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DC Reviews

SUPERMAN (1978) – Finding The Hero Inside Us

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Doomed planet. Desperate scientists. Last hope. Kindly couple. And a legend that has inspired generations.

Richard Donner’s Superman is the defining superhero film, sparking the mainstream big budget era of comic book films that would eventually be shepherded into continual success by the likes of Tim Burton’s Batman and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. But Donner’s film is more than just a pillar of a subgenre, it’s a masterpiece in its own right, interlinking the romantic charm of bygone Hollywood with the modern era of blockbuster spectacle. Promising to make its audiences believe that a man can fly but giving them a story that’s more layered, charming, and human than what its central concept would have you believe.

The story is simple yet iconic, reiterating the classic tale of Clark Kent’s rise to heroism and itself being reiterated upon by dozens of films since. [Read more…] about SUPERMAN (1978) – Finding The Hero Inside Us

Theses on Three Jokers by Geoff Johns & Jason Fabok

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Ed. Note: Spoilers for Three Jokers (and more or less the oeuvre of Geoff Johns) follow!

0. Let’s just get this out of the way: The Killing Joke is not that good of a comic. Even by the standards of bad Alan Moore comics, this sticks out in terms of its quality. Where most other trademark bad Alan Moore comics are bad for more interesting reasons (Neonomicon and later volumes of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen are bad for interesting yet horrifying reasons), The Killing Joke is perhaps Moore’s only major work that’s bad for the boring reasons most other comics are. It’s bad because it lacks ambition to be anything other than a story about Batman and the Joker. It’s bad because it treats Barbara Gordon more like a prop than a character. It’s bad because the environment it came out of was toxic to the point where Alan was explicitly told to “Cripple the b*#ch.”

In short, it’s bad in the same way comics like the Vigilante arc “Father’s Day,” the Violator miniseries, and Three Jokers are bad. [Read more…] about Theses on Three Jokers by Geoff Johns & Jason Fabok

Batgirl (Rebirth) Review! | What the Future Holds

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Series Writer: Hope Larson

Vol 1: Beyond Burnside
Vol 2: Son of Penguin
Vol 3: Summer of Lies
Vol 4: Strange Loop

Series Writer: Mairghread Scott

Vol 5: Art of the Crime
Vol 6: Old Enemies

Series Writer: Cecil Castellucci

Vol 7: Oracle Rising

Overview | “Rebirth, Batgirl, and Genre Books”

Batgirl Rebirth picks up from Gail Simone’s character-defining run and Batgirl of Burnside during DC’s New 52. Barbara is again in her early 20s, her previous continuity retconned so that she survived the events of the Killing Joke without permanent effect. More importantly, without the full trauma of the event. Pair that with Simone’s empowering story of recovery and an aversion to complicated continuity, and Babs is once again the joyful, rebellious cop’s daughter. Pleasantly, she also maintains a lot of the “teenage girl detective” archetype that initially made her popular, despite Rebirth depicting her as a grad student in her 20s. [Read more…] about Batgirl (Rebirth) Review! | What the Future Holds

Matt Fraction, American Fiction, and Jimmy Olsen! (Pt. 2 of 2)

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Editor’s Note: In Part 1 of this series, Ritesh explored Matt Fraction, Steve Lieber and team’s DC Comics series Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, which led to an exploration of Fraction’s “American Fiction” trilogy released over the last few years. Today, the journey concludes with Adventureman, the Pulps, and circling back to the comedy of Jimmy Olsen! 
[Read more…] about Matt Fraction, American Fiction, and Jimmy Olsen! (Pt. 2 of 2)

Matt Fraction, American Fiction, and Jimmy Olsen! (Pt. 1 of 2)

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I made Casanova and I’m telling you, I could never match the psycho-sexual Jungian underpinnings of Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen as presented by Mort Weisinger. By wife-beating, child-hater Mort Weisinger. – Matt Fraction

I must confess at this juncture:

I’ve never particularly been a Jimmy Olsen fan.

Now, now, put your pitchforks down, folks. I like the goofy ginger as much as the next person, always have. But he was never a character I was particularly obsessed with or enthralled by. You get me? He was fun. He was cute. He was charming. And you know what? That was enough. I didn’t think he necessarily needed to be more. [Read more…] about Matt Fraction, American Fiction, and Jimmy Olsen! (Pt. 1 of 2)