Donnie Van

Cerebus definitely had some weak points during the final third of the series. Well, "weak" probably isn't the right word. "Off-putting" might work better.

But yeah, I was also glad I took the time and energy to get through the entire series. Even at the points where people said Sim was just off his rocker, I found a lot of worthwhile things still there. And at parts where he maybe got a bit too preachy or pushy with his views, I took them just as that - one man's viewpoint, which I may not agree with, but still find interesting in their own right.

It is too bad the entire series couldn't have progressed in the vein of High Society and Church & State, but it's probably an unreal expectation to want that across the span of 6,000 pages and twenty-seven years.

But hey, if nothing else, at least the artwork only continued to get better as the years went on. Nobody really gives Dave Sim his dues as a fantastic artist and letterer. And Gerhard's backgrounds also deserve as much praise as possible. I wish they were still doing art duties together on something.

I actually liked most of the Latter Days trade :(

I think I'd rather see a bit of a revolving door creative staff for a bit before the title settles down with another full-time writer. The prospect of being able to tell a one-, two-, or three-issue Hellblazer story without a regular commitment to the title might bring in some writers who would otherwise not bother with it. See if Paul Jenkins and Grant Morrison have any sort of Hellblazer stories left untold they'd like to get out of their system. Maybe try to find someone like China Mieville for a story (someone said something about 'proper' authors, right?).

But then yes, after that, Spencer would be my top pick as well.

Miller's style definitely isn't something that fits Hellblazer. Though I wouldn't mind seeing his take on the character, in maybe a short story as part of an anthology or something.

Actually, I think my (most realistic) would be Si Spencer, for reasons already mentioned.

(Is that a male or female name, btw? I've never heard it before.)

A friend of mine e-mailed me the link a bit ago. The more I read about Morrison, the more he really does fascinate me.

Actually, I would have to agree with everything Christian said, particularly the Collins hate.

"Nukeface Papers" was one of my very favourite Alan Moore comics. But, alas, it wasn't part of "American Gothic".....

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Right, right. Nukeface happened and THEN John showed his manipulative face 'round Swampy's parts.

It's been too long since I read Swamp Thing :(

The comic itsef was written very nice ...

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"Ultraviolent rays" ... hehe ...

Sorry. Cheap shot, I know :p

I don't really remember there being much of a message in the vampire story.....

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Be careful where you swim? :p

The Nukeface seemed to be a commentary on pollution and environmental destruction.

I didn't mind it. DeMatteis expanded on some things I'd always wondered about (like if alien cultures had their own "Spectre"). Though I think the last issue I got was #16 or so.

And on top of that, the story was pretty awful as well (aside from a few cool "character moments").

Though if you've really got your heart set on it, your best bet would be eBay.

Doesn't burning down a forest to plant a few trees seem a bit extreme?

Like Dave implied, it's not so much the Death of Ted Kord that bothers me (even though it does) .... it's what his death represents.

Dove was smashed by a wall? That must be one of the weirdest superhero deaths I know...

Well, it's a bit more complicated than that: You know that Dove is empowered by Order, and Hawk by Chaos, right? Well, Dove started showcasing violent tendencies like his brother Hawk, and the two Lords of Order and Chaos that gave them their powers decided that the two brothers were too alike to play the opposite roles of Order and Chaos. So when Dove was rescuing a child from atop a collapsing wall, they took his powers away, and the wall smashed him.

But yes, an odd death nonetheless.

But wow. I just picked up my copy of "Formerly Known As ...", and it doesn't even read in the same manner as it once did. Really, reading this knowing where all these characters wind up (and dreading where the rest are GOING to wind up) makes it one of the most depressing stories I own. That's a shame, too, because Giffen and DeMatteis were actually able to make a story funny without being completely ridiculous (a rarity these days).

This will probably mark a massive decline in my superhero book reading. It's not just Countdown ... Countdown just happens to be the metaphorical final nail in the coffin (a blue coffin with a bug emblem on it? Maybe).

It just feels like superhero books have changed too much, while the part of me that likes superhero books hasn't changed enough.

Well, I suppose I should throw a few real comments in here.

1) The cover. Remember when it came out, and everyone knew it was Blue Beetle, and DC kept going "Oh, there are a million things on there to throw you off." ... No, there weren't. It was the most obvious choice, and I'm getting tired of seeing that as the "big payoff" in comics (see: Hush, Avengers: Chaos). Just because everything thinks it's too simple to be the solution doesn't mean that's the route you should automatically go.

2) Is DC just trying to depress the fuck out of me? "Hey, remember Sue Dubny? Surprise, she was raped a long time ago! And now she's dead! But, here's the kicker: she was pregnant! Ahahaha!"

And now, we get Beetle getting the inside of his skull torn out by a bullet.

Is this what people want? Maybe I'm the minority, but I don't read books about people with super-abilities dressing up in brightly colored spandex for gritty realism. If I wanted that, I'd go pick up 100 Bullets or Torso or something else. I read them for fun, and I don't define "fun" as "Watch us fuck up some second-stringers."

I don't think I'm alone in my sentiments. Of course, DC is going to see Countdown's huge numbers and think that means people endorse the idea, when (obviously) what people are really endorsing is an eighty-page comic for a buck. It could be eighty pages of Aunt May comparing prices at the market ... for a buck, a ton of people will buy it regardless of content.

3) Didn't Dan Garrett's scarab disintegrate into dust back in the old Blue Beetle monthly?

4) So, is there some sort of unspoken vow to try and screw up as many Steve Ditko creations as possible?

Dr. Druid: Shot in head.

Blue Beetle: Shot in head.

Shade: Baby got stolen.

Captain Atom: Son raised to hate him.

Dove: Crushed by a wall.

Hawk: Went crazy, became Monarch, went crazier, became Extant, died.

I suppose it's just luck of the draw, but good Lord ...

5) I'm still worried about Day Of Vengeance.

6) And I still say the body on the front should have been the corpse of Earth-1 Dick Grayson.

Dear DC Comics,

You owe me a dollar.

Very interesting stuff, there. I liked the stuff where he fesses up to panicking over deadlines and really just winging it early on. It really humanizes him in my eyes. For me, anyways, professional writers always take on this larger-than-life image of writing perfection, where they sit down and calmly punch out a script over the course of a lazy Sunday, so it's cool to hear Tales From The Otherside (so to speak).

What else has Jamie Delano written, anyways? I've always meant to ask that, but never gotten around to it. Animal man, obviously, which I've probably got a little under half of his run on the book. Is 2020 Visions any good? Sounds a bit preachy to me. The only other thing I can think of is Outlaw Nation, of which I have read nothing (though I remember a couple covers).

So ... suggestions?

I just always liked the concept of Jim Rook: Angry young rock musician gets dropped into a fantasy world, gets magical sword, kicks ass and rescues girlfriend. Probably because it feels like it it'd be the perfect 80s movie, right alongside something like "Buckaroo Banzai" or "Big Trouble In Little China."

Here's DC's solicitations for Day of Vengeance #3, btw:

The 6-issue miniseries spinning from DC COUNTDOWN heats up as the Shadowpact — made up of Ragman, Blue Devil, The Enchantress, Nightmaster, and yes, Detective Chimp — attempt to hunt down the Spectre! But they may change their minds once they see what the Spectre does to Dr. Fate…

I think Day Of Judgment has soured my expectations of mainstream DCU magical gatherings, and the "Shadowpact" seems like a really odd collection of characters (for instance, what function could the Detective Chimp serve that someone like Dr. Occult couldn't do five times better?).

But holy cow, I'm getting off-topic ...

Sebastian Faust (son of evil sorcerer Felix Faust) seems like another good DC-rooted choice to meet John. He's another guy whose life has turned to shit due to magic. His father sold his son's soul to Hell in exchange for vast magical abilities ... only the abilities went to Sebastian instead, which has always had the two at odds with one another. Additionally, Sebastian's magic tends to throw back a negative effect of equal power whenever he uses it (using his powers to stop a car wreck, for instance, might in turn cause another one to spring up nearby, or perhaps the bus he's riding on later has it's transmission fall out or something). It seems like he and John would be good somber drinking buddies, if nothing else.

(Countdown tie-in: Faust shows up in one of the first few pages of Villains United, apparently being propositioned by Lex Luthor to join the big villain society they're getting started. Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, seeing as how Sebastian isn't a villain. Cue more hesitance from me ... )

I liked most of Millar's stuff, though I thought the ...

... "it was all a fantasy made up by Jim Rook!" thing was a little much.  Plus, it doesn't explain his involvement with the Leymen in Primal Force.  But apparently Day Of Vengeance will be ignoring Millar's thing, which frankly I'm fine with.

I'd love to love Day Of Vengeance, honestly. I'm a huge obscure character mark, and this book looks to have some of my favorites (Ragman and Nightmaster, right off the bat), plus some other rather interesting ones, like the Detective Chimp.

BUT ... Whenever something is solicitied with the phrase "Nothing will ever be the same again!" it's almost always a red flag telling us it's going to be over-priced decompressed horse shit.

Though I'd love to be wrong ...

Oh, one that just popped into my head that I should probably mention before that Day Of Vengeance mini-series slaughters the shit out of him: Jim Rook, Nightmaster. He's an older guy now, but like John, he used to be a (semi-)professional musician, and also like John, he was pulled into a world of magic (though Rook's was less occult and more sword-and-sorcery). Rook was an angry guy in his younger years who learned to calm down once he accepted his heritage as a descendant of Nacht.

I just think they'd play well off one another.

Aside from "Fear Machine," I loved most all of Delano's work on it (in particular, the Family Man stuff and the bits leading up to it). "Mourning Of The Magician" and "Dead Boy's Heart" are both spectacular stories, two of my favorites in the entire series.

I might have given it a small shot, if it weren't for this:

Feedback Score: 1

That always makes me nervous, as does bidding on supposedly "original" and "authentic" pieces (I've been had a couple of times on eBay before).

I think a return-story, like Delano's #84 and Ennis' Son Of Man, would be great, though I think both he and the book have changed too much for a regular writing gig to work.

Woo-hoo!

I've been waiting for an update for forever. Love the site, btw. Very comprehensive and nicely laid out.

Forget Pete Wisdom. There was that girl in Pryde & Wisdom who was basically a female John Constantine. I can't remember her name, though.

Oh, and Jack Carter, from Planetary #7.

Um...sorry for being ignorant, but someone mentioned JC met Batman?? Hey, is that in any TPB one can buy? Which one? I'm an avid fan of the Dark Knight, too.

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Swamp Thing: A Murder Of Crows.

It's just a one-page brief meeting, not a full-out team-up or anything. John and Steve Dayton (Mento) are walking around while the Crisis is wrecking weather havoc on Earth. The sky's all red and whatnot. Batman shows up and tells them it's best to stay indoors. John tells Batman that Steve is "one of you ... Mento." Batman vaguely recalls Mento being connected to the Doom Patrol and then rushes off to do something very Batman-ish, presumably, like karate the fuck out of some looters or something.