Weekly Watch Wind - 04/30/2010

Congratulations!: A very special double congratulations to our pal Jill Hermann-Wilmarth! (A) Jill just got/won/earned tenure at the university at which she teaches and does other professory-stuff (her tweed jacket collection is amazing). (B) She and her partner, Jess, should be welcoming baby #2 later this year.

That's what we call a good year.

Now, Jill, get out there and start doing crazy stuff. You have tenure, and they can't stop you any more!

Comics: Ransom put up an exemplary post about a Memphis-based indie comic from the 1980's entitled "The Last Generation". It's an amazing case study.

Movies: For those of us born pre-1980, its hard to read a remake of Carpenter's classic "Escape from New York" as anything but a tragedy/mistake. Especially a remake which will not feature Kurt Russell, or John Carpenter behind the camera. But someone is doing it.

While I enjoy reiterations of franchise characters (Superman, Spidey) and their ongoing sequels and adventures (Dr. Who, etc...), something about Hollywood's current zombie-like approach to creativity is a bit unsettling.

Batman: This one is so out of left-field, but makes such perfect sense, that I'm inclined to believe its authenticity. AICN is reporting that there may be an elaborate Batman stage-show in the works. I am hoping for a "Batman: Brave and the Bold" stage show, but we'll see if they don't go all "Arkham Asylum" instead. Or read about it at Comic Alliance.

While the stage show sounds more akin to a Monster Jam rally than the next "Cats" (and if you haven't watched Monster Jam, I secretly think its awesome in small doses), you can see clips of Batman before the footlights from when we pondered a musical Batman at LoM.

Superman: Outside of a the miniature/ putt-putt variety, I don't play golf. But if I did, I would own this golf club snuggy.

Superman/ Batman: Apparently President Obama has recruited Superman and Batman into the State Department. During a meeting discussing an attempt to renew relations with the Muslim world, Obama mentioned a previously undisclosed project:

There has also been cultural outreach, Obama said -- including a comic book series in which Superman and Batman work with their Muslim counterparts.

"And I hear they're making progress," Obama said.

Well, what do you know?

Movies/ Comics: Dark Horse Comics is adapting the movie of "Let the Right One In" to comics. However, that movie was based on a book, and the author may not dig on the idea so much. Here.

Legal/ Comics: Kirby Family v Marvel is moving to New York. Disney is going to have a hell of an interesting fight on their hands. The family of Jack Kirby is looking for a piece of the $4 billion pie that their father co-created (Hulk, Captain America, Thor, X-Men, Fantastic Four... all Kirby) at Marvel, which recently sold to Disney.

Comics: In working in a library, I've learned that librarians work with the long view of time and the world. I mention this as a school library voted to keep all-ages friendly comic "Bone" on their shelves despite a parental complaint that an adult behaved like an adult somewhere in one of the Bone comics.

The Red Hood (I liked Jason Todd better when he was dead)

I will be blunt: It's my belief that DC made a mistake when they let Judd Winick bring Jason Todd back from the grave (leaving others to explain how it happened). I continue to feel that it was a mistake and that Jason Todd worked great as a Robin, and what his death meant in the ongoing Batman comics was infinitely more interesting and palpable than his return as The Red Hood.

Whatever short term gains DC earned in sales, it not only lost reader trust of guys like me who were kids when Robin got blowed up good, and had become quite used to the idea of Batman and his dimly lit cylinder he kept in the batcave, keeping Jason's costume as a reminder and tribute.

All of the "I liked it better my way" reasoning aside, the return of Jason Todd was a seriously shoddy bit of story-telling that never did get properly wrapped up, leaving DC to wrestle with the fact that this guy was running around in their mega-narrative with no defined character or agenda.


We'll just stick him in the oven for ten minutes at 300, and he'll be ready to go...

Readers like myself might hope DC would right the Todd-related missteps via the Johns-proven method of in-narrative course correction. (Perhaps Hugo Strange cloned Todd and it was never actually him? It doesn't matter, so long as the character wound up safely back under 6 feet of fictional dirt.) But it doesn't seem to be the case that DC could leave well enough alone, or admit that maybe this whole Jason Todd thing just wasn't working. And, really, the recent Blackest Night storyline served as DC's mea culpa regarding the "revolving door of death" in superhero comics, indicating that DC editorial was at least a little bit ashamed of their policy on the big sleep. And yet, Jason Todd really didn't come into play.

Of the many, many writers to tackle Jason Todd since his return, I've only enjoyed Grant Morrison's take, and the logical face-off between Dick Grayson (aka: the original Robin and current substitute Batman), and Jason Todd as The Red Hood. But that had far more to do with Damian getting mixed up in the whole mess (and, yes, I like Damian far more than I ever liked Tim Drake).

At any rate, it seems as if I'm to continue reading Batman, Detective and Batman and Robin, I can expect to see Jason Todd keep popping up.

DC Animation has a film coming, written by Winick, who seems dead set on making sure his mostly-reader-panned run on Batman leaves an indelible mark on Bat-lore.



I'm not averse to saying that Batman comics can get a little stale, cycling through the same set of villains, most of whom were introduced early on in Batman's publishing history. And some things work, and some things don't. And usually these things have a way of sorting themselves out. But somehow it seems DC is oddly invested in making this idea work, mistaking any reaction from the fanbase as emotional investment.

Watching the trailer, you can almost get why DC bought into the idea. An equal number for Batman. A guy who knows which drawer he keeps his cufflinks in, and what punch he'll throw first. Hush was the beta-version (and sort of nonsensical first draft) of the concept. But so was Bane. And Hugo Strange. Todd, on the other hand, had lived in the mansion and could be a story of Batman's failure.

But for longtime readers, it just feels cheap. And a bit of a cheat.

I'm not clear on why DC feels this is the right thing to do, but there you have it.

Update: Curiously, Daily DCU discusses the same item today, and I'm 99.9% certain they aren't reading this site. Apparently they'd posted on the topic before (I missed that post) and have been taking some heat from what the author assumes to be younger readers.

Not having that empty Robin costume hang in the cave any longer took away something for me. Jason Todd may still be Batman’s failure, but he’s no longer his greatest failure.