALAN MOORE -
ALAN MOORE
RICK RUBIN-
ROB ZOMBIE
THAT LAST ONE WAS THROWN IN FOR SOME OF YOU ROCK FUCKS THAT DON'T GET IT. nah seriously I have no beef with Zombie
THANK YOU AND GOODNIGHT
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Down With the King: Costello and Comics
"I'm Elvis Costello, bitch."
Funny-man David Lee Roth supposedly once quipped that the reason rock critics loved Elvis Costello (and Van Halen not so much) was because rock critics looked like Elvis Costello.
One can only assume the same goes for comic book writers.
You see, some of my Prep-Time cohorts and I were talking all things Costello not too long ago; The subject, as it so often does when we get together, turned to comic books. I mentioned that it was actually Peter Parker who had gotten me into his music in the first place, and next thing you know we had ourselves a nice little laundry list of Costello references from our respective longboxes.
So without further ado, in the following paragraphs I will highlight a few of my favorite Costello comic references, and maybe even take a wild stab at explaining this curious phenomenon. As both a Costello and comic book nut, this may all come off as a little self-indulgent... But if I can't be self-indulgent on a goddamn comic book blog, then where the hell can I be? It's not like my wife wants to hear this crap.
Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Fan
He had the merch...
He knew the lyrics...
(This one is particularly strange when taken out of context, isn't it?)
He had the tickets
(Well, almost)
Hell, he even had the look!!
Pound for pound, no one is really seeing Peter Parker's Costello game. In fact, I should probably just end this entry right here and now. I mean, really, who loves Elvis Costello more than Spider-Man?
The British Love Elvis Costello More Than Spider-Man.
Let's get meta: Throughout the 80s, Alan Moore peppered his works with Costello references. During the 90s, Costello began to look like Alan Moore! ...Coincidence?
Okay, so no fictional character is touching Spidey; But what about real-life creators? Alan Moore, who by most accounts is an actual person, has referenced the man and his music numerous times. Why, here's one from a little book he did called Watchmen (maybe you've heard of it?)
Or how about when myriad legal woes forced Moore to re-name the Marvel Man character? Luckily, his aim was true:
Not one to be outwitted (or out-Britted, even) Neil Gaiman has also been known to toss a Costello nod here and there. In fact, Sandman is practically drenched in them, generally incorporating song lyrics into the story titles a la Sandman #37:
Miscellaneous Sightings
I should point out that this phenomenon isn't exclusive to old musty comics from yesteryear. Comedian of Comedy Patton Oswalt's 'JLA: Welcome to the Working Week' owes its title to an early Costello track, and just months ago in Action Comics #830, Gail Simone contributed to the tapestry with a Lois Lane subplot that interpolated "Everyday I Write the Book."
Speaking of writing a book, that's kind of what I feel like I'm doing right now, so how about I wrap it up?
I think that if there is an explanation for this phenomenon, it's a pretty simple one: Nerds love Elvis Costello. I should know. I'm a nerd.
There's a certain quality to his song writing that appeals to literary types. I can imagine that many writers who came up in the 70s and 80s would have been heavily influenced by his wordplay. Meanwhile, the music itself has just enough aggression to sound almost dangerous. But make no mistake about it: While Costello may rock, he most certainly does not rawk. Frat guys do not do keg stands to "Moods For Moderns." Bikers are not thrown out of bar windows to "Allison." No one has ever crowdsurfed to "Veronica."
It's rock music for those of us genetically predisposed to not rocking. And what are superhero comics, if not rock 'n' roll power fantasies for guys who look like Elvis Costello?
Thursday, January 12, 2006
The Marvel Whore of Babylon or should I say hooker with a heart is none other than this woman... Storm.
I've been a reader of comics since the tender age of 6 when I got my first Batman comic and now I'm 25 years old and all I can say is that I've never seen a woman that has had as many a lover as Houston (and not the singer or city, think adults films) in a comic book.
In this two part series I'm going to start as far back as I can and show the many loves of Ororo "Storm" Munroe. Her "one" true love she met as a young girl in Africa and it was a young T'Challa now known as The Black Panther and ruler of Wakanda she help save the boys life and they started to get along oonly for her to bounce on him cause she was
"needed" as the Goddess to a tribe. She left T'Challa sprung until this day where the brotha is still out looking for "the One" but only thinks about her. This is the first sign that she had "sunshine" in those wind goddess legs
Her next lover came on a bit later on in life as she met Dr. Doom when battling
Arcade didn't last long as her taste for Euro trash dictators was bland (Plus he tried to use her to kill some folks) a small instant but I bet she gave up head...... Ok on to the next one folks.
Not soon after the Doom episode Storm returns to this place called Ptolemaeus to "save" the Fantastic 4 and Akron Ptolemaeus' ruler. Well all know this was false she was going back by for an inter-dimensional booty call. Leaving my boy high and dry and prolly with a nasty rash.
The party doesn't stop there folks next she meets Dracula and he gave her the ole one two "bite" and then she became his "slave". Yea right He pulled a Marv Albert on her ass and then tried to keep her in is stable but she out freaked his ass, Probably wanted to Fuck in the Sunlight for thrills. She then was broken free from his "hold" and Had a chance for a death strike but she could be a killer. Hmph She just couldn't let one of her hoes die now could she? Might need that midnight Vampire cock.
Well folks that's it for now. In our next update I will go into the one that got away the one man
able to break Storm's strangle hold on the Marvel Universe..... His Name is Forge
Also when we return I will show how the Ho ish image of Storm has transferred into the media as well. Of course I'm talking the X-Men films and the choice of Halle "I Got Beast Fucked For and Oscar" Berry.
Well that's it for now folks. Enjoy and good night.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
What if there was a Watchmen cereal?
The above image is a humor piece I created after wondering what a Watchmen cereal would look like. Of course, Watchmen is one of the most critically-acclaimed and artistically respected comics ever written. But what if DC had taken it into mass-licensing territories? After all, the '80s had some of the most blatant commercialization we've ever seen. Anyone and anything had it's own cereal (Urkel-Os, anyone?)
On the flipside, what if DC was to release this today as a 20th anniversary celebration? Would people complain on message boards until there was no longer any bandwith? Would Alan Moore use his magic to wipe AOL/Time Warner off the face of the earth? Would dealers buy boxes by the caseload and sell them for $20 a pop at WizardWorld?
So in closing, remember that THE ABOVE IMAGE IS JUST A PARODY! Please don't go back to the DC boards and tell everyone about this yummy new Watchmen cereal!!!!
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Dear TV Bigwigs...........
You are fucking up. Avi Arad, this goes for you, too. As a matter of fact, I'll go ahead and say that Marvel in general is screwing the pooch.
Let's take a moment, fellas, and examine DC and Warner Brothers. Are they not notorious for fucking up? Yeah, well, we can sit around and talk about all the botched ideas and missed oppurtunities that DC and Warner Brothers (and The WB in particular) have on their records.....but when it comes to it, they both have done something that nobody else has done.
They created legitimately good, commercially successful and critically acclaimed television series based on their properties.
Between Smallville, (yeah, but it didn't USED TO suck) Batman:The Animated Series, and Justice League Unlimited DC has stomped the batshit out of Marvel in this arena. Marvel has had the X-men cartoon (which was mostly cool), they Spider-Man CGI series on MTV, and.....uh......that crappy Fantastic Four cartoon. Yeah. Exactly.
I'm not saying that you need to be as prolific as DC on TV, Mr. Arad. All it takes is a spark to start a fire. You need to grab that TV money, homey. Not every Marvel movie is gonna do Spider-man numbers, and Jessica Alba will only save you one or two crappy movies, TOPS. No, you need something MORE. You just aren't SEEEEEEING it.
YOU NEED A FUCKING DAREDEVIL TV SERIES.
The thing about comics on TV is that the money to be lost (as well as the reputation) can be very intimidating. Animation can cost, and live action superheroes on TV? SHEEIT. You'll end up with another Birds of Prey or The Flash trying to stay in budget. You gotta take a page from Smallville and somehow build a great superhero story around a tight budget.
Daredevil is the perfect vehicle for this, and hopefully you didn't already shoot yourself in the foot with the movie. The best part about making Daredevil a TV series is that the fights aren't on a Superman or Batman or Spider-man level of destruction, and nor all the heroes and villains very costly from a production standpoint.
Wait....
No, the BEST part about making a Daredevil TV series would be that IT'S ALREADY FREAKIN WRITTEN FOR YOU. Bendis's run is paced, written, FRIGGIN EVERYTHING-ED like a television series already! The breaks between most issues are very close to how shows like 24 and Alias are done...with a continuing story broken up by smaller arcs. Everyone vouches for the quality of the book and Bendis's run already. What's the holdup?
Anyone reading this inaugural Prep Time Posse please respond with comments. Tell me I'm not crazy.
Monday, January 02, 2006
How to get down with the PTP blog
#1 Register with Blogger @ www.blogger.com. You can create your own personal blog if you like, but it wont be necessary once you're registered if you just wanna do this blog.
#2 Email me at invisiblist@gmail.com, tell me that you wanna get down with the blog, tell me where you found out about the blog, tell me your OKP name if you have one, and tell me the email address that you registered at blogger so that I can try and get you in here.
Hopefully this will work for our purposes, folks. If not, we'll look into other options. There are gonna be a lot of ideas flying regarding this thing, but let's know the basics out first, and keep in mind that the Prep Time Posse blog is for talking about comics, and not for talking about the actual blog.
