Jimmy Olsen's Blues

A while back I wrote up some predictions for what I thought DC might do with the Superman franchise...

allenholt — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 23:36:06 -0400

A while back I wrote up some predictions for what I thought DC might do with the Superman franchise in the DCnU. A great deal of what I hypothesized was, of course, wildly off-base… but Grant Morrison and I seem to see eye-to-eye on the relationship between Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen.

What Grant Said:

Nrama: Is Jimmy different in this world?

Morrison: Yeah, I mean, I like a capable Jimmy, from the start, rather than a buffoon. So there’s a bit of that. Again, he’s a young guy.

The way I’m playing it is that rather than him being ‘Superman’s friend,’ which never seemed to make a lot of sense, he’s Clark Kent’s friend. And the two of them get on because they’re a couple of really smart geeks. They’re into everything from astronomy to zombies, and they love hanging out and talking.

So Jimmy becomes Superman’s friend eventually because Jimmy started out as Clark’s best friend. He was the first person he knew when he came to the big city. It’s much more about the two friends on that level, which I think is a different, slightly warmer, more believable dynamic between the two characters.

What I Said:

If we’re bringing Clark back to around age 22, his relationship with Jimmy can become a totally different beast. Instead of being the guy that Jimmy hero-worships, they can be great friends. They can be (and wow do I hate to use this term) “bros.” We don’t ever really get to see Clark as having regular people he can think of as peers — his friends almost all wear capes and tights — and I think it would be great for the character to allow that sort of friendship to grow.

Jimmy’s a couple of years older than Clark, and already works as a photographer at the Planet when Clark starts there. A quick and easy friendship forms between them. I can see Jimmy still being star-struck by Superman, and unlike Lois, I can see Jimmy not figuring out Clark’s dual identity — remember, most people will never assume that Superman even has a “secret identity,” so it’s just not something that will occur to him. Why would he ever think that this kinda-nerdy dude with glasses who plays video games and eats Chinese food and watches Metropolis Monarchs games with him be Superman?

I just… I don’t… wow, that new costume is...

allenholt — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:29:33 -0400

I just… I don’t… wow, that new costume is really Not Good. It’s far too ornate for Superman. I’m cool with losing the trunks, I don’t mind the modified neckline, and I even like having the S-shield shape repeated in the belt buckle, but all the useless extra lines and those horrible, horrible boots aren’t making me happy.

I’ll be curious to see how this suit is rendered by other artists. I mean, this is George Perez, one of the most detail-oriented comics artists ever.

DCnU: The More Things Change..

allenholt — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:24:00 -0400

DCnU: The More Things Change..:

Y’know, I was really really hoping that the DCnU relaunch would mean that we’d get a good Teen Titans book, which we haven’t had for years. Absolutely nothing I’ve seen so far about Teen Titans #1 — from the cover to the costumes to the weird S-tattoo on Superboy’s arm from Wonder Girl’s new “bad girl” attitude to having a new character named “Bugg” to the fact that Scott Lobdell is writing it — indicates that’s gonna be the case.

Maybe I’ll be proven wrong, but at this point, I’m not hopeful.

You can’t see it, but this is my sad face.

DCnU: Superrelationships To Come

allenholt — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:28:05 -0400

(I started writing this post late last week, before I realized that DC would be announcing all of their launch titles this week. I don’t know that I can say this is done, because I haven’t really gotten around to talking much about Superman/Clark himself, but I wanted to get it out there before DC officially announces the Superman titles, which should be Friday.

Oh, and my predicitions for the four Superman books to get announced: Superman #1, Action Comics #1, Supergirl #1 and Lois Lane #1.)

I can’t truly say that what follow are predictions, exactly. Speculation, surely. But based on the idea (which still hasn’t been proven true) that they’re making Superman younger, these are a couple of ideas I’d like to see if DC told me “Hey, Allen, we’re making Superman younger and we want you to run with it. How would this new Superman interact with his traditional supporting cast? Go.”

Lois Lane

Lois would be older than Clark Kent by several years. Not too much — say, if he’s 22, she’s pushing 30. She’s older enough that she’s established as a star reporter, she has her reputation underneath her, she knows who she is and what she’s about. Her story isn’t one of discovery as much as expansion, seeing her relationships with Clark and Superman build over time.

Oh, this isn’t the 1950’s-style “two-sided triangle” relationship. Lois knows that Clark is Superman. Well, not at first, not when Clark first starts at the Planet, but she figures it out pretty quickly. She’s a brilliant, award-winning investigative journalist, and she’ll be too close to him not to know what’s up. For her to be clueless about that fact for very long would be totally against her character.

But she doesn’t spend all of her time trying to get him to prove it. At first she might not understand the need, but as she observes both identites in practice, she comes to get why Clark needs time not being Superman and understands that his secret identity protects the people he cares about. She doesn’t tell him that she knows, but she subtly finds ways to help him keep his cover, especially as she grows to care more and more for Clark.

Eventually, of course, the secret will have to come out if their relationship is to grow, which I think it should do. That said, I don’t think they should get married in this new continuity. In fact, I think it might be awhile before they would even get together; if we’re exploring a 22-year-old Superman, you better believe that his being involved with a number of women would likely be part of that story. But someday, he and Lois will inevitably get together.

And I think they’d split up at some point after, which would be an entirely new type of Superman-Lois story than what we’ve seen: as exes, either amiable or antagonistic. Either way would certainly be something new for the relationship, and that’s the whole point of the reboot, right?

Not only do I think we’d see more of Clark “playing the field” before he and Lois get together, I think it would be good to get to explore more of Lois’ character outside the context of her relationship with Superman. While she’s certainly a supporting cast member of his books, I’d like to see more stories where she’s the focus. DC doesn’t have that many iconic female characters, and superpowers or not, Lois is definitely one of them. And she’s certainly a strong enough character to carry stories on her own. Hell, if she’s an award-winning investigative journalist, she might feel right at home in Detective Comics…

Jimmy Olsen

If we’re bringing Clark back to around age 22, his relationship with Jimmy can become a totally different beast. Instead of being the guy that Jimmy hero-worships, they can be great friends. They can be (and wow do I hate to use this term) “bros.” We don’t ever really get to see Clark as having regular people he can think of as peers — his friends almost all wear capes and tights — and I think it would be great for the character to allow that sort of friendship to grow.

Jimmy’s a couple of years older than Clark, and already works as a photographer at the Planet when Clark starts there. A quick and easy friendship forms between them. I can see Jimmy still being star-struck by Superman, and unlike Lois, I can see Jimmy not figuring out Clark’s dual identity — remember, most people will never assume that Superman even has a “secret identity,” so it’s just not something that will occur to him. Why would he ever think that this kinda-nerdy dude with glasses who plays video games and eats Chinese food and watches Metropolis Monarchs games with him be Superman?

Lana Lang

Jimmy can be Clark’s most normal friend, the one he doesn’t have to be super around, the one who appreciates him just for being Clark. But he’s got to have somebody he can talk to about the problems he runs into as Superman, someone who can give him relationship advice when he first goes out with Wonder Woman (oh, c’mon, you know it’s happening at some point), someone who can be honest with him and talk to him in a way no one else can.

He needs a best friend. And that best friend is Lana Lang.

She’s known him since they were toddlers, she was there when he discovered his powers, she’s always been his rock. They dated briefly in high school, but it didn’t work, though she’ll probably always love him.

This isn’t the John Byrne-era Lana who was utterly destroyed when Clark left, however. She’s incredibly proud of him and the work he does. And she’s strong in her own right — she takes inspiration from him and tries to be super in her own way. If she’s 22-ish, the same age as Clark, she’s just starting law school… in Metropolis, of course. She might not have his superpowers, but she’s going to change the world as best she can.

Oh, and she and Lois will butt heads like nobody’s business, which will be understandable given how much they have in common.

Supergirl

If Superman’s 22-ish, it makes sense for Supergirl to be, say, 14-ish. And if she’s 14-ish, why, that’s a perfect age for her to star in a series geared toward a younger audience! Maybe even a more predominantly female audience! Her character wouldn’t have to change; the fundamentals of Supergirl work whether she’s nineteen or fourteen or eleven.

She needs to cover up her damn belly, though. DC has plenty of heroines to sex up — let Supergirl be wholesome, OK?

Superboy

Since I started writing this, we’ve seen that Superboy’s going to be in the horrific-looking new Teen Titans book (in an even more wretched “costume” than he wears currently). No idea what this new Superboy’s backstory is going to be, but I don’t know that having him be a combo-clone of Clark and Lex Luthor will still make sense. I’m not sure what they’re doing here.

My idea, though, was going to keep the combo-clone idea — but move him into the 31st Century for a new Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes series. He could be a clone of Superman and Luthor created 1,000 years in the future and fit right in with the Legion.

"I have a hard time accepting that a for-profit business must voluntarily hobble its growth and..."

allenholt — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 06:48:00 -0400

““I have a hard time accepting that a for-profit business must voluntarily hobble its growth and prosperity for the sake of nostalgia.””

- Ron Perazza, recently departed VP of DC Comics Online (via Twitter)

Five Predictions About the DC Universe Reboot

allenholt — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 22:14:19 -0400

1. The “new” Superman will be somewhere around 20 years old.

Those of us in our thirties and forties and older have a very specific vision of how old Superman should be, and that vision is largely informed by the portrayals of George Reeves and Christopher Reeve and the drawings of artists like Curt Swan and John Byrne. To us, Superman is an Adult. Even though DC tried to peg his age at 29 for a long time (are they still doing that?), he was a full-grown man who had his shit figured out.

If you’re in your mid-twenties or younger and you’re into Superman, however — and especially if you’re not a current comics reader, the people DC’s trying to hook — you’ve mainly seen him played by Tom Welling and Brandon Routh. Superman, then, is more someone in his early twenties, still figuring his way into the world. Not only does have this massive power, he’s trying to learn exactly what his place is, what his responsibilities really are, what it means to be a hero, to be Superman.

So I bet that DC lines up the “new” Superman to reflect that younger sensibility. And y’know what? I’m totally fine with that, as I think it’s a valid approach to take and plenty of good stories could come out of it.

(Be honest: when you saw the Lee-drawn cover to Justice League #1, you first thought that was Superboy and not Superman, didn’t you?)

For decades, Superman has been presented as the guy everyone in the DCU looks up to for inspiration and advice — he’s the Dad of the DCU (and Wonder Woman is the Mom and Batman is Crazy Uncle Earl).

But I don’t think that’ll be true anymore. Superman won’t be the fountainhead from which all heroism in the DCU springs — while still competent and powerful, we’ll now see him earning that respect from his elders. And by “elders” I mainly mean Batman (see point two below).

Also, I guarantee you he’s not married to Lois anymore. More on Lois and Superman to come in a later post.

2. Batman will be largely unchanged.

Batman goes under “if it ain’t broke.” Creatively and financially, Bats is in good shape right now, so I assume he’ll largely get left alone. (The same might not hold true for his extended family.)

I can see Batman filling some of the void created by the youthenizing (as opposed to euthanizing) of Superman. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Batman as less an urban legend and more as an inspirational figure. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Batman as a mentor to Superman (possibly reluctantly so), a relationship structure we’ve never really seen played out with them but that would make total sense given the current view of each in the mainstream media.

As I talked about yesterday, Grant Morrison’s been building a huge Batman story for several years that’s clearly not done. And the Batman books seem to be just about the only books in DC’s lineup that aren’t bringing their current story arcs to an end with their August-shipping issues. I supsect there will be changes to the details of his origin and status quo, but I doubt they’ll be all that severe.

Dick Grayson, on the other hand…

3. If this change sticks, we’ll be spending the next five to ten years adding back in everything that gets removed.

Let’s say, just for sake of argument, that in the new DC timeline, Barry Allen never died. There was no Crisis, he never sacrificed himself to save the universe, Wally never took over as the Flash, never got shunted aside and ignored when Geoff Johns decided to bring Barry back. Wally remained Kid Flash — and, if there’s a bunch of de-aging going on, might just still be Kid Flash. (Personally, I’m betting that the new team of Teen Titans will have somewhat of a retro feel to its lineup.)

In that case… there’s no Impulse. Bart Allen would have no place in this realigned continuity. But given enough time, someone will make a case for him and find a way to work him back in.

If Superman’s twenty-ish, what happens to Superboy, who generally seems to be about eighteen these days? Do we end up with a twelve-year-old Connor Kent? (That might actually be interesting.)

While I don’t expect DC’s creators to slavishly imitate and re-engineer the stories that came before — that would be totally against the point of this reboot — I’m sure we’ll see “missing” characters or variations on those characters start to show up in the new timeline, much in the way the early years of the Ultimate universe were littered with alternate versions of existing mainstream Marvel heroes.

4. At least one previously white hero will now be black, and a surprising number of people will totally lose their shit over it.

Do you remember how many people freaked right the hell out when it was revealed that Heimdall would be played by Idris Elba in Thor? People’s heads straight-up exploded with oh-of-course-I’m-not-racist rage, and that was over friggin’ Heimdall, a character who could at best be called “minor.”

So can you imagine what those people will do if, say, Dick Grayson or Tim Drake all of a sudden has always been African-American? Or Lois Lane or Jimmy Olsen? None of those characters are in any way defined by their race, but I guarantee you that if that race gets changed, the comics blogosphere will go apopletic.

And I will be very, very disappointed to be proven right.

(Though maybe it would lead to more idiot-bashing from Comics Alliance, which would be just fine with me. They’re good at it.)

5. Only about thirty to thirty-five of the fifty-two launch titles will be ongoing series.

I’m betting on a ton of one-shots and mini-series that will be used to define new takes on characters and flesh out this new world, but no way are they moving forward with fifty-two new ongoings. As David Uzumeri said on Comics Alliance today, I’m not sure there’s even fifty-two quality creative teams in all of comics, much less enough to make sure each of these proposed fifty-two books is a quality product.

Some questions that popped into my head about DC’s Universal Reboot, and some answers I...

allenholt — Tue, 31 May 2011 22:39:00 -0400

Some questions that popped into my head about DC’s Universal Reboot, and some answers I thought up for those questions based on what we know so far:

The most obvious question: is this a stunt?

Is this something they’re going to revert in a year, something that just leads up to some other event where they’ll return to the current status quo?

I sincerely hope not. That’s not because of any hatred for the current situation – I mean, it is what it is – but I’d really be curious to see what an entirely new sustained take on the DC Universe would look like. It seems that a year is fairly standard for all-new, all-different situations, but I hope this reboot does well enough creatively and financially to make it stick.

If DC’s ever going to try a massive reboot like this – and let’s face it, they’re infinitely more likely to try it than Marvel ever will be – then they’re doing it the way it looks like they’d need to, to pull the adhesive bandage off with one big jerk. But if they want the wound to heal, they’ll have to leave it off and not patch it back up.

It’s going to piss off a lot of fans, to be sure. We comics folk sure seem to like things to stay the same. We like the illusion of change, but if any change is too great, we want it rolled back as soon as there’s a good opportunity (or even before). If we’re suddenly being told that everything is different and that it’s going to stay that way, that’s going to be a mighty big dump in our collective cereal.

How are established DC creators taking this development?

It’s going to piss off a lot of creators, too – what effect does this massive reboot have on something like what Grant Morrison’s been building with Batman, Incorporated, for instance? He has a years-long story he’s been working on – is that entirely undone now as we get a new take on Batman? Morrison’s notoriously kind of prickly about his treatment from the major super-hero companies; this could be the sort of thing that would make him take his ball and go home.

Unless, of course, this whole line-wide reboot ties into Morrison’s Multiversity concept, and Johns and Lee got him on board at the start. If that were the case – honestly, if the multiverse is involved _at all_ – that would be a marker on the “everything gets undone in a year” side of the board.

(UPDATE: They’re now saying that Morrison has finally been given one of the Superman books, so I guess he’s cool with it. And I bet that definitely means Multiversity is part of whatever’s going on. As much as I wouldn’t want to see him end his Batman run if he wasn’t ready (though we don’t yet know if that’s the case or not), having him on one of the main Superman books would be pretty much the bestest thing ever.)

I’d imagine a great many creators would be excited about getting in at the start of something that’s going to get a huge amount of attention, at the possibility of telling fresh stories that aren’t tied down to all the history that’s come before. But a lot of creators like that history and will, I’m sure, be less than thrilled. It’ll be very interesting to see the launch books and creative teams.

Does the renumbering really matter? They’re really going to renumber Action Comics and Detective Comics?

We don’t know for certain as I write this, but yeah, it looks like they’re really gonna do it, and no, it really doesn’t matter. Sure, it’s cool to realize that these books have been published continuously with the same numbering since the 1930’s, but it doesn’t really matter — whatever the number, we know the history. We’ve had so many renumberings and new volumes that those issue numbers don’t have the meaning they once did. (Do you have any idea what issue number Sports Illustrated or Time is up to?)

And I’ll admit it will be kinda cool to have a new Action Comics #1, but only because it hasn’t been done before. Just this once, DC, you hear me?

If DC is serious about this universal reboot, they couldn’t leave a couple of books out of it. The fact that they’re willing to go this somewhat drastic step is a sign that this step might really be permanent (well, as permanent as anything gets in comics).

What does this mean for the Earth-One original graphic novels?

Oh, ha ha ha… I’m sorry, I couldn’t quite keep a straight face even asking that question.

Honestly, the success of Superman OGN probably helped spur this massive-reboot idea along — it shows that people outside the current fanbase, readers I’m sure DC is eager to get their hooks into, don’t mind that the details are different. Those new readers aren’t as invested in the particulars as much as they are the fundamental concept of the characters. Whether Superman’s a 19-year-old kid or a 30-year-old man doesn’t really matter as much as that he’s Superman and does Superman-y things in a Superman-y way.

I wonder if there’s any chance of Johns’ ideas for Earth One Batman making their way into the “real” Batman’s history…?

What’s all this about day-and-date digital?

Underneath the new number ones and the flashy Jim Lee costumes, it’s easy to lose sight of the single most important aspect of this announcement: major-company super-hero releases coming out in digital format the same day they’re released in stores. When these stories have come and gone and we’ve either moved on to the next thing or reverted back to the last thing, the fact that comics are coming digitally on the same day as their print counterparts will continue to be the one thing that will mark this step as revolutionary. There’s no going back once DC goes day-and-date-digital – once people get used to buying their comics on their iPad or laptop, they’re not willingly going to give that up. I suspect if any attempt were made to re-bottle that genie, readers would more likely stop reading altogether than go back to the comics shop.

It’s not surprising DC would be the first to go this route; they’re in second place, and more in need of trying something new. But once it’s done, Marvel’s going to be forced to follow suit sometime in the next year or risk falling behind.

They say these characters will be more diverse now. Do they mean it?

I don’t know yet, but I hope so. They’ve changed some of the characters who had been replaced with minorities (such as the Atom and Firestorm) back to the old white versions, and to no real storytelling advantage other than the names were what they’d been in the seventies).

We do know now that Cyborg is part of the new Big Seven Justice League, and I think that’s a fantastic idea. He’s a complex, powerful character who’s now been around for thirty years and certainly deserves to be considered upper-echelon at DC. Hell, he’s even been in costume more on Smallville than Superman ever was.

DC has implied that there will be some more racial switchups with some of these characters, and I think that’s a good thing. For most of them, there’s nothing that says they have to be white, or even the gender that they’re currently assigned. Why couldn’t the Flash, just for example, be black? Would that fundamentally change anything about his being the Fastest Man Alive? John Stewart is as every bit a Green Lantern as Hal Jordan. Why can’t the Atom be Chinese-American? Or Hawkman be truly Egyptian rather than just Egyptian-flavored?

I’d imagine we’re finally going to get to see Batwoman #1, and hopefully there will be other gay and lesbian characters featured a little more prominently. We’ll see.

More to come, I’m sure.