"Mayhem is the Man-Fish!"

SILVERFISH

David Lapham has been gone for way too long from the gritty crime drama comics he excelled at in his self-published STRAY BULLETS series, taking too many sidetrips into the mainstream with inconsistent results (his DAREDEVIL VS. PUNISHER mini was pretty decent, but his yearlong DETECTIVE COMICS run lost me pretty early on). Thankfully, Lapham made a glorious return to form with last week’s SILVERFISH, an original hardcover graphic novel published by Vertigo in that undersized black and white format that was used for Harvey Pekar and Dean Haspiel’s THE QUITTER, Gilbert Hernandez’s SLOTH, and Dave Gibbons’ THE ORIGINALS.

Teenaged Mia hates her Dad’s new wife, Suzanne, so she tries to dig up some dirt on her stepmom. When her folks go away on a ski trip, Mia and her friends uncover an address book that leads them to a mystery man from Suzanne’s past. A late-night prank phone call to the guy is a big mistake, since Daniel is a repressed psycho who thinks his brain his haunted by ghostly fish who can only be silenced when he commits murder. Before long, Daniel is on the trail of the woman from his past, ready to cut through anybody in his way with a butcher knife.

SILVERFISH is a superfast read, excellent for Lapham newbies as well as those of us still feeling the sting of STRAY BULLETS’ absence. Some of the book’s themes come straight out of SB, like the promise of criminal horror lurking beneath suburban family life, as well as the snake’s pit of resentment that usually represents adolescence in Lapham’s stories (most of the mayhem that occurs in SILVERFISH is brought on by when Mia’s best friend starts feeling jealous about her boyfriend’s interest in Mia). Lapham’s black-and-white art looks better here than it has in years as well, giving loads of personality to the lead characters while rendering those evil fish as a toothy, frenzied wave that provides a more unnerving image than most horror titles are capable of mustering. When he can still kick it like this, one wonders why Lapham feels the need to take on projects like his upcoming TERROR, INC. relaunch for Marvel. TERROR, INC.? Really? Well, I guess he’s gotta eat, too.

FALLEN SON, ETC.

Boy, Marvel sure is making a cottage industry out of the death of Captain America, huh? The infamous CAPTAIN AMERICA #25, where the Living Legend of World War II fell victim to an assassin’s bullet, has now been offered in three versions (four, if you count the two covers on the initial printing): the regular edition, the second printing, and the “Director’s Cut” expanded edition that dropped last week. Oh yeah, there was also that MARVEL SPOTLIGHT: CAPTAIN AMERICA REMEMBERED thing a few weeks back, and of course, the five-part mopefest FALLEN SON: THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA that wrapped up a week ago. It’s not all bad, mind you—the whole spectacle has turned lots of heads towards the excellent work being done by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, and Mike Perkins on the monthly CAPTAIN AMERICA series, and FALLEN SON did occasionally feature work by some pretty amazing artists. Even when this series was tepid and maudlin—which was most of the time, mind you—the gorgeous artwork by the likes of John Cassaday and Ed McGuinness eased the pain. Heck, the third issue, which had Hawkeye mulling over Iron Man’s offer to take up Cap’s shield, was a surprisingly decent Jeph Loeb book, and I really don’t say that very often. Still, though, I gotta say, I’m getting pretty tired of people coming into the store and saying things like “Is he back yet?” or “Is he REALLY dead?” while rolling their eyes and sighing loudly. To the first point, while I’d love to be privy to some secret information about Marvel’s plans for the character, I honestly have no idea where they’re going with this, and if I did, I probably wouldn’t be allowed to share it with you anyway. As to the second, I’d like to remind everyone that HE WAS NEVER REALLY ALIVE IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Ahem. Sorry about that. Anyways, another good side effect of this is Marvel’s mad rush to put as much Cap material in print as possible, such as last week’s re-issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA: WAR AND REMEMBRANCE. This collection features the all-too-brief run by Roger Stern, John Byrne, and Joseph Rubinstein from the early Eighties, including famous tales like the two-part Baron Blood story that debuted the new Union Jack, and the issue where a Populist group tries to get Cap to run for President. Cap also dukes it out with the Machinesmith, Batroc, Mister Hyde, and artificial lifeform/big dopey monster Dragon Man, who actually tries to take a bite out of Cap’s indestructible shield. What an idiot! All the extras from the original printing of the trade are included, even the original volume’s cover artwork. This collection is a great snapshot of Jim Shooter-era Marvel at the top of its game, and it shows why Cap is a great character who, while a bit of a square, is a terrific action hero when written well.

SUPERMAN: LAST SON

It’s sometimes kind of hard to tell people why they should be checking out a particular title without spoiling the story for them. DC faced this particular challenge with “Last Son”, the much-hyped, much-delayed (more on that later) inaugural story arc by Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, and Adam Kubert on ACTION COMICS. When this story began in ACTION #844 late last summer, it looked like a limp attempt to cash in on the release of SUPERMAN RETURNS; not only did the series begin with a redesigned, crystalline Fortress of Solitude featuring a sentient hologram of Jor-El, it also utilized the newer film’s tweaked Superman outfit (y’know, with the S-shield on his belt buckle) and the plot point of a mysterious moppet with Kryptonian powers. However, as the story has progressed—albeit very slowly, thanks to inexcusable artistic delays—“Last Son” has proven to be one of the most entertaining and surprising in-continuity Superman arcs in…jeez, I couldn’t even begin to guess how long, mixing the mythology of the Donner and Bryan Singer films with classic Silver Age Superman hallmarks. But, for me to explain why, some spoilage might be required, so read on at your own peril.

“Last Son” begins with a mysterious spacecraft materializing over Metropolis and crashing to Earth, its path of destruction halted by the Man of Steel. Superman is shocked to find that the ship contains a small boy who speaks Kryptonese and displays yellow sun-powered abilities of his own. Over the course of the first two issues, Superman and the Department of Metahuman Affairs squabble over who should take care of the kid, and even Lex Luthor gets in the act by sending a brainwashed Bizarro to try and kidnap the tyke. By the end of the second issue, Superman decides that the child, who is, in all likelihood, the true last son of Krypton, is his responsibility, and Clark and Lois get the kid a pair of glasses and a name—Christopher Kent. Unfortunately, the sky opens up again over the arctic Fortress of Solitude, and three new ships from a breached Phantom Zone bring even more Kryptonian refugees to Earth…Ursa, Non, and General Zod, AKA the super-criminals from the first two SUPERMAN films in 1978 and 1980. Turns out the kid belongs to Zod and Ursa, who have used the boy and his ship as a kind of beacon to lead them out of the Zone and right to the doorstep of their jailer Jor-El’s only heir.

This plot point is significant for a couple of reasons. It’s the first time in nearly two decades that the Phantom Zone and its criminal denizens—a hugely important piece of the Superman mythos and a wellspring for countless story possibilites—have been used in an in-continuity Superman tale. Following the original CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS and the subsequent MAN OF STEEL reboot by John Byrne in 1986, DC had decided that Superman should be the one and only survivor of his world, so the only Phantom Zone criminals we got were the ones from a pocket universe that laid waste to the entire population of an alternate Earth (but we won’t get into that here). Of course, recent years have seen the return of Supergirl, Kandor, and even Krypto, so the door was wide open for the Zone to return. Also, despite the trio of Kryptonian super-criminals being among the most widely-known members of Superman’s Rogues Gallery thanks to their appearance in two major motion pictures, two of ‘em—Non and Ursa—aren’t even originally from the comics, and are therefore debuting in mainstream continuity for the very first time with this story. Usually, this kind of adherence to the Hollywood version of a comic book saga bugs me, but a) these characters have been around, in celluloid form, for nearly thirty years, so they’re clearly not just flash-in-the-pan black hats, and b) they’re totally cool and evil. So they get a pass, in my book anyway.

But back to “Last Son”. After the second part of this story hit, DC released ACTION COMICS ANNUAL #10, which laid the groundwork for some future Johns/Donner Superman tales while fleshing out these latest cast additions. In the comic book version of their origin, the hulking brute Non started out as a brilliant scientist who served as Jor-El’s mentor. Non spoke out about Krypton’s impending destruction so vocally and convincingly that the corrupt Science Council had him lobotomized, rendering him the mute monstrosity he is today. Zod and Ursa, originally part of Krypton’s military, tried to overthrow the Council in a bloody coup after Non was silenced, which got them all sentenced to imprisonment in the Phantom Zone. Back in the pages of ACTION #846, the trio loots the Fortress for information from the Jor-El hologram, as well as some other goodies, then heads to Metropolis to cause some major property damage. Zod and Non throw a beating on Superman while Ursa steals Christopher (whose real name is Lor-Zod, it turns out) back from Lois. To make matters worse, Zod cracks open the Phantom Zone, bringing down a rain of Kryptonian convicts with Superman-level powers onto Metropolis. For a finale, Zod then uses the Phantom Zone projector he pilfered from the Fortress to send Superman into oblivion.

Last week, DC released the latest chapter of “Last Son”, which sees Superman trapped in the Phantom Zone while Zod and his super-powered thugs essentially conquer the world. Superman finds help from an old friend in the Zone, and Lex Luthor (along with a couple of other familiar baddies) make their own plans to end the Kryptonian invasion—after all, Luthor’s been trying to rid the planet of alien interlopers for years already. This exciting penultimate chapter was made even cooler by being offered in a 3D variant edition for about a dollar extra, with effects by longtime 3D guru Ray Zone (you gotta wonder what this guy does with his time between the release of 3D comics). The 3D section of the book, which comprises about three quarters of the page count, is used during the Phantom Zone sequences to give those scenes an otherworldly feel. The extra buck is totally worth it—this is the coolest looking 3D I’ve ever seen in a comic book. Also nice is the fact that the glasses DC provides look like the ones Zod, Non, and Ursa are wearing when they make their escape from the Zone. The issue ends with a pretty great reveal of Luthor’s plan for taking back the planet, which readers will see in ACTION COMICS #11, coming…er, sometime.

Which brings us to the major problem with “Last Son”. Calling its publishing schedule “haphazard” is pretty charitable. The super-secret creative team of Geoff Johns, his old boss Richard Donner (before scripting comics full-time, Johns worked as an assistant on the director’s 1997 film CONSPIRACY THEORY), and new DC exclusive artist Adam Kubert was originally set to debut in late spring/early summer of 2006 along with the rest of DC’s high-profile “One Year Later” creative teams like Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert on BATMAN and Allan Heinberg and Terry Dodson on WONDER WOMAN. However, right before the solicitations for those issues hit, a three-issue fill-in arc by Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza, and Pete Woods was announced to give the new creative team a bigger lead time. Issues #844 and 845 came out pretty much on schedule in, I believe, September and October, then…nothing. The book dropped off the radar for several months, a new date was given, which was supposed to be followed up by one fill-in issue in #847, and then the storyline would resume its monthly schedule with the regular creative team. Then, right before #846 hit in, I think, January or February, solicitations were released for a slew of fill-ins—a two-parter by Fabian Nicieza for #848 and 849, and a special anniversary issue by Kurt Busiek for #850. “Last Son” would continue in #851, and then conclude…whenever. What a mess.

So, what happened? Online speculation has pointed to numerous possible factors. The obvious target was film director/first time comic writer Richard Donner, an unproven quantity in the comic book world (and of course, the tardiness of Hollywood types turned comic scribes like Kevin Smith and Damon Lindelhof have put fanboys everywhere on the defensive), or the always-busy Geoff Johns. This argument seems unlikely, as Donner’s involvement likely doesn’t amount to much more than overall plot kibitzing (not unlike the director’s collaboration with screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz on the first two SUPERMAN feature films), and Johns has successfully juggled more than one monthly title in the meantime (he also writes JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA and GREEN LANTERN, and spent most of last year co-writing the weekly series 52). Others blamed the current issue’s 3D effects, but that wouldn’t explain the delays on the third chapter of the storyline, or its currently in-limbo conclusion. It seems most likely that artist Adam Kubert is the hold-up; a few months back, DC announced that the second Johns/Donner storyline, “Escape From Bizarro World”, would be drawn by THE GOON creator Eric Powell (after—what else? THREE MORE fill-in issues by Busiek), and more recently, Gary Frank was named as the new regular series artist after Frank, beginning with an arc titled “Superman and The Legion of Super-Heroes”. Kubert is still handling the art chores on the finale of “Last Son” but, as of this writing, DC hasn’t put ACTION COMICS #11 on their schedule.

Sadly, this creative snafu is all too familiar lately, particularly at DC. The last couple of years have seen the company shell out big bucks to lure high-profile creative teams onto their biggest titles, only to have these creators dole out pages at a ridiculously slow rate (Allan Heinberg’s WONDER WOMAN, anyone? How about Frank Miller and Jim Lee’s ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN THE BOY WONDER?). Of course, someday “Last Son” will conclude and be collected in a trade paperback, and its troubled publishing history will be a bad memory. Also, the upcoming arcs by Powell and Frank sound very cool, particularly the promise of a Powell-drawn Bizarro. Until then, the excellent work being done by Johns and Donner, who have managed to avoid the pitfalls of in-continuity Superman adventures by bringing back a sense of urgency and excitement while utilizing the best elements of the hero’s history, languishes in a proverbial Phantom Zone.

…AND THE REST

I feel like I’ve been yapping about ALL-STAR SUPERMAN and how awesome it is forever, so I won’t do it again. Suffice it to say that #8 has lots of crazy Bizarro World foolishness, including more about the weird Bizarro-Bizarro known as Zibarro, and that it’s still awesome…The new BLACK CANARY mini started off well, having been written by the dependable Tony Bedard and featuring art by Paulo Sequeira (whose stuff contains weird traces of wildly disparate styles like John Cassaday and Chris Bachalo—strange, I know, but it works)…FAKER, by Mike Carey and Jock, is an intriguing first issue that suffers by not being easy to sum up in a few words, but I’ll try; a bunch of college pals get drunk in a science lab and drink something they probably shouldn’t have, leading them to question their own identities while a mysterious nonentity seems to have infiltrated their clique. Does that make any sense? Anyway, it has potential… THOR #1? More like SNORE #1 ( I stole that from Ben Jeddrie)! Seriously, the art by Olivier Coipel is really cool, but would it kill J. Michael Straczynski to write a superhero comic where SOMETHING ACTUALLY HAPPENS FOR CHRISSAKES?…DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER BORN is a real weird case—it kinda feels like one of those movie adaptations that you don’t really see anymore. You know, the ones that were a pale shade of what they were adapting? People sure are buying the shit out of it, but is anyone actually enjoying it?…NEW AVENGERS/TRANSFORMERS #1, huh? I can’t really decide if this was actually better or worse than Michael Bay’s movie, but I think it’s just bad in a different way—that is to say, it’s so conceptually retarded that I can’t believe it exists. Hold up, maybe they are bad in the same way after all…UNCANNY X-MEN #488 continues to prove that Brubaker is better doing Earthbound stuff as opposed to 12-part space opera sagas, as the Morlocks carry out a really gross terrorist attack on a subway train…RUNAWAYS #27 is a bit late, so I had forgotten that the gang got sent back in time in the last issue. Joss Whedon has a lot of fun with turn-of-the-previous-century Marvel New York here, with its “Wonders” like the old-timey Punisher knock-off the Adjudicator and the Yellow Kid, based on the super-creepy little guy who was the first comic character, historically speaking. Michael Ryan really stepped it up on the art this issue—he seems to be improving at a surprising rate.