Trojan, Trojan, Trojan-cats Ho!: Potential Classical References in Cheetara #1

 Cheetara #1 is the initial issue in a prequel series to the main and heretofore only series in the reimagined Thundercats universe, one of many childhood franchises adapted, updated, and streamlined for a modern audience. The writer is Soo Lee; the artist Domenico Carbone; the letterer is Jeff Eckleberry.

Thundercats was not a childhood franchise with which I was obsessed, although of course I was aware of it, so this reimagining does not break my almost non-existent sense of canon, nor do I cry how any change has ruined my childhood. Let us ignore the Johnny Quest promotional stinger interpolated herein!

This prequel takes place on the alien planet Thundera before its destruction. The most obvious comparison would be Superman's home planet of Krypton, especially if you choose not to believe that Lion-O's original name Lionel was in reference to a train rather than the Big Blue Boy Scout. The presentation of Thundera does remind me a Silver Age Krypton or a more aggressively furry Space Wakanda. This is a bright and wonderful world, full of promise, at least from the perspective of our protagonist Cheetara. 

Since Krypton has not been portrayed in this manner since the icy planet of the Christopher Reeve movie (the best Superman movie) usurped the utopian vision of the World of Krypton backups with their primary colors and many headbands, a more apt comparison is Troy before its fall. Thundera is prosperous and powerful due to its control of the endemic mineral power source Thundrainium. Troy is prosperous and powerful due to its control of access to the trade routes into the Black Sea; the beginning of the Iliad involves Agamemnon, king of men, who is besieging Troy, offending the priest of Apollo, "Goldman," father of "Goldie," from "Goldtown." The different Great Thunderans, Thundera's aristocrats (or Aristocats?) are based on different feline species. The original motivation for this was visual distinctiveness, a key quality in animation but also in epic, since all important Trojans and Greeks receive epithets which may not be applicable in the immediate circumstances, but nonetheless provide personal characteristics with which to imagine them. Cheetara, as one of these nobles, is an biased observer; in the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid, the perspectives of the Greeks and the Trojans differ markedly. 

Both Thundera and Troy are treated not just as places, but as characters, and as characters, both are positioned as tragic heroes. According to Aristotle, a tragic hero must be at the height of their power, yet the conditions for the fall have already been set. This necessity is best illustrated in Oedipus Tyrannus, where the same qualities that made Oedipus a great king guaranteed his downfall. The causes of Thundera's future reckoning are not presented in Cheetara #1, but there is only one issue and Cheetara has a enormous privilege as a noble. Troy, on the other hand, despite being blessed by the gods, had broken its agreement with the divine builders of its current walls, as well as the laws of hospitality. Troy was the head of a Bronze Age empire, with subordinate princes such as Aeneas, Briseis' father Briseus, and Cassandra's suitor Coroebus. The Thunderan ruler is blind from the last war (details as yet unrevealed) and therefore unfit to rule, so he has selected an elite squadron of Great Thunderans to raise his only son as ruler of Thundera. Priam, king of Troy, has no such externally inflicted infirmity, but he is very old and he was the only surviving son of the last Trojan War. Perhaps one could connect king Claudius of Thundera's disability with Anchises, father of Aeneas, rather than Priam, due to the savior complex surrounding the child prince Lion-O. Priam has a squad of sons, royal cousins, and client kings on which he can rely. 

Cheetara is framed as a warrior, a priestess, and a mother figure. The gender equity of the franchise and perhaps felines in general allow Cheetara to fight alongside the male Thunderans, a true Andromache. She accompanies the Regent Jaga to the temple of the ancestors. While it is true that the temple has an aesthetic between that of the Jedi and that of Black Panther, the facelessness of the ancestors provides a point of comparison. Many of the oldest idols in the Classical and pre-Classical times were not statues as we conceive them, with carefully defined faces, but rather sacred stones to which divinity and sometimes facial features were attributed. One can still visit the Aphrodite of Paphos, a stone where the characteristics of the goddess would suggest greater detail. The Thunderan Sword of Omens, which guarantees the safety of Thundera as long as it remains in the temple, is not just a Chekhov's gun, but also an easy analogue to the Palladium, a lumpy sacred statue which Odysseus had to remove from the Temple of Athena in the citadel of Troy before Troy could fall.

Cheetara's preference is holy orders, but martial duty takes precedence. Cheetara's physical gift of suitably themed speed, "swift-footed Cheetara," overshadows her psychic gift of precognition. This precognition, which in the service of the story involves the ineluctable doom, aligns her more with Cassandra than Achilles. Cassandra was cursed to speak the truth which none would believe. This conflict is a way to build tension when the outcome is already known - as in a tragedy. Cheetara is also the replacement mother for the young prince Lion-O, whose own mother is no longer around, although once again there are no details. Since Priam's wife Hecuba and Hector's wife Andromache are prominent in the Iliad, a more apt comparison is Anchises, who begot his son Aeneas on Aphrodite, a conspicuously absent mother. Lion-O may be special, but it remains to be seen if his bloodline is what passes for divine in the Thunderan cosmos. If Cheetara's maternal role aligns her with Andromache, then Lion-O is Astyanax, the doomed son of Hector, presumptive heir of Troy. Andromache's name means "she who fights like a man," while Astyanax means "lord of the city," both of which are applicable to the Thunderans.

Cheetara's story also involves romance. Tygra, a male Thundercat not to be confused with Marvel's Avenger, the engineer and builder of the core characters, is smitten with her. His obsession with ships is not only a narrative necessity, but also provides a link with Troy and the infamous thousand ships. The reality of noble families, however, demands arranged marriages, and Tygra and Cheetara is not one such. In this aspect also, there is a comparison between Cheetara and Cassandra. Cheetara is reluctant to accept her arranged match, else there would be no story. Cassandra also had a suitor, Coroebus, a prince of the outlying territories. His tale appears in the second book of Aeneid, when Aeneas is reluctantly recounting the fall of Troy to an insistent Dido at the Carthaginian court. Coroebus visited the city and was enchanted by Cassandra. Her brothers discouraged Coroebus, but Priam, king of Troy, could not pass up an opportunity for extra military assistance and allowed it. On the final night of Troy, Coroebus joined Aeneas' suicide squad and perished as Cassandra was carried off to be Agamemnon's booty. Tygra and Cheetara survive the fall of Thundera, so the parallel is not exact, but the number of similarity between Cheetara and Cassandra, as well as other women of Troy, is suggestive, Cheetara, as the girl Thundercat, must encompass far more roles than the more abundant male characters.

Although it is not possible to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Troy has provided an inspiration for the first look at prelapsarian Thundera, the multiple parallels condensed into a smaller cast and narrative structure suggest that it is worthwhile to use such an approach. The land, the king, the heir, and the royal retinue show points of similarity, but they also reveal potential differences. The interest in both lies in the path to the inevitable.

Girl Power on Apokolips: Ngozi Ukazu's "Barda"

 The YA graphic novel Barda by Ngozi Ukazu is a solid introduction to Jack Kirby's New Gods mythos via female-centered first romance, albeit one suitably distorted for a protagonist raised on a planet suitably named Apokalips. The graphic novel, first locally promoted on Free Comic Book Day, aroused some skepticism on how such heavy matters could be adapted for a younger audience in a world of sensitivity readers. One would hope that the name of the planet, Apokolips, would be a sufficient clue to the unpleasantness to come!

The first line of the graphic novel honors the epic tradition of immediately establishing the topic of the tale; at the end, both the first and the last sentence are true, Each Female Fury, the elite force of Apokolips under Granny Goodness, herself under her lord and master Darkseid, illustrates a different aspect of the continual abuse Apokalips offers. Mad Harriet's experience in the X-Pit has broken her mind entirely; she laughs loudly and inappropriately. Stompa, the "big guy" of the group, is driven by anger and sorrow fed into anger from the loss of a sibling who did not survive the X-pit. Bernadeth, the sister of Darkseid's lieutenant Desaad, has channeled her love of learning into the service of her tyrant; she can learn new things, but only inside a narrow field. Even here, much of her love of learning must have been extinguished, since Stompa is functionally illiterate and the rest of the Furies do not read the mission papers. Lashina is not from an Apokalips, but rather from a world conquered by Darkseid; this is colonialist trauma, reflected in Lashina's non-white skin, which contrasts with Kirby's original model. Auralie, the acrobat, indulges her kinetic freedom by secretly dancing.

Barda, although the most emotionally stable of thegroup, is not free from trauma. Her upbringing on Apokalips in the orphanage of Granny Goodness, whose own traumas are not the focus of this work, has warped her understanding of the world.

This graphic novel is a tale of trauma and war, and therefore at least one of the band must die; in a world called Apokalips, it will not be a pleasant death. The doomed member perishes here in a more effective way than in her original post-mortem appearance.

Barda, the protagonist - almost entirely avoiding the epithet "Big," although there are plenty of panels contrasting her size with the diminutive Granny Goodness - undergoes substantial emotional growth as the plot continues. Since the ending point was preestablished, the starting point is different from the Kirby run; or maybe not, since Barda's point of view was not centered there and she first appeared on Earth in her beau's book. Barda is the New Gods graphic novel equivalent of the feminist updates of Classical Mythology such as Circe or Stoned, a well0written companion to the male-focused original presentation.

Amethyst (Amy Reeder, Wonder Comics)

        Amethyst, written and drawn by Amy Reeder under the Wonder Comics imprint, is elaboration and evolution of the reliable but basic plot of the original Amethyst Princess of Gemworld miniseries. This seems to be a good way to handle characters who cannot sustain ongoing series: the non-ubiquity of the character permits the possibility of growth, both personal and political - and politics is critical to the Gemworld saga! For such an example, one can look at the evolution of the Shazam series; unlike the Shazam series, however, the Wonder Comics series avoided the edginess of the New 52. The original Amethyst Princess of Gemworld series was a gem-themed lost princess tale, suitable for a thirteen-year-old protagonist - although Amy Winston ages up in Gemworld much like Shazam or, more contemporary, She-Ra. The protagonist of Reeder's Amethyst is sixteen, a three-year difference which marks great change in a teenager's life while still limiting the aging of comic characters.

          The inciting incident of Reeder's Amethyst is another basic idea which many fantasy sequels use: the land is in chaos or distress when the protagonist returns. Every television or movie sequel to MGM's The Wizard of Oz is an example. Another example is Stephen Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Amethyst discovers her subjects missing and her alleged allies shockingly hostile. The threat is well-balanced: the subjects are not dead, but could die easily. Then Amethyst finds out that she is not as orphaned as she previously believed. This revelation and following ones connect to the title of the original maxiseries, Amethyst Princess of Gemworld: they confirm why she is a princess rather than a queen as seen in the other realms, and that the appellation "of Gemworld"  might be presumptuous in-world as ppposed to an Earthly perspective. Amethyst's journey exposes a more complex and ambiguous history of Gemworld than the Twelve Kingdoms and fantasy Travelers, along with the Good/Evil and Order/Chaos axes, might suggest. None of it, however, is presented in a gritty or "mature" manner, and the climax allows further development of Gemworld without undermining the foundational principles of this fantasy realm.

         This is a good introduction to the history and politics of Gemworld, past and present. A great aid to this introduction is the map, which provides a reference for the itinerary while still keeping some things secret. Any adults with young daughters who grew up in the eighties with She-Ra, The Never-Ending Story, and Return to Oz should consider buying this book.

Ghost Machine

 Ghost Machine is a preview anthology of multiple related series. The first character to appear is a preexisting one, Geiger, whose name evokes the post-apocalyptic setting. The Unnamed timeline, however, is expanding the Geiger universe with other immortals and rivals, most notably Redcoat. The immortals include Benedict Arnold, Albert Einstein (shown as a child), Davy Crockett, The Northerner (a Union soldier), Annie Oakley, and Simon Pure, Redcoat himself. War connects these figures and others who are committed to the Unknown War. There is a timeline which includes characters not already mentioned in Ghost Machine, such as American Widow X and the First Ghost. The immortality of the characters in the Unnamed War seems to be less than absolute, since Benedict Arnold is described as the only immortal, other than Redcoat, to survive the Revolutionary War. What litte is said about the encounter between the Northerner and Redcoat suggests that Simon Pure was a Confederate or at least a sympathizer. First Ghost is an intriguing concept: a female veteran goes to space and then becomes president of the United States. Her experience inspires her to become the First Ghost. Given the timeline, she is the last of next-to-last President before the start of the Unknown War.

Rook: Exodus is an extrasolar corporate dystopia; specifically, the dystopia after the corporation's terraforming engine has failed and the corporation has abandoned the Wardens, its own employees. The Wardens are animal-themed and have helmets which control their associated animals - a reversal of the usual functions of a totemic mask. The Wardens disagree on how to handle the dwindling resources and each Warden has oversized animals at their command, so it's clear that a War of the Wardens would be ugly. What is not so clear is why the corporation chose oversized animals to colonize a partially terraformed planet.

The Family Universe is less clear as a shared universe, although Peter J Tomasi is credited on both books. That does inspire confidence. The first title, The Rocketfellers, is about a family from the Twenty-Fifth Century in a temporal witness program in the present day: the future is not secure. It seems a family-friendly series, although  it's not clear whether the movie of Junkyard Joe in the final panel is an easter egg or a connection to the timeline of the Unknown War. The other Family Universe series, Hornsby & Halo, seems to be based on the child swap of the New Gods, only set on Earth, involving Heaven & Hell rather than their cosmic analogs, and centered on Little League baseball, Both series are written by Peter J Tomasi, so that is promising on the family front. His depiction of Clark and Jon Kent's relationship was terrific.

The last shared universe, that of Hyde Street and Devour, seems more fluid and ambiguous. The third year definitely-not-Boy-Scout is well designed but almost certainly not his true form. The image on the neckerchief slide is appropriately creepy. Devour seems to be a series about eating disorders, while Hyde Street takes advantage of the repetitiveness of American street names to allow a freedom of location for terror tales.

Meditations on Mary: Marvels Updated

Doc Shaner's recent series The Champion of Shazam is a good comic which both benefits and suffers from legacy and the constraints of continuity. Mary posseses the power of Shazam, since Billy is off wizarding at the Rock of Eternity. She is ready to go to college, to start a life independent of her foster family, and obligations of heroism. Mary is a character who has retained a fan base despite her underutilization as an independent character.  Mary, however, cannot escape Billy's sphere of influence any more (and probably less) than Kara can escape Clark's. Billy, unlike the cousins from Krypton, has a challenge maintaining his own series, while Superman endures. The other (former) female Shazam, Mary's younger foster sister Darla, provides more diversity but she is too young in-world and too recently created to claim the title of Shazam on her own. She may be better suited for a YA book, perhaps one set in the world of the Vietnamese Green Lantern or a crossover with a Wonder Person. Uncle Marv, on the other hand, is an unadulterated positive addition, who does not require powers (a betrayal of his basic nature), but also provides an adult mentor for a putative Mary-centric comic just as Darla does a Jimmy Olsen type - hopefully not a Vanessa Kapatellis! The choice of Georgia Sivana as villain is appreciated, since Sivana is the rare villain that has extended family born of legitimate marriages; Georgia, moreover, is the only Sivana sibling who possesses neither a "Junior", something which Freddie's absence suggests a move away from, nor a given name which would only hold up to scrutiny in the Golden Age of Comics. Georgia's motivation for villainy are sold and tied into the continuity of Shazam. This entanglement of Mary and Georgia with their male counterparts still leaves them with a burden of legacy, although a thankfully thin one which could be overcome in an ongoing series. This, however, is a limited series with an open ending of "the adventure continues" type. Reading the miniseries along makes this ending inspirational, but its placement with universal continuity diminishes the impact, especially when it is mandatory that the mantle of Shazam return to the slightly more commercial Billy. Even the title of the series is ambiguous: does the Champion of Shazam refer to Billy, the Champion of the force of good which the wizard Mamaragan encapsulated within the Magic Word, or Billy's Champion? 

Unrestrained by the continuity outside of Shazam portion of the DCU, this would make a hell of an animated movie; within it, like so many other series, the gravity of the status quo warps it into insignificance. This is a shame for the girl hero who preceded and inspired the Girl of Steel.

Superman Space Age

 Superman Space Age, by Mark Russell and Mike and Laura Allred, is an illustration that a limited scope is not an impediment to telling a good story. The art is reminiscent of X-Statix, an unusual look for a Superman story, but this is a particular Superman on an Earth which does not have the privilege of being one which survives the Crisis on Infinite Earths. This is not a true spoiler: the first pages are set in 1985. This Superman's floruit is in the 1960s; the inciting incident, therefore, is the assassination of President Kennedy. This Earth's Clark Kent has a relation with his Earth father which is closer to that of the Man of Steel movie than any television adaptation. The assassination spurs Clark, Lois, Luthor, Bruce, and Hal into action which will lead to the conclusion. Despite the decade, Pariah, the multiverse-hopping herald of cosmic oblivion, arrives and the world does not immediately end in a wave of white blankness. Some may view this as breaking canon. This premature arrival prompts Superman to value the time left and rally the proto-league of this Earth. 

This version of the Superman story is geared for a generation who knows that disaster is coming within their lifetime and must decide how to manage both the catastrophe and their emotions. It is worth reading, and the development within the limited framework will be intriguing.

Paper Girls (Show and Comic)

The primary difference between watching Paper Girls and reading Paper Girls is not the '80s vibe - that is consistent - but rather that the show is structured as a season and the comic is structured like a very long '80s kid gang movie, despite its distribution over several volumes. A literal adaptation, even if costs allowed, would have felt disjointed, failing to introduce all relevant concepts and failing to conclude in a way suitable for the season format. The reworking of the plot, therefore, as well as the expansion of the cast's background, was a wise decision. The necessity for an ending, however, does create the risk of further time shenanigans that are less well-written than the original comic - note the deterioration of Game of Thrones. Appropriately, time will be the judge.

Minor Threats

 The first issue of Minor Threats, the comic by Patton Oswalt, currently engaged as Matthew the Raven on Netflix’s The Sandman, Jordan Blum, Scott Hepburn, Ian Herring, and Nate Piekos, is a promising start at examining the midlevel criminal underbelly of a superhero universe. Our protagonist is a second-generation villain with inherited gimmick powers who just wants to lead a regular life and regain custody of her daughter. The universe in which she lives has suffered event escalation to the point where gimmick villains and bank robberies are old-fashioned, but there are still rules, particularly about killing heroes. This precarious balance vanishes when a sidekick of ersatz Batman is killed. The campaign of terror from the heroes prompts the midlevel villains to hunt down the culprit themselves to demonstrate zero tolerance. I look forward to the second issue.

Icon and Rocket

 The latest Icon and Rocket comic series is a distillation and update of the original Milestone Comics from the ‘90s. The plotting within the Dakotaverse (the name of the continuity) is tight and displays and awareness of the limited time and space granted to comic universes which are not part of the Big Two. The only character from the Dakotaverse who can hold his own long-running series is Static, and even that is sometimes tenuous. The Rocket who appears in Young Justice: Phantoms is a significantly different character in a very different world; that version is not addressed here. The leads of this comic are the titular Icon and Rocket. Icon is an alien who crashed on Earth in the antebellum South in a field; strange visitors from another planet are required to land in a field – unless they are causing cataclysmic destruction by crashing into the city prematurely. Rocket is a teenager who breaks into Icon’s house. These versions of Icon and Rocket do not exist in some separate multiverse; rather they are part of the DC multiverse or Omniverse; the gravitational pull of DC is too strong for virtually all the copies, commentaries, and deconstructions.

This Icon has tried to change the world, which resulted in a different conclusion for the Civil War; this might be considered cheap until one recalls that in Marvel the Human Torch (the original, android version) killed Hitler and in the prime Earth of DC Hitler used the Spear of Destiny as his primary defensive weapon. Comic book universes do not, and should not, have identical histories to the real world. This variation from our history in the Dakotaverse is a secret from the public. The concealment reflects the general ignorance of important events in Black history; but the method by which it is concealed is true to comic book aesthetics. The public history of the Dakotaverse must be the same as out real world because the George Floyd protests are the setting for the Big Bang, from which most of the powered individuals (but not our leads) gain their abilities. This update is reminiscent of the sliding scale of Marvel Comics, where the failed rocket flight of the Fantastic Four is move to the closest relevant international competition.

Icon has failed to change the world; Rocket inspires him to try again. The limited run time of the series allows the characters to execute real changes in their world that do not need to be reversed to the status quo, even as that same limitation restricts the amount of detail in which the characters can discuss the issues presented. If you want a series which features black leads and supporting cast, which is well thought out, and does not raise baffling alternate history questions, this could be the series for you.

Gorr the God-Butcher: A Child's Story

 Thor: Love and Thunder is a “classic Thor adventure” told by Korg to children and ending with a punchline that is poignant rather than funny. The audience of children frames the way the story is told in both omission of gruesome deaths and the prominent inclusion of children within the story. This child-focus also creates a connection between the narration and the other framing device about Gorr the God-Butcher, which in the source material was less child-friendly and certainly more lethal. There are a lot of scary and dangerous things in Love and Thunder – as Thor reminds us, these are (mostly) Asgardian children.

The reticence of early MCU to use the word ‘gods’ is wholly gone from this movie, although Thor is still from space. The gods in this story are the sort tp whom you can pray and they might hear you. The attitude of the gods is established in the interaction of Gorr, the last surviving devotee of his god, who takes his devotion for granted and mocks his belief in an afterlife. This god’s existence is not contingent on the existence of believers. The existence of a divinely lush oasis on an otherwise dead planet suggests a retreat of the gods from reciprocity of do ut des, which is mirrored in the hedonistic isolation of Omnipotence City. The corpse of the previous owner of the Necrosword, a weapon which can kill gods, suggests that Gorr is not the first to turn resentment towards the gods into direct hostility; perhaps the existence of gods who might aid mortals are a hindrance in the Celestials’ plans for planets such as Earth? Or perhaps the Necrosword is a weapon of an enemy of the Celestials, who want life, if only specific kinds, to exist? After this nameless god has dismissed his last worshipper, Gorr starts his career as Gorr the God-Butcher.

By the end of the movie, there has been a lot of love and even more thunder, but both have been recontextualized in such a way that Thor and others receive as happy an ending as one can find in the death and battle dominated world of Norse myth. Thor’s arc, like those of many MCU heroes, finds him in a state closer to his canonical self than at the beginning. The mid-credits scene promises the audience a new father-son dynamic to replace that of Thor and Odin for the next phase.

Teen Pride: Teen Justice

 The Teen Justice issue for Pride Month was not originally on the list for Wednesday, but it earned its place. Teen Justice is the youth team of DC’s Earth-11. In the DC Multiverse, Earth-11 is the genderbent universe (before gender acquired a narrower meaning); thus the Justice Guild had members such as Superwoman, Batwoman, and a male Zatanna, whose fishnets do not work. Where there is a Justice League equivalent, there is the potential for a youth team – but only one, because secondary earths must maximize impact whenever they are allowed page time. Teen Justice is the youth team to the Justice Guild. It is composed of their children, sidekicks, proteges, and whatever Donald Troy is. The team exhibits Young Justice energy more than Titans. The roster includes Supergirl (Lauren Kent), Robin (Talia al Ghul), Kid Quick, Donald Troy (Wondrous Boy), Klarienne the Witch Girl, and Aquagirl. The new kid is Gigi, a depressed runaway with dark clothing and emotional powers – no prizes in guessing who Gigi is based on. Watered-down Raven may not be a crowd-pleaser; more enjoyable is the dynamic between Lauren and Talia. Laurel Kent (Supergirl) is the daughter of Clara Kent (Superwoman). The original pre-Crisis Clara Kent was Super-Sister, a genderbent Clark Kent (Superboy), while Laurel Kent was a Kent descendant in a previous iteration of the Legion of Superheroes. Talia is a Damian clone, right down to attitude – thus your appreciation for her will vary immensely. Laurel does possess the enthusiasm of Jon Kent, and sometimes you need to take the good with the bad. If young teen Jon is gone, then Laurel will have to do.

Traditional genderbending universes can provide sharp commentary, but the temptation is to lazily transfer the concepts of the main universe without exploring the implications. Certain concepts, such as male Amazons, are awkward without further details. Donald’s mentor recently appeared in Wonder Woman’s multiversal trip, in which he was treated as temporary toxic male until Doctor Cizko (hence Psycho) could be deployed. Klarienne the Witch Girl, although a logical reversal, diminishes the impact of the apposition of ‘Witch’ and ‘Boy’; she does have Klarion’s bad attitude. Aquagirl is the distaff version of Jackson Hyde, Kaldur’ahm reskinned to avoid any royalties like Black Lightning; not a bad character, but as restrained as many leaders are. Kid Quick is just another speedster – how many are there now?

The story appears to be combination of Raven’s entrance and the Church of Blood, although the ones behind the Church of Blood are a genuine surprise. This issue’s primary purpose is to introduce or reintroduce the relevant characters of Earth-11.

As stated above, Earth-11 began as a genderbent world in a time with a simpler understanding. Now it has become a world for genderbending and non-cis het heroes. It is not clear whether such diversity will dilute the concepts because Earth-11 is not a central earth of the DC multiverse and therefore will never (probably) receive the level of exposure central earths such as the main one and whichever of 2 and 3 is currently the evil earth do. “What if the men heroes were women and vice versa?” and “What if the heterosexual heroes were homosexual and vice versa?” are similar but separate questions best handled separately. In the spirit of concession to our reality, perhaps the writers are combining the two conscious of the limited series in which to present it. Male Amazons is still a strange concept!

M.O.M

To read M.O.M., the latest comic entry in the burgeoning "menstruation pride" genre,was an inevitability, but the investment was too risky for installments. This is Emilia Clarke's first (and therefore potentially only) graphic novel, which explains its weaknesses as well its strengths. The plot of M.O.M. is comprehensive and conclusive, insofar as any comic production hoping for a sequel can be. The characters receive as much backstory as can be reasonably delivered in the time allotted. The theme should not have been as off-putting to other critics as it was. The author's enthusiasm for the project is heartwarming.

Everybody starts as novices, however, so there are three weaknesses. The first is the tendency to infodump. Experience with golden age science fiction, Steve Ditko, and Alan Moore has shown that this example is neither the longest nor the most awkward; incorporating all the necessary background into dialogue or visuals can be tricky. More and more comics writers are falling victim to the compulsive chart-making of Hickmaniasis. The expository dialogue in M.O.M. is still longer than it might have been had the author not been so well known. 

The second is the humor. Much of the humor is already outdated, a risk every author takes with the humor; the only jokes which never age (because they are so puerile) are bodily function jokes. A wife has never farted while sitting on her husband's lap, as the ancients said. Political humor, however, can sour like the half-full carton of milk accidentally shoved to the back of the fridge.

The third is the underlying assumption that the themes addressed here are being addressed for the first time. This is mostly a symptom of presentism, both of the author, not a lifelong comics fan by her own admission, and of the audience, subject to the illusion that because this is the first time they have encountered an idea it is also the first time that idea has been presented. This phenomenon is unfortunately part of the human condition, but it can be an irritant to those who have encountered the idea before and would like those who presented it to receive some credit. There are Wonder Woman runs featuring Veronica Cale in a similar vein.

M.O.M is worth checking out of the library or adding to your Christmas suggestion list. A sequel is unlikely.

X-Men '92: Thoughts

 I meant to pick up X-Men '97 (forgetting that it was a different format and yet unreleased). So I ended up with X-Men '92. X-Men '92 is a continuation of the X-Men-focused fragment of Battleworld, the pastiche world created by God Emperor Doom from the remnants of the multiverse. Sadly, the only thing Vancean about this pastiche is a lot of Paos in battle. X-Men '92 was a testing ground for the continuing animation of X-Men '97 (which is the why the voices of the voice actors and the characterizations in the comic matched well). Fortunately, too characters and a complicated backstory is par for the course for the X-Men franchise; I'm old enough to remember the spinner racks where, if you missed an issue, or even worse, if the key event occurred in an annual, you just shrugged and read on. The advantage of the comics medium is that you can have far more characters, including short appearances, than you could with an auditory medium. The wordiness in this comic is almost Claremontian, a nice touch.

The story of the X-Men being temporarily tricked and who is good and who is bad being reshuffled is standard X-Men fare, well-written but not revolutionary. The writers and artists took advantage of this limited opportunity to introduce as many of the X-Men characters as possible - with the notable exception of Grant Morrison's X-Men run. There is no Wither or Wallflower here. Perhaps these characters are being held in reserve in favor of X-Force, New Mutants, and Generation X, and would have appeared in the second volume?

Trial of the Amazons: Thoughts

Some thoughts after finishing Trial of the Amazons. 

It is nice to see that there are now three tribes of Amazons. This number tracks with the legends of historical Themyscira and hinterlands. Three, however, is sufficient. This is not just due to the sacredness of the number three in the feminine and general Indo-European tradition, but also because the enhancement of a story which careful addition to lore provides can rapidly diminish if too many divisions are added or too carelessly. The impact falls to zero. An expansion of the Amazons beyond the current three tribes would need to be meticulously planned by someone who would remain in charge for many years; this is not how Wonder Woman has historically worked. In other lines, this is shown: the seven colors of the Lantern Corps were added slowly and with a plan. Even the black and white lanterns fit into that world, even if temporarily, as the absence or presence of light; but it should have ended there. The ultraviolet corps threw off the structure of the Corps. In a similar manner the consolidation of all the DC cities of Atlantis in the animation Young Justice can make continuity a trap as much as a springboard for future stories (which do not have to be pseudo-Arthurian).

The Amazons could also use a second island on which to have adventures. Themyscira is beginning to seem a bit cramped, not unlike the old X-Mansion in the older X-Men events.

There is a need to provide extra titles for Wonder Folk. The nature of the title Wonder Woman restricts it to one woman at a time, except perhaps if both Hippolyta and Diana are alive and serving on different teams, but surely there should be only one Wonder Girl at a time, with the others holding other titles. This has not been a problem with Donna, but Cassie should get her own title. As the Robins have shown, the name does not need to include the lead character's primary adjective!

Young Justice (Rebirth): Continuous Continuity Confusion

Recently I finished the three-volume trade of Young Justice from the Rebirth Era of DC. Rebirth was an amelioration of the New 52 Era in which the continuity on which DC had based its identity was rejected, except for the series that were selling well. Most reboots of the universe after various crises have this flaw, which might even be described as a metaflaw; at least explicitly out-of-continuity stories can pick and choose their Robins and even the order in which they apprenticed.

Young Justice is a pleasurable read if you either ignore the continuity mess it is trying to fix, or you (like me) love overly complicated continuity. Since there has been "not a Crisis" since publication, and a new Crisis looms at the time of writing, the former option is probably better.

The initial lineup of Young Justice is Wonder Girl (Cassie), Robin (Tim Drake), Impulse, Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, and new kids Teen Lantern and Jinny Hex (one of them is LGBTQIA+). Thus it contains three of the original members of Young Justice, a princess whose origin lies in pre-Crisis continuity, a descendant of another  pre-Crisis character, and the mandatory new kid. The politics of Gemworld are as eternally contentious as Gotham is crime-ridden, so the six members end up as prisoners on Gemworld. Once they escape, they meet Superboy. This is the Superboy (Kon-El or Conner Kent) from before the New 52, the Superboy who is a clone of Superman and Lex Luthor and really likes leather jackets. Due to secret experiment shenanigans, Superboy had ended up in Gemworld and therefore survived the Crisis reboots; there was a clone Superboy in the New 52, but we don't talk about him. Young Justice saves Gemworld but is thrown into the Multiverse as thanks. The final Earth is Earth-3 where they meet their counterparts, who have taken over for the Crime Syndicate of America, the Justice League of Earth-3, who had died in a previous storyline in the New 52. Tim for some reason borrows the costume of his Earth-3 counterpart and commits the one sidekick sin that no previous Robin had: using his own name as his "code name." When Young Justice gets back to its Earth, it is somehow widely known despite being kidnapped almost immediately. They recruit Naomi, Bendis' Miles Morales for DC, as well as the Wonder Twins, who are interns for the current Justice League and whose series was amusing but perhaps too silly for some people's taste. 

They confront the evil secret scientist, which raises even more continuity issues. If this Superboy is the one from before Flashpoint, then this scientist is not the same scientist as the one who ejected Superboy into Gemworld; so if this scientist remembers a Superboy, it cannot be this Superboy. If this scientist ejected a Superboy into the Multiverse, that Superboy (the New 52 one? a new Rebirth one?) must have ended somewhere else.

At the time of publication, when I saw that Superboy (Conner) had been brought back, I thought that he might be a replacement for Superboy (Jon Kent). Jon Kent, the son of Clark and Lois had been unfortunately aged-up because Superwoman (Lois Lane Kent) of Earth-3 (or an Earth-3? Didn't Superwoman die earlier?) had imprisoned him for his teenage years. Jon was then recruited by the newest version of the Legion of Super-Heroes to receive some of the training he needed to become the heir to Superman and therefore inspire the Legion with which he was now. Even when Jon would return to present to engage in such inspiration, Conner would still exist to provide a Robin (rather than Drake) solution to the limited number of Kryptonians; apparently Kara doesn't count. 

And then Dark Knights Metal and Future State happened. And everything mattered, so for some nothing mattered.

 

The Forever People (Jack Kirby)

 

The Forever People is the last part of Jack Kirby’s quadrivium of his original Fourth World. The Forever People, whose appellation is never adequately explained, are the classic team of four guys and a girl. Mark Moonrider is the leader, and most normal, save for his “megaton touch”; Serifan is cowboy-themed, armed with “cosmic cartridges”; Big Bear is the driver and predictably the strong one; Vykin the Black is the token black-skinned character who does nothing that would scream “black (human)”; and Beautiful Dreamer is the chick with long-range rather than melee powers. When the Forever People use the Mother Box, they can summon the Infinity Man in their place, much like Rick Jones could switch places with the Kree Captain Marvel. At this point, Infinity Man has no ties to any Fourth World characters other than the Forever People.

The Forever People are a reminder that even among the New Gods of New Genesis there are degrees of power, and that not all of them are royalty like Orion and Mister Miracle or elite warriors like Big Barda. The defiance of these three is lessened without the portrayal of others who find resistance more intimidating. The Forever People’s adventures illustrate the external manifestation of human inner conflicts such as the darkness exploited by Glorious Godfrey (for Amazing Grace is not a Kirby creation) or the illusion of happiness promoted by Desaad’s Happyland. A team of heroes against a more potent evil is where Kirby’s genius sometimes shines. In the grand scheme of the Fourth World, the Forever People are the balance to the Female Furies.

The Forever People lack the driving character narrative which both Orion and Scott Free possess. Although Beautiful Dreamer is believed to possess a portion of the Anti-Life Equation, Sunny Sumo eventually usurps that role. Sunny Sumo is an example of a character whose external manifestation of the human spirit is diminished by Kirby’s onomastic habits wandering into accidental racism. Heroes and superheroes are not subtle in their virtues or their physical traits, but this explicitness can clash with the real world of the audience (note the current refusal of Sima Liu to autograph Seventies issues of his Marvel character). Even if this issue is set aside, the Forever People suffer from the lack of characterization which Orion and Mister Miracle (and certainly Big Barda) do not; although here it must be conceded that the human companions of Orion are even more one-dimensional than the New Gods, who are personifications of ideas important to the Fourth World mythos. The reader has a sense of who Big Bear and Serifan are, but not so much Beautiful Dreamer, Vykin the Black, and Moonrider. It is not surprising that Orion and Mister Miracle became important in the post-Crisis universe, while the Forever People did not.

The Forever People, whatever their flaws might be, do have an advantage over their nobler fellow heroes: they receive a definite ending within the Jack Kirby run; Its later overwriting is not the fault of the King. This conclusion, a concept denied many times to Kirby’s world-building endeavors, is a poor consolation prize for the lack of a Kirby Ragnarok or epic overthrow of the father by the son. Fragmentation and incompletion are features of the epic tradition, as is work thwarted by the powers that be, so in one light at least, Kirby stands proud among those creators more honored among the academic world.

The Sea of Stars, Volume One (Jason Aaron)

 The Sea of Stars, by Jason Aaron and Dennis Hallum is a graphic novel based on the metaphor of space as a hostile and alien sea. It is a story of father and son, since the vastness and strangeness of the cosmos must be balanced by more familiar intimacy. Space whales are always welcome fauna. Some of the imagery could be considered problematic and appropriative, but it is difficult to gauge an appropriate response without reading subsequent volumes: sometimes the noxious elements must be established before the narrative can refute them. The plot appears to be a mix of the return of Quetzalcoatl with the colonization and Christianization of Mexico. The small boy beaming with light is definitely a Chist child figure, even if one in the mold of an apocalyptic Gospel, the kind you don't bring home to Mama Church. The space shaman raised my eyebrows, as well as an eldritch space squid, which presumably will play the part of the devil. There is a strong father-son dynamic which may redeem the problematic aspects in the eyes of some people, In the eyes of others, however, having a literally white savior may be unforgivable.

Edit: I did read Volume Two, but I did not feel the content merited a review here.

We Only Find Them When They're Dead (Al Ewing)

 We Only Find Them When They're Dead, by Al Ewing and Simone Di Meo, is a graphic novel about harvesting materials from dead space gods. The space gods in question are the size of Marvel's Celestials (recently featured in the mediocre film The Eternals), but in appearance they resemble the New Gods of DC. This scaling has precedent in DC; at one point New Genesis and Apokolips were cosmically large and the boom tubes used for transport adjusted the size of the New Gods to be commensurate with Terrestrial life. One of heroes flew through space to Apokolips and discovered how miniscule they were. The corpses drift into the galaxy like cosmic fish and are harvested for exotic substances. All these corpses appear to be coming from one direction, but the exotic material is so valuable that nobody in power is motivated to ask the questions they should ask, such as "Why are there so many dead space gods and who killed them?" With a title such as We Only Find Them When They're Dead, naturally some crew discovers one that is not quite as dead as the ones before. The plot is standard fare: a crew desperate enough to take chances flouts the law and is pursued by the space police with whom some of the ragtag band have personal connections. The crew of the pursuer also choose to break the law in pursuit, thus establishing the precedence of revenge. The fishermen of space have left the coast for deeper waters. 

The representation is moderate and is integrated well into the plot. It is difficult to guess where this storty might lead, partly because this is one of the areas involving space gods which is not frequently examined, and partly because volume one is dedicated to establishing the world and the relationship of the characters before they depart for parts bereft of other humans, or aliens other than giants, that much remains unexplained. It will be character driven by necessity, but the work of giants is the motivation for further reading. All the gods found by humanity within the galaxy have been dead, but is this due to some property of our galaxy or galaxies in general versus open space? Do the space gods come from some galaxy that might even be described as Promethean? What War in Heaven resulted in the death of the Gods? Or do the Gods date from a time before the galaxies? To paraphrase G'kar, humanity can stay out of the way or be stepped on.

Edge Lords of Universe: Valerian and Laureline, Volume 19

 At the Edge of the Great Void is the nineteenth volume of the Valerian and Laureline series, the midmost part of a trilogy of volumes. The change from an almost purely terrestrial view in the previous volume to an exclusively celestial and cosmic one in the current volume could come across as jarring. I suspect, however, that those who read this volume when it was new were already heavily invested in the peripatetic scene changes of the series. Valerian and Laureline, having wrapped up affairs as best they could on twentieth century Earth, are now making their way to the titular edge of the Great Void in search of their old headquarters, before they offended the false gods of Earth. Since their support system from before is gone, they must rely on overtly dubious means to survive (their former bosses were not above underhanded moves). The antagonists, of course, use even more dubious means and are far less concerned about the welfare of individuals. On an economically shattered planet, Laureline recruits an woman, Ky Lai, a human by all exterior signs, from space Indochina. Laureline is very much the lead in this volume. After a brief stop on a "cemetery planet" to interrogate filthy thieving space scavengers, Valerian and Laureline and Indochinese Mrs. Kato arrive at Roubanis, the planet at the edge of the Great Void. Valerian is then sidelined for the most of the rest of the story so that Laureline and Ky Lai can use their powers of persuasion, deception, and textile manufacture to overthrow an unjust regime, a common plot in the Valerian and Laureline universe. There is a comedic subplot about the ridiculously violent way the space pirate captain chooses her crew for the voyage into the Great Void. Valerian and Laureline join the crew, while Ky Lai remains behind with her space Indochina people to make textiles.

This volume has a strong "middle book" feeling to it. It can be read on its own, but all the components of the story are pieces that need to be setup for the following volume.  Valerian and Laureline, like many long-running series, developed increasingly longer narrative rather than one-off stories connected by the series' theme.  The scale became grander, which is saying something when the first volume started with an galactic agent traveling through space and time in medieval Earth. The real question is what happens when our heroes meet the Lords of All the Cosmos - what could possibly happen in the following volume!?

Saga #55 (and #56) Dramatis Personae

This year witnesses the return of several independent series, among which is Saga by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples. The failure of the television adaptation of Y: The Last Man may allow Saga to arise to greater heights. I must confess that I did not read all issues of Staples' interim project about magic and sisterly betrayal.

 

Saga is the story of Hazel, the child of two races whose war has consumed the galaxy, enlisting the other races to whom this did not matter. Elsewhere I have compared this to the genesis of Peloponnesian War, and perhaps it will have a similarly devastating end; but this is unlikely to occur until our protagonist is older. The purpose of a first issue, especially after such a gap, is to reintroduce the themes and characters; as a wise man once since, every story is someone's first story. Thus Saga #55 reintroduces our protagonist Hazel, a blasphemy according to both races, a bit older and in denial of some of the trauma she carries (but with a sweet hat); Squire, the former heir of the Robot Kingdom (which is a kingdom of humanoids with televisions for heads), who has obvious trauma; Alana, Hazel's mother and provider, although she is not doing a particularly good job at it; and a newcomer, Bombazine, her employee who looks like a refugee from a stage play of Oz. The rocket tree which they call home also makes its return. The bounty hunters The Will (the article is mandatory), Gwendolyn, and fan favorite Lying Cat also appear.

Saga, as with many works focused on an underage protagonist, may lead the unwary or simple-minded to believe that this comic is "safe" for children. Although each child is different, this reintroduction goes out of its way to include suicide, police brutality, coition, adverse childhood experiences, a false accusation of child abuse by a child thief, as well as smuggling of adult "food". The greatest potential of preadolescent protagonists are adventures in the 'real' world, but that does not mean the audience is children.

Update:

Saga #66 is now out. This issue introduces new characters and a new setting. The dreams of the new crew are not what one would have expected. The colors are bright, but the content is fairly dark.