Spider-man: The Animated Series

The Spider-man animated series that debuted from November 19, 1994 (1994-11-19) to January 31, 1998 was one of the highlights of my childhood. Sure, the animation was standard 90’s animation that Marvel used for all its shows, in the style of G.I. Joe, but the show felt smart. It created its own continuity and, for many young fans, myself included, was a gateway into reading Marvel Comics. 

While not as timeless or iconic as Batman: The Animated Series, this show offered a modern, fresh window into the Spider-man mythos. It was serious and compelling enough for older audiences but still entertaining for little kids. It is obvious that the producers cared enough to make the show dramatic and not just a formulaic or generic adventure cartoon. The use of CGI for the backgrounds of New York City showed that they were trying something different. I like the CGI segments, no matter how dated they may look today. And, even though the series played fast and loose with the comic book continuity, I appreciate the attempt to adapt some classic storylines. The spirit of the Spider-man comics was captured (particularly the comics of the 70’s and 80’s) with a 90’s flair.

The voice cast was stellar. Professional actors and veteran voice actors were used. To this day, when I read Spider-man comics, I am never able to separate Peter Parker’s voice from Christopher Daniel Barnes. For my money, even more than any of the live-action portrayals, Barnes delivered the most dramatic and best voice for our friendly neighborhood wall-crawler. Other classic portrayals included Roscoe Lee Brown as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin. That’s the voice I hear when I read his appearances in Spider-man or Daredevil. Ed Asner is also great as J. Jonah Jameson. Efram Zimbalist Jr. (the voice of Alfred on Batman) is the definitive voice for Doc Ock as well.

The music is also memorable. The classic main theme, a hard rocking composition performed by Joe Perry of the band, Aerosmith gets stuck in my head for days when I hear it. Shuki Levy, Kussa Mahchi and Udi Harpaz were the composers of the orchestral background score. The score is both fast paced, operatic and fun.

The show sometimes featured guest appearances by some of Marvel’s other well known superheroes.The most famous was the two-part crossover with the X-men show. The other great guest spots are the two-part Daredevil episode (my favorite episodes of the series), the episodes featuring The Punisher, the Doctor Strange episode and the ensemble shows toward the end of the series’ run that feature everybody from The Fantastic Four to Captain America.  (1998-01-31)

       The main problem with the show comes from a perceived censorship by fans, whether true or not. There has been conjecture by many that the series was heavily censored, even for a children’s television show. The series head writer/producer, John Semper Jr., denies this. Some tampering, whether by network heads or the Standards and Practices (S&P), has to be true, considering the use of laser guns, in most scenes, in place of realistic weapons, lack of realistic violence (Spider-man rarely throws a punch in the show) and replacement words such as “destroy,” “end” or “obliterate” for more threatening words like “death,” “murder,” or “kill.” Whether heavily censored or not, the tone of this series is so melodramatic that any censorship doesn't really take you out of the stories they are trying to tell. Also, the censorship sometimes works to the show's advantage. The laser guns in place of real firearms gives the show a distinct look. And because they hardly show Spider-man punching, his use of other maneuvers for attack, like landing on villains from above, holding them from behind, or the various aerial kicks he uses, seem creative instead of restrictive. Not being able to directly reference death also gives the show a kind of gravitas because when death or murder is discussed, they dance around it as if it is a serious issue.

      Of all the animated Marvel properties of the 1990s, Spider-man was the best (though X-men is a close 2^nd place). Some fans may argue that the Spectacular Spider-man show of the early 2000’s is a better show. While I do also love that show, and find it to be a better show at times, it's this series that I watch more often. I think this series looks better and, at least to me, seems much more like classic Spider-man. Maybe this show shouldn’t have been any good, considering it was made for, or heavily marketed with, a line of toys. And sure, it’s a little dated, watching it 25 years later, but the series is just so fun and I lose myself in it every time I see it. The real shame is that, as of this writing, it still hasn’t been released in its entirety on any home media in the U.S. All in all, I love this series. Spiderman: The Animated Series will forever be my favorite adaptation of the webslinger outside of Sam Raimi’s Spider-man 2.   

The Magic of Frank Miller's Daredevil

Before Frank Miller, Daredevil was a B-grade character in the pantheon of Marvel superheroes. Sure writers like Marv Wolfman amped up the pulp action on their runs but it was still just a standard superhero comic—pretty average stuff.

Roger McKenzie can be credited with introducing the noir themes to the series. His interesting and dramatic plots really took advantage of the mystery aspects of Daredevil. Frank Miller began drawing McKenzie’s plots with issue #158 of the Daredevil title. By issue #165, roughly half a year later, the legendary Daredevil run began. Frank Miller, influenced by old black and white film noir and crime comics, as well as Japanese manga and an eastern influence, crafted a run that would turn Matt Murdock from a swashbuckling urban adventurer into an antihero.

Miller drew the layouts almost entirely during his run but was aided by the incomparable Klaus Janson on finishes and inking. The Miller/Janson team is one of the first instances in mainstream superhero comics that pushed the medium to its artistic edge. The plotting was terse and intense and the art was breathtaking yet provocative. Janson is one of the best artists/inkers in the field.

Three major accomplishments came out of this run: The Kingpin was turned from a rarely used Spider-man villain into Matt Murdock’s arch-nemesis.  He became a genuine threat and was developed into one of the major baddies in the Marvel universe. Secondly, ninjas were introduced, bringing a martial arts aspect to the title that had never been explored before. Out of this came The Hand, a ninja clan that would plague Daredevil for years to come and Elektra, Matt’s college girlfriend turned assassin. Stick, leader of a rival ninja clan the Chaste, was also introduced. He was Matt's sensei after he was blinded and taught the young blind boy to hone his other senses. Thirdly, Bullseye, a creation of Marv Wolfman, was firmly defined as one of Daredevil’s prominent adversaries. The landmark issue (#181) where Bullseye murders Elektra with her own sai is one of the greatest comics Marvel has ever published. Its aftermath still influences the Daredevil/Bullseye relationship.

Miller’s final issue, #191, “Roulette,” cemented Daredevil as a lone, obsessed vigilante who always puts justice first. The story sees Daredevil break into Bullseye’s hospital room with a gun, playing a game of Russian roulette. The hero tells the villain of a young boy who idolizes Daredevil, only to find out that the boy’s father is corrupt. This sends the boy over the edge when he shoots another boy. The story ends with Matt remembering that he was beaten as a child by his father, effectively rewriting the character of “Battlin’ Jack” Murdock and revising Matt’s reasons for becoming a lawyer.

The run ended well and the Miller/Janson team was replaced with a short, yet  underrated run by Denny O’neil and a number of artists. One of those artists was David Mazzuchelli, who would aid Miller in his return.

Frank returned to the character with, what I consider to be the best Daredevil story ever, the acclaimed Daredevil: Born Again. Running through Daredevil #227–233, this tale reintroduced Karen Page as a heroin junkie and pornographic actress. She sells Matt’s secret identity. The Kingpin gets wind of this secret and proceeds to ruin Matt’s life, costing him his attorney’s license and destroying his home. By the end, however, Matt has reunited with Karen Page and meets his long lost mother, a nun named Maggie, previously thought to be dead.

Miller’s other Daredevil stories include: Love and War, a wonderful painted graphic novel from 1986, with Bill Sienkiewicz, and the definitive origin story, Daredevil: The Man Without Fear. Written as a five-issue miniseries in 1993, Man Without Fear expands upon the death of “Battlin’ Jack” and Matt’s early years and delves deeper into the role of characters like Stick and Elektra in the Daredevil mythos.

Overall, Frank Miller’s work on Daredevil defines the character. These are some of the best superhero comics anyone can read. The amazing thing is that they are nearly 40 years old at this point. Taken in pieces, the reader is treated to small bits of brilliant superhero storytelling. As a whole, Matt Murdock’s motivations and character become clear. The entirety of Miller’s work represents the best of Daredevil. It is only rivaled by the runs of Ann Nocenti and, later, Brian Michael Bendis. Do yourself a favor: read Daredevil comics.

In Defense of Disney’s Dark Age

Disney, the company that, these days, dominates popular culture in many ways, did suffer a dark period. Animation buffs and historians define this “Dark Age” or the “Bronze Age” of Disney as taking place between the years 1966 and 1988. This was the time when the quality of their animated features suffered. This is especially apparent when compared to its earlier period when Walt and his team were turning out masterpieces. But why did it happen? Who’s to blame for the downward spiral?

In the years just before the death of Walt Disney, the company suffered a crushing defeat. Sleeping Beauty was a disappointment for the studio upon its release in 1959. The financial losses were so serious that Walt actually considered shutting down his animation division. He would spend the next few years focusing on live action features and his theme park projects. And then Walt Disney died in 1966.

The death of Mr. Disney took the floor out from under the company. By the 1970s, the company began to financially suffer. Shareholders began to scramble the company up into pieces, believing the worth of this major corporation to be more valuable as parts than as a whole. After the death of Roy O. Disney, even leadership of the company changed several times. It was clear that behind the scenes Disney was a shadow of its former self, but, although the animation had suffered and the original Disney studio was gone, some of their output—not all—still deserves to be heralded as “classic.”

A technology known as xerography was first used on the 1961 classic, One Hundred and One Dalmatians. This new process allowed Disney animators to transfer their artwork directly onto the acetate rather than the old time consuming job of tracing and inking, frame by frame, onto a cell. It was cheaper and saved time, but xerography didn’t produce the same fluid quality, the same aesthetic impact, that the previous cartoons had. Disney animation would never be the same and beginning in 1970, eight films, all created with xerography, would define the Disney’s Dark Age.

The Aristocats 

The first film to come out of this fabled downturn was The Aristocats in 1970. Sure, the animation doesn’t compare to Snow White, Dumbo or even Pinnochio, but its still one of the most entertaining films that the company has ever put out. It’s story has been seen as a rip-off of Dalmatians and Lady and the Tramp by some, but the main characters, Duchess and her kittens as well as O’Mally, the alley cat, are memorable. The film has heart and the settings are spectacular. This is probably the best of all movies from this period, in terms of quality and storytelling.

Robin Hood

After the Aristocats, came Disney’s take on Robin Hood in 1973. This movie began as an adaptation of Reynard the Fox, a popular children’s story. After Walt's death, the film morphed into an adaptation of the Robin Hood stories. Because the movie used a lot of recycled animation from other Disney features (because of financial difficulties at the time), this film is not well regarded by many serious animation buffs. Despite its mixed critical reception and its reputation today, the film did receive an Academy Award nomination. For a certain generation, this version of the legendary Robin Hood myth may be definitive. Perhaps more than any other “Dark Age” movie, this one has the largest cult following. I have an admitted nostalgia for this one, as I am always entertained every time I see it.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was Disney’s first compilation feature film. Repackaged for theaters in 1977, this boasts three segments (Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too!), all of which were released to theaters separately in the 1960s. Walt Disney had actually planned on making an entirely new Pooh movie but financial difficulties and time never allowed it. This was not a financial success but the film would garner praise from critics for being a faithful adaptation to the Pooh books. Looking at it today, however, can be challenging because it is more juvenile and pedestrian than any other Disney picture. The best Disney films can entertain people of all ages. While this can be quite entertaining for little children, older kids and adults probably won’t enjoy it.

The Rescuers

The Rescuers, also released in 1977, was a critical and commercial smash. Heralded as Disney’s biggest hit in years, it even broke the record for most money made for an animated film on opening weekend, a record it held until 1986 when Don Bluth's An American Tai was released. The film was seen as Disney's comeback movie at the time. It’s quite possible that without the success of this feature Disney’s future may have been very different. The film is now seen as one of the most popular films of the period, permitting a sequel in 1990, The Rescuers Down Under. The biggest problem with it is the animation. More than any film in the Disney animation library, this fails to live up to the Disney standard. The movement is muddy and the character animation is stiff. The color in this film also seems to be flat and diluted. That said, the film tells an entertaining story and has memorable characters. Medusa, in particular, makes for a genuinely creepy villainess.

The Fox and the Hound

This film started production after the release of The Rescuers but wasn't released until 1981. Don Bluth left and took many of Disney’s top animators with him. When it was released however, the film was a financial success. Critically, it faired less impressively. Fans of the original story, as well as critics, were disappointed with the story changes. However, the film has developed a strong fanbase. This is probably my favorite film in the Dark Age. The story is engaging and, while there are a few problems, the animation is an improvement over the past few releases. This is an excellent coming-of-age story that is as moving and heartfelt as any feature from the Renaissance era. It’s one of the best examples of all-ages animation that has ever been produced. 

The Black Cauldron

Next up is the film that is consistently pointed to as the company’s worst film. What detractors of The Black Cauldron fail to understand is, whether they attempted to or not, Disney released an experiment in more mature animation. This came out in 1985 and was the first Disney animated feature to get a PG rating. This feature has a darkness and set of scary visuals that would only be surpassed later by gothic adventure features like Beauty and the Beast or The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It’s an interesting movie that is, at the very least, worth a watch. While an abysmal failure, both critically and commercially, the story is decent and the animation is better than it had been in decades up to this point. Am I actually defending Disney’s worst film? Yes! However, I find more to enjoy in this one that I ever did in Winnie the Pooh.

The Great Mouse Detective

Despite being too young to realize it when I first saw this, The Great Mouse Detective is just Sherlock Holmes with mice. Arriving in 1986, this could be an argument that Disney had run out of ideas. The idea seems a little silly at first glance but if examined critically this is actually a brilliant film. Stylish design and dark visuals, combined with memorable death traps and Vincent Price as the menacing Ratigan, make this an entertaining picture. It was a much-needed critical and financial success after the disappointment of Cauldron, even saving the animation studio from insolvency. It remains a truly underrated gem.

Oliver and Company

The final animated feature of the Dark Age is an adaptation of the Oliver Twist story. It is the most quintessentially 80’s Disney film. The animation, musical cues and character design is reminiscent of an almost Saturday morning cartoon approach. Oliver and Company came to theaters in 1988 and faired moderately well critically. It was the highest grossing “Dark Age film.” Disney fans, however, don’t know what to make of this film. Reviews are mixed, but I think it’s the weakest of the series. Even The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh wasn’t this saccharine. The film’s attempt at some sort of social relevance by dancing delicately around poverty is a miserable failure, no matter how cute that orange kitten is. The inclusion of many famous voices was also surprising as Disney had rarely been so shameless in their promotion of celebrity before. That said, the story is decent, if a little reminiscent of Lady and the Tramp. The animation is standard for the late 1980s. Like Pooh, this might be one for the very little kiddies to enjoy.

Overall, the Dark Age of Disney was hit or miss, but, in this reviewer’s opinion, every film here has something to recommend it. Even the weaker efforts like Pooh and Oliver can still hold up in their own way for children, while adults may get some nostalgia out of great films like The Aristocats, Robin Hood and The Fox and the Hound. If you’re a fan of cartoons or animated movies, each of these deserves another look. Although Disney did suffer financially and creatively in the 70’s and 80’s, these films still matter and should not be dismissed in the wake of the arguably better works of the Disney Renaissance.

Citation

'https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Disney_Dark_Age.' Disney. (2019).

Lobster Johnson: A Wonderful Homage to Pulp Heroes

While Mike Mignola is best known for his Hellboy franchise, and its spin-off series, B.P.R.D. (the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense), his truly unsung creation is a character called The Lobster (published as Lobster Johnson). Such a character works so well in the Hellboy universe, sometimes referred to as the “Mignolaverse,” precisely because he is a throwback to the pulp heroes of the 1930’s and 1940’s.   

As a major fan of pulpy heroes and pulp-inspired superheroes like Batman, I have enjoyed this series probably more than any other comic published after the year 2000. This is the only ongoing series in recent memory that acts as a meditation on the mystery men and pulp-action heroes from the Golden Age of pulp magazines. It builds its own mythology while giving credence to the tropes and conventions of pulp fiction in an incredibly entertaining and fresh way.

The Lobster’s story is very easy to follow if you have never read a Hellboy comic, so it works very well as a standalone saga. Within the Mignolaverse, the public, in modern times, believes the Lobster to be merely a fictional character called Lobster Johnson that was created by a retired detective turned writer. He did exist, however, as a vigilante in 1930s New York. He had a group of assistants (similar to The Shadow’s agents) that helped him fight crime and injustice. He is unique amongst masked crime fighters in that his true identity and origin remain a mystery.

Like most other men of mystery, The Lobster was an expert combatant. He usually wielded a pistol that has been dubbed by some as “The Lobster’s Claw.” He has been known to use other weapons on occasion as well. Like The Spider before him, The Lobster could be very violent at times. After killing mobsters and criminals he burned his calling card, a lobster claw symbol, into their foreheads.

The Lobster also seemed to have incredible endurance, at times living through explosions and heavy gunfire. No explanation has been given as to how he could survive such attacks. He did, however, possess technology that was advanced for its time. He used a bulletproof vest on occasion, and he also possessed a radio that was small enough to fit inside his helmet. Inventions like these, along with help from his assistants, may explain his ability to survive. He is not invulnerable though, as he has been shown to get injured and even bleed.

His first appearance was in a backup story featured in Hellboy: Box Full of Evil #1. The story was called The Killer in My Skull and featured a scientist, Stanley Corn, that worked for Zinco-Davis Laboratories. The scientist is responsible for the deaths of 4 other lab workers, killing them with furniture. The Lobster determines that Corn was doing “brain research” and that the scientist has been able to use his mind to telepathically kill. Corn shoots himself after The Lobster confronts him. Then Corn’s brain launches out of his skull and attempts to kill The Lobster. The Lobster reacts and the brain dies. It’s a pretty strange first appearance for any character but Mignola’s art serves this bizarre tale well.

The Lobster received his own series beginning with Lobster Johnson: The Iron Prometheus #1 (published Sep. 5^th, 2007). The Lobster’s stories vary from full 5-issue mini-series to short stories and one shots. As of this writing, there have been 31 issues and 6 trade paperbacks released for the series. His universe and mythos allow for genre-bending tales, from straight up horror stories, sci-fi, crime fiction or just good, old-fashioned high-stakes action-adventure. If you have never heard of The Lobster, have been thinking about branching out into other parts of the Mignolaverse or just want to read great action-adventure comic books, you can’t go wrong with this series.

My Top Ten Comic Book/Superhero Movies

The following is a ranking of, what I consider to be, the best comic book movies ever made. There are many great superhero films and as a result this list was hard to compile.

I rate these movies on 3 criteria:

1) Faithfulness: Does the film boil the source material or character(s) down to its essence, hit the major points of the character or at least give a decent idea to the viewer of what the mythos is all about?

2) Entertainment Value: Is the film entertaining? Does it leave the viewer with a sense of wonder, amusement or enjoyment?

3) Story: Does the film tell a compelling story? Does the story fit the character?
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10) Hellboy (2004)

Although director Guillermo Del Toro took some liberties with the movie version of Hellboy, this film tells a compelling story. The film is well paced and gives a succinct origin for the hero, hitting many of the major beats of the first Hellboy story, Seed of Destruction. For many people, myself included, this was what got them into the Hellboy comics.
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9) Road To Perdition (2002)

Although not a superhero movie, this film is based on one of the greatest graphic novels ever written. Famed crime fiction writer, Max Allan Collins wrote a fast paced, suspenseful tale that was turned into one of the greatest modern noir films. Tom Hanks was brilliantly cast as the lead, Michael Sullivan. This should be held up as an example that great comic book movies don’t have to feature long underwear characters.
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8) Batman Begins (2005)

While this is probably the best Batman movie ever made on a filmic level, it forsakes much of the fantasy of a superhero in favor of grounded realism. The film is a master class in dramatic storytelling, taking its main cue from the story, Batman Year One. It even manages to tell a great origin story, playing on the fears of a post-9/11 world. However, it misses the escapism that a great superhero story can provide. This is a great Batman movie. The rest of the Dark Knight trilogy, while well-made films, are not good adaptations and explicate too much.
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7) Spider-man 2 (2004)

This movie is the most impressive statement about Spider-man ever put to screen. It boils everything about the classic Stan Lee/Steve Ditko creation down to its essence and features, arguably, the best villain in Spider-man’s rogues gallery, Doctor Octopus. It’s a movie with great action, a fun story, and is probably as close as classic Spidey will ever come to being straight off the page.
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6) The Avengers (2012)

This film is probably the best superhero team movie ever made. It is the blueprint for how to film a team of superheroes. It builds off of many of the solo hero movies that gave birth to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and manages to be mostly faithful to the origin of the team. Impressive visual effects and a credible villain make this film an entertaining spectacle.
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5) Wonder Woman (2017)

Before seeing this I had not been very impressed with DC’s attempt at a cinematic universe for their heroes. Man of Steel and Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice were not that great. Wonder Woman changed my mind. It is one of the best superhero films to ever come out of DC and one of the best superhero movies of the last few years. Gal Gadot is impressive in her role as the Amazon Princess but the story is what really blew me away. There is faithfulness to the origin and it works well as a period film.
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4) The Rocketeer (1991)

The Rocketeer is the perfect example of a pulpy action adventure film. It tells an engaging story, features plenty of action, has heart and is one of the most faithful adaptations of a graphic novel ever put to screen. Billy Campbell is perfectly cast as The Rocketeer and Timothy Dalton expertly plays the villainous Neville Sinclair. Jennifer Connelly isn’t too bad either. This is one of the greatest adventure films ever made.
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3) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles nails the tone of its source material better than any superhero movie ever made. It perfectly captures the gritty, fun and absurd flavor of the original comic book. It adds a few details from the wildly popular cartoon show of the late 80’s and melds everything that was ever good about the TMNT into a masterpiece. Its compelling story is constructed out of bits and pieces of the first dozen issues of the original comic series. It’s probably the greatest TMNT movie that could ever be made.

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2) Batman (1989)

This film is more style over substance and doesn’t really feature much of a plot, but its importance in the pantheon of superhero movies cannot be denied. I rank this so highly as a superhero movie almost purely out of childhood nostalgia. It takes liberties with the mythos and is very indicative of the time it was created in. That being said, every time I watch it, I am impressed and awed by the set pieces and the mood. The film is such an entertaining spectacle, and gives me such a feeling of joy, that it will forever be one of my favorites. It’s also the purest expression, in live action anyway, of the Batman from the 70’s and 80’s, my favorite eras in the bat books. For more on this movie, go here.
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1) Superman: The Movie (1978)

In 1978, when Superman was released, director Richard Donner delivered a blueprint for all future superhero movies to follow. This is the gold standard for all comic book films. Christopher Reeve was perfectly cast as Superman. The story was an epic three-act fantasy that also served as a compelling origin. The effects were like nothing ever seen at the time and are especially impressive because they were all practical effects. It perfectly captures the essence of Superman’s character and is an affectionate tribute to one of pop-culture’s most important icons.
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HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

The Dark Knight (2008)

X2: X-men United (2003)

Black Panther (2018)

Iron Man 2 (2010)

The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

John Byrne's Man of Steel: A New Beginning For Superman

Writer/artist John Byrne seems more like a comics fan first and a comics professional second with regard to his respect of character and mythos. He goes into every superhero project attempting to be as faithful to the original concept as possible (I wish more comics pros took this approach). He has been quoted as asking the question of “How much can I keep?” with regards to reboots. He seems to care about the characters he works on and tries to tell stories that respect them rather than shoehorn them into stories that might not fit that character, as so many modern creators do.

He has been responsible (or partly responsible) for many of the greatest runs in superhero comics. His Fantastic Four run is probably the greatest statement on the FF ever, after the foundation that was laid by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. His X-men stories with Chris Claremont are the definitive X-men stories. His very brief Hulk run is well remembered by some fans also.

His first real involvement with DC Comics on a major level, however, came in the wake of the Crisis on Infinite Earths event. With input by Marv Wolfman, John Byrne was put in charge of the hard reboot and reinterpretation of the Superman mythos in 1986. Byrne was chosen after many other comic book pros, including Carey Bates, Frank Miller and Steve Gerber, all pitched concepts for a new Superman continuity.

Byrne’s ideas for Superman were inspired by every version of the character that he had been exposed to. He drew from four main sources: the original Golden Age Superman stories by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Fleischer Superman cartoons, the Adventures of Superman TV series of the 1950s and the first Christopher Reeve Superman film from 1978.

Superman’s new beginning debuted in the six-issue mini-series The Man of Steel (which ran biweekly from October to December in 1986). Byrne retold Superman’s origin and the series established the new Superman as once again the “Last Son of Krypton.” In this more streamlined continuity, all of the barnacles that had attached themselves to the Superman legend (Supergirl, Krypto the Superdog, Superman as Superboy and the other Kryptonians that had appeared over the years) were swept away.

As a back-to-basics approach, this series was the perfect jumping on point for new readers. You literally didn’t have to know anything about Superman and could pick up Man of Steel from issue one and become a fan. Byrne depowered Superman from his Silver Age levels to something more in line with how the character appeared in the Golden Age.

The biggest changes to the mythos were in characterization. Byrne’s Clark Kent was more assertive and confident, reflecting the George Reeves portrayal from the Adventures of Superman TV series. Clark Kent was now the real person and Superman was a disguise used for superheroics. Lois Lane was reimagined as a dedicated career woman of the 1980s, a strong and independent feminist. Thanks to writer Marv Wolfman, Lex Luthor received the most dramatic overhaul. He was no longer the mad scientist who used super-armor and robbed banks to build inventions that might destroy the Man of Steel. This new version of Luthor was a capitalist business magnate, one of the richest men in the world. Byrne has mentioned that this Luthor was inspired in part by Donald Trump. Ma and Pa Kent were also kept alive in this continuity. Byrne realized that the Kents could be an asset to the Superman mythos and moral and emotional support for Clark.  

Byrne also took the opportunity to retell the first meeting bewtween Superman and Batman. He put the two heroes at odds, creating an uneasy alliance. Frank Miller would also use this approach in his groundbreaking Dark Knight Returns story.

Krypton was also reinvented completely. Gone was the Flash Gordon-inspired sci-fi planet as conceived by Joe Shuster. This new Krypton almost resembled an amalgamation of the planet Tatooine from Star Wars and the cold ice planet from the 1978 Superman movie. Byrne created an emotionally dead, sterile desert planet with mile-high towers. It’s people were a civilization dedicated solely to scientific pursuits. 

In September of 1986, a month after Man of Steel debuted, this new continuity essentially replaced all of Superman’s ongoing series. The Superman comic (Vol. 1 that began in 1939) was rechristened Adventures of Superman. This made way for the second volume of the Superman title, published as Superman #1 (Vol. 2). Byrne wrote and drew both Superman Vol. 2 and Action Comics (which was still being published as Vol. 1), while Marv Wolfman wrote Adventures of Superman with pencils and co-plotting credit by Jerry Ordway.

For the first year, to the credit of Byrne, Wolfman and Ordway, the books fit together incredibly well. This is especially impressive because they were only loosely related to each other as far as story was concerned. As Byrne continued his run, familiar characters from the old Superman mythos began to reappear, albeit reimagined, including the wonderful reintroduction of Metallo. This was alongside new characters and Superman even shared adventures with old DC Universe staples such as the Metal Men and Jack Kirby’s Demon character.

DC soon began three separate mini-series that built upon the mythos that Byrne was trying to establish. World of Krypton, World of Smallville, and World of Metropolis were all written by Byrne while the art varied. Each of these books ran four issues and expanded upon the characters of each locale. World of Metropolis was my favorite of these series because it gave more background to the character of Lois Lane and showed how the city reacted to Superman.

In 1987 Byrne and Ordway inherited Adventures of Superman after Marv Wolfman left. The various Superman books rolled on impressively with each new issue feeling like fresh, exciting new territory.

The beginning of 1988 saw the release of the prestige-format graphic novel: Superman: The Earth Stealers. Written by Byrne with art by Curt Swan and Jerry Ordway, this story is still memorable. It provides a great statement about environmentalism and the need to protect our planet.

Byrne’s work on Superman ended shortly thereafter, but his finale and one of the better stories to come out of this run was the Supergirl Saga. It really is a master class in comic book storytelling. Starting in Superman Vol. 2 #21, a new Supergirl was introduced. At first, this apparently ignored the “Last Son of Krypton” edict that had helped to define the reboot. This new Supergirl was discovered to be a “biological matrix” or alien shape-shifter from a “pocket universe.” This pocket universe was a way to shoehorn in explanations of how aspects from the old continuity might coexist with the new continuity. This universe brought other Kryptonians to the new canon, culminating in one of the most controversial aspects of Byrne’s run: the execution of three Kryptonian criminals via Kryptonite radiation by the Man of Steel. Because this was Byrne’s final statement before he left, the impact was huge.

Byrne’s run gave way to impressive work on the character done by Roger Stern in another title, Man of Tomorrow. Because of Byrne’s foundation, future writers took the Superman franchise in creative and bold directions for years afterward. All the work from 1986 to the time when Superman died at the hands of Doomsday in the Death and Return Saga served to humanize Superman and make him more relatable. He was less a distant alien super being and more a man with great power who genuinely cared about people.

It is amazing to think about, now, how much work Mr. Byrne was able to complete and just how much he was able to accomplish in such a short time. He was involved in writing, plotting or art on 68 of the 82 issues from this period.  Overall, this is a career defining run for Byrne and a cohesive work. It is as important to the history of Superman as the work of Siegel and Shuster, the Fleischer cartoons, the George Reeves series or the 1978 movie. This is the best Superman for many fans, myself included, and deservedly so.

If you want to get into modern Superman, need an introduction to the character or just want to read fun comic books, this will not disappoint. The series has been reprinted in 9 trade paperbacks. Run, don’t walk, to your nearest comic book shop and buy/order these. 

Batman: The Animated Series

Next to the Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons of the 1940's, Batman: The Animated Series is one of the best animated cartoon series ever produced. Before 1992, action-adventure animation was all but dead on American television. Following the success of its new comedy series Tiny Toon Adventures, Warner Animation President Jean MacCurdy made it known that they were looking to develop a new animated Batman series, a result, no doubt, from the success of the first Tim Burton Batman film.

Tiny Toon Adventures storyboard artist Bruce Timm and background painter Eric Radomski were chosen to put together a sample reel, and their two-minute short won them the jobs as the producers of the new series. Veteran animation producers and writers like Alan Burnett and Paul Dini were brought in to spearhead the scripting of the series. Burnett and Dini shared Timm's vision of how the character should be portrayed: dark, serious and brooding.

The intentions for this new Batman series were made very clear in the series' pilot, "On Leather Wings." This Batman was unlike anything that had been previously seen in television animation. Batman was a dark, psychologically driven detective character, just as he was in the original and modern comic books.

The series was able to get away with a lot of "real world violence" such as punches, kicks and real guns being used. It also utilized serious and dark themes in its stories. This was groundbreaking for what ultimately amounted to a children's cartoon, as that level of seriousness and realism had never been achieved in animation before.

The character design, primarily the work of Bruce Timm, along with artists Lynne Naylor, Kevin Nowlan and Mike Mignola, among others, eschewed the detail-heavy, ultra-real style favored by adventure cartoons that came before, in favor of a more cartoony approach, for lack of a better word. This served to better animate the show. This sense of design combined the barrel chests and square jaws of the Fleischer Superman cartoons of the 1940's with the clean design work of comic book legend, Alex Toth. The influence of such Batman artists as Bob Kane, Dick Sprang, Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli is also evident.

Furthermore, the entire series was given a moody, timeless feel, in which 1940's architecture, wardrobe and roadsters co-existed with modern-day technology, making the series feel instantly nostalgic yet never dated. The moody out-of-time world gave the show a dramatic flair and sense of pathos that has rarely been in American cartoons.

The acting on the series was also top-notch. Series voice director Andrea Romano opened the auditions up to the best actors available. The casting for this show resulted in what I believe to be the most talented cast ever assembled for an animated series. Voices included Kevin Conroy as Batman (the definitive voice of Batman in many people's minds), Mark Hammill as Joker (the definitive Joker voice), and Lauren Lester as Robin and Bob Hastings as Commissioner Gordon among others.

This series also had an incredible score. Danny Elfman wrote a theme that was enhanced and expanded upon by the incomparable Shirley Walker with a full orchestra. She composed most of the music, in fact. The soundtrack was another factor in the show’s greatness and the various themes are still stuck in my head to this day. The expertly crafted, operatic compositions helped to showcase its timeless appeal.

The series, at least in its first incarnation, focused primarily on Batman fighting various rogues, with an 18-year-old Robin (attending college upstate as Dick Grayson) appearing occasionally and in a supporting role. The Robin design combined the Dick Grayson character of the 1970's and early 80's with the current costume of the time worn by the comic books' third Robin, Tim Drake. This series was also partly responsible for bringing a greater visibility to Batgirl.

Much like the comics, however, Batman is only as good as his villains, and this show did a marvelous job of translating Batman's Rogues' Gallery for animation, with far more hits than misses. In many cases, their version wound up being far superior to earlier versions, and often supplanted them not only in the public consciousness, but in the source-material comic books as well. Familiar characters like The Joker, Penguin, Two-Face, Catwoman, The Riddler, Clayface, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, Man-Bat, The Scarecrow and Scarface were all featured with notable new characters like Lock-Up and Harley Quinn, who would become so popular that she would be featured as a mainstay in the DC Universe eventually.

In its original run, eighty-five episodes were produced for the Fox network before the series was taken off the air. A few years later, the studio ordered 27 more episodes that coincided with the Superman animated series on the WB Network. In The New Batman Adventures, characters were slightly re-designed, with the addition of a new Robin, Tim Drake as well as Nightwing being introduced and Batgirl taking on a more prominent role in a new costume. These new episodes were sleeker and even more cartoony than the first show, a result of budget cuts, but these were still very entertaining.

All in all, this series helped make many children and adults (myself included) into lifelong Batman fans and comic book fans. In this reviewer’s opinion, no animated superhero show will ever top Batman: The Animated Series.

Citation

All info pertaining to this series comes from: 

The documentary, ‘Batman: The Legacy Continues’ (2004).

Will Eisner's The Spirit - An Overview

Although not as popular as superheroes like Batman, Superman or Spider-man, and not as well remembered as comic strip characters like Dick Tracy or Charlie Brown, The Spirit, as created by Will Eisner, is still an icon in the history of American newspaper comic strips and printed media.

In 1939, with the success of Superman and the explosion of the Golden Age of Superheroes, Everett "Busy" Arnold, then publisher of Quality Comics, set his sights on newspaper Sunday supplements, knowing that many newspapers were now having to compete with the then brand-new medium of comic books.

Will Eisner

Arnold went to Will Eisner late in ’39 and enlisted him to find a way to include a comic book in the newspapers. This opportunity made Eisner eventually leave his own publishing concern, the Eisner & Iger studio. Arnold asked Eisner to develop a superhero but Eisner was not interested in superheroes anymore, having created many “costumed characters” at Eisner and Iger. Instead, Eisner developed a detective hero. Eisner was more interested in human interest stories. The strip covered nearly every genre and would spin genuine mysteries, dramatic crime fiction yarns, horror tales or just humorous and cartoony stories.

It was “Busy” Arnold who suggested the name of this new detective hero. He believed that a ghost or supernatural character would be popular. Eisner later realized that he didn’t care about the name and The Spirit debuted as a comic strip (known later as “The Spirit Section”) in the Register and Tribune Syndicate on June 2, 1940 and would run until 1952. Eisner would serve during World War II and, as a result, had many art assistants, ghostwriters, inkers and editors that took over The Spirit’s adventures when he was away. Jules Feiffer and Gerry Grandenetti were the unsung heroes of the strip during the war years.

The Spirit was the heroic persona of a detective named Denny Colt, operating primarily in an urban locale known as Central City. In the very first story, the hero was supposedly murdered by the villainous Dr. Cobra. It was later revealed that Denny Colt was put into suspended animation while trying to capture the arch villain. Believing him dead, the authorities buried Denny Colt in the Wildwood Cemetery. Upon waking up, he shared his existence and secret with his friend, Police Commissioner Dolan. He established an underground base at his own grave site and used his new-found anonymity to begin a war on crime. His costume was simple detective garb, a blue business suit, red necktie and blue fedora hat. He also wore a blue domino mask and gloves for further anonymity.

The Spirit had many great supporting characters, chief among them Commissioner Dolan and his daughter Ellen, who served as something of a love interest for the hero. The hero also had a sidekick, Ebony White, by all accounts the first African-American sidekick. Ebony was a minor (his age is in dispute but he was probably about 14 years old) who, while driving a taxi, acted as The Spirit’s chauffeur and aid.

Ebony White

Eisner drew criticism for his depiction of Ebony White because the cartoonist chose to portray him as a racial caricature. Ebony was typically drawn with large eyes and thick lips and used a speech pattern that stereotyped the uneducated and minority groups, as in a minstrel show. Interestingly however, Eisner was praised by some people of color for including Ebony in the strip at all and for giving visibility to a black character. Ebony was also praised for being treated with respect and admiration by the other characters in the strip. As the strip went on Ebony would become more intelligent, sometimes solving cases all by himself. Ebony would later be phased out of the strip entirely, succeeded by the white, blond junior detective, Sammy Strunk. Whether this was a reaction to criticism levelled at Eisner is unknown, but Eisner did struggle with his characterization of the ill-fated sidekick later in his life.

The Spirit’s adventures would also introduce many femme fatales. Eisner created many strong, intelligent, crafty women, the most famous being the seductive P’Gell and the beautiful Sand Saref. Women like these would routinely bedevil the hero by seducing him or trying to escape justice after engaging in some criminal scheme. 

The Octopus

The Octopus, the archenemy of the Spirit, was a criminal mastermind and master of disguise who never showed his real face. He could, however, always be identified by his distinctive black gloves. He was responsible for some of The Spirit’s most famous cases.

Though the strip would fade from view and be largely forgotten by later generations who never read it, later reprints have kept the strip and character alive. The most famous reprints were done in the 1970s by Warren Publishing and later by Kitchen Sink Press. More recently, Kitchen Sink Press published a series of original non-Eisner Spirit stories, dubbed “The New Adventures” in the mid 1990s with work by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Neil Gaiman, Paul Chadwick and Kurt Busiek.

DC Comics has reprinted the entire Spirit strip in the hardcover Archive Editions. A “Best Of” collection was presented in 2005 also by DC Comics. DC also began an ongoing series, The Spirit, in 2007. The stories were written and penciled by Darwyn Cooke with later writers and artists taking over after the first dozen or so issues. It ran through issue #32 (ending in 2009), with most stories being a single 22-page story.

Other publishers, including IDW and Dynamite Entertainment have also dipped their hands into The Spirit mythos, each publishing limited series and a new ongoing series respectively.

The Spirit Movies 

In 2009, there was a big screen adaptation written and directed by Frank Miller. It bore little resemblance to Eisner’s great creation and was largely rejected by fans of the comic strip. Before that, however, came a 1987 TV movie that, while a little cheesy, had heart and at least tried to approximate the comic strip’s weird humor. It is, at the very least, worth a watch.