Panel Vision - No Man's Land

As you probably know Puerto Rico recently suffered devastation at the hands of Hurricane Maria.  It’s a natural disaster of incalculable scale made infinitely worse by the federal government's point-blank refusal to help Puerto Rico in the manner that would befit our so-called leaders.  If you’re at all able to give please consider donating to organizations like United for Puerto Rico, Americares, Convoy of Hope, Direct Relief, Catholic Relief Services, International Medical Corps, or Unicef.  The people of Puerto Rico are in desperate need of help and it’s painfully clear that it’s going to have to come from us because those in power are too cruel or incompetent to take action. 

This idea of being abandoned by our own government has been a running theme in 2017, especially with the way the natural world seems to be coming apart at the seams.  More and more, the organizations we once trusted with our basic safety and day-to-day concerns have turned on us with, at worst, a predatory maliciousness and at best a blind idiocy.  

In that power vacuum citizens have had to rely on one another to fight the battles we can’t as individuals, be that in the form of mass demonstrations and call-in over healthcare or the civilian fleet that went to Houston after Hurricane Harvey.  This blend of federal abandonment with the greater need for joint community action seemed fairly familiar to me because it’s also the core of my favorite Batman comic of all time- No Man’s Land. 

Panel Vision - Batman: The Cult

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This weekend the comics world lost a legend in Bernie Wrightson.  Wrightson stands tall as one of the most influential artists in the comic medium’s history, not just a great talent but someone who changed how we thought about comics.  

His career history is massive and littered with awards and standout work, including his incredibly beloved Frankenstein illustrations and the credit of co-creating Swampthing, the character that helped launch DC’s mature reader’s imprint Vertigo Comics. 

Wrightson is the father of horror in comics as we understand it today, revitalizing the genre after it was neutered by the comics code in the ‘50s.  His illustrations were the first time in the era of the big 2 that comics were actually scary and unnerving, a terrifying dive into the strange and disturbing.  

He’s the man who helped horror books transition from funny, spooky tales to something actually frightening, a talent he brought to all of his work.  So, to honor this great man I thought I’d take a look at my personal favorite work from him as well as my favorite Batman story- Batman: The Cult. 

Panel Vision - JLApe: Gorilla Warfare

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that apes on comics sell comics.  This is a fundamental cornerstone of comics going all the way back to the ‘50s.  It first emerged under one of the colossal giants of the medium Julius Schwartz, the man who served as editor of DC Comics during its Silver age through the ‘50s and ‘60s.  Schwartz claimed to have data showing a bump in sales of comics when a gorilla was featured on the cover, data that was so convincing it actually shaped all of DC’s output for a time.  

There were legitimately strict rules and limits on the whole idea of putting apes on comics, treating the phenomena as a finite resource to be carefully exploited to avoid oversaturation of the ape-based marketplace.  Given that those 2 decades have defined the shape of comics to this very day, apes on comics remains a popular tradition to this day.  With The Flash finally bringing Gorilla City to the small screen I figured now would be a perfect time to dive into the great legacy of apes on comics in possibly their finest moment: JLApe.

Panel Vision - The Case for a Batman Movie Universe

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As I write this we are approximately one month out from the Suicide Squad movie upon which DC and WB have hung their collective hopes for a cinematic universe.  We’re all still reeling from the sucker punch that was Batman v. Superman ending up something closer to a fever dream farce than a solvent blockbuster and even though the slow drip of new information on WB’s prospective slate of future superhero blockbusters has been encouraging there’s a lot of uncertainty going forward. 

It’s starting to seem more and more like Batman films really are the only superhero movies that WB can actually do well, a concept which got me thinking.  If WB is so committed to its Batman franchise they’re willing to constantly run back to the Bat well when things get rough, why not just cut out the middleman and produce a Batman shared movie universe. 

Cover Story - Top 12 Azrael Covers

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Let’s talk about Azrael for a second.  Azrael is actually one of my favorite superheroes of all time.  A lot of this has to do with how I made the transition from animated superhero shows to actual adult comics.  One of my first exposures to adult comics was a series of audio Batman comics adapting various greatest hits, and I got a hold of a 3-part set that adapted the entire Knightfall Saga that introduced and established Azrael.  From that point on I was hooked on the character and, as luck would have it, he had an ongoing series at the time so it became the first comic I started buying monthly.  

That’s part of why it does wrangle a bit that modern versions like on Gotham or Arkham Knight seem so lacking.  It’s even more frustrating when so much of Azrael’s story plays like the good version of the Assassin’s Creed game plots so it’s not like he’s a character who needed a harsh reworking.  But, given those things have very momentarily catapulted Azrael into the public eye I’ll take what I can get to excuse a deep dive into the comic series that started me down this path with the top 12 Azrael comic covers.

Panel Vision - Batman: Book of the Dead

Today marks the premiere of what’s sure to go down as one of the most notorious flops of 2016: Gods of Egypt.  There are a lot of reasons Gods of Egypt is more or less destined to fail, not the least of which is the horrendous white washing that informs so much of the films representation of the ancient Egyptians.  However, the mysticism of Ancient Egypt has always had a hard time working its way into the popular consciousness.  The most any of us know about the faith of Egypt tends to come from the cavalcade of Mummy movies produced by Universal and Hammer films, hence why Anubis is the most well known Egyptian deity. 

Egyptian myth is funny that way, the deities are all instantly recognizable and unique but beyond visual recognition their particular brand of aesthetics just doesn’t capture the imagination.  My theory is that it’s because the mythic Egyptian oeuvre has already been colonized by a far more dominant informing genre than fantasy adventure: science fiction and as evidence I submit Batman: Book of the Dead, in which Batman proves the gods of Egypt came from space.

Panel Vision - Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect

Hello, my name is Lido, and I like ‘90s comics.  Now on the off chance you’re just some random citizen who knows nothing of comic book history that’s actually kind of a big thing to admit in the realms of comic fandom.  The generally accepted wisdom of comic books is that the ‘90s sucked for comics as a result of things like an emphasis on dark yet empty stories in the wake of books like Dark Knight Returns, the speculator bubble, and the rise of superstar artists and Image comics. 

However, I’m not here to explain why ‘90s comics suck, I’m here to talk about all the amazingly good ‘90s comics I think we’ve come to overlook while snarking about Youngblood or the Clone Saga.  The ‘90s comic that doesn't suck I’m focusing on today has actually returned to the public consciousness in recent times as part of the big push of ‘90s nostalgia gripping both DC and Marvel.  I’m referring to Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect, a 2-part prestige graphic novel by Peter David and George Perez from 1992/1993.