Some thoughts on superheroes

First off, the sad news - on Dec 9th, Martin Nodell passed away. He was the original creator of the Green Lantern. And I think it interesting that while there are many many green lanterns, the original is still going strong in the pages of the JSA.
A side note - the classic Lantern Oath - "In brightest day, in blackest night ect" was written by Alfred Bester the Science Fiction author.

On to more modern things, but keeping with the Green Lantern theme here - the GLs in DC seem to be taking over. There are two monthly GL titles, and 2 running miniseries, one of which is in prestige format. I love that. Back in the day the Legion was always my favorite comic, with GL coming in second; yes I really enjoy SF superheroes. Now that Hal is back, my interest in GL has gone back up a couple of notches - not that I disliked Kyle or anything, I love the character, but his comic was going strong at the time I never read much comics. My primary exposure to him was in the JLA and I loved that. I'm also digging the Ion mini right now, and the fact that he isn't just another Green Lantern (which is great for Kyle fans, the character is something special). If the GL thing turns into a subuniverser (sorta the way all the X-titles do in Marvel) I'd be a happy camper.

*****

I finally saw Superman Returns. And I have seen the greatest Superhero move in the last decade or more. Perhaps because I consider the original Reeve/Donner the single greatest superhero movie ever made, perhaps because I think the character is superheroes distilled to their essence, but this movie really moved me. I'm glad to see the DC franchises in movies getting thier act together* - with Batman Begins and Superman Returns we have had a coupld of great movies; and here is crossing fingers for Whedon's Wonder Woman. If that is successful, maybe we could have a JLA movie; here is hoping.

* I am completely ignoring the Jack Black Green Lantern movie being billed as a whacky comedy... come on guys you were doing so well.

*****

On to comics themselves.
Not counting miniseries I read about 40 titles. Here is the breakdown.

Astro City (named all by itself just because it is the greatest superhero comic ever written).
5 are mainstream Marvel titles (and only one of them is connected to the Civil War nonsense, 2 are less than 6 months old, and one is dimension hopping)
6 are indy titles
1 is a non mainstream Marvel (JMS' squadron Supreme)
4 Marvel Ultimate titles

so 17 there.
Everything else is DC.

About par for the course.


At some future point I may list them completely to start discussions, but as I think only 2 or 3 people read this thing, and I know one of them doesn't read comics anymore (Looking at you Mike), dunno how much desire is there for that. :)